Turn One, Week Four- A last gasp push!

The Axis try to even the scores

The outcome of the last few weeks gaming meant the Axis forces were in a bad spot. They needed two wins to tie 'The Rapido', same with 'Castle Hill' and the only position currently in their favour was 'The Barracks', which were level in terms of score.

It should be noted that during this turn, any locations currently tied in points would be awarded as a victory for the Axis. So, that means their attacks would have to be meticulously planned and of course, the wins going their way to secure the points necessary.

Step forward Oberst Hamilton and Colonel MacLean

An intriguing thought struck me; perhaps there should be some sort of 'chain-of-command' for the two sides. This meant that there was more scope for planning and a little added something to the game. By this I mean that each Commander would be issued an amount of tactical edge tokens, which they would then distribute amongst their players, giving forces a small edge where necessary.

I put it to confidential vote, with the rule that you could not vote for yourself and the Allies were not allowed to vote for me. When all the votes were in, it was decided that Gordon would be Oberst (German Army Rank Colonel), and Norman would be Colonel for the Allies.

It has since come to my attention that the dastardly Axis has set up a sneaky secret base (On Facebook), in which to discuss their nefarious schemes. I hope they don't think they can get away with cheating!

The battles get underway

 The players present on the night were;

Axis

• Gordon with his 90th Sardinien Grenadiers
• Grace with her "Wee Men" Grenadiers
• Iain (Proudly displaying his fully painted army)
• Leon with his 1. Fallshirmjager

Allies

• Myself, and my 'Taffy' Guards
• Murray with his American Paras
• Colonel T. with the unpronounceable Pulyemyetno-Artillyeriyskiy 
• Ian Morton, joining in for his first foray, with his American GIs

 To save on packing up and space, it was decided that Gordon and myself would sit out. This not only let me watch over and help some of the newer players, but as I'm also the Club Secretary it allowed me to perform my administration duties.

Murray, Leon, Colonel T. and Grace fight it out on the grassy table

I decided to set up a couple of Grudge Matches on the night, with Murray and his good lady fighting it out, in what we deemed 'The Domestic', old foes Colonel T. and Leon would face off; They played each other quite often during the Tank Aces campaign, with Colonel T. infuriating people with his Konigstiger. Finally, it was the battle of the Ia(i)ns, as Iain Cameron of the Axis and Ian Morton of the Allies took the third table. This was the game I watched over, so the in-action report comes from this game.

Hesitation leads to defeat

 The mission rolled for tonight was 'Surrounded'. A good game to get your teeth into, as there are no Reserves to roll for. This was a common complaint the past few weeks, that with so few platoons on the table, having reserves can really put either, or both sides at a serious disadvantage and grind the game down.

Iain C. won the dice-off for attacker, and so it was that Ian M. set up his Infantrymen in their foxholes, with the HMGs taking up positions in the only building on the board. Iain C. then had his own HMGs split off from the rest of his force on the North side of the table as his Grenadiers advanced from the south, under the cover of the HQ Mortars.

The two forces face off, with Iain C's HMGS off camera to the left, while Ian M's hide in the house

The first few turns resulted in a few exchanges of gunfire to no effect as concealment and bulletproof cover stymied any sort of hitting power. It was turn three when some serious damage was done, sort of. Iain C's HMGs tearing into the Weapons Section near the house and picking off a couple of bases. It was at this point where Iain C could have done some serious damage by assaulting into the Weapons section, risking the fire of the HMG in the house, and the few shots from the pinned platoon. Even the mortars would have been ineffectual, being too close to provide defensive fire. Instead, Iain C elected to Stormtrooper move his Grenadiers back into the cover of the forest to get another turn of shooting in at the Weapons Section.

Iain C's impressively painted Grenadiers move through the forest

 In Ian M's turn, it seemed he would sweep some of his GIs into the HQ mortars dug in beside the river. This was the plan, but you know what they say about best laid plans. The assault was initiated, and the few SMG shots from the command stands in range managing to pick of an assaulting team. This seemed a fair trade for the mortars. Or so it seemed, as the Americans forgot to pull pins, fix bayonets or perhaps tried to resort to harsh words, since not one base hit. This was replied to by the Mortars wreaking havoc and wiping out the remaining teams, much to the shock of both players.

 This was only made worse in the following turn by Iain C's Grenadiers sweeping the Weapons Section from their foxholes and into the open, while the HMG teams had to bail out of the house and fall back to the river, where they established a strong defensive line. But, in that assault, the mortars and the 2iC himself perished to German bayonets.

 The elation was short-lived however, as the Americans had another crack at the mortars, and this time made sure to deal the damage. Not that Iain C minded, as their ranging attempts the entire game had been sub-par. Misery was heaped on as the Weapons Section poured fire on the closest Grenadiers, decimating the platoon and forcing the remaining teams to fall back. 

