GI's do well

Another run at WWII this week in the Bunker, we had decided on Chain of Command and Matt mentioned he wanted panzergrenadiers with lots of machine guns, instead I gave him my Fallschirmjager which just happened to have the same number of MG42's, I would take my new US Infantry. These guys fight rather different from all the other platoons and I hadn't a clue how to get the best out of them, the rules however, all rules in my opinion, tend to give the Yanks an easy time of it. They get to move and shoot without an accuracy penalty, they also get the Storm of Steel mechanic which in this instance is over egging their abilities and they get to use Scouts as Jump Off Points.

Why did you bother with them I hear from the back. I never intended to build an American platoon but I needed to take my mind off other things for a while and what better than to build up another platoon before I stopped, yes I hear more grumbling in the back. This all pertains to playing with wee sojers, I have the utmost respect for those men who fought through Europe unlike some of the ungratefully liberated.

I introduced a few little changes, both sides got a 'Red Dice' to help with orders, I also changed the Force Morale so that 10, 11 or 12 replaced 8, 9, 10 or 11, the table was also set up with what I hoped would be less open ground. I put down a village straddling a river with two bridges, the northern part of the village had been hit by artillery and was mainly ruins but a few buildings had survived including the station, hotel and a boozer. The Yanks had to capture the bridges to win, two bridges would be a major victory and one a minor victory. Matt supported his Para's with a Pz IVG, I on the other hand took a 75mm Sherman, a 60mm mortar and an extra squad.

I wanted to pressure the Germans in the centre and on their left flank while planning to use a Scout team to get further up the table if the opportunity presented itself, Matt just wanted to hold me up. I managed to get three squads into decent positions but somehow began to take mounting casualties on my troops in the wood which were targetted by the Panzer and quite a few machine guns, so much so that I had to withdraw them. Matt had a run of double phases to help with this, although I must admit my boys weathered it well, It was time to bring on the Sherman.

I deploy.

The remaining civvies beat a hasty retreat.

My tank and and a nearby squad turned on the ruins just north of the hotel while I pushed another squad up to sneak into the large building, it was Matt's time to withdraw. I now did the same to another set of ruins near the rail bridge and the Jerries again retreated, the tank however was still being a real pain. I had now sent a Scout team out to flank the German right as the Panzer was now busy firing on my right. I better mention this but I too now managed a good run of double turns and used them to reorganise. then I saw my chance, my men in the hotel broke the enemy opposite them, I deployed from the scouts into the station where the last of the Jerry squads had deployed but were beginning to suffer, one good phase and I would be on them.

These poor guys got caught out later.

The annoying panzer.

Matt now got a double turn, my boys in the open field were routed and fled, the survivors that is, around this time I also had two of my Junior Leaders hit which meant I had to put my Senior Leaders into harms way to keep up the pressure. Once I got t he initiative back and despite losing a squad I broke the Para's in the ruins and stunned both a SL and their JL. This sealed the deal for the Americans as two enemy leaders and an enemy Jump Off Point now lay within touching distance of my boys in the Station and Matt's morale plummeted. Game over.

Help is at hand.

Forward boys.

I think the higher morale worked, you could at least throw a bit of caution to the wind to try something different and recover if it went south, the extra dice for orders also worked well although I think the double turn mechanic should lose a dice after the first one, both Matt and I suffered a bit from our opponent having several in a row, and it is quite frustrating to sit for a couple of phases doing nothing but dying. Cutting down the lines of sight, it helps, we had a bit of a conversation about this and might have to up linear obstacles to medium, you cannot really see through a decent hedge.

I have not done a lot of painting in the last couple of weeks, one set of four halberdiers and 50% of a sword and buckler base, I am home alone next week so expect to get a move on with these. My wargamers ADHD is kicking in as I realised setting up the game I do not have American Jump Off Points so I am going to 'need' those at some point and of course some US Patrol Marker's. I also noticed that my 2nd Panzer markers had been painted white on black, so naturally I had to change them to yellow on black, phew. Who will notice, I will.

Matt is back next week and wants to do an ACW cavalry battle, so it looks like Brandy Station, I have eight cavalry brigades most of whom have never seen action in my 30+ years of Johnny Reb. Yeehaa. 

The worst night of the year coming up, although most of the little darlings gave up knocking on my door years ago, it also helps there are no young families in my part of the village. I think it must be a nightmare in America, I could not take that. 

