Tuesday 24 June 2014

Broadside 2014 - The Battle of Shaho


I thought it was about time I got the Posties Rejects game the Battle of Shaho up on the blog?? This new job is seriously taking up all my time....Goddammit!!!
We did plan on doing a Skirmish game for Broadside but Postie kept going on about the Russo-Japanese War and he had a secret plan?? The secret plan (the balloon) remained a secret until the day before for me and on the day for the rest of the Rejects. I've already said it but I'll say it again. The Balloon was a real winner and helped us to win the Best at Show prize.
I't was rather warm in the centre as Fran mentioned here, on his post about the game
Anyway on with the game........


We picked the sides randomly, Me and Surj were the Russians and Fran and Lee were the Japanese.
Now here's the bone of contention.....Don't believ them lying Gits Fran and Lee, all along the plan for the game was to PLAY it, as and when we could throughout the day. It was his Nibs Posties idea to play the game like we would in the shed, Its not my fault that Fran and Lee are Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee!!


A close up of the base of the balloon, for extra strength Postie melted down some old figures and caste a base, the figures were once all holding flagpoles and guns.


The Balloon itself was made from a polystyrene ball, the basket was simply made out of card, but the most delicate and cleverest thing for me was the stringwork...Nice one Postie


Simple plan for me and Surg....try and not get blown to pieces from the masses of Russian artillery opposite us. We deployed our artillery behind the hill, as we had the balloon, we would only incur a minus 1 firing indirectly.


For some strange reason the Japanese moved forward instead of deploying, this bought it immediately in range of some of our infantry???


We're gonna wait here behind the hill until we really have to move.......


Two units of Russian Cossacks.....not the best troops you'd hope for in battle??


People were getting confused, who were the troops in white??



Fran was obviously doing something wrong


Fran....what a happy chappie!!!


We advanced up the hill and went prone.


The Cossacks advance........


Fran - "Dis is my soldier"...Lee - "And dis is my widdle soldier"


An ariel view....with added charging artillery???



Why??


Oops, Bang goes their artillery.


The Japanese advance, you should have heard the moaning....


Another balloon pic


The village of Shaho, all hand made by Postie apart from the building itself.
Surj moved our only machine gun around the flank to give fire,

 

In typical Cossack style after taking a few casualties and promptly failing their morale, one unit buggerd off!!


Plugging the Thin White Line


Charge!!!


The Japanese were taking a pounding, they'd nearly lost all their artillery, so we pounded 
their Infantry instead


The Japs were getting miffed at this point???


But they continued their attack, their numbers were thinning quite dramatically!!


Postie made the Prone markers


Close ups of the balloon!



We were about to fire our infantry, when we decided to take a short break
But the throws never came as the two Tweedles decided not to play on
the rattles were well and truly thrown out of the prams!!

So that was it, they tried to claim a tactical draw, what a load of old cobblers!


Get in there!!!!


55 comments:

  1. You bring a side of Fran to the Internet that we rarely see...
    Wait, who were the guys in white again?

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    1. He's such a happy chap, white?? who's in white??

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    2. I think he means, John, Paul, George & Ringo.

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  2. Happy days are when you climb a hill and don't go prone!

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  3. Enjoyable BatRep, Ray! I have read two other renditions of this battle and yours is most entertaining. As for white unis, the good guys always wear white, right?

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    1. Sorry, Francis! I said Ray's BatRep was "most entertaining" not that it was "THE most entertaining!" I enjoyed them all! Who says history is written by the victor?

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    2. I think Jonathan got your number Fran!!

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    3. I'm still hurt, no one realises I'm a sensitive soul!

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  4. Excellent write up Ray and great looking pictures!

    Christopher

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  5. Great Batrep Ray.
    Some cracking photo's there too dude.

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  6. Great pics of a wonderful looking game Ray.

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  7. Great looking game indeed - I may have to borrow that balloon idea , perhaps for my EotD stuff...

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  8. Slightly concerned by you saying that your simple plan was not to get blown away by the Russian artillery opposite you. I thought you and Surgit wee the Russians? I am guessing this is a slight oppsie and you meant Japanese artillery opposite.

    Of course Fran was in trouble, no hedges on the board near him.. As for "Lucky" Lee enough said in the name!

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    1. MY dice rolling was a bit 'variable'. I did well when rolling to hit (well above average kills) but couldn't win a morale test to save my life.

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    2. oops yes that was a mistake!! Variable?? I failed to mention your dice throwing in the post, but it was pretty awful!

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  9. You Sir are a lying swine! I reject your reality and substitute my own. Don't listen to him folks, Fran and I didn't throw our rattles out of the pram and walk off, we were just too busy talking to visitors to play the game. You known, because its was a DEMO. And besides which I think there should be a morale penalty for any army that LAYS DOWN in the face of the enemy. Surely an act of such BLATANT COWARDICE (and gamesmanship) should be outlawed!!! Tut Tut...I thought better of you Ray. Clearly my faith was misplaced... LoL

    An aside from this jolly banter... On a practical note regarding 'display games' like this, I think we probably should have started the game in the hour before the show opened so that some movement amongst our troops was visible by the time the doors opened. The centre of our table was unoccupied for pretty much most of the day and didn't look very 'dynamic'....of course have opponents cowering in the dirt rather than fighting like men didn't help!! Sigh.

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  10. Great looking game, love the idea of the ballon, and the ballon pics are most impressive!

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    1. Cheers Phil, Postie did really make a great model.

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  11. After reading all these reports and comments I'm not who to believe - 'the first casualty in war is truth' and all that. Jolly entertaining post as usual though, keep up the great work.

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    1. You should believe me Matt, we all know Fran's a lying toe-rag!

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  12. It's always interesting to get the real version of a game. There are thosethat would have had us believe that this wasn't a "real game", but merely a demo. Thanks for clearing it up Ray.

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  13. Always good to read both sies of two different battles ;-)

    Ian

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  14. Great report and photos Ray! The balloon is very cool!

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  15. You sir shall be hearing from my second, lying swine!

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    Replies
    1. Are you selling tickets to this event? I'd buy that for Dollar!

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    2. A Dollar, not only is he crap at throwing dice, he can't even remember we live in bloody England!!

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  16. Looks ace! Cracking balloon!

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  17. The balloon is marvellous and that lil' village is delightful too!

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  18. Good to see you all having so much fun.

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  19. Great looking table and a very entertaining read! That balloon is very clever – nice work.

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  20. Really appreciate those balloon close ups! Holy cow!

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  21. Didn't Wellington have his troops lay down too? :-)

    Great write up Ray, just like the others. Great looking game and interesting period too (kudos to Postie!). I miss your visits to "Der Feldmarschall" though. :-(

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  22. Very nice report and good pictures too! keep up the good work Ray.

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  23. It was a good show and a good game. Well deserved 1st Prize. Enjoyed chatting to you all and thanks again for the invite.

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  24. I'm so glad you posted close up pictures of that ballon. I've never seen anything like it. They did a great job on it!

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  25. Sensational! Everyone else is talking about the balloon, but that won't stop me--brilliant!

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