Team Yankee Event @ Lords of War

SU-25s, T-72s and BMP-2.   Shockingly all three units survived in my game!

This past weekend, Rob and I drive down to Oakville @ Lords of War Hobbies to play in a Team Yankee event.   Big thanks to Drew from  http://covering-fire.blogspot.ca/ for letting us crash at his place to avoid a hotel cost.   We ended up with 8 players total, and we played the new Mission and Victory conditions, and it used fixed missions, but with bid-for-attack / defend, NOT Battle plans.   Also, 3 different pts levels were used, 100, then 75 then 50pts in the interests of letting us have a big game but not being there until 8pm.     I brought my BMP Motor Rifle Bn with 2 maxed units plus assorted support as filler.

Rob was using Cdn's-as-Germans.   Here are his M109s and Luch's

Team Yankee 50pts Dust-Up Cdns vs Russians

Objective:  Smoke break outside an M577 'Queen Mary'

With a Team Yankee tournament in 2 weeks' time, Rob and I decided to christen his new gameroom with a 50pt Dust-Up.  He is using West Germans with as much of it painted as Canadians as possible until the legit list comes out.    So for now he has Geppard and Luchs german allies for his Leopard 1 list and is using M113-TOWs repping Jaguars.  Enjoy the pics, and as always, video and battle report at the bottom and pics of Rob's WIP Cdn Leo II turret conversions.

CCCP v TXNG Team Yankee Counterattack 75pts

Don't Mess with Texas, National Guard!   Tris and I play Counterattack (as always, video below), I always bid attacker, we play on a nice board set-up at Scott's place, see below deployment pic:

The 3 M1s on left are in Ambush, not really there!

Freshly-painted units for me:  Hinds 3 and 4

And my 2nd full company of T-72s (these now all have their decals done)

Team Yankee, Pair of 60 pt games, USSR vs USA & UK

A Lynx and burning in the distance... surely not a hint of things to come??  Note optics box above the gunner's seat.

We had another Team Yankee Night.  60 point game, my Soviets vs US (Ca$h) and UK (Matty) allied together. We find 10 points per side per foot of table to be very good right now so far.    This time instead of just rolling dice, we decided to play a mission by the book, bid for attack and defence and all that.  

Initial set up below, Soviets on the right, NATO on the left.

They opted to deploy the Lynx's on the board behind trees, the M109s, and the formation M1 tank commander, with 2 M1s in Ambush.   I had my BMP-Blob and some T72s.   Everything else was delayed/scattered reserves.

Matt Varnish's Models painted in 2015 (lame I know) and MORE to do in 2016!!

T-10M, last of the "Heavy Tanks", pulled from Soviet reserves in the early 1990s (aka IS-8)

For the first time ever, I have kept track of models painted over an entire year, 2015. I started off strong with painting TWO ARMIES in late February...though to be fair, half the 15mm Napoleonic French and the tanks for my moderns list were done. Still, not bad.

Then in early march I finished off my Early War Italians, so another 30 or so models, mix of guns, inf and tanks.  My report of it can be found here!

April I did nothing but play ELITE Dangerous May and June I started painting my Historicon British stuff, and then the group got caught up in X Wing.   I did repaint all my X Wing, so count that as 12 models roughly :)

July, the gang got caught up in yet another game, Kings of War, and I busted out all my old WHFB dwarves. and then stopped.. it would be my 3rd dwarf army to paint. I worked on some British stuff though:

Here

Nyet This Time!

There's nothing like blowing up Russian tanks on a weekend. This past Sunday, we had a great but quick game of Flames of War. We rolled up 'Hasty Attack', and taking the opportunity to teach a new player the ropes, Patrick and I took my Schwere Panzerjagerkompanie list from 'Fortress Italy' and battled it out against 30 Soviet tanks!!

Duelling In The Desert and The Russian Gambit

Well it has been some time since I have been able to form a sentence and put a piece together for Dice Devils. The past few months have been busy and there has not been very many hobby related items for me to post about. I've been lucky enough however, to have played a few games at my place and MattVarnish has been my opponent on both occasions in the two games thus far in the new year. We're both going through the task of tweaking our lists and getting ready for a Mid-War tournament that's coming up in April.

Australian Div Cav, my first army in what seems like an eternity ago!

 I have yet to decide what I will be bringing up to Petawawa, as the North Africa book has gone through some drastic changes and I can no longer field the first Flames of War army that I ever put together. My Australian Divisional Cavalry can no longer take 8th Armored Shermans for support options. This leaves a HUGE hole in my list, as it is no longer viable without some heavy hitting support platoons to help with the lack of offensive abilities of the Crusader. I like the Aussies because not a lot of people play them and initially when I wrote one of my first pieces for this blog, I explained I wanted to do something different from everyone else. Oh, and the Fearless Veteran rating is a big plus!

