Thursday 29 January 2015

Battle Report - Flames of War - Re-Crossing the Moselle??

Well time for another Wednesday War battle report. We decided to go for another Flames of War game, and decided to play out round one of the upcoming Loraine campaign again but with reversed sides, so this time I was a German.

Here is my list, I decided I wanted to try out some of the Reluctant Trained (for all the non-Flames people this just means they are quite poor troops) lists from the Blood Guts and Glory book, which is meant to represent the actual Loraine battles. So I went for an infantry company to give it a shot and see what would happen. The biggest negative of these lists is actually not the poor morale, but the fact that the support they can get is actually quite lacking and or poor. There are no recon options, or good artillery, or rocket artillery, so choices that way are very limited.



So I went with 3 Infantry Platoons, and the lists has all of them with Panzerfaust anti-tank launchers by default, a Heavy Platoon to get some mortars and heavy machine guns, a few anti-tank guns, and then Panthers. The Panthers represent almost half of my points so they were the big choice to go for or not. I was expecting to face Shermans in some for, with them trapped across the moselle Panthers would be perfect!

Serge decided to use a British force from Overlord since he doesn't have Americans, and went for the beach landing infantry with infantry backed up by crocodiles (heavy tanks with flames throwers), a breaching group, and artillery, so not many Shermans and the perfect force for smashing through defenses. To make matters worse the Crocodiles have a very high front armor so even Panthers can't really destroy them from the front.


So here is an early picture, we decided that Fighting Withdrawal would be a good one for this, and that is my favorite mission. I deployed Infantry all across the table, anti-tank guns along the hill, and Panthers in ambush. For Firestorm troops I got an Infantry platoon and some defenses which I put along the bottom here. The major questions for me where wether I should oppose the crossing or not, and whether to spread out to take less damage from artillery and flames, or bunch up to more effectively prevent assaults. I decided to spread out and onlu weak defend most of the crossings.

The british made all their major attacks on the top part of the board from this angle. So the press began. In Fighting Withdrawal the (me) has to periodically withdraw platoons (starting from turn 3 if you ahve 5 or more), and at turn 6 and 7 I can remove the objectives placed by the attacker (top and bottom), but the one placed by me in the middle has to stay.

In turn one the British fired allot of smoke to obscure line of sight, hoping to screen the Panthers, and advanced forward.


On my turn I just put 1 infantry stand on the rail crossing to block the crocodiles from crossing for 1 turn, but knowing it would die.


The British pressed forwards, killed that stand, and a few others with artillery. On my next turn I deployed my panthers from ambush into the fields and fried on the Churchill AVRE tanks from the breaching group and took them out.

Looks dangerous from the German perspective
The British retaliated by bringing up the crocodiles to flame a few infantry stands and a bombardment bailed out a Panther. I had my troops fairly well spread out so the flames only got 3, but that is still allot from a platoon of 8, so you can really see how the flames tanks can press an attack. The Allied infantry also started to ford the river. I have been ignoring the rest of the table in this report as nothing of note was happening.


After this I had to withdraw my first platoon, so I took the infantry here that was reduced down to ineffectiveness, but a controversial choice since they were the ones one the key objective!


On  my turn that panther managed to unbail despite having low morale and I advanced to take a few side shots on the crocodiles while I had a chance. This was fairly successful and I got two thirds of them, but the last passed his platoon morale. Unfortunately my tanks were now bunched up in a dangerous position and they failed their storm troop test so were unable to pull back into safety.


The British pushed a bit in the center with the rest of their breaching group, and bombarded the infantry I was bringing across to support the objective. In the main event the heavy artillery destroyed half the Panthers, and the last flames fired on the other two, not doing any damage but preventing their defensive fire allowing a nice assault. The British got no kills in the first round of the assault and I broke off into the field. This was the end of turn 4, so all I need is something to contest the objective on the start of turn 6, and I will the be able to remove this objective as part of the German withdrawal preventing the Allies from capturing it.


