Pre-war NQM. The Paprikans invade

Chris provided this week's entertainment. He's moving NQM onto hexes, having previously gone from open to squares. Nicely done hand drawn hexes on the table, I think you'll agree. The scenario was 1934 eastern Europe with Soviet and Fascist proxies facing off (Paprika v Tibia respectively) with the Paprikans invading.

Chris set up a game with Jon F as on-line commander of the invading forces, instructing Tim & Steve, with Phil & me as the defenders. The Paprikans had overwhelming force, so Phil and I would be on our mettle. Alas before we started Jon called in sick, having done his back in whilst wargaming the previous day. Damn, this is a dangerous hobby.

The Paprikans had a lot of kit:

They were coming on from the top of the board, and had to cross the river. They had a few bridge laying elements.

We had slightly fewer troops:

We would obviously need to be cunning in the extreme.

My photo record is incomplete, as is often the case if I'm playing not umpiring.

I was commanding down the right hand end of the table. I started by trying to bomb/shoot up the bridging units. I wasn't too successful at first, and on reflection I should not have allowed this to discourage me, but I did and that rather let the Paprikans get across in droves, as I switched to bombing units that had crossed, rather than concentrating on taking out the bridges.

Phil and I deployed forwards with the infantry on his flank, and then had a mobile reserve to deal with other threats. As they swarmed across the river, the armoured part of the reserve was soon in operation.

My initial attack caught the Paprikan armour on my flank and stalled it.

Alas there was even more enemy armour on Phil's end of the table. Phil had blown the main bridge, but the Paprikan bridging units more than compensated. Phil's infantry put up stiff resistance, backed by the Divisional artillery.

As you can see they're crossing everywhere. 

The sheer weight of numbers was forcing me back. I deployed our infantry reserve to Pico Blanco. We are suffering as we are spread wide and only have one LOG and MEDIC unit between us. They're currently up on Phil's flank, trying to keep him in the game.

Phil is under a lot of pressure from tanks, artillery and cavalry. He's already lost our Divisional artillery.

You'll note that a lot of the Paprikan tanks from earlier have by-passed Phil, and are no longer in the picture. They are heading off to the Tibian capital to knock us out of the war with a single blow.

That was it really. We'd held on for a decent amount of time, but eventually numbers told, and the Paprikans have won round one of this war.