Camp Cromwell 25/05/06

A succesful hunt

Fort Floriet 23/05/06

Two new players were introduced to FOW and enjoyed their game. Robert also dropped in for a while. 1500pts FFA Darren British light Armour vs Dion Panzer Kompanie. DAK deployed Carri platoon and Panzers on their right objective & Honeys, Recon 8 rads and 2nd Panzer on their left. Brats: 2x brens on right, 1st crusader III's on right objective, 2nd Crusader III centre with 25 pounder half battery, left 1x 4 Crusader II's Command & other 2 platoons Crusader III's. Both players advanced on each flank to engage. The Carri platoon were hull down but were the first to be killed by swarms of Crusaders on the Brats left flank. The Panzers on this flank took out the 4 crusader II's and the Brat command but were swamped and killed by the remaining Crusaders. Both sides had lost their C in C's but the germans were closer to breaking and were about to lose an objective. The panzers doubled to protect their right hand objective and saved it. Meanwhile on the Brat right flank the brats lost 2x Brens (ATR's) but destroyed the Stuarts with support from some crusaders, so the germans failed Coy morale and fled. 4-3 win to the Brats and a close tussle without much coaching from the Referee :)

Camp Cromwell 18/05/06

Thursday at Camp Cromwell: Tunisian Campaign Battle #2

Chris, Stevesx2 & Anders with DAK Infantry defending hex D3
v.
Nick, Peter & Barrie with US Mechanised.
The Allied attack was supported by US Armour, the Axis defence by the Carri Coy.

The DAK held a strong line with the Medjeedar River across the left half of their front and mines & wire covering the other half plus the fords & bridges.
The attacking US Coy was actually weaker than the defending coy, but they advanced on their right against the river and initated a duel between infantry, mortars & anti tank guns The reinforcements on both sides did not arrive until late in the day and did not become seriously involved.
The late deployment of the Diana ambush caused some grief taking out 2 half tracks & most of their crew, but one bogged on the shuffle and was picked off by Shermans.
Casualties were pretty even and quite light, most troops did not fire a shot.

After the battle the Axis had a staff conference and provided their T3 orders.
In this turn it seems we will have 2 battles - the Axis wish to counterattack in D3 plus their Panzers are to attack the Kiwis in F5.
They want to do the F5 battle first. The Kiwis were pulled back from the defensive line last turn and will now fight without minefields or ambushes. Everyone is looking forward to a fight in the open for a change - maybe we'll get some decisive action this time.

Fort Floriet 12/05/06

Friday at Fort Floriet

Jim's Russians v. Chris' Fins in 1500 pt Hold the Line, Fins defending.
The Commie hordes swarmed forward, with mortars & a/tank guns moved up just in range of the objective to give covering fire.
The Fins formed a forlorn line of infantry & HMGs stiffened with 2 recycled KVs.
The usual stuff - balk Russian casulatied, but not enough to stop them.
The KVs survived a rain of long range 57mm a/tank fire, but in the end were done for by Commo Pioneers.
The Fin supports were slow to arive & then were delayed further by being pinned by the Commo airforce. They just didn't arrive in time so the remnants of the Commo infantry took the objective.

Camp Cromwell 11/05/06

Camp Cromwell 11/05/06

Men O' War - Napoleonic Naval

HMS Rectum (2nd rate), HMS Enema (3rd rate), HMS Constipation (3rd Rate) & MHS Hernia (3rd Rate).
Admiral Gandy in command
v.
Le Chochon Noir et La Fifi (both 2nd rate) under L'Admiral Jendrich, plus
La Sacre Blu et La Madonna avec les Boobies Grande (both 2nd rate) under L'Admiral Moy.

The British had both broadsides double shotted at the start and suffered from long range Frog fire as they closed into close range. But they had a big stroke of luck when the wind changed to give them the weather guage as the fleets closed. This allowed them to pick on Admiral Moy's squadron while Admiral Jendich potted away ineffectually from long range downwind. A couple of close range double shotted rakes from the Rectum hurt Moy's ships bad. La Madonna tried to board the Constipation to fight her way out of trouble. They won the first round but raking broadsides from Rectum & Hernia tipped the scales and La Madonna struck. Soon after Sacre Blu has grappled by Hernia & also struck.

Admiral Jendrich's squadron was still in good shape and while Couchon Noir kept most of the enemy busy Fifi pounded the already weakened Enema. Enema was a mess, but then the Couchon Noir blew up finishing the battle. Fifi made her escape.

Camp Cromwell 04/05/06

Camp Cromwell Bulletin 04/05/06

A good turnup tonight: Jim, Anders, SteveJ, SteveP, MarkO, MarkW, PeterM, Barrie, Chris.

Tunisia Campaign

Battle #1 Part 2 - 6 turns to nightfall

The Germans appear to have decided that there wasn't enough time left to break the Allied line before dark, and were content to whittle away at the enemy. The Allies were content to hold the line, keeping their ambushes in hand (where they very effectively intimidated the Germans).

Final casualties for the day (after recovery of the slightly wounded & awol, repair of minor damage, etc.):
Germans: 5 Falschirjager, 1 Pioneer, 1 a/a half track.
NZ: 3 rifles, 2 2pdr, 1 Boffors.
Brit armour: 2 Shermans, 1 Grant, 4 25pdrs, 1 staff team.
US Inf: 2 Rifles, 1 Boffors.

A gain in material for the Germans, but they failed to break the Allied line. The Germans used the Tiger shuffle to great effect picking off Shermans, otherwise most of the damage was done by artillery & mortars. The Luftwaffe showed up twice tonight, once they were intercepted, the other time they tried to bomb their own troops (but were waved off).

That's the end of campaign turn 1.
Campaign turn 2 is the Allied move turn.

Camp Cromwell 29/04/06

Tunisian Campaign Battle #1

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

Captn Fleming NZEF's report from the front:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Camp Cromwell 26/04/06

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

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