Comets in the Wald

This week our match reporter donned his thermals and reported for duty in Northern Germany, April 1945.  The British 3rd RTR are advancing along the foothills of the Teutoburger Wald to seize the small village of Tecklenburg.  Despite the seemingly inevitable Allied victory the Germans are still fighting doggedly, and in some cases fanatically and British losses continue to mount.

The British  entered with two Comets and two Cromwells. Phil and Rob swung north towards the Church whilst Malcolm and Chris advanced cautiously through the centre and south.  The Germans deployed with Greg’s low-slung Panzer IV tank destroyer lurking in ambush and Tony and Dave’s MkIV’s moving to engage.

Greg quickly realised the British were planning to work round and outflank him and, so decided to shift position.  Good dice rolls got him into another wood from where he could put a shot into Phil’s exposed Cromwell. “Boom”. One dead Cromwell. 

Further South the MkIVs found themselves out-numbered by Comets and Mal’s  Cromwell. 

A quite uneven battle. Dave traded shots with Malcolm and Tony took to hiding in cover. Unfortunately Rob’s “fast” Comet raced across the table to attack Tony’s rear. Tony’s MkIV took severe damage but miraculously survived. However he declared he was “abandoning” and his crew fled into the woods waving white flags.  Things were looking decidedly sticky for the Germans until Greg’s tank destroyer returned to the fray. He brewed up Rob’s shiny new Comet with a shot in the rear…ouch! 

Despite Chris inflicting heavy damage on Dave he too succumbed to the dead-eyed commander of the Jagdpanzer.  

In contrast to his colleagues from the other MkIV, Dave gamely played on trying to recover dice but to no avail. However Malcolm decided discretion was the better part of valour, and remembering he was from the Recce troop and outgunned by Greg, decided to leg it. 

However in the end even he succumbed to the mighty KwK42/ L70 .

So, an overwhelming defensive victory for the defenders of the Reich. Greg receives the Knights Cross 1st class.  Arminius/Hermann, gazing down from his statue high in the Teutoburger Wald would be proud of them…..well, Greg and Dave.

Next week this reporter takes a well earned rest leaving a member of our Spanish news bureau to venture to the Peninsula.  We will return on March 11th once again reporting from “Outremer” in the early 12th century”

Simon

Infamy Infamy or where did we leave those tools

We played Scenario 5, "Ubique", from the rulebook where a Group of Roman engineers / surveyors are located in the central region of the table. The engineers are surveying the ground for the future Antonine wall but they have been informed by the scouts that some hairy barbarians are in the area. They have to pack up their kit and exit via either of the short table edges and they have an Auxiliary Cohors Peditatae as escort.

Unfortunately for the Caledonians most of the terrain features were within 12" of the Roman deployment area and this restricted where they could put the deployment/ambush markers...

so they were located in the woods to the north west and north east, the hill to the west and the eastern swamp. This was going to be tricky to prevent the engineers escaping, especially since the Roman Exploratores scouted the deployment marker in the hills. So it looks like the way to the west is open. With this is mind the Caledonians deployed the slingers and three groups of levy warriors from the north western woods to attempt to cut off the escape route.

 

Two groups of warriors and a group of household warriors, led by chief Nowall Ere and Siddecik, emerged from the north eastern woods, just in case the Romans decided to try and escape to the east. To counter all this, and screen the engineers, the Romans split their auxila into two groups so that they faced off both sets of warrior mobs.

The auxila tried to charge down the hill into the warrior levy but our friend "Roll a 1" Greg was obviously about as they rolled two 1s for movement...

with the levy turning to face this new threat throwing spears and with the slingers helping, both causing casualties.

The auxila finally managed to get themselves to charge into the levy but came off worst and were pushed back up the hill. On the other flank the warriors advanced and threw spears, resulting in some damage to the auxilia.

Out from the warriors charged a group of fanatics straight into the auxila. A bucket of dice was rolled for not much effect. That was unhelpful chief Nowall Ere was heard to mutter.

Although the rest of the warriors moved up to join the fight and the pressure worked as they started to push the auxila back. However, Siddecik was wounded and knocked out for the rest of the game. On the other flank the auxilia facing the levy started to retire with the levy following up but finding the going in the swamp difficult.

The engineers were making a run for it with the Caledonian slingers trying to cut them off.

The fanatics and warriors managed to break through the auxila and watched the quickly departing engineers. The levy warriors continued their slow trudge through the swamp whilst the auxila retired back to help out the engineers.

It was looking highly likely that the engineers would get away so the Caledonians decided that they would take out their frustration on the auxila, with the lonely unit on the hill being attacked in the rear and quickly driven off. Meanwhile the levy at last exited the swamp and attacked the other auxila unit causing it to break also. The engineers escaped but not many auxiliaries did so a draw was called.

 

 

A good game although I think the auxila would have done better if they had managed to get into close order.

Black Seas, Lisbon August 1808

The British have returned to Portugal. After defeating the French army at Vimeiro, the British Army is now closing-in on Lisbon. While the Convention of Cintra is still being negotiated, the French want to spirit some of their loot away from Lisbon, by ship, under cover of an approaching storm. The last of this loot is just about to be loaded into a waiting transport, when a British squadron suddenly appears at the mouth of the harbour, ready to force an entry. 

