Monday, February 24, 2014

DoD 2014- Results

A few photos and the results from Day of Days.
Spot the shearer :) Brad deploys his army.

Andy & Jason discuss pregame strategy

Martin offering advice to Mark and Simon





  Allies
Final Points
Keith Hewitt 

28
Martin Wilkinson & Robert St Denis
 
23
Chris Pooch and Adam Smith
 
21
Dave Dreaver and Mark Manuera
 
21
Estella Jones and Nathan Maynard
 
19
Mark and Simon Taylor

12

Axis
Final Points
Craig Courtis and Martin Ellis

39
Nigel Wright and Dale Franklin

38
Bob Pierce and Nick Garden

35
Brad Glass and Callum Manson

34
Kent Galpin & Ian Curd

32
Jason Holland & Andy Tucker

30

Jason  and Robert deploying their forces



Most "Tank" Kills  Competition   (Top placings)
Nigel               36
Cal                  29
Bob                 27
Martin E         25
Keith               22
Martin W        20
                   
Assault Badge- most teams killed in assaults (Top assault aces)
(1 pt infantry/guns, 3pts per tank) 
Craig             22
Jason            21 (winner for taking out 7 tanks in one game!)
Nathan           20
Robert            12
Andy               11
Brad                11
Brad                11

Best Objective: Dave D: Warcamel

Best Terrain: Robert St Denis  

A few more pictures 
Martin's churchills advance

 
Mark's Shermans charge out panthers- using smoke to good effect.

Martin looks on while Mark deploys his Shermans

Roberts table- winner of best table.

Kent's 88s.
 

Martin's panthers advance- great table!
My paks await the British onslaught in the final game.
Martin's panzer IVs advance past a herd of cows!
 Craig

Sunday, February 23, 2014

DoD 2014- Done and Dusted



Just finished this years Day of Days. the theme being the breakout from Normandy. We lost one player a couple of weeks ago so Keith volunteered to run 2x 1100pt companies himself.

As usual we had many of the old regulars (Nick and Poochie having been to all 11 previous events!) and many at least 10 of them. A smattering of new faces and some who've been coming for the past few years rounded out the numbers and with a field of 23 I was more than happy.

Half a dozen guys crashed at my place the Friday night, the last lot (Bob, Nick, Poochie and Adam) arriving around 10:30 after flights from Wellington and a drive south. A few quiet beers and before we knew it it was 2:30 and time get get some sleep before the big day.


Round 1: No Retreat
The Allies attacked on all tables. The lack of tactical strategic bombing as per the real breakout battles proved to be decisive. The Allied attack was decimated as it ran into a wall of panzers. In my own game Martin W & Robert fielded a churchill squadron of 12 + Churchills and some British paras  as well as some naval support (which we measured out and could have provided support to the neighbouring 4 tables!)  Martin E and I ended up stopping the attack but for a long time it was touch and go and could have gone either way. In the end though we took the win without losses and so it turned out of 5 of the 6 tables with a 6-1 victory to the defenders! Yikes!

Churchills and paras advance
Churchills support the paras advance
Martin's panther forgets to watch its flanks, and is brewed up.
A panther pushes a it far forward and pays the price

Round 2: Breakout
The allied attack had faltered but elsewhere the German front had collapsed and so forces were thrown into exploit the situation. Breakout worked okay but the deployment zone should probably been 3ft wide each as the games turned into mini 1v1 and so some forces were unable to support each other properly. A few tweaks were suggested to improve it and will be taken on board. 

Martin and I had another enjoyable game, this time vs Mark and Simon from Wellington who manage to get down each year. We played on Robert's table (which won best terrain) and had another fun but tense game. My panzer grenadiers trying to slow down hordes of confident trained infantry while shermans and panthers had a battle. The shermans charged in and got up close and persoal with the panthers (and into their side armour-yikes!) In the end though roll of the dice favoured the panthers and with a little luck Martin defeated the spirited attack and we managed to take the game, again without suffering any losses even though it was a tense game. A little more luck and Simon and Mark could have taken it.

Robert's table- lovely

Mark throws his Shermans at the panthers.
Things are looking a bit dicey.
 
This round had 4 German victories and 2 allied so the allies were under a bit of pressure with only 2 wins out of 12 games so far.

