Colomby, August 1870

The battle of Colomby, fought using my 'Rifle and Kepi' rules, hexes are around a kilometre, stands are regiments and formations are divisions. The view is from the French side. I played the French and Tim Gow the wicked Prussians.

Historical Situation.

Following the defeat at Spicheren, the Army of the Rhine fell back before two German armies to Metz. Marshal Bazaine planned to pass his five Corps over the Moselle before he could be encircled. The German cavalry detected the French withdrawal and the leading elements of the pursuing VIIth and 1^st Corps launched an immediate spoiling attack against the French rearguard.

Historically night fell before the Germans had time to seriously develop their attack and that was the case here. The scenario OBs, maps etc were largely taken from the Bruce Wiegles excellent '1870'.

French position facing east. Imperial Guard are in reserve under control of the Emperor. Dense vineyards clutter the landscape.

The initial Prussian assault wavers attacking the front right of the French position.

The Prussians flee in disorder despite the supporting bombardment.

Prussians attack again, this time from two different directions. French cavalry move up in support.

Prussian artillery hammers the hill as fighting rages.

The French defenders disintegrate leaving the hill empty.

Prussians move on to the next position behind an artillery barrage as the French cavalry counterattack.

The next French divison collpases and the cavalry are blown, but night falls as the Prussians bludeon their way to a phyrric victory.

Airsoft

As readers of Tim Gows blog will no doubt be aware, a vaguely wargaming related hobby I've been involved for five years now is Airsoft. This is somewhat similar to paintball, but using airsoft weapons firing little plastic 0.2g balls rather than great big painful plastic balls full paint. It is primarily an excuse to dress up in military uniforms and run around the woods playing with toy guns, something I use to enjoy doing when I was a kid. As a 'sport' it is surprisingly popular, there are dozens of Airsoft sites all around the country and thousands of players. Perhaps it meets the modern need for experience based leisure activities, or something.

I have mainly been drawn towards equipment and uniforms from the Cold War, perhaps because it loomed so large in my childhood and early adult years. I've got various sets uniforms and webbing (or loadouts in Airsloft parlance) including a number of different British Army ones, both modern temperate and desert as well as 1970s/80s era, along with West and East German (Bundeswehr and National Volksarmee). In the eighteen months I've taken an increasing interest in WW2 Airsoft, which is something of a crossover activity between re-enactment and conventional airsoft and I have WW2 British, Soviet and German uniforms. Taking part in this hobby is in no way to condone particular political systems or ideologies, for me it is more like collecting Action Man outfits in 1:1 scale.

1970s/80s British. DPM, 58 pattern webbing and SLR.

1980s Bundeswehr. Flecktarn and G3

Cold War National Volksarmee. Strichtarn and AK47s, also looking a bit like Dads Army in this one....

WW2 German, in this case Luftwaffe Field Division uniform plus MP40 on a rather snowy day in Nottinghamshire in a classic 'Airfix figure' pose.

British Tommy. Battle Dress and Lee Enfield No. 4 with a distinctly un-lethal rubber bayonet.

Along with wargaming posts I'll be posting airsoft stuff too as it seems to absorbed a lot more of my time and energy recently than tabletop wargaming.

Disaster in the snow

Tragic news from Vulgaria. As our forces returned from counter-terrorist operations in Forbodia, unseasonally heavy snowfalls seriously hampered the march. Logistics have always been a weak spot for the Vulgarians, and in the frozen wasteland the horses were unable to graze and supplies of fodder soon ran out, leaving the horses to starve in the snow.

Vulgarian officers on foot led the retreat through the frozen wastes.

Gunners manhandled the lighter pieces.

Limbers and heavy pieces were abandoned in the snow.

Jagers covered the withdrawal from positions in the snow.

Horses lay frozen in the snow.

Small groups of survivors stuggled on behind their standards.

 

It is to be hoped our forces make a safe and speedy return. At least the snow will impede Forbodian terrorists from crossing the border.

Rasienie

This game was run at Sheffield Wargames Club in June 2011 and covered the Soviet counterattack on 6th Panzer Division at Rasienie in Lithuania in the opening days of Barbarossa.

6th Panzer Div recce battalion holds the river crossing.

Rifle Regiment around Rasienei.

Hordes of Soviet tanks! Some 250 of them in the real battle, lurking in the woods north of the river.

Soviet armour moves to attack the bridgehead behind an artillery barrage.

Soviets attack 6th recce Bn and cross the river to the north and south.

Things are looking a bit sticky for the recce troops.

Advanced tank units move to attack the Rifle Regiment.

6th Panzer Regiment races to the rescue while losses mount among the recce troops.

The German infantry start to waver.

Some Soviet tank units also start to falter, although some German infantry have been overrun.

The panzers engage the Soviet tanks while fighting rages around the bridge.

Heavy artillery and 88s arrive from the rear.

The recce battalion finally breaks and runs for cover, but the panzers continue to mop up.

The Soviet attack falters as the panzers start to cross the river.

The Soviet attack finally grinds to a halt. A result pretty much in line with the historical one.

