Operation Comet - 5 October 2013

Just over three years since Jonathan and James wargamed the Arnhem battle over two days (see blog entry for write-up, photos and video), Jonathan had put together another impressive table of figures, vehicles, buildings and scenery for us to play Operation Comet.

Prior to Operation Market Garden, Montgomery had suggested Operation Comet, a limited airborne coup de main operation that was to be launched on 2 September 1944.  Comet envisioned using the 1st Airborne Division, along with the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade, to secure several bridges over the River Rhine to aid the Allied advance into the North German Plain.  The Divisional Headquarters for the 1st Airborne Division, with the 1st Airlanding Brigade and the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade were to land at Nijmegen, 1st Parachute Brigade was to land at Arnhem, and 4th Parachute Brigade was to land at Grave.  However several days of poor weather and Montgomery's concerns over increasing levels of German resistance caused him to postpone the operation and then cancel it on 10 September.

So to find out what would have happened, Jonathan and James attacked Nijmegen, which was being defended by Kieron and Orhan.

The Brits had to capture the bridge at Grave and the road bridge at Nijmegen (on right) and then attempt to control the road in between to enable ground troops to drive eastwards.  They had two main landing zones and a drop zone, but also dropped a glider each right next to the bridge objectives.

Jonathan's glider troops got shot up by the 88, which was then unsuccessfully close assaulted by those left.  The remaining soldier found refuge and kept his head down - but kept a British presence near the bridge.

James' first wave of parachutists landed but got decimated by Orhan's troops (only a training battalion but sadly still very capable of rolling sixes most of the time).

Fortunately, there were two more waves but Orhan's troops ensured that British progress was very slow.  But the glider landing near the Grave bridge was successful, and once the 88 and 20mm pieces were neutralized, the bridge was taken.

Soon, German reinforcements were arriving from the Fatherland, firstly half-tracks which made a bliztkreig attack by driving right up to British infantry and then engaging in close assaults.

This was followed by a Panzer IV, and the British defensive line south of Nijmegen started to get worn down.

Kieron's German reinforcements had less effect - they arrived into a farmhouse complex, and were rapidly hit by Jonathan's mortars and pressed into a defensive position.  Jonathan's troops had dug in around the village of Beek and along the hedgerows - although they themselves were thinned out by German off-table artillery.

The German reinforcements started to push the British defensive line apart.

We didn't play very quickly and got to turn 6 of the 8 turns in Day 1 (so Day 2's reinforcements didn't even get a look in...).

One of the British Jeeps made a last dash towards the Nijmegen road bridge, getting as far as the cross-roads in the centre of town.

The battle had swung back and forward all day.  There wasn't a clear victory.  The Brits had taken the Grave bridge and many of the buildings in the town, but the Germans still occupied the factory and killed many of the paras occupying buildings in the final turn.  There were still a lot of paras on the edge of Nijmegen but could they take the final bridge and town by nightfall?

The Germans were hanging on in Nijmegen and their reinforcements from Germany had changed the position south of the town significantly.  But tomorrow morning would bring British armour and reinforcements from the West.  Would they save the day or would the Germans ensure this was a bridge too far?

Here's a short video showing the table at the end of the game.

Battle of the Bulge - 30 December 2010

Back to Jonathan's for another big WW2 game, this time the Relief of Bastogne over Christmas 1944, part of the Battle of the Bulge.  We were greeted by a 4'x12' table covered in scenery and dozens of figures and vehicles waiting for deployment.  Jonathan had resisted the temptation to dust the entire table in icing sugar to recreate that winter wonderland feel but there was enough snow outside to keep us happy.

Here's the setup on the first turn.  Patton's 4th Armoured Division are entering the near edge, aiming to break through the German-held Sibret to link up with the American's occupying Bastogne in the centre of the table.  The German Panzergrenadiers (and others) are entering in the far left corner, intending to clear the outlying buildings and destroy the American's holding Bastogne.

