Berlin at last

I might have mentioned that I was asked to take my Italian Wars troops to the club this week in order to give Simon and his son Henry a game. It had to be small enough to get a result in three hours so the armies were medium at best with eight units a side, two gendarmes, one heavy cavalry and one skirmish cavalry along with one large pike block and one smaller and an artillery piece.

Me on the left, Simon and Henry on the right.

I slowly move forward.

My one success before it all falls apart.

We quickly set up a table with a couple of hills and a small wood and deployed our troops, the random event was played on Simon and Henry as their troops trudged along mud filled roads to the battlefield. This had the effect of around five of the enemy formations arriving fatigued. No big deal as it happened as I played cautiously from the start. Henry and Simon at first played cautiously but once the fatigue had worn off they came ahead quite quickly. I never seem to have much luck playing Italian Wars and this game was to be no exception, my small pike block and my Gendarmes were defeated as was my heavy cavalry, I did manage to push back Henry's large pike block but it was too little too late. I had to concede as time was marching on. Maybe next time.

The next day Matt Crump turned up to kick start out Gembloux Gap campaign, once again set in 1940 with Matt playing the troops of 3rd Panzer Division. The first game is an attack on the village of Perbais with the French defending, this is a hard ask for the Germans and they need some luck to make headway, they have no armour as yet and no anti-tank weapons. The French on the other hand are allowed armour albeit a very small tank which I duly took as a support.

The Jerries turned up and prepared to jump off, I left things a bit until they attempted to cross the open ground surrounding the village. Matt daringly sent one rifle team across a field backed up by multiple machine guns in an attempt to line a hedge and threaten a Jump Off Point, I had no option but to deploy some defenders. I then picked on the poor soldaten in the field and very quickly they broke and fled to the rear, masking the dug in MMG. I had by this time brought my tank to the fray, an R35 which proved basically useless as a threat to the Germans. There was a slim chance that machine gun fire could drive it back if the crew got nervous but Matt prefered to pick on my infantry.

More Stuka action.

Matt builds up a firing position.

My little tank.

The French front line.

An opening for the French.

After several phases as the French defence solidified it became obvious that for now the village was safe, Matt withdrew to fight another day. I forgot to mention that Matt had chosen a Stuka bombardment to start the game, much like my attack in the other campaign game the Luftwaffe proved fairly useless, I also managed to end the turn before I had to deploy my main force so there was no continuing threat from the air. Matt had managed to plant an unexploded bomb in one building but with the end of turn this was basically a dud.

My son turned up and invited my wife to join him and his daughter on a trip to Scotland to watch Celtic play, I immediately got in touch with Stuart and offered a CoC game if he was free, he was. Stuart was keen to use his Volksgrenadiers again and I thought this was a perfect opportunity to get my Berlin ruins on to the table and fight through the rubble with my Soviets. I had a think about the way forward and decided a tank or assault gun would be next to useless in heavy urban fighting so I went with an SMG Platoon supported by a regular section, an infantry gun and a flamethrower expecting close range fighting from street to street.

Somewhere in Berlin.

Street View 1.

Street View 2.

As the attacker I had to get to an objective which was in the church of St Friedrich the Fat, I started quite a distance away from this but was determined to move my Platoon up quickly into close range where the SMG's would be dangerous, of course the VG's had assault rifles so I would just have to take it on the chin. Stuart got a section out on my right flank and a sniper in the centre, on the left however he put his Volksturm. With no danger of concentrated fire from assault rifles I pushed two sections up to take the old men and youngsters under fire, as their casualties mounted I charged them, the weakened squad fled and I advanced to hold the ground, this threatened one of the German Jump Off Points. I pushed a second squad up with the idea of supporting the first one, possibly capturing a JOP and maybe forcing the sniper to leave. My infantry gun was also lobbing shells into the defenders area.

My infantry gun.

The Russians show up.

 

The Soviets clear the German right flank.

The Volksturm survivors break.

 

 

Stuart now moved his JOP out of harms way but I followed up and now two enemy JOP's were in danger. I had at last managed to get my own sniper team out, they never managed to fire a shot, along with my much vaunted flamethrower who sadly was way at the back of the attack and nowhere near the enemy. A desperate series of hand to hand combats now erupted as Stuart tried to hold on to his JOP's and force the Soviets back, my boys fought magnificently and each time the Hitlerites were routed and fled. As my victorious squads advanced they broke into St Friedrich's church and seized the objective. Stuart was left with one small festung in a nearby building where his remaining squad were hiding. As the Russians reorganised for the last push and got ready to end the turn German morale had fallen to 2, there was now no hope and this particular suburb of Berlin was now Soviet.

After some brutal hand to hand the Soviets close two JOP's.

The flamethrower trying to get forward.

The last of the defenders.

The Hitlerites in retreat.

I had wondered if CoC could handle a table filled with rubble, obstacles and ruined buildings and it managed very well, close range firing and hand to hand combat were the order of the day, giving a completely different type of game. I was lucky that the German deployment was so slow until their JOP's were threatened by which time their assault rifles really did not come into play. My thanks to Stuart for the game and I hope to see more fighting in Berlin, Budapest or even Stalingrad.

My son has been on a cruise and the ship docked in Corunna where of all things he found a Lego display portraying the Battle of Pavia, according to the blurb it was there to celebrate the Spanish Tercio's. There were no Tercio's at Pavia and the first official one is dated to 1534, almost ten years later, I have no beef with this but a museum should be able to get things correct, but then again have you been to one here recently.

I treated myself to some rail fencing from mate Colin at Charlie Foxtrot, I had wanted wire fencing but am too lazy and ham fisted to attempt them so these are the next best thing. I also ordered up a PzI and Bunkerflak which have not arrived yet from Mardav, I am expecting them on Monday.