View from the Window: Vienna

 My trip to Imperial Vienna is over, a week of palaces, galleries and museums, my last holiday was a weekend away with my son in Sicily a couple of years ago and before that Vietnam in 2019. 

I am probably wrong but I seem to remember a time when you turned up with only your passport and off you went. This time we booked with Jet2, then we had to pay to sit together, then we had to pay for the airport transport, and also the airport transfer to the hotel, ching, ching. Then there was the hours of YouTube videos of what to do and not to do in Vienna, where to eat, how to avoid a diplomatic incident, always stand to the right of the elevator or be huffed at. After this there was all the Apps to help you, the translator, the city guide, the local transport guide, the Flexi Pass or the Vienna Pass. At the end of the week I realised all I really needed was a guide book and my passport. I will be prepared next time.

WWII flak towers in the distance, there are six.

State Opera House.

An art museum.

 

Army Museum.

Another museum, once a little pad in the city.

 

St. Stephans, magnificent.

Why is there always a rush at the departure gate, the plane will not take off until everyone is onboard, then you are asked that rows 11 to 25 are to board, you have waited patiently and once on you find rows 2, 5 and 6 are full, these are the same people who stand up and block the aisle as soon as the seat belt sign is off, or before that when the plane still has a mile to go to get to the terminal. Next in line for the firing squad are the people who refuse the polite "turn off all electrical devices", one near me sat through two and a half hours of Rinaldo's (kicks a leather ball around) wife having a great time pretending to be important. Don't get me wrong, Jet2 didn't bother me and I didn't bother them, seamless, it's people.

The hotel was in a perfect location and the staff were wonderful, nothing was any bother. It was a ten minute walk to the heart of the city which apart from two days of rain was very pleasant. Vienna has very wide streets and part of the pavement is allocated to bikes, escooters and mopeds, although clearly marked you have to keep your wits about you, especially for the daredevils texting while careening along. This also applies to the many important people unable to get out of your way due to answering some obviously important text which cannot wait until they are safely stopped or watching who they are going to bump into. I learned after a day or so just to keep my head down and plough forward, "sorry mate, I saw you but you didn't see me!"

We saw a lot during our stay and were suffering from cultural PTSD by the time we left, I enjoyed the Hofburg complex and the Museum of Military History although I missed out on the WWII exhibition in the latter as it was closed for refurbishment, they also do not show off their tank collection until a Sunday morning, we were there on the Tuesday. The Spanish Riding school was a bit of a disappointment and it would have been better to have booked a show rather than watch a training exercise. Our visit to the Schonbrunn Palace was our bitterest disappointment as it was raining, the gardens were past their best and even the animals in the zoo looked cheesed off, added to this was the fact our Vienna Pass only allowed us to see 5 of the 47 rooms open to the public, the Memsahib was not pleased and vented her fury to no avail at the Vienna Pass office later on.

 Her trip on the Danube also hit a rock as the voyage only lasted an hour and fifteen minutes during which you basically saw nothing of interest, we did not have time to spare for a three hour boat ride, but we have sailed on the Danube, nuff said.

A ship of the once mighty Austrian navy.

The raised conning tower of a U-Boot.

This piece moved along the dinner table with the little men playing music!

The Imperial Armoury.

Franz Ferdinand was shot in this car.

We are not keen on Weiner Schnitzel, and Vienna has a lot of Schnitzel, most of the restaurants have pretty much the same menu, so we ended up with Vietnamese (twice, superb), Chinese (don't ask), Japanese and Turkish. We did go to a few local restaurants and Goulash stew and Goulash soup are now firm favourites of mine, in fact I might make the latter this weekend. My favourite which I sadly only managed once during our busy schedule was Kaiserschmarrn, a sweet, shredded pancake served with plum sauce or cream, magnifico. On our last day we stood in a queue waiting about twenty minutes to get a seat in the famous Cafe Central for coffee and applestrudel, we were in good company as past visitors included Hitler, Stalin, Trotsky, Freud and Tito among others, no doubt there were a few famous nice people as well. Although I am not keen on the tipping culture I do respect that the waiters are adult, professional, helpful and friendly, not Kevin in sixth form asking if you want to 'go large' with your Kaiserschmarrn. It was also nice to be served alcohol free beer in large bottles which I would defy anyone to tell the difference from the stuff that has you falling over, yes I too was a denier years ago and I do miss that warm, comfortable glow but it's better than a Coke Zero.

Viennese coffee is the best.

Art on a plate.

Smiling? Must be photoshopped.

The Boss.

We just happened to turn up at the moment the newly ousted leader was making his way across the road to meet his successor. During our travels I got to listen to two young people from the opposite ends of the spectrum politically about the situation in Austria, just for a few minutes, I won't say who got my sympathies. We were also one evening on the fringes of a very large protest with music, banners and flares, the point being that many of the Austrian population had not voted for the views held by the protestors, democracy eh?

