Final Word on WMMS

And finally, no show would be complete without a little bit of spending!

First up, a visit to Ainsty Castings to pick up various trade goods; these will be equally suitable in Victorian Sci-Fi games, Thirty Years' War, Warhammer and pretty much any other game that we play.

Next, a trip to Britannia Miniatures where they were selling a bunch of Pirate-y stuff, including Naval crews, rowing boats and all sorts of bits and bobs. I didn't go mad, and just bought some deck cannons for my Man-o-War and a couple of figureheads. Meanwhile, Paul and Gary bought into a load of 20mm Modern War stuff that Britannia were also selling; whether any of it ever gets painted is another question!

And finally, I managed to pick up a copy of the 7TV core rules. Gary bought the last copy at Wargamer, so  I had to content myself with just picking up the Summer Special supplement. Now I've got the core rules, I will admit I've spent the last couple of days poring over the internet looking for suitable models to add to my cast. 

WMMS 2012: Steinkirche Part III

The view from above!

The action hots up as the Schlammersdorf Regt. continue to plough their way through Aldringen

...only to then find themselves faced with a fresh veteran heavy-armoured Nuremberg regiment

Fierce fighting between Nuremberg (left) and Schlammersdorf (right)

The Swedish Yellow regt., heroes of the last game, advance to support Schlammersdorf

Meanwhile, in the village, the Schwarze Kurassiers show up on the flank of the fleeing Red regt.

The much-reduced Schlammersdorf and Nuremberg regiments continue fighting,
with the Yellow regiment now deployed to support

On the Swedish right flank, the Blue regiment continue their stoic fight against Loebl
while Hepburn's Scots march onto the camp unopposed

The view from the Imperial Saker downhill towards Hepburn's Scots 

View from behind the Swedish lines

The Nuremberg regiment finally see off Schlammersdorf,
only to find themselves facing the fresh Yellow regiment

And here the game ended. The fighting on the Swedish left flank had been fierce, and they were just inches short of the camp board, but on the right flank the Blue regiment and Hepburn's Scots punched through and seized victory. Two out of two wins for the Swedes!

As I mentioned earlier, we won the prize for 3rd Best Demo Game. The two games that beat us were Leamington, with a Wild West/Cowboys & Indians game, and Shrewsbury/Like A Stonewall with the same pirate game they showed at Wargamer (which we beat to 1st prize there!)

Leamington's 2nd place winning game

A couple of better shots of the pirate game

In all honestly, even though 3rd prize is a respectable achievement for only our second outing, we came away feeling a little disappointed after having seen who (or rather, what) we were beaten by. Of course, we're biased but we thought we were better than 3rd. Still, it leaves room for more improvement and we at least came away winning something which is what we aimed for!

WMMS 2012: Steinkirche Part II

When it came time to start the game, Paul elected to stick with the Imperials and try to correct the loss of the first game, and so I was given command of the Swedes once again. The roll for initial forces for the Swedes saw the Schlammersdorf, Blue and Hepburn infantry regiments turn up.

Schlammersdorf begin their advance, under the watchful eye of Gustavus Adolphus himself

The Swedes advance along the flanks, as the Imperials begin to show up in the camp

The Swedish Blue regiment accompanied by Baner

The Imperial Aldringen regiment take up position in the camp, as Wallenstein gazes on

More Imperial reinforcements - the Loebl (top left) and Jung-Tilly regiment (bottom left) 

The second wave of Swedes - we were lucky to get every unit on by this stage

Schlammersdorf advance under fire from the Aldringen regiment

Tott's Kurassiers advance onto the field, followed by the Swedish Yellow regiment

The Red regiment advance alongside the Upplands cavalry

Aldringen take up position on the edge of the camp board,
while Jung-Tilly advance in support

Schlammersdorf approach the Imperial lines, with the Vastgota cavalry advancing in support

View from the rear of the Swedish lines as the first units approach Imperial lines

View of the approaching Swedes from the Imperial PoV!

The Vastgota cavalry form line to charge, while
Schlammersdorf struggle across the inconvenient shrubbery

Lots of Imperials!

The backlog of Swedish troops mounts up
 (for some reason, they all showed up on the left flank!)

View towards the Imperial centre; Jung-Tilly have formed square ahead of  the Vastgota and
Upplands cavalry, while Schlammersdorf and Aldringen struggle with each other

WMMS: The Aftermath

Phew! The fun and games of Alumwell are over for another year, and it's taken the last 24 hours to recover. A bigger show than Wargamer, so correspondingly it was a lot more work. It was worth it though, because we came away with our second trophy - we won 3rd Best Demo Game (behind Shrewsbury/Like a Stonewall and Leamington respectively, both of whom always seem to win 1st and 2nd every year...). So that's two awards from two shows, which is definitely something to be proud of! More on that later though...

Without further ado, roll the pictures!