If only .........

I have now finished my War and Conquest weekend courtesy of my son Stewart. My new 3rdC Roman army is basically finished and ready for the tabletop and as much as I would have liked to lead Thrax's boys in battle my son Stewart regards Roman troops as walking tanks, so I let him take the new army. I have to admit I have a superstition about the 'Thunderbolts' and felt I could not abandon them so the first battle would be a 'Civil War', quite appropriate for the 'Crises'. I also wanted to show him that the Romans are not invincible so decided to take a Barbarian Warband army for the second battle, tongue firmly in cheek, again an appropriate clash for Maximinus Thrax.

The Twelfth mustered with four cohorts two of which were recruits, the supports were one Auxiliary cohort, some Auxiliary light infantry along with some skirmishers, the cavalry were horse archers and kontos armed Contari. Across the field were four legionary vexillations and some Lanciarii, these were supported by skirmishers, Contari, German cavalry and Roman horse archers, a bolt shooter completed the line up. I realised too late that my right flank was going to be in trouble, so I held the III Cohort back just in case, I then made things worse by losing my Light Infantry but to be fair they had refused to charge into the enemy javelins in the wood which then set them up as a target for the enemy Contari.

Legio XII Fulminata.

Thrax.

Thunderbolts on the left, Thrax on the right.

On the left I did manage to chase off the enemy horse archers but lost my own to the Germans, I now felt pressured to attack the enemy infantry before both my flanks failed. My assault proved a triumph and two of the enemy fled, despite being commanded by Thrax himself XXII Primagenia also fled in sympathy. Stewart looked despondent but my men could not catch the routers and most of them managed to rally and come back, my Contari tried to catch I Minerva in the flank but had to withdraw. So far my massed archers had failed miserably to inflict casualties on anyone they fired at, much like Stewart's bolt shooter, but unlike the Scorpio my archers broke for the rear having suffered horrendous casualties. 

Both sides advance.

My unfortunate horse archers.

German cavalry.

Still early days.

On my right Auxiliary I had fought magnificently but their enemy once again returned and just as things were again looking good they were hit in the rear by Contari, nonetheless they fought to the last man and tied up both these units for some time. Things are a bit hazy now, but the upshot was that I stabilised the right flank and routed the Contari and Javelins that were there, II Treverorum managed to hold out after being routed twice. Despite fighting a depleted II Cohort Thrax and his bodyguard were being beaten back. Stewart handed over his sword.

My Auxiliaries surrounded.

Roman v Roman.

Thrax leads XXII Primagenia.

My light infantry refuse to charge.

I made a mistake leaving my right at a disadvantage, however if I had put the Contari on the right my left would have been easily overwhelmed by two cavalry units against my skirmishers, so it was a hard decision and I was lucky that I got away with it. The Twelfth had proved themselves once again against a difficult opposition and remain No.1.

On Sunday it was a very different battle Barbarians against a well trained, professional Roman army. I fought one of the most memorable battles years ago against mate Matt Smith who took a Warband army against the Thunderbolts, the Twelfth gained their fearsome reputation in this battle which was a tremendous but ultimately victorious struggle, I wanted to try such a fight again. This time I was the Barbarians, and I kept it simple with five large warbands, some Noble cavalry and some skirmishers, I was going to keep it simple and just charge the enemy relying on my numbers and skill in the first clashes. Stewart brought three vexilations and three Lanciarii with two cavalry units and also some skirmishers. We deployed one unit at a time and by the end we were on the opposite sides of the battlefield.

Germans on the left Romans on the right.

Romans.

Germans.

 I thought the Romans were going to have difficulty getting past the terrain so set my warbands off immediately at speed to close them in even further. The Romans managed to grab a hill on their left so I decided to leave this alone, they were happy to stick to their hill so I took on the javelins with Warriors 2 and sent them packing. I also managed to rout some archers and a Lanciarii unit, on the debit side I lost a warband to Thrax and his bodyguard, however overall things looked good. On the other hand my pursuers continually failed to exert any enthusiasm and the enemy kept rallying, this would happen time and time again.

Roman archers run away.

My leader about to hit the Roman centre.

Things are looking good.

Intense combat.

My Leader fought magnificently in the centre but once again actually managing to maintain the success was sadly lacking, I had been doing very well on my left but again the Romans would flee only to come back as my men had left their trainers with the wagons. The Contari, who had routed three times now came to the party and caught a warband in the flank, this unfortunate unit now routed, my remaining warband on the left was now surrounded by Romans and although fighting like Trojans eventually succumbed to the pressure. I was now left with only two warbands and my Noble cavalry, the latter had been threatening Thrax and his men and would have found it difficult to ride past him to help on the left, maybe I should have at least tried but they kept Thrax out of the fight for most of the game. Soon I was left with only my leader and the remnants of his hard fighting warband, it was time for me to hand Stewart his sword back.

