Last 2 Weeks

I've been back to Lancaster Wargames Club again these last two weeks and played a couple of new rule sets (Exciting!!).

Overview of board

Last week I joined in a 6 player game of Dracula's America. Set in the post American Civil War USA,the basic rules are basically Wild West (we didn't play any undead etc). I'm not sure but it did not seem massively deadly and almost impossible to actually get an outright kill. However I think this may have been due to a misunderstanding with regards save rolls. (We were saving with fails being per hit rather than the amount below the save value).

Left Flank - Nutter running across the street - survived and ran back.

With a lot of these games (this one included) there is an error in the set up of terrain - no one wants to cross the "valley of death" (or street as in this example). So it almost just becomes dice wars.

Having said that the card mechanic by which you drew 4 cards for a turn then bid with your cards for where you were to go in the turn had a good blend of luck and game theory.

This week myself and AE played our first game of Rommel. (Unfortunately I forgot my camera so no pictures). So we felt we could judge the rules correctly we played a scenario which was half based off the Breakthrough mission and a Spearkrieg game we played a few year ago over the Battle of Prokhorovka. Scaled down we played 1st SS Panzer Grenadiers against 52nd Guards Rifle Division.

The game worked well with the Germans having to peel a way through the defensive lines (reinforced by the "Workers to the Front" event. Maybe I wasn't sufficiently aggressive early doors (new game syndrome) and it took a while to get through. Eventually a whole appeared and I was able to widen it out. By turn 15 the aggressive use of Recce, Armour and Armoured Infantry allowed me to take an objective where we called it.

Things we learned:

• Tactics and defences really help to reduce casualties; in reverse the fact that my entire force was motorised meant I could evade to reduce hits against myself. As ops dice disappear and attacks are going in by brute force, combat becomes more deadly.
• If you can lure an attack onto yourself and pinning attack has already been used and surprise attack isn't in effect then withdraw is a really good way to make your opponent burn and waste ops dice.
• Recce units with their free scout turns are really useful (even with a 50% success rate). I had a full battalion of recce as the Germans formed their Recce units as fighting battalions which really helped.
• Always plan for the worst. I attacked a single infantry company with one remaining hit in the open with 3 stands. Missed and I hadn't left enough space to retreat. Up until this point these were my only units destroyed.
• Attacking across the narrow part of the table is grim.
• All in all the rules are simple whilst giving a seemingly historical result. Could be really interesting to battle the whole campaign although we discussed it and think we'll go for an ops sheet per division. The ebb and flow of resetting etc could be absorbing as the various attacking divisions have to pause at different times.

As a side piece I also based Schy'yrk. I'm going to do the rest of Gronne Flamme like this to complete my raiding party for Frostgrave.

Schy'yrk

Canucks vs Green Devils

Last night I got out and played a Spearkrieg Commander game at House Lancaster to introduce DW to the rules. He'd played Black Powder before so knew roughly the command system and we were playing a basic scenario without recce or artillery support.

View from the German lines

3rd Canadian Infantry Brigade were attacking with a Regiment of Churchill IVs in support. In defence were the 2nd Battalion of 1st Fallschirmjager Regiment (with promise of StuG support).

Canadians begin to advance

DW advanced slowly initially as he got to grasps with the rules. As indirect fire was called in and my PaK 40 screen was deployed, casualties were mounting on both sides.

PaK 40 deploys

With no artillery it was a bit of a tough ask to weedle out the dug in Germans until the Canadians whittled them away and managed to get into combat.

Canucks charge in

The 2 lead Canadian Battalions were approaching breaking whilst the German reinforcements were yet to be seen.

Hole smashed through German lines

With the removal of the forces from the hill and the eventual capture of the village sector in the centre (thank you snake eyes in combat), the Canadians pushed on and I was getting nervous. A pair of StuGs arrived but had little impact.

Canadians reach the last village.

Finally the Canadians hit morale - one routed back whilst the other held but it was enough to stop them for now.

A good game with good ebb and flow - I'm going to try and get some more games going. I also really enjoyed the feel of the club - saw some games of Warhammer 40k (and variants) with actual maneuvering going on which was  a major reason I didn't get into it at school. I have a definite reason to get my Bolt Action force finished for a potential tournament. (Anyone got a 750 point concept army for Fallschirmjagers which is historically appropriate?).

Campaign?

I don't have many chances to go down to Lancaster Wargames Club much at the moment so when I do go I want to have a game organised. I also like when a game has repercussions (so games with "growth" like Frostgrave, or where casualties are carried forward) so therefore I'm looking at campaigns. I want to keep it simple and so we can potentially just play a game and it appear to stand alone (so anyone can join in).

So I have 3 plans:

1. Carry on D&D campaign if can get organised with babysitters etc.
2. Build up Frostgrave terrain and play some games with my wonderful (and patient) girlfriend (and anyone else who fancies it).
3. Wargames campaign for WW2 using Flames of War - "Firestorm" campaign system but fighting battles using Spearkrieg Rules.

