Chain of Command BEF v German

Another outing for the BEF, this time using a Regulation 1940 Platoon against Dave's 7th Panzer Division Schutzen.

We played the 'Swift to Support' scenario from the 1940 Blitzkrieg book with the British defending. I had 23 points of support and, looking at Dave's list which has 2 LMG's per squad, I decided to go for maximum field defences (barbed wire and minefields) plus a pre-game barrage, an extra section, a Matilda and a Bren Carrier. The objective for the Germans is to capture three of the four British jump off points while the British reinforcements are delayed in arriving.

The table had a road running from one end to the other with a village and orchard along the road and some fields. This was the view from the British side:

The British deployed their defences blocking off some of the table and awaited the German attack. First to appear was a Panzer II and some German infantry. The British 2" mortar started to lay down smoke:

 In response to the German advance No. 3 Section deployed behind a building on the side road:

Another Panzer II appeared and the German infantry advanced. Meanwhile the first Panzer II advanced through the smoke:

The advancing German infantry made it to the edge of the field while the first Panzer II continued to advance:

On the left flank the German's had deployed another squad which made a dash towards one of the buildings with a British jump-off point in it but didn't quite make it to the building. No. 2 section deployed into the building to fight off the German attack. The resulting combat ended with 7 men down on either side and the German survivors falling back:

 The British survivors hold on but start to take HE fire from the Panzer II:

As No.2 section was so depleted the British deployed No. 1 section on the upper floor above them with two objectives, to finish off the retreating German squad and take a shot with a Boy's AT rifle at the Panzer II. The firing at the German squad was ineffective but the AT rifle hit home forcing the Panzer II to retreat a little:

The Germans deployed another squad to attack the building held by No's 1 and 2 squads. The resulting fight led to both No.1 and the German squad being largely wiped out again! There was still no sign of the British reinforcements:

The two Panzer II's were now blasting the survivors of No 1 and 2 squads in the building with HE causing them both to break. Both sides only had one effective infantry group left but the British had suffered more force morale drops and were approaching defeat:

At last the first of the British reinforcements arrived in the form of the Matilda! It took a shot at a Panzer II but missed. The Germans then deployed a third tank, a Panzer III this time, which fired at the Matilda. Against all the odds the shot struck home and destroyed the Matilda!

 The victorious Panzer III:

With this loss the British force morale was reduced to two and with no prospect of survival they decided to withdraw.

Dave selected a very effective army, two LMG per squad gave his infantry huge firepower so even when he 'charged' the British sections in the building behind cover the odds were still even. The Panzer II's HE fire is also extremely effective against infantry.

Added to the extra 'red dice' the Germans get the odds seem very much stacked against the British as they fire much worse, have less ability to activate and don't have any effective HE support from their tanks. Given that, similar to other TFL rules sets, there is no time limit on the attackers the British can't even hope to hold out long enough to win.

This may of course reflect history and it is easy to see how the Brits would become demoralised. Perhaps next time I can persuade Dave to use a less effective army list...….

Rommel Late War Americans v Germans Recon in Force

Andy and I played our latest Rommel game last night. I used my 10mm Late War Americans for their first game attacking against Andy's Germans in Scenario 5: Recon in Force.

I chose a strong Armour RCT with Sherman's, Stuart recon tanks and a large number of armoured infantry in M4 halftracks together with an Infantry CC supported by some more Sherman's and some M18 Hellcat's.

In the recon in force scenario the defender places nine potential objective markers for the attacker. Five are 'real' objectives and the other four are dummies. To win the attacker has to capture three of the 'real' objectives.

The terrain was fairly open and Andy placed most of his objectives in terrain in the last two rows of the table with some closer to the Americans which were probably dummies unless it was a cunning double-bluff! The defender deploys first concealed so while I could see where Andy's forces were I had no information on what was where.

It was apparent that he had held most of his force back with a few isolated units further forward to try to break up my attack. I deployed my Infantry CC on the left and the Armoured RCT on the right:

Both commands advanced expecting to take out the isolated German units quickly. These units proved to be Volks Grenadiers, poor in attack but stubborn in defence as they proved here by putting up stiff resistance:

The American plan was to push forward hard with the Armoured RCT, split the German forces around where the river ended on the right and, at the same time, send the Infantry CC to attack on the left and left-centre:

The initial American attacks didn't go well with some lacklustre attempts to finish off the German advanced screen (One Volks Grenadier can be seen still surviving in the middle of the American force!) and little progress being made:

After a while the Americans began to get their act together and started to attempt to push past the two German held hills with potential objectives on them prior to assaulting the hills themselves:

In the centre the push to split the German army in half was making progress slowly. So far the Americans have ignored the two potential objectives on their right and, as a result, the Germans have thinned their forces out in that area to support their centre:

In the centre the Americans have now split the German army in half and isolated the Germans on our right flank from their supply line. However, the American forces have taken a lot of damage breaking through:

