Rapid Fire Gold Rush

A Tanks Only game of Rapid Fire loosely based upon everybody's favorite silly WW2 bank heist movie, Kelly's Heroes.

Britsh, German, Italian, and American are trying to loot some gold from a bank in the village. It is defended by some French, who don't seem keen on being friends with any of the approaching vehicles.

Bolt Action - Off the Beach

A Trial Game of modified Bolt Action in the Pacific.

Keiron and Matt are planning a 'Big Game' of an American 'Island Hop' for later in the year.

This game was for testing stage\wave 2 - moving off the beach.

The right flank.

Rules have been changed to speed up the dice draw to make it more of a classic IGOUGO. The way it was implemented seemed to favour the defenders in their ambush positions.

Heading off the beach

Rather than advance straight ahead the cover of the trees on either side was utilised to get closer to the bunkers (being represented by the trenches - they were covered bunkers). The mortars also laid down some smoke for the first few turns.

Bogged down in the middle

Nothing much happened in the middle all game. There was a success on the left flank as a drawn-out duel between light tanks helped the Americans move up to the first defensive line and engage with the rearmost Japanese defenses.

Americans take the bunker (briefly)

The mortars cleared the middle of the bunkers holding up the advance on the right, but the rightmost had to be stormed to clear it out. This was successful but a return 'Banzai' charge, after some artillery to soften it up, soon cleared it out.

Tank loses the gunnery duel.

The tank had moved out of its 'hull down' position to try and help out but got taken out by a three-inch gun. This was the last of the effective units on this part of the wave. Both sides depleted ready for the next wave of incoming Americans.

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Battlegroup Torbruk

A game of Battlegroup Tobruk

The first time most of us have played a game from this rules family.
British vs Italians, but with the British constrained in the amount of ammo they had to wrestle the objective off the initially weak Italians.

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The most effective anti-tank weapon proved to be the artillery which was brought up from their original positions on the ridge. The Italian tankettes did provide some opposition, as did their heavier armour on the opposing ridge line. concentrating their fire on the artillery positions prior to their destruction as the British Matildas moved slowly forward.

The British were rapidly running out of ammo but managed to suppress all the remaining Italian armour, so effectively they would (with decent dice rolling) get a free turn to move closer, and greatly improving their chances in what would have been a final round of fire. The game got called prior to this as the Italians conceded.

The infantry didn't get to play much of a roll in this game, with only the Italian unit holding the objective being active.

The game was quick paced despite being a bit table heavy, with favourable comparisons being made by the participants to both Bolt Action and Rapid Fire.
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In the Jungle

Another game of Bolt Action in the Jungle. As a force of Australians tries to hang on to a small village and the nearby ridgeline as the Japanese advance upon it.

Mark is the Australians, Keiron and Tel the Japanese. Matt is the umpire.

Cruel Seas

Report from the Tuesday night game at Furness Wargamers. A game of Cruel Seas from Warlord Games, with Matt providing the Flotillas and acting as GM. The game is new to all the players, who are trying to get their sea legs in this first ever play.

A German Tanker is moored near the coast overnight, protected by a Flakship. But they were not to get much sleep as the Royal Navy attacks with 4 Vosper MTBs (commanded by Keiron) along with a couple of Fairmiles (Ben) for support.

New Guinea Guinea Pigs

 A game of Bolt Action, arranged by Kieron And Matt and the first outing for their Pacific forces.
Set in New Guinea, Japanese vs Australians, a simple capture the building scenario.
The Australians have a Matilda while the Japanese have a couple of tank shaped vehicles.

Things were quite slow moving given the size of the forces, so there is some ongoing discussing as to how to speed the system up.
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Door to Door

Something a bit different this week as Jim arranges a game. A bit of urban fighting in WW2 using Jim Websters set of rules 'Hell by Daylight'.

Tel, Matt, and Steve are the bad guys trying to get away from the advancing Russians.
Tristan, Scott, Tom, and Bill are the defenders of Poland attempting to block their path.

St George's Tobruk

The annual St George's Day, or thereabouts, game, fought as an all day game on the Saturday.

North Africa, World War 2 and one of the many sieges of Tobruk.

 Tables galore in this big Rapid Fire game organised by Derek (on what happened to be his birthday.) and with extra terrain by Matt. Four separate, but adjoining zones, of four trestle tables each, for a total of sixteen in use.

