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Tuesday 21 March 2017

Berkeley 2017 day 2 action

In the morning of day 2, I took the opportunity to take some shots of the Kiel Canal table.  All I knew of this one was the Soviet forces radio network, telling us that Soviet forces had crossed the canal in strength, throwing a number of bridges across.  While they were mopping up some Canadian holdouts, hiding in the cellars, the bridgehead had driven inland and secured a perimeter.


This was the additional table added to the Soviet right flank to place the action in a more central part of the table.


Soviet bridgehead from the Canadian and Belgian side.


Dutch arrive on NATOs right flank on the Kiel Canal.


Back on the Polish landing table, the Brits on NATOs left flank continue to hold solidly.

 
In the centre, Polish marine engineers hold the UE building in the distance.


On the Polish left, units make best use of concealing terrain to survive and hold the perimeter.






Back at the canal, the Soviets continue to cross the river.


On the Polish table, the marines are dismayed to find they are now facing a regiment of Challengers!!  Now what are they doing assigned to Landjut one may ask.  The marines had been told to expect light screening forces and here they are facing the latest generation of British heavy armour.  At least that's another heavy armoured regiment not engaged at the Kiel Canal or available to Northag.


As they were unwilling to commit suicide, the Poles decided to hunker down in cover and see what developed.  An artillery duel began with the British using 105s to bombard marines in the centre, while the Polish used counterbattery fire to silence all 4 batteries in 2 turns - good shooting lads.  Air support also came screaming in, but iron bombs had little effect on Challengers.


Simon even called in strategic assets on Nicks Brits, but even the 12 dice this rained down had little effect on the Chieftains;.


The Polish marines hunkered down in cover.




The last flings of the day involved the Poles finally getting some meaty air support with a strike from cluster bombs, air delivered ATGMs and iron bombs.


At the same time, Gordon, the umpire, released the Polish reserves, a T-72 tank regiment, which flank marched onto the far left of the table, into the flanks of the Challengers.  Another close range knife fight was about to break out with the Brits needing to turn to fire back, and face close range op fire.  Unfortunately, their excellent saves would make them a tough nut to crack, but Polish armour was now loose in the British rear.




Nick's Brits on the right still holding out with no bother.


Meanwhile around the Kiel Canal bridgehead, stalemate on the Soviet left flank next to the bridgehead.


The Soviet bridgehead at the end of day 2.


Soviet right flank on the Kiel Canal.


All in all a great couple of days gaming.  The Polish marines had secured their beachhead and were starting to expand with the aide of the T-72 regiment reserves, albeit at the cost of about 1/3rd of their effective strength.  Simon's Polish infantry had suffered extensively and were present in little more than reinforced battalion strength on the right flank, but still securing the key town and river crossing point, splitting the British defenders.  News from the Kiel Canal also seemed to be promising, with at least one of the Soviet commanders claiming the roads to Hamburg and Copenhagen were now open and booking his ticket to see the Little Mermaid.  The other Soviet player seemed less confident of total victory and is no doubt currently mining salt in Siberia, or Droitwich.

I can't praise the organisers enough.  Richard's great terrain is always a pleasure to play on, and we were all truly sorry he had to miss out on attending.  Gordon did a great job as sole umpire, while Mark F organised the event brilliantly.  Ian and I managed a clandestine meeting with Richard at a secret location in Shropshire to hand over maps and terrain features.  Apart from that, it is the players who make the event for me, we're all competitive and like to win, or at least lose gallantly, but always played in a spirit of fun and friendship.  There are a lot of players could take a leaf from the Cold War Commanders book in terms of maintaining a good happy atmosphere and avoiding the win at all costs approach.  Thanks to all the players for making the game such a great experience.  Special mention to Simon for fielding some great looking troops and then rolling some truly diabolical dice rolls, all with a smile on his face.

Thanks to you for looking.

9 comments:

  1. Great set of pics and aar.Thanks for sharing.
    Cheers
    Steve

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    1. Thanks Steve,

      Looking forward to the Grimsby game in September.

      Cheers, Andy

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  2. Great AAR really interesting to see how the tables turned out. Well said Andy regarding the Cold War Commanders spirit of fun and friendship. At the end of the day all we want to do is have some fun pushing our miniatures over some impressive terrain, on tables bigger than we usually get to play on and have a great time doing it. Usually with lashings of good food and good beer and good friends. This is our 6th year and the games have got better and better. More players have become involved than ever before and the support of fellow players has increased as they have bought into what we are trying to achieve. We are not bothered if the Canucks were actually stationed 825km in Southern Germany in 1989, if the player has spent the time researching, painting and basing his forces then we will come up with a decent back story to fit it in. I'm waffling but you know what I mean. Sorry I missed it but you guys put on another great game. Well done to all involved especially Mark F for all his efforts.

    Cheers

    Richard P

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    1. Richard, you've summed up the ethos of what we are trying to achieve really well and I fully agree with Andy's comments about the spirit the games are played in.
      Cheers
      Steve

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    2. Can't wait for Grimsby, just making 50 more hedges as one thing i've noticed from Google Earth there are quite a lot of hedges in Denmark. Plus making a load more fields. Got about another 50 Timecast buildings to do as well. Going to be busy :-)

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    3. Great stuff, can't have too many hedges.

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    4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. Great stuff Andy! The 2nd day didn't appear to be nearly as bloody as the first, and it looked to be a banner day for the WarPac elements. I think that Challenger commander needs to be chastised for his lack of aggressiveness! He should have driving the Poles into the sea! ;)

    V/R,
    Jack

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Jack. I'm not sure about the aggressiveness of the Challys, given the experience of the Chieftain commander on the previous day. Those Polish marines were tough to deal with once they started to close assault. But it was a real knife fight and the outcome was in doubt right up until the last.

      Cheers, Andy

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