Rollcall 2015, April 11th & 12th

[leopard]

Game three, victory at last

5:2 win attacking Australian rifles in fighting withdrawal.

Won on defenders sixth turn as his company broke (some complete sod having accidentally driven a panzer over his CiC and 2iC...)

Would have lost had he not broke.

Again picccies later

[leopard]

Game five, my British attacking Barbarossa schnitzel in 'no retreat'. 6:1 defeat, couldn't even take a platoon off him.

Only lost my carriers, but had no answer to mg teams hiding in a wood with four anti tank guns and armoured cars supporting. The other more open but with too much near it.

Digging the swines out not helped by a twelve gun battery that killed nothing all game. The kills I got we're all by machine gun fire

This list "needs work", the Matilda one option would have been better.

In to the final game...

[leopard]

Game five, defeat again for the British so I'm at least consistent with them. V Finnish in free for all. 4:3 defeat as we extracted some flesh before going down.

Will do a write up with a few picccies later.

Overall 1 win, 4 defeats, one of which was a draw so robbed enemy of points at least. Germans got the win and the draw, British got the imperial storm trooper marksmanship award

Good games, need to have a think on a few things

[leopard]

Post game results, will be in a few parts, firstly a quick overview of some of the tables, then a part for each game then a few conclusions and the final results.

Calm before the storm

A few of the tables, taken before the hordes arrives.



Nice vinyl mat with 4Ground buildings and some hedgerows, bit too open for my tastes as not much space to dig in and buildings well spaced, defenders heaven really.



Rubbery cloth mat, with grit that comes off in your hands, looks nice though. Really liked the layout of this, feels nicely real as a settlement built around a main road and a few surrounding areas, would be changed before I got to play on it to be even better. The 4ground church is really nice.



Rural board, cotton printed terrain mat which I like, though perhaps not in this pattern. the huge wood would later become the bane of my second game, fair bit of open ground but the hills blocked line of sight very well.



Second rule board, more of an eastern front feel to it, also shows that the FoW tables we really close to the kitchen, as it should be. tables in the background were Bolt Action and various other historical games.

[leopard]

Game One
Mission: Dust Up, my Afrika Korps Schutzen company fighting some Norwegians who looked lost on the desert table.



Deployed in the corners, two lots of infantry the ones to the right tasked with taking the hill in front of them and digging in before the enemy reserves arrive, the other with holding the centre, mortars in support and the rest in reserve.

Luftwaffe keeping a watching brief, which is more or less all they managed - no issues with turning up, just never managed to actually do anything other than keeping the enemy flak from doing much.



Enemy advanced, they have barricades, they are out of sight behind them but are able to fire which doesn't overly seem fair.. however they only get two, and we could at least see the guys in the building. this was taken after my panzers had arrived - behind the hill to the lower left and my infantry were now well and truly dug in on the hill to the top right.

Stuka tickling a flak gun to the top left, shot down (was a bit of a theme really), enemy somewhat frustrated we didn't advance in the centre, and well aware of their own chances v MG teams so didn't move either - this became a stalemate in the centre, we took a few teams off each other but nothing serious.



First enemy reserves arrive, byt which time all of mine were deployed, the swines dropped three tanks, with proper tank guns behind us. the infantry on the hill couldn't really do much.

Hmm.. decided to realign the attack to defend against this threat, my bikes to the bottom left came home followed by the panzer, a pair of HMG teams stayed in the corner (out of sight) to keep the enemy infantry from following us.



Enemy needless to say went straight for the objective, but was unable to shove the mortars far enough back to avoid them contesting.. Panzers and bikes heading over the help, mortars dug back in and kept their heads down, this would hinge on which lot of tanks did for the other first… They had a higher RoF and more tanks, but we had better guns with better firepower, and a higher skill rating..



More enemies arrived, HMG and infantry, thinned out my troops up here, though we managed to hold and do enough damage to the enemy to prevent them deciding to come further, sadly my infantry eventually broke, but the enemy contributed nothing further with these troops.

In the centre we had moved into the buildings (to avoid the tanks really) and the results of being thinned out a bit can be seen.



The end draws near, panzers managed to bail the enemy but not enough, not damaged in return so that objective stalemated. Bikes moved up to reinforce the battered infantry and ensure the enemy stayed the other side of the hill.

Shortly after this the game timed out - first time thats happened to me at an event, took us both by surprise.

