Monday 31 August 2015

Conwy Wargames Club Napoleonic naval game

Having interviewed an eye witness I have written up this months club game and posted it on the club website  here:  Conwy Wargames Club Napoleonic naval game

No pictures unfortunately.

Aborted Star Wars Armada game

Unfortunately life got in the way for the players so I decided to duck out going to the club and catch up with the house renovations. Which to be honest was a relief, as the work here is going through a busy phase.

As an extra plus my fleet and counters and cards are all organised and boxed ready to go!

Friday 28 August 2015

Next Star Wars Armada game

I'm putting on a Star Wars Armada game this Sunday for the Conwy Wargames Club. It will give me a chance to play with my birthday presents which is always good news. I just need to decide how many ships to play with. I expect 3 players and with myself 4. My fleet now totals:

Imperials
1 x Gladiator class Star Destroyer
2 x Victory class Star Destroyers
7 x TIE squadrons
2 x TIE Advanced squadrons
2 x TIE Interceptor squadrons
2 x TIE bomber squadrons


Rebels
1 x Assault frigate Mk2
2 x Nebulon B frigate
2 x CR90 Corvette
7 x X wing squadrons
2 x Y wing squadrons
2 x B wing squadrons
2 x A wing squadrons

Sunday 23 August 2015

Conwy Wargames Club Battle Group WW2 Fall of the Reich game

For July's club game Pete put a Battle Group Fall of the Reich game. The scenario was based on one in the book, but adapted for Pete's collection. He asked me to bring some Soviet infantry, but unfortunately an error in my text meant I arrived with 3 platoons less than required.

I was eager to try out the Fall of the Reich supplement as late war WW2 has been my favourite WW2 period since I was a lad. Of course back then it was because the Germans had great tanks, now I know more and the rules reflect the late war weaknesses.

Scenario
A Soviet spearhead breaking through the Seelow heights needs to take the train station (ours was actually a casino supplied by Dave), and the approach road from the north.

A German scratch defence force needs to stop them

Forces

Soviet
1 x JSII tank section
1 x T34/85 tank platoon
4 x Rifle regiment platoons


German
3 x Tiger I tanks (1 is a Panzer Ace)
1 x Luftwaffe platoon
1 x SS platoon
2 x AA halftrack

Reinforcements
1 x PzIV section
1 x platoon in half tracks (I can't remember if they were SS or Heer)


Table
6x4ft table playing down the length east to west with the railway track running east to west. The road ran down the middle of the table north to south with a cross road in them middle with the station and some buildings. A part from the station most buildings were in ruins, hence their roofs were left off. The railway line should have been raised with an embankment providing hard cover, so we played it as such.

The Game

Tony and Chris commanded the Germans and Alex and I commanded the Soviets. Pete acted as umpire.

The Soviet JSIIs move west up the road loaded with infantry

Looing from east to west. On the right is the casino train station the Soviet objective. Defending the south side of the road a platoon of hidden SS.

German Tigers with plenty of AA support defend the strategic station



SS defenders

Top right of board a lone Tiger can been seen beside a ruined house covering the German northern flank. On the northern side of the station platoon of ad hoc Luftwaffe defenders dig themselves in

The Soviets not having an assault platoon have no method of removing the road block so go round it. The rest of the Soviet Rifle platoon trot after the tanks jealous of their comrades still riding the tanks. The Germans were on ambush fire and Tiger takes a shot at long range hitting but not damaging a JS11, whose tank riders jump off quickly in to the nearby woods.


If you can see the little signs east of the railway tracks then your good eyesight has spotted the location of the German minefields


The Soviet katyusha strike nicely positioned by Alex was devastating and caused the Germans to take some BR tokens. One of which was am end of the Reich token allowing 2d6 to be rolled and added to the Germans BR to increase their will to resist the red hordes. Chris rolled a mighty 3, and the Soviets sighed

A Tiger Panzer Ace and AA half track burn from the katyusha strike. The station building took hits as well and only need 2 more to collapse.

2 companies of Soviets advance supporting the JSIIs. The JSII by the roadblock is dueling with the Tiger that took a shot earlier.

The T34's race west with a 'stal, stal, stal' order. Try as they might they couldn't all avoid the minefields with 1 tank blowing up. This picture in turn 2 shows them repeating the order and reaching the road with a section.

