Sand and Stone

It is only now that I am able to step back from Operation Sting and think about how much I was able to complete for that event!  I really enjoyed making the display board, which was featured in a number of step by step articles... https://wappellious.blogspot.com/2018/11/monte-cassino-part-4-more-rubble.html

The army was really unusual for me, since most of what I have been painting all these years has been for early war!  Some of these weapons seemed like space age tech at one point :-)  Of course, I especially enjoyed the basing on the army, and matching that terrain board... https://wappellious.blogspot.com/2018/11/amidst-rubble.html

I suppose that I was able to get in some practice on sandy Mediterranean colors for my upcoming DAK, Italian and British desert forces.  Those have also been under way for a while in terms of prepping, basing, etc.

When I researched what I should do for the uniforms, the variety of what I found gave me an opportunity to make each figure more unique.  This really helped when it came to playing in the tournament, because I never had any opportunity to play test the army before the event!

I wasn't able to do everything that I wanted to on the army due to time constraints, but as I tell folks all the time in my instructional videos, there is nothing that says I can't go back and add more details!

I also have to start making additional terrain pieces so that my display board can become the centerpiece for an entire Monte Cassino table.  The idea is to make more modular mountain style sections which could be used for several theatres, such as the Caucasus, etc.

It all worked out in the end, and I was very glad to receive the Best Axis Appearance award!

https://wappellious.blogspot.com/2018/12/final-report-operation-sting-2018.html

Final Report: Operation Sting 2018

Round 5 of Operation Sting was going to be unlike anything I had experienced before in all the years I had been doing tournaments.  When the table assignments were handed out, and I found myself on Table 2... I thought something was miscalculated at first!

I had a notion that completing those Secret Missions on top of draws would keep me at least in the upper 30%, I had no idea what 4 draws, mission points, Painting and Sportsmanship could lead to :-)

It was back to fighting Americans once again, this time an Airborne army. So, it would be a fight to the death between paratroopers!!!

This also meant that I would be facing the Rangers lead the way effect, and other army specific traits.  Also, a double air strike, which we will discuss later.

The Airborne troops did indeed try to utilize that pre game movement to get into better positions in and around the village square.  The Fallschirmjager established more of a defensive position, waiting for a potential preliminary bombardment.

That bombardment did hit both sides, dishing out plenty of pins!  Rally orders were the theme of turn one for sure...

With Paratroops already moved into the buildings in the main square, it forced me to bring in two of the Fallshirmjager units in to combat them... or at least pour in some pinning fire.

There were a few troublesome elements that the US forces had on this flank.  The light howitzer on ambush, as well as a few other units armed with bazookas meant that zooming down this road could be a wee bit hazardous.  It would create a traffic jam that ultimately meant major problems...

Things were going very well initially on this flank.  The combined firepower of these units, along with a well timed/placed artillery strike caused a LOT of pins and casualties among the US units.  It too Captain Spears himself to call on the troops and rally them back into the fight!

Here we see the intrepid general overseeing the US forces.  At this point, things looked very bleak for the Americans.  The only thing that stood in the path of German victory (or at least a draw)  was an American air strike.

Sadly for the Fallschirmjagers, the angle of attack prevented the transports from adding their defensive fire to the mix.  That would spell disaster, because all of my waiting anti aircraft guns missed horribly, and the plane survived!

This lead to the destruction of the transports, and pinning the infantry units to ineffectiveness.  

While the last submachine gun squad were lead in a heroic charge by the German officer, killing a few Airborne survivors in the central square, it all came down to one mortar blast on Captain Spears himself.

Lo and behold, he would survive, and the US forces would be victorious!

There were a lot of magnificently painted and researched armies at this tournament, which is one of Sting's trademarks.  Sportsmanship, terrain, and painting are held to high standards, which made me very happy to be awarded Best Axis Appearance!

I learned a lot of new techniques painting this army, and building the terrain board.  There is a 5 part series that shows how that was created.  I will also be adding more units to this army, so stay tuned for more articles and painting videos!

This made me had to rethink the entire game, as up until now everything I've played has been VERY early war.  Going from mid 1941 to 1944 was like heading into outer space, and adapting to that kind of weaponry and special rules on the fly was a monster challenge!

I mentioned those "soft scores" earlier in regards to painting, sportsmanship, theme, etc.  A major part of your overall score was determined by those factors, and I was quite surprised to hear that they had carried me to a 6th place finish out of 29 players!

