Overview.

Big turnout this month. I believe we had 27 people involved in playing 6 games which is possibly a record.

The games were : 

• World war 3.
• World war II.
• English civil war.
• Late Roman Empire.
• Roman plebs run amok.
• Lord of the Rings.

Setup time.

 

The beast goes East.

WW2 Eastern front 1941. Using Combat HQ in 15mm.

Players
Germans : Bryn, Simon and Adam.
Russians : Mike, Stephen and Gary.

AAR by Gary.
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Mike put on another very enjoyable WW2 game using Combat HQ rules.

Game was in 15mm (using Mike and Bryns excellent toys) and a scenario set on Eastern Front in 1941 with Bryn, Simon and Adam commanding Germans with Mike, Stephen and I as Russians.

Ivans where defending a couple of villages and river crossings against a larger and superior force (at least in terms of morale and orders) making hard for Ivans to realistically win but great fun delaying and harassing the Nazis it was.

I ended up facing Simon and Adam on our right wing with guts of a Regiment of infantry backed by couple of PzJager1 and a PzII along with a very nasty little 75mm Inf Gun. 

I had an Infantry Battalion with a 45mm ATG and 2 x T28C 'Land Battleships' and they sort of lived up to that name.

Stephen faced Bryn on our left who had bulk of Nazi armour (PzIII, Pz38T and StugB ) with another Soviet Infantry Battalion and 3 x T26 'Coffins for 5 brothers' (of which 2 managed to survive game !) with support of a Company of Flamethrowers equipped Pioneers.

Mike as CinC held our reserve off-table being 2 xT34/40 and another Infantry Battalion along with Brigade artillery support (Battery of 76mm), the Nazis also had off table artillery and a couple of Stuka sorties.

At he end Soviet morale was broken but we had defended the river crossing whilst losing the villages.

Great game with an interesting set of rules, some of the unit stats/abilities raise an odd eyebrow (the IG and the T28s seemed surprisingly powerful) but it works well overall within a playable framework.

The battle blow by blow.

Bridge and village I was trying to defend (the railway crossing was unusable) with village firmly in Hun hands by this stage.

My T28s are just out of shot behind river and have forced Nazis to hide behind buildings and woods shy of the bridge.

Some of Bryns Panzer force (playing cards are Blinds for unseen formations).

More Panzers in action.

Overview from Ivan right. 

Deluge of Nazi infantry assaulting my positions.

Mike has deployed Ivan reserve with T34s advancing to support Stephens last stand in village

Blaze of gunfire on left (yellow markers are Suppressions)

Germans obliterate Ivans in village.

Photos curtesy of Gary. 

BAORing the Russian Bear.

Game of the cold war, gone hot, in West Germany 1980s.

Using Seven days to the Rhine in 20mm.

Organized, using terrain and models and umpired by Chris Caves.

AAR by David Maltman, so mostly written from the Russian perspective.

Players
Russian  : David B, Charlie and David M.
NATO     : Andy, Josh and Mark.

Field of Battle :

Victory conditions : Have sole control of the most of these 3 areas : Airfield , Train station , Town square.

The pretty little German town of Schloss Holstien before the battle.

The Russian forces made their first advance on their right flack with 3 T62s, 2 moving trough the woods and the other heading up main strass. No contact at this point.

BAOR countered this move with a chieftain a centurion and a section of infantry in an APC.

On their left flank the Russians moved up their Recce vehicles to the forest.

The Russian make a large push up their center left with their 5 T72s. Going through the village towards the airfield. Looks like rush hour on the West link, but with less violence.

BAOR starts moving up on their armor on the center and right flank to cover the town and the airfied.

The Berlin camouflage on the chieftain makes it stick out like a sore thumb. 

Everybody seems to want to fly out on their holidays today, probably best before the whole thing goes nuclear.

As an aside here is what the Berlin camouflage look like when it is amongst West German housing. Much better.

The Russian recce units get taken out on the left flank.

The Russian T62s advance on their right flank , all looks ok.

Only to have 2 of them taken out by the BAOR tanks, which you can just see between the woods and the house on the right of the picture. The 3rd T62s gun barrel can just be seen peeking out from behind the house in the center right of the photo. Just about to have a go at the Centurion.

The center bogged down to mainly infantry fighting over the railway station, with little effect on each other.

At the airfield the Russians have advanced 4 T72s managing to get the centurion defending the airfield and the chieftain coming over to reinforce it. Still leaving the British infantry to contest the hold on the airfield.

