D-Day Game

On Friday evening, after our regular walk to the convenience store for too many snacks, I said to my son,  "Tomorrow is June 6th". To which he replied "We need to watch a movie!" He suggested The Longest Day which I was more than happy to agree to. As it turned out, getting him away from video games with his friends was impossible - and that was OK, he should interact with them.

In the meantime, though,  I cobbled together a makeshift 4' square table from four plastic drawer units and two 2' x 4' panels and set out a variation of ""Bluff at Easy Green" from Skirmish Campaigns : Heroes of Omaha and Panzer Lehr".  I no longer have the book, but an old blog post gave me enough to go on.

I had considered doing it with my unpainted 1/32 WWII figures in order to field 5-7 figure squads, but in order to possibly entice my son to join me for a game, I dug out my remaining painted figures (most of my painted 1/32 WWII figures have been sent to other homes or are awaiting donation in preparation for a move at the end of the month). This meant "squads" of four figures, so maybe more like a handful of fire teams per side.

I have long since tossed reindeer moss I used to use to indicate bocage, so the brown strips of craft foam with trees around the fields would have to suffice.

For rules, I decided to do something that would be easy to teach quickly and require little reference if any during play on my part - One Brain Cell Toy Soldiers with a modified version of the wound table (1-2 KIA, 3-4 knock down until next turn, 5+ ignore wound).

Major Sidney Bingham, Jr., 2nd Battalion Commanding Officer of the 116th Infantry Regiment directs a BAR gunner and bazooka at the newly arrived German reinforcements. 

 

 In the event, I played twice before my son saw the setup and wanted to play! Victory!

To encourage movement, I set a 10-turn limit to get 8 of the 15 Americans off the table or it would count as a German victory. 

In the two games I played and in the game with my son, the Americans won (yay!). Which makes sense, given that the scenario is intended to be the 1st of a 3-game mini-campaign and the goal of the Americans is to get off the table, not fight to the last.

In the game with my son, my dice rolling was abysmal when rolling attacks and when rolling on the wound table, but great for initiative - which was wasted every time by the subsequent aforementioned poor attack rolls.

Americans burst out of the orchard to open fire at close range before charging into hand-to-hand and then exiting the table for victory.

Still, our game together did come down to the 9th turn before the Americans reached their victory condition. By the end of that turn though, the Germans were obliterated with but three figures remaining.

My son had fun and I had fun, so win-win really! 

It's also caused me to consider keeping the painted Americans (the painted Matchbox Germans are staying for use as villains in Christmas games) if only to draw my son into games every now and then.

p.s. Regular readers may notice the new game mat. I like how it looks, but it's not quite the measurements specified (it's closer to 47" wide than 48"wide, although it can stretch to that). I will probably cut it down to a 3' square mat (or close to it)  and a 2' square mat, for use in different games.

March Recap

This will be a photo heavy post as there was some painting in March - not so much gaming though.

What gaming there was featured five Sisters of Battle trying to escape a hoard of 21 Tyranids by reaching an extract point. I played two games of the same scenario - once with Grimdark Future:Firefight - which I'm not fond of as a solo game anymore - and once with some improvised rules that were equally unsatisfactory. I think One Hour Skirmish Wargames is going to be the way to go, or something very much RPG-lite.

 Painting-wise, I made some progress on my Alps 1940 forces:

French MG base, two infantry bases, and a leader.

The Italians received reinforcements making one full platoon and one 3/4 (using Crossfire organization):

I'm trying to code the units by basing material. Not an original idea by any means, but very useful.

Work began on the fourth army for my fantasy ... campaign? ... I don't know, I have ideas.

The microphone in the back tells you about what I've been spending most of my time on.

They are WiP. I have a lot of gear remaining to paint - I am hopeful the headgear will really make the figures pop as I don't want to shade them (going for toy soldier look). As they are, the white just washes out the details.

 In my last post, I mentioned painting some lizards (but no picture) and then I painted a few more. Here are the ones done last month:

The archer is intended to function as a Chameleon Hero in Age of Fantasy, while the spears will make up a unit of Saurian Guards (when combined with some command figures)

 Next up, some heavies - a unit of gator warriors:

I don't know who made them - they kind of remind me of Age of Aegyptus figures but not anything currently available.

My favorite of the bunch:

He is an old Grenadier model from the early 80s I believe. His color scheme is based on the yellow-headed gecko (they tend towards orange in spite of the name). He will be a Gecko Hero for Age of Fantasy.

And, just for giggles, the current painted 28mm lizard folk army:

Obviously that excludes the dinosaurs I have, as well as the yet to be painted frog mage and gator hero. Plus I have a fair number of Wargames Atlantic figures to assemble and paint to add to my red-tailed skinks.

I just get a kick out of looking at them. 

Will they ever be used as a full force for Age of Fantasy? I have no idea. I'd have to be able to find people that play it locally (I know they exist but I am no longer on FB which is where they are). I do have an idea for games of small skirmishes between the various tribes that will get them on the table regardless.

