"I say, old chap, why would the Jerries make this 8-wheeled claptrap run on Benzine and not Petrol?"
In a flurry of Mid-War games over the holidays, we have another: Free-For-All, 71 points, featuring Chris Caron's Eastern Front germans (Using Afrika Korps list for now) vs Andrew Buchan's new British force (not painted, no worries) Here are some pictures but as usual, the Video at the end of this article does a much better job of describing the action!
Chris ran a Pzr III formation (2HQ + platoon of 3) supported by 3 x Marder's and had a small Grenadier formation supported by quad AA halftracks.
Andrew ran a Honey Sqdn (4 HQ + 2 units of 3 Honeys) and a Motor Company w/ Carriers, Mortars, Vickers and 6lbrs supported by 17/25lbr 'Pheasant' guns plus a bunch of cards, 'Scout' 'Pip Roberts' and 'Captured Tank'
Marder III with wounded on board, last survivors of their unit.
So let's dive in to Game 2, where hopefully I don't botch too many more rules! As always, Video Battle Report at the end! So we rolled up Counter-Attack, with me defending. We used the same lists as Game 1, and we both used Spearhead liberally, as this mission allows good movement. Matt Spearheaded everything into No-Man's Land, deployment is below
Matt and I had another set of Mid War tester games. This is game 1. We played 71 points, as that is what Cdn Nationals will be Sept 2018. Matt is waiting for Eastern Front lists, but is just using the DAK Panzer Ko. for now until that comes out. I went with my trusty Desert Rats, we rolled Breakthrough, with me defending, as I had an Inf. Formation in my Force As always, Video Batrep at the end.
His list:
HQ Panzer III
3 x Panzer IV 'Long'
2 x Panzer IV 'Long' (in Flanking Reserves)
2 x 8 Rads
3 x Marders
My list:
Crusader HQ 2x CS, 2 x Crusader II
Crusader 2 x II, 1 x III (I completely forgot these were IIIs in game!)
Crusader 2 x II, 1 x III (reserves)
Grants x 3 (reserves)
Motor Co HQ
Motor Co
4x 6lbrs
3 x Bren Gun Carriers
2 Hurricanes (reserves)
Deployment, I Spearhead'ed the Carriers and deployed on both objectives
Over the weekend, we had ourselves a Napoleonics game featuring Chris Caron and I running the dastardly French (and one unit of Irish allies) vs Mark and Rob's assorted British / Allies including Kings German Legion, Badeners (posing as Portuguese) and some Black Brunswickers. We kept things reasonable and had roughly 200pts per player, and thus 400pts per side. Laid out 2 static objectives (Lion statue and french supply cart) in the middle and would score 1 VP for each enemy unit broken. As ever, Video Battle Report is at the end. Enjoy!
View from the French side, you can see supply cart left middle and lion statue mid right.
We decided to deploy onto the table using orders. Hands up if you can guess whose entire Brigade failed its command rolls? I took a cavalry Brigade with 3 units of Horse and 2 Horse guns, and thus was not able to take advantage of 'Attack Column' Command bonuses!
Rob's splendid King's German Legion preparing to deploy in Line Formation to sort out the frenchies.
Mark's British and Light Dragoons. He wouldn't let me take shots of half-finished Brunswickers! Ignore the unpainted casualty markers please.
After my Brigade failed to get on the table, and Chris' 3 infantry and 2 light infantry (in attack columns) only moving one move, the Redcoats managed to get everyone in place, except the guns. Rob here has left room for the guns on the hill.
Close-up of Rob's KGL, front view
For the second straight turn, most of my army does not come on the board. Only my 9eme Dragoons are on board near the house and obscured by my alcoholic beverage :)
Meanwhile, Chris' 2 units of Lights move up to the Supply wagon and deploy into open order, with the Irish plugging the remaining gap to the trees. Mark already has some British in the middle and a vicious close range firefight would ensue .
Mark's Brigadier fails to inspire the troops to get into the safety of the houses, even though they would be much safer from the musketry coming from the stone walls in the background there.
