"dog-sniffing", WaT, Early WW2 winter tank action

As mentioned in the previous post, my Early War 1941 winter Eastern Front “What a Tanker” game that evening had four players (including myself) with a very simple “us v them” shootout.

My t-26 in the foreground running from the German looking to shoot 'up my butt'

A PZIII and PZII against a T-34 and T-26. The night’s dice were fickle indeed as the one necessary die to complete the desired activity - usually shooting of course - failed to occur.  Everyone was affected. But for me, the rather exasperating failure to do anything useful from a full set of dice only happened once, so that was good.  And I got a kill, taking out the PZII with one shot. Rare indeed.  It was early in the night, so I had the defeated player bring on a PZ35 (a rather better tank and game equivalent to a PZIII.  I spend the rest of the game trying to avoid it!  All the while looking to see if the other German had a shot at me!

"dog-sniffing" In the background the German is chasing my t-26, while in the foreground, the partially-whitewashed t-34 is ready to shoot at the rear of the heavily camouflaged PzIII.  ED NOTE: This was only part-way through the battle; this would continue for quite some time.  Weird game indeed.

The game tended to resemble a “tail sniffing at a dog park” as one wit suggested, during which we circled around the snow-covered burnt-out buildings looking to shoot each other up the tail pipe (the weakest armour point) However throughout the night each of us would fail dramatically to get the relatively easily achievable 3+ on the dice, and roll lots of 1s and 2s instead. Ce la guerre!

 

40K Battle of the Comm-Tower

ChrisO having run a game of the Lord of the Rings the month before (the poor boy can only afford the time for one game during a month with work, wife and kids and their sports) converted Warhammer 40K stats to that for a favourite LotR rules so to have a go with our old 'veteran' 40K troops — four of us providing the troops not having brought out these guys for some 20+ years!

the defences with my Russian looking Valhallans (the effort was deliberate!) ready -but the dice not willing - to shoot up the oncoming Space Marines

Interesting scenario but, as usual, the dice rolling made things a bit one-sided as the Imperial Guard ‘patrols’ were not as effective,  not allowing the defenders of the communications tower to start shooting earlier and not having our reserves did not enter at an earlier turn;  and that, due to poor dice rolling (especially by me… as usual…) we could not hurt the oncoming Space Marines.   [Yes, it was a  40K “good vs. good” engagement.]

my depleted numbers vs 'the monster tin-can" ( photo by ChrisO )

the comm-tower to defend

I was happy to get my Valhallans (Russian looking chaps) on the table together with the slightly more recently painted plastic Cadians who I made into futuristic-ultra-modern  “United Nations Peacekeeping Force”  by scraping off all the Imperial Eagle logos and painting the armour bits in bright blue over camouflage uniforms. ( you can see them in the photo above ).  Can’t take this 40K stuff too seriously…….

my squad of dismounted tankers

LotR bash - Fight for the temple

I am not a Lord of the Rings type of follower. I do not have any of the figures or such (the ones in this game are from a group effort using the Game Workshop minis).   The fellows at the game almost kicked me out upon my declaration that I have not seen any of the films…. However, a tabletop miniatures battle is a universal thing and so I was not out of my element.  I took a bunch of orcs, some with bow - who I subsequently demoted to mere warriors upon their distinct lack of hitting/killing anything!

The main target was the temple building which was defended by ChrisO and his Gondor heavy armour chaps who I wore down until Kev’s goblins could swarm up the walls and, ahem, overwhelm the defenders. It came to the last turn and the ‘end of the game’ roll which came just before the collapse of both sides (depending upon morale tests) as both sides were on their very last legs. All very nail-biting....

Of particular note was the newly painted Ent (a living, moving and fighting tree) who, while falling to the efforts of two trolls, did last much longer than expected - being fresh to the tabletop and all…

WaT battle of a nameless town

Another all-tank battle in the frozen depths of the Russian winter of 1941….

We had four players with the Russian players, DaveMcN of course taking, what he believes to be the best of the Soviet tanks available, in the T-34;  and his comrade Francis taking two of the T-26 (points equalling any other tank).  The “CocaCola” Dave and myself taking a Pzkw III and Pz38t respectively.