On turn 5 thou the British killed another Panther and my commander with an artillery bombardment, and took out a few stands from my re-enforcing platoon with a second attack. This meant that both of these platoons would have to make morale to stay on the table, unfortunately being reluctant they both failed and ran, so I just missed out on being able to contest the objective. This meant the British could capture it at the start of turn 6 just before I could remove it! So very close game.

In the end I was really feeling the lack of support with this company, but I feel it would have been fine if not for the crocodiles! I also want to try out the reluctant trained Panzer IV company some times. But I think we will have some Samurai action next week.

Thanks;
Mike

Wednesday 28 January 2015

Painting - Teutonic Infantry

Well last night I finished off another set of 4 foot knights. So here is a shot of those guys.


That finished off the box of Fireforge Teutonic Foot that I had so I thought I would toss up a picture of the full box worth of guys as well.


So basically you get 24 guys which can be assembled in a few different ways, I went with 8 foot knights, 8 spearmen, and 8 crossbows. Very happy with this set, bunch of good models if you ask me. I am still missing the banner as you can see, but I have ordered something fro that! Next up I have to finish off the box of mounted knights, and then 1 of mounted sergants. Think I may have to get a box of Templar Infantry as well some time and do some templars as well, maybe can even mix the sets or something and do some Hospitalliers. I guess I am heading towards running a Crusades game at Cangames at this rate so may have to do some opponents to get killed by them as well!

Paints Used:

Games Workshop:
Leadbelcher
Mithril Silver
Black Spray

Vallejo:
Black
Dark Grey
Natural Grey
Deck Tan
German Camo Beige
Ivory
White
Woodgrain
Dark Sand
Chocolate Brown
Japan Uniform WW2
Smoke
Orange Brown
Flat Earth
Desert Yellow

The base is Desert Yellow, Flat Earth + Smoke wash, Dark Sand, Dark Grey rocks, pale flock.

Thanks;
Mike

Pledge Status 2015:
Bought: 0
Painted: 23
Total: +23

Friday 23 January 2015

Painting - Double Feature Teutonic Infantry + Infinity

So yesterday I finished off a couple of things so today I have a bit of a painting double feature.

First I have another 8 Brother Sergeants from the Fireforge Infantry box. this time with spears rather then cross bows.


Pretty standard stuff now I guess, the eyes didn't turn out very well for some reason but that is not a big deal.

Colors Used:

Games Workshop:
Leadbelcher
Mithril Silver

Vallejo:
Black
Dark Grey
Natural Grey
Dark Sand
Chocolate Brown
Japan Uniform WW2
Smoke
Flat Earth
Desert Yellow

The base is Desert Yellow, Flat Earth + Smoke wash, Dark Sand, Dark Grey rocks, pale flock.

Secondly I have a model from the Infinity line, a Fusilier Hacker. Planning to have a game of that this evening and needed another guy to round my force up to 200 points. Had trouble getting a good picture of this guy for some reason.


Colors Used:

Vallejo:
Luftwaffe Green
Brown Violet
German Camo Medium Brown
German Camo Beige
Flat Red
Black
Dark Grey
Natural Grey
Chocolate Brown
Flat Earth
Dark Sand
Electric Blue

GW:
Dawn Stone
Leadblecher
Khorne Red
Stormvermin Fur
Kator Blue

Liquitex:
Black Ink (diluted)

Thanks;
Mike

Pledge Status 2015:
Bought: 0
Painted: 19
Total: +19

Thursday 22 January 2015

Battle Report - Flames of War - Crossing the Moselle

So Wednesday war-gaming is back again for the new year, this time we decided to try out a practise game for the upcoming Lorraine campaign. Turn 1 has the allies trying to cross the Moselle river so we played that and did an attack off the campaign board to get some firestorm troops and see how that would work out.

I took a American Tank company as follows:


We were playing 1250 points, the rifle platoon and artillery were firestorms, but the armored rifles ended up getting switched for a foot rifle platoon so the above is not 100% accurate.

