Friday 23 September 2016

Little Omaha (15mm PBI) at Nijmegen

As a Club we were asked to put a game on at the Skirmish show (a local show which is on twice a year) the organiser does try to theme each show. And this time he wanted  Arnhem. The only problem is no one at the club has any British paras of this period. I have some 15mm US Paras and Graham has both British and German so we had a quick look at a few other options and Nijmegen was selected as while not at Arnhem it is still part of the race to  Arnhem by 30 Corps and in this instance the 82nd Airborne.  (Here is a link if you are unfamiliar with the battle LINK ) But I suspect you are.

Peter Player the Germans. I played the US Parkas and Tim Played 30 Corps.
Pete Set up first and selected 2 20mm FLAK wagons as his option.

I had 2 Platoons to cross the river and capture the far end of the bridge.
here my troops move forward with canvas boats and a Sherman in support.

Fearing Tim would not push for the bridge too much
AND
because I was a little scared of crossing the river in Canvas boats with 2
Flak Wagons defending the river.
I sent 1 of my platoons into the town.

Peter was stopping Tim from advancing
so I managed to close assault one of the Town Squares.
It was a success, but a costly one.

The British get gunned down as they approach the town.
I said at the start that Tim needed to put a tank in that square.
Yes it would have made it vulnerable to Paserfausts
BUT the square would at least be Partial cover.
As you can see he did not.


The Square of Death in the town
My Paras in the town are shot at by 3 surrounding square and while they do
take the pressure from Tims advance
As far as he was concerned not quite enough

Elsewhere I have crossed the river with 1 platoon and destroyed the two Flak Wagons,
But not fast enough and  with little cover advancing on the other side of the river towards the
bridge is perilous.

Tim Rushes this side of the bridge and captures one end.

The last move of the game (we were on a countdown clock)
Tim rushes a lone Sherman towards the far end of the bridge.

But it is too little to late.


 
Conclusion: Do not put me and tim in charge of attacks across a river. we both dithered to much instead of pressing on which we both should have done. Peter was a demon on the count down clock and the game ended on turn 5 when it should have lasted on average until turn 7. If It had lasted until turn 7 I think we may have done it, but the Germans managed to blow the bridge so we will never know and 30 corps were delayed somewhat longer than they were in real life.

Over all it was a good fun game and Peter did play well while I dithered and worried about troop losses. While it is easy to point the figure at other players, IF I had just gone for it and gotten both Platoons across the river a different game would have resulted.

But overall Fun.

The big thing I did muck up though was when I left my house in the morning I took my box of Normal US troops and left my Paras at home. (A slap head moment in the car when I realised) so we played with the US troops acting as Paras. Other than me pointing it out I do not think anyone would have noticed. So I think I would have gotten away with it. But I put my hands up and admit I actually forgot 5 different things on the way to that show. The troops being one of them.

16 comments:

  1. Looks great! Yes I agree sometimes we need to be bolder and trust to luck!

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    1. Thanks Simon. yeah I feel like I dropped the ball and should have pushed much harder. Still at least I can think about it and considerr it more in future games.

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  2. A good looking game but when you have a time limit you should really go for it. At least you gave an honest assessment of why you failed. Better luck next time.

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    1. Thank you Bryan. The Countdown is D6 every turn and Peter Rolled (in order) 3,6,5,6, And the count down was 21 so on the last turn it did not matter what he rolled. You cannot beat the dice so the game did end 2 turn faster than average. And to push harder at the beginning would have meant terrible losses while the 2 flack wagons were covereing the river. Possibly such bad losses that I would not have enough troops to take either side of the bridge.

      But yes I should have pushed harder in the middle and end parts of the game. But who would expect the game to so quickly. Great Dice rolling by Peter, I cannot complain about it.

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  3. T'was a great looking game...green or brown trousers though, that is the question?????

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    1. Thank you Ray. There is more to the uniform than that simple choice. And even more to the trousers blouson or non blouson for example. But as a club game it did not look bad (nothing was purchased for the show all from our normal wargaming stuff. And at least it followed the topic.

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  4. Cracking game Clint and great fun, but what were the other four things?

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    1. Thanks Michael. The four other things were, A figure for Ray, some books on Arnhem, The list of paints I need to restock and ..... everything I was going to put on the bring and buy. (Which was all in a pile ready to bring).

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  5. Apart from what you forgot, the game was a success on the day and it was another successful outing as a club putting on a game at a show, was it? It looks, and reads like it was, so nicely done to yourself and club.

    I like the look of those buildings used in the game. Are they wargames terrain or household ornaments?

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    1. Thank you Roy. Well spotted the buildings were bought in Brussels as household ornaments and Peter who bought them bought every one in the shop (they were a bargain price as well. But I do not think we canm get them ever again.

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  6. Looks like a good game .....with the airborne or not😀

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    1. Thanks Matt, If I did not admit I bought the wrong troops on the day no one would have known. It was quite a good game and played well.

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  7. Great report as usual Clint. Which version of PBI did you use?

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    1. Thank you Sean. We did use the up to date current version of PBI as opposed to the older version I am used to. I think either would do just as well but Graham had restricted the assets available to each force to closer fit the situation than what had been available throughout the war.

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  8. Looked like a very good game, with some very interesting tactical choices.

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    1. Thanks Joe I agree. If I had charged the river with all boats I would have gotten more across but the damage don would be horrific And that would leave tim to take the town on his own and he does only just know the rules.

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