Saturday, June 29, 2019

Ardennes'44 Take 2 via Vassal - On to the Eight Turn Scenario

Morning, December 19th


Artillery resupply goes to the 6th Pz Army with a bit trickling through to 7th Army.  Fuel shortages affect the 116th Panzer Division. In the previous edition, being OOS gave a negative combat shift, in the 3rd Edition that I am using for this game the effect is to halve the attack strength.

No attacks by the 7th Army.

The action is with the 5th Pz Army, which is now covering a broad front.

 The 116th Pz out of fuel, but elements of the 1st SS have broken through.

The 6th Pz Army can make only one attack.

Afternoon, December 19th

There has been a significant pause between turns.  Each time I came back to the game I couldn't decide whether the Germans should consolidate or push on.  A bit silly really, they have no option but to push on.

Each German army gets one artillery unit resupplied.  Fuel shortages hit the Pz Lehr (which is now west of the Ourthe River) and the 12th SS (the 1st SS took its fuel).  So much for pushing on...

The Germans currently hold thirteen Victory Locations.  They need fourteen to win the Eight Turn Scenario.  They risk losing St Hubert, so really need to try and capture two.

The German 7th Army makes one attack in the south.

 The spearhead might be low on fuel, but attacks are still going in.
An SS unit was able to capture Aywaille (far right hand side in above image).
There are critical battles in this sector around the Ourthe River.
(Another three victory locations are in play).

On the northern flank things have hotted up.
The 2nd SS Pz Division has arrived and gone straight into the attack.
The 9th SS Pz Division is using strategic movement to head west.
The 3rd Pz Gren Division is also heading west (currently passing through St Vith).

The US airborne forces launch a counter attack against St Hubert.


The US retook St Hubert, but lost another two Victory Locations, giving the eight turn scenario to the Germans.  A close outcome.

A few other things have happened, such as a breakthrough in the north east (bottom right hand corner of the image) and the surrender of the pocket that was tying up a German division (middle bottom of the image).  

Is this enough to propel the Germans to a campaign victory?  

I'll have to play on to find out...

Friday, June 28, 2019

WW2 Indians

Something different.  Not sure which Indian units wore a turban (or if that is the correct word for the headdress), but as they were key fighting troops in North Africa and Italy I wanted some.

 The above image shows what I made up from the basic infantry and HQ packs.

 They painted up simply with most effort going into the flesh tones.

 I am sure I have constructed this weapon wrong.  
The firing mechanism is probably meant to be on the right hand side. 
But they are done now.

I also probably went overboard on the tufts.
But I wanted them to be for Italy as much as the Western Desert.

Paints Used

Undercoat - Tamiya XF64 Red Brown
Trousers - VJ 70921 English Uniform
Webbing - VJ 70884 Stone Grey
Turban - VJ70886 Green Grey
Rifle Stock - VJ70975 Beige Brown
Shirt - VJ70819 Iraqi Sand
Boots, Bayonet Hilt - Jo Sonja's Carbon Black
Flesh - Jo Sonja's Fawn
Rifle Barrel - VJ70863 Gunmetal

Dry brush - VJ70979 Buff
Flesh wash - One of Citadel Shade Nulon Oil (black) or Reikelan Fleashade (brown).  I also used a Citadel Marron ink for some of the figures.

Thursday, June 27, 2019

Athens versus New Kingdom Egyptian

Gathering all the Hoplites I have, with some ringin Macedonians, I took on Dave's Egyptians.  It would be interesting to see how 400 points of pure infantry would perform.

 The enemy.  Lots of missile power and mobility.

 The Athenians with friends.

 End of Turn One and we are advancing.
Skirmishers to the front

 By the end of Turn Two my troops are closing in.
My skirmisher screen has been holding up well.

 Oh no!  My CinC is downgraded,

 Turn Three saw lots of fighting.
I've lost a lot of my skirmishers,
but a lot of damage has been inflicted on my opponents.

 We are grinding forward, the enemy is exhausted,
but my right wing phalanx routs and loses me the game.
(the points working out perfectly to break my army).

We was robbed!

Lessons from the game included that quality commanders add +2 to discipline tests and that exhausted troops can't react.

It was an excellent game with lots of action.

Wednesday, June 26, 2019

Hoplite Reinforcements

My Hellenistic army dates from the middle 1980s and was probably the first serious army I put together (as in being metal, based on an army list, with the expectation of taking it to competitions etc).  The figures are all Tin Soldier and don't really allow for other figure manufacturers to blend in well.  So it goes.  I have a large stockpile and a few years back added more.  So it has grown more than it has shrunk (in part because I've switched from DBA to Impetus and figures I sourced to make DBA armies are not sufficient for Impetus).

Tonight I plan to field my Hoplite army and in making up the list saw I was a few hoplites short so I thought I would paint up a base specifically for Impetus.

 Done!

Thursday, June 20, 2019

Nikephorian Byzantine verus Early Imperial Romans

Today my Byzantines took on Richard's Romans in what was his first game of Impetus Second Edition.  It was a quick game.

 Deployment.
The Romans deployed first which gave me a chance to position my forces to advantage.

 Oh no!
My CinC is downgraded on the first roll.

