Dawn Attack

Even though Colours is around 4 months away, Craig and I decided a few weeks ago to try and get a game in to start sorting out the scenario for the demo table, as well as the warbands involved. With this in mind we arranged to meet up at mine for a spot of gaming on Saturday morning, and true to form, the weather was absolutely glorious!

We decided to try out the Dawn Attack scenario from the rulebook, with a view to combining it with the Village Raid scenario, as the basis for the demo game. Craig fielded his Welsh Warrior mounted warband, whilst I went with my newly finished Viking Sea Raiders. As I had no mounted units at all, Craig was automatically the Agressor for this scenario.

We also decided to try Craig's Gods cards, an idea borrowed from the Sumer to Sargon Blog. Basically anytime that a warband rolled a double as part of a successful command roll, they drew a card from the deck. This replaced the extra movement when a double one was rolled, but not when a double six was rolled, this still resulted in a loss of 1 Leadership Point as per normal.

Table Layout 

The only downside with the Sea Raider warband is that you only get to place one piece of scenery for the scenario. Facing a largely mounted warband that, by it's very nature is extremely mobile, meant that my warband felt very exposed once the table was laid out. I opted to chose a wood that I placed in the centre of the table, knowing that this would mean Craig would most likely have to split his warband, or concentrate everything on one flank, with the risk of the congestion that might ensue.

With the wood duly placed in the centre, I then used other pieces of scenery to mark out the edge of the table, in this case 30" square,  as well as adding a bit of character so that it wasn't billiard table bare. The other pieces of scenery had no bearing on the game, other than as eye candy.

Both sides then deployed as per the scenario as can be seen below.

An overall view of the table.

The Sea Raiders look towards the approaching cavalry.

The cavalry are forced to split into two by the wood.

The Welsh left flank are lured by the Gloster Old Spots...

Turn 1

The game started as per the normal turn sequence, with the Welsh skirmishers advancing into the wood. The Sea Raiders then rolled a double and drew a card that slowed the Welsh cavalry down to half pace for the next two turns! Just what the Doctor ordered. Another double saw another card drawn, that allowed the Sea Raiders to ignore all penalties for movement in the wood. Useful but highly unlikely that I would get to use it. The Welsh advanced slowly thanks to the Goddess card and the Sea Raiders attempted to form a battle line to face the oncoming cavalry.

The cavalry move on both flanks and the Sea Raiders form up to meet the attack.

The Welsh left flank.

The Welsh right flank.

Turn 2

The Welsh advance continued to be slow this turn thanks to the Goddess card, whilst the Sea Raiders dressed their lines as best they could.

The Sea Raiders are slow to get into position.

The Welsh skirmishers advance to the edge of the wood.

The Sea raiders look on as the enemy slowly advances.

Turn 3

The first action took place as the Welsh skirmishers shot at the Sea Raiders skirmishers, missing their target, only for the retaliatory bow fire to claim one hit on them. Both sides then continued to manouevre into positions for attack and defence.

The Welsh start to work towards the flanks.

Turn 4

The skirmishers once again exchanged shots, only for the Welsh to be hit and finished off, leaving the Welsh down by one Leadership Point. The Sea Raiders obligingly blundered, thereby losing a Leadership Point as well! Another double resulted in the Sea Raiders skirmishers gaining an extra point of agression, something that could be very useful. Both sides were still outside charge range so continued to manouevre as best they could.

The Welsh threaten the Sea Raiders left flank.

Only one unit notices the threat.

The Sea Raiders right flank is yet to form up.

Turn 5

After some ineffective bow shooting, combat was finally joined. On the Sea Raiders right flank some uncontrolled charges resulted in them charging the Welsh cavalry, only for the combats to be drawn. In the centre more uncontrolled charges resulted on the loss of one Welsh cavalry unit. On the Sea Raiders right flank, the Welsh cavalry charges were contained, much to my suprise.

Battle joined at last.

The cavalry and infantry slog it out.