I am ready to charge the centre.

 

Get after them!

  

The above does not do justice to this intense conflict, at least twice it looked like the Romans were on the ropes but my lack of decent pursuit moves and Stewarts incredible morale throws allowed them to came back time and time again. I will admit some of his early routs were also the result of some bad morale throws on his part. This will go down in the annals as the Battle of the Whingers as we both implored the dice gods not to desert us, if only this or if only that, and yes, I actually changed my dice half way through.

We chose 3,000 point armies and took our time so each game lasted around five hours, with eats and some beers, a satisfying and best way to play a wargame. For me War and Conquest brings highs and lows, frustration and elation while allowing me to put large armies onto the table and throw buckets of dice, nothing else I have seen or played can beat it. Yes it is Old School, but tell me anywhere that 'New School' is better, in wargaming or elsewhere.

I made a supreme effort before the battle to finish off my last unit of Lanciarii so that Stewart would have the complete army to choose from, I also painted up my Slave Trader set from Foundry as the Rally Point. I was on a roll and managed to weather the Pz I and Bunkerflak, I also found another Panzer I in my 1939-1942 box, duh. I got a Luftwaffe 88 crew from Empress as they have jackboots for early war, I will only be able to put two figures on the vehicle as there is just not enough room, the others can act as extra gun crew for Chain of Command.

I have a busy week ahead, mate Robert will be here on Tuesday and Wednesday for some games in the evening although we have not decided what we are doing yet. I also have an important appointment with the NHS on Wednesday, or at least I am hoping it is. 

I continue with my work on the Arab-Israeli atlas, about a third of the way through now.

 

Let There Be Light

 Yes, it's me again, a short while after saying syonara. I had a knee jerk reaction to some news regarding my health which I now realise was the wrong thing to focus on, several people have questioned why I would stop blogging as I obviously enjoyed it, I made excuses but in the end I realise my blog is as much a part of my wargaming hobby as the battles and troops are. I may not blog as often in the coming months but I will continue. So, lets go.

I had asked if anyone would like a game of Chain of Command this coming Tuesday, sorry but I seem to be unable to shake my interest in this game that I once threw in the bin. With everyone busy I thought all was lost but Paul offered me a game yesterday out of the blue and I grabbed it. He has Americans so I decided to branch out and take Volksgrenadiers, once again I was the attacker, you can see a pattern here. I set up a village and poured over the support lists, I decided on a Panzergrenadier squad, an adjutant, second Senior Leader and a Panzer III N, I wanted to be sure I could command all four squads which would be difficult with one leader. Paul had very few support points and not enough for a tank, I expected a medium or heavy MG.

The Americans in CoC annoy me, they have very large twelve man squads and automatic weapons, they also get to fire when moving with no penalty to their accuracy, I disagree with General Patton on this, sure put a wall of lead up but hitting something would just be luck. It costs command points to do this but hey, I have to moan about something. 

There were two objective markers on the table and I decided to first of all hit the one on my left, I set up my LMG squads to cover a ruined building which had an objective near it and then quickly brought on my tank and the rest of the troops. Paul put one squad in the building and one on some woods to the right, his third squad would turn up on my far right eventually, but it took some time to make its presence felt in the battle. I managed to get several double turns and advanced one squad very quickly along the side of a nearby church and charged a lone Ami teamand wiped it out, capturing an NCO. I then moved against the remaining part of the platoon in the woods and caused them to run, I also sat on the enemy Jump Off Point here, things looked very good. On the other flank a squad had almost killed off a Yankee Scout Team and caused them to retreat.

Carried away with my success I now moved my LMG squads out and towards the objective, what could go wrong. In the woods Paul had left a Senior Leader isolated and my squad there charged the poor man, incredibly he beat off his attackers and kept going, elsewhere a sniper began to pick off some of my NCO's and my morale dropped, I was putting a ton of lead (32 shots) into the fortress and getting nowhere apart from the odd kill, this was taking far too long. But what about the tank I hear you say, well that moved forward to the crossroads and was just about to take the house under fire when Paul's support turned up, not an MMG but an anti-tank gun, it barked and the Panzer exploded, morale fell again.

Oh dear.

My first NCO goes down.

Men of the match attack Yankee right.

