Battle of Bobruisk

 I played a Flames of War game the other night as part of the clubs's current Bagration campaign and decided to resurrect my blog to post my thoughts on the game.

I was playing against Daniel La Salle who set up the table and was fielding a Hungarian infantry force supported by a unit of Hetzers and a unit of Hungarian tanks with the German "Armoured Train" -- really infantry and some armoured cars-- as well as a German Pioneer unit. As he was out of supply his basic force was reduced.

 

I decided  that since I was attacking a city I would take as much artillery as I could so my force was based around a T-34/85 Battalion with 2 companies of 5 tanks each. I took a battery of Katyushas, one of  152mm howitzers, one of 122mm guns and a small battery of 76mm guns. For Firestorm I had a battery of SU-76 self-propelled 76mm guns plus another 3 T3/85s. To round out I took 7 OT-34/76 flame tanks -- and an armoured car with an observer

We were playing the rearguard scenario so I had 9 turns to win so I just had to be patient and not rush forward while there were still threats around (I have never been able to do this)
My tanks did well on the first few turns bashing the Hetzers and the Hungarian made tanks and not taking too much damage in return but my artillery was not all that effective -- not ranging in and not doing too much when it hit. To be fair I probably fired too much of it at the enemy armour since my tanks were doing a much better job of killing the tanks. Three 75mm ATGs appeared from ambush in the crossroads and did quite a bit of damage, I should have been more proactive in moving out of LOS from them.

Soon the Hetzers were wiped on the right flank and the other tanks were gone on the left.

At this point I should have moved some tanks up on the mortars which were damaging my artillery by this point but I figured with 2 batteries ranged in on them at this point I wouldn't need to do that

Some Hungarian infantry moved up to the hedgeline and got burned to crisp by the OT-34s -- I could have then moved them over to burn up the 75mm gus but I didn't want to disrupt my ranged in markers

The German pioneers moved up in the centre though the houses and took quite a pounding but when I moved my tanks to engage I got a bit too close the Hungarian infantry

They managed to close assault and broke my formation (since I only had 2 tank units in my base force). If I had been patient I think it would have been an easy win for me given the setup but I was to hasty and Daniel took full advantage of that. All lot of the damage my tanks took in my previous game against Mike was also done by infantry so I really need to become more aware of the real threat range of infantry.

The OT-34s are quite deadly, I would bring them out again and going with the T-34/85 worked well, I usually go with either a lot of T-34/76s or a smaller number of heavy tanks and I think the T-34/85 in the middle might be the best choice in general for the Soviets.

I am glad I tried this force and I might try something similar in the future but it is hard to rely on Russian Artillery

Flames of War: Stalingrad Campaign battle report

This weekend I played a game of Flames of War at the Ottawa Miniatures Gamers meeting against Martin. This was the third round of games for the Stalingrad Firestorm camapaing but it was the first that I have played in.

I wasn't really super-excited to get anything new for this campaign but I did decide last weekend I would assemble and paint the 10 Plastic Soldier Company Churchills that I had bought (I think for a D-Day campaign several years ago). I airbrushed them with their base colour and added a bit of detail and shading and I think they turned out OK. I could have but some decals on them but to be honest, I really couldn't be bothered. I do have some 15mm tanks that I have put a lot of effort into but at the moment I don't really enjoy working on them relative to 28mm figures.

To round out the force -- the 10 Churchills (3 units of 3 plus HQ) cost 90 of my 100 points so I added in a Reconnaissance Platoon to take advantage of the spearhead rule and an SMG Company in case I had to hold an objective. I also had a unit of 2 IL-2 Shturmoviks as my Firestorm unit.

I set up with all the Churchills in the deployment bubble created by the Recon troops. Looking at this picture, I probably should have just forced the fight for the near objective by the bridge but I decided to try and force the Germans to spread out a bit so attacked on a broader front.

Martin had both 8.8cm AA and Marders which were the two things I feared. I had  hoped that my planes would be able to at least distract the 8.8cm guns but they were no where to be seen in the first 2 turns.

The 88s and Marders took out 2 of the Churchills on the objective on the first turn and the other Churchill pushed back the infantry and mortars along the river line. A unit of 2 captured T-34s appeared but I destroyed one and the other failed its last man standing roll. I was really worried but on the second turn the Marders and 88s missed (there might have been on or 2 hits from the Marders but I made my armour saves).

