Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Camp Cromwell 27/10/09


Jim's Royalists v. Joe's Parliamentarians

English Civil War using Camp Cromwell Rules. Both sides had 6 Pike & Shot, 2 Musketeer & 4 Cavalry.  The Royalists also had a FV Cavalier unit while Parliament had 2 Dragoons.  The Parliamentary troops were generally better equiped, but the Royalists were better troops. Deployment was by alternately placing pairs of units.  Both sides protected one flank on the river & split their cavalry - some on the far flank, some in the centre - see pic 1 (taken from behind Royalist left).


The Royalists attacked with their cavalry while holding back their foot.  Parliament sent their dragoons on a flanking manoeuvre on their left & advanced their foot on their left.


On Parliament's right & both sides had fluctuating & mixed fortunes, but the battle was won & lost elsewhere.  One unit of Royalist cavalry was initially deployed in front of the Royalist foot on the right threatening the musketeers on the Parliamentary left.  It was just a feint, but it caused some disorganisation in the Parliamentry ranks which gave the Royalist foot a small advantage when they closed.  Those cavalry then moved to the left to exploit the gap made when the cavaliers won - the Royalist right counterattacked and broke the Parliamentarian line just before the dragoon's flank attack arrived through the wood.


(We were supposed to be completing the Bryon v. Barrie Maharajah battle tonight, but Bryon had a last minute problem). 




Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Nick in Launceston

Nick vs Chris -- another practice game for the tournament. No pics -- the armies are classified!!! A win to Nick, but he was favoured by the terrain.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Maharajah Trophy Match at Camp Cromwell 20/10/09


Byron's US Rifles v. Barrie's Panzerpioneers

2000 pts Free for All on 8x6 Tunisia table.  Umpires:  Jim, Joe & Steve.
Byron fielded an unconventional US Rifle Coy - without the massed batteries but a heaps of infnatry.  It took a long time for the troops to deploy & they only got 2 moves in before Byron got the call & had to leave to go home to Geeveston.  

Pic taken behind German right.  (The Stukas are just warming up - they haven't appeared on the field yet). 


To be continued next Tuesday.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Maharajah Trophy Match at Barrie's 15/10/09



Joe's Falshirmjager v. Leigh's Death or Glory Boys

2000 pts Breakthrough on 8x6 table - Tunisia
The table is Meditereanian terrain - all the hills are DG plus a couple of mountains.

Joe made a big mistake at the start deploying his MkIVs too far forward on his left flank. Leigh deployed most of his armour within 40cm of them and blew 4 of them away on turn 1. The other one survived the morale test but was soon hunted down by the pack. Then Leigh got his 1st lot of reserves (2 platoons of bugs) on turn 3, soon followed by his infantry platoon. The bugs took the nearest objective & with infantry coming on in support, it looked like it was just a matter of waiting for turn 6 to win. But the FJ's had other ideas. The 1st platoon drove the bugs off the objective. They were in turn destroyed by Brit fire but the 2nd FJ platoon wiped out the Brit inf and the surviving bugs to retake the objective again.

Meanwhile on the other flank the masses of Brit armour having destroyed the MkIV's were bottled up by a mix of terrain & Pak40 paranoia. But the need to retake the other objective had left the central one undefended. Leigh's Lees ran the guauntlet of Pak fire to take that objective & win the battle.

The pic has the objectives in the closer LH quarter. The LH one in the wood is in dispute between FJ's v. bugs & inf. The Paks are on the hill on the right of the village, German artillery on the mountain behind it. The Brit armour is milling around in the distance, their Art in far right.

Leigh qualifies for a Semi Final berth, Joe has to fight a repercharge against the loser of Barrie & Byron - that match scheduled for next Tuesday.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Nick in Launceston




A very quiet night at the club -- must have been the first burst of sun for some weeks! Only one FOW game -- Nick B vs Nick R and Agrro. We were practicing for the tournament, and hence did a blue on blue -- Yanks vs Brits in a breakthrough. Much as I dont like blue on blue, it was a good game, with each side having chances to win. In the end Nick B did enough damage with his AT guns that Nick R's attack peterred out. But not before Nick R and Aggro spend a couple of turns sitting on the objective with Nick B having to feed troops in to contest the objective and keep the game going.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

FOW at Camp Cromwell 13/10/09


Byron & Jim's US Rifles v. Joe & Steve's Falschirmjager

Barrie had a work crisis & couldn't front for his scheduled Maharajah battle with Byron.  Instead Byron & Joe had a practice battle with Jim & Steve assisting - 2000 pts Trenchfight, Germans attacking.


