Plastic Soldier Co. Ltd 15mm T 34's

Battlefront Pz38t, Plastic Soldier Co. T 34 & spare turret, Battlefront Stug D

Long Island August 27th 1776

The first club game of 2011 featured an AWI clash using the "Hold the Line" board game rules and fighting the Long Island scenario.


On August 22nd 1776 General Howe landed a British army of 15,000 men at Gravesend Bay on Long Island. On the 26th he marched with 10,0000 men of his force towards the key geographical feature on Long Island, the long narrow ridge known as the Heights of Guan. It was pierced by four passes. Howe feinted against three of the passes and General Putnam the US commander accordingly positioned most of his available troops to cover them. Then on the night of the 26th Howe's main body marched through the one unguarded pass to turn the American flank. Our game started at that point and the first picture shows the British line on the left facing the Americans on the ridge, with the British Light troops ready to enter the nearest pass (Jamaica Pass).


The British force had to destroy seven American units before the games end (22 turns) whilst the Americans were trying to evacuate seven units after the half way point, or eliminate six British units.


Initially the British quickly moved their light infantry and dragoons around the American flank, taking out a unit of militia on the way. This forced the American to fall back off the ridge on that flank and attempt to refuse it. Meanwhile the remaining British units attempted to close as quickly as possible, some using force march to pin the remaining US troop on the ridge. The Guards on the British left flank assaulted the militia and destroyed them.


The early success achieved by the British was cancelled out by their inability to keep their army together. Their eagerness to close with the enemy and shoot and assault left them with to few command points to bring up their remaining troops thus causing the half the British infantry to be left on the base line.



At the halfway point in the game it was 2 victory points to nil in favour of the British, and following a quick half time beer much talk about getting stuck in and finishing the Yanks off. Things didn't quite go to plan. Suddenly the Americans started to get the better command die rolls enabling them to move more troops in as reinforcements, and just as importantly cause weaker units to be evacuated. In addition the variable time control dictated by rolling a d6 and reducing the time left by the score started to move in favour of the Americans. Before the British knew what was happening the Americans had a 4 to 2 victory point lead and the games end loomed.
In a last desperate attempt to close the gap the British launched an all out attack on the defences of the Brooklyn camp, with a Grenadier unit breaking into the fort and destroying a continental battalion and capturing General Washington. The American army had however escaped to fight another day, winning the game 8 to 5.
The rules played very well and everyone had them mastered very quickly which enabled us to get through the moves and finish the game in good time. Thanks to all involved for another fun time.
Jon

Northfield, Minnesota, Bank Robbery

Hi all,

The annual Xmas game in North Devon was something a bit different, something you come to expect when Chas invites you over to his place. The game was based on the raid carried out by the James-Younger Gang on September 7th 1876, see the link for more details.

www.angelfire.com/mi2/jamesyoungergang/northfield/html

The gang led by the infamous Jesse James and Bob Younger decided to do a job in the North, so it was rather amusing to find after randomly assigning characters to players, that the gang were run by the South Devon contingent of me(JJ), Steve M, and Vince vs the North Devon citizens run by Chas, Clive and Nick.

As in the original raid the start positions had Jesse, Bob and Clell Miller in the bank holding up the staff, the other gang members were in two groups guarding the route out of town should things "kick off". As the gang we needed a quick resolution of the hold up (decided with a die roll each turn) before to many townsfolk became aware of the raid and decided to take up arms against us. The gang managed to grab the cash by turn two and Bob and Jesse were on their horses ready to leave. Clell, however chose to adjust his saddle just as the alarm was given and was immediately shot in the back by a citizen wielding a six gun as he came out of a neighbouring building.

What followed was a painful battle up the centre of town as the two leaders gradually worked their way towards the bridge out of town, fending of shotgun/rifle wielding enraged townsfolk taking potshots. The other gang members gave support fire from the bridge and the stagecoach(conveniently parked up in the town), and using innocent unarmed townsfolk as cover enabled the gang to move without actually killing anyone.