My IL-2s finally came in and took out one of the 88s and then other failed its last man standing roll (my lone Churchill on the bridge kept making its roll turn after turn). The other Churchills were taking out the Mortars and 10.5cm guns (which in hindsight was not really a good use of their time). I was ignoring the Panzer IIIs as their short 5.0cm guns couldn't penetrate from the front (the could get a tie)

On the last turn all my Churchill were bailed out and I couldn't get enough back in to make my Force Morale and lost. It ended up as a 6-3 due to the German losses.

It was a very enjoyable game and I think it looked like it was going to either way throughout the game.

I am still not super enthusiastic about Flames of War V4 but I will play games when they are available. I should be free to play next month so maybe I will try and infantry force next time.

Progress Report Q1 2019

This year has been pretty good for painting, almost all of it for Saga.

I finished off my Late Roman Warband. This was supposed to be combined with some of my Early Romans to make a more balanced force but I discovered I couldn't easily re-base them so I have this all hearthguard cavalry force which is not really a winning strategy in Saga. Still it should be fun to play and I think the Cataphracts will work well for my usual playstyle of concentrating too much on one good unit.

Once I finished off the Romans I made some good progress on my Franks. I got base colours on them all and ordered some decals. Because I still didn't have enough to do a force with Roland (he needs 4 points of foot at the beginning and then 4 points of mounted after he dies), I have bought a 4 point starter box of Goths who will masquerade as Franks when required.

When the Age of Magic was announced I put the Franks on hold to work on the Revenants. They are still a work in progress. Half are just primed and the others have block flesh colours. If I can get through them this month and then paint the Undead Legions next month I will be in good shape for the Age of Magic event at Cangames

While working on the other stuff, I finished off the two Viking Champions I got from ordering from Gripping Beast as well as Boadicea and Cartamanda.

Finally, once I had my airbrush working again I decided to actually paint something for the Stalingrad Campaign and built a Lend-Lease Churchill force. They are only primed so far but should paint up quickly once I get the right colour.

Plans for the coming months focus on Cruel Seas terrain for Cangames and the undead for Saga: Age of Magic. After that it will be some more Saga terrain and the Franks/Goths. I might turn the airbrush on some Team Yankee Warsaw Pact forces if the mood strikes.

Plans for 2019

I didn't do a planning post last year and managed to avoid going terribly off course so maybe I am courting disaster by doing one this year but since one of my goals is to use the blog to keep focused I will go ahead anyway.

My basic goals for the year are to play more and buy less. I would also like to paint more but I have realized I need to be in the right state of mind to do that so I am not going to push that but I will make sure I have my painting setup ready to go when the mood strikes!

These are the games that will be in my mind (and hopefully on the table this year)

SAGA

This was my most played game last year and with the appearance of  the Book of Battles looks likely to be my most played this year. I have created the terrain needed for the Book of Battles (as discussed here ) so my next goal is to paint some baggage and livestock that is required for some of the scenarios

I should finish my Spanish Warriors

But I seem to have a bit of a block with them so I might skip ahead and paint the foot troops for the Franks which I think will give me enough of a force to actually play with them (though not enough to use Roland which is my long term Frankish goal).

Next up will be the Black Hoods mercenary unit and beyond that it gits a bit hazy but I want to get some more units painted for my Islamic forces

The Age of Magic will be coming out this year and I will hopefully finally paint the Revenants and I am tempted to paint some Mantic Games Naiad to use alongside some Vikings

The Walking Dead: All out War
Now that the Motel is finished, my terrain goals for this are to finish the Diner and the office building (I also have a swimming pool and playground to go with the Motel that should get done this year)

In terms of painting, I want to get through the figure from the Made to Suffer expansion and once I get those done (at least the survivors, I feel that I have more zombies than I would need now) I will get the Fear the Hunters expansion -- I have some interest in the Campaign rules, but realistically I know that I won't play enough to actually use them.

I have two side projects that I would like to at least do something with this year -The first is to do Cops vs Narcos using the Walking Dead rules

And the second is to use the town terrain to run Gaslands with 28mmish cars -- The Sunday Drivers expansion for the old Steve Jackson Games Car Wars was always a favourite.

Cruel Seas
I have high hopes for this game but I am holding off buying more until we have played at least one game. If it does play well I am seriously considering running a larger game at CanGames with either an attack on the Monitor HMS Abercrombie at D-DAY or and attack on some Liberty Ships in the English Channel

Team Yankee

I should get the airbrush out and finish of my Soviets but I am not sure if that will happen. I do hope to play some more games of this -- it has always been a fun game in spite of itself.

