Camp Cromwell 22/12/05

Camp Cromwell Bulletin 22/12/05

Maharajah 2000

Barrie's US Armour v. Jim's Carri
FFA on a 6x4 desert table.

The Ities won the vital dice roll for first turn (despite Barrie's +1).
The swarm rushed forward on the Itie right supported by Lancias in the centre.
The Lancias took out the Lee Platoon while the Semos & M14s took out a Honey platoon.
That left Barrie 2 armour platoons down & up shirt creek before he even got to move.
Although the US got 3 planes on turn 1, and 2 on turn 3, they couldn't do enough damage to stop the swarm over the objective.
The US attack on the Itie left by the other Honey platoon couldn't clear the other objective & it was a 6:1 win for Italia.

This puts Jim in front with 5 wins from 5 & 26 pts.
Chris has 4 from 4 with 21 pts with a game to go against Peter.
The best Allies have just 2 wins (Leigh, Barrie & Peter). Peter has a game in hand.

FOW on the big table (FFA)

Stevesx2 with 2x1000 pt Russian infantry v. PeterM with 2000 pts grenadiers.

The Russians advanced on both flanks.
SteveJ advanced on the right using a wooded ridge and an Oakie quality series of farts as cover, then engaged in a fire fight with the Grenadiers from the edge of the wood while waiting for the SU152s to arrive. One SU got bogged, the other missed the Tiger and got zapped. The Grenadiers failed morale, but the Tiger & MkIII all but wiped out the Ivan inf and it ran back into the wood.
SteveP on the left called off his attack in the face of heavy fire from Grenadiers, Pak 40s & rockets. Peter began a cautious advance. One grenadier was pushed back by Ivan infatntry, but the other destroyed their opposing infantry & with help from the Pak40s went on to take out the KVs clearing a route to their objective.

A hard fought win to the Germans. The game went on 'till 12.30 - window open in a vain quest for fresh air as Steve & Oakie, fuelled by Xmas cheer, appeared to be engaged in duelling banjos. Steve gained an early lead, but Oakie's showed his vast experience and his staying power came through in the end.

Next week

I'm going bush on Monday, but plan to be back on Thursday, so wargames as usual.

Fort Floreat 20/12/2005

Doug came up and we used his Fins against the Za Stalina standard Russian army. A close battle -- Eventually the Russians were one platoon away from breaking, and the Finns were two platoons away -- but two of the Finnish Platoons were down to 1 team, and another two platoons needed one casualty to break. On the last turn the Russians finished off the two platoons that were down to one team, to win a close fought (and very enjoyable) battle.

Acton Armoury 17/12/05

MarkO & PeterM with 2x1500 US infantry
v.
Barrie & Jim with 2x1500 Grenadiers
Not one step back scenario.

Niether side were game to launch a serious attack.
The Germans weren't going to throw themselves in the path of 4 large tank platoons - Lees, Shermans & 2xStuarts.
The US weren't game to adavance on the German a/tank guns.
We spend 3 hours sniping at each other before agreeing to a draw.
It did not seem a very appealing scenario - too much disincentive to attack.
Maybe the scenario needs one side to be Russian - big enough platoons to rush over the roads & have someone left when they reach the other side.
Maybe Barrie's Stalingard table is too intimidating with the wide regularly spaced roads - a more convoluted cityscape would have more avenues for attack.
Maybe using the sewer rules would help.
Maybe a HTL would be better in the city - the NOSB scenario is basically FFA.

Camp Cromwell 15/12/05

Jim's Indian Infantry + Mariusz's Polish Armour
v.
Barrie's DAK Armour + SteveJ's Grenadiers
2x1500 pts FFA

The Poles Advanced around the German left flank supported by Indians on their inside flank.
On the Allied left both sides pretty well stayed behind a ridge in safety.
The Indian attack drove back the left end of the German line but the Poles were held up by 3 Dianas & 2 Pak 40s until Barrie's Panzers arrived and finished them off.
The Poles failed their Coy Morale Test giving the Germans victory (although the Indians had lost very little).

Fort Floriet 13/12/05

Game 1:

Chris' Fins v. Jim's Russian Infantry. Hold the line, Russians defending in snowy ground.
The Fins started well with a cautious advance until the T34s appeared out of ambush & decimated 2 infantry platoons.
But the Ivans got overconfident and suddenly discovered how nasty Late model Stugs & Finish Infantry with Molotov Cocktails can be.
The T34s evaporated and suddenly the Fins were on top.
A desperate Russian counterack helped by bogging rolls in the snow took out the Stugs, but the Russians were too badly weakened to win.
It was a slow death as the Fins advanced their A/tank guns & mortars to finish off the last resistance.
As we started off on the premiss of having a quick game from an early start to see how a time limit would affect a HTL, the Russians dubiously claimed victory 2 times (still holding objectives after 1.5 hours and then 2.5 hours) for one defeat (after 3 hours).

Game 2:

Doug's Fins v. Chris's Russians. Another Russian defence HTL in the snow.
Doug brought his own Fins - based for other rules & with some ring-ins, but still serviceable.
Chris put up a tight defence. Doug did well for a beginner (with some rules advice from the Italian attachee), but the KV's were too much for him in the end.

Camp Cromwell 08/12/05

2 x Steves' 1000 pts each of Russians v. Jim's 2000 pts Fucilieri
Cauldron Scenario on 8x6 table.
Apolgies from Barrie (Xmas), Mark (drink), Maruisz (work) & Leigh (band).

The Russians were fortunate in getting a deployment in 2 diagonally opposite groups with both KVs on the side away from the Pak40s.
The Ities got bad a 6MB deal - all the Fucilieri were Reluctant Trained. They also made a mistake in objective placement - one of them had a well covered line of approach for Ivan Infantry. Leaving the Grenadiers as reserves was also a bad idea (but then getting 3 out of 3 RT for the Fucilieri wasn't expected either).
The 2 Ivan infantry attacking from the right were stopped for a while by the Pak 40's, artillery and the early arrival of the L6s.
On the other flank the 2KV platoons advanced ponderously while the other infantry used hill & forest to get in close & attack the objective. The Itie infantry held with good shooting for 1 turn, but once assaulted ran. The L6s were rushed over to retake the objective and the grenadier reserve thrown at the infantry in their place. The Grenadiers killed a few Russians but bad saves did for them and the horde resumed their advance taking out the Pak 40s, the HMGs & the artillery before the last survivor of the 2 platoons was destroyed by rifle fire.
The L6s bravely retook the objective in the woods and destroyed most of the Ivan infantry in the wood before being destroyed.
The KVs then entered the wood. 2 got bogged, but the Itie infantry had no stomach for a fight, ran from every attack & refused to counterattack leaving the objective to the KVs.
The Russians lost all by 3 teams of the 3 infantry platoons, but even in the woods the Ities couldn't cope with the KVs

Fort Floriet 06/12/05

Fort Floriet 06/12/05

Chris' Crusader horde v. Jim's Bersaliglieri
Hold the line on 6x4 table, Ities chose to defend.

The table was pretty crowded terrain wise & both objectives were on difficult ground hills.
The Ities defended the forward objective with FV Bersaglieri, the rear one with 75mm artillery and with 88s & Pak40 allies in ambush.
Chris charged forward towards the rear objective with a vast column of armour skillfully using the Carriers to keep the ambush's at bay.
The 88s were squeezed into the left flank & zapped the Grants before being buried in smoke from the Crusader HQ.
The Pak 40's had to be put down near the forward objective aimed accross the table. They shot poorly getting just 1 Crusader before the horde ducked for cover en route for the rear objective.
The Brits then assaulted the rear obective with waves of armour as the Ities desperately tried to prop it up with their reserves.
The tanks overran the Bersaglieri, the 88's & the anti-tank guns.
All looked lost for Italy, but help was on the way.
The last reserve - the Itie mortar platoon miraculously wiped a platoon of Crusaders on their own (with the help of bad bogging rolls).
And the Bersaglieri from the right flank had been moved over and arrived just in time to counterattack the tanks on the objective.
The fight was out of range of the Pak 40's & the L6's just wouldn't kill anything, but the Fearless Vet Bersaglieri with Passaglia bombs on rough ground took the objective back.
The Brit command made one last charge to try & win the batle before failing coy morale, but the Bersaglieri did for them too.
The Brits had the honour of losing the battle due to total annihilation (has anyone else done that?)
The Ities on the other hand had their Pak 40's & L6's intact, but had 1 plat with 2 teams & 2 plats with 1 team left - a costly win.
Another exciting battle of wildly fluctuating fortunes.

Camp Cromwell Bulletin 01/12/05

Must be Xmas, numbers are down all round this week. Just 3 at camp Cromwell.
Mariusz's Polish Armour attacking Jim's US Mech Inf in a Hold the Line on the 8x6 desert table. SteveJ umpired.

For a while it looked like the Yanks might get up, but the dreaded Fear Nought rule, lack of reinforcements & lousy shooting held the Poles together until their overwhelming firepower turned the tide.

