Tempus Fugit as the Romans say

 Seems to have been a bit since I last posted or maybe that is just my mind playing tricks, which it seems to do these days with increasing regularity. I feel the need to rant against the world but I won't burden you with it here.

A week or so ago I popped down to Erik's for an ECW bash, as usual the table was lovely and the armies looked the part, Erik had also sent me a map and an introduction to the battle which sadly I missed amongst the usual dross I am sent. The action was Highnam House where the Royalists were ensconced in earthworks south of Gloucester and were being attacked by two Parliamentarian forces, one from the city and the other under William Waller who had marched to the rear of the Royalists.

I don't actually have a dog in this fight as I have no love for either side, albeit the modern versions, I digress. All in all things do not look good for the Royalists as they are hugely outnumbered, if I stayed behind my earthworks then I was just asking to be overwhelmed so I decided to quickly engage and hopefully rout the men from Gloucester and then position myself on their ridge and hope for the best. This action went fairly well and for the loss of one cavalry squadron I sent the good citizens back to where they had come from.

Royalist works.

My boys move out.

Gloucester garrison.

I now deployed my troops along the ridge with the cavalry on my right and infantry on the left, a little late I also ordered my artillery in the works to join me as a dust cloud intimated that the rest of the enemy had turned up. Erik had plenty of time to deploy as I was happy to hold the high ground. He eventually began to move his forces forward and as they closed I decided to surprise him by advancing, I expected my large infantry regiments to beat anything in their path and simply crossed my fingers that my remaining cavalry might beat their opponents albeit they were outnumbered.

Gloucester men put to flight.

Ooops, Waller turns up.

More of Waller's men.

Steady lads, steady.

Imagine my surprise when three dragoons and their pet goat routed my best regiment, my second fell prey to the Parliamentarian right wing cavalry while my horse didn't like the odds and ran. I was undone. 

My guns run from Waller.

A tsunami of Parliament cavalry.

A nice little game of two halves, I suppose I can look on it as a draw with one win each, but I cannot spin the fact my army fell apart very quickly with barely a fight, my troops were Welsh and although tempted to make some comments I don't want the Old Bill at the door. An enjoyable evening's entertainment.

Next up was an introduction to wargaming for my grandson, I had given him free reign and he chose WWII, I had talked to my son about it and I set up a Chain of Command game for both of them, this did not go well for the Jerries and James looked perplexed by it all, as indeed anyone new to CoC would. After lunch I offered to change things to Bolt Action on the same table, this was more enjoyable for the lad and by the end of the game he had captured two of the three objectives and contested the third. So in the end he went away happy.

Big cat.

Humber burning.

Flakpanzer.

The end.

Hartenstein Hotel, thanks Matt.

Dynamic duo.

I was at the club last night, first time in a long while, maybe the second this year, health of course has played its part but also a lot of what is played really doesn't grab me and I have been doing a lot of gaming here in the Bunker or at Matt's or Erik's. Anyway, Ashley was looking for a frigate captain and I offered my sword as I had not played the game and felt the need to get out and about. The rules were written for frigate vs frigate warfare courtesy of Ashley, I was Royal Navy (of course) and Mike took the Frenchie with Ashley umpiring.

Both ships were basically equal and as the engagement started Mike came straight for me, while I planned a slower approach, very soon I wondered if I had come up against a French Nelson or Cochrane, I was like a mouse being played by a cat. The Monsieur's also re-loaded faster than my Tars and I was taking a lot of damage, did Ashley know how superior our boys actually were?

Damn, not close enough for a rake!

And then the penny dropped, I had got the wrong end of the stick as to how the turns worked and was basically only taking one action to Mike's two! Once the confusion was sorted we set up again and my boys were ready this time. As we closed though I began to take a lot of hits to my masts, had a fire and a hole under the waterline along with quite a few guns knocked out along my port battery. It was not all one way this time though and most of my hits were on the French guns. As the battle progressed I managed to turn my relatively untouched starboard battery against Mike, who had lost the wind and was a sitting duck at close range. 

As the French got underway both ships collided and Mike attempted to board, although I had lost a  couple of Marines I had more crew left than Mike thanks to dismounting most of his guns and in the first round of melee he also lost his Captain and Lieutenant, this along with being outnumbered sealed his fate and the lads looked forward to their share of the prize money back in Blighty.

Payback.

An enjoyable evening and something different from two large fleets knocking hell out of each other, although we tried very hard to do that. The rules worked well but I am glad Ashley was umpiring.

My Americans now have a full squad ready and several support teams on the tray, I have now got everything I need to finish a platoon with a good selection of support, box, bases, tanks etc. I do not intend to finish these as swiftly as I have done in the past.

I have been spoiling myself again and picked up another couple of books while in Kendal yesterday along with some treats, I am not supposed to eat these of course but you only live once. I now have around 6 books waiting in the wings to start so I must put aside some time to read them, I normally try to do this once a day but lately I get no further than a page before I am out for the count. Perhaps it is not all my fault as a book which grabs me doesn't send me to sleep but you never know until you start.

