Memoir 44 eastern front

I arrived fresh from a stamina building run at the athletics track to the gaming club with no idea of what we were going to be doing today, and as I saw one of the other two get out of his car without a box of toy soldiers I had the distinct feeling that perhaps I was meant to be doing something for tonights game... but in the end it was all alright and a good game of Memoir 44 the eastern front.

 

I took the Germans, my opponent took the Soviets and the third member of the club served as advisor. It was a scenario from the booklet in which the Germans could win a point for each unit they sucessfully got across the frozen river on the other side of the board, in addition to units destroyed.

 

The set up was good with the two guard divisions of Panzer tanks in the centre flanked on either side by four units of infantry and one unit of enginneers. On the German right too was another Panzer division and the artillery. The russians held the ridge in the centre of the table with four units of infantry and just behind an artillery battery. They also had two infantry units in forward positions at the bottom of a trench line and in the line of forests. On the soviet left, sheltered behind villages and a forest, were two guard divisions of tanks and one normal division along with two infantry units and another artillery battery. On the soviet  right another division of tanks and another unit of infantry held  onto a village, while guarding a village along the frozen river was a unit of infantry.

I opened up the engagement by spearheading my two guard armour divisions straight down the gap between the trench works and the forest, going straight for the ridge. They were also supported by the majority of the German infantry who threw themselves at the trench works, wiping out half the defenders with their sweeping machine gun fire.

 

The tank divisions opened up on the infantry in the forest and along the ridge, but did little damage to either unit, however they did manage to send the infantry in the woods running for the ridge position. The Germans were staging a strong breakout spearhead offensive and had practically cleared  the russian defenders from the pickets in the woods and trenchworks.

On the left two of the german infantry units advanced from their position in the village towards the line of forest. Whilst the soviets began to move their armour divisions back and towards the river, consolidating their position on the ridge with the infantry units gathering in the centre.

With that the Germans began to really make some headway in pushing for the river. The Infantry assualted the trenchworks and wiped out all the russians inside, taking 75% casualties on one of the assualting units. The other infantry occupied positions in the forest line whilst the engineer units made their way quietly up behind the lines. The Panzer divisions, on the otherhand, made great progress whith the undamaged one assualting the soviets on the ridge and pushing their way on towards the river. The other division came under heavy firing taking 75% casualties but dealing out just as many to the infantry firing on them.

The Panzy division on the other side of the ridge now made a break for it, blasting its way through the russian infantry defenders before racing across the frozen river to safety. The other armour division came under yet more heavy firing on the otherhand and was pushed back down the ridge with minimal casualties. Some of the German infantry made a dash from the forest and up the ridge sending the defending soviet infantry dashing right down the otherside.

It was then that the German commandant called an infantry assualt and the German infantry went racing out from their cover in the tree line and trench works across the open ground and straight up the ridge. Their enthusiastic firing got most of them up the ridge and two of the units over it, sending the russian artillery and infantry fleeing right onto the frozen ice.
The assualt was not without casualties though and the Germans paid dearly for their ground gaining though they killed few men.

The Soviet comissar now struck back. The Russian armour on the right made a flanking move down the ridge and onto the assaulting infantry. They too brought up their infantry units and sent the Germans scattering. The soviet tanks were soon scattered by return fire from across the trenches by the last panzer division and bombardments from the german off board artillery but even this was not enough to break the soviet line and the Germans were inevitably defeated.

Another great game of Memoir 44 and interesting with the eastern front scenario.
It seemed a onesided conflict with the Germans seriously outnumbered and outgunned but the soviets had very weak command structure, choosing an order from four rather than five cards. This was made worse by their commissar who had to choose the command for the next turn before he had seen what the enemy had played as their order.
But a deserved victory to the soviets.

Next time from the club will be napoleonics, myself in command of Captain Frederickson (of Sharpe fame) and the 60th rifles with two seperate forces of Guerillas or Cossacks and Frenchmen. It promises to be a good Sharpesque three way loosely based on Sharpe's gold with acount being taken for time taken to load and fire as well as the amount of ammunition each man holds

Memoir "44" game 2

For my second game of Memoir 44 we swapped sides, myself taking the side of the allies against the german forces. We played this game in almost half the time of the other one so apologies for some of the bad photos but we were playing quikly. I had three units of 4 infantry, two divisions of 3 tanks and one battery of 2 artillery pieces.