Game result, draw, 1:2 to the enemy, in tournament points gave them a bonus for contesting the objective though. we left this game at the bottom of the table, a joint position we held with several others.

Had we kept playing I would have got the armour, but lacked enough mobile troops to take the fight to the enemy, so would have made no difference really.

Did manage to avoid giving up too many points though, the army actually worked better than I expected, but showed the need for more anti tank ability. Luftwaffe kept quiet, didn't know it but they were to redeem themselves later.

[leopard]

Game Two
Mission: Counter Attack

My British Rifles defending against an Italian light tank company, had my concerns here as while I have the guns - they would be on the wrong side of a wood to cover both objectives.

Had to get infantry into position…


British deployment, enemy artillery in the distance, one platoon tasked with going for them if the chance occurred, otherwise as a screen. The other two and the 2pdr guns massed in the bottom left to go through the forest to the objectives off screen to the left, the had to set up a defensive position quickly.



Lots of enemy tanks, three platoons of five plus the CiC, CiC and one reluctant the other two confident, all trained.

The did the unexpected, they doubled, none broke down (indeed none broke down all game and the doubled a lot). Tight formation, which my artillery could see.. Tasty…

Turns out we brought the guns, but not the shells, couldn't get the range.. Needed a 3+ to get them, and failed, on all three attempts.

The enemy speed and poor performance of the artillery put a lot of pressure on the troops.



Enemy ploughing forwards, maintaining high speed, nearly past the forest and ready to hook round, thankfully a few bottlenecks waiting for them.



They burst round the corner, managed to drop some ambushing scout carriers, my reserves due to arrive in the top left corner but not just yet.

Three scout carriers, with Anti Tank Rifles, against 16 tanks.. what could possibly go wrong? Ummm yeah, did manage to slow them down and stop them doubling further through the gaps as they took formation to remove the carriers, which they then did - Managed to do squat except slow them down.



Enemy tanks in position after removing the carriers, a few more coming round and a platoon yawning in the face of my little Mk IVB towards the top in the middle, managed to do not a lot against the enemy armour.

2pdr to the bottom however took out two enemy adjacent to the building and made themselves a cause for concern. You can also see the massing infantry, who were not going to be in place before the fast moving enemy.



Enemy platoon got on the objective, out of sight behind the hill, thankfully its not live but have to remove them. Infantry moving to keep the 2pdr fire lines open, most of the five in the middle now dead, but not all, they dare not get closer though with that many troops in the wood.



Finished off the enemy tanks in the red box and dotted, actually managed to kill two enemy armoured platoons which given the tools we had amazed me, both infantry platoons advancing to at least contest the now live objective. Facing four enemy tanks, with no guns able to support - the 2pdr moving up to below the hill.



Two turns later, Italy victorious, both infantry platoons massacred and fled, the guns shot out, didn't manage to get any further enemy tanks.

In the other flank, did take a few guns down but lost the infantry trying.

Game ended a 3:4 defeat due to enemy casualties caused, managed to take down two enemy platoons which was enough to stop them claiming more points but couldn't stop them in the end.

Of note the artillery, who didn't manage to actually kill anything all game, 12 guns who either never got the range or couldn't actually do the job when they did… Indeed just about every kill was managed by the four 2pdr guns.

[leopard]

Game Three
Mission: fighting Withdrawal

My DAK attacking an Australian Rifle company on an amazing board, it had been swapped round a bit from the earlier photo.

Fighting Withdrawl is nasty...



Looking at the board.. I put my objectives to put one near the enemies, I hoped they would focus the defence there.. Leaving me the other, to take by T5 before it vanished.



Enemy deployed balanced, but with a bias to the left, as I had hoped, my entire force dropped to the right, this is after my first movement.

HMG teams to the extreme left were meant to go into the buildings to prevent the enemy infantry and carriers re-deploying across the board, I wanted to focus on the enemy here, one infantry platoon with some 2pdr port and the MkIV B in ambush, knew where they would come, needed to pop them aryl - hence the bikes screaming up.



Meanwhile on the other side of the board, this little lot was essentially out of the fight, by the time they redeployed it would be all over - yet they could not afford to start moving too early - my infantry have trucks, and the bikes are seriously fast..



Bikes got shot up, as expected, so I pulled them back, this is the first Luftwaffe strike, after the Mk IVB popped.. In this game the Luftwaffe redeemed themselves..

