My son arrived early on Saturday and had asked for a Chain of Command game, so I set up an Attack and Defend scenario with a little help from ChatGPT, the game was set during the Winter Offensive of 1941 outside Moscow with the Soviets attacking a small village on the front line. Stewart chose the Germans and brought a Panzer III as support along with a sniper. I didn't want to go all heavy in an introductory game so the T-34 was left in the garage, I doubt there were many available if any during December '41, so took a BT-7, an infantry gun and a sniper, that would be more than enough to cause the Hitlerites a problem thought I.
During the first turn visibility was reduced due to morning fog, so I managed to get almost all my forces on the table ready to move on the whistle, I miscalculated one squad and the German sniper opened up, I quickly spotted him but Stewart moved him before I could open up. Now that I was ready I ended the turn, the fog lifted and the shooting started. I sent my tank forward to get into close range of the German defenders in the village while keeping it out of sight of the Pz III, hoping to then get a second phase in order to also move my infantry up to the frozen stream and into a bit of cover at the edge. It was Stewart who got the double turns and my troops began to suffer, I brought my infantry gun on but the Panzer soon wiped out the crew, that particular version has two machine guns in the turret and one in the hull.
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| Pz III. |
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| German defences. |
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| BT-7. |
Slowly but surely my squads began to lose cohesion and soon two of them were pinned, this would put an end to my thoughts of attacking, I just could not shift the Jerries from the village and there was still one squad in reserve. All this time the tanks had began to duel, with their small calibre weapons neither could manage a kill although the BT-7 was made to reverse twice putting it back over the stream. At this point I conceded as I could go no further, plan A had not materialised.
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| Infantry gun. |
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| About to withdraw. |
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| Deadly combination of machine guns. |
A decent introduction for Stewart and he seems keen to try again, I might put more effort into my game the next time. Sadly for me I continually rolled a five and a six during each phase, this basically meant I was playing with three command dice rather then five, a real bind. My snipers, Ludmilla and Natalya were typically late as women usually are and did nothing.
I have finished my BEF now, although I do need one more figure to be completely comfortable and possibly a Matilda II, although there were only 23 in France during the Blitzkrieg. The BEF figures are all from 1st Corps and are very nice.
Talking about being comfortable I have taken a mad turn and ordered up 11 figures from Aventine, eight will be used to enlarge two of my phalanxes to 32 men from 28, the other three will be added to Legio XII to enlarge the First Cohort from 24 to 27 men, not a great deal but they will stick out more on the battlefield. All this of course means new movement trays and transfers (most of which will not be used) along with the figures, am I mad, yes.
Wednesday and a trip to Penrith through all the roadworks at 50mph, we will soon need a guy with a red flag in front. Anyway Matt set up the Battle of Nantwich and I took the Parliamentarians, I slightly outnumbered the Royalists as I had the garrison of Nantwich and some cavalry out on my right flank where the Cavaliers had none. I decided to push with my right and bring the garrison out to help my left, I did have an idea to throw my left flank cavalry forward but as Royalist cavalry were going to turn up on my left at some point I brought them back.
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| Beautiful table set up. |
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| Parliamentary forces, luckily not led by the PM. |
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| My army advances through the fields. |
Matt advanced slightly from his original position and this gave me the opportunity to threaten his flank and rear with my right flank cavalry, too late he saw the danger, by this time I had advanced all my infantry through the fields in front of his position. There were some Dragoon's covering Nantwich but I was sure my regiment of pike and shot inside the town would sweep this annoyance away and march on the enemy line. How wrong I was as the Nantwich numbskulls failed miserably and were eventually routed by one man and his dog, or so it seemed looking across the table. More bad luck was to follow, the Royalist cavalry turned up and my boys went straight at them before they could deploy properly, Matt assured me that "cavalry melees take all day" but within two moves the defenders of my left flank had routed and dispersed and the enemy made for my baggage train, I really needed to finish off the enemy infantry before this cavalry could enter the main battle.
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| My cavalry preparing to hit the enemy left. |
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| My less than energetic cavalry. |
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| The enemy left folds. |
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| As does the centre. |
Despite the setbacks my infantry and right flank horse began to tip the scales as the troopers hit the rear of the enemy and rode down the Royalist cannon, in the centre I also managed to weaken the defenders there and they too fled, the enemy on my far left put up a tough fight but were also ground down. Just in time the Royalists fell apart.
The rules were Kings of War with tweaks and worked fine, they are not difficult to pick up, Matt had sorted some event cards to work with the English Civil War and I think I had the edge with mine as they helped me deal death and destruction. The table as usual was a joy to play on and the armies were impressive for the small scale. The Dungeon really is a wargamers Aladdin's Cave, just as your eyes alight on one interesting piece you see another, a completely different period and scale, the Tirpitz is there, Greeks for WWII, Napoleonic cavalry, aircraft, buildings for the AWI, books, sci-fi stuff and much, much more. We are looking to start another Chain of Command campaign soon, interspersed with more trips to the Dungeon I hope.
More ECW coming up tomorrow as I head to Erik's, nothing penciled in for next week yet.
Still working away on the Atlas, with what is going on I expect more maps to be added.
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| Air defences. |
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| Hundred Years War. |
