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.

Frostgrave -- First game and some thoughts

On Friday, Mike came over and we played some Flames of War (I will post some pictures of that soon) and Frostgrave.

When the "Nickstarter" for this was announced I wasn't super excited about it. I had lots of other stuff to paint and don't have a lot of 28mm terrain suitable for fantasy. As I read more about it, I realized I could use some of my existing 28mm collection including the stuff that I had accumulated for D&D over the years as well as those figures from Descent that I have painted up. I picked up the kindle version of the rules and they seemed like they were worth giving a try.

We decided we would use some modifications after reading some reviews on this blog and some discussion on the Lead Adventure Forum. These mostly increased the XP for getting treasure and removed the XP for killing opposing wizards.

My warband consisted of a Sigilist (I think a Reaper Dwarf Cleric) and his apprentice (a Grenadier wizard from one of their first D&D sets), a Templar (a GW figure from the first "End Times"), 2 Archers (Warlord Roman Archers), 3 Thugs (Perry Korean Peasants) and 2 Thieves (Gripping Beast Welsh slingers). I didn't spend a lot of time choosing my spells as I was more interested in seeing how the game would play out. I spent all the money on the warband so I didn't have any magic items.

For the fist mission we played the Keep which has 2 treasure in the centre of the table and 4 others each of which is on a teleportation pad which can move you to another teleportation pad if you end your move on it.

I started by moving up to the edge of the large building that was on my table edge. I divided my force into 3 groups, 1 with the wizard, 1 with the apprentice and the 2 archers by themselves. (Still not really sure how best to arrange the force at the beginning)

I managed to get lucky when I moved my thief onto the teleportation pad, he didn't move and he was set to bring the treasure back to my side.

Meanwhile, Mike was moving his warband up as well. He made really good use of the "Leap" spell to get people onto the treasure and to get the treasure of the board. Summoner is the opposing school for the Sigilist so it wasn't even an option for me.

My wizard and his retinue made it to the treasure in the centre at the same time some of Mike's henchmen got there.

Meanwhile Mike was having some trouble with a wandering monster (a bear dressed up as a Yeti).

I had some wandering monster troubles of my own as 2 ice spiders tried to stop my thief making it off with the only treasure I managed to grab. They weren't as dangerous as they sounded and my archers managed to kill one each.

My thugs rush up to try and grab the treasure that was dropped after the Yeti/bear killed one of Mike's minions.

The melee in the centre of the table heats up as I get more guys in there. We reached the time limit at that point. Mike had manged to get 2 or 3 treasure off and I had managed 1. I had not suffered any losses (though one or two were wounded) and Mike had lost 2. We went through the end of turn stuff and I went up one level and Mike went up 2.

For the next game we decided try the Djinnin bottle mission. For this one each treasure has a 25% chance of releasing the Djinni when it is picked up.

This game was much less interesting as we both concentrated on the treasure on our own side of the table and Mike had the bad luck of getting the Djinni and a minor demon wandering monster attacking him.

We ended up both getting the 3 treasures that were closest to us and we each got 1 enemy with our archers and Mike took a bit of a beating from the Djinni and the demon.

Overall, I enjoyed the game. I feel that the changes we made may have been fixing problems that might not be there with our play style. The turn limit really seemed to reduce the opportunity to interact with the opposing player and getting XP as well as treasure seemed to just amplify this. (I get the impression that the people who suggested these changes have played it more than we have so maybe things will look different with some more experience).

I think that adding things like traps and treasures of different values (so treasure further from your start point is worth more) will make things more fun and even making the turn limit more in game (something like after turn 5 a wandering monster will arrive each turn is going to force people to get off the board in fairly short order).


Mike has posted his report here

Maalintii Rangers

I had listened to an interview about the Skirmish Sangin game on the Meeples & Miniatures podcast and now I see they have a kickstarter for the Maalintii Rangers rules and figures dealing with Somalia.

The rules seem like they would be interesting (if maybe a bit high on the complexity scale for what I want at the moment) and the figures that they have in the kickstarter look pretty good. The figures on the website for the main game are still ok but maybe not really worth the 4 for 7 pounds plus shipping cost.

The big question for me is do I really want to go to 28mm for Moderns and I think the answer is a qualified no. I have enough 28mm terrain for generic industrial buildings now that terrain is no longer the all purpose excuse that it once was for me to go to 28mm but I think I still like the scope that 15mm allows. With the Cold War gone Hot stuff from Flames of War arriving in the not too distant future, I will likely be buying more 15mm for that and I think 15mm is the right scale for what I want to do for Vietnam (even if the progress towards that can best be described as glacial).

