The Lilies Triumphant

 A quiet day ahead, no large map projects, some tweaking to do with a couple but nothing else except wait for Storm Agnes, what used to be known as bad weather, at least it will keep the weathermen happy while BBC reporters don wellies and look for puddles to stand in and 16 year old females howl that the end is nigh.

No club last night, the school was having a sixth form meet for parents or some such and therefore parking was going to be at a premium, so we decided to give it a miss, I therefore offered a game here in the even more spacious budding War Room. It was going to be Italian Wars as I missed last months game with Julian due to his work schedule, it was a four player battle French vs Imperial/Spanish, Jimi and I were Imperials and Dan and Fran were the French. The sides were equal in units but quite different in the make up of the forces, the French infantry was slightly inferior to the Imperial foot but they had a Swiss pike block to make up for it, their cavalry was superior to the Imperial horse but with a little bit of luck that could be handled. It was a simple game as Dan had not played before and Jimi and Fran had had only one small introductory game at the club, there was a crossroads in the centre of the open battlefield which one side or the other had to capture.

We split the armies into two divisions each, I was opposite Dan while Jimi held our right flank, Dan had held back his Italian pike so I saw an opportunity to race forward and assault his Landsknechts before the cautious Italians could intervene, he also left one of his gendarme units in the rear mistakenly taking them for less armoured Archers, so I also felt that as I had the one elite cavalry unit in our army I could take on and beat his advanced cavalry. On my right Jimi also advanced quickly with his infantry while his cavalry were slowed down due to an annoying hill to their front.

 

Jimi's infantry.

Imperial left flank.

Swiss advance while Old Band wait.

The Imperial army received a Papal blessing so advanced confidently as the battle opened, the French artillery opened up and handed out some heavy losses to Jimi's Landsknechts, a bad start, nonetheless his men drove on. My cavalry were soon in action against Dan's gendarmes and for a moment, just a moment it looked like things were going to plan, then disaster struck and my elite cavalry were destroyed while the others were held up and losing the fight. On the right our plan to put some hurt into the Swiss before they came to blows was in disarray, Jimi's artillery, skirmish screens and Spanish shot failed miserably to inflict casualties on the burghers from the mountains. The best mercenaries in Europe smashed into the Spanish pike block and quickly routed it, this loss caused the nearby Landsknechts to stop their advance and retire, Plan A had failed. Nearby Fran and Jimi's cavalry now clashed and this went too and fro but eventually the French won the upper hand.

French and Imperial Landsknechts clash.

Old Band still skulking.

Just before the end.

I had now managed get one of my pike formations into action but it was a hard slog, my cavalry were in a mess and then the hard fighting pikes were hit in the flank by cavalry sent over by Fran, this was the death knell of the army, the Imperials had shot their bolt and could now only react as the still largely untouched French army swamped the battlefield.

Useless French artillery (Jimi's)

Triumphant Swiss.

And there you have it, a great game and a lovely wargaming spectacle. I had been hoping for a little luck for my cavalry and didn't get it, on my other flank Fran's incredible die luck was the complete opposite of Jimi's. Our plan to shoot up the Swiss as they advanced was a disaster while the French artillery in contrast knocked lumps out of our infantry. 

In other news I finished a second unit of Jinettes/Ginets for the Imperials, light cavalry have still to make their mark on my battlefields and I am not sure they ever will in stand up fights. I also took stock of where I am with the Imperial army, I needed one more pike block and quite a few cavalry units so these were ordered and are on their way, the pikes arrived from Wargames Foundry yesterday. My favourite heavy cavalry types from Steel Fist are out of stock and Simon is unwell so I turned to the Perry's for these, I have went for the metal Scurrours from their Wars of the Roses range which I think will do, I have one unit on the way and if they are OK I will get some more to finish the army off. Casting Room Miniatures do a heavy cavalry type figure but it is not up to standard and is quite wooden and mainly unarmoured. The use of plastic even jumped into my mind, but thankfully only for a few nanoseconds, although I suppose I could drill out the plastic lance and replace with metal, but only in the most dire of cirumstances.

