Battle for Etchinghill : Operation Sealion

We are now in the closing hours of S-day the majority of their initial objectives captured the Germans are pushing further inland. Pockets of resistance remain so we may see further small battles and skirmishes in and around Folkestone or Dover but as the light fades and fresh troops are landed they are sent north to probe any remaining British defence. The small village of Etchinghill whilst insignificant in the larger scale of the invasion is an important objective sitting on one of the key roads to Canterbury via the Elham Valley. It also lies close to the railway between Folkestone and Canterbury which would allow British reinforcements to be brought up overnight.

The battlefield before the advance of both forces, railway cutting in the foreground. Germans will be advancing from Folkestone as a simple scenario we have three objectives, the railway bridge, the cross roads and a telephone box providing the ability to communicate back to HQ, these are marked above as yellow dots.

The British advance from the north a Vickers armoured with a light autocannon, it may struggle if the Germans have managed to get any heavy armour up this far

Wouldn’t you just believe it the local Homeguard have a beaverette Armoured Car but it is immediately targeted by a german Panzer and blown to pieces !

To the west the British have managed to get a Matilda II up in support this will be a more formidable foe for any Panzer

Advancing from the south the Wehrmacht a 38t Panzer with infantry and Pak36 antitank gun head for the village

Further west a second Panzer this time a 35t heads for the phone box

Using the cutting as cover a unit of British Regulars are trying to get to the bridge 

The Matilda moves slowly towards the phone box objective scarring the german Panzer away

A unit of Fallschirmjager dash through the back gardens and with no targets available the gun crew begin to wheel their gun forward

A shot west along the road, a small Panzer I has advanced through the woods to try and capture the railway bridge, in the distance an armadillo truck which had advanced to the cross roads is in flames, with no real armour it was a second easy target for the 38t Panzer

A unit of RAF reserves who have arrived from Hawkinge have managed to catch a German unit our in the open (an incredibly lucky roll saw me wipe out an entire german unit in one turn) as they followed the Panzer to capture the bridge

Things are going better to the west of the village where a unit of Germans are pinned down behind the black shed reluctant to advance towards the British heavy tank.

“Vhere are zey”  shouts the german tank commander, this is no way to capture the objective but the British unit is at least safe for a while under the bridge

The Vickers light tank has been duelling with the Panzer I in the woods

....and eventually gets the better of the combat...but is then immobilised by the Panzer on the bridge !

Exchanging fire across the road..

The Matilda is now pushing through the hedges by the road, but can’t find a suitable target

Running past the burning Vickers another British unit attempting to capture the bridge is pinned down

Germans have now captured the cross roads, but are hit by mortar fire and then caught in the open by the last active infantry unit and wiped out

Close now to the end of the battle and the Panzer resolutely holds the bridge ( what you can’t see and I didn’t photograph is a british unit running no sneaking onto the bridge from behind to contest the bridge)

They take fire from the Fallschirmjager but just enough survive, the British commander urges the RAF lads forward but all they can do is take pot shots at the Germans from behind the hedge.

...as the sun sinks the phone box is safely in British hands the machine gun crew able to phone back to HQ on the position of the Germans advance

At the cross roads an unlikely finish the remaining two British infantry have run out of time to assault the german commander who seems oblivious to the danger, so this objective is also contested at the close.

So in the finally telling after the allotted six turns technically two objectives are contested with only the phonebox being held outright by the British so. A minor British victory ? .......well to be honest I think closer to a draw as the railway bridge is rightfully in the hands of the German Panzer.

A fun game, hard fought........and a welcome return to my Sealion Campaign🙂

You can almost hear the Wehrmacht laugh 🤭

Finally catching up on blogging activity, and it was about time the British had some significant and powerful reinforcements to fight back the Germans. Instead they got these 😢

An armadillo improvised truck, apparently often used by the RAF for airfield defence. I have only fixed one of the Lewis guns and the Hodgekiss naval gun can be removed if they want to mount something else....if only a captured german 88 ?

and then this to take on the power of the Wehrmacht a Beaverette Armoured Car mounted with a Bren gun...oh how the Germans will quake in fear. In my next post you can find out how they fared in their first outing as we returned to operation Sealion yesterday evening.

Finally this very sunny Saturday morning I popped into town and found this map, I have been looking for one for ages a 1986 Cold War era map of DDR and BRD

Costing a whopping 99p 🙂

Thanks for taking the time to read 🙂

Theseus and the Minotaur : Dragon Rampant

Well not quite exactly the legend but perhaps the sequel ? Theseus and his band of Athenians having escaped the labyrinth are now travelling home laden with treasures. As they make their way through the mountains they are ambushed by a fearsome Beast Herd their objective is to cut their way through with as much of their baggage as they can.

Struggling with the booty (each unit laden with booty has an extra free move but is then restricted and they can only fight defensively)

Theseus seen here leading his band of Athenians 

But there is trouble ahead and out of the trees the sound of cloven hooves

The beasts come on from all directions, fast moving centigors......

