Afrika Korps v Australians : Blitzkrieg Commander Battle Report

Welcome to another Blitzkrieg Commander Battle Report.  This time we return to the desert in 1943 and pit the Deutschland Afrika Korps against the Australian Imperial Force.  Godders commands the Germans, I command the AIF.   At stake is the small town of El Godfrey, a place where weary goat herders can rest after a long day of goat herding.  (Does anyone know where I can buy some 15mm goats?)  Rommel needs this town as a staging point for his thrust to Cairo.  The Australian plan is simple and it worked at Tobruk.  Let Rommels tanks pass the outer defensive perimeter and draw them onto hidden guns.  Ambush the following infantry.  And cut off the panzers retreat. 
 

 The Panzers advance towards El Godfrey in two powerful formations.

"It's a trap!"  The Australian anti-tank guns sited in the town open fire on the Germans.  British armoured support hits the Panzers in the flanks.  The German commander is not worried.  His following infantry will deal with the guns while he turns to deal with the flank tank attack.  "Where are the infantry?"  

"It's another trap!"  The Australians rise out of their caves and ambush the panzer grenadiers on the left & right flanks.  This was a blood bath.  All the bonus flank shots decimated the Germans.  After the first round of shooting only a few Germans remained. (Apologies for unpainted figures - that's a carton).  

 The Panzers take a terrible beating from the Anti-Tank guns.

 But the Australians don't get it all their own way.

 The Germans turn to secure their flanks.

The British are out gunned and out armoured.  Very soon the British tanks are all burning wrecks.  However enough damage has been done to the German Battlegroup and they reach breaking point.  A roll of the dice seals their fate and they are forced to retreat.

El Godfrey has been held.

This game was set up in scenario format ignoring army points.  It was going to be a hard ask for the Germans to win.  The idea was to have a fun game.  All it takes are a few failed CV rolls on the Australians part and the Germans would have a good chance of winning.  We tried to simulate the circumstances of the first battle of Tobruk, using a later time period to suit our models.  It seemed to work.  A good interesting game that lasted 2 hours.  We have seen what German do to cows, thankfully the goats where saved.    

Belgians v Germans : Blitzkrieg Commander Battle Report

The brave Belgians and the Germans face off in a 1000 point meeting engagement of Blitzkrieg Commander.  Both sides advance towards a farmhouse destroyed by the relentless Luftwaffe.  Yours truly commands the Belgians, Guido commands the Hun.

The Belgians win initiative and move first, attempting an outflanking maneuver on the left.  The Belgians have one awesome ACG-1, and two not so awesome FT-17's.

Unfortunately, the Belgian flanking tanks are up against a nasty German tank formation.  Outranged and outgunned the Belgians are destroyed in a matter of minutes.  Flanking maneuver failed.

The Germans decided they don't like cows and shoot them all.  Here two German mortar teams set up behind a stone wall.  Ready to rain suppression down on any Belgian infantry that advance towards the farm.

And here come the Belgians advancing along the right road.  Infantry with a couple of HMGs in support.  They come under heavy mortar fire.  Yellow markers are suppression.  Blue dice are the hits taken.  Each unit needs 6 hits to be knocked out of the game.

More Belgian infantry advancing in the centre.  This time they have 47mm SA-FRC anti-tank guns in support.  However highly mobile German infantry are now in the farmhouse and are raining down fire on the attackers.  Both AT Guns are suppressed and are soon knocked out without firing a shot.

The Belgians Alamo.  They make it towards the protective cover of a stone wall and find more German cow atrocities.  The Belgians have two anti-tank rifles which will surely put a halt to the advancing Panzers.

The Panzers line up on the Belgians left flank and let rip.  The Belgians are under intense fire from armour, mortars, infantry and HMG's.  Before long the Belgians reach breakpoint, fail their break dice roll and run off the battlefield.  Germany victorious.  The Belgians lost three tank units, two AT units, two AT Rifle units, and three infantry units before breaking and fleeing.  The Germans lost one HMG unit and two Infantry units.  Thanks for the game Guido.

