Like a general without a mission...

 The plan for yesterday was for me to cross the Pennines to meet up with m'colleague Neil for a game of Maurice, the next in our Succession War. The Wintersmith and Storm Arwen had other ideas however and Neil woke up to 4 inches of snow on his street. The Snake Pass and Woodhead Pass were both closed due to heavy snowfall so we had to abandon the fixture.

So here is Giovanni Di Tripponi, the latest Notable attracted to my cause who was set to be appointed as my Chief Of Staff. We shall have to resume our war on another weekend, when the passes have reopened.

I love the smell of pastries in the morning: The Battle For Denmark Day 2

 Having only taken 6 photos on the first day, I was determined to do better on the Sunday. By the end though I had only managed 11 and one of them was just of a tape measure that I had taken by mistake...

Day 2 in the West German sector saw my infantry finally mop up the remaining Warpac troops in the woods. Ian's reinforcements arrived in the shape of another infantry BTR60 battalion and T55 battalion. Having bravely advanced into a storm of Milan, Racketpanzer and Jagdpanzer Kanone fire, it was clear that they would not be able to breakthrough and this part of the battlefield seemed secure. On my left flank the situation was less favourable.

Mark W's Danes had been having a torrid time on the left, being assaulted by 2 Soviet naval battlegroups and waves of helicopter attacks. The 2 homeguard companies defending the docks had been swept aside so the Danish defence was centred around the town of Haderslaf. To the left of this shot, a company or so of tooled up Spetsnaz had landed and were occupying the other side of the bridge. In the top left a battalion of BTR mounted infantry are preparing to cross the river.

To the Danish front and right, naval infantry had taken cover, waiting for a recently landed T72 battalion just visible in the top right.

In a bid to relieve some of the pressure on our Danish allies I brought on another 2 companies of Leopard 1s that has been held back on day 1.

My other Leopard 1 companies, meanwhile, had taken cover in "Blockbuster Wood" and engaged the Soviet tanks & ATGMs on the heights. This certainly achieved the desired effect of catching their attention, as it brought down a hail of response fire upon me.

Meanwhile, over on the NATO centre, the Soviets had reinforced and continued their attack on Vojens airfield.

The British defenders of Vojens airfield resumed the Fury v Wilder-esque slugfest of the day before.

My recently arrived Leopard 1s took up a hull down position on this hill and engaged the T72 battalion.

Late in the game, the T72 battalion charged the remaining Leopards in Blockbuster Wood, including their Gepard who gamely blazed away at the oncoming Soviet tanks, almost managing to take one out. The T72s then started taking casualties from my Leopards on the hill.

We called the game after turn 11. At this point it was clear that the Danes and West Germans had done enough to to stop Haderslaf from falling, though they had been flanked by the battalion of infantry that had crossed the river. On the NATO right the USMC had successfully defended Ribe, but the British had finally succumbed to overwhelming pressure and the Soviets managed to break through at Vojens.

All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable weekend. My thanks to Richard P for organising the game and his amazing scenery and to Andy H and Steve G of Grimsby Wargames Society for hosting us and keeping us fed and watered. My thanks also to all the old friends and new who took part in the right spirit of competitive yet gentlemanly gaming, along with plenty of laughs and robust banter. Let's not leave it as long before the next game!

The Battle For Denmark

 It's our annual big CWC meet up this weekend. After last year's cancellation (after last year full stop really) it's been great to catch up with the chaps and meet a few new faces too. This year we have returned to the Danish-West German border for the game. To my shame, I've been enjoying the game that much that I've only taken a handful of photos.

The dockyards, scene of a Soviet naval landing and more fantastic scenery by Mr Richard Phillips.

My Marders. After dropping off their infantry they set up a "Milan screen" and helped put Ian's T55s to the sword. Behind them my Leopard 1s have taken cover and started shooting up the Red Peril.

Ian's BTR mounted infantry withstood a barrage of fire but continued to advance bravely. In the background his T55s lost out in a long range firefight with my Leos and Marders.

Looking to my right across the other sectors of the battlefield defended by British infantry and the USMC.

The high mark of the Soviet advance in the centre. The battle for the airfield developed into a right tear up as Soviet T64s engaged a handful of British Chieftains and Milan posts at point-blank range, before being repulsed.

