Oh Woe is Me

 More on the title anon. This week at the club it was back to the Ambush scenario but this time the Jerries were up against British Paras with some help from the Yanks.

In my third attempt at taking the crossroads I wanted to push most of my troops along the right flank and across the iron bridge, the 222 armoured car and the kubelwagen with my command along with one MMG and a squad would do what they could on the left. Michael, who is fairly new to Bolt Action kept his men as far back as he could which allowed me to advance almost to the outskirts of the hamlet. He did take his chances with the PIAT, anti-tank gun and his machine guns but these all fell to overpowering return fire, once again the Allied anti-tank was ineffective and was soon removed from the game. I once again got a FUBAR and a squad ran to the rear upsetting my timetable. More and more enemy squads now turned up around the village and despite being cut up by my armour it seemed to take forever to damage them while my own infantry began to take losses.

Although I had taken seven dice from the Allied total and only lost three the remaining Paras had an iron grip on the crossroads as we approached move ten, these defending squads also were replete with molotov cocktails so still managed to be a danger to my vehicles. Michael's tactic of keeping his forces as far back as possible was a good move, the Germans spent almost half their turns simply getting to a point where they could begin to take on the main enemy position, which of course proved too strong to overcome.

Once again the result was a draw and although this scenario gives a good fight and always extends that elusive chance of a German victory it simply is never going to happen. I have been very lucky in my games that the enemy anti-tank fire was ineffective and that keeping my armour intact and dealing a good amount of hurt helped me get as far as I could, this is not something I am sure that would continue. This is a good scenario and one which deserves a little more thought, I don't think bigger tanks are the answer and I like the thought of a reconnaissance unit probing forward, but I do think perhaps one more German squad and have all of them in transports although I would keep the speed of off-road movement to advance only. We will see.

I won't be at the club next week as my wife has an op on the Monday and should be home on the Tuesday so it would be bad form to leave her and put my own fortunes first. Not only will I be running after her every whim for the next three months but I have had my own troubles with health over the past four days and despite being on antibiotics the things are not working fast enough for me. It really is no fun getting old.

Just to top things off the planning wallah at the Council has decided I need to put my now defunct Post Office up for sale before I can get planning permission to take down the old shop front and put up a lovely new wall and garden. The old PO is just a room, with no amenities at all, it was part of the original cottage, there is nothing to sell, but the young gent would rather have me spend a fortune and carry out needless marketing research to sell something which does not exist. It looks like I shall have to appeal his upcoming decision, yes, you have guessed it, more sheckles for the Council coffers.

Enough of real life, my camp is well on the way to completion, I suspect I will manage to complete it by tomorrow before I start my three month sentence. The little vignettes from Warlord Games have been a joy to paint. Next up is another sidetrack back to WWII and a lovely 3D vehicle from Paint and Glue Miniatures, more on this when I complete it. It will then be back to Italian Wars cavalry, I received yet another bunch of TAG figures yesterday so now have all the French cavalry I need for now, even with my quick method of horse painting I am not a fan of painting cavalry no matter how good they look so this might become a bit of a chore.

We have a large Napoleonic game here on the 22nd and I believe Julian and I are back to Italy on the 25th. With all my other jobs I now have a full book of map projects to work through as well, so much for retirement.

Foreign Legion fort in Rif Mountains.

 

1806-1807 Russia.

 

That's it for now I am going back to wallowing in my despair. Oh, I forgot about the new comedy being streamed on one of the channels, "The Rig", having worked offshore on three different platforms over twenty years I see nothing familiar in this dreamt up nonsense, and please do not get the impression it has any base in reality.

A real Radio Op at work, not a tool or a beard in sight.