Force on Force / Ambush Alley is likely to remain my go to small scale modern game and as a unit based game, I think it works well at 15mm -- I remember having a discussion with Stan a few years ago about this and I still think 15mm is the best scale for the game, though I think it would work with 28mm as well.

I think I will give the kickstarter a miss but I will pick up the PDF of the basic rules and see what I think.

(Added September 27) Here is a link to a picture of a game played in 15mm (from the comments below), it looks fun.

Odds and Ends and Half-Finished projects

I managed to get in a few games in the past weeks. Last weekend I played in a Pike and Shotte Samurai game run by Mike (with his AAR here ). I like this game, the tweaks from Hail Ceasar seem appropriate for the period but it keeps the same basic system and uses the "useful rules" to apply some flavour.

Earlier that week I played some X-Wing with the guys that I usually play Imperial Assualt with. It is a fun game with a surprising amount of depth. I don't have any real urge to pick it up for myself since I don't think I would play it all that much (I did try to convince Meredith it might be fun since she is a big Star Wars fan but there was no interest). There also isn't much non-playing hobby aspect to the game and I spend more time doing that than playing at the moment.

Since Cangames I have been in a bit of a painting slump but I think I am starting to get out of it. Now I just need to finish some stuff before starting new stuff (which is not helped by spending this morning gluing a bunch of new stuff together).

My main focus at the moment are my 28mm Germans for Bolt Action (ultimately for my Ortona games but in the short term just to get enough that I can actually play). The half-tracks are nearly done and the basic infantry platoon is on the way.

This morning I assembled the support weapons and command which is all I am going to do before moving on to the British.

Speaking of which, I assembled the downed pilot and Mad Jack Churchill which were freebies with my latest Warlord purchase.

I put together the Khurusan order stuff which consisted of some modern vehicles (and M1A2, 2 M1114s and a HMMWV cargo carrier)

as well as Dirty Harry and Scorpio.

Since I knew that the glue I was using was going to likely seize up in a week or two anyway (it is "Hot Stuff" which is very good but tends to glue itself shut in fairly short order despite my best efforts) I also put together the Transylvanian force provided by Mike for By Sword and Flame.  These are fairly nice figures but if you are designing a game where figures are based side by side, there is probably a limit as to how many riders firing their musket/matchlock/gun off the side you want to make.

As to other stuff I need to get finished, I have some NVA infantry that I airbrushed khaki and now need to finish up.

Some US self-propelled howitzers that need to be finished

a 28 mm Cromwell

and some Saga Camel troops

If I can get through the Germans without starting anything else, I think I will be happy!

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.

Elements of Destruction -- The Scenario

I had a request to post the scenario I ran at Cangames this year so here goes!

Before getting to the scenario proper, some notes about how it came about. Each year for at least the past 5 I have run a Force on Force game at Cangames which I have always enjoyed running and the players seem to enjoy as well (since it has largely had the same group of players each year!). The first few years I spent a lot of time planning and getting figs and arranging terrain but for the last couple of years I have spent more of my preparation time on my Roman game than on Force on Force.

Last year Ed and I had a really good idea for a game based on Libyan rebels trying to capture Muammar Gaddafi but we just didn't have time to pull it all together and I ended up running "The Bridge at al Muff" again -- which went well (Stan has a blog post about it here ) but I was reluctant to run a game this year (again because a lot of my effort was going into the Roman game).  I eventually decided I would run a game but would try and minimize the amount of effort that would go into it.

The scenario idea started with the Honest John launcher mini that I have that has never (up until now) actually seen action on the table so I thought how can I use this (and why not the Nike HAWK launcher that I got at the same time). So, terrorists get a nuclear weapon, US forces fight to get it away from them and the HAWK gives a (barely) plausible reason why the US doesn't have massive air cover for something like this. Then I had a strange thought -- what if we have new players in the game, would this be good for them (strange because as I said it is generally the same group of players every year but also because in my experience with a game master to manage the fiddly situations most people pick up FOF fairly quickly).

So, I decided that the basic flow of the game would be (1) Delta force would land and their would be a brief fight to gain control of the Honest John and other weapons caches -- The US player would be given a sense that time is really of the essence here but it would be a one sided,, brief fight to allow the game mechanics to be demonstrated. (2) There would be an interlude where the US helicopters arrive to extract Delta, the HAWK battery is revealed, helicopters are shot down and lots of insurgents are revealed -- This is just done as narrative, with no game mechanics (3) The Delta troops with the help of arriving Rangers try to hold off the insurgents while trying to destroy the HAWK battery and rescue the helicopter crew.

That seems to be more than enough introspective rambling so here is the scenario!

