BattleCry 2012

My Force

Well, got back from the big day! I was unable to play on Saturday, so a friend played the first three games and I played the last three games. It was an odd pairing, really, with Kyran's British Infantry Tanks (Matildas) and my LRDG Patrol. Kyran had a rough time of it on Saturday, scoring a total of 6 VP on the day and was at the bottom of the pack. So, I really couldn't do much worse. So out stepped the I-tanks and in came the trucks of the LRDG!

First a few photos of the event. BattleCry is a collection of many game systems and it was good to see such a variety. Sadly, I was too busy to take any photos other than some quick snaps from my game table!

Anyway, my first game was against Mark Darling's French cavalry tanks. This wasn't going to be easy!

  

The first game I played was Dust Up, one of my favorites! Unfortunately for my men, I tried to pincer a tank company. That was a rather dumb idea, considering the circumstances. In hind sight, I should have massed my trucks and pushed through with my infantry, rather than split my forces!

The table. As you can see I tried to out maneuver French cavalry tanks. If they were slow, it might have worked, though I'm still not sure what the plan was going to be if I had given the Somuas the slip!

Not all was grim, as one of the French field guns bagged an H-35 (the only thing I killed all game!)  I ended this game with a 1-6 loss, but despite that I had an excellent game with Mark!

Game 2: Wayne's Gebirgsjager in Breakthrough, another of my favorite missions.

With Wayne being an infantry company, it would be up to my LRDG and French to attack. I opted to put an LRDG patrol, a Tirailleurs platoon, and the heavy machine-gun platoon in delayed reserves. The thought was that the HMGs would roll on and help pin down whatever was on the objective, the patrol would keep enemy reinforcements at bay, and the Tirailleurs would do the heavy lifting...

The 75s spent the game in a deadly dual with an infantry platoon in the village, however the German light mortar wrought havoc on the gunners!

The Heavy Section goes to war! and promptly dies. I'm not sure it actually killed anything in all three games!

The Defile of Death! I thought, wrongly it turned out, that 3x .5"MGs, 4x Boys ATRs, a Breda 20mm, and about a dozen regular MG shots should be able to handle three PaK38s... 

In the end the trucks were culled by a withering fire, so I refocused them on the Panzer IVs with a bit more success!

Once again, the French infantry had to mop up, finally knocking out the anti-tank guns.

In the meantime, the reserve march arrived. The Tiralleurs swept aside the defending Gebirgsjager while the LRDG and HMGs racked the platoon with fire, knocking out several dug-in teams. The Tirailleurs' Colonial special rules helped seal the deal in the assault, as then consolidated in front of the objective for a 4-3 victory!

I was very pleased to play new player, Andrew Pickering's Greek Pezikoy! It was an even match. His light tanks had been taking a pounding from all of the other opponent's tanks, so he was keen to face off with the LRDG trucks. I too was glad to see tanks that I could go toe-to-toe with Boys ATRs! The game was Fighting Withdrawal, one of my least favorites, but I did get to attack, which I prefer in this mission.

The table was packed with a loose village, festooned with Greek machine-guns and anti-tank guns. Three L3s and five carriers lurked on either flank. 

I decided to stay well away from the carriers and learning from game 1, I focused all my firepower on one flank. 

Traffic jam! Moments after this aerial photo was taken, a massive mortar bombardment ripped through the middle trucks bearing my HMGs. Miraculously, only a single truck was destroyed and the rest of the platoon dismounted in good order into the nearby buildings, opening up a massive house-to-house HMG duel between two HMG platoons!

I take it back, the Heavy Section bailed a carrier! The Mk VI stood up and harassed the carriers for several turns. Only after about turn 7 did it get overwhelmed by double bails, so it did an excellent job keeping the carriers off my back until then! The carriers then went and had a go at my artillery, but the brave artillerymen returned fire and nailed two of the carriers. 

I systematically eliminated the Greek platoons in the village, knocking out an HMG platoon and an AA platoon. However, time was running out!

THe game got really exciting about here and I forgot to take any more pictures! So here's the wrap up: The flanking patrol traded shots with an L3 platoon and knocked out two of the three tankettes, but couldn't get them to break the entire game, despite the 37mm Bofors shooting at the last remaining bailed tank. Meanwhile the infantry rushed up the flanks in the trucks (V3 is awesome for trucks now!), reaching the point where the left hand LRDG trucks are in the picture above.

Unfortunately, Andrews reserves arrived (Fighting Withdrawl normally doesn't have reserves, but I used my Interdiction to make him put three platoons in reserve). The L3s smashed open the LRDG, which had erstwhile been chewing up Greek infantry and guns with alarming success. The Tirailleurs moved in through the city and on the flank to assault the Greeks, but couldn't find a way in and were shot to pieces. The Greeks managed to hold on just barely, with tiny platoons defending the objective. But my force was spent and I had to concede defeat when my commander was destroyed and my force was under half strength. Still, a very close game finishing at a 3-4!  

So that was it! Two losses and a win. Kyran's and my little team ended up at the bottom of the back, but I'd just like to point out that the LRDG scored 8VPs while the Matildas scored 6... just say'n! ;)

Thanks to all of my opponents, I had an excellent time! Thanks to Gav for running the event, my first EW tournament I realised on the way home! With a little more practice and perhaps shifing the force to focus on the French (Fearless versus Confident), perhaps I'll bring them along again next year!

Thanks for reading!