Ulster Wargames Society - Sword Beach with Rapid Fire

UWS meeting today and I took part in a very nice game put on by Chris based on  landings on Sword Beach on 6th June 1944 using Rapid Fire (mainly Reloaded but with some bits of RF2).

Chris brought his usual superb terrain (10' x 5') depicting the beach area around Ouistreham and St Aubin using his lovely 20mm kit and terrain.

Some excellent looking concrete defences and landing craft included.

German defenders (with early intervention from elements of 21st Panzer) were controlled by Andy and Stevie with Jeremy, Ian and I commanding elements of the Great Crusade.

A really excellent game it was too (Rapid Fire shines for this sort of endeavour).

British divided into 3 separate landing waves with plenty of 'Funnies' and other armour in first wave and 3 Battalion of well equipped Infantry in following waves (with more armour and Commandoes).

Huns had bunkers with 50mm or 75mm (in the Casino) AT guns, with several MG bunkers and numerous weapons pits, with some Pz Grenadiers, Stugs, PzIIIs and couple of Marders arriving later.

Brits had a preliminary Naval Bombardment (which was pants) with ongoing support from naval assets (once FOO on table) and several sorties of  rocket armed Typhoons.

Germans had access to Merville Battery (we rolled to silence it and failed at start) and later some Nebelwerfers.

Initial turns saw Naval fire fail and German also fail to hit an landing vessels (thankfully)

First Allied wave landed on right at St Aubin with subsequent waves coming in at center and left (Commandoes directly at Ouistreham).

British had several DD Tanks most of which failed to reach beach.

Flail tanks cleared beaches of mines under a barrage of anti-tank fire whilst 'dust-bin' firing Petard armed Churchills struggled to deal with bunkers.

German direct fire proved very accurate initially (so many 5s and 6s !!) and soon British tanks were burning all across the beach with foot sloggers slowly cross the sands under fire

First RAF sortie was shot from the sky but this nastiness seemed to inspire the invading troops who then used demo charge and flames throwers to take out the Casino and defended building at St Aubin which put a dent in German firepower.

However their soon armour arrived and seemed the invaders might get overwhelmed on beach,

But British fire then proved deadly with Commandoes assaulting bunkers and a PzIII and the Marders lost to a further Typhoon sorties and Sherman fire.

By this stage the Hun beach defence line was pierced in several places and weight of Allied numbers was beginning to tell as position after position was destroyed and a British victory was declared albeit a rather bloody one.

Great stuff 

The invaders in their waves

Quiet before the storm

First wave disembarks near St Aubin

The Casino in Ouistreham untouched by naval fire and housing a nasty Pak 40

Allies ashore but Sherman burning

Central German bunker which survived naval fire, Petards and tank fire finally succumbing only to direct assault by Engineers

Slow progress (6" per turn in sand) across the beach

Formidable defences at Ouistreham, Several bunkers and that sea wall

Central area less formidable but swept by enfilading fire 

Beach obstacles and mines hampered the British armour

Note the two large Bunkers to rear represented supporting batteries further inland and could fire directly onto beach or be fired upon

Action hot and heavy with both sides suffering losses (lots of brewed armour)

Commandoes have destroyed the Casino and are pressing further into town as last of British support units arrive 

The landing fleet has miraculously remained intact 

Central bunker has at last fallen as British armour moves passes by

Sea front at Ouistreham is in flames (fall of bunker on left cut of German access to support batteries)

Lots of burning armour on beach

But central zone has been fully breached 

Ding dong duels between Stugs at St Aubin 

Typhoon helps deal with Marders on road out of town

View from German side as Commandoes assault

And from crumbling centre

Last Hun reserves stalk Allied armour 

A busy beach indeed

The Commandoes advance 

Incredibly the German artillery failed to hit this target rich environment.

Also at club group of chaps (Dave S, Jeremy D, Dave M and Billy) played another Midgard game run by Tim with LOTR style armies battling along a river

The two Daves and Tom played a couple of FOGR games with rather interesting 17th Century African armies, Ethiopian and Sudanese both rather larger than usual European armies from period.

 

I also got to watch the UWS Table Formation Display Team try (I must emphasize the 'try') to stack tables (admittedly heavy beasts) using some sort of hey hoppla alley opp shortcut for several minutes before reverting to usual brute force option. 

