Battle of Noville : Ardennes, December 1944

Now despite my lack of posting I have been busy with a couple of battles to post. I have nearly recovered from my illness although it has been reluctant to go completely and have been massively distracted on a different hobby project more of that later 👍

First up and very timely played rolled out my 15mm late war collection for a battle inspired by my recent holiday to the Ardennes. Whilst the paratroopers of the 506 dug in around Bastogne other elements of the American forces held the German advance back. One of these ‘Team Desobry’ as it was known after the commander officer Major Desobry held much of the 2nd Panzer Division just north of Bastogne at the village of Noville. Initially he had infantry and tanks from the 10th Armoured Division, to which was added Tank destroyers from the 609th Battalion and eventually Paratroopers from the 1st Battalion 506th. For two days they held back the 2nd Panzer allowing the rest of the defensive forces to dig in around Bastogne without their efforts it is possible the defence at Bastogne would have failed. 

Whilst there is plenty of information available on the battle

and some period photos, this of the village I think after the battle I couldn’t find any other reports of the battle being played ?

Anyway it was one of our stops on our recent holiday of the area

The memorial in the village

and a shot of the cross roads as it is now looking south towards Bastogne Major Desobry set up his command is the beige looking building in the distance and where his was ultimately injured. As usually our battle is ‘based on’ rather than an absolutely accurate historical scenario. But we managed most of the key elements. One specific gap which I need to fix in the new year is the 2nd Panzers had Panthers at this time and this is a gap in my German armour. Roll on Vapnartak show where I might pick some up.

And on to the battle, the Second Panzer waiting for the order to attack, this was only their set up position and they could arrive from anywhere on the baseline. Their objective to break through. One key element of the historical battle was thick fog so we had some simple fog rules, which caused a lot of problems for the defenders as the fog rather than lifting gradually got thicker reducing visibility and allowing the Germans to get right upto the village ! I realised after the battle that I have a few snowy trees I should have added but forgot 🤔 next time……

The Americans are dug in in the village so have little reason to move at this stage so we gave the Germans a double move to get things going.

 Shermans and infantry in the village

In a brief opening in the fog the Americans get the first hit along the main road

But as the fog thickens the Germans advance closer

Holding the line

Whilst the tanks of each side blast away the Panzergrenadiers of the 2nd Pz rush into the village occupying the nearest buildings a lone American bazooka can be seen attempting to take out a Panzer he didn’t succeed 😢

Tank destroyers have now been brought into the line

But the main German attack is on the west of the village and the Germans get the better of the armoured exchange

Without making the battle impossible for the out numbered Americans the Germans had a small flanking force which would arrive randomly to cut the road to Foy as they did historically…..and here they are ! Just as the American paratroooers can be seen running down the road to aid the defence

To the east of the village some of the German armour has finally been knocked out, but the grenadiers are fighting in the buildings

The Germans flanking forces swings north to the back of the village

At this point the Germans have forced their way through on the west, and taken two of the key defensive positions, the Americans have made them pay but we judged it now time for them to pull back. A German win albeit a minor one, partly helped by the fog early on in the battle at one point visibility dropped right down to 6” allowing them to approach the village unmolested.

Now for something completely different during my recent illness I had started to clear out some unloved stuff from the dungeon. My old unpainted Skaven army finding a new home via eBay. As part of this clear out I rediscovered my old model railway stuff neatly boxed up. I had two choices sell it on or investigate if I could accomodate it in the dungeon. I chose the second option so after a lot of thought I have been building a raised shelf around the dungeon to run the trains. This has involved a lot of thought mainly due to the restrictions on space and has been very absorbing. But one of the key requirements was for the new project to have no impact on the use of the dungeon for wargaming ?

Much of the timber I already had

But it did require a lot of juggling to be able to access the space

A first test train on its way……part of the fun of the project has been problem solving as there were a number of challenges in getting the track up and running. I do plan to add terrain etc as the project develops. As it happened at the weekend there was a model railway show down in Manchester.

Some amazing military focussed layouts this one around D day overlord preparation

Some fantastic modelling ideas

Tanks on trucks 👍

…and tanks on boats

Anyway this blog will remain focussed on wargaming although I might share an occasional update on the track. Thanks as always for checking by, I do have another battle to post in the next few days.