Not a lot on the cards at the moment, mate Matt Crump is recovering so no games here or in Penrith for the moment, nothing else planned for the war room for now and I have guests over the next couple of weekends (I think) so only weekdays are free for now. Italian Wars albeit much smaller will be at the club next week against Simon.

The dice below were left behind as Jimi left last night, they are for sale although the 1, 2 and 3 facings will need refurbished while the 4, 5 and 6 facings are like new.

Finished, maybe.

I grabbed some time in between family time, movie time and playing games, no not wargames, time to complete the two Christmas kits. I decided not to be too fancy this time with the camo so left the 250/1 in factory dunkelgelb and the only area on the StuG to get some attention were the schurzen, this is in keeping with a scheme I saw online.

I gave both vehicles a wash with Army Painter soft tone then a dry brush with Vallejo Dark Sand, I then took a sponge dipped in black and ran it along most of the sharp edges. Then several bits got a brush or dab of MIG Rust Tracks, I was now happy with things but decided to pop some mud on them as well, a wee bit more on the StuG than the halftrack, it's dry mud so is fine for summer.

I have put plenty of stowage on the vehicles because I have plenty from the two boxes of Rubicon stuff, besides look at most photos and they all carry as much as they can, I am still on the look out for a couple of bicycles.

So there you have it the last of my Bolt Action armour for the time being, like gathering a Roman army I know I will have to get a Tiger tank at some point, you can't have a German force and not one of those in the wings, I also fancy a Stuart light tank and a German Luchs for my recce forces, also some more trucks, but all of that will have to wait. I don't actually need any of it but I am a wargamer and logic doesn't come into it.

Sagittarii and other stuff

I finished my second Patrician Roman unit the other day, it is one of two skirmish units of archers which I plan to use, I will have thirty-two of them when I am finished, this will give me either two units of between twelve and sixteen or three units of ten if required. I intend to have a light cavalry unit with bows as well so that is more than enough skirmish commands. These figures are Gripping Beast the others will be Footsore, I wanted a better mix than using either one or the other manufacturer.

I am just about finished Goldsworthy's 'Fall of the West' overall it confirms my previous knowledge of the loss of the West, the pressure on the borders and the continual waste of resources in civil wars and rebellions. The army itself, although changed from the days of glory of the early empire remains a formidable force but expends most of its energies fighting other Romans, and with the subsequent loss of land and hence taxes and manpower it becomes unable to do its job. That is the situation with a broad brush mind.

I have been recommended to look at the books by Ian Hughes and have ordered and received two already, one about the general Stilicho who begins my period and the other the life of Flavius Aetius, the man who will be commanding my own troops in due time. I have checked out Hughes online and from what I have seen and read so far I think I am on to a winner. Although I have the books I am waiting for one more to arrive which has nothing to do with this subject but I want to start it as soon as I get it which I hope will be Tuesday.

My StuG and the 250/1 have been given their factory coat of dunkelgelb and markings so are ready to be weathered, I am hoping to do this today and get them finished over the next couple of days.

Pesky Commies

Winter is definitely biting, another dreadful night and to cap it all it poured down, we arrived a tad early at the club and we had to stand around in the rain, thankfully for not too long before Matt the Key turned up. I can't judge the traffic at the moment with all the roadworks so I am either late or early.

Bolt action had been arranged and there was four of us, so I thought we don't want the game to be too big so 600 points each should give us a reasonable force and a tank. I didn't sit down and make my list up until a few hours before the game when I realised that if you want a tank you are not going to get much more bang for your buck. I said I was taking my Hetzer so I was stuck, in support I managed two infantry squads, a First Leiutenant and a sniper, I did give the infantry panzerfausts for that extra anti-tank capability.

My team mate Andy had brought three infantry squads, two Hanomags an MMG and a 60cm mortar, so no A/T weapons, one halftrack had a 37mm gun on it but against Russian armour it was pretty pointless. The enemy had about six or seven infantry squads, a lot of them inexperienced but also one elite, MMG, sniper, flamer, a truck and a T34/76. Both Simon and Johnny had some lovely troops, I particularly liked the guys with Molotov Cocktails, Andy's early war Germans also looked very good, these are all in the main Warlord Plastics, sadly I do not have the patience to glue them together and would forever be fearful of breaking rifles and sticky out bits, but they are lovely.

