Trial of Strength - December'44

Richard and I got in another three turns of this epic game today.  With snow freeze now in place there was a bit more action, limited breakthroughs, but some interesting developments.

The beginning of December sees the newly arrived "Leningrad Front"

 open up an offensive on the Black Sea coast.

Note: the hexes with numbered chits 

represent where battles of attrition have been occuring.

The success in the south will have immediate and far reaching consequences.

Reinforcements are also arriving from the now completed Finish front.

Bulgaria has joined the Soviets and Romania has agreed to an armistice!

Supply is a major factor in stopping any rapid exploitation of these developments.

The chits with U open to the right are Soviets, open to the left are Romanian.

Getting supply means repairing/converting the railroads 

and with winter it takes two turns to repair one hex.  

Supply range is only 3 and the mountainous terrain counts as two.  

The railheads are a long way back in the south.

The war of attrition has finally created a breech near Lublin (where the black NKVD counter is )

Iberians and Lusitanians versus Early Achaemenid Persians

Trying out another army derived from my Carthaginian purchase.  This time up against Drew's embryonic Early Achaemenid Persian.  It was a near run thing.  In what I expected to be a quick game and home to watch Wallander, turned out to be a gruelling, nail biting drawn out affair.

Deployment.

Given my army is near all light foot, I put down one wood.  

Drew placed the lake.  I went for a field and Drew finished with another wood.  

Interesting!

Turn 1 and I decide to send my cavalry to my right flank.

Turn 2 I send them back after the Scutarii get badly shot up 

(the joy of a single six to hit followed by a six on the cohesion test)

Turn 3 and the same fate befalls my right flank cavalry.

This was only Drew's third game with these rules so there has to be an element of beginner's luck,

but with both my flanks compromised things were not looking good.

Turn 4 and my centre has collapsed when the Mercenary Celtiberians evaporated

after a less than successful impetus charge.

Turn 5 and I'm trying to stabilise my flanks and recover the centre.

Turn 6 and my efforts have met with some success 

although that rogue Persian light cavalry unit in my rear is a worry.

Turn 7 and things are tense.

Turn 8 and the Persian light cavalry's mischief has been stopped.

The Elite and Veteran Iberians are starting to get to grips with the Persians.

Turn 9 and the Veteran Iberians have performed extremely well.

Their Elite compatriots significantly less so (all that high living has a cost)

Turn 10 and the Elite Iberians have continued to perform dismally.

Turn 11 and after a desperate charge (Ace in the Hole)

 the few remaining Elites grasp victory from defeat

Actually it was the Veterans that won the battle, 

but the Elites control the town cryer

It was ever thus.

 

A BT5

This kit by Zvedza is a little beauty!  Just seven parts that snap together.  Only issues are I haven't been able to get the turret to rotate and there was no real body cavity that I could stuff with lead - this really is a light tank!  Fast too!  Only took me three days to complete it.

Amazing bit of mechanics,

used for steering front wheels when running without tracks.

This photo taken without flash.

Just realised I missed a bit at the back of the turret underneath.

However it serves to show how it was painted.  Black undercoat, green top coat, dry brush of buff.

Celtiberian versus Henry Tudor's Lancastrians

So I thought I would run something different and so did Dave.  My lads were hot, throwing lots of sixes (sadly for a few cohesion tests as well, but even then they were mainly throwing ones so no complaint).

That's broken ground in the middle of the battle ground.

It has the English invaders perplexed.

The Celts waste no time in advancing.

By the end of Turn Two the Celt warbands are within charge range.

The skirmisher screen has been doing excellent work.

The clash came but saw the unlucky cohesion test fail for the main unit, 

which meant the bulk of the Celts fell back in disorder.

But the Celts ripost and the Lancastrian right and centre are obliterated,

It is going to take a while to get the Celt right flank to turn around and get back into the fight.

It is up to the light cavalry and slingers to hold the English knights.

Celt left flank light troops do an amazing job and poor Henry is in real trouble.

It doesn't get much better than that.

Celtiberian's 7 Lancastrian's 4

It pays to be lucky.

Holland'44 Q3 2020 - Turns 5 to 8 (part)

The Operation Market Garden continues.

Allied attacks during the night of the 18th September.

Clearing the highway was the critical fight and was very successful,

with the enemy being eliminated, not just retreated,

Another attack on Nijmegen by the 82nd failed to dislodge the defenders.

German counterattacks around Arnhem were more successful 

and the British paras found themselves pulling back.

A rare 7:1 attack by the Germans against a recon unit caused losses to both sides.

But would the Allies be able to trap the Germans on the wrong side of the canal?

Still more German attacks.

End of Turn 5 northern sector.

And the southern sector.

The morning of the 19th starts off overcast.

Another attack by the 82nd again fails to make any progress against Nijmegen,

In the centre 30th Corps is now across the Zuid-Willems Canal, 

but the bridges are down...

Attempts to cutoff the Germans just didn't quite make it.

On the left flank the British and 101st keep on pushing the Germans back.

The Germans make some critical attacks on 1st para.

They fail.

If successful they would have interdicted the arrival of reinforcements.

The Germans however successfully push back the 82nd.

The big picture end of Turn Six.

11th Armoured starts to fight for Helmond.

While on the other flank the fight is closing in on 'sHertogenbosch.

But the critical thing is to get these bridges repaired.

There can be no real advance without them.

Again the Germans mount attacks on 1st Para.

Their previous failure has allowed reinforcements to land and shuffle in to the front lines.

These renewed attacks fail, but it's tight.

German counterattack at 'sHertogenbosch.

The big picture end of Turn 7.

During the night of 19 September the Allies renew the attacks against 'sHertogenbosch,

but 3:1 attacks aren't going to do it.

Major assault against Helmond looked promising, 

but there was an unknown unit that turned out to be tough.

It remains in German hands.

Next up is the German night turn.

Operation Mercury

I picked up this book by Tony Simpson on the Battle for Crete, 1941, last year or the year before second hand.  I am a sucker for all things Operation Mercury.  It was published in 1981.  Tony Simpson is a New Zealander and this book is focussed on the New Zealand experience, fair enough.

When I first started reading the book the introduction struck me as a bit convoluted, but the book soon settled down in to a good read (which was more than me just adjusting to the author's style).  Apart from describing the action, using many first person accounts, there was an interesting addition to the scope/cause of the conflict in covering the economic and strategic aspects of the campaign.  These things are often forgotten and leave casual readers with no real feeling for why we were there (I think the Gallipoli campaign is a good example of this level of ignorance).

Anyway, I really must get down to devising some Operation Mercury based scenarios for my WW2 miniatures.