Hannibal, Rome vs Carthage on Vassal

 

I was expecting to be well into reporting our most recent Vassal adventure, namely the Vae Victrix magazine game by Fred Bey, Eylau 1807, sadly that was not to be as after two nights of struggling with a very clumsy module, not to mention a very ill-defined rules translation, we gave up and decided to play another Avalon Hill classic, Hannibal, Rome vs Carthage which came out way back when, soon after the release of its precursor, We the People.

These first card driven games really revolutionised the way we played boardgames back in the late eighties and early nineties, bringing as they did a great way of combining the historical context and events that characterised a particular theme in the cards that could also be used to generate movement.

To a modern audience card driven games (CDG's) probably seem so normal but I remember them being very much a new and rather strange way of playing an historical war-board game and the idea was not universally greeted with enthusiasm in all quarters, we however loved them and continue to do so.

Having not picked up Hannibal on its release, it was a gap in my collection that I was keen to fill and at Xmas, Carolyn got me a first edition copy which I am looking forward to playing face to face, but in the meantime Steve and I decided to try out the Vassal module and got started this week.

The game has gone through some changes since its launch but its basic layout and appearance has remained constant with the classic components of political control markers, military combat unit counters and key generals being the principal components seen displayed on a lovely point-to-point map with of course some classic artwork adorning the cards that players use to generate play.

A gorgeous map from our Vassal game of Hannibal shows off well the cockpit of war in the Western Mediterranean between Carthage and Rome in the Second Punic War, with the positions midway through turn two or 217 BC, with the game set to progress through hopefully to 202 BC captured in nine turns of play with variable card hands starting at seven per player and ending up with nine as the war escalates.

Being very familiar with We the People and Washington's War the learning curve for both Steve and me getting to grips with Hannibal wasn't quite so steep as it is with other less familiar games and so we both got into happily removing and replacing political control markers from the map as revolts broke out in Celtiberia, Corsica and Sardinia, whilst we also started to build up our forces, whilst getting our heads around slightly more unfamiliar game concepts such as the use of elephants in battle and the difficulties of siege operations, as Hannibal tromped off towards the Alps and I (being Rome) had to deal with a revolt in Syracuse, which is proving rather difficult to suppress.

Proconsul Publius Scipio has just landed on the Iberian coast at Malaca (bottom left of map) with his 5SP Proconsular Roman army, but Hasdrubal with his standing force of two Carthaginian strength points up the road at Novo Carthago (New Carthage) is planning a reception committee!

However the Romans do at least have something in common with the British in Washington's War, namely a good control of the seas and so after being made Proconsul at the end of turn one, 216 BC, Publius Scipio promptly took ship with a five point Roman army to land in the Punic recruiting heartland of Iberia at the pretty coastal town of Malaca, hoping to cause a bit of mischief in the process.

This while Hannibal was busy losing elephants and men to attrition has he forced marched off through the Alps bound for mainland Italy, easily skirting around the garrison Scipio had left at Massilia (modern day French Riviera) before his setting off to Spain.

In anticipation of a possible Hannibalic incursion into Italy the Senate handily went and voted for Fabius Maximus to take up a Consular position in 217 BC and he now commands the home army at Rome of 8 Strength Points and given his undoubted abilities at running away, may well find himself taking up the vacancy of Proconsul.

Oh dear, how sad, never mind, as a famous old drill sergeant used to say!
Publius Scipio and his army is no more and Hannibal with his 5SP army is in Gallia ready to advance into mainland Italy. Well now we'll see what these Romans are made of.

Oh yes, did I not mention that there was a vacancy going for the role of Roman Proconsul, ever since Proconsul Publius Scipio's excursion to Spain never got past the ports at Malaca as his Proconsular army got stomped on by Hasdrubal who promptly raised an army of four strength points to match that of the Roman's 5 SP but also brought three extra strength points of Spanish allies together with his undoubted military skills, (3 strategy rating vs 2 for Scipio) and despite losing the initiative after the first round of battle and not getting it back, dismissively dealt with every one of the seven strategy cards Scipio threw at him to win the battle, losing two SP to the Roman's one but cutting the remaining four down in the resultant rout back to the beaches.

