Friday, January 04, 2008

New years Day at 88 Hillcrest


Nick's new wargames room is now in action. It comprises a double garage space & has 3 6x4 tables which can be deployed as 1, 2 or 3 tables. On New Years day he got in some practice for his forthcoming Maharajah Preliminary Final. Jim & SteveJ commanded the Italians in two Encounter battles against his US Armour on am 8x6 table set up as a rough copy of the table at Camp Cromwell.

Game 1: The Ities deployed Infantry on both objectives with 88s & 75s in support. The Honey swarm (17 of them) charged the RH objective behind the vinyards. The Fucilieri beat them off on turn 2, but the USAF had kept the 88s quiet & the artillery didn't do much in support. Next turn the Fucilieri was destroyed when the Honeys renewed the assault leaving them unopposed on the objective. With no Itie reserves arriving to contest, it was all over.

Game 2: This time the Ities deployed 105's, 75's, Pak38's & 88's with no infantry. The US attacked the LH objective rather than take on the Paks in the vineyards. Their advance was slowed a bit by the terrain on that side of the table and this time it was the Luftwaffe that showed up rather than the USAF. The 88's blew away most of a Honey platoon & another was slowed down by terrain, bogs & the 105's. But the 1st platoon with the HQ attached charged home on the objective, destroyed the 75's guarding it and took it. Once again the USAF failed to take out the 88's & the Honeys on the objective evaporated under a hail of fire from the 88's & 105's. The US had now lost all their Honeys while the Itie anti-tank & artillery was still intact and their reserves were pouring onto the field. It was clearly only a matter of time before either some Fucilieri walked across the table onto an objective or the Itie artillery caused Coy morale failure (the US HQ had been destroyed on the objective).

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