Watery Matters off the Crimea....

Summer 1942. Things are looking grim for Stalin as the Nazi hordes threaten Eastern Ukraine and the Crimea. The naval port of Sevastopol is holding out but desperately needs supplies of men, ammunition and food. With Luftwaffe dominance in the air the Red Navy has the task of slipping ships along the coast to the port.

Last night saw a Fugas-class minesweeper with two G5 MTBs as close escort try to reach the protection of the coastal defence Bronekaters.

The Germans surged onto the table from the south-east, with Phil and Malcolm acting in tandem and Tony...well.... being Tony.

German torpedos hit the water as the Fugas turned its powerful guns on the EBoats.

The Bronekaters moved to intercept but were painfully slow, and Rob’s inexperienced crew proved virtually useless.

The G5s sped around at high speed hoping to distract the E-Boats, but to no avail. Dave manoeuvred the Fugas to avoid two torpedos but eventually one hit below the bridge. Carnage resulted, and a critical hit resulted in a sinking Fugas.

All was not going well on the German side.  Phil list temporary control and his E-Boat careered towards the blazing minesweeper.

A second torpedo hit the Fugas just as Chris’ Bronekater arrived on the scene. However, raked by Tony’s gunfire Chris’ vessel was itself soon ablaze and abandoned.

A German victory.

Dave was awarded a posthumous order of Lenin. Chris was swiftly despatched. Some think he went to the salt mines. Others say it was cheaper just to expend one 9mm round from a Makarov pistol into the nape of his neck.

Next week sees us go back 3000 years to the chaos of the Sea Peoples in the Eastern Mediterranean. Can the Hittites save their city?

Simon

Battle of Vesontio 68 AD

The game is set in 68AD. Gaius Julius Vindex, the Governor of Gallia Lugdunensis rebels against Nero. He raises a local army and comes up against the Legions of the loyal Roman army of Germania Superior. Battle hardened killers.

Historically it didn’t end well for Vindex….

The Romans started their deployment first as the Gauls out scouted them. The Romans deployed legions in the centre and right with a small cavalry wing on the left. Unusually the Gauls deployed their cavalry in the centre with warbands on both flanks.

The plan for the Gauls was to use the cavalry to skirmish with the Roman centre and hope that the warbands on the flanks would be able to roll up the Roman line whilst avoiding a head on clash with the Legion.

Both forces marched towards each other with the Gallic cavalry managing to disorder one of the legion units.The Fanatic Gauls crashed into the legion holding the hill on the Roman right and managed to kill the disordered unit along with the General. First blood to the Gauls.

The legion in the centre managed to push the Gallic cavalry back whilst killing a veteran unit.

Phil comanding the Roman cavalry managed to spend a significant part of the game grazing in the corner.

The Roman left flank managed to kill a warrior unit but the Gauls retaliated and manged to kill a legion unit. Things were in disarray on this flank. However, Chris on the Roman right was being either killed or pushed back as Mal's warbands started their steamroller going.

The Romans were now down to one coin left so not looking good as the Gauls were threatening the camps. At this point Vindex with the cavalry charged forward and killed a light infantry unit. Victory.

A good game that could have gone either way and it is unusual for the Gauls to win against the "hard" legion.

The Bulge Revisited

No, I’m not talking about the much reported “Lockdown Weight again” but the tabletop/Zoom events in North Hertfordshire, which now has outstations in Cambridgeshire, Yorkshire and even far-flung Wiltshire!

The battle was set on December 21st 1944 as the Germans tried to take the small Belgian town of Hotton. Quite a challenging table with many buildings.

The Germans quickly rolled onto the table with Stugs acting in concert, the PzIV on the main road and the Panther prowling, looking for prey to the North.

The Yanks entered with M36s advancing towards the Stugs, a Sherman down the road and Rob’s Sherman nervously facing the Panther.

The MKIV fired at the Sherman at long range. Four hits, no saves. First blood to the Germans.

Dave’s M36 rushed forward leaving Tony’s rookie driver trying to get out of first gear. With fragile armour but a mighty gun the M36 traded blows with two Stugs miraculously surviving for several turns.

