ALY MORRISON'S "BUTTERFLY" ADVENTURES IN THE WORLD OF WARGAMES AND TOY SOLDIERS

Sunday 24 November 2019

From My Side of the Table... The Battle of Berlin.



Yes The Battle of Berlin... But...NOT WW2...


The other week Alan Perry hosted an excellent ACW game for Jan Gradon, Peter Dennis, Dave Andrews, Chris Cound, Michael(Perry) and myself.

The scenario was based on a Confederate raid across The Potomac at Berlin, Maryland.
The Confederate forces have captured some ammunition and prisoners and are in the process of sabotaging the Baltimore Ohio rail road... All they have to do is get across the river to safety...
The river is of course flooded and a pontoon bridge must be built so they can cross...


Simple...


For a change I found myself on the side of The Confederacy with Dave Andrews and Chris Cound... Yup! I'm a Rebel... Yeee! Har!


We decided to defend the road against the predictable Union attack and let the Waggons and prisoners make their way off table as fast as possible...


The Union came on rather faster than we expected...with the exception of Jan's forces...
Chris's men were hit hard by Michael and Peter's regiments and after some tough fighting eventually broke...
I stepped in to fill the gap and rather surprisingly fought very well... managing to hold things together while Chris made his escape...
Jan's men eventually started forward and apart from one unfortunate blunder... rolled all the dice he wanted... when he wanted them...
Again after some hard fighting Dave's men broke or fell back...
All this time the bridge was being built across the river...


I managed somehow to hold my men together and give as good if not better than I took... and held the road open till a good part of our men made it to the bridge... before I felt the need to find something more interesting on the other side of the river myself...


The Ammunition wagons and prisoners moved faster than anyone else on the table...



This imaged used with kind permission of Alan Perry.


A view of the table...
My brave fellows are formed up more or less in front of the Green House to the top left...





An unfinished pontoon bridge...







Our glorious Rebel Cavalry watch on and encourage some rail disruption...



Our Cavalry... Desperate to vandalise more than rails...


My brave men basking in the sunlight...



Some union prisoners being captivated...



The (as it turned out very fast) Ammunition wagons...





A large group of Northern Commuters arrive to protest at the unexpected delays with the rail service...




Our centre braces itself...


Our dashing cavalry shout... Yeeeeee! Harrrrrr!



The Ammunition wagons start their incredible dash to the river... They never missed a move...



Jan's... for the moment not very enthusiastic troops...






Chris's men start to engage the Union of unhappy commuters while I hold back in reserve...


The Ammunition wagons and prisoners wait impatiently... to be rescued or to get across the river...




Chris's men...



As the Union press in on us ... the bridge is finished and the wagons race.. once again... across the bridge...

My men have pulled back towards the bridge and do their best to hold off the advancing Union...



This view shows Dave and Chris's broken troops falling back towards the river... for a change I did not break or in fact loose a single unit...





Chris's men make a break for it...



Dave's men also head for the bridge...




Dave's dashing cavalry... make a dash for the countryside...


We Won... We Won...
I don't care what anyone else says...
Waggons ,Prisoners and troops over the bridge at the end of the game...
And I didn't loose a single unit...


I could get used to this...


As always an excellent game of toy soldiers in excellent company... and an unexpected victory... Yes... a Victory!


All toys and terrain are from the collection of Alan Perry...
A less biased description of events can be found here...


https://www.facebook.com/perryminiatures/posts/2371621116293314?__tn__=K-R


All the best   Aly




27 comments:

  1. This is a beautiful game, Aly, having a narrative told with your typical panache. Aly for the win!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Jonathan...
      It was a fun game and not being horribly slaughtered helped...

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  2. Aly, this battle of Berlin (yes, when I saw the title, I fough we were in another war!) is simply superb, great pictures with so many beautiful units...and I must say, this pontoon bridge, even not finished in the beginning, is a masterpiece...Excellent report...and someone said you won, the cherry on the cake!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Phil...
      Berlin and not a T34 in sight.... ;-)
      All the toys are down to Alan Perry... all I did was turn up and ...for a change ... roll good dice...

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  3. Excellent stuff and you didn't "bust"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Phil...
      It was an orderly exit ....

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  4. Great looking game and very exciting to play I imagine .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was a very enjoyable game Tony...
      My butterfly is still fluttering all over the place...

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  5. Replies
    1. It was indeed...
      And a real joy to take part in...

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  6. A fine win there! I should sit down for a bit if I were you, don't want to overdo it! 😉

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I new it was you David...

      I needed several sherries to help me recover from all the excitement...

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  7. Great looking game! You WON and I wasn't there... I am the jinx then ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was a rather splendid affair...
      Maybe next time... you roll my dice and I will roll yours... we may completely confuse the dice gods... not to mention ourselves... ;-)

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  8. Splendid game a real pleasure to view. 😀

    ReplyDelete
  9. It was a great game indeed, though I think I used all of my good dice rolling on the Saturday WotR game, and wasn't so lucky on Sunday!
    Thanks again for the game and the photos! I think I have to restart my blog and share mine :-)

    Bwest wishes,
    Jan

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If that was you rolling bad dice... I am glad I wasn’t up against you the day before...
      It was good fun indeed...
      Yes get back into the blogosphere...

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  10. Fantastic looking game. Great write up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Paul ...

      It was great fun...

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  11. Replies
    1. Alan certainly puts on a good show...

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  12. Now now Aly, don't let that victory go to your head. Always great to see the view from the other side.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am sure everything will return to normal... ;-)
      It was an enjoyable experience and game.


      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  13. Of course a great looking game and you won! Are you sure it was you and not an imposter?!
    Best Iain

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Iain...
      I checked the picture on the Perry’s Facebook and it certainly looks like me...
      But I do appear to be happier than usual...;-)

      All the best. Aly

      Delete