Monday, 29 October 2018

Thursday night - Fighting Sail!

A couple of poor shots from Thursday nights game.  Only Jon, Frank and myself were able to make it so offered to run out the Osprey naval game for a second outing - and it was great fun again!

We had one game with Frank and Jon in charge of a single 3rd rate each.  A ding dong battle in which Jon eventually prevailed and I got to grips with the rules.


Our first fleet action.  Jon has lost his lead 4th rate and his remaining 4th and two further 3rd rates slug it out with Frank's 2nd and two 3rd rates

In the second game, Frank and Jon took a small fleet each as we tried out the squadron command rules.  Jon opted for a more nimble 2x 4ths and 2x 3rd rates whilst Frank had a heavier 1x 2nd and 2x 3rd rates.

Jons's greater numbers were able to slug it out quite effectively with Frank until he managed to steer his command into irons and accumulated damage on top of his anchors.

Frank in the foreground has lost a 3rd rater but he has the weather gauge and is able to manoeuvre his fleet out of Jon's arc of fire and pound him into submission.  Jon, his fleet held in irons, struggles to reply.
Frank eventually triumphed after a very well contested long range duel.  But once he was able to bring his remaining ships into medium range and out of Jon's arc, the squadron rules allowed him to combine fire from his remaining ships and destroy three out of four of Jon's men o'war.  Jon's remaining ship, unable to flee in it's becalmed state, struck it's colours.

The squadron rules work very well as a simple command and control.  The fleet morale rules were very effective.  And, I learnt that a ship does not accrue anchors but only ever has one!

Jon and Frank reckon they could handle twice as many ships very easily, so with all of us present, we could probably put on a large battle.  Very effective set of rules, quick to pick up but feels right for the period.

Thanks Jon and Frank for a good game.

Sunday, 28 October 2018

Arnhem Operational Battle AAR

Gents

Links to the first 3 reports here.

First

Second

Third


Fourth one should be up later today

Sunday, 21 October 2018

Operational CinC's


We need this many players!

Our last operational outing with the Arnhem scenario was a great game.  Every table had troops move across it and there was combat on 8 out of 10 of them.  Paratroops spearheaded an armoured thrust whilst a ragtag German force attempted to stem the onslaught with green volksgrenadiers reinforced by armoured units from a panzer division.  Once more, the operational format gave us a wide range of units, with plenty of manoeuvre, played to a conclusion in under 6 hours - great!

However, we are still missing a key component of the original operational concept - the CinC!  As we presently play it, the games remind me of football played by seven year olds - everyone running around chasing the ball in a big scrum until the ball is suddenly ejected into one sides net or the other.

Without a CinC we, naturally, tend to get absorbed in the action on the table in which we command troops and trust that this is where the game will be decided.  Reserves are committed to where-ever things seem desperate and air assets played reactively instead of to a plan.

We have played some games when we did have dedicated CinC's.  The 1941 Barbarossa game felt almost like a battle of wills between Ozzie and Frank (despite the fact that neither of them had played an operational game before), as well as a battle of wills with some subordinate commanders.

The main problem has been lack of players as ideally we need 3 players aside and an umpire; whilst I think our Arnhem game could have done with 4 players on each side!  And yet, I think this is also our default excuse - we see the benefit of the Thursday night pre-operational planning conference but we are too easy going for anyone to step up and want to take charge.  It may also be that we don't want to miss out on the fun of actually fighting on the tables and that stepping back and taking responsibility for implementing Thursday's plan is a thankless task - if you win everyone slaps themselves on the back on a group plan well played, if you lose the CinC is a ready made scapegoat!

I know I may be overplaying the stresses but it is easier to play a game with everyone mucking in at the tactical level - but it's those seven year olds again!  So, what I am thinking of is creating some Thursday night scenarios where we fight over one table but in which we experiment with the benefits of one player on each side taking on the role of off table CinC and taking charge of reserve commitments, air assets, artillery and orders.

Hopefully, we will discover the benefits of a dedicated CinC, understand that the CinC is not the boss but one of the team with a more specific role and find a new facet of operational gaming that we may all want to have a crack at - or do those seven year olds look like they're having fun?


Tuesday, 16 October 2018

A bridge too far indeed!!

Pics of the latest operational game

Allies driving in from the North, red arrows German entry points

 Turn 1 Air landing battalion and paratroopers attack airfield

 2nd Air landing land on table 1B but don't block the motorcycle battalion rushing to release the panzer reinforcements



 elements of 30 corps move on forward town

 A random German battalion enters at 2D

 The attack goes in

 and overruns the airfield

 Another random German battalion moving to cut off the air born troops

 Hold until re leaved

 Paratroops defusing the rigged bridge and leading the way

 German garrison is finally crushed

allied Armoured regiment on the hunt

 Elements of the Panzer division arrive to take back the airfield

 Parras in trouble from panzer division

 Allies secure bridge

 Air landing under extreme pressure

 Parras dying to a man

 Airfield about to fall


 Germans holding off tanks

 Last of the random German reinforcements


 Allies trying to clear the way to the airfield


 Air landing die to a man but take 2 German battalions with them



The end 
Air born troops could not hold onto their forward positions, and 30 corps could not break thru in time 
A narrow win to the Germans.
Well played Gentlemen.