I am fairly certain that if I had to abandon all of my stuff to relocate, I'd find a way to pack my lizard folk figures in  28mm and 54mm! 

Until next month!

January/February Recap

 Lots of irons in lots of fires, and blogging regularly has received the axe, but I am still out here doing my thing, and I got in a bit of painting and gaming in January and February.

Finally got my Pozzuolo del Friuli scenario on the table using modified One Hour Wargames "Machine Age" rules

Morschauser Shock modified for Fantasy, One Hour Wargames scenario on 2/3 scale table, i.e. 24" square.

Morschauser Shock and Horse & Musket modified for VSF. One Hour Wargames scenario. Full scale, i.e. 6" bases and 36" square.

For reasons, I started painting the Battle of the Alps (Italy and France) in 1/72, with multi-figure basing. this is the first platoon of alpini.

I also painted five additional 28mm lizard warriors - one Reaper Bones and four Dark Heaven - and have gotten the first platoon of 1/72 French started.

Oh, and I played the classic GDW game, Battle for Moscow, several times in a single day, and also a game of Burning Mountains 1916, from Compass Games - with turns spread over three days.

Cheers!

A Little Update (Pun 100% Intended)

I am not feeling painting at all lately, but I continue to pick sections to read in Tony Bath's and Henry Hyde's campaign books. I am enjoying the process of coming up with campaign rules for North Pole '42 (they need to be absolutely simple as I cannot be bothered with extensive record keeping - I'm leaning towards something like wilderness travel in Basic/Expert D&D) and also thinking about how I want to approach the Italian invasion (attempted invasion?) of France in June, 1940. 

Oh and I'm having fun coming up with a map, city names, personality names, etc. for a simple campaign between my lizard folk and my medieval Deetail figures.

However, one glaring point came to the fore in all of this, and that was my lack of LMGs and HMGs for France and Italy. To the interwebz! Specifically BrickWarriors.com

The French are outfitted with outdated, yet distinctly French, Chauchat LMGs, The HMG is difficult to place (for me) but I'll assume it's also outdated.

Nobody seems to sell a minifigure Italian HMG/MMG, so this US one will have to do. The Italian LMGs look the part, but I don't know what model they represent.

 

You might notice I don't know a whole lot about the equipment of either army. That's intentional. The more I know about a period, the less I enjoy games played in it, unless the rules factor in the things I know. This way I can be happy with rules that just feel right, without my usual worrying obsessing about if they are accurate reflections of the material I've read/watched. 

Idiosyncratic? Probably.

Both sides had their first outing with the new kit last night (no pictures, sorry, part of my policy to play more games without thinking about blog posts). 

The Italians - a platoon of three 5-man squads, 1 mortar and an L3 - attacked a French village defended by two squads, a medium howitzer, and HMG. The French ultimately were overrun. Rules used were 1BC Toy Soldiers mostly as written.

Battle of the Alps Squared

June 1940, the Italian army, ordered by the outsized ego of Il Duce - who was desperate to have a piece of France before Hitler had captured it all for himself -  trundled across the northern alpine border into France.

The stalwart defenders of ennui and champagne had expected as much and were dug in and ready.

The Italians used the woods to cover the left wing of their advance.

The French infantry were well dug-in and extricating them proved more difficult than discretely hiding ten pounds of good salami into your rucksack.

Calling a meeting of L3s with the FT17s a "tank duel" or a "clash of armor" stretches credulity. Let us say, they fired shots at each other while snacking on loaves of bread and drinking bottles of wine, with the wine merchants being the real winners, judging by the ineffectiveness of both sides.

Eventually the French armor, despite damage incurred from the Italian battery - drove back their Italian opposites - can you blame those poor Italian pilots? They only learned to drive the L3 a few days ago. 

It was all for naught, as they were just in time to find the Italian infantry had successfully captured the village. A halfhearted attempted to dislodge the Italians met with no success.

The French had run out of time and would have to fall back. Here is the battlefield at the end:

The scenario was "Late Arrivals", a favorite of mine from One Hour Wargames. It works equally well for Austrians streaming into Italy as it does for Italians invading France. The game lasted the OHW standard 15 turns. 

The rules were improvised, based on my own squad-per-base rules - a mash of Crossfire, Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit, and The Portable Wargame - but moved up a few levels of organization and no stacking allowed. I also used ideas borrowed from Ross Mac's Fast and Furious Fifties

Initially I thought of the units as companies of infantry, platoons of tanks, three or so guns, etc. 

However, while writing my narrative it didn't really seem to matter and I could just as easily think of them as battalions. I hear Memoir '44 is a bit like that - where the nominal scale changes based on the scenario? I don't know, I've never played it, but that's my understanding.

It seemed to work here at least.

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!

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.

State of the Painting Queue

As I've mentioned many times before, more as a reminder for my sake than for anything else, earlier this year, I put a moratorium on purchasing unpainted figures. 

