Camp Cromwell

CanconFOW - complete results

2012-01-31T08:05:00.000+11:00

The full results of the Cancon FOW comps is at http://www.flamesofwar.com/Default.aspx?tabid=126&aff=14&aft=533537&afv=topic

The Team Tas results were :

Early War:
John came 7th of 42 with 4 wins from 8 & top marks for sportsmanship, history & modelling.
Generalship equal 11th.

Midwar:
Jim came 17th of 42 with 5 wins, top marks for sportsmanship & history, but low marks for modelling. Generalship equal 13th.

Richard came 21st of 42 with 4 wins, top marks for sportsmanship & average marks for history & modelling. Generalship equal 16th.

Leigh came 30th of 42 with 4 wins, top marks for sportsmanship, but low marks for history & modelling. Generalship equal 13th.

Leigh scored a $50 voucher for 30th place.

Canberra War Museum Visit

2012-01-30T18:01:00.004+11:00

The Canberra War Museum has some interesting stuff from wars from the Boers to Afganistan. For example a cute Afrika Korps Kuberwaggon...but the best bit is the aircraft.

The WWII planes on display include Lancaster, Me109, Spitfire, Mustang, Mosquito, Zero, Me262 and more.

There is an impressive sound, light & archive film display very realistically depicting a bombing raid on Berlin. The film is projected onto a giant screen next to the Lancaster & Me109 suspended from the ceiling (and with an 88 below).

That was pretty good, but the WWI air exhibition is absolutely f%&$ing awesome.

The genuine Pfalz, SE5a, Albatross, DH4, & Sopwiths parked around the hall or hanging from the ceiling are impressive enough, but the huge wrap-around screen video has to be the best air film ever shot.

Peter Jackson the film director and others have a collection of planes in Masterton NZ which includes an RE8 and several each of SE5a's, Camels, Dr1's. Albatri & DVII's. With a bit of techno help they put together a short movie:

It starts off with a Camel reving up, taking off and attacking an observation balloon with tracer. The balloon goes down in spectacular flames after the poor bugger hanging from it bails out. After some great footage of nine SE5a's firing up, taxi-ing out and taking off in formation, an RE8 gets attacked by a flock of Dr1's & Albatri with great close-ups of the rear gunner. Then the 9 SE5a's show up & the Huns peel off to take them on. A magnificent whirling dogfight ensues with planes of both sides going down until a flock of Fokkers (DVII's) join in as well!

And you watch this sitting under an SE5a hanging from the ceiling! It really was gobbsmackingly good - we kept going back to see it again. Do not go to Canberra and miss it!

CANCON 2012

2012-01-29T21:44:00.000+11:00

FOW Team Tasmania: John Mumford, Richard Taylor, Jim Gandy & Leigh Watson

With 100 FOW competitors, 550 other competitors in multiple other systems and thousands of visitors, buyers & sellers, Cancon is quite an event. Mercifully, this year the weather was kind and conditions in the big shed were quite pleasant - not the oven we had heard of in past years.

There were 48 tables for FOW alone - for the 40 players each of Midwar & early War and another 8 tables for a big Stalingrad campaign.

There were also a heap of shop stalls selling all things wargames.

Demo games of interest included: 6mm Napoleonics (Borodino - see pic), Hail Caesar & Black Powder Pike & Shotte.

We were also given a preview of FOW V3 by Phil Yates himself - should be at A52 this week.

Flames Of War: Team Tas Results:

John's British Armoured (EW): 4 wins, 4 losses, 31 VPs.
Leigh's Tankovy (MW): 4 wins, 4 losses, 29 VPs.
Richard's Finnish Infantry (MW): 4 wins, 4 losses, 27 VPs.
Jim's Hungarian Light Infantry (MW): 5 wins, 3 losses, 29 VPs.

In Midwar we all had a good variety of enemy armies, players and terrain. John was a little less fortunate in Early War as his opponents were Panzer in every game. We had opponents from Brisbane, Sydney, Albury/Wodonga, Melbourne & New Zealand.

The standard of play & table manners was generally very good and Team Tas all finished in a bunch near the middle of the field. The Monday Knights from Melbourne and the two Kiwis were generally a class above both in the game and in drinking capacity. One curious fact we discovered was that cm are used rather than inches only in Tasmania and Albury/Wodonga.

Detailed results for the team:

		John	Leigh	Richard	Jim
		EW	MW	MW	MW
		British Armour	Soviet Tankovy	Finnish Infantry	Hungarian Light Infantry

Round 1	Encounter	Panzer	Tiger	Strelk	Tankovy
		Win	Win	Win	Loss
		6	6	6	1
Round 2	No Retreat/HTL	Panzer	Fucilieri	Strelk	Strelk
		Win	Loss	Loss	Win
		6	1	1	4
Round 3	Breakout	Panzer	Fucilieri	Tankovy	Aust Armour
		Loss	Loss	Win	Win
		2	1	4	4
Round 4	Dust Up	Panzer	Strelk	Tankovy	Grenadiers
		Won	Loss	Loss	Loss
		6	3	2	2
Round 5	Witch's Cauldron	Panzer	US Para	Pioneer	Aust Infantry
		Loss	Win	Loss	Win
		2	5	3	5
Round 6	FFA	Panzer	Finn Armour	Grenadiers	Pioneers
		Win	Win	Win	Win
		4	6	4	6
Round 7	Breakthrough	Panzer	DAK Armour	Tankovy	Tankovy
		Loss	Loss	Loss	Loss
		2	1	1	2
Round 8	Fighting Withdrawal	Panzer	Grenadiers	Strelk	Strelk
		Loss	Win	Win	Win
		3	6	6	5

	Wins	4	4	4	5

	Vps	31	29	27	29

Greeks & Persians Hail Caesar

2012-01-23T23:06:00.003+11:00

Jim & Richard's Greeks v. Steve & Mike's Persians

Both armies were 500 points in 4 divisions. Army morale fail at: lose 2 infantry divisions, or lose 3 in total, or lose camp. In the pics the Greeks are on the left.

In the foreground the small Greek cavalry division faces 2 Persian cavalry divisions.

In the centre the Persian foot advanced into bow range while the Spartans move up, eager to charge.

On the far side, 2 hoplite divs (Richard's own is in the far left) face mercenary hoplites.

In the foreground the Greek cavalry played for time, aided by Mike's poor command rolls. On the far side, the hoplites slowly move towards each other in fit and starts. In the centre the Spartans charge the Sparabara.

The Spartans on the right smash their way through, but their comrades on their left were held and the slow advance of the next division left them open to flank attack. A confused fight resulted in the destruction of the whole Spartan division. But the next hoplite division finally came up and the Persians were in turn attacked in flank and finished off. So both sides lost their best division.

The Greek cavalry were finally overwhelmed in the LH corner, but they had done their job keeping the Persian cavalry out of the action.

The battle was decided on the far flank where Richard attacked the mercenaries with a bit of help from the hoplite div on his right. The two hoplite lines took a while to slug it out, but the numerical advantage told for the Greeks in the end. When the mercenaries broke that was army morale fail for the Persians.

Richard and his hoplites aquitted themselves well in their first battle. The Persian's mistake was to have too much of their force on the wrong side of the woods.

Last Tango Before Cancon

2012-01-21T18:26:00.001+11:00

Jim's Hungarian Light Inf v. Rich's Kiwi Rifles

1500 pts MW Breakout Mission, Hungarians defending. The Hungarians deployed all their force at the start with none in reserve. Kiwis had their 25 pdrs in one corner and infantry & HMGs in the other corner.

The Kiwi infnatry moved towards the village & their HMGs moved to the edge of the wood closest to the village.

The Hungarians started moving their infantry towards the objectives while their Paks & 38T's destroyed the HMGs.

The Kiwi's first reserve to arrive was their Shermans on the RHS. They hid from the Paks behind the wood & tried to snipe at the 38T's around the corner. They missed and the 38T's swarmed them. A combination of side shots from the 38T's, artillery and a Pak move and fire disposed of the Shermans.

Meanwhile the Honeys had come on in the other corner. They killed a few infantry before the Paks turned towards them causing them to scuttle behind the village.

The other 2 rifle platoons came on and assaulted the 38T's. The 38T's withdrew after losing 2 and set up outside the wood to protect the Paks from the infantry.

The Kiwis then used smoke as cover and tried to attack the 38T's out of the woods. Attack after attack was tried, each stopped by defensive fire, or failed tank terror as the infantry slowly melted away. One rifle platoon was destroyed but the other finally charged home, drove back the 38T's and took out a Pak. But the last 2 38T's passed morale and their counterattack finished off the 2nd rifle platoon.

That left the Kiwis below half strength, but their CIC was alive and well in the village and they continued to pass coy morale tests. One Hungarian infantry unit broke under Honey fire and the Kiwis launched a last desperate attack to take the objective before their morale luck ran out. The Honeys destroyed the weapons platoon but was beaten off by the infantry. The rifles in the village then attacked but they had been weakened by 105 fire and were finished off in a counterattack. The remaining Kiwis still passed coy morale, but we were well past the time limit and the Hungarians still held the objectives so were declared winners.

Hail Caesar 18/01/12

2012-01-18T22:43:00.000+11:00

Jim & Renfrey's Greeks v. Steve & Mike's Persians

We tossed to see who was on which side using the same armies as last Sunday, but different players & different terrain. The Greeks are on the left in the pics.

The Persians advanced their cavalry wings and sat back with their infantry centre.

The Greeks advanced their whole line as fast as they could.

On the far flank the two sides pretty well stalemated. The Greeks were happy to hold the line & keep the Persians getting past into their rear, Persians got to support their centre with horse archers.

On the near flank the hoplites charged the medium cavalry and routed it. But they lost a unit doing so and couldn't get to grips with the horse archers to finish off the division.

The centre was always going to be the decisive spot. The peltast screen was driven back by massed bowfire, and the hoplite's advance hesitated at times, but two units charged home up the hill. The LH one was resolved first. The Greeks felt pretty good throwing 7 4+'s, but the dice gods give and the dice gods take away - the Persians threw 7 5+'s to hold on.

From there it was all downhill for the Greeks.

Not enough hoplite units made it up the hill and the two that did were beaten one by one.

Now it was just a matter of time before the Persian bows finished the Greeks off. The Greeks conceded (although no divisions of either side actually broken yet).

Sunday School at Barrie's 15/12/12

2012-01-15T18:34:00.003+11:00

We played a FOW and a Hail Caesar side by side on one of Barrie's 12x6 tables.

Hail Caesar: Marks' Greeks v. Barrie's Persians

Barrie deployed his big infantry division in a long line extending from the RH edge to the centre, his javelin armed cavalry on his left and his horse archers in front of the centre. Mark deployed his division of 2 elite hoplites and 2 peltasts on his left and the other 2 divisions of 3 hoplites, skirmishers and 1 small cavalry each centre and right.

Barrie sent his horse archers forward to harrass the enemy centre and advanced his right to the creek line. Mark tried to counter them with his few light troops, but they were soon destroyed leaving the archers free rein.

The Greeks advanced their left to be met with such a hail of arrows from across the creek that they lost their nerve and fell back. In the centre and on the right the Greeks belatedly advanced, but the Persians fell back shooting.

The Greeks eventually charged the Persian centre, but their accumulated losses told and they failed to break it.

With most of their units shaken or nearly so, the Greeks could only stand around as the Persians peppered them.

The Greek right broke first, then the centre was outflanked. Clearly doomed, the Greeks conceded the battle.

Leigh's Schutzenkompanie v. Richards British Armoured Regiment

1500 points Early War, Breakout Mission. (Leigh's army was actually Jim's Cancon Midwar army with the Pak 40's changed for Pak 36's).

Leigh caused great execution on the thin skinned British tanks, but they over-ran an objective and just enough of them survived when the Germans tried to blast them back off it.

Hail Caesar

2012-01-12T00:11:00.002+11:00

Jim's Romans v. Steve & Mike's Carthaginians

The pics are all taken from behind the Roman right.

The Republican Roman army wasn't quite Kosher to the book of lists as it had an allied Persian division, but the newly painted figs looked so good I had to use them.

The Romans deployed their 2 legionary divisions left of centre with the Persian division on their right and their cavalry division on their left.

The Carthos put their Citizen spearmen division in the centre with cavalry on their left and Gauls on their right. Their 4th division of light troops and elephants was in front of and to the right of the spearmen.

The Gauls charged forward (as they do) and the Roman left advanced to meet them. The Cartho left advanced swinging out on the flank and the Persians advanced cavalry and bowmen to meet them (their medium infantry stayed on the hill).

On the far flank the Romans made short work of the Gauls. On the near flank the hail of Persian arrows took longer, but the Cartho cavalry were gradually melting away.

Meanwhile in the centre, the Cartho spearmen were slowly advancing while the Romans & Persian foot waited on the ridges.

After beating the Gauls, the Roman left turned on the Cartho flank. The elephants tried to stop them, but there weren't enough of them.

Finally, the Cartho spearmen charged home on the Roman centre. But the Persians weren't the pushover the Cartho's expected. They put up a good fight as the legionaries hammered away at the Cartho's right flank.

The Cartho's light division was on the verge of breaking for some time, only holding on by good break dice under flank attacks, but it was the spear division that broke first to give the Romans victory.

Sunday School Class 2: Hail Caesar

2012-01-08T23:51:00.000+11:00

Jim's Romans v. Renfrey's Seleucids.

This was Renfrey's introduction to Hail Caesar. He deployed conventionally with his phalanx in the centre, cavalry on his left and his mixed division of elephants, light infantry and light cavalry on his left. The Romans put their legion on their left and their two cavalry divisions (one Eastern allies, one Western allies) on their right.

Both sides advanced all along the line, though not evenly. The eastern horse in the Roman centre went ahead to start peppering the phalanx with arrows. This provoked Renfrey into attacking its flank with elephants. They routed a cavalry unit, but paid for it when the legion hit them in flank. On the far flank the two equal cavalry divisions slugged it out. At first the Seleucids got on top, but the Romans fought back.

The legion attacked and gradually whittled away at the Seleucid right while the phalanx wheeled forward ponderously in the face of a hail of arrows. Seeing his right crumbling Renfrey dropped a phalanx back to protect the camp. (The Romans had a left a cohort behind to protect theirs).

The Seleucid right broke and part of the legion headed for the camp as the phalanx finally got to grips with their right flank and the eastern horse. The right hand phalanx bounced off the flanking cohort and the eastern horse held on against the next one (by throwing 4 out of 4 5+ saves). Then on the far flank the two opposing cavalry units finally broke each other. This caused army morale failure for the Seleucids with 2 out of 3 divisions gone. It could easily have been a draw with the Roman's Persian allies only just hanging on.

Cancon Sunday School

2012-01-08T17:31:00.002+11:00

Team Tas for Cancon had a practice session at Camp Cromwell this afternoon...from left to right in the pic: Leigh Watson (MW Soviet Tank horde), Richard Taylor (MW Fin Infantry), Jim Gandy (MW Hungarian Infantry) & John Mumford (EW British Armour).

SteveJ's Panzers v. John's British Armour in FFA

The British cans charged forward (from the right in the pics) and the German's enjoyed a Turkey shoot.

Armoured Coys are not the sort of enemy John wants to meet at Cancon, though he should get his rocks off against infantry coys.

Jim's Hungarians v. Leigh's Tankovy in Dust Up

The Hungarians dug infantry in on the forward objective with Paks & Artillery in support. The Soviets had 11 cans & 10 T34's on the table.

The T34's doubled around the Hungarian left hidden by town and ridge while the cans hid behind the line of trees.

That looked bad for the Hungarians. Then it got worse - Leigh got his 10 Honeys on from reserve on the first try.

31 tanks converged on 15 Hungarian infantry, their approach totally shielded from any anti-tank of artillery fire.

The PBI gave ground to the Honeys, were pushed back by the T34's, then anihalated by the cans.

The Hungarian guns finally got a shot at the horde. They destroyed the T34's but the cans still held the objective. The Hungarian 38T's had come on in the far corner and were doubling for the objective, but this mission has no wait for turn 6 rule, the Soviets held an objective at the start of their next turn & it was game over.

As Mark found out v. Byron in the Maharajah, this Mission is a tough ask for infantry v. armour. In this case the terrain allowed the tanks to get up close without having to take any anti-tank or artillery fire. But the way the T34's evaporated when they did get shot at shows that the Hungarians could have had a chance on better terrain. With dissimilar coy types, so much depends on the Mission/Terrain mix.

Cancon Practice

2012-01-06T00:05:00.000+11:00

Jim & Refrey's Hungarian light Inf v. Thomas & Rich's Strelkovy

1500 pts Midwar. Breakout Mission, Soviets defending

The Soviets deployed in the far LH quarter of the table - Infantry, Honeys & Heavy Artillery on the table, 5 T34's to come on in near corner.

