Our big win in the previous round put us on 39 VPs, and top of the table (1st place) at the halfway mark, our next opponents were Brett Preston-Thomas & Lawrence Antill, who were on 36 VPs and currently in 2nd place. Caesennius decided to venture north and wander into the lands of the Germans (not to mention about 14 centuries into the future as well) – what was this obsession he had with invading Germany?! Anyway in true style he found a suitable area to set up camp, and then proceeded to relax, as was his want, and not be too hasty. However he rather unusually camped amongst some woods and vineyards, in front of a fairly open plain, so left his army with less than ideal terrain to deploy in. Continue reading “BC’08 Round 3: Medieval Germans with Swiss Allies 1478AD”
Category: Rulesets
BC’08 Round 2: Kushite Egyptians 700BC
Our Draw in the first round put us slap in the middle of the pack, 14 VPs ranking us 2nd Equal with 2 other teams (so effectively just in the top half of the table), and resulting in Philip Abela & Andrew Hunter (who were similarly ranked 2nd equal) being our afternoon opponents. (If I recall correctly) Caesennius found himself defending Rome’s Eastern environs’ from encroaching invaders this battle! And the dastardly fiends had decided to attack along a River, no less! However this soon suited Caesennius, who found the edge of a suitable plain to encamp on, forcing the Egyptians to deploy in an area thick with Marshes and an Orchard, with the River running through their deployment area, and Vineyard on their flank next to the River. Continue reading “BC’08 Round 2: Kushite Egyptians 700BC”
BC’08 Round 1: Early German Cimbri & Tigurini Gallic Allies 102BC
On the first morning we drew Ivan Truong & Andrew Fergus for our initial game. The morning actually got off to a slow start with some fluffing around, and all 4 games being played in the first round probably lost about 20-30 minutes of game time, plus took excessively long to do terrain placement and deploy. Once underway Caesennius, the Roman C-in-C, soon managed to invade Germany for whatever reasons, we presume in the South-East perhaps? Anyhow, Caesennius managed to encamp on the edge of a German plain forcing the Cimbri to pitch tents in an area of poor terrain that was mostly Marsh (3 features of such in the German deployment area), while the Roman’s deployed on the adjacent open plain – but perhaps the Germans preferred being amongst the wet boggy muck and the joke was on Caesennius?! Continue reading “BC’08 Round 1: Early German Cimbri & Tigurini Gallic Allies 102BC”
BattleCry 2008 Introduction
Well another successful BattleCry has gone by and congratulations to Karen & the AMERICA team for organising a great event, and providing the usual copious amounts of “loot” for people to take home! Also thanks to Benny (Andrew Bennetts) for organising and umpiring the New Zealand 25mm DBMM Doubles – it’s always a trade off and occasionally a thankless task. The DBMM competition was thoroughly enjoyable and went really well in my opinion. Several players were reasonably new to DBMM but picked up things pretty well from what I saw, and the overall standard of army presentation was very good to excellent, and made all the games visually appealing to the greater extent. Continue reading “BattleCry 2008 Introduction”
Colonial & 19th Century Wars & Battles
The following is a brief list of all the main wars and conflicts in the 19th Century after the end of the Napoleonic Wars…While the earlier ones were fought little differently to the Napoleonic Wars, from around 1850 or so onwards they steadily changed as modern technology intervened in the form of Rifled & Breech loading guns, improved artillery, machine-guns, railways, the telegraph, steam powered ships, armoured ships, early torpedoes, battleships with centralised rotating guns instead of broadsides, and so on… By the end of the century the new rifles, machine-guns, indirect quick-fire fire artillery, dreadnought battleships with rotating armoured gun turrets, early motor vehicles, and more were in use, or about to enter production, and would eventually be the mainstay of the armies involved in the First World War 14 years later…
Scottish Corridor II
Kieran and I had arranged to play a “Hit The Dirt” scenario with Errol Hooker (who was coming down from Whangarei for the day), so we selected ‘Scottish Corridor’, as we had played it previously and knew it was a suitable medium-sized scenario that had a little of everything (Tanks, Infantry, Indirect Fire, etc). I had also recently started work on some new terrain (3D fields and Bocage style hedges) so we had slightly better terrain for it than the previous occasion. I also got the ridge right this time with the reclining slope on the back of the ridge, and we endeavoured to get the table to even more closely match the map. Unfortunately Errol couldn’t make it at short notice, but Kieran and I continued on, and we had another Auckland Wargamer (Grant Brown) present as an observer interested in Crossfire.
