A Little PTO

 

Marines land on a godforsaken island somewhere in the Pacific.

The view up the beach.

Maries take cover at the log wall (I forget what they are called)

The beloved company commander hits the beach.

Losses are heavy but a platoon, or what's left of it, manages eliminate the enemy protecting the bunker's flank.

It's not going well for the Marines over all though.

The PL and a single squad assault the bunker.

And capture it!

Is the tide turning?

The Marines consolidate and roll up the Japanese positions.

The Marines on the beach are still taking a hammering.

The Japanese mortar crew retreats to the bunker - the Marines are coming!

The Marines mass and assault the remaining bunker on this stretch of the landing zone.

We interrupt this game report to share with you the pitiful die rolls each side made for their close combat. The 1 is the Marines. The only saving grace is they get bonuses for the PL, CC, and more than one squad.

The bunker is captured! This sector is secured!

Rules used were my own - a combination of Crossfire, Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit, and The Portable Wargame.

The turn sequence is as follows:

Side A Phase 

1. Side A Rally
2. Side A Prep Fire
3. Side A Move - except those who Prep Fired including reinforcements arrival.
4. Side B Defensive fire
5. Side A Advancing Fire - fire with penalty, and only those units who did not fire in Prep Fire
6. Side A Assault Move 
7. Resolve Close Combat

Repeat, sides reversed for Side B phase.

I've been messing around with these for a few weeks now, and I think they are usable as is, although I'm sure I will tweak them (and add armor eventually). My plan is to use them for a fictional Pacific Island assault. Possibly using The Isle of Dread (D&D module X1) as the island in question.

The thing I'm most happy with is the way movement and Defensive Fire work to mimic overwatch/opportunity fire without having to simultaneously play both sides. Since I play solitaire, I don't like having to keep an eye out of Opportunity Fire for the other side. All movement is one grid space and allowing units to move 1 space, then defensive fire, and then eventually move one more space means the effect is the same as overwatch/etc., but I don't have to switch back and forth between the sides while I move a unit.

I've played this scenario several times - the USMC wins most times, but at a high cost, which seems right. In this case, they lost over half of their rifle squads.

For this game, I set a 12 turn limit and the game ended on turn 10.  The Japanese had a platoon of three  rifle squads, a knee mortar squad, and a Platoon Leader. They also had two MGs in bunkers. The USMC had a company consisting of three rifle platoons (and their PLs), and a company commander. The heavy weapons teams were ignored and assumed to be functioning as riflemen in the CCs squad. I probably could have rolled them up into an extra single rifle squad (figuring some of the men are carrying mortars and MGs and can't fire their rifle, only run) on the table and might do that next time.

It really looked like the Marines were going to be slaughtered before they got off the beach, but that's why you never give up on the Marines!

Weird World War I : Are You Afraid of the Dark?

 Western Front.

A French patrol crosses No-Man's Land on a moonlit night to investigate a suddenly silent section of German trench

 

 

 

They meet no resistance on entering. No signs of anyone.

Cautiously, they navigate the twists and turns of the trench, ever watchful for ambush.

A private expresses his disdain for this mission to the officer, who himself would rather not be there.

Meanwhile the others, unaware that they were just two, continued to advance.

Out of the darkness, a terrifying roar bellows from a hideous visage. Intent on satisfying its blood lust, it leaps upon the poor soldiers.

The other's race to catch up to their comrades and join the fight against the terror from the shadows.

The fight was over before it began.

*****

As those photos were taken this morning, the atmosphere is somewhat lost - here are some photos of the infantry that I took last night by kitchen light

I am pleased with the results - actually I can't believe I painted them. They have the look for this kind of game that I wanted them to have.

The "trench" is a proof of concept, literally slapped together while I waited for the figure bases to dry. Materials used: a cardboard box, a thick card mailer, a bamboo skewer, paint. I didn't measure anything and it shows, but I like the look none the less.

Uniform Upgrade Mod

As I zero in on collections that work for me, I have been reviewing and thinning the herd quite a bit. While doing so, I realized that the plastic WWII figures I am keeping really needed a sprucing up. 

