Well, about high time we finished the battle report methinks, derailed slightly as it was by the CD being lost in a house move, travelling by slow boat to China, being used as an African tribal fetish and....oh all right, just lost.
Well a mighty pickle the British had got themeselves into, moving alongside a Prussian column in a sandstorm and not seeing their adversaries until you could chuck a haggis in their nearest funnel. Here are our forces at start of game:
The British forces on the nearest table edge are ld by the indomitable HMMS Pib (a rather nice Ironclad armoured car), followed by the lumbering and temperamental Rhinox patrol led by Captain Grey. Following them the 58th Poobah Lancers, the rather rusty four legged HMMS Hephaestus, a platoon of the Berkshires, the bipedal HMMS Orca with it's rather nasty flamethrower, a platoon of highlanders and lastly Pib's cousin HMMS Pob. On the Prussian side a party of his heli troops are scouting ahead, followed by an armoured car, the monstrous spider tank with twin turrets, a large group of Lancers, forty infantry, another armoured car and a medium tank.
In the first turn most of our steam armour managed to break down, although some did manage to about face. This left it up to the infantry and cavalry to start the proceedings. The Berkshires raced up onto the dunes running parralel to their adversaries so they might get a clear view.
They were in time to see the glorious, colourful and ultimately FINAL charge of the Poobah Lancers as the massed ranks of forty infantry including the elite Marztruppen opened fire. Wiped out to a man!.
Meanwhile, Captain Grey had only just managed to control his beasts and was following in the footsteps of the doomed lancers, whose sacrifice had at least managed to get his unit into charge range next turn..
If only the beasts would be goaded by the green rag!
Meanwhile the Prussian lancers, oblivious to the carnage inflicted on their opposite numbers, rushed through a gap in the oasis floatwood trees to charge the unit of highlanders who had taken up firing positions along a dried creek bed , covered by the Pob.
Oh dear! a short distance roll meant that they didn't quite make it. and the doughty Scots got off a volley, crashing into horses, pickelhaubes and floatwood trees and horsemen and their mounts tumbled into the creek. The unit however was far from obliterated and the three officers had all managed to remain in the saddle leading their men.
Meanwhile the British had finally managed to start up the Hephaestus but their first shot was a miserable one as Commander Huntleigh-Burns could atest to as he viewed it from the top deck.
The Prussians meanwhile had decided to leave their spider tank in situ and use the two turret mounted gatling guns to sweep across the infantry and armoured cars, with their smaller armoured cars advancing to more tactical positions. Both the Orca and the Pob took hits , and a number of the highlanders fell into the dust.
Back with the Rhinox, Captain Grey managed to goad his mount into a furious charge...which completed! All three of the beasts charged through the ranks of the Marztruppen, who tried their best to get out of the way of four tonnes of potential sausage. Half the unit did not manage this feat and many were simply crushed. The Rhinox halted at the end of their charge distance...but right adjacent to the Prussian tanks! Not a good place to be..
Meanwhile the Prussian regulars led by the infamous and rather portly Hero Count Heinrich Helmutsson were dashing through the floatwoods towards the Berkshires. The Hephaestus managed her sustain role and the gunner rolled a 1 to hit. 'Hurrah!' cried the navy, as the shell landed slap in the middle of the wave of advancing blue.
Back on the British left flank, those sneaky fliers had used the Creekbed for cover before launching a vicious attack on their rear, leaving half the unit dead as their machine guns cackled away.
In reply they managed to destroy most of the fliers and the single remaining model decided he's had enough. However, their attention had been distracted by the fliers for long enough to mask the advance of the remaining cavalry, who crashed into them. A furious melee ensued in which the surviving Prussian cavalry officer managed to keep his men from fleeing and kill the Scots officer. Seeing their leader killed the Highlanders decided to call it quits and keft the table. Now only a single armoured car and the heavily damaged walker held the left, although the Prussians had too few men left to press their advantage . In the centre meanwhile the Berkshires met with the depleted ranks of the Prussians. Their greater numbers took their toll, as did getting the initiative. However, the remaining seven Prussians remained true to their great leader and returned quite a devastating volley that forced the British back into cover.
However, the epic that was being played out was on the right side of the table. The Rhinox, taking an entire turn to turn around were shot at by the remaining soldiers (those unflattened ones anyway). One of the shots got lucky, disabling one of the Rhinox tails and reducing the armour value of another, while another shot managed to blow up the Naptha tank on the side of Captain Grey's beast. The Hero managed to make his save roll and landed a few feet away from the Prussian main tank, still on his feet, to polite clapping. Wiping his rather singed moustache, he leapt for what remained of his saddle to re-mount . Just as he did this the main tank fired at point blank range into his beast. Surely they could not miss...but they did! We were playing in this game a method of working out where failed shots landed..and this one landed only a ferw feet away from the tank, catching iteself in it's own blast radius and knocking it out of action! The beast also took extra damage but managed to stay on it's feet and Grey had survived a second time! Lucklily the remaining armoured car was trading shots with the Pib, which was racing (well, ambling gently) to the aid of the captain and his men. Who in the meantime had charged for a second time through the surviving soldiers.
Men and beast fell until all that remained were the Marztruppen captain and one of his men, battling it out with fist and sabre with our wounded hero, who by this time had survived another detonation from his mount (which had finally killed it) and two sword thrusts. Grey parried and thrust his sword through the breastplate of the German leader and swivelled to receive and give the killing blow from his last opponent. Both forces had completely wiped each other out...
Things were starting to look bad for the Prussians. Their last cavalry wiped out by the rattling guns of the Pob and their armoured penny farthing lying gently sizzling before the Orca (whose flamethrower had finally worked), their last hope was inflicting damage with their spider tank. Heinrich
Helmutsson led a last desperate (well, as he was the only remaining man in his unit) charge at the lumbering Hephaestus to be finally picked off by the rifles and Gatling gun of the ships crew. The end was in sight. The remaining Berkshires attacked the legs of the Spider which at last turned to face the British. But with it's commander and driver killed in the barrage of fire aimed at it, it surrendered.
This was a victory to the British but at a very high cost. Although all their armour had in fact survived their cavalry was completely wiped out and their infantry suffered huge losses (including those cowardly Scots...no oatcakes for them). The Rhinox were experiments which worked fairly well though need tweaking some. I think that one day we'll need to do an armour only battle as these pieces tend to stay fairly static to allow them to fire, and with turrets they become firing platforms trying to take out the more nimble units of cavalry and infantry.
A great game with great opponents and our longest battle to date. Thanks Rabbitz for hosting. And for finding the pics. Though somehow he got me to do the write up. Again.
Thanks for looking!
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April 27, 2024, 09:28:03 AM
November 05, 2012, 02:39:58 PM