1862

 It's been a bit since I ventured on to a battlefield what with the holiday then real life to catch up with, seems a bit like 'hurry up and wait'. Anyway I had arranged a game with my son accompanied by my grandson and Stewart had asked for American Civil War, a follow up to the game we had a month or so ago. This meeting seems to have woken us all up and Johnny Reb is back with the gang.

James smiling if but for a moment.

I chose the battle of Oak Grove from 1862, the game was a prelude to the Seven Days' battles, 'Fighting Joe' Hooker's division takes on Benjamin Huger's Confederates. The fight takes place in heavy woods between the defensive lines of both sides. Stewart chose the Rebs while I of course took the Union, young James decided on wearing blue, he commanded my right hand brigade as it had a full complement of rifle muskets and only one green unit.

Stewart came on at a steady pace and took up a good central position beside the French farm while I took the School House, we both had skirmish lines deployed but the Reb's seemed to be almost invulnerable behind their fence and guns had been brought up to support the flanks. The Reb artillery proved to be fairly inadequate due to the calibre of their guns this early in the war. The Union artillery were still far from the front line. This meant that both sides concentrated on their flanks, I was slow to build up a line of battle on my left while James and the Rebs opposite him both had a long walk through the woods to get to grips.

Battle commences.

Both sides advance.

Before long Stewart closed with my left but had misjudged the range of his smoothbores and took some losses while his return fire was at long range, over on the Confederate left Armistead's brigade had got to within striking distance of James' men. Stewart saw an opportunity and launched charges against the Federal flanks. As the chits were revealed the Union line had guessed right and the Yankee's readied their muskets. Not one Confederate charge was successful and all were thrown back. At the same time I made some moves on the Rebs around the French farm and although the result was not as I had expected I nevertheless was in a good position to pressure the troops left there.

Reb right falters.

Reb left collapses.

It was now the time for the Union to countercharge, before I could issue the orders my left flank commander was hit by a sharpshooter and in the confusion his brigade did not follow up their successful repulse of the enemy. The right flank did attack and the Rebs fled further back into the woods. With two brigades gone and one left Stewart handed over his sword as the Yankees closed in.

Yankee left fails to follow up.

Reb centre holds on

Reb left has gone.

NJohnny Reb was too much for James and he gave up, however his last move in holding his ground ensured the wave of Reb charges would be stopped. JR is too intense for a young lad with no knowledge of the period. I seemed to be having a bit of a struggle in the centre and was unsure whether I would be successful in the end, but the disaster which befell the Rebs saved me from more anxiety.

In other news I have or thought I had, completed my US Platoon. It turns out I need some extra figures for Chain of Command games although they are fine for Bolt Action, and of course to prevent this from stopping me sleeping I bought a support group to get the eight figures I need. And get this, they are plastic!

I have been playing a bit with ChatGPT, so I present you with your author as John Wayne and James Bond, come on, not a lot of work involved.

I think I have Matt coming down next week for some Italian Wars, looking forward to that, I could do with a win in this period it is long overdue.

I have had my fourth treatment and now require a scan to find out what all the drugs are doing to my insides. 

Mate Robert popped in and left these, modesty prevents me taking an opposite view.

White Flag Week

New club member Simon put on a WWII 6mm game at the club and brought along his set up, very nice it was too, the rules were "All Hell Let Loose." I was part of the German team and the game was set in June 1941. Mike was fairly well up with the rules having played it before and I think Simon had dabbled but Paul and I didn't have a clue. The Germans had to take a village with a crossroads and I was all for simply charging forward but this was frowned upon by my CinC, so we cautiously approached the objective while Mike fought off a counterattack on our left. As the clock hit 2200 or rather 2140 we stopped and I think the Germans were lucky to get a possible winning draw, or it was simply a draw.

My Kampfgruppe attacks.

Lovely board.

I don't know the rules and I am not good with new rules unless I have bought them and specifically want to play them, which I confess I have not done (I am not counting versions) for a long, long time. The game was beautifully set up and was fun to play and Simon had put in a lot of effort, he also seemed to have everything for 'Barbarossa' in 6mm.

