4th July AWI Celebration Battle : Chatterton’s Hill

Given the date yesterday it seemed appropriate to dig out the AWI collection. With a slight limit on gaming time I was looking for a smallish battle Chatterton’s Hill is a scenario straight out of the BLack Powder Rebellion book, the battle for the hill was part of the larger White Plains battle. To speed things up  we used V&F for the first time downloading the latest army lists form the Perry Website.

The American ‘Rebels’ are defensively setup on the Hill, they only have two brigades, McDougall with regular continental troops and Douglas with a much less dependable brigade of Militia. These have a low tenacity of 2 compared to the regular British infantry of 4 so they are fragile and could easily flee if the British can get to grips with them ?

The first British brigade arrives under Maitland, they have artillery setup on ‘Wolf Pit Hill’ scary for the Americans but in the end they have little effect on overall battle.

Maitland with his light troops advance on the right, Leslie’s British brigade of regulars can be seen in the distance and beyond them a Hessian brigade under Colonel Rall

As the Allies advance towards the hill the Americans rather than pulling back move up to take advantage of the various stone walls, looking to blunt the advance before the British can fully deploy.

Given the space and the numerical advantage the British really need to get stuck in and not surprisingly they chose to assault the weaker militia units holding the wall either side of the road.

 Not surprisingly the Militia unit taking the brunt of the attack turn and run, but the brigade holds and the second line pours volley fire into the advancing British.

With some pretty lucky dice, the Militia on the right hold and eventually /heroically push back the Hessian Grenadiers

Both sides throw more troops into the hand to hand fighting the militia are on the point of breaking

In the centre Maitland has crossed the river and his light troops are starting to bring fire onto the ridge. The final grenadier brigade has also now arrived and in crossing the river.

The key fight is now very British have been badly mauled with all their units shaken but the militia are thinning out and shaken as well it is only a matter of time before one side breaks !

The British light dragoons charge forward driving the American riflemen away but they come under fire from behind the walls and are shaken

After two further turns of combat the fighting is on the edge, the Militia hold and have to use a fate card to stay in the fight. In the final turn a single volley causing a single wound causes a cascade of failed valour and fortitude tests for the British, this is too much for Leslie’s Brigade which flees the field. Hoorah !

With redcoats fleeing the field and the Hessians beyond now down to a single unit the Americans have held the day. A fun battle with combats and Valour tests right on the edge for several turns. V&F worked well with the recent army lists so we will be using this again in the future. A good way to celebrate the 250 th celebration.

During the week I was also down with George to pick up our 1940 campaign. As always a beautifully setup battle with George’s WW2 collection.

Having won the last two battles this attack by the British was a harder setup (sone might say almost impossible ?)

They gave it a go but the Germans proved too strong. I’m sure George will be posting his thoughts, but fair to say we agreed the scenario wasn’t really balanced, both in terrain and the forces available. That said a fun game.

That’s it for now another battle planned for early next week.

Thanks as always for checking by ❤️

Matt

Lion Rampant Crusading……..

We have arrived back in the North where the temperature is tolerable, after a week on holiday in what turned out to be the hottest June week on record. I’m sure other British followers will have suffered similar. Although the heat meant I had to cancel a planned trip to a couple of battlefields we did manage to see a little bit of history.

But first up before we headed into the SW furnace I squeezed in a game of Lion Rampant. Looking for a quick pick up scenario for ply in. Couple of hours we went ‘Crusading’ we had the Christians escorting their baggage train across the desert only to be ambushed by Saladin and his Moorish forces.

The Christian objective is to get the three baggage items escorted by their infantry diagonally across the table. The dry river will be difficult ground. Those with a keen eye will note the similarity of the basic table to the previous Greek/Italian battle ! As to be expected the Arab forces are generally more mobile but more lightly armed.

In the initially couple of turns Saladin gets the better of the dice and is able to move the majority of his force into blocking positions. The scenario requires the Arabs to deploy split in half. The Christian heavy cavalry stubbornly refuse to activate !

This means the infantry carrying the baggage start to more forward unprotected.

The light Arab cavalry armed with bows and javelins sweep into  attack, skirmishing when they need to keep out of range. For several turns the Arabs continue to get the better of it gradually wearing down the Christian forces who are forced back to use the small building as some cover.

Eventually though the Christian’s start to get some better dice and are able to bring their heavy cavalry forward.

Now it is the turn of the lighter Arab forces to be pushed back but they are constricted by the dry river bed

The Christian King and his bodyguard charge in against Saladin who although not killed is forced to flee.

The game is up with the Arab forces accepting defeat as they now don’t have enough troops to prevent the Christian baggage from getting off the table (eventually), a fun game whoch swung significantly as at first the Christian’s almost threw in the towel when they were seemingly pinned into the corner, but things changed around a it turned into a good win 👍

Just a couple of shots from the holiday with a historical theme, we were staying just south of the Forest of Dean, almost in the epicentre of the heatwave !

St Briavels Castle, started in early 12th Century but extended by Edward 1st with the twin towered gatehouse, used as a centre for the production of Crossbow bolts with iron from the Forest of Dean and now a Youth Hostel.

Chepstow Castle , which I had been to before, a wonderful Norman keep which has been encircled and the castle enlarged several times since.

The last remaining medieval gate into Chepstow, there is a little bit of wall still extant which you can see as well

We visited Coleford several times the scene of a small ECW battle in 1643 commemorated by a nice plaque in the main square.

Whilst the rest of the party were shopping in thrift shops I visited the tourist information where they had a small diorama of the battle. Apparently built by one of the Town councillors who is apparently a wargamer, using Warlord Epic figures which were nice to see.

