Battleground Wargames Show

First show I've visited in a while and I probably wouldnt have gone if I hadn't arranged to see Lance from Galloping major . A small show with are parking and free entry , a couple of smaller traders that you dont see at other shows so made a nice change but nothing to make me want to go again , my purchases consisted of a few packs from Lance to help finish some units off ,some characters and one of his new packs of markers , some nice spanish guerillas from Eagle and of course a few bases from warbases ,a long way to go to spend lass that a £100 but we visited afew other places so worthwhile .

Another tour in NAM -Force on Force

Played Ambush Valley in 28mm again ,another fast and furious game ,this time John took the VC and I had the yanks and amazing I won , captured the bunker complex but at acost of 1 Dead and 11 wounded .

The first of the US troops move onto the table

The trap is sprung they come under fire

the medi vac appears 

and promptly goes away as it takes fire

Greys Scouts and Rhodesian African Rifles

My next batch of Eureka Rhodesians have arrived for my Bush wars project to be used with Ambush Alley or Specter operations ,a set of Greys Scouts the mounted unit that proved a excellent unit .and The Rhodesian African Rifles ,the all black infantry regiment that served with distinction during the conflict .Again lovely figures in fantastic poses .

armed with an heavy barrel FN

Based on a famous picture of the Scouts in action

Add caption

White officer of the R.A.R

the full unit of R.A.R

Force on Force-Ambush,Valley

We went back to an old favourite for this weeks game ,Force on Force by Ambush Alley Games and we really enjoyed it ,we used the Ambush Valley supplement and 28mm figures .American Airbourne against NVA a great game with the NVA almost wiping out the yanks .

The NVA 

from the NVA side

The Americans advance

The Vietnamese go into ambush mode

U.S casualties mount

a medi-vac chopper comes under fire and moves away

The NVA charge into the LZ

hand to hand 

the few ramaining Americans try to fall back

more H to H more U.S casualties

ITs all over the LZ is overun 

Viking Great Army .work in Progress

A few pics of my Viking Great Army progress ,still a long way to go .Figures are amix of footsore ;Artizan ,Gripping Beast plastics and Victrix plastics .

2 bits of scenery A victim of the Viking Blood eagle and a rune stone

A rear view of the grusome punishment

1st of my Viking Sub-Commanders Arnvid Ale Sinker

2nd Sub Commander -Erik Oak Solitter

and the 3rd sub commander -Sigurd of the Bridge 

a group of Viking Pirates

Bondi

A close up of the above

and another close up of the Bondi

LT -Col Henry Pulleine

Over the weekend we visited the memorial to Henry Pulleine , the commander of the forces left at Isandlwana ,often blamed for the disaster in full or partly With Col Darnford .He is buried with his men somewhere on the Isandlwana battle field, but there is a great memorial stone in Kirby Wiske ,in what was his fathers church yard .

Lieutenant ColonelHenry Burmester Pulleine

As played by Denholm Elliott in the underated Zulu Dawn

Some of the many cairns on the Battlefield 

The Infamous Mountain

Close up of the inscription

The Memorial in Yorkshire has a bit of a lean now

Rhodesian Light Infantry and Eland 90

I finished painting my two sticks of RLI from Eureka UK ,beautiful miniatures which were a real joy to paint .The RLI were a whites only elite force that fought throughout the Rhodesiaan Bush war or Second Chimurenga or Zimbabwe war of Liberation depending whose side you were on ,they proved an hard and succesful unit seeking out and attacking the rebels from different factions not only in Rhodesia but in the many cross border actions that happened in this long conflict (1964-1979).When I saw these in the flesh (or lead) I ordered the full range so needed some support so ordered a Eland 90 from Butlers printed models ,The Eland was the South African version of the French AML .This is my first printed model and I am impressed , a bit rough on the surface but cleaned up nicely and half the price of the resin and metal versions on the market .

The printed model out of the box

a little work needed to smooth the barrel and wheels.

The Finished Eland 

The First Stick

The second Stick

Both units consist of a stick leader with Radio and Slr 2 troopers with Slr and agunner with an Fn Mag

Night Convoy -A cruel Seas game

We played Cruel Seas again last night ,we will soon need to change the games name as it now doesnt have much of a resembalance to Warlords game.  We played night time action with the Royal Navy trying to intercept an Italian Convoy ,The italians put up an epic defence but The RN reinforcements turned up and 2 Torpedoes hit 2 transports sinking both immediatley with the remaining 2 managing to creep away whilst their escorts put up a great covering action .The random reinforcements and arrival points added a lot to the game .At somepoint soon we will playtest the aircraft rules then write up; our house rules and amendments .

Lighting up the night

The scene of our adventure

The starting force for the Brits

The Convoy advances through the dark

2 more vospers arrive but so do 4 Mas boats 

attack

full speed ahead

The fight begins in earnest 

2 torps one broke the back of the merchant and sank it immediately  the other destroyed the others engines and gave it 90 points of damage ..it only started with 85?

The Italians light up the night

an areial view of an epic encounter