The D-Day game held at Pimley Manor.
May I in the first place thank those who came along to enable John’s and mine flight of fancy which was to put on a Bolt Action D-Day game. Those coming allowed us to do the game we wanted to play. We used the Bolt Action rules as those are know by a majority of those that played. They sort of coped with the numbers of players and the situations that arise during the game. Impressive to see the collections of figures, tanks and landing craft that people brought to the game! Noted some had been up the early morning to get everything painted and ready for the game.
John Geary had certainly had a few very late nights slaving over his 3d printer to get those extra special pieces ready for the game. The Pegasus Bridge really made that one table special.
Well with a 09:30 start the allies started the two tables off with the Pegasus Bridge and the joint landings by parachutes after the two batteries behind the beach area. These we
re intense games - the need for speed on the one and taking care not to wake the Germans on the other. With both those games underway the beach landing started. We had a 12’x4’ table with 6 Allies and 2 Germans fighting very hard to achieve their objectives. The Germans did have support from the centre table from the 2 batteries till the guns were silenced by the paratroopers.
Naval bombardment and attacks by the allied aircraft soon made a mess of the troops manning the bunkers and defences and just before lunch the allies cleared the beach. The centre table was not going so well for the allies and Pegasus Bridge being held up with the British taking the Bridge but not taking out the Germans on the other side.
After lunch the allied steam roller started moving quickly across the middle table meet light defensives but not really enough to stop the advance. Naval Bombardment was no longer available though air strikes were continuing but a single case of blue on blue did slow it down as troops on both sides became intermingled!
With the day drawing to a close the allies were being slowed down slightly but the one British armoured column did sprint across the 6’ table and get to Pegasus Bridge to see off the newly arrived German armour which was sat burning on the Bridge. The Americans also had a threat of German armour and infantry just coming onto the table. So as the sun set, the game was given to the allies with the Germans falling back to Caen.
Again thanks to all those who attended and to John who held most of the buzz to set up the tables and keeping the game running. I think there were 15 names in the signing in book. Big thank you to those help rebuild the room after so all back to normal.
'til next time,
Tim Corbett
It's the support we get for events like this that make us one of the best clubs in the country. Well done to those organisers, it was a fantastic day.
I second Dales Comments, Congrats to the Organisers and the hard work put in by many of the Participants that Played in the game. Fun and fair play by those on both sides made this an enjoyable game.
Look forward to playing this possibly next year? . Maybe switching Teams could be intersting option:)