Early game it looked to be all going right for Iain C

 The game was declared a win for the Allies, given that the HMG section could still fire upon the remaining Americans, but to little effect, and with the other Grenadier platoon under half-strength, any further casualties would prompt motivation tests.

Result: Allied Win. 

Location scored: The Barracks

XP: Iain Cameron: 0 (Has already played two scoring games this month)
       Ian Morton: 4

The dug in Americans make the advance for the objectives a daunting task; So, the game ends

Final scores

 Elsewhere, the games had finished as follows:

Grace got bragging rights over Murray after chasing his Paratroopers from the board. The two newer players seem to be having a ball with the game, and are setting themselves up for next turn and new toys.

The safety of the monastery means nothing as the Paratroopers are soon dislodged

Result: Axis Win. 
Location Scored: The Rapido
XP: Murray: 0 (Has already played two scoring games this month)
        Grace: 0 (Has already played two scoring games this month)

 Leon and Colonel T's game was a very close run thing, with the Fallshirmjager forces down to a few teams and the same on the Soviet side. Both players were facing down in a forest, but with the stalemate in place, the Axis pushed this one.

The Machine-gun artillery seems like a good plan, until I make you attack

Result: Axis Win. 
Location Scored: The Rapido
XP: Colonel T: TBC
        Leon: TBC

 So, with this month gone and past the scores were on the board and the result was as follows:

The Rapido
Axis Wins: 2 (Axis win this area due to the draw rule)
Allied Wins: 2

Castle Hill
Axis Wins: 1
Allied Wins: 3 (Allies win this area)

The Barracks
Axis Wins: 1
Allied Wins: 2 (Allies win this area)

Turn 2: On to Cassino and across the Rapido!

 So, the rules for turn two are in a similar vein to turn one, with a few additions:

1. Players may now take up to 700pts
2. The Force List used must be the same from turn one, but may be completely restructured*
3. Support Options may be taken with exceptions
4. Tank teams are still disallowed
5. Reconnaissance teams may be taken, if their armour does not exceed 1 on the front face
6. Air support may not be taken

*This may be changed if players agree that the list being used is unsuitable.

TURN TWO: OCTOBER 1st!



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Remember Hoffel Roffel III I mentioned away back when? Here's a proper picture of the happy chappie!

Turn One, Week Three- Ten's a crowd!

Week 3

 Firstly, apologies to all for the late write up of the week's action from 17/09/2013, this was due to a few factors: I am in the middle of moving house, so time is at a premium, and of course I had to get organised for the opening of Knightly Gaming, which you can read about below.

 Secondly; Facebook is a wonderful tool. Once you get past the drama, the passive-aggressive posts and pictures of people's children. The most useful thing is the event planning; make an event, invite people and then you know who exactly is coming, so you can plan ahead. So, I went ahead and made an event for that week's Infantry Aces night. And my word, was it successful. A promise of ten players out of twelve turning up, this was not to be sniffed at.

All five games in full swing. Note, I'm absent from my chair fourth on the left being behind the camera and all...

 The match ups

 The guest list did not lie, we did in fact get ten players on the night, and with an even Axis-Allied split, this meant a good night of Blue on Red gaming. Being able to get down to the club earlier, and having an idea of how many people were likely to show up meant that tables could be grabbed for use, with an additional small table at the end to use as my 'Office'.

 With almost all the players present, this gives me an opportunity to give the full list of participants and the forces they're using;

Allies

• Murray Anderson- American Paratroopers (V3 Forces Book)
• Norman MacLean- American Rifle Company (-)
• Brian Walker- American Rifle Company (-)
• Colonel T.- Pulyemyetno-Artillyeriyskiy (Red Bear)
• Ian Morton- American Rifle Company (Dogs & Devils)
• Myself- Welsh Guards Lorried Rifle Company (Market Garden)

Axis

• Gordon Hamilton- German Grenadier Company (Grey Wolf)
• Iain Cameron- German Grenadier Company (Grey Wolf)
• Grace Bommer- German Grenadier Company (V3 Forces Book)
• Leon Berge- Fallschirmjagerkompanie (Cassino Book)
• Robert McLennan- German Grenadier Company (-)

 I'll have to ask specifically which books some players are taking their lists from, but when I know for sure, I'll edit the above to reflect the facts.

 The games were thus:

• Murray and Gordon
• Norman and Leon
• Robert and Brian
• Colonel T and Iain
• Grace and myself

Silly hats and silly games

 The mission for this evening was 'Pincer', with the usual reworking to have 'Delayed Reserves' become 'Reserves', so that the defender is not swamped too early on, and to give the attacker something to think about.