I was now in trouble as the survivors of my squad in the woods were stuck there as I was now down a command dice and needed them elsewhere, my right hand squad's NCO was stunned and useless so they also had to seek shelter to stop being wiped out, I was left with my seemigly dreadful LMG squads hitting nothing but brickwork. Paul had tried to get his Senior leader to run for his own lines but the machinegunners had only managed to stun him, agh! With things not looking so good the turn ended, I had captured the JOP but Paul's morale managed to weather this, however he lost an objective so only one remained and I was hopefully closing in on it. I continued as if mesmerised by the squad in the building near the objective, I almost had them as their numbers collapsed, I could smell victory. then Paul threw four sixes with four dice.

That damn house.

Thaat's not a machine gun.

Should have stayed in the house.

This proved disastrous for me, he managed to get a roll for reinforcements, five men, and reinforced the remnants of the squad in the house of death, I was gutted. His left hand squad now had come into the battle and my LMG squads began to suffer. we were now both down to three dice each as the dual continued, I turned my attention to the newly arrived squad and for once my boys began to deal out significant casualties, however, time and time again I failed to hit an NCO in order to trigger a morale  test. We were now both down to one point of morale and two dice, the tension mounted, eventually Paul managed to get two good order throws and my morale crumbled.

Too little too late.

The end.

A nerve wracking game which saw ups and downs for both sides but Paul just managed to get that bit of luck when needed. Yes I could have been luckier but also in the cold light of day I think I could have made some better decisions. No matter, a good win for Paul and an entertaining afternoon for me.

I have been busy elsewhere, I have completed half of my last Lanciarii unit and will start on the rest later this week. My son is coming for a few games at the weekend and my new Romans will be on the table so I needed a Rally Point for them, I got the Slave Trader set from Wargames Foundry and will complete this little vignette this afternoon, I was also given a couple of Roman civilians from Rob at the club so these I will use as Strategic Intervention Points along with some others I already have..

My new vehicles arrived from Mardav, 3D printed and beautifully detailed, I have now primed and drybrushed these and may get a chance to detail and weather them today or tomorrow. I have sent to Empress Miniatures for their Luftwaffe 88mm flak crew, these are the only guys I can find with jackboots as I have painted up the Bunkerflak in grey for early war and Barbarossa. I will only need at most three figures but the others will still come in handy for extra gun crews.

Bunkerflak and Pz I

I believe that is it, I see the BBC are pushing their King and Conqueror series, I have seen clips and going by past attempts at portraying the Dark Ages I do not hold out much hope.

Going Dark

 I am having to put the Blog on hold, possibly for good.

 I would just like to thank everyone who popped by and especially those who left comments. I started this when I moved south and gave up writing for wargame magazines as a way to keep writing about my wargaming life, and it has been rewarding, for me at least.

 Again my thanks and who knows, maybe one day, like Arnie "I will be back". 

Berlin at last

I might have mentioned that I was asked to take my Italian Wars troops to the club this week in order to give Simon and his son Henry a game. It had to be small enough to get a result in three hours so the armies were medium at best with eight units a side, two gendarmes, one heavy cavalry and one skirmish cavalry along with one large pike block and one smaller and an artillery piece.

Me on the left, Simon and Henry on the right.

I slowly move forward.

My one success before it all falls apart.

We quickly set up a table with a couple of hills and a small wood and deployed our troops, the random event was played on Simon and Henry as their troops trudged along mud filled roads to the battlefield. This had the effect of around five of the enemy formations arriving fatigued. No big deal as it happened as I played cautiously from the start. Henry and Simon at first played cautiously but once the fatigue had worn off they came ahead quite quickly. I never seem to have much luck playing Italian Wars and this game was to be no exception, my small pike block and my Gendarmes were defeated as was my heavy cavalry, I did manage to push back Henry's large pike block but it was too little too late. I had to concede as time was marching on. Maybe next time.

The next day Matt Crump turned up to kick start out Gembloux Gap campaign, once again set in 1940 with Matt playing the troops of 3rd Panzer Division. The first game is an attack on the village of Perbais with the French defending, this is a hard ask for the Germans and they need some luck to make headway, they have no armour as yet and no anti-tank weapons. The French on the other hand are allowed armour albeit a very small tank which I duly took as a support.

