Sunday 26 May 2019 saw five armies fight it out on the Ukrainian steppes at Rob's war room. The game simulated the strategic situation on the Polish-Lithuanian military frontier in the early 17th century, with different factions vying for power. We watched Taras Bulba and Ogniem i Mieczem on the war-room DVD, which proved quite atmospheric. Yours truly was umpiring, using my Sobieski! rules.
Over a weekend we re fought this famous battle in the American Civil War using the new edition of the Fire & Fury brigade rules. The new rules in the main were judged to be much better than the first set although a bit slower to play. Recreating the terrain was a challenge as was creating new labels for the troops involved. We used in the main historical deployments. The Confederate thanks to a qualitative advantage, lady luck and I am sure the players skill won quite a decisive victory with the game ending with 4 out of the 5 union Corps all with heavy casualties.
Last night's game was a refight of day three at the Battle of Gettysburg, 1863, in 6mm scale. Mal, Richard and Doug controlled three Confederate corps and a cavalry corps (led by Jonathan), while Rob, Phil, new player Cameron (Phil's son), and Noel, were in charge of six Union corps and a cavalry corps.
On Friday 15th March 2019 I put on a Battle of the Bulge game at the club. Richard and Simon each had a panzer division, while Noel controlled a Volksgrenadier division, as the German side was tasked with crossing two rivers to capture the US fuel depot. Meanwhile, Mal, Doug, and Mark, each with a battle group of Americans, stood in their path. Jonathan and Phil took control of the German and American air forces respectively.
I've been wanting to wargame the November Uprising (1830-1831) - one of the nineteenth-century Polish revolts against Russia - for years. I wrote an article on the subject for Miniature Wargames, issue 220 (September 2001), based on a few Polish books, but have never got round to collecting the armies. I now have about a dozen Polish books on the war - more than enough to recreate the armies and uniforms for both sides.