 With ten players, I found myself needing to play for once (admittedly, I really should play at least once a month). I opted to play against Grace, to allow me to mentor her a little. With the roll off in Grace's favour, she set her army to attack my dug in Brits.

 But what of the silly hats mentioned above? Well, during the planning for the evening, Grace got all excited about the Halloween decorations already being out in the shops, so I offered that if you wear a silly hat during the game, you would get a Tactical Edge Token (Something I completely forgot to do).

Grace forgot her hat, but luckily, I had a spare

 The table was set up in such a way that both players could benefit from the hill in the middle to shield their mortar teams, should they have any. Grace made use of this, setting up her mortars behind, backed up by her Ace "Oofty Oosh Bommer' (I don't know... don't ask me). With the support of two HMGs in the forest on her right flank and two advancing Grenadier Platoons to try to seize the objective.

The table, with one platoon of British Rifles in reserve, the other in ambush... somewhere

Grace, as attacker, got first turn, and advanced her Grenadiers up and around the hill. First lesson to learn: 'Don't bunch up your troops when your opponent has artillery'

Hard to see, but there's a Grenadier platoon under there

Luckily for her, though, the mortars ranged in, but did little damage to the Grenadiers. Her rolls for saves being far above par. The ambush appears within the vineyard (Because really, where else would you put it?), and poses a problem for the Grenadiers. Dug-in Veteran infantry contesting an objective are hard enough to shift, but when they are British Guards, they're almost impossible to get rid of.

 To make matters worse for Grace, my reinforcements arrived on turn two, just in time to flank the Grenadiers as they advanced down the hill to attempt to take out the dug in riflemen. The HMGs in the forest did little to nothing, unfortunately, as they were picked off by passing shots from the newly arrived guards.

The very blurry guards advance towards the HMGs, who are supported by a tasty soft drink

Grace's mortars were less than effective, especially when her spotters were wiped out. This almost took them out of the game completely, leaving her Grenadiers at the mercy of the Guards. To try to spur her on a little, I launched an assault with one of the platoons, hoping that maybe her shooting, and subsequent turn would make the game a slightly more close-run thing. Alas, it was not to be, with the shooting from the Grenadiers awful and the resulting combat wiping them from the board.

The game, sadly, was over. I am hopeful that Grace has learned a few things from it; not bunching up platoons against mortars, being wary of ambushes and reinforcement surprises.

The scores on the boards

The other games led to mixed fortunes for both sides;

Iain contemplates the meaning of pain as he tries to advance on the machine-guns

Brian and his US Rifles successfully taking Castle Hill against Robert's Grenadiers
Leon's Fallschirmjager proving tough to defend against in the Barracks with Norm's US Rifles
Iain's Grenadiers unable to dislodge Colonel T's Machine-gun artillery from Castle Hill
Gordon's Grenadiers successfully scaling Castle Hill against Murray's US Rifles

Castle Hill didn't have a town at the top, surely?

So, with the games over, the Allies looked to be taking all three locations in a clean sweep. It would take a minor miracle from the Axis next week to steal some of them away.

The hat is what won Gordon this game, it inspired his dice

 That's it for week three, with the campaign roaring back into life from what seemed to be a lull last week. As I'm writing this the day after the final week of Turn One, I already know the outcomes. But I won't ruin it for you. I'll do a write-up of the final games in a few days and then it'll be on to Turn Two and 700pts. So for now, over and out.

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But, where's your silly hat? You need to wear a silly hat! Fine... fine...

I wear the silliest of hats!

Opening Day at Knightly Gaming

A new shop for Lanarkshire

  Knightly Gaming announced a few weeks ago, they'd be opening their doors on Saturday 21st September. My colleague, Jason, set up a demo day for Flames of War; and being the Glasgow-based Ranger, I agreed to come down and run some demo games for them. Thankfully, my good friend Iain is a Spartan Vanguard and was also invited down to demo Dystopian Wars, one of their systems.

Knightly Gaming, 5 Saint Vincent Place, Lanark, South Lanarkshire ML11 7LA, UK

 An early start and a squished badger... we think

 The town of Lanark is well served by public transport; the rail station and bus station across the road from the shop. Driving from where we set from was a different thing altogether. Weaving country roads through the hilly fields and forested valley of Lanarkshire. The roads were the sort that allows you to appreciate the scenery and the wildlife. Alas, the majority of that wildlife ends up a little flat on the roads as careless drivers speed round the narrow routes.
 This proved to be all too true as we rounded a bend and caught something under-tyre. It was already deceased, but the feeling of unease remained as we passed over the furry mass.

 Putting that unsettling encounter behind us, we pulled into historic Lanark and looked around for the shop. It took two passes before noticing the gaming-related paraphernalia in the window of the shop. We arrived in good time and set ourselves up to await the opening.

