Postscript

 It was back to the village of Moditten today, Jimi turned up and we were playing using Bolt Action this time, a different game entirely from Chain of Command. The Germans had to take the crossroads in the town and no Soviet troops could be close enough to contest the objective, a big ask but he did have 250 points more than I did.

I 'hid' some troops in forward positions and left some off table as reserves, Jimi came forward very quickly as he had took transports for all his squads, I opened up on the lead truck and it burst into flames and disembarked its passengers, a good start. With German troops now close to the buildings they spotted a medium machine gun and his assault gun managed to wipe it out before it had a chance to fire, things were now even.

My SMG squad move forward.

SU-76.

With the threat from the StuG to men hiding in buildings I pulled my HMG back into safety while opening up on his halftrack with a squad hiding behind a hedge, the small arms could not knock out the halftrack but they could pin it, which they continued to do so much so that Jimi had a hard time getting it to move. As the German armour moved ever closer to the objective I thought it was time to bring on my SU-76 and the crew immediately hit the StuG, sadly only immobilising the beast, the crew attempted to hit back but missed.

 I kept up pressure on the nearest Jerries in order to drive them off so that I could move my little assault gun out of the arc of fire of the StuG, I had put my only anti-tank asset in a bad place in hindsight as Jimi's infantry also carried some panzerfausts. He now had one squad left on my left so I threw caution to the wind and set a couple of squads to advance along with the Su-76, mortar fire and small arms accounted for one of my squads but my SMG squad massacred the Jerries at close range and my SU was now safe covering the crossroads.

StuG III.

Reluctant halftrack.

Things now really looked good, although Jimi had managed to move his halftrack at last towards the objective and unload his passengers I thought one last push and I would be safe. And of course this is when everything went wrong, all of my squads suffered heavy casualties from the remaining Germans, the immobilised Stug, the mortar and the MG from the halftrack as German command dice came out in one long stream. When I did get a turn my boys failed to hit anything or simply refused to comply with orders. Against the odds Jimi had managed to get a draw, we both had an infantry unit on the objective crossroads, Jimi by design and me by luck.

Two units about to be cut up.

 

The end.

Casualties on both sides have been very heavy and once again I had went forward when I probably should have stayed where I was, but where is the fun in that.

Rob popped in yesterday for a visit to see how I was getting on, he brought me another little Vickers MkVI tankette with a turret designed by mate Stuart, this is beautiful work, the two crew members are superb, he also left me an early war stretcher bearer.

The Invalids Clash

 I have felt the urge lately to get back into my wargaming, although Jimi and I had tried out a game of Dux Britanniarum last week it was not a success, all my fault, and we mainly just chatted all things wargaming. So I made more of an effort this week, I had already built a campaign table hoping to entice Matt Crump to start our Konigsberg campaign but Matt was under the weather so that was out. I then offered a game to Erik but an appointment put the kybosh on that, then at the last minute this was cancelled so I quickly offered fellow invalid Simon a game as I had already sorted Erik out for next week.

We fought on the campaign table and I was the defending Russians while Simon led a panzergrenadier platoon against my village, he had a StuG III and an infantry gun as support, I took a 50mm mortar, a sniper and a tank killer team. I couldn't afford a T34 and as the tank killers seemed a dangerous but brittle trio I also picked up a couple of captured panzerfausts for two of my squads, that along with fingers crossed.

The action opened with the Germans moving forward fairly quickly on my left and me skulking off table and around the village secure in the knowledge they would have to come to me, I did look for chances to open fire but the StuG and infantry gun posed a danger to anyone hiding in a building. I did eventually manage to get my sniper team into a shooting position but the ladies turned out to be girls who couldn't hit a barn door. Time was passing and the game had been less than exciting up until now. I did throw one squad out and began a firefight with some grenadiers in the open but this amounted to very little for both sides, I did manage to wound some NCO's though so that Simon began to rely on his Senior Leader to keep things moving.

Soviets.

Germans.

Slowly does it.

Hold, hold.

Then it happened, I threw four sixes and sighed, the result was that 'Jabos' or fighter bombers were seen in the area but no one was sure whether they had crosses or stars on them, so no one could move for two phases! A dreadful result for me as I had intended to make a push despite being the defender, we had convened for a game after all. I did eventually move when the aircraft disappeared and more to have some fun than anything, I also at the same time ambushed the StuG III with my tank killers and made a spectacular hit which blew up and injured several men following the tank in supposed safety. After this I was punished by the superior German firepower and we called a halt.

"Jabo's" that put the kybosh on the move.

Boom!

A wall of hurt coming my way.

A game which if it had been a campaign game would have lasted quite a bit longer as the Russians would not have advanced, but we were there for some fun and to throw some dice. I was left with some rule questions and mate Robert was on the end of a phone and solved several, we didn't have time to look up and discuss.

What else has been going on, well I finished my support options for Early War British, a 2pdr anti-tank gun and a Boys anti-tank rifle, I still have an armoured car to source and maybe a couple of early bren carriers but we will see. 

While I was in WW2 mode I decided to sort my last German halftrack, for some reason I had used a different paint for Dunkelgelb and when put in the box with all the other armour it just looked wrong and of course it started to bug me. It doesn't look so different in the photographs but the second paint job is much more satisfying, god know though when I will get to use it, when was the last time you saw a mortar carrier, Allied or German on the table.

Old paint job, looked a lot darker out of the light.

 

New paint job, now I am content.

 I am back to mapping, Charles at Helion has sent me three fairly easy maps on the ECW sieges of Newark, so my trial run seems to be going OK, I hope to have these done by next week, I still have a busy schedule this week. Duncan at Helion has intimated he has more projects for me in the pipeline.

I will be fighting over the same table on Thursday with 'Lucky' Jimi, I owe him a decent game, but this time we are using Bolt Action 750 points of Soviets vs 1,000 points of Jerries, it will be an interesting clash. Stewart Simon is bringing his lovely ECW collection up next Wednesday for a four player game. I am driving again so I might manage the club in another week or so.

Oh, and while in Kendal the other day I popped into Waterstone's to await the missus and treated myself, after all I'm worth it. I am a fan of Max Hastings and he has only ever once let me down, as for Catherine Nixey this kind of book is way out of my comfort zone however I did read her superb 'The Darkening Age' and I look forward to this one.