Australian Napoleonic Congress 2013

Some pictures from the Napoleonic Congress on the weekend, we had four games for the weekend, a big thanks to Clinton for running us through his computer / tablet based rules "Iron Duke", Mark for bringing down his 1812 games, Colin for his fine collection of British and French for our 1813 Spanish game, and to Boyd and the lads for a great Naval game that kept us all very entertained for several hours.

MOAB Impetus Tournament 2013

On the October long weekend I traveled up to MOAB (mother of all battles) gaming convention, this year I entered the Impetus 300 point 28mm tournament with my Sassanid army. The convention is Sydney's largest wargames convention. The crowds were down, I suspect that the Navy fleet review and the local NRL teams Grand final.  

It was my first competition wargames event in 14 years, an I would like to extend my gratitude to Tarty for organising the event everybody who played in the event.

A pic of the guys, missing Mick though, who only played on Saturday.

My Sassanid army was very small, 1 unit Zayadeen with general attached, 4 CM Savaran, 4 CL and 2 CL elite Savaran, a total of 18 VD, which is very small as I break at nine!

My first game was a tough one and had me asking why I had taken such a small and brittle, Robs Romans taught me a lesson about rear charges and zone of control. Rob eventually won the tournament.

My second game was against a very shooty Indian army, Axels;'s army was beautifully painted, I drew out his elephants and chariots managed to kill the all buy the forth turn, causing Alex to reach break point, with zero losses to myself. I had a exceptional rolling of my dice with two units getting 6 hits from 7 dice two turns in a row.

On the second day I drew Rex and his Normans, this was the toughest game of the comp for me, Rex tried to pin me against the table edge but I broke through his cavalry line and shot up a lot of his cavalry. I really learnt a lot in this game about the strengths and weaknesses of my army, I did stuff up, charged my cav against his and used my lights against his infantry instead of concentrating on his 3VD cavalry units that were already badly shot up.

"how the hell am I supposed to catch these guys!!!"

Rex's much loved baggage was a collection of lollies, which got progressively smaller over the weekend

I lost this game after failing a cohesion test after being charged in the rear, and my General died........

My last was against Dave's Persians, this army was beautifully painted! His chariot worried me, but was destroyed by one unit in the first turn. I had learnt to concentrate on high VD units by this game, so Dave had broken by turn 3.

Other Armies what I missed playing were Kendos horde of Romano Brits

Steves Assyrians

Ralphs British gallic tribes

 Grants Normans

Clints NK Egyptians

The Winners, Rex, Rob, Clint 

Table
1 Rob Bruce Late Roman 459 pts 20
2 Clint Richards NK Egyptian 417 pts 15
3 Rex Harrison Normans 312 pts 10
4 Ralph Hawker Ancient British 302 pts 7
5 Steve Hopkins Sargonid Assyrians 289 pts 6
6 Matt Williamson Sassanid Persian 277 pts 6
7 Chris Kendrick Romano-British 266 pts 5
8 Grant Tighe Norman 228 pts 5
9 Dave Veasey Achaemenid Persian 110 pts 4
10 Mick Steggles Goths 65 pts 3
11 Axel Hawker Ancient Indian 63 pts 2
12 Richard Tartt NK Egyptians 62 pts 1

Cheers

Matt

Norman heavy cavalry part one

Lots of these guys to come, Norman heavy cavalry a mix of Crusader, perry, foundry, Gripping beast in some units, 6 more of these guys to come. Hand painted sheilds all based for Impetus.

cheers

Matt

Norman Heavy Infantry part one

Norman heavy infantry from the Perry and Gripping beast ranges, flags are LBM, sheilds hand painted, another four units to come of these.

