6mm Cold War Commander

In Paukarlahticon I got to play my first proper microarmor game! My friend Mikke brought the figures, rules and designed the scenario, the terrain is mostly from my collection. It's a "cold war gone hot" scenario using Cold War Commander rules. Somewhere in West Germany in the 1980's, the third world war has begun a couple of weeks ago. The best troops on both sides have mauled each other badly and now both sides are throwing their not-quite-the-best-troops on the line. The Soviets have to capture a city and the NATO defenders must repel the communist menace!

We played a 2 vs. 2 game with Mikke as the umpire. He held separate briefings for both sides, giving our Soviet forces a secret timed reinforcement in the form of helicopters carrying infantry. We timed them to land on the northern corner of the city on turn 4. Our plan was to use a part of our forces to pose a credible threat to NATO forces in the middle and use the bulk of our forces to attack from the north using the hill between the city and us to cover our advance.

The table at the beginning of the game.

Both sides deployed on the table and NATO's secret was revealed: Their defensive line was protected by a bunker, some barbed wire, tank traps and plenty of potential minefields we didn't know about. In fact, the landing zone of our chopper forces seemed to be right on top of one!

A little help in seeing where everyone is.

The game was on! Soviet tanks and mechanized infantry advanced speedily in the cover of the hill, but once they cleared the crest, they were hit by AT fire from the woods beyond. The soviet assault had a much greater local superiority however and could easily take some losses.

The defenders fire at the oncoming tanks. Each vehicle model represents a platoon of vehicles and movable units are typically brigades.

At the middle of the table there was little else going on except some artillery fire and long range gunnery. This engagement would clearly be decided where the soviet spearhead was pushing through. A brigade of Soviet infantry disembarked at the woods where NATO forces had their AT units and went in for the kill. The woods were soon purged of the capitalists. Seeing the woods cleared of friendly troops, the NATO tank line opened fire at the woods, all but destroying the Soviet infantry. Soviet tanks rolled over the hill after the NATO tanks had given away their position and started firing back. At this point however, the United States Air Force stepped in. Several air strikes caused great casualties among the Soviet armored forces despite the heroic efforts of their AA units. If the NATO armored units had held back a bit more when firing at the infantry in the woods, they would now have been in excellent position to wipe the soviet tanks off entirely, but now the soviets had a bit too much time to recover (incomplete "kills" heal at the end of turn in cold war commander so you have to concentrate your fire)

The Soviet spearhead would have had a hard time pushing against the NATO tank line, but their airborne troops came just at the right moment. The minefield they landed on proved to be a dummy and the chopper supported infantry advanced into the city and attacked the NATO tanks in the flank.

Here comes the (air) cavalry!

The airborne infantry assault was quite effective so the Soviet armored forces were content to support the assault with some long range shooting. The mechanized infantry began to move into the city to bolster the attack.

Soviet armor attempt to out-shoot their NATO counterparts while the airborne infantry attack the city.

Meanwhile the rest of the NATO defenders stare at an empty field as the Soviet forces in the middle did not attack at all.

NATO began to move reinforcements to the city, but the engagement was already decided. The airborne infantry were deep in the city and it looked like they would soon receive reinforcements in the form of mechanized infantry so the umpire called the game.

Soviet infantry captures the city.

For the soviets, the battle went right according to plan added with a bit of luck. It was an interesting scenario. I don't get to play umpired games often where the players have limited intelligence on the field. I also liked cold war commander. The activation system is taken from Warmaster and works surprisingly well for this kind of game. I also like the fact that enemy forces cannot be targeted before they have been spotted. Scouting units become very important. Air power is quite abstract but it is definitely felt. There are also AA units which can defend against air strikes, which makes those situations quite exciting.

As for microarmor in general, I like the scope of the game. It feels like you're in charge of a bigger operation. The only thing taking away from the immersion is that it's difficult to fool your brain into thinking a single tank model is representing four tanks. Also distinguishing between all those different green vehicles isn't easy in 6mm. Maybe some identification labels are called for.

Now, where did I put those Heroics & Ros WW2 tanks...

Russo-Swedish War 1808: Battle of Leppävirta re-refight

The custom table I built for the Leppävirta game we played last summer was still intact in my workshop (check it out if you want to make any sense of this game) so we took it for another spin. We used General de Brigade rules again but changed the scenario a bit. Instead of the troops being deployed historically at the beginning of the scenario we recorded their marching order on paper and had them march on the table and essentially bump into each other. Having a meeting engagement this close to each other is a stretch of imagination as both sides have plenty of dragoons to give advance warning that the enemy is near, but it makes for a fun scenario.

The frozen lake near Leppävirta sees battle once more! Dragoons on both sides have deployed to screen the marching columns but it will be a hasty deployment for the rest.

The Savolax brigade has put it's artillery to the front of the column. It's risky but will prove important.

