Sunday, September 24, 2017

Battle of Lindenau in 6mm

Refight of the Battle of Lindenau, 16 October 1813, using Commands & Colors Napoleonic Rules. French figures from Baccus and Austrians from Adler, hex terrain from Kallistra, houses from TBM and trees from Timecast.

Background:

Gyulai’s Austrians were on the left bank of the Pleisse River, to the west of Leipzig. Although ordered to attack, the main intent of his demonstration was to take pressure off the fighting on the right bank and possibly draw off some French reserves. For Napoleon, Lindenau was the only plausible withdrawal route for his entire army, yet the Allies did not grasp the obvious, and chose not to reinforce Gyulai.

At 5 am the Austrians moved against Bertrand’s prepared French IV Corps. This corps had been in action since August and had been much weakened, but the soldiers now fought like veterans. A short cavalry clash sent the French cavalry screen back, but the Austrian cavalry could not overrun the French earthworks.

Around 10 am Austrian artillery was moved into position on the heights and began to bombard the French earthworks, but with little effect. The Austrian infantry, by this time, had pushed the French back to Plagwitz and Lindenau, and for a short time had even gained part of the villages.

A renewed French counter attack, supported by reinforcements, expelled the Austrians and drove them back to almost where they had started the battle.

The Setup:

We removed some of the villages on the Austrian base edge because we didn't have enough model buildings to represent these and they have no effect on the battle.






Reinforcements:

At the start of each turn, the French player makes a reinforcement roll using 3 dice. This determines what, if any, reinforcement unit that can be placed onto the bridge hex. The bridge hex must not have a unit on it for the reinforcement unit to be placed.

Reinforcement roll:

  2 Infantry symbols = one Line Infantry unit
  3 Infantry symbols = one Light Infantry unit
  2 Cavalry symbols = one Light Cavalry unit
  3 Cavalry symbols = one Heavy Cavalry unit
  2 Artillery symbols = one Foot Artillery unit
  3 Artillery symbols = one Horse Artillery unit

Any other die roll symbol combination yields no reinforcing unit

The Battle:

The battle started with an Austrian attack on the French left flank. The French had a good position in the village and this combined with the necessary of fighting through the woods was too much for the Austrians.


The Austrians had left their light cavalry unsupported in the centre, so the French took the opportunity to attack an destroy them, but themselves taking casualties too.


The Austrians tried to take back the initiative by attacking the French right flank.


While at the same time even attacking on the French left flank.


General Morand entered the fray at the head of the French infantry in the village, and yet again the Austrians were defeated and pushed back.


The fighting on the French right intensified with both sides pushing forward more troops.


The Austrian Jaegers crept forward to the edge of the wood and started to bring a heavy fire to bare on the French defenders.



The French responded by clearing the woods with a bayonet charge.


But they took heavy losses from the Austrians supporting the Jaegers.




The Austrians made one last big effort, but couldn't shift the French defenders.


Now the Austrians were exhausted, and the French redoubts in the center still stood firm. A good victory for France!



Battle Of Britain - Scenario 1 - May 10th 1940 – The End of the Phoney War

This is the first scenario in a Battle of Britain campaign that follows the exploits of The Country of Dampshire 369 Squadron Auxiliary Air Force, a fictitious squadron that didn't exist during the Battle of Britain. We use the Wings of Glory WW2 rules, slightly modified to give faster play, together with our own set of campaign rules. We use the Wings of Glory planes from Ares where the right model is available, other manufactures are used to fill in the gaps.

The Background

May 10th 1940 was the day the real war started and the Phoney War ended. It was today that Hitler’s armoured divisions launched their Blitzkrieg attack in the West. The same day, in the United Kingdom, Neville Chamberlain resigned as Prime Minister and was succeeded by Winston Churchill and a new Coalition Government.


The Action

One Hurricane Mk I (Pilot Officer Cholmondeley Featherstonehaugh) and one Dewoitine D.520 (Sous-lieutenant Napoleon Schickelgrüber) were sent up to patrol just behind the front lines. The Hurricane belonged to the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Dewoitine to the Armée de l'Air (French Air Force) so there was no possibility for cooperation or communication between them. Two Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-3s (Oberleutnant Sepp Schlangenaugen & Leutnant Adolf Halland) flying westwards spotted the Allied planes and dived to attack.

A dogfight occurred where the Germans had an advantage because they were flying in their Rotte as a pair, while the two allied pilots were flying uncoordinated.



Seeing the Dewoitine diving in flames, Schlangenaugen claimed a kill, but unbeknownst to him Schickelgrüber managed to coax his still smoking Dewoitine back to the nearest airfield.

The Result

German Victory - both opponents fled.

  • Oberleutnant Sepp Schlangenaugen: 1 kill

Sunday, September 3, 2017

Wings Of Glory WW2 targets

I have been making some more targets for my Wings of Glory / Wings of War WW2 game. More fun using models as targets than just target cards.

IRREGULAR MINIATURES

Vehicles in 6mm from Irregular may not be as detailed as those from GHQ but they are much cheaper and work great as targets.

German vehicles

British vehicles

HALLMARK SHIPS

Hallmark (sold by Magister Militum) have a range of 1:1200 ship models. A scale that fits nicely on a target card. I will be using these for refighting the early stages of the Battle of Britain; the kanalkampf when the Luftwaffe attacked shipping in the English Channel.

SS Kylebrook (Collier)

SS Holme Force (Tramp)

SS Fulham (Flat Iron)

SS Broomfield (Tramp)

HMS Azalea (Flower class Corvette)

HMT Inkpen (Hill class Admiralty trawler)


Kylebrook towing a barrage balloon (made from modelling clay)