A Week of Victories

 On Tuesday I managed my second Gazala Campaign game, this time against James and his New Zealanders as my DAK surged forward leaving my compatriots behind, is that Rommel I see with me? I had a lot more support points so as well as my normal four squads I again had an extra mortar, an extra command die, an adjutant so that I could bring my Senior Leader in quickly and a lovely little PzIIC as I was expecting an armoured car or Portee anti-tank gun from James. I had not really looked at the make up of my platoon when choosing but am now grateful it has four squads rather than three, a big advantage so far although I do give the enemy the difference in support points, you can't have everything. As it turned out James had had a bit of a mauling the turn before and all his squads were understrength while I had lost one man.

James hunkered down a la Tobruk with a minefield and some wire defences, I soon surrounded these and poured fire into one unlucky squad sheltering in a crop field, the Kiwi's began to get nervous. On came a sniper who had apparently bluffed his exams at sniper school as he hit nothing and a Forward Observer for a mortar battery, this kind of frightened me this time, I think these barrages unhinge the game and never take one,but as thing turned out I was always able to move out of the danger zone and the first ranging shell landed miles away from its target. I now played my ace in the hole, the PzII rumbled on and added its automatic cannon to the hail of lead heading toward the enemy, as it turned out it was almost invulnerable to anything the Kiwis had, James had an anti-tank rifle but it never made the table

.As his casualties mounted and his morale fell with the Germans heading towards his rear James conceded defeat, he had lost 15 men to my 7, I look forward to the next game.

The main event of the week for me was another War and Conquest clash against Stuart Smith's revitalised Normans, I have just finished a biography of my hero Harold Godwinson and now have even less time for the Normans. I used to have a Norman army believe it or not, they didn't like me and I didn't like them despite the lovely sculpts (Greenwood and Ball), so they were the first army I ever sold, I never got around to an Anglo-Saxon army, but I digress.

Stewart was happy to play against my Patrician Romans this time and it was good to get them back on the table. I decided against going for the elite troops apart from some Germanic Noble cavalry, the rest of the army was average, two warbands and four Legions two of which were Psuedo Comitatenses so were given officers to keep them in line. Support troops also consisted of skirmish archers and some Alan cavalry. My commander was also second tier as I could not afford Aetius and his bodyguard cavalry despite their fighting capability, I therefore had two Initiative(SIP) tokens to Stuart's five, perhaps I was taking a big chance with this force but the die was cast. The Normans had three units of cavalry with a fourth a tad lighter, a good mix of infantry, mercenaries, dismounted Milites, spearmen, archers and light crossbows and some skirmishers.

The choice of terrain closed down one side of the table and luckily we both deployed on the opposite side, I put my cavalry on my right and was going to use the Alans to soften up the Norman cavalry while holding the Germans back until the time was right, all the Foederati units were on the right while the Legions held the centre and left, I would slowly advance the infantry hoping the right would strike first. Stuart put most of his cavalry on his left with one unit in reserve and his infantry in a battle line stretching to his right.

Patricians on the left, Normans on the right.

I won the initiative for most of the first part of the game and allowed Stuart to go first twice, which is unusual for me, but I wanted him to come into range of my missiles, this worked fairly well and his light cavalry began to suffer, I lost a unit of skirmishers very quickly due to some excellent fire from the enemy, and although my other unit on that side held on they took far too long to kill off the opposing skirmishers on that side. Quite quickly the Normans lost all their light cavalry and were stung into charging the Alans, as it was long range the Alans shot and retreated behind the German cavalry, more Normans fell, meanwhile I had got a large warband up close to the other Milites unit and it decided to flee rather than take on the Germans. A move later my right was a shambles, the retiring Milites had come back and charged into the Foederati routing them in a surprise to both Stuart and I, I knew I would not likely win the first round but the subsequent rounds should have been a walkover, but no. The other Milites unit smashed into my German cavalry and they too routed, along with the skirmishing archers and the Alans who ran in support, my Tribune looked on aghast. Thankfully the Germans despite my howls of abuse outran their pursuers but had caused quite a few casualties which along with the arrows of the Alans would come back to haunt the victorious Milites.

Norman cavalry.

Legions arrayed for battle.

My centre now assaulted the Norman infantry line, this quickly succumbed to the attacks and the Liberi and Stipendarii fled, sadly out running their pursuers but ruining the Norman defence. The German cavalry were now attacked again in an effort to destroy them but the Milites were now short of numbers and the Germans fought back so successfully the Miltes were routed and dispersed, this action saved my right flank. I now got to within charge reach of the crossbows and my men took their revenge and more Normans began to run, I was desperate to hit the archers as well but had to spend time manoeuvring so I did not hit the dismounted Milites, that would come later as my archers had now flanked them and were pouring fire into them from behind their shieldwall. The Quinta Macedonica had now taken on the Norman reserve cavalry and as they began to win Stuart handed over his sword as most of this army were running for the hills.

My right about to take a beating.

Getting revenge on the Liberi.

My German Nobles run.

Just about to hit the Norman right.

A great game and at one moment it looked quite bad for the Romans, but the German Nobles' nerve held and they came good in the end despite or because of my curses and took a load of my shoulders, I am still unhappy about the warband running with nothing more than a headache. The Alan horse archers were a great boon to me in this battle, an expensive unit but more than worth the points. On reflection perhaps I should have sent my infantry in quicker but I wanted to use my missile troops to hit the enemy cavalry and drive away their skirmishers, it worked to a point, but it takes time, two of my Legions suffered casualties from the close order archers and crossbows, perhaps I should just have suffered the slings and arrows etc. and just mown them down in combat.

Dan at the club brought in a very large box of Wars of the Roses figures he has had in his loft to see if I could recover any for my Italian Wars, I have perused them and think I can get a couple of cavalry units and another half dozen artillery pieces from them. I still have no new figures to paint and finish the Imperials, my order from TAG has now been amiss for almost a month but I am expecting them today, I have been assured they are in the post.

I have turned my attention to streams, I am going to need a large amount of sections for the new 12' table I am planning to have built, I got in touch with Andy at The Last Valley and priced up some of his beautiful Trout Streams but a) I really cannot spend that amount on something which is only used now and again on a wargame table and b) the added expense of a divorce lawyer would cripple me. I am therefore going to go with his bog standard streams and maybe tart them up a bit more myself.

The roof has been fixed although I still want to check it when the rain comes back, the builders have also been in touch and will be starting mid January to turn the Post Office back into a big room with a shower and toilet and a wargame table, I will then leave my small, comfortable study for a large open space, not sure I am looking forward to being evicted.