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.

Battle in the valley - The allied push continues...

Continuing with the Tactics II campaign.

All out war across the entire front with the Allied forces pushing hard against the Axis & Vichy defenders. 

After a slow push through the mountains, like Hannibal in ancient times. The British Armoured regiment burst out of what thought to be impassable terrain. Another though ask of the German defenders.

Another outing flipping the rule system to Xenos Rampant whilst ironing out some of the kinks to in unit stats to better reflect the troops in theatre.

Allied - 1425 BA - 57 Points plus free spotter - XR

Axis - 1000 BA - 40 Points XR

The Germans hold the pass with an Infantry company and single light AT Gun facing off against a mobile column of Armour Infantry and Tanks.

Nestled amongst the rocks and dunes the Germans await the allied assault. 

The terrain was not the best for tanks, so as the AFV's pushed through the main road, the Infantry swept left by the oasis looking to assault the high ground. The Bren carriers moved quickly as Infantry filled the compound.

In the centre the armour pushed forwards, their advance slowed by off table artillery from the German rear area. The allies returned fire looking to supress the AT gun and AT Team.

Finding it tough going to the front the allies continued to probe the left flank, a Vickers light tank pouring fire into the Germans on the ridge line.

The Bren carriers assaulted the ridge line. The Germans (heavy Infantry with the Heavy weapon trait) pushed back the first assault but were picking up wounds.

In the centre the second Vickers Light Tank was a wreak having taken a number of hits from the defenders. This only served to drive on the British advance they can neutralised the AT team and were pushing into the pass supported by off table artillery.

The damn bursts. The Cruiser Mk III crashed into the AT gun driving the crew off, the allied Infantry seized the high ground as the surviving defenders were beaten back, who were then attacked by the flanking light tank.

An allied victory but at quite the costs.

Xenos Rampant makes for a fun game, the difference between the Allied Light Infantry & the German Heavy Infantry was telling, trying to wheedle the Germans out of heavy cover was hard work, next time they really need some additional heavy weapons to break them the Axis line.

A couple of additional tweaks to consider, company/squadron commands/activations given the games are larger than 24 points as stated in the book. - An armour deduction for flanks?

Overall pretty slick and fast moving for an evenings game.

Wyre Forest Club - The Black Watch in Fallujah

Club day and an opportunity to put on a BIG game.

The Black Watch Regiment was ordered to support the US forces in throwing a 'ring of steel' around Fallujah before an all-out assault on the insurgents in the city.

The Regiment is ordered into the outskirts to secure two key buildings clearing any insurgents that get in the way.

Three Warriors supported by a Challenger & Scimitar are available for the operation.

The Brits rolled up to the Outskirts of the city, it was quiet, to quiet Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had been stirring up the people but where were they?

Ambush.... unsporting the insurgents fired a recoilless rifle and took out the lightly armed command vehicle.

The command group ran for cover from their burning vehicle, the medic was killed in the blast but fortunately the rest of the group were unharmed.

The main group on the road poured fire into all potential hot spots as the flanking force of two Warriors hit the first target buildings. Infantry spilling out to take the fight to the insurgents.

Calling in the Predator to really add to the ferocity of the assault a number of insurgent groups were destroyed. The Challenger rolled on towards Target 2 unopposed, even if they had to shake off a roadside IED that would have caused some serious harm to a lesser unit. With the Insurgent commanders killed or wounded it was mission accomplished for the Brits.

An interesting scenario and a very different experience for both the British and Insurgent Commanders, the militia are numerous but are lost in droves if caught in the open, they need to pick their targets, timing and ensure they make use of the cover available. In this encounter they lost approximately 70 fighters. The Brits on the other hand need to manage their forces - In the mission the loss of a command vehicle and an immobilised Warrior and Scimitar cost the MOD around £1.5M but more concerning was the loss of two personnel and three seriously wounded.

Mission success but a loss when it hits the news wires back home.

Saladin & the last of the Arab Cavalry.

A break in the rain, long enough to varnish these - Yes the last of the Arab cavalry for the Crusades. Please no mounted troops for a while.... :-)

Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub - Recapturer of Jerusalem in 1187

Cast in metal from Gripping Beast it took a little but of cleaning up, but he is quite imposing and perfect for a General figure with Lion Rampant.

The last Arab cavalry. In the paint queue for a year and now complete, I think 16 units might be too many but lets see when they take to the table in the coming weeks.

Now back to the Chinese.