Bolt Action 1250 pts on big table

Objective: The railway station.

Sides:
Jim set up the scenario, Chris could choose his side & whether to attack or defend.
Chris took the Brits & defending.

Terrain: 
Orchards: Visibility 6", no run, move & fire 6". Wheeled 6", tracked no run.
Woods: Visibility 3". No run, max move 3" (may fire).  No wheeled, tracked move as infantry.
Low scrub on river bank: Soft cover, can be seen over. Only fully tracked vehicles & then 1 turn to cross.
High hedges beside roads: Soft cover, block line of sight unless in high vehicle (then obscure), or on hill. Only fully tracked vehicles & then 1 turn to push through.
Corn fields:  No run unless fully tracked. Stationary infantry are concealed.
Bugs count as half tracks for terrain effects.

Deployment:
Defenders nominate their side of the table & deploy first, with up to half their force within 24" of the railway station. Defenders can start dug in.
Attackers then deploy all their force no closer than 24" from any defenders, & not directly behind them. 
Remaining defenders come on as Reserves from their table edge from turn 3.

Rules: BA v3 with some CC house rules.

Pic from German side after deployment.

The Brits deployed in cover which allowed the Germans to start dangerously close to the objective & they also failed to garison the railway station itself (presumably afraid of it being hit by the Germans heavy mortar).  The Germans seized the chance & got the early command dice that allowed them to occupy the railway station.

The Brits counterattacked & re-took the station, but the Germans had brought up supports & took it back.  In the mean time the rest of the forces exchanged fire with the Germans doing best as they were more spread out & able to bring more barrels to bear.  The Brits second error was to bring their reserves in behind the initial deployment so their deployment was compromised by lack of space.  Arguably they woudl have been better served by attacking the Germans right flank to support the counterattack on the station.

Bolt Action 2500 pts

Chris & Mike: 2500 pts Soviets divided between them.
Steve & Mark: Each ahd a 1250 pt German force.
10'x 6' table. BA v3 rules with a few house tweeks.

The Soviets are on the near long side side of the table.

Most of the action was with iin the centre of the table where the infnatry fought for the village.
On then far flank the German panzers lurked behind their ridge for most the battle as the Sobiets cuatiously advanced.

Even after the panzers came out from cover, the armour battle was indecisive with both sides either missing their shots or failing to penatrate.
In the centre the Soviets got as far as taking the railway station, but the Germans drove them back with significant losses. 
The butcher's bill favoured the Germans, losing 3 units to 6. 

Palmyra v. Rome

A chance to blood my newly 3D printed camel troops in the service of Zenobia.
Palmyra: Chrisd & SteveJ
Rome: Jim & Mike

The Romans are on the near sid eof the table.  They put all their cavalry on their left flank while the Palmyrans split theirs with some on each flank.
The Romans immediately attcked on their left where their superior numbers of cavalry gave them an edge over the Palmyran cataphracts.
On the other flank, both sides stayed on their up-hill position on the large plateaus. 

The Roman medium cavalry swept aeay the smelly camels with hot dice leaving the cataphracts grossly outnumbered. 

The Romans cleared up the enemy right as both sides infantry were mainly spectators on their ridges. 

The Palmyrans formed a defensive position on the edge of their plateau as the Romans began an advance on the angle in the Palmyran line.

The Roamns took their time setting up before attacking the Palmyran right.

The Roamn cavalry charged uphill at infnatry as the legionaries moved up to attack the angle.

The Palmyrans puit up a some stiff resistance defending their ridge line, but the Roman concentration of force on the angle was too much for them.  A Palmyran counter attack on the far flank was too little too late.  

Bolt Action in the desert

British v. Italians: 1250 pts.
Jim set the game up, Chris could chose which side he wanted & took the Brits.

The Italians have about half their force dug in defending the village near the oasis.
The British will deploy overnight on the far side of the table (up to the line of rulers).
At dawn (turn 1) the British can begin their attack.
The Italian reserves can move onto the table from the near edge on turn 2.

The British advance on a broad front converging on  the village with infbatry & armour as their artillery engages from the ridges.
The Italians are rushing infantry forward with armour & artillery supportting from the ridge in their rear. 

The Fucileri in the village held on just long enough for the Parducci & Bersaglieri to arrive & take over the defence.  Bersaliageri on the left ridge suportted the left & the armour & artillery on the right supported their right.

We didn't limit the game to 6 turns because of the big table & went on for about 9.  In the end the Brits ran out of infantry & lost hope of taking the village as well as losing 6 units to 4.

