Thursday, January 30, 2020

Stalingrad'42 - Turns 11 to 13

The Soviets make their first counterattack at Yelan.

This was so exciting I forgot to take a photo of the end of turn 11 position.

The previous attack was a success and on the next turn a further two attacks were made.

 End of Turn 12.

While the Axis have a bridgehead across the Volga and along the Don south west of Stalingrad,
they are still held up at Rostov and Voronezh.

End of Turn 13.

The northern front has drawn the panzers back.  The Soviet offensive against the Hungarian army has been halted. The incursion across the lower Don has seen the release of the Caucasian front troops and they are hurrying to contain the threat.  The bridgehead on the Volga has also been blocked from further breakout, not that the Axis can spare any troops to do this.

This game is playing really well, giving both Richard and I headaches in deciding what to do.

Nikephorian Byzantine versus Sassanids Again

Another practice game as part of the club's Basic Impetus League competition.  My Byzantines and faced Mark B's Sassanids.

 I was out scouted again.
Not sure it made any difference.

 They advanced, we tried shooting at them.

 I'm getting aggressive on the flanks.
My archery is woeful.

 We are both down a light cavalry unit after three turns.

 But now the grind begins.

 The elephants on the left have been pushed back 
and my light cavalry on the right has prevailed, 
but at horrendous cost.  
The two elite cavalry units with the respective generals keep on fighting.

 And still they fight.

 And fight some more...

Till both units are no more.
Draw.

My new chits worked a treat.  So easy with a laminator, but I'm thinking I might like them a bit smaller and thicker.

Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Stalingrad'42 - Turns 8 to 10

Another session and Richard thought it might be nice to show the accumulated losses at this point.

 As the Soviet units only have two steps they get removed pretty quickly.  
The German units have three steps.

 Too late I had left a gap in my lines that has allowed the Axis to penetrate the northern river line 
and cut the rail link to Stalingrad.  
Whoops!

 Holding Rostov in the south and Voronezh in the north,
the centre is folding back.
Getting reinforcements to Stalingrad is going to be problematic.

Will I have enough to hold the north? 
It seems this is where the Axis effort is being made.


Monday, January 27, 2020

Classical Indians versus Carthaginians in 6mm

Today Mark Woods came over with two of his superb 6mm armies.  I went Carthaginian to face Indians ensconced on a hill.

 I was out scouted and deployed my army behind a strong skirmisher screen.

 I start to advance...

 Even at short range, the missile fire is rarely more than one dice per unit.

 My army gets a slight scratch.

 First action sees us both lose skirmishers on our respective right flanks.

 A mighty skirmisher tussle results in annihilation of the Indians.
It all comes down to the Cohesion tests.

 Lots of action on my left flank.
I really like this way of showing casualties.
One side is red for disorder, the other side green for good order.

In go the Gauls.
The Spanish have dealt with the chariots.
Unfortunately the elephants squished the Punic infantry.
Will the other unit fair better?

The Gauls and the Spaniards win the day!

John Carter of Mars

The DVD I had was titled "John Carter of Mars".

Always keen to check out Barsoom related material and so when the opportunity came to watch this movie I couldn't resist.  My bad, at least I had other things I could do at the same time.

The premise might have been interesting if I could have heard what they were saying, but even at max volume it was hard to hear.  Something about climate change and maybe tribal conflicts in Afghanistan.

It is only when you get to see a cheap movie that you appreciate how spoilt we are for quality productions.  This one looked like it was made with reject Star Wars costumes.

Where's Jabba the Hutt? 

Just too awful.

The trailer can be seen here: Traci Lords: Princess of Mars Trailer.  It includes the best bit with the flying craft being shot up and the torture scene were Traci is punished for giving her name to such a crappy movie.

The Disney John Carter movie was much better (and I must watch it again as I need some inspiration to tackle my backlog of Barsoom inspired miniatures and games).

Nikephorian Byzantines versus Sassanids

Today my Byzantines clashed with Mark B's Sassanids as can be seen in this nifty gif:


 Deployment on my new board.
As can be seen the flocked sheet was just a tad too narrow.

 The Sassanids advance.
The Byzantines hold their ground,
although their light cavalry on their right do engage the enemy most successfully.

The Sassanids keep advancing,
but they have lost one unit already.

The big clash of the Generals' units.
All those dice and not a single hit.

The Sassanid right continues to slowly advance.
The rest of the army seems bogged down. 

A brilliant riposte by the Byzantine elite cavalry achieves many hits,
but the fails to produce casualties,
despite the use of the Betrayal card.

 Both sides are suffering now.
The Sassanid elephants have lost their screen.
The Byzantines have lost their slingers and a unit of light cavalry.

 The elephants go in, but are unable to prevail.
The Sassanid general has been lost.

 It is just a question of time...

 The Byzantine general becomes the meat in a Sassanid sandwich.

But the Byzantines create an elephant burger of their own.

 Both sides break.





Sunday, January 26, 2020

World in Flames 24 - Supplementary

This is the official write-up from the Facebook World In Flames Players private group. 

