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All my rule sets are freely downloadable from our club website's Downloads page





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Sunday 28 October 2012

Retreat from Fort William Henry?

As the title suggests, this week we tried to do a recreation of the scene from Daniel Day Lewis's version of 'The Last of the Mohicans'.

Lacking the requisite troops, we did a version of the scene where the poor Brits are set upon by hordes of Hurons as they retreat from Fort William Henry.

The company of His Majesties 22nd regiment of foot.
 A brave band of Mohawks lead the way.
 The area of the French ambush.
 Suddenly, a small band of Delaware indians break cover and fire!
The surprised mohawks take little hurt.
 They head for cover to return fire on their opponents. 
 The first platoon of the 22nd continue down the road.
 The Mohawks, from cover begin to shoot.
 Two of the Delawares fall.
 The English troops cheer on their indian allies.
 The greater number of Mohawk troops tells as Delaware losses mount.
 The Mohawks whoop their delight. 
 The Delawares begin to waver.
The English continue down the road, ignoring the skirmish.
 The second English platoon is led round the Delaware flank.
 Chinganchook, Uncas and Hawkeye leave the ladies, to scout ahead.
 The English troops watch as the Delawares lose their scalps.
 
 The Mohawks breast a rise to see Compagnie franche de la Marine and Milice lining a wood.
 The following English are urged to hasten on in support.
 The French spot the Mohawk scouts.
 
 A Mohawk is slain, the rest disperse.
 The Lieutenant in charge of the second platoon rallies the indians and directs them to the woods on his left flank.
 1st platoon deploys in line to flank.
 The French remain in cover, unaware of the enemy strength.
 1st platoon advances in line through the woods between them and the French.
2nd platoon wheels into line behind the rise. 
 La milice spots Chinanchook and shoots.
 La milice advances, shooting and kill Chinganchook, but in turn are mauled by 2nd platoon.
 The militia retreat to the woods, 1st platoon appears on their flank. 
 La milice flees, escaping the coming storm.
 1st platoon shoots into the flank of the remaining French, with little effect.
 The free company returns fire more effectively.
 The English stand their ground, reloading, as 2nd platoon advances in support.
 At this inappropriate time, a second Compagnie Franche platoon is sotted on the left.
 The English infantry salvo fire the French.
 Many of the French fall.
The Mohawks on the left are outshot by the 2nd French platoon. 
 The 2nd English platoon takes fire from a new enemy.
 A band of Huron between the French platoons. 
 2nd platoon takes fire from the Compagnie Franche on their left, and the Hurons to their front, and begin to take casualties 
 The Mohawks having withdrawn into the woods, the French and Indians charge the English.
2nd platoon beats the charging French with good bayonet work.
 As the French recoil, both English platoons fire and scatter their attackers.
With this telling volley, the route to Albany is clear!

Hawkeye and Uncas reaped a terrible revenge for Chinganchook, firing in support of 1st platoon, they killed more French than the English regulars in the woods!

Players:

Mohawks: Ian
1st Platoon: Lawrence
2nd Platoon: Me

Fun was had by: All!

The French were run by the solo system in the rules : French and Indian war rules


Sunday 21 October 2012

Recce with Russians!

Yesterday (Saturday) - we did a WW2 skirmish using a Russian reinforced platoon --and a T-34 platoon--against an unknown German force, our mission was to reconnoitre a German position, and seize a Dacha at the far end of the table.

The Russians start edge
The open area in the table centre..Katyushas have been busy! 
 Beyond this, the Dacha, our objective.
I placed the inverted markers as usual:

(a) Command , armour and support units
(b) Anti-tank teams (IE Panzerjager teams)
(c) Infantry, and random events (EG Sniper shots, mortar strikes etc)

These were all placed in likely positions for their type, at least an equal number of dummy markers were mixed in each pile, so Iwould be able to play without knowing where things were. In other games, some random markers are discarded from each pile to further confuse me as to whats on table!
I deployed on the right, supporting some partisans.
The Partisans, under Ian, deployed in a wood next to my men.
Phil had his section riding atop 2 T-34s, Gareth was behind in 2 lend-lease carriers. 
 Lawrence, in command with a squad in support, deployed between us, behind a farm.
In our first move, a T-34 spotted a German squad and fired!
The Germans fired back and a panzerfaust knocked out our Ba 64. 
  The Partisans crossed the wood and spotted a German squad in another copse.
Back with the tanks, another panzerfaust damaged a T-34!
 The crew of the Ba 64 left their vehicle as the ammo brewed up!
 My men, supported by a small anti-tank team, moved through the woods to engage the Germans the partisans had spotted.
Back with the tanks..a few Germans advanced from cover to attack the Russians. 
The Russians, panicked, returned ineffective small arms fire.
The cheeky germans even used the Russian armour as partial cover! 
After a small brush with the enemy squad facing me, the partisans supported my squad as we engaged the Germans with rifles and grenades.
Some Germans fell, and were surpised when.. 
 ..Lawrences command group joined the firefight from the farm.
 Back with the tanks, weight of numbers finally told! 
On our side, our massed fire saw off the squad facing us too! 
 Unfortunately, a Stug 3 was attracted by the firing!
Ooops!
 
 The Stug saw us and fired..
The hill took most of the hit, but my men were suppressed!
On the other flank, a panzerjager team took careful aim... 
..but missed by a whisker! 
 The Russian tankers heaved a sigh of relief!..but from behind a hill... 
 BOOM! - a hetzer's 75mm gun roared.
 ..and blew a track clean off the T-34!
 (an overview of the game at this point)
 The hetzer's rooftop MG hit a tank rider too, the rest dove off into cover!
 On my flank, in a 'David and Goliath' moment, a panzerfaust...sorry, RPG-1 armed Russian raced forward to engage the Stug at short range!..and hit a tree!
The Stug fired point blank at its tormentor and blew him off his feet - uninjured!
The brave Russian was saved by the fifth shot of the anti-tank rifle from my squad on the hill, which disabled the Stug, the crew abandoning it!
 The T-34, crippled by the hetzer, was bypassed by the rest of the Russians.
The hetzer continued to pour shells into the wreck, its crew abandoned ship!
 The tanks passed between two woods and engaged Germans holding the big hill. 
 Despite casualties, the Germans prepared to respond with panzerfausts.

Unfortunately, due to a late start, this was where the game had to end!...we all agreed the Russians would eventually win by numbers, but the Germans still held the dacha at game end!

The rules used can be downloaded from: Rules!