Medieval Battle

Jim & Mark (York) v. Mike & John (Lancaster)
Both sides had 3 infantry divisions of 4 & 1 cavalry division of 4.
The knights aren't the correct figs for Wars of the Roses, but they look good.

The Lancastrians hold back & wait for the Yorksist to attack.

York has attacked the enemy's centre where their knights have broken the enemy's front line of cavalry & are regrouping.  The Lanc's have their right on a ridge & their left in the farm. 

The knights renew the attack with mixed results, but eventually break the enemy cavalry div.

The knights wheeled left & attacked infantry, but only broke 1 unit before the cavalry division broke leaving both sides with a hole in their centre.  On their right the Yorkist billmen have defeated the Lanc's spearmen, but the bowmen behind the hedge broke a bow unit with little loss & are now advancing while the shaken Yorkists on that flank retreat.  A Yorkist attack on the ridge on their left has been indecisive.  

Both sides have heavy casualties in every division but just can't get a decisive break.

The Yorkist right has finally broken, as has the Lancastrian centre.  With almost all the surviving units shaken the players agree to a draw.

Tank Wars Doubles at Area 52

Two games. each with two players a side each with a 1250 pts tank platoon o 8'x6' tables.

Mark & Chris' Soviets v. Matthew & Josh's Germans

Your correspondent was somewhat occupied on the other table but I believe the Germans lost just 2 men in winning this one.

Steve & Mike's US v. Jim & Damien's Germans

Damien's big pussies stood back & blasted away while Jim's Panzergrenadiers grabbed the objective houses & his MkIV's advanced to hold off the counterattacks.  The US had a flurry of good shots on the last turn & suddenly took the KT & couple of Mk IV's, but too late & the Germans won with 3 objectives to 2.

Bolt Action WWI again

Brits: Mike, Mark & Nick.
Germans: Steve & Chris
Rules:  Basically BA with some house rules. The artillery is off table. The Brits have 3 batteries & the Germans 2 batteries with 6" templates.   

The British have begun their advance.  The Germans have 2 squads of infantry in reserve.  They have to nominate their arrival point 3 turns in advance.  They can come on either of the reserve trenches or from either flank.   

Most of the Brits have made it to the wire

The weak British left has been almost destroyed, but is doing it's job of  keeping germans busy while the main attack goes in on their right.

German reserves have arrived along the support trenches, but British advance continues.

2 of the tanks have crossed the ditch, but then bogged down on the main trench, but they have infantry over the ditch & ready to assault. 

On turn 6 the Brit infantry this side of the furthest tank stormed into the trench.  German counterattacks along the trench failed to dislodge them & left the Brits in control of the far flank.  The Germans conceded without doing a turn 7.

The Brit's victory condition was to have an infantry unit of least 3 men in the trenches at the end of the game was achieved so they won (with horrendous casualties all round). 

Bolt Action WWI

Chris & I tried out Bolt Action WWI.
The terrain is a bit basic at this stage, just some stuff I threw together for test games to see how we like it before spending too much time on it.
The rules are Bolt Action with a few house rules for entrenchments, tanks, barbed wire & off-table artillery (no artillery pieces on the table).

The Germans are defending 6' of trenchworks with 6 regular infantry of 10 rifles, 2 MGs & 2 off-table batteries.  They have 2 lines of barbed wire out in front.
The Brits are attacking with 9 regular infantry of 10 riflemen, 3 tanks & 3 off-table batteries.  They start at first light in no man's land just over 36" from the German lines.

The Brits have reached the first line of wire , but gaps are appearing in the line already.

The tanks & some of the infantry have gaped the first line of wire.  British artillery have made a gap in the German line on the right, but the British inf are taking  a pounding from MG artillery & rifle fire.

On the German left & centre the British advance has stalled with the tanks getting pins from heavy MG & rifle fire (exceptional damage from small arms fire = pin on armour).  But the Brtts are making better progress on their left.

