WW1 Turkish Infantry - From Box to Table

28mm Woodbine Design

Things are a bit quiet here at Castle R at the moment on the gaming front, most of our little group of gamers is in the US. So I have a had a couple of weeks to catch up on some stuff and get a few re enforcements for the Turks for our ongoing Gallipoli game.

Working shifts I do have a bit of insomnia every now and again, with this comes a dreadful habit of ordering stuff off the Internet in the early hours of the morning whilst half asleep and then finding out how much I've spent the next day when I check my e-mails ! Adding to my Turkish forces has been on the cards for a while, I also needed some Artillery and MGs, it wasn't a cheap purchase.

I've done this as a box to table post as a little guide to how I get these done. A couple of caveats here, No 1, I am not trying to win a Golden Demon here these are wargames figures, I'm going for a good wargames standard, effective but without shading every button. No 2, Turkish uniforms especially towards the end of the war were not very "uniform" at all. Different suppliers, materials, dyes etc. I have gone for a single colour general look for speed and efficiency. Hopefully of use to some. All paints are Vallejo unless stated otherwise.

Okay, usual start, figure trimmed of flash and sprayed Matt Black and affixed to a 2p piece sized base. I then cover the helmet and uniform in 70870 Green Brown (2nd from right), then a heavy brush of 70914 Green Ochre followed by, closest to the lens a highlight drybrush of 70913 Yellow Ochre. I have added a small amount of white to this final highlight mostly because, unusually for Vallejo, the pigment in the Yellow Ochre is quite poor. I have painted these in batches of 8.

Next stage is the leather straps and belting, both colours are old Citadel Colours, a base of Scorched Brown, highlighted with Dwarf Flesh.

Next up I have used the magic 70875 Beige Brown to block in the hands and faces, the back packs and rifles. A highlight of this colour and 70912 Tan Yellow has been added to the weapon and kit.

Bayonets in Citadel Colour Mithril Silver and then other metal work in 70863 Gun Metal Grey.

A little bit of a filler stage, a quick clean up with black where I've gone over the edges, then painting the fez (base of Dwarf Flesh and highlight of Mechrite Red) and blanket rolls, for this batch I have used grey.

Final steps are to finish the flesh of (right) with 70804 Beige Red and a highlight of 70815 Basic Skin Tone, final step is a wash with Warpainter strong tone on the helmet, flesh, rifle, back pack on lower legs. I find dipping the whole figure loses to much detail and prefer a more target approach to washes. And that's it done, not many stages not rocket science.

Usual basing method of plaster sculpt, painted dark sand, highlighted, bastex added and highlighted. I bought about 100 of these guys and I'm about halfway through them.

X Wing - The Campaign - Game 14 - Robot Wars

Robot Wars

This is a continuation of the X Wing Campaign, full explanation and details of Campaign rules are here.

Mission Briefing

"Gentlemen, today we fly in support of a major fleet action with a special mission.

Using the cover of the general mayhem of the main battle we need to to sneak in close to an Imperial Droid Fighter Carrier. The firepower of that ship will be being directed elsewhere and we hope they wont notice your small squadron sneak through.

Your ships have been equipped with specialised R2 units, drop them on the surface of the carrier, then guide them to a network port and download a virus onto their system whilst uploading important data about the carrier.

Once you've retrieved your R2 get out of there, expect some attention from the Droid Fighters who will defend their mother ship."

Pilot Upgrades - (from the ongoing Campaign)

Rick O'Shea bought himself some Lightening Reflexes.
Commander Wayne Kerr saved his cash.
Crank Case took the miserly option and saved.
Spike Sharpie turned up in a smart new E Wing.

Set Up

Scenario should be played on a space station map if avaliable

Rebel players set up on the top edge of the map.

Empire Set up is 2 Tie Droids per Rebel Player, PS is random from the Squadron Pilots (1,3 or 4) drawn at random from available cards. No random ships.

Place 6 markers on the table as shown to represent the data ports on the carrier deck.

