Serafimovich Redux-Game 2

 

A week ago myself and Dan got together to play our next game in our Battle of the Sunflowers campaign set in August of 1942 during the German Fall Blau operation. We cannot use the same platoon in consecutive games, so we had a fresh platoon for this game. This time the Italians did not use their motocyclistes as they have only one mounted platoon.

Italian Attackers- 3rd Bersaglieri (FM 8)

Bersaglieri Autoportati Platone #2 (Superior Regulars FR -1)

1 Senior Leader

3 Squadras of 13 men, lead by a JL (3 man Breda LMG w/ rifleman team, 8 man Rifle team)

Supports 7

2 x L3/35 tanketes

Car

Soviet Defenders-154th Rifle Division (FM 11)

Platoon #2 (Regulars FR 0)

1 Senior Leader

4 sections of 11 men, lead by a JL  (no teams, LMG with 3 crew and 7 rifles)

Supports 3

M1937 45mm ATG

The Game

I put down the correct terrain in this game using roads rather than walls.

Patrol Markers

JOP's, Dan certainly emerged better out of the Patrol Phase

The position of my PM's did not allow me to get deployment in cover for both flanks which was a real challenge as Dan took 3 vehicles and I really had only the ATG to stop them.

Dan deployed all his forces quite quickly which worked well for him. This included 2 and 1/2 squads on the field as well as the 2 tankettes and a rifle team in the car. He decided to attack my left flank as my ATG was covering my right. Above you can see the infantry squads with one of the tanketes. I was able to take out of the tanketes with the ATG but then had to move it to my left flank to get cover there. Dan then deployed the car with the rifle team on his left causing me to have to deploy one of my sections on my far right flank.

I deployed one of my sections in the wood to counter the attacking Italians and as you can see from the above photo, I had quite a distance to swing over the ATG to protect my left.

Dan then made a choice and it worked, he launched an attack with all his whole infantry force, it was quite costly for both sides but the Soviets did not have overwhelming forces, so it ended up in a second combat and the defenders broke. By then I had also brought my ATG team across but they got caught in the crossfire and got pinned.

My FM had dropped to zero, a forced withdrawal and an Italian Victory!

Well, a very well played game by Dan from picking his supports to calling those last 2 charges that sent my FM to zero. 

The Butcher's Bill

Italian Platoon #2 (FM5)

7 figures lost

3 dead, 2 missing

CO 0

MO -3

Outlook Affable

Soviet Platoon #2  (FM0)

11 figures lost

5 dead, 3 missing

CO 0

MO -1

Outlook Thoughtful

3D Printed Norwegians

As I was not 100% with the EWM for my Norwegians, I had a search around and there seemed to be a nice set on Cults3D, these are free but the designer has several other sculpts that are for the Narvik campaign, this includes some German sailors and I believe some French. What is nice about these figures is that they are scaled originally at 1/72 which is a little unusual for 3D STL's. Most are 28mm with a few 15mm. These were a little taller than the EWM and maybe a lot of my other 20mm miniatures (1/72 is I believe a little bigger than 20mm), and certainly thinner (more anatomic). I played with the scale and went with a 96% but this was probably not necessary. You might be able to see the difference as the King Haakon figure has not been reduced.

3D Print on left, EWM on right

I went with the same colour scheme as the EWM and am quite happy with the result. Although I have some reluctance, because of the concern of durability with resin wargaming figures, I will go on with these figures for my Norwegian platoon.

Achtung Panzer

On our club's last games night, I tried a new tank game called Achtung Panzer. This was put on by William, one of our club's members. I am not a big fan of Bolt Action but I thought it would be fun to print up a couple of tanks in 28mm. I have several German and US AFV STL's from the Hürtgen Forest kickstarter. I have had a couple of games of TFL's What a Tanker, I actually thought it was a bit foolish. So I was not too sure about another tank only game.

But, I will always give something a try, so I showed up with a newly minted Hetzer as well as aPzIV. William was quite well prepared for the game and had gone over the rules carefully. Gabriel showed up with a Churchill, one of my favourite British tanks. William supplied him with a Soviet tank as well as two recon vehicles for each side.

Well, I can say I had a lot of fun, the game rules were a little complicated but they seemed to do a good job of simulated tank warfare. 

I had to leave a little early but fortunately the game was almost over and the Germans secured a victory over the Allies. I had a lot of fun, thanks to William for setting up the game. I certainly will play again and am presently printing up a M10A1.

Caesars Camp-Counter Attack at Villiers

Last Wednesday myself and Graham got together to play Turn 7 (and last) in our Caesars Camp campaign set in 1940 France. We had played 6 turns, so far with the British winning the most, however I should note that Turn 6 was a cliffhanger with some luck at the end Turing what seemed to be a German victory into a loss. This was the first time that Graham got to attack in the game and he had a fresh platoon. Victory here would allow the Germans to prevent a Major British victory. Because of the complexity of the terrain we decided to play at my place. I should both that we were both -2 of our FM rolls to start the game. 

German Attackers-217th Infanterie Regiment (FM8)

2nd Wave Infantry Platoon #3

2 Senior Leaders (Leutnant CR 6")

3 squads of 10 men, lead by a JL's, one squad with a MG08/15

Supports 16

Stuka Attack

Extra squad

MMG Team

Flamethrower Team

Sniper

Scottish Defenders-The Cameron Highlanders (FM8)

British EW Infantry Platoon (A Company)

2 Senior Leaders

2" Mortar Team

3 sections of 10 men, lead by Junior Leaders-(minus 3 men)

Vickers MMG Team

Supports 9

Anti-Aircraft Artillery

Pioneer Section w/ 2 entrenchments

Vickers MMG Team w/JL

The Game

Unlike the previous games this game was fought over a fairly densely populated area. We had checked google maps before the game and in the schematic provided in the campaign booklet the church was oriented north to south and it should have been oriented west to east so we changed that. Otherwise I tried my best to duplicate it.

