Kolinski

Kolin but with a Russian twist. Kolin was fought in the summer of 1757 as part of Frederick the Great's attempts to subdue Austria, Since Angus had neglected to collect any Austrians we had to substitute some Russians in.

The field was laid out in a rough representation of the battlefield no expense spare here. The set-up was slightly unorthodox with heavy cavalry being substituted in for Hussars.

The Prussian plan was pretty much follow what Frederick did assault the end of Kechnor ridge past Kechnor and through the oak wood. It didn't work for Frederick but only just.

The Game started with the Prussian infantry refusing one brigade and assaulting with two up the ridge. The focal point of this attack was a large Russian battery located at the end of the ridge beside the oak wood.


The Russian started to blaze away at the advancing infantry the russian cannon balls started to take effect and the casualties began to mount along with the disorders. As the lead 2 battalions began to stall things were not looking too rosy. The Grenadier brigade advancing on their flank through Kechnor village and the oak wood were making better progress.









Popping out of the oak wood the grenadiers launched a charge against the gun battery. They managed to sweep through that and a supporting battalion things were starting to look a bit better.

The assault began to gain some real momentum as the recovering brigade swung round to support the grenadiers assault. This was all getting to look to much like how the real battle went and the hurrying reinforcements from the Russian right flank really added to the feel. 

As the Russians desperately tried to shore up their centre the Prussains were trying to press home their advantage. Unfortunately as with most big games time was against us reaching a conclusion. The Russian position was grave but reserves were at hand. The Prussians had the advantage but had no reserves at hand to seal their success.

Back from the Dead

Well it has been a while, things at the homestead have been interesting to the extent that now I have left. While unimportant dear reader to you it has put a bit of a crimper on my blogging. Hopefully now I will be able to resume my inane ramblings to keep you all amused.

I thought I would post a few old games that I have played over the years but never posted.

Engagement at Masdorf

This was a fictitious engagement played at the Dumbarton Wargames Club between Mother Russia's finest and the forces of Prussia's King Frederick. The two forces consisted of an infantry brigade, a cavalry brigade and a couple of guns. There was no particular objective as the emphasis was on learning the rules, which were Blackpowder.

The two sides lined up with the Prussians adopting a classic deployment, infantry centre with the cavalry and light troops on the flanks. The Russians placed all their cavalry on one flank while massing their infantry just off centre artillery in between.

 The game started with a mad capped cavalry charge by the Prussian Cuirassier regiment. The Russian horse responded with a counter charge in the ensuing melee they beat their Prussian counter parts and persued after them. The Prussians managed to rally some what and force a draw the resulting bounce backs left the prussians off table and the russian horse collecting their wits.

The Russian infantry commander not too interested in what the donkey wallopers were up to began pressing forward. Being an inexperienced player our Prussian commander launched his hussars in an up the gut charge. Racing forward in their fancy blue uniforms it all looked so irresistible, well it wasn't one well delivered volley and the shattered hussars fled to safety.

 A rather worried looking Prussian commander started looking around for troops to slow the Russian juggernaut down. He pulled an infantry battalion out of line to try and back up the floundering Hussars. The Juggernaut was not to be stopped, the battalion lasted two rounds of fire before breaking. The Russians rolled on sliding one Battalion off the flank to protect the move. A charge by the Russian horse and it would all be over.

The cavalry commander was obviously waiting for a better opportunity or something as he was not inclined to move. Things looked even bleaker for the battalion then one of the supporting Battalions rushed up to cover its flank from said cavalry broke and fled under artillery fire.

The Russians closed in bringing overwhelming fire power to bear it all looked up for the Prussians. This battalion was made of sterner stuff than her sisters and refused to break dishing out a bit in return.

The Russian flank battalion was now taking a pasting from artillery and the hussars were hovering to charge in. With his cavalry commander seemingly stuck in mud the Russian commander was beginning to wonder if it was all going wrong.