Crusader tanks, not much armor, or HE. It has speed though!

While I try and ponder what to put together, I have been testing a Panzergrendier list from Eastern Front. It has 7 platoons and some serious punch when dealing with opposing armored threats. I tend to use Infantry based lists as ways to get a favorable deployment coverage on objectives. I find it easier to dig in the grunts and have them deal with threats to victory conditions. In the meantime, use my AT guns as a way to divert enemy tanks into areas where I can chase them down with my own tank platoons or simply blow them to bits with my PAK-40's, 88's and of course the best 'bang for the buck' 7.5cm leIG18 guns. For 70 points, you get a Rate Of Fire 2 - AT 9 - with the ability to smoke, bombard and a gun shield. At the very least, it's a cheap platoon with great ambush upside and goes through most armored vehicles in the Mid-War era. Can even bail a Tiger I if you happen to get one in the side.
Anyone who thinks there is a better option for any AT gun for the cost, I have yet to find one that comes close.

Confident    Veteran	Grenadierkompanie Infantry Company	German Mid-War
Infantry Company

Platoon	Qty	Unit	Points
Headquarters
Grenadierkompanie HQ(Heer)  p.61	2 1	Cmd Panzerknacker SMG team 8.8cm RW43 (Püppchen) launcher	85
Combat Platoons
Grenadier Platoon  p.61	1 6	Cmd Panzerknacker SMG team Rifle/MG team	160
Grenadier Platoon  p.61	1 6	Cmd Panzerknacker SMG team Rifle/MG team	160
Regimental Support Platoons
Grenadier Infantry Gun Platoon(Heer)  p.63	1 1 2	Cmd SMG team Observer Rifle team 7.5cm leIG18 gun	70
Grenadier Anti-tank Gun Platoon(Heer)  p.65	1 3	Cmd SMG team 7.5cm PaK40 gun	220
Divisional Support
Mittlere Panzer Platoon(Heer)  p.34	4	Panzer IV E or F1	400
Tank-hunter Platoon(Heer)  p.86	3	Marder II	270
Heavy Anti-aircraft Gun Platoon(Heer)  p.89	1 1	Cmd SMG team 8.8cm FlaK36 gun	120
Company Points:			1485

'Maybe even some Russians', countless times you have likely heard that as part of the introduction of the WWPD FoW podcast. Yeah, sometimes the crew talks about other games and their adventures on the road, Knob Creek whiskey and whatever debauchery they get up to during their tournament circuit interactions with the rest of the WWPD supporters. After Steve packed up his family and moved off to New Zealand, the podcast itself has gone through some changes, but still manages to keep my interest for the full episode. I am sure there were others that were not sure how the transition would go, including Luke and Jon. With Eric coming into the studio for a full-time spot, he fills the void left by Steve in a different way. Eric is knowledgeable in many areas and seems up on his history and not just the game itself. I'm happy they are still able to squeeze Steve back from Mordor onto the podcast and have also had Sean "Throckmorton" stop in to bring some more hobbying and gaming experience into the fray! In the past few months, they have been talking a lot about Russians and the resurgence of viable options for Soviet lists. The new Desperate Measures and the Red Bear changes will lend itself to some very good Soviet lists in the coming year. I'm exploring the possibility of jumping into The Red Army and working on a tank list that will feauture some of WW II's most impressive pieces of Soviet armor.

Don't give up yet Ivan! Help has finally arrived!

 

Not quite +1 for concealment, but still deadly.

Moderns Painting Blitz & AAR vs Israeli's

Catching some air after watching the movie "Rad?"

Well its been about a year since I first got my Modern stuff from QRF.

For those who want to get up-to-speed, here are past articles dealing with 15mm Moderns:

http://www.dicedevils.com/2012/12/wait-what-stuff-happened-after-1945.html
http://www.dicedevils.com/2013/03/blog-post.html
http://www.dicedevils.com/2013/07/cold-war-gone-hot-first-aar-soviet.html
http://www.dicedevils.com/2013/08/bought-myself-two-boxes-of-battlefront.html
http://www.dicedevils.com/2013/09/draft-moderns-game.html

Figured I'd get an infantry unit painted, now that I have decent models. QRF models are 'ok' but Battlefront is better, and with the recent release of the Egyptian infantry for Fate of a Nation, I decided to get a blister to get my 3rd Inf platoon.  I mean, good sculpts of guys with AK's and the right helmets?  Heck Yes!

I'll let the picture dump speak for itself below:

As you can see, the BF infantry mixes in very nicely with the QRF stuff. In the background are the BTR's they would drive around in.  Models on the right are the 9K11 'Malyutka' TOW missile, that used the outer casing of the suitcase it comes in as the launch base!   Counts as the Recoiless gun in FAON.

Close up of the Malyutka (AKA AT-3 'Sagger') and shoulder mounted missile team.

Each BTR would carry 2 fire-teams armed with AK-47s, and one fireteam had a RPG-7 guy (left stand, back guy kneeling) and the other fire-team had a machine gunner (right stand, front guy has the PKM with folded bi-pod)

I went with a 3 tone scheme for the camo, Flat Earth, Reflective Green and Green Grey.

Zvezda T-72 (center) and 2 QRF T-72s.  WW2 T-34 crew by Battlefront. The ERA blocks (explosive reactive armor) are the main visual cues on the Zvezda model's turret.  It's their new plastic, which is 1000 times better than their old stuff.

Front view.  The Zvezda sits higher and has a different front end.  I think this might actually be a T-80 (turbine engine not piston plus a few other differences) but I am no expert.

As you can see, the Zvezda tank is larger, though not by enough of a margin to be a big deal.   If you want cheap tanks, and have crew from another manufacturer, I can heartily recommend the Zvezda.  Note, that with the new plastic formula, this was $12.00 CDN though, far cry from the $4.95 T-34s

Side view, Zvezda on the right.  Wheels are different, as well as the skirting.  In a nice touch, Zvezda made the skirting optional, so it isn't one piece with the track.

How bout a quick battle?  1500 points of Fate of a Nation, I used Egyptian list, Duane was proxying Israeli's.. with nazi tanks...  He had ten vehicles, I had 30, plus 3 platoons of infantry.

I moved up to engage at long range his tanks, and my Spearheading PT-76s moved into the water.. because they could! (also to try and take out the AMX-13s)

Soviet Naval Ensign markings.. in a shallow pond!

Duane's gigantic Centurion model.  They look fantastic, it was a shame to blow them up on lucky 6's to hit (10 shots from 10 T-55s... got 3 hits!)

"Tiger"s were Magach's.  They took so much firepower, bailed out for most of the game.. it would take marching infantry up to them on the large hill (see below) plus Malyutka's to press the objective for the win.. would they hold up?

The dead-on accuracy of the Israeli tanks on the move plus storm-trooper plus Hens and Chicks meant this battle went to the wire.  Every time he fired I was losing 4 or 5 tanks.

Video Bat Rep with the 'thrilling conclusion'

2014, A whole new year of Empty Promises!

Quick post here guys, I have some plans ahead (as I always do) and I want to make sure I follow through (as I always say) but never do haha.

 

Our Resolution? Land somewhere we can't be seen for 40 miles next time!

Last year I had a crazy dream to not 'buy' any new models all year and to work on stuff that had been languishing on the painting station. For the most part it worked, but then I started making some crazy trades and actually ended up with MORE unpainted models than I started! A crazy thing I read about this year is a method to have small but continuous progress, and it was popularized by none other than Jerry Seinfeld:
http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-secret

 

 

What I want to do then is set myself for a small amount of painting, but every night where possible.  I have my Soviet Moderns which are up first (hence the Seinfeld/Red Dawn pics) and then my DAK which I've been working on for next Historicon.   Its still not 100% sure if its EW or MW.  After that, I have a small unit of Free French to finish off, 3 M7 Priests and some 105s.    My LW 21 Pzr has a recce unit of halftracks and some Pumas so I can field more than the 2 lists I am known for.  

Lets not even get into the unpainted Brit Para army I have, or the 12 Grants and 9 Crusaders I have for my MW British!!

 

 

 

                                                

 I say old boy, get cracking so we can punt Jerry into the Mediterranean!

 

 



West Germany + Canada vs Soviet Union, 1986

Of course the Lowenbrau Railcar is an objective!

 

 

So we had a Moderns game, with Mark playing West Germans allied with Rob playing (what else) Canadians vs my Soviet Guard Tanks.   The ruleset and army lists are derived from Flames of War version 3, and can be found here: http://stoppingtheredtide.blogspot.ca/   We were running about 2400 points.  You will note that all models aren't painted yet, but at least they are basecoated for the most part.  Rob of course, all his stuff was painted.  As usual, I'll let the videos do the talking (I've included our first Moderns test game video as well..)

 

Mark's Marders w/ MILAN launchers, and carrying a squad of Panzergrenadiers (somethigns just don't ever change!)

 

Mark's TOW equipped Jaguars

 

My 1 infantry platoon (3 BTRs) plus 2IC Command BTR, and Reserve Reluctant Conscript T-55s

 

Overview of Rob's awesome table.   Opposed corner deployments, 3 objectives.

 

 

HQ T-80 (behind tree) and platoon of T-80s hull down on the make sure the enemy armor does not advance untouched.

 

 



Marder's dismount troops to claim the gasthaus objective...

 

 

 

..as my own troops advance (top left of pic) as I realize TOW launchers have a TONNE of range!

 

Rob's Battlefront M113s with QRF TOWs.   Note the correct license plates for West Germany!!