Mate Robert has been told not to drive for two weeks so he had to cancel our upcoming campaign game, so three days later I took Erik up on his offer of an ECW game at his, more new rules. Erik's troops are mainly old (vintage?) Minifigs and he managed to provide two small armies for a simple meeting engagement to try out some rules he was tweaking. I completely cocked up my arrival and was banging on the door of the wrong house, I shall leave it at that and not make a fool of myself with the whole story.

Anyway, Erik had set up a nice table attached as if by magic to the top of a bed, I just happened to be on the Royalist side of the table and raised the King's standard. As the game kicked off my right wing cavalry seemed to be getting roughed up by the Parliamentary horse, but I sent some reserves to that flank just in case. With the rest of the army I flung them at the enemy hoping something would happen before my flank disappeared, this turned out to be spectacularly effective, my infantry began shooting and chased two enemy regiments from the field. My left wing cavalry had started off well, been pushed back then returned with a vengence, meanwhile my right had stabilised. With the bulk of his army running from the field Erik called a halt.

Parliament to the left the good guys on the right.

 

Rupert goes in.

Forward boys.

The rules were in modern parlance, quick and easy, the Parliament army fell apart in dramatic circumstances, I must mention Erik's dubious morale throws didn't help. These rules are going to be tweaked as the game was also a test, I would play these again, not too serious and quite good fun.

 Julian has been very busy for some time but had found a gap in his schedule for a game, he had bought Bolt Action Version 3 and he wanted to try it out. He has an Italian force for the Desert but wanted to use his Americans, they are fairly new so I said I could make up anything he needed with my British.

I took the Germans of course and had an infantry platoon with some supports and an armoured platoon with my new Sdkfz250/9 and a Hetzer. We used a scenario from the BA book, we both had to get troops in the enemy deployment area to gain points and/or wipe out the enemy. I stupidly kept troops back and paid for this arrogance with my Hetzer not turning up until halfway through the game, Julian came on good style. Too late I realised I was running out of time while the Yanks were like a tidal wave, the pathetic shooting of most of my troops was matched by Julian wiping out several squads/teams, on turn five I put up a white flag.

Get the bazooka.

My new halftrack advances.

Keep down Hans.

Fury, of course it is.

Before the mayhem.

I think this was my third game of V3 and I cannot say I am over the moon about it, there are three or four changes which I think were warranted and improve the game from an historical standpoint but I am not convinced of the new shooting procedure, in the open you are simply dead but even behind soft cover you need a 5 or 6 to save.

Being a glutton for punishment Matt at the club offered a Bolt Action game and as I had nothing else planned I volunteered, somewhere in southern Russian 1942, well that was the plan. We followed the new scenario choosing rules and ended up with both sides facing off from opposite corners of the table and Fog of War. This means that the half of each players forces held in reserve can turn up on any table edge from Turn 2, yes it is as fearsome as it sounds and frankly pretty daft. Anyway another shock lay in store for me as I had 10 order dice and Matt had 17!

We both put our first wave on the table (Matt won the toss for choice of quadrant), there were 7 objective markers there for capture, I basically was close to three, I think Matt had the same and there were a couple in No Man's Land. As the dice bag was shaken out came a flood of grey (German) dice, I was the Soviets, I took quite a lot of casualties which led me to have to put troops on Down or have them destroyed, this took away more initiative dice from me, do you see where this is going.

A festung.

Try harder guys.

Pointless Soviet armour.

Are we winning?

My predicament was not helped by my knee jerk reactions to German troops appearing out of nowhere, I deployed my troops to hit back but this left them miles away from the remaining objectives, also I didn't quite wipe all the infiltrators out. I brought on a little T-26 but it proved pretty useless as I let my fear of a Pak 38 stop it running amuk, I had a T-34/76 to help the light tank and had a plan for it but it refused to turn up until almost the last move. As the clock wound down and with no real prospect of doing anything other than reacting to the enemy I was lucky I had brought that white flag along and started waving it.

Matt played well and grabbed objectives from the get go, I, as usual, only wanted to kill the enemy and objectives etc. seem to come second. I am still not convinced, not at least with the scenarios from the book which are obviously tournament driven, Matt Crump designs his own and they are a joy to play and so different, I keep saying I must go this route but never do, but this time. I found my little T-26 fairly useless with a vehicle machine gun's shots now halved, I think I also played it badly, I would have had more success simply running over things. There are more battles to be fought and perhaps I can be persuaded to continue otherwise the new, good tweaks could be added to V2, I am keeping it close for now.

