A Walk in the Sand
On April 12 some of the Barn members gathered for another game of French colonial adventure in North Africa. For this scenario the French sent a small force of Inafantry and cavalry with machine gun support to raid a series of Arab villages in the desert. The Arab villagers were not pleased at this prospect. The local townsmen gathered with their weapons and sent out calls for help.
The French force consisted of a company of Legionnaires, a company of Zouaves and a company of Turcos, with a Legion machine gun in support. Cavalry support came in the form of a squadron of Spahis and a mixed squadron of Chasseurs and Spahis. The Arabs started with one unit in each town representing the local tribesmen. Four additional sword or rifle armed Arab infantry units and 3 sword and rifle armed Arab cavalry units were available, representing area tribes sending help. The off board Arabs were able to enter from anywhere except the French edge of the table, and could come on at the Arab players' discretion.
Action started quickly as the French Chasseur squadron charged into the first town. They were greeted by masses of angry Arabs running out of doors, tumbling through windows and jumping off roofs to surround the overconfident French. Another unit of sword armed Arabs charged in from off board to join the fun. When it was over, the two surviving Chasseurs left town as quickly as they had entered and the surviving Arbs took up roof top positions to dare the rest of the French.
The French infantry commander, deciding to be just a little more cautious, lined up his infantry and the machine gun to fire at the Arabs while the Spahi cavalry scouted toward another village. The surviving Chasseurs reovered morale and joined them. The Arabs had taken heavy casualties in the melee, and the French rifles caused enough damage to convince the Arab commander to retreat the survivors to the third town where they could join the defense. French infantry followed quickly and shot down more the the fleeing defenders. Few, if any, made it to their intended destination.
Having successfully pacified the first town and still having most of his force intact, the French commander decided to send his Legion company to join the Spahis and Chasseurs as they advanced to a town on the French right flank. The Turcos, Zouaves and machine gun advanced toward the town directly to their front. Life soon became very interesting for the French, as the oasis was soon full of rifle armed Arabs taking potshots at the Zouaves while screaming Arab cavalry charged in from the flank and soon had most of the force surrounded. Sword wielding Arabs on the right flank, having moved from the town to a nearby oasis, charged and surrounded the Chasseurs, who were definitely having a bad day.
Things pretty much went downhill from there for the French. The Zouaves and machine gun were wiped out. The Turcos did well in repulsing the attack but found themselves facing all the surviving Arabs as well as an additional unit of rifle armed defenders firing from the roof tops. The Turcos wisely decided to march toward the Legion and Spahis in the hope that the combined French force could successfully carry the day. Unfortunately for them Arab infantry was able to get behind them and block the way. Many Turcos wondered if they would ever get the chance to find that recruiter they talked to and tell him what they really thought of him. And his ancestors.
On the French right the Chasseurs fought well enough to inflict casualties on their attackers but the 5 to 1 odds were too great. The sole surviving lieutenant fell back on the tried and true tactic of turning his horse toward base and riding like heck to get back home and file his report first. The Spahis rode into town to clear out surviving defenders but, with some of their infantry support surrounded in the desert and the others too far away to help, the French commander called for retreat. The Arabs had done well but there will probably be more Frenchmen to worry about.
Warbirds Over London
The Battle of Britain
War Department Chief of Staff Daily Digest, 9 September, 1940
Item 1:
Special to the New York Times, 8 September
by Rip Manley, War Correspondent, London Office
September 7, 1940 proved to be a grim day for London and the free world. German bomber raids that have continued unabated since July took a terrible new turn. For weeks attacks have been pounding RAF ground facilities, but yesterday wave after wave of He-111 and Ju-88 bombers soared in high and struck the East end of London, apparently concentrating on the docklands, but with many bombs falling on defenseless civilian houses, schools, hospitals and orphanages in the area. The docks were severely damaged and are still burning; several offloading ships lie sunken at their births. During the long day Londoners caught in the open by the audacious raids watched as badly outnumbered Capt Bing and Lt Martin in their Spitfires and Hurricanes streaked up to meet the Hun.
