Good Moaning

 Club night been and gone, now sweltering and hiding from the sun, must look out those melon, pineapple and pau pau seeds I bought forty years ago when warned about the climate getting warmer.

Chain of Command, 13th May, 1940, ten past one, close to the river Meuse, a French force tries to delay the tsumani of field grey heading west, for a few hours at least. I had a normal infantry platoon supported by a Renault R35, 25mm anti-tank gun, an adjutant and some Francs Tireurs to throw a spanner into the German plan. Stuart brought infantry with a SdKfz 222 armoured car, an extra squad and an infantry gun.

The house of contention.

 I deployed quickly enough and took possession of a house on my left and the cornfield on my right, planning to build up a base of fire to which I added my little tank and grenade launcher squad. I had wanted my last squad also on the left but a Shabby Nazi Trick befuddled them and they refused to come on. Stuart also took over a house near the front line on my right and the rest of his men deployed in a wood some distance from their objective. I played my Francs Tireurs who proved utterly useless and whom the Boche simply ignored, I also threw a vast amount of firepower at the squad in the nearby house and again this proved utterly useless, my little tank joining in the farce.

 As we both very slowly collected shock and the odd casualty I tried to withdraw my lead squad in the cornfield but they broke anyway and my morale fell to 8 from 10. Stuart meanwhile with the clock counting down threw caution to the wind and tried to send a squad towards the centre of the small hamlet. The French gleefully cut these men down with no mercy, German morale started to plummet.

The Germans in the wood also began to suffer and another team bolted for the rear, in the dying moments Stuart brought on his armoured car but it hid from the anti-tank gun and sadly achieved nothing. As the Boche morale hit 5 it was obvious the objective was never going to fall into their hands so we called a halt.

 Although I did eventually get my third squad on the table I made a mistake putting it on the left when it would have been far more effective on the right, I made the same mistake with my Senior Leader compounded by the fact I could have sent his mate across to the right instead of simply relying on getting the right command dice. I also committed the cardinal sin of getting fixated on the Germans in the house close to my right. Once again CoC showed the way to play is in the context of a small campaign, one off games are fine for learning the ropes but can at times give a less than exciting game.

Its been nine days now since I ordered up some cavalry and bits and pieces from Casting Room Miniatures and no sign yet of anything on the way, which is unusual in my dealings with Foundry. Anyway not having a reserve of patience last night I ordered up some Steel Fist cavalry, only to notice after paying that they are on holiday and not back until the 14th, aaargh!

No big deal, I have an Italian pike block to finish before looking at cavalry and I still have my granddaughter here until Sunday so allied with the mini heatwave I cannot see me painting much until Monday. I have managed the front ranks of the Italians and have the middle ranks and command on the tray, these are TAG models and nice in their own way, very easy to paint but these seem to be overburdened with armour to me for bog standard infantry. Steel Fist are working on Swiss, they would probably do for the start of the wars but not for the later period, they do look good however and I am sure some placed here and there would not look amiss for the mid period. Although I have Swiss in French service I do intend to do an actual Swiss unit at some point.

 I have nothing to say about entertainment for now, I have had to sit through Spy Kids 2 and 3 with my granddaughter, and yes, the movie was not made for me, but will these kids look back in their dotage and laugh and go all misty eyed when remembering such rubbish. I have just had an attack of this with "The Buccaneers" starring Robert Shaw as reformed pirate Dan Tempest, I loved this and apart from Bill and Ben and Four Feather Falls etc. it was one of my first TV memories. I have just bought the whole series on DVD (well I think so, it may be a 3" floppy) for £4.90 in a moment of weakness and nostalgia. More anon.

No white flags here (or submarines)

 Sadly my wargaming weekend was brought to a halt by a virus, not Covid thankfully but a very nasty cold/flu doing the rounds in the south-west so mate Matt had to call off, being all dressed up and nowhere to go so to speak I advertised on the club Facebook page for any volunteers for a Chain of Command game as I had the table built up and the time to spare. Stuart rose to the challenge and we chose forces and a scenario from the Blitzkrieg book.

