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? 

In Wargaming No One Can Hear You Scream

 Mate Robert was popping in again and asked for Johnny Reb, we played this for years before I snuck over Hadrians Wall as the SNP tightened their grip. He mentioned the battle of Olustee which we had played several times and was an easy set up if not an easy game to win for either side. Set in Florida in 1864 it was a setback for Union hopes of a quick victory on the edge of the Confederacy.

The Union player has to rush his troops arriving piecemeal to the front in order to build a defensive line from which to attack the enemy, the same applies to the Rebel commander in order to build up a strong attack force to break the Federal line before it can consolidate. We had our usual chat and got down to it, I decided to play safe and extended my line to give the new arrivals space, they would attack the Union right while I built up enough troops to threaten the Union left. Robert led his cavalry in an aggressive charge and caught me off balance so I lost a mounted regiment while my infantry chased away the Federal troopers, who cares about cavalry? 

The Confederates get ready.

  

The Union prepare.

More Rebs turn up.

Both sides continued to built up their forces while I at last began to think about moving on the Union right, I was building up a good attack and had sent forward some cavalry skirmishers to flank the enemy line. This caused Robert to throw a march column forward to stop this, a daring move as the Reb line was begining solidifying in front of him. Again I lost a cavalry regiment, albeit small and inconsequential, the rest of the army simply watched them go. We called a halt here as Robert had been on the road all day and had another long day in front of him the next day, we had had some fun and as usual put the world of wargaming to rights before he left.

The Federal line solidifies.

Now boys, at 'em.

Still getting in to position.

The Union line.

When I got into the Bunker in the morning I had to finish off the next move, I had a chance to break the Union right which might let me roll up the flank or at the very least cause consternation in the Federal ranks. My Missouri boys leapt forward and put the recently victorious Yanks to flight, a small dismounted cavalry regiment was now in line for the same treatment, the Rebel Yell filled my brain, the Union troopers stood their ground and the Missouri lads shuddered to a halt and then retreated out of harms way. It was not going to be 'I told you so' as the setback would need the whole game to decide a winner, and that was not going to happen.

Next up was potentially the last game of the Gembloux Gap campaign with Matt, could I hold out for three turns, very doubtful but I was hoping for going out with a bang rather than a whimper. I got a decent amount of support for a change and took a Somua S35, a very nice tank and just slightly better than anything the Germans could bring to bear, and an anti-tank rifle as back up, as we were fighting in a village I expected the Luftwaffe to turn up so took anti-aircraft artillery. Matt surprised me and went infantry heavy with five squads, an extra mortar and a Panzer IV, no Goering's boys.

We both had good morale and after the patrol phase the Germans were almost on their table edge, I decided to stay back and defend the centre which had a large open space to my front, high walls surrounding the gardens made line of sight difficult but it suited me. I could possibly have taken the main station building but the amount of firepower from five squads deploying close by put me off. The game kicked off and I brought my armour on to cover my left and the road through the village, Matt made an attempt on my right and I met this with a squad in a nearby wood, the rash German squad ended up pinned but as help arrived I had to pull my lads back into cover as their shock built up.  

Looking  towards the French lines.

 

German HQ.

A tsunami of field grey.

The Boche now took the station and I deployed my last squad in a large building covering that open space I mentioned and put down suppressing fire. By now Matt had had three or four double turns and also played his double crossing French spy who for some reason was called Giuseppi(?), this low life began to take pot shots at my boys and took out an NCO and one of my Poilu's. I countered the traitor by using my anti-tank team to search him out. With several more double turns to enjoy Matt brought on his Pz IV, my tank took several shots and used up a CoC dice to no avail, the first shot from the panzer barely grazed the paintwork but the second blew my big hope to bits. I was very disappointed, I had wanted to kill the Panzer then wreak havoc on the Boche infantry who would then have no chance of taking out my armour. I looked around and saw only defeat staring me in the face against overwhelming odds, I surrendered, as the French do. I just wish you could have seen the look on Matt's face as he did a little dance as he clinched the deal, good for him, the Gap had been taken and 3rd Panzer was racing ahead. 

Behind the line.

My big hope.

My nemesis.

It's all over.

Giuseppe or Gaston or pain in the neck, delete where applicable.

 I am in two minds about the campaign it is either very well balanced for 1940 or heavily rigged in favour of the Germans, I am on the fence with this one. We played eight of the ten games and I won three and the Jerries 'got a by' on one map, I do admit that I made mistakes and completely missed the chance of pulling off a counter-attack, c'est la vie. It does provide some interesting games and we really enjoyed them, would I play it again, possibly, but again would try the French.

My BEF project is coming along nicely, all the infantry squads will be complete by the weekend, this leaves me some command and supports to do, I am expecting them in the next day or so, and they will be ready to go, maybe to help the French and plug the gap. I can only do one thing at a time so the Nashorn, Lee and Soviet tank riders remain on the shelf for now.

A parcel, a rather large one, turned up which I was not expecting, I saw it was from good friend Matt Smith and hoped it was not another starter kit for an army as he had done with the above French. Inside I found the Hartenstein Hotel in 28mm from the battle of Arnhem, it is huge and superbly detailed, I was gobsmacked. Literally years ago I built up an Airborne platoon in anticipation of a scenario book from Two Fat Lardies, the book has still not appeared and I doubt it ever will, no matter the Hartenstein will feature on a table near me as soon as it is painted.

I have been very much at a loss as to entertainment over the past month and am close to giving up with modern TV and movies. I saw that Netflix had a German movie about a Tiger tank crew, I stayed away from it, then one night with nothing but time I decided to give it ten minutes. It is not your usual type of war movie and there are clues around as they rumble their way to the Front, but they are subtle. Yes, there is one incident which is completely stupid but overall the uniforms were good and the fake Tiger was very well done, being a rivet counter I did notice the SU-100 was in fact a ISU-152, but I wouldn't put money on it. So, overall it was not as bad as I expected.

 I don't know what has happened to me and books, I have read all my life but am finding it hard to find one which I cannot put down these days, 'Tunisgrad' got the boot and I am now grinding my way through 'The Last Yorkists' the level of detail the author gives on Edmund and Richard de la Pole from the late 15th and early 16th centuries seems suspect and the book in parts reads more like a novel, I feel the urge to jump to the Battle of Pavia and move on to Prit Buttar's 'Bagration 1944'.

 

The Royal Navy are introducing drink limits on ships, so many units a day or whatever along with two days completely alchohol free. The main past time during my time was drinking, I went two-thirds around the world and my memories are mainly of the inside of bars, that is just how it was. I never got the Tot officially as I was 17 when it was stopped, but I did get a final one on that 'terrible day' and another during a fleet review for the Queen. The Tot was horrible and used as currency for favours where you got 'gulpers' or 'sippers' depending on the favour. Everyone over 18 was allowed three small cans of beer, what happened was that everyone got their cans and they were secreted around the mess and could build up to a very large amount of alcohol, someone was the 'beer bosun' who looked after it all and if you felt like getting tipsy you simply bought as many cans as you could drink. If you asked someone round at lunchtime to the Comms Mess they were given a can from everyone, so at least 18 cans, that was you basically done for the day. People were catogorised as G, T or U, grog, teetotal or underage, funnily enough I never met anyone teetotal.

 

Smolensk: Sad Times in Smolensk

 Campaign day and I was all ready. Matt's Russians had halted the German advance last turn and thrown me back, this time I was on the defensive and faced an attack from two directions, my Operation Barbarossa, like the real thing, was having trouble around Smolensk.

I had a measly four points of support so decided I had to win this game to get my offensive back on track and pick up more support points instead of having them halved while on the back foot. I therefore decided to use four of my precious resource points to beef up my forces, at the same time I wanted to fight defensively and let the Russians come at me, there were several buildings in front of my position so I took an infantry gun to strike these with HE and also expected it to deal with any Soviet armour which turned up. Against the grain I then took Bruno the sniper and some defences for the gun. I was down five men, so ditched my little mortar and put the crew to work in my infantry squads.

Sleepy village of Miheykovo.

