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.

No Plan Survives Contact With The Enemy

 The annual Crisis Point weekend, organised by the incomparable design genius Richard Crawley is taking place this weekend 12-13 April. The theme this year is Andreivia Through The Ages. Mr C himself organised a 20mm game set in the 1990s using Arc of Fire rules.

Plan A was for m'colleage Neil and I to run a 6mm game set in the 1762 War of Andreivian Succession, using the Maurice set of rules. It became apparent however that preparations would not be complete in time. We thus moved on to Plan B, a 6mm 1990s game using Cold War Commander, staged by Neil, Richard Phillips and me. Several players subsequently had to withdraw from the weekend, to the extent that we would struggle to put on the 3 games planned. So we switched to Plan C, cancelling the CWC game and Neil and I joining the 3rd game offered, a 20mm outing using Force on Force, rules that we both bought over 10 years ago but never managed to play, hosted by Mark K. At 10.30pm the Friday night before the weekend, we were informed that Mark had a family crisis and so could not attend. We thus - at literally the 11th hour- hastily cooked up Plan D, a return to 1762 Andreivia, Maurice and a less ambitious set up.

The Country and initial deployment, set up as per the rules in Maurice. Neil and Ron took the side of the English Honourable Black Sea Company, while Ned and I commanded the royal army of Andreivia, reinforced by a brigade of French "advisers", who had been helping train up the native forces.

The fee for the weekend included lunch and refreshments provided by the Crawley family. Most players have contributed to the rations as well, so that we have more cakes than players! I at least have eaten well today.

I don't propose to give a full running commentary on the game, mostly as I did not take that many photos but also because this evening's refreshments have somewhat clouded my memory. Ned and Ron picked up the rules quick enough and we rattled through the opening war of manoeuvre.

On John Company's left, Ron's forces swiftly advanced to contact.

On the Andreivian left, my force kept a tight formation. Not wanting to take on the English regular cavalry with my irregulars, I advanced my regular infantry on the left flank while my irregular infantry and cavalry moved through the woods in my centre.

First blood was claimed by my Andreivian irregulars, who took advantage of their numbers and cover to defeat an English line battalion with musket fire. The time for manoeuvring was over as firefights erupted across the front line.

Ned meanwhile took advantage of the hill to his centre to shake out into a firing line, protected by the river to their front. The river acted as a very effective defence, preventing Ron's infantry from safely assaulting Ned's frontline.

Not wanting to charge the Andreivian pike armed infantry in a frontal attack, Neil's cavalry never really got into the game. They did charge and destroy my artillery, but were then led a merry dance by my irregular cavalry, who continuously evaded his charges. Eventually, musket fire from my irregular infantry (with a considerable helping hand from Ned's irregulars who had captured the town in the centre of the table) did for the English cavalry. I was able to then roll up Neil's regular infantry and defeat them piecemeal.

Ron had some success with his cavalry, steamrolling over Ned's irregular Andreivian horsemen. An amusing incident also occurred when Ned's irregular cavalry charged Ron's guns, only to be thrown back by the Company artillerymen and broken in the process. That river proved to be too much of an obstacle though and, when the dust settled, Ron's British and Company infantry had been smashed, leaving the Andreivian army masters of the battlefield.

Considering that the game was thrown together at the last minute, it performed admirably and filled the day. Ron and Ned grasped the concepts of the Maurice rules quickly and both displayed inventive use of the card system, playing events and disrupt cards to good effect. I've never seen CinC's moved around the table so much in one game. I think that we managed a good combination of manoeuvre warfare without the battlefield becoming too spread out.

Many thanks to Ron and Ned for joining our battle and getting stuck in to the game with an admirable gentlemanly competitive spirit. A big thank you to Neil for doing most of the heavy lifting with getting our game on. Not sure what will happen tomorrow. We may resume the War of Andreivian Succession with another Maurice battle. Mark K has said that he may come for Sunday so we might be trying Force on Force. Or we could try one of several boardgames that have been offered. Let's see what the day brings.

Wargaming Archeology

 In the early 90s Games Workshop released some card terrain pieces for WH40k. The first was the Imperial Firebase:

A sort of portacabin command centre I suppose. At the time I was an avid Epic scale gamer and tried to create an Epic version of the Firebase, using plasticard and a 40mm base. While rummaging around the folks' loft the other week I found it again:

17-year old me had clearly not discovered textured paint yet, as I used flock for the walls (it was actually green but has discoloured over time). I also hadn't found spray paints yet. After trying to undercoat it with black ink wash I seem to have got demoralised and given up.

