Encounter in Elsdorf

After a prolonged period of R&R our trusty reporter was back in the saddle, this week reporting from the West bank of the Rhine in February 1945. The Yanks had launched “Operation Grenade” which aimed to cross the River Roer and punch through to the Rhine bridges trapping the more immobile German troops in their wake to become POWs. Combat Command B of the 3rd Armoured had reached the small town of Elsdorf held by the mixed Kampfgruppe from 9th Panzer. Greg took the Germans and Tony the Yanks.

The historical battle was fought in the darkness of early evening, so we played initially using blinds to reflect poor visibility. Tony’s tanks moved painfully slowly, probably reflecting the actual pain Tony felt having done a vigorous workout with Chris the night before. If there was ever a reason for not exercising Tony was providing it! Greg responded with his Marder III covering the South, a heavy force in the North and a lone MkIV moving through the town down the main road. Suddenly Tony’s Hellcat raced across the road unleashing a single shot at the MkIV. A Catastrophic kill for the exposed Panzer.

Tony followed up with his own dash up the road to try and get behind one of the Panzers. When the tanks were revealed it proved to be a Stuart hunting a Tiger I with another MkIV trying to get in on the act.

Soon the Stuart was a blazing wreck.

Tony was still finding it difficult to manoeuvre into position but with an advantage in numbers and Greg’s Marder seemingly happy to hold ground, decided to concentrate on the German heavy armour. That said both his Shermans took damage, with one surviving two 88 rounds from the Tiger. A minor miracle. Tony still had Red 1 on a blind, when Greg remembered having read about Elsdorf and realised Tony’s unidentified tank was 99% certain to be an M26 Pershing.

Even the Tiger decided discretion was the better part of valour and began to edge gingerly back into cover. No such luck for the second MkIV as the Pershing swung round a corner into a firing position and destroyed the German tank with a single round.

Greg’s morale plummeted especially as his Marder saw multiple hits on both Shermans only inflict minor damage. I finally called a halt to proceedings declaring it an American win with two MkIVs knocked out for the Germans versus a solitary Stuart for the Yanks.

I hope both players enjoyed it. Back in the real 1944 the evening of February 26th 1945 had seen the first meeting between a Tiger I number 201 and one of the shiny new M26 Pershings named “Fireball” in the wreckage of Elsdorf. The Tiger had spotted the Pershing silhouetted by the flames of a burning Sherman, and then destroyed it with three shots. Unfortunately, the Tiger then disabled itself reversing into rubble and was abandoned by its crew and captured by the Yanks. “Fireball” was repaired and returned to service within two weeks.

Simon

Chain of Command: Many Rivers to Cross: Scenario 2

 We decided to play Scenario 2, from the “Many Rivers to Cross”, Pint Sized campaign, out of the 2018 Too Fat Lardies Special. Rob & Steve took the Germans and Dave & Mal took the Brits.

The Germans achieved the upper hand in the Patrol Phase. They managed to push a Patrol marker right down onto the centre of the village, into the shop at the centre of the high street. The Brits, starting with 2 Patrol Markers to left of the village and 2 to the right of the village, initially thought themselves in a good position, but things did not work out that way. Although the Brits did manage to contain the German Patrol Markers to the centre of the village, their flanking positions allowed the Germans to establish a Jump Off Point right down behind the farm building, near the T junction. Disaster for the Brits! The Brits only managed to sneak a JoP in the house on the left flank (1), at the back of the wood, centre village (2) and overlooking the village from the right flank (3).

The Germans opened with a big deployment, placing green section in the farm building, blue section in the damaged shop and yellow section behind the hedge line, over-looking the East of the village & the British right flank JoP! The Brits responded by deploying their yellow section into the back of the wood, to contest the village itself. Then blue section behind the wood, before jogging these to the back of the church, ready to climb into the church. However, in amongst all of this, the German pre-game barrage was really earning it’s 2 points, frustrating many of the British deployment attempts!

