Engagement at Kalisz

My gaming will switch back to Montreal this weekend. We will be playing Lasalle, the first Napoleonic game in over a year for our small group. I put together a fictional scenario for the 1809 period so we could get some of our new troops on the table. Myself and Nico will be taking on Iannick and Rusti.

What will be particularly interesting for me personally is that this will be the first IGO-UGO game I have played in well over a year. This year's gaming has been taken up with Chain of Command and Dux Britanniarum, two games with variable activation. I am not sure how it will go with me.

We really have put work in on a lot of different Napoleonic rulesets over the years and I have to admit they all have had drawbacks to me or others in our gaming group.

Anyway, we will have to see. I am looking forward to getting a game in with my friends there.

Chronica Iohannes: Massacre on the Swale

We had another battle in our Dux campaign about 10 days ago and it did not go well for the Britons. In a stunning reversal of fortune, the Saxons got a +6 victory. You can see the AAR on Adam's blog.

He really played a great game, by avoiding my shieldwall and maneuvering into positions where he could chip away at my troops. I do not remember the exact numbers but I believe I lost 23 men to Adam's 7. Really a great Saxon victory.

But the worse was yet to come, as Adam had won a battle he could now lay siege to one of my provinces. The length and success of a siege is decided by a single dice roll and Adam threw a 2, really an extremely lucky toss, as the siege only lasted a month before he took the province of Caterick. What was worse is that he now has raised his warlord to a King, has gained another unit of warriors and was able to gain two more gold in an uncontested raid in the month of July, 553.

Well I really will have to pull up my socks in our upcoming battle, hopefully this week.

Winter War Terrain

I have been quite negligent in respect to posting on my blog recently, aside from posting AAR's from my two campaigns, I have gone pretty quiet. Unlike most of the competitors in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, I have not even posted my entries. Although I have been quite busy with gaming and painting figures for the challenge most of my focus as actually been on terrain design, acquisition and assembly. I was hoping to write a post about my northwestern Europe WWII terrain project, but I have just not had a chance to assemble a lot of photos. But of course you can see most of it in my recent 29, Let's Go campaign AAR's.

I have put a lot of work recently into some WWII Winter War and Stalingrad terrain projects, there is some overlap here, but I have just finished putting together the terrain for my Raate Road campaign project for Chain of Command. I have put together some photos finally so I thought I would show it off. What you see below is the layout for the final scenario in the campaign "Attack on the Border Post".

Looking east at the border station near the village of Raate on the Finnish-Soviet border.

The mat is from Cigar Box Battle Mats. Really not much bad you can say about these mats, they look great. I could have got one without the road, but it is easy enough to hide parts of it with the tree bases. Folds up quite small and easy to transport and I suspect easy to wash. It is made out of thin fleece. 

Looking west, the border station is to the left with a farm to the right.

This pdf building is from Sgts' Mess, a wargaming company specializing in 20 mm stuff for WWII. It was easy enough to assemble and paint, I will definitely buy more of them.

The hill was made from styrofoam, shaped with a propane torch (outside) and then painted. I dressed it up with some rocks and Winter Tufts from Army Painter. The little snow drifts in the foreground are from Gale Force Nine, I thought they would be bigger when I ordered them but they are small. Cover is very important in CoC, dressed them with some tufts also.

These group of buildings are from Pegasus Models, quite cheap and easy to assemble. They are hard plastic the roofs come off but they have no floor.  Easy enough to paint.

The small tree bases and trees as well as the bases for the fir trees are also from Gale Force Nine. The road blocks made from logs are also from Sgts' Mess, I think I will need more. Made from resin and quite easy to paint.

The snowy firs are from Grand Central Gems. I drilled a hole through the bases and used a very thin superglue to fix them in place. I am hoping these are not too tough to transport. These trees are quite cheap unlike a lot of their products and are quite robust. They were dressed up with flock from Army Painter as well as some from 4-Ground.

