Friday, September 30, 2011

Nick in Launceston -- Firestorm Bagration Round 4

Round 4 was spread over two weeks, due to various family obligations.

Week 1 had:

Nick (Motostrelkovy) vs Daniel (Grenadier): 2-5.  Daniels had a unit of panzergrenadiers (firestorm troops) charge accross the board on turn one.  The opposing T-34/85's missed their long range shots.  The PanzerGrenadiers then dismounted, and over the following turns destroyed katyushas, heavy mortars, motostrelkovy, BA-64's, and AT guns!

Rob (Tankovy) vs Starn (Grenadier): 6-1.  Rob charged with massed tanks.  Despite a nasty surprise when some HS-129B3 planes flew over and left a trail of destruction, the massed tanks out shot Starn's defenders, and then rolled on to the objective.

Week 2 had:

Nick (Rota) vs Shane (Panzer): 6-1.  Nick's force was full of captured equipment, including a captured tiger, panthers, and SdKfz 251's.  The decoy tanks infiltrated, dragging a full tankovy foward onto a virtually undefended objective.  An ambush of tigers and a Hummel artillery barrage did massive damage on the tankovy -- but the tankodesantniki troops got onto the objective, and Shane was forced to assault with Panzers into houses in order to contest the objective -- which didnt end well for Shane's Panzers.

Rob (Tankovy) vs Daniel (Grenadier): 1-6.  Rob was so close -- but on turn 7 of a fighting withdrawal Rob's infantry didnt unpin to assault the objective, and the game ended with Germans holding the objective with one infantry stand and two bailed JagdPanthers.  This ended Rob's magnificent winning streak with his Tankovy.

Dennis (Strelkovy) vs Starn (Grenadiers): 5-2.  Dennis was out of supply, with a morale penalty -- his Russians were reluctant.  But he managed to hold off Starn and pull a win out of the hat with his demoralised troops!

Picture is Daniel celebrating his two wins!!!!

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Rome v. Carthage round 7

Jim's Carthaginians plus Mike's Gauls
v.
SteveJ's Romans

This time Mike was in charge of the anti-Romans.  He picked an army with 1 cavalry division on the right, a large Carthaginian spear division in the centre and two Gallic infnatry divisions on the left.

Steve had 2 legions in the centre with cavalry/auxilia divisions on both flanks.

The pics are all taken from the Roman left = Carthaginian right.

The Romans advanced to take up a position with the RH legion on the ridge and the LH one with it's flank resting on the wood.  The auxilia covered the flanks.

The Carthaginian cavalry advanced just far enough to pin the auxillia on their flank and waited.   The spearmen advance to attack the LH legion.  A Gallic division advanced on the hill with the other in support & covering it's flank.

The 1st wave of Gauls was beaten off, but the Spearmen broke through the weak point between the 2 legions.  One spear unit wheeled left as the Gallic reserves renewed the attack.  The RH legion was in dire straits now, but some strategic 6 throwing allowed it to hang on until their cavalry could rescue them.  When the Gauls finally broke the RH legion was down to one unshaken unit.

In the centre, the spearmen's attempt to exploit the gap they had made between the legions was thwarted by another burst of strategic 6's and the spearmen had to resort to frontal attack again.  Like their comrades, the LH legion was down to just 1 unshaken unit when their opponents finally ran out of steam.  

The Carthaginian cavalry had failed to advance fast enough to get into the action at all, but both sides were content with a stalemate on that flank where spears v. cavalry made it dangerous for either to attack.

Another rattling good game - it was a very close run thing for the Romans, but it's now Rome 5, Carthage & Allies 2.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Maharajah 2011 Match 2

Munt's Finns
v.
Rich's Strelkovy

No Retreat mission, 2,000pts on 8x6 table.

The objectives were placed in the wood on the right and at the front of the village.  The Finns placed 2 full strength infantry platoons suped up with attached HMGs across the front and Pak 40's in ambush.  The Russians put infantry left and centre with their T34's on the right supported by the Gods of War.

The Pak ambush took on the T34's near the swamp.  The Pak's died but took 2 T34's with them.  The Russians seemed intimidated by all the HMGs and hesitated while their tanks & artillery whittled them down.