Many of them had never been sealed and dozens of games over the last decade had taken their toll. Plus there was some noticeably sloppy paint work. 

Finally, since some of the colors have ceased to work for me aesthetically, I decided to give them an update, too.

To see what they looked like before, here's an example.

Up first, the Germans:

If you've followed me for any length of time, or looked at the link above, you may recall that they previously had light grey trousers. I decided to go full on feld grau to better match my Britains and 21str Century pre-paints. 

It feels like I got a whole new army!

You may also notice that these are primarily Matchbox, supplemented with a few Classic Toy Soldiers figures. As much as I love the Airfix poses, I am reducing all of my forces for 1/32 WWII to 20 figures or less - the Germans have two Britains and four 21st centruy in addition to what is here. 

The Matchbox Germans were the first set of 1/32 WWII figures I got when I started wargaming.

The Americans never had as many plastic troops, as I have quite a few Britains "Big Red One" figures. 

Originally, I had tried to match the Britains color - which is close to Vallejo Middlestone - for the webbing but it was never satisfactory. I did some digging around online, and went with Vallejo Grey Green (it's the same color as my WWI Italians) and I much prefer it.

If I keep my Britain's weapon teams, they'll look noticeably different -I guess I could paint them to match the plastic figs? Or I can sell them and use the TSSD crew figures supplemented with some Classic Toy Solider crew figures.

I also painted the helmets with Vallejo Brown Violet rather than Olive Drab (I believe I had previously used Jo-Anns Olive Drab. It took like a dozen coats to become opaque) and the khaki jackets with Vallejo German Camo Beige (ironically). 

These are subtle changes but do make them more "correct" to my eyes.

A few of the Americans were given later war US Green jackets or trousers to reflect that newer troops often had the green while veteran troops had a ramshackle combination.

You may also have noticed the Americans don't have bases while the Germans do. The TSSD figures have tall integral bases and this way the Matchbox figures are much closer in height.

Hopefully, now that they are all sealed (with Mod Podge), they'll hold up for at least another decade.

The Weston Brits will be on their way into the queue, once I find the right colors - I have three Britains British WWII infantry figures (my first metal 1/32 figures) to at least try to match with them.

In the meantime, I've got 1/72 rebasing, tanks to paint, 1/35 French WWI to finish, some fantasy figures, and who knows what else.

French Army Receives Boost as New Armor Arrives at the Front Line

I mentioned, in a comment on my most recent minifig post, that I had acquired a French Renault FT 17. 

The assembly was a bit more complicated than the L3, in part because the instructions were only a step or two above Ikea in clarity. Both vehicles used the familiar Lego-like pictures-only instructions, but the FT instructions seemed to leave things out or were less obvious in their meaning.

Or that could just be me.

In any case, here is the pride of the French Army of the Alps:

Admittedly, a Char B1 would be a bit more worthy of pride, but then the Italians would be unable to counter any French assault.

I'm not sure what scale the FT is - I know the one from COBI is billed as 1/32. I think this one is closer to 1/50. I could measure it and then compare to the actual size, but the tape measure is so far away.

This model (I don't know who makes it) came from BrickAction, an Etsy seller and also creator of their own brick-centric wargaming rules. I haven't tried the rules yet, so I can offer no comment on them. As for BrickAction itself, they are friendly, ship fast, and have great customer service.

As a bonus, BrickAction packages this tank with two French infantry.

That they are wearing Horizon Blue is a bit odd for my uses (the FT 17 was in use in WWI in 1918, which probably explains the uniform choice) , but I'm just going to say they are wearing leftover NOS uniforms from WWI. 

They'll be used to crew either a mortar or machine-gun as needed. I just need to raid my son's minifigure bin for a suitable tripod mounted MG.

More games!

This weekend featured quite a lot of gaming again, but almost entirely D&D, so there are no pictures.

For your viewing pleasure, here are photos for one of last weekend's many games:

How it started ...

How it was going ...

How it ended.

I thought the greater firepower for the Russians would offset the numerical disadvantage. 

I was wrong.

Rules used were G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T.

This was the last game for the Cossacks. They are heading to Canada. The Imperial Russians are heading to a new home near me.

