Anglo-Saxons & Vikings game 1

I thought I'd start a short series of games based on a local Viking invasion of a small Anglo-Saxon peninsular.

To start is a Viking landing to grab some loot and have a recce. Unfortunately for them they have been spotted by some scouts and the Anglo-Saxons have some men to meet them.

This is a small game Bill and I played.

Bill and I are both members of Tring Wargames Club and Bill had penned a very simple set of rules for one the club's Participation Games in 2017, based on a similar scenario.


The Vikings leave the ship with Anglo-Saxons coming down from the hills.

The Anglo-Saxon camp is defended by a unit of Spearmen

Vikings leave the ship.

Warriors clash in the centre.

Viking Javelinmen make it to the Anglo-Saxon camp but can not overcome the armoured Spearmen.

From the hill, the Anglo-Saxon Skirmishers, a mixture of Javelinmen and Slingers, see the ship has been left virtually unguarded and head for it.

Not expecting this, the Viking leader's unit runs back to defend his ship and his honour but each time they get close the Anglo-Saxon skirmishers back towards the ship and loose another volley.

The Viking leader keeps leading his men into the charge. He is the last of his unit to fall.

The Anglo-Saxon skirmishers board the Viking ship and the last Viking unit and is caught between them and the Anglo-Saxon leader's unit. Bill conceded at this point.

 The Viking steersman stands aghast at the turn of events as the Anglo-Saxons celebrate the capture of the vessel.

I can see why the Participation Game was popular. Quick playing simple rules giving a game we both enjoyed.
Not a good start to the Viking invasion though.

BKC II - Prelude To Kursk

Scenario 6 of the series, Fighting the Great Patriotic War one battle at a time, written by Andrew Rolph and published by Miniature Wargames with Battlegames.

Rules used are Blitzkrieg Commander II by Specialist Military Publishing.

Most figures and models are Pendraken.

The initial layout.

Background
It’s May 1943 on the Eastern Front and both Hitler and Stalin wanted to continue offensives around Kursk. Stalin had been persuaded to absorb the initial German attacks and use the rebuilt Tank and Mechanised Corps in counter-attacks once the Germans had been ground to a halt against the Soviet defences.

In this battle, the Germans are trying to straighten out the front line by penetrating a small salient.

Layout
The initial layout. The table is 6' x 4'.
The game is 14-16 turns long.

The Soviets are defending from the east (far end) and can deploy up to 2/3 across the table - I.E. up to a line just beyond the small hill this side of the farm.
The Germans are attacking from the west (this end).

Objectives
Victory points are available for units remaining in good order at the end of the game. See scenario for details.


OOBs
NOTE : The OOBs for the Germans published in the magazine are incorrect. The full corrected version is in the download version referred to below.
Details for all the battles are in the downloads mentioned in my previous Post - Blitzkrieg Commander II revival.
For this battle the free download is available here.

Germans:
Panzer Battalion
1st battalion GD Grenadier Regt (includes half-tracks and some AFVs)
2nd battalion GD Grenadier Regt
Grenadier Regt HQ (represented by CO and supports in BKC)
2nd battalion GD Fusilier Regt
3rd battalion GD Fusilier Regt
Fusilier Regt HQ (represented by supports in BKC)
Off-table Artillery with 6 turns of ammo, and 3 Forward Observers

Soviets:
1/4th Mech Battalion
2/4th Mech Battalion
3/4th Mech Battalion
4th Mech Brigade HQ (represented by CO and supports in BKC)
Light Assault Gun Regiment
Heavy Assault Gun Regiment
Off-table Artillery with pre-registered targets and limited missions


Deployment
The Germans are attacking from the west (this end). One battalion may use a flank attack up to half way along the north or south side.
I deployed the three Soviet battalions defending the farm area, the wooded area and hill alongside, with the third further back covering breakthroughs.

The Game
The Germans throw the might of their Panzer battalion against the defenses on the hill to the south (right of the picture below). The 2nd battalion GD Grenadier Regt move alongside in support.
The two Fusilier battalions move up to threaten the farm.

The main German attack is against the hill to the south

BKC II - To The Next River

Scenario 5 of the series, Fighting the Great Patriotic War one battle at a time, written by Andrew Rolph and published by Miniature Wargames with Battlegames.

