Rommel - Operation Brevity

Not the best of reports but a few pictures to show my Desert battleboard in action. Another product available on Price upon Request basis.

Original Set Up - Germans to the right, British to left with Italian forces holding Sollum in foreground.

The game ran well - had a good to and fro to it. The conclusion was always in doubt until eventually the relentless nature left the British with insufficient troops to make any more attacks.

British Forces attacking Sollum

All in all, a good game. Mistakes were made and we'll learn before our next game - Dan is keen to swap sides and give this scenario another go before we move onto some more complex scenarios.

British throw up defences around a captured checkpoint. Unfortunately they were well spent and German forces were able to retake the positions.

In future I may look at buying some smaller mins to play out these desert combats in future.

Rommel Updates

I've not had much opportunity to get out to game recently but I'm really motivated to be modelling at the moment. As such I've decided to make myself a Rommel playkit which can be transported easily including scenery, baseboard and minis. I've no pictures for you today so you'll have to use your imagination for now.

I picked Rommel as the grid format reduces things I need to transport as well as meaning that I have a Rommel setup for the future without having to mark it out each time. I have decided to have a play at making desert scenery which I hope to make available soon at Board and Sword and online. There are also a large amount of scenarios on Sam Mustafa's website for the desert.

For the board I have taken two 2'x4' sheets of mdf and hinged them together. I then marked 4" squares across them and I've painted these using various shades of sand from tester pots. I may need to remark my grid, for most scenarios I won't need the entirety of the board but its a good space that I can always cover in a green cloth to play Bolt action etc upon.

For hills I have made some small tokens using polystyrene and filler. I finished by coating in my black paint and PVA mix, overbrushing yellow and sprinkling with sand. I also made a few with rock faces (having a play with cork boulders for first time).

I lied - I found a picture

For minis, I am going to be using some counters for now - however I cam looking at getting some armies made up using either 6mm or 3mm - whichever is the more cost effective. I'd love suggestions on this - specifically for desert usage as I am going to continue using my 10mm collection for NWE and Eastern front.

So hopefully I'm going to catalogue everything I have made this year over next couple of days. If anyone likes what they then see and would like some then contact me and I can see what I can do. If you live in North Lancashire then we can arrange to meet up and you can see my samples in the flesh.

Juno Beach - Rommel Battle

So this Tuesday I played a game of Rommel using the Juno Beach scenario. Few points on this; I know it is a beginner scenario, but why is it 21st Panzer counterattacking - should it not be 12th SS? Also why are the 716th's artillery deployed so far forward - seems unnecessary.

Assault Brigades Advance

The game played well albeit we forgot plenty of rules. The counterattacking forces in the form of the Panzers were very effective in their assaults although the were all fairly spent through attrition by the time we called it. I also feel that I didn't assault very well once past the frontlines and allowed myself to be caught tipped a few times.

Panzer Reinforcements

The order sheets worked nicely, with the interdiction taking out 2 of Alex's artillery batteries which hindered massively his defence.

Allied Command Board

I think this will require a few more games just to get the hang of it but all in all enjoying it.

I have got a lot more Fallschirmjager painted and will get them all posted together.

Last 2 Weeks

I've been back to Lancaster Wargames Club again these last two weeks and played a couple of new rule sets (Exciting!!).

Overview of board

Last week I joined in a 6 player game of Dracula's America. Set in the post American Civil War USA,the basic rules are basically Wild West (we didn't play any undead etc). I'm not sure but it did not seem massively deadly and almost impossible to actually get an outright kill. However I think this may have been due to a misunderstanding with regards save rolls. (We were saving with fails being per hit rather than the amount below the save value).

Left Flank - Nutter running across the street - survived and ran back.

With a lot of these games (this one included) there is an error in the set up of terrain - no one wants to cross the "valley of death" (or street as in this example). So it almost just becomes dice wars.

Having said that the card mechanic by which you drew 4 cards for a turn then bid with your cards for where you were to go in the turn had a good blend of luck and game theory.

This week myself and AE played our first game of Rommel. (Unfortunately I forgot my camera so no pictures). So we felt we could judge the rules correctly we played a scenario which was half based off the Breakthrough mission and a Spearkrieg game we played a few year ago over the Battle of Prokhorovka. Scaled down we played 1st SS Panzer Grenadiers against 52nd Guards Rifle Division.

The game worked well with the Germans having to peel a way through the defensive lines (reinforced by the "Workers to the Front" event. Maybe I wasn't sufficiently aggressive early doors (new game syndrome) and it took a while to get through. Eventually a whole appeared and I was able to widen it out. By turn 15 the aggressive use of Recce, Armour and Armoured Infantry allowed me to take an objective where we called it.

Things we learned:

• Tactics and defences really help to reduce casualties; in reverse the fact that my entire force was motorised meant I could evade to reduce hits against myself. As ops dice disappear and attacks are going in by brute force, combat becomes more deadly.
• If you can lure an attack onto yourself and pinning attack has already been used and surprise attack isn't in effect then withdraw is a really good way to make your opponent burn and waste ops dice.
• Recce units with their free scout turns are really useful (even with a 50% success rate). I had a full battalion of recce as the Germans formed their Recce units as fighting battalions which really helped.
• Always plan for the worst. I attacked a single infantry company with one remaining hit in the open with 3 stands. Missed and I hadn't left enough space to retreat. Up until this point these were my only units destroyed.
• Attacking across the narrow part of the table is grim.
• All in all the rules are simple whilst giving a seemingly historical result. Could be really interesting to battle the whole campaign although we discussed it and think we'll go for an ops sheet per division. The ebb and flow of resetting etc could be absorbing as the various attacking divisions have to pause at different times.

As a side piece I also based Schy'yrk. I'm going to do the rest of Gronne Flamme like this to complete my raiding party for Frostgrave.

Schy'yrk