Disciplined attacks against the enemy bombers proved effective, especially in conjunction with the devastatingly effective heavy ack-ack battery in Hyde Park, by downing over half of the invading He-111s, but at a punishing price. Focusing on the bombers exposed the Brits to attacks by heavily armed twin engine German fighters who dropped down from great height onto their prey. Concentrated cannon fire from the infamous Major Von Doom's Me-110s eventually flamed or forced to retire 3 RAF flyers. Undaunted, the remainder continued to attack until out of ammunition, landed to reload, and flew again and again into the storm.
Just when it seemed the day couldn't get worse, a second wave of Ju-88s of the DoubletimenDanGruppe with Me-109 escorts from the Spinnin' Rich squadron drove in from the south, and the exhausted defenders could do little to stop them. AAA brought down one of the '88s, but the rest added to the conflagration in the docklands and brutally spread death widely amongst the hapless East end residents. Fighter Command appeared to have committed everything it had to the defense, even diverting fighters in from northern sectors, but still many bombers went unchallenged.
How can this little island possibly hold out under such a terrible onslaught? Only time will tell.
Item 2:
Enigma Top Secret: Chief of Staff Eyes Only
Decoded message fragment dated 8 September from the Reichschancellery to all bomber groups, France:
London in flames -- excellent! 40% of attacking bombers lost -- unacceptable. Shoot Gruppenfuerer Unglucklich as an example to all other bomber commanders. Continued losses such as these will not be tolerated. H.
Cold Wars 2008
On March 7, 8 and 9 a few of us made the trek to Lancaster for Cold Wars. Phil and Ron ran the Flames
of War Recon in Force scenario, using early war German and Russian armies. The game was a real slugfest,
with wild swings of fortune that ended in a Russian victory on the tenth turn. Much of the game was played
during the power failure on Saturday night. Fortunately the table was directly under one of the emergency lights
so the gamers kept at it. Pictures and a battle report are in the Dispatches page.
Phil and I were able to play in Bob Bryant's demo of his colonial rules, Clans and Companies. Bob wrote the
Might of Arms ancients rules that we've played for years. His colonials are similar in being clean, quick and easy
to learn, playable from the cheat sheet and giving a good, realistic result in just a few of hours.
The scenario involved a British effort to trap the Boers in a canyon, where the Boers kept horses and supplies.
The Boers were trying to escape the canyon beofre the British could close the trap. Victory conditions were for
the Boers to get 4 of 8 wagons off the board. The British were to prevent that from happening.
The Boers started their movement and swung most of their infantry out to cover both flanks of the wagon train.
One unit stayed with the wagons to provide protection and act as a reserve. Phil took his men back to the horses
and mounted up. The British started moving in from both flanks and an engagement started quickly on the Boer right.
The British took some damage but drove the Boers back by charging.
On the other side of the board the British took advantage of wooded areas to cover their approach while the Boers
took up positions in the trees where they could, or used any handy cover available. Boer marksmanship took a heavy
toll on the redcoats, but the survivors charged here too. This time the Boers stood, only to take very heavy casualties.
One unit ran while the other was reduced to about half strength.
By this time the Boer wagons were close to exiting the board. The final British units marched on and started to close
with the wagons. Phil's mounted Boers moved up to plug the gaps while the Boer infantry covering the wagons moved
out to block the enemy. In the end the Boer marksmanship gave them the advantage. They were able to hold off the
British long enough to get the first 4 wagons off the table and win the game.
All in all I'm looking forward to Bob's rules, especially if he adapts them for the French and Arabs in North Africa. Right
now they reflect the characteristics of the Boer War. They're quick and fun, and give a good feel for the period.
World War II
Hunt for Hampton History
The Battle Barn was invited by the City of Hampton, VA, to help them with their program in highlighting the events of World War II and the part Hampton residents played in the war.
A bunch of us (Joe, Dan, James, Rich, Hugh) went to the
The Normandie Bocage Country
Normandie - The Bocage Country
View of Normadie from the US side
German column moving along the hedgerows
Stalingrad
James lecturing on the fighting on the Eastern Front. (Just for fun we included some Italian troops on the table - Generated a lot of surprize and discussion when people learned an Italian Corps had fought in Russia!)
