Fuentes de onoro

Don Julien Sanchez Spanish Lancers 

British Deployment

Conroux's Div advancing across the Don Casa river east of Fuentes 

Crauford's Light Div diverted to counteract 

The main attack on the British rightby Loison's VI Corps

Juno WW2 Rommel scenario

With the 75th anniversary of D-Day nearing on I took out my Max Hastings Overlord for more inspiration I enbarked on trying an invasion type scenario.
        I have long been a ww2 wargamer since early seventies.Actually ww2 was the only era that interested me. Warlord and victor comics Look and learn ,Readers digest ,World of Wonder ,any literature on ww2 was consumed.
It all started with Gavin Operation Warboard borrowed from the local library and since we eventually had to return my cousin typed two copies .Mine was the back copy with red print.Bound with a sewing machine which I still have somewhere  

    All this was in 20mm until I got my first 1/300 Heroics and a copy of WRG 1925-1950 rules in 1981.

Then went through WRG 2^nd edition ,Newbury Cambrai to Sinai ,B R Taylor Firefly,Command and Decision and Clash of Armor by Clash of Arms.Then interest shifted to ACW and Napoleonic but that’s another story.

Recently I came across Kampfgruppe  Commander which was a 2^nd edition of Clash of Armour which I had really liked its initiative system. I played  a couple of games but realized I was no longer in minute detail ,spotting ranges and barrage templates.

  That’s until Rommel.Sam Mustafa WW2 Game.It puts you in a commander role where combined arms is the key. And at 1 sqr Km/6inch there’s plenty of room for great battles.

  

Juno is the Canadian beach in operation Overlord.I have never played an invasion scenario as it was never easy te recreat a balance betwwen a machine gun in a pillbox a men trying to wade ashore under fire. With Rommel the allied first two brigades land jam packed with no exit in the 1st tactical  phase .Unless an exit is opened by the end of turn 1 some remaining units of the first wave  will have nowhere to land due to stacking and will be shattered.So all 10 ops points will have to go to invoking subsequent tactical phases.3 defending squares were concentrated on and by the 3rd tac phase an exit was opened .
The allies cannot afford using offensive tactics but must push hard bt invoking as mant tactical moves as possible at all costs . Casualties is the price to pay.The defender receives reinforcments by the 21st panzer Division which counter attacked aggresivly. we still have to conclude and will update accordingly. I am including some photos taken during the game kindly taken by Mike .

First wave going in

must be turn 6 with 21st panzer coming in

Stugs and Marders of the 352 inf Div

depleted allied 7th Brigade

from the defender's rear

allied out numbered but fight on

red marker tipped

Airfix HMS Devonshire

Out of sheer nostalgic memories and the challenge of an old kit I took the plunge for an accurate small model of Hms Devonshire

Sadly no plans for this particular ship although still not feasible paying for large scale plan

Lot of photos of the class but they have to be of the actual ship

The actual model is far too inaccurate
main issues
forward superstructure short and far too back
main mast on wrong structure
Aft deck too short

Recovery counters for Rommel game

These are placed near the unit using the recover event for added detail

Ancients 6mm painting

Here's my venture into ancient wargaming. I'm still unfamiliar with tactics and rules but the objective is to recreate historical scenarios. I never considered late Roman ancient compared to Punic Wars but apparently it is a good period of balanced warfare and I'm not too keen on painting scantily clad warriors.
   Got myself an order of H&R figures as I'm still reluctant to try out the Baccus range for whatever reason.
   As for the rules I came across  Sam Mac Dowell's  Legio Wargames site and Blog and got inspired but will be playtesting other sets
   Basing has been decided as 20 by 20 or multiples of if required

I wargame with 6mm mainly because I prefer battles not skirmishes and I want to see the full battlefield. As such terrain has a higher priority than figures and although 2mm are tempting I still need to differentiate between french imperial guard and confederate infantry.

When I get the figures I base them all unpainted except for for the artillery guns and limbers. This is done on 2mm pvc to which a layer of pva is flocked with fine sand.
 When dry the base is painted with a slightly diluted humbrol green 80 and dry brushed with yellow artist oil colour. The figures are then primed with a dark brown and that sets me off on an encouraging tone.
  Although this method is restrictive when it comes to paint the successive ranks it's much faster, blends the bases better with the figures and what can't be seen need not be painted.

Here's a sequence of steps as described above