Greeks get the gifts.

 Back to the sunny climes of Penrith, it does tend to be better than Warton mind you, I left nice sunshine after the game and as I proceeded south it looked like the shadows of Mordor were in front of me. Anyway, back to the Dungeon for a game we had to postpone a few weeks ago, it was to be early WWII, Greeks vs Italians and this time I was given the Greeks. I had to capture a fuel dump in the centre of the table reputedly containing not fuel but Extra Virgin Olive Oil, though I expect this was a ruse. I had some Regulars and some Elite mountain sections along with the usual heavy weapon supports, the Italians had no elites and a couple of dodgy Albanian squads and a little tankette.

The objective.

Another view.

I was allowed to initially bring my first wave on from any of three sides but decided to stick to the opposite side from the Eyeties and brought on my howitzer and heavy weapons apart from an anti-tank rifle. I intended to soften up the Albanians who already held the fuel dump. That went fairly well and by turn three I had captured the olive oil and a massive amount of dried spaghetti, however the tankette was now roaming around causing me a bit of strife and my second wave seemed well short of the dump as Italian regulars moved closer to my survivors of the melee. Matt also managed some very good mortar drops along with one of my elite squads proving a lot less elite than I had thought and hitting the deck.

My own heavy weapons teams proved quite useless for most of the game, my anti-tank rifle at first refusing to turn up but negating this with a lovely flank shot which destroyed the little tank, my sniper managed to find two bullets which worked and hit an NCO and LMG gunner, the rest were duds.

The Albanians hold the tins.

The Greeks lost it then the Italians took it back.

It's all or nothing, go boys.

Matt got the supply dump back, this changed sides several times and the bodies were stacked inside like Rorke's Drift. Time was running out and critical decisions had to be made, I had one untouched elite squad which I wanted to leave to the last minute and kick out any Italians which were left on the objective, but I had no choice but to take it and hope the game ended. It did not, there were three Italian squads close enough to assault, one could do nothing due to a large amount of pins unless it was lucky, it was not, the second I charged with a forlorn hope of elites which took them out. 

Once more the Greeks can relax.

The tankette ist kaput.

This left one opportunity for Matt to make one last charge, I threw everything over the turn at these men and whittled them down until the odds were almost even. They nonetheless managed to reach the ramparts and a furious melee began which was quite simply down to Lady Luck, the Greeks pulled it out of the bag, phew!

My right flank move in at last.

The Greeks really can relax, a narrow victory.

A superb game with both side alternating between sighs and shouts of joy. Matt got some really nice mortar drops against some desperate failed morale tests which did for him in the end. I matched him in despair at some die results but also managed a few successes just at the right time. A tense and exciting game. 

Yet another skirmish game hits the stores. "Tear Down the Empire", "The Fall of Rome" the advert shouts, now that's going to be spectacular and all you need is a dozen figures. How can five men form a Shieldwall or why does a hornblower allow you to move further, fantasy vs reality. If a bunch of Germanic brutes wanted to raid a village they would not chose one with a garrison, even if it looks like there is one cataphract among them, lost Marcus? What you would have is a bunch of peasants with sticks, not much of a game there then. The average small Viking raid for instance would have around 3-6 ships with crews of 30-60 so at least 90 men, not a dozen, there goes the pocket money. And yes I have played several skirmish games, cowboys, spaceships and even Dark Ages, back in the, eh, Dark Ages, but there were no hornblowers or Merlins stumbling about. For some reason I do not see platoon level WWII games as Skirmish. Each to their own, and I know that playing with rules generally at least two decades old, but really, another turnip raid?

Shieldwall.

?

 I am painting again as you know and have finished my first two halberd bases, I have several more but don't want to rush them, I also received two boxes of sword and buckler men from The Assault Group. I am also working on maps again as I have some loose time, "The 1684 Campaign of the War of the Holy League and the Failed Siege of Buda".

My granddaughter phoned the other night and while we were talking movies said I should watch 'Jojo Rabbit', this is a fairly old movie and I dismissed it from a clip I had seen of Adolf Hitler being an idiot with a young boy. How wrong I was, it was an excellent and clever movie. The reason we were discussing movies is that she said they watch movies in history classes, not documentaries but movies, and we all know how accurate 'based on a real event' or similar is. What a dreadful way to teach history.

