Tigers at Minsk - The Poupeville Exit

 More US Paras in Normany with Tigers at Minsk. This scenario was originally in the US Para expansion for Squad Leader published in the AHGC General, but it was reproduced in Fireball Forward. I largely based the  game on the FF version.

Battlefield from the south. Poupeville lies across the exit of causeway 14 from Utah Beach (the flooded area behind the beaches is off to the north) and was one of the D-Day objectives of PIR 501, 101st Airborne Div.

Each of the buildings is worth 1VP, apart from the tall building at the top (2VP) and the church which is the German HQ and worth 5VP. The side with most VPs wins the game which lasts 55 minutes. Historically the Germans collapsed when their HQ was captured.

The German defenders from GR 919, 709th Infantry division. Two rifle platoons with three sections each and a sniper. In the FF scenario they also have the potential for an MG team as a variable attachment, but in the original Squad Leader scenario, they have an MG mounted on a kubelwagen!

Well, I thought that would be much more fun. I don't have an armed Kubelwagen, but I do have  a Horch with an MG, so I used that.

The Germans are all poor quality so their sections rally on 5+ (unmodified) and their force morale is 3.

I had to make up some rules for the sniper - treat it like an FOO for target purposes and it rolls 1D6 and can only ever score a pin.

And the mighty 501st! Lt Colonel Julien Ewell managed to assemble about 40 men to attack Poupeville, including various odds and sods from his HQ section.

Here they have four 'heavy' squads in two platoons with 3D6 and high morale, plus a squad of typists etc with 2D6 and normal morale. They did have a bazooka section attached which I modelled as an AT availability of 3, I thought it might be useful against the Horch. There is also a .30 cal MG team with the HQ. 

Overall the force is high quality and has a force morale of 4.

There is a lot of blocking terrain and covered routes to the German HQ, so the defenders were necessarily forced to spread out. I tried to make sure all the open ground was covered by fire and that there was a reserve. The Horch was hard to position - it can't enter building hexes unless on a road and there is a good chance it will bog if trying to cross a hedge. In TaM softskins are also destroyed by a single pin result! In the end I put it on a road behind a hedge covering the left hand side of the village centre. On the roads it can easily move around.

Otherwise the Germans spread out to minimise bunching penalties although the sniper was in the southern house on the N-S road with a rifle section.

The centre didn't look very inviting for the US, but there was cover on both left and right flanks. I went right flanking as I could take advantage of the covered route to get a two hex move for the Paras behind the small orchard. Three squads stacked up there and one occupied the buildings next to the orchard.

The HQ team and .30 cals set up a base of fire just east of the crossroads. They had a pretty good field of fire from there, despite all the hedges and buildings.

The Germans are obviously loaded for bear and gun down the US Paras in the buildings with boxcars. US morale drops to 3. Not a very good start.

The US response is fairly subdued. The .30 cal pins the German section behind the hedgerow while the HQ squad misses. The other Paras deploy in the woods and buildings, one squad to a hex to minimise bunching. 

This time it is a different German squad which rolls boxcars and another Para section is destroyed in the 'house of death'. One of the US squads in the orchard is also pinned. Perhaps there are 88s in the town? US force morale 2...

The Germans also shuffle up their reserve section and move the Horch along the road to cover the front of the hedge line.

A shame I didn't take a photo of the Horch moving, as the first thing the US do is shoot it to pieces with small arms fire! You can see a big puff of smoke at the edge of the village. The Paras have clearly got their eye in as they also finish off the pinned German section behind the hedge. German force morale drops to one! The other pinned Para section rallies (anything but a 1).

The German response is a bit pathetic and largely misses. Now the US paras manage to take out another German section AND score a whopping two hits on the combined rifle/sniper group and the sniper is removed. German force morale is reduced to zero and they have to take two fallback tests.

Although some of the Germans manage to pass one test, they all fail at least once and one fails twice. Once all the retreats are done there are two sections clustered around the church and the section from the western hamlet has retreated right behind the hedge! It is a good job LOS from the .30 cal is blocked or it may have been gunned down in the open.

The Germans are fortunate that the remaining sections all end up in command and they hastily occupy buildings in the interior of the village. They have given up the outskirts now the US are deploying their full firepower. 

The US take advantage of the German retreat to double move all their units up to the edge of the village as they are out of LOS of the defenders. 

The US move into the buildings and both sides settle down to shoot at each other. As everyone is in cover and the buildings break up line of sight, this is singularly ineffective and a couple of turns pass with loads of bullets in the air but very few units actually hit. 