These vehicles would get popped by: Reluctant Conscript T-55s who needed 3 sixes to hit out of 5 shots, and got all 3!

Game 2
Our game, brought to you by the word Mitigate.   We were playtesting a new variant of the Soviet Command structure.  In short, now, when your CO is killed, the 2IC tries to take command, but every unit on the board counts as being pinned (armor included) as the 2IC slowly takes command, units unpin.   If both command teams are dead, the entire force counts as being pinned, but can still try and leave the board, or shoot to get some platoon kills in.   The previous method was:  If the CO dies, and the 2IC does not pass a morale, its game over.  This way there is more confusion, and the Soviet player can still "play for something" rather than pack his models up.

Below is our first test game, ages ago now.



Game1

Battlefront Vietnam M113s for mid 80's Cold War Canadians

Bought myself two boxes of the Battlefront Vietnam M113s at Historicon for my mid 80's Cold War Canadian (what else) army that I'm putting together.  The models are fantastic and come with lots of extra bits and pieces.  I was quite keen to get them together and painted before hockey starts, so I devoted the past long weekend to them.  Here is a shot of them before weathering, stowage and a few more guys sticking out of the "family hatch" checking out the frauleins.  I used my airbrush, but as its not a very good one (for 15mm) I used the blue tac method of camouflage painting.  I should have taken a photo of that.  After the last colour is done all you see is a model with a ton of blue tac on it with lots of green paint.  You don't know if it worked out until you peel it all away.  Fortunately, they came out pretty good.  For infantry I'm again using the Battlefront US infantry in Vietnam. In 15mm they look fine as long as I paint on the Canadian flags on the shoulders. I'll update this post when I get a few stands of infantry done. I also want to add "skis" to my QRF Leopards as they are a bit small compared to the BF M113s and skis might make them a bit taller.  There was no way I was going to use QRF M113s as they are such a poor model.  I did use the QRF TOW missile launchers however.  The excellent decals, which really make the Canadian look are from TL Modelbau in Germany.  http://www.tl-modellbau.de/

Cold War Gone Hot First AAR: Soviet Motor Rifles vs Canadian Armour in West Germany, 1986

Hey guys, long time no see!   Hard to believe its been since end of April since I last posted, but I've been busy.   Historicon is very soon, and I have been busting my ass putting in extra details on my 21. Pzrs (but thats for another post) but in the interim, I was lucky enough to receive some Vietnam stuff to review for WWPD.net in the form of PT-76 and T-54/55's http://www.wwpd.net/2013/05/product-review-battlefront-t-54s.html     As my main Modern Warfare opponent, Rob, is also going to Historicon, we have only got one game in so far, but here it is!

The ruleset we are using is from http://stoppingtheredtide.blogspot.ca/ as well as the army lists.   Whats nice about Cold War gaming in 15mm in western Europe is that 90% of Flames of War scenery works, and the other 10% you can get from model train stores, as you can see with the shipping containers.

 PT-76 Recce light tanks, still in use today.   (Wasn't in our game though, but these pre-painted shipping containers are ace)

 Rob's Canadian Leopards roll past having dispatched this BTR-80 and T-80M

 Close up of Rob's M113 on the left, and Lynx Recce vehicle on the right.  He even found decals.  Very nice

Prior to them getting blown up, my Command BTR80.  In this ruleset, all transports are crewed, so can move about with no one in them much like german halftracks in FOW.  I found this very useful for killing Lynx's.

Anyhoo, here is the video, enjoy.

We're Big in the UK

I took some shots of Matt Varnish and my test vehicles and sent them to the guy in Wales who has put together a FOW modified ruleset and lists for re-fighting the Cold War.

Here's what they posted   http://stoppingtheredtide.blogspot.ca/

советская армия

 Been working on some test models.. for some future Cold Wars Gone Hot.  We have a T-72 Late model and a BTR-80.  Models are by QRF, and while the molds are from the late 80s it feels like, there is a tonne of detail, which is why I picked these over say the BTR-70 model, which was terrible (I have one, a BTR-70PK command, horrible)

 I used a 3 tone scheme, as I want to be able to run these as any "OPFOR" be it Russians, East Germans, Syrians, Egyptians, etc etc

 I love the boat front.  This sucker had hydrajet in the back, and would raise snorkels for the engines!

 Colors used was black spray, Russian Green 894, German Grey 995 and Khaki Grey 880, then washed, Drybrushed with Bleached Bone.

 That Soviet Army badge on the optics cover was a biiiiiiitch!

 Rear quarter view.

I am super happy with these, and how they turned out.  I am sure Rob Kelly can be persuaded to post his Cdns, I saw some pics and they are Gorgeous!  Certainly brings back the memories of living in Baden as a kid, I had forgotten the maple leaf was black and all the license plates were in green!