Hadspen HQ 31/07/06

Starn & Chris had a practice game for the up coming Tourneys and to get more familiar with version 2 rules.V2 EncounterStarn 1600pts Russian Infantry vs Chris 1500pts DAK Grenadier Marsche Company.

Starn deployed his HQ on the right, Strelk 1 in centre protecting an objective, Strelk 2 left side supported by 76mm guns.The Dak left had a Platoon of Grenadiers (Confident trained) attached HMGs & C in C, mortars & 105's in the centre partially concealed by a hill, 2nd grenadiers on right.Both sides had air.The Dak artillery & mortars made a mess of the 76mm Russian guns which vapourised after 3 turns.The Russians got lots of air but it had limited effect killing a mortar.The Dak air likewise was fairly in effectual, Chris wasted 3 dice on failed interceptions. But the air came good and helped polish off a Matilda platoon combined with the F 8's.

The long range duel suited the Germans so the Russians started to advance with fresh reserves on the table. The Dak HMGs and rifle MGs blew away the 2 understrength Strelks with the help of the artillery & mortars. The Dak lost a pioneer rifle platoon in the process.The Stugs turned their attention to the Su 122's. Russian air killed a Stug but the remaining Stug with the help of artillery and air support eventually polished off the Su 122's.The Dak advanced on the right objective and took it before the russians failed company morale.5-2 win to the DAk.

Post mortem: The Encounter Scenario reduces the Russians effectiveness, as it is harder for them to concentrate their forces for an attack. Early in the game the DAk left was weak but 2 reserves eventually came on to make it the stronger wing. Dak trained troops took a while to get used to not as reliable.

The rules went fairly smoothly but it was sometimes difficult to place the Planes. Starn and Chris both got lucky and got 3 planes at times but these couldnt be placed to close to the table sides or you lose one of the flanking aircraft. The edge effect of the table good to deploy troops on.By coming on from the opponents end of the table helped prevent the planes being to close to your own toops (ie :aborting their attack).

Camp Cromwell Report 25/07/06

Tuesday 23/07/06 at Camp Cromwell

SteveP’s Russian Infantry v. Jim’s Fucilieri in a 1500 pts V2 Ostfront FFA on 6x4 table.

Steve rejected the Russian swarm theory and dug in on his left and centre while on his right he advanced infantry onto a flat topped hill where it was safe from artillery observation and waited for the Ities to attack. The Gods of War were behind the hill on the right, his SP guns in support of his left.
The Ities had a line of infantry across the front stiffened with HMGs in the centre & a/tank guns on the right. Behind that there was row of artillery & mortars. L6’s were in reserve in the centre.
The Ities took an early blow when the Sturmovics struck before the L6s had space to spread out and killed 2 of them plus 2 infantry. Soon after the Regio Aeuronautica took out an SP gun, but that was the end of the damage from the air. The Sturmovic’s came back regularly but just couldn’t hit anything, while the RegioA just never showed up again.
With the enemy either out of sight of observers, or well dug in, the Ities couldn’t use their superior artillery effectively so they attacked on their left. The L6’s and infantry drove the Russians off the hill and charged down the other side. The Gods of War stopped the L6s & the Itie infantry ran out of bodies before it could kill enough Russians to get to the objective.
The Ities now lacked the punch to renew the attack but their defence was still strong enough to deter any Russian advance.
A draw was agreed to after an entertaining four hour footslog.
The new air rules are a huge improvement, but they don’t address the problem of some player’s abilty to throw in excess of 12 dice & get just one 5+.

Wednesday 24/07/06 at Hillcrest HQ

Nick's US Infantry v. Jim's Carri in a 1500 pt Encounter Scenario on 6x4 table.

Nick deployed infantry on each objective with M10s in their left centre. Scouts, artillery & Honeys in reserve.
Jim deployed Bersaliglieri on the left objective, artillery on the right objective & 1st M14 platoon on the right. 2nd M14, Semos & L6s in reserve.
The Itie armour charged forward on the right where some small hills gave them cover to get close to the M10s. The M10s used their recon to bug out of the contest with the Carri then advanced on the Bersaliglieri. The 2nd Carri came on early and rushed forward in support of the 1st Carri which attacked the RHS objective. They drove the GIs off and took the objective, but the Honeys arrived in the nick of time to dispute it. 5 Honeys took on 11 M14s while more GIs rushed across to help under heavy artillery fire. The Honeys took out a platoon, but lost their leader. This allowed the surviving M14s to go over the hill and leave them standed (no command - no move now). On the other flank the Semos arrived to face the M10s. The Bersaglieri rose out of their foxholes & counterattacked in support. The Semos were destroyed for the loss of one M10 while the FV Bersaliglieri twice failed tank terror. Meanwhile the 3 surviving M14s destroyed the Scouts and finished off the 2nd GI platoon to clear the objective and win the battle.

