Arctic Strike 2026

 Over the weekend of 17-18 October the Cold War Commanders gathered at Richard Phillips' bespoke wargaming facility The Unit for the annual big game. This game was originally set for May but was postponed to October due to a few health issues. Thankfully Mr P is fighting fit again so we set to. 

The scenario was a fictional Soviet invasion of Norway in 1985. Soviet forces have crossed into Finland, violating Finnish neutrality and bringing them into the war on NATO's side. Myself, Jim and Nick commanded the Free Peoples of the West, consisting of Nick's Finns, Jim's USMC and my combined force of Royal Marines 3 Commando Brigade, Dutch Marines and a company of Norwegian M48 tanks. The Soviet objective was to break through the NATO/Finnish defensive line and take the main road leading across the table and off the table edge. NATO as per usual were tasked with preventing this.

Nick's Finns deployed along the remains of the Lyngen Line, a series of defences along the Lyngen Alps originally constructed by the Germans in WW2 to defend against a Soviet invasion. That made up the bulk of our defensive line to stop Stewart, Mark and Martin's land invasion. To our west there would be a beach landing by Neil's Soviet naval infantry. Jim deployed his US Marines to counter the seaborne assault. 

Neil's naval troops disembark.

That left me with a dilemma as to where to deploy my lads. I decided to split my command. 2 companies of Royal Marines would deploy via Sea King helicopter to the woods in front of the Finnish left flank to act as a speed bump and slow the Soviet advance. A company of Dutch Marines and the Norwegian tanks would enter by road and occupy woods on the more open right flank. The remainder of my troops would occupy the large built up area to the south, to prevent Neil's troops from taking the main supply route.

My Marines deploy around some of Mr P's excellent terrain pieces in the BUA to the south.

My Norwegian M48s and Cloggies move into position. In all the excitement I forgot to take a photo of my helicopter landing.

Initially all went well. The Nordic company intended to get into cover in the woods to the left of the photo above, by the campsite. They could then exchange long range fire with the advancing Red horde. The dice gods had other ideas though. After Stewart's attempts to advance were stymied by an astounding number of double 6 blunders, it became my turn. A roll on the blunder chart saw my Nordic company turn and charge directly towards the Soviet forces. Although I managed to get them to pull back, they never really recovered from this error and although they sniped away at the incoming red tide, they were eventually overcome by massed artillery and tank gun fire. They delayed the Soviet advance, but not by as much as I'd have liked.

On my left flank, the Royal Marines had better luck. After a successful helicopter insertion, they saw off a Soviet Recce unit and then headed into the woods to face off against Martin's Russians. Repeated close assaults were repelled at the point of bayonet, the elite Marines proving their superiority over Soviet conscripts. A battalion of infantry was pretty much wiped out during these encounters. It was at this point that fate intervened again with another command blunder. Cruelly, a roll on the blunder table came up with the exact result as before and the brave Bootnecks broke cover and charged forwards. Unfortunately there was a motor rifle brigade in their path and the ensuing firefight saw the Royal Marines knocked out. So much for my northern flank speed bump.

With my troops out of the way, Soviet forces advance towards the main Finnish defence line.

Over on the Southern flank (I got my steps in over the weekend, with forces spread across 3 sides of the massive table) Neil's naval troops headed inland, making contact with the Finnish and US forces. I occupied the main built up area and exchanged fire with the naval force, taking casualties but giving more than I got.

Close air support from Harriers called in by my Royal Marines.

By the end of the game I had a secure position within the built up area...

...but to the north, Neil's Soviet naval forces had reached their main objective, the main supply route.

Despite a flurry of artillery and air strikes, the game ended with Soviet tanks occupying the road. At the start of the second day I had received reinforcements in the shape of a second Norwegian M48 company. Crucially however, I forgot to move them during one turn. That meant that when the final turn of the weekend came around, my M48s were too far away to contest the road with the Soviet naval tanks.

By the time we finished play at around 3pm on the Sunday we had managed 9 turns. The Soviet land attack had been slowed by a combination of my defensive contribution (I hope), a quite spectacular series of high command rolls and blunders plus difficulties with spotting and pinning the Finnish defenders to lay effective fire down. Neil's naval troops had fought well and reached the main road as instructed, so overall we called it a stalemate. Which, in itself, is more a NATO victory than a Soviet one. Or so I tell myself.

I would have preferred to have deployed my whole force together but that would have either meant doubling up on Neil's naval landing, to the detriment of the main defensive effort against the land invasion, or jostling for position with Nick's Finns and leaving the NATO rear completely exposed. Nevertheless I thoroughly enjoyed the whole weekend, although that final pint of 6.5% Cherry Porter Reserve at last orders on the Saturday night was definitely one too many.

My thanks to those splendid gentlemen my fellow gamers for an excellent weekend of gaming. A huge debt of gratitude as always to Mr Phillips for planning and hosting the game, using his enviable collection of terrain. With Arctic Strike finished our thoughts have now turned to next year's game. A new region, new era and new armies beckon as we make our plans for Dragon Strike 2000.