I have made a leap and started an ACW campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, there are four players aside and the armies are fairly even with around 13 brigades each, the rules will be Johnny Reb II and the games will be played here in the Bunker. The main idea is to play some fairly large games over the otherwise dreary winter and of course to get my favourite period and rule set back on the table.

The club is getting busier and we have grown more in the last year than in all the years before since I became a regular. You know I am not keen on the Warlord Black Powder etc. stable but for the last two club nights Ed has set up some lovely Hail Caesar tables with 28mm armies, this week he brought a mate with Romano-British and Irish armies and they were lovely, real armies for a change, big and beautiful. You all know I am a War and Conquest guy but Ed and Pete were having a lot of fun at their table.

Quite a few people do not believe me when I say that is it for me now, I do not intend to start any new periods or armies, I am done, I want to concentrate now on playing more with everything I do have. I will continue to add the odd piece to what I have but pretty much on the small scale, and talking of that I have a Panzer I and a Pz IV Flakpanzer (Mobilwagen) coming. The former as how can I have 1940 forces without the choice of a Pz I, the Mobilwagen because I just like the look of it and I have several flak vehicles but not this iconic one. The other thing I have on the way is a Soviet 50mm mortar, I did not want the get the Warlord one as I didn't need the other figures which came with it and to be honest their new prices are a bit steep, hence the Pz I and Mobilwagen are 3D prints.

I cannot resist this parting shot, we went for a new mattress last week and Dreams have a machine on which you lie and it recommends the right mattress for you (yes, usually the most expensive). However the assistant has to put in your details, age, Male or Female, and wait for it, Non-Binary. I couldn't let it go and asked how the computer could tell the difference, especially as no human can, "We never ask" was the reply. Where did I put that white flag.

Konigsberg 4 and Bremen 4: Desperate battles

Club night and another busy week on the wargaming front before a bit of a lay off while I enjoy a taste of high culture in the capital of the old Habsburg Empire.

I took the excellent The Bridge scenario, 'Lucky' Jimi took the British defenders and was helped by Simon who didn't have a game organised. I have defended the bridge once and attacked it twice, I have my own opinion on how both sides can win although it is a bit harder for the defenders. Jimi went for the bridge while Simon tried a right hook, this was helped by the missing Paras turning up to lend more weight to his attack. Sadly for Simon Jimi was in charge of his armour and a morale throw turned up a Panic so the Sherman left the battlefield, I was very happy with this as two hits from my PzIV had already failed to penetrate the Allied armour, the panzer now had carte blanche to disrupt the British forces.

'Lucky' Jimi ponders his next move.

I now rushed towards the bridge with almost everything I had, apart from the Kriegsmarine squad which I forgot about, and some hand to hand combat left me disputing the objective, helped by yet another Panic which caused the British CO to leg it rearward. The bridge defenders had been whittled down and Simon's men would now have to run a gauntlet of fire if they were ever going to help their mates, which as we got to turn 5 looked unlikely. Time was against us and we had to call it a day, a draw was declared but I think the Dynamic Duo got off light. It was a good night with Jimi's dire die rolls causing lots of mirth.

I have the Bolt Action V3 book and although I have not sat and had a good read I have watched a few games on YouTube, my first impressions are favourable from V2, there looks like there has been an attempt to 'get real' with some of the mechanisms which for me is a good thing. It does look like the quality control has once again been bad, there really is no excuse for this in a book costing £35 but I am not a fan of Warlords QC or the lame excuses for it, books or otherwise. Judgement in the end will be reserved until I get some hands on games under my belt, watch this space.

Mate Robert managed to be in the area this week so we organised the fourth game in our Road to Bremen campaign, the British had been held back on Map 4 on our previous game. This time Robert dropped a mortar barrage on my defensive position, this game mechanic most people will agree breaks the game, however he had warned me and I could not blame him due to the tactical circumstances. The barrage basically stopped me doing anything with my men while the troops under the barrage simply lay and took casualties, you cannot run, withdraw, see anything or deploy troops into it. You need a Chain of Command dice to stop it although if the enemy also has such a dice he can keep it going, more frustration.

The British get serious.

 

Incoming!