Thursday 25/07/06 at Camp Cromwell

A good turn up: Jim, 2 Steves, 2 Marks, Pete & Maruisz.

SteveP's Russians Inf defending v. Mariusz's Polish Armour in 1500 pt Breakthrough on 6x4 table.

V2 has given the dreaded Poles even more tanks.
Steve's army still looked formidable, with its hordes of infantry, artillery & 3 KV.
It looked to be a tough ask for the Ivans to stop the horde of armour, but the KVs were a problem & in the end the Poles couldn't kill enough Russians in the time available. So the Russians won under the defender wins rule.

Mark's US Armour attacking Steve's FJ Pioneers in 1500 pt Cauldron on 6x4 table.

Steve had a nice rocky hill to deploy his infantry on and a plain to dominate with his 88s in ambush.
The US (Shermans, Honeys, Assault Guns, Mech Inf, air) concentrated their attack from the close terrain away from the 88s.
As the US manoevred for an attack, the FJ reserves came on and counterattacked the Shermans. The Germans died, but they took a few Sherman with them.
The last german reserves, Pak 40s finished off the Shermans, then chewed up the infantry.
There was no way the US could take the objective, so Mark conceded on the defender wins rule.

Our rate of play has slowed right down with V2, with much consulting of the new books going on.

Fort Floriet 25/07/06

Good turn up this week with Starn & Corinna, Doug, Aggro, James S, Chris & Rodney had his first game to be completed next week.Game 1.1500pts Free for All, Tank BattleJames Scott British light Tank Squadron vs. Rodney German Panzer CompanyThe battle is still raging the British have lost 2 grants and 5 crusader III's while the Germans have lost a platoon of 3 Marders and a Stug D.Using the version 2 rules the Protected Ammo helped the Germans hop back in to their tanks. The awesome firepower of 4 stationary Panzer III's (late J's) with 12 shots, was felt by the Crusader III's. (To be continued)Game 2.1500pts Aggro Grenadiers vs. Starn GrenadiersA long-range duel was fought between opposing batteries Aggros 105's got the better of Starns Nebelwerfers. However Starn went on the offensive on both wings and killed 4 out of 7 of Aggros platoons. Aggro failed his company morale and Starn won 5-2. That makes back-to-back wins for Starn leading up to the Floreat tournament.People who wish to participate in the tournament must bring their 1600pt army list using Africa or Ostfront with the current corrections by the 1st round draw next week Tuesday the 1st of August.It will be a random draw round robin tournament draw will be done and players need to organise to play their round within 2 weeks after their opponent has been drawn.

Fort Floriet 18/07/06

Fort Floreat Report 18th July 2006

Seven takers this week, we had a crack at the version 2 rules, which played pretty well.

Table 1. Meeting Engagement
1500pts Russian Horde Matt & Chris vs. 1500pts Grenadiers James Scott & Aggro

The game played smoothly, the Germans attached Pak 40’s to 1 grenadier and HMGs to the other. With 430pts spent on Brumbars it was always going to be a tough ask.

The Russians sent a Strelk up each flank with Mortars supporting in the middle. The Germans tried to stop the Strelk on the right with the 105’s killing a few stands then switched to the Strelk on the right then finally attacked the Mortars.

The Russian mortars pinned the German infantry on the Russian left, and the Strelk finished off the Grenadiers with some hot dice from Matt. The Brumbars had come on and tried to contest the German vacant right objective but were beaten back by the Strelk with sappers losing a bailed Brumbar and the game.

Table 2. Starn 1500pts Russian Infantry vs. Doug 1500pts German Panzer Grenadiers (with Remer).

Game 1.
Starn got overrun in the first game by Remer who assaulted with halftracks and Tigers as AT support. Remer’s boys went in hard 2+ to kill each stand and demolished the Russians taking the objective.

Game 2.
Doug and Starn had a re match in which Starn snuck over the line dislodging the Mortar platoon on the objective. A very bloody encounter in which Starn lost his 5 Matildas and managed to destroy Doug’s 2 Tigers, using his 57mm AT guns.