Thursday, 4 October 2018

How to build Holland in WW2

https://napoleoninelba.blogspot.com/2018/09/instructable-how-to-build-holland-ww2.html

Monday, 1 October 2018

Sunday 30th Sept Star Wars Armada Tournament

 My new rebel scum fleet on the left running away from Imperial star destroyer (i did this a lot)
Lost this one badly due to his better fighter cover but he had an illegal list i was awarded all the points. (Meh he he!)
 Triple star destroyer Ooh er!
Didn't do very well

 More star destroyers
 Triple liberty cruisers!!!!
Lost every match

Managed to lose 2 games badly and win one well and still came in third,
back to the drawing board.

Wednesday, 26 September 2018

Bridge too far rules

Gents these are the specific rules for the operational game 

1.       The rout thru Holland to Arnhem was difficult when going cross country due to the terrain which was polder with lots of drainage ditches. All movement by vehicles is at half rate, unless on the road which is at normal rate plus road bonus.
2.       Both armies can follow the directional arrows.
3.       All woods and hills on table 3B are replaced with multiple village sectors to simulate the urban sprawl of Arnhem. The original town sectors for 3B will still be represented with outskirts, all other built up areas will be multiple village blocks with a max platoon limit of 1 platoon per inch per block. This will make 3B one big city fight. Indirect fire into city block is not very effective 11/12 for guns up to 150mm and 10-12 for 150mm upwards. You can only exit and enter different city blocks if they are touching.
4.       All entry points to adjacent tables will correspond with the exit point of the last table. Entry to 3B from 3A and 1B will be as per map i.e. right half of 3A to left half of 3B and left half of 1B to right half of 3B.
5.       The bridge on table 2B has been rigged with explosives and will explode on a 4+ when allied elements cross the bridge, an engineer may defuse the explosives by being stationary for 1 turn by the bridge. If there are any axis elements within 3” of the bridge it will explode on a 3+ when the allies cross it.
6.       Allied airborne elements will drop on turn 1 using the standard paratrooper deployment. Airborne elements may be held back but will have to have a turn No and drop point allocated prior to turn 1.
7.       There will be 1No standard (no attachments) volks grenadier battalion at the town in 1C and a small garrison at the airfield. Paras’s dropping on the airfield as part of turn 1 deployment will suffer D3 attacks from the AA emplacement. (AI v AI).
8.       The volks grenadier battalions and infantry regiment will enter from the sides of tables 1A, 2A, 3A, 1D, 2D, 1B. 1 random fighting battalion will arrive each turn and a roll of a D8 will indicate the table entry (7 and 8 no show). The battalions do not have to enter that turn if not desired by the axis player and will go back into supply for another turn. This will simulate the randomness of the axis response in a supposedly quite sector.
9.       The axis panzer division is off table beyond 3B and will not respond until any battalion, axis or allied enters table 3B (Must be 6 or more platoons of a single battalion). When this happens on the very next turn the axis player can release I fighting battalion per turn onto table 3B via the road.
10.    Line of supply rules are in effect. If there are no opposing elements on a table then the line of supply is blocked in either direction, if enemy elements are on the same table then a 12” gap which no enemy can trace direct fire too must exist for units to be in supply ( out of supply = -1 shooting and -1 close combat)
11.    The allies will automatically win if they can get an armoured regiment off table 3B, otherwise it is points per table as usual.
12.    Aircraft designation must be decided on when organising the OOB. Aircraft priority will be moving vehicles, stationary vehicles, Moving infantry/support weapons, stationary infantry/support weapons all in the open. Aircraft will not be able to target units in cover i.e. woods. Aircraft can be called in to a specific target by using a HQ unit on the divisional call up table.
13.    The main bridge cannot be targeted, both sides need it.
14.    Para drop rules are in effect. Each platoon will drift 2d6 on a spinner. Units that land off table –dead, units that land on top of another unit- supressed unit landed on dead, units that don’t land in the clear-dead.
15.    Gliders will slide 2d6 from designated landing point on a half spinner (180%). If they crash into any cover/building/another glider (not hills) –dead. Units from gliders will be placed next to it in any direction and will move next turn.
16.    1A  1 pt for the ridge (centre ridge)
1B  1 pt for the farm
1C  1 pt for the town
1D  1 pt for the farm

2A  1 pt to clear the north side of the river of the enemy.  1 pt to clear the south side of the river of the enemy.
2B  1 pt to clear the north side of the river of the enemy.  1 pt to clear the south side of the river of the enemy.
2C  1 pt for the ridge, 1 pt for the large wood.
2D  1 pt for the village and 1 pt for the bridge

3A  3 pts for the airfield, 1 pt per hard point

3B  1 pt for the town, 1 pt for the bridge, 1 pt to clear north bank of the enemy