Some More TW&T! July 1944 AAR - Into The Woods!

Well we revisited TW&T again this fortnight using a scenario I found online. This is the second game of TW&T for our group but I have a couple of extra games up my sleeve. We wanted to really test the rules out.

Germans watching the Tommies advance...

Into the Valley

July 1944 an Allied offensive around Caen has splintered the German defences. The British are attempting to push forward to find gaps that they can exploit, whilst the thinly spread German second line is attempting to stand firm until reinforcements can be brought up...

Defending Germans

1 Big Man Level IV

1 Big Man Level III

1 Infantry Section with LMG Team

2 Tripod HMG Teams

British Attackers

2 Big Man Level IiI

2 Big Man Level II

1 Big Man Level I

3 Infantry Sections each with a LMG Team

1 Light Mortar Team

The objective was for the British to emerge from a wood cross a serene gentle upward country slope with minimal cover and clear the 6’ x 4’ table of Jerries. Easy!

The table ready for the British to arrive from the west, top right in the picture the German blinds can be seen behind the luxuriant hedges at the top of the slope...

Note - sorry tried to find the site again that listed this game without luck so can’t credit it!

The Game

The Germans were deployed with their Infantry Section covering the centre third of the table with a HMG Team on each flank set up with a pre-targeted firing lane ready to sweep their fronts.

All three of the British Sections came on in the centre of the table quickly losing their ‘blind’ status due to the open terrain. The Dummy Blinds played little part in foling the Germans what they were up too. Doing so inadvertently saved initially them the wrath of the Jerry HMG’s!

All started okay for the Poms and one section reach some dead ground on the slope for cover while another moved up alongside them. Then the section in cover deployed their Bren Team to the crest of their dead ground to harass the Germans and this is where everything turned nasty for the Brits!

For several turns in a row they became bogged down, twice aircraft buzzed the field of battle (random event) stopping any movement for the turn and on the others the card draws gave the Germans multiple actions while leaving the British stranded! During this time the German fire kept taking a steady toll of British. Several HMG jams did keep the game alive though.

Both the up front British sections lost their Bren teams and were stuck half way up the slope. The third section tried to suppress the Germans from the cover of a stone wall with little effect and then to top off their bad luck when their mortar came into play another random event occurred and a small structure caught fire and the wind placement sent smoke across the mortars line of sight requiring it to relocate!

The British players now got their Platoon leader up to the men stranded on the slope and he got them moving, unable to move directly forward they followed the dead ground to their left flank and ran straight into one of the HMG’s!

At this point the game was over for the British but as the HMG they faced had jammed and the grenades barrage they had launched against it was ineffective we continued for one more turn to test the close combat rules. Here too the Germans were successful by losing just two men to three. The Brits were broken at this point so it was time for coffee and the debrief!

Some Pictures...didn’t take too many as I was busy umpiring!

The first British section sprints to a patch of dead ground as the advance 'into the woods!'

Germans awaiting the British to attempt to get 'into the woods!'

Just as the British mortar support got into the show a blaze broke out in a derelict building and the smoke obscured their view!

With things going badly the British platoon leader inspired his men to swing to the left!

Straight into the sights of a German HMG Team...

Luckily for the Brits the German HMG jammed and a melee ensued...

The defeated British fled, here's a few with their Platoon Leader trying to stem the tide...'Come on lads lets give Jerry some curry!"

I like these rules and the guys general feedback was good. The turns flowed well and quickly. We covered all the infantry rules from grenades to close combat and found they worked well.  I think the secret to these rules is get your best Big men attached to your strongest units ASAP! This game though the British drew the short straw getting pretty bad card selections but that’s what the fog of war is about troops don’t always do what you want. We will use these rules again and plan on trying out the newer version Chain of Command at some point too!

TGAA - NSW Government Commissioned Armoured Car 1932

NSW Police and Dignitaries inspecting the Prototype MB v1 Armoured car in the Sydney Botanic Gardens, May 1932.

