Angus  Konstam's Edinburgh Wargames

Edinburgh Wargames Journal

Issue 5  -  September 2006

Periods featured in this Issue: The "Back of Beyond" & Second World War (20mm)

plus reports on the Claymore and Other Partizan shows

Claymore & Partizan 2006

 On 5th August my club ran its annual show - CLAYMORE, which as usual was a huge success. Now, I'm not really one for demonstration games. While I admire the skills of groups like the League of Augsburg or the Iron Brigade, I usually have more exciting things to do with my time at shows - like buying lead, drinking and chewing the fat with old pals. However, I got talked into running an English Civil War demo alongside my gifted wargaming pal (and fellow SESWC member) Dave Imrie. We used the same terrain featured in Journal 4, but we managed to pile more lead onto the table. The game was a refight of the Battle of Inverkeithing, fought outside Edinburgh in 1651. 

Unfortunately neither Dave or I took any photos, but as soon as I come across any I'll post 'em here. However, we put on the same game at The Other Partizan in Newark a month later, and although neither of us have managed to produce any decent pictures, a few more people were snapping away, so I have hopes of a few images. Meanwhile here's a few taken during the setting up of the game. they're not very good, but they're all I've got;

         Table shots taken at Partizan    

As for other games, with one watery exception it's all been pretty 20th century lately. First off, there was a pre-dreadnought game using club member Colin Jack's 1/3000 ships. He used his own rules - a great and highly enjoyable set which later morphed into Perfidious Albion, produced by A&A Engineering. Once again, the only photos I have of this are on my mobile phone, so they're hardly worth posting up here. The bad thing about the game was it rekindled my interest in this funky naval period. the next day I did a little surfing and discovered Houston's Ships, available from Great Endeavours in the States. Fortunately "W." has messed up the US economy sufficiently to make the buying of American lead pretty inexpensive, so I whistled up a couple of fleets of my own - a British and a French one - both of around 1890. I'm in the middle of painting them up right now, and jolly nice they look too. they'll make their maiden voyage at the end of October - appropriately enough on the Thursday club evening closest to Trafalgar Night!

________________________________________________________________

Back of Beyond  Central Asia, 1918-22  (Contemptible Little Armies / Back of Beyond)     28mm

As for the rest, we played a "Back of Beyond" game involving the Reds and the Whites, and for once the Whites were creamed. None of the lead was mine  - the Reds belonged to Dougie Trail & Bill Gilchrist, while the Whites came from the collections of Colin Jack & Dave O'Brien. As Dougie took these pictures, they tend to feature his Bolsheviks...

___________________________________________________

WW2     Lower Rhine 1945  (Battlegroup Panzer Grenadier)      15mm

Next came a couple of Second World War games back to back - first being a 15mm one (lead by Kevan Gunn, Jim Louttit & Derek Hodge) where the British tried to force their way through a heavily-defended sector of the Reichswald in early 1945. the highlights of the game were a devastating couple of British artillery "stonks" on German positions, the frazzling of a German pillbox by a Churchill Crocodile, and a late German counter-attack on the British infantry tanks which ended in bloody disaster for the Nazis.

 As usual the rules were Battlegroup Panzergrenadier - which explains the empty-looking battlefield. All German units started the game hidden - and we didn't discover the location of some of 'em until the end of the game!

____________________________________________________________________

WW2   Russia 1941  (Battlegroup Panzer Grenadier)    20mm

Next it was the turn of my 20mm Russians, fighting their way out of the Pripet Marshes in a 1941 scenario dreamed up by Dougie Trail. As Dougie was playing the Nazi I should have know better. The aim was to get off the table, after negotiating a nasty swampy bottleneck and passing a German-held village. It wasn't exactly easy, as you can see:

I lost several of my tanks to a well-sided 37mm "doorknocker",

... but the real fly in the ointment was the trio of German tanks which appeared halfway through the game!

In the end I managed to roll some of my kit off the table edge, but all too many Russian tanks and infantry were left behind.

Next time I'll concoct the scenario!

________________________________________________________________

The most recent game I've played was one involving Freikorps in Poland during the early 1920's. This one was played using Chris Peers' Contemptible Little Armies rules. Unfortunately my camera monkey didn't bring his Box Brownie, so unless I can figure out how to download mediocre images from my mobile, then I can't show you what it looked like.  As for what's next, who knows, although I finally finished my WW1 Verdun terrain, after being inspired by the superb game put on at The Other Partizan by Dave Andrews & Aly Morrison - the lads from  Great War Miniatures. While I'm painting up my own kit, here's a few pictures of their fantastic 1918 game: