Angus  Konstam's Edinburgh Wargames

Edinburgh Wargames Journal             

      Issue 32  -  March 2009  

 

Periods featured in this Issue:  Pre-Dreadnought Naval (1/1200), Seven Years War (28mm)

& three Second World War games (two in 20mm, one in 28mm)   plus a report from Salute 2009

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Salute 2009  

I went down to Salute again this year, and thoroughly enjoyed myself, despite a bad hangover, and a venue with all the charm of a zeppelin shed. The lighting was not particularly conducive to the taking of photographs - or possibly it was the effects of the gin from the night before...  Anyway, here are a few games that caught my eye - a spectacular 20mm WW2 game (my favourite table at the show), involving a winter landscape and an armoured train, a nicely done 6mm refight of Wagram, and a very impressive 28mm refight of Khalkin Gol (1939).

Other eye-catching games included two Napoleonic ones (shown below) - one laid on by the Perry twins, the other (a Peninsular one) by Barry Hilton's League of Augsburg. Both seemed to use a fair number of plastic figures, and must have led to great sales by the Perrys and Victrix;

These two looked particularly good - a 15mm assault on the Reichstag, staged by Dave Brown, as a means of launching the new edition of Battlegroup Panzer Grenadier, and an English Civil War skirmish game, using 54mm figures! Someone must have a very big loft... Dave assures me that the new version of his Second Word War rules are even better than the original set - which - if true - would be quite an achievement. As I've said before - a dreadful name, but a great set of rules.

The show was also a good chance to see old pals, meet new ones, and generally indulge oneself in our strange hobby... but I'll never drink gin again...

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The Battle of Blit, 1910 - Fictional Pre-Dreadnought Naval Battle (Perfidious Albion) 1/2000  

We were all at sea this week, fighting a fictitious naval battle using some of my beautiful pre-dreadnought ships, built by the late Mike Earll. Essentially it all centred around the succession of Montenegro from the Ottoman Empire in August 1910. I concocted a convoluted reason why this might lead to a clash between Austro-Hungarian and Imperial German naval forces somewhere in the Adriatic, and the result was the Battle of Blit.

The German objective was to exit the eastern table edge, so entering the Montenegrin port of Blit, and lifting the Austrian blockade. The German admiral had five ships at his disposal - all battleships (Hessen, Deutscland, Kaiser Freidrich III and Brandenberg) apart from the armoured cruiser Friedrich Karl. The Austrians had a similar-sized force - the battleships Radetzky, Hapsburg and Erzherzog Karl, supported by the French battleship Charles Martel and the light cruiser Tiger. Actually, the Radetzky was classed as a semi-dreadnought, which gave her a lot more punch than the other battleships on the table. To offset this, the French ship had limited "rules of engagement", and could only open fire if fired upon, or if a radio message reached her from the French consulate in Dubrovnik. In addition the Austrians had a small hidden minefield, somewhere in the approaches to the port.

The battle began well for the Germans. The Radetzky was hit in the first German salvo, and a lucky (or unlucky) shot hit her magazine. She was the first of several ships to blow up that day, but her loss was a major blow for the Austrians. Three German battleships plunged straight through the gap this left, heading for the port. The two remaining German battleships (my ones) circled round, in an effort to "cross the T" of the remaining Austrian force. With the French ship unable to fire, the Austrian players were now heavily outnumbered - two battleships against four.

Then the odds turned a bit. the Freidrich Karl was hit in the magazine and blew up, just before a desperate Austrian player resorted to ramming the Germans, in an attempt to stop them exiting the table. The ramming attempt failed, and instead the bows of the Hessen neatly carved their way through the Erzherzog Karl, sending her to the bottom. The German players were still doing their victory dance when the Deutschland blew up, hit by a lucky shot from the Hapsburg. Rather than stop to pick up survivors, the German admiral steamed his flagship Hessen off the table, to fulfil his victory conditions. 

It was now all over bar the shouting. two German battleships were left, to face two enemy ones, supported by a light cruiser. The commander of the Charles Martel was delighted when he rolled a dice and discovered he now had orders to open fire. He promptly opened up on the Kaiser Freidrich III, leaving the Hapsburg to take on the Brandenburg. Nothing vital was hit, but on the next turn the Germans returned fire, and once again a magazine was hit, and the Charles Martel blew up. With nothing to stop the two remaining German battleships from entering Blit, the Austrian player broke off the engagement. The final tally was one German battleship and one armoured cruiser sunk, in exchange for two Austrian and one French battleship. I suppose you could call that a costly German victory. As for the hidden minefield, nobody even came close to it all day!

As you'll gather, the rules aren't really designed to be taken seriously. The way hits are determined is vaguely reminiscent of "Battleship", where the shot hits somewhere on a gridded profile of the ship. If it penetrates the armour in a ship box, everything in that box is knocked out. Unfortunately, three times during the game the box contained the word "magazine"! Sure, the rules are a bit silly, but they still result in a highly entertaining game.

