Bolt action AAR somewhere in Prussia 1944

 This week we finally got my Soviets on the table, about four years after painting them! Up against Des's SS again, this time Ben took command of them while Des checked the rules.

I'd left the terrain up at Des's suggestion as he thought it looked great, flattered I did, unfortunately after we diced for set up Ben ( understandably chose to occupy the buildings with height and nice views, necessitating me to advance the length of the board again except with two pak40s better sighted , a panzershreck and a tiger! With one pak 40 in the ruined factory another pointing down one of the roads and the tiger on the other road I decided to split my forces and push the T34 followed by the bren carrier towing my 76.2mm anti tank gun plus an infantry squad with the inexperienced squad , flamethrower and anti tank rifle on the other side, in the centre was the  mortar , heavy machine gun and another infantry squad, all squads considerably bigger than last time! I pushed up on both sides and moved forward in the middle, lost the flamethrower team to a squad that came outside in the open , the free inexperienced squad opened fire and mostly missed! I  moved the  central infantry squad into the graveyard to shoot at the exposed squad, which took some casualties but mainly so I could have a unit in the graveyard as we all agreed looked good! The T34 and bren/anti tank gun kept going and then the tiger hit the T34 through the ruined building in the row of houses, we ended up with a crew stunned and a lot of pins! The tank riders dismounted and were brought into combat with the team that included a panzershreck, on the other flank a German flamethrower turned up but was largely ineffectual, the Soviet medium machine gun moved up next to the church and took out one of the pak40 crew. The tiger turned up and eliminated the machine gun crew and then hit the chaps in the graveyard, a German motorbike and sidecar combo moved down my right flank to attack the troops moving up and a German sniper in ambush hit an anti tank team crossing the road. Mortars  from both side continued to be ineffectual! I  deployed the anti tank gun and set it up in ambush and pushed my infantry unit into the building ready to assault the Tiger , we took out the largely ineffectual motorbike and sidecar combo ( sorry Keith!) and had run out of time..it was a bit of a bugger losing the toss and having to fight my way up the board again, this time against a better deployed enemy with more anti tank firepower and of course a Tiger! In the end it was a pretty even draw. I  do think the church now needs a bit of work compared to the rest of the terrain, maybe some filler mixed with paint and a bit of work on the roof? It just seems s bit flat/mdf? All in all a fun game with maybe too much terrain?

All the best 

Iain 

Valour and Fortitude 1809 club game Napoleonics 46

 I had a game with John at the club, so he could try Valour and Fortitude.  Austrians against French in 1809 which meant a first outing for my Southern German Church. 

Sorry for the excessive amount of photos! They don't go all the wayvto the end as we had a chap turn up who is interested in playing 28mm Napoleonics , so with gaming, photos  took the hit ! We set the time for the end of the game and then placed two objectives each( which I'd failed to do previously, they're the pink chits, might have to make something in future? ) I was frankly lucky and managed to occupy all four objectives on my first go, although I decided not to sit on top of the hill and present myself as a target! We'd set quite an early time as the end , John attacked the farm on my right flank,and the one with the church and advanced to assault the woods in his next go, I was mainly trying to use my Landwehr as support units as they're stats are considerably lower than the Austrian line units. I defended where I was and John's French assaulted the hill , the woods and both built up areas, the woods were taken but the unsupported French took casualties, the farm on  right clung on in spite of casualties in the face of overwhelming numbers, on the hill the French were thrown back , well it was a tie but if you're on top of the hill it means you win! The church was meanwhile being resolutely defended. Next turn the farm on  right fell to the French as really the Austrians were not well enough supported, on the hill the French tried again and were pushed back, the French unit in the woods assaulted the artillery piece which had unlimbered the previous go ( I had to borrow French limbers as my Austrians are still at the build stage!) The cannister response was gratifying as the French infantry unit ceased to exist and the artillery remained! At this stage we had reached our agreed finish time and with two to one objectives and also being ahead in the butchers bill, I would have been the winner, however we decided to carry on as we were having fun! Against expectations most of the French brigade assaulting the church was destroyed , the cuirassiers charged up the hill but ended being thrown back and ultimately retreated off the table, the French hussars were held by the Austrian cuirassiers and the French left flank was too far away to influence the game in what was a comprehensive defeat for the French!

Good game, you really need to support your troops, my right flank was understrength but did the job of holding up the much larger French force so that they couldn't influence the rest of the game. I was lucky with the unit in the wood but , largely through luck rather than judgement, my units in the church and on the hill were well supported so yhat they could distribute casualties and survive for longer.  Great fun I'm looking forward to the large family game over the Christmas holidays.  The Austrians are pretty resilient in this ruleset although the Landwehr are very weak, Austrian combined grenadier battalions are making their way to the paint table, I need to address the imbalance of forces as I have been almost exclusively painting Napoleonic French for the past year so expect more Austrians but probably after the Christmas game as I will be playing French against the combined Austrian, Russian and British force.  I've only got one French unit that isn't at least primed which is nice so the end is in sight although Perry's are releasing plastic Polish at some point!

All the best 

Iain