Post-lockdown wargames resume

Last night I managed to roll some dice in a game for the first time since the WMMS show in Wolverhampton in March 2020.  Sadly, the old venue for the Deeside Defenders club is being demolished and, despite assurances from the Wings Club that we were still wanted they offered another group Thursday evenings, leaving us less than half the space previously available and only on a Wednesday.  We decided to explore alternative venues, one group heading off to Mold on a Thursday and the other heading to Elton the same day.  The group in Mold have kept the Deeside Defenders title, while the group in Elton are now Beacon Games Club, meeting at the Elton Community Centre (bar open 6-11pm, gaming from 7pm at the moment).

Will, Richard and I played a game of Rapid-Fire 2nd edition using the scenario of Steve Shann published in the latest Wargames Soldiers and Strategy.  This pits a brigade of Will's Soviet infantry with supports and 6 SU-76s against an initial force of two reduced strength battalions of German infantry, with a reserve force including 2 Tiger IIs and a battalion of infantry arriving on an average dice plus 6 (we rolled for 9) turns into the game.  Russians came on from the right table edge in the photo below, one battalion of Germans deployed along the hard cover of the railway embankment, the other in or within 6 inches of the village.  Russians from Will's collection, Germans from mine - all recent additions during lockdown so suffering the curse of new units in spectacular style.

I think Richard and I should have used some movement to get our troops out of the pre-planned artillery bombardment zone.  It's tempting to hunker down in the hard cover of the railway and buildings, but Will's heavy artillery support was quite devastating when it hit.  I'm tempted to think the troops in the village should have deployed as close to the rail lines as possible to start shooting before the Russian artillery whittled them down, especially using the PAK 40 to take out some of the SU-76's.  Alternatively, the German forces could have pulled back from the rail line and village into woods and another village at the rear of the table to wait out the bombardment and arrival of the German reinforcements.  Another play through might help test the alternatives.

However, in the end, both German battalions took heavy casualties and were routed, leaving the Russians two turns in which to deploy along the rail embankment and push their SU-76's into the village or hull down behind the railway.  The Tiger IIs came on into a line of sight slugging match.

In the first round of fire, the SU-76's managed a solid hit and a lucky conversion of that into a Tiger kill, stopping the lead Tiger dead.  The following Tiger rolled a 1 to hit in reply, no effect.

The village firmly in Soviet hands - the menacing hulk of the Tiger just adding a minor road block.

The Soviet horde making good use of the railway line for cover.

Anyway, it was great to meet up with loads of old friends and get some gaming in.  The new venue seems to be all we could have asked for and perhaps a bit more, so I hope it continues to grow.  Looking forward to next week already.

Thanks for looking.