Nikephorian Byzantines versus Classical Indians

Yesterday it was the turn of Mark Woods' Classical Indians to feel the wrath of my Byzantines.  Sadly it appears my Byzantines are all wrathed out.

 Even though the Indians had to deploy first, 

I decided to deploy in a double line 

so I could shift my cavalry to where they would do most good,

having learnt from my previous game.

 But things got off to a bad start when my CinC was downgraded on his first initiative roll.

After this I never got the initiative :-(

 The Indian chariots pull back, 

my cavalry goes to my right 

and I throw my skirmishers out to cover my left.

Who says my general is not an expert?

 End of the second turn and one of my skirmisher units has been blown away.  

Damn!

 By the end of the third turn both sides are busy shooting at each other, 

but with little effect.

 My light cavalry successfully takes out the enemy cavalry.

I got two hits and Mark threw a 6 for cohesion.

Poof!

 The end of the fourth turn and the losses are about equal.

I just need to get the initiative to capitalise on an advantage...

 But it was not to be.

End of the fifth turn and the elephants had made a mess of my left flank.

 On the sixth turn the enemy chariots arrived.

My cavalry were in action, but it was all too late.

Victory to the Indians.

What follows are some close ups from the final turn, showing key engagements from both sides' perspectives (as I am so used to looking at the back of my units I thought it would be nice to capture a few images from front on).

At War On The Gothic Line

I picked this up second hand from the Guildford Book Exchange.

The book by Christian Jennings covers the fighting in Italy 1944 to 1945.  Sadly he is no Beevor, although he tries.  A few obvious mistakes (the book's previous owner had started to correct them in red pen) cast doubt on the accuracy of the content, but there was a bit too much repetition, not enough detail (although that would have required a much longer book) and the personal narratives (something that Beevor excels in) too limited.

All that said, it did bring into focus the multicultural makeup of the Allied forces, the horror of the Nazi occupation and the fascinating end game, Operation Unthinkable.

Certainly a readable book, but the maps didn't really help (they seemed to be too small a segment of the battlefields) and the time jumped around a little bit.  The mentioning of what was helping elsewhere in the world was interesting, but not really relevant.

A little bit of inspiration for wargames, but not really enough to build any scenarios on.

Nikephorian Byzantine verus Jin Chinese

Only a 100 years apart plus a few kilometres...

From his never ending hoard of armies, Dave ran Chinese.  I stuck with my Byzantines.  Which way would the Fortune Cookie crumble?

 Dave got to deploy the terrain, but then I had to deploy first.

 Turn one and I'm trying to move my cavalry command from the right to my left.

 Turn two sees lots of bow fire, but with little result.

 And then the Chinese commander gets rated Genius!

 While my dude gets downgraded!

Grrr.

I hadn't been winning the initiatives and this just made it harder.

 Turn three and my cavalry have just about finished their shuffle.

 Turn four and there has been contact in the centre 

(I fared badly when I forced to reroll a cohesion test).

At least I was inflicting casualties on his heavy cavalry.

Turn five and my foot command will break and take my army with it.

My cavalry just couldn't manage the one extra casualty 

on that enemy light cavalry unit on the far left, 

that would have produced a draw.

I guess the Chinese get lamb for dinner.

A Walk in the Dead Woods again.

This was basically a repeat of the previous game, details of which can be found here.  Stephen took on the role of the denizens of the Dead Woods, while I thought I could do better as the goblins.  I had a cunning plan.

The aim is for the goblins to scout the wood, visiting each of the six patches of trees, while pretending to take their dog for a walk. If the dog wanders into a patch of trees it will dig up bones which can turn into skellies who will attack the goblins.  If the dog gets straight 1s for its activation, the dryad will appear randomly in a patch of trees.

 Things were going well until the dog fouled the environment, 

awakening the dryad, protector of the forest.  

However her charms failed to stir the goblins and she was not bothered again.

 The dog ran hither and thither and failed to dig up any bones.

So I thought that it would be okay to have the goblins activate skellies 

when they reached a patch of trees.

 Just one skellie appeared and it was easily dispatched.

 Next patch of trees revealed two skellies.

My plan was to keep the goblins together, 

so two are rushing forward to help.

 Goblin down!

His mates failed to get to him in time.

 Vengeance!

 But then the dog goes and digs up four skellies.

 The goblin reaction is slow and they are feeling a bit overwhelmed.

 Another goblin falls in combat.

 More skellies appear and another goblin dies.

 The remaining goblins flees.