Boom, boom.

For a long time I sat and did nothing except die while the British crept closer and closer, then, hallelujah, I managed to stop the barrage, boom, my Pak took out a carrier, boom, my Pak took out a Sherman, I also managed to wipe out the crews of the carriers, British morale plummeted. Robert was not going without a fight, he managed to get a couple of squads into the woods and attack my weakened defenders, German morale now fell, both sides now struggled to get the upper hand. The British pulled off a coup in capturing two Jump Off Points and my morale fell again. Robert managed a last desperate charge to win, my morale disappeared, but wait, the British had to take two morale checks due to the hand to hand combat, one minus and they would have to withdraw, leaving the handful of Germans left alive to cling on to the table. He made his morale throws with snake eyes, aaagh!

Take that.

Men of the match.

The beginning of the game while I was under the barrage was very frustrating for me, but once it went we had a cracking game as both sides desperately strove to wound the other, each coming so close to winning each time.

I got up early this morning to clear the table and set up for my second game, again Chain of Command with Matt Crump and another campaign game. Matt too looked like he had an almost impossible mission ahead of him and we decided I would introduce him to the Italian Wars when he lost.

This time the defensive position actually did me no favours, there were three buildings with only limited firing positions facing the German advance, and although Matt only had two panzergrenadier squads and a MMG behind entrenchments he could outshoot me in most situations as it soon became apparent. Matt also brought a Panther, I had toyed with taking an anti-tank gun but in this campaign nothing apart from a Panzerfaust has a good chance of taking the cat out, I therefore went for a Tank Killer team and gave each squad a panzerfaust.

Seerappen train station.

I started out well as Matt struggled to get his tank into action and I hit his two Junior Leaders wounding them, giving him command problems, but I had my own as my off table troops were reluctant to turn up for several phases. Once the tank did move forward I managed to ambush it twice but could not get a decent hit on it, only killing one of the crew.

Oh, oh.

Brave but sadly useless defenders.

Firepower.

The pendulum swung my way again as I knocked out one of Matt's two squads, but now the lack of decent firing positions began to hurt me, the amount of lead coming my way knocked out a squad and a couple of teams, my morale now fell, despite Matt only having a morale of three I just could not get into a position to cause him any more checks without jeopardising my own morale. We slugged it out for a while but I was on the way out, my tank killers had already gone and my squad on the objective had lost their leader and as my Senior Leader had died earlier I was stumped. I gave up and we shook hands.

Two long, frustrating, but equally exciting games for all of us, and so close, especially against Robert, Matt had my measure at the end. Chain of Command V2 is coming after Christmas if Rich Clarke is to be believed, I hope he manages it, He has mentioned sorting out some of the pitfalls of the rules, the mortar barrage for a start and proper objectives for attackers and defenders so players cannot set up a fire base and wait to see who's morale collapses first, plus other things. I always say that the rules favour small campaigns, but it is only when you play them that you get the feeling that they were not properly playtested beforehand. Bremen is hard for the British but in the context of the end of the war it actually works, the Germans should not expect to win, it's the playing the game that's the thing. The jury is out on Konigsberg II for both sides expectations.

Fornovo 1494

 My wargame journey continues unabated, the Club this week was Bolt Action, it was supposed to be Dux Britanniarum but I have not played in years and could not find the time to re-read the rules, so Bolt Action was on standby.

Jimi wanted to play Germans so I brought my Soviets for a nice change, somewhere on the Ostfront a Tiger I had been abandoned by its crew and both sides wanted it, the Russian to either capture or destroy it and the Jerries to rescue it. I took three squads, a sniper, HMG, Dog mine team and a T-34/76. Jimi had three squads a 250/11 with 37mm anti-tank gun, MMG, sniper and mortar, I do have a couple of 250's but not the one he wanted, I do however have a 251/7 with the 37mm so gave that to Jimi, I came to regret being so kind. The Soviets get a free squad in Bolt Action and it can be tooled up to the nines, all for free, I have never liked this but I did take the squad with rifles only, just this once as it goes against the grain.

Tiger, tiger.

The Red tide.

NKVD.