Byron's deployment of lots of infantry gave him a lot of wire & entrenchments.  The objectives were in vineyards - one up front & one in the right rear.  Bunkers protected the centre of the US line.  The US survived the preliminary bombardment very well, but the dice gods evened up by feeding reinforcements on a drip feed.

The Germans avoided the bunkers by advancing on both flanks.  FJs & A/cars on the right, Pioneers, FJ's A/cars & Marders on the left. 105s & Neblewerfers gave support fire.  In the pic you can see the Germans advancing on the flanks.  Their artillery is off camera to the left.  US inf is deployed in the vineyards, 2 more platoons still in ambush.

The Germans gapped the wire on both flanks with little interferance while the US waited for their reserves.  The then US dropped  infantry out of ambush on both flanks to slow their advance.  In both cases the FJ's with fire support from the A/cars cleared them away.  Shermans and M10s deployed on the right and took on the Marders.

Armoured Recon, Cannon, Heavy Mortars & a Heavy Platoon eventually arrived & deployed on the US left, advancing to assist the centre.  But they were a bit late, the FJs on the US left used a wadi to cover their advance and took the objective from a platoon weakened by artillery.   The Armoured Recon rushed forward to dispute it, but were beaten off leaving the objective in German hands.


Next battle: Joe's FJ's v. Leigh's Death or Glory Boys on Thursday at Barrie's.


Friday, October 09, 2009

Successor Battle in Launceston 08/10/09


Jim's Pergumenes v. Nick as Antigonus
 
I took advantage of a work trip to Launceston to visit the Launceston Gaming Club - taking 2 Successor armies for a Camp Cromwell Rules battle.  Although it was Show Day and a supposedly quiet night there was still nearly 30 attendees, mostly fighting fantasy & sci-fi.
 
Antigonus' army was the usual argaraspids, phalanx, peltasts, elephants, light infantry, heavy cavaly & horse archers - mostly Reluctant Veteran mercenaries.  The Pergumene army had a core of Confident Conscript levy phalanx & cataphracts supported by Cappodician Confident Warrior infantry & cavalry and a lot of light infantry & cavalry.  Antigonus had a wing commander in his son Dimetrius, giving him an advantage in command.  The core units for both sides were the phalanxes - the army morale test was lose your phalanx and you lose.
 
The Pergumenes marked their deployed on a map, then Antigonus deployed on the table before the Pergumenes were put down in accordance with the map.  Both sides put most of their cavalry on their right. 
 
Antigonus siezed the initiative, advancing in echelon, right forward - exploiting his advantage in command dice. Pic 1 is taken when the skirmishers first meet  the heavy troops have not made contact.
 
The Pergumene's held their main body back in the centre & left while sending their light troops forward to try & weaken the enemy as they advanced.  Their cataphracts were to advance on the right then wheel left, but were slow to start due to poor command dice.
 
The Cappadocians on the Pegumene left were outclassed by their opponents and were soon defeated.  The cataphracts on the right did defeat Antigonus' left, but they took far too long to do so.  By the time they were ready to attack the enemy's flank it was protected by redeployed reserves.  The Pegumene light troops failed dismally in their task of weakening the enemy as they advanced & the citizen phalanx was beaten by a combination of phalangites & elephants.
 
The Pergumene's mismanaged their light troops, mismanaged their attack on the right and got muddled in the centre  Antigonus on the other hand did better with deployment, had a sound plan & countered every Pergumene move to give him a well deserved decisive victory.
 
Pic 1 is taken when the skirmishers first made contact.
Pic 2 is taken as things really hotted up. 
 

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

7 Years War Hold the Line




Barrie's Austrians defending v. Byron & Joe's Prussians using Camp Cromwell Rules.