Game lasts 10 turns.

Lack of model R2s lead to improvisation.

Special Rules

R2 units - Each Rebel ship carries an R2 unit externally, it can only drop the units onto the surface of the carrier in the final (Imperial) third of the map. It takes an action to drop the unit. Once on the surface the unit moves with a PS 0. The unit can move any 1 template or a straight 2. When it reaches a data point roll 1d6, on a 4,5 or 6 (if it fails try again next turn) the unit connects and spends the next turn up/downloading data. The unit then needs to be picked up and hyperspaced outta there ! (No you cant shot at them you evil Empire player, you).

OOHHH shiny E Wing

Jump to Hyperspace  - To leave the table you need to declare your attempt and then try and gain 2 critical hits, hits from previous rolls carry forward. You cannot attempt to jump until after turn 4.

Turn 1. Roll 3 attack die

Turn 2. Roll 3 attack die + Pilot Skill / 2 (round up)

Turn 3. Automatically jump

Tie Droid Fighters Mk2 - Usual rules, Tie Droids act and have stats as normal TIEs except,

1) Not effected by Stress, they never earn a stress token, so can red manoeuvre for free.

2) Droid pilots are immune to critical pilot hits just take the hit.

3) Droid fighters are fragile, they explode due to feedback on any Hull Critical regardless of the number of hull points left.

Tonight's comedy Empire moment, 4 Ties collide with each other in a rush to be the first to shoot at an E Wing

2 new Droid Fighters should appear at random for every three that are lost.

Victory Conditions

Rebel Victory -  Download more than half the R2 units, victory points are only given to those who successfully escape with a droid full of data.

Imperial Victory - Less than half of the R2 units are downloaded.

Draw - Any other result.

How did we get on

Sickness and shift work had thinned the ranks this evening and only four pilots took on the "might" of the empire this evening.

With individual victory conditions the Rebel players stumbled in the light of the glitter of personal glory and split up rather than adopting their usual tighter formation.

This led to tragedy early in the game as (queue solemn music, wailing and gnashing of teeth) Wayne Kerr was caught in the crossfire of 4 Tie Droids and shot down, he rolled the dice of death, a sharp intake of breath, A CRIT !!! R.I.P Wayne. Survivor of 7 (and a bit missions).

Goodbye Wayne

We allowed Chris to re-incarnate as Ensign Wayne Kerr Jnr, a son on a mission to avenge the death of his father, for a bit of a change he chose a HWK-290 which if he survived this game would automatically get him 7GC to upgrade with, however those GCs are hard to hold on with Tie Droids K turning around the place at will.

It was a week where rather than crashing into each other (apart from one notable comedy moment photographed above), asteroids and rolling hand full of blanks that the Empire actually had some decent dice. Tie Droids are a bit fragile (basically a standard Tie with the added ablity to blow up with a single crit hit). All the rebel ships had lost their shields towards the end of the game and only two R2 units got deployed before everyone jumped away.

WK Jnr survived (just) and with a succesful robot deployment has a few quid to trick out his Hawk, it will be interesting to see how this ship develops. Mostly ignored in a points / competition style game it could be quite useful in a campaign format

An honourable draw. As a scenario it would probably have worked better with more Rebels, as a campaign game it was a challenge for the Rebs.

Rebel Pilot results below,

Pilot Rick O'Shea (4) - B Wing, survived, 2 kills, 3GC - Totals, Missions 14, 3 GC, 17 kills

Pilot Spike Sharpie - E Wing (4),survived, 2 kills, 3GC - Totals, Missions 14, 5 GC, 13 kills

Pilot Crank Case - Y Wing (3) survived, 2 kills, 2GC - Totals, Missions 9, 5 GC 7 kills

Pilot Commander Wayne Kerr - Shot down and killed.