I am tempted by the Czech Dana Self-propelled artillery but there is too much unpainted to add more to the pile.

Flames of War

The OMG club is running a Stalingrad campaign this year and I will play in that but I have no desire to paint anything (I do have some Soviet SMG troops that are primed that I feel I should paint but I don't think they will actually get done)

Hail Caesar

At the moment I have no strong desire to run this at Cangames and my painting passion is more geared towards SAGA so I think there will not be much movement on this front this year

Boardgames

I am looking forward to another year of Boardgames with the Thursday night group 

2015: The Year in Review

Looking back over my blog posts for this year it was a pretty good year for playing games but it wasn't all that great for painting (but it wasn't really terrible for that either). I will divide the year up by game rather than time and take a look at what was (and wasn't accomplished)

Descent 2nd Edition:
After having this game for over a year (and buying more expansions than I would care to admit) I started playing this in the summer (we are about halfway through the Heir of Blood campaign now). When I bought this my plan was to paint all the plastic figures and that way I would get something out if it even if I didn't play that much. I did manage to get a reasonable chunk of the base set done when I first got it and I thought that once I started playing it, I would be frantically painting but the reality is that nothing got done (but the game is a lot of fun!)

Flames of War:
We played 2 campaigns at the club in 2015: Firestorm Lorraine and a Fate of the Nation Escalation campaign. Both were a lot of fun and I did a fair bit of painting for both.

For the Fate of a Nation, I painted a bunch of T-55s, SU-100s, PT-76 and and IS-3s for the Egyptians and some Ishermans and AMX-13s for the Israelis. On the downside I bought some M48s and Sho'ts as well as infantry for both sides that didn't get painted (though some of the infantry is primed!)

For Firestorm Lorraine, I had posted my painting goals here and I think I did a pretty good job of getting through that stuff. The PZ IV/70s, the PZ IVs and the Panthers all saw action during the campaign and I think the halftracks got assembled. I also didn't buy anything new during the campaign which is a victory of sorts.

I might as well mention my Vietnam stuff here as well-- there was almost no progress. I based some and primed some infantry but nothing that really gets me close to a game. Again I resisted buying anything new (especially the Riverine stuff  which I am still tempted by)

Hail Caesar:
The beginning of the year was good for Hail Caesar as I painted a bunch of Roman Legion as well as archers and slingers for the game I ran at Cangames in 2015.  The Romans are still my favourite army to paint. I had plans to paint up zombies, skeletons and Beastmen for a Hail Caesar Fantasy game based on the Teutoburg Forest to run at Cangames this year (I had a weeks vacation in September where I was going to paint up a large chunk of it and ended up playing Destiny on the PS4). I would still like to do this  but it is on the back burner.

Frostgrave:
This got played a few times and up to the end of the year, I managed to keep to my plan to play this with the figures I already had. Then this happened. I didn't plan to paint these this year so I don't consider that a negative (yet!).

Bolt Action :
This has been my painting millstone around my neck. I have a lot of good ideas for games based on the Canadians fighting in and around Ortona at the end of 1943. I have discussed terrain with Ed and he has even made me an Italian Farmhouse to try and get me inspired. The idea of running and playing the games is very appealing and even making the terrain should be fun but I just can't get myself to paint the figures.

The number of pieces for each figure in the Warlord Games army box was daunting to start with so I put off putting them together. Then once I had them together I really didn't want to paint them. I wanted to get them painted so I kept them on the painting table and put off starting other projects just so I wouldn't be distracted (the result of which was that nothing got painted for several months). With some prodding from Ed the Germans are mostly painted (but they all need their bases worked up and the halftracks need some weathering and decals.

For the Canadians, I have put together a mortar, a vickers MG and an AT gun and maybe 5 other guys. I am not thrilled with this but I pushed them aside to paint SAGA stuff and hopefully when I come back to them I will be more inspired.

SAGA:
The year did not begin well for SAGA. I had bought a Frankish Starter army and the Gripping Beast plastic medieval guys to paint over the Christmas holidays and I ended up being sick so they are still in their boxes.

When the Saracen set came out for Crescent and Cross as I was pretty good and got that painted up quickly and played a few games with Mike but then the Bolt Action block got in the way. I have managed to catch up and have played with both a Mutatawwi'a warband and and Moorish one but there is still a lot unpainted (my ultimate goal is to have a genericish Arab/Islamic army for Hail Caesar).

I did also pick up the SAGA revenant army in the thought it could also be used in my Hail Caesar Fantasy game and I have done nothing with it.

