Smolensk: Sad Times in Smolensk

 Campaign day and I was all ready. Matt's Russians had halted the German advance last turn and thrown me back, this time I was on the defensive and faced an attack from two directions, my Operation Barbarossa, like the real thing, was having trouble around Smolensk.

I had a measly four points of support so decided I had to win this game to get my offensive back on track and pick up more support points instead of having them halved while on the back foot. I therefore decided to use four of my precious resource points to beef up my forces, at the same time I wanted to fight defensively and let the Russians come at me, there were several buildings in front of my position so I took an infantry gun to strike these with HE and also expected it to deal with any Soviet armour which turned up. Against the grain I then took Bruno the sniper and some defences for the gun. I was down five men, so ditched my little mortar and put the crew to work in my infantry squads.

Sleepy village of Miheykovo.

The game started with Matt bringing everything he could on to the table over a couple of moves, his first squad as I thought entered the big yellow house, my gun commander smiled, bang, not a great opening shot but he now had the range, things could only improve, right? I slipped up and put down a squad in the woods on my far left but they did not have enough points to go on overwatch, drat. I did not get away with it and an HMG turned up and let fly at them, I got away lightly and then returned fire and expected to wipe it out, no, not going to happen.

BT7.

My hopeless infantry gun.

Supposedly commanding view.

Sure enough a BT7 light tank turned up, I turned the infantry gun towards it but it failed to spot as shock began to build up on the crew. I desperately needed more troops on the table but failed again and again to manage to get the right command dice, I brought on a Senior Leader to reduce the shock but nearly every Russian unit on the table could fire at the gun with impunity as my other two squads looked on from off table, gunners fell and shock rose. What about Bruno the sniper you ask, don't.

Matt made good use of his mortars.

The tank moves forward.

Matt continued to cause havoc as I envied his command rolls. Then in one fell swoop I lost a team from the only squad I had on the table, the remaining gun crew broke taking my Senior Leader with them and once I had made my many rolls on Bad Things Happen my morale was reduced to 3. In despair I had to yield the battlefield to the Soviet juggernaut.

I admit I had hoped to win this one hence the use of my precious Resource points but it turned into a disaster, I fired around 32 dice and Bruno at the damn HMG and only managed one or two kills which the gun shrugged off! No matter, Matt had come down from Penrith for the game and I just wished I could have given him more time on the table before running away. He is now two tables away from the German home base, I am almost at the ropes.

While we were setting up the troops I knocked a box of vehicles on to the deck while trying to find the BT7 for Matt, there was a bit of damage but nothing major, however dropping a box must be the most feared thing for a wargamer, I have done it twice and it ruins your day, perhaps a warning for me not to play the game.

What else, well I managed to get my next unit of heavy cavalry finished and cleaned and primed the next unit, mounted arquebusiers, I still do not understand how this troop type was used in battle given the awkwardness of the weapon on foot never mind on the back of a horse. I don't expect much from them as skirmishers in Furioso as they don't tend to deal out a lot of death in my limited experience. This will leave me with a unit of Gendarmes and King Francis to do and the French are done, so my timetable of a year is going to be pretty accurate. I want to use Illustrator to do all my own banners but thought this one with the Salamander would be tricky but I am pleased with the result, I think the original was red but who is to say there was not a blue one around. The edges will be painted when finished.

I normally go to York every year but have decided against it this year, mainly because I have nothing to buy and for the first time ever have a small lead mountain in the drawer to keep me amused for now. I also find it is a bit sparse on actual wargames, great for buying stuff but not if you simply want to go and see what other people are doing, I find Partizan is far better for this albeit you will not get the same amount of traders. I am also on the fence with this show as well now, cost and the distance may kill this off for me this year.

I don't buy wargame magazines any more as I found I can 'read' them in about 15 minutes and then move on. I noticed one blog mentioning a hand wringing piece in Miniature Wargames recently about some people feeling guilty of playing wargames, quite simply if you feel that way about toy soldiers you need to find something else to occupy your time. There are a couple of things which I would find distasteful, but I am not going to whine about them or lose sleep. This is a wonderful hobby so leave the guilt out of it.

I watched 'Narvik' last weekend, not impressed, but then again what does impress me on the media front. I did give them Kudos for mentioning the French and Poles in the campaign but the almost total lack of a nod towards the Empire's contribution and the cartoon, evil Englishmen in the town a bit much to swallow as was the blurb that it was Hitler's first defeat. The latest season of 'Fauda' has been good if not up to the previous standard and leaving us, or me, with a disappointing end. 'Happy Valley' of course continues to be excellent, much as I would like to kick Ryan where the sun don't shine.