I decided to see if I could bring this thing back to life:

The card base had warped over time so I have replaced it with plasticard. I have used the same coral sand to texture the base (yes, I still have the same bag) and some flock (again, the same bag) to repair some of the missing wall texture. I've added some more razor wire to the base too.

All ready for a grey undercoat spray this weekend. I'm quite intrigued as to how it will turn out.

Blame It On The Bakewell: Cold War Commanders Big Weekend Day 2

 

Well this is an indication of how we spent the Saturday night. Quite fitting, considering the theatre of operations. The previous blog entry was written at 12am after several jars, including a pint of Cherry Porter Grand Reserve, infused with Amaretto. Like Bakewell tart in a glass. I'm blaming that for neglecting to mention something important on the Saturday:

Last year, Richard had mentioned making some concealed dismounted tank turrets, hidden in wooden houses. Something that I completely forgot about until NATO turn 2, when this innocent looking building turned out to be a reinforced bunker containing a Centurion 105mm turret and 3 sapper units. They promptly sprung an ambush and toasted what was left of my infantry with their flamethrowers. I decided to fight fire with fire and sent on my own sappers mounted in BTR-50s to smoke them out. They then spent the rest of Saturday and most of Sunday blundering the way up the road, as a series of failed command rolls and double 6 blunders hindered their progress.

Santa had arrived early on Sunday as Rich allocated me some reinforcements from my KO'd pile.

A reinforcement battalion of T-55AM2s deployed on my left to back up my other battalion, who had been having some success winkling out Martin's Austrian Kurassiers and M-60s in the woods.

In my centre, some more infantry on BMP-1s arrived to try to push Martin's West German infantry out of the built up area in my centre, just as soon on as the engineers had cleared out that pesky bunker. The slow progress of the engineers meant that these infantry never really got into the game.

My centre tank battalion were planning on tackling Ian's Leopard 2 battalion, that had set up behind the railway embankment and took out my other T55 battalion. However, Gerrard's Russians on my right had managed to turn Ian's left flank. Ian's Leopard 2s thus bugged out and redeployed to counter the developing situation on the left. Martin sent 2 companies of Leopard 1s to the embankment and started taking shots at Gerrard's T-62s. He countered with tank mounted ATGMs and charged his T-62s forward. In doing so he exposed their flank to the turret in that pesky bunker so I sent my T55 battalion to cover his flank and pile HE rounds into the bunker, trying to silence it for good.

On my left, a T-55AM2 battalion had been exchanging fire with Martin's Austrian armour. With the day pressing on, they charged forward to take on the Austrians at point blank range. Ably assisted by a close assault from Stewart's Czech infantry, the Austrians were cleared from the woods. Retaliatory fire and repeated air attacks effectively wiped out that tank battalion though.

We played on until 2.45pm. By that point, Martin's combined battlegroup still held the centre but were beginning to look shaky. Gerrard's Russians were outflanking Ian's West Germans and looked like they were ready to break through. Stewart's Czech brigade had struggled against Mark's Leopard 2s that were safely camped in woods to the NATO rear table edge. Nonetheless Stewart had made progress and were halfway across the table. The Warsaw Pact forces were awarded a minor victory but it didn't really feel like that from the East German point of view.

The Luftwaffe made their presence felt on the Sunday. It was a bit galling to see my own aircraft being used against me though it was nice to see the toys out of their box and in action.

Once again, a most enjoyable weekend of gaming. It's always good when the Cold War Commanders get together to roll the dice at each other. My thanks to my comrades Stewart and Gerrard on team WarPac and to the NATO opposition Mark, Martin and Ian. Huge thanks to Richard for organising and hosting the game and keeping us fed all weekend. The big table really was a belter, particularly the centre piece schloss and castle.

With the year growing old, thoughts turn to plans for 2025. Richard C is looking at hosting another Crisis Point weekend and Neil & I have designs on putting on a game. Richard P has big ideas for Joy of Six as perhaps a few 1 day games at The Unit, in addition to next year's big weekend. Lots to look forward too!