Okay guys, big improvement in the club last month, the newer members have actually started interacting with the club a bit more, the old guard have discarded their prejudices, and we're getting some more games arranged, very good to see.

I've also been receiving a battle report or two, which is good news indeed.

So, here we go with the main body of this ramble...

Battle Reports

A point I'm looking at, is the possability of having a vote of 'Best Battle Report of the Year' award, with the winner, the person who has deemed to have written the 'best' battle report throughout the year, may get to renew his club membership for free, rather than paying the $15-30 Membership fee. It's only in its conceptual stages yet, and I've discussed the idea with a few of the Club members already, they seem to feel it has some merit, but I wont actually have any form of authority to impliment it until it's given the 'OK' by the Club Accountant, and it appears that the positions for Club Officials may be getting a re-election, so I concur with current Accountant Bryan in his suggestion to wait until the elections are done before setting anything in stone.

I would really like some feedback from you guys on whether you like the idea or not.

Pete's Plug for the Month

This month I'm pushing WARHAMMER ANCIENT BATTLES!

Simply because it is a VERY clean, crisp and dynamic game.

I enjoy this game SO much because victory is down to your tactics, not a combination of powerful units/characters, a spell or a magic item, nor a death-to-all war machine

At first glance, yes, it does look boring. I'll admit, when I first looked at it, it seemed to me to be a boring game.

The way the game functions is brilliant, and the rules are not overly powered in any way, yet with the simple manipulation of a rule or two, careful manoeuvring, and a bit of luck, you can turn a simple attack into utter devestation with only the simplest of troops with the most mundane stats.

The game itself is suprisingly entertaining, with a good degree of excitement, and the best part is you know victory comes from outsmarting your opponent

As for the cost, there are some extensive ranges of ancient figures, The Foundry being one, however they are somewhat costly, but not more so than Games Workshop

Definately give it a big thumbs up =)

The SAMWC Annual Tournament

Because few people can resist the opportunity to play three or four games in one day, with the possability of winning stuff...

Yes, I'll be holding a club Tournament at the January meeting, with an invitation to all Club Members... meaning those who pay their fees at the January meeting like they're supposed to.

The tournament is essentially free as you are required to pay your membership fee irrespective of whether or not you take part in the tournament.

I have decided to run a Fantasy tournament again this time round, as most people at the club have a Fantasy army, and I myself can provide 7 tournament-legal armies, so we can get some of the recent additions to the club to have a go

Next Tournament I will very definately be trying to get a different game running as the Tournament game, perhaps Flames of War, or DBA

The games will be set at 1,500 points, all standard restrictions will apply, NO special characters whatsoever, but aside from that it's pretty much free reign, and I strongly urge you to try theming and army and putting some character into it.

There will be either 3 or 4 games played in the day, I'm yet to determine this.

There will probably be prizes, but I'll wait until the clubs Accountant position is confirmed before I have even the slightest chance of confirming prizes.

There will, however, be a marked departure in that as opposed to one set tournament prize of First Place, Second Place, and Third Place, a total of many scores, I'll instead be trying out having three categories that can score prizes on. These will be Gamesmanship, Appearance, and Army Composition.

I'll make sure to sort out all the details of how you succeed during the games, and put it all into simple and easy to follow instructions, so that most of the work is done before you even start the game

Now I will be taking advanced bookings this time around, so if you KNOW you can take part in the tournament, feel free to let me know beforehand so you are gauranteed a spot. I had to turn people away last time round and I know it's disappointing when these things happen.

And please, please take part rather than sitting out the tournament on general principle of it being another Fantasy tournament, I'd really like the whole club to get involved with this, it can end up being quite a lot of fun =)

Anyway, I'll see you on the field, I've laid out the challenge, it's time to see who amongst us is the better man...

Oh, yeah, and I almost forgot, the winner of the Tournament gets the semi-official title of The Warmaster of SAMWC

Cheers all, see you at the club =)

-Peter, Evil Garden Gnome Extraordinairre

Kevin and Anthony (Germans) beat Arthur and Peter (Americans).

Considering the fact that we were expecting to face some Russians, we did pretty well.

The armies were squared off: 1941 Germans vs 1944 Americans.

We were seriously out-gunned, but not out-numbered. My contingent consisted of 3 heavy tanks, two armoured cars, 3 infantry battalions, 2 heavy machine guns, a mortar, an 88mm gun (the only type 2 gun we had), my command group with their speedy car, and two anti-tank guns. Kevin's consisted of 6 tanks (not heavy ones), 2 armoured cars, lots of biker infantry, a mortar, his command tank with command group, and a few more pieces of hardware.

