French counter attack, 1940

Well greetings everyone.
Some of my gaming buddies got together with me this past Saturday at my house. We have been itching to play an early war game with Bill's new French forces. As you will see from the pictures, Bill should be proud of the job he has done painting these for our games.
So having decided on the period we needed to figure out how the game should be set up. We decided to have the French involved in a counter attack against the German invaders. Trying to cut through the corridor created by the Germans when they swept into France. The French gathered up some armored units along with a British tank platoon that had nothing better to do. They attached some infantry support and had at it.
Bill and Wendel were the French and I played the Germans. Below are some pictures of this epic battle that as usual did not turn out as expected!

Below are two pictures of the table at the start of the game. This one is looking toward the French from the  German side of the table.

This one looks across the French left flank towards their right.

 Here you can see the great jog Bill did painting these figures.

 This one looks at the front of the French right flank.

The first move goes to the French as they are an armored force and have the burden of attack. They begin their advance toward their objective which is in the small town occupied by the Germans. No firing for the French though as there is nothing within range for them. They are deplyed with most or the armor on their left and most of the infantry on the right.

The Germans in their half of the turn send out their armored cars toward their objective in the large village between the two adversaries. Along with this they rush their motorcycle troops and make a general advance with the balance of their forces. The Germans do get their air support but are intercepted by the valiant French air force.

Turn two has the French continuing their advance trying to eliminate the German armored cars so close to the objective.

 The Germans consolidate their advance and in a moment of doubt and indecision loose the opportunity of a lifetime! More on this later.

There developed a savage battle between French and German armored cars in the large central village. Panhards and French Sappers vs. Rad 8's. Eventually the outnumbered Germans are overwhelmed.
Turn 3 has the French continue their advance on both flanks having engaged and occupied the armored cars attention.

The Germans though have lost their motorcycles are frozen with indecision trying to defend a thin grey line so close to the objective that would give them victory.

During this time the French air force has been doing a bang up job of keeping Uncle Herman at bay. But the Germans finally start to lay into the French armor with the 88's. Knocking out a great deal of the French light armor but not getting a good shot at the French Char B's. The French light armor rushed forward and blazed away with machine guns and trounced the German infantry on their left flank.

 The French kept up the advance across the table and did a good job of tearing up the German's left flank.

 At this point the Germans had lost so much in men and equipment that there was no way to prevent the French from sweeping the German right flank and capturing their objective.

 

Well we have a decisive French victory! Really a well fought battle with a sound and methodical strategy on their part. The Germans on the other hand threw away their advantage in mobility by not sweeping around the French right flank with their armored cars, 35t'x and motorcycles. They should also have continued to advance and or dug in with the infantry to form a barrier to the French armor.

Se la vie!

Here is another picture of some of Bill's French.

Really, really nice! The pictures do not do them justice.
Thanks for looking!
Greg

My Crusading Project

Hi all,
It has been a while and this post is not my usual after action report. I have finally started my long awaited Crusades project.

For over 30 years I have dreamed about gaming the Crusades. Since childhood I have read as much as I could and watched as many movies I was aware of (the good and the bad) dreaming that I could play games in this bit of history. What draws me to this period is the very human factors involved with this conflict. You have heroes, villains, Nobles and serfs. Individuals can affect history with the swing of their sword or the power of their word. Two huge factions fighting over different ways to honor the same God. And of course when you are dealing with men of power corruption and treachery abound. There are colorful flags and pennants with the most brutal combat. I guess that is enough to get going.

Over those years of dreaming I began to accumulate a variety of figures and information. Unfortunately I could never find a rules set that filled the bill until I was introduced to a gentleman from England who was developing a new set of ancient gaming rules. My long time friend and gaming buddy told me about Simon Miller and his gaming concept that soon became the published rules, 'To The Strongest'. Thank you very much!!! These rules were just what the doctor ordered.
Now for the unsolicited endorsement. Buy these rules! They are great fun and you get to finish the game before you grow old. Wait, I already am old.

So here are some pictures of the figures I have completed so far.
The Infidels (Muslims)

The figures are Gripping Beast and Perry for the most part but there are other manufacturers also. Flags are all home made from downloads off the Internet.

The other Infidels (Christians)

All of this took about 3 months and I have much more to do. My next group will be Muslim cavalry while also doing more Norman type infantry.

