France 1940

I had a game with Sylvain last night with his 1940 MicroArmour using the Spearhead rules.  It was a fast play affair of a French counter attack on Rommel's division, the French were toast fast enough that we played it through twice after swapping side.  Sorry no photos were taken.

In round one Sylvain had the french (Char B's, R-39s plus infantry) and I had Rommel (T38s, plus a company of infantry with more T38s off table).  Being a gentleman, he gave me a tactical nuke (sorry Flak88) which basically ate a Char B every turn while I traded panzers for R39s.  When the rivets stopping flying I had tanks left and he didn't, and he lacked the infantry to boot me from the village where I was ensconced.  

And yes Curt, Sylvain attacked with flair and elan.  From what I've seen Campbell's full of BS on this one.  I was led to believe that Sylvain made Kutusov look like Ney, and yet game after game I see bold (and possibly rash) attacks go in.

For round two, we changed sides and Sylvain replaced the Grim Reaper 88 with a battery of PAK37s (which were taken out early by the hull guns on my Char Bs). Sylvain cleverly used the gap in tank ranges (12" for Panzers, 9" for the French) to advantage, slowly retiring as I advanced.   He also got some tanks in a position to hit the soft underbelly (OK weaker side armour) on the Char Bs.  I tried to keep my armour and infantry in step and looked to have a promising attack lined up on the village.   However, I had rolled a Green division for this game and both tank battalions scampered after minimal losses.  Once again we had PBI looking at a village held by better quality troops with armour support and called it.

Micro Armour is like Marmite and you either love it or hate it.  Sylvain falls in the former category, and I tend to fall in the latter.  The vehicles look wonderful close up and he got some very effective paint jobs on them.  However, on the table they all look like blobs of slightly different colours.  I also link to make an attachment to my units, and find it very difficult when I have to squint at close range to identify them!

Rules wise I liked what I saw of Spearhead as a rule set.  And I like the idea of playing at a divisional or brigade level in theory.  However, on the table it always seems more like "Space Invaders" rather than military enactment - as the tanks line up and go bang until one side runs out of tanks and then you pack up and go home.  Oddly enough, it seems like the lower level games like the Bolt Action we played a few weeks back give one a better tactical challenge.