A Fistful of Games

Thinking back, I realize that I have actually managed to play a few games these past months

I've played twice with Dan's Xenos Rampant project, featuring heavily converted GW dwarfs and night goblins on a desert planet.

Space Marine landspeeder converted into a recce vehicle 

Night Goblins with rayguns and a rocket launcher 

Bren Carrier turned into a Night Goblin light recce vehicle 

He's got both sides up to around 80 points now. We noticed all the vehicles became bullet magnets. I played dwarfs first time out snd goblins second time. The goblins have won both times. 

On Canada Day,  Scott came over and we pitted my Bavarians against his Austrians in some General d'Armee. But between checking on each other's health, discussing the world and life, and looking up the rules because we haven't played since last year, it was mostly a visit with moving a few figures around. 

My musketry drove back one of his Fusilier battalions,  but in the last turn, his artillery fire dispersed one of my Fusilier battalions, so I guess he won.

Then on the rainy Sunday afternoon after Canada Day, I went over to Dick's to join some good chaps for a big, old school, game of Rapid Fire Reloaded in 1/72nd scale. 

I haven't been to Dick's play room since before Covid. So here are some pictures to remind you. Dick is from the toy soldier end of the hobby. He has 1000s of big plastic figures set up on shelves in very busy set piece vignettes all around the room.

Several hundreds of Romans and Greeks face off. We played our game at the far end 

 Couches and an audio visual system for movie nights 

The scenario that we played was the German airborne assault on  Maleme airfield in Crete, 1941.

Dick and I had to defend the airfield on the left and the big hill (Hill 107) on the right. 2nd New Zealand battalion was on the hill back right. 1st NZ had Bn HQ and A Coy on Hill 107. C Coy in the town center.  B and D Coy in the olive groves covering the bridge. The Germans landed one battalion by glider in the dry river foreground and a battalion by parachute back left corner 

Shots of Ray's set up

Lots of walled olive groves

2nd NZ Bn dug in

My Bn HQ and 3" mortars among the vinyards on Hill 107

Glider assault lands reasonably well, but runs into fire from two infantry coys and the airfield defense detachment 

C Coy with tank support moves out to attack the DZ

Cretan Partisans size German weapons

Slaughtering German paratroopers trying to get to their weapons canisters 

Squeezing the German paratroopers covering in the olive grove and orchard 

The Bofors gun at the corner of the airfield put down a lot of fire on the glider battalion. We also shot down a Stuka!

I do love a bit of caunter 

It was a pretty decisive Allied victory. The glider battalion was shot to ribbons with about 75% casualties. The parachute battalion was trying to extract itself from the crossfire it was in, suffering 75% casualties as well as being surrounded on 3 sides. Allied reinforcements were coming in on the side they could retreat to. A third German battalion had arrived at the bridge but was stalled in the dry river, facing barbed wire and relatively untouched New Zealanders, supported by a troop of Matilda tanks. Dick and I had only lost two stands of infantry. So Crete was saved and the war probably shortened by a year.

Rapid Fire Reloaded is an interesting rule set. I've never played Rapid Fire! before. It gave me a wonderful nostalgic experience. I wish I'd found these rules when I was younger and still had all my Airfix figures.

So a pretty decent holiday weekend; saw some friends, played two games, and knocked out a couple of units from the painting pile.

Hard to complain, really.