Friday, 30 June 2017

One Hour WW1

As it has been a while since the lats battle, I thought it would be a good idea to finish up our One Hour Wargames WW1 campaign. This consisted of five linked scenarios, the victor of the previous one playing 'Red' in the next one (or was it Blue, I can't recall now). Anyway, back in 1917 the Germans had just scraped a victory against the British, so it was time for them to attack in 1918, which I thought was very apt. 

The scenario was 'Two Objectives', based on Lobositz, which gave the British four units to hold two objectives, one located on the attackers flank. The Germans had to take both objectives before time ran out with six units.

John took the British and Jerry the Germans. We played this with my 20mm late WW1 stuff (mostly Emhar, Revell and HaT plastic).


The forward objective was this wooded hill which the British garrisoned with an infantry unit. The Germans rolled a good force mix for the scenario, four infantry, one heavy infantry and a tank. Here seen lined up in their deployment area.


The other three British units were another infantry, a heavy infantry (in the town) and an artillery unit, The marsh is impassable, which anchors the flank well.


Jerry decided to concentrate overwhelming force on the hill objective, attacking it with his heavy infantry and two normal infantry. As the woods provided cover, this was a slow and bloody business, but the defenders eventually succumbed.


Meanwhile, the rest of the German force got pounded by British artillery. After a while, they got tired of this and set off towards the enemy, mainly to neutralise the guns. The assault suffered heavy losses (losing one unit completely) but did destroy the British artillery. In the photo above, the survivors are joined by the units from the wood.


The Germans closed in on the village, pounding it with everything they had. Two more German units were lost in the assault and the tank was badly damaged.


The attackers were eventually victorious though, and the town fell.

This was another nail biting scenario, although the Germans rolled up a good force to take the objectives Jerrys gamble of a massive attack on the wood and hoping to still have time to take the town paid off. Although the rules are very simple, I really like the brutal decision making involved in the scenarios. With only a maximum of six units, the choices are very hard and have a huge impact on the outcome.

What a great game, I might be persuaded to put on a sixth game for the Hundred Days...

Thursday, 22 June 2017

Midair mayhem

Tim wanted to try out his new air and air/ground combat rules for his Funny Little Wars 54mm forces in the late WW1/Interwar period, so we gamely lined up to give them a go.


The general target area,  a gun battery defended by Flak and a barrage balloon and with an OP out front.


The OP scans the skies


The objective was this magnificent Brtains howitzer.


The British had also managed to put up this very realistic barrage balloon model.


World class pointing from Jerry as a German bomber and escort fly on. The movement rules are pretty simple, with speed and turning restrictions based on type. WW1 planes are quite manouverable though.


British fighters scramble to met the threat.


The Fokker manages to get on the tail of one of them.


And scoes a hit! air to air gunnery involves throwing darts at a target. No dice were harmed in generating this combat result.


Meanwhile the bomb run is successful (yes, rolled up bits of paper are bombs).


The British pursue the Germans bomber, but it is all too late.


Off for a second try with some more 'modern' aircraft, in this case a pair of French D.520s, These planes are very, very fast, but with quite small turn arcs.


The wicked Italians hove into a view, a pair of beautiful SM 79s. These bombers are also very, very fast, and with somewhat more firepower and sturdiness than their WW1 counterparts.


As section leader, I thought a head on pass was he way to go. En avant!


Oooer, bombs away before we can even engage.


Sadly, our high closing speed mean the head on attack was complete ineffective. 


Eventually we managed to turn around and catch up with the bombers to conduct a maximum deflection attack.


Both sides duly knocked pieces off each other, but the bombers got away.

This was really good fun, and Tims 'no dice' mechanisms worked very well. The very simple manouvering restrictions actually produced some very realistic results as people with better spatial awareness we able to out manouvre their foes. I'll never live down the shame of being outflown by a couple of SM 79s though...