Sunday, April 8, 2018

Games Day Fun

Jonathan & Stephen hosted another gaming day in St Albert yesterday. It's a good chance to break muffins & drink coffee with like minded folks.

The morning had Dave running a France 1940 Flames of War game. Bruce & I played the French. As defenders we had 2 objectives to protect from the advancing Germans. There was another objective on the German side which we could attempt ourselves to capture.


I had a troop of H35/39's, a platoon of Lorraine borne Infantry, a Char B1 Command element


And a couple 75's holding the objective. We also had some reserves of Somua's, Char B's & an ambush element of 47mm AT guns. Bruce had the light company with H35/39's, Motor Cycle borne infantry, some 25mm AT guns & a troop of Panhards.


The initial German troops on the flank I was defending.


The Germans score the first kill with an Artillery Barrage, knocking out one of Bruce's H35's.


The race to get into town. At this point the German armour had no infantry support. However with the way Flames of War works, dismounting happens at the beginning of a move. Obviously the writers have never served in mechanized infantry. 


Meanwhile on the other flank, the German armour has pushed into the town & is met with the French armour.


The Germans swung around the town on my flank  & were decimated by the ambushing 47mm AT guns, my Char B & the 75's firing over open sights. The German M/C infantry can be seen barrelling down the road.


The German Stuka finally made an appearance & targetted the artillery & the Char B. Alas the French Spotter & 1 of the guns was knocked out.


With the loss of the German tanks on my flank, the remaining Germans headed off towards the other objective, leaving my infantry holding the town. Our reinforcements started to arrive, unfortunately all on the flank I was holding. 

I remounted my infantry & sped towards the German artillery that was continuing to pound our forces on the other objective. After suffering some losses, I was able to assault the 1 group of German Artillery & wipe it out. 


With our slower tanks we were unable to make it to recover the objective that was overrun by the Germans & thus the victory goes to them. Thanks Dave for bringing it out.

 The afternoon had Bruce run a game of Congo. This time we played a new scenario which required us to gather clues as to the location of a treasure. The clues would provide either an exit, latitude or longitude. Thus the players had to make an effort to resolve numerous locations to get the intel needed.


My Pygmy warriors with the Chieftain


In the centre, Justin & Bruce begin to engage one another. A group of Bruce's Askari's makes for a clue point.


The Ruga-Ruga's engage some soldiers in hand to hand.


I was quite lucky & found an exit in the corner I entered, as well as both the Lat/Long clues needed. The treasure was close & I was able to snag it & make a run for it before Bruce's troops who were rushing towards it could stop me.

Thanks again to Jonathan & Stephen for hosting the games day & for those who ran the games.
 

7 comments:

  1. Looks very good. Wish I'd been there playing that!

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    1. Thanks Herbert. We had 16 guys out playing games if I recall. We get to do it all again in May!

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  2. Two fabulous looking games Terry, but always great to get some new ideas for Congo.

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    1. Thanks Michael, Bruce had forgotten his trees, but I thought that could have made for good quicksand!

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  3. Thanks for the write-up Terry!

    If I understand the dismounting mechanics correctly - by allowing troops to dismount only before the transport moves it prevents mechanized infantry from rushing across the board, dismounting and close assaulting before the defender has the chance to fire at mounted transports (since there is no opportunity fire). On the flip side - infantry can embark and bugger off pretty quickly.

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    1. Thanks Dave, it is just the rules mechanics & affected both sides equally. On another note, Craig was asking which edition of the FOW rules you used.

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