Die Fighting with Bob Jones

This Saturday was a nice treat - the gang gathered at Bob Jone's house for some horsing around with miniature soldiers! Bob has been focused on his writing and his family very much lately and we all have been long overdue in wasting an afternoon in the pleasurable pursuit of our shared hobby.

Bob is building a new collection of 28MM WSS armies and was eager to get them bloodied. The minis are beautiful, Bob!

On the day, Terry, John, Greg and I accompanied Bob in this undertaking...assisted nobly by several types of delicious beers. John and I played the British, Dutch and Austrians while Terry and Greg managed the French forces with a smattering of minor allied units.

In Die Fighting, dice are the currency of battle - the first side to run out of dice must capitulate. In this day's battle, several key points on the field would earn additional dice upon their taking. Due to the tough fighting, only one key point would be taken - out of the (if I recall correctly) nine key points on the field. The honor of taking that key point would be grabbed by John Mumby! Well done, sir! Earning our side 100 additional dice.

The British side would be the victor, with the French calling it a day with about a dozen dice remaining and no real chance of taking a key point soon. The British had about 30 of their original dice remaining, plus the fresh 100 dice.

I won't bore us with points about the battle, the real point of the day was to reengage and play the game so that we could embark on a small campaign series in the period. The units from today would soldier on in the campaign however! A unit of Swiss Guard was really badly defeated by some British dragoons - likely forever to be known as the Swiss Cheese Guard thereafter! That dragoon unit proceeded to capture the aforementioned key point. Both of these units earning changes to their ratings for the next battle - one bettering itself and the other, well, not so much!

So, this is not much of a battle report, my apologies. It is more just to get these pics online so they can be shared with the gang. It was very nice to see Bob again! Considering that I worked the remainder of the weekend, Saturday afternoon really made the weekend for me! Thanks guys!

The Austrians

Greg and Bob

Terry

John

Greg (and his dice)

Greg moves in the Dragoons!

Dragoon closeup

John and Terry in action

Bob

French Dragoons meet their end

French Artillery

French Cavalry

Everyone in action

British Dice at the end

French dice at the end

Churchill

Panorama!

Nutha Round of Pulse of Battle

On the 3rd, we gathered for two more Pulse of Battle games. The first one was a blow out, not interesting at all - we've all been there, the game play was just a one-sided wash. "Not interesting" does not mean "not fun" - it is always fun to move around lead miniatures with a good group of guys.

The second game was really good. We just laid out a couple of straight, historical deployments for the Romans and the Macedonians and went at it. Which I believe was a good testing of the rules. Chris. John and I were the Macedonians. Greg, Greg and Eric were the Romans.

It was a close run affair. After all of the light troops in both armies had done their jobs and had been brushed away, the Romans hit us hard on our left and right, trying to avoid too much phalanx contact. A break thru was made on our left and although contained, it did allow other Romans to begin to turn onto the left flank of the phalanx. On the right the Roman attack was halted and pushed back, but with good losses on both sides.The right end of the phalanx actually pushed into the Romans and won ground as well.

The problem was that left flank. We were unable to get our reserve foot (stationed behind the phalanx) over to cover the problem. Such are the fates of battle...and the pulse of battle...you have a plan, the troops are available in reserve, but the friction of battle prevents their timely arrival. The Piquet games do a good job providing players with a flavor of that friction!

In the end, a Roman victory was earned...and I do mean earned. It was a tough fight up and down the lines with plenty of tension. Jupiter's favor won out over Zeus' favor.

Next games are on December 1. This afternoon, we're gathering at Bob Jone's house for some 28MM WSS using Die Fighting. Looking forward to it all!