Blitzkrieg Commander II Intro Game

In a special introductory game, three players new to Blitzkrieg Commander II and three experienced but not recently players gathered to get sand in our shoes.  Set as a early 1943 game, we had roughly 4000 points of Germans and Italians against British.  You can read the remarks of Der Alte Fritz on his blog here.  The game was set with four turns of recon so the Germans and Italians dutifully drove armored cars on table looking for trouble.

BKCII uses 2d6 to activate formations and was significantly modified to accommodate our tastes for the game.  Who wants to see their pretty toys just sit and do nothing?  The game was played lengthwise on a 16x6' table.

Such a peaceful arena as the recon drives on table.

My AB-41 armored cars with German SdKfz 222s in the distance.

We engage in a lively duel with Marmon-Herrington armoured cars.

 We had three full turns of recon work, then on the fourth turn each side drove their heavy units on table.  Heavy being a comparative term for the Italians.

Now that's a heavy!  A Tiger heads some Mk. III tanks.

We used dust clouds till spotted.  In this case a formation of M14
tanks followed by Semovente self-propelled guns.

The Germans waste no time coming into action.

Initially things seemed to go our way.  The British armoured cars had to give up ground in the face of all the armor, we didn't find any ambushes, and the Germans started exacting a heavy toll right away.  At first it seemed we were "just" facing Crusader III tanks with 6 pdrs as their main gun.

My M14s were willing to fight Crusaders till the Grants showed
up.  Time to play "chase me, chase me."

Oops.  After some poor shooting on my part and some average to slightly better by the British I could do the math.  Twelve shots to twenty-four, with them having a better gun and needing more hits to kill.  So the Italians beat a hasty retreat back to nearly their starting positions.

Grants seem to be particularly nasty in BKC II.

More Germans I hope.

Back at one of the starting ridges.

 Much like the back and forth movements of Rommel and his adversaries across Africa, so too our forces went forward and back over the same ridges all day.

The Crusaders advance ahead of the Grants while on the other
flank more are being shot to pieces by the Tiger and company.

Too ambitious in the end, engaging without the Grants.  All the
Crusaders are quickly burning.

 I joked about drawing them onto our line of anti-tank guns, not really knowing what was in the German arsenal.  As it turns out I was right.  A pair of 88s and the panzers made short work of the Crusaders, even though they were in a good hull-down position.

You can see the reorganized Italians and formidable array of Germans.

A Stuka appeared and help take out part of the other Crusader batch.

Some Hurricanes returned the favor, I think killing a panzer.

With the Crusaders eliminated the Germans and Italians begin
to pursue.  Germans aided by their superior command ratings
pull ahead.

Over the top boys, charge!

My might Falco CR-42 finally puts in an appearance.

And is promptly shot down.  Can truck mounted Bofors really
fire on the move?

A nasty surprise awaits us.

And promptly takes out a panzer company.

Being smarter than the average rabbit, my Semoventes use the
depression and move to town and our exit path.

So much wreckage strewn across the field.

Axis players are Jim, John and myself; British players Bob, Bill
and Keith.

The Axis mission was to exit along the road next to town (away from the Italians).  At point we wondered, "where did the Tiger go?"  Slipped off table with its escorting Panzers.  So with most of the British armour destroyed and our tanks moved or moving off table, an Axis victory was declared.

There are things about Blitzkrieg Commander that I really like and other aspects that are beyond goofy.  We'll keep tinkering with it and see if something can be created that play to the system strengths and minimize the impact of weaknesses.  So we'll just have to play more often!