Friday 22 March 2013

Back of Beyond 2

Here are some more action shots of the mega Back of Beyond game we had at the weekend which also shows some of the special events and characters that appeared over the weekend.
This was the Czech Legions armoured train commanded by Adrian Howe.
His force was the only one that actually had an objective which was to make their way from Moscow to Vladivostok with the Tzars gold reserve and make their way home to the newly formed Czechislovakia aboard ships supposedely supplied by the Anglo-American Interventionist forces.
The main trouble Adrian had was he couldn't help his baser instinct to double cross every force in all the areas he travelled through but this came back to haunt him at the end.
This was the Baku oilfield which was one of the resource centres and remained in Turkish hands over the whole weekend although I understand that the Army of God and Bolsheviks tried to 'visit' on a few times.
This Buddhist temple was one of the resouce centres on the Mongolian table and this was it in more peaceful times before it was treacherously attacked by the Army of God and the Mad Baron.
Some of the heroic Chinese defenders who didn't know which way to turn as they ended up with enemies all round them but eventually beat off every attack and even shot down two enemy planes.
Enver Pasha, that's him in the pith helmet managed to find the Sultan's hareem where he entertained himself for the rest of the weekend.
Japanese aircraft flying over the Chinese town of Harbin and terrorising the monks in their temple.
Machine gunning Mongol cavalry.
My Chinese forces suffered attacks from four aircraft all weekend and the my cavalry suffered severely being unable to reply whereas at least the infantry managed to shoot down two of the evil machines.
Molto Cortese on the flying carpet was one of the characters who made an appearance over the weekend as was the flying carpet which ended up being traded with the Japanese who had an assasin who hired themselves out to anyone to knock off their opposing leaders.
Cortese came supplied with a ship which was used in a double cross of Adrian the arch double crosser. Angus who had Molto and his ship sold the ship to Adrian so that he could get his troops and gold reserves back to their homeland, the only downside was that Angus had actually sold the ship earlier to another faction and when he eventually found out the double cross the look on Adrians face was hilarious.
The worst attrocity all weekend has to be the gunning down of innocent unarmed Buddhist monks by the forces of the Mad Baron who tried to deny the event but this photo clearly shows his armour shooting down the monks who are clearly unarmed.  The Barons only defence was that he had changed his religion from Buddhism but this is no excuse for such a shocking massacre.
Naval force of the nasty Nips.
'Pinky' Bobs Socialist gunboat.
Bolshevik forces beautifully painted by Kevin.
Treacherous Socialist troops that broke their peace treaty with the Chinese and attack Harbin but were eventually destroyed for their trouble.
Russian artillery painted by me which was part of the forces of the Army of God.
This zeppelin and its female crew had to be one of the most spectactular characters to appear.
Zeppelin from Colin, crew painted by me and fighting platform scratch built by Hugh Wilson.
This was the final outcome of the Czech Legion boat double sold by Angus being rammed and sunk by the Socialist gunboat of Pinky Bob.
 
Another event which we unfortunately have no photographic evidence of was that the White Russians who were trying to rescue the Tzar accidentaly killed him during a fire fight when attempting to get him back from Peter's film crew. At least that's the story that Peter was putting about and says he has photographic evidence that the Whites did it but they deny the allogations and say the whole incident was staged by the film crew because the Whites refused to pay a ransom.
These are only part of the stories that took place all weekend where everyone had fantastic fun and I'm sure the chaos will continue in our next big Vietnam game in June.
 


Back of Beyond

At last the photographs have been doctored, er I mean developed so the Dai-Li Sun can finally produce an honest report telling the truth from the East of what went on at the latest League of Gentlemen Wargamers weekend.
 
This was a mega Back of Beyond game with 14 players fighting over five 8x6 tables representing the route from Moscow to Vladivostok on the Pacific coast.  Each player commanded a faction which started in their local town except for the Czech Legion which started on their armoured train on the outskirts of Moscow.  Apart from defending their own town all the tables had a number of resource centres such as farms, harbours, oilfields and temples all of which could supply revenue for whoever controlled them.  As if that wasn't enough there were also various monuements dotted about where players could find clues which would help them on quests to find the Tzar, Yetis, Shangri La, a hareem and many others.  There were also special events every move which could give a selection of useful characters which might have special talents or bring bodyguard troops, tanks, armoured cars, boats, planes, a zeppelin or even a flying carpet, so you can see we take this seriously.
 
