We calls' that an MG34, Boyo!

T'was a fine day in Croydon and, once again the Welsh Guards bumped into the Boche. This time around Battlegroup were the rules being put to the test.

My opponent, this time was Tom. Like me, Tom had a very tenuous grasp of the rules. This was his first game and I've only played about 3 or 4 games over the past couple of years. The problem is that the games I've played are so far few and far between that it's difficult to retain very much of the rules (what with several other sets of rules all vying for space in my limited brain).

The Set Up

We decided that this would be a learning game and, if it turned out well we'll make sure to play more often so that we can really get a good grasp of  the various nuances of the rules. It would be nice to play a limited campaign or something similar.

Once again I played the Welsh Guards:
Motor Infantry Platoon - Cromwell Troop - Carrier Section and some supports.

Von Tomaz had a
Panzer Grenadier Platoon - StuG IIIG Battery and supports.
(I left the German trucks at home so they used captured vehicles.)

We played the Recce Screen scenario from the Battlegroup Overlord rules. Looking at the table below, the Brits came on in the bottom left corner and the Germans from the top right.

The view from the von Tomaz's perspective.

The scenario started with d6 turns of recce units trying to out maneuver and gain the edge on each other. We rolled 2 turns so after these see who had won the recce phase which would result in the loser drawing a Battle Rating chit (BR chit) and the winner adding their difference to the initiative dice roll.

Note: Some of the details of the game are a bit muddled. I'm writing this from memory after a long day, but the general gist of the game, the overall events and the final outcome are all pretty much accurate.

The Guards came on first with their two recce units, moving bravely into no-man's land intent on finding the enemy and destroying him.

 The Hun came on sneaking and hiding unlike my brave Welsh lovely boys!

There's a Gerry halftrack waiting behind that bombed out building but we're ready for him (the scout car is on Ambush Fire).

The SdKfz 250/9 did poke it's nose around the corner and the Ambush Fire did absolutely nothing. A shot from the halftrack missed and drilled into the church wall.

By the end of the Recce Phase all of our units were still in good order. Von Tomaz's mounted recce patrol managed to sneak into the church and set up a good OP in the steeple. I tried to pin them with the scout car but I didn't have enough firepower. On the other side of the churchyard my White Scout Car did manage to pin the Gerry SdKfz 251 with their .50 cal MG.

After the recce my lovely brave boyo's got the initiative and started to push onto the field. We rolled 1d6 each turn to determine reinforcements.

I pushed into the field to my right with two sections in M5 halftracks. One section dismounted and moved quickly across the fields. In the center I pushed up the PIAT team from the Carrier Section. The team dismounted and took a shot the SdKfz 250/9 and blew the front wheel off (I rolled snake eyes = Immobilised!).

I also brought a Cromwell on to the road to support the center.

Then we started to see the Hun moving around in the distance. They came up from behind the town and started investing the buildings and surrounding hedges.

 "And what's the coming up the blummin' road, mun?"

   

First things first: Deal with that halftrack - "Bring up the PIAT."  They shot again at teh halftrack and this time they aimed true and knocked the thing out of action. Then the Cromwell moved up. It was a risk and it would only have one chance before the StuG to it's front retaliated. Unfortunately... The Cromwell missed.

The platoon HQ came on and deployed it's morta as did the carrier section. So a bit of mortar fire resulted in two German casualties but Hauptman von Thomaz kept his men in good order.

My infantry in the fields we not doing well. Casualties were minimal thanks to the cover of the hedges and walls but they became pinned. Harassing fire into the buildings from the halftrack's .50 cal's helped to keep the German's heads down too.

Another StuG appeared on my left flank and targeted the M3 scout car that had been trying to shoot up the German transports.

 The commander adjusted his sights. 

"Eine little bit to zee right, Gunther.

 "Back eine little bit to the zee left..."

 Feuer!

Ka-Boom!!

Bloody 'ell. That wasn't very nice.

Then the StuG on the main road took aim at that Cromwell that had one chance... Well it never got a second chance.

So far this turn I had pulled 2 BR chits  and I now had to pull another as one of Von Tomaz's teams took an objective. All of a sudden my healthy looking attack was not looking so healthy.

One thing that I did have in my favour was that I had moved up a second Cromwell to support my infantry on the right. It managed to get into position behind a hedgerow where I put it onto Ambush Fire with a StuG directly to it's front.

I also brought up a Firefly on the main road. It has no HE but it did use it's MG well and dislodged the German OP in the church steeple.