Pilot Ensign WK Jnr (1) - HWK-290, survived, 0 kills, 7 GC - Totals Missions 1, 7 GC, 0 kills

Not Present 

Pilot Pop Cicle - A Wing (3) not present - Totals, Missions 7, 10 GC, 2 kills

Pilot Captain Tangent - A Wing (3), not present, 0GC  - Totals, Missions 7, 6 GC, 0 kills

Pilot Oi M'Groin - Y Wing (2) not present - Totals, Missions 4, 3 GC 0 kills

Pilot Sir Jeremy Dodger - X Wing (2), Not Present - Totals Missions 3, 7 GC, 2 kills

Pilot Twiki Bond - A Wing (1), Not Present - Totals Missions 1, 6 GC, 0 kills

Roll of Honour

Pilot Brian RIP

Pilot Commander Wayne Kerr veteran of 7 Missions, RIP

Is that a Hawk !

Jim head mechanic in the Rebel Garage was busy down the local book shop looking for a Haynes Workshop Manual for a HWK-290.

Result (2 pts for a win, 1 for a draw)

Draw

Campaign overall score is, Empire 12 pts, Rebels 16 pts

X Wing madness will return with game 15 on 24th June, a big game with 3 huge ships, cue chaos.

X Wing - The Campaign - Game 13 - Runaway Tantive

Runaway Tantive

This is a continuation of the X Wing Campaign, full explanation and details of Campaign rules are here.

Note for pendants house campaign rules allow ships to fly round and under huge ships

Mission Briefing

"Gentlemen, a tough mission for you today, grab you're four leaf clovers and buckle up for your 13th mission.

We have just received a short encoded message from the CR90 - Windbreaker who was on a supply run to our Sulphur Mining Facility in the neighbouring sector. Imperial troops have stowed on board and taken over the ship, our man on board has overheard the Stormtroopers plan, they are going to fly the Windbreaker into the mine destroying it and the Sulphur stored there.

The end of the message was garbled something about the Wind being out of control and the Stormtroopers swearing a lot.

Be careful out there you will be fighting in an asteroid field.

Get in there and stop that ship "

Pilot Upgrades - (from the ongoing Campaign)

Rick O'Shea saved his dosh, happy in his B Wing.
Pop Cicle replaced is vapourised B Wing with an A Wing
Commander Wayne Kerr saved his cash too.
Crank Case took the typical cowardly rebel choice and got a shield upgrade
Captain Tangent bought a Munitions Fail safe but didn't fly.
Spike Sharpie chose to save his cash again and has been seen down the canteen with some new ship brochures.

Set Up

Empire Set up is based on the standard rules in the initial post, 6 TIEs in two squadrons, we had two PS1 Academy Pilots with PS5 Night Beast as Sqn Leader. The second Squadron had a PS 3 Obsidian Sqn Pilot, a PS1 Pilot with PS 8 Howlrunner as Sqn Leader (all chosen at random by Rebel players)

Empire random ships are rolled up on a table with the Pilots again selected at random, we ended up with a Lambda Shuttle with PS2 Pilot in the hot seat fitted out with Sensor Jammers, Anti Pursuit Lasers and a Weapons Engineer and a TIE Bomber with a PS7 Major Rhymer carrying a Proton Bomb and 2 each of Proton Torpedoes and Concussion Missiles.

Imperial ships start with the CR90 in the centre of the table, a sqn of Ties either side and then a random deployment for the specialised ship, roll 1 d4 for set up location, 1 at head, 2 on right, 3 at tail and 4 on left.

Same random set up for Rebs, each pilot rolls a d4 for set up and place their ship on that table edge.

Asteroids - Start with 4 on table, split the table into 9 x 9 squares (as the map) roll 2d10 ignore and re roll 10s for asteroid set up, move if on a ship base.

Game lasts 8 turns.

Special Rules (Lots this week !)

Asteroids - after all ships have moved roll 4 attack dice, any hits (not crits) generate a new asteroid, roll a d10 and place it on the edge of the table opposite the CR90s front in the rolled position (ignore 10s).

