Friday Night Games: The Grinch v Santa Fantasy Game

Friday 14th December saw the kickoff of one of our quasi-annual Christmas themed games  this year hosted and umpired by Rupert. 

The Grinch and his Goblin hordes are attacking 'Happy Valley' stealing all the villagers presents and heading to the Santa's Workshop to wreck toy production before Christmas.

The figures are an assortment from Rupert's 28mm Medieval and Fantasy collections and he was using his own Fantasy Rules.

Happy Valley at the outset of the game

On the side of light & good are Mat & Mike W, whilst arrayed against them, commanding the Goblin Hordes were Mark, Steve, Dave & John.

Santa's Workshop, defended by the local Happy Valley Militia

Close-up of the Happy Valley Militia

A villager family

The ravaging hordes of The Grinch's Goblin Army

The forces of Good, under MikeW, did a Stirling job holding up John's Goblin column on the right wing. Whilst on the left of the Good side, Mat was able to deploy forces to contest Mark's Goblins.

Goblin wagons hoping to be filled with the Happy Valley villager's presents

The alarm is raised and the villagers beginning to panic at the sight of the approaching goblins

In the centre, Dave pushed his Goblin column forwards and they set upon a small village  only to be opposed by Good forces rushing up the center of the table from Santa's workshop. Meanwhile Steve is zooming around with  a pair of dragons trying to inflict damage and then raising the dead and supplementing the forces of Evil with Skeleton hordes.

More villagers!

One of the Dragons under Steve's command

At the end of Week #1 there was all to play for...

Forces of Good on the right battling Skeleton Cavalry and a Dragon, despite heavy losses John's Evil Doers were driven off.

One of the Goblin Columns

Steve's Dragons help eliminate an Infantry unit that has mauled Mark's Goblin Column on Santa's left

A unit of Ogres force the bridge on the extreme left of Sant's front,
a bridge that is defended by a small infantry unit. 

Happy Valley Militia Archers hold the centre

The advancing Goblin Battering Ram, to their rear.

Santa's left flank is now somewhat devoid of defenders, although in the centre a big force of archers and cavalry are checking enemy movement.

2024 Games league Table

By John S.

It’s that time again; what period was played the most? And, who hogged the gaming table with the most games?

Another Napoleonic Mega Game in 2024!

To begin though, I’ve changed the way I record things slightly, now concentrating on the number of games people put on rather than the number of weeks they are played over as I feel that’s probably fairer overall.

2024 saw 27 games played (counting tonight’s game at Rupert's) and covered 13 different periods or sub periods, so we are still very active.

The most popular period was Colonial and this is a tricky one as I’ve incorporated a few sub periods in this, so as well as my Boer War and NW Frontier I’ve added in Matt’s Formosa Campaign games (I thought it sounded Colonial) and also Matt’s Sino/Japanese War (again sounds Colonial) If you strip Matts games out then Colonial would rank as third most popular.

John's Colonial British Infantry 

Joint second place goes to WW2 (there’s a surprise Mark!) and Medieval (there’s another surprise Steve!) But of course if we re-jig Colonial then WW2 and Medieval would come out as joint winners……..you decide………

One of Mark's WW2 Offerings

Player wise, three of us put the most games on, Mark, Matt and Me with 5 games apiece. Given that we agreed that we would all confine ourselves to 6 weeks of table time, so roughly 3 games, us three have hogged the table limelight at the possible expense of others. We must try to be mindful and let others have more of a go in 2025 perhaps. For example, Phil and Mike W only put one game on each all year and Mikey only managed two games. I know that there were mitigating circumstances with Mike W on grandchildren minding and Phil’s ME playing up so it’s not all bad. So, well done everybody.

Not so many Ancients Games this year

Naval Battle in the Java Sea

The game was put on for Friday 6th December by Mat, using rules supplied by Mark and hosted by Mat, who also supplied the models.