Sadly, Adrian couldn't make it at the last minute, so Jonathan's cunning plan was for him to play the Defenders (Germans in Sibret, Americans in Bastogne) with James as Patton and Andy as the attacking Germans.  This worked well without slowing us down too much and also meant that: we each had our own areas of play to deal with; Andy got his wish of not having to play on the same side as James(!); and Jonathan was guaranteed to be on the winning side(!!).

James first mistake was not sending any infantry into the building on the very edge of the game board.

Fortunately, the chap inside with the Panzershreck bottled it and ducked out the back door.  James continued bringing on his tanks regardless since his figures weren't aware of the German even if he was, and subsequently the Panzershreck fired on Sherman bulldozer but didn't take it out.  The Sherman's MG made short work of the German.

James also brought tanks on the right hand side in a formation now known as the Artillery Deathwish.  They survived to split up into more sensible formation and it was the jeep on the road that took the artillery hit.

On the other side of Bastogne, Andy's troops started to advance after pulverising with artillery Jonathan's paratroopers holed up in the buildings in Champs.  Those out in the open started having firefights across the hedgerows.

Jonathan's artillery was similarly effective - taking out one of Andy's Stugs (although the other had a free rein to drive into town without any paratroopers left to threaten it) and having a devastating effect later in the game as Andy's infantry pressed on towards Bastogne.

Back in Sibret, American artillery was taking its toll on the German defenders.  But as proper daylight hours approached, there was worse in store...

Avoiding the church (this time at least - it did turn out to be full of Germans!), the airstrike dropped two medium bombs on one building and strafed the other with MG fire.  Very satisfying!

With the town softened up, the Americans moved in and occupied it.  As the Germans did with Champs on the other side of the board...

This is where Jonathan's (American) artillery was particularly lethal and Andy's Germans started to thin out on their approach to Bastogne.

The Americans pushed on beyond Sibret and started successfully clearing the bunkers of German defenders.  On the other side of Sibret, Andy's 88 and Panzershrecks slowed but couldn't stop the rest of the tank command making progress.  It was then that Andy brought on his Panzer IVs around Hermanville - just visible on the left hand side below:

The Panzers did some damage but were heavily damaged themselves by American artillery and tanks, and couldn't hold back Patton's advance.

This final photo shows the good progress the Germans had made through Champs and Hermanville to reach Bastogne but in the foreground American tanks have breached the German defences and relieved Bastogne.  A victory for the Allies!

Thanks again to Jonathan for organising and setting up the game.  Lots of fun.

D-Day: Sword Beach - 6 June 2010

Another trip to Jonathan's games room for a big World War II scenario. Sword Beach was the code name of one of the five main landing beaches in Operation Neptune, which was the initial assault phase of Operation Overlord (the Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944). Stretching 8 km from Ouistreham to Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer it was the farthest east of the landing points and around 15 km from Caen. The initial landings were achieved with low casualties, but the British forces ran into heavily defended areas behind the beachhead. The British landings were the only Allied sectors that faced attack by German Panzer Divisions on 6 June 1944.

The defending Germans were played by Jonathan and another Jonathan. The invading Brits were Adrian and James. The ruleset was Rapid Fire, which made for a smooth and fluid game, getting through 22 turns over the course of the day.

Jonathan had set up his excellent home-made D-Day tiles covering about 8 by 10 feet, chock-full of scenery.

The British landed between Ouistreham...

 and La Brèche d'Hermanville, both heavily fortified with bunkers and barbed wire.

The British invaded in ten waves, arriving in odd numbered turns and landing in the following turn.

The first turns were spent clearing the beaches of mines whilst trying to avoid German artillery strikes.

There were a few initial losses to mines on the beach and artillery, including destroying one of the British flails.

Adrian successfully repaired one of his tanks...

...and then made great progress against La Brèche...

The beach was soon full of landing craft and advancing infantry and armour...

James took the indirect approach to Ouistreham leading the charge with his fearless bulldozer, which trampled the barbed wire whilst dud panzerfaust shots pinged off its shovel.

The British airborne who dropped in on the Germans holding the Orne bridge put up a valiant effort but were eventually overrun by reinforcing Germans.

British tanks were soon making headway inland...

...but German Panzers were arriving down the Caen road...

