Tiger, tiger

 Last Tuesday was a busy day, the Penrith Dungeon in the morning and the Club at night but like all plans this one did not work out. Rob caught a cold so we would not be going to the Sudan to fight the Fuzzie Wuzzies but I did drag myself out of bed and head off north to Matt Crump's.

In the Dungeon this time it was somewhere in Sicily, the game was based on the fight for Biazza Ridge and I was James Gavin of the 82nd fighting against the Hermann Goering division while Matt took the bad guys. I had a platoon of elite paratroopers along with a second platoon of regulars, two Shermans, an anti-tank gun and an MMG, I was up against the elite Jerries of 'call me Meyer' who had five squads, some halftracks, an armoured car, mortar, anti-tank gun, MMG and.....a Tiger!

Another lovely battlefield.

There were three objectives on the table, one of which was miles away and a shoe in for the Luftwaffe boys, the central one was closer to me on the ridge and the third, on my right, although closer to me was a hike through some rough ground to get to it. I therefore decided to go for the centre and right, the Paras would be in the centre with Gavin. On turn 2 when my second wave turned up I sent them to the right but for some reason I thought if my tanks went left and killed any Germans around the objective I might slip one squad up the road and steal it, not a great idea as it turned out. Oh, I forgot to mention I had naval gunfire support (one of my old jobs) and if it hit it would simply make a mess of everything in the area as 15" shells would. I started off well with HMS Ramilles wiping out the Jerry anti-tank gun before failing to hit anything at all. 

The Paras arrive.

As does the armour, in the wrong place?

Gavin led his men up on to the ridge and then came under heavy fire and I began losing men and a bit of my nerve, the tanks clanked up the road and began shooting anything they could see, badly. Matt had sent two squads in half tracks up a country track on my right and was closer to that objective than my men, it was going to be a struggle as the Germans also sent their armoured car into that area. More Yanks fell and although I was managing hits I was not converting them into kills, I gave up all thought of stealing the left objective and for a moment swithered about pulling one of my Para squads back behind the ridge. Matt's advances were looking good and my casualties mounted. In came a swarm of panzergrenadiers against my regulars and they wiped out one of the three squads but they did take casualties, I did try and take advantage of this but my boys refused to move.

The Jerries attack my right.

A hit from the navy.

The big cat.

I manage to hold the right.

The centre holds, just.

Then the Tiger turned up, where was it going, if it supported the attack on my right I think I would have lost out but instead it went after the two Shermans, one of which promptly hit the beast and caused it to reverse. Return fire imobilised one of the Shermans but it could still fire. I felt slightly better as I mopped up the right flank holding it securely, but knew Matt would attempt a rush now against the centre if not to take it then to contest the objective. The Tiger moved forward again only to be hit this time by the anti-tank gun which again caused it to retreat. It looked like things had swung my way but there was still possibly one German squad which might make it on to the ridge. Then what sounded like an express train whooshed overhead and the squad disappeared in a puff of high explosive, Ramillies had got the range and put the icing on the cake. Matt surrendered.

 

The Tiger so close.

My armour moves to the centre.

Whooosh! The last gasp.

Another good game and interesting scenario played out on a lovely table. I didn't manage much of a chat as I was going away with the Memsahib for a couple of days and had what seemed like a ton of things to orgainse before heading into the Lakes.

I have a couple of map projects which seem to be hard to pin down and complete and a couple more in the queue. I got a heads up from Helion about the possibility of doing another atlas of between 80-100 maps on the Arab-Israeli conflicts, it has not yet been confirmed but is looking good and the author has already been in touch.

Now, readers will know that I am not shy of using the LMF to enhance my wargaming and I do not shirk from shelling out the spondolicks, however I was running out of PVA/Wood Glue for basing and as I traversed an indoor market in Morecambe I asked a vendor if he sold said product. I should have known better, I'm 72 after all, I purchased a small bottle for £2, this should have screamed at me but I ignored the little guy on my shoulder telling me "You'll be sorry". I glued my latest troops to their MDF bases the other night and the glue was sticky and runny, sure enough in the morning when I picked them up to add the sand the figures came off in my hand. I headed off to town and spent nearly £15 this time on the good stuff along with some superglue, kicking myself all the way home. 

The good stuff.

Some new paints to try as well.

Talking about spending money, we were away at a Spa Resort in the Lakes for a couple of days for the Memsahib's birthday, lovely place but we spent two days being drenched in rain whenever we ventured outside, I sit at home now looking out the window at a glorious day. The Lakes were busy nevertheless and damn expensive, parking was normally £5 for a couple of hours and a piece of apple pie a tenner!

Should have went to Ibiza.

I splashed even more money this morning as I ordered up more troops for the Romans, enough for three auxiliary foot units and a bunch of skirmishers. I have finished my second regular vexillation, this time from IIII Flavia Felix and have begun work on some Roman horse archers. I also sent for several sets of transfers from LBMS (now run by Victrix), so I should be all set for the next couple of months.

I am halfway through 'Late Roman Combat Tactics' and I am more than impressed, the Romans basically, or at least during the mid to late periods, fought by numbers. They had drills for all occasions and all enemies and if these were followed by commanders it usually resulted in a Roman win. It is not an easy read and relies a lot on early Byzantine treatises which were heavily influenced by what we would call Late Roman manuals. 

Parthian Shot: I know the world is mad, or at least anything to the left of the old Iron Curtain, but the French city of Lyon has taken the biscuit by paying Psychics thousands of euros to ask nearby animals and plants about local planning issues. At one meeting Poppy was given a seat, no, not a person, a real Poppy, the plant! Yes, Lyon city council is dominated by......the Green Party. The defence rests M'lud.