Spanning the centuries

The last 10 days have been pretty busy on the gaming front - thank goodness I'm retired as I've never have the time!

First up some WWII using the latest iteration of Keith Flints Startline battalion level rules. They have a strong heritage in the classic 80s WRG rules but cleaned-up and sped-up. We cracked through a 1944 scenario in an evening and there is interest in doing a Monday-night club campaign.   

Germans hiding in wait

British attackers

We're now almost ready to start our Montrose campaign so we did a final practice game that introduced the Scottish/Irish troops. They are more fighty than the Covenanters but shoot less well.  Not shown I also played a 20mm game with Roy but the intense heat forced us a to halt before the end.  

Highlanders attack

Irish getting stuck in

It was also monthly Beneath the Lilly Banners time with us once again fighting Ottomans vs Russians in the Great North Wars. This game has a distinctly colonial feel and was a resetting of the Battle of of the Pyramids. We called in a marginal victory for the Russians as they took the riverside village and withstood fierce Ottoman attacks which broke up the front square but did nt rout it. 

Front Russian square - they would bear the grunt of the casualties 

Finally some Blucher - the Battle of Mincio (1814) river which pitched French/Italians against Austrians in an encounter game where both armies were divided by a river. Both sides opted for a left flank movement with the French looking initially to be too slow. 

6mm Austrians

The French centre was able to hang-on while their comrades on the left destroyed all the Austrians west of the river. Units were traded in the centre allowing the French to break the Austrians when their losses hit 50%.  

 

French attacking the Austrian centre and flank

Finally finally (not pictured) was some Deadzone scifi skirmish. I'm playing in  a tournament in August so some practice was in order. I was nt entirely happy with the Enforcers I used (AKA space marines) so will return to my trusty cyborgs from the evil Mazon Labs list 

V for Victory - western desert

This weekend I popped over to Bristol for game of V for Victory - platoon level WWII game from Studio Tomahawk. Its aimed at 1944/45 Europe but can be played in the desert. Activation is done using a hard of about 8 cards, each which has a mix of moving, shooting and deploying/rallying. So the art of the game is to play your limited hand at the right point in the turn. The cards are either played onto a onto to activate them or onto a commander who can split the actions amongst troops under his command within range.   

I played the 8th Army and was charged with getting some vehicles down a roads and off to safety. I opted for some additional infantry, an Indian pattern carrier and an M3 Grant.

British advance carefully

My initial advance was cautious as I sought to force the Germans to reveal themselves by firing on my infatry scouts so I could hammer them with my mortar and the M3.  

Indian pattern carrier

DAK lay in wait

This worked fairly well as I killed a couple of infatry sections and drew the fire from the Pak38. I was able to partially supress them before zooming the Indian pattern carrier of the table in the last turn to score a win.  

 

     

Sand and snow - New Years round up

With a couple of weeks off this Christmas, and limited distractions,  I've managed to get some gaming and painting done since the festivities.

WWII Desert (the sand)

I popped over to Fishponds for a go at V for Victory from Tomahawk studios, a WWII platoon-scale game. We played DAK vs Indians. All their games tend to have a few innovative features and V for Victory is the same. 

Unit activation is done alternatively using cards, seven in your hand at the start of a turn.  Each has a different balance of move, shoot and special / rally so you need to plan carefully at the start of the move what you want to do but leave some flexibility to respond to the enemy. 

Indians advance

It also distinguishes between suppressing fire and shoot-to-kill. The former is easier and can pin-down or eventually rout units, but not maybe as quickly as the harder fire for effect.   

DAK exchange fire with the Indians

The Indians won 2-1 on objectives held, helped by the German MMG in centre table disappearing from a  single round of Indian MMG shooting.  

Rule Britannia

I don't generally play many board games but was tempted to have a go at Britannia, which simulates the events from the Roman invasion up to the Norman invasion. Players each play a colour, with each faction controlling several tribes through the game.  

Combat is very simple but the victory conditions are complex so you need to think hard about where to attack/defend and how to use your leaders. Rome (purple) starts very strong and can quickly conquer most of the map before then facing waves of invasions that nibble away at their control.  

Turn 1 - the Roman invasion gets going

We're 5 turns (from 16) in at at the point the Romans are about to withdraw and the Saxons (red) / Angles (blue) are invading. Rome is a long way ahead on the victory tracker but with few armies and forts left to hand over to the Romano-British, so must hang on as best they can.  As the blue faction my time will come when the Normans (blue) invade towards the end of the game. 

Turn 5 - Rome is spent and the Saxons / Angles are poised 

 

Great North Wars (the snow)

Finally I've got some painting done and have been focusing on my GNW Russians. I've managed to complete some Line Infantry, a Grenadier battalion and Light Gun. The first of the cavalry are glued to together and more stuff is on order to round out the army. Its likely to take the rest of the year to complete the pile of figures I've amassed for this.  

Great North War Russian Grenadiers

Great North War Russian light gun

Great North War Russian line infantry

    

  

    

D Day Campaign - Turn 4 and 5.

We managed three games this week - completion of the US attack on St Come du Mont in Turn 4 and the British attacking the Orne River at two points in Turn 5.

US at St Come Du Mont - Turn 4

The Germans deployed to protect the vital river crossings with roughly equal number of units well concealed in the hedges and villages.  

The US pushed forward, taking significant Armoured losses from accurate German fire. Holding their nerve the Americans kept going and the dice turned, giving them a few good rounds of shooting.

With the German AT threat reduced the GI's were deployed and powered heavy fire into defenders with supporting MG fire from their halftracks.  

 

The US plan worked, with the Germans eventually breaking on their 3rd morale test and fleeing the scene. 

  

Orne River bridge- Turn 5

It seems an age since the first British parachute attacks on the Orne Rover, but on Turn 5 they are back again with 7th Armoured trying to force their way across against 21st Panzer.  The British went for strong attack against the main bridge with ARKs on either side as supplementary crossings.  

 

The British armour and artillery proved effective at taking out the main German AT threats, leaving the infantry to try and hold the line.  

After only 5 turns the British were across the river at multiple points and the Germans had limited AT options to stop them. We failed to complete the game but a British victory looked inevitable.  

 

British at Blainville - Turn 5

This game continued from last weeks as it ended in an interesting position. The Brits began with some troops across the river  and the Germans were able to reset their defences.    

The Tommy's went for amassed armoured attack on the shoulder of the German position with infantry in close support.   

The narrow British attack allowed the Germans into a flanking position and their AT fire proved accurate and they quickly weakened the Sherman force. The Brits kept attacking with their infantry but could not break through the defenders.  

The Campaign Ends

After 5 turns we're ending the campaign with US forces getting to Carentan. We did nt play the US turn 5 but had thing gone to form a win there was likely in Turn 5 and highly likely in Turn 6. The British still had Ranville to capture before they could attack Caen in turns 7 or 8.

So the final result likely would be an Allied victory on the US axis and a draw on the British Axis.