Wargaming Fun at Historicon 2013

I had a great time at Historicon this year.  Minimal shopping but got in a couple of big, good games.

One was a Carnage and Glory game run by John Snead.  Wurtemburger's vs. French or something like that.  Anyway, Mike H. had the left flank, Scott B. had the right and I was the Wurtemburg commander in the center.  We had to make a few "off-board" strategic decisions  before and during the battle to get our reinforcements and react to the attack by the evil French.  It was a close game and I'm going to call it a Wurtemburg victory as we stopped French on all fronts, including the right where the town defense and counter-attacks by General Bishop kept the Frenchies bottled up and unable to put in a coordinated attack.

Mike's left flank standing strong on the dyke and able to fire canister from 12lbr's into the French to collapse their attack.  In this shot from late in the game, the artillery has pulled back to cool off their guns.

My center position around the bridge.  My tired artillerymen are moving their gun to a hill to the rear and taking up a new position.  My battalions are forming square as we lacked cavalry and at right-center you can see the French cavalry starting to cross.  They were unable to break the squares.

On the right, Scott fights essentially a lone battle against the French and received reinforcements in the nick of time to hold the village and keep counterattacks supported.

The second enjoyable game was a big three-table battle of the Crete Invasion of May 1941.
The Fallschirmjager force I commanded landed on the hisorical drop sites in the Prison Valley area and despite good air support suffered the historical defeat.  We made only limited progress taking positions around Pink Hill and Cemetery Hill.  Very good game though.  Jake Strangeway was the GM, troops and terrain for the three boards came from various sources.  I had supplied a Fallschirmjager Regiment and Commonwealth Infantry Brigade.  Game use Command Decision rules and 15mm figures.

 Our initial drop in Prison Valley near an orchard.

The second drop and moving out from the orchard towards Cemetery Hill.

The disastrous drop of the AA battalion further up Prison Valley.  The hill in the left background is Cemetery Hill and our main assault by a para battalion is occurring just out of the pic to the left.

Napoleonic British Miniatures

Recently off the painting table are two British 9lber's and three leaders.  Leaders and cannon are AB Miniature and Crewman are Battlehonors minis.  Both lines are 18mm.

Furlough Friday Hijinx

So today was my first furlough day of the Sequestration brought to us by an inept and very dull Congress.  The Executive Branch doesn't fare much better either.  Bugger 'em all.

Anyway, I managed to paint and base a bunch of minis, did housekeeping chores, and set myself on fire.  Yes, I set myself on fire.  Nothing serious but it was momentarily startling.  It was a combination of wearing an unbuttoned shirt (sexy, I know), cooking pasta, and reaching above the stove for the coffee maker.  And viola! My shirt was on fire.  Once that registered, I hopped around and managed not to knock anything over and was in the process of taking my shirt off (still sexy, no?) when the fire was out.

I think I'll stick to painting miniatures on my future Furlough Fridays.

British 9th Regiment of Foot

And next off the painting table is the British 9th Regiment of Foot, 1809 Peninsular.   Figures are AB Miniatures and flags by Flag Dude.

British 5th Regiment of Foot

I've got several British Pennisular Regiments on the painting table.  The 5th Foot is all finished up.  Figures are AB Miniatures 18mm.  Flags from Flag Dude.

Aircraft for the Collection

Photos of some recently completed Zvezda 1/144th scale aircraft

And some of not-so-recently completed Horsa Gliders (15mm from AIM)

The Cornfield at Sharpsburg

Our gaming group is in the middle of playing the fight around the cornfield during the Sharpsburg ACW battle.  Miniatures are 15mm and rules are "Regimental Fire and Fury."

Union advancing through the cornfield from left, Confederates advancing from the right

Big clash at the foot of the hill beyond the cornfield

Confederates are holding but more Union troops arrive to bolster their line

Back and forth close quarters fight continues.  The Rebel regiments are getting thinner.