The Garmans had a Confident Trained Pioneer company with 3 infantry platoons with heavy anti-tank guns, nebelwerfers (rocket launchers) and Brumbars in support.

We decided to give the actual River Crossing mission a try, so I would ave to assault across 2 fords, rest of the river is impassable (but infantry can take a full turn to row across), and take some objectives. You have to have a team on the other side of the river by turn 6 or you loose.


So here is out set up for the start after the allied preliminary bombardment which killed 3 teams. My main plan is to cross the ford on the right, the 3 light tanks are hull down behind a small hill to pin the big pioneer platoon on the left, the left Sherman platoon is meant to fight the heavy anti-tank guns which are concealed behind the ridge lines, the other Shermans have to batter the platoon in trenches and cross, and the infantry have to row across on the far right. I have my artillery off screen just below to fire on the 88s.

Seems I need to turn the flash off for close in shots
My plan to fight the 88s did not go well, I got unlucky with the artillery and my tanks didn't have much effect either.


So I decided discretion was the better part of valor and tried to hide behind the big hill. The infantry got pushed back by a torrent of mg fire across the river, being supported by to machine gun nests makes that platoon dangerous. So I decided to hammer that infantry in trenches and let the artillery works on the 88s. The light tanks just went to ground so the 88s couldn't fire on them but I was still keeping the pioneers from moving.


The Germans decided to tow an 88 off the hill to avoid the artillery and get a better field of fire, in return I sent a pair of tanks up the hill to fire on it. This turned out to be a bad plan as I had no effect and the Germans ended up killing both and finishing that platoon. But I did send my commander over to help un-pin the infantry who were not keen on rowing the river.


At this poin the infantry in the trenches were getting low so I advanced my tanks to the river to fire on the machine gun nests, and was able to kill both in 2 turns to free up my infantry for another crossing attempt.


Additionally I had finally killed in 88, and the trenches infantry failed to un-pin so they couldn't move over and block my tanks. The Germans had managed to bring some tank support up from reserve thou and this proved very important.


I got 2 of my tanks across the river and took out 1 of the Germans, but on there turn them plus the 88s took out the full platoon leaving just my commander. The reaming infantry started to row but it was now looking bleak.


Finally I had my light tanks assault the Germans in the trenches, and amazingly was able to defeat the rest of that platoon. unfortunately 2 of them bogged down trying to cross the trench, and the third bogged trying to take cover in the wood. So that platoon was left to be easily captured by the Germans on the next turn effectively ending the game as nothing was going to be left across the river and I had taken to many losses.

So I fun game trying to cross the Moselle but the Americans were not quit able to managed it, I think I got a bit unlucky with my artillery being unable to damage the 88s, but these things happen. Allowing the Brumbars to fire on my tanks was a major mistake that could have been avoided by careful positioning. Although they have a hig front armor so would be tough for my guys to kill them regardless.

Thanks;
Mike

Saturday 17 January 2015

Painting - Teutonic Heavy Crossbows

So finally getting back into painting again, was sick for the last week so fell a bit behind. Anyway finished off a group of Brother Sergeant Crossbow Men, again from the Fireforge Teutonic Infantry set. VEry happy with how these guys turned out, but not a huge amount to say about it. Basically keeping up the same color scheme.



Games Workshop:
Leadbelcher
Mithril Silver

Vallejo:
Black
Dark Grey
Natural Grey
Dark Sand
Chocolate Brown
Japan Uniform WW2
Smoke
Flat Earth
Desert Yellow

The base is Desert Yellow, Flat Earth + Smoke wash, Dark Sand, Dark Grey rocks, pale flock.

Pledge Status 2015:
Bought: 0
Painted: 12
Total: +12

Thanks;
Mike

Tuesday 6 January 2015

Planning - 2015 - What to Paint??

So with the start of the new year I thought I would do a bit of a post to discuss potential planes for the year and what was planned for last year.

