Smolensk: On to Richmond and Moscow

Valentines day and club night, this was going to sort the men from the boys, sure enough the membership on the night was mainly old married men and the turnout was low by normal standards. Anyway, ACW was on the cards, Fran had a scenario he wanted to try with his Warlord Epic troops and his Black Powder revisions, you know how I feel about BP, but Fran happily plays Johnny Reb so in return I joined his game.

I was one of two Union players and held the Federal left flank with one brigade, the other was arriving on the turnpike, what looked like a mass of Confederates confronted us, Epic gives that impression. Although the game was being played as a meeting engagement, after Alex's right hand brigade failed to advance and actually retired while my reserves were stuck on the turnpike we did not feel we could go forward. Happily we were not the only ones to suffer command problems, Dan, opposite me got one brigade up to oppose my far left but his centre brigade, like Alex's, refused to stay in line and half of it retired almost off the table.

The Rebs move forward.

Rebs left, Union right.

The excellent Federal artillery, eventually.

In the centre a hard pressed Reb regiment held the church and could not be moved despite the hail of lead sent towards it, this Confederate brigade always seemed to be on the point of retiring but just didn't. Next along Fran threw his last brigade, or tried to, in two desperate charges to break the blue line, both failed to even come to contact. Dan meanwhile had managed to throw a charge at me but was beaten back. I had by now managed to build up a double battle line and it seemed safe as houses as the Confederate army was by now in disarray.

Here they come boys.

Before the shooting started.

A nice little battle and a good size for a club night, also the rules with revisions were superior to the bog standard set. Dan and I had both had luck at various points in the game but I think I just edged to the front in that respect. I next meet Fran on the 26th when he is commanding a Confederate wing at Chickamauga as dawn breaks.

Now the main event, Matt Crump turned up this morning for our third Smolensk campaign game (game 1, game 2), only one table stood between the victorious Ivans and the German base, I had to win. Matt could choose between two scenarios this time, Attack and Defend or Probe, he chose Probe. I had a measly two points of support and as I needed to win this game I dipped into my reserve points, I took a Sdkfz 10/5 AA halftrack, it had decent AP against any Russian light armour and its HE could shred infantry and why not, I had one so that was it, I supported this with a large Pioneer Squad and a heavy anti-tank rifle, just to be sure. Matt went for two extra infantry squads, an HMG, a BT-7A and an Adjutant. Bruno and Anastasia the snipers were on R&R.

Unlike the last game I got some really good dice and right off got a double phase which helped me build a good defense while I waited for the Reds, everything but the AT rifle and the Pioneers were on the table on overwatch. Matt brought his tank on first, possibly with the idea of running it right along the road and off the table edge thereby winning the game, next he sneakily started deploying squads along a rivulet with heavy cover which was very close to my table edge.

This move as more squads turned up caused me to bring in my huge Pioneer squad (16 guys) to support the squad defending that sector. Meanwhile my AT gun turned up and started firing at the BT-7A, I never managed to knock the thing out but I did put a point of shock on it and stopped it moving faster than normal, this along with Matt having to use his commands elsewhere as the pressure built up meant it was never going to make it to the table edge.

Matt now brought on the HMG and the mortar for support as his forward troops withered under the German fire, although the cover was a boon against bullets it also played its part in slowing down their movement. I wasn't going to let the HMG deal out the amount of damage I had taken in the last game and I turned a full squad on it, within a couple of phases it ran for the hills.

As the Ivans struggled out of the morass I was tempted to bring one of my left flank squads over, just in case, but then I realised it was Chain of Command and I could reach them from where I was, a little adjustment and then the LMG's barked out, more Russians fell while large amounts of shock were built up. The Reds morale also began to fail as Junior Leaders were wounded or killed and squads began to break, it was all too much, with Force Morale reduced to two and his reserves never making the battlefield Matt conceded.

I sighed with relief, I had won a game and stalled the Russian steamroller, I was attacking now and could pick up much needed support points in order to do it, hopefully anyway. Matt had at last run up against the firepower which Panzer Grenadiers could throw out if allowed to and it had hurt. Steiger and First Platoon had got their revenge and suffered only three casualties while dealing out seventeen, every game the Russians always start with a new squad but although my losses were light I might have to bring in Second Platoon for the next game, especially as I will be attacking, I also still have the choice of an armoured platoon, now that would be fun, Matt is fighting the urge to bring a KV1.

The horses and flags are done for my next Italian Wars French unit, maybe another weeks work on these before they join the army and get ready for the big photo shoot.

 I got a knock at the door last week and there was a bloke standing with some books and what were obviously charts of some kind, it transpired he was the guy who had given me some British Army field studies of Normandy operations some years ago. His father who carried out the research was now in a home and he was trying to move a lot of his work. This time the books were about Malta and Libya along with Cassino, the maps were for areas in the Western Desert, Anzio and Salerno. I could only find one of the previous Normandy books so I offered them all online to anyone interested for the postage, I had an idea to do scenarios from the Normandy books but I just cannot find the time.

A neighbour lost her husband several months ago and has been busy selling up his large stock of photography equipment, I went over to help with her broadband and saw a Wacom Cintiq drawing board and was surprised that Ray would use such a thing, I got a Cintiq a few years ago and found it was the wrong thing for me and sent it back. Fran offered me the machine but on taking it home I found it did not work. Last week she offered me a tablet which worked but she could not get rid of, it turned out to be a Wacom Intuos Pro which is what I use for my cartography etc. this was an older type than mine but had never been out of the box, so I now have a spare machine. What a stroke of luck, I shall pop over a nice bottle of wine and box of chocs.

I watched the movie Devotion the other night being surprised it was out already on Prime and free. Here is a surprise, I enjoyed it. I also thought the racism aspect was handled very well, and all the more thought provoking for it. The stars of the show however for me were the planes and the aerial action scenes. I, like many more have binge watched Clarkson's Farm and thoroughly enjoyed it, a man who punched Piers Morgan cannot be all bad. I also feel his pain when dealing with the joyless planners on the Council, much like my own struggle, I now have to take some professional advice which will cost me some dosh, not the almost £500,000 Jeremy turned down but money I feel I should not have to pay to make an eyesore into a decent handsome building.

 

Wonderful news today after I finished the game, Nicola Sturgeon head of Scotland's one party state has resigned, along with St. Jacinda Ardern that's two gone, yet Trudeau hangs on. And of course she says she wants to spend more time with family etc. yawn. But we all know it was her transgender policy and the rapist with a penis in her pants that sunk her.