My Mini Wars

January SNS: FOW 15mm, 1945

2012-01-15T12:37:00.000-08:00

Three 6 x 4 tables. Chris laid out the great terrain per Gary R's instructions.

Our January SNS group game started at 2pm on the 14th. Gary Rhay set up a "what if" 1945 scenario for FOW, where the US and Soviet troops come together to cut German rail lines and grab vital European art on the tracks. In the layout pictured above, Germans on the left, allies on the right.

German infantry defend the rail line on their right flank as a convoy moves along the rails.

I could only be there for the beginning of the game, so I still haven't heard the outcome. Kevin brought some visitors to the game, I hope they had a fun time being introduced to historical gaming with our group.

Panzer IVH tanks protect the FO on the hill.

No doubt about it, FOW remains the favorite game in our group for WW2 combat. However, it's not the only WW2 game we play. I'm a sucker for WW2 games. Recently Jeff G and I have been learning to play "I Ain't Been Shot, Mum" by the TooFatLardies group, in 28mm. Several of us, and Chris at GAJO, play "Rapid Fire" in 15mm, and several in the group and I love playing "BlitzKreig Commander" in micro-armor.

US armor on the allied left flank deploying.

More US armor in the allied center.

Soviet armor on the allied right.

The German left is dug in. German armor reserve in the back, at their center.

Soviet T-34/85s roll forward. Models are from Quality Castings.

German 105's knock out an SU-122. Russians move forward.

Kevin directs his US armor to advance in the center.

Starting 2012 Right- with game pics

2012-01-02T05:49:00.000-08:00

15mm ACW, "Firebell in the Night"

The new year means New Years' Resolutions, and I'll have to make a good beginning this year to make up for the lack of posts in 2011. To start this year off right, I thought I'd post some pictures from games from the last 4 months. Most of these pics will deal with some of the smaller games our SNS club has played, with some from the WFHGS group thrown in as well. Some of our BIG games are posted in the Big Game section of GAJO's website.

Starting with the picture above, the WFHGS group had the privilege of being a test group for Tod Kershcner and Dale Wood's new ACW rules set, "A Firebell in the Night." We tested several games using these rules, and Matt sent in battle reports, rules questions, and change recommendations. The game is brigade-based, requires unit rosters, and has some unique rules added for supply and command.

Confederate attacks have driven a Union brigade to the river. The Yanks rallied at the last moment and successfully countercharged the Rebs.

Overall, our group felt the the new rules, as they stood in testing, did not pass the need to be better than Fire and Fury, a popular and successful ACW rules set. We weren't sure why the authors felt the market could take another brigade-based ACW set without some sort of significant difference that made it more fun than what was already out there. The command and supply rules had significant deficiencies, but those could be corrected. We also did not enjoy the paperwork required by unit rosters. Certainly there is only a small faction of wargamers who accept paperwork for ACW.

10mm. Assyrian chariots crush Egyptian foot.

One of the favorite rules sets for the WFHGS group is Warmaster Ancients in 10mm. Several games were played in 2012. Matt has a growing collection of ancient Indians and Saracens in 10mm. I think he's up to 2000 points now for the Indians, so we should soon enjoy a massive Seleucid-Indian confrontation. The Crusades also grows, as Gary increases his Norman options to include the Crusades, and Matt paints more and more Saracens. The club goal is to have enough Crusade figures to do a campaign including sieges.

You can read about recent WFHGS activities at Matt's website, http://www.wfhgs.com. Don't forget to download the PDF issues of "Warning Order" the on-line magazine that Matt publishes.

15mm. Arab armies assault Israeli positions in 1973.

SNS gamers enjoy modern armor action when we can plan it. This time the scenario and most of the figures were provided by Bart Woods and the guys in the NUTS game group, with additional reinforcements from Russ and Dennis who have quite a collection themselves. This armor fest was unusual in that we used a modified set of Flames of War to portray modern combat. I have to admit, it went very well, and everyone enjoyed the game. I think we'll be doing more of this in 2012. In fact I can guarantee it.

Our SNS gamers have been enthralled with large battles of DBR (De Bellis Renationis) and scenarios from the 30 Years War. I don't have pictures of these slugfests, but Craig does on the GAJO store website http://www.gajominis.com

28mm. One of Lynn's Vikings for playing SAGA.

Some of the SNS gamers have recently been infected with Dark Ages skirmishing. Gripping Beast has published their long-awaited SAGA skirmish rules for Vikings, Saxons, Normans, and Welsh. Several games have been played, and the rules seem to be fun but you have to carefully plan each move or you WILL be stomped. I haven't played it myself yet. One of the features of a skirmish game like this is that your army is about 25 figures or less, so you don't have a huge investment in miniatures to make.

Another Viking figure.

And, ANOTHER viking figure. Thanks, Lynn!

Dystopian Wars. Alternative Steampunk naval action.

Naval action was not lacking. In a remarkable moment, We managed to get Dennis to play some sci-fi action with Dystopian Wars, a set of naval rules dealing with a steam-punk alternative history of the late 1800's. Dennis, Aaron, Greg, Terry, my brother Dave and I managed a large game of SW during the Fall. Fun game. I need to finish the paint schemes for the Covenant and English fleets, and then will play again. Looks like Jeff also has a fleet to play.

1/3000 Japanese pre-dreadnoughts.

Terry put on an excellent game of DBN, a naval variant of the DBX rules system. He has fleets painted for the Russo-Japanese war. The rules were a lot of fun. t turns out that my Litko sets of naval markers were very useful in this set of rules, for keeping track of shots fired, minor and major damage, and catastrophic critical hits.

The Japanese fleet tries to cross the "T" of the Russian columns.

Destroyers and cruisers engage. White splashes are targeted ships. Small orange explosions are damage. Fires and smoke indicate significant damage and critical hits.

Cruiser Hashidate is in a world of hurt, and would soon sink.

Bismark faces the RN late in 1941.

We also played some more Victory At Sea WW2 action. In a "What if?" contest, the RN battle ships Rodney and KGV, reinforced by Repulse and Renown, took on Bismark in fall of 1941, supposing that she had escaped her May fate. In this case, Bismark had sortied with Tirpitz! Lots of fun, but we didn't get to finish the game.

During the Christmas break, I got in a couple of games. Jeff and I tried out a 28mm WW2 game of "I Ain't Been Shot, Mum" and Lynn, Jeff and I tried the infantry rules for Rapid Fire. Of course, the year ended for me with the WFHGS mini-tournament of Warmaster Ancients. Last year, I met my goal of winning one game with my Hittite army. This year was a bit different, as I pulled of a major victory of 3 wins! I won the tournament, plus the Master of Mayhem award for most destruction caused by an army. I think I've finally mastered how to use Hittite light chariots in an attack. More on this tournament later this week.

Micro Armor Game in August

2011-08-29T13:15:00.000-07:00

Battlefield set up.

Apologies again (!) for the gap in entries. It's been a busy summer. To get things rolling again, here are some pics of a Micro-armor game on our August Saturday Night (2nd Saturday of the month). Rules used were Blitzkrieg Commander. Minis are mostly GHQ 1/285, some H & R German infantry. In the photo above, there are three towns being held by a couple of British Para battalions. German rear-area troops are attempting to cut communications between the British units, and are hoping for armor reinforcements. While I ran the game, Terry played Germans against my brother Dave (British Paras).

Early British Reinforcements arrive.

A unit of Achilles SPAT arrived on the first turn reinforcing the first Para-held town (only one company). Unfortunately for the Germans, these would be tremendously successful for the British.

A Luftwaffe field battalion attacks the British flank.

Terry's random deployment rolls brought in A battalion of Luftwaffe Fortress troops on the opposite side of the table from the advancing Achilles, Dave quickly deployed Paras and heavy weapons to face the attack. Terry took part of the German battalion to move around the town.

Para artillery makes a mess of a German attack.

In the center, Terry rolled for an attacking battalion of Wehrmacht training troops. He used the cover of woods near the center town to move closer for an assault. Unfortunately, Dave had located his artillery Forward Observer in the village at that location, and two batteries of pack howtzers rained accurate fire on the Germans for several turns. Adding to that was additional Vickers MG units to make a mess of the German assault.

The Panzers arrive!

Terry made a lucky deployment roll and a company of Panzer IV tanks arrived to reinforce the dwindling Luftwaffe troops. Mortars and Para rifle fire had blunted the attacks in this area, but now Dave was sweating an armored assault. He moved his troops closer to try some PIAT shots and cleared a path for his 6 pdr AT guns to have a clear line of fire.

PanzerGrenadiers supported by assault guns head for the center town.

Terry then rolled lucky again, and received a company of panzergrenadiers in halftracks supported by a company of Sturmgeschutz assault guns. He aimed this attack straight down the road toward the center village, trying to support the Wehrmacht training troops. Unfortunately, the Achilles had by this time reached the center town and Dave deployed them to face this new threat. In a couple of turns the assault guns were finished and the attack went nowhere.

Panzers fall prey to infantry AT weapons.

On the British flank, PIATS scored well and destroyed one platoon of German tanks. Terry suffered unfortunate command rolls and was unable to redeploy to crush the vulnerable Paras. Then it was too late as the British 6 pdr. AT guns took out the rest of the company. With half of his troops destroyed or retreating and the armor kaput, Terry called off the attacks.

The only German reinforcement that failed to reach the table was the lone unit of King Tigers, which could have tremendously helped the Germans. However, Terry was also hindered by poor command rolls and blunders, while Dave enjoyed a rather good streak of command rolls. I do like this scenario, and I plan on tweaking it a bit to make things harder for the Paras, then we'll try it again.

April Update

2011-04-27T19:00:00.000-07:00

My 10mm Hittites for Warmaster Ancients.

I have to apologize for the long break between posts. Ok, that's done. It turns out that I lost the power cable for my ancient Sony digital camera, and lost the ability to take pictures at games. I have now taken possession of a new Canon Powershot camera, with greatly improved macro and memory features. So let the posting begin again.

I do have a few shots from some games earlier this year, so I'll post them now before taking new ones. At the end of last year, the WFHGS group held our mini-tournament for Warmaster Ancients. Three rounds in 5 hours. My goal for this year was simple. I had added a guard unit to my 10mm Hittites, which have never won any battles so far. Having won the tournament last year borrowing Matt's Seleucid army, I determined this year to win at least one game with my Hittites. I succeeded in my goal, beating Matt's Indian army with successful Chariot charges on the flank. I actually came close to winning in the other rounds as well.

Hittites being defeated by Seleucids.

The Seven Years War is a favorite period of mine, and Gary Rhay is quite the opponent. I'm afraid my Prussians did not fare so well in a game of Age of Reason played down at the GAJO store.

15mm SYW Austrians deployed.

15mm Prussians deployed.

The flank that was lost. Waves of cavalry attacks doomed the Prussian right flank.

Of course Flames of War gets played a lot with the Saturday Night Skirmish group. But my FOW pics are of two GAJO events. During the 600-point tournament, I won my first ever official FOW-style game (that is, I usually game with scenarios instead of the published missions) when my late-war British Infantry defeated a Soviet horde. I was subsequently whipped by two German panzer forces. Unforgettable was a moment when a Goliath remote device exploded the building housing my CO, only to see the CO spared but the rubble collapse on the Exec outside the building!

FOW 15mm. Game 3. British infantry dug in in the woods, as well as mortars by the road.

Brumbars and panzer grenadiers prepare their attack.

