Axis of attack WWII Campaign - week 2, part 2

After a COVID / work inspired gap we managed to complete the final game of turn 3. This involved the Guards armoured attacking some German infantry dug-in around a major road junction. The Guards were in GOODWOOD mode with lots of Sherman's while the Germans had loaded up on AT guns.

The main attack fell on the German right with Firefly's deployed to cover the M4 Sherman's advance. They quickly dealt with the STUGs and some of the AT guns but the rest of the Germans held their fire.    

Things got attractional for a while as the British tried to wear down the Germans without the aid of artillery support. This was a slow business as the Germans were dug-in. 

Eventually the numbers told and the British took one objective before proceeding to put heavy pressure on a second. Time was not their friend and they simply could nt dislodge the Germans from the central village before darkness fell.  

So a draw, meaning it will be refought next week but the  Germans score 1/2 Campaign Point  for holding on. So turn 4 sees all three battles being for control of an Axis. The end of the mini campaign is in sight.  

  

Rumble in the (alien) jungle

Sometimes its fun to paint some terrain and being gifted some Mantic Terrain Crate alien worlds stuff gave me a chance to do something colourful. This could also pass for Jurassic-style jungle and the few of the plants look distinctly carnivorous. 

Axis of Attack WWII Campaign - week 3, part 1

In the third week of the campaign the British were attacking in the North and Centre, whilst the Germans attacked in the South. The attack in the centre was the last square and so a British victory would close down that axis. This game was only half completed so will continue next week,

South - German attack

This game saw the Germans attacking a river, looking to capture two of the three bridges. 

The Brits deployed their infantry and supporting AT guns close the the bridges in the hopes of holding off the attacks.  

The Germans focused their attacks on the left side of the defences, using recon troops to reveal the defenders and then pound them ferociously.  German win 2- 0

North - British attack

The Germans had two villages to defend but the objectives were focused in the east of the field, so focused their units there. The Jadgpanzers were tucked away behind the villages waiting to ambush the attackers.

The British went for additional tanks to reinforce the attack. Faced with the advancing British, the Germans hunkered down and waited to ambush them. The British advanced cautiously using recon elements to draw them into firing. 

With the British artillery proving very effective they managed to capture the two observes and  hunt-down the Jadgpanzers before they could spring their trap. 

The result was a British win 2-0

Campaign picture

With two of the three games completed  both sides have broken through to the final squares. 

 

 

Forces of the Sun King part Deux

 This week our Louis the XIV correspondent reports:

 Some more 20mm  figures for Louis XIV. All from Strelets WSS range.  Painted as Bavarian cuirassiers (unfortunately my eyesight isn't good enough to paint the flags!)

Axis of attacks WWII Campaign - week 2

As we entered week 2 of the mini campaign the Germans were attacking in the North against Brits defending some hamlets. The British in their turn were attacking an open square and one with some fixed defences.

Game 1 (South) - British Infantry attacking German Infantry.

This table was reasonably heavily wooded with plenty of fields breaking-up the sight lines. The British attacked cautiously,  using their artillery and Churchills to clear the way. 

Dug-in German infantry backed by AT guns managed to hold off the attack and to force the Brits into a withdrawal. German win 2-0. 

 

Churchills and infantry attack

Game 2 (Centre) - Guards Armoured attacking Panzer Grenadiers

The Guards loaded-up on tanks and looked to swamp the defenders with targets. The defenders had some dragon's teeth and a bunker which they used to cover the objectives. 

A veritable battery of Firefly's provided overwatch while the Shermans' pushed forward with limited infantry and artillery support. Unlike GOODWOOD the British prevailed. British win 2-0.   

That's a lot of 17pdrs!

Table 3 (North) - German Infantry attacking  British Infantry

The Germans split their armour with the main thrust in the east and a smaller effort by the Jadgpanzer IVs in the west.  

 

Panzer IVs look to flank the British

The Germans made two errors though; their armour out-stripped their infantry support and so had to pause under fire from the concealed British and they placed their objectives too close to the villages enabling the Tommys' to remain in hard cover. British win 2-0.   

The waiting 6 pdrs

The campaign position sees the Germans attacking on 2 fronts with a chance of closing the central axis.

 

    

Forces of the Sun King in 20mm

Our Forest of Dean correspondent has reputed this week that

"While I have been unable to play for the last few weeks I’ve been painting more 20mm Strelets figures for Louis XIV force. Strelets (a Ukrainian company) do a good range for British and French as well as German and Imperial cuirassier. They did have plans for Dutch as well but sadly their main sculptor was KIA earlier this year."

Axis of attack WWII - a brief restbite

For various reasons we found ourselves short of Allied players this week and so took a break from the formal campaign. It was also a chance to show Keith the rules as he'd not played before. So we did a couple of attack vs defence games to try those out.

This was also my first chance to try out the US list I'd put together for the campaign - its an Armoured Infantry battalion with Sherman support. They did decently well capturing one of the two objectives in 6 turns play.  

The main "learning" from the practice games is that the attacker definitely needs at least 10 turns to have a chance. Also I need to think about force ratios - the attacker will typically have a 25-15% points advantage, which I'm not sure will be enough. I don't want to make the attackers forces bigger though as we will not complete the games in an evening. Perhaps the defender needs to lose some troops of have them start of table and need to dice to come on as reserves?