A humous point of the game having (the usually Russian-playing) me wanting to fire upon the Pzkw III as ‘C-C’ Dave had driven his tank around the far side of the houses to face Soviet Dave who (through my misinterpretation of the rules) was able to drive his T-34 across the table and now also facing the ‘wrong’ direction.  Even with a flank shot that I could not get many shots in. The bad, bad and few dice!  Francis scurrying along walls like a rat skillfully moving his tanks along the buildings  now saw he could position his little beasts to shoot the Pzkw III up the a*s (always a beneficial tactic in tank warfare) and also shoot my Pz38t in the flank (a still useful tactic) thus pounding both of German vehicles to submission.

Showing the t-34 (left foreground) facing off with the Pzkw III (this side of the house) both facing in the 'wrong direction'. My Pz 38t on the right and the two T-26s in the background.

The game was unique in that all the combatants were to be within an 18” radius of each other by the end of the game.  Rather more entertaining than the “find a hiding spot a shoot at long range” approach….

all the combatants within close range of each other!

Sengoku battle

Fictional Battle of Zenrokkumura

Oh, this is but one of the multitude of minor squabbles occurring during the Sengoku period of Japanese history - the time of the classic Samurai we all know and game.

Having no idea who will show at host’s Francis’ place, the scenario has to be, well, ‘loose’ to allow for various number of players.  I deployed a triad of forces, with small one in the village to protect the sacred ‘Zen White Stone’ , the other equally matched forces on each side.

The village defended by the Oyamada.  The Zen white rock with stool in the center. Peasants to the left, Samurai at lower right.  

Being a Lion Rampant game, it is hard to describe the action but the Okurdaira and the Takeda aimed for each other while controlling the Oyamada protecting the village I sought to stay out of the fight only entering once one side was weakened thus being on the winning end ( much like Stanley at Bosworth Field )

The mass of Takeda early in the game.  I ignore the 3" rule....obviously.

But like any plan, it went for nought, as while Rene left my Samurai alone as he moved against DaveS’ and Kev’s red and white flagged Okurdaira,  his compatriot Francis promptly charged my Oyamada samurai and lost the combat.  “They are samurai?!” Francis exclaimed in his defence,  “I thought they were peasants. Aren’t peasants easy to kill?”

The Takeda mounted Samurai (Kingsford Miniatures)

Okudaira army advances ( the red/white sashimono was a common theme for several clans it would appear)

However with that, I decided to help the Okurdaira but as I came out of the village DaveS and his Okurdaira teppo (handgunners) then shot at me “They were the nearest and best target!” he would say.  You do get the idea that these players do not care a wit about strategy and just want “to throw dice and kill things”

I retreated but to the village to let them sort it out, which, after quite the bloodbath, the Takeda with their black flags, won the attrition battle.

"Is this not the same village, Francois?"

...."Ah, all these Russian villages look the same in this d*amned snow!"

photos from a replay of my Retreat from Moscow game on Monday night

bands of angry Russian peasants

Escort Duty

1815 era Dutch-Belgians playing on the French side!  (my plastic conversions)

Surprised no one wondered why cuirassiers, hussars and all manner of horsemen were tasked to escort wagons but such are questions best unspoken when a scenario must be designed with only a vague idea of the number of players coming.  However the “escort the wagons” is always a good option for any era.  As the game was another “pley-test” of  “Hussar Rampant” it was all horse using every painted unit available, both my French and Dutch-Belgians and WiilB’s borrowed Russians and French Dragoons, giving the 8 players three units each.  This was to be the largest of the games so far at 24 units on the table.

Chasseurs on escort duty

Also testing the rules was the utter mess of deployment,  with the French escorting the wagons and  units helping from the town and against Russian forces coming in from all angles from the random diced approaches which inevitably creates a bit of chaotic action.  However if this confusion still has the rules working despite unique or challenging situations, then it might survive any test.

The usual combats in all directions.  In this case, all cuirassier action!

