Spearhead - Plugging The Gap completed

Finished off our Spearhead game today with Stephen with my British being totally crushed with two of my three Battalions routed from field !!

On restart things looked reasonable for Brits despite one Battalion having suffered 7 casualties as they occupied 3 of the 4 central objectives.

But in one turn Huns inflicted 4 further casualties on this Bttn forcing a Morale Check which I duly failed  

One German stonk by 3 x 105mm artillery took out an entire British Company in one fell swoop (3 x 6 rolled) and so it continued with so many sixes or double suppressions annihilating the Brits in short order as Dice Demon was in full flow today

In reply I could only manage a few suppressions which the Huns managed to Rally every damn time.

And so soon another Bttn reached its first Morale Check and of course failed forcing me to yield.

Rather one-sided in the end but was great to get Spearhead and my 6mm kit into action again.

Some rather poor pics for some reason ? 

This was first British Bttn to succumb on my right

The Hun tanks standing off forced me to advance as out ranged

British right has disappeared and central Bttn under pressure 

Brit company wiped out around that Bellona house by laser guided Hun artillery

Just no answer to the Panzers or the PzGr in Sd251

A few more pics from Spearhead game

 A couple more pics from Spearhead game (which is still in situ) just cause.

Have had bulk of these 6mm from late 1970s/early 1980s with core of tanks being GHQ (certainly for Germans) with several CinC Micro Armor, Heroics & Ros, Davco, a smattering of Scotia (mainly Ivans) and even a few venerable old Leicester Micro Models scattered throughout OOBs. 

Infantry were once all H&R but main portion now Adler but with H&R chaps still on bases with APCs or Command stands and suchlike.

Not sure how many of these are still in production or under new management ? GHQ were always more expensive but are now into costing an arm or leg territory in UK !! 

All were originally done for WRG (tanks were unbased and infantry on those mega fiddly tiny 4 figure bases - how many of those did I lose !?) then redone for Command Decision (1" or 1/2" squares) and finally for Spearhead (on 30mm squares).

German right with PzIVH (CinC Micro Armor), JgPzIVf (Davco), Sd251 (Heroics & Ros) and a mix of Infantry (Adler and Heroics & Ros old types)

Overview from Hun right (an old Bellona vacuum formed building in middle) 

GHQ (darker Sd251) with Heroics & Ros alongside and PzIV mix of CinC and H&R

Brits pour over ridge. Churchill VII (Davco) and Infantry (Adler)

Brits pretty strong on this flank

Pushing to flank Huns

Strong center but other flank crumbling

More H&R Sd251 & Sd234/1 with GHQ PzIV and those Davco JgdPz

More views from Hun right

Spearhead - Plugging The Gap - 6mm Part 1

Game today with Stephen and I selected to play an old but oft neglected favourite set Spearhead with my 6mm kit (been doing a bit of tarting up bases lately) and a scenario entitled 'Plugging The Gap' set in Normandy. 

Think this is from Keith McNallys SH site and essentially a scenario based around his excellent Scenario Generation System (for SH and Modern SH).

Anyhow this sees a British Infantry Brigade (sans RASC trucks) with a Churchill Tank Regiment and a 25pdr Artillery Battalion (3 x Batteries of 2 Gun Troops) and a couple of randomly appearing rocket armed Typhoons facing a German PzGrenadier Regiment (1 Bttn in Sd251 the other in trucks) supported by a PzIV Bttn with assets in form of 2 x 105mm Artillery (3 x Gun Batteries each), 2 x Tiger1, 3 x JgPzIVf and 2 x Sd234/1 as Recce. The Hun assets can be split up or formed into an adhoc Bttn (max of 9 stands).

The Brits have weight of numbers but Germans have better attack factors and more Panzers.

Scenario is essentially an encounter type battle with both sides trying to capture the 2 towns and couple of nearby ridges with both having additional objectives to gain a major victory (PzIVs exiting and Brits taking a bridge and adjacent hill).

Stephen chose the Huns (and parceled out the Divisional assets) I had Brits (cross attaching the Churchill Companies to each Inf Bttn) so 3 Bttn formations per side and off we went.

All Bttns on attack orders in order to enter battlefield (no flank moves allowed in this scenario) with Brits coming on on West and Southern edges (not quite up to half way on each) and Huns from Eastern edge.

Jabos appeared early and targeted 6 Tanks over the 2 sorties managing to kill a PzIV but otherwise ineffective.

Once formations came into spotting ranges (SH cleverly uses spotting to allow flexibility or change of orders but constrained by firing ranges) formations began to deploy with my 3 Bttn formations gaining their initial objectives (2 Hills and northern town) whilst Huns grabbed the other town.

It soon became apparent that the German Panzers have a significant advantage over the Churchills being able engage at 18" compared to Churchills 12" so can stand off and ping enemy with impunity.

8 of my 12 Churchills are VII types so good armour but one Squadron is Mark IVs so lesser armour and poorer gun (6pdr AT factor is 1 less than 75mm which is maybe a bit off) and 2 of the MkIVs brewed quickly. 

I also took casualties to my infantry from German indirect and PzGr fire whilst inflicting only a couple of suppressions in return.

The Armoured PzGr in Sd251 are tough to deal with as Inf cant target them beyond 3" (Inf AT range) but the APCs fire out to 9" (those damn MG42s).

We failed to finish the game (played 5 out of 14 turns) mainly as we got a bit confused as to how continuing artillery stonks/adjustments work (both a tad stale on rules knowledge as last played December 2023) so left in situ to complete next week.

Table prior to forces entry. Brits appear from left corner and Huns from right edge

British have invested ridge and town objectives but being picked off from range by Hun armour. (Yellow puffs are Suppression the other colours are artillery targets) 

Brits have also taken other hill but under real pressure (several losses to this Bttn)

Huns occupy southern town (both side artillery targets visible)

Tigers support PzGrs as my PBI hide in woodland

A hard pounding for Brits in south sector

Churchill Mk VIIs have survived several salvoes but unable to reply as out of range

Overview from SW

This Brit Inf Coy will need support. 'Jabo' staged for photo as already expended earlier

Intial advances

Germans all motorized but delayed by river (crossing a half speed)

Tis allowed Brits to get to objective line quicker despite being on foot

However deployment crowded due to 'corner entry area'

And yes that is actually sunlight visible in N.Ireland almost first this year !!!!!!

Some 6mm WWII solo action

Continuing dabbling whilst on current WWII kick and decided to get my 6mm kit out on table for a change adapting a RF scenario 'Cristot' from Normandy supplement.

Tried Blitzkrieg Commander IV first off and whilst its pretty slick and easy overall I found the tank combat aspect rather less than satisfying.

Then I tried a really venerable old set No1 Wargames Command Rules for WW2 (from 1976) and conversely the tank combat in this was great (been ages since I used a set with hit percentages and armour levels in mm of thickness) but the infantry end of things much less so with very slow movement (20-30mm). 

In the end I re-jigged OOB slightly to accommodate Spear Head which I always come back to for this scale (my stuff based primarily for SH) and trying a slightly less rigid order system (essentially allowing Attack orders not to be constrained by direction arrows) which worked fine as a lighter approach.