Last night saw our latest "foray" into WW2-Graham was in charge of the German forces,whilst Brian and Paul were in command of the British-I sat this one out,as I thought up the scenario and a few "surprises" for the commanders,plus I am really not that interested in the period,although I do find it fascinating,with all the different kinds of tanks,weapons,tactics etc.!!!
This is the scenario,on the face of it it looks fairly straightforward,however on move number two,from the top left hand corner of the map,came two platoons of Para's who had landed by glider,and whose mission was to capture the southern hill and "blow" the bridge!
On the German side,two platoons of elite Panzer Grenadiers were travelling by train,to the town,to bolster the defence,and of course the British had no idea of this,nor of the Jagpanther tank hidden behind the Northern hill!!!
This shows the rather spectacular terrain,before any troops were put on the board,the hill in the foreground had a HMG in position to cover the bridge and ford,which as it turned out,did enormous damage to the attacking Para's,coming from the left of the photo!!
Brian is moving his Cromwell tanks against the ford,whilst masking his flank with a Sherman and a Firefly-Paul has moved up to the farm,and has sent a small out-flanking force against the left hand side of the town-all is looking good!
Graham's reaction was swift and decisive-he has sent a Mark 4 out of the town and a Panther towards the bridge,to try and stop the ford being used-will he succeed?
The Para's,and their jeep transport,have come under fire from the HMG on the southern hill-one jeep is knocked out and the platoon is taking casualties-plus Graham had sent some infantry from the town to support the Panther,and they too are giving the Para's hell!!!!
The Panzer Grenadiers have left the train and are moving to block Paul's out-flanking move,whilst the Mark4 and Shermans are battling it out on the right-we had all kinds of action,including Anti-tank guns,mortars,and infantry small arms firing-it all looked very good.
The "hidden" JagPanther has made an appearance,much to the dismay of the British commanders,and is giving the Shermans a right old kicking,backed up by the Mark4.
Brian has managed to get a Cromwell shot up,and has blocked the ford!!Meanwhile the attacking Para's are being shot to pieces-things are not looking good for the British!!
With some street fighting going on,and tanks blazing away at each other(going in favour of the Germans!) and the Para's being held up,and the ford blocked-the British "High Command" decided that they had failed in their mission,and the Germans were declared the winners!
This was a spectacular game to watch,and I'm sure that if the "boys" come up with future scenarios,this period will become a regular feature of our club games.
Last night saw Paul,Brian,Graham and I fighting a very colouful and exciting game using our 28mm 7YW figures..................
This shows the table at about move number 3-Paul and Brian are attacking the central town,held by the Prussians(commanded by Graham and myself),whilst messing us about on both flanks!!
Paul's attack on the town was very impressive,using a combination of volley fire,to pin the defenders,and a most audacious attack across the bridge!!
This shows the action all along the line-neither Brian or I wanted to commit our cavalry too soon,so held back for most of the game(which is very out of character for Brian!!)
On the right,Graham and Paul were having a "ding-dong" battle on the river bank-this was great to see and great wargaming too!
The "ding-dong" battle continues,but Paul's Austrians were getting the worse of it,as he tried to cross the river against Graham's "magic"(for a change) dice throwing-hurrah!!
The cavalry are still looking at each other-it will happen at some point,you know it will!!-but who will charge first???
I did!!!-my first line of "heavies" charge across the river,to be met by a counter-charge by Brian's-the melee was horrendous!!,with more and more squadrons being fed in where necessary-wonderful to see!
Paul's Austrians have stormed and captured the town-this wasn't meant to happen-however,Graham with wonderful foresight,saw what was about to happen,and sent two Prussian regiments to restore the Status Quo(whatever you want!)-this was edge of the seat wargaming!
Paul is being "sent packing" all along his front,and with the town now back in Prussian hands,Graham and I were declared the winners-of course Brian claimed that he would win the cavalry battle on his flank,and wanted a draw(again!!) but to loads of verbal abuse,he had to capitulate!!
Another great game,roll on next Sunday.
As a long time resident of Westerhope,I was made to feel proud when this commemorative seat was erected last week,in time for Remembrance Day-we will never forget!
A permanent reminder from a grateful nation.
Last night we had a 100% turnout for our second WW2 game using Brian's figures and Dave's rules.Paul and I were British and Dave and Graham were Germans.I had sent by "snailmail",information,scenario and objectives etc. to everybody,and they came armed with battle plans-so far,so good!!
Brian had volunteered to be referee,and had a few surprises up his sleeve-the cunning little fox!!!
The top photo is the scenario,the second is the map and the third is how the table looked before any movement/troops.
The first "nasty surprise" for the Germans!!-the bridge had collapsed during the night,rendering the German battle plan "kaput!!"-for that section of the table at least.
Now the German commanders had to think fast-and they did!!