The Battle of Malaca 217 BC Hasdrubal beats Proconsul Scipio
despite losing more troops in the fighting causes the Roman army
to break and run back to boats, cutting them down to a man

So, we are very much enjoying our excursion to the Punic Wars with all the fun that card driven games offer in terms of the unexpected and with the feeling that you are never really in control of events, no matter how well things seem to be going.

All to play for and with about four card plays still remaining in turn 2, we'll see how well Steve's Carthaginian offensive proceeds in the next report.

Ardennes'44 The Battle of the Bulge on Vassal - Part Three and Final Day (18th December)

 

Ardennes'44, Battle of the Bulge on Vassal - Part One

Ardennes'44, Battle of the Bulge on Vassal - Part Two

A week ago, Steve M and I concluded our game of Ardennes'44 from GMT Games using Vassal to refight the first critical three days of the German offensive of December 1944 as the German 7th Army and the 5th and 6th Panzer Armies fought to take advantage of the surprise they had managed to achieve on the American defenders along the Belgian-German border.

The first turns of our game can be followed in the links above, but this final post shows the last day of combat on the 18th December, turns five and six, as my German forces strove to take the next five victory locations, mainly key towns along the limited roads, crossing the difficult river strewn, forested and hilly terrain with bleak winter weather and limited fuel stocks and ammunition to contend with as well as determined American defenders with fresh reserves arriving daily to impede further advance and hopefully take back key objectives.

With two full daylight turns to each day of play together with a limited phase of play modelling night action, reinforcements are timed to arrive  on the daily turns thus turns five and six shows the reinforcements for the 18th of December, with the 82nd and 101st US Airborne arriving on the top left of the map on turn five, historically destined to help in the relief of Bastogne.

With just five victory hexes taken in the first two days of the offensive there seemed still a lot to do when play resumed on the morning phase, turn 5, of our game to take the remaining five hexes minimum to get to the end of the day having achieved the required terrain gains to meet the definition of a good start.

Day Three AM 18th December,7th Army Front

With the three key locations of Echternach, Diekirch and Ettlebruck taken in the first two days by 7th Army, the objective on this front was to go firm and fight hard to hold what had been taken, with the first US offensive against Ettlebruck repulsed by 5th FJ Division and their attached StuG brigade

The morning of the 18th December was primarily spent by both the Germans and Americans in moving forces in preparation for the big push that was coming in the afternoon and hours of darkness as the Germans made plans to take the remaining towns needed and the Americans to have forces close enough to help in the defence and to launch counterattacks to regain others.

Day Three AM 18th December, 5th Panzer Army Front

With dramatic progress made on the 16th December 5th Panzer Army had been able to exploit forward with a rapid advance on Bastogne and St Vith with the morning of the 18th used to set up large attacks against both towns and hopefully others nearby in the afternoon.

The primary action of the morning focussed on 7th Army front as the lead elements of US 10th Armoured Division attacked into the town of Ettlebruck and were only just held by the 5th Fallschirmjager supported by their attached StuG brigade, but leaving the German garrison in a desperate state with little hope of relief.

Day Three AM 18th December, 6th Panzer Army Front

Now somewhat stymied by a stolid US defence making best use of the difficult terrain, 6th Panzer Army spent the morning of the 18th December bringing forward key SS units together with four batteries of guns and nebelwerfers to support their bid in the afternoon to take the two key towns of Monschau and Elsenborn

Meanwhile as the lead elements of the two US airborne divisions arrived in their trucks ready to drive to the relief of Bastogne, the heavy tanks of Panzer Lehr moved up to prepare their assault on the town with elements of 2nd Panzer Division ready to support or to shift their axis towards Houffalize on the right flank, whilst to their south 116th Panzer finally managed to bring its full force to bear on St Vith finally cutting the town off from relief as it prepared its attack plans.

On the 6th Panzer Army front, the last defenders of the Elsenborn ridge were driven back through the forested terrain between 1st SS and 12th SS Panzer Divisions as those units prepared to assault Monschau and Elsenborn in the afternoon as the guns of the Army had been pulled forward and husbanded with ready supplies of ammunition ready for the big attack.

