Camp Cromwell 29/04/06

Tunisian Campaign Battle #1

Pics of the German & Allied commanders deep in thought or curry.

Captn Fleming NZEF's report from the front:

Quite an interesting battle. Mark W. took the poms while Peter Moy took the Yanks. Dylan took the important dice throws (air interception). I should have let him throw the dice more…

In true Aussie Rules fashion, both sides considered that the umpire favoured the enemy. I know he bloody favoured them. He wasn’t in uniform, tho’, so I can’t call him a WHITE maggot. Maybe a dirty brown one! J

Initial set up was similar to Jim’s proposal with slight amendments for the Bofors (more forward to allow RHA access) and the RA staff team behind the hill. We only got into trouble when the Tigers ranged in on the 2lb’ers.

German set up was a massive attack on our left by the Falshirmjager (Sp.) with the tanks (Tigers added to Mark III coys) crossing the front to that side while the Mark IV’s, Nebelwerfers & recon kept the Kiwis honest. Surprise! Surprise!

I figure that they’ve got about 1,300 more points than us; about 6,000 them to about 4,700 us (by the time everything is on the table). Of course, we’ll both be whittled down some more before that happens (not all the Yanks are on yet).

All went well for the first 3 turns then Mark W. brought on the RHA. Steve J. somehow found a line of sight and a Messerschmitt got through and scratch one RHA battery (1 gun, 1 commander and two trucks routed, the rest died). A fals&*^%$ unit got too close to the 2lb’ers, who took out 2 bases with 8 shots (long arguments concerning lines of sight and who was/wasn’t concealed) and then tried to get outta there. Before they could move, the Tigers got lucky, after they moved the Nebelwerfers got a couple of shots in: scratch 3 2lb’ers (1 x 2lb’er, 1 commander & RA observer ran away).

Camp Cromwell 26/04/06

Jim's Paracadutisti v. SteveP's Russian Guards in a 200 pts Breakthrough.
Ities chose to defend on the 8x6 table set up for the Campaign.

Steve sent his 5T34s on the flanking mission. His artilllery sat back almost out of sight to bombard. His 1st Guards attacked the closest objective directly, the 2nd Guards advanced on the left flank to attack the Ities supports and draw their fire off the main attack.
The 2nd guards suceeded in drawing fire, but got pinned down, lost their commisar, refused to get moving and got whittled away. They finally got going again, but too late, none survived to assault anyone.The 1st guards swamped the 1st Paras, but the 2nd Paras behind them counterattacked and all but destroyed them. The surviviors fell back & dug in.
The T34s arrived early, they declined to take on the Guastatori on the far objective and went to support the attack on the other one. They mowed down the 3rd Paras, but the 90/53 got 2 of them before they got to cover & the infantry attack was beaten off before they could support it.
The battle was now a stalemate with the T34s skuling behind a wood whwere the 90/53's & artillery observers couldn't see them and the Pars hidding on the other side where the T34s couldn't mg them without exposing themselves.
The Russians hoped for their Sturmos to break the deadlock. They came often, but mostly, if found targets, they got shot down by the 90/53s. Once they attacked they wrong guys and popped a T34.
The Ities way out was to attack everything that wasn't a T34. Tgier HMG & mortar platoons became infantry and were sent off to attack. The Russian artillery & Sturmos stopped the HMGs, but not the mortar men who overran them. Only the HMG HQ survived but it attacked the Russian HQ single handed and killed it. The T34s were whittling away the Paras on the objective, but Army Morale failure ended the battle. The Russians were reduced to just 2 T34s by then.

Fort Floriet 25/04/06

Four players for ANZAC day. Starn and I started early as others weren’t going to show then did.

Meeting engagement. Starn Russian Infantry vs. Chris DAK Recon.
Deployment 4 platoons each on the table.

Russians: Matildas on the right, then Su 122’s infantry coy left of centre and 57mm AT guns on the left
DAK: Aufklarungsschwadron on bikes in town opposite Matildas, 25pdr half battery centre, Panzers to the right of 25prs, Dianna’s to the left of 25pdrs. See map.

Turn 1: The Dak won the dice off and attacked first. The 25pounders ranged in on the AT platoon no damage. The F1 ranged in on the infantry and killed a stand.
Russians advanced on right to engage the Dianna’s, which were still out of range. AT guns and infantry tried to dive for cover.

Turn 2: The 25 pounders took out 2 AT guns & f1 missed. One reserve for the Dak came on the right & joined the Auflak in a charge up the right. With nothing on this right hand objective it was full steam ahead, both double moving.
Russians got a mortar platoon from reserve, the AT guns tried to kill a bike no luck. Matildas and SU’s came forward shot up a Diana.