The infantry command final lost patience with the cavalry and charge in with his two lead battalions. The dice were rolled and that doughty Prussian battalion held much to the consternation of our Russian commander. After a second round of fighting finally the Prussians were pushed back.

This time lapse had been disastrous for the Russians. The battalion facing the gun had broken and fled while those hussars had rallied up and swept round the back and caught another battalion and wiped them out.

While the Prussian commander generously coincided the field to the Russians our Russian commander was now not so sure.

Córdoba or Bust

 

This is nothing to do with Córdoba but it sounds suitably Spanish. This was a fictitious engagement set in the peninsular involving French and Spanish with a small British contingent. The Spanish force supplied by John Glass, consisted of 2 small brigades of Infantry and a light cavalry brigade. Bill Gilchrist supplied and commanded an attached British Infantry Brigade. The French consisted of one large Infantry Brigade and a Cavalry Brigade, I commanded the cavalry while Bart had the infantry.

 The battle started with French initiative, the troops started rolling forward heading towards the village and the ridge on the left. Things were not so steady on the allied side, the Spanish cavalry command with the bit between their teeth launched across the table at the French cavalry. Their commander had failed to use the magic word charge and instead had said engage so they pulled up short in front of the French cavalry. The French cavalry pulled back to enable a flank charge from the Hussars. The ensuing combat was a win for the French, the pickadors fleeing the sceen however the chasseurs took 3 casualties enough to make them shaken and they pulled back behind the stream.

The 64e Linge reached the village sending 2 battalions in while leaving 1 in reserve behind the village. The supporting artillery moved round the side of the village. The Spaniards must have had a lot of Paella for breakfast because they were very keen on getting stuck in. Without any preparation the Spaniards Irish battalion went straight in. With predictable results they disintegrated reducing the birgide by a third at a stroke. A rather less than happy Spanish commander looked to his right for the British relive some pressure.

The 27e Legere had taken the taken the ridge line and was preparing to receive the British assault. After much cajoling from the Spanish commander, talking about honour and the like, the British peeped out of of the wood looking rather sheepish. A lot of manovering took place resulting in the British forming line at long range a few rounds of fire resulted in not very much.

The Spanish now set about reducing the defenders of the village using artillery. In several rounds of fire the French battalion on the right in the picture broke and routed from the field. The Spaniards did not have a unit that was able to exploit this so it looked set for the French reserve to reoccupy the village. Well how looks can be deceptive in a comedy of dice the next few turns both sides failed command rolls to occupy the village

The French on the ridge to the left finally were taking some casualties so Bart pulled them back to sheltered ground. As our reluctant warrior now looked to exploit the opportunity disaster struck, the British battalion on the right disintegrated leaving the remaining two in an exposed position.

On the Spanish side things were not much better for the allies, having received reinforcements they had looked to push into the town but the dice drama was not over as they stalled in front of the French artillery. Finally the french resere made it into the village and the battle was as good as over.

It was a close run thing, it really came down to the race into the buildings. Once the French won that it would have needed a concerted effort to get them out.


You may have wondered what happened to the cavalry combat well not much after the first few rounds both sides were blown and really had no impact on the rest of the game.

Flanking Metz

Flanking Metz Patton never one to let fuel shortages get in the way had bounced the Mosselle to the south of Metz in a bid to encircle the city. The 5th US infantry division was tasked with enlarging its bridgehead at Arnaville (a previous game) to allow the 7th armoured division to push on through and this was the excuse for our game. 

 This is the village of Lorry to the southwest of Arnaville. A small kampfgruppe of the 17th SS are holding the town in reduced company strength with a couple of StuG IV in support. The American task force consist of an infantry company and 3 shermans. The objective is to secure the village. The Germans have a counter attacking element, 1 mechanised infantry platoon, released after the Americans have captured one building. 

The Americans chose to break up their command into 3 groups of 1 infantry platoon and 1 tank. The plan was to screen the village with 1 group while flanking it with another keeping the last in reserve. The Germans were allowed 2 stands in front of the village and the StuGs were to be placed in the last quater of the table with the infantry in the middle. They were allowed 1 ambush unit.