At that point it was agreed to end the game.

The BAOR got a narrow victory as they had sole control of the town, the other 2 objectives had both BAOR and Russian units in them. 

If there had been an additional move it would have probably swung towards the Russians they would likely have captured the airfield and then turned their tanks attention to the town.

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Editors comments.

For those who do not know : 

BAOR was the British Army Of the Rhine. Their role was to slow the Russian advance until more troops could be got into the area from the rest of Europe and America.

Photos curtesy of Chris and the Editor. 

Battle of Osgiliath.

Game of the Lord of the Rings, looks quite like a cut down Battle of Osgiliath. 

Using Middle earth strategy battle game in 28mm.

Players
Keith, Tony and David Smylie.

No AAR but some comments by David Smylie.

The game was organised by Keith as an introduction game to LotR MESBG rules.

Difficult for me to give an assessment other than that good won over evil.

Middle earth strategy battle game - by Games workshop  a good set of rules based on individual combat.

It was a run through of the game mechanics with the Gondor troops beating a force of Orcs 

Big Trolls the equivalent of Tiger tanks.

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Photos curtesy of Gary and the Editor. 

A nasty thing happened on the way to the market.

Gangs of Rome run by Phil and Leslie.

Game . Gangs of Rome in 28mm.

Players : Phil and Leslie.

No AAR, just some pictures of the game.

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Photos curtesy of the Editor.

ECW

English Civil War game using Pike & Shotte run by Billy.

Game . Pike and Shotte in 28mm.

Players
Billy , Jeremy and Dave B & Dave T

No AAR, just some pictures of the game.

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Photos curtesy of Gary and the Editor.

Bloody Huns

Bloody Huns - Late Romans v Sassanid Persians

Game . Using Never mind the Bannerets/ Dark Ages in 28mm.

Players
Late Roman  : Adam.
Sassanids     : David P 

AAR by David Pentland.

A Roman force deployed to stop a major Persian incursion encounters the enemy’s formidable cavalry advance guard near a mile fort.

The Romans have also arranged and paid for the support of a contingent of Huns, but as the battle is about to begin they seem to have hesitated.

Taking the field, the Persians are played by David, and the Late Romans by Adam. The Huns will be rolled for each turn (1D6), on a 1 they will enter for the Persians, and for the Romans on a 6, to reflect their perfidious tendencies.

The game was played using a variant of the “Never mind the Billhooks” rules, “Never mind the Bannerets/ Dark Ages”. Each side draws a special event card to be held and played anytime during the game. As in Billhooks the game begins with a maneuver phase, where each side in turn moves a unit until one is fired upon or charged. With the Sassanid’s just entering the mat edge at the start it takes sometime to bring their forces close enough to begin engaging the Roman defenders.

The Romans use this phase to move forward their right wing to flank the advancing enemy.

But when a shower of Roman arrows bring the phase to an end, the Persians are caught on the hop with an Elephant out of line, and cavalry trying avoid being flanked.

Then battle is joined, and the card deck comes into play. This consists of one card for each general on the board, two bonus cards and a skirmish card for each side.

The bulk of the Persian vanguard continue to advance, while the forward elephant is able to reach the Roman line, 

A Sogdian Heavy Cavalry unit engages Roman cavalry on Persian left. The ensuing melee is inconclusive and both are locked in combat.

Turn 2 - Roll for the Huns, but they decide to wait and see how the battle develops. 

The Cavalry melee continues when Roman Fedoratai attack the Sogdians in their flank.

Ultimately both cavalry units are routed, leaving the Roman infantry victorious.

When the Sassanids play their saved special event card however, a Clibinari unit is able to catch these same infantry in the flank and breaks them in turn.

On the road the main line of Sassanids advance, (except for the second elephant that is lacking available orders. Leaders can be level 1, 2 or 3. The level determines how many orders a leader can give per turn, and also gives bonus attacks in combat. Sometimes there are not enough orders to move all one’s units.)

The Persian Cataphracts charge the remaining Roman cavalry unit, who counter charges, both sides taking heavy losses.

Meanwhile the engaged elephant despite being injured and losing most of it crew, still fights on against the Roman infantry.

At the end of the turn the Romans are nearing breaking point, but a roll 1 for the Huns seals their fate, and living up to their reputation they ignore their contract with their former paymasters and throw in their lot with the Persians. 

Adam concedes.

Photos curtesy of David Pentland and the Editor.