Fort those who don't know - Flames of War is a points based system (which Spearkrieg is not - focusing on historical scenarios) which works well for this style of campaign. It is therefore very suitable for this style of set battle - win or lose style environment. Spearkrieg battles are often decided before we even start playing - we almost use the system just to confirm hypotheses rather than playing competitively. Any larger battles with cumulative casualties and recovery have usually been quite linear in nature (a single advance axis such as Prokhorovka) or can be played sector by sector as assaults go in one at a time (Stalingrad). As such it may be best to fight out a campaign such as Market Garden where the advance is linear. Otherwise working out a campaign for an assault upon a specific target.

The biggest problem is balancing the forces. A British Rifle Brigade does not equate to a German Panzergrenadier Regiment. One option is to use Blitzkrieg Commander points for historical formations and see how they equate. Alternatively there is a Spearhead points system - though this would have to be modified to take into account different command values.

At the moment my thinking is split - I like the idea of multiple battles taking place over a turn and reinforcements being assigned to sectors (which may be in the wrong place). But I think it would be easier to carry out a linear assault and just have the "campaign" effect being the recording of casualties - eg Set scenarios with results of battles affecting the following ones.

I'll get back to you.

Operation Barbarossa Battle

So for the first time in a long time I went down to Lancaster Wargames Club and made the debut of my German Cavalry with AE. Had a good fun game - tested some hypotheses and met up with people I haven't seen in a while. It was also good to get the models out on tabletop.

Cavalry Regiment Deployed

Although I don't have a battle report I can advise of my findings:

• As expected, cavalry just can't stand up and force its way through formed infantry, but it does seem to have the mobility to exploit gaps (the scenario didn't really allow for this). They are also really susceptible to artillery.

Kradshutzen Arrive to outflank

• Early war Panzer Grenadiers mince their way through Soviet Infantry (only casualties were caused by friendly fire).

Panzer Breakthrough

• Early War Panzers are really glad they have good command - they also can't sit in front of anti-tank guns. They also don't have great guns on them and really rely on the infantry to support them. Having said that they are monstrous when overrunning infantry in the open.

KV-2

• KV-2's are scary when they fire (this one stand blew away 2 Panzer 3 platoons) but are still vulnerable to mass flank/rear fire when unsupported. If the Russians had enough command to get the infantry alongside it I don't know how I could have taken it out. On a side note Panzerjager 1B are actually quite good as tank hunters in early war (Anti-Tank 4)

If I was to play this sort of scenario I would play the cavalry as an exploitation force or mobile flank guard - asking them to break through isn't something they are going to be able to do.

I also would try to move more - my back is killing me this morning and has doubly confirmed to me that I'm not going to be able to play football against Burnley Tornadoes. Having said that I should probably let you know what happened on Sunday! 

Soviet Armour?

So I needed some early war opponents for my Cavalry so I picked up a regiments worth of Russian Infantry to play as counter attackers or desperate defenders! I also got my order of turrets for my German Armour and I decided to spoil myself with some Soviet Armour (Including one of the most ridiculous tanks of WW2).

So first of all I'll start with what you've seen before - another couple of Panzer III Shorts and 2 Panzer III Long. I've got 4 more to do but I've run out of bases :(

Panzer III Long

Panzer III Short

So this will act as either a breakthrough or a reinforcement column to my cavalry force. Want to get a few vehicles (transport) and infantry and eventually build this up into a Panzer Division.

I will start mass painting infantry so I can at least get a battalion and a half on table (with lots of support elements) - again I have a shortage of bases but they at least have some armour support (one platoon of which is just silly).

T26s were (officially) deployed as part of a the Rifle Regiment Divisonal Tank Battalion (4 Stands T26 and 3 stands of T37a as per Spearkrieg). I really like the shading - not so sure about the markings - apparently this is an official paint scheme.

From www.armchairgeneral.com

Finally I keep mentioning the silliness so here you go - a KV2. Pendraken models tend to be two pieces - hull and turret - but this is 3 for the hull and a huge turret. The detail is good especially the road wheels (better than normal to be honest) but as per usual with both of these tanks they are a bit squat.

Monster 152mm Howitzer - in 1941!

Definitely going to fall over - the KV2 could only traverse its turret on flat ground due to the weight of its turret!

Menacing

So due to its serious issues (and not having the stats line in front of me) I'm going to make a couple of special rules for the KV2. First it is Unreliable  meaning that for every move order past the first one there is an additional -1 to command. Secondly it is Restricted due to its issues over the turret movement meaning that instead of having a 180 degree view it has a 90 degree view as below.

So here is the combined supporting armour I have collected for the Russians - not massively rushing to reinforce - most likely to just make a Rifle Division and stop.

