OPEN DAY 2011

The club Open Day took place in September this year. There was a good turn out of members and visitors who enjoyed the many participation and display games we provided.

Mike W put on a sizeable Arnhem game. The British paras holding out bravely against more and more German assaults.

Simon produced a brilliant chariot arena with 15mm scale chariots.

Justin ran a game of Outrider with post-apocalyptic cars duelling it out on the desert roads of America.

Mike H put on a western gunfight game which required the participants to rescue the locals held hostage in the saloon at the end of Main Street.

Kevin put on a display of his Seven Years War collection at the battle of Poltzig fought between Russia and Prussia.

Connor, Callum & Michael R put on a game of Heroquest - always a popular choice.

Beaky ran a Scifi game where the gallant defenders of humanity fought bravely against the growing hordes of alien bugs.
   

To cap it all off we received a good deal of coverage before and after the event from the local papers, including a number of photographs.

Last but by no means least, thanks to Joan for running the refreshments for another year. We'd never survive the day without her.

 

A BRIDGE TOO FAR

 

Saturday 17th September 2011 - 67 years to the day.

 

Michael W put on an Arnhem game as part of our Open Day.  With various games running it was a good turn out for those that wanted to have a go capturing a Bridge too Far.

The Allied players got off to a good start, with their first two air drops coming in on time and on target. With each drop forming up and marching the eight miles to the prize of the Arnhem road bridge. For the game we used Rapid Fire rules with a variant for the German reinforcement activated by a card system. 

With only a small guard detachment on the bridge and a half strength SS Battalion already on table for the German defenders, the Allied Para’s raced up to the bridge with relative speed on the northern approach. The SS training battalion put down a heavy fire on the Para column approaching from the south and managed to kill all the crews on two of the jeeps and disabled two of the all important six pounder ATG‘s. By turn four the recon jeeps had reached the bridge and formed an overall defence, as well as the bulk of the second battalion who had arrived in force by turn five and bolstered the defence using houses and walls for cover.

The German bridge guard after shooting up the recon jeeps, had taken casualties and as they were poor quality troops failed their moral and had abandoned the bridge leaving it in allied hands.  As the allies had reached the bridge this started the mechanism for the German player to start rolling for German reinforcements which required him to roll a 4-6 on a D6, and if this was successful gained a turn on a card which listed possible German reinforcements and their point of entry.

For the next few turns the German Commander managed only to get a couple of infantry units supported by two A/C’s as well as a mortar and two M/G squads, not much use against elite Para’s who gained a defensive bonus from the hard cover of the buildings.  So it looked like it was going to be a long hard slog for the Germans with only his two A/C’s with any real fire power. Then, on turn nine, the German player got a boost in the shape of a Tiger II and a point of arrival at the other end of the bridge just in the right place to destroy three Para Jeeps and to watch a six pounder shell bounce of his hull from an ATG set up less than 12” away. In the next move the German just rolled over the ATG, destroying it and killing all the crew.

The Tiger then proceeded to the Para held end of the bridge and started to pour HE rounds into the Para held buildings, as well as machine gun fire for good measure.  On the left hand side of Arnhem town the German infantry supported by the A/C’s were doing heavy damage to the Para’s HQ squad, killing six figures in one turn alone.  As the Germans turned the screw from all directions and the Para’s having no ATG’s in working order the Para casualties started to mount at an alarming rate, as more and more Germans reinforcements arrived it was not looking good for the Para’s at all.  By now the members wanted to try out other games during the Open Day, it was decided to call it a day after four hours of good gaming, but alas with history repeating itself.

All in all a very good afternoon’s gaming which a chance to fight a classic battle on its very anniversary.

 

FOR MORE PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE DAY & A BRIDGE TOO FAR

CLICK HERE