So it was that the game had the wagons almost within range of the town and causing some of the Russian players bemoan the task unaware however that at 8+ activation, the wagons would be hard to move along.  DaveMc wanted the cossacks  in order to burn and loot (and not just capture) and surprisingly used them ‘cossackian’ style avoiding most contacts but as their real-life counterparts, were a quite the nuisance.  The cuirassiers both Russian, under the able command of ChrisO, and French ones, were hard to kill, and the lancers with their ”pointy-stick” bonus had a big punch.  The lights and hussars, with greater movement rates, could dance around ( or should!).

units are standardized 6 figure units

Russian overhead perspective with ChrisO's view of the battle

The wagons, safe for a while, but with French losses and little movement, they inevitability were captured or in one case, burnt by cossacks.      

This, and the following pic, shows an interesting combat three of my Dutch-Belgian units against one Russian cuirassier formation. As usual, my dice again profoundly fail me and the armoured Russians prevail...... !!   

A 'Tripe'-ful Sad

DaveMc likes his WW1 air game so again hosted for the Monday Night group.
 "Do we want a scenario?" he asks.  "What is the point?", I suggest, "Everyone always ignores it and just chases each other."  Nods of heads all around.
"Shoot'em-up it is", he agrees.

The early selectors had German planes for this 'Late War' game, so I used my British Sopwith Triplane, the "Tripe", and after looking at the stats and flight characteristics, is a very unimpressive plane. Only one machine gun, few maneuvers and slow. Certainly not late war material. Perhaps I should have used my Pup!  But heck, I did recently build it so I might as well fly it.

My new Sopwith Triplane  fuzzy in the foreground, while Snoopy flying a Sopwith Camel, is looking for targets. (Snoopy was a McDonald's toy provided to me a long time ago by ChrisO and he wanted to fly him once again. I built a doghouse painted appropriately around it)

My game highlights: I had a shot against ace PierreS. Whoo-ho. But with one gun and a roll of a 1...so not too much to report....

And I did get shot down. Again.  While, yes, the coup-de-gras was a few bullets during that fateful turn, most of my damage came from a collision from a British (!) plane flown by FrancisM, who after entering my airspace (read: hex) with a fancy maneuver (I was flying straight mind you) decided to roll a double 1s for the chance of the collision.  Well, as my fellow gamers know, as well as my regular readers,  I ALWAYS roll 1s.  And double 1s, while supposedly statistically rare, are quite common for me.  So, of course, I rolled them and wails of laughter burst forth.  I then rolled a nice and low 1 for HIS damage.  He did not kindly do the same for me.  After checking off my damage, the German plane then had his go at me.  My tail was shot off.  Sigh.
New plane, same result.

a couple of pictures from the game

Been a while...

While I blog only to keep a record of my wargaming activities, I am aware that, to my utter astonishment to be honest, that people follow said activities.  OK, I do try to make the entries somewhat interesting and write in a style, I hope, which are entertaining to read - if only for myself.
The long span in between has been a result of a computer problem, now fixed, and a dearth of anything to write about.  Personally I find this distressing as my hobby is an important part of my activities regardless of its priorities in life.  Or in other words, I rather paint than mow the lawn.  However, being also a rational man (I think so?) I must do the latter before the former.  That being the case, work and life has prevented me from much in the way of hobby activity.  Thus the dearth of posts.
However, last night, I participated in a "Dragon Rampant" game.  Regular readers will no doubt be aware of my current love of the Dan Mersey series of "Rampant" rules having resurrected many of my dormant collections to feasible "armies" of the tabletop.  While I know the basics of the game, the fantasy troop types are beyond my comprehension and so I had a tough time trying to decide "is it better to attack that unit or this one?" or "how tough are those things?"
But the system is fun, if not frustrating if you can't activate, or in my case often, throw my 12 die to get only one hit etc.(the majority of rolls being of the 1 or 2 category!)  But quick and entertaining.  Which is the point.

As I did not bring a camera ( I am that out of practice!) I had the GM forward a couple of shots
ChrisO's figures.  Very well painted I might add.

Katana Rampant reprise

Katana Rampant - Lion Rampant with hand gun addition

Whoa, after three days of a wargaming convention I host another game with FrancisM’s boys the next day on Monday to make it four games in four days.

The scenario is a simple one with the Takeda having captured the personal standard of Okudaira Sadamasa who wants it back. (I didn't want to repack so simply used the same as I did on Friday!)