ACW 28mm

Having been on an exhausting bushwalk today I wasn't up to doing much tonight, so the rest of the gang went DIY.  They re-used the terrain from last week, but selected ACW armies each of two similar divisions & swapped the buildings from European 15mm to ACW 28mm.

Union: Chris & Steve.
CSA: Mark & Mike.

Thre was no need for me to do anything as unpire as they all know the rules well.  There was actually less discussion about rules issues than usual. 

Union left flank (Chris) v. CSA right (Mark).

Union right (Steve) v. CSA left (Mike).

The battle was indecisive with low casualties so neither side even close to breaking & objectives were also evenly split.

Bolt Action: 2 x 1250 pts games

Germans: Jim & Steve
Allies: Mike & Chris

The 4 forces strated in the four corners of the table:
Steve's Germans Left foreground.  Jim's Germans right foreground.
Mikes' Brits far left. Chris' Soviets far right.
We used two dice bags, one for the left side of the table & one for the right side, keeping both sides in sych turn by turn.  Most fo the combat was side by side, but cross tabel fire was allowed & was used a bit. 

Steve's Germasn formed a defensive line on the hede.  Mike advanced but the combat on that side of the table never got to close quarters. By the end Mike had lost one unit & Steve none.
On the other side of the table both sides advnce & there was plenty of action in & around the the large wood right of centre.   The Germans got the better of it losing just 1 unit while destroying 7 Soviets units.
 

Byzantium v. Arabs take 3

 didn't get back from a bushwalk in tiem to set up a battle so we recycled last week's armies.
Byzantium: Mark (cavalry), Chris (infantry)
Arab: Jim (infantry), Renfrey (cavalry)

Both sides put all their cavalry on one flank, so it became two battles, inf v. inf & cav v. cav.

The Arabs advanced their infantry whuile the Byzantines advanced their cavalry, so both leading with their strongest arm.

On the right, the Byantine light horse swept away the Arab horse archers, then made way for the cataphracts.
In the infantry fight, both sides' left the left were doing well.

The cataphracts are predicably chewing up the Arab heavy cavalry.
The infantry fight has turnd into a revolving door with the Vargangians & allied inf being broken on the Byz's right while the Arab rigth also broke.

The Aeab infantry have broken more untis than they lost & have the upper hand, but the Aeab cavalry has been destroyed, so the Arabs fail the Aamy Morale Test & the Byzantines lose again.

Maybe given the continued Arab losses the new points system hasn't gone quite far enough, but on the other hand, the Arabs may have got a bad run of the dice tonight.
 

Byzantium v. Arabs: Take 2

 After the last few battles I realised that our points system favoured smaller better quality armies.  So I designed a new sprreadsheet to address the issue.  Applying the new system to the armies we used last week, it deeemed the Areabs to be well outppointed - which wa sthe feeling we got playing the game.  On the new system the Arabs got some more units for this week's battle.
Arabs: Jim, Renfrey & Chris
Byzantines: Mark & SteveJ

The Arabs are on the left.
Both sides deployed their infantry in two lines in the centre & put most of their cavalry on the near flank.

Both sides advanced their left flank cavalry.
The Byzantines are advanicnt heri centre slowly while the Arabs keep their infantry back on their ridge.

On the near flank the cataphracts have broken the Arab cavalry's first line, but with significant casualties.
On the far flank the Byzantines are suporting their cavalry with their Varangians & foot archers.
In the centre, the Arabs see that the Kontaritoi are stretched thin & have advanced off their ridge to attack them. 

On the near flank the Arab cavalry has been destroyed.
The far flank has turned into a bloodbath for both sides.
In the centre the Arabs weight fo numbers has told & the Kontaritoi are in trouble.

In the centre, the Arabs have wonon the left & centre of the infantry fight, but the Cataphracts having cleaned up the Arab cavalry have started to attack the right of their line.

On the far flank, the only troops left fit to fight are the Varangians.
In the centre, the Arabs have destroyed almost all the Kontaritoi, but they are unable to resist the attack of the cataphracts on their righ flank.

This battle felt like a pretty fair fight so the new points system is certainly an improvement.

Byzantium v. Arabs

 Byzantium: Mark & Mike
Arabs: Jim, Nick & Chris

The Byzantines are on the far side of the table. They have  dployed all their cavalry on their right flank.   The Arabs put 1/4 of their cavalry on their right flank & 3/4's on their left.