And I could not end without this lunacy from Ireland, You should get consent before you hug your grandchildren, you won't be able to see it now of course because commonsense prevailed and the lunatics who thought it right were forced to take it down. Each new day never fails to surprise me.

Group hug? 

Aaaargh!

 Back on the treadmill, its been almost a month since I had a game against a live opponent, I usually rely on Matt Crump and the odd visitor but both he and myself could not align the stars due to real life and holidays. That has now ended and I went for another Italian Wars battle, Agnadallo 1509, between France and Venice, I have fought this a couple of times at least but I now have three books on the battle, two of which offer scenarios and as is normal all do not quite agree. 

I use Furioso rules so I have to make allowances for this in respect of the size of each contingent, this needs work but I did what I could, also the terrain is quite wet but as it was the same for both sides I did not spend a lot of time fretting about small streams, granted I could have slowed movement but I didn't. I also introduced some changes to the units more in line with reality, the Venetian troops for instance put up an excellent resistance better than they are listed in the rule book. The battle is a bit complicated as each side had one 'battle' either arriving late or not at all, I had these on the army sheet but decided in the end not to bring them on, there was enough fighting to do. 

Venetian left.

French right.

Venetian army.

I set both armies up and offered Matt his choice, however we instead diced, I got the Venetians when I had half been expecting to get the French, the better army. I decided to quickly advance my left which seemed to be my strongest force, I would hold with the right and hope my guns would damage the enemy before they hit my line. My Initiative scores were dire and nothing got more than 3, my left started fairly well and managed to breast the ditch to their front in good order. Matt held back his right but came on very aggressively on his left. Very soon his cavalry had taken out my shot and a gun, on my left my infantry crawled towards the Swiss to their front, on men, on!

Venetian left not at all keen.

French left advance.

Venetian right in trouble.

Eventually the infantry of both sides got into action and I was being overwhelmed, I thought that one more push could cause me to retire. I now managed to beat one Swiss block on my left and engage the other while capturing the commander on that flank, only to have him rescued and again captured and again rescued, this time to stay free. It looked like there was a slim chance of a Venetian fight back but it was not to be, I received a hazard and several men deserted, a cruel twist of fate, the pendulum swung away. My army was broken.

Venetian left looking good.

Centre looking dodgy.

The end approaches.

Granted the Venetians, like the real thing, needed a bit of Lady Luck to win this but a slew of low initiative rolls meant I was on the back foot for most of the battle, at the same time I made some mistakes and Matt fought better. Oh, in my defence Matt once again borrowed dice and yes, mine were so bad I changed them, not that it made much difference, my average throughout the battle was one hit on the enemy.

I am adding halberdiers and sword and buckler men to some of the pike blocks and while doing so went through my lead pimple, I am loathe to have more figures than I need, but to my surprise I managed to fish out quite a few to add to my new purchases to build the stands I want along with another couple of generals. So something to while away the long winter evenings.

I have just about finished 'Plunder' by Max Hastings, very good, sad in places and especially so in the last weeks of the war with many pointless deaths and dubious operations being carried out by the Allies. TV looked up with 'Last Seen' an excellent thriller on Apple (I think), I am now reduced to looking at the BBC for something, that is how low I have fallen.

I have offered my son a Chain of Command campaign in order to try out a couple of minor changes to the rules, one which I have fought before and proved to be decent, The Road to Bremen. Strangely enough the attack on Bremen as reported in 'Plunder' was one of those operations which were pointless. All being well I should be heading North to the Dungeon next week.  

Scannagallo 1554

I was supposed to be at Matt's last week but came down with a nasty cold so it was best to hunker down in Casa Anderson, it has proved to be a real pain. I decided therefore to get the Italian Wars on the table and went for a game loosely based on the battle of Scannagallo between the French/Siennese and Spanish/Florentines from the Helion book "All is Lost Save Honour." There may have been some non pike units or reduced pikes but I just used what I had, so overall pike blocks, just some better than others. The river or dry ditch was not a great obstacle so I amended the disorder roll for crossing this and units would have to be unlucky to be disordered.

Spanish/Florentines

French/Siennese.

I decided the French would advance their left and sit back a bit on the right in order that their massed artillery could damage the Spanish as they advanced. The Spanish right had drawn a Rash commander so set off as fast as they could to engage the enemy left, the Spanish left was a bit slower and wanted their left flank cavalry to pressure the French right once across the ditch and in position.

