Back off, Boches! - Chain of Command AAR

This past weekend I went over to Springfield for their monthly meetup. Luckily, for the first part of 2023, they're meeting on the third Saturday of the month, which means it doesn't overlap with the SJGA meeting on the second Saturday. 

While I had to be elsewhere in the afternoon, I got a chance to play a game of Chain of Command set during the 1940 invasion of France, run by Jeff. 

I was commanding a French platoon, while Hutch was my opponent and commanding the Germans. Hutch was later joined by Scott. Apparently this was the painted French's first outing, so I hoped I could do them proud. 

The German objective was to secure the stone house at the end of the road, while the French objective was to keep the Germans away. 

The Germans started with 10 morale, while the French had 8. 

I got lucky with the Patrol Phase and managed to lock down two of the German patrol markers with one of mine. I got one JOP in the ruins at the front of the buildings and the other two behind stone walls on the other side of the road. 

With not much in the way of cover approaching the village, Hutch had to place the German JOPs in the woods on either side of the table. You can see one on the far side of the table, and two on the close side.

Hutch's advance started with an aggressive double phase for the Germans, deploying two squads and a senior leader into the far side of the table (and catching me off guard. I had expected the German attack to push from the two JOPs on the other side). 

Needing to stem the German tide, I got the chance to deploy a VB-armed team in the stone house, and an infantry squad in the ruins. They caught some fire from the German LMG team that was on overwatch, but the Germans were worse off in the exchange. 

Hutch brought on a light mortar to target the infantry in the ruined building, which I managed to chase off with a Hotchkiss HMG. 

The firefight between the Germans in the forest and the French in the ruins continued, with both sides accruing casualties and shock markers. 

To bring more fire on the French defenders, the Germans drive their armored car into range. The 222's armor was enough that nothing on the French side could handle it, apart from the Panhard that was in reserve. 

So I brought the Panhard on, and the French armored car immediately missed its shot at its smaller German counterpart.

Feeling pressed on the far side of the table, I decided to deploy a second squad of infantry on the opposite flank. Two of the German JOPs were relatively undefended, and it would be a huge hit to their morale to lose them. 

While I had given the Germans a bloody nose, the overall fight wasn't going my way. Hutch and Scott had pinned the Panhard and wounded the commander, reducing his Command value. The French infantry in the ruins, while staying put, were rapidly dwindling. 

My flanking squad was moving quickly, hoping that the 222 would be too occupied by the Panhard to notice them. 

Scott did deploy an infantry squad to cover the JOPs, but they were met with fire from the Hotchkiss team and the last of the VB squad's ammo, resulting in several casualties. 

Unfortunately, the end came all too soon as a few critical events went badly for the defenders.

With only the LMG team left of the infantry squad deployed to the ruins, they finally accrued enough shock to force them to retreat, pulling the platoon's sergeant with them. The Panhard's crew ended up abandoning the armored car after suffering more fire from the 222. 

This confluence of Bad Things was enough to reduce my Force Morale from 5 to 0 in one turn, and my platoon routed. 

I hadn't done too badly, all things considered. The Germans were pretty chewed up (having been reduced from a starting Force Morale of 10 down to 5), and the only casualties I had lost were from the infantry squad that took the brunt of the fighting.

I thought this would work as a great introductory scenario for Chain of Command (all thank to Jeff for running it), and Hutch and Scott were fantastic to game with. 

Vive L'Empereur 2023 - Introduction

Welcome to the new year!

I would describe myself as something of a "wargames butterfly", flitting from project to project as my interests take me. 

While indulging these whims means I always have something new to focus on, it also means that my limited wargaming space and budget fill up quickly. My backlog grows with half-finished projects that I either box up for storage in the attic, or sell and recycle the funds back into my budget. 

In 2022 I managed to cut down my lead pile by giving away or cheaply selling some projects that I had lost interest in. And instead of going back to the trough for more, I decided to instead hold off and focus on a single project for this year.*

And what a project it is. 

