Cara Al Sol...

...Los Camisas Neuvas!

Today I started building my Division Azul platoon for Chain of Command. The figures are the Warlord Games' plastic 'Blitzkrieg' German infantry 1939-42, and are pretty characterful. Reasonably easy to build, and ingenious touches like the one-piece pouches are great. I'm splitting them into three squads, each with a different set of poses - one standing firing, one charging (with grenade-throwing and bayonet) and one prone and kneeling, firing. So far I've made up a mere handful of men, but here they are on my painting table:

Yesterday evening I went with JY to a wargames and games club based in Coventry, where I played a very nice chap called Kevin at X-Wing. His tactics weren't brilliant, and I beat him 100-59 with my TIE swarm, and then we swapped sides and I beat him 100-0 with his X-Wing/Y-Wing flight. Here's the turn-by-turn pics from the first game:

 Setup - Obsidian Sqn in their usual two flight groups side-by-side. Note the Y-Wings in the Rebel centre and the X-Wings off to starboard.

 End Turn One: Obsidian Sqn and the Rebels move in, no-one in range. Asteroids ahoy; time to move.

 End Turn Two: I made a serious error here. 'B' Flight moved 2 Forwards rather than 3 Forwards, which meant that 'A' Flight ran into them. D'oh! However the Rebels were not in a position to capitalise on this; ion turrets hit O5 but Obsidian Sqn firing knocked an ion turret off one of the Grey Squadron ships.

 End Turn Three: The furball begins! TIEs manouvering as best they could; O5 causing some problems as it drifts under the effects of the Ion blast.

 End Turn Four: O5 goes west, but so has one of Grey Squadron and now I outnumber them 2:1 and have concentration of firepower too.

 End Turn Five: The Rebels break, my TIEs strip them of their shields as they lose formation.

 End Turn Six: Howlrunner down! But so is the second Y-Wing, and the X-Wings are separated.

 End Turn Seven: O2 has managed to K-Turn himself in front of one of the X-Wings - an error of judgement on my part. Miraculously he only took two damage rather than go BOOM.

 End Turn Eight: One X-Wing down, one to go, but O2 has gone. I now have a 4:1 advantage, but not for long...

 End Turn Nine: Another TIE breaks up under the punishing firepower of the X-Wing, in return for a point of hull damage.

End Turn Ten: And that's all she wrote. Outnumbered 3:1, the last X-Wing is shot down and the day belongs to the Empire. Score: 100 points to 59.

In the rematch I flew the Rebels as a single flight, splitting into two elements each of a Y-Wing and X-Wing about half-way through. Kevin's lack of experience with a TIE swarm told; he flew them in a ragged line which meant O2 and O3 (both PS5) were on their own and dispatched by turn three, followed shortly thereafter by Howlrunner (PS8) which then meant the PS4 Rebels were shooting first and able to concentrate their fire on a small number of fragile TIEs, often at ranges 1-2, maximising their shooting potential and minimising the TIE's agility advantage. The result there was a whitewash; I destroyed Obsidian Squadron for no losses (although I was down to one hull point on one of the Y-Wings)! I think Kevin may be a tougher opponent next time; he certainly had a pretty solid list!

The club were a friendly bunch and I took some photos of the other wargames going on in the same room:

 The "two Petes" and their Romans-versus-Britons DBA game in 15mm! I think the Romans won but I'm not certain.

 Simon and John setting up for their second X-Wing game. Interceptors versus B- and Y-Wings.

Gary and Tony, playing Pulp Alley! - a race against time to stop the Dastardly Nazis getting away with a Death Ray! No idea who won but lovely terrain, nice models and by the sound of it a jolly fun game.

Oh, and tonight I introduced SB to X-Wing and had a couple of games of Magic: The Gathering. Tomorrow, more Division Azul and probably a bit more X-Wing, because why not!