What this has lead to, rather unintentionally, is renewed interest, if not enjoyment, in painting.

Perhaps I have swung too much in the "other direction" - here is my paint queue as of this morning:

For the curious, yes that is a very old Duncan Glow Imperial that I've had since the late 70s or very early 80s. I still can barely yo-yo.

 

Scales represented in that picture are 1/72, 28mm(or 32 mm?), 1/50 (the T-34 hull), and 54mm. Butterfly? Me?

I don't often share close up WiP shots, but I'm pretty excited about the progress on my Skaven Blitz Bowl team. As of last night, they are almost done with the base colors. I still have green, black, and a bone-like color to do yet (for their incisors). Then comes the wash, then a 2nd layer, and highlights.

This picture is a good deal brighter on my phone.

I'm following along with a YouTube tutorial, like I did for the human team. Same instructor - I find his instructions easy to follow, although I sometimes wish he'd show more of what he considers "armor" or where he applies a color because, as they are fantasy figures, I can't tell what's supposed to be what on these figures half the time.

It's possible I'll finish these over the weekend, but, I am also trying to ready a megadungeon-style campaign for my son (per his request) to have ready to take with us on vacation next week.

Fortunately, I really only need to have the ruins and upper level done. 

Of course, the ruins are three separate areas of multiple buildings/areas, two of which have their own mini-dungeons beneath - one connects eventually to the main dungeon. The third ruin connects directly to the main dungeon.

I'm using a number of freely available one-page dungeons to fill these areas, but I need to reskin them to the theme (Lovecraft tropes galore). The goal is to allow some exploration above ground as well as below, so he'll have choices about where to explore, creatures/NPCs to engage with, multiple ways in and out, that kind of thing.

So yeah, maybe finishing the Skaven this weekend is a little optimistic!

Italian Tankette Rolls Off Production Line

Thank you for everyone who commented on my injury post. Whether it was to well-wish, commiserate, offer levity or sympathy, it was all appreciated.

To further cheer me up, my plastic building brick (not Lego)  Italian L3/CV33 arrived.

It comes in around 180 pieces and looks pretty cute if I do say so myself.

Cute may not be how you want your armored fighting vehicle described, but well, I mean, it's cute!

Even the real ones aren't imposing. I suppose if one was coming towards me, guns blazing, I'd feel differently.

Then again, it'd probably break down and I'd be fine. They didn't have the best record in the war.

Back to the model.

The hatch works, so I can plop a mini-figure inside if desired (this model cost $13.99 USD. I can see buying two more eventually, for a platoon/company/battalion and putting a commander in one. That's still less than what it cost me to buy a single 1/50 resin T-34, and there's no painting required)

The treads are each assembled from 29 individual pieces. Assembly was made complicated by those pieces being 1) tiny and 2) lacking the use of my index finger on my left hand. The rest of the model went together with little difficulty.

Even with name brand Lego models, rough handling, say the kind anyone under 12 might do, will result in parts coming off. That said, despite being knock-off bricks, everything is fairly tight - almost too tight in some cases, and I had to really force the pieces together -  and so far nothing has come off, even when wrestling the hatch open and closed with my clumsy fingers. 

The treads did separate when I tried to roll it across the carpet. I just wanted to see if the gears "worked" or was all display. I won't do that again!

This kit finished off my initial Brick War 2 build-up. 

There's more to come in this arms race, but there's no rush. My bank account thanks me.

In the meantime, I've got three hastati in progress on the paint table, three Blitz Bowl Reavers in progress, and some French Foreign Legion ready for prep and priming. Plus, working on ideas for VSF Lost World/Antarctica campaigning and building/assembling a mega-dungeon of sorts because my son has asked me to create and run one for him!

Somewhere in France, 1940

 My Father's Day gift of five Italian minifigures arrived in time for me to stage a little skirmish in the first hour of the day.

The Italians had installed a howitzer on a hill close to the front lines in anticipation of a coordinated bombardment of the French reserves.  A French recon patrol spotted the position and two squads of a nearby platoon were dispatched to neutralize the enemy.

Defenders of the gun of dubious origin.

Not a fan of the grey helmet for the NCO, but it beats wearing a field cap on the lines with bullets whizzing around - even if he is in the relative guarded safety of a ruined French farmhouse.

French squads move up on the left and right - one for the gun, one for the farmhouse.

The squad creeps up to the edge of the woods undetected. They fire and immediately kill one of the guards outside the house!

After intense fighting squad on the left captured the gun, but lost their NCO and another rifelman in the process.

On the right the house was secured, but another dead NCO, and two riflemen were added to the toll. Perhaps some good came of it, as Italian maps indicating other artillery positions were recovered.

Rules used were One Brain Cell Toy Soldier Rules with the Overwatch and Wounds options. 

Playing time was maybe 30 minutes? I don't know, I was having too much fun to keep track!

Happy Father's Day!