The Germans still hold the majority of VP buildings, so are currently winning despite their morale being zero. All they have to do is hold out a bit longer. 

Colonel Ewell looks at his watch, 44 minutes on the clock! He decides to break the stalemate with bold action. The HQ squad rushes the church, this locks the defenders into close combat so that the two Para Squads can push forward too without being opp fired. One takes the northern exit building and the other reinforces the church assault. 

The defenders fight bravely (pinning the HQ squad) but outnumbered 2:1 in combat dice, they are wiped out. This triggers another German fallback test. They guys in the house southwest of the church hold firm and shoot at the Paras to no effect, while the Germans in the hamlet retreat (again). Perhaps they are Ostruppen? The Germans have to use their turn to put them back into cover. The game clock now stands at 50 minutes. 

On what is almost certainly the last turn, the US rally their HQ squad and one of the Para squads occupies the buildings SE of the church to prevent sneaky German counterattacks. The. 30 cal pins the last German section in the village under under covering fire from the MG, the other Para squad changes the cowering Germans who are duly wiped out. 

Amazingly the Ostruppen stand and fight, but they can't mount an effective counterattack over the open ground and just shoot at the Paras over the fields, pinning them. 

Time runs out and having captured the church, the US have 12VP to the Germans 3, a convincing win and very historical. Without the church they would have lost, and amazingly I didn't roll a single random event the entire game, which is a shame. 

That was really good fun and very much captured the spirit of the original Squad Leader scenario. The really great addition was the force morale concept, as once the Germans reached their break point, their defence became badly disrupted and the US could pick it apart. I did think the US might be doomed after their catastrophic opening moves, but in the end quality told and they swept all before them. 

I think I'm getting my head around how infantry combat works now, my biggest error in the game was misplaying the armed Horch and it ended up being destroyed without firing a shot. The US also spent too long locked in a firefight in the town, and it was marginal as to whether they would run out of time. 

Queen Laodika 's War

On the Sunday morning at the  Society of Ancients Conference back in September, I signed up for John Bs 'Laodikas War'. This was one of Johns big Ancient operational games and covered the Seleucid succession crisis of 246 BC, something about which I know absolutely nothing, although various characters involved do pop up in Shakespeare plays.

This was a pretty big game, able to accommodate anything up to 20 players although in this case there were maybe a dozen of us. I was cast as Prince Seleukos, the rightful heir to the Seleucid throne and the God King, Alexander the Great.

Apparently my father had quite complex personal life, and although me and my younger brother Prince Herax 'The Hawk' (played by Richard) are the rightful heirs by his first wife Laodike, he went and married King Ptolemy's sister, Eurydike (boo!) who went and produced another son, Prince Antiochos (boo!).

Although it is obvious that the first born is the rightful heir, Queen Eurydike has the odd idea that Prince Antiochus is heir. Something her brother, King Ptolemy, is keen on too for some reason.

The playing area was a couple of modern maps of the eastern Mediterranean, marked out into historic towns and joined by road or sea transport routes. The little plastic pieces indicate faction ownership. The Seleucids are green, Antigonids red and the Ptolomies (boo!) are blue. There are also various smaller states such as Sparta, Pergamon, Pontus etc.

The Antigonids control most of Greece and have regular dust ups with the Ptolemys in the Cyclades. The Ptolemys control Egypt and the coast through Israel and Syria and the southern coast of Turkey. The Seleucids have Iran/Iraq and much of Anatolia and we have regular scraps with Ptolemys in the vicinity of Syria. 

View from the east. Babylon, Antioch and and Ephesus are our major power bases with elements of the standing army in each (those big piles of green cards). There were four of us on the Seleucid team, myself, Herax, the Governer of Persia and and General Adromachos whose daughter is my wife. Eurydike and Antiochus (boo) were in Antioch, while myself and Herax were in Ephesus. Ptolemy had a suspiciously large stack of stuff near Issus (the blue cards).

My aim was to assert my authority over the Seleucid Empire, remove Eurydike and Antiochus from the picture and boost the Treasury reserve to 100 Talents.

You get income in the winter phase based on towns and ports controlled and peasants tilling the fields instead of fighting. Plenty of mercenaries are available to hire, but cost lots of money although they fight much better than peasant levies. Otherwise there are three campaign turns a year outside winter. 