Then roll 1 d4 per asteroid on table, that then equals the asteroids move, they move from the top to the bottom in their lane and exit the table when they get to the bottom.

Ships may fire at asteroids, 2 hits in 1 turn destroys them (no carry over), 1 hit will move the asteroid away from the direction of fire into the next lane. Ships may roll 1 attack dice at a time and stop when the desired effect is achieved.

Otherwise normal asteroid rules apply.

13th Mission for Night Beast

Jump to Hyperspace  - To leave the table you need to declare your attempt and then try and gain 2 critical hits, hits from previous rolls carry forward. You cannot attempt to jump until after turn 4.

Turn 1. Roll 3 attack die

Turn 2. Roll 3 attack die + Pilot Skill / 2 (round up)

Turn 3. Automatically jump

CR 90 Windbreaker - The ship doesn't move on the map, everything is determined to be moving relative to it (don't even think about the physics, it works game wise).

The CR90 is not under full Imperial control and the Stormtroopers have switched on the autopilot to "smooth" out the journey, all actions of the ship are random.

The ship starts with 2 energy and generates 3 energy per turn.

Fore has the following upgrades Comms Booster, Gunnery Team, Quad Laser Cannon, Enhanced Targeting Scopes, Tibanna Gas

Aft has Repair Droid, Back Up Shield Generator, Single Turbo Laser.

The CR90 isn't under full control and will act in a random manner.

Firing, CR90 will always fire if energy and a target is available. It will fire at Asteroids on a collision course with it first, then at the nearest (within range band), then highest PS.

Energy (Roll 1d6) - 1-2 Add 1 energy to both lasers, 3-4 Use Comms Booster, 5-6 add two energy to a laser at random.

Actions (Roll 1d6 if not possible use next) If no hull damage that turn

Fore 1-3 Target lock nearest rebel, 4-6 Co-ordinate

Aft 1-3 Reinforce, 4-6 Recover

Actions (Roll 1d6 if not possible use next) If hull damage that turn.

Fore 1-2 Tibanna Gas, 3-5 Target lock nearest rebel, 6 Co-ordinate

Aft 1-3 Repair Droid, 4-5 Reinforce, 6 Recover

If I stay here no one will see me !

Victory Conditions

Rebel Victory -  Destroy the CR 90 before the end of turn 8 (cripple both sections).

Imperial Victory - Destroy the CR90 at the end of turn 8 by slamming it into the mining facility.

Draw - 1 section of CR90 crippled.

How did we get on

WARNING - If you play points based competitions your brain may struggle to cope with this.

This is the most random scenario we have attempted and the balance could swing wildly in both directions, it looks unwinnable from a Rebel point of view but with the usual die rolling and luck of the Empire it isn't. I had some PS2 X Wings on stand by to help the rebels if they got swamped but we didn't need them.

Turn 1 Spike Sharpie took out Howlrunner with one shot, then the next turn the Shuttle accidental flew off the table. It didn't get any better for the Empire.

Whilst the Imperial Pilots were busy flying off the table, into each other and asteroids the Rebels concentrated on the Aft section of the CR90 and soon crippled the aft section.

Night Beast excelled by flying into an asteroid and blowing up.

Thankfully the Rebels lost focus and started chasing lone Ties around the board instead of finishing off the CR90, with cumulative damage starting to take toll and not making any further headway on the mission objective the Rebels started to jump at the end of turn 4 and had all gone by turn 6.

An honourable draw, more classic comedy moments from the Empire, bring back Jeff Vader !

Rebel Pilot results below,

Pilot Rick O'Shea (4) - B Wing, survived, 1 kills, 3GC - Totals, Missions 13, 3 GC, 15 kills

Pilot Spike Sharpie - B Wing (4),survived, 1 kills, 5GC - Totals, Missions 13, 18 GC, 11 kills

Pilot Crank Case - Y Wing (3) survived, 0 kills, 2GC - Totals, Missions 8, 3 GC 5 kills

Pilot Pop Cicle - A Wing (3) survived 0 kills, 8GC - Totals, Missions 7, 10 GC, 2 kills

Pilot Commander Wayne Kerr - X Wing (3) survived 0 kill, 2GC - Totals, Missions 7, 8 GC, 3 kills.

