A Bridge Too Far?

 Busy time for me at the mo, we had a family weekend near Gretna and were lucky enough to have two fantastically warm days, we also have a dress up evening and the theme was TV and Movies so I ended up as Tommy Shelby from Peaky Blinders, a more mature Tommy but I thought a striking resemblance.

The club this week was an opportunity to show off War and Conquest, one of my two most favourite games. I was playing Fran but Alex also asked to join in so I decided to umpire and explain the rules as the battle progressed, or as good as I could not having played in eons. I brought two Dark Age forces similar but with subtle differences, Romano-British and Saxon Heptarchy. As with most new games both armies got stuck in right away and it degenerated into the usual Dark Age slog, at the end of the night the Saxons just had the edge. Both players mentioned the 'bucket-o-dice' part of the game, something which it took me a bit to get used to, but otherwise it went OK, I could see Fran giving it another go but not so much Alex.

Saxons led by their King.

The British advance.

Forward boys.

Close combat.

I had a second WAC clash sorted for tonight a rematch between my Seleucids under the command of Ed and the Thunderbolts under myself, the 12th had lost quite spectacularly when I introduced the game to Ed almost two years ago and wanted revenge as they are not used to losing. Sadly we have had to postpone, but I do have my son coming over for some games later in the month, which will probably be WAC.

Yesterday I was in Penrith having been invited up to Matt Crump's Dungeon for a Bolt Action game which is part of an ongoing campaign Matt is running set against the backdrop of Operation Sealion. I was the Germans and my Fallschirmjager had taken a bridge over the river Stour and they were to hold it until reinforcements arrived, one squad had gone AWOL and would turn up during the battle but no one knew where. 

My first wave turned up on the right hand side of the table and took up position in some buildings covering the bridge, I also put my Pz38(t) on the far right with an infantry squad in support, I had some idea of outflanking the British. Matt had units surrounding the bridge and closing in along with an A10, a Beaverete armoured car a mortar and anti-tank rifle, there were also a bunch of sailors for some reason and in reserve was the local Home Guard.

The battlefield.

More goodness.

A joy to fight over.

As the bullets started flying I found my brave boys on the bridge holding their own at first, then the British mortar started putting some very accurate fire down on the objective, my casualties mounted as a hail of lead followed. I now pushed my infantry forward in order to support the Paras as their numbers fell. Matt has a 'White Dice of Death' in the bag and the first time it came up it was a flock of sheep in the road just as I was thinking of moving my newly arrived armoured car forward, the next time I found my boss was intoxicated and the third time a squad headed for the nearest building to loot it! It was now that the missing Fallschirmjager turned up to the fight, right in the rear of the British heavy weapons which they proceeded to wipe out, mortar, HMG and anti-tank rifle gone. The squad of Matelots had managed to leave the bar at the pub and got close to the bridge but they found themselves pinned down for the rest of the game.

The first assault.

Surprise!

There now followed some serious hand to hand combat on the bridge as I struggled to keep the British from taking posession, two assaults came in and both were hurled back, but only just. Thankfully I had moved all my remaining squads into positions to counter attack the bridge just in time, even so the Home Guard brushed aside their losses and got on to the bridge, things were looking bad for the Germans as we had reached Turn 6, but wait, a die roll brought another turn. I had one squad left which could deliver an assault on the Home Guard, it was too much for the brave locals and they died to a man, and a woman Reg.

The Sailors leave the pub.

It's all over.

A real nail biter right up to the end with the Jerries grabbing victory from the jaws of defeat at the last possible moment. It is always a pleasure to play in the Dungeon, Matt puts on a lovely table with lots of interesting scatter and he always manages to work up a balanced scenario. Bolt Action is perfect for this type of game, you won't get this level of excitement from Chain of Command, at least not often, and before I get jumped on, it's simply a different type of game, they cannot be compared, but both have their place.

I have managed to clean up and prime my new Landsknechts and Matt kindly gave me a single, metal hoplite to make up my new unit of those. I may get around to some painting tonight but right now I do not feel like it.

The Monocacy: Abe worried.

 There has been quite a bit of naval action at the club recently using Sam Mustafa's 'Nimitz' rules, I showed an interest and Stuart very kindly put on a game for me this week using his lovely 3D printed ships, these have superb detail and only miss the sailors on deck.

There were five of us, three German forces and two British, being an old matelot myself I took Hood, Prince of Wales, two heavy cruisers and three destroyers, one of the three survivors of the Hood was a communicator and there is another link, I digress. In Nelson style Henry and I sailed our ships straight at the enemy and commenced long range firing, my shells fell into empty water, Henry with Warspite and Nelson on the other hand had incredible success. I found myself up against the Bismark and Graf Spee along with their escorts while Henry took on the other two squadrons. I managed to 'cross the T' but couldn't hit a barn door.

The British fleet.

The Germans.

Bismark.

The mighty Hood.

Nelson and Warspite got in close and although losing a couple of destroyers shrugged off the losses and continued to hand out damage as more Germans went to Davy Jones' Locker. My gunners at last got the range and I added to the tally of German light forces sunk but it had taken a long time. At the end of the engagement it was declared a British victory with us having sunk more of the enemy.

