Painting Update - WWII, Mythic Americas, Romans, Warmaster

It's been a long time since I've had any posts about what I've been painting between games, so here's an update!

I wanted to add a little more armor to my 28mm Late War Germans, so I picked up a Marder III from Warlord Games. 

I also finished the monstrous Ayar for my Aztec warband in Mythic Americas. This Monstrosity is a Mythic Americas original, formed from the shattered soul of one of the legendary Ayar brothers after having been captured by the Aztecs and sacrificed. Now an Aztec High Priest can call upon the Ayar to aid them in battle. 

I've been working on a Second Punic Wars project as well. Josh was kind enough to supply me with a fully 3d-printed set of miniatures. As Josh will be commanding the Carthaginians, I took over the Romans. 

Here's a unit of Velites. We're using Hail Caesar for the rules, and DBx basing. So two bases for small units. 

Here's the Hastati. Regular sized units will be four bases. 

The Principes are close in style to the Hastati. The white feathers on the helmets will help distinguish them from the front, and from behind the chainmail armor also makes them stand out. 

The Triarii are the most visibly distinct, with feather and crests on their helmets, and their long spears. 

Hail Caesar calls for a 2:2:1 proportion of Hastati, Principes, and Triarii, so that's what the two Roman legions will be formed from.

And finally, the commander 

I have another battlegroup of Romans to paint up (probably with blue shields), along with a battlegroup of allied Italians and a cavalry battlegroup. 

What currently on the table is a Daemons of Chaos army for Warmaster. I received these minis from another Black Gate Miniatures kickstarter, and I wanted to take them to a tournament. The upcoming event at Historicon was the perfect excuse to start working on them.

This is a brigade of three Daemon Hordes and a Daemon Swarm. The demonic infantry are generic looking (they would work for any 10mm demonic force, rather than something specific to the Warhammer Fantasy world), so I've used a color palette that should tie them in to the main four factions of Chaos. 

Ambush in the Jungle, Part 2 - Bolt Action AAR

With only a few turns left, Sam, Dick, and I returned to John's place to finish his Palau scenario that was covered in last week's post. 

We had ended on turn 10, which only gave the Americans (Sam and Dick) 5 turns left to move their units off the table. The Marines needed to get 5 units off for a Marginal Victory, 6 units for a Minor Victory, and 7 units for a Major Victory. 

This far along in the game, the battered American forces were finally approaching the Japanese table edge and close to escaping. So John and I had to throw the last of our reserves into the fight to try and halt their advance. 

The Marine squads were still deadly, as long as a random Exceptional Damage roll didn't take out their flamethrowers or bazookas.

With the Ha-Go cleared out, the Marines in the center rushed into the unoccupied bunker to get out of sight of the Japanese mountain gun. 

The Ka-Mi, however, was still holding up the fastest route for the Marines to make it to the exit point. 

It didn't take long for the Americans to get a bazooka into position and brew up the Ka-Mi after avoiding a poorly aimed Japanese sniper shot. 

The last of the Japanese reinforcements appeared to try and hold up a reconstituted Marine squad. However, both sides only managed to do a single casualty to each other. 

With no more ambuhes left to stop the Americans, John and I could only watch as sections of the last defensive line were overrun by Marine assaults. 

With the Ka-Mi gone, Sam and Dick were scrambling to push their remaining units as fast as possible down the road. 

In the center, both sides had their infantry fail an Order test and go Down, leaving the jungle oddly quiet for a moment.

And the Marines got their first unit off the table!

However, another unit was wiped out entirely. But if Sam and Dick decided to reconstitute the squad, it would have pushed them to turn 15, leaving them no time to score more victory points.  

Multiple Marine units converged on the same small area, hoping to double time to safety. 

After another failed Order test, one of the last Japanese infantry squads went down. This left them as a perfect target for a close assault, with the Marines handily routing the enemy squad. The Americans left the table the next turn, scoring another victory point. 