The game reached its climax as the final dash was made for the bridge and safety. Both sides upped the anti with a local "pistolero" fanning his six gun at the robbers, killing Cole younger, and one of the gangs horses. In return the gang now started to shoot to kill in an attempt to relieve the pressure on their rearguard, felling four townsfolk in two turns, with citizens being ridden down on the bridge by Bob Younger as he left his gang to get out.

In the end the gang were able to make good their escape leaving two of their number dead and six murdered townsfolk.

Really enjoyable game, thanks to Chas, Clive and Nick for setting things up.

Happy new Year

Jon

Queen Red, Sword Beach

The third Firestorm Normandy game was fought this Sunday, and the British had their go at getting a foothold on the Normandy coast, following the successful landings by the Canadians at Juno and last months bloody encounter by US forces on Omaha.

The first picture shows the Queen Red Sector from behind the German positions with WN12 (Sole) in the right foreground, with the Luftwaffe radar post acting as battalion HQ for the third battalion 736 Grenadier Regiment. The hex immediately to the left of this position on the hedge lined road was the key objective for the British force. In the right background immediately on the sea front is the eastern end of WN20 (Cod) which was the strong point for the 10th Company, including a 8.8cm AT gun in the large bunker, 2 x 7.5cm AT guns covering the road off the beach, plus HMGs, Mortars and an artillery OP. In the right background are the houses of Breche de Hermanville which provided cover for a 5cm AT bunker and a tank turret bunker giving support fire to WN20. The position was supported by 15,5cm artillery and reinforcements of infantry and possibly panzers from 21st Panzer Division stationed close by.

The next two pictures show the beach front gun positions interspersed with wire and mines to hold back any troops on the beach to allow them to be dealt with by the machine guns and mortars in WN20

Following the initial bombardment by the navy that managed to knock out an HMG position and a rifle group in the support trenches, the pinning effect of the bombardment allowed the 2nd Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment to take full advantage, by managing to land three platoons in the first wave and rush the sea wall and wire defences.

Because of the possibility of German tanks turning up, the British decided to break in to the defence primarily using their infantry assets bringing on the armour once the anti-tank defences had been neutralised, to help deal with the German infantry. This would help to make sure there were plenty of British tanks around to deal with any German armour.

By turn 3 the British infantry had "bangalored" the sea wall creating multiple breaches allowing them to assault and take out the 8.8cm bunker in the teeth of heavy fire from the German Infantry. The DD tanks and AVRE easily took care of the 5cm and tank turret bunkers, with the infantry and DDs smoking them off, allowing the AVREs to close the range and take them out with their Petard mortars.

By turn 6 the British infantry was able to make their final assault into COD having taken out most of the German machine gun positions, which with the reduced return fire allowed them to charge into the position and clear it with the grenade and bayonet.

This opened the "flood gates" and the Commandos of 4 Commando stormed across the salt marsh and brought SOLE under fire whilst the Yorks moved into the neighbouring field ready to take the objective.

The Germans were forced to commit their reserves of only half a platoon to try and keep the objective clear of enemy troops, even managing to take out a section of British infantry. By turn 9 the numbers of British troops were overwhelming and the victory was complete.

This time Steve Mathews took the Brits and I the Germans. We both picked up a lot of lessons from the previous games, ie the German infantry firepower is formidable in defence and a combination of mass return firepower and judicious use of smoke when available needs to be used to get in amongst the German troops. This is best done by the infantry who can deal with the AT guns that threaten the armour. The armour is then able to rapidly move inland to get round and behind any remaining resistance.

A really good game, great fun, thanks Steve.

Next game is Gold Beach in 2011

War in the Desert

Hi all,

Thought I let everyone know about the game this weekend at the club, put on by Steve Mathews who brought out his ever growing collection of FOW desert troops.

Sadly I didn't have my camera with me so no pics of Steve's collection. This month also saw a reduced turn out due to various members being away, so the Brits were played by me (JJ) and Steve Hallett vs Chas and Steve M running the Afrika Korps.

