Napoleonic Interlude

I thought I would provide an update on the Napoleonic part of this project. The Napoleonics has always been intended to be the larger part of the project but is a far more complex undertaking, involving all new design commissions for villages, redoubts and the like, not to mention the number of figures involved. Working out how to get the figures painted in quantity and quality is also a problem (never mind the financing!).

About a week ago, the tally of troops ready for deployment stood at the following numbers.
French line & allies : 39 battalions, 25 batteries & 15 Regts cavalry.
To refresh memories on the scale of things, each French Btn is a nominal 108 figures in 6 bases and each base is a company. Cavalry Regts range from 72 to 178 strong and gun batteries are done gun for gun.
The rules will still be "In the Grand Manner", being able to directly use the current edition and also a new addition that I am currently writing specifically for 10mm scale and major changes to many of the rule mechanics.

At the end of last year, I realised that the acquisition of painted figures needed to be accelerated. I decided to use Neil Kenneally in Bangladesh in addition to Alan Tuckey who has been painting since the start of the project. Initially, I sent Neil the bulk of the Russian infantry that would be needed, about 7,000 figures. Painting time?, about 7 weeks!!!!!!!!

Within 10 weeks of sending the box of figures out, the boxes returned, 3 of them. Now I'll digress slightly. I hadn't worked out how long it would take to unpack the boxes! I've no complaints either!!!!!
Each box contained slightly more than 2,300 figures. Every figure (yes, every one!) was individually wrapped. Groups of figures were then wrapped in newspaper, all taped up for safety.
The first piccy shows troops from the first box being sorted by the labelling on the newspaper that they are wrapped in.

Each regiment of infantry was in 3 or 4 wrapped newspaper packets. I should have mentioned that these are early Russians, so each regiment has specific facing and lapel colours (as opposed to later troops where the colour is common).
So this was stage 1, sort the newspaper packets by Regiment.
The next stage was to unwrap the individual newspaper packets, check the figures, count off that all figures were present and then put them into a plastic Chinese take-away cartons, by regiment, prior to basing.
Now here I advocate an alternate sexist vision of having a nice wife knitting at home in front of the fire. Far better to be unwrapping figures!

I kid you not, even with 2 of us, it took 4 days to unwrap and sort the figures. And I won't even mention a full dust bin with of rice krispies! (can anyone guess what the cryptic comment eludes to?).
Just to show that I was also working hard at the same time, I'm to be seen undercoating the French artillery pieces, all 180 guns.

Well, a month later, all the figures have been based, textured, dry brushed and flagged. The figures are exquisite for 10mm scale. Details is good and I'm impressed!
All the Russians are from Red-Line miniatures (main considerations are cost and they are new designs to my spec). The flags are all GMB, again done initially for my needs in 10mm. Anyone can now get Russian flags from GMB for 10mm scale. In fact, as they are early flags, I believe the Russian range has increased significantly, even for 28mm.

The figures you see are 12 Btns of Russian Guard in the foreground and 16 Btns of Russian Grenadiers in the background. Base width is 3/4cm per figure. So you are looking at troops with the same footprint as 28mm troops using Grand Manner rules when you compare the width of battalions. Depths here are shallower but each unit has the correct 3 rank formation. What I can see but I can't fully show or describe until the first game is setup, is that the increase in available depth on my tables will have a profound affect on how games will play using the current rules. I won't explain here, but I can get "into it" in a separate discussion.
The next piccy shows 40 Btns of Line Infantry.

Lastly, a pull back shot showing the lot.

The Infantry component is not finished as the Jaegers are yet to come. Hot off the design moulds, they should be with me a week from today. Also, being early Jaegers, the basic unifrom is a "flat lime green colour"
What's next? Well, at Easter, I shipped a further 18,000 figures out to Neil. Currently, 5,500 are in boxes on their way back. The rest will get back by the end of the month. These include French and Austrians. Also by the end of this month, another box with about 8,000 figures will go out to Neil.
End of year hopefully sees the best part of 30,000+ figs painted and ready to go.
More snippets! Russian light cavalry will be in 10 squadrons (2 Btns), heavies in 5 squadrons. Austrian lights will have 8 squadrons. Squadron sizes for some nationality/types will also differ to those currently used.
I hope this has whetted the appetite for what I hope the future brings. The Napoleonics hasn't been forgotten, it just takes a lot of resources and persistence to get it to where I envisage it.