The worn and spent rebel line along the road collapses and the worn Union regiments occupy their positions.  Rebel still hold the rest of their line.  The mass of troops a the right of the photo are Hood's troops starting their move to relieve the  spent Rebel regiments.  More Union regiments are also moving up.
 

And that's where we left the battle for the day.

A Band of Vikings Bent on Some Mayhem

These are the Eureka Miniatures Beowulf and Retinue 28mm Figures.  Eureka makes two sets, one with the figures in action and the other with the figures at rest.  These are the resting set.  Excellent figures.

US WWII Infantry Squad

Finished up a squad of US Infantry.  28mm Battle Honors figures.  Lots of good detail on these proportionally sculpted minis.

Kursk Battles--5 July 1943 6 Guards Army

Our gaming group played out the 5 July day of battle in the II SS Panzer Corps vs. 6th Guards Army sector of the Kursk Battles.  5 July was the first day of the German assault.  It was all they could muster in 1943 and the German generals had planned for success.

Opposing the German II SS Panzer Corps were elements of the Soviet 22nd and 23rd Guard Rifle Corps of their 6th Guards Army.  The 6th Guards Army was arrayed mainly along two fortified defensive lines; one defined the front lines and the other lay about 10km to the rear.  The German plans for the first day called for rupturing both these.

Historically, two of the three SS Panzergrenadier Divsions carried the brunt of the 5 July fighting and succeeding in nearly reaching the second line but could not create a breach on 5 July.   The terrain forced the II SS Panzercorps into a narrow corridor that allowed for great concentration but limited maneuver.   Tank losses were light for Germans but their panzergrenadiers took noticeable casualties.

The game we played used Megablitz rules system by Tim Gow.  These rules are simple in layout and I hoped they would allow the players to wrestle with the problems of large-scale coordinated attacks instead of getting caught up in the glamor of heavy armor and machine-guns.  I chose the Kursk battles because in testing the Megablitz rules I wanted to see how well the attrition combat model worked.  I have run other division-level games (one stand = one battalion, for example) and the combat model tends to suck up all the game time and not leave players feeling they had choices other than an indecisive grind.  A "Kursk-type" battle should test the combat system of Megablitz and we would see if the players "feel" the casualties but still leave them with options of rotating in fresh units or sitting back and pounding with artillery.  Or if the players persist in head-banging, then a very sore head at the end of the day.

 I, as well as the players, felt the rules worked well.  The combat model produced a realistic outcome.  The Soviet front-line rifle divisions were pounded down to small battlegroups and sent fleeing to the rear.  But the Soviet player did mount a couple of limited counter attacks into the German flank that caused even more irreplaceable German casualties.  Of the two German panzergrenadiers divisions doing the assaulting, the division in the center took a severe beating and most of the panzergrenadiers were down 2, 1 or 0 strength (from 5 or 6 strength points).  The other division took more moderate losses.  Both German divisions breached the fortified lines (strongpoints, minefields, AT ditches) in multiple places and on the last turn had their vehicles across and racing for the second line.

I'll continue the fight to the 6th of July in our next game.  The Germans will be holding their beat up division in reserve and the two other divisions will carry the assault.  The 6th July will also see the mobile corps of 1st Tank Army and the 6th Guards Army reserve tank corps come rolling onto the battlefield.  I'll let the players do a very limited refit of infantry and tank losses in the overnight phase and bring up their logistics and fuel.

Couple of photos attached.  One shows the battlefield just before the Soviets deployed.  The black strips are the Soviet defensive lines.  The second photo shows the battlefield on the last turn of the day.

Please excuse the "improvised" nature of the battlefied as it was indeed improvised.  Future games should be a little more presentable, hopefully.

1939 Russo-Finnish War Game...

...using Battlefront Rules.  Bob Scripp hosted the game at our weekly Army of Central Maryland club meet.

