Maharajah 2010 1st Qualifier

Jim's British Guard Infantry (HH)
v.
Joe's Falschirjager (FE)
in
2000 pts Hold The Line, Germans attacking.

Barrie, Byron & Steve umpiring.

The Germans had 2 FJs platoons, 2/Light 75's, 2/HMGs, 3/37mm AAHT, 4/150mm Art, 2 King Tigers & Limited HS 129B.

The Brits has 3 Rifle plats, 3/bugs, 2 Tank platoons (each 3 Shermans +1 FF), 4/Sextons & 4/5.5" Art.

The Germans advanced their main force on their right with their smaller FJ + 75's on the left & big guns in rear (pic 1).

The Brits put their 5.5" in rear, Rifles on the forward objective on their left and another Rifles + a Tank Platoon in ambush.

The HS made their presence felt early by keeping the 5.5"s pinned down and useless.   The Brits counterattacked early by putting their Sherman ambush down on their right and counterattacking the German left.  The destroyed the FJ's then headed to the rear to distract the 150's from the main front.

The KT's attacked the hill with the AA, HMGs & FJ in support.  The Brit reserves came slowly, but they got some Shermans up to help only to have 2 zapped by HS's & another by a KT while the other bugged off.  But the Rifles gave ground slowly & the ambush platoon was put down in close support. 

On the other flank, the Shermans emasculated the 150's with semi indirect fire, then headed back towards the objective  to take out the HMG platoon from the rear. Pic 4).

These sucesses were countered by the HS's taking out half the 5'5" & 2 more Shermans (Pic 4).

But it was on the objective hill that the battle was decided.  The rest of the Brit reserves showed up eventually & just in time to take over as the 2 front line Rifles were finally destroyed.  The KT's sat on the objective sniping while the 2 remaining 5.5" consistently failed re-rolls and the FJs & HTs lurked behind them.  The bugs rushed up to dispute the objective & the Sextons took on the HT's.  The KT's failed to bully the bugs (Pic 3) & when the bugs took the FJ's below half strength, the British Fabian strategy finally came to fruition.  The FV FJ's  failed morale to be the 4th lost platoon of 7 & this forced an Army Morale Test.  This they also failed giving the Brits victory in a long hard fought & thoroughly enjoyable battle.

Launceston Wargames Club 20/08/10

Jim's Panzers (FE) v. Nick's US Armour (Italy Vets)
1750 pts Cauldron, Germans defending.
The two armies were very similar:
HQ Stugs, 5 Stugs, 5 MkIV, Falshirmjager (9rmg + PF), 4/150's.
HQ Shermans, 5 Shermans, 5 Sherman 76 (including a hero), Rifles, 3 Priests.

Pic 1 is after US turn 1. The Sherman 76's in the wood are sniping at the FJ's. Everyone else is waiting for reinforcements. The Priests deploy behind the woods on the left (their observer is the Sherman in the foreground). The GIs move up through the wood and open fire to soften up the FJ. The Germans deploy their 150's behind the Sugs and their MkIVs come on near the observer Sherman.

This provokes an attack by the US left & centre. The Stugs are destoyed and the Shermans & GIs destroy the FJ's. But the MkIV's rush over to counterattack and with help from the 150's the Shermans are also destroyed. The MkIV's then take on the GI's. With both sides verging on army mrale failure it all came down to the below half strength morale test after the combat. Both passed, but that left the GIs on an objective & game over.

This was a great little game - going right down to a single dice roll at the end.

There were 2 other FOW games going on at the same time as well as several unhistorical games. Pic 4 is their special desert table.

Camp Cromwell 17/08/10

Jim & Rich's Cossacks
v.
Joe & Steve's FJ's

LW 2000 pts Encounter

The Germans a grab bag of 10 platoons including FV infantry dripping with Panzerfausts & HMGs, Pak 40's, 105's,  Luftwwffe 88's & Jagpanthers.

The Russians had mounted & dismounted Cossacks, T34's, JS2's Scouts & Kats.

There was a bit of pussyfooting around while both sides waited for their reserves.  The focus of the battle soon turned to the German right when the mounted Cossacks arrived there and immediately charged down the left flank beind a ridge to attack the objective.  The Germans were lucky to stop the charge with hot shooting from the few troops able to fire, but they did & the attack petered out.

