Napoleonic Naval: Blockade Scenario

 This is scenario was designed by Tim, my e-pal in England.

On the far side of the table two French sqaudrons of 3 ships flank 3 transports with a Spanish squadron of 5 in support.  Their objective is to get the transports into the port on the RHS of the table.
The British blockade force has 2 squadrons of 3 ships and 2 4th rates.
Mark commands the bits, Mike the Allies with Jim umpiring.
The wind is from the SE (the port is on the north edge).

The French sent their windward squadron round the east side of the islands while sending the transports through the gap with the windward squadron.  The Spanish are sailing to intercept the leeward British squadron. 

The windward British squadron is running a guntlet between eeh two French Squadrons.  The brits are not firing back, clearly saving their fire for a devasting first broadside with double shot.
The transports are dropping back behind the windward sqaudron. 

The lead British ship has taken a pounding, but is closing on their prey.

The leeward french sqaudron delayed their turn to port too long easing the pressure on the british squadron which has now engaged to transports.  The Spanish have engaged the British leeward squadron.

Tjhe rear two transports are being pounded by two men o' war, but the Brit fire has been reduced by the heavy damage their ships sufferred in the gauntlet.  The lead British ship is a shambles evn though the French squadrons are no longer able to fire at it.  Instead they are giving the 4th raters a hard time.   The lead Spanish ship has been sunk by the concentrated fire of the British van, but the other 3 ships are now toe to toe with the 3 British ships.

One of the 4th rates has had to stike it's colours.  The Spanish have kept the british leeward sqaudron busy & the French sqiadrons are closing up in support of the transports & put the flagship of teh windward squadron out of action. 

Two of the transports are in danger of sinking & have stuck their colours, but in the gathering dusk the Brits are in no position to send out boarding parties as the French squadons are closing in & the Spanish, though not winning' are being unusually stubborn & are still screening off the Britsish leeward squadron.

It was agreed that the damaged transports could be blown into port provided they didn't sink in 3 turns, & like wise the damage 4th rate clould sneak away in the darkness as the French were more concerned with protecting the transports than taking a prize.   All 4 badly damaged ships survived immedaite sinking tests.
The final reckoning was:
1 Spanish MOW sunk.
1 British 4th rate barely afloat & reliant on good weather to get home.
2 British MOW with heavy damage but able to get home baring a storm.
2 allied transports drifted into port barely afloat with cargoes damaged.
1 allied transport made it to port undamaged.

So an Allied victory.

 

Mech War in Normandy

We did a mech war battle for old comrade Mike Chevak on a visit back to Hobart. 
Brits: Mike & Jim.  Confident Trained.  11 Cromwells, 3 Fireflies, 2 mech inf platoons, 4 bugs & off-table artillery.
Germans:  Mark & Chris. Confident Veterans.  2 Tigers, 5 Stugs, 5 MkIVs, 2 mech inf platoons, 4 med mortars, 2 Pak 40's.
Rules: Mech war house rules with card based hidden movement ( see previous blog).
Figures: 15mm.
Scenario:  BA Tank wars.  5 objectives: Railway station, bridge, village and 2 hills (at LH side of pics).
Deployment: By placing cards including decoys in zone up to 24" from own table edge. 

Situation after turn 1:
The Brits start on the near side.  They have used their artillery to smoke out the Pak 40's on the hill as 2 tank platoons storm forward on their left.  Their infantry in half tracks have moved up the road to the village and on the right of the tanks.  The rest of the Brit armour is still out of sight of the germans in the woods & behind hedges in the centre.  All their cards on the far flank are decoys.
The Germans put their Paks on the hill on their left.  Panzer grenadiers are rushing the village.  The rest are still out of sight. 

The Tigers have taken out a Cromwell, but the swarm of Brit armour is closing on them.
More Cromwells in the woods in  the centre have found the Stug platoon. 
Both sides have seized half the village.
The other Panzergrenadiers and the MkIVs are been spotted on the right where they found no opposition so are moving towards the action.

The Paks remain neutralised by smoke as the bugs move to deal with them.  
Two platoons of Cromwells & Fireflies have taken out the Tigers while the Stugs are dying in the orchard unable to find any decent dice themselves. 

With the Tigers & Stugs gone, the MkIV's have no chance against the wall of Brit armour.
The Panzergrenadiers have tried attacking in the village, but the Brits have so far held them off & are about to get massive armoured support.  

The Brits had the unbeatable combination of a good plan backed up with good dice. The German position is hopeless & they conceded the battle.

American War of Indepenance

British: Jim
French: Mark
Colonials: Mike
Figures 28mm. Rules M2M house rules.