In the centre their attack was met with fierce resistance and ebbed too & fro as both sides' losses mounted.  On their left, the attack through the wood drove the Finns out and they reached the objective, but they had taken too long and more infantry arrived in time to dispute the objective and when the KV's came over they had the Strelk bottled up in the wood.  Artillery & KV mg fire eventually got the Strelk below half and they failed morale.

But with the KV's distracted, the Russians had renewed their attack in the centre.  Despite rising casualties they pushed on towards the central objective. 

By now both sides were on the brink of army morale failure.  Both sides continually passed morale tests to stay in the war, but it was the Russians who cracked first handing the few surviving Finns a hard fought victory.

Rich is knocked out and Munt goes on the round 2.

Friday, September 23, 2011

OPERATION CROMWELL II - FOW DOUBLES COMPETITION

Operation Cromwell is on again this year. 
This time as a doubles tournament to give us something completely different.

Date:           5-6 November 2011.

Venue:         St George's Church Hall, 30 Cromwell St, Battery Point.

Armies:       2 companies of 1,000-1,500 pts - no more than 2,500 total.
                    Late War.
                    Both companies have to be on the same side in the war.

Tables:       8'x6' tables will be used - you will have room to move for a change.

Roster:       4 rounds Swiss style.  We will prioritise club v. club matches.

Rules of Engagement: 

Detailed rules of engagement are being prepared and will be available as soon as we are happy that we have covered the neccessary bases.  These will include:
- Mission tweaks to suit the big table.
- Morale rules for the two company set up.
- Any restrictions on lists.
- Timetable.

Please let us know by email if you are interested in taking part and we'll forward you the Rules of Engagement.
campcromwell@netspace.net.au

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Hail Caesar 20/09/11

Jim & Mike’s Carthaginians
v.
Steves J & P’s Republican Romans


The Carthaginians deployed in 5 divisions. There was a cavalry division on each flank - each 2 heavy or medium cavalry, 1 small light cavalry & a Numidian medium infantry, citizen spearmen with bow armed skirmishers left of centre, on their right were Gallic infantry (2 warbands each with slingers), and in front of the Gaulls, 4 elephant units and 2 javelin armed skirmishers.

SteveP deployed on the Roman right with a legion of 5 hastasi/principes, 2 velite & 2 triari, with a cavalry division of 1 heavy & 1 light on the flank. SteveJ had a similar force of 2 divisions on the Roman left. (We approximated the Republican manipular system by using small units for the Roman infantry with a reduced number per legion).

The Carthaginians got 1st move and started a cautious advance. Despite being overlapped to his left, SteveJ charged forward with his cavalry at the elephants. This was not a good idea as the cavalry was soon destroyed as small cost.

On the other flank, SteveP’s legion advanced over the hill overlapping the spearmen’s left. His triari was sent to the right to help the cavalry in a separate fight with the Carthaginian left wing. This the Romans eventually won. The rest of SteveP’s legion charged the left of the line of spearmen quickly defeating it.

Meanwhile the Carthaginians attacked SteveJ’s legion with half the spearmen and the elephants while they tried to work their cavalry round the flank. SteveJ used his triari to cover the flank. The principes/hastasi gave some ground, but the spearmen were held then broke and the elephants were beaten off, but not broken.

Both sides reorganised. The Gauls turned left on the hill to face SteveP’s legion which was now advancing on them. The battered elephants held back while their general tried to rally them. The Carthaginian cavalry wrapped around the triari on the end of the Roman line. SteveP’s cavalry was rallied on the far flank and was being brought across the battlefield.

As SteveP’s legion charged up the hill at the Gauls, the Carthaginian skirmishers peppered the left of SteveJ’s line as the cavalry division got around their flank. With most of the division shaken by previous combats and missile fire, SteveJ’s outflanked legion broke before SteveP’s cavalry could arrive.

On the Carthaginian left, their Gallic foot gave ground, but held on. On their right the cavalry had just enough time to turn to face SteveP’s cavalry, then they overwhelmed it. Having lost both cavalry divisions and 1 legion, the Romans now failed army morale. The Carthaginians had lost 2 divisions and had high casualties on most of their remainder but had won a costly victory.