Luckily for us, the dice gods gave us the first turn and we were able to take the town. Inside the town, we put all our infantry, HMG's, anti-tank guns, and our armoured cars. I had the 88mm stuck out on the left flank hoping to nail some Shermans or trucks. Kevin proceeded to move his first tank battalion down the middle of the road, a daring move that payed off. Two tanks were nailed (forming an effective road block) but the other one went on to nail a Sherman and cause morale checks for almost half of Peters contingent. Miraculously, a big wad of infantry fled, despite having bazookas. My 88mm only succeeded in nailing infantry, one of my tanks was totalled, the crew of my other 2 jumped out, my mortar was ineffective and Kevin did another daring move, he sent his remaining tanks up the right flank, took out Peters self propelled gun, and caused havoc to the rest of the army. Arthur's Shermans were having fun nailing tanks and armoured cars, while not even getting scratched.

Rapid Fire is an incredibly fun game to play, but it helps to have a firm knowledge of WWII History.   

Anthony (Lizardmen) beat Daniel (High Elves).

This was a very basic battle. I set up my army with one unit of saurus holding the left flank and one skink unit helping out. The rest of my army set out normally with my saurus units in the centre and flanked by the stegadon, salamanders, skinks and saurus cavalry. Daniel set up a left heavy battle line (or right heavy if you're on his side of the table). Ten silver helms, two units of spearmen, archers, two wizards, and a bolt thrower on the left (his right), ten silver helms, bolt thrower, and two great eagles on the right (his left). The ensuing battle was fun, my temple guard never saw action, my left flank crumbled, I nailed the great eagles with shooting, blasted elves with magic so powerful, my skink shamans should be in critical care. The units of silver helms all but disappeared except for 6, and only one spear-elf unit and the wizards remained on the elf side while I only lost 20-30 saurus and my skinks. 

Kevin and Anthony (das Germans) vs. Arthur and Peter (Americans)

The Allied perspective...

We encountered resistance at eleven hundred hours. A large battalian of lightly armoured and equipped early war German Panzers, armoured cars, and infantry, were holed up in a village we were advancing on. They used weight of numbers to neutralise our forces, and we were forced to seek strategic redeployment with heavy casualties sustained. We could not fight a war of attrition. We've regrouped three miles back from their current position, and await reinforcements before making another assault. We shall not be so ill prepared.

Field report by Sergeant Johnson

Dear Momma,

     Hey ma, still here, still alive and kicking. How's little Duncan? Is he behaving good for his Momma while I'm away? Well, yesterday was rough. Real rough. We approached this village with some foreign name I can't pronounce, much less spell I don't see what the rage on foreign restaurants are, you can't get any malt shakes, or even a lousy burger. It's funny what you miss about home aint it? Well, we were getting in close to it when the goddamn nazis poured out Old Fritz had a welcome wagon waiting for us. Sarge told us not to worry, that their equipment was 'obscelete'. Well, I don't care, a gun's a gun and getting shot hurts. Tanks poured out of that village so as I didn't know WHERE they were coming from. There were HUNDREDS of the bastards! I know everything we did in training camp, our bazookas can drop a tank at 50 paces easier than I slugged home runs for our baseball team back home. But our training weren't nothing like THIS The smoke, the noise... oh God the noise.

We couldn't see jack until it was right in front of us, those Goddamn tanks were EVERYWHERE Our Bazookas would've knocked them out, but there were too many of them, we had to fall back. I'm scared, Momma, real scared I didn't think it would be like this, not anything like this, it scares me Momma At least we managed to get away, General McArthurs men were wiped out by machine gun fire when they tried to take the town. It was because of them we even managed to get away. They were good men. Good men, Momma The Limeys have been doing this for over a year now. How...

Please tell Betty I love her, Momma, and I'll be home soon And when I get back, I'm makin her my wife, and we're gonna have a white picket fence and everything I gotta go now, Momma We'll be receiving reinforcements soon, and as soon as we do, we're gonna give those nazi sob's a taste of hellfire and brimstone, yankee style If you don't hear from me, then our mail guy couldn't find us. I swear, they sound nice, but I'm beginning to hate these foreign names. I wanna go home

With all my love,

     your son,

Tommy boy

Well, what can I say?