Spanish right advances.

French left.

French guns masked.

Despite the French left being heavily outnumbered they completely surprised me and the Spanish by halting and pushing back the enemy pike blocks. The better troops on the French right now advanced as their artillery had been worse than useless and masking the guns would be no great loss. The Spanish guns had been only slightly better but had to cease fire as their men got closer to the enemy. 

Spanish try outflanking the French right.

Battle at the ditch.

Things suddenly took a bad turn for the French and their allies, as the Tuscans and Papal troops began to seriously fight back, although this did not stop the rout of one of their pike blocks. As the victorious Siennese took stock of their success the Spanish gun line turned on them and cut swathes through the close packed troops, so much so that the Italians fled to get out of the firing line.

French right in trouble.

Surrounded the French surrender.

Both lines now clashed around the dry stream bed and the flow of the battle now favoured the Spanish. The French cavalry protecting their right flank now found itself in a life or death struggle with some Italian light cavalry, neither side willing to give way, this continued until the end of the fighting,  a magnificent effort from both. As the fighting continued the French lost more infantry until only one French pike block was still standing surrounded by the enemy, Spain had won the day.

How AI saw it.

I fought this over a couple of days using Furioso, even though it was a solo game I found my sympathies lying with the French, which is fair enough as even in a solo game I went down with a loss. Furioso is perfect for solo games as once you dish out character traits to your generals the battle pretty much fights itself, especially if you are fighting a real battle in that you have an idea of what is supposed to happen, then it is all down to the dice.

I see Victrix have produced yet another Dark Age/Medieval skirmish rule set for half a dozen figures  to fight over a cabbage patch. I just don't get the attraction.

We took a small road trip to Skipton in the Yorkshire Dales, the town was mentioned in the Domesday Book and became the home of the Clifford family (boo, hiss) who were important against incursions by the Scots and at times were Wardens of the Marches. The first lord was killed at Bannockburn. The castle is small and compact and worth a visit, it would make a nice model on a battlefield. The town itself was busy with tourists enjoying the many interesting shops, the local canal and pubs, we were fortunate that the weather was nice as well. The Castle Inn does an excellent lunch. 

Imposing entrance.

The Clifford rag.

I found myself with nothing to read which is unusual for me, well that is not entirely true I have Pritt Buttar's book on the Soviet assault on Berlin but just wasn't in the mood for it. So after watching a couple of documentaries on 7th October I got a book on the attack, at first it did not grab me but the more I read the more I could not stop, I do not regret buying it. Yesterday Max Hastings' new book "Plunder" turned up, Max has only disappointed me on one occasion and I have almost all his books 

TV and Film have been dire up until the last month or so, Israeli spy thriller Fauda made a welcome return and dealt a bit with 7th October, an excellent series. I got hooked on How to get to Heaven from Belfast, not in a good way but the way a snake mesmerises you before it strikes, so so. I also caught up with Reacher, the new one I like, he is more vicious and unforgiving than in the last two series, he is still a big bit of wood, but he does the job. Silo (I have read all the books) has gone way off the rails and now bears little resemblance to the original story, but it has still held my interest. This leaves The Gentlemen and Lucky, the former is well done but is more like a graphic novel than TV, some of it is just complete nonsense guv'nor, the latter is watchable and the heroine is very Lucky in that she is a better escapist than Houdini. (no, gave up with it). Why do TV cops never, ever put men at the back door when they 'surprise' the occupants, I will say that the FBI DEI programme is working very well, when was the last time you saw a white boss? Lastly I have Mobland and Slow Horses on standby. 

I have now completed the extra troops I needed to bring my Yanks up to Chain of Command specs. I really like these despite being plastic, it sounds daft but they seem more human than the metal figures, the proportions are spot on and the poses equally realistic. I would still never go all out for a plastic army but I was pleased. 

I didn't need the heavy weapons.

I am now approaching the end of my work on the Atlas, I think it has been at lease 18 months and only small tweaks are required before it goes to the publisher.

Next weekend I am off down South as my son booked a talk at the Royal Army Museum on Napoleon's Marshall's by Andrew Roberts for me, I also had the choice of Max Hastings and his new book but went with the Emperor's men.