The German approach into the village

Patrol Markers

JOP's

Effect of the Stuka was somewhat muted with most of the hits north of the battle line.

The German attack initially seemed to centre on the British left flank

Also a squad approaching from the right, I put my engineers down on OW.

The German attack is definitely coming from the left with 3 squads now attacking on that side.

The battle got interesting here, but no photos unfortunately. The Germans dropped a Flamethrower Team ambush causing the Brits behind the house to fallback but they then became pinned. They were also able to push a squad into the house denying the JOP to the Brits, thus they were unable to reinforce. It started to look pretty dodgy for the Brits and their FM was now down to 5........

...........I did have an ace up my sleeve though with my MMG section yet undeployed, it was now or never. I had designated the church as my "Keep" at the beginning of the game and warned Graham as such. The Keep functions as a JOP and is Bunker cover. I deployed the squad at the top of the Steeple and they were able to rain 20d6 on the attacking Germans. A lucky double phase came up and I was able to drive the attackers FM down to 0. A British victory!

Well another campaign played out, I must have at least 10 under my belt by now and Graham's first. He played quite well and the last 2 games were quite close. I would not rate this as one of the top campaigns I have played but it was fun. There were a couple of discrepancies or missing pieces in the booklet. I wonder what we will play next. I have a sense that Graham is interested in the Many Rivers campaign as he is building a Dutch platoon.

Back to Pulp Alley

I noticed a few weeks ago that I had not played Pulp Alley for a some time. I really like this ruleset and was getting concerned that I would forget the rules. Myself and my friend PY usually get together Monday nights for a game once or twice a month, and I suggested that we have a game of Pulp Alley.

PA takes some preparation especially in League composition, but I did not have a lot of time so I went my Order of the Jade Dragon league.

I suspect PY was a little pressed as well so he went with his Followers of the Eye league.

PY did set up a really cool table which he 3D printed himself, it must of took ages, but it looked great and I have to say it was ideal for a Pulp Alley game.

PY's league has the ability to add a character at the beginning of the game, which he was successful with so he ended up with 4 characters. He also has the ability to convert one of my characters to a member of his league but was unable to do so in this game.....thankfully.

As usual, I took only 1 photo during the game and this one was about half way through. I believe we played the first scenario from the book, with a major plot point in the centre and 4 minor plot points peripherally.

Well, I really enjoyed playing PA again. I forgot how much fun it was. We had a lot of play of the Fortune Cards back and forth which added quite a lot of drama. I got crushed for 2 reasons, my dice were awful with which you can not do much but I am starting to realise that this league is quite poorly constructed, especially needing some changes in the traits of the Inscrutable Tong. Will have to get some work in on that, my Baker Street league is a little better but I think I will start working on a Venetian league with some of my figures from Carnevale.

 

GdA2-Introductory Game at the Abyss-Albuera

Six of us got together last Sunday to play the new updated version of GdA2. Eight members of our wargaming club made a group purchase of the new rulebook and this was our first chance for the club to get in a game (myself and Graham had played 2 warm up games to get a sense of the rule changes). 

Graham and myself game-mastered the game, with 4 players, 2 per side. Rob and Michel played the Anglo-Spanish side, while David and Gabriel took the French. I should have the 4 players only one was acquainted with the ruleset and that was version 1. Two of the other players had knowledge of other Napoleonic rulesets and 1 player had really no knowledge of Napoleonic warfare aside from watching the Sharpe series on TV. As an aside, I should mention that that is how I got into wargaming!

We played the Albuera scenario from rulebook, there were 5 brigades per side and if you want to know more about it I would strongly recommend that you buy the rulebook.

Game (many thanks to Graham foe taking the photos and recording the events)

  Scouting: French failed all 3 scouting checks

                    

                  

Turn 1: Spanish brigades moved forward, 2 French brigades moved, 1 Hesitant.

Turn 2: Same as Turn 1 but with 2 French Brigades Hesitant. Allied reinforcement Colbourne arrives in Allied right centre.

Turn 3: Same as Turn 2, Colbourne redeploys towards right sector, artillery deploys in centre. 2 French Brigades advance and 1 Hesitant.

Turn 4: Both sides have full ADC count, French win the initiative. Artillery fire commences. Hoghton and Penne arrive for Allies in centre sector. French reinforcements and Reserves use a re-tasking to  arrive in their right hand sector.

Turn 5: 1 Spanish Brigade Hesitant, Penne move to support Spanish brigades, Hoghton deploys behind Colbourne. French okay and start massing for their attacks against Colbourne and the 2 Spanish Brigades.

Turn 6: Allies use “Chief of Staff” C-in-C command, win initiative, 2 French Infantry Assaults against Colbourne  result in 2 British battalions retreating and Colbourne’s Brigade Falters. The Spanish are holding their own against the French, with a Spanish square beating of a French cavalry attack. 

Turn 7: Colbourne uses “Stand with Me!” C-in-C command to steady faltering brigade and beat back fresh French infantry attacks . 

Not to be outdone, the Spanish Brigades repulse further French attacks.

 More Photos from the players:

I believe everyone had a good time and they all said that they would play again, we are having another introductory game featuring the Eckmühl scenario this Saturday so stay tuned in.