Preparing For Operation Cromwell 2013

Operation Cromwell 2013 Flames of War Tournament will be held next weekend 12-13 October at St Georges Church Hall in Battery Point.

It is not a standard FOW tournament - we are trying to provide an interesting change with very different scenarios on 8'x6' tables.  It is a themed teams competition - all Axis v. Allied in Normandy.  There are 4 Axis teams who will fight each of 4 Allied teams - no Blue on Blue.  A team will play each of their games on a different table and each table will have a specific scenario played on it every round.  The teams comprise 2 or more players.  The armies comprise 2 companies totalling 2500 points from Earth & Steel or Turning Tide.  There will be awards for best Allied and best Axis teams and for best club (highest aggregate of their best Allied & best Axis team).

The scenarios are non-standard scenarios specifically designed for the occasion.  In each scenario, there are 10VPs to be gained by taking or holding 6 objectives worth between 1 & 3 VPs each scattered in the defender's deployment area.   All run for 3 hours plus a random 0-15 mins.

1. Hit The Beach: Basically the Mission from the D-Day book, but the Allies are provided with additional support platoons (boats, engineers & funnies) & the Germans can trade in platoons for fortifications. 

2. Bocage Bash:  The Allies have Air & Naval Support and have to fight their way lengthwise across a bocage table.

3. Rommel Strikes Back:  It is raining so the Allies have no air or naval support.  The Germans are provided with a Tiger Platoon and Across the Volga artillery and have orders to attack and take a chain of hills that dominate the otherwise flat & open area.  This scenario includes a hidden deployment system for some of the Allied platoons.

4. Falaise Gap:  The Germans start spread along the Paris Road.  The Allies start with a Coy at each end of the table.  The Allies gain VPs by cutting the road - scoring more VPs the closer to Paris they make the cut.

The Beach and Boccage tables are being provided by the Kingston Bunker Rats.  The bocage table was being set up & tested when I visited Griggsy's bunker last Thursday.

 Today at Camp Cromwell Rich & I play tested the Rommel Strikes Back Scenario.

The Allies are on the left.  Initially some of their force which is out of German sight behind the line of ridges is represented by counters, some of which are dummies.   After a brief happy time driving the infantry off the hill in the foreground the Stugs got a nasty shock when the counters behind the hill  turned out to be 2 Cromwell platoons.

On the far flank the Tigers and fusiliers took the scrubby hill for 3 VPs then they took the far end of the ridge this side of the road for 2 more.  In this game the VPs went 5 each.  The hidden deployment system worked well & we got a few clues for fine tuning both the scenario and terrain.