CD City

This is about as big as a built up area can realistically get using the CD rules. It represents an area of about four square kilometers. I have set it up to test the multi level buildings affects on the game mechanics, spotting, movement, cover, and so on. Most of the terrain is grouped in the center of the table allowing for maximum use of the buildings, and plenty of reach allowance.

Normally CD allows for only 2" or 100 yards for spotting and firing in a built up area, however we use a house rule of 5" or 250 yards, which works much better for larger towns, etc, and from my own personal experience a viewing range of this greater distance in such terrain is actually fairly common. The next thing to do is a spot of play testing to see how many more units can be used realistically within this new frame work.

Pershing

This was a very expensive kit, and ordinarily I wouldn't pay that much for it on general principle. However, I had a voucher card for this store in particular, to almost the exact amount, and thought ah what the hell.

It is a very detailed kit, and I have decided to paint everything on the sprue first. Don't think I'll be buying any more of these anytime soon, so I want to make a good job it - keep you posted.

More Buildings

Scored this the other day for a very reasonable price. It is a railway building by Dapol, either 1/87 or 1/76 scale.

For gaming purposes the roof has been made removable, so it hasn't quite gone together snugly but it will do for a start. I also still have a bit of finishing work to do with its paint work, which will have to wait for another day or two, however.

Update

Last couple of days of the holidays. About the only thing I've done lately is start constructing floor levels for all of my multi-story buildings.

CD can be a difficult set of rules when considering built up areas, that is, you can only have so many stands in any one area depending on its size. So by adding floor levels I have effectively doubled the area we have to game with when it comes to a city scrap.

Here is one that I have fitted but yet to paint, Marines added for style purposes.

The last thing we did this weekend was take the dogs for a ride.

WW2 Belgians

Finally finished this company of Belgians that have been on the work bench for quite a while. All just straight out head-swaps on some figures that I thought would fit in okay. This is the company command stand.

Planning to do some pre-Dunkirk stuff later in the year and these will provide the token of Belgian troops that are needed for one of the scenarios.

More research may see this unit slightly enlarged to include a support weapons company or light anti-tank gun battery yet. There are examples from four different French figure sets represented here, and I think I have enough to make possibly one more decent group.

From somewhere in Germany 1945

The last of the games played over Easter. Nothing remotely historical about this one, and the British kit was basically whatever was available, owing to a lack of the right numbers of the right stuff - isn't it funny how this never seems to be the case when laying your hands on the German models needed? We decided on some loose scenario rules, an encounter game, no air support, only Germans move for the first two turns, HVAP ammunition rules in play, and got stuck in. Most of the German kit was Dave's, the British, mine.

Here are most of the German forces, one under-strength tank battalion (Morale Regular, the Tiger Company Veteran), one battalion of Panzergrenadiers (Veteran) and one battalion of Volksgrenadiers (Trained).

The British, one battalion of motorised infantry (Veteran), one of infantry (Experienced), and two mixed tank battalions (Experienced).

The map.

Early British moves. The Germans didn't have enough vehicles to move all of their troops, so their special rule of early movement was not an advantage across the whole board. The British were then able to move very quickly on this left side.

This is the armoured support for the British on the same left flank, two companies of Shermans. I think all of these vehicles are by HaT.

This is middle-left, about half way up the board. The railway bridge was only able to be crossed by light vehicles. There were a company of panzergrenadiers, dismounted and in cover, behind the second bridge, but were too far back to stop a company of British moving into the outskirts of the village in the top of the picture.

Dave realised a bit late that the British would fully outflank him if he didn't do something about their good advance down the left. He sent an under-strength company of Panthers and two companies of Volkgrenadiers to do this, but the tanks arrived a long time before the infantry, and were stranded for a couple of turns fending off British PIAT and flamethrower platoons, with reasonable success it has to be said.

This is from about turn 4. The British advance units are almost destroyed by a company of Tigers. Neither player anticipated that the other would advance here, so we ended up with Sherman fireflies and Cromwells engaging the superior Tigers at a board rang of about 500 meters; Dave, being a Tread Head, was very happy with this game so far.

The German success here was short. A company of Churchills distracted the Tigers, whilst another firefly strengthened unit dispatched them with HVAP, though the range was considerably longer this type of ammunition was still very effective.

Here are the Tigers. They too had arrived in good order, gaining good field position, but without infantry support couldn't stay put for long. The loss of this unit put a lot of strain on the units that arrived later, which were PIVs and not really gunned enough to deal with Churchills still lumbering their way towards this village. Dave's tanks, no idea who makes them.

This is the company of British infantry that crossed the railway bridge in turn 3. They began house to house fighting with the company of panzergrenadiers who had arrived too late to support the Tigers. The German armoured infantry had a higher rate of fire but the British suffered no casualties of note in the fighting around this area for a couple of turns.

