Suraj Khund Re-imagined Sikh Wars AAR

We have a game at Chris Flowers this weekend so an opportunity to try out the Sikh Wars on a  bigger table.

I want to have a run out of the rules with amends but also how the game itself will play.

The only issue is we have 7 or 8 players which is too many for the forces I have planned for the game, at Partizan it wont be an issue as we will be shopping and chatting and may have less players anyway, but for a full day game everyone needs to feel like it was worth the trip so I need to add a couple of brigades per side to the historical order of battle.

On the upside I will get to add a couple of newly finished units to the game and we playtest the rule amends pretty thoroughly and Flashman survived to run away another day.

The table is 15 feet by nearly 7 feet with the front long edge covered by Jungle Forest disguising the approach of the British flanking force.

The British camp was behind a dry river bed, we should have one for the game but for our purposes today an actual river fille din with two fords for the Sikhs to fight over.

The British are shown the table with their fortified camp at one end besieged by a token Sikh Force, shown where their flank attack will come on through the open jungle on the long table edge.

The British have a Brigade of allied matchlockmen holding the camp supported by a brigade of tribal irregular coming out of the camp.

The flank attack will have 3 brigades of British foot and two brigades of horse. A nasty surprise for the Sikhs when it comes on. (The correct OOB has 2 brigade of foot and one of horse)

With the British out of the way the Sikhs are brough in to deploy 2 Brigades of regular foot attacking the camp supported by a weak brigade of regular hose, A further two brigades of irregulars occupy the earthworks and the village in the middle of the table whilst two very large brigades of irregular horse flood the rear of the table. (Correct OOB battle would have less regulars and the mass of cavalry took no part in the battle)

Both sides then start the battle with nasty surprises of lots of regulars attacking their earth works. Each of them have 3 objectives, the British earthworks covering the camp, the Sikh earthworks besieging the camp and the village with the Sikh reserve. The winners will be the side holding at least 2 out of the three.

British move first and march out of the jungle where they need to spend a turn forming up. The Sikhs immediately respond by refusing their flank and splitting their regulars, half heading towards the British camp and the other half turning to face the British flank attack.

Jerry takes the Tribal British allies towards the ford on the right flank, before realising the British have this flank covered and he is better moving these to cover the other ford.

The British turn allows them to advance on the Sikhs but we immediately see one brigade fail its orders and another blunder moving left towards its own camp in error. Ricard C and Richard H have decided to leave a brigade each of foot and horse in reserve and bring on later to take advantage of whatever chaos they can sow early on.

Jerry lines his native matchlock troops along the defences behind the river as Chris C advances his brigade of Sikh regulars on him.

The Sikhs make a bold display but 4 units of Sikh regulars are going to find it hard to take an earthwork behind a river with 7 units of native troops defending it.

The Sikh guns are all firing at long range and have little effect on the Native allies in their earthworks.

Rich C is quick to push his Light Dragoons forward and charge the Sikh matchlocks. The Sikhs are defeated but inflict some pain on the British.

To their right the Governor Generals Bodyguard make short work of a unit of Tribal warband.

Sikh regular Cavalry counter charge the Govorner Generals Bodyguard, the Sikh cavalry prove a tougher nut to crack and are able to hold the East India company Sowars.

The British line is advancing into and behind the Sikh entrenchments whilst Steve rallies the Sikh regulars for a counter attack.

Chris has the lead Brigade of Sikh regulars up to the river bank, he is however faced by 4 battalions of matchlock troops and a pair of field gun batteries. With the defenders in cover this may be too much for Chris's Sikhs to chew.

The second brigade of company cavalry has entered the battle charged Mikes Pathans, the Pathan foot heroicaly hold their own against the Bengal Irregular cavalry.

The Governor Generals Bodyguard beat back the Sikh regular cavalry but our now too worm out to follow as they have reached shaken status. 

Further up table Chris Flowers Sikh armoured irregular cavalry finally get going and charge the Bengal Native light cavalry. The Sikhs win this one but are also too shaken to follow up.