The game begins.

We set up a simple scenario with three objectives, two were fairly close on our right and we naturally put most of our forces to siezing them, way over on our left I put the Hetzer with nice open fields of fire to the crossroads, I also felt secure as the T34 was about the only thing which the Soviets had which was a threat, I also put a squad with the tank for protection. As the game kicked off I managed to get a shot off at the dreaded flamethrower and whooped with delight at killing it, only to be told the Russians have a special rule where you mistakenly shoot the second team member and not the flamer as he carries something which looks like the flamethrower. Now considering how awesome these snipers are at taking people out why mine would be dumb enough to fire at the dummy flamer I cannot understand, anyway the upshot was we did eventually kill the team as they made their way to the cover of the nearby hedges.

Objective ahead.

Deliberations.

I had kept my Hetzer off until the end hoping to get a shot at the T34 but Johnny got the last die in the bag and he clanked on, turned and let loose only to miss, I now prayed for my die to come out first next time. I was in luck, a German die, no matter what was going on elsewhere I used it to shoot at the T34, miss, it shot back, miss. A large firefight was in progress on my right as Andy dug in around the objectives, his little mortar and MMG tried their best to take out Simon's sniper to no avail but they did keep his head down. I now made a mistake and threw my Hetzer support squad forward blocking it shooting at the T34 and allowing them to take fire from one of the buildings, the T34 fired again and missed, I fired at a Russian squad trying to outflank me with the remote controlled MG and also missed. Johnny's inexperienced squads were taking quite a beating but were refusing to run, mind you at times Andy's shooting was pretty ropey. I managed to get my suicide squad up into 'faust range of the T34, two charges smoked towards the target, duds!

The stand off.

Two objectives were contested as the game neared its end and neither of us would be able to claim them, this left the one on my left which the T34 sat on, I lost my squad just as I had decided to retreat them but it meant the Hetzer could again fire, kill the T34 and no one could claim the third objective and a draw would ensue, you know what's coming, a miss! So a slight victory for the Soviets.

The Soviets make their bid.

Andy holds on.

I thought I had done better this time and not rushed in until that daft moment I sent the support squad forward, the tank duel was frustrating for both of us, if either of us had managed to knock the other out flanks would have been rolled up. I haven't had a lot of BA games but I cannot remember any of my tanks brewing up the enemy, I did knock out a KV1 with a Panzerfaust once but have not been able to repeat that since. Anyway, a good game on a lovely table with some really nice figures, the rules are beginning to stick now so we can only get faster, we also managed a good bit of banter and that's what its all about.

And a big thanks to Ryan who, at a loose end, acted as dice meister.

Baiter

Missus had to go to Glasgow again albeit only for one day so I had plenty of spare time again, I could have drawn maps but I like to keep that for during the week. I completed my twelve Saxon archers, nothing fancy there so they are now done and varnished, a bit of flock next and hey presto.

My real treat was the Hetzer or 'Baiter' for my Bolt Action Germans, who as you may recall suffer from having very expensive tanks, god knows how any German player ever fields a Tiger never mind a Tiger II. The kit is from Rubicon who I find very frustrating, if you go on their Facebook page they show you all sorts of great stuff but none of it is ready to buy, and as they only release quarterly and only a few vehicles at a time you have a long, long wait for some of it. They are also not so keen on doing anything remotely British, no doubt a business decision and one I can understand if not too happy about, but there you go.

The model itself is lovely as are all those vehicles which use the Panzer 38(t) chassis and you can build it as early, mid or late war, it first turned up on the Eastern Front in July '44 so although it is no use if I play Normandy correctly I can field it against Simon's Russian horde with no guilt whatsoever. It will turn up against the British at some point in NW Europe.

I went back to the armour paints I had bought at the beginning of my BA phase despite them being better for an airbrush than a real brush. You will notice the non worked on Dunkelgelb is pretty light, there are two in the pack, one slightly darker than the above. I have given the tank destroyer a scheme based loosely on that on the box cover, I was tempted to put a very light whitewash over it as if the crew had attempted to take off its winter coat but not quite managed it very well, but I chickened out.
 