Things then settled into a bit of a stalemate, with neither side willing to force any big offensive moves, but then the Brits did manage to deploy the rifle team from Red section, into the house to the West of the village. However, the Germans then realised that the Brits would have no reserves left to deploy to the East side of the village and pushed yellow section rapidly down into the East of the village, quickly overrunning the British JoP there.

This forced the Brits to dash blue section from behind the Church, into the graveyard, in order to contest the right side of the table (& thus prevent a German win). But the British blue section soon began to suffer casualties & take Shock, from the long range fire of two German sections, forcing them to go tactical, crouching down behind the gravestones, as well as deploying smoke to their front.

The Germans then revealed their ‘secret weapon’! A Panzer III appeared to the East of the road, on the North table edge. This crashed through the hedge line, across the cornfield, slewing across behind yellow section, into a firing position over-looking the graveyard. The British attempted to deploy their 2 pounder, as a counter to the Panzer III,  but again were frustrated by the German pre-game barrage!

The British blue section, cowering in the graveyard, was now really beginning to suffer, both from the twin co-ax MGs on the Panzer III, as well as from the German yellow section, who had now crept forward into the smoke,to lay down closer range fire.

The British platoon sergeant made a heroic 17” dash from the wood, behind the church and into the graveyard, to try to steady blue section, but this only held for a short while. The emboldened German Blue section, dashed out of the shop, across the street and into the graveyard, to engage the pinned British blue section sheltering there in hand-to-hand. The melee was short & sharp, with the Germans actually losing by 1, but the British had lost 3 men and taken enough shock to break them, leaving the Germans in control of the East flank of the table and thereby winning the game.

Gaslands – M25 here we come!

• Simon –  In the ex-police “Charger”
• Chris – in the turreted “Maxim Spinner”
• Dave – In the armoured “Dodge, Hell No”
• Rob – Revving his engine in the sporty “Dixie Normus”
• Phil – Lumbering along in “Arse Burner”

Well, this was a our first attempt at Osprey’s Gaslands. We opted for a really simple version of ‘Death Race’, with one car each (randomly chosen), no shooting until through the first gate and two gates before the finish.

Well, the intention may have been simple, but once the flag went down, the jostling began! No shooting did not mean any lack of aggression – collisions galore, intentional or non-intentional!

Rob did not even make the first gate, wiping out just in front of Gate 1! A helpful Chris then aligned Rob’s car, such that poor Rob missed the first gate altogether!  

Chris cleared the first gate, ahead of the pack, but was immediately shunted by Phil….Wipeout! However, this did not stop Chris then shunting Simon into a wipeout, after hosing poor Simon down with his twin MGs, just for taking the lead.

Sensible Dave quietly brought up the rear, clearly aiming to slip past the emerging chaos ahead, but he had not allowed for Rob manically circling Gate 1, desperately trying to gate through Gate 1, to enable his weapons.

This all rather left the back of the field in a mess, with cars spinning out in all directions. From this mess Simon rammed the Charger back into first and roared off for the finish line. Chris tried to slow him down, using the turreted MGs, but these were quickly out of range, allowing Simon to zoom over the finish line.

All this carnage and we were not even playing the rule on gaining Hazard tokens for Shift results!?! Me thinks that the next game could see a bit more responsible driving at the start of the race!

Undaunted Normandy - The Campaign!

The Undaunted range of games from Osprey continues to grow and, having played the initial offering Undaunted Normandy, I can see why.  The game is a small unit combat game set in the post D-Day Normandy between the Americans (US 30th Infantry Division) and Germans.  It is a mixture of card play and a board game using a board made up of 18 separate card sections, allowing a wide variety of potential battlefields.  Cards are used to move your figures on the board and casualties are represented by removing cards for your hand.  As there are a lot of good reviews of the game on line, I'll leave off explaining the mechanics further.

