Eastern Front using Blitzkrieg Commander

Had a game at Dan's house recently.   Dan and Jim commanded the Germans while I commanded the Russians.  The German forces were two infantry battalions supported by a company of Tiger tanks.   The Russians had an infantry regiment with three understrength infantry battalions and a Tank brigade with two battalions of T34/76 tanks, a battalion of T70 tanks and an understrength battalion of tank riders.   Forces were selected by randomly drawing from previously made battle groups.

The Germans were defending with a battalion of 5 infantry, 5 machine gun teams, and supporting mortars on their left and the other battalion with 8 infantry, three machine gun teams, mortars, two tigers and an STGIII on their right.

The Russians infantry arrived on the first turn.   The battalion in the center only getting one move, the one on the right getting two, and the one on the left getting five activations.  The Russian tank brigade arrived on the second turn.  One T34 battalion followed the infantry on the far left, while the other T34 battalion and the T70's advanced up the middle.
On the Russian right the two infantry battalions were able to get the upper hand against the opposing German battalion taking out several machine gun teams and some of the infantry.  Both sides on this flank rolled a blunder during the game.  One of the Russian infantry battalions fell back while the German commander did the same.

In the center the Russian tanks (commanded by Nicolai Hardwoodov) also had a blunder that was to their advantage as they had to advance.  The T70 battalion received the worst of a duel with one of the Tigers and the STG, loosing most of their vehicles.   We removed all destroyed stands during the game instead of marking the destroyed tanks.   If we had marked them there would have been quite a few burning hulks in the middle of the battlefield.

On the Russian left the infantry and the T34 battalion were able to eliminate the Tiger along with some ot the German infantry and advance on the village. At this point Jim had to leave for an appointment and Dan conceded the game.

Dan provided most of the terrain for the game. I provided the villages and the miniatures. The buildings are from the Paperterrain North Russian village set.

German defenders

End of second turn. Russian tanks advancing in the center.

Russian right flank after several turns. Germans have lost half their forces.

Other half of the battlefield. Russians have gained control of the hill on the left.

Pegasus Bridge

Played a PanzerKorps game of the June 7th battle for Pegasus Bridge. The game was umpired by the rules author, Manny Granillo. The British were deployed in the central part of the table. I deployed two battalions on the West side of the canals, three battalions in towns on the East side, one battalion in reserve near the North edge, and the artillery battalion near the center. An FO was placed with the battalion in the Southern town with the church. The Germans attacked with three different Kampfgruppes. One from the West, one from the South, and one from the North. Each KG had four combat battalions and an artillery battalion. KG1 attacking from the West ran into heavy defensive fire and was thrown back. One battalion fled the battlefield.
KG2 arrived a couple of turns later on the Easternmost road on the South edge. After advancing for a few turns, they came under bombardment from the artillery battalion and naval gunfire. The naval gunfire was the result of a random event die roll. Fortunately for the British the forward observer, who was the only one who could direct the fire had a clear view of KG2. All the artillery was on target. Due to each targeted battalion rolling a 1 while being fired upon, resulting, in maximum damage, and then rolling a 2 for morale, all three battalions broke.
Both KG1 and KG2 eventually recovered and advanced again. KG1 was reinforced by an additional battalion. KG3 finally arrived on the Northern edge and the lead battalion of the British forces from the beach also arrived. KG1 again came under heavy fire, with the British re-enforcements attacking them from their rear, and were thrown back a second time. KG3 made slow progress, pounding the Northern village. This finally resulted in the British battalion occupying the town surrendering. Fortunately, the battalion that we had kept in reserve happened to be deployed in the patch of woods next to the town and was able to re-occupy it while the Germans were rounding up the prisoners.
The game ended with a British victory as the Germans were not able to secure control of the bridges before the British relief columns would arrive. Both sub-ordinate commanders on the British side had extremely good luck with the die rolls. Our forces only took minimal damage from the German attacks and were able to regain full effectiveness each turn. The only time luck deserted us was the surrender of the one battalion on the North. This occurred after coming under fire from artillery and three German battalions.
In some ways the game reminded me of the battle of Antietam. Due to random arrival rolls the German KGs attacked one at a time instead of together. This allowed us to direct our artillery on each in turn and drive them back before the next KG was able to attack. Only KG3 was able to avoid receiving enough damage to be driven back
Manny provided the gliders, figures, and much of the scenery. I provided most of the villages, roads, woods and hills. James Poli brought the canals.

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/

Roman City and Village

I put together a Roman City and a rural village with fields using the Roman Seas buildings. These are only available in 1/300 scale. http://www.romanseas.com/

The towers are from the large set and the walls are from the short set.   Designed for figures on 40mm bases.  12 inch square base for city.

Breitenfeld 30 Years War

initial deployment. Swedes and Saxons on the left. Imperialists on the right

Initial deployment. Imperialists on left. Swedes and Saxons on right.

Swedish right wing cavalry and infantry advance on Imperialist left as the Imperialist cavalry fall back behind the Tercios.

Imperialist right wing advances on Saxons.

View from behind imperialist center.

The Imperialists were able to drive off the Saxons, but due to time and turn limits could not engage the Swedes. The game was declared an Imperialists tactical victory. Action in the center consisted mainly of artillery bombardment as the Tercios slowly advanced.

The game was fought on a five by twelve foot area and after reviewing the game, I realized that I should have started the armies closer together due to artillery ranges and movement rates. The game was umpired by Manny Granillo and used his "Repent or Die" rules. Although there is a scenario for Breitenfeld in the book I used the order of battle and ratings from GMT games "Lion of the North" Ken Mackie commanded the Imperialists and I commanded the Swedes and Saxons.

The forested hills near the Imperialist center used the trees from Everest Models. I bought packs of the 32mm and 38mm trees. I would recommend getting slightly taller trees though as several millimeters of height are lost when the trees are placed in the foam core.

We built this city

Over the past couple of months I have been assembling several sets of the micro scale Paperterrain buildings.The first picture is the Mediterranean village set with the Monastery set in the background.  The second one has parts of the European Town and Village sets.  I still have quite a few European buildings to assemble.  The third one is the North Russian village set and the final one is the North African set.    These are on modular sections and can be re-arranged in several different ways or each section can be used on its own.  The buildings can also be removed to expose the ruined interior.

Each set takes several hours to cut and assemble.   After determining how I wanted the building arranged, I glued some paper roads in place on some artist matt board (a thick paper material than can be purchased in different colors for a few dollars) for the Mediterranean and European sets.  Next, I glued the ruins and walls in place, glued Woodland Scenics ground foam for the grass and poked holes for the trees.  A brown marker was used to make the roads for the Russian and North African villages.

Paperterrain make quite a few different sets in scales from 6mm to 28mm.   The website is http://www.paperterrain.com/

The trees are from Everest Models, a dealer on EBAY.  They are available in various sizes and can be purchased in small or large lots for an inexpensive amount.   I'll have some photos in the next post of them being used to create a forested area for a re-fight of the 30 Years Wars battle of Breitenfeld.

South Bay Game Club

Lately I have been going to the monthly meetings of the South Bay Game Club. http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/southbaygameclub/  This is a very active group with several games being played at each meeting.  The following are some pictures from the February meeting where seven different games were being played.

These include two different naval games, FOGR, Camerone, and Valle Verde from the American Civil War