I was the French again fresh from repulsing Rob's Germans a week or so ago, this time I took a Chasseur platoon which allowed me an extra COC dice, my choice of supports was rather basic however I opted for a tank (R35) over the anti-tank gun as my main support, this was backed up by a team of motorcyclists and AA machine guns in case of a Stuka attack, none of my supports were allowed to enter the table until turn 2, which in CoC could be a long time. Stuart came with a Motorised Infantry platoon so the only armour he could get was armoured cars, he took one of these, an extra infantry squad and forward observer for a mortar barrage.

  For the first time we used the patrol phase app (sorry I have no idea who the author is) on my iPad, you only need a photograph of the battlefield and off you go, I was very impressed, an excellent aid and one I will use again.

Once again I was defending the village and I managed to get a good position on my left in a ruined house while holding a wood on my right, I was hoping for a quick COC dice in order to end the turn and get my supports on before I was overwhelmed. Stewart put a squad in the centre and then started his attack through the wood to hit my left flank, the first squad up took heavy casualties and was forced to withdraw while another squad was brought up to help, his little mortar continually sniped at the men in the house but did no damage. Over on my right the Germans brought on the little 222 armoured car and advanced to take my guys in the wood under fire, at the same time a mortar barrage was dropped on the wood but although pinning my men it caused comparatively little damage, but it stopped the armoured car from coming any further forward. The artillery fire stopped and the 222 advanced, I was forced to pull back further into the woods as I had nothing at that time to tackle the 'little tank'. I brought on my VB grenadiers with the idea of bombarding the thing but just as I did I managed to end the turn and on came my armour which gave the armoured car pause to rethink where he was going.

Festung.

Leutnant Gruber's 'little tank'.

Incoming!

 It was going to take me a little time to get the Renault into a firing position but as Stuart now had two squads shooting at the ruined house I turned all my attention on to them, the motorcyclists with their LMG had arrived and joined in, German casualties climbed at a faster rate than French casualties. Once again the German attack faltered and withdrew, this allowed me to now turn on the squad in the centre of the table and this too suffered badly. The armour of both sides could not land a damaging hit until right at the end when the 222 was taken out of action, with the German infantry fought to a standstill and the French still in a strong position with a reserve squad still to enter the fray Stuart conceded.

Grenadiers turn up.

Pierre's little tank.

 A couple of observations, we both had the extra Chain of Command die and I thought this really helped the flow of the game, it was not a cure for cock ups though and at one point I could not order my tank forward as even with six dice I could not get a three. The Germans I thought lacked some oomph, with no decent armour to choose from I think they would have benefited from bringing the infantry gun along with the armoured car, the mortar barrage did not deliver the goods and as the Jerries were coming forward and with the rather large footprint of the mortars it became to dangerous to drop them a second time. I know they covered a large area in real life but it is a game and the huge 3 foot square to me just ruins the game on a 6x4 foot table so I never use them, I am tempted for home games to reduce this footprint quite a bit so that they can be used for flushing out defenders without being overly powerful, we will see. Anyway, an excellent afternoon was had and Stuart brought me a printed tank as a gift, an FT-17 already painted, it will join my other one for the future.

I am going to set up my St. Nazaire table this week to see what it looks like and then work out some dates to play the game.

All historical gamers look away now. I have got my Blood Bowl bundle, the main game, an extra team as one of those in the box are a bit too poncy for me, can I say that. I have built five figures from my first team and cocked up two of them by cutting off bits which I should not have cut off. Although these are fine figures I would still not go plastic for anything historical. I doubt you will see these guys finished for quite a few weeks yet.

Up in Flames

 I set up a small 800 point Bolt Action game for newbie Jimi last night at the club, I have lots of BA scenarios but many are just not suitable for a club night, needing large forces or lots of terrain and the club is limited with the latter. I have plenty of terrain but it is not feasible to hump it all to the club.