Pre-Dreadnought Naval page         Perfidious Albion playsheet

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Second World War Weekend - The League of Gentlemen Wargamers (Disposable Heroes) 28mm

Charles S. Grant, wondering what happened to all his British paratroopers...

About three times a year a group of wargamers get together in the small Scottish towns of Kirriemuir or Stonehaven, and play a large game over the course of a weekend. This time it was the Second World War, with a Normandy game on one day, ad a street-fighting one in Germany on the next. The premise of the first game was that British and American paratroopers were scattered over the French countryside, while British, American and even Free French armour and infantry tried to fight their way through to help them. Naturally their progress was impeded by lots of well-armed Germans, and the result was an enjoyable but not particularly historical game. We fought it out on an 18 foot by 10 foot table (with cutouts).

Each player had a small platoon-sized starting force - mine was all from the Irish Guards - a mixture of Shermans and infantry in half-tracks. When casualties mounted a player could bring on reinforcements by dicing from a list. This meant that throughout the day nobody ever ran out of troops to command, despite the carnage on the tabletop.  To add extra interest, the umpire (Barry Hilton) inflicted the occasional artillery mission or airstrike on the players - and an awful lot of "friendly fire"! 

Progress was slowed by two bridges ands three villages, all of which were Allied objectives. The bridges were particularly important, as without them the Allies were unable to advance across the table. The Germans managed to block the main bridge for most of the game, first with an infantry garrison, then a Tiger tank, and finally the charred remains of the same Tiger, which was too large for the Allied tanks to move. It was evening before it was finally pulled out of the way (using a captured German Bergpanther), and the Shermans rolled on to link up with the British paratroopers.

After trooping off to the local Indian restaurant we completed the game in the early evening, by which time it was clear that it was an Allied victory. In terms of points the Allies had done particularly well, holding three of the objectives (including the two worth extra points), and contesting two others. In fact, one of these was only "contested" because the Germans had sneaked a couple of fixtures into a house earlier that day, and everyone forgot about them! It was all good clean fun, and while it wasn't a "proper" wargame, it was all highly entertaining!

The Sunday was spent fighting through a city (presumably somewhere like Aachen), which was divided into districts (Hauptbanhoff, Tiergarten etc.) Each player had a starting force and a starting area, and was randomly assigned a district as an objective. inevitably, on a 16 x 6 foot table, some players never even came close to their objectives, as they became bogged down in fighting somewhere else in the city. Each building outside their starting area was assigned a number (1-3), and on capturing it the player drew a card from one of three piles, which gave him victory points. He also spawned a little garrison, allowing his assault squad to move on somewhere else. If a player lost one of his three starting units (one mechanised, and two infantry), he rolled for reinforcements - which inevitably resulted in him getting a bigger and better tank to play with!

My British soon became embroiled in a private war with Peter Nicholson's Germans (when he wasn't shooting at the Americans commanded by his brother). Peter is a disarmingly charming fellow, and consequently you hardly notice his outrageously "gamey" antics. Of course, I can push rules to their limits with the best of them, which meant that Peter and I were well-matched, and consequently we had a rare old time trying to "do the dirty" on each other!

All in all it was a thoroughly enjoyable weekend, and while this mightn't have been the Second World War as any participant might have known it, it all made for a fun game. My hat goes off to Barry Hilton for organising it, and manfully trying to umpire such an unruly bunch of wargamers.

Disposable Heroes Playsheet            The Second World War page         The Second World War in 28mm page

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Biazzo Ridge, Sicily, 1943 (Battlegroup Panzergrenadier) 20mm

This small game (fought out on a 6x4 foot table) was played using a scenario from Dave Brown's forthcoming Mediterranean Theatre scenario book, for Battlegroup Panzergrenadier. Despite the dreadful name this is actually an excellent set of rules, and as the Second Edition is due out any day now, I thought I'd give them an extra mention in dispatches.  Anyway, this scenario involves a hastily scraped together force of American paratroopers and regular infantry, who have to hold a ridge in order to protect the landing beaches behind them. the Germans attacking them were from the Hermann Goering Division, and included a brace of Tiger tanks. They had twelve turns to capture the ridge.

After several dozen games using these rules I've learned my lesson. Rather than deploy on the ridgeline I posted my paratroopers in foxholes, just behind the crest - a little like Wellington's reverse slope tactic, only with bazookas and carbines. When the Germans reached the crest I let them have it, and in a couple of turns the bulk of their infantry was either killed or driven off. The Tiger tanks were a little harder to deal with, but the scenario included a special rule, where they expose their weak belly armour when lumbering over the crest. Of course, it didn't help that at that crucial moment the German player lost the initiative, which effectively gave me two chances to do him harm. the result was a lucky shot by a bazooka, which brewed up one of the two Tigers. The other was suppressed by fire from a lowly 75mm pack howitzer, at which point the Germans gave up the assault, and ordered a general retreat.

