Colours 2023

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Yesterday was the annual trip to Newbury Racecourse for the Colours wargames show.

I must confess that I almost didn’t go: my memories of previous Colours were of a very packed, very hot, and very sweaty show…and the weather forecast was for the day to be the hottest day of the year so far.

Well, it did prove to be the hottest day of the year so far, but when I arrived at about 10.30am, the venue was actually pleasantly cool: all the doors on all the floors were open and there was actually a breeze blowing through the stand. It did get a bit more crowded and a bit hotter during the day, but well done to the organisers for making sure that despite the blazing sunshine, I shall remember this year’s show as one of the coolest on record.

That and the free parking and low entrance fee (£5), and the fact that one of the catering points was actually a Costa (or at least had Costa coffee), made me very glad that I had made the effort to attend, and I shall certainly diarise next year’s show as soon as I can.

I wasn’t shopping for anything in particular this year, but there were the usual plethora of tempting trade stands, and I did actually end up buying some very nice “clumps” to use on my big element bases.

Magister Militum were conspicuous by their absence (being in the process of being sold) and as I wandered past where they usually were, I remembered that I bought something from them at their first show ever. Can’t remember what it was, but I’ve been a regular customer since, and they have always given excellent service. Let’s hope the enterprise goes to an equally good new home.

I thought that the display games were better than usual this year (there’s a gallery of some of them below) and I even played in one of them: the soon-to-be-published mini-skirmish game set in the Edo period of Japan currently known as Bonzai Bonkers or, perhaps more properly, To The Last Sword or similar. Incidentally, Sid, if you’re reading this, my 16-year old thinks the latter is too generic and that Bonzai Bonkers is the way to go! Kids, eh?

The game is excellent fun whilst, as with all Lardy games, really engendering the feel of the period/theme it’s designed to replicate: here, all the jidaigeki/chambara films that I love. The rules are very easy to pick up (my opponent, Gary, and I were working out our own combats etc within ten minutes) but involve a suitably fiendish amount of decision-making.

In this scenario, my band of four ronin and two retainers (I’m sure that means we were missing one!) were out to reclaim a legendary blade from the evil wrongdoers who had killed our daimyo and stolen the sword in the first place.

As with all good films games, it all came down to one last fight, where the hero Juko, supported by his retainer Mushin, was up against the Boss of the opposition: a far better fighter and dressed in armour. Juko fought bravely but was cut down and all looked lost, but Mushin hurled himself forward and, throwing caution to the wind (no parrying dice for Mushin!), finished the Boss off with a lunging thrust: my clan had avenged the insult, reclaimed the sword, won the battle and won more honour as well. My thanks to Sid and Gary for an excellent game.

So a very good Colours indeed, and my commiserations to anyone who decided not to go because of the heat: it was, as they say, a good’un.

TTS AAR: Early Imperial Romans versus Hoplite Greeks

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Clearing out my computer’s memory, I came across these pictures from a game played earlier this year: a practice session for the autumn tournament season that pitched my Early Imperial Roman’s against friend Other Rob’s Hoplite Greeks.

As it was a few weeks ago, I don’t have a blow-by-blow account of the game for you, but I do remember that the large Greek phalanxes caused a few problems for the Romans, and it was only their ability to manoeuvre and to rally that got them the win.

Here’s a gallery of the action: hopefully the pictures will tell the story!

It’s all coming back to me now!

My plan was to have the Roman cavalry overwhelm the lesser quality Greek horse on my left then curl back into the centre to take the Greeks in the flank.

That didn’t happen: as per usual the Roman horse proved incapable of beating the moth-eaten rabble in front of them, so that flank remained effectively neutralised throughout the battle.

That meant that the Legions had to do the work and won the day by ganging up on the individual phalanxes and taking them from two sides at once. Oh, and the Equites Sagittarrii light horse took the enemy camp as well, which helped!

Army Standard for the Normans

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Regular visitors will know that one of this year’s projects has been a 15mm Norman army using the excellent Museum Miniatures CAD designed Z range of figures.

