In Wargaming No One Can Hear You Scream

 Mate Robert was popping in again and asked for Johnny Reb, we played this for years before I snuck over Hadrians Wall as the SNP tightened their grip. He mentioned the battle of Olustee which we had played several times and was an easy set up if not an easy game to win for either side. Set in Florida in 1864 it was a setback for Union hopes of a quick victory on the edge of the Confederacy.

The Union player has to rush his troops arriving piecemeal to the front in order to build a defensive line from which to attack the enemy, the same applies to the Rebel commander in order to build up a strong attack force to break the Federal line before it can consolidate. We had our usual chat and got down to it, I decided to play safe and extended my line to give the new arrivals space, they would attack the Union right while I built up enough troops to threaten the Union left. Robert led his cavalry in an aggressive charge and caught me off balance so I lost a mounted regiment while my infantry chased away the Federal troopers, who cares about cavalry? 

The Confederates get ready.

  

The Union prepare.

More Rebs turn up.

Both sides continued to built up their forces while I at last began to think about moving on the Union right, I was building up a good attack and had sent forward some cavalry skirmishers to flank the enemy line. This caused Robert to throw a march column forward to stop this, a daring move as the Reb line was begining solidifying in front of him. Again I lost a cavalry regiment, albeit small and inconsequential, the rest of the army simply watched them go. We called a halt here as Robert had been on the road all day and had another long day in front of him the next day, we had had some fun and as usual put the world of wargaming to rights before he left.

The Federal line solidifies.

Now boys, at 'em.

Still getting in to position.

The Union line.

When I got into the Bunker in the morning I had to finish off the next move, I had a chance to break the Union right which might let me roll up the flank or at the very least cause consternation in the Federal ranks. My Missouri boys leapt forward and put the recently victorious Yanks to flight, a small dismounted cavalry regiment was now in line for the same treatment, the Rebel Yell filled my brain, the Union troopers stood their ground and the Missouri lads shuddered to a halt and then retreated out of harms way. It was not going to be 'I told you so' as the setback would need the whole game to decide a winner, and that was not going to happen.

Next up was potentially the last game of the Gembloux Gap campaign with Matt, could I hold out for three turns, very doubtful but I was hoping for going out with a bang rather than a whimper. I got a decent amount of support for a change and took a Somua S35, a very nice tank and just slightly better than anything the Germans could bring to bear, and an anti-tank rifle as back up, as we were fighting in a village I expected the Luftwaffe to turn up so took anti-aircraft artillery. Matt surprised me and went infantry heavy with five squads, an extra mortar and a Panzer IV, no Goering's boys.

We both had good morale and after the patrol phase the Germans were almost on their table edge, I decided to stay back and defend the centre which had a large open space to my front, high walls surrounding the gardens made line of sight difficult but it suited me. I could possibly have taken the main station building but the amount of firepower from five squads deploying close by put me off. The game kicked off and I brought my armour on to cover my left and the road through the village, Matt made an attempt on my right and I met this with a squad in a nearby wood, the rash German squad ended up pinned but as help arrived I had to pull my lads back into cover as their shock built up.  

Looking  towards the French lines.

 

German HQ.

A tsunami of field grey.

The Boche now took the station and I deployed my last squad in a large building covering that open space I mentioned and put down suppressing fire. By now Matt had had three or four double turns and also played his double crossing French spy who for some reason was called Giuseppi(?), this low life began to take pot shots at my boys and took out an NCO and one of my Poilu's. I countered the traitor by using my anti-tank team to search him out. With several more double turns to enjoy Matt brought on his Pz IV, my tank took several shots and used up a CoC dice to no avail, the first shot from the panzer barely grazed the paintwork but the second blew my big hope to bits. I was very disappointed, I had wanted to kill the Panzer then wreak havoc on the Boche infantry who would then have no chance of taking out my armour. I looked around and saw only defeat staring me in the face against overwhelming odds, I surrendered, as the French do. I just wish you could have seen the look on Matt's face as he did a little dance as he clinched the deal, good for him, the Gap had been taken and 3rd Panzer was racing ahead. 

Behind the line.

My big hope.

My nemesis.

It's all over.

Giuseppe or Gaston or pain in the neck, delete where applicable.

 I am in two minds about the campaign it is either very well balanced for 1940 or heavily rigged in favour of the Germans, I am on the fence with this one. We played eight of the ten games and I won three and the Jerries 'got a by' on one map, I do admit that I made mistakes and completely missed the chance of pulling off a counter-attack, c'est la vie. It does provide some interesting games and we really enjoyed them, would I play it again, possibly, but again would try the French.