The Brits have now concentrated all their artillery on the right of the German line & are pressing the attack there while just holding on on the other flank.

The left end of the German line is under big pressure.

On turn 7 the Brits break thru into the German trenches with 2 tanks & an infantry unit.  Getting an infantry unit into the German trenches was the objective, so the after an unpromising start the British by using the very un-WWI tactic of reinforcing success rather than failure, pulled it off.

Our house rules for BA WWI were a first draft on their first trial, but they produced a very interesting & close battle (the Brits only achieving their objective on turn 7).

Napoleonic: French v. Austraians

This scenario was based on Lobositz in 7YW
Austrians: 1 line inf div (7 bats), 1 landwehr inf div (7 bats) 7, 2 cav divs (4 regs ea), 3 batteries, 4 yeger coys.
French 1 veteran inf dov, 1 line inf div (6 bats), 2 cav divs (4 regs ea), 3 batteries.
The Austrians deployed first & win if they don't break before 10pm. 
The French come on in a column through the defile & have to break the Austrians to win.

The Austrians are deployed for battle. Infantry in the centre, cavalry on their left.  Their yegers are deployed out of shot on a wooded hill on the left of the French approach.

The French lead their advance with their cuirassiers turning to the right, veterans following.
The Austrian cavalry have dvanced over the creek.  Their grand battery has been rolled forward into range with infantry support.

The Austrian cavalry have charged the French cuirassiers.  The Austrian grand battery has already hurt the cavalry & is now pounding the infantry.

With numbers on their side the Austrian cavalry are pushing the cuirasiers back.  The French infantry behind are cramped for space to deploy.

The French cuirassiers have broken & the Austrians cavalry fall back from the line of squares.  The Austrian infantry are counterattacking on the near flank.  

French musketry & artillery have broken the Austrian battery, but it has done its work.  Witht eh French vets tied up by cavalry on the far flank the French line are outnumbered on this flank & are crumbling.

The French line division has broken.  The French dragoons & hussars made a death or glory charge in the centre.  They broke a grenadier battalion which failed to form square, but failed to break through.
The French conceded the battle with 40 mins play time left. 

The French were well beaten by the Austrian's aggressive defence. 

Napoleonic: French v. Russians

French: 
Jim (left flank & cavalry), Mark (centre), Chris (right flank).
3 infantry divs of 4 line, 1 light & 1 gun plus a cavalry division of 2 heavy & 2 light.
Command 9.

Russians: 
Steve (right flank), Nick (centre), Mike (Left flank & cavalry).
3 infantry divisions of 6 line & 1 gun & a cavalry division of 2 heavy & 2 light.
Command 7 except CIC 8.

After secret deployment within 18" of own baselines.  The French are on the right.

The Russians advance on their left with infantry & cavalry.
The French advance in the centre with flanking divisions echeloned back.  

The Russian cavalry sweep around the flank is delayed by their poor command.  The French cavalry is moving to meet it.  There is a scrappy infantry fight in the farm orchards.

The French attack on the centre faltered before it even went in after some unusually good Russian shooting & some poor break test results disrupted it.  The French left & centre has shaken out into line to bring their use superior musketry into play.

While a firefight rages left & centre, on the French right the Russian infantry is are attacking though the orchards.  The French cavalry have already charged once but both front lines became shaken without decisive result & with Russian infantry on their flank the French cavalry have fallen back to regroup while the Russian cavalry are, as usual, slow to follow up.

The Russian command team deep in thought.

The French infantry have stopped the Russian push through the orchards & are now counterattacking.  Both sides cavalry have put their second line to the fore & the French have charged again.

In the firefight on the French left & centre, the French firepower was countered by Russian tenacity (the French shoot better, but the Russians are stubborn).  The Russians have got on top & the French made a fighting withdrawal counting on winning the battle on the far flank. 
The Russian infantry division on the far flank broke first, but as nightfall approached, the French infantry on this flank & the Russian cavalry on the far flank have also broken.