Not Present 

Pilot Captain Tangent - A Wing (3), survived 0 kills, 0GC  - Totals, Missions 7, 6 GC, 0 kills

Pilot Oi M'Groin - Y Wing (2) survived 0 kills - Totals, Missions 4, 3 GC 0 kills

Pilot Sir Jeremy Dodger - X Wing (2), Not Present - Totals Missions 3, 7 GC, 2 kills

Pilot Twiki Bond - A Wing (1), Not Present - Totals Missions 1, 6 GC, 0 kills

Roll of Honour

Pilot Brian RIP

Jim head mechanic in the Rebel Garage has got his feet up with a brew watching Emmerdale.

Result (2 pts for a win, 1 for a draw)

Draw

Campaign overall score is, Empire 11 pts, Rebels 15 pts

X Wing madness will return with game 14 in June.

WW1 Naval in 1/2400 (a new project begins)

First Crack at some GHQ

SMS Derfflinger

One of those on the back burner ideas suddenly popped back into my head last month. Regular readers will be well aware of my large 1/3000 WW2 Naval Collections and a trip into WW1 has always been under consideration. Many years ago when I was more active in the Leeds club there was a chap who had every, and I mean every, ship from WW1 in 1/3000 so I never bothered getting any. He stopped coming to the club a while back and the WW1 itch has been in the background for a while.

Batch 1 of my WW1 Collection.

Rather than go for another massive 1/3000 collection I opted for the much larger size, higher detailed and much more expensive GHQ range. These are great models, no doubt about it, the cost is quite prohibitive but then I'm not planning a massive amount of these (stop laughing at the back !).

SMS Blucher

I ordered these from Wargames Emporium in Sheffield, a small grumble for what is normally an excellent company, I ordered about 12 ships from the website, it was only the next day that they got in contact with me to say they only had four of the ships in stock. Surely it would be better to be told at the point of order ? They have kept me updated on the status of the remainder of the ships but I am still waiting for them a month later. So I ended it with 4 ships and these are shown individually below.

SMS Derfflinger

SMS Nurnberg

HMS Arethusa

SMS Blucher

Painting wise I have done very little different from my 1/3000 collection, I did a Sea Base Tutorial HERE and used the same technique on these. I used acrylic paints and inks to paint the ships themselves, if I get any interest I may do a Box to Table post on these in the future.

I'm looking initially at a Battlecruiser set up along the lines of Dogger Bank and will start play testing when the rest of the collection arrives and gets painted. I will use my existing WW2 rules with relevant tweeks, everyone in our group is happy with that set so why change. I'm more than happy with the way these have turned out and I'm looking forward to doing some more. There are a couple of bent guns which I didn't notice until I'd done the photographs, I'll straighten them out eventually.

Have I been distracted from my 2015 28mm Ancients Project ? Possibly.

28mm WW1 Sikh Battalion

A Woodbine Design WW1 New Unit

A short show off post today on my new WW1 unit, a battalion of Sikh Infantry which finishes off a 4 battalion Brigade for Palestine 1917, but is also used for Iraq and will appear in the ongoing Gallipoli game at some stage soon.

The unit has a 2 fig HQ section and 4 x 8 figure companies, I have also done a MG base to support the battalion. Figures are from the Gripping Beast side company Woodbine Design Company, they are by far the best range in my humble opinion for the period and they have made many a hole in my wallet over the years. The recent game got the juices flowing again for this period and I bought these and painted them in a week (I already had 10 done from a few years ago). I made another order this week of a big load of Turks, oops sidetracked again !

I haven't done a box to table post on these as they will be a one off unit and lets face it they are even more obscure than my last B2T post on 15mm SYW Hanoverian Infantry. These really are "knocked out" and are much more technique than talent.