US Comment: This game made it pretty obvious that 1500 point Hold the Lines should be on a 6x4 table - there's just too many options for the attacker on the wide front. For HTL & Breakthrough I think that the table size should match the army size. A 6' front scales to 2250 pts relative to 1500 pts on a 4' front.

For FFA on the other hand the big table is fine for FFA regardless of army size, plus the big table reduces the problem of first move advantage.

Fort Floreat 29/11/2005

A small crowd tonight. Expected reinforcements did not show -- probably emulating Grouchy and wandering aimlessly.

We did a 1500 points flames of war free for all. Jim with Italian infantry vs Nick with US infantry. The terrain was open, but mud was in effect, diminishing the ability of tanks.

The game was won in deployment. Nick deployed 4 shermans in the open. Jim deployed 2 semovente 90mm AT monsters in the center of the table in sight of the shermans. Whoever got to go first would kill the other. Nick had a +1 on the dice, having finished deployment first. Hence Nick had a 2/3 chance of going first. Unfortuantely, the dice gods did not agree. Jim got first move, killed the shermans, and the US lost 1/3 of their army before they even got to move.

The Americans fought back, killing Italian infantry and AA platoons that advanced to attack. The Italians took one objective with a tank and a below strength reluctant platoon. Nick killed the tank, and caused a morale check for the platoon, which unfortunately survived its morale check!

The mud played little part -- but it did slow down the dreaded semovente 90mm monsters at a critical moment.

Another fun game!


Italian comment: The game illustrated the inherent problem in the FFA scenario giving a big advantage to the 1st mover - getting first shot at full rate against enemy who cannot be dug in or gone to ground - particularly so on a small table with sparse terrain. But even with the 1st turn big hit the battle was far from a pushover - it put the Yanks on the defensive & attacking with Reluctant peasants isn't that easy. The mud effect was interesting - vehicles doing a bogging roll every turn sure made you think carefully about assaulting inf with tanks, or indeed, about moving vehicles at all.

Camp Cromwell 24/11/05

Lobositz 1756:

Prussians (MarkO, Barrie & SteveP)
attacking
Austrians (SteveJ & PeterW)
Jim umpiring.
The Prussian attack concentrated on the right of centre, the infantry & grenadiers going in after a short artillery bombardment while the cavalry guarded their flanks.
The Austrians defended well and counterattacked on their right.
It was a close run thing - when the Austrians failed morale the prussians were only a unit off a test themselves.
The rules mods worked well - in particular the command system seemed a sucess. Some tweeks were suggested to the flank/rear attack rules and we got some ideas for further refinements of the command system.

FOW on the desert table:

Mariusz's Polish armour
v.
MarkW's DAK
in a free for all.
Your correspondant was otherwise occupied, but Mariusz won comfortably.

Next up:

Saturday afternoon at Barrie's (Stalingrad).
Tuesday at Fort Floriet (Maybe US v. Italy in Sicily)
Thursday at Camp Cromwell.

More stats on the FOW battles so far this year

In scenarios with designated attacker & defender: the attacker has won 54%

The best German army is Grenadier with 52% wins.
The best Italian army is Carri with 88% wins.
The best US army is Infantry with 68% wins
The best Empire army is Brat motorised with 88% wins
Russian Infantry & Armour are both on 50% wins.

Fort Floriet 22/11/05

Jim's Fucilieri + Chris' Grenadiers
defending v.
Starn & Coreena's Russian Armour + Nick's Russian Armour
in a 2x1500 pts Bulge Scenario on an 8x6 rolling steppes table.

We used the Battalion rules for Company Morale (one platoon fails = it's pinned, two failed = game over).
Peter Williams dropped in for while but couldn't stay to fight. The Take Away Mission came up Spuds after Hungry Jacks was vetoed.

The Axis deployed Germans on the right, Italians on the left.
Both Axis armies were heavy on the anti-tank guns - the only armour being 4 Marders & 6L6 light tanks.
The Russians deployed entirely on their left opposite the Germans.
They had a mix of T34s (2x10), light tanks, SUs & KVs - no grunts except for the commanders.
Both sides had limited air - Sturmos & Focke Wufs.

It was a really enjoyable battle with wildly varying swings of fortune, so everyone had their turn at getting their rocks off.
By turn 2 it looked to be an Axis walkover after 2 Ivan tank coys had been splattered by anti-tank fire following a perhaps too enthusiastic advance.
Two turns later after the Sturmos & the surviving tanks had taken out 4 anti-tank batteries and the 88s were occupied with AA work it was the Axis feeling nervous.
But the Ities counterattacked the Russian rear echelon and Iavns casulaties were mounting - Nick's company was pinned and Starn & Corenna's leaderless.
Nevertheless, Starn's T34s had cleared a path diagonally across the table to avoid the 88s & Marders and were storming forward towards the Itie's thinly held rear objective.
On turn 9 the Luftwaffe finally showed up. A lone Focke Wulf finished off the T34s and forced a Company Morale Test that couldn't be passed.

The Axis claimed victory 3 times over:
1. Russians failed morale.
2. Russians failed to get into zone 2 by turn 10.
3. Russians held no objectives (the L6's had taken back the one taken from the grenadiers).
It was a hard fought win - the Germans had lost 2 of 6 & the Ities 4 of 9 platoons.

Camp Cromwell 17/11/05

On the Desert Table:

2 x 1500 pts Hold the Line
Mark I & Peter W's US Inf + Mariusz's Polish Armour
attacking
Jim & Barrie's DAK + Steve's panzer grenadiers.

The deployment was as two platoons side by side on a 8' front with 4 objectives, 2 to be taken to win. 1st platoon to fail morale pinned.

Steve's faced a swarm of Polish armour with very little - he had only 5 platoons so there was just 1 grenadier & the 88 ambush on table to face them. The 88s got smoked by the US 105s most of the game & when they did get a shot in they missed. The grenadiers inevitably got over-run by Honeys. The reserves came on only to be picked off as well.

On the other flank the yanks were held off and a reserve DAK infantry platoon spared to cover Steve's 2nd objective.

The Polish attack on the 2nd objective got a hell of a fright when the Grenadiers charged them through smoke bailing all but 1 before failing morale. But 1 survivor was enough & the rest of the grenadiers died in the counterattack & the 2nd objective fell.

It was a tough assignment for the Germans. The rolling hills limited the ambush potential while there was little cover for the defence. The wide front allowed the objectives to be widely spaced and hard to defend. Steve's coy was ill-suited to facing serious tanks.

We had a long discussion before the battle trying to get the multi-coy rules straight for this battle. We need to work on getting clearer scenario conditions for multi-player games. There's some on the website to start with.

On the Lobotsitz Table:

Mark II's British Armour VS Steve II’s Russian Infantry
1500 pt Breakthrough Mission

As the defender Steve chose to place his artillery on a high hill which had a view of most of the table. The Infantry were dug in between the river and the woods. The other smaller infantry were dug in around a village to deal with the expected bailed out armour.

Mark placed his armour within striking distance of the artillery leaving Steve to think that he was not so clever after all and that the game would be over very quickly!

Marks first turn enabled him to effectively smoke the artillery preventing them from creating the destruction that Steve was desperately in need of.

The Sturmoviks failed to arrive! The dice gods however, decided that the Russians horde deserved an even break and allowed Steve to roll for his reinforcements and on came 9 T34’s right in the path of the advancing armour! Between the T’34’s and the now protected artillery the British attack was decimated.
The battle had swung dramatically in favor of the Russian horde! However new life was injected into the game when the Sturmoviks finally found their way to the battle only to attack their own troops, killing off ¾’s of the artillery!

Mark had bad luck with his reserves not turning up until the last few turns when it was all but over. A very enjoyable game with some valuable lessons learnt around deployment and the value of airpower.

Fort Floriet 15/11/05

2250 pts Big Push on a 6' front
Jim's Indian Inf attacking Chris' Grenadiers.

Chris deployed grenadiers entrenched on the objectives with 4 FK36r's, 2 Pak38's and 2 88's in support on the hills behind.
He then went on the Take-Away-Mission (generously conceeding to the Indians HQ's request for Harri Curry) while the Indians deployed.
The Indians attacked on their left with the advance covered by Bofors, HMGs, mortars, RArt & 2 Sherman platoons (2250 pts gives you lots of support). The RE cleared a path through the minefield & wire while the Shermans & Bofors wiped the Pak38(r)s and the mortars & 25pdrs smoked the Pak 38's & 88s.
The first infantry passed through the minefield & wire, attacked & took the objective supported by the Shermans.
But the Indians inf on the right had been destroyed by some hot shooting & bad saves as it made for the shelter of a wadi - this left the Germans free to shift all their troops to their right and thus they were able to make an immediate counterattack - destoying not only the infantry but the Shermans as well with a combination of grenadiers, panzerknackers and a/tank guns (finding gaps in the smoke).
It looked all over for the Indians, but their last infantry platoon retook the objective yet again & held off the immediate counterattack.
The remaining grenadiers went to ground just within 100 of the objective & proved bullet proof as the last Indian infantry platoon got ready for a last effort.
The Indians climbed out of the captured trench & charged. The grenadiers weren't fazed by the Indian War Cry, but still only managed 4 hits, so the attack went home, somewhat blunted by 3 kills out of those 4 hits. In two rounds the grenadiers were all killed. The Indians consolidated back in the trench below half strength, but they passed their Morale Test. The Germans couldn't recontest the objective, so it was Game Over - a narrowest possible victory. Obviously it was the Harri Curry that made the diffference.