Meanwhile the German's under Rob's Brigadier await the tardy french horse to arrive!!!!! Only my guns made it on (back right) and took pot shots at Rob's limbered guns on the hill
Holding the Supply Wagon and manning the defences, Chris' Brigade has no reason to move and focuses fire on the limbered British gun in the town square, Disordering it repeatedly so it can never unlimber and fire cannister (see below)
Mark's Brigadier would love to order the gun to fire, but its is permanently limbered with Disorders. It would eventually break off after failing a morale test.
Chris' Light Infantry command jeering the British from the supply wagon, waving the colours!
FINALLY my cavalry brigade comes on the board, but can only declare charges on the infantry and they form square. My Horse Guns, despite being within Cannister range, only on the last turn do would they finally break Rob's KGL line infantry. With Mark's Brigade below half strength from the town-side fire, the British -Germanic alliance would fall back and leave the field to the French. To be fair, Chris' infantry did all the heavy lifting. Still, great game, and it turns out we have enough models and terrain to play in Scott's absence. Looking forward to our next game, perhaps some Colonials?
Our 4th game of Version 4 using the new lists. 80pts of Panzer Ko. vs my Desert Rats Motor Co. Hasty Attack, on a desert board featuring 'Truck Park' Forest templates, because we were light on desert terrain, but had heaps of trucks, just laying around!
As ever, Video of the report and our thoughts is at the bottom past the pics. Enjoy
Matt puts his Marders in the 'Truck Park Forest' in his DZ. We moved the trucks around when he blitzed forward. They need more Iraqi Sand to blend in with Monty's Party Bus !!
"What's the best World of Warcraft Expansion?" "Burning Crusades!"
Right after our first game, where the Germans won 7-2, we swapped teams and played again, so Matt and I with the DAK and Tristan and Andrew playing British. Same board, same lists.
Pzr II's 'Spearheaded' into this tree area, allowing the PaK-38s and PzrIVs to be that much closer to the British lines..
"What do you say, old boy, shall we go kick the Jerries out of Africa?" Monty
Using the WWPD rules compilation, and stats and such from the preview copy of the rulebook that stores have, plus some from the latest WGI, we apply our Team Yankee prowess to run a Test game of Version 4. TO make equivalent lists, I used V3 points for both (1340pts) and the DAK force comes out at 82 pts using V4 points. Video with our opinions at bottom of article.
Time for another (11th) Team Yankee battle report. Scott has finished his gorgeous West Germans, and thus the two desert armies fight, on a desert board (Note, Kevin's Iraqi Republican Guard are still being worked on.. sooo many..T-55)
"Ludwig, vee haf not been to ze Desert since Rommel!"
Here are a few pics, but with multiple games and movies going on, the Video tells the better story. As ever, video is at the bottom:
Hey gang. Scott and I did our first game of 2017: Napoleonics, using Black Powder Rule set, 'Granja Abundancia' from the Albion Triumphant Peninsular War supplement, essentially, a take and hold field objectives. First time we have everything painted, 500pts a side, on a nice 12 foot by 8 foot table. Below is the picture dump, the actual battle report is in the linked video:
Welcome to the new year! Even though we are into another year of gaming, writing and painting, most of us were too busy to get together much over the holidays for any real games. Such is life and some things never change, but it didn't keep Andrew, Scotty (acting as spectator and umpire) and myself from getting a little game of Team Yankee in. Sticking around afterwards, we also have a new podcast recorded and should be posted in the next couple of days!! Very exciting news all 'round.
Still need to unbox this lot and start getting it together! I'm excited to add to my army and increase the number of flexible options for my British Army. I listed my points total below at the end of this article. Sorry I didn't include a breakdown of Andrew's forces. We both feel at the moment, somewhere in the 60-75 point range is going to be a lot more likely than 100 points.
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.
Column of Chieftains at a parade in West Berlin. The mega game felt like this vs 20 Chieftains!
