82nd Aiborne try to hold off the Germans

The Germans looked on at the causeway and wondered whether it was a good idea to flood the fields as it now made it difficult for them to push the invaders back into the sea. The Germans deployed two sections and as they got a double phase started to run towards the cover of the woods.

Unfortunately the second section didn’t get into cover and the Americans deployed a section of airborne behind a hedge.

With the Americans getting a double phase it wasn’t looking good for the Germans left out in the open and soon there was a field full of casualties. “Well there goes the plan” muttered the German commander. With only two sections left things were going to be very difficult for the Germans, so they deployed the Somua to hose down the hedge line. Unfortunately this caused few casualties.

The Americans responded by sneaking a bazooka team into the ditch beside the causeway...

and managed to hit the Somua with their first shot. However it did little damage but did force the Germans to deploy their last section into the ditch.

The Germans opened fire and managed to hit everything in the ditch but the bazooka team. The Americans now had a target to shoot at and so they did, causing significant casualties and soon the German section was down to half strength. Meanwhile the German section that had been hiding in the woods pushed forward to the edge...

but immediately drew the attention of the American second section.

This was not a firefight that they were going to win and with the Germans running out of troops and force morale plummeting, the game was called.

Romans Take a Walk in the Forest...

This is another Infamy tale where the Romans decided that the corn in the fields looked ready for collecting. Unfortunately the local Germanic tribes weren’t too happy about the Romans stealing their winter supplies.

The task for the Romans was to collect corn from two of the three fields. This was simple for the first one as this was near where they could deploy, but the other two fields were deep in German territory.

The Roman main force deployed into the field and how they sang as they harvested the corn.

They would soon be singing a different tune as a Germanic warband looked on menacingly.

The Romans advanced to try and hold off the Germans, but another even larger warband turned up on their flank.

“Steady lads”, shouted Centurio Tonius Starkus, “we can hold them here whilst the Numidians flank them”. Unfortunately Adalhard had spotted this and sent a warrior group to head off the Numidians.

The two warbands crunched into the Romans, who hastily formed line but forgot to close up. Buckets of dice were rolled and the Roman line buckled and then broke.

Soon the Romans were running, with only the Legion recruits and the Numidian cavalry able to avert a complete disaster by holding off the flanking warrior group.

The Syrian Coast...a long long time ago

After a break of nearly four weeks our award-winning reporter packed his camera and moved west from Mesopotamia to the Syrian coast in the 12th century BC. The city of Ugarit...or as renamed “Bu**er-it” by Chris, was under attack by the marauding Sea Peoples lead by Goliath of Gath aka Tony. Rob acted as Tony’s deputy having bemoaned his bad luck fighting on the same side as Chris. The Hittite Governor of Carchemish aka Simon has rushed to help local King Ammurapi aka Chris. The battle was fought under the walls of Ugarit.

Chris and Tony had masterminded the deployments. Tony had seemingly “refused” his right wing, leaving quite a gap between his battle line and the walls of Ugarit. However it meant the rest of his line was a sold wall of deep warrior units with a few chariots on his left. Chris had deployed the Syrian/Hittite force across the length of the board. The lightly-armed Syrians were on the left facing Rob and the “refused” flank, while the chariots were allocated and deployed in the centre in “penny packets” between two commands. No chariot Schwerpunkt here! It was a deployment that was either inspired or catastrophically insane...

Tony immediately played his stratagem and three units and a general surged forward two boxes. How Tony!

The whole Hittite line moved forward somewhat daunted by the solid mass of bronze clad warriors charging towards them. Chris tried to move his Syrians around the refused flank but found that light troops die quite easily and even impressive-looking light chariot units only take one hit. Add to that the fact that the Hittite camp was fortified and garrisoned meant turning the flank and taking the camps was going to be a long-shot.

The Hittite stratagem to bring on a flank march unit of spearmen behind the Sea People’s left flank failed miserably when a chariot unit turned, charged it in the flank and destroyed it. Why Chris chose a slow-moving spear unit for this mission was in hindsight very strange. 

In the centre the Sea Peoples got to work with their deep units. Hittites troops died and once again the ability of deep warriors to withstand immense punishment paid dividends. The “free” hero now allocated to warriors was also a useful asset. With no manoeuvre room the elite lance-armed Hittite chariots had no choice but to charge frontally...and die. Chris’ flank attack was going nowhere...