The Hungarians put their Paks on the LH side, 105's & infantry on the RHS. Most of the heavy platoon was attached to the infantry on the table. More ing antry and 5 38T's to come on as reserves.

The Hungarian infantry advanced to contest the objective near the cornfield with infantry. The Soviet Honeys moved up to contest that objective while the Soviet infnatry occupied the village securing the other objective.

Both side's reserves didn't arrive until turn 4. The Hungarians were brought on on the left. The T34's had to run the gauntlet of Paks to reach the critical area. One bogged in the woods, but the others moved out to face the Paks. Only 3 tanks able to fire at the paks, but that was enough to destroy them all (one had already been picked off by artillery).

The 38T's moved around the Soviet rear to enagage the Honeys, but with little success and when the artillery moved up into their rear, they turned round to destroy them instead.

The Soviet armour made a converging attack on the infantry in the cornfield and destroyed them. The armour then turned on the 2nd Hungarian infantry & destroyed that. The Hungarians then failed morale.

Once again this Hungarian list failed after the dice made it the attacker v. an infantry coy with superior armour. Clearly this is not this coy's strong suit, but they were faced with Soviets with a sound plan (Thomas' not Rich's) and they lucked out at every critical event.

Hail Caesar Breakthrough Mission

2012-01-04T23:48:00.000+11:00

Jim's Republican Romans v. Steve's Seleucids & Mike's Galacians

We made up a Scenario based on the FOW Breakthrough Mission. A dice off made the Romans the defenders and they deployed diagonally across two table quarters with their camp as the enemy objective in the middle of the table quarter behind them. The Seleucids deployed 3 divisions in the 4th table quarter at least 18" from the enemy and the 4th division (elephants and supporting infantry) on flank march to arrive near the far corner on or after turn 3.

The pics are all taken from behind the Roman camp. The Romans deployed their legionaries in the centre, their cavalry on left flank and their allied spearmen and supports right rear. The Seleucids had their pahalanx in the centre with cavalry on their left and Galacians on the right.

The Romans moved their allies back to guard the camp and sent skirmishers forward to harrass th enemy.

The Seleucids sent their wings forward while the phalanx slowly sorted itself out and followed. Their flanking force arrived on turn 4 and immediately charged the spearmen. The elephants were stopped, pushed back and the division quickly routed. But that was a side show, the real action was on the front line.

The Roman cavalry plan to just keep the cataphracts busy was fumoxed when their medium cavalry blundered forwards to be immediately ridden down by the cataphracts.

The attack of the Galacians was stopped by the legionaries, but they were too badly hurt to follow up and finish them off.

The Roman's allies were too slow coming back from their victory to be any use as the phalanx and the cataphracts slammed in to the Roman line. The legionaries actually beat off half the cataphracts, but they were overwhelmed and both legionary divisions broke to give the Seleucids victory.

Hail Caesar at Area 52

2012-01-03T15:15:00.000+11:00

Jim's Republican Romans v. Steve's Seleucids

MarkW set up an interesting battlefield for a Hail Caesar demo battle. The river, hills, camps & palm groves all counted as defenders uphill plus cavalry and long spear armed infantry disorganised, plus -3" move penalty. Deployment was simultaneous (from sketch maps), defeat conditions:
1. Lose more than half divisions.
2. Lose your camp.
3. Seleucids lose their phalanx division.
4. Romans lose both legionary divisions.

The pics are all taken behind the Roman right.

The Romans deployed allied spearmen on the right of the river, peltasts as camp guards, 2 legionary divisions in the centre, cavalry on the far left. The Seeucids deployed their Galacians (horse and foot) on their right, phalanx in the centre with elephants behind, cavalry on their left.

Both sides advanced on their left and held back on their right.

On the far side the Legion advanced quickly and smashed thru the Galacian foot. The Roman cavalry took a while to get going, but eventually overcame the Galacian cavalry.

On the near side the Seleucid cavalry charged the allied spearmen. The spearmen put up a stiff fight but were eventually defeated.

In the centre the two sides squared off on opposite sides of the river.

The Roman left redeployed to the right and both legionary divisions charged across the river. The Romans generally pushed the enemy back. They took the camp but the defenders bought enough time for a counterattack to be organised. (You have to hold the camp until the end of the enemy's next turn). A counterattack by elephants and peltasts drove the now shaken Romans back thru the camp.

Meanwhile on the other side of the field, the Seleucid cavalry had reorganised and were attacking the Roman camp. The Roman camp guard fought valiantly, but they were overwhelmed. The Roamn camp fell with no hope of immediate relief to give the Seleucids victory.

The exercise was certainly a success. There was a bit of interest shown by the passing A52 customers, Mark set up terrain quite different to what we are used to which made for an interesting challenge for both sides, and it was fun to play in an new envoironment - we must do it again.

Cancon Practice at Nick's

2012-01-02T17:01:00.001+11:00

Jim's Hungarians v. Nick's US Rifles

1500 pts Midwar, Fighting Withdrawal, Hungarians attacking.

The US deployed with infantry on the flanking objectives, Honeys on their right, artillery on their left and M10's and a/tank guns in ambush.

The Hungarians deployed their Paks & HMGs to cover the open ground right of centre with infantry to advance on each side of them, the right hand ones supported by the 38T's.

The US antitank guns deployed in the cornfield but only took out 1 38T before they died under a hail of 105, Pak, HMG & 38T fire.

The Hungarian infantry on the right advanced despite heavy losses from artillery & air strikes. On the other flank the infamtry was stopped by M10's & Stuarts.

On turn 3 the hungarians charged the hill on their right with infantry & tanks. The 105's covered their flank with smoke. Alas, the right dice were not forthcoming. They drove the GI's back, but the infantry didn't kill enough before the GI's broke off, and then too many 38T's bogged or bailed on the DG hill. The US were able to continued to dispute the objective gaining time for the cavalry to arrive.

This was a bad mix of mission & terrain for the Hungarian's to attack. But even so, they could have won it with their immediate attack, but it was a one shot chance and when it failed it was all over.

Hail Caesar at Barrie's

2011-12-29T20:27:00.001+11:00

Barrie's Carthaginians v. Mark's Romans

The Romans are on the left in the pics, infantry in centre, cavalry & allied infantry on each flank.

The Carthos have cavalry one each flank, Gallic inf left centre and Cartho spearmen and elephants right centre.

The Carthos lead with their right advancing in echelon. The Romans advanced their left to meet them.

The Punic cavalry on the right had some initial success then the flank went pearshaped in a welter of Roman 6's. The cavalry, the elephants & the spearmen were soon routed by the Roman left.

One Gallic warband was left to guard the camp while the others charged forward in a desperate attempt to turn the battle around. The Punic left flank cavalry was sent across their rear to plug the hole on their right. (The Roman left had had bad comand dice and was not a threat).

The Gallic charge caught the legionaries to their front not properly aligned and although one warband was flanked by triari the other 2 went straight through the left hand legion and broke it.

Suddenly there was hope for Carthage. The breaking of the legion left a gap and Barrie sent cavalry through it towards the Roman camp.

But the other legion was closing on the Carthaginian camp. The warband tried to defend it, but Oakie's dice prevailed and the Romans took the Carthaginian camp first.

Hail Caesar 28/12/11

2011-12-28T23:03:00.000+11:00

SteveJ's Seleucids v. Jim's Carthaginians

The Seleucids deployed their phalanxes in the centre, elephants & cataphracts on the right, medium & light inf on his left. The Carthaginians put their gauls right centre, punic spearmen & elephants left centre, Spanish infnatry & cavalry on the right and punic cavalry on left.

The Seleucids held their phalanx back while advancing with their cataphracts and supporting lights. The Punes skirmished with cavalry on the wings and advanced their infantry diagonally to the left.

The Punic attempt to flank the cataphracts failed due to the speed with which the cataphracts destroyed their opposition (cavalry, elephants and spearmen) and the intervention of the Seleucid elphants.

The kontos is indeed a fearsome weapon - not only destroying the enemy troops, but also inflicting grevious wounds on the enemy players who got too close.

The phalanx finally advanced. The Gauls & Spanish redeployed to face it as light cavalry and some Gauls tried to hold off the cataphracts. But there were now too many Seleucids and not enough Carthaginians left and one by one the Carthagian divisions broke.

Cancon Practice 28/12/11

2011-12-28T16:35:00.001+11:00

Jim's Hungarian Light Infantry v. Pat's Guard Strelkovy

1500 pts Witch's Cauldron, Hungarians defending.

The Hungarians deployed 2 infnatry platoons with HMGs & a/tan rifles attached from the heavy platoon with Pak 40's in Immediate Ambush. 38T's, 105's & the rump of the heavy weapons in delayed reserve.

The Russians deployed their 6 T34s on their forward right and Regimental guns rear right. A large and a small Strelk were in Reserve.

The large Strelk was brought on behind the T34s, the small Strelk soon after on the opposite side of the table.

The Russian Reg guns tried to take out the infnatry support weapons, but only got one HMG before they were destroyed by return fire.

The T34's moved up through the woods and tried to soften up the defenders as the Strelk came up. However the Paks picked off the T34's one by one.

This left it all up to the Strelk. The small platoon advanced to put pressure on the other flank while the big Strelk lined up ready to charge out of the wood.

The Hungarian reserves arrived just in time. The 105's deployed at the table edge and started bombarding the large Strelk. The 38T's doubled forwrd. They moved to the LHS of the village where their HMGs gave the small Strelk something to ponder.

But the critical action was the attack by the large Strelk. Their first charge was halted by defensive fire, but their second try destroyed the Paks and pushed the infantry back. But it was too late. The 38Ts moved over and backed up the infantry. The surviving Strelk saved morale, but they had no chance now and Pat conceded.

Cancon Practice on Boxing Day

2011-12-26T16:37:00.001+11:00

Jim's Hungarian Light Infantry v. Mark's US Rifles

1500 pts Witch's Cauldron, Hungarians attacking.

The US put down 2 Rifles & 105's, with their Heavy Platoon in Immediate Ambush. To come: Honeys, A/tank guns, 5.5" artillery & SP AA.

The Hungarians put down Infantry in the village and in the corn field with Paks in support. To come 105's, 38Ts and the rump of their Heavy Platoon (less 2 HMGs & 2 A/tank rifles attached to the inf).

The Paks picked off the 105's while the Infantry sniped at each flank while waiting for reinforcements. The Hungarians brought on their 105's first, then the 38Ts & Heavy Plat - all on the far side. Then they began their main attack from that flank with infnatry & tanks.

The US Honeys & anti-tank guns came on on the flank of the 38T's, but veteran status and range saved them After pausing to put down a couple of Honeys, the Hungarians resumed the attack on the objective under smoke.

The US Rifles couldn't stop the combined assault and the objective was over-run. Officer casualties and pins prevented a US counterattack and there were too many Hungarians on the objective to be shifted by firepower even though the 5.5's were able to fire.

Compared to old Cauldron, the new Mission has some obvious disadvantages for the defence (objectives potentially further apart & reserves have further to go). Compensating disadvantages for teh attacker are not immediately obvious. Maybe BF think old Cauldron was biased for the defence - but that's not something we've noticed.

Hail Caesar 21/12/11

2011-12-21T22:58:00.000+11:00

Steve's Successors v. Jim's Romans and Mike's Gauls

The Romans/Gauls are on the left of the pics. The Successor's deployed with Phalanx and supports in the centre, Elephants & light inf on the their right and cavalry on their left. The Allies deployed the Gauls in the centre, Romans on their right and both cavalry divs on the left.

The Allied plan was to charge the enemy centre with the Gauls while holding off the enemy cavalry with the Romans and skirmishing with the elephants with cavalry.

The Gauls were a bit slow advancing, but got there eventually. The velites were soon disposed off by missile fire. The legionaries then squared off v. the cavalry. But neither side wanted to risk a charge so the two lines skirmished with each other ineffectually until the battle was decided elsewhere.

The Gallic infantry did rather well on the first impact, breaking one phalnx and pushing one back, but the phalanxes fought back and with some light cavalry coming over from their left, the tide looked to be turning against the Gauls.

But on the far flank, the Gallic cavalry got tired of pussy footing around and charged the elephants. This was the battle winning move as elephants immediately broke.

The Roman cavalry rode to the centre to help the infantry deal with the enemy cavalry while the Gallic cavalry galloped around the wood and into the flank of the phalanx. The phalanx division broke and with it the Successor army.

Maharajah Grand Final 2011

2011-12-18T17:48:00.000+11:00

Byron's Panzers v. John's Cossacks

2000 pts Cauldron on 8x6 table, Cossacks attacking.

On the hill watching: Jim, Leigh & Richard.

The initial deployment was rather sparse. The Soviets deployed 2 assualt gun platoons + HQ, The Germans deployed 2/88's, a MkIV platoons & HQ. Both sides had air support. (The pics are taken with the Russians coming on from the right).

Byron's immediate ambush was 3 Panthers which he placed in the wood in the foreground.

Things were looking for Germany when they promptly dispatched 3 assault guns. But then the cossacks showed up... They rushed up to the Panthers in the wood. One Panther bogged, Byron probably erred in trying to fight on to save it and lost all his Panthers.

The Cossacks swarmed onto the objective and dug in. Now it looked like a cake walk for the Russians.

But the Huns weren't done for yet. Their panzergrenadiers and Luchs came on and they counterattacked the cossacks from two directions with them and the MkIVs.

The Russians held off the attacks and held onto the objective while the Germans failed army morale.

So John becomes the worthy winner of the 17th Maharajah Trophy competition.

Hail Caesar 14/12/11

2011-12-14T23:53:00.002+11:00

Steve's Seleucids v. Jim & Mike's Carthaginians

Both armies were 450 points, but not quite in compliance with all the rules in the lists. After the Carthos had a council of war and decided on their deployment, Steve put his troops down, then the Carthos put theirs down as they had decided in their council of war. Victory conditions were lose if 1) any 3 divisions broken, 2) heavy inf div + 1 other broken, or, 3) lost the camp. The pics are taken from the Cartho right.

The Seleucids deployed their heavy infantry division (3 phalanxes & 2 medium inf) around the camp, a division of 2 elephants and lots of light inf in front and cavalry divs on each flank (2 light & 1 cat on their left, 2 light & 1 cat on their left).

The Carthos put their Cartho inf div (2 spears, 2 bows, 2 elephants in front of the camo with theri Gallic division (4 warbands) in front, Punic cav (2 med, 2 light, all small) on their left & their Spanish div (2 Scutarii, 2 Caetrari, 2 light & 1 med cav) on their right.

The Carthos surged forward. The Seleucids held their heavies back around the camp behind their ligth screen and advanced with their cavalry flanks.

On the Cartho left the Spanish took on the cavalry. They beat the cataphracts by pinning frontally and hitting them in flank with infantry. The light cavalry with Parthian shot were harder to beat, but were eventually overwhelmed.

On the other flank the Punic cavary destroyed the light cavalry with javelins . They tried to do the same to the cats, but the cats eventually got some good command dice closed in and smashed them.

In the centre, the Gauls paid for lack of light infantry when they got pinned down by hot shooting when both the Spanish & Punic light infantry wouldn't move up to help.

Left of centre, the Carthos tried to send their elephants to help out their left flank cav, but they were intercepted by the Seleucid elephants. The combination of cats & pigs was too strong and the Cartho infantry division was reduced to just the 2 spear units.

The Gauls finally charged down the skirmish line, but in doing so got too close to the phalanx.  After being weakened by the skirmish fight the division was soon broken.

Finally, the phalanx was on the move, charging forward to enagage the Rh spear unit, already shaken and pushed back by the elephants. In a rush of hot dice followed by Seleucid cold ones, 2 phalanxes were broken before the thrid hit the spearmen in flank.  It still looked all over for Carthage, but the spearmen stubbornly gave ground, but refused to break while the Spanish light cavalry rode down the last fo the skirmishers and rode towards the Seleucid camp left undefended by the advance of their centre. For a moment, the Carthos had a glimmer of hope, but the spearmen finally ran out of luck before the cavalry could take the camp.

Once again we had a rattling good battle - and quite different to any we'd had before - this time it was all about light troops.  The Cartho plan was to avoid the phalanx and destroy the weaker Seleucid divisions, but they couldn't quite pull it off - Steve's elephants & skirmishers saved the day for him. The capriciousness of some the Hail Caesar systems can be frustrating at times, but they sure give you exciting and interesting battles.

Hail Caesar on Pearl Harbour Day

2011-12-07T22:58:00.000+11:00

Steve's Seleucids v. Jim & Mike's Carthaginians

The Seleucids (on left in pics) had a cavalry division on each flank, each 2 heavy cav & 2 small light cav and a big infantry division in the centre with 3 phalanxes, 2 medium inf, 2 elephants & 2 skirmishers.

