review your wargaming year 2019

Started by petercooman, 31 December 2019, 11:58:26 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

GridGame

1: best new rules/game you played?
My own solo Ancients rules

2: worst new rules/game you played?
Early version of above

3: best purchase you did this year?
Pendraken miniatures & switching to acrylic paints

4: worst purchase you did this year?
Osprey books – Lawrence and the Arab Revolts. Not that it's not a good book just that it was not on the theme of my wargaming armies. A frustrated purchase really (at a show) as what I wanted was Osprey books on ECW tactics.

5: most expensive purchase this year? And did you regret it?
Pendraken miniatures & no.

6: game you played the most this year?
My own solo Ancients rules

7: game you wish you had played more this year?
Nothing specific – just more

8: how many models did you paint (roughly)?
100

9: which unused models/games did you sell/trade?
None

10: would you review your year as a good year of wargaming, or did you want more?
Yes

FierceKitty

You could answer "no" to the last and be saying the same thing, Bernard.
I don't drink coffee to wake up. I wake up to drink coffee.

Orcs



1: best new rules/game you played?

Battleground, THis were good, but I have invested to much time in Chain of Command to change.

2: worst new rules/game you played?

Nothing really bad. I found 7 TV did ot grab me


3: best purchase you did this year?

Two boards to allow me to conert dining table to 8' x 5' gaming table

4: worst purchase you did this year?

Smoke Markers by Westwind.  they were much too shiny. Going to make my own

5: most expensive purchase this year? And did you regret it?

Two Double sided gaming mats from Cigar box. No

6: game you played the most this year?

Frostgrave campaign with Sunjester and another two freinds

7: game you wish you had played more this year?

Black Powder

8: how many models did you paint (roughly)?


Not a particularly good tear this year. I think I spent too much time flitting from one project to another. The 15mm ancients took an awful lot of time, probably more than starting from scratch.


10mm
95 foot
19 Mules
3 guns

15mm

Repainted 200 odd Ancients


20mm
70 Foot
24 assorted vehicles

28mm

11 Foot

9:wich unused models/games did you sell/trade?

I  got rid od quite a few bits and pieces.  Biggest was 200 odd modern 1:300 tanks

10: would you review your year as a good year of wargaming, or did you want more?

26 evening games
26  all day games
so not too bad considering shifts and going away  meant I missed 17 club nights

Did I want more ? - Too much is never enough

!

The cynics are right nine times out of ten. -Mencken, H. L.

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well. - Robert Louis Stevenson

fsn

Quote from: paulr on 01 January 2020, 04:03:16 AM
MiLord Oik appears to be a quiet achiever :-/
Thanks, chaps.

I have gone for quantity over quality.  :-[

The downside is that I have quite a few 80%-finished completed projects. I made the mistake of trying to do Flodden after the War of the Roses and overdid the late Medieval thing. Thus, the Flodden English are languishing in the to-paint box, 'cos I needed to painting something with an engine.


Lord Oik of Runcorn (You may refer to me as Milord Oik)

Oik of the Year 2013, 2014; Prize for originality and 'having a go, bless him', 2015
3 votes in the 2016 Painting Competition!; 2017-2019 The Wilderness years
Oik of the Year 2020; 7 votes in the 2021 Painting Competition
11 votes in the 2022 Painting Competition (Double figures!)
2023 - the year of Gerald:
2024 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!

MartinKnight1333

concluding....
Martin -- I hope this note finds you feeling much better.  How are you?

Yesterday's big game was a fitting end to a great campaign.  The British smashed through the German defenses and broke out of Arnhem.  Here is the battle report.

According to the brief, XXX Corps had reached Arnhem in force, crossing to the north side of the river and joining with the remaining 1st Airborne Division troops.  This combined force was ordered to push out of the battered bridgehead and break out of Arnhem to the ENE.  The German defenders, consisting of three SS infantry battalions supported by a company of King Tiger tanks, were ordered to stop any breakout.

Terrain:  The terrain on the 11 X 5 foot table was based on contemporary maps and aerial photographs.  The Neder Rijn River ran just off the southern edge of the table, and the Ijssel Rijn River ran along most of the eastern edge.  The western end of the table depicted the destroyed area of the city around the northern ramp of the Arnhem Road Bridge.  The middle of the table held the rail yard and the more intact sections of the city.  The eastern half of the table was mostly open polder land crossed by a main road on a dike and several secondary roads, with a factory complex near the river.  About 12 inches in from the northern edge of the table, a high railway embankment ran from the western to the eastern edges.  The five underpasses under the railway were the Objectives -- the capture of any one of these would enable the British to break out of the city into the open country beyond.

