Painting Update - Warmachine, FIW, WWII

It's been another one of those weeks were I haven't gotten much painting or gaming in. Or any at all, really.

So, it's going to be another picture update, with some quick iPhone masterpieces I snapped of my work area. Enjoy!

I was asked by a local comic/game store to paint up some of their miniatures while their main guy is on deployment. I've been trying my best (28mm isn't exactly my scale of choice), and I've gotten enough compliments that I'm beginning to think I'm actually good at painting miniatures. Strange. I'll have the rest of what I've painted up later. 

These are the 15mm French Militia from Blue Moon/Old Glory I've been working on for my French & Indian War project.

 And, of course, it can't be much of a French & Indian War without any actual, you know, Indians.

Here we've got the last bit of 15mm British armor I'm working on. Here's what I've painted recently...

...and here's what still needs to be painted.

Some individually based 15mm British infantry. I may or may not use these for Battlegroup: Overlord, since apparently I can use my already painted, multi-based infantry.

And to round it all off, 6mm Modern tanks, IFVs, and infantry for a demo game of the light version of 'A Fistful of TOWs 3'.

Water Under the Bridge - Battle Group Kursk AAR

Yup, another set of rules to play.

It does seem like I get around a lot, doesn't it?

I had my first taste of Battlegroup: Kursk over the past weekend. Having only played Flames of War before (and only on the Western Front in Normandy), displacing myself not only in time and place, but in rulesets as well, made for quite the shock. And not an unpleasant one, at that. It was also the first time playing for two other people there, so the newb-to-knowledgeable ration was a bit off!

I'm not going to review the rules, by the way - not in any sort of detail. Maybe some small observations here and there, but I certainly haven't been in this hobby long enough to really judge anyone's rules. You can find a great review here, however, and my thoughts on the rules are very much the same.

Ken, our host, dauntlessly led us through the game, throwing useful tactical advice to us new players (and especially to the Soviet commanders - it wasn't as though the Germans needed any advice!)

The scenario was thus: A group of German armor and mechanized infantry were to defend a bridgehead over a small, yet apparently frustratingly difficult to cross with anything but German tanks, river. The Soviet force, consisting of armor, tank riders, and regular infantry, were to assault the village the Germans had dug into, smash the Germans apart, and take the bridgehead. Piece of tea cake, right?

Wrong. So very, very wrong. 

You can never have too many Russians. 

The game began with the Soviets deploying some T-34's with tank riders, a SU-76, and a T-70, who's main job would be to secure the objective as quickly as possible (and force the Germans to take a chit). Starting with only 5 units on the table was slightly worrying.

The Germans started in the town, with a quartet of StuGs, a Panzer IV, and two recon cars. 

The game began with the Soviets rushing forward, tank riders holding on for dear life as the T-34s make a made dash for the village. The SU-76 crawls forward, and the T-70 makes it to the objective.

Long-range potshots are taken, and the Soviets manage to knock out a StuG.

This is were things started to go wrong. Thanks to a ... rules misunderstanding, the Germans were rolling THREE times as many dice for their off-board artillery. This decimated the poor tanks and tank riders who were relatively unprotected in the open fields, and the attack on their side quickly bogged down. At one point, the Germans managed to pin that entire side, leading to an overabundance of unusable orders. This was eventually corrected, but it definitely hurt. Those German's had some real savvy artillerymen that day.

Now, take that last bit and repeat it, and you'll have our game. The dice totally failed me on this occasion, meaning that our reinforcements trickled in, we never had enough orders, and my tanks couldn't hit anything to save their lives (literally!). We were forced to take chit after chit to keep our units unpinned - thank goodness we had such a high battle rating.

The game ended after a failed assault on the town - the Soviets never made it further than the hill and the initial row of houses, although we did manage to give the Germans a semi-bloody nose. Besides, there are plenty more brave Russian soldiers to throw into the fight!

I'd definitely play again, and now I'm eyeing up the PSC bundles for a small German force in 20mm.

And here's the rest of the pictures taken. I didn't exactly get the whole game, as it eventually got to the point where my entire attention was on the game itself!

With the danger of the open fields, I had the infantry come on and move for the woods.

Unfortunately, Stal! Stal! Stal!...

Quickly became "Stall, Stall, Stall!"

The Germans have how many unit?!

A lone T-34 made a dash for the cover of the village.

And it's quickly joined by other elements of the Soviet battlegroup.

Can you guess how much we hated that recon car?

Enough to send a platoon of tanks after it!

But it just wouldn't die!

The Soviets ready themselves to assault the village.

Stal! Stal! Stal! actually works for once.

And a risky gambit...

Turns into a small, personal victory.

Action in the Vella Gulf - General Quarters 3 AAR

Last weekend, Curt and I participated in another game of GQ3. This was a full-on game, with 7 players (4 Americans, including me, and 3 Japanese). The scenario was another night-fight set in 1942. This time, there were two objectives for both sides to complete, instead of just one.