This is the support company from another battalion that was attacking the other side of the village, this is on the British extreme right. The 6pdr kept the PIVs from poking their noses too far out of the built-up area until the Shermans and Churchills arrived to engage them proper.

This is back over on the left, about turn 6. Volksgrenadiers in borrowed carriers arrive to support the Panthers. However, they were not up to mixing it with the veteran British infantry, and struggled to maintain their positions here from the moment they arrived; again despite having a better rate of fire.

Still turn 6. Things went well here for the Germans, with the last of their panzer reserves successfully engaging Shermans at long range. More HaT vehicles I think, infantry are Caesar and HaT.

The afore mentioned panzer reserves. They took quite a few hits but held their morale and position to ensure that the German center remain steady until late in the game. Pretty sure this is from turn 7.

Same turn, and a really bad one for the British. The Panthers destroy the last of the Shermans on this flank, leaving a substantial force of infantry without armoured support.

Things swayed back the British way on the next turn, however. The Panthers and Volksgrenadiers were close-assaulted in reasonable numbers and were forced back 500 meters with broken morale. One weak company of Germans held out for another turn then likewise retreated out of contact, and of dubious further value.

Here are the survivors minus their infantry. Dave had to rush forward a few platoons that he could scrounge together here to stop the British infantry crossing this bridge, which would threaten the German center and rear.

This is from the center-right, quite late in the game turn 9 or 10. The Germans were still holding on but really stretched. The British had more or less secured the town in this area, and were beginning to move very large numbers of infantry and armour towards the last of the decent German field positions.

Here are the large numbers. There was still some minor skirmishing going on at this time, with the last of a panzergrenadier company still fighting it out in the top left of the town. The Sherman company began to fire HE at the Germans on the other side of the river as they were trying to dig in as a rearguard, and included a Pak 40.

This German 120mm mortar ran out of ammunition trying to keep the British infantry from mauling the broken Volksgrenadiers in the fighting still going on around the bridge that they had retreated across two turns ago. Trucks and figures by Pegasus, I think?

Turn 12, last turn. On the right, the British began their assault on the few Germans still able to offer any resistance, with a few Pak rounds bouncing off the Churchills. The German center had retreated as a result of the Volkgrenadiers finally being destroyed on the British left, otherwise they would have been flanked and also destroyed. The British had secured a good three quarters of the board and were poised for a final assault, but crucially had suffered far greater losses. We decided the game was a marginal German victory because in an encounter scenario the object is to gain best field position with least casualties, and Dave had managed to do one quite well, and the other one only just. So ended Easter, four days and four nights of solid gaming.

Italy, late 43, Crossing the Sangro

This one did not enjoy quite the same amount of research as our usual games but turned out rather well nonetheless. The 5/8 Punjab attempt to secure a bridgehead over the Sangro River, supported by the NZL 4th Armoured Regiment. Paul Foster ensured that the map was a reasonable effort, whilst me and Dave worked out the OOBs and other bits. Historically it had been raining on and off for some time, so we limited spotting for the first few turns, and all movement was reduced to half to represent the general ground conditions during the engagement; neither side had air support, again due to the weather.

One company of NZL armour advance up the extreme right flank of the Allied line towards the only bridge in this area. There was also a ford nearby, but the crossing of this subjected vehicles to a break-down roll because of the muddy conditions.

The first couple of turns were a bit of a scramble for good tactical field positions, but the Indians were obliged to move a bit faster than the Germans, and so lost some opportunities for proper move and fire co-ordination between the advance companies.

Fast German motorcycle infantry secured the first crossing point long before any of the Indian infantry could get into position, and once dismounted and lightly entrenched they took an awful lot of moving. In this picture the only German armour (x1 Coy of Stug IIIgs) engaged the Indian support units from across the river, destroying a couple of carriers, and generally disrupted the centre by doing so.

The Germans suffered a few hits to various units on the opposite bank of the river but remained in good morale and continued to further entrench.

The first assault by the lead platoons of Indians. They needed to force the dismounted motorcycle infantry to move back a bit before the main assault went in at this position.

Things didn't work out too well however, the Germans combined good use of long range machine gun fire and mortars to smash the first of the Indian attempts to secure a small foothold.

The Allies then tried to move the motorcycle infantry with direct fire HE from the nearest support units, which caused a few casualties to the Germans, but not enough to enable the Indian infantry to cross the bridge and set about securing that point for further troops to move up unmolested.

These developments led the Indian commander (me) to try something then at the other end of the battlefield. Two companies of infantry supported by carriers attacked over the left flank bridge, which was held by an under-strength German recon company.

With more or less the same result as at the other end of the table. A third company was then committed, and this proved enough to force the Germans away from the crossing point.