The game contains 12 scenarios that start with the basic units (Infantry and Scouts) and build up complexity as you work through the games (including Machine gunners, Mortars, Snipers and Guides).  For the final battles you have a wide degree of choice in terms of units and tactics to deploy.  Eileen and I played through all 12 scenarios over a couple of weeks with her taking charge of the US forces and me playing the evil Hun.  Victory varied across the battles with the Germans winning the campaign by a small margin.  A few of the scenarios seemed to favour one side or another to a small extent but overall the campaign seemed balanced and the a couple of games came down to who achieved initiative in what became the final turn.

The end of the final campaign game with the Germans securing victory by the narrowest of margins

Overall the game is fast to learn, quick to play and presents enough tactical challenge to keep thing interesting without bogging the players down in rules complexity.  If you are looking for a game that can be played within an hour and won't cost you an small fortune I'd recommend checking this game out.  Sadly this game does not cover the use of vehicles or armour but there has been an Undaunted Reinforcements set which adds both Tanks and Solo play to both this game and North Africa.  Unfortunately it is currently unavailable from Osprey and hard to find elsewhere.  Hopefully it will be re-printed at some time in the future.

Having completed the Normandy Campaign (and knowing Phil already has Undaunted North Africa (British LRDG vs the Italians), Eileen has splashed out on Undaunted Stalingrad so the next challenge awaits.  

Chris

The Long Range Gaming Group do Roman London

Roman London. Our target for the day!

The London Mithraeum. Visitors can make noises using these empty vessels (the ones hanging from the ceiling!!).

The Mithraeum, with the light glinting off something in the background!
 

One of the oldest lumps in London .... and a Roman bridge support.

The team survey the Roman Villa (brothel!) at Billingsgate. What was the weight limit on the gantry again?

Team lunch, against Simon's better instincts. Eileen decides it may be a good time to snort a line!

Chris thinks this wall might not stop any barbarian horde!

Leadenhall Market.

Simon's challenge to anyone to take him on in the arena, isn't taken up!

The end of the walk, at the Roman Fort.... and Dave is getting tired!

What a Cowboy – A Tale of Two Games

 Game 1: Scenario 5: “Scorched Earth”

Their names would have gone down in the halls of Wild West immorality, if someone had not rubbed out the Character Dashboards! Anyway, Rob & Simon’s characters were defending their homestead, with a team of one Gunslinger, two Shootists and one Greenhorn. Chris, Tony & Phil controlled a team of one Gunslinger, two Shootists & 3 Greenhorns, intent on burning down the barn of these darned homesteaders.

Tony’s Shootist & Greenhorn, plus Phil’s Gunslinger went right, but quickly ran into Simon’s Shootist & Greenhorn, holding out behind the privy. Initially, all both sides seemed to be able to do, was chip bits out of the woodwork, despite both having brought along a rifle! However, Tony’s Greenhorn did manage to work along the fence, to flank one of Simon’s men, sheltering behind the privy. Shock & wounds started to accumulate here and it wasn’t long before both of Simon’s characters were taken out of the fight.  

This then freed up Tony’s Shootist & Phil’s Gunslinger to pick-on Rob’s Greenhorn, who was trying to protect that side of the barn. Rob’s Greenhorn had been trying to stop Chris’s characters from coming up the trail, to the barn, but was now forced to duck back around behind the barn.

This left Rob’s Gunslinger as sole operational defender of the barn, facing off against 3 Greenhorns. These Greenhorns formed their own little firing line, forcing Rob’s Gunslinger to take shelter behind the right side of the barn. But Phil’s Gunslinger made a dash across the trail, to the barn and started trying to set light to it.

This forced Rob’s Gunslinger to come out and deal with this threat to the barn, despite the bullets now pinging around him, but to no avail, the barn was soon blazing, so Rob’s Gunslinger ducked back into the ruin next door to the smoking barn.

Things looked bleak for Rob’s men! With the Greenhorns now closing in on his own position, Rob’s Gunslinger heard his Greenhorn go down to a flanking shot from Tony’s Greenhorn. ‘Ride or Die’ test!! Rob then rolled his traditional three 6s, but decided that discretion was the better part of valour and quietly slunk off into the shrubbery! This did not stop Tony’s Shootist from attempting & failing, a stunt of jumping from a window, onto some stampeding cattle (that he caused by leaving the gate open!), collecting a crushed rib cage in the process!? A victory celebration gone awry!

