Gembloux Gap 4: Villeroux

 Between Covid and the return of the annual cold the whole Festive Season has been a mixed bag for the Anderson family this year, me feeling lousy, one house in lockdown and No.1 son in limbo in Sicily after being arrested in Belgium and sent back to good old Blighty a few weeks earlier, having breached their rule change which didn't make it to the internet. It gave me a good excuse to wax lyrical and jingoistic about not sending us back in 1914 or 1940.

Enough sabre rattling, friend Matt whose family has also been hit hard by Covid over Christmas mooted that we should get on with our Gembloux Gap campaign, something I thought had been sunk by the hammer blows of fate, but no, the date was now written in code.

 I put the terrain together yesterday and we were ready to go by 1000 hrs this morning, Zoom on the iPad and the roving camera on Messenger on my phone, this setup has worked fine for all my remote games and being Scottish doesn't cost me anything. The French have been reeling back from 3rd Panzer Division's relentless advance and are now attempting to stop the Blitzkrieg at the small village of Villeroux, sadly for them some of the divisions armour has joined in this attack.

French 75mm infantry gun.

Firefight which the Poilu's lost.

Scenting victory the Germans advance.

 The Germans get a hefty eighteen points of support for this attack, so I chose an Adjutant, an extra Command die, a Shabby Nazi Trick, a pre-game Barrage, an infantry gun, Panzer II and a 232 armoured car along with a partridge, no, made up the last bit. I do have an SdKfz 222 armoured car but it is in mid-war colours so substituted the 232 which has the same armament, it's on my list for early war. Matt got a measly nine points and took an infantry gun and an extra squad. 

One abandoned tank and the armoured car.

Villeroux

 Now you have heard me going on, like many of us, about bad luck, whether mine or my opponents and this game was no exception for poor Matt. My first roll ended the turn so my pre-game Barrage went south as did Plan A, however I then proceeded to get the initiative for the next four phases. My troops leapt along both flanks while my vehicles took up position for when the Frenchies eventually showed up, it was a stroll in the park. Matt only managed to pop down his VB rifle grenadiers as the Boche closed in, these suffered for ruining the stroll in the park, their Junior Leader hit the dust as did half his team while the remaining troops broke for the rear. My men, especially on the left flank continued towards the empty French lines. Matt now brought on a squad to ruin my day but as I had garnered a Command die I interrupted and managed kills and shock putting them on the back foot against my own squad.

German 75mm infantry gun.

Stand off in the woods.

 

Another French squad arrived on my right but stayed put in the wood as I had a squad ready and waiting for them to advance while I concentrated on the left. Matt got a double turn and proudly explained his 75mm gun was turning up, sadly for him they listened to local Jean 'The Rat' Claude and decided instead to wait a turn. Eventually he did get the gun down and it commenced a dual with the Panzer II, although unable to knock out the little tank he caused enough shock to eventually make the crew abandon the vehicle. Now everyone else in the German force turned on the gun crew and soon they or rather the survivor was running for the rear. Elsewhere meanwhile The French had been losing Junior Leaders and an LMG team so when the gun crew ran their morale hit 1. The Germans also now began to send infantry along the road heading for the undefended centre of the village, Matt called it a day.

So, a welcome game and the first of 2022, a good victory for the Germans helped along by atrocious luck on the French side, the heap of consecutive phases, the loss of leaders and the delay in arriving all went against Matt. There are still three more tables to fight across, the next should prove more problematic for 3rd Panzer as it is quite open and the last is a fight in a large village, so still time for the French to slow the Blitzkrieg.

I have used the LMF over the festive season and got a couple of volumes for my upcoming project of the Italian Wars and took advantage of a sale at The Grand Manner to get several buildings to use on SYW battlefields, they are not painted and are on special offer I think until February, so I spent money to save money. I also have my new kits to build and paint, although these are on the back burner for now, the 8.8cm will be in grey along with the transport and the Dingo in drab for my Late War British. I have managed to get the 25th Foot to the point where they are ready for varnish and then flocking, the French Regiment de Nice is up next. So it is time really to make up my mind on whether to continue with Crusader or wait until Front Rank turn up at Gripping Beast for the next four battalions.

 The club is open on Tuesday but I have no plans yet to turn up until the 11th as the 4th will be my first day back at work so I might not feel like going out and the airwaves have been quiet so perhaps everyone else feels the same. Club dinner on Friday, looking forward to that.