Battle Report - By Fire and Sword

Hello Folks,

Time for another Wednesday Wargaming Battle Report! This week we were playing some By Fire and Sword. This time with a bit bigger armies, both sides are around 10 or 11 points or there about, and are pretty close to maxing out the Skirmish lists. I went for the Imperial Roman Outpost force, basically infantry with a few dragoons, because that is what I have the most points of currently. Still really want to get some Ottomans done but haven't had time. Facing off where the dreaded Poles, lots of cavalry now.

We played the Delay the Enemy scenario, where both sides are fighting to capture a pair of hills, and one side is trying to escape off the board edge, and the other wants to keep them on. As my force was on foot, it only really made sense for them to be the delaying army.

The Polish had a pretty big advantage in Recconisance due to them being mounted, and me not. So used that to get a Force March, allowing them to move up one unit before the game started.

Here we are before the proper start. One big scary unit of Cossack's is already charging right at me! I put my Pike units on the ground with a few musketeers, idea was to trap the poles and make them fight me. Maybe head for the hill after. Then I had a bigger unit of musketeers and a cannon on the hill, with the dragoons. Trying to find a safe spot to not get run down!

First turn the Poles advanced and I mostly sat on defend orders. Turns out it was probably a mistake to not creep up the pikes to threaten the hill while I had the chance but live and learn. I moved out the dragoons thinking I could try for some flanking maybe.

Turn 2 my dragoons realize that fighting Pancerni is not a good idea so run away, and the Cossacks charge, but can't quite make it due to the hill slowing things down as we learned. They lost a base to concentrated fire. Still seeming ok for me.

Next turn it feels that all the horses in Poland are getting right in my face. But command is a bit of a problem so that helps delay things. My infantry on the hill has lost a base to a charge by this point, but they held on winning the combat by 1 point. Defending a hill costing the Cossacks their impetus bonus, and giving me some resolution bonuses.

Next turn things start to happen. The poles coming down their hill rudely ignore my pikes, who I stupidly backed up just out of 20cm which would have forced them to be charged, and just run over my small infantry unit. Another unit tries to slip past between my pikes and the forest. On my hill the cossacks lost another stand or 2 and were disordered. This pretty much ended their attempts at that hill, and most of the other units pulled back. But the light horse unit was able to spend a few turns shooting and killed my cannon. The unit of 3 Pancerni that had broken through proceeded off the table, and at the end of the game the 2 light horse were just at the very edge.

So looking at the victory points, we both got 2 for capturing a hill, and we both got 1 for having acceptable losses of around 25% or so. But the Poles also got a point for breaking through with 3 stands, so were able to win.

The pikes still have not been able to get in a combat!

At this point I am feeling that I really need to paint the Imperial Light artillery set I picked up which has the 3 light cannons my force can have. Assume I would do allot better with 3 propper cannons, instead of borrowing one from my Swedes due to being lazy...

Really enjoyed this game again, and it looks good I find also. Hopefully will get a chance to paint some mroe forces after Cangames, and round 2 of Old West and new Saga Armies.... Ah crap

Thanks;
Mike

Battle Report - Frostgrave

Hello Folks,

Time for another Wednesday Wargaming Battle Report! This week we were playing Frostgrave. Good idea to have a bit of a lite game around Cold Wars, just makes it a bit easier what with beeing gone all weekend, so there is less time to prep. I was to lazy to really dig out a great scenario, so we just played the basic one, with some terrain I set up, but with a monster coming on every treasure. I kept on with my witch, and Serge tried out a Chronomancer.

Here is our set up, 6 treasures scattered around, a couple on the low planks, a couple on the high planks, one in the Spiders Nest, and one on the Huge rock I think. I kind of split into 3 groups to go for the closest 3.

Here we are towards the end of turn 1, a Troll and a Toad have shown up on the left by my Thug! A vampire on the back right behind the bad guys, and a couple of ghouls to fight the bear. I had 2 treasures picked up at this point, but one of my guys by the big rock with the chest got mind controlled which is not great.

Bear battles the Ghouls under the high planks. They are mostly just making him mad.

Bit of a scrum going on now. People with loot run for safety, while everyone else battles it out. Lots of people getting ready to duel in the bowl of the big rock. On the planks there was a big of a stand off with some Knights and Templars, but everyone backed away. I did move my Theif who fought off the Toad and Troll up on the planks to lure the Troll that way. I then used push to send him towards the bad guys Templar hah! Meanwhile my Bear continued to fight the Ghouls and my Apprentice went for the gold.

