Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Camp Cromwell Bulletin 29/06/05

Tuesday at Fort Floriet

We did Rivolli 1797 using the revised Camp Cromwell Rules & the scenario from Fields of Glory (modified a bit).


Chris was Buonapart, Nick was D'Alvinzi. We used their 15mm figs using 2 4 fig bases per unit.
While I'm not sure how well the FoG scenario corresponds to the real thing, it's an interesting scenario with reinforcements coming on from different directions.

The pic is about turn 4.

On the right the main Austrian force has advanced in line to pin the French front (from the right - the divisions of Liptay, Koblos & Ocksay). Quasdanovich with foot, horse & guns is advancing in the foreground to attack the French flank. The French main body is moving to try & attack the Austrians to their front before their flank forces arrive. Messena is in the French rear in a column moving to meet Quasdanovich. The Austrians have another Division (Lusignan) to come on near the coffee cup, the French have one (Rey) later again in their rear.

Quasdanovich moved faster than Chris expected and Messina arrived too late to cut him off. The French cavalry & Bruce's inf met the Austrian Cavalry, but Q's infantry advancing around and thru the village crashed into Joubert's flank and rolled him up quicktime. Messina did get into the tail of Q's infantry, but Q had done his job & the main Austrian line resumed their advance and took over the attack. The cavalry fight was a stalemate until Koblos advancing thru the hole made by Q's flank attack hit the French horse in flank and broke them. Lusignan's flank attack past the coffee cup was hit in flank & destroyed by the French reserves (Rey) before it could hurt the small French Inf Div supporting their cav. Finally Liptay broke Rey's Division & the French Army failed Morale with 4 of 6 CGs gone compared with 2 of 5 Austrians. It sounds closer than it was - Chris had a run of luck at the end that prolonged the inevitable.

The revisions seemed to work well - including: rout on Combat Difference of 4+ = loser loses 3CPs, winner 0.

Thursday at Camp Cromwell

Mahrajah: Mark's Fucilieri v. Leigh's Russian Guards

Mark's army had a shirtload of small units. Leigh's had no armour, just a wall of PBI with artillery & AA. Hold the Line scenario. Mark chose to defend. Mark's task was made difficult by a large wood in the centre - which is where Leigh placed his objective. Mark had to butcher the Russians before they got into the wood. He got a few but not enough. Once Leigh got a big infantry platoon in the wood Mark's little infantry units just couldn't stop it.

Coming events

Friday (tomorrow): Mahrajah: Steve J. v. Nick. Also boys night. Early start 6.30 & we'll get da Angelos.

Thursday: The usual at Camp Cromwell.

Thursday, June 23, 2005

Camp Cromwell Bulletin 23/06/05



Saturday: 7 Years war 15mm

We gave the revision of the Musket & Bayonet Rules a progress & reality check. (Chris, Peter, Mark, Steve J, Leigh & Jim present).

Chris's Prussians v. Peter's Austrians.

Chris attacked as Prussians do. The Prussian inf attack was blunted by the Austrian artillery. Peter also used his Cuirassiers to pin down a Prussian infantry brigade which gave his infantry a neumerical advantage which told in the end.

The Prussian cavalry won on both flanks, but on the left was prevented from exploiting by the terrain & on the other flank it arrived behind the infantry after they had beaten off the Prussian foot & they were able to turn & repulse it.

Mostly the modifications met with approval. We found a few points overlooked.
The new unwritten orders and the firing and combat system modifications seemed to work pretty well.

The main issue remains finding satisfactory Command Group & Army Morale Tests, but I think we are getting close.

I'm also concerned that the game takes too many turns. The double line formations have to be ground thru & it's too hard to make a decisive move. I'm thinking of trying rout on minus 4 in Close Combat - it means single line units are skitish, but with a double line the routers will rally behind supports anyway, so it might work.

Sunday: FOW small table training

With a competition looming we thought we should try some games on 6x4 tables.

Jim's KfC Brits v. Steve's Panzers, Brits defending HTL

Steve did pretty well dealing with the 6pdr ambushes, losing nothing & wiping most of them. But that was the end of German joy. A Hurricane through the flack & got a MkIV. The MkII's assault on the mgs was a disaster, they had 2 tanks bailed in defensive fire & another in counter assault, then they failed morale. 3 Shermans took on 5 MkIII*s. The MkIII's got plenty of hits, but just couldn't penetrate & were zapped in return. When the Shermans turned on the last MkIV & popped it, it was game over in quick time.

