Napolionic British

No game this weekend so while I was at my dads house visiting I decided to take a few snaps of the British & Allies army my dad is currently working on for our games of Blucher and I must say they look great...

British line infantry and front left us the Highland brigade.

My dad has made good progress in the short time he has been painting them and we should see them in the table top in the next few weeks.

More British line infantry and a foot guards brigade.

The Household cavalry brigades, Heavy Dragoons and Guard cavalry

I love the limber on the base for the British  artillery 

British allies, Brunswick infantry brigades

And a brigade of the Brunswick cavalry.

Operation break out WW2 Desert action

A British armoured division had been tasked to lead a break out from the town which had become in danger of been completely cut off by the Germans. The out skirts of the town can be seen in the British deployment zone (played by my Dad). I took command of the German armoured division which was to repel the British counter attack and destroy as much of the British armour as possible. I set my forces into three commands and after winning the roll off I managed to get partial superiority of the air which was to come in very handy keeping them Spitfires from strafing my Panzers! Here is how the table looked at the start, the game was played using Blitzkrieg commander rules.

British infantry man the outer town buildings as the Matilda's ready to move out

More British armour in the form of Grants, these tanks proved to be quite deadly when firing as a command when in range with both guns (5 attack dice each)

The early turns saw my tiger 1 get the first of many kills as it ok'd a distant crusader, easily out ranging the British tank. First blood to the Germans

One of my commands made up of a 20mm A/A gun, 3 x panzer 1V and a Pak 38 moves toward at a steady pace.

A couple of British 6 pounders lie in wait on the cover of the palm trees 

After knocking another Crusader out my Tiger gets a rush of blood and leaves the cover of the Palm trees to rush towards the nearest enemy unit after I rolled a blunder. (Unsurprising I managed to roll 4 blunders in this game) All British guns would now be targeting the heavy weight German tank. However in my dads turn some rather poor shooting saw the tiger scratched here and there before it was forced to retreat back away from the British tanks. A big let off for my prized tiger.

My dads Sherman troop had real trouble getting around in this game as he constantly failed command rolls. In actuall fact my dad managed to fail every command roll in his turn one move so literally nothing moved or shot...not the greatest plan for a break  out :)

However when the Shermans did get to move and shoot they made short work of the Panzer IV's

I managed to get a couple of stukkas to arrive during the game but their bombing runs where a little of target and apart from suppressing the British Matilda's little damage was done.

A very costly move saw my dad blunder and two crusader tanks dashed from their cover towards the German Panzer III's. This put my Panzers into initiative range so they moved around the crusaders flanks.

Having now out manovered the crusaders the Panzers k coked out both tanks opening up the British right flank.

Another crusader is knocked out by the tiger but somehow the Mitilda manages to survive turn after turn of intense fire from the tiger tank which by this stage was starting to annoy my dad....which was a shame 

So to counter this after rolling a double 1 for his air observer and getting to choose a target without having to roll for deviation my dad targeted the problem tiger and managed to miss with all the attack dice...this tiger was living a very charmed life

With the British right flank destroyed the panzer III's started to push towards the British centre and flank them. 

The RAF turned up again but once again the bombs missed their target despite the panzer III's been open targets. My dad had trouble passing his roll for Air support as with me winning the air superiority roll his command roll was on a minus 1 for the game.

A Sherman blundered its command roll and moved towards my Pak 38 which had been a nuisance to the Grants and Shermans all game suppressing them frequently. The Sherman quickly turned into a ball of flames. 

The end of the game, I had managed to stop the British counter attack and had inflicted a telling amount of casualties in doing so. I had lost a fair few Panzers myself in the battle and didn't quite manage to press home the advantage I had on the British right flank which I had turned. I became a little cautious after feeling the wrath of the grants at short range! However my dad who had suffered due to some very poor command rolling had started to retreat away from my remaining force and in particular the tiger which proved to be a major player in a German Victory.

The battered British armour retreats back to the town under the cover of darkness after its failure to breakout and destroy the attacking German Panzers.

