ALYS TOY SOLDIERS: Boxing Day Game

Friday, 29 December 2017

Boxing Day Game

Every year my daughter and I celebrate our Christmas on Boxing Day...
We eat to much, exchange gifts and possibly watch a film or two...

This year Mharaid suggested that we also have a wargame... Hurrah!

We decided that the game would have a festive theme and that we would use my Little Britons.

It is 1897...The Franco-Russian invasion of Britain continues into the winter.
The Swedish-Norwegian Royal family has sent Queen Victoria a Christmas tree to help lift the moral of the country.
The French have found out and have sent a small force to intercept and capture this gift... not only would this help lower the moral of the British but also prove that Sweden-Norway is not as neutral as it says it is.

The British force... Led by General Rust...Start at the factory and have to get the tree safely off the table at the church, along the way they need to find the Decorations, The Angel for the top of the tree and the Presents.
For extra points ... If they find the Apples they will be able to use them as a lure to capture the Pig(dinner). The pig Oink moves randomly around the table and stays away from people unless they have Apples.
There was also an opportunity to build a Snowman.
All the objectives were written down on pieces of paper and folded up along with seven other blanks... Mharaid placed them at various point on the table.

The French ... Commanded by that glorious leader General Malchanceux had to stop them.

I thought it would be a good chance to try out Song of Drums and Shakos.

We decided that as the men were all armed with modern 'magazine' rifles that they would not need to load each time they fired, Moves would be 'Short' on the snow except for the Light troops who would move normally and the wagons could only move on the roads.

The initial deployment... The British in the Factory... The French in the Field... And the village of Boxing in between.

The British made the first move and with now typical dice rolls Rust got his men quickly out of the factory...

Mharaid had suggested that we should name all our men... I told her that I would never remember them all when I wrote everything up on the blog... Labels were produced...

My first roll of the dice looks promising... I start to move towards the enemy... with Theo bounding ahead through the snow.

Rust's Riflemen also push forwards...

The rest of his men follow... while Tom appears to have spotted something at the side of the factory.

Another excellent throw sees Dorian find the Angel in the trees...

The rest off my brave force continue to move out..

Then I try a more daring move... Hmmmm! a double fail and the turn goes over to Rust.

Tom finds nothing... but he does seem to be loitering there a bit to long...

Rust's force push forwards... Jack racing ahead...
Although the wagons have slowed down a bit...

My brave men race ahead,,, Oh! wait a minute... no they don't...

Now we know what Tom was up to... Mharaid's idea not mine... Blank paper equals Yellow Snow...

Alan and Michael have got the waggons moving and Oink the pig seems to be attracted to men in red uniforms.... Doesn't he know he is dinner?

My brave men start to form a firing line along the hedge...

Dorian brings the Angel(and himself) to a safer spot... While I look fantastic in the background.

David and his comrades make their way towards the Church...

Rust's men make good use of the group move and proceed forwards in a very orderly manner...

Jack seems to have found something interesting...

Theo seems to have found Jack...

Down... But sadly not out...

Xavier is brought down by the enemy... The red button means dead or out of combat as apposed to just knocked over...

This causes consternation amongst the men...Fortunately I was on hand and braved the flying bullets to bring some order...

My men make their way up the main street of Boxing

Having only got Jack to his feet...

A very unfortunate dice throw...

With Jack in Theo's sights,,, A very unfortunate dice throw...

A very unfortunate dice throw indeed...

Jack finds some Apples... While Sam... Makes more Yellow Snow...

Antoine falls to enemy fire

Joe also makes some Yellow Snow... Charles hides behind a house... Alan and Michael cant get the wagons moving... Rust throws a double one, thereby ending his turn... And Oink appears to be heading off table...

I put myself into a tactically superior position(I follow Charles's example and hide behind a house).

Harry and William fall to our well placed shots... Charles is glad he is behind a house...

My men are slaughtered in the street... Rust shows no pity.

Rust also hides behind a house... or maybe he has a need to make more Yellow Snow.

Jack makes his way across the cricket ground with the Apples... Julien has made his way to the hedge and finds his best friend in a pool of red buttons...

Valentine and David both make discoveries... Not Yellow Snow!

More of Rust's men fall in the snow...

With some very fortunate activation dice throwing...

Julien stops Jack in his tracks...

An attempt to get Tom to do something useful brings a premature end to another of Rust's moves...

David builds his Snowman...

Nicolas and Mathieu fail to hit Sam at close range...

Julien finishes off Jack...Revenge!

The cricket pitch fills up with bodies and the snow is stained with red buttons...

As Rust's men start to appear on our flanks...

Julien sets his sights on someone...

Rust.

Boom!... Rust is down... A stunned silence fills the battlefield(And the wargames room... I am not sure I want Rust gone... maybe he has a brother... or maybe his thick skull and small brain have saved him... we will see).

Charles looks on in horror... His bowels turning to water...

Charles makes two fails on his moral throw (We felt that the victory conditions for loss of a leader from the Foraging Mission Scenario seemed most appropriate...you roll on the quality of the NCO/Second in command.) and surrenders himself and his men on the spot...

Hurrah! Hurrah! Victory!

In the end the British found only one objective... The Apples...
The Presents were found in the Red Lion Pub...

This was a thoroughly enjoyable game...
It was very close and had Julien missed his shot I could easily have been on the losing side, as always Mharaid is an excellent and dangerous opponent... I look forward to our next engagement.

The snow was made from white felt... I thought it worked rather well.

The wagons and Oink the pig came from Irregular Miniatures.

http://www.irregularminiatures.co.uk/

The buildings are from Warbases

https://warbases.co.uk/

The rest of the toys are Shiny Toy Soldiers Little Britons... by me.

http://www.spencersmithminiatures.co.uk/html/little_britons.html

Inspiration...