WMMS 2020

Richard, Will and I put on a game at WMMS this weekend for the SOTCW, using Richard Crawley's fictional Black Sea country of Andeivia.  So far, we have covered Andreivia (roughly where Georgia might be in the real world) in WW1 and in the late 20th/early 21st Century.  This time, we placed the action in 1943 during WW2.  The game used Battlegroup rules with stats taken from Kursk and Tobruk, in 20mm scale.  The scenario involved the early stages of a German "raid" to secure a valuable stash of minerals essential to their war economy and known to be held at the quayside of Andreivia's main port near the capital, Tcherbevan.  It was also a handy way to test out the loyalty of the local population to the Soviet authorities and any non-Soviet factions that could represent possible Axis recruits.

The Germans paradropped a platoon of Fallschirmjagers adjacent to the quays, while landing an infantry platoon with support from Pz IIs and Pz IIIs (2 of each) along the coast adjacent to the harbour.  The call also went out to various local falangist militias, who seized village centres around the port in an attempt to isolate the area from Soviet reserves.

The Soviets had a platoon's worth of locally recruited units of the Red Army garrisoning the port, including an AT gun covering the beach and a mortar section inland, together with various local militias based on the Soviet partisan organisations recruited from dock workers.  Crucially, the docks also held an NKVD unit with integral armoured car support, helping to ensure the loyalty of the locally recruited troops.  Area reserves included 4 ageing T-26 tanks from the nearby tank driving school, plus a lorried infantry platoon.

The table layout as the game started.

Andreivian falangists in control of a nearby village.

A T-26 from the reserve moves hesitantly along the railway line - watch out for paratroopers in the woods.

The paratroopers dropzone - sadly, the open terrain was covered by Soviet defenders, so between landing casualties and incoming fire, the paratroopers were badly mauled.

Panzers push inland.  A single paratrooper section managed to silence the AT gun covering the beach, which allowed the armour to deploy, although infantry in the quayside buildings and fields seriously delayed infantry deployment from the landing boats.  The same paratrooper section then ambushed a T-26 on the railway, destroying it and delaying the Soviet response until the Panzers were in a better position.

Sadly, the game took up most of the time there, together with some shopping.  By the show's close, the Germans had a single Pz II runner, but an immobilised Pz III covered the direct approach of what was left of the Soviet reserves.  The fallschirmjager were just about wiped out, but had effectively dealt with the garrison troops and workers partisan groups around the docks.  The falangists had been spectacularly ineffective all game, so were in good shape to assist any incoming Axis second wave or disperse quietly if the Soviets reinforced first - as might be expected.  All in all, a fun game, some interesting events and tactical situations and a great try-out ahead of our weekend game at Crisis Point later this month.

There were lots of great games at the show, but I only managed to remember to take a photo of this one, a French-Indian wars table with a great wooden stockade/fort at the far end of the table, but loads of little actions going on all round.

As I've been working on a variety of jeep transports recently for US and British forces, as well as British paratroopers, it was nice to get a couple of shots of the US re-enactors jeep display.  It was quite bizarre at the end of the show as Will and I were heading off to Chester, the jeep, towing a 37mm gun, pulled out in front of us and made it's way through the traffic - I wondered how many passers by would have had to look twice.

As ever, thanks for looking.