Thursday 25 March 2010

CWC News Saturday 27.3.10

The club will most definately be on this week so look out your troops.

I think JP, John M and David P will be doing ACW in 15mm, David P Jnr and Martin M will be doing Lord of the Rings and I will be taking part also.. If someone fancies a game of someting else please let me know).

If anyone has any ideas or is planning coming down let use know.
A big thanks to Des for being the 1st Carluke Wargames Club member to be a follower on our own blog! A bottle of Buckfast Tonic Wine No.1 and 2 tickets to see the Gypsy Kings in concert will be winging their way to you as you read this!! Enjoy!!! These can be trade in for a cup of tea and a couple of jaffa cakes at the club this Saturday.

Note: Buckfast and tickets are none refundable, read small print for terms and conditions.

Sunday 21 March 2010

Napoleonic Bloodbath

Last week work wise was a killer for myself with a whole load of nights straight and I didn't get the chance to arrange a game for Saturday. As luck would have it my nephew David was at a loose end without anyone to play either so we agreed on a wee game of Naps.

We decided not to use any cavalry just to keep it simple and have our forces pretty much even with both of us going for it. As luck would have it just as we were setting up John M and his lad Martin popped in and joined us for the fight. The boys being young and full of fighting spirit decided they would attack leaving us old guys to sit on our portly behinds and wait for the assault. Some of the French force decided not to make the trip from Coulter to Law so a couple of battalions of Prussians joined them on the field of battle.


I took control of my Prussian brigade

Veterans of many a battle . . .

. . . you would think I would know what I was doing with them by now!

As you will see from this picture I clearly don't! Marching them in column, opening their flank to the advancing French onslaught.

I very generously past my newly finished Old Glory Russians on to John M for their 1st battle on club soil. I was like an expectant father, how would they deal with the pressure 1st time out? Only time would tell!!

However I had confidence in John as he is very good at pushing wee men around a table.

And he did have these babies pointed at the enemy. Pretty soon the Frenchies would be picking lead out of their teeth!

For a man who claims to have no interest in Napoleonics what so ever John seemed to be having a whole lot of fun with his wee Russian men! Just give it time and I am sure we will see an army of some German state allied to Napoleon painted by john in this very blog soon enough, watch this space!

John employed some mind games over young Martin sending out a soul Russian battalion up the right to engage the flank of the oncoming French.

Here John! the guys with the yellow pom poms are meant to go at the other side of the battalion. What were you thinking man? You could have gotten your troops all messed up in the head!

Anyway my Johnny Reb flashbacks meant that David caught my battalion in the flank but thankfully he rolled low and I rolled high and they retreated. After being followed up by his troops I managed to get my guns limbered and out of harms way.

Out of shot on the left I managed to duff up his advancing columns and turn in time to start shooting lumps out of the now unformed French battalion.


And as young David charged in with his 2 battalions in the centre his jammy uncle (me) rolled a double 6!!! faltering one of the units and after a melee with the other was able to reinforce with the battalion in column at right!

IN YOUR FACE FRENCHY, IN YOUR FACE!

I would like to point out that I am in no way Anti-French! Some of my best friends are French, well when I say some I mean 1. Actually come to think of it I don't know any French people but my wife has a friend who lives in France, or is it Belgium? No matter I'm sure on the whole the French people are lovely and they do make some mighty fine cheese and wine!

Right enough of my ramblings back to thrashing the garlic eaters . . .


In the Allied centre young Martin for some reason marched his battalions straight at his dads 6 gun battery and with a couple of low rolls to start with John started rolling 11's. As you would guess the French attack came to a complete halt!

So basically that was that, young Martins brigade was massacred and my high dice all game (along with my magnificent tactical mind ;-) put pay to young David's brigade.

A victory for the Allies and more importantly a glorious start to my new Russians battlefield career. We had a great laugh and the boys were good sports with not a tear shed. When John and I were getting all worked up about our double 6's and victory the boys were cheerfully discussing next weeks Lord of the Rings game they will be having and consul games. The boys have got their priorities right!

A big thanks to Robert T who dropped by on Saturday and ended up helping us out with the rules!


Figures:
French : David P
Prussians : Paul P (that's me that is)
Russians : Paul P (and that's me as well)

Little Red Men

Again I didn't get a chance to pay much attention to this game so here are some pretty pictures of the combatants.

Namibian? and Roman cavalry

A Roman stone thrower type thing. I can't be assed to look up the spelling so I will type it how it sounds TREE-BUSH-EEEE!l How was that :-)

Some Romans and Sacinid cavalry mixing it up.

Some big efalumps rumbling around.

David's extra Romans that I convinced him to buy at Kirriemuir, Bargain!

The Darkside of the Room

We had 3 nice looking battles on the go this Saturday with a rematch between young Stephen's High Elves.

And Stuart's very evil looking Demons.

Here Stuart when are you going to finish these guys?

Wasn't able to see what was going on so I will let the pictures tell the story.

Baddies on the move.

Goodies taking aim.

Big bad beast attacks wee good guys.

Bad side looking very much in control.

Big bad guy and some pals attacking Stephens converted good guys.



In the end the Evil side destroyed the forces of good

Saturday 20 March 2010

ACW at LARGE!

25mm to be Exact!
or ar they 28mm? I don't know, anyway they look Greeeeeeeat!