More movement. More fire from my halftracks. I managed to kill an MG34 team (in the building on the left in the above pic). I also managed to pin a rifle team behind the hedge. This was good and at the end of the turn I pulled another BR chit to rally my infantry. It was time to assault the bloody Hun!

Meanwhile, my little scout car had moved up to try it's hand at harassing the German transports (going for easy BR pickings). And boy! Did it pay off?
I missed everything and then the StuG took notice and brought it's gun to bear on the little scout car. When damage was rolled Tom needed a 3 on 2d6. He rolled box cars.

Then the StuG on the main road stuck it nose around the corner into the field of fire of my Cromwell on Ambush Fire. So, Sgt Jones took the bait. Took aim and FIRED!

 Good shooting Sgt Jones.

While all of this tank fighting was going on the infantry were getting stuck in. My PIAT team had moved up in the center and had been shot to bits by MG34's. The platoons own PIAT team had moved up with a section on the left and taken on an SdKfz 251 but couldn't get a hit and they too paid the price. 

The section in the pic below were supposed to assault the pinned German section in the opposite hedge but they decided to stay put (failed their Experience Test) and became pinned again as a result.

After shooting the StuG on the road his friend beyond the hedge moved up and took out the Cromwell. Luckily revenge was on it's way in the guise of a Firefly. The big 17pd'r roared and the StuG brewed up. 

Things were looking up again. I still had another plan up my sleeve. I moved up the Bren team of my carrier section and got them into the church steeple. The idea was to clear away the Gerry's as take that aid post (one of the objectives).

Bren team v's MG34's. Not a very even match up.

First: the last remaining StuG fired HE at them. Three direct hits. Three saves.
Second: MG34 fired - One kill - Moral Roll - Beyond the Call of Duty. They shot back and reduced the German MG team to 1 man. Second shot missed the bren team.
Third: A second MG34 fired - One kill - Moral Roll - Beyond the Call of Duty. They shot back and reduced the German MG team to 1 man. Second shot missed the bren team.

Eventually a HMG team got the last Bren Gunner - Pte No: 6, Evans.
Four hits and he only managed to make one save.

This all happened in the area of the innocuous little pic below. It was very close quarters. And I did not manage to capture the aid post.

Then von Tomaz finally got his off-board mortars firing. He had tried a couple of times before but kept on running into comm's problems (failing the comm's roll). It was only 4 shots but they managed to cripple my right flank. One halftrack was abandoned. One infantry section routed and another was pinned.

By this time it was getting late and my men couldn't go on. They were pretty much spent so it was time to withdraw and regroup. Von Tomaz's men weren't in much better shape. But the squareheads held two of the objectives and I held one. So it was a hard won victory to Tom. 

Ymladd yn dda!

(Well fought!)

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Conclusion:

This was a great game. We started off a bit slow because we were uncertain about the rules. As mentioned above, I'd played a few games but not nearly enough to be competent with the game. But we picked it up pretty well and the turns started to move along pretty well. What we both need to do is read through the rules as an after battle exercise and find all the bits that we got wrong. 

As with any rules, more games will mean a better understanding. The game played really well. It was a good hearted game thanks to my opponent, Tom. There was enough tension to keep things exciting and enough toys to keep things interesting with plenty of command options available. Plenty of laughs and silly voices also made the game a lot of fun.

And before I go I must say: The much prayed for Typhoon never did arrive to save the day.

Bloody RAF!

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A quick edit:

Russel from Nunawading Wargames Association posted some pics on the NWA facebook page. So I stole some of them and here they are:

U.S. Infantry... Again

I've painted up a another section of GI's but I'm unsure what I'm going to do. I used the more accurate colour pallet that I discussed a couple of posts back and the figures came out okay. What I'm unsure about is my choice of figures.

I've found that the Italeri plastics that I've been doing are about 23/24mm and I'm also finding it pretty hard to get my hands on them. I thought I had two boxes but, as it turns out, the second box I had are the winter uniform figures which, in my opinion are not a good. Trying to chase up the ones I want (in store & online) is proving more difficult than I expected.

So today on a visit to Eureka... I bought some AB 20mm GI's. 

Don't condemn me. I couldn't help myself. AB figures are just so damn good. Anyway, I'll paint them up and see how they look...

Who am I tryin' to fool? I know they'll look great and I'll want a whole bunch of them.
Unfortunately I'm pretty sure they won't fit well with the Italeri because they'll be noticeably smaller.

Anyway, here's some pics of the Italeri that I've painted so far:

The newer ones with improved colour pallet including some in winter uniform.

