Sunday School: ACW

We re-fought last Tuesday's the attack on the railway village to try to get a handle on exactly how much advantage defending a village provides in ACW with our rules.
Chris attacked with 10 Confederate regiments.
Jim defended with 7 Union regiments.
All troops were the same class to simplify the comparison.

The Confederate begin their advance.  The railway station & whore house have troops in them.

The Union regiment in the orchard on the left have broken their attackers but are being outflanked.
The attack on the whorehouse has been beaten off.  The attack on the right has been delayed by a command failure.

On the right, the Union extended their line with a reserve regiment & beat off the attack with fire. 
The attack on the station by 2 regiments has succeeded & it has been occupied by the Rebs.
On the left, the flanking regiments of each side have neutralised each other in a long range firefight. 
The Union regiment in the orchard was broken by an attack from the left & the victorious Rebs charged the whorehouse.  The defenders had beaten of the first attack but with heavy loss.  The battle came down to this fight - made even by Union casualties negating the house advantage.  the Union threw better dice & so it was the Rebs that broke.

The battle came down to the dice in one combat, so the odds of 10 to 7 seemed to nicely balance the scenario.   Last Tuesday, the Rebs had 12 regs to 6 regs & 2 guns & won comfortably.

American Civil War: Made up scenario

The Confederates are mounting a raid on the Union supply line.  Their objective is to take Carpet Junction railway station & the nearby bridge & destroy them.  They have an infantry division of 12 regiments, a cavalry division of 4 regiments & 2 batteries of Napoleons.  

The Union have two small infantry divisions of 6 regiments a rifle battery to defend the railway station at the junction & the bridge.

Mike commanded the Confederate infantry, Steve the cavalry & Jim commanded the Union.

The Confederates are expected to attack from the far side of the table.

The Confederate infantry immediately advance on the village.

At the same time, the Confederate cavalry advance on the bridge & dismount with their artillery on their right.

The Rebs attack the village directly while wrapping around the Union left.  The Rebs left is held up by the Union battery over by the bridge firing shell into the flank.

On the other flank the Union have counterattacked the cavalry & artillery.

The Union have held on to the whore house, but been driven out of the station & both flanks are falling back.  The end is neigh for the Union on this flank.

On the river front, the Reb cavalry are selling their lives dearly, but the Union have too many men & the Reb cavalry is about to break.

After taking the village, the Confederate infantry redeployed to attack the Union right.
At the same time the Union right, having seen off the Rebel cavalry redeployed to meet them. 

While the Rebel cavalry had been defeated, they inflicted more casualties on the Union right than the Rebel infantry has lost attacking the village.  They made the Rebels pay, but the Union right just didn't have the numbers left to hold off the renewed Confederate attack.  So a Confederate victory.

Bolt Action Tournament at Devonport

Camp Cromwell's force for the event was Jim's Panzergrenadiers, Chris' Soviets & Mark's US.  The tournament was all Axis v. Allies & as always Russel did a brilliant job organising & as TA. 

Camp Cromwell had a uniform & very average performance with an equal mix of wins, draws & losses in our 3 games each.  But due to the Allied dominance Jim's very average performance scored him best Axis general in a pretty pathetic Axis effort.  He also won the Best Tank Kill award for popping a KV with  panzerfaust.

Your correspondent only covered the Panzergrenadier's games.

Round 1: Panzer grenadiers masquerading as Afrika Korps v. British.  A bloody draw.

Round 2; The Germans must have pushed thru the Caucasus to fight the Soviets in the desert.  A crushing German victory that earned maximum VPs & lifted their commander to Best German General status. 

The brave MkIII goes toe to toe with the a KV.  Both missed this turn. Next turn the MkIII flanked the KV & missed again. but then a Panzergrenasier in the palm trees popped the KV front-on with his broomstick & a shower of 6's.

In Round 3 The Germans fought a lot of British Armour in the snow.   It was such a disaster for the Germans that they didn't think to get their Leica out.   It started badly for the Germans with their MkIII going up in flames with the first shot of the game.  Then the British barrage took out 2 units & heavily pinned 2 more on turn 2 & it really went pear shaped.   

  

Last BA practice for Devonport event

On the left Chris Soviets v. Mike's Brits.  
On the right Jim's Germans v. Mark's US.
Both games 1250 pts Point Defense scenario.
The Germans & the Brits both won as the defenders.

 

More BA practice

 Jim's Panzergrenadeirs v. Chris' Soviets in key positions scenario, 1250 pts.

The German's evil plan was backed up with good dice resulting in a decisive win as their left held their ground & their right over-ran weak opposition.  The Germans lost 5 figs & no units while the Soviets lost 9 of 11 units while taking 3 of 4 objectives..  

Bolt Action Training

We fought two Bolt Action games to get up to speed with the rules for the upcoming BA event in Devonport.  We divided the table in half to allow two games.  SteveJ umpired.

On the far end of table, Chris's Russians are v. Mark's US in a No Man's Land scenario.