Peter's US Inf v. Chris' DAK in FFA

Chris's attack on the right was stopped by the USAF and artillery. Peter's attack on his right got to the objective but had lost too much & couldn't hold it. The Germans pulled back their attack to defend the right objective and send troops right across their rear to help hold the other one. They arrived before the next US inf plat, but the artillery got Rommel & eventually the Germans were worn down to below half strength and failed Coy morale.

The FFA battle proved that small table doesn't necessarily mean short battle - this was a long slog as FFAs often are.

For the HTL the small table gave the attacker fewer options, it has to favour the defence. But it was easier to reach the troops.

Thursday

A good turnup tonight - 2 Steves, Peter, Mark, Barrie, Leigh & Jim.

On a small table Steve P's Russian Inf v. Peter's German Inf in 1500pt FFF training battle.

The Russian right turned into a stalemate either side of a long ridge. The centre was dominated by 2 Pak 40s - Ivan didn't want to go there. The Germans attacked the Russian left with infantry & a 3 shot Tiger. It was defended by infantry, 4 SU122s & 5 T34s. In the end the only survivor on the flank was the Tiger sitting on the objective. Steve has learned a bit about Tiger Terror.

On the big table: Maharajah: Mark's Italian Inf v. Barrie's US Armour in FFF.

Barrie attacked on his right screening off the dreaded 88s with smoke. There was a furious battle for the objective. The Semos killed the Honey plat. The Lees took the objective, the Semos disputed it but were destroyed by the Lees & command Honeys. The Regio Aeronautica then came in waves blasting everything (Italian as well as US) off the objective. Finally a few GIs staggered over the bodies and survived yet another Stuka attack to hold the objective. It seems that the Regio Aeronautica & Mark are a potent mix, but still not quite enough. Barrie 4:3.

Proposed FOW Tournament at Area 52

The Area 52 Shop in Hobart is interested in running a FOW Tournament. There has been discussion about it in their FOW forum at www.area52.com.au. There appears to be a bit of interest, though the forum threads sometimes drop off the rails. More people showing interest will help it happen. It would be interesting to meet more other players.

Next week

Tuesday: I'm taking the Camp Cromwell Nap Rules to Launceston.
Thursday: Mahrajah: Leigh's Russians v. either Mark's Fucilieri or Jim's Carri.

Thursday, June 16, 2005

Camp Cromwell Bulletin 16/06/05

Saturday: 15mm Napoleonic Lannes v. Bagration at Austerlitz

Glen chose to be Bagration v. Jim as Lannes.

The battle had the tradiional infantry centre with cavalry on the wings. The French heavy cavalry arrived in time to stop the initially superior Russian cavalry rolling up the flanks and both flanks bogged down in large cavalry melees. Kamenski's foot broke Suchet (French left centre) but Caffarilli's counterattack on Suchet's right beat Ulanis then outflanked Kamenski to win the battle.

The revised rules seeemed to work well. We found a couple of oversights and we also missused the Regroup Rule, but decided that maybe the way we did it was better anyway (I'm still thinking about it). It took about 3 hours including a few pauses while we searched the rule book - due to lack of practice. The scenario has 21,000 French v. 29,000 Russians - this is about the right size of action for these rules in 15mm with two players - but the rules can be used for larger battles with 5mm figs.

The scenario was adopted from Fields of Glory - one of 18 in the book. It isn't hard to translate their system into ours, I'm working on more of them.

Tuesday at Fort Floriet: Maharajah - Jim's Italian Armour v. Starn's Russian Infantry

The all important Supply Mission Table has been augmented so it now requires a %die. Maccas were vetoed on account of their potato policies (& because it's #%$&) and we had PC Praeties.

We had diced for scenario last week, so were both able to tweek our armies for a Free for All - terrain to be a surprise by Chris.

Starn: HQ, 1 inf with 2 plats, 2 inf with 1 plat, 6 mortars, 4-a/t, 5 Matildas, 3 SU122 + Sturmoviks.
Jim: HQ, 2x4-L3, 4-M14, Bersaglieri, Semovente 4-75s+CC, 90/52 AA + Reggio Aeronautica.

The Ities had spent many hours plotting the perfect army to counter Matildas & Sturmovics & were somewhat mortified to find that Starn had found a way to add 3 SU122s to the mix...first round to Starn.

