Broadside and Bull Run : it's all about the people

Last week was a good wargaming week, and on thinking back about it, that was all because of the people. 

Young's Branch : a 'blue wall' attacks..

 

It started with two evening Zoom sessions, of well over 3 hours each, where I was lucky enough to be one of the players in Jonathan Freitag's  big ACW game of First Bull Run, aka  Young's Branch. I commanded Burnside's brigade in the first session, and Tyler's division ( I also got to be Sherman as a result)  in the second, with my Union comrades played by bloggers  Tony/MS Foy and Chris/Nundanket , and our Confederate opposition by Mark/Jolly Broom Man and my old buddy Dave/St.Cyr.    Jon's account is well worth a read, he makes us sound like quite competent generals - not sure I quite measure up to that! I won't try to outdo his brilliant  battle report, and lovely pictures of the spectacularly massed model soldiers. Suffice to say that  we Yankees triumphed in the end, after some hard fighting - poor old Burnside's brigade got 'broken' quite early on. I think we got some good breaks in that our troops seemed to arrive a bit quicker than the opposition, and we managed to get our regiments and brigades deployed into mutually-supportive firing lines and concentrate an impressive mass of fire on the most important points. Much kudos to Tony also, who drew on  his extensive  'Command and Colours' experience to suggest that we make sure to 'rotate' badly shot-up units out of the firing line, so they would not be destroyed - thus their brigades would not be 'broken' ( which would give Victory Points to the opposition ).  That was proper generalship, and a good example of Jon's rules encouraging authentic behaviour from us commanders. 

On the other hand, yours truly provided a moment of possibly quite rubbish generalship, but my excuse is the traditional one of 'the dice let me down' and also 'trying something chancy on the final move'. We had all  found ourselves using ranged musketry exclusively when getting into combat with opposing units, and no-one had tried an actual charge into melee contact; but as brigade commander William Tecumsah Sherman, I thought - 'I wonder what would happen?'.. I  had pushed  two regiments onto the heights at Robinson House, and a single  Rebel regiment presented a tempting flank - 'charge, boys!' But with 8 dice to roll and advantage for the flank attack, I managed only 2 hits ( and I think Mark 'saved' even them ), suffered losses myself and was 'bounced' back from whence I came! Oh well, 'War is Hell', I suppose.. 

Sherman's Charge ( Jon's pictures, many thanks! )

 It was all in all a great game, enthralling and challenging, and the best part was the interaction with such a great group of people. Huge thanks to all the other players,  and especially to Jon for doing such a great job of running such a large game so successfully!  Thanks for the patience and good humour of both Jon and our opponents, as we Unionists developed rather a 'discursive' command style - I guess we were fighting for democracy, after all! 

And then on Saturday, to Gillingham for the Broadside show staged by the Milton Hundred Wargames Club - which was excellent, as always.  I like the fact that it is a slightly (considerably!)  smaller affair than the Salutes and Partisans of this world - it makes it a very manageable day with no need to rush around to see all the games and traders, and with less crowds it's easier to get a good long look at the games and chat with the players and demonstrators. Quite a few of the games had been at larger shows already, so even though they were 'repeats' so to speak, it was great to have a much more unhurried look at them. Without further ado, here are some pictures of games I liked: 

Shepway Wargames Club  - Hahuasen '89, a rather beautiful rendition of Cold War period Germany, played in 15mm with modified 'Battlegroup' rules, I think. 

Harriers to the attack!

 

Battle of Cawnpore, Indian Mutiny 1857 - Hailsham Wargamers 

Was this a crucial dice roll? We may never know..

RED and white and BLOOD RED SNOW - Skirmish Wargames Club (Russian Civil War, 54mm)

 

The figures were just lovely

My personal favourite was Eagles & Lions at Carentan by Retired Wargamers Reloaded, using Rapid Fire Reloaded rules and 15mm figures on a just fantastic layout.   I had already seen it at SELWG, and Salute, and Partizan ( though I think they have been doing slightly different scenarios each time ), but this time there was a much better chance to take some time and have a good look and a good chat with the guys staging it. I thought it was great, and was impressed that the Rapid Fire rules allow such a large setup to be played as a proper game, it's not just a static display. I think it deserves more than one picture, if you'll humour me:

 

Having had a good look and taken some pictures, I had a chat with one of  the Retired Wargamers Reloaded guys, and after some minutes thought 'I know this bloke' - it turned out to be Tony Toms, who had been a fellow member of Rainham Wargames Club when we were teenagers to early twenties - which is nigh on 40 years ago! I moved away in the 80s and we lost touch, well before emails and mobiles etc, of course.  It was fantastic to see him again, we had a really good chat and are now back in touch, which is great news, one of those people I have often thought 'wonder what happened to him?' I think that pleasant surprise was the best part of the day - funny, I had probably looked at that game on 2 or 3 other occasions without twigging who it was! Which goes to show the advantage of a smaller show..

 More games : Luxembourg 1940 - Deal Wargames

 - another large game, 20mm this time, being played using Rapid Fire. 

Of course Postie's Rejects were there, with Skirmish at St Francis Cove 1784 - A Smugglers Adventure.

Sorry this isn't my greatest picture, but the terrain looked really good with the cliffs and beach etc - there are many, many more pictures of this (and loads of other games ) on 'Rejects' blog pages by Ray Rousell and Big Lee which I thoroughly recommend! 

 

Crawley Wargames Club - First Sikh War. I think..

 

Fallujah, Iraq, 2004 - Maidstone Wargames Society

And a Napoleonic Naval Battle  - not sure who put this on, but the massed ships ( Black Seas, I think ) looked great, and they told me they are building up to doing Trafalgar with 1 model per actual ship, which will be something to behold! 

Of course there was a little shopping: I managed to sell a few surplus books to David Lanchester Books, which added to my spending money for the day.  As a result I acquired: 

 - Three WW2 dug-in gun positions from Ironclad Miniatures 

- A stone bridge from Debris of War, which can be a large bridge for 15mm troops and a small one for    20mm/25mm - versatile! 

- Plastic Soldier Co. pack of 3 Opel trucks in 1/72 - from (naturally) 1/72 Models

- A nice 3D-printed model of a Bren carrier in 1/72 from Disain Studio  

- A 'Portable Wargame' unit of  6  Seven Years War Cuirassiers from the flea market. 

Not a bad little collection, overall!  All in all, another good show - many thanks to the Milton Hundred club and all involved in the organisation,  and to all who put on games, tradestands etc.

Overall, a  very good hobby week, as you can see from the above. And the key ingredient? Of course, it's all about the people, from Jon and the guys on those Zoom sessions to all taking part at Broadside, it wouldn't be good without all of you.  I'm really glad I have returned to this slightly quirky but endlessly interesting hobby, and I think a massive part of the fun has been the people I have met both on-line and 'IRL', the new friends made and the old friends re-discovered. One of the biggest factors in meeting all those people has of course been this blog, both as a motivational tool and as a way of making contact with so many great people. So, thanks everyone for reading, commenting and welcoming- it's all about you guys.  

Now I have a fairly large painting backlog ( hmm... 7YW, Ancients, WW2 - at least its varied! ), and have realised that no actual gaming has occurred on my table for some weeks! So, better get back to some of that, inspired and energized by this past week.  Keep well, everyone.