The Normans, under the To The Strongest rules that I use have access to a Papal banner: the banner awarded to William the Conqueror (or First or Bastard, dependent on which camp you’re in) which looked a little like the image to the right.

I’m going to source one of those but, meanwhile, I also want to use the Normans as Early Crusaders, so needed a standard for them too. The choices, according to the lists are the Holy Lance of Antioch and The True Cross, so when Khurasan released the pack, below, I was straight onto the ‘net to order:

MILLENNIUM 15mm European mounted bishops (Odo of Bayeux, Adhémar of Monteil or other fighting bishop, and bishop bearing the True Cross or similar relic) (x2)

I’m not quite as good at painting as Khurasan’s house painter, but here’s my attempt:

I’ll leave aside the question of historical accuracy, but these are really nice figures that paint up very easily indeed. As they are part of Khurasan’s “heroic” range of Millennium figures (first millennium, that is) they are quite chunky and size very well with Museum’s Normans. Highly recommended.

Next up has got to be the Pilgrims set and, even better, the pack below:

MILLENNIUM 15mm Crusader "noncombatants" -- monk with crucifix, "washerwoman" with frying pan, and child with rock (x3), meant as mix-ins for Crusader foot, especially Pilgrims

TFL Painting Challenge: first September update

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A substantial update this time round: good to see that have all been using your summer’s for something constructive!

Some of you have commented that some of your entries aren’t getting through first time, so you have to re-send when you notice I’ve missed them. Can’t explain this, I’m afraid, something odd with Yahoo mail I think. Keep an eye out for this, though, and I will add missing submissions back in asap.

Check out the individual galleries, accessed through the NavBar, above, but here’s a selection to wet the whistle:

IABSM AAR: Club Night Game

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Here’s a quick AAR from Alex Sotheran taken from the IABSM Facebook Group.

As Alex says: “IABSM at the club tonight. Despite one British platoon commander not attending the 'O' Group they managed to push on to the German held crossroads and using a combination of smoke and manoeuvre threw them out at the point of a bayonet!”

Kristoff Designs Airfield Set

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I was pootering about on EBay the other day when I came across a WW2 pre-painted Wargame Airfield Scenery terrain set from Kristoff Designs.

I have several scenarios involving airfields that I play, and this looked like a good opportunity to get some specific terrain to use for them…and at only £20 for the lot seemed like a good bargain as well.

The pack arrived quickly, so I set to work and began the build, starting with the hanger building with the big sliding doors.

There are instructions for this build, and the hanger went together easily once I’d worked out that the black side of the internal struts faces into the hanger rather than outwards (it would have been useful to have that fact noted on the instructions). Even the roof went on well: the curve is fairly slight, so it’s easy to get the heavy paper/light card provided to sit on the joists, if that’s the right term to use. The sliding doors do indeed slide: well, one of mine does. The other lurches about a bit but can be positioned so it looks okay once the model is on the tabletop.

Actually, my only criticism of this building is its size. It’s supposed to be a hanger of some kind, but the only thing that would fit into it is a very small plane indeed. I’m actually wondering whether the set is designed for the mini-FOW planes (an abomination in my opinion: 15mm planes should be 15mm not 1/144 or whatever) but, as you can see from the photo below, not even my humble i-16 can get through the doors and there’s no chance for the Stuka!

The four Nissan huts were next. I love the front and the backs of these: the little green shutters and doors and plank effects work really well. My only problem was the fact that I couldn’t get the roofs to fit properly. Now I’m sure this is down to my lack of modelling skill, but I’m not really happy with the job I did on any of the four: the RSM would have the lot torn down and start again! Note also that these Nissan huts come without any instructions, which I am sure is fine for the intuitive modeller, but wasn’t for me!

Even worse, the Control Tower also comes with no instructions, or at least the set I had didn’t have any. This is actually a great little model, but it was quite challenging to put together without a step-by-step guide.

The outside staircase is a particular case in point: I wouldn’t risk climbing up the one I built! If you are building one of these, then the stairs themselves are pretty tough to do: I did mine by gluing the frame together then poking the steps through the bannisters and twisting them into position: very fiddly and not much fun! The illustration also shows doors: I think I’m supposed to build some out of the bits that punch out of the door spaces, but that seems very hard to do!