The Ities deployed their tanks behind the forests on the right, the inf, 90s and Semos on the left. The Russians deployed a/t guns on their left objective, mortars opposite the 90s, large inf on the right, small infs in the centre, Matildas were on the right & the SUs in the centre.

The Russians were relieved to get first move and the poorly deployed Matildas dived for cover before the 90's could open up on them. Otherwise, there was a general Russian advance while the mortars tried to supress the 90's. The Ities dug in on their left while their armour charged forward towards the centre.

On the Itie left the Semos all but destroyed the mortars then turned on the infantry. The Matildas skulked behind the forest, not game to come out into the 90's field of fire. While severely mauled, the Russian infantry and mortars eventually knocked out both 90s to set the Matildas free, but the battle was decided on the other flank.

In the centre the M14s drew the SUs out, while the L35s charged the a/t guns. One SU wandered into range of a 90 and after a die roll confirmed that line of sight ran from hill top to hill top over a wood, it paid the price. The M14's swarmed around the SUs, but they didn't hurt them and were being whittled away. But they kept the Beasts busy while the L35s mowed down the a/t guns (lots of dice and lots of sixes for firepower against the gun shields), then mg'd an infantry platoon into oblivion (lots of dice then lots of 1s & 2s for saves), and then they avantied onto the undefended objective.

Then it got serious. Careful measurement proved that one of the SUs could get 5mm inside 100mm from the objective. But then the devious Italians questioned the command status of the SU concerned as the command vehicle of the platoon was not differentiated and the 2 SUs were about 150 apart. The umpire was summonded & a dice determined that the furthest one was the command vehicle so the close one was out of command & the rush to the objective wasn't possible. So Starn had 2 shots to blast the two tin cans off the objective (to kill both, or 1 kill to force a morale test). A 1 & a 2 and it was game over - won by two tin coffins that cost 30 points each. It was a 6:1 victory too, though the Ities had 2 plats reduced to 1 team and 2 reduced to 1/2 strength, and were damned lucky to win. The Russians had lost 2 platoons plus one below 1/2. It's a pretty dumb points system.

And the Sturmovics the Ities were so petrified of they completely rejigged their army ?...Didn't show up.
And the Reggio Aeronautica the Ities took in hope of neutralising the Sturmovics ?...Didn't show up either.
Air power...is it all a fraud? Or is the day coming when 3 Sturmoviks will come on every turn?



Meanwhile in the small room...Correen and Nick did another micro armour battle. Like last time your correspondant's failing eyes couldn't make out what was happening with the little buggers, but Nick's Germans did win.

Thursday at Camp Cromwell

Apologies from Mark (SHMBO pulled rank), Steve J (work), Steve P (8 ball), but Barrie managed it this time.

Barrie (1600 pts DAK motorised - 1500pts + air)
v.
Jim (1600 pts K&C infantry - 1500pts + air)
Cauldon - Brits defending.

Barrie made a few mistakes...like he deployed his Neblewerfers & Pak 40s too far from the action & made infantry attacks without adequate support. The DAK Inf were stopped in their tracks by the Brit Inf. The Luftwaffe did nothing until after the battle was lost. The RAF didn't do a lot, but enough to pay for themselves. The DAK lost on Army Morale after losing 2 inf, the Pak 40s (to the bugs) & the 8rads (to inf & the RAF). The Brits lost no plats.

Saturday at Camp Cromwell

Chris will be down from Launceston & we'll be having a game Saturday afternoon (2pm start).
Possibly Napoleonic or 7YW - unless someone wants to challenge Chris to their Mahrajah - if so make arrangements with him by email him so he can be prepared.

Thursday, June 09, 2005

Camp Cromwell Bulletin 09/06/05

Correction: The German High Command has pointed out an error in the last Bulletin:

pushkin = a russian revolutionary
pupchen = a 8.8cm rocket propelled antitank projectile fired by a 3 man team.


Friday: Juniors Night

A better turn-up than Thursday - quite a crowd of mentors - Peter, Chris, Mark & Jim.

I'm not sure which aspect of wargaming Peter is imparting to young minds in the pic.


Dillon's US Armoured Inf
v.
James' HFB Armoured Inf


1500 pts HTL on a 6x4' table.

James chose to attack on a tricky table - the problem with a small (supposedly FOW standard) table is there isn't anywhere else to go if there's a problem.

Dillon's 4 Sherman Ambush popped a MkIV, then finished off the other two when they failed to reply effectively.

