Another month drifted by and the summer is at it’s height 😏 A good few games played and several projects added to.
First up was a WWII skirmish, a French town held by Fallschirmjager being attacked by US paratroopers – a recent re-watch of ‘Band Of Brothers’ might have influenced this decision 🤣
The Germans were pre positioned and diced for off table mortar support and how many rounds that would be. The Yanks deployed their initial force (a short platoon’s worth) on the high ground sloping down to the town – two squads going through the orchards and the HQ proceeding along the road, they also diced for support but had a choice ranging from limited heavy mortar fire to additional support elements – they diced well and ended up with the mortar & heavy machine gun elements plus a couple of off table shoots.
Initial moves saw the HQ squad proceed down the road as far as the church graveyard and barricaded road without drawing fire, dropping off their mortar crew early and setting up an observer to call the shots. The two infantry squads advanced with an excess of caution toward the edge of the orchards.
With some of the Yanks now visible the Germans opened up and a general firefight ensued, casualties were light, the US platoon mortar couldn’t hit a barn door but some very heavy German ordnance was dropping uncomfortably close to the HQ squad, including the mortar team – who the hell was calling it in?
After much cajoling (or shouting into the radio 😀) the infantry squads got forward into some ruined buildings and traded shots with the Germans as they revealed themselves but took several casualties themselves. The HQ split up to flank the church but then started receiving fire from entrenched Germans on the outskirts of the town – the swine’s!
Paratrooper grit finally kicked in and a charge across the town square got the Yanks into a better position to winkle out the Germans who were now taking significant losses – the off table mortars were being called in house by house along with the platoon mortar which either killed Germans or drove them out of cover.
The answer to the question “who’s directing the German fire” was answered when a sniper opened up from the church bell tower, downing a Sgt and a Corporal, who was silenced by the bazooka team and amongst the rubble was the FO 😀
Ultimately German losses were too heavy and they broke contact, retreating out of the far side of the town leaving the Yanks to claim the town.
If a wargame can reinforce any real life lessons it’s that forcing decent troops out of a defended position can be costly and time consuming.
Our next game was an eastern renaissance affair with a Cossack boat born force besieging an Ottoman coastal fort to which a relief force is marching as Cossack land reinforcements arrive.
This was a colourful swirling affair. The Ottoman relief force was made up of regional Sipahis of fairly average quality backed by central Janissaries while the Cossack reinforcements were all veteran cavalry of many a campaign.
The siege pottered along for most of the day (which was the intention) and only got interesting when the one wing of the relief force started getting up close and forced a couple of the Cossack foot units back onto their boats. The main clash was of course the cavalry and to cut a long story short the Ottomans got a bit of a stuffing and left the field – reflecting afterward, the Ottoman commander conceded that wasting half his cavalry force amongst the siege lines probably wasn’t the best decision.
By game end the Janissaries were doing the C17th version of Custer’s last stand and although a couple of the besieging foot units had hopped it in the boats the objective of relieving the fort had not been achieved.
Next up, a firm favourite, our post Roman Britain armies took the stage as the Romano British took on a force of Jutes expanding out of Kent.
The Jutes were in three ‘battles’ of roughly the same composition fronted by skirmishers, the only difference being the inclusion of Frankish mercenaries in the warlord’s battle. The Britons had two infantry battles of varying troop quality and for a change a decent sized cavalry battle – no, not Arthur 😀
The infantry advances were predictably slow so the ‘British’ cavalry got out ahead and mixed it up with the one flank of infantry which, surprisingly, lasted most of the day. Although the cavalry routed a unit of ceorls no one else cared and so they charged and fell back and charged again but by game end many brave warriors were dead and the remnants were limping home.
In the centre, much hacking and slashing and committing of personal guards to stabilise positions availed neither side much as night drew on the battle closed with no clear victor on the field – sometimes you just don’t get a winner.
Next on the calendar was a Sikh Wars game which we hadn’t played for ages.
For this encounter we had the Sikhs occupying two villages, one on each flank, and a central hill with a redoubt. The villages were held by tribal units and their older artillery while the redoubt was held by Sikh regular infantry and guns. The bulk of the Sikh irregular cavalry were deployed behind the hill planning to advance out onto the plain and a further two commands were hidden in trees adjacent to their right hand village; further Sikh regular infantry were entrenched in reserve.
The British, outnumbered as always, had the unenviable task of storming the villages but set to with typical grim determination.
Taking a leaf out of the history books the British cavalry went straight for the enemy! Two brigades set out across the only piece of open ground available to them on the left of the hill and firstly ran into the irregular cavalry who they duffed up rather smartly sending one after another reeling to the rear. Such intense fighting was not without its consequences and the lead brigade finally had to withdraw in good order but the rear brigade followed its example and crashed through a Sikh regular unit that didn’t deploy into square in time and then smashed up a formed square which in fairness was already a bit battered.
The ‘poor bloody infantry’ struggled with their task and suffered heavy casualties from the redoubt in particular.
Ultimately however the right hand village and the redoubt were taken amongst much British blood spilled.
The left hand village was never taken; the hidden Sikh cavalry launched an ill coordinated surprise attack which although it stopped the British didn’t do anything else and ultimately the cavalry were forced into retreat.
At game end the British were in control of one village and the redoubt which was good enough for the Sikhs to concede.
Our final game was an away game playing ‘Arab Israeli’ – I hate that phrase 😣 in 10mm. We were playing 7 Days To The River Rhine with Israeli’s driving forward off the Golan Heights only to be ambushed by Jordanian and Iraqi forces.
We only got two full turns in, which isn’t as bad as it sounds given that it was only the second go with the rules and both sides got to move and shoot enough for a lot of Israeli tanks to go up in flames 🤣
I don’t know what I think of the rules, there certainly seems to be a lot of ‘token management’ which does take you out of the zone a bit, but that said I’d give them another go.
Well that’s July done. A pretty good range of games and enough to satisfy the urge to play. On the non playing front the 10mm Iran Iraq project continues, various bits of terrain are being dabbled with and 2nd hand book shops continue to tempt 😂
So for now goodbye, enjoy your gaming and be nice.
Westbury Wargamers 