Salty Squigs a'Sailing - Man O' War AAR

At what may become a regular session on Thursday, John hosted another game of Man O' War, with myself commanding the opposing fleet and Sam watching over the game.

John decided to stick with his previous Greenskin flotilla, with a Hulk surrounded by two squadrons of Drillakillas and two squadrons of Bigchukkas.

Since we were adding wind rules to this game, I commanded an small Empire fleet, with a Greatship supported by a squadron of Wolfships and a squadron of smaller Wargalleys.

Like last time, John's Drillakillas surged forward in front of his fleet, hoping to use their massive drills to sink my ships before the rest of the Orc fleet chugged into position. The Imperial fleet shifted to the right, readying their cannons.

And of course, because it's an Orcs & Goblins force, pure luck came into play against John. One Drillakilla was immobilized by a cannon from a Wargalley. Another managed to hit a Wargalley but sunk in exchange for a bit of damage. And the last Drillakilla hit the Greatship but only sunk itself!

I had to split my fleet in two, with the Wargalleys moving to intercept the second squadron of Drillakillas. These managed to do some actual damage, with one of the Wargalleys losing its oars and begin left out of the fight.

Now the fight was between the Greenskin Hulks and Bigchukkas, and the Imperial Greatship and Wolfships.

I scored a lucky critical hit early in a turn on the Hulk, which resulted in the crew panicking and wounding the admiral. This left the hulk unable to act in the turn, which gave my Wolfships free reign to turn and engage with their bow guns.

Unfortunately for John, he tried to board the Greatship with his Hulk after I rolled extremely lucky against his Smash-hammer attack (which should have done a lot of damage, but I stopped five of the six hits). Between my cannons, crew, and a Man O' War card that gave me an advantage in boarding actions, the Greenskin ship was quickly denuded of its crew.

However, the small crew I assigned to the Hulk was then boarded by the crew of a Bigchukka, who tossed the humans overboard.

That crew was then evicted by a ramming attack against the big hulk! (Although I messed up here - ships can't ram using their sails, only under oar power. Sorry, John! I'll study the rulebook more.)

The concentrated fire of the Bigchukkas was able to sink one of my Wolfships.

With the Hulk uncrewed and the Imperial fleet mostly concentrated in the same area, John decided to concede, since the Bigchukkas were outmatched.

Apart from a few rules hiccups, I enjoyed the game. Like I said, it looks like we'll be making Thursdays our Man O' War night as we add in more rules like Wizards, Magic and Fliers (and make sure to double check old rules!).

On the High Fantasy Seas - Man O' War AAR

Recently, John put out an invite to play Man O' War, the naval combat game set in the Warhammer Fantasy universe that came out in 1993. 

I was two years old at the time. Yeesh. 

Anyway, I volunteered, got shanghaied, and found myself commanding a dwarf fleet facing off against an orc armada.

The objective was simple - sink more of the other side before they managed to sink you.

The dwarves looked like they were steaming out of the late 19th century, with a Dreadnought, an Ironclad, a Nautilus (submarine) and a squadron of Monitors.

The orcs were fielding (sea-ing?) a large flotilla of barely floating ships. The greenskin admiral led from a Hulk, flanked by two squadrons each of Bigchukkas and Drillakillas.

With both sides equipped with either steam- or slave-powered paddles, neither fleets needed to worry about the direct of the wind, and so powered forward.

The Nautilus was the first to fire a shot, diving and launching torpedos at the oncoming Drillakillas. Unfortunately the orc ships were just out of range.

My Monitor squadron was less lucky, as one of John's Drillakillas surged forward, rammed, and sunk a dwarf ship of the line. The Drillakilla sunk as well.

The dwarfs had their hands full dealing with the Drillakillas, while the slower orc ships advanced in a second wave. My Ironclad and Dreadnought were able to handle the orc assault ships, defeating the crew of one in a boarding action and immobilizing the other.

The Monitors continued their run of misfortune, ultimately sinking after being rammed by more Drillakillas.

The Dreadnought and Ironclad readied for contact with the rest of the orc fleet.

I thought the Nautilus would be enough to handle the three Bigchukkas on its own, but a well aimed shot from a catapult smashed through the submarine, sinking the boat and drowning the crew.

Now it was up to the two Man O' Wars in the dwarf fleet. The Ironclad was taking a pounding, losing hull integrity and taking on water. Both it and the Dreadnought fired volley after volley into the advancing orc Hulk, watching as the massive ship and its close-combat weaponry loomed ever larger.

However, the broadsides eventually broke through the Hulk's hull, causing enough critical hits and damage below the waterline to sink the greenskin juggernaught. With only a few Bigchukkas left, the Orc fleet retreated as the dwarfs raced to rescue their waterlogged compatriots.

Well, damn. Here's another fun set of rules that I'm tempted to get into. And it's only for a game that's been out of print for nearly three decades!

Luckily, John has a massive collection of original models that are beautifully painted. I'll have to read more of the rules and learn how to move ships under sail, as well as learn how wizard and aerial units work. While I'm interested in playing as the Empire, I may join John in a campaign, pitting his Bretonnians versus a combined fleet of Dark Elves and Skaven.

Painting Update - ACW, WWII

The painting continues!

I've restarted progress on my 10mm ACW project. With the Union finished for now, I need to get the Confederates painted up. I started with two mounted commanders and four regiments of infantry. 

I'm not going to drive myself insane trying to mix and match the infantry's clothing at 10mm, so I'm just doing it by regiment. These first four regiments are either entirely gray, or gray with brown hats. 