Camp Cromwell Bulletin 10/11/05

Jim's Indian Infantry + Mark I's Aussie Infantry
v.
Barrie & Steve I's DAK (2 x armoured coys)
Bulge Scenario, DAK attacking.
Barrie on the left, Steve on right of the German attack. Indians forward & Aussies in support. Mariusz provided his Allies with valuable advice.
We agreed to use the 1 Coy fails morale = it is pinned rule to make it practical for the defender to deploy one coy forward & one back.

The Indians defended the forward objectives with 2 inf platoons & mortars. The Aussies moved up to join the rest of the Indians in a second line defending Zone 2.
Steve quickly overran their forward objective with MkIIs but the Oz 6pdr ambush popped the MkIIs & the advance slowed while the 6pdrs were smoked and the Shermans dealt with.
Barrie took some time to clear his forward objective in the face of desperate Indian resistance. They had to kill the platoon to the last man. The Brit 6pdrs attached to the Indians were placed down in the centre. They didn't kill anything, but further slowed the advance.

Finally the Germans realised that they had to charge to make it to Zone 2 before the Allied Turn 10. Steve's Panzers were stopped by the Brit 6pdrs even though they were reduced to 1 gun & command. Barrie's were stopped by the 3rd Indian Infantry.

A win to the Allied defence - Mark's first win for the year.

Both sides had air. The priority Hienies came 3 or 4 times but killed just 1 Sherman. The limited Hurricanes never showed up at all.

The pic is taken at the end from behind the German lines.

Some FOW stats for the year so far:

There are records of about 189 FOW games reported in the year's CC Bulletins so far. These includes the Area 52 Tournament, plus some Fort Floriet games, but do not include Raid Scenarios (too Micky Mouse to count). In multiplayer games all players count a win or loss, though the country counts just 1 win or loss. Tied games aren't counted. I've probably missed or confused the odd result so they are approximate, but can't be far off.

Ignoring draws I've tabulated: (Games won / games lost) & the percentage of wins:

Germans (21/33) 39% won
US (20/12) 62%
Italians (17/11) 60%
British & Empire (17/14) 55%
Russians (12/16) 43%

Infantry (43/43) 50% won
Mechanised (24/26) 48%
Armour (17/16) 51%

Jim (36/19) 66% won
Steve J (16/15) 52%
Chris (10/11) 48%
Leigh (9/2) 81%
Peter (7/8) 47%
Mariusz (5/4) 55%
Barrie (5/10) 33%
Steve P (4/4) 50%
Nick (4/5) 44%
Glen (1/2) 33%
Mark W (1/4) 20%
Starn (1/4) 20%
Mark O (1/6) 14%

Notes:
Take out Leigh's 9/2 & the Russians score is 3/14 for the rest of us.
Mark O is clearly the most consistant performer.
Army types are all close to 50/50.
The US & the Ities are the Uberarmies.

Fort Floreat 9/11/05

Somewhere in the desert ...

We tried a flames of war battalion game. Jim with 1500 pts Indians plus 1500 pts Australians vs Nick & Chris with Rommel and 5 honey light tanks (350 pts) and another 2600 points of Afrika Korps table decorations.

The game went as follows:

• The Honeys did a pre-game 'Rommel' move to move up, then charged around some scrub and machine gunned some happless Indians who thought they were out of range of the Honeys. The Indian platoon was damaged, but alive. This is the situation in the picture.
• The Honeys then moved to the top of a hill and machine gunned some Indian mortars on an adjacent hill, destroying the mortars. They used their stormtrooper bonus to dash down the other side of the hill and out of sight of some AT guns.
• The Honeys assaulted a large platoon of Indian infantry, dug in on an objective. The Honeys wiped them out. Return fire from AT guns was ineffective.
• The Honeys ran up onto a hill and attacked the 2lber AT guns from the rear, killing their trucks and some guns. The AT guns failed morale. Chris's troops finished off the damaged Indians that the Honeys had first hit.
• There was now a mass of crusader and valentine tanks approaching the honeys. They could have dashed over into the face of the tanks and killed some more Indians -- in retrospect it would have been a glorious victtory! Especially as the Indians were in trucks, and it would have been easy to break the Indian's morale. Instead, the Honeys retreated and moved to the other flank to continue their attack. They assaulted dug in Australian infantry, and killed some. The Crusaders had managed to get to the infantry's rescue, but the crusader return fire missed.
• The Honeys shot back at one of the two platoons of crusaders, killing two tanks including the platoon commander. One platoon failed morale and ran.
• The remaining Crusaders were joined by Valentines and Bren carriers with .50cal machine guns and 25lbers. The Honeys killed another tank and a bren carrier, taking their first losses in the exchange.
• Rommel and his half tracks machine gunned an indian machine gun platoon and some Australians that were hiding in a depression, causing the Indians to take a company morale test.
• Rommel was killed, along with his half tracks. The honeys retreated back to the German lines.

The Indians were below 1/2 strength. The Australians had only lost one platoon, but most of their other platoons were on the verge of breaking. It was 2 am and we called it a draw. The 25lbers were a potent allied weapon that could still have inflicted massive damage, so it was by no means clear who would have won.

The one thing I do know is that the Axis had the same bad dice luck as the week before. Since Jim was in both Axis sides, we now have convincing proof that Jim is a dice jinx!

Camp Cromwell 03/11/05

On the steppes table:
Mariusz's Polish Armour v. Steve's Winter Russians in a Free for All.
Your reporter was busy elsewhere so details are sketchy, but I gather that the Poles made their traditional galant charge and swept all before them.

Marharajah 2005:
Jim's Carri v. Leigh's Russian Guards.
Free for All on the Lobositz table (plus some extra trees).
The Russian infantry, aa & a/t deployed to defend the objectives while the T34s rushed for the Ities left flank objective.
The Ities sent their M14s forward against the Russian left while the Semos, 90s & L6s covered the objectives.
While the T34s hestitated in the face of the 90s & Semos, the M14s just charged their objective (see pic). They lost 6 tanks, but kept passing morale & mowed down the Ivans on the objective to win 6:1.
The Sturmovics came only once - there were 3 of them, but 1 didn't find a target, 1 was shot down & the other only managed to bail 1M14.
The Regio Aero came 3 times, but was intercepted each time.

We need to fight Barrie v. Jim & Chris v. Peter ASAP.
If the Axis & Allies win one each the two winners will be clearly top of their side & will play off for the Trophy.
If it goes all Axis, or all Allies, it might require more play-offs.

Fort Floriet Tuesday 01/11/05

Jim's Russian front Fucilieri v. Nick's Russian Infantry in Hold the Line.

Round 1 - Ities defending:
The Ities started well with their attached Pak 40 ambush taking out Nick's SU155 & the Regio Aeronautica taking out 3 T34s. But there were still 7 T34s with riders left. The T34s rushed forward losing another to the Pak 40s before rushing over their covering hill & mowing them down. Then they lost one to the 105s and another to a flank shot from a 47. They then failed their morale test & it was effectively game over. But both sides were disapointed at such an early end & reversed the morale test so the T34s could assault the objective & we could have more fun. The T34s passed all subsequent morale tests & did reach the objective, but the L6s wiped out the Russian infantry and the HQ forcing Army Morale failure before they held it. The Italians could claim 2 wins for this one - one 6:1 & one 5:2.

Round 2 - Russians defending:
We changes sides of the table & did it again.
The Ities marched bravely forward, but a 10 T34 ambush is a fearsome thing on a table almost devoid of cover. It took out the Pak 40s and half the L6s, but the Ities smothered the Ivans in smoke and Avantied on. The Russian infantry & tanks were both driven back by their attack but the T34 counterattack retook the position with great slaughter. They soon finished off the Ities over the centeline to win. A 6:1 for the Soviets.

Russian tankovaya v Finnish panzer grenadiers

Fort Floriet 01/11/05

The soviet Tankovaya company consisting of 1st company of 9 t34s including the commander and the 2nd company consisting of 4 kv1es+2kv2 advanced on the finnish objectives. Russian air support was non existant ( too much vodka back at base), whilst the brave soviet air defence attempted to beat of those lend lease german fw 190s that kept on appearing. The Finnish command's stratagem was all wrong and this proved fatal as the t34s cut down the finnish infantry advance with their machine gun fire and the brave comrades who defended their tanks from the backs of the t34s. Order of Lenin awarded to them and no doubt they will be awarded Guard status soon by Stalin.

