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. 

Not an April Fool

I didn't get to the club again last week as mate Robert was in the area and instead I met up for a couple of beers and to put the wargaming world to rights, we managed this in only a  couple of hours. I only had one game organised and that was a Seven Years War bash with Ian here in the Bunker. I have quite a nice collection of SYW figures in 28mm, but know almost nothing about the period, so why do I have eight brigades covering the British and French, it seemed like a good idea at the time, so the defence rests.

Anyway I asked ChatGPT for some ideas and tweaked 'The Supply Train' scenario it came up with both sides need supplies and there is a cache between the lead elements of both armies, represented by a wagon train, best not to think too much about it. Ian arrived and chose the French and got one Ditherer, one Dependable and two Rash commanders, I got two Ditherers a Rash and a Dependable. Ian took an aggressive stance and threw his infantry forward very quickly to grab the supply train and occupy two 'villages' while waiting for his cavalry and artillery to turn up. My right and centre were true to form and failed to move and meet the French advance, my cavalry turned up very early and I put them on my left to hopefully get into the French rear and cause mayhem, my artillery were right behind them and I placed it to fire on the village between my right and centre.

Table set for battle.

British forces.

French forces.

I was happy enough to hold on my right once in musket range and did the same in the centre, I was having no luck at all moving the Royal Scots from the nearest village so instead concentrated on the Germans and Irish who had captured, for now, the supplies. The French cavalry and artillery had now turned up and we were set for a clash of horse, the terrain was more open on my left than the French right so if they won I could be in trouble. The British cavalry proved to be more than a match for their opponents and won a spectacular victory and sent the enemy packing. 

The French approach the prize.

British horse turn up.

French Guard.

French cavalry advance.

On the infantry front I managed to put in some effective fire on the French and as some of their battalions withdrew I managed to keep up a concentrated fire on the ones still in line, I had some of my own units pull back as well but I managed to keep the pressure on. Slowly but surely more French units fled and the remainder were now under a hail of fire. I pulled my left back slightly as I was having no effect on the Guard in the village and instead shot at their supports. Another turn brought the French to within one point of their army breaking, we called it a day and shook hands.

Cavalry melee.

French mercenaries under pressure.

British left open up.

French centre falters.

Die rolling on both sides was pretty steady and casualties mounted quickly, I think I just had the edge hence the enemy routs and my own troops managed to withdraw and return to the fray. I did extremely well with the cavalry melees, the artillery on both sides was fairly useless as they tried to get open fields of fire and generally failed. So in the end a good days wargaming and a nice turn out for the SYW collection. 

I see no French cavalry.

French hold on the supplies withers.

Victory, we will eat tonight.

With some spare time I turned to painting up the houses and terrain that Matt Smith had sent me, I used spray paint for most of it and then a bit of weathering to finish off, I was very happy with the result although I may return to the weathering. I would think this lot has now completed my terrain requirements and my tables will get the benefit, maybe some small hedges and that's it.

 We had a new lad join the club FB page and asked if there were any Bolt Action players, so I offered a game last night as I was free, Steve had not played in a while and we settled on a Germans vs British game of 750 points, I would bring the British. I settled on three small squads, a MMG, a Cromwell and a Humber armoured car. I met Steve outside the club waiting for the club to open and after looking in my box he declared he had not brought a tank or anti-tank weapons, knife to a gunfight popped into my mind. He was relying on close assaulting any British vehicles which turned up but I doubt he expected an actual tank, he had four squads of infantry, two in halftracks and a mortar. We found a Pz IV and a Puma in the games cupboard but he decided not to take them, I did ask three times if he was sure.

Germans left, British on the right.

Cromwell.

I set up a simple game with three objective markers and off we went, Steve kept his halftracks in reserve while I kept the tank and MMG back. The infantry soon came into range and bullets flew, I took heavy casualties in the centre with a squad cut down to two men and I lost the MMG. I did push on the flanks and the armoured car was on my left and helped secure that objective, I brought the Cromwell on in the centre and Steve's plan to rush the tank collapsed as I took out the first halftrack and shot up the passengers who then made a brave attempt to get into contact with the armour but were wiped out to a man. The second halftrack turned up and although it managed to survive it's passengers suffered as they tried to grab the centre objective.

Humber.

Ooops.

In the end Steve had put up a good fight despite having no armour, he also had some bad luck with the dice just when he didn't need it, he almost took the crown from 'Lucky' Jimi. My bad luck of course is waiting for my next Chain of Command game.

I have some time on my hands now that I am not painting anything and have finished most of the little bits and pieces which were gnawing at me. The Atlas author is also very quiet. So I have decided to look at writing my own mini campaign of five or six games, it will be based on 6th Panzer Division's actions during Operation Winter Storm and their Panzer Recce Battalion will be the main force used, I have lots of German Recce options and it's about time they were on the table. I have tracked down information for December 1942 for the Jerries and next week will look at the Soviets. I have also identified the actions which will make up the campaign, I now need to put some meat on the bones.

I should be off to Penrith and the Dungeon tomorrw, next week I am joining Stuart in the medieval skirmish game Ecorcheurs set during the Hundred Years War, not sure if I can fit anything else in at the moment.

I have just finished the excellent Rasputin by Antony Beevor, if you ever needed confirmation that those in charge are idiots, this confirms it, sadly it led to utter chaos for Russia and subsequently for the rest of us.

I have now started a bit of light reading, Virgil's Aenied, at least some Trojans got away. Ignore the bloody horse!