Turn 3: Things looked grim on the Russian left the first bike platoon grabbed the objective. Two more DAK reserves both came on in the right place and pushed up the right double moving.
Two more reserves for the Russians on the needed left flank. The Russian mortars and AT guns blew away the bikes on the objective the remaining bikes failed morale and scarpered.

Turn 4: The second lot of bikes got onto the objective, the 25pounders pinned a reserve. Three more stands of Russian infantry died. The Russians couldn’t unpin to get to the objective in time so tried to blow away the 2nd lot of bikes no luck. Win to Rommel’s Recon 5-2. Making it 3 from 3 for Rommel’s boys! Iron Crosses all round.

Camp Cromwell Thursday 20/04/06

Tunisian Campaign

The Tunisian Campaign is under way.
Axis: Chris, SteveJ, SteveP, Anders.
Allies: Nick, Barrie, MarkO, MarkW, PeterM
Currently the two Command Teams are formulating their plans. The Allies had a Council of War here tonight & CoC Nick is now documenting the plan.
I hope the Axis are working on theirs.

Saturday morning at Camp Cromwell

Chris' 2000 pt DAK v. Jim's 1500 pt Indians in a Fuel Shortage scenario on half of the Mahrajah GF table.

Ths scenario has the defenders holding 3 fuel dumps in their 2/3 of the table. The defenders are dug in & have 1 ambush but the attackers have 33% more points. The game lasts 8 turns, the attackers have to take 2 dumps to win a minor victory, or 3 for a major. The defenders hold all for a major win, lose 1 for a minor. The DAK had 4 MkIIIs, 4 MkIVs, 3 Panzergrenadier platoons, weapons platoon & 2 8-rads. The Indians had 3 infantry, hmgs, mortars, bugs, 6pdrs & 25pdrs.

Chris used his armoured cars well to limit options for the 6pdr ambush. The MkIVs all but destroyed the Indians on the 1st objective but failed morale & fell back. This left an opening for the 6pdrs to drop down in cover. They got lucky & wiped the lot. The DAK infantry supported by the MkIIIs over-ran the right flank Indian infantry & should have rolled over the 6pdrs, but more good shooting stopped them. The MkIII finished the 6pdrs off, took the 1st dump and pushed for the 2nd as time ran out. The Indian's sticky bombs stopped them, the bugs retook the 1st objective and mortar, hmg & bug fire forced an impossible-to-pass army morale test.

A big win for the defenders, but Chris didn't coordinate his attack as well as he might have & had some bad luck at critical times. So we think it's an ok scenario with both sides a chance as long as they have appropriate armies.

Thursday at Camp Cromwell

Free for all on 8x6 table (same table as MarkW & Chris used last week).
1500 pts Fucilieri + 1500 pts DAK Panzer (Jim + Barrie + Nick)
v.
2 x 1500 pts Russian Infantry (SteveP, MarkO & MarkW)

Mark sent a human wave down the Russian left flank. Nick's Fucilieri hunkered down behind a hill and waited for the storm.
SteveP's advance on the other flank was stopped by Barrie's artillery, Fucilieiri & little guns.
In the centre Jim's Panzers supported by Itie mortars laying bulk smoke played cat & mouse with MarkW's T34s, KVs & a/tank guns.
MarkO's Russian wave looked awesome, but so was the firepower of Itie light mortars. The attack staggered and a Panzer platoon arrived in the nick of time to complete it's destruction.
Barrie was by now mounting a counterattack on the other flank while the Panzers, having got rid of the T34s, tried to keep the KVs busy without getting destroyed. The KVs were too powerfull though & the Panzers were whittled away But they had done their job, the Itie 105s pinned & weakened the powerfull Russian battery enough for one Fucilieri platoon (barely over half strength) to stagger onto an objective and win the battle before the KVs could get to one of their objectives.

Rommel's Recon to Hobart 13-15/04/06

Rommel’s Recon run rampant!

Thursday night at Camp Cromwell Battle report. 13th April 1943

1500pt DAK Recon Chris vs. 1500pt Death or Glory force Mark in a free for all.

While scouting ahead of the main army Rommel’s Recon Company ran headlong into a Death or Glory tank army.

Deployment: The Brats deployed an infantry platoon & 3 Lees on their right hand objective on top of a hill.
The brat left was 3 valentine platoons, 1x Crusader 3, Valentine command, portees and a trucked infantry platoon below an opposing hill..