I also managed to get in a game of Age of Dreadnoughts with the WFHGS group. Using small battleship forces in 1/6000, we managed to get through some firing turns and see some damage to the leading ships. Unfortunately we ran out of time, and I think we'll be looking to play this again.

A dreadnought takes severe damage.

Finally, I have a couple of photos of a game of Black Powder, playing the ACW in 15mm and umpired by Mike Cannon. He prepared a very good scenario that was a lot of fun for the SNS guys. Most of us enjoy using these rules now.

15mm Rebs under my command moving through fields and along roads.

Decisive moment. Reb cavalry capture the erratic wagon.

Unfortunately, one of the objectives for the game was lost by me. It seems that Jefferson Davis' personal supply of fine liquors was traveling down a road, with the driver apparently drunk and aimless. Although I captured the wagon at first, Union cavalry drove me away. During an attempt to recapture the prize, a stray shot (no doubt from the Yankees-- couldn't have been me ;) )hit the wagon and set the alcohol on fire, destroying the prize. The game continued, despite a great deal of good-natured ribbing from players on BOTH sides.

Well that does it for this posting. Soon I'll have pictures with the new Canon.

Holiday Games

2011-01-08T12:39:00.000-08:00

USS Hood (Dreadnought) heads right towards the Klingons as USS York (Heavy cruiser) moves to flank.

I managed to save vacation time to apply it during the Christmas and New Years holidays this year. It was a struggle though, tho find time to get in some wargames during the time off. Too many other commitments I suppose.

My brother Dave and I have been wanting to get in a trial game of Federation Commander (Star Trek) spaceship combat. Dave managed to get a couple of Starfleet models put together with some great decals, and a couple of Klingon warships as well. We decided to play the game up at GAJO so others could see the game in action. Unfortunately, the big winter storm front hit while we were playing so our trip back to Utah County was interesting to say the least!

USS York swings around trying to repair a damaged shield, while USS Hood pounds on the Klingon dreadnought.

Now USS Hood pulls out to repair shields while the Klingons plan to gang up on the York.

Surprise move. USS York passes close over the D-7 and blasts away with phasers and close range photon torpedoes. The Klingon ship was damaged but the Dreadnought started firing as well. The York decides to make a run for deep space.

York just barely manages to stay ahead of pursuing Klingons, who can't seem to catch up. But how long can the York sustain hits from disrupters?

USS Hood comes in from the flank and starts launching torpedoes. The Klingons are losing shields and hits. Both sides have had enough (and it was really starting to snow hard outside!) so each side broke off and headed for their respective starbases. For now the sector remains contested.

Recent Games

2011-01-08T07:47:00.000-08:00

My H35's & H39's lead the advance supported by a neighbor's Char b1's.

With the Holidays behind us, and the start of a new year, it's time to get caught up on the blog and post some pictures of games I've been playing. In this post, we look at a few pics from the GAJO Tanksgiving event featuring FOW 15mm early war tanks in France 1940. Then we'll see pics from the SNS group's main gaming night in early December, again featuring FOW 15mm, this time in Tunisia early December 1942.

My center CHar B1's cover the main road while my Somua 35's move up to cover the open fields.

The Panzer Hordes. Will's tanks cross a vital bridge, take an objective and begin pounding my light tanks.

With Will's Pz IV's. III's and II's pounding my left flank, Paul's lighter but more numerous Panzers and Pz38T's charged across the open fields at my Somuas. Despite some tanks being knocked out, he overran my position and flanked the French tanks, wiping me out. Ouch. On to Tunisia.

In our Tunisian scenario, Allied and German forces are racing to grab key objectives before the other side does. In this case, the Italians have struck first and grabbed the central town, while Fallschirmjager landed at the nearby arifield. German panzers are on their way. The American airborne has force marched to occupy an overlooking ridge while American armor comes in from one flank and a combined British-American armored force comes in from the other side.

Overview. Italians hold the town. German and Italian armor will reinforce from the left road. Beyond that, the Fallshirmjager hunker down and await a flanking Panzer force for help.

Allied armor comes in on the Axis right flank. Stukas made some early hits.

Dennis' Bersaglieri desperately try to hold the town. Terry's Centauro armor begins to arrive. The SP 90's are deadly.

German left flank. The airfield is under control and reinforcing panzers arrive early. US airborne troops are coming down from the ridge overlooking the fields.

The Americans get into a traffic jam behind the ridge but feed tons of Lynn's Shermans toward the town. More Shermans and I think Lee's as well head toward Ken's panzers. Gary's airborne secures the ridge.

In the back, Dave D's US armored Recon gets smacked by the Italian 90's. Up closer, Russ' Grants, Honeys and Valentines spread out and advance. In another turn they get butchered by two of the only three Tigers available in Tunisia (mine, heh heh).

In the end we ran out of time as usual, but the axis forces held a slight lead in objective points. The trouble with our large games is that they must have more time for play.

No battle reports for Early November

2010-11-25T09:15:00.000-08:00

Mantis Warriors assassinate the Nobz in a wartruk. Such Fun!

Due to my work schedule and poor timing, I was unable to attend the Armchair Ambassador's night. Terry put on a game of pre-dreadnoughts using 1/3000 naval miniatures. I heard good things about the game but have no photos.

Likewise I missed the SNS game night where Jeff G put on another game of Blackpowder Napoleonics. A fun time was had by all, but alas, I again have no photos.

So, in the interest of keeping your interest, I include a couple of photos of a Warhammer 40K game I played against Dave B quite some time ago. My older-figures Mantis Warriors Space Marines fought a tough battle against his Space Orks.

One way to take down a warlord.

(Note the old-style dreadnought!)

In the meantime, I'm busy priming and painting a French tank company for Flames of War using the BlitzKrieg army lists. These troops will counterattack the blitzing Germans in the Tanksgiving FOW battle at GAJO on Saturday. Hopefully a worthy account will follow.

October Game: BlackPowder Napoleonics

2010-10-25T18:43:00.000-07:00

Allied left flank- the cavalry brigades.

Again there was no Armchair Admirals night this month. There was a big game of BlackPowder Napoleonics, though! Dennis put a scenario in 1813 together so our guys can get their fix for this fun game. Not as large as the game at Kenn's during the summer, this one took up 3 of the tables at GAJO. The basic scenario is a French spoiling attack on the advancing units of Russians and Prussians.

French Right- Infantry columns and a light cav brigade.

Allied Center- includes Russian grenadier battalions.

French Center- includes some veteran units.

Allied Right. French left in distance.

On allied left, French Cav deploys while infantry bumble about.

Allied center. French attack columns make grand assault across a river into the allied lines. Lucky dice rolls, or Napoleon's genius?

Allied right flank hit by heavy French cav. French left bumbles about and refuses to advance.

Allied cav sees off the French cav on the allied left. French infantry still undecided about their enthusiasm for this battle.

Allied center battalions are being pushed back by veteran French troops. Terrible casualties reported.

Some of the French left infantry begin to advance. The most left French brigade still isn't willing to attack. Did the courier fall wounded on the field?

Allied right. Here comes another wave of French infantry.

Prussian jägers defend the woods on the allied right. No wonder the French don't advance in this sector...

The French right forms square and begins a slow, methodical march towards the allied cav brigades.

Uppity French light infantry make a sudden march through the woods to attack the flank of the motionless allied cav, shocked at this French arrogance.

The allied center-right is definitely feeling the pressure of French columns...

Orders evidently never arrived to the French left brigade, which sat there for the game. Bummer, monsieur...

And with that we ran out of time. The guys have decided to have another go at this in November for Game night.

September Game nights

2010-09-26T07:49:00.000-07:00

Jeff's Prussians stand like a rock against Frank's Austrian infantry.

The September Armchair admirals game was cancelled after it was apparent no one was signing up for it. Russ had alerted me previously he would be unavailable that Saturday, but evidently no one else could make it or was not interested.

There were two games scheduled for our group's game night, the second Saturday night of the month. The first was to be a 15mm Vietnam war game trying out the new rules (Firefight, I think). Unfortunately, everyone who was so interested in this game suddenly backed out until only Russ came to set up a game.

I'm really disappointed that this has happened. I think it's important that people who commit to a game need to responsible enough to make sure they are there or else give plenty of notice that something has come up and they can't make it. I know that this sometimes happens, including to me, but how about a phone call at least? The person preparing a game goes through a lot of effort to set games up, and it's only good manners to be responsible about our schedules.

Our second game was Age of Reason Seven Years War in 15mm. Jeff G and Gary R played Prussians while I teamed with visitor Frank on the Austrian side. It was a learning game for Frank and Gary, both of them did very well. In fact Gary planned and executed a successful cavalry attack against my right flank. After some very bad rolls, my brigades were finished and the Austrians were doomed! A fun game, and we learned a lot about the rules.

Prussian setup, cavalry on their left flank.

Austrian setup, my cavalry and infantry brigades on our right.

After routing my cav, Gary's cavalry cave in my infantry brigade.

August Game nights

2010-09-12T10:04:00.001-07:00

WW1 Naval action in 1/6000. Figurehead ships.

Things got busy and I almost forgot to report on our August game nights. On our Armchair Admirals night, Russ led a few of us in a game experimenting with a new WW1 naval game he's been working on. It's based on his successful game Micronauts: The Game published by GHQ miniatures. While MN:TG is for WW2, the new game uses similar mechanics with WW1 data to create the feel of Dreadnought actions. In our test game, based on Dogger bank, the German Battlecruisers are escaping from the British Battlecruisers while the destroyers and light cruisers class. In our game, there was no chance of catching the German capital ships so the British turned their wrath on the smaller ships, obliterating several of them before calling the game. The circle of string represents a moving squall, which seriously interfered with some of the British shooting. Fun game, includes a lot of individual ship data. We'll be playing this more to help Russ develop the game.

15mm Goths and Romans clash.

On game night there was another episode of Flames of War WW2 action in our ongoing Operation Goodwood campaign (British loss). I'm sorry that I don't have a picture to post, I got too wrapped up in umpiring the other game! On the other table, I was experimenting with using my 15mm Dominate Romans in battle against Early Visigoths using Warmaster Ancients. This was a test, because the minis I have were based for the Osprey game series Fields of Glory. The good thing is that the basing is very similar at 40mm wide bases, with only varying depth and a different way to mount cavalry. I'm happy to report that figures mounted for FOG can be played just fine using WMA rules. The reverse is not necessarily true, that is, WMA figure mounting does not have the base depths needed for FOG. So I'm happy to note now that I have 10mm and 15mm ancients for use with WMA. I'll keep basing my 15mm guys for FOG, knowing they can be used in WMA whenever needed.

Blackpowder Big Bash

2010-08-15T06:54:00.000-07:00

Kenn's BIG table outside. View from the east, I think.

On the last Saturday in July, Kenn invite the clubmembers to a gigantic game of BlackPowder napoleonics held at his home up in the mountains. The scenario was loosely based on the "what if?" idea that Napoleon had slipped away from a tactical victory at Waterloo and was rushing eastward to defeat the Austrians and Russians who had a little bit of help from Prussians and English troops as well. Actually it was a great excuse to use all of our club's 28mm napoleonic forces in one giant game! Ken had built a giant table on his backyard porch for the event. Unfortunately, it was one of the summer's hottest days and the minis got a bit warm to the touch. SO did some of the players... actually I think I melted, just a bit... but we survived. We also took a a break midway through the game for a cookout with sausages, bratwurst, and lots of delicious salads and chips. A great game as well. Thanks to Kenn and everybody who helped make it fun.

