Chuckadice

Rebels Suffer Major Defeat in Kentucky.
This reporter was lucky enough to be allowed to join the staff of General G. H. Thomas, commander of the Army of Cincinnati. This force of gallant men of the Union set out to prevent the destruction of the city of Louisville by the nefarious band of rebels, calling themselves the “Army of Chattanooga”, that had advanced from Tennessee. Numbering nearly 30,000 men this band of ner-do-wells were brought to a halt by the valiant Union troops and soon realised that they had bitten off more than they could chew.
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Turn7news.pdf

Last night I played a game of Peter Pig’s Bloody Baron’s against Mat. We did have a slight problem in that neither of us knew the rules properly and, due to this, several mistakes were made. We still enjoyed it though, so we shall attempt to play it properly next time.
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The American Civil War on water in 1/600th scale using Hamerin’ Iron rules (all Peter Pig) provides a great evenings entertainment using some of the very unusual ironclads and paddle steamers. The last action involved the USS Benton and the USS Cairo trying to pass two Confederate forts positioned on an island and the river bank with mortar rafts placed behind the island out of sight of the on-coming yanks.
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Turn6news.pdf

The Religious Movement of Father T’ake De’ P’fromu and the Righteous Brotherhood…
The last battle won over 7 turns against Mat’s Peoples Popular Front ppf, or is that that ppppppfffft as in bunch of farts, killed all but one of his units a frightening group of 3 tank gunned armoured cars that turned up 2 turns before game end, fortunately… phew…
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I love Peter Pig’s AK-47 Republic. It’s a great game, tongue in cheek, a dose of humour, good gameplay and a diverse setting.

Tonight, Nathan (toxic) and I played our last games for this, the battles for turn 7. The victory point system is fairly simple and straightforward. Up to 5 points difference is considered a draw. Over 21 points difference is a major victory in which the winner “writes the histroy books”. Anything between is a fairly normal result. Um, what do you call a difference of 83 points? Ouch?

So, what I’ve learnt.

Range matters

No matter what it looks like, a massive swarm of infantry is useful as the attacker, but useless as the defender. The attacker can just charge forward and hope he’s got enough men left to storm the baricades. That’s how I won most of my initial games against Zob, who is now, by the way, completely vanquished in the campaign. So, tonight, I had two large units of infantry. One didn’t turn up till mid game, but the other? It sat in an objective template, holding it effectively, but doing no damage.

The defender wins by killing the attacker, not holding ground

The attacker has to take the objectives, the defender merely has to destroy the aggressor. Ergo, the defender needs troops able to engage at range and defeat the attacker before he gets close.

Morale Matters- use weaponry that causes tests

The game is won or lost not really on the casualties inflicted, but on the morale tests to chase units off. I killed as many of Nathan’s units as he did of mine in two key engagement. The casualties he inflicter were by mortars and tank guns. Mine were by AA guns, small arms and recoilless rifles. The latter don’t cause tests, the former do. Given that a unit only has to fail three tests total, and can fail up to two per turn, if you take a few casualties in the open caused by mortars or tanks, the unit will be close to running.

So, how to win

When assembling your forces, you can choose to spend lots of points on troops, or spend some on political actions. As a PPF, it’s not worth spending more than 40 points on political as that’s where your best results are. Against religious movements, you’re likely to be the defender. So, assume you are, and take mortars. Don’t waste points on RRs, range of 18″ isn’t enough. Take tank guns, mortars and AA guns, giving you range and morale - consider tank guns as well. Don’t do what I did, spend no points on politics and take an aggressive force, it’s a waste of time.

I love the game, really enjoy playing it. When I’m the attacker, I can win. As the defender? Haven’t run a succesful defense yet. That has to change, Nathan’s religious movement and Panjo’s Colonialists are circling. Still, at least I don’t need to try to figure out what Rob’s up to next turn. Watching from the sidelines, his “President” in jail.

If you’ve never tried AK-47, try it out. Easy to pick up, figures are easy to paint, we use a selection of old toy cars to represent the trucks at times, and it’s quick, simple gameplay makes it fun. I’ll, I suspect, continute to die horribly on a regular basis.

Last nights saw Mat and Nathan play a game of Warmaster Ancients. Mat was commanding a Successor army while Nathan had control (sort of) of the Republican Roman army. The terrain was a bit of a pain, the core of Mat’s army could not cross the hills in the center of the table, the left was covered by a wood which he couldn’t go through so he had to go down the right.
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After a week of intense fighting and the day after General von Schlieben, the German commander was captured, the French port of Cherbourg falls to the Allies.

German forces in Fortress Cherbourg were well aware of the desperateness of their position as early as the morning of 24 June. By that time VII Corps had broken through the main defense line although it had not yet captured all of the principal strong points. In an intercepted message to higher headquarters General von Schlieben stated: “…communications to several battalions no longer available. Phosphorus shells have put eight batteries out of action. Tomorrow heavier enemy attacks expected. … Completely crushed by artillery fires.” Other captured documents revealed that losses of unit leaders were heavy and that morale was low. Although the conglomerate German force continued to resist with determination and delayed the American advance, US VII Corps’ progress was steady after the penetration of 22-23 June and in the final phase the three infantry divisions reduced the remaining strong points one by one, seized the last ground commanding the port, and closed in on the beleaguered city.
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Allied 5th Army enters Rome.

Kesselrings 10th Army is retreating north as the Allies enter the Italian capital city.

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