Cruel Seas Convoy Game

A chance to try our my house rules for Cruel Seas at club this week. A German convoy commanded by Mark, escorted by 3 little Kriegfischkutters, is jumped by two groups of British MTBs (Henry and myself). Help is at hand for the convoy, a Type 24 torpedo boat is steaming up and, as they are close to shore, there is a possibility for air support turning up.

Three Vosper Mark IIs waiting with engines off....

 ......for the prey to arrive!

Two Mark IIs launch their forward tubes whilst the third breaks off.

The convoy move forward into the torpedoes path and a Kriegfischkutter peels off to engage Henry's Vosper Mark Is which are trying to flank them.

 Now in front of the convoy the third Mark II launches his first fish.

From the British captain's point of view.

At the end of the turn Mark (the German player) rolled for availability of air support and got a 1, success, an aircraft would enter the table in the next turn. Rolling again for what aircraft was available and he got a JU87 Stuka, which he promptly used to dive bomb the Vosper Mark IIs. All three boats were within 20cm of the Stuka so threw up a barrage of flak.

A lucky hit with a twin 20mm and I rolled three 6's for damage, BOOM! the plane nose dived into the sea just in front of the Vosper.

Enter the cavalry, the Type 24 Torpedo Boat to the rescue, but it's first salvo missed!

My first torpedo finds it's target....

....BOOM! The damage wasn't enough to sink the merchant, but I scored 3 critical hits using our new rules. I got a double engine hit (taking it to 1/3 speed), additional structural damage and then a Crippled result. This meant another engine hit (so the ship couldn't move), a rudder hit (random direction if  she could have moved) and taking on water (extra 3d6 damage every turn). This last was enough to sent the ship to the bottom, but rolling a 6 meant that the wreckage would remain in place for 3 turns.

Coming round the other side of the island, one of the Mark I's looks like it's torpedoes are on target.

A bit of frantic manoeuvring by the German ships lets the merchant avoid the torps, but one catches the tanker.....it's a dud!

But avoiding Henry's torpedoes and missing ramming the sinking ship put the merchant in the path of one of my torpedoes, and it was a BOOM!

Looking good for the British, we had lost two MTBs (one of Henry's Mark I's went down to a crossfire from the three Kriegfishkutters) but sunk the two merchants and I had a boat with two torpedoes left lining up on it. But at this point the Type 24 sank that MTBs with a direct hit from a 4" gun.

There were still a lot of fish in the water, including two that Henry had chucked in the direction of the |Type 24 to try and put it off. Another torpedo hit the tanker, but failed to go off and another of Henry's boats went down. We decided to call it a day and head for home, both my surviving boats got off the table but Henry's last boat was riddled by the Type 24 and finished off by a Kriegfischkutter (with a 35mm and a twin or quad 20mm these little boats have quite a punch!).

The final insult and luckiest move of the game, was when Mark somehow managed to turn the Type 24 in between the two torpedoes coming at it! We had to check twice with laser pointers to be sure, but somehow he'd managed it.

We called it a draw, two merchants for 4 Vospers wasn't a good exchange. We had all had a lot of fun and laughs and agreed that the new torpedo rules worked mush better (when they hit). Henry had really bad luck with his fish, all three that had lined up with a target had either missed or was a dud!

Other games on that night;

A 40K game with the Space marines fielding an impressive bit of kit.

And a 4-player Chain of Command game set in Burma.

BKC in Italy

Played a BKC game at the last club night, set in Italy in early 1944. The Canadians had pushed a unit of panzer grenadiers out of a hilltop village, now the Germans were coming back with their mates!

Two companies of Canadians, with a company of Shermans and a supporting battery of 25 pounders, against Mark with two and a half (the surviving garrison) companies of veteran panzer grenadiers, a company of Panzer IVs, supported by a battery of Wespes.

I deployed one company forward, with the FOO and one company in and around the village. The Shermans I held back until I saw which way the German armour was going. To begin with my forward company succeeded in delaying the German advance, or at least the off-table artillery did. But once they were outflanked by infantry moving down one side and the armour moving down the other I was forced to pull the back. Unfortunately the Germans superior firepower and ability to concentrate on the units at the end of my line, made short work of anything they encountered, so I pulled the advance company back. The rather heroic FOO stayed put until the last moment, calling down bombardments just in front of his position, to allow most of the infantry to reach cover, then scooting back just in time.

I moved the Shermans up to face up against the Panzers with initial success, taking out two Panzer VIs for the loss of just one Sherman. Then the dice gods decided I'd obviously had enough good luck recently and I needed a bit of a kicking! I lost a second Sherman to equal the situation, then Mark brewed up my other three tanks in rapid succession! With nothing left to stop the tanks, Mark generously suggested I bring on some reinforcements of a 6 pounder atg and a couple more Shermans. The gun got one shot off before it was destroyed and the Shermans seemed to have broken down as the refused to move for three turns. Once the did get into combat they also brewed up quickly.