Austro-Russian deployment in the west. Austrians closest to camera. This turned into a giant traffic jam along the road, as the off-camera woods to the east were quickly occupied by the French and held throughout the game.

In the foreground, the obstructing woods. Mike's casualty counters at the ready. A giant alien bowl of chips has landed in the battlefield, only temporarily. Stella the Wonder Dog patrols for dropped food.

The Monster of Europe appears to lead his troops in battle. Hmmm, safe behind the artillery, I see...

The French columns move towards the eastern town.

Clash of Titans. The French win this one.

French artillery and cavalry move to block the advancing Russians.

For now the Prussians and British hold the town.

Allied defenses in the town. The mysterious moving Coke monument in the background.

Overall view. It's hot, very hot, yet we're still very much into the big game concepts outlined in the BlackPowder rules.

For much of the game the traffic jam continues, as the Austrians and Russians have command roll problems getting their troops forward into battle, and the French gleefully launch cavalry regiments at the leading columns.

On the left, the French hold the obstructing woods. In the center, Austrian cuirassiers capture a battery and battle the enemy cavalry. On the right, the Russians finally get rolling.

Command problems keep the Asutrian heavy cav from charging when they need to... their flanks in danger.

Austrian infantry shift their attacks on the woods to one flank.

French columns hit the town defenses. Nasty, and complicated.

The Russians push out of the agricultural zone and head for a large hill covered with French.

Town ownership is in doubt, and the allied line moves back...

The French western defensive lines. Here come the Austrians and Russians...

French cavalry counterattack Russian infantry which I notice are not in square. Oops. Ouch. Crash!

The French have held those darned woods the entire game. But now the Russians and Austrians move down the road toward the dwindling French main line.

We had to stop the game when dark rain clouds appeared over the mountain tops. We could tell Salt Lake City, on the other side of those mountains, was getting hit good, so it was only a matter of time for us, and take down would take a while. Still, the game was enjoyable, the food and companionship excellent. Another big bash will occur.

BKC with WFHGS

2010-08-09T16:54:00.001-07:00

WW2 Soviet armor columns rush to the front lines.

Normally I don't post much on games I play with the Wasatch Front Historical Gaming Society, as Matt Irsik usually takes the pictures and creates a battle report for that club's blog, at http://www.wfhgs.com. Unfortunately, Matt and a few of the other gamers couldn't make to their last game, so I've got some pictures I'll post here. We played BKC, WW2 microarmor on the Russian front. I used a terrain layout similar to the game Russ and I played. In this scenario, the Soviets have occupied a couple of towns with infantry. German armor and infantry are counterattacking and Soviet tank brigades are trying to reinforce. The beauty of this game is that the command system must be used carefully of command foul-ups can wreck your plans in a hurry!

Germans deploying on the far right. In the right corner, a Panzer IV battalion is beginning a flanking sweep around the occupied town. It was at this point that the dice began to roll badly for the Soviets!

Good command rolls place the Panzer battalion on the flank of the dawdling T-34's.

Soviet command can barely manage to deploy one battalion to face the panzers. The rest of the column failed to move!

The Germans learn from Sgt. York, the turkey shoot begins. T-34's and SU-76's burn after several very good German command phase rolls.

Some damage to Pz IV'x as the Mech Infantry move to attack the river crossing.

Meanwhile, Dave D's Russian tanks and infantry try to hold back Gary S's Assault guns and Tiger.

Endgame. PanzerGrenadiers occupy the river crossing and cut off the Soviet supply route. With the armor destroyed, the infantry in the villages can't last long.

July's SNS game: BKC!

2010-08-05T18:35:00.000-07:00

Overall view. Germans are crossing the river at far left.

BKC stands for Blitzkreig Commander, a WW2 armor game where a miniature or stand of troops can either be a platoon or a single squad/tank. Based on the Warmaster Ancients system (and heavily modified) I love this command control mechanism and a game of BKC is never boring. I modified a scenario from Avalanche Press' Eastern Front board game. The Germans would be crossing a river to invade the Soviet Union on the first day of the Eastern blitzkreig. The German player, Russ, had to make dice rolls to see if the infantry and vehicles made it across on ferries, rubber rafts, or wading equipment while the engineers tried to disable a roadblock on the bridge.

Meanwhile, the two Soviet battalions one in each town, could not deploy until their HQs rolled for an activation. There was little Soviet armor available. The Germans had to seize at least one town and exit troops from the table.

The first of the German armor and infantry deploy towards the road fork.

The German plan seemed to be send the armor down the road and cover the flanks with the two infantry battalions. At first the only Soviet unit ready for action was a battery of 45mm AT guns. However, out of command range, they could only act on initiative! Back at the bridge, the German pioneers seemed to be having difficulty clearing the bridge, so more tanks tried to wade the river.

The lead German armor reaches the range of the Soviet 45's. Battle begins!

The right flank German infantry made very good progress, while a second wave of armor and the right flank battalion moved more slowly. The Soviet 45mm tried to engage the lead armor, but scored few hits. The pioneers at the bridge still had trouble with the roadblock, and the German motorized column waited impatiently on the far side of the river.

Germans organize a better attack, and take out the ATG battery.

As the armor advanced, the hapless 45 mm ATg crews were wiped out and the armor prepared to deploy towards the two towns. In the towns, the Soviet command had a terrible time trying to organize themselves into a defense. The regimental command finally got a couple of 76mm batteries in position to try to slow down the enemy, and the T-26 company finally began moving.

The Soviets prepare to defend their towns.

The 76mm battery on the Soviet left was overrun on the hill as the German right flank began to encircle the left town. On the Soviet right, it too soon had a line of advancing infantry converging on the town as the Soviet command finally got their act together to organize resistance. On the central hill, incoming tank fire soon neutralized the regimental troops and the German armor split to attack both towns.

Hurrah! A panzer II platoon burns.

The Soviet fire made hardly a dent on the German armor, although the German left flank infantry battalion took some hits from small arms fire in the town. Suddenly a blunder on the part of the Germans... Friendly Fire took out the leading Panzer II platoon!

The German right flank assaults the first Soviet town.

Russ executed a brilliant assault on on my left flank and soon the Soviets had lost half the town. Return fire managed to take out a couple of infantry platoons and a tank, but it was obvious that the Germans were winning. Time had run out, the Regimental command stand was fleeing, the leftmost town was falling, and the German motorized column had finally arrived and was destroying the Soviet right flank. Germans won. Of course, it was just the first day of the invasion.

WOW- Balloon Buster!

2010-08-04T18:24:00.000-07:00

Balloon Busting!

Wings of War has a really neat addition to their game of WW1 aerial combat. They offer two different color observation balloon sets. Each set comes with a balloon in either olive drab or yellow, and a rocket-firing Nieuport biplane. I purchased the yellow balloon set, and looked for an opportunity to play.

I set up a WOW game for one of our Saturday night games. Chris volunteered to be my opponent. For this scenario, the game lasts 12 turns. That's how long it takes for the ground crew to winch down the observation balloon and save it from destruction. Chris took the side of the Germans, with the balloon, several ground AA cards, and an Albatross defender. My raiders were a silver Nieuport and the brown Nieuport with the rockets. The picture at top shows the middle of the game with the Balloon winching down and the Nieuports making their attack run. Underneath the silver Nieuport is the Albatross card. Altitude rules are in effect, and the Albatross was underneath the Nieuport so we replaced the model Albatross with the card temorarily until the planes moved apart. Behind the balloon, the brown Nieuport with the rockets is making an attack run from the other side.

Preparing to fire the rockets. The planes passing underneath realize their peril.

In the game, the balloon busters need to cause enough damage to the balloon so that it either becomes incapable of floating and crashes to the ground, or explodes in flames. Another option is that the balloon observers may decide to abandon the basket and parachute to the ground, which counts as a mission kill as the balloon has to interrupt it's observation mission anyway to lower down and get a new observer. Of course we really just want to blow up the balloon!

Kablam! The balloon explodes and takes out the brown Nieuport.

The result of the attack was a pyrrhic victory for the French. As the Albatross and silver Nieuport passed under the balloon, the brown Nieuport fired its rockets which ignited the balloon! While the first two aircraft zoomed away from the situation the brown Nieuport got too close and the resulting flaming explosion caused enough damage to down the plane on the spot.

The remaining Nieuport makes a run for it.

With the balloon destroyed, the remaining Nieuport made a break for the Allied lines. With the Albatross in hot pursuit, it seemed an impossible task as the Nieuport had already taken hits from ground fire, and now had to weave its way through the defenders again! Time after time the Albatross zeroed in on the Nieuport. What Chris didn't realize was that I was experiencing extremely good fortune, as each time a took a damage card, I got a card that usually worth 0 damage points! Eventually I reached safety for an allied win. I showed Chris my cards (over 15 cards) and he couldn't believe my good luck.

I doubt I would be so lucky next time!

Summer Update

2010-08-03T19:30:00.001-07:00

Another game of AOE, Corruna scenario again, using terrain from GAJO. Tons of fun.

I have to apologize to my readers, I've been neglectful of my blogging duties and must repent.

My bad.

OK, now that's over and time to post pictures.

FOW. One of the many battles for Bois de Bavant Nord.

The SNS group has been deeply involved in an FOW campaign devised by Craig Tyrrell who runs the GAJO store. It's based on Operation Goodwood, where the British are trying to break out of Caen and thrust armored forces past the German defenders. Things went well for the Commonwealth at first, due to overwhelming artillery, airpower, and naval bombardments. The British armor and infantry steamrollered over the dazed defenders and pushed into the fields of France. However, the German defense stiffened and began clobbering the Commonwealth units. Two territories are being constantly battled over. In the picture above, my British armored company is getting quite royally spanked by Norm's dug-in German grenadiers. As of this writing a third battle is being planned for that same wooded area. The second is in the picture below.

The ruins of Faux de Vaucelles.

Across the canal from Caen, German infantry regiments counterattacked at F. de Vaucelles just after a Canadian infantry brigade passed through. Thoroughly entrenched, these German defenders have beaten off assault after assault, trapping the 4th Canadian brigade in Fleury-sur-Orne and cutting them off from supply. Now at turn 7, another attempt is being made to get out of Caen and reopen the lines to the 4th Canadians, who themselves are under attack by panzergrenadiers. It's going to be a tough turn.

Might and Reason. 15mm SYW.

Chris from GAJO put on a game of Might and Reason, Sam Mustafa's brigade-level game of the Seven Years War. Scenario was Prussians versus Austrians. In this game, two stands together represent a brigade of troops. A little different than Grande Armeé, Mustafa's Napoleonic game, but very fun. In fact I think these rules came off better than GA. Chris is slowly building up each of the major and minor armies required to play a massive campaign using the board game "Soldier King" by Avalanche Press. I've volunteered to help paint the Turks, but I'm off to a very slow start.

Sharp Practice. French companies on the march.

Dave Baker has assembled a force of 28mm British troops to use in Sharp Practice, a small-tactical game for Napoleonics. Off course as soon as he was ready the French had a go at the Brits. I modified a scenario from Charles S. Grant's Scenarios for Wargames book for the WFHGS group. Very fun. Both the WFHGS and SNS members enjoy this great game.

Dave B's British infantry defending the woods. Each unit represents a company.