Day Three PM 18th December,7th Army Front

The positions held on the close of the 18th December shows the results of the hard battle fought between US 10th Armoured Division and 5th FJ Division as the US assault took back the town of Ettelbruck but were brought up short by a desperate defence by the German Paratroops holding Diekirch during the follow up US night offensive into the town.

German End result 2VP areas held

So as we sat down to play the last day turn and remaining night turn of the 18th December it was very much all to play for with the Germans still needing five more areas taken which would be pushed back to six later in the turn as the US 10th Armoured Division retook Ettelbruch and moved on Diekirch with forces held in reserve for a final night attack to take back the other town.

Day Three PM 18th December, 5th Panzer Army Front

The advance of 5th Panzer Army continued on with an all out offensive to grab key features in the final turn of play with Bastogne, Houffalize, St Vith and the crossroads north of the town falling to their attacks, but with US troops repulsing the attack on Martelange. The first truck markers indicating the progress of the US 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions can be seen at the top of the map.

German End result 7VP areas held

However the offensive on the 5th Panzer Army front couldn't have got off to a better start with attacks by Panzer Lehr on Bastogne quickly driving off the battered American garrison with US airborne forces at least another day's drive away before closing in on the key town.

The success of the Lehr attack allowed 2nd Panzer Division to take the back roads to work their way around US 9th Armoured Division CCR in front of Houffalize pinned by the Panzer IV regiment and panzer-grenadiers from the division as other panzer grenadiers from the division together with the Panther regiments from Lehr and 2nd Panzer moved around their flank to take the town behind them.

Fallschirmjager troops had a key role in the German order of battle, with a formidable reputation for hard fighting more than replicated by the battle fought around Ettelbruch and Diekirch by 5th FJ Division

Likewise the attacks on a surrounded St Vith by 116th Panzer division not only took the town but opened up the nearby countryside to exploitation allowing the key crossroads on the road to Houffalize to be taken securing yet another objective and the key road linking 116th Panzer to 2nd Panzer further forward.

Day Three PM 18th December, 6th Panzer Army Front

Finally the SS Panzer Divisions made their presence felt as both Elsenborn and Monschau fell to both attacks in the face of determined US resistance supported my artillery and tanks. Broken US defenders have fallen back along the roads leading to the towns and all four German artillery markers are flipped to their fired side further indicating the aftermath of the SS battle to secure the two towns.

German End result 2VP areas held

The icing on the German cake proved to be on 6th Panzer Army front where success seemed likely to prove more elusive, but in the end not so as the heavy SS tanks supported by copious German artillery, certainly by Battle of the Bulge standards, finally proved irresistible as the two towns were taken, giving a little more breathing space with just the night attack by US 10th Armoured Division to come which they duly won but were held by the 5th FJ opting to roll for a 'desperate defence' which they achieved, keeping Diekirch in German hands at the end of the day.

Phew what a dramatic and climactic end to our game played over six Tuesday evenings through January and February and with the Germans clinching victory with, in the end, eleven locations taken and with Steve and me on the edge of our seats as those final die rolls went in to settle the game and both of us agreeing that the game certainly rewarded the effort put in to play it with that final turn of play.

I still think given the choice Steve and I will still turn to 'Tigers in the Mist' to get our Bulge itch scratched when face to face gaming can be resumed but I am so pleased to have finally played Ardennes'44 which is a very good game and given its size and scope, indicated by the time we took to complete just three days of battle that forms the short campaign scenario, it plays really well on Vassal and I think would be my preferred way of playing it again rather than the rather laborious setting up and putting away of my hard copy version.

Next up: The next six ships set to join the Trafalgar Collection are nearing completion with just one now needing sails and rigging, so I hope to show some pictures at the weekend.

Ardennes'44 The Battle of the Bulge on Vassal - Part Two (17th December)

 

The situation in our Ardennes'44 game on the the second day (December 17th) opened up with great promise for the resumption of my German offensive plan following a very successful opening particularly on the 5th Panzer Army front in the centre where avenues opened up to allow rapid progress towards St Vith and Bastogne in the next twenty-four hours.

