WWII and more flouncy shirts.

 Very miserable weather now, as I look across at the newly cleaned up Washington House it is dark and wet, although I wake early I am not usually up early but am today as we are having the house painted and Steve arrives early, 8 am, probably have to do the same tomorrow, but far better than me doing it.

Our Chain of Command Gazala campaign kicked off last week at the club, three games and everything to play for. I have a DAK Schuzen platoon which is four squads although only one LMG per squad and not two like the other two German players, but I do have the numbers.

I was up against a British platoon commanded by Stuart and we had both taken an extra light mortar for support as we had very little points to get anything really useful for this first game. It was the Probe scenario on a table with many small hills and ridges with a village almost in the centre, I had not got off to a good start with my Jump Off Points (JOP) being nearly all on the edge of my deployment. Stuart got off to a good start and managed to get to the village and take the largest house in it to set up a fire base. I got a couple of squads on and started to snipe at the troops on the roof of the building, this caused the British to retreat inside. It also spooked them as down came the first of many smoke bombs.

The smoke now protects my guys.

Getting into position to give the British a surprise.

The terrain, quite nice as it turned out.

I then managed to deploy all my troops but kept getting command dice which were of no use to me, this and Stuart managing to get a double turn on a regular basis cramped my style. I did however maintain line of sight to the large building and started to plaster it with my mortars, Stuart now made a mistake and tried to run a team out towards another building close by, I hit them and his casualties began to climb. More smoke landed but I still managed to fire on the confused British, in return I lost a leader but now managed to catch a squad between two of mine, I now had all my squads in action or close to it. Time was running out and we gave the Germans a minor win as the writing was on the wall, the British had lost about a squads worth of troops while I had suffered three, having held the ground I suspect I actually lost 1 man dead. Sadly the other two German players were defeated and my men are alone as they head towards the British rear area.

I didn't get to the club last night as I did not push for a game and had a night off, besides I had a home game ready to go the next day. I chose the Battle of Ceresole 1544, a tad later than my armies but I would make it work. I had fought this action last year very loosely based on the battle as both Julian and I had only got half way through building our forces, I had to check and I think that might be the last time I actually won an Italian Wars game.

 No matter, this time the battle was more accurate re the numbers and I also tweaked the lists to reflect this, I had some misgivings about the terrain and decided not to put the shallow hill around the main building as it is comparitively flat, I also did not put the higher ground on behind the Imperial lines instead I decided those troops would be legitimate targets until they moved off the lower slopes. Why else would an eight gun battery be put behind its own troops and a hill if they couldn't see the enemy.

The Imperials.

The French.

I controlled the French left flank and Rob the right, we decided to wait a few moves before advancing, Julian and Stuart opposite had the same idea. Julian was opposite me and although his infantry stayed put he threw his light cavalry forward very quickly, too quickly as my useless artillery and arquebusiers could not hit a barn door. Once again my Plan A to shoot the enemy to pieces before I hit him went south, I have lost count of the times this has happened. Although Rob managed to get off some shots the war of missiles went against the French the effect of which was to goad us into advancing, Rob got off to a good start as did my cavalry, but my infantry dragged their feet despite my screaming at them.

 

The French center advances.

My movement challenged Swiss/Italians.

The cavalry battles at first went against me and I thought here we go again. However my Gendarmes managed in the end to defeat the Imperial Men-at-Arms and my light cavalry managed to hold on until the sun went down, a complete surprise to Julian and I. The focus of the battle now switched to the centre as the Swiss and French took on the Landsknechts, this should have almost been a foregone conclusion but the Swiss made a dogs dinner of marching through the fish pond while the Landsknechts kept their feet, a huge sigh came from the French commanders.

French left flank.

Still undecided in the center.

A few rounds of desperate fighting followed but eventually the Swiss and French were cut to pieces and as my own troops had been foiled by Julian's reluctance to fight and the slowness of my advance there was nothing left for the French but to admit defeat.

 

The Imperial left.

The Swiss make a hash of it.

The French commander tries to bolster his troops.

I had had high hopes for the French in this fight, yes they were outnumbered by the enemy foot but they were ahead in quality and their cavalry were superior, against this the deployment was a mess for a wargamer to make sense of. My command rolls for my pikes were dire and stopped them from getting to grips with Julian's men before the curtain came down. Also I could not win a die roll against the Posh Chef, he beat me with casualties and saves at every turn, only my winning the combat morale most of the time kept my cavalry in the fight. I now think of course that keeping our men back was a mistake, certainly on my flank I should have had that large pike block bounding across the fields and into the reluctant Spanish opposite from the get go. But them's the breaks, a good day of fun and laughter with some friends.

Rob, Julian and Stuart.

Oh, and I have now finished all the Imperial pike blocks, really pleased with this last one and love the flags. I now have two more units to finish the army completely, these are ordered and I just await their arrival. There is no rush as I have games here at the War Room for the next two weeks, one Seven Year War and one War and Conquest, I might manage to sneak one more in before the end of the year but December is filling up very quickly. Hopefully the building work will start in January so with this and getting the room and table set up afterwards it might be Easter before the grand opening.

You have probably seen this picture but I got a chuckle out of it.

I am still lost for something decent to watch on TV apart from some excellent Korean crime dramas. I watched that latest drama on the Yorkshire Ripper and found it to be quite dull despite having many fine actors in it. I have also came late to Top Boy and am unsure, it shows a side of the UK (London) which is completely alien to me and my upbringing, I also at times would have been pleased to have seen subtitles "innit fam, yo bro" whatever that means. I did find that grizzled old detective Harry Bosch is back but having seen the first two episodes in Bosch Legacy, where he is now a private detective, I fear his daughter is now going to take the spotlight and poor Harry will be relegated to a bit part in his own show.