Bardia Holds Out - Easily

Our regular game of Tactical Combat today was a vignette of Operation Compass from January 3, 1941, the first action of the 2nd Australian Imperial Force.

The table from the Commonwealth side; ominously open
and overseen from a height.

The Italian western flank.

Eytie defenders setting up.

The hammer - eight Matilda infantry tanks of 7th RTR.

The smaller but plucky Italian armoured corps.

A platoon of 2/7th Australian Battalion, riding in two trucks
and five Bren carriers, supported by a 3" mortar and two portees.

 

The eastern end of the defence, across a wadi. 

We concentrated our forces on the right, where the rows
of barbed wire weren't, but right away had a tank knocked out.

We drove forward, sheltering our infantry behind clouds of dust.

Both sides also had supporting artillery, while the Commonwealth had a preliminary bombardment (which mostly missed) and a Gloster Gladiator (which failed to turn up). We rolled really poorly for much of the game.

A few turns in, we're halfway to the enemy positions, but
are taking casualties, and what are those tokens between us
and the treeline? (Minefields, that's what.) 

Italian cavalry arrives - the defenders don't really need the help.

At this point we had a little luck, by knocking out three of the Italian vehicles and strafing the enemy artillery positions.

This didn't really help much, though.

This is about as far as we got before giving up for the day.

Part of the problem was concentrating our attack, which meant that even missed shots scattered into more of our troops. Part of it was the minefield, which turned out to be empty right in front of the Matildas. Part of it was our opponents' positioning of obstacles, which was professional and intimidating enough to make us try to flank him and run into those mines. And part was our rotten dice luck.                                      

The ruleset is not the culprit; it's an old friend to most of us by now and surprisingly effective at what it tries to do. I still hope to use it to run a VBCW game sometime.

I'm sorry to admit I kinda disengaged from play, letting my partner take over most of the tactics and only occasionally tossing dice or moving an errant unit for him. The relaxed club atmosphere encourages this - another member (having been distracted by car trouble) was fast asleep!

In other news, I put up a diorama of the Battle of Olustee, February 20, 1864, for Black History Month at the library:

Given the current political climate, this may be subversive.

Depicting the rearguard of the 54th Massachusetts at the end of the battle, I intend to add more Confederates and make better smoke. I forgot to borrow some of the pillow stuffing we used for dust in the Bardia game, but maybe I can pick it up this week. See you next time.

Ups and Downs

So, yeah, I didn't make any progress. It started last Sunday night when a pipe burst on the seventh floor of my apartment block. About a quarter of my floor flooded. I rescued a handful of minis boxes sitting on the floor, but spent the next day futilely waiting for an inspection that never came, rather than going to work. Eventually the floor dried and today I got a cleaner in to go over the floor and hopefully stave off any mold.

Spent most of my time reading. Finished a recent biography of Flora MacDonald of 'Forty-Five fame, started on a brief memoir of a US Marine in Vietnam and my first Iain Banks Culture novel, slowly worked my way through Charles Darwin's classic Voyage of the Beagle, and picked up an entire set of Tintin volumes.

That reminds me, I want to 
buy a few of Roly Hermans' paintings.

I did get permission to build a diorama for Black History Month, and have started on a Paperboys depiction of Olustee. Past displays have increased kids' interest in building their own paper models, so with luck I can "spread the love."

Finally, I obtained a copy of the Bolt Action starter set. Took a while, but on the upside it turns out the shop offers a 15% discount on Warlord and Games Workshop kits. That tempted me to pick up an LOTR set, but it'll have to wait. The Bolt Action box is very nice for the cost and even includes a dice bag for its initiative mechanic. The building sprue looks good too. I look forward to assembling this one. With luck, I might be able to get away with doing it at work as well, as I am on the WWII-80th-anniversary committee. The German vehicle in the box is even flat; perfect to go with Paperboys!

So... looking up, I guess. See you next time.

Mixed progress

No campaign game today, too many players called out and none of the map moves resulted in combat encounters anyway. I missed a Bardia game, worse luck. Work has been tiring (and cold, thanks to the weather) and I failed to pay close attention to my already overwhelming email folder. Also a cat had to visit the vet repeatedly... the discounts due to insurance however provide an excuse to spend the leftover money on more game stuff.d 

The campaign map; I'm on the Spanish team.

