Wings of Glory against the Stakken

A few weeks back we played Wings of Glory at the Club.  One of the chaps brought this Stakken beastie along, so our first game was a 3 to 1 attempt to stop it completing a bombing mission. 

Also, we don't get precious about who has what plane; it's just what is available or nice looking that gets used.  Here I'm using the Albatross that's trying to get on the tail of the Stakken.  

Two of us trying to close-in. Alas, one fighter has already suffered from the volume of fire from the beastie and is down.  

The triplane flies underneath the bomber while I'm still trying to tail it. 

Now looking better for the fighters, though the Stakken has dangerously wide arcs of fire. 

 

And victory. The triplane was brought down and my Albatross is just barely flying.  A great game. 

A couple of pictures of our second game of the evening. I can't remember now if we played three-a-side of if it was a free for all with everyone against everyone else and the last plane flying wins.  

 

And a picture of a plane we want to use in another game.  We'd really like to get some early war planes, with limited fire power and poor movement - it makes for a great game.  

And that's it for now. I hope to post more pictures from club members in the future.  

A Night of the Generals part 3 - Flames of the Generals

Here are some photos of the second Night of the Generals bash we had recently, this time with Flames of War. 

First up, my German pioneer force: 3 platoons of 4 combat stands, 2 artillery pieces, 2 anti-tank guns, and a recce platoon (one armoured car of which is only a radio car).   

Next, the Russians. The main strength was a platoon/company of 33 stands, pus a 4 gun battery and 6 T70's.    

And next, the platoon I ended up playing with: 2 tank platoons, all with short barrelled guns, 2 command tanks and a panzergrenadier platoon of 6 combat stands. 

Our fourth player had yet to arrive when these pictures were taken.

A view of the table setup.  My game army is at the top right, my own army is at the top left. Do note the amount of Russians. I'm standing off to the right, trying to figure out how I can defeat that amount of Russians.  One objective marker is in the town centre, the other is on top of the hill to its right. 

A closer view of the T70s. 

And a view of the early turns. I'm trying to knock out the T70s to then swing on the flank of the Russians. I didn't have much of a clue what plans everyone else had - if any.   

Another excellent game, with our side marginally losing. Or, at least I'll claim it was marginal. But definitely a game to play again as a Night of the Generals.   

A Night of the Generals - part 2 with photos

I received some photos of our recent club games from other chaps, so here's some of what was going on. 

First a couple of pictures of our ADG ancients Night of the Generals bash.  Clockwise from bottom left there were Granadine, Feudal Hungarian, HYW French and Hindu Indian.  I brought the French and ended up with the Indians.  On reflection, I should have tried to make the French even worse as they were still a bit powerful. 

This is a view from the opposite end of the table and part way through the night. My Indians are fragmented and the Hungarians are moving to outflank and surround the French. 

A good game, but next time I'll give more thought to creating a really bad army. 

A Night of the Generals - twice

I've missed posts in April, so here's a quick update on a game we play every so often and in different periods.

We call it a 'Night of the Generals'.  The principle is players put together the worst army they can, going on the basis that they will not be playing with their own army on the night.  Players must then do the best with what they are given instead of relying on a carefully crafted army list. The game works best with at least 4 people playing.  In the past we've had 8 people playing some games. 

In April we played two games of this. The first was a 4 player game of the ADG ancient rules. Each of us chose a 200 point army.  I worked out a couple of medieval armies and ended up taking Wars of Roses to the club. As I recall I had 2 unreliable generals and each of the commands had 1 of each troop type so there was little chance of troops supporting each other.  And artillery and a fortified camp, just to use up points on basically useless stuff. 

On the night we make a random selection of who gets what army and where it starts on the table-top.  I ended up with an Indian army, with the 2 'good' commands each having an elite elephant, a poor cavalry, a bow and a spear unit.  Then everything else, some 20 plus units, were in a command where the general only had a 4U command span.  Hilarious. 

In the end, I think our side of the table won, but not by much. 

The second Night of the Generals game was a 4 player, 600 point Flames of War bash.  This time I took German pioneers as the core, with small 4 team plus a leader platoons and none of the added extras that engineers usually get.  I even wanted to take bridging half-tracks with no guns, but decided against it, opting instead for a battery of 2 artillery pieces, which in the game, have to re-roll any hits they score. 

What I got on the table was a small German force of the worst combination of armour the owner could find, and I ended up playing opposite a Russian infantry force with maximum platoon size of some 30 teams.  I think our side claimed victory on the night, but it was another hilarious game as players struggled to control poor combinations of troops.

Two great games.  If any of you ever have the opportunity to do something like this, please do. It's great fun.  Though, I will add, it's a fun game for like minded players and friends, not for rules-lawyer competition types.