I did however go overboard with the mud this time, I have seen several very muddy Hetzer's online and as I have a large jar of it I 'splashed it all over.' My new German addition is now complete and I am hoping for great things from this little  beauty, we are doing BA on Tuesday night so I hope to gain some Soviet scalps.

Christmas is coming and I am looking at a Sherman V (British), StuG III or Stuart, mainly because my British are getting outpaced by my German vehicles.

Beware the Bear

I had the chance for a large Bolt Action game yesterday and was hoping for a multiplayer but in the end it was Simon and myself, Simon furiously painted more of his Russian forces on Saturday hoping to use them on the Sunday, his missus was away as well. He didn't manage to get them based properly but they were perfect to add to his existing forces so we ended up with 1700 points worth each, I upped this a little by giving both sides a truck and an armoured halftrack because transports hardly ever get used in a normal game and as I had them I wanted to use them. I now have a lot of stuff which probably will not turn up in a normal game but I will be ensuring its use here at home even if I just put everything on the table and shout Charge!

I went online to find some scenarios I could use, as usual I didn't have a lot of time but I was really surprised at the dearth of ideas for WWII games, even the Scenario section on TMP is more of a discussion page than a go to for game ideas. I really must put more effort into this for my next home game.

I went for a theatre specific list for the Eastern Front 1943-44 which at first glance was not much different from the other selectors but, like in Normandy, I don't get a flamethrower, one of the most beastly weapons in the game, no idea why. Simon goes for the generic list so he can have just about anything and he always takes a sniper and flamethrower. I made two lists up, one with a Panzer IV and one with a Panther, as the Panther had yet to make an appearance I went for the big cat, mind you I usually find I can't afford a Panzer IV either, hence the Hetzer winging its way to me. I ended up with three regular infantry squads and one veteran, the Panther, sniper, Panzerschrek, mortar, medic, two MMG's a PAK 40 and of course a truck and halftrack and a partridge in a pear tree. A nice balanced force covering all the angles, the Soviets of course went for numbers, five squads including tank riders, SMG's and rifle squads backed up by a T34/85 and a bog standard KV1, sniper, flamer and artillery observer, truck and halftrack. Game on.

Kampfgruppe No Luck (geddit?)

 There were three objectives and on I came, I set up my PAK first to command the centre of the town and then the odd squad way over on my left a couple in the centre and the rest I put on the right, my small armoured Kampgruppe with the Panther, veterans and Hanomag. I also put an MMG team on a small hill to command the village but this quickly became a target of the damn sniper, so I turned my mortar on him to flush him out, once again I would have been better rushing the crew up and throwing the bombs in the window, but he did go down until he realised how useless my shelling was, even my own sniper could not kill him. Simon opened his battle with an artillery barrage, it looked dodgy for a moment but when it came it was a miscalculation and only blew some dust over my PAK tow, I breathed a sigh of relief. Between the Panther and the PAK the Soviets were forced to keep their tanks to the right of the village, the T34 did manage to get much nearer but still hid, it also stayed back from my infantry who all had Panzerfausts. About half way through I lost one squad to the flamethrower, this really annoyed me as it only killed three men from a ten man squad but my guys failed their morale and scarpered never to be seen again, across the way their mates were assaulted by the tank riders and were decimated, I lost control of the village. I now threw, or rather shimmied my Kampfgruppe towards the centre of the table, despite a huge volume of fire being poured on the Russian squad to my front it took forever to kill them. It was now nearing the crises point, I moved my left flank squad out into the open to try and knock out the KV1 which was going to destroy them if left alone, the 'shreck team failed three times to hit it, then I found I was just out of 'faust range, these boys too went south. Simon moved the T34 out for a fight with the Panther, I opened up, a hit, yes, no, ding the shot ricoched off the front hull, thankfully he too missed.

In the dying moments of turn 5 Simon threw his vaunted tank riders at my veterans, yes they got minced as well, at this point I threw the towel in, I had no infantry left, the PAK, mortar and the Panther couldn't hit a barn door between them, my sniper was trapped upstairs in a house surrounded by Russians and my own morale had plummeted. Well done Simon.

