Tarawera Weekend - Day 2 Thursday 4 September

After a hearty breakfast we made our way to the garage for the next game, this time set during the Crusades.

The game was split into two parts; one in the morning, the other in the afternoon, around a central theme - a Crusader siege of a Saracen castle. 

The morning game was based around an attempt by the Saracens to relive the siege and was set in fairly open desert terrain some distance from the castle. The Saracens had three wings, one (forming their left wing) comprising of primarily light troops, a second (in the centre) made up of medium cavalry and infantry and the third (on the right) a mixed force. Opposing them was a powerful Crusader force of four units of knights, two of sergeants, some heavy infantry, crossbowmen and archers. The Crusaders were also divided into three battles.

The battle commenced with two flank wings of the Saracens attempting to envelop the Crusaders. The Crusaders needed to do little more than hold the line, let the Saracens take all the risks. The Saracens obliged and on the left moved to make the first contact. Their light cavalry skirmished with the Knights of St John, drawing them forward until they charged. The horse archers, evaded and shot down several of the knights. Over the next couple of turns the Knights were drawn into a trap where they were slowly destroyed, as were other units of the Crusader right. But the action here was draining for both sides and the two wings eventually came to a standstill. 

The battle line from the Crusader side.

On the Crusader left the Saracen advance was soon halted and the Crusaders pushed hard against them. The Saracens struck back with a concerted attack, but were halted and driven back.

The charge of the knights in the Crusader's centre

In the centre the Crusaders slowly pressed forward until finally they were able to charge. The Saracens, badly mauled finally collapsed and were driven off, ending this attempt to raise the siege.

The second, the afternoon, game was the assault of Crusaders against the castle. The players were reversed so that I, who played Crusaders in the morning, now played Saracens. 

The Saracens wait inside the castle walls.

The Crusaders were equipped with a ram, a siege tower and a number of catapults. Against one wall they hurled rocks from the catapults, while at the same time a path was made for the ram and the tower. The tower reached the wall first, the ramp was lowered and the first assaulting party stormed onto the walls.

The first Crusaders make it onto the walls

At almost the same time the catapults made a breach, while on the other wall the Crusaders mounted the wall on their scaling ladders.

The wall is breached

Finally the wall was shattered by the ram. The Saracens fought valiantly but could were overwhelmed and the casle fell.

The ram finally breaks through

Meanwhile at the other end of the table another Saracen force arrived and attempted too raise the siege, but was easily driven off. 

The relief force fails to break through.

The game over we returned to the house for drinks and snacks while the next game was set up. After a breifing for the next game, dinner and DVDs followed.

Tarawera Weekend - Day 1 Wednesday, 3 September

We arrived at Lake Tarawera on the Tuesday afternoon. The first task was to clear space in the garage and set up the table. Then, as the first game organiser was setting up his terrain, the open fire was lit, dinner was put in the oven and the first bottle of wine was opened. Before dinner a briefing was given to each player for the first game, then we settled into an evening of good food, good wine and DVDs. Play was scheduled to commence at 0900.

 

The first game was a Napoleonic battle with a Russo-Prussian force attacking a Franco-Bavarian force. The game was played across the table, which measured 4.8 metres by 2 metres. Looking from the Russo-Prussian side, the left hand portion of the table, extending roughly one metre in from the left hand edge, was separated from the rest of the table by a river crossed by two bridges. Moving right, on the opposite side of the table, about half way between the river and the right hand edge of the table stood a large town, which was the significant objective in the game. To the right of the town and extending to the right hand table edge was a line of woods.

 

The Prussians (two brigades and a battery) deployed to the left the river while the Russians (two brigades, two batteries and a cavalry brigade) deployed on the right. The French (two brigades, one cavalry brigade and a battery) and Bavarians (two brigades, one cavalry brigade and two batteries) were to the left and right of the town, respectively. I commanded the Prussians.

The Prussians preparing to cross the river

The action developed quickly. The Prussians were quick to establish a bridgehead, but it would take them quite some time to get all their forces across the river and deployed.

 

In the meantime the Russians formed for the attack and rapidly approached the town that the Bavarians were beginning to occupy.

The Bavarians occupy the town

Desperate to hold the Russians back until their main forces could form up. A regiment of French lancers lunged at their Russian counterparts. The Russian troopers reacted and counter charged, but lost the melee and tumbled back past others in the brigade, shaking them on the process. When the lancers struck a second Russian cavalry unit on the breakthrough, two thirds of the Russian cavalry was in rout. The Russians then charged the pursuing French lancers and put them to flight, but a single French cavalry unit had forced the Russians to commit all of their cavalry and given them time to form their infantry lines.