So by nightfall the Russians had lost 2 divisions out of 4, the French 1 out of 4.  The army break test has it that if you lose 2 out of 4 divisions the size of the divisions is taken account of.  As one of the Russian losses was the smaller cavalry division, the Russians have lost less than half their force,so not broken, & the battle is a draw.  Given that the remaining French infantry divisions are both 1 loss off breaking & their cavalry units are almost all shaken, the French were probably saved from defeat by night fall.

The Russians had 3 more infantry units than the French.
The French had some slightly better cavalry.
The French were command 9 compared with command 7.
The Russian foot were Poorly Trained (1 less dice in shooting & line combat, line movement limit 1 per turn), but stubborn so +1 on all break & rally tests.
The French line were standard troops (2 moves in line).
The French had 3 light infantry units (3 moves in line, +1 dice shooting, & able to use skirmish line).

The French won on their right where their better command helped a lot in the swirling cavalry fight & in the scrappy infantry brawl in the orchards.  The Russians won on the other flank & centre standing on the defensive in a tight line where their poor command didn't hurt them.

Medieval: Scotts v. English

Mark set up the game for tonight:
Rules: Hail King Richard.
Each side had 4 battles. 5 units each English, 6 for Scotts.
The English have better bowmen & heavier cavalry.
Command 7, except Edward is  8. 

On the right of table: Scotts: Steve (right flank), John (cente) , Chris left flank).
On the left: English: Mike (left flank), Mark (centre), Jim (right flank).

Both sides advance with the usual disruption due to poor command ratings

There is heavy fighting on the far end of the table, but  on the near flank, poor Scottish command dice & English caution have delayed engagement.

On fhe far flank both sides are having mixed fortunes. In the centre the English men at arms have disposed of the Scots bowmen & are taking on the shiltrons.  On the near flank the Scot's advance slowly under a hail of arrows.knights are

In the centre the shiltrons have beaten off the men at arms, but have been shaken in the process & the English knights are preparing to attack.  On the near flank, the Scots billmen have broken the bowmen at the end of the English line.

The far flank is still an indecisive brawl.  The English knights have broken though the Scots centre. On the near flank English billmen are counterattacking.

The Scots centre & left have broken & with 2 of 4 Scot's battles broken & no English, it's game over & an English victory.  The battle was won by good use of combined arms in the English centre & sound defence & counterattack by the English right.

Musket Action: AWI

British: Steve & Jim.
French & Colonials: Mike & Chris.

An AWI battle using Musket Action, our house ruled version of Bolt Action for the black powder era.

The Brits are on the left.  There are 5 objectives for a Key Positions scenario.  The farm, the central ridge, the village & the two road exits.

On the far flank the Hessian mercenaries have rushed forward to beat the Indians to the farm.
In the centre the Brits have taken the hill objective, but the company that took it has been left isolated When their flanking coys failed to advance.
In the foreground the Canadian Militia have beaten the Inexperienced Colonial regulars to the village & occupied all three buildings. 

Having grabbed the vital realestate, the Brits now had to hold on against the enemy attacks.

The Inidans on th afr flank are not getting far against the Hessians who have advanced into the wood to threaten the French flank.   A British cavalry attack on the French right has been beaten off & the Frecnh cavalry are advancing on the hill.  The Canadians are hanging on in the village.

The british centre has pretty well collapsed, but 1 coy is hanging onto the objective.

With the help of  a Grenadier charge on the French cavalry's rear, the Brietish coy on the hill has hung on.  Desperate colonial attacks have cleared 2 of the three buldings, but one remains in Canadian hands maintaining the VP at the end of turn 6.

Turn 6 took us past our 2 1/2 hour cut-off time so there was no chance of a turn 7. The British army has been decimated, but has clung onto 4 objectives to win the game.