Anyway, the table was split into four quarters, we set up in opposite quarters and had to take the neutral ones and if possible get troops into the enemy quarter. Jimi wanted to bring along what he had of his Airborne troops so as these did not amount to 800 points I offered choices from my British Army which can just about cover everything available from 1944 to 1945. In the end he went for veteran paratroops with mortar, sniper and MMG supports, I went for four small regular squads and spent my money on a Stummel with short barreled 75mm howitzer, one halftrack and a 222 armoured car, my plan was to rush ahead and use the howitzer and 20mm cannon to cause a lot of hurt.

So much for plans, the preparatory bombardment hit my Stummel and took it out before the game had even started, so much for Plan A. Nevertheless I advanced everyone bar my HQ who were happy to sit as far away from the action as possible. Jimi moved out as well and although he had big squads of ten men my MG42's began to strike home and one squad in particular soon became heavily pinned and went to ground. I now moved up my armoured car to the hedge and began blasting away with the auto-cannon, suddenly a mortar round hit and caused a fire, knowing the artillery was now on target I tried to move the car in the next turn, it refused and paid the price, Plan B was now scuppered.

 Jimi did send his PIAT team bravely forward and they managed a shot at the armoured car but missed, sadly the mortar in the next few seconds didn't. By now I had two squads in each of the neutral quarters and managed to even the odds by taking out an Airborne squad and the PIAT team. When the clock struck I ended up with 8 victory points to 4, despite my dreadful luck I had managed to pull a win.

 Jimi learned a lot from this game as only one of his squads had brought an LMG and perhaps a British armoured car would have evened things up a bit, also with veterans smaller squads are just as good being harder to kill. I am sure things will be different the next time.

I am a bit rushed at the moment, Stuart asked me last night if I could arrange an ACW game for tomorrow for him, Rob and Paul, so I have spent the morning putting Perbais back in its box and building a new table and setting out troops. I have also managed to pen this and this afternoon I am back at mapping and because I am wargaming tomorrow I have a barbecue to build tonight. Did I mention I also have a visitor coming to take on the Thunderbolts on Sunday.

I noticed the Great Wargaming Survey is out, I got as far as the second question before closing the page. 'What did I think of myself as' was the question, in all my years that thought has never entered my head apart from the idea I am still 21, which is not true of course despite my good looks. Also in over 50 years of wargaming have I ever come across a Non-Binary or an Other, what on earth has that to do with wargaming.

 

 Because I am a bit rusty with Bolt Action I wasn't sure I had done the HE against Vehicles right, so like a fool I once again asked on the BA Facebook page, the first comedian and several others said don't bring the vehicle on first move, that wasn't what I asked, the next hilarious suggestion was that I should up end the table, at this point with the keyboard red hot with my indignation I stopped and simply deleted the post. Aaaaaaaaaand......2.....3.......

Needle in a haystack II

As I mentioned I had started a second Goeben campaign to run alongside the first, I overloaded myself a bit with all my small projects, painting etc. and running two campaigns but they were both highly enjoyable and certainly gave me something to do.

The second involved Dan (Milne), Stuart (Troubridge) and Stewart (Souchon), I was learning more as we went along, Dan was a hands on CinC which left Stuart merely to sail his ships as ordered, I talked to Stuart and we decided if Troubridge met the Germans he would actually have the last say on whether to engage or not, not the CinC. If I did it again I would only have two players, British and German. A French gentleman on Facebook informed me that the French had several modern ships available in the Med so you could if you wanted add a French battlegroup, I however did not and if Goeben had met the French would have strongly advised her to sail away, in real life they didn't meet hence they were under the control of the umpire.