With the outbreak of armed hostilities from May 20 The Great Antipodean Adventure turned nasty and violence was rampant on the streets of Sydney New South Wales. With fighting iescalating many factions starting improvising various Armoured vehicles. Little did they know the Provisional New South Wales Government saw 'the cards on the table’ as soon as the first demonstrators filled the streets after the dismissal of the Lang Government and they had secretly placed an order for Armoured Cars for the State Police Force!

Provisional Premier Bertram Stevens knew that Federal Government assistance would not be immediate and his State based ‘Defence Forces’ would be hard pressed to fight armed insurrectionists. Therefore he decided in conjunction with his Cabinet to commission an Armoured Vehicle that would allow the NSW Police to maintain peace in the streets of the fine city of Sydney. The Police Department were to oversee the project. They approached the motor body building firm of Diskon & Molyneux, in the suburb of Bexley on May 14 and paid for twelve Armoured Cars to be delivered within a period of eight weeks with the first to be available as soon as the 24th of May! 

Diskon & Molyneux who had been building car bodies for imported Amercian Packard chassis gladly accepted the contract even though they had not the slightest inkling on designing an Armoured Car or how they could meet the tight deadlines. Their Manager though was a man of action and he promoted his best engineer, Bert Hinkler to produce a rear engined chassis using a Packard Light Eight one they had in stock. He also approached the noted Art Deco architect Emil Sodersten to draw up a design for the vehicle. The Diskon & Molyneux paint shop were set to finish the interior in flat white enamel while the exterior was coated in a fine full gloss British Green with Satin Black turret and wheel cover features.

The two men worked together day and night and their brilliance birthed the the curvaceous Diskon & Molyneux Armoured Vehicle Mark I which went from design to prototype in the space of a mere ten days!

The NSW Police were soon to test the first MB v1 Armoured Car in the heat of battle...

It was a rather unsuccessful design in the end and quickly superseded with only nine being delivered and an improved version replacing it. The completed vehicles soldiered on through the duration of the insurrection often being captured serviced by their new owners and being sent back into the fray, sometimes to be captured a second or third time!

The Vehicle

The modified chassis was shorter than the civilian equivalent and reinforced. The bodywork was all welded and the curved plating was layered sections supplied by a local boilermaker. One side door was included for the crew. The manually rotated turret contained four apertures; one each for the gun, the commander, the gunner and the driver. The low body meant the drivers head was in the turret space which meant that while I motion the turret was required to face forward. The driver location resulted in a few issues the least of which included the need for an efficient catcher for spent rounds lest they hit them when the vehicle was firing in its forward arc!

Specifications

Length 15’ 9”

Width 5’ 6”

Height 9’ 6”

Motor 320 cu in Straight Eight with 110hp

Gearbox 3speed manual

Top Speed 24mph

Crew 3

Armament 1 x Vickers HMG or 1 x QF 3-pounder 

The Model

Okay this model like most of my others is mainly sheet and rod styrene. I am also using this time some wheels and a HMG from Eureaka Miniatures, a Foreground building window frame, a bottle cap and some 1/35 Pz V parts!

Here's the first task assembling the floor and side you'll note a couple of braces to keep it square. The curved parts will be the wheel covers and the axles are lolly pop sticks with paperclip wire...

The new A/C parts with its oppostion in the background!

The sides and base are 1mm styrene for the curved end plates I glued and secured 0.5mm styrene sheet into place

Once the curved ends were completely dry I glued on the hull top and added the hull details; a door, the rear deck grill, a fire extinguisher, a headlight and an exhaust pipe...

The turret is a roll on deodorant bottle cap!

A lick of paint and the NSW Government forces have an Armoured car ready for action!

I like how this finished up! I still have one more Armoured Car to build for TGAA scenarios and after our Little Wars Melbourne ROAD TRIP and a stop at the Nhill RAAF Base Museum I am going to base it on the first ever Australian built Armoured Car! Also I really need to get back to my unfinished VSF projects though! I have a VSF scenario ready to play and a cool building to construct which will probably become the new secret lair of Dr Von Hades this too is thanks to Little Wars and the new Twisted game range of products!