Russian conscripts 6 finns 1

Camp Cromwell Bulletin 27/10/05

Camp Cromwell Bulletin 27/10/05

Fort Floriet Tuesday

3000 pts FOW Bulge Scenario
Chris's DAK armour (his own coy + 1 foolishly lent by CC)
v.
Captain Ghandi's Indian Inf + Nick's Oz inf - lent by CC)

Chris concentrated his attack on the Oz flank and methodically started blasting a path up the table - see AIF pic.
The Indians made a brave counterattack - they did all the right things - charged over a hill into the flank of the Panzer platoon under cover of smoke (see Indian pic). But the supporting Crusaders missed every shot and the so-called fearless Indians failed tank terror. Next turn the Crusaders and the Indians were mown down by massed Panzers.
A second Indian platoon was caught in the open having failed to dig in and was masacred leaving the way open for the Panzers to cross into zone 2 just in time to avoid a defender's victory condition.
After that it was a matter of time.

3000 pts makes an awful lot of Panzers - which take an awful lot of stopping, especially under a unified command. K&C doesn't give the Commonwealth much choice in tanks pre Sherman - no 6pdr Crusaders. The 2 pdr Crusaders & Valentines were just outclassed, plus I really don't have enough a/t guns for 2 coys at once. We also should have taken Limited Air - it might have forced the panzers to spread out a bit.

On the Camp Cromwell Blog site Nick bemoans the Allied luck with the dice - with 2 pdrs you need a bit & we got none.
But I think the real reason we lost was the Takeaway Supply Mission Dice. It came up Pasta Resistance Italian.
You can imagine the 1942 Australian infantry's reaction..."Bloody wog tucker! How are we supposed to fight on that?"
And the Indians..."Goodness gracious me! What's this - no curry? We didn't fight the Indian Mutiny to get this crap!"
The Germans of course were accustomed to their ally's tucker..."Better than the muck that gets thru the blockade from Germany."

Camp Cromwell, Thursday

Double Free for All (2x1500 pts a side)

Maruisz's Polish Armour + Jim's Fucilieri
v.
Steve's White Russian armour + Mark II's Russian Inf

The ities dug in to defend the right of the Alllied position and provide fire support for the Polish attack on the left.
The Russians massed for a combined attack on their right with KVs & MGs defending the left.
The Honeys rolled over an infantry platoon and passed thru into the Russian rear. It was suicidal, but it gave the Shermans a chance to crush Steve's T34s while Mark's armour was busy with them.
The Shermans took out the a/tank guns then mixed it with the T34s with artillery support. The Itie 105s hit often but just could not throw firepower. The 25pdrs' firepower was never enough but they helped out with smoke. But the T34's refused to die, passing two platoon morale tests & when Mark's tanks joined in, the Poles just had too many enemies.
The Sturmovicks just kept on coming in 3's, but they only got one 90/53 in 3 attacks so weren't decisive.
It was the survival of Steve's T34's in the face of all the Poles could throw at them that hurt. In the end the Poles ran out of tanks & failed Coy Morale.

Mahrajah 2005

The year is flying by & we need to get on with the Maharajah & zero in on the critical matches.
While fighting all the rounds would be nice, the critical matches we must get done are:
Jim v. Leigh (set for next week)
Jim v. Barrie
Chris v. Peter
These 3 matches alone will certainly determine top Axis.
It is highly likely they will determine top Allied as well, but if not, they will determine which match(s) are needed to do so.

Next week

Sunday at Camp Cromwell: Afternoon battle - say 1.30?
Tuesday at Fort Floriet: Jim & Steve are going to be there.
Thursday at Camp Cromwell: Jim v. Leigh in Mahrajah + ?

Fort Floreat 25/10/05

Nick's Version


Wargames night again. More flames of war. Another bulge scenario. This time 3000 pts of Afrika Korps panzers vs 1500 pts of Australians and 1500 pts of Indian infantry. Chris (Panzers) attacking, Jim (Indians) and Nick (Australians) defending.

Chris cautiously and methodically crushed the allies. The allies did just about everything right, but they should have sacrificed a chicken to the dice gods, because the dice were consistently against them. Chris didn't make mistakes, and with poor dice for the allies and an army list that was already challenged taking on a pure armour force, Chris romped home with barely any casualties.


The revenge of the dice gods

Camp Cromwell Bulletin 20/10/05

Fort Floriet on Tuesday

Bulge Scenario in Tunisia:
Steve J's 1500 Motorised DAK + Chris's 1500 DAK Armour
v.
Jim's 1500 Indians + Nick's 1500 US Inf

You'd think that 4 experienced wargamers could get a one page scenario right. But they didn't - probably too much attention to Harri's Curry (what else could we have for the Indian's debut?) After turn 1 we realised that the Allies had way too much armour for the scenario so we exchanged Nick's Coy for one with more infantry.

The Alies deployed with 1 Coy up front & 1 in the rear. The Axis deployed their Coys side by side, Chris with most of the armour on their left. Chris broke through the Indian right and then destroyed the Allied counterattack, but Steve had made no impression on his flank, the Yanks were well entrenched on the rear objectives and reduced to 1 platoon, Chris failed his Coy Morale test. Steve's Coy wasn't going to win on it's own so it was game over & a win to the Cowboys & Indians.

The Allies were grateful that the Axis attack wasn't as rapid or as well coordinated as it might have been. The scenario is a good one for 4 players, and we think pretty well balanced provided the defenders don't have too much mobility - you need to come prepared with the right army for your role. The scenario says 4000 pts a side, but 3000 pts a side seems enough for a Mid War version.

Camp Cromwell on Thursday

Bulge Scenario in Tunisia:
Mariusz's 1500 Polish Armour + Peter's 1500 US Armour
attacking
Steve J's 1500 Motorised DAK + Jim's 1500 Fucilieri

The Axis deployed with Ities on the left and DAK on the right. They had no armour but lots of A/T & Artillery.

The Allies put the Poles v. DAK & the US v. Ities. The Ities front line put up a good delaying fight against the US despite their 90/53 ambush for just 1 Sherman. The 75 artillery ambush made up for it a bit by taking out the rest of the platoon in a turn (with the help of the 105s).
Meanwhile Marusz made steady progress on the other flank shamlessly exploiting the Fear Nought Rule to keep going in face of heavy casualties.
In the end the surviving Polish Shermans took a rear objective after a fiece fight with Steve's Grenadiers to clinch victory for the Allies.

The pic Bulge CC is about turn 2. The Axis are digging in their second line in the foreground. The US are softening up the Itie line in the far corner. Maruisz is fiddling the artillery template over Steve's 88s.

Fort Floriet 18/10/05

Chris's Basement

We tried the Bulge scenario. Chris and Steve each with 1500 pts of Afrika Korps, vs Jim with 1500 pts of Indians and Nick with 1500 pts of ???

The bulge scenario is an easy concept -- two armour forces attacking, having to get through two lines of defences. Nick started off with a 1500 point british armour force. After the first turn we realised that:

• the tanks could just move up, turning it into a 3000 point battle on one board, and
• the rules required INFANTRY companies to defend.

We didnt have enough British infantry, so Nick quickly changed to American infantry, and chose one of his old army lists at random.

The Indians defend

I wont go into details, but I will say all agreed that this was a great scenario. Jim and Nick especially liked it, most probably because they won. Highlights include:

• Two Stuart companies and a Valentine company surrounding and destroying a Panzer III company (pic Bulge ff) - then in turn being wiped out by Panzer IVs & IIs.
• Jim revealing an anti-tank gun ambush (after holding it back for over half the game waiting for the perfect target) only to have US airpower arrive and kill his target before he could shoot.
• Chris's lone Panzer II having gone through the Indian line wandering all over the table, surviving anti-tank fire, artillery, multiple shots by the bofors AA guns, and a tank destroyer ambush, before finally being killed by a GI assault.

Camp Cromwell Bulletin 13/10/05

2x1500pts Free for All on a 8x6 table.

Allies v. allies too ! Steve J was the impartial German umpire.
Mariusz's Poles + Mark W's DOGs v. Steve P's Russian Guards + Jim's Russian Inf

The Russians deployed side by side, the Brits & Poles mixed a bit. The DOG Grants moved left to assist the Shermans v. Jim's T34s & SUs. The Polish 17pdrs went right to face the KVIs & their Honeys joined up with the Crusaders & Valentines to go Guard hunting.

Mark attacked Steve on the Brit's right. Jim attacked Mariusz on the Russian right. The pic is about turn 2, Poles right foreground.

The DOGs found it heavy going against an aggressive Russian defense. Their armour was gradually worn down by artillery fire & infantry counterattacks, but their Coy morale was preserved by the odd Fear Naught Rule.

On the other flank the armour pretty well mutally destroyed each other. The last bailed Sherman going down to an attack by the MG platoon. The Russian infantry bravely advanced through a hail of mortar & artillery fire, and with the MGs giving covering fire the second wave took the objective. The brave charge of the Polish artillery HQ on the surviving 3 Russian infantry teams holding the objective failed giving the Russians victory.

Fort Floriet 11/10/05

Lobositz 1757 -- Nick's Austrians v. Jim's Prussians.

Nick deployed his whole army behind the river on his left. The scenario conditions should have mentioned that the Austrians had to protect their LOC behind Lobositz. If they had the Prussians could just march up the road and win given Nick's deployment. But it didn't, so the Prussians attacked the Austrians where they were.

