Old School Cool

We had our first look at the Never Mind the Billhooks rules this week when Stu brought over his venerable Dixon Samurai for an outing.

They required a quick dust as most of them hadn't seen action for many a year but the Dixon miniatures are full of character so even being over 30 years old didn't detract from the spectacle.

We managed to grope our way through a few turns and probably got some rules wrong, I especially want to go through the morale rules again, but overall I think we got the gist of the game. 

Armies are divided up into wards each of which is led by a commander who has a card put into the activation deck. As their card is drawn they can order the units under their command to act, either moving (sometimes into combat) shooting, or rallying.

By the time lunch came around the home team had the advantage due to some brittle morale on the visiting teams side.

Fox & The Rat: Day 6, The Face of Chaos

Capt. Rohrstock had heard about the failed attack on the airfield and as the Stukas passed overhead he was glad the guards had done their duty and kept his air support operational. This time his attacking force was spared a bombardment from the enemy guns so perhaps Gruber's raid had gone well.

The days after a breakthrough where always chaotic and he hoped to capitalise on this to push further into the enemies rear. Though the enemy was not completely out of the fight and was rushing reinforcements forwards Rohrstock hoped to brush them aside. A walled building dominated the centre of the battlefield and he'd tasked No. 3 section with it's '251 to mount a lightning advance which the rest of the platoon would then support.

No sooner had the half-track pulled out of cover then disaster struck! Rohrstock was not sure how they'd missed the massive British tank but they had, it's guns let loose and one of the shells struck the '251 bursting it into flames. The rest of the platoon could only look on in horror as the survivors bailed out of the burning wreck. Half the men did not make it out.

As Rohrstock cursed the setback his own armoured support put in an appearance with the Panzer III appearing from behind a sand dune to put a shell into the M3, causing it in return to brew up.

Whilst the exchange of tank fire had been taking place the Sikh's had pushed up vigorously and instead of the planned German occupation of the strong points it was instead they that had seized the ground and the initiaitive.

Despite the setback Rohrstock was pleased to see his men stick to their task, whilst not willing to advance across the open they didn't fall back either and instead opened a withering fire upon the Commonwealth troops which was supported by the now unopposed Panzer III. The section nearest him was taking the brunt of the enemy fire but his presence helped calm the men and keep them in the fight. 

With fire pouring into their positions Rohrstock good see the enemy visibly start to wilt and then the only return firing was coming from a mortar far behind the enemies lines, otherwise the Sikh's had been forced to keep their heads down and their spirit to fight was broken.

As night fell all the Germans could here was the sound of feet running back into the night as the enemy beat a swift retreat.

Fox & The Rat: Day 5 Battle 2 - The Guns

Sgt. Klinkerhoffen had read a British poem written during the Great War which put him in mind of this mission.

The German Guns

Boom, boom, boom, boom,
Boom, boom, boom,
Boom, boom. Boom, boom,
Boom, boom, boom.

Whilst the British private who'd penned the poem was commenting on the German guns it was the British artillery which was the focus of Klinkerhoffen's mission.

Ahead through the silent desert lay the British lines and an artillery position that had been causing so much trouble to the main DAK force. The mission as laid out by Lt. Gruber was simple, destroy the guns and any ammunition reserves and then escape with their lives.

Gruber had picked a small team for this mission hoping that stealth would allow them to breach the enemy camp rather than brute force. So along with Klinkerhoffen (who also carried demo charges) Gruber had brought along Pvt. Schafer with his sniper rifle and Pvt's Geerhart and Grosse with the MG42.

The plan was simple, the privates would remain outside the camp and provide covering fire if the alarm was raised whilst Gruber and Klinkerhoffen would attempt to destroy one gun each and then look towards the ammo carrier.

Klinkerhoffen lead off whilst the Lieutenant arranged the position of the covering forces and he quickly penetrated the enemy lines near an unoccupied pill box. As a sentry wandered past oblivious of his presence he dashed forwards and killed him with his knife. Looking around no one else was in sight so he dragged the body back towards the deep shadows around the pill box. 

By this point Gruber had the other men in position and was starting his own approach to the enemy lines hoping to make use of the gap in the patron route.

Then disaster!

For some unknown reason and at some undetected signal the guards switched their patrol direction. So rather than advancing into a gap instead the enemy started to move back towards the men at the edge of the camp.

As Klinkerhoffen crept towards the first gun an enemy dog patrol moved closer and closer to the main force until Schafer was forced to fire. Normally a reliable shot under pressure this time the bullet went wide and instead of the enemy dropping dead the alarm was raised.

Suddenly the enemy camp was alive with shouting and reinforcements being awaken and dashing to the front. Despite the pandemonium Klinkerhoffen kept steady and managed to set a charge on the first gun before backing off behind some sandbags.

The rest of the squad had however gotten bogged down in an exchange of fire firstly with a patrolling Tommy and then Gruber came under heavy but inaccurate fire from a British Officer. Their cover was well and truly blown. 

With British reinforcements flooding the area and no chance of reaching the second gun Gruber called off the attack and Klinkerhoffen who had still remained undetected withdrew from deep in the enemy camp whilst the others covered him.

Overall the mission had not been a success but with no casualties or prisoners taken at least the squad lived on to fight another night.