My Collection: Airfix Battles

I added this to my collection last year as I was looking for a simple and fast playing WWII skirmish game that could be played with both miniatures and as a boardgame. This fits the bill and also scratches the Airfix nostalgia itch allowing me to deploy my old packets of plastic 1:72 scale figures and model tanks.

I didn't get much beyond setup as the cat interrupted play with an artillery bombardment - translation - she sat on the board and lashed her tail too vigorously.

Inititially I was apprehensive that it might not look that good when setup. I was very pleased to report that not only did it look great but also encouraged my desire to play this sometime in the future. I'll use the counters first and while assembling my WWII collection that I'm going to use for Bolt Action, deploy whatever Airfix models I have. 

 

One Hour Wargames: Scenario 22 Ambush

Here was a interesting game I played this afternoon, this time set in the Space Marines universe of Mark Ratner, in which the Azuriach Imperium were besieging a Terran Union strongpoint. 

The twist was that their forces had neglected to perform any serious reconaissance and this had allowed Terrans to infiltrate the dense woods to the south of the game board. The defenders were then able to obtain a significant adavantage with a surprise attack. The Azzies had to remain inactive for three turns which allowed the Terrans the opportunity to destroy or substantially degrade a couple of enemy units. 

With the objective being to eliminate all Azzie opposition, the Terrans employed a strategy of focused fire on individual targets. This worked to an extent but the numerical superiority of the Imperium coupled with a few unfortunate Command Events and Activation rolls hampered the Terrans in achieveing their victory conditions. 

With a double ammunition shortage card at the end this hamstrung the Terran defence and allowed the Azzies to eliminate the remaining units. Here we see the last Terran unit and its commander performing an obligatory advance before being destroyed by concentrated Imperial fire. A fun game and illustrated how the scenario setup and conditions combined with my friction rules of events and activations generated an interesting and unique solo experience.

One Hour Wargames: Scenario 14 Static Defense: War of the Spanish Succession

Here is the initial setup for this challenging scenario for the Blue attacking side. 

The Red defender has to keep control of the hill and town and maintain proximity of 12cm to both features with at least two units.

I decided to use my Malburian 6mm forces, partially painted. There were a few special period rules such as Platoon firing and Firepower Horse penalties which I used. The former provided a notable benefit to the British infantry units and this aligned with how this factored historically. The Horse on both sides were elite Heavy Cavalry and both forces were supplemented by a battery of artillery.

The French had poor command event draws and their unit activations were lack lustre. In contrast the British had some nice developments such as receiving a reinforcement unit early on and with losses mounting up the French side's attack largely petered out. It was all over in Turn 5 with a significant victory to the British defenders that not only held the objectives but had advanced and routed the French. An enjoyable and fun game with my solo rules delivering a lot interesting variety and friction.

Command & Colours Ancients: Battle of Leuctra 371 BC

I had another go at this Battle. I've always been fascinated by the contest and the invention of the oblique order tactic. This time I had control of the Spartans and their allies under the over-confident Cleombrotos.

The Thebans played a great start with their cavalry eliminating my cavalry force albeit at the expense of having to retreat both medium cavalry units to their baseline. 

I thought I had the edge with a co-ordinated advance of my Spartans but the Thebans held and managed to counter-attack.

It didn't take long for them to attain the five banner requirement for victory. A quick and bloody affair. Well played my opponent!

Napoleon's War: Austerlitz 1805

I recreated this scenario using the Napoleon's War rules and the setup in the Gates of Moscow battle pack. I was playing the French under Napoleon but unlike his highness I was less succesful in defeating the Allied forces.

Things started badly with a effective cavalry charge on the Russian right. This did a lot of damage to the French assault I was orchestrating. Thereafter I was on the back foot. My cavalry had a brief flurry of success but not spectacular enough to catch the Allies.

They reached the gruelling 9 Victory point target by Turn 13. My French only managed 6 VPs.

Here is my cavalry doing some damage behind enemy lines.

Even the intervention of Davout and his fresh Corps didn't help that much.

The cat came to survey the battlefield afterwards.

 

 

Frederick's War: Mollwitz 1741 Take Two

I had another go at this battle playing the Prussian side this time. An aggressive start I launched a frontal assault. This was countered by some effective cavalry charges by the excellent Austrian Heavies. 

It was a pretty close result with a narrow 5:4 victory for my Prussians. Think I was a bit lucky.

The cat enjoyed the spoils of victory!