Gaming - D Day - Utah beach

 As part of playing out the 5 invasion beaches this year we revisited Utah beach . We last did this one in 2019 , since then the terrain and my US forces have had some further augmentation. It was good to get the various new items on the table . We met at Pendraken HQ’s gaming room and had the table set up as 16x6 . 

 

Utah makes an interesting game as of course there is the Para drop behind it . Particularly the 101st at Brecourt , Holdy and St Marie du Mont . They also have to clear the end of causeways 2 and 3 .

The -area drops were pretty scattered as they were historically . Though the quality if the US Paras allows them to pull themselves together and set about their missions . 

The DZ is overshot and the paras are dropped over the town .

 

The mechanism for the para drops entails being on target for the DZ , plus height and speed , so they can drift a long way depending on the dice rolls - and this happened to most of the troops. Some dropping into flooded areas , or onto built up areas .

Losses are around 50%

Maj Gen Theodore Roosevelt starts the invasion from here ..

Paratroops had landed direct on the Holdy battery taking loses , but making it ineffective 

German caueway 3 defenders 

LCMs delivery the engineering assists on turn 4 

The area around the Grand Chemin at causeway 3 is liberated 

Brecourt Manor

The guns at Brecourt hammered the beach as the paras were widely dispersed 

The beach build up,continues 

US assault units get into the defenders 

It takes a while the breach the sea wall 

LCT’s disgorge more armour in deep wading kit 

Holdy battery is overwhelmed .

Easy Coy Co leads the way at Brecourt Manor

Fully in control of the beach .

The US players had played the Brits at Gold beach a few weeks ago and the lack of Engineering assets in the form of the Funnies was an eye opener for  them at Utah .  They had to use assault infantry at greater cost to get ashore . 

Another great D Day game - next up Juno, but with a different theme , town fighting and the new big 12x6 beach mat will have an outing .

Gaming - Partizan 2024 - Sudan

 Last weekend saw a trip down to Newark to the first Partizan show of the year with some of the guys from the North Riding Wargames Club (aka cat herders). We had decided to give my Sudan stuff a run out - it was last at Partizan in 2018.

We had a 12x6 table for the day - which is fairly small for a large 28mm Sudan, so with a lot of figures it would look nicely busy . With the help of JameM and MartinC through the day we were kept very busy talking to the punters in between chucking some dice and attempting to get a look around.

I had written a one page set of simple rules called “it’s hot here Sir!” to try out - they worked really well and provided some simple entertainment.

Initial set up , with Mahdist forces appearing in the left 

The naval Gatling is hauled by hand.

10th Hussars 

Mahdist camel troops led by an Emir 

The small Egyptian force advances .

 

The Bengal lancers , lethal as ever in this game - melee one 11 hits out of 12 , second melee 12/12 . They saw off all the Mahdist cavalry 

Phot credit Toms toy soldiers 

The square protects the supplies .

The square moves ahead 

 

 

These 3 pics with thanks to Toms Toy Soldiers 

We met up with various friends old and new through the day which was great. 

Shopping was fairly light , though I hadn’t gone looking for anything much. Some ferro paper for the storage boxes, some printed double  sided ACW objective markers , and picking up an order of Vietnam bits from Gringos . 

It was a great day, very busy and good for the morale . We intend to do Gettysburg in 10mm in conjunction with Pendraken at the October outing for The Other Partizan . Some terrain work to do there but not too much - I think! 

Holidays - Museum visits Royal Engineers and Chatham Dockyard

 On the way back from Belgium we stopped in Kent and took the opportunity to visit the Royal Engineers museum and the Historic Dockyard Chatham . Both were really good visits with a fine range of exhibits to look at . 

Plenty of interesting vehicles outside of the RE museum .

 

Chinese Gordon’s imperial court dress 

Gordon’s telescope 

Lt Chard display 

Chards Webley used at Rorkes Drift 

Zulu shield from Rorkes drift 

Onto the Royal Dockyard 

HMS Victory 

RNLI display 

Polaris missile 

An X Craft submarine 

 

HMS Cavalier 

 

The WW2 Destrroyer memorial 

  

 

Next onto HMS Gannet , a sloop 

HMS Ocelot 

The museum told the story of the evolution of the navy and the industry that was built up to support it . 

All in all two great museums .