French Objective:
Finish loading the transport and get it off the South West table edge (ie, squares A7, A8 or B8).

British Objective:
Intercept and seize the transport, or at least ensure that the French do not succeed in getting the transport off the SW table edge. 

French Forces: (Start ‘Anchored’ in boxes L3 to M5)
• 1x 3rd Rate (Regular Crew)
• 2x Frigates (Regular Crews)
• 1x Brig (Regular Crew)
• 2x Martello Towers (Inexperienced Crews) - located on each headland. (Note: the Range of the Martello Towers is increased by 50%, ie, 30” for Heavy Guns and 21” for light guns)
• 1x Small Transport (inexperienced crew)

British Fleet: (Enter A4 or A5)
• 1x 3rd Rate (Veteran Crew)
• 1x 4th Rate (Veteran Crew)
• 2x Frigates (Veteran Crews)
• 2x Brigs (Veteran Crews)

The French start to load the gold and way anchor...

whilst the British sailed at full sail ahead

However, the British looked around and noticed that they were missing a ship. Apparently the 4th Rate had run aground at the harbour entrance and was hors de combat. This was going to make things difficult as the British were taking hits from the Martello towers.

Approaching the French fleet the British 3rd Rate started its turn to intercept but the rest of the fleet looked as if they had turned too late.

As the British 3rd Rate had been left hanging it decidied not to tack into the wind as this would have left the entire French fleet crossing its bow...

and instead it turned back to the east to fire broadsides into the passing fleet, hoping that the rest of the fleet could sort itself out and catch up with the French.

However, things went from bad to worse as the wind changed direction, favouring the French.

The chase was on and the only good thing for the British is that in their haste to get away a French frigate collided with their 3rd Rate. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to put the slowest ship at the front. With the change in wind the British had no chance of catching the French who managed to get the gold away.

A very fine victory for the French with a good plan. The British could have done with having the 4th Rate and unfortunately turned into the wind too late to catch the French especially with the unlucky change in wind.

Seven Days to the River Rhine (or should that be Nile), a meeting between two arch enemies

This game is a "Meeting Engagement" between the Egyptians and IDF with the objective to capture and hold three of the four objectives marked A to D.

The forces are as follows 

 

Egyptian:

Turn 1: 3x T55s + 6x BTR50 APCs with Infantry section, deployed up to one normal move from the East table edge (Column M).
Reserves – Enter Turn 3: 3x T55s, entering Eastern table edge. One T55 in the Reserves is nominated as being a “Command” element.

The Sagger Teams may be carried in any nominated BTR50, along with the Infantry section.

IDF:

Turn 1: 3x Magach 3s + 3 M3 halftracks with Infantry sections, deployed up to one normal move from Western table edge (Col A).
Reserves - Enter Turn 3: 3x Sho’t Centurians + 1 “Command” M3 half-track, entering on Western table edge.

 

Both the Egyptians and IDF deployed into tactical positions to allow them to advance onto objectives.

 

The IDF managed to seize the woods (objective A), the orchard in the centre (objective C) and the dunes in the south (objective B), however the Egyptian T55s moved into firing positions and brewed up two of the Magach 3s. Things were starting to look a bit sticky for the IDF. The Egyptians also seized the woods to the south of the mosque (objective D).

The Egyptian infantry tried to close assault the IDF in the orchard but were pushed back into the mosque.

The IDF tried to bring up some infantry to support the troops in the orchard but unfortunately they came under fire. Luckily the infantry managed to bail out of the burning M3.

 

The Egyptians now brought on a platoon of 3 T55s and in response the IDF deployed a platoon of 3 Centurians. A firefight ensued with both sides losing a tank. A BTR charged forward into the dunes to the south of the orchard and immediately came under bazooka fire but managed to somehow survive.

A Super Sherman deployed to the South to try and outflank the Egyptians but soon came under fire from a Sagger team in the far dunes. The firing was too accurate and armour not good enough so another IDF tank went up in flames.

Another Centurian brewed up...

 

although the last remaining Magach 3 put a sneaky shot into the northernmost T55. Another dead tank.

 

The Egyptians moved up more infantry hoping to push the IDF out of the orchard...

but the survivors of the burned out M3 moved into the orchard to support their buddies.

The last surviving Centurian headed for cover behind the northern woods...

and the infantry in the orchard finally put paid to the plucky BTR. 

The IDF in the orchard were hanging on by their fingernails with the Egyptians bringing up yet more infantry.

The Egyptians at last got some luck with a combined attack finishing off the IDF infantry and support M3 that were holding onto the dunes in the south. The Egyptians were now holding two objectives with an increasingly fierce fight going on in the orchard.

The IDF were holding off in the Egyptian infantry when they heard the rumble of an approaching T55. The Egyptians were getting desparate as they were running out of infantry.

 

 

However it was now the end of turn 7 with neither side managing to take and hold three objectives, so the game was called a draw. It was a tough fight with both sides finding the infantry difficult to beat.