Game Night with Luke, 27th June

I headed round to Luke's and played another game using the Wizards of the Coast ships, but this time with an amended set of rules for bigger fleets and free movement, and the addition of shields, while the basic combat mechanism remained unchanged. I again took the Imperium and took a fleet of 4 Star Destroyers with a horde or TIE variants against a hodge-podge of Rebel vessels.

I concentrated my forces on one flank and moved forward into a big left hook discouraging TIEs as I advanced. By concentrating the massed fire of the big Star Destroyers I took down one ship after another, knocking out parts of the Rebel fleet with my entire fleet.

I had a few nervous moments towards the end as my two damaged Destroyers were destroyed by waves of superior fighters overwhelming my TIE screen, including the spiteful distraction of Darth Vader towards the end, but I also destroyed Luke Skywalker and the Millennium Falcon in return. I really look forward to trying these out again.

Club Night June 22nd

Steve K and I decided to do a mid-war FoW desert. I took my favourite RECAFM force with the usual mix of light tanks and armoured cars, but with some heavier guns backing them up as I know Steve may use Grants so didn't want to get caught out. As it turned out Steve took an infantry company so I needn't have feared and found myself attacking in a Hasty Attack scenario.

I set the objectives in opposite corners and Steve placed his in the middle so his force was stretched across the entire table before removing one of the flank objectives. Despite this I still planned to attack on both flanks in a pincer, so I would either capture the flank objective or turn the flank and drive for the centre objective.

On one flank I attacked with most of my light armour, the other was my motorcycle mounted infantry and some armour support. The Sevormette supported this flank and the 90mm on Lancia trucks the other flank. While I rushed forward these heavy guns used their giant shells to shoot the Bofors out of their fox holes in the centre, as these high RoF guns cause my light armour real problems. I did lose one to return fire from a MG platoon, but the other was out of range so was safe to engage for the entire game.

My Motocilisti struggled at first as they failed to Avanti off their bikes, but the 25pounders right in front of them failed to do damage and they were able to assault and gradually roll up the heavy guns. On the other flank the armoured cars were stopped initially by defensive fire, but a second attempt was more successful and despite mounting casualties they drove off the infantry platoon and its attached mortars and started to turn for the centre.

However on the other flank the Motocilisti had pushed on and seized the objective and the British had nothing left to drive them back and so the Italians claimed a hard fought victory.

Club Night June 15th

It was time for my second league game, this time against Duncan. The last few parts had arrived so my Razorgor chariots now have beasts to pull them and crew. Now they just need painting, but they can be seen below.

Duncan had a new Lizardman army that was lots of skink skirmishers and couple of big blocks, with a Slaan mage using a Skink priest as his range extender. We rolled up the battle for the pass which again was advantageous for my opponent as it meant there was a smaller line for the big units to hold with the skirmishers able to act as a screen. Meanwhile I could barely fit all the chariots across the valley! And with Chameleon skinks behind me it could be interesting.

I started by advancing all the force but a unit of hounds forward. I began to get peppered with blowpipes and magic missiles. In response my shamans could manage little except for more miscasts! My BSB had his chariot destroyed and the hounds sent after the Chameleon Skinks had suffered casualties. But by now I had closed the range and was able to start charging and wiping out the skirmish screens. I made hard work of the cold one riders but managed to get them and was also able to deal with the threat of the Terahdons.

Once I had dealt with the screen I was able to start on the big blocks and begin to whittle them down by charging everything I could from any direction possible. In the end I didn't manage to do quite enough. The Kroxigor with their great weapons had made a difference with one block and a failed charge meant that I was unable to finish off the few surviving Temple guard and almost certainly their charge, the Slaan, as well. Unfortunately the few survivors of these big blocks meant that the VPs did not reflect what was an incredibly close run game.

Club Night 1st June

Luke and I decided to try another Brink of Battle, initially we were going to use the AWI again but then I remembered my winter WW2 Americans and Germans and we thought we would try these out. Something we wanted to try was more terrain and I took as much as I had and decided to use the vehicles as wrecks. We then discovered the club had a bunch of large pine trees with snow we did not even know about so was able to make a busy little 4 foot square. Luke took the Americans and I the Germans. Our first game was a retrieval mission with the valley between us.

Above: the table, below: Germans take shelter among the remains of the convoy

I launched forces down both flanks while the LMG covered the centre. The Americans had a fire team with a BAR on my right, a small fire team on the left and the Lieutenant and a marksman in the centre. Using cover I hurried forward to take shelter behind the ruined vehicles in the centre. On the right my LMG engaged the BAR team as they tried to pick off the Germans below them.

Above: The covering BAR team, below: the Americans occupy the abandoned foxholes.

In the initial firefight on the right the Americans had the edge and dropped a German. But the Germans struck back and dropped an American and cleared the objective which was a dummy. The engagement escalated and the rest of the Americans on that flank were dispatched. On the other flank neither side has an advantage, although one German had been hit and was down. With the other flank now open the Germans began to exploit and roll up the Americans to claim the win.

Our second game saw us play a recon mission down the table. On the right I made good progress as well as in the centre using the wrecks for cover, but on my left the Americans had jumped forward and caught the Germans in a relatively open position and inflicted a number of casualties.

Above: Germans move out from the ruins, below: Americans start around the Kettenkrad
Below: Germans move down using the wrecks as cover

Despite the early losses in the centre the Germans bought they automatic weaponry to bear on the Americans and inflicted some casualties. Despite this the heavier German casualties caused their force to break off the engagement.

This was a much better game of Brink of Battle. The greater amount of cover and using the Ambush action to jump from cover to cover reduced the casualties from long range fire and large gaps between cover become dangerous as does getting flanked and losing the protection. I really enjoy these games and look forward to trying one pre-firearms and see how the close combat works.