Meanwhile, the battle for the woods in my sector was turning into a bloodbath as Ian's Soviet infantry repeatedly close assaulted the West German defenders.

On my right another couple of infantry companies mauled an advancing Soviet infantry battalion.

So at the end of day 1, the NATO centre and right are looking secure. On the left however, the Danes are struggling to hold back the Soviet naval and airborne landings...

The Battle of St Germanus of Auxerre

 Apparently 31 July is the feast day of St Germanus of Auxerre. It was also the day that I crossed the Pennines to meet up with m'colleague Neil for the first time since late 2019 for a game, so that is the name we adopted for our battle. This was a 7 Years War encounter using the Maurice rules. We've had plenty of battles in this setting before but this was the first time that I had a complete army so we designed 100 points ish armies using the Succession Wars rules. The game would pit my Hesse Kassel Reinforcement of His Britannic Majesty's Army against Neil's Frenchies.

The battlefield and initial deployment. My Hessians are on the right, Neil's French on the left. We both made use of National Advantages and both had picked Deadly Volleys and Cadence.

My Light Brigade formed my left flank, consisting of the Buckeberg Carabiniers mounted and on foot plus a battalion of Jaegers. Their job was to occupy the town and woods to my left.

The infantry formed my centre, here in columns ready to march, while my cavalry brigade took the right flank.

Neil's French, in line and ready for battle. The infantry unit in the foreground are a Scottish Jacobite regiment that he forgot to move in his first few turns and so played no part in the battle. As they were one of his more powerful units this was a costly error.

The game started with both armies advancing to contact. It quickly became clear that the open valley in the centre of the battlefield was where the action would be decided. I took advantage of the Cadence advantage and quickly deployed an unbroken line of 4 battalions, with Jaegers in the woods to their left and decided to let the French come to me. We also selected some Notables for this game. One of mine conferred a +1 to hit on any unit it joined. I attached him to the Lieb Regiment, one of my infantry battalions. However, some careless deployment saw the Lieb Regiment form part of my second line so could not use this advantage until late in the game.

On my left the Light infantry had quickly garrisoned the town and a wood to its right. The Buckeberg Carabiniers, scouting forward, found the French artillery within charge range and unsupported. This was too tempting so they unsheathed the sabres and charged the guns. Through some poor dice rolls (poor dice rolling became a feature of both sides' cavalry during the battle) the close assault was inconclusive and the Carabiniers fell back. Next turn Neil invoked a volley, the French gunners calmly loaded grapeshot and blew the Carabiniers away. First blood to the French.

On the right, both army's cavalry became embroiled in an ineffectual melee. As usual, it was the infantry who would decide the day.

My infantry, deployed into 2 lines, waiting for the approaching French.

After a few volleys one French battalion had broken. The French fixed bayonets and charged the Hessian line. After the numerous melees had been resolved, the Hessian 7th Erbprinz Regiment and 5/8 converged Grenadiers had been broken, with no French losses. However, their exertions had left several French battalions in a perilous state. A bombardment from my artillery was enough to break the French Grenadiers and, once my second line of infantry had marched forward, a few more volleys were enough to break several more French battalions. Meanwhile, on the right, my cavalry had slowly started to get the upper hand and had routed a French cavalry regiment. At this point, General Neil offered his sword and I accepted the honours of war.

Final positions, as the continuous volley of muskets takes its toll on the French and their centre starts to collapse.

So, first blood to the Hessians and, despite the final butcher's bill, quite a tight game until the very end. This is the first time that we have chosen our own forces, rather than use a historical scenario. The various armies in Maurice are all quite similar, so it was interesting to see how different our 2 armies are. My Hessians are a small force, but all trained. Neil by contrast has gone for a mix of trained and conscript, resulting in a significantly larger force but of a lesser quality. In the tight confines of this battle he could not bring that numerical superiority to bear, so in the end I think that the quality of my troops made the difference. In a more open field this situation could be reversed.

In the post battle admin my broken battalions have been reformed, but of conscript quality (even my elite converged Grenadiers frustratingly) and my 1st Prince Wilhelm cavalry have become elite. That very useful Notable who conferred a +1 to hit modifier had apparently decided that they'd had their shilling's worth out of him and retired.