The loss of the Welsh cavalry unit leaves the centre open, whilst the right flank manages to repulse on cavalry attack and contain the other.

Turn 6

There was movement from both sides to take advantage of gaps that appeared as a result of last turns combat. The fights from last turn continued with both sides losing one unit each. The Welsh and the Sea Raiders were now down 3 Leadership Points each, making for some tough decisions next turn. The Welsh rolled a double and the God card allowed him to move one unit outside of the normal turn sequence once per turn for the rest of the game.

The battlefield really opens up after both sides lose units.

The Sea Raider Companions charge the Welsh Mounted Companions.

The Welsh cavalry are taking lots of hits, for none in return.

Turns 7, 8 & 9

With things still finely in the balance, another double sees fate swing firmly in favour of the Sea Raiders, who sacrifice the Bow Skirmish unit in exchange for two extra Leadership Points. Over the next three turns, the Welsh lose more units, forcing them to take morale tests, which they pass two turns in a row. These Welsh are made of tough stuff!

Pressure mounts on the Welsh from all sides.

A very one sided combat.

Both sides Companions continue to slug it out.

Turn 10

The inevitable finally happened with last two Welsh units being destroyed, for the loss of one Sea Raider unit. The Welsh meet a gallant end and one which the Bards will surely immortalise in song.

With no one left to fight, the Sea Raiders are Lords of all they survey, including the Gloster Old Spots.

Afterthoughts

Well once again another cracking game of Dux Bellorum. Even though I hadn't played the game for a few months, the rules came back to me allowing me to concentrate on the game, which is a sign of a good ruleset IMHO. The Sea Raiders were everything I had hoped they would be, so now I have to come up with some good background fluff for them. Research is already well under way.

Despite having great fun with the Gods cards, we both felt they were a bit too much for use in the demo game as played. We will still use them, but only for when you roll a double one, which should limit their appearances on the table and not unduly affect game play. For solo games they add another bit of fun to the game, so I for one will be trying them out in the future.

Craig and I both agreed that the Dawn Attack scenario combined with the Village Raid one would make for a good demo game. We had originally planned to have three seperate warbands per side, but after the game decided that it would be better to have two slightly larger ones per side to allow for ease of control and more movement on the table. The plan is to still have plenty of the extras that the warbands can have, to really show of the game in the best light. We are already making plans for the next game so watch this space.

Sea Raider Warband

As mentioned in my previous post, I needed another warband for our planned Battle of Deorham game at Colours this year, which the Pendraken chaps had kindly agreed to sponsor. I wanted to field a warband that was slightly different from the rest, so chose the Sea Raider option from the rulebook. I liked the idea of having a Viking type warband to game with for no other reason than I have always liked them, most likely brought about by the simply superb film "The Vikings" with Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtiss and Janet Leigh. Who could not but be inspired by  scenes such as this? .

So with the theme decided upon, I chose my figures from the Pendraken Viking and Anglo-Saxon Dark Ages ranges. They are very different in feel and look from the Late Roman range, which is exactly what I wanted. After some research in the Osprey "The Vikings", part of their Elite Series range, I was ready to start painting. The results can be seen below.

The main Sea Raider warband in all it's glory.

Hrothgar of Horthaland with is Foot Companions and his war flag, Landeythan (Landwaster).

Noble Warriors

Ordinary Warriors.

Skirmishers with Bow and Javelin options.

Beserkirs (Beserkers) or Ulfhednar (Wolfcoats)

It has been quite sometime since I painted anything colourful, as for the past few years I have been concentrating exclusively on WWII period battlegroups. Reading some useful posts on the Pendraken forum helped with colour choices, as did looking at the images in the Dux Bellorum rulebook and on various Blogs. I'm happy with the result and have already started on my next warband.

Dux Bellorum at Colours 2013

For the past four or five years myself and my regular gaming chums have been putting on a demo table at the Colours show in September, organised by the Newbury and Reading Wargames Society. Every year so far the game has been either from the SCW or WWII period using the ever excellent Blitzkreig Commander ruleset. You can always have too much of a good thing so this year we thought about having a change.

