Let There Be Light

 Yes, it's me again, a short while after saying syonara. I had a knee jerk reaction to some news regarding my health which I now realise was the wrong thing to focus on, several people have questioned why I would stop blogging as I obviously enjoyed it, I made excuses but in the end I realise my blog is as much a part of my wargaming hobby as the battles and troops are. I may not blog as often in the coming months but I will continue. So, lets go.

I had asked if anyone would like a game of Chain of Command this coming Tuesday, sorry but I seem to be unable to shake my interest in this game that I once threw in the bin. With everyone busy I thought all was lost but Paul offered me a game yesterday out of the blue and I grabbed it. He has Americans so I decided to branch out and take Volksgrenadiers, once again I was the attacker, you can see a pattern here. I set up a village and poured over the support lists, I decided on a Panzergrenadier squad, an adjutant, second Senior Leader and a Panzer III N, I wanted to be sure I could command all four squads which would be difficult with one leader. Paul had very few support points and not enough for a tank, I expected a medium or heavy MG.

The Americans in CoC annoy me, they have very large twelve man squads and automatic weapons, they also get to fire when moving with no penalty to their accuracy, I disagree with General Patton on this, sure put a wall of lead up but hitting something would just be luck. It costs command points to do this but hey, I have to moan about something. 

There were two objective markers on the table and I decided to first of all hit the one on my left, I set up my LMG squads to cover a ruined building which had an objective near it and then quickly brought on my tank and the rest of the troops. Paul put one squad in the building and one on some woods to the right, his third squad would turn up on my far right eventually, but it took some time to make its presence felt in the battle. I managed to get several double turns and advanced one squad very quickly along the side of a nearby church and charged a lone Ami teamand wiped it out, capturing an NCO. I then moved against the remaining part of the platoon in the woods and caused them to run, I also sat on the enemy Jump Off Point here, things looked very good. On the other flank a squad had almost killed off a Yankee Scout Team and caused them to retreat.

Carried away with my success I now moved my LMG squads out and towards the objective, what could go wrong. In the woods Paul had left a Senior Leader isolated and my squad there charged the poor man, incredibly he beat off his attackers and kept going, elsewhere a sniper began to pick off some of my NCO's and my morale dropped, I was putting a ton of lead (32 shots) into the fortress and getting nowhere apart from the odd kill, this was taking far too long. But what about the tank I hear you say, well that moved forward to the crossroads and was just about to take the house under fire when Paul's support turned up, not an MMG but an anti-tank gun, it barked and the Panzer exploded, morale fell again.

Oh dear.

My first NCO goes down.

Men of the match attack Yankee right.

I was now in trouble as the survivors of my squad in the woods were stuck there as I was now down a command dice and needed them elsewhere, my right hand squad's NCO was stunned and useless so they also had to seek shelter to stop being wiped out, I was left with my seemigly dreadful LMG squads hitting nothing but brickwork. Paul had tried to get his Senior leader to run for his own lines but the machinegunners had only managed to stun him, agh! With things not looking so good the turn ended, I had captured the JOP but Paul's morale managed to weather this, however he lost an objective so only one remained and I was hopefully closing in on it. I continued as if mesmerised by the squad in the building near the objective, I almost had them as their numbers collapsed, I could smell victory. then Paul threw four sixes with four dice.

That damn house.

Thaat's not a machine gun.

Should have stayed in the house.

This proved disastrous for me, he managed to get a roll for reinforcements, five men, and reinforced the remnants of the squad in the house of death, I was gutted. His left hand squad now had come into the battle and my LMG squads began to suffer. we were now both down to three dice each as the dual continued, I turned my attention to the newly arrived squad and for once my boys began to deal out significant casualties, however, time and time again I failed to hit an NCO in order to trigger a morale  test. We were now both down to one point of morale and two dice, the tension mounted, eventually Paul managed to get two good order throws and my morale crumbled.

Too little too late.

The end.

A nerve wracking game which saw ups and downs for both sides but Paul just managed to get that bit of luck when needed. Yes I could have been luckier but also in the cold light of day I think I could have made some better decisions. No matter, a good win for Paul and an entertaining afternoon for me.

I have been busy elsewhere, I have completed half of my last Lanciarii unit and will start on the rest later this week. My son is coming for a few games at the weekend and my new Romans will be on the table so I needed a Rally Point for them, I got the Slave Trader set from Wargames Foundry and will complete this little vignette this afternoon, I was also given a couple of Roman civilians from Rob at the club so these I will use as Strategic Intervention Points along with some others I already have..

My new vehicles arrived from Mardav, 3D printed and beautifully detailed, I have now primed and drybrushed these and may get a chance to detail and weather them today or tomorrow. I have sent to Empress Miniatures for their Luftwaffe 88mm flak crew, these are the only guys I can find with jackboots as I have painted up the Bunkerflak in grey for early war and Barbarossa. I will only need at most three figures but the others will still come in handy for extra gun crews.

Bunkerflak and Pz I

I believe that is it, I see the BBC are pushing their King and Conqueror series, I have seen clips and going by past attempts at portraying the Dark Ages I do not hold out much hope.