Weekend games

 Busy gaming weekend for a second week in a row!  Arthur and I went to the Trumpeters' May meeting at Bonsor on Friday, where we hosted an Afghan bash with The Men Who Would Be Kings, then on Saturday Sam and Doug came over for another go at Training the Entente with an attack on a strongpoint, and on Sunday Tyler and Oliver came over for a round of Settlers of Catan.  Sorry, no photos of the Catan game!

Friday night's game featured an expedition of the British Indian Army into Afghanistan.  The Afghan regular army starts off holding the heights in the centre of the board, where they hope to hold out against the British and Indian troops until their tribal allies come to the rescue.

Kevin's brigade swings to the left, while Arthur's brigade charges headlong at the hill.

Rattray's Sikhs advance, led by their piper/

Gordon Highlanders advance,

Supported by the Royal Artillery!

Afghan regulars hold the heights.

Gordons and Sikhs are pinned by artillery and rifle fire from the Afghans.

But then return fire from the Brits pins the Afghans!

On the British left, Kevin's brigade forms a battle line to face the advancing tribal warbands.

Afghan regular cavalry led by the Emir.

Defiance from the mountain top!  The browncoats wave their flag.

Gurkhas advance led by Billy Fish.

Afghan cavalry wipe out the 29th Baluchis,

then confront the 16th Bombay Infantry!  (looks bold, but the cavalry were subsequently wiped out by Indian firepower).  No more photos from the flank, but the Afghans pushed back the British and Indians, then moved to reinforce the mountain top.

Even reduced to two men, the Gordons charge and defeat the Afghan artillery!

Sorry, no more photos from Friday night, but the Gordons were wiped out, then the Gurkhas and Sikhs captured the heights.  We called it then for time, but the matter was not decided:  The battered remaining Sikhs and Gurkhas would have had a hard time holding the heights against the tribesmen, who were just about there to save the day!

On Saturday, Sam and Doug came over for some WWI Chain of Command.  This was a repeat of scenario 1 of Training the Entente from Stout Hearts and Iron Troopers.  Here is the battlefield with the white markers on the crossroads that the CEF have been instructed to capture.

The situation after the patrol phase.

Jumpoff points set out.

Riflemen advance with their footballer kicking the ball along to encourage the team!

German defenders prepare to defend their trenches.

Rifle grenadiers lay down fire on the Germans in the trenches.

CEF approach with tactical movement, subjected to fire from the German medium machine gun.

Canadian bombers use the shell craters for cover.

Canadian rifles lay down covering fire (the white smoke) as the Lewis gun section advances.

Germans in the trenches keep up defensive fire while the CEF tries to suppress them.

Canadian bombers throw their hand grenades (aka 'bombs').

Rifle section and Lewis gun section attack and overrun the German MMG, then push forward toward the German jumpoff point.

It was a hard fought battle, but the Canadians had a good battle plan, and followed it successfully.  Sam noted after the battle that we made a minor error with covering fire - it is supposed to only be in effect for the current phase, but I had allowed it to continue for several phases.  I don't think it made an overall difference in the result.  Looking forward to having another go at WWI CoC soon!  Next week, though, we will be joining in Lisa's Bolt Action Stalingrad campaign.  Battle report sometime next week.