The Austrian line formed a right angle behind the river. The Prussians launched a converging infantry attack on the angle after softening it up with their artillery and while most of their cavalry kept the Austrian left pinned in place. Once one of the Prussian attacks broke through the angle, the Austrian right disintegrated. The pic shows the Austrian line breaking.

We tried yet another scheme for using counters for orders instead of writing them. It seemed to work ok.

Camp Cromwell 05/10/05

Fort Floriet

Jim's LRDG & Sahariana made the trip to Launceston & fought half a dozen of the Raid/Recon/Rescue missions with Nick & Chris. These all tend to be short games, a bit of fun, but dominated by the chance factor of when & where the Random Reserves arrive. Also the combination of maximum armament with minimum protection makes tactics very basic - get in the first shot. Probably good scenarios to use after a few beers.


Camp Cromwell

Two 1500 pt Companies a side in a Hold the Line on a 8x6 table.
(The MCG is back to one big table. Telstra Dome is still 2 small tables).

Jim's Bersaliglieri + Steve's Grenadiers (attacking)
v.
Mark I's British Inf + Mark II's Death or Glory Boys (defending)

The Axis forces attacked on both flanks to draw the ambushes out then made a convergent attack on the centre objective and over-ran it. It was really game over on turn 4, but we kept on going for the fun of it. The mass of DOG armour looked scary when it showed up, but 2pdrs often bounce off even Itie armour & they were whitled away by a combination of Itie armour, German 88's & Grenadiers until they failed their Company Morale for a second & final game over.

The pic is in the Allied Turn 2. Axis on left side of table, Germans on Axis left, Ities on right.

Fort Floreat 05/10/05

We tried some of the smaller Flames of War scenarios -- raid, recon, escape, etc. Above is Rommel being mown down by some LRDG trucks. Pity we were playing a raid and not 'get the general'.

Area 52 02/10/05

6 players joined Area 52's first flames of war tournament. As it turned out, all of the players were from the camp cromwell crowd. But we did meet a guy in another group of FOW players. So maybe we can find some more blood. A quick summary of the games is below.

The Players

Nick -- US infantry -- 2 x inf, Stuarts, M10s, artillery, 57mm AT, recon, bazookas
Chris -- German infantry -- 2 x inf, Tiger, Elephant, captured KV1, air.
Jim -- Italian armoured -- Semoventes, M14/41s, Light Tanks, Lancias, Bersaglieri, AA
Steve -- German Infantry -- 2 x inf, 88s, art, inf guns, air.
Steve II -- Russian infantry -- 2 x inf, t-34s, AT
Mariusz -- Polish (British) armoured -- Shermans


A better writeup from Mark and the area 52 crowd exists here with pictures here

Round 1

Steve vs Nick -- Hold The Line.

Nick attacking. Steve had 88s in ambush. Nick attacked up one flank. The 88's revealed and massacred the Stuarts. Steve's air support came on and killed Nick's infantry. On turn 2 Steve's air support came on again, but it went to Nick, and the Steve lost his C in C. Nick killed one 88. Another 88 to go and Nick would win ... but he missed with 4 x M10s. Then Steve's reinforcements arrived and the game turned into a bloodly stalemate. In the end a draw (Steve would have won)

Chris vs Steve II -- Cauldron

Steve II had the perfect army to defeat Chris. It was even more perfect when his Sturmovik killed Chris's Tiger! But Steve got carried away and moved off the objective. Chris rushed in, and it was touch and go. In the end a draw.



Mariusz vs Jim -- Hold the Line

Mariusz's air attacked his own troops and killed his C in C. (What do you expect when you borrow your opponents planes). Jim killed all of Mariusz's weak troops and caused a company morale check - which he failed as he had no CinC. A win to Jim.


Round 2

Nick vs Jim -- Cauldron

Nick was defending. Jim's attack was masterfull, charging over a hill and into Nick's anti-tank guns, overrunning them for the loss of one tank. But then Nick's reinforcements arrived -- Stuarts and M10s. In short order Nick had killed two platoons of tanks, an AA platoon, and an infantry platoon for no loss. Time stopped play. A draw, but advantage to Nick.


Chris vs Mariusz-- Hold the Line
The shermans were no match for a Tiger and and Elephant. Chris's air took out the honeys. A win to Chris.


Steve vs Steve II -- Free for All
A win to Steve :)


Round 3

Nick vs Steve II -- Free for all

Nick had Steve in all sorts of trouble, with Steve's T-34s hiding from Nick's M10s, and one of Steves companies cut off from the rest of the army. But Nick couldn't complete the job in time. He tried a rushed assault, and lost -- a winning draw to Steve II.





Jim vs Chris -- Free for all

Jim couldnt do much about Chris's big cats. But Chris moved his tiger too far from an objective to avoid being shot by the Lancia 90mm guns, and that was the opening Jim needed. He rushed the objective and won.




Mariusz vs Steve -- Hold the Line
Steve won, even though he was attacking with infantry!

Camp Cromwell Bulletin 29/09/05

Tuesday at Steve II's

Jim's Fucilieri v. Steves' Russian Infantry.
The Ities defended in a Breakthrough.
The Itie army was an Avanti Savoia Russian Front mix - no 90's or 88's, no big Semos or M14's. They did have 2 Pak40's kindly attached from their allies to give them some punch. Both sides had air.

The pic is Turn 3. The Russians are coming from the far corner. The Itie armour reserve has come on in the two side corners. The Russian infantry left of centre is having a hard time it pushing thru the wood (held by Fucilieri). The Russian guns in the centre have been decimated. The T34s are bogged down, intimidated by the 75s & Pak 40s. But the other Russian infantry coy comes on next turn in the near corner and over-runs the objective on the near hill. The Itie counterattack is terrible and destroys them. For a while the Ities think they have won, but on checking the Breakthough Victory Conditions & re-counting the turns, it is noticed that the Ivans actually still held the objective at the start of their Turn 6, so they won even though their army was already mostly dead & the rest of it soon to be so ("from Turn 6"... means Turn 6 or later).

Thursday at Camp Cromwell

Marusz's Polish Armour v. Steve II's Russians.
Hold the line - Poles attacking.
Steve gave Marusz a fright when his infantry horde swamped a Honey platoon, but in the Main Event the 8 Shermans/Grants outslogged 8 T34's to gain the descisive advantage. A Polish win.

Steve's Grenadiers v. Mark I's US Mechanised Inf.
Hold the Line - US attacking.
It was heavy weather for the Yanks in the face of fiece resistance. The US Arrmour looked dangerous once the **'s had been knocked out, but the Luftwaffe fixed them in the end. A German win.

Also present: Jim, Mark II & Peter Williams.

Fort Floreat 27/09/05

Chris and Nick practiced for the tournament on Sunday. A 2-2 draw -- its hard to finish a game in 1.5 hours!!!.

Camp Cromwell Bulletin 22/09/05

A good turnout with Jim, Mark I, Mark II, Steve I, Steve II, Muriusz, Peter Williams & Anders Russell.

Muriusz's Poles (Brat Armour) v. Jim's Italians in a Cauldron.

On a fairly open desert table, Jim's Bersaglieri defended. The Bersaglieri were swamped by the Polish armour before the heavy cavalry could arrive.
That was over so fast we did it again. This time Jim took a Carri Coy and attacked.
Again it was all over in the first turn as the Lancier 90's & Semo 75s plus a rush of M14's took out most of the Polish armour on the first turn.
The cauldron scenario really is very difficult to defend against armour unless you have close terrain & lots of a/tank.

Anders' Fallschirmjager v. Steve's US Motorised in a Free for All

Steve's experience was too much for Anders. I'm sure the lack of paint on Ander's troops didn't help either.

another group of wargamers

Found another group of wargamers that play in Tasmania. Added a link to the Launceston Gaming Club in the links section.

Fort Floreat Report 21/09/05

Somewhere in the mideast ....

Tactica -- Seleucids (Chris) vs Pergamenes (Nick)

The Pergamenes had an army of elite cavalry and an average phalanx. The seleucids had an army of elephants, cataphracts, and every other toy you could think of.

The Pergamenes tried a single envelopment around the right flank. Unfortunately, the seleucids had elephants and cataphracts on that flank. The Pergamenes finally won on the right, but by the time they did the Pergamene center and left had evaporated.

A major win to Chris.

Camp Cromwell Bulletin 15/09/05

At Fort Floriet on Tuesday

Chris was away on an intelligence mission to New Zealand.

Jim's Fucilieri (Sicilian version) v. Nick's US infantry - 1500 pts Flames of War on a tournament sized table.

The dice decreed a Hold the Line. Nick chose to attack.

The Ities dug in infantry, 47mm guns, 100s, light AA & HQ, with Semo 90s in ambush, 2 inf, mgs, Semo 47s & mortars in reserve.

The US advanced their recon, 2 inf plats plus 57mm a/t, under a barrage of 2 105 batteries & a big mortar plat. Their armour was 5 M5 Stuarts & they had limited air support.

For the first few turns most of the luck was Italian. They won the artillery duel reducing both 105 batteries to 1 gun (1 battery v. 2, but it was dug in vets v. trained in the open). The USAF didn't show. The 47s & AA decimated the US a/t and stopped the infantry. The Stuarts got bogged down in the waddy.