Ardennes'44 Battle of the Bulge on Vassal Part One

However a quick glance at the Appearance Card below for Turn 3, the 17th December, shows the large number of US reinforcements set to arrive in response to the offensive, with likely rapid reinforcement of the troops facing the 6th Panzer Army on the German right flank spearheaded by 1st and 12th SS Panzer Division with German reinforcements principally limited to a few army battalions, the balance of 3rd FJ Division and a von der Heydte Fallschirmjager drop in the area, but not much else.

Turn 3 (17th December) Order of Appearance, shows the arrival of the powerful US 7th Armoured Division on the 6th Panzer Army front (Arrival Points H indicated top right of each counter). German Reinforcements for the Germans are minimal, including von der Heydte parachutists, but the Greif Commando traffic blocks should help to slow the US troops reaching the front line.

As expected and in reality the ill-trained FJ parachute drop came to nothing with them being dispersed and captured and the fighting on the front around Elsenborn and Monchau proving difficult for the SS units to make much progress.

The front on December 17th AM as my three German Armies attempt to consolidate their gains and press forward to other target areas, circled red and with two behind German lines, to ensure the ten needed to ensure victory by the close of the battle on the 18th. The arrows indicate the principle attacks made in each area and the red boundary lines indicating the army areas.

The area facing the 6th Panzer Army offers a tantalizing opportunity for the SS units to break through past the US defenders on the Elsenborn Ridge to take the towns of Elsenborn and hopefully Monchau before pressing on to the next key line of Malmedy, the fuel dump on the Malmedy Road and Eupen beyond. However the US units on this front present a tough opponent with rapid reinforcement should a breakthrough fail to materialize and despite my best efforts using SS Kampfgruppe Peiper and the 12th SS to open up the main road on their respective fronts, which with Peiper was managed, the fighting to do it left no opportunity to move other units forward to secure key points.

Day Two AM - 17th December, 6th Panzer Army Front
US troops make a fighting withdrawal off the Elsenborn Ridge with the units under the blue '1' counter in the first stage of surrender checks, but doing a great job holding up rearward German troops as 1st SS Peiper struggle to clear the road to Malmedy and 12th SS are held up in front of Monschau by strong US forces backed by tanks and artillery.

The 12th SS attempted to break the line around Monschau with a 5:1 attack on the weakest part of the line only to have their attack aborted by a Time on Target US artillery strike on their forming up positions that completely unhinged and stopped the attack, (US artillery on the defence most commonly lowers the attack ratio by one or two levels but has to be treated with caution, as with a '1' rolled, as Steve managed, they can get a TOT barrage) whilst Peiper on the road with 1st SS failed to clear US blocking units, forcing me to throw in Panzer Brigade 150 with their disguised US armour to help the attack.

Day Two AM - 17th December, 5th Panzer Army Front 
A much more successful picture for the German 5th Panzer Army able to capitalise on the success of the opening attacks which drove back or destroyed most of the US units defending forward on this front, with survivors seen here under disrupt markers. The attack allowed  spearhead units from Panzer Lehr to take Clervaux and press forward on Bastogne and Houffalize and for 116th Panzer Division to advance on St Vith although delayed by some US rear-guard bridge-blowing that forced units to move up via Manarch. Infantry units have pushed out on the left to threaten Wiltz and consolidate the bulge.

The success of the attack through the centre of the US lines could be gauged by the stacks of 'Disrupted' US troops driven back from their positions on the River Our and retreating to Bastogne via Clervaux alowing Panzer Lehr and 2nd Panzer Division to press forward in their wake with the 26th Volksgrenadier Division moving out to the army boundary line with 7th Army to press their attack towards Wilz.

More resistance was encountered by 116th Panzer Division as their attempt to push on through the bottleneck on the road to St Vith was stymied by US bridge blowing that forced follow up units to divert to other crossings close to Manarch before turning right for the key town which will likely offset its fall for another day.

Day Two AM - 17th December, 7th Army Front 
The 7th German Army is an Infantry Army composed of infantry and volksgrenadier divisions stiffened by the inclusion of the 5th Fallschirmjager and their attached StuG brigade. These chaps don't move that quick and their general lack of armour and limited artillery resources convinced me to be conservative on the gains I might hope to make on their front with the importance of taking the key towns of Echternach, Diekirch and hopefully Ettelbruck before going firm on those key points and protecting their gains and the left flank of 5th Panzer Army driving to Bastogne.

With the limited mobility and armour resources of 7th Army I contented myself on this front of securing my forward river line defence around Echternach, repairing bridges to my rear, bringing forward my guns in support of the line and limiting further attacks to 5th FJ Division which they pressed well threatening to take Diekirch and hopefully Ettelbruck later that day before the arrival of strong US reinforcements on the 18th.

So with a good consolidation of ground made on the morning of the 17th December, but with worrying issues on the German right flank, could further progress be made to secure key targets in the afternoon of the 17th?

The front on December 17th PM showing principle German attacks across the front with three key towns falling to German troops to go with the two taken on the 16th and with Bastogne and St Vith now invested by German troops with the US defenders grimly holding out. However the offensive on the right is struggling and two groups of 12th SS on the extreme right are overextended and find themselves out of supply (red out of supply markers above the grey offensive arrow) as they try to batter their way into Monschau.

The afternoon of the 17th saw US troops pushing forward engineer battalions into key towns just behind the front line as their comrades further forward sought out blocking positions in forests close to main roads to force follow up German units to deal with them before pressing on to their key targets.

Day Two PM - 17th December, 7th Army Front
With their more limited resources in terms of armoured and mobile assets 7th Army continued to aid the German offensive taking the towns of Diekirch and Ettlebruck to add to Echternach taken on the 16th and securing three out of the five possible victory zones on their front. Their task on the 18th would be to go firm and hold their gains.

Despite the US efforts to slow the German advance three more victory centres fell in the afternoon fighting and another three came under attack as the US front continued to fall back under the attacks on 7th Army and 5th Panzer Army fronts, with five of the ten German objectives taken by the end of the day leaving another five to be captured and held on the 18th.

Day Two PM - 17th December, 5th Panzer Army Front
The Army Panzer Divisions of Lehr, 2nd and 116th Panzer continue their offensive with support from the 26th Volksgrenadier Division as Wilz falls to the latter and Bastogne holds just to Lehr and 2nd Panzer whilst 116th Panzer close in on St Vith.

However US resistance on the German right flank threatened to undo the gains made else where with the critical towns of Elsenborn and Monschau vital to securing the ten areas needed to secure the progress made on the first three days.

Day Two PM - 17th December, 6th Panzer Army Front
The US defenders on the 6th Panzer Army front continue to resist stoutly under the attacks of SS Panzers and Tiger II battalions, with their stiff artillery fire in the morning being stiffened as US troops cut off the supply route to the forward troops of 12th SS as they attempted to batter their way into Monschau. Note the three grey Greif Commando road blocks in US rear areas designed to slow down US off map reinforcements from Eupen and Limbourg marching to the area. The arrival of 7th Armoured Division puts the objectives of Malmedy and Eupen beyond the reach of 6th Panzer Army.

So with half the German objectives achieved in the first two days of Operation Wacht am Rhein and with the first truck loads of US Airborne troops arriving from Paris it would be all to play for on the 18th December to grab the other five key areas and hold on to them as US reinforcements are rushed forward.

In the third part of this series of posts Steve and I will conclude our game focussed on the first three days of the Battle of the Bulge with a climactic ending that had us both on the edge of our seats as our digital-cardboard warriors fought hard in the closing phases of play.

Next up I have a book review and work progresses on the next six models to join the Trafalgar Collection.

Ardennes'44 The Battle of the Bulge on Vassal - Part One

For the last five weeks on a Tuesday nights Steve M and I have been battling away in the Ardennes of 1944 refighting the last WWII German offensive in the west that came to be known as 'The Battle of the Bulge' as the German 7th Army and 5th and 6th Panzer Armies crashed over the Belgian frontline facing US troops on December 16th in what was thought to be a quiet sector of the front, where battered US divisions from other sectors could be safely sent to reorganise and accommodate fresh replacements from the rear.

Over the years my Battle of the Bulge itch has tended to be scratched by playing, first the 1981 Avalon Hill classic game of the name with copious reading of various General Magazine editions to work out the best possible attack set ups and the various percentage chances of success; swiftly replaced when I first discovered it and introduced it to Steve, 'Tigers in the Mist - Ardennes Offensive' also by GMT which we both love playing and would have probably done so this time around if there was a Vassal module to use.

