Bag the Hun Luftwaffe v RAF

A return to Bag the Hun, this time I took the Luftwaffe while Jerry had the defending RAF. My force was six JU188 escorted by 4 ME109's attempting to return across the channel from a raid while intercepted by six RAF Spitfires.

The Luftwaffe head home:

Achtung! Spitfire! The RAF approach head on:

The JU188's plod on while the ME109's attempt to distract the attackers:

A mass of planes whirling around trying to get off a shot. One ME109 is on the tail of a Spitfire:

Undeterred one of the Spitfires shoots down a JU188:

Another JU188 goes down:

A rather lacklustre performance from the Luftwaffe who lost three out of six JU188's while managing only minor damage to one Spitfire!

Good fun as ever, before our next game I might try to go to flying school (aka getting the hex mat out and trying out a few manoeuvres to expand my current repertoire of 'fly straight', 'simple turn' and 'tight turn') and hopefully be able to put more thought into my efforts next time!   

Nimitz Kriegsmarine v Royal Navy

Another one-off game of Nimitz with my Kriegsmarine taking on Andy's Royal Navy, this time with some limitations on what we could choose after our last game (basically no just picking Battleships for me!).

The Gneisenau, Blucher and an escorting destroyer:

The Tirpitz, Graf Spee and another destroyer make up the rest of the German force:

The RN have two main groups, one of a number of Cruisers and Destroyers and the other of two old slow battleships:

Tirpitz and Graf Spee move quickly to engage the British Cruisers before their supporting Battleships arrive:

Guns blaze away at close quarters:

Gneisenau and Blucher exchange long range fire with the British Battleships:

German gunnery is abysmal while the RN manage to cripple the Graf Spee which turns away from the action:

The Gneisenau joins the fight but German gunnery does not improve and little damage is caused to the British:

The Graf Spee is sunk:

Meanwhile the Blucher has also taken a pounding and is crippled:

The Blucher is finished off:

With the Gniesenau badly damaged and the RN having only lost a single Cruiser the Germans conceded the action and would attempt to escape together with the largely undamaged Tirpitz.

This was pretty much a complete reversal of the last game we played where, if I remember rightly, the big German ships sank the RN Battleships quickly and then were largely immune to the remaining RN Cruisers and Destroyers!

The much more vulnerable Graf Spee and Blucher didn't last long and the fire from the Germans was largely ineffective. 

Andy also played a smart tactical game, his old and slow (but well armed and armoured) Battleships led to me attempting to close to short range with his Cruiser group where their more numerous and lighter guns were more effective before Andy could bring his big ships into action. 

On reflection I should probably have stuck to the plan from last time which was to deal with the big ships first then, once they were out of action, take on the rest of the enemy fleet.

.

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. 

Chain of Command 1940 Germans v British

Jerry is running a CoC game at a Lard day later this year and wanted to try it out. The setting is 1940 with the Germans attempting to cross a canal against British and French resistance. As the game is designed for four players there is quite a lot of support options so a good chance to get more kit on the table!

The canal can be crossed either at the bridge or for infantry via some sunken barges and a lock gate in the distance:

Wasting no time a Panzer III and an infantry section deploy by the road:

Another section deploys by the bridge itself:

In the distance a French infantry section can be seen on the hill:

A third German infantry section arrives together with the platoon mortar:

The British counter with a 2pdr AT gun, their mortar team and some engineers. However, the AT gun team is shot to bits by the waiting German infantry after missing it's shot at the Panzer III:

First casualties for the Germans as they exchange fire with the distant French on the hill:

A British infantry section joins in the firefight:

The Germans respond with an additional Panzer II and the advance of the Panzer III:

A powerful French Souma tank arrives to take on the Panzers

German infantry move out of cover to advance on the bridge:

They make it to the cover of the canal bank. Meanwhile the Panzer III and Souma exchange generally ineffective shots:

The Panzer II also moves up:

The Souma holds it's ground:

The British mortar crew have done a very poor job with their smoke rounds failing totally to obscure the Panzer II's line of sight to the British infantry. The final German section has deployed in the fields to the left of the Panzer II:

The British deploy a Vickers MMG to try to cut down the exposed German infantry but remarkably accurate German fire wipes out the crew in short order:

