Frustrated Moi!

 Good friend Billy turned up from beyond The Wall for a couple of days of Chain of Command a welcome visit. I found three linked battles we could easily do in the time allotted as a full campaign would be out of the question, it was an attack on a town, the first table the approach, the second the outskirts and the third the town itself. It was originally with Americans as the attackers however I do not have Americans so changed it to somewhere in East Prussia in early 1945 and I took the Soviets, Billy chose Panzergrenadiers for his defenders.

I had to tweak things as V2 of the rules are now out so we went for Probe, Attack and Defend and finally Attack on an Objective, the only other thing we took from the original was that the Soviets had to use six support points on armour. The terrain was fairly open for the first battle so I took support which hopefully would injure the defenders at the opposite end, an infantry gun, a HMG and a Lee tank. The Germans had very little in the way of support and ended up with some entrenchments.

First table, Jerries at the far end.

M3 Lee, a good tank for this.

Fritz waiting.

My top man gets wounded.

So near yet so far.

Billy set up two of his squads on the edge of a wood and I started to deal out casualties, I also set up my LMG squad in a wood and this added to the firepower heading Fritz's way. At an early point we got to the third turn which meant the Final Countdown had started to end the game, I still had nine phases to go to get along the open ground and prayed for a double turn to cross this and exit a unit off the table, I took my time and still pelted the enemy line, eventually they withdrew as the clock ticked down, I now just needed to go forward. However we were on Sudden Death where any double six would end the game. What did I throw after waiting ages for a double six, a double six, the game was Billy's.

How was the game, I was disappointed that I didn't manage to get more results from shooting up two squads, I might have managed to throw my tank and some infantry up long before the end of the game was nigh, but even with his reserve squad holding the wood anyone in the open would have simply been shot up, I really did need that double move to sprint for victory, just not when it happened.

 For the second game I had pretty much the same force, this time I had to capture one of two objectives, again Billy kept his defenders way back almost on his table edge, I pushed my men up the table looking for firing positions. I sent my tank up in support and it found itself ambushed by a panzerschreck team which took me completely by surprise, I almost cried as the tank went up in smoke, but wait, Billy had misunderstood the rules and the ambush could not happen, I did a little dance in my mind while Billy regretted showing his ace in the sleeve. The tank quickly backed off out of range, however in fear of the 'schreck it didn't do a lot more.

Second table, far end the baddies.

Infantry gun.

Once again.

Jerries dug in, again.

I managed to get right up to the defenders, again holding the rear area, and a fierce firefight ensued, it was hampered by the fact my supporting heavy weapons could not get a line of sight on the Jerries or were hiding from a real ambush. I was extremely frustrated at my efforts to break the two squads holding the line, although I slowly reduced them and had stunned or wounded every officer in the area Billy kept holding on while my own casualties mounted. I was reduced to four morale points but still kept plugging away, a decent couple of phases also reduced Billy to four, it was a race to the bottom. I was then reduced to two and Billy still had four or three, whoever got decent Command dice would win. Neither of us could manage it, then I threw two five's, absolutely useless, Billy took the lead with a double turn, that was it, I had to take two morale checks and they took me to zero Force Morale. I looked forlornly at my tank which had at last arrived to turn the tide, too little too late.

Part of my frustration was in throwing double turns or turn ends time after time, this actually reduced me to two or three command dice which were mostly useless to what I needed while giving the Jerries multiple CoC points, I think about one and a half CoC dice at least, maybe two. The endgame became very exciting with both sides hoping for that last throw which would force morale checks which would secure a win, sadly I did not get them.

 The next day we were set up for the Soviet attack on the village, it had been a long day and I did not sleep well and got smart or confused and changed for a SMG platoon thinking they would be more useful at urban fighting, I wanted more infantry but had to use six points on armour, so out again came the M3 Lee to which was added a regular rifle squad. Billy put down a minefield on the main road and again took a panzerschreck, although he tried to confuse me talking about German tanks.

Third table.

Once again he held back and put his defenders in positions well back when they did show up. I rushed forward, trying to get my SMG bonus's and soon had all my squads deployed, it was only then I realised my mistake and that they had a range of 18", and most of my squads were out of range. I used the tank as a jump off point and then retreated it to a position where it could cover some buildings at the end of the village, once again it was ambushed, hit and immobilised, you do not need armour if you have a panzerschreck. At this point I gave up and pulled my troops back from their forward positions in the rubble as they only provided targets for MG 42's. The game was up and I shook my head.