Earlier in the day, the USS New Orleans had been crippled during a fight, her engines damaged and the ship left dead in the water. Two destroyers, the Laffey and the Meredith, had been assigned to protect her until the New Orleans' crew could get her back into working order. With the sun finally setting, the New Orleans had finally managed to get her engine back into working order, albeit with a reduced speed. Unfortunately, the Japanese were aware that a crippled US cruiser still floated out on the water, and so a number of ships were sent to sink her.

Even with the intense fighting between the two fleets, land troops fighting on the nearby island still needed supplies. The Japanese, with troops stationed on the nearby island of Kolombangara, decided to send a small convoy of supply ships to refit the infantry. The Americans, knowing that the Japanese often sent supplies under the cover of night, had sent out a small taskforce of destroyers to find these ships and sink them.

The marked off area represents the table we played on.

American Fleet:
USS New Orleans (New Orleans-class Heavy Cruiser, Flagship)
USS Laffey (Gleaves-class Destroyer)
USS Meredith (Gleaves-class Destroyer)
USS Chevalier (Fletcher-class Destroyer)
USS Mahan (Mahan-class Destroyer)
USS Fletcher (Fletcher-class Destroyer)
USS O'Bannon (Fletcher-class Destroyer)

My two ships - the Meredith and the Laffey.

Japanese Fleet: (An apology - I don't happen to know all the names of the Japanese ships, but I'll try to give a best representation of what was on the table)
IJN Isuzu (Nagara-class Light Cruiser)
Kagero-class Destroyer
Kagero-class Destroyer
IJN Nagara (Nagara-class Light Cruiser)
Destroyer
Destroyer

The Game:

I'll do an overview of the game with the pictures below as a complement. It started out well (i.e., terribly) enough. The New Orleans was spotted immediately by the two Japanese groups that were coming from behind her. While the Orleans moved away, the Laffey and Meredith (who had been tailing the Orleans) moved to intercept the Japanese ships, with one US ship going after each enemy squadron.

The Mahan, Chevalier, O'Bannon, and Fletcher made a wide maneuver around the edge of the table, apparently hoping to skirt the action and intercept the convoy ships as quickly as possible (but not before taking a shot at the Orleans, who hadn't been identified before the ships opened fire).

The Laffey and Meredith, meanwhile, managed to stall the Japanese ships for a little while, with the Laffey sinking a Japanese destroyer with her torpedoes. The Meredith, unfortunately, was sunk when the Japanese launched their own torpedo salvo, but not before causing a bit of trouble in her own right.

The Orleans, apparently emboldened by the arrival of more destroyers, joined the new group that began to swing to meet the delayed Japanese attack. A mistake, however, caused the Orleans to slam into the Mahan and the two ships were left behind as the Chevalier, O'Bannon and Fletcher surged forward to attack the arriving convoy ships.

In what seemed to be an amazing and disastrous turn of events, the Japanese managed to sink the Orleans (though not before the Laffey managed to slip right through them), and the gunnery skills of the convoy ships actually managed to cripple the Chevalier. The O'Bannon and Fletcher managed to meet up with the Laffey to launch another attack, but it was decided that the 3 battered ships wouldn't have made it, and they beat a hasty retreat.

It was a stunning victory for the Japanese!

The New Orleans is spotted!

The Laffey and the Meredith move in to protect the New Orleans.

A bad, bad position to be in.

The Laffey sinks a Japanese destroyer, then runs for it!

The New Orleans heads for the (assumed) safety of other American ships. 

And the Meredith goes down after a savage beating. 

Looks like the Laffey's in trouble!

But the Japanese cruiser has bigger problems to worry about.

The Laffey heads for the safety of a fog bank - just beyond the rest of the Japanese ships!

The Japanese move in for the kill...

As the convoy ships show the Americans who's boss!

As the Orleans takes a beating and sinks, the Americans ready for another go before calling the retreat.

And the convoy moves away with the MVP title in tow!

Painting Update - FIW

Another painting post, this time showing the finished militia units for my French-Indian War project.

Here they are:

I need to add another two 10-man units for a full 'detachment' of militia, which I can then add into whatever mixture of Provincial, Regular, Ranger, or Indian forces (I'll also need to replace the current officer with something a bit more 'official' - most likely with a tricorner hat!). Militia made up a large part of the forces that fought in the French-Indian War, especially since a large part of it was fought in a non-traditional way for the European officers, many of who couldn't adjust their tactics to make up for this fact.



Next on my list is the French milita, and then the Indians. I've got to say, these Blue Moon packs are fantastic - all you need is a couple for a decent detachment of troops, and at $15 for 30 18mm miniatures, they're fantastically priced!

Painting Update - WWII

I'm so sorry for that.

Anyway, I've finally gotten Curt's Fallschirmjager painted and coated, which means in addition to his StuG's and Tigers, he's got everything he owns for FoW painted!

So here's some shots of the infantry:

Next is finishing up what what I own for my British (more tanks and a troop of Sextons), and then I'll most likely move on to my Germans.