Dusty's PrairieCon XLIV After Action Report Part 3 - "Bolt Action" - Defense of the Polish Post Office Danzig, 1 September 1939

On Sunday morning I ran a Bolt Action scenario from the 'Germany Strikes' campaign book, specifically the defence of the Polish Post Office in Danzig on 1 September 1939. This it the third time I have run this scenario, and each time the results have been very different. In preparation for the game I painted up four 2' x 2' MDF boards that had urban grey on one side and desert brown on the other to maximize utility. It gave me an opportunity to deploy my Polish Post Office building that I constructed in 2020 along with the brick and wrought iron fencing I built a few years ago for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

Set up at PrairieCon

The Polish defenders consisted of six 4-man rifle sections, three 2-man BAR section, an anti-tank rifle section, and Lieutenant Guderski
 

Polish defenders

 The German attackers consisted of three waves with a mix of light and medium howitzers, a pair of armoured cars, two sections of Ordanzpolizei, three sections of SS Heimwehr Danzig, a section of SA, a MMG, and a small engineer detachment. 

The 3 waves of German attackers

 I had three players participate in the game, so there was a single Polish commander and two German commanders. While the Germans have a definite advantage in numbers and weapons, the Polish troop quality is higher, and they have the 'No Where To Run' special rule allowing them to re-roll failed morale checks. Most of the German infantry units were inexperienced which gave them a negative modifier when shooting.

After the Poles were positioned in the various rooms of the post office, the Germans deployed their first wave at the rear of the building, despite being informed that the only entrance was at the front. With more Polish die in the cup than German at this point, the attackers suffered major casualties as the Poles had the opportunity to shoot before the Germans had a chance to move. 

 

Initial Polish deployment in an off-board grid
representing the rooms of the post office,

Initial German deployment

The Germans learning a hard lesson of deploying in the open

On the third turn the German second wave came on and a focused attack on one end of the building commenced.

SS Heimwehr Danzig going into action

 The German assault pioneers were able to plant their satchel charge against the building as further assets came on the board on turn 4. 

SS Steyr ADGZ armoured car advancing

 

A squad of SA advancing on the left

 

Unfortunately for the Germans the first die out of the bag at the beginning of turn 5 was a Polish one, and the defenders wasted no time in cutting down the remaining assault pioneers before they could set off the satchel charge. With the front entrance now the only means of assaulting the building the German attackers were out of position to capture any rooms before time ran out, and we called the game after 2½ hours of play.

Despite their loss, even the German players had fun

Thus concluded my third game of the weekend. I had an enjoyable time, and I hope circumstance will let me attend again next year. Thanks for reading.

HALT!
Gefahr! Es wird
scharf geschossen.

Dusty's PrairieCon XLIV After Action Report Part 2 - "Arena of Blood"

 On Saturday morning of PrairieCon I was scheduled to run 'Arena of Blood' by Wiley Games. I didn't have any preregistered participants, but over the course of the two hour slot I was able to recruit a total of eight players who played at least two games each. (The event organizers had stands with a sign that read 'Players Wanted' which I used to attract some players.)

 

Set up at PrairieCon with 'Players Wanted' sign

Samnite defeats Murmillo

Murmillo defeats Crupellarius

Hoplomachus and Murmillo versus Velite  

Hoplomachus and Murmillo versus another Murmillo

Murmillo victorious over Secutor

Murmillo vs Thracian, Dimachaerus vs Sagittarius

Sagittarius vs Thracian

Sagittarius victorious over Dimachaerus

Velite defeats Murmillo

The games were all 'fast and furious' with much of the play determined by the luck of the die rolls, but with still a bit of tactical decision making required with regards to which special skills a player was willing to lose to any major wounds, whether it was better to loose a defensive ability versus an offensive one. The best play of all the games was a young player fielding a Murmillo who played a Jack for an extra attack dice, and rolling three 6s to take out his opponent, 

No games went the full three turns, each of four phases, and game duration was generally 15-20 minutes. Conscript Dave and I have taken the game to several conventions already, but this was the first opportunity I have had to put all the gladiator figures I painted for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge to use.  

Later in the afternoon I participated in a 'Wings of Glory' WW1 aerial combat game, flying a Sopwith Camel along with two other Allied players trying to taking down a Zeppelin Staaken R. VI bomber defended by a Fokker Dr 1.The defensive fire from the bomber was quite brutal and all the Allied planes were shot down before the bomber had suffered any significant damage. The only thing that kept us from being downed sooner was the frequent jams suffered by the German player.

Somewhere in France

 

The might Staaken bomber

 Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for Part 3 of my AAR.

Dusty's PrairieCon XLIV After Action Report Part 1 - "What a Cowboy!"

After many years of thinking about attending PrairieCon, only to have other commitment interfere, I finally got out to the event for the entire weekend. I ran a total of three games and participated in a fourth while I was there. I am splitting my AAR into three parts, one for each day of attendance.

 First up is the game of 'What a Cowboy!' with rules by TooFatLardies that I ran on Friday evening. It went quite smoothly, thanks in part to a play test held with other members of the Fawcett Avenue Conscripts a week earlier. In that game I used a lot of the Western buildings belonging to Conscript Dallas, but felt the game needed terrain that provided more cover that didn't completely block line of sight. 

Gunfight in the streets of Laramie play test game

Gunfight in the streets of Laramie play test game

Gunfight in the streets of Laramie play test game

Gunfight in the streets of Laramie play test game

 I had some 2' x 2' pieces of ½" MDF that I had cut for another terrain board project, but had decided against using it. Instead I painted one side with desert browns and the flip side with urban greys to maximize utility. I also constructed a number of sections of various types of Western fencing using some plastic pieces from the Perry farmhouse kit supplemented by some crafting dowels and large toothpicks. These would provide obstacles to cross, as well as making it more difficult to spot targets. I also made some scatter terrain using some barrels that came with the Perry kit.