Game 7 : Russian Winter Offensive

This was the seventh game at the Situation room and was effectively the first anniversary of gaming. Its amazing to look at the amount of kit and terrain that is here now, compared to a year ago when the first game was played!
This game was trying to be different again. The scenario was a Russian Winter Offensive. For this, they had 2 Tank Divisions, 3 Infantry Divisions, 2 Independent Tank Brigades, 2 Reconnaissance Btns and 2 Artillery Divisions. Pre-planned barrage artillery was also available using a points system with different costs for different calibres (the higher the calibre, the higher the cost so less overall). Barrage fire was also a fixed 12" by 12" size and counted as a smoke screen for the turn when landed. These mechanics were taken from Cornish Combat Command rules. Its a quick and easy way to do pre-planned fire.
The Germans had a single Motorised Division in defence. The scenario was to have the Russians launch an offensive over an impassable river, seize the 3 main towns and stop any German counter-attack. To make this possible, the Russians could deploy 6 bridges overnight prior to the assault without detection. In addition, there were mechanics for repairing blown bridges (3 of them) over the river.
The Germans needed to hold out and then counter-attack with reinforcements. As another new approach for us, we adopted the hidden deployment and reconnaissance system from Cornish Combat Command. In essence, numbered markers are placed on table. Off-table, there is a duplicate sheet with the marker numbers and hidden troops are deployed here. Dummy counters are also allowed, we used up to 33% and then a reconnaissance "battle" is played prior to the game start and Russian deployment, to see what defensive positions or actual troops are discovered.
Need less to say and with over 20 years experience of organising very large games, this game didn't go as I envisaged! More on that after the brief account.

Pictures 1 & 2 show the battlefield with the Russian start lines to the left of the picture where you can just make out the river. Piccy 3 shows a ground level shot taken from behind the German lines, I just thought it looked quite effective. There were 3 towns, roughly equally spaced. The central town had heavier cover than the other two.
It was apparent fairly quickly that this game would play enormously different. Using hidden deployment meant that the Russian advance was more cautious that in previous games where all the kit was always deployed. In addition, German artillery on the defensive side was to play quite a dominant part, even though it was limited in numbers.The next piccy shows the central town, this would eventually see the Russians take the front part but exhaust 2 Divsions of infantry in doing so.

You can see the numbered markers used for hidden deployment. The problem for an attacker is not knowing if anything is there but more how much?
The Russians attacked along the front. On their right, the main push was by the Independent tank brigades of KV1s and T34s. In the whole main part of the game, the Germans only had 1 Tank Btn of 37mm armed PzIIIs and a company of PzIVs. This battalion was held in reserve in the centre.

The Germans tried to ambush this attack by using an armoured car squadron hidden behind cover. It never really worked as the Russians moved along the road and blocked the exit of the cover with a KV1. It nearly worked! However, what was clear that tanks, any tanks, unsupported bu infantry, cannot take built up areas. The tanks were eventually ambushed by an Pak 35 firing stick bombs and slowly, but surely, degrade by anti-tank rifle fire (critical hits) and persistent artillery. In fact, as a cameo action from the game, it was a great example a battalion of infantry in good cover fending off unsupported armour.
On the opposite flank it was the infantry attacking without a lot of armour support. The result was the same.

The Russian infantry would eventually get armoured support in the manner of KV2s and T28s and make some progress.

However, the Russian commander made the point that he was using a regiment of infantry to clear each building. Towns are nearly impossible nuts to crack. This was also a game in which the quality of the Russians was the highest we had ever used. There were Russian units that were superior to the Germans, not only kit but morale, firing ability and damage absorption ability. The one that came to mind was the Russian T34 Independent tank Brigade. You literally had to kill it, bit by bit. The days of Russians crumbling easily on morale was not too prevalent, although infantry battalions caught in the open by German artillery were usually badly mauled or annihilated.

This show the Russian armour on the right flank redeploying to the centre after concluding that towns and tanks don't really mix. In the foreground you can see burning Russian tanks and German armoured cars. The town was to remain in German hands.
In the centre the battle started off one sided as the Germans got to ambush the Russians. Again, a difference for this game is a Russian smoke screen, used to cover their advance.