The scenario had the Austrian line infantry & artillery on the field at the start with their cavalry & grenadiers in delayed reserve.  The Austians had a line of woods, hedged fields, village & ridge to defend.  The Prussians to win by taking the village or the road at the centre of the Austrians rear.  The Austirans to win by preventing that.  Either side could lose by army morale test.

The Prussian had a pretty bad time with their activation dice and their attack became somewhat disjointed.  They still enjoyed some success, but the Austrians held the line long enough for their reserves to come up and plug the gaps.

The pic is taken from the Austrian right, Prussian left, just after the Austrian reserves started to come on.  The Prussian attack on their right petered out against a wall of grenadiers.  On their left, the reserve dragoons arrived in time to meet the Hussars after they found the ford & crossed the river.  In the centre, the Prussians just didn't have enough left in them to attack the village.


It was an interesting change to apply a Hold the Line scenario to 7 Years War.  It worked pretty well - the defending Austrians won tonight, but in play-testing solo the Prussians won, so I think it's a fair deal.

Sunday, October 04, 2009

Camp Cromwell Wargames Rules


I have posted the Camp Cromwell Wargames Rules on the right hand side bar. These comprise:

Marathon to Marne:
Rules for land warfare before the machine gun.  These have just had a major revision.  While play testing of the revised systems has only extended up to the Napoleonic Wars and the details for large 19th century battles using 6mm are still being worked on, the rules are ready to use for earlier periods .  Areas still under development are in italics.  The rules are designed primarily for 15mm figures, but can be used for other scales.  They will be updated from time to time as we continue to tweek them in the light of battlefield experience.


Dreadnoughts:
Rules for naval warfare from around 1900 until airpower became dominant.  They can be used for the Russo-Japanese war, WWI & the early part of WWII.  (We never got around to adding rules for airpower).   We use ship models about 50mm long on a 75mm hex grid.

Men o' War:
Rules for naval warfare in the age of sail - from Drake to Nelson.  We use old Airfix ship models about 100mm long on a 75mm hex grid.

Modder Fokkers:
Rules for WWI air war.  We use 1/72nd scale plastic models on stands made of wooden dowels on a 75mm hex grid.

WWII Campaigns:
Rules for WWII campaigns designed for use with Flames of War tactical rules.  The Camp Cromwell system was developed because the Battlefront "Axis of Attack" campaign system was so inadequate.  Battlefront have since published their "Firestorm" campaign rules.  These are much easier to use than the Camp Cromwell system and may well better hit the spot between realism and playability for most players.  The Camp Cromwell system is a much more complex system with more emphasis on the campaign rather than the battles and I expect would only be of interest to hardcore gamers.  

Comment:
I have no illusions that anyone actually takes up and uses free-to-air wargames rules.  But these rules have provided us at Camp Cromwell with a lot of good wargaming over the years and they may of interest to some.  I'd be pleased to hear any feedback or answer any questions by email (address in blog heading above).

Friday, October 02, 2009

Kingston 01/10/09


The Kingston guys finished turn 1 of their Firestorm campaign tonight with two battles.

SteveP's Strelk beat Munt's Grenadiers in an Encounter & Simon's Straff beat Griggsy's Sturmtroop in a Not One Step back.

It seems this was a pretty typical result for the campaign because the Germans have taken a pounding in the first campaign turn. Three of the front line cities have fallen & the Russians have thrust way forward in the north. A very different situation from the Camp Cromwell campaign earlier in the year.

Nick in Launceston







two FOW games and multiple 40K games at the club.






Nick B vs Les -- 1500 pts late war -- US Armour vs German SS grenadiers in a withdrawal. The US armour charged on one flank, and sheer weight and good dice overcame the 88's, PAK40's, and Barkmann.






Nick R vs Agrro - -1500 pts mid war. British Infantry (Nick R) vs German Panzers (Aggro). The British had an amazing array of AT guns -- I think they had minimum infantry and maximum AT guns. But the Germans managed to overcome by getting some Panzer IIs onto the objective at the rear.






Elsewhere there were some amazing fantasy and 40K games. Some fantasy figs are pictured.