The Bolt Action slow grow league continues. I was looking to add another squad of infantry, but I wanted something different from the overdone Fallschirmjager or Waffen-SS squads. So I picked up a Luftwaffe Field Division box. The picture unfortunately washed out a lot of the blue from the miniatures. 

I also picked up one of Wargames Illustrated "Giants in Miniature," Captain K. It's an ersatz copy of Captain Klenzendorf from Taika Waititi's Jojo Rabbit. Which, by the way, is worth watching. 

The pandemic and lockdown has made requisitioning reinforcements for my platoon very difficult. We're getting to the point where tanks and armored cars are going to be more prevalent, so a captured M4 Sherman (that was going to be used for What a Tanker and painted in olive drab) was instead pressed into service with the Wehrmacht and dubbed Kätzchen.

Painting Update - WWII, 40k

While the local slow grow Bolt Action league has started, I was focused more on learning the rules than taking pictures so I didn't take any pictures to make an after-action report. 

However, I did finish up a few support pieces for my platoon. 

The panzerschreck is a little overkill for 500 point games (it's not like anyone is bringing tanks, and even armored cars aren't showing up), but it will be useful when the games start getting larger.

The flamethrower, however, is a beauty in small games, especially when used in scenarios that allow outflanking. It's always a surprise to the enemy when the two-man team appears halfway down a flank, opens fire (pun intended), and routs an entire unit in one go. I'm also proud of how well the flames turned out.

The last models for my Slow Grow Germans were another officer (who can act as a Captain if I ever need a higher officer) and a medic. I don't see medics get used very often in Bolt Action, but it's a nice addition to have.

My local game store is going to have a painting competition using some Primaris freebies. I don't play 40k, but I hopped in anyway. So I chose to paint the mini as a Rainbow Warrior (yes, that's a Chapter in the universe).

Bad Time on the Banks - Konflikt 47 AAR

This past weekend, Sam hosted a few of us local wargamers over at his place for a game of Konflikt 47. 

The scenario was a Soviet attack along the Vistula River. Hoping to turn the German's flank, the Soviets goals were to push through the German defenders, as well as secure the bridge over the Vistula, which could mean a faster collapse of the German lines.

The German defenders' objectives were fairly straightforward - stop the Soviets from pushing through, and defend the bridge.

Bill and Keith were commanding the Soviets, while Brandon and I lead the Germans.

The battle started with a line of smoke deployed by the Soviet's artillery support. While this meant the Germans couldn't shoot during the first turn, it also meat their positions were hidden by the smoke.

Further complicating the battlefield was the early morning fog along the riverbank, which also obscured line of sight.

Most of the Soviet horde advanced onto the table during the first turn, with an armored car leading the pack.

With the smoke clearing, a squad of inexperienced Soviet soldiers moved to the bridge, only to discover that the Germans had placed their Locust panzermech to defend it. The Locust opened fire and caused a number of casualties, but not enough to force a moral check.

On the other flank, the Germans pushed out with a halftrack full of Rift-tech horrors, which unloaded into the cover of a ruined Polish village.

The Germans also used their artillery observer to call in a barrage.

It was in the next turn that things started to go downhill for the Germans. The artillery bombardment was delayed, and the Schreckwulfen and Nachtjagers squads were shredded when they tried to assault a squad of Soviet paratroopers.

The halftrack managed to recce away from the assaulting Soviet troops, but this left both the German Captain and his attending medic out in the open in front of the oncoming Soviet troops.

You can also see a small part of a second smoke bomardment that the Soviets had laid out, which prevent a number of German units from shooting during the turn. This also allowed the Soviet armored car to speed off the table, scoring a victory point.

And while the Locust was able to defeat both the inexperienced Soviet squad and a unit of the superhuman Daughters of the Motherland, a lucky return-fired Panzerfaust round caught the panzermech squarely in the cockpit, killing the pilot and destroying the walker.

This left the bridge wide open, apart from the Waffen-SS troops defending a ruined building.

The game had now gone on long enough that Soviet outflankers began to show up. The Soviet's had sent a Cossack light walker and a Rift-tech equipped T-34 appeared, ready to cause havoc. Unfortunately, both of the Waffen-SS' Panzerfaust rounds missed the T-34.

The smoke cleared to reveal a much reduced battle along the Vistula, with a small squad of Waffen-SS supported by a light howitzer. On the other side, the Soviet Commissar yelled at an approaching squad of assault engineers to hurry over the bridge.

Also revealed was a Panther armed with a light railgun. The massive weapon charged up a round, aimed at the T-34... and missed.

Luckily, neither the T-34 or the Cossack managed to pierce the Panther's armor.

The German counter-attack had been severely blunted. The Soviets pushed forward as the Germans reeled back with a bloody nose.

Without much firepower, the Waffen-SS squad could only through a few rifle rounds at the approaching Soviets.

They weren't able to do much damage, and the Soviets were firmly in control of the bridge by the end of the game.

While the Panther destroyed the T-34, the strange Rift-tech sound weaponry the Soviet tank had been equipped with did massive damage to the German lines, causing multiple casualties and wiping out a Nebelwerfer's crew.

At that point, we decided to call the game. The Soviets had accomplished multiple objectives, scoring 10 victory points to the Germans' 3, earning Bill and Keith a major victory.

After the game, a vigourous discussion ensued on how the scenario felt. It was agreed that the Germans should have gotten two victory points per enemy unit destroyed, since the Soviets had so many ways to score points. This would have given the Germans a score of 6-10 - still a loss, but not quite so one sided.

Other considerations were perhaps adding some chance to the arrival of the Soviet smoke barrage, and tweaking the Germans to be more of a defensive force.

Overall, it was a fun game and Sam plans to host more games of Konflikt 47 in the future.