D Day 75th Anniversary battle

 Over the past weekend Kent and I headed up to Christchurch to take part in Andy Tucker’s Sword beach landing multiplayer game of FoW to commemorate the 75^th anniversary of the D Day landings. Andy and the other Christchurch gamers really put in a mammoth effort in getting the game together and countless hours of work in creating fortifications, terrain and making sure the whole event went off without a hitch. Having organised events myself I really appreciate the work that went in behind the scenes to make sure this game was a huge success, we even managed to get on the national news!

Anyway, Kent and I headed up on Friday afternoon. We were both running British lists, I had some commandos and Kent was taking a confident trained 3^rd infantry division force- once we’d locate his army and borrowed it off Martin who was also gracious enough to host for the weekend.

Saturday

It was a great game. On day one we landed and stormed the beaches. Re were six British players (me, Kent, Jonathan, Graham, Lionel and Jamie) vs three Germans (Andy, Thomas and Josh) so from the get go the Germans were seriously outnumbered but their fortifications, bunkers, HMG nests, sea walls , minefields and other defences mitigated this somewhat.

As the allies our objective was simple, storm the beach, overcome the beachfront defenes and push inland as quickly as we could before the Germans could counter attack.

My commandos landed at the far left end of the beach and used a lot of smoke (once my artillery support arrived) to neutralise strongpoints and avoid as much damage as I could as we struggled through the initial rows of fortifications. On my immediate right Kent’s confident trained infantry got badly chewed up but eventually made it over the seawall and took out the first line of fortifications and, with the help of Jonathan’s troops, spent a large part of the weekend clearing the very tough casino complex and nearby bunkers. Beside Kent Jonathan’s forces stormed over the wall and into Ouistreham and pushed inland, decimating his son Thomas’s defending forces in the process. On our far right Jamie, Lionel and Graham (our Wellington import for the weekend) also ground out a bloody toe hold and by the end of the day vs Josh and Thomas and by the end of the day on Saturday had too had overcome the beach defences and were starting to push inland in the face of fierce resistance.

Sunday

Sunday morning we resumed the game which had found the allies firmly ensconced in Normandy- having cleared almost all of the first table of enemy though the flak tower in Ouistreham cotinued to hold out for most of the day- though Kent used smoke to neutralise its use as an observer platform. The beaches were reinforced with several armoured squadrons landing whose assistance was greatly appreciated. My commandos had dug in as they were were somewhat exposed to counter attack on the far left of the British front line but Jonathan and Kent soon moved armour and tank destroyers over to support and Jonathon’s other armour started to push out of Ouistreham and so outflank the next line of defences.

Day two turned into a major tank fest as the Germans counter attacked with several companies of panzer IVs, panzer grenadiers and other assets. As I said, Andy ended up commanding the entire German right flank vs Jonathan, Kent and I so did a sterling job trying to keep track of everything we were up to whilst still managing the overall game- ah the joys of higher command.  

The Germans had random reserves and luckily for my commandos most of the German armour ended up pushing against the British right flank and so for most of the day Lionel and Graham were hard pressed defending vs large amounts of massed German armour. As part of the game rules Andy had assigned possible air or naval support each turn and the British had 3 such units available (depending on dice rolls- which we tended to divvy up as one per pair of players). However, on day two we all gave all our artillery assets to Lionel and Graham as they needed everything they could to hold off Thomas and Josh. By late afternoon however the situation had improved considerably. Our AVRE Churchills were pretty hard for most of the German tanks to deal and were ably supported by numerous troops of Shermans and Cromwells so slowly but surely the balance swayed in our favour and in the end we blunted (aka destroyed) the German counter attack and the Germans were forced to withdraw inland.

Final result:  A very hard fought minor victory to the British.

It was a great game andI love games where the table is so big that artillery assets need to redeploy forward to get back in range of enemy forces, really adds another dimension to the game, and the result. It probably was close to reality in that the Germans faced overwhelming numbers and their counter attack, s in the real one od D Day stalled in the face of overwhelming numbers. In the actual battle the commandoes managed to link up with the paras at Pegasus bridge whilst the counter attack by the 21^st panzer prevented a link up between Sword and Juno beaches.

Inspired to get back into gaming

Before the event I’d been a tad reluctant to take part. I’d not taken part in a Flames of War games for quite a long time but this game has once again inspired me both the play Flames (V3) and also rekindled my love of large multiplayer big battles- they can be a hell of a lot of fun.

Truth be told over the past few years I’ve really pulled back from organised gaming, comps and events like this and this year with everything else that’s been going on have had little motivation or interest in gaming in general. In fact more often than not this year Kent and I have postponed our scheduled games as a range of other things have cropped up to get in the way of our regular game. So long story short I wasn’t that keen to get involved and almost decided to pull out a couple of weeks ago. I had too much other real life stuff I was dealing with and really wasn’t that motivated to play so told Andy I wasn’t going to be able to make it but after a few messages between us I  changed my mind  tans in the end thought bugger it and went.

I am really glad I did go. Not only did Andy put on a fantastic weekend but the guys participating were a great bunch that really got into the spirit of the event. Andy not only ensured that everyone had fun but also bravely took command on the entire right flank of the German counter attack on day two and fought vs Kent, Jonathan single handedly so was a tad busy all day ensuring things ran smoothly whilst still trying his best to focus on the game. 

But for me, more important than the gaming was getting out and having a chance to catch up with Martin Wilkinson, Stephen Stout, Eric Juhl, Dave Dreaver and a few other old  lags, reminisce about the various Day of Days weekends we had ran, other events we’d gamed, the pros and cons of the various rulesets we were playing, and so had a great opportunity to just shoot the breeze and reconnect with a great community of gamers. It really was the pick up I needed so thanks Andy.

