Junction Jeopardy by Henry Hyde

Been a follower of Henry since his days editing Battlegames Magazine. He has written several useful books on the hobby. Junction Jeopardy: A Coffee Break Campaign is the latest addition.

Junction Jeopardy presents players with 9 maps centred around a critical village at an important transport junction. The book is designed to be used as a small campaign of connected scenarios throughout a range of periods. It can be adapted for use with your favourite ruleset.

The book has suggested several ideas for periods I am interested in. The maps can be used for individual scenarios as well as a campaign. This fits into my idea for a multi system campaign for VBCW using Nuts!, Went The Day Well or One Hour Skirmish rules for smaller games and Chain of Command or Bolt Action for larger games. Possibilities exist for using Sharp Practice rules for horse & musket games.

Really useful product. I got my hard copy from Amazon, but you can get a PDF from Battlegames – Wargaming content from Henry Hyde, Creator of Battlegames on Patreon          

OPERATION BITING AND MY PART IN IT.

At the recent Targe show, Oldmeldrum Wargames Group ran a participation game based on Operation Biting, The Bruneval raid during WW2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Biting .

The game was spread over two tables. On the first table, the three squads attacking the house and radar were each played by one player. On the other table, three players took the three squads tasked with clearing a path for the exfiltration.  

 

My view of the battlefield. The 'lone house' clearing which was my section's objective.

You can see the divider that split the battlefield. There was one turn's distance between each table. Alistair, resplendent in his Red Beret, umpires the battle to secure the exit point.

My section moves forward to take the house. The supporting section on the right were to provide support and also to suppress the fire coming from La Presbtyre (represented as off table fire)

My section prepared to assault the house, but took fire from the flank from a pill box and failed to act, due to the pin markers.

Here is the offending pillbox. It defends the radar, the crew of which are seen running for cover in response to fire from Rick's section. Not their primary role, bu welcome.

Rick was in charge of the team with the engineers, tasked with getting the parts from the radar. In the background Tony-Peter Carter is part of the team clearing the way for the exfiltration on the other table.

Rick's section managed to reach the radar and, after a turn, successfully recover the radar parts and set explosives to destroy the rest of the installation.

Your humble blogmaster, with a natty titfer, trying his best to emulate the heroics of the real Red Berets.

Finally, my section managed to get moving again. They had failed in their prime objective: the house had been cleared by the support section. They poured fire into the pillbox to suppress it, while the other sections cleared it.

The mission now complete, the three sections make for the exfiltration point. Thankfully Tony-Peter and the others had cleared the Germans from the area and the mission was declared a success.

My section suffered two casualties. I managed to get 5 VP for my actions.

                                    Rick's section was a bit more successful!

This was an enjoyable hour. The rules were stripped down Bolt Action with a dose of common sense. I know that Alistair and the boys put in a lot of hours building the terrain and testing the scenario.

http://oldmeldrumwargamesgroup.com/

Treading Water. TGFT!

Despite having a good week on the work and social emotional level, life is so busy that I feel like I am treading water. Weeks are passing too quickly. Thank goodness for Thursday, and the escape of gaming!

The last Thursday game was at Aidan's. To showcase his 28mm KV2, he had chosen a variation on the 'Top secret' scenario. A KV2 had broken down during trials in Manchuria. The objective was to rescue vital parts. The Russians, so they could get the tank back in action and the Japanese, to pass the info on to their German allies.

We managed to play this scenario twice in the evening. I took the Russians, Rick the Japanese. The forces were two squads plus support elements each.

 

As forces were deployed as if from reserve, the Japanese were lucky with their rolls and got most of their units on. The Russians managed to get one section and a couple of support units on. Both sides ran units to try and get to the cover round about the bridge. The sides met at the house beside the bridge.

The Russian ATR team spot a nasty surprise in the shape of a Chi-Ha!

A few good die rolls in the second turn meant that the second Russian squad (of naval troops) managed to get into the line just as the first japanese squad assaulted. They were wiped out, but the Russian observer was cut down by the Katana wielding Japanese officer.

The second Japanese squad charged in against the Naval troops and were also wiped out. This allowed the Russians to win the first game.

The second game was similar in that both sides raced for the cover in the middle. The close combat was replaced by keen firefights. The Russians managed to get to the tank, but were shot off it. The Chi-Ha came forward to clear the house by the river. Japanese win.

This is only our second and third tilts at Bolt Action! Most of the mechanisms are similar to FUBAR, but not all. This may have caused a bit of confusion in the first game, particularly around close combat. Despite the problems, these seem set to become the rules we use for 28mm WW2.

 

 

Past the finishing post!

As I write this, my two weeks of leave have come to an end. Where did the time go? What did I manage to achieve?

The first week was mostly spent in finalising arrangements for a charity race night to raise funds for my mother's care home's minibus campaign. It was held at The Ashvale and raised £1,800 http://www.theashvale.co.uk/FundRaising/. I am glad that it's over and that it was a success. I can highly recommend the Ashvale: both for a good fish supper and if you are looking for a venue for a charity event.

I had no Wednesday game, but Aidan has got into Bolt Action! at the Aberdeen Wargames Club, and offered to put on an introductory game for Rick and myself. I took the Japanese and Rick the US Marines. It was not a competitive game and we managed to test out most of the rules. No pics, as I forgot my camera again. The attrition level of the game was high. The activation system, using dice to determine the order and type of action works. This will easily be incorporated into our Fubar games.

After recovering from the race night, the second week was a bit of a mixed bag. My old friend and wargaming opponent Neil, made the temporary change from expat to native as he came back to deal with some domestic matters. We had a chance to catch up and have a game or two. The wargaming scene in Abu Dhabi is rather sparce, so Neil was happy to take part in a game of Combat Commander : Pacific on Wednesday and join our Thursday group for a game and a reunion.

This, and the films I have seen, will be separate posts.

                                                                           Thursday teaser.