So which ruleset and period to go for? Maurice by Sam Mustafa was discussed and soon discarded as, although a great set of rules, the card driven mechanics would not, in our opinion, make for a great demo game. A few other rules and periods quickly came and went (I won't bore you with the details), but pretty quickly we agreed upon the recently released rules from Dan Mersey, Dux Bellorum. So why Dux Bellorum I hear you ask?

Well from our point of view they provide fun, quick and entertaining games as well as looking good when on the war games table. This would allow us to not only play a few good games throughout the day, but also have plenty of time to talk about the game, figures etc with the attendees at the show. Another important point is that we would also have time to have a proper look at the show. This is something that we have been unable to do over the past few years, as one player per side could 'hold the fort' whilst the others took in the salubrious delights of what the traders have to offer, as well as look at the other demo games and have a general chat as we walk around the show.

So with the rules decided upon, we needed a battle. Chris had mentioned the previous year the Battle of Deorham , an action that is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon chronicle, but of which very little is known about. This would give us some artistic licence in terms of the warbands involved, which would allow us to field a variety of forces from the Dux Bellorum rulebook, which is rather useful when putting on a demo table. An added bonus is the fact that the battle is generally believed to have taken place near modern Dyrham, about 5 miles from Bristol and therefore 'home turf', so rather nice to have a bit of local flavour for the game.

Craig and I had already bought a few warbands from the excellent Pendraken Late Romans range for general use, but ideally we needed a few more warbands to make the demo game look right. I approached Dave and Leon of Pendraken to see if they would be interested in 'sponsoring' the table in the form of another warband or two. Being thoroughly decent chaps they immediately agreed and so our problem was solved. Lists of our requirements quickly winged their way to Pendraken HQ and within a week our shiny toys arrived at chez moi. So now we had a rule set, period and battle agreed upon, as well as a range of figures. The only outstanding thing was to come up with a scenario.  

However Craig and I already have a few ideas, so we just need a period of playtesting to make sure it is right for the demo game. Craig has already made a good start on the figures, as can be seen in his lovely Welsh Raiders, whilst I have just finished off my Saxon/Viking Sea Raiders. Hopefully I will get to take some pictures this weekend as we have a couple of trial games arranged for tomorrow. So watch this space for more updates on our progress towards Colours 2013.

Chain of Command

I've always had a soft spot for skirmish wargaming, whether fantasy or WWII, as this was how I first started wargaming way back in the early 1970's. So my interest was certainly piqued when my friend and regular gaming partner Craig, put a post on his Blog about some new WWII skirmish rules, Chain of Command from the Two Fat Lardies. Now I hadn't heard of these rules, but the very positive comments made by Craig on his Blog made me want to check them out. After all we share very similar interests in wargaming and in what makes a good rule set. 

We used to play a lot of Rules of Engagement a few years ago, but in the end spent more time playing Blitzkreig Commander. Since then I think we have both been looking for a skirmish ruleset that has a good approach to Command and Control. I looked at I Ain't Been Shot Mum, again by the TFLs, but it just didn't grab me.

So I duly sat down at work and watched the very informative Youtube videos produced by the Two Fat Lardies (Now this is a great idea of promoting your games and for us the punters to see if it is the sort of game that would interest us, so this approach from the TFLs gets a big thumbs up from me). I must say that I was very impressed with what I saw and with the game mechanics and the way that the game handled command and control. I thought that this is a game that I want to play, and so plan to buy the rules when they come out some time this summer.

For those of you that may be interested in checking these rules out, below are links to the various Youtube videos, a Meeples and Miniatures podcast and an AAR on the TFLs Blog:

Video 1 

Video 2

Video 3

Video 4: Turn 1

Video 5: Turn 2

Video 6: End of game

M&M podcast 

After Action Report

So a big thank you to Craig for giving me the 'heads up' on this, but I'm not sure if SWMBO would necessarily agree with my sentiments!