Without any serious armour and all the US reserves arriving early, the German cause looked lost already.

James soldiered on, but the 105s whitled his army away and he had nothing that could stop the Shermans and Honeys.

In retrospect, it looked an uphill battle for the Germans from the start. 3MkIV*s @480 pts just don't seem a good enough buy compared with 4 Shermans @460 pts. Next time I think there might be some Pussy involved.



Explanation of Peter’s behaviour is simple. He was explaining to the boys how all 4 of Dylan’s Shermans could fire everything they had, including the top machine guns at that poor German grenadier in the picture…and miss! I’m not sure, but I think that 21 dice were involved! (Not that Dylan hasn’t proved more than capable at matching his father’s own dice throwing techniques on other occasions).

It was Peter’s description of how the particular blade of grass that the German was hiding behind was shaking so much that it should have been a “gimmie” in locating the said German that brought on the smiles. That and the comment about brown corduroy trousers…


Tuesday at Fort Floriet

#1: FOW 1500 pts Breakthrough

Jim’s US (actually Nick’s troops on lend lease)
attacking v.
Chris’ DAK Pioneers

The US sent their Sherman’s on a flanking mission while the rest of their army kept the Huns busy. The Shermans would have had no trouble taking the weakly held objective near their come-on point, but unfortunately by turn 7 after 15 dice with no 5+, they hadn’t arrived so the Germans won because there were no enemy within 40cm of either objective after Turn 6. Great plan, but it had one fatal flaw.



#2: FOW 1500 pts Breakthrough

Jim’s US (actually Nick’s troops on lend lease)
attacking v.
Starn’s Russian Infantry

No leaving the Shermans off the table this time. They were popped down where they could zap the Matildas straight up. From then on was matter of weathering the all too frequently recurring Sturmoviks until turn 6 - the US artillery died under a hail of rockets, but the rest of the army generally managed to see them off with their AA.


#3: FOW microarmour scenario from a boardgame

Chris’s Germans
v.
Correen’s Russians

On the small table, Correen put up a good fight, but the scenario designer managed to win in the end. Your report can't provide any more detail - the little bugger were too small for him to be able to see what was going on.




Thursday at Camp Cromwell


FOW in yet another 1500pts Breakthrough.

Jim & Steve P DRATs
v.
Steve J & Peter's DAK


The Germans made a blue in deployment by putting their Panzers (3MkIII & 2 MkII) too far forward. They were immediately rushed by 6 Crusader IIs & 3 Honeys supported by 2 6pdrs hurling 6's. The Panzers were dead in 2 turns at the cost of a Crusader & the Germans conceded. Fastest FOW yet. We filled in the evening setting up the Napoleonic table.


Next week:


Saturday afternoon at Camp Cromwell: Napoleonic - to check out revised rules. Bagration's flank at Austerlitz in 15mm.

Tuesday at Fort Floriet: Jim's Compagia Carri v. Starn's Russians in FFA.

Thursday at Camp Cromwell: As usual.

Thursday, June 02, 2005

Camp Cromwell Bulletin 02/06/05

FOW 2000 pts

A quiet night tonight due to exams, sick cats, tubas, work, snooker & combat fatigue.

Steve's Grenadiers (lots of inf, a/tank & artillery + air, but no armour)
v.
Jim's Russian Inf (the usual crap + 10 T34 (though 5 of them looked a bit like Shermans))

We threw FFA on the Mission Table - Russian veto (wanted to do something different).
Then we threw Cauldron - German veto.
Third try was FFA again so the Russians were stuck with it.

With Germans having mortars, 2 artillery batteries & Heinies, the Russians had no choice but to attack. The 10 T34s lead the charge and stormed over Steve's best painted Grenadiers holding the ridge on the German left (Steve not happy with that one). The Germans counterattacked the tanks with Heinies, artillery, a puschkin & an 88 on the edge of its range. They threw well & killed 6 T34s. The Russians then threw 1 for morale and lost the whole tank company in a turn. That was really game over, but the Russians valiantly went through the motions and Steve got his rocks off slaughtering the rest of them - to score his first ever victory over Ivan.

Where were you Commissar Leigh ? - you missing out on seeing a rare Russian loss.
And Peter ? - you missed out on benefiting from me lucking out for once.

Friday 03/06/05: Juniors night: Dillon's US v. James' Germans.

Next week: I'll be at Fort Floriet on Tuesday. Thursday as usual at Camp Cromwell.