Painting Update - WWII, Battletech

Since I'm back to regular work hours, I haven't had as much time to devote to the hobby. But I'm still getting work done!

This Citroen Traction Avant from Rubicon is perfect as a field car for the staff officers that will be commanding during the upcoming Invasion of Poland campaign.

This Opel Blitz will also be in use, either transporting infantry or towing light artillery pieces.

I've also been working on a pair of lances for Battletech's fast playing Alpha Strike ruleset. These are a light-class Eagle and a medium-class Huron Warrior. They're painted as Death Commandos, the elite special force soldiers of the Capellan Confederation. 

The lance's real firepower comes from the heavy-class Lao Hu and the assault-class Lu Wei Bing. 

Rats on a Sinking Ship - Man O' War AAR

While we haven't been able to play Man O' War in a little while, here's a battle report from a game in August. 

For this game, John set me up with a Skaven fleet, to once again face off against the Orcs & Goblins. 

The Skaven have a ton of special rules. The Doombringer, the rat-race's Man O' War, only carries a Great Bell, but it's a very scary ship. The Great Bell starts by rolling 2d6, and then adding a volume counter every turn the bell rings (or removing one when the bell stops tolling for a turn). Each volume counter adds an additional d6 to the Doombringer's attack, which range is equal to the total pips of the dice rolled. Any doubles rolled is a result on a chart, which can range from the Great Bell destroying itself, or every enemy ship in range taking one automatic critical hit!

The other Skaven ships are almost as wacky. Deathburners have a massive burning Incense Burner which smashes enemy ships like a plague-infused mace. And Warp-Raiders belch out columns of warpfire, setting enemy ships aflame. 

John (not the host) and I would control the Skaven, while John (the host) and Steve would control the Orcs & Goblins.

The mission was a smash-and-grab, with the central fort holding five treasure tokens. Ships could dock with the fort and roll to find the treasure.

Also in the game were Chaos Terrain that could damage ships or harm their crews, and a couple random monsters. Out of the deep came the mighty Kraken and the sinuous Gargantuan!

The 3d6 movement speed of the Orc Drillakillas meant they were able to quickly land on the island, get into the fort, and grab the treasure. In short order, the Greenskins were in possession of four of the five tokens, with the Skaven only able to grab one.

The fighting then came down to a close quarters battle. The Doombringer's Great Bell managed to get some hits against the Orc fleet, but broke before it could do any real damage. The MVP of the game was the Kraken. John and I diced for control of the Kraken, and I managed to keep control of it for most of the game.

Its long tentacles swept the decks of the Greenskins ships clean of their crews, which meant John had to move his other ships' crew over to keep the Skaven from claiming the treasure.

(Skaven) John lead his Deathburners in a frontal charge against the Orc Hulk, and between the nasty plague incense and good dice on a boarding action, the Hulk was quickly de-crewed.

In fact, the Orc fleet was looking dangerously low on crew members. Still in possession of four of the treasures, (Orc) John and Steven began backing the Drillakillas out of the danger zone and back towards their board edge.

Three of the Drillakillas were close to escaping, but the Deathburners were in hot pursit.

Fortunately for the Greenskins, two of the Drillakillas managed to escape off the table with their treasure, while the rest of the ships in the fleet were either burning or lacked crew.

The game ended with the Skaven eventually securing three tokens on their ships. However, had we put a time limit on the game, it would have taken far too long for the Skaven to move their tokens off the ship, so the game was decided as a victory for the Orcs!

This scenario inspired John's next game, which which see two fleets attempting to navigate some nasty terrain to get treasure, instead of just rolling up to the fort.

We also decided to allow the Orc Bigchukkas to move and shoot, instead of the move or shoot that the rules allow. This gives the Orcs a little more dependability with a somewhat lackluster overall roster. Although one suggestion from the Man O' War Facebook group was to treat the Bigchukka like the Empire Hellhammer, which can move and fire but has to spend a turn reloading.

Overall, another fun game of Man O' War. Still missing from the game are Flyers and Magic, which John may add in soon.

Ohio Valley Skirmish - Brother Against Brother AAR

Recently, John was kind enough to host a game of Brother Against Brother for our semi-regular Thursday gaming meetups.

Bill commanded the Rebels, while John and I managed to convince Sam to put on a Federal coat. For a little while, at least.

The goal was to control the town by the end of the game.

Sam and I had each had a commanding officer and for units of infantry. Bill controlled two officers with three infantry units each, with a supporting light artillery piece. 

Units in the game activate using a deck of cards that match the letters on a unit's base. There were also two Halt! cards that, once both were drawn, ended a turn. We ended up adding one more Halt! card as turns in the first half of the game were ending too quickly. 

The Union managed to get half their forces on the table and moved up in a wide front.

The Confederates moved up along the road into town thanks to some good movement rolls (movement for infantry and unlimbered guns is 2d10 inches. On the road, units roll 3d10 and take the two highest dice). They focused on moving up behind the woods on the other side of the town. 