There's a certain period of history that I've mostly steered away from due to its intimidating nature: Napoleonics. It's the ultimate wargaming iceberg; a relatively small surface above the water that hides an absolutely terrifying depth. 

I've dabbled in it before; mostly with Sam Mustafa's Blucher rules, since they've got some really nice unit cards that don't require any painting to play. 

So I've decided that 2023 is the year of Napoleon for me and this blog. I will spend my time and attention putting together my first dedicated Napoleonics collection. 

Technically, I'm cheating with this goal, as I started last year with some Russian cavalry to round out Ted's collection and play the Weissenfels scenario from the GDA '1813' scenario book. 

Conveniently, that's also what I'm going to base my Napoleonics collection on. The 1813 campaign for Germany was a desperate fight between Napoleon's battered French forces against a coalition of Russian, Prussian, and Austrian forces. Both sides had a mix of tired-but-tested veterans and new recruits. 

Having played General d'Armee and enjoyed it, I'm going to stick with it as my set of rules, although I'd also like to try Soldiers of Napoleon, which has army lists for the nations included in the main rulebook. 

Of course, between the time that I had original written this post and its publication, General d'Armee 2nd Edition was announced. 

I'll be using 18mm miniatures from Blue Moon, Viking Forge, and AB Figures.

My first target will be to match the OOBs from the Weissenfels scenario in the 1813 campaign book. That will give me a good start to my French force, and finish off the Russians I started last year. This is also helpful as I can then use the same French models in the Lutzen scenario (with some reinforcements), against the Prussians. 

As an example, here's the expanded OOB for Weissenfels. I've had to identify the Russian infantry regiments that were at the battle to get the correct flags, and it's also a convenient spot to put any links for uniform research. 

Let's see how far along this project I can get. If I can at least play out Weissenfels and Lutzen, then I'll consider it a success. 

So, let the year of Napoleon commence. Vive l'Empereur! Vive la France!

*I will probably have small asides here and there, as a means to avoid burnout and reduce the lead pile. The goal here is to avoid starting any new projects.

A Year In Gaming - 2022

Once again, it's the end of the year and a look back at what I played and painted during that time. 

Let's start with the games: 

• 'O' Group - 4
• Age of Hannibal - 1
• Basic Impetus II - 1
• Battlefleet Gothic - 2
• Breakthrough - 1
• Castles in the Sky - 1
• Command & Colors: Ancients - 1
• Fire and Fury (Homebrew) - 1
• For King & Parliament - 1
• Frostgrave - 2
• General d'Armee - 2
• Mythic Americas - 2
• Naval Thunder - 4
• Pickett's Charge - 1
• Regimental Fire & Fury - 1
• Saga - 1
• Sharp Practice - 1
• Strength & Honour - 4
• The Battlefield - 1
• To the Strongest! - 1
• Wars of Orcs and Dwarves - 1
• Wars of Ozz - 1

I played 33 games in 2022. That's... not great, to be honest. That's two less games than in 2020, the year when the world shut down due to the outset of the pandemic. 

Then again, I could consider myself privileged to have been able to play so many games in the past. I'm sure there are plenty of hobbyists out there who would be happy to be able to hit that number of games, and the variety therein. 

I also note the lack of any campaign or tournament games in the list that would usually come in the double digits. In the years past that would have been games like ADLG, Blood Bowl, Mordheim, and Guild Ball. 

And here's what I've painted: 

• 1/1200th Ships - 31
• 15mm Cavalry - 31
• 15mm Infantry - 162
• 28mm Infantry - 61
• 28mm Monsters - 3
• 2mm Cavalry - 3
• 2mm Infantry - 20
• 2mm Terrain - 8
• 6mm Vehicles - 18

Not so bad a tally once again. Definitely a focus on 15mm this year, and you can see the Castles in the Skies and Strength & Honour projects in the 'weird' scales. 