On the other hand, the US did survive the Semo 90 ambush pretty well (1 Stuart only killed), they took out the 47mm guns, and their scouts made a secure foothold on the rocky hill just over the centreline.

Then things changed around for a while. The USAF came several turns in row causing significant damage & much disruption. The Stuarts finally got out of the wadi & wiped the Semo 90s. The 3rd Fucileri, sent to clean the recon off the hill, got pinned down by mortar fire & wouldn't unpin.
But the Italians were too far in front to lose, the Semo 47s finished off the Stuarts, the 100s knackered the US mortars and the 3rd Fucileri finally got going and cleared the hill to win the game (no US left over the centreline). A 4:3 win as the Ities lost their Semo 90s & 47/32 guns.

It was long battle (over 4 hours) with both sides having lots of artillery & tending to stand off and blast away. Nick was pleased to get some bad dice out of the way before the tournament. My new Sevo 90s look great, but they badly need target practice.

Nick's version is below



Camp Cromwell on Thursday

2 x 1500 pt Flames of War battles on the small tables. Jim, Muriusz & 2 Steves fighting, Mark MkII & Peter observing & umpiring.

Jim's Bersaliglieri v. Mariusz's BRAT Armour in a Hold the Line - Brits chose to attack.

The Ities drew first blood by blowing the Brat infantry away in it's trucks, but 7 Sherman III's, 1 Grant, 4 Honeys & 3 Bugs with air support were going to take some stopping, especially when no reserves showed up until turn 4.

The Honey attack on the front line infantry was stopped by the 47's but the Shermans ground down the supporting 100 hows & the Lancias before finishing off the defenders of the front objective.

The Semo 75's arrived in the nick of time to contest the objective, but could only manage bails before being wiped by the Shermans.

Meanwhile the Bugs had made a raid on the rear objective drawing off valuable reinforcements. But the destruction of the bugs put the Brits below half strength and they had to survive one company morale test before they won the game by holding the objective - Muriusz threw a 5 for his first win here.

Steve MkI's Grenadiers v. Steve MkII's Russian infantry in a Hold the Line - Russians chose to defend.

Your reporter was rather occupied elsewhere, but the general impression was that the Sturmoviks just kept on coming while the Luftwaffe just didn't. The Russians held the Germans off then counterattacked, eventually winning a long slog by driving off the only platoon over the centreline. Steve MkII's first win.

Fort Floreat 13/09/05

1500 pts US Infantry (Nick) vs Italian Fucilleri (Jim) somewhere in Sicily (part of Race for Messina)

Terrain was:

Scrub	Hill & wadi	Monastery
Hill	Plain	Mountain

We did a hold the line. The Italians chose that the defender would defend the mountain. The US chose to attack, as they had a lot of artillery (a bad decision).

The US started off bombarding the front line Italian infantry. They couldn't range in on the Italian artillery, as the artillery were concealed gone to ground veterans at long range. The recon and Stuarts raced foward to get over the 1/2 way mark, while the infantry sedately marched up.

The Italians immediately shot back with their artillery and ranged in on the US artillery. Over the course of the next few turns the veteran italian artillery demolished twice their number (and points) of US guns.

On one flank of the table a duel erupted between Semovente 90mm guns that came out of ambush and the Stuarts. The Stuarts eventually won, using a wadi to hide in until they got close, then springing out and destroying the Semo's. Some Semovente 47s came over and duelled with the Stuarts. it could have gone either way -- at one point 3 of the 4 Semo's were bailed out. But the Semo's eventually prevailed.

With no artillery and no tanks, the US infantry was not up to the task of taking on hordes of Italian infantry -- eventually the US recon were assaulted and destroyed, and the US broke off. But not before destroying the Italian Semovente 90mm and 47mm AT guns, and severely damaging the Italian mortars, artillery, and two infantry platoons.

A LONG fun game. Nick had terrible luck for the first few turns -- he could only roll 1's. But then he had a few turns where he could only roll 6's. So it evened out.

In the end Jim won because:

• The italians had a better list -- the US should have had Shermans.


• The US chose to attack, when they had a better defensive army.

Camp Cromwell Bulletin 08/09/05

Nick called in for a short while. Jim played v. Marusz & Barrie v. Steve.

Jim's Fucilieri v. Marusz's British (Free Polish) Armour in a Free for All

A 6x4 table with a fair bit of terrain.

The Brat Shermans advanced on their left. The Honeys on the right moved accross the rear to support the attack. 17pdrs defended the rhs objective, infantry defended the lhs one.

The Ities had enough Fucilieri to cover the whole front with mortars, artillery (75s + 105s) & AA (Lancias & 20mm portee) in support.

The Brats had sporadic air. It came 1st turn with 3 planes, but the AA drove them off.

The armour attack had the Ities very worried. It took out the 105s with the loss of 2 Shermans and then destroyed the infantry in front of the objective. This left just the command and the AA to deal with 6 Shermans.

The Itie response was to attack on the other flank. This caused the Honeys to be recalled. They stopped the attack, but it had acheived the required result in drawing the Honeys away from the decisive front.

The Lancias then proceeded to win the battle for Italy. 4 Shermans gained the objective only to be blown off it by the Lancias. The RAF came again (another 3) and were again driven off by AA. The last 2 Shermans took advantage of the fact that the AA couldn't fire next turn to make a rush at the Lancias. They got only one & the survivor blew them away - game over.

An exciting and close game. It was my first go with the 105s & Lancias. I love them already.

Barrie's Brat Motorised defending v. Steve's DAK in a Hold the Line

A 6x4 open desert table.

Despite the RAFs pathetic performance and some heavy early losses, Barrie managed to Hold the Line.

Kokoda

Great trip. Would someone please paint some Japs so I can drive them back onto the sea again.

Fort Floreat 31/08/05

Chris and Nick tonight -- Starn out sick, and no visits.

1500 pt Breakthrough of the small table -- DAK vs US Infantry.

Chris had a Tiger, and not much else.

At the end of 5 turns, Chris had a Tiger and nothing else.

The dice gods were not kind to Chris. His planes attacked his own troops. His tiger couldnt hit the side of a barn -- it managed to bail one Stuart in the whole game. His infantry rolled low in assaults. The US artillery ranged in every turn except one, even when they needed 6 to range in.

Fort Floreat 23/08/05

We tried out some new rules -- Kampfgruppe Commander. Very different from flames of war -- the turn is more of an interaction between sides. If the enemy moves in sight, you may roll to get opportunity fire. Each time you get opportunity fire, your chances of getting more opportunity fire decrease. In addition, units may move and fire multiple times if they have sufficient command points. We were reading the rules as we played -- I'm sure we got lots wrong, especially the morale. But we had fun with their intro scenario -- 12 x T 34, 2 x BA 64, 5 x inf vs 4 x Stug III, 2 x 222/1, 3 x inf. In the end the T34's triumphed, overwhelming the Stugs. Notable was the german armoured cars killing two t34s with side armour shots (before they were obliterated by the remaining t34s)

While the rules were fun they werent to my taste -- you had to use dice to mark unit status. I prefer to keep the table clean. Hopefully one day my terrain will be worthy of a clean table :)

Maharajah - Chris's DAK Pioneers vs Leigh's Russian Guards

Italian Besaglieri Supported by German AT Guns somewhere in Russia

A Free for all was diced for which Chris vetoed. But when re rolled a Free for all still came up. No tanks or artillery anywhere -- it was going to be a long slog. The DAK had priority air.

Leigh won the dice off for table edge choice and had 1st turn as the attacker. The DAK had the deployment advantage with 7 platoons to 6.

The Russians put 2 infantry units and 2 AT guns on their right, AA trucks and AA Bofors in the centre and 2 AT guns and a large infantry Company on their left.

Facing the Russian right the DAK had 1 Bersagliari unit (Fearless Veteran), 3 Pak 36’s 5cm AT guns, a small Kampfgruppe with 2 HMG’s + C in C. Nothing in the DAK centre, and facing the Russian left 1 Bersaglieri, 3 PJK 4.1 AT guns and a 2 pioneer platoons.

The Russians tried advancing on their left and flanking with their storm group on the right of the battlefield. The DAK were thinly stretched trying to hold on their right.

The DAK beat off the Russian left losing their Bersaglieri unit in the process. The Russian left retreated with 5 stands left out of 30 after a pounding from 3 DAK platoons and air strikes. The DAK air also took out the Russian AA trucks in the centre. The Russian right continued manoeuvring round a forest losing a couple of stands which strayed too close to the DAK AT guns.

With the Russian left exposed the DAK pioneers advanced towards the Russians left hand objective killing the remaining AT gun on the way. Meanwhile the Storm group set up on the Russian right ready to attack. The DAK air came on in force doing enough damage to force the storm group to retreat to the forest.

The Russians were forced to protect their left, so Leigh pulled his 3rd infantry unit back from the centre to cover the left. This allowed the other Italian unit to move to the Russians right objective, which was now poorly defended. The DAK pioneers reached the other objective, which was contested.

