XR - Allied Assault - Tactics II Campaign.

The allied offensive continues and with a concentration of amour and infantry they continue to push the defenders at all the weak spots. This engagement is no exception as the Vichy defenders dig in and await the allied push.

The random terrain generator fell well for the Vichy with a village flanked by a dry river bed, the only challenge was the objective of the allies was to secure the wadi crossing.

Doing what they could, the French had put an emplacement covering the wadi hoping to stem the allied advance. But facing down the slow but heavily protected Matilda's would be a challenge.

The French threw what they could at the advancing armour, who countered with HE fire into the village.

The centre edged forward but progress was slow as artillery rained down on the advancing Brits.

However sweeping in from the left was a flying column of light tanks and bren carriers that looked to take out the artillery that had been plaguing the frontal assault.

The bren carriers and their supporting infantry pushed forwards sending the French defenders backwards and over running the artillery.

With the loss of the artillery support the main battle tanks pushed forwards, but are countered by a brave H35 which lasted for a few moments before it was brewed by a well placed AP round.

Time was running out for the defenders.... Vickers light tanks pursued the retreating infantry as Indian infantry charged the dug out.

Victory was complete for the allies.

Yet another win for the allies but the losses are mounting,

Allied Armour losses -200 Points, Infantry -325 Points - Vichy Losses -875 Points.

The war continues....

2nd Sino-Japanese War - Chinese Infantry Part 2

After last weeks support weapons time to get to grips with more infantry, as mentioned in previous posts I wanted to break up the Chinese formations with different uniform colours and styles.

These section is issued with British helmets and comes in a khaki tunic.  

Lovely designs from Kyoushuneko Miniatures on my of the close ups on the web they look a little cartoon like but painted up they compare really nicely with Warlord, Perry's and Battlehonours.

I need to think about what their national characteristics look like, the misconception is that the Chinese were very poor quality, but the more I read on them they are perhaps more stoic than first thought, outside of the German equipped divisions they lacked support weapons, armour and artillery.

Next up more boys in blue.

Lion Rampant - Scenario 7 Hold on Tight.

Lion Rampant is one of those rule sets that always seems to give a great result as the turns swing from one side to the other and so it proved recently 

48 Points aside split into 2 factions each. we play through Scenario 7 in the book - Hold on Tight in this case a dried up well in the middle of nowhere, they definitely cant be enough water for all of the combatants in this encounter.

The Muslim forces had the numbers with a whole wing of cavalry whilst the Christians took the less numerous route choosing a balanced force with Elite Knights in each force. 

Opting for a quick land grab the Arab horse sett off towards the Christian lines, one of the two heavy cavalry units had the bloodthirsty trait, my hope would that take down one of the Christian Knight units to 50%, making them susceptible to the bow armed light cavalry.

The templars were drilled and motivated and made short work of the Arab heavy cavalry, who failed to get them below 50%, however whilst they were tided down the Arab cavalry were able to hit the Christian Crossbows, battering them them for a turn. Confidence was high in the Muslim ranks... but casualties were mounting...

On the right flank the Templars had reached the Arab lines and were carving through the lightly armed spearmen driving them backwards from the well. The remaining Arab cavalry were too few in number to stop the assault. 

The Christian heavies marched forward and the well was in their control and there was nothing that the remaining Arab defenders could do to shift them.

It was going so well in the beginning for the Arab forces pinning the Christian forces on their start line, I should have pulled back and hit them with more archery fire rather than a death charge into the mass foot ranks... who knew that light cavalry would come off second best against heavily armoured foot.

Great fun and the Christian pilgrimage presses on to Jerusalem. 

Next time 

Who wore it best - Chinese Infantry - Sino Japanese War 1937.

With the last of the Arab cavalry complete now for something that little more modern.

With the testers completed in January in the bluish grey, I thought I would mix it up a little with some Khaki for those troops in the south of the country, I have some lighter tunics planned for the third phase to really given that unstructured feel for the uniform types for the Chinese troops.

Nice designs from Kyoushuneko Miniatures, with plenty of characters in the faces on the Chinese troops.

Heavy Machine Gun Teams, will they be enough to stop the Japanese onslaught?

Spotters and mortars to help keep the enemy at bay... Next up more Infantry.