John Corrigan Memorial game 2020 - "Attack on a Prepared Position" - Setup

Right..  enough of this Covid nonsense, time for a return to the table, if only via Skype Zoom..  

As we haven't played "face to face" yet this year, DG and  I have firm plans to meet upon the field of Mars on Friday at 1, for the very much overdue, but not yet too late, '2020 John Corrigan Memorial Game' (which is the the 9th one we've played..)

For this game the period is a given, since the game is in memorial to John (known to the Royal Marines as Lofty C), and he was the one who singlehandedly started me off in the American War of Independence period with the gift of a huge number of ready painted 25mm Minifgs that were surplus to his requirements, but which he thought I'd like, given that I was just starting in the period..  diamond geezer..  he loved to paint, and those little metal men have walked the table many, many, times.. so here's to you, John..

Scenario for this game is a new source for me, "Scenarios For All Ages" by Grant and Asquith, a book I have had many years but not yet dipped in to..  usually I would pick the next one in the One Hour Wargame book, but the scenario there was not particularly suited to this event, and call me on the spectrum if you like, but I want to do them in order rather than pick another! 😀 So this game is scenario #1 - 'Attack on A Prepared Position'..  in summary, a numerically superior attacker is looking to force his way through the defender, who also has a series of hills/ridge as a tactical defence ..

I found this map on the blogosphere/interweb, so feel slightly less guilty about publishing it here, but there is a link above should you want to buy the book, and I recommend you do...  very little of what Grant and Asquith wrote is not worth owning, in fact I can't think of anything..

So the attacker comes on the table from the bottom (south of the A-A line), the defender can deploy anywhere north of the line, including in the woods if he so wishes..

That translates on a 4' x 4' table to the following..  the A-A line for our game is south of the woods..

DG has thrown the bones for us, and will play the American defenders, I will be the Anglo Hessian attacker..

Bring it on..  😀

Other references/games I have found:

• https://balagan.info/tillys-very-bad-day-scenarios-for-all-ages
• https://natholeonsempires.blogspot.com/2017/01/atack-on-prepared-position-honours-of.html

"Duel Under the Stars" - a review..

An interesting departure from the main stream this one - being the autobiography of a German night fighter pilot in WW2 flying Me110's - in fact as the title says more a memoir than an autobiography, since the book deals solely with the authors service in WW2 and we don't learn much else about him. 

Not a long read, it covers his service from the beginning of the war in northern German to the end where his squadron was based in Hungary, and then withdrawn to Germany. 

He is "famous" for having caused a bit of an international incident when he was shot down and had to force land in Switzerland where he and his crew were interned for a week before being exchanged for some British officers...  he mentions that the moment the Gestapo found out he had been interned, his family, and the families of his crew, were imprisoned and questioned...  it took Goering to get Himmler to release them...  nice to know the people at home have got your back!

I hadn't realised up until I read this book what a menace the German night fighters were to the British bomber crews, in the to and fro tussle over technology, these German night fighters at some periods  of the campaign were hugely successful..  Johnen himself reports shooting down sometimes two or three bombers in a single sortie.. you think flak was the main problem for the British crews, but I've changed my view, the constant edge of worry on whether you were being stalked by radar by another plane armed with multiple cannon, including the fearsome Schrage Musik [clicky] (upward firing twin cannons) must have been terrifying..  only the increasing use of night fighter Mosquito's armed with better radar, and speed, saw the end of the Me110 night fighter dominance..

Not a Nazi (or he doesn't come across as one), but clearly a loyal and patriotic officer with not a little skill (he ended up with 34 victories, ranked "ace", and with the Knight's Cross). 

Sobering..  the bravery of  him and his fellow aircraft crew fighting at this time in the face of almost limitless Allied superiority in both material and technology is worthy of huge respect.. worth a read...   Steve the Wargamer rates this one as 8 out of 10..

Johnen's Me110 pictured in Switzerland after his arrest/internment

Reinforcements have arrived...

One of the things I have learned over may years in the hobby is that the painting mojo always returns eventually, and while I still have little desire to go up in the loft again after that extended stay (for work) at the beginning of the year, I've also noticed that there are stirrings in Steve the Wargamers psyche, and I'm beginning to think about pushing the lead again...

So it was, that when an email dropped into the inbox from the excellent fellows at Peter Pig offering me a COVID discount (of great value), who was I to turn down the offer of replenishing the lead pile ready for that moment when the brushes start to fly again?  Even more so as unlike most of my fellow wargaming bloggerati (it would seem) I've never been one for lead piles - I tend to operate like Tesco - "just in time" - so I order enough for a unit and then paint it, and repeat...

