Thursday, June 09, 2005

Camp Cromwell Bulletin 09/06/05

Correction: The German High Command has pointed out an error in the last Bulletin:

pushkin = a russian revolutionary
pupchen = a 8.8cm rocket propelled antitank projectile fired by a 3 man team.


Friday: Juniors Night

A better turn-up than Thursday - quite a crowd of mentors - Peter, Chris, Mark & Jim.

I'm not sure which aspect of wargaming Peter is imparting to young minds in the pic.


Dillon's US Armoured Inf
v.
James' HFB Armoured Inf


1500 pts HTL on a 6x4' table.

James chose to attack on a tricky table - the problem with a small (supposedly FOW standard) table is there isn't anywhere else to go if there's a problem.

Dillon's 4 Sherman Ambush popped a MkIV, then finished off the other two when they failed to reply effectively.

Without any serious armour and all the US reserves arriving early, the German cause looked lost already.

James soldiered on, but the 105s whitled his army away and he had nothing that could stop the Shermans and Honeys.

In retrospect, it looked an uphill battle for the Germans from the start. 3MkIV*s @480 pts just don't seem a good enough buy compared with 4 Shermans @460 pts. Next time I think there might be some Pussy involved.



Explanation of Peter’s behaviour is simple. He was explaining to the boys how all 4 of Dylan’s Shermans could fire everything they had, including the top machine guns at that poor German grenadier in the picture…and miss! I’m not sure, but I think that 21 dice were involved! (Not that Dylan hasn’t proved more than capable at matching his father’s own dice throwing techniques on other occasions).

It was Peter’s description of how the particular blade of grass that the German was hiding behind was shaking so much that it should have been a “gimmie” in locating the said German that brought on the smiles. That and the comment about brown corduroy trousers…


Tuesday at Fort Floriet

#1: FOW 1500 pts Breakthrough

Jim’s US (actually Nick’s troops on lend lease)
attacking v.
Chris’ DAK Pioneers

The US sent their Sherman’s on a flanking mission while the rest of their army kept the Huns busy. The Shermans would have had no trouble taking the weakly held objective near their come-on point, but unfortunately by turn 7 after 15 dice with no 5+, they hadn’t arrived so the Germans won because there were no enemy within 40cm of either objective after Turn 6. Great plan, but it had one fatal flaw.



#2: FOW 1500 pts Breakthrough

Jim’s US (actually Nick’s troops on lend lease)
attacking v.
Starn’s Russian Infantry

No leaving the Shermans off the table this time. They were popped down where they could zap the Matildas straight up. From then on was matter of weathering the all too frequently recurring Sturmoviks until turn 6 - the US artillery died under a hail of rockets, but the rest of the army generally managed to see them off with their AA.


#3: FOW microarmour scenario from a boardgame

Chris’s Germans
v.
Correen’s Russians

On the small table, Correen put up a good fight, but the scenario designer managed to win in the end. Your report can't provide any more detail - the little bugger were too small for him to be able to see what was going on.




Thursday at Camp Cromwell


FOW in yet another 1500pts Breakthrough.

Jim & Steve P DRATs
v.
Steve J & Peter's DAK


The Germans made a blue in deployment by putting their Panzers (3MkIII & 2 MkII) too far forward. They were immediately rushed by 6 Crusader IIs & 3 Honeys supported by 2 6pdrs hurling 6's. The Panzers were dead in 2 turns at the cost of a Crusader & the Germans conceded. Fastest FOW yet. We filled in the evening setting up the Napoleonic table.


Next week:


Saturday afternoon at Camp Cromwell: Napoleonic - to check out revised rules. Bagration's flank at Austerlitz in 15mm.

Tuesday at Fort Floriet: Jim's Compagia Carri v. Starn's Russians in FFA.

Thursday at Camp Cromwell: As usual.

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