With the Hittites down to five out of fifteen victory medals, and the Sea Peoples having lost a measly two it looked like curtains for Ugarit. However hope was restored when centre command Sea Peoples deep unit was flank charged and destroyed, quickly followed by another on their right. However the hope of a miracle was finally extinguished as yet more Sea People warriors wiped out the raw Syrian arches plus another light chariot unit. With the Syrian army destroyed the Hittite commander wisely withdrew his remaining troops from the field leaving the city of Ugarit to its grisly fate.

Believe it or not it was an enjoyable battle, if only to see Rob happy! The chit pulling certainly favoured the Sea Peoples but that was no excuse.

The battle itself proved historically accurate. Excavations of Ugarit show the destruction layer dating to circa 1190BC, and Egyptian records show that it had certainly been destroyed by 1178BC.

My challenge now is to persuade Tony to buy a New Kingdom Egyptian army which I conservatively estimate at £300...

Simon

Can Capitaine Opless save the signal tower

Another outing for our unlucky Frenchman as Capitaine Opless has been informed that a Royal Navy cutter has been sighted and is heading towards one of his signal towers. Mustering what forces he had to hand he headed off to stop the British doing some dastardly deed.

The French quickly deployed in the North with the French Dragoons deploying next to their infantry, much to the bemusement of the British as they were expecting them to head west to try and outflank the landing party.

Whilst the Royal Navy arrived in boats on the South Western shore.

It wasn’t long before the whole French force was heading towards the signal tower. Where were the British Marines, cried Rob.

The Sea Dogs continued their advance into the vines,

whilst their mates made for the signal tower.

At last the Marines arrived, but were they too late to stop the French getting to the tower?

The Naval skirmishers formed up in the vines behind the wall, halting the Voltigeurs in their tracks.

The French formed a nice line and started to pour lead into the column of Marines as they desperately attempted to form line.

Unfortunately the Dragoon fire was too intense and managed to set fire to the signal tower. Oh how we laughed. Well that’s game over then.

However, cries of let’s get Capitaine Opless were heard coming from the British. Looks like the game was still on even though the British had completed their objective in burning the tower. Capitaine Opless aligned his troops next to the Voltigeurs and this was too much for the British skirmishers who were losing men rapidly...

resutling in them withdrawing in an orderly fashion.

The Voltigeurs stepped forward to chase the British off...

But they had walked in front of their own troops. Could Opless stop the conscripts from firing. Alas no.

The mob of sailors with no tower to burn charged into the French that were firing at the Marines. The fight was brief with both sides taking casualties but this did distract the French as the British decided at this point to start to withdraw.

Another unfortunate outing for Capitaine Opless who’s luck only appears to be bad, as the game was effectively over after a few turns but the British decided to play on to make a game of it.

Showdown at Singara; 344AD

An easier travel plan for our reporter this week, as he travelled from the Libyan/Egyptian border of late 1941 to the desert of Mesopotamia in Summer 344AD. This was going to be a hot one. The Sassanian King Shapur II had launched at attack on the Roman frontier seizing the fortress of Singara. The Emperor Constantius II has come in person to command his armies and restore Roman martial pride. Phil, Tony and Fred took the Sassanids, with Chris, Rob and newly recruited Tribune Barney the Romans. With both sides fielding double-armed units, both sides had a relatively low unit count and only a small number of victory medals.

The Sassanids started by seizing the ridgeline on their right flank whilst pushing aggressively forward on the left. 

The centre was curiously static. It must be a ruse.

The Romans advanced in good order, albeit a tad slower. Tony again pushed the Sassanid left forward showering Chris mighty Cataphract unit with arrows, one of which amazingly scored a hit. This seemed to un-nerve the Roman senior commander.

He was even more worried when his cavalry were also hit and died, leaving his wing exposed. Worse was to follow as Phil deployed the “lost” Stratagem and managed to bring his unit of light cavalry onto the table straight into the Roman camp area. Five coins lost and none captured for the Romans.

The Roman left and centre manfully fought on, but realised that their right was in danger of collapse and the Sassanids were in their rear area. Nasty!

