Konigsberg 4 and Bremen 4: Desperate battles

Club night and another busy week on the wargaming front before a bit of a lay off while I enjoy a taste of high culture in the capital of the old Habsburg Empire.

I took the excellent The Bridge scenario, 'Lucky' Jimi took the British defenders and was helped by Simon who didn't have a game organised. I have defended the bridge once and attacked it twice, I have my own opinion on how both sides can win although it is a bit harder for the defenders. Jimi went for the bridge while Simon tried a right hook, this was helped by the missing Paras turning up to lend more weight to his attack. Sadly for Simon Jimi was in charge of his armour and a morale throw turned up a Panic so the Sherman left the battlefield, I was very happy with this as two hits from my PzIV had already failed to penetrate the Allied armour, the panzer now had carte blanche to disrupt the British forces.

'Lucky' Jimi ponders his next move.

I now rushed towards the bridge with almost everything I had, apart from the Kriegsmarine squad which I forgot about, and some hand to hand combat left me disputing the objective, helped by yet another Panic which caused the British CO to leg it rearward. The bridge defenders had been whittled down and Simon's men would now have to run a gauntlet of fire if they were ever going to help their mates, which as we got to turn 5 looked unlikely. Time was against us and we had to call it a day, a draw was declared but I think the Dynamic Duo got off light. It was a good night with Jimi's dire die rolls causing lots of mirth.

I have the Bolt Action V3 book and although I have not sat and had a good read I have watched a few games on YouTube, my first impressions are favourable from V2, there looks like there has been an attempt to 'get real' with some of the mechanisms which for me is a good thing. It does look like the quality control has once again been bad, there really is no excuse for this in a book costing £35 but I am not a fan of Warlords QC or the lame excuses for it, books or otherwise. Judgement in the end will be reserved until I get some hands on games under my belt, watch this space.

Mate Robert managed to be in the area this week so we organised the fourth game in our Road to Bremen campaign, the British had been held back on Map 4 on our previous game. This time Robert dropped a mortar barrage on my defensive position, this game mechanic most people will agree breaks the game, however he had warned me and I could not blame him due to the tactical circumstances. The barrage basically stopped me doing anything with my men while the troops under the barrage simply lay and took casualties, you cannot run, withdraw, see anything or deploy troops into it. You need a Chain of Command dice to stop it although if the enemy also has such a dice he can keep it going, more frustration.

The British get serious.

 

Incoming!

Boom, boom.

For a long time I sat and did nothing except die while the British crept closer and closer, then, hallelujah, I managed to stop the barrage, boom, my Pak took out a carrier, boom, my Pak took out a Sherman, I also managed to wipe out the crews of the carriers, British morale plummeted. Robert was not going without a fight, he managed to get a couple of squads into the woods and attack my weakened defenders, German morale now fell, both sides now struggled to get the upper hand. The British pulled off a coup in capturing two Jump Off Points and my morale fell again. Robert managed a last desperate charge to win, my morale disappeared, but wait, the British had to take two morale checks due to the hand to hand combat, one minus and they would have to withdraw, leaving the handful of Germans left alive to cling on to the table. He made his morale throws with snake eyes, aaagh!

Take that.

Men of the match.

The beginning of the game while I was under the barrage was very frustrating for me, but once it went we had a cracking game as both sides desperately strove to wound the other, each coming so close to winning each time.

I got up early this morning to clear the table and set up for my second game, again Chain of Command with Matt Crump and another campaign game. Matt too looked like he had an almost impossible mission ahead of him and we decided I would introduce him to the Italian Wars when he lost.

This time the defensive position actually did me no favours, there were three buildings with only limited firing positions facing the German advance, and although Matt only had two panzergrenadier squads and a MMG behind entrenchments he could outshoot me in most situations as it soon became apparent. Matt also brought a Panther, I had toyed with taking an anti-tank gun but in this campaign nothing apart from a Panzerfaust has a good chance of taking the cat out, I therefore went for a Tank Killer team and gave each squad a panzerfaust.

Seerappen train station.

I started out well as Matt struggled to get his tank into action and I hit his two Junior Leaders wounding them, giving him command problems, but I had my own as my off table troops were reluctant to turn up for several phases. Once the tank did move forward I managed to ambush it twice but could not get a decent hit on it, only killing one of the crew.

Oh, oh.

Brave but sadly useless defenders.

Firepower.

The pendulum swung my way again as I knocked out one of Matt's two squads, but now the lack of decent firing positions began to hurt me, the amount of lead coming my way knocked out a squad and a couple of teams, my morale now fell, despite Matt only having a morale of three I just could not get into a position to cause him any more checks without jeopardising my own morale. We slugged it out for a while but I was on the way out, my tank killers had already gone and my squad on the objective had lost their leader and as my Senior Leader had died earlier I was stumped. I gave up and we shook hands.

Two long, frustrating, but equally exciting games for all of us, and so close, especially against Robert, Matt had my measure at the end. Chain of Command V2 is coming after Christmas if Rich Clarke is to be believed, I hope he manages it, He has mentioned sorting out some of the pitfalls of the rules, the mortar barrage for a start and proper objectives for attackers and defenders so players cannot set up a fire base and wait to see who's morale collapses first, plus other things. I always say that the rules favour small campaigns, but it is only when you play them that you get the feeling that they were not properly playtested beforehand. Bremen is hard for the British but in the context of the end of the war it actually works, the Germans should not expect to win, it's the playing the game that's the thing. The jury is out on Konigsberg II for both sides expectations.