Dutch Vessels

ABDA (American, British & Dutch) allies under Admiral Mark set sail at speed to intercept Japanese invasion force east of Java

American & British Vessels

Admiral Dave had a stronger Japanese force well covered by air power, but his forces were initially scattered so he encountered the Allies piecemeal.

The Japanese Fleet

Admiral Dave was bold to close range using his light cruisers and destroyers whilst high level bombers tried to smash the allies. Initial inaccurate fire soon started to play heavy on the Japanese, with both light cruisers having to turn tail after serious hits from British and US guns took a toll

But at the critical moment the two heavy cruisers of the Japanese fleet sailed into range and in ten devastating minutes sank the Dutch Cruiser Java that brave Admiral Mark had deployed at the van of his line, generously taking second position in his flagship!

Explosions erupt around teh head of the fleet

Sensing that all chance of victory was gone ABDA Float retired - just as in the real historical battle - one cruiser down!

Friday Night Games: Battle for the Denistr River, Tiraspol, Romania 1944

22nd November, saw Mark's 20mm WW2 game staged at Rupert's pad. The scenario saw a Romanian force, backed by some German support attack Russian positions across the Dinistr River bridges.

Early view of the tabletop, prior to placement of Russian Defensive lines

Rules are those devised by Mark, who also umpired. Leading the Romanians were Phil, Mat and Mike W, whilst the Russians were played by Mike N and Rupert.

The two main bridge crossings over the river,
to left the rail bridge and to right the road bridge

Opening moves were taken up with Romanian recce and exploratory advances across the two bridges.

Small Russian Village

Russian pill boxes were attacked with some success  with two knocked out by units crossing the road bridge.

Weckage of a downed Russian Aircraft

Resistance to the rail bridge crossings was arguably stronger, resulting in a squad of engineers and a squad of infantry being eliminated as they attempted their crossings.

View of the tabletop from the Romanian side of teh table

Another view

Rear echelon russian Trenches

Romanians begin to cross the rail bridge

Initial Romanian gun deployment on the road bridge

Another view of the tabletop, from the Romanian side

Romanian Recce Aircraft starts a series of sweeps to locate enemy units and postitions

Infanty advance to the road bridge to exploit success aginat enemy pill boxes

Mortar support nre the road bridge

Romanian HQ secure the high ground

Knocked out Russian pill box

More Romanian recce sorties

Romanian 'heavy' armour arrives on the tabletop, at the rail bridge!

Additional support arrives at the road bridge

Romanian view of teh advance along the rail bridge,
note the Engineer section and their foothold on the far back, left of bridge

Advance across the road bridge reaches the half way mark

Friday Night games: 15mm North West Frontier

 

British Infantry Battalion

Friday 8th November saw Week #1 of a 15mm North West Frontier game put on by John at Mike N's gaff. The figures are frm john's collection and John also umpired the game using the  "An' Go to Gawd like a soldier" ruleset available free from WargamesVault.

British reserve and Wagon Train advances up the centre of the table.

Commanding the British side was Phil with help from Mike W,  Mark and Nigel, whilst the Afghans were played by Steve, Rupert and Mike N.

View of the British front line advancing up the table,
each hilltop being a potential location for enemy snipers to interdict their advance.

The rules played well, with the players quickly learning teh iins and outs of this type of conflict, a novel approach is that uints are able to move to any point on th etable, only limited by the intervention of the enemy - making it a speedy game to play through.

Close-up of some of the British forces

British Wagon train and ambulance, the ambulance playimg an important part in picking-up the wounded and saving them from the enemy

By the end of Week #1, eth British had made significant progress but at the cost of loosing two companies of dragoons when they were whacked by a massed Afghan Cavalry charge. All to play for in Week #2.

View of the tabletop - pre battle

Another angle on the tabletop - pre battle

On the british left they have some early success, storming a hilltop and destroying an Afghan infantry unit, similarly in teh centre a small Afghan infantry unit is mauled and sent packingby the British - before their cavalry finally appear!

Another close-up on British infantry

Finally some Afghans appear, and a mass charge by their cavalry wipe out two Britsh Dragoon Companies