Battle Reports
I usually find battle reports fun to read, but writing them sometimes tends to get boring as they are generally rather similar in style. Thus, every now and then I tend to do something different. A bit like back in the days when we played the Empires in Arms boardgame a lot and I usually took the part of chronicler. After a few games I got bored of just noting down the events and created a French (I was playing France) paper. So all the events were seen through very French eyes, and only the items that were of French interest got good coverage. This in turn encouraged the Austrian player to do a similar thing etc.
By chance more or less I found a DBMM League report I wrote a couple of years ago. The log on the Rankings page says something like:
Scots Isles and Highlands 21 4 Konstantinian Byzantine
Scots Isles and Highlands 11 14 Early Bulgar
Scots Isles and Highlands 3 22 Fatimid Egyptian
Scots Isles and Highlands 22 3 Norse Viking and Leidang
I could have noted down commands, deployment, main events etc, just like I would do normally. Instead I did a little piece on the imaginary hero, the unbelievable, Bogus MacDeath (the commander of the Highlander Allied Contingent).
Finding it now it brought back memories from those games that I am not sure a regular report would have done… But then again it might be a total bore to read for someone else. So read at your own peril
A famous charge
I took my Polish cavalry to the SiF 2013 competition in Stockholm (actually Sollentuna) last weekend. Basically it was my first “real” FoW competition ever. (Have played a few test games before, but never with a completely painted army, so they don’t count.)
It was also my second ever v3 game (I had a test game against a friend two weeks before the comp to get to know the rules and to try army composition as well)
Game 1 – vs Russian Infantry
First game was against Soviet infantry. A fun game against the endless hordes where none of us managed to win. In the end a 2-3 loss. At least my cavalry got to run done a lone infantry team before being blasted to bits. (4 out 5 failed saves on 3+ on the incoming fire after the charge)
And the armoured train got blown to bits (It always does, but it is such a cool thing so I find it hard to be without).
We also had an very cool shootout between tankettes, armoured cars, and Russian tractors… The FT-17 was also involved and got a few kills.
Polish Winter War
The second game was defending against German pioneers in the winter. I argued I shouldn’t be allowed to play on that table, as Poland wasn’t in the war come winter. However, stranger things were to come.
Anyway, the Germans came at us through the snow, infantry dismounted, and tanks bogging down every now and then. I held the mounted cavalry in ambush, and then unleashed them early. They made a fast circling move, hitting one of the infantry platoons near a small woods. The infantry took casualties and retreated into the woods. The cavalry charged again and rode them down. The German commander responded by encircling the woods with tanks, in order to protect his artillery from being charged by the cavalry, and the cavalry dismounted and dug in in the woods. This tied up the enemy so much that the main thrust lost power enough for me to defeat it, especially when the train arrived soon after.
The third game was another defensive battle – this time in North Africa!!!
Italian armour, tankettes, and motorcycles en masse. The stalwart Poles fought bravely, trying to stem off the horde of attackers. In the end the Italians failed to capture any objectives, and also failed to knock out the train that kept gunning away at any Italians coming too close on the Polish right flank.
There was a big naval gun shooting at the train for most of the game. However, it had extremely little impact… On the other hand, the heavy artillery car bombarded it over and over again, with very little effect as well. The tankettes were just out of range, and couldn’t move in for the kill until very late either, as their commander was hiding under his tank, refusing to get back in… I think my main heroes in this battle was the AT guns and the HMG team. They did their best to fight off everything the Italians threw at them.
Ok so one losing draw and to wins in day one. That’s good! Little did I know what day 2 had in store for me. There had been signs. I just hadn’t seen them. The cavalry’s failure to save in game 1, the train’s inability to destroy the Russian AT guns… The Tankette Commander’s inability to get back into the tank against the Italians. I was thinking those were just unlucky dice rolls, things that even out in the end. But no, they were the tip of the Iceberg – the lead up to the Grande Finale…
Ok, so come on day two!