The first few turns were uneventful as the Americans moved on, spotting was done but the nazis were lying low. As the yanks were lining up to rush the wood on the hill, to the south of the town, the first sparks of resistance were ignited. A concealed StuG forced one of the advancing Shermans  to retire and Germans had been spotted at the fringes of the town.




 

The rush up to the wood was causing a small amount of concern.  A squad was sent forward to see what was up there with no reaction the rest toddled up only for the  Germans to  unveiled a platoon which raked their flak. The battered troops went to ground as we scrambled to see what we could do them.  Thankfully the germans were content to be passive and we had soon established a base of fire on the hill.

It was decided to move the reserve platoon up and through the position into the town.  Meanwhile yanks facing the town were having fun hosing any kraut they could see. Soon the edge of the town was clear as the defenders had withdrawn from the fringes. The yanks soon occupied a few of the buildings this however triggered the German reinforcements which came on down the road. The one Sherman had manoeuvred to cover the road but this revealed another StuG looking straight down the road good American gunnery soon started winning that fight. 

The Americans were now poised to storm the rest of the village the game was drawing to a close and it was clear team nazi didn't have much hope of holding on. The StuG would have been able to cover the withdrawal without too much risk to themselves.  On a side note the Americans didn't lose a stand while the Germans were down 6 stands of infantry.

Crossing the Moselle

Pattons 3rd Army had been having a blast chasing Germans across France now, due to the well documented fuel shortage, it was lurching to a standstill on the banks of the Moselle. Patton was very keen to establish a few bridgeheads, for when the supply situation eased he would not be faced with a river assault.

Having tried their luck Dornot to the north, a new attempt was made at Arnaville on the 10th of September. Arnaville had a ford and a highly defensible ridge line but incredibly bad access. Storming across, the Americans soon captured the ridge and began to dig in for the inevitable counter attack while the ford was being prepared to accept armour.

Our game represents the initial German counter attacks on the 11th of September. The River Moselle is just off to the right of the photo. The Americans are holding the ridge with 2 reinforced companies. A reduced infantry company of 17th SS Panzergrenadiers with an attached mechanized recon platoon occupy the village of Corny at the bottom of the photo. The 3rd Panzergrenadiers are in the woods just off table on the left of the photo with a reduced company and a couple of StuG III. The smoke just in front of the village runs all the way back to the river, the Americans had set up smoke projectors to cover the crossing from direct observation.

Team Nazi had decided to coordinate their attacks against the end of the ridge and utilised their artillery in a peliminary bombardment. The rounds however fell on empty woods and the inital scouting produced no results. The Germans began to advance quite cautiousally, it soon became clear that team Yank had left this undefended and then it became a race to the top for the Heer and the SS.





17th SS recon unit moved out of the village to the smoke screen to do some spotting. This attracted the attention of the American FOO who bracketed the command with a stonk, 2 vehicles went up in smoke and the rest of the command fled back the village. 




 

The Americans it would seem had neglected to garrison the half of the ridge and the rather surprised Germans captured it without a casualty.

The next few moves saw the Germans pushing slowly along the ridge while the Americans began rushing troops over.

Eventually the push along ran into some resistance the ensuing firefight produced fairly even results. The 3rd Panzer Grenadiers began to concentrate their troops to continue the push along the ridge.

 The 17th SS meanwhile had been advancing on a broad front. Not much had been seen but they had attracted more artillery fire.

 3rd Panzergrenadiers had pushed up their StuGs to assist in the firefight  this however revealed a 57mm a/t gun which sent one of the StuGs scuttling back.

The ford was now deemed usable and the americans began rushing tanks over to assist in the defence.

At this point time had caught up with us. The position was not looking good for the Americans. With half the ridge captured the Germans would be able to establish observation and bring observed fire down on the crossing point. It would have been interesting to have played a few more turns the Americans would have had to made some attempt to retake the hill.


A good game using our favourate ww2 rules battlegroup panzergrenadier.