As I mentioned last week a few of us at the club had taken an interest in the 25/28mm Perry ACW figures and I personally new it wouldn't be long before 1 of us went and bought a sh** load of them (my money was on my brother David P!!!)

Sure enough after catching the bug with his 1st box David went out and bought the brigade pack (plus some very nice extras)

I benefited from this deal with a box and a command set for myself, Bonzer!!!

Shown left the 1st figures David painted

Sunday 14 March 2010

Big Old Naps

Des was kind enough to bring along his old 28mm Naps for Chris and I to have a go with the Rank and File rules last Saturday.

I must admit it was a nice change from the more intense Naps rules and we had great fun. I was the French with slightly more troops and Chris was the Brits, Chris guided us through the rounds no problem.

(Here Des what about this as a handle for yourself for the wargaming forums! - DEsMONd Cool or what?)



The rules were really smooth and very relaxing to play.

General de Brigade is the rules I usually play and although I enjoy them very much we can be pushed for time at the club to get a game finished before packing up time.

It was a close run thing

However in the end the French finally broke through.

A nice wee test for our 1st game with no artillery or cavalry keeping things simple.

Figures
Des M

ACW on the March

Well things were looking a wee bit better this Saturday with numbers picking up a little with a couple of games on the go. It was good to see the usual crowd in attendance with Des making a 260 mile round trip to support the club. (He says he was here for the wargaming but I have it on good authority he was actually down doing a bit of cattle rustling!)

So just a few pics this week to give you the feel of the games


There was a very nice looking ACW game on the go in 15mm and the Union looked to be up against it.

The Rebs dishing it out with their guns.

And advancing right across the table!

The skirmish line on the move.

A close up of some Zouaves on the Union side.

Some more figures from David P's ACW collection. These are the ones not in use so if you fancy a game there is plenty to go around! This time out a victory for the Rebs!

A little sample of what looks to be another new adventure for the club: Along at the Motherwell club on Tuesday night some of the guys had a go with 28mm Perry ACW and the opinions were very favourable so it looks like we will all be putting together a box to get in on the action. Here are some of the 1st completed by David P.

Figures:
Rebs : David P
Union : David P & David C
Terrain : CWClub

Wednesday 10 March 2010

CWC News 10.3.10

Most of us will be aware of the resent down turn in numbers at the club by now. Stuart has sent out an email with some ideas to help keep our club running:

Dear All
On Saturday 13th of March the club is on BUT I require notification of who will be attending so that if the need arises I can cancel. I know that John Preston and John Marshall wish to attend so please let me know.Now an update re the current situation at Carluke Wargames Club. Only 2 people, apart from myself, turned up on Saturday 6th March (David Wood and John Marshall.) At 1230 I decided to cancel the day and paid the £11.05 for the 5hrs we had booked. This amount came out of my own pocket and will be re imbursed from the clubs funds which are rapidly going. We currently need 6 members a week for the club to break even but at the times we dont. I can see the future of the club, and it has over 20yrs history behind it, slowly dwindling.
I am fully aware that the vast majority of members, myself included, cannot attend every Saturday due to work and family commitments but we must look to the future of our past time within out community. Either that or travel a larger distance to a club that does not play your system, or does not meet when you are free. So if you cant attend the club on a particular Saturday please give me notice incase I have to cancel.
Maybe the club needs some attraction for members to attend and to attract new ones. Something to capture their imagination with a minimum expenditure.
In the past year, a couple of new gaming rulesets have been introduced to the club Johnny Reb - American Civil War combat and Gereral De Brigade - Napoleonic warfare. These have both been well met by adult members but sadly have not captured the attention of our younger members so we have to look to them for the furure of the club.
I wish to introduce, in the near future, a couple of new gaming systems into the club "Uncharted Seas", "Imperial Commander" and "Hordes Of The Things". All these systems are quite cheap to buy all about £25 to £30 or so for a complete force (I have the rules for each and can copy them). Paul Provan and I are both currently looking for a rule set for Zombie Combat - Resident Evil style - in the modern period (Paul has kindly purchased and painted the figs.)
Imperial Commander is built around a range of 15mm Sci Fi figures and are designed to give a fast, skillful game when using around 50 figures a side.
Uncharted Seas is Fantasy naval combat produced by Spartan Games
Hordes of The Things 15mm fantasy combat similar to DBA
The only options I can see for the clubs future are:
1) A membership fee
2) A higher weekly sub.
3) Meeting twice a month
4) Meeting once a month
If anyone has any suggestions for the club, please let me know and I will forward on to all and will assist if I can. I dont run the club, I am just keeping a great hobby that we all enjoy running within an easy distance for us all.
Remember. We have all put so much time and effort into our hobby that it would be a shame for it to go to waste.
Please also see the attached "flyer." If you know of anyone who may be interested, please print it out and pass it on.
If I have inadvertantly missed anyone from this email, can you please forward it to them and pass their email address to me so that I can include them in any future mailings.

Stuart Livingstone
http://uk.mc234.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=livingstonestuart@talktalk.net

Thursday 4 March 2010

Saturday 6.3.10

Stuart wanted me to pass on that the club will be open for business this Saturday the usual time 12pm-5pm.

I unfortunately will not be able to attend as I have a 1st birthday party on (unless the wee soul falls asleep half way through then I will see you there!)

Cheers
Paul