Opposing the Brat centre and right was a 25pder battery Recon armoured car platoon and an Auflak platoon on BMWs. The DAK centre had a mortar platoon. The DAK right had a Carri platoon, Dianna’s (on a flat top hill) and 8 rad armoured cars. With 3x Pak 38’s on the objective.

The brat armour attacked over the hill on the left catching the DAK by surprise with the speed of the advance. The inevitable happened with the loss of 1 valentine, 3 crusaders & the portees, 7 Valentines survived after destroying the Carri & Dianna’s.

The 25pounders got a lucky hit killing the infantry platoon commander on the brats right pinning the platoon for the rest of the game as it turned out. The Lees were bailed or bogged (while trying to go down the steep hill) for most of the game.

While this was happening the armoured cars & motorbike platoon swept up the left and around the back. They machine gunned the trucks and broke the infantry on the Brats right.

The bike platoon assaulted the Lees killing the platoon commander.
The DAK armoured cars dashed for the objective under a hail of ATR shots and Lee’s 37mm guns. The recon captured the objective just in time!

The valentines meanwhile pushed on overrunning the pak38’s and taking the objective a turn to late.

A close run game 4-3 win to Chris with the DAK Recon.


Hillcrest HQ Friday Night 14th April 1943

After their narrow escape the night before Rommel’s Recon Company (Chris) encountered US infantry led by General Nick (runner up in our club Tournament).

1500pt DAK Recon vs. 1500pt US infantry Meeting Engagement Scenario

Deployment
Nick deployed his 105’s on the right, Stuarts behind a hill in front of the 105’s, infantry platoon behind the right hand objective AT guns split in half 2 protecting each objective and an HMG platoon helping cover Nicks left objective.

Rommel’s recon heavy armoured cars opposite the USA’s right, 25ponders in the centre, 8 rads in front of 25pdrs and 222’s to the right.

Chris’s plan take out the AT on Nicks left then send the recon to take the objective under cover of a hill which prevented Nicks centre supporting his left flank.

What actually happened!

Nick was the attacker and advanced his Stuarts to engage the heavy armoured cars his infantry displaced the 8 rads and dug in on the right objective. No reinforcements for the DAK until turn 3. The heavy armoured cars hung on and the Dianna’s finished off the Stuarts. Nick double moved infantry reserve up the right side of the table which was killed by a DAK reserve which came on..

The following turn Chris made the same mistake doubling up the USA right flank to be almost destroyed surviving a morale check.

By turn 5 the AT guns had been cleared off the USA’s left so the Diannas and Recon zoomed off and took the objective with little resistance. 6-1 win to the DAK.

Post mortem: Nick committed the Stuarts to decide the battle and things would have been tight if they had prevailed. Nicks left was always looking weak but the AT guns prevented the Recon getting their until turn 6.

Camp Cromwell 13/04/06

Present: Nick, Jim, Peter, SteveJ, MarkO, MarkW.

Mahrajah 2005 Grand Final

Nick's 2000 pts US Infantry: HQ, 2 inf, weapons, mortars, a/tank, 105s, TDs, Shermans, Honeys.
Jim's 2000 pts Carri: HQ M14, 3 5M14, 6L6, 90/53, 75s, 105s, Guastatori.
Breakthrough scenario in Tunisian terrain (K&C recipe using Nick's program), Ities attacking.

The Itie 105s tried to take out the US 105s, but after about 8 turns they had disabled just 2 guns before giving up & trying (unsuccessfully) to find better targets. Their 75s were severely hampered by the terrain blocking line of sight & the loss of their observer to a/tank guns. Eventually they got their hq into a good spot & did some moderately effective pinning & smoking. The US 105s took out a couple of 75s. All up, not an impressive day for the drop-shorts.
The 90/53's had nowhere with a decent field of fire to deploy so had to move up to do so. They were caught by a mortar battery as they deployed and destroyed - much to the chagrine of the Itie command who had overlooked the mortars (next turn they smashed them with massed tank fire, but too late).
But that was all secondary to the main action. Covered by the terrain, the Itie's impressive (in numbers anyway) armoured column moved across the table, around the US right flank and towards the rear objective. The US moved their armour & TDs to meet the threat while GIs & a/tank covered the forward objective.
The Guastatori were the Itie flanking force and although available early were held back to attack in concert with the tanks. When the Shermans advanced to meet the Carri, they rushed forward and attacked under cover of smoke, but their flame throwers failed, good mg dice stopped the attack (to the usual cries of doom from the Ities). The Honeys then finished them off with more mg fire. But the Guastatori did not die in vain, their attack bought time for the Carri to close in.
The Itie armoured column split around the village hill. The L6s turned right towards the forward objective as a diversion while the 3 Carri platoons pressed on against the US armour. Now the dice gods changed their tune. The Carri platoons took losses but always passed morale and kept on coming. They got behind the Shermans and Ronsoned the lot. They picked off 3 Honeys & the others failed morale. The TDs fell mainly to the L6s which had swept the GIs aside to round the hill.
With the US armour destroyed the Ities only had to mop up. The Carri took the far objective and secured it by pinning down the GIs supposed to defend it. Not only that, but the L6s somehow survived the a/tank fire, beat off the GI's counterattack and also held the other objective. More medals for those guys - another MVP job.
Pic M2005 1: The new Mahrajah receives the trophy from the umpire.
Pic M2005 2: The loser contemplates what might have been.