Repairing tanks as he went, Adrian pushed on and engaged the Panzers, scoring some good strikes.  On the left, James used his engineers to take out the bunkers in Ouistreham and started taking the bunkers further inland.

At the end of turn 22, the British had taken the two towns and several bunker positions, and were fighting hard for the ridge.  Although there were a further 10 turns remaining in the scenario, the British had achieved a minor victory.

The liberation of  Europe from Nazi occupation had begun.  The forcefield protection provided to the British by Toby's Bionicles may have helped...

Lastly, the now-obligatory video footage...just 1m30s but with a classic comment from Jonathan at the end (although unfortunately MovieMaker insists on saving my widescreen footage as 4:3).

(Embedded YouTube script won't work if you're reading this in e-mail, so click the link at the end to read this in your browser).

Battle of Arnhem - 19-20 September 2009

[Click on photos for larger pictures]

Last weekend I met up for two game sessions with Jonathan, who has previously joined us for Shako, to wargame the Battle of Arnhem.  Jonathan originally planned for a larger group of players and had done lots of prep including air recce photos...

...and mailing us updates, but circumstances meant that it was just the two of us in the end.  Jonathan had set up a 10x8 feet table representing Arnhem north of the river, with the railway and road bridges at one edge.  The board was full of buildings and the room full of figures awaiting deployment.

I hadn't played the Rapid Fire ruleset before but it was really quick to pick up, and apart from checking the rulebook every now and then, we were able to play pretty fluidly just using the two page easy reference tables.  The game was a tactical one, essentially trying to make the best of the original British plan.  The paratroopers have to attack and hold Arnhem bridge long enough for the Allied troops to arrive, whilst being counter-attacked by increasing numbers of German infantry, artillery and armour.

I played the Brits and entered my first three battalions along the Western roads, "Leopard" and "Tiger" routes into Oosterbeek, and "Lion" route pass the gasworks along the river bank.

The game played out pretty much like history.  The British made a strong push for the bridge and took many of the buildings around the ramp as they were lightly defended.   They managed to prevent the Germans coming over the bridge from the South but as the German tanks arrived on the second day, the Brits started to get pushed out of the buildings they had occupied, having recognised the power of the flamethrowers too late in the game.

There was a real slog and high casualties in the Oosterbeek pocket, compounded later in the game when the Germans entered the map from the West.  We played 29 turns over the course of a Saturday afternoon, evening and Sunday, and concluded that at that point, the tide had turned for the Brits.  They had no more reinforcements, had lost the gasworks, and although they still held the southern "Lion" road, they were under significant pressure around the bridge.  It was time to get out the white handkerchiefs, and let the wounded receive treatment.

It was a great-looking game that was lots of fun to play.  Some of the highlights of the game are illustrated below.

One company made it all the way to the railway station in the North East corner in the first few hours of the battle.  They didn't last long but they slowed Jonathan's advance of troops who had to deal with them before deploying around Oosterbeek.

The early occupation of buildings around the ramp leading up to the bridge.  The bridge was 650m long in reality, so about 9 metres in 20mm scale, so Jonathan had understandably just modelled the Northern ramp!

Jeeps speeding along "Lion" route.

Using handheld anti-tank weapons, a couple of brave chaps managed to take out the lead German armoured vehicles as they came over the bridge - one of the first uses of copious amounts of cotton wool in the game.

Artillery played a big part in the game, and Jonathan's 88 was the most devastating.

I had four figures representing PAN, the Dutch resistance.  One pair were usefully spotting for artillery near the bridge but the other pair had taken up residence in the church tower.  Their single but significant contribution to the battle was the silent throat-slitting of the German observer who later also thought the tower would be a good vantage point.

German tanks approaching from the north whilst the armoured cars burn on the bridge ramp.

The wonders of a double-six!  James' anti-tank crew admire their handiwork whilst a Tiger I burns in the distance.

Arriving from the West, the Germans assault the gasworks...

...where the fight gets up-close and personal.  The British lose an entire battalion in a couple of turns here, marking the beginning of the end for the Battle of Arnhem.

Finally, here's some footage of the battlefield accompanied, of course, by the March from "A Bridge Too Far".