To the north Malcolm’s dice just didn’t want to “shoot” at Rob hidden in a copse. As the referee noted that a Sherman vs Panther in a long range gunnery duel was unequal Rob got lucky. Four hits and no saves. One brewed Panther.

Dave’s thinly armoured M36 then took a side-shot and died.

Now 3 Germans vs 2 Yanks. Soon to be two-all as Tony’s M36 finally entered the fray and fired a mighty 11 dice at Malcolm’s MK IV. Carnage.

The action hinged on the “battle of the crossroads”. The Stugs manoeuvred manically to prevent the Yanks getting side shots. Chris failed and his Stug exploded in a ball of flame.

Phil lurked beside a house cursing his dice. Tony’s dice proved miraculous and he eventually charged within three inches of Phil’s side armour before emptying 11 dice into the unfortunate Stug. Boom!

I was pleased to finally get my Yank armour onto a table, and also use my new “Frostgrave Autumn” mat. No coffee stains here!

Next Friday sees a return to Cruel Seas with a foray to the Black Sea a distinct possibility!

Simon

D-Day plus one....Somewhere off the coast of Blighty

D-Day plus one. The largest amphibious landing in history. What could the Kriegsmarine do? The answer; send Kapitan Buchanan and his fellow E-Boat officers to ravage the supply shipping lanes....

Jerry came on very tactically. Malcolm headed towards the rear of the allied convoy, Dave to the head of it. Tony did the usual. “Charge!!!!!”

The allies moved the intercept, with Phil and Chris in their flimsy Vosper and Rob in the powerful Fairmile.

Tony quickly launched a brace of torpedos at the merchantmen but took damage from the heavily-armed Fairmile.....aided in no small part by the “veteran” crew rating. German shooting was erratic due to the speed and size of the Vospers.

Malcolm manoeuvred to the rear of the convoy but was taking heavy damage from Phil.

Dave swung North of the convoy engaging the inexperienced Vosper as he went.

Tony’s torpedos either missed or proved a dud. Bummer!

Tony’s E-Boat then exploded. With Malcolm heavily damaged things looked bad for the Nazi fanatics.

Malcolm’s torpedos also proved ineffective and heavily damaged he passed the stern of the freighter and limped off the table.

However, all the RN ships bar the inexperienced and lightly armed Vosper were to the south of the merchantmen. Rob turned his Fairmile aggressively straight into the freighter. Poor seamanship, especially from such a veteran crew!

Chris’ 2nd Vosper tried to ram Dave’s E-Boat, but Dave manouevered deftly out of the way whilst raking the freighter with gunfire. He then unleashed a spread of torpedos. Boom. One hit the freighter amidships which blew up also damaging Rob’s adjacent Fairmile.

A bad outing for the RN and a Knights Cross for Dave!

Simon

A Costly Day for the Brits

So, to the events of yesterday afternoon....

Late Autumn ‘44. Skirmishing along the Dutch/German border sees a British tank unit taking on the Jerries on the outskirts of a village.

The Brits have two Sherman’s, a Firefly and a tiny Stuart. Maybe the latter will be too small for Jerry no notice.

The Germans field a Panther, a Hetzer and a MKIV.

Battle opened with Phil’s Stuart embarking on a charge toward the German lines. Inspired or insane? Malcolm’s Hetzer moved into firing position and got a round away. A miss!

Tony decided that the Stuart posed a major tactical threat that Malcolm couldn’t cope with, and moved to assist.

Meanwhile Dave moved into cover and the Sherman troop decided that discretion was the better part of valour and kept well North  of the Panther.

Phil’s Stuart died, the victim of a Panther 75mm shell.

With the battle switching North Malcolm moved into an ambush position to get side shots on any passing Sherman. Chris duly obliged but the Hetzer missed.

Dave took damage and saw his command dice dwindle. Nearly “hors de combat” but not quite.

It came down to a slug-fest between the Panther and the Firefly, with Chris helping with a kamikaze charge to get to the rear of the Panther. The Firefly exploded in a ball of flame and next turn Tony was first out of the bag and in a position to use his superior manoeuvrability to get a flank shot on Chris. Cue one more “Tommy Cooker”.

Phil decided to call it a day and pulled the remaining Sherman back to the safety of Allied lines.

Simon

Ancient Germanic force

Some pictures of my recently painted Ancient Germanic force for Infamy, Infamy.