Hey everybody, got a Team-Yankee flavoured post here.. first of all, I
have finished my unpainted Soviet stuff (more on order ofc) and here is a
closeup of my 2S1 Gvozdika's AKA Carnations. Doing my research, the
barrel linings were coated in red so you could see wear and tear.
Having a slight connection to the UK, it was easy for me to get into a
few new games over the fall. Both Saga and Team Yankee offer a little
bit of everything that brings me into all things Queen and Country! Saga stuff is one the way, just need to choose a faction. The British Army on the other hand, is here an assembled! Can't wait to take on the Communists!
In this segment of Weapons of Choice, I'll be taking a look at
the M1A1 75mm Howitzer. It's compact size and the power of the gun
proved to be very versatile during WW2. Its use in Flames of War is not
any different, with a few options to get it into any number of US or
British lists. I'm a new fan of this addition to my US 82nd Airborne, it has proven to be a great choice for inexpensive artillery support.
So, with the EW tournament at Perkin's Hobbies quickly approaching, I have been hard at work rounding out my British Armored Company to lay some non-HE type destruction on the table. As most players of FoW are well aware, the Brits lack HE anti-tank capability almost right through all of WW2. It's a huge hurdle when you are facing opponents that have dug-in infantry or guns....or anything else for that matter....up to and including a mess tin! You can't kill any of it without some firepower of a HE round.
East bound and down, loaded up and truckin'!
Now with the two trucks complete, I managed to create two small stands with magnets so the guns can be fully removed from the trucks and mounted on a small base. At this point, I know the trailing arms on a 2-Pdr face to the front, I'm just waiting to get my hands on some small wheels to finish these up proper. For the tournament, they'll do just fine and I can not wait to use them.
Gun Stand and Rear Deck of the Trucks
The Full Monty
Initially I had zero interest in Early War and found myself with an entire company of tanks that had no use in any other theater. What I found though, after playing a few games, is that it seems to be a 'pure' game when you are having it out against your opponent. Sure this list, like my MW Australians lacks a lot of 'toys' and high-explosive capability. In the end it's still fun to play and I'm looking forward to Sunday. I'll bring a post-tournament writeup along as usual when I get back and actually show off my army when it's on fire and smoking on the table! Hopefully you are all having a great beginning to your summer and you should see some holidays at some point I would think yeh? One month to Historicon!
"Hmm, perhaps we are reading these captured maps upside down, what do you think, old boy?"
We decided to finally try Roadblock. I was using my Motor Rifles with Priest and RAF support, while Chris rolls a d6 to select an army list to use, and gets all tanks... thankfully not the KV-1 list though..
I choose his unit of T34s as the target unit (bottom left on road), with the 6pdr's as my Ambuscade unit, and he decides the escort unit should be his BA-10's (bottom right) I question this until after his recce move, they are in position to wipe out my 6pdr unit.
Priests and Sherman IIIs deploy behind the large hill.. I decide to ignore the objective near the field (above).. to concentrate on the one that has a forest to cover my approach (below).. Ambuscade: With 12 shots hitting on 2+, I hit 11 times. Str 10 vs side armor 5 SHOULD have killed more than 2 tanks out of 5.. but my ammo was clearly faulty, and Chris was pretty lucky with his rolling 6s for armor saves.. in the end, my Ambuscade kills 2 tanks, including platoon command, and bails another.
His reserves come in turn 1 from either end of the roadway, so his truckriders come in (above)...
While his Commanding Officer in a T34 (above) can appoint a new T34 command.. smart thinking.
My 6pdrs face the wrath of the BA-10s and T34 MGs.. They would lose enough stands to fail a platoon morale...
Meanwhile, his SU76s move off the road to threaten my Priests, forcing me to move them. I would bail most of them, and lose a Priest in return.
RAF Hurricanes pick off the last few T34s My infantry assault and finish off the last SU76
RAF are unable to do much to these Stuart IIIs though.. In the end, this will be my downfall, as they cut down my infantry trying to move up to within 16 inches of the roadway objective. Victory to the Reds
