Hill 112 scenario with Panzer Grenadier Deluxe and The British Way sees light of day

Four ball with 15mm kit (we are on a WW2 kick at present) at Johns with Panzer Grenadier Deluxe and Hill 112 scenario, this was planned as chaps not long back from a Normandy jaunt so keen to 're walk' the ground.

Stephen and John controlled the attacking Brits and Mr P and I the defending Huns (Le Duc was AWOL)

Game played pretty smoothly and we completed 7 (out of 14) turns amidst usual deluge of waffling, insults and craic.

We did learn that trenches and dug-outs have bit more ubiquity than we realised as they count as cover so can be set up in open ground (we had been forcing them to 'cling' to fields/woods), made sense really.

Mr P had control of Nebelwerfers (off board although scenario has them on table) which blew away 2 Brit infantry sections on first turn but failed to do anything thereafter.

Hun right flank folded as Brits put bulk of effort here (against Mr P) and this was not helped by crap shooting by Hun AT guns and a 'you are getting no reinforcements' roll, so no Tigers...sniff...or sod all else.

As we called time at end of turn 7 I declared it an unfinished Draw but no one else did :-)

Initial Brit deployment (note tantalising prize atop Hill 112)

Main Brit effort on our right - were they afraid of my Soldaten !? can't have been fear of my famed dice rolling ?

Nasty fire breathing Crocodile and his back up singers overrun trench line as our flank folds

Panzer IVs on Roman Road

Huns suffering even in trenches

Mr P had a PzIV achieve a flank shot on the Crocodile but missed, then was damaged and forced back by return fire

I had a Pak40 in ambush in walled field but in 7 turns it managed to inflict a single Disengage on a Churchill, due to failed activations, long range shooting and general sub par dice rolls.

In other news I managed the day before to crack open 'The British Way' and get a solo session in with the Palestine game (note this multi-pack does not include any solo Bots unlike other COIN games).

Nice small quick playing version of COIN with a few twists for each situation. 

Irgun (main Jewish insurgent group) are Cells rather than usual Guerrillas and they have Arms Caches rather than Bases and can 'fall out' with their more moderate Hagannah allies if these get too nasty (this can impact number of Irgun pieces available). 

British are usual mix of more formal Police and Troops though they can imprison cells. 

With a mere 18 Event cards and 3 Propaganda cards which are dealt into bottom 2 of three 6 card piles (there are additional 14 Event cards not used each session so lots of variety for re-play), a with a low number of regions (6), cities (3) and railway lines of communication (4) on small board its a pretty brisk game. 

All about reducing/maintaining British Political Will (track on right) and with use of Terror/Sabotage the Irgun depleted said will (starts at 18) to required zero in third deck (campaign), I need to better understand the Brit counters to this as it seemed achievable a tad easily (often the case with first play of a COIN game).

I do like the COIN system and this two player version has a nice new Initiative Track (simplified version of that in Colonial Twilight) with some new options.

I have next gamette 'Malaya' set up just need to read the game specific rules although this one seems more akin to 'normal' COIN, with area control, population support and resources, albeit on smaller scale. Economic Centers and British Commanders are new twists.