The Russian attack in the centre petered out as it was clear that the un-committed German Motorised troops were able to pick the point to reinforce. We had played this game for about 3 days in all and were all quite tired (some small amounts of liquor may have had an influence on this). My idea of using German reinforcements wasn't really needed, the Germans had held the main line.
My surprise was that this was made possible by the hidden deployment and its influence on the game and how it would play had taken me by surprise. Also, the manoeuvrability of the Russians over the river with 6 bridges and the potential for 3 more, had surprised me at how slow it was. This is all good as it shows me as the game designer what factors heavily influence playability. I hope this then results in better, more challenging games. But as long as we all continue to have a good time!!

Lastly, a piccy of the players. I played German with Peter, Gordon, Graham and Steve played the Russians. Oh, and more champagne!!!!!!!!
Keep an eye on this blog because I'll shortly post a Napoleonics update!!!!!!!

Game 6 : In front of Moscow

This was game 6 at the Situation room and is really a variation on a theme. I'm currently restricted, until reinforcements arrive, to playing eastern front. One advantage is that you can try various situations, troop densities and scenarios to see how well the rules cope and especially in seeing if the games have the "right" feel.
We played 3 games, all of which were linked. Each side had a top level OB from which they had to pick formations for each of 3 games. Depending on the outcome of each, either side might accrue an advantage for the next game. Each formation had to be used at least once, but could be used more than once especially in the Russian OB.

The setup was controlled by an abstract recce system, the side "winning"the recce deciding on which table edge to start from.This picture shows the Germans in game 1 taking the town by turn 2, forcing the Russians to try and counter-attack. The Russians were at their worst morale/training stats for this game and so were repulsed by the Germans in all areas and pushed back. Troop density was 2 Russian Divs against 1 German Div and the immediate result was to see a lot of space for manoeuvre. Using this space allowed for both sides to probe for holes but you did have to be careful not to over manoeuvre at the expense of the central objective which was the small town and the main single highway.

I liked this piccy as it shows Adam after we had tried to cut him down to size. But it also shows Germans in the foreground in trucks. It shows the truck bases are the size of the whole company which better reflects the length of a road column without having to have individual trucks for each base. The trucks have bases depending on the nation/organisation and type.

This shows a Russian infantry formation trying to contest the town after losing the recce and having to march on. They were on a loser from the start, accurate feel for the setting of the scenario.
The second battle followed the same format and pitched similar forces against each other. The result of the second game was a complete destruction of the Russian forces.
The conclusion of these games told me that Early German Panzer troops against superior number early Russians and in the relative open, would lead to German success on a regular basis, a result that seems in keeping with what actually happened.
The last game would have a large town, with strong defensive buildings and a river running through the middle of it. The objective would be the town, the bridges over the river and the main highway. Neither side would know if the river was fordable. We constructed a table of various types of ford and when troops first reached a ford they rolled a die to see what type of ford, if any, existed. The result was kept secret from the side who had not yet reached the river.

The battle for this town showed how towns negate the manoeuvring abilities of troops and also how attritional battles are. It was difficult for well trained troops to bring this training to the fore because close fighting can be quick and it is certainly deadly. It was also nice to see infantry with anti-rifles driving off tanks from both sides within the confines of the town.

This piccy shows the 2 bridges over the river and the town. Flank attacks were to no avail as the river turned out to be unfordable to vehicles in these areas. However, in the centre, the river was fordable to tanks and infantry. the piccy actually shows German tanks with snorkels crossing, they were deployed in the centre before we knew the state of any fords.
The guys who played these games are in the next piccies. Adam had to go early and Graham arrived the same evening, so we had even 2 a side for the whole week. It sounds like a long time, but when you have good games with relaxed like minded people (and in some instance drink a lot!), then it doesn't seem that long.

My last mention for this post concerns the rules. The rules are in beta version and printed. Guys who come here get a copy as it is still a "live" document where we amend/change rules as our experiences suggest. This process has been going on for over a year and is nearly finished. The rules proper should be published later this year. Anyone who would like more details or who have more detailed questions are welcome to contact me here or directly via e-mail. gerryjelliott@aol.com

And just a note to also say that the Napoleonics is slowly building up. I hope for at least a game this year. Until next time!

