Tank Drifting

Drifting cars has become a completion sport.   Drifting tanks in the snow and ice is part of training in Norway and the US has taken part in that training.   Some tank crews have also done it for fun and to demonstrate the abilities of their tanks.   The following link is to YouTube videos documenting these and also some failures.   The one with the Chinese driver is quite impressive.  drifting tanks

Second Raid

Attended the Second Raid gaming convention on Saturday October 6. There was a good variety of games there with a WWI battle, a naval battle, a French and Indian War game, a Flames of War Nattle of the Bulge game, and several board games. I ended up commanding the American forces in the Battle of the Bulge game.  As the game progressed my intention was to lure the Germans into a position close enough so that my infantry could attack theirs.  In order to accomplish this I had to fall back on both flanks.  However, the platoon on my right ended up being pinned and could not fall back, being caught by the advancing Germans.  As expected he moved one of the two platoons on the other flank towards the village leaving only one platoon to face mine.   I was fortunate that he was only able to roll one hit out of eleven dice for his defensive fire and saved the one hit.  On the other flank his platoon was pinned and only had five dice for defensive fire.  In all my counter attack eliminated about 18 stands of German infantry for the loss of a couple of my infantry stands.  This left the Germans with one platoon at full strength and a second platoon at reduced strength.   Of my original forces I had lost one platoon and had a second platoon badly hurt.  The other two original platoons were still in good shape and I had three more arriving platoons marching towards the village.

Manny Granillo's WWI game

Manny presenting scenario to participants.

2nd table for flames of war game

first table for flames of war game

initial starting positions for naval game

WWI game in progresss

German commander deploying troops

another view of WWI game in progress

American re-enforcements arriving.  105 battery at top left.

German platoon at center left has just destroyed an American platoon.

Two German platoons advance against a single American platoon on other flank.

One of the two German platoons prepares to assault village at bottom center. German platoon in center halted by indirect fire.  STG platoon in top center badly hurt by towed 3" anti-tank gun platoon

German attack has captured part of village and one objective on previous turn.  However, the Americans then launched a counter attack on both flanks.   German platoon at top has been eliminated and Americans are now formed on flank of German advance.

American attack on right flank was not quite as successful.  German platoon was almost eliminated, but Americans failed morale check and had to fall back.

  Same turn.  American re-enforcements have almost reached the town.  Germans conceded game at this point as Americans were in position to reclaim the village. 

Utah Beach Part Two

The second part of Utah beach was fought at Greg's house. The game had remained as it was at the end of turn 3 while Greg was traveling. Dan and I continued our assault on the German beach defenses. We concentrated our re-enforcements on the flanks and started rolling up the defenders.

 Additional re-enforcements were also arriving for the Germans. These were arriving in various locations on the table edge. The Germans sent most of the armored units around the eastern side of the battlefield. Four PzIV's took up a position guarding the eastern causeway, while Panzergrenadiers prepared to assault the eastern village. On the western side of the battle the fallschirmjaegers were having a difficult time making any progress against the 101st's defenses. On the southern edge the German panzer commander and the fallschirmjaeger weapons arrived. The infantry dug in and the panzers advanced. A bazooka team took out the commander's tank, but he was able to escape and take command of his second tank.

On the seventh turn our aircraft finally destroyed the last German 105 that had been bothering us all game long. We had been lucky on the first turn when our aircraft took out three of the four guns, but they were unable to do any further damage for the next five turns.

When the game ended I was ready to advance across the causeway with most of my armor. Dan had cleared the defenders on his side and took up a position to prevent the German PzIV's from interdicting my advance. The German defensive position at the other end of the causeway still suppressed and had been that way since the beginning of the game.

This game had been a very large one for Flames of War. The Americans had landed most of two infantry battalions and a tank battalion along with the battalion of paratroopers holding the villages. The Germans appeared to have about a company sized Kampfgruppe of panzers and panzergrenadiers and a company of fallschirmjaegers arriving as re-enforcements (maybe more) along with their initial defensive positions.

 I would estimate that the game would need about 10 turns at the minimum for the Americans to link up with the paratroops. We had some good luck initially with the aircraft and some bad luck with sinking tanks so the overall effect was about average for our side. The Germans also seemed to have average luck.

Although the beach defenses were stronger than they were historically, this was a fictional what-if scenario and overall the game was well balanced.

The Americans should land a combination of tanks and infantry along the whole beach on the first turn in order to avoid having too many units within the blast area of indirect fire. They should seek to take out the flanks of the German beach defenses so that they can gain a superiority of force and start rolling up the flanks of the defenses. The second turns landings may also need to be spread along the beach in order to avoid the German indirect fire. Depending on the situation from the third turn on the Americans may be able to concentrate their landings on the flanks.  Although Teddy Roosevelt Jr. provides a landing bonus bringing him in too early would expose him to German fire.

The Germans are somewhat limited as their beach defenders have few places to move to. Their re-enforcements arrive randomly and they will have to make the best of this. If there are enough experienced players then they should be able to get more turns in and take less time doing so than we did. Greg was an excellent umpire and had to do almost all the calculations for the die rolls as most of us had not played FOW before. The two sessions took about nine hours of game play to complete seven turns. At the end Greg determined that the Americans had a slight edge in the victory conditions.

Thanks to Greg for hosting and umpiring the game and thanks to all those who participated.

                                          western end of the beach

                                         eastern end of the beach

                                         German armored forces, southeast corner

                                         fallschirmjaeges and paratroops western edge

                                        beach defenses crumbling at end of game western edge

                                                      aircraft destroy last 105

                                                 Panzer commander's tank ambushed

                                          panzergrenadiers prepare to assault town

             Dan cleans out eastern beach defenses and takes up position to counter German panzers.

Utah Beach Flames of War

Finally participated in a game of Flames of War. This was a what if situation for Utah Beach, where the 12ss Panzer Division was committed early at Utah Beach. So far only three turns have been played and the game is set to resume in the later part of April. At this point the Americans have taken out several of the bunkers and other beach defenses and will be landing additional troops. The 101st Airborne has secured the two inland towns and only a platoon of PZIV's has shown up from the 12th SS. The Americans had one bit of good luck when their airstrike took out three of the four German 105 guns in the center of the table.
The game is being hosted by Greg and the groups website is
http://www.meetup.com/South-Bay-War-Games/