 ***

The D&D campaign we started on our vacation, continues. Although school started back up on the 1st, it's barely put a dent in our gaming.

Indeed, I haven't played this much D&D since I was a kid.

My son asks to play almost every day - so much so, that we've churned through almost everything I prepped in advance. And, having little to no time between sessions, I had to call last night's session short.I felt like the quality of my DMing was dropping rapidly. 

I've been using a couple of sample dungeons (Holmes and the one in the Swords & Wizardry quick start, both of which I've run many times before), and some of the many freely available one-page dungeons for this megadungeon - reskinned to connect them thematically. However, we have gone past what I reskinned, and I was having to do that on the fly.  While I can improvise easily with an unkeyed map, I can't help but feel compelled to refer to the key when one exists. That led to disjointed play with me flipping back and forth between pages.

I'll spend some time tonight finding or creating some unkeyed maps, make a quick list of what occupies the level and generate contents on the fly so we can play unhindered again. I don't need detailed descriptions of room contents to run a game, I just need to know in advance the relationships between the entities on that level and their relationships with entities on other levels.

I'm a big fan of dungeon economies (which gives PC's an access point to gold without having to fight, if they can find a way to become a part of it) and preparing relationships between factions that the party can get involved with. The latter produces emergent story, and that's my preference - rather than a particular plot (the only hook for this campaign is the PCs are seeking fame and fortune), I like the players to decide what matters to them, and for the game world to react to their actions.

We are using the Moldvay/Cook Basic/Expert rules (I was in 6th grade when I got them. He's in 7th now.), supplemented with some OSR-created products, including the Labyrinth Lord Advanced Edition Companion and some new classes.

So far, it's working like a charm.

 **** 

We played Blitz Bowl together this weekend and he had a great time. That he trounced me by 11 points might have something to do with it. I'm not bitter - he made a great use of one of the bonus play cards to score the winning touchdown - but I demand a rematch! 

It also made me want to get paints for the Nurgle team but there's a bunch of stuff in the paint queue currently.

In related news, my son has expressed interest in possibly playing 40K (he's met some kids at school who play). My wallet weeped a little, but I do like a lot of the figures.

We primed some of fantasy figures from my Pile of Plastic this weekend and one of his sci-fi looking "army men" and we'll do some painting sessions, so he can find out if it's something he likes enough that he'd want to paint up an entire force (Kill Team only requires 10 figures per side, so that sounds like the best entry point to me).

His birthday is coming soon, and I would be happy to buy him a 40K starter set(he likes the set with 5 marines and a bunch of Tyranids), or a box of figures and paints, if that's what he wants.

Italian Army Crosses the Alps!

France. June, 1940.

Elements of the Italian army actually made it past some of the French defenses - a platoon with L3 support is advancing to capture a small village.

French infantry are heading to the scene to stop them.

The sides race for positions.

The Italians make use of cover to protect their advance. The tankette however decides to chug along in the open. Not because of its superior armor - it's not especially renowned for its thickness - but its pilot's bravado demands nothing less. He has had exactly 1 day of training on the L3, which is more training than most. Also, his L3 is still running which is a miracle in itself.

French squad with LMG stakes out a place in the woods.

And the LMG draws first blood!

The French mortar had a mildly successful day dropping rounds on unsuspecting Italians. However, it wasn't enough to slow them down.

The tankette sat for awhile once the pilot realized getting close to infantry without support might be a bad idea. Instead he unloaded double HMGs at the French in the fields, to horrific effect.

From this angle the L3 looks menacing, despite actually being super cute - dual machine guns tearing up the French squad excepted.

Throwing caution to the wind, drunk on his own success, the Italian pilot mashes the accelerator (or however these things worked) full speed ahead. This exposes him to a state-of-the-art French anti-tank grenade delivery system. It's a tense moment.

If you look closely, you can see how it went. There's a downside to leaving cover even if it's to do something arguably heroic.

The tankette sped off the table. The remaining French from the squad in the field and the mortar were unable to act before it did so. This was one of the Italian objectives accomplished, by a very gamey maneuver might I add.

"Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!"

