December SNS games

FOW Action, 15mm. Gary R. (red shirt) gives instructions.

Back to describing the last games of the year. The Saturday Night Skirmishers (SNS) usually game on the first and second Saturdays of the month, but to satisfy the demands of our members who want more tank action, we also set apart the third Fridays as FOW night. Our indefatigable Gary Rhay had set up a Russian Front campaign to help create battles for that night, and December saw a mighty German attack in progress as the Soviets tried to escape the closing pincers of panzers.

StuG G assault guns head towards dug in Russian infantry.

I was unable to play, but stopped by for some photos. I believe I heard that the Germans are winning the campaign so far, but someone please tell me if I have that wrong.

Crusaders (foreground) vs. Saracens. 28mm Deus Vult game.

Several of our group were very impatient to play the new game Deus Vult. Thankfully, Kai has 28mm armies of Crusaders and Saracens available, so as soon as Dennis had the rules in hand a game time was set up. The game includes a fairly hefty section on activities leading up to the battle which include scouting, deployment, and terrain selection, but for this battle that part was skipped and the armies deployed for immediate action. 

Crusader Knights and Saracen cavalry clash on the Crusader left wing.

Each army was divided into three "battles' or divisions, each of which comprised three or more units. Kai's forces are based singly so that he can adapt to any rules set by placing their magnetized bases on unit bases. On the Crusader right wing, the heavy infantry and crossbows took their sweet time trying to move forward while the center and left knight units charged out to meet the foe. The Saracen bow units had trouble advancing, but did try to pepper the Crusaders with arrows. In the center and right, the cavalry clash kept us all very busy as we tried to figure out how the close combat system worked. It took a lot of discussion to try to figure out the author's intent on close combat sequence and morale results. 

The slaughtered Knights retire to their lines.

Unfortunately, one of Gary S' knight units had trouble forming up to charge, and so the combatting knights were outnumbered and outfought by the Saracens. PLUS the Crusader players rolled really bad. The knights were nearly wiped out and the remnants retreated. With nothing to stop the Saracen center, the crusader infantry had to retreat from the field.  Now that we have a better sense of the game, I'm pretty sure we'll be trying it again.

The other battles played down at GAJO were store-sponsored events, and you can see pictures of those games on the GAJO website, including one of the most fun games so far of Bolt Action WW2.

I did take pictures of the X-Wing mini-tournament.

Rebel Alliance fighters vs. Imperial T.I.E. fighters. New A-Wing fighter in the center.

In this small tournament, named "Kessel Run" or something, four new ships were introduced and were actually given out to participating players! Then players set up their 100-point forces to play against each other in multiple rounds. In each scenario, the players had to fight around 8 asteroid counters and I can tell you that it isn't as easy as you think, I took several hits from glancing blows that crippled my ships.

Slave-1 and escorts battle Rebel fighters. It's dropping a seismic charge which will destroy that A-Wing.

My brother Dave won the A-Wing fighter and I won the Slave-1 ship. The new models are awesome! Take a look at the new Millenium Falcon below:

It's big but not agile, and carries a lot of firepower.

There's something to be said about the quality of quantity. The Empire player can take lots of lower-quality pilots in T.I.E. fighters, but it gives them lots of shots which can be the deciding factor. However, the droid technology of the Alliance can be a game-decider as well. Lots of fun!

The last big game for December is tomorrow, a War of the Ring game down at GAJO, and I'll try to get there for some photos of the battle for Pelenor field.

January SNS: FOW 15mm, 1945

Three 6 x 4 tables. Chris laid out the great terrain per Gary R's instructions.

Our January SNS group game started at 2pm on the 14th. Gary Rhay set up a "what if" 1945 scenario for FOW, where the US and Soviet troops come together to cut German rail lines and grab vital European art on the tracks. In the layout pictured above, Germans on the left, allies on the right.

German infantry defend the rail line on their right flank as a convoy moves along the rails.

