A Bridge Too Far?

 Busy time for me at the mo, we had a family weekend near Gretna and were lucky enough to have two fantastically warm days, we also have a dress up evening and the theme was TV and Movies so I ended up as Tommy Shelby from Peaky Blinders, a more mature Tommy but I thought a striking resemblance.

The club this week was an opportunity to show off War and Conquest, one of my two most favourite games. I was playing Fran but Alex also asked to join in so I decided to umpire and explain the rules as the battle progressed, or as good as I could not having played in eons. I brought two Dark Age forces similar but with subtle differences, Romano-British and Saxon Heptarchy. As with most new games both armies got stuck in right away and it degenerated into the usual Dark Age slog, at the end of the night the Saxons just had the edge. Both players mentioned the 'bucket-o-dice' part of the game, something which it took me a bit to get used to, but otherwise it went OK, I could see Fran giving it another go but not so much Alex.

Saxons led by their King.

The British advance.

Forward boys.

Close combat.

I had a second WAC clash sorted for tonight a rematch between my Seleucids under the command of Ed and the Thunderbolts under myself, the 12th had lost quite spectacularly when I introduced the game to Ed almost two years ago and wanted revenge as they are not used to losing. Sadly we have had to postpone, but I do have my son coming over for some games later in the month, which will probably be WAC.

Yesterday I was in Penrith having been invited up to Matt Crump's Dungeon for a Bolt Action game which is part of an ongoing campaign Matt is running set against the backdrop of Operation Sealion. I was the Germans and my Fallschirmjager had taken a bridge over the river Stour and they were to hold it until reinforcements arrived, one squad had gone AWOL and would turn up during the battle but no one knew where. 

My first wave turned up on the right hand side of the table and took up position in some buildings covering the bridge, I also put my Pz38(t) on the far right with an infantry squad in support, I had some idea of outflanking the British. Matt had units surrounding the bridge and closing in along with an A10, a Beaverete armoured car a mortar and anti-tank rifle, there were also a bunch of sailors for some reason and in reserve was the local Home Guard.

The battlefield.

More goodness.

A joy to fight over.

As the bullets started flying I found my brave boys on the bridge holding their own at first, then the British mortar started putting some very accurate fire down on the objective, my casualties mounted as a hail of lead followed. I now pushed my infantry forward in order to support the Paras as their numbers fell. Matt has a 'White Dice of Death' in the bag and the first time it came up it was a flock of sheep in the road just as I was thinking of moving my newly arrived armoured car forward, the next time I found my boss was intoxicated and the third time a squad headed for the nearest building to loot it! It was now that the missing Fallschirmjager turned up to the fight, right in the rear of the British heavy weapons which they proceeded to wipe out, mortar, HMG and anti-tank rifle gone. The squad of Matelots had managed to leave the bar at the pub and got close to the bridge but they found themselves pinned down for the rest of the game.

The first assault.

Surprise!

There now followed some serious hand to hand combat on the bridge as I struggled to keep the British from taking posession, two assaults came in and both were hurled back, but only just. Thankfully I had moved all my remaining squads into positions to counter attack the bridge just in time, even so the Home Guard brushed aside their losses and got on to the bridge, things were looking bad for the Germans as we had reached Turn 6, but wait, a die roll brought another turn. I had one squad left which could deliver an assault on the Home Guard, it was too much for the brave locals and they died to a man, and a woman Reg.

The Sailors leave the pub.

It's all over.

A real nail biter right up to the end with the Jerries grabbing victory from the jaws of defeat at the last possible moment. It is always a pleasure to play in the Dungeon, Matt puts on a lovely table with lots of interesting scatter and he always manages to work up a balanced scenario. Bolt Action is perfect for this type of game, you won't get this level of excitement from Chain of Command, at least not often, and before I get jumped on, it's simply a different type of game, they cannot be compared, but both have their place.

I have managed to clean up and prime my new Landsknechts and Matt kindly gave me a single, metal hoplite to make up my new unit of those. I may get around to some painting tonight but right now I do not feel like it.