Game 5 , Minsk

This was the 5th battle on the Eastern front. This game had more terrain than ever and more troops than ever. I set the battle in Autumn 1941 and called it Minsk. I didn't base it on anything historical, but the name of a key city gave it the correct feel.
For this game the city component had been expanded dramatically, 3 times the size of any other game. I fielded another 200 trees to bring the tree count up to about 1000 and the number of woods to in excess of 50.
The river returned and there were special visibility rules in play. Both sides received a briefing which included OB, starting force choices, variable morale and combat abilities to name some.
In some comments previously, rule availability/development was asked about. The rules as such I would call a "beta-set", printed and in the final stages of development before they are available for general consumption. The largest change has been for me to re-write them using 10mm as the base scale and allow players to factor for other scales. There is a Yahoo group already setup, ready for when the rules go live which I plan for the middle of 2012.
Now back to this game. We had 9 players and used 4 German and 5 Russian. I purposely had the new players  as Russian, using their newness to the rules as their "tactical disadvantage". It was easier than writing even more special rules!
The first two pictures show the battlefield, German start lines to the right and Russian lines to the left.

It still sometimes feels as if there is little terrain but this was the closest terrain to date.  Both sides had secure rear areas but both sides were also allowed to define flank attacks on both flanks, as deep or shallow as they wished. I took these "orders", looked a the forces involved and used a simple d6 system to resolve exactly what arrived where. We ended up with both sides attacking on both flanks, sometimes without a contiguous front/link to the safe rear areas.

The forces were based on a supported Panzer Corps for the Germans and a Russian army of 3 Inf Divs, 2 Tank Divs, 2 Artillery Divs, 2 Army Recce Btns and 2 Independent tank brigades based on KV1s & T34s.
We ended playing the game twice!
The next piccies show general battle along the lines. This game saw most of the 400 square feet of table get utilised and the game was relatively free flowing in some sectors.

Not surprisingly, significant action took place in the city of Minsk itself. The buildings are excellent, the roofs all come off and I removed some interior walls to allow figures to sit neatly. Using my base sizes, its easy to have figures be where they actually can sit. If they can't fit they can't be there. Saves a lot on defining building capacities. But be warned, the big buildings in the following piccies can gobble up Btns at a time.

I think it is also fair to say that we determined the length of time that this type of gaming allows players to play before exhaustion. We played for 6 days and finished the last day playing the battle of the river plate!, just as a form of relaxation.
The last piccy shows the guys that attended this game, including some new faces to the Situation room.

Third from the left, standing at the back is Nick. I think he is leaving his liver at home next time to help protect it! Second from the right, standing, is Phil. If I'm losing I always blame him (no idea why and he never takes any notice!).
In the front row, crouching on the right is Franz, from Vienna (a friend of Herbert). Never leave a bar of chocolate unattended within his reach, as it won't be there when you look back! Next to Franz, seated to the left, is Steve. He drinks wine like pints of beer! Woe betide anyone drinking with him (and casualty rosters do exist to demonstrate the wisdom of the advice).

Whats next. Well, up to the middle of next year it is more of the same. The next game is Moscow and I've been asked to do this as a trilogy of sorts and link 3 battles in some way. Start some time fairly early and finish in front of the gates of Moscow. After that I hope to have more kit allowing me to start Eastern front 1943. There is a lot of work to do this but I am optimistic. I also have both air forces in white metal, just now to getting them painted. They are 10mm scale from True North (sourced through Old Glory). They total 53 aircraft to allow me to play games with proper air components.
Behind this I have enough troops to do early war France 1940 with Brits. I hope to get this going for later in the year.
And not forgotten, the Napoleonics. Although the blog has been quiet on this, the figures, buying, planning etc etc has been ongoing. I hope to get a game going some time in Q3 next year. In fact I want to play the same game twice, first with "In the Grand Manner" and then with my modified/new "In the Grand Manner for 10mm".
So, keep watching for updates!

Game 4, The Battle for Krasnoe

This was the fourth outing and was a weekend game. It was set as an encounter battle in late Autumn 1941. The German forces were based on a Panzer & Motorised Div with some Corps assetts. The Russian forces were based on 2 Tank Divs, 2 Infantry Divs and some army assets.
The basic task of each side was to control the central town, destroy the enemy and be in a fit state to pursue victory. People often ask about victory conditions as opposed to "just kill the enemy". My view is that after game setup it is intuitively obvious what the victory conditions are, to the point where the actual gamers themselves concur on the result.

The first 2 piccies show the general layout of the battlefield. The Germans would be advancing from the right of the picture and the Russians from the left (that's what they were told anyway!). The town would be fought over the whole weekend. A pleasing aspect for me are how the rules play depending on the terrain. In close, well protected, terrain like a town, combat becomes protracted and the skill is in committing just enough troops to capture the objective. It becomes all too easy to allow troops to be sucked into a "vacuum cleaner". However, the contrast is striking in fairly open terrain as the manoeuvre becomes the key to success. It all fits my view of WWII warfare.