On the other flank the panzer grenadiers continued to advance, pinning my outposts with frontal attacks whilst enveloping around the sides. They lost a few troops in the frontal assaults, but were soon in a position to attack the village. By this time I had exceeded my breakpoint and was forced to retire.

It was a fun game, but very one-sided. Veteran panzer grenadiers are very powerful and my rubbish dice throwing was matched by Mark rolling a horrific amount of 6's when shooting at my units in cover. I'm going to play around with the scenario and we will give it another outing sometime soon.

 The table viewed from the German side.

 The initial German advance getting slowed by artillery fire (red markers are suppressed)

 Out-flanking maneuveres.

 The village defenders.

 The Shermans wait for the order to advance.

 The German juggernaut rolls on!

Other games on that night were an early Western Desert game using Chain of Command.

A multi-player game of Congo.

And a couple of Warhammer 40K games.

1920s Pulp and WW2 Malaya at Vanquish Show 2018.

Tring Wargames Club attended the Vanquish show at Bourne End on Sunday with two games. Vanquish is a small event, held in the Bourne End Community Centre, with about 15 traders and half a dozen demonstration and participation games. It also offers basic, but good value refreshments (my breakfast bacon roll had 3 rashers of good quality bacon) and a bar serving some excellent Rebellion ales from the Marlow Brewery.

It was a fun day, both games went well, although the Mounties didn't always get their man in my pulp game.

I was particularly impressed with the mix of traders, there was an absolute minimum of duplication in the stock on offer (in recent years I have often wandered around some of the larger shows and felt that I've seen the same stand 4 or 5 times!). I was quite restrained compared some other club members, I picked up a couple of mdf inserts for Really Useful Boxes from Commission Figurines, a few nice resin scenery bits from The Square and a few paints.

Our two games were:

Winter War 1920. A pulp games set in a fiction border war between Canada and the USA using The Men Who Would Be Kings (I really like these versatile rules which I've used for Colonial games, the 1912 Balkans War and various pulp-style scenarios).

The Long and the Short and the Tall. A WW2 game set in Malaya based on the play and film from the 1960s. This used a set home brewed rules specifically designed for a kids participation game using old 54mm plastic figures by Airfix.

I also continued my tradition of running a game appropriate to the foreign visitors to the show. A couple of years ago I was running a 1912 Balkans War game at Warfare and had no sooner laid the game out when a Greek couple came rushing over, having seen the Greek flags from halfway across the hall. This time, almost the second I put the mounties on the table a Canadian couple wandered over!

Games Day April 2017

Our club Games Day in April 2017 was particularly well attended.
Four of us participated in a re-enactment of the ACW Battle of Cedar Mountain, which occurred on Aug 9th 1862, in northern Virginia.
We used 28mm figures and terrain from a mix of sources, and the Regimental Fire & Fury rules.

A second game featured a reconstruction of the battle of Arras, May 21st 1940, the famous Allied counter-attack during the Battle of France. Four more of us took part, using 10mm figures and the Blitzkrieg Commander 2 rules.

In addition, we had an all-day Warhammer 40K game going on, now becoming a regular feature at the club Open Day. We have the second generation of Tring Club members here, Jon came along with his Dad until his late teens, when he discovered women and beer. Now he's married and settled down, he's become a regular member again.

As it turned out, it was a mixed day for reversing the verdicts of history.
At Arras, the British advance originally went well, pushing the Germans back as they had done historically.

However, the French forces simply refused to move beyond their own start line, and eventually the attack collapsed for lack of reinforcements, as 25th Panzer rolled over the French flank and threatened to cut off the Allied line of communications. Pretty well as actually happened on the day.

Meanwhile, on Cedar Mountain, Early’s Division was held at bay by stubborn resistance from Federal cavalry under orders to slow Jackson’s advance.

A strong thrust on the Federal right met a Confederate riposte from Garnett’s Divn, but the Northerners eventually prevailed, aided by some of the most consistent dice throwing seen at the club in a long time.

Jackson’s superiority in numbers counted for nought as the Rebels piled up at “The Gate” and were unable to deploy. Eventually a resounding Federal victory was declared at 8pm battle time, some two hours earlier than the historical battle ended.

Arnhem The battle in the town September 19th

This 20mm Rapid Fire game represents the attempt by the British Airborne to break through to the Arnhem bridge along the Utrecthseweg. Historically this ended disastrously for the British and was the final attempt to break through to the bridge.

The full table layout 

Under cover of darkness the South Staffords advanced up the main street.

 The South Staffords come under heavy fire and suffered heavy casualties. They fought their way into the Arnhem museum.

 The 11th Para move up the street in support.