A good first game. We got a few little rules wrong, but overall, everyone grasped the concepts quickly and the game provides a nice balance of jeopardy, while still keeping players involved in the game, with plenty decisions to make.

Game 2: Scenario 6: “Vendetta”

Evil Chris’s and Deadpan Dave’s gang’s clash, over some petty feuds. Apparently Deadpan Dave had shot Chris’ dog and Evil Chris’s sidekick, “The Kid” had been having extramarital sex with a female relative of Deadpan Dave’s gang?! All very confusing, but someone was going to pay, in blood!!

Evil Chris wasted no time in dashing off to confront Deadpan Dave, leaving his support, Deadly Phil and Big John trailing behind. Soon a gunfight between Evil Chris & Deadpan Dave was raging around the barn.

Over on the left, “The Kid” was trying to hold off Terrible Tony & his sidekick. The Kid had hoped that his rifle would hold off these two varmints, but Terrible Tony’s feet seemed to carry him at impossibly fast speeds, right up to point blank range of the Kid! However, The Kid proved crazily capable of dodging bullets, rolling back & forth among the scrub! Terrible Tony then drew his knife and tried to ‘cut’ The Kid. Fortunately for The Kid, Terrible Tony proved to be pretty terrible with a knife!

Back on the right, Deadpan Dave looked to be in real trouble. He was facing off the Legend, Evil Chris to his front, while Deadly Phil had snuck around his rear! But then Deadpan Dave’s sidekick popped up out of the scrub and shot down The Legend ‘Evil Chris’, stone dead!!

This left Deadly Phil to try to take shelter in some nearby rocks, but to little avail. Phil had hoped that Big John would come to his assistance, but Big John appeared to be distracted by what was happening to The Kid over on the far side of the table.

By this time, despite some more frantic dodging, The Kid was thoroughly pinned down, sheltering behind a large rock, with Terrible Tony & his sidekick coming around either side of the rock! His dodging luck had finally run out! A .45 slug putting an end this phase of the feud!

{Note: Some of the names involved in this event have been changed, as they are now involved in a witness protection scheme. Nothing to do with the failing memory of the reporter!}

French raid in the Ohio valley

Today we played a game of Sharp Practice set in North America during the time of the French & Indian wars. The game was based on the “Sweep the Table” scenario from the main rulebook, where in this case the French raiding party attempted to burn the crops and/or buildings of the local farmers. The British were however, doing their level best to prevent this.

On hearing a loud crashing noise coming from the nearby woods the local militia, under the command of Sergeant Sam Sung, deployed at the edge of the village, overlooking the woods.

The local farmers, commanded by Mr Chris P. Bacon, moved into the graveyard adjacent to the church. The men hoped that standing on graves wasn't going to be a portent of doom.

Out of the woods crashed two groups of French Marine Infantry, under the command of Capitaine Alex Craiment, intent on doing a bit of arson.

Supported on their left flank, by two groups of Milice Canadiene woodsmen, commanded by Sergeant Lepeugotnogo.

The Marines fired a volley into the graveyard completely wiping out the farmers. First blood to the French.

 
The second unit of militia, commanded by Lieutenant Myres deployed out of sight of the French, hoping to be able to move into the graveyard.

A group of Huron deployed at the far end of the table looking to raid the British encampment,

Whilst the New Jersey regiment was heading the wrong way,

And taking some long range rifle fire.

The marines advanced into the crops, shooting up the militia who were very reluctant to engage with them, drawing double ones in succession for movement. This was likely a result of there being some fresh corpses scattered around.

The woodsmen advanced, torches in hand, towards the fields.

The militia finally got into a firing position, pouring lead into the poor marines. Unfortunately, the Capitaine was hit and knocked out. This was looking bad.

At this point the Rangers turned up, forcing the marines to pull back and killing the poor Alex Craiment. With the French morale at zero they were forced to withdraw after only setting one field on fire. It was a very bad day.