The rules as we played them were pretty simple, I am sure there is more depth but this was an introduction. Shooting is done using one dice, if you hit the number of 'tubes' now comes into play and damage can be lethal as even battleships do not have a lot of flotation boxes, destroyers can be sunk with one salvo. I found it strange that all hits cause critical damage whether it be the loss of a gun, your fire director or even a catastrophic explosion. Torpedoes are also hard to get a hit with and both sides fired multiple salvoes but I think only once did they hit or maybe not at all. You also have to come to grips with the fact that the ships' position on the table is where its front funnel is, so it can look like ships will ram, collide or block other vessels but they do not. Ships will also sail in formation but can break this if the player wants to. Each ship has a card with all its details on and these are crossed off as damage is taken, they are fairly basic but I was perplexed that the Hood and the British heavy cruisers did not show secondary armaments, this was a real bind to my force.

Like many sets of rules these days they are 'light', you can use lovely models, roll some dice and have a laugh with your mates during a club night. If you live and breath naval warfare you might find these lacking, otherwise full steam ahead!

Back to the ACW at last, Fran has fought the battle of Monocacy several times at the club with Warlord's Epic scale figures so I offered my own Monocacy scenario here in the Post Office/Shop/War Room (still unsure). At first glance it looks like the Rebels are up against it as by 1864 the Second Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia had been almost bled dry and regiments had had to be amalgamated to form any kind of decent fighting unit. I amalgamated some of these wargame units which were too small and upped several others to give decent wargame units. The Union forces were also in a bit of a mess, a couple of brigades were decent but the defenders on the Federal right were shockingly under strength. On the bright side the Confederates approaching the Monocacy bridges were huge amalgamations of 800 men each, a challenge for the Union defenders.

The battlefield.

The Reb left.

The Reb right.

The Union left and centre.

I took the good guys while Fran as usual wore gray. I decided to quickly abandon the far bank defences and retire to my side of the river as despite the works my small regiment, 200 men, would be under extreme pressure from some 1,600 Rebs supported by artillery, should I have used them as a speed bump, who knows, maybe. Having decided to hold my right I wanted to advance my left and immediately marched off, hoping my slightly better numbers would win through. 

The first cannon shot of the day routed and dispersed one of my defenders behind the works, not a good omen, I was therefore forced to start edging some of my regiments to the right to fill the gap. My artillery took out a couple of Confederate guns with counter battery fire. Fran could have held back but he took his historical part seriously and pushed all his forces forward in an assault of the Union line, I thought this was playing into my lap, the Fates would soon put me in my place. As a storm of fire hit my defenders Rebel infantry pushed across the Monocacy but it was all taking time, I had now got my far left into close proximity of the Confederate right and I hit it with a well timed surprise charge, I broke the line and only needed one more push to halt their advance, Fran looked nervously to his right. 

Attack now lads.

The Confederates sense victory.

My outnumbered defenders.

Then it all went pear shaped, despite several Confederate routs the survivors stopped my attack in its tracks and it was my troops who were now shattered. Meanwhile with the threat lifted Terry and York's brigades now hit the dog leg in the Union line and slowly but surely ground down the defenders while several regiments fled to the rear. By now I had lost my only artillery battery which had done sterling work up until they were captured, I had no choice now but to disengage as fast as I could for some welcoming trees behind my front line. As we contemplated the next turn my left was in complete disarray while the Rebs had rallied and held me off, my centre was running and my regiments were all carrying heavy casualties and unlikely to stand in a line of battle, my extreme right was still there but again under pressure and it seemed only a matter of time before they were overwhelmed. I handed over my sword.

York and Terry.

The big skedadle.

Big unit.

Havoc caused by my artillery.

On reflection I possibly should have simply withdrew and formed a new line without a dog leg and away from the Reb artillery as their infantry would mask the fire as they advanced, but I didn't. Although I used my cavalry to help my attack on the Confederate right I felt I did not get the best out of them. And yes, I do have time to moan, Fran's ability to punish me with devastating fire at least four times during the game and in melee to beat me by one point had me rolling my eyes several times. Nonetheless one again JR delivers the goods, a great, exciting fight, win or lose.

I have at last finished the SYW battalion kindly gifted to me by David Bickley of GHQ, it was a struggle as I had not wanted to paint any more British or any SYW troops having completed what I wanted. However I am now the proud owner of  His Majesty's 21st Foot 'North British Fusiliers'. This has also rekindled my painting mojo so although I am not starting any more new periods I have ordered up a fourth cohort for the 12th from Aventine before Keith retires next year and in case no one takes over the ranges, which would be a great loss to the wargaming community. Because the Thunderbolts are getting a new unit I have also ordered up some mercenary hoplites for the Seleucids, these are Foundry metal as Aventine no longer do their earlier range, the packs are eight men, so you would think three packs equals a 24 man unit, no, because for some reason best known to them the command pack is seven men! So I am stuck for one, spear overarm hoplite to complete my unit, grrrrrr, I did manage to scrounge a plastic guy from the club but....... I have also looked at my lead pimple of Landsknechts and with just a couple of packs I can put together another pike block, so they too are on the way.

More Scots, 21st Foot.

The LMF as well as stumping up for the new figures has also bought me a couple of new books, The Battle of Pinkie 1547 the last battle between the Kingdoms of Scotland and England which received very good reviews some time ago and I had it on my list at one point so why not. The other is Lionel Shriver's Mania, which although a work of fiction is set in a world where it is a crime to call anyone stupid is fast becoming non-fiction, non-crime hate-crimes anyone?

 

Busy or what? Next week I am introducing Fran to War and Conquest at the club on Tuesday, playing WAC on Thursday evening with Ed here at me casa, Ed had the temerity to beat the 12th when we played last, two years ago, I have a reputation to recover. On Wednesday I am off to Penrith and the Dungeon for an Operation Sealion encounter with Matt. On leaving the club both Julian and Rob intimated they will come for a game at some point this month. I'm exhausted already.