A meeting Engagement Overlord Game

It has been some months since our last WW2 game so I decided on a Battle Group Overlord game.

The main objective of the game would be to take and hold the area at the crossroads until the game ended. We fought a 550point game with me fighting with the Germans and my Dad taking control ofthe  Americans. Our recce units stated the game and entered on the road at opposite ends of the table, after two turns we would start to roll for reinforcements, these would enter anywhere along your own table edge.

The battlefield before the start, the church is where the crossroads objective is situated.

The first few moves of the game saw our reccee units push ahead, my command reccee jeep took a objective but was hit by a long range shot from the Puma which was rushing towards the crossroads. Luckily only one of the crew was a casualty and they remained although pinned next to the objective.

When the reserves started to arrive I rolled high on the dice and got most of my remaining troops on in very quick time. My dad suffered some poor rolling and his German reinforcements arrived very slowly. However I was unable to take full advantage of this as my command dice rolling was pants and a lot of my troops were unable to be activated. However a Sherman entering down the road took revenge onthe  Puma and a well placed AP round sees the Puma go up in flames. With no German unit contesting the Crossroads I moved what troops I could to secure this area.

My second Recee unit take the Church and start to try and call in some mortar support from the 60mm platoon mortar.

German reserves start to make a appearance as a Panzer IV starts a fire fight with the lead Sherman and they secure the objective in the German deployment zone.

With more German armour arriving a Sherman takes cover in the ruined farm area and engages in a long range fire fight with a Panzer IV, I manage a couple of hits but I was unable to penetrate the Panzers armour and the crew shook off the effects of the hit with ease.

American troops dash up the road behind the Sherman's making a beeline for the crossroads.

The Panzer IV takes up position behind the field and engages the lead Sherman also.

The result of a penetrating hit by the Panzer IV as the Sherman blows up! My armour is now getting thin on the ground and all the Panzers remained. With this situation deployed my a/t gun just behind the church walls so I could cover the junction.

As a result of having to pick a chit I managed to draw a break down which I played on a Panzer  IV, the  targeted panzer became immobilised (tank crew pictured below attempting to fix the mechanical problem)

with the panzer iv immobilised the German Grenadiers started to arrive and took refuge in the destroyed building near the German objective. This concentration of troops would make it extremely difficult for the Americans to take the German objective and claiming a all objective victory.

With the German infantry opening fire on my troops as i advanced my troops towards the building I decided to call on my mortar support to at least hopefully pin the defenders. However I slightly over shot the mortar and a direct hit saw the ammunition truck behind the house go up with an almighty bang. Thus was the third time the mortar had succeeded in hitting its target directly although the two previous hits had been on a Panzer IV and were unable to cause any significant damage.

After hiding away behind the farm buildings I activated my reserve move on the Stuart tank once all the Panzer IV's had shot and moved into point blank MG range of a Grenadier squad who had sneaked into the ruined building along from the crossroads and were pinning my infantry in that area. Some devasting shooting saw the squad wiped out.

A German 80mm mortar round lands in the church yard but only manages direct hit on  the parked up recce jeep, though the resulting chit was a very expensive 5 pushing me nervously close towards my break point. My anti tank gun is firing round after round but it continuously misses its targets.

The American high command and the remaining recce command squad hold the objectiveon the   American side of the table though it isn't under threat from tne German troops.

A second Verman squad and LMG occupy the building in the final moves of the game and manage to cause enough casualties on an already shot up American infantry squad for them to fail their morale test and rout. My break point was now within 2 of been broken!

The second line of American infantry take cover behind the hedgerow of a field. 

American infantry make towards the garden hedgerows past the smouldering wreck of a Sherman and lend their fire against the building heavly occupied by German infantry. I used area fire to at least try and pin tne German troops who were well protected by the buildings walls but my dad has an unbelievable knack of rolling a one on the dice when he rolls to try and stop the effects of area fire. Twice in two moves a roll of one saw the LMG squad take two casualties and fall below 50% while becoming pinned and rout..thankyou dad

Still though the Germans had enough troops to secure the German held objective as more 60mm mortar rounds drop on tne building.

With the last move my dad moved a Panzer IV up to contest tne junction objective to deny me claiming  victory. I was powerless to stop this as I rolled a poor command roll on my final turn and was unable to put my troops on reserve fire, oh how I would have loved to put a bazooka round into that Panzer IV!

So the game came to a close with both of us holding a objective each and contesting the primary objective at the junction. However my force was on the brink of collapse been only two points away from going over my battle group rating thanks to some rather large numbered chits I had managed to draw were as my dad was still someway away from his total. With this we awarded the Germans a tactical victory on the day. I can't help but feel I managed to let victory slip through my fingers today, still a good game and it was nice to get my WW2 forces back on the table again after abit of a absence .

