Retreat From Mons AAR

For February's club game, Gareth, Peter, and I got out our WWI minis for a game of Mud and Blood.

Rules:
We used the Too Fat Lardies 'Through the Mud and Blood'. I had never played the rules before and generally shy away from card driven rules sets, however, I have been more open to them since playing Muskets and Tomahawks (which we will be playing in March). In this rules set every individual unit has a card that is shuffled into the deck along with a card for each user. I think the shooting and mele mechanics are more realistic the Contemptible Little Armies though they are a bit more complicated. Over all, without going into more detail, I really enjoyed the rules and highly recommend them to anyone looking for a WWI rules set.

Scenario:
Gareth had set the game up based of an actual battle during the British retreat from Mons. A small British Expeditionary Force was holding a small farm and some shallow trenches in the path of the advancing German army. The British where to hold their position long enough to delay the Germans and then pull back.

Overview:
According to Gareth our game went along perfectly with the historical outcome. The Germans (commanded by myself and Peter) where significantly delayed in our advance. The British (commanded by Gareth) fought bravely but where eventually overrun my the Germans larger numbers.

German 1st Platoon

 German 2nd Platoon

 The German deployment. The BEF was spreed out and hidden in and beyond the gully.

 2nd Platoon moves to the near by hedge and spots a BEF unit in the near by gully.

 2nd Platoon fans out and the BEF unit starts to fall apart under the hail of gunfire.

 1st Platoon advances in line and stumbles upon to BEF units either side of the bridge. 1 of the German sections is forced into a fierce mele with the BEF.

 The mele is intense and the German section is beaten back. 

 Despite the mele victory the BEF are forced to withdraw under the hail of German gunfire.

 After pushing back and nearly wiping out the BEF unit, 2nd Platoon surges forward to occupy the recently vacated gully.

 The rest of the BEF units take up positions in the trenches and farmstead 

 1st Platoon now occupies the gully as well.

 A BEF unit tries to fall back to the farm complex.

 The Germans did not manage to push beyond the gully before time ran out. All BEF units within 18in of the Germans where captured though few remained till that point.

Rout 66 'FoF AAR'

For the January club meet a few of us played a game of Force on Force that I put together.
The Scenario:
In Eastern Afghanistan there is a road known my Coalition forces as Rout 66. Security of the road is split between British forces at one end and American force at the other. Between both FOBs is a small farming village from which Coalition forces are frequently ambushed. Today both American and British units will be conducting a joint operation to clear out the village.
Table Setup:
The road runs along one side of the table where the Coalition units deploy. The village is on the opposite table edge with a shallow stream and fields between it and the road. Vehicles cannot cross the stream or the fields.

 Forces:
Americans: had 4x4 man fireteams, 1 HMG team, and 1 stryker.
British: 3x4 man Fireteams, 1x4 man SAS team, 1 Jakel.
Taliban: 3x6 man teams, 1 HMG, 1 Mortar team, + reinforcements (more men, Technical, snipers)

 Overview:
The Taliban started off hidden and waiting to spring their ambush. The Coalition forces need to take out the Taliban HMG and Mortar which have been used to ambush forces moving along the road. The Taliban have a spotter in the small cluster of buildings near the road to call in the Mortar attack. As the Coalition forces started to move towards the village the Taliban HMG opened up on a British Fireteam without effect who then quickly returned fire and silenced it. The Mortar chimed in a wounded one of the British soldiers. When the Taliban teams in the village started to open up the combined fire from the Coalition forces quickly whipped them out. As the Taliban forces came on the Coalition wounded and casualties started to mount and they slowly lost the initiative. The Taliban started to pull out of the village after their Technical got shot up and their casualties where huge. The Coalition where unable to effectively push into the village.

Civilians caused the Coalition forces to be very careful with their fire.

 A Taliban team wiped out to the man by combined Coalition fire.

 British forces moving into cover behind the wall and hedge. 

 Taliban unit check on the crew of the HMG only to find them all dead.

 American infantry pushing around the fields.

 American team taking cover in a small grove of trees.