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.

Starting 2012 Right- with game pics

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

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

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

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

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.