The main warbands with leaders to the fore.

Cavalry.

Bowmen, javelinmen and "Frothers".

Deployment/Ambush points as well as the "wailing women".

VE Day Remembered...

And so, our homage to the VE-Day era started with a game that personified WW2. How appropriate that the 1st Polish Armoured Division, representing the real victims of the war,fought the Waffen SS, the embodiment of Aryan supremacy.

The scene was set. Operation Totalize, 8th August ‘44.

The opening exchanges saw the Poles starting to advance across the rolling terrain along two axes.

The Germans concentrated on finding hidden firing positions along their hedge and tree line. Rob’s Stug found a particularly good position that made him very difficult to spot (low tank destroyer) but with an excellent field of fire that covered the northern part of the table.

Dave and Phil made good progress in their Sherman’s, but Malcolm’s Sherman seemed stuck in “neutral”. Tony and Chris’s MKIV’s pirouetted and reversed so much one could have mistaken them for Italians! No racial stereotyping here!

The gunnery commenced.

Rob almost had Malcolm pinned, knocking several dice off his hand permanently. Not good.

Dave and Phil concentrated on Chris, whilst once again Tony changed position cunningly hiding behind his Hauptmann. Then a lucky shot forced Chris to retire, accidentally ramming Tony’s tank. Lost dice all round!

Things looked bad for Chris as eventually he lost more dice and his ability to operated. Finally, his crew abandoned and ran for it...

Phil ran his two Sherman’s off the board to complete the main part of the mission.

That still left two Shermans vs the Stug and Tony’s MKIV.

Malcolm retired and actually brought some command dice back into action. Dave and Tony slugged it out at close range. Finally, with a roll of the dice that brought three net hits Tony’s MKIV exploded.

The result, a comprehensive Polish victory.

Back in ‘44 Maczek’s 1st Armoured suffered horrendous losses during Totalize, including a “friendly fire” incident courtesy of the USAAF. Luckily in WAT there are no PAK guns or infantry with panzerfausts...

Simon

Somewhere in a warmer climate a battle ensued

So, what happened in Stevenage and the blighted North last night....

Sultan Malcolm looked for revenge over the 1st Crusaders who had destroyed his army two weeks ago and killed his predecessor, who eerily looked exactly like Malcolm.

The Crusaders set up with a defensive, infantry left wing, a more mobile right and a  “Panzer Division” of heavily armoured knights under Tony in the centre.

Interestingly the Seljuks set up with a light cavalry centre facing the armoured juggernaut, and two heavier wings. An interesting deployment with some thought applied.

The Seljuk centre and left advanced, the right under Chris decided discretion was the better part of valour and defending the camp looked an excellent idea.

Over to the Crusaders. Phil advanced his infantry the seize the high ground, Rob advanced towards Dave and Tony did what he does best. “Charge...!!!!!”

Malcolm’s light cavalry centre played “shoot and scoot” with Tony’s knights, but was gradually forced back. However, the knights line became ragged and two Seljuk units deftly moved through the gap and headed for the line of camps.  Dave attacked Rob and eventually killed the Turcopoles allowing him to exploit the gap to start a flanking attack.

However, things did look dire for the Seljuks. The centre largely disappeared either dead or evading off-table. Eventually Tony managed to turn his mass of armour. Then the chit pull which proved Greg was nearby. Three “1s” in succession. He ground to a halt.

Malcolm then miraculously managed to recover an of-table unit, returning behind Phil’s line, forcing Phil into a defensive Orbis.  All three Crusader camps fell to the Seljuk light cavalry. Could they snatch victory from the jaws of defeat?

Tony renewed his attack when Chris played the Seljuk strategem and once again Tony came to a shuddering halt.

All rested on Dave and the Seljuk left flank. Facing a unit of disordered archers his heroic general charged in. Lance, failed. Next attack a failure, but the heroic general re-draw saw a hit....and a kill.

Victory to the Seljuks!

Inshallah!

A hard win victory. At one point the Crusader knights had seemingly won the day but were not able to turn their localised advantage into a battlefield victory.

I think that is the first victory for the Seljuks so well done Malcolm and Dave. I think Chris was also on the Seljuk side.

Simon