Monday 26 March 2012

Challenge 2012

Last weekend I went to Ascot to play in the FoGR competition. A few of us from the Central London club took Friday off and made a long weekend of it. We rocked up around midday and decided to go grab a pint or three in the pub next door. The pub has a beer garden and the sun was shining, so, a long lunch and a few pints were had by all.

Later on got to have a practice game with Don and managed a big win, so, nice way to start the comp.

I brought my Later 30 Years war Catholic imperial Germans and was aiming for middle of the pack. The main focus of the army was the six battle groups or Kurrassiers, superior armoured horse.

Here is my army

C n C Field Commander
3 x Troop Commanders
6 x Kurassiers, Armoured, superior horse with impact and melee pistol
2 x medium artillery
3 x average unarmoured pike and shot
2 x kossaken, light horse with carbines
2 x dragoons units, each with four elements.

Total of 15 battle groups with an initiative of three.

The end result was that I placed third! I ended up with 80 points, one point behind 2nd. My first real trophy playing FoGR (then again, I never placed playing FoG:AM).

All the top seeds were at the comp and my only lose was to the top seed. It was a tight game with Alisadar forcing me to make a few minor mistakes and making the best of it.

The games

Game one, an agreed draw, 9-11 vs 17th century French.

Wouldn't you believe it, Don and I had a practice game the day before, so, guess who I drew for the first game?! Don had a different army to the practice game, so, something different. His army is a very heavily foot focused army and was a bit worried about all of my cav. The terrain fell on the side edges so he had nowhere to hide. After a couple of hours we agreeded a draw after I tried to break thru on one flank and got beaten off. We thought a draw was better than the two of us not committing as he couldn't risk coming out of his defensive position and his foot troops wouldn't go disrupted for me to risk another charge.

Game 2 , 22-3 vs 30 Years War protestant Germans

First big win of the comp. a civil war between the catholics and protestants. I sent one light horse on a flank march which thru my opponent off for a while. It thru his strong push on one flank into disarray and gave me time to break a few units of his cav with my artillery.

Game 3, 3-23 vs Later Imperial Austrian

And, my first big lose as I bobbed up to the top table and ran into Alisdar.

I don't know how he bet me, but I found myself being picked off one unit at a time. I did manage to break a few of his units and my flank march arrived on the turn I broke.

Game 4, 25-0 vs Later Sudanese.

First time I faced this type of army. It's very much a fogam army with lots of bow and spear foot. My cav was a lot stronger than his, so, I didn't need to worry about charging him. This gave me time to focus on breaking a few of his average cav units and disruppting his foot. In the impact phase, my cav were on a double plus vs the inf and it went down hill very quickly. The Sudanese were a lot bigger than my army (19 bgs) but in the end, quality trumped quantity.

Game 5, 24-1 vs Later Swedish.

So, the big game, playing for third. I ran into the ref, Kevin and his tough swedes.

Lucky for me, the terrain was almost all on the base lines which didn't leave the swedes anywhere to hid.

I kept one artillery battle group for deployment in the last phase and surprised his determined horse. I won the initiative, so, the swedes moved first. By the end of my first turn, one of his determined horse was fragmented, the dragoon attack on the other flank halted and it went down hill from there. I had on my left hand flank vs the determined horse four of my armoured horse and proceeded to break them soon afterwards. Soon afterwards, both dragoons had been broken and the Swedish foot found itself surrounded and the army broke shortly afterwards.

So, a great comp and my first podium placing. Now, can I do it again at Campaign in May....

Tuesday 20 March 2012

FoF game last night

Got to bring out FoF to the table last night and we had a hoot.

Got to have three games in one night. I brought my 20mm US Marines and British to the table.

We each took turns playing the US Marines. The scenario was the Marines were guarding an important intersection and the British were trying to capture it.

The British won the first round with help from a very fortunate Fog of War card played on the US. They thought that there was going to be a gas attack, so, kitted up in their NBC gear. This caused their quality to drop a level which gave the British an advantage.

The next two games we changed things a bit and played a night time game. A squad of SAS had to infiltrate the table and take out the squad protecting the intersection. They were armed with silenced weapons and the yanks had three more inf squads in various barracks.

In both games, the SAS failed to meet their objectives. Once squad of veteran SAS can't take on a platoon of average troops, though, they did give the Yanks a very bloody nose in the first game.

The game was a hoot, we had a lot of fun and with the new cheat sheets, it flowed nicely.

We got stuck in and even got to have a tank and a couple of HMMMV with TOWs on the table.

There were lots of Fog of War cards played which added lots of spice to the game.

Looking forward to playing more.

Campaign 2012

Looks like the Central London club will be able to field two teams for Campaign 2012 for the Renaissance competition.

I'm going to be in Period 1, so, most likely my 30 Years War Germans, but will see how they go this weekend at The Challenge.

The real attraction with Campaign is that it's a themed comp and limited army choices. In my period, there are only 8 armies and 25 years difference.

These are the armies that are going to be available.

Period 1
The Reign of Gustavus Aldophus 1617-1632
Early Gustavian Swedish
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Later Imperial Spanish
TYW Danish
Early TYW Protestant
Early TYW Catholic
Early TYW Swedish
Later TYW German Protestant
Later TYW German Catholic

Period 2
War in India 1500-1700
Mongol (till 1504)
Mughal Indian
Muslim Indian
Sinahalese (Hindu Indian)
Rajput (Hindu Indian)
Hindu Indian
Colonial Dutch & Sinhalese allies (allies compulsory)
Colonial Portuguese & Hindu Indian allies (allies compulsory)
Maratha

Period 3
The War of the League of Augsburg 1688-1697
Later Louis XIV French
Habsburg Austrian Imperial (Western)
Later Spanish
Later German States
Savoyard
Anglo-Dutch
Jacobite Irish
Scots Jacobite Rebellion
Eastern Woodland Indians
English Colonial American
Dutch Colonial American

Colonial French

The Challenge

This weekend I'm off to Ascot for the Challenge. I'm taking my 30 years War Later Germans, Catholic. I've got Friday off as well, so, going to make a three day event. There may be a few pints involved.

I'm hoping that I can improve my score, so, let's see if I can get two wins.

Big game of Russians vs British

A few weeks ago Michael and I got to have a big game of Cold War Commander.

10,000 points of Russians vs 5,000 points of British, with no troops after 1990.

We played the game over two tables with the Russians trying to break thru the British defenses.

The Brits put up a good defense but there were just too many Russians.

It was a great game, lots of airstrikes, air assaults, artillery and tanks.

Even with that many points on the table, the game still flowed nicely.

Looking forward to the next game.

Need to buy a few new figures though, need more tanks!