Onwards!

 Well, back on the hobby horse for another year, it was Club night on Tuesday and I arrived first and started to wonder if I had got it all wrong, but five minutes later the pitter patter of large feet confirmed I had it right after all.

I had decided to bring Matt Crump's excellent Bolt Action ambush scenario to the table, I could not do British v Norwegians so tweaked it for the Ardennes in 1944. I was playing Rob therefore it was an American paratrooper force lying in wait around an important crossroads for a German reconnaissance force determined to capture the said crossroads in order that the following German armour could continue its offensive.

My forces contained four squads of infantry, a medium mortar, two MMG's, one truck, one Kubelwagen, one PzII Luchs, one 222 armoured car and a 250/1 command halftrack. The Americans had six infantry squads, an anti-tank gun, one bazooka, a sniper team, an LMG, MMG and as they appeared each squad rolled to see if they had Molotov cocktails. I was a bit unsure as despite the vehicles the Germans seemed on a sticky wicket. And the Ami's also got a barricade, nearly forgot.

The Americans deployed their command dice and these would only be revealed should the enemy come within 12" or the Americans opted to open fire at a longer range. I didn't really have much of a plan apart from heading for the crossroads, I sent the 222, truck and an MMG for the left hand bridge, two squads of infantry between the bridges, the 250 (with MMG), Kubelwagen and Panzer for the right hand bridge and then a squad of infantry on the far right. Rob opened early and had set up his bazooka team and sniper close to the river, the sniper took out an NCO while the bazooka stunned the crew of the Luchs. I unloaded a lot of firepower on these guys cutting them down but not wiping them out, the American MMG was up next and added its firepower against my advancing infantry. Soon the anti-tank gun also opened up along with a nearby squad, it seemed I was getting nowhere fast, despite managing to drop HE and some good hits with my 20mm auto cannons I was not getting the kills I needed, on the other hand I lost most of the crew on one of the MMG's and all of the crew on the other, to add insult to injury I then got a Fubar and my lead squad in the centre ran for the rear.

Despite my misfortune the pendulum had now begin to swing in my favour as Rob's anti-tank gun failed to destroy the 222 only stunning the crew or missing altogether. I now managed to move on the Americans stalling my right and the sniper, MMG and bazooka team all disappeared as did the LMG who turned up to help. More American squads now showed themselves with only one bringing Molotov's, the German fire now built up and more and more Americans hit the dirt or refused orders due to the amount of pins building up on the units. We got to turn eight and despite my effort at pushing for the village we called a halt as we could not see the Germans taking the crossroads before turn ten. It was a draw.

The scenario turned out to be finely balanced and I am running it again next week, between my games and Matt's I don't think the crossroads have ever been taken but correspondingly the bridges have always been easily held to result in a draw. I had some bad luck in not taking out the first line of American defenders and they held me up longer than they should but in the second part of the game my luck changed and I dealt out a lot of hurt. Perhaps I should have gone forward a move or so sooner but hey, that's wargaming.

As usual going back to a ruleset after a break we forgot a few rules but it no doubt evened out. I basically play six sets of rules, Johnny Reb, War and Conquest, Bolt Action, Chain of Command, Honours of War and Furioso, I like to think I know them all but nothing beats playing them on a regular basis. I have been caught up with the Italian Wars for several months now but have arrived at a point where I can now start bringing back some of the others.

I have been lazy over the festive season and not touched a brush for a few weeks apart from a small group of Early War Germans, I do have a lot of stuff in my 'ready use' locker and recently took delivery of all the figures and tents for my Italian Wars camp. Despite all this stuff waiting to go I still want to get some mounted arquebusiers and one more Gendarme unit for the French, and the King of course. I might though bring the camp to the fore as it will be a nice change before finishing off the French, we will see.

Usually this is also a quiet time for mapping but this year is different and I have four large projects waiting to go and one almost in the bag, Napoleonic maps are leading the way for now along with French Foreign Legion fortifications and the Eastern Front bringing up the rear. This is another reason I have not been painting.

A busy couple of months coming up, the missus is having an operation on her back which means yours truly will be doing everything while she recuperates for three months, I have been in training over Christmas, the hoover, the air fryer, taking out the ashes, setting the woodburner, shopping and all the other womanly jobs. We are also having a run in with the local planning office in a bid to change the PO room into my wargame room, I won't go into details as I have only just come down from reading their last missive.

I also have to fit in games here at Casa Anderson, Italian Wars and the next Smolensk game along with a wish to have another ACW game in Februay along with all the club nights too and maybe some remote games with mate Matt Smith. I shall be a shadow of my former self.

What did you get for Christmas I hear you shout. I did very well thank you, two vouchers for Wargames Foundry and a shed load of books, I am also lucky that my birthday comes just before the big day so it has been a grand haul for me. Now I just need to find time to read them.

Christmas

Birthday