The Germans make a dash for the canal bank hoping to cross the sunken barges. Casualties and shock pin the section though:

The British mortar continues to lay down smoke, mostly ineffectively:

More misplaced smoke rounds:

The Panzer III continues it's advance, trading shots all the time with the Souma. The Panzers driver has been killed, both tanks have survived several hits but fight on:

Finally it all becomes too much for the Souma crew who bail out after yet another hit from the Panzer:

With one last literal throw of the dice the British ambush the Panzer III with a Boy's AT rifle. The rifle hits but has no effect on the tank. Return fire from the German section wipes out the AT rifle team reducing British morale to zero and forcing them to withdraw:

A game where careful German preparation before each forward move paid off, every time Jerry deployed something to slow the Germans down the Germans had plenty of extra troops deployed to retaliate. The British mortar team were spectacularly ineffective being unable to put smoke down where it was needed and the Souma, which greatly out-classed the Panzer III, also performed poorly.

The canal and bridge looked great and I'm sure the participants at Jerry's game will greatly enjoy it, looking forward to hearing how it goes!

Chain of Command Case Yellow Campaign Game 2 'Blitzkrieg' German v British

The second game in the Case Yellow campaign saw my Germans taking on Rory's BEF in a 'Blitzkrieg' scenario. To win the Germans have to exit two teams off the opposite table edge, reduce the BEF force morale to 0 or make them withdraw voluntarily. The British can win by playing two CoC dice to call up support before the Germans can achieve their victory conditions

The support roll gave me a mighty 18 support points and Rory an insignificantly less 15SP! Assuming that Rory was bound to take AA guns I didn't bother with the Stuka and went for the Adjutant (1), Jean Claude (1), 5th Columnist (1), Entrenchment (1), Pioneer Team (1), Pre-game Barrage (2), Red Dice (2), le.18.7mm gun (4) and StuG III (5).

Force morale started at an unhelpful 8 for the Germans and a as good as it gets 11 for the BEF (feeling confident after Rory had won his last two games!).

The Germans are attacking from the right, the British defending the left:

British JOP's with the German ones in the distance. A minefield was discovered at the crossroad:

The British deploy their mortar crew in the woods. Jean-Claude lurks in a hedge behind the British lines and takes a shot causing two shock on the mortar team:

Unfortunately a nearby Morris C9 AC spots him and promptly shoots him dead!

The first German troops deploy, the Red section behind a stone wall. They are accompanied by the StuG (just out of shot):

The British attempt to deploy an AT gun to take on the StuG. However, Captain Mainwaring (the 5th Columnist in disguise!) persuades the crew that now is certainly not the time to arrive and the gun does not appear:

The British have deployed a MMG and a section to engage in a firefight with the Red section. Despite the odds the Germans are inflicting more damage:

Yellow section deploys in the wood to add their fire commanded by Feldwebel Beckenbauer:

The StuG and the British AC have been exchanging fire. The StuG survives a critical hit from the AC then fires back and forces the AC to flee:

British resistance starts to crumble! The survivors of the MMG crew run for it:

The StuG moves up to add its HE shells:

The British mortar crew put up some smoke (the round counters) but it fails to block the German's view:

The StuG continues to fire:

The British section turns and routs:

The British deploy a 2pdr AT gun:

The StuG retreats to safety while the German infantry pour fire into the AT gun:

The fire is too much for the gun crew who take hits and shock:

Just as it appears everything is over for the British and the Germans will break through the British roll 4 sixes from their five command dice. This ends the turn (which is bad for the British!), signifies the fall of rain and, crucially, gives them a free CoC dice. As they already have one they can immediately end the game with the arrival of their support forces! Victory goes to the British.

For a while it looked like an inevitable German win but Rory's refusal to retreat saved the day. He only needed three more fives from his command dice anyway so it was certainly closer than it looked on the casualties (the Germans only lost two men in the game). Both sides found it hard to bring men on through pre-game barrages which probably affected the British slightly more especially once I deployed 'Captain Mainwaring' as the 5th Columnist! 

Oddly enough the men's opinion went up after this defeat having gone down following the first game's victory! The platoon is still  in excellent shape to continue the campaign next time....