Longships - mini update

Today witnessed the first practice game for our summer Longships campaign. The first Viking army is completed (bar the basing) and the Saxons are all finished except for the flags. As both armies were  in a good enough state to get them on the table we cracked on with the first test game.
The idea was to not only learn the rules but also get an idea of all the accessories we would need - i.e. terrain, markers and that sort of thing. As a consequence the table was a bit rough and ready as it just utilized whatever we could lay our hands on at the time.

The table laid out for a raid

We tried a couple of ways to mark out the grid. which was fine but in the end we concluded a bespoke gridded mat would be better. We also concluded that templates were needed to delineate the building squares.
We puzzled over a few aspects of the rules, as expected for a first game, but we think we got there in the end. We were caught out a few times by the odd mechanism that was similar but subtly different from the other Peter Pig rules of which we are more familiar. We also made one or two fundamental errors but I'm fairly confident that the game will crack on at a good pace once we have a few more games under our belts.
As for the game itself, my Saxons were sadly thrashed in their first ever game. We played out the raid pregame which determined that the Saxons would be the defenders.
The game begins with a single defending unit (plus general) on table and the remaining four off table. Although the initial unit is depicted on table it is actually hidden at this point. Unfortunately, I was only able to bring on one other unit all game!

Saxon 'hidden' unit

In contrast. the attackers begin with four units deployed on the table edge and one off table.

Vikings appear in 'march' formation

Whilst the Viking right advanced upon the 'hidden' Saxon unit, the remaining two units were free to plunder the outlying buildings. They never needed to bring on their fifth unit!
The Saxons did bring on another unit fairly early on but that was to be their only reinforcement all game.

Saxon reinforcements arrive by road.

Normally arriving units are subject to a random displacement but these arrived precisely where expected because of the road. The road also confers bonus movement.

Saxon reinforcement advancing into the jaws of defeat

Using the road bonus, the Saxon reinforcements  advanced to support the lone Saxon garrison unit. Unfortunately this left them in march formation within striking distance of the nasty Vikings. Sure enough the raiders pounced on the unfortunate Saxons.

Saxons receive a thrashing

After one round of melee the Vikings were 'hacking through' and the Saxons broke and fled.
As the winning Viking unit was left fatigued I threw my remaining Saxon unit into the fray.

The Saxons final fling

This time the fight went in the Saxon's favour and they were soon 'hacking through' the Viking lines. However, rolling for casualties they lost both the unit leader and the general (anything but a one - twice!). Inevitably they were in a very bad position when it came to the second round of melee. No surprises then that they routed.
This was turn five which signaled the potential end of game (turns beyond five are optional and our offset against victory points). With no units on the field I decided to allow the game to end there and then.
Calculating the victory points at the end gave a convincing win to the Vikings - hardly a surprise really!
In summary, a good game and we're keen to give it another go.

The Road to Stalingrad – Turns 1 & 2

Game One. (Map 1, morning 17th August 1942)

Germans advancing from the left map edge. Small circles show Jump Off Points.

The Russians decided to defend the first campaign map with a token force consisting of a Worker’s platoon. This comprised a mere 2 rifle sections plus a senior leader. As the objective was to simply slow down the German advance we allocated them minimal support in the form of a wire section and an anti-tank rifle team.

In the patrol phase, the Russians were on the back foot straight off as the Germans rolled high resulting in 6 moves before the Russians could move a single patrol marker. Taking advantage of this, the Germans aggressively thrust straight up the middle road, almost to the table centre line, and looked set to seize a good amount of ground. The Russians countered this by advancing a central marker to immediately lock down the lead German marker, thereby anchoring their chain of patrol markers and limiting a further advance. At the end of the patrol phase the Germans had a foothold in an outlying barn which looked like a potential good approach into the Russian position, which was based on a line across the rear of the village. In fact this was such an obvious approach route that the Russians laid down their single wire section to block such an advance.

The Table layout - Jump Off Points circled

The Germans began their deployment by bringing on a half-track from the rear table edge.

As expected they then deployed a Panzergrenadier section into the barn.

Seemingly fixated by the idea of an advance from the barn, the Germans advanced two sections up to the barbed wire. So far the Russians had remained hidden but the Germans seemed unsure of how to deal with the wire.

To limit any further advance, by the Germans, the Russians deployed a rifle section into the village.

The Germans attempted to move around the wire and deploy in to the fields - where they were hit by the fire from a single Russian LMG. Only one hit but it turned out to be a ‘kill’ and the Junior Leader dropped to the ground wounded. A roll on the ‘Bad Things Happen’ table and the Germans dropped two in Force Morale.

The Russians followed this by deploying their final rifle section into the village. Once again only a single LMG is able to get into position but they were laying down crossfire on to the advancing Germans.

At this point German morale collapsed (that's player morale not Force Morale) and they decided they were in a no win situation and retreated!

So an unexpected win for the Russians and the Germans must try again in game two.

Game Two. (Map 1, afternoon 17th August 1942)

This time around, the Germans only had a three move advantage at the start of the patrol phase. As a consequence the Russians were able to keep them out of the village and the German Jump Off Points were all on the table edge.

This time the German advance would be led by a tank. We let this advance until we could get a flank shot from our anti-tank rifle team, deploying from our leftmost Jump Off Point. A great shot from Ivan, on the anti-tank rifle, disabled the tank’s main gun. Good news for the Russians – if not for Ivan, as the Germans retaliated by deploying a whole panzergrenadier section to fire upon the unfortunate ATR team. No more Ivan (hence no photo!).

The Germans continued the previous game’s wire fixation by advancing the tank into the field with the wire. The Russians responded by deploying a rifle section into the farmhouse. Unfortunately, the rear of the house had no windows but we were able to position a LMG in the back doorway. There then commenced a duel, lasting multiple phases, in which the heroic LMG gunner attempted to scare off the tank which could only reply with its bow machine gun.

Eventually, the Germans brought up two panzergrenadier sections (one in a half track) to concentrate machine gun fire on poor Boris the LMG gunner.

Not surprisingly, the heroic Russian rifle section, now down to a junior leader and the LMG team, broke and fled to the rear of the village. With the Jump Off point under threat, the Russians used a Chain of Command dice to relocate it to the rear. However, with this flank now under threat we were forced to deploy our last section into the rightmost barn. 

This last section did sterling work holding up the German advance but ultimately was essentially surrounded. In desperation, the Russian senior leader led a charge against the nearest panzergrenadier squad but was shot down in the attempt. The remnants of the squad, namely the junior leader and the LMG gunner, also broke and fled to the rear.

With only for men left on the table, and all of those broken, the Russians conceded defeat.

Mercilessly annihilate fascist saboteurs

In an act of unparalleled bravery and devotion to the Motherland, Soldier V. Ivanov of the 51^st Workers and Peasants Infantry Brigade single-handedly decimated a platoon of fascist vipers forcing their entire division to retreat in terror and confusion.

As the enemy advance upon our beloved leader’s city let us all take heart from the selfless action of this Hero of the Soviet Union.

Long live the Socialist Revolution of Marx and Lenin! Long live Comrade Stalin!