A Big Game and a Bon Voyage!

My local club wanted to organise a big game over the xmas period to give one member a send off as he was departing for a cushie job in Paris!

We have a lot of Bolt Action stuff, it's easy to play and remember too so I quickly put together a series of three linked games with a narrative combining them whilst the other guys concentrated on pulling the venue, figs and terrain together.

I knew that we had a Pegasus Bridge board so our first game was a night time attack by British Paras. To throw a couple of spammers in both sides works however added a rule that if a unit hadn't fired it couldn't be seen due to the darkness until it was within 12". Give that the german defenders of the bridge had to get a chance to fire and the British had to get a chance to cross the bridge I made the defenders Osttruppen but gave them attached MMG's. Great for shooting, but only if they pulled themselves together and had targets close enough to see! Meanwhile the darkness rule meant the Brits actually had a chance of capturing the bridge.

The first squad tied down the Germans on the south side whilst the other two pounded across the bridge. After taking some casualties to mg fire first one squad then another decoded the best thing to do was to assault the german foxhole! Result masses of spend brass casing and a bunch of dead para's!

However the section on the south side of the river had by now caused the poor Osttruppen some serious damage and so at with both sides at tipping point we called it a draw......, cleared and reset the table and went for lunch!

The second game saw the remaining para's form the recce team for the allied advance across some french countryside. Two jeeps and a Tetrach light tank led the way, backed by 3 Sherman's and 3 squads of regular infantry.

However the Germans seemed to be aware of their advance and cunningly prepared a pak40, panzershrek and mmg team amoungst the hedgerows. One squad of Fallshcirmjaeger took over a farmhouse while a second squad escorted two StuG III's through the hedges. 

The Germans bided their time as the first jeep drove past and opened up the Pak40 on the Tetrach. The poor crew were deafened by the shell piercing the thin armoour of the tank, but it survived, the jeep however came to an abrupt stop as it rounded the corner, and came face to face with a StuG. The driver slammed in the break and shaved the gears into reverse, moving back up the road and into the driveway of the farm.....Ooops! Shot at by its occupants the crew jumped out and dived thru the hedge, assaulting the gun and killing the crew but were then hit by fire from the farm.

As the Brits became aware of their enemy they tried calling in artillery support, but the confused message resulted in the rounds landing on top of their own men. The Tetrach recovered but couldn't reverse off the bridge and caused a roadblock as the StuGs moved up. The supporting British infantry fanned out into the fields but were hit by the MMG. Chaos reigned and casualties mounted and in the end the Brits called off the advance and headed back the way they came. 

1 Draw, 1 Axis win.  All to play for in Game three!

By now we were pushed for time and revised the scenario to reflect that. The British were now advancing on a small town which, according to Intel, was being used to store something important in the church vaults - a chest of Gold bars.

This time the allies thundered in and the defending german para's gave them merry hell as the advanced, using the church as a strongpoint and blazing away. However it didn't take long before the Brits were approaching the main square. 

Two Sherman's advanced on either side of the church towards a large german tank, sitting immobile with damaged running gear. One sherman got a little ahead of itself and poked out round the side of the church. The driver was horrified to see the tank was in fact a King Tiger and its turret was rotating toward him!

The gunner, made of sterner, stuff slammed a round into the breach and fired - just as the tiger got off its shot and the sherman blew to pieces in the street, taking out part of a nearby house. However it got a lucky shot and its 75mm round pierced the side armour and knocked out the Beast!

By that point we'd ran out of time....

The church door opened and a Fallshrimjaeger officer stepped out with an offer. Let them go and they'd split the gold, make them fight and they'd blow the church to pieces around them....

The Brits, tired and in no mood to tangle with such an obvious head case agreed! By nightfall the two sides were heading into the countryside with some rather shiny gold bars.....

All in all a great send off for Ross and a great set of games! Much laughter, silly accents, jokes, movie references and lines were expended during the day and who could ask for more?

tinkering....

So I've fiddled with the page width and the image size........better?

A Duel in the Snow

A few pics from today's game. Another encounter between the Romans and the Germans and seeing as it's the last game John and I will get before the new year I decided to make it a little festive....!

Just a plain cloth and some Lemax pines from the garden centre. 

We used our version of the Neil Thomas Classical rules, which we've now modified quite a bit. However we like the simple systems and the fact that we can crack on with the game and not have to worry about what's on page 6, paragraph 3, except when uphill or in bad going, on a Tuesday, if wearing a bobblehat.

This time the Germans fought not as warband, but as heavy infantry. This put them on a par with the legions except for their armour.....quite an important distinction. The heavy armour of the Romans eliminated about a third of their hits and eventually this wore down the Germans and slowly their battle line was reduced. Although they can be victorious on the flanks, against the auxiliaries, the Germans just can't break the legions.  A great game all the same though!

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Plastic Landskechts from Pro Gloria!

Pro Gloria make some cracking figures and I have watched with increasing interest over the last few months as their project to develop a set of plastic landsknechts has slowly and inexorably crept forward.

Pro Gloria Indiegogo

 

 

 

 

These chaps, the 3ups for the die making process, look simply stunning and I'm exceedingly tempted to pledge my support for a box or more, once I work out what level of game I'd play. Either way I hope to see this project come to fruition as it represents the continued expansion of plastic figures into new and diverse periods and the success of another small company in our hobby.

 

Best wishes guys!!

 



Legends of the Feudal Times 2 - War in the East

A second game at my local club, this time featuring a Muslim army against my western retinue. Although there are no specific lists in the mods for "eastern" forces we simply changed the names of the French list to more suitable equivalents for this first attempt. The only actual mod we added was that archers could be mounted (by paying the cost of a horse) and that these could move half and fire full or move full and fire half. Very basic mods I agree, but we're after a game and if they work then they'll stay.

So, we set up the board using the "crossroads" scenario and off we went.

The horse archers predictably swept wide round the flank whilst the Westerners moved forward resolutely to square up to their foes, trusting that their heavy armour would protect them. The knight and archers turned to deal with the flanking Turks.

Honours would remain even on at side of the game due to poor dice throwing and forgetting to back off after losing melee. Not a huge error but one which may have opened the chance for archers/horse arches to shoot.

In the center it became a slugging match, with both sides loosing men.

 Eventually a head to the hills check was called and a battle which had already seen lots of ones thrown, was ended by another low score as the depleted Christians did a runner.

Time for a second game.....oh I think so...!

This time we picked "The Abduction" with my crusaders riding to save his son's intended from the hands of the infidels.

This time the horse archers went round each flank. The lord and sgt charged off and swept round the back of the large house only to find the lady in question had been moved.

The knight and footmen moved up and again crossed swords with then enemy.

 

 

 This time however the Christians had the upper hand and held back the Seljuks until such time as the damsel was located by the Lord and throwing her over his saddle he rode like the devil was on his tail for the table's edge and home while his doughty sergeant covered his back.

A lone horse archer sniped at him but to no effect and he reached the edge just as the another abductor met his maker and a head to the hills resulted in the remainder fleeing.

Two great games, much fun had!!

More next week apparently.