The currently signless shop, but it is coming

 Doors opened at 10 sharp and the first few lucky customers traipsed in to be given a gift-bag of goodies. Jason and myself stood aside to allow the manager, Brett Knight, to meet, greet and serve his first customers. The very nice people at the 'Nearly Enough Dice' Podcast came down to record the opening of the new shop, and what jolly nice people they were too. I highly recommend giving their podcast a listen.

N.E.D. presenters Liz and Mike by far gave us the most entertaining of games, with Liz providing an enthusiastic playing style (Complete with evil laughing and taunts)

Demo-ing and the like

 With the initial excitement of purchases out of the way, the clientèle settled into browsing and enquiring into the set-up demo tables. A few familiar faces came round to greet us as we launched into our first game. 

The pretty demo table, ready for the players

  With the usual high quality Gale Force Nine: Battlefield in a Box terrain making the table look clean, crisp and professional. The demo was run in the usual shortened fashion: The Axis players getting two StuG IV's, a platoon of Grenadiers and a single PaK40, while the Allied player receives command of a platoon of American Paratroopers, with both support weapons and the platoon of Shermans with their Firefly.

The field close to the objective is 4.5'' away, meaning a platoon cannot take it from cover 

 The V1 flying bomb accessory was put in the middle of the table, and the very simple objective of having a platoon within 4'' of the centre of it while at the same time doing as much damage to your opponent as possible.
  An important lesson I've learned from the year's worth of demoing I've done is to not put any advantageous terrain pieces within range of the objective. This leads to players having to either go for it and seize the win or sit back in the safety of their positions and risk their opponent stealing the win. The picture above shows this, though in later games the fences were swapped to the other field to make it certain.

 It can go either way

 This statement is as true as any. While there, we managed to get in five games, and out of those five, three were in favour of the Allies, two were in favour of the Axis. It wasn't always by the same cause either. The Axis always won by capturing the objective or wiping out the Allies completely. (The allies cannot lose to Company Morale, as they only have two platoons) While the Allies either won by capturing the objective or forcing a company morale check on the Axis. One thing that never happened was the destruction of the PaK40 in the forest. The gun shield on it meant that the few shots that were sent it's way did little to no damage, even with failed saves.

Jason showing our happy chappies the ropes in his shiny new uniform

 Another thing I made sure of before the start of each game: The PaK40 has to be out of range of the Shermans and neither the Shermans nor the StuG's can see each other before the game starts. This once again makes it a little more balanced in the way that whoever gets first turn has to move to draw fire on their opponent, and also means that it's very unlikely that the player who goes second will be lacking one of their units. This proved true in the majority of cases, but sometimes a lucky shot could pick one off.

A rare sight as a StuG burns on turn 1

 Unfortunately, due to travel limitations, I was only able to stay until 4pm, while Knightly Gaming's opening hours will be until 8pm weekdays and 6pm on Weekends. Jason though took command for the remaining few hours, and I'm sure he continued the high quality demoing we conducted throughout the day.

The shop itself

 I have only positive things to say about Knightly Gaming itself. The shop is well positioned, as mentioned above, on good public transport routes and has the advantage of being supported by the Lanarkshire Gaming Group, based out of nearby Motherwell. The interior of the shop is nice and bright, with the location facing North-East, meaning no glare from the sun but all of the light.

The lovely large windows make for pleasant, light and airy gaming

 What about stock levels for the shop? Well, they're only just open so for most systems it's a matter of testing the water. The Flames of War section has only the essentials at the moment, but with scope to expand with books and other box sets promised.

The small selection, but with room to grow!

 So, that's it for now. Thanks to Brett and his lovely family for looking after myself and Jason during the demo day. Great company and I'm eager to see how this local shop grows.

A well-earned cup of tea to end the day (Upside down bowl to act as a coaster)

All fun and games on the day (And to prove I do exist beyond the camera)

A slow trundle (1750pts Late-war tournament)

Worlds at War, 15/09/2013

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 On a rainy Sunday up here in bonny Scotland, we once again find ourselves travelling out East to 'Worlds at War' in Livingston for another late-war tournament. With the weather being a little foul, call-offs were to be expected. And so it was that five hardy souls braved the sideways rain to participate, with Frank joining in to make up numbers.

 This time round I loaded up my old favourites, the Tank Squadron (6th Tank Army) from Overlord. I have used this list before when it was in it's earlier days; Turning Tide book. But with a few revamps I changed the list slightly.

A Rarity: Blue on Red Split

 For once we got a perfect split of three German and three Allied players.This meant we could quite happily play Blue on Red all day. With this in mind and with the slightly reduced numbers, Frank decided that the winners would be; Best Allied Player and Best Axis Player.