I started off with my Infantry and Tanks in the centre rushing the German panzers and grenadiers that had made their way onto the ridge. We forced both back into a retreat and gave the greandiers 25% casualties!

It seemed fairly evenly matched so far with myself losing one unit but also destroying the grenadiers in the centre. However the Germans were worse off having taken more casualties than us and with the river in the centre open and exposed to our forces on the ridge it seemed as though we could spearhead right down the centre and split their forces apart.

 It was still completly even points as the game went on, we had lost the left flank village to the panzers and our men in the centre had been slaughtered between the two ridges by tank fire. However on the right we had one panzer surrounded by infanrty and in the centre the last grenadier was left exposed to our tanks on the ridge with another two germans and a panzer tank in a perfect position to fire down upon.

But in the end it was another allied victory! We had dispatched three grenadier units, two infantry and a panzer division and we still had fire to dish out from all our tanks on the ridge to the last panzer in the centre and two lne infantry in the low ground. We were in a strong position with the right secured, the centre practically ours and the left holding out well enough, though a couple more rounds and it would have been lost.

For myself (speaking as a less than enthusiastic WW2 wargamer) I do have to say it is a great game. It is much more about tactics with much less chance (there is still the element of chance with the dice, but it seems far more like the chance you would have in a real fire fight and much more predictable). I would be very interested in converting it into other periods WW1 trench warfare may be quite interesting with it and I'm sure the "shieldwall-king arthur" period would work well, I can just imagine it being perfect for Hastings...

Next time I am hosting my game, Accident in Baro gorge, for the first time ever (At least with 24 tirailleurs and 120 abyssinians to paint I may have to put it off but I hope not.)

Memoir "44" game 1

Our monthly club game was meant to be ACW 15mm fire and fury (as last time) but unfortunately, again, we were foiled as one of our members couldn't make it. So instead we played this beautiful little game called Memoir 44 (made by the same company as the game ticket to ride, which seems so popular in the non wargaming world). It is a WW2 board game (though I understand many people scale the board up and use their painted 28mm collections instead of the equipment that comes with the box).
You have three types of unit:
Infantry; made up of four models (meaning that they have four wounds) who roll three dice when shooting (they subtract one for every hex in between their target) and may move one hex and fire or two and hold fire. (There are some anomalies such as the Grenadier units which can move an extra hex and still fire and the depleted units which have one less wound).
Armour; made up of three models (three wounds) who roll three dice when shooting (they do not suffer any penalties but they may only fire three hexes) and may move three hexes and still fire.
Artillery; made up of two models (two wounds) who roll three dice when shooting (they subtract one for every two hexes in between their target) and may move one hex and hold fire (they do not need line of sight).

I opted to play the Germans for my first game, so I started with three units of 4 grenadiers, six units of 3 infantry, four units of 3 tanks and one unit of two artillery.
The game is card driven with the board divided into three sections. When you play your card it will allow you to activate a certain number of units in that section of the board or carry out a special action. However the shooting and fighting is done on dice, but they are no ordinary dice... 1 = star which means a miss, 2 = flag which means the unit being shot at falls back one pace, 3 and 4 = infantry which kills one infantry man, 5 = tank which kills one tank and finally 6 = grenade which can kill one of anything.
The victory conditions is the first person to reach six points. A point is gained by destroying a unit, but in this scenario there were other ways. The two villages controlled by the allies counted as one point each should they be occupied and held by German troops. The river counted as one point for the allies should they have a unit adjacent to it at the end of the game.

 We deployed the forces and terrain according to the scenario set up in the rules and prepared for battle

I opened up with a left flank rush from my panzer division and the grenadiers, followed up by another infantry division. The grenadiers opened fire on the village, and the allied troops fled the village under the fire. It did seem a little easy that we could now be in control of this position...

But as an allied assault rushed forwards, blowing one of our tanks, we shot at them with flanking fire from the grenadiers in the village and the infantry in the forest killing half of them.

On the right flank my other grenadiers, backed by a panzer division, spearheaded for the second village, but although they caused 50% casualties on their targets outside the village and 25% on those inside the resistance was stronger than expected and we lost our first unit to artillery fire. I also moved our last grenadier unit along with three other infantry squads to hold the river banks against assaults from the ridge overlooking it. However on the left we were having a hard time holding the village against the allied assault and they had now dispatched four infantry units and a tank division just to secure it.