Chris finally managed to deploy his “reserve” light cavalry to save the second Roman camp, but the situation on the left continued to worsen. The cataphracts were finally destroyed as were the light infantry, and the flank was turned. The sole Roman success occurred in the centre where Rob’s legionaries managed to destroy some of Fred’s cavalry which had rashly advanced into a palm grove. Cavalry fighting in broken ground is never a good idea!

The end for Julian came soon after. A unit of Auxilia was broken and Tony’s massed cavalry attacked an exposed Legionary unit.

A Sassanid victory 11-2 and a comprehensive defeat for Rome.

Simon

Return to Octerapus - The Empire Strikes Back

 To: Space Marine Strike Cruiser ‘Townsville’, base of the third company ‘Imperial Dropbears’ chapter

From: Imperial Battle Barge ‘Zeemaphrame’ commanded by Imperial Inquisitor Lord Rob.

Greetings in the Emperors name.  It has come to my attention that Heretical activity is taking place on Imperial world Octerapus with Traitor Marines having been spotted.  A unit of Deathwatch Marines dispatched to the planet are out of contact and are assumed to have been destroyed. Please urgently send a team of Marines to the planet to locate and destroy the heretics before the heresy takes root.

From ‘Townville’: Strewth Mate we’re just in the middle of something here, can’t you take care of it yourself?’

From ‘Zeemaphrame’: No we can’t.  His excellency Lord Rob is busy undergoing routine maintenance.  Planetary garrisons are already committed elsewhere. What’s so urgent you can’t help?

From ‘Townsville’:  We’re having a bar… Err We’re partaking in an ancient chapter ritual that’s totally out of the manual and shouldn’t be interrupted. [Muffled] Here Wayne watch those sausages mate, they’re starting to burn.

From ‘Zeemaphrame’: What? Look Rob is a Lord Inquisitor and he can totally order you to obey you know!  Besides we haven’t carried out a ‘purity review’ of your chapter recently if you get my drift.

From ‘Townville’:  All right mate, don’t stress yourself out, OK we’ll send a few of the boys to deal with it.  Leave it with us.  Townsville out.   Bluey get your lads together, oh and pass those prawns…

---------------------------------

With Rob busy on family business Tony stepped up to play the next game of Kill Team.  The two sides were Tony’s Tactical Space Marines vs Chris’s Heretic Space Marines giving a simplified battle as it was Tony’s first game.

The Heretic Astartes were as the previous battle, Aspiring Champion Derek the Miffed with Plasma Pistol and Power Fist, Chaos Warrior Roderick with Bolter, Chaos Warrior Tyson with Bolt Pistol and Chainsword, Chaos Warrior Tarquin with Chaos Icon, Bolt Pistol and Chainsword, Chaos Gunner Brutus with Meltagun and Chaos Heavy Gunner Steve with Heavy Bolter.

The Imperial Dropbears Space Marine Chapter fielded a Sergeant Bluey with Bolt Pistol and Chainsword, three Marines Bruce, Robo and Loco with Boltgun, Gunner Wayne ‘Barbie’ with Flamer and Heavy Gunner Chook with Missile Launcher.

Chaos won the initiative and choose not to use a Strategic Ploy, the Imperials chose Bolter Discipline enabling them to Shoot twice.  Tarquin started by Dashing to the centre objective and securing it for Khorne (1vp to Chaos).  The Imperial response was brutal as Bruce advanced then gunned down Tarquin using his two shooting actions.  Steve moved forward into a shooting position and secured the second objective (2vp for Chaos).  In response Robo leapt onto a shipping container, negating Steve’s cover and again with two shots gunned him down.   

                    Hapless 'Steve the Slaughterer' getting himself slaughtered

Tony’s decision to enact Bolter Discipline looked to be the right one.  Worried about the way things were going Brutus Dashed towards Robo and fired his Melta gun.  The effects were pretty brutal and finally Chaos had started to inflict some casualties.  Wayne moved towards Brutus and unleashed his flamer but only managed to likely injure the marine before securing the third objective (1vp for the Imperials).  Roderick moved position and managed to secure the final objective (3vp for Chaos).  Bluey dashed forward in the centre and managed to shoot Brutus with his bolt pistol inflicting enough damage to kill the injured marine.  Carnage amongst the Chaos ranks with 50% dead and it was still turn 1, admittedly their saving rolls had been rubbish.  Tyson moved up into the middle of the table and Loco jumped onto a shipping container and fired at him for no effect.  Derek dashed into range of Loco and shot him with his Plasma Pistol killing him on the spot.  Chook repositioned at the back lining up on Tyson.