 Some newer ones (left) next to the original colour pallet (right)

 Mixed together (I can still see the difference).

Achtung! Tommy Atkins!

Or: One Day On the Road to Caen...

Today I played my second game of Chain of Command. I frist played CoC in a demo game last year. It was okay but I didn't really get a very good impression of the game. Today's game gave me a much better appreciation of it.

My opponent was Chee. This was also his second game and I'm very glad that he had a much better grasp of the rules than I did. I've watched plenty of videos on Lard TV and other sites but actually playing the game was a whole different experience and proved that I only had a tenuous grasp of the game mechanics.

We played the Patrol Scenario from the basic rule book. I took on the British and Chee, the Germans. We both had a standard infantry platoon and rolled only one support from List 1.

I set up a 6'x4' table with a small town at one end with fields and some woods for the approach.

We rolled to see where our scouts would come on and mine came on in the bottom left (of the picture) and the German's came in from the center of the opposite table edge.

I made a several sets of different markers using Photoshop.

My patrolling wasn't great and I pretty much ended up holding the road and the fields on either side. The Hun controlled the town, the center of the board and the small wood at the top of the pic.

Never mind. On with the fight!

I took the first phase: After rolling for Force Morale I rolled a 6 so my morale went to 11 and Chee's remained on 9. So far, so good!

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As the early morning mist cleared a section of the 3rd Recon Regiment ~ Royal Northumberland Fusiliers emerged from the hedgerows and advanced on the town of Émiéville, defended by elements of  21st Panzer Division...

My first units deployed were two sections. 1st Section on the main road and 2nd Section on the reverse slope of a small hillock to the left of the main road. The platoon sergeant: Sidney "Lucky" Lucas crouched close by directing them.

The first shots rang out from an MG 42, breaking the peaceful, eerie quiet. The section on the road were the target and the section leader took a minor wound. Nothing that troubled him much.

The shots came from the upper story window of one of the buildings straight ahead. So, the Bren team laid down covering fire whilst the rifle group advanced cautiously (Tactical Move) behind some hastily laid smoke directed by the platoon sergeant.

However, as second Spandau opened up from the ruined building opposite the first.

This MG targeted the section on the road killing Private Ron Duggan. The first casualty of the day and the first casualty for my WWII troops in Chain of Command! Alackaday...

 Vale, Ron.

In the center 2 section had advanced slowly to the top of the hillock (tactical movement) and set down to observe the terrain in front of them (I put them on Overwatch).  As it happens, a section of Gerry's made their presence felt in the wood and opened up on the Bren team but did little damage other than inflict a bit of shock.

Back on the main road the mortar laid more smoke and the 3rd section appeared to the right of 1st section and moved tactically to the top of the high ground before rushing to a defensible fence-line at the bottom of the slope. The 1st section remained in place, spooked by the defence of the twin MG42's and waited for the smoke screen to thicken before continuing their advance...

The German commander von Chee, had been accumulating 5's on his dice rolls and, now that he had a Chain of Command Dice available, decided to end the turn. All of that beautiful smoke just vanished. It drifted away like... Smoke. 

Von Chee had also rolled a double 6 giving him the next Phase. The twin Spandau's opened up and 1st Section ceased to be. There were two men left in the rifle team and they ran for the rear. The Bren team became pinned and crouched in a ditch by the side of the road. Only the platoon sergeant, who had moved up to remove some shock from the Bren in the previous phase had prevented them from running too.

On the other side of the road the German's in the wood kept up their fire on 2 section's Bren team, killing one man and piling on the shock. The Platoon Leader had appeared and reduced the shock to keep them in the fight. The Bren team kept on shooting at the wood and inflicted a casualty or two whilst the rifle team made for the fence line and took up a strong tactical stance.

But the Bren v's MG42 duel was unequal. Miraculously they stayed in place for a while with the Platoon Leader able to reduce their shock but when the team was reduced to 1 man and had 6 shock placed on him all at once it was all too much.

The Platoon Leader went with him. Apparently he was just escorting the stricken soldier to a safer location. (Well that's how it appeared in his After Action Report).

The, now isolated rifle team of 2 Section noticed the Squareheads in the wood were attempting a flanking move and quickly made haste to the reverse slope of the hillock. The moved fast and got there unscathed. But the enemy kept up their maneuvering and got around they flank all the same.

Things were looking grim for the Royal Northumberian's. So Sgt "Lucky" Lucas took command. He ordered the mortar to pound the buildings and moved up the slope to get the 3rd section to target the Germans in the houses. This had some effect by killing a few of the enemy and wounding a junior leader. There was a second smoke screen in place which hid him from the view of the MG's and...