The advent of Victrix and Perry plastics for Napoleonics has really made these larger games possible for more members. However, some of the figures can be difficult to pose. Some of the members have been hiring Chris at GAJO to help paint their figures so that we can more quickly get some games played. These figures are also often used for our Black Powder napoleonic battles.

The US fleet takes a pounding from the Japanese in 1943.

Naval games have not been forgotten. Russ put on a game of Micronauts: The Game for our Armchair Admirals night. Played in 1/2400 scale, the detail on these GHQ ships is fantastic. The scenario was a recreation of the Battle of Komandorski Islands. This time, instead of battling it out at long range as occurred in the actual conflict, Norm raced the Japanese fleet directly towards my American fleet. His fire was more accurate than mine, and soon the USS Richmond was badly damaged and at half speed. The US destroyers made a gallant effort to slow down the Japanese cruisers, but the high seas prevented effective torpedo launches and soon the US navy had lost four destroyers. With the battle lost, the Salt Lake City made a quick retreat leaving the doomed Richmond to her fate.

I'll get you yet, Norm!

Age of Eagles- Corunna 1809

2010-04-05T20:38:00.000-07:00

Due to Easter holiday, there was no SNS Armchair Admiral night this month, so instead I'll post some pics from a wargame scenario I prepared for the WFHGS group. The rules used were Age of Eagles, a brigade-level Napoleonic set by Col. Bill Gray. I generally prefer this set of rules over Grande Armée.

Overlook of field from the British side.

The scenario is loosely based on the Battle of Corunna. "Loosely" because we didn't have enough villages represented. WE're still working on Peninsular terrain. A detailed account of the battle is described at www.wfhgs.com, with more photos. Basically British General Moore is retreating his forces to ships, and has the cavalry and almost all artillery loaded already. The infantry have to hold back the French divisions under General Soult.

French infantry brigade attacks across a steam in a ravine and is repulsed.

Soult directs a flanking move to the British right. Cavalry had a hard time moving due to rough terrain rolls.

A small British Foot Guards brigade battles a large French regulars brigade- and is pushed back from the ravine!

French right- French launch several attacks against few British defenders. Heavy losses on both sides.

Three French brigades attack the British right of two brigades. The pressure is on.

The British right begins to fall back.

The Center: the lead French brigade is mauled by musket fire but the following brigade aims its attack at the Foot Guards.

Success on the French right: a French brigade of regular troops takes a town at bayonet point in a breakthrough charge!

The Foot Guards are crushed by Fresh French regulars. The British right retreats in front of determined French attacks. The center breaks, and the British concede the game.

Age of Dreadnoughts Game

2010-03-12T15:51:00.000-08:00

German Battlecruisers keep British Destroyers at bay.

For our February Armchair Admirals night, Chris at GAJO set up a great scenario using the "Age of Dreadnoughts" rules by Mongoose Publishing. He created a strategic map that let each admiral plot their fleet movements and when contact was made, the ships came out. Great job, Chris!

Norm made a dashing destroyer admiral and definitely proceeded aggressively in his search for the German ships. Gary R played his role as the German admiral very carefully, and definitely had us double-guessing ourselves as he managed to shell the English coast and lay a minefield. There was a great moment of uncertainty when one of the British destroyers mysteriously blew up- was it a sub or a mine? Eventually though, we managed to get in range to attack the german ships. In the first encounter, the smaller cruisers tried to identify and slow the German battlecruisers but they took a terrific pounding and some losses.

British battlecruisers enter from the right. German Battlecruisers need to exit at photo bottom.

Norm charged in with his British battlecruisers. My British dreadnoughts were one map hex away, struggling to get into the fight. Norm decided to really give the rules a test and charged right in!

As the Germans cross the "T", British battlecruisers turn to port from the line ahead formation.

Damaged German ships on the left fall behind, but leading British ships are taking serious hits.

Blucher is in trouble, and the Lion-class battlecruisers are repeatedly hit. Tiger is in trouble.

1/6000 HMS Tiger by Figurehead miniatures.

Although we did not get to the point where my dreadnoughts could come into play, I was very impressed by these rules. The combat system is fun, record-keeping is fair, and I love the special traits and actions allowed by the rules. We'll be trying this again. After all, the Germans got away...

Arbruthnot vs. Des Touches 1781

2010-01-04T18:02:00.000-08:00

French on left, British on Right.

The Armchair Admiral night game was held Saturday night with 4 players. We were recreating the same scenario from the American Revolution that we had played late last year. Then, we used the Grand Fleet Actions rules. This time, we played using Warhammer Historical's Trafalgar naval rules.

British closing from the right while the French struggle with wind changes.

Again, we were using the "store fleets" of Figurehead's 1/2400 Age of Sail range. Ranges in Trafalgar rules were cut in half to better match the small ships. Instead of paper markers, we used different colored pipe cleaners for status markers. White represented broadsides firing, red indicated a fire on board, and brown indicated the ship could not fire for a turn.

Russ's British squadron looks like it's getting in a crossfire. Gary's Division, led by HMS London, tries to get Terry (far left) in range.

This game really ran the gamut of interesting events. especially concerning the weather! We experienced everything from becalming to wind shifts to raging storm. Mostly this was to the detriment of the French!

A hard pounding. Terry's and Russ's lead ships collide while Norm's French squadron (left side) pound the British. HMS London sets a French ship on fire.

As the British and French got in close and nasty, the two lead squadron ships collided suffering extreme hull damage. Unfortunately, Terry's damaged lead ship collided next with one of his own ships and began sinking.

Norm's French squadron tacks to the right and pounds the back end of Russ's remaining three ships.

Russ loses a ship to critical hull damage. Other ships began to take multiple critical hits and soon several ships have problems steering.

Gary's squadron prepares to rake the French.

Suddenly a gale turns into a raging storm and cuts ranges down and the firing is far less effective. Several ships catch fire but quick-acting crews douse the flames. there are sever hull and crew losses on both sides. Unfortunately, some ships put themselves in danger when they lose steering control due to severe damage.

Gary fires his raking broadsides.

As Norm's French squadron braces for devastating fire, Gary blasts away with several rakes. Splinters everywhere. Remarkably, one of the French ships takes a bow rake at near point-blank range but only suffers minor damage. Russ and Terry blast away with increasingly fragile ships.

The Fleets begin separating. Several fires taking their toll.

One of Russ's ships burns fiercely and the crew is destroyed while fighting the fire (or jumping overboard). Both sides are battered, but Gary's British squadron remains very strong and could continue the fight. Alas, the game ends.

We concluded that Trafalgar rules are very good for battles on the smaller size. Certainly weather, collisions, and gunnery were easier with this set. We'll probably use these rules for the naval campaign I hope to run this year.

Close out 2009 with Future War Commander

2010-01-01T08:17:00.000-08:00

Space Ork battleforce advances on planet GAJO.

We were long overdue playing a game of Future War Commander! FWC is a derivative of the successful modern cobat system started with BlitzKreig Commander and followed by Cold War Commander, both sets being very popular in these here parts for their armor combat control systems. This system itself is a derivative of the awesome Warmaster and Warmaster Ancients rules sets. What makes these rules so appealing is their interesting command system, which truly brings about the element of Fog of War. This system has even been modified to work with the new BlackPowder rules from Warlord Games.

Originally this was going to be a small skirmish between my brother Dave and I, but we were joined by Ken and Dave Baker who were interested in this game as well. Normally we don't include unpainted minis, but this was a "training game" so points and paint be damned... on with the game.

In this simple scenario a unit of Traitor Guard has enticed a Space Ork Warlord, Drashnok, to help fight Imperial Guard forces on planet GAJO (umm, the store where we played the game). Each force came up on the ruins of Sixmill city from different road entry points. The goal: hold the city.

Actually Drashnok just wanted to bash things. Unfortunately, Drashnoks command abilities were severely tested by failed command rolls throughout the game. The Gargant and its infantry protection barely trudged along towards the ruins. Subcommander Acknot, however, roared forward with his battlewagon force and spotted Leman Russ tanks off to the flank. The battle began.

Traitor Guard forces advance toward the ruins, Sentinels in front.

Main Imperial Guard force includes a Warlord Titan.

Baker Company of Leman Russ tanks covers the Imperial left flank. They spot the Space Ork battlewagons. Lock and Load!

Lead battlewagon explodes and the Orks take fire. BattleFortress in the background moves just too slow.

The weapons range on Space Orks is much shorter than Imperial guard, and so I kept trying to get some Orky Fighta-bombas called in. Unfortunately the Imperium had an edge on air superiority and often prevented successful FAC rolls. The traitor guard began exchanging shots with the heavy Imperial armor as Imperial forces entered the city at the same time as Traitor Guard Rough Riders.

Traitor Guard enters the ruins as Imperial Ogryns move in from the opposite side.

Acknot's battlewagons are smashed by Baker company.

Baker Company enters the ruins to lend Imperial support.

Poor Dave the Imperial Commander had trouble moving the Warlord titan, but its great weapons range still let it fire on the distant Traitor Guard armor. Drashnok finally got the Gargant moving forward with some Big Gunz units but it was too little too late. The Traitor Guard were being pushed out of the ruins and the Orky armor was smashed.

Miracle! Space Ork Fight-Bomba makes a pass on Baker Company and scores multiple hits, but the armor survives. So does the lucky Ork pilot.

Gargant finally gets in range, to no avail.

The Gargant's shields were saving it, but those Shadowsword monster tanks and the lucky Baker Company were too close. Time to call it a day, and the Orks and Traitor Guard gave up the ruins to the Imperium.

FWC is just as much fun as its predecessor rules, and includes fun things like shields and futuristic weapons and such. The generic army lists allow you to field any manufacturer's stuff, and so we tried it with our old Epic forces which worked just fine. Another set of FWC rules was sold during the game, and everybody is planning on painting up more old Epic stuff or perhaps something from another manufacturer. Looks like the struggle for planet GAJO will continue!

BattleTech!

2009-12-28T19:53:00.000-08:00

Kurita light lance(l-r): Spyder, Panther, Assassin, Jenner

WARNING: Some of my photos came out blurry. Tough.

Brother David and I tried a game of BattleTech today. Dave's been keen on playing this for a while, and got a nice scenario put together to try this out. His miniatures came from the Introductory Box Set and we were using the Quickstart rules. The basic scenario is that Kurita forces are building up an invasion force on one of their planets. To keep the local Comstar force from getting word of this out from the planet, Kurita military has been jamming communications. Comstar technicians have figured out a way to overcome the jamming and have sent a small ship upriver to a communications station to install the fix. Guarding the station is a Comstar light lance of Commando, Hermes, Clint and Cicada. The boat must navigate a tight river and moves only 5 inches per turn. Once within 5 inches of the station, they only need three complete turns to upload the software and the station may attempt to broadcast. If the Kurita forces destroy the boat or tower they win.

Comstar Lance defends the comstation.

Kurita lance in the deployment zone. Deployment markers by Litko.

Comstar boat moves upriver.

The Comstar boat is a toy model of a Norwegian stealth vessel Dave found on eBay. The plastic minis were just fine, although they have trouble on hill slopes.

Battle begins. Kurita left flank starts gunfighting with Comstar units. The Panther takes the hill position.

The basic Quickstart rules did not include close combat, so we battled it out. My Kurita mechs took the worst of the initial fighting.

Right flank. Panther potshots the Cicada as Spyder prepares to run for the boat.

