Eastern Front WWII Game AAR

 We haven't played Steve's home grown rules for a while so decided to have another play as he has made a number of amends.

Steve would command a mixed force of Germans defending an East German village, Chris and I would split an attacking Russian force.

The Russians had two companies of infantry a company of SU's and some support weapons. The Germans we would find out as we went along.

I had to get in quick before Chris nabbed the battenburg.

The rules are card driven and not disimilar to the Picquet in terms of activations. As we deploy on table the only Germans we are aware of is the mortar dropping harrassing fire on us, clearly directed by a HQ in one of the buildings but which one?

We push forward and my SU's are nearly half way up the table before they bump into a platoon of Police with Panzerfausts and back off out of range with two points of damage on one of the vehicles.

My return fire from a safe distance puts the platoon almost out of action with three suppression points and taking a base of as casualties. Across the rest of the table the infantry on foot are trying to keep up.

As soon as we are in effective range Steve opens up with a platoon of Panzer Grenadiers from one House and a platoon of Police from another. Chris and I return fire from multiple weapons then get forward to close assault them.

The Police unit surrender and my SU's go back up the hill only to discover  Panzer Grenadier MG and a HQ spotting team.

We are outside the houses but without a close Assault card the best we can do is keep firing in and reducing the numbers of defenders.

My SU's inflict some damage on the MG but then a Hetzer hoves into view and blows both up with one round of firing. Oh dear, things had been going so well!

I missed a couple of card turns with the camera, Chris flushed some Panzer Grenadiers out who beat a hasty retreat in front of his SU's, he then turns the German flank only to find an AT gun waiting and inflicting serious damage on both remaining SU's. 

Discretion being the better part of valour he pulls them into the village which we have just occupied having close assaulted both front houses and captured the remaining defenders.

Unfortunately the Hetzer is re-positioned and hits a further SU as it pulls into town.

I push on, close assaulting the next block of houses with a platoon, unfortunately they fire on me, combined with the Panzer Grenadiers in an adjacant block and push my chaps back.

Having advanced one MG and my HQ I am however starting to cause casualties on the Panzer Grenadiers entrenched on the hill.

We are now also starting to concentrate fire on the Police occupying the next house.

A further close assault from two platoons and the remaining Police are overwhelmed and surrender giving us control of 4 out of 6 buildings.

Meanwhile Chris close assaults the woods on our right flanks and destroys both the company sheltering there and the anti gun dug in on the edge.

With the Germans having only two companies remaining and holding the last two houses and Russian victory is declared. Steve however made us work hard for it.

A fun game thanks Steve, I look forward to our next encounter.

Spanish Buildings for 40mm Peninsular

Freind Chris Charlton surprised me with an early Christmas Present, donating some lovely buildings to the 40mm Peninsular project.

These are out of production Old Glory and are oversized 28mm which I feel fits perfectly.

Chris has done a fantastic job of painting these and basing them to give nice paved areas. Having languished in an out building they just needed a little tidying up. So whilst giving them a brush down and wipe with a damp cloth it was the ideal opportunity to take a few snaps of them.

The Church is probably my favourite, Chris has done this lovely model proud, I love the warm colour scheme he has used, the addition of some shrubbery adds a bit to it as well. The rooves all come off so figures can sit inside. 

The Villa is a slightly different style, much paler as I suppose it is meant to be a nicer build. Perfect for a garrison headquarters or game objective. It also has a lovely little coat of arms over the porch. Chris has added the base with walls and paving and made a cracking job of it.

This little block of houses vies for first place for me, a lovely compostion again with a paved base added by Chris and a tree that was once a Bonzai by all accounts. lovely this one. Again all 3 tiled rooves lift off.

Lastly is a small farm, complete with a base with small patches of farmland and paving and two Bonzai that needed a slight amount of repair.

Taken as a whole this is more than enough buildings for my planned collection, along with some of Steve's very large trees our terrain is all set for this mini project.

A few shots with a couple of armed Monks to give you an idea of scale, I think this is perfect, proper 40mm would probably look a bit on the big side, these oversized 28mm look perfect to me.

I cant wait now to get the figures finished so we can get this lot on table. Fingers crossed a few more weeks and we will be there.

Chris also very kindly picked up a couple of hand made trees from the last valley beautiful big things perfect for 40mm, I included a base of skirmishers for scale. You can just see behind them the boxes with 30 or so extra 40mm figures I also picked up at York

So we are well on our way, just need to paint the French, is there a theme here?

A Wee Russian Civil War Game AAR

 Club night and with Chris close to having some Chinese forces available for this period we decided to remind ourselves how the rules worked with a Russian Civil War game.

We currently use Triumph of the Will by Too Fat Lardies, not as polished as some of their newer rule sets but specifically designed for the interwar period and with some interesting mechanisms.

Our game features a Train station with a weak 3 company battalion of Whites in hastily thrown up trenches, supported by a recently arrived armoured train with MG, Gun and company of Shock troops.

Help is on the way with a mixed regiment of Cossacks supported my artillery and a Tchanka and the possibility of a visit from a plane.

Attempting to wrest the Train and station from the Counter Revolutionary Gangsters are a battalion of 5 companies of Red infantry, supported by two companies of veteran Siberian rifles, two guns, two MG's and a regiment of 5 Sotnias of horse. Off table a reserve company of naval infantry waits to deploy.

Move one sees the Reds press forward and inflict serious damage on one company of whites with the artillery, this would be a feature of the game as I had over egged the artillery a bit for both sides, the Cavalry meanwhile marched around the foot to try intercept the White Cossacks marching to relieve the station.

The red foot push forward with the Internationalist ex POWs taking a thorough beating from artillery and MG fire.

Next move and the massed Red Cavalry come on, sweeping around the small wood to try and head off the White Cossacks who have entered just in front of the railway station defences. . Numbers are similar with 5 units each but the Cossacks benefit from being aggressive in combat and having 8 man units vs Red 7 man units.

The artillery is devastating for both sides and the whites in the station are taking a particular pounding as the red foot advances.

Next move the reserve unit of red sailors comes on right on the flank of the station, I am thinking this might be a game changer but Chris hits them with concentrated fire and they are immediatley stopped in their tracks with nearly 50% casualties.

The cavalry close with each other and the Whites as expected get the upper hand pushing a unit of red cavalry back and then breaking through into the next unit. Chris has however sent one unit of white Cossacks at the infantry which evens things up a little for me.

My red foot close with the station defences but both sides have taken serious casualties.

Two out of three white units are shot to bits the reds are doing better but not much.

Shock troops from the train take up position in the hasty trenches, these veteran troops will be difficult to shift.

The Kuban Cossacks close with my Siberian rifles which is not good news, I did manage to get a round of MG fire into them first so only 6 from the original 8 are available to go in. Not surprisingly the Rifles are wiped out but the Cossacks are down to half strength at the end of the melee. The Siberian rifles were my better units.

The Cavalry melee swirls on. The Whites get the better of the first engagements but as they break through onto the supporting units they are then sent realing back in turn, as Chris hasnt used all his Cossacks he cant get the edge the extra numbers would give him.

Finally the Reds are at the entrenchments, however the casualties and suppressions from the supporting fire mean they dont quite get into hand to hand.

Finally Chris throws what he needs for a plane and it starts to inflict casualties first with the guns then with the Red cavalry.

The Tchanka supporting the cavalry gives an extra 6 dice in hand to hand, representing the devastating effect of short range machine gun fire in a swirling melee. This is just enough to stave off total defeat for the Red Cavalry.

The white MG and Cossacks are able to inflict enough casualties on the Red infantry for two more

units to fall back and the battered remains of the White defenders hang on to the station, just.

The Cossacks have been all but wiped out but the Reds have only one intact unit of Cavalry to take advantage of this. A very close run win for Chris and the Whites, but a Phryic victory as they dont have enough remaining troops to occupy the station. A good fun game allowing us to revisit the rules ahead of some larger games in the coming months.

Thanks Chris for allowing me to get one of my favourite collections back on table. Great fun as usual. An thank you Terry for not falling out with us for being the very last to pack up yet again at the end of the night. Sorry!