For those interested, method is black under coat, painted clothing all over Khaki, dry brushed Buff then Buff/White. Dark Brown paint for the flesh and ammo belts, highlighted Burnt Umber. Then I used Beige Brown for the Rifles and flesh highlights. A quick highlight on the rifle and a further highlight on the flesh with Beige Red. Metal parts painted Gunmetal Grey and finished off with a wash of Devlan Mud GW Wash (its nearly gone !). Usual basing, no grass tufts as this collection was started years ago before they were invented. All the colour codes etc will be on previous B2T posts, I tend to use most colours regularly and always base the same way.

So there we have another unit done, I'm supposed to be on with Project 2015 my 28mm Ancients but you know how it is with the shiny.

Gallipoli Landings - A Scenario and AAR - Part 1

28mm WW1 Action in the Dardanelles

ANZAC troops advance through broken ground under Artillery Fire

With the 100th Anniversary of the landings this year I had decided in December to stage this game at this time and I spent quite a bit of time trying to sort out a suitable Scenario / Game plan. My WW1 collection has become a bit of a Christmas Game tradition and it usually sits in its Really Useful Boxes for the rest of the year waiting for its festive outing, no doubt the little metal fellows were quite surprised to be back in action so soon after our Nasiriyeh game.

I decided to base our game around the Z Beach landing at ANZAC Cove and set about doing some planning. It became very quickly apparent that the terrain would be a challenge and that I would struggle to represent the rocky undulating hills and crags of the battlefield, I didn't have nearly enough hills and had to resort to something I haven't done since I were t'lad, books under a green cloth ! Those of you familiar with the real thing will notice similarities between game table and real life, the main three plateaus are in place for example.

There was also going to be a figure issue with trying to recreate the Z Beach landings exactly, troops, I have 2 battalions of ANZACs and one of our other regulars has just got a battalion as well, that's no where near enough, even with recycling casualties (and there will be a lot) so I will need to use the remainder of my Empire WW1 stuff at some stage. My biggest disappointment was that I wouldn't be able to use my Camel Troops who are one of my favourite units at the moment. So this was very much going to be a game "along the lines of" rather than a simulation.

We would be using the trusty If the Lord Spares Us rules from Toofatlardies with some minor modifications to the game sequence during parts of the game. I will be posting this battle as a joint Scenario / AAR post in a series of episodes for a couple of reasons. One, the game is ongoing and there is quite a bit of stuff upcoming which the players don't know about and I would hate for them to "cheat" by reading what was going to happen next on here. Two, this game could be on the table for a while, there is a lot of stuff to get on and a lot of difficult terrain to get through, added to that some of our band of table top generals are off to the US of A next month so there we be a break in gaming here at Castle R. I like to keep these posts manageable in size and exciting enough for you guys and girls to come back for more. So I will post up the game in a time line format, each of our game turns will represent 10 minutes of real time.

The Map

Terrain Notes

Layer 1 hills are classed as a rough ground and units lose 1d av movement on them, same for the patches of rough ground. The building on the hill over looking the beach represents the Fishermans Hut and offers cover as a standard building. The effect of higher hills will be revealed to the players in the next game. All troops whilst stationary will be classed as being in light cover, this represents the undulating rocky terrain interspersed with numerous bushes and other light cover. Turkish troops will be classed as being in heavy cover if fighting from their initial start locations as they would have had time to prepare their positions.

04.30 Move 1. (Dark)

Turkish Troops - On table at the start is the Second Battalion of the 27th Infantry, 1 HQ (2figs), 4 companies of 6 figs and 2 MG models, classed as Johnny Turks. They have a free set up anywhere off the beach. Set up on blinds (one per company / mg) with 7 blanks.

Empire Troops - There are three boats which set up one move off the beach, to simulate the confusion of the landings on the day divide the beach into 20 equal sectors, sector 1 by the Fishermans Hut, 20 by the headland, roll 1 d20 per boat and set up opposite that location.