 More skellies appear, intent on blocking the goblins' escape.

The goblins fail again in their attempt to scout the Dead Woods.

Having the goblins activate skellies was a bad move, but the dog wasn't doing much to start with and I was feeling sorry for my opponent who consequently had nothing to do.  The dog was moving very erratically as it was changing direction with each success, having just a single direction and then making a number of moves based on the number of successes is a better way to produce results (i.e. random generation of skellies).

This time the dryad had the Transfix ability, that if successful would have lured the poor goblin to its potential doom.

Having the skellies Q3 while the goblins are Q4 is probably not the best.  Perhaps if they had a leader?  But would anyone want the job?

Maybe...

15mm German WW2 Infantry - Allsorts

These figures came from Bill's gift plus some spare figures that Simon passed on.  They are a mix of manufacturers and I've based them up for use with Rommel, Crossfire and Blitzkrieg Commander, but I imagine they would work for most WW2 rule sets.  I went a bit overboard with the mix of tufts, but I'm very happy with the finished result.

The paint scheme was VJ Field Grey over a Tamiya Flat Black.  Some of the equipment I then detailed, the flesh and weapons obviously, but the big secret was a dry brush of VJ Buff that really brought out the detail.

 The whole lot.

 Mainly PSC figures in the above image.

 Mortars!

Medium and little.

 Rear area troops.

Perhaps the table needs a map, 

but they are just about to go into action and so it has been folded away.

 Some singles to act as commanders for Crossfire.

The guys in great coats with the machine gun demanded their own base,

but I now see I could have tried to get the ammo belt to match up better,

it is not so obvious on the table top.

 More machine guns.

Anti Tank rifle lying in wait.

Hiding behind a hedge, calling in a strike. 

 More spotters, although the binocular guys went to the MG crews as we'll see...

 MGs on tripods.

 Infantry attacking.

Infantry advancing.

In this image you can see extra detail that went into these figures, 

but it is the dry brush that has really enhanced them.

Some of these figures are from Command Decision.

Kasserine Pass 1943

Two games of Rommel in one week - how good is that!

Today's game was from a scenario on the Hexes and Miniatures blog.

More importantly for me, it was the first use of much of my WW2 15mm forces for the purpose of which it had been purchased and subsequently expanded, in fact the Italian units I specifically made for this battle, along with the Lee and Stuart tanks. It was the first time for some of these units to appear on the table top.

Simon went US and I went Axis based on a die roll.  It was daunting to be faced with attacking, but once things started rolling...

 Deployment.  The US are dugin holding the passes.

 It's a war of attrition for the main pass.

 Which the Axis are winning.

They have also scaled the heights.

 A US ops roll.  Anything but one's are good.

By Turn nine, or just around midday, US forces collapse.

The Axis have taken a lot of casualties, but CCB of the 1st Armoured has been wiped out.

A tricky scenario this one.  Normally you have to watch for counterattacks, but the weak US attack ratings and the large number of Axis forces, make that close to impossible.

I would suggest making the mountains impassable to armour and possibly extend that to all motorised/armoured troops (they would have to debus and advance as leg infantry). That should extend moving between the terrain and diagonally adjacent enemy units as well, as in the game the Axis were able to get round behind the US troops and into their rear area with ease.

After the first flurry of events and tactics, I settled in to a lethal combination of double impulses.

This is the description of the battle from Wikipedia:

Djebel el Hamra

The Afrika Korps Assault Group began moving along the Hatab River valley towards Haidra and Tebessa in the early afternoon of February 21 and advanced until they met defenders consisting of the U.S. 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division and Combat Command B of the U.S. 1st Armored Division at Djebel el Hamra. The German–Italian force was halted and despite heavy pressure, including air attacks, failed to dislodge the American defenders.[33] Having brought the Axis drive towards Tebessa to a halt, General Paul Robinett and General Terry Allen now turned their attention to planning a counterattack that was to take place the next day, February 22. Plans made by both sides were upset by the battle, and the Axis forces (5 Bersaglieri, a Semovente group from Centauro and 15 Panzer) launched another assault on the U.S. position on the morning of the 22 February. Although the American defenders were pressed hard, the line held and by mid-afternoon, the U.S. infantry and tanks launched a counterattack that broke the combined German and Italian force. More than 400 Axis prisoners were taken as the counterattack was pressed into the Afrika Korps position.[34]

What I would really like to do is play the campaign for Tunisia out as a series of battles.  I just need to collect my sources and not sweat the detail.