The Jerries turned up and prepared to jump off, I left things a bit until they attempted to cross the open ground surrounding the village. Matt daringly sent one rifle team across a field backed up by multiple machine guns in an attempt to line a hedge and threaten a Jump Off Point, I had no option but to deploy some defenders. I then picked on the poor soldaten in the field and very quickly they broke and fled to the rear, masking the dug in MMG. I had by this time brought my tank to the fray, an R35 which proved basically useless as a threat to the Germans. There was a slim chance that machine gun fire could drive it back if the crew got nervous but Matt prefered to pick on my infantry.

More Stuka action.

Matt builds up a firing position.

My little tank.

The French front line.

An opening for the French.

After several phases as the French defence solidified it became obvious that for now the village was safe, Matt withdrew to fight another day. I forgot to mention that Matt had chosen a Stuka bombardment to start the game, much like my attack in the other campaign game the Luftwaffe proved fairly useless, I also managed to end the turn before I had to deploy my main force so there was no continuing threat from the air. Matt had managed to plant an unexploded bomb in one building but with the end of turn this was basically a dud.

My son turned up and invited my wife to join him and his daughter on a trip to Scotland to watch Celtic play, I immediately got in touch with Stuart and offered a CoC game if he was free, he was. Stuart was keen to use his Volksgrenadiers again and I thought this was a perfect opportunity to get my Berlin ruins on to the table and fight through the rubble with my Soviets. I had a think about the way forward and decided a tank or assault gun would be next to useless in heavy urban fighting so I went with an SMG Platoon supported by a regular section, an infantry gun and a flamethrower expecting close range fighting from street to street.

Somewhere in Berlin.

Street View 1.

Street View 2.

As the attacker I had to get to an objective which was in the church of St Friedrich the Fat, I started quite a distance away from this but was determined to move my Platoon up quickly into close range where the SMG's would be dangerous, of course the VG's had assault rifles so I would just have to take it on the chin. Stuart got a section out on my right flank and a sniper in the centre, on the left however he put his Volksturm. With no danger of concentrated fire from assault rifles I pushed two sections up to take the old men and youngsters under fire, as their casualties mounted I charged them, the weakened squad fled and I advanced to hold the ground, this threatened one of the German Jump Off Points. I pushed a second squad up with the idea of supporting the first one, possibly capturing a JOP and maybe forcing the sniper to leave. My infantry gun was also lobbing shells into the defenders area.

My infantry gun.

The Russians show up.

 

The Soviets clear the German right flank.

The Volksturm survivors break.

 

 

Stuart now moved his JOP out of harms way but I followed up and now two enemy JOP's were in danger. I had at last managed to get my own sniper team out, they never managed to fire a shot, along with my much vaunted flamethrower who sadly was way at the back of the attack and nowhere near the enemy. A desperate series of hand to hand combats now erupted as Stuart tried to hold on to his JOP's and force the Soviets back, my boys fought magnificently and each time the Hitlerites were routed and fled. As my victorious squads advanced they broke into St Friedrich's church and seized the objective. Stuart was left with one small festung in a nearby building where his remaining squad were hiding. As the Russians reorganised for the last push and got ready to end the turn German morale had fallen to 2, there was now no hope and this particular suburb of Berlin was now Soviet.

After some brutal hand to hand the Soviets close two JOP's.

The flamethrower trying to get forward.

The last of the defenders.

The Hitlerites in retreat.

I had wondered if CoC could handle a table filled with rubble, obstacles and ruined buildings and it managed very well, close range firing and hand to hand combat were the order of the day, giving a completely different type of game. I was lucky that the German deployment was so slow until their JOP's were threatened by which time their assault rifles really did not come into play. My thanks to Stuart for the game and I hope to see more fighting in Berlin, Budapest or even Stalingrad.

My son has been on a cruise and the ship docked in Corunna where of all things he found a Lego display portraying the Battle of Pavia, according to the blurb it was there to celebrate the Spanish Tercio's. There were no Tercio's at Pavia and the first official one is dated to 1534, almost ten years later, I have no beef with this but a museum should be able to get things correct, but then again have you been to one here recently.

I treated myself to some rail fencing from mate Colin at Charlie Foxtrot, I had wanted wire fencing but am too lazy and ham fisted to attempt them so these are the next best thing. I also ordered up a PzI and Bunkerflak which have not arrived yet from Mardav, I am expecting them on Monday. 

Chain of Command Daft Me

 I was going to skip Club night this week but got an invite from Stuart to play Chain of Command and as I am a bit fixated on the new version, I can't lose all the time, I popped along. Stuart wanted to use his newly recruited Volksgrenadiers and the back story was these guys had been instructors at an infantry school in the last days of the war as the British closed in but were determined to go down fighting.