Italians grabbed the Russians right objective uncontested game over: 5 – 2 win to Chris’s DAK.

The Russians were unlucky almost killing a second platoon which managed to pass its morale, this would have changed the result to a 4-3 win to the DAK.

Post mortem

The DAK air came often and in numbers 12 out of 17 turns. The Russians got possession of them twice. Which still gave the DAK 10 turns of air attacks with Henschels. Chris’s dice were hot! Must be the Italian dice gods?

Leigh admitted the Russians made several mistakes.
1) The flanking move with the storm group, which only killed 2 stands in the whole game, left one of his best units out of the action.
2) Not supporting the attack on the Russian left with the second platoon.
3) Moving the AT guns from the right allowing the Italians to seize the right objective unopposed.
4) A long game always favoured the Germans with priority air.

The extra elements for manoeuvre gave the DAK a big advantage once the Russian left had been defeated.

german grenadiers v US mechanized 3000pts

Today the battle worn elements of the 221st grenadier battalion withheld an attack by superior US mechanised infantry. It was reported that Wild Bill Kelso, a rouge pilot rather bombed his own troops, than face the famous german 88s. That was the last ever seen of the US air force (most likely he was arrested or shot by his own troops)

The big push mission was elected, germans defending. The terrain bennefited the defender and with a defence of 2 rows of wire and then a mine field it would take some good dice and alot of praying for the americans to get through. German artillery became devestating if caught in the open. The luftwaffe ruled the sky, but had limited success againstany real targets due to AA fire.

The whole US attack began to falter after reaching the third defensive line, which gave the germans time to bring in most of their reinforcments. By this time the only thing the 2 tigers had killed was an american bulldozer. Game over. No US player wanted to tempt the 88s with any juicy targets so they could spot them for their artillery and rerole their misses.

Rumour has it that it was Oakies bad dice

Camp Cromwell Bulletin 11/08/05

Steve J's Grenadiers attacked Mark II's Australians in a Big Push

Steve's infantry attacked under cover of 88's, mgs & bulk smoke.
He lost lost 1 platoon, but the other made it through and took the objective.
The Oz Armour arrived too late to stop them.


Jim's Saharana v. Barrie's DRATs

My LRDG are still at undercoat stage (but looking good already). So we used the Saharana for some raiding.
The Itie 700 pt raiding force was 8 Saharana & 4 AB41.
The Brits had 1500 pts: hq, 2x lorried inf, mgs, 2pdr portees, 2x bugs, 2x Crusader IIs & 25pdrs.
The raiding missions often don't last long so we got through 3 of them.

1. The raid

The Sahararana shot up 4 objectives then ran for home.
Barrie threw lousy reinforcement dice. His 25 pdrs turned up in the right place in front of the Itie's escape route but the rest were either in the wrong place ot not at all.
The Ities charged the unsupported guns & mowed them down (the 8 trucks tote 16 mgs, 2 20mm AA, & 2 47s between them, and then there were 4 AB41s as well).
A Brat inf platoon arrived in the right place at the last moment, but it was too little too late & the Ities blasted a gap & escaped through it.

2. Get the general

The Ities shot the General in the first turn. Too easy.

3. Convoy

The Ities shot up the convoy & their supporting portees in 2 turns.
Barrie failed to get any reserves before they made their escape.

The Random Reserve rules makes these Raid scenarios very luck dependant. Barrie's lousy luck made all the games tonight easy wins for the Ities and not as exciting as they should be.

Fort Floreat 10/08/05

Starn was busy, Chris was marking, no visits from down South, so I decided to paint instead.

To go with my British 'Red Devils' I managed to paint:

3 x Sherman Firefly
3 x Churchill
3 x Cromwell

And for my Russians:

6 x T26
3 x SU76

Camp Cromwell Bulletin 04/08/05

At Fort Floreat on Tuesday

Jim’s Bersaliglieri v. Nick’s US Armour
1500 pts Cauldron scenario. Ities chose to defend.

Nick got a good deployment – all in one corner except his Shermans which were in reserve, but they came on immediately anyway.

The US advanced cautiously with 90/53 paranoia very evident, but the Honeys mowed down the crew of the 90/53 deployed facing the US advance for the loss of just one.
With one 88 gone & the other on the wrong end of the ridge, the Shermans came out to play.

They were slowly and systematically blasting the defenceless Itie infantry on the exposed hillside, when Musollini’s minion pointed out that the closest Sherman was 405mm away from the nearest objective and that this constituted an Itie victory under the Cauldron rules. Was that Cheesey or what?


Jim’s Bersaliglieri v. Chris’ Russians

1500 pts Hold the Line scenario. Ities chose to defend. Infantry & a/t guns deployed around the objective. Light guns & 90.53s in ambush.

The Russians advanced two hordes of infantry directly at the closest objective. Their SUs & Matildas skulked in the rear with 90/53 paranoia.

The Sturmovics came 1st turn, but there was slim pickings with so few Ities actually on the table.

The light guns ambushed one of the hordes and decimated it. The SUs came out to try and counter them, but the 90/53s zapped the SUs.

M14s attacked the infantry but were beaten off with heavy losses, but the survivors rallied and destroyed the Russian command.

The Sturmovics finally returned with a bang and wiped out the Itie Recon plus a heap of Itie infantry (missing all their own near the template).

Despite enormous losses both Russian infantry hordes had just kept passing morale and grinding their way forward onto the objective.

The Russians had just 3 teams left in their inf platoon on the objective. The other platoon had 2 teams left. The Matildas were intact but still too far away. (The SUs & command had been exterminated).

The best Itie infantry was still too far away (curse of the big table & lousy reinforcement dice), but the remnants at the front had little opposition and made one last counterattack to save the battle. But they just could not buy a kill & were beaten off leaving the Russians on the objective.

Camp Cromwell on Thursday

Steve MkII's Russians v. Jim's Bersaligieri

1500 pts Envelopment Mission, Russians defending as Inf v. Motorised. Steve MkI provided advice to MkII.

The Envelopment Mission is on the website this week - similar to a Hold the Line with some defences, but the attackers get flank manouvres.

The Ities advanced cautiously wary of the priority Sturmoviks. The Ities were kept well spread out & did a lot of skulking behind woods as well as having the 90s deployed as AA. The Sturmoviks came often as priority should, but mostly weren't that effective. They attacked their own side twice, but without effect.

The Ities got a big boost when a Bersaligeri Platoon charged an infantry horde in a wood and destroyed it losing only 3 teams.

Then the Recon came in on the flank and with help from the infantry destroyed the SU76s before the KVs got them.

The Russians struck back destroying the other Bersaligieri and the light guns on the other flank with an SMG attack + Sturmovics.

The Russians were reduced to a few smg inf, their artillery, & their KVs, but their minefields restricted the Itie lines of attack & the KVs were invincible (90s too far away).

Dodging the KVs, the M14s forced the artillery to redeploy and a combination of tank fire & artillery destroyed them.

The artillery then smoke screened the KVs so the M14s could take an objective unopposed after finishing off the smgs..

Fort Floreat 02/08/05

Disaster in Sicily

I'm sure Jim will post his news soon, but tonight was a monumental disaster for the US in Sicily.

Cauldron, 1500 pts, Nick's US Armour vs Jim's Italian Bersaligeri

The Italians were defending a hill, with a 90mm AA gun at each end of the hill . The US deployment started badly, with their Shermans starting off the table. In retrospect, this was what won Jim the game -- as if the Shermans had been deployed on table the US would have done a rush of the 90mm AA guns as their initial move.

Anyway, with only honeys, halftracks, and artillery, the US forces opted to hide behind terrain and wait till the artillery ranged in on the 90mm guns.

The Shermans arrived first turn, but rather than try to rush the guns using their stabilizers, they too hid behind terrain.

On turn 2, the artillery got the range of the AA gun.

On turn 3, the tanks moved up to deal with the AA gun. They missed, so the artillery dropped smoke. Unfortunately, the smoke lifted, and one honey was destroyed.

On turn 4, a gun line of 7 shermans and 4 honeys tanks took out the AA gun.

On turn 5, the shermans moved to take out an AA platoon -- doing significant damage, but not breaking them.

Jim then pointed out that I was over 40cm from the objective, and hence lost under the cauldron rules. :(

If we had continued the Italian army would have been destroyed -- they had nothing left that could take on the Shermans. The US would have slowly pounded the Italians to dust. Oh well -- good to be reminded of such things in friendlies :)


See This!!!!

http://fow.flamesofwar.com/viewtopic.php?t=21934

I'm going to finish basing my US infantry ready for this!!!!!

And I better get my Sicily terrain built!!!!!

Camp Cromwell Bulletin 28/07/05

Present: Jim, Mark I, Steve I, Barrie, Leigh, Peter, Marusz (workmate of Steve's)

El regima continued

On the German left, Steve's Panzers slowly destroyed the Oz a/tank guns then resumed their advance. The Oz infantry took out the armoured cars but 3 MkIIIs made it up the scarp and backed up by 2 infantry platoons destroyed the Bugs and had an open road to the Oz rear.