Disaster struck in turn 15 for the Americans! The lead infantry squad failed its Order test and went down, directly in the path of a jeep filled with the platoon's command team, as well as the two remaining Shermans. 

While the Americans were able to randomly roll up a 16th turn, it was only enough time to get the Jeep and the command team off the table to score a third victory point. The two Shermans were left in the lurch, unable to move off the table by the game's end. 

This left the Americans with only three victory points. Had the infantry squad not halted the column's progress, the Americans would have scored five victory points; enough to claim a Marginal Victory. 

Without scoring the tanks, victory went to the Japanese. 

Overall, the players enjoyed the game. It would work well as a 4-6 player event game. The Americans were frustrated at times with how the Japanese could suddenly appear so close to them, but the massive 15-man Marine squads were well equipped to survive the slog (barring a lucky Japanese mortar round). 

It was the tanks that the Americans had to worry more about. With only a d6 of movement through the jungle, the Shermans mostly stuck to the roads. This left them vulnerable to anti-tank teams, guns, and hidden tanks. The underpowered guns of the Ha-Go and Ka-Mi might not have been too threatening, but they could still cause pins and potentially hold up the American advance.

The Japanese played entirely statically in this scenario. Once a squad deploys, there was little chance of it being able to move before being wiped out by an American unit, or taking out its target if the American unit was weak enough (or ran out of luck with an anti-tank attack). Being able to ambush from only 6" away helped offset this, and having every unit deployed behind heavy cover usually meant they could stick around for a turn or two if the Marines flamethrowers missed. 

Hopefully we worked some of the kinks out, since this would work well as a club game. 

Ambush in the Jungle, Part 1 - Bolt Action AAR

This past weekend, John hosted a game of Bolt Action to play out a Palau Campaign based scenario he's been working on for a while now. 

The game saw a platoon of US Marines escorting a platoon of Shermans through a dense jungle. The American forces had to get across the table and exit the opposite edge in 15 turns or less. The more units that made it across in that time, the more points they scored. 

Arrayed against the Marines was a couple platoons of dug-in and camouflaged Japanese. The Japanese were so well disguised, in fact, that they could ambush any moving American unit from just 6" away! 

This meant that the Marines could potentially be ambushed anywhere on the board. 

The areas not delineated by the road also counted as dense jungle, so the infantry could only move 6" each turn and the tanks had to roll a d6 to determine how far they could move. 

Sam and Dick were controlling the Americans, and moved out with the infantry in front of the tanks.

Until they were fired up, the American infantry units were represented by a single model because they were huge; 15 men strong, with an accompanying flamethrower and bazooka team!

They could also "reconstitute" when they reached 6 men or less, allowing the Marine units to return back to full strength. Doing so, however, cost the Americans a turn per unit. 

John and I controlled the Japanese. We started our defense with a machine-gun nest opening fire down a road. The team was quickly knocked out with some return fire from the lead Sherman tank.

In previous versions of this scenario, the Japanese appeared without any covering, which meant that they were usually blown away in the next turn. By fiving them fortifications, the Japanese infantry could better hold up the Marines. 

Of course, two 15-strong Marine squads with their own flamethrowers and bazookas still made short work of the ambushing Japanese!

I was also doing my best to position my ambushes so they wouldn't come under fire from the Shermans, while still delaying the American advance. 

I got lucky and managed to get a side-shot from an anti-tank gun into one of the Shermans, destroying it. 

Unlike the Marine squads, once destroyed the Shermans were done for.

Another machine-gun bunker made trouble for the Americans advancing through the center of the battlefield. 

For the moment, Sam's Marines were unopposed, apart from having to deal with the Japanese mortars that harassed the Americans throughout the game. 

Dick's units were having a lot more trouble. While the anti-tank gun was quickly destroyed, more Japanese infantry units appeared to hold back the remaining Sherman's escorting Marines. 

And to threaten the other Sherman (that had taken a right at the fork instead of a left), I ambushed with my Ha-Go light tank. The Ha-Go's low-velocity gun had little chance to damage the Sherman, but it had enough punch to pin the American tank when it hit. 

