An afternoon with Ron Ringrose

Well, thanks to my eldest daughter, I got an invite to the home of the famous war gamer and collector (it turns out Louise works with his daughter-in-law !)

He only lives about 40 minutes away from me, so no hardship at all.

Here's Ron with a small part of his collection

The view from the doorway of his war-games room

and at the entrance

Here's the view from the back of the house

and this is the garage where Ron makes his scenery and buildings

A general shot of some of the shelves full of troops

American War of Independence is a particular favourite of Ron's

Serving wenches and geese !

Portuguese Napoleonic period

Ron has fleets of ships for various periods, some home made, others bought from all around the world

And lastly, the views across to the River Crouch from the front of Ron's property

The great man was very welcoming and proud to show off his wonderful collection, which has graced many a show and quite often is seen in Wargames Illustrated magazine.

Can't wait to return and actually have a game sometime !

Regimental Fire and Fury : Club Game

Today, four of us; Rafael, Wes, Steve Clarke and I fought out the McPherson's Ridge scenario for Regimental Fire and Fury at Essex Warriors.

Here's the scenario and the rule book

Battlefield from left of the Confederate position, at the beginning

View from right of the Confederate position

The scenario book we used

Here's Steve Clarke and Wes planning their moves

Centre of the Union line and the important ridge line

Out on the left, Union troops realise the threat to their flank

Whereas over on the right, Rebel infantry mass on the water line

The Rebels charge up the incline left of centre

at the same time as the large Rebel unit on the Union right flank charges home 

Confederate guns receive count battery fire early on and one gun is disabled

These are the chaps who caused the damage.

The Union forces on the Federal right retreat, heavily out numbered

as the Rebs in the valley crash across the water and head for the Union lines

Feds and Rebs clash in the woods in the centre ground

The Rebel commander on the left sends one unit to pursue the enemy whilst the other units sort themselves out

The Union commander surveys the field, obviously worried about the rapid collapse of his right.

Time for the Union commanders to pause for thought !

Looks like Rafael is planning something fiendish.

The Rebs charge again on the left, determined to finish any Union resistance over there

But Union troops over the other side of the battlefield have poured forwards to attack the Rebs on the water line.

This now ebbs and flows for a long time

The Union boys on the extreme right desperately hold on for now

as a Rebel unit hits the rail way cut to advance on the Union centre

The centre is a whirl of clashing units but Union casualties have mounted fast

Under the scenario rules, if the Union casualties are really heavy, they begin to lose cohesion and activations become more problematic - this is what happened here.

We stopped before the Rebs had actually captured the ridge but with the problems they had caused the Union, it was pretty certain this would have happened in short order.

A hard fought game - Wes's first go at Regimental Fire & Fury, but I think we've got him hooked !