Some of the "troops" checking out Stalingrad
The Barn's new autonomic, 1-to-1 scale figures for Stalingrad!!
Coral Sea
Dan running his fast play Normady Beach Landing game next to the Coral Sea set-up.
Dan's Normandy Landing Fast-Play game was well received an drew a number of players to the point where it looked as if he was holding a Boy Scout convention.
The displays of the naval ship miniatures, the Stalingrad table and the
The show was pretty nice. There were interesting displays with picturesof old 
All in all a very interesting program!! The Battle Barn was happy to be a part of it and our demo tables seemed to be of interest to most people who attended as we had LOTS of passerby's looking and snapping pictures.
Running the Slot
Victory at Sea in Iron Bottom Sound
The Battle Barn met at the Red Zone in Williamsburg on February 16 and played Victory At Sea. The scenario was "Relief of Guadalcanal"
Rich "You'll never take me out of the Mediterranean" commanded the Japanese fleet and his mission was to escort a convoy of troops
and supplies to Guadalcanal.
The US Fleet was commanded by James "Damn those torpedoes were doomed any way!" The Japanese needed to re-supply the island to win and the US was to stop the enemy fleet.
We played this scenario at Waterloo Minis a few weeks ago and this game could not have gone in a more opposite direction. The first game
was won by the Japanese fleet. Both side lost most of their air forces early and two fleets closed in and shot it out. The USS North
Carolina BB almost won the game for the US but in the end became crippled and grounded on an island while half of the Japanese convoy fleet
sailed past it.
The second game at the Red Zone turned primarily into an air battle, with Destroyers and subs also getting into the action. The Big
Capital ships fired a few volleys but mainly stayed on the out side, except for the Japanese ships which were sunk.
Both Admirals launched air attacks early; the Japanese did little damage, finding the US AAA devastating. The US Naval air power also hit a
heavy AAA barrage but managed to dodge the bullets and struck and sunk a Light and Heavy Cruiser with bombs and torpedoes.
Two Japanese subs then surfaced and struck two destroyers, sinking one of them. James went after the subs with ineffective depth charges. The next turn the sole US sub surfaced and launched forward and aft torpedoes at the Japanese carrier and a Heavy Cruiser; crippling the Japanese cruiser. James then launched a multitude of destroyer torpedoes and finished off the Heavy Cruiser.
Both sides subs kept diving and reloading and attacking and by turn 10 the Japanese Capital ship fleet (2ea Heavy Cruisers, 2ea Lightt Cruisers,
3 of 6 Destroyers) was totally destroyed, while the US had only lost its air arm and 3 destroyers.
The only good news was for the Japanese were her Subs; they were able to cripple the USS Hornet, she came within two hits of being sunk;
and limped to safe seas. Rich was also able to return the whole convoy back to Rabaul unharmed and accompanied by the carrier and the
last 3 destroyers, leaving the emperors defenders on Guadalcanal eating "boot leather."
The Battle Barn 1942 Pacific Naval Campaign is not going well for the Imperial Japanese Navy, One fleet was destroyed at Savo Island and a
second here in "Iron Bottom Sound"
More WW2 naval action is coming. Bring your lifeboats.
3d Annual Flames of War Day
Ft Lee Army Women's Museum
On Jan 19th 2008, the Battle Barn Gamers sponsored the 3rd Annual FoW Day at the United States Army Women’s Museum at
Forces to be played were:
Mid-War 2000pt
No AFV’s or weapons put into operation after 1 Dec 1942 were to be played.
This restriction was on the honor system and players were asked to research their armies for the game. Games were played until a clear victory was achieved (i.e objective captured) or to a 2-1/2 hour time limit. If the time limit was reached without a clear victory, points were awarded based on enemy platoons eliminated in the game.
Prizes were awarded based on the points accrued in the game for victory and other criteria:
Best General for the Victorious Side: Player with the highest point total on the side (Axis or Soviet) that won the most games.