Norman Javelin

Norman javelin from the gripping beast range, these are touch ups and rebase jobs

cheers
Matt

Norman Archers

More figures these are from the Perry range of archers

cheers
Matt

Norman Casualty markers

For some time I have been painting a mates Norman army it is days from completion, the next few days I will post some pictures of the figures, some were touch ups and rebasing others were complete paint jobs, they are from a number of ranges so enjoy! They are based and marked up for Impetus but could be used for other rules.

cheers
Matt

The “Bonnie Blue Flag” ACW weekend in July

 July is our clubs annual ACW and mid-19^th century bash where a few of us roll out our games for two days of gaming in the period.

Boyd, Rich, John, Dave, Mat and I played two games of 28mm ACW using Jonny Reb III rules over the two days.

On the First day we played a little round top scenario by Scott Mingus. Boyd and Richard commanded the Union, the confederates were commanded by John and I.  The Confederate attack had early success when John’s long range shooting caused a number of casualties on the unit beside the 20^th Maine, who fell back in disorder, the confederates moved forward and received and gave moving fires for two turns, the union sharpshooters commanded by Richard really whittled down the confederates so much that one Confederate Regt failed morale and ran off the table leaving the others to continue the assault, mostly cracking rolling by Richard (by the 20^th Maine) seen another off triggering a Brigade Morale test which I promptly failed….1s pick up remainder  of brigade….the follow up brigade fared no better and the game ended around 2pm, time to set up for the next day!

The second day Boyd, Richard and Dave commanded the Union against, the confederate commanders John, Mat and I. The game was a fictional game based on a counterattack by the union against the tired Confederate centre around the Wheatfield’s along Plum Run on the second day of Gettysburg.

The Confederates had a +1 disadvantage to all morale rolls, which is ok early but once the casualties start…….. The Union had a +1 firing modifier which really tolled if they rolled well. The Union  were a little worried as they advanced but their artillery done great damage on a number of units, one battery actually rolled all sixes and all but wiped out a small 12 figure batn, who promptly routed and took one other with them in the process, leaving a gaping hole between two brigades. The union advance on the right was extremely successful with two confederate batns totally destroyed and two others routing leaving a gaping hole in the line, the union were finally blunted and Johns troops counterattacked which was quite good to see, whoever the entire left flank of the confederates collapsed after two batns routed and the remainder of the brigade become shaken and then finally routed, this caused morale rolls all through my brigade which became shaken and finally routed leaving the hill and the fields to the union troops…….must get myself some new dice I think!

On Sunday a second game ran behind us with around ten players playing a Kriegspiel wild west game, that always seemed on the edge of anarchy! The town was aptly named “Profanity.”   My favourite recollections coming from that general direction;

Cowboy Player “ I’m going for a long range snap shot”

Gamemaster “ well it is extreme range and there are Mexican civilians in the way”

Cowboy player “ that’s ok”

Gamemaster rolls dice

Mexican cowboy “ok, who shot the women and baby, now my gang of Mexicans will be very angry”

Cowboy player “I cannot see anything to shoot, can I shoot the sheep?”

Cowboy Player “I am going to hide in this building”

Gamemaster “it’s on fire”

Cowboy Player “that’s fine”

Gamemaster “OK, now you do know that you have a bag of the tnt with you…….oh shit (boom)”

Player “damn Pinkertons, how come they shoot so well”

Gamemaster “well they aim, they are using rifles, and you are on you galloping horse, with a pair of pistols trying to shoot up to a two story window with a verandah in the way”

It was as funny as it sounds…….

Day two union assault a confederate siege gun position, rules JonnyReb III

Cheers

Matt

RIP Frederick Funcken

On Thursday, May 16th 2013, Fred Funcken passed away at the age of 91 years leaving a legacy and fond memories for many wargamers and Comic readers on my generation. Fred was born in Belgium in on October 5th,1921, he published his first comic at the age of 12, then learnt his trade duing the war, first print making and then  working as a comic illustrator. After the war he joined his friend Fernand Cheneval at  Heroic Albums and later met his wife Lillianne, they started thier wonderful working relationship and the fantastic Tintin comics series. In the 60s Lilliane and Fred started the Uniformology Military Uniforms series covering all periods of history, which are still held in high esteem today, by wargamers and historians today.