A shifting in gaming Napolionics

My dad recently purchased the Blucher rules by Sam Mustafa after liking what he had read about them in various wargames mags, so at the weekend my dad asked me if I fancied have a trial game with him as he felt he understood enough of tne rules to have a crack at the game. We used our French & Austrian armies which were based for our Blackpowder games so we put the units onto a piece of card to represent the size of the base required for the game scale in Blucher. What was to follow over the next couple of hours was a very enjoyable Napolionic wargame. I must admit to have been instantly won over by the rule set, I really enjoyed the mechanics of the game and after only a few moves I felt like I had played the game before and that it wasn't my first time using playing them. It was a completely different game to how our Blackpowder games for this period played out, in fact it was so much better. That doesn't mean to knock Blackpowder as they are a rule system I enjoy playing but Blucher just seemed to really flow along easy although it throws up quite a few tactical decisions along the way and you can play big battles easily if you wish, they just seemed more suited to this period than Blackpowder. The great thing about this is we only played using basic rules, there so much more to be added to your games if you want to!

So the result of this game of Blucher is that my dad and I were both in agreement to swap over to blucher 100%! my Dad has already set about the tedious task of rebasing both out Napolionic armies so they will be on the correct scale. I think the troops look great on the new bases so I've added a few pictures to show how they are starting to shape up.

French line infantry division

Guard Heavy gun battery on line medium gun battery

French Hussairs and Currasiers  

The Austrian infantry

Austrian Medium gun battery

Austrian light cavalry, a mixture of Uhalans and Hussairs 

The only thing is now been able to play bigger scale games means I'll probably start getting itchy fingers to buy more French :) I will be purchasing the rule book myself over the forth coming weeks and I most certainly looking forward to our next game of Blucher,which when the armies have been rebased I will put up a AAR of.

First class transport for the vampire Lord

Here is my Vampire Lords base for my Vampire Warband army compete with a black coach and accompanying vampire bride. Not the best light available when I took the pictures but you still get a good idea of how it looks. The model is by Pendraken 10mm and is very nice model indeed. Might have to purchase another one for my Napolionics although it won't be accompanied by ghosts and spirits :)

Find the Prize Undead v dwarfs

I decided to pick a 500 point Undead army to take on my dads drawf army on Sunday in a find tne prize scenario. The armies were as follows,

Undead

X 4 Warriors (2 with water walkers ability)

X 1 Zombie horde

X 1 Necromancer D6

X 1 Undead Lord D6 (powerful/regenerate ability)

X 1 Dire Wolves

X 1 Spirt Host 

X 1 Ghoul unit

Drwafs

X 5 Dwarf Warriors (resolute ability)

X 1 Dwarf Lord D6+2

X 1 Boulder elements

X 1 Bezerkers (troll slayers)

X 1 Noble riders

My dad chose 3 hills and I elected for 2 marshes and a rocky area. I managed to roll 2 6's so lost a marsh and the rocky area. Only one hill was deployed on my side of the table with two hills and a marsh ending up on my dads right hand quarter with another hill to the left flank. All these areas had markers put on them to represent their could be treasure in this area. My dads army deployed all their strength on the hills with only the noble riders opposing my spirit host ready to race to the hill to check out if their was any plunder to be had on the hill to the left. 

The dwarfs won the initiative and advanced straight onto the hills to check the hidden markers, the very first roll saw my dad roll a 6 on discover the hidden treasure....not good for the undead as I would have to march across a hill and marsh just go reach the drawf battleline who were at full strength lined on a hill and resolute, this would be a tall order to defeat for any army! The cross on the hill marks the treasure spot.

The spirt hosts had used their fast movement to threaten the dwarf flank o the noble riders charged them along with the troll slayers who had become impetuous and stormed into combat at the first opportunity obviously keen to die a glorious death. However not wanting to be out done the dire wolves sensed blood and they also charged into tne combat after becoming impetuous. 

The undead horde using their Lord to move them due to their slow movement rate ground to a halt when they reached the hill, they remained here for three moves after three failures by my Lord. Luckily I managed to move into range of the objective on tne fourth time of asking as I would have lost the game if they hadn't as the draws would have been in control of tne treasure after 4turns.

The combat between the ghosts and noble riders swings to and fro as does the dire wolves and trollslayers. A warrior unit comes to tne aid of tne troll slayers and manage go rout tne dire wolves although I did manage to rally these in tne next game turn.

After beating tne dire so,vets the warriors Perdue into the ghouls who prove to be more than a match for the drawf warriors. A second unit enters the combat to help (the single dwarf represents the units hero) but still the Gouls stand fast with the aid of my Necromancer who was rolling well on his magic points, so I was able to boost the protection and melee attacks of the units involved in the combats. The troll slayers down to one morale point started to retreat away from danger.