The Panther was a slow mech for a light lance, but had the powerful PPC cannon. Each hit would score 10 damage points, but moving the Panther brought movement penalties. Arrrrg.

Left flank. Each side loses a mech. Litko explosion and smoke markers.

At some point I remembered I had an objective other than blasting away at medium range. I moved the Spyder at a run for the boat, but his rapid speed kept him from hitting the target. The Cicada went after him while the Hermes tried to stop the Panther.

Overall view. The boat is closer to the station now.

So close! The Spyder misses the boat, and Cicada misses the Spyder!

Spyder turns and fights. Scores a headshot on the Cicada, but it's not enough.

Finally- Hermes goes down and Panther is free to back up the Spyder.

Arrg! Assassin has had it, but at least immobilized the Clint. The Spyder moves up to the tower.

The boat is damaged but is still uploading software. One turn left for it to finish, and the Cicada is closing...

Pyrrhic victory. The boat is destroyed, the scenario won, but Spyder is shot in the back and destroyed...

Kurita forces succeed in stopping the Comstar mission. Left alone and badly damaged, the Panther calls it quits and retreats to pick up reinforcements. There might be a political price to pay for aggression against Comstar, but the secret buildup of Kurita forces continue to be kept quiet.

Fun game. We'll be playing Battletech again.

Space Hulk action

2009-12-25T10:02:00.000-08:00

It's vacation time, and with both myself and my brother off work for a while we decided to get in a game or two or Space Hulk. We played it down at GAJO so that any interested store visitors could see what the game looks like when played. It just so happens that Chris was busy painting one of the Space Marine Terminators for the store copy.

Set-up for scenario 1: Suicide Mission

We started with the first scenario, Suicide Mission. It was aptly named. A squad of five terminators have to fight their way down the spaceship corridors and reach a control room, where the heavy flamer must destroy the controls before the Genestealer aliens could activate the escape pods and get away to infiltrate a nearby planet.

Squad Plasticus prepares to attack. Heavy Flamer in the middle.

The Space Marine player gets 5 marines. The Alien player gets two reinforcement counters each turn, which could be converted into 1, 2, or 3 aliens each. There is an endless supply of aliens for this scenario, so the marines really have to hurry to get to the control room before being overwhelmed. No one is coming back from this mission...

Uh-oh! Trapped!

Once the heavy flamer figure is killed, the scenario ends, and both David and I lost as we took turns playing this scenario. I got a little closer to the room but that's all. This really is a suicide mission. Can the Terminators ever win this one? I don't know.

Flame on! 4 Genestealers are about to be barbecued.

The key is to learn how to use the heavy flamer to incinerate aliens and block their passages as you move forward. Alas, the flamer only has 6 shots available, and no reloads.

Third game. Scenario 2.

For our final game we tried out scenario 2, Exterminate. The marines have a much better chance in this scenario. Unfortunately, they are spread out all over the tiles, and have to plan carefully what areas to defend. In this game, there are a set number of genestealers available, and it's a simple matter of wiping out the marines, or getting wiped out/sealed off by the marines. This scenario introduced the Assault cannon (oh, yeah!!!) and the sergeant armed with thunder hammer and storm shield, who is deadly wicked in close combat. I won this scenario by just strategically placing the marines along open lines of fire and shooting the aliens dead. Finally Dave got a bunch of the aliens tosneak down a corridor while I was clearing a storm bolter jam, and the sergeant had to risk everything by wading into the bunch of them and smearing alien guts all over the corridors. He eventually fell, but the aliens were hunted down and killed.

This is a super fun game. It's pricey, but this is a high quality set of tiles and the best minis they've done for the game. After seeing how Chris painted up one of the terminators, I can't wait to get mine painted up.

More Grande Armee

2009-12-22T11:31:00.000-08:00

Grande Armee does Aspern-Essling. Aspern in foreground. Notice the carefully disguised gaming paraphenalia.

Grande Armee seems to be a favorite choice for grand tactical Napoleonics among some of our Napoleonic 15mm supporters. After the Waterloo game, there was a game scheduled for Dec. 12th. This time: Aspern-Essling 1809. This was the first time Kai got out his 15mm Austrians, who clashed that Saturday against Will's French. I arrived late, not expecting to play, but eventually wound up commanding the troops around Aspern.

Multi-brigade clash. This one's gonna hurt.

Chris at GAJO has prepared many metal 3" x 3" bases to which he attaches identification labels. The nice thing about GA is that you can use other basing to fill in the brigade bases as you wish for visual effect.

Austrian and French brigades clash before Aspern. Dave plots French destruction in the background, to no avail.

The Austrian artillery seemed to be everywhere. I made some successful assaults with my cav brigades, really focusing on combined-arms attacks, but I could never quite catch theose yellow guns. Meanwhile my strength was being steadily sapped.

The Dead Zone.

Another item I like about GA is the concept of reorganization. Dead Brigades are assumed to have pulled back to reorganize if possible. Sometimes they don't which means the brigade really was destroyed as a unit. Those which do return are placed in a corps' rear areas with lesser strength than they started with. In this game, attrition was taking a terrible toll.

After several turns of attrition, the lines reform. The French still hold Aspern.

After several exciting turns, the Austrians and the French beat each other to death around Aspern. I had reached the point of having no possible offensive options. The Austrians were in the same boat to my front. Action continued around Essling until both sides had to pull back and catch their breath. By that time we had to quit the game. So the results were similar to the actual conflict.

Catching Up

2009-11-26T12:50:00.001-08:00

Egads! Where has the time gone? My work schedule got a little busier, and attempts to keep up on this blog fell behind. Sorry about that. Wargaming did continue. Here's some glimpses of some of the games I've been involved in. Some are from the SNS group, and some from WFHGS.

Waterloo via Grande Armee - 15mm

Ney is in command of the French Right Flank awaiting the Prussian hordes.

1813 via General De Brigade - 15mm

Prussians and Russians hold against French allies.

WW2 Russian Front via BlitzKreig Commander - 1/285

Russian Armor flanking the town is counterattacked by desperate infantry. Panzerfausts strike back.

Massive game: North Africa WW2 via Flames of War - 15mm

British depot in center left holding against huge german armored assault.

In the Sudan via Battle For Empire (revision playtest) - 15mm

Ansar Infantry hold entrenched position behind thorny zaribas.

The Sudan, continued:

Ansar cavalry make short work of the Camel Corps and light horse.

SYW via Age of Reason - 15mm

Ottoman cavalry crunching what's left of Russian right wing.

SYW continued: Russian left assaulted on 3 sides by overwhelming Ottomans.

AWI naval action via Grand Fleet Actions - 1/2400

Arbruthnot vs. Des Touches 1781 off the Chesapeake.

Ancient warfare via Warmaster Ancients - 10mm

Charge of Assyrian heavy chariots.

Egyptian light chariots are speed bumps to the Assyrians.

Egyptian archers shower Assyrians in arrows, Last stand for someone...

Egyptian infantry prepare to munch what's left of Assyrian center.

Golan Heights 1973 via Cold War Commander - 15mm

Israeli artillery, tank fire and ambushing bazookas wreck a Syrian mech infantry column.

August so far

2009-08-22T10:44:00.000-07:00

Sharpe Practice: blinds used for Fog of war.

Lots of games going on, but not enough time to document it all. Most notably, our Saturday Night Skirmishers group experienced out first game with Sharpe Practice, a set of skirmish/small tactical Napoleonic rules by Too Fat Lardies. The WFHGS group has enjoyed playing this set, and Dennis set up a a big game where most of our members could try it out. From the reaction so far, it looks like several members are putting forces together and we'll be playing this again.

Gary's Russian column is revealed to defending French

French company defending; Troop ratio = 1:5

French Voltigeurs and artillery hold the right

I've also managed to get in a game of Babylon-5 space combat, and Chris at GAJO put on a game of Grande Armee for interested players. The focus was Waterloo. This time Napoleon kept Ney (me) busy with the French right at Plancenoit, waiting to hold off the Prussians, while the Guard was thrown right in to overwhelm the Allied right flank.

Centauri and Shadows deploy.

Fireballs represent the Centauri left wing getting slaughtered; Shadow ship drifting, lifeless. Victory to the Earth Defence Force and their Vorlon allies.

Waterloo: French Guard and other lesser mortals swarm over the Allies.

French Cuirassier division holds Flank at Plancenoit, waiting for the Prussians.

1805 Trafalgar refight

2009-08-01T07:07:00.000-07:00

Last weekend GAJO put on the largest naval game held there so far, a refight of the historical sea battle of Trafalgar (1805). This is the famous Age-of-Sail battle between the British (under the legendary Admiral Horatio Nelson) and the allied Franco-Spanish fleet. Unfortunately for me, I had to work that afternoon and was not able to participate. Chris at GAJO tells me he will have photos of the battle up this weekend at www.Gajominis.com. I was able to get pictures of the setup on the Friday night before.

HMS Victory leads the windward column toward the enemy.

The rules used were Grand Fleet Action, a very good set for managing a large fleet action. I'm sure everyone had a great time last Saturday. Tonight, our club's first Armchair Admirals session will be held playing a WW2 naval game using the Micronauts: the Game set from GHQ.

While Chris set up the Trafalgar refight in the store lobby, several gamers including some of the N.U.T.S. players as well as some of our SNS chaps playing a large desert WW2 battle using Flames of War rules. From what I could tell, it was a game more for introducing new players and refreshing up on the rules. The table was packed with figures as you can see. From the look of things everyone was enjoying pushing armor.

Panzer III's maneuver through a gap in the ridge.

SNS Gamenight - July 2009

2009-07-25T08:10:00.000-07:00

This month, our only game on gamenight was a large game of Johnny Reb 3 in 28mm. Gary, Lynn and Pat have a large collection for this and prepared a Confederate General's dream: Outnumbering a defensive Union army by 2-1 odds. The first photo shows the Union troops setting upon the defending ridge.

Initial Union brigade defenses on the ridge.

The first of several Rebel brigades attacking the Union left flank.

A division of Reb troops prepares to attack the Union center across wide open fields.

I commanded the cavalry brigade on the Union right flank. I suspected that enemy units would be coming this way and intended to hold them up for a while as Union reinforcements arrived. Little did I know how many enemy troops were off table!

Two brigades of Union reinforcements arrive. Hordes of Confederate reinforcements arrive.

As the Union reinforces the right flank, the Stonewall Brigade advances across the fields.

My cavalry brigade fails to hold up three brigades of Rebs. Instead, they turn into a speed bump. A small speed bump.

Stonewall brigade moves fast across open space. Unfortunately for them, they faced 6 batteries of guns.

On the right flank the Union troops are losing the attrition battle and the first brigade is whittled down.

Survivors of the cavalry reform on the ridge. The reinforcing Union brigade on the right is smashed by 3 brigades of over-enthusiastic rebels.

Seen from the Rebel right flank, hordes of troops attack the Union left flank. (unfortunately in this picture you can see union figures being used as confederate troops. Arrrrg! The Horror!)

Union troops on the left flank of the ridge redeploy to stop the Confederate advance.

Seen from the confederate left flank, 3 rebel brigades overwhelm the Union right flank at the bottom of the ridge.

In the center, the confederates reach the bottom of the ridge and start up. The Union center has been weakened by withdrawing units to cover the flanks. However, the Union batteries on the hill absolutely "wrecked" the Stonewall brigade.