Best General for the Defeated Side: Player with the highest point total on the side (Axis or Soviet) that lost the most games.
Best Armor Commander: Selected by the GM for most aggressive use of armor forces.
Best Forward Air Controller: Player with the highest total successful air attacks in both rounds.
Best Painted Theme Army: Player with the best painted army meeting the theme requirements.
10 tables were set up, most representing the Steppes of Mother Russia, and one table being a CITY Table. Scenarios were the following:
We had 20 players commit to the event. Even with a snowy day in
Players and tables were selected randomly for each round of combat, two rounds were played by each player.
Round 1
The first round was exciting: Young Joe B won the quickest game of the tourney when his German infantry with 2 Tigers in support destroyed Carl's Soviet Armor force in 3 turns!!
Chucks Guard Cavalry was ordered into the City to face off against Joe the Elder's Panzergrenadiers. Joe’s PzIV’s opened with a deadly volley and had Chuck thinking all was lost, but the horses and T-34’s kept pushing and lasted 7 turns even though at the end it was a German Victory.
Keith’s Soviet Armor faced off against Gray’s Italian Infantry and controlled most of the game but the Italians held on and at the very end of the game managed to squeak out a Victory. Viva Italia!!
Gunny Phil took his Soviet Naval force against Gregg's Aufklarungs in a Free-for All. Greg saw a weak point on Phil's left flank and took advantage of it, sending Phil back to the STAVKA to answer for his loss.
Malcolm took his Russian infantry against Rich's Italian infantry in the Trench fight. The Italians withstood a preliminary barrage but reserves were slow in coming and Malcolm broke through the trench lines and broke Italian company motivation on turn 8.
All in all, the Axis won 6 out of the 9 games played in Round 1.
Round 2
Round 2 was just as exciting with the Soviets wanting revenge and seeking blood! Roger’s Strelkovy conscripts took on Tom's Panzer force. It was a beautiful site to see those massed commies charging across the snow into the woods to assault and kill the PanzerIV’s.
Pete and Scott faced off in the LARGE wheat field. Pete’s solo Tiger I proved too much to handle.
Joe the Elder took on Shan’s Soviet infantry and tanks. Joe pushed his Panzergrenadiers aggressively but Shan, recently returned from
JD and Son (Patrick) SS Panzer force tackled Malcolm's infantry. Poor Malcolm had to fight the Trench fight twice!! Malcolm occupied the trenches he had just taken from the Italians without a complaint. A true Soviet Hero!! Unfortunately he soon lost them to the SS Panzers! JD opened up with a devastating preliminary bombardment and Air Support. Hauptbahnfurher JD claims the Luftwaffe let him down in the first round but after a visit and scolding by a senior SS officer they showed up in round two with a vengeance! Limited Air Support arrived in 7 of the 8 turns.
Rob’s Soviet infantry fought the last round against Rich and his Italians. This may have been one of the most intensive fights of the day, with both sides attacking and counter attacking in the snow. The game ended due to time limitations giving Rob a slim victory by points.
The Russians won 5 games of 9 in the second round.
Over all victory for the two rounds went to Axis with 10 Victories to 8 Soviet wins.
Pete Torres won the best Winning General. if you look at the Operations Map kept by the GM, his force struck deep into the Soviets but was cut off by two Soviet Pincer movements; one commanded by Sr. Commissar Shan. Unfortunately neither General Joe nor his command was heard from again until their release from a Siberian Gulag in 1955.
Special note: There were two Italian Armies in the campaign. Gray won both games with his Italian infantry while Rich’s infantry fought hard to the end in both games and, running out of time, only losing by points. Avanti!!!
Awards were given to the following:
1) Best Winning General: Pete T
2) Best Losing General: Shan P
3) Best Armor Commander: Keith S
4) Best Combat Air Controller: JD & Patrick M
5) Best Painted Army: Joe B (the elder) - the next picture shows Joe's prize winning paint job
I want to thank all of the players for participating in the 3rd Annual FoW day at Ft Lee. Thanks also go out to our Local Game Shops: Waterloo Minis, in