The Punes also had infantry in the centre and cav on the flanks. On their left 2 med & 2 light cav all small. On their right 1 standard medium cav, 2 small light and 2 elephants. Their Gauls 3 warbands with skirmishers were in front centre with 2 citizen spear units and 2 light infnatry and 2 skirmisher units behind.

The Punic right came forward to meet the cataphracts, elephants first. In quick time the Seleucid division was routed at the cost of the elephants.

The Gauls charged forward with some hesitation followed up even more slowly by the spearmen. The bowmen on the right advanced and started peppering the mediums on the phalanx's left. One light unit was sent to guard the camp.

On the far flank, the Punic cavalry fought a delaying action falling back before the Agema. The medium cavalry were eventually caught and destroyed, but the division did its job keeping the enemy cavalry busy.

The LH Gauls beat the mediums on the phalanx's right, but the rest of them were stopped by the phalanx. However, they had weakened the phalanx enough to give the Carthaginian spearmen a valuable edge. The Cartrhaginian cav from the left had been galloping across the rear to help their left, but seeing their comrades doing ok and the camp adequately protected, turned right and supported the spearmen. When the last elephant broke under bow fire, the Seleucid army broke with it.

Maharajah 2011 Semi-Final 2

2011-12-04T19:05:00.001+11:00

Byron's Panzer Lehr v. Mark's US Rifles

2000 pts Midwar. Dust Up Mission on 8x6 table.

It could be that Mark blew this one by wrong choice of table quarter to deploy in. He had to defend an objective on the front edge of a difficult hill. Byron saw the oportunity, left his infantry & artillery in reserve and put all his armour down at the start.

The US 90mm AA on the hill were blown away by the massed tanks before they could even fire. Then 2 platoons of MkIV's hosed the GI's before they could dig in.

The Shermans moved up to hull down, but were outgunned by the MkIVs.

The leading platoon of MkIV's drove the surviving GI's off the objective, but losses on the tanks accumulated and surprizingly the Panzers failed morale and ran off while the GI's hung on.

But it wasn't enough. The 2nd Panzer platoon was still there and Pumas had moved around both flanks mowing down the 105 gunners and threatening the rear objective.

The last Sherman unbogged and disputed the rear objective, but the last GI team was killed by the 2nd Panzer leaving the front objective in German hands. The battle was over before anyone got any reserves on the table.

The Grand Final will be between Byron's Panzers and John's Soviets, date yet to be determined.

Cancon Practice at Nick's

2011-12-03T19:28:00.000+11:00

Richard's Finnish Light Inf v. Jim's Hungarian Light Inf

Roadblock mission, Hungarians defending. The Hungarians chose to ambush a Finnish infantry platoon with their heavy platoon, but just 3 teams killed wasn't a good return.

The Fins hunkered down near the objectives and brought on anti-tank guns & pioneers on the right. The Hungarian artillery wiped out the antitank guns but the pioneers counterattacked the heavy platoon. The pioneers took out the anti-tank rifles but were decimated by HMG fire & an infantry counterattack - they fell back behind the farm.

The Fin deployment was completed with heavy mortars on their left and light mortars on their right. The Hungarians brought on infantry on their right, and their Paks and T38's on the left.

The Hungarians converged their attack on their left, the infantry following up the T38s. The tanks took the objective but the Fins mounted repeated counterattacks under smoke to keep it in dispute.

The Fins fought bravely almost to the last man, but the T38s prevailed for a costly win.

Both players were happy with the way their lists worked. The Fins lost, but only 4:3 in a mission/terrain combo that didn't particularly suit them.

FOG at Nick's

2011-12-03T19:12:00.001+11:00

A hoplite battle put on by Carl using his 28mm figs and FOG rules.

Carl's figs are absolutely drop dead amazing! And a big hoplite phalanx is a joy to behold.

The battle was Athenians vs Spartans. The Athenians had better light troops, and an extra phalanx, to make up for the superior Spartan phalanx. Nick was the Spartans, helped by Tony later, vs Steve as the Athenians.

The Athenians deployed in a line, with much of their line on a ridge. The Spartans deployed an almost matching force opposite, but held it back on the plains, and meanwhile tried to win with their Spartan citizen hoplites and cavalry in an attack on their right.

The attack on the Spartan right bogged down. Although it was winning, it was not winning fast enough. Steve advanced his force off the hill to attack the Spartan center.

Steve had bad luck in the center -- his attack, which should have had an advantage, got bad dice on the first turn, and suddenly the Spartans gained an advantage.

With the Spartans winning on the right and in the center, Steve conceded.

We will be doing the same battle using Hail Caesar some time in the new year.

Hail Caesar in the Wilderness 01/12/11

2011-12-02T15:25:00.001+11:00

Jim’s Romans v. Chris’ Carthaginians

I took advantage of the need to go to Strahan for work to stay overnight and initiate Chris Arthur into Hail Caesar. The troops travelled well in their stationery drawers jammed tight in the boot – better than Hannibal’s men, though I too had to cross mountain passes on twisty roads in snowstorms. (It was the first day of summer – gotta love Tasmanian weather).

8x8 table. Four divisions each totalling 450 pts. The mission rules were:
Place divisions alternately – tossing to see who goes first.

The side placing the last one moved second.
Victory conditions:
1) Take enemy camp & hold undisputed until end of enemy’s next turn.
2) Break 3 of 4 enemy divisions.
3) Break both Roman legionary divisions.

The Romans (on right in the pics) deployed the legions in the centre with their allies on each flank (1 med inf, 3 small cav each). The Carthos deployed Gauls in the centre, their Citizen spearmen with light infantry on the right, Numidians (mix of elephants & cav on their left and their Punic horse behind the gap between the Gauls & Citizens.

The Carthos advanced on their right and held their centre & left back. The Romans tried to look busy on the left flank, buggered about on the right and advanced with the RH legion. The LH legion was also supposed to advance, but didn’t.

The Roman allies on the left lost half their number keeping their superior enemy busy. Not much happened on the Roman right/Cartho left as both sides had command difficulties. The elephants tried to assist the Gauls by attacking the legion’s right flank, but the Triari held them off while the Legion smashed the left of the Gallic line. The LH legion belatedly advanced, peeling off troops to pin down the Punic cavalry while 2 units pressed on towards the Gauls.

The RH legion continued on over the Gallic bodies into the camp. The Gauls tried to counter attack to take it back, but they didn’t make it before the LH legion broke a 3rd unit to break the Gallic division.

The Romans held the camp uncontested and won the battle. The inexperienced Carthos made the same mistake as the Seleucids the previous night – putting too much weight on one flank so their centre wasn’t strong enough to stop the legions.

Hail Caesar 30/11/11

2011-11-30T23:42:00.002+11:00

Jim's Republican Romans v. SteveJ's Seleucids

The Romans had 2 legionary divisions each 4 hast/princ, 2 velite, 1 triari, all small units & 2 allied divisions each 1 small med cav, 1 small light cav, 1 med inf, 1 light inf. The Seleucids had an infantry div of 4 phalanxes, 1 med inf, 2 elephants & 2 skimishers & 2 cav divs, each of 2 cats or heavies & 2 small light cav.

The Romans deployed with allies on each flank. The Seleucids put all their cav on their right with the left of the phalanx protected by elephants & light troops.

The mission rules were: Map deployment. Army morale failure if 1) camp lost, 2) more than half divs lost, or, 3) all of inf divs lost. Pics all taken from Roman side.

The Seleucids got first turn and generally advanced, except their right flank cavalry dithered.

The Romans tried to advance their right, but poor command dice made it slow going. The first clash was on the Roman left where the cataphracts smashed through the weak Roman cavalry. The left looked bleak for the Romans, but the Seleucid cavalry dithered and the allied medium infantry on the hill stood firm before the light cavalry and protected the Legion's left while it took on the phalanx.

On the other flank the Romans tried to send their cavalry over to bolster their left, but their div commander just didn't get it and they sat behind the wood for the duration. But the infantry did better - charging the elephants and driving them back to secure the Legion's right flank.

In the centre the phalanx and the legion met head on. The legions got the better of it on the right and broke the phalanx line. The flexibility of the small units then allowed them to exploit the gap and the Seleucid infantry division broke giving the Romans victory before the Seleucid cavalry could make an impact.

The Seleucids considered themselves unlucky in the infantry fight, but it could be said that they made a strategic error in advancing the phalanx. If they had held it back, the Roman infantry would have exposed their flank in attacking them. As it was the Romans had the opportunity to counterattack with their strength before the Seleucid cavalry could be brought to bear.

Nick in Launceston

2011-11-29T13:12:00.000+11:00

Nick vs Rob -- FOW, 1500pts, Mid war -- Afrika Korps (Nick) vs US (Rob).

Nick's first attempt at Afrika Korps turned to disaster when his combined assault on a unit of US engineers went wrong and the engineers steamrolled the Afrika Korps infantry and CinC. Then it was just a waiting game until the US took down another platoon. Rob got a well deserved 4-3 win.

On the other table it was Dennis vs Shane. Dennis used his strelkovy with flamethrowers to eat through the Panzer IV's and Panthers opposing him.

Sunday School 27/11/11

2011-11-27T18:01:00.000+11:00

There were two Cancon practice matches:

Munt's Fins v. Mark's Bersaglieri (Jim's list) in a Cauldron Mission

Munt was the attacker. He got a good deployment (all on one side)and mounted a sound attack on one end of Mark's line. He took an objective and Mark's cavalry (2 platoons of M14's) failed to arrive in time to take it back.

Rich & Thomas' Tankovy v. Jim's Hungarian Light Infantry in a Breakthrough Mission

Rich & Thomas had KV1's, T34's, T60.s, ZIZ's & infantry, plus tanko's on the heavier tanks. It was designed to fight Jim's Bersaglieri list that Mark was using, but was just as nasty for his alternative Hungarian list - 2 infantry, heavy platoon, Pak38's, 105,s, 38T's & Nimrod AA.

The Hungarian infantry quickly dug in on the two objectives.

The Pak38's were no match for the KV's which rolled over them and pushed on to attack the centra objective.

On the Hungarian right, the ZIZ's moved up into close range of the heavy platoon before they fired. The Hungarians won the exchange of fire, destroying the 4 ZIZ's.

On the Hungarian far left, the 38T's came on from reserve and engaged the T60's. After a long slog they won out and destroyed them.

In the centre the KV's rolled forward seemingly unstoppable. The infantry gave ground hoping the artillery could save them, but the T34's came on and joined the KV's assault.  A spirited defence by the infnatry pushed the T34's back, but the KV's rear mg saved them from the panzerknackers and they destroyed the infantry to take the objective.

The Nimrods disputed the objective while the heavy platoon counterattacked and captured a KV bailed by the 105's.   But the Hungarians only hope of victory was for the 38T's to destroy the Soviet infantry and force an army morale test. But Thomas was smart enough to dig them in in a convenient forest and the objective fell before the infantry were reduced below half.

Conclusions:  The Hungarian list put up a stiff fight against the worst possible opposition - certainly they did better than the Ities last Friday. So the Hungarians may well be going to Canberra.

Cancon Practice 25/11/11

2011-11-25T22:32:00.000+11:00

Leigh's Soviet Armour v. Jim's Bersaliglieri

1500 pts Free for All: Leigh's army is this Bergagalieri list's worst nightmare - 11 T70, 10 T34's, 10 Stuarts & 4 SU85's - made worse by losing the Attacker/Defender roll and being put on the open side of the table.

The Stuarts defended the Soviet left and the rest lined up to smother the Paks & infantry on the other flank.

The Ities charged forward on the right with tanks & infantry. The Carri all but destroyed the Stuarts, forcing the Soviets to bring their T34's over to defend the objective. But they had already taken out the Paks and they plenty of tanks left on their right to deal with the Ities there.

The Carri couldn't hope to take on the T34's so they moved left, but they were too little too late to save the Bersaliglieri. They were overwhelmed by the T70's and survived the fire of the artillery & Carri to hold the objective.

This was a reality check for the Ities. There are going to be combinations of army, mission & terrain that make them dead meat. The same may well be true for Leigh's all tank force.

Hail Caesar 23/11/11

2011-11-23T22:46:00.001+11:00

Steve's Dacians v. Jim's Imperial Romans

We decided to give Steve's beautiful Sarmatian Cataphracts a run. We didn't have the right troops for a full Samartan army, so we went Dacian with Samartan allies. The armies are from the HC Book of Lists. The Dacians don't quite conform having more cavalry than is kosher, but we weren't going to leave them in the box on that account.

All pics are taken from behind the Roman left. The Romans depoyed 2 Legionary divisions in the centre (3 or 4 legionary + 1 aux bow each) and a light div on each flank (1 med cav, 1 small light cav, 1 light inf & 1 small archer each). The Dacians had infantry in the centre (6 warbands + 3 skirmishers) and cavalry on each flank (3 cats & 1 small horse archer).

Through chance or design both sides advanced first on the near side of the table. The first contact was some skirmishing round the woods, then the cats charged over the ridge at the RH legion.

The Roman line held on grimly as the Roman right wrapped around the Samartan flank and counterattacked.

On the other flank, the Roman light troops could only play for time against the Samartans. Left of centre, the 2nd legion advanced as the Dacians dithered.

When the Dacians and Romans met, there was a mix of results, but critically the Romans gained an overlap on the Samartan left and threw a reserve unit into their flank. Attacked from both flanks and the front, the Samartan left broke.

The Roman left had also broken & their LH legion was now in danger of being outflanked and rolled up, but the Roman cavalry on the right were able to ride unobstucted into the Dacian camp to win the battle.

Having taking the camp a victory condition made a good finish - I think much better than slugging away to the last division.

For some reason I've taken a liking to this figure from the Wargames factory German cavalry box. He did well tonight as commander of the Romans.

Cancon Practice 19/11/11

2011-11-19T20:54:00.000+11:00

Jim's Bersaglieri v. Rich's Tankovy

After last weeks masacre of the Strelk, Rich tried a Tankovy force this time: Sappers, 2 Sherman platoons, anti-tank guns & Sturmovics. The Mission rolled was Hasty Assault - the Ities defending. Both sides waited for all their reserves to arrive before doing much. The Itie defence used the ridge on their left with infantry on the crest and artillery & tanks behind. The LH objective was defended by infantry, Pak 40's and tanks.

The Russians used the cornfields to get their infantry forward. One tank platoon advanced beside them and began whittling away at the infnatry on the ridge. The other went round the right of the wood to counter an Itie counterattack thru the wood and to avoid the Pak's zone of death waiting for the Sturmovics to deal with them.

When the infantry on the ridge had been weakened the tanks and infantry attacked it. They drove the Bersaglieri back off the ridge, but the Carrri counterattacked (both platoons as the LH one had been brought over).

The counterattack destroyed the infnatry and the Shermans leaving the Russians with just 2 platoons left out of 4 and no CIC (that tank was sniped by a Pak) and running out of time.

They finally disposed of the Paks by Sturmovik & tank fire and the Shermans came forward to try and save the day. But in doing so they had to get close to the Carri which rushed forward around the flanks & destroyed them to finish off the battle.

Another win for the Ities, but much more harder fought than last week.

Hail Caesar 18/11/11

2011-11-18T22:56:00.000+11:00

Jim's Carthaginians v. Mike's Gauls.

We used the new book to make up two three division armies. All pics are taken from behind the Pune's right. The Gauls have cavalry on their right (4 medium & 1 small light), and infantry left and centre (4 warbands & 1 or 2 small slingers). The Punes have Spanish on their left (3 Scutari in captured Roman gear + 1 Ligurian light inf & 2 small slinger skirmishers), African infantry in the centre (2 long spear phalanxes, 2 Numidian light infantry & 2 small bow skirmisher) and cavalry on the right (4 medium & 2 light all small units).

Both sides initially advanced on each other, but the Punes allowed their centre to get ahead to meet the opposing warbands head on. This did not quite go according to plan. The right hand phalanx pushed their opponents back and followed up expecting victory, but a sudden dice turnaround saw them rout instead. At the same time Gallic cavalry threw hot command dice and slammed into the left hand phalanx's flank before their supports could get up to cover it. But the phalanx held and a counterattack by it's supports forced the cavalry to retreat.

On the Punic left the Spanish weakened the cavalry with javelins & slings while the cavalry sorted themselves out again.

On the Punic right, the cavalry pinned the Gauls down while shifting part of their force left to help the centre.

After a period of reorganising, the Punes resumed the attack in the centre this time with cavalry and phalanx while the Gallic cavalry had their hands full with the Spanish, and the warbands on the other flank were tied up by the rest of the Punic cavalry. The Gauls put up a good fight, but the coordinated attack was too much for them. Both the cavalry and centre divisions broke to give the Punes victory.

Yet another very enjoyable Hail Caesar battle. There were the usual wild swings of fortune, but the more experienced Punic command had a sound plan that prevailed. This was fairly small battle, with just 3 divisions, each with at least 4 non-skirmisher units, totalling about 380 pts each, but it was enough for 2 players to have a good game in about 2 hours after set up.