It's about over. The Rebs center assault rolls through the last units defending the ridge center and the game is called. There just aren't enough Yankees left to stop 2 divisions of troops crushing the center and left flank.

It was fun learning the Johnny Reb 3 rules again and playing with the large figures. Gary, Lynn and Pat have a tremendous collection to game with and I'm sure we'll be playing this again some time.

Brimtok Campaign - Marines clobber Space Orks

2009-06-25T18:32:00.000-07:00

Marines deployed in a central position with Terminators on a 2nd story platform and the Dreadnought in the middle.

Dave B and I played out one of the smaller skirmishes which take place as the Mantis Legion (or Mantis Warriors) makes landings on planet Brimtok. In the last skirmish, a 500-point marine force was destroyed. This time it was different. Taking place in city terrain at a location known as "Node 15" The Marines were trying to wipe out a small 700-point force of Orks gaurding an important warboss. 750 points of Mantis Warriors deployed in a central position ahead of the ork advance.

Orks advancing through the ruins of the bombarded city, which slowed them down tremendously, even with a "waaagh!" order. Note the warboss on a trukk on the flank.

Turn 1. Scout marines, infiltrating on a dangerous mission to assassinate the warboss, get a very lucky glancing hit on the trukk, which careens off the table edge and gets wiped out. The warboss is dead!

The scouts make a break for it, but the ork kommandos catch up.

Three Killa Kans burst through the ruins of the city's ruined sanctorium, and the farthest one gets hit by a plasma cannon blast from the marine dreadnought. Meanwhile, the main ork mob is having a few difficulties just trying to get through the rubble.

The kommandos wipe out the scouts in hand-to-hand combat. This game is an assassination mission, and the score know stands at 2-1 points in favor of the marines.

The terminators shift position on the platform and maul the remaining kommandos, killing all except their Nob- who promptly takes cover and prevents the marines from getting a victory point for wiping out a unit.

The main mob finally gets in position to charge the tactical squad. The killa kans are all immobilized or destroyed. All marine units begin firing on this mob.

The surviving mob charges! The nob charges the dreadnought with an amazing 7 attacks!

Everyone "piles in." The terminators and chaplain may make the difference as several tactical marines get crunched.

One by one the orks go down until the Nob is left, and surrounded by terminators, a chaplain, and the dreadnought. SPLAT!

The Mantis Warriors win 3 points to 1. Node 15 victory gives the marines a force bonus. There is one more Turn Zero game to play before we actually get done with the initial landings and start the first turn!

SNS June Games

2009-06-21T13:33:00.000-07:00

Our Saturday Night official gathering featured two games this month: Field of Glory 15mm, and Blue Sky/Red Sun 1/300.On the Friday night following, a few of us got together to go through the rules of Flames of War again.

The Early Visigoth army prepares to advance.

Dominate period Late Imperial Romans advance the skirmishers.

Visigoth heavy cavalry covers their right wing.

Legionnaires stand fast as the wings advance.

Skirmishers clash. Roman light cav comes off worst.

Roman cataphracts move up to support retreating horse archers.

...and that's where it ended up when time was called. Late start=unfinished game. Of course the game was an introduction game to two new players. Favorable reviews from participants. All figures prepainted from GAJO.

Meanwhile, in the Pacific, it's air combat between the US and the Empire of Japan.

Zeros are collecting a world of hurt. Russ put together all the nifty flight stands for his aircraft. I understand the Americans scored the victory.

One week later, Chris has set up another excellent table of the French countryside for Flames of War 15mm.

British infantry company starting positions. Support from a troop of Churchills and a troop of Shermans with a Firefly.

The British advance on the 2nd Panzer units defending a series of small hills bisected by the main road. There are already two burning armored cars on the British right flank. Curse those 88's.

2nd SS panzers moving up under cover of the flak batteries, which managed to knock out at least 5 Typhoons!

Close up of the 88's. Actually there was also a pair of 88's with the Jagdpanthers, and another pair of Pak43 88 AT guns. Figures painted by Gary Rhay, I'm told. British figures somewhat painted by me, I'm afraid. The game was called after 2 turns, as we had started very late. Lesson of the day - smaller forces are the rule for shorter battles.

D-Day Part 2

2009-06-08T19:07:00.001-07:00

When the store opened on Saturday (June 6), the bigger part of the game got under way. Even more players arrived to play the beach defenses and the amphibious landing. I believe I heard Craig say that this was the largest attendance for a Saturday Mega-game that the store has ever seen. Fitting that it would be for D-Day. Turn four of the game began, it was dawn on the 6th of June (for game purposes - I slept in this morning).

6th Airborne takes Pegasus Bridge. 21st Panzer assembles off-table.

4th US Infantry Division starts its landings.

4th turn started with a pre-turn aerial bombardment and then the landing craft were placed on the table. Alas, this blog will mostly cover only my part in the battle, so waddle over to http://www.gajominis.com and wait for them to post a complete battle report. My concern was defending St. Mére-Église from the 82nd Airborne.

The MG42s are silenced. 91st Luftlande troops defend the HQ across the street from the church.

The 82nd commander, Wil, played a great game. The 82nd troops launched several assaults to consolidate their positions and remove the German fighting platoons. First, the 91st's AT platoon bogged down trying to remove their guns from the woods, and were wiped out by the 82nd's hardest-hit platoon. So, the woods were gone. Luckily I placed my remaining sniper well at the crossroads (oops, a mistake, as I wasn't supposed to place a sniper within 4 inches of friendly troops - sorry, Wil). The mortar platoon and the MG42s did sterling work holding off the final 82nd assault.

The Church falls, HQ bugs out, leaving the sniper to cover the retreat.

Eventually Wil got his reinforcements. The 75mm pack howitzers landed a smoke barrage perfectly on the center of town and the 82nd's second platoon assaulted the MG and mortar platoons, wiping them out. As the US airborne consolidated, the German HQ began to retreat toward Carentan leaving the sniper to delay the American advance. Additionally, the remaining flak platoon would keep the airborne divisions from linking up.

The Fall of St. Mére-Église.

The sniper was never seen again, although small -arms fire was heard from the center of town. As the HQ retreated, the Flak platoon began raking the church tower with fire, knowing that the Americans would place observers there. No luck in stopping that, however. Soon the 82nd was raining mortar and artillery fire on anything wearing a feld-grau uniform. Unfortunately, the German defenders of Utah beach eventually caved under the weight of allied assaults and naval bombardments. Sherman tanks advancing from Utah finally linked up with the 82nd.

As the final paratrooper assault took out my flak platoon (leaving just the HQ survivors- and those at half strength), the security of Carentan was assured as the 101st ran out of assaulting platoons. In the end, the allies won the battle with 5 objectives captured to 4 objectives held. Not too dissimilar from the actual event.

A photo was taken of most of the participants, and I'm told an article with photos will appear later in one of those great British wargaming magazines. Looking forward to that.

D-Day 65th Anniversary

2009-06-06T08:21:00.000-07:00

GAJO set up a massive Flames Of War battle to represent the actions surrounding D-Day in WW2. This was a tremendous effort put on by the GAJO staff and the many participants. Chris and Craig and the GAJO staff have been preparing terrain and figures for months, as have many of the game players. It's all coming about just great!

The scenario is of course, representative of the large battle since it's impossible to accurately portray all the units and actual terrain of the event. Model Railroaders call this sort of scaling down as "Selective Compression." The idea is to at least get a "Feel" of the action and the strategies involved. Chris and Craig definitely got the feel of the Normandy coast, even though for the game's sake they had to shorten the beaches and represent familiar landmarks with the buildings available. Still, it was nice to see touches such as sign posts correct for the towns and roads of the area. Pegasus bridge was nicely represented as well as Pointe-du-Hoc and other objectives. The players are all big WW2 history nuts. One participant even wore his WW2 re-enactor's uniform for the 82nd Airborne! Nice touch to the atmosphere of the game.

The game was set over a two day period. Last night, June 5th, we gamed the airborne landings. After three turns, a roll of the dice indicated dawn arrived on time (meaning weather was not so bad as to obscure the dawn light). Play was suspended until the store opens today, June 6, with the dawn turn and the commencement of the landings.

Defense of St.Mére-Église. Dice ready for action.

My focus for this blog are the actions I was involved in, the defense of St. Mére-Église. To defend against the U.S. airborne I shared the command of the 91st Luftlände troops. This was a unit of former Luftwaffe troops trained to be airlifted into emergency situations. The game started with the 91st already in the defensive areas of St. Mére-Église (facing the 82nd) and Carentan (facing the 101st). The American players had to set out pathfinder markers and roll to see which units arrived randomly among the pathfinders or marched in off-board. Differently than the actual event, platoons arrived intact but randomly placed for arrival. This made it very difficult for the German players at first.

The bad luck die rolls hit the 101st player. He only managed to get two platoons of airborne to advance towards Carentan. His first platoon managed to overrun the outer defense, but snipers managed to pin the unit before they could overrun a 105mm battery. Because night rules were in effect, by nearby 20mm Flak platoon was unable to see the Americans well enough to target them. The second platoon has moved on slowly and cautiously. The Germans in Carentan are able to adjust their defenses.

82nd attacks 91st. 82nd will take the building at high cost.

In the 82nd sector, the Americans got 3 infantry platoons to come on through the fields outside of St. Mére-Église. The 82nd went into assault attempts immediately, and it was a fierce fight for the woods outside of town center. One sniper team helped to pin a platoon and accurate mortar fire helped pin another. Nonetheless, by the end of the third turn I had lost my two grenadier platoons, my sniper, and the Americans held the road to Cherbourg and one third of the town. I am left with some MG42 teams, a mortar platoon, an anti-tank platoon, a flak platoon, and Company HQ.

Find the sniper team pinning down 2nd/82nd.

Dawn is breaking. There's a tremendous rumbling from the coast. While my position in St. Mere-Eglise is precarious, Carentan is held strong and a Fallschirmjager company will arrive next turn. Plus, the night rules are over, and I think my observer in the bell tower will be quite busy...

Remains of 82nd 1st and 2nd platoons hold the center building and part of the distant woods. In the church just to the right are the observer team and a small MG42 platoon. It will take careful coordination between remaining German teams to pin the 82nd until (hopefully) reinforcements can arrive. But the 82nd gets more reinforcements shortly...

Last Stand in the Brimtok Bush

2009-06-03T15:06:00.000-07:00

Weird planets have weird forests. This time my Mantis Warriors had a 500 point patrol up against a 500 point force of rampaging Space Orks. Annihilation mission, Spearhead setup. Played at GAJO. Dave Baker played the unstoppable Orks.

Main Mob advances while stormboys leapfrog past them.

Mantis Warriors use cover. Firelanes ready...

The Chaplain joined up with the tactical squad. The scouts tried to pick lines of fire on probable ork approaches. The attack bike squadron zoomed out to harass the mobs. My main idea was to try to lay out lines of fire to hose down the horde of greenies. It was not to be...

Wait - where's the Boss and the nobz goin'?

Throughout the game I rolled very poorly, and the attack bikers failed to slow anyone down. All they did was attract the attention of the biggest mob!

Suddenly the truck backs up and out spill the Nobz!

Stormboyz jump in just in time...

It's Whomping time!

Everybody Piles In. Most everyone dies.

I rolled bad for assaults, too. The marines were strong enough not to run away, so they died off in ones and twos. Or threes and fours. The Scouts rushed in to help the chaplain. The main mob, having finished off the attack bikes, rushed in after them. When it was all said and done, the marines had been wiped out and there were but few orks left.