On the other side the Sikh Light cavalry under Mike creep forward.

The first of Jerrys Tribal Irregulars storm over the ford after failing an un-controlled charge test, they manage to take the first battalion of Sikh regulars with them. 

Firth up table the Sikh irregular cavalry reform planning to press their advantage but fail orders to advance.

The second Tribal irregular warband gets an uncontrolled charge in to Sikh regular gun whilst the first one turns and charges the Sikh foot. Chris holds them off but he is badly mauled now and is in no condition to continue to the attack on the British camp and begins to withdraw.

Rockets are notoriously inaccurate and Rich C was warned early on about their use. Only a six gets an actual on target hit and you get two shots which can go all over the place. Rich responds with a double six immediately inflicting two casualties on the Sikh cavalry and disordering a second unit. So much for my advice.

The British now have a pretty sold position covering the Sikh earthworks but are not strong enough to advance on the village whilst holding off the remaining Sikh regulars.

The original British brigade now pushed over the earthworks into the flanks of Steves Sikh regulars and forces them back.

Its all over bar the shouting, the British consolidate their hold over the Sikh earthworks but are not strong enough to push onto the village, the Sikh regulars are pulling back from the British camp and not quite strong enough to try again for the earth works.

The British have 2 out of 3 objectives, the Sikhs 1. A victory for the British, but a hard fought one.

A good game all around, the players seemed to enjoy it and the additional rules worked well. A good start to the playtesting for T'other Partizan game.

Thanks for stopping by.

WW2 German Assault

This week we introduced Andy to the rules and re-introduced Chris Flowers.

Chris and I would assault two towns with a Panzer Grenadier battalion and two tank battalions each with a company of tanks riders. Steve and Andy defending with 2 Russian battalions, a regiment of anti tank guns and 2 battalion of tanks coming on as reinforcements. Both sides had off table artillery support.

A large town near the Russian table edge and a smaller town in the middle of the table were the German objectives. With most of our infantry on foot moving at 4 inches the further town was going to be a stretch. The Tank riders would be invaluable.

Chris got good movement on his PZR IV battalion and pushed forward, a little too close as it happens as a regiment of anti tanks guns were spready across the front of the Town and opened up causing some serious injury. 

On the right one of my Panther companies pushes forward down a gully with a view to outflanking the small town i the centre.

The other one pushes straight at the village with a company of Panzer grenadiers to its right. In heavy fighting I loose half a company but eventually drive out the remnants of a company from the front of the town. Steve drops a number of artillery strikes on us and adds to the casualties on the grenadiers and one hit on a Panther.

Steve and Andy's reinforcements come on and 6 tanks against my 2 is a nasty surprise. T34 85's in the main.

I push the panthers into hull down position at the end of the gully with the infantry holding the edge of the wood in support. My firing inflicts minimal damage on the T35's.

On our left Chris's tanks have pulled back to the wood leaving the tank riders to shoot it out and providing longer rage support along with the Tiger inflictign steady losses on the anti tank guns. 

The Panzer Grenadiers have some staying power so despite beign hit by mortars are able t whittle down the gun crews.

Andy's Russian armour closes with me and starts to knock lumps off the Panthers.

In the centre Andy fires a light AT gun and I am able to drop heavy artillery on him, turns out the wood has alsorts in it and I end up getting shots at multiple targets, we dont know but his HQ company has been wiped out along with the AT gun and some infantry,

I manage to inflict some hits on him including one tank brewed but in return he destroys one of mine and suppresses the other.

I should really have kept the Panthers together and having pushed the Russians from the front of the town I try to remedy my error by supporting the front company, too little too late really.

Having inflicted lots of damage on the guns Chris sends the Tiger to support my flank.

My infantry opens up on the next house int he town and we also drop mortars on them, this forces a morale which they fail, 

Next move we occupy the house and fire into the retreating Russians causing more casualties. This causes a battalion morale as we had earlier wiped out their HQ and supports with artillery in the woods. They fails and one battalion of Russian foot leaves table/Surrenders.