The two radar towers also require intuition to put together but, fortunately, aren’t very difficult to do. The runways are useful as well, but are very narrow: see my comments above about the hanger building.

Overall, I am pleased that I have these kits, but proper instructions would have made building them easier, and although they are very good value at only £20, I would have preferred to have paid a bit more and got a proper sized hanger. As it is, it is more of a tall storage shed!

All the kit together does, however, look suitably like some run down airfield in the desert or Malaya or the like, so will suit what I want it for. Not “recommended” but more of a “not bad for what you pay for it” rating.

Britcon Day Two: Game Five & Results

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My final battle at Britcon was against Peter’s Ostrogoth army: another almost-all cavalry force that was bound to lap around my flanks!

Outscouted, my set up was defensive, but I managed to place enough terrain to protect the flanks of my camp, then put the cavalry on the left hoping to hold up his elite nobles for long enough for the Legions to quash any other resistance with a Space Invaders like march forward in a straight line.

The game really turned my way very early on when a couple of extremely unlucky cards meant that Peter and the Ostrogoths lost an elite unit and their senior general in the first proper cavalry clash on the left.

After that, it was a matter of pining his troops back against things they couldn’t evade through and heading for his camp with everything I had: a workmanlike victory 17:4,

So, on to the results. I had four victories and one defeat under my belt, but one of the victories was the 7:5 Carthaginian affair so in reality three victories, one draw and one defeat.

In the end, when everything was totted up, I came third, an improvement of one place on Ewelme. The full scores were:

Congratulations to Adrian on a well deserved victory, and huge thanks to Sid for organising it all.

I would recommend giving the Britcon tournament a go at least once: it’s great fun even if it is quite a test of endurance: it certainly knocked me out for the next few days!

I’d also recommend a trip to 4550 Miles to Delhi the Indian restaurant we (and, coincidentally the Lardies) all ended up in on the Saturday night: great food and atmosphere.

CDS Arab-Israeli AAR: Chariots of Fire

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Steve Blease and fellow Lardy Phil got together to push some 6mm tanks around the table using the Arab-Israeli 6DW variation of Charlie Don't Surf. 

Steve devised a basic scenario loosely based around the Battle of Dothan Valley on the West Bank at the start of the June/Six Day War of 1967. Click on the picture below to see all..

Britcon Day Two: Game Four

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This was probably my hardest game of the tournament: matched up against Howard’s beautifully painted Later Carthaginians.

This was an epic clash that lasted some 3½ hours and was the only game of mine that was stopped by the umpire rather than coming to its natural conclusion.

Rather than use the set terrain, we had used the rules in the book, allowing me to protect my wings with a couple of pieces of impassable rocks. That meant that I could tie up his three units of heavy cavalry with the Praetorians and Auxilia whilst the rest of my army went for the rest of his.

My plan was for one unit of Legionaries to take out his elephants centre-left, whilst my cavalry took out the rest of his cavalry centre-right and then got round behind and into his camp. Meanwhile, I would hold back his elite pseudo-Legionaries with the rest of my true Legionaries on the right.

As always, no plan survived first contact with the enemy: my Legionaries refused point blank to go after his elephants and my cavalry got blocked in the middle…Howard had some annoying light infantry positioned on steep hills that caused me a lot of grief.

One of the key moments of the game: the equites alares get back to block the carthaginian heavy cavalry

The battle started to sway Howard’s way but, for once, the Roman cavalry were superb. The Equites Alares effectively held the centre on their own, rushing backwards and forwards to force his advancing units to protect their flanks.

At the end of the game it was tied 5:5, but my cavalry, on their last turn, managed to flank charge one of Howard’s units knocking it from the board and thus giving me a 7:5 victory.

The Lardzone at Britcon

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Another good reason for going to Britcon was to see the Lardzone in action: a whole hall devoted to games from the TwoFatLardies.

It was no disappointment. Below you will find a gallery of the tables set up for the day, demonstrating the incredible displays on show.