The Soviets reach the railway racks

South of the road the JSII's begin suppressing the SS as their supporting infantry move up

The JSII tries to distract the Tiger at the station

T34s storm forward

The tank riders are pinned having bailed off their destroyed ride.

Soviet infantry seek cover from mortar fire

The Tiger kills 2 T34's and in turn is taken out by the JSII that has been firing at it all game. It's job done the JSII takes a move up the road. At the junction dismounted Soviet infantry take cover as there tanks take heavy fire from a Tiger straddling the road.

The red counters show units that are pinned

The last Tiger makes a stand in the road and is charged by T34's who were lucky enough to survive




Germans last defence, a Luftwaffe platoon

The soon to be last Tiger on the northern flank about to take out the lead T34 threading it's way through the minefields


The Soviets have 2 T34s left on the northern side of the road. 1 taking on the Luftwaffe supported by it's dismounted tank riders and the other providing covering fire for a dash by Soviet infantry to take the station

Poor command dice and the loss of officers slows the Soviet advance south of the road.

The SS not as pinned as the Soviets want. Behind them 2 T34s burn from long range fire from the German reinforcements that arrive in the nick of time.

PzIV's and 251's rush east. The cross roads is held by a lone T34. The Soviets need to get infantry in the Casino station to claim the objective

Welcome German reinforcements

Time ran out leaving the game on a cliff hanger. 1 more turn would see the Soviets fully in control of the casino station, but only dice would see if they could threaten the north road held by the Luftwaffe and the last Tiger. The Soviets had 2 T34s left and a tank flame thrower, plus all the JSIIs. The SS were in great danger of being toast in the next turn, but only an infantry assault would be able to shift them quickly and that was 2 turns away over a minefield!
So who won? Technically the Soviets as the Germans had taken the most BR counters, but the Germans still had the objectives with reinforcements racing up the road.

Another great Battle Group game.

Tuesday 18 August 2015

2015-08-16 WW2 Rapid Fire Pacific game

The big day arrived and the forces assembled and were re-organised. There is nothing like re-sorting your troops and somebody else's in to a division with a time deadline at the venue, plus gluing the inevitable breakages on the ships from transit!

Pete organised the event and supplied a lot of the US Marines plus Amtracs and variants, and a lot of the Japanese troops and equipment. I supplied the other half of the Marines and some Jap vehicles. Dave supplied the US armoured vehicles and more Amtracs and the majority of the landing craft plus a lot of Japanese troops and vehicles. I supplied the US Navy. The Japanese patrol boat was Dave's, and the jetty and sampans mine. The terrain was from Pete's and Dave's collections with Mel contributing a half the sea.

The Scenario
 Dawn Okinawa. A combined US task force of Navy, Marines and Army had the following objectives (Pete supplied a more expanded description but I left mine behind):
Take the radar station
Set up a fire base on the eastern landing zone
Find the Kikka

I didn't get to read the Japanese objectives, but let us assume it was to make the US pay dearly for their invasion so that they think twice about invading the home islands.

Forces

The force organisation was taken from a Rapid Fire scenario found of the web for the invasion of the Philippines which had a mix of US Army and Marines (I'd turned up with a force organised for Iwo Jima hence the frantic reorganisation).

US Task force
Wave 1 - Marine General Ian
2 x US Marine regiments in amtracks (20 Marines per amtrack)
3 x 37mm amtracks
3 x 75mm amtracks

Wave 2 Marine General Ian
1 x US Marine regiment in DUKWS (10 Marines) and 1 Amtrack
3 x Shermans and 1 Sherman dozer in a LVT

Wave 3 Marine General Ian
75mm recoilless rifle battery in 3 landing craft
1 x armoured dozer in a landing craft
3 x Stuarts in 3 landing craft
3 x M8 HMC 75mm

Wave 4 US Army General Dave
half US Army division in landing craft
3 x Shermans and 3 jeeps in a LVT

Wave 5 (didn't appear due to time) US Army General Dave
Rest of US Army division in landing craft

Navy - US Admiral Mel
Rocket ship - turn 1 only
Bombardment each turn
2 air attacks each turn.


Japanese
I didn't see their organisation chart being a US player. My guess is that we faced:
1 x Tank Regiment
4 to 5 x battalions of infantry
1 x IJN crew for patrol boat - who started on shore

All the infantry and guns were in hard cover which could only be spotted once they opened fire.

