April 9th 1940

Some time in March I suddenly realised that our first club meeting would be on the 9th of April, the anniversary of the Nazi invasion of Denmark in 1940.

Having “invested” in a platoon of 28mm Danes from Great Escape Games I really didn’t want to miss the opportunity and so I put on a game based around a skirmish that took place near Hokkerup on the Jutland peninsula.

The encounter we were commemorating, the ambush of a leading German reconnaissance unit, was captured in a 1946 painting by Anna Maria Mehrn which was, in part, the inspiration for choosing this particular scenario along with a scene (likely inspired by this engagement) from the Danish movie 9. april.

The Danish army went on full alert at 13:30 on the 8th of April and were held back ready to take up positions in the event of a German invasion. A thorough reconnaissance had been made regarding defensive positions but the Danish government had given strict instructions that units were not to be deployed near the border nor was digging or other fortification to be undertaken in order to avoid provoking the Germans. Despite this the Germans crossed the border at around twenty past four on the morning of the 9th. 

Our intrepid 3rd bicycle platoon of the 2nd Company, 4th Cyclist Battalion supported by the autocannon and light machine gun sections of the 2nd platoon Afværgekompagniet (Anti-tank Company) , 2nd Battalion, Fodfolkspionerkommandoet set off from their barracks at just after four thirty and took up positions just after 5am.

They hastily erected a roadblock before sighting the armoured cars leading the German column at half past five. Lieutenant H.J. Højerslev had overall command with Second Lieutenant A. Olsen commanding the anti-tank sections.

The team manning the 20mm auto cannon was led by F Jensen accompanied Gunner Nørholt and Loader Eliasen as immortalised in the painting.

The opposition is less well documented so I had them facing two SdKfz 222 armoured cars, a motorcycle section and two more sections mounted in SdKfz 251 half-tracks supported by a Panzer II.

I used the Nuts! second edition rules from Two Hour Wargames for the game.

The encounter saw the Danish auto cannon taking out both of the armour cars and the advancing German infantry taking heavy fire. In the end the Danes were forced to withdraw but they had delayed the Germans significantly.

In the end the game lasted almost as long as the entire Danish resistance as despite the valiant defence put up by the Danish armed forces against overwhelming odds the Government surrendered at just after half past eight in the morning.

Sails of Glory

At the last club meeting I ran a couple of scenarios to introduce two new players to Sails of Glory.  The first scenario was from the historical scenario book - Combat, finally! off Vigo, Spain.

The scenario sees HMS Bellona accompanied by a frigate, after months of uneventful patrolling meeting a small group of French ships leading to an immediate engagement.  The second scenario was more of a pick up affair using the ships from the base game box.  Here are a few photos from them:

Battle of Edington 878

A few weeks ago I popped up to the Herts Volunteers for a Dark Ages game.

This was a large affair based on the Battle of Edington between Alfred the Great leading the army of Wessex against Guthrum leading the Great Heathen army.

The rules used were Hail Caesar with a few minor mods from the relevant supplement.

My command was on the far right of the Danish line which, unfortunately, doesn’t appear in the first photo below (doh!).

Galactic Heroes - Star Wars

I really can't recall what drove me to put on these games at the club but I suspect it was probably a combination of rediscovering my Wizards of the Coast Star Wars Miniatures figures combined with a desire to try out the Galactic Heroes rules from the Fistful of Lead family by Wiley Games.

Fortunately the rules have a number of examples clearly inspired by the Star Wars franchise - which was helpful given the limitations of the range of figures in my collection.

I decided on two linked scenarios, the first based around a crashed ship with the Rebels trying to prevent the Imperials from recovering the pilot and any information relating to the location of the rebel base.

Scenario 1 - Search and Recover

In the end the Rebels failed to either rescue the pilot (he was a casualty of the encounter) and some clues to the location of the Rebel base fell into the hands of the Imperials.  It did at least give the Rebels the chance to prepare for the inevitable assault on their base.

Scenario 2 - The Rebel Base

6mm War of Spanish Succession

One of the chaps from the club is keen on the War of Spanish Succession, so much so he has developed his own ruleset for it - designed particularly for his impressive 6mm collection.

Here are a couple of photos from the game: