Operation Blockbuster WWII Legendary Wargames

I was invited to play a large Rapid Fire game at the fabulous Legendary Wargames this weekend, based on the race for the Bridges as part of Market Garden.

5 players would be the British and Canadians trying to break through and 3 the Germans trying to prevent them.

The tables are both 23 feet long and 6 feet wide so this is really is gaming in a grand scale with fabulous terrain and models.

I would play from the very far corner from the door and be gradually pinched in from the table edge by the flooded fields on my left.

To my right Peter commanded a Canadian brigade with Ian, Brian and John commanding further brigades further around the table.

Richard H, Richard C and Tim would command the German forces, no doubt in some force in the ruined town to my front.

The first obstacle just 6 inches from table edge would be this village right where my first brigade came on.

To the right of my entry point was this factory facing Peters second Canadian brigade.

Move one sees a double round of smoke in front of the first Canadian brigade. I realise quickly that this is not really that much use. It can only be centred 12 inches in front of me, meaning on a template some of the smoke is less than 9 inches in front, it stays on two turns and I cant drive through it. All its really done is slow me down.

On the left my first brigade marches on and immediatley attracts reserve fire heavy damaging my lead Stuart, as the fields are flooded each move we have to test for bogging down, inevitably a full third of my vehicles dont move at all due to the mud. 

My lead scout car races down the road through the smoke and is hit in reserve fire by a waiting Stug. This survives the limited return fire and retreats into the tow.

The rest of the recon company push to one side of the smoke racing for the ruined town.

To my right Peter has his troops well spreadh ou and advancing towards the factory at the edge of town and the woods.

On my left, slow progress as the British brigade bog down their tanks in turn getting not very far at all.

A sneaky Tiger gets a shot off but misses and pulls back behind the ridge.

Elsewhere the British are making steady progress.

Tim's Germans caught between advancing brigades pulls back to support Rich C and Rich H.

Back to me and as we push forward the flail is knocked out by anti tank fire, as my only mine clearer with two big minefields I am going to have to change tack and drive around them, mainly through the town which will be slow work. 

A further hit on my armoured car sees the whole squadron fail morale and retreat.

Meanwhile two companies of infantry de-bus in town and a short range firefight erupts with the German Para company opposite them(building on the right in this picture.)

On the opposite table, John and Brian are also making steady progress.

Next to me Peter is approaching the factory. This turns out to hold a company and supported by an anti tank gun which between them take out one Sherman and Heavy damage another.

On my left my carrier company has raced up the road to be hit by defending artillery, the troops de-bus and open short range fire on the crews.

I forget to take photos for a little while but for the next few moves its taking the town house by house, each time I find some Germans I get as much fire power onto them as possible and swamp them. Its a slow slog and the British and Canadians take casualties but the Germans typically take the worst of it, artillery proves to be the difference, we have a three gun battery of 25 pounders and when they hit together they make a mess.

As my reinforcements come on the road into tow becomes very congested. I am trying to push essentially 4 small brigades through one ruined town.

Move 7 and I am behind schedule (needing to be back home to start the BBQ) I drop on the reinforcements 5 Churchills, a bridging tank and an AA tank.

Oh and two Achilles to support the Canadians.

One last shot  from my armoured car squadron sees a heavy damage and a light damage on Richards Stug. Hopefully Peter and Malcolm can make good use of the work I have started tomorrow.

Cracking game thank you gents, good luck to the guys taking over for me on Sunday. 

Partizan Polish Soviet War 1920 Game

 So after a bit of  build up this weekend we played our Soviet Polish War game through.

Steve Shann provided the lovely terrain and the fabulous church, the rest of the gear was mine.

Our game sees the Poles advancing into Ukraine to disrupt Soviet concentrations ahead of a planned invasion of Poland. Meanwhile Ukranian Anarchists take advantage of the confusion. 

As an aside I managed to finish the couple of figures I was working on the Saturday night before. 