General setting was an attack by a Finnish infantry battalion upon a hastily dug-in Soviet position occupied by two companies and supported by two T-26 and a 76mm Artillery Battery.

As a Finnish player and also the photographer, all the photos are from the Finnish perspective.  

There are four objectives the Soviets are defending.  The Finns need to hold all four to win. The Finnish companies are arrayed left to right in 1,2,3 order.  A mortar section backs us up.

Finnish company three set out to capture two lightly held objectives, the village and the hill behind it.

The Finnish companies 1 and 2 set out to grab the other two objectives, another village and a hill.

Company 3 advances through the light woods towards an objective.

Company 1 moves around the Soviet right.  Company 2 prepares to assault a hill objective.  Scouts are moving out front to draw Soviet fire.

Company 3 moves towards village and hill objective.  No fighting yet but moving across the open is sure to draw some type of fire.

  Company three before and after an artillery strike.  Casualties evacuated, but the Finns keep advancing.

The Finns go up the hill and eventually take out and disorder the mortar section behind the hill but the Soviet battalion commander on the hill gamely takes out more Finns.

Companies 1 and 2 going in on the assault.  The Soviets surprisingly evacuated the hill rather than take the cross-fire.  The Soviet tanks have meanwhile begun to menace the Finns left flank.

Soviet counterattacks come in against the Finnish company 3 trying to hold two objectives and having taken 25% casualties.  This is going to be close.

Mortar and rifle fire pin down one Soviet attack but the other destoys a hapless Finnish squad.  The remaining Finns at the hill have moved behind the hill to make the Soviets come and take it.

Back with Company 1, it takes some casualties but enters the Soviet lines.  But here come the T-26's looking for trouble.

In the ensuing tank vs. infantry fight, one T-26 is destroyed and one Finnish squad is destroyed.

At this time the Soviets tossed in the towel.  The tanks were facing a tough maneuver roll, one infantry company was panicked with 75% casualties but the other was still in good shape but going to be facing Finns on two fronts.  It was still a close run thing.

Good game!

Norman Infantry

Next up are some 28mm Gripping Beast Norman Dark Ages Infantry, armored and unarmored.  Now to find some rampaging Vikings.

Portuguese Cacadores

Portuguese Cacadores lined up for duty.  These are 15mm 19th Century/Old Glory15/Battle Honors miniatures.  Based for Fire and Fury.

A Snowy Scene

These are some 15mm Germans in greatcoats in the snow.  Peter Pig figs.  "Snow" is created by gluing minis to base, allow to set, apply Woodland Scenics Flex Paste, allow to set, apply watered down white glue and drop on Woodland Scenics Soft Flake Snow.  Viola.

10mm American Civil War Miniatures

Bob, you wanted to know about my 10mm ACW figs.  Here is sample picture.  Infantry is mounted 4 figures on a 3/4" square stand.  Figures are a mix of Perrin and AIM 10.  At 6-8 stands to regiment, I have several divisions, CSA and USA, Infnatry and Cav.  I have more unpainted.  Willing to loan, sell or trade.

UK 1944 Infantry Battalion for CD-TOB

Quality Castings figures and vehicles based for Command Decision-Test of Battle

Stormin' Normans

Recently completed band of Normans from Gripping Beast packaged for the SAGA Viking Rules.

The Ubiquitous T-35

A Soviet T-35 Armored Fighting Vehicle.  This beast was either immobile when the Germans launched Barbarossa or the few in running order broke down trying to get to the battlefield.  15mm Battlefront miniature.

The Man Cave Ver. 1.1

I just got a new PC, so I went out to Ikea and got a clean looking trestle table and brought out a lighted globe I had stuffed away.  The picture below was taken with low light, just the way I like it in the man cave.

Allied Intelligence Reports More Germans Moving Up

Pics on newly completed German trucks, self-propelled 15cm, and JgPz 38t.  15mm Quality Castings.