Getting ships ready for Saturdays 15mm Galleys, Guns and Glory game

Been filling out crews, adding flags and making counters for Saturdays Galleys, Guns and Glory game at Treefort. These ships have been in the closet for some 5 years now. All handmade 15mm galleys
Should have 9 galleys per side.

Turkish galleys along the coast

On the way to Crete

Venetians spring trap

Turks receive Venetian fire

Bolt Action Russian Tank assault.

Been well over a year since we tried a big Bolt Action game. Last tine was the Pacific, this time somewhere ion the Eastern Front.
4500 points of Soviets run by Mike Steven and John vs 4500 points of Germans run by Glen, Eli and Coach.
Eli's force started at the entrenchment with about 5 feet of wire. Coach started some 30 inches back relaxing in the Russian huts and Glen (who's entire force was mobile) was off table in the R&R section.
All the Germans on the table started with a pin marker,to reflect the sudden Soviet bombardment that preempted the assault.
Soviet mission was to get a tank and infantry squad off the far end of the table, failing that to hold the majority of the table.

The Soviet steam roller got off to a good start panicking the Krauts with some lucky tank shots from the Latvian Rifles and some early assaults on the German emplacements. But old Steiner Eli, sporting his Iron Cross, refused to give an inch! Commissar Steven lead charge after charge while saturating the entrenchments with mg fire. But Old Stiener wouldn't budge. On the left Johnokov lead a wave of fresh recruits decimating Germans and trees alike. But Col Eric coolly formed a line on the ridge and rained all sorts of fire and extremely accurate artillery on those poor Russian farmboys. The Russian right advance to the half way point screened by Cossacks, But Panzer Col Glenn, arrived well ahead of schedule to block any possibility of advance. A well played German victory.
                                                                

Table at the end of the game 

A little Neil Thomas rules Ancients today

Knocked out some 98 Romans these past two weeks, so that I could introduce Steven to the Neil Thomas rules. Easy to learn and play rules, helps keep us motivated to paint figs for the next big Clash of Empires game.
Romans Vs Carthage
Romans: 3 Hastati and 3 Princepes, 1 Triari (subbed with Greek Hoplites), 2 Velites , 1 Latin Cav,
Carthage: 3 African Veterans, 2 Gallic foot, 1 Gallic Cav, 1 Elephant, 1 Numidian Cav, 2 Light infantry

It was a very fun game. My Romans  hammered the middle, but the old adage of newly painted troops performing badly their first time out seems to still be true.  Dismal morale failure on the part of a couple of roman units. Steven almost had the game wrapped up for the Carthaginians , but finally some bad rolls on his part handed ma a very very slim Roman victory.

 

Romans vs Seleucids rematch!

Been months since we fought the Battle of Magnesia, and we've been aching for a rematch. So Saturday we got it at Treefort Games. I Andrew brought his beautiful Republicans Romans, I brought the Seleucids and Steven brought some Greek mercenaries to fight with the Seleucids. had been painting Cataphracts the whole week and Steven had stayed up till 3AM the night before to get his Mercs ready.
Clash of Empires, 4000 points per side. Romans Andrew and Stelios vs Seleucids Mike and Steven.
Game proceed with the Roman left flank attacking the Galatian warbands and cavalry while driving the skirmish line back. Soon the Galatians were nowhere to be seen.
On the Roman right a unit of Cataphracts decided to test it's mettle against the Roman infantry and found it a tough nu to crack, meanwhile the Roman flanking force appeared on their right.
By turn 3 things looked very good for the Romans on both flanks as all melees were going their way.
By turn 4 the Roman flanking force had slowed in it's pursuit of the Seleucid Companion cav. While the Roman left had a pesky elephant that refused to run in any direction except towards more Romans.
And the Phalanxes had begun to move.
Turn 5 saw the clash of the Phalanx and the Maniple in the center, plus a scythed chariots and armoured elephant. This time almost all the melees went against the Romans and the advance grounded to a halt as cascading  morale rolls took effect.
By then it was time late and time to call the game. A hard fought draw in the end.
Still enjoying the Clash of Empires rules, really gives all the unit types a distinct feel. We just need to play more often so that we can get all the special rules done pat.


I

LtoR, Steven, Mike, Andrew and 'I can't believe I'm playing Romans' stelios

Start: Seleucids on right Romans on left 

Start, with more on the flanks

Roman left and some very effective Italian Allied Cav

Seleucid Left. Cataphracts, Chariot, Elephant

The center

Phalanx vs Maniple (slightly shot up)

center on turn 5

Pesky Elephant

English Civil War comes early this year!

Got a game of ECW in early this year. 'Victory without Quarter' rules, 28mm figs, 4x12 foot table 6 players and 20 units per side. 5 units per Brigade.
These rules never fail to produce a fun game with lots of moans and cheers as the card deck determines the next activation. A very slim Royalist victory it was.

Indian Mutiny Battle finally!

4-5 years since the last game? But yes finally got those Indian Mutiny figs on the table again.
Tried out the 'Sepoy' rules by Graham Evans. Played the Aong scenario, which takes place after Fatehpur.
As you can see in the pics, the British need to clear out another force of Mutineers on there way to Cawnpore.

Took a little rereading, but we think we got most of the rules right. They really do allow a small group of British to put to flight a much larger ++force of Mutineers. Not to mention that the Mutineer command die rolls  were abysmal and the British didn't roll even 1 leader event!
It was a very fun game. I'm lucky to have some very easy going players who are quite happy to try out other rules for the period.

First of the Soviet Tanks for Team Yankee

New project for 2016, Team Yankee. My Sweet wife, Sabrina bought me the Team Yankee Soviet starter box. But I also bought some Zvezda tanks at Treefort.

Zvezda T-72s with reactive armor trimmed off

Battlefront T-72 with Zvezda M1 and T-72 for comparison