January SNS: FOW 15mm, 1945

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.

Recent Games

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.

October Game: BlackPowder Napoleonics

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

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

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.

July's SNS game: BKC!

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!

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!