"Less is more" - Discuss.

My friend and regular gaming partner Keith managed to break his arm skiing recently. So with him being off work for some time we decided it would be a good opportunity to meet up for a game or two of something. Initially we had decided upon a bit of a 'what if?' game of BKC with the premise that Italian troops had taken part in 'Operation Sealion'. However Keith had caused a bit of shock in wargaming circles by moving onto another period, so we agreed to give DBA a run out.

Now this was a ruleset that I heard an awful lot about over the years, but had never had the opportunity to try. As with many games, it has its adherents and detractors, but I went in with an open mind. I must admit I was interested to see how it played as I really enjoyed the pared down simplicity of the Dux Bellorum game by Dan Mersey, both in terms of the rules and the visual look of it. 

So I turned up at Keith's and after negotiating a rather excited welcome by his dogs, we settled down at the table to give the game a go. The rules were incredibly easy to pick up, thanks in part to Keith's explanation as we went along and also to having played Dux Bellorum. I think after 15 minutes I had a good grasp of the basic game mechanics, which allowed me to concentrate on tactics rather than remembering the rules. Things flowed along nicely and in the end we managed to get in three very enjoyable games in less than two hours. I must admit I was extremely taken with the rules and decided to look into them in more detail when I got home.

To help get over the somewhat notorious 'Barkerese', Keith kindly pointed me towards the very useful The Unofficial GuideTo DBA and the very good Fanaticus website, both of which I found of great use. Fortunately the DBA 2.2 rulebook has recently be re-published by John Curry and his History of Wargaming Project. In the end I decided to buy the rules as I was so taken with the game, and also with a view to using the army lists as guides for Dux Bellorum variant games in the future. The campaign section both in the book and on the Fanaticus website will come in very useful, as I for one do enjoy playing a series of linked narrative games.

So what was it about the game that caught my eye to the extent that I bought the rules within a few days of playing the game? Well  a few thoughts can be found below:

• Finding time to set up a 'traditional' 6'x4' game at home is not always easy these days. As with Dux Bellorum, being able to whip out a 2'x2' board and a few bits of scenery makes it very easy to get a game in without major disruption to family life.
• The game requires 12 stands per 'army', so as with Dux Bellorum, you require relatively few figures to make your 'army'. This to me is a big bonus as storage space is minimal, outlay on figures less than £10 for said 'army' and even for a notoriously slow painter such as myself, I can get an 'army' painted up pretty quickly if I set my mind to it!
• The game can be scaled up to bigger games if required, typically onto the standard 6'x4' table with the 12 stands increasing to 36. So if you fancy the odd bigger game this can be easily done as part of a multi-player battle.
• With the command system 'pips', the game is emminently suitable to solo play, another bonus as finding time to meet up with friends is not easy these days.
• The rules are nice and simple to pick up, yet provide for a fast, fun and challenging game. Not always do I or my friends have time to spend hours at the gaming table (If we talked less maybe our games would be quicker!). With the above guide the rules are explained very well and cover pretty much all situations that might arise. You do not need a massive tome of a rulebook with endless charts and examples to have a good, enjoyable and challenging game.
• I can easily use my Dux Bellorum warbands for DBA games if required.
• The rather 'old school' feel of the game and the look rather appeal to me. When I set up my Blitzkreig Commander games I can spend up to two hours getting the table set and looking right. With a good baseboard and a few bits of scenery, I can still have a nice game that still looks good, but in a different way. It shows that you do not need need masses of 28mm figures, 8'x5' tables full of scenery to creat a good game. Although such games are certainly stunning and wargames visual porn, they leave me rather cold I'm afraid.
• The set-up of the game I found rather nice, with each side rolling off to see who would be attacker or defender, and then which side the attacker would deploy. Scenery placement becomes rather interesting as you cannot gaurantee which edge you will deploy from. I might use this in Dux Bellorum games as well

So there you have it. My personal view of an old game that many love and many hate. Each to their own. Personally I'm looking forward to many more games of both DBA and Dux Bellorum with my friends or on my own, with the case certainly being made that "Less is more".

