Camp Cromwell Bulletin 27/10/05

Camp Cromwell Bulletin 27/10/05

Fort Floriet Tuesday

3000 pts FOW Bulge Scenario
Chris's DAK armour (his own coy + 1 foolishly lent by CC)
v.
Captain Ghandi's Indian Inf + Nick's Oz inf - lent by CC)

Chris concentrated his attack on the Oz flank and methodically started blasting a path up the table - see AIF pic.
The Indians made a brave counterattack - they did all the right things - charged over a hill into the flank of the Panzer platoon under cover of smoke (see Indian pic). But the supporting Crusaders missed every shot and the so-called fearless Indians failed tank terror. Next turn the Crusaders and the Indians were mown down by massed Panzers.
A second Indian platoon was caught in the open having failed to dig in and was masacred leaving the way open for the Panzers to cross into zone 2 just in time to avoid a defender's victory condition.
After that it was a matter of time.

3000 pts makes an awful lot of Panzers - which take an awful lot of stopping, especially under a unified command. K&C doesn't give the Commonwealth much choice in tanks pre Sherman - no 6pdr Crusaders. The 2 pdr Crusaders & Valentines were just outclassed, plus I really don't have enough a/t guns for 2 coys at once. We also should have taken Limited Air - it might have forced the panzers to spread out a bit.

On the Camp Cromwell Blog site Nick bemoans the Allied luck with the dice - with 2 pdrs you need a bit & we got none.
But I think the real reason we lost was the Takeaway Supply Mission Dice. It came up Pasta Resistance Italian.
You can imagine the 1942 Australian infantry's reaction..."Bloody wog tucker! How are we supposed to fight on that?"
And the Indians..."Goodness gracious me! What's this - no curry? We didn't fight the Indian Mutiny to get this crap!"
The Germans of course were accustomed to their ally's tucker..."Better than the muck that gets thru the blockade from Germany."

Camp Cromwell, Thursday

Double Free for All (2x1500 pts a side)

Maruisz's Polish Armour + Jim's Fucilieri
v.
Steve's White Russian armour + Mark II's Russian Inf

The ities dug in to defend the right of the Alllied position and provide fire support for the Polish attack on the left.
The Russians massed for a combined attack on their right with KVs & MGs defending the left.
The Honeys rolled over an infantry platoon and passed thru into the Russian rear. It was suicidal, but it gave the Shermans a chance to crush Steve's T34s while Mark's armour was busy with them.
The Shermans took out the a/tank guns then mixed it with the T34s with artillery support. The Itie 105s hit often but just could not throw firepower. The 25pdrs' firepower was never enough but they helped out with smoke. But the T34's refused to die, passing two platoon morale tests & when Mark's tanks joined in, the Poles just had too many enemies.
The Sturmovicks just kept on coming in 3's, but they only got one 90/53 in 3 attacks so weren't decisive.
It was the survival of Steve's T34's in the face of all the Poles could throw at them that hurt. In the end the Poles ran out of tanks & failed Coy Morale.

Mahrajah 2005

The year is flying by & we need to get on with the Maharajah & zero in on the critical matches.
While fighting all the rounds would be nice, the critical matches we must get done are:
Jim v. Leigh (set for next week)
Jim v. Barrie
Chris v. Peter
These 3 matches alone will certainly determine top Axis.
It is highly likely they will determine top Allied as well, but if not, they will determine which match(s) are needed to do so.

Next week

Sunday at Camp Cromwell: Afternoon battle - say 1.30?
Tuesday at Fort Floriet: Jim & Steve are going to be there.
Thursday at Camp Cromwell: Jim v. Leigh in Mahrajah + ?

Fort Floreat 25/10/05

Nick's Version


Wargames night again. More flames of war. Another bulge scenario. This time 3000 pts of Afrika Korps panzers vs 1500 pts of Australians and 1500 pts of Indian infantry. Chris (Panzers) attacking, Jim (Indians) and Nick (Australians) defending.

Chris cautiously and methodically crushed the allies. The allies did just about everything right, but they should have sacrificed a chicken to the dice gods, because the dice were consistently against them. Chris didn't make mistakes, and with poor dice for the allies and an army list that was already challenged taking on a pure armour force, Chris romped home with barely any casualties.


The revenge of the dice gods

Camp Cromwell Bulletin 20/10/05

Fort Floriet on Tuesday

Bulge Scenario in Tunisia:
Steve J's 1500 Motorised DAK + Chris's 1500 DAK Armour
v.
Jim's 1500 Indians + Nick's 1500 US Inf

You'd think that 4 experienced wargamers could get a one page scenario right. But they didn't - probably too much attention to Harri's Curry (what else could we have for the Indian's debut?) After turn 1 we realised that the Allies had way too much armour for the scenario so we exchanged Nick's Coy for one with more infantry.