'O' Group

Age of Hannibal 

Battlefleet Gothic

Breakthrough

Castles in the Sky

Command & Colors: Ancients

Fire and Fury (Homebrew)

For King & Parliament

General d'Armee

Mythic Americas

Naval Thunder

Pickett's Charge

Regimental Fire & Fury

Sharp Practice

Strength & Honour

The Battlefield 

To the Strongest! 

Wars of Ozz

So that's the last post of 2022! I hope everyone has a happy new year, and has plenty of gaming, painting, and general fun in 2023.

Painting Update - Napoleonics

As the year runs down, let's take one last look at what I've been painting. 

I've gotten a head start on my 2023 Napoleonic project with these Cossacks from AB Miniatures (supplied by Eureka USA). I needed three small units, which I'm setting at three bases. 

I also completed a unit of Uhlans, also from AB/Eureka USA. This is a standard unit of six bases. 

Miniature Musings - Happy Birthday, By Brush and Sword!

 Ten year ago today, I posted my first entry on this blog: The Assault on Villa Fontaine - Flames of War AAR. I was just getting into wargaming properly (just starting in college and gaming in my parent's basement) with the 2nd edition of Flames of War, a somewhat unique entry to the hobby that's mostly dominated by Games Workshop.

Handmade bocage and fields (which I still have!), old Citadel Scenery hills, 2D buildings and partially painted miniatures. Ah, simpler times. 

I was also already spreading out into more boutique historical options, like the original edition of This Very Ground for some French & Indian War gaming. 

Of course, Warhammer made an early appearance with some Orks and Imperial Guard. 

Another early post was an AAR of one of my first games with my old Pennsylvania group; a wonderful group of gamers who I still infrequently get the chance to meet up with when I'm in the area.

Not all of my posts were about games. Early on I wrote my first (if infrequent) "Miniature Musings" about the closure of a local hobby shop. While focused on train modelling, Herb's Hobbies & Crafts was a great place for paint, brushes, flock, and terrain; everything a new hobbyist might need to start. It was a shame that just as I was starting in the hobby, a local resource was shutting down. 

I also started posting about painting as well, with my first "Painting Update" featuring the 15mm Fallschirmjager I painted for a friend at the time.

I remember being pretty proud at the time, as not only was it the first "army" I had painted, but I had taken the time and effort to paint splinter camo in 15mm. 

I also worked on my French & Indian War miniatures (18mm, from Old Glory/Blue Moon. I started out pretty focused on smaller scales!). 

It's interesting to look back at how I used to set up mini-dioramas for my miniatures, instead of the light box that I use now. Part of that was the ease of being able to leave my hobby supplies set up in my parents basement (as opposed to my own smaller and basementless home now). With the better camera on my phone in the present, I almost miss that old style. 

As for numbers, I've written 469 blog posts in the past decade (470 including this one). 322 of those have been after-action reports. Painting updates have taken up 99 posts. Musings, reviews, and scattered other posts make up the rest. 

It wasn't until 2015 that I started my end-of-the-year posts reviewing what I had played. The next year I actually kept track of how many games I had played, and in 2018 I started tracking what I had painted. It's actually a shame, when I think about it; what information have I lost in those years when I didn't track those numbers?

So, what the future for the blog? 

I'm not sure. I worry at times that burnout will eventually see me finally abandon the blog on my own volition, or if Blogger finally ends as a service (it's been going since 1999 and has managed to limp along in the current dumpster-fire environment of social media). 

I've had friends and other wargamers express appreciation for the pictures I take of their games, as ways for them to remember the effort they've put in and fun they've had. And I think that's the main motivation for continuing this blog. It's a way to document the experiences of an engaging hobby that's helped me meet a lot of great people and learn so much, while also providing a lot of entertainment. 

I can't say if it'll be here in another decade. But here's hoping!