Rules used are Blitzkrieg Commander II by Specialist Military Publishing.

Most figures and models are Pendraken.

Background
It’s early in 1943 on the Eastern Front and, in their counter-offensive, the Soviets are becoming adept at river crossings. They would try to end the current offensive with a bridgehead over the next river so the the next stage of the offensive would start from a bridgehead instead of with a river crossing.

The Germans learnt to counterattack immediately, with whatever they had to hand, to eliminate such bridgeheads.

Layout
The initial layout. I used a table 6' x 4'.
The game is 14-16 turns long.
The river is fordable at the marshy areas.
The Germans are defending the river.
The Soviets are attacking from the east (this end).

Objectives
The main objective for each side is to have units in good order on both sides of the river at the end of the game.
Failing this there are victory points available for holding the town and remaining units in good order.


OOBs
Details are in the downloads mentioned in my previous Post - Blitzkrieg Commander II revival.

Germans:
Flak Battalion (includes an 88)
1/10th Security Battalion
45th Regt HQ kamfgruppe (mainly engineers)
81st Sturm battalion (StuGs)
1/12th Infantry
1/67th PzJaeger battalion (Marder IIIs)

Soviets:
11th Tank Brigade
59th Tank Brigade
Mechanised Rifles of 11th Tank Brigade
Mechanised Rifles of 59th Tank Brigade
99th Motorcycle Btn (with light tank support)
Light Assault Gun Btn (SU76s)
Two IL-2 Stormovik sorties

Deployment
The Soviets are attacking from the east (this end).
The Germans are initially just defending the bridge with a Flak Battalion with reinforcements rushing in.
As I was playing solo I only rolled for the arrival position of the German reinforcements when they were due to turn up.

The Game
The Soviets start well with the 11th Tank Brigade with infantry support heading for the marshy area to the south of the bridge (left in this picture). The 59th Tank Brigade with infantry support head north to threaten the town and bridge, making use of the hills as cover.
The 99th m/c Btn head straight forwards to see if they can rush the bridge.

The Soviets move off as planned.

First Bull Run using BBB

A nice scenario for the First Battle of Bull Run on 21 July 1861, early in the American Civil War.

The scenario, written by Vincent Tsao for the Bloody Big Battles rules, is available for download from the Files section of the BBB Yahoo!Group.

There are five objectives, all indicated on the table by small white tents. All objectives are held by the Confederates at the start of the battle. The game is 9 turns.
Union win if they hold 3 or more objectives at the end.
Draw if Union hold 2 objectives.
Confederates win if they hold 4 or more.
Reinforcements are due to arrive at various points during the battle.

Unfortunately I didn't have enough rivers and streams to include all the waterways. In particular Young's Branch would have improved the Confederate defensive position.

The Game
After the first turn:
Burnside (Union) is facing Evans (Confederates) on Matthews Hill.
Cocke (Confederates) has taken a risk by leaving Ball's Ford to be defended by artillery and is pushing towards the bridge.
Along the road, Porter (Union) is trying to make ground towards Henry House Hill and Bald Hill before Bartow and Bee (Confederates) get firmly established there.

Matthews Hill on the left (actually should be the second level of a much larger hill).
Henry House Hill is the large hill to the right of the bridge.
The edge of Bald Hill can just be seen to the right of Henry House Hill.
The objectives are at the bridge, Henry House Hill, Bald Hill, Ball's Ford and Newmarket

A couple of turns on and reinforcements have arrived on both sides.
Burnside and Evans are still at it at Matthews Hill.
Sherman, Keyes and some artillery (Union) have crossed a ford to approach Evans from the rear but Jackson (Confederate) has raced straight past Henry House Hill towards the sound of the guns to support Evans.
Cocke is in the woods by the bridge.
At Henry House Hill Bartow has held back Porter, but Howard and Franklin (Union) are moving up to assist in the attack on the two hills.
Bee holds Bald Hill. The Confederates still hold all the highest ground.

An overview showing all the action.

Third Crusade - Battle Of Arsuf, 7th September, 1191.

Crusader cavalry try to repel Saladin's attacks

The Crusaders are approaching Arsuf down the coast road. They have to pass a large wooded area close to the coast road and Saladin has decided to use this wood to launch a major attack on the Crusaders.