Chris' DAK Recon v. MarkW's DOGs in a 1500 pt FFA

Chris won a close battle.
More info on the blog if someone writes it up.

Fort Floriet 11/04/06

Game 1: 1500 pts FFF Chris's DAK d. James' Brat Light Tank .
Game 2: 1500 pts FFF Jame's Brat Light Tank d. Agro's DAK Recon.
More info when Chris remembers to add his attachment.

Acton Armoury 09/04/06

Jim's Carri v. Barrie's US Infantry. 2000 pts Hold the LIne, Italians attacking on Tunisian terrain.
A shameless practice battle for the Mahrajah 2005 GF.
The tin swarm rushed forward. The a/tank guns came out of ambush & knocked out some, but not enough.
The massed firepower of the armour mudered one a/tank platoon, the Itie artillery smoked & blasted the other.
The swarm over-ran the GIs on the objective.
The Shermans came up, smashed a lot of tin cans, but to retake the objective had to move in range of the 90/53's and expose their rears to Itie pop guns - lots of Ronsons & game over.

Camp Cromwell 06/04/06

SteveJ's Falshirmjager v. Barrie's US Inf in a 2000 Death from Above on the big table (decided by the Mission dice).
Barrie suffered from a deployment mistake leaving on objective rather isolated & defended by just one small GI platoon. But the Huns made heavy work of it. The GIs repelled the first attack & US reserves kept coming on at the right end of the table & kept the pressure on. The Henshells came often - but not on the two turns when the US presented the best targets - they inflicted annoying but not decisive damage. Steve took the objective but Barrie killed everyone before they could claim victory as the Shermans came on in just the right spot. The Shermans stormed to the objective and won the battle.
Barrie spent almost the whole battle convinced he was doomed, but in the end he was saved by the fact that his reserves came on reasonably soon and always in the right spot.

Fort Floriet 04/04/06

Last week was a panzer refitting nigh this week 4 players arrived keen to play!

Table 1.
Newbies Free for all was diced and, aggro’s non-historical German grenadiers, with 3 tigers??? fighting against a British light armour force of 1500pts.

Both players had fun the inevitable German win but some British tanks almost captured the left hand objective before conceding the game.

Table 2
King of the hill was diced 1500pts Chris DAK Armour vs. Doug Free French Armour.

Chris started with Recon, and Medium tank command on the table. 3 Panzer platoons had to come on as reserves.
Doug started with 5 Stuart lend lease platoons and a platoon of M10’s an awesome and imposing sight.

Turn 1: Chris decided not to attack waiting for reinforcements armoured cars advanced.
Doug advanced the horde of Stuarts (French?) sprung M 10’s out of ambush early but was unlucky only bailing Rommel and an F1 which both stayed bailed for another 3 turns. No air support this turn for the frogs.

Turn 2: Chris got lucky 2 medium tank platoons arrived on the Frogs right flank and took out 4 Stuarts. The armoured cars shot up a jeep, brave lads! And Rettimier got a shot off before the M10’s ducked for cover.
Doug consolidated his position on the hill and chased off the armoured cars, which ducked for cover.

Turn 3: A shooting between F2 & F1 vs. 2 M 10’s.

Turn 4: Panzer 3’s and 4’s finished off the rest of 1 Stuart platoon and destroyed a second. Rettimier picked off a Stuart, which had accidentally been left in full view.
Chris’s Honey platoon came on and killed 1 Stuart.
Doug got air power, which attacked his troops, and 2 platoons spent the turn waving at their own planes.

Turn 5: The panzers picked off 2 more Stuarts and an M10. The honeys finished off a Stuart platoon. The panzers took the objective and the French failed their morale check. 6:1 win to the DAK which surprisingly only lost 1 Honey.

Dice gods were in the Germans favour tonight!!!