VALE- A good friend and dedicated wargamer

Sadly, we have lost one of The Band of Brothers. 

Our Brother and good friend, Nick Malanos, passed away last week after a very long battle with cancer. 

The man with a sharp mind,  a cheeky grin and the uncanny ability to roll more sixes than anyone I know,  almost always just when he needed them.

Now at the great wargames table in the sky; 

may you always roll sixes and may your troops always be victorious. 

Rest in Peace.

Vale.

Αιωνία η μνήμη 

Boxer Rebellion: The Allies take the field- The Relief expedition Part 1.

    The dusty plains of northern China...summer of 1900.......

The allied contingents under the command of Admiral Seymour have launched the expedition to relieve the besieged allied legations at Peking. Forced to disembark off the train, the various contingents deployed, and prepared to attack the common enemy- the Boxer, who were backed up by Imperial troops!

    A multiplayer game using the Men Who Would Be Kings rules- and all players- six in fact all on the same side.

    Ralph played the Austrians and Italians, Ross the British and Americans, Geoff the Germans, Paul the French, Richard the Russians and Phil the Japanese. Each contingent was given specific objective on the table - but then given a briefing card that they could not show the other players.  (see the end of the Blog)

Table with the Allied contingents ready to go.

AWI - Monmouth- Washington saves the day.

An AWI game refighting the second phase of the battle of Monmouth. This was the first game we had a couple of months ago after the lockdown was lifted.
We did the second half of the Battle of Monmouth June 28 1778.
In this stage, the Continental Army under Washington was rallied after fleeing when being led by General Charles Lee.
We used the British Grenadier scenario booklet for the positioning of forces.
The rules were the quick play set from 'Der Alte Fritz' Blog.

I made some notes as I went along...then lost them. All I remember is that the game pretty much followed the historical outcome - The Redcoats would call off the fight as both sides were taking losses.

Cornwallis' Brigade ( on the bottom right) facing Wayne's Brigade.

Cornwallis' Brigade- 

Boxer Rebellion

Putting some of my Boxers and their enemies thru their paces last week, Phil was the US Marines, Russians, British Sailors , Japanese and Austrians and I played the Boxers.
Rules were The Men Who Would Be Kings.

A simple scenario- the Allied column(s) were ordered to clear a Boxer held village.

British sailors and a supporting Nordenfelt machine gun.

Great Northern War- How many periods can a figure junkie be collecting??

It had to happen: I've got books, I read other people's blogs and have cut out all the relevant articles in wargames magazines.....Barry Hilton and the League of Augsburg blog- I blame you......And now that I'm sitting on my butt in isolation.......

It's fascinated me for years, so I've started putting together a Great Northern War collection.
I don't intend to let this get too big- perhaps a 8-10 or so battalions a side with 12-15 squadrons plus some guns- I've got Danes from my WSS and Prussians ( for the later stages) as well as Ottomans to fight the Russians and my red coated British troops could double up, with a suitable flag change,  as Saxons.....

I think I'm nuts.
The Brothers think I'm nuts.
My wife knows I'm nuts.
More figures.
More space taken up on the my shelves.
Less cash in my wallet.
Oh well alea iacta est!

The Swedes.- I know the infantry need flags and I will need a lot more if i'm going to take on all those others!

Army in Review : Vignettes, Officers and stuff

After my Army on Review of Louis XIV, I realised that I had a lot of small vignettes that I had never photoed - so here they are.
The officer vignettes are mostly Front Rank with some Foundry and Dixon.
All the vignettes are from Eureka Miniatures!

Army in Review- Louis XIV

I took to cleaning out my cupboard and putting the whole Louis XIV force on display. I didn't realise how big! Most of the units come from the War of the Spanish Succession, but quite a few are from the 1670s, 80s and 90s. So there is a mix of uniforms and many have pikes too.

Force on Force: War on Drugs- Special forces strike on Cartel base

Evan, Nick, Connor and James wanted a game of Force and Force as they sat in the garage, waxing lyrical about the games from long ago.  So Spyros said- I've got the armed civilians and the special forces team, a couple of planes and other bits- do you have any terrain?
I rummaged around and found some bits and pieces and behold we were ready to go.

Sicario on the edge of the airfield

One side of the table- one plantation.

 SITUATION: The US President, after solving the Middle East, the problems in Africa, the coronavirus problem and the Pepsi vs Coke war decided to deal with the major social issue confronting the nation- The War on Drugs.

Boxer Rebellion - 1900! New project ...yes another one.

Well we've all seen '55 Days in Peking' with Charlton Heston and David Niven. There have been some great games replicating the siege of the Allied Legations and I still have the Wargames Illustrated and Miniatures Wargames editions that both had the participation game by the Staines Wargamers. I think those articles are amongst my all time favourites. Well I sold my Indian Mutiny to Chris about a year ago and put it into some Boxers...and some imperial Chinese troops....soon there were Russian infantry, Italian, Austrian and French sailors, US Marines...etc etc....

British Sailors

Battle of Atlanta July 22nd 1864- ACW

Some of the brothers assembled for an ACW stoush- the battle of Atlanta July 1864- using the scenario in the old Fire and Fury Western scenario booklet.  We even had Noel join us all the way from South Africa.
In this battle John Bell Hood's Army of Tennessee was trying to break the tightening ring of the Union army approaching Atlanta. He sent Hardee's corp to outflank the Union Army of  The Tennessee of General James B McPherson. Cheatham's corp was to hit the Union line at the same time. Well, that was the plan, but Hardee was held up by the terrain- and some very tough fighting Union soldiers ( under Ross' command) .
Nick played Hardee with Noel, Chris and Paul as his subordinates. Cheatham's command was also ( when it finally arrived) played by Paul and Chris.  Ross was McPherson, Richard and Phil commanded Dodge's and Logan's Corps.

The game went very much as per the historical battle. Hardee's corp hit the Union flank hard, but didn't completely get around behind - so two of the encircling Confederate divisions hit the Union entrenchments and had great difficulty in dislodging the Union defenders. Two others got behind but were held up by several union brigades redeployed from the main line. In the end the Reb losses were very heavy and Hood called it a day!

View from the Confederate flank attack- Hardee's corp move didn't quite get around the entrenchments.