My BEF project is coming along nicely, all the infantry squads will be complete by the weekend, this leaves me some command and supports to do, I am expecting them in the next day or so, and they will be ready to go, maybe to help the French and plug the gap. I can only do one thing at a time so the Nashorn, Lee and Soviet tank riders remain on the shelf for now.

A parcel, a rather large one, turned up which I was not expecting, I saw it was from good friend Matt Smith and hoped it was not another starter kit for an army as he had done with the above French. Inside I found the Hartenstein Hotel in 28mm from the battle of Arnhem, it is huge and superbly detailed, I was gobsmacked. Literally years ago I built up an Airborne platoon in anticipation of a scenario book from Two Fat Lardies, the book has still not appeared and I doubt it ever will, no matter the Hartenstein will feature on a table near me as soon as it is painted.

I have been very much at a loss as to entertainment over the past month and am close to giving up with modern TV and movies. I saw that Netflix had a German movie about a Tiger tank crew, I stayed away from it, then one night with nothing but time I decided to give it ten minutes. It is not your usual type of war movie and there are clues around as they rumble their way to the Front, but they are subtle. Yes, there is one incident which is completely stupid but overall the uniforms were good and the fake Tiger was very well done, being a rivet counter I did notice the SU-100 was in fact a ISU-152, but I wouldn't put money on it. So, overall it was not as bad as I expected.

 I don't know what has happened to me and books, I have read all my life but am finding it hard to find one which I cannot put down these days, 'Tunisgrad' got the boot and I am now grinding my way through 'The Last Yorkists' the level of detail the author gives on Edmund and Richard de la Pole from the late 15th and early 16th centuries seems suspect and the book in parts reads more like a novel, I feel the urge to jump to the Battle of Pavia and move on to Prit Buttar's 'Bagration 1944'.

 

The Royal Navy are introducing drink limits on ships, so many units a day or whatever along with two days completely alchohol free. The main past time during my time was drinking, I went two-thirds around the world and my memories are mainly of the inside of bars, that is just how it was. I never got the Tot officially as I was 17 when it was stopped, but I did get a final one on that 'terrible day' and another during a fleet review for the Queen. The Tot was horrible and used as currency for favours where you got 'gulpers' or 'sippers' depending on the favour. Everyone over 18 was allowed three small cans of beer, what happened was that everyone got their cans and they were secreted around the mess and could build up to a very large amount of alcohol, someone was the 'beer bosun' who looked after it all and if you felt like getting tipsy you simply bought as many cans as you could drink. If you asked someone round at lunchtime to the Comms Mess they were given a can from everyone, so at least 18 cans, that was you basically done for the day. People were catogorised as G, T or U, grog, teetotal or underage, funnily enough I never met anyone teetotal.

 

Draw, Lose, Win

 I returned to the club for a game this week, for something different I offered Simon a game of War and Conquest, Romans vs Romans so that I could command the new army, Simon chose to lead the Thunderbolts. My troops were well balanced with an infatry core, skirmishers and light cavalry on both wings, Simon had pretty much the same but he also added Praetorians and two boltshooters for some extra oomph, he took more command than required so I hinted at dropping some and getting some foot skirmishers. 

The battle was a straight forward clash, I did not use my light cavalry and skirmishers very well added to which was the fact I only won the initiative on the very last turn so was on the back foot most of the time. I also managed to forget that my Auxiliaries were Regulars instead of Light which cost me dear in combats which I should have won, I had forgotten to bring my typed up list, it is always something these days, duh. As the curtain descended we had one more turn to play which we could not manage, I think I had the measure of the Twelfth albeit it only just, but there you go, in the end it was good to have the troops on the table. Simon also helped greatly by making an effort and getting to the club early, setting up the table and then helping me get the boxes from the car as I still find heavy weights a drag (see what I did there).

Thunderbolts.

7

Thrax.

 Thursday comes and we are back fighting in the Gembloux Gap, an interesting scenario as I have to dice for my deployment, and of course I get the side with the open fields to my front, I do however get a new platoon, which is just as well as the last one needed to be withdrawn due to losses. Because I only dealt out a few scratches last time Matt just about has a full platoon with lots of support points to ensure his men have every advantage, and this time he gets armour. I have to take something to deal with the Panzers and opted for a Panhard armoured car as it was pretty cheap and more mobile that an anti-tank gun, my other choices were a Francs Tireur saboteur and a light machine gun team. Matt on the other hand brought an infantry gun, a Pz II and a Pz I.