The last French survivor (an NCO) and the mortar itself were captured. The fellow with the scared expression, front row, right, has just realized that the mortar crew had spiked the mortar with a grenade, which is about to go off.

A few things of note:

I once again used the venerable, and free, One Brain-Cell Toy Soldier Rules,with the advanced options for wounds, the advanced turn sequence, and a house rule for AT grenades. 

While other, more serious, games may have greater depth, these rules manage to"feel right",  if you try to use proper WW2 tactics (at least to my imperfect understanding of what that means). As I'm probably on the "Pulp WW2" end of "feels right", take that as you will.

Play time was maybe an hour or so?

I like how the minifigures look with my regular terrain and scenic items. It reminds me of playing with toys with my son when he was little. 

Speaking of scenic items - the two buildings were probably made around a decade ago and have served me well since. Foamboard / Foamcore is solid stuff.

Oh and no one has asked, but the mortar can fire if you put a spring in it (sometimes it comes with one, sometimes it doesn't - this one did not, but I have a suitable spring from a Lego-type cannon).

The French FT should be arriving soon - USPS says it's in TN on the tracking site, but we got an email saying it would be here today. So, who knows?

Weekend Report

For reasons I cannot discern for the life of me, I had time to play a lot of games this weekend: five, to be precise, and that's not including the multiple multi-hour sessions of D&D played with my son.

This embarrassment of riches raises an interesting question: "How many should I include in one post?"

I think we can all agree this is a first world problem, as the kids used to say.

After much thought (about 11 seconds), I realized that I don't know when I'm playing next, so I'm going to milk these games for all they are worth!

Rather than chronological order, I'm going to start with the game that accomplished something beyond game itself. It was the last game of the weekend.

 The first "game changer" (pardon me while I laugh hysterically at my own joke) is that I painted the grid you see below. I have long coveted the cream and green chess board featured in some of Bob Cordery's early grid game reports. This is my homage and budget solution - craft paints and kraft paper.

The squares are 4" and the whole thing is 24" square (which is a 6x6 grid. I only mention that for those ,who like me, majored in liberal arts and only took math because they had to). I have used a 6x6 grid with 6" spaces many many times, and while I wouldn't mind a slightly wider battlefield so flanks could mean something, I like that this 24" "board" fits on the table next to my laptop. 

As for flanks, I may borrow a page from the 3x3 Portable Wargame rules and have flanks take place off-grid.

The scenario is Take the High Ground from One Hour Wargames.The rules used were The Portable Wargame, using the two-hits option, and filtered through my memory as I couldn't be bothered to re-read them.

In my defense, I was too excited about my new painted grid.

For reasons I don't comprehend, I see the infantry as two-figure companies. The cavalry as squadrons and the gun as a battery.

 

The other notable impact of this game was that it confirmed my opinions that 1) an ahistorical 19th Century France vs England game is fun and colorful (or is that colourful?) and 2) Two large figures in a smallish grid-space gives exactly the kind of aesthetic I want in a grid game. 

I should add, as it is relevant, that I am a minimalist at heart. Or at least, I don't like having a lot of stuff. I dislike clutter (at least when it comes to storage and wargames tables. I believe when you're creating something, like painting miniatures or writing as song, take up all the space you need with all of the things). 

There's this notion of "the silent to-do list" that I find an apt metaphor. Things that I'm not using weigh on me.

Because I want to free up some storage space and Russia is slated for the chopping block for various reasons, I wanted to make sure I could still have a 19th Century European battle when desired - particularly as part of my Antarctica Lost World (if you missed those posts, it replaces Venus).

Huzzah! No need to keep the Russians or even the unit of khaki British infantry (I'm reducing the Europeans to three units plus a leader, supplemented by heroic civilian characters, often the heart of VSF gaming write-ups).

As for the aesthetics, that's a personal matter (at least in popular parlance. when i was a senior philosophy major and a grad student in philosophy, i would have been happy to argue otherwise), but as I mentioned, it's exactly the look I was going for. 

I'm tempted to try it with WWII figures, but a I tend to equate two figures with a squad. It's a me thing.

The French arrive. The battle is joined. I honestly don't recall who won.