Fence sections prior to painting

Layout for the PrairieCon game with a 3'x3' playing area

 I had three participants for the game, so I played as well to even up the sides. We all started with a 'Shootist', giving the character a 'Bonanza token' which could be used to interrupt an opponent's turn, and a special skill to enhance abilities. We ended up playing two games in quick succession as one of the players learned the hard way that strolling up the middle of the road is a good way to get shot. The second game lasted a little longer with players making use of the fences to close the range under cover, as well as their 'Bonanza' tokens to get off some snap shots before their opponent got a chance to shoot. All the players had fun, plus a number of people strolling around the gaming area stopped by to watch or ask questions about the game mechanics.
 

Set up at Prairiecon

Game 2 in progress

Caught in the crossfire

Shoot out at the Blacksmith's shop.

'What a Cowboy!' participants at the end of the game

I certainly enjoyed running the game as it gave me an opportunity to debut all the Western gunslingers I painted up for the last Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. If circumstance allow, I hope to be back next year with a different board layout. Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for Part 2 of my AAR.

AHPC XV Submission #12 - Early WW2 German Kradschützen

 My last submission for this year's AHPC consisted of two squads of German Kradschützen for a total of 28 men on 24 motorcycles or in sidecars for Bolt Action.

Kradschützen, vorwärts!

 These are all 3D prints using STL files purchased from MyMiniFactory of German motorcycle troops either as single bikes or bikes with sidecars. Of the various sources for 3D prints I have seen, I thought these did an excellent job of rendering the Mauser Kar98k rifles and the M35 helmets. Where they fall down a bit is in depicting the standard German ammo pouches, which look more like the German Army flashlight. A few figures even had them positioned where the flashlight was often hung from the Y-straps. There was one figure that had pouches for MP40 magazines (yeah!) but was still equipped with a rifle (boo!). Also the motorbikes don't quite look like either a BMW or a Zündapp, primarily in the position of the muffler.

All the bikes were mounted on popsicle sticks using PVA glue. They were then primed with Vallejo German Panzer Grey Surface Primer using an airbrush. Painting was done primarily using Vallejo acrylics (Army Painter colours indicated by AP) as follows: faces and hands - Flat Flesh; jackets - German Fieldgrey; trousers - AP Uniform Grey; canteen covers - Flat Earth; gas mask canister - Luftwaffe Camo Green; helmets - Charcoal Grey; belts, jackboots, ammo pouches, and bike tires - Black; rifle stocks - Beige Brown; rifle slings - Mahogany Brown; metal weapons parts - German Grey; motorbikes - German Panzer Grey; motorbike seats, and goggle straps - AP Leather Brown. When all was done, the figures got a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone Quick Shade. Once the Quick Shade was dry, the bikes were mounted on bases that are either Warlord Games cavalry bases, or larger ones cut from old plastic restaurant gift cards.

 Thus concludes my painting challenge projects. Thanks for stopping by.

AHPC XV Submission #11 - More Polish 10th Motorized Brigade

 For my penultimate submission for this year's challenge I painted up some more troops for my 10th Polish Motorized Brigade, also known as 'The Black Brigade'. 

10th Polish Motorized Brigade

Ten of the figures are from a box of Warlord Games Polish Infantry Squad in Greatcoats that I bought last July at Historicon. After I got back home I decided I would rather have a fourth squad of Black Brigade motorized troops and did a bit of conversion work, carving away the gas mask bag and replacing it with a German style canister, and swapping out the heads that came with Polish helmets for spare German ones. The M35 helmet doesn't have quite the same profile as the M16 helmet, so I added 'ventilation horns' characteristic of the earlier helmet. 

The remaining 24 figures are 3D prints using an STL from MyMiniFactory of Polish motorcycle troops wearing the black leather coats that gave the formation the nickname of 'The Black Brigade'. I am generally pleased with the look of the prints, but again there are a few niggling errors - the bayonet looks more like a belt knife, being rather small and mounted too high, the profile of the helmet is off at the back, rising much like a Soviet helmet, and two of the figures have 'carrying straps to nowhere', running over the shoulder, but with nothing suspended from them like a haversack or gas mask canister.

All the figures were mounted on 25mm round bases, and some fine sand was added using PVA glue. They were then primed with Vallejo Black Surface Primer using an airbrush. Painting was done using Vallejo acrylics as follows: faces and hands - Flat Flesh; greatcoats and trousers - Green Brown; haversacks and equipment straps - Green Grey; gas mask canister - Luftwaffe Camo Green; helmets - Brown Violet; belts and ammo pouches - Flat Earth; rifle stocks - Beige Brown; rifle slings - Mahogany Brown; leather coats and metal weapons parts - German Grey; jackboots - Black, bayonets - Gungrey. When all was done, the figures got a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone Quick Shade.

Polish motorized infantry squad (front)

Polish motorized infantry squad (side)

Polish motorized infantry squad (back)

Closeup of conversion work (gas mask canister)

Closeup of conversion work (ventilation horns added to helmet)

Polish motorcycle infantry Squad 1 (front)

Polish motorcycle infantry Squad 1 (rear)

Polish motorcycle infantry Squad 2 (front)

Polish motorcycle infantry Squad 2 (side)

 Since getting these troops painted, I acquired another STL from the same designer for motorcycles with sidecars and the field car similar to the Kromlech miniatures I painted up last year, but I haven't got them printed yet. A project for AHPC XVI?

Thanks for stopping by.