Over in England with offspring so we had a day at Imperial War Museum which I have not visited in 20+ years.
Unsurprisingly a few changes but still a great day out, the Holocaust exhibit was particularly poignant (no photography allowed) and interestingly one of the monetary contributors noted on a plaque is Mr Roman Abramovitch which just emphasises the temporary nature of national ‘friendships’ and interests.
The museum facade
French 75mm
I was British along with David S and faced Germans under command of David P and Cameron.
I kept 1 of our 3 Companies off board as a reserve to consolidate on stream line if reached.
Putting Davis S and I on same team was daring to say the least as our dice rolling is usually and was indeed predictably awful...................
This proved the case on several occasions with some 'highlights' being our having a Company go hesitant on 2 turns, and managing no effect of any sort from opening artillery bombardment and then later had a Regimental stonk undershoot and hit a friendly Platoon! Think we also managed to win at most 3 initiatives out of 9 turns played and at one point only rolled 4 orders from 9 dice !
Entertaining in its own fashion of course especially for the Germans :-)
Gaining early initiative Germans were able to be aggressive with their combat patrols and had us pinned back early on.
We did just about manage to reach the stream but on turn after Brits decided to deploy their Reserve Company guess which Company ended up Hesitant !?
We did get our Churchill troop (2 vehicles) on table which ended up dueling with a PzIV which was ko'd but for exchange loss of a Churchill.
However the other Churchill was continually targeted by a most annoying Sniper that put it under continual Shock even Suppressing it at one point (indeed another Shock would have caused 'Damage' !?).
Assuming we played Sniper correctly (first I have really seen one used) this seemed a rather powerful unit as enemy can do nothing too it as such being dependent on it 'self destructing' ie 3 misses in a turn - suspect if Brits had one it would have been more underwhelming :-)
British suffered a couple of Fubars and were well on way to their 3rd when time was called.
Otherwise the game flowed pretty well and I do like the Combat Patrol/Order system which give rise to lots of key decision points, combined with quick playing combat systems and certainly works as designed.
However I do find the overall system a bit limited in scope/variety of engagement type as its always 1 Battalion vs 1 Battalion with only minor variation (changes to kit/supports) so games sort of seem a bit samey thus far but that may be down partly to only having played a couple of games and both in Normandy setting.
Only two early game pics as got engrossed in action thereafter but it can be seen that Germans able to push forward patrols beyond defensive line and the Brit Platoon and Company CO on right were the subjects of later attention from Royal Artillery.
Attended Stephens with a horde of SYW Russians to face his Prussians in a play test of several rules amendments for the period he has been sorting through for the Shako II rule set.
So not a proper game as such more of a line 'em up and try different aspects of house rulings.
Upshot was that several house rules that seemed worthy inclusions proved less so in practice and often just easier to use standard Shako rules.
Probably only real changes are that Infantry are able to stagger cavalry backwards with defensive shooting and hasty squares only 'available' to infantry charged on flank by mounted.
One we struggled with (as we do in standard Shako) is that units particularly heavy Cavalry can engage in multiple melees/breakthroughs and if winning can emerge totally unscathed (bar temporary Blown status). We had a couple of Prussian Cuirassier involved in Melees then Breakthrough Melees suffering no damage at all which always seems rather odd.
We discussed giving them a Hit for each melee/breakthrough melee they became engaged in but that seemed overly harsh so decided to give them a single hit when fresh even if they won a melee meaning they carried some 'hurt' for rest of game.
Always looking for that elusive 'perfect' set
Scenario is 'Assault on St Manvieu' set on 26th June as opening to Epsom offensive.
Germans are defending with a Battalion from 26th SS PzGr of 12th SS Pz Divn and British attacking with a Battalion from 6th Royal Scottish Fusiliers of 15th Scottish Divn both with some armoured and artillery support, ie standard stuff for an O Group game.
I set up table based on included map but as ever Mr Brown says to add 'plenty' of crop fields to give some cover to infantry, must say would rather the maps showed the required terrain as never sure if I have used too many or too few of such fields ?
After a re-read of deployment rules initial units/ambushes set up and I have played 3 turns thus far.
Not very solo friendly of course with the Combat Patrols and suchlike but found it fairly easy to get back into the straightforward combat/movement/command systems.
Hopefully a face to face game in due course.
Not the best pics ever as not many actual units deployed on table as yet
Another double outing for LADG Renn today with Stephen.
We played a couple of Thirty Years War games with early and late versions of Stephens Swedish army and my Imperialist Catholic army.
Both very enjoyable games although my dice rolls were truly terrible once again, so bad in second game Stephen was apologizing to me for my dice rolls !!
Think we have these rules pretty well down now with the only query we had today being with rear support rules, as it seems a single base of cavalry can support up to five infantry units lying in its front 'zone' which seemed rather potent.
Early period game (1631AD) with Imperialist infantry arrayed in Tercios and Later tercios
Stephen had organised a scenario based around area of Hochkirch battle 1759 which he also umpired. John and later Le Duc (his version of events at https://warfareintheageofcynicsandamateurs.blogspot.com/2022/03/tales-from-pommritz-cinnamon-dung.html) commanded the Austrian hordes under Duan whilst Mr P and I controlled the glorious Prussians under Seydlitz and then Frederick.
To keep things simple Grenzers types were not on table (off fighting in adjacent areas) and Stephen made all units 12 figures (generally they are 16 figs) which with hindsight made Cavalry a tad brittle but as it was same for both sides not an issue as we both had loads of cavalry.
Victory was to be determined by Austrians taking Hochkirch (at which they failed) or breaking Prussian army (which they came very close to doing !) and it was termed a draw as time was called on proceedings.
Lots of action across the field with Prussians aware that Austrians were likely to be allowed flanking arrivals and that Prussian reserves would be slow arriving having to be roused from their tents.
Mr P had a brigade of Grenadiers behind some light works which performed sterling service despite being assailed by multiple Austrian units, a nasty big battery of heavy guns (12 dice at cannister range !) and almost being surrounded. He ended up with a single base of 4 figs that simply refused to succumb a glorious deed indeed.
Elsewhere initial Prussian forces could only sell themselves dearly trying to slow the Austrian advance to allow reserves to arrive, and this they mostly managed to do.
On my left flank a gapdid open after several cavalry engagements and loss of a Grenadier unit but arriving Musketeers dealt heavy hits to some Austrian cavalry and further reserves were on hand to block the now damaged Austrians.
Had game continued the Austrian numbers would have been likely to tell and whilst Hochkirch might still have held out I think Prussians would have a further Army Morale test to survive which might have ended things differently, but a hard fought draw it was.
KK3 generated an enjoyable game with only a couple of situations we had not encountered before that needed some 'off the cuff' adjudication.
The initiative system leads to lots of interesting decisions as to when to act or force enemy to act and it flowed pretty well for big game.
All in all a superb days craic with mates and a bunch of toys followed by an evenings almighty waffling in local pub and Indian restaurant.
Initial Prussian set up around Pommritz (and the Pink Palace house of ill repute), Hochkirch just visible at top left.