 

Everyone is pretty much withdrawing by now. All the treasure except the one my Mind Controlled guy has a pretty much spoken for. My Bear killed 2 Ghouls and a Toad by now, but was finally brought down by a Boar. But he acted as a distraction for my Apprentice to escape with some mroe stuff. My Templar was busy chasing down and just absoultely murdering my Theif that got Mind Controlled. I guess she doesn't like traitors.

But by now some other guys had shown up to contest. My Templar is about to eviscerate this theif by the chest, had is already damaged from being pushed off the top by my wizard. This would then leave just the incoming guy on the planks to fight off both of my guys.

A Boar is also coming in, this measurement shows him just out of range of my Templar. At this point the Chronomancer gives on that chest so we end up with 3 treasures each.

I had allot of my guys killed, but only one person died. Actually I think it may have been that guy who had been Mind Controlled. No permanent deaths on the other side. We both basically got 2 levels and some books and gold. I learned Strike Dead, and hired a Knight and a Mystic Monk, and the Chronomancers set up in an Inn and kept some cash for later.

Hopefully I can pass my roll to re-summon the Bear, he seems to be key!

Thanks;
Mike

Cold Wars - 2017 - Part 2

Well time for the second part of the Cold Wars coverage, which is actually mainly the Friday stuff. As per normal policy I take one day to play in a tournament, and one day to pick up a couple of random games and do some shopping / hang out.

Brazen Chariots - Early War

As we have done for the past few years, we decided to get into one of Adam's games, a guy who did his own WW2 Tank game. Always some really nice terrain and models, so some good fun. This year the scenario was a What If type I guess with some Italian Tanks (Tankettes?) attacking into Tunisia I think it was and running into the French. We were on the Italian side, and had a mix of tanks, 2 platoons had been field modified with 20mm cannons, the rest had machine gunes, or heavy machine guns. I had the heavy machine gun type, also we had no radios, except on 2 motorcycle guys, so they would be needed to relay orders. The French had Panhards I think it was, they all had proper guns, but took a card to reload, and their command tanks had radios, but Morse code only!

Here are our tanks lined up ready to go.

Our attack was at the border, so there is a rather large fort, and to lines of barbed wire, with likely mines between them, along with a big wooded area. The remains of an Infantry attack on the fort from the day before are scattered around. On this side they are still active, on the other side they are all dead. Our Orders were to get in the Fort.

Doesn't look easy.

For the first bit we mainly raced forward, with these kind of guns you don't have much of a chance to kill at short range, never mind long range. On our flank we started to slow down to suppress the fort, and have a good look around to make sure there were no nasty surprises. I fired a round of bullets into the fort and got one guy, they mostly went to ground after that.

Moving to the wire, to start engaging the French. We have our not so useful MG tanks in the lead, with the cannons in the rear, so our important stuff isn't taking fire. I switched over to just suppressing the fort, and started creeping forwards.

A stray cannon shot explodes a mine, guys in the fort having a rough time I guess!

Chris plotting his advance into the courtyard, but there are now 2 units of French vehicles in there.

The big battle for the town. We didn't have much luck penetrating with the machine guns, the odds are pretty low. But it wasn't real easy for the French either with their low rates of fire, and not awesome odds either really. We lost the battle for the courtyard, but were mostly winning the long range gunnery duel across the minefield. I think both side kind of had 2 platoons gutted, but pretty low casualty rates for this game, early war third power guns and all that. The French were in the town, so they were the winners, but our suppression of the fort allowed our infantry to cross over and flank and start dismantling the mine field, so could be problematic for them in the following scenario which continue on. We could only play in one thou so not sure how it turned out after.

Sangin Platoon +:

After supper we played in a play test game for a new version of Skirmish Sangin, this one is being basically simplified so you can have platoon level and higher games. We had a bunch of Taliban, with some RPGs and MG, vs a bunch of British Soldiers, way over in the other corner. So a bit like a Force on Force game, but with much simpler rules. I thought I took more pictures, but turned out to be just 2.

We advanced, basically into the nearest cover, and started shooting. Our guys on the right here got a lucky with with an RPG that killed a few guys early and caused the Brits to fail a morale roll.

The British cept trying to advance, I am not sure why as you could comfortably shoot across the table, but this combined with their early morale failure really put them on the back foot. We were able to get secure and shooting, and they weren't able to bring effective fire back. This let us start putting units on Overwatch. It got to the point that the Brits had a pile of casualties, and we only lost 1 guy and had everyone bunkered down on Overwatch. So the game was called as a victory, and we spent some time chatting about rules and concepts. Which I was not super excited about as I game to play but it was ok.

