On the night I was joined by Duncan and Luke was joined by new club member Luke. This wasn't going to get confusing! The first mission was for me and Duncan to rescue some contractors, clearly Israeli intelligence from a horde of angry Palestinians.
After a slow start as we tried to work everything out it ran really quickly. Duncan and I split our fire teams up and got mowed done in detail! Small units under a lot of fire-power are doomed. We quickly took too many casualties to complete our mission.
The second game saw us joined by Luke (the new one, not the old one!) and take 3 fire teams on a sweep and clear mission. Some atrocious luck and the inability to hit a horde of PLO standing in the open meant we again found ourselves on the back foot. however the fog of war saw fit to send us a sniper team and this seemed to be our saviour as the quality of this team was superb and managed to balance out the range advantage we had lost by the dust storm blowing across the table. Despite heavy casualties again the Israelis managed to achieve victory, but at a great cost.
These are really easy to pick up and play and have some clever ideas in, but I still have a concern about the firing mechanisms. Each firing figure gets a dice with bonuses for range and weapons, well the target unit gets a dice a figure then bonuses for concealment and cover. The actual type of dice rolled depends on the quality of the men. As such although insurgents generally have low dice, as bigger mobs they get more of them and it seems to make their fire more effective and them harder to put down. Now we may have been doing something wrong, or our dice were not that good, but it felt wrong. Not enough to stop me giving the rules another play, but enough I have some concerns.
I'm not sure if I am becoming jaded, but increasingly nothing is really taking my breath away, both in terms of trade and games. Don't get me wrong, all the games were good, but nothing sensational. Even the big Napoleonic in 25mm was a bit normal! I think the problem is the quality of game, both terrain and figures, has risen so high that what 5 years ago was amazing is common now and it is difficult to see how anyone can raise the bar the next step. The one game that did stand out for me was a 6mm Sci-Fi primarily using old GW epic, but extras from all over the place. A force of Orks were landing in typically ramshackle landing crafts against what must have been about 20 foot of coastline and city defended by the usual good guys, being reinforced by landers made from Terminator Salvation drones. It was just a bit different and had lots to draw your attention.
Shopping wise I was equally uninspired. Lots of nice products, but nothing stood out. No bizarre period I had not seen before and all the new release of the same high quality production and presentation. I picked up some 1/300th crew from Rod Langton to go with my AWI ships from the War Artisan once I get round to making them. Luke got a new board game and the Ambush alley rules we have looked at a few times at recent shows. I am yet to be convinced, but Luke liked the look of them so I will report back once we have given them a go.
Suitably reinvigorated we returned to the game with the Teutons making going progress against Lithuanian, but taking casualties in the process. Meanwhile the Poles were attacking the Teuton infantry but making remarkably hard work of it, before 1 unit of foot sergeants counter attacked and dispersed the battered remains of two units of knights, before getting ridden down themselves. In the end this was too much for the Polish alliance. Despite one of the Teuton commands breaking the Lithuanian army was collapsing with Duke Vytautas dead and one of the Polish command in disarray the Germanic forces were triumphant again. It is really making me wonder how the Poles actually one this one!
Colours is still a good show, and I really like the airy feel the glass walls of the grandstand give. Was also nice, as ever, to catch up with some old friends. Hello Robin!!
I took command of the centre division reeling from the explosion. I attempted to move into the crater to secure my lines but Yankee artillery and the confusion from the explosion had disordered my troops and it was not as organised as I would like. I finally had to attach my Divisional General to one brigade to lead it forward personally, where both he, and the exceptional brigade command where hit and killed by musketry. Not an auspicious start!
On my left (commanded by Steve K) and my right (commanded by Scott) far larger forces of Yankees poured forward with worrying speed and our poor musketry and lack of artillery was telling as they began to drive into our trenches. Meanwhile I was just about holding against the attack to the front of me, but as the Union had increasing success on either flank I was beginning to look exposed.
By the end of the game the Union had made it as far as our second line on both flanks despite the arrival of two reserve divisions and numbers were beginning to tell even more now we had lost out defences. I think in honesty the battle of the crater was a Northern victory despite the best efforts of the Rebs.
Despite how won sided this sounds it was actually much closer. The Union had to push hard to break through and did take losses, but ultimately we could not cause enough casualties with out fire power (lousy dice rolls all round) to thin them down enough and once they started throwing themselves at our trenches numbers began to tell. It was an excellent and enjoyable scenario and really fun to play a big multi player game again as we haven't done one of these for a while.
I deployed with a Bersaglieri company on either flank, keeping the armour and recon forces in reserve, except for the motorcycle mounted troops which I deployed to speed towards the furthest objective and dig in before the British flank march arrived.
AS Luke took some nice photos I will let these speak for most of the game, but highlights included the devastation my pair of 88's managed on the Grants before they were knocked out, removing my key threat. The inefficiency of the Italian air force and the failure for the Desert air force to turn up. Unfortunately when it did it smashed my self-propelled guns quite efficiently. The fight in the town on my right was also fun as initially the Stuarts crashed into buildings to try and drive out my infantry and then once my armour arrived it was a case of trying to find fire lanes as abandoned and destroyed tanks littered the battlefield.
The British flank attack finally arrived, but under some quick redeployment and viscous fire I made to do some serious damage before they completely drove off the motorcycle infantry, and although they passed a company break check the British admitted this attack had been blunted, as they only had 6 operation armoured vehicles left against considerably more Italian.
