A Round-up of some of the other Games run in July-August 2025.

With another summer season of wargaming drawing to a close in the Devon Wargames Group, I thought I would draw a line under it by highlighting a few games that had not featured on the club blog but were enjoyed by members attending in July and August and are very emblematic of the rich diet of games and themes we enjoy regularly in the club. 

The club continues to grow and now regularly hosts four sometimes five games each meeting with it not uncommon to have close to thirty members attending at any one time and we still attempt to make sure everyone is included in a game on offer and to encourage members to organise and host games at future meetings.

So it gives me great pleasure to present three more games that have featured this year in the club calendar in July and August 2025.

WWII, Chain of Command

WWII in 28mm and 15mm is a very popular theme in the club as it is in the wider hobby and the DWG plays a lot of games from the Too Fat Lardies stable of offerings, which of course includes Chain of Command, recently updated to the new version of the rules.

https://toofatlardies.co.uk/product/chain-of-command-2-copy/

Jack & Charlie hosted a father and son team effort of Chain of Command, with Charlie taking the lead in this his first game presented at club, incorporating the 28mm WWII collection he has been building and treating us all to a very nicely turned out Normandy themed action.

Romans versus Barbarian Tribesmen - Midgard

Warfare from the ancient period of history is another popular theme at club and who doesn't enjoy seeing a nicely painted collection of 28mm Early Imperial Romans bringing a bit of Pax Romana to a group of hairy looking barbarians out and about causing trouble on the Limes.

https://toofatlardies.co.uk/product/midgard-heroic-battles/

Jason treated the club to his very nicely turned out collection and an opportunity to try out the Midgard rules published by the Too Fat Lardies and written by James Morris.

Vietnam 69, Force on Force

Finally this month, the club was treated to a bit of Vietnam action from 1969 bringing back memories for older members in the club of the Summer of Love, Jimi Hendrix and 'Hanoi Jane' Fonda.

Chas brought along his collection of Vietnam themed figures and terrain to host a game of Force on Force that produces a very playable representation of modern warfare between forces of similar organisation and capability as well as the asymmetric warfare between regular and irregular troops.

With September close at hand, the club is gearing up for its new autumn season of games which will include our annual Lardy event, 'Clotted Lard', together with our Gus Murchie Memorial Big Xmas Game and potentially an additional event in the planning to go with our normal feast of games featured at club.

So lots more to come in 2025.

JJ

A Delicate Escort - Napoleonics in 18mm

The club ran two Napoleonic games this month, one to Sharp Practice in 28mm and the other to my own concocted rules in fence sitter scale – 18mm to those confused amongst you. Mine was based on a Charles Grant scenario, No 4 ,Holding Action from his excellent book, Scenarios for Wargames, but by the time I had adapted it, I doubt if even the great man himself (Charles Grant, not the Chairman for once) would have recognised it.

The game started at dawn in thick mist with visibility initially down to just a few yards with units being represented by different coloured counters, the colour identifying which Brigade that unit belonged to. Before any attack or defence could be accomplished the players had to sort the units out into their respective Brigades. This command-and-control part of the game was quite challenging, particularly for the French, as their units had got very mixed up in the mist. The Russians also had problems, because their command control distance was reduced from 150mm to 100mm.