Into the rubble.

Sneaky.

Grenadiers just waiting.

Billy offered another game and he would take the Russians, there was a hint of 'I'll show you how it's done' there, I said he should take rifle squads but he was adament on using the SMG's. The Soviets came on quickly apart from the tank which again was keeping out of the way of an ambush which meant it was basically useless. The game followed the same process as before, I deployed squads well back and shot up the Red infantry without fear of retaliation, although their LMG squad and the rifles tried they were outshot by the grenadiers and forced to pull back. Billy bravely tried to swamp my right flank but I covered this with my last reserve and the effort came to naught, as did a probe on my left. He got close but the short range and the wall of fire the grenadiers could throw out stopped him. I got one game in the pan.

Billy captures a house but is out of range.

Hiding behind the ruins.

 

Time for my grenadiers to let loose.

This one was almost impossible for the Soviets to win with an SMG heavy force and I honestly do not think a rifle armed force would have had much more of a chance. I made a mistake and suffered for it, but it only meant I realised I was on a hiding to nothing quicker.

The games threw up some strange results, as the attacker my Force Morale was usually lower than the defenders. My throwing the double six to ensure my defeat in game one made us both laugh. The insane amounts of double and treble turns I got in game two got me nowhere and merely built up Billy's CoC points. I took a pre-game barrage in game three and my first or second roll ended the turn and made it pointless. I have not mentioned the Soviet sniper team of Svetlana and Anastasia, who turned out to be hopeless, both for me and when Billy changed sides, no Hero of the Soviet Union or Red Star for those two, back to the kitchen.

I don't care what many CoC players say about the realism of the game versus certain others and how realistic tactics win the day. Yes there are many mechanics in the game which you can use to make the pendulum swing your way and some you ignore to your peril. But in the end it all comes down to the five Chain of Command dice, if you don't get a good spread you are doomed until the next phase, for example if you have only one Senior Leader and get four 4's, three are useless. So, like every other wargame is luck still a part of it, yes and no, the challenge is to get the best out of the roll you get but, there is always a but, some times you are just stuck. I have played a couple of games with the use of the 'Red' dice which allows you to throw six dice and although there are restrictions the game flows much better. A ramble but I now have combat fatigue.

So, a visit from an old wargaming opponent who wanted to have a dram with me and some games, despite my wailing and gnashing of teeth at thowing buckets-o-dice and seemingly getting nowhere, a great couple of days, and very much appreciated.

The Battle of Ravenna

 Back at the club again, Bolt Action against 'Lucky' Jimi. I took the British and Jimi brought his winter Jerries, I debated whether to penalise his movement due to ski's but thought better of it, it was a friendly game after all. I stole Matt Crump's scenario from a couple of weeks ago, we both had a senior officer stranded with his vehicle and we had to protect him while capturing the enemy one.

I took four infantry squads a MMG, Cromwell tank, Humber armoured car and a truck, Jimi had four squads a truck, halftrack, MMG, panzerschreck and a StuG III. I have not played Bolt Action for a long time and cannot muster the enthusiasm to read through Version 3, you almost need scaffolding to hold it up due to the amount of guff in it, so we went with version 2 and some common sense.

I decided to put a squad and the armoured car on defender duty while I attempted to take the rest to capture the Party bigwig on my right. There was a tank duel at first and I lost the Cromwell but still decided to push my infantry forward, I had also managed to get the Humber into a position where it could fire on the flank of the StuG, I needed a lot of luck to penetrate but I could deal out pins, there was so much going on around the StuG that Jimi forgot to move it. The British get a free (no idea why) artillery observer, losing my tank forced me to use him and my artillery barrage caused a lot of disarray in the German defenders, no more mister nice guy.

Fat Hermann, party big wig.

 

Major Bracegirdle.

 

That changed things.

Slowly but surely I closed in on the Party faithful while Jimi lost several morale throws and failed to move, this happened to me as well but only once, in keeping with his usual bad fortune Jimi also got two FUBAR's and several units fled for the rear. This meant he now brought a couple of squads in to attempt to take my Officer, but I was ready and brought in my last unit to ensure he couldn't manage this while I took fat Hermann prisoner, game over.

Welcome support for the Major.

Easy target.

Potential game winner.

The game moved swiftly and was a bit of fun, the artillery bombardment really played havoc with the German morale, I have always been more than dubious of the 'free' units in Bolt Action but with the loss of my only tank and the Jerries having upgraded MG fire I felt it necessary to give me a fighting chance. I still feel guilty, although I have been on the recieving end many times of the 'free' something rule. 

