Normans again!

 What a fantastic spell of warm weather we are having, almost like a late summer, a tad uncomfortable at night but I can live with that as no doubt 'Person who gives birth' Nature will get her/its/whatever own back later.

On a more serious note it was Chain of Command at the club this week, we took a scenario from the 1940 Blitzkrieg book with the Italians riding on the back of German good fortune and invading the south of France. I was the French and took a Motorised Platoon with a Panhard armoured car and a Renault R35 tank along with an extra infantry squad and mortar as back up, you get a lot more support points in this book. Rob had added an extra section to his platoon along with a couple of tankettes and an anti-tank gun, there may have been more but that is all I saw or knew about.

The Italian squads are huge, 16 or so men with two LMG teams, so able to throw out a lot of firepower, hence why I had taken two vehicles, anyway the Italians turned up, orgainised themselves and then slowly advanced. I brought on one squad on my right but kept them out of LOS until such time as I needed them, Rob had to capture all my Jump Off Points to win, a huge ask to be honest. Not such a great ask after all it would seem as I realised, courtesy of Rob, that my support would only arrive on Turn Two, in Chain of Command many times you never get to Turn Two, so as a little tankette turned up to support the Italians and I had no anti-tank it looked like game over, no matter how silly the little vehicle looked, if you don't have anything to kill it, it suddenly looks very frightening.

My grenade launchers who never fired once.

That damn tankette.

The Italians arrive.

As I contemplated an early night Rob brought me back into the game by throwing three sixes and ending the turn! It was now Rob that looked like he was going nowhere as my armour and mortar turned up, as did another squad to hold my left. I got lucky and chalked up a couple of wounds on NCO's and wiped out at least one squad as Italian morale fell and they went to ground.

My armour.

Rob tries an advance.

To enable my Panhard crew to see the enemy.

The little tankette had to be destroyed, time after time my armour either did not see it or did see it but couldn't hit it, it was sent backwards a couple of times but was never in danger of brewing up, luckily for me its firing on my infantry was abysmal. I got kind of fixated on the damn thing and kept thinking one good shot will get rid of it but it never did. He had another in the box even if I had killed it.With my armour at last pushing forward and Rob's anti-tank gun being as effective as my gunners and mortar rounds falling with impunity he decided to withdraw.

Grrrr.

The Italians on the back foot.

A good game as always with Rob, but the scenario is a bit loaded, if the French do not get their supports on quickly then they may as well look for a white flag, OK it would still take time to capture the JOP's but there would be no doubting the outcome. On the other hand once the French do get their support their defence hardens and I would think it impossible for the Italians to get all the JOP's. This means then that part is out the window and the winner is whose Force Morale can hold out best.

The very next day I had a game of War and Conquest organised with new player Stuart who lives only 45 minutes away, I got in touch with Stuart by chance on Facebook as he had posted a game with a friend of mine. I love War and Conquest, it is my second favourite rule set and I don't get nearly enough games so I jumped at the chance when Stuart said he was available. He was bringing, yes, Normans! You know I have no time for William and his usurpers and they are very tough in WAC, I was going to face them with my Saxon Heptarchy, I would therefore be low on armour and elite fighting units but my Saxons are veterans of many successful battles against Normans.

 On the day we faced off and I put my elite Gedriht on my right and then expanded my line to the left where my cavalry sat, I also had four groups of skirmishers to the front, hoping to quickly finish off any Norman missile troops before the lines clashed. Stuart put most of his cavalry on his right and one skirmish unit on his left, the Norman infantry held the centre while allied Anglo-Danes were on his left (Stuart had to make up the 3,000 points).

Saxons on the left, Normans on the right.

 

Saxon King.

Anglo-Danes and Norman army.

Both sides advance.

Plan A did not work well and my skirmishers were nearly all forced back while causing less than a nuisance to the Normans. I pushed my Ceorls and the young Warriors to the left to close down the area in front of the enemy cavalry and make them have no choice but to attack my infantry. I advanced my Gedriht quite quickly into javelin range of the Anglo-Danes while on their left my Franks slowly advanced, these were quickly picked on by the Norman archers and began to lose quite a lot of men giving me a bit of a fright.

 

Action in the centre.

Norman shock cavalry.

The Saxon left.

It was now that the main lines clashed, the Franks hit the Norman crossbows who despite everything managed to stand and hold them, I looked skyward, the Franks were back to normal. The Gedriht on the other hand slaughtered the Anglo-Danes and sent them packing, sadly however their pursuit moves were lacking and the enemy escaped. On my left the Norman cavalry had charged in, my Ceorls held magnificently despite their leader being killed and along with the young Geoguth soon turned the tables on the cavalry. The Norman centre now found itself in trouble as the Franks had heard my whinging and routed the annoying crossbows and slammed into the Liberi behind and also vanquished them, well done lads, the other Liberi unit was taken out by some Duguth. As things turned sour one Norman cavalry unit hurled itself at my mounted Duguth and swept them away, but it was too little too late. Stuart handed over his sword.

The Norman centre under pressure.

A close up.

My hardy Ceorls.

 Almost five hours of combat and it was like five minutes, an exciting battle. I made a mistake with my skirmishers expecting too much from them, I should also have covered the frontage of the Franks, no wonder they were cheesed off with me. I did have an opportunity to wipe out the Huscarls but thought no, you impetuous fool, do not grab defeat from victory, I would instead let my javelins wear them down as there were only a few left around their leader. Stuart went away with thoughts of reorganising his army for the next clash, I think then I shall bring my Romano-British to the fight, you can find Stuart's report here.

I wanted a bit of a break from Italian Wars painting or at least fighting units, so I put together a couple of stands for Imperial generals, Charles of Bourbon and Georg von Frundsberg from Pavia. I continue to have a bit of a break and am doing some artillery at the moment.

I have not spent a lot of money on myself this year as was the plan drawn up with the suits at the LMF, but decided I deserved something, a couple of somethings actually. I got another Soviet T-26 for my early war Russians, this will be built with two MG turrets, there are actually 10 variations in the Rubicon kit. I also got a SdKfz 250/7 which is a mortar carrier, I just liked the idea of it and I suspect it would be a dangerous opponent in Chain of Command. NO, it would have to be off table cried the regulars on Facebook, damn thought I, have I wasted my hard earned cash. Coming to the rescue was George Kettler with the German 80mm mortar manual, 60 meters (65.4 yards) is the minimum range for this mortar, so about 18" in CoC speak, take that! Others are similar ranges, the American and Russian 'medium' mortars for instance were mooted. These vehicles will be in the queue after the Imperial cannons.

I am returning to Dux Britanniarum on Tuesday, well that's the plan, I really enjoyed this game so thought why not.