Work is inching towards gaming (well, besides the healthy chess club); our new teen librarian is seeing interest and planning a weekly activity that will include something I can help with. He's also a gamer (DnD only, though), and I've spoken with a teenaged volunteer who is interested in 40K but unfortunately will be moving shortly. I did get permission to build a Civil War display for Black History Month which I will try to get his help with - an Olustee diorama.

I finished a medieval murder mystery and am most of the way thru The Illusionist, a biography of pioneer Commando and deception artist Dudley Clarke, who most critically distracted Rommel from the true attack direction at Second Alamein. The book is a bit superficial, but with plenty of anecdotes. It criticizes Operation Mincemeat on the grounds that it nearly gave away the attack on Sicily from which it was supposed to distract, although reportedly Churchill approved it on the grounds that the Germans expected Sicily anyway, so anything was worth the attempt. Next will be a biography of Flora MacDonald, who sheltered Bonnie Prince Charlie after Culloden.

I have not received my order of the Bolt Action starter set, though the shop somehow got a box of metal tools from Warlord Games... Instead I've been messing with Know No Fear, the medium-sized 8th Edition 40K starter set, which I picked up on Ebay.

I still have the Quar to finish, too.

Anyway, that's what little I've done this week. Maybe next will be better. See you then.

The Road to Bastogne

 Pete Panzeri ran another of his operational games for us today, specifically the Bulge. This was sadly delayed from the 80th anniversary of the battle, but today is the day victory was ultimately declared in January 1945. Did we do any better than the 101st Airborne?

Well, we couldn't do any worse than the movie version...

Oriskany Jim livestreamed the game again for Sitrep Podcast, but I have some highlights and a few closeup photos.

The field of operations.

And the field of operations.

The game was run by Pete, who played the Germans on autopilot while the rest of us tried to hold him back. I was voluntold as the overall American commander, with four others as division/corps commanders. The scenario is based on an Axis and Allies variant, and each base represents roughly a battalion, while a single building represents a small town.

A closeup on Bastogne.

Center of the map, under construction with dark sand for the roads.
Note Sam the Eagle in Bastogne, representing the 101st.

American center, with my HQ units (light brown tank
and artillery) at center rear by Clervaux.

Germans pour onto the board.

A typical representation of a "town."

These poor bastards are about to be overwhemed by artillery fire.

The Germans storm onto the table.

The ultimate German objective is the ancient fortress of Namur. On a fifteen-foot table you'd think they'd never make it, but under the rules any vehicle on a road can move as far as it wants - all the way if it likes. The catch is that it can't bypass a defended town on the road. While it can go offroad, it can only move six to twelve inches. This means that the "nodes" - especially the bridges and Bastogne - are critical and even a single base will halt the German advance for a turn. This is why we spread out units and supply markers across the board, although we heavily frontloaded our line. So they got steamrollered, though we bit back here and there (combat and shooting are simultaneous) and blew one bridge.

Example unit of Garritroopers.

American dead pool.

A hapless American glider unit under my command holds
Trois Ponts bridge against a massive horde of tanks for two days.

This massive horde!

On turn 4, they finally get across.

I roll successfully for reinforcements, who come in
on the Nazi left flank.

Air power also turns up.

Intimidating mass of German artillery.

The game ended after turn five (five days) with the Americans having done somewhat better than history - Bastogne was attacked but not surrounded, and I rolled five sixes out of 16 dice for a night raid on the German tank laager... My role was less "leadership" than good rolls for reinforcement, weather, and other force-multipliers. A couple rolls raised cheers from the team. 

Pete's scenarios are excellent participation games. I'm alway happy to join in them.

A couple more photos:

Decoration, and a reenactor in Armored Infantry uniform.

Helmet and M1 carbine.

Next week, the first installment of a 16th century Florida campaign; not sure how much of it I'll post, as there is secret movement andd reinforcement. See you then.

Heffalump Challenge

I've written before about trying - and failing - to win at DBA, mostly because my face-off of choice is Indian elephants versus Alexander.

So I tried again yesterday, during the club's semi-regular "open-gaming" days. Only two of us showed up, but one was Jim, whose enthusiasm for DBA is infectious. (He runs the tournaments at the Orlando conventions.) Fully aware that I'm the worst player I've ever met, I asked him to demonstrate how the hapless Indians could win the matchup, and the obvious place to start was with me as the Greeks.

I have in mind to move thru the forest along the road, then spread out.

But the elephants head straight for where I'll come out.

So I shift my pike phalanx to a position where its flank is protected.

