Ouch!

 I've managed to shift myself and get back on the keyboard, the Atlas author is working on another book so nothing new there and I started the last Roman unit I had left over from my new army, they are cavalry but I am not in a hurry so I manage a bit at a time, albeit I did finish and base the horses last week. Bill the Atlas author did get in touch to aske me if I would do a couple of maps for a mate who is writing a novel set during the German attack on Poland. I had the time and said yes, he put me in touch with Craig Luther who would act as a middle man, I mentioned that I had just watched an episode of WW2TV on Guderian's Panzers which I enjoyed. It turned out that Craig was the author of that book and the narrator on the programme along with being a bit of an expert on the Eastern Front, what a coincidence. He pointed me towards his webpage on Operation Barbarossa, a very interesting site to get lost in.

I have an appointment with a surgeon next week so things are moving ahead at last, it has only taken just over six months, although I suppose that is pretty quick work for the NHS in the end. It will probably mean I will be laid up for Christmas and simply be waited on hand and foot, every cloud etc.

I feel the need to spend some cash and am looking at roads suitable to lay on my winter map, the dirt roads are just too stark, I think I have found a solution and just need to decide which size to get, 3" would be track while 6" seems rather wide but maybe more appropriate for 28mm.

The club has at last sorted things out with the school and we are back in tonight albeit I will not be going as I had a game last night and another couple on Thursday so need some rest before going back into the line. 

I at last caught up with Matt over a week ago when we played the third game in our Gembloux Gap campaign, this time the French had to blow two culverts in order to slow the arrival of the German panzers, as it turned out this was a huge ask for the French but I had a cunning plan. The first culvert was near the centre of the table and I took a demolition squad in support along with a MMG, with the addition of a free demolition squad I figured that I could take losses but still blow the objective up and then head for the second at the rear end of the table while my infantry held the Jerries back. I had to add a die roll each time the demo squads were activated to get a 6, then use a Chain of Command dice to trigger the explosives, then roll again and hope the charges went off or start over, you see where I am going with this, a lot of if's and but's, all while the bad guys were shooting me up. 

One culvert right hand side of cobbled road.

Matt getting his 'sixes' out.

Bloody Luftwaffe!

Boom, it's all over.

Matt once again brought in the Luftwaffe and this time they left me in tatters, one building collapsed while the cover nearest the culvert had an unexploded bomb in it, which might go off, destroy the building and kill everyone inside. I had to put a squad in there along with the MMG on the culvert in order to try and keep the Germans from targetting my engineers, this plan did not work, it seemed to at first as Matt deployed the ever useful 75mm infantry gun and I killed a couple of the crew, then my luck ran out and return fire from the gun and an off table MMG began to bite, I lost my machine gun and the guys in the house also began to suffer, not only that I did not find an opportunity to bring any of the engineers on. In the end I had to husband my platoon so began to withdraw, this left one team in the building when it went boom, it was over, did I mention that because of the Luftwaffe some of my squads were late and those that did turn up took horrendous shock and became basically useless. I wonder if any French player can win this scenario, anyway next up is Blitz on Villeroux where I expect to meet some German armour.

Paul gave me a shout and we met on the Wednesday to play the second game in the linked scenarios, I took Volksgrenadiers to defend the outskirts of a village while the American armoured platoon attacked. At first it looked like a good number for me or at least a decent defensive position but the fates had a different take on things. Paul went for an attack on both flanks, on my left I made a stupid game ending decision to put a squad out in the churchyard to catch the Yanks as they approached the walls instead of putting them in the damn church. On my right a deft move by Paul allowed a squad to deploy on my flank, I had positioned two LMG's to catch these guys but an American double turn ruined that idea and the squad was shot to bits. I could now do nothing but retreat having basically lost two of my four squads, I was also galled in that I had taken a second Senior leader but neither of them ever made it on to the table, the end came as I lost dice and only got two 1's to use. I surrendered. The next fight will be in the town itself, that will be a struggle, I was tempted to bring Volksturm but the way my luck is going that might be a very bad decision.

The battlefield.

My useless grenadiers.

Yanks move on my left.

Bad move, in the open, not so smart.

My right about to be surprised. I was in the house, orange door.

The Jerries in disarray.

Friend Robert gave me a call the day after I played Paul saying he would be here the next Monday and did I want a game, hot on his heels mate Billy, also from Scotland, phoned to organise something on the Thursday as he headed to the Wargames Holiday Centre to refight Dresden 1813. So next up it was Robert and another scenario taken from my WSS subscription, a weakend German platoon was fighting off a British platoon seeking to move inland from Sword or Gold. The supports were already chosen for both and were interesting to say the least.

This was a very different game, Robert threw sixes like there was no tomorrow so in the end he basically got two turns to my one and at one point he got three, Robert is a very good player and doesn't need that kind of help to win, I do. I again made a daft decision and got my MMG routed, not a game changer like the churchyard above but a needless waste of an asset nontheless. I still held out with my two infantry squads and my Panzer IV had turned up, this defended the road to the objective and forced Robert to withdraw a couple of his squads from its machineguns. He now sent a third squad against my left while I pulled back my one and a half squads to counter this, I tried to get a panzerfaust into a position to hit the supporting Sherman in the flank but my boys failed to get enough movement, the opportunity was lost. Time was running out and morale was still even and I felt I could possibly still make things difficult for the Yanks if they moved into the orchard but Robert now hit me with a mortar bombardment, he caught all my troops under it and although I did not lose a lot I took oodles of shock and was pinned for at least two more turns, game over, my third in a row. 

My ill-fated MMG.

 

British Airborne move up.

Firing line.

 

My armour.

Their armour.

 

The end.

Billy and I will replay this on Thursday and might get a second game on the table with different forces and objectives.

Robert always brings something to the house for Evelyn or both of us, she got white chocolate last night while I was presented with a book, not to keep, but to read. The book was a great surprise and I look forward to reading it. When I was a kid and we played Cowboys and Indians behind the wooden garages and burn near my home everything would stop and the street empty if there was a John Wayne movie on, we didn't care if he hadn't served in WWII or he had a girls name, we sat glued to the black and white set waiting for the cavalry to turn up and rooting for the good guys, the Indians, sorry First Nations or whatever, were not simple tree huggers back then at one with nature, they were the bad guys and you kept the last bullet for yourself. I still enjoy the Duke in a movie.

I feel the need to get some other battles back on the blog, I have great trouble getting opponents with this as you know but I hope to get some Italian Wars and War and Conquest soon.