This shows Dave's attack across the bridge,being led by a Puma,which was subjected to all kinds of fire and was eventually lost to our hidden Cromwell tank-hurrah!!-now Brian unleashed his second sneaky trick-the following tank had shed a track!!-blocking the infantry advance and holding up the German attack(you would almost think that Paul and I had bribed the ref.!)
This shows the moment the Puma was destroyed,Paul had hidden in the corner of the field,a Heavy Machine Gun unit,which proceeded to wreck the German infantry trapped on the bridge,much to the dismay of the German high command(ie a lot of swearing!!)
Although I didn't really know what I was doing,I managed to knock out most of Graham's tanks(including a Tiger!) that were attempting to cross the bridge,although he did manage to inflict casualties on my mortar and PIAT crews-but the flank was secured,leaving me room to manoeuver onto the German centre.
Dave,having regained his composure, has put in a magnificent attack on Paul's troops defending the village,so we are rushing as much armour etc. as possible over to the flank-however,Graham has deployed his infantry in the central woods,and is shooting the hell out of my infantry as they try to help Paul-this is serious stuff!!
By a combination of HE fire from tanks and small arms fire from infantry,a platoon of British infantry has been forced to abandon their position in the village-this is not looking good!!-however,Paul has positioned his Cromwells to enfilade any German tanks that try and force the position.
The village is all but abandoned in this shot,as the German infantry pile across the bridge and wade through the river-Paul put up a desperate defence,but the German tanks seemed impervious to his shots from the Cromwells!!- the referee looks pleased with himself!!
Oh dear,don't those Cromwells burn nicely?
This outflanking attempt was thwarted by HMG fire from Graham's troops in the woods,although the tank did continue,and put the German infantry under pressure.
It's all over!! Dave's command is in the village,and his tanks are massing to complete the victory,plus,the 27p we paid the referee obviously wasn't enough,and he declared the Germans the winners!!
This was,to me, an exciting but confusing game(because of my WW2 ignorance!) but alot of points were brought up during the game,and discussed,and the rules ammended,which is always good when preparing a new set of rules for any period-well done to Dave,and of course to the rest of the lads.
Roll on next Sunday,probably an Ancients.
Last night we took a trip down "Memory Lane" by rolling out my 40mm Prince August semi-flat figures(which we are taking to Falkirk in May 2017!) and what a game it turned out to be.
Paul and Brian were French commanders and Dave and Graham were in charge of the British.
This is the simple scenario-Brian ended up in charge of the Bavarians in Moet,whilst Paul had the French and the village of Chandon.
Against Brian,Dave took command of the Dutch,and Graham opposed Paul,all was set for an epic struggle!!
Dave opened the proceedings with a grand attack on Moet-Brian responded by moving Infantry forward to meet the attack,whilst firing his guns at anything that moved!!!
This shows Dave's determined attack on Moet,and Brian's brilliant defence-great stuff!
We call this the "club pose!!"-however if you look at the serious faces,you can tell that they are thinking about their next moves!-both Graham and Paul were manoeuvering their forces to gain the flank,leaving all the fighting,for the time being,to Dave and Brian.
The fight for the flank begins!-Graham has retired back to form a formidable line,of infantry,guns and cavalry-Paul now has a real fight on his hands.
Suddenly,all hell is let loose as the British charge forward,trying to split the French and Bavarian armies-this move was met by the French and Bavarian cavalry,combined with some French infantry-what a spectacle!!-eventually the French were forced back,but with the village of Chandon still in French hands,it was a bit of a "stalemate"-but what of Moet??
This shows the whole table towards the end of move number 10(or 11 if you're Brian!),the village of Moet has fallen to the victorious Dutch,who are now moving to help the situation in the centre.
A draw was called for as Moet had been won by the British and Dutch,but Chandon was still in the hands of the French-a fair result I would say!!
A last defiant shot from Brian's Bavarian infantry,before they retired!
This was a great game,played in good spirit-there may be a few more games before Falkirk!!
Brian has been painting some WW2 British Paratroopers,from Artisan Design,and has done a great job........................
These are lovely figures,loads of movement and detail,and of course nicely painted!
Roll on next Sunday,hopefully a WW2 game,using Brian's figures and Dave's rules.
I'm feeling a bit under the weather today(man flu!!) so this blog will be short and sweet-mainly photo's of last night's game.
Brian and Graham were in charge of the Romans whilst Paul and I commanded the British tribes.
It was action all the way,with both sides putting up a brilliant fight!
This was a good game,not without it's lighter moments,for example Brian was testing the morale on one of his cavalry units,and claimed support from another cavalry unit stationed behind him-however it had to be pointed out to him that the cavalry unit behind him was an enemy unit!!!!-the language was choice to say the least!!
Rorkus Driftus?????-the British tribes eventually won the game,but not before both sides lost their commanding officers,causing all kinds of laughter and rude banter!!
7YW 40mm Austrian Heavy Cavalry.finished,flocked and based-what next???
Roll on next Sunday-don't know what we'll be playing,but could just be a 7YW 40mm game!
By the way,it's two months to Christmas Eve today!!!