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and holiday celebrations. Depending on my distractions I’ll try and post up some end of year reviews

Matt 😀

Radio silence ?

Sorry for the recent silence on the blog. A combination of yet another really bad cold which has knocked me back a bit, it stopped me from attending Battleground although on the day the snow would have stopped us attending anyway. I’ve also been busy on a number of projects not related to wargaming, my wife’s birthday and now we are down in London again for a few days. Anyway hopefully some more gaming in a week or so, in the meantime I have managed to paint up a few bits…

A landing craft for my Tallarn, this was painted up for the show game but sadly as I didn’t attend it didn’t get used, perhaps next year ?

Picton for the peninsular , I needed a few more commands

A British Artillery officer

The Italian infantry have been slow going so I allowed myself to be distracted with a command car, this a 3D print

and some heavy support for Sicily Semovente 47/32 from warlord

Even more distracted I have been painting up some Penal Legion to go with my Tallarn force, these are Atlantic figures with some GW modification, these were the first three test figures I have another 27 to paint in various colour schemes ! But I’m well on with them.

I  picked this up off eBay but only noticed the two right hand tracks when it arrived, but the nice people at Warlord have sent me a replacement so hats off to them for customer service.

A couple of weeks ago we played our next instalment of Konigsberg campaign. The Germans started well got into a good position but frustratingly their morale let them down again, giving the Russians a win

Well there is a ditch so we’re jolly well going to use it for cover !

That’s it for now hopefully I’ll get a chance to catch up on a few other blogs soon

Matt

Battle of Port Republic : Shenandoah Campaign 1862

Full of enthusiasm we played the final of our Shenandoah campaign battles at the weekend, Port Republic. As always with Jackson Valley campaign lots of info on the web. Those that Ed or staged this battle will know the challenge is either creating balance or objectives which give balance. As the Union forces are pretty much overwhelmed quite quickly if you are not careful

For our battle the confederates would only have Three brigades available, Winder, Taylor and Ewell. The second two would arrive on a reducing D6. The Rebels would be seeking to break through the Union line and would get extra VP’s for capturing the Coaling. To avoid the Union General just sitting back for the whole battle I added a couple of twists. Firstly they would have no overall commander so the two brigades would not get a free activation, V&F allows you to use a card is desperate situations. On a failed activation ie a 1 each unit would be tested for and had a chance they would choose to advance towards the enemy 😂

It is a lovely battle to setup with fairly easy to identify and characteristic features. We would be using V&F again so dropped the units to 16 man .

Union artillery on the Coaling with Carroll’s brigade

Winder with the stonewall brigade set off across the fields they are under time pressure so can’t simply sit and wait for the reserves.

First turn the Tyler fails to activate and the centre units advance towards the Rebels LOL 😂😂😂

All hell breaks out …..

After about 4 turns Taylor arrives along the road, with his Louisiana Rebels and the Tigers 

The battle unfolds on both sides of the road

Breaking with history Carroll decides to push troops forward into the ravine to protect the Coaling

Taylor’s brigades forms up for the attack

Tough fighting and the rebels eventually win the fight

But the Ravine of course slows progress and they can’t get much momentum to move forward

The guns on the coaling blast away

….and again !

Finally Ewell arrives with the final confederate reserves

The Stonewall brigade has been at the front fighting since the start and have been shaken and rallied several times, they finally find themselves fighting in the orchard, loose the fight I fail the valour test but am able to play the Like a stonewall card to keep them in the battle so appropriate 👍

Finally the rebels are getting up the coaling

But are again sent back down

Only to be replaced by more troops coming up the hill

On the left things are eventually going with the numbers and with the stonewall brigade now supported by Ewell the Union forces are driven off the field

The rebels have captured the field and ultimately a minor win, we classed it as a minor win as they are clearly holding the ground but have taken a lot of casualties with two brigades having wavered.

Just don’t ask how the scoring system works as basically I allocated points for each battle on how I felt the two armies had performed. The final score of course a Union victory but this wasn’t the point we have had a lot of fun playing these battles and will definitely be coming back to a couple in the future. My thoughts are now turning to the Seven days battles and how we might play them as a series next ?

That’s it for now thanks for checking by, I’m off to see George tomorrow for the next installment of our Konigsberg campaign and then taking a game to Battleground at the weekend, hopefully,some fun with xeno rampant, if you happen to be there come and say hello.

Matt ♥️