Nick in Launceston

2011-11-18T08:21:00.000+11:00

The Launceston Gaming Club was unusually quiet -- only 4 table playing games. In fact, it looked like only 1/2 the usual crowd rocked up.

Rob Snr vs Rob Jnr -- Flames of War -- 1750 pts late war -- Hasty Assault -- US infantry vs German Panzers. The game was still going when I left, so all I can say is that Rob won.

Dennis vs Nick -- Fields of Glory -- Carthaginian Starter army vs Gallic sstarter army. An inconveniently placed steep hill split the battlefield into two components. One one flank, two units of Gallic cavalry faced off against two units of Numidian light cavalry and some mercenary Gauls hired by the carthaginians. Nick's attack here was an unmitigated disaster, with both units of Gallic cavalry being routed. One did come back for a bit, but was chased down by Numidians after they had looted the camp. On the other hand, Denni's attack in the center was a disaster, with the Carthaginian Elephants being destroyed by Gallic bravery, and the Spanish mecenaries and African veterans being worn down to nothing by sheer numbers of Gauls. The Carthaginian infantry was destroyed -- but the victorious Gauls tied themselves into knots, and couldnt establish some sort of battle line. Meanwhile, on the flank of the infantry, Hannibal and the Carthaginian heavy cavalry overwhelmed the Gallic heavy cavalry. The Carthaginian cavalry managed to maneuver to crush the end warband in the Gallic line, and Dennis got a hard fought victory -- if the warband had managed to hold out the Carthaginian camp would have gone, and it would have been a Gallic victory.

Nick in Launceston -- Firestom Bagration Final Battle

2011-11-15T11:08:00.000+11:00

The last firestorm bagration battle was held a couple of weeks ago. Pictures are here: http://www.projectrb.com/?page_id=70

The Russians failed in their assault on Minsk, so the Germans won the campaign. It was a great campaign, with many battles that were close, and a strategic situation that swung wildly.

Armistice Day at Camp Cromwell

2011-11-12T09:17:00.001+11:00

We marked Armistice Day with 2 wargames (played with the priviso that we had to finish by 11).

Cancon practice match for Jim:
Jim's Bersaglieri v. Rich's Strelkovy.
MW, 1500 pt,s Fighting Withdrawal Mission, 6x4 table.

Against the sound advice of his son Thomas, Rich's list was all infantry & guns - no tanks. He soon found out that this wasn't a good mix against the Besaglieri. The 2 Carri platoons of 5 M14's each ran amok. One outflanked and slaughtered the Gods & HQ. The other, supported by a Bersaglieri platoon and artillery destroyed the Strelk attacks. It was a crushing victory with the Ities losing just 3 teams while the Russians only had 3/4 of a Strelk left when they failed army morale.

Hail Caesar
Steve's Romans v. Mikes' Gauls.

Steve deployed his legion in the centre with cavalry on their right and a mix of legionaries & auxilia on their left. Mike put his chariots on his left, then warbands, cavalry and more warbands.

When the Roman left bludered and left the legions left exposed, the Gauls counterattacked the legion front and flank with warbands. It put up a stiff fight but was eventually destroyed.

But the chariots were defeated by the Roman cavalry, the Gallic cavalry was wasted in a frontal attack on the Roman left and the Romans fought back to salvage a costly win.

Nick in Launceston

2011-11-11T08:00:00.000+11:00

Vietnam -- Nick and Nick (NVA) vs Rob and Rob (US).

The US airmobile troops landed in a clearing, charged with destroying a supply center. No sooner had they landed than a horde of NVA burst from the trees. The NVA didnt do any significant damage, and wave after wave of US troops were bought in by helicopter. Suddenly, NVA AA openned up on the helicopters, forcing two to return to base, and a short while later, forcing another to return to base. Then a second horde of NVA burst from the undergrowth and attacked the US infantry. A US platoon was almost overrun, with several teams destroyed in hand to hand combat. But the US troops retreated, regrouped, and let fly with their M16's, leaving a pile of NVA bodies. The 'Hog' gunships flew close to the first horde of NVA, and peppered them with machine gun fire. However, lots of AK 47's shooting back saw both gunships shot down.

The game was called for time, but the NVA had won, getting victory points for each helicopter shot down / forced to return to base, and losing no victory points in terms of companies destroyed.

Operation Cromwell II: FOW Doubles Tournament

2011-11-06T21:04:00.009+11:00

Operation Cromwell II, a FOW doubles tournament was held at St Georges Church Hall (over the road from Camp Cromwell) over the weekend. 9 teams took part, 4 from the Kingston Bunker Rats, 2 from the Launceston Gaming Club & 3 from Camp Cromwell. There were four 3 hour rounds fought on five 8'x6' tables (2 provided by the KBR). Each team had two Coys totalling 2,500 pts

Round 1: Free For All
Steve & Nick (CC) tied with Nick & Declan (LGC)
Leigh & Mark (CC) d. Griggsy & Gaz (KBR)
Rich & Byron (Jim subbing for Byron) (CC) tied with John & Rusty (KBR)
Rob & Shane (LGC) ties with Smithy & Patrick (KBR)

Round 2: Hold The Line
John & Rusty d. Steve & Nick
Leigh & Mark d. Munt & Twisty
Smithy & Patrick d. Nick & Declan
Rob & Shane d. Griggsy & Gaz

Round 3: Dust Up
Steve & Nick d. Smithy & Patrick
John & Rusty d. Leigh & Mark
Griggsy & Gaz tied with Rich & Byron
Munt & Twisty ties with Rob & Shane

Round 4: Hasty Assault
Munt & Twisty d. Steve & Nick
Leigh & Mark d. Smithy & Patrick
Rich & Byron d. Nick & Declan
Rob & Shane d. John & Rusty

Overall Results:
1: Leigh & Mark, Brit Inf + US Paras (CC) picture below (not a pretty sight).
2: John & Rusty, Soviet Strahff + Heavy Armour (KBR)
3: Rob & Shane, US Arm + Inf (LGC)
4: Rich & Byron Hungarian Inf + Assault Guns(CC)
5: Munt & Twisty, Finnish Inf + Panzer (KBR)
6: Smithy & Patrick, Soviet Naval Inf + Heavy SP Art (KBR)
7: Nick & Declan, Brit Arm + Inf(LGC)
8: Steve & Nick, US Stug + Gren (CC)
9: Griggsy & Gaz, Germ Arm + Inf (KBR)

Patton Award for killing the most enemy: Smithy & Patrick
White Feather Award for killing the least enemy: Griggsy & Gaz
Banzai Award for having the highest casualties: Steve & Nick
Gordon Bennett Award for losing the least casualties: Rich & Byron

Our thanks to Area 52 for providing the 1st prize - 2 vouchers for Burning Empires.

Launceston's Finest Hour - the massacre of the dreaded Strahf...

Hail Caesar at Operation Cromwell II

2011-11-06T19:32:00.000+11:00

We took advantage of having the hall to put on a Hail Caesar on a 16'x6' table on the Saturday night. We fudged together a Successor army to fight a combined Roman/Sassanid force. Mike & Jim commnaded the Successors, Steve & Chris commanded the Romans. Perversely we only used 12' of the table, but it was quite a spectacle.

The Roman divisional deployments from the left were cavalry, Sassanid infnatry, cataphracts, elephants, Legion & Auxilia.

The Successor deployment from their right was heavy cavalry with medium behind, Galacian warbands, phalanx, elephants with mercenary hoplites behind.

The battle started with the Successors advancing on their right while holding their centre & left back while sending their elephants across their front.

The Roman heavy cavalry defeated the Succssors, but were badly enough hurt to think twice about taking on the medium cavalry division behind. The Galacians occupied the scrubby hill.

A fight developed in the centre between the opposing elephants supported by Galacians on one side and Legionaries on the other. The phalanx waited for the elephants to get out of the way and charged forward at the legion. The cataphracts advanced on the Galacians to support their elephants.

The Successor elephants won the fight in the centre and one unit wheeled left to attack the flank of the legion while it had it's hands full with the phalanx and hoplites. The legion broke leaving a gaping hole in the Roman line.

The Galacians, helped greatly by the rough ground held their own v. the catphracts while the Successor right gave ground they could afford to lose.

The Roman auxilia had poor command dice and took too long to get involved. By the time it had cleared up the Successor's delaying force, the hoplites and phalanx had beaten the legion & were able to turn & face them.

By this stage it was nearing midnight and combat fatique was setting in. So we agreed to a pull up stumps. But the Successors were in the box seat - the auxilia were about to be stepped on, the Roman camp was undefended, and their cavalry and allies were too far away to help.

Operation Cromwell Practice 3/11/11

2011-11-06T19:05:00.000+11:00

Rich & Jim gave the OCII Hungarians a run v. a Russian army of Strelk and heavy armour commanded by Steve. The Mission was Dust Up.

The pic is taken from the Russian left. The Russians made an atttack on their right, but a wood full of Infantry, Paks & 88's slowed them down enough for the Hungarian reserves to swarm over the Russian left.

Nick in Launceston -- Pass the smoke

2011-11-04T11:55:00.000+11:00

A doubles practice match for the Operation Cromwell tournament. Nick and Dennis (German), vs Rob and Shane (US).

Military censorship prevents a description, but there were a fair few dead tanks. As epitomised by the headline -- 'Pass the smoke'.

Notable was a unit of 4 shermans that took out 5 Stugs, surviving direct fire, Hummels, and Nebelwerfers for about 8 turns as part of the long range gun duel.

Hail Caesar

2011-11-01T23:58:00.000+11:00

Mike took command of the Gauls against the might of SteveJ's Romans. The scenario was basically an FOW FFA, with camps replacing objectives. The loss of your camp was to count as an extra division lost.

The Romans had their heavy cavalry on their left, auxilary spearmen left centre & auxilary bowmen right centre and legionaries on their right.

The Gauls had cavlry on the right, 2 divisions of warbands in the centre and chariots on their left.

For once the Romans advanced. On their left, the Roman cavalry was initially driven back by missile fire, but they rallied, came back and smashed the Gallic cavalry.

Left of centre the auxilary spearmen and Gauls advanced on each other and started a slogging match.

Right of centre, the auxilary bowmen were fortunate that their opponents dilly dallied (throwing bad command 2 turns in a row despite having the CIC re-roll). By the time the Gauls charged, a legionary cohort had been placed on the Gaul's flank helping the bowmen to hang on.

On the Roman right the chariots skirmished indecisively with the legionaries.

The auxilary spearmen finally broke, and the auxilary bowmen were on their last legs, but the Roman cavalry then hit the Gauls in flank. The first division broke and the follow-up charge broke the second one.

Yet another Roman victory.

Maharajah 2011 Semi Final #1

2011-10-25T23:39:00.000+11:00

Munt's Finns v. John's Cossacks

Encounter battle on 8x6 snow table.

Munt won the dice roll and chose the LH side of the table where he thought the better fields of fire would serve him best. He deployed his artillery & 2 infantry at the start with most of his HMGs & mortars attached.

The Russians had heavy tank, SP guns & Cossacks on at the start with 3 small platoons to follow. The armour was on the roads (movement off roads in the snow meant bogging tests each turn) & Cossacks left & centre.

The Finns dug in while the Russians moved their heavy armour up in the centre while moving the Cossacks to their left.

In the early turns things went well for the Finns. Their Stukas got a tank and the Cossacks lost a few when they strayed too close to the Finnish HMGs. Also, all the Finn reserves came on quickly (though all in the far corner).

As the Cossacks continued their sweep to the left, the Finnish Pioneers attacked out of the wood at the Russian armour. Munt didn't get the attack right and it was beaten off. In the centre the Russian armour pounded away trying to take out the Finnish support weapons. They got the Paks, but found the HMGs difficult targets.

The Cosacks lined up on the Finn's flank and waited for the armour to clear the HMGs. With losses steadily mounting, the writing was on the wall for the Finns if they just sat there and took it. So their infantry left their trenches and attacked the Russian armour under the cover of smoke.

It was a brave move, but the Russians fell back losing just one tank. They could afford to lose that and now the Finns were out in the open they were easy targets for the Russian tanks.

The Finns had put up a brave fight, but the Russian commander had kept a cool head, stuck to his plan and eventually prevailed.

Field of Glory -- Nick in Launceston

2011-10-20T22:16:00.000+11:00

Nick vs Dennis in a Field of Glory game, using starter armies. Dennis had Carthaginian. Nick had Phyrrus of Epirus.

Not quite a historical matchup, with two of the great generals of Ancient times seperated by a few years battling each other out. To be truly historical, the Carthaginians would have to have been early Carthaginians.

Nick planned a sneaky double envelopment. Such plans are risky, as that leaves a weakened center. But Nick even had luck with his dice in the center, and his phalanx broke a unit of Gauls. And Nick's right flank cav got around the carthaginians and sacked their camp.

Then it all fell apart.

Nick's right flank cav charged some skirmishers in the rear. The skirmishers held, and even started to win! On the other flank, the Carthaginian light cav had been tied up in knots by some peltasts, but they managed to get away, and get into the rear of the Phyrric phalanx. The Phyrric cavalry had been victorious, and set up a flank charge on the Carthaginian heavy infantry, only to have a Tarentine phalanx win a battle, and have the pursuing phalanx block the flank charge. The Carthaginian Elephants got in the act. And suddenly the victorious Phyrric army was on the verge of breaking. When the Phyrric camp fell to some slingers, it was game over, and the Carthaginians squeaked out a win. But the game was most enjoyable, and Dennis's troops were beautiful!

Hail Caesar meets FOW dust up

2011-10-18T23:51:00.002+11:00

Jim & Mike's Carthaginians
v.
Two Steves' Romans

The scenario was a variation of FOW Dust UP Mission. The table was divided into 4 quarters. Two camps were placed in diagonally opposite quarters in place of FOW objectives. Each side could deploy up to half their divisions in their own quarter. They could also detach 1 unit from any division as a camp guard. A camp guard no longer counts as part of the division, but can't leave the camp. The remaining divisions are diced for from turn 3, 1 dice on turn 3, 2 on turn 4, etc. On a roll of 5+, one division can come 6" onto the table within 40cm of the corner on their left. Victory is gained either by army morale, or taking the enemy camp.

The pics are all taken from behind the Carthaginian camp. At the start the Punes have their spearmen & elephants in front of their camp. Numidian infantry, medium cavalry & heavy cavalry divisions are off table. One Numidian infantry is camp guard.

The Romans have 2 legions, each 2 velites, 5 hastasi/principes, 2 triari (all small) deployed around the camp on the hill. Off table they have an auxilia infantry division & a cavalry division.

The Romans were content to sit on their hill & let the Punes do the running.

The Punes sent their elephants to the right to meet the Roman reinforcements while the spearmen stayed in place in front of the camp. When their cavalry arrived, they sent the medium division forward to harrass the Romans while they sent their heavy division diagonally across the table to support the elephants - which by then were enagaged with the auxilia spearmen & Roman cavalry.

The elephants defeated the spearmen and took out 1 cavalry unit before breaking. The surviving cavalry was pursued around the back of the Cartho camp by the Punic heavy cav before being caught and destroyed.

On the other flank, the Punic cavalry had a lucky win in destroying a triari which blundered forward. The Numidians came on, then blundered off again, but eventually took over from the cavalry in the front line. With the Numidian slingers harrassing SteveP's flank and the heavy cavalry returning from the chase, the Punes were finally ready to attack. The spearmen charged the left hand side of the end of the Roman ridge.

After 2 hours of careful manoeuvre and fussing about at the edges, the battle suddenly changed. The dice gods clearly favoured the brave as the converging Punic attack caused chaos in SteveP's legion. Now nothing went right for the Romans, one unit even routed from cavalry skirmishers as the spearmen rolled up the line along the ridge. SteveJ's counterattack on the other flank was held off and SteveP's legion broke. That was 3 divisions out of 4 gone and the Roman army broke.

This was a longer than usual battle due to the Romans being so defensive and the Carthaginians taking a systematic approach to destroying all the legions' supports before taking them on, but the end came suddenly once the Carthaginians went for it. A good time was had by all as again a FOW Mission provided an interesting scenario.

Maharajah 2011 Match 4

2011-10-15T21:12:00.000+11:00

Mark's US Rifles v.
Steve's Panzer Lehr

Breakthrough, US defending

The US deployed with 155 artillery in the far valley, 90mm AA on the plateau, infantry behind the ruined church, heavy platoon on the central ridge, Shermans, then infantry on the left and 105's in the foreground. Some SP AA & 2 M10s in reserve.

The Germans have a large SP Werfer battery protected by SP AA on the right. Armoured Panzergrenadiers with 3 Pumas in the centre. On flank march they had 3 Panthers another Armoured Panzergrenadiers, more SPAA and command.