A chance for revenge will be coming soon...

2nd Brimtok battle

2009-05-31T14:00:00.000-07:00

The Brimtok Campaign is off to a good start finally. Another game has taken place between my Mantis Warrior space marines and my brother's Tau forces. Our battle this time was a 1500 point space marine force versus 1000 points of Tau. Advantage marines, but the Tau got extra bonuses in the form of orbital bombardment and anti-plant barrage. The struggle was for an observation post located in a mountainous and forested region. Unfortunately, I don't have any mountain terrain, so hilly would have to do (small hills). You be the judge:

The mission was Annihilation and the deployment was Dawn of War. Not a good prospect for the Tau, as they were on the short points end of the stick. This time I thought I would put my heavy hitters in the center of the line and flank with lighter forces.

Marine scouts infiltrate through woods and brush.

Too late! Tau infantry have reached the larger post. Tau commander approaching.

The Crisis battlesuits moving in with a unit of gun drones.

The allied Leman Russ could pose quite a problem!

The Tau commander is moving under the platform.

Scouts reach the edge of the woods and engage the Tau. One scout down!

The attack bikes moved around the scout's side to flank the large platform. By now, the Tau had taken the smaller platform as well and a hovercraft was entering the field by that tower. My Chaplain joined a squad of tactical marines heading for the small platform while my Devastators, Whirlwind, Vindicator, and Dreadnought headed toward the Leman Russ.

The Mantis Warriors move up.

The Landspeeder and attack bikes figured to flank the large platform and engage the gun drones and Crisis battlesuits. The scouts job was to pin the Tau infantry in the platform. The Whirlwind wanted to stay out of line of sight and fire barrages. But what to do about the Leman Russ?

Mantis Warriors keep the Tau from taking the platform.

But watch out for the Hovertank!

I tried to knock out the Tau vehicles with Hunter Killer missiles, but those all missed. All fire directed at the Leman Russ was either too short or missed. At least the Tactical squad kept the Tau infantry from advancing. Lucky for me, the Tau commander kept forgetting to use his marker lights and guided missiles launched from the hovertank! This would have been a perfect time for the Tau to use an anti-plant barrage to wipe out the cover for the marines, but it was completely forgotten. Unfortunately, for the Tau, the opening orbital bombardment was a disappointment as well.

Frack! The Crisis unit has joined up at the platform and begins eliminating the scouts.

Bad luck for the marines. The Landspeeder gets shot down, and the attack bikes take hits. The Vindicator weapon is destroyed, and no missile launchers seem able to get any glancing hits on the Leman Russ. Then luck changes a bit. A lascannon hit stuns the Leman Russ crew. The Tau commander rushes out to engage the tactical squad.

Tau Crisis battlesuits attack!

David launched his Crisis unit toward the scouts to use his flamers. The scouts took casualties but stayed in action. The gun drones were whittled down by the attack bikes. And now, the Crisis unit was in view of the dreadnought.

Tactical Squad and Chaplain Maximus engage the Tau commander.

The tactical squad assaulted the Tau commander and cleaned his clock. The dreadnought began picking off Crisis battlesuits. The Whirlwind made a mess of Tau infantry on the platform.

The Dreadnought makes a mess of the Crisis Unit.

The Dreadnought eventually finishes off the Crisis unit, the remaining scouts finish the Tau on the platform, and the attack bike ends the gun drones. The lascannon in the devastator unit has had the only luck with the Leman Russ so far.

Chaplain Maximus and the Tactical squad assault the Leman Russ!

The consolidation of the tactical squad after defeating the Tau commander put them in range to assault the immobilized Leman Russ (lucky lascannon shot!). Their grenades did the trick just barely, knocking out the tank. The Tau now remembered to use their marker lights but failed to get a lock. The hovertank moved in towards the smaller platform to engage the marines.

Last moves of the Tau. Their marker light just wouldn't engage!

Maximus and the boys assault the hovertank!

Maximus and the Tactical squad just barely manage to knock out the hovertank at the end. I forget who wiped out the last of the Tau infantry. A devastating win for the Mantis Warriors.

Our next battles should be a couple of 500-point patrol games of Space Marines versus the Space Orks!

For the SNS game night in June, we're planning two games: Field of Glory ancients, and some sort of WW2 dogfighting game in the Pacific. This weekend many of us will be involved in the GAJO store D-Day games using Flames of War.

Saturday Gamenight

2009-05-16T07:10:00.000-07:00

On our last SNS gamenight, our clubmembers organized two games. Out in the main lobby of GAJO's store, I set up a game on one of the 6 x 4 tables. It was a French & Indian War skirmish using the Warhammer Historical rules, Legends of the High Seas. LOTHS is basically a pirate skirmish rules game, but it covers the basic black powder period so I thought I'd try a different theme to it. In the scenario, a force of French-led warriors is raiding the frontier while the settlers must defend their homesteads with the help of a squad of British soldiers and frontiersmen. The actual object of the battle was for both sides to keep possession of Mrs. Jones, a settler with wide reputation for her cooking skills. She had to be protected at all costs!

The French and indian forces deployed randomly off table edges after the colonials had set up. As luck would have it, most of the native units deployed close to the cabin where Mrs. Jones was holed up with the militia. The British soldiers were located by a barnyard in the center of the table while the best unit on the table, named the "Albany Rangers" were positioned on a hill some distance away!

Seen above, the French Captain in charge of the raid led a Canadian militia section across the fields to try to pin down the British soldiers and keep them from reinforcing the settlers in the cabin (upper left corner). Unfortunately for Dennis, his men were gunned down by the Redcoats and long range fire from the Rangers who were coming off the hill off picture to the right. Eventually the French Captain and a couple of his men faced off in the barn against the British officer and his men. In a classic sword and bayonet duel, the French officer and his men went down fighting.

My poor roll for deployment landed my band of warriors led by Thunder Badger into a swampy marsh. I could see there were plenty of warriors attacking the cabin so I decided to try to get past the marsh and hold off the Albany Rangers before they could help the colonial militia. Unfortunately the wetlands really slowed me down. At least there was some vegetation as cover.

As my band of braves emerged from the marsh the rangers were taking aim from the edge of the woods at the bottom of the hill. A lively firefight began. In the meantime, the warriors attacking the cabin were being pinned down in a stream gully . Dave's militia were picking off some of their attackers from loopholes made in the cabin walls. Terry and Jeff (visitor for that game) were organizing for a rush from the stream embankment. With the failure of the French Captain and the Canadian militia, for some reason the British Captain and a couple of his men pulled away from the farm - perhaps a "strategic regrouping"?

Crazy Squirrel and Red Hawk led their warriors from the stream embankment for a rush to the cabin. The militia seen outside the cabin are assumed to be inside at the loopholes. After a couple of volleys some warriors fell, but others quickly surrounded the cabin and hand-to-hand combat began. Some warriors set fire to the empty barn, the militia outside of the cabin at the fence were dispatched, and a warrior pulled Mrs. Jones out of the cabin! Belatedly, the British Captain began heading back to the cabin. Unfortunately, Thunder Badger's warriors attempted to engage the rangers in hand-to-hand, and Norm rolled better than I did. Thunder Badger and two of his warriors survived to escape back through the marsh. At least they kept the rangers from reinforcing the cabin fight! The French and Indians won the day with the capture of Mrs. Jones.

Everyone said they enjoyed the skirmish. I think we were all surprised at how the LOTHS could be applied to other-than-pirate scenarios. We'll be playing these rules again. Quick to learn, and easy to modify. The figures are all painted by GAJO. I'm slowly building up enough forces to do a more tactically oriented game using the rules This Very Ground by Iron Ivan.

The other game was going on at the same time in the back room on the larger table.

Gary, Lynn, and Paul were playing a large game of Flames of War set in Normandy 1944. I have to apologize to the guys, most of the pictures I took of that game turned out poorly. Here we see Paul's panzer forces advancing through hedges and fields. I love the sunflower field that Chris created (originally made for the Kursk game). It's created in sections so that as vehicles drive through the sections are removed as flattened. I don't know how the game went. I suppose if people want accounts of the games I don't play in to be posted, they'll just have to email me a report! I'll try to do better at photographing the other games though.

Next month we'll be playing Field of Glory ancients and Johnny Reb III American Civil War. Should be fun! We've also decided that we're not playing enough FOW games... so we've created an Auxiliary gaming night starting next month.

Brimtok Campaign - 1st battle

2009-05-06T15:03:00.000-07:00

Some of us in the group also dabble in various sci-fi and fantasy games, including the various Games Workshop products. Nothing like a campaign to provide incentive for gaming, so Dave Baker created a planet named Brimtok which needs fighting over. It seems the industrious Tau have been spreading their influence throughout the region, and have managed to swing over planet Brimtok to their side. The Imperial Guard regiments stationed there have given up on the Imperium and have sided with the Tau. Well, we can't have that now, can we? So, the Space Marines have been summoned to give each side a bloody nose and sort things out. Unfortunately, some Chaos forces and their allied Ork forces have entered the arena in the hope of taking advantage of the mess.

Our first game pits my Mantis Warrior space marines versus a combined Tau/Traitor Guard force. 1500 points against about 1200-1300 points. The photo at the top is our battlefield, an Imperial orchard farm.

Above, Dave D sets up his Tau/Guard with fast forces on the wings and the Tau commander and a Leman Rus in the center. Marine objective is the hill.

The Mantis Warriors deployed in similar fashion. The Tau objective is the farm building.

As the battle begins, one of the planet's giant natural lifeforms makes an ominous appearance! Slightly larger than an Ork Stompa and smaller than a Titan, the enormous felinus giganticus (who goes by the name of "Mutton") strode across the battlefield, perhaps attracted by all the commotion. Weaving between the large yet deftly moving legs of the creature, a Tau squad moves forward to support their advancing right wing recon.

Mantis Warriors engage the Tau right wing. The scout scout moves quickly into the orchard while the Rhino and dreadnought move up. The landspeeder begins gunning down hovering drones before turning toward the Tau hovercraft.

The Tau commander moves up a well as the Guard tank. The tank is the 800 pound gorilla in the room. How to stop it?

Mutton the war cat settles down in a nearby lair, oblivious to the noises of battle nearby. The Mantis Warrior assault bikes and Devastator squad begin picking off the Guard sentinels.

On the marine left,a shootout begins between the Tau and Mantis Warriors. The Landspeeder is shot down but takes out half the drones. A squad of marines debarks from the Rhino before it might get destroyed...

The Sentinels take hits. In the center (left of picture), the marine Vindicator and the Guard Leman Russ trade wasted shots at each other.

Aaaieee! Disaster hits a Guard squad. Well, actually it was heavy bolter fire, not the giant claws reaching out for tasty morsels of mortals.

As the Leman Rus moves toward the Vindicator in the center of the marine line, a Guard squad moves through an orchard in support. Vindicator fire is joined by Whirlwind fire, but nothing seems to slow down the tank.

Attrition on the marine right wing. The assault bikes are lost but the Devastator squad takes out sentinels and guardsmen.

The Tau commander engages in hand-to-hand with the scouts in the orchard. Not seen on the marine left, the Tau lose the drones and hovercraft. The dreadnought moves to assist the scouts. In the center, the Vindicator is finally destroyed (has not survived a game yet) and the Terminators take some casualties but wipe out the Guard squad. Tau infantry drop like flies (big, humanoid ones).

