In the club it is traditional to have a large Napoleonics game the week before Christmas. This year, with illness taking out some of the players, the game was smaller, but no less keenly fought.
A British and allied force blunted a determined French attack. One of the highlights being a regiment of British hussars holding their own against elite, heavy French cuirassier.
A fun encounter between Prussians and French, trying to fight their way through a narrow valley, using Osprey’s “Rebels and Patriots”.
The French managed to get the better of the Prussians by pushing light troops down the wooded flanks, silencing an enemy gun, and bringing more fire to bear against the Prussian line.
We had an inaugural game of Mantic Games’ “Deadzone” and had a lot of fun with it. A crack team of GCPS Marines went in to eradicate some Mauraders (Orcs) that had taken up residence of a section of the Deadzone. Led by Lieutenant 'Holden McGroin' and backed up by the living legend, Sergeant 'Anita Humping', the Marines showed ruthless efficiency in banking victory points whilst clearing the sector of the deadly, pestilent Orcs.
The starter box for Deadzone represents great value. I bought in some extra terrain, but essentially you get most of what you need for £75 or so. I'm no expert in sci fi skirmish games, but out of the other ones that I've tried - including Stargrave and Kill Team - I would prefer Deadzone. The game play is really straightforward, but the scenarios/missions/objectives etc. are actually quite sophisticated. The miniatures are great. In this game we had to use Games Workshop Orcs, as I hadn't managed to get the Mantic Veer-Myn (space rodents) painted up in time. Also, the Mantic terrain is excellent, easy to make and can be used for all manner of other sci fi wargames.
This game was inspired by Christopher Duffy's book "Eagles Over The Alps - Suvorov in Italy and Switzerland, 1799".
The French Revolutionary Wars provide a really interesting sub-period for the wargamer, the variations in uniforms adding a pleasant twist to the wider 'Napoleonic' period.
Some great scenery and figures on display here. Of particular note is the Italian-style town and the gun emplacements - all scratch built.
A T80 tank Battalion took on a US Mechanised force fielding M1A1s, M113s and Apaches. The mission rolled was 'Probe'. This enabled the Soviets to attack, with scattered immediate reserves, whilst the Americans defended with scattered delayed reserves. The US player kept the M1s in reserve; the Russian player rolled in his reserves in his first turn, which enabled him to deploy all of the available T80s form the onset.
The T80s were left to run amuck for three turns, assaulting the US infantry off their objective and taking out a few Bradley scouts. In a crucial dice role, the Americans failed to bring in their reserves, giving the Soviets yet another turn to secure the objective and win the game. Also mentioned in despatches, the Soviet AA Gophers, took out the 2 Apache attack helicopters and the Sergeant Yorks which took down 3 out of the 4 SU-25s. Other than that, the T80s, whilst very expensive in points, were the stars of the show - for once!
This was another one of those games that could have swung either way on a number of key dice roles, but the failure of the M1s to show up signalled defeat for the Americans.