Afterwards the German players complained bitterly that the scenario was poorly balanced. Their gripe was that "Elite" paratroopers were very hard to kill, there were too many American defenders, and the Germans never stood much of a chance to clear the ridge in twelve turns. Of course, if the bazooka hadn't scored a lucky hit against a Tiger, then they would probably have been quite happy, trundling around and running over the hapless paratroopers. What a difference a "double six" makes!

Second World War Page           Battlegroup Panzergrenadier playsheets

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A Rearguard in Poland, 1757 (Die Kriegskunst) 28mm

This is another Charles S. Grant scenario, culled from his Programmed Wargame Scenarios (1983). This collection of scenarios could be played with either side "programmed" to follow set orders, or as a straight game. They're designed to work well in any form. Our one involved a Prussian rearguard , heading back towards the River Oder, pursued by the much larger advanced guard of a Russian army. Dougie Trail's Prussians entered the table from the middle of one long edge (we played on an 8x6' table), while my Russians came on the corner closest to him. The Russian objective was to power through and exit the far table edge by one of two roads - either side of a large, dominating hill.

The leading Russian brigades were superbly handled by "Ken the Monkey-Hanger", who used his Cossacks like real cavalry - repulsing a charge by superior Prussian hussars, and even charging a square of Prussian grenadiers! Naturally the Prussian player complained bitterly about these "super-Cossacks", but if truth be known they were simply doing their job - screening the Russian advance, and delaying the withdrawal of the enemy.

As the Russian deployed across the table they encountered another problem. They were charged by a brigade of Prussian horse, and while the Russian horse grenadiers saw off their dragoon opponents, the Prussian cuirassiers (that's them below) drove the Russian Tobolski dragoons from the field. However, all this wasn't enough to delay the advance of the Russian foot, and as the Prussians hurriedly deployed into line on the hill, the Russians formed up to attack them.

The climax of the game came when the Russian line surged forward, pinning and eventually pushing back their Prussian adversaries. The "man of the match" award went to a battalion of Russian grenadiers, who charged the Prussian guns, and thanks to some bad die rolling they survived the experience, and went on to capture the battery. At that point the Prussian commander began packing his toys away, muttering about the rules. Unfortunately, as one of their co-authors, he didn't really have a leg to stand on! 

Seven Years War Page          My SYW Russian Army       Die Kriegskunst Rules     Die Kriegskunst  Playsheets

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Smolensk, 1941 -  Assault River Crossing (Battlegroup Panzer Grenadier) 20mm

This week we adapted a Charles S. Grant scenario - "Assault River Crossing" - culled from Scenarios for Wargames, 1981. We set our game in the summer of 1941, somewhere near Smolensk. The Germans needed to establish a bridgehead across the river, having failed to capture the bridges further downstream. Blue force (the Russians) held the north bank, by garrisoning the two hamlets marked "X" and "Y". A mobile reserve is held off the table, and is available as reinforcements. As for Red force (the Germans), they begin anywhere along line "A-B-C", and it takes a turn to rush their assault boats to the water's edge. Red force wins the game if they establish a viable bridgehead on the north bank.

In fact, the Germans launched their assault from point "C", covered by anti-tank guns and other heavy weapons deployed to fire into the flank of any Russian reinforcements. The initial assault was costly - Russian artillery zeroes in on the pontoons, and casualties were heavy. The defenders in hamlet "X" were also pounded by artillery, and soon only the command stand remained. However, like a true hero of the Soviet Union he repulsed the first German attack (by rolling a timely double "6"), then went on to eject the German assault engineers, armed with flamethrowers. Sensibly enough he then cut his losses and headed for the nearest friendly cover.

The Germans now had their bridgehead, and the onus was now on the Russians to eject them. The first batch of reinforcements arrived - infantry supported by T-34's, which managed to suppress the German armour deployed to protect the right flank of the bridgehead. Unfortunately they lacked the strength to assault hamlet "X". On the other flank another group of infantry were hammered as they attacked across the open steppe, while the supporting T-26's were halted by German "door-knocker" anti-tank guns, firing from the southern side of the river. The game ended when the Russian players admitted defeat - the German bridgehead was too well-defended. Still, it was a thoroughly enjoyable and hard-fought game. Like most of Charles' scenarios, it was also finely balanced, and victory could easily have gone to either side. His original scenario was designed for a "horse and musket" game, but it worked just as well when the horses were swapped for T-34's and the muskets replaced by MG-34's.

Second World War page

Battlegroup Panzer Grenadier playsheets

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