 End of Turn One.
My massed cavalry are raining down a storm of arrows 
on the exposed Roman cavalry on their right wing.

 By the end of Turn Two, 
the Roman right wing cavalry had been routed,
but their remaining troops are advancing fast.
My cavalry has made a bit of a dent.

 Not again!
My sub-commander gets downgraded.
At least my generals remain reliable.

But by the end of Turn Three it is all over.
My cavalry command was one off from breaking,
but they had done their job.

I'm still learning these rules.  Lesson for today was that cavalry fighting heavy foot is a bit risky, even when delivering a flank attack.  This is because of how the factors affect the Cohesion Test for melee.

I am sure my generals will roll better once I get some proper Byzantine command figures on the table.  


Friday, June 14, 2019

A Walk in the Dead Woods - Third Time Luckyish

The goblins set out to scout the Dead Woods for the third time, but now they have hired Berkley a Q3 C4 Leader (the C4 value because she is armed with a chainsaw).

Mark B took the Goblins, Stephen the Skellies, while I umpired and attempted to control the dog.

The goblins have hired Berkley to lead them in the Dead Woods.  
She seems to be doing a good job at keeping them in line, 
I suppose it is easy when you have a chainsaw to back you up.  
Even the dog is well behaved.

Whoops, perhaps the dog was not so well behaved.  
It soiled the environment angering the local Dryad.

Berkley pushes the Goblins on, quickly scouting the second patch of trees.
The Dryad is out of range at this stage.

Berkley keeps the Goblins moving,
the dog doesn't seem so keen.

The Goblins don't seem so keen either...
However, the third patch of trees is scouted.

Berkley sends them on to the fourth patch of trees...

The dog goes there too, and guess what?  
He digs up some old bones that turn into a Skellie!

The Goblins gang up on the skellie and reduce it to dust,
but the dog has dug up another one.

The goblins battle the new skellie.

Oh no!
More skellies appear and attack Berkley.

The dog is a blur rushing about digging up old bones.
Sadly Berkley is down.

Berkley is dead :-(
Worse, her chainsaw has angered the dryad.

A goblin is transfixed by the dryad and then slaughtered.
But at least the fifth patch of trees has been scouted.

The remaining goblins have defeated the immediate skellies,
but they are deep in the woods...

And that dog keeps digging up bones, 
and dem bones, dem dry bones keeping attacking!

The four Goblins left think it is probably time to go home.
Especially as the Goblin with the red cape is about to meet a gruesome death.

And then there were three.
Flee!

However the sensible Goblin with the club took time out to check the last patch of trees.

The Skellies give chase.

That dog is still digging up bones...

The Goblin fights!

And fights some more...

But dies.
However two Goblins escaped to tell the tale.

I think the days of walking the dog in the Dead Woods are over.

It took awhile for the Skellies to appear and I feared the game was going to be a bit of a fizzer, but at the halfway mark things really started to happen.  Rather than put the minis on their sides, I used markers to show they were knocked down.

What follows are my notes for the scenario.  The table set up was six patches of trees, numbered one to six clockwise.

Dead Woods


The aim is to keep it simple, but provide context.  As such the Goblins are all Q4 C3 and the Skellies Q3 C2.  My justification for the difference in ratings is that the Goblins were carefully scouting the area, but better armed against the more ravenous Skellies and their improvised rusty weapons.

The Goblins, under the ruse of walking their dog, are attempting to scout the wood.  It has six locations and they need to visit each one and then return to complete the mission.

The dog was on random control.  First throw a dice, halve and round up.  That gives the number of dice to throw for activations for the dog.  The dog is Q3, well motivated to sniff out bones...

After throwing the number of generated activation dice and seeing how many pass the Q test, the dog is then moved that many times (which will be between zero and three) in the direction of one patch of trees, based on a dice roll (each location is numbered 1 to 6).  It moves Long.

If the dog comes into contact with a location it will have a sniff to see if it finds any bones.  One dice is thrown and the resultant value used to throw further dice.  For each of these subsequent dice that are equal to or more than the Q value of a Skellie, a Skellie pops up (so zero to six Skellies may appear each time the dog visits a location).

If on its activation roll the dog throws straight 1s, it is considered to have soiled the environment, angering the local Dryad.  A dice is then thrown and the Dryad placed (or moved if already on the table) to the associated location.   The Dryad is a static creature otherwise and is Q3.  She will attempt to Transfix any Goblins within Long to her.  Throw three dice per Goblin in range.  For each success that Goblin has to pass a Q test to avoid being transfixed. Any attack against a transfixed Goblin receives a plus 2 combat modifier and any successful attack is lethal.  A Goblin needs two successes to break free.

Leader (p32).  


The leader hired by the Goblins is Berkley, Q3 C4.  She increases all Quality rolls by one for Goblins within one Long.  For the cost of one action she can perform a Group move (p40) for Goblins that are adjacent to each other or a regroup to move all Goblins within one Long back together. If Berkley rolls only one successful action, she cannot use it to perform a group move.

Whenever Berkley is used in Combat she will anger the Dryad (who doesn’t care for chainsaws).  Berkley is immune to the Dryad.