 The players and their lists were as follows:

Axis:

• Bill Patterson- 12th Volksgrenadier (Nuts Book)
• Frank Keast- 17. SS Panzergrenadier (Nuts Book)
• David Burns- Kampfgruppe Hummel (Bridge by Bridge)

Allies:

• Norman McLean-  4th Armoured Division, Tank Company (Blood, Guts & Glory)
• Andy Thompson- Peredovoye Otryad/ Forward Detachment (Red Bear)
• Myself- 6th Tank Army, Tank Squadron (Overlord Book)

The insignia of 17. Panzergrenadier Division (Götz von Berlichingen)

The most effective Typhoon I've ever had... for one turn

Game one put me up against Bill's 12th Volksgrenadiers. The mission rolled was 'Breakthrough', and with me running as a tank company and Bill using infantry, it was time for the slow trundle to begin. One of the new tactics I tried out was using Stuarts for reconnaissance which in all three games ended badly since I used them as mobile MG boxes rather than proper Recce troops.

First turn my Typhoon showed up and was the most effective I'd ever seen it. Bill had hidden three Marders behind a building on a hill with the plan to pop them out and snap off a few shots before retreating again using Storm-trooper. The Typhoon though had other plans, managing to range in, then laying waste to two of them. Even though there was only one plane, it still managed to hit two and wipe them from the board.

A single Typhoon lays waste to two Marders behind the Church on the hill

A strange occurrence this time round; I was the only one with aircraft, meaning my Crusader AA's were re-assigned into heavy-machine gun toting mobile pillboxes. They harassed a dug-in Grenadier platoon near the centre of the table as the rest of the army skirted round my long table edge. Delayed reserves meant we had to do with what we had for the time being, and with very little in the way of action for the first few turns the game only got tense as things began to show up.

The surviving Marder from the first turn managed to harass the Stuarts by picking a couple off, forcing the survivor to break. This led to Bill dubbing it; 'The Little Marder Who Could'. I agree with the sentiment, but would like to add; '...Frustrate Me By Not Retreating'.

The first platoon to show up for Bill was his Panthers, a threat I wasn't very happy with, but couldn't do much about. I received some Churchills which rumbled towards the furthest objective thanks to the Reserves deployment rule for the mission.

And now comes the intriguing and slightly frustrating bit for me: Flammenwerfer-armed half-tracks. Bill rolled these onto the table behind a platoon of Churchills and gave them both barrels. A mighty twelve dice, nine hits, but thankfully only two successful firepower tests meant the platoon was fine for now. The frustrating part? The half-tracks zooming off the battlefield as quickly as they had arrived, denying me a potential platoon. This proved to be no problem as I hammered out a 4-3 eventually.

Wrapping this one up quickly, the Crusader AA's took a pair of Quad-armed half-tracks in their stride until a bad dice roll meant the end for one of them, but he bit back, wrecking the aggressors. Only to be taught a lesson the following turn by some annoyed Panthers.

The remains of the AA battle in the middle of the table as my CiC tries to push the Grenadiers from the objective

Though my reserve Churchills enjoyed initial success pushing some dug in Grenadiers off the northern most objective, they couldn't withstand the subsequent backlash. (Despite, much to Bill's annoyance, their ability to survive Panzerfaust assaults).

 With time getting on and it being unlikely that I could take an objective, I submitted to a hard-fought loss. Those dastardly Flammenwerfers denying me a much desired platoon.

The Churchills finally succumb, but only after infuriating Bill against his Fausts

Sturmtigers and a Slog

 Next up, I had the good pleasure to play against our host for the day; Frank and his 17. SS Panzergrenadiers. Interestingly enough, he was supported by some Sturmtigers. My experience with them in the past have been the Reluctant Conscript ones from Grey Wolf, but these were different, being Confident Trained they were probably going to be able to hit something for a start, and if bailed, actually stick around a little longer to keep fighting.

 With the mission being Hold the Line, having those in Ambush could very easily spell the end for a hapless platoon of Churchills. Again, being Tanks against a mechanised company I would be driving at the jaws of the beast in this battle.

 The Stuarts once again were used to scout, and sent zipping down the table, hoping to flank the battery of 105's dug in behind the buildings. This only led to the Sturmtigers being revealed on that flank, which thankfully the Stuarts managed to skip past as the Howitzer-armed monstrosities focused on the advancing Churchills instead.

The M10C's I brought along were caught between a rock and a hard place, their only target was the Sturmtigers, but then again at over 16'' away, their front armour of 12 against AT 14 meant that doing anything to the beasts was extremely doubtful. They advanced in cover towards the cluster of buildings in the middle of the table, if needed they could become mobile pillboxes using their .50cal MGs.

