Playing PBI in the West Country
These are photos from 2 competitions, firstly John Graham Leigh's bash, then Portbury as well
There are more games of PBI (Poor Bloody Infantry) from 2006 and 2007 also here.
The first photos are from JGLs comp, and show my WW2 Belgians being attacked by my Early WW2 Germans, as the competition used matched pairs, with both sides bringing 2 armies
The Germans with the awesome firepower of the PzII advance towards a a town held by Belgian HMG teams
The Germans take cover in a downed ME109.
The Superb Belgian Armoured Force of a T13 swings round the town to provide enfilading fire.
Having killed off some Belgians, the Germans sweep into the town (models from Essex Miniatures, pre painted apparently - nice!).
A Belgian counter-attack threatens to overwhelm the Germans !
The Germans are hanging on grimly, with identification made difficult by the way both sides were based the same.
The German reserves move into the cover of the downed fighter. This is about as far as they got overall, as the Belgian counterattack plus the difficulty of shifting the HMGs in the first place made it a bad loss for the Germans
In the second game I got to use some Veteran Russians - in the snow - and overwhelmed some unfortunatel German defenders with a SMG-powered assault in almost the first turn!
Later on, at a different comp, I got to use my "raw" early-war Russians on Portbury's excellent terrain. A bocage-like road bisected the table, and I attacked from the right - in force!
The T34/76's - plus the comedy T60 - swept forward to pour fire onto the strongpoint which was one of our objectives
Waves of Russians were forced forward by their merciless officers as the German MG34's chattered ...
A German artillery strike landed and caused great devastation amongst the
Russian infantry in the open! 
Undaunted the Russians charged onwards supported by their Comedy T35
The small German force were desperate for reinforcements, as they hoped to hang onto the road.
Hiding among the farm buildings the Germans hoped to ambush the T34s.
With huge casualties, the Russians stormed the Strongpoint !
With a mutual destruction in the assault, almost everyone was now dead - and bodies now littered the battlefield, which would be a grave problem as the Russian troops were too scared to go into a place where so many of their comrades had been mown down.
The T34's took out a Hanomag ...
And then turned their firepower onto the ambushing Germans, aided by a Russian sniper.
As the Germans were pinned down by the sniper, the small veteran platoon of tank riders rushed them .. but it was not enough, as time was called before the Russian reinforcements could be thrown into the mincer as well
Next up, the Russians defended a town against fully tooled up German Infantry - and 2 JagdPanthers!
The Germans had some decent cover to advance across...
But the Russians had dug in well, making them hard to dislodge from the small township
Looking for a tactical advantage, a unit of Germans managed to sneak past the Russian lines undetected and unscathed, and opened up on the Desant tank riders from behind!
The Jagdpanthers were leading the assault, and with the Russian tanks off table in reserve, the on-table Russians only had 1941 anti-tank rifles to oppose them (not that effective really)
Aaargh! The Russians are cleared out from the first line of defence!
But elsewhere the power of digging in was counting, as raw infantry huddled in a bunker as German MG34 teams poured fire into their position relentlessly.
The Jagdpanther had taken the first objective, only to find itself, and its supporting infantry, the subject of a maniacal counter-assault by the Russkies!
With the Jagdpanther thrown back, the German advance stumbled upon yet more Russians who presumably had made their way to the front lines via the cellars and through broken walls between the houses
With a heroic effort, Russians launched another assault into the body-strewn objective, no only held by a lone German infantry section! A valiant effort which saw the Russians hang on for an epic - and incredibly bloody - victory
Third Game, this time against Brits
The Russians were again defending, and managed to pin down the plucky Brits with withering fire.
But the British Churchills had no fear, with the Russian tank force again off table as reserves, and they brazenly assaulted the Russian fortifications at close range
Just in the nick of time the Russian Tank Army arrived, yet failed to register a single hit on the Churchills!
A Cheeky PIAT team then crawled through a ploughed field and took down a T34 with an amazing shot!
The Brits had swept the Russians from the left edge of the town - but now reinforcements were being urged forward by their Commissars !
The Russians were stretched incredibly thinly, but British losses had mounted up and the platoon which had broken into the town had now itself been reduced to nothing - the few survivors had fled
A lone AT rifle team were left to fend off the British Left Hook - and, miraculously they managed it, Hanging on by the skin of their teeth, a victory for the Bolshy Bolsheviks !!
Post Match Summary
Dos-vadanya,
Oni pobezhali ih noski i syei?chas ya kak bol'noi? kak popugai? na to, chto bol'shaya reklama dlya igry.
Yesli my smozhem sohranit' etu formu do budem prohodit' bez bileta Top 4 - no eto tol'ko nachalo, i vy mozhete, T zavoevat' titul v avguste, ili s det'mi. nikogda ne budet kritikovat' referi, odnako eto byla odna Shocker segodnya, i nam eto stoilo dorogo.
Bolyee dvuh nogah my byli luchshyei? komandoi? na noch'
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
Blood
Hell - this looks fantastic !
If only I'd have been born in the 20th century, oh man, then Mussolini, Rommel, Montgomery - what shock they would have had!
My armoured divisions would have rolled out of North Afrika, up through Franco's Spain (I'd teach him not to try to play at "neutrality" on the way of course) and then down, OVER the Alps and onto Rome before anyone could react.
I'm told that there was even a tank called the Elefant - what more can you ask for!
Can we play this more often please?
