ACW and Pegasus III

 Club night was an ACW game organised by Fran with Warlord's Epic figures, although the rules are my less than favourite Black Powder Fran has reconstructed them for the ACW and they thus play a lot better, we now have several versions of BP depending on which period is being played.

The scenario was straight out of the ACW supplement and was a take on the battle of Monocacy in 1864 where Lew Wallace (author of Ben Hur) although losing delayed Jubal Early long enough for the Washington defences to be strengthened and Early's blitzkrieg stopped.

I was in command of the Rebel forces trying to force the Union position on the Monocacy river, I was quite restrained and only managed to get two thirds of my forces into action. The game was six turns and required the Rebs to maintain a vigorous assault to break the Federal line. In keeping with this I advanced fairly quickly and forced the Union skirmish line back across the Monocacy, however my untried brigade took this to heart and launched their own attack without my permission. Although both Alex and Fran looked skyward, Alex with delight and Fran with foreboding I thought I was in with a chance albeit slim. I narrowly lost the combat and my first regiment disintegrated due to a low morale score. My reserve brigade now did a Grand Old Duke of York trying to get into action, first going one way then another and even refusing to move on two occasions.

My brigades make ready.

The Union position.

Fran meanwhile sent his cavalry on a flanking attack while his infantry slugged it out with the Union centre hoping for a break. I was doing well if slowly, yet every time Alex's men were close to breaking he made his morale throws and all I did was push the Federal line back. My leading brigades were being slowly whittled down in the constant firefights and melees and always just missed out breaking their opponents. Fran was being held on the far flank and I had run out of steam and then an opportunity presented itself, Alex threw a blunder and one of his brigades charged out of the line and straight at the waiting Confederates, smiles broke out along the Reb line. In the reverse of my own blunder at the beginning of the game the Federal wave smashed into the gray line and against all the odds broke it.

My boys get carried away.

The Federals buckle but do not break.

It was turn five and the Union line was holding and although bloody and pushed back showed no sign of breaking, the game was up for the Rebs. I thought the Rebs had been given a very hard task under the scenario considering the forces were or looked almost even, no matter it could have went very differently if Alex had failed a couple of the tests I forced on him, but he didn't. Both Fran and I had tried very hard to break the dog leg in the Union line but in the end had failed. A good game and I might look at my Johnny Reb scenario to see if it would be worth fighting again.

I had Jimi round today for some Bolt Action, so as his force is British Airborne I thought it would be good to revisit Operation Pegasus a game I played solo twice during the Lockdown debacle, so I thought it would be good to play against someone face to face. An airborne force had to plan an attack on a factory somewhere in France and blow up as many buildings as they could, at least two to grab a 'win'. Jimi organised his five sections and chose his landing points only to find on arrival at Casa Anderson that one of his aircraft had met with a Jerry nightfighter and been shot down, also two of his sections landed way off target and lost a couple of men in the drop. The section which had been shot down was one of three which carried explosive charges so only two were left. 1 Section landed quite a distance east of the Railway station, 2 Section just to the south of the station near a barn, 4 Section west of the factory compound while the last one landed south of the factory almost at the factory fence.

 It was still dark when the British landed and 2 Section took up a position in the Station opposite the factory main gate and pillbox, 1 Section headed north to the crossroads and took up an ambush position, the other two began cutting holes in the surrounding wire fence. As the light improved the two squads along with the HQ and PIAT team had made it into the factory compound but it transpired that only 3 Section had explosives, 2 Section had some but were hiding in the station as dawn broke. Jimi decided that the pillbox might be a problem and sent the PIAT team towards it while 3 Section laid their explosives in the middle building (2), some French workers noticed the PIAT team but kept quiet.

The main gate with the feldgendarmerie.

The complex.

After a few Stella's the night before the squad marches.

 Meanwhile the German squad billeted in the Cafe Normandie had woken up, sorted themselves and began their march along the road to the factory, they were immediately taken under fire by 1 Section in a walled field at the crossroads, the squad suffered several casualties and lost its LMG team, the rest took shelter behind a nearby hedge, this did not help them and very soon they were wiped out and the survivors dispersed. Jimi now concentrated on tackling the pillbox, one French worker, a Nazi sympathiser had raised the alarm and the gate guards had retreated into the pillbox. A firefight now took place with some Paras and the PIAT team getting close to the little fort, despite the shock of a hit the field police inside the bunker decided to keep fighting. Things were looking good for the Paras as 4 Section took up a position close to the Cafe to keep an eye on the road coming from the west, 3 Section fired their explosives and up went the first objective, sadly killing several French workers in the vicinity trying to hide from the gunfire. 2 Section now joined in the fight for the pillbox as they ran past on their way to lay more bombs, the field police now felt overwhelmed and with Paras knocking at the door and concussed from PIAT rounds they surrendered. 

The Paras arrive in the dark.

The PIAT team sneak towards the main gate.

The pressure on the pillbox builds.

The police had however bought some time as German reinforcements entered along the west road, right into a hail of gunfire, one truck was immobilised and set on fire, the surprised survivors disembarked and lined a nearby hedge, there was still one truck in front while the HQ team pulled their schwimwagen up short and started to fire its MG 42 at 4 Section causing several casualties. More Germans turned up and the ambush position at the walled field was taken under heavy fire, 4 Section took more hits and went to ground allowing the German squads on the road to advance, capture the British HQ and open up on the nearest building where 2 Section had entered and were trying to lay their charges. The Jerries could not get through the fence and had to be content to spray the building trying to cut down the occupants before they secured their objective. 

More troops rush the bunker.

The first of the reinforcements come under fire.

More Jerries arrive.

4 Section sit on their backsides.

Jimi had to make some hard decisions, he went Down but this meant he could not now run from the building (5) before setting off the charges, and although it would take time the German forces were now getting the upper hand. As the enemy armoured car cut down the PIAT team and approached the factory Jimi took the decision to try and run from the building before setting off the charges. As the tension mounted two German dice game out of the bag and the surviving Paras died in a hail of lead. "For you Tommy the war is over".

A partial success for the British.

So again Operation Pegasus had turned in a good game with a nail biting finish. I at first thought it would be a British success as it seemed that the objectives would be gained before German reinforcements turned up, but the combination of one explosives Section taking position in the station and the time taken to subdue the pillbox ensured there would be some kind of fight. Even so it was only sheer luck that enabled the gunning down of the survivors of 2 Section, if even one man had, like the Bridge on the River Kwai, managed to hit the button before he breathed his last two explosions would have left a lasting impression on the work of the factory. No matter, we both enjoyed the game and had a good afternoon.

In other news I finished some defences for Italian Wars and a Spanish pike block but I'll leave those for another day. The club is being introduced to TFL's Cowboy game on Tuesday and I have an Italian Wars game next week with Julian.

And no, I won't be watching the coronation, I have a day to myself as the missus will, so some mapping and quite a bit of painting coming up for me.