While I had a suspicion that winning that last game might lead to something interesting, I was still very happy to be in the top 10.  The effort was really exhausting, to be honest.  The stress of bringing a totally untested army to a major event like this was heavy on my mind for months leading up to it.

The other players at the event made it all worthwhile, as did the equally exhausting efforts of the tournament organizers.  Those efforts are much appreciated, and it is an experience that will stay with me for many years to come.

Thanks to everyone for a great Operation Sting!!

Winter in the Tropics!

Round 4 of Operation Sting was going to be a very different animal compared to the "Cat and mouse" type games of Day 1.  The Axis was deemed to be the defender in the deadly scenario that requires you to not only set up half your units in the center, but then face a preliminary bombardment!

Fortunately I had this building to serve as cover initially, but with the confused deployment of reinforcements on subsequent turns, hiding behind something could actually leave you out in the open!

The green counters also indicate hidden units, which I have done in numerous battle reports in the past.  I was pretty used to utilizing that technique!  This would prevent those early lucky shots and kills.  Even more important, as that prelim bombardment always dishes out lots of pins before the game even starts.

The opposition this time would be a batch of angry Soviets, including lots of Partisans.  Here they are using the sneaky maneuver of "laying in the weeds"

They kept ducking, because a mortar was ranged in on them. The Germans thought this would be the ideal time to bring in the submachine unit right between them and the Zis field gun!  Sadly, the sights must have been off on the guns, because the artillery piece survived.

As turns progressed, I would need for that to keep getting pins, but not be killed, so as to avoid an ambush by a big Partisan unit!

Here's a case in point.  I needed to neutralize this mortar, because it kept ranging in on one unit after another.  However, if I killed it outright, that Partisan unit on the left would really blast the Fallschirmjager unit.

This is what I love about confused reinforcements!  You can come in on any table edge, as long as the opponent had not used it last.  As a result of that condition, it is vital to have plenty of things in reserve, and be willing to save them to respond or close off an edge in the first place.

Another unit of inexperienced soviets advances towards the railway station... the MMG team has been hit by mortars and prep bombardments, so they seem to be doomed!

Here's another pesky unit of Partizans behind the lines.  Maybe they are the ones who brought the portable snow machine...

Because winter just arrived!  How did these guys manage to keep their advance hidden in the jungle with all that snow?  Maybe that quieted the squeaky track links of the T-34...

One turn after the next, units would appear in this corner of the board.  Unlike the more gentlemanly engagements against the US forces, this was going to be a real Bear Hug... a brawl to the death!!

A well placed Panzerfaust shot blew up the T-34, while an assault took out the unit of Soviets.  However, some angry tank riders would deal vengeance on the more tropical Fallschimjagers.

The snow camoflage on the Zis gun must have distracted the gunner of the SDKfZ, because it survived with 1 last crew manning it.  A few survivors of the German squads took cover behind terrain (and even Soviet artillery pieces!), which meant that we had a fourth consecutive draw!

I was able to accomplish my Secret Mission for an additional 5 points.  I had to keep at least 4 infantry based units intact through the entire game.  Very tough, since most of them were getting shelled before it even started!

This was definitely not the scenario or opponent to use the "Kill the enemy commander in close combat" Secret Mission.  As I mentioned a few episodes ago, matching up the scenario and secret mission and opponent together would be trickier with each round.  Just one more left, so stay tuned!!

Winter vs Summer

As I prepared for Round 3 at Operation Sting, I could not be truly prepared for the unusual list that stood on the opposite side of the table!  It was the very unique Anti-Tank platoon list in the Battle of the Bulge campaign book.  This meant all kinds of heavy weaponry, but not much in the way of infantry.

Once again, finding a match between the actual scenario and the Secret Mission was going to be tough.  Actually, I probably should have labeled this episode as "Ambush Alley", because both of us had to resort to dueling ambushes all game long!

This had to do with the terrain, which did create a lot of blind alleys.  While the anti-tank guns would be overkill against the transports that I had, the vast numbers of medium and heavy machine guns on the tows presented a major issue!

Not only could they dish out plenty of pins... those HMG's can also take out light vehicles.

You can see these very tempting roads.  Since my Secret Mission involved getting infantry units off the opponent's board edge (however, they had to be intact!), utilizing these could facilitate such a task.

This was not going to be the case once all those AT guns and Machine Gun tows started waiting in ambush.

This forced me to bring in some elements far to the left flank, where certain parts of the road could not be covered by those ambushes.  

