O Group meets Hellfire Pass

The Cameron Highlanders with Matildas from 4RTR attempting to force Hellfire pass.

The terrain.  The Axis take the left, or eastern, edge of the pass.  I am calling the edge of the hill lines impassable to prevent any unseemly outflanking, but the edges themselves provide good cover.
The hamada rock areas within the pass afford cover but not from view, and are slowing for vehicles.  There is nothing much to hide behind here!

15 June 1941

Defensive Position

Stuetzpunkt Halfaya

3 Coy (companies) - I/104. Schuetzen Regiment, 
1 Coy - II/62o Reggimento motorizzato
2 Bty - I/33. Flak Regiment 2 x 88mm Guns
I/2o Reggimento artiglieria celere 4 x 50in guns

Attacking Forces
Halfaya Group
2nd Cameron Highlanders 3 Motorised companies
4th Royal Tank Regiment (minus 2 troops) 6 X Matilda II
1 Bty (battery) - 31st Field Artillery Regiment (2 x 25pdr guns)

Halfaya Pass held immense strategic importance due to its position as a natural bottleneck in the desert terrain. Control of the pass provided a vital route for military movements between Egypt and Libya, facilitating the supply and reinforcement of troops for both the Allied and Axis powers.

I'm using a Spearhead scenario for this game. 

The advance.  A Coy left, B Coy right

Italian and Germans at The other end of the pass.

The O Group roll for the Brits

Matilda II and Marmon Herringtons lead 4RTR.

And those are pretty nice Minifigs 12mm

The Italians dug in on the ridgeline

The Germans get a platoon down dug into the rock field.

German motorcycle recce platoon goes down the left wall.

German 88's open up on the British tanks

The Cameron's retouch from their trucks to shadow the six Matildas

And the Brute lead with a recce platoon of their own

And a round of 25pdr fire on the Italian A/T guns.

Quite effective artillery fire.

And I land some smoke in front of those A/T guns

And the German losses get them a fubar.

The British do have tank casualties but I send the Cameron's in to sort out the Italian A/T guns.

The Axis inflict more casualties from those 88mms.  

Endgame the Germans get two Fubars and I give it up.  The Matildas cover a three company Infantry attack.  Job done.

Some 18th Century Might and Reason

 A simple Red vs Blue game of Might and Reason

I added roads to an old blaze green cloth.  It has a real smaller scale feel

Red come on with a reserve line.

And the Red Duke of Monspubis actually gets out of his carriage for this one

Margrave Flatulenz leads a red advance on the right.

And "Scruffy" Herbert charges in with six cavalry regiments

The infantry further on the right close.

And Herbert wins his fight.

Red Cavalry regiment get behind the Blue line.

Meanwhile an musketry duel between the lines.

The Blue right crumbles and The Kronprinz leads a retreat

Nice game Might and Reason.  It works better as part of a campaign than a one off game I think.

The assault on Bumfleur

 The English have landed at Bumfleur and Lord Farandole needs the town as a base to begin his recovery of the County of Pigourdy.

All looks quiet.  I used the contour of the stream on my battle mat as the moat.

A view of the walls.  Looks like A tough nut.

The English screen the storming party of men at arms with their archers.

It's a long approach

Up to the hedgerows and my archers draw. 

Five nines, five hits.  Four kills.  A new one for me!

And a devastating five fatigue on the crossbowmen.

Even my pavisiers can't protect the crossbows from those deadly longbows

With the crossbows down my storming party rush forward. 

And I arrowstorm the French Men at Arms on the walls.

I use a reroll favour.  Four casualties.

The defence is looking weak now.

And finally my Men at Arms take the walls

The hero shot!

Good game.  My first siege for a long time.  Probably my favourite period to game.

100 years war terrain

I'm preparing to game some chevauchées and similar small scale skirmishes for Blood and Crowns and the 100 Years War.   My table top setup contains some pretty nice scratch built buildings that work well for the 14th Century, but I lack a castle or town wall, and maybe some wattle fencing to give a distinctive look and a major house to pad out my buildings collection.

I don't really need a whole castle of course.  A gate and pair of towers will give the impression I want.  The towers don't even need to be complete, and if I leave them open at the rear I can use archer groups inside at the loop holes.

The wall is straightforward.  A length of polystyrene saved for a project like this was carved with a gateway.  I then crenelated the top.  It will have a wooden walkway added behind.

I will neaten this up as I apply the filler base coat.

This was covered in small pieces of card snipped roughly glued with a of a coating.  This will then get a mix of filler, paint and sand painted into it.  It's important to paint the towers at the same time to keep the project cohesive.

Rather than round or square towers it struck me that octagonal was the way to go.  It certainly has the look.   I snuck in a cheeky postern gate at the foot of one tower, and made sure that my two half towers fit together to create a keep type building.

The postern is just visible bottom left.

The towers have a mid level floor to enable me to crew the arrow slit.

I forsee a few fights on these walls and towers!

The walls undercoating

The frame of the manor house

The gravy granule round tower, pva sand coated and coloured

Not sure I like the way it's looking at me though.

The wall and main gate.

The walls 

One of the Octagonal towers.

That is the wall and towers sorted.  I'll be using an old Cyprus plastic fly swat (a murderous weapon but I broke the handle and can now repurpose it) to form a portcullis and coffee stirrer sticks for the gates and bridge.

The terrain laid out as Bumfleur, a key port
of The  County of Pigourdy.

And a better view of The mighty walls