Carluke Wargames Club 11/1/14 - Battlegroup Overlord

Quiet month for me gaming and modelling wise. My girlfriend moved in with me this weekend, and between the holidays and getting the place organised the most I have managed to do is mess about with some Sherman conversions and start cleaning up my 4.2" mortar platoon.

The Saturday before last I did manage to play another game of Battlegroup Overlord at the Carluke Wargames Club. Myself, Cameron and Young David played, with Cameron and myself playing the allies and YD the Germans.

This was our second game of this rules set (Cameron's first) and our first attempt at playing in 15mm using Flames of War style basing.

The table setup - YD centre stage!

I went with 2 platoons of Infantry, a Forward HQ team, a timed Typhoon strike and a Sherman Crab (first time on the table for this model).

Cameron went for a US armoured list - 2 x 75mm Shermans, and one 76mm Sherman. A infantry squad in a M3 Halftrack and 2 M7 Priests. As well as a jeep mounted HQ squad. We were using reserve rules - these are a big part of the Battlegroup rules.

Highlights of the game for me were my placement and timing of the Typhoon strike. I had written it down to hit on the 5th turn and the building on the right.

This turned out to be a good call, as the building was occupied and had some Panzer 4's nearby. In the end I my infantry got nowhere and my Sherman Crab was knocked out. Cameron's two 75mm Shermans got taken out as well, while the 76mm Sherman got engaged in a long range duel with a Panzer 4 for most of the game.

Eventually the Sherman lost, but it was an interesting fight. Really shows the difference between this game and FoW. Having to observe as part of the shooting process adds an interesting element.

The game ended with YD managing to call in a Stuka strike (a random event caused by him drawing an air strike counter on one of the few times we cause him to take casualties).

The Typhoon is standing in for the Stuka - YD was using a German list from Battlegroup Kursk. We made a bit of a mistake with the way the bomb rules work, but know that for future games. This attack was the last straw for us, and the allies attack broke from all the casualties we had taken.

The infantry casualties didn't seem to be too much of an issue in 15mm. Aided by the morale rules resulting in many of the pinned infantry squads failing morale tests and routing (lifted from the table).

All in all, another good game. Although we got smashed!