There was a certain amount of horse trading with other powers, in particular we came to a mutually beneficial understanding with the Antigonids. Pontus was very helpful indeed but Pergamon just went around being a pita. With so many players, there was plenty of scope for skullduggery and I did notice that Herax disappeared from the room for a suspiciously long period of time along with one of the Ptolemys. 

Mercenaries were raised by a bidding process which was very entertaining and also a good way of depleting your rivals treasuries through cunning bidding. We determined fairly early  on to march on Antioch to deal with any potential insurrection and raised a moderate force of mercenaries (ten contingents) to accompany the standing army. I had an eye on our treasury reserves.

Meanwhile it all kicked off in Greece as the Antigonds began clearing the rest of the peninsular. There is a battle in progress on the left of the map, each card is a unit with a to hit number (from 7+ to 10 on a D10) and  strength points (from 1 for levies etc to 4 for elite phalanx). They fight one or two rounds and the loser retreats or can opt to fall back into a town or city and be besieged. 

The Ptolemys curried the favour of the gods with oratory and stole a march on us. Xanthippus took our fleet in port (!) while Ptolemy himself led the main army to Antioch. Queen Eurudike tried to raise a local revolt with very mixed success, only one unit defecting to her, the rest melted away into the countryside. The Ptolemys also landed an expeditionary force near Ephesus, which presented a threat.

Prince Herax demonstrated his youthful, aggressive nature by leading a small detachment (three units) against the Ptolemys, and beat them, despite being outnumbered 2:!! The enemy fell back into the town and Herax laid on a siege.

You can see the Ptolemys have left a large force to guard Alexandria, even though we don't have navy. This would cause them problems in the future.  

Meanwhile I led the main army to Antioch, where I was joined by loyal King Pontus. 

A good job too as the Ptolemaic army was quite strong. Our guys at the bottom, theirs top right. We fought an indecisive action as winter was setting in and fell back from Antioch as a winter siege would be horribly costly in terms of attrition. The Ptolemys meanwhile established Prince Antiochus as a puppet king, although to no great popular acclaim. I did notice the Governer of Persia in a long conversation with Ptolemy though. I need to watch that one.

Still heavy fighting in Greece. The Antigonids taking on Sparta, the Spartans are on the left, heavily outnumbered but very tough fighters.

In the final turn of the year, we adopted an indirect approach. Herax went on an 'end run' along the Anatolian coast mopping up the Ptolemaic towns while leaving the small enemy expeditionary force besieged. I led the main army against Xanthippus who was guarding our captured fleet.

In the ensuing battle (above) it turned out he was heavily outnumbered. We destroyed his army, although not before he'd burned our ships, and we captured Xanthippus himself.

This manouvre also left Antioch isolated and completely surrounded by Seleuicid areas. By now the somewhat shifty Governor of Persia had finally joined up with my army.

Over the winter the extra territory we'd captured, coupled with Xanthippus' ransom (Ptolemy seemed very keen to have him back) boosted the treasury very nicely. We kept on the best mercenaries and purchased some more, and I still had over 100 Talents in the treasury.

Prince Herax marched to join us in spring and we launched a massive attack on the Ptolemaic forces at Antioch. It turned out we had quite a bit more stuff than them, possibly because half their army was sitting in Alexandria.

The Gods favoured us big time. Those two D10s are my Silver Shield phalanx rolling 10,10 for its combat roll. Prince Herax led from the front which gave his entire wing a combat bonus at considerable personal risk and even Pontus gave a good account of himself. The combination of numbers and good fortune absolutely hammered the Ptolemaic army, and they retreated from Antioch back into Syria.

We called it at that point. The Antigonids had captured much of Greece and the Cyclades although Sparta still held out. King Pergamon had launched a mini offensive in western Anatolia and was threatening Ephesus, but tbh we could just have turned around and crushed him like a bug now the Ptolemys were finished.

John B doing the washup. 

As you have probably gathered, my faction of the Seleucids had done rather well. It transpired that the Governer of Persia had struck a tentative deal with Ptolemy but could see very well which way the wind was blowing and stuck with me instead. Historically he led a revolt which split the Iranian part of the empire off. Herax had proved to be loyal if rather impetuous, historically he tried to establish his own power base around Ephesus but was eventually killed fighting with some Gallic mercenaries. Ever the thrill seeker.

In real life Eurydice and Antiochus tried to raise a revolt in Antioch but were siezed by the crowd and torn to pieces, which didn't stop the Seleucids and Ptolemys having a good old scrap. This period marked the high point of Ptolemaic power, and the Successors in general. After this, Rome became a serious player.