I could only be there for the beginning of the game, so I still haven't heard the outcome. Kevin brought some visitors to the game, I hope they had a fun time being introduced to historical gaming with our group.

Panzer IVH tanks protect the FO on the hill.

No doubt about it, FOW remains the favorite game in our group for WW2 combat. However, it's not the only WW2 game we play. I'm a sucker for WW2 games. Recently Jeff G and I have been learning to play "I Ain't Been Shot, Mum" by the TooFatLardies group, in 28mm. Several of us, and Chris at GAJO, play "Rapid Fire" in 15mm, and several in the group and I love playing "BlitzKreig Commander" in micro-armor.

US armor on the allied left flank deploying.

More US armor in the allied center.

Soviet armor on the allied right.

The German left is dug in. German armor reserve in the back, at their center.

Soviet T-34/85s roll forward. Models are from Quality Castings.

German 105's knock out an SU-122. Russians move forward.

Kevin directs his US armor to advance in the center.

Recent Games

My H35's & H39's lead the advance supported by a neighbor's Char b1's.

With the Holidays behind us, and the start of a new year, it's time to get caught up on the blog and post some pictures of games I've been playing. In this post, we look at a few pics from the GAJO Tanksgiving event featuring FOW 15mm early war tanks in France 1940. Then we'll see pics from the SNS group's main gaming night in early December, again featuring FOW 15mm, this time in Tunisia early December 1942.

My center CHar B1's cover the main road while my Somua 35's move up to cover the open fields.

The Panzer Hordes. Will's tanks cross a vital bridge, take an objective and begin pounding my light tanks.

With Will's Pz IV's. III's and II's pounding my left flank, Paul's lighter but more numerous Panzers and Pz38T's charged across the open fields at my Somuas. Despite some tanks being knocked out, he overran my position and flanked the French tanks, wiping me out. Ouch. On to Tunisia.

In our Tunisian scenario, Allied and German forces are racing to grab key objectives before the other side does. In this case, the Italians have struck first and grabbed the central town, while Fallschirmjager landed at the nearby arifield. German panzers are on their way. The American airborne has force marched to occupy an overlooking ridge while American armor comes in from one flank and a combined British-American armored force comes in from the other side.

Overview. Italians hold the town. German and Italian armor will reinforce from the left road. Beyond that, the Fallshirmjager hunker down and await a flanking Panzer force for help.

Allied armor comes in on the Axis right flank. Stukas made some early hits.

Dennis' Bersaglieri desperately try to hold the town. Terry's Centauro armor begins to arrive. The SP 90's are deadly.

German left flank. The airfield is under control and reinforcing panzers arrive early. US airborne troops are coming down from the ridge overlooking the fields.

The Americans get into a traffic jam behind the ridge but feed tons of Lynn's Shermans toward the town. More Shermans and I think Lee's as well head toward Ken's panzers. Gary's airborne secures the ridge.

In the back, Dave D's US armored Recon gets smacked by the Italian 90's. Up closer, Russ' Grants, Honeys and Valentines spread out and advance. In another turn they get butchered by two of the only three Tigers available in Tunisia (mine, heh heh).

In the end we ran out of time as usual, but the axis forces held a slight lead in objective points. The trouble with our large games is that they must have more time for play.

D-Day Part 2

When the store opened on Saturday (June 6), the bigger part of the game got under way. Even more players arrived to play the beach defenses and the amphibious landing. I believe I heard Craig say that this was the largest attendance for a Saturday Mega-game that the store has ever seen. Fitting that it would be for D-Day. Turn four of the game began, it was dawn on the 6th of June (for game purposes - I slept in this morning).

6th Airborne takes Pegasus Bridge. 21st Panzer assembles off-table.

4th US Infantry Division starts its landings.

4th turn started with a pre-turn aerial bombardment and then the landing craft were placed on the table. Alas, this blog will mostly cover only my part in the battle, so waddle over to http://www.gajominis.com and wait for them to post a complete battle report. My concern was defending St. Mére-Église from the 82nd Airborne.