This was another brilliant game full of twists & turns of fate as both sides made move and counter move. The battle turned into a revolving door as both sides won on their right with both sides having lost 2 divisions and needing to lose only 1 more to fail army morale. But the Carthaginians managed the end game better, keeping the battered elephants from breaking and using skirmishers to disrupt SteveP’s last attack just enough so the Gallic foot could hold on while their intact right wing division won the battle by mopping up the weaker Roman divisions. It’s now Rome 4, Carthage 2 in 28mm.  After 6 battles I think we can fairly judge Hail Caesar.  The verdict is unaminous - we love it.   It's the set of ancient rules we have been waiting for.  And 28mm's ?  I had intended to just make up a division to contribute to the pool, but they are such great fun to make up and they look so good I just couldn't stop at that - I have an army already & plans for more.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Maharajah Trophy 2011, Round , Match 1

John's Cossacks v. Jim's Fucilieri

Midwar 2000 pts, No Retreat Mission on 8x6 table.

The Italians deployed 2 big Fucilieri platoons and 2 HMG platoons around the objective with Pak 40's in ambush and Bersaliglieri, 38T's, 47mm, 75mm & 100mm guns in reserve.

The Russians deployed 4 KV's in front of the objective, Stuarts & Cossacks on their right supported by horse guns & dismounted cossacks.  A big rocket battery sat back protected by AA.

The Russians advanced cautiously while their rockets landed pizza boxes on the Fucilieri & HMGs.

When the Italians got their 1st rserves they brought their 38t's on and at the same time dropped the Pak ambush.  The 38'ts kept the Honeys busy while the Paks engaged the KV's.

The Italians desperately needed some reserves and some luck, but got neither.  The Honeys disposed of the 38t's and the KV's shrugged off the Pak 40 shells and destroyed the infantry of the 1st Fucileri that the rocketshad  missed.

With the 38t's out of the way and no other Itie reserves in sight, the Cossacks came out to play.  The Honeys were beaten off by the 2nd Fucilieri, but they couldn't hold the cossacks who over-ran onto the Paks.

The KV's now held the objective with no Ities able to contest. 

Faced by a mean list and a general with a very good plan who made no mistakes, the Ities were always going to need some luck (like more than 1 reserve platoon before turn 5).  But it was not to be & John had a comfortable victory.  

 

Friday, September 16, 2011

Nick in Launceston -- Firestorm Bagration Round 3

Due to the intensity of the Nick vs Starn battle, I have no results for the other battles.  The post will be editted as appropriate.

Nick had Artillery and SU76's as firestorm troops.  Starn had Tigers and Tigers as his firestorm troops!!!  Nick opted for a IS-2 Company -- 9x IS-2 plus some tankodesantniki.  Starn opted to reinforce his Tigers with King Tigers -- the perfect IS-2 antidote.  Fortunatly, the King Tigers could not be everywhere, so where they werent the IS-2's advanced, and where they were the IS-2's hid (in a forest or behind a hill).  The IS-2's on one flank chewed through the tigers, killing four tigers for one IS-2.  And then the heavy artillery killed one of the king tigers!  Things looked grim for Starn.  But do not underestimate a King Tiger -- ever, ever, ever!!!!!  As some reinfocements arrived, the tiger was free to move away from an objective, and moved to the center of the table, where it could take pot shots at either side of the table.  Starn also agressivly advanced his observers, so they could spot the IS-2's hiding in a woods.  The observers were killed by the tankodesantniki charging out of the forest, SMG's blazing.  But one of the IS-2's had to come out of the forest to keep the platoon in command, and it bogged on the edge of the forest, in plain sight of the King Tiger.  Scratch one IS-2.  The King Tiger then took a pot shot at an IS-2 on the other side of the table, and failed its stormtrooper move.  The IS-2s rushed to get side shots while they could -- an IS-2 got bogged.  And the others missed the side shots.  Return fire bailed an IS-2.  Again the king tiger was still exposed after failing stormtrooper, and the last remaining IS-2 in the woods moved to get a shot, and bogged.  Return fire bailed the last operational IS-2 in this platoon, they failed morale, and one IS-2 platoon was down.

The King Tiger steadily advanced on the other flank.  However, by this time the other IS-2 platoon had destroyed all before it, including all of the two infantry platoons that were guarding the objective, causing Starn to have to take a company morale test, which he passed.  The King Tiger killed another IS-2, but the platoon (with one IS-2 left), survived the morale test.  If it had failed, Nick would have been on company morale as well.  Finally, Starn's company failed morale, and Nick achieved victory, by the narrowest of possible margins.


Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Hail Caesar 13/09/11

Jim & Mike Carthagians & Gauls
v.
SteveJ & Leigh's Romans

The Romans deployed their 2 legions in the centre with a division of mixed cavalry & auxilia on each flank.  The Anti-Romans deployed Gauls on their right, Carthaginians on the their left, cavalry on each flank, and elephants in front of the Carthaginian spearmen.

For once the Romans were agressive & began a general advance.   The Carthaginians advanced their elphants in the centre with some cavalry covering their left.  The spearmen followed up at safe distance.  The Gauls waited on the hill.

The Romans halted their general advance but pushed on with their left flank.  The weak Gallic cavalry was quickly defeated leaving the Gallic infanty's right flank exposed.  Any thoughs of charging out of trouble were thwarted when auxilia bow fire made the Gauls fall back behind the hill. 

On the Carthaginian left, the opposing flanking forces were happy to stand off and throw stones at each other.  In the centre, the elephants charged Leigh's legion.  Steve prepared his 2 divisions for an attack on the Gallic infantry. 








The elephants and the Leigh's legion slugged it out as the Carthaginans tried to manoeuvre their spearmen into the action.










Steve's legion got good command dice and charged over the hill into the Gauls as his cavalry hit their flank guard.   The flank guard beat off the cavalry then charged on into the infantry behind pushing them back as well.  But it was all in vain - the other infantry units were overwhelmed by the legion and the division broke.

The spearmen failed to move fast enough to attack Steve's legion's flank and when the elephants ran out of hot dice and broke, it was game over with the Anti-Romans having lost 3 out of 5 divisions.

So that's 4:1 to the Romans in our 28mm Hail Caesar battles.  This time it was the strong Roman left destroying the Gauls that won the battle.  With the 2 Gallic divisions doomed, the elephants had to win to keep the Carthaginians in the fight.  The 28mm elephants looked magnificant and they got the legion to breaking, but not close enough.   The Carthaginian's failure to get their best division, their spearmen, into the action was another cause of their defeat.  But a fine time was had by all, and the 28mm arms race continues.

Sunday School 11/09/11

Jim's Fucilieri v. Rich's Strelkovy.
2000 pts on 8x6 No Retreat - Maharajah practice match.
Description censored by military inteligence.

Friday, September 09, 2011

Nick in Launceston -- Firestorm Bagration Turn 2

Week 2 of the Firestorm campaign.  (For more details, see the Launceston Gaming Club forum, and then look at the Flames of War topic).

There were 4 battles, with a 5th cancelled due to last minute family duties. 

Nick B (Udarny) vs Daniel (Panzergrenadiers): 5-2
Rob (Tankovy) vs Nick R (Grenadiers): 4-3
Declan (Tankovy) vs Starn (Grenadiers): 1-6
Terry (Udarny) vs Darren (Panzers): 1-6

Declan and Starn completed their game before Nick B and Daniel completed setup.  Starn realised Declan loves his heavy tanks, and put two king tigers in his list. 

Terry and Darren were over not long after, with the panzers having a fun time in rolling farmland.

Rob and Nick R had a hard battle.  Rob sacrificed his Stuarts in a death or glory charge onto pionerrs and Pak 40s -- it was death, but they did some damage, and pinned down both the Pioneers and Pak 40's to enable the following Shermans to get into combat.  Meanwhile, there was a furious firefight between ISU 122's and Sturmoviks vs Tigers.  Eventually, Rob managed to get onto an objective with a horde of tanks.

Nick and Daniel had a long game, being the last game in the club to finish, and Daniel almost managing a draw through time.  Daniel had fortifications -- But Nick had mine roller and flame thrower tanks.  The Russians picked an objective, and charged with just about everything.  While the objective had minefields and barbed wire, it was hoped that the minerollers would clear then. JagdPanthers and Pak 40s and Hummel artillery were knocking tanks over, particularly the mine roller tanks.  However, some SU 76's on the other flank managed to get in range of the Hummels and silence them.  And the mine roller tanks survived a couple of morale checks.  However, both surviving mine rollers failed to clear the mine fields, with one being destroyed by mines, and the last one by a JagdPanther.  While this was happening the Udarny got into range, some flame tanks cleared some barbed wire, Udarny Sappers cleared a minefield, and the Udarny poured through the gap.  Nick miss-played his assault, carelessly involving two platoons that didnt need to be involved, but Daniel rolled low, and the Udarny got in to assault.  When all was over, Nick was consolidated on the objective, and Daniel had to launch an assault with 2 JagdPanthers onto Udarny with sappers to contest the objective.  The assault failed, and Nick won with an eviscerated force.



Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Rome v. Carthage Round 4

Mike & Jim's Carthargian & Gallic Army
v.
SteveJ's Romans

Both sides deployed with their right on the edge of the table and their left held back.  The Romans had their Auxilia division on their right and their two legions left and centre.  The Carthaginians had their Gallic cavalry on the right, Carthaginian cavalry & elephants on their left. In their centre they put the Gallic warbands in front followed by skirmishers and their spearmen in rear.  (The pics are all taken from behind Carthaginian right).




The Romans began to move their right across to behind the legions, advanced their centre legion and formed a line with the legion on their left.  The Gauls were charging forward with cavalry on their flanks when suddenly disaster struck when their Spearmen threw blunder dice and suddenly turned around and ran for the rear.





Cavalry and elephants were pushed forward to support the Warbands' flanks as they gallantly charged the RH legion.  The 2 warbands on the right were faced with just 1 cohort each & with cavalry support they pushed their opponents back.  The other two faced 2 cohorts each, one was quickly beaten while other was pushed back.




While the 2nd legion and the auxilia were still being redeployed, the 1st legion was being hammered by warbands, cavalry and elephants.  After some initial success it became fragmented and was swamped by elephants, warbands and cavalry.






There was a bit of a lull in the fighting as both sides sorted themselves out facing at right angles to their initial front.










The Romans had some sucesses as the Carthaginians renewed the attack.  On their right, the Carthaginian cavalry was well held and two cohorts broke a spear unit.  On their left, a counterattack by the Auxillia finally broke the Gallic foot.  But their centre was hard pressed by the spearmen, and the Auxillia couldn't stop the massed cavalry charge on their left. 

So the Carthaginians finally won one after 3 defeats.  And that was despite 2 blunders.  They seemed to be a problem at the time, but in fact didn't really hurt.  The infantry got good dice later to catch up & the cavalry blundered forward, more or less in the right direction anyway.  The elephants were a great success - taking out 2 cohorts & hurting 2 more before they were stopped - take note SteveP.

Sunday, September 04, 2011

Sunday School 04/09/11

Rich's Strelkovy v. Jim & Byron's Finns

2000 pts on 8x6 table - Breakthrough mission, Russians attacking.  The Russians are attacking from right rear to left.

The Russian infantry attack on the village & wood was disrupted by a Finn infantry counterattack towards the GODs battery in their rear.  The Russians diverted a Strelk unit to deal with it & the attack on the village ran out of steam after taking the first row of houses.  After the Russian infantry was destroyed, the Finn infantry advanced on the GODs.

The Finns prepared a reception committee of KVs & antitank guns for the Russian flanking force of T34s.  The T34s took out the antitank guns, but they needed the GODs to get lucky & take out the KVs.  The T34's gradually died under the fire of Finn artillery & KV's leaving no Russians near the objectives & giving the Finns a costly victory.

Friday, September 02, 2011

Nick in Launceston -- Firestorm Bagration

The lads up north started their firestorm campaign.  In total, 10 players signed up, 5 on each side.  The initial matches were held with much anticipation, testing of army lists, etc.  The most impressive thing though was that there were more FOW games than all others combined, with some fantasy games being pushed to the overflow.

The variety of army lists seen was pleasing too.  Noted were JagdPanthers, Shtraf hordes, lend lease tank hordes, and balanced armies with a bit of everything.

Results were:

Nick B (Shtraf) vs Darren (Panzer): 6-1
Rob (Tankovy) vs Starn (Grenadier): 6-1
Terry (Udarny) vs Daniel (Grenadier): 1-6
Dennis (Strelkovy) vs Shane (Panzer): 4-3

One more game is being played over the weekend - the Father / Son matchup of Nick vs Declan.