We both moved fairly quickly on the Tiger's position, I started off well and had soon wiped out the MMG team, put some hurt on one of the squads and eventually caused the sniper to move off. Then it all went wrong, the little 37mm opened up with deadly accuracy and my casualties began to climb, to add to the carnage the mortar also managed to bring in some accurate fire and I began to really suffer. My own troops and the T-34 couldn't hit a barn door. As time went on I got Fido or maybe Fidor to run at the immobile Tiger, it was all in vain as I found out the best the mine dog could do was to make the tank immobile, duh. I wanted to bring the T-34 over to knock out the annoying halftrack but I was too late. Jimi got a convincing and well deserved win. He has obviously done a deal with the devil as his luck was pretty good for 'Lucky' Jimi.

Fido or Fidor.

The menace.

Tin can.

Next up was a trial of Pike and Shotte for the Italian Wars, I have information from the internet and the rule book and tried to make sense of it and get some army lists done but once again I found I was out of time, not helped by a flying visit from my sister and brother, much as it was appreciated. So I went for the Fornovo scenario and army lists from the recent book by Rodolfo Verginella, I did drop the Imperial light cavalry who at the end of the day simply went for the baggage train, a wargamer would not do this and use them as a flank attack, so I solved the problem by simply leaving them off.

Stewart's car.

On a walk in Morecambe today.

 Stewart came up from Preston having took the day off work and arrived in a beautiful blue Morgan sports car, excellent craftsmanship. I digress, Stewart took the Venetians and I commanded the French, historically the French won but it is a hard one for a wargamer to win I think without penalising the Venetians. I was especially fearful of my right flank which had no cavalry and my centre which was heavily outnumbered with basically no infantry to talk about, my left had the indomitable Swiss and cavalry so I was expecting good things from this division if I could get them into action quickly enough.

French Army.

Let them come lads.

Move damn you, move!

The battle opened and my right advanced cautiously, thankfully the enemy cavalry here blundered and moved away to the flank, I held the centre back and again lady luck smiled as the leading Italian cavalry were also confused and ended up retreating to the rear (another blunder). I saw it was now time to get the Swiss into action supported by their Gendarmes, they inched forward then gave up, even as the enemy cavalry here also retreated, nothing I could do could get this division to move and take advantage of the enemy's disorder.

Venetian centre in disarray.

My right flank about to go.

Meanwhile my right had attacked the enemy pike as they forded the Taro river, they performed wonderfully and I thought Plan A was going to work, but very quickly as the melee continued my French infantry were badly beaten and dispersed, my right as I had feared had gone. My Gendarmes threw themselves at the French pike in the centre and were naturally beaten back, ouch, still the Swiss refused to move, only the confusion and lack of aggressivenes by the Italian commander in the centre was saving me.

At last the Swiss got into the action and predictably destroyed their opponents, although by then I had lost my Gendarmes on this flank but Stewart had also lost a unit of Lanze Spezzate which evened things a bit. Things now get a bit hazy but the upshot was that I lost my centre and right, Stewart lost his right and also his left, however my Swiss had to run the gauntlet of the Venetians guns to take on his centre and I doubt they would have survived the cannonade. We called it a draw, but I think Stewart had the edge if we had continued.

 

Italian centre still reluctant to close.

 

Swiss giving up under cannonade.

So, what did I think of Pike and Shotte, looking back the battle was actually quite good and fairly exciting, I however detest the rule whereby if you are shot at and receive a six on the die you are 'disordered' and cannot move in your next turn. Perhaps it is the use of the word disordered that offends me the most, I fail to see why a Swiss pike block would take a crossbow quarrel and suddenly stop and disregard the wishes of its commander. Now I can just about live with the fact that some divisions simply refuse to move and I can understand this mechanic but to simply call a halt to an advance by being shot at, which lets face it would be expected, I just see red. I also know that originally these rules were for a close group who fought huge battles on big tables, but on anything less, even a table tennis table units getting to move three times is just simply wrong. In the end I would probably have been just as happy to play this game with Furioso and get a better feel for the period. Yes I might play them again here with guys more familiar with rules from the same stable but no disorder from sixes and no third move.

Venetian camp.

Italian batteries.

I haven't manged any more painting and my Stradiots still sit silently on the paint table no doubt giving me the evil eye. I have one more game to go on Sunday as my son and grandson are visiting, no idea what we are doing yet, after that a bit of a rest due to real life before playing Julian again later in the month.