Seemed like it could be a fun game to me, as it is allot easier, and the resolution of fire fights and reaction shots can get complicated in Force on Force, but it looses the chaos provided by the cards. So I am not sure it will take over locally. But I thought they had a pretty nice table and some cool models, and it was in a quieter part of the con so worked for me!

As before here are some shots of random games I thought were cool or interesting, but didn't get to play:

Nice Buildings, but bad poker chips

Very cool model doing a rocket attack!

Prepare to Repel Boarders!

Samurai Game, nice models, but not winning my terrain award!

Little Big Horn, much better on terrain!

Very nice Eastern European Table, this is the kind of Forest I want

Fighting Across a road, these Computer guys always have nice stuff

Not sure what this is, but I like it!

Well that's all I have for the Cold Wars 2017 coverage. Next big con is in May for us, so lots to prepare.

Thanks;
Mike

Cold Wars - 2017 - Part 1

Hello All,

This past weekend I attended Cold Wars, a wargaming convention in the US. As is my usual policy I played in one tournament and then had a day for playing random fun games and hanging out ect.. This time around I played in the Epic Armageddon tournament again, because it is fun, and it is not that popular anymore, so this is a good chance to get to play!

This time around I took a Space Marine (Ultramarines) army, using the Vanguard Miniatures line as I didn't have any of the now out of production GW models, and aren't to keen on hunting through E Bay.

My army list was something like this:

TACTICAL [325]
6 Tacticals, Rhinos, Captain

TACTICAL [275]
6 Tacticals, Rhinos

TERMINATOR [400]
4 Terminators, Captain

TERMINATOR [350]
4 Terminators

ASSAULT [175]
4 Assault Units

DEVASTATOR [350]
4 Devastators, 4 Razorback

PREDATOR [325]
4 Annihilator, Hunter

WHIRLWIND [300]
4 Whirlwinds

But I forgot to use the hunter AA tank.

Game 1: vs Eldar

Here is an early shot of the first game. I got a bit impatient and moved up my Predator tanks to take some shots at the Eldar tanks. But didn't accomplish to much as they had to double. This left them badly exposed so they lost half their number to return fire. Some Eldar bombers put a real hurt on one of my Tactical squads, while the other advanced into cover near the objective on the far right.

End of turn 1 you can see that both sides are mainly just advancing forward, but I am taking a bit of casualties.

On the second turn I launched the teleport attack with my Terminators, one unit on the Blitz objective, and one unit here assaulting a formation of Guardians, and support weapon platforms. I won this assault without loss and the Eldar were pushed back with heavy casualties. However most other things went poorly. Some Eldar warriors on Jet Bikes were able to cut through my back lines, and I ended up loosing allot of units in general.

Here is a shot towards the end of the game. I am in a bit of a bad position, the Eldar still have a number of strong formations, and most of mine are pretty damaged. In the end the Aspect Warriors around the clock tower would assault my Terminators with the help of the Jet Bikes and break them. I was able to hold on to the Eldar back objective, but didn't achieve anything else. The Eldar destroyed my most expensive unit and controlled the objectives on my side which gave them the Blitz, Take and hold, and Break Their Spirit Objectives.

Game 2: vs Tau

This game was played in a big swampy area, with rough ground and some forests, with a few scattered defenses. The first turn saw us mostly moving forward, the Tau being very conservative. A little bit of damage was done but nothing serious. But the Tau had a big advantage in activations due to having more units and were able to capitalize on this doing some good damage towards the end. An Orca assault ship landed allot of Tau Fire Warriors on the right flank and just crushed one of my Tactical formations.

On the second turn I brought down my Terminators again. I put on unit in the back near the Tau Blitz objective to assault their tanks, and a second unit to assault the huge formation of fire warriors. Sadly I lost initiative despite the big advantage the Marines have in strategy rating. The result of this was the my Terminators took a major beating and were broken by fire. But I was able to assault the tanks and destroy them, threatening the objective. One the left I was able to assault with my remaining tactical formation, and destroyed a Tau formation of Scout Battle suits, but lost most of my transports later to direct fire. My tanks moved forward and broke one of three recon skimmer formations, but a plane came in and finished off the last of my broken terminators giving the Tau the Break Their Spirit objective. But my Whirlwind artillery was able to kill off allot of the fire warriros with a bombardment weakening them a little bit.