Some ponds from Gale Force Nine. I flocked the edges and added some tufts.

A Finnish Sniper.

The pdf fencing is from Sgts' Mess, and excellent product. The entrenchments are from Gale Force Nine.

Russian Commanders safe near the daccha!

Chronica Iohannes: Massacre at Bovia

We had another game in our Dux campaign last Thursday. Adam elected to have a battle and this time we had lots of time so we played the full pre-game phase. It really was a lot of fun. Adam was able to increase his Fate Card Hand to 6 cards as well as increasing his Lord's Status to IV. I was able to increase my morale to 10 after a successful contest between my champion Uther and the Saxon champion Wulfric. The Saxons started with a morale of 7.

You can see a full battle report with photos on Adam's blog. Essentially again it was a frontal assault by the Saxons with some maneuvering on the Briton's left flank. The Saxon's advance was to my left. I was able to hold my troops together and quickly formed a shield wall with my levy. I kept my warriors in reserve and protected my left flank with my elites. This was a pretty successful strategy. I think we now found a frontal assault on a British shield wall is a pretty unsuccessful tactic. Adam did have some bad luck with his dice but the outcome was very much in favour of the Britons. I lost 7 men and Adam lost 25 men in a contested withdrawal. I ended up with a 7+ victory, thus the battle has been entitled the Massacre at Bovia.

We again made a few mistakes. Although I was unsuccessful in my attempt, I did try to have my elites form a shield wall with my levy, which the rules forbid. Supporting units in combat were also not brought into until the second round of combat which is wrong. We also have a tendency to misinterpret the rules at the end of the game. Adam felt that he had lost the campaign as his men needed d6+6 months to recover which brought him through the winter without money to pay his taxes. This was I found to be incorrect, as he can elect to have one more do or die battle. 

We did put together a quick Campaign House Rule to get ourselves out of this perceived dilemma. One of my Nobles Cadfael had been captured in an earlier raid so we invented a Ransom rule, which allows a Lord to ransom captured Nobles. Throw a d6, 4+ requires 2 gold as a ransom, less than 1 gold. Adam threw a 4, so I paid 2 gold to get back Cadfael. I had ended the campaign turn with 5 gold, so I used 3 gold to elevate my Lord Antoninus to a Legatus. I also was allowed to gain reinforcements, I skipped over the skirmishers and elected to go with 6 more warriors. I now have 4 nobles (which the rules allow) and have increased my men by 8 since the beginning to the campaign. I am unfortunately again penniless!

Chronica Iohannes: The Battle on the Bank of the Tees

Last Thursday after a brief Xmas break we had the next installment in our Dux campaign. Adam has now made his Saxon leader a warlord so we had our first battle. It was an extremely close game with very few casualties, 7 figures lost by the Britons and 9 by the Saxons. Fortunately my levy shieldwall was able to withstand the Saxon assault and the Saxons made an uncontested withdrawal. Time was a little short for this our first battle so there were no pre-battle festivities, but I suspect that many songs will be sung, much mead will be taken and there will be a clash between our champions in our next battle tentatively scheduled for next week. As usual an excellent AAR can be found on the Fencing Frog Blog.

29, Let's Go: Home Run at Osmanville

Tactical Situation: 

The German morale has risen somewhat after the German victory at Cardonville. Leutnant Fuchs had already withdrawn his troops to the German HQ in Osmanville. The victory at Cardonville had given his troops time to add some extra defenses. Their morale fell somewhat though when they saw that their reinforcements were Russian Hiwis and artillery gunners. Leutnant Fuchs carefully cleaned his MP40 and prepared for yet another fresh American assault.

