The Kaiser's High Seas Fleet - The Great War at Sea 1914-18

 

This was another Christmas arrival which I'd pre-ordered some months ago and been looking forward to playing.  It's a development of the good old War At Sea system so I expected it to be a fairly straightforward play.  The components are very nice.

We begin with the obligatory shelling of Hartlepool

The Goeben dodges about in the Med.

The French find the Austrian U-boats. The hard way.

GT2:  a major engagement in the Baltic

Meanwhile the cocky Italians fall into a trap of in the Adriatic

The RN catches up with the Goeben in the Aegean...

...but the Goeben sinks the Indomitable and makes off to Constantinople!

GT3. Der Tag! Carnage!  Of the ships engaged, only one RN and 4 Boche are undamaged! But the RN always has more ships…

End of 1916.

End of 1917 and it’s all still to play for. But I’ve had a complaint from a Davy Jones saying that his locker is filling up with broken dreadnoughts….

By war's end it was all very close.  I need to re-read the rules and have another go before long.

Dominion of...The Blitzkreig

 

Yet another Dominion of... variant now!  I confess that I approached this one with a degree of scepticism, but happily that turned out to be misplaced.  As with it's predecessors this book contains the rules, a detailed example game and a number of scenarios.  To give it a proper try out I decided on two very different battles using my 6mm toys.

First up is the battle of Mokra. The wicked Germans have panzers and dive bombers but the plucky Poles have an armoured train!  We’ve previously fought this with both Megablitz and NBC.

The Stukas didn’t show up and like our NBC game, it ends with panzers shooting up the train.

Second go. The Stukas were (very slightly) less rubbish. Panzer’s considerably more so. Clearly, the armoured train remains the weapon of the future.

A few days later the Poles launched a major counterattack on the Bzura. Again, I’ve done this with Megablitz many years ago - using these same toys!

This time the instruments of Blitzkrieg triumph in game one….

…with an almost identical story in game two!

Sidi Barrani.

Game one. Something of a walkover for the Brits.

Game two. The Italians make more of a fight of it but those bloody Matildas are nearly impossible to kill!

Great fun and nice to get some toys on the table.

The Twelfth Battle - Caporetto 1917

 

Santa brought me this. Great news, as you can never have too many battles of the Isonzo.  It's a solo game taking in the entire Italian Front over the weeks of the campaign.

Having sorted out the very nice components,  I set up the introductory scenario to try.

After the initial bombardment, in go the stormtroopers!

And the Italian 3 Armata starts to crumble

End of GT1. The defence has been breached in several places.

Meanwhile back on the Piave, there’s a lot of frantic digging.

Managed a draw (the historical result). Did I mention the counters are really nice?

I'm hoping to play through the full game in the next week or so.  Like many other solo games, I think it may adapt well to being played by a group over a Zoom link.

Dominion of...Patriots and Redcoats

 

Yet another Dominion of... variant!  Again, for such a simple system this has a nice 'feel' to it.

Lexington & Concord, 1775. 2mm toys.

British victory!

Second game. The wicked colonials even the score.

Third attempt: another triumph for the Brits.

Trenton. Pretty much the only battle of the war I know anything about!

A very hard fought battle but the King was let down by his Hessian mercenaries

Trenton 2. A victory for the Hessians. Er, I mean Brits!

Look carefully and you can see the Hessians grinning.

The decider. I hope the King gets his money back from the Prince of Hesse.

The toys are 2mm Irregular. Originally painted and used in Franco-Prussian War games, they've also been used for ACW and the AWI version of Command & Colours.  Very versatile, these chaps!

Dominion of...Marlborough and Peter the Great

 

We've tried out several versions of the 'Dominion of...' rules.  A few months ago I built a 'travel' version on a 9x12cm board and painted wooden blocks.  Despite the title, the games I have played so far involved neither Marlborough nor Peter...

A few days ago I tried out the above book starting with the Boyne.

Williamites in grey.  The yellow blocks denote 'unreliable' units, the green matches 'defended' units.

A Williamite victory!  Each game takes only a few minutes.

Second attempt.  All the unreliable units legged it!

A terrible day to be a Jacobite!

Fleurus 1690.  Marshal Luxembourg's French in white vs the Dutch/Spanish alliance. I forget who won as I forgot to take a photo!  It's a very elegant little game and ideal for resolving campaign battles and the like.  Recommended.

1914 Belgians - part 4

 

The rest of my Belgian Line Infantry and Carabiniers involved more head swaps.  The base figures were a few more Deetail FFL and Call To Arms Iron Brigade.  The latter's coats aren't really long enough but to my eyes they convey the right 'look'.  

I also made up two MG crews.  The gunners are both old lead hollowcasts.