Our table is 12 feet by six feet with three small villages each with a very small garrison and the edge of a forest on the far edge you cant see so well on this picture.

Whilst the game played really well, the show was exceptionally busy and the game had a lot of interest which was fabulous but did mean we only got to play 3 moves through.

Both Poles and Reds had 2 regiments of cavalry with five regiments of infantry and supporting armoured cars, planes and Tchanka's. Rich C and Steve had the Poles, Chris C and Rich L the Reds and Chris F the Anarchists.

Added to this the Poles had 2 companies with a broken down FT17 occupying one village whilst the reds had a company and an MG each in two small villages on table.

After the Poles and Reds had gone, sneaky anarchists issued from the forest, two battalions supported by two guns and 2 squadrons of cavalry.

The terrain in particular excited a lot of interest, all hand made by the clever Mr Steve Shann.

Both sides deployed on table then had their moves, Poles followed by Reds.

Both sides deployed all their cavalry on one flank which had the advantage of a visually stunning mass cavalry brawl on one side.

The Reds are less colourful but offset by all the red banners and scruffy uniforms.

A little upset was caused by the Anarchists appearing on the flank of both sides out of the Forest after they had both moved. Chris seemed to have decided that the Reds posed the lesser threat so he should pick on them whilst keeping the Poles busy with his guns.

There are a real mix of figures here, especially the Anarchists, that does suit me, I like lots of variety in my forces.

Th Reds push their best troops, the naval infantry, to their left flank where the Anarchists are just starting to push forward.

The forward Red militia company come under pressure immediately taking 2 casualties. Completely expected they were always something of a speed bump.

The cavalry bust up on the Red right flank is shaping up.

The massed squadrons of cavalry look great with the armoured cars and biplanes.

The Tchanka and artillery have caused a mess with the first unit of Polish Lancers who fall back.

The Poles close in on the Red Militia who are running out of time to leg it!

A big cavalry Melee may look out of place but there were many much larger cavalry only battles so this is entirely realistic....ish.

The Tchanka proved to be the Reds best friend in this battle reducing the ranks of the better quality Poles before they were able to make contact.

At this point the table is looking very busy and we have a lot of people wanting to talk to us so there is a pause in proceedings. 

The Cavalry battle is coming to a crescendo, so again good to leave it a while as it looks great and pretty soon there will just be a lot of gaps where there used to be cavalry formations.

As both armies were right at the end of their supply lines I made it difficult for them to get a plane, I had them on table anyway as they looked great.

The Poles equally had no luck getting a plane. As these can be particularly devastating for cavalry its probably a good thing on this occasion.

Chris was grinning to himself as two battalions of Anarchists and two squadrons pounced on two unlucky companies of Sailors.

The Anarchist advance looks pretty impressive from above.

With the Militia under pressure the Reds manage to get an armoured car up to support which immediatly takes a hit but causes some casualties amongst the Poles..

Two squadrons of Red cavalry have cleared the way and prepare to push past the Polish horse to engage their foot.

At the opposite end of the table the Naval Infantry have to worry about Poles to their front and Anarchists on their flank, altogether facing 4 battalions with support on only one flank.

The cavalry on both sides are being thinned out, the rules are pretty quick and bloody when you get to hand to hand.

On the Red right the Anarchist cavalry hit a unit of Sailors in the open with predictable results and the company is destroyed.

The Anarchist foot close in on the MG and remaining company, it doesn't look good for the Red Navy.

We have run out of time for a further move but as the Reds finally rolled for a plane I let them see how it worked, As it happens they finished off pretty convincingly an already badly mauled Anarchist cavalry squadron!

Its nearly 4pm and we have only managed 3 moves but then the game was about the visitors and we seem to have captured a bit of interest.

For those of you who stopped to say hello thank you, for those of you who couldnt pry us away from other people talking (There was a que of interest at one point) sorry, we really did want to talk to everyone and it just didnt work out.

Thanks for stopping by,