In the end we were sent packing. The entire left flank was overrun and our left flank assault had ended with the grenadiers being slaughtered. The river was perhaps more successful and the infantry men entrenched in their positions in front of it were holding out well. But with the loss of three grenadier units, a panzer division and two other infantry squads we seceded defeat.

The road to Flanders

This is another game from my local club. Those of you who read our previous exploits(http://warformiddleearth.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/return-of-king-that-is-to-say-richard-i.html) will remember that I said we were doing 28mm ACW... well owing to a broken down car this was not happening, so one of the others turned up with 10mm WWII. I have little knowledge of this period and I don't really have much wish to gain any more (The political situation is quite interesting however), but it is a popular wargaming period (I can't see quite how, as it is quite unlike any other period of wargaming) and the games always look brilliant laid out (my camera does not do this game justice as it was really a very impressive layout and the flash rather obscured the 10mm models).

I took the British force (not something I usually do). Our force of six shermans, thirty four infantry, two MGs, three anti tank guns and two OPs (controlling four off board 25mms) plus a large array of jeeps and other transports was tasked with holding the road and stopping the germans leaving the table edge behind them. The german force (an armour company) consisted of three panzers, three challengers, six halftracks, six transport vehicles and two OPs.
We used rapid fire rules with halved measurements

I had Ten Infantrymen positioned inside the small village with their truck as a forward outpost. In the church chapel and also on the hill nearby there were two OPs with their jeeps. I started off the game by moving the infantry from the village to form a road block directly in front of the German advance.
The OP on the hill then set off, with his jeep and the Picket's transport truck, for the British head quaters. He made quite good speed along the Flanders road and would be able to direct the 25mms from the headquaters should the church fall.

 I then began to send my other forces forward. There wasa barbed wire blockade over the road near the British position and I dispatched three shermans and ten infantry to secure this position. To the north my other three shermans and ten more of my infantrymen set off to make sure the Panzers didn't try to escape by crossing the clearing.

 I looked in a strong position, but as I have already stated WWII wargaming is quite unlike any other. Large, strong looking blocks of infantry can be cut down in minutes and tanks do little damage to each other.

 My OP was almost home, and not a moment to soon as the Tanks began to open fire on the picket in the village taking down four men. However the picket then opened fire... but as stated before their is little their rifles can do and they only managed to take down the German OP, getting a lucky shot at the engine of his staff car. Our 25mm then opened fire on the German tanks but all the artillery shots missed.
My Shermans were nearly all in their positions, hidden in clumps of trees at the strategic spots.

 The German force had not got far as the clock ticked on. The picket sort of seemed to be proving its use in slowing the German assualt.

But It was not to last as the German tanks opened fire on the church tower. They managed to blow it and the OP inside sky high before letting bringing down a bombardment on the village, blowing out all of the picket. However not before the picket fired on one of the half tracks, getting another lucky shot and blowing it and the infantry inside sky high!

The German halftracks then began to advance over the hill behind the village and into the clearing. I was advised not to open fire at that range however and held my fire only to have  one of my sherman's blown out by the Germans.
Having held off the Tanks from making much progress along the road and the other Germans from making it across the clearing in time.
I had to go early from this game but I was told that I had probably held them off long enough to prevent them leaving the board in time. I say "I was told" because I really have no idea with this kind of wargaming!

Deal wargames club

The main reason we didn't finish the Blog a day in October was because i was on holiday in Kent. While there i found out that a kent wargames club met at the end of my Grandparents road. So we visited...

Chairman, Adrian White (see one of the models designed by him below)

 ttp://www.frontlinewargaming.co.uk/20veh.html, put on a WWII game that they had recently staged at one of the shows (and had reported in one of the mags), just for us! It involved our forces (British/Gurkha) making an amphibious landing across a river in Burma. We won if we managed to take the Japanese headquaters in the Burmese temple on the ridge.

They had really pulled out all stops, creating splash markers (for those japanese shots tht missed our boats), landing craft and wading models (cut a model in half and stick to see through plasticard)

the Gurkha landings went well with only a few boats sunk and a few men from those making it ashore.

With the Gurkha landings complete this was our force and soon we had cleared out all the Japanese from the low ground on the right wing and were engaged with those in trenches on the left. Our bombardments of the ridge also went well, with two mortars and some soldiers taken out by the blasts (and a good deal of crater markers where we missed)

at the end we had not yet captured the ridge, but we were making good progress and had just landed our British wave. so we can take it as a draw, we were on track to win but had not done yet.