Ardennes Day

[martin goddard]

Well that was good. I will post pictures tomorrow!

[Smiley Miley 66]

A very good Enjoyable and long day. Hope we can do something like that again.

[Stewart 46A]

Big thank you to Mike for organising it all. I would have posted earlier but I was a typing a bit slow.

[Smiley Miley 66]

So what is next ? Russian v Germans ?  Mid-war or Late war ? Any other suggestions ?
Then maybe we haven't got to Rush everything

[Sean Clark]

Fair to say that yesterday was fantastic fun. A visual spectacle. I was lucky enough to come away with some stunning scenery thanks to Duncan.

The game was great. Chaotic is another word to use. You just had no.idea what was occurring around you other than what was happening directly in front of you.  Despite my best efforts as the Allied 2iC, the Allied pulled off victory with a last gasp defence of Stavelot (?)

Well done to all but especially Mike. I hereby award you an OPE....Order of the Piggie Empire. Well done!

[Smiley Miley 66]

We lost because one of my commanders left a fuel dump in manned. Oh well all is fair in love and war !

[Smiley Miley 66]

Who has pictures ? As I was trying to get my head round everything yesterday,and getting pulled from one side of the table to the other; never had a chance to take any pictures.

[martin goddard]

"i lost became the German people let me down"

[DorchesterBede]

I thought it was all Stewart's fault! A great day well organised by Mike with a lot of input from Les and great scenery produced by Duncan. I did my best, sacrificing three veteran American companies - if only Stewart were a bit quicker it could have been another story.

Chris

[Stewart 46A]

Yes, all my fault, I need to play faster!

[Colonel Kilgore]

I'd like to add my thanks to all who made yesterday's extravaganza possible: Duncan for the wonderful scenery [and for doing all the washing-up at the end]; all those who generously contributed their figures and vehicles (with some wonderful paint jobs among them) for others to use; our glorious commanders - Les and Miles; the "supporting" referees - Rob and Martin; and of course Big Mike for thinking up and organising the whole shebang. A huge amount of planning; organising and general cat-herding clearly went into this event (including making sure we all got a slap-up meal at the pub, even though Mike himself was staying behind to plan Day 2).

It was great to see so many players come together across this single (albeit rather large) table, and realise how well PBI worked on such a large scale - and with different speeds of playing - even if each sector was probably playing slightly different versions of the core rules! 

[Colonel Kilgore]

Some photos from Day 1:

a) the calm before the storm (the battlefield was deemed continuous between the two lines of tables, with the break in the middle purely for ease of access):



b) a patrolling Typhoon fighter-bomber over the snow-covered forest:



c) left-flank startline:



d) Turn 2 on the far left flank:



e) Another angle on the left flank surge:

[Colonel Kilgore]

Some "Day 2" [actually, just after lunch] shots:

a) the assault on the left-flank town, with the main thrust from the right and an off-table flank attack arriving in the bottom right-hand corner:



b) Panthers break through to the far edge of the second table, while engineers guard a fuel dump in the background:



c) sneaky Germans driving captured American armour;

[Colonel Kilgore]

And finally (from me - I think Martin, Sean and Big Mike were all busy taking photos too):

a) a shot with lots of Duncan's snowy forest and scratch-built buildings / fuel dump + Mike's very nice fuel dump markers in grey on the far right:



b) the rather lovely prize - by Miles, I think? - won by the Allies:

[Wardy64]

Wow, looking like a great day. Well done chaps.

Wardy