Above are some flags both completed and before cutting out. These are all printed on regular copier paper and glued together with an Elmer's glue stick. I do print these on the highest quality setting my printer has. I cannot wait to run my first game and am hoping to have enough troops to play in 3 more months.

So there you have it. A dream coming true. I hope to post a couple of more times to follow the progress of the armies. As always comments and questions are welcome.
Good Gaming,
Greg

Chaos after Alexander

Greetings all!
This is the last post of Mikes gaming season for this year. So Mike set out two gorgeous Successor armies for us to game with. As the pictures will show there is no lack of figures and talent that went into the creation of these forces. Also Mike had promised everyone a surprise.
Our cast of characters on this fine Fall day were:
Ken
Wendel
Mike
Bill
and myself

Ken and Wendel paired up together while Mike Bill and I were on the other side.
A fairly balanced affair it seemed to be.
Ken and Wendel had:
10 heavy pike units of 32 figures each
3 elephants
1 cataphract heavy cavalry unit of 24 figures
1 heavy cavalry unit of 24 figures
2 light cavalry units of 12 figures each
1 heavy chariot unit of 3 4 horse chariots
1 light infantry unit of 12 figures with javelin
1 light infantry unit of 12 figured with slings
1 light infantry unit of 12 figures with bows
A total of 422 figures. Very impressive!

Mike Bill and I had:
10 heavy pike units of 32 figures each
6 elephants in 2 units of 3 figures each

2 heavy cavalry unit of 24 figures each
2 light cavalry units of 12 figures each
2 light infantry unit of 12 figures with bows
1 light infantry unit of 12 figures with javelin
A total of 434 figures. Even better!

So after much banter and bonding we had an initial set up as seen below.
 Mike Bill and myself. Bill had our left flank at the top of the picture. Mike had the center and I had the right flank.

 

Ken and Wendel. Ken had their right flank and Wendel had their left flank opposite me.

 

A full view of the table as we started.

Turn one. Both sides advanced towards each other. The picture below is looking from my right to left with Wendel and Ken on the right side of this picture.

 

The picture below is from the opposite side of the table. Mike Bill and myself are on the right of this picture.

As you can see Wendel and Ken advanced evenly across their front while Mike Bill and myself had held back our center.
Turn two. Here you can see we had advanced much slower this turn allowing our missile weapons to take effect.

Turn three. Sorry no picture but more of the same missile fire and bit of positioning for the mounted units.
Turn four. The real action begins.

Both armies are fully engaged and are busy slugging it out. Casualties start building and the fight is on!!!
There is a great deal of action on both flanks.
Below is our right flank where Wendel and I are messing about with my heavy cavalry, light cavalry (since departed) and elephants fighting his cataphract cavalry, heavy chariots and light cavalry (off picture to the right). Eventually I am able to beat off Wendel loosing my light cavalry and a unit of 3 elephants in the process.

 Below we have the other flank where Ken and Bill have been fighting away for a couple of turns. Both side were almost evenly matched with a unit of heavy and light cavalry each with light infantry in support (forced out of the game prior to this picture).

In the center each side was slowly adding casualties to each other and as we assessed our position it looked like we were in excellent shape.

 Oh no! Look, We forced a unit out of the game! First blood to our team.

 Ken adds the weight of his elephants to the main fight but Bill negates them with a flank maneuver thus negating their attack.

 OH NO!!! Wendel in a flurry of die rolls has managed to turn our right flank! My cavalry and elephants are out of position to do anything to help. In the picture below we have lost 2 of our 10 main units with a third being attacked in the flank. Wendel and Ken have lost 3 units at this point and whoever looses 5 main heavy infantry units first will loose the game.

 Well it was us. We took a hard loss and it was a close game. Congratulations to Ken and Wendel for a well fought game and the laurels of victory.

So the final count was we had 5 heavy infantry left while Ken and Wendel had 6.
A great deal of fun and a special thanks to Mike who outdid himself with armies we used for this game.

Oh yes, Mikes surprise. Well it turns out that Mike is having a special birthday soon. Mike will be turning 65 this year and he and his wife Mary provided birthday cake for all of us to enjoy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKE!!!

And many, many more! Can you believe this guy is that old? Not I.

As always we have some pictures of Mikes toys.

Special figures from a special person. Mike thanks again and we will miss these games until next spring when the new campaign season begins.
Thanks to all who stop in and hey send Mike your birthday wishes!
Good gaming,
Greg