Adventures on the Wargames Table

Following on from the earlier unsuccessful attack on the Olive Oil Factory , the Australians of 2/1st Battalion have regrouped, called in armoured support (just like the real attack) and launched another assault on the heavily dug in FJs. Here’s the table laid out the same as before. Orange Dave played a very aggressive patrol phase, pushing his markers forward along the road with all possible haste. He was determined to make the Aussies cross as much open ground as he could manage. This resulted in my JOPs being mainly in the sunken lane (out of shot, left) and adjacent woods whereas his own were nicely placed around the olive oil factory (ammo trolley in the gardens, the motorbike in the courtyard and the camo tent just outside the walls) Jerry gets a succession of double turns and soon has plenty of men ready to give the Australians a warm welcome. Due to casualties one of his squads is half strength and the other two are a man down, but that’s still an awful lot of firepower. I bri...

As promised here are some photos from the Zero Hour participation game. I’ve added a few notes to some to help make sense of the action, but really I think the pictures speak for themselves! The basic premise of the game is that the French are attacking a section of the line with the aim of capturing the second line of trenches (including a command post) and the nearby ruined village. The French have superior numbers and armour, but the Germans have a Storm Trooper company held off table ready to mount a counter attack if the forward trench line is breached. The French mass in and around the blasted wood on a low hill. And the Germans are waiting in their trenches! On the French left the Senegalese are supported by tanks and big guns. Scarab’s WW1 Rommel figure keeps an eye on things from a ruined building (a Charlie Foxtrot kit). The whistles blow and the attack begins! German artillery begins to hammer the advancing French as they scramble through mud filled craters and along rickety...

This is the "Patrol on the hill top" battle, game one, table one. Overnight on the 20th May the Germans have gathered men and equipment from their scattered drops, consolidated their position and pushed pickets out to warn of the expected counter-attack by Allied forces. As the sun rises on the 21st May, forward elements of the 2/1st Australians advance through olive groves looking for their German paratrooper adversaries. Whilst this table is covered in olive groves and vineyards we decided that, in keeping with the original 'Von Luck' campaign, the sparsely planted trees and vines would count as soft cover across the table. The pic below shows the result of the Patrol Phase. Dave has pushed his paras forward on the flank but held his other Jump Off Points back a little. I pushed forward as far as I can but ended up with a JOP on each flank and one further back in the middle. My plan was to push forward hard and fast in an attempt to overwhelm his position. My suppo...

Wargaming plans are just like real military plans in that they usually don't survive contact with the enemy, or in this case, real life!  Anyway, despite setbacks we muddled on as best we could.  But rather than play the full-on campaign the decision was made to make this a "practice game", i.e. not worry about the campaign aspects - we'll do it 'properly' at a later date. The Paras have to roll as their drop was a bit of a muddle, they got two Senior Leaders and a Sniper for the HQ section ( Look Hans, no pesky 2" mortar! ), No1 section was fine, but both 2 and 3 were missing a Bren.  So they'd have just three Brens against my six LMG's plus I'd taken an MG42 team and an adjutant as supports.  The Paras get no supports ... I was feeling quietly confident. Here's the table ... now, I do have a heap of wheatfields (golden grass door mats!) but they're in the garage somewhere, so just imagine the open spaces covered in rolling fields...