Friday Night Games - Battles for the Berezena Crossings, Part 3

Russians advance on their right wing to engae the French

The final week of the epic 3 week game saw John & Dave continue on as the French whilst Mat, Mike W, Mike N, Steve & Mat commanded teh huge Russian force.

French left wing is compromised as they retire towards the bridge

Mat's command on the Russian left continued to batter the French in that sector, who also dealt as good as they recieved. However on the French left the tide had truely turned and over the course of the night the whole Frech left wing gradually collapsed under the wieght of Russian onslaught.

Russians attack and break the French squares

Ultimately all French uints to the left of the bridge were destroyed or broken, leading to the preparations for a pre-emptive flight of the right wing. Whilst the Fench had fought valiantly, they were defeated with significant losses.

French right from their side of the table

Close-up of small actions on the French right

One of the Russian columns marching on the French left

What's left of the French left, from the Russian PoV.

The French right, from their side, central position

More Russians closing

The French left collapses towards the river bridge, the game nears its end

Final shot of the French right, Guards positioned to defend
against Russians crossing the bridge (bottom right)

Off the Workbench - Mike

Latest batch of figures

More figures for VBCW, featuring six new British Army Regulars plus three Fire Brigades Militia and a BUF fighter.

First of two shots of the regulars

The regulars are pretty much standard Wargames Atlantic WW1 Infantrymen, all armed with Lee enfields and wearing tin hats. One guy is carrting spare Ammo for the Lewis Gunner.

and the rear rank brought forwards....

Three more Fire Brigades Militia were created in the same manner as in previous posts, the group includes an officer armed with a Webley revolver and a Fire Axe, plus two more militiamen, one with a rifle and one with a Tommy Gun, he'll be an NCO.

The last man in the group is a BUF Volunteer, again armed with a Tommy Gun. I have made him out of Wargames Atlantic Panzer Grenadier and given him some arms from the Warlord Games British Commando set. I picked a bare headed head to give him a suitable right wing look and added a British back pack and pouches.

I painted his shirt blue to fit in with the BUF look & feel, the Panzer Grenadier jacket makes a good facsimile of the BUF shirt at this scale - if you don't look too hard!

Coming soon - A Vickers Mk 2 tankette and a truck to help transport these little guys.

Off the Workbench - Mark

More photos from Mark's workbench, with a focus on WW2 & VBCW plus a smattering of Dr Who daleks!.

Russian T34s in the foreground and some Daleks to the rear

Allied Stuart Tanks plus a couple of Daimler Armoured Cars?

Close-up of two of the T34s

A couple of SCW Aircraft in 1/72 scale.

Various German Armour and skinned vehicles

VBCW infantry surrounded by all sorts of other kit!

Axis Half tracks and SPGs

Close-up of the VBCW figures

Friday Night Games - Battles for the Berezena Crossings, Part 2

French left flank closed down and in Square to counter
threat of Russian sweeping advance

After a two week hiatus Rupert's game resumed, July 3rd, the missed weeks were due to lack of player availability and extremely hot weather here in the UK.

Close-up of the squares

Mat was away on holiday but Mike N. replaced him and performed admirably on the Russian left. For the French, Grahame was able to join us and was given their extreme left as his command, which turned out to be a bit of a poisoned challenge.

Steve's troops advance in teh Russian Centre against French positions

On the French right, John continued to hold off increasingly intense Russian attacks whilst taking the number of exiting French units to an impressive 13.

Russian Cossack Cavalry redeploying through advancing Russinan columns. 

However, Russian interdiction on the escape route and bridge enabled them to claim two turns of points.

The 'Big Bash' on the Russian left, with French positions being hard pressed

Meanwhile Steve, in the Russian centre continued to hard press Dave & Grahame's units, eliminating a number of these as the French lines contracted and retired.

More Russians arriving

Mike W, commanding Wittgenstein's Corps if 3 Divisions continued it's outflanking maneuvers and also provided addition support to Steve in the centre as all the Corps' divisions finnally entered the table by the end of week 2.

More play next week!

French positions on their left being whittled down,
whist Russian numbers continue to grow

Yet more Russians arriving

And more....

The Russian left

Off the Workbench - 28mm VBCW Infantry

What can you do with yourself when the temperature outside is hot enough to fry an egg on the pavement?! You stay inside and do some painting!

Its currently 34C here in this part of teh UK, so I'm sitting at my workbench with a fan blowing and feeling reasonably comfortable...

The heatwave has given me a chance to complete a batch of 28mm VBCW Infantry, mostly sourced from eBay at a very reasonable price and painted up to be presented here.

There are 18 x metal figures and 2 x Wargames Atlantic WW1 British INfantry kitbashes.

The group of freshly painted and based figures

Three guys wh will likely be used as Worker's Militia, hence the red scarves or armband.

Three new Fire Brigades Militia plus th eone I did for last week's post.
Figure on the right is a metal guy, the rest are WA plastic Kitbashes.

The only fascist in the village (so far!), a BUF ruffian.

Two guys inraincoats, they could be detectives, civilians or
BUF Secret Police, who knows?!

A group of 7 generic militiamen, suitaboe for any faction

And another view, with back row moved to front

Finally, four odds and ends, (L to R), an Army Deserter, Militia Officer and
American Volunteer and  a guy with two stick grenades.

Off the Workbench - Mark

Just like waiting at a Bus Stop, when you get one 'Off the Workbench' post,  along come three!!

This time a contribution from Mark, showing three of his excellent German WW2 tanks.

Two JagdPanthers

and what I belive is a Hummel