The Battle for Winterbourne

Not having had the chance to meet up for a game since January, my regular gaming chum Craig and I decided to try and get one in over the Easter holiday period. Having checked with our respective SWMBO and our social calendars, Good Friday was good for both of us. We decided upon another AVBCW game rather than Dux Bellorum, mainly because my warbands were either undercoared at best or still in progress at worst. 

With the AVBCW decided upon, I drafted a scenario following on from our last outing in the period, The Battle for 'Beautiful Bertha'. I sent the draft idea and house rules to Craig, who was happy with them, so everything was set for some nice Bank holiday gaming. 

The AAR of the game, the Battle for Winterbourne, can be found here on our 'Storm Clouds Gather' Google site, along with plenty of other background material as well as other AAR reports etc.

One of the joys of the AVBCW 'period' is the ability to tailor games and background to your local area. This was true whilst deciding upon where to set our game. I know the area reasonably well and the view from Winterbourne and the Marle Hills is lovely and fitted in perfectly as the setting for the counter-attack scenario, as can be seen from the AAR. Craig also mentioned after that his wife had come across mention of the Thornbury Yeomanry, a unit neither of us had hear of, but will surely be making their debut on the wargames table sometime soon.

As most of you will know, I count BKCII as my favourite ruleset and have yet to have a bad game with it. It is also very adaptable, allowing 'house rules' to be used to reflect specific periods, actions, battles and gaming styles etc. Over a period of a few years, my regular gaming chums and I have settled upon most of the following, with some still 'work in progress'. A lot, if not all of these have come about via the BKC forum or optional rules with in the book. So I thought I'd take the opportunity to explain why I use the following 'house rules':

• Hidden Deployment as per the CWC rules. Now we do not use this in all of our games, as sometimes we don't have the time for it. However when we do get the chance, it really does add another dimension to the game. This was true in the above game, as I had no idea of the dispostion of Craig's forces as he advanced towards my lines, and the same was true for him as to where my troops were deployed along the Marle Hills and in Winterbourne village. The moment of reveal was always interesting, finally knowing what you faced, or not as the case may be. If you have the time, I strongly recommend you give them a go.
• Hits 'stay on'. I find this just works for me and provides for a much more fluid game. We saw this as the BUF forces finally started to assault the village. Normally troops in BUA are pretty much impervious to incoming fire, as the hits will come off at the end of the turn. However, when they stay on, they slowly build up, changing the game dynamic for the better IMHO. The same is also true of tanks such as the Panzer 1, Vicker MkVI etc. Even though armed with just MGs, these become more effective as their fire can slowly build up hits on units. The same is true of say Shermans facing a Tiger I, the hits slowly build up rather than the Tiger I often just shrugging them off at the end of the turn.
• CO CV9 and HQs CV8.  As I mentioned in my AAR CSI Russia, having two low CV battlegroups can make for a very stop-start game. So where this is the case, I now up the respective CVs by one, which provides for a more fluid and interesting game.
• Auto-Suppression. This has become a default for us in games with off-board artillery units and aircraft. However I thought I'd try it for mortars and infantry guns (the latter when using indrect fire). This feels right having read many reports of how mortars were very similar to artillery in the way that they caused infantry to go to ground.

So there you have it. I find these 'house rules' work for me, and many others given the various discussions on the BKC forum. All I can say give them a go and see what you think. If they work for you, great. If not, no problem at all. after all, it is only a game, ableit an excellent one!

Battle of the Ford

My good friend and regular gaming partner Craig has just put up rather nice solo AAR, Battle of the Ford, on his new Blog. Well worth a look IMHO as it not only being a cracking game, it also shows his ideas of some random event cards, which originated from the excellent Sumer2Sargon Blog.