The Alies deployed with 1 Coy up front & 1 in the rear. The Axis deployed their Coys side by side, Chris with most of the armour on their left. Chris broke through the Indian right and then destroyed the Allied counterattack, but Steve had made no impression on his flank, the Yanks were well entrenched on the rear objectives and reduced to 1 platoon, Chris failed his Coy Morale test. Steve's Coy wasn't going to win on it's own so it was game over & a win to the Cowboys & Indians.

The Allies were grateful that the Axis attack wasn't as rapid or as well coordinated as it might have been. The scenario is a good one for 4 players, and we think pretty well balanced provided the defenders don't have too much mobility - you need to come prepared with the right army for your role. The scenario says 4000 pts a side, but 3000 pts a side seems enough for a Mid War version.

Camp Cromwell on Thursday

Bulge Scenario in Tunisia:
Mariusz's 1500 Polish Armour + Peter's 1500 US Armour
attacking
Steve J's 1500 Motorised DAK + Jim's 1500 Fucilieri

The Axis deployed with Ities on the left and DAK on the right. They had no armour but lots of A/T & Artillery.

The Allies put the Poles v. DAK & the US v. Ities. The Ities front line put up a good delaying fight against the US despite their 90/53 ambush for just 1 Sherman. The 75 artillery ambush made up for it a bit by taking out the rest of the platoon in a turn (with the help of the 105s).
Meanwhile Marusz made steady progress on the other flank shamlessly exploiting the Fear Nought Rule to keep going in face of heavy casualties.
In the end the surviving Polish Shermans took a rear objective after a fiece fight with Steve's Grenadiers to clinch victory for the Allies.

The pic Bulge CC is about turn 2. The Axis are digging in their second line in the foreground. The US are softening up the Itie line in the far corner. Maruisz is fiddling the artillery template over Steve's 88s.

Fort Floriet 18/10/05

Chris's Basement

We tried the Bulge scenario. Chris and Steve each with 1500 pts of Afrika Korps, vs Jim with 1500 pts of Indians and Nick with 1500 pts of ???

The bulge scenario is an easy concept -- two armour forces attacking, having to get through two lines of defences. Nick started off with a 1500 point british armour force. After the first turn we realised that:

• the tanks could just move up, turning it into a 3000 point battle on one board, and
• the rules required INFANTRY companies to defend.

We didnt have enough British infantry, so Nick quickly changed to American infantry, and chose one of his old army lists at random.

The Indians defend

I wont go into details, but I will say all agreed that this was a great scenario. Jim and Nick especially liked it, most probably because they won. Highlights include:

• Two Stuart companies and a Valentine company surrounding and destroying a Panzer III company (pic Bulge ff) - then in turn being wiped out by Panzer IVs & IIs.
• Jim revealing an anti-tank gun ambush (after holding it back for over half the game waiting for the perfect target) only to have US airpower arrive and kill his target before he could shoot.
• Chris's lone Panzer II having gone through the Indian line wandering all over the table, surviving anti-tank fire, artillery, multiple shots by the bofors AA guns, and a tank destroyer ambush, before finally being killed by a GI assault.

Camp Cromwell Bulletin 13/10/05

2x1500pts Free for All on a 8x6 table.

Allies v. allies too ! Steve J was the impartial German umpire.
Mariusz's Poles + Mark W's DOGs v. Steve P's Russian Guards + Jim's Russian Inf

The Russians deployed side by side, the Brits & Poles mixed a bit. The DOG Grants moved left to assist the Shermans v. Jim's T34s & SUs. The Polish 17pdrs went right to face the KVIs & their Honeys joined up with the Crusaders & Valentines to go Guard hunting.

Mark attacked Steve on the Brit's right. Jim attacked Mariusz on the Russian right. The pic is about turn 2, Poles right foreground.

The DOGs found it heavy going against an aggressive Russian defense. Their armour was gradually worn down by artillery fire & infantry counterattacks, but their Coy morale was preserved by the odd Fear Naught Rule.

On the other flank the armour pretty well mutally destroyed each other. The last bailed Sherman going down to an attack by the MG platoon. The Russian infantry bravely advanced through a hail of mortar & artillery fire, and with the MGs giving covering fire the second wave took the objective. The brave charge of the Polish artillery HQ on the surviving 3 Russian infantry teams holding the objective failed giving the Russians victory.

Fort Floriet 11/10/05

Lobositz 1757 -- Nick's Austrians v. Jim's Prussians.

Nick deployed his whole army behind the river on his left. The scenario conditions should have mentioned that the Austrians had to protect their LOC behind Lobositz. If they had the Prussians could just march up the road and win given Nick's deployment. But it didn't, so the Prussians attacked the Austrians where they were.

