It's Cold Outside

 We had no club this week, as expert as we are at fighting with wee sojers we cannot fight red tape. I therefore offered Jimi a game here in the bunker, we decided on an Eastern Front tussle around winter 1943, Jimi brought his newly painted winter vehicles and his Gebirgsjager while I led the brave forces of the Motherland. I set up a Soviet attack on a ruined village and for some fun I allowed the Jerries to place half their order dice in the village and they would only be uncovered if they shot or Russians got within 12" of them, the rest of their forces would arrive on turn 2. I also had a Eureka moment and decided I have planes, so why not use them, for this I put a blue die in the bag and when it was pulled out a second die roll would be made, 1 your plane arrived but the enemy chose the target, your own troops obviously, 6 and your plane arrived and you had complete control, anything else and nothing was heard. Each side would have one flying sortie.

Jimi had his StuG III, a truck and a 251/17 along with a mortar, MMG and a sniper, I went a bit heavy and support was a KV1, SU76, 3 trucks and a squad of tank riders, in hindsight I should have given the Russians some extra support points as they were attacking a dug in position. No matter I quickly threw one squad forward and the Germans opened up on the gift but I spotted most of their line for the follow on troops. I pushed for a wood on my left flank intending to outflank the village but Jimi countered this with his second wave, his squad of skiers whom I cannot seem to kill off in games with Jimi backed up by the 251/17, we settled into a firefight. On my right I put my armour and stupidly lost my tank riders for almost no gain, however my SU76 was a star and cut up the German centre while the KV1 dualed with the StuG and eventually blew it up.

SU-76.

KV-1 with tank riders.

Ooops too soon.

Then literally out of the blue, the blue die that is, a FW-190 was seen circling the battlefeld but the pilot was having difficulty and stayed on the periphery, a bit later a YAK-3 also turned up however he decided to shoot up his own troops, happily for me however he also seemed to be having a hard time finding an actual target. Things were looking fairly good for the Soviets, the firefight on my left flank was still anybody's, the Germans had no armour and had lost a couple of units more than me, then of course fate stepped in. The FW-190 roared across the battlefield and dropped a bomb square on the SU76, it hit the open top and up went the assault gun. We had by now got to turn 6 and time was up, although I was one unit up on Jimi it was still anyone's game, despite me having a KV1 on the prowl. 

StuG III.

 

The skiers.

The new vehicles in the snow.

Boom.

Why didn't the planes attack right away, there is a table you roll on when an airplane turns up, and on a 2 or 3 the plane is lost for that turn, and both Jimi and I rolled a few 2's and 3's. We have not seriously played Bolt Action for some time and we forgot several rules which may or may not have had some effect on the game, but we were both victims of this so no harm done. It was a good game nevertheless and those damn skiers are still at the top of my hate list.

Look close, the SU-76 blows up.

 

Still looking.

 Another day and another wargame, this time it was an away game at Erik's, the Battle of Nantwich 1644, Erik is a published author and has completed several tomes for Helion & Co. so we had a brief history of the battle, a map and several pages of rules. I was quite surprised to see another snow covered layout but it looked very good with both forces arrayed ready to go. I took the Royalists as I had done so previously, they were a bit outnumbered in units but they were better quality, I was quite taken aback by the numbers and decided to launch an attack on my left while my right stood guard, all of this was predicated on my cavalry beating the Parliamentary horse and then helping to roll up the enemy line. There was no Plan B.

Nantwich.

Royalist artillery.

Parliament.

Royalists on the right.

I was not sure what Erik's plan was as he started quite hesitantly and then even slower as he concentrated on keeping his right flank in the fight. Plan A had succeeded spectacularly and the enemy horse were completely chased from the battlefield, on the other hand I had managed to stop mine from pursuing, they now supported my infantry as they came to blows with the Parliamentary foot. Although the Royalists were outnumbered in cavalry they had one more infantry unit and the numbers told as the enemy line folded as one unit after another were brought under superior numbers. Cavalry also ran riot in the Parliamentarian rear, dragoons fled and the enemy baggage and artillery train were captured. 

Plan A goes into operation.

 

The enemy cavalry are broken.

 

 

My infantry advance along the line.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pressure begins to mount against my right.

More enemy flee.

 The photographs are all there, but not necessarily, in the right order.  (c) Morecambe and Wise.

Over on my left I had withdrawn my outnumbered cavalry as far as I could and had managed to send some infantry to support them, but the weight of horse against my two troops looked like I would be in trouble, I so wanted at least one of my troops to win a melee and gain some time. It was not to be as the enemy smashed into my cavalry who quickly broke and fled. All was not lost however as my infantry had thrown back a rash charge by more enemy cavalry, also with the rest of the enemy chased from the field my whole army were now heading for my right flank.

At this point we called a halt, the historical result had been overturned and the surviving Parliamentarians withdrew into Nantwich leaving their artillery to add weight to the Royalist besiegers. An excellent game and although I had the upper hand in most of the combats I was very lucky that my left flank cavalry had performed with elan. 

The club is still in Limbo and will not be available once again on Tuesday night, and again my own wargaming cup runneth over, with this game in the bag, I have another on Sunday with Paul and a trip to the Penrith Dungeon on Wednesday to play Matt.

I have more on my Fallschirmjager trials, having heard nothing from Black Tree, quelle surprise, I ordered up a pack of MG42's from Artizan. The pack duly arrived and once I had cleaned and primed them it dawned on me that only one figure carried a machine gun. Yes it was a perfect fit for a Chain of Command team but in my experience all MG packs have a gun and a loader, not three loaders. So once again I have had to order up another FSJ machine gun pack (their lying down packs have two guns). These things are approaching the same price as a real one. 

Despite all the madness inflicted on us these days I found out this week about PDA that's Pathalogical Demand Avoidance to be exact, which boils down to if you tell your kid to brush his (or her Reg) teeth, or to tidy their room, or simply sit at the table and he/her doesn't do it, it is not their, or your fault. Yes the little darlings have PDA. I know for sure that if I did none of those things when my mother told me my feet would literally leave the ground. I do however have some sympathy as I believe I may suffer as well, in adults it is Chronic Avoidance of Everyday Tasks, like 'put the bins out, it's the grey one!' or 'did you take that chicken out of the freezer' or, like today, 'get your drill and old clothes on and meet me in the garden'.

I have now had what should be the last of my scans, I glow in the dark, so if these are fine I should be heading for an op at some point hopefully in the near future, but when, how long is a piece of string.