Monday, April 18, 2016

Star Wars Bolt Action game

Well, time for another update on whats been going on recently!

We have a fair number of Bolt Action players at the club here in Birmingham, and as you can probably imagine, a fair number of those a Star Wars fans too. I've always been on the lookout for a fast play, large scale set of rules for gaming in the Star Wars universe. I have the Star Wars Miniature Battles, which I absolutely love, but these don't handle large scale games that well.

So, with the above in mind, I thought we'd give Bolt Action a go. I didn't make too many modifications to the rules, and it wasn't too difficult to sort the stats out for the different units. Although it turned out I'd undercosted the Wookies a little too much as they were brutal to the extreme!

Anyway, I set the battle on Kashyyyk. The rebels and wookies have taken back a key city, and the Imperials have landed two platoons just outside the city as an advanced force in an attempt to wrest it back.

Each side had 2000 points, in 2 platoons. The rebels, in retaking the city, captured some Imperial armour which they then used in turn against the attacking Stormtroopers.

The game resulted in a fairly resounding victory for the rebels (primarily because of who brutally undercosted the wookies turned out to be. All in all it was an ace game though, and the rules worked really well. 












































Friday, April 15, 2016

English Civil War Battle (Cheriton Variant)

Wow! I can't believe it's been nearly a year since I posted here. Many figures have passed beneath my brush, and many battles have been hard fought.

One such battle saw the first proper outing of my paper English Civil War armies. I've had designs on gaming the ECW for a very long time, but time has never really allowed. Then I came across the paper armies from Billy Bones Workshop and was hooked!

So I got some printed out, based up, and we were ready to go.

I decided on a game based on Cheriton, with more balanced armies, and using Pike and Shotte. Like others, I really wasn't keen on the separate units making up a regiment, so decided to use regiments as per Black Powder, with combined stats for Pike and Musket.

The Game

There were two main objectives: the hill on the right of the field, and the common on the left.

The Parliament army deployed with the cavalry in the center, and the two infantry brigades on the flanks. The dragoons deployed on the far right.

The Royalists deployed with an infantry brigade on their right, one in the center, and cavalry on their left flank.




Initial moves saw the Parliament forces advance to secure the hill, whilst the Royalist cavalry blundered into an advance towards them ( which is what they wanted to do anyway), while their left flank just failed to get moving, allowing the Royalist infantry to advance onto the common.
  



Royalist cavalry charged headlong into the infantry on the hill, which managed to form hedgehog and fought off the cavalry. The Royalists did manage to take out the artillery supporting the infantry, and inflicted some serious casualties on them.






A firefight broke out on the common between the opposing infantry


 Cavalry in the center showed no interest in getting involved in the action, refusing to move for most of the game.


The game ended with Parliament forces holding the hill, and the Royalists holding the common, resulting in a draw.

All in all it was a great game. The paper armies looked really good (although I do need to finish trimming them)

Next up, I'm hoping to get the forces together for Edgehill.