Craig is also in the process of merging his various Blogs onto this one site. He is a very talented painter and modeller so worth keeping an eye out for future posts from his old Blogs. Believe me there will be plenty of eye candy!

10mm Romano-British

Well I finally managed to find some time today to start basing up my Dux Bellorum Romano-British warband. I'm ashamed to say that they have been in their bags for far too long, so it was good to actually have made some progress. The aim is to get the Saxons based up today as well if it all possible.

My good friend and regular gaming chum Craig and I decided to go down the 10mm route for several reasons. Firstly the Pendraken Late Roman sculpts by Clibinarium are simply superb. An absolute joy to behold and the level of detail is to be seen to be believed. Secondly we are both in the process of rationalising our various armies, battlegroups etc for a variety of periods into one scale, namely 1/144th or 10mm as some would have it. This has the advantage of both of us requiring just one set of scenery for all periods, rather than several, with the added bonus of much less storage space. Thirdly was cost. The warband shown below cost around £7.00. Yes you read it right, £7.00! Outstanding value for money in my book for nearly 40 figures.

As a comparison, the same warband in 28mm would be around £20, if I could order indiviual figures as I can from Pendraken (NB Pendraken do not charge extra for for individual figure requests, so whether you buy a standard pack or a complete mix of figures, the cost if still the same. Outstanding customer service IMHO).  In 15mm the price would be between £15.00 and £20.00. So I was able to order 2 warbands with options in terms of comparison for less than the price of 1 warband in a bigger scale. Now I freely admit that 10mm is not to everyones liking, but it suits me down to the ground. Heck I even enjoy gaming with 2mm miniatures for my sins!

So you can see a few images of the warband in their raw state. This is the core warband but I also have a few options that I haven't based yet, such as more Noble Riders, Mounted Skirmishers and Monks etc.

The core elements of the warband.

Foot Companions.

Ordinary Shieldwall.

Skirmishers with Bow and Javelin.

Noble Riders.

And just to show you how good these figures really are when painted up, just a couple of examples from last months Pendraken Painting Competition.

Whitejamest Late Romans for the Pendraken 2013 painting competition.

Craigs' wonderfully displayed Romano-British warband from the Pendraken 2013 painting competiton.

CSI Russia

Background
A few weeks ago I decided it was high time that my Italians forces had a run out. I fancied something a bit different so after perusing the BKCII rulebook I thought I'd go for a scenario based around the Italian involvement in Operation Barbarossa 1941. Fortunately for me I hadn't long ago finished my 5th Peoples Flying Column for use in the AVBCW, and being a Socialist force these were painted Soviet uniform colours. So Hey Presto! I had an opponent for the Italians.

Some background research into the early Italian involvement came up with the Corpo di Spedizione Italiano in Russia. After some reading of this and other articles, I decided to choose the 3rd Cavalry Division Amedeo Duca d'Aosta as the basis for my battlegroup. This would broadly consist of two Battalions of the 3rd Bersaglieri Regiment, supported by a squadron of the San Giorgio Armoured Battalion. It would seem that the Italian airforce was not involved that much at the start of the campaign so I went with some German support in the form of Stukas.

The Russian forces would be an adhoc force of mainly infantry supported by some armoured elements; in short an excuse to use most of my 5th PFC units. However being cut off they  would be devoid of artillery support.

During Operation Barbarossa the Russians were constantly being cut off by the advancing German Panzer forces, with the following infantry left with the task of mopping up the remaining pockets of resistance. Having read plenty of such examples in the superb "War Without Garlands" by Robert Kershaw, I decided to use one of these as the basis of the scenario for the game.

