22 March 2022

Boeotian War - Thebans Reproduce their Historical Tactics to Achieve Victory

In this hard fought action, the Thebans opted for their historical tactics of increasing the depth of the phalanx, putting their best troops on the left wing, as opposed to the traditional right, and placing their inferior hoplites and allies in echelon formation.

The Spartans had the best of the battle in the middle of the field, and the Spartiates kept fighting and passing morale checks - proving their elite status. Nevertheless, the Theban Sacred Band eventually broke the Spartaites and killed their commander in Chief. Also, the Theban cavalry and peltasts proved superior to their Spartan counterparts.

This was a good fun game. All figures are by Victrix, with a few Wargames Foundry mixed in.



Theban Hoplites Wargame




Boeotian War Wargame






15 March 2022

Stargrave - A Rumble in the (Alien) Jungle

Another Sci fi adventure in which two teams of space adventurers, ne'er-do-wells and scavengers fight over the spoils of a crashed and abandoned spaceship. The setting is an exotic jungle planet with strange flora & fauna and bizarre rock formations.

Rules used are the popular Stargrave, which provide a quick and fun skirmish game. The figures come from two of the excellent, complimentary Stargrave Mercenaries and Troopers sets, produced by North Star.













08 March 2022

Judge Dredd - I am (Was) The Law!

In this fun game set in the 2000AD Judge Dredd universe of Mega-City One, the powers of law enforcement, in the shape of Judge Dredd and a number of supporting street judges, moved in to break up the illegal activities of a particularly nasty block gang. As you can imagine, a fierce fire fight ensued.

Dredd himself blew away every felon he came across, although his supporting cast were all shot down. In the end Dredd himself met his doom from some well aimed grenade launcher strikes and an expertly wielded drop-chain, in the hand of one of the gang bosses.

The mechanics of the game took some time to get used to, but once we became familiar with them, they worked well, although there always seemed to be 'one step too many' in some of the die rolling procedures. Other than that, it's a highly recommended skirmish game package from Warlord Games.

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01 March 2022

A Very Forlorn Hope at Cheriton, 1644

In this highly entertaining game, we refought the Battle of Cheriton, 1644. One of the members painted up some 15mm ECW (Warrior Miniatures, I think), that had remained on his lead pile, unpainted, for a couple of decades, over the lockdown period. This was their first outing.

In keeping with the 'Old School' feel of the figures and period, we used the rules 'Forlorn Hope', a vintage set that utilises multiple tables and charts. Despite some of us having used them a lot 20 years ago, they really showed their age, and we found it difficult to plod through the tedious melee mechanisms, in particular.

That said, it was a lot of fun and a reminder of how (most) rule sets have improved greatly over the last number of years.