The wargame, well I don't think I have ever thrown so many one's for a long time, nearly everytime I had a single die throw it came up a one, and my morale was the opposite, the rolls were too high hence the loss of at least two squads. My shooting as well was abysmal which is why it took over three turns to wipe out a soviet squad, OK they have twelve men but they were hit by four MMG's, two LMG's and several rifles each turn! Some of my post match moans were my own fault, granted, but there were a couple of things which riled me, one is the effectiveness of the sniper, every sniper was a good shot but they were not all supermen, or women Reg. He ignores cover, gun shields etc. when they are the obvious things to mitigate against getting a bullet in the brain and if he hits a team weapon it is  removed as being useless, he is not aiming at the weapon, just the man using it, so if he goes his well trained mate should take over until perhaps he is unlucky enough to also fall victim. You therefore have to concentrate an inordinate number of your resources into killing or shifting him, resources which should be more concerned with fighting the battle. There was one more fairly ludicrous thing which happened, yes possibly I made it worse but much more a failing of the rules. The truck I used to get my grenadiers into the village was on the road, it can only pivot 90 degrees once, it was blocking line of sight for my PAK, not alltogether but it needed to move, I turned it 90 degrees and moved it into the big house's courtyard, road cleared. I then found I could not back it up and turn down the road as you cannot pivot when reversing, I could only pivot 90 degrees in the courtyard so it was going to take me two turns to get it out of there, in the end I drove it into the estate's garage, howls of derision from the Soviets. Yes I could just have accepted that those were the rules or driven it through the village, past hordes of Russians over on to the left flank where I didn't want it. The thought crossed my mind that the rules author has never been in a car never mind a tank.

So there you are, despite this it was a good game and had a lot of nice troops on the table, I shall continue to look for 'proper' scenarios or try and come up with something myself, yes it may be unbalanced but it is war. I also need to up my WWII game, my all arms approach failed against the Russian steamroller. In Normandy in 1944 21st Panzer had a Kampfgruppe commanded by a Hans von Luck, now do you get it?

Private Schmitt not General Guderian

Club night last night and I agonised all afternoon on a 750 point army list for the upcoming Bolt Action game against Simon's Russians, no matter what I concocted I never got what I wanted, I always felt short changed. The 750 limit was due to the game being on a club night, it is better to get a game fought to a conclusion than put on something huge which ticks all the boxes except a satisfying finish, another reason is that we are still getting to grips with the rules as no sooner did we feel we were getting somewhere than 2nd Edition landed on the mat.

The Russians get an extra inexperienced platoon because they are, eh, Russians, so I knew Simon could match my infantry and also get a nice tank, I cannot get decent sized squads and a tank, and don't talk to me about the Stuka zu Fuss appearing any time soon. So I was back with my trusty Marder, I might have to look at getting one of those half tracks with the anti-tank gun for smaller games, anyway I also gave all the squads a couple of panzerfausts, I also took a mortar to hopefully give Simon's inevitable sniper a bit of bother and keep his head down.

I didn't need to take any buildings to the club, as I have mentioned before we now have some WWII houses for use so I took all the ancillary stuff, trees, hedges, walls etc. We set up a simple scenario from the book where whoever held the most objectives at the end of the game won, I felt good and had the choice of which side to approach from, so off I set for several buildings to hide in. The Russian tank was on my right so I put the Marder behind a house to wait for a good shot at it while also hoping that it might take the odd pot shot at Soviets in buildings.

A very smart objective marker!

 Early on I had to move the Marder to get a shot at the sniper hiding in a nearby building as my mortar was dropping shells everywhere but on the pest, I thought I was safe but the Russian monster moved and got a shot on me, it missed, thankfully, as it was near the end of the turn my infantry could not attempt a shot at the enemy with their 'fausts as they had already been activated. Simon also took this opportunity to send a squad scurrying towards my extreme right, possibly to assault the house or the Marder, I needed two German dice to come out of the bag next, a big ask but my luck has to change at some point.

First die out, German! I was now left with a dilemma, reverse the Marder and take on the infantry, shoot the infantry in the open with my squad, or shoot the tank with either the Marder or the infantry, take out the tank the enemy infantry will probably shoot up or destroy the Marder, damn open topped vehicles, take out the infantry the tank will shoot again at the Marder. I shot at the infantry with my boys and wiped them out, sadly the next die out was Russian.