The Byzantines immediately advanced their cavalry.  The Arabs sent our horse archers to fire & retire to protect their heavy cav from the enemy horse archers.

The Arab heavy cav is for now holding on against cataphracts.  Byantine light cavry is attacked the Arab infantry to cover the cataphract's flank.
On the far flank the Arab horse is trying to disrupt the Byzantine infantry's advance.

On the near flank the cataphracts have defeated the fist line of Arab cavalry & is now engaged witht eh second line.  The Arab horse archers have reformed into close order to support the second line.
Arab infantry is attackong the light cavalry covering the Cataphracts flank.

The Cataphracts are finally prevailing, but are themselves spent in the progress.
But the battel is being decided in the centre where the Arabs made the mistake of massing their light infantry & thus leaving gaps in their line.  The Byzantines exploited the gaps to make flank attacks that destroyed the Arab centre. 

The Arabs probably erred in not concentrating their cavalry, but their big mistake was leaving gaps in the infantry line.

The armies were equal in poits according the o the current spreadsheet, but recent experience has been that better quality armies are winning all the battles indicating that the points system needs a tweek.

Battle of Jamappes 1792

A scenario based on the battle of Jemappes of 1792 between the revolting French & the Austrians.  In the real battle the Austrians were outnumbered about 14,000 to 36,000.  I tweeked the OOB to reduce the discrpancy so the French had a 50% advantage in points.  The key issues being retained - that is a mob of half trained by zealous Frigs against a smaller professional army in a good defensive position.  The figures are PeterC's 15mm on loan.
French: Mike & Mark.
Austrians: Jim & Chris.

Pic from the French side.  Only the Austrians visible to the French are on the table.  Austrian infnatry & artillery a manning defensive works on the ridge between two woods.

The French make a general advance with a weighted right flank & theri cavalry on their left.

The French attack the woods on the right & discover yegers in the woods on both flanks.

The yegers fall back in the far woods behind a line of grenadiers.  The French charge the grenadiers in mass. In the centre the artillery exchange fire as the French infantry mostly stay just out of artillery range.

As a hot fight continues in the far woods, the French advance towards the near wood.  On the ridge, the Austrians have retired some units shaken by artillery & replaced them with fresh troops.

In the far wood the Grenadiers saw off the first wave,  but the second wave broke them.  The Austrians have pulled back from the far end of the ridge to avoid being attacked in flank.  Sustrain cavalry ahs been revealed covering both flanks.  The French cavalry have begun to advance on teh Austrian right.

The Austrians have pulled back their left as the French move on thee angel in their line.
Austrian infantry are holding on in the near wood.
The Aistrians have sent some of their left flank cavary to supprt their right flank which is under attack by the French cavalry. 

At 10pm we called nightfall.

The French have lost 5 inf & 2 art broken, 4 inf & 3 art shaken.
The Austrians have 3 inf broken, 3 inf, 1 cav & 2 art shaken.

The French still have 16 inf, 6 cav & 3 art fit to fight.
The Austrians only have 6 inf, 5 cav & 4 art fit to fight & have been driven out of their defensive position.  

Clearly the Austrians will have to retreat overnight & the French will claim victory.

Still in the 30 years war

Just back from an 8 day bushwalk I was too bushed to set up something new, so recycled Empire v. Dutch again. PeterW was visiting from Canberra.

Empire: Mike & Chris.
Dutch: Jim, Renfrey & PeterW

The Empire are on the far side.  Cavaltry on  both flanks, P&S in the centre, musketeers in the woods with Landasscneckts behind.
The Dutch concentrated their horse on their right, P&S in the centre with musketeers on both flanks of the P&S.

The Dutch advanced in the centre to reach the ridgeline first.

The Empire charged up the ridge in the centre while the Dutch cavalry attacked on their right flank.

Both attacks lead to wins & losses on bith sides with the winners to knackered to exploit a breakthru.

On the right, the Dutch cavalry fell back & the Empire's horse was disinclined to follow up.
In the centre, the Dutch second line took the ridge line back.

The Empire made cavalry charges up the ridge against shaken P&S with some sucess, but the Dutch stull had enough reserves to make them fall back again.

The Dutch now advanced again in the centre & left.

The Empire tried anotehr counterattack on the far flank, but they couldn't stop the Dutch advance & the Empire centrte & right collapsed.

Once again the Empire lost.  It seems that even though the points system says the forces are evenly matched, a larger number of small units trunps a smaller number of big ones.