D-Day and Beyond (Completed!)

 My previous post showed work in progress of a Sherman tank I had put together for my WW2 Canadians so I could use them for later war (1944-1945) games as well as their originally slotted Dieppe Landing setting (1942). Here's the finished effort, though I will ask for your forgiveness right off for the quality of pics - I took them at my in-law's house and the only decent light was "sunlight", though that was either 110 degrees blazing and causing shadows, obscuring details outright, or under a sun-brella. So you get sun-brella. 

Back to the main topic. 

I did a little research after I wanted a tank that was present at D-Day and who managed to live a little longer than your average Ronson. What I came up with was this little beaut' called "Holy Roller", a tank that survived through D-Day (There is another, but I thought this one was a cooler name) and made it all the way through to the end of the war! It's now on display in Victoria Park in London Ontario, Canada, which I think is very cool. Of course, the model kit I have is the wrong Mark of Sherman, but it'll do. I also couldn't possibly get the bloody name and serial number free-handed on correctly, which irked mightily, but felt it was better to leave it off altogether than have some ham-fisted effort ruining an otherwise decent looking Armoured Fighting Vehicle.

Hope you like, here's the pics!

The actual tank in London, Ontario. Looks pretty darn good for a 77/78 year old lady.

As you can see, both "Holy Roller" and the serial number are flippin tiny! No way I'd be able to paint those on, sadly.

And here's my version of the venerable tank. The weathering looks way more pronounced in person, mud effects sponged on and weathering pigments gents dusted over prior to a final flat varnish.

One important marking I "was" able to get in was the Squadron marking on the turret - a handy decal and free-handed number "9" inside.

Everyone loves a booty pic

This thing now sits frustratedly in a tub. Who knows when it'll see the light of a gaming table? LOL

I was not at all happy with how I had the driver originally positioned, he was sat too high up. So I hacked away at his lower chest and now he sits far more believably and I'm good with it.

Decals shown are all from the tank kit by Warlord Games. The bridge weight and red unit badges were excellent. The 2nd Canadian Armoured badge though was a bit rubbish - the blue stripe that's supposed to intersect the top and bottom black behind the yellow maple leaf barely shows. I'm in two minds if I'm willing to try to paint the blue in so it stands out more?

And that's it for now. I've already moved on to a new project, completely different from this one, going back to a Warhammer 40K feel, though this time, scenic! 

Stay safe out there you lot and O, Forza Italia!

D-Day

74 years ago, the largest amphibious landing in history commenced as hundreds of thousands of brave Allied military personnel landed on the shores of Normandy with the intention of pushing the German defenders out of France.

In 10 days, my local LGS (Ogre's Den in Orangevale, CA) is holding an event to commemorate D-Day and I intend to attend along with my good pal Densmol. As my own Bolt Action armies are unsuitable for Western Europe in early June I had to borrow an army from Densmol's growing Germans collection, so I'll be fielding some Regular Heer with some Inexperienced Kreigsmarine (Sailors), Strafbattalion (Military inmates) and a tonne of Light and Medium Machineguns to defend the Normandy beaches.

Densmol's collection though didn't extend far enough to fill out a full 1000 point list, so he purchased the Kreigsmarine and said that I'm welcome to include them, but I had to paint them up first along with a Captain (See below) and Medic.

Here I present to you my force's Captain - I included him in my list as I am all too sure that my poor squads are going to be suffering a LOT of bombardments early in the game and his extra command bonuses will help remove any pins that ensue. The model was a freebie included with an order from and is by Warlord Games. (Though I can't seem to find him on their website?) Nice one piece sculpt with a few annoying moldlines running right down the face of the sculpt, but otherwise a simple one to paint up. Because time is of the essence I didn't put too much effort into this one, but I think he looks like a good tabletop job. He'll be staying with Densmol after the event as a thankyou for lending me an army (again).

Of course the errant bit of fluff on his cap peak somehow was not noticed until I am at work editing these pics... le sigh.

Please forgive the lighting in the pics, my tiny cheap photo box seems to only have one brightness setting and I've yet to work out a way to diffuse those LEDs. (I'm thinking perhaps a strip of wax paper?)

Next on the painting desk will be the Kreigsmarines. I've already blocked in 75% of there base colours, but so far they have been excellent sculpts to work with and have varied uniforms which will make painting them up for more enjoyable.

Firestorm Caen: Turn 1

As mentioned maybe 2 or 7 times already in previous posts, Cameron at the Rust and the City blog is running an online Flames of War Firestorm Caen campaign. Densmol and I decided to get in on the action and got our first game underway this week.

