Dragon's Den - Outside Heeslum, 18th September 1944

[V]

A few pics of another playtest of Heeslum game that will be part of the campaign in the new book hopefully... once again the Borders saw off the attack by elements of 10. Naval Manning Battalion, with Corporal Iverson on the 6 pounder 'Cambrai' still missing targets, it seems his miniature suffers the same luck as he did that day. 









It seemed to start ok for the Germans at first, but the inexperienced troops, coupled with the lack of command and control was compounded by a series of poor turns for orders and the Germans eventually withdrew, and really had taken few casualties, but suffered with alot of troops pinned down by British fire and the 3" mortars... till they ran out of ammo.









This time the Borders 22 Platoon had a much slower arrival than previous games and this gave the German naval troops a bit of a chance to push an early superiority but they didnt manage to capitalise. The 20mm flak managed to be spectacular in its uselessness for most of the game, but the lack of officers to get the inexperienced naval troops moving started to cause trouble, and while they slowed to a crawl, the Borders infiltrated the woods and moved aggressively down the road while they kept up suppressing fire on the enemy. Even the German 37mm pak had no luck and when it hit the arriving Universal Carrier, the round somehow glanced off! So despite suffering more losses the Borders eventually drove off the German attack after pinning them down and then flanking them with a covered approach through the woods. To be fair to the Germans they had no luck with the dice all game, except for their cover saves, when at one point the wire fences and bushes seemed to be made of something far more solid! Trouble was using up all their 6's there, left them scuppered! Even so it still felt like a tough game at the start, though once the Borders got the advantage, their troop quality was always going to be a huge advantage.









Small game, but the forces and the terrain give both sides some problems to try and overcome, and its a tense little scrap.

[Daeothar]

That looks like an awesome battle. Also, the terrain is top notch; it's not often that Dutch buildings are depicted accurately; we've got quite a distinct building style here.

And the whole table, with its foliage and buildings really looks the part.

What make is that farm house? Or is it a scratchbuild? If so, I'd like to know where the tiled roof came from, because it's spot on too (one of those discerning marks of true Dutch houses ).

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

The whole set up of the table and figures is amazing - well done.

[Ballardian]

 Fantastic looking game

[Larry R]

Very cool!

[Elbows]

Gorgeous stuff.  Nicely done.