The counter artwork is nicely captured in the Vassal module with the usual stats of Attack-Defence-Movement familiar in other games allowing a ratio of attack factors versus defence factors to be calculated 

So wanting to indulge ourselves with another bout of bridge blowing and Panzer hunting we looked for an alternative and decided to play a game I have had in my collection since it was first published but never had out on the table and given the size of it, perhaps is a little unsurprising.

The map shot below shows how massive a game this is with a hex scale of 1.6 miles, daily turns of eight hours (two day turns and one night turn and units representing, brigades, regiments and battalions, and for those willing to commit the time and effort the potential to play right through to December 30th, incorporating Operation Nordwind and the Allied counterattack in the wake of clearing skies and the return of the tactical and strategic air forces to hammer the Germans back to their start lines.

The glorious map from Ardennes'44 as presented in the Vassal module with the German start forces lined along the bottom map edge in highlighted army group/divisional areas (blue, grey and red) and with German army boundaries (red hex lines) extending into the US sectors to prevent units intermixing in the early days of the German offensive. 

The size of the game illustrates well why Vassal is such a great platform to play on, having allowed us to play about a day's action of US and German turns each evening, leaving the saved copy of the game ready for our return a week later to pick up where we left off with map and counter graphics beautifully displayed making it so easy to immerse ourselves in it.

A close up of the German start line and the various units displayed in the positions awaiting my final adjustments as I assumed command for our game. Units not able to move from their positions are marked by yellow counters and US troops in fixed defences are shown under their +2 defence markers all set for the initial German artillery barrage prior to the first attacks to go in.

As with all Bulge games the situation presented to both players is what it was historically with a large number of German units looking to barrel along the few roads that run against the grain of the country, namely gaps in the mountains and hills and across rivers to eventually get out into more open country before crossing the River Meuse and on to Antwerp, leaving the shell shocked American defenders to do their best to slow the Germans at those choke points to allow their powerful reinforcements time to get into position to stabilise the offensive before pushing it back.

Thus we approached the game on that basis focussing our attention on working towards those objectives whilst learning the game play as we went, which is generally how we get to grips with all our first game plays, after a read through of the rules and a sharing of our learning, and in the end we decided to play the six turn scenario (ending December 18th) which focusses on the early German drive to secure key towns (ten) together with, if possible, exiting the first German spearhead units off the map.

The Turn Record Track and Reinforcement schedule illustrates the two day turns which include a German and US turn in each followed by a night turn, with limited movement options and during which the US player goes first. As can be seen big stacks of US reinforcements are due on the17th and 18th of December as the Allies wake up to what is happening. 

My basic plan to start the offensive would have to be to get my infantry on both sides of the River Our that runs along the German start line parallel to the West Wall fortifications bringing overwhelming force where possible to the US forces holding that line, ideally near to key bridges which I hoped to capture to allow my armoured and mechanised units to start to break into the American rear areas.

On the right of the German line in the red area occupied by Dietrich's 6th Panzer army spearheaded by 1st and 12th SS Panzer Divisions, the river was not an issue but here the road network up to Malmedy is more limited in the number of approach routes and with stronger US units in position with others close by ready to reinforce via Eupen and Monschau.

Key VP Towns highlighted in red circles, and grey/red if captured. Grey arrows show spearhead attacks by Panzer Divisions.
Day One (first two day turns and one night turn), at the end of 16th December on the 7th Army/6th Panzer Army Front and German units have pushed the American defenders off the River Our, threatening to push through to St Vith and Bastogne, with key bridges held and others under construction and two VP towns (Echternach and Clervaux) in German control.

As it turned out, a combination of massing large attacks of four and five to one using the copious amounts of German artillery on the first day of the offensive together with my die rolls being blessed by the Devil with numerous '1's' and '2's' (low rolls are good in Ardennes'44), Steve's defenders were rapidly pushed back or destroyed on the 7th Army/6th Panzer Army Front with victory point towns of Echternach and Clervaux taken on the first day and routes opened up to three others (Ettelbruck, Wiltz and St Vith), with the capture of ten such towns giving victory to the Germans in the six turn (16th  to the 18th December) scenario.

