Nimitz Kreigsmarine v Royal Navy

Another Nimitz game against Andy with equal points of Germans and British battling it out over an open sea!

I chose the Tirpitz, Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and six destroyers for a small but very powerful force which could quickly overwhelm any larger RN ships then mop up the rest!

The fleets approach. As expected the RN fleet is considerably larger but only has two battleships:

Action Stations! The Warspite and Nelson engage the Germans:

The Warspite is quickly sunk:

The German destroyers fare less well against the more numerous British:

The Nelson follows the Warspite to the bottom of the sea:

The British now have no answer to the German's big ships, with minimal damage inflicted on them and most of the British having fired their torpedoes the British retire what is left of their fleet:

We actually played two more Nimitz games last year that I didn't write up, the first being the Norway campaign which ended in a decisive British victory without having an actual surface engagement played out and the second a points based game with the RN against Italians which the British lost comprehensively! 

An interesting set of rules and a fun game but I suspect it is quite hard to achieve reasonably balanced forces especially if you use some of the tougher ships. 

Bag the Hun IJN v USN

First game of 2024 was a return to Bag the Hun in the Pacific. Initially I took the Japanese Zero's and Dave had USN Wildcats, after a while Jerry joined us and took over the Wildcats, Dave had the Zero's and I had the Betty bombers.

The pilots prepare to engage:

Zero's close in against the first two Wildcats:

There was no real damage though:

Again the Zero's close in:

The bombers are coming! Betty's join the fray:

Wildcats come up behind the Betty's. Where are the Zero's?!

Wildcat's on their tails, Zero's approaching too late, the bombers have to fend for themselves:

First victory to the Zero's! A Wildcat goes down after catastrophic damage:

The bombers fight off Wildcat's:

The game ended with two Wildcat's shot down, one badly damaged and one escaping off table for no losses to the Japanese and the Betty's completing their mission.

As ever with BtH much time was spent flaying around and failing to get shots in by both sides. The bombers are actually quite tough defensively and drove off the Wildcat's a couple of times.

I almost think to really make progress with the game we would need to go to 'flight school' and learn how to get where you want to be from where you are using the many varied manoeuvres available to pilots! 

Sharp Practice AWI American v British

My last game of 2023, an AWI Sharp Practice against Jerry and Dave playing a scenario from the 2023 Lard special "Raiding the Wilderness". Jerry took the British with Indian allies, I had the American Militia and Dave commanded the Continentals and State Line.

The British and their allies were attempting to raid a Rebel farmstead, seize supplies and ideally burn it down to show the Rebels the price of disloyalty!

All is quiet at the farm:

Beasts lurk in the woods while one lucky Native tries to drag three women off from an isolated hut:

The British are coming! Some militia skirmishers prepare to contest the farm:

A messenger sent back to the local Rebel commander has run in record time and returns with some State Line and Riflemen:

The Riflemen lead the way:

More Militia gather at the farm while the British send some Loyalist skirmishers into the woods. No sign of the Natives yet!

The Natives appear! Fire from the Militia is effective though reducing their numbers:

Fighting rages around the farm:

Natives mass on the flanks, the Militia are determined to defend their homes though:

State Line move up to threaten the flank of the British line:

The Natives have not managed to co-ordinate their attacks and the farm holds out:

One group of Natives charge home against the Militia! 

The State Line advance ominously on the British line:

The Militia hold the farm against the Native attack. Continentals charge the Natives in the rear!

With the farm solidly in the Militia's control, the British line heavily outnumbered and their Native allies fleeing the British withdraw and victory goes to the Rebels:

Another excellent game of SP with a bit more movement than usual. The variety of units was interesting and the scenario seemed better thought out than many. 

Jerry couldn't really co-ordinate his Natives into a single attack leaving them to be picked on one by one and the early appearance of Dave's State Line and Continentals didn't help either. The Militia also resolutely defended the farm to the death!

Sharp Practice Napoleonic French v Spanish

An outing for my 28mm French against Gary and Jerry using Spanish. The objective was to rescue a spy held in the courtyard of the building on the left:

Spanish Line appear on the road into town:

French Voltigeurs deploy and quickly rescue the unguarded (for some reason!) spy:

Hoping to distract the Spanish Line infantry French Dragoons deploy on their flank, if they can charge in before the Spanish turn around it could be messy:

Adding to the Spanish problems the Voltigeurs manage to shoot one of the Spanish:

The plan is executed! Dragoons at the gallop crash into the Spanish flank:

Considering they have every advantage possible the Dragoons don't do well killing only two men and forcing the Spanish to retreat:

More shooting from the Voltigeurs reduces Spanish numbers further:

The Spanish turn and face the Dragoons who prepare to charge again:

Meanwhile masses of Spanish guerrillas and milita are held off by a second group of Voltigeurs covering the escape of the prisoner:

This time the Dragoons smash the Spanish routing them:

The Voltigeurs with the prisoner start their dash to safety:

The main French infantry body arrives together with a horse artillery gun:

The Dragoons and Voltigeurs make rapid progress:

It looks like nothing can stop them now:

The prisoner is taken to safety:

We played on for a few moves as the game hadn't taken long. The Dragoons try charging frontally Spanish infantry along the road:

Heavy losses on both sides, the Dragoons fall back:

The Spanish have shot down the French gun crew and the game has drawn to a close:

A fun game which again perhaps showed the unbalanced nature of SP scenarios which depend very much on when and how many units you can activate each round. 

With the French gaining control of the prisoner quickly and having units turn up much quicker than the Spanish there wasn't much Gary and Jerry could do to influence the outcome especially as the Volitgeurs escorting the prisoner moved with great rapidity! 

The game certainly looked great with Gary and Jerry's scenery which really added to the overall look.