(Note:  The railway embankment was shown on the table with a cork underlay beneath the tracks, and the dike road was shown with low hedges along the road.  Both of these features blocked ground level line of sight across them.  Vehicles could only move on roads or on the open portions of city blocks.)

German Forces:  The defending German forces were described as three battalions of SS infantry with a Tiger company and three battalions of off-board artillery in support.  Running the game at 1/3 scale (so a platoon on the table represented three platoons in the campaign), this provided three SS infantry companies with a total of 9 platoons, 12 HMGs, 3 PaK40 ATGs, 8.0 cm mortar battery, 6 King Tigers, one 15.0 cm battery, and two 10.5 cm batteries.  The infantry had panzerfausts and three panzerschreck teams.  All were rated Fearless Veteran.

British Forces:  The attacking British forces were described as three battalions of Para infantry at half strength, one Guards armored regiment at half strength, one infantry brigade at half strength, plus one more Guards armored regiment at full strength, and one more infantry brigade at full strength, with off board artillery support (still limited by ammunition shortages).  In the game, at 1/3 scale, this massive force was represented by two Para companies with 6 platoons and one assault platoon (and no other support), six Infantry companies with 18 platoons, HMGs and 3" mortar support, one half-sized Armored company with 10 mixed Shermans, one full Armored company with 16 mixed Shermans, two 25-pdr batteries and one 5.5" battery.  The paras were rated Fearless Veteran and the others were rated as Confident Veteran.
German Deployment:  The Germans placed six infantry platoons, the mortar battery and two Pak40 ATGs in the urban ruins around the British bridgehead to defend Objectives One and Two.  Two more platoons were dug into the polder fields behind the railway embankment to defend Objectives Three and Four.  One platoon and one PaK40 were in the factory complex near the dike road, defending the route to Objective Five.  The six King Tigers were placed in pairs outside of town along the eastern edge of the city, in positions where they could fire down the streets or move to defend the dike road across the polder.
British Deployment and Plan:  The British concentrated all six of the para platoons to the NNW of the bridge.  Their task was to assault and turn the German right flank, then continue to advance along the railway to capture Objective One.  Nine platoons of regular infantry deployed to the ENE of the bridge.  Their task was to move through the undefended rail yard to turn the German left flank, while keeping pressure on the German center to eventually threaten Objective One and Objective Two.  Nine more infantry platoons were in reserve near the bridge, to be used as a breakthrough force where needed.  The half-company of Shermans was in the lead on the road beneath the bridge, tasked with moving into the town to support the infantry attacks.  The full company of Shermans was on the road behind them, tasked with moving out of the city along the dike road to the east to threaten Objective Five, with the expectation that they would draw the King Tigers away from the city.  The tower of St. Eusebius church provided the British FO with an excellent vantage point.
Battle Report:  On Turn 1, British artillery and mortars started to soften up the German defenders near Objective One.  This bombardment would continue with varying force throughout the game.  The British paras launched a series of close assaults, which swiftly cleared one block and, most importantly, captured the large, damaged house on the German right flank.  The leading British infantry moved into the undefended rail yard.  The Shermans started rolling, but their movement was slowed by debris on the road.  In their turn, the Germans answered with their artillery and mortars and held their ground.  Critically, they did not shift any troops to reinforce their threatened right flank.
On Turn 2, the leading paras bounded over the rail line into the undefended row houses on the German baseline.  The Germans responded to this clear threat to their right by pivoting their right hand platoon to occupy the last row house in the block.  This provided a small but solid core of resistance that temporarily stopped the paras' turning movement.
On Turn 3, the British infantry launched an assault out of the rail yard into the ruins across the street.  With the support of a smoke bombardment, the British closed with the SS defenders, but then lost the melee and were thrown back.  However, this was only a temporary set back, and the British cleared the block of ruins on the following turn, and also moved into some of the undefended row houses to the north of the rail yard.  This prompted the Germans to shift a platoon to occupy the other houses in that block, which halted the British advance in that sector.  The German defenses in the city were now stretched very thin.
On Turns 4 and 5, combined assaults by the British paras and infantry cleared one more block of ruins in the center, with the half-company of Shermans in the city providing supporting fires.  The full company of Shermans reached the dike road, and attracted the attention of four King Tigers.  Two of these Tigers would later move to block the British armored thrust along the dike road.  Only a well-timed smoke screen limited British tank losses.  The other two Tigers took long range shots at the Shermans in town, killing three, and then slowly moved into the city but arrived too late to make a difference at the objectives there.
On Turn 6 the British attack on the German right flank regained its impetus.  The para assault platoon had come forward with its flamethrower, and pinned the German platoon holding the row house behind the rail line.  The first British assault was annihilated by a German counterassault, but a fresh British platoon continued the assault, and wiped out the Germans in turn.  Only one more block of buildings stood between the British and Objective One.  The Germans were left with very little with which to hold this last redoubt.
Turns 7 and 8 saw the British artillery finishing off the last of the German defenders in front of Objective One, and British paras and infantry moving to occupy the now vacant ruins.  Meanwhile the paras assaulted with overwhelming force and took the last block of buildings behind Objective One.  The Germans had nothing that could counterattack to contest the objective.  The game was over!
Conclusion:  What an epic game!  This scenario pitted three German players, with a force valued at about 6000 points (in old FOW money) against five British players with a force valued at about 9000 points, although it was impossible for the British to use all of their strength in the very crowded battle area.  It took about 1.5 hours to set up the terrain, .5 hours to deploy the troops, 3.5 hours to play, and .5 hours to pack up.  After all this, the beer and the food tasted very good at the bar!