The Russians have an equivalent number of troops. Their artillery is at the back.

The Savonian artillery deploys quickly and opens fire on the Russian cavalry.

Savonian Jägers move to the right flank and skirmish with their Russian counterparts.

Cossacks more around the Savonian left. Any baggage in the rear is in serious trouble!

The Savonians have managed to deploy more quickly and achieve local superiority in firepower on their right. Artillery, infantry and jägers make it hard for the Russians to form up for their attack.

The Russians attempt an attack on the Savonian line but face too much fire so they retreat. The Savonians swing around the right, routing the Russian jägers in the forest and now threaten the Russian artillery which hasn't been able to deploy effectively. We call the game at this point as the Savonians have suffered only minor casualties.

The jägers push towards the Russian battery

The game was pretty much decided by the artillery. The Savonian artillery was on the front of the column and was able to deploy quickly and start firing right away. The infantry then moved to protect the battery while the dragoons screened the manoeuver. The Russian artillery was at the rear and wasn't able to deploy with a good line of fire during the whole game. The rest was simple math as the deployed battery gave the Savolax brigade more firepower. The Savonians could just wait and keep up their fire as the Russians were forced to charge as they couldn't match the Savonians at long range. It didn't end up well for the Russians.

I'm not sure if putting the artillery up front was gamey and unhistorical of me, but it proved decisive!

Paukarlahticon V

The fifth Paukarlahticon was on 3-5.June and there were more people than ever there. 30 people came to play over the weekend which I am really happy about. A lot of games played, a lot of beer drunk and lots of war stories in the sauna!

Here are some random photos of some of the games played there. I will make separate posts on Cold War Commander and General de Brigade so you can check those out too.

A lot of Muskets & Tomahawks and Ronin going on this time. I think this is Ronin, correct me if I'm wrong.

Epic 40 000. My Dark Angels vs. Necrons. Looking good!

Or not. I was wiped away promptly. I really need to learn how to play this game :)

Late night drunken Bamboleo.

Good old Heroquest. Which is the best game ever made, obviously.

A tutorial game of Frostgrave.

Soldiers of God. I was interested in this but was too busy showing off Frostgrave to pay too much attention. It looked pretty card driven.

A friend of mine brought his 3D printer. 3D printing will definitely revolutionize our hobby in the coming years. I'll show off some printed stuff I paint later this summer.

The printer at work.

There were boardgames played as usual but as usual I was preoccupied in the miniatures section. If someone took photos, send them and I'll add them to the report.

Paukarlahticon 4

I hosted a gaming weekend at my place a month ago already (29-31.5.) but I've been too busy to report on it until now. The weekend drew in a record crowd of 21 people this time around so I'm really happy. The programme for the weekend was to play lots of miniature games, boardgames cardgames, wargames and so on. A good deal of barbecuing, going to the sauna and enjoying appropriate refreshments is also part of the format.

Many people chose to sleep in tents, which is a smart move if you want to sleep late.

Boardgames

The boardgames crowd is not really represented in the pictures but they were there. Being committed mostly to miniature games during the weekend, I didn't spend much time taking photos of the boardgames, but they were there, honest! Some people hesitate to come to the weekends thinking they're just about miniature games but there's a lot of boardgaming going on, believe me!

Regimental Fire & Fury: Olustee (6mm)

A impromptu addition to the weekend, we tried our first game of the regimental version of Fire & Fury. Familiar enough to anyone who has played the brigade version. I umpired this one, but we did not finish it. The Confederates were taking a beating and it was getting late so the players called it.

Muskets and Tomahawks (20mm)

Timo ran two introductory games of Muskets & Tomahawks during the weekend, but I was stuck in other games during them so I missed out. Also, these were the only half-decent photos I could scrounge so there's not much to see. I sure would like to try it out though.

Battlegroup Kursk: Caen

The main event of the weekend were two simultaneous games of Battlegroup Kursk and I played in one of them. The fighting took place during the battle of Caen in 1944. Both tables had four players. The table I was on had city terrain and had some pretty low grade German troops defending the area against an attack by the British. The British had lots and lots of tanks, but with the aid of good artillery, the Germans held the city.

The other game was an attack near an airfield. I don't know the specifics, but there was some desperate fighting going on in the woods and lots of burning tanks outside.

Chain of Command

I umpired a couple of games of Chain of Command during the weekend players who were either new to Chain of Command or new to miniature wargames entirely. The first game showed me that the tables should have lots of dead spots without LOS for the game to be entertaining. Otherwise the match too easily devolves into a gunfight determined more by dice than wits. I remedied the situation in the second game and I think it was more entertaining.

So there you have it! It was an excellent weekend and a welcome jolt to my otherwise slow gaming year. The space could accommodate the larger crow easily and I think the place could draw ten more people without much trouble. We'll see :)