The Battle of Chatterton's Hill 1776

 Yesterday, after a diversion to Element Games in Stockport, I traversed the Pennines to join battle against m'colleague Neil. We chose an American Revolution/AWI theme, using the Maurice set of rules. For a scenario, we borrowed the Battle of White Plains/Chatterton's Hill from Jon Bleasdale's excellent blog: https://grymauch.blogspot.com/2026/04/awi-white-plainschattertons-hill-28th.html?m=1

In this scenario, a combined British and Hessian force has managed to turn the flank of Washington's army. A scratch Rebel force must defend the hill and hold the line as long as possible to enable time for Washington to redeploy his field army. To convert the forces to Maurice needed some fudging of troop numbers. My Allied troops were given the Cadence and Deadly Volleys characteristics. Neil's Rebels were given Skirmish, so his irregular/skirmisher battalions had a weapons range of 6BW as opposed to the standard 4BW. 

The map as it appears on Jon's blog.

How that translated to the tabletop. The Yankee forces were all deployed on table. My artillery, light brigade and Hessian brigade all started on table. The English redcoat brigade is off-table.

I bought a couple of packs of snake fencing off Richard Phillips a few years ago so decided to get them painted up for this game. They do add a period feel to games set in the New World.

My Hessian brigade deployed in column. My plan was for the light brigade to pin and delay the main body of Rebel troops,while the Hessians clear out the defenders on the hill. The English infantry brigade would then deal with the remaining American infantry.

American troops on Chatterton's Hill prepare to receive the enemy.

The Hessians moved to deal with Haslet's Brigade at the foot of the hill.

Meanwhile the light brigade marched to my left and deployed around the edge of the hill. I don't know if this prompted Neil to redeploy or he was going to do it anyway, but he sent McDougall's brigade with his main body of infantry to his right around the foot of the hill. This put him facing my light brigade and also increased the distance that the English works have to march to come into combat, taking up precious time.

Throughout these manoeuvres Neil used to extra range of his 2 irregular battalions to good effect, whittling away my troops and causing me to perform several rally actions. The rallies were successful but this delayed deployment of my English brigade.

My Light Dragoons charged a wavering US line battalion and came within a whisker of routing them. The rebels held firm though and the following volley phase saw the Light Dragoons shattered by musket fire, leaving their attached Notable galloping to the rear, no doubt planning his explanation to his general as to none of this was his fault.

My light brigade Jaegers dispatched the Rebel skirmishers who had come down off the hill but were outgunned by the US line battalions and routed. The English brigade finally got into the battle, deployed into line and began to dismantle the US battalions piecemeal.

Up on Chatterton's Hill the Hessians finally sorted themselves out and assaulted the rebels in the earthworks, clearing them out in short order. They then reformed, came down the hill and attacked the remaining US force in their flank and rear.

As the shadows lengthened and the sun set, the American force was reduced to the general and 1 battalion of infantry, outnumbered and surrounded. Maurice is a card driven game and we had worked our way through the maximum 3 decks, signalling the end of the day in game terms. Although the US command had been comprehensively dismantled, they had hung on for the whole day. We therefore decided that they had performed their role admirably and judged it to be an American victory.

A very enjoyable game and a nice change from the standard "line 'em up and knock 'em down" style encounter.  The cards in Maurice can be used to order troops, play events or intervene in combat. Neil has become adept at using the cards to good effect. Throughout the game he made numerous timely interventions, boosting rally actions, charges and musketry or imposing penalties on me. This, combined with long range musket fire from his skirmishers stopped me from despatching the continental rebels until too late in the day.

After a few one-off games set in the New World, we will be looking to start a campaign set in the AWI next. I have some Loyalist troops to be painted up and probably need a new general/Commander in Chief base for the combined forces of King George.

Neil's version of events can be found on his blog here: https://asandboxinsheffield.blogspot.com/?m=1

Joy of Six 2026

 Being naturally fat-handed, I managed to push a button or something that meant that I could no longer upload photos to this blog without enabling Cookies that I had already blocked and couldn't reverse. Or something. Anyway, that meant that I have been unable to publish anything here for a long time and so have not reported on a trip to Oxford to help play test a new set of rules, Joy of Six 2025, the big CWC game last October or a nice game of Maurice with m'colleague Neil. That, combined with an onset of general malaise has resulted in radio silence here for about 12 months. Still, hopefully I have fixed the issue now so let us press on. 

Joy of Six, being the only wargames show dedicated to 6mm wargaming as any fule kno, was held in Sheffield today. The original plan was for the Cold War Commanders to be out in force, with a game based on the Soviet invasion of Iceland from Red Storm Rising plus a TACWW2 game set in Calais 1940. Unfortunately our leader Richard Phillips was unable to attend due to ill health and Neil & Andy C were both double booked. This left Richard C to lead with his Calais 1940 with Ian and myself in support.

