The desert village of Doo Ah Diddy was
quiet, the only sound being the buzzing of flies around half cooked food,
recently abandoned by the residents who had fled at the approach of the British
Armoured squadron. Two platoons of Mathilda II Infantry Tanks took up station
to the south whilst the lorried field engineers of the 8th army
moved up alongside, taking cover behind the small stand of palm trees. Good
natured rivalry could be heard exchanged between the Vickers machine platoon
taking up position on the small hill overlooking the village and the Indian
Rifle platoon on the western side of the battle line. This was not echoed on
the eastern side of the line as the second Indian Rifle platoon along with a
carrier platoon had already spotted the German AT guns dug in on the other side
of the village.
The CO in command of the Indian
Company had complete faith in his troops, “there isn’t much that can faze these
boys” he thought for what they lacked in experience they made up for with a
fearless nature. The 8th army pioneers and MG’s would hold their
own, their experience in the desert standing them in good stead. The same could
not be said for the Mathilda platoons, their commander epitomising the
aristocracy’s outdated cavalry tactics of “Tally ho”. Could the Indian CO keep
them in line? Moreover would the now outdated Infantry Tanks be able to stand up
to the fearsome Tiger tanks of the Afrika Korp that was reported to be in the
area. And how effective would the Mathilda’s 2pdr gun prove against the panzer
divisions of the Afrika Korp
Hmmmm, only time would tell.
This was to
be game 1 for me in the recent Flames of War gaming day at Chez Bowman, all 6
gamers had congregated nice and early to begin proceedings. There are two
pretty good write ups of the action on the day by both Scott and Paul (click
the names to enjoy the action!), maestro extraordinaire for the day would be
Brett who is the mastermind behind the structure and special objectives and
event cards (click here for more info). The forces were chosen from the North
Africa and Italian lists with a view that it should fit the mid war theme. As
this was intended as a friendly get together and a nice way to spend the day
everyone had built well rounded forces that weren’t particularly beardy and fit
the theme nicely.
Weirdly the
theme for the day was suggested by me and yet I had very little that could be
considered mid war! Therefore I had to scrabble and scrape to pull a force
together and get it painted in time for the day. I had acquired an 8th
army MG platoon and some field engineers from Scrivs sometime ago so this gave
me good reason to get them painted. Now as I have spent most of my life living
in the UK and not far from the centre of the wargaming world Nottingham
(apparently) I had gotten pretty used to having instant access to miniatures
and supplies. However now that I live in NZ I am at the mercy of mail order,
with there being very few stockists on our little islands and most of the
distributors having to ship from Europe. Luckily a Wellington model shop (Models
Crafts and Hobbies) has a tiny box of FoW and I managed to pick up a single
Indian Rifle Platoon.
As many of
you will recall from previous posts I work better to a deadline therefore the
force listed below was put together and painted in two weeks (except for 5 of
the Mathildas which were completed for the painting challenge earlier in the
year):
- Indian CiC and 2iC
- Indian Rifle Platoon – Cmd, 4x Rifles, Mortar, Sticky Bombs
- Indian Rifle Platoon – Cmd, 4x Rifles, At Rifle, Sticky Bombs
- 8th Army Engineer Field Platoon – Cmd, 3x Stands, Transports
- 8th Army MG Platoon – Cmd, 4x MGs
- 3x Mathilda II
- 3x Mathilda II
- 3x Universal Carriers (Recce)
So without
further ado lets begin.
Game 1
vs Ashley
(Scary Germans with a Tigger)
Argh,
remember this is mid war and therefore the Tigger is ridiculously scary. On the
plus side it is also ridiculously expensive so that limits the amount you can
squeeze in. The pictures below tell the story however in a nut shell I’ll lay
out the action.
First off the
random event card removes one of the three objectives placed on the board
before deployment. Suddenly Ash’s Tiger is guarding empty sand and my Indians
opposing him are chuckling and preparing a nice cup of Darjeeling.
Meanwhile I
redeploy a platoon of Mathilda’s who have learnt the hard way that a board
Tiger commander can be a deadly thing to mock….Ouch.
My carrier
platoon (Pauls models, not mine) make a dash along the far right flank and rain
mg fire onto one of Ash’s infantry platoons. Ha, take that Jerry. I then
advance my other Indian platoon and some Mathildas towards the objective after
smoking the Pak 40’s with my cute little knee mortar (what else is it good
for?).
You recall my
smug “Ha”? Well Ash made me eat my words after obliterating the carrier platoon with
the Pak’s. I really need to remember FoW fire arcs!
To put it
bluntly not much happened on the left flank while on the right I tried to pull
off an assault with the Indians and Mathilda’s on Jerry infantry and got
smacked silly by defensive fire. Doh!
However I
think I managed to score a win because I had more objective points than Ash so
woohoo for me!
----------------------------------------------------------
The quiet of the British forward
observation post of Dum Diddy in the Sicilian hills above Catania was shattered
by the sound of Panzer engines approaching at speed. “Could this be the
reported armoured thrust that HQ had warned them of” thought Captain
Farquharson-Fanshawe-Smythe of the 4th Indian Division. Following
the action at Doo Ah Diddy his company had been occupying a rear echelon
position, recovering its strength in preparation for the invasion of Italy and
now that the campaign was underway he was keen to prove his forces had what it
takes to tackle Jerry armour (damn that Tiger!!!).
The mission to secure a forward obs
post was perfect for his eager Indians and their 8th Army
compatriots however it did mean that the armour assigned to him would have to
stay in reserve, can’t have the cavalry dashing about and alerting the enemy to
allied activity now can we!
Coming out of his command post astride
the main road down to Catania the Captain received word from Sergeant Khan
“Sahib, Jerry is approaching, looks like forward elements of armour only
Sahib”.