Here, I move my auxilia towards my camp to protect it
against those cav at upper right, while my war machine
moves up the road to target the oncoming elephants.

I'm getting flanked.

I think I can handle those elephants now.

As I move to threaten Jim's flank with my horse,
Jim blocks my artillery's LOS. But that chariot
makes a tempting target...

One chariot is dead, as I start shifting to left to hold off
Jim's light troops.

Jim strongly recommended not isolating my units, as
multiple touching units can be moved with a single order.
So instead of tackling his camp, I'm using my cav as a
mobile reserve and racing them to the left.

First combat, as I stolidly march towards Jim's archers at top.
This will prove to be a mistake.

After three or four turns of trying and getting knocked back
by bowfire, I'm ready to charge, but those elephants are being ominous.

A wider view - my cav are ready to support, but the
elephants are behind them...

At this point the dice gods intervened and Jim rolled ones for his order "pips" for a couple turns - which meant his elephants, which require two pips, couldn't move. This was all that kept me alive for a while, but ultimately I still lost by unit losses (first to take four bases off the board loses). It was fairly close, but I too rolled ones (during combats, not for orders) at critical points and in a couple cases failed to win battles that should have been pushovers. DBA is more tactical than it looks to the newcomer, but it's still complex to my eyes. Perhaps if units were labeled?

I've just realized I was rolling an Indian die the entire game, even though I was playing the Greeks. That might explain our poor luck...

In other hobby news, I've been reading a couple Paddy Griffith books on WWI, I've obtained an 8th-edition 40K Know No Fear starter set to go with my First Strike box, and I picked up some plastic glue to assemble it (like the Fantasy set, it's not snap-tite) and some pastel colors for Quar skin. I should be working on the latter project, but it's a tossup at present between that and 40K.

Finally, I expect to attend Pete Panzeri's Battle of the Bulge operational game next Saturday. Should be a more impressive report. See you then!

Gamer's Resolutions

Painfully, I'm about to repeat some of the resolutions I had for last year. Let's see if I can do any better this year.

Finish painting my Quar. There's only 27 of them, for feth's sake. Then pick another project, like the 40K and Fantasy starters I've got or the Bolt Action starter on the way.

Run a Picacho Pass game at the club, probably using Fistful of Lead. We have the minis and the terrain (though I still want to represent Picacho Peak itself somehow); now we need to put together a scenario and play.

Run a VBCW game at the club. Rather than the proprietary rules or the 28mm Bolt Action or Xenos Rampant I was considering, this will be 15mm Tactical Combat. Might still try some solo or smaller club games with the 28mms, though.

Run something that isn't chess at work. This is tricky at my branch, given that we don't have many teens or any other times set aside for this sort of activity. The teen person at work is planning weekly activities and is an RPG gamer, so I might get something in. I got hold of a copy of Thud!, but I've misplaced my Celtic Knot dice which I'd like to use on St. Patrick's Day. The 80th anniversary of WWII and 160th of the ACW are coming up, so at least I should be able to get away with something Paperboys-related that isn't just for display.

Run my cut-down version of Charge! at the club. Worth a try if I can make the time. I will have to practice it more, though.

Work my way thru either the Programmed Wargame Scenarios or the ECW book. Aspirational!

Go on a freakin' vacation. Other than two conventions and a weekend on Key Largo, I haven't gone anywhere in years and I have lots of vacation hours to use. The easiest target is Nassau in the Bahamas, but Nottingham, southern Ireland and Gibraltar are on my bucket list and all have some history (and in the case of Nottingham, gaming). I may have to board my oldest, crankiest cat, though.

Play in an ongoing campaign now being planned at the club. It's set in Florida, circa 1565. I like to think Over the Hills and Far Away might work, if we do the "monthly" moves over email, and there are a couple other Jim Wallman games I'd like to try too. I might, as there are regular "open gaming" weekends now.

Visit the club more regularly, taking time off if necessary. Already hoping to join in Pete Panzeri's Bulge game on January 18th. I'm helping to pay the (increasing) rent, might as well make use of the space.

Get more bookshelves. Extra to store games - there's actually no room in my closet and most are stacked under or on my 2x4 table - speaking of which, I need another. If I could move house, I'd get a two-bedroom apartment and make the second a game-room that, crucially, I could keep the cats out of!

Overreaching myself? Probably. If I get the first four done, I'll be happy. Here's hoping your plans are more achievable!