Another tank attack! LCW game report - part 1

For this Little Cold Wars game we used the same toys as previously but took advantage of the improving weather to take it all outside.  Above:  one of the Warpact tank battalions on the move.  We sent this one forward while keeping the other in reserve to exploit the breakthrough.  Well that was the plan...
 Three of the T-55s are Chinese die-casts, two are the plastic 'James Bond' versions and skulking under the foliage is an old Lima/Polistil T-62.

The enemy.  The cowardly capitalists had dug in!

Another (Dinky) Chieftain.  Or it might be the same one.

The NATO forces were defending along the stretch of autobahn to the west of Kakstadt.

The Commies under long range tank fire.

A Warpact air strike.  My mighty MiG-21 makes it's maiden flight!

Predictably it failed to hit anything and soon cleared off.

Coming soon - more tanks, more gunfire and more toy aeroplanes!

Pilot Officer G L Edmunds (1917-1940)

On Saturday Mrs G and I visited nearby Netherthorpe Airfield which is just outside the village of Thorpe Salvin.  Currently the home of Sheffield Aero Club, the airfield opened as a civil field in 1935 before being 'occupied' by the RAF in 1940.  And it is this which led to my visit - for the unveiling of a new memorial to Pilot Officer Grosvenor Louis Edmunds who was the 613 Squadron's first officer fatality of WW2.  

On 6 September 1940 his Lysander (P1692) hit an RAF lorry while landing.  The subsequent inquiry allotted part of the blame to the lorry driver's mate for failing to alert the driver to the presence of the aircraft.  P/O Edmunds was 23 years old at the time of his death.

The new sundial memorial.  After the dedication by a local vicar, two trumpeters played the Last Post.  The beginning and end of their playing was marked by very low level passes by one of the club's light aircraft.  Very atmospheric.

The original memorial plaque.

 As well as the usual flock of Cessnas, this pair of oldies was tucked away on a corner of the field.

See the appropriate page of the rather good Rotherham War Memorials' website.

You may recall a previous mention of 613 (City of Manchester) Squadron in the post on my 1/72 Lysander .  In November 1940, 613 Sqn moved to Firbeck (again only a few miles away from me)

Chariots at dawn - Kadesh 1275BC - part 2

Back at Kadesh, Rameses (right) had led his division out of the camp - and here come the Hittite infantry!

The infantry are light troops (Auxilliaries in C&C and what used to be called Light Medium Infantry in WRG) so this could be an interesting fight.

The Egyptians have the worst of it, losing a chariot - but the infantry retire...

...so both sides take a breather.

Rameses leads another sortie - with mixed results...

 ...but is forced back to camp.

A further flurry of Hittite spears and arrows leads to the loss of Rameses's guard unit, meaning he has to test to survive.  A helmet means he is dead.  Bugger.

The final score.  This was a 'six-banner' battle and for once it wasn't a very close run thing!  6-1 in favour of the Hittites.

Chariots at dawn - Kadesh 1275BC - part 1

Let's start at the beginning.  I always wanted a chariot army.  During my first dalliance with ancient wargaming in the late 1970s I did acquire a 25mm Egyptian chariot.  This caused high excitement until I looked at the army list - WRG 5th Edition was all the rage then - and found that I actually needed 40 of the buggers!

Fast forward to late 2012 and on the bring and buy at a show is a massive New Kingdom Egyptian army.  One of the other Sheffield chaps was interested in some of the figures and so a deal was done.  It needed three of us to carry the several boxfiles out to my car and over the following weeks I sorted through them deciding what to keep and what to sell on.  As regular readers will know, my 25mm armies are actually 25mm as I don't care for the newer 28mm types, so this made the selection process rather easier.  The survivors are mostly Lamming and Minifigs.  Massive self-restraint was required on the chariot front - I retained a mere 22 out of the original 70 plus!

My modest 'Biblical era' collection was further enhanced last year with the purchase of more Assyrians to add to the infantry from JR and a trio of ox-drawn heavy chariots.

When we needed a game at short notice for this week I had a quick look at the CCA website and picked out the Kadesh scenario.   You can find it here.  

The terrain was easy enough - though I did need some of Martin's river sections (I'll be buying more this weekend) and my dodgy pallisade sections stood in for Pharoah's fortified camp.

 The armies were cobbled together from what I had to hand.  Above is the right wing of the Hittite infantry, complete with their (Assyrian) general.

Chariot numbers weren't much of a problem - my 4-horse Assyrian behemoth represented King Muwatalis's unit while we made sure that the Hittite light chariots all had green wheels.

 This ridiculous thing stood in for the other Hittite heavy chariot.

 The king waiting to cross the river.  Or not.

 The Egyptian chariots all had red wheels.  Here is a typical example.  After impressing us with his knowledge of the battle, John was appointed as Pharaoh Ramesses II while Martin led the Hittite horde.

 The Hittites opened by sending some of their infantry across the fordable river....

...while Ramesses led his host out of the camp.

More of this soon!