The next piccy shows the combatants.

There are two new faces, Phil Vernon on the left and Paul Hookway on the right. Then we have proof of the illicit love affair between Brendan and Adam!!!!!
Getting on with the action, the game started with both sides having forces near the town. The Germans had the Motorised Div and the Russians had 2 Infantry Divs and artillery. Both sides had to use some forces as reinforcements and the roads running the length of the table were where these troops would arrive. The Germans split their Panzer Div into two (no real other choice) and the Russians used a Tank Div at each end.
The game would effectively get split into three actions, the fight for the town and two flank actions where the armour of both sides were trying to break through to the town and at the same time stop the enemy armour from doing likewise.
The next piccy shows action in the town.

Both sides committed about half of their forces facing the town, into the town itself, whilst the remainder tried to probe the flanks of the town. The town had buildings that had three types of defence level. In the centre were the strongest buildings, then moving out to strong buildings then the weaker buildings in the outskirts. Fighting for "concrete" type buildings takes time and planning and not an unsubstantial amount of luck!

A shot of Adam at the far end of the table trying to work out how he will cope with the hordes of Paul's armour. This fight would eventually see the Russians gain the advantage but not quite releasing armour to get to the town. In terms of game play, it is difficult to "decide" to send troops away, in this instance to the town, when you are under attack from a force that you don't know if you can beat if you use all the forces! At the other end of the table is Phil asking, "can he do that?" Another good aspect was that this was the first game for both Phil and Paul and they picked up the mechanics fairly quickly.

Brendan at the other end of the table fighting Bryan with an expression of "what the f**k do I do next". This part of the battle would see the Germans gain an advantage, but again struggle to get any troops to the town. The Russians did manage to get some Recce (just for Brendan!) and light armour to the town itself.

Graham and myself fighting over the ownership of a fly in some central plaza? (I've no idea what we're looking at!). Bryan in the background looking for sustenance (tea!).



These are two aerial shots taken from our Reconnaissance expert Anne, it shows exactly how easy it is to lose whole formations in a town. The buildings I think are quite exquisite for this scale, they all come from Fieldworks and are painted by Rumbling Guns. For the next outing the town will be three times the size!

I think this piccy should be called "Deja Vous"! Where and when have I seen this expression before. And he works in a bank!!!!!!!!!! At this point he retired to the kitchen to help Anne cut the bread for the lunches. Something he did do very well!

Well, the result. The fight on the flanks tied up most of the armour from both sides. In the town, the Germans were slowly getting the upper hand, no small part due to a devastating Stuka strike on Russian infantry on the flank of the town. Without this luck, the town would continue to be a grind.

One last piccy of the central area. The Germans are making headway towards the right top of the piccy as you look at it.

That's it for this jaunt. The next game will be a biggy again with even more terrain. More woods will also be on the table and the river may make its comeback!

Game 3, The Rostov crossing

This report is from the third game at the Situation Room. As each game is played, I try to expand the forces used and make the games have different themes. The obvious reason is that it remains challenging to the players, many of whom are regulars, but also to push the "envelope" on the rules.

This game was different in that it was the first time that I had buildings. It would introduce town fighting and demonstraste the ease, or not, of taking towns from the enemy. The town was in the centre of a road and river complex which would make any attack, by either side, in the town difficult.

The forces used were the largest yet, the game could last up to 4 days, but it was becoming clear what would happen after 3 days and the game finished. The game was set in latish 1942, inspired by Manstein's counter attack at Kharkov.

The German side was based on a complete Panzer Corps of 2 Panzer Divs, a Motorised Div and some Corps assets. The assets were a Flak Btn, a Machine gun Btn and some Corps artillery. The Russian side was based on 3 Infantry Divs, the armoured component of 4 Tank Corps with some infantry support, 2 Artillery Divs and army assets consisting of 2 reconaissance Btns and 2 Independent Tank Brigades.

The game was defined as a Russian breakthrough trying to reach the town and control the river crossings, road network, town and be in a position to defend the objectives. The Germans were trying to do the same. Initial set up had the German assets only, deployed anywhere on the battlefield. After this was done the Russians were able to deploy. The Russians had restrictions on the number of formations that could be deployed at any one time and the remaining were off table reserves.
The rest of the German forces, the Panzer Corps itself, had to arrive on the battlefield using the road network and arrival at a particular road was adjudicated on a random basis. Furthermore, only the Motorised Div was available on the first day.

