Raid at the City of Palma Córdoba : Al Andalus

Played a little while ago we had another small run out of my Al Andalus campaign. This battle saw a small raiding force from the neighboring city state of Seville, raiding the lands around the border city of Palma (later Palma del Rio) in Córdoba. Using Lion Rampant there were 6 different objectives to be captured and taken back to our respective baselines. The challenge being the actually value of each objectives between 1 and 3 being hidden until captured. The battle was quite frenetic so the few pictures I took will have to tell the story 🙂

The Seville force enters at the gallop, both taifa are Muslim at this point but have employed small numbers of mercenaries 

The objectives are arranged along the centre line in the dry wadi and represented by sheep or camels etc the city walls of Palma in the distance

In the initial phases the Córdoba force captures the objective on their right only to be beaten back by the enemy horse archers

An objective captured on the right but can they defend it against the enemy cavalry

Once captured of course the challenge is getting back to the baseline without being cut down

As always happens once a couple of objective are captured it becomes a real fight for the centre

Abd-al Qasim can be seen here galloping off to the right 

The mercenary cavalry is now in a position to control the centre....

But the Palma residents have already brought back one of the camels 

Some elite Sevillian guard have their eye on mutton for tea

Another objective brought back safely to the city walls

In the end is was a good victory to the men from Córdoba with the majority of the loot being rescued and brought back to the city.

An enjoyable battle, entertaining without being too complex. I need to write some more scenarios which can be upscaled to bigger battles.thanks for looking 👍

Some more painting 😀

Have been working away a bit over the past couple of weeks and with weekends away as well I have had little time to get stuck into painting. But I managed to complete these two Elephants !

Gripping Beast figures I believe, which I got as part of a job lot of Sassanids. Indian elephants, the crew are removable

I have given the drivers early Persian shields as that is where they are more likely to get used, they are slightly diminutive compared to other elephants but not so they won’t fit. I think I now have 5 elephants ! I feel the need to get them all on the table in one battle.

As part of my travels with work I have been in Leeds and managed an hour in The Armoury Museum.

A couple of my favourite displays

Plenty of armour

And a while since I’ve been and the new Agincourt model very nice 👍

Finally some more painting !

In between the cycling I have managed to get some painting done (I have also prepared quite a bit of stuff as well) so hopefully some more soon.

 First up some Russian ‘whites’ these are Copplestone figures painted up as the 1st Officers’ Regiment, one of the colourful Regiments from Southern Russia

Second some fairly random ancient artillery, picked up at a show secondhand so not sure who they are made by but these will find a place in one of our Blood in the Sand battles in the future.

More hopefully soon 😀

Russian Counter attack Dünaburg Bridge

Our latest battle in our Barbarossa Campaign, following the exploits of Army Group North sees the Russian forces under Kuznetsov, 21st Mechanized Corps and 5th Airbourne Corps, attempt to break through a hastily developed defensive position held by Von Manstein’s 8th Panzer and the 3rd Motorised Division. The Germans having captured the Dünaburg Bridge are holding the town the Russian have been cut off and isolated so they are attacking East. The German bridgehead includes the town over the bridge and the castle where heavy artillery is able to target the advancing Russians. The battle took place on the 27th June 1941, and if not covered in much detail is ‘immortalised’ on the cover of the Osprey Campaign book which we use for to help planning our battles🙂

and on to the action............

Germans infantry in the bridgehead have built hasty defensive positions

The gun emplacements marks the access to the bridge which is to the right in this picture, a Panzer II as per the Peter Dennis picture.

The Russians had the advantage of seeing the German defensive setup, and also brought down a fairly effective bombardment pinning some of the Germans early on. Lots of Russian infantry keen to break through to the East !

Supported by a couple of BT7 tanks

The ground is fairly open but has a number of drainage channels etc which the russians use to advance

They are quickly at the half way point in significant numbers.

The Germans on the right flank find they are not being opposed so start to advance supported by a 38(t) looking to sweep around the Russian flank

The Germans are supported by artillery situated over the river in the Citadel

and then with a whoosh the 38(t) explodes into flames

The Russians including this unit of elite infantry are now pushing forward to their objective which is to overrun the German defensive line

Having made a dash for the farm house a German unit prepares to outflank the Russian charge

The Russians are taking casualties and pins but this is only slightly slowing them down

The Panzer II has turned to defend the small gully in front of the German lines, a hit on the BT7 but only temporary damage which is quickly repaired

A period shot.......

More Russian infantry advancing beyond the farm

Russian infantry just seems to be everywhere

The thin German defence line is now starting to fall apart and is being overwhelmed 

Clinging on a single machine gun unit

Russian infantry reach the defences 

..... and are then through them, the German commander is being told in no uncertain terms to surrender as he ponders the map and wonders where it all went wrong.

A significant victory for the Russians this time, they played a clever battle focussing their assault whilst the Germans were spread out. The German Artillery was completely useless and we probably under played it putting the Germans at a disadvantage from the start. This combined with poor German dice and the game was up.

But they can’t have it all their own way and a good battle all the same.