Regimental Fire & Fury - Gettysburg 1st day scenario

Game at Stephens and he selected good old dependable Rgt F&F for a smallish scenario set around lunchtime on first day of Gettysburg.

I choose the Rebels who had a reduced (had been fighting in morning action) Brigade of Veterans, a Brigade of 3 large Trained units and support from several off-table (on a ridge to rear) artillery batteries.

Union had a Brigade of mostly Veterans (only 1 Trained unit) and the Iron Brigade of Crack units (a juggernaut) with several gun batteries on table.

Rebs had only 2 Brigadiers on table with no higher commanders and so had a couple of units out of command at start, whilst the Feds had a couple of Brigadiers, a Divisional Commander and a Corps Commander allowing them flexibility of essentially four command formations.

Rebs split into a right and left wing with Union defending a central line of fences.

The Iron Brigade were set back on Union right but they had first turn and double-quicked themselves into front line right off the bat.

For Rebel right that was pretty much the death knell as Iron Brigade swept forward crushing all before them.

On Reb left the Trained Brigade twice failed to advance (falling back on rolls of 1) and failed to get to grips at all with this weaker Union wing.

On plus side the off-table Confederate guns done sterling work (despite low factors for long range firing) throughout and indeed 9 out of the 10 gun batteries were low on ammo having rolled 10s.

These caused lots of losses to Union and at one point Rebs had lost 12 or so bases to Union 10 but the onslaught of Iron Brigade and Union guns soon saw Confederate losses rise sharply and we called it a day.

I had the Brigadier on my right killed putting his units out of command and Union right had a Brigadier wounded (lost for 1 turn)

RFF such a good set of period specific rules and played smoothly and quickly (a smaller scenario than usual) with those D10 rolls being exciting and vicious in equal measure.

All terrain and figures (mostly Peter Pig) from Stephens collection

The central Union position

Iron Brigade turning Rebel right

Confederates gamely try to put pressure on Union lines

But falter at close range

Iron Brigade ganging up on weaker Reb units

Rebel left failed to get forward being repulsed by Union firing

Tough objective to take the defended MacPhersons Farm

Iron Brigade deployment area from which they leaped forward

Rebel left deployment with Veteran but weakened units 

Field Of Battle 3 - Bloodbath at Blenheim

Game today against Stephen and I used FOB3 with the Blenheim scenario I had used at club and my 10mm toys as still had everything to hand and labelled.

A much different game than at club as Stephen went into full 'Dice Demon' mode with his shooting with nearly every volley or artillery shot doing at least one hit and at least a fall back or often worse and my Morale Pool took an almighty whacking in very short order.

I did manage to take one half of Blenheim after a struggle but despite getting my Elite English foot against the second sector with a supporting unit for outnumbering I failed with 2 separate assaults with both my units repulsed and damaged, medals aplenty to French Regt Picardie.

My center was almost completely gone and my left wing badly damaged and I only managed to destroy a solitary artillery battery all game never routing a single enemy unit as my shooting was utter pants and melee not much better !!.

Only saving grace was that Stephen managed to topple 2 of his own Generals although one came back very quickly so had numerous units in Disorder and which likely saved my outnumbered right wing.

In the end my entire 38 chip Morale pool was gone and I had 'gifted' 15 cards to French who had only lost 7 (?) Morale of their 42 a truly dire performance indeed.

So an ignominious defeat for Marlborough and unlikely Blenheim Palace would ever see a brick laid !

But despite this it was as ever a great game with FOB and always good to get a scenario fought to a firm conclusion in reasonable time.

Allied left and center suffering

They did get across Nebel but crushed by withering French shooting all day

Allied right wing conducts a holding action near Oberglau

View across field 

The French (actually Bavarians) on my right face my Imperial foot

Imperial Cuirassier having to shore up center after foot units swept away

A constant drain of casualties in center

Blenheim being assaulted again but refused to fall

French left in disarray (Disorders) as control lost temporarily on their left wing

But Blenheim just proving too tough a nut to crack and losses continue to mount

Allied lines creaking under deluge of accurate musketry and canonnade

Still just cannot gain that final sector of town (with its 5 Morale boost)

Mounted in this period cannot really deal with steady foot

French action on their left became inactive thanks to the disorder caused by loss of General