The Second Front

The deadly battle for the outskirts of Nouvion continues!  When we last saw the intrepid defenders, they were attempting to push forward into the German line of advance to blunt their progress.

Despite the presence of the Panzer 38T and the anti tank rifle, the Lorraine transport drove right into the teeth of enemy fire and dropped off the veteran squad into the nearest building, obviously at the direction of the officer nearby!

The German forces now saw the convoy of Laffly transports coming up behind the Lorraine, and the deadly machine gun mounts on each of them...

Each of the transports had to canter to the right in order to take cover behind the buildings and reposition to outflank the tank, Hanomag with its own passengers.  They could only go so far at this point, since the light howitzer had still not been dealt with!

You can see what was waiting for the French troops here.  Not only was there a squad in the half track, another one was waiting in the Opel Blitz.

The howitzer had moved a bit to get out of the line of sight of the heavy French artillery.  This also gave it an improved line of sight to the street, preventing an easy advance by the Laffly transports.

As the light began to fade in Nouvion, the French officer decided that he must gamble anyway, and drove the trucks into the street to pour fire into the waiting howitzer.  Even if it could not be destroyed, they could at least keep the crew cowering behind their gun shield!

The Germans saw their opportunity to counter strike, and attempted to blast the Laffly WTC15 from point blank range!  Apparently auto cannons are designed to be used at much longer ranges, because each shot flew past the very relieved crew of the anti tank truck...

The Panzer 38T and the Opel Blitz moved well into one of the neutral sectors to score victory points and to machine gun the exposed French veteran unit.  A few managed to survive this barrage of fire, however.

The Opel Blitz drove as fast as it could to get past this maelstrom.

PinaPalooza continued, with the French units getting hit multiple times.  However, they were now well ensconced in both the neutral sector and even the German deployment sector.  

The enemy would be forced to kill them outright to tip the balance...

Even the mortar observer joined the march forward!  He could not see past all the advancing French units, so he almost had to move past them.

It was a very unusual method of spotting, as he essentially pointed to the howitzer just yards away and said, "laisse tomber ici, les gars!".

That's "drop it right here, lads!" to you Anglophiles.

As darkness began to fall, deadly hand to hand combat ensued as the Wehrmacht forces attempted to drive the French back.

But there were simply too many targets to remove all at once!  As night fell, the action fell silent, and both sides slipped away to regroup and recover.  For now, Nouvion remains in French hands.  Will it remain so?

Perhaps as daylight returns, new reinforcements on both sides will be thrown into the battle!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we are hoping to make more regular "paint and play" trips to Grognard Games.  We think it will be a mid week thing, where we arrive early to play a game and then paint afterwards.

Once we get that settled, we will announce that on Facebook, etc

First, we have to do Reapercon, which is very close!  We will have Fort Wappel up and running, with plenty of live demos and mayhem!!

A New Battlefield

It's been a very long time since we have been to a game store.  A very long time in fact, close to 2 years!  There are many reasons for that, not the least of which the closest location is at least 45 minutes away in zero traffic.

That's not to say that there are not some very nice locations, such as Games Plus and Draxtar.  Since Cathy needed some new cards for Warhammer AoS Champions, we thought we would make a spontaneous trip to Grognard Games, and pick those up in person!

Lo and behold, a familiar face greeted us at the door, and it was a little like being back at the old GW Battle Bunker!

The layout was even more expansive than the last time we were here, with plenty of tables laid out with a great variety of terrain types.

I had brought along the French and German Bolt Action armies, along with the new buildings for Nouvion, which are still in the process of being finished.  It was really different to be setting up a table for us in a location that wasn't the basement!!

We thought this might be the appropriate time for Cathy's first genuine game of Bolt Action, with a real scenario, and an official army list.  She would take the German forces, since there were so many unfamiliar French units and rules to worry about.

The mission was Sectors, and right away the fixed artillery pieces set up across from one another.  The French seemed particularly interested in the grounded Stuka!

The French deployed an observer in the top floor of one of the buildings.  After so many games set in the Ardennes forest, it was quite different to be working with terrain this "tall".  Also, I had to start getting used to windows again, and just how many things can 'see' out of them.

It didn't take very long for people to start showing up.  In fact, by 6pm, every table had one game system or another in action.  The store remained full until we left not long before close at 10pm.  

It was kinda nice to see that much activity on a regular Wednesday evening that was not Magic related!

While the French had brought in a lot of artillery to guard the 'neutral' sectors, it would really be the German mortar team that would get off the most shots during the game.  Most howitzers and anti-tank rifles spent several turns in Ambush guarding key corridors of advance.

Knowing the Germans had the only tank in the field, the Laffly WTC15 Tank Destroyer waited patiently for its quarry...

However, the Germans did not oblige, and kept the armored car and Panzer 38T well hidden.

The Lorraine transport with its deadly cargo strode right up to the waiting anti-tank rifle and Panzer 38T, dropping them off into a freshly wallpapered building right on the edge of the Axis deployment zone and 3 points!  

It was still quite early yet, so time will tell if they will survive to claim that sector.

I have a how to article on the way to show how I created the wallpaper, so stay tuned for that!

Speaking of staying tuned, the second episode of this first Battle for Nouvion is coming up.  Can the French drive the German invaders from this village?