Since the Confederates were closer to the town, they managed to set up a defense first. But it also meant they were in range of the Union's rifles. Rebel soldiers were the first to fall from skirmishing Union fire. 

Meanwhile the Union officers were busy trying to call up reinforcements as Sam pushed one unit of Zouaves forward to force the issue in the town. 

Those Zouaves were going to be in a bad position if they couldn't get into the building. The Confederates were massing in the woods, hopping over the streams to ready an attack on that flank. 

I was trying to support Sam's advance towards the town with my own troops, but they started to take fire from both the Confederate artillery and a unit that had moved up to the fence line. 

Sam's attempt to capture the green building seemed to go well, with his Zouaves pushing the defending Confederates out. Unfortunately, a Confederate counter-charge and the dice saw the Zouaves scattered and the house reoccupied.

Other Rebel fire smashed into the leading Union units and blunted the attack. And before the Union could rally for another push, the scenario came to an end.

We discussed the rules afterwards. They were great, light set for skirmishing in the horse and musket area. There are even rules for playing games set earlier in the era, like the French and Indian War and the American War of Independence. 

A Bad Time For Tea - Rebels & Patriots AAR

I've been involved with ongoing efforts to get the SJGA involved in more outreach activities - flyers, displays, dice with our logo on them, etc. So for an upcoming military history day at a local historical site, the club will be demoing a couple games. The ongoing pandemic makes that a little more difficult - wearing masks, social distancing, restricting people from touching dice or interacting with the miniatures - but we're still going to give it a try. 

Our first game will be Osprey's Rebels & Patriots, with a straight-up brawl over a farmstead during the American War of Independence.

The British have three units of line infantry, a unit of light infantry, a unit of shock infantry (Grenadiers), and a light artillery piece. The Americans have four units of line infantry, two units of skirmishers, upgraded to be good shooters, as well as a light artillery piece.

The goal is to control the farmstead at the end of eight turns by having the most bases within the fence-line.

For this scenario we started with all units off the table, and both sides would need to activate a unit to bring it onto the table.

In the first turn, this ended up being a major problem for me, as both my Captain's unit and my light infantry failed to come on the table, while the Americans brought their full force onto the table.

Even in the second turn, the British only managed to bring the Captain's unit into the fight. Meanwhile, the American cannon smashed into the unit of Grenadiers, while the British cannon failed to spark.

Sam used his skirmishers to flank his line infantry units, moving them up through the wooded areas on the extreme flanks of the table.

Those skirmishers, supported by American line infantry, fired volley after volley into the British Grenadiers, who had leapt over the fence to get cover from the colonist's cannon. The withering fire rocked the shock infantry, bringing them down to half their original size and giving them a permanent disorder marker.

While the Grenadiers retreated, the other British units pushed forward, with the light infantry finally joining the fight - only to take a disorder marker from American skirmishers hidden in the woods.

And after joining the fight, the Light Infantry were immediately chased off the table after a poor morale test. 

On the other side of the battlefield, the Americans had established a good defensive line in the farmstead by occupying a small house and a wheat field. The British light cannon had to fall back slightly to continue firing at the oncoming skirmishers, partially hidden by the trees. 

The fight was starting to go against the British. One unit that had managed to get into the farmstead was routed after a concentrated series of American volleys. The flanks were quickly falling to the American skirmishers.

We decided to call the game at the end of turn seven, since the British had to chance to get enough troops over the fence-line to contest the farm, and I wouldn't be able to rout enough Americans to bring their number down to a manageable amount! So the rest of the British troops fled as the Americans cheered and broke out the hard cider for a good victory toast.

This game should be perfect for a demonstration. Relatively simple rules with a great visual aspect. I'm going to mix up the farm layout a little bit, and we'll start the game with all units deployed 3" onto the table so we don't have the problem of units deploying late into the game.

Hopefully it goes over well during the event!

Painting Update - ACW, WW2

Here's what I've been working on.

Progress on the 10mm American Civil War project continues. I finished four more regiments of Confederates with more variations to their uniforms.

I've begun work on my 1939 German force for the planned September Campaign re-fight later this year (if the pandemic in my area continues at a minimal level). I've got enough infantry, guns, and vehicles to field a decent variety.

This Pak 36 wasn't too difficult to put together, although there's a real dearth of assembly instructions for Warlord's metal miniatures.

Unlike machine guns, mortars, and anti-tank guns, I don't often see infantry support guns on the table of many platoon scale WW2 games. Maybe that's just an oversight on my part. But I didn't want to build my early war force without a light howitzer in support. 

With the use of Vallejo's "panzer grey" primer, painting the vehicles for this project is going to be easy.

This is a Sd.Kfz 231 6-Rad, a rarer armored car that's production stopped in 1937.

Also completed was a Sd.Kfz 222, another armored that saw production almost until the end of the war. 

These vehicles were also my first experience with applying waterslide decals. The application of the decals went much easier than expected. I used a combination of art supply gloss varnish and Testors' decal set liquid.