John observed that it was one of the more battle heavy outings of this game, but we only had three hours and it seemed to be a quick way to a resolution. The game worked extremely well, and as with Johns other large multi player games, there are so many moving parts you just have to try and focus on what is most important.  

The general situation in Anatolia at the end. Apologies if I've missed out anything important, as the Duke of Wellington observed "One might as well try and describe a ball as a battle" and this big multi player game certainly captured a lot of that confusion and fog of war.

Resin Tiger Trio Pt 2. The Grey Tiger

 Lets face it, who hasn't wanted a panzer grey Tiger 1? Back in the distant days of the school wargames club in the early 1970s, it was pretty common to paint late war German tanks grey, just because it looked so cool. Now, I do have a few grey 6mm Tigers, aimed at the Russian Front in late 1942 and early 43, but this is my first 15mm one.

Woo, and doesn't it look great. This is the early production Battlefield 3D one I previewed earlier with the straight turret bin. It isn't one of the very first Tigers catastrophically committed near Leningrad in 1942 with the pair of turret bins on each side of the turret though, as that is such a niche vehicle. 

These types saw a fair bit of action on the Eastern Front over the winter of 1942/43, before being repainted dunkelgelb in early 1943.

I've already described the model in an earlier post, but the paint job brings out the moulded on detail nicely. It was undercoated Humbrol Sea Grey and then given a wash of VJ Panzer Grey to darken it and give it some lowlights. It has also come out with a pleasing bluish tone. 

The turret number is 103, which I'm going to claim was Hauptmann Hans Bolter from the 502nd Tiger Bn (as featured in the 'Paw of the Tiger' scenario in AHGCs Squad Leader/Cross of Iron). He was in the same battalion as Otto Carius, but Carius' number was 217 which is so non-standard it doesn't exist in my decal sheets. I assume the 502nd numbered vehicles by company but then just counted the individual vehicles, not the platoons. Or something. 

The stunning moulded detail on the engine deck is even more obvious now it is painted. I did a pinwash around all the tools, tow cable etc to highlight them more. I also picked out the engine deck fire extinguisher in red for some contrast (Tiger 1 fire extinguisher colours are another delightful AFV modellers rabbit hole, they were done in a range of colours).

I applied a certain amount of mud on and around the tracks and running gear. I even had a go at picking out the rubber tyres on the road wheels. The biggest problem was the left hand hull balkan cross, as there is a tow rope moulded onto the hull. I vaguely thought about trying to cut the decals in half, but in the end I stuck the cross over the tow rope, then painted the cable on top of it and it gives the illusion the cross is behind the cable.

The turret numbers came out a bit shuny (Doms Decals) so I covered them with matt varnish and discovered that VJ varnish lifts Doms Decals off... a certain amount of cursing ensued but I got it all to stick down eventually.

The whole thing was finished off with a light drybrush of VJ Iraqi Pale Sand. Now really it should be in snow camo but I couldn't bring myself to do that and I don't have any other snow camo vehicles either so it would just look out of place. The grey will look pretty good against a snow background anyway. 

The '45 with Dominion of... Part 3

 Well, we have finally made it to the big one, Culloden in April 1746, but first there is the small matter of Littleferry, which was fought the day before.

Prince Charlie was concentrating his army at Inverness and had sent the Earl of Cromartie north to look for supplies. This force was marching back south towards Littleferry when it was ambushed by loyal Scots forces (mainly Sutherlands under Ensign Mackay) and attacked in the rear. This was a tiny engagement, a few hundred men on each side, so in 2mm is actually over-represented, figure wise. 

Battlefield from the south. Descriptions of it are a bit vague but I've put the river on to represent the shore of Loch Fleet which is in the Jacobite rear with Littleferry as the town with their baggage. There should be some hills on the right, from whence the Sutherlanders came.

The Jacobites have six units of (surprised) Claymores and are nearest the camera facing north. The Sutherlands have two Elite Muskets (Independant Companies) and three normal muskets (local militia). The two Elites are on the British right. I didn't mark them, but they have different flags to the line units.

Claymores against muskets doesn't bode well in the absence of any Jacobite advantages.

The British are attacking and engage with one of their Elites on the left, which is indecisive. The Jacobites attack the line unit on the right are are shot down by musket fire. This was a better matchup, but the muskets are still hitting on 4+.

Both flanks engage again, and this time the Hanoverian Elites mow down some Highlanders.

More carnage among the Highlanders, no government losses so far. The routers are piling up in the Loch (where irl many of them drowned trying to escape).

