The start of the autumn term of toy soldiering, with the Friends of General Haig, started with two club favourites; Zulus (thousands of ’em) and Polish (Winged) Hussars.

28mm Battle of Isandlwana 1879 – Black Powder with the Zulu! Supplement

The game followed the scenario in the Zulu! supplement from Warlord Games, with the addition of some Imperial units, just because the Friends always like to use every unit in the box! Massed, fearsome Impis of Zulu warriors stormed towards the British camp, scattering the Imperial horsemen but in a surprise result were initially repulsed by the Natal Native Contingent. With this initial set back, and the right horn of the buffalo seeming somewhat reluctant to close with the red-coats, it was down to the left horn to threaten the Imperial camp. The doughty Zulus made it in amongst the tents but were repulsed by some determined bayonet charges by the even more doughty 24th (no doubt singing in close harmony!).

In a surprise result the Imperial forces claimed the day, Bob Hoskins didn’t even need to get his sash out, the Regimental Colours were never in danger, and the young Prince Louis Napoleon survived the day. What a turn up for the books!

28mm Battle of Górzno 1629 – Pike & Shotte

The Swedes and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth clashed in this engagement from the end phase of the 1626-29 war in Prussia. In this engagement, based on the historical clash near Górzno, the Swedes were audaciously advancing through swampy ground and entering the battlefield in two columns. The Poles were gathering forces to meet them and prevent the Swedish held town of Górzno from being relieved.

The Poles began well and came on very gamely, while the Swedes were somewhat sluggish in deploying from their march through the marsh. This allowed the Poles to get their Hussars in to good positions to put in some devastating charges against the lighter Swedish horse as they tried to deploy from column of march. The battle was another historical turnaround, ending in a decisive Polish victory.

High summer and three great games at the club with a good turn-out for tea, biscuits and toy soldiers.

15mm ‘Epic’ Napoleonics – French/Saxons v Prussians – Valour & Fortitude by Jervis Johnson

This games used part of the collection that we’ll be showing off at the Warlord Games Day in September. It uses the Warlord ‘Epic’ Napoleonics range, with conversions to add in the various Saxon and Prussian troops not available yet. The armies look fabulous. For this game, V&F (from the Perry website) was being used; we’ll be using Black Powder at the Games Day, obviously!

10mm Sci-Fi – Mega Fighting War Machines (Home Grown)

One of the Friends is developing their own set of Sci Fi rules and this was a run-out for the rules. You can see the latest draft of the rules here: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/417273/mega-fighting-war-machines . Much mega-fighting-fun was had by all the players!

28mm Inverlochy 1645 – For King & Parliament by Simon Miller & Andrew Brentnall

The campaign of Montrose in Scotland during the British Civil Wars continued with Inverlochy. This used the scenario from the ‘Montrose: To win or lose it all’ supplement and extra rules form the Celtic Fringe supplement. We have played this battle many times, as well as demo’ing it at shows, in the past. We have previously used Pike & Shotte (Warlord) and you can see details on the blog here: http://battleofinverlochy.blogspot.com .

The scenario gave a fabulous refight and some more of the Friends tried out the FK&P rules for the first time and enjoyed them. It was a close run battle that ended in a shock win for the Campbell Covenanters.

With the start of the summer months (but not the summer weather!) many of the FOGH were on holiday, but a hard-core group gathered for a great game, washed down with buckets of Yorkshire tea – the Wargamers’ favourite.

28mm Battle of Salamanca 1812 – Black Powder with Albion Triumphant by Warlord Games

The games used the scenario in the Albion Triumphant 1 supplement for Black Powder. It is a pretty big game and it looked fabulous in 28mm. In this battle the British are attacking the French who must hold on to two areas of high ground. The British were hampered by having some lower command ratings amongst their brigade commanders. This can make it tough to get troops moving forward when attacking. The French were able to benefit from being stationery and concentrating on shooting.

It was a very entertaining game and seemed unusual in having the French infantry in line, in defence, sometimes being forced in to square, while under fierce attack from the British forces attacking. Once the British infantry got in to effective musket range they started to peel away the front lines of the French defence. However the British cavalry hesitated in front of French musket and artillery fire, were worn down, and finally broken by the enemy fire. This left the British left flank attack dangerously isolated and Wellington decided to call off the attack giving the game to Marmont and the French.

Two games on the first club meeting of the summer. A For King & Parliament engagement between Royalist and Covenanting Scots, and a fierce encounter between hosts Space Dwarves and Space Orks.

28mm Battle of Aberdeen 1644 – For King & Parliament

The second game of the campaign using The For King & Parliament (FK&P) supplement for Montrose saw the Covenanters hoping to restore their fortunes after the crushing defeat at Perth. Unfortunately for the men of the Kirk, Montrose and MacColla were on top form, and some skilful manoeuvring of the Irish regiments saw the Covenanters broken by a series of close range, and carefully timed, musket salvos.

