19th June 2003

Here are the latest batch of games which took place at the club on Thursday 19th June 2003.

Game: 1st Carlist War in 25mm
Rules: Piquet

Piquet makes yet another appearance at the club, this time for the 1st Carlist War (1833-40). The battle, though apocryphal, is set in the Spanish Basque country and was between the Cristians (Liberals) and the Carlists.

The Cristian players (me and Gary) had to take and hold a ridge which was located on their side of the table. This being the Basque country, the terrain was very hilly, with lots of difficult going. Not being sure where the attack was going to come from, we had to spread our forces rather thinner than I would have liked.

My worst fears were confirmed when the Carlist players (Conrad and Nigel) concentrated their attacks on our centre and right flanks, whilst ignoring the left flank.

We held the centre effectively, however, our right flank began to crumble as the Carlists swept along the ridge. Eventually both sides heard the sound of reinforcements approaching...the battle will be concluded next week.

Game:Assyrians v. Saba in 15mm
Rules: DBM, 500 Points

The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold, if a wolf comes down on the fold by riddling it with arrows and then finishing it off in a fierce and bloody melee. That’s what happened to the right wing of the
Sabaean army, who advanced through rough ground to get to grips with the Assyrians only to be sent packing in a festival of crap dice-rolling and shameful defeat. The only high point (for the Sabaeans) of the early fighting was that the Assyrian noble commanding the right flank got carried away when he saw the Sabaean infantry falling back in front of him and ordered his chariots into the gap, only to find that he was now in the middle of the enemy army. Consequences were predictable. Despite this, the unrelenting pressure of the Assyrian army broke the Sabean right, and the general was only able to rally a few of them to form a crude defense in front of the baggage, where the queen and her entourage offered libations to the gods, blissfully ignorant of the curly-bearded death bearing down on them.

Fortunately, the death of the Assyrian general hampered the men of Ashur’s ability to exploit the breakthrough, and the battle on the Sabaean centre and left became a waiting game, with neither side willing to advance—the Assyrians not willing to venture into the rocky, scrubby ground where the Sabaeans and their allies would dominate, but the Sabeans too frightened (or too unable to roll anything more than a one on their PIP die) to come out of it. The fight was down to a waiting game—would the remaining allied contingent arrive to fall on the Assyrian chariot line before the victorious Assyrian left could sweep around and roll up the flank?

The answer was no. As the day wore on and the Assyrians crept ever closer, there was no sign of the reinforcements, who had presumably stopped for a bit of a siesta. With little time remaining, the Assyrians and Sabeans in the centre came together in a huge clash which soon devolved into a confusing melee, with no clear winner. Meanwhile, the camels on the Sabean left spurred forward, the chariots of the King of Ashur rolling forward to meet them. Again, the fighting was inconclusive. First one side then the other was driven back. Assyrian losses were light, and as the battle drew to a close they showed no signs of breaking. With the Sabean right in tatters and the allies nowhere to be seen, the Assyrians had come out on top.

And there you have it. Much as we’d like to blame terrible dice rolling (that’s what we told the Queen when she asked where “the rest of the army” was), the Sabeans were outfoxed by cunning deployment on the Assyrian left and an inability to coordinate our advance. A well played game by Dave, and I hope I haven’t misrepresented anything too badly in my first battle report. Thanks to John and Lee for putting up with an interloper whose main role seems to have been to fail to come up with the crucial sixes.

(Battle Report by J.E. Holloway)

Game: World War 2 in 6mm
Rules: GHQ World War 2 Microtanks

Haven't played these rules myself, but the people who played felt they may be a Spearhead beater...they use the same scale of 1 stand = 1 platoon; 1" = 100 Yards. The battle will conclude next week.

Game: 1st World War Naval Battle (Turkey v Greece)
Rules: House Rules

An Eastern Mediterranean battle between Turkey and Greece.

Return to Index