Scenario Details

I based the game upon Scenario 2:Assault with the following 'house rules' to suit the above:

• The Russians began the game dug-in in hastily constructed foxholes. This meant that they were hit on 5+ but had no save. This was to try and simulate the hastily constructed nature of there defensive line.
• Hits stay on. I have tried this in a game before and liked it as it speeded up play. 
• Auto-suppression for hits suffered from artillery, air, mortar and infantry gun fire. The latter two I hadn't tried before but wanted to give it a go.
• The Russian units counted as Stubborn, meaning that they deducted one die when rolling for fall-back from supression. This was based upon accounts in the Kershaw book where the Russians fought to the bitter end in many cases.
• The game was extended to 12 turns rather than 8 due to playing down the length of the table. There was no reason for this other than the table looked better layed out this way!
• The objective for the Italians was to gain control of the bridge and for the Russians to simply deny them this crossing point.

So I had accrued plenty of TOIL over the week to have Friday off and as the kids were in school and SWMBO was at work, it seemed the perfect opportunity to get a nice leisurely solo game in. The table was set up and the forces quickly sorted out first thing and then it was onto deployment ready for the off!

Turn 1
The Russian forces deployed in a broad defensive arc around the bridge with a reserve on the other side. The Italians deployed oppossite them using mobile deployment and flank deployment.

The Italian recce unit on the left quickly spotted Russian troops in the orchard on the village outskirts. However the Italian battlegroup was less than keen to get to grips with the Russian foe, with only the CO managing to get any real movement from his units. 

The Russians were not unduly alarmed at the arrival of so few enemy units and moved up some armour in response to get better fields of fire.

An over view of the battlefield and the Russian deployment.

Russian troops hastily dug-in in the orchard.

The Russian reserve units guarding the bridge.

AT gun, infantry and armour covering the centre and left flank.

The Italian deployment.

Turn 2
The Italian advance continued to be somewhat patchy and as a result the Russians were content to sit and watch.

 

Overview at the start of Turn 2.

The Italians not living up to being a cavalry division.

Turn 3
Almost a repeat of Turn 2, but with the Italians getting more units onto the table and opening fire on the Russians courtesy of their recce units spotting the dug-in enemy. The Russians once again kept their powder dry.

The IG suppressed as the result of opportunity fire.

 

The mortar unit that suppressed the IG unit.

Finally the Italians start to move.

Turn 4
Things start to hot up as the FAC successfully calls in a Stuka strike, which survives the ack-ack fire but loses 50% of its attacks. As a result it decides to concentrate all of its attacks on one T-26 tank, supressing it. The infantry continue to advance, with the centre advancing to the edge of the cornfield. AT gun fire knocks out a T-26 which opens up the way for the L3/35 tankettes to advance.

With the sudden advance of the Italians in the centre, the Russians need to respond, and quickly.  Combined fire sees the demise of an infantry unit as well as the IG. The CO moves his armoured units over the bridge to the centre to help counter the Italian threat there.

Overview at the start of Turn 4.

Stuka support arrives.

The demise of the T-26.

The Russians respond.

The Italian advance in all its glory.

Turn 5
Once again the FAC manages to call in the Stuka, which again survives the ack-ack fire, causing an infantry and tank unit to be supressed. Attacks start to go in against the units in the village. Unfortunately the CO was the only command unit to be successful, moving the L3/35 tankettes to the conrfield.

The Russians got off to a bad start with the HQ in the village blundering, meaning that this turn and the next all HQs would be at -1 to their command roll. The CO although unaffected, was only able to move the T-25s towards the tankettes.

Overview at the start of Turn 5.

The Stukas attack goes in past the burning wreckage ot the T-26.

The Italians going nowhere fast.

The advance of the L3/35s.

The Russian armoured support advances to counter the tankettes.

Turn 6
The FAC manages to call in the Stuka again but only for the ack-ack fire to see it off this turn. The Russians lose an MG unit to IG fire in the village, whilst in the cornfield both sides echange fire to no effect.

Only the Russian CO manages anything this turn, with the tanks and armoured cars suppressing some infantry units and destroying a tankette.

Overview at the start of Turn 6.

The Italians slowly make headway.

Both sides exchange fire to no effect.

The Russian fire is more effective...

... supressing the infantry units with AT rifles.