The Germans attacked the centre as the US moved infantry towards the LH objective and brought up their reserves.

The Panthers came on, drawing the US armour away from the centre. But the Panthers had no luck, being destroyed by the M10's & artillery.

The 2nd Panzergrenadiers came on and attacked the GIs on the objective. The GIs stopped their first charge with defensive fire buying time for the Shermans to come up.

With the Shermans going elsewhere the German attack on the centre now made some progress clearing the ridge and pushing on towards the central objective.

But the German chance of victory had passed, both attacks petered out against the combination of GI's, armour & artillery.

Mark joins Byron, John & Munt in the semi-finals.

Nick in Launceston -- Firestorm Bagration

2011-10-13T10:29:00.000+11:00

Nick B vs Nick R. 1500 pts, Hold the Line. Nick B attacking with Tankovy, Nick R defending with German Panzers.

Nick B had a subtle army of 31 x T-34, 9 of which were upgraded to T-34/85. Nick R had 10x Panzer IV, 2x 88, and Panzer Pioneers.

There was a massive road block as the Russians advanced. However, the German Panzers were hard to kill -- they kept stormtrooping into cover. But just about every turn a Panzer would fail to stormtroop, and the retribution fire would knock it out. The Russians kept having to avoid the 88's, and the forested terrain meant they couldnt just charge ahead. And the Russian losses were mounting too. Fairly quickly the Germans switched tactics, going for the easy kill of the normal T-34 tanks, killing any where they could get a shot and not have much return fire. The game was cat and mouse.

But eventually weight of numbers won out. Both panzer platoons failed morale or were destroyed. The Russians had lost two platoon, and had one that was close to a morale check. But the Germans had only one platoon to hold two objectives. The Russians rushed the undefended objective. Nick R had to kill a Russian tank in the weakened platoon to force a morale check, and possibly save the day, but he missed. So the Russians squeaked through in a 4:3 win.

Hail Caesar in FOW Cauldron

2011-10-11T23:31:00.000+11:00

Jim's Carthaginians defending
v. Mike's Gauls.

To adapt the FOW Cauldron mission to Hail Caesar we just substituted a camp for the objectives (and used an 8x6 table). The camp rules were: Defenders +1 defence. Attackers no charge bonus. All troops fight as if in open order (but don't count as skirmishing in break tests even if they are skirmishers). Long spears & cavalry disordered.

The Carthos deployed 2 spear divisions on the table with their elephant division and mixed cavalry/infantry division in delayed reserve. The spearmen formed up around the camp with their supporting bowmen in the camp.

The Gauls put their infantry on the table at the start (4 standard warbands and 2 fanatics plus skirmishers) and their chariots and cavalry in reserve. Both Gallic divisions deployed in the same quarter (on the Gaul's side of the table) under the random deployment rule. Naturally they tried to charge forward imediately. The fanatics did, but the others just watched. The fanatics must have overdone the mead, the one on the right pushed their opponents back at first, but then ran out of puff and broke. The other unit also failed to break through & fell back shaken (but rallied before the divisional break test).

The Gallic cavalry & chariots arrived fairly promptly and were brought on centre and right. The Cartho reserves arrived a bit later, but also in good time. The cavalry & numidians were nicely placed on the Gaul's flank, but threw awful command dice and did not take advantage - the fanatics fell back to cover the flank. The elephants were brought on on the left to counter the chariots.

The second wave of warbands finished off the RH spear division which broke with all heavy units shaken. They then attacked the camp while the cavalry pinned down most of the other spearmen. A furious melee ebbed & flowed thru the camp for several turns. The bowmen gave a good account of themselves - they withdrew shaken, but so did their opponents and they bought time for the spearmen to take over the defence. A renewed assault was beaten back by the spearmen as the Cartho cavalry finally came up.

The cavalry charged Gauls who had been beaten back out of village in flank in flank and also caharged the weakened fanatics. Both the Gallic infantry divisions now broke.

The Gauls still had 2 of their 4 divisions unbroken, but their chance of taking the camp had passed. Their chariots were neutralised by the elephants in an interesting but indecisive side show on the far flank. Their cavalry had been weakened by their pinning attacks on the spearmen and was clearly no match for the remaining Carthaginians. The Gauls conceeded.

It was, as always it seems with Hail Caesar, an exciting and interesting battle. The FOW mission converted nicely. The Gauls had their chances early but couldn't nail them. They got another chance when the Cartho cavalry got timid, but the camp guard held them off again.

The chariot/elephant face off, though a sideshow, was fascinating. Love these rules.

Hail Caesar - another Breakthrough

2011-10-08T18:49:00.002+11:00

The scenario dice again decreed a FOW Breakthrough scenario. This time Nick & Tom's Carthaginians defended against Rich & Byron's Gauls, Jim umpiring.

The match up might be a bit un-historic, but it was a matter of using all the 28mm available. To modify the FOW mission to Hail Caesar we used the Cartho camp as the only objective and allowed the defenders to reposition some terrain (to replicate the FOW advantage of being dug in at the start). The rules for fighting for the camp were: Defender +1 morale. Attacker no charge bonus. Both count as open order so -1 attack. Cavalry & spearmen disordered.

The Carthos deployed their 2 citizen spearmen on 2 ridges facing the Gaul's deployment area with their elephants between. Their 4th divison, Numidian cavalry & infantry was in rear ready to protect the camp.

The Gauls deployed their large warband division on their left with their slingers in the centre of it facing the elephants, their chariots were on their left, cavalry behind and fanatic warbands on flank march.

The Gauls advanced their left while their cavalry milled about aimlessly in the rear. But the Carthos didn't wait for them, they charged off the hill on the right while moving their elephants and 2nd spear divisions to the right. The Numidian infantry set up a defence in the camp with their cavalry in support.

Tom's spearmen attack was indecisive and they fell back onto their hill as a swarm of chariots skirmished with them. The Gallic infantry were too shaken to follow up.

On the other side of the table, the 2 fanatical warbands and their supporting skirmishers came on promptly and charged the camp. The Numidian infantry held on grimly in the camp and defeated one warband while their cavalry engaged the other.

Nick's spearmen advanced on the Gallic right as Tom's elephants charged the chariots. As they were in open order the chariots tried to evade, but one unit was caught and destroyed. A chariot unit counterattacked the elephants while the others tried unsucessfully to defeat the spearmen by skirmish fire. Nick's attack beat the warbands to his front and cut off the advance of the Gallic cavalry.

The battle ended when the Numidian cavalry broke the warbands on the flank leaving no Gauls in that quarter of the table. But on the other flank it was only matter of time before the Gauls broke anyway. Their cavalry and chariots were pinned down by spearmen and their infantry were on the verge of breaking with elephants loose on their flank.

The scenarios seems pretty well balanced. In this case, the Gauls failed to take any advantage from deploying second and the Carthos did a good active defence strategy, so a fair result.

Hail Caesar meets FOW

2011-10-05T00:19:00.002+11:00

FOW Breakthrough Mission modified for Hail Caesar

Jim & Mike's Carthaginians & Gauls v. SteveJ's Romans. 8x6' table.

We used the FOW Breakthrough Mission as the basis for tonight's Hail Caesar scenario. Instead of 2 objectives in the defender's rear we placed their camp as the Roman objective. Either side could win by normal army morale test. The Romans could also win by taking the camp. The Carthos could also win if there were no Romans in the quarter of the table with the camp after turn 6.

The Carthos deployed first in the 2 quarters of the table either side of the camp. The Romans deployed second in the table quarter opposite the camp, at least 18" away from any enemy, except 1 division was put on flank march - to arrive in the corner near the objective on or after turn 3. The Romans to throw 1 dice on turn 3, 2 on turn 4, etc until a 5 is thrown to allow the fanlking division to move onto the table edge ready for orders that turn. Pic 1 showing the initial deployment is taken from the Roman side. The rest of the pics are taken from the Cartho side.

The Carthos advanced their elephants on their left, their spearmen in the centre and the gauls on their right. Their Numidian infantry moved to protect the camp while the cavalry moved into a central position as a reserve.

The Romans have 2 legions on the table with 1 auxilary division on their right & another on flank march.

The Gauls were the first division to break, but not before inflicting a bit of damage and giving the reserve cavalry time to get in position to take

over the Cartho right.

The spearmen drove the Roman front line back off the crest of the ridge, but didn't break through before their front line ran out of steam. The spearmen's front line was pulled back and the second line sent forward.

On the Cartho left the elephants got the better of the Roman flanking division (2 heavy cav and a auxilia infantry) and eventually defeated it.

The Roman flanking force took its time arriving, but when it did, it immediately attacked the Numidians each side of the camp. The 3 Numidian infantry units clearly had their work cut out against 2 auxilia infantry & a heavy cavalry and the battle became a desperate race. Would the Roman main line crack before the camp was over-run ?

The Cartho cavalry pinned down one legion while the spearmen renewed their attack on the other. The elephants were too far away to help.

The legion on the hill broke leaving the other legion with an exposed flank. The spearmen wheeled to attack it but didn't quite reach it, but the cavalry charged a flank and broke through into another unit's flank. The legion was 1 unit break off failing morale and with that, the army would fail morale. The Romans lost the grossly unequal combat but threw just enough pips to hold on.

Then in the next Roman turn the Numidians lost two combats - to the cavalry and to an auxilia. They failed both morale tests and the division was broken.

At this stage we assumed that as the defenders were broken the camp was taken and the Romans had won.

Not until afterwards was it remembered by the Carthaginians that the remains of a broken division is not taken off the table, so logically, the camp should have been deemed to be still in Cartho hands as the last unit of the division was still in it.  That unit would have had to leave the field and thus abandon the camp in their next turn, and the Romans would certainly take it in their turn following. But there would have been another chance for the Carthos to break one more unit of the legion to break the Roman army and win that way. The Carthaginian players at least think this would have been a better way of doing it.

Our experiment with converting an FOW mission into a Hail Caesar scenario was certainly a success - it was a rattling good game. The principle of having other ways of winning or losing, as well just killing more enemy, is one of the things that makes FOW such a good game - the players have so much more to think about.  And having several standard missions provides variety without the hard work involved in making up different balanced scenarios every week. We're keen to try some more FOW missions Hail Caesar style.

Maharajah 2011: Game 3

2011-10-02T19:17:00.001+11:00

Nick's US Armour v. Byron's Panzers

2000 pts on 8x6 Italian table - Free For All Mission

Byron advanced on the objective on his right (in the vinyard) with 2 panzer platoons. More Panzers kept the US right busy while his Stugs covered the open ground in the centre. His Panzergrenadiers were initially deployed defending his RH objectivem but they mounted up to follow the Panzers in the attack.

Nick was on the defensive from the start. He tried to clear his right by engaging the Panzers on his right with hull-down Shermans and using his artillery on the Stugs. He moved all his infantry into the vinyard to protect the objective, then moved Stuarts up onto the ridge to support them.

Here the spectators watch the fight between the Panzers & Shermans on the German left.

But the critical action was up the other end. The Stuarts on the ridge line slug it out with the Panzers now supported by 155 & 105 artillery. The artillery failed to make a decisive impact. The Stuarts were destroyed and the GI's were being whittled away as the Panzergrenadiers drove up to support the Panzers.

With his left melting away Nick tried to rush his armour across from his right under the cover of smoke. But the Luftwaffe finally showed up and together with the Stugs moving out of the smoke destroyed the Stuarts in the centre. The Panzergrenadiers cleaned up the vinyard and the US had no way of disputing the objective.

So Byron joins John & Munt in the second round. Steve Mark are yet to play off for the 4th spot.

Nick in Launceston -- Firestorm Bagration Round 4

2011-09-30T09:35:00.000+10:00

Round 4 was spread over two weeks, due to various family obligations.

Week 1 had:

Nick (Motostrelkovy) vs Daniel (Grenadier): 2-5. Daniels had a unit of panzergrenadiers (firestorm troops) charge accross the board on turn one. The opposing T-34/85's missed their long range shots. The PanzerGrenadiers then dismounted, and over the following turns destroyed katyushas, heavy mortars, motostrelkovy, BA-64's, and AT guns!

Rob (Tankovy) vs Starn (Grenadier): 6-1. Rob charged with massed tanks. Despite a nasty surprise when some HS-129B3 planes flew over and left a trail of destruction, the massed tanks out shot Starn's defenders, and then rolled on to the objective.

Week 2 had:

Nick (Rota) vs Shane (Panzer): 6-1. Nick's force was full of captured equipment, including a captured tiger, panthers, and SdKfz 251's. The decoy tanks infiltrated, dragging a full tankovy foward onto a virtually undefended objective. An ambush of tigers and a Hummel artillery barrage did massive damage on the tankovy -- but the tankodesantniki troops got onto the objective, and Shane was forced to assault with Panzers into houses in order to contest the objective -- which didnt end well for Shane's Panzers.

Rob (Tankovy) vs Daniel (Grenadier): 1-6. Rob was so close -- but on turn 7 of a fighting withdrawal Rob's infantry didnt unpin to assault the objective, and the game ended with Germans holding the objective with one infantry stand and two bailed JagdPanthers. This ended Rob's magnificent winning streak with his Tankovy.

Dennis (Strelkovy) vs Starn (Grenadiers): 5-2. Dennis was out of supply, with a morale penalty -- his Russians were reluctant. But he managed to hold off Starn and pull a win out of the hat with his demoralised troops!

Picture is Daniel celebrating his two wins!!!!

Rome v. Carthage round 7

2011-09-27T23:28:00.000+10:00

Jim's Carthaginians plus Mike's Gauls
v.
SteveJ's Romans

This time Mike was in charge of the anti-Romans. He picked an army with 1 cavalry division on the right, a large Carthaginian spear division in the centre and two Gallic infnatry divisions on the left.

Steve had 2 legions in the centre with cavalry/auxilia divisions on both flanks.

The pics are all taken from the Roman left = Carthaginian right.

The Romans advanced to take up a position with the RH legion on the ridge and the LH one with it's flank resting on the wood. The auxilia covered the flanks.

The Carthaginian cavalry advanced just far enough to pin the auxillia on their flank and waited. The spearmen advance to attack the LH legion. A Gallic division advanced on the hill with the other in support & covering it's flank.

The 1st wave of Gauls was beaten off, but the Spearmen broke through the weak point between the 2 legions. One spear unit wheeled left as the Gallic reserves renewed the attack. The RH legion was in dire straits now, but some strategic 6 throwing allowed it to hang on until their cavalry could rescue them. When the Gauls finally broke the RH legion was down to one unshaken unit.

In the centre, the spearmen's attempt to exploit the gap they had made between the legions was thwarted by another burst of strategic 6's and the spearmen had to resort to frontal attack again. Like their comrades, the LH legion was down to just 1 unshaken unit when their opponents finally ran out of steam.

The Carthaginian cavalry had failed to advance fast enough to get into the action at all, but both sides were content with a stalemate on that flank where spears v. cavalry made it dangerous for either to attack.

Another rattling good game - it was a very close run thing for the Romans, but it's now Rome 5, Carthage & Allies 2.

Maharajah 2011 Match 2

2011-09-25T20:02:00.000+10:00

Munt's Finns
v.
Rich's Strelkovy

No Retreat mission, 2,000pts on 8x6 table.

The objectives were placed in the wood on the right and at the front of the village. The Finns placed 2 full strength infantry platoons suped up with attached HMGs across the front and Pak 40's in ambush. The Russians put infantry left and centre with their T34's on the right supported by the Gods of War.

The Pak ambush took on the T34's near the swamp. The Pak's died but took 2 T34's with them. The Russians seemed intimidated by all the HMGs and hesitated while their tanks & artillery whittled them down.

In the centre their attack was met with fierce resistance and ebbed too & fro as both sides' losses mounted. On their left, the attack through the wood drove the Finns out and they reached the objective, but they had taken too long and more infantry arrived in time to dispute the objective and when the KV's came over they had the Strelk bottled up in the wood. Artillery & KV mg fire eventually got the Strelk below half and they failed morale.

But with the KV's distracted, the Russians had renewed their attack in the centre. Despite rising casualties they pushed on towards the central objective.

By now both sides were on the brink of army morale failure. Both sides continually passed morale tests to stay in the war, but it was the Russians who cracked first handing the few surviving Finns a hard fought victory.

Rich is knocked out and Munt goes on the round 2.

OPERATION CROMWELL II - FOW DOUBLES COMPETITION

2011-09-23T19:08:00.000+10:00

Operation Cromwell is on again this year.
This time as a doubles tournament to give us something completely different.

Date:           5-6 November 2011.

Venue:         St George's Church Hall, 30 Cromwell St, Battery Point.

Armies:       2 companies of 1,000-1,500 pts - no more than 2,500 total.
                    Late War.
                    Both companies have to be on the same side in the war.

Tables:       8'x6' tables will be used - you will have room to move for a change.