On the left the Hellcats have also broken through the German lines and mopped up some second line formations. However, they are now isolated and being counter-attacked by German armour. They hold out against the initial counter-attack but are almost spent. The Americans have also made a few unsuccessful assaults on the two hills and the gap between them without making much progress:

It was becoming very apparent to the Americans that the assault on the left was not going that well. There might still be an opportunity on the right though where the Germans were isolated and few in number. The Americans quickly switched the axis of their attack but many of their elements were damaged from the previous fighting:

On the left the Americans were finally starting to make some progress driving the enemy back between the two hills and on either side. The Germans holding the hills were still strong though and there was not much daylight left:

With night approaching it became obvious that the Americans could not achieve their objectives. At best they might be able to take the two objectives on their right but this wouldn't be enough. As a result the Americans decided to withdraw and concede defeat to the Germans:

Another fun Rommel game where in all honesty the outcome of the game wasn't really in doubt at any stage. Andy placed all his 'real' objectives in the last three rows of the table in terrain and garrisoned them with enough units to hold them. He was not distracted into making pointless counter-attacks (apart from at the Hellcats where he did need to).

I'm not sure what, if anything, I would have done differently apart perhaps from choose as much heavy artillery as possible to support the attacks on the objectives.

The Late War German army is powerful on defence with cheap Volks Grenadiers and SP guns that are effective while defending but less so while attacking. They also have the ability to put down six field defences which makes it even harder to evict them from terrain. Rather like the Desert War Italians though they might struggle when attacking.

The game did look good and considering the amount of effort I put into painting them the Americans look nice.

ADLG Medieval Polish v Medieval German

I have a large number of Eastern European medieval figures that used to see a lot of action back in the days of DBM as a variety of armies but principally Lithuanian. Unfortunately Lithuanians are pretty awful in ADLG so when I arranged a game against Ted's Medieval Germans using Polish was a suitable historical opponent.

I went with a shooting heavy army, six mounted medium crossbowmen, lots of light horse, some mixed spear/crossbow foot and a few elite impetuous knights.

The battlefield was very constricted with Ted putting down three large woods/hills that took up half the table. With small Medieval armies this wasn't that big an issue though!

I deployed commands of knights, crossbow cavalry and light horse on my left with the foot in the centre. The right was largely ignored apart from a few horse archers. Ted had a smallish command of knights and blades on his right, a large group of pikes and dismounted knights in the centre and another small knight command on his left:

The Polish line-up:

The Germans, looking remarkably Teutonic:

As I was attacking I rushed forward all my left flank missile cavalry to try to inflict some damage on Ted's right flank forces and hold his infantry back as far as possible:

Ted charged forward with his Swordsmen on my left flank forcing my crossbow cavalry to evade but giving some of the Polish Knights an opportunity to charge home themselves into the now isolated swordsmen:

The German infantry continued to advance on the Polish mixed spear and crossbow line. They took a few hits but it was starting to look unlikely the Polish line would stand for long once the Germans got into contact. On the Polish left things were going well however with the outnumbered German's starting to take losses and having to move their left flank Knights over to try to shore up their position:

The left flank Polish were now scattered but had disposed of most of the Germans in front of them. The German Knights from the left flank had not managed to arrive in time to save the situation and were now in danger of being overwhelmed themselves:

The view from the German lines:

The German infantry have finally contacted the Polish Spear/Crossbow line and started to cut them down. However, losses are mounting quickly for the rest of the German army:

 With a few more losses German morale collapses and victory goes to the Poles:

All in all another interesting ADLG game which looked good for the Germans initially as the Poles didn't really have any answer to the large German pike block. However, the difficulty of changing direction for the pikes meant they couldn't really move to support their collapsing left flank easily so it was overwhelmed before the pikes could have a big impact on the battle.

AWI Blast from the past!

While clearing out a load of stuff I found a couple of very old photos of a game I played at the Redcar Literary Institute probably in the mid-80's I think.

Many of my figures from that time are no longer with me but in this case my army is my 28mm AWI army, the same one that is still in use today! The other players are Gary, Geoff and Guy.

Most of the scenery I still have as well. The rules we used were 'Washington's Wars' which had some interesting ideas but have long been out of print I suspect.

10mm Late War Americans Reinforcements

Since I was pleased with the 10mm Americans I did earlier I thought I'd add a few more elements to give me around 100pts for Rommel.

First up were three M5 Stuarts. By the late war these tanks were used in a recon role and, while very poorly armoured, have an interesting ability in Rommel to potentially allow a group including them to fire first. They also add a bit of variety which is somewhat lacking in the American army!

Next up were three M4 Sherman's. These can be used either in an armoured combat command or attached to an infantry regimental combat team so are quite versatile in Rommel.

Finally I painted up another three half tracks to give me nine in total.

