Heat of Battle V

I stopped in Friday, Aug. 12, to pick up my packet so I'd be ready to get going at opening on Saturday.  There was a nice crowd already playing, and since I was in between runs and couldn't play anything, I went over and talked to Mike Bobe of Bobe's Hobby Shop in the dark under the stairs.  All the really interesting 1/144 aircraft had already been snapped up.

Saturday, I arrived at 9 and got into the Knight's Cross game being run by Darrin Mesinna, Flying Tigers vs a flight of Betty's accompanied by Zero's.  One Betty was shot down by Larry Touhy about halfway thru the game.  I fired ineffectively for most of the game, got hit a couple of time inconsequentialy, and finally downed a Betty with a lucky shot (fuel tank explodes) just before it exited the table.  (This would later haunt me.)  Darrin declared the game a victory for the Flying Tigers, since we shot down 2/3 of the Betty's with our P-40s.

Duane Guilbeau and I adjurned to the Ugly Dog Saloon a block away for some good barbeque.

The it was time to set up my game, Brothers in Arms, using NUTS! 2.0.  As always, Duane was an enormous help in setting up the game.
Here is the game description:

Brothers in Arms - Brihuega, Spain, March 12, 1937
Elements of the Italian Black Flames Division, having encountered a motorcycle patrol of the Republican Garibaldi Batallion, mistakenly assumed that these Italians were part of another Italian division.  As the light tanks of the Black Flames advanced, they were fired upon by machine guns of the Garibaldis, who did not at first realize that they too were fighting their fellow Italians.  Attempts to woo the CTV over to the Republican side with propaganda leaflets broke down when several mutilated Garibali corpses were found with the leaflets stuck in their mouths.  Thereafter, the Italians fought their own civil war centered around a country villa called the Ibarra Palace.

The Black Flames have a 2-squad infantry platoon, supported by a Brixia mortar and 3 x  L3/35 tankettes.
The Garibaldis have a 3-squad infantry platoon with one LMG.  They are supported with 2 Maxims.  There is also a 2-squad motorcycle platoon.

Players who enlisted on the Black Flame side were Ron Gros, Justin Touhy, and Walter, who's last name I didn't get.  The Garibaldis were taken by Al Himel, Chris Swearingen, and Duane Guilbeau.

As you can see, the terrain was fairly open, the lichen being just for appearances, with a rise to the buildings.  There are plenty of walls for cover, and dead ground in front of the rise.

Ron took the squad in the "palace", Justin took the squad in the farm house, and Walter (Whittmann) took the tankettes for the Fiamme Nere.
Al and Chris split the infantry platoon, with Chris taking the MG's.  Duane took the motorcycle platoon, and attempted to rush across to his left flank.
The Brixia mortar and the tankette MG's stopped the advance, knocking a couple of figures off their bikes.

The motorcyclists headed for the dead ground just in front of the rise in the center of the table.
They were kept from advancing by inaccurate fire from the tankettes and the squad in the farm house.

An infantry squad rushes forward to help the depleted motorcyclists.
The Garibaldi heavy MG's managed to disable 2 of the tankettes, who's crews fled.
The Garibaldi's on the right flank moved up, and after being stopped by the mortar, managed to get too close for it to fire, and drove them off with inaccurate infantry fire.  Then they captured the farmhouse, who's squad had hunkered down from the fire of the heavy MG's.

One of the Garibaldi motorcycle squads managed to sneak up on a blind spot at the "palace", hoping to bayonet the Fiamme Nere concealed there.

Unfortunately for them, they failed to take into account the last tankette, manned by Walter Whitmann, who charged firing and attempting to overrun the infantry.

He played havoc with the left flank, but kept running out of ammo while his driver got stuck on his next attempt.  The infantry finally reached the "palace", shot the Tiente.  The remaining Fiamme Nere retreated, and the tankette, still out of ammo, skedaddled.

Almost all of the figures on the board were Rep 3, so there were tons of "pitiful shot" rolls.

I really enjoyed putting on this game, because of the attitudes of the gamers.  It was a blast, thanks entirely to them.  When I started repacking my figures on Monday evening, I found that the troops had been put back in order by the gamers.  Thanks, guys!

So I went back to Darrin's Knight's Cross, this time in the South Pacific, flying a Hellcat.  Both Corsairs got shot down twice.  I managed to hang on to the last of 24 turns, and then got hit massively, and rulled the fuel tank explodes chit for myself.  The US Air Force was savagely handled by the Japanese.  I don't think we shot down a single plane.

Sunday

On Sunday, I got into a Berlin '45 game using I Ain't Been Shot, Mum rules from Too Fat Lardies.

It was a really nice table with lots of my favorite, paper buildings, run by Brian Weathersby .  Of course, Chris Swearingen and I played the Russians.

Chris took the left flank, and had tough going.  I took the right flank and hung back too long with IS-I's.  When I finally decided to help Chris, I shattered a building so badly that the SS in there had to retreat.  I then began advancing up the right flank with my infantry, from building to building, taking casualties from the Volkstrum on the second floor.

My IS-I's were challenged by 2 Panthers, one of which got brewed up immediately by Chris's T34/85.

The other disabled one of my IS-I's, but ran out of gas just as my infantry flanked it.

The Russian won, thanks to the meat grinder Chris put them through on the left.  They just ran out of troops to throw in.

It was a great two days!