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.