Yesterday, we played our 7th and 8th games (sort of gives it away on who won game 7) in our Normandy campaign. Although the Germans had won the 4th scenario (game 5), I felt it best to make another tactical withdrawal, bringing us to our 7th game. This was the final scenario in the campaign. In this scenario, the Germans had their original platoon from the the first and second scenarios. I was down 8 riflemen and had 13 supports so I had elected to take the support option of the Hilfswillinge Volunteers, thus adding another -1 to my morale. I also took 2 minefields, an FO, and HMG team. I already had 1 barbed wire defense because of my tactical withdrawal in game 6. Mike had 19 supports. I believe he took a Sherman, 50mm Mortar, HMG team and a FO. The Patrol Phase went well for me, as Mike only got 1 free move and I was able to hold his JOP's to his side of the terrain. Mike started with a morale of 9 and I had a morale of 8, not bad for having to take a -2.

I again played cautiously bringing on just my HMG team and FO in the first phases of the game. The HMG team was again of little value as it was just outside of 24" of American front line. The FO was of more value though as I brought him on with the SL and was able to get off a bombardment pretty early, I gambled and shot it off without an aiming shot and landed right on target. Mike had two squads and 2 support teams in the area of the bombardment. I placed the FO and the SL in a two story building but also added one squad just outside in order to soak up the long range hits from the Sherman on the building. This worked well as the Germans were able to pulverize the Americans who suffered a morale loss about 90 minutes into the game. I had lost my HMG team only and was able to take out 24 men before Mike's morale failed. This was the quickest game we have had.

My 4th patrol marker is under the iPad. This Patrol Phase was a good result for me. 

Easy enough to see the 3 American JOP's. 

I have two JOP's in the orchard and one behind the hedge on my left flank as well as one in the Stone House (German HQ)

A bunched American advance which was to be their undoing once the mortars starting falling.

The American left flank, with a squad advancing and the FO behind the hedge. 

The German HMG team securely behind the wall. Two land mine fields also protecting the approach.

The Americans start their advance down the road.

Off table Heavy Mortar team 

A well placed mortar bombardment. Actually I was lucky as I did not aim.

My second bombardment was even better having 4 infantry teams, a HMG team, the FO as well a 50 mm light mortar team caught in it. This was to prove the American's undoing.

Game over with 24 casualties on the American side. I still had two squads and a Panzerschreck in reserve.

It was only 1pm so we decided to have a quick lunch and move on to Game 8. The terrain takes at least an hour to set up and I was happy to do this. I have to admit I was pretty pleased as this is a tough game for the Germans and I had now denied the Americans a complete victory.

I quickly did the post game throws, and although my men's opinion had gone up by 2, but I still had a -2 on morale. My CO's opinion had also gone up so I got one more support. My supports were the same as the first game, but I took an adjutant. Mike now had 25 supports, he took an extra Sherman. Both the patrol phase and the Morale throw did not go well for me as in the first game. Mike was able to put a JOP in one of the buildings half way down the terrain. He had a starting Morale of 11 while I had a starting Morale of 7!

Mike was more careful this time spreading his advance out so he was not caught in a single bombardment. I was slower to get my FO working and when I did get one off it was never as effective as in the first game. Before I knew it the two American had seized the midground and were in heavy cover behind stone walls. Mike also threw several double 6's and I was doing poorly on the Morale table. I used the cover of the bombardment to scoot one of my squads across open ground to protect the American advance on my left flank. Mike then threw a another double 6 and a 5 thus getting a Chain of Command dice.  He was able to end the turn, remove the smoke and mow down my troops in the open. I was down to a Morale of 2, so I decided to withdraw as it was pretty hopeless.

Much less successful this time.

A very unsuccessful Panzershreck team, the Shermans caused a lot of damage.

My bombardment in this game was a lot less successful only capturing one US squad.

The Americans getting dangerously close.

One of my squads caught in the open, this was my undoing and their destruction ended the game.

So a Marginal American victory in my first CoC campaign, it was really a great time. Hopefully we can start another campaign soon, this time most likely Winter War. I am working on putting the campaign together now, I am thinking a campaign along the Raate Road set in January 1940 and this time I will be the attacker!