The Japanese were not subjected to any morale rules except if they were surrounded they had to test if they fought on or committed hari kari.

Unknown to the Americans a battalion of Japanese paratroops were scheduled to reinforce the defenders.


The Board

Approx. 12ft x 6ft board

Japanese right commanded by Pete  had the radar station
Japanese centre commanded by Dickie, later helped by Tony held a the jetty and a command bunker
Japanese left commanded by Alex held the air strip, fuel depot and another large bunker.

The sea was 30" from long table edge to beach which was about 1"


The Game
Since this was a large game we opted to have movement and firing as simultaneous, with the caveat that if you wanted to fire before moving it was declared first. This replaced the reserved fire rule.

Flamethrowers had their range increased from 6" to 9" since  an Arnhem game many moons ago where we found we couldn't shoot across a street. This is more a terrain we own problem rather than a rule problem.

I'd love to recount the game turn by turn but I lost track of turn numbers, and with the simultaneous fire and movement I didn't see everything.

So what did I see..


The Japanese ready for the invasion. US Admiral Mel had unleashed the rockets and naval bombardment and hurt nothing.

Japanese infantry well dug in
Fuel depot in focus

Type 4 Ho Ni II (105mm) 
The Japanese centre and the US navy (a British Intrepid class gun boat) cruises in shore (for show rather than play, in fact it was holding the curly sea mat down) plus a patrol boat

Close up of the jetty with the Japanese patrol boat, 2 landing craft and the 2 sampans

Japanese centre - the command post
The Japanese right - the radar station. Radar supplied by Pete's young son who is now missing a bit from his Batman set.


Japanese defences from right or West 
The US admiral about inflict a devastating number of misses on the defenders



View from the gunboat

The jetty - everything survived the game!
The US carrier aircraft set fire to a building. No one is home



Central defences

The US Marine general deploys wave 1

... in a very neat line

pretty
Last call for Wave 1


1 move forward. It's like a parade ground

Morning calm



US carrier aircraft flies in low to bomb the defences
Wave 1 had arrived. Now to test for mines


looking good so far
A jap truck burns in the distance



The US plan is to land waves 1, 2  and 3 on the eastern beaches and draw the defenders out. Landing in the east will enable the fire base to be set up. Then waves 4 and 5 will land on the western beaches - these can then move to capture the radar station. We don't know where the Kikka is. To be honest we didn't know what a Kikka was, but I'm sure it'll be obvious when we find it.
A Marine battalion fitted in 2 amtracks.



Another carrier aircraft strike goes in flying low over wave 1 which is now short 2 37mm amtracks 


Radar station defenders

Radar station
Japanese artillery


More mines. 2 amtracks immobilised and troops debus. 1 75mm amtrack destroyed

2 more amtracks destroyed and another immobilised. Bad news one had units from across the heavy weapon companies that didn't fit their units' amtracks. In the hurry to get out of the burning vehicle they lost all their heavy weapons mainly mortars.

The Marine right flank advances OK
Wave 2 approaches



The LVT - second time I've used it

The island hazy in the distance - photo taken before hall lights found
The heavy weapons infantry


Sun has risen higher and the battle becomes clearer

Japanese right wondering when they'll see any action

Japanese centre and left. 
The IJN crew didn't make it to their patrol boat and held up in the centre front line defences



Wave 1 moving off the beach. An amtrack has been turned on its side to mark it's destroyed.



A Japanese armoured car advances to the beach to take on the dismounted Marines. It is supported by a tank that has taken position on the hill to the right of the picture. I believe US aircraft caused it heavy damage at this point.


A immobilised amtrack
The lone armoured car ignored by Wave 1





Wave 2 approaches

Then wave 3. 1 DUKW hit a mine and was destroyed and another was immobilised.

The east beach is getting busy
LCM's carrying M8 HMC 75mm's
LCM's with Stuarts and an armoured dozer

The 75mm recoilless gun battery going in 




Wave 1 moves further in land and begins to debus to assault the first line defences







The IJN crew decide to banzai charge to the upset of the Japanese Army commanding the centre as it means his troops have to go with them! The eastern beach commander indicates the crew he controls. For added irony the army troops taken up in the frenzy of their navy counter parts were the anti tank team. The Japs didn't have a lot of antitank capability and a good section of it was happily Banzai! charging in to 2 companies of Marines

The US starts taking a  lot of casualties

Waves 1 to 3 making progress. Only 1 75mm recoilless gun makes it to the beach. Not much of a fire base to meet the objective requirements
Just above the Shermans the IJN and Army fight to the death with the US Marines. Very poor dice throwing by me meant the Marine flame thrower failed to stop the charge.


Heavy weapons successfully landing
The armoured car survived multiple grenade attacks. The tank on the hill was destroyed by a Sherman allowing amtracks full of Marines to advance safely

The moment the Marine far eastern flank lets loose 2 flame throwers clearing the defenders from the south side of the airfield
Centre of the picture the Banzai charge continues it's melee with the same, but reduced, 2 Marine companies. In the meantime the majority of the Marine battalion take the first line of the defences.


The US plan is working as the Japanese move troops and armour from west to east. Here the Japanese commander under the most pressure desperately looks for an advantage in the rules. 
All quiet of the western front except for some naval aircraft bombing and bombardment. The 2 Jap tanks coming down to the beach have come from the central command and start flanking fire on the advancing Marines

Jap tanks sally forth commanded by Tony







Not many Japs left in the east
On the right are the Jap centre's second line of defences. The US Army general in the background contemplates finally unleashing his troops now that the Marines have sucked the Japs in and are clearly making good progress

In the east and centre the Japanese first line defences are cleared

Wave 4 arrives at the western beach. Since time was flying we skipped the 2 moves on the sea, and went with the reserves being launched early and arriving to grab some glory.

However things did not go well and large casualties were taken including most of the Shermans

The central battle was quite heated with an armour vs armour duel, artillery vs armour duel and good old fashioned melee.
Despite repeated attempts the US Navy had failed to hit anything. The carrier aircraft was much luckier

US recon shot central beach. By the point the far left Marine battalion from wave 1 had taken so many casualties from mines, gun fire and the IJN led banzai charge that it failed it's morale and became pinned.

US recon shot central and western beach


US recon shot eastern beach. The 2 amtracks in the middle still have their Marine battalion on board. As the game busied up I delegated command of the eastern beach to the US Admiral while I took the centre of the east beach, the US Army general assisted with the Marines left flank until his troops arrived. This command flexibility resulted in the Marine battalion remaining embarked until the end because the Marine General forgot to inform the US Admiral they were still on the amtracks. Oops

You can just about see a line of Japanese coming out of their trenches in the centre readying to charge the lost first line. The rule about being surrounded and testing for hari kari gave concern to the Japanese players that their troops would fail the test and commit suicide before inflicting any real damage on the Americans. I  think this was an interesting psychological effect on the players as I believe they would have been served better by keeping their troops in hard cover shooting at the assaulting Marines in the open.


Panorama


The Kikka is spotted - and it turns out to be a Jap jet copy of the German ME262
The centre fighting is heavy. The US marines debussed once the last Jap tanks were taken out. They were faced by 2 banzai charges which resulted in 1 and a half Jap companies being toasted by flamethrowers and the remainder shot down


The yellow truck is a very lucky Japanese one
US Marines consolidate the eastern beach


Not a Jap in sight

Wave 4 advance off the beach much depleted


The Japanese Army West commander counts dice to unleash his now depleted fire power from US naval air strikes



What a great day.

We ran out of time to reach a proper conclusion as technically the US hadn't met any of their objectives, but there was no doubt that they would. The only objective in doubt was the radar station. I think more Marine battalions would start having a morale problem fighting from the east to the west, especially as there were still some defences to over come in the eastern and central section.

The US wave 5 didn't get time to arrive. In the last move the Japanese Raider battalion attempted to parachute in and lost all planes but one, and they dropped in the jungle with massive casualties. Although the US Army had lost most of their Shermans the Marines' were still intact, as were their Stuarts and M8 HMC 75s while the Japs had 2 tanks and very little else with anti tank capability.

I hadn't played using Rapid Fire rules for 7 years so I was a bit rusty, especially around IDF. I got used to the club rule amendments quickly and they definitely speeded up the game, but I did find myself getting lost in which step we were on. Luckily Pete who organised the day and umpired with the help of Dave kept us all on track. On the whole the rules worked well for this size of game.