Friday Night Games: Battle for the Denistr River, Tiraspol, Romania 1944

22nd November, saw Mark's 20mm WW2 game staged at Rupert's pad. The scenario saw a Romanian force, backed by some German support attack Russian positions across the Dinistr River bridges.

Early view of the tabletop, prior to placement of Russian Defensive lines

Rules are those devised by Mark, who also umpired. Leading the Romanians were Phil, Mat and Mike W, whilst the Russians were played by Mike N and Rupert.

The two main bridge crossings over the river,
to left the rail bridge and to right the road bridge

Opening moves were taken up with Romanian recce and exploratory advances across the two bridges.

Small Russian Village

Russian pill boxes were attacked with some success  with two knocked out by units crossing the road bridge.

Weckage of a downed Russian Aircraft

Resistance to the rail bridge crossings was arguably stronger, resulting in a squad of engineers and a squad of infantry being eliminated as they attempted their crossings.

View of the tabletop from the Romanian side of teh table

Another view

Rear echelon russian Trenches

Romanians begin to cross the rail bridge

Initial Romanian gun deployment on the road bridge

Another view of the tabletop, from the Romanian side

Romanian Recce Aircraft starts a series of sweeps to locate enemy units and postitions

Infanty advance to the road bridge to exploit success aginat enemy pill boxes

Mortar support nre the road bridge

Romanian HQ secure the high ground

Knocked out Russian pill box

More Romanian recce sorties

Romanian 'heavy' armour arrives on the tabletop, at the rail bridge!

Additional support arrives at the road bridge

Romanian view of teh advance along the rail bridge,
note the Engineer section and their foothold on the far back, left of bridge

Advance across the road bridge reaches the half way mark

Friday Night games: 15mm North West Frontier

 

British Infantry Battalion

Friday 8th November saw Week #1 of a 15mm North West Frontier game put on by John at Mike N's gaff. The figures are frm john's collection and John also umpired the game using the  "An' Go to Gawd like a soldier" ruleset available free from WargamesVault.

British reserve and Wagon Train advances up the centre of the table.

Commanding the British side was Phil with help from Mike W,  Mark and Nigel, whilst the Afghans were played by Steve, Rupert and Mike N.

View of the British front line advancing up the table,
each hilltop being a potential location for enemy snipers to interdict their advance.

The rules played well, with the players quickly learning teh iins and outs of this type of conflict, a novel approach is that uints are able to move to any point on th etable, only limited by the intervention of the enemy - making it a speedy game to play through.

Close-up of some of the British forces

British Wagon train and ambulance, the ambulance playimg an important part in picking-up the wounded and saving them from the enemy

By the end of Week #1, eth British had made significant progress but at the cost of loosing two companies of dragoons when they were whacked by a massed Afghan Cavalry charge. All to play for in Week #2.

View of the tabletop - pre battle

Another angle on the tabletop - pre battle

On the british left they have some early success, storming a hilltop and destroying an Afghan infantry unit, similarly in teh centre a small Afghan infantry unit is mauled and sent packingby the British - before their cavalry finally appear!

Another close-up on British infantry

Finally some Afghans appear, and a mass charge by their cavalry wipe out two Britsh Dragoon Companies