Saturday evening almost everyone came back to my place. Usually we have a BBQ but this year to save a clean up for me on Sunday evening we ordered in lots of pizzas. As per usual the Saturday evening catch up/drinks was the highlight of the weekend for me. A few beers were drunk and much smack talked. We had a reasonably early night this year and once again I had a full house of gamers crashing at my place.

Game 3: No Retreat
I had planned for the mission to be pincer with the allies attacking but discussing it last night we decided to give the allies the option on each table of pincer or no retreat- all chose no retreat. These games were much closer. Martin and I had a really tough game v Poochie and Adam. 2x lots of hellcats were a real pain to face and in the end our attack was well and truly crushed. At the end of the last turn all that as left of my force surrendered to the Americans: Company commander, platoon commander and 1x MG team.That was all that was left of our entire force! Luckily though we managed to destroy all the hellcats and a platoon of Shermans but Adam and Poochie used their forces very, very well and we were on the backfoot most of the time. 


Surprise!
Surprise!

My infantry leave a gap allowing more hellcats to ambush.
Hellcats ambush the panthers
The last panther decides to keep attacking.

The highwater mark- the panzer IV is Martin's last remaining tank.
 Overall results went 5-1 to the allies with only Andy and Jason managing to take win as attackers.

Game 4: FFA
The final round was a Free For All. Martin and I played Nathan and Estella and had a bit of a slog though lots of churchills and confident trained guards infantry. We managed to nibble way at the churchills. I got lucky taking out one platoon with my jagdpanzers, and once we had finally dealt with a platoon of archilles the panthers were able to use their guns to full advantage, destroying the churchills- though my infantry had to assault and destroy the company commanders as they would not flee the table. In the end with time running out my panzer grenidiers were forced to assault a full platoon and by the end of the assualt my platoon had been destroyed but so had most of the British. This left the jagdpanzers to assault and drive off the last few teams and grab an ojective.
Paks defend an objective.

Churchills advance
Jagdpanzer IVs take up ambush position.
 
Nathan ponders his next move.

Other games also seemed to go well. Most of the games seemed closer than some of the earlier games even thought it ended with another round of German victories.   

Changes?
We need to look at defensive battles in these events, trying to get the balance right with the reserves. The allies struggled vs the tigers and also panthers (6x panzer IVs and 3x panthers being a common list) and with the points totals weren't able to counter these tanks all that well, so a few games were pretty rough on the allies.

Overall though, I thought the weekend was a great success, games were played in a great spirit and everyone brought the right attitude with them and I felt it was the best event so far. As usual it was great to catch up and chill with a great bunch of guys (and girl) and I hope most of them can mae it to the next one.

I had send an e-mail out stating it was probably going to be the last Day of Days (in its current format anyway as I was keen to try a Bolt Acton event) but we brainstormed a few ideas and the  informal organising committee (i.e all the players) decided that they want too stick with Flames for next year but go early war, with Greece 1941 being the theme. EW has never really caught in the South Island so will be an interesting change of pace and I'm all ready dreaming of a motorcycle themed German army.

Craig

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Bolt Action: 8th Army vs DAK

An amusing game of Bolt action at TAG last night. Nigel and I vs Tony and Dave. About 750 pts per side.

The 8th army (regs) had:
3x 10 man sections with lmg
vickers
3" mortar
ATR
2 pdr
Valentine II

The DAK (vets) had:
3x 8 man sectons with LMGs
MMG
mortar
Panzer III late J

The Germans started off with the hiss and a roar, Nigel hitting and destroying the 2pdr with his first mortar round.  Then he had a section of infantry leg it to the table edge. We kept pressure up most of the game but eventually a Valentine and section of infantry arrived on my (right) flank, catching one of my sections in enfilade.

A section of Tommies held a wadi in the centre of the board and the stubborn defenders too a heavy toll on our troops, in the end though our oficer and NCO charged home and slew the last few men in hand to hand combat.

The panzer III managed to survive 2-3 hits from the Valentine before it immobilisd the Val. In the last turn charged  the panzer ith a section of infantry but was driven off, the panzer was buttoned up though and then finally the Val managed to get a shot through the panzers armour and destroy it.

All in all a typicality chaotic and extremely amusing game. Tony and Nigel both enjoyed themselves and are keen for another crack at it soon.

Result 4-3 to the Germans.

Turn 1 A German section moves forward to reconnoiter a wadi.