The Russian armour and the German Paks all came on the far flank.  The Russians didn't fancy the open ground on the the German left ringed by Paks & 88's so they moved the T34's right across the table to the far flank & the IS2's to the centre. 

Eventually the Russians were ready and the T34s attacked over the bodies of the cossacks.  At the same time a small German infantry platoon was advancing on the German's RH objective cuasing the Russians to divert the reamisn of th cossacks plus the command group over to help the Kats defend it.

There was a desperate fight for the German right flank.  The T34's drove the infantry back but the JP, artillery, 88's & PF's whitled them down & they failed morale.  The Russians were verging on collapse - they had to risk a command re-roll to keep the cossacks (now dismounted on the RH objective) in the battle.  They passed it and avoided defeat.  Next turn the cossacks & last Kat took out the threat to the objective, the JS's & infantry finished off another platoon on the German right and now it was the Germans facing an army morale test - which they failed to lose a close, hard fought action.

Pics all taken from behind the Russian right.

Strategikon Ancients - Rome v. Pyrrhus

Jim's Romans v. Peter of Epirus

The Romans (left/front of pics) deployed 2 legions in the centre with cavalry covering their left and Triari on the right.

Pyrrhus deployed his phalanx in the centre, with Galacians on each side, heavy & light cavalry on his left, elephants, peltasts  & light cavalry on his right.

The Romans advanced in two lines in the centre, holding their flanks back.  Pyrrhus advanced on the whole front, but the different pace of his troop types made it an impi with both flanks forward.

On the Roman left, their cavalry was unable to keep all the enemy occupied and a peltast unit was able to threaten the flank of the Roman infantry neutralising a valuable triari unit. 

On the Roman right the Galacians were defeated and the enemy cavalry delayed as they tried to manoeuvre past the triari.

In the centre the Romans hit the phalanx hard.  It was largely pushed back, but did not break.  The right hand phalanx overlapped the Roman left, but part of the second line turned to face it.  The Romans had hoped to deal with the extra phalanx with Principes & Triari, but the peltasts had to be neutralised as well & only the triari could do it.  Faced by the best phalanx, the Principes fought hard, but couldn't win.  For the Romans to win they had to break the rest of the phalanx.  They pushed it back, but it wouldn't break.

Finally Pyrrhus' right got it's act together, the Hastasi that beat the Galacians didn't reface fast enough and  the cavalry broke the Roman left to win the battle.

This was the second playtest of the rules.  We resolved a few conundrums we had ironed out more rough edges.  It was a very close & enjoyable battle. 

Van Dieman Club 13/08/10

Jim's Brit Armour v.David Brough's Grenadiers
1500 pts LW HTL, Germans defending.

It seems my teaching skills exceeded my generalship this evening.  The wall of 11 Shermans looked invincible, especially after they disposed of the Pak 40 ambush with just one loss.  But the pause to take out the Paks bought time for the Stugs to come up.  The Brit infantry on the left was supposed to outflank the Grenadiers, but 2 HMGs in the town stopped them dead.  With some help from the 105s the Stugs gradually whittled the Shermans away and the Brit attack petered out. 

Black Powder 10/08/10

Steve & Byron's Austrians
v.
Barrie & Joes' Prussians

The Austrians sat back & let the Prussians learn how hard it can be to launch a coordinated attack when you haven't much experience in the rules. 

In the centre the Prussian infantry rushed forward leaving their artillery support behind & couldn't make any headway against infnatry well supported by artillery.

On the Prussian right the grenadiers got carried away and charged through the cornfield at the Austrian's Bavarian allies.  The front line grenadiers followed up pathetic attack dice with a double 1 for morale & ran for it.  The second unit was outflanked & shot to bits.  The 3rd was withdrawn.

Left of centre the now desperate Prussians sent their cavalry up the hill.  On the far flank, the Austrians made their only agressive move, advancing their cavalry.  The Prussian cavalry punched a hole through the Austrian infantry, but their flank guard of dragoons was defeated.  This left them with 3 brigades broken & failed army morale.

