Good King Richard

 Club and another shot at the new Chain of Command, this time it would be Germans against Simon's Soviets, late war and the Jerries were defending a small hamlet. Simon rolled rubbish for support points so I had five and he had eight, so no big cats would be turning up although Simon could push a T-34 if he wanted to. 

I really wanted to take a panzerschreck team and a lot of other stuff but in the end I decided to leave my anti-tank defence in the hands of the hand carried panzerfausts each of my squads had, I also once again tried to take a tripod machine gun thinking it would deal death and reduce cover. I later found out that would only happen with a heavy not a medium machine gun, damn. my last points were spent on Fritz and Hans the sniper team, having learnt nothing from Svetlana and Natasha the week before. Simon did in the end take a tank, two in fact, both T-70's, I did wonder if I would have enough panzerfausts to knock them out.

The Reds are cautious.

An objective marker.

I did not take up any defensive positions in the first part of the game as Simon had to come to me in order to capture one or both objectives positioned in the hamlet. His sniper turned up but then had to move in order to find a target, support in the shape of and infantry squad and the tanks then turned up, at this point I put my MMG on along with the sniper to take advantage of his squad being in the open. I dealt out some shock but nothing too serious, Fritz and Hans were then tasked with finding the Soviet sniper which meant Simon did not fire and instead just hid and waited. More Russians turned up now but only slowly made any movement towards the objectives, this also applied to the tanks.

T-70.

Jerry turns up.

Seeing a possible opportunity one enemy squad ran to capture an objective at the crossroads, a wrecked truck, the first German infantry turned up and dealt out some deadly fire into the unprotected Reds, the tanks tried to support but Simon had trouble finding enough orders. Soon the whole squad minus a dead NCO broke and ran, the objective was safe. It was now time to knock out the tanks, two squads fired their 'faust's but only one hit and dealt a couple of scratches to the paintwork of its target.

Time was up and with the German defence firmly lodged in the hamlet we called it a night. It was Simon's first game and my third, we made the odd mistake but time had run out for the Soviets, two tanks sounded like game changers but as they required a command dice each and being crewed by only two men could not shoot and move they were not much of a threat in the end. Still some questions to be answered and some important changes to be remembered but the game certainly presents a challenge.

I had offered Erik a game here in the Bunker and decided to get my Seven Years War troops out of semi-retirement, I chose a game based loosely on the battle of Eutaw Springs with the French taking the place of the Americans. The British are slightly outnumbered but if they advance quickly the French second line can be nullified as it cannot get into a decent position to help the first line. 

French line.

French army.

British line.

To this end I advanced my whole army trying to bring all my firepower to bear, I did manage to get close and blast away with some decent casualties being put on the French left, my own left did not do as well and Erik managed to bring battalions forward to lengthen this flank. Erik did manage to withdraw his wounded battalions on his left and replace them with fresh troops, I had lost the opportunity to cripple a couple of his battalions, instead a couple of mine were now forced back, the French shooting being far deadlier than mine.

The boys advance.

Steady lads.

There, there are the enemy.

There was a cavalry clash on my left where both sides got nowhere and both left the field exhausted. It looked like I could possibly turn the enemy right with a bit of luck while holding on on my right. After a few more volleys my firing line was disrupted on both flanks which enabled Erik to bring overwhelming firepower on several battalions which either retreated or ran. I was fast approaching my army's break point so handed over my sword.

Wait for it, steady.

 

 

 

 

 

Fire!

Why did I build up two SYW forces, I know almost nothing of the period and unlike all my other armies which were researched to the 'enth degree I really cannot find the interest, apart from the uniform and flag data I remain ignorant in the main. I have a vague notion that I should have at least one redcoat army flying the Union flag, a bit like when I decided that only a real wargamer should have a Roman army (I now have three). Looking over the table today and having enjoyed the game despite the rules being fairly simple I think the boys are safe from eBay, but I do have to get them out and about more often.

I headed south last Friday for a weekend at No.1 sons who had got me a ticket for the Duxford Air Show for Father's Day, No.2 had cooked me an excellent three course Indian meal from scratch, lucky guy. The weather was cloudy but warm at Duxford, the first event a team parachute event was cancelled as was the flypast by the Battle of Britain flight, the wind was the reason (excuse). All the event aircraft flew fine so why the BoB flight was put off by the wind is beyond me. The main attraction a Red Arrows flypast was also cancelled at the last minute, although some research would intimate that RAF Mildenhall being under the auspices of the US was closed down due to an unlikely strike by the Iranians hence the Arrows were not allowed to fly, at least to the show. 

DC4 used by US Navy, flown over from Texas, 30 hrs.

B17, of course.

Spitfire.

Thunderbolt.

Hurricane.

Blenheim.

No matter, we had some lovely aircraft flying around of which the restored Blenheim was my favourite, although looking and performing well it was sadly obsolete against modern fighters and flak in 1940. Some of the aerobatic aircraft performed some hair raising manouvres, one in particular with two small  jet engines to help its main engine could actually hover at the end of a steep climb. At the end of the show a modern Typhoon literally blasted the area at speed as it climbed and rolled, the noise was incredible. A good day out.

On the journey home the Memsahib wanted to go to Jeremy Clarkson's pub for a nosey, I wanted to go and see Richard III, I won. The drive through the centre of Leicester was horrific, once parked I also led the expedition the long way around to the Visitor Centre, several times. The centre is not huge and concentrates on the finding of the grave and the excavations, you also get to stand above the grave in a special room with a glass floor. After this it was a short walk to the cathedral to see the new grave site, a kind of pilgrimage for me. I asked if it was OK to take a photograph of the tombstone and the lady began to tell me of the do's and don'ts then stopped herself and said tellingly "you are not the generation I need to explain this to". So, an item ticked from the bucket list. I am of course a fan of Richard III, no real idea why, he was English after all and had actually led a raid into Scotland at one point. I think it may be the outcome of the battle of Bosworth, only the second battle to be lost through treachery despite the perception it was everywhere, my villain is the Earl of Northumberland, the cunning Stanley's only joined when they saw Tudor would win, I doubt they turned the course of the battle. But our mate Percy, he controlled maybe a third or more of the army and simply sat and did nothing, he was not behind a hill or late, we now know the battlefield was almost perfectly flat, he sat on his backside.

I managed at last to finish the vexillation from XXX Ulpia Victrix, but since then have not managed anything else on the wargaming side, I have a Roman heavy cavalry unit up next needing cleaned and primed, maybe later in the week.

Oh and that book on the siege of Malta, halfway through and not a shot fired yet, it probably will not last much longer, stick with The Great Siege of Malta 1565 by Ernle Bradford.