My fourth game was against German Panzers. I was surrounded and defending. I had the railway track going across one flank, and placed some defenders there as well, but the majority of the forces were on the other side. I was hoping the train would knock out whatever was going to show up there, and then let all the other forces redeploy to face whatever was assaulting my other flank. With some luck the train would survive and be able to barrage the area around the other objective as well… Well that was the plan anyway.
The train came up against a bunch of Pz IIs, some heavy Panzerspäh, and two 88’s. On the other flank, PZ Is, Pz IVs and some Panzerspäh made their way towards their objective. I needed effect quickly to whether the storm. Also, I failed a bit in my deployment so my AT-guns didn’t have optimal fields of fire.
OK the train came on, missed, survived, missed again and was blown up by the Pz IIs…
I blasted everything I had, including the tankettes and the FT-17 at the German Tanks and 88’s. I bailed one tank, and destroyed one… In two complete rounds of fire from a full train…
The somewhat poor deployment, and the miserable performance of the train meant I couldn’t focus on defending one objective, and in the end I failed at even breaking a single enemy platoon…
The army didn’t have enough AT capability so this was always going to be an uphill struggle, but deploying badly, and then dice rolling even worse made it a total misery.
Last battle of the tournament, attacking dug in German infantry in the desert.
So, back in the desert again. This time the approach was blocked by three impassable cliffs. To make matters worse the German pioneers threw out barbed wire as well… Three objectives; two clustered close together along the railway line, and one far from them, behind the barbed wire. My plan was to feint towards the lightly defended objective on my left, and then swing in everything against the heavily defended duo, in order to prevent my opponent withdrawing it before I captured it. Risky plan perhaps, but at least I would have a target rich environment. Additionally there was AT-guns ambushing somewhere.
I decided to try the “Bypassed” rule to keep my opponent guessing, and to be able to come on and attack his massed AT guns and mortars from behind. So I sent my dismounted cav on a journey…
My train rolled on, the Tankettes and the FT 17, rolled off and more or less onto objective one. We opened fire and after that the FT-17 and his two TKS comrades decided to try and assault the guys holding it… The assault went well, and the German Schützen, Pioneers, and AT guns holding were soon running away…
So troops on the objective on turn one. Decent start, but of course the action as just about starting. The Germans unpinned and started to dig in again. They opened a return fire, and the Luftwaffe arrived… I lost some troops, the front artillery car, and the FT-17. Both of the TKSs were ‘Bailed’, so the platoon needed to make a Platoon Morale check. Of course, with the commander dead they wouldn’t be able to move, but they were where they were supposed to be, and if they could use their MGs they could hopefully keep the Germans down a bit… Ok, so I rolled a 2 on the Platoon Morale.
Actually, in short order I rolled 5 Platoon Morale checks over the coming turns, rolling 2’s on the first four of them – no re rolls…
Ok so things were going badly. However, I managed to pin all defending units, and the mounted cavalry had recovered from some pinning and were on the move again (after of course failing to recover in their first round pinned, despite being able to re-roll). I swung them over and almost got within charge distance of the infantry protecting one side of the two objectives. Ok they would suffer some fire on their way in, but hopefully enough would make it to contacts, which would hopefully have effect. All I needed to do was roll a 3 or higher. Guess what? I didn’t
I don’t think I need to go on. I think you get the picture. The bypassed dismounted cavalry? They never showed up. Oh, and all these failed Platoon Morale checks meant I had to roll for Company Morale as well…
Anyway, suffice to say I didn’t win that one. By the end I was just laughing. The funny thing is my opponent certainly didn’t need any help. He was a better player than me anyway, in a god position… J
So end result: 12th out of 22 I think. But at least I was voted best sport… Got an OSS blister as prize. I wonder what they may be… And I had a good time, met some really nice people and got a weekend of gaming.
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