I found myself with a free week and in desperation I decided to go solo in order to get my Italian Wars collection on the table, I looked for inspiration in my three scenario books and settled on the Battle of Ravenna from 'All is Lost Save Honour' published by Helion and Co. and on which I worked along with the authors Colin Ashton and Conrad Cairns, a must for beginners to the period. I use Furioso rules which are well suited to solo play as once the initial deployment is set the Initiative system can take over and the battle runs itself. One good thing about solo is you can use your common sense in all situations despite what the rules say. Not shown on the map are the arquebusiers I allowed to line the ditch.

To the battle, the duel between the artillery of both sides which I allowed for a couple of moves changed little as the French especially could not hit a barn door, which was a shame as they had far more guns. One unit of Gendarmes on the right threw caution to the wind and charged the enemy, they managed to defeat some Papal men-at-arms who had tried to intercept them and then charge the Spanish gun line wiping out a complete crew. They were then in turn charged by some Spanish men-at-arms, beaten and dispersed.

View from the French positions.

The Imperial defence.

The battlefield.

Meanwhile the French and Spanish light cavalry skirmished with each other on the French left while the French infantry slowly, very slowly made their way forward, they immediately began to suffer from the arquebusiers lining the ditch, they needed to get a move on before their casualties increased. It was now apparent that the French wanted to crush the Spanish centre before their flanks were attacked.

The French reach the ditch.

French pikes break the Imperial gun line.

The Landsknechts break through.

Imperial right.

Attacking across ditches or other defences in Furioso is difficult and this was proven as most of the French assaults became disordered, but the opposition were mainly arquebusiers and these were all swept away, although some put up a struggle before running. As the French breasted the ditch the Spanish pike blocks moved forward, several brutal melees ensued, the Italian's on the French side failed miserably and were defeated however the Landsknechts destroyed their enemy and the French pike engaged more of the Spanish in a to and fro melee. On the right the artillery still hammered away at each other while more French pikes drove into the Imperial left, the Imperial cavalry falling back from the pikes or faltering and failing to change direction. The fight here was still anyone's, as both sides now manouvered for an edge.The crises of the battle was fast approaching.

Landsknechts meet more Papal infantry.

Spanish pikes undecided, left or right?

French artillery.

French pikes pushed back.

Renaissance Uber Eats arrives.

Most of the infantry cresting the ditch were held or actually routed apart from the Landsknechts who smashed their way forward, to their right a French pike block which had kept up with them was then pushed back by some incredibly tough Spaniards just as it seemed the whole Imperial centre would break. 

At this point the Imperial army had reached its break point despite from a wargamers standpoint looking like it could overturn the result and maybe, just maybe grab the win as the French also were one point away from breaking. As I pondered this a look at the casualties on the side showed the Imperials, despite outnumbering the French had been roughly handled so I let the rules dictate the winner. I have to say that throughout the French seemed way more keen than the Imperials to get to grips with the enemy, their Initiative dice were generally much higher than the enemy who, as in reality, were far more cautious. The attack on the works was a daring move but paid off just in time. 

I have a lot coming up over the next four weeks, I have mate Billy coming for a couple of days from north of the Wall for some Chain of Command, then my son for the same on the following Sunday, then a week later I will be fighting Rob Broom over a weekend of War and Conquest, and after that a little holiday for a week in darkest Northumberland. I also hope to fit something in with Matt Crump as well.

So, that's it for now, still nothing on the paint tray although spent time doing a few map projects for Helion while waiting for the Atlas author to get back to me, nothing complicated. I almost forgot, Ken Reilly (Yarkshire Gamer) wants to take his outstanding 'Relief of Forli' to Claymore this year and is asking for volunteers, I have put my name down and if available I will be there.

I did start looking into a CoC mini campaign and I have the framework ready along with the German OOB based on 6th Panzer Divisions attempted relief of Stalingrad, but I have put it aside at the moment due to visits from family and the large IW game, but like Macarthur "I shall return" but will keep my feet dry.

Dice, dice my kingdom for some decent dice

" For the love of god please stop making Medieval skirmish games." I saw this on a friends FB page last week and I quickly hit the Like button.