I use the stand of musicians and the standard bearer which I painted but which have no real use within the rules, into the scenario along with the new raw bamboo mantles which gave the protectors of the captured flag some defences.

The game was an introduction of Lion Rampant to the group who were ‘amused’ by the activation - or lack thereof - of the many units and the dice luck - or not - by others.

In particular was the continual activation of his teppo by FrancisM - usually a difficult proposition by the slow firing hand-gunners - yet his total inability to hit with them!  In five straight rolls with six dice each,  he was unable to roll a 6 and thus unable to gain a single hit with 30 dice!  His target was another arquebus unit but in this case ChrisO was unable to actually activate his unit to fire at all!

But, yes, some fighting did occur.  Including when I bravely (foolishly) ran out some peasants out of a house where they were hiding. This was to give them the idea how bad troops play against good troops within the rules.
 The Takeda commander of the nearest unit assumed they were hostile and immediately ordered bowshot into them.  I asked if he knew if the peasants were hostile or friendly as indeed I did not say one way or another as I simply moved it from the building. Somewhat taken aback “CokeDave” fired nevertheless.  The peasants charged in, and then ran away…..

the Japanese peasants "come out to play"

Napoleonic skirmish (Flintloque-ish)

Hosted a “Napoleonic Skirmish” game using my old collection of 40mm-ish Flintloque figures; fantasy figures of the Napoleonic era and loosely based upon -originally- the ‘Sharpe’ series of historical fiction novels by Bernard Cornwell.  But now it has expanded to included toads, dogs, undead and other such creatures.
Years ago a local fellow was a major distributor who wanted some painted which I did in exchange for some of the figures.  I went about divesting the Orcs (their British types) of the tusks, the Elves (their French “Franche”) of pointy ears, and gathered together different historical units of Bog Orcs (their Irish) for a collection geared for the Peninsular War in Spain.
I tried to keep it roughly historical; the uniforms are as close as the sculpting allows.

Units are all the same size, no national characteristics, all fight the same.  And no 'morale'; all continue to move along happily until 'dead'.  Simplicity reduces the necessity of the number of rules to remember quite a bit I found.  Thus rules are homemade and simple…real simple…for a convention setting you understand.
The kinda rules that have 6’s and 1’s hit regardless.  Why the “and 1s” you ask?  I seem only to roll 1’s and I want to have hits too!  Actions by the highest card played by each of the players.  Combat conducted with the highest dice rolled.  That sort of rules in play.  A five year old should certainly understand it, so it hopefully should work well enough at the local wargames club for a pick-up game……

the version of "Sweet William" and the 60th

the French Grenadiers

The French howitzer.   A 40mm Perry gun; which gives you some perspective on the scale of the figures.

My whole collection, with each unit of 10 figures. British and Allies to the left, French and Allies in the middle, and Spanish to the right.  

photos from the game:

the version of the French Imperial Guard Fusiliers-Chasseurs (front) and Fusiliers-Grenadiers (rear)
Were these in Spain?  Don't know or care, but the uniforms matched the figures!

Spanish Walloon Regiment (the uniforms seem near enough)

British Light Infantry.  Sculpts with short legs, big hands, big heads!  Lots of character nonetheless....

The game itself?  Well ....I was massacred. Enough said.  :)

WW1 air game...shot down again...

I like airgames but my piloting skill, frankly, is poor.   My luck also is in short supply.

Case in point.  I am flying around in my new SPAD which I bought.  There were two of us Frenchies vs three Boche.  Should be enough, oui?  No one was getting much success and most of the game was just flying around.  Yeah OK I did get early hits putting "DaveCoke"'s plane on fire - but he put it out.  Everyone was still in the fight. But later, DaveMc, my wing man, decided his damage was too much and scarpered.  The very next turn I ended up in the sights of ALL three German planes!

I was shot down.
Again.
Like always.
Sigh.

Napoleonic Poles vs British?? 15mm fictional battle

Can't resist playing in any Napoleonics game... actually, any miniatures game.  Monday's affair was set up with a nice map for each side and even off-table troops!  Francis brought out the Poles - all of whom I painted and subsequently sold to him last year and his British - some of which I also painted - to defend a hill position.

