Bovington Tank Museum

This weekend we took a club outing to Tank Museum in Bevington - with loo breaks its about a 2.5 hour drive for us, but there is plenty to see. On the day we only managed the main museum and not the restoration area which has about 150 vehicles.

There was also a vehicle parade that day as part of the D-Day 80 celebrations, with about 80 US/British vehicles assembling before a drive to the coast.

As the ticket is good for a year we may well mount another trip to see the rest before they run out. 

British Mk IV with Fascine

Rolls Royce AC - home please Parker

M3 Grant - a favourite of mine

Crusader - poster boy of the desert campaign

17pdr armed British M10

Stug - workhorse of the German army 

Behind you Adam!

Cut in half Centurion

The mighty Char B

Soviet T-62

Classic Firefly

The Panther

A couple of more special pictures to close - No 3 son in front of a Vickers Medium MkII. The black and white shot is his great grandfather driving the same type of tank in the 1930s

John recreates the iconic image from Tiananmen Square - Tank Guy comes to Bevington. 

  

Beneath the Lilly Banners - encounter game

I'm a couple of weeks behind on my blogging so catching-up on some previous. For the next in our series of Great North War'ish games using BLB we fought a simple encounter game with two fairly even sides. The enemy was not stated but they were of better quality than the Russians so maybe German states?

As the Swedes have less fire power than other armies I went on the attack, hoping for parity in the cavalry whilst my infantry got stuck into the centre.  

The cavalry fight went ok which meant I was able to line-up some assaults in the centre. I took hits going in but was able to push back and eventually break a couple of units, sufficient for a win. 

 

Three Ages of Rome - the Finale

Having gather his forces The Usurper (me) advanced to the gates of Rome and did battle with the forces of Nero. I deployed with my veteran Legions in the centre, flanked by allies including a smattering of Dacian forces. The Nerovian forces fielded several garrison and gladiator units to boost the numbers. 

I attacked on the flanks with cavalry massed in the east and legions supporting my auxiliary in the west. My massed auxiliary made good progress through the western woods but beyond them the legions were pressed hard by the Neronian cavalry. Centrally I pushed up slower while the cavalry, including Samarians, tried to manoeuvre around the Nerovian left.  

Attack through the western woods

Usurper cavalry in the east

Having initially held-back the Nerovian centre began to advance into contact with my veterans. This was fairly even but on my left I was being pushed back by the loyalist cavalry.   

Nero doing well in the west

Eventually I was able to push through the western woods and support the attack in the centre. The centre was pretty attractional but a few Nerovian legions were forced back creating gaps in the line and allowing some double charges.  

Nero's centre collapses

A couple of hours in the Nerovian morale began to falter with units pushed back in the centre and in the east. I was still losing in the west but that was not enough to prevent the collapse of loyalist morale.  

    So a win for The Usurper and like history he was forced to flee the city.    

Three Ages of Rome - week 6

This week was the penultimate week of our Roman adventures. Nero sent a further army against the usurper and two of the legions were posted to Britannia to deal with threats there.

Game 1: Roman vs Britons - British Win

The Romans were charged with advancing towards Londinium with a small force of cavalry to the front and the rest marching along the road.

 

The Britons advanced rapidly and were able to get around the flanks of several Roman units, swamping them and forcing a retreat.  

Game 2; Nero vs Usurper - Usurper Wins

Nero's forces grabbed a local supply base and dared the Usurper to attack. They boosted their numbers by fielding gladiators from the local training school. This game was played solo with order cards allocated randomly until poor morale took hold.

Nerovian defenders

Both sides placed their best troops in the centre but initially they were reluctant to move and so the action was on the flanks. The early turns saw Nero's army with the upper hand as they pushed back the Usurpers units on the right.  

Eventually the Usurpers  veterans got moving and began to push through the gladiators while the right stabilised with the intervention of the archers. About an hour in the Nerovian forces had 4 units routed and the armies morale failed.  

Game 3; Romans vs the Druids - Druids Win

This game was over fairly swiftly so I failed to get any shots. The Romans landed on the Isle of Mona to face Britons revved up by the local Druids. The Romans landed in waves and were defeated in detail by aggressive Brits.   

Three Ages of Rome - week 5

 

Bit of a snafu this week as I managed to delete the wrong photos so don't have shots of part 2 of the Rome vs Gallic battle that was carried over from last week. The result was a win for the Gauls - it was a drawn our affair as both sides were very spread out. The Gauls won in the ends they did better at recovering their units and so avoided having to take army morale tests.