Road Block on Highway 120 (sort of)
Kieran and I lined up yet another “Hit The Dirt” scenario, Highway 120 looked interesting, but my US & Italian forces were either still waiting to be based up or only part painted. So to get round the issue we transplanted the scenario to a later period – Summer 1944 in Italy after the fall of Rome… The Americans would be replaced by British Infantry with Churchills from a supporting Tank Brigade, and the Italians replaced with Germans. Otherwise the OOB was pretty close to what was in Hit the Dirt. Kieran would command the German Defenders, and I the British Attackers.
The game started with a general advance on a broad front – the leading British Infantry Company advanced with a 2 up 1 back formation with the Churchills supporting the centre & left of the advance. Initially no enemy were encountered and the advance moved swiftly covering half the distance to the stream.
Scottish Corridor I
Kieran and I decided to play yet another “Hit The Dirt” scenario, so we selected ‘Scottish Corridor’, as a suitable medium-sized scenario that matched our available forces on the day. Before going further please note that all hedge lines and such in the scenario are Bocage, however in the photos we have only used normal Hedges and Lichen to represent these, so bear that in mind when viewing. Note we also got the map slightly wrong in the North-East corner (top right), we misread the contour as a further elevation rather than the reclining slope on the back of the ridge it should be – however this was to have no impact on the game.
In the scenario a Company of the 2nd Argyle Highlanders is holding an exposed bridgehead during Operation Epsom, and is subjected to repeated but poorly managed counter attacks from the 10th SS Panzer Division who have just arrived in Normandy.
Reconnaissance before Pontecorvo
Kieran and I decided to play another “Hit The Dirt” scenario, and at the same time introduce another Auckland Wargaming Club member, Ben, to Crossfire. We selected ‘Reconnaissance Before Pontecorvo‘ (May 1944), as a suitable scenario that matched our available forces on the day and kept the size of the game to manageable with a new player.
In the scenario a Canadian Company is attacking, or rather doing a reconnaissance in force, and a German Infantry Company is defending.
The scenario called for a single MMG Section for the British, but as we again had none available for the game, they would instead receive a single M4A1 Sherman to provide direct fire support to the Rifle Platoons.
Green Hell (Revisited)
Kieran and I have had copies of “Hit The Dirt” for sometime (in fact I have had a copy since it was published) and had not made a serious attempt to play any of the scenarios. However we recently decided to work our way through the book and play the scenarios as best we could with our available forces. Deciding to start from the beginning we selected Green Hell, the very first Scenario in the book. In Green Hell a well supported German Company must overcome a larger (but poorer) Soviet Force in a large forest in Poland in 1941. Our troop availability (at the time) dictated a move to 1944 and North-West Europe or Italy (we chose the former) with British and German forces.
Exercise Resurgence 1993
Hypothetical 1993 NATO exercise with reinforced British Para Company clearing a village held by a reduced German Panzer Grenadier Company.
As one of our first games using Crossfire for a ‘Modern’ game we pitted my 1980’s Falklands War British Paras against Kieran’s newly painted up modern (1990+) Germans in a NATO training exercise. My Brits would be supported by light armour in the form of a pair of CVR(T)’s (i.e. a Scorpion & a Scimitar), and the Germans had integral LAW (Panzerfaust 3’s) and a supporting Milan ATGW team. Nearby some Mechanics in a Fuchs Transport Panzer are repairing a Leopard II MBT from the previous day’s exercise (as an excuse to get Kieran’s new vehicles on table as well)!
Valuable Assets
Somewhere near Kursk, during one of the Soviet counter-offensives, Summer 1943…
Historical Situation
This scenario is set in the Central-Northern Russian countryside at the time of the great Kursk battles, in 1943. A German attack has been cut in two by the brave Russian defenders of the motherland, and some German forces remain isolated from their main force. A German Heavy Panzer platoon is desperately trying to salvage some equipment and get back behind German lines to lick their wounds.