Anyway, we are back and our week seems to have flown past, the LMF took the main hit for the holiday and the boardroom are not happy, but what the hell, we enjoyed ourselves.

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.

Busy Week

 With my recovery from my operation pretty much done I decided it was maybe time to carry some boxes of my own troops to the club without help. I therefore decided on a small Italian Wars game with Rob, the recent Battle of Sanguetta seemed to fit the bill but this time I would add one more cavalry unit to each side to make the game last a bit longer.

Rob took the Florentine forces while I led the Papal States, as I have said before the Florentines had superior cavalry while the Popes had better infantry, or so I thought. Rob was cautious with his infantry while I pushed forward hoping to better them, the Florentine cavalry came on at a good pace. At first it looked like I might be going home early and ruining my wife's 'me time'. Surprisingly my condottiere put up a spirited fight and as the dust settled we had both lost a heavy cavalry unit, meanwhile as the infantry clashed Rob continued to frustrate me by beating my supposedly superior troops, throwing them back in disorder then routing the Landsknechts. This left him free to overwhelm my Papal pike block as the Germans fled, I surrendered as there was nothing left to fight with and my lone cavalry were exhausted. My cavalry had managed to keep me in the game longer than I deserved so kudos to the mercenaries but once again I had lost an Italian Wars clash, well done Rob.

Great expectations as my infantry march.

Go get 'em boys.

Not looking good on the left wing.

It's about to be over.

This last weekend was a wargaming weekend, my son and grandson arrived for a fight. On the Saturday we had a War and Conquest game, they were the Saxons and I took the Romano-British, my very first WAC army but one I normally give to guests as it has a slight advantage over the Saxons, remember this. As both sides moved forward I was hoping to threaten the Saxon left while beating their right, I did seem to start off well but it took me too long to destroy the Saxon cavalry and the fact I forgot to move my massed archers twice in a row didn't help as my hard fighting Pedyts eventually ran away after putting up a decent fight.

Saxons to the left, British to the right, James in the middle.

 

The Saxons charge to disrupt my lines.

The Picts in action.

My useless elites.

In the centre the Saxons hit me hard and right away I lost two units, on my left I really screwed up with my elite cavalry and got nothing from them all game, I had to push my left wing infantry into battle to shore up the line. At one point it looked quite good and I thought if not a win then I would get a draw, but I was quickly taught a lesson as almost my entire army began to flee. I handed over my sword. It was great to get a large battle of WAC on the table again but despite gaining lots of hits I could not convert them to kills so suffered as grandson James' dice seemed unable to fail. As usual my elite troops were anything but and my Welsh were beaten by a bunch of peasant farmers.

On the Sunday James chose WWII so I stole Matt Crump's Paras on the Bridge scenario and we set too, I was the Germans and the attackers this time. There was confusion in the British command structure as Stewart and James argued over what to do for the best, meanwhile I threw caution to the wind and threw everything I had at the men on the bridge. The defenders began to lose more and more men while the tanks on both sides traded shots, I had my armoured car immobilised by the British armoured car in a position which really didn't help my assault, in return I immobilised the Sherman and then two shots later blew it up. 

Ready for the second game.

The Paras hold the bridge.

The British attempt to rush the bridge as a last gasp.

I too was now beginning to lose men as I assaulted and took the bridge as the last turn approached, however I managed to ensure the British could not get to the bridge by wiping out their nearest squad. James was reluctant to surrender despite his fathers pleadings and my assurance that the jig was up. I then spotted what the little tinker was up to, the British had the last dice from the bag and he had his command team in a position to get on to the bridge without being shot, therefore stealing a draw, cunning. Sadly for James the last roll gave the game another turn, nothing could now prevent his command team dying as the Germans threw everything they had at the brave officer and his batman.

Kudos to Matt for designing the scenario and James for nearly gaining a draw, I am going to play this again at the club tomorrow night with 'Lucky' Jimi. In the end an excellent weekend of gaming and a few beers in Lancaster with Stewart.

I have a very busy week coming up, the club tomorrow, Chain of Command Wednesday night with Robert and then Chain of Command on Thursday with Matt. 

I am sitting waiting for the postman to bring me Bolt Action V3, I have said before that I shouldn't have bothered but knew in the end I would get it. Comments online give me the impression that there are a few good commonsense rule changes but that others are simply there to be different and have no basis in reality, yes I know it's Bolt Action but that's not a valid excuse if your rule set is based on something specific. No matter I am talking out of my backside not having the rules in front of me or having played a game, I will rectify this in a few weeks.

I finished my extra Landsknechts far quicker that I did my SYW battalion, next up are the mercenary hoplites, I am going to be busy next week but might get them cleaned and primed before then.

