Ultracombat Normandy AAR - The defence of Arnhem

 Ultracombat Normandy AAR - The defence of Arnhem

So recently the gang got together to play Ultracombat Normandy, as there are three of us we diced on a bigger game and as the terrain had been left up from a previous gangster game we thought it would make an ideal city battle. When we thought about we figure the most renowned was the defence of Arnhem so straight away Ray took the role of Lt. Col. Frost and the British Para. Michael and I each took a platoon of Germans. So the British forces had a platoon of Veteran Paratroopers and the Germans had two platoons of Average troops. The Germans also had two half-tracks.

German platoon above

The British Paratrooper platoon above

The brief

The brief was simple, the British had to hold the board and the Germans needed to get them out as soon as possible.

The Terrain 

The British started the game hidden, the Germans entering the board from the far side

of the photograph.

The Germans force started by infiltrating the board, probing for the hidden enemy. The British opened up with a Vickers HMG from the far edge of the board forcing the initial German forces going down the road to become hesitant.

With the main thoroughfare blocked the German forces headed down the right-hand side of the board again probing to find out where the British where.

To reinforce the main attcak the Germans brought on a half-track along the main road and another down the lefthand side street

 The gunner pours fire on the British HMG suppressing it.

The German squad debusses from the half-track and begins to enter the ruins, with the Halftrack proving covering fire on the British force that was moving from building to another.

On the right-hand side, the German forces come under withering fire from a British Bren gun team hidden in the pavilion like building at the top of the image. The problem the Germans had was they were still bringing forces on to the board so had to wait for reinforcements. However, they were not without decent firepower and the righthand squad MG42 did manage to keep the Bren head down.

For both sides, the terrain was proving difficult. The Germans had to find the British but the British had to move to bring their guns to bear.

The battle for this house raged for most of the game with the Germans eventually winning by weight of numbers but not before a plucky British NCO made a mess of one squad with a very well placed grenade.

The Germans massed behind the knocked out Panther and with the aid of the very skittish Half-track pushed forward quickly down the road.

Here the British ambush came into its own. For about an hour we had been fighting down the main street and the only British shooting at us had been at the end of the board, with finally enough troops we head down the road at breakneck speed (3AP=18") to the barricade. But Lt. Col. Frost (Ray) had other ideas first he attacked us from building on the left and just as we had neutralised that by our MG42 in the rear, he hit us from the third floor on the right. It was very bloody.

Meanwhile, on the right-hand side of the board, the Germans amassed forces for a big push on the pavilion. With much firing and eventually knocking out the Bren team, the German forces rushed the pavilion. The British responded by bringing in reinforcements from across the road. This, in my opinion, was where Frost (Ray) made his big mistake. He should have given the pavilion away and stayed in cover in the buildings across the street.

The German Building assault carried the day with the final Brits being finished as they attempted to retreat back across the road.

With the British forces now giving ground both left and right sides of the board, Frost masses his men to attack the encroaching German forces. But it was not to be the Germans having knocked out the Vickers the British lack of numbers began to tell as the larger German forces brought its guns to bear.

Conclusion

Well, we always knew that the German would win but it was how long could the Brits hold out and boy did they hold out. The British plan went swimmingly with the German casualties in the first part of the game being frightening but eventually, the weight of number tell and once enough German units were on the board the MG42s went to work suppressing elements who would later be routed out by Rifleman. This was an exciting game and a much larger game than any of us were used too and took just over 3 hours to play.

Lessons were learnt from both sides about the terrain. While it was a technical victory for the Germans, the victory was that the British delaying tactics worked buying precious time for Frost and his forces on the bridge. It was a great game and I would highly recommend playing these larger games with your friends once you have mastered the basics of the game.

Latest Kickstarter date announced.

Ultracombat is a new ultra-modern ruleset that allows players to play at individual, fireteam or at squad level depending on the scenarios they wish to play. In this Kickstarter, we want to deliver not only a completely new ruleset but also the start of a range of figures to support the rules

Russians are coming

Oh those Russians....

Ok so I am humming bad Boney M classics but that does lead me nicely to more renders of our up and coming Russian range. This is part of a Kickstarter we are planning for both ultra-modern USA and Russian troops and vehicles. These are all work in progress as you can see us swapping guns and things. We don't have a date yet but we promise to keep people in the loop.

Skirmish Normandy Element Cards

Skirmish Normandy Element Cards

Here is the first look at the game cards, these are used to make play extremely fast. You can create a squad in as a little as 4 cards. I really like the black and white look but will probably play with colour before they are finalised.