My old Old Glory 15mm Polish.  The white clad units are the Polish 13th Infantry Regiment who were distinctive from the dark blue uniformed units of the rest of the infantry.  Staring at this photo I realized perhaps why I sold these as the poses are rather strange, looking as they are of running into hurricane strength winds?  

With Kev holding the right flank, our plan was simple as we had the defend orders. I plunked down on the hill and awaited the inevitable charge up the gut by DaveMc., while Kev had to deal with Francis' onslaught.

Francis lining up artillery fire on Kev's British.  My position is in the foreground with the red coat Marines on the hill.

With woods covering my left and centre, with a skirmish unit within to act as a tripwire, I deployed my artillery in front of the hill knowing DaveMc will aim right at them and so soften him up.  Kev had the same idea and so we lobbed shot after shot/dice into the mass of Dave's Poles and rolled very poorly.  Not one shot hit!   Not one.

The loyal allies of Napoleon then overran my artillery - not that I cared at that point as they could not hit anything anyway so no big loss! ~grin~.  However my steady British Marines stopped their advance with a volley and counter-attack throwing them off the hill.  The units of my left then formed columns to quickly swing inward to complete the disintegration of DaveMc's division.

The Poles charging to be repulsed by the steady (from the dice anyway) Marines.  All these 15mm were painted by me and in Francis' collection.

Meanwhile, Kev had to defend against Francis who is a very experienced Shako2 rules player and who gained the reinforcement of the Polish light horse brigade from off-table.  With Kev rolling rather poorly overall, outnumbered and hit in front and flank, his division collapsed.  However as I would have time to establish a defensive posture in time to meet Francis's forces, the British were given the victory.

The right flank action

Shako2 is very much a tactical game with only an overlay of grand-tactical effect (a simple divisional "arrows" indicating direction of attack).  However it does this rather well with easy to remember modifiers.

Good to see my old 15mm boys in action

A"stagger" marker.  Each nation has their own in a "national" regimental flag

"Flintloque" type-ish Napoleonic skirmish game

A long time ago a local distributor brought in Alternative Armies 'Flintloque' fantasy Napoleonic-based figures which are very loosely scaled at about 35mm or so.
They are full of outrageous character and so I took the less fantasy (no Toads or Dogs for me) and trimmed the orc tusks and elf ears so they are now roughly human in design and organized them into recognizable historical unit - or as close as possible.

British Light Infantry 

Neapolitan 8th Line Regiment.  The standard finial is a 6mm horse!  The huge out of scale proportions are part of the charm of these big boys.....  The mules are from another undetermined source.  I considered them too large for 28mm but appropriately sized for this.  I added a plastic barrel to one and a lot of 'green stuff' to the other using soft wire to bind the bags in a very haphazard way.  

They have been stored away for some time (read: years!) but a couple of months ago I brought out the remaining few units and completed the collections, now numbering 200 or so.  Yesterday was the test of the new and very simple rules developed over some time (read: minutes!) I used as much random selection of table position, unit selection, scenario task and to keep it as even as possible because the usual Monday Night guys like to whine about everything!

Spanish infantry in late war dress being moved.

Other than a couple of minor changes, the rules I made up which are all of 2 pages long (!) were generally accepted and thought to do the trick for a fun convention game.

Later in the game, the Spanish are running...OK, then,....advancing, to gain their side of the table to complete their scenario task.

The miscellaneous figures I collected have become the guerrillas, enemy to French and British alike!

As an example of the play, playing cards selected poker style by each player dictates who has first action during a phase.  Doug's Handy Card System has the player select one of the cards dealt to him with Diamonds bettering Hearts bettering Clubs bettering Spades with ace high.  With the better card each player in turn can perform an action - shoot, reload, move etc.  The shooting is a hit with a good die and flip a card.  Face card = killed.  No wounds. Hand to hand combat is similar.  Points are given for the random scenario objective a player was given and for any kills he achieved.  That's about it actually.

The Chasseurs-Tirailleurs of the Young Guard continue to dig in the graveyard for the gold....

I am hoping for more players next time which should make the action even more wooly.....