Trying out new Ancient Rules

Peter Collidge & I have been working on a set of Ancient rules for a few weeks.  Until now it's all been theory as we played email pinpong with the draft.  Today we did our first play test. 

Jim of Epirus v. Peter of Rome

Rome deployed conventionally with the 2 legions in the centre & cavalry on each flank.  The Greeks deployed in 2 lines.  The phalanx was in the rear line.  The front line had elephants on the left supported by peltasts, barbarian foot in the centre with skirmishers in front & all the cavalry on the right.

The Greek first line charged.  The elephants took out the cavalry on their flank but were stopped by triari.  In the centre the warbands were quickly dispatched by the legions.  On the right the Roman heavy cavalry was swept away.  The Greeks weren't entirely happy with the first wave, the legions lost a few casualties, but triari supported by light cavalry made exploitation of the advantage on their right difficult & the loss of all their skirmishers in the centre was a worry.

It took a while to get the phalanx moving & this gave the Romans plenty of time to reorganise their line with fresh troops in front.  The phalanx rumbled forward, surviving the velite's javelins reasonably well before the Roman 2nd line countercharged.  The right end of the palanx was doing ok, but the left end broke.  With half their phalanx routed & most the rest of the army shaken it was all over for the Greeks.

The rules play much like M2M & Black Powder and although this was their 1st outing, they worked fine - we found a few omissions & identified a few tweeks to investigate.  But a very enjoyable game.

Nick in Launceston

Nick vs Dennis, FOW Mid war 1500 pts -- Germans vs Russians.

Nick left his figs in Hobart, so he borrowed Dennis's Russian army. Dennis used his brother's Germans.

The scenario was roadblock. The Germans were the attackers, which means they were ambushed. Unfortunately, the Russian ambush failed to do enough damage. The German retribution was swift and brutal. The Russians tried switching to the other flank, and managed to threaten the objective. But they couldnt do enough damage -- the German Panzers kept unbailing, and passing platoon morale, all the while whittling away at the Russians. Eventually there were not enough Russians left to put up a good show, and Nick conceeded.

The game was a LOT of fun, with both players maneuvering around terrain for whatever shots they could get.

Camp Cromwell 07/08/10

Jim's Tankovy v. Rich's Panzers
1750 pts Cauldron (LW)

The Russians defended.  They dug their Motostrelk in on the objectives with 8 T34's in ambush, 8 more in reserve along with 3 IS2 & Cossack.

Rich deployed his 105's & recon at the start with Panthers & armoured Panzer Grenadiers to come.  This rendered the ambush pretty useless, but the 105s were left out on a limb on the Russian side of the table due to the deployment dice.  They knocked out a T34 or 2, but when the Cossacks came on they were sitting ducks & were quickly ridden down. 

The T34's (half 76 & half 85) tried to take on the Panthers & quickly found that this was not a good idea.  The Panthers started to drive the Motostrelk off one of the objectives, but the IS2 's & the 2nd T34 platoon arrived in time to distract them.  Rich failed to coordinate his Panzergrenadiers with the armour & the Russians were able to first neutralise the Panthers then make an impregnamble front against the PG's.

Camp Cromwell 03/08/10

FOW 1750 pts Roadblock Mission

Jim & Mark's Guards Tankovy
v. Steve's SS.
Joe did the lawyering.

The Russians started with their IS2's & T34/85s on the road.  The Germans ambushed the T34's with 2 88's, but only got a one.  The Russians brought on their Cossacks and started forward on their right, but 4 MkIVs turned up & they thought better of it & hid in the woods even though the T34's got the better of the tank fight.

The Germans began to push forward on thier right with Panzer Grenadiers with HTs using woods as cover.  The Russians decided the IS's needed more help than the T34's and galloped off accross the Russian rear.

At this point Mark misread the rules & ignored his orders & pulled his IS2's back a bit to give more killing ground.  The Germans immediately quoted the fine print in the rules & claimed vistory as they held an objective at the start of any turn on or after turn 6.  Oakie was pronptly shot & his IS2's put back where they should have been. 

In the re-run the IS2's with a bit of help from the Cossack HMGs stopped the SS Panzer Grenadiers & the Germans conceded.