The Highlanders finally manage to rout one of the muskets, but another steps up to take its place. On the left more Highlanders are mown down. Not looking good now, and the Scots fail to rally.

Last round and a complete wipeout of the Scots, which was the historical result. Charles had to make do without both these troops and their supplies at Culloden the following day. The Earl of Cromartie was captured after the battle and put on trial for High Treason (and amazingly escaped execution).

Well, lets give that another go and see if it is as onesided as it seems.

Well, in a shock development the Highlanders manage to rout one of the Elites in turn 1! But lose a unit themselves. Reserves move up.

The Sutherlands are obviously not feeling it today. Another one heads for the rear, but so does another Jacobite. The Sutherlands still have one Elite left in the centre so that is where they focus their energy (as it hits a Claymore on 3+ and gets to fire first).

And suddenly things aren't looking too good for the Jacobites. Two more of them head for the rear, no losses to the Sutherlands.

The Scots do manage to rally one unit though, who moves up to fill the gap. It doesn't help as the Elites blow a big hole in the Jacobite centre.

And then we are back where we were in the previous game, with lots of Highlanders fleeing across the Loch or surrendering. I think that fairly amply demonstrates that melee infantry in this period don't really stand a chance against muskets, unless they have some sort of terrain or morale advantage, which is as it should be.

Righto, onto Culloden, which was fought the day after Littleferry and followed a catastrophic attempt by the Jacobites to make a night attack on the Duke of Cumberlands position. The attack fell into confusion in the darkness and Charles' army fell back before making contact and left the army exhausted and demoralised the following day.

The field of Culloden (near Inverness), view from the east. The Jacobites are drawn up in the west between two enclosures (which I've marked with walled farms) and with a river in their right rear. The front line is Claymores, the one on the left is Elite the rest normal to reflect demoralisation. Normally I'd swap 'Elite' for 'Disciplined' but as the Jacobite attack in this battle was an act of desperation I've left them as Elite. Their second line are two musket units, one of which is Elite (The Royal Ecossaise) - the Elites have white and yellow flags. Prince Charles is in the rear with the baggage.

Cumberland is nearest the camera with an all arms force, artillery and two Elite muskets in the front line and Cavalry (Dragoons) and a line musket in reserve. The Jacobites are attacking in this scenario.

The action opens on the left, as it did historically. The first round of fire is ineffective but the Jacobites attack here too and rout the guns. It is a much more favourable matchup here than charging those elite muskets.

The next round is pretty brutal, two of the Claymores are routed and the Jacobite muskets move up to fill the gaps (The Royal Scots are on the left).

The Royals and their opponents suffer mutual annihilation! The Dragoons fill the gap, as they did historically.

But the Jacobites have got the bit between their teeth now and win both the fights on each flank. Cumberland fails to rally and Charles Stuart is the winner. History is reversed! Bonnie Prince Charlie has beaten the Hanoverians. 

Well that was exciting, time to try again.

This time Cumberland routs the Jacbobite right in  the first round, the Royals fill the gap.

A very bloody turn sees Cumberland rout both the left and right Jacobite flanks, the Royal Scots take out one of the Elite musketeers as well though. The British artillery are doing a very fine job!

The Scots rally their line muskets and this time it is Cumberland who loses a unit. The artillery hang on but the other Elite in the centre is routed and the Dragoons go in.

The battle is suddenly going 'oblique' - each side routs the others right flank. No-one has any reserves any more now.

Mutual flank attacks rout the centre of both sides. 

The last Jacobite musket needs a 4+ to hit the British artillery, and gets to fire first as it is a flank attack. They duly roll a 5 and it is game over for Cumberland. If they had missed, the artillery would have returned the favour with their own flank attack.

Another Jacobite win but that was actually very close. The Culloden scenario is very interesting in terms of the troop and types and matchups and seems very well balanced. One change to try would be to make the Elite Claymore into a Disciplined Claymore instead.

I really enjoyed that series of games, it really brought the Jacobite Rebellion to life and each of the scenarios captured the essence of each engagement with its own unique flavour. I know this sort of thing is too lightweight for a lot of peoples tastes, but for me it very much met the AHGC mission of 'Bringing history to life'. I'm looking forward to trying out more games in the series, particularly those I can link into a mini campaign, or at least historically sequential in the real campaign setting. I must get some more 2mm bits and pieces as well, now that the Irregular 2mm range is available again. It makes dong these sorts of things so easy, without having to paint loads of larger scale soldiers who are lucky to get used more than once.