Initial set up of the table and deployment. The recce battalion of 1 Panzer Division have blundered into advance elements of 3 RTR, who have been thrown into action piecemeal, on the outskirts of Calais. 

I took command of the Germans while Ian led the Brits, with a help from a few spectators who joined in and rolled some dice. My faith in the German armoured cars proved misplaced as they were no match for A13 cruiser tanks.

Air support proved scarce for both sides but late in the day an RAF Spitfire tussled with a Luftwaffe ME109.

This cleared the way for a Stuka to have a run at the BEF troops. My unerring ability to roll low continued though as my air attack failed to inflict any damage.

It was a feature of the game that the Germans were unable to call in reinforcements of any note. It took until turn 7 of 8 for a panzer company to show up. This was a real problem as the German recce battalion was outgunned by the British troops. Without reinforcements we managed to reverse the historical outcome and 3 RTR managed to roll up the German advance troops.

In between game turns I took a few trips around the rest of the show:

There were a few sci-fi games, including this Battletech one. Battletech seems to have been around forever but it still endures.

This was the triple urban combat game, from the guys behind 3and6.myshopify.com, featuring some of their 3-D prints. The sci-fi game was very effective, with the neon paint effects. 

This was a NORTHAG game that remained busy throughout the day. Apparently it got so destructive that they ran out of blast markers to add on to destroyed units.

This was a display game showing the French action during the First Gulf War. A big table, looked like 12' x 8' and very nice too.

I've never really understood what Glorantha/Pavia was but it seems to have a dedicated fan base. This was a big fantasy game set in that world.

Finally, my contender for best looking game was this Battle of Five Armies, with lovely terrain and a splendid mix-up of minis, mostly from Baccus but with a few other manufacturers thrown in too.

According to Lindy, numbers were up on the last 2 years which was encouraging, particularly with the heat this week and the football last night. From what I saw, the games were a good mix of historical, sci-fi and fantasy. If this show is anything to go by, 6mm wargaming is in a very good place.

My thanks to Richard C for organising today's game, to Ian for helping to play and for all the friends and players who popped by to chat. 

Dispatches from the Andreivian Front

 A courier ship from Andreivia has just arrived, bringing the latest update on the expeditionary forces from the Honourable Black Sea Trading Company. This delayed report has nothing to do with me forgetting to write up second day of the Crisis Point weekend. Not at all, no.

Day 2 of Crisis Point saw a quick rearrangement. Mark K was able to join us and set up his Force On Force game. Richard C set up an American Civil War encounter (with the Union forces recruited from Andreivian émigrés apparently). Ron moved over to the ACW table so Dex joined us for the second battle of the War of Andreivian Succession.

The battlefield. General Ned plans his tactics for the day.

We added a few more troops to this game and introduced some National Characteristics. The English opted for Deadly Volleys and Cadence, giving them a reroll on any failed disrupt tests and more manoeuvrability due to better training. The Andreivians opted for Feudal and Skirmishers, giving them the ability to use Massed formation (although we did not use it during the game) and increased range for irregular troops. Ned used the Skirmishers ability to good effect by using his irregular troops to break Neil's artillery before his  guns could get into range.

I deployed on the right flank and sent my irregular cavalry forward while my infantry columns marched forward to the centre.

Neil's British cavalry also advanced up the flank. Neil and Ned's cavalry spent the day slugging it out, with neither side able to gain an advantage.

Early in the game Dex outnumbered one of my Andreivian infantry battalions and sent them off with massed musketry. I hurriedly redeployed my forces to try to plug the gap.

With my firing line restored this part of the battlefield developed into an epic musket duel as both sides alternated volleys and rally actions, attempting to wear each other down.

My cavalry and Dex's faced off for much of the battle, neither one wanting to commit to the charge. He did surprise me by sending a regiment of cavalry against my guns, knocking them out and threatening the flank of my infantry. I eventually saw them off with a combination of fire from my irregular infantry and a charge into their flank by my cavalry.

The musket duel in the centre reached a climax and, when the smoke cleared, the Company forces had broken and the Andreivians were masters of the battlefield once again.

The end was another victory for the defending Andreivian army while the BS Company forces returned to their ships and departed these shores, leaving the British General Horace Wilberforce to write to Parliament explaining how his subordinates let him down and none of it was his fault.

Sunday's field commanders: Myself, Ned, Neil and Dex.

Another cracking day's gaming and great weekend. The Andreivian forces performed beyond expectations; I did not expect them to last long against regular troops once the musket volleys started. Once again, my thanks to Ned, Dex and Ron for taking part in the battles over the weekend, thanks to m'colleague Neil for organising the game and big thanks to Richard C for planning and hosting the weekend. At this time we are unsure if Crisis Point will continue but, for me, I really hope that it does as it is a highlight of the wargaming calendar.