If you go down to the woods today....

At Last!

After a months forced absence from the club, I finally got back to 'virtually' mauling and maiming - Oh Joy!

Wargaming is fun isn't it!!

We tried a French and Indian war skirmish, as Phil had finished his lovely ranger figures.

The situation:

A party of Rangers and militia are returning from a raid, with some Mohawk and Delaware indian allies.
Unfortunately, a force of Hurons is sitting in ambush along the trail.....
(We put hidden markers on to randomise the ambush positions)

Lots of possible positions for the hostiles! 

 A farmhouse, strangely silent.....

 The river the Rangers have to cross...

The rangers and militia move cautiously down the road, Delaware indians to their left, Mohawks to their right...  

 The Delawares spot some Hurons across the river and open fire..

 The Hurons are unhurt...

 ...and return fire.

 One of the Delaware war leaders falls with a bullet in the head.

 More Delawares join in, and a Huron is wounded. 

 The Ranger commander brings his men in support of the Delawares.

 ..as do the Mohawks.

 When in range, the Rangers fire a volley...

 ..some of the Hurons fall back to the woods! 

 A third group of Hurons attempts to ford the river on the Rangers flank, but are hit by accurate Mohawk archery from the far side. 

 Almost all the English join in the fight.

 With casualties mounting, the Hurons waver...

 ..then fall back to the woods.

 A new group of Hurons behind the ford shoot in the flank of the Rangers and militia.

 ..Who turn to face the new foe..

 ..leaving the Delawares to cross the river in pursuit of the first Hurons.

 The Delawares are aided by 2 indian scouts detached from the Rangers

 Back at the ford, the Mohawks slink through the woods while the militia fire..

 The Hurons at the ford dodge most of the fire!

 A large group of Hurons appears and attacks the Delawares. 

 Leaving the militia to fight at the ford, the Rangers again come to the Delawares aid! 

 The ford Hurons attack disastrously at the ford, trying to take advantage of the Rangers distraction.. 

The Delawares, outshot, bravely charge some Hurons. The Rangers fire deals with the rest!

 

 ..but another group of Hurons appears on their flank. 

Some of the Delawares attack them too in a vicious melee.

 At the ford, Huron archers trade shafts with the Mohawks.  

 ..they retreat in the face of greater numbers.

 The Militia have arrived!

 The surviving - victorious- Delawares move toward the ford too.

 The Rangers beat off a small counter attack.

At last, the ford is cleared of hostiles, and the way home is clear......perhaps?

It was a fairly confusing battle with Hurons popping up from all over the place, but good cooperation between the players ensured a comprehensive victory!

Ian - The Mohawks
Phil- The Rangers
Lawrence- The Militia
Me- the impetuous Delawares!

Wings of war campaign games

Yesterday, Saturday, I had my last club day for a month, due to work and family commitments mostly, so we did a WW1 air day. Seems appropriate for Remembrance weekend.

We managed to get 3 games in during the day, the newly modified solo system running the German aircraft is quite as fast as the old version!
The first game was a ground attack mission - we had to find the correct target (out of 4) to destroy.
All the markers were MG armed (B damage deck) armed. The primary target had 2 (B) guns.

Phil and I took our SE5a's toward 1 target. 

 Ian and Lawrence headed for another.

 We immediately found the Primary target, and all our planes proceeded to pummel it into dust. Our aircraft took a little damage only, mainly as the ground guns kept on jamming at critical moments!

 The second game diced up as another Ground attack game, but with only 3 possible targets to find the primary target in!

 Once again we were aided by the ground guns jams... 

 But as we attacked, 2 Pfaltz scouts came out to play too!

We managed to evade them and once again blasted the target!

The third game was the best...Ian had to survive 12 game turns on table in the middle of a 'Circus' - with enemy and friendly aircraft joining at random.. 

In a confused action we ended up with 11 planes swarming round, but the system gave us more allied scouts, so we prevailed!

 The Germans lost a Pfaltz scout and a Fokker DR1, we escaped relatively unscathed! - interestingly, the best performing scout was a Nieuport 17 run by the solo system!! - Ho Hum! 

Before the games, Phil showed us more of his splendid artwork on some militia for the French and Indian wars skirmish games we do. 

 (Very nice they are too! - My only sadness is that of 4 pictures I took of them only this one came out!!!)

As always, the solo rules used are available on our clubs download page: Wings of War Solo rules  

There are variants (for a few planes)  by Shaun Mather at the top, some for the WW2 version of WofW, then mine at the bottom.

The reconquest of England

This game is another 'What if' game, assuming the Germans had invaded jolly old England in 1940.

Our scenario supposes a platoon strength force of Fallschirmjager (paratroops) have seized a vital crossroads in Kent, and a hotch-potch force has been detailed to shift them!

The battlefield objective was the road junction, and the overlooking farmhouse. 

 The British, a platoon of regulars, with an attached Vickers MMG and an A9 and A10 tank moved from their starting position in an estate. The farm looked undefended.

 The main force, with the tanks, were detailed to advance down the road, while my section took the right. My job was to support the road attack.

 To this end, My men crossed a low ridge...

 ..and, with the Vickers, set up behind the estate wall.

 To my left, Ian's and Lawrences sections, with the tanks, passed through the estate gate.

 A small group of Germans in the farm fired at the road...

 ..but my Bren team engaged them from behind the wall!

 The tanks forged to the attack.

 ..but not before the Germans disabled my Bren's No 2. 

Another group of German infantry appeared at the other side of the farm. 

..but failed to spot the approaching British on the road.

This group was ambushed by accurate rifle, light mortar and bren fire, and fled. 

Back on my side the tanks finished off the Germans in the field.

 ..allowing my men to break cover and follow.

 The tanks moved forward with my men in support..

Ian's command group and followed after my men, and towards the farmhouse.

 A Pak 36 37mm A/T round saw the A9 and fired, but narrowly missed.

 The tanks beat a hasty retreat, leaving the gun to the infantry.

 The gun crew, and their supporting troops began to take casualties...

 ..as more British infantry joined the fight.

 The Pak 36 fired at my Bren team, wounding and suppressing them.

 The Vickers and a the 2"mortar made short work of them.

The British seized the deserted farmhouse. 

My men were detailed to hold the farmhouse, but as the Bren team took position in an upper window, they were wiped out by shooting from a nearby field. 

The tanks, and their supporting 2  squads drove the ambushing section back.

 The Germans tried to fight their way past the farmhouse.

 Their fire forced my men behind the farmhouse to fall back.

The Germans could not deal with the tanks, their MG 34 set up in a wood to cover them.

Faced with overwhelming strength, the remaining Germans beat a retreat.

This effectively ended the battle. I imagine in real life, we would have been soon under Stuka attack!
The Anti-tank rifle, flamethrower and infantry we had not met yet would have then probably caused us some problems!

We were lucky in the German dispositions, we had managed to engage them advantageously at almost every turn, and the unlucky miss by the A/T gun sealed the Germans fate.

It is very different fighting these early war actions, the lack of decent Infantry Anti-tank weapons can make even poxy tanks like the A9/A10 quite potent!

Good game, I must thank Ian for the use of his lovely BEF miniatures!, and Lawrence for his pictures- some of mine were blurred at critical points in the action!

Some more of our pictures can be seen on the club blog: Tyneside Wargames club blog