I don't have a lot on at the moment wargaming wise, I have Erik here on the 19th for American Civil War but am clear until then, doors open.

Disastro!

 After last weeks Chain of Command game I thought Matt and I could try something different for a change and offered Italian Wars, it would be something different for Matt and I could once again get my troops out for some exercise.

I kept it small and settled on the Battle of La Motta from Rodolfo Verginella's book, where the Spanish defeated the Venetians, I tweaked it a little to give the Venetians more of a chance allowing them some better infantry while I downrated the Spanish a tad, unfair but in the spirit of the game. When Matt turned up I gave him a choice and he settled on the Venetians as he was sat next to them. I explained the rules and we dove right in. Matt slowly advanced his right and held his left on a hill. I sent my men straight at the enemy as I thought that if I didn't my right might be outflanked by the enemy cavalry.

Spanish on the left, Venetians on the right.

Baggage train and looters.

Spanish left.

The cavalry met first and I routed the Stradiots in the centre, my heavy cavalry also looked like doing well, on the right I managed to almost break one of the Venetian light cavalry units but then found my men outflanked as I had thought as more cavalry thundered into their flank. As these fights continued my pikemen had at last managed to come to grips with the enemy foot, the Landsknechts as I thought defeated their opponents but the enemy had put up a fight and did not go easily. On my left it was very different for the Spanish, although outclassed they put up a stout defence and it looked at one point that they could come out on top. It was about this time that Matt suffered a 'Hazard' and quite a few of his men deserted, it did look bad for his infantry although his cavalry were obviously winning.

Venetian left (yes I know there are Spanish flags there).

Landsknechts advance quickly.

Spanish left also advance.

As usual I took too much for granted, Matt's Italians recovered and put my Spanish to flight, as we looked over the battlefield it was obvious the Venetians had had the better part of the fight, although the Landsknecht blocks were still on the battlefield they had been badly decimated (they also suffered from desertion). I had one cavalry unit left but it was facing a Venetian gun which had already caused severe casualties on it and it would not survive another volley. I handed my sword over.

Landsknechts clear the hill.

Venetian right and desperate fighting.

We had a discussion of the rules over a beer (zero) at the end. Matt brought up some points and I confess I am not completely happy with the way the game plays but I do like the main part which has a melee then a melee combat morale phase, I do like this. I do think however that I will look at it later, I won't go into detail as most of you, or maybe all, will not use Furioso. I do have Pike and Shotte and the Italian Wars supplement which a lot of people use and may be tempted to try this at some stage despite not being keen on Warlord rules sets.

Despite having packs of new sojers on my desk I have not been able to get to them as I am busy with maps at the moment, I might though manage to get a squad cleaned up and primed over the weekend in order to look at putting paint to brush next week.

I have an ECW game at Erik's next Wednesday evening but otherwise nothing on the cards for now, I might try and look at P&S again with a solo game to try them out. Who knows.

I spent a few days last weekend down South in Chorleywood at my son's, it really is a nice part of the country, very English and genteel and of course very expensive, in case anyone gets ideas above their station they can visit Watford almost next door. My granddaughter came back with us for a week and as usual is a delight to have around the house.

There we have it. 

Liar, liar pants on fire.

 Before I go on I will get to the title. I have started a new project, there I said it. I have had quite a runaround from our 'World Beating' NHS over the past month or so and this married to the fact I am missing painting and collecting wee sojers decided me to throw caution to the wind and order up new toys. I broke the news to the Memsahib and she just shrugged and said go ahead.

I still did not want to do an army of several hundred figures and have them languishing in boxes waiting for someone to take pity on me and play a game, so I decided to build an American platoon with supports for NW Europe, about 60 figures including support teams and for now, two tanks and an armoured car. I tend to find, or think, that the Yanks are overplayed in wargames rules, I just don't get the shooting from the hip advance for instance, what's that going to hit? Anyway, the new paints have arrived as have the bases, three Rubicon kits and enough troops to keep me busy for some time.

OK, I got a call from 'Lucky' Jimi last week offering to journey to the Bunker for a game, I decided to set up a Bolt Action scenario from the Budapest campaign book, with a couple of added tweaks. The German defenders were short of ammunition and what remained of the Luftwaffe (it is January 1945) had managed to drop containers into one of the city parks, both the Germans and the approaching Soviets wanted to capture them. I set up the forces, the Jerries had two regular and one veteran squad along with a green Volksturm type volunteer squad, an MMG, a StuG III, Hetzer and a Panzerjager Wanze, the latter being an ex remote-controlled demolition carrier with six panzerschrek's stuck on it, these were actually used in Berlin but I had the model. The Soviets (me) had one regular squad, one assault engineer squad, one veteran Scout squad and a squad from a Penal battalion backed up with an MMG, a T-34/85, Su-76 and a T-70 light tank. I also added a golden die to the dice bag and if whoever picked it out threw a 5 or 6 then an aircraft would turn up and add to the mayhem.

