Saturday: 15mm Napoleonic Lannes v. Bagration at Austerlitz
Glen chose to be Bagration v. Jim as Lannes.
The battle had the tradiional infantry centre with cavalry on the wings. The French heavy cavalry arrived in time to stop the initially superior Russian cavalry rolling up the flanks and both flanks bogged down in large cavalry melees. Kamenski's foot broke Suchet (French left centre) but Caffarilli's counterattack on Suchet's right beat Ulanis then outflanked Kamenski to win the battle.
The revised rules seeemed to work well. We found a couple of oversights and we also missused the Regroup Rule, but decided that maybe the way we did it was better anyway (I'm still thinking about it). It took about 3 hours including a few pauses while we searched the rule book - due to lack of practice. The scenario has 21,000 French v. 29,000 Russians - this is about the right size of action for these rules in 15mm with two players - but the rules can be used for larger battles with 5mm figs.
The scenario was adopted from Fields of Glory - one of 18 in the book. It isn't hard to translate their system into ours, I'm working on more of them.
Tuesday at Fort Floriet: Maharajah - Jim's Italian Armour v. Starn's Russian Infantry
The all important Supply Mission Table has been augmented so it now requires a %die. Maccas were vetoed on account of their potato policies (& because it's #%$&) and we had PC Praeties.
We had diced for scenario last week, so were both able to tweek our armies for a Free for All - terrain to be a surprise by Chris.
Starn: HQ, 1 inf with 2 plats, 2 inf with 1 plat, 6 mortars, 4-a/t, 5 Matildas, 3 SU122 + Sturmoviks.
Jim: HQ, 2x4-L3, 4-M14, Bersaglieri, Semovente 4-75s+CC, 90/52 AA + Reggio Aeronautica.
The Ities had spent many hours plotting the perfect army to counter Matildas & Sturmovics & were somewhat mortified to find that Starn had found a way to add 3 SU122s to the mix...first round to Starn.
The Ities deployed their tanks behind the forests on the right, the inf, 90s and Semos on the left. The Russians deployed a/t guns on their left objective, mortars opposite the 90s, large inf on the right, small infs in the centre, Matildas were on the right & the SUs in the centre.
The Russians were relieved to get first move and the poorly deployed Matildas dived for cover before the 90's could open up on them. Otherwise, there was a general Russian advance while the mortars tried to supress the 90's. The Ities dug in on their left while their armour charged forward towards the centre.
On the Itie left the Semos all but destroyed the mortars then turned on the infantry. The Matildas skulked behind the forest, not game to come out into the 90's field of fire. While severely mauled, the Russian infantry and mortars eventually knocked out both 90s to set the Matildas free, but the battle was decided on the other flank.
In the centre the M14s drew the SUs out, while the L35s charged the a/t guns. One SU wandered into range of a 90 and after a die roll confirmed that line of sight ran from hill top to hill top over a wood, it paid the price. The M14's swarmed around the SUs, but they didn't hurt them and were being whittled away. But they kept the Beasts busy while the L35s mowed down the a/t guns (lots of dice and lots of sixes for firepower against the gun shields), then mg'd an infantry platoon into oblivion (lots of dice then lots of 1s & 2s for saves), and then they avantied onto the undefended objective.
Then it got serious. Careful measurement proved that one of the SUs could get 5mm inside 100mm from the objective. But then the devious Italians questioned the command status of the SU concerned as the command vehicle of the platoon was not differentiated and the 2 SUs were about 150 apart. The umpire was summonded & a dice determined that the furthest one was the command vehicle so the close one was out of command & the rush to the objective wasn't possible. So Starn had 2 shots to blast the two tin cans off the objective (to kill both, or 1 kill to force a morale test). A 1 & a 2 and it was game over - won by two tin coffins that cost 30 points each. It was a 6:1 victory too, though the Ities had 2 plats reduced to 1 team and 2 reduced to 1/2 strength, and were damned lucky to win. The Russians had lost 2 platoons plus one below 1/2. It's a pretty dumb points system.
And the Sturmovics the Ities were so petrified of they completely rejigged their army ?...Didn't show up.
And the Reggio Aeronautica the Ities took in hope of neutralising the Sturmovics ?...Didn't show up either.
Air power...is it all a fraud? Or is the day coming when 3 Sturmoviks will come on every turn?
Meanwhile in the small room...Correen and Nick did another micro armour battle. Like last time your correspondant's failing eyes couldn't make out what was happening with the little buggers, but Nick's Germans did win.
Thursday at Camp Cromwell
Apologies from Mark (SHMBO pulled rank), Steve J (work), Steve P (8 ball), but Barrie managed it this time.
Barrie (1600 pts DAK motorised - 1500pts + air)
v.
Jim (1600 pts K&C infantry - 1500pts + air)
Cauldon - Brits defending.
Barrie made a few mistakes...like he deployed his Neblewerfers & Pak 40s too far from the action & made infantry attacks without adequate support. The DAK Inf were stopped in their tracks by the Brit Inf. The Luftwaffe did nothing until after the battle was lost. The RAF didn't do a lot, but enough to pay for themselves. The DAK lost on Army Morale after losing 2 inf, the Pak 40s (to the bugs) & the 8rads (to inf & the RAF). The Brits lost no plats.
Saturday at Camp Cromwell
Chris will be down from Launceston & we'll be having a game Saturday afternoon (2pm start).
Possibly Napoleonic or 7YW - unless someone wants to challenge Chris to their Mahrajah - if so make arrangements with him by email him so he can be prepared.