Napolionic meeting engagement AAR

Last weekend we ran another game of Blucher with our French and Austrain armies. My new Bavarian corp made its debut in what turned out to be a cracking battle. The morning and early afternoon part of the battle certainly belonged to the My dad and his Austrians as some well timed Currasier charges really dented my infantry attack and threatened to completely overrun my left flank. However a couple of light cavalry brigades managed to hold the Austrain advance at bay for a few vital turns so my Infantry could reposition itself into a orderly battleline. Over on the right flank my Bavarian corp attacked late in the afternoon and attacked with some vigour as it pushed the Austrian left flank back,destroying a couple of brigades in the process. The game was very much in the balance as both sides threw there reserves into the action to try and grasp the victory. My French Currasiers managed to rout a couple of retreating Austrian infantry brigades and over run a heavy artillery mass battery to come within one unit of breaking the Austrian army. In my dads last turn he committed his elite Grenadiers into Davouts remaining depleted infantry brigades who somehow against all the odds managed to hold their ground. Unfortunately we had reached the time we agreed the game would finish as darkness started to descend across the battlefield. Victory was in my grasp and one more turn I am certain would have managed to break one more Austrian brigade to break the armies morale. It most certainly played out to be a game of two halves, I really felt the game had gone when those Austrian Currasiers reeked havoc on my startled French infantry. However once those Austrian Currasiers lost there impetus and started to suffer heavy Casualties and my dad started to roll me some decent command points! the game seemed to turn. My artillery was once again constantly inflicted casualties on the massed Collumns of Austrian infantry and the Bavarians made a resounding debut. I'm really enjoying everything about Blucher rules, long may it continue..Great stuff all round.

My 1st infantry corp and artillery advancing on the left flank.

Davouts corps led by himself, consisted of 6 brigades of infantry two of which were elite. These units were to lead the attack in the centre of the battlefield with every intention to sweep away all in front of them. The Austrian infantry moved up to meet this advance head on.

The Austrian infantry brigade suffers in a fire fight with the French infantry after they advance to the base of the hill after coming under heavy fire from the Bavarian heavy guns. 

The Austrian infantry corp on their left flank activate themselves and move across the battlefield to threaten Davouts corps right flank.

Seen the danger of the Austrian infantry moving towards Davouts flank the Bavarian corp makes its first move as it heads to intercept the Austrian corp.

Austrian Veteran Grenz and Landwehr brigades occupy the town.

The first of the Austrian Currasiers are revealed from their concealed position and charge into the unprepared French infantry led by Davout.

Over on the French right flank I'm again totally taken by surprise as another Curradier brigade hammers into my startled French infantry, again unprepared!

The French artillery taking position in front of tne town. Later in the game this artillery unit would be over run by a brigade of Currasiers.

With their Austrian counterparts been in the thick of tne action I launched my Heavy cavalry corp from reserve in support of the Bavarian corp. however a couple of turns of poor command points saw this  attack falter for the moment.

The Austrian grenadiers follow up the Currasiers  attack on the French left hand side corp. the result of tne combat sees the French infantry give even more ground as the left flank threatens to collapse.

Over on tne right flank the Bavarians finally get into the action and along with a brigade from Davouts corp manage to break two Austrian brigades and take there ground.

These two brigades of French cavalry helped stem the tide on the French left flank as there constant attacks against the Austrian grenadiers and remaining depleted Currasiers allowed the French infantry reform. They just about managed to remain in the game but there exploits had left them severely spent.

The final attack late in the game from the elite Austrian Grenadiers broke one of the French brigades on the hill but somehow the other French brigade managed to actually win the melee!

The Bavarian corp and French cavalry push deep into the Austrian deployment area as the Austrian left flank starts to collapse and retreat.

With a brigade of Austrian Grenadiers badly worn in their sights and unprepared the French Currasiers ready themselves to charge their foe and almost certainly (dice rolls permitting) gain the Final point needed to break the Austrian army but the game had come to its conclusion as the time was up.

The final battlefield, the French lost 4 brigades and the Austrians 7 brigades. A morale victory go the army of France.

New Bavarians........

About to make their debut in today's game of Blucher is my new corps of Bavarians. Ready for action are four brigades of infantry and a artillery section. The cavalry brigade is not quite ready yet but will follow shortly.