The MG42s are silenced. 91st Luftlande troops defend the HQ across the street from the church.

The 82nd commander, Wil, played a great game. The 82nd troops launched several assaults to consolidate their positions and remove the German fighting platoons. First, the 91st's AT platoon bogged down trying to remove their guns from the woods, and were wiped out by the 82nd's hardest-hit platoon. So, the woods were gone. Luckily I placed my remaining sniper well at the crossroads (oops, a mistake, as I wasn't supposed to place a sniper within 4 inches of friendly troops - sorry, Wil). The mortar platoon and the MG42s did sterling work holding off the final 82nd assault. 

The Church falls, HQ bugs out, leaving the sniper to cover the retreat.

Eventually Wil got his reinforcements. The 75mm pack howitzers landed a smoke barrage perfectly on the center of town and the 82nd's second platoon assaulted the MG and mortar platoons, wiping them out. As the US airborne consolidated, the German HQ began to retreat toward Carentan leaving the sniper to delay the American advance. Additionally, the remaining flak platoon would keep the airborne divisions from linking up.

The Fall of St. Mére-Église.

The sniper was never seen again, although small -arms fire was heard from the center of town. As the HQ retreated, the Flak platoon began raking the church tower with fire, knowing that the Americans would place observers there. No luck in stopping that, however. Soon the 82nd was raining mortar and artillery fire on anything wearing a feld-grau uniform. Unfortunately, the German defenders of Utah beach eventually caved under the weight of allied assaults and naval bombardments. Sherman tanks advancing from Utah finally linked up with the 82nd.

 

As the final paratrooper assault took out my flak platoon (leaving just the HQ survivors- and those at half strength), the security of Carentan was assured as the 101st ran out of assaulting platoons. In the end, the allies won the battle with 5 objectives captured to 4 objectives held. Not too dissimilar from the actual event. 

A photo was taken of most of the participants, and I'm told an article with photos will appear later in one of those great British wargaming magazines. Looking forward to that.

D-Day 65th Anniversary

GAJO set up a massive Flames Of War battle to represent the actions surrounding D-Day in WW2. This was a tremendous effort put on by the GAJO staff and the many participants. Chris and Craig and the GAJO staff have been preparing terrain and figures for months, as have many of the game players. It's all coming about just great!

The scenario is of course, representative of the large battle since it's impossible to accurately portray all the units and actual terrain of the event. Model Railroaders call this sort of scaling down as "Selective Compression." The idea is to at least get a "Feel" of the action and the strategies involved. Chris and Craig definitely got the feel of the Normandy coast, even though for the game's sake they had to shorten the beaches and represent familiar landmarks with the buildings available. Still, it was nice to see touches such as sign posts correct for the towns and roads of the area. Pegasus bridge was nicely represented as well as Pointe-du-Hoc and other objectives. The players are all big WW2 history nuts. One participant even wore his WW2 re-enactor's uniform for the 82nd Airborne! Nice touch to the atmosphere of the game.

The game was set over a two day period. Last night, June 5th, we gamed the airborne landings. After three turns, a roll of the dice indicated dawn arrived on time (meaning weather was not so bad as to obscure the dawn light). Play was suspended until the store opens today, June 6, with the dawn turn and the commencement of the landings.

Defense of St.Mére-Église. Dice ready for action.

My focus for this blog are the actions I was involved in, the defense of St. Mére-Église. To defend against the U.S. airborne I shared the command of the 91st Luftlände troops. This was a unit of former Luftwaffe troops trained to be airlifted into emergency situations. The game started with the 91st already in the defensive areas of St. Mére-Église (facing the 82nd) and Carentan (facing the 101st). The American players had to set out pathfinder markers and roll to see which units arrived randomly among the pathfinders or marched in off-board. Differently than the actual event, platoons arrived intact but randomly placed for arrival. This made it very difficult for the German players at first.