In all my years of wargaming - through mojo high's and low's - there's nothing to beat the excitement of the  arrival of a parcel of little metal men (and other stuff) and this one was no different..!

Either way ..  nuff waffling...  these will hit the paint table in the next few weeks/months..

Ooh!

ACW naval reinforcements..  I know I said I had enough, but I quite enjoy this period/game, and I blame Dave Crook [clicky] for giving me the idea to order a few more..   so what we have here is top right, the Commodore Morris (ferryboat) - a double ender (what we call RO-RO these days, proving there's nothing new under the sun) - the USS Fuchsia, a small gunboat (bottom right) - the CSS Governor Moore, a cotton clad paddler (bottom left) and the USS Tyler another paddle steamer (top left). They're all fairly typical and will serve on both sides depending on scenario...

..then some ECW reinforcements - I'm happy to say that in my mind this project is hitting critical mass just a few more units then after that the foot can come off the accelerator pedal..

Cavalry, foot command and pikes.. 

Muskets to go with the pike..  cavalry..  #28 is wounded cavalry - thought they would add a little colour/differentiation to the regular cavalry.. 

More musket..

....and he's only gone and done it...

...so back at the beginning of the month I mentioned I was attempting to do the Cancer Research 300, and as we sit here on the last day of the month I can report with no little satisfaction that I have indeed gone and done it..  most chuffed...

Without  doubt the weather in the first 3 weeks helped, as we've had one of the warmest and sunniest Septembers I can remember in some time, but I still got up off my a*se and cycled at weekends, and while on holiday, in order to keep those averages up...

 

So in the style of the end of season sailing blog review...   here we go...

 

Number of trips on the bike: 24 .. which my handy calculator tells me is an average ride length of 12.9 miles... 

Total distance sailed err cycled:  309.69 miles... a suitable contribution has been made to Cancer Research..

Nights on board: Eh? None - nada - 'nuff'ing.. the bike saddle's cold and uncomfortable..

Crew on occasion: None...the whole ride was solo...  I don't mind, I'm good company.. if I start talking to the ride computer I know I've got a problem.. 

Cruising range: Work place to the west, Lavant to the north, Chichester in the East and Eastney to the south.. about 80-90 square miles..

Biggest Cruise Ride: "The Salterns Way" [clicky] was just shy of 24 miles, and the Lavant circle, incorporating the Centurion Way, at just over 17 miles...

Salterns Way ride..

Best Cruise Ride: The easy stand out winner was the Salterns Way ride, purely for the scenery, the weather, and my first ever trip on the Thorney Ferry...  On the way (and it's all cross country on paths/tracks) I got to see the end of the Chichester canal which dates from 1822 and conceived as part of a secure inland canal route from London to Portsmouth [clicky] the Portsmouth end of which I've seen, and in fact my boats mooring would have been on the route between Portsmouth and Chichester...  it would have been a sight to see in the day, but in fact it fell into dis-use almost immediately as the primary reason for it was the Napoleonic Wars and that had ended by the time the canal went live..

 

Worst cruise ride: The commute home from work the night I came off...  was just coming round a corner into an underpass and came face to face with an approaching rider, slammed the anchors on, and the front wheel went one way and I went the other.. suffice to say I still have the bruises now...

Oddest cruise ride: None really...  a lot of the mileage was BAU/commuting, but as mentioned, given the weather even that was idyllic at times..

Best mooring: A bench overlooking the sea at West Wittering.. warm, sunny, light breeze, and an ice cream..

Worst mooring: Lying on top of my bike in an underpass.. 

Plans going forward: No way I can keep up 300 miles/month as we go into winter months of shorter/colder days.. I do hope to keep up my commuting, and I do hope to keep up the occasional weekend ride..

Cancer Research 300...

You may have noticed in the side bar to the right that I thought I might have a go at the Cancer Research 300 this month..  it's been a surprising amount of fun, more than I expected anyway!..

As of yesterday I've done just over 210 miles, so I still have a couple of rest days in the bank if I need them (30 days in the month, so 10 miles a day to hit target) How have I done it? Well it helps that my work is 9 miles away so there are lots of ways of hitting 10 miles just by cycling one way, and even doubling it if I cycle both ways (which I did last week a couple of times because the weather was superb). For the rest of it, I just jump on the bike and travel off 5 miles and come back a different route..  I've a few days off this week, so am hoping to do the Great Salterns Way [clicky] on one of them..

Nothing formal, haven't signed anything, but I'll make a donation at the end of the month based on how many miles I've done .. I recommend it to anyone, I feel fitter, and it's a mental lift...  if you don't fancy 300, they do a 200 as well, or just set your own stretch target...