On the near end Jim's Panzer Grenadiers are v. Mike's US in a Free For All scenario. 

Mark's US cleaned up Chris' Russains decisively.

Jim's P/Grens lost very high casualties in most of their units, but the US lost 3 more units so lost the battle.  

Bolt Action in China

Chris wanted to test out his Chinese & his Japanese troops to help decide which to take to the Devonpot event later this month.  
Chris' Chinese v. his Japanese commanded by Jim.
Scenario: point defense.

The Chinese are defending the railway bridge with their reserves coming on the far side of the table.
The Japanese are deployed at least 18" away from the initial defenders & the objective.

The Japanese took the objective with a banzai charge on turn 2 then set up a killing zone to stop the Chinese taking it back.

The Chinese Sherman machine guns caused some damage to the Japanese foot, but not enough & it has been immobilised by an ATR round up its rear.   The Japanese tank ignored the Sherman & helped keep the Chinese infantry at bay.  The game went to turn 7, but the Chinese just couldn't break thru to even contest the objective.  I think Chris is going to take Russians to Devonport. 

Rocoi at Black Hills

 Chris has the French on the far side, Jim the Spanish on the near side.

The Spanish made a rapid advance with their foot holding back their cavalry on the flanks. 

The Spanish charged with their infantry & their right flank cavalry.  They held back their left in the face of superior French horse.
The foot was met with a withering vlast of musket fire, but charged home anyway.  The big veteran Spanish tercios on their left are making progress regardless, but both leading mercenary tercios on the right broke at first contact.t
The Spanish cavalry did no better, One failed to break mere musketeers, the next broke o first contact & the third is losing. 

The Spanish foot on the left centre have prevailed, but their right is a mess. The French musketeers are still holding out & their other remaining cavalry is shaken.

On the left the Spanish cavalry have charged to prevent the French cavalry attacking the left flank of their foot.  But like the other flank the Spanish cavalry fail to break even the forlorn hope of musketeers.  But even so they succeed in protecting the tercios which are making a mess of the French second line.

On the other flank the musketeers have finally been overcome, but the rest of Spanish cavalry is broken & the survivors shaken & useless.

The Spanish artillery  manage to hold off a cavalry attack on the flank of the foot, but the mercenary brigade is down to 1 unit  & almost surrounded.

On the near flank the Spanish make a death or glory charge to try & salvage the battle, but the dice gods do not relent on them & this attack is getting nowhere.
In the centre, the victorious Spanish tercios have redeployed to counterattack the enemy's left, but it's too late.  With more losses on both flanks, the Spanish army fails army morale.

Rennassiance Era

 We recycled last week's Italian terrain for a Rennassiance battle.

The Empire had sent an army to Italy to deal with the uppity Duke Lorenzo & his army of mercenaries. Mark & Mike command the Empire army with 4 large tercios of pike & shot, 2 units of Lanschencks, 2 musketeers, 4 Cuirassiers, 4 medium cavalry & 2 guns.
Jim & Chris command Lorenzo's army with 6 smaller tercios, 2 musketeers, 10 medium cavalry & 2 guns. Both armies have regular command with 3 generals.
Lorenzo made a map of his deployment, the Empire put their troops down, then Lorenzo.
The Empire put their foot on the ridge on the right with their guns & Cuirasiers on their left & the rest of the cavalry behind their right.
Loenzo put most of his cavalry on his right, a thin line of foot among the woods on his left & his main force in the centre behind the village. 

Lorenzo immediately advanced his right & centre.  The Empire counter charged with their cuirassiers & also advanced towards the village.

The Empire Is now advancing the infantry on their right & is sending their reserve cavalry to their left.ir right. 
Despite superior numbers, Lorenzo's cavalry is being held relentlessly superior Empirical dice.
Lorenzo's musketeers have taken the village, but his attack on the right of it has been held up by Empire musketeers & artillery armed with hot dice.

Lorenzo's inability throw any decent dice allowed the Empire's cuirassiers held on long enough for the rest of the Empire's cavalry arrive..
The Empire's musketeers have finally been broken, but not before inflicting crippling casualties on the tercio. 
The Empire is making progress taking the village, but on the far flank Lorenzo's artillery is inflicting serious casualties on the advancing tercios. 

On the right, Lorenzo's cavalry has finally overcome the cuirassiers though with high losses. They still outnumbered the Empire's second cavalry brigade & charged again still with an advantage, but the dice curse remained & they immediately lost another 2 units. 
Next the village, the tercio weakened by musketeers was broken by Landchnecks who were in turn beaten by the second line tercio.  But he 3rd tercio has been shaken by artillery.

On the far flank the Empire has attacked the thin line in the woods.

On the right, bad luck continued to dog Lorenzo's cavalry which is now reduced to just 2 units of 10.
In the centre Lorenzo's tercios have been broken.
Only on the left has Lorenzo had any success.  Although eventually losing his gunners to musket fire, his left has seen off the Empire's attacks there & is now advancing.  But the losses on the right & centre are enough to break his army. The Empire has won decisively.