The players and their factions were from the Pacific coast
Steve Rimmer - American Interventionist force
Bob Lauder - Red Socialist Force
Bob Talbot - Japanese
Dave O'Brien - Chinese Nationalists
Barry Hilton - Mad Baron (supposed to be a White Russian force but hated everyone)
Peter McCarrol - White Russians
Peter Nicholson - Holywood film crew and bodyguard
Andy Nicholson - White Russians
Colin Jack - Basmachis
Dale Smith - Army of God (Indian Nationalists)
Angus Konstam - Turkish Nationalists
Kevin Calder - Bolsheviks
Adrian Howe - Czech Legion
Charles Grant - British Interventionist Force
 
Apart from the Czech who had a real train all the other players had a virtual train which allowed them to move from table to table and the three players on the Pacific coast also had a naval boat as well.
The Dai-Li Sun had hoped to make reports from every table but as soon as the Mad Baron turned up the action on the Mongolian table was relentless and the poor peace loving Chinese were fighting for their very existance as apart from the Baron's Madmen he also managed to persuade four other factions to join his crusade for world domination.  What follows is a selection of photos with captions to show the mayhem, double dealing and back stabbing that went on all weekend and what great fun we had.
The Pacific coast with naval forces deployed and Vladivostok in the distance.
Moscow outskirts with Bolshy defenders and the Czech Legion about to start on their journey.
Japanese forces about to start their double cross.
'Pinky' Bobs Red Socialists.
Vladivostok and Americans.
Innocent Buddhist temple being attacked by Mad Baron forces and heroic Chinese defenders protecting the unarmed monks who were brutally murdered later in the weekend.
Urga the Mad Barons stronghold.
Mad Barons Tibetan bodyguard cavalry.
Turkish fort and centre of deployment.
Samarkand the stronghold of the Army of God having the dubious pleasure of a visit
by the Czech Legion aboard their armoured train.
General'Tiny' Ironside's British force at Arkangel.
Bolshevik defenders on the outskirts of Moscow.
 
These were the starting positions of some of the factions and I'll add some combat photos in another post.  Most of the forces were supplied by Colin Jack, the Chinese by myself, Turks and Basmachis by Angus and Bolsheviks by Kevin plus the four of us supplied a number of figures to the other factions.
 

Thursday 21 March 2013

Borodino 200th anniversary

Back in November 2012 the League of Gentlemen Wargamers of which I'm a member put on a refight of the Battle of Borodino to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the battle but due to the problems I've been having with my blog I couldn't post any pics but thought I needed to post at least a few of such a fantastic game.  The battle was fought over four 12x6 tables although a fifth table would have been useful but we ran out of tables and terrain tiles.
This table was the far left of the Russian flank and was seperated from the main table by the Utitsa woods which was full of Russian skirmishers and any troops trying to move to the main action had a d3 delay plus the Poles and French had to clearout any Russians to move through.
Dale Smith commanded the Poles and Peter Nicholson the Russians.
This table saw serious fighting all weekend with Utitsa village and the hill changing hand many times but the Russians still hung onto the village at the end of the day and still had a brigade of Grenadiers and masses of Opolchenie still unused at end of play.
The Poles about to launch their first assault.
Waiting to get stuck in.
The main table was split into two halves to allow us to move about and reach the troops in the centre.
Even though the tables were 12' deep the French 100 gun grand battery and cavalry Corps of both sides were still off table.
The fleches changed hands many times over the weekend but all except for some defences around Semonovskya were still in Russian hands and infact the Russians were considering counter attacking from this position but decided to transfer troops to support the fighting around the Raevsky redoubt.
My gun battery did sterling service all weekend and helped in the destruction of two French ally divisions.
This table saw death and destruction on a massive scale to both sides.
Around 14 brigade, 6 division, 2 Corps, Marshal Ney and Kutusov the Russian commander all met their end defending this table.
By the end of the weekend both sides were exhausted and there were very few Russian troops still left on the table but the Guard infantry Corps and two cavalry Corps were still off table stopping the French from exploiting their success.
The French eventually managed to take Borodino off the Russian Guard Jaeger regiment that was defending it but were unable to advance due to the large amount of Russian cavalry that was blocking any further movement.  In fact the French were so concerned about this flank that the transferred large numbers of reserves to this flank that might have proved more useful elsewhere.
 
 Although turning history on it's head and recording a Russian victory everyone who took part in this fantastic battle felt they were winners, it's not often you get to fight battles with over 4,000 figures per side.
 

Thursday 14 March 2013

Mac Cillycuddies Regiment

Mac Cillycuddies Regiment
 
Hooray!!! the blog is finally allowing me to post pics again.
This regiment was the last Warfare Miniatures unit that I've painted and was painted up as a mainly pike armed unit with just a few musketeers and improvised weapons added for visual effect.