This battle represents the early stages of the battle just after Saladin launched his attacks from the wood on the rear of the column. Historically the cavalry on both sides was deployed behind the infantry and when the attacks were launched there was some confusion as the cavalry pushed through the infantry. Rather than trying to resolve this on table I've assumed that stage is over and each side can deploy within their deployment zones as chosen.

I used Sword & Spear rules.

Rather than have one large army on each side, I tried representing the two rear columns of Crusaders as two separate armies, and similarly for the Ayyubid Egyptians. This gave two armies on each side of about 290 points and 8 units each.

LAYOUT AND DEPLOYMENT

North is at the top of this layout.
Crusaders on the left defending against Saladin's attacks from the woods on the right.
Saladin chose this place for a major attack because the woods gave a covered overnight camp and approach, while the battleground was relatively open and suited to cavalry attacks.

ORDER OF BATTLES
Crusaders - Army 1
General, 2 x Knights, 1 Miltary Order Knights, 1 x Spearmen, 1 x Crossbowmen, 1 x Miltary Order Searmen, 1 x Archers, 1 x Turcopole Cavalry

Crusaders - Army 2
General, 1 x Knights, 1 Miltary Order Knights, 2 x Spearmen, 1 x Crossbowmen, 1 x Miltary Order Searmen, 1 x Archers, 1 x Turcopole Cavalry

2 Ayyubid Egyptian Armies - both have the same forces
General, Captain, 1 x Cavalry, 2 x Ghilmen, 1 x Turcoman Light Horse, 1 x Turcoman Cavalry, 1 x Ahdath Militia Spearmen, 1 x Archers Light Foot, 1 x Javelinmen

THE BATTLE

Initially the cavalry on both sides closed the gap.
The Crusader Knights have the Impact ability which gives them an advantage if they actitvate and charge in first in the next turn. If the Egyptian Ghilmen get to activate first they can either loose arrows or charge first and negate the Impact ability of the Crusader Knights.

Third Crusade - abandoned scenarios 3 and 4

I did plan to report on a couple more scenarios based on the Crusaders moving south down the coast and being harassed by the Egyptians. These were to be:

Scenario 3 - Skirmish Attacks on the Column
30th August, 1191
Saladin intended this to be a major assault, but it didn't develop that way.

Scenario 4 - Determined Attacks on the Column
2nd September, 1191
Another attempt to break the deadlock resulting in fierce fighting.

After a couple of attempts to make these battles different to Scenario 2 - Break Up The Column, using different set ups and rules, I decided it wasn't worth pursuing. One attempt, using Soldiers Of God rules was a complete failure mainly because of the difficulty in manoeuvring. I even added in the 4 blank cards to the deck as extra Manoeuvre cards but even so the Crusaders were not able to change direction to react to the Egyptian attacks.

I've made the mistake before of posting non-event battles and I don't want to repeat it in a hurry.

So it's straight on to Scenario 5 - The Battle of Arsuf.

BKC II - Down By The Sea

Scenario 3 of the series, Fighting the Great Patriotic War one battle at a time, written by Andrew Rolph and recently published by Miniature Wargames with Battlegames.

Rules used are Blitzkrieg Commander II by Specialist Military Publishing.
Notes on BKC II Optional Rules and Scenario Rules used are at the end of this Post.

Most figures and models are Pendraken.

UP FRONT
I should say straight away this didn’t work out very well for the Soviets. I tried a few options for the Soviet attacks but they were very fragmented and all crossing open ground against dug-in Germans. There was a lot of artillery which was fine at the beginning when the Soviets were bombarding the German positions, but very messy when the German FAOs were able to bring their artillery to bear on the Russians in the open.
So, with that in mind, I’ll keep this fairly short.

Background
It’s early in 1942 and the Soviets are trying a counter-offensive on the Crimean coastline

This scenario features an assortment of Soviet forces trying to combine arms in an attack against a mixed German Battlegroup defending a coastal position.

Layout
The initial layout.
The table is just 4ft square including the coastal area.

The Soviets are attacking from the east (this end), and the south (the coast) and … oh yes … and they have a paratroop drop.

Objectives
Victory Points are awarded for each town sector or airfield installation held – five in total. So really the Russians have to take the town to stand any chance of winning.