Turn 7
The FAC is single handedly taken the fight to the Russians it seems, once again calling in the Stuka. Despite heavy ack-ack, it hits and supresses a T-26 tank, the major threat to the Italians in the centre. Attacks continue going in on the infantry in the orchard on the outskirts of the village. The Italian infantry are still painfully slow, which could cost them the battle at this rate.

The Russians have a better turn, with an Italian AT rifle unit destroyed and the other supressed, along with other units hit and supressed as well.

Overview at the start of Turn 7.

The Luftwaffe shows how it should be done (again!).

The Italians take lossess in the centre.

Turn 8
The FAC fails this turn, but the Italian units on the left flank step up to the mark and in a devastating display of combined arms, clear the village of all Russian infantry units. Typically they then fail to captitalise on this as all the other units fail their command rolls!

The Russian somewhat shaken by the sudden loss of their right flank, only manage to destroy another AT rifle unit. However this is leaving the Italians with precious little with which they can fight the Russian armour. The game hangs in the balance still.

Overview at the start of Turn 8.

The Italians somewhat strung out.

The village cleared of infantry.

The loss of the AT rifle units is keenly felt.

Turn 9
The Italians have a quiet turn, with the L3/35s finishing off an infantry unit and other fire causing some suppression, and the advance continuing to be patchy.

The Russians have little to fight back with and only manage to destroy on tankette, despite an awful lot of fire being directed at them. The armoured cars retreat to a safe distance from the Italain infantry.

An overview of Turn 9.

The infantry close in on the armoured cars, but fail to assault.

The Italians are still scattered across the battlefield.

Discretion is the better part of valour. The armoured cars make a tactical withdrawl.

A tankette finally succumbs.

Turn 10

The Stuka arrives again after a rest and true to form flies through the ack-ack to suppress an MG unit. A double 1 on the left flank sees the village completely clear of the enemy as the remaining ATG unit is destroyed. 2 blunders in a row see Italian units advance 1/2 a move towards the enemy (1 unit had the same blunder the previous turn!). The cntre fails again but the CO manages to get an order off to the ATG unti which destroys a T-26.

Things are looking pretty rum for the Russians, who start to make small tactical withdrawls where possible, as they are close to their break point.

Overview at the start of Turn 10.

The Stuka flies through the smke from the burning tanks to press home his attack.

The Russian centre under pressure.

Turn 11

With victory in sight, the Italians put in one last effort and manage to destroy an AT gun, mortar and MG unit. The Russians are now over their breakpoint and fail their command roll at the start of their Turn.

Overview at the start of Turn 11.

The severely weakened centre.

The Italians close in for the kill.

The village in Italian hands

The left flank all but gone.

The final view as the Russians collapse.

Aftermath

Well what I thought would be a quick game turned into one that almost went to the wire. The Russians so very nearly hung on but in the end the Italians were able to combine their fire to cause casualties when it mattered. Totting up the victory points at the end meant the the Italians had been able to gain a Major Victory.

As always it was great to be playing BKCII again, after what seems to have been quite a long time. The 'house rules' worked well I thought and I certainly will be using the newer ones again. So how did the game go overall? Well here are a few thoughts:

• Keeping hits on certainly made the game flow more. If I had stuck with hits come off at the end of the turn, it would have turned into a slugfest which would not have been fun.
• I liked the mortars and infantry guns causing suppression as per artillery. This feels right to me when you read how effective they were on the battlefield. A few more games are required to make sure it doesn't skew game balance too much.
• Two low CV battlegroups can make for a stop-start game, which can get a bit frustrating at times, especially for the attacker. This is certainly true when playing down the length of the table. One suggestion that my good friend Keith Flint made, was to up the CVs of both sides by 1 to try and make the game flow a bit more. After all we want to have fun at the end of the day. Again a few more games with low CV battlegroups would need to be played re: game balance to make sure the feel of each battlegroup was maintained.

 

So hopefully it won't be too long before I can get another game in, maybe next time a return to the AVBCW milieu.