Bolt in the Desert

A game of Bolt Action 2, organised by Keiron and GM'ed by Matt who also provided the terrain and models. Scenario is a simple German assault against a British position on a ridge-line in North Africa.

The Germans had a mixture of Panzers and troops, while the British had Infantry and a single Anti-tank gun to start with.

Squeeze

Fistful of TOWs in an early WW2 setting. French trying to hold a river crossing from a German assault, waiting for assistance from the British who are finishing off their tea.

The Germans make swift advance down the table but the German off table artillery suffer loses from counterbattery fire, losing 2 of its three elements.

The British reinforcements turn up to the Germans rear on the right, first a couple of Recce units but soon followed by some proper armour in the shape of A10 and A13s. A French force of 6 CharBis appear on the Germans left flank, as more British armour pours in.

Just in time, the Germans get some reinforcements in the form of some self-propelled guns.

The German attack into the village becomes more frenzied with the slow crawling approach of the CharBis worrying them somewhat.

Finally, the French battalion breaks giving the Germans victory.

(This has been retroactively published a few years after the event based on an old draft, hence no images and scant details)
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Heroes of Normandie

A boring day so decided to play around with my new boardgame, 'Heroes of Normandie' from Devil Pig Games. The spelling is correct as it's of French origin. The game is squad level WW2 based, with the inclusion of 'cinematic characters' (the titular heroes), which originally put me off the game when it was on Kickstarter.

Purchased while up in Keswick, it was the weight of the box that attracted me, as it nearly strained my arm when I tried to single handedly take it from the top shelf! This compared favourably to a number of more expensive big box games in the same section of the shop, which were a lot lighter and rattled quite a bit!

Blitz Again

A 1940 scenario, with the familiar story of a German assault to try a split the French and British lines. Tony and Tel are the Germans, Jim is the defending British, with Mark as B.E.F. reinforcements and Matt as the French.

Played out at 6mm and using the hex based system as devised by Dave M. This was used extensively in the past, but long enough ago so that everybody had by now forgotten how to play. In these homebrew rules units are rarely lost forever, but it takes time to regroup and at 1/3rd losses no offensive actions can be taken till back up to strength.

From Furness Wargamers in Tanks

Baby Blitz

Didn't feel like gaming at the club so watched a 6mm high level game of the German Blitzkrieg into Northern France in 1940. Hexed based with two players on each side, homebrew rules that had previously been used for Eastern front games.

The French inexplicably left their fortifications on their right and centre. The position was doomed but the voluntary vacation allowed the Germans to push forward quicker and prevented the slow moving French reinforcements (including Char B's) from reaching a defensible position.

On the French Left it was stalemate as the Germans continued to bounce off the defences that were constantly being repopulated by the French. To try and break the stand off, the Germans decided to push some units through a minefield as, too quote the German commander 'it's quicker', the results were as predictable as they were explosive.
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One Brick At A Time

A run through of the Warhammer Historical Kampfgruppe Normandy WW2 game. Allied troops advancing upon a village being defended by German Paratroopers.

Strange to play a 'Warhammer' game without the classic stat-lines. Like a lot of recent 'modern era' games it makes use of the idea of suppression of troops being just as important as killing them.

From Furness Wargamers in Tanks

Rapid Retreat

A quick game of Rapid Fire. Tanks and Armoured Cars only in mid-war North Africa. Even number of vehicles on each side in what should of been a balanced encounter.

Couldn't hit anything at all the first couple of turns, and 2/3rds of my A/Cs were destroyed or forced to retreat. My misses were despite of forgetting to take movement to-hit factors into account.

Things didn't improve over the next few turns, despite the Germans having some difficulties against the British Heavy Tanks.

So the British retired off the field while the Germans regrouped.

Intended to be a multi-players demo game for some scouts, I wouldn't like to be the ones who get control of the Cars!
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Vacuum Cleaned

A game of Hard Vacuum, the Sci Fi game of World War 2 fighters in space (now where have I seen that recently?), and one of the best vector movement systems around. Hadn't played this game for years, the last time being when Paul brought it in when the club was still upstairs at the Duke.

From Furness Wargamers in Space

War of the Worldski

Sat out again this Tuesday and instead watched another of Paul's games with micro-armour. The rules this time fitting to three copies per A4 sheet!

In a move sort of reminiscent to Turtledove's 'Balance' series of alt history the Martians have landed right in the midst of World War 2. Just prior to Operation Barbarossa in fact.