Fifth column, get her!

Forward menschen.

Clank, clank.

The battlefield.

The German advance was slow as Matt deliberated on his options and I kept my powder dry, he did however advance his armour, I brought on my Panhard and started a duel with the approaching Panzer I, this was frustrating, it was almost impossible to hit, it was obscured, had a low profile and was small, I got it in the end but it took a lot of time. The Panzer II now pushed to break the French line while German infantry moved on my left, I shot up the infantry but more were on the way, I intended to have the Panhard catch the panzer in the flank but with a wounded officer and shock I could not get it to obey my orders. 

German support.

French centre.

French support.

Gotcha!

Sigh.

The fortunes of war had turned against me, although I managed to close down a German Jump Off Point with the Francs Tireur and get a decent 10 for morale with the wounding or killing of three NCO's and throwing high for Bad Things Happen I plumetted to 4, then something else happened which left me with 3 and no future. Although I had made the Boche infantry suffer the difference in morale meant that as night approached I had dished out no more than a headache as they held the field.

I simply cannot win the campaign now, there are three turns left and one map, I have no new forces coming and Matt still has one unengaged platoon with the chance of reinforcements if he needs them while French support dwindles. We have had some very good games with Gembloux Gap but I doubt the French (as in real life) can hold off the Jerries for even a small win.

Some time ago in the distant past I fought a War and Conquest game against Ed, I turned it into a number of connected battles. The history went like this, a Romano British leader invaded Gaul once the Romans left Britain, he defeated local forces and Rome sent the Western Field Army to sort things out, enroute they fought off a Barbarian invasion, maybe this weakened them as they were defeated fighting the British, the British leader was killed and the Roman general murdered by his disgruntled troops, many of whom deserted to the victors. The wife of the British leader took up the reins but was thwarted by her Nobles and sent to a convent. Rome meanwhile with some help from the East scrapped together another army which moved against the enemy meeting them on the plains of Northern Italy.

 My son Stewart (Stuartus Brito) took charge of the invaders and led an army of the surviving British and deserters from the last defeated Roman force, I (Maximus Scotus) would lead my new Roman army, the last troops standing between Rome and its ruin. Stewart lined up with his British on his left and his Romans on the right, I put some heavy cavalry and light troops on my right while the infantry line contained legionaries in the centre and lanciarii on the wings.

Good guys on right, bad guys on left.

Maximus Scotus.

Stuartus Brito.

I moved my right flank skirmishers forward quickly hoping to sweep away the enemy light troops but this did not go to plan, the Huns proved difficult to kill and my own troops had to evade several times but luckily kept rallying. I was then forced to move my Clibinarii forward to meet the British heavy cavalry, both these forces were heavily armoured and would continue to flail at each other until the very end adding nothing to the battle. I had decided my right looked weak so eventually began to move my left flank infantry forward hoping the right would hold, the deserters opposite moved against me quite aggressively.

German Nobles attack.

Loyalist right flank.

Centre.

Loyalist left.

 

Eventually the centre of both armies were in melee along the line, Stewart was hoping to sweep my boys away while I was hoping they would hold. In the end the loyalists won through and it was the Rebels who were pushed onto the back foot, as the combat continued the Roman element of the enemy army fled for their lives knowing no mercy would be given. On the left the British looked on in dismay, insult added to injury as their heavy cavalry also ran for the rear, Stuartus suffered a personal tragedy as his standard bearer fell.

British close on my right.

Battle in the centre.

The British surge forward.

British heavy cavalry about to break.

 

The end to the threat.

Hoping once again for a quick breakthrough the British general did not count on the desperate defence put up by the lanciarii to his front, with the Roman left now beginning to move on the remains of his forces the British leader knew his dream of conquering Rome would remain a dream. A great day of Old School, proper wargaming thanks to my son for making the journey from darkest Darlington, a thoroughly enjoyable battle.

I was asked a bit ago my opinion on the book Tunisgrad by Saul David, it is basically all about Operation Torch and the thrust on Tunis along the coast, I was expecting some info on the Eighth Army's part in it all but there didn't seem to be much (I gave up). Rick Atkinson's An Army at Dawn is far better.

Unbelievably there are people, mainly young, who are terrified to talk on a phone preferrring texting. Luckily for them a woman (in the US of course) The Phone Lady will help you with this ailment for $195 an hour or $3000 for half a day. And yes, it is all done on the PHONE!