This time the British CinC concentrated his ships at Malta  and once informed of the bombardment of Phillipeville made for the Tunis-Sicily Gap while sending light forces to scout ahead. HMS Chatham and four destroyers were sent to keep an eye on the Straits of Messina. The urgent signal from the British Embassy in Rome informing Milne that Goeben was coaling at Messina set the game afoot. Sadly for the British Goeben only had a few hours left to finish coaling and their ships were too far away to catch her. Nonetheless forces were sent north and south of Sicily just in case.

Because of this Chatham and her destroyers made a brave effort as Goeben exited Messina to damage and slow down the German ship. Chatham was severely damaged and was forced to withdraw as the Germans sped past, three destroyers went to the bottom but not before two had launched torpedo salvos at Goeben. Of the eight torpedoes fired only two hit and exploded, although damaged, Goeben's armoured belt reduced the effect of the explosions enough that her speed was not compromised. She sailed off for the fleshpots of Constantinople.

HMS Chatham

Typical WWI destroyer

Again another excellent little game and a hard task for the British, I have played this several times since 1987 and the worst thing to happen to the Germans is that the Breslau gets sunk, Goeben has always managed to evade the British battlecruisers. This has inspired me to fight a what if at the club when I am allowed out again, to see just how the Goeben might have managed against the 1st Cruiser Squadron or perhaps the battlecruisers.

I have started a solo game of Chain of Command but the sun is out and I may be suffering from locked up syndrome so I am going to get some fresh air and clean and wash the car after which I may get on with the game. My new Soviet organisation is going really well against the panzergrenadiers.

Looking over my terrain as I put the table together I noticed a few greens did not match up so I now cannot leave it alone and have ordered up two boxes of the static grass I use to eliminate this problem, should have done it ages ago. I also noticed that my lovely shell holes have no bottom, so if you put them in a corn field, you see corn surrounded by earth, daft, so they too are getting a facelift.

Nine figures started so they will get finished next week just in time for my Seven Year War generals to turn up, so for the third week of lockdown, I am unsure how many at the mo, I will set to on my industrial buildings of which there are half a dozen.

Needle in a haystack

As the country went into lockdown what would I do with my time, wargaming is my number one activity and the local club my main outlet, so I would now be self isolating 100% instead of just 80% and in to the bargain having to talk to the missus more, sorry, listen to the missus more.

I found odds and ends of terrain and figures to do, then bought more terrain and more figures, I am now running out of time as the days fly past. That was not enough and I remembered a small campaign which I wrote back in 1987 for Miniature Wargames, an historical naval campaign based during the opening days of WWI in the Mediterranean, it would only last a week in campaign time, involved small forces and only needed three commanders and would give me something to fill up what spare time I did have.

The campaign involves the German battlecruiser SMS Goeben and her escorting light cruiser SMS Breslau who found themselves stuck in the Mediterranean as war broke out between France and Germany, Great Britain would also join within twenty-four hours. The Germans have to eventually make their way to Constantinople and deliver both ships to Turkey, however if they can they are to interrupt the convoying of the French Army of Africa from Algeria to France. The British CinC has limited forces, a group of modern battlecruisers and a squadron of older armoured cruisers, several light cruisers and destroyers, as war breaks out on the 4th August his job is to find the Goeben and sink her, a tall order.

SMS Goeben

SMS Breslau

HMS Defence

 Admiral Souchon (Matt Smith) turned the Goeben towards Algeria and bombarded the ports of Bone and Phillipeville after which he sailed for Messina, coal had been organised here so his ships could refuel before heading to the Dardanelles and Constantinople, ironically the coal was first rate Welsh coal, he arrived at Messina at 1430 4th August. Meanwhile Rear Admiral Milne (Rob Martin) had despatched HMS Dublin to patrol from Sardinia to Tunis but Goeben slipped past, his flagship with escorts patrolled the Tunis-Sicily gap. The powerful battlecruiser's Indomitable and Indefatigable patrolled the southern end of the Straits of Messina, sadly they were ordered away before the Goeben left Messina. Meanwhile Rear Admiral Troubridge (Simon Newby) had decided to block the eastern end of the Mediterranean and made for the Crete-Greece gap. Milne eventually also decided to head East and set his forces enroute. News of the whereabouts of the Goeben was eventually received (thanks to spies in Messina) and Milne attempted to turn his ships in order to intercept but the Goeben had completed coaling and was several hours in front.