His historical comic series included Tintin, White Knight, Harald the Viking, Jack Diamond, Lt Burton, Captian and the Saint Preux .

As a fellow red nut I was excited to get my tintin comics as a young kid, (and will now activly source all of this series) and at the age of Ten my mother bought me the two part series Arms and  Uniforms of the Napoleonic wars and I was hooked for life, 35 years later I now own probaly 8 of his uniformology books and always on the lookout for more of them.

Fare the well Fred

cheers

Matt

Absent........

My apologies that I have not posted for over a month, my Father Albert (Bertie) Williamson passed away in March at the age of 77, his funeral was very large with over 450 people attending and over 1000 sympathy cards arriving over the last four weeks.

Dad was a well known Australian Stock Horse, race horse breeder and Hereford cattle farmer. Dad was involved with a lot of rural organisations during his life, he was a Former President of the New England Rural Lands Protection Board, former President of the Pinkett Sports Society (a rodeo held on our property for 25 years, before being moved to its current location where it is in its 44th year), Life member of the Glen Innes Show Society, a member of the Royal Sydney Show Society, The Australian Stock Horse Society accredited Horse Judge, Australian Bushmans, Campdraft and Rodeo Association accredited judge, Captain Pinkett-Yarrow Creek Volunteer Firefighters, Glen Innes Pony Club selector and member, Glen Valley Polo X club, coach , umpire and selector,  Glen Innes Tentpegging Club and a number of other rural organisations around Glen Innes and the New England region.

During his life he loved to spend time on his beloved stock horses on our properties and lease hold country, roaming and mustering cattle in the wild eastern fall country of Upper New England. Some horses come to mind "Bushboy" (a famous flat racehorse and campdrafter), "Rusty Robin", "Robin", "Penny", "Pigeon" "Silver", "Banjo", "Rachel", "Pepsi", "Cilia" and "Buster". 

At times we would spend two weeks mustering the back country with pack horses moving from mustering hut to mustering hut,  bringing in the cattle after a winter in the back country. A good walker was important to cover long distances of up to 40klms in a day, faster than a vehicle in most cases along the bush tracks. In his younger days he loved flat racing (horse sprints two furlongs or less long) and would ride to events up to 35 klms, race, perhaps even campdraft with the same horse and then ride home again.

A picture of Dad in 1996, riding Pepsi (one of my favourites), a unknown Packhorse behind, not sure of the dogs names (but the black dog on the right is "Black Barb" a cross between a Kelpie and Dingo, they don't bark and are good lead dogs and will bite, very nasty to strangers and protective of the owner)

He was a great believer in good horse breeding and had a good eye for horses, as children we were always set up on great horses and for most of the summer we travelled to shows, rodeos and campdrafting events in the New England, and in the winter Polo x was our chosen sport.

He was also a keen cattle breeder and we had at times up to 1000 breeding cattle on the various properties, what I remember though is the mustering of the cows and calves from the lease contry (which is now mostly National park) into our land for branding etc. This country is some of the "wildest in NSW" (remarked upon by the famous Layland Brothers) all of it falls from the tablelands to the coast some areas included Henry River valley, the Sara river valley, London bridge, Baileys, the Seven Mile, Paddys Land, and Chaelundi (New South Wales, Australia)to view this country just search on google maps and you will see just how wild it is!

Dad was also fond of the a good sirlion, t-bone, roasted lamb, bagpipes, bush poetry, telling rippings yarns, fine spirits (Scotch, Brandy and rum) and his beloved stout!

 He will be missed by  Mum, my two Sisters, Deanna, Cate, Tom, and myself, our partners, his 9 grandchildren, his 7 surviving brothers and sisters and all of his mates.

cheers
Matt