The system is 1d20 so you can get an idea of the scores. The icons from left to rights are Spot, Firearms, Melee and finally Save.

Here is the initial idea for the armour cards as well.

Skirmish Normandy

So I have just started to look at the cover and interior design for the next product Skirmish Normandy or as its now going to be called Normandy - Squad based combat in World War II.

We started off with the logo and developing the brand attributes

 Having worked that to a point where I felt I was getting somewhere I have done a few trial covers.

As I progress into the page and card design I will post other elements up. Still a long way to go but I am getting very excited about this baby.

CANCON - Australia's biggest Wargames Con

The Skirmish Sangin Kiwi team made the journey to Canberra Australia for what is Australia's biggest wargames convention. This year it was on the 26th-28th January. As it was a game in a suitcase (actually a couple) we couldn't take the really detailed scenery but as you can see from below we managed our interpretation of the Plausible Deniability mission in the recently released Skirmish Sangin Spec Ops books Plausible Deniability.

Throughout the three days we played the game so many times I am still having nightmares about it :-) However our Aussie mates really took to it and we managed to sell out of the core Sangin rulebook, and Plausible Deniability.

Of course, there was much more than just us their with much gaming and many stores. Some of the terrain made me weep with envy particularly the WW2 tables that were set up. I would love to run our forthcoming WW2 game on this terrain.

Brecourt Manor

St Mere Eglise

 Bocage country

Unfortunately demoing and managing the store meant we didn't get to see or participate in the Con as much as we would have liked. It was still great to meet old friends (Spyros, Jerry) from last year and make new ones this year.

I would heartily recommend CANCON to anyone in the southern hemisphere the atmosphere is brilliant and very welcoming.  The "diggers" sure know how to put on a Con. Also, Canberra is a great place for a visit it's just a 3-hour drive from Sydney. See you all next year. Oh and BTW we will be doing MOAB for the first in Sydney in October.

ARNHEM

BACKGROUND

As I am sure we have all seen a Bridge to Far and if we are interested in World War 2 then we all know enough about the battle of Arnhem for me not to go into detail. If you are unsure this is a great article on Wikipedia that will fill in the blanks.

Our game begins with our advancing British Paratrooper attempting to advance to the town of Arnhem. Two Jeeps and a 10 man section led the initial advance.

They were part a troop of Reconnaissance jeeps from the 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron. Unfortunately one developed engine trouble (we rolled the lowest initiative 11) so the other pushed on regardless. The Germans, seeing the mass landing, quickly organised a reconnaissance unit of their own in the shape of1 Schwimmwagen and 2 Hanomag Halftracks. 14 men in total.

The concept behind the game is this is a meeting engagement, as both sides rush to complete their mission. The British needed not to be held up and exit off the far side of the table. The Germans needed to hold the British to enable reinforcements to be organised.

The British moved first with one of their Jeeps hounding up the road a full move (24").  They also have a Bren team race uptake position overlooking the road. The Germans push their Schwimmwagen forward followed by one of their Hanomags.

The Schwimmwagen rounds the corner, seeing the closing jeep it dives into cover to try and bring its MG42 to bear. Unfortunately not quick enough and the paired Lewis guns on the jeep rip apart the Schwimmwagen killing all of its crew.

The Hanomag rounds the corner next and opens up on the jeep, but misses the jeep. Unfortunately, for the half-track they also haven't seen the Bren team. This team brews up the Hanomag immobilising it and forcing the men in the rear to run to the building for cover.

Faceoff between the jeep and the Halftrack

Hanomag brews up but the infantry race for cover in the building

The jeep racing seeing the Hanomag brewing up but all of its crew getting out the vehicle takes first left to get out of harm's way.

Two vehicles burning and the jeep racing out of dodge...

The second half-track has been working its way through the farmland and turns up just as the second jeep enters the board.

 The Germans  escaping from the burning half track start to occupy the buildings.

The second halftrack quickly suppresses the 2nd jeep. Suppression is just one of the new elements we are adding into this rule set.

A carefully placed German grenade takes out the first jeep, things are not looking good for the allies. The fighting then became so intense I forgot to take photographs so the end of the battle was not visually recorded. Eventually the allies managed to drive off the second half track but really could make headway against the Germans in the village. The fighting got intense and street by street the battle raged but by the time we had called it the Germans still held half the village and had thus won because they held up the allies advance.


A narrow victory but at this stage in the war they will take any victory they can get. The games was a very intense battle and was enjoy immensely by all the players.