Goodrich Castle, a *** castle overlooking the river wye.

Besieged and taken in 1646 by Colonel John Birch using ‘Roaring Meg’ an example of which is on show at the castle.

Finally in one of my short cycle trips around the area I came across this pillbox over looking the Seven Estuary/River near Lydney Harbour. I always find these WW2 reminders fascinating when you come across them.

Well that’s it for now, more to come soon as I have several games scheduled over the next week or so.

Thanks as always for following along ❤️

Matt

Greece 1940 : the Italians invade !

Having painted up the Greeks and with George coming to the dungeon for a game it was a chance to give the Greek/Italian 1940 project its first run out. The plan was to create some terrain which gave the feel of the rather desolate and often snowy Greek mountains in the winter of 1940. I wanted a theatre that felt and looked different to our games in Sicily, Norway or NW Europe. I’m also attracted by the limited impact of the Italian Armour. We’ll see how this develops as we go along.

For this first game the Greeks are all mountain troops so playing as Elite, they are outnumbered by the Italians who are supported by their characteristic 1940 Armour ! But the Italians of course suffer from some poor leadership which will make them hard to activate if they get pinned or lose any squad leaders.

In this battle the Greeks have set up a defensive position protecting a key road junction they are dug in on the surrounding hills with some strong defensive artillery. The Italians must break through to capture the road junction.

The Italians are supported by the Regina Aeronautica

But having dropped a single bomb in the first turn the Greeks are lucky to hit it early in the second turn !

Both sides now bring their infantry on

Italian infantry use the dry river bed as cover, whilst their armour ‘hide’ around the buildings ?

A second Italian tankette  can be seen just beyond the infantry in the ditch

The Italians are slowly developing their attack and focus on knocking out the two Greek AT guns

With support from their mortar and their flamethrower tankette they achieve this, suddenly the way to the objective is open.

The flame tank leads the way, alThough each turn it has to roll to see it it’s fuel has run out it seems to have an inexhaustible supply ! It causes a lot of problems for the defenders.

As the battle develops the Italians drive forward with their infantry but with poor leadership they are held back by defensive fire, the tankettes though have broken through

The last Greek infantry has to regroup and make a desperate charge to assault the leading tankette they manage to get a grenade into the tank and it blows up, but them they are wiped out by the flame tank !

Both sides are now desperate to grasp the objective, both sides throw their commanders into the fray but the Greeks win the contest.

In the final turn the Greek antitank rifle knocks out the armoured car. More Italians rush for the objective and although they have the numbers they don’t quite have enough to claim a clear win.

In the end a fun and very close game despite the differences the forces balanced quite well. The look is getting there although I’m thinking I might need a different base cloth ? I do have some more rocky terrain to get painted up. Certainly great fun to get the Greeks out on the table.

Thanks as always for passing through the blog 

Matt ❤️

Sicily 1943 Bolt Action and the Greeks

Gaming on Friday in the dungeon saw the Sicily Collection on the table to introduce Erik to Bolt Action as an alternative to Chain of Command. Not based on anything particular we played the standard breakthrough scenario. Giving me a chance to play the Italians for a change. Here  are just a few shots of the action.

The Americans are a mixed force with support in the form of a Sherman and a armoured car.

The objective line for the GI’ s is to get beyond the winding road running across the table

I encouraged the Americans not to hold back with potentially only 6 turns to break through so they came on pretty quickly 

The Italians did have some armour support but really frustratingly this was immobilised and knocked out really quickly by the Sherman, this left the Italians struggling to hold back the US armour, but they were having more luck holding back the American infantry which started to take some serious casualties

Realising the Italians had nothing to hold them back the US armour pushed forward

Ignoring the risk of being overrun the Italians focussed their fire on the American infantry keeping them pretty much pinned down

As the game got closer to the end the Americans rushed the Sherman off the table for maximum points, the Italian defenders are gradually being whittled down but they have blunted the advance of the American infantry.

In the end the American were able to claim a fairly clear win as several Italian units had been knocked out holding the line, but they did pretty well holding back the US infantry, a fun game and it felt fairly close right up tot the end, losing the Italian armour early on didn’t help the dense. Certainly a good introduction to bolt action first edition.

In the words of the famous Bard it’s all ‘Greek’ to me ? Well not quite, finally I have some painting to share it seems like these chaps have take a long time, but now I look back I guess my mistake was attempting to paint the whole lot in one go. The positive of course is they are now all completed and ready for action. I give you the Greeks 1940/41

Support weapon teams including a sniper

Artillery support, the guns are actually french 37mm which I understand the Greeks did purchase. The benefit of the Great Escape games is the guns crews can be purchased separately. So the AT guns can also serve with the french if needed.

Command squad

One of the 4 squads. 

Here are all four, I just didn’t see the point in putting them each in the Photo Booth. The figures are all METAL (David) and great sculpts from Great Escape Games. This force is all Evzone elite mountain troops and I plan to purchase a couple of regular infantry squads to fight alongside them. From my reading so far the Greeks really didn’t have any armour and the fighting I’m looking to play is very much the mountain conflict with the Italians, so for now the force will be entirely infantry and support. 

For those interested a size comparison, the Greeks are chunky chaps (very well fed) warlord Americans, Italians to the left, crusader Paratrooper and British older metal warlord, then a crusader British in think. I can live with the variations.

Finally another walk out in the South Western Lake District.

The beauty of Wasedale

Sca Fell to the left, my target for the day, and Sca Fell Pike in the centre (for non UK followers this is the highest point in England at 3209 feet)

Two more games planned this week before we are away again on a family holiday in the South West.

Thanks as always for popping by 🙂

Matt ❤️