Bussaco

My plan seemed straightforward yet flexible:

But then my plan made contact with the enemy:

Daniel not only decided to garrison St Antonio, he also deployed his cavalry well forward, down off the ridge. Not your typical Wellingtonian deployment!

He even had an entire infantry brigade down in the valley, supporting the garrison:

Oh well - fight fire with fire!

I slightly outnumbered his heavies - but the British are very well mounted, with a melee of 6 against my nag's 5...

So it was pretty much an even fight...

Honours were even after the first clash:

Meanwhile the single brigade attacking the village somehow became an entire division...

We saw off the Scots Greys...

But then the Royal Dragoons counterattacked...

After much charging and counter charging I was left with one regiment out of four!

But they tried to wipe out the remnants of the British heavies - a charge too far!

Meanwhile the village had fallen...

But my attack on the ridge was now well behind schedule, held up not only by the British heavy but the Light Brigade on the far flank too!

As twilight descended I took stock - I had defeated two British brigades but Daniel had defeated five of mine, and I had not even begun to threaten the ridge. The key to Portugal remained in Allied hands!

Operation DANUBE

 

As a child I remember reading Viktor Suvorov's The Liberators about the Soviet invasion of Czechosolvakia. But it was Daniel who suggested it might be fun to do a Warsaw Pact 'red on red' game - two horde armies duking it out... 

Although 'horde army' is relative - compared to the WW2 museum collection the Czech's had, the Soviet T-54s and IS-7s seem relatively cutting edge! Despite both sides having 100 points, I was particularly confident that resistance to Soviet Power would be futile!

The Flanking Move mission was selected at random but well reflected the invading Soviets coming in from all points of the compass.

Reserves would be Scattered and Delayed, further adding to the chaos!

Not really reflecting the history though, the Czech team, Daniel and Peter, rolled to be the attacker and to move first!

The table was set up to reflect semi rural eastern Europe with a good road net.

Both sides used their recce platoons...

To open out their deployment zones:

Karl Marx Platz had never known so many tanks - has May Day come early?

Despite only having four units, I deployed to be able to take all three objectives early. 

In some ways the ratcheting point system discourages concentration of effort, but I have learnt that with Clash of Steel it pays to get points on the clock early doors!

Whereas the Czech counter revolutionary fascist running dogs seemed to be focusing just on Objective 3 in the outskirts of town - probably pandering to spoilt bourgeois student activist layabouts from the local Uni...

The ensuing combat was short, intense...

But as we know, resistance to Soviet Power is always futile!

There were also sporadic spots of fascist revisionism elsewhere in the area:

But nothing to seriously trouble the mighty Iosif Stalin 7s!

I will say this for the bourgeoisie though - the local ringleader had a smile on his face even as he was stood against the wall to recieve the People's justice!

Once again Clash of Steel delivered a fast paced and intriguing mission, which, if a little unbalanced (all together now: Resistance to Soviet Power is Futile!) was a interesting change from East - West match ups!