Roster:       4 rounds Swiss style. We will prioritise club v. club matches.

Rules of Engagement:

Detailed rules of engagement are being prepared and will be available as soon as we are happy that we have covered the neccessary bases. These will include:
- Mission tweaks to suit the big table.
- Morale rules for the two company set up.
- Any restrictions on lists.
- Timetable.

Please let us know by email if you are interested in taking part and we'll forward you the Rules of Engagement.
campcromwell@netspace.net.au

Hail Caesar 20/09/11

2011-09-21T06:49:00.002+10:00

Jim & Mike’s Carthaginians
v.
Steves J & P’s Republican Romans

The Carthaginians deployed in 5 divisions. There was a cavalry division on each flank - each 2 heavy or medium cavalry, 1 small light cavalry & a Numidian medium infantry, citizen spearmen with bow armed skirmishers left of centre, on their right were Gallic infantry (2 warbands each with slingers), and in front of the Gaulls, 4 elephant units and 2 javelin armed skirmishers.

SteveP deployed on the Roman right with a legion of 5 hastasi/principes, 2 velite & 2 triari, with a cavalry division of 1 heavy & 1 light on the flank. SteveJ had a similar force of 2 divisions on the Roman left. (We approximated the Republican manipular system by using small units for the Roman infantry with a reduced number per legion).

The Carthaginians got 1st move and started a cautious advance. Despite being overlapped to his left, SteveJ charged forward with his cavalry at the elephants. This was not a good idea as the cavalry was soon destroyed as small cost.

On the other flank, SteveP’s legion advanced over the hill overlapping the spearmen’s left. His triari was sent to the right to help the cavalry in a separate fight with the Carthaginian left wing. This the Romans eventually won. The rest of SteveP’s legion charged the left of the line of spearmen quickly defeating it.

Meanwhile the Carthaginians attacked SteveJ’s legion with half the spearmen and the elephants while they tried to work their cavalry round the flank. SteveJ used his triari to cover the flank. The principes/hastasi gave some ground, but the spearmen were held then broke and the elephants were beaten off, but not broken.

Both sides reorganised. The Gauls turned left on the hill to face SteveP’s legion which was now advancing on them. The battered elephants held back while their general tried to rally them. The Carthaginian cavalry wrapped around the triari on the end of the Roman line. SteveP’s cavalry was rallied on the far flank and was being brought across the battlefield.

As SteveP’s legion charged up the hill at the Gauls, the Carthaginian skirmishers peppered the left of SteveJ’s line as the cavalry division got around their flank. With most of the division shaken by previous combats and missile fire, SteveJ’s outflanked legion broke before SteveP’s cavalry could arrive.

On the Carthaginian left, their Gallic foot gave ground, but held on. On their right the cavalry had just enough time to turn to face SteveP’s cavalry, then they overwhelmed it. Having lost both cavalry divisions and 1 legion, the Romans now failed army morale. The Carthaginians had lost 2 divisions and had high casualties on most of their remainder but had won a costly victory.

This was another brilliant game full of twists & turns of fate as both sides made move and counter move. The battle turned into a revolving door as both sides won on their right with both sides having lost 2 divisions and needing to lose only 1 more to fail army morale. But the Carthaginians managed the end game better, keeping the battered elephants from breaking and using skirmishers to disrupt SteveP’s last attack just enough so the Gallic foot could hold on while their intact right wing division won the battle by mopping up the weaker Roman divisions. It’s now Rome 4, Carthage 2 in 28mm. After 6 battles I think we can fairly judge Hail Caesar. The verdict is unaminous - we love it. It's the set of ancient rules we have been waiting for. And 28mm's ? I had intended to just make up a division to contribute to the pool, but they are such great fun to make up and they look so good I just couldn't stop at that - I have an army already & plans for more.

Maharajah Trophy 2011, Round , Match 1

2011-09-18T17:49:00.000+10:00

John's Cossacks v. Jim's Fucilieri

Midwar 2000 pts, No Retreat Mission on 8x6 table.

The Italians deployed 2 big Fucilieri platoons and 2 HMG platoons around the objective with Pak 40's in ambush and Bersaliglieri, 38T's, 47mm, 75mm & 100mm guns in reserve.

The Russians deployed 4 KV's in front of the objective, Stuarts & Cossacks on their right supported by horse guns & dismounted cossacks. A big rocket battery sat back protected by AA.

The Russians advanced cautiously while their rockets landed pizza boxes on the Fucilieri & HMGs.

When the Italians got their 1st rserves they brought their 38t's on and at the same time dropped the Pak ambush. The 38'ts kept the Honeys busy while the Paks engaged the KV's.

The Italians desperately needed some reserves and some luck, but got neither. The Honeys disposed of the 38t's and the KV's shrugged off the Pak 40 shells and destroyed the infantry of the 1st Fucileri that the rocketshad missed.

With the 38t's out of the way and no other Itie reserves in sight, the Cossacks came out to play. The Honeys were beaten off by the 2nd Fucilieri, but they couldn't hold the cossacks who over-ran onto the Paks.

The KV's now held the objective with no Ities able to contest.

Faced by a mean list and a general with a very good plan who made no mistakes, the Ities were always going to need some luck (like more than 1 reserve platoon before turn 5). But it was not to be & John had a comfortable victory.

Nick in Launceston -- Firestorm Bagration Round 3

2011-09-16T07:37:00.000+10:00

Due to the intensity of the Nick vs Starn battle, I have no results for the other battles. The post will be editted as appropriate.

Nick had Artillery and SU76's as firestorm troops. Starn had Tigers and Tigers as his firestorm troops!!! Nick opted for a IS-2 Company -- 9x IS-2 plus some tankodesantniki. Starn opted to reinforce his Tigers with King Tigers -- the perfect IS-2 antidote. Fortunatly, the King Tigers could not be everywhere, so where they werent the IS-2's advanced, and where they were the IS-2's hid (in a forest or behind a hill). The IS-2's on one flank chewed through the tigers, killing four tigers for one IS-2. And then the heavy artillery killed one of the king tigers! Things looked grim for Starn. But do not underestimate a King Tiger -- ever, ever, ever!!!!! As some reinfocements arrived, the tiger was free to move away from an objective, and moved to the center of the table, where it could take pot shots at either side of the table. Starn also agressivly advanced his observers, so they could spot the IS-2's hiding in a woods. The observers were killed by the tankodesantniki charging out of the forest, SMG's blazing. But one of the IS-2's had to come out of the forest to keep the platoon in command, and it bogged on the edge of the forest, in plain sight of the King Tiger. Scratch one IS-2. The King Tiger then took a pot shot at an IS-2 on the other side of the table, and failed its stormtrooper move. The IS-2s rushed to get side shots while they could -- an IS-2 got bogged. And the others missed the side shots. Return fire bailed an IS-2. Again the king tiger was still exposed after failing stormtrooper, and the last remaining IS-2 in the woods moved to get a shot, and bogged. Return fire bailed the last operational IS-2 in this platoon, they failed morale, and one IS-2 platoon was down.

The King Tiger steadily advanced on the other flank. However, by this time the other IS-2 platoon had destroyed all before it, including all of the two infantry platoons that were guarding the objective, causing Starn to have to take a company morale test, which he passed. The King Tiger killed another IS-2, but the platoon (with one IS-2 left), survived the morale test. If it had failed, Nick would have been on company morale as well. Finally, Starn's company failed morale, and Nick achieved victory, by the narrowest of possible margins.

Hail Caesar 13/09/11

2011-09-13T22:45:00.001+10:00

Jim & Mike Carthagians & Gauls
v.
SteveJ & Leigh's Romans

The Romans deployed their 2 legions in the centre with a division of mixed cavalry & auxilia on each flank. The Anti-Romans deployed Gauls on their right, Carthaginians on the their left, cavalry on each flank, and elephants in front of the Carthaginian spearmen.

For once the Romans were agressive & began a general advance. The Carthaginians advanced their elphants in the centre with some cavalry covering their left. The spearmen followed up at safe distance. The Gauls waited on the hill.

The Romans halted their general advance but pushed on with their left flank. The weak Gallic cavalry was quickly defeated leaving the Gallic infanty's right flank exposed. Any thoughs of charging out of trouble were thwarted when auxilia bow fire made the Gauls fall back behind the hill.

On the Carthaginian left, the opposing flanking forces were happy to stand off and throw stones at each other. In the centre, the elephants charged Leigh's legion. Steve prepared his 2 divisions for an attack on the Gallic infantry.

The elephants and the Leigh's legion slugged it out as the Carthaginans tried to manoeuvre their spearmen into the action.

Steve's legion got good command dice and charged over the hill into the Gauls as his cavalry hit their flank guard. The flank guard beat off the cavalry then charged on into the infantry behind pushing them back as well. But it was all in vain - the other infantry units were overwhelmed by the legion and the division broke.

The spearmen failed to move fast enough to attack Steve's legion's flank and when the elephants ran out of hot dice and broke, it was game over with the Anti-Romans having lost 3 out of 5 divisions.

So that's 4:1 to the Romans in our 28mm Hail Caesar battles. This time it was the strong Roman left destroying the Gauls that won the battle. With the 2 Gallic divisions doomed, the elephants had to win to keep the Carthaginians in the fight. The 28mm elephants looked magnificant and they got the legion to breaking, but not close enough. The Carthaginian's failure to get their best division, their spearmen, into the action was another cause of their defeat. But a fine time was had by all, and the 28mm arms race continues.

Sunday School 11/09/11

2011-09-13T22:12:00.001+10:00

Jim's Fucilieri v. Rich's Strelkovy.
2000 pts on 8x6 No Retreat - Maharajah practice match.
Description censored by military inteligence.

Nick in Launceston -- Firestorm Bagration Turn 2

2011-09-09T09:58:00.000+10:00

Week 2 of the Firestorm campaign. (For more details, see the Launceston Gaming Club forum, and then look at the Flames of War topic).

There were 4 battles, with a 5th cancelled due to last minute family duties.

Nick B (Udarny) vs Daniel (Panzergrenadiers): 5-2
Rob (Tankovy) vs Nick R (Grenadiers): 4-3
Declan (Tankovy) vs Starn (Grenadiers): 1-6
Terry (Udarny) vs Darren (Panzers): 1-6

Declan and Starn completed their game before Nick B and Daniel completed setup. Starn realised Declan loves his heavy tanks, and put two king tigers in his list.

Terry and Darren were over not long after, with the panzers having a fun time in rolling farmland.

Rob and Nick R had a hard battle. Rob sacrificed his Stuarts in a death or glory charge onto pionerrs and Pak 40s -- it was death, but they did some damage, and pinned down both the Pioneers and Pak 40's to enable the following Shermans to get into combat. Meanwhile, there was a furious firefight between ISU 122's and Sturmoviks vs Tigers. Eventually, Rob managed to get onto an objective with a horde of tanks.

Nick and Daniel had a long game, being the last game in the club to finish, and Daniel almost managing a draw through time. Daniel had fortifications -- But Nick had mine roller and flame thrower tanks. The Russians picked an objective, and charged with just about everything. While the objective had minefields and barbed wire, it was hoped that the minerollers would clear then. JagdPanthers and Pak 40s and Hummel artillery were knocking tanks over, particularly the mine roller tanks. However, some SU 76's on the other flank managed to get in range of the Hummels and silence them. And the mine roller tanks survived a couple of morale checks. However, both surviving mine rollers failed to clear the mine fields, with one being destroyed by mines, and the last one by a JagdPanther. While this was happening the Udarny got into range, some flame tanks cleared some barbed wire, Udarny Sappers cleared a minefield, and the Udarny poured through the gap. Nick miss-played his assault, carelessly involving two platoons that didnt need to be involved, but Daniel rolled low, and the Udarny got in to assault. When all was over, Nick was consolidated on the objective, and Daniel had to launch an assault with 2 JagdPanthers onto Udarny with sappers to contest the objective. The assault failed, and Nick won with an eviscerated force.

Rome v. Carthage Round 4

2011-09-06T23:36:00.001+10:00

Mike & Jim's Carthargian & Gallic Army
v.
SteveJ's Romans

Both sides deployed with their right on the edge of the table and their left held back. The Romans had their Auxilia division on their right and their two legions left and centre. The Carthaginians had their Gallic cavalry on the right, Carthaginian cavalry & elephants on their left. In their centre they put the Gallic warbands in front followed by skirmishers and their spearmen in rear. (The pics are all taken from behind Carthaginian right).

The Romans began to move their right across to behind the legions, advanced their centre legion and formed a line with the legion on their left. The Gauls were charging forward with cavalry on their flanks when suddenly disaster struck when their Spearmen threw blunder dice and suddenly turned around and ran for the rear.

Cavalry and elephants were pushed forward to support the Warbands' flanks as they gallantly charged the RH legion. The 2 warbands on the right were faced with just 1 cohort each & with cavalry support they pushed their opponents back. The other two faced 2 cohorts each, one was quickly beaten while other was pushed back.

While the 2nd legion and the auxilia were still being redeployed, the 1st legion was being hammered by warbands, cavalry and elephants. After some initial success it became fragmented and was swamped by elephants, warbands and cavalry.

There was a bit of a lull in the fighting as both sides sorted themselves out facing at right angles to their initial front.

The Romans had some sucesses as the Carthaginians renewed the attack. On their right, the Carthaginian cavalry was well held and two cohorts broke a spear unit. On their left, a counterattack by the Auxillia finally broke the Gallic foot. But their centre was hard pressed by the spearmen, and the Auxillia couldn't stop the massed cavalry charge on their left.

So the Carthaginians finally won one after 3 defeats. And that was despite 2 blunders. They seemed to be a problem at the time, but in fact didn't really hurt. The infantry got good dice later to catch up & the cavalry blundered forward, more or less in the right direction anyway. The elephants were a great success - taking out 2 cohorts & hurting 2 more before they were stopped - take note SteveP.

Sunday School 04/09/11

2011-09-04T21:33:00.000+10:00

Rich's Strelkovy v. Jim & Byron's Finns

2000 pts on 8x6 table - Breakthrough mission, Russians attacking. The Russians are attacking from right rear to left.

The Russian infantry attack on the village & wood was disrupted by a Finn infantry counterattack towards the GODs battery in their rear. The Russians diverted a Strelk unit to deal with it & the attack on the village ran out of steam after taking the first row of houses. After the Russian infantry was destroyed, the Finn infantry advanced on the GODs.

The Finns prepared a reception committee of KVs & antitank guns for the Russian flanking force of T34s. The T34s took out the antitank guns, but they needed the GODs to get lucky & take out the KVs. The T34's gradually died under the fire of Finn artillery & KV's leaving no Russians near the objectives & giving the Finns a costly victory.

Nick in Launceston -- Firestorm Bagration

2011-09-02T09:26:00.001+10:00

The lads up north started their firestorm campaign. In total, 10 players signed up, 5 on each side. The initial matches were held with much anticipation, testing of army lists, etc. The most impressive thing though was that there were more FOW games than all others combined, with some fantasy games being pushed to the overflow.

The variety of army lists seen was pleasing too. Noted were JagdPanthers, Shtraf hordes, lend lease tank hordes, and balanced armies with a bit of everything.

Results were:

Nick B (Shtraf) vs Darren (Panzer): 6-1
Rob (Tankovy) vs Starn (Grenadier): 6-1
Terry (Udarny) vs Daniel (Grenadier): 1-6
Dennis (Strelkovy) vs Shane (Panzer): 4-3

One more game is being played over the weekend - the Father / Son matchup of Nick vs Declan.

Hail Caesar 30/08/11

2011-08-31T00:00:00.003+10:00

SteveJ's Romans v. Jim's Carthaginians

This week we tried putting the Romans in small units to better represent their organisation. The Romans had 2 infantry divisions of 5 legionaries and 2 auxilary bows, all small units and 2 divisions of 1 heavy cavalry 1 auxilary spears (all standard sized).

The Carthaginians had a large Gallic contingent of 5 warbands with 2 skirmisher units, 3 units of freshly painted citizen spearmen, and 2 divisons of cavalry, one with 2 mediums, the other with 1 heavy, 1 medium & 2 light.

The Romans deployed in their back left hand corner of the table. The Carthaginians deployed with cavalry on their left, then spearmen with cavalry in reserve behind and Gauls on the right. The first pic is taken from the Roman right as the Carthaginains begin to advance in echelon, right forward. The Roman cavalry on their left is advancing beyond the far wood.

The second pic (and all subsequent ones) is taken from behind the Carthaginian left. The Roman cavalry in the foreground is attacking the Gallic right. The Gauls are charging at the Roman centre which is advancing to meet them. A cavalry melee is happening on the far flank and the Carthaginian centre is throwing bad command dice and going nowhere.

The Gallic infantry had a hard time fighting the Romans unsupported. The cavalry fight on the far flank had a lull as both sides regrouped after the Romans won the first round.

The Gauls broke, but the spearmen finally got moving and attacked the RH Roman infantry division. The Carthaginan cavalry finally won the cavalry fight on the far flank, but the Romans managed to slip their Auxilia unit past the cavalry onto the spearmen's flank. The spearmen survived the flank attack though giving ground and the citizens gradually got on top of their oposition.

The Romans on the hill broke and Carthaginians were still in with a chance at this stage. Both sides only had to lose 1 more division to fail morale. The spearmen were in reasonable shape, the 2nd cav div was covering their right flank and the 1st cav div had cleared up it's opponents and should have been coming to help.

But the Carthaginian 1st cav dithered and the Roman combined arms pressure on the 2nd cav was too much. It broke and with it Carthaginian army morale.

That's 3 Roman wins in a row, but another great game & we both enjoyed it win or lose. And it looked great. The use of small units for the Romans worked well - it gave the right feel of tactical flexibility. We again used command ratings of 8 generally with the Gauls +1 if charging at enemy in sight & -1 otherwise - this works well, it makes doing fancy stuff with them realistically difficult. We tried having the CIC as an extra general for the Carthaginians, allowing a re-roll for command in the division he was with. In theory it should have provided scope for overcoming bad command dice if he was put in the right place, but he either wasn't or just threw more bad dice anyway. The other house rule we used was to make sweeping advance compulsory for Gauls who charged.

Hellfire On Sunday 20/08/11

2011-08-28T18:17:00.001+10:00

Byron's Fucilieri v. Jim's Australian Rifles
1500 pts Witch's Cauldron, Italians defending

The Ities deployed 2 Fucilieri Posizione platoons & his heavy artillery in the Cauldron with M11/39's in immediate ambush. In delayed reserve they had Fucilieri, mortars, 75's, 65's & tankettes. They also has sporadic Fiat Falcos.

With random deployment the Ossies put HMGs & 25pdrs on their right & 1 infantry in the centre with 2 more infantry and Valentines in reserve.

Byron deployed his M13 ambush close to the Oz rifles in the centre & immediately attacked with them. The Valentines arrived early but the low ridge gave the M13's cover & even doubling the slow Valentines did not arrive in time to save the infantry platoon.

The other 2 Oz rifles platoons arrived and were brought on in the corner behind the 25pdrs and began advancing through the scrub towards the objective. But the Ities got a Fucilieri platoon from reserve to arrive behind them abd the M13's then moved left over the next ridge to support them.

The Italian attack was stopped by the Oz rifles, but one of the rifles and a 25pdr were lost first, and more impoortant, the counterattack prevented the Ozzies from advancing. The Italians won because there were no enemies with 40cm of the objective after turn 6. Byron won the battle convincingly even though he only got 1 platoon from reserve, his airforce did nothing but look beautiful, & his artillery did no more than scratch some camo. In effect, 5 crap tanks and a Fearless Trained infantry platoon won the battle on their own when Byron saw an opportunity and exploited it.

This was our first Hellfire & back battle. It's nice to be back in the desert. The new missions look very interesting & fighting with such crap kit is a nice change. Most of the troops can be made up from Midwar gear we already have, it will only take a few purchases or subs to make up most armies (for this one we only had to sub M14's for M13's).

Hail Caesar 23/08/11

2011-08-23T23:55:00.001+10:00

We had a not too historical put-everything-we-have-painted-on-the-table Hail Caesar battle. The troops were divided into 2 roughly equal forces with two Steves commanding the Romans, and Mark, Mike & Jim commanding their enemies.

We made the Roman & Numidian commanders 8, the Gauls 9 if ordering a charge forward, 7 otherwise.

Pic 1 is at the start from behind the Roman right. SteveJ's cavalry is out of frame behind the wood on the left, his infantry stands on the ridge. SteveP's holds the left with legionaries supported by cavalry & elephants. Jim commands the Gallic horse on the far flank, Mike the Gallic infantry in the centre, Mark the Numidian foot on their left flank. The Romans sat back while the Gauls advanced. The Gallic advance was rather ragged with half the infantry charging forward at a great rate & the rest straggling up after them. Half their cavalry sat in the rear refusing to move for most of the game.

In pic 2 the leading Gallic division is fighting on the hill, Mark's Numidians have moved up to cover their flank. The 2nd Gallic infantry is slowly getting there & the 1st Gallic cavalry division is plugging the gap between the woods bottling up most of the Roman cavalry.

In pics 3 & 4 the leading Gallic infantry division is getting beaten back and the Romans are deciding how to exploit their advantage.

In pic 5 the Gallic left centre has broken, their left is being pushed back, the 2nd Gallic infantry division is having a hard time & most of their cavalry is still sitting in the rear drinking herbal potions.

By pic 6 the Gallic cavalry has finally been stirred into action and it is galloping towards the centre in a last ditch play for victory. But it is too late. Mark's division finally cracked to break the army morale.

Mike was set a tough task charging uphill at the Roman centre. He needed more luck on the impact turns that he got. But the killer was the 2nd Gallic cavalry division sitting doing nothing until it was too late.

But once again Hail Caesar delivered a rattling good game enjoyed by all.

Getting a weekend FOW Fix

2011-08-21T20:54:00.002+10:00

Saturday afternoon: Rich’s Russian Infantry Coy v. Jim’s Panzergrenadiers.

1750 points midwar on 8x6 table – Free For All mission.

The Russians deployed a Strelk on each objective, Gods in rear, Shtraf, Scouts & T34s on the left.

The Germans deployed P/grens on both objectives and in the cornfield on their right, 105’s were tucked behind hills on the left, werfers in cornfields in the centre. armoured cars left centre, armoured mortars right rear & Marders fronting the cornfield on their right flank. The armoured P/grens on each flank had their armoured half tracks behind in support.

The battle opened with a one-sided duel between the Marders & the T34’s. The Germans got first fire & T34’s died quickly without even scratching paint. The Germans advanced on their left with the P/grens using the hill & wood to cover their advance supported by the armoured cars. The Russians also advanced on their left. The German artillery whittled away at the Gods, but more importantly kept them pinned for some vital turns.

The German attack went well at first - the half tracks & armoured cars pinned the isolated Strelk platoon on the objective, but when the infantry charged the end of the Strelk line the Russians got 5 hits & 3 kills from 6 dice and stopped them. They then refused to unpin until the game was over. But that was the only bit of luck the Russians got. On the other flank, their attacks ran into a deadly reception committee of MG armed infantry supported by MGs on half tracks & Marders (not to mention 6 tube rocket barrages). The Ivans were mown down and when the mortar half tracks machine gunned the Russian commander they failed army morale.

It turned into a one sided affair. The Germans had a pretty good anti-strelk force & once the Marders trumped the T34s, the Russians were always in trouble. Pics taken from behind Russian right. Pic 1 at start, pic 2 after German's attack repulsed.

Sunday: Byron’s Aufklarungsschwadron v. Jim’s 7th Armoured

2000 pts late war, Roadblock mission

Byron chose a Cromwell platoon as the ambush target. Jim put the Cromwells in the village near the centre and his two infantry platoons (1 trucked & 1 in HT’s) near the objectives on each side. Racing to the rescue, the Brit’s had 2 more Cromwell platoons, Stuarts, Sextons & a 5.5” battery.

Byron put his Pumas in ambush on his left, Stugs in the centre & Panthers on the right, with 2 P/grens and more armoured cars in reserve.

The ambush took out a Cromwell platoon commander, a Firefly and half the motorised infantry. The surviving motorised dug in on the RH objective, the rifles dug in on the other. The British brought on HQ , Sextons & Cromwells on the right and 5.5” artillery, Stuarts & Cromwells on the left. The German reserves were brought on their right as the Pumas worked on pinning down the Brit right.

The objective being attacked by the Germans was initially defended by a rifle platoon. They were supported by Stuarts & Cromwells from reserve plus the artillery before the Germans attack started. They had to hang on while the Brits cleaned up the other flank and got more reinforcements across.

The German attack was gradually whittled down by artillery (aided by a spotted plane) and tank fire. The rifles held off the first P/grens in the wood and then the Cromwells mopped up by rushing the Panthers the 5.5’s missed.

Pic 1 from behind Brit right as reserves are gathered. Pic 2 is the Brit left hanging on.

28mm Plastic Ancients

2011-08-18T18:06:00.000+10:00

My First 28mm Plastics

If you have been following the blog you will have seen that I spent part of my recent time in Gaul productively in raising an ancient Gallic army in 28mm plastics. I took a small kit of selected paints & tools and some Wargames Factory figures (topped up by more by mail order). Assembling and painting them filled in the some of the spare time between the eating, drinking & battlefield hunting. I left the basing until I got home as they packed better unbased & I didn’t have the gear for it with me anyway.

I found the assembly of the figures to be easier than I expected, and actually quite fun, though it takes a while to get the hang of getting the arms & weapons at realistic angles. In the end only one guy finished up with his feet pointing the wrong way. I was impressed with the strength of the plastic glue and thus the robustness of the assembled figures, (which is why the guy still has his feet pointing the wrong way), although the fumes are pretty lethal – guaranteed headache if I don’t do it outside, or at least by the window.

The painting was straightforward compared with 15’s, though my results look pretty ordinary compared to the pics in Hail Caesar. I consol myself with the fact that they look great if you stand back far enough – as you do when actually fighting a wargame. The shield transfers defeated me despite finding several sets of instructions from mates & on the web, but in the end I decided that simple paint was good enough for a bunch of grotty barbarians. I can retro fit the shields if I ever master the art.

I put a lot of thought into how to base the figures. My final decision was to base them individually and use magnetic movement trays. This suits Hail Caesar very well as it is the tray size that matters and the figures can be placed on the trays in the way that best suits the particular figures & the numbers available. The Gallic infantry, bristling with javelins as they are, take up more space than the commonly used 20mm base width, but with this system you just space them on the tray to suit. There is also no need to have precisely N figures for every unit, you can just spread them out a bit more if you’re a bit short.

I based the figures on 22mm diameter steel washers. These are cheap and easy to get in bulk, they provide a bit of weight to stabilise the lightweight plastic figures, and they facilitate the use of magnetic movement trays as well. The infantry bases don’t quite cover the hole, but a bit of polyfilla both fills the hole and roughs up the surface of the washer for painting or flocking. For the cavalry I used 2 washers linked by the horse base. It makes a dumbbell shaped base that actually looks ok.

For movement trays I’ve used magnetic plastic sheet glued to 3mm balsa sheet. I used balsa as I happened to have a heap of it the right size for the job, though thin plywood or craftwood would do it too. The 3mm is just thick enough to grab hold of comfortably with fingers spanning over the figures. Plastic magnetic sheet with enough magnetism to hold the figs on upside down is available from sign makers. The stuff is expensive off the roll, but at the place I went to the bloke gathered up a pile of offcuts about 100mm wide from around the workshop and sold them to me for a nominal cost. For now I’ve just painted the bases and the edges of the trays - I’ll experiment with ways to make the bases & trays look better in due course.

The consensus among the CC blokes working on 28mm troops for Hail Caesar was to adopt 200mm as our standard unit width. I have made movement trays in 3 sizes to comply with that:

200x75mm – for standard sized warbands & phalanxes with 3 ranks of figures
200x50mm – for standard sized units in close order; infantry in 2 ranks or cavalry in 1 rank; and for small skirmisher units deployed in open order.
100x50mm – for small units – infantry in 2 ranks, cavalry in 1 rank

In the book they use 3 or 4 ranks for warbands or phalanxes and 2 ranks for cavalry. But 3 ranks of infantry gives a good enough impression of depth and 1 rank of cavalry looks fine, so I prefer to use the thinner formations to make the figures go further. Maybe when the group has accumulated enough figures we can go up to 4 rank warbands/phalanxes & 2 rank cavalry on 100m deep trays.

The overall result is very satisfying despite my limited modelling & painting skills, and remarkably economical - it only cost about $150 - approximately $100 for the figs (the A$ was roaring at the time), $20 for bases & trays, $5 for glue, say $5 wear & tear on paintbrushes and say $20 paint.

The force is a good sized Hail Caesar division comprising 1 heavy cavalry unit, 1 light cavalry, 3 warbands, 3 slingers & a small unit of leftovers. In the pic the light troops are in open order on 200mm trays, but there are also 100mm trays for them to use when they close up.

Hail Caesar at Camp Cromwell 16/08/11

2011-08-17T00:12:00.001+10:00

Steve's Romans
v.
Jim & Mike's Carthaginians

Between us we scraped up enough 28mm figs to get a battle under way.

Steve deployed his cavalry division of 3 HC in the centre, an infantry divison of 2 Legionaries & a Veletes on his left and another infantry divison of 3 Legionaries & 1 Velete on his right.

Jim commanded 2 HC & a Celtic chariot unit on the left. Mike had 2 infantry divisions: 3 warbands with 2 slingers in the centre and 3 medium infantry (scutari) on the right.

The Romans won the dice off and got 1st move. Their cavalry rushed forward towards the warbands, while their infantry advanced only slowly on the flanks.

The right hand Roman cavalry bounced off the warband it attacked. The other 2 Roman cavalry units rode straight over their opposition. The Carthagian centre division was broken and the remants had to flee. It looked like game over already, but the Punes soldiered on. Their infantry on their right charged forward v. the Roman left and the cavalry wheeled right to attack the Roman right.

The dice gods relented on Mike and with 3 units to 2 & a half routed the Roman left.

On the other flank the lead Roman infantry unit was routed by heavy cavalry supported by chariots. But the cavalry wa sin turn destroyed by the Roman second line.

The battle now became a race as Mike tried to bring his infantry across into the Roman rear while Steve tried to take out Jim's cavalry.

The Punic left had an interesting choice to make: 1) Try and take out the foot.
2) Try & take out the horse,or:
3) Fall back & wait for the infantry to come over.
They chose to try to break the Roman foot before their cavalry could come up. They failed to break through and then they broke under the combined attack of horse & foot before Mike could come to the rescue.

Although quite a small battle by HC standards, it was a very enjoyable game. We're looking forward to a bigger one next week.

Chateau Vincennes

2011-08-13T19:17:00.000+10:00

Chateau Vincennes was started by Charles V in the 14th centrury when he built the keep as his personal bolt hole. It was out in the woods then, but it's now located in a Paris suburb.

Subsequent medieval kings extended it into a complete castle with a perimeter wall, towers, moat and chappel. The model shows it at this stage.

The keep is the highest medieval castle in France.

Louis XIV built a residential chateau in the south end before getting bored and moving on to Versailles.

Napoleon had all but one of the towers reduced in hieght to be the same as the walls to make it more defensible against cannon & used it as an arsenal. Even so the walls and moat are impressive.

The place was used as a prison for much of the time between Louis' departure and WWII. The walls in the keep are covered in prisoner's grafiti. Famous prisoners included the Marquis de Sade, and the Duc d'Enghien, who Napoleon had shot in the moat.

Camp Cromwell Tuesday 16 August

2011-08-10T05:48:00.001+10:00

I get back from France on Tuesday 16th August, so Tuesday night Camp Cromwell meetings will resume that night - 7.30 at 29 Cromwell St, Battery Point.

On the agenda:

Hail Caesar:
Some of us have been painting 28mm ancients while I've been away. Time to compare our work. I hope we can have at least a small practice battle & plan for a larger battle next week.

Black Powder:
I should have my copy of The Last Argument of Kings (the BP 18th century suppliment) waiting for me when I return. We can do some planning for 18th century Black Powder battles.

FOW:
If anyone's desperate for WWII, the tables in the bottom room will be available.

Show and tell:
If anyone's interested, I have endless photos of forts & battlefields in France and Belgium to show.

La Musee de l'Armee, Paris

2011-08-06T22:20:00.001+10:00

The last two times I've been in Paris the 17th-18th century part of the La Musee de l'Armee at les Invalides was closed for renovation. I finally got to see it. There is a plethora of swords, muskets & uniforms.

There are reports on the rest of the museum on the blog if you go back a couple of years.

There were some quite good audio visuals of a selection of battles - Rocoi, Fontenoy, Austerlitz & Waterloo. The overhead projector shows the manoeuvres on the table while you listen to the commentary on headphones (choice of French or English).

The pic is Fontenoy as the British infantry are about to attack from the top left.

In the attic there is a selection of Louis XIV's 1:600 scale models of the fortresses of France.

There was also a Charles de Gaul exhibition that was new since my last visit. They give you earphones so the English speakers can get the propaganda. Still not impressed by the pomous bastard I'm afraid. I returned to base to finish my wargamer's Saturday in Paris with a late lunch of bread and rose and a bit of painting (of Gauls of course) while listening to the AFL on the net. Note the traveller's painting kit with the pizza box used as work-in-progress tray (the pizza was jambon, pommes de terre & fromage - I passed on les escargottes).