Then we ran out of time, and called the game. The Mantis Warriors just squeak by on points, with no objectives taken by either side. Good game to learn the rules, however!

SNS Gamenight - April 2009- Age of Sail

2009-04-13T21:07:00.000-07:00

There was only a small group of us for our monthly gamenight (I'll bet Easter week had something to do with it). I had planned to present a demonstration of Warhammer Historical's new Trafalgar age of sail naval rules. For this game, the British and French ships shared similar crew qualities and ship statistics.

Trafalgar is aimed primarily at the Napoleonic Wars period of sailing combat. You can use multiple scales, but as my small fleet of 1/1200 ships is not ready, I decided to use the GAJO store fleets of 1/2400 ships by Figurehead. Chris has done a great job painting these up, and I've used them in a couple of games using Grand Fleet Actions. For Trafalgar, one must reduce ranges and speeds in half for this scale. Fortunately, the Yahoo! egroup supporting these rules is a busy group, and someone has already provided downloadable charts and rosters with the scale modifications already made. Of course I made full use of these.

Dennis and Russ took the French ships while Lynn and I piloted the British ships. If we had seen more players, we would have included 74-gunners. As it was, 2 first-rate and 2 second-rate ships on each side hammered it out. Trafalgar requires several templates for turning and cannon fire-arcs, as well as a multitude of status counters. I made cut-out copies of the templates, and we used different colored pipe cleaner segments to represent ship status.

After several rounds of maneuvering, the fleets came within average contact distance. In the top photo, one of the French ships has taken enough damage to have started a fire.

I decided to use Litko mini-splash markers to enhance the battlefield appearance. Although not necessary, you could also use them to help you remember how many hits your ship has taken that turn.

The lead French ships on the left have both suffered rudder jams and must continue sailing straight ahead. Formidable (80) is beginning a turn to try to cut off the rearward British ships, she takes a severe rake from Royal George(100). Behind the Royal George, Cornwall (80) also suffers a rudder damage and sails straight while Boyne(80) steers around. While Ville De Paris(120) burns, poor Victory (100) in the front of the British squadron suffers a critical hit preventing firing that turn.

While the French leads L'Orient(120) and Ville De Paris fail to fix rudders and sail on, action gets fierce in the back. A non-fouling collision between Formidable and Royal George hurts the British ship more than the French, and yet Formidable's hull takes a severe pounding from other ships. The French are aiming high, however, and both Cornwall and Boyne lose a mast each and much rigging. Fire breaks out on Royal George.

Unfortunately, we had started the game late and so decided to call it at this point. Everyone felt the game was nicely done, and there seems to be enough detailed damage to satisfy each player. We felt that new players should start with a couple of ships but once the rules are learned a player could control a small squadron. We will definitely be playing this set of rules again.

CWC Game at GAJO

2009-03-25T19:44:00.000-07:00

Russ staged a huge Cold War Commander game on a non-club night, pitting Israelis against a coalition of Arabs in the 1970's. He used a modified scenario from the old Avalon Hill boardgame Arab-Israeli Wars. I get a strange satisfaction from playing the Jordanians, so I got that part of the coalition, which also consisted of Iraqi and Syrian armor. Mine was the smaller force. The main view above is from the Syrian position as their armor and mech infantry head for a town in the center of the board. The Israelis will be coming down the open area along the ridge on the right. The Iraqis are attacking toward the town from the left. My Jordanians are in place off table to their left (close to the store door).

Above is shown the Israeli deployment. Vast Quantities of Centurions and mech infantry race towards the town and the Syrian side of the table in the background, while a task force of M50s and halftrack-mounted infantry move to intercept Iraqi armor skirting to the left of the town.

Syrian armor advancing to meet the Israeli threat. Not only was there a ton of Russ-provided minis, but Bart and Dennis supplied a huge number of minis as well. Unfortunately, the Syrians would experience difficulties with command orders today. Their advance was slowed.

The M50 group encounters Iraqi tank battalions coming at the Israelis from the flank. Some of the Super Shermans and infantry got caught deploying and suffered casualties. Notice that there is no sign of the Jordanians yet, which are sitting off-table at the bottom of the picture. In the distance, the Israelis were first into the town and were fighting off Iraqi assaults.

The Shermans give back as good as they get. These Shermans were able to hold back the Iraqi flank attack while the Centurions off camera to the left engaged the Syrians at long range. And why no Jordanians yet? Because I had secret orders to hold back. It seems that the Jordanians in the real battle that this scenario represents held back in real life. You see, their brigade general refused to take orders from the lower-ranking Iraqi commander. In the very far distance the Syrians are sending a real general to give the Jordanians their orders. So got to sit and throw a quiet tantrum at my fellow players! Actually I'm just the kind of player to give such a command, I love these little role-play bits.

From the Israeli left flank point of view. The Centurions are dueling at long range with the Syrian tank hordes while infantry repulse Iraqi infantry from the town.

Syrian mech infantry finally getting near the town. They still had trouble getting in. Faulty memory at work here, but I believe they were held off by artillery.

Israeli infantry deployed in town. The Centurions in the background will be shortly suffering severe casualties.

Syrian armor taking occasional hits and more often than not insufficient command rolls. However, their long-range fire is taking a steady toll on the Israelis.

Finally, a BTR with a Syrian general arrives and issues battle orders to the Jordanian brigadier. Satisfied at last, the Jordanians drive forward into the flank of the M50s. The Jordanians were blessed with very good command rolls, and the mech infantry battalion surged forward hoping to seize rocky terrain to the left of the picture. Their job would be to blunt Israeli reinforcements, seen assembling in the distance. The Jordanian Centurions attacked what was left of the M50s, practically destroying everything left. They would next encounter a counterattack of Israeli Centurions. Unfortunately, time ran out and the game was called slightly in favor of the Arab coalition.

Figures and vehicles are 15mm Quality Castings, QRF, and Old Glory. Terrain mostly hand-crafted and set up by Chris and Dennis at GAJO. Sorry for some of the fuzzier photos.

SNS Gamenight - March 2009

2009-03-15T13:55:00.001-07:00

The Saturday Night Skirmishers met for our monthly get together at GAJO's. The subject was Flames of War 15mm WW2. Specifically, I created a scenario representative of the British battles around Caen in 1944. The beautiful table terrain you see in the photo above was put together by Chris at GAJO's the day before we were scheduled to play. Big points for him, the table looked fantastic and was battled over with much enthusiasm.

This was a bigger game than originally designed, we ended up with three visitors for the game: welcome Pat, Casey and Norm. Norm just recently returned from duty in Afghanistan, and he gets extra points for putting up with a billion questions from all of us (especially me). Casey gets extra points for being Gary's son and putting the crunch on his dad: his British infantry (my figures, ta-da!) made a mess of Gary's PanzerGrenadiers. And Pat gets points merely for deploying more Tigers than your average zoo. Any one else want points? They're free...

I used scenario 1, Hill Defense Line, from Charles Grant's book "Programmed Wargames Scenarios." I used the random terrain generator, and some of the random orders and objectives. The Germans were assigned to hold the ridge in the photo on the left, and specifically not to move beyond it... which they promptly disobeyed. They evidently figured on a more successful outcome if they were to counter-attack the attacking British. Of course, if you know your history, that IS in keeping with German tactical doctrine. Dave B's Fallschirmjager moved down the flank of the hill (affectionately named "Fromage Ridge") and among the nearby fields and hedges. Gary's Stugs and Panzergrenadiers in Sd 251's moved down the paved road in the center, followed by Pat's Tigers. Dennis valiantly marched his Luftwaffe field troops off the hill into a meatgrinder among the bocage. His Stugs evidently caught the atention of the British FAC.

In the picture, Dennis is doing his best to shoot down Russ' Typhoon before it rockets his remaining Stugs. His triple-A did all right, scoring hits on several planes, but enough hits got in to cripple the Stug force. By the end of the game, the LW troops had taken severe losses and Dennis felt he might have to withdraw.

Lucky for the Germans then, that we did not finish the game. We started a little late, and that meant we ran out of time to reach a conclusion. So no one really won, although the Brit players (Russ, Casey, Lynn, Norm) get a points advantage for following orders!

Most everybody in the group loves FOW and the guys want to play more. Good. We all need to learn the rules better. GAJO is setting up a large FOW mega-battle next month.

Wasatch Wargamers

2009-03-05T20:34:00.000-08:00

The first group I gamed with in Utah was the Wasatch Wargamers. For those of you outside of Utah, Wasatch refers to the Wasatch Front of the Rocky Mountains which runs the length of the populated valleys north, east, and south of Salt Lake City. It does not refer to a big hairy beast (although we've all met gamers like that). The informal club met in the home of Dr. Whit Young in Bountiful (north of SLC). Along with his two enthusiastic sons there were about a dozen of us who rotated in and out of the group.

The WW gamed exclusively in the Napoleonic period, in "old scale" 25mm. Many of the figures were older Hinton Hunt, Minifigs, Phoenix, etc. Today's plastic 1/72 figures can be used alongside them without too much noticeable difference. Rules used were home-grown "Eagles and Empires."

What made this gaming different was the scale ratio - 1:12.5! A typical French 720-man battalion would have about 58 figures in it! Figures were based on company stands except for skirmishers, which were mounted 2 per stand. This made for quite the visual spectacle as big battalions maneuvered about the table - and cavalry regiments were impressive! Because of the scale, the game table was enormous - we filled the basement family room! And in fact, sometimes we simply used the floor.

The photos I've included show a "small" game... small because we didn't pack the table with figures.

In this view I've sent out a battalion of French allies to put pressure on the British battalions near the bridge in the distance, who themselves are under pressure from French cavalry. Of course my movement triggered a rush by nearby British cavalry who thought they'd pick my battalion's bones for dinner.

In this last view, even more cavalry has joined the fray and it's getting very dangerous out there. So I sent in another battalion to support the first battalion. Unfortunately, I don't remember the outcome of this one, as it was quite a while ago. I'll bet I soon formed square, though.

Anyway, this gives you an idea of gaming with the Wasatch Wargamers. Sorry about the disjointedness of the photo placements, as I'm just getting used to editing this stuff with photos using html.

My Mini Wars - A Start

2009-03-04T20:55:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my new blog!

My Mini Wars is dedicated to covering the exploits of little lead or plastic armies and navies fighting it out for world - or galactic- domination. Miniature wargaming has its roots going back to H. G. Wells and his book "Little Wars" which detailed his hobby of playing simulations or games with model soldiers. Similarly, in the inter-war years between WW1 and WW2, Fletcher Pratt and Fred T. Jane invented naval wargaming using small model ships to simulate naval maneuvers and warfare. Of course it all goes back to the German Generals and their use of Kreigspiel, or the wargame, to plan their upcoming battles.

The nice thing about miniature wargaming is that there are no little lead widows. After a game of miniature combat, the generals shake hands and brag about their exploits. What I find remarkable is that most wargamers I know have a profound understanding of history, a deep appreciation for our fellow citizens in the actual armed forces, and a genuine desire for actual peace. If only the rest of the world would follow suit.

My ramblings here will sometimes cover the activities of several wargames clubs active in the area of Salt Lake City, Utah, as well as my own battles with friends and our support for the best wargame store in Utah, GAJO GAMES (http://www.gajominis.com).

Photo above is of 25mm Napoleonic British from action with the Wasatch Wargamers club in Bountiful.