“Good work Sergeant. Hold positions
and lets show Jerry what a rifleman can do shall we”
Game 2
vs Scott
(German Panzers)
The luck of
draw meant that I started the game sat on top of two objectives with Scott
claiming the third. This is ideal for infantry as I could sit in a static
defensive position and try and hold off Scott’s aggressive posturing with my
oodles of anti-tank weaponry (socks, oil and TNT!). Unfortunately Scott decided
not to posture but rather to come straight at me all guns blazing with his CiC
2iC and Panzer Platoon (III’s and IV’s). I stuffed my veteran field engineers
in the bushes, Indian platoon one at the cross roads and Indian platoon two sat
on the hill. Unfortunately my clever little plan of “dig in and weather the
pain” failed for the first two turns as the quartermaster had misread the
requisition slip and instead of issuing spades to my men he issued “shades”.
Accordingly my infantry looked very cool while they tried to dig holes with
their bare hands.
Luckily it
would seem that although Scott’s dice were on top form for rolls to hit with
his machine guns my dice saw it as a challenge and consequently managed to pass
tons of infantry saves.
An assault by
Scott’s Panzer platoon on the hill top objective had my Indian’s reeling
however they pulled it together and counterattacked, sticky bombing the living
daylights of Scott’s tanks. Much hilarity ensued, however eventually Scott’s
lone tank managed to slay some of my plucky infantry and push me off the
objective.
Seeing as the
battle was getting a bit uncomfortable my CO and 2iC interrupted their Tiffin
to move over to the crossroads objective to provide a little support. This was
perfectly timed to coincide with Scott’s reserves turning up, 3 of the
Wehrmacht’s lovely new Panzers rolled up to my CO and unloaded a whole truck
load of MG fire into him and his batman. Luckily you don’t get to be a Captain
in the 4th Indian division without some measure of resilience and he
shrugged off this rain of fire and hopped over the wall (actually it was more
Scott’s good sportsmanship reminding me
that I can allocate some of the hits to nearby platoons!)
Eager to get
in on the battle my Mathilda’s turned up at the far side of the battle and
immediately put pedal to the metal, rushing forward a massive 16” (wow, why did
I pick these bloody slow tanks with pop guns?).
Not to be
outdone the field engineers jumped out of cover and assaulted Scott’s 2iC (I
think), proving why they’re rated Veteran tank assault and kicking Jerry
something silly, my CO getting in on the action too (although he was really
just running for cover from the Panzer reserves that had just made him order
some new shorts!)
Scott quite
appropriately disagreed with my approach and dashed over with his fresh
reserves (which now include two 8-rads) and promptly smacked my field engineers
back to blighty
And we called
it there. We had racked up an impressive amount of objective points, and morale
points. I think I won however it was a hell of a battle and I’m not sure if
either of us cared that much. With more time we’d have kept going however there
was Game 3 to get squeezed in today……..
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The ruined monastery of Doo was
reputed to be the resting place of one of the finger bones of an acolyte of the
brother of Saint Bernard, patron saint of restorative beverages and big dogs,
however to Sergeant Khan of the 4th Indian division it was just
another wrecked building on a hill. Once more the poor bloody infantry had been
pitted against the pride of German armoured might, led by none other than
Hauptmann Brett Von Brettendorf developer of the Jerry tactic of randomisch
objektivisch placementisch.
And yes, once again the British Amour
was sat in reserve having a brew, “I’m sure they do it on purpose” Khan thought
before walking back to his platoon. “Although Singh’s boys will keep them on
their toes I guess” Singh being Sergeant Singh of 2nd platoon who
had been rotated into reserve after the scrap at Dum Diddy.
Just then Captain Farquharson-Fanshawe-Smythe
approached through the wheatfield “Ok Khan, lets get cracking”.
Game 3
Thats right
my desert boys have got to fight in the lush green fields of Italy proper now
however that’s not the worst of my worries. No I’m now facing the architect of
the gaming day, random objective meister Brett and his one hit wonder Panzers
(those are his own words). Unfortunately I started with half my force on the
board which meant my MG’s, rifle platoon and Johnny come lately Mathilda
platoon which I decided on at the last minute. Brett then placed his 5 tank
panzer III/IV platoon and proceeded to smash the cack out of me for 3 turns, my
force shedding morale points like it was college student stripping off at a
frat house party. By the time my reserves started to arrive I had lost a rifle
platoon, mg platoon and 2 out of 3 mathildas. Unfortunately for Brett I had one
of his rather excellent event cards to play, therefore I slapped it out and
called in an air strike from those excellent chaps over at the RAF. Rolling my
dice I got 3 planes in my strike, placed the template conveniently over 3
panzers and promptly rolled three 2’s. Doh!
However Brett
being the rather excellent chap that he is pointed out that with 3 planes in
the strike you get to re-roll misses. Woohoo, 2 hits, 2 flaming panzers.
 |
| Not as good as it looks. This is the aftermath of the air strike and not the result of a broadside from the Mathildas! |
So now things
were looking a little better, I had all my forces on the board, Brett’s one hit
wonder was starting crumble and I was feeling positive. Until of course I
realised that my CiC & 2iC were gone, I had a single Bren Carrier parked
very close to Bretts infantry and all he need to force a company morale check (which
I would auto fail without any company command) was to take out that carrier.
Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Luckily I’m
very likeable, the allies had already won the day because of Paul and Bryan’s
wins, and Brett is very sporting so we agreed to call the game there.
Summary
Huge fun all
round, excellent company, everyone tried their hardest to be nice to each other
and Scotts significant other Tracy brought pizza for lunch. So in summary a
very good way to spend a Saturday for all involved.
Oh and the
Allies smashed the nasty H
Good show, what what. Time for Tiffin!
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