Bolt Action Tank War

 2,500 pts late war Germans v. US

The Germans are on the far side of the table.  On their left Chris a platoon of Hetzers with a mounted panzergrenadier squad. On the left Steve has 3 Panthers & mounted panzergrens.
On the near side of the table, Jim, Mike & Mark each have a platoon of late war US tanks with armored infantry.
There are 5 objectives.

The US plan was to take advantage of the Hetzer platoon being deployed off to the German left.  MKike to attack the centre with Jim's support on his left while Mark supported his right until the hetzers came up, then hold thm off.
The US infantry overwhelmed Steve's panzergrens, stormed the village & went on the take the objective on the road junction while the tanks engaged in a lot of ineffective shooting.  The Panthers absorbed a lot of punishment without beiomg knocked out, but also shot poorly.  
By the time the Hetzers got into the action the Panthers, though not knocked ou, had been partly suppressed & Mark was able to take on the Hetzers with his armour & infantry.
Only in the last couple of turns did the tank casualties get signiifcant, but the US had the upper hand holding 4 objective after turn 7.   

Back after a Covid break: ECW English v. Scots

I had never tested positive for Covid, but I had the symptoms & if it was actually a flu the effect was the same.   Aches, pains, coughs, lethargy & isolation.  The symptoms have gone apart from weakness & the occcasional cough.  I should be beyond being infectious, but wore a mask tonight anyway.

Scots: Mike & Steve
English: Mark, Mitch & Jim

The Scots are on the far side: All their cavalry on the left flank, muskteers in the orchard, pike & shot on their right.
The English Put half their cavalry on their left, half in central reserve, musketeers right of centre opposite the woods, 2 pike & shot on their right & the rest in the centre.

The Scots made a general advance on the whole front.
The English advanced their musketeers into the woods & began moving their cavalry on the left to the centre while elsewhere forming a defensive line. 

On the far flank the English mix of pike, shot & cavalry detered the Scots cavalry from attacking whle teh Engklish consolidated their cavalry.
The msuketeers slogged it out in the wood.
The highlanders charged the pike & shot on the central ridge.
On the near flank 2 english pike & shot are facing 4 Scots. 

On the far flank the Engklish cavalry have charged.
On the left the English pike & shot are defying the odds.

On the far flank the cavalry fight is indecisive, but the English have turned their rear line of cavalry to the left to support their pike & shot on the hill.

On the far flank the Scots cavalry have gained an advantage, but the depth of the English formation prevents any exploitation.
In the centre the highlanders are crumbling after bing attack front & flank.
On teh near flank, the out numbered English pike & shot are still hanging on.

The far flank is a stalemate.
The highlanders have been destoyed in the centre.
The English left has lost half their number, but still hold the line.
The Scots concede defeat.

ECW: Scots v. English

Scots: Mike & Mark.
English: SteveJ, Chris & Jim

The Scots are on the far side.

The Scots generally advance while the English stand & wait except for extending their line a little on the far flank.

The English flanking move causes the Scots to hold back their left while their right flank infantry are delayed in the farms.   The Scot's cavalry is advancing slowly to match their foot.  In the centre the Scots pike & shot have charged musketeers that fill a gap between the P&S blocks.

In the centre the English Musketeers have been broken by P&S & the P&S on the left have been broken by Scots musketeers.  The English only have one P&S in reserve to plug the gap leaving a gap in the line.  On the far flank the Scots are falling back having been overlapped by the English.

The Scot's cavalry has finally charged the English horse. 
Highlanders have charged the P&S on the hill on the right of the English cavalry.
The English Muskteers that were deployed on their left flank are marching behind the cavalry to support the English centre. 

The Scots horse have gained a small advantage .
The English centre has held on as support arrives from both flanks.
The Scot's left has retreated into the woods.

The Scots cavalry have won 2 combats & lost 1 so are getting on top.
The Scots centre is crumbling under the English counterattack. 

The English have lost the cavalry fight & Scots cavalry & a second attack has taken the hill in their centre, but the Scot's have no foot left un-shaken as the English right rolls up their line.  The Scots concede & use their cavalry to cover their retreat. 

A little Napoleonic naval battle

British: 1 2nd rate + 3 3rd rates all elite crews.
French: 1 1st rate _ 1 2nd rate + 2 3rd rates, all regular crews. 

Both sides are in 2 separate squadrons of 2 ships. The Brits are on the near side of the table. The wind is blowing from the far side of the table so the French have the weather guage.  We then diced for sides & Chris got the Brits & Jim the French.

The British continued beating to windward leaving their squadrons separated.  The lead French squadron wore ship so the 2 squadrons could run towards each other with the wind on the quarter to form a single line, then decend on one of the British squadrons. 

The French had their port guns loaded with chain while the Brits had their starboard guns double shotted & the French got the worst of the initial exchange.

The 2nd & 3rd French ships were hit hard as the Brit flagship broke the line & raked them.  But the succession of French ships firing chain dismasted the 2nd British ship & the British flagship was raked in the stern as the French passed firing first broadsides of double shot from their starboard batteries.

Outnumbered 2 to 1 one dismasted & the other a ruin, the ships of the British lead squadron had no choice but to strike their colours to prevent furtehr slaughter.  The 2nd Brit squadron turned away.

The British failure to bear away to gain speed to combine their squadrons before engagement was ruthlesly punished.  

Camp Cromwell resumes with Modder Fokkers

With Chris & I still jet lagged we opted for an easy game of Modder Fokkers on our first wragames night back home.
Germans: Mark & Mike with Albatrosses.
Allies: Jim: Pup. SteveJ: Spad VII.  Chris Nieuport.
The Germans are outnumbers 3 plaes to 2, but they have twin MGs to the Allies single mgs & sturdier planes.

Germans on the left.  Boths sides aproach the enemy cautiously while climbing.

The dog fight begins. 

The allies get the better of the dogfight with mrk's' Albatros getting such a battering from all three Alied planes that he ran for home leaving his comrade in the midst of 3 enemies.

Mike bravely ducked & weaved towards home, but didn't make it.

The Allies managed to get themselves more opportunities for good shots than the allies & were blessed with a good run of dice.  The 3 to 2 planes seemed to be more important than the twin v. single mgs.   In any case it was a rattling good game & easy on jet lagged brains.

Last leg of the expedition

The last two weeks of the expedition was  mainly sightseeing in Andalusia & Morocco. There were no more battlefields, but many castles, fortifications & city walls, but none individually worth a blog report.  Some highlights:

Cadiz was our fave of the Andalusian cities with much of it's defenses of the old city preserved.

Ronda is on a spectacular site surrounded by precipitous cliffs forming a natural defense.  This is the new bridge over the gorge between the original & new town. 

Gibraltar was pretty spectacular.The tunnels of Gibraltar were very extensive & included whole bastions cut inside the rock.

There were many city walls in Morocco but nothing military as interesting as we'd seen in Spain.  This is the old Portuguese fortress town of El Jedida.

  

The Lines of Torres Vedras

 We started our tour at Fort St Vincent near the town of Torres Vedras.  It was major fort that has been largely preserved in the front of of the two lines near the western end.  From there to the Atlantic the forward line was mainly a river line with dams flodding the valley.  This fort  has a small interp centre.  For 1 euro (seniors discount) you get a short movie of re-enactors with the historical background, a small display & a map of the sites for self driving tour.  The maps shows the forts that have survived but was woefully inadequate as far as helping one find them.  If Ms Google didn't recognise the fort's name you had to be  extremely lucky to find a signpost to it.

Fort St Vincent had impressive stone lined ditches & walls.

The fort is huge.

Plan of the fort.

All the forts are on top of hills with perfects fields of fire overlapping the next fort.  And in 1810, the ground wasn't covered in bloody gum trees.

In between the major forts were smaller forts holding half a battalion & a battery.  The ones we found had been eroded away to bumps in the ground, but their command of the surrounding land was always obvious,

This is a view from Fort Carvalha the highest point in the lines.  We could ses the Tagus from there.

There were two lines of fortresses.  In between there was a military road.  Portuguese troops garrisoned the forst while the Brits were in reserve between the lib]ne ready to move to ant troube spots.  The pic is of a model of a signal station at St Vincent interp centre.  All the forts had a comms tower so news of any French moves was immedaitely sent to HQ.  

This is Fort Feira, part of the second line, which was acually more desnse than the first line.  There was also a thrid line defending the British navy's landing zone.  Messina had no hope.




 

Busaco & Vimierio

 Bucaso is still mostly not built over, but the hils are now covered with gum trees.

Coy Cromwell at the Busaco monument.

View down the hill from the british position at Busaco.  The pic really doesn't do justice to the steepness of the slope but the ground was much less wooded at the time of the battle.  The countryside around is all very hilly & wooded, no surprise that Messina had a hard time pushing thru & found recon difficult.

Vimero was a great contrast from Busaco.  Unfortunately largly built over, but the form of the hills is still obvious & there are areas of undeveloped country that indicate what it was all like  at the time.

Coy Cromwell at the monument.  There was an interp centre there, but closed Mondays.

Tnoght we at a nice Gite near Torres Vedras we have booked for two nights to give us a whole day to explore the lines of Torres Vedras.  Report coming soon.