In fact, the only table I didn’t get a picture of was the late war Burma game of Chain of Command run by Rich himself: it was still being set up when I had the chance to visit. So I have borrowed one from the Battle Bunker HQ’s post about Britcon, along with the shot of the enormous Chain of Command table, also a Pacific game, and the Sharp Practice ACW clash.

Britcon Day One: Game Three

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My third game at the Britcon 2023 To The Strongest tournament was against Simon and his Hapsburg Burgundians again. Regular readers will know that I fought a warm-up battle against Simon on the Friday night, losing badly!

This was a grinding game that could have gone either way. The enemy pike pressed forward relentlessly with the Legions conducting an epic fighting withdrawal as the Roman cavalry worked their way onto the HB’s flanks.

Unfortunately, my “roll up” mounted flank attack went in with only enough time for me to break one of Simon’s pike blocks before the legionaries finally gave way: a 5:17 loss.

What was frustrating was that my plan was sound and I came so close to rolling him up entirely…it just didn’t quite happen. If one more pilum had gone in, if my cavalry had got one more hit…if, if, if!

Still, at least I did better than in the first battle!

Britcon Day One: Game Two

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My second game at this year’s Britcon To The Strongest tournament was against Si’s Sassanid Persians. I was someone nervous about this one: Si is a very good player and the Sassanids are a nasty army for the Romans to fight. All that cavalry laps around the Legions’ flanks!

This game, however, went my way…but mainly because Si had the worst possible luck throughout the match: he failed every save he should have made and missed every hit that should have gone in!

As a result, my cavalry held up the Sassanid heavies on my left flank for long enough for my Legionaries to get to grips in the centre and, as my auxilia sagittarii defended my camp against his lights, ground forward pushing his other horsemen back until they had nowhere to evade to. I then took his camp and the game with a 15-0 victory.

So a great result for the Romans, but mainly because Fortuna was firmly on my side.

Britcon: Day One: Game One

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My first game of the tournament proper was against Andy’s Dacians. Co-incidentally, Andy was also the first person I played against at the European’s in Ewelme, so it was good to see him on the other side of the table again.

As per usual with the Romans, I got into trouble on both flanks, but somehow held on for long enough for the Legionaries to win the battle in the centre.

On my left flank, the cavalry achieved nothing except to hang on against multiple flank attacks: not good for veteran cavalry but a considerable improvement compared to their usual dire performances.

On the right, one unit of Legionaries held on against a series of vicious flank and rear attacks for three consecutive turns: laurel wreaths all round.

In the end the battle was decided by my equites sagittarii (horse archer Auxiliaries) who managed to charge some rather nasty cataphract types in the flank and took them out.

Result: a 13:6 victory, worth 17 points once the extra for winning all my opponent’s coins was added in.

Britcon: Day Minus One

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One of the five To The Strongest competitions that I am playing in this year is currently taking place at Britcon: the massive wargames competition event held in Nottingham each year.

As I’m quite a long way from Nottingham, I travelled up on the Friday i.e. yesterday. Horrible journey where a combination of a very busy M40 and a clogged M1 meant that the trip took me an hour longer than I expected, but I found the car park no problem and, almost even better, a cracking place to re-charge my car - I’m 40 miles short of being able to do the round trip in one charge: a bit too much to risk!

Check in to the accommodation was easy too, so kudos to BHGS for their superb organisation. Okay so the room is not what one is used to (it’s been a long time since I was a student!) but very pleasant once you get used to it. The shower is very good, so things could have been much worse!

Carrying a metal 28mm army from flat to venue proved challenging: my arms and fingers had just about reached their limit by the time the main hall sprang into view, but a quick cup of coffee soon revived me and I was able to have a wander and get my bearings.

The rest of TTS lot arrived soon after, and we decided to have a warm up game to get into the swing of things. My opponent was Simon Miller, author of the rules and all-round good egg, with his Burgundian Hapsburg army of mostly raw pikemen.

My Early Imperial Romans advanced in echelon, and got into the perfect position to flank charge his slowly advancing line…but then I suffered the most extraordinary bad luck for the rest of the game and got thrashed 0-13!