The Churchills advance while the M10's sit behind the building and ponder the meaning of life

In the centre of the table, the battle had devolved into tit-for-tat exhanges between the Churchills and the PaK 40's. The Churchills unwilling to drive closer to give the guns a more favourable target, while at the same time Frank's dice rolling for saves keeping the guns alive and the same for the defending infantry in the buildings.

 The Stuarts managed to pick off an undefended 105mm before being ripped asunder by return fire; Once again the scouts being a little effective, but not much. Meanwhile the Sturmtigers were causing a little bit of a problem for the Churchills stuck in the field in front of them. Advance and the tanks could very well meet their end... Until Frank reminded me that they have a minimum range, and at that point engines were engaged and the tanks rolled out.

A sad end for the Stuarts as the guns beat one down and the other flees for it's life

 The Grenadiers defending the objective finally began failing saves as the 75mm guns and 95mm Howitzers took their toll. The Riflemen advanced to take advantage of this, but were stopped short by a bombardment that pinned them, and with a failed save the Reluctant Veterans were unlikely to advance next turn.

The infantry get support in the form of StuGs, but they are soon the be removed

The game had stagnated a little, with the most movement on the table coming from the Sturmtigers as they reversed to try to escape from the advancing Churchills. The M10's decided now was the time and let rip with a volley from their 17pdrs, taking one out. The Churchills on the street tried to take advantage of the flank of one being revealed, but my inability to roll a 4+ when using a 6pdr proved to be their saving grace.

 The game soon turned as my Churchills were blind-sided by some Panzerfaust armed infantry storming through the buildings. With them out and platoons falling left and right the game was over bar the shouting as I approached a company morale check, which I subsequently failed and notched another 5-2 loss. This one though felt more like the crushing loss the scoreline reflected.

The infantry advance on the objective, but are beaten back shortly after

Oh God, not this again!

Last up was Dust Up against David and the joy that is Kampfgruppe Hummel. Say what you want about it having Tigers with unreliable, Confident Trained and no Ace Skills... They are still Tigers! This was going to be very evident as the battle went on.

Somehow I managed to roll to attack; something I really didn't want to do, but that was the way the dice rolled. And so once again I faced down the Tigers, the oddly Reluctant Trained '88' and the Tiger II which was lurking somewhere off the table.

One thing I could guarantee though, and this was perhaps the reason for the draw; There was no way David was taking either of my Objectives, as I dug in my Infantry on one and sat a platoon of Churchills on the other. These were covered by the M10's. It was only later on that I realised that the M10's would have been really bloody effective when coming on the table side and hammering some nice juicy 17pdr shells into Tiger flesh.

An effectively defended Objective

 The Stuarts decided to run for a quick victory, something I was quite confident of getting with the Delayed Reserves. But, again, I messed up. They rolled up to the Grenadier platoon hidden within the forest and peppered them with MG rounds. A good idea, but then I got cocky and rolled them in to assault.
 No! What are you doing?! I hear the cries now. What can I say? I thought I'd roll in, trample some and then sit on the objective for a turn before winning. But no, as it turns out, the Grenadiers were actually Pioneers armed with little can-openers. The Stuarts were left in pieces, with only one escaping with it's tracks intact.

What I should have done was sat them back, continued to spray and pray, and perhaps let rip with the 37mm guns. But, I admit, over-confidence got the better of me and it bit me hard.

The Stuart leaves a pretty corpse as the Pioneers do their work

 With that plan out of the window, and my unwillingness to move much else, the game slowed until things started showing up on turn three. Why do I not mention my air support? Because it spent most of the game getting filled with holes. It did have a moment later on, but that is yet to come.

 I received no reinforcements on turn three, while David rolled on some Tigers. They took some shots at the Churchills defending Objective #2, but the concealed, gone to ground tanks saw the shots harmlessly whizz overhead.

 Turn four and finally some Churchills show up to pester the FlaK guns. They have little effect though. David receives his Konigstiger and sits it on the hill. it manages to take out the supporting Churchill VI from the HQ, which makes me reconsider their positioning. The King's life is short-lived though as the Typhoon arrives to actually do something. With one plane in the flight, it was always going to be tense. I positioned it so that the FlaK 36's were out of range, while the '88' was able to draw sight to it. The one shot hit, but the firepower test failed to chase the plane off. A succession of good dice rolls from me and poor ones from David left the mighty battle-tank a smoking ruin and put paid to one of the more threatening tanks on the field.

Such inviting targets, but the FlaK 36's deny the Typhoon an easy pair of Tigers

Objectives on both sides of the table were looking to be heavily defended and so I rolled some Churchills over some Nebelwerfers just to get a little chaos on the table before we decide that the game is a 3-3 draw. With neither side looking to get anywhere near the objectives.

