Spectre Operations

Been quite a while since ive played Spectre Operations so thought I would dig the stuff out and give it a go . Played 2 solo games using the same board but different forces ,basically avery simple set up of an hostage rescue situation , an hostage in each building needed saving . The first game pitted 6 SAS against 12 Militia ,I split the SAS into Two , Three man teams and thats were it probably started going wrong ,one team succeeded in wiping out one group of militia but the other group were a disaster ,the die rolls for the Militia were amazing ,two SAS went down with seriuos wounds and the third killed instantly , and of course the dead trooper had the first aid kit so the other two bled out.

The second game had 6 Elite Deniable Ops taken on 8 `professional tier Insurgents ,This time the good guys stuck together and again rescued one hostage but the `insurgents excectued the other before they were wiped out . Simple scenarios just to get back into the rules ,really enjoyed it and picked it up really quickly , a word of advice for any one new to the game ,down load the indepth `index from the web page it is much easier to find stuff with this than the onw in the book .

All Figures Spectre , resin pick ups Antenocities

The Zulu war Library grows again .

Picked up another 4 boooks about he Anglo Zulu War ,two by James Bancroft ,both soft back with just over 50 pages each ,they are well written with lots of photographs and illustrations . Another book on Rorkes Drift this one by Edmund Yorke and the last is a book I have been after for a while ,The Road to Isanhlwana ,Colonel Anthoney Durnford in Natal and Zululand by R.W.F Droogleever ,Durnford is one of my favourite Heroes of the AZW ,his story if full of heroism and intrigue ,was he an hero or was the disaster all his fault ,played bt Burt Lancaster in Zulu dawn Durnford was quite a colourful character what ever you beilieve about him.These bring my collection to over 120 titles

Havoc--02:00 hours

Played another scenario ,Havoc . John chose the SAS and I was the Germans , a cracking Game where John won his primary mission ,destroying all of his Targets but I prevented him getting his secondary objective by manageing to take out most of his force once the alarm was raised , got really into this so didnt get many pictures .I cannot reccomend this game enough .

Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage centre

My pal John got me abelated birthday present of the Mosquito experience at Licolnshire Aviation centre , expecting to be bitten by small insects I had an amazing day getting up close and personal with the wooden wonder ,seeing it Taxi and the bonus of seeing the Lancaster Just Jane taxining as well . Lots of other great stuff on display but the obvious highlight was seeing and hearing those 2 legends

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Death of the Prince Imperial

One of the strangest stories from the 1879 Anglo Zulu War is the death of the Prince Inperial Louis Napoleon . After his father Napoleon 111 was dethroned in1870 he moved with his family to England When his father died in 1873 Louis was he was declared Napoleon IV . Wanting to be recognised for his military skills he with the help of his mother Empress Eugenie and his God Mother Queen Victoria he managed to get sent to join the British Forces in the Zulu Land for the second Invaasion , being headstrong and reckless he was almost killed on one patrol when on 1st June 1879 on apatrol led by Captain Jaheel Carey they were ambushed and in the attempt to escape Napoleon was killed in hand to hand combat with a group of Zulus . Many books give the full account my favourite is " with his face to the Foe " by Ian Knight but many others cover the episode . I was lucky enough to visit the monument to Louis and the graves of those who died with him { Louis was brought back for buriel in England }.

I have built the benito 54mm Diorama representing Napoleons last moments below are some in progress pictures and the finished diorama

This fascinating piece of history has been the subject of many books ,two in my collection are the Ian Knight book I mentioned earlier and Captain Careys blunder by Donald Featherstone a nice read but very dated with lots of mistakes .

Burrows and Badgers street gang ,townsfolk and city watch

The latest kick starter figures have arrived from Oathsworn today ,as always well packed and beutiful miniatures . The 26 figures depict various beasts as towns folk who have special rules in an upcoming supplement ( test rules are in Oathsworn 5 for all 3 new factions), along with the city watch to protect them and the gang which remind me of Peaky Blinders lots of rough looking villains in flat caps and waistcoats Two new animals are included a pigeon Union Boss and a Chihuahua Watch Sergeant

02:00 hours first 2 games

Played the first two scenarios from the rule book , the First HUNTED had the SAS trying to get past the German patrols ,the SAS won by taking out most of the Germans after lucky dice rolls had the Germans corner the Brits things looked dodgy for the SAS but some great shooting cleared a path through the Germans and The Brits escaped the table. The Second scenario BUTCHER AND BOLT saw the Royal Marine Commandoes getting into a gunfight with a large German force ,a bloody game but the Commandoes just won the day . Really enjoyable game with enough differences from other ww2 games .

Ready for Action ,my 02:00 hours figures

Finished enough miniatures todo a few scenarios for 02:00 , mainly the plastics ,which come with the starter and first 2 expansions ,plus the metal figures from the expansion and the preorder figure ,Ifancied some typical Commando comic types for the RM commandoes so ordered a few from `Dixon miniatures. The plastics are nice made by Wargames Atlantic they suffer from the usual multi part issues that some of the arms do not fit the shoulder position properly but overall they are really nice Ihave seen afew complaints about them holding weapons in the wrong way but the game is I think cinematic and after all they are toy soldiers . Not sure who makes the metal miniatures that came with the game but they are very nice and for the Commandoes I chose Dixon miniatures as the ones that come with the box set are basically the SAS figures again , the Dixon fit in nicelly and are lovely except on acouple of figures the weapons look abit short . All based on the plastic bases that come in the box sets ,these are again great and come with a cemtral hole to fit a magnet in so they all fit nice and safe in one of the steel lined foile boxes Tim Gow gave me .

The above show off the Germans ,vehicles by Anyscale and terrain by Sarrisa

The SAS with a couple of thetroopers helping the SOE agents reunite the pilot and his aircraft

And the Roayl Marine Commandoes ,mainly Dixon but acouple of the metals from the expansion box as well