This is very definately an entertaining game... I suspect it was even MORE entertaining for the guys whose men WEREN'T falling back every time the enemy so much as farted in their general direction! A couple of bad rolls left me with an incredibly demoralised American division, and Kevins supreme gamesmanship allowed him to play the advantage, pushing me back more and more, turning the situation from bad to worse. It would've helped if I didn't make so many rookie mistakes, although there were only relatively few made, thanks in part to my partner in crime, Arthur, who happened to have some considerable experience, and the occasional lucky dice roll However, my bad luck and compounded woes in the form of four fearsome Panzers, and a lucky shot from a light tank knocking out one of my Shermans, meant my side of the table effectively routed, leaving Arthurs advance stranded in a rather precarious position, sandwhiched between Anthonys justifiably cautious machine gun teams and tank division, and Kevins massed Panzers and tank guns Arthur put up a valiant fight, and managed to inflict some biting wounds on the nazi war machine, but ultimately succumbed to sheer weight of numbers, affectionately known as the 'Whole Lotta Diddly' theory A well played game, thoroughly enjoyable, and perhaps I may have been a little more than a speedbump if the dice gods smiled on me just a bit more I strongly suggest giving Rapid Fire a go, it's always fun to recreate one of the most famous battles in history, certainly THE most famous battle in LIVING history

Peter (Ancient Greeks) beat Manoj (Ancient Greeks)

This was only my second game of Warhammer Ancients, and Manoj's first, and as we'd both be using the Ancient Greeks, I thought the game would prove to be somewhat boring. I was incorrect in that assumption, and the game proved breif but fairly interesting, considering the tiny size army My forces consisted of a General, whom I have thus far named Strategos ('general') Aristocles, 19 Spartan Hoplites with only a leader and musician as upgrades, 24 general Greek Hoplites with Light Armour, leader and musician upgrades, and a unit of 6 Greek Cavalry, wearing Heavy Armour, carrying Thrusting Spears, and led by a Leader Manoj had decided to take standard hoplites with Heavy Armour, in two large units, a large unit of cavalry, and a General Unfortunately, Manoj still had the warhammer ideals of cavalry being a potently destructive force on its own, and missed a few things in the rules and army book that led to his downfall, such as his noteable omission of any form of command, his reliance on a large unit of cavalry which could not charge the front of a Greek Hoplite Phalanx, and a drastic difference in our armies 'omen' points, whereas the gods blessed me with 5 chances to boost combat by +1 or re-roll a failed leadership test, and Manoj, whose gods deserted him, granted him only one Omen

The battle was fought over a valley between a small rocky mountain to my left, and a long mountain to my right. I deployed the armoured standard hoplites on my left, with the Spartans and the general to form a crushing right-flank, with the cavalry taking the extreme right flank Manoj mirrored my deployment, but made the mistake of advancing his cavalry on my phalanx, clearly unaware how ineffective the cavalry is against the front of a wall of greek spears. I used MY cavalry to outflank Manoj's, and caught them in a combined charge with my Spartan Phalanx in the front, and the cavalry to the side, delivering a flurry of high strength or high skill attacks, and beat the greek cavalry in fairly short order, forcing them to rout. I withheld my disciplined Spartans, choosing NOT to pursue the cavalry, and instead sent my own cavalry to hunt the fleeing enemy cavalry down, wiping them out to a man as they fled. This left me in a position to be charged by Manoj's phalanx. However, Manoj, in doing this, drew his own Phalanx right in line of my Spartans, exposing their flank to me! My Greek Cavalry fled the charge, and later rallied, whilst my Spartans and Strategos Aristocles charged in and massacred the entire phalanx and cut down those who routed Meanwhile, on the left, my own phalanx had an inconclusive encounter with the enemy greeks, but the confidence the Gods inspired in them allowed them to take the victory (I pumped the maximum two omen points into the combat resolution, beating Manoj's Greeks by 1, and watched as they failed their leadership test, and ran for the hills)

In the end, I lost a single figure at most, if that, whereas Manoj was wiped out. This was a short game, so I pointed out the rules he misread, and confident in his knowledge that he could have champions and musicians, Manoj agreed to a second game...