End of the day

 And that was that. Unfortunately, again, because my games ran so long, I didn't get much time to watch other players slug it out. I did  manage to see that Andy's T-34s tended to spend their time up in flames in a pretty little line.

Andy's tanks make such pretty lights

So, the scores on the board shows that the Axis enjoyed more and bigger victories than the allies. With the highest scoring Allied player only scoring as much as the runner-up Axis player, it was clear that Bill was a worthy winner in terms of the Axis side. Norman led the Allies with twelve points, easily scoring more than my measly eight.

Axis:

• Bill  15
• David  12
• Frank  9

Allies:

• Norman  12
• Myself  8
• Andy 6

 So, thank you very much for reading once again. Sorry if the reports seem a little haphazard, but they are mostly done from memory and if any facts are wrong I'll happily edit in the correct data.

 That's all for now, stay tuned for the report of the 10-player Infantry Aces night we had at Glasgow Games Group.

Turn One, Week Two- All quiet on the Western Front

Week 2

 With only two players showing up last night, week two was a bit of a washout. Rather than playing myself, I decided to let Iain and Gordon play off their German forces against each other to get some of the rules down. 

 To make things simple the mission was the classic 'Free-for-all' with two objectives either side, and a simple idea of grab one of your opponent's while defending the two in your deployment zone. The other advantage to this scenario was the point of not having reserves, meaning the players would have everything to play with from the start of the game, and not have the potential hazard of reserves not showing until turn 3.

'Boff ze Jengrals Dötter' and 'Heinrich Himmelsdorf'

 With the relaxed tone of the campaign, I didn't mind players taking absolutely ridiculous names for their Infantry Ace, such as Gordon and Iain's above, respectively. This is a mild imporvement over Gordon's Tank Ace, Hoffel Roffel III, who dressed in a shocking pink overcoat, commanded his Panzerkompanie.

The Hoff leads his company forward proudly

With both players set up on the village table, it was time to get the game going.

Bad positioning and worse ideas

 Gordon took first turn and advanced a unit of MG armed infantry in trucks down Iain's left flank, surely a foolish move, given what Iain could do to the soft top transports and their precious cargo. All other teams attempted to dig-in, but they were obviously all feeling the after affects of the Schnapps as not a single team passed.

 Now, the veteran players amongst you are probably thinking; advance and blow the heck out of the trucks and that platoon will be in pieces. Well, alas, the thinking didn't go that way, and instead Iain took up defensive positions for next turn. His heavy machine guns being blocked by his own advancing infantry and his mortars failing to range in led to a rather disappointing first turn.

The machine gun crews curse their comrades as their advance blocks line of sight

Gordon's next turn began better as the truck mounted squad debusses and takes up firing positions on the Grenadiers across the wall, using the forest to get a little bit of cover for themselves. A few small exchanges between the other Grenadiers and the mortars fail to chip the defences and the turn passes again.

 The Grenadiers advance, dismounted from their transport

 Sensing the impending capture of an objective, Iain send his troops forward to prevent a quick game-over for his side. The Grenadiers on the left flank vaulting a wall and rounding a building to take on the advancing MG teams. A few shots from them taking out a base of Grenadiers before he elects to charge in. Why am I not mentioning the Heavy Machine Guns and the Mortars? Because they did precisely nothing, again.

The Grenadiers set up an assault, bravely or foolishly... (The objective is behind the building)

 The assault begins, and the defensive fire results in an almighty sixteen dice being rolled. This results in nine hits and... no casualties! The platoon is pinned down, but Iain's riflemen got off lightly in that exchange.

 That feeling of elation lasted a few brief moments as the MG teams let rip into the hapless Grenadiers, reducing them to a team plus command, and subsequently forcing them to retreat.

 As a last-ditch attempt to salvage the game, Iain sends his 2iC over to the small forest by the objective in an effort to contest it while mortars rain down on Gordon's Grenadiers. (Licence taken to fudge the rules here for enjoyment's sake) This comes to nothing as the mortars fail to range in with an impressive dice roll of 2/1, 1, 1.
 The 2iC's plan comes to nought as the MG teams open up on him, dispatching the base and securing the objective with no other forces to push them off.

 Gordon is victorious, scoring all four XP for the campaign, while Iain gets a meagre two. Lessons have been learned this day, and hopefully they will be put to practice on the next outing.

Iain's defensive position is a formidable one, but still he lost

Gordon's Grenadiers had little to trouble them the entire game

Turn One, Week One- It Begins

 Infantry Aces begins

 So, this past Tuesday saw the start of the Infantry Aces campaign at Glasgow Games Group. This was following up from the successful Tank Aces campaign run a few months back. With a dozen sign-ups and yet more showing interest but lacking forces or time, this one was looking to be more successful, and on the first evening I wasn't disappointed.