Von Chee rolled triple 6. 

Once again the turn ended. The smoke lifted. The sergeant's Tactical marker was removed and there he was. Standing in the open, on the top of the hill like a chump. Not so lucky on this day.

 And the MG42 opened up...

And he took 6 hits (3 of them fatal).

Thus ended the Royal Northumberland's recce patrol. Force Morale down to 1 and nowhere to go but back to the lines.

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Conclusion: I really enjoyed this game. Things started well for me but then started going down hill once those MG's started putting rounds down range but that really didn't matter. Despite all the set back my troops faced it was a really good game. Much of this can be placed in the lap of my opponent, Chee. He had a much better grasp of the rules that I, and I really appreciated it. 

It was also great that I got to use a lot of the terrain I've been accumulating of late. The table looked nice with plenty of different textures and colours. But I need a bit more scatter terrain to really bring out the best.

Also, in my loss I, graciously, reminded my opponent that his was a "Patrol" scenario and now that we know where his troops are we'll be calling in the divisional artillery to deal with him and his MG42's. 

So laugh now my friend because you won't be laughing for long!

G.I.'s, Soviets and Explosions!

I started back into WWII over the past few weeks. Most of what I did was re-basing which, as you all know, is a pain in the arse. But I did it anyway.

I also decided to start painting some of the plastic 1/72 stuff that I've had sitting in their boxes for some time. I decided to try some Zvesda Soviet Infantry and Italeri US Infantry.

The Zvesda Soviets needed to be assembled which wasn't fun. They look nice but they feel flimsy. I'm sure they won't be able to stand very much handling before they start breaking off from their bases. So, I decided to order a bunch of AB Soviets. Very nice. I am lucky that I can order these figures and drive to Eureka an pick them up, so I got my hands on them in pretty short order.

The colour pallet that I did on the plastics looks quite nice but I picked up a new paint for the G.I.s (see below) and this proved a better choice for the Russians too. So the AB got the new colour (German light beige I think). I also did their helmets a different colour - French Tankcrew, from the Valejo authentic colour range. I picked up a whole bunch of this range cheap a while back (.50 cents each!).

The Zvesda figures also have no commanders or heavier weapons.

 Blue base for the Section Leader.

 Red bases for the Platoon Leaders.

The Italeri G.I.'s are really nice figures and they're much stronger than the Zvesda. They are a newer range and look much better than the older plastic sets dating from the 1980's and earlier. The plastic on these is fairly stiff too. So they're pretty strong. I'll be sticking with these as a basis of my US Infantry and I'll supplement them with some AB figures.

But... I'm not happy with my choice of pallet. They just look wrong and it's my fault. The jacket is wrong and so are the pants. I was hoping that the wash (GW Earthshade gloss) would darken them but it didn't - Stupid really. The reason I use the Earthshade gloss is because it doesn't darken the figures very much.

Anyway, I picked up the German beige and this should do the trick. As for their pants, I already have the correct colour but I decided to try something different. And I was wrong about that too but it's not as bad.

I can't change any of that now so these guys will be mixed in to other sections. At least that way I can blame the supply system and say it's just a variation in the uniforms they were issued.

And explosions!

I made some explosions using the wire and clump-vegetation terrain method. I hot-glued some wire onto washers, glued clump-vegetation onto the wires, gave them a heavy spray of black and a light spray of white. They look okay and should represent a decent barrage on the table. I'm going to make a few more and also some burning/smoke plumes for wrecked vehicles.

 With some figures for scale.

So that's some of what I've done during the past week or thereabouts.

Afghan Wars ~ Adrien's Birthday Game

I took a long drive out to Ballarat this morning to a friends house (Adrien) and took part in a game set in the 2nd Afghan War of the 19th Century. This was something I'd never played before and not the type of game I've ever considered. There were eight players (4 to a side) and only one or two knew the rules. This didn't matter because the rules were fairly easy to pick up and most of us had a pretty good handle on them within a few turns.

The table was fairly large with the British columns coming from three directions. The Afghans' held a ruined fort in the center and a town on one table edge. I was an Afghan warlord holding the center between the town and the fort.

I couldn't stay til the end but my guys were holding up pretty well when I left them and they'd dished out plenty of grief on the British in front of them.

All the figures were supplied by Adrien, as was the table and the venue.

The Town.

 The Fort.

My command.

 The head of the British main column.