 A few pictures follow: 

Cheers 

Craig

Day of Days 2016- kind of

Had an entertaining day of gaming with Simon and Mark down from Wellington, Dale, Nigel and Kent. The brothers brought a couple of games down for us to play.

Skirmish Outbreak 

First up was Poochie's own Skirmish Outbreak, a zombie apocalypse game. He gave me a copy of the rules when I was in Wellington for Nick's funeral- cheers Poochie- but hadn't had a chance to play it. Mark and Simon had a bit of a scenario. A Rangers humvee had broken down and we had to get 4 elite rangers across town to a awaiting helicopter so off we snuck trying our best to avoid stirring up too much trouble. Soon enough Dale and Nigel turned up and our mission changed...

Fed agents, Scully and Mulder, along with two two hillbillies, Bill and Ted, needed rescuing and taking to the chopper. A rendezvous point was arranged and we all started to converge on it, dodging Zombies as we went. Next up Kent arrived and soon Sheriff Roscoe P Coltrane and Blondini, a hooker he was arresting, too needed to get to the chopper.

I'd like to say it was a well structured game and we all worked together to achieve our goals but that would be utter bollocks. We all ran off in random directions to the chopper. Sometimes converging to gang up on and smack down some Zeds, then running off to leave people to fight their way free- when the apocalypse comes its every man for himself!

In the end we had to clear the chopper of a "rager" and hold off the horde till the pilot was able to start up the chopper. Some good saves vs zombie infections meant we only lost one person (Sheriff Coltrane) and managed to get most of us away. Much hilarity ensued throughout the game and it was a hell of a lot of fun, highlights being Scully and Mulder being pretty pathetic Feds at fighting Zombies till Nigel learned about taking head shots and suddenly the zombie count started climbing rapidly.

The mad rush for the chopper.

Out objective.

Thoughts: A fun game but found the D20 mechanism a bit counter intuitive to our D&D brains in that low was good. I'd reverse the rolls if I were to play it regularly. The action point mecahics etc seemed pretty cool and the game was a lot of fun, and a great beer and pretzels game. Kent is now plotting his own force and Nigel was showing a lot of interest too.

1:48 scale Combat
Well after that we didn't think we'd be able to get a more enjoyable game but Simon and Mark had one more game for us to try. Bueada miniatures free 1:48 scale combat. A free one page skirmish ruleset. Now those that know me will tell you I'm not  a fan of skirmish gaming but I must say this game was one hell of a blast. We each chose two soldiers to play and ended having the most entertaining 1 1/2 hours of gaming. 6 vs 6 on a 6ft x 5ft table and it was an absolute blast. The Germans (Kent, me and Nigel) started off well but then a crazy Free French (we re-skinned the Soviets) took out half our squads and in the end it came down to Kent and m,y last Germans trying to take out the Free French sniper. Kent ran at him and died so it came down to my landser charging the sniper in hand to hand and missing with all his attacks, only for the French sniper to likewise miss with all his attacks (we both had one wound left) then the German finished him off.

A very entertaining and surprisingly tactical game, not bad for a one page rule set and it really was a blast to play.

The Free French are on the right- Mark, Dale and Simon, closest to the camera is Kent and Nigel "the wheelchaired one" are on the left.

Thanks guys, I look forward to our game next year.

Craig

Day of Days 2016 + Earthquake anniversary

It’s been a while since my last update, most of the summer in fact. I have continued to do next to no gaming, or gaming related activities. but have been busy on other things, surfing, going to the bach, football at the masters games, cricket etc. All the usual summer stuff, as well as getting ready for a major building reno on my bach. Work has also gone a bit crazy. The polytech I worked for has merged with our larger norther neighbour (CPIT) and so trying to align two completely different systems and ways of doing almost everything has been a tad difficult, to say the least. Still students have started for the year now so hopefully things will settle down over the next few months. Other news, last week Julie and I celebrated our 20^th wedding anniversary and she also started work last week as a fully qualified midwife. So things have definitely been changing around here.

This weekend is the weekend we would typically run our Day of Days events and although they have gone by the by but two of the stalwarts of the past few years, Simon and Mark Taylor come down as it coincides with their mothers birthday so we’ve arranged a bit of a get together to roll some dice and have invited a few of our locals along too- Dale, Nigel, Kent and Brad.

Finally, tomorrow marks the 5^th anniversary of the devastating Christchurch Earthquake and last Sunday was the first major aftershock in a couple of years, which caused cliffs to crumble at Sumner and Godley Heads and was a reminder to  people that is isn't completely over for them yet. 

I was in town for work a couple of days  two weeks back and stayed at my mate Ian’s place. He still lives just round the road from where we flatted together before I got married and just round the road form where we both grew up. We went for a walk round the old neighbourhood. I was hoping to forage for some fruit (apricots, nectarines, peaches etc are in season) but much to my surprise all the fruit trees had gone and all that is left is street after street of abandoned lots. Even the street signs, apart from "No Exit" ones have been taken, I assume as mementos by former residents of this once thriving suburb. We could not a single fruit tree in the entire area.

This is all that remains of the street we lived in, Kingsford St. We found only two houses remaining in the red zone one of which, to my surprise, was the place my Grandmother owned when she first moved to Christchurch in the early 1980s. Everything else is long gone.

This google satellite image shows part of the street, post earthquake but before the houses had been removed as a comparison.

This cabbage tree is all that remains of Ian’s old house where we lived.

And a post earthquake comparison of his former home.

Looking up Kingsford St towards the Port Hills.

And how it used to look, again post earthquake but before the houses were removed.  

Craig