Peter (Ancient Greek) beat Manoj (Ancient Greek) round 2

The Strategoi assembled in the command tent debated the virtues of giving battle to the Spartans, or putting off the conflict for another day Despite the fearsome reputation of the Spartan warriors, the Athenian generals were aware that they face little more than a garrison force, comprised of metics and natives, and new warriors for the most part, with a few elderly campaigners no longer fit to join the field lochoi. Yet there still remained a core of hard-trained Spartiates to contend with. Strategos Aristocles, the rote-determined Polemarch for the day, put to vote that the course of action shall be determined by the vary Gods themselves, and at once summoned the Oracle of Athena Nike. After the sacrificing of sheeps blood upon an alter to the patron goddess of Athens, and the reading of the entrails, the oracle spoke the words of his great deity, "Just Do It" The Athenians would give battle, with favourable omens indeed. Taking a small force comprised of two Enomotai, a single Pentekostys, with Aristocles himself supplanting the Pentekonter at the head of the Pentekostys, they marched upon the Spartan position, flanked by Athenian horsemen, and the renowned riders of Thessaly. The Spartans immediately withdrew to a defensive formation, with their center held by a weak force of Peltasts, mercenaries drafted from Thrace, and on either side of them, a small phalanx of spartan hoplites, and a fearless but untrained group of Metic and elderly hoplites. They had much to fight for, but little to fight with. On their flanks, guarding against any possible flanking manouevre, were two groups of about 7 horsemen, one force the mediocre horsemen of Sparta itself, probably slaves worth little consideration. The other group were Theban, indeed famed horsemen. But, only horsemen, hardly a cause for concernThe Spartan garrison hesitated, and our mighty free men of Athens seized the initiative, and descended upon the Spartans with all the fury of our victorious Athena herself .

An enomotia of our best men, seasoned campaigners yet still young enough to be fresh of body and spirit, marked off the unseasoned youths in the Spartan lines, advancing catiously. The Spartan Phalanx sounded the charge, but the clumsy fools were badly positioned in the terrain, and found a copse of trees blocking their attack. To cover this novice mistake, the Thracian peltasts rushed forward to lay about them with their rhompala, hacking and slashing in their fashion. One of our great Hoplites fell before the heavy blades of the Thracians, injured beyond all hope. As the greatest of our Strategoi said, no man truly dies who lives on in the hearts and minds of those who knew him. We did not mourn our fallen compatriot, he gained immortality ere wew live on. The Thracians realised their folley of engaging a phalanx head to head, surely none can stand before the might of the armoured men of Greece, and they withdrew. Knowing the risk of exposing our flank shouldst we pursue, great Aristocles called for our phalanx to hold and not give chase, so that we may turn our attentions to the Spartan phalanx.

Further afield, our second Enomotai, that of a seasoned Honour Guard, engaged with the Metic hoplites, led by an experienced Enomotarch. The Enomotarch felled many throughout his struggle, but his metic slaves could not match his prowess, and our own Hoplites were infinately more well equipped. That struggle would prove indecisive were it allowed to continue without intervention, as both forces were unwilling to give an inch to the enemy.

On the flanks, our horsemen advanced towards the Spartan and Theban cavalry, launching their javelins, and felling a man or two at extreme range. This tempted the cavalry into a charge on our Athenian horsemen, the Spartans took the bait. Surely all that physical training to the exclusion of the arts of the mind leads these Spartan curs to much foolish mistakes, were they to spend but minutes a day exercising their mind, we may have been afrighted of they who faced us on this field. But the spartans and thebeans rode recklessly for our Athenian cavalry, who swiftly avoided the fight, falling back even as the Spartans exhausted their horses, whilst our Thessalian allies rode their mounts into the teeth of the Spartan horse, spitting the men of Sparta and Thebes on their thrusting spears as if they intended to roast their prey over an open fire with them. With the flank-guards removed, our Thessalian allies came to our aid, flanking the Spartan youths, and crushing the Thracian peltasts also. Our Athenian cavalry called themselves into order and once more approached our enemy, to find their were none left. What honour could they expect when they do not use the legs the gods gave them? Great was our victory, glory to the free men of Athens! Athena be praised!

This time, we took a force that almost mirrored each other. Complete with champions in every unit, and musicians in most, we set about for war. Manoj had in his command a Spartan phalanx equipped with Light Armour, and a standard greek unit upgraded to Sacred Band so that they would not flee, likewise equipped with light armour and the standard Large Shields and Spears. His center was held with Peltasts. On either side of his force, protecting against flanking, were a unit of Cavalry. This was, of course, a grave error, as he chose a defensive force against a Greek force, and when facing Greek with Greek, you must defeat them, you cannot sit back and hold out and expect to win UNLESS you take them offensively. My force deployed to mirror his force, bar the peltasts in the center, and I doubled his number of cavalry units on either flank The Phalanxes in my command advanced, and brushed aside a halfhearted attack by Manoj's Peltasts.