The game started with Matt bringing everything he could on to the table over a couple of moves, his first squad as I thought entered the big yellow house, my gun commander smiled, bang, not a great opening shot but he now had the range, things could only improve, right? I slipped up and put down a squad in the woods on my far left but they did not have enough points to go on overwatch, drat. I did not get away with it and an HMG turned up and let fly at them, I got away lightly and then returned fire and expected to wipe it out, no, not going to happen.

BT7.

My hopeless infantry gun.

Supposedly commanding view.

Sure enough a BT7 light tank turned up, I turned the infantry gun towards it but it failed to spot as shock began to build up on the crew. I desperately needed more troops on the table but failed again and again to manage to get the right command dice, I brought on a Senior Leader to reduce the shock but nearly every Russian unit on the table could fire at the gun with impunity as my other two squads looked on from off table, gunners fell and shock rose. What about Bruno the sniper you ask, don't.

Matt made good use of his mortars.

The tank moves forward.

Matt continued to cause havoc as I envied his command rolls. Then in one fell swoop I lost a team from the only squad I had on the table, the remaining gun crew broke taking my Senior Leader with them and once I had made my many rolls on Bad Things Happen my morale was reduced to 3. In despair I had to yield the battlefield to the Soviet juggernaut.

I admit I had hoped to win this one hence the use of my precious Resource points but it turned into a disaster, I fired around 32 dice and Bruno at the damn HMG and only managed one or two kills which the gun shrugged off! No matter, Matt had come down from Penrith for the game and I just wished I could have given him more time on the table before running away. He is now two tables away from the German home base, I am almost at the ropes.

While we were setting up the troops I knocked a box of vehicles on to the deck while trying to find the BT7 for Matt, there was a bit of damage but nothing major, however dropping a box must be the most feared thing for a wargamer, I have done it twice and it ruins your day, perhaps a warning for me not to play the game.

What else, well I managed to get my next unit of heavy cavalry finished and cleaned and primed the next unit, mounted arquebusiers, I still do not understand how this troop type was used in battle given the awkwardness of the weapon on foot never mind on the back of a horse. I don't expect much from them as skirmishers in Furioso as they don't tend to deal out a lot of death in my limited experience. This will leave me with a unit of Gendarmes and King Francis to do and the French are done, so my timetable of a year is going to be pretty accurate. I want to use Illustrator to do all my own banners but thought this one with the Salamander would be tricky but I am pleased with the result, I think the original was red but who is to say there was not a blue one around. The edges will be painted when finished.

I normally go to York every year but have decided against it this year, mainly because I have nothing to buy and for the first time ever have a small lead mountain in the drawer to keep me amused for now. I also find it is a bit sparse on actual wargames, great for buying stuff but not if you simply want to go and see what other people are doing, I find Partizan is far better for this albeit you will not get the same amount of traders. I am also on the fence with this show as well now, cost and the distance may kill this off for me this year.

I don't buy wargame magazines any more as I found I can 'read' them in about 15 minutes and then move on. I noticed one blog mentioning a hand wringing piece in Miniature Wargames recently about some people feeling guilty of playing wargames, quite simply if you feel that way about toy soldiers you need to find something else to occupy your time. There are a couple of things which I would find distasteful, but I am not going to whine about them or lose sleep. This is a wonderful hobby so leave the guilt out of it.

I watched 'Narvik' last weekend, not impressed, but then again what does impress me on the media front. I did give them Kudos for mentioning the French and Poles in the campaign but the almost total lack of a nod towards the Empire's contribution and the cartoon, evil Englishmen in the town a bit much to swallow as was the blurb that it was Hitler's first defeat. The latest season of 'Fauda' has been good if not up to the previous standard and leaving us, or me, with a disappointing end. 'Happy Valley' of course continues to be excellent, much as I would like to kick Ryan where the sun don't shine.

Two for one

 Seems like a long time since I got down to blog with a lot happening.

Before I managed to get my Italian Wars game in I had another ACW bash, this time at the club with Simon which I had almost forgot about. It was a simple game due to time contraints and we set up a meeting engagement with two brigades a side fighting for the control of a crossroads, for a change I took the Rebs. 