The German setup was done by 2 players, the other 2 players arriving first thing next morning. To create a fog of war, the players deploying were able to order where the Mot Div arrived but the arriving players had to determine where the Pz Divs arrived. They had to do this based on intelligence. This was derived from allowing them to walk into the Situation Room, walk up and down the tables once and also use any cameras they had available. They then left the room and had to plan from this information alone.
For the Russians it was much the same, 2 players did the setup, but 2 arriving players had to determine exactly where the forcers they had been allocated were ordered to go but without any cameras.
The basic result was the Russian deployment had a very heavy infantry right flank and very heavy armoured left flank. The Germans were using a classic pincer movement from the flanks, the Pz Divs doing this hoping that the Russians would have advanced into a "pocket" for them to cut off.

So the game started with the German Flak Btn and MG Btn in and around the town, including a small force on the eastern side of the river. The German plan was to get engineers to bridge or cross troops to reinforce and suck as many russians as possible and close the trap. The Russian paln was to try and eliminate the German right with their armour and hold the centre and right with a gradual infantry advance.
Without going through a blow by blow account, the following are snippets from the game. The next picture could well be titled, "how do I get out of this?"

That's me, not so much scratching my head, but doing an impression of a cow pat. I've arrived with the Motorcycle and most of the Reconaissance Btns from the Mot Div on our far right. Facing me is all of the armour from the equivalent of 4 tank corps!!!!!, or the flies round the cow pat.
I'd eventually lose all the Reconaissance Btn but survive with 2/3 rds of the M/C Btn in a wood and eventually advance again!!!

The ring of steel facing me. My command would end up in the wood in the centre of the picture with all armoured vehicles destroyed. But I had held up virtually all of the Russian armour for over 2 days of gaming.

Elements of the Mot Div reinforce the town from the west, passing 88mm AA guns from the Flak unit that were deployed to cover the bridge approaches.

Rusian infantry on the east bank of the river. Neither side would fight their way over the river, close fighting is difficult and deadly and both sides were "happy" to stay "safe". If you want to take a sizeable town, then you have to plan with adequate support in the form of artillery for suppression of the enemy and smoke to mask your initial assault points. Without this, taking towns is very difficult and the option of screening the town becomes a real choice as it certainly will require fewer of your own men.

A Russian Artillery Div under air attack from a Stuka. The artillery were saved by the judicious placement of an AA Btn that successfully drove off the Stuka.

 This is action from the German left flank. In the foreground, in the wood, is a German Mot Regt from the Mot Div, fighting its way through a Russian Regt. In the background, the other 2 Regts of the Russian Div can be seen. The German advance is attempting to "shepherd" the Russians into a pocket. Later on, to the left of shot, a full German Pz Div would arrive.

This is a closer shot of the previous picture but taken from the Russian side. Eventually, the Russians were forced out of the wood.

Adam lamenting the destruction of a Marder. We learnt quickly not to assign many vehicles to Adam, not unless you liked toast!!!! (his first trick was to advance on Russian infantry with 20mm AA mounted on trucks!!!!).

This is the Pz Div arriving, supported by a Stug Btn and Tiger Coy. It is attempting to drive along the road, southwards. If it can reach the bridge in the distance, it will cut off 2 Russian infantry Divs to its right flank. In its path is the Russian Reserve armour based on 2 Btns of KV 1Cs.

This is a closer shot of the Russian reserve armour. In the background you can see smoke, this defines the battle where German armour attacking northwards is trying to close the trap and cut off all the Russian armour as well.

This is a shot from the western angle looking at the German pincer moving northwards. The game would end shortly after this, it was clear that the Russian infantry would be caught but it was a distinct possibility that the Russian armour may be able to escape. Another day would tell but most players were exhausted by now. So we played ships...........!

Lastly is a mug shot of all the gamers. Anne took the piccy and kept us in supplies throughout our 3 days of gaming. There is 1 newbie, Nick Miles on ther bottom left, Steve's twin brother (top right). Nick was one of the flies that were trying to flatten me into a cow pat!

In the next week or so I will do a new post, specifically on the rules. Some comments have been asking about these, including their availability. I will go through some whys and wherefores including how we use trucks for transport and more importantly the profound affect it has had on games.

Next game up is in October, smaller in scale so more space. Game after that is in Decemebr and it will be big!