Turned up every turn I wanted him, ranged in every turn, and blew the targets apart - this strike took out two tanks, bailed the other (it didn't run though), one infantry team and one of the 2pdr guns to my opponents horror..

Following turn he got some of the infantry, another 2pdr and caused mayhem generally as we advanced with no further casualties beyond a couple of infantry teams.



Near the end, my first infantry were gone - but had taken out the enemy troops doing it.. then the second ones moved up, the bikes removed the remaining 2pdr guns. by the time of this picture the enemy had nothing left here - however this was the end of my turn 5…

T6 the objective goes…

The enemy was below half strength, and they had no 2iC or CiC (the panzers ran them over) so broke.. A wind but tense.

5:2 to me due to the one platoon lost, frost win at this mission with this sort of army.

Luftwaffe redeemed themselves nicely here, a few events of the stuka doing nothing, here is won me the game, again both panzers survived, and with more time could probably have rolled the enemy up.. but didn't need to.


That ended day one, was in 10th place overnight, 1 win and two defeats, DAK performing a lot better than the British, I guess to be expected they are an army I have used more and have some flexibility while the British are a case of "this is what I have".

[leopard]

Game Four
Mission: No Retreat

My British against a Schutzen list from the east..

This mission gives the defender half the board, and half their force. Running MG teams myself generally I know how much of a pig they are to dig out when they don't want you to.



After a couple of turns (ignore the caption, wasn't the second turn) we had moved up to the wire, removed some of it (was three sections) and had a nice defensive position with the enemy needing to stay dug in to avoid being shot up. Indeed they didn't fire that much, they didn't need to for the mission.

They build the start of what was to become an unassailable firebase around the objective to the middle. The one to the left was covered well enough that even contesting it would be murder.



The enemy firebase, highlighted, was near perfect, interlocking defensive fire, veterans. I had two trained platoons, who decided to hold position and dig in - we did keep the enemy in place as they couldn't pull back. Force to the middle managed to kill a few enemy teams, but not enough, FP:6 against dug in infantry is rubbish.

Direct fire 3" mortars never hit anything, the artillery again managed to do nothing.

Ended a 6:1 defeat, couldn't even take a platoon off them - Germans realising they didn't have to fight me to win, so they didn't.

Expected a tough game, against one the British ETC team, and was not disappointed..

Second defeat for the British, again the artillery being rubbish, my own fault of course for having a list that depends on them performing. Managed to avoid too many casualties, even if I somehow managed a win it would be a 4:3 which wasn't going to actually help overall and couldn't see how to actually manage it either.

So Sunday started badly..

[Baldie]

Great pics and report.
Well done in winning fighting withdrawal, don't think I have ever managed it.

[leopard]

Game Five
Mission: Free for All

Final game, against a player who only had axis, so the British came out again, facing an infantry list from Finland.



Deployed, facing the enemy, the plan was to take the wood to the centre (hence the horde behind it) with infantry and HMG, and the wood to the left with infantry and the light tanks. to the left there is a wood (out of shot) with infantry extending in to it masking the guns there, this was tasked with holding ground.

The infantry in the field are a weird enemy ambush platoon, they dropped in, lifted gone to ground on my guns leading to one being killed by the tanks.

Hmmm



That enemy platoon advanced, assaulted the infantry I had there, destroyed them but fled due to casualties, the armour of the enemy was cautious as my 2pdr and scout carriers cam over to counter them. This flank was now dangerously exposed, but only faced enemy armour as yet.



We tried to move to counter on the left, enemy is seen measuring for the artillery which will very shortly remove my Mk IVB from the table, and end the counterattack.

Enemy infantry would then spearhead towards the central wood, I couldn't stop them.

You can guess how well my artillery was performing, they did get a few infantry teams here and one of the enemy tanks in direct fire though so better than previous games



This is what we ended up with - just before the end, enemy infantry have punched through, with the CiC and 2iC, removing my central platoons. enemy infantry to the right have removed my 2pdr, and will shortly remove the rest of the guns over there - did get the tanks though first.

Company not broken here, yet

In the end we broke, I got the enemy infantry in the centre but not the command teams who removed the artillery to the lower left, artillery to the upper right gone as well, ended with one infantry platoon and the 4.5" guns and nothing else, broke.

4:3 defeat though as we took down some of the enemy as well.