29, Let's Go: The Radar Station at Cardonville

Tactical Situation:

The Americans in their advance towards Osmanville (the German HQ) have eliminated all threats on their left flank, but they now informed that a German platoon is situated on their right flank, they are ordered to attack to clear this threat. The American platoon advances with a Sherman in support.

So this was our 4th game (5th turn) in our campaign, I had to rush into the Hobby Bunker early last Saturday as it was game day and the annual party and it was necessary to secure a table, with luck there was one un-reserved table left. This was a do or die game for the Germans, and I had worked out a pretty careful plan of action to stop the American advance. This is one of the two scenarios where I start with a fresh platoon as well as some fairly reasonable supports. The Americans had 14 points, if I have it right Mike spent it on a Sherman (required), a sniper as well a medium mortar team. I went all defensive with two minefields, 2 entrenchments as well as a HMG team.

My basic plan was to wait to the Americans showed themselves, and then plant down the HMG team in some entrenchments. They were to weaken the American infantry and then I was to bring on my platoon slowly at the most opportune time to benefit from their 4 man LMG teams. My Panzershreck team has been quite successful in taking out Shermans and if I was lucky and got a CoC die early, an ambush would work well.

It started well, with Mike having a relatively unsuccessful patrol phase with him advancing really no more then 18" from his edge. JOP's were placed and the game started, I was starting with a -2 on morale, we both threw poorly and Mike started with a 8 and I started with a 6. Mike had these new pink dice that were really quite lucky for him early in the game and he was able to advance fairly quickly. My much vaunted HMG team took some early losses without a whole lot of reciprocation by taking out Americans. The Sherman also seemed to cause some havoc and unfortunately my Panzerschreck team was quite unsuccessful in taking it out and was destroyed fairly early on in the game. By this time things were looking quite bad for the Germans. Aside from the first game in the campaign, I had been quite conservative playing very defensive games. Mike for the first time played a fairly conservative game, advancing his troop slowly and relying on his Sherman, sniper and mortar team to whittle me down at long range.

It was time to get stuck in I thought, so I just placed all my troops on the table and started to advance against the Americans. They had taken over the chalet in the middle of terrain, but I was able to rapidly advance up my right flank, luckily the LOS from windows really cut down their angle of fire. I was able to take out the Sherman with my Panzerfausts, the first attack failed but my second rifle team fired their weapon at close range and Kaboom! Really it then turned into a meatgrinder with us each trying to rack up morale tests on the other. I dropped down to a Morale of 2 and Mike was at 3 when I launched my final offensive push with an ad hoc team of my SL, 2 JL's, 2 riflemen and a LMG (this was the remnants of 2 infantry squads). I threw a 4 (enough to activate the two teams) and a 5 (giving me a CoC dice). Finally, the dice went my way: Lots of 6's. Mike threw his saving dice, more 6's, his rifle team broke and his morale failed. A German victory! I had lost 18 men but the Americans had lost 24.

On to some photos, unfortunately the batteries went in the camera but I did capture some action.

Cardonville, with the American entry to the left and the German defensive position to the right. Very little hard cover here except for the two houses. Lots of hedges though.

I started my patrol phase 18" into my position while the Americans started at their edge, fortunately they diced up only one free move, limiting their advance to about 2' maximum.

German JOP's. I protected my left flank with a minefield

The American JOP's, causing them to have a long way to advance.

The Panzerschreck team trying to take out the Sherman.

The Americans advance and take the chalet and advance two squads up the road.

Very carefully that is. 

The HMG team well entrenched, despite having a firepower of 10d6 at a close range of 24" and reducing cover by 1, they really did very little before they were taken out.

The battle starts to turn when my rifle team takes out the Sherman with their Panzerfaust.

So after this turn, the Germans made a Tactical Withdrawal. This brings us to the last scenario in the campaign. Hopefully we will get it played this coming Saturday.