Conwy Wargames Club May 20mm Market Garden game

Using the forces I had taken to the Battle Group Market Garden campaign weekend I hosted a game at the club.

Gaz took command of  the British Paras and Chris the Germans.

British Paras defending the village

Germans appear on the roads and the woods

Crowded garden

The paras are the building

Good line of sight

Paras ready to ambush the Germans

The Stug boldly   commands the road

The paras are too far away 

First blood to both sides

Pinned

Puma firing away to pin enough paras to advance

Hiding from the Stug

75mm firing over open sights

Paras finally reach the cross road to secure it

Glory charge

More Germans arrive. The Puma is lost, but the Para glory charge failed

Unhappy Germans

The Stug gets it! but the weight of Germans is unstoppable. No clear winner with the battle ratings but tactically the British paras wouldn't be able to stop all this.

Tough games for the Brits, although started off hopeful. Having to use the 75mm over open sights robbed them of their ability to slow the main German advance.

2017 Battle Group Market Garden campaign Day 1

While finally writing up my games from the campaign weekend I found one day 1's afternoon games hidden in my game 2 photos. So rather than leave them hidden I thought I'd share this lovely tank heavy slug fest with lots of destroyed armour.

Battle Group Market Garden Game 3

My third and final game of the 2017 Battle Group weekend hosted by the Deeside Defenders. I had the honour of defending Arnhem. The scenario was from the book.

Great terrain on a 4x4 board.

The scenario did not allow me to deploy all my forces, just what I could dice for

I place my troops in the centre row of building as mutually supporting as I could

The first bombardment destroys my entire left wing 

The Germans arrive and mean business

The fire power directed at my remaining troops pinned them down

The German infantry infiltrated through the building on my left and added their small arms to the lead flying my way, and then charged 

Only my centre held or should I say had troops left. In 1 move the rest of my force would arrive

It wasn't to be. A German armoured car whizzed through barely defended streets and took the last remaining objective for an all objectives held victory. This was the quickest game of Battle Group I've ever played. I'd lost in 4 moves, and my first ever due to losing the objectives. I apologised to my great opponent who felt guilty winning so easily, but my tactics were wrong and my dice failed me. Very important lessons learnt 1. Don't defend so far forward 2. Don't forget about defending objectives. 

Overall I really enjoyed the campaign and I'll definitely refight this scenario again, and hopefully do better.