Spot the odd one out.

You never know, I might get the infantry painted and a game sorted out!

British Paratroopers and Canadian Infantry

So here are my WW2 Paratroopers and Canadian Infantry - based upon 1st British Airbourne and 3rd Canadian infantry Respectively.

The support elements are interchangeable (at the moment)as I don't have enough for both - eventually I intend to have enough to field both divisions concurrently but at the moment either my Canadians represent the Air Landing (Glider) Brigade or the Paras represent standard infantry.

British/Commonwealth Forces

I had organised my Parachute Battalions as having 4 companies each as per standard infantry however I now believe that the Paras only had 3 companies per battalion. I will leave this as is until I get the other parachute brigade - this also means that I can use them for standard infantry in the meanwhile.

1st Parachute Brigade

1st Parachute Battalion

2nd Parachute Battalion - Lt. Col. John (Anthony Hopkins)  Frost Commanding

3rd Parachute Battalion

I have played around with a few rule variants for these in terms of the drops but haven't finalised as yet - once I do I will post them. For our Spearkrieg rules, I count the Paras as SMG armed Rifles - so 5 attack at 3" - 4 attack at 6".

Canadian Infantry Brigade (Probably 7th)

In various states of basing, the uniforms of the Canadians are identical to British Infantry but greener. I have enough left to field at least one more brigade, maybe more and I will complete the Division eventually.

Brigade HQ Stands

The equivalent of Regimental commands in other armies.

Engineer Squadrons

British (Commonwealth) forces are not the easiest to work out what is what interchanging regiment, battalion, brigade, company and squadron for various different units. I then have numerous support elements which can be attached to either.

Heavy Machine Guns

6 pdr Anti Tank Guns

17 pdr Anti Tank Guns

Then a few purely for my Paratroopers. I have some artillery support as well as some jeeps complete with appropriate berets. To represent the transport I have scratch built some gliders out of matchsticks.

Pack 75mm Howitzers. Not a massive punch but can't fit much in a glider.

Airbourne Jeeps

"This signpost looks funny sir!"

So that is it so far, I hope to be able to field both of these as division sized forces separately and in unfinished models I'm a good chunk of the way.

British Armour!

Again had these painted for a while but finally got round to posting these. Got another squadron of Churchills but haven't finished basing them along with a Crocodile.

British Heavy Armour

I've organised the formation into a regiment of 3 squadrons - 3 Churchill Mk7s and 1 Mk8 to each squadron. As with all my WW2 forces, they are Pendraken - lovely models but if I ever do an actual armoured formation (Panzer Division etc)  I would probably use Skytrex miniatures - cost a lot less and don't take up quite such a large amount of space on the table - these are BIG models.

Regimental HQ

Not quite sure how often I'll use this stand - usual practice was to split the squadrons in a supporting role amongst attacking Infantry Divisions.

I may redo the names on the sides of the tank as it was originally done with acrylic and has badly rubbed so the names are unreadable. The individual squadrons have the squadron markings in yellow on the turrets - circles, squares (and triangles).

Side View

I also have (as part of Canadian Infantry Division) a couple of M10 Tank Destroyers. Eventually, I will post the division in full once its completed.

I'm not overly impressed with these - no crews and less detail than I have seen on others. However they are more than adequate and when I'm fielding 3rd Canadian Infantry they won't have much armour to be compared to.

Coming Up: I've got my British and Canadian Infantry to post and I'm still musing over Game of Thrones - working title is currently Stag Rampant.

Late World War 2 German

So, these aren't new models but I want to find out exactly what I've got and organise it. So here in part 1 is the rest of my German Infantry forces, this time late war.

3 Rifle Regiments

First up, a full strength Fallschirmjager Regiment with additional support elements. These were really fun to paint (if a bit fiddly).

1st Battalion

The paint scheme was (something like); Grey helmet, dark green trousers, light green smock with dark green and brown camouflage. As I said bit fiddly but a bit of a break from the mundane. (Hopefully DPM should work similarly).

Regimental HQ

As per usual I made the antennae with spare paint brush hairs. Might upgrade to steel bars if I ever get the urge.

2nd Battalion

3rd Battalion

I've seen various orbats so excluding the battalion 8cm Mortars, I have kept the assets separate. 

120cm Mortars

Pak 40 7.5cm Anti Tank Guns

15cm Infantry Guns

10.5cm Artillery with FOO

Also available are some Corps assets. With some of these I've played around with the basing a bit (especially to protect StuG barrels).

Flak 36 8.8cm Anti Aircraft

StuH '42

StuG III

StuG III

Also I have a significantly understrength Infantry Regiment with minimal assets. These were bought for games in Netherlands when the German Army was putting anything into the line to hold the gap.

I will flock these at some point, and the Pak 40 (from Skytrex) will probably be upgraded.