Another MMG bunker popped up in front of one of Sam's advancing unit that had mad it the furthest, but it was quickly silenced by the Marines' firepower. 

Speaking off, the Japanese defense on their far right side fell apart, especially with the last Sherman in support. 

Rather than sitting back and trying to damage the dug-in Ha-Go from range, Dick sent the Sherman charging in to get a shot from as close as possible, confident that the light tank's gun couldn't harm the Detroit-forged armor. 

With the last bunker gone, Sam's infantry suddenly found themselves in a sea of calm, and close to discovering one of the Japanese's two mortars. 

Dick wasn't going to find any similar respite, however. As his other Sherman advanced, it found itself being fired upon by another dug-in light Japanese tank; a Ka-Mi!

This tank's crew must have been a little better, as they managed to hit the Sherman and stun its crew. 

The Ha-Go didn't have a chance to respond, as it was destroyed by a close range 75mm round. 

After about 4 hours, we had played through 8 total turns. As the Americans had reconstituted two Marine squads, that put them at 10 turns, leaving them only 5 more turns to push through the Japanese defenders.

While the Americans had learned to be cautious - the Japanese could only ambush them while moving! - their oversized and well-equipped squads had enough firepower to wipe out any Japanese unit in a single turn with a little luck. But will they have enough time to complete their objective before the clock runs out?

We'll pick the game up again soon to see it to its conclusion.

Rolling Start - Bolt Action AAR

This month's SJGA was another small affair, but saw the start of the club's three game Polish Campaign.

As per the chart I developed way back in the campaign's planning, the first game used the "Point Defense" scenario in the Bolt Action rulebook. 

The Polish players had a single 1,250 point platoon that needed to defend three locations. The German players had two 750 platoons that would need to capture those locations. Whoever controlled at least two of the three objectives by the end of the game would be the winner. 

The Poles had deployed their defenses in depth, with multiple hidden units and a variety of armored vehicles defending the village outskirts. They placed their objectives in the fancy building in the bottom left of the above image, in the church, and on the road leading out of town. 

The Polish forces had also set down pre-determined mortar points. While the German players could see where they had been laid out, a few of them were dummy tokens. 

While formidable, the rolling preparatory bombardment that the Germans had managed to place at least a pin or two on most of the deployed Polish units, and even destroyed their armored car outright. 

The Germans were a largely foot-slogging force, with only a single Panzer 38(t), a MMG-armed motorcycle, and a truck for mechanized elements. This meant that they had to trudge across the table to reach the Polish lines, taking fire the entire way. 

There were four factors that ended up assisting the Germans. 

First, with Polish howitzer and German tank on opposite sides of the battlefield, the Poles had nothing to threaten the 38(t) with. They could try to engage it close combat, but that meant passing a tank feat morale check and then trying to damage it without dedicated anti-tank grenades. And the supporting German infantry had plenty of LMGs to keep the tank clear. 

Second, the Germans had two platoons in reserve that were outflanking up the table. While it was a gamble as they had to take a command check to deploy onto the table, one platoon ended up positioned perfectly to capture an objective as soon as it came onto the table.

Third, the Poles seemed reluctant to divert from their pre-planned mortar targets. While most of the German units were constantly moving, a random mortar hit might had been enough to change how the game's result. 

Fourth, plain dumb luck. Had the Germans not had a randomly decided seventh turn, then the game would have ended with the Poles in control of two of the three objectives. Instead, the Germans had just enough time to get a fresh squad of infantry into the church, which was then able to hold against a couple Polish attacks.

With the Germans managing to claim victory at the last second, the next game will see the Germans attempting to push further into the Polish lines with the "Envelopment" scenario.

Skirmish at Żywiec - Bolt Action AAR

Before I went off for a week of vacation, the South Jersey Gamers Association got together for its first in-person meeting since March of 2020! 