SCENARIO: ELEMENTS OF DESTRUCTION

A faction of  al Shabab in Somalia has a acquired a Cold War era Honest John launcher and possible chemical and nuclear warheads and are planning to fire it at a city in Kenya. Delta force troops will insert using a HALO jump and will be supported by Rangers entering Somalia by land from Kenya.

Table setup

The table as shown is a city with a ruin of a colonial building on a hill. The Honest John and 2 weapons caches are in the centre of the city and 5 hot points are placed around them (but are inactive at the beginning of the game).

Delta Foce are place on the road near the objectives and 4 insurgent groups are place to guard them.

(Note: In hindsight, I would have pushed the buildings closer together to create denser terrain -- I say this to myself after every game and every time I set up a new game I leave everything spread out!)

US Forces
Delta:
Troop Quality/ Morale: D12/D10 (Drops to D10/D10 in the second phase of the game)
Confidence Level: Confident
Supply Level:Abundant
Body Armour: Standard (+1D)

Delta is a arranged in 4 troops of 4 each armed with an M4

Rangers:
Troop Quality/Morale: D8/D8
Confidence Level: Confident
Supply Level: Abundant
Body Armour: Standard (+1D)

The Ramgers have 6 HMMWVs, 3 armed with M2 HMGs and 3 with Mk19 AGLs.
Each HMMV has 4 soldiers with 3 M4s and 1 SAW.

al Shabab
Troop Quality/Morale: D6/D8
Confidence Level: Confident
Supply Level: Normal
Body Armour: None

The initial insurgent groups consist of 1 leader, 2 with AK47 and 1 with RPG

Special Rules

Initially the the hotspots are inactive and the Rangers are off the table. Once the Launcher and 2 weapons caches are secure the extraction helicopters will arrive. At this point any remaining insurgents from the initial groups are removed from the table and the Delta troops can rearrange themseleves around the 3 objectives as they choose.

After this is done the HAWK battery is revealed (this consists of 3 peices of equipment, each with a crew of 4) in the the ruins on the hill. The crashed helicopter is placed on the slope of the hill as are 2 bunkers with HMGs. The hotspots are now active and a force consisting of 1 leader, 4 AK47 amd 1 RPG is placed on each of them with an additional force of the same size being placed in the ruins. The troop quality of Delta force is reduced for D12 to D10.

At the end of each turn the Ranger player makes a TQ check and if successful 3 HMMMVs will enter at the beginning of the following turn

The insurgency level is 4 and the following table can be used

Die Roll Insurgent Unit
2 1d6 small arms, 1x light support weapon
3 1x medium support weapon
4 1d6 small arms, roll again
5 1x medium support weapon
6 1d6+2 small arms
7 1x leader, 1d6 small arms, 1x light support weapon
8 1d6+2 small arms
9 1d6 small arms, roll again
10 1x light support weapon
11 1x leader, 1d6 small arms, 1x medium support weapon
12 2d6 small arms

Roll 1D6 for units without a leader and on a 1 replace 1 figure with a leader

Victory

The US player wins if they eliminate the HAWK battery and keep the initial objectives secure. They can be more victorious if they rescue the helicopter crew and less if the suffer too many casualties. They really lose quite badly if al Shabab keeps control of the nuclear weapon.

Hopefully that is clear enough, I usually just jot down some rough notes as reminders for myself. Let me know if there are any questions or places where it can be clearer.

Elements of Destruction -- Cangames 2015

On Sunday at Cangames this year I ran a Force on Force game (as has become customary).

This years game was an American special forces raid on a terrorist camp containing weapons of mass destruction. I am going to split my discussion of this game into 2 parts: This first part will be some pictures and an after action report and the next post will be about the sceanrio itself (since someone had asked). There already some AARs on Mike's blog and on Stan's blog

The sun is just rising on a sleepy East African city as the Delta Force commandos arrive.

An antiquated (but strangely still functional) Honest John tactical nuclear missile launcher sits in a square under the shadow of the ruins of an old Italian colonial building.

Everything is peaceful looking at first...

as Delta Force head towards the launcher,

the warheads,

and a cache of possible chemical agents.

The launcher and stockpiles are quickly seized but when the helicopters arrive for extraction, a Nike HAWK SAM battery reveals itself in the ruins of the colonial building and shoots down one of the helicopters.

Reinforcements are on the way from a supporting Ranger unit who manage to set the main gate alight before they have passed through it.

At this point, I was to distracted by running the game to take any more pictures (so I recommend you check out the blogs I mentioned at the beginning) but after a hard fight the US forces managed to take out the SAM battery and the Elements of Destruction were back in the hands of their rightful owners.