Analysis:  Possibly the only way for the Germans to win this battle was to mass everything they had around the bridgehead to keep the British contained in as small a space as possible.  The German commanders erred by initially placing three of their infantry platoons to defend Objectives Three, Four, and Five -- which were very far from the bridgehead.  Two King Tigers would have sufficed to block the entrance to the dike road and thus would have kept the British armor bottled up and far away from these distant objectives.  The absence of those three platoons compromised the German defense in the city.  Six platoons were not strong enough to hold the necessary frontage in the ruins, and the British turned both flanks on Turn 1.  Once the bridgehead was unsealed, the British could flow around the German flanks to outnumber and successfully assault the two ends of the German line, while their other troops and artillery wore down the German center.  By the end of Turn 8 (less than three hours of campaign time), the German defense in the city had been crushed, with the British in firm control of Objective 1.
In contrast, the British plan was much better.  It focused on the nearest objective (Objective One) with the best assault troops and most of the artillery, but if the Tigers had come into the city, the British could have made the armored move to the east their main thrust.  British tactics were excellent.  They used massed converging fires to suppress the frontline German defenders, then assaulted using the terrain to limit defensive fire.  The British also opportunistically seized undefended portions of the city, forcing the Germans to stretch even thinner to counter the threats from these sectors.  The British attack was relentless, accepting equal casualties in order to eliminate the less numerous German defenders, and willing to sacrifice Shermans to draw the King Tigers away from the city.
Casualties were nearly equal between the two sides.  The British lost 33 para teams and 20 infantry teams, along with 7 Shermans.  The Germans lost 40 infantry teams, 5 HMGs, 2 PaK40s, and two FOs.  Proportionally, this was 20% of the British para and infantry strength and 27% of their tank strength, vs. 50% of the German infantry strength.  The remaining British infantry would have been able to mop up the last few German defenders in the city, forcing the Tigers to withdraw.
I believe this concludes the campaign?  If so, it has been great fun.  Thank you very much for managing it and giving me the briefs, even from your hospital bed!  That's the style!
P.S. -- The really bad thing about this counterfactual British victory in the campaign is that Montgomery will now be made a Duke and will be considered the third Great British Commander, along with Marlborough and Wellington!  That is a bit much for us Yanks to take!
Cheers and Good Health!  Tony

sunjester

1: best new rules/game you played?

Rebel and Patriots

2: worst new rules/game you played?

Like Orcs, I found 7 TV was not my thing, but I'd play it.


3: best purchase you did this year?

Streets of Venice set from TTCombat

4: worst purchase you did this year?

There wasn't one

5: most expensive purchase this year? And did you regret it?

Streets of Venice set from TTCombat. No, I've been drooling over this set for a couple of years and found it with an extra £50 off on a show special!

6: game you played the most this year?

Frostgrave/Sellswords and Spellslingers/Cruel Seas are all about even in this catagory

7: game you wish you had played more this year?

En Garde

8: how many models did you paint (roughly)?

Not a lot, less than 100 28mm and no more than 150 10mm.
Mind you, building Venice has taken up most of my spare time since October.

9: which unused models/games did you sell/trade?

I had a bit of a cull on odds and ends lying around

10: would you review your year as a good year of wargaming, or did you want more?

Average 4 gaming session each month, so a good year for having fun with friends.

Did I want more ? - Of course!