 This week at the club it was, drum roll, a medieval skirmish game! Ecorcheurs, skirmish gaming in the Hundred Years War. Stuart very kindly took me under his wing knowing my reluctance to play anything which is not at least a decade or two old and very firmly 'old school'. There were two forces for want of a better name, English and French, I took the French which consisted of six crossbowmen, a couple of leaders and eight soldiers, four of which were carrying pavises. The English had less soldiers but their shooting contingent had fourteen longbowmen.

Not having a clue I split my retinue up into three groups, big mistake, this meant when they fired they threw two dice as I had parceled out my meagre shooters, against veteran Stuart who had learned to keep them all together throwing eight dice, why not fourteen, don't know, the number 8 figures large in the game. Very soon as I tried and failed to get my boys into the village to scrounge up the odd penny farthing or cabbage I found myself shot to bits and having to call a halt.

It was still early so we started again, this time I kept my crossbows together and actually had a plan, I would shoot the enemy to death this time while my soldiers flanked the opposition, to hell with the money and vegetables. This kind of worked as I did begin to give the longbowmen some of their own medicine while Stuart's men-at-arms were trying to turn my flank, I had forgotten all about mine in the excitement. The English crashed into my crossbows and quickly seemed to commit suicide as the Frenchmen won the day against all odds, historically at least. Left with only his longbowmen in disarray Stuart called it a day.

Before I continue I would just like to say that Stuart's 3D printed figures were lovely, I was impressed. The game works with coins as opposed to mighty deeds, reputation points, cards or ravens etc. You spend the coins to do stuff and when you do you hand it over to your opponent which he will then use to bolster his own stash in his turn. You can also use them to interupt play and take the initiative. A soldier can be killed if he takes two Strikes, but as they are distributed at random the chance of that is rare, however if the same man takes two Stun's which is more likely, then he is dead, more men died of this than anything else in both games.There is all sorts of other stuff simply to be different. I did wonder about the pavises, they required one soldier to carry and then the crossbowman would hide behind it, why didn't he carry his own, I have never read or heard, outwith a siege, of a pavise being used in the field at this time, certainly not a large one. No doubt I stand to be corrected. Is it a game, yes like all the rest of its kin in a nice picture book, is it a wargame, no.

 It's Chain of Command time again, a chance to set out my new buildings and scatter terrain, the outskirts of the town of Waartenbeek (Matt Smith's take on Warton) late in '44 as the 352nd Volksgrenadier Division surprises the British with an attack. Erik has taken the British while I decided to be the bad guys.

I could have went all heavy and brought Panzergrendadiers or Fallschirmjager and a Brummbar but where is the fun in that, I instead commanded the Volksgrenadiers and a Pz II Luchs, along with an extra Heer squad, and a panzerschreck. Erik went for some barbed wire, MMG and an extra PIAT team, I think this is only Erik's second game. My intention was to get the grenadiers into effective range to take advantage of their assault rifles while the tank took care of any dug in troops from long range.

Waartenbeek.

Things started well and I set up a firebase in a barn while I managed to push the Heer squad across some open ground on to the British right flank while some grenadiers moved forward in the centre, Erik took up position in two houses commanding the approach to the village, the red house and the blue house. Things quickly fell apart after that, I had to withdraw my grenadiers due to mounting casualties and my LMG teams in the barn took buckets of shock and ended up pinned, my tank was less than impressive. Once again I found myself throwing some 44 dice to get nothing while Erik maintained a decent kill and shock rate, especially with his MMG. To make matters worse out of the five command dice I usually had two duff ones so I was trying to command everything with three dice, got the violin out yet?

Pz II Luchs.

German firebase in barn.

I managed to end the turn and got my LMG squad back, for a time anyway as they were hit again and only managed to escape being wiped out due to Erik turning his fire on my grenadiers who had now all moved to the front of the wood in support of the flanking squad. In desperation I had deployed my rifle-grenadiers into the barn to back up the surviving members of the LMG squad and now turned everything I had on the Red house including the Luchs. As I had ended the turn one objective was removed, so now I just had to take the Red house to win.

A good start.

Back lads.

The less than deadly barn, but it did the job.

Things now began to go badly for the British, Erik had to withdraw one squad from the Blue house and replace it with his last squad, quite a few of his NCO's took hits and his morale began to drop, I got a couple of double turns and the defenders of the Red house were wiped out, a dramatic change in the game.

Flankers.

Forward lads.

The defenders hunkered down.