The battlefield has scattered trees all over reducing visibilty to 18"  max.  There are patches of thicker forest at each end of the table, along the river banks and scattered all over.
British are on the near side, the French and colonials on the far side.
The figures were not put down initally.  Instead each brigade was given a mini playing card placed face down and a similar card (same no. red or black) was placed on the table to mark it's position.  Decoy cards were placed to confuse the enemy. 
In the first turns the cards were moved (including the decoys) until cards were within 18" of the any enemy card.  Then both sides put their visible brigade down. 

First contact was made on the near flank where the Indians allied to the Brits discovered the french dragoons and were promptly ridden down.  
On the far flank the three British veteran infantry brigades advanced to find Colonial infantry supported by French artillery in front of them.

The French cavalry has reformed after driving the Indians off the table.
The British infantry has advanced into musket range and is softening up the Colonial militia with musket fire.

The British cavalry have appeared in support of their infantry's left flank.
The French infantry have appeared, crossing the river on the British left flank.

On the right flank two veteran British brigades have charged the Colonial militia.  They had an expectation of being able to charge over the militia, but alas their plan was kyboshed by a total failure to find any decent dice.  Despite their advantage they lost every combat along the line in the first charge and again on the second round.  
In the meantime, the the French infantry had overlapped the British left flank & chewing it up.

Eventually the British brigade on the far right managed to fins some 4+'s and broke their opponants, but their centre brigade was broken by the Colonial with artillery support and the their left flank by the French overlap.  The Brits made a Hail Mary cavalry attack on the French foot, but their cavalry intercepted the charge  but the French cavalry intercepted their charge.

The Brits conceded the battle.  The Allies had luck on their side, but also a good plan - an unbeatable combination.

Boardgame night at Nick's

We played 878 Vikings, a four player game played in two teams of two, two Saxons v. two Vikings.
Saxons: Jim & Chris.
Vikings: Nick & Mark. 

It was an enjoyable game, not too complex to learn to play, but still plenty of depth in it.  The Vikings had the only player already familiar with the game on their side which gave them a bit of an advantage at the start and by midgame the Saxons were feeling doomed as they played whackamole against a seemingly endless supply of Vikings.  But as the game progressed, the Saxons got the hang of the game mechanics, sussed the victory conditions, devised a comeback plan, got a bit of luck, & managed to steel victory.

Nick now plans to put on a monthly boardgame night.  

Bolt Action at Camp Cromwell

Chris' Britisg v. Jim's Germans. 1250 pts.
There were 3 objectives - the village, the railway bridge & one at the very centre of the table.  Possession to be gained by infantry within 6" & held until driven off.

The Germans moved quickly to get an infantry squad onto the railway bridge & the centre objectives.  Those units then went down while their comrades tried to suppress British attacks.
The Germans got a nasty shock when  PIAT popped out from behind the village & popped their MkIII.

In the end game the Brits had the village uncontested, the Germans had the railway bridge uncontested & the centre objective was in dispute though the Germans got there first.  The Butcher's bill was in favour of the Germans who had lost just one unit to the Brit's 3.  So a German win, but not by much.

Road trip to the north island

I've just come back from a 3 1/2 week 6,000 km road trip on Australia's north island in my Mercedes Sdkfz A160 scout car.  My route took me to the MCG, Mt Kosciuszko, Canberra, Blue Mountains, up the Great Divide, Byron Bay, Brisbane, then west to Charleville then south through the outback though Bourke, to Hay, west to Mildura & back to the Geelong ferry terminal via Bendigo.  

Apart from a couple of good wargames with SteveD & Dale in Canberra, there were only two military highlights:

Mephesto is the only surviving genuine WWI German tank.  Souvenired by the Queensland battalion in 1918 it is on display at the Queensland Museum in Brisbane.

At the war memorial in a little town in outback Queensland I found a German WWI anti-tank gun.  It's a 77mm field gun with smaller wheels to give it a low profile & modified sights for direct fire.  

Some of the non-military highlights:

Watching Collingwood beat Carton at the MCG in a crowd of over 80,000.

On Mt Kosciuszko 2,227m, highest point in Australia.

Outback scenery.

Car camping in the Dividing Range forest.

Luxury caravan park at Barringun roadhouse, back of Bourke, $5 a night for a site & big chooks in the back yard.

After over a week high on the Dividing Range, I dropped to sea level at Byron Bay, latitude 28.5 degrees S & it was 26 degrees C, bikini babes on the beach, & I could take my puffer jacket off.

Watching the Saturday night footy on my tablet on the rooftop terrace of the Brisbane YHA without needing my puffer jacket.