Now you may say “oh, the old "‘bad luck’ excuse, eh?” but even Mr Miller kept apologising not just for my card draws but also for his extraordinary good luck. Put it this way, during the game I had nine flank charges that resulted in no effect whatsoever: not even a single disorder!

All I could hope for was that this was not an omen for the competition itself, and that I had used up all my bad cards!

Here are some pics of the game:

TFL Painting Challenge: August Update

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Three weeks since the last update and the entries have been flying in. The July update was a little early as well, so there are some catch-up entries as well: all in all, a bumper crop.

Do look at the individual galleries (accessible via the NavBar, above) but today we have entries from Carole, Stumpy, Matt, Sapper, Mervyn, Nick, Andrew, and Yours Truly.

Here’s a taster:

I’m off to Britcon now for a To The Strongest competition and a look at the Lard Workshop. Can’t wait!

IABSM AAR: Storming the Citadel

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Will Depusoy and friends have been converting the Kursk “Storming the Citadel” campaign to I Ain’t Been Shot Mum, but using Chain of Command activation and buying support “platoons” instead of single models.

Here’s a quick report from one game taken from the IABSM Facebook Group. Click on the picture below to see all.

TTS AAR: Romans versus Indians

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More practice for Britcon as friend Rob comes over for a couple of games of To The Strongest. The first game was my Early Imperial Romans (well, the Marian Romans proxying for them) versus Rob’s Classical Indians.

not a lot of romans…

but an awful lot of indians

My plan was simple: my veteran cavalry would sweep forward on my left wing and quickly dispose of his raw horse; meanwhile the Legion would advance forward into combat using their superior strength and flexibility to chew through his javelinmen and elephants; once the lines were fully committed, my cavalry would return and hit the enemy from the flank and rear or sack the enemy’s camp.

Unfortunately, my cavalry were having an off day and just couldn’t break the Indian horse: they spent the entire battle tied up way out on the left. That meant that the job of winning (as usual, some would say) was all down to the legionaries.

Fortunately they proved more than up for the task and, apart from the odd minor set back mainly down to the Auxilia, once the lines had closed and the Roman “mincing machine” had started up, there wasn’t a lot that could stop them.

The coup de grace came from one legionary unit breaking through the Indian line and sacking their camp, taking the last Indian victory medals in the process.

Here are some pics of the game:

IABSM AAR: A Final Effort

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Great After Action report from Dan Albrecht and friends, originally posted on the IABSM Facebook Group.

The battle recreated an engagement between 12th SS Panzer Division and the British 11th Armoured Division on June 27th near Caen. Order of Battle is from the excellent book Monty's Epsom by Skirmish Campaigns.

Click on the picture below to see all the action:

Horse Archers in 28mm

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Regular visitors will know that I’m about to take part in the To The Strongest competition at Britcon this year, fielding a Roman army not in my usual 15mm scale but in 28mm, using an army borrowed from a friend.

The army is great: plenty of legionaries and auxilia etc, but a bit of playtesting revealed the need for some equites sagittarii auxiliary horse archers, of which I had none.

A quick trawl through eBay suggested that I’d need to pay vast some of money for painted models, and would be jolly lucky to be able to buy only the three that I needed. The solution was at hand, however: I could buy a single sprue of Victorix Arab horse archers for the princely sum of £9: a bargain even if I would have to build and paint the figures myself.

Building the figures was quite fun, although I did find it tricky to get the two sides of horse to fit together snugly: you’ll see the tan horse in the middle has quite a VNL (visible neck line!). The arms were also tricky: superglue wouldn’t set quickly enough so I used a mixture of PVA and superglue which did the trick nicely. Any puffing just looks like the seams of their coats are coming apart!

Painting them was easy: using Contrast paints on 28’s after 15’s is like slapping paint on a shed, and even the tack (my usual bugbear) wasn’t too bad to do. I hashed up the man in the middle’s jacket: my purple dots are not good at all…but don’t look too bad from a distance. I was, however, very happy with the faces.

So thumbs up for Victrix and multipart plastic cavalry. I won’t be switching from my beloved 15’s, but have no problems in giving these a Recommended rating!