Saturday 15 July 2023

Wooden Ships and Iron Men

 

In a last-minute change of plan, I've brought my copy of Avalon Hill's classic Wooden Ships and Iron Men on holiday, in order to learn the rules and play some Age of Sail naval games. I've had this for ages but just didn't get round to punching it out and getting started, so now seems like an ideal opportunity. I'm working on some 1/2400th scale Napoleonic ships at the moment too, so it all fits together nicely. I've only just arrived at the holiday destination, so will give it a couple of days before I get cracking, but there will be some game reports on the blog soon as!

Saturday 8 July 2023

Battletech

 


Here's the game for the summer holidays, the new edition of Battletech, complete with some really nice plastic mech figures, full colour rules, cards, counters and hex maps. I saw the game while browsing the model shops in Cardiff the other day and thought it would be good fun to relive my university days, playing the second edition with cardboard counters, pencils and pads of paper. Good fun!

Sunday 21 May 2023

Star Wars Imperial Assault

 


I bought a second hand copy of Imperial Assault yesterday in the local charity shop for a tenner, expecting it to have bits missing, tatty sheets and so on, only to find it was mint and unpunched. What a bargain! I have some holiday time coming up so will crack it open for some solo games and to learn the rules. The Force is definitely with me on this one!

Thursday 6 April 2023

Sherwood Scenario 1

 







I punched out the counters for Sherwood today and set up the first scenario, in which Alan Adale has to escape from the Sheriff of Nottingham's men with the help of the local peasants. This was good fun and he almost got away with it but was captured in the very last turn after all of the peasants had run off. It's a really simple system, made even more so by the revised combat rules that use differentials instead of combat odds ratios as in the original Cry Havoc. A few more games are definitely on the cards this week!

Friday 17 February 2023

Sherwood

 




I ordered my copy of Sherwood way back before Xmas as a present and it finally arrived today. I'm really impressed with the production values of this Cry Havoc based game and can't wait to try it out. Brilliant!

Friday 26 August 2022

Mosquito Command: Sortie 1

 

The first sortie for F/Lt Hilton and Sgt Webber was a baptism of fire, not for the night fighter crew but for the unfortunate Do-217 that they intercepted over Swindon on a freezing 3rd January 1944. Taking off into a light snow shower, the visibility improved as the Mosquito climbed onto its interception course, expertly guided by the GCI, with a half moon illuminating the snowy landscape below. 

Handing over to approach with radar, Sgt Webber, skilfully brought the night fighter into clsoe range at six o'clock, the unsuspecting Do-217 crew failing to spot the approaching threat. Using his Ross night vision goggles for the first time, F/Lt Hilton struggled to adjust, but Sgt Webber picked up the bomber with his excellent night vision, just as the rear gunner of the Do-217 saw a shadow approaching in the slipstream of the raider. 

A burst from his machine gun flew wild but the Mosquito's cannon blasted the bomber in return, hitting the pilot badly and lightly wounding the dorsal gunner, although not before the pilot managed to shut down the port engine to extinguish a fire. Once again the rear gunner opened up but missed, while the badly wounded pilot struggled to take evasive action. 

This allowed the Mosquito to make a second attack, this time killing the pilot with a devastating burst of cannon shells through the floor of the cockpit. with the shocked navigator only just managing to take over the controls in the nick of time. The navigator immediately corkscrewed the bomber, forcing the Mosquito to pull away, but it was a matter of seconds before F/Lt Hilton made a second approach, bringing the night fighter into close range to finish the job. 

This time the Ross night goggles did the trick and a third four-second burst of cannon fire shredded the Dornier, raking the cockpit, the fuselage and the port wing, wounding the struggling co-pilot and preventing any attempts at evasion or defensive fire. A fourth blast of cannon fire now inflicted what should have been a mortal blow, wounding the co-pilot again, peppering the fuselage and raking the port engine, but somehow the bomber kept flying with the rear gunner even taking a pot shot at the night fighter in defiance. 

Now down to the last four seconds of ammunition, the Mosquito closed for the inevitable coup de grace, but in a twist of fate the cannon feed jammed, allowing the crippled bomber to disappear into the night, a complete write-off when it eventually crash landed in a field just outside Morlaix. The frustrated night fighter crew now turned back to make the short flight to base but due to a flurry of snow showers the runway was slippery and the F/Lt Hilton overshot, causing the Mosquito to veer off the apron, bursting a tyre and damaging the oleos due to overstressing. The crew would now have to wait for two days until their aircraft was repaired before setting out again for their next sortie.