While we also had the Ambush game going on, there were plenty of Down orders being issued as well.  The idea was to force the opponent to commit those final reserves early.

I was able to get a decent series of order dice draws, and some of the US equipment had to emerge early.  Those ended up in some less than ideal locations.

Here you see the lone US infantry unit.  They are taking up a position in the central square, which was the the objective of the primary mission.

The dueling ambushes did yield some casualties, and this destroyed tow was the first.  This left an Anti-tank gun and its crew stranded well out in the open.  While I fired at it quite often, I didn't actually want to kill it off completely.

You can see those American units in the distance, which sat in place for several turns, as their line of sight was completely blocked by that rather large gun!!

The few US infantry units present took up positions around that central building.

Even one of the AT guns was set in that central zone to block certain back alley approaches.

The building closest to the German deployment zone had the forward artillery observer and the officer inside.  Fortunately I was able to keep the artillery pieces rather busy, so they could not blast the building out from under them!

At a certain point, however, I was going to have to make a move against this central structure.  I brought up the sub machine gun armed unit, along with the officer, and anything else that could move.

I also fired my mortar into this area to grind down the artillery crew and force the transport out of the area.

My Secret Mission on the left flank ran into a Quad MMG halftrack, and it did not take long before pins and casualties started to rack up.  Had I known that even getting 1 man to that board edge would have gotten me 1 point, I might have taken an even more aggressive approach.

All this time, I had to avoid many ambushes from beyond the tree line.

Pins and casualties begin to mount from repeated mortar strikes, and pot shots from the MMG team and other units.

The lone US infantry unit spent the entire game taking cover behind the central building, but enough of them would survive to contest the center, yielding yet another draw!

Sadly, I was not able to accomplish the Secret Mission, so I was left with the 12 points, and not the 17 I had played for.

Stay tuned for the final day, and Round 4!!

Incoming!!!

The second round of Operation Sting saw all kinds of mayhem!  The mission was fairly straightforward, focusing on objectives, but the "Secret Missions" added an extra layer of madness.

Mine happened to be holding a specific piece of terrain, and keeping the enemy a certain distance from it.

As you might recall from the first post, you had 8 of those Secret Missions to choose from for the 5 rounds.  Once you used one, it was not available for future rounds.  I thought this scenario would mesh with that mission very well, since I had to keep the enemy away from an objective located near that structure.

Here's my scratch sculpted objective marker, which was one of those objectives that needed to be held.

As usual, the static quad AAA launcher sat there and did nothing the entire game.

The mobile version was a little more active, although it had a lot of trouble hitting anything!

Just as I did in round 1, all of my Fallschirmjager squads were left in reserve, so that I could react to the US moves towards my objectives.  Yes, it was another game against US forces.

I will mention once again that it was really nice to have Axis vs Allied match ups in every round.  It is really odd and disappointing to have US vs US, or Brits vs French, etc.

This little bit of action here was a result of the primary mission being mixed with the secret mission.  That red counter is the objective which the US player was after.  However, that was also the marker that I needed to keep free of enemy encroachment!

My artillery strike had wandered just a bit, and of course it went off right in the middle of all these units.  As you might expect, I rolled one 6 after another on my own units, which is why you see all these blast markers.  I destroyed both of my transports, and piled up pins on my own infantry.

It was a complete mess!  The forward artillery observer has since been recalled to headquarters where Smiling Kesselring is not smiling too much...

This was not the only mayhem that went on in Round 2.  I don't have any photos of it, but on the opposite side of the board, a full unit of Submachine gun armed Fallschirmjager nearly lost to an isolated mortar spotter team!

This would prove to be crucial, because that unit would be slowed down in its approach to the vital "swing" objective.

Also, Gene was trying to accomplish his Secret Mission, which was to have his medic heal one wound.  As it happens, that finally occurred on one of the last rolls of the game.  I was trying to kill off the officer team which was holding the "Swing" objective, and had gotten the two wounds that I needed!  However... the medic healed at least one of them, and that objective would still count for the Allies.

The final result of that game was a draw, since the lone US unit in the blast zone was pinned out of existence.  Otherwise, I would not have been able to move them from that objective.

That's what I like about Bolt Action... you don't have to kill things to make them useless or leave the board all together.  I think there were at least 2 occasions where units were destroyed by pins in my 5 games.

Stay tuned for Round 3, where we see the most unusual opponent list imaginable!