FRENCH 

Général de division Jacques Darnaud C300 I8 E0 L3 

1 4e batterie artillerie a pied 2x 8lb 1x Med How

Général de brigade Joseph Paradis C150 I9 E+1 L2 

2 Combined Grenadier Batalion Elite 

3 1er Batalion 100e Infanterie de Ligne Sk 

4 2e Batalion 88e Infanterie de Ligne Sk 

5 3e Batalion 88e Infanterie de Ligne Sk 

6 1e Batalion 27e Infanterie de Ligne Sk

Général de brigade Françoir Bache C150 I8 E+1 L2 

7 1er Batalion 9e Infanterie Légère Elite 

8 2e Batalion 9e Infanterie Légère Elite 

9 1er Batalion 103e Infanterie de Ligne Sk 

10 2e Batalion 103e Infanterie de Ligne Sk 

11 3e Batalion 103e Infanterie de Ligne Sk 

Colonel Jacques Terrier C150 I7 E0 L2 

12 15e Reg de Chasseurs Elite 

13 2e Reg de Hussars 

14 3e Reg de Dragoons Elite 

15 19e Reg de Dragoons 

16 2e batterie artillerie a cheval 2x4lb 1x Lt How

C Mademoiselle Henriette Faubinion’s Convoy 2 Wounds

RUSSIAN 

General-Leytenant Count Alexander Ivanovich C200 I7 E-1 L2 ARMY MORALE 

1 8th Positional Battery 4x12lb 

General-Mayor Mikhail Bogdanovich C100 I6 E0 L1 

2 1/1st Jagger Battalion 

3 Kiev Grenadier Battalion 

4 1st Kiev Fusilier Battalion 

5 2nd Kiev Fusilier Battalion 

General-Mayor Nikolai Mazovski C100 I5 E0 L1 

6 2/1st Jagger Battalion 

7 Kazan Grenadier Battalion 

8 1st Kazan Musketeer Battalion 

9 2nd Kazan Musketeer Battalion 

Polkovnik Dmitri Dmitrievich C100 I7 E-1 L1 

10 Lithuanian Tartar Uhlan Regiment 

11 Izyum Hussar Regiment 

12 Ural Cossack Regiment Irregular 

13 Black Sea Cossacks Irregular 

14 3/1st Jagger Battalion 

Just to add some more fog I gave each side different a different objective. 

French Briefing 

You are escorting General Dorrial’s ‘aide de camp’, Mademoiselle Henriette Faubinion together with her travelling companion, to General Headquarters. Inclement weather has disorganised and disorientated your forces and you find yourself with the enemy between you and your objective. Due to her delicate nature, your charge must only travel by road. 

Russian Briefing 

A French force has advanced upon your rear, threatening your Supply Park. You have deployed Dmitrievich’s cavalry brigade to cover the enemy’s approach and have thrown up hasty earthworks to the west of the village of Nordhausen. Bogdanovich and Mazovski infantry brigades, although disorganised due to the adverse weather conditions, are fast approaching from the north.

First contact was made on the French left flank as the 15e Reg. de Chasseurs advanced to see the Ural Cossack Regiment looming out of the mist. The chasseurs charged only to see the Cossacks evaporate as they evaded back into the mist. In their place appeared the Lithuanian Tartar Uhlans and the Izyum Hussars. Fortunately the 2e Reg. de Hussars was under brigade orders and the ensuing melee ended with both sides withdrawing a respectable distance to reform. 

The Black Sea Cossacks on the Russian left had not been idle, and, with the mist slowly lifting, discovered some units of Bache’s Brigade. The Cossacks skilfully manoeuvred to charge the rear of the 1er Batalion 9e Infanterie Légère. However, totally unconcerned at seeing a band of wild Cossacks charging out of the mist, they calmly about faced their rear ranks. Cossacks and direct conflict are not happy bedfellows so they abandoned their charge and looked for easier meat, having successfully slowed the French advance.

The mist had by now almost cleared and counters were at last replaced by shiny toys! The Russians had successfully got their units under brigade command and were forming a defensive line in front of their supply park as well as strengthening the defence of the village of Nordhausen with Bogdanovich’s Brigade. The French had largely sorted out their 'spaghetti of units' into some sort of brigade order and were starting to organise an attack on Nordhausen village. Their plans had been somewhat thwarted by the appearance of a large Russian battery behind some hastily constructed earthworks. 

The French decided to engage it in counter battery fire with their 4lb horse artillery and their 8lb divisional artillery. Unfortunately, the divisional artillery commander had miscalculated the range and the majority of shots fell short. The 4lb horse artillery had better calculated its range and fired shot and shell into the Russian battery. One salvo of the higher calibre Russian guns was enough to a cause the horse artillery to rout and fly to the rear, leaving their guns behind them. Don’t poke the Bear!

The Russian cavalry on the Russian right flank continued to put the French light cavalry under pressure, eventually routing the chasseurs but when the dragoons of Terrier’s Brigade arrived the situation was stabilised. 

With the sudden dispersal of the Black Sea Cossacks, (they’d found better things to do) Bache’s Brigade was at last in a position to launch an attack. Paradis’s Brigade also started to advance in support and the Kiev Regiment holding Nordhausen came under skirmish fire which started to sap their morale. 

Both légère regiments of Bache’s Brigade charged unloaded into Nordhausen. The 1er Batalion 9e Infanterie Légère was halted in its tracks by a crashing volley from Kiev Grenadier Battalion. Not so it’s sister regiment, the 2e Batalion.. Despite suffering loses from 2nd Kiev Fusilier Battalion’s crashing volley, they pressed home their attack but failed to break the fusiliers who stoically resisted and the 2e Batalion 9e Infanterie Légère were forced to withdraw. 

Time was getting on and the players were getting thirsty, so it was decided to call it there as a decisive conclusion was some way off. 

If I were to run this scenario again, I wouldn’t scramble the units up so much as too much gaming time was spent in admin and not enough in getting stuck in.

And Mademoiselle Henriette Faubinion? She was last seen taking sanctuary in Tannhausen Church and seemed somewhat relieved that her passage to General Headquarters had been blocked. 

