Flames of War "Battle of Kufra"

Been quiet for a while due to work commitments, but I managed to put on a Battle of Kufra game at the club meeting this Sunday.

Forces:

Italians:
1 x Mitraglieri Platoon and 2 A/T guns in the fort
1 Libyan Rifle Platoon in the Village
1 Italian scratch force (1 A/t Gun, 1 HMG, 2 Infantry Stands, 1 Command Stand, and an AA gun) defending the Airstrip
Sporadic Air

Delayed, random reserves
3 Autosahariana Platoons
1 Mitraglieri Platoon

Free-French:
Set-up anywhere on the table 12+" away from an enemy

4 Infantry Platoons
1 HMG platoon
1 Mortar Platoon
1 single 75mm Gun
2 Armoured cars
3 carriers

N.B If the French capture the village they get two additional Italian AA guns mounted on trucks.

Pictures of the action below

Initial Set-up
Fort El-Taj dominating the table, with the village, Oasis, and Airstrip

Libyan rifle platoon defending the Village as the Free-French advance

Free-French advance on the Airstrip led by a recon carrier platoon

French attack the village, led by the two armoured cars.
Meanwhile Infantry, mortars, and HMG, along with the 75mm Gun pound the Fort.

Over at the Airstrip the French attack, destrying an AA gun empacement!

French infantry attacking the fort, but suffer withering fire from the italian HMG.
In return they manage to kill three Italian infantry stands

Turn 4
The Italians get reserves and the Autosahariana counterattack the French at the village, destroying the armoured cars with their superior firepower!

Over at the Airstrip more Sahariana arrive to defend the Airstrip

Turn 5
Not looking good for the French as another platoon of Autosahariana arrive from reserve, machine gunning the French infantry, pinning them down in the open, and halting their attack!!

Turn 6
The Italians overwelm the French at the Village

French Infantry attacking the fort have almost been destroyed! They've lost their HMG, Mortars and most of the Infantry Platoon

More Italian Mitraglieri arrive from reserve, things aren't going well for the French anywhere on the table!

                                   

Its all over!!
Fort El-Taj remains in the hands of the Italians, as does the Village, and Airstrip
The Free-French are a broken force!

So a resounding victory for the Italians! The French player rolled low all game, and the Italians rolled high, which didn't help? Also the Italian player got his reserves when and where he wanted them, which helped defeat the French?

Next month I'll be doing an attack on Rethymnon Airfield during the Crete Campaign. Fallschirmjagers parachuting in, against Greek and Australian defenders! Should be bloody?!?

Hope you enjoyed this AAR. Please feel free to leave a comment as feedback is always appreciated. Happy gaming!

Damn those Sticky Bombs!!

I spent a very enjoyable Good Friday and Easter Saturday taking part in Mark L.'s FOW Crete campaign. The campaign was on all week culminating in a final battle on Easter Saturday. I played a scratch force of New Zealand Infantry and the first game I played was "Prison Valley"

Orders were to basically hold a village in the centre of the table and repel the oncoming Fallschirmajager. The game started well enough but then two Panzer II's showed up and basically ran amok! lol I assaulted with two infantry platoons armed with Sticky bombs and managed during the course of the game to kill 7 infantry stands and my 1iC by rolling "1's". My 2iC also got killed and I ended up with one command stand and about 18 infantry left. In the final turn the Germans threw everything they had at me, Arti, MG, HMG, A/T, but my lone officer manged to survive on a final roll of the dice, passing his motivation.

Second game was to hold the village of Kithanos, with some Cretan partizans and New Zealands, again against Fallschirmjager. Hidden in the buildings I managed to mow down most the Germans with rifle and HMG fire. Even the Cretans, hitting on a six wiped out one platoon of Fallschirmpioneers!

On the Saturday the third game was to repel a Fallschirmjager Para jump (Maleme Beach)and prevent them taking the village and getting on the big table (Maleme Airfield). The German drop lost half of one platoon when they landed in a minefield, and I managed to hold them up till turn 4. They had Von de Heydte leading them and his special rule kept bringing teams back from the dead(Very annoying!!) In the end I failed to pass a motivation to close assault, so the Germans captured the village.

Final game was Maleme Airfield, involving 6 players, My New Zealanders played it safe in this game and the Germans eventually took the objectives. All in all a great campaign and well done to Mark for organising it all. He's in the process of writing up reports in a "comic Strip" style.

VBCW

Another project in the pipeline is going to be a Very British Civil War. I like skirmish games and this has caught my imagination. Basically an alternative history game, with the King failing to abdicate and marrying Mrs Simpson. Mosely is made P.M and the Facists side with the crown. The church is the main opposition, along with local Militia's. I'm in the process of painting up some Facists, Territorials, Militia, and Anglican League troops. Rules will be Triump and Tradegy and first up is some Facist Transports which I converted and painted from LLedo trucks, purchased from Ebay.

Lord C, and Helga shown for scale

Lord Chelmsford with his bodyguard Helga, and his staff Car

Feel free to leave a comment. More pics as and when I get them done.

The Jomsvikings are Here!

After getting my copy of the new Northern Fury supplement from Gripping Beast, I decided to get some more Jomsvikings and build another warband (This SAGA game really is cheap to get into, you dont need many figures etc etc lol).

My efforts so far


1 Warlord
3 groups of Hearthguard

This was supplemented by Jarl Sigvaldi and his Jomsvikings which I already had. I will use some of my existing viking's as warriors, luckily you don't have levies to worry about in the Jomsvikings Warband.


My Warlord
A lovely sculpt

1st group
I used and converted the free Scottish Warlord and the other three I had lying around. I particular like the guy with the wench slung over his shoulder!

2nd Group
All GB Figures



3rd Group
Again, all GB



Group shot, including Jarl Sigvaldi on the top right

All in all very impressed with the figures and I'm looking forward to getting them on the table and unleashing some Wrath on the enemy.

Feel free to leave a comment. Happy gaming!

Flames of War German Early War Czech Company

Iv'e now finished off the last elements of my Czech Company for our upcoming Early War campaign at the club......


                                 First up the 105 battery

                                               Recon

A 221(mg) and 222(2cm)

And finally the Panzerschutzen Platoon

So along with the tank Platoons in my previous post this completes my 2000pt Czech Panzer Company. I'm looking forward to taking on the French, Polish and BeF with these guys for some early war fun and games.

Feel free to leave a comment

SAGA "The Black Raven" !!

I decided my Viking's needed a longship so they could rape and pillage more efficiently.lol So i got a Revell Longship from Ebay and made it up. Quite please with the results,and i decided to do a stowed sail, rather than the pre-formed plastic one that came with the kit?

Let me know what you think, comments appreciated.

The Black Raven

Jarl Sigvaldi and his Jomsvikings on board

Hoping to get a game in at the club this Sunday, and will take along the Black Raven, to scare the bejesus out of the Anglo-Danes!