Against my better judgement the fresh Panther company drives to the top of the hill to fire on the Russians, these are all on overwatch and 6 shots result in 3 hits to one panther which fails its morale and routes. The remaining tank takes out a T35.

The Russians still have 4 tanks with minimal damage so capable of coming at us. Which they do.

The Tiger takes a long range pot shot and scores a single hit on a T35. They all add up I guess.

Artillery and mortar fire take out two of the anti tanks guns and with just one remaining Chris advances his three remaining tanks on them.

The Panzer grenadiers also start to advance from the woods albeit with a very long way to go.

Chris's tank riders close assault the gun in what should eb a forgone conclusion, 3 dice vs 1. Chris gets no hits, Steve gets one and the grenadiers are thrown out.

Fortunately the Tanks then get a clear shot and destroy the last AT gun, leaving the way open to close with the town.

On the right the remaining 4 Russian tanks push forward and the Panther and Tiger take up positions to contest their advance.

A tough game this week with the Russians a bit stronger and some mistakes leading to higher casualties for the Germans.

We perhaps needed another 30-40 minutes to get a final result.

All four of us enjoyed it, honours were fairly equal but on balance a narrow Russian victory as we had yet to take the main town. Another few moves might have allowed the Panzer Grenadiers to take the town, they now had support of 3 tanks with no anti tank capability to stop them.

On my right flank we had just two tanks left but a panther and a Tiger had the edge on the remaining 4 Russian tanks and I was supported by infantry where they were not so all in all a close game.

Good fun, thanks gents.

Russian Offensive, WW2 AAR

Another WW2 play test. This time I would be attacking with the Russians and the German defenders were a much more mixed bag.

I needed to capture two towns held by a decent SS Battalion supported by artillery, a company of Police, a company of Volksturm and a mixed Tank Hunter unit of a Jagdpanther and a Stug.

To take the two towns I had 3 weak Guard motor battalions reasonable troops but only two companies with an MG to each battalion, they are supported by heavy mortars, a couple of light guns 3 SU75s and 3 JSU150's. I also had a combat engineer company with a flame thrower in a half track.

The off table artillery grid is pretty massive and Steve rolls for each unit under it, so in this first shot he can fire at two companies and a JSU. Fortunately for me the German firing dice were not great today.

As the IS75's advance on the town in support of the infantry a PAK40 unmasks and fires. The first IS75 is knocked out.

The remaining IS's and infantry return fire with effect and destroy the Pak.

As the infantry move further forward the SS company in the wood open fire on the Russians and each side takes heavy casualties.

On the left the advancing Russian infantry bump into Volksturm in the houses and a company of police in trenches to the flank of the town.

I take 3 casualties but manage to save all 3.

The SS use their anti tank capability to hit one of the remaining IS's. 

My return fire at the SS is not so great.

I close assault the company of police and they are over run.

The SS in the lead house open fire, inflicting a couple of casualties.

fortunately I have quite a bit can fire back including indirect fire from mortars and in one round of firing the lead company of SS are destroyed.

My engineers pile into the empty house and the first building in the village is taken.

The light tanks have taken a real kicking whilst providing pretty minimal support for the infantry, two destroyed one damaged. Still they kept the pak40 busy!

Finally the German armour push forward, Steve has been lurking in the woods hoping I will charge forward but the Towns are nearly lost so he needs to come get the Russians tanks or risk losing.

I fire my JSU but the range is long and no effect. The red marker is overwatch.

Both German tanks gang up on one ISU and take it out. Bugger!

The Engineers take the house with just one casualty, the flamethrower adding 4 dice to their fighting. Just one building in the town now held by the SS.

Steve pulls an extra move card, move only, he pulls back his armour so I now have to fire at effective range or take a minus for moving one before getting to close range. Grrrr.

Last move I push right up, Steve ambushes me with infantry from the rear building but misses, my fire with JSU's destroys the Jagdpanther and damages the Stug. No more time but at this point the Germans dont have enough left to win.

Fabulous game.

A victory to the Russkies.

A couple more tests but the rules seem finished for me.

Thanks for stopping by.