From Furness Wargamers from Mars

Crete Assault

More fighting for the defense of Crete. Regular setup of defending British\Empire troops verses German Paras and some regulars. This time a bridge assault with the Germans coming from both directions to try and dislodge the Brits in the Gorge so that they could link up. 20mm figures and terrain supplied by Matt. Rules are 40K based but with limited weapon range and ammo.

And for a change there was armour involved as 2 Panzer mk.III's try and take on a Matilda, a Light Tank, and some AT weapons.

From Furness Wargamers

As can be seen the centre section of the battle field was terrain heavy.

As I was in charge of the paras, trying to link up with the main force, I decided to place all my troops on one side of my deployment zone away from the open terrain. They hugged the terrain like mad when advancing with only my snipers and MGs popping up to shoot, and my observers sending in some mortar fire. Only really had one effective mortar (the sole medium) and spent most of the time trying to move my remaining light mortars forward.

A long range duel broke out between an MG34 and a Bofors gun. The Bofors eventually won but with it's crew badly depleted and was then taken out by fire from a couple of Anti-Tank Rifles.



The tank battle was a bit of a stand off as they traded shells at close range but with little penetration. The allied anti-tank gun never got a chance to fire as the panzer's refused to come directly down the road. One Panzer got a bit shaken for a while but no vehicles were put out of operation on either side.

Eventually the paras and regulars were able to wave at each other across from the high ground to the rear of the farm house, in which my sniper and observers were hidding, with a good view of the bridge.

The game ended at this point as the allies agreed to withdraw due to their low ammo situation. The Matilda was almost out of ammo, two rounds left, and with the German Infantry closing into charge range holding the bridge looked pretty unlikely.
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Desert Prats

Another go at Pauls quick play WW2 tank game based upon Warhammers armour combat resolution. Once again set in the early North Africa theatre.

A mini campaign but different from last time in that it used a non-symmetrical hex map rather than a symmetrical nodal one. Two forces venturing down a valley to try and capture their opponents villages\command posts. Movement was hidden but scouting neighbouring hexs with armoured cars and aircraft was allowed. Unless you were willing to play the encounter out the only things your scouts could see were clouds of dust.

From Furness Wargamers

The allies held line deciding to wait for the Axis to advance. A minor skirmish occurred between scouts but after that it was a wait for a few turns until the first major clash occurred.

As the units approached each other and the through the dust it soon becomes clear that the allies have the upper hand on the ground. The big fear of Mk III Panzers were unfounded. What we didn't take into account was the air support.

The Italian airforce prove to be decisive, the bomber taking out both main tanks. This completely swung the encounter to the Axis especially as the fighter returned for a second strafe damaging the remaining armoured car.



After this the campaign came to a close. It turned out that the Axis force was the only one assaulting and the main rump was defending their command post. So It would of been possible for the Allies to stop it penertrating any closer to our own CP. Despite the recent loss the campaign was called as a draw.
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Desert Battles

A Mini-campaign based in North Africa in WW2. With the opposing forces using hidden movement on a symmetrical nodal map. Each side had two supply bases on their respective side of the map and two separate combat groups of about 4-5 vehicles each. These vehicles can themselves split off to perform scouting etc. The further away from the bases you are the more likely that you will run out of supplies. Also available were some aircraft to help with scouting. Limited reinforcements entered randomly at the bases.

Combat between the sides was decided using a modified WH40K results sheet, the idea being to get the campaign done in a single night.

After a few minor scouting encounters, the first reasonable sized fight happened in the highlands. (hence the rough terrain below. It is impassable and also blocks line of sight)

Vehicles first appear as dust clouds till successful spotting roles are made, so initially your never too sure quite what your up against. The chance to spot increases as the distance closes, which can lead to some unpleasant surprises.

From Furness Wargamers

The next major encounter was on the desert plain itself. Flat as a pancake so no hiding except in your own dust.

Despite closing to very short range shells were bouncing of both sets of vehicles. Eventually a lucky shot took out a Panzer III and the Panzer II was effectively chased off with a series of glancing blows.



Eventually I had to withdraw as the remaining Panzer III had run out of ammo! Was pursued by the Brits till they themselves ran out of shells.

So the Campaign didn't get completed in a night but the British were pretty much on top having taken out two Panzer IIIs.
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