Battle for Crete (2) - "Galatas Village"

On Sunday 26th September we played the second scenario of the Crete campaign called Galatas Village. I have changed the previous post and now this includes the full battle report.

Battle for Crete (1) - "Cementery Hill"

Exciting start of the autumn-winter season at our club: a Crete skirmish campaign. We played last Sunday the first scenario "Cementery Hill" and I will post today a battle report. I played on the Greek and Commonwealth side and therefore my comments are from this side of the hill.

Some reference information first: we play with "Troops, Weapons and Tactics" (TWT), one of the Lardies'  sets that we have extensively used and trained since mid-2009. The campaign is based on the excellent Skirmish Campaigns series booklet "Crete-Stalemate in the East".   As backgound reading (for those interested) I recommend Anthony's Beevor "Crete: The Battle and the Resistance".

My summer endeavours

Back from holidays and slowly getting used to the same new routine. As said in my previous entry, I took my painting materials to my holiday place and have some very fruitful three weeks preparing my II WW armies. I have loaded some photos in the following album:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/52221446@N08/sets/72157624885492814/with/4960510991/

Cambrai Scenario # 1: The Beast's Last Sting (Battle report and scenario changes)

Today I had the opportunity to play  the scenario published as sketch in my previous entry. A first game ended in less than 15 minutes, with Lieutenant Bion and his crew lyind dead next to thier tank.

After a short brainstorming, the group of testers decided to refight but changing  a few things.

Cambrai Scenario Sketches # 1: "The Beast's Last Sting"

Following a detailed reading of Bryn Hammond's excellent "Cambrai 1917" (a must for anyone interested in this battle), my plan now is to publish some blueprints  for scenarios in the context of this famous battle. These won't be final ready-to-play scenarios but rather "sketches" of ideas that will evolve and reshape over time and hopefully will be enriched with contributions from other gamers. So please, join the effort and leave your ideas and comments.

The battle around Cambrai in 1917 is best known for being the first in which a significant tank force was employed while developing an active effort to coordinate the armoured, infantry and air British forces. The initial attack achieved a total surprise and the formidable Hindenburg line was easily pierced all along the front.

If you're looking for a good scenario covering this first and classical leg of the battle (tanks breaching the wire lines and crossing the first line trenches followed by infantry) , I recommend to play  Scenario Four of the Lardies' "Stout Hearts and Iron Troopers" M&B supplement. My interest is in other phases of the battle.

A ridge not too far

The final version of the Arras 1917 Scenario that I have called "A Ridge not too Far" has been uploaded as a pdf document. Access also in the "Resources" section. Thanks to my friends of Club Dragón for investing their time in the test phase. Please feel free to leave any comments.

Now on to Cambrai!

Arras game - Battle report (second test)

Blog's not dead!... but to maintain a fresh stream of entries it's much harder that I anticipated: family life, work, painting and a lot of reading (about the Battle of Cambrai)... difficult to strike a right balance among so many interests and obligations.

  

On Sunday and after a long abscence from our club, I finally arranged  a game to test the Arras scenario with the modifications of my previous entry.