Another Game

Myself and Godders had another game of Blitzkrieg Commander. Godders hosted and supplied all the figures and old school terrain. This time we played a convoy ambush. I was the Germans ambushing a British convoy. 1000pts each. It was a good game and I won. The picture above shows a road going through crops in which visibility is reduced to 20cm. It caused all sorts of problems when firing at the enemy and added a new level of tactics to our game. Sorry, I only took one photo.

Blitzkrieg Commander 8th Army v Afrika Korps

Monday morning Godders came over for a game of Blitzkrieg Commander before we went on duty. 1500pts per side. Godders played the Afrika Korps and I was the 8th Army. We each placed an objective on the 6x4 table. The goal was to reach the objective or break the enemy force. I had to reach the wounded Australians pictured above.

Godders went first and split into two formations. The first being a large tank unit consisting of various Mk III's and IV's, supported by three units of HMG infantry on motorbikes. I had three Shermans and two 6pdr Valentines waiting for him. Godders was throwing command rolls with glee racing up to my tank formation. When he came into range I used opportunity fire and halted his advance. Godders second formation consisted of infantry, two Panzer II's and a Diana. They started to sneak down the right side of the table. Godfrey's Diana is not painted and I argued unsuccessfully that it should cause a -1 to his command roll!

My command was split into three formations. The heavy tank formation now engaged in a dual with Godders tank formation. A fast tank formation consisting of three Honeys and two Crusaders, and a three 6pdr Anti-Tank formation lead by the CO. I also had a forward artillery observer floating around. I decided to send the fast tanks up around Godders flank with the intention of coming in behind his army. Good plan ruined by the Diana firing at long range. Slowly I had to break suppression and destroy that Diana. My anti-tank guns sat on the objective.

Slowly the fast tanks closed in on the Diana and destroyed it, along with two Panzer II's. My tanks were now headed for the objective guarded by three units of infantry.

Godders heavy tanks wiped out my heavy tanks but at a terrible cost. Only two of his tanks survived the engagement. In context of the game, a mortal blow to the German army. His two surviving tanks did a u-turn and raced back to protect the objective. His three HMG units were taken out by artillery fire and his army Break Point reached. Godders began each turn dicing to stay on the table. He failed and the Afrika Korps fled the battlefield with a bloody nose. Much to Rommel's displeasure.

The 8th Army (me) were victorious and basked in the glory of victory.

Thanks Godders for a good game, and thanks to Blitzkrieg Commander for being a really good gaming system. This is my fifth game and I only needed to look up the rulebook once. That's pretty good.

Wargamer Historical Moment

Personal Historical Wargamer Moment

Afrika Korps tank formation in flames.

Godfrey and myself locked horns again on Saturday in a game of Blitzkrieg Commander, 15mm Afrika Korps v 8th Army. This was the first game we played for real, using balanced armies from the rule book. We limited ourselves to 1000 points. The battle lasted three hours and it included a historical personal moment. For the first time ever I wiped out one of Godfreys super duper combo German tank formations using my poor Brit tanks and AT Guns. This has never happen before in years of dueling. And it proved Blitzkrieg Commander is a first class game and combined arms thinking is a must.

Two rule points to checkout and clarify :

Q1. Can infantry fire at Universal Carriers?

Q2. Do infantry suppress automatically when shot at?

Blitzkrieg Commander

The British confront the Germans in a massed tank battle.

The British are not feeling too happy.

The Valentine formation making a run for it after the British reach Breakpoint and fail the CO's Command Roll.

The victorious Germans sweep across the battlefield.

My good buddy Godfrey came over today for a test game of Blitzkrieg Commander. I bought a new shinny copy of the rules a couple of weeks ago because they use the same command and control system as Black Powder.

We dusted off our old 15mm armies. None of which has seen the light of day since about 2006 when we last played Flames of War. To keep things simple we both fielded three tank formations. I was the Brits, Godfrey was the Germans. We picked up the gist of the rules fairly quickly and had a grand old battle which lasted about 2 hours. The British lost because the German tanks where too tough to crack. I can't wait to have another game. Next time we will add some infantry. Blitzkrieg Commander is a really good game.

Blitzkrieg Commander 2

My latest acquisition. BKC2 uses the same game mechanics as Black Powder so they must be alright! You can play games at two levels. One stand of infantry = a section, & one tank = one tank. Or one stand of infantry = a platoon, & one tank = 3 to 4 tanks. Have to try it one day.