Here are the remains of the recon unit, with its command platoon burning in the background. Although this unit had been forced back their morale still remained good enough to continue to pour organised small-arms fire into the crossing area, and the Indians had to remain in cover rather than follow-up on their minor success.

Another major effort on the Allied right. Two fresh companies of infantry supported by two platoons of Shermans make another attempt to establish a crossing point. The Germans were having to stretch their defences quite a bit more by this time, and there were some small groups of Indians in cover on the German side of the river.

This is the motorcycle infantry, finally forced out of their positions. Unfortunately for the Allies this happened far too late and the result was a clear German victory. We allowed only ten turns for this game which was probably four turns not enough for the Indians to secure all of their objectives. Not sure how we could have done anything different with this one, as without artillery and air support crossing a defended river position was always going to be difficult. Still an enjoyable scenario to play as it involved some units not often gamed with, and some unique, if frustrating special rules.

The Lot.

Here is a picture of absolutely everything I have in my collection. Vehicles at the front are for WW1 through to Korea. Figures at the back like wise; a chicken vindaloo container holds x1 battalion of about 50 figures, the jumbo fried rice containers x3 battalions, and keyboard boxes x9 battalions. I had to do this because our insurance company insists on collections being documented where possible. I have two other games reports to show you from the long weekend, but will post those up a bit later on.

The Drive on Kimpo

If I'd thought about it we could have linked this game to the Incheon landings that we did a couple of months ago, and it may have worked into quite a good mini campaign. I didn't, however, so what we ended up with was another stand-alone. Ranged against the NKPA (Comrade Al) were the Western Imperialist aggressors of the US 5th Marines (Dave Russell) and the 1st ROK Marines (Paul Foster).

Here is the extreme left of the NKPA, deployed in defensive blocking positions on the line of Kimpo to Seoul. Unfortunately, they lacked the firepower to effectively engage the lead US forces that moved on this area, and so had to remain hidden and hope for easier targets later in the fighting.

This shows the beginnings of the NKPA counter attack, which started at dawn. Spotting distance was heavily reduced due to the time of the event and the North made quite rapid progress down the valley, heading in the general direction of Incheon.

By about 08.00 the NKPA had dealt with the point forces of the ROK Marines advance and were looking to occupy an area that would force them onto a narrow front, thus limiting the amount of firepower the Western Aggressors could bring to bear against them. However, in the background can be seen a force of light tanks and a couple of companies of ROK Marines which had moved much faster than anticipated, so the NKPA flank was never secure.

This is another picture from the early part of the battle. Both sides had taken a few casualties, but the US air power started to make regular appearances over the battlefield, slowing the advance of the NKPA.

More US armour begins to arrive from the Incheon area, supported by ROK Marines. General Foster had swamped the NKPA line in this position, and although some of his forces suffered heavy casualties the rest had no problems securing excellent field position for an assault on the hills in front of Kimpo.

North Korean Yaks made the odd bit of difference between turns four and five (about 10am actual time) by strafing the advance units of the ROK. Several Shermans had been damaged in exchanges with the T34/85s, and for a while it looked as though the NKPA might pull off a spectacular victory.

From about the same time, an ROK Marine company is forced into cover; casualties weren't too bad but their morale had not held up. The western aggressors weren't having it all their own way at this point, and their air support actually attacked their own forces during this phase of the battle as well.

Here is a couple of companies of the 5th Marines. They engaged the NKPA counter attack forces head-on and brought the whole forward movement to a screaming halt.

This is from about the mid-way point. The NKPA had been fairly well outflanked on both sides, and as only the centre was still fighting well, the north concentrated the last of their uncommitted forces to this area. The counter attack was fast becoming a defensive battle, however, and I was starting to have to move troops out of their dug in positions around Kimpo to bolster both sides of the line.

The last undamaged, uncommitted, NKPA tank unit tries to slow the right flank advance of the 5th Marines. My anti-tank guns were still holding off General Foster's advance on the left, so using this last platoon here seemed like a good move.

It wasn't. Without infantry support the US had nothing really to fear from a single tank platoon, and in the event David's forces here didn't even have to slow down.

This is from turn 10. NKPA forces were flowing back towards the Kimpo perimeter. The counter attack had been largely destroyed, and although there were still a couple of companies fighting well, they were now mostly cut off and without tank or aircraft support.

Armoured infantry from the reinforcement units dismount from their carriers and engage the NKPA platoons trying to stall the left flank advance. Also on this turn the ROK Marines captured the main hill position guarding the airfield, and 5th Marines on the other flank broke clean through the NKPA defensive line in two places. We called it quits here as the NKPA counter attack had been smashed, which it was historically, and the Western Imperialist Aggressors had all the good field positions, and more and more reinforcements were arriving, including as yet uncommitted tanks and infantry. All in all the UN suffered slightly more casualties here than they did historically, although the game went pretty much as it did on the day in terms of the timing and movement of key units involved in the battle.