After what seemed an age tne skeleton warriors finally launch a charge against tne dwarfs on the hill although each Attack which I launch us repulsed time after time although the undead Lord and warrior unit start to win their combat, but tne dwarfs been resolute ment I couldn't shift them off the hill. Good command rolls for tne best part of God game allowed my dad to save most of tne hits I managed hi inflict onto tne warriors.

The Dwarf Lord charges into the Zombies as the gouls still hold tne dwarf warriors. The Necromancer goes behind tne dwarf lines where he manages to fire a magic bolt at the troll slayers who had become impetuous again and had charged towards the Necromancer in the process routing tne unit from tne board.

A magic spell from tne Necromancer sees tne dwarf Lord struggle to inflict any sounds onto tne zombie horde as tne unit starts to regenerate its fallen warriors in true undead style.

With the undead line repulsed tne dwarfs take the initive and charge into tne repulsed undead units. The bolder elements destroy a undead warrior unit.

After destroying one warrior unit the boulders charge into the flank of another warrior unit who are also destroyed as they are alredy fighting to their front with tne dwarf warriors protecting tne treasure. There was no way I could claim tne objective now do I was goingo have to try and break the dwarf army to claim victory

The Necromancer changes his target after frazzling the troll slayers and starts to turn up tne heat on a unit of warriors.

Pretty much the who,e game these two units fought in melee to a stalemate although come th end of e game tne noble riders were down to one wound and just about ready to break.

The drawf Lord becomes bogged down with the zombies and he is joined in combat by a unit of drawf who had routed tne dire wolves foe a second time. By this stage my Ghpuls have been destroyed too.

The Undead Lord finally breaks a unit of dwarf warriors and pursues and destroys the unit before the dwarf warriors over come the magic Attack against them and charge tne Necromancer who somehow hold his own in combat.

The bolder elements after destroying its second unit of Skelton warriors turns and charges another in the flank. Somehow my dad manages to miss with all his attacks in this combat so the skeleton warriors although down to one life hold,  the dwarf warriors on the hill suffer to and are down to one life but still been resolute they hold steadfast in the hill

The zombies are pushed back and pursued back towards their own table edge and with that we ran out of time. I just about managed to contest the objective stopping the dwarfs from claiming an all out victory but my army was on its last legs (or bones). The dwarfs had suffered to though and a couple of their units were down to one casualty remaining and ready to break anytime now. However my warriors were about broken and I don't think I would get lucky again in the combat with the Boulder elements again!

It was a good game and for a first outing I think my undead did reasonably well. I felt I was up against it from the off as I lost my terrain pieces which I would have benefited from and with my dad finding tne treasure on the very first turn ment he could construct a very tough battle line on top of two hills. I found the undead to be slow moving and you do need to rely on Boss to get the troops moving which   unfortunately my boss failed to do for a couple of turns. However if you can get your magic user on song this really can boost your army especially in combat which is very important as the undead are quite fragile in that area although they are quite a durable army. The undead proved to be a challenge to use but it was also fun especially when you can regenerate all those fallen warriors, and even maybe one or two of those dwarf warriors or troll slayers lol. 

The Undead are here....

Having just returned from a family holiday in the sunny land of Ibiza I got a nice surprise when my dad during this time had painted all my undead figures for my new Warbands army, So I've taken a few photos of the units to show you how they look. The figures are for the most part Pendraken and magister Militum, only the spirt horde are Kilistra. I had decided to do both the Vampie and undead armies as quite a few of the units can be used in boh army lists, e.g Bats, Wolves, Gouls etc.

And as I stated in a earlier post I have used the theme I had in my warhammer Vampire counts army, so now I have a mini version :). Anyhow up first is the undead army,

Undead Spearman and H/W shield warriors all with the Black and red colour scheme.

Durrhhhh Brains errrrrrr....... Zombie Hordes 

The undead missile troops, Archers, A Screamimg skulls catapult and Boltthrowers.

Undead Cavalry and Chariots and a Spirt Horde.

Bat Swarms and Undead Carrion (use as Vultures)

My Undead Lord mounted on a Zombie Dragon

Next up Here is the Vampire army

My thrall warriors (well peasants really just thought they made nice town folk) and archers

Howl howl...its a full moon Werewolves and dire Wolves

A unit of mummies (used for Crypt Gouls) and two ghoul hordes.

Banshees (these il use as Revenants), Gargoyles and the back stand is a unit of lesser vampires (7 vampires as in the seven golden vampires for those old enough to remember the film)

My Liece Priest or Necromancer to be used for both armies, this base has some kind of ritual going on, I hate to think what it maybe...

The only thing missing from my army is my Vampire Lord soTomorrow I'll be attending the Durham Wargames show where I will be picking up what I requie to complete my lord base and a unit of grave grubs to thrown into the mix to. I can't wait to see how my vampire Lord looks when it gets its finishing piece but I'm not going to be giving any clues until it's finished :) one of the armies will get a run out on Sunday against my dads Dwarves, which one I'm not to sure yet.