Neil has added a write up of the battle from the French point of view on his blog over at asandboxinsheffield.blogspot.com

We have lift off

 After several false starts and postponements, for the first time since Lord knows when a group of us actually managed to meet up and play a game yesterday.

An overview of the battlefield.

There were 5 of us (3 NATO, 2 Soviet) playing on a 12' x 6' table. Mark J had written an excellent scenario consisting of a NATO hasty counterattack/breakthrough assault, for variety. It also included hidden deployment rules, something that we do not use very often. The NATO players had the option for hidden movement as well as the Soviet defenders, something which the NATO players cheerfully dispensed with in favour of just getting stuck in.

My Leopard 2s advance through a built up area.

During lockdown I decided to treat myself to a set of Bundeswehr dice from Dice of War. In this, their first game out, they promptly rolled two command blunders in my first turn. The effects of one of the blunders is shown here as some of my Panzergrenadier brigade support elements are caught in a blue on blue crossfire. Hopefully the dice have got this sort of thing out of their system now...

My West Germans formed the central thrust of this multinational assault. On my left flank were Mark J's Canadians...

While Andy C's French took the right flank.

Part of my plan was to set a couple of Panzergrenadier companies on one of the wooded hills, so that they could cover my tank advance with opportunity fire from their Milans. Unfortunately, the troops in front of them remained hidden so the Marders had nothing to shoot at.

The West German brigade commander, General Von Klinkerhoffen, reviews his battle plan.

Late in the game the infantry companies decided to come down from the hills, advance and get into the war.

My recce units performed sterling work revealing the hidden minefields, through the time honoured tactic of blundering into them.

Finally my hidden foe reveals himself.

The game fizzled out around 4pm after only 4 turns. We had made a slow start, having enjoyed meeting up with friends for the first time in a long time. It became apparent that we would not have a result by the end of the day, so I suppose it was a minor Soviet victory. The outcome of the game was irrelevant though. It was just so nice to actually see some friends again, get the toys out and roll some dice that by the end we were happy to sit and chat. Especially after we had packed up and relocated to The Wheelwright for a pint of Old Peculier.

The view from the other side as my panzers advance.

Massive thanks to the guys for traveling up to God's Own county of Cheshire for the game and especially to Mark J for the scenario and map and to Andy C for hosting the game. Elton Community Centre is a great venue so hopefully this will be the first of many games there.

Lion Hunting in Afghanistan

 Tonight I finally played out my delayed Black Ops game, set in Afghanistan and in 6mm. The 'Lion Of Kunduz', a local militia leader, has been making a nuisance of himself. German troops in the area have tracked him down to an abandoned village and a strike team has been sent in.

The tabletop. Quite sparse and plain, but it was my first game of Black Ops so I wanted to keep it simple.

In the first turn the German strike team advanced cautiously into contact. 

The unit sniper took aim at the sentry in the open and eliminated him with one shot.

The sound of a shot from a sniper rifle was seemingly not enough to alert the other sentries, but 4 heavily armed Germans clambering over a stone wall was. The Taliban heavy took aim at the strike team, but failed to hit a target. The German GPMG and sniper returned fire and took him out. The sentry at the other end of the village moved to engage and hit a German trooper, but his kevlar vest took the blow and he was unharmed. Return fire from the German trooper and squad leader made short work of the sentry. After 2 turns the Lion was the only surviving Taliban on the table. He went into hiding and called for reinforcements.

Taliban reinforcements arrive and hurry to reach their trapped leader.

The German troops close in on the Lion of Kunduz, forcing several observation tests that he successfully passes, being hidden in hardcover inside a building. 

Eventually though the Lion is spotted. Trapped and cut off from his remaining followers, the Lion fired wildly at the oncoming Germans but failed to hit a target before an aimed shot from the German squad leader silenced him forever.

More Taliban reinforcements arrived, but they were too late. The German sniper and GPMG gunner lay down covering fire as the rest of the team pulled back and headed for their exfil point. 

A successful run out for the Germans in Afghanistan then and for the Black Ops rules. I found the game easy enough to follow after a few activations and although I think I got some things wrong at the start, by the end of the game I think that I got the hang of it. I think the game could do with a quick reference sheet and rostas for each side, showing the stats for each team member and their weapons. I'm now thinking about a next game for my German fire team. Perhaps an opium refining facility has been spotted and designated for permanent closure...