maandag 14 mei 2012

Wargaming @ De Landmachtdagen

I went to the Dutch Army Open Days (Landmachtdagen) this weekend to give a demonstartion about Wargaming with Dutch forces. I brought my Cold War troops, there were 2 tables about Afghanistan, several WW2 ones, from 1940 as well as 44-45 plus an action in Indonesia, a Medieval one, a Renaissance one and even a Roman one. Everything was themed on Dutch Forces or battles on Dutch soil and my table was the only (thank God) hypothetical one.

Friday - No battle as the Russians had not arrived yet so display only. Lots of veterans and current servicemen came for a chat, I learned a great deal about the strategy I should use from a active recce commander.

Saturday - The first battle, with me as the Dutch and Evin and Rutger as the Russians.I deployed too far back, used my Leopard as a Fireman force and had terrible dice. I held the enemy off from reaching my tableedge for 13 turns but lost all of my armour and half my infantry in the process. I call it a Dutch loss even if we held the Russians off long enough, as such losses are unsustainable as you are supposed to do a fighting withdrawal to the next defensive line. That means having troops and tanks left to actually man those lines!

Sunday - Rutger fought with my Dutch, Evin played the Russian side (i'd been on the base since thursday so I was feeling a bit knackered). Rutger fought a textbook action, deploying some of his tanks and AT teams far forward, killing the enemy Recce and then withdrawing to positions futher back while artillery shelled the advancing Soviets. He received the assistance of Lt. who was there to support the various players and who had mentioned he'd like to play a game. Under his command many 6's were rolled and he smashed the Russian left flank. In the end the battle was a resounding win for the Dutch plus it proved the tactic actually worked. As a bonus the display received a visit from the commander of the Dutch Army, Lt-Gen de Kruif, and the man grinned from ear to ear at our table. We spent some time explaining the game, he spotted the inaccuracies at one (Technically, I need YP-408's for this period, not YPR-456's, and the Leopard 1's should be Leopard 2's, or at least 1V's). We were then ordered to defeat the Russians :) Very impressive.

I made quite a few pics, but due to the light conditions sadly not too many came out right.

Battle 1 - Saturday (pictures are not in correct order)


 The enemy made good use of smokescreens.


 His recce reached the forward blocking position very quickly (this one surviving a Leopard 1 hit btw)


 The Soviet wave seen from my side. I was too far back for a proper response.

 I placed but did not use fortified positions.


 In hindsight, chanelling his forces, while succesful, just strengthend him. So don't do this again!

 Just a nice pic.


Tactical use of smokescreens.


Recce on the prowl.


The Recce Leopard failed to hit......story of my life for this game. Either that or hitting on unmodifed 6's at long range but then rolling 2's and 3's for damage.


Minefield were spotted by his recce but he managed to pass 2 out of 3. After which Usuthu demonstrated to us how this should be almost impossible due to the density of these minefield...maybe we need a houserule to improve them, say a 3+ or maybe even a 2+.


The last few yards.....there is a TOW in the woods that rolled a 1.....practically at the end of the smoking T-72's barrel. I say it rolled a 1 cause the missile didn't arm itself at that range


The counterattack that never should have happend anyway. I only managed to smoke 2 T-72's after which the rest trashed my Leopards. They should have deployed in a manner like Rutger did in his game.



Game 2 - Sadly I didn't take too many pics and due to the light conditions most are rubbish, so I just have these.


  The Soviet recce moved forward in a wide line, their AT support in the middle and using what cover they could.


But the Leopards were here....





....there......




....everywhere!


Just a nice pic, this is the YPR that carried the Dragon team. That fired one shot and then bugged out through the woods only to redeploy a bit more back.

Wargaming @ De Landmachtdagen could not have been possible without the planning and organisation of Overste Ludwig van Dijk, supported by his son Joey and Lt. Bart. 

3 opmerkingen:

  1. cool games. shame about your that first game. but every faliure is a chance to improve!

    BeantwoordenVerwijderen
  2. Wow, that looks great! A very fine table and theses masses of Russian armour! I especially like the theme, as British centred conflicts often dominate wargaming scenarios.

    BeantwoordenVerwijderen
  3. Looks like fun, cracking minis and terrain. I'm totally jealous.

    BeantwoordenVerwijderen