The Marder was indeed hit, but wait, a fire only, would the trusty crew put it out and remain in the fight, no they wouldn't, deciding discretion being the better part of valour, live to fight another day or whatever, they fled. Up until this moment Simon had had no luck, his shooting barely gave my men more than a slight cut but now the pendulum swung with a vengeance, in quick succession I lost two more squads and failed several morale throws while my men dropped like flies. I cannot tell a lie, I was a bit dejected, I was going to rush the objectives to get a good score on the last turn but that plan went south and Simon grabbed the win with two of them while I had none.

We are planning a much larger game with plenty of time to spare a week on Sunday, it may simply be a scenario I come up with or if it is points it will be much larger than 750 so that all that lovely stuff I have in the boxes can come out to play.

Elsewhere we had a LOTR game, a Roman Civil War clash with To The Strongest and some players were having an introduction to Scythe, a sci-fi boardgame, a full house just about.

I have managed to save a few quid from repairing the Batmobile to get twelve Saxon archers from Gripping Beast, a lot of the time I provide both armies for anyone I can rope into playing WAC locally so I need to have a better choice of numbers for my skirmishers, hence the new archers. Feeling the hurt from last nights game I may also have to look, as the Germans did themselves, to a cheaper alternative to my tanks, a StuG in other words, where did I put that Christmas list.

Almost Done

Very quiet day yesterday so I got on with my M3 for my British forces, I had primed it the day before so it was ready to go. The kit was from Rubicon and if you are making it as a British version because you cannot find a decent M5 then you have to leave all the interesting stuff off it, all those lovely machine guns the American versions had for instance. This leaves you a pretty dull vehicle, so it was down to stowage to make it look interesting, I looked online and these machines were loaded with stuff. I therefore opened up my new Allied Stowage kit and fished out some petrol cans and haversacks, the tarpaulins I had from the Warlord set so no point in wasting them, even with these it looked a trifle bare, so I stuck on a large piece of camo netting.

 All my paints are Vallejo so it was Russian uniform for the main colour washed with black ink and drybrushed with the same colour but a little white added, the edges were then dabbed with a sponge and mud applied to the lower regions.

I popped a photo on Facebook and immediately had it pointed out that one of the haversacks was upside down, it is now on the right way, believe me.

Now that's stowage.

 I can have panzerfaust's on my Germans but getting them proved a bit of a pain, as far as I can see most metal figures are sold in anti-tank teams so you get panzerfaust's and panzerschrek's, you cannot just buy four or more soldiers with 'faust's. Perhaps you can in the plastic boxes but I don't like plastic. As I have played more games I realise the panzerfaust is not a weapon you want to be in the field without as a German and for the price it can give the Allies pause for consideration. My solution was to buy a pack of ten 'faust's and stick them to the backs of suitable figures or have them at the feet of others, just about to be picked up perhaps.

My Bolt Action Germans are now pretty much tooled up for any scenario and have a tidy choice of support weapons in the wings, bring it on Tommy!

Job Done

Home alone tonight and of course I couldn't help but get on with the latest recruit to my German forces, so just a quick update.

I decided to try and put the number decals on the sides where I should have put them before putting on the rocket frame, the decal sheet which comes with the kit is great and considering you only need a few numbers it is possibly overkill, but I am not complaining. Anyway I have learned the hard way to be careful with these transfers and I use the Micro-Sol products and a pair of tweezers to help me get them right, so far this has been very successful.

I was tempted to go with the same colour scheme as my first 251 but thought it would be too dark having coloured the rocket frames in a dark woodgrain, so I went for a simple green splinter. I washed this down with Sepia and gave it a good drybrush with the ubiquitous Dark Sand, after this I used a bit of sponge and some black paint to wear away the edges then applied some watered down rust. I finished off with some mud product, voila!

I might add some bits and pieces inside once I open up my stowage kits, there are a couple of spare rockets with the kit but they would hardly be sloshing about on the inside or parked on the hood. So that is it, the infantrymen next and then the M3.