The Austrian line formed a right angle behind the river. The Prussians launched a converging infantry attack on the angle after softening it up with their artillery and while most of their cavalry kept the Austrian left pinned in place. Once one of the Prussian attacks broke through the angle, the Austrian right disintegrated. The pic shows the Austrian line breaking.

We tried yet another scheme for using counters for orders instead of writing them. It seemed to work ok.

Camp Cromwell 05/10/05

Fort Floriet

Jim's LRDG & Sahariana made the trip to Launceston & fought half a dozen of the Raid/Recon/Rescue missions with Nick & Chris. These all tend to be short games, a bit of fun, but dominated by the chance factor of when & where the Random Reserves arrive. Also the combination of maximum armament with minimum protection makes tactics very basic - get in the first shot. Probably good scenarios to use after a few beers.


Camp Cromwell

Two 1500 pt Companies a side in a Hold the Line on a 8x6 table.
(The MCG is back to one big table. Telstra Dome is still 2 small tables).

Jim's Bersaliglieri + Steve's Grenadiers (attacking)
v.
Mark I's British Inf + Mark II's Death or Glory Boys (defending)

The Axis forces attacked on both flanks to draw the ambushes out then made a convergent attack on the centre objective and over-ran it. It was really game over on turn 4, but we kept on going for the fun of it. The mass of DOG armour looked scary when it showed up, but 2pdrs often bounce off even Itie armour & they were whitled away by a combination of Itie armour, German 88's & Grenadiers until they failed their Company Morale for a second & final game over.

The pic is in the Allied Turn 2. Axis on left side of table, Germans on Axis left, Ities on right.

Fort Floreat 05/10/05

We tried some of the smaller Flames of War scenarios -- raid, recon, escape, etc. Above is Rommel being mown down by some LRDG trucks. Pity we were playing a raid and not 'get the general'.

Area 52 02/10/05

6 players joined Area 52's first flames of war tournament. As it turned out, all of the players were from the camp cromwell crowd. But we did meet a guy in another group of FOW players. So maybe we can find some more blood. A quick summary of the games is below.

The Players

Nick -- US infantry -- 2 x inf, Stuarts, M10s, artillery, 57mm AT, recon, bazookas
Chris -- German infantry -- 2 x inf, Tiger, Elephant, captured KV1, air.
Jim -- Italian armoured -- Semoventes, M14/41s, Light Tanks, Lancias, Bersaglieri, AA
Steve -- German Infantry -- 2 x inf, 88s, art, inf guns, air.
Steve II -- Russian infantry -- 2 x inf, t-34s, AT
Mariusz -- Polish (British) armoured -- Shermans


A better writeup from Mark and the area 52 crowd exists here with pictures here

Round 1

Steve vs Nick -- Hold The Line.

Nick attacking. Steve had 88s in ambush. Nick attacked up one flank. The 88's revealed and massacred the Stuarts. Steve's air support came on and killed Nick's infantry. On turn 2 Steve's air support came on again, but it went to Nick, and the Steve lost his C in C. Nick killed one 88. Another 88 to go and Nick would win ... but he missed with 4 x M10s. Then Steve's reinforcements arrived and the game turned into a bloodly stalemate. In the end a draw (Steve would have won)

Chris vs Steve II -- Cauldron

Steve II had the perfect army to defeat Chris. It was even more perfect when his Sturmovik killed Chris's Tiger! But Steve got carried away and moved off the objective. Chris rushed in, and it was touch and go. In the end a draw.



Mariusz vs Jim -- Hold the Line

Mariusz's air attacked his own troops and killed his C in C. (What do you expect when you borrow your opponents planes). Jim killed all of Mariusz's weak troops and caused a company morale check - which he failed as he had no CinC. A win to Jim.


Round 2

Nick vs Jim -- Cauldron

Nick was defending. Jim's attack was masterfull, charging over a hill and into Nick's anti-tank guns, overrunning them for the loss of one tank. But then Nick's reinforcements arrived -- Stuarts and M10s. In short order Nick had killed two platoons of tanks, an AA platoon, and an infantry platoon for no loss. Time stopped play. A draw, but advantage to Nick.


Chris vs Mariusz-- Hold the Line
The shermans were no match for a Tiger and and Elephant. Chris's air took out the honeys. A win to Chris.


Steve vs Steve II -- Free for All
A win to Steve :)


Round 3

Nick vs Steve II -- Free for all

Nick had Steve in all sorts of trouble, with Steve's T-34s hiding from Nick's M10s, and one of Steves companies cut off from the rest of the army. But Nick couldn't complete the job in time. He tried a rushed assault, and lost -- a winning draw to Steve II.





Jim vs Chris -- Free for all

Jim couldnt do much about Chris's big cats. But Chris moved his tiger too far from an objective to avoid being shot by the Lancia 90mm guns, and that was the opening Jim needed. He rushed the objective and won.




Mariusz vs Steve -- Hold the Line
Steve won, even though he was attacking with infantry!