Camp Cromwell 13/07/06

Tunisia Campaign Battle at D3

The DAK (2 Steves) again tried to delay the US (Nick, MarkO, Pete) advance. This time on their old front line with minefields & wire.
The DAK had to stay on the table for 6 turns to prevent the US advancing another hex towards Ouseefa.
Already depleted by previous battles, with only 2 Lancias coming as reserves and just one little a/tank gun, the DAK were always in trouble. They lacked the firepower to hurt the enemy as they gapped the wire & minefields, and when they cut and ran, many were cut down before they could escape. The Lancias held off the RAF pretty well, but one was picked off by artillery and the other rushed by a Honey.
The DAK got one platoon away to C4 intact plus some bits of the rest.
The US lost 2 recon on the minefields & 1 rifle team shot.

We used the V2 rules. This caused much flipping thru the book, but generally the changes met with approval. The air achieved bugger all, but then they didn't have good targets & the one juicy target could fire back.

Fort Floriet 11/07/06

Fort Floreat Report 11/7/2006

Five turned up including Doug, Aggro, Chris, James S & a new interested player Matt.We decided to play a free for all armour game as not everyone had the new rules and to teach James & Matt the armour warfare.It's a fun little scenario where you each players starts with a tank rolled from the table on the FOW website.Matt & James started with Crusader II's, Aggro a Sd Kfz 222, Chris Sdkfz223 & Doug a Panzer II.The idea is to kill as many of the opponent's tanks as possible, if you die you re-spawn by rolling again on the table.First person to 6 kills was declared the winner James & Matt got out to an early lead but then both died and came back as KV 1's.Aggro sat out of range and then bailed for 4 or 5 turns while the others fought it out.Chris died and came back as a Panzer IV F1 and shot up the Crusaders. Doug died and came back as a Panzer III J (early).The battlefield was covered in smoking wrecks after an hour or 2, but when Doug died and came back as a Ferdinand it was game over. He polished off 2 KV's, an Su 76, Su 122 and a T34 85. Outdoing Chris's Sturmi (Stug G) which had brewed up 4 tanks.A bit of fun for new players as well as old and a good way of getting used to the Version 2 AFV characteristics.

Camp Cromwell 06/07/06

Camp Cromwell on Thursday: Tunisia Campaign Battle at Guettar

With both tables already in use for camapign battles likely to be resumed, we put one of Nick's 6x4 foam tables over the pass battlefield table packed up to bridge over everything.

DAK: 2 Steves.
US: Nick & Pete.
Refs: Jim & MarkO.

A DAK pinning action against the US Armour.
The DAK had to stand for 3 turns to ensure that the US were pinned & not able to intervene in E6.
The US recon found a gap in the Allied minefields for the Shermans to advance through.
The Dianas took out a Honey & a TD jeep before getting smothered.
The DAK also lost all their a/tank and a mortar before slipping away.

Fort Floriet 04/07/06

Fort Floriet on Tuesday

Michaels' 1500 DAK Recce + Jim's 1500 Fucilieri
defending v.
Chris' 1750 Brit Light Armour + Agro's 1500 Brit Light Armour
in a Bulge Scenario. (Doug also present).

The Axis deployed a front line of infantry (Ities in a village on the right, Germans in village & scrub on the left). The front line Ities ahd support of mortars & 65/17's. More inf, artillery & A/Cs in rear. 3 lots of a/tank guns in ambush.

The Brats were clearly intimidated by the Ities and they sent their tank swarm (9 bugs, 22 Crusaders & 9 Grants) down their right flank and up the centre.
Their double 25 pdr battery deployed on the rear edge.

First blood went to the Itie mortars which took out 3 25pdrs on their first shot. In their own private battle the mortars destoyed all the 25pdrs in trange, redeployed forward and all but destroyed the whole a battery. In reply the 25 pdrs got 1 mortar. The Axis artillery wasn't too hot either, 2 105 batteries did littel but bail the odd tank in the whole battle.

Bugs & Crusaders cleaned the Grenadiers out of the scrub & killed the Pioneers outside the village. The Brats then suffered badly from the 76mm A/T & Pak 36 ambushes, plus the 65/17s sniping from the flank. A wall of Grants destroyed the A/T & the advance resumed on the right. A Crusader attack on the 65/17s failed to beat them & a supporting Fucilieri counterattack finished off Chis's HQ platoon.

The Grants charged forward to a rear objective while bugs & Crusaders took on the A/Cs & Pak 38s (the last ambush). The Grants destroyed the FC Fucilieri on the objective, but the scrub got most of them bogged first, leaving them vulnerable to counterattack by A/Cs in the rear & infantry in front. The death of a Grant platoon caused Brat morale failure. A long hard fought battle as Bulges can be.