Legionary 2014

The closest wargame show  to home is the rather nice Exeter based Legionary, organised by Exmouth Wargames.  Not a massive show, it seems to be slowly improving with Warlord, Colonel Bill, Magister Militum and EM4 among the traders.  I took my camera, but totally failed to take any photos of the games on display, which was stupid as there were some cracking tables set up.  Luckily other people were more organised than me so pictures are available, on JJ's blog or the Exmouth Wargames site.

In an effort to support our local show we usually put on a game.  "We" was Gus, Nathan and myself, but I was going to give this year a miss.  Nathan was supposed to be running a Winter War Chain of Command game for Baker Company and Gus is sadly no longer with us, so I would have been on a table alone.  Then communications between Nathan and Baker Company seemed to come to a halt so I decided to see if a table was available and, if it was, put on a 25mm Chain of Command game using my 1980's British and Russians. 

A table was available, Baker company didn't even turn up to trade on the day without even letting Nathan know, so there I was with my short-legged assistant playing Cold War CoC in front of the local wargaming fraternity. 

 Here is the table with the invading Russians advancing from the left against the dug in British line.  the Russians had a BMP platoon supported by 2 T-55s, a HMG and an auto-grenade launcher.  The British had a rifle platoon with a Milan team, an extra Carl Gustav team and a Scorpion.  The balance of power was coming from the East, or so we thought.

 Despite the best efforts of the Carl Gustav, no Russian vehicles were hit in the initial turn, maybe I have made it too difficult to hit anything with my AT modifiers?  Something to consider in future games I think.  I did make up some nice NATO jump-off points by carving the WW2 weapons off of the Too Fat Lardies models and replacing them with some more modern weapons.  You can just about see them a couple of the pictures.  I also made up a rocket marker, just 'cos I could.

The Russian advance did not go well, with a LAW strike making the BMP-2 retreat, leaving its debussed infantry sat in the open in front of a dug in British section. It did not go well for the Russians, that's all there is too say about that.

 On the other flank it went even worse, with a LAW destroying the BMP and killing two of its infantry squad, then the British fire killed off all but one of the remainder of the squad and he (perhaps sensibly) ran off.  Nathans tactic off sitting back with his T-55's and trying to suppress the dug in defenders did not work and his attack failed as their force morale fell to 1.

 So we switched sides and had another go.  I advanced the Russians behind a smoke screen, reducing the incoming fire that we would take in the first phases.

 Then the vehicles burst through the smoke and advanced.  Some infantry were debussed to provide covering fire, while the T-55s advanced to screen the fragile BMPs with their thicker armour.  My force was saved by Nathans inability to hit with most of his AT missiles, and when he did the effect was negligible.

The end result was a sweeping pincer movement by the Russians, allowing them to start rolling up the defenders line.  My more aggressive tactics worked pretty well, although Nathan's dice did him no favours at all in the secound game.  He did manage to drive off the grenade launcher team and damage a BMPand one of the T-55s, but he lost his Milan team and a full section on the right flank, then was unable to react to the Russians as they swept forward on both flanks.

All in all it was a pretty good day.  The show seemed pretty busy and I hope in continues to grow.  My purchases were limited, I bought some Baueda scenic bits from Magister Militum, who managed to get my order sorted despite me giving them only a couple of days notice, and a couple of 1984-5 Janes books on the bring&buy. 

Its now 12.30am and I have a lot to do tomorrow, so I will sign off here and try to get some sleep.  Keep rolling those dice folks.