Been a while....

Not doing very well with this blogging thing am I? Rest assured that I am still playing some games etc., just not getting around to writing about it.

Further to my last post about COW, I helped run a few sessions but also put on another big one of my own, in this case alos covering WW1, but simulating a Corps level trench warfare assault. Sadly there was some command and control confusion about when/where/if the session was actually taking place and I didn't have many punters. In the event the handful which turned up managed to come up with a brilliant plan:

Lots of boundaries, phase lines etc. It particularly helped that the wily Corps and divisonal commanders managed to obtain enough heavy artillery and ammunition to utterly flatten the German positions, although this completely tore up the already waterlogged ground.

Just to add insult to injury, the assault was preceded by a heavy gas attack along the entire front.

On the ground it ended up looking like this, as waves of British infantry pushed thruogh the shattered defences. Here the leading troops are passing through the German battlezone against scattered resistance from enemy reserves occupying strongpionts centered on villages to the rear.

To everyones astonishment the tanks lumbered right through to the end, making it as far as the German field artillery positions.

In other gaming news from July/August, we went on a family holiday to the USA. Along with swimming in the Pacific, driving across the desert, having an entertaining encounter with the US medical system via an emergency appendectomy in Las Vegas (seriously!) and riding the cable cars in San Francisco I managed to fit in a visit to a firing range in Nevada with daughter number 2. No restrictions on weapons in Nevada, so she got the 'Coalition Package' - M9, M16 and m249, whereas I went for a G3, M249 and a Sten.

G3 was fun to fire, very similar to an SLR (which I've already fired) and a very satisfying 7.62mm kick. Reasonable grouping and tore the target to shreds.

The M249 was a joy to shoot, really tight grouping, very stable and accurate, although I suspect the bipod and laser sight helped quite a bit.

Sten was....interesting. The range master was a bit nervous about it as he'd had an MP40 explode on him, but in the event it was fine. Very noisy, suprisingly high rate of fire and made nice big 9mm holes in the target. Main thing was it pulled up and left to an extreme degree so even with a three round burst the shots went all over the place. Once you'd got used to it, it was better and you could keep short bursts roughly in the same place. This was the gun I started with and I thought I was the worst shot in the world, but I was heartened to find some holes in the target from an adjacent lane, so at least I really wasn't the worst.

Worth the trip just for that I think.

COW 2010 - pt 1

What a great weekend, despite the sad and untimely death of Paddy Griffiths. A huge turnout and more games than it was possible to attend, I hope Paddy would have been proud of what he had started. To replace Paddys planned plenary game, I adapted my old participation game 'World War One in Three Turns' into a lawn game with real people, which at least kept the planned WW1 theme. People had made a real effort with making cardboard weapons and acquiring suitable hats etc and I'm glad that could all be put to good use.


Me in my 'Young Winston' (or maybe Middle Aged Winston) gear briefing the troops. Before coming outside the players were organised into twelve battalions, each with with own name and a set of 'cunning plans' to carry them through the next three years. Half a dozen Germans manned the enemy defences, according to pre set plans for each year. The game started on 1st July 1916. Oh dear.


Graham Evans leads a brigade in bayonet practice. Clearly the most sensible thing to do when faced with dug in machineguns behind barbed wire entanglements is to walk slowly towards them with rifles and bayonets. In each year of the war, the divisional CO (Wayne Thomas) was presented with a set of tactical options for the attack, and the battalions were committed according to pre set plans for each option. The fate of each battalion for each phase of the attack was determined by their cunning plans.



The sun sets on the field of glory. The attack in 1916 was a bit of a disaster, with only one battalion even making it into the German front line. 1917 went rather better, with some troops breaking into the second German line a few thousand yards in the enemy position. 1918 was crowned with glory however as infantry supported by massed tanks crashed right through the German defences to the green fields beyond.


Thanks to Tom for his excellent photos.

Planning

We spent most of the gaming sesson at the club last week discussing stuff for COW (Conference of Wargamers, 1st weekend in July, held at Knuston Hall). In particular we were exercised by what hats and uniforms to wear for Paddy Griffiths 'Oh What a Lovely War' plenary game, I'm still holding out for 'Young Churchill' style pith helmets and Broomhandle Mausers. We also had a run through of one of Tim Gows new games he is taking, 'Tank Terror'. Don't want to spill the beans, but suffice it to say that it involves tanks.... It will also require special headgear for the umpiring team.

In other wargaming news, I've almost finished my first batch of 2mm WSS figures, some fourteen brigades of British troops, plus HQs, wagons, pontoon trains etc. Quite pleased with how they've come out, although I messed up the flocking on the cavalry, being to lazy to pre-paint the bases brown and now they've come out a bit too dark. I managed to retrieve the situation for the infantry and it is a lesson learned for the future. On to the Bavarians next, particularly looking forward to doing the cuirassiers.

I seem to be getting drawn in by the lure of WW2 re-enacting. A very expensive and time consuming hobby, as if I haven't got enough of those. Well, we shall see.