Yes my luck hit me again, I got a one for Force Morale and Erik got a six, my firebase turned out to be pretty useless and I had trouble getting decent command dice. I really thought I was on a hiding to nothing again, then I changed my dice after another couple of dismal turns, superstitous moi? Whatever was going on my luck changed, although yes, it wasn't all luck, I changed tactics at last and this along with concentrating on the Red house brought victory. I should have done this before, but I am not the best WWII player on the scene and I think I tend to get drawn into firefights when I should be patient and think a turn ahead.

So another game under my belt, Bolt Action against 'Lucky' Jimmy on Tuesday night. My next game against Matt is a week away and I have decided to dump the horrible Abbeville game and have a look at the other Abbeville campaign I found, one with at least a couple of trees the British can hide behind rather then four blades of grass.

Now which box is that Brummbar in? 

Whites and Reds

 My last game before Easter would be at Matt's Dungeon in Penrith, I couldn't face the next CoC campaign game as it looks like the British will be on another hiding to nothing. I have since found a second Abbeville campaign quite a bit different which doesn't look like a featureless French countryside, should we bite the bullet and change, I will dwell on it.

Anyway I asked Matt for something fun and interesting, he came up with a Russian Civil War bash and it looked beautiful, the terrain, the unique scatter pieces and the gorgeous figures, a treat to fight over. I took the Whites simply because that side of the table always seems to be mine while Matt takes the other, the same thing usually applies at mine. I had some pressganged peasants, officer cadets, regular forces, an armoured car, a howitzer and some Cossacks, oh, and a MMG. The bad guys, they were both bad in their own way, had two armoured cars, a gun, a MMG and again a mixture of troops with several elite units. We both had a vehicle containing a VIP which the opposite side had to capture while defending their own personality, I had a a very impressive officer (Georgy) while Matt had Babushka, this was a little unkind as the lady did not look like a grandmother. I almost forgot we both had an airplane to add to the mix, I didn't mention my Tachanka either did I?

The battlefield before the action starts.

My army, gorgeous.

Georgy.

Red air force.

Georgy was placed on my left while Babs was on Matt's left, I put most of my troops on the right to rush the objective and hoped that my cavalry would win the day, the howitzer I placed in the centre of the battlfield as it became apparent that the Reds would send some armour against my left, this was the only thing which could kill an armoured car, it was the same for Matt but he had two vehicles to my one. My first wave advanced quickly with the Peasants and Cadets along with the machine gun cart heading for a good defensive position to support Georgy, more troops ran forward on my right towards Babs, this was where I would make my main effort.

The Peasants and Cadets move up while the Tachanka fires.

The main attack on the right.

Babs and her supporters.

Matt almost mirrored my deployment and at first concentrated on getting Georgy, he managed to kill the Tachanka but my Peasants were a cut above and held their positions while dealing out death to the Commies, the Cadets took a nearby house and settled in. My defenders stalled Matt's advance supported by the White air force, but I was forced to send my armoured car down the centre to help as the howitzer couldn't hit the proverbial barn door. Things were much better on my right as the Whites surged forward over the bridge towards Babushka, a good run of the dice allowed me to get all my men to the front and weaken the defenders while the cavalry clattered forward into melee. I was helped here by some Commies deserting their duties to ransack a nearby house for vodka. My success here made the Reds pull their second double-turreted armoured car away from the battle in the centre and race to help their left and Babs. I continued to have some luck with the plane and it took out the Red artillery and then turned about to annoy Matt's right flank attack while my own armoured car made it into the enemy rear and caused mayhem to the Red attack.

A wonderful piece of armour.

Another one, mine this time.

Cossacks attack.

The Reds are overwhelmed.

A desperate struggle now began on both flanks with both sides close to gaining their objectives, my Peasants gave way at last but had held the enemy up and ensured their defeat, the Cadets charged out at the last minute and ensured Georgy would not be heading for the Gulag or worse. On the other side the shattered remains of my assault troops managed to hold on and beat off some death or glory charges from Matt's remaining troops. The Whites had won and were heading off to save the Tsar and his family.

Babs screams for help.

Georgy's stalwart defenders.

A great battle and an exciting one, my Peasants and cavalry being the men of the match for me, I did lose my airplane due to some ground fog and the pilot flying too low, but it had done splendidly. I was also quite lucky in that I managed to kill off quite a few of the Red NCO's and their LMG's while dealing out a good deal of pins which often had an affect on Red morale. We  had decided early on that armour could help but not capture an objective. A splendid day out.

Not a lot happening due to Easter but I hope to get a Chain of Command game in next Friday with Erik while I ponder on whether to give up and start the second Abbeville campaign when Matt is ready.