The peltasts, unfortunately rallied after I'd manouevred to charge Manoj's Spartan phalanx, and if I'd continued to just charge Manoj's Spartans, the peltasts would've flanked my own Phalanx, inflict crippling damage with their Rhompala (count as halberds) and break my ranks, leaving me to be utterly crushed by Manoj's Spartans. In order to avoid this, I drifted my charge to the right (Phalanx's cannot wheel when charging, but may 'slide' or 'drift' an inch to the right when they charge) to catch the Peltasts, and once more crush them with the sheer weight of my phalanx, before assaulting the Spartan Phalanx. Both our Sacred Band units engaged each other, and as neither unit would flee, both being unbreakable, this caused a rather drawn out and inconclusive few turns of combat phases for the units. On the flanks, I advanced my Greek Cavalry equipped with throwing spears cautiously towards Manoj's cavalry, being careful to make sure they approached within charge range, yet stayed far enough away that if Manoj declared a charge, I could still flee his charge with reasonable chances of not getting caught. Not far behind my Greek cavalry rode my Thessalians, kitted out with Thrusting Spears and Heavy Armour, to make them hardy and capable of dealing a hefty amount of damage on the charge. The Greek Cavalry had approached to within throwing range of their Javelins, and launched them at Manoj's horsemen, felling one or two... hardly earthshattering damage, but enough for me. As Manoj declared the charge, my reaction was to Fire and Flee (an option available to you in Ancient Battles, how cool is that?) and laugh maniacally as he stumbled into my trap. As the Greek Cavalry fled, it exposed Manoj's cavalry for a charge from my Thessalian cavalry My Thessalian cavalry were numerous enough to avoid panic tests from the Greek Cavalry, and declared the charge on Manoj's cavalry, getting the nice S4 charge on him, reducing his save to nothing, and slaying his cavalry almost where it stood. This allowed me to circle around the back of his lines, ready to deliver the punishing flank and rear charges necessary to break the ranks of his phalanx, reducing the effectiveness of his units many-fold.

Game, set and match

Graeme (Ulthwe Eldar) VS Reuben (Biel-Tan Eldar) (40K)

The striking scorpions of Glorfindels Biel-Tan sprinted through the streets
of Vogen, with the Court of the young king behind them, the Falcon,
Glorfindel and his guardians flanking to the left. Searing bolt of energy
riped into the side of one of the striking scorpions, and he fell lifelessly
to the pavement, in what seemed seconds the squad was down to 5 men from
Shuriken Catapult fire, but with Khaela  Mensha Khaine himself behind them
they would never give up. Farseer Mithtellumaion Belethberaid of the Ulthwe
tapped into the mind of his fellow guardians and told them all to fire upon
the flanking guardians of Biel-Tan.

To his right he signaled for the counter attack the Howling Banshees in a
Wave serpent, they came in a flash unleashing its deadly cargo the wave
serpent fired upon the striking scorpions, killing 2, and leaving 3 for the
Howling Banshees to claim. The Banshees swept into the fray and destroyed
the striking scorpions, the Exarch leapt over her fellow kin and sliced the
Fire dragon Exarch clean in half, and smashed the striking scorpion Exarch
in the face paralyzing him. The court of the young king attacked back
killing all but 2 of the banshees and the Exarch, both the Banshee exarches
attached each other furiously, parrying and dodging each others blows, the
striking scorpion Exarch swung his cumbersome fist and knocked the howling
banshee clean off her feat she gracefully landed on her feet and leapt at
the Exarch decapitating him and getting struck down by the dire avenger
Exarch.

The Biel-Tan Howling Banshee Exarch apologized for the damage caused into
the ear of the dying Ulthwe Exarch, "no I chose my fate when I strayed from
the path of Biel-Tan now I have paid for my mistake" she whispered back, and
with a tear in her eye the other said "but so have I" just then a Starcannon
shot ripped her limb from limb. The rest of the court were drowned with
shuriken catapult fire, with the lone Avatar rising out of the dust. a
concentrated beam aimed perfectly by the Black guardians guided by the
Farseer, fired at the precise moment catching the reincarnated god off
guards tearing a huge gash in his abdomen, he fell to his knees, the ground
shook as he fell and disintegrated, "he will be back'' said Farseer
Balëyávëion.
Glorfindel knew it was over. he commanded the falcon to fire at the already
stunned falcon, call it luck or the use of psychic powers the falcons pulse
laser clipped the wing of the falcon and it was set off course smashing
itself into a nearby building destroying it outright.
"join us or you will suffer the consequences" said Farseer Mithtellumaion
Belethberaid in a calm voice "never" said Glorfindel "so you have chosen
exile".