On the other flank, Barrie had given up in the centre and redirected his attack up the scarp on his far right. His MkIIIs & IIS had some losses, but made it up the scarp. With mortar support they picked off the artillery leaving the infantry pretty well defensless against the armour.

The Oz command conceded.

Next week:

I'll be at Fort Floriet on Tuesday.
Thursday as usual at Camp Cromwell. I'm going to break the big table up so we'll have 4 6x4 tables for pre-tournament practice.

Camp Cromwell Bulletin 21/07/05

Friday: Juniors night:

James' German Grenadiers (with 2 Tigers & limited air)
v.
Dillon's US Armoured Infantry (with 4 Shermans & 4 Honeys)
in a 1500pts FFA.

Supported by infantry James' Tigers inexoribly advanced on an objective mowing down all in their path (including the Shermans). Trouble was that the %$#@&*^ Honeys overan the other objective first (again). Dillan has his Dad's luck. The Luftwaffe only came once & then only managed 2 bails on the Honeys (which promptly unbailed) and the Pak 38 that didn't get 105'd missed completely in defensive fire when assaulted by the Honeys.

While that was going on with Jim & Glen supervising, Peter & Mark set up an historical scenario for next Thursday.

Fort Floriet on Tuesday:

Jim’s US Armoured Inf (Nick’s troops on loan)
v.
Chris’s DAK Pioneers (mitt Tiger & Henschels)
Breakthrough scenario on 6x4 table with lots of terrain. The Yanks chose to defend.

The Yanks deployed a cordon of Bazooka & mg toting GI’s across the table with Shermans & recon in reserve (immediately moving to cover the objectives). The Honeys had to be off table at the start.

The Germans attacked on their right with the Tiger supported by infantry, Pak38s & 88s - see pic. Two Pioneer plats were deployed to make a flank attack, but their attack was uncoordinated and was promptly destroyed by the Shermans. The Tiger disposed of the US front line defence then camped behind a wood just within 40cm of an objective while the Germans waited for the Heinies to do their stuff. This they did – wiping out the Shermans before they could organise an attack on the Tiger. The US responded in the usual fashion – a Honey attack. The Honeys dashed past the Tiger and ran amok in the German rear while the Tiger resumed it’s advance on the objectives, now defended only by GIs with a few Bazookas (the right flank inf platoon had been pulled back to defend them). The Tiger got on the objective, but the GIs held on around it until the Honeys did their stuff, finishing off the HQ, Pak38 & 88 platoons to cause German army morale failure before the Tiger could win the game.

It was a hard fought & bloody affair - at the end the Germans had just 1 infantry team and the Tiger left, while the US had lost 3 platoons of 6. The artillery v. air contrast was interesting. The 105's spend a lot of time failing to range in & didn't hit much, but their pinning of the Tiger's infantry support & picking off a Pak38 & an 88 were important contributions in the end. The Henies came often, usually doing little, but the odd attack was devastating (like destroying 3 Shermans in a turn). They attacked their own side once, but were waved off.

Camp Cromwell on Thursday:

Er Regima: An early desert war battle where Australians newly arrived in the desert are holding a ridge against a DAK attack.

Australians: Peter & Jim
DAK: Steve MkI & Barrie
The DAK have made some progress but the OZ line is still holding.
Battle adjourned to be continued next week.

FFA on small table:

Mark MkII's Australians
v.
Steve MkII's Russians

Steve attacked on his left with T34s & inf. The Oz inf and 6pdrs stopped the T34s then cleaned up the infantry. Mark attacked with Valentines & Crusaders on his left. They were stopped by SU76s and infantry. Now the two defensive flanks went over to the attack. The Russian SMG platoon died before they got to their objective. A below half strength Oz inf plat got to their objective and then survived two air attacks & an artillery bombardment to hold it, though the Russians failed army morale anyway.

Camp Cromwell Bulletin 14/07/05

Present: Jim, 2 Marks, Peter, Glen, Leigh, Steve J.

1500 pts FFA on small table

New Mark's Death or Glory Boys
v.
Old Steve's DAK

Mark attacked like a beginner, got his tanks picked off by the experienced DAK & failed morale.

Mahrajah on small table

Old Mark's Fucilieri
v.
Peter's US Infantry

Hold the line - Ities defending.

Mark had one of his make-up-for-his-usual-hot-dice nights.

The USAF came all the time. The Regio Aeronautica seldom came & when it did it was shooed off.

His reinforcements mostly didn't show up & the Honeys overan the objective.

A big win puts Peter on top of the Allied table with 2 wins.

Fort Floreat 12/07/05

Nick and Chris. Starn was working, so no Starn and Coreena.

Another Flames of War -- I need to get my Arabs painted so we can do some ancients :)

1500 pts Free for All on the small table.

Chris had a pioneer platoon, vs US infantry platoon. Chris chose the heavily wooded side of the table to defend. Chris had 88s, a tiger, and priority air support -- a hard nut to crack! The US had mass artillery and mass shermans. The Germans were poorly deployed, but won anyway, as the air support destroyed a sherman platoon, and the tiger went beserk on the other flank, killing an infantry platoon and an artillery battery. The US tried to rush the objective, but with 1/2 their shermans up in smoke from air support, and attempting to assault pioneers, they never really had a chance.

I hate aircaft :)

Camp Cromwell Bulletin 08/07/05

FOW - big free for all:
2 x 1500pt Australians (Jim, Mark from Area 52, Leigh)
v.
1500pt DAK & 1500pt Bersaliglieri (Steve J, Barrie, Peter)
Steve P also present.

The centre was a no mans land dominated by 88's and 6pdrs.

The Australians attacked on both flanks.

On their right, Mark & Jim quickly ran out of steam against Barrie's Ities & went on the defensive as Barrie counterattacked.

On the left, Leigh's attack over a big flat topped plateau did well for a while but eventually petered out as the steep escarpments and the DAK whittled his armour away and the Grenadiers mgs did likewise to the PBI.

The Luftwaffe & the RAF both came often, but both achieved little.

The Ities were running out of Semoventes & their M14's were impotent against the Valentines which in turn weren't game to go near the Pak 40s on the objective. On the other flank both sides had destroyed each other's attack capability.

Around midnight a draw was agreed to.

Fort Floreat 06/07/05

A quiet night -- only Chris and Nick. (Starn was out sick). We wanted a quick fun game, so back to Flames of War. Chris rolled up some terrain, using a system he just invented (he has a new terrain system each 1/2 hour). But we didnt want to move terrain, so we superimposed the terrain on the geography of the Rivoli battle from last week. I.e., we moved some hills and villages, and added a lot of woods!

Chris wanted to use his new Russians, all based in winter white. I didnt have much other than German armour to oppose them. So instead we got out my Yanks and did a match up (I was imagining it was Patton gone hog wild into the Russians ....)

The first thing I noticed was that the way to stop Russians is with Artillery. And the best artillery in the game is American, with all their special rules. The Russians were melting away like snow in August -- all those American 'time on target' artillery barrages were devestating.

The other thing I noticed was how usefull recon platoons can be. I advanced a small recon platoon after the setup, and as my first move doubled it into a woods on the other side of the table. It spent the whole game sitting in the wood, but threatening to take an objective. Chris either had to move something back to deal with it, or leave troops behind to contest the objective and march on. Eventually he left a matilda (lend leased to the Ruskies) to guard the objective -- but I was able to move to threaten the other objective, so he had to use his AA to protect that one ..... In the mean time the rest of my army concentrated on destroying his army, which they did very effectivly! Stuarts rock!!!!

End result -- a 5-2 to Nick (the stuarts got too close to some SU122's and paid the price...)

Camp Cromwell Bulletin 01/07/05

A good turnout for a Friday night special: Nick & Alex, Steve, Peter, Leigh, Jim, Mark & Dillon.



Oakford v. Oakford

Junior's US Infantry (with lots of armour) v. Senior's Panzers in a 1500 pts FFA on a small table.
For a while Old Oakie looked good against his 12 YO. He drew the Shermans off to his right flank while the MkIIIs & IVs cleaned up the Honeys and rushed the other objective. There was a furious battle for that objective that drew in all the armour from the other flank & it changed hands several times as Oakfords Senior & Junior traded 6's. But on the other flank Dillon's GIs attacked the Grenadiers in the wood, got lucky, and took the other objective.



Mahrajah

Steve's Grenadiers v. Nick's GIs in a FFA.

Both sides seemed to comprise an enormous number of small platoons, especially Nick's - deployment took longer than a big order at da Angelos on Friday evening. This was followed by both sides sitting back and sniping at each other with artillery & airpower - not very exciting for the spectators/umpires. Nick livened things up with his sneaky use of the Tank Destroyer Ambush Rule - dropping them down and double moving onto an uncovered objective. Fortunately for Steve, the Luftwaffe turned up next turn and blew them back off it before they won the game (by holding an objective unopposed at start of own turn). Steve finally made an advance on his right, but when an unfortunate run of bad saves destroyed his Engineers & decimated a Grenadier plat he went back on the defensive. Nick started a counterattack, but when the Hun artillery took out his SP AA and thus his mobile firepower, his attack too petered out. With midnight approaching they agreed to a draw and a rematch.