Paint the Town Red - General d'Armee AAR

This past weekend I was back at Kelly's place for a game of General d'Armee. 

Kelly had set up a scenario based on the Battle of Jakubowo-Kliastitzy, compressing the two days of fighting into one. 

I was assigned to be one of the attacking Russian commanders, alongside Gary and Alex. Scott, Kevin, and Chris played as the French defenders. 

The Russians had four attacking brigades, three infantry and one cavalry, with two more infantry brigades and a cavalry brigade in reserve. The French had three infantry brigades and a cavalry brigade on the table, with two more infantry brigades in reserve. 

The Russian assault started well, with infantry columns streaming towards the town of Klyastitsy. 

The Russians had some problems from the outset. Our somewhat cramped deployement meant we had two options; either 1)deploy the artillery forward, move them into effective range, fire for a turn or two, and then the move the infantry in or 2) deploy the infantry forward, try to take the town via infantry assaults, and use the artillery as overhead covering fire.

We elected to do the second method, thinking we wouldn't have long before the reinforcing French brigades arrives.

Looking to take part of Klyastitsy before the French reinforcements could arrive, I ordered an Infantry Assault with one of my infantry brigades.

(Unfortunately, I think we messed up the rules for this, which really effected how the rest of the game went. 

Battalions in BUA should only get Casualty Dice for firing like skirmishers, but the defending French fired as normal. There's also no Charge resolution for attacks against battalions in BUAs; the defenders gets to fire and the fight goes directly to the Melee phase. 

This resulted in the Russian infantry battalions getting stuck in multi-turn attack, taking casualties before being able to get stuck in).

While my brigades were struggling to take the town, Kevin's French infantry came streaming up and over the hills, squaring off against Alex's brigade.

Meanwhile, Gary was pushing his infantry forward through the cover of the nearby woods. Skirmishers from both sides dueled. A gap in the Russian line opened as the cavalry brigade spent multiple turns as Hesitant. 

It was about halfway through the game when the tide turned against the Russians. I had failed to take Klyastitsy, with one of my infantry brigades hesitating and not able to join the fight. Gary had attempted to attack Scott's artillery battery with his cavalry, but the Russians were repulsed. 

The French had managed to establish a defensive line with infantry brigades flanking the town.

Finally, my infantry assault finally broke through, but with heavy losses. As a counter, Scott brought up fresh infantry to take the BUA back. 

Gary's infantry brigade was slowly being forced back, as the initial French reinforcements charged into his flank. (At this point, Gary had to leave, and Chris took over his command).

You can also spot the two French reserve brigades making their way towards the battle.

Scott's counter attack was successfully, forcing my brigade to Falter (and dispersing one of my infantry battalions).  

Alex had moved his battalions back into columns to meet Kevin's advance closer to the town.

Chris' Russian infantry brigade was in a bad position. Scott's charge results were fantastic, forcing two infantry battalions to Rout and the overall brigade to Falter.

At this point the Russian attack was really falling apart. With my one infantry brigade faltering, it opened up Alex's flank, allowing Kevin to charge his cavalry into the side of Alex's artillery battery.

We decided the call the game there, with a minor French victory. Technically the Russians still had three fresh brigades (one on-table Grenadier brigade, and two off table brigades), but any newly launched attack would do so into the face of a relatively fresh and well position French position.

Despite the poor showing by the Russians, it was still fun! General d'Armee always makes for a good game. I'm looking forward to seeing what changes in the second edition (which should be releasing in a month or so from the time of writing).

Painting - Downsync

Here's an update with what I've been painting since last time: more Downsync models. 

The Republic's Goliath squads are rough-and-tumble power suits equipped with anti-tank cannons and machine guns. I decided to pick up two squads, since I like the models and enjoy the multi-role armaments they have. 

Seeker teams are stealthy infantry units, able to scan enemy pings, spot for Mandible artillery units, and reach out with their sniper rifle that can kill any Stunned unit (even tanks!). 

The other Heavy unit I picked up was a Mandible mobile artillery. They're slow and pretty much defenseless, but have no maximum range and can swap between anti-infantry and anti-everything rounds. 

Rounding out the force is a pair of Harbinger recon vehicles, which are fast moving, able to both scan enemy pings and are another unit that can spot for the Mandible (giving me three potential spotting vectors in a game). 

We Have Reserves - Downsync AAR

This past weekend I helped Carl test out a scenario for Downsync. 

Inspired by a Flames of War scenario, the Downsync version sees both players placing 1 each of their Large, Medium, and Small pings into off-table reserves. The Attacker goes first in deployment, the Defender second, chosen by a dice off. The players then choose a quarter of the table to deploy one objective in, then place a second objective in the opposite quarter, and then finally deploy their non-reserve pings in the original quarter.

Both sides are looking to score four points from objective captures. At the beginning of turn three, the players' reserve pings arrive from the long table edge that their original deployment objective was on.

For this game, I had taken my "generalist" Republic list:

2 Harbingers

Seeker team

Vector squad

2 Crusaders

2 Goliath squads

Courier

Samson

Mandible

Mark, my opponent, had the following Coalition list (if I remember correctly):

2 Widow Scouts

2 Soldier Spider Drone squads

2 Virago

2 Phantom

Aurora

Marksman

Destroyer

Both sides spent the first turn maneuvering Pings.

I did try to use the Seeker team to spot for the Mandible, but unfortunately I messed up the line-of-sight rules and deployed them poorly. I lost one Harbinger, but traded it for an Aurora and a Widow (and before it had managed to deploy its Infiltrator Spider Drone squad). I also wiped out a Soldier Spider Drone squad thank to massed MG fire from the Goliath squad deployed in the small forest.

This early committal of Republic reveals gave Mark plenty of targets for his arriving reserves, while his own units were still hidden as pings.  

Both sides' reserves hammered into their respective flanks. I lost the Mandible and one of the Crusaders defending my objectives, but took out Mark's last Widow Scout (which again wasn't able to deploy its Infiltrator squad) and got lucky enough to destroy his reserved Marksman heavy tank.

Mark lost another Soldier squad to more Goliath MG fire, as well as his second Aurora and Virago.

Concentrated fire from Republic units managed to knock out the Coalition Destroyer, and my Goliath squad closed in to knock out the last Virago. Not, however, before it managed to score a point, putting Mark in the lead a 1-0.

It was at this point that we decided that we would make an adjustment to the scenario; adding a six turn limit. This was important because, had we not put a limit, I could have just spent as much time as a I wanted scoring points or just wiping out the last remaining Coalition unit. 

Such as it was, this meant that Mark's positioning and delaying of my forces only let me score one point myself before the game ended, leaving us with a draw, 1-1. 

We discussed our thoughts on the scenario with Carl after the game. We found the general idea behind the scenario to be sound, and suggested adding the turn limit to encourage more aggression. Carl did point out that removing the other side entirely from the table would have given the remaining player a full 4 point victory. 

I look forward to testing more scenarios for Downsync. 

A Year In Gaming - 2023

 And we're back here again! 

What a year; some big personal changes for me impacted my gaming and painting schedule. However, it looks like I've some some good people down here to hobby with, so 2024 looks bright. 

So here's the games I played this year:

• 'O' Group - 1
• All Quiet on the Martian Front - 1
• Arena Rex - 2
• BattleTech: Alpha Strike - 2
• Breakthrough - 1
• Chain of Command - 9
• Combat Patrol - 1
• Downsync - 3
• General d'Armee - 1
• Live Free or Die - 1
• Midgard - 1
• So Convenient for Hewing - 1
• Strength & Honour - 4
• Wars of Ozz - 1
• Washington's War - 1
• What a Tanker - 2

32 games in total. One less than 2022, but I did pack up and move in the middle of the year, so overall I can't say it's that bad. Chain of Command definitely wins the "Most Played" spot, thanks in large part to Ted's focusing on the rules for his campaign (and what a shame that I never got to see the conclusion to it!). 

As for what I painted:

• 15mm Artillery - 4
• 15mm Cavalry - 42
• 15mm Infantry - 190
• 15mm Vehicle - 4
• 28mm Infantry - 31
• 28mm Vehicle - 3
• 2mm Cavalry - 2
• 2mm Infantry - 5
• 6mm Infantry - 20
• 6mm Vehicle - 5

Again, not too bad, especially since I had to pack everything up for a couple months and lost my enthusiasm while focusing on my new job. There was a focus on 15mm this year, thanks to my Napoleonics project. I expect to see the same focus in 2024 as I work on the French. 

And the usual recap of the games I played in:

'O' Group

All Quiet on the Martian Front

Breakthrough

Chain of Command

Combat Patrol

Downsync

Live Free or Die

Midgard

So Convenient for Hewing

Strength & Honour

Wars of Ozz

Washington's War

Painting Update - Epic Orks, Downsync

I haven't just been painting Napoleonics!

At some point I'd like to have an Epic: Armageddon force, and decided on Orks as they seem a good mix of aggressive infantry and vehicles. I picked up some Skinners from Vanguard Miniatures (which are fantastic!) and did a few test bases to see what combination of primer, paint, and wash colors worked best. I ended up liking a black primer, a thinned black wash, and brighter metallics. 

I've also started work on my Downsync Republic of Terra force, starting with a Courier APC. I wanted a quick color scheme, and I think the green and orange works well together. 

Of course, what good is an APC without some personnel to carry? So I painted an accompanying Vector Squad. 

The Crusader tank is the mainstay armored vehicle of the Republic, holding back the cybernetic hordes of the Coalition. I've filled two of my Medium slots with these tanks, as they seem pretty efficient in taking out enemy units and are as fast as the Republic's light scanning vehicle. 

And the mighty Samson tank is one of the Republic's heavy choices.