It's D-Day and the allies are amassing off the French coast to push the hated German invaders back up into Northern Europe. The Canadian assault forces were to attack Juno beach in an effort to create a beachhead for the remainder of their assets to come ashore and fortify gains made that day.

Densmol took a German Infantry company and I a 3rd Canadian Assault Infantry Company, respective lists were taken from the Overlord and Atlantik Wall books to keep in theme. Neither of us own any beach terrain, nor fortifications, so we played the alternate mission (Fighting Withdrawal). I arranged the terrain on the board to loosely simulate the type of features that the Canadian forces would have had to cross right as they got off the beach and into the very beginning of French countryside and used this 1944 aerial photo as reference.

The area within the red box  was my inspiration for scenery placement. I just added the tree stands to make it so my PBI had "some" cover to hide behind as they advanced.

The forces were as follows:

Me

3rd Canadian Assault Company - Confident Trained

1 & 2iC (Plus Jeep that didn't feature all game)
Sniper
2x Full Infatry Platoons
4-stand 3" Mortar Platoon
Independent Sherman Tank platoon (3 regular shermans)
Breaching Group (Regular sherman, 2x sherman crab flail tanks & 2x Churchill AVsRE)
2x Crocodile Flame tanks
Recce Armoured Car platoon (3 Humber III's and 2 Humber LRC's)
I also had Medium Naval artillery with an AOP observer.

My Firestorm troops were a 3rd Infantry platoon and a 2nd Sherman tank platoon, though this one had a Firefly and 2 regular shermans.

Densmol

some sort of German Panzergrenadier Company - Confident Veteran

1 & 2iC with Kfz 251 half-tracks
2x Full Infantry Platoons with Kfz halftracks
4x Gun 15cm artillery
3x Nebelwerfer rocket artillery stands
2x Flak 88 AA guns
3x Panzer IV tanks
3x Luchs Recce tanks

 Densmol's Firestorm troops were a small 5-stand platoon of Confident Trained Infantry and a Pak40 AT Gun.

Per the scenario instructions, we played the Fighting Withdrawal mission with my Canadians as attackers. After all the Objectives were placed, these were our deployments:

A view pre-turn 1 from Densmol's side of the table.

Firestorm German infantry and AT gun, supported by Veteran 88 and Luch tanks.

Frightening 15cm German artillery.

The forces on the Canadian right flank

And the Canadian left flank looked remarkably similar, give or take a longer barrel.

Recce moves saw my Humbers darting up the furthest left flank to hide behind a bridge and Densmol's Luchs shifting more toward the center of the german deployment. (No arrow graphics for the Luchs move, I got fed up of messing with photos really quick.)

Turn One sees the shermans on the left moving up, leaving their Firefly behind so it can take advantage of some Semi-Indirect firing. This saw me roll a sweet double 6's to hit as my first dice of the game! Swiftly followed by double ones for firepower rolls....  *facepalm* Still, the only panzer iv visible has it's crew run off, too sensible to stick around for another 17 pounder gun shot. first blood to the good guys!

Densmol, not impressed at all having lost a tank already.

 Canadian center moves up, Breaching Group sherman tanks shoot at the other two Panzer iv's and miss all shots. Firestorm infantry in support. Crocodiles trundle forward through the woods without any mechanical issues.

Right most Sherman platoon Machineguns the German Firstorm infantry and kill one stand, but get the pin. Rightmost infantry platoon moves up in support.

Naval bombardment drops on the redeployed Luchs in the center and take out a tank!

Humbers Unleash a whole mess of shots at the Dug In and Gone to Ground artillery and.... miss every shot! The Canadian mortars though manage to pin the scary big guns. (Also, though not pictured, my sniper plops down opposite the 15cm's and fails to hit. This becomes a pattern.)

In German Turn One, the 15cm Artillery and Firestorm Infantry unpin. Then the remaining two Panzer iv's move to get clear shots and pop both Sherman Crab flail tanks.

The 15cm artillery drop a bombardment onto the 3 remaining Breaching group tanks, but only manage to bail a singe AVsRE!

The two German 88 guns take some tricky shots at the right most Sherman platoon, blow up two and bail the third! For some reason, the crew of the third feel it's a better idea to stay and fight than to run away...

 

The Luchs move over to help out the 15cm artillery and shoot at the Canadian armoured Cars, but fail to damage. 

After this the German tanks all make stormtrooper moves to get out of sight or get better shots for the following turn.

Turn Two opens with some lovely shooting by the sherman platoon who take out a second Luch. The third decides it would be safer to leave the field altogether and so the Canadians score a point.

