Monthly Meeting Saturday 3 November 2001
after action report
Well, we had a sudden surge in membership, with four recruits to the HKSW ranks. Welcome to new members Peter Munn, Mark Wilson, Denny Yan and last, but not least, returning after an extended stint in the French army, Ludovic Dias, who also volunteered to host a game of e-mail Diplomacy, details of which can be found here.
Peter
(Timur) and Jeff ( The Forces of Timur and
Toktamysh met with the mighty clash of 800 points per side. Timur had 5 commands whereas Toktamysh fielded four.
The clash occurred along a riverbank, which with Timur as the
attacker was deployed as per the rules by the defenders closer to the
attacker. Toktamysh was aided
in defence by a wood near the river in his centre and the first plan was
to refuse the right flank and hinge on the wood, which was held by
infantry. However as Timur’
forces approached on Toktamysh’ right flank it was obvious that the
river was treacherous at this point and not easy to cross.
Toktamysh to his later regret changed the plan and ordered a full
attack on his right hoping to hurl Timur’ men back into the raging
waters. It was not to be and
the early crucial stages went to Timur who sent four Commands into this
one sector. Throughout
Toktamysh was so occupied on the right that little gain was made by the
Golden Horde on the far left and the Russians without support achieved
little in the centre. Near
nightfall the Golden Horde broke on the right with heavy losses, the
Russians were left almost unscathed and the Khan Kazan on the left flank
took no losses in his fight against the great man himself.
For Toktamysh, my first plan was correct and would have given Timur a harder time, however the river proved too greater temptation. Neil on the right flank took on at first three commands and to support him I moved my infantry out of the woods. This initially worked well but later proved a disaster as being irregulars they could not be pulled back in time and the loss of the infantry demoralized the second command. Neil had an incredible run of 1’s and I fared little better. The Chris’ on the other hand did considerable better and the early chance of stopping them on the river floundered. Peter as Timur again tried throwing a lot of commands into one sector whilst holding the rest with one. This time it achieved its purpose. Philippe, as the left flank commander did sterling work but was starved of pips as Toktamysh had to maintain the right. Luck played its part and the opposition had some very good command dice throws which were further aided by the fact that when the odd 1 appeared Timur having little to do was able to feed his left flank. Timur did take losses but was in the lead position almost from word go. An excellent day of play, which with 800 points per side, took only 4 hours.
Six
players vied for supremacy in the new edition of Avalon Hill's History
of the World, unfortunately, due to time constraints (the game was,
thankfully, not played in real time), only 6 of the game's 7 epochs
were completed. The leader at that time was Andrzej closely pursued,
in order of eminence, by Peter M., Dan, Ludovic and Matt, with James as
'tail-end Charlie'. Now that all are familiar with the game
mechanics, a re-match is planned in the not too distant future.
The
third game of the day was a Warhammer 40k battle between the Imperial
Guard and the Sisters of Battle. This was a friendly little 1500pt
game, especially to welcome Mark and Denny as official new members to the
club. Mark provided a good mix of Imperial
guard troops (the different units giving his army the eclectic feel of a
40k United Nations army), with Denny adding his superb scratch built Ork
Mobile (which substituted as an IG Chimera).
The 'Meatgrinder Mission' was the selected battle choice, with the
Imperial Guard prepared to defend their lines to the last man.
John's army of fanatical supporters of the Emperor lined up ready to run
across the battlefield and officially welcome the new boys . . . with
handshaking, hugs and friendly backslapping (rumours of the fanatics
having been drinking 'holy water' all morning, were just not true).
Unfortunately all the firepower at the IG's disposal got the better of
them, and they immediately opened fire ! By the second turn a
handful of fanatics managed to reach the Imperial lines where apologies,
and much merriment took place, rounds of beer were
consumed and the rest I don't remember . . .