Thursday, April 21, 2005

Camp Cromwell Bulletin 21/04/05

Saturday night at Camp Cromwell

The expected intra-state match didn't eventuate so we had a practice match.

Jim's DAK v. Peter's US Infantry with Leigh umpiring & providing allied support.

1500 pts Hold the line - DAK defending.

The terrain was more crowded tham usual with a willow choked river meandering across it & lots of woods, hills & ploughed fields.

The US used cover of woods and river line to get their Pioneers close to an objective in a village without taking any fire and stormed it. The MkIIIs had to counterattack the Pioneers in the village or the game was lost anyway. Against the odds they drove the Pioneers back out. But another infantry platoon supported by the remains of the Honeys counter-counter attacked and wiped the Panzers. The Germans couldn't get anyone near the objective next turn and the US won.

Tuesday at Fort Floriet

Game 1: Jim's BRAT armour v. Chris' DAK inf

Chris had converted a Board game Scenario to FOW. It turned out to be rather unbalanced. The BRAT armour avoid most of the DAK & walked over the rest.

This meant that Chris could execute the Takeaway Supply Mission while Nick & Jim set up the next battle.

Game 2: Jim's Italian Armour v. Nick's Russian Armour

Jim used his Maharajah army to attack Russian HQ (1T34) + 2 huge coys of T34s + Sturmovics in a Hold the Line.

The 90's encouraged the Russians to hold back intitially, counting on a counterattack. The second tank coy arrived on turn 2, but this was balanced by the failure of the Sturmovics to arrive until turn 4.

The Ities stormed the closest objective with a mess of tanks counting on the theory that the Russian counterattack couldn't kill 14 tanks in one turn. This theory was assured when the Sturmovics, turning up for the first time, attacked their comrades. (Pic shows the situation before we found the Sturmovics were going elsewhere). A quick decisive victory for Italia (6/1), though if it wasn't for the Victory Condition they woudl ahve been slaughtered in the next turn or two. This left time for game 3.



Game 3: Jim's BRAT motorised attacking Chris' DAK Pioneers in a Breakthrough scenario.



The start is shown in pic. The Panzers are out of sight on the left. Note the packed Brit column - not much subtlety there. The Brats got an early advantage when the Honeys overran the German rocket launchers which had been deployed without support.


This changed back when a horde of Hun halftracks left their infantry on an objective and ran amock. They took out 2 a/tank platoons and an infantry platoon while the Brit armour was distracted by the Panzers (2MkIV* & 2 MkIIIJ). The Tank v. Tank battle was a desperate affair at close quarters marked by lousy shooting on both sides. The Brits were greatly helped by the Luftwaffe who took out a MkIV and in the end got the 4 Panzers for the loss of just 1 of their 9 tanks (6 Crusaders & 3 Honeys). In the end game, the $^*# halftracks raced off to take on the RHA (hoping to thus force a Coy morale test), hotly pursued by Honeys, while the Crusaders attacked a Pioneer Plat on an objective. The Crusaders succeeded and thus the Brits won a 4/3 victory.

Thursday at Camp Cromwell

Peter didn't show up for the scheduled Mahrajah so Glen's Panzer Grenadiers fought Jim's US Inf in a Hold the Line, Glen defending.

The Yanks advanced cautiously - very mindful of the 88 ambush happy to pass the time in an artillery duel which wiped out the German artillery. The 88s were eventually tempted to reveal themselves and immediately wiped out the Honeys in one turn. The US artillery tried to take out the 88's, but couldn't quite nail them. But the Germans knew it was only a matter of time and withdrew them out of sight. The Shermans then came out to play supporting an infantry rush on the objective. The 88s redployed but were taken out by the artillery before they could nail the Shermans. The 5 Shermans dealt with the 3 MkIIIs and that was Game Over.

Next Week:

Anzac Day: Afternoon game starting at say 2, hopefully Glen v. Peter Maharajah (as well as Collingwood v. Essendon).

A good opportunity for the can't-make-it-on-Thurday people.

Thursday: As usual.
Friday: Juniors night.

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