My thanks as ever to the players, Greg, Andy, Liz, Mark and Mike for playing the game with enthusiasm and with a real sense of fun.

Sharp Practice in the Peninsular War

The Attack by Leith's 5th Division at Salamanca - Bill Younghusband (Osprey)

With 'Clotted Lard' fast approaching in the club calendar and arrangements being finalised on the games available at this year's celebration of all things 'Lardy' a few of the chaps are warming up their planned games with some fun and action at our regular club meetings.

One such game is a Peninsular War 28mm set-to being planned by Bob, wheeling out his serried ranks of redcoats, riflemen and columns of French infantry to provide some Sharp Practice fun, a game I had on my list to play, with me taking a break from being a game organiser this year and instead enjoying the delights of playing in a couple of them instead.

So when I saw Bob's offer to run his Peninsular collection out at club using Sharp Practice, a set of rules I haven't played for too many years now, I jumped at the opportunity to join in the warm up process and refamiliarise myself with the nuances of this unique set of rules.

The premise for our game saw a column of French troops making a nuisance of themselves among the locals in rural Spain and causing particular offence by stealing anything that wasn't nailed down and even then making a serious effort to include that stuff as well, that saw these ruffians trying to make off with their ill-gotten gains that apparently included a lot of gold and bling encrusted with precious stones acquired from a recently liberated church on route and no doubt destined to end up in Marshal Soult's war chest.

However the 'good-guys' were on hand to put an end to this 'making war pay for itself' excuse for modern day rape and pillage created by that jumped-up little General Bonaparte and last carried out with such gay abandon by the Norsemen of old.

Thus close by, looking to administer a bit of a check on Boney's Boys, was a British column of line and light redcoats supported by riflemen operating here on the frontier, and cooperating with the local guerrilla leader by supporting an ambush on the French column as they marched through the last village on their route to more safer territory within their own lines.

As the French debouched from the outskirts of the Spanish hamlet, they became aware of British troops ahead, and eager to get out into the open ground before them, where they could better deploy their numbers, as well as securing a crossing of the nearby stream still carrying some mountain flood waters, immediately deployed their skirmish screen of voltigeurs bolstered by foot dragoons, and sent them ahead to secure the only bridge.

However the British commander, aware of the Spanish guerrilla leader's plan to ambush the column of French troops in the narrow streets and confines of the village was equally keen to contest any French attempts to debouch from the village in numbers and to restrict their advance no further than the stream that flowed between the two forces.

 

The lead elements of the French column were met by riflemen and British light infantry skirmishing from the higher ground beyond, that took a heavy toll of casualties and shock off the French foot dragoons that would see their leader wounded and the eventual dispersal of the unit as a whole as it attempted to control the road over the bridge ahead.

As the French were getting the worst of the skirmish battle ahead, the rear of their column was soon assaulted by a daring attack by a troop of mounted Spanish partisans armed with light lances that crashed into the back of the rearmost French column forcing it to attempt to about-face and deal with this unexpected threat as their comrades ahead prepared to advance out of the village to fight the 'rostbeefs'.

With the battle developing on both sides of the village, the French were torn between forcing a way clear of of its confines by winning the battle with the British to control the road out and a route of march to safety, whilst fending off a serious threat from behind and within the village confines itself, this soon seeing a unit of French hussars about facing from their march to deal with the British skirmishers and instead redirected to deal with the mounted Spanish partisans.

As more units deployed into the battle, the shock and casualties on both sides started to mount, dispersing some, forcing others to break off and retreat to avoid dispersal, intermixed with the wounding or occasional loss of a commander, and the French were fighting back hard bringing some of their line battalions forward to add fire to their skirmish line, that shattered a small group of British riflemen pushed too far ahead and caught well within French musket range.

These damaging blows create a game of 'death by a thousand cuts' as these often small blows start to accumulate, with never enough actions to adequately deal with them all and the inevitable drop in force morale that will eventually decide which side has had enough and is forced to capitulate.

Our game drew to its close, and both sides found themselves teetering on the edge of disaster with about three points apiece left on the Force Morale table but with the French seemingly teetering a little closer from the losses suffered in units and leaders, only made worse in the final turn as the Spanish had the honour of administering the coup-de-grace, and ending French resistance, roughly handling both the French hussars sent to deal with their mounted troop and a damaging round of fire that broke the rear most French column leaving the wagon of booty and gold ready to be taken back by the church, less of course an appropriate handling and recovery fee.

Needless to say much fun was had by all involved and thank you to Bob for giving us a glorious feast for the eyes as well as a fun scenario.

JJ