Fury kit

Saw Fury last night and enjoyed it despite usual Hollywood aspects and 'squinty' German shooting. Great to see a lot of proper kit on display in various scenes.
In addition to the Shermans (Easy Eight and M4A1) there were M3 half tracks, M8 Greyhounds, Pak 40s and in the opening scene at least mock ups of a PzIV and a Panther.
But the equipment highlight was of course the 'Bovington' Tiger 1.

WW2 Barbarossa To Berlin

Played Barbarossa To Berlin (GMT Games) with my Dad last night.
Been a while since we played this but soon got into swing of things.
Usual to and fro on Eastern Front with Axis (Dad as ever) at one point threatening to take Moscow but timely and early arrival of Siberians managed to thwart him. Russian strength then built up quite quickly.
The British managed to clear North Africa despite appearance of Panzer Armee Afrika.
Rommel's bunch got holed up in Tripoli trying to counter possible appearance of Casablanca card after Allied Torch landings.
As pressure built on the Eastern Front the Axis put all his eggs in that basket and so a limited Allied invasion on Western Front became viable in mid 1943.
This indeed happened and won the game for Allies as two Armies managed to land unopposed and take the German Victory Level down to naught giving Allies the game.
A game I always enjoy this one.

Field Of Battle: France vs Russia 1813

Quick game of Field Of Battle 2 today with Stephen using my French against his Russians.
I had 15 units versus his 20 although mine where mostly Crack quality.
However my deck was Poor whilst his turned out as Superior.
Commanders were a mix of Average and Poor on both sides.
I fielded two Brigades of Young Guard with a Foot Artillery Battery each supported by a small Brigade of Old Guard foot and a Guard Cavalry Brigade.
The Russians had 5 Brigades with a Light Cavalry and a Cuirassier Brigade supporting three Brigades of Infantry one of which was a Grenadier Brigade. Russians fielded four Artillery Batteries.
I had set up the terrain beforehand (using Command Piquet).
My main difficulty in the battle was having the lowest possible (yes another roll of 1) Army Morale Level of 11 whilst Russians had a respectable 22.
A couple of decent Artillery salvo's and some foot volleys soon had my Guard down to a dangerously low Morale level.
I tried to assault in the centre but found my self badly repulsed by the Russian Grenadiers on a hill and having my Morale Points exhausted.
This makes recovery of Unit Integrity ('hits') and bringing units back into Command (a sort of disorder/disruption effect) next to impossible.
We are planning an all day multi-player game on our usual Warfare Weekend as we sadly are not able to make it across this year (boo hoo) and are going to play Napoleonics with either Field Of Battle or Shako.
Picking a suitable scenario is next task.





The terrain set up

The game

Shako II tested with guess what ?

More Napoleonic action with my French and Prussians this time trying Shako 2 which I have had for ages but not tried (why I don't know as I loved original Shako).
Nice big action with my Infantry units counting as two in Shako.
Bit hard to keep to Orders system whilst playing solo but otherwise fine.
Nice simple mechanics for shooting and combat. Cavalry on Attack orders have to advance at least 4" (15mm scaling) and then must Charge any Formed unit when within 4" even if in Square.
This led to several dead Cavalry units as they fight with Disordered combat values (usually 1 or 2) versus the Squares.
Prussian Grenadiers had to use Hasty Square Formation change but with a Value of 5 only a 6 fails.
This gave their two squares a 5 vs 1 against Garde D'Honneur and 5 vs 2 vs Garde Chasseurs A Cheval with inevitable results.
Use of Cavalry requires a bit of thought with regards to Orders they Operate under.
Infantry in Line are only units that can issue Volleys (Skirmishers have own firing) so no shooting by Squares or Columns which is bit different to most sets but does make decision of which formation to use quite interesting.

Only a few more Napoleonic rules to try :-)

Vassal games catch-up

Been very slow with my Vassal games this past few weeks but did manage a few turns this morning (prior to late shift).








Kingdom of Heaven with large battle unfolding at Jerusalem between Richard and Saladin

Paths of Glory (via Cyberboard)

Hannibal Rome vs Carthage

The Dark Valley as Barbarossa unfolds

Turning Point Stalingrad with Ivans grimly hanging on

Bit of a catch up.........................

Been bit mad with work and suchlike here over past few days so a few things missed being blogged.
Here are few pics of games both board and miniatures (just no time for Vassal/PC stuff).

Currently up on table is another Napoleonic outing this time trying Rank & File rules.
A quick play no frills type game that is certainly easy to pick up and play.
Main gripe is lack of any real Command and Control as Commanders do not have anything like Command or Influence ranges or restrictions.
Mainly Commanders just boost Morale rolls or aid melee if directly attached to a unit.
Therefore units can in theory run off and operate independently
Maybe if/as I play more I will see more value to the Commanders.

Managed a couple of Combat Commander games with my Dad as they are fairly quick playing.
And as usual very entertaining stuff.

Also (some rather ropey) pics from a recent Field Of Glory Renaissance game at Stephens, Later TYW German versus Later TYW French.
This one was over very quickly when my three Cuirassier units were shot to bits by some potent French salvoes (read excellent dice rolling by Stephen) and all three routed !!