The mission was the Withdrawal mission, which had a mixed bag of 2 x German Infantry platoons supported by 3 x Panzer IIIs, 3 x Sermovente 75s, 3 x Sdkfz 222 A/Cs, a couple of PaK38s and 7.5IGs, an 8.8cm Flak gun in ambush and support fire from a battery of 105mm guns, who were tasked with holding at bay the Australians whilst gradually taking platoons off the table to simulate the rearguard. The Australian force consisted of 8 x Crusader IIs, 3 x Honeys, 2 x platoons of Australian Infantry, 4 x 2lbr portees, and a battery of 4 x 25lbrs on call. The force was also supported by Hurribombers.

Steve and I decided to focus our assault on the right flank objective whilst refusing the left flank and centre. The Crusaders led the way followed by a platoon of infantry, supported by fire from the 25lbrs. The holding force of the 2lbr portees and Stuarts formed line against probing Pz IIIs and Sdkfz 222's.

The assault rolled forward with the Crusaders racing through a platoon of Sermoventes with niether side able to inflict casualties on each other. The 8.8cm in ambush declared itself to fire at the onrushing Crusaders and promptly missed. The 25lbrs caused the 7.5IGs to pin, and with anticipation I announced to Chas that my Crusaders would assault his pinned guns, literaly inches away from the objective that could win the game for the Aussies.

Meanwhile on the other flank, Steve H had dispatched a 222 with the Honey's and caused a Pz III to bail with the Portees. It only left our Hurribombers to come roaring in and tip the balance in our favour by dispatching the German artillery support.

THEN THE WHEELS CAME OFF. The Crusader is not the best tank to assualt with, with its paltry side armour of 2. Chas took full advantage and his infantry gunners promptly unpinned and shot the Aussie cavalry out of its saddles. The follow up Infantry took on the Sermoventes and with their lack of machine guns were eventually overcome by the Infanteers only for the German Artillery to whack the Aussies with a barrage while they were still clustered round the smoking wrecked Italians. The RAF continued to put in a reluctant appearence with only one aircraft showing up on 75% of the calls.

Steve H dispatched the 222 platoon, but with the assaulting Aussie armour shot together with half the infantry and the nearest objective removed, the game was a clear cut Axis win.

Thanks to Steve M for a very enjoyable and instructive game.

Omaha Easy Green Beach

The second game in the Firestorm Campaign was fought last weekend and Omaha proved a tough beach to take.

US Forces had eleven turns to capture their objectives via the defences at WN66 and the E3 draw. The Americans had an early success with the naval bombardment knocking out the beach front gun bunker and causing fires on the bluffs overlooking the draw providing an effective smokescreen. The effect of the pinning fire also enabled the first platoon ashore to get to the sea wall and start demolition work against the wire.

Then in turn 2 the Germans woke up and let rip, with the 352nd on the bluff chucking out twenty two D6 per section of ten men needing 6's to hit. Needless to say the US troops on the beach started to take heavy casualties and only got off the beach on turn 6. The DD tanks stayed on the surf line risking drowning in the incoming tide to trade shots with the 5cm gun in WN68. The German gun eventually came out the winner with crew taking to their rifles when they discovered they didn't have any HE to lob at the US infantry.

Things were looking bad for the Yanks when the US Navy got into the battle with their AOP plane calling in a bomardment on WN66 and taking out a section. The fire from the defences slackened and the Rangers got into "Bingham's" house at the entrance to the draw. They eventually led the assault on WN68 and its troublesome gun, forcing the German commander to consider falling back on his reserve platoon and defend the last objective in the last moves of the game.

Unfortunately for the Germans the US Navey again grabbed the initiative and broke the final stand, allowing the Yanks to grab a win on the last turn of the game.

Thanks to Mike, Steve and Will for a very enjoyable game

Plastic Soldier Company Ltd 15mm Rigid Plastic

Painted Plastic Soldier Company Ltd 15mm rigid plastic WW2 Soviets

Size comparisons: Painted PSC, Unpainted PSC, More Painted PSC, Painted Battlefront and the fat boy on the end with the tuck box is from Peter Pig !

Vince