Olympia Park Budapest 1945

Jimi moved very quickly and secured three of the five canisters on his side of the table, these all contained ammunition and this meant he could re-roll any 1's during firing as long as he stayed close to them. I also put all my forces on in the first turn and captured two canisters, again they had ammunition in them, they could have had food, medals, panzerfausts or medical supplies. I decided to go for the German cannisters on their flanks and and put the T-34 and T-70 on my left along along with the Penal squad and the regulars while on the other side the SU-76, Assault engineers and Scouts would be my main effort. The armour duels went my way and I quickly knocked out the Hetzer and the Panzerjager, the StuG tried to break through a barricade and got stuck for the rest of the game. Jimi countered this with a low level strafe by a FW-190 which caused quite a bit of suppression on all my troops along the flight path, which was most of them and also gave my T-34 crew a nasty surprise.

Panzerjager.

My left flank.

My right flank.

The Jerries push forward.

The next surprise arrived in the shape of a downed plane, luckily this had no effect on any of my lads but I think it did deal out pins to the Germans in the centre, it is supposed to be a glider but I don't have one. I had to hold back my attack on the left but sent all my armour towards the German centre cannister, the Su-76 having to stay out of the firing arc of the stuck StuG, I took the right hand cannister so this left Jimi needing to capture the downed aircraft to even the score. Sadly for him I managed to assault his command group with the engineers and take the prize.

The crashed 'glider'.

Volksturm and Hetzer.

Jabo.

It's almost over.

Soviet armour moves on the centre.

The Russians take the plane.

A stuck StuG.

This turned out to be a really close game with the potential for lots of twists and turns, I will play this again at some point. No Russian aircraft were harmed during this scenario!

The very next day Matt and I resumed our Chain of Command Abbeville campaign, Matt had arrived back in the North and I was more than happy to get another game in while the missus was in a good mood. This game was similar to the last one in that the German position would be a small wood on one side of the table while the British were basically called on to cross more open ground, this constant use of open ground in Chain of Command I think has a detrimental effect on the game. Matt had a new platoon supported by an Infantry Gun and a Medic, I had the same but my supports were two Vickers MkVI tankettes with HMG's, I also took a mortar barrage and a replenishment point, the second time I have ever used this in a game as the old one simply ruined the game.

I fully intended to advance under cover of my heavy machine guns and smoke while my barrage kept the Jerries heads down, and hopefully caused them some pain. I quickly got all my troops on as did Matt, although he kept most of his men hidden in the wood, he also brought his 7.5 cm gun on and it began to target my squad on the right, it was time to drop smoke on it. I really wanted to hit the enemy in the wood but Matt had quickly picked up a CoC dice and could easily end the turn and stop the barrage, so I had to suffer for now. I decided to pick on his artillery and after a couple of phases I managed to rout the crew. I forgot to mention Matt had brought along the Fifth Column sniper again, he got in a couple of  good shots but I decided to ignore him

In the end he did use his dice and I immediately brought in the barrage, this hit almost all the German squads and over the three turns the Jerries took quite a bit of shock and several casualties, not as many as I would have liked but enough for us both to think the British were on top. But this was not the case, my squads were taking a lot of shock and I had to use most of my command points trying to rally them, the only troops I could get to advance were my little tanks, but it was slow going, especially as one of them had obviously forgotten to bring ammo for its HMG! I took my last squad out of a nearby barn in order to put more shots into the wood but before long it too began to take hits, so much so that now all three of my squads were in dire straits.

What can you command with that!

7.5 cm Infantry Gun.

Ready guys.

Although my morale fell I slowly managed to reduce the defenders in the wood while Matt time and again just failed to finish off my depleted squads, I was holding on by the skin of my teeth, the tension mounted as whoever got in a decent volley could break the enemy morale. I think I managed a double turn and as the second German squad broke their morale hit zero. This was a frustrating game for both sides and a couple of times it looked like anyone could win, the last few phases were certainly nail biting as we both just held on. The next game is the last of the British attacks, after that we have four or five German attacks. Just for a change though this week I will set up an Italian Wars game, I need a rest.

Barrage.

British armour advances.

British just clinging on.

The Jerries are done.

I treated my self to another book, a companion to Bloody Streets: The Soviet Assault on Berlin, this one concentrates on armour, artillery and assault groups in the battle, it is full of information on the organisation and tactics used in the attack along the city streets, it is also full of excellent photographs. If you are interested in the battle for Berlin I cannot recommend these books highly enough. Oh, and I drew the maps for the second volume as well but don't let that stop you.

I got the new troops above to fight off insanity and boredom, now however the Atlas maps are picking up and I have some other projects to work on, so busy bee once again.