Sunday, 23 August 2020

Scenario 12: An Unfortunate Oversight

 Despite the Red General's orders to hold the bridge, his main objective is keeping hold of the hill. Blue's objective is the hill alone and he knows about the ford that is, unfortunately, overlooked by Red due to poor reconnaissance. 

Blue sends half of his force to attack the town; the rest will tackle the hill

Red concentrates on what he believes to be the only crossing point


Once aware of the threat, Red rushes troops to counter it

Fierce fighting breaks out in the town

Red has lost control of the bridge but is holding the hill 

Blue's attack on the hill stalls

The Blue General sensing defeat leads a mad charge through the town

The hill attack has been slowly reducing the defenders

and on Turn 11 Red's CO is killed and Exhaustion Point reached, though they still hold the hill

Blue is heartened by the enemy's loss and presses on

Blue takes full control of the hill


Turn 15, the battle ends. Decisive Blue victory.

A very nice scenario with both fighting in a built up area and an assault on a hill. Definitely one to play again. 

Wednesday, 12 August 2020

Scenario 11: Surprise Attack

 Army Red has launched a surprise attack, sending a brigade East in an attempt to capture a vital crossroads. Unknown to Red, Army Blue has a small force straddling the road, with more troops on their way.

The victory condition for this scenario is simply to have a unit on the crossroads when the battle ends (at Turn 15 or when both sides reach Exhaustion Point).

To the sides of the road are a forest (too dense to enter) and an area of bog (also off limits, though it's possible to go around it).

Red's full brigade arrives on Turn 1 to encounter Blue's force - both are surprised to see the other

Red attacks at once hoping to clear the road quickly (there's an erroneous dice showing a cavalry unit with 4 SP - should be 3)

Blue's Guards, assaulted by two squadrons of Hussars, fall back, but the Militia are holding their ground. Turn 3 sees reinforcements arrive for Blue

Red push forward towards the Xroads

The militia fight to the last SP

Blue's guards tough it out, though his cavalry are pushed to the edge of the board

The militia are defeated and Red can move the rest of his force forward

Blue's Hussars are back, but the Guards are in trouble

Turn 9 and the rest of Blue's force arrives

Turn 10 - both sides have taken so many casualties EP is reached. Blue holds the Crossroads and is victorious

Sunday, 2 August 2020

Scenario 10: Late Arrivals

"There are no bad plans. Just Great Plans that go horribly wrong".

In Scenario 10, the defending side has only 2 units at the start, with 2 more arriving at turn 5 and the last 2 arriving at turn 10. Should be a tough call for the defenders. Or so you'd think...


The objective is the little town. The large hill is impassable. Usual thing, 15 turns or game over when both sides reach Exhaustion Point.

The last time I tried using a tank in a Portable Wargame was way back in 2017 (here) - it didn't end well that time; could things improve?

The People's Democratic Front (Green) are defending the town; their reinforcements are late.
A force from the Democratic Party of Free Uqbal (Tan) arrive to the North and advance on the town. 

The DPFU have a Tank!

The PDF have an Anti-Tank Gun!

and a Machine Gun hidden in the woods

All is quiet until...

Turn 3 - Machine Gun and Gun simultaneously open fire

The DPFU commander deploys his mortar

Machine gun and Anti-tank gun are forced back under fire

Reinforcements arrive (including that *#x% bazooka again!)

The DPFU are in the open and taking casualties..


Boom! The tank's gone, AND they reached EP

It would have been kind to call a halt at this point


The last batch of reinforcements arrive

The attackers pinned by the EP rule are reduced until..

their commander falls and they surrender.

Once again the tank has proved to be a white elephant. Army Tan got distracted (and sorely damaged) by the machine gun in the woods and probably should have used the mortar on the town. This is a nice scenario that I haven't played before but will hopefully play again soon.