Following the Yanks to Falaise

2011-08-05T02:26:00.001+10:00

I got to Isigny-sur-Mer in the corner between Omaha Beach and Utah Beaches about 4.30. With my cousin's wine cellar a hour away in the opposite direction, I reluctantly concluded that Utah was a beach too far today and turned left to follow the US breakout route south.

The country close to the beaches was usually open but it changed completely when I left the coastal strip. Much of the true bockage has been ripped out to widen roads, but enough remains to see what it was like. The terrain is rolling hills, sometimes quite steep, with a patchwork of hedged fields and woods. I've tried to take some representative photos to show what the ground is like. Some things struck me as wrong about our FOW terrain:

We tend to have small isolated hills about the same size as fields and patches of woods or villages - all on a flat surface. This doesn't happen in the bockage (and rarely anywhere else for that matter). Hills are rolling ridges much, much bigger in scale than woods, fields or villages.

I stayed overnight with my cousin at Saint-Pois between Avranches & Vire. The US came this way, but there was no significant battle there.

Next day I returned to Paris via Falaise.

To the east of Falaise, the terrain suddenly opened out into a big plain with wooded hills in the distance all around.

East of Falaise, about 5 K's short of Trun there was a memorial on a little rise with a view over the ground where the pocket was closed and very informative set of signboards.

These included boards showing the manoeuvres to here, then this excellent large scale map of the ground in front of you. Battlefield hunting doesn't get any easier than this.

This is the German's road home. The plain ends at Trun. The hill on th left is Hill 26s where the pocket was formally closed when the Canadians met the Poles.

This overlaps the previous pic & is to the right of it. This is the ground across which the Yanks, with it seems, Poles in the front, advanced (from right to left) to close the pocket.

On Hill 262, or Mont-Omel, there is a museum and a monument at the point where the pocket was closed.

There is a very cute M8 armoured car there.

And a very fine late model Sherman with 76mm gun & 7 armour.

And the view from the monument to the SW where the US came from is just brilliant. (Click to enlarge).

And finally, the piece de resistance of the whole trip - le Tiger de Vimoutiers. In the fighting to resist the closing of the gap this Tiger was abandoned by its crew when they ran out of diesel. It remained in place damaged by its crew, souvenier hunters and scrap merchants until the local Marie took charge of it and scrounged enough bits of Tiger from elsewhere to make it pretty well whole again.

It stands by the road looking across the valley towards the Canadians. I love this commander's eye view along that 88. I've seen Tigers in museums before, but this is the first time I've been able to climb all over one.

It's interesting to compare this pic with the one in front of the Sherman above. Fearsome as it is, the Tiger isn't actually any higher.

D Day Today: 6. Maisy Battery

2011-08-05T00:48:00.001+10:00

Maisy battery is about 5km west of Pointe du Hoc and a couple of km inland. It was buried by the local farmer after the war but rediscovered, excavated and then opened to the public in 2007. It doesn't have big artillery bunkers with concrete roofs, its armament of 155mm howitzers and 37mm flack were in open bunkers. Those open bunkers are exposed along with the support bunker system for accomodation, command, ammo storage and the interconnecting trench system. Thus it is quite different to the other battery sites I visited and very informative.

This is a bunker entrance with the typical machine gun hole to protect it from infantry attack.

A "tobruk" machine gun post on the side of one of the bunkers.

An example of the information signs at the Maisey battery. This one explaining what a tobruk is. At this site they give you a map to self guide & you follow the arrows & the info signs are in French & English.

One of the 155mm gun emplacements. This is a field gun from elsewhere put here to indicate the size of the original guns. The original guns were mounted on steel turntables on the concrete base.
They had no concrete lids here, just cammo nets, but being in pits needed a direct hit to be taken out.

D Day Today: 5. Pointe du Hoc

2011-08-04T19:46:00.000+10:00

Pointe du Hoc has been cleaned up an opened to the public as a memorial to the Rangers who stormed it on D-day. The site was a complex of bunkers with fields of fire extending over both Omaha & Utah beaches.

The first pic looks west and Utah beach is about 15km away across the bay in that direction, but too misty to see this day.

The airforces bombed the crap out of it before D-day. Then on the day the navy took over, including USS Texas with 14" guns. As a result the dominant feature of the site is not, as one would expect, the bunkers, but the craters. The site is large and it almost covered by interlocking craters 12m in diameter and 5m deep - and that's after 66 years of erosion.

All the monuments laud the yanks who attacked it, but what about the Germans who took this bombardment and were still able to put up a damn good fight in a hopeless situation ?

The main observation post on the point. It has been substantially repaired.

A Machine gun nest. Note the steel ring for mounting the mg for all round fire.

Typical gun bunker. Most of the bunkers I saw followed a standard design as you would expect. The gun postion with the overhanging roof, 2 ammo store rooms behind, then a protected exit at the rear covered by an mg port.

A bit of battle damage.

I assume this is what happens to a bunker when the USS Texas gets the range and fires salvoes of ten 1500 lb 14" shells.

D Day Today: 4. Omaha Beach

2011-08-04T19:03:00.000+10:00

Omaha Beach looking west from about the middle.

The exit from the beach at Vierville-sur-Mer at the west end of Omah. The was an anti-tank wall across it on D Day. The bunker with a monument built on top on the right is a Pak 42 bunker.

The Pak 42 88mm anti-tank gun is still there behind a security grill.

The 88's field of fire down the beach.

A Mulbury harbour was installed at Vierville. There is no sign of it on the water apart from some buoys marking harzards to navigation. But a section of it is on display beside the road off the beach.

There are several museums and monuments in the area. They often had some good stuff on display outside. Here is a US 105 howitzer and a landing barge.

An 88 flak.

German 105 field gun and another landing craft.

D Day Today: 3. Longues Battery

2011-08-04T18:29:00.001+10:00

The battery at Lonques comprises 4 casements for 155mm naval guns plus associated support bunkers all set in an arc about 300m back from the top of the cliffs west of Arromanches.

About 6000 tones of bombs were dropped on it before D-day with no perceptable effect.

On D-day it was engaged by ships of the French & British navies and put out of action. It did manage to force one ship to retire hurt, but the episode demontrates the superiorty of naval guns relative to air bombardment for bunker busting. The battery with just 4 guns was no match for several ships. Even so, the bunkers show remarkably little sign of damage. The eastern one is a shambles, but this is said to be due to an explosion of collected left-over ammo stored there after the battle.

All 4 of the original guns are still in their bunkers. The other 3 have various degrees of damage but are basically intact, though they have been patched up a bit.

Ammo storage bunker.

There are small machine gun bunkers around to protect the battery and observation post from infantry attack.

The observation bunker on the cliff top.

D Day Today: 2. Sword, Juno & Gold Beaches

2011-08-04T17:54:00.001+10:00

Hillman Fort

Hillman Fort is a small artillery fort located about 4 km inland from Sword Beach. There is a monument to the regiment that took it.

It is a group of about 20 bunkers - command, living, storage, observation and gun.

Its garison of 150 men held out through D Day but gave up the next day.

The ground around the fort and behind most of the length of the British beaches is mostly pretty flat and open.

Ouistreham

Ouistrham is the east end of the beaches. The German command bunker has been turned into a museum. There is some good stuff outside the bunker.

88 Flak.

25 pdr and landing craft - the very one used in saving Private Ryan.

Priest with V1 behind.

US half track.

Stuart.

Tank turret bunker.

Sword Beach.

A Pak 38 bunker on Juno Beach at St-Auban-sur-Mer. Not how it presents a solid concrete wall to the sea side but can fire lengthways along the ebach in both directions.

A Churchill Arve as a regimental memorial.

The remains of the Mulberry Harbour at Aromanches-les-Bains at the west end of Gold Beach.

D-Day Today: 1. Pegasus Bridge

2011-08-04T16:57:00.000+10:00

When I first visited the Normandy beaches in 1980 I was a bit disapointed at how few bunkers and relics I could find. But things have inproved greatly in the last 26 years. Many more bunkers have been either unearthered or had the scrub cleared away and been made accessable to the public. The sites are now well signposted, both with direction signs and interpretation boards. There are also many more museums and monuments. I got a 7am start from Paris and reach my first objective, Pegasus Bridge at 10.

This was the objective of a Brit para drop the night before D-day. Was it Sean Connery who took the bridge ?

Pegasus Bridge looks exactly like Griggy's model. I don't know how much of it is original, but the repairs pretty well maintain the design.

The cafe beside the bridge is still there and still run by the same family as in 1944.

The point of note is that the canal under it is a major obstacle - deep and wide. The river a 100m east is much smaller.

There is a CS Cromwell on the west bank as a monument.

The Somme Today

2011-08-01T20:48:00.003+10:00

As motorway food is deplorable even in France we like to get off the motorway for lunch. The Somme is conveniently located halfway between Brugge to Paris so we squeezed in a quick visit. I'd been there before 3 years ago, but it was worth going back to see some of it in the sunshine and show Carmel where her grandfather was wounded in 1916 (as was mine).

We went to Pozieres for lunch stopping at the memorials to the 1st Australian Division (my GD's) and the 2nd (Carm's GD's) to look out over the battlefield. It's gently rolling countryside, pretty as a picture in the sunshine (the sun appeared soon after we left Belgium). It's hard to imagine it as a morass.

Like Ypres, the area was got back into farming production asap and there are only limited remains - the odd delict bunker or crater hole in a field or next to a monument. And of course cemetaries and monuments everywhere. But the area is better signposted than Belgium. Since I was last there signs noting where the front was a certain dates have been placed beside the Albert Road. These are a great help in getting a feel for the scale of the action and the speed of the advance (slow).

The 1st pic is the 2nd Div monument, the 2nd, the 1st Div's, the 3rd, the view north from the 2nd Div monument just north of Pozieres. This the direction of the Australian attack from here. I could have made a panorama, but it's much the same for 360 degrees.

We did lunch at "Le Tommy" Restaurant & Museum in Pozieres - a shameless piece of kitch aimed at commonwealth visitors, but it was actually entertaining and not bad food. We wondered if our grandfathers lived it up here in 1916 before being wounded & sent to Britain to recover. Fortunately both our grandfathers missed out on the 1917 madness. Mine got a cushy job training new recruits in Britain. By the time Carm's pop had recovered, deserted, been caught & seerved his time in jail Paschendaale was all over. They both must have been so disappointed. But they were both back in it in 1918 doing their bit in Monash's victories further south.

Ypres 1914-18

2011-07-31T00:48:00.001+10:00

The Ypres salient was the scene of fighting for virtually the whole war. The British & Commonwealth push for Passchendaale in 1917 is one of the war's many great horror stories. My paternal grandfather's battalion, the 12th, was there, but he had the good fortune to be seconded to a training unit in England for most of 1917 and missed out. My other grandfather didn't get to France until the Anzac Corps had been moved south to Amien.

I expected the countryside to be flatter, but it is generally gently rolling country. Navigation is a bit tricky. The village names on the 1917 maps have often changed out of recognition, villages don't always have name plates, the modern roads are usually not on the old maps. Many intersections are devoid of road signs. The sun doesn't shine to tell you where south is because it's Belgium in summer. The sat nav suffers because the villages are often too small for it recognise them and it doesn't know the minor roads - but it's still good in giving you a general location and as a compass. The graveyards and monuments are a great help, but the brown signs to the monuments never give distances - you never know if it's 50 m of 5 km away.

The site isn't as dramatic as Verdun. This area is such fertile land that they generally filled in the trenches to get it back into production. The battlefields were also much more spread out, so there is much more travelling to do. I saw only a fraction of what there is to see, but I'm happy that I saw a good sample of it.

Messines Ridge 7th June 1917

The successful attack on Messines ridge was perhaps the first sign that the British had begun to get some clues on how to fight WWI. Including: 1) Set limited objectives that are achievable and holdable. 2) Send in the Anzacs or Canadians.

The Anzacs attacked on the right or southen end of the sector, the British on the left.
There is graveyard and monument for the many dead Anzacs on Messines ridge on the edge of the village.

The 1st pic overlooking the graves looks SW towards the Anzac start line on the next ridge about 1.5km. The 1st German line was close to our line, the 2nd was on this ridge.

The 2nd pic is taken from the start line looking back the other way but to the north. The 2 views almost meet on the right but in opposite directions.

The 3rd pic is taken from a point SW of Messines

which is just off the left edge. The Anzac advance was from left to right.

The 4th pic is a German pillbox of their 2nd line in the british sector just south of Wytschaete.

Polygon Wood Sept 26 1917

As part of the Passchendale offensive the 5th Australian Division attacked Polygon wood. It was destoyed in the process, but has been replanted. In the middle of it is a memorial to the 5th Division.

The photo only shows half the cemetary.

Passchendaale 12 Oct - 6 Nov 1917

The Canadians got to Paschendaale at enormous cost. More VC's per sqm than anywhere.

Pic 1 is Paschendaale church viewed over the memorial.

Pic 2 is looking the way they came - the typical rolling Ypres countryside.

Hill 60

They made movie last year about the Austalian Tunnelling Corps. This was their finest hour. The hill is a pretty insignificant lump - actually spoil from the adjacent railway cutting & not a natural hill. The ground remains a mangled landscape with angled bits of concrete pillbox sticking out of it.

Yorkshire Trench

This is section of British trenches that has been excavated and restored by locals. It's a little patch in the middle of an industrial estate near Boesinghe a few km north of Ypres.

The gravel paths on the right trace the lines of underground tunnels forward of the trench line.

It was interesting to be able to walk along a trench line that has not been degraded by time.

The 1917 Museum at Zonnebeke

Zonnebeke is a village a few k's short of Paschendaale. A chateau destroyed in the war, but rebuilt has been made into a museum. It has the usual dummies in uniform, old films running, maps and bric a brac of war, but it's best feature is a recreation of a tunnel system.

With the sound effects of water pumps and shellfire and dummy soldiers in the rooms, it gives an impression of what it must have been like - much cleaner and safer of course.

The stuffed rats on the floor were a nice touch.

In Marlborough Country 2: Oudinaarde 1708

2011-07-30T01:07:00.000+10:00

The sat nav took me straight to Oudenaarde. Then it wasn't so easy. None of the villages on the battle map were big enough to show up on the sat nav, if they still existed, and those that did seemed to have changed names. I eventually found my way out of the maze that is Oudenaarde and found a road sign to Ooike which I assumed was the Oycke on my map. From there I got my bearings and a feel for the scale of the battlefield and was able to work it out.

Both sides had divided commands, but the French Ducs du Burgogne and Verdome hated each other's guts and were alway arguing. Marlborough & Eugene were great mates. For once the French had outmanouvred Marlborough threatening his LOC. He responded by forced marching around the south of the French and getting to Oudinaarde before them. He threw his army over the Schelt east of Oudinaarde using pontoon bridges. The French were initially deployed on some low hills about 6km north of the river, but they moved down on the plain - perhaps to try and catch the allies before they had sorted themselves out after the river crossing. Malborough had Eugene make pinning attacks on the French left commanded by Burgogne. Verdome moved the right forward to attack the allied deployment, but Burgogne did not make a supporting counterattack on Eugene.

Marlborough was also filtering troops through Oudinaarde itself onto the French left flank. He drew on Eugene's cavalry reserve to boost his left then attacked Vendome frontally with his horse while the infantry from Oudinaarde wrapped round his flank. The French army fell back, then broke. Nightfall mitigated the extent of the disaster this time. Both sides had about 100,000 men, the French lost about 15,000, the allies 3,000. It was a big risk for Marlborough to bring on an encounter battle with his back to a big river, but having beat the French twice already in 1704 & 1706, he must have considered it a fair risk.

Oudinarde has grown out of where its walls were and now covers the area of swamps which the French thought was impassible for cavalry, but through which Marlborough deployed his army. The Schelt is now canalised, but though it's a big river the allies seemed to have an adequate bridging train.

North of Oudinaarde, the country is a featureless plain. There are creeks and villages marked on Chandler's map, but in the flesh they are pretty insignificant. The "Heights" are low hills and are off the actual battlefield. There are some gentle undulations in ground that give random points of minor vantage and would put some troops out of sight from some viewpoints. The main terrain issues would have been crops. The battle was on July 11 so they would have been in a similar stage as on my visit. At present the fields were a mix of pasture, knee high wheat or potatoes and head high corn. It's anybody's guess what the mix was in 1708. But the main point is that apart from the river crossing, and the town hiding the flanking force, the terrain was only a factor in that it made a perfect field for Marlborough's horse to reap the benefit of his grand tactics.

Pic taken from a spot about 2km north of Oudinaarde looking north. It was behind the French right initially, but by evening the French were in a pocket with the allied troops that came through Oudinaarde attacking from left to right.

The "Heights of Husse" are about 3km away. The forground is all potatoes.

Pic from the same spot but looking east across the battlefield. All the other pics I took look much the same.