Armoured car

I often take the Kinchlets for long walks. One of our regular haunts is Collins barracks which is Ireland’s military history museum.  It is closed on Mondays, something which I had forgotten, but the walk did us good and I had the chance to photograph this AML-90. 

The AML 90 is a French built armoured car with a 90mm low pressure gun.  It has seen extensive service with the French Foreign Legion and with the South African Army.  The  South African version was called the Eland-90.  The vehicle proved very successful in African conditions with the 4x4 providing excellent mobility on plains and the 90mm gun capable of tackling second line armour, albeit at close ranges. 

The light weight (6 tons) of the vehicle meant that it was highly portable and the FFL deployed then directly from aircraft to support parachutists. 

Irish AMLs were used almost exclusively on UN service and were acquired in the 1960s.  They served in Lebanon and saw combat in the confrontation at At-Tiri in the early 1980s. 

The AMLs were retired 2013, which is presumably how Collins Barracks got theirs. 

In other news - I fear we may have been infiltrated by Bonapartists. 

Screw you Flanders!

This made me laugh rather more than it should. 

General Creaner and I played a game of Command & Colours The Great War recently.  General Creaner is something of an enthusiast for the period and the system.  

Cambrai

General Creaner is running a Great War games day in the near future and wanted to finish the day off with a large scale multi-player game.  Now as it happens the powers that be haven't released a multi-player version of the Great War yet, but we decided to cobble together something.  General Creaner picked Cambrai as the scenario that seemed most open to adaptation. 

The clanking rattling monsters roll forward

Something the Great War gets absolutely right in my opinion is how absolutely brutal tanks can be.  They are slow and can easily fall foul of terrain, but they soak up a great deal of fire. I was only able to knock out one in the course of the game.  They aren't game winning, but you can't afford to ignore them.

The British first wave hits my line

Some very successful British artillery smashed my front line on the right and I had to fall back.  

Things were looking a bit healthier on the left, but those tanks were getting awfully close. 

The tanks finally crash through the German line

It was at this point that the wheels really came off the wagon.  With Tommy's swarming over my front line and tanks shrugging off everything I could throw at them, I resorted to desperate measures calling in artillery on my own position in the hope of blasting the chaps all around me.  It worked (sort off) and I managed to hold General Creaner to a 16-13 score line, but I was eventually overwhelmed. 

Observations & Conclusions

The game worked.  Our generic sort of Memoir '44 Overlord/CCNapoleonics Epic multi-player rules worked relatively well. 

The cognitive load is substantial.  I was playing the part of four players.   This was a slow game and took about two and a half hours, which is a long time for a command and colours game.  I actually found that this made the game less entertaining for me - but as the objective was to simply test if the setup was feasible - it wasn't a huge issue.  It's very unlikely that we will play this game this way again.  

It's all go here. Arthur Kinch in characteristic pose. 

You've probably noticed that the blog postings aren't coming as thick and fast as they used to and for that my apologies.  Now that I'm back at work and the Kinchlets are a bit more mobile, the days are just packed.  Between trying to keep up my fiction writing commitments and everything else,  poor old J&F isn't getting the attention, but I am trying to keep it ticking over.  

But while I'm at it I have a question, I am rather smitten with the Kinchlets and as children go, I think they're smashing.  I am, however, well aware that perhaps not everyone is an enamoured of children as I am and to those who are not immediately concerned with them they are deathly dull.  

So, do you find occasional domestic (usually child related) incidents entertaining or should I stick to the war gaming pure and simple?