 The beginning of turn 2 the Tommies deploying troops.
 Brad was official dice chooser.
 Turn 2. A British section occupies the wadi.
 We start to some under intense small arms fire (3 pins to the section and our officer)
 British occupy an area of scrub on our far right flank. 
 Supported by the panzer one of my sections advances.
 Oops, those sneaky Tommies send a flanking force. I'm not trapped between a rock (or in this case wadi) and a hard place.
 The Val also appears. My infantry fall back but are being cut down from the troops in the wadi.
 The there were two.
 The British kill or capture my troops.
 Time for revenge... CHARGE!
 The German officer storms the wadi.
 And destroys the British!
 Last turn, the panzer III succumbs after its third direct hit of the game.
Great game guys, thoroughly enjoyable!


Sunday, February 16, 2014

More Trees for next weekend

A bit more work for next weekend. Some more tree lined hedgerows being made. These are more trees I picked up from China last year. They are pretty bright (the one of the far right in the first picture is how they arrived) so I've dulled them down a bit with a light spray of darkish green paint. Then I've covered them in watered down PVA and dipped them in some woodlands scenics course turf to add more bulk to the foliage. The trees themselves were pretty cheap if I remember correctly but they come up pretty good.



 Yikes! They were pretty bright.

And the finished product. 

 Something you rarely see in BF games- walls and hedges round buildings- a strange concept that.

Craig

Thursday, February 13, 2014

FoW: Breakout Mission

I've come up with anew mission for Day of Days next weekend, a tweak on FFA & Encounter, designed for 6x5 tables and doubles play.



Breakout (Modified FFA)
This battle represents the initial breakout by the US forces (especially) and the fluid nature of the initial clashes as the Germans attempted to plug the gaps in their lines.

Attackers: Your attack has a punched a hole in the enemy front. Your orders are to exploit the situation, grab vital objectives to prevent the enemy from establishing new defensive positions. You must seize and hold at least one of your allocated objectives.

Defender: The enemy has broken through the main defensive line. Your company has been ordered to establish blocking positions to allow time for new defensive positions to be established and so prevent the front from collapsing.  You are to seize and hold at least one of your allocated objectives.

Mobile battle, reserves
1.    Attacker/defender: Roll to determine who is attacker as defender as per normal.

2.    Deployment Zone: Each player starts in a box 12” from the centre line and 24” from the table side.

3.    Objectives: Starting with the attacker both sides place 3 objectives in the enemies side of the board. All objectives must be at least 16” from the centreline and all must be at least 12” apart.

4.    Deployment: Starting with the defenders each player deploys half their force on table, the remainder is in reserve.

5.    Recce Moves: Starting with the defender both sides make recce moves.

6.    First turn: Roll to see who gets the first turn. The defender (who deployed first) gets a +1 to the dice roll.

7.    Reserves: Each player starts to roll for reserves from turn 1 and reserves must come on from each players deployment zone long table edge (i.e 24” along the table edge).



Victory Conditions:
  • The side that captures one of the objectives on the opposing side wins the game.

  • If at the end of the allotted time should neither side capture an objective nor break both enemy companies then the both sides lose and victory points are determined form the loser’s column of the victory points table. 




Day of Days 2014: Victory Points (per team)

Winner
Loser
Number of own platoons lost
Victory Points
Number of enemy platoons destroyed.
Victory Points
0

12
4 or more
6
1

11
3
5
2

10
2
4
3

9
1
3
4 or more
8
0
2

Fair Fight Missions: If neither side wins both teams determine points from the loser’s column.



Test game
We had a test game last night. Brad and Kent using their armoured PG companies (both without any armour) vs US armoured rifles and a sherman company. The shermans proved the difference and Dale was able to blunt Kent's aggrteesive attack and swing the battle our way. The developing battle scenario I envisioned worked well and the game as a lot of fun.

 Armoured SS panzer grenadiers advance.

 The battlefield from Kent's end.
 Kent's new camo- very nice as per usual.
 A pair of 88s caused Dale a major headache. My priests smoked them but it wasn't till the end game that he finally managed to get rid of them.
 Eventually my hellcats arrived and took on Brads SS pak 40s from concealed positions.

 Near the end Dale masses his Shermans.
 Brad's SS platoons came unstuck near the treelined road.
 Kent fails motivation to assault the Shermans as the game ends.


 A fun game and the mission worked well. Facing 2x panzerwerfer batteries was not much fun though.

It should work well next weekend.