Other:
I played some Fistful of Kung Fu this year and finished painting the figures I had for that (well, to be honest, Ed painted most of them). I based and primed a Transylvanian army for By Fire and Sword. And I bought a lot of stuff for Team Yankee at the end of the year but that is definitely a 2016 project.

Rumble in the Desert

On Friday Mike and I got together for some gaming and decided to play some Flames of War. Mike wanted to do some Early War Desert which sounded it good. It turns out that since he only has Germans and I only have Germans and Italians we would have to do an axis on axis game. I am not usually a big fan of that sort of game but the Germans and Italians are quite different and I was keen to get my Bersaglieri into action again.

We rolled for the mission and got a defensive mission but I asked for a reroll (what is the point of all those motorcycles if you are just going to dismount and dig in) so we ended up with Free for All.

In a fit of common sense I dismounted my MGs and AT guns and put them in the town on the left hand side to protect that objective and then spread out the rest of my force with the smaller motorcyle platoon and the howitzers protecting the other objective.

Mike had 2 platoons of Pz IIIs some armoured cars and some motorized infantry.

On the first turn we both moved some stuff forward and (starting a trend which would last the whole game) my air support came on but was completely useless.

The motorcycles came up the hill in the centre (where both my artillery and my Stuka managed to not damage anything in the cluster of trucks that was there before the infantry dismounted) and the two groups of tanks advanced on each flank. I should have dismounted the other infantry so they could dig in but I like having them on their motorcycles for the coolness factor! (My Italians win glory much more often than they win games!!)

Machine gun fire from the motorcycles and the armoured cars managed to wear down the German infantry but my tanks were losing the battle with the Panzers.

The motrocycles line up for the assualt on the hill as the tanks on either side of them get wiped out.

They win that small unimportant battle but then the Germans sweep forward to victory.

It was a fun game but I should have had a better plan (and better luck) I think if I had driven all the bikes towards the objective in the town and dismounted I could have forced a close in fight that would have worked better for me.

I have a bunch of desert infantry for the British but no tanks. I should get some at some point so we can do a proper early war desert game.

Firestorm Lorraine Day 3: Panther Party

On Sunday we had the final day of the the Firestorm Lorraine campaign. For this game I decided to go with what I had been waiting for all campaign, lots of Panthers (or at least, things with Panther guns).

My force was an FFH Panzer company consisting of 2 Panthers in the HQ, 2 platoons of 3 Panthers each, 1 platoon (Firestorm) of 3 Pz IV/70(V)'s and 1 platoon of infantry with assualt rifles and panzerfausts in halftracks. Like all the lists in the Blood Guts and Glory list they were rated fearless trained.

I was facing Raphael who had a British Rifle company with US firestorms (Tank and Infantry)

The table consisted of a village in the centre with a long hill on the right and several smaller hills on the left. Raphael but his objectives near the village and I put both mine on the long hill since it seemed to be the best place for the Panthers.

We played the mission that is like Free-for-All with reserves (either Encounter or Meeting Engagement, I can't remember the name). I put the PZ IV/70's and the infantry in reserve and placed the 2 Panther platoons on the hill with the 2 command Panthers holding the objective near the village. The British put a rifle company on each objective and had a 25 pder battery and a medium battery near the hill objective.

My first goal was to get rid of the medium battery as that was the only direct fire threat to the Panthers starting on the board. I managed to chase them with not too much bother but  I managed to get bunched up and lost a Panther to a 25pder bombardment

The Panthers then moved on the 25 pder battery. Meanwhile the British infantry were sneaking up through the village (and I missed a few turns where I could have fired my panthers at them but forgot)

My PZIV/70s came on and I tried to use them to threaten the village objective but the Achilles arrived on the other side and managed to take one out.

After taking out the 25pders the Panthers turned to face the Achilles but sadly the Sherman firestorm arrived on the next turn.

By then the pressure on the town was increasing and the command Panther got involved in a sniping duel with a Firefly that resulted in the death of my company commander (the 2IC was still alive though)

The two Panther platoons got wiped out and things were not looking good for the Germans.

The Britsih double timed the Shermans up to the objective. I couldn't really drive them off and hold the village objective so I decided to go all out to try and kill platoons. I managed to get the PZ IV/70s in position but the Panther bogged crossing the woodline. The game ended in a 4-3 victory for the allies.

The campaign ended in a draw (and I think I won 2 and lost 3). The reluctant trained germans were interesting to play.