Right of center, the Crocodiles are within flame range of the center german infantry who are holed up in the house and also the Firestorm infantry in the right most hedge. They unleash their terrible flamethrowers and kill three infantry in the building and two in the field.

The AVsRE fire their very short range Petard Mortars at the same building and kill another of the infantry stands forcing a morale check.... But the German 1iC is lurking behind the building and reminds them they have to stand firm!

(Some dramatic flame effects for those petard shots!)

 

The Armoured Cars once again open up on the big guns and this time do kill something, but it's not the guns, merely their platoon commander. The sniper again fails to hit.

On the right flank, the infantry assault the lone poor German artillery observer, in the hopes of drawing in the enemy Firestorm infantry. It works, but not nearly well enough as two German stands of infantry survive which means the platoon is at half strength, no need for a morale check yet.

German Turn Two and Densmol drops his ambush! His second Infantry platoon was hiding behind the hedges the whole time! (And in their half tracks too no less - not looking good for my right flank...)

The not-in-picture Nebelwerfer rockets barrage my very exposed rightmost infantry, killing two stands and pinning the platoon. The Newly arrived Panzergrenadiers in half-tracks first machinegun, then assault my poor infantry, making short work of them and the few survivors run foro their lives.

Followed by the final sherman on that flank getting blown to pieces by more 88 fire. My right flank is gone and the Panzergrenadiers are on the prowl. I'm now two platoons down and losing.

Panzer iv's line up some easy shots on the Breaching Group, but both miss! At the same time, the 15cm guns (Who couldn't unpin last turn.) get two cheeky direct shots off at the left flank sherman tanks and pop them both!

The German tanks Stormtrooper back out of Petard range and also of the Piat team in the ruins, whilst the sherman tanks at top left snap, crackle and pop with exploding ammunition.

Canadian turn Three. Notes and pictures get a little spotty from here as it was getting muy late and the wine had been flowing a bit freely. The Firefly once again uses some long range shots and manages to destroy a Panzer iv! Bloody last one sticks around though, again, the German 1iC reminding them of their duty.

The Firefly who could. Also on the left, my #1 infantry platoon, slowly making their way up to try to tackle the 15cm guns and then on to tackle the left most objective.

The mortar platoon realising it's in a rather vulnerable position, shuffles about so all teams can line up some direct shots at the Panzergrenadiers in half-tracks. 6 shots fire and!!!! Nothing. O dear. Meanwhile, the AOP calls in another bombardment and actually hits the German artillery, but only manages to kill their Staff team!

An overview of the turn.

German Turn Three sees Densmol remove the last Panzer iv under the strategic withdrawal rules. Damnit, I was ready to assault that tank in my turn as well! His artillery once again do not unpin. The halftracks trundle over unimpeded and machingun my poor mortars to death as expected. Now they are in my backfield.

Densmol's defense is looking good from here.

Canadian Turn Four and my Armoured Cars ONCE AGAIN open up on the artillery killing a single gun. (Densmol has rolled about 7 or 8 fives and sixes for saves on these big buggers. They should have dies two turns ago! The sniper tries to make himself useful and finally take out an artillery team from the bridge - hits (!) and then fails his fire power roll... Worst unit ever.

The now flamethrower-less Crocodiles manage to shoot and kill the Firestorm Pak40 and also blow up one of the half-tracks, killing the infantry inside.

German Turn Four starts with Densmol withdrawing the a required platoon and chooses the infantry in the central building. Then the 15cm guns decide they will stay pinned! The Nebelwerfer rockets bombard my central Firestorm infantry platoon and kill a stand, then the half-tracks move in and Machinegun two more. A 88 AA gun shoots and blows up both AVsRE Churchills and force the platoon commander regular sherman to flee the field of battle.

I'm now four platoons down and have to make a Company Morale test. I roll a one... Thankfully Assault Companies get a re-roll so I do and roll.... a three. 5-2 win for the Germans.

So Densmol's holding action allowed the remaining German troops who were manning the defenses at Juno Beach to get back and regroup safely and perhaps buy enough time for a counter attack whilst the Canadians get themselves reorganised.

It was a fun game on a very open table terrain-wise, though I felt it kept in theme because of this and so didn't mind the hard slog my poor bloody infantry had to get at those German positions. Saying all this though, it went on far longer than it should have due to us being rather rusty on rules after not playing for 2-3 months and we didn't end up finishing until almost 1:30am. ~_~

Round 2 rules of the campaign should be up tomorrow, so we'll try to get that in soon.