The left of the Russian advance

 

The position on the Russian left after the rout of the Russian cavalry

In the meantime the Prussians had crossed the bridges and formed for battle. They were formed in two parts, with one brigade in front of each of the bridges. The brigade in front of the upper bridge deployed unopposed on its objective, the road that ran off the table at that point. The other brigade found itself in an awkward position deploying in two small woods and in the small gap between them. At that very moment five battalions of Polish infantry arrived and charged the Prussians. The Poles drove through a Prussian battery and put two battalions to flight. A breakthrough drove off another Prussian battalion, before the Prussians were able to consolidate and drive the Poles off, although one Polish battalion managed to sustain itself in one of the woods for quite some time.

The Poles commence their advance on the Prussians

 

On the Russian front the left of the line continued to engage the French, but were getting the worst of it, while the Russians on the right were slowly driving the Bavarians from the woods to the right of the town.

 

As night fell the Russians held onto the woods on the right, but could not push any further, while the Franco-Bavarians held the town. What decided the action was that Prussians were consolidated on their objective – the road that dominated the Franco-Austrian line of communications.

The Prussians secure the position on the Franco-Bavarian line of communications

 

With the battle ended we retired to the house to light the fire, prepare the food and pour the wine, while the next game was set up. Again before dinner, and before the effects of wine had a detrimental effect, the briefing for the Thursday game was given.

Thirtieth Year of a Private Wargames Event - The Tarawera Weekend

Thirty years ago, on a cold wet night in July 1985, six wargaming friends drove to Lake Tarawera three hours south of Auckland for a weekend of gaming. The goal was to reinvigourate our group after we had become somewhat fractured. 

We arrived on the Friday night, played an English Civil War game on the Saturday and half of Sunday, then drove home again. It was a fantastic weekend of gaming and friendship. It achieved its goal of reinvigourating us all and started a tradition that saw the Tarawera weekend run every year since. The event has extended to beyond a weekend and now we go down on the Tuesday and back on the Sunday. The attendees have changed a little over the  years; two have passed away some have moved and others have joined. Of the original six four remain.

While the weekend is now almost a week, the format remains the same. Each full day is a full day of gaming, usually organised and umpired by one of the group. Over the years scenarios have ranged from the Crusades, to English Civil War, Border Reiver's Cattle Wars, American Revolution, the campaign of the Revolutionary French in the Vendée, Napoleonics, American Civil War, Austro-Prussian War, Franco-Prussian War, Russo-Japanese War, WWI, WWII and the Falklands War. The Sunday half day game has a tradition of its own, it is always a naval game - Napoleonic, American Civil War ironclads or ancient galleys.

This year's event, the thirtieth successive year will be this week. We head off tomorrow, Tuesday 2 September. I will post some reports of the event after we return.

Crimean War Project

With the WWI project all but finished, although I suspect that the WWI armies will be added to over the coming years - especially after seeing the lastest British and German offerings from Mutton Chop Miniatures - I have begun work in ernest on the next project, the Crimean War.

This project is long over due and has a bit of history behind it. In 1966 my partents took me along to Carlaw Park in Auckland to see the band of the Scots Guards. The programme for the event contained this picture of the Scots Fusilier Guards at Inkerman.

 When my English aunt sent me some Britain's 54mm Guards figures for Christmas, I was hooked on model soldiers and the desire to recreate that dramatic painting on the wargames table has been in the back of my mind throughout my life. So finally I am going to do it. 

In an earlier post I included an image of the Coldstream Guards. Well now I have finished the Guards Brigade, all three battalions. Below is the brigade in line of battle, with the 1/Scots Fusiliers on the right, the 3/Grenadier Guards in the centre and the 1/ Coldstream Guards on the left.

Below is the Brigade in column of battalions

Things will slow down a little now as I make the final preparations for our annual wargames weekend away in early September (where the WWI figures will have their major outing). I still have a reasonable amout of scenery to finish off for that weekend, but after that I will place then next order for Crimean figures - the Highland Brigade from the Alma and the guns for the division.

The Town Finished

Before Christmas 2013 I commenced a rather ambitious project - the creation of a complete town in 28mm, both intact and in ruins. On the weekend just gone I finished the last of those buildings, being sixteen intact and sixteen ruined equivalents.

Because the buildings are built to be reversible, with a different face front and back, there are many possible configurations. The town, in the configuration it will be used in its first game in early September, is built around a central square and is shown in its intact version below.

And then the ruined versions.

The Year to Date - A Review

I sat down the other day and put together a tally of what I had painted and created in the first seven months of the year. 

I was astounded by the results:  218 foot figures, 32 cavalry figures, 11 guns and HMG models, 32 buildings, 14 scratch built vehicles, 28 1:600 scale ships and nearly thirty assorted pieces of terrain! It didn't seem that much at the time.

