March | 2022 | Tracks and Threads

Last Sunday saw me round Des’ again and once more taking on Per in a ‘training’ game of Picket’s Charge rules. Des is running this game a few times over the next few weeks so this was a shakedown of a ‘light’ version of the full the scenario (with a reduced OOB) to see if any tweaks were needed to it and to enable us to get a handle on the rules for the big, multi-player game in a few weeks time. Once again Des had put on a stunning looking game, in fact both Per and I stopped and said ‘Bloody Hell!’ when we first entered the shed!

I won’t go into a blow by blow of the game as it was just a training game but it was lots of fun with both of us suffering at the hands of the dice gods, I lost 2/3 of my off table artillery support but Per rolled bad in melee and testing for morale which hurt his sides performance quite badly. My Rebel force did have the upper hand at the end of the day’s play having taken the Devil’s Den and successfully kicking the 20th Maine and their mates off of the Little Round Top as well as completely smashing the main Union line. However all these gains might have been temporary as a large Union reserve force was bearing down on the victorious Confederates at the Devil’s Den and there would have been more arriving if we were playing with a full OOB. A cracking game and I’m looking forward to another go on Sunday and the big one later in the month. Cheers to Per for being a top opponent as usual and Mr. D for inviting us to play, it’s an absolute belter!

Anyway, here’s a lot of lovely eye-candy to get your mince’s round…

(All images are clickable if you want to see them larger)

Another Sunday, another trip round Des’ for a game and another belter. We were joined once again by Phil plus wargaming luminary, and top bloke, Per Broden to play a game of Phil’s excellent Plains War rules ‘Crazy Horse’s Fury’. Once more I would be donning the headdress of a Chief of the Lakota defending my pony herds and village from the not so tender attentions of Des & Per in charge of the Long Knives.

This won’t be an in depth write up as the game was a fantastic swirling fight along the whole length of the table with charges, massive melees, units retreating, routing and feinting all over the place, dismounted cavalry blowing away swathes of braves before being hit in the rear or flank, my Chief very nearly copping it and Crow Scouts. Always the Crow Scouts.

The game was an absolute blast as usual with the balance toing and froing all the way through and I just managed to pull of the narrowest of narrow victories right at the end of the day after very nearly losing the village and my chief. The women and children could sleep soundly without fear, the ponies were moved to safety, much coup was won or lost and many weapons were recovered. Oh, and the battle site lived up to it’s name with the US Cavalry rolling more 1’s than I’ve ever seen in a game before and only winning the initiative twice all day, brilliant!

The rules were nice and easy to get back into although we all did suggest some tweaks when Philip asked us and some might be added soon, when he has finished re-jigging things I shall ask if it is ok to post them on here so that people can download them.

Anyway here’s tons of pictures to look at and hopefully enjoy, remember if you click on them they get bigger! Terrain is Des’, figures are all Philip’s and 15mm.