Visiting friends for a weekend of wargaming is most definitely one of life's real pleasures! So with high hopes of a fine time I packed my toys and scenery in to the car and headed North so see top chum George (of
http://musingswargameslife.blogspot.com/ fame) for a weekend of Bolt Action and War & Conquest.
In a little over 8 hours I was there. Yes folks,
just 8 hours to do 240 miles on our great British motorway network. Still, I like to look on the bright side, it did afford me time to admire the fine views of the countryside in Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Cheshire, Lancashire, etc. Not to mention the vibrant urban diversity of places such as Bristol and Birmingham! :-D
Anyway... I was very warmly greeted by George and his lovely missus Evelyn (pronounced Ev-lyn of course!). I'll start by saying a huge thank you to Evelyn for looking after me so well! Seemingly endless cups of tea, plenty of cake and a truly superb fruit salad. Friday evening started with a great meal and George provided a splendid cabaret with his impressions of a man dressed as a lady riding a bicycle ... I was crying with laughter! Really, you had to be there. Possibly not quite politically correct, but hey?
Right on to the gaming!
Game 1 - Night-fight at Wartone-sur-mer
This battle, set in the early hours of 6th June 1944, pits a small scattered force of Paras against a German garrison. It's based on the night-fight scenario in the Battleground Europe book and uses the night fighting rules whereby troops have to make spotting rolls to see the enemy in the dark. Let's begin by saying George's Germans had been eating *lots* of carrots!
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| The village sleeps peacefully... |
The objective here is for the Paras to secure the caches of supplies dotted around the village, and give Jerry a good thrashing. The Germans are trying to beat off the Paras and keep their supplies (wine, brandy, cheese, racy pictures of Parisian ladies, etc) safe.
George has very wisely deployed all of his troops in the buildings, so the village is basically a small fortress for my lightly armed force. Oh for a Sherman!
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| The Paras head for the objective in the church yard |
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| The Para flame-thrower* sneaks up to the cafe |
I'm pretty sure that Paras didn't actually drop in with flame-thrower gear but I had to include one as I know George is such a fan of them ;o)
George continued to have (a) the first dice out of the bag most turns, and (b) made some amazing spotting rolls... these fellas were part Owl or something!
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| More Paras in the church yard |
I had decided that going for all three objectives with my small Para force would be a bridge too far far (you see what I did there? ;o)) so I concentrated on the supplies in the churchyard and the cafe garden. I only needed two of the three for a win.
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| The Germans move up to contest the church yard |
Jerry is on both floors of the cafe so it's going to be tough to dislodge them. I had hoped to use the Paras in the church yard as a lure for the chaps downstairs...? But I do have the flame-thrower... heh heh!
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| Reinforcements for the assault on the cafe |
Below you can see the result of the flamethrower team trying to sneak in to the cafe garage so as to be in range of the main building. I thought he's got make the spotting roll on a team, then it's -2 for hard cover, -1 for a team, plus Paras are veterans so he'll need 5+ to kill... Oh no! George pulled out his best 'special dice' and shredded my brave lads with some astonishingly good rolls. Needless to say
Hauptmann von Anderson whooped with joy! :-D
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| Bugger! |
More sparkling rolls from the eagle-eyed Germans and their commander... The Germans made a great spotting roll and blasted the small Para section edging along the field boundary ... sigh.
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| Dakka dakka dakka! |
My Paras had taken quite a beating but it was still all to play for as German casualties began to mount. As the Paras got between the buildings I was able to close down some of the Germans lines of fire. If my veterans could get to grips with his regulars then it would be a slaughter!
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| Para's advancing near the barn ... 'ere Sarge, can you smell 'orses ;o) |
Hearing German boots on the road, the Paras burst round the corner of the stone barn with Stens at the ready but ... they promptly roll snake-eyes for their spotting roll! Gah!
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| Get them lads! ... oh ... where are they? |
The rest of my photos are sadly a bit blurry, grrr! But suffice to say the game finished with one cache firmly in German hands and the other two contested by both sides. Even with heavy casualties the Paras could just about have taken them in the final turn; it was that close!
A great start to a weekend's gaming! A splendid game with some moments of both drama and comedy. You can see George's take on the game here - beware of biased German propaganda though!
http://musingswargameslife.blogspot.com/2018/08/normandy-over-weekend.html
More to follow soon!
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