In detail these are:

Buildings and other terrain items

16 x 28mm intact town buildings primarily for use in WWI games

16 x 28mm ruined town buildings, mirroring those above.

25 x bases of destroyed woods for WWI games

1 x woods base 

1 x street barricade

Scratch Built Vehicles

4 x French WWI artillery caissons

4 x German WWI artillery limbers

1 x German HMG carriage, plus limber and horses

1 x French HMG carraige, plus four horses

1 x British HMG cart and horses

1 x Paris Taxi

2 x Belgian refugee wagons and horses

Figures Painted (all 28mm)

78 x German WWI infantry figures

12 x German WWI Jäger infantry figures

8 x German WWI Uhlan cavalry figures

12 x German WWI dismounted Uhlan figures

1 x German WWI Jäger HMG team

8 x German WWI Jäger cyclist figures

1 x German WWI 77mm gun and crew

8 x French WWI Dragoon cavalry figures

2 x French WWI 75mm guns and 10 crew

6 x French WWI High Command figures

6 x French WWI infantry command  figures

2 x French WWI artillery observers

56 x British WWI infantry figures

1 x British WWI HMG team

1 x British WWI Cavalry HMG team

2 x British WWI 13pdr guns, 10 crew and caissons

2 x British WWI artillery observers

42 x Belgian WWI infantry figures

1 x Belgian WWI HMG team

8 x Belgian WWI Guides cavalry figures

10 x Belgian WWI dismounted Guides figures

10 x Belgian WWI civilian refugees

3 x Belgian WWI dog carts

18 x British Crimean Coldstream Guards

1:600 scale Ships

7 x Austrian ironclads for 1866

6 x Austrian wooden ships of the line for 1866

1 x Austrian gunboat for 1866

14 x Italian ironclads for 1866

2 x Italian wooden ships of the line for 1866

Then there is the still in progress work (either in construction or on order awaiting delivery)...

Ten bases of woods, around 4 metres of hedges, a large farm house, 36 x British Crimean guardsmen, 2 x Crimean mounted officers.

I Have Been Thinking About Woods

 That's wargames woods of course.

Terrain has always been important to me in a wargame. It probably has something to do with my interest in model railways in my youth. But I have always struggled with how to portray woods on the games table and have long wanted to come up with some sort of practical solution in a wargame.

For years we have used blocks of woods, defensive zones we called them, where each block is about 200mm x 150mm. Each defensive zone could be occupied by a pre-defined sized unit, usually a battalion. The unit was free to move about within the zone, firing in any strength from any direction it chose.  This method worked really well for horse and musket type games, but when we began to play games from the Russo-Japanese and Great War periods where artillery is fired using templates, these blocks of woods became difficult to use, because determining the actual positions of individual stands became difficult. 

One option was to use a piece of felt of a different colour to the main table baise cloth and distribute the trees loosely on that. This clearly defines the area of the wood, but the trees always fall over and the edge of the woods just doesn't look right to me. I needed to find some middle ground between the inflexible defensive zone concept and the flexible but messy felt edge concept. Here is what I came up with.

Trees are on bases with a depth of between 50 and 70 mm. Trees are spaced so that a single stand of 50mm width can fit between them, with each base measuring between 120mm and 200mm wide with between two and three trees each.  These bases are used to form the outer edge of the wood. In the inner area is scattered some forest floor ground cover. I got this idea from photos of Bruce Weigle's beautiful 1:300 scale terrain, but again there was a flaw. The open space in the middle, although it allows models to be moved freely within the woods, it is just not aesthetically pleasing.

So my answer was to create small clumps of trees that could be placed in the middle of the outline to bulk out the wood. These clumps could be moved around to permit troops to move within the wood without disturbing the outline of the wood. So with this in mind I set out to make some woods and I decided to make some burnt out woods for WWI.

I decided to use some Woodland Scenics fir trees. 

I had around 40 of these but they were generally too tall for the shattered trees of an artillery ravaged woods of WWI France. So kept about one third of them at full height and cut some if them into two, three in some cases which had the dual purposes of creating more trees and getting them to a realistic height. I then cut the card bases and mounted the trees and coated the base with a course sand and left it to dry.

I then glued on some stones and when these were dry I painted the bases black. 

Then I drybrushed the whole base in a terra cotta tone and then two or three lighter tones. The next step was to paint the stones several tones of grey and then add some long tufts of grass from sisal twine.

I have completed one section with foliage, for other than the  WWI artillery devastated woods, and twelve sections of the devastated pieces. Another twenty pieces to go...then there are the hedges, but that is another time.