We are getting the hang of the rules and we managed to complete the game with enough time to switch sides and run through again. A repeat of the Royalist’s previous tactics worked again, so everyone went home with a victory!

28mm Space Dwarves v. Space Orks – Home Grown Rules

A titanic struggle between bitter foes! There was lots of exotic hardware on display as well as some pretty amazing beards.

Despite the date there was no Star Wars game at club on the 4th! Instead we had on old favourite, Bolt Action in the Desert, along with a new favourite, For King and Parliament, north of the border with Montrose.

28mm Battle of Tippermuir 1644 – For King and Parliament with Montrose supplement.

After the success of the previous club’s trial of the new FK&P Montrose and Celtic fringe supplements it was decided to start a run through of all 8 of the battle in ‘the Year of Miracles’ in a linked campaign. The battles start with Tippermuir, just outside Perth, with Montrose and MacColla’s embryonic force taking on a hastily raised set of militias and fencibles.

Most of the rules errors from the previous game (inevitable when you’re learning) were corrected and the game ran smoothly. The Covenanters were dogged by some runs of very poor luck and the initial advances with their horse were held off on the Royalist flanks. In the centre, the Irish brigade advanced confidently and, although not successful in their initial charges, were able to regroup, weather the Covenanter musketry, and finally break through in the centre. Montrose secured a major victory when he personally led in the Atholl Highlanders and routed the Covenanter left wing, causing the whole Covenanter army to break.

28mm Duel in the Sun 1942 – Bolt Action by Warlord Games

A multi player, scenario based, game of classic Bolt Action (v2!). A small British patrol with vital information, led by Captain Smith, were ambushed by elements of the dread 21st Panzer. The 21st thought that they had Tommy in the bag, only to be outflanked themselves by a British relief force. Not a typical Bolt Action game as there were a lot of tanks deployed, to give the German’s 88 something to do. There were some strange dice rolls all round, with only Captain smith able to hit anything!

The first club of spring and the thoughts of the FOGH turn to all things new with two games played this week; 02 Hundred Hours and One Hour Wargames. Both games seemed to go down very well and so I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of both systems in the future. There was also some excellent cake provided – what more could you want on a sunny spring afternoon?

28mm British Special Forces v. German Art Thieves – 02 Hundred Hours by Grey For Now Games

02 Hundred Hours is a small scale skirmish game in which one side is a small, elite force attempting to carry out a covert operation, and the other side are the guards or sentries whose job it is to foil their plans. This game pitted a force of British special forces commandoes attempting to retrieve a painting (‘The Fallen Madonna’) from a Chateau, somewhere in occupied Europe, that was defended by a large force of German infantry, who were liberating artworks for the Reich.

The games system is simple but cleverly allows for one side to go sneaking about in the dark, while the sentries etc. patrol the grounds, investigating anything suspicious. Over the afternoon we managed to play a game through that saw the British get hopelessly embroiled in a fight with the guards before getting anywhere near the Chateau itself. After stopping for tea (and cake!) we swapped sides and played again; this time with the commandoes efficiently ‘eliminating the guards’ and making it off with the painting.

After playing through a couple of games the system seems to work really well and provides a highly entertaining game.

15mm Peninsular Napoleonic – One Hour Wargames by Neil Thomas

Mr. Thomas’ various wargames books have been having quite a few run outs at the club over the last 12 months or so. This time was at the turn of his ‘One Hour’ book of scenarios that was used for a refight of Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro (1811). The game worked well, although at this size of engagement it took the whole afternoon rather than just an hour! The French attack was soundly beaten and repulsed, with the Portuguese giving excellent service, also suffering the majority of the allied casualties.

Many thanks to Clive for bringing by far and away the best cake of the year so far!

A club of two games this week. ACW keeps rolling on with another game of this increasingly popular (at FOGH anyway) period. There were also many timbers shivered in a classic Pirate game.

28mm ACW – Warlord Games Black Powder with Glory Hallelujah!

There were three people’s collections on the table for this game. With the Federal army out numbered almost 2 to 1 it needed to hold on and blunt the Rebs advance. Things did not look too good after turn one when the boys from New York were doing little to stop the Southern advance. As the game progressed the South, with their superior numbers, could afford to lose more men. With both the Union brigades breaking it was every Billy Yank for himself. Nobody wanted to spend the rest of the war in Andersonville!

54mm Pirates – Home Made Rules.

Many “yo ho hoes” and “avast behinds” were bellowed in this game of Pirate shenanigans. Long story short – Blackbeard won! See https://jameswargamingweirdness.blogspot.com/2024/03/blackbeards-revenge.html for more details, additional pictures, and the rules!