Way back in the Before Times, the club had started to plan a series of campaign games to refight platoon-level games during the Invasion of Poland in 1939. Books were read, minis were assembled and painted, scenarios were thought out. And then the pandemic hit and in-person gaming wasn't an option. 

The campaign was postponed indefinitely until such a time that enough club members could gather again to play. We decided to use July's SJGA meeting to break out the miniatures, terrain, and Bolt Action rules to dip our toes in, and then start the campaign proper in September.

We kept the scenario simple. We made two forces from our German and Polish collections, each consisting of an infantry and a tank platoon. At 1275 points we had a lot to chose from, since Early War units and vehicles are relatively cheap. 

We used the Meeting Engagement scenario from the rulebook, with both sides deploying along the short table edges. We laid out the scenery starting the river and adding on from there, with fields on one side and a lightly wooded forest on the other. The banks of the river provided light cover to infantry units willing to stand in the water.

The game would last for 6 turns, with a potential 7th. To keep the game moving, both sides would be limited to 9 order dice in the bag, instead of the 15 that the Germans could bring and the 17 the Polish had. Both sides also had an off-table medium mortar. 

Bill, John and Tim commanded the Polish forces, while Chris, Brandon and I commanded the Germans. 

The Polish starter the game with a heavy armored presence, deploying all three of their 7TP's and the scouting armored car, as well as a motorcycle platoon and a towed anti-tank gun. 

The Germans ordered their infantry forward to the train station, while a single 38(t) and a 222 armored car moved along the road. 

The Poles continued to push forward, with the motorcycle platoon (ignoring their dismounts back by the disabled armored train) racing up the to river. 

The Germans continued to bring units on, with more tanks rolling  through the outskirts of the town. 

By this point, the snipers and mortar observers that both sides brought had mutually destroyed each other, with only the Polish sniper team remaining!

While the Polish motorcycle squad were able to reach the cover of the riverbed, their rifles and single Browning Automatic Rifle weren't able to compete with the multiple LMG's and MMG's that the Germans were firing with. 

The armored battle in the town was proceeding cautiously. The single Polish smoke round that they managed to land before losing their spotter had landed in front of the bridge, so Brandon used it to cover a 38(t) that took up a position behind a stone wall. Hoping to get a return angle, Bill and Tim pushed a 7TP out of a hedgerow. Both sides couldn't land a hit, however. 

The skirmish was developing nicely by this point, with both sides engaging around 2/3's up the table-length. 

Both sides of the tank battle had taken up defensive positions, engaging potshots. The 222 that had rushed up onto the bridge got the worst of it, with a stunned crew from a lucky 7TP hit. 

Another 7TP and a machine gun crew were rushing up to help out the battered motorcycle platoon. Seeing the lone Polish tank, the Germans had deployed a 38(t) to the train station as a counter. 

With the game nearing its end, Brandon summoned his inner panzer ace and pushed his tanks forward. Unfortunately the 222 suffered a hit from a 7TP and was destroyed. 

And even more unfortunately, the gambit didn't pay off. Tim and Bill  were free to use their 7TP's to return fire at the lead 38(t) which ended up battered, if not brewed up. 

Not content to let their armor do all the work, the Polish commanders brought on their infantry squads for a late game appearance. 

By then, however, the spearpoints had run themselves out of steam and the two sides withdrew to regroup. When the dust settled, the Poles had a slight advantage in victory points, gained mostly from their sniper that had survived the initial fighting. 

All-in-all, it was a great game for the club to return to. The limited order dice kept the game moving and forced both sides to consider where they needed their command resources most. We can also adjust the number of dice to show once side having a better command initiative. 

If I could change anything, it would have been to have the two forces deploy along the long edges instead of the short edges. With the scenario only lasting 6-7 turns, only a few infantry units managed to see any action before the game ended. Had we included more transports that might have been a problem, but the foot-bound infantry found themselves ignored in favor of the faster tanks, armored cars, and motorcycle troops. 

I do, however, think we can call the first in-person meeting of the year a success, and we're set up for the campaign to start properly in September.