The bad luck die rolls hit the 101st player. He only managed to get two platoons of airborne to advance towards Carentan. His first platoon managed to overrun the outer defense, but snipers managed to pin the unit before they could overrun a 105mm battery. Because night rules were in effect, by nearby 20mm Flak platoon was unable to see the Americans well enough to target them. The second platoon has moved on slowly and cautiously. The Germans in Carentan are able to adjust their defenses.

82nd attacks 91st. 82nd will take the building at high cost.

In the 82nd sector, the Americans got 3 infantry platoons to come on through the fields outside of St. Mére-Église. The 82nd went into assault attempts immediately, and it was a fierce fight for the woods outside of town center. One sniper team helped to pin a platoon and accurate mortar fire helped pin another. Nonetheless, by the end of the third turn I had lost my two grenadier platoons, my sniper, and the Americans held the road to Cherbourg and one third of the town. I am left with some MG42 teams, a mortar platoon, an anti-tank platoon, a flak platoon, and Company HQ.

Find the sniper team pinning down 2nd/82nd.

Dawn is breaking. There's a tremendous rumbling from the coast. While my position in St. Mere-Eglise is precarious, Carentan is held strong and a Fallschirmjager company will arrive next turn. Plus, the night rules are over, and I think my observer in the bell tower will be quite busy...

Remains of 82nd 1st and 2nd platoons hold the center building and part of the distant woods. In the church just to the right are the observer team and a small MG42 platoon. It will take careful coordination between remaining German teams to pin the 82nd until (hopefully) reinforcements can arrive. But the 82nd gets more reinforcements shortly...

SNS Gamenight - March 2009

The Saturday Night Skirmishers met for our monthly get together at GAJO's. The subject was Flames of War 15mm WW2. Specifically, I created a scenario representative of the British battles around Caen in 1944. The beautiful table terrain you see in the photo above was put together by Chris at GAJO's the day before we were scheduled to play. Big points for him, the table looked fantastic and was battled over with much enthusiasm.

This was a bigger game than originally designed, we ended up with three visitors for the game: welcome Pat, Casey and Norm. Norm just recently returned from duty in Afghanistan, and he gets extra points for putting up with a billion questions from all of us (especially me). Casey gets extra points for being Gary's son and putting the crunch on his dad: his British infantry (my figures, ta-da!) made a mess of Gary's PanzerGrenadiers.  And Pat gets points merely for deploying more Tigers than your average zoo.  Any one else want points? They're free...

I used scenario 1, Hill Defense Line, from Charles Grant's book "Programmed Wargames Scenarios." I used the random terrain generator, and some of the random orders and objectives.  The Germans were assigned to hold the ridge in the photo on the left, and specifically not to move beyond it... which they promptly disobeyed. They evidently figured on a more successful outcome if they were to counter-attack the attacking British.  Of course, if you know your history, that IS in keeping with German tactical doctrine. Dave B's Fallschirmjager moved down the flank of the hill (affectionately named "Fromage Ridge") and among the nearby fields and hedges. Gary's Stugs and Panzergrenadiers in Sd 251's moved down the paved road in the center, followed by Pat's Tigers. Dennis valiantly marched his Luftwaffe field troops off the hill into a meatgrinder among the bocage.  His Stugs evidently caught the atention of the British FAC.

In the picture, Dennis is doing his best to shoot down Russ' Typhoon before it rockets his remaining Stugs. His triple-A did all right, scoring hits on several planes, but enough hits got in to cripple the Stug force. By the end of the game, the LW troops had taken severe losses and Dennis felt he might have to withdraw.

Lucky for the Germans then, that we did not finish the game. We started a little late, and that meant we ran out of time to reach a conclusion.  So no one really won, although the Brit players (Russ, Casey, Lynn, Norm) get a points advantage for following orders!

Most everybody in the group loves FOW and the guys want to play more. Good. We all need to learn the rules better. GAJO is setting up a large FOW mega-battle next month.