Each boat will contain 2 companies of ANZAC Infantry (each company is 10 figures from the same battalion, three different battalions are represented in the first wave) classed as Diggers, roll 1d6 for each boat on a 1,2,3 the HQ company of that battalion will be in the boat, 4,5,6 and there will be an MG base in the boat.

Move Sequence - rather than the usual card driven activation I decided to use an alternative to give the Turks the initiative of firing from unseen positions on the hills around the beaches. Troops in the boats count count as being in soft cover, firing out they are classed as moving.

Turks Spot, Move, Fire
Empire Spot, Fire (count as moving in the boats, MGs are not set up)
There is NO suppression removal for either side whilst dark / dusk.

Split any suppression randomly against all the units in the boat,the boats themselves are representative of a large number of smaller launches and damage is not recorded against them, loss / damage to boats will be reflected later in the game.

Usually once a unit shoots it is visible so there is no modifier in the rules for spotting a firing unit, to reflect this use one cover level lower to spot during this phase of the game.

Our game saw the three boats as follows, No 1 with MG set up 10 from the Fishermans Hut. No 2 with a HQ section 14 from the hut. No 3 with an MG and set up 17 from the hut or 3 from the headland and the hidden MG, if you prefer it that way. Some poor dice rolling for the Turks saw the ANZACs pick up 7 suppression across the whole force of 68 figures.

First shot of the day from the Turkish MG, it could only get better

04.40 Move 2 (Dark)

Landing boats beach.

Our game saw a round of better shooting from the Turks inflicting 3 casualties and 13 suppression.

04.50 Move 3 (Dawn)

Troops Disembark. Boats leave the table.

Not a lot of room on this part of the beach.

05.00 Move 4 (Dawn)

A MG on the headland with enfilade, predictable and not nice

More casualties for the ANZACs as they attempt to get off the beach, the Turks on the headland are spotted and an MG is set up to counter them.

05.10 (Daylight) Move 5

The confusion of the night landing is over and the troops start to get organised, to reflect this normal suppression removal rules are back in play.

The Turkish player receives 1 battery off small calibre Artillery (on table 3d6 attack).

Spotting rules return to normal.

ANZAC MG opens up on the Turks on the headland.

The Turkish dice had woken up at this point and one company was down to 4 figures and retreating due to its suppression level as was another company at the Hut end of the beach. The above MG lasted a whole turn, the Turkish MG firing back (which had rolled 3 1s in the first turn) rolled 3 6s and wiped out the Empire MG in 1 shot, not good. On the positive side the Infantry had got off the beach in the centre where opposition was the weakest and was starting to do some damage to the visible Turkish troops.

05.20 Move 6

Normalish service resumes rules wise, we revert to the standard ITLSU card activation, however the deck contains only unit cards (no stiff upper lip etc) and with agreement of the players no Tea Break card at this stage.

That's enough sitting on the beach, lets go exploring.

The landing troops start to advance off the beach, most of the Turkish fire has been suppressed at this point, however once in sight of the hills the Turkish Artillery starts to have an effect.

05.30 Move 7

The second wave of boats arrives on the table containing the remainder of the three battalions who arrived in the first wave.

Boat 1 has two companies and a HQ arriving a position 20 (that's right next to the headland and the Turkish MG !). Boat 2 has 2 companies and a MG arriving at position 17 whilst the final boat with 2 coys and a HQ is the first boat to land near the Fishermans Hut at position 5.

The second wave hits the beach

Boat 1 took heavy casualties from the MG at very close range but managed to suppress the MG into silence.

A good start to the game, the Turks have inflicted some heavy casualties on the Empire troops who in the confusion of the landings have drifted close to the Turkish MGs, now coming under fire from Turkish Artillery they are looking to seize ground quickly before Turkish re enforcement arrives. We've got evening sessions set for the 4th and the 14th which should see us get another 2 or 3 hours into the game real time. Tune in next time.