Overview

Good turnout this month given the holidays. I believe we had 17 people involved in playing 4 games.

The games were : 

WW2 action in the Pacific.

WW2 post D-day Northern Europe.

A what if WW3 where Russia invades Sweden.

Seven Years War with Russia against Prussia.

Setup time.

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Photos curtesy of Gary, David Smylie and the Editor.

Sun, Sand, Sea, Sushi and Samurai.

Game of WW2 Japanese vs Americans in the South Pacific, played in the same month as VJ day. 
Using Bolt Action 3 in 28mm.

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

AAR by David Maltman.

Players

Americans : David Smylie and Jeremy Nixon.
Japanese  : Ian Anderson , Jeremy Dowd and David Maltman.

Field of Battle :

A small Island outpost in the Solomon Islands. Defended by a small American Marine force and being attacked by a Japanese beach landing force. The Japanese have managed to insert some insurgent units onto the island prior to the main attack force.

Scattered across the Island are a series of clumps of tropical forest.

Rocky outcrops give cover from rifle fire.

The Japanese objective is to get a capture the Pagoda and the American supplies beside it. The Americans have to prevent this. 

For each side there are more units than there are bolt action dice, so not all units will get to activate each move.

How it played out.

The Japanese had a naval bombardment on move 2. This was remarkably ineffectual.

Two Japanese insurgent groups deploy on the top of the mountain, a FAO group and a sniper team.
The Japanese mortar on the small island takes out one of the US howitzers under the direction of the FAO.
The Japanese sniper gets a hit on the US mortar team.

The American artillery try to target the landing craft with little success.

The first landing craft reaches the beach and unloads a Ha-Go tank which immediately takes out a US MMG team.

The American reserves start to arrive. LVT, Stuart and an M3 with a squad on board.

A Japanese lunge mine team deployed from the little forest with the red pin in it. Due to a miscalculation they do not make it to the LVT by 2". The next activation and the US bring on a second Stuart tank which shoots the little team of 2 up.

The US sniper hits the Japanese sniper team with a loss of 1 of the team.

A second landing craft hits the other beach and deploys a Chi-ha tank. Which misses the US spotter in the house.

The Japanese unload their infantry onto both beaches. On the right hand beach the infantry spot the spotter and drive the team out of the house.

On the left beach the Ha-Go moves forward and is able to hit the US howitzer.

The Americans advance across the whole field, but more importantly start to assault the mountain to take the sniper and spotter out.

Most of the Japanese forces have made it ashore, with only the Ka-Mi amphibious tank still in the water, it's movement rolls had been spectacularly bad causing it to be glacially slow. You would have thought that David Smylie had been rolling for it and not David Maltman.

The Japanese mortar gets 3 hits on the US mortar team taking them out of the game.
The Hi-Go gets a good hit on the LVT immobilizing it.

The Chi-Ha gets 4 hits on the US squad in the middle wood.

The Japanese squad get some more kills on it. It's morale fails and it routs.

The Ka-Mi finally gets onto the beach.

The Stuart on the right kills the Ha-Go. The Chi-Ha kills the Stuart in the center in response.

The Americas assault the mountain and kill the sniper and spotter team.

To add insult to injury they raise their imperialist rag, the stars and stripes.

This annoys the mortar team on the island who can now see them so they do area fire on it, clearing the heights of yankees.

The central Japanese squad does a banzai charge on the US squad which has come up to the central wood.

The Japanese lose the melee 6 to 4 and are removed.

A Japanese squad moves into the wood next to the pagoda.

The Ka-mi gets a hit on the Yankee sniper.

At that point time was up. The umpire deemed that the Japanese would have captured the pagoda in the next move, so victory to Japan.

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Editorial comment.

To celebrate the victory we turned to Tota Kaneko, a HiKu master who served in the Imperial Japanese Navy.

Note it follows the Hi Ku scan of 5-7-5 better in Japanese

Japanese man in grey sampan.
Invade base of American.
We have a good plan.

Our barrage full of rage.
Useless navy don't hit the page.
Gets the Admirals rage.

Infiltrators snipe and spot.
The mortar lands on the hot spot.
The howitzer now is not.

We land on island shore,
Infantry, tanks and many more,
Enemies are to the fore.

Anti tank lunge mines hiss.
Launches too early and miss.
Tank deals deaths kiss.

Yankees kill the infiltrators.
Mortar reigns death from above.
Yankees are no more.

Squad rushes in to fight.
American guns down them do strike.
Japanese then lose the fight.

Chi-Ha fire at Stuart tank.
Goes up in blaze of oil so rank.
The ancestors we thank.

Squad rush into wood,
Access to pagoda is good,
Emperor knows win is understood.

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Photos curtesy of the Editor. 

Caught in the Crossfire.

Game of WW2 British vs Germans in France after D-day. 

Using Crossfire in 20mm..

Organized, using terrain and models and umpired by Charlie Dickson.

No AAR, just some photos.

Players

British : Jeremy Mulholland.

German  : Charlie and Josh Dixon.

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Photos curtesy of Gary and the Editor. 

Seven days to Stockholm.

Game of the Cold war going hot what if. 

Using 7 days to the Rhine in 1/72.

Organized, using terrain and models and umpired by Paddy McGarrigle.

AAR by Paddy McGarrigle.

Players

Sweden  : Leslie Tipping.

Soviets : Stephen.

Field of Battle :

A second go at 7 Days to the River Rhine this year!

Umpiring - Paddy McG with Leslie in his natural role as a Swedish defender (Abba music aside) with Stephen acting as the attacking Soviets

This scenario was set circa 1985 pitching a Soviet company sized grouping against a similar sized Swedish group.

Set in South Eastern Sweden the Russian were attempting to seize and hold a bridge over one of the many rivers flowing through the Swedish country side.  The terrain was heavily forested with a small village near the bridge.  Ample cover for the Swedish Defenders.  The River was fordable to tracked vehicles but NOT to wheeled vehicles.

Therefore the Russians from the outset were denied the ability to cross the river in their amphibious BTRs - humble apologies (this was umpire error in forgetting the capabilities of BTRs!)

Force packages as under

Swedes 

2 X S Tank Platoon (6 tanks)

1 X Centurion Platoon (3 tanks)

2 X Reduced mechanised infantry Platoon (total of 4 M113s - standing in for Swedish home produced APCs)

2 X ATGW sections with a total of 2 missiles each (mounted in 2 Unimog Trucks)

Russians

2 X T55 Platoons (6 tanks)

1 X T55 Command Tank

1 X T72 Tank Platoon (3 tanks)

2 X BTR equipped Mech Inf Platoon (6 vehicles)

Whilst we adhered to some of the 7DTTRR rules some liberties were taken - The writer takes full responsibility for this failure!!

In essence at the end of turn one both sides received incoming arty fire which resulted in some morale damage to a few Russian tank Platoons but zero damage to Swedish forces.

Both sides gradually fed forces into the battle.  The Russians threw a T55 platoon on right flank which whilst using the cover of woods were ground down by fire from the S Tanks who were in defensive positions.  The main Russian assault was on their left flank with the remaining T55s T72s and APCs.  

Aside from Swedish tank fire being massively successful - all those 10s from Leslie (or full credit to the Commandant of the Swedish Armour School)  the Russians did destroy all the centurions and 2 of the S tanks (55% of Swedish tanks) but suffered a loss of all their tanks.

As the Russian attack on their left flank had destroyed the Centurion tank platoon defending on this flank the Russians though down to nearly zero tanks had sufficient mechanised infantry that had they been permitted to cross the water obstacle with their BTRs (2+ on a D6) (again umpire at fault!) they might have engaged in some fancy close combat with Swedish armour using the closed in forested terrain against Swedish defenders with section level held RPGs.

In essence the rule mechanics placed the Swedish tanks with their 105 mm guns more than capable of destroying T55s and the T72s which had modest success but ultimately fell to the 105 guns. 

Aside from failure to adhere to the 7DTTRR rules in full this battle proved that an opposed river crossing is one of the most difficult operations to conduct let alone win!

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Photos curtesy of the Editor. 

Battle of Gross Jagersdorf.

Game of Seven years War Russians vs Prussians in East Prussian, 30th August 1757. 

Using FOB 3 in 15mm.

Organized, using terrain and models and umpired by Gary.

AAR by Gary.

Players

Prussians : David Taylor.
Russians  : David Brown.

Field of Battle :

Club meeting today and I put on a scenario based around action around Norknitten Woods during Battle of Gross Jagersdorf (converted from a Black Powder scenario) using, of course, FOB 3.

Usual suspects signed up for game with Dave T taking the attacking Prussians and Dave B the defending Russians.

As ever a cracking game ensued with Prussians concentrating their forces on Russian right flank.

Russians had great sequences of cards and good move rolls but continuously failed to take advantage when shooting or in close combat. 

They thereby suffered badly in early going despite managing to charge cavalry onto flank of infantry twice (Fusilier Bttn 40 had a charmed life !) and then outnumbering enemy in 3 of 4 combats and losing every single melee !!

The Prussian Grenadiers (4 units) were rather poor including failing to move several times and both sides Cavalry were pants.  

These set backs saw Russians bleed morale and they were soon tottering on the brink and giving Morale to Prussians, but they passed their first Army Morale and seemed to have a resurgence of fortunes winning several combats (including at least 2 when roll a D4 vs enemy D10+ !!) and managed to survive numerous Daring Deed rallying rolls.

This saw several Prussian units shattered but the cost in Russian units was crippling and the slaughter continued until a second Army Morale appeared and the Russians quit the field.

The Prussians had a mere 3 Morale left (both sides started with 30) but had been 'gifted' 23 by the enemy so a crushing win for Prussia despite Fredericks absence.

How the game played out.

Prussian assault into woods in full swing

A Brigade of Garrison troops is heading to Prussian right to try to get their cavalry out of trouble

A heavy melee in the woods

Russians trying to redeploy (they had to set up first) to Prussian concentration

Prussians bringing reserves into play

Russian right being turned

Prussian Fusilier Bttn 40 visible just outside wood near center having survived 2 flank charges by cavalry

Overview of battlefield before Prussian cavalry arrived (on foreground left edge) 

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Photos curtesy of Gary.