Goeben shells Bone.

Phillipeville suffers from bombardment

At 0300 6th August Troubridge's patrol line noticed two shapes approaching in the darkness, within five minutes gunfire exploded. Due to a lengthy patrol line only HMS Black Prince, HMS Defence and two destroyers, Lapwing and Liberty would manage to engage the Germans as both sides went to full speed ahead. Troubridge was outgunned but perhaps a lucky shot or torpedo would manage to slow the Goeben in order that the British battlecruisers could catch her.

The first shells from both sides were wide of the mark but soon the German ships had the range and the British began to suffer, especially the small destroyers, basically torpedo boats at this time. Despite being hit several times and her decks in flame Lapwing managed to launch a salvo of four torpedoes at Breslau, the lead ship, two hit but failed to explode. Once again the Germans fired accurate salvos, Defence now had the range as she raced to cut off the Germans but once again British gunnery let the side down.

Goeben turned on Defence and one of the first shells hit a magazine and the British ship disappeared in a tremendous explosion, the British destroyers were now targeted by Breslau and Goeben's secondary armaments and both sink. Being no match for the Goeben the Black Prince fired a last salvo which also misses and withdraws. Goeben and Breslau once again melt into the darkness and make for the Dardanelles and safety.

Goeben spotted in the darkness.

Defence blows up.

 So there you have it, the first campaign is over, one more to report, this kept us all occupied for about a week in real time and almost the same in campaign time which is what I had hoped for. The Goeben story had real time consequences, Troubridge found the Goeben but decided that as his orders had told him not to engage superior forces he let her go without a fight. He was later court-martialed for this and made an example of. Some time later when Admiral Craddock and his squadron ran into the elite German East Asia Squadron he felt he had to engage, almost all his ships were sunk at the Battle of Coronel.

PS Matt has put his own version on Wargames Table.

This is a good read as are his other naval books.

In Limbo

Apart from the odd lunch and a Tuesday night I may as well have been self distancing/isolating but when your choice is suddenly taken away you want it back, the choice to sit around doing nothing if I want is important, I see that now. I still get customers coming for the odd stamp and with a shopping return, nothing I suspect which is essential, however I retreat to the 'fortress' and they keep at arms length after which I sanitise my hands, counter top and door handles, from today I have decided to only open for three hours in the morning as the village is deserted and I may as well sit inside safe than sit here and wait to see what comes through the door.

My oldest son had ordered up some hand sanitiser and masks for his old folks on the front line only to fall foul of the scum that all these emergencies allow to float to the top of the pond, the site was a scam, thankfully he got his money back. Not for them "what can I do to help" but "how can I make some dough" it doesn't matter the crises up they pop. "Pssst, want some loo roll, £40 guv".

What am I doing, well I have some troops which I am taking my time to complete, some extra Soviets and a bunch of civilians, I also have a few more on the way so I can pass an hour or so of an evening before trying to find something to watch on my four or five streaming services, where's my book? I am also looking over my Eastern Front buildings with a view to 'tarting' them up. I also rescued a couple of Dark Age carts to use as dual purpose scatter.

Dark Ages

Russian Front

I had decided to try some solo games and at last give those SYW troops and rules a run out, then thought about a mini-campaign to give me a reason to fight a battle. I had a small WWI naval campaign lying about from 1987 based on the hunting of two German warships in the Mediterranean just before the declaration of war, the Goeben and Breslau, the British had to catch them but not be defeated by them, a tall order for at least a part of the British fleet. I found my three players and sent all relevant information out. As of this morning everyone is at sea and the hunt is on, I hope the players get some fun out of this, so far it has taken up most of my morning dabbling here and there and working out orders and courses which is great.

HMS Defence, hunter.