S/0 41 (cont)

Axis second impulse and with the weather roll of 2, another bonus clear for the Axis in S/O. GERM take a land and Japan takes a no cost land as only INF units will be moving – might as well save the oil for the USA fight. GERM as predicted attacks the single MIL defending Penza taking the city with a 10:1 assault. The rest of Army Gp N advances East towards the Urals capturing rail and securing their LOCs. Army Gp S without support from the Luftwaffe as their GS failed to invert either Corps at Voroshilovgrad, launch a blitz attack against the adjacent 6 INF defending the cities Western approach easily overwhelming the defences. All the other blocking DIVs along the line were cleaned up by the flanking units, as was a 3 MIL. Back at Gomel, a Stuka attempted to GS Gomel, escorted by a 6 factor ME109 – the lone Russian 4 factor intercepted and shot down the ME109, with the pilot safely bailing, the Stuka aborted, fearing the same. Several important bombers were rebased forward, to support the next offensive if the weather continues to be fine. JAPAN takes a no cost land and reinforces the gap between the Nationalist and Communist Chinese, attacking the lone AA unit in the mtns at 9:1. Italy took a no cost land, desperate to save their oil and waited for Egypt to be put OOS by the Japanese Navy.

The Allies response saw the CMWLTH take a naval and place convs to ship BP’s to Russia. The loaded HQ Alexander at sea was aborted, returning safely to the UK for a well-earned RnR after his 6 months in Murmansk. The Courageous and her sister CV were not courageous, and rather than fight the Japanese CV’s, aborted to the sanctuary of S Africa. Another FTR was shipped to Gibraltar to replace previous air losses, and another long-range bomber rebased to Morocco to help break the deadlock on the land. The US spends oil to sail 3 more ships – he now has two CV’s Enterprise and Yorktown, and 4 SCS BS on the way to Pearl. In the first roll of the dice by the Communist, sensing it was time to test their metal, attacked a lone 4.1 GAR and rolled well enough to send it back to Japan, but lost a Div – but their intent has now been demonstrated and they will seek further opportunities against single Japanese units.

Russia railed out the Saratov factory and sends another Mil to the Northern city of Kirov. In the South Voroshilovgrad is vacated leaving only a single Corps and two NKVD Divs to keep the Corps from surrendering and the ‘peoples’ motivated – times are tough. The rest of the defenders of Voroshilovgrad withdraw East. A line is starting to form along the Eastern bank of the Volga and Don River hinged at Rostov and STALINGRAD.

Axis weather roll 4 – clear again – when will this end – anguish cries from the allies! Germ land and in the South, Voroshilovgrad is targeted by the Luftwaffe, and again no inversions, undaunted the Germ launches an assault and rolls top of the table taking the City – the Don basin is now cleared and the road opened up to Stalingrad. In the North, Army Gp N launches an underdone assault against Kazan and rolls poorly losing two units (7 INF and 3 SS Mech Div) in an exchange for the city. In the Centre the important city of Saratov defended by a 5 INF is taken without loss at 10:1, and with it the strategic rail – Russia is now cut in half as they can no longer strat rail or move oil/resources between the North and the South of the country.

Japan took a combined, opening with port strike against 5 x convs in Calcutta which were all inverted and with a nice split in the Japanese favour, just large enough to sink 2 x Conv pts in the port of Bombay. Searches in the Persian Gulf fail to find. Land units push to surround the Nationalists.

Allies impulse, all less Russia (Land) take a pass. The Russians decide not to rail out a factory and instead rail 2 x CAV from the East to cities in the Urals to start the process of garrisoning. The rest of their units fall back to Kuibyshev in central Russia, on the border of the Urals and in the South a defensive line on the Volga River hinged at Rostov and STALINGRAD. The Russian fails to roll the ‘1’ to end the turn.

Axis roll weather and their luck finally runs out as they roll a 7 – RAIN! The Allies breathe a sigh of relief, finally some respite from the clear weather. The Germ decides to take a combined as he cannot make a single attack and advances six units that are now only 2 hexes from several entry points to the Urals Map. The U-boat fleet sail in an attempt to stretch the CMWLTH and hunt his Convoys. Due to lack of training or inexperienced U-boat commanders, all bar one of the Germ search rolls was appalling - 3 rolls of 9 and one of 10 out of 5 searches (only 1 successful find – which the CMWLTH escorts countered, finding as well – two 3’s rolled, so no result). This meant no conv’s were found or sunk, very disappointing, especially in the Faroes Gap where 14 Conv’s were sitting with a single escort. Conversely, and just as disappointingly for the Royal Navy, they only achieved a single aborted sub, as they were unable to exploit the high search numbers of the GERM, neither sinking nor damaging any U-boats. The combined allowed 6 GERM air mission and the Germ was able to move four ftrs towards the front – most are still a full turn away from the front line. The Italians were more successful flying out to the North Sea and finding the two patrolling CA’s, damaging one and aborting the other, clearing that sea of the Royal Navy.

The Japanese did a no cost ‘nothing’ as their Navy has all sailed and have no more targets to find in any sea areas. With rain in all AO’s there was no opportunity for attacks for their land forces – Japan saved the oil. The Yamato sailed to search for two convs in the Persian Gulf but failed to find. Italy took a land and stepped back one hex along the Mountain line in Morocco, as the Free French were starting to outflank them. In Egypt another Italian Corps landed with crates of vino. The Axis failed to roll the EOT on a 1.

Allies ‘rain impulse’ next week with an ‘End of Turn’ roll of 3 or 4 if the ‘other’ Allies pass. The Axis is hoping the turn does not end and they get to roll another moral shattering clear weather and cross into the Urals in 1941!








Units eliminated in supply in home country or with HQ are termed cadre
and provide a build point (garrison cost 2 BPs, regular infantry 3 BPs)

This is just showing the tension pool which is the mechanism for bringing the US into the war.