Simon put most of his effort into the centre while I let my larger brigade try and hold him off with the defense anchored on a nearby wood the rest of my boys pushed against his left flank. The Federals very quickly began to suffer and fall foul of some desperate die rolls, also their position near the crossroads was in a dog leg and flanking fire added to their misery. Simon was now forced to withdraw to lessen the danger to his line while my boys took advantage and closed in on his left, it was now the Federal morale broke and several instant routs caused havoc in the blue line. A victory for the greybacks and a bad night for Simon.

I then missed last week but turned up last night for a Black Powder (yes, I know) Colonial game organised by Rob, with tweaks by Rob. Two British brigades had to make it to an oasis before the Mahdists took control of it, the little hamlet had a small garrison but needed to be relieved quickly, I was in command of the Highland Brigade and the furthest unit from the objective, moving slowly in brigade square it was obvious Simon had the task of getting to the oasis while I had to try and keep the enemy occupied.

When the enemy were deployed I suddenly found myself surrounded by hordes of fuzzy-wuzzies, thankfully for me Osman-Stuart found it difficult to get his men to engage and when they did they came at me piecemeal. Some camel troops charged one of my Naval gatling guns on the edge of the square and although it managed to inflict some damage it was ridden down and the enemy got into the square and hit the Highland light infantry. My boys held, just, and sent the camels packing never to be seen again. It was now time for the Mahdist infantry to try their luck, but this time the matelots stood their ground and shredded the fanatics.

I now took the decision to break up my square as the HLI were pulled back after just surviving another furious assault and replaced by the fresh Royal Marines, my other Scottish battalions prolonged my line and the Dervish waves broke on the thin khaki, blue and red lines. The Navy again proved their worth until their gatling gun jammed, but they survived nonetheless. Only as the dust settled was I able to look across at the second brigade which also had been under some pressure and found out it had managed to break the Mahdist attack and save the oasis. One for the Empire and a good game. Jimi 'the dice' was on the Mahdist side, he was rolling all the right dice, but not necessarily, in the right order.

I haven't done much on my Italian Wars project apart from finish some gendarmes and get some 'archer' heavy cavalry cleaned and primed. I am also getting a chance to look at more rule tweaks after Mark Webb sent me his house rules, there are some nice ideas which Julian and I will have to look at as we get on. I decided on ordering up enough troops to finish, for now, my French army so I have three orders now outstanding with TAG which are French pikes, arquebusiers and Stradiots, I do hope they turn up soon as I need a change from cavalry. I have also got an order of Landsknechts ready for Steel Fist, these are the first troops of my Imperialist army which is the big thing for next year.

I got dragged to the Trafford Centre last week for shopping, not a place I enjoy, but I was quite surprised at the number of units now empty and the lack of people shopping, a legacy of the past two years according to some. On the way four police cars passed the opposite way, at speed and sirens wailing, I said to the missus that some poor sod had misgendered someone somewhere.

I have not done as much reading as I should recently but I am thoroughly enthralled by "The Empire of the Summer Moon" dealing with the Comanche indians, a brutal and eye opening insight to life on the plains between white and red, and red and red. 

I have also come late to some excellent TV, "Slow Horses" and the movie "Kajaki". OK the former takes a 180 degree turn on who the real bad guys are but putting that aside I really enjoyed it, so much so I might pick up the authors books, or at least give one a try, the latter is a gem and a different kind of war movie, I was on the edge of my seat, but you have to give it ten minutes. Then "Dahmer" a creepy biopic on Jeffrey Dahmer played so chillingly by Evan Peters, lastly "Blackbird" a prison tale with a difference based on a real story. You might want to give "Narco Saints" a look, drug dealing in Suriname, a Korean production, yes it is a bit different but I have seen worse.

I continue to be busy with maps and although I have completed several over the past few days I still have seven projects in the wings from Renaissance Poland to modern conflict in Suriname (now there is a coincidence, see above).

Eylau.

Italians on the Eastern Front.

Omdurman.

Oh, I forgot, it is time to break out another fiver for Partizan on Sunday.