My support roll was dreadful but I figured the Jerries would not have enough for a tank so took an infantry heavy force with a couple of PIAT's just in case, it was also good to command my British for a change. I was the attacker so wanted to make an effort rather than simply build up a firing line, fire and movement does it boys. I set up quite quickly with the idea of hitting the enemy right flank and then moving on the crossroads which were the objective, Stuart countered with his LMG squad and a MMG and squad on my right, he also put a section in a hedgeline opposite my advance, tardy though it was.

Enemy with an inventive Jump Off Point.

MMG dug in, smoke incoming!

NCO takes a hit.

British MMG.

I dropped smoke to protect my right and it worked a treat although I still had to withdraw one squad further back into a wood for protection while I rallied them. I drove off the section on my left and started to move forward only to find some old men and teenagers of the Volksturm to my front, a speed bump at best I thought. No, I had a squad almost wiped out and an NCO bit the dust, my morale fell to 6 from 10 in the blink of an eye. We had now run out of time, this always happens with CoC at the club but I wanted to play and simply learn more. Although my morale was lower than the Jerries I did manage to strike back at the Volksturm and once they were out of the way the road to the Crossroads would be clear so we agreed that the British were ahead. Of course we all know you cannot count on anything in a wargame but it did not look good for the Jerries, we would have needed another hour or so to conclude things.

Next up was the start of the "Many Rivers to Cross" campaign with Matt from the club, the Germans are attacking and pushing for bridges to get their armour into the French rear and on the way to Dunkirk, so the German infantry have to gain ground in order for the pioneers to build a bridge to enable the armour to rush forward and take another bridge defended by the enemy before they can blow it up. Matt chose the French so I was the bad guys.

It was important for me to get off to a good start so I decided to throw everything at the first game, I am not allowed any heavy weapons or vehicles until the bridge has been built so I took a couple of 5cm mortars a MMG and a Stuka bombardment along with a Shabby Nazi Trick of a Fifth Columnist. Matt countered with his own MMG, some AA and a small tank, something which I could do nothing about except possibly drive it off with maching gun fire if the crew got wary.

Bombs Away!

Anyway the Luftwaffe turned up and knocked down one house, they had hardly any other effect on the French forces, a poor showing for Goring's boys. Anyway I forged forward as I had to clear the centre section of the French deployment area and get some men off the table edge, the latter was not a problem but the former turned into a nightmare. My spy Jean Claude managed to interrupt the deployment of one of the French Senior Leaders but it really didn't help, Matt managed to get his MMG into the rubble of the destroyed building and a further section into a small orchard, these two units caused me all sorts of grief trying to get rid of them. I tried outflanking with one section only to have the enemy rifle grenadiers cause them to retreat before getting wiped out or into a decent firing position.

The little tank.

Forward guys.

Careful.

More Jerries.

I did at last manage to break the troops in the orchard and almost, almost get the MMG to run but Matt recovered and put more troops in the orchard and saved the MMG for a couple of more phases. I had an opportunity to shoot down a French leader as he sprinted to save the MMG but failed. I now went forward to hopefully overpower the enemy but my squads had now all taken casualties and frankly were not up to the task, not without me losing more men and casualties had been heavy. My morale had also fallen drastically having rolled dismally while Matt managed a couple of times to get 'nil points'.

Refugees, what no boats?

The bloody orchard.

My only 'heavy' weapons.

I did wonder if I should push things along but the French still had a tank so discretion being the better part of valour I withdrew, I will probably regret this. As the dust settled I had taken heavy casualties and lost 10 men, Matt lost 6, I have two more platoons while the French have one, but I do need those heavy weapons and tanks, the Luftwaffe is rearming. Matt has decided to hold the village and not attempt to interrupt my bridge building so my Second platoon are being made ready determined to do better than First.

I don't care what the fan boys say it is extremely difficult to attack a position in Chain of Command, I thought I was smart and used fire and movement, suppressing fire, smoke grenades and HE but once you step out into the open you are dead meat. 

I am changing sides next week and will be the French against Matt Crump as we fight for the Gembloux Gap. I should be at the club as well, possibly Italian Wars, we will see. 

Oh, I finished the last 'official' unit of the army of Maximinus Thrax, some skirmishers, two more extras are in the wings but I might move on the Fallschirmjager gift, still undecided.

I bought a new book, I am loathe to buy anything written by a woman, mainly fiction I must admit, sorry but there it is, I have got a new book on the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain by Victoria Taylor, I watched her talking about the subject on WW2TV and was impressed, so a giant leap forward for me although I found Barbara Tuchman a great historian.