I finished my recent book on the Battle of Pinkie 1547 and although scholarly I enjoyed it, Pinkie was a 'run away, run away' battle. We, the Scots, had a decent and slightly larger army than the English but lost most of our cavalry the day before the main clash, many were dead or had simply gone home, the next day the remainder basically rode off into the morning mist and disappeared. The Scottish army was then charged by the English cavalry but successfully beat them off, but while redeploying and under cannonfire from an English galley something went drastically wrong and the skeddale began and just got worse. Numbers of course from these battles are usually off the scale but in the pursuit it would seem 6,000 Scots were killed while English casualties may have numbered about 600 overall, although some records would hint at two men and a dog. Once again we lost but in the end it amounted to naught in the grand scheme of things, the point of Pinkie had been a union between the royal houses of England and Scotland which would happen without fighting 56 years later. Maybe a game I could refight with my Italian Wars forces.

A Bridge Too Far?

 Busy time for me at the mo, we had a family weekend near Gretna and were lucky enough to have two fantastically warm days, we also have a dress up evening and the theme was TV and Movies so I ended up as Tommy Shelby from Peaky Blinders, a more mature Tommy but I thought a striking resemblance.

The club this week was an opportunity to show off War and Conquest, one of my two most favourite games. I was playing Fran but Alex also asked to join in so I decided to umpire and explain the rules as the battle progressed, or as good as I could not having played in eons. I brought two Dark Age forces similar but with subtle differences, Romano-British and Saxon Heptarchy. As with most new games both armies got stuck in right away and it degenerated into the usual Dark Age slog, at the end of the night the Saxons just had the edge. Both players mentioned the 'bucket-o-dice' part of the game, something which it took me a bit to get used to, but otherwise it went OK, I could see Fran giving it another go but not so much Alex.

Saxons led by their King.

The British advance.

Forward boys.

Close combat.

I had a second WAC clash sorted for tonight a rematch between my Seleucids under the command of Ed and the Thunderbolts under myself, the 12th had lost quite spectacularly when I introduced the game to Ed almost two years ago and wanted revenge as they are not used to losing. Sadly we have had to postpone, but I do have my son coming over for some games later in the month, which will probably be WAC.

Yesterday I was in Penrith having been invited up to Matt Crump's Dungeon for a Bolt Action game which is part of an ongoing campaign Matt is running set against the backdrop of Operation Sealion. I was the Germans and my Fallschirmjager had taken a bridge over the river Stour and they were to hold it until reinforcements arrived, one squad had gone AWOL and would turn up during the battle but no one knew where. 

My first wave turned up on the right hand side of the table and took up position in some buildings covering the bridge, I also put my Pz38(t) on the far right with an infantry squad in support, I had some idea of outflanking the British. Matt had units surrounding the bridge and closing in along with an A10, a Beaverete armoured car a mortar and anti-tank rifle, there were also a bunch of sailors for some reason and in reserve was the local Home Guard.

The battlefield.

More goodness.

A joy to fight over.

As the bullets started flying I found my brave boys on the bridge holding their own at first, then the British mortar started putting some very accurate fire down on the objective, my casualties mounted as a hail of lead followed. I now pushed my infantry forward in order to support the Paras as their numbers fell. Matt has a 'White Dice of Death' in the bag and the first time it came up it was a flock of sheep in the road just as I was thinking of moving my newly arrived armoured car forward, the next time I found my boss was intoxicated and the third time a squad headed for the nearest building to loot it! It was now that the missing Fallschirmjager turned up to the fight, right in the rear of the British heavy weapons which they proceeded to wipe out, mortar, HMG and anti-tank rifle gone. The squad of Matelots had managed to leave the bar at the pub and got close to the bridge but they found themselves pinned down for the rest of the game.

The first assault.

Surprise!

There now followed some serious hand to hand combat on the bridge as I struggled to keep the British from taking posession, two assaults came in and both were hurled back, but only just. Thankfully I had moved all my remaining squads into positions to counter attack the bridge just in time, even so the Home Guard brushed aside their losses and got on to the bridge, things were looking bad for the Germans as we had reached Turn 6, but wait, a die roll brought another turn. I had one squad left which could deliver an assault on the Home Guard, it was too much for the brave locals and they died to a man, and a woman Reg.

The Sailors leave the pub.

It's all over.

A real nail biter right up to the end with the Jerries grabbing victory from the jaws of defeat at the last possible moment. It is always a pleasure to play in the Dungeon, Matt puts on a lovely table with lots of interesting scatter and he always manages to work up a balanced scenario. Bolt Action is perfect for this type of game, you won't get this level of excitement from Chain of Command, at least not often, and before I get jumped on, it's simply a different type of game, they cannot be compared, but both have their place.

I have managed to clean up and prime my new Landsknechts and Matt kindly gave me a single, metal hoplite to make up my new unit of those. I may get around to some painting tonight but right now I do not feel like it.