Turn 2 and this time Chaos took Malicious volleys allowing them to shoot twice.  They also won initiative and started off with Bluey charging into combat with Bluey and killing him with his power fist.  He was also planning to shoot down Wayne but Tony reminded his sergeant that ‘Only is Death does duty end’.  Bluey remained in play preventing Derek from shooting an he was still within the Engagement range of the fatally wounded (but not yet expired) Marine.  The next activation saw Bluey killing the Chaos Space Marine Sergeant and securing the central objective before falling to his wounds.  Roderick opened fire at Chook and in two rounds of shooting managed to inflict only 3 wounds on Chook.  He then moved out of sight to avoid the likely counter fire.  Unfortunately Tyson was not so lucky being found to be in the Missile Launchers sights.  One Krak missile saw Tyson blown to bits leaving Roderick as the sole Chaos Marine in play.  The remaining Imperial forces repositioned and captured objectives leaving the score 4/3 to Chaos at the end of the second turn.

Turn 3 and the sole Chaos Marine was first to go.  Using Malicious volleys, he advanced into position where he could see two of his three opponents before unleashing a stream of bolter shells at Chook (unfortunately two lots of shooting saw no hits inflicted).  This time the answering shot hit the unfortunate Roderick killing him and leaving the table to the forces of the Imperium.  Victory to the Empire.

   Chook takes aim at his second Heretic Marine of the day - he's had his Weetabix!

----------------------------

The game ran well now that we are starting to get the rules under our belt.  There was major rules query.  If someone is killed during a melee attack but uses ‘only in death’ to survive one more activation does the combat continue?  We decided not but we’ll have to see if an official adjudication is announced.  Beyond this the game seemed to be a easy to play although as a new player Tony initially found the rules tricky to get to grip with.  Didn’t stop him winning though.

Dust up in the Desert - Part Due

After yet another short break from action our indefatigable reporter packed his solar topee and greatcoat and headed to the Libyan/Egyptian border in November 1941. The British have launched Operation Crusader and this action sees the Brigadier Scott Cockburn’s 22nd armoured Brigade trying to wrest the Bir El Gebi crossroads from the Italian Ariete Armoured Division and their supporting Bersaglieri. Will the Italians live up to their reputation and crumble like a stale Panettone?

The British advanced cautiously onto the field with pairs of Crusaders to the north and south, and the Valentines holding the centre. The Italian plan proved more interesting, or should that be chaotic. Whilst Chris’ lone M13/40 and Tony’s L6/40 advanced to meet the Crusaders, the other M13/40, Semovente, L6/40 and “Dummy” decided to form a “target-rich environment” for British artillery in a palm grove/ Lucky there is no artillery in WAT!

Eventually the Semovente lurking in the palm grove crawled out of its lair and planted a shell into the side of a Crusader, which was finished off by Chris L6/40.

More disaster followed for the 22nd Armoured when a Valentine fell to a single shot through its frontal glacis plate. Matters evened up somewhat with an L6/40 falling to 2pdr fire, and things looked decidedly tricky for the Northern M13/40 and Southern L6/40 as British tanks manoeuvred for close-up flank shots but then failed completely to manage a “kill”. 

Indeed both of Phil’s Crusaders fell victim to the Semovente and the lucky M13/40.

With only one Crusader and a Valentine still in the fight the British called it a day and retired, leaving Bir El Gebi in the hands of the Ariete Division.

Post game I have been looking at the data for the various tanks involved. Those for the Italians seem correct. I was surprised to find the “light” L6/40 actually had thicker armour than the “medium” M13/40. My personal view is that the Valentine should have a frontal armour of 6 not 5. As an infantry tank it was well-armoured, if not as heavily as the Matilda II. Armour 5 is exactly the same as that of the Stuart and it was better armoured than that! I sense a home-brew modification coming on!

Simon