Back with a bang: Waterloo, Winter War, AWI, Iran-Iraq War ...

Excuse the gap in posts but I only recently got back from my annual January gamefest. This was even better than last year's, another outstanding High Quality Gaming Experience. Four days, nine games, a dozen good friends, countless shots of exotic alcohol ... So let's review the gaming.

Waterloo (BBB).
This was the scenario we put on at the Oxfordshire military museum last year. I ran it twice on successive days with different teams of players. First game: Allied dice on the right wing were absolutely dire throughout. The French were able to seize La Haye Sainte and Hougoumont, repel counterattacks and smash Allied units with massed artillery, and comfortably fend off the Prussians. A clear French win. Second game: a different story. More aggressive (and less unlucky) Allies contested everywhere vigorously. Hougoumont changed hands twice, La Haye Sainte three times, and the Prussians drew large French forces off to protect Plancenoit and their line of communications. The French were fortunate to escape with a draw.

BBB Waterloo in 15mm: initial positions

We did end up thinking that the scenario would benefit from the addition of Papelotte as an Objective, and cranking up the French victory target by one. I may modify it and replay it accordingly at some point.

Russo-Finnish Winter War (Check Your Six!)
Nick has all the Finnish air force unit histories  and has been creating scenarios for Finnish air battles 1941-1945. We got to fight two of these. The first pitted two Finnish Bristol Bulldog fighters against half a dozen Soviet I-16 Ratas, on I think day 2 of the war. I showed my appreciation of Nick's effort by shooting down his Bulldog for a Soviet win.

The second Winter War battle saw a dozen Soviet SB-2s trying to bomb an important Finnish railway station while being set upon by four Finnish Fokker D-XXIs, when four Ratas turn up to intervene. One of my SB-2s got heroic and defied engine damage, a fire, a rudder hit that sent him into a spin down to treetop level, and a persistent tailing D-XXI that killed the gunner, and still managed not only to unload his bombs but to cause maximum damage right on target before he was finally shot down. My Rata then scared a damaged D-XXI pilot into bailing out. Soviet win 26-23, I think.


Iran-Iraq War (CY6 Jet Age)
CB has a pile of scenarios ready to playtest for a planned Iran-Iraq War campaign book for CY6 Jet Age. He ran a really interesting fight for us: an Iraqi chemical bombing run against an Iranian causeway across a lake in the face of Iranian AAA and Hawk missiles, a Phantom, and some F-5s. First up I was in Iraqi Su-22s flying SEAD ahead of our bombers. I didn't manage to touch the AAA, but I did take down Nick's F-5. My teammates missed the causeway but destroyed all the AAA, and I think shot down more than we lost, so this was an Iraqi victory.

Then we swapped sides and fought it again. This time the Iraqis chemicalled the causeway bigtime, but didn't touch the AAA, and lost the dogfight. My F-5 gunned down CB's Su-22 in a head-on pass, then missiled Alvin's. Iranian win.

Lexington & Concord (Muskets & Tomahawks)
This was really a highlight of the weekend. Apparently in 1775 there was some minor colonial scuffle. My American friends were much more au fait with the details than I was. Anyway, Rob ran a game for us based on the scenario in the Canadian Wargames Group's "Whites of their eyes" campaign book. Rob's gorgeous 28mm figures and and Scott's beautiful terrain made for a great spectacle. We used the "Muskets & Tomahawks" rules. These are skirmish rules but Rob made each group of 5 to 10 figures represent a company, so we were able to do the whole battle. I'd never played M&T before but the rules were very easy to pick up, quick and fun to play, and the game romped along.

And the scenario was really excellent. It's a situation which would be fun with almost any half-decent ruleset, because both sides are obliged to manoeuvre and there is action all over the park. Added to that is the wonderful way in which CWG have woven the history in. We had to draw cards at frequent intervals for random events which might help or hinder either side. The ones I particularly remember enabled us to capture Samuel Adams and Paul revere; John Hancock just got away by the skin of his teeth. Other cards affected things like the weather, or British troops mistreating harmless civilians (costing victory points), etc. It was a tremendously exciting game. As the British, the endgame was especially tense, as we raced to get the last few units off-table and escape the zombie-like hordes of American militia closing in on us from all sides. Final score couldn't have been much tighter, 21-20 to the King's men, and a revolt nipped in the bud and would-be rebels dead or discouraged, damn their eyes, sir.

My tally for the year is now:

Played: 6
Won: 6
Drawn: 0
Lost: 0