I looked back into our for and my stated goals for 2014 were:

  1. D-Day Beach Assault Force for FoW
  2. SAGA Crusades Army
  3. Paint more miniatures then Bought
I would say that I have done reasonably well with this plan such as it is, I did finish the beach assault guys, but procrastinated allot on doing the Crusaders. However making some progress on that now. On the painting more front I have failed that goal by a moderate amount, I stopped counting it around when I started doing this blog but I was at around 70-80 more bought then painted.

I did get a bunch of stuff painted last year thou such as:

  1. D-Day Army
  2. Beothucks (really pre-Beothuck people, the 'beaches culture')
  3. Jordanian Tanks
  4. Various Infinity Stuff
  5. Some Kung-Fu guys
  6. Few odds and ends
Total number of figures painted was around 160, and 3 major terrain pieces being two viking long houses, and a ruins. Looking back in my old painting blog post I had painted 163 miniatures in 2013 and bought 218, so a very similar amount of work got done (probably good to know that this is how much stuff I will get painted in an average year), but did a bit better on not buying some much new stuff and trying to work through back logs. I am planning to keep the painting pledge now going into the new year, maybe I will try to stick to a cap on new purchases of 150 or something like that.

In terms of what I plan to work on for the new year, well I want to expand on the crusades stuff I have started and finish that off. As a minimum I want to paint a Teutonic Knights SAGA army, and a general Crusader army for SAGA. I also have agreed to paint the 15mm WW1 British set from Flames of War for their great war stuff. Both of these things I have already started on. I also knid of want to do some fantasy stuff of some sort but I am not 100% on that, really I would like to do some of the GW Hobbit miniatures but they are really to expensive and I don't want to pay that much so might be some alternative.

In terms of planning for for Cangames which is coming up in May I also don't know really what I want to do yet. I probably will run a dark ages game of some sort, and won't need to much painting for that. For a second game I am thinking about doing 15mm Samurai with Hail Caesar again, or a big Crusades game, but that would require me to paint some enemies and allot more Crusaders, so not sure on that point. I do want to do a Nagashino game and have allot of 15mm Samurai in the back log so that is a good idea. I also like the idea of doing a big market garden game using the Flames of War system, based on the Devils Charge scenario, but would want a partner in crime for that.

If anyone has any thoughts on what kind of games they would like to see run at cangames I would love to hear them so feel encouraged to reply with your thoughts, in the short term look forward to seeing some more Teutonic Knights and some 15mm WW1. I have been reading the new Newfoundland Regiment book so motivation for that project is quite high.

Thanks;
Mike

Friday 2 January 2015

Painting - Mounted Teutonic Knights

So painted a squad of mounted Knights over the Christmas break, decided not to give them lances to make things a little easier for the flight home, but will use lances for then next group I guess. They came out fairly well also, I painted the rider separate from the mount by gluing it to a piece of sprue. I think next time I will also paint the 2 halfs of the mount before gluing them together and attaching the base, the caparison makes it really hard to paint the inside surface of the horses legs and such.

Am really enjoying the Fireforge sets.


Paints are more or less the same as the foot knights, but I am going to copy and paste it anyway. I used a slightly different black primer and clear spray as I didn't fly with them and my brother has slightly different brands but same effect.

I guess the main things I need to add for this army is a unit of cross bows, a unit of mounted sergeants and a warlord, should be able to get that from the sets I have. Then I need to do some 15mm WW1, and then I dunno likely more crusades stuff, or some fantasy stuff.

Games Workshop:
Leadbelcher
Mithril Silver

Vallejo:
Black
Dark Grey
Natural Grey
Deck Tan
German Camo Beige
Ivory
White
Woodgrain
Dark Sand
Chocolate Brown
Japan Uniform WW2
Smoke
Orange Brown
Flat Earth
Desert Yellow

The base is Desert Yellow, Flat Earth + Smoke wash, Dark Sand, Dark Grey rocks, pale flock.

Thanks;
Mike