A full looking sign-up list, just the ticket

 The Dirty Half-dozen

 Well, maybe not dirty, but certainly half a dozen. There were actually eight players turned up on the night (myself included). But alas space restraints meant we could only cater for six of them. This was even after 'liberating' another gaming table for our use.

 The players on the first night were:

• Murray Anderson, using a US Paratrooper force
• Iain Cameron, fielding German Grenadiers
• Norman MacLean, using US Armored Rifles (Spelling deliberate here)
• Gordon Hamilton, commanding the 90th Sardinian Grenadiers
• Robert McLennan, also using a standard Grenadier list
• Brian Walker, taking American Rifles
• Grace Bommer, using Grenadiers and sitting this one out to be a monkey on Murray's back
• Myself, using a lorried Rifle Platoon from the 11th Armoured Division, sitting out to oversee

 With each pair matched up as the colours indicate above, mission was rolled and came up as 'Hasty Attack'. A good meat-grinder mission to get the players moving.

The Game of Novices

 With both Murray and Iain being novice players, I elected to sit in with them to oversee their game, but still be on hand to answer rules queries, armed with my trusty rulebook, for the other games.

 Since almost all players are using basic infantry lists (Aside from those with transports), attacker and defender must be rolled for.
 Unfortunately for Iain, he rolled to attack, meaning that his Grenadiers would be assaulting the prepared position of the American Paras. Not quite the perfect start. But regardless, the forces were set up and the game begun.

Halfway through the game and the Paras are unflinching under the hail of MG fire

 A small change: For such a small game, the 'Delayed Reserves' rule was waived and made the normal reserves rule, meaning that players wouldn't be left high and dry by essentially missing one of their platoons for half the game, and with bad luck maybe missing them completely. The reserves rule means they are at least guaranteed to show on turn 3.

 Another small change: With time restraints the reserves rule was changed slightly from 'At least half...', as with only 3 platoons in the biggest force, this could seriously hamper any hope a player has. Instead a player must put 'Half rounding down'. 

 The table for the game had a focal point of a village in the middle, with walls and vineyards providing cover for any infantry advances. Murray elected to take the side with the vineyards and spread his Para platoon across them, covering the objective. Iain, with supporting mortars, HMGs and two platoons of Grenadiers had a very intimidating force. This soon proved to not be the case as the game ran through.

 Firstly, the disadvantage to only having two mortars hit hard as five hits became three after re-rolls, coupled with the poor firepower of them meant that the mortars were hardly effective. A good pinning weapon when coupled with an infantry charge though; something Iain learned a little too late.

The dug-in Paras making life a misery for Iain

 Lessons were learned when Iain left some Grenadier teams high and dry on the main advance road, as the rest dug into safety the hapless souls were shot down by some well placed LMG fire from the Paras. In return shots were hitting, but the bulletproof cover meant the Paras were a tough nut to crack. Even the arrival of the other Grenadier platoon did little to chip the rock-hard defence.

 With an 'All or nothing' attitude the Grenadiers advanced into the open between the town and the Vineyard, where one of the platoons were cut down. This though cleared the way for an assault. The Grenadiers hit hard, taking out quite a few teams, but were beaten down and the remaining base ran. The subsequent turn meant the victory conditions were live and with no Germans in the American half of the table, the Yanks were victorious.

The Other Games (aka half tracks are tough)

 My allowance of half-tracks into the starting forces was down to the thought that the mechanised forces with them wouldn't have much else, and the others would have something to deal with them, be it bazookas, PIATS, Panzerschrecks or Panzerfausts. This proved not to be the case as Norman's US Armored Rifles swept onto the objectives against Gordon and proved difficult to shift.

Breaking through that lot would take a miracle

 I might look into imposing some sort of rule to make them less of a juggernaut. Watch this space.

 The last, but not least, game was between Robert and Brian on a rather more open 'Steppe' table. But once again, the Americans proved difficult to shift and the victory went to the allies. Apologies to them both for not having much to write about, but their game was at the other end of the table from where I had planted myself. I'll be sure to get a more in depth look at one of their games another time.

Edit: Robert has his own blogspot, where he'll be keeping tabs on his games. Find him over here:

Oooooh shiny!! Adventures in Gaming

Robert's Grenadiers advance from their starting position in some poor farmer's field

 Outcome of Turn One, Week One

 With all three victories going to the Allies this puts them in control of Castle Hill and The Rapido on the Cassino campaign map. Though this is the first few exchanges and everything could change later on.

So, that wraps up this week of this month, be sure to watch here for more updates. That's all for now, over and out.

Additional: They always say lead by example, and in this case the example is a painted force. So, I pledged to have my force painted by campaign start, and even though I didn't play, I still kept my promise.