The Germans are blessed with 'Big Cats' and Panzer Grenadiers, but you still need to get them to where they are needed in country not best suited for driving a Tiger II around.

However the desperation built into the very planning of this offensive is well modelled as the German player discovers the limited capacity of dragging forward his artillery to support further attacks across the River Our and a limit placed on the number of artillery units able to reactivate on the succeeding days due to limited stocks of ammunition and the reduced ability to bring them forward; as well as the hold ups on poor roads in bad weather caused to German follow up units waiting to use the limited number of river crossings, and if that was not bad enough, the road blocks the US player can start to lay down ahead of German spearhead units, simulating the occasional Allied air attack or other similar hold ups.

Artillery and armour are key to German attacks in that they help shift a two or three to one attack with column shifts up to four and five to one and US units left in their wake are taken care of by the slower moving infantry and Volksgrenadier regiments who look to isolate them and attack the weaker units or cause the 'low morale/straight off the boat' units to surrender.

As my lead infantry units sought to consolidate river crossing points to facilitate the forward movement of the panzer units, I started to discover the need to push the Americans well back from them as Steve managed to blow a few bridges after I had crossed them but having failed to get his infantry further away from them, leaving them open to infiltration attacks - oh well, did I mention about learning the rules as we played!

Key VP Towns highlighted in red circles, and grey/red if captured. Grey arrows show spearhead attacks by Panzer Divisions.
End of Day One on the 6th Panzer Army front, and despite 1SS forcing their way into Bullingen with KG Peiper leading the charge to threaten Malmedy and the Monschau Road, the single road through the Losheim Gap illustrates well the problems faced on this front, with a strong US defensive line in front of Rocherath/Krinkelt funnelling the SS divisions either side and reducing the frontage of the offensive to just one or two lead units and with 12th SS unable to push forward in heavily forested terrain. 

The 6th Panzer Army front sets different problems to the German player with a very strongly held US defence line next to the Losheim Gap really limiting the approach routes, but with a successful attack by Kampfgruppe Peiper into Bullingen the race was on to get to Malmedy before the Americans could block the road effectively.

With German units on the road to St Vith and Bastogne and with KG Peiper in Bullingen, can the offensive keep going before the US reinforcements move in?

In Part Two, we'll see how well the German offensive continues on into the 17th December as Steve's American front line attempts to recover from the shock and early success of the German attacks.

Next up: The Trafalgar Build project is coming to a conclusion as the last twelve models await work in JJ's shipyard and I take a look at the collection to date and further ideas about putting together a 'big game', post-pandemic restrictions on social gathering.

Richard III, Columbia Games using Vassal

Over the Christmas break, Steve and I reacquainted ourselves with another of the Columbia Games family of block games we have enjoyed playing face to face in the past, namely Richard III this time on Vassal and recreating the bloody events of the 'Cousins War' latterly come to be known as the War of the Roses.

The Columbia take on this dramatic time in British history is a campaign game of three separate but linked games of seven turns recreating the fighting and fleeing abroad by the losing faction, raising money and troops reinvading and having another go at claiming the throne that came to characterise the wars between the rival houses of York and Lancaster with each house represented by a hierarchy of five Royal Nobles backed up by noble supporters and able to supplement their forces with those of the church, levies, mercenaries and rebels.

Of course the built in fog of war by the use of blocks, that hide the identity of what forces are gathered before you by the enemy, means battle is always fraught with hidden menace as the strength and quality of the enemy is only revealed when the opposing parties are brought to the battle board.

Then by adding in the odd plague, storms at sea, and a variable number of Action Points generated by a hand of cards that enable forces to be raised and moved, the game sets up a framework for both sides to achieve dominance in the kingdom by ending up having more nobles loyal to them than the other side.

The game sets the scene by having the weak and ineffective Henry VI, the grandson of the usurper Henry IV and presiding over the loss of noble estates in France following his fathers early death after his victory at Agincourt barely holding the situation together and with the House of York set to invade from Ireland and Calais to march on London.

In our game I took the House of Lancaster and Steve York as we concentrated our forces in the South of England in the counties of Hampshire, Wiltshire and Oxfordshire that resulted in the Lancastrians forced to take a boat to France and with the map below dominated by Yorkist sympathisers and just two Lancastrian hold outs in Wiltshire and Devon. 