HMS Inflexible, hunter

SMS Goeben, hunted.

The campaign only lasts for a few campaign days, involves only a small number of ships and although it works best with three players and an umpire it can work with two and an umpire. The resulting battles can of course be safely fought at home. The campaign could also be adapted for any naval rules to be honest, pre-dreadnought up to WWII. I will do a full report on the campaign at a later date, however if anyone wants a copy then let me know.

First Kill

I had organised Wings of War for this week at the club, I wasn't sure how many would be playing but I have more than enough to let vast numbers play, another in with two feet episode. At the end of the day it was only Andy and myself, I have a number of 1v1 scenarios and chose 'The Rookie'. The idea behind this is that a couple of veterans have taken a new member to the Staffel/Squadron up for a taste of what it is like over the front, they of course have to babysit him and make sure he gets back for ham and eggs or whatever was served up in 1916. I would take the Germans with the green pilot, the flight consisted of two Albatross DIII's and one DVa, the new boy being in a DIII, Hermann Goering would be leading the flight. Being a rookie meant the youngster had not yet mastered the Immelman turn and his shooting was not up to standard but the two aces in attendance should keep him safe. Andy for the RNAS had one regular pilot and two aces flying Sopwith Camels.

No, this way!

Dogfight.

The German flight was attacked close to the Front Line by British pilots, I decided that I would keep my flight in a tight formation in order to maximise my firepower and keep the young man safe, this was ruined right at the start as the DVa turned the opposite way from everyone else. No matter, the British had sent one Camel towards me while the other two went on a flanking maneuver so this aircraft started to take hits. As the dogfight continued the British were collecting a lot of damage cards but seemed to be able to shrug them off, an early shot wounded one of my aces but nothing serious happened to the planes.

Rookie gets his man.

Goering dodges burning Camel.

Both sides now jockeyed for position but the British were having the worst of it and found two Camels trailing flames, there were several near misses as pilots got up close and personal. The Rookie was flying very well and got the drop on one Camel pouring fire into him at close range before he managed to break off. In quick succession two British planes fell from the sky leaving only a desperately damaged Camel to fight off the three Germans. Caught in a vicious crossfire the survivor too hurtled to the ground, this victory was shared giving the Rookie 1.5 kills on his first war flight.

The End.

 A great little game and although Andy had some good luck in pulling blank damage cards my experience in the game gave me the edge. We really should play this more often with more planes, it is perfect for a club night. Elsewhere there was some 17C role playing with the Musketeers, a Saga campaign game (I have one next week) and an Age of Sigmar (I think). I have mentioned the painting of these latter figures so here are a couple of photos, not my cup of tea but the brushwork of Ryan and Julian is amazing, my pictures do not do them justice.

I was in Glasgow for the bank holiday weekend and decided to treat myself to a couple of books, I have given up with Tim Clayton's history of espionage against Napoleon, despite being one of my favourite authors I just cannot get into spying, I felt the same about Max Hastings' book a few years ago, I gave up with that as well. I picked up James Holland's new book on Normandy, a special with additional material and signed by the author himself, I have started it and thoroughly enjoying it, the sheer scope of Overlord is mind boggling. The other was a stab in the dark, I have never yet read anything I liked on the American War of Independence, and I have tried but it left me cold. Despite this I have bought the first in a trilogy covering the war and am hoping for good things, it is a hefty tome, I also got it due to my ongoing project of an Atlas for the war. I will confess however I had no idea it was a trilogy when I picked it up, grrrrrrr.

The legendary Anderson fortune has taken a hit recently so I will not be getting anything new, or nothing expensive anyway, for June. I have started on my French cavalry so will take it easy with them during the next few weeks. I have finished the British 10th Dragoons (Morduants) and a new brigadier, I am getting close to having enough troops to fight one of the scenarios in Honours of War. I made a cock up with the officer, for some reason I now have three of this figure, two are British and the other will be painted up for the French, no idea how I managed that.