In total the army now composes around 110pts which should be enough for most scenarios. The only other potential additions are Pershing's or M36 Tank Destroyers.

The temptation now of course is to start on an appropriate German force for Normandy in 1944. The 10mm armies are not that expensive to buy and very easy to paint up. For now however they will be able to take on Andy's Germans with their first game scheduled for Monday!

Blucher 1809 French v Austrian

After a bit of a break due to visiting Australia and the club venue being closed my return to action was a game of Blucher using French against Simon's Austrians.

Lately I have been choosing large lower quality armies for Blucher games but thought this time I'd go for quality with two French Infantry Corps both supported by Dragoons and Heavy Artillery and a Cavalry Corps with three units of the very expensive and rarely employed Cuirassiers and two horse artillery to provide fire support. The downside of all this quality was that the army only had 12 non-artillery battlegroups which meant it would be broken on only four losses so it had very little margin for error!

We again played the pick up game rather than Scharnhorst with the French as defenders on a fairly open table. I deployed one Infantry Corps on the left, another in the centre and the Cavalry Corps on the right. I was hoping that Simon would not expect me to have so many cavalry and would advance on my right flank without properly scouting it. Simon deployed his much larger army right across the table (He had forgotten his cards) and so far so good his left flank consisted of some rather poor units and immediately advanced! The Austrians also advanced in the centre while holding back on the left:

The plan (so far) having worked perfectly I unleashed the Heavy Cavalry Corps on the unsuspecting Austrians!

Two units of Cuirassiers hit unprepared Landwher while the third attacked the Austrian horse artillery. The French horse artillery moved forward to engage the Austrian cavalry and Grenadiers in support of the Cuirassiers. In the centre the French await the Austrian onslaught:

The Heavy Cavalry corps charge was largely successful with one Landwher unit being destroyed, one badly damaged and the Austrian horse artillery forced to retreat:

In the centre the Austrian's maintained their advance on the French held hill with a large force of infantry. The French Dragoons charged the end Austrian infantry unit inflicting some damage before the Dragoons retired behind the French infantry line:

On the right the situation continued to be fluid with Austrian and French units engaging and falling back as the French attempted to exploit their initial breakthrough:

Meanwhile pressure was increasing on the French centre as the Austrian infantry advanced to close combat aggressively:

On the left flank the Austrians were also advancing quickly now to engage the whole French line keeping the pressure on very effectively. The French had peeled one Infantry Division and the Dragoons off to try to support the centre but this had weakened the defence of the hill:

In the centre the French repulsed the Austrian attack though one Infantry Division was pushed back through the town. Much of the French centre and right had by now taken severe damage but had only lost some horse artillery so far while having broken four units of Austrians. While the Austrian break point of 6 was getting closer the French were also in trouble due to the large number of spent Divisions they had left:

The crisis of the battle now approached with both sides trying to finish weakened units off while protecting their own damaged formations. The Austrians have reacted to the French attempt to filter units from the left to the centre and are about to assault the French left:

The French Heavy Cavalry Corps had trapped two very weak Austrian units on the far right and were poised to charge home to win the battle for the French. In desperation the Austrians threw in everything they could to break the French before they themselves broke:

On the French left the Austrians destroyed a French heavy artillery battery on the hill and the French Infantry Division which had been attempting to reinforce the French Centre. One more unit lost would push the French army to it's breakpoint!

The last attacking Austrian unit was an Infantry Division that charged uphill in the centre into the flank of a French heavy artillery unit. If the battery could hold out the day would go to the French, if it fell the Austrians would triumph. Sadly for the French the battery did not survive and victory went to the Austrians!

This was another great game of Blucher which could have gone the other way easily. My previous  experience of using 'expensive' troops in Blucher was that they were not really worth the points but in this game the Cuirassiers paid off I think. I should probably have rejigged the army to have 13 units giving a break point of five as only having a four breakpoint was challenging as things could (and did) rapidly go wrong!

Simon's very aggressive tactics worked well for him in general though they did allow the massed Cuirassiers to charge home in an advantageous situation. Coming with his Austrian infantry to close range or combat helped negate the French skirmishing ability and showed determination where many players just accept a firefight at long range.

Having played a few 'pick up' games now it does seem different to Scharnhorst in that using a large aggressively handled army works well. 

I suspect that the reason for this is that most Scharnhorst games consist of a small defensive force holding off a larger attacking force until either reinforcements arrive or night falls. From an attacking viewpoint there are a couple of problems with this, firstly that you only have a few enemy troops to aim at most of whom will be a long way away from your units. Secondly as the defender has so few units they can use all their MO on those units making them much harder to destroy. 

The terrain system in the pick up game probably also has an effect in that we do not pick rivers which are common on the Scharnhorst map and it is much more difficult for the defender to set up an advantageous defensive position with less terrain and all troops on the table at the start of the game.

Good to be back in action and looking forward to getting in a couple more games before Xmas.