Theseus sends out his light cavalry to scout ahead

An overview of the ambush, Theseus is attempting to get to the far left corner of the battlefield

Some of the Athenians form up into a phalanx, shields to the ready

They have made it half way to the ru8ned temple but now they are going to have to fight for their lives

........and more winged beasts arrive from the rear !

While light cavalry hold back the herd with javelins the infantry prepare to be charged

Theseus urging a second unit forward

Then out of the woods charges a Minotaur Theseus immediately charges in hand to hand combat honours even

When the beast is pushed back it then charges the infantry

At this point in the battle it was all going the way of the Athenians..............

And then it all changed so quickly I didn’t even capture it on photo, somehow the Athenians snatched defeat from victory and lost all three objectives in a single turn ?!?!🤔😩

The beast herd reunited......we debated what the herd would do with the catch when they got them back to the herdstone eat them or marry them ? Perhaps best not thinking too hard 😀

A very enjoyable game, something different and great fun.

Three small battles for the price of one 🙂

In amongst the real world I have still managed to play to odd game, just not managing to keep up with posting them anyway here are a brief selection of three games played over the last couple of months. First up whilst over in the NE and whilst my wife spent a happy few days in Gateshead Hospital in February Martin kindly invited me over for a Saturday evening game.

He set up a small skirmish somewhere in the mountains, the Russians have sent a small expeditionary force to patrol the area but the local Afghan warlord has sent a force to raid the village.

Splendid tribal cavalry, the sun glinting off their silver polished shields

The Russian infantry dig in around the village whilst their very exuberant cavalry charge off to death or ....well death actually

Many mothers back in Moscow will be weeping for their lost sons but their sacrifice has gained some time

Looks like they are going to be outflanked ?

Yes completely outflanked !

The tribal cavalry have charged through to the village but, dug in behind fences the remaining Russian infantry are able to hold their ground just

When the sun set.......the Russians had held on with a single unit much singing and vodka to be drunk

Our next game in the dungeon was again a time constrained small skirmish to get some of my Arab forces on the table, I didn’t take many photos as it was one of those unfortunate situations where the scenarios we played just didn’t work. However, nice to get some newly painted Arabs on the table

I had also just completed some new banners to add some sparkle to infantry units 🙂

Arab infantry searching and finding the Spanish commander on turn one !

Despite a spirited attempt the spanish had little chance the Arab horsemen being very mobile and able to escape

But a sting in the tail as the Spanish heavy cavalry cut through the enemy infantry like butter !

And finally we tested out the new Warlord Bolt Action fantasy rules. Two reasonable skirmish forces with Goblins vs Beastmen, again I didn’t take many photos as we were focussed on the rules. 

The beast herd in full advance

Goblins who are meant to be weak and useless in combat and of course turned out to be devastating !

A final shot of heavily armoured elite Beastmen hiding from a small unit of little goblins with small pointy sticks.

The dice rolls were a bit wild in the game so it was a fair test, we try them again definately, the game is very mucha. Cross between bolt action and warhammer fantasy, significantly more detailed/complex than dragon Rampant for example. Sorry I didn’t take many photos but at least you know the dungeon is still active 😀 next up a battle form Greek mythology .........

Another Confederate Infantry unit

Quick update to share this weeks’ unit. I am working my way through the last couple of plastic confederate units. I think there is one more after this but I am likely to get side tracked before I get round to them 🙂 I have some more interesting bits and pieces together with a metal rebel unit in shirt sleeves to work on for some variety.

Will try and post up a couple of battles we have played soon.....

Regiment No 3 : SYW and Shiloh Scenarios

With life quite busy at the moment I haven’t headed south to Salute this year. In lieu of this I treated myself to a Shiloh Scenario book by Brad Butkovich. I have found a couple of his maps on the web but it is great to actually have the book. Scenarios are generally too large for my 28 mm collection but most can easily be split down to something manageable. So hopefully we will see some more Shiloh battles this year

Second up I thought I would pick off another Prussian infantry unit, they really don’t take too long but I need quite a few 😬

Eagle eye will notice I have used one of the Pendraken paper flags and one of their generic colour bearers. In the background you can see the alternative cast version.......on balance I prefer the paper version so will try more of these.

Limbering Up : ACW

These are the second half of the ACW limbers I painted a few months ago. I had bought them as a set of 4 then with the addition of some extra plastic limbers made them into 6 actual units. These are the galloping versions which if necessary will be used as light artillery units. The ‘light’ guns have been based separately for flexibility and I still need to do some extra crew which will be individually based  again for flexibility.

At some point I will try and pick up some more seated crews, not sure where from though so if anybody knows ?

Here are all six of the limbers finished.......nice to look at and of course adding a lot to any battlefield. Bit of a pain to paint and base etc.......interestingly painting them in two batches means the horse colours have developed. Pretty sure they only had dark horses, but I have allowed myself a little licence.

Thanks for looking 😀