The first campaign map and the Yorkists have control of the kingdom with Somerset and the other Lancastrian royals kicking their heels in 'Belle-France'.

The only glimmer on the horizon for the Lancastrians was our decision to include the 'Historical Events' additional rules that sees the rolling of a d6 by the King, the Pretender and the King again and consulting a list of plausible events that occurred in the short periods of peace that held between the series of campaigns.

In the event Steve ended up seeing both Richard Duke of York and Edward Earl of March succumb to a bad case of the vapours and die leaving him three heirs to work with through the next two campaigns.

The Lancastrian power base, following the defeat in the first campaign had taken a decisive shift to the north of England and so I decided to launch my second campaign in Cumbria and Scotland which on reflection was  not such a great plan as I had envisaged.

By focussing my efforts in the north, I allowed Steve the time to mop up my supporters in the south and the time it took crossing the various parts of mountainous terrain on the Scottish border and over the Pennines left little scope to  press my campaign south and with Steve carefully putting few nobles in range of my Lancastrian hoards but leaving his forward defence of the Midlands to levies and mercenaries he was able to close out the second campaign with a couple more nobles on the board forcing the Lancastrians to flee to France yet again.

Oh dear, my cunning plan foiled in the second campaign, with Yorkist nobles relatively unaffected by my slow marching Lancastrian hordes and so it was off back to France yet again, and not even Warwick wanted to come with me!

The historical events chart nearly came up trumps for Lancaster as Steve managed to annoy Warwick the Kingmaker enough to see him change sides only to find on his second die roll that Warwick had changed his mind and re-joined the Yorkist fold.

Oh well things were looking decidedly uphill for the Lancastrians with a three noble advantage to York on the map I would have to try and kill that many and not loose anymore of my own to have a hope of reclaiming the throne and I would not make the mistake of landing too far away from the midlands to have enough time to try and bring on one or more major battles where I could hope to kill Yorkists.

All over for Henry VI and God Save King Richard the III despite that rather noticeable hunch back, oh and where are his nephews? 

For the final campaign Henry, Somerset and Prince Edward joined with Stanley in the royal county of Lancaster bringing down the Scots and the nobles from Cumbria and Northumbria whilst raising the Levies of Newcastle together with the Church troops of York and some Lincolnshire rebels.

The final clash came in the Royal estates of Derbyshire as Steve pushed forward a picket line of militia and mercenaries bolstered by the occasional noble to frustrate my advance and leaving the map above solidly white from the midlands southward, protecting London, and a stack of dead red noble blocks against a smaller stack of white ones just off the Bristol Channel.

Thus history was reversed and Richard Duke of York took the throne as King Richard the III and didn't end up in a parking lot in Leicester!

It was fun playing Richard III again and certainly a challenge playing the Lancastrians who don't quite have the quality of the Yorkists and are difficult in my opinion to come back with from a poor start which I certainly managed to deliver and Steve managed very well by helping me to lose my nobles whilst killing his mercenaries in the later campaigns, coupled with a poor decision on my part for my landings in the second campaign.

Of course the card play and available events and action points make sure one game can be quite different from another and the historical event chart adds a little extra spice especially for the House that is on top having to suffer two die rolls on it between campaigns.

So with medieval England in our wake and with 2021 beckoning Steve and I headed off back to WWII with our current game now into its third week and one that is a bit of a monster ideal for playing on Vassal, 'Ardennes 44' from GMT with Steve taking the Allies and me climbing aboard my Tiger II and heading off towards the Schnee Eifel, more anon.

Next up: Well I'm not sure exactly, the editorial team are still debating the next post, but at the top of the queue are my six French generic 3rd rates in Revolutionary War trim set to join Villeneuve's Trafalgar line up, The sticks are up and they are going into the fitting out yard to have sails and rigging issued from the stores this weekend. 

My normal building routine has had a slight departure from normal with recent messing about on the games table, trying out rule sets and I might take time to take a look at rules in the age of sail following a chat with the chaps at the DWG on our weekly Zoom gathering to talk wargaming and other stuff whilst enjoying a beer or two.

The other plan is to update on the Trafalgar project with all three fleets nearing completion and the first naval reviews being planned.