Combined arms - Normandy! Log entry 1

 "The eyes of the world are upon you. The hope and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you." D. Eisenhower

Campaign turn 1 was the Storm card so no aircraft orders, the Allies used the bad conditions to rush the channel gap securing the fortifications and the communication centre. The Germans counter attacked with their infantry and drove the allied armour away from the fortifications.

Turn 2 saw clear weather and the allies assaulted the fortification with their armoured unit.

 

Scenario rolled for was Envelopment, the German defenders were selected from the Atlantic wall resistance nest list whilst the US Army drew from the Normandy list.

The Preliminary barrage killed the Panzerschreck and suppressed the Osttruppen.

The Sniper duel began early with the Americans losing to the experienced Eastern front Veteran.

Towards the end of turn 1 the Allies rolled their Sherman up the road, The Germans responded with an air strike from the FAO I got for free from an Initiative card I played in the campaign.

Start of Turn 2 the FW190 rolled into a strafe the Sherman Lighting it up and detonating the fuel and or ammo. The artillery barrage marked by the blue marker next to the fence failed to arrive this turn.

The rest of turn 2 culminated in the Germans going into ambush whilst the allies pushed forward hard.

Turn 3 the artillery strike scattered away from its target, but still pinned down 4 units.

The Big Allied push began, the German flanks were well defended by MMG's so the GI's went for the centre, using the forests to cover them. German Reserves now began to pour onto the board, the LT bolstering the wavering Osttruppen and Grenadiers and B2 Flammenwerfer tank supporting them.

Turn 4 the GI's charged to Osttruppen in the open wiping them out but losing 3 guys before consolidating into the ruined farm house.

The Germans then began failing every order test turn 4 and everyone was pinned down.

Turn 5 the Gi's finish of the Sniper in close combat, the Grenadiers clear the ruined farm house whilst the B2 Flame tank wipes a squad of Gi's in the other farm house and MG's 2 guys from another squad.

Another GI squad charges the downed Osttruppen, initially the combat was tied 6v6 then round ended the Ostruppen careers losing 2v1.

Turn 6 the Flame tank moved forward and tried to clear out the GI's at the fence on the road but misses before a Bazooka punches a rocked through the thick side armour and detonates the tank.

The Germans win the battle 12 to 7 but fail to destroy the armour.

 

Battle for Armageddon - This time as the Orks

  Recently I replayed the Board game battle for armageddon, this time as the Orks! My strategy boiled down to punching a hole in the Imperial defence lines before sending my hordes of Bikerz and Battlewagonz out to knock down factorys and threaten hives. The initial assault succeeded in blowing two large holes in the imperial defenders and pouring through, only to take massive losses from the imperial counter-attack.

I was able to secure Helreach hive early and then put pressure in the north as Titans and Nobz clashed, an unlucky imperial assault failed in the south which opened up the middle of the map and I was able to reinforce bringing back Battlewagonz and Bikerz in the middle of the map which then exploded out and knocking down the imperial production to 7 build points. The final blow was Infernus and Hades falling one after another and the orks rebuilding most of their Gargants and Mobz.

Next time I think I'd be a little more conservative with my fast units early and instead focus on wearing down the Imperial defenders turn 1 making the path my Bikers take much clearer.

Battle for Armageddon

  In 1992 Gamesworkshop released Battle for Armageddon in a series of Board games, they released a further expansion 'Chaos attacks' letting you play the first war of armageddon. The game has an asymetric setup, with all Orks units starting on the board and only a Token Imperial force defending rivers and Hives, as the game progresses the Imperial build up and eventually (if the Imperials can manage it) they overwhelm the Orks.

The game began with a really aggresive Ork push and some good dice rolls allowing them to push across the rivers and past the border defenders.

A quick Imperial couter offensive cut off the initial Ork push, not long afterward the orks swept away the rough riders.

The Battle along the Stygies river quickly turned into a stalemate as wave after wave of Orks smashed into the Factory and Hive defences. West (up) from this combat a disaster occured as the Titans and Guardsmen holding the Diabolus river are wiped out by a wave of Gargants.

In the east the Orks managed to encircle the Defenders along the Stygies river losing half the defenders to starvation, at the same time Ork Biker boyz ran reckless across the wastes destroying factories.

The Imperial counter attack now occured, the massive factories poured out army after army of Tanks and guardsmen, the Spacemarines landed cutting off the Attackers in the west whilst in the east the Imperial Guard tank divisions blew holes in the Western attackers, in this turn Ghazkull also died assaulting the defenders along the Stygies river, leaving Helsreach as the only objective left to achieve for the Imperials ending the game.

Combined arms - Battle over the Crimea Campaign Turn 11 - Part 3 of 3: This bear swims - Bunker assault scenario

  The Red navy shepherded it's flock of across the Kerch strait and supported their initial landings from the water with direct fire from the Bronekaters, the Red airforce having run off any Luftwaffe support provided a shield no large scale air assault could penetrate with only the lucky single aircraft penetrating the screen. The 'Black Death'  charged up the beaches and quickly moved inland to clear out the bunkers of the Heer on the peninsula.

 This game we used a D-day scenario from the Warlord website to simulate the assault on the fortifications on the Combined arms map. 

Turn 1

The massive soviet army poured onto the table after a powerful preliminary bombardment.

The KV-8 fired it flamethrower into the Heer squad defending the first line, wiping them out but also running out of fuel.

Turn 2

The Conscripts charge the Heer defenders and overwhelm them in combat before the rest of the force pushes forward screened by smoke from the Light Howitzer and Medium mortar.

Turn 3

The Heavy howitzer gets a good shot on the rearmost bunker and demolishes it rolling killing the MMG crew inside.

Turn 4 

The Soviet Veterans charge the Heer infantry, dodging closing fire and defeating them in combat.

The MMG crew narrowly survives the soviet flamethrower attack

The KV 8 knocks out the Jagpanzer I

Turn 5

The Flamethrower finishes off the MMG team in the bunker and an infantry squad occupies it.

At this point the Germans had a medic, LT and 1 heer squad and the Soviets were yet to lose a whole unit so we called it considering we had 10 more turns to go.

Campaign ended when the newly won fortifications card was drawn awarding the soviets the 10 and final victory point.

Combined arms - Battle over the Crimea Campaign Turn 11 - Part 2 of 3 Clear the Beach

 Laying mines south of the Kerch Peninsula the Kriegsmarine was preparing to defend against another thrust by the Soviet navy through the Black Sea. Air recon showed large scale boarding of Soviet troops onto transports only to discover the ships sail directly for the Peninsula rather than swinging south. All ships were immediately despatched to attack the convoy.

 This game we played scenario 7 'Invasion', modifying it slightly to double the points to 2000pts, doubling the number of transports as well as swapping the roles from Germany being the attacker to being the defender and the Soviets the attacker. Victory is achieved once one fleet loses half of it's ships or 4 of the transports land troops.

 The game began with both fleets closing, only the soviet Fugas minesweepers had guns that could hit across the board at this stage and both ship put shots into the Verpostenboote.

End of turn 1 the soviets had released torpedoes and began moving towards the beach.

Turn 2 the 4 soviet bombers came in and began strafing the Schnellboot's, the combined fire from the IL-2's and the Bronekators started to systematically destroy them.

The G-5's push forward and began laying down extensive smoke screens to protect the transports from the long range guns of the German Large ships.

By turn 4 the Germans lost 5 Sboats out of the 10 total ships in their fleet, the soviets had lost 1 G-5 Torpedo boat

End of the game I rolled to destroy the Germans fleets but rolled a 1 and 2 so they only retreated!