What a Tanker, France 1940

 

•  One Renault R35 & One Hotchkiss H35 (Phil)
• Two Hotchkiss H39s (Steve)
• One Panzerjager I & One Panzer II (Mal)
• One Panzer IVB & One Panzer II (Rob)

This was a small cluttered field. Phil’s H35 was first to enter, attempting to reach the shelter of a row of houses, on the left flank of the French table edge.

Rob responded by dashing his great Panzer IV forward to the centre of the table, opening ferocious, yet ineffectual fire on the small H35.

Steve then pushed one of his H39s up the road, splitting the attention of the Panzer VI. Over on the French right, the two German Panzer IIs started to manoeuvre for position, against the remaining Renault R35 and Steve’s 2^nd H39, but this was real ‘handbags’ stuff. Lots of dice rolling, but to little effect!

Back in the centre, the Panzer IV was beginning to suffer from the attentions of 2 then 3 French tanks, being reduced to 2 Command Dice. Even the support of Mal’s Panzerjager I was not enough to save the Panzer IV, which was forced to withdraw.

The Panzerjager I too was soon forced to withdraw and just snipe Steve’s 2^nd H39, on the far side of the crossroads, while the Panzer IV limped back from the centre of the table, only to be chased by Phil’s diminutive R35, pumping rounds into the exposed flank of the Panzer IV until it was burning.

Meanwhile the swirling fight on the French right, resulted in the positions of the two German Panzer IIs & French tanks being reversed. Steve’s 1^st H39, having driven off the Panzerjager I, dashed into the fight with the Panzer IIs, giving 3 fairly well armoured tanks, vs the lighter, auto-cannon armed German tanks. This was not going to end well, especially when Rob’s Panzer II failed to inflict significant damage from 2 rounds of fire into the rear of Steve’s H39!!

This left Phil’s H35 to deal with the damaged and demoralised Panzerjager I, closing on the tank destroyer’s flank at point bank range, until the white flag appeared!

Strength & Honour, Scenario 2 - Silarus River

Another post with a difference....a cartoon strip. Today's game was Strength & Honour on Tabletop Simulator. Rob has done a sterling job robbing the image files for this and creating the table bits. Rather than an textural After Action Report with pictures, this is pictures with a few words. 

The graphics does not do justice to the originals (a limitation of Powerpoint JPEG exports), but you can get the gist.

Migard: A Song of Ice & Fire on Tabletop Simulator

 With Mal falling ill, the Wednesday group was forced to improvise, so it was back to Tabletop Simulator on Steam! Fortunately Rob had done all the hard work, in creating (or more accurately ‘borrowing’!) ‘A Song of Ice & Fire’ set-up on Tabletop Simulator and creating the Midgard set-up.

After a quick rescaling of the hill and “salient points”, off we set to play Scenario 3, from the book, with the Lannisters attacking the Starks on the hill.

The Lannisters (Steve & Phil) mounted an echelon attack on the hill, with the Knights of Casterly Rock on the Lannister left. The Mountain & his men, plus a unit of Guardsmen were in the centre. Finally Tyrion Lannister had two units of halberdiers & two units of crossbowmen on the Lannister right.

On the hill, the Starks (Rob & Dave) had their cavalry on their right flank. Curiously the Stark bowmen held the centre and the Stark Sworn Swords held the Stark left flank. Great John Umber and his men were due to arrive at the start of Turn 4.

Steve wasted no time in riding down the Stark cavalry. Knights vs medium cavalry, was never going to be a fair fight, even if the Starks were uphill. However, Steve’s knights were in no mood for stopping and some crushing dice rolls swept away the right hand Stark cavalry unit. The Stark cavalry unit closer to the centre only managed to hold on for a little longer, by virtue of Jon Snow dashing over to stabilise things, but this did not last long and he was soon forced to dash back to the archers, when the second Stark cavalry unit ceased to exist!

Jon did manage to pivot the archers, to shoot into the flank of the knights, removing a stamina point from them, but then the Mountain & his men crashed into the formed archers, who just managed to hold onto the hill, at a cost of losing two stamina. They then, rather foolishly decided to charge the Mountain & his men, getting rather chopped-up for their troubles! This left Jon Snow contesting the ‘salient point’, all on his own!

In the centre, Tyrion (Phil) was being more cautious. His halberdiers advanced in echelon, covered by fire from the crossbowmen. The Stark Sworn Swords made a brave attempt at holding the hill, but weakened by the crossbow fire, the Lannister halberdiers managed to dislodge them from the hilltop. Eddard Stark dashed to mount a desperate counter-attack, but was soon left holding the hill solo!  The last drop of Reputation had just run out for the Starks! Great John Umber, spying the Lannister knights waiting for him and hillside strewn with Stark dead, decided to quietly march away again!

What A Tanker on Tabletop Simulator

With Dave back and Mal away, we decided to return to the Panther Hunt Tabletop Simulator "What a Tanker" scenario. However, we added some oil barrels centre table, to act as a 'King of the Hill' objective.

Dave & Steve took the 4 Shermans, while Rob took the Panther and Phil took the diminutive Panzer II.

 

Strength & Honour on Tabletop Simulator

Rob had kindly set-up Scenario 10: Bedriacum, from the Strength & Honour rulebook, on Tabletop Simulator. This looked like a right ‘handbags’ job, with the Vespasians bringing 6 Legions & 2 auxiliary cavalry and the Vittelans effectively bringing 7 legions & 2 auxiliary cavalry. This did look like being a real slog!

However, Mal on the Vittelan right, rapidly pushed back Phil’s auxiliary cavalry, eventually driving them off the table. This forced Phil to weaken his legionary front, by diverting a legion to deal with the rampaging Vittelan cavalry. This in turn left the Vispasian Legio VIII and Legio III outnumbered and being driven back, with Legio VIII becoming disordered.

On the Vespasian right, Rob’s advance was hampered by the dark in the early turns, but eventually managed to close with Steve’s left flank Vittelans. Rob’s luck started in classic form and he rapidly swept away Steve’s cavalry. However, it then rather ground to a bit of a stalemate.

Things seemed to rally for the Vespasians on their left. They drove the second Vitellan cavalry unit from the table. This gave the Vittelans 3 Disaster cards (1 for each cavalry unit & 1 for the Syrian’s praying to the Sun God!!). However, the sneaky Vittelans prevented the Vespasians from calling ‘Homunculus Est’, by virtue of having an odd Strategy token lying around!

This was the time for Steve’s curiously quiet Left Wing to spring into action! They rapidly drove back a couple of Rob’s units, inflicting 2 further Set-Back cards (on top of the 14 accumulated so far!), before calling ‘Homunculus Est’ themselves, thereby winning with 19 points accumulated vs the Break level of 17! So, far from ‘hand-bags’!!