On turn three I lost initiative again! So instead of my Terminators making a great assault they were surrounded and broken with fire, causing them to all die. Such is the risks of teleporting into the back field. I spent the rest of the turn trying to get some objectives, but all my stuff on the right flank was gone, so it was hard going. I got in some good hits, but wasn't able to secure any objectives. I had a change to contest with my devastators to draw out another turn, but they failed to activate. So the Tau were left in control of my blitz objective, giving them that and Break Their Spirit for the victory.

Game 3: vs Titan Legions

My final game was against a Titan Legion. There was only 4 players, so everyone was going to end up playing everyone. Here an early shot of turn one. Titans spread out everywhere, very scary. I put a tactical formation, and  my assault marines on the far right, and devistators, tanks, and more tacticals on the left. I was trying hard to be cautious with my Predators as the titans have mostly armored units and I thought I would need their Lascannon to have a change, so didn't want to loose them early. My hope was that by splitting up it would  be harder for the Titans to focus and destroy my formations one by one as happened allot with the Tau. The titans mainly moved up to the middle, and some shots were fired back and forth, but no huge amounts of damage.

The big unit of 5 knight titans was the Legions Break Their Spirit, so I was hoping to be able to kill them early on. So I double with my tanks to put a bit of fire on them. And of course some planes destroyed half of my Whirldwinds, wish I hadn't forgotten about that hunter!

The second turn I brought in all of my terminators to assault the big Titan unit. They had rallied off the blast marker but I thought it was worth a shot anyway. With the Space Marines Captain I was able to assault with both formations at once! In the end I lost but just barely and only lost a couple of terminator stands, but killed a titan or 2. I was then able to sustain fire with my tanks, killing more of them and breaking the formation.

Elsewhere shots were fired, but no major effects really. The Titans on the right were making a good attempt to fight of my Tactical and Assault marines backed up with some attack planes, but my guys held firm. I doubled forward with the Devastators to try and finish off that unit of Titans, but failed to get the last hit on the commander. The other Titans struck back and killed allot of them in return!

On the final turn, the Titan unit on the right assaulted my Tactical Formation, but with some very poor rolling, were somehow able to loose, and were all cut down in retreat! My Assault marines were then free to more forward and capture the Titans back field Blitz objective, while the tactical consolidated the forward. My tanks advanced and tried to finally bring down the Titan's command unit, but that last guy just wouldn't die. The Titans in the middle advanced and captured the objective in the middle by the clock tower, but just barely failed to take the other away from the tactical formation and the remaining terminators. This left me with Blitz and Take and Hold objectives, so I finally got a win!

Finally results put the Tau in first place, and everyone else tied for third! My prize was a 6mm ruined scenery piece which is pretty cool, so I will have to get that painted up for Cangames.

To round things off here are a few random shots of games I thought were cool or interesting as I walked around, but didn't get to play in. Can't do everything!

Lord of the Rings

Dunno what this is but nice buildings

Big Star Wars X-Wing game, with lots of big ships

1200 Zombies! The Dukes of Hazard were a playable faction hah

6mm Tank Battle, I think allot of the closer ones are M1 Abhrams but not sure

Crazy Cool Frostgrave table / Game

Magic Wizard Lighthouse, just they Harbour section would be a cool game!

That's all for now, more Cold Wars coverage in a day or 2.

Thanks;

Mike

Painting - Terrain

Hello Folks,

Been busy putting the last few touches on my Space Marines army for the Cold Wars tournament, I decided to base all the tanks due to magnetization mainly. But also been slowing down a bit. So I didn't get as much stuff done this week. Just a couple of terrain pieces.

6mm Shanty Town - for Epic:

Hmm looks like the second picture got messed up somehow. Anyway these are a bunch of resin buildings painted and glues on to a board, then flocked and what not. Nothing to fancy, but it took a bit of time to paint all the buildings, and they have some cool details for such small buildings, old tires and garbage cans and all that. Not sure how well this fits in, but I thought it was pretty cool. I have some ruins to do as well, and defences ect.. Lots of stuff left to do for cangames.

Spider Nest - 28mm Frostgrave

I also finally got around to painting a spider nest piece that was started at a terrain day we had a few months back. This has a few metal pieces on a base with some deeper sand. Turned out pretty cool I think with some spider eggs and treasure and uneven ground. If I had my time back I would add a dead tree or 2, but I think it is kind of cool. Even has a crow picking the meat off a skull!

Fits into the table pretty well, but being a perfect rectangle is a bit of a problem maybe.

Thanks;
Mike