All American-Turn 3

We had our 3rd turn in the All American campaign last night in Lachine. We played 2 games in our last outing, Pierre-Yves won the first and I won the second. I decided to re-defend table 2 rather than attack table 1.

After 2 turn

German Platoon: Unlimited platoons so not tracked

American Platoon 1: 3 dead.
American Platoon 2: Intact

Campaign Tracker

Germans

Commander's Opinion 0

Men's Opinion 0

Platoon Leaders's Outlook: Affable (+1FM)

Americans

Commander's Opinion +3 (+1 Support)

Men's Opinion 0

Platoon Leaders's Outlook: Content

82nd Airborne 2 Platoon (FM 11)

Core (Elite 5+1)

SLx2 (carbine and SMG)
Bazooka Team

Squads x 2 (JL/SMG, M1919 LMG Team/3 crew, Rifle Team/8 men)

Supports (6)
M1 ATG w/JL
Entrenchment

Grenadier Platoon (FM 9)

Core (Regular 5)

SL/SMG
Panzerschreck Team

Squads x 3 (JL/SMG, LMG Team/3Crew, Rifle Team/6 men)
Supports (10)
Panzer IIIG 
FO w/ 8cm OTM

So on we go to some photos.

American POV

German POV

JOP's

PanzerIII

  

German Advance

More Germans

M1 ATG- got a CD roll of 3d6 so put down the gun. It took 3 phases to take it out but was able to drive the crew out.

PY shocked me by laying down a barrage. Luckily I had only 1 squad down in the field in hard cover so they withstood it quite well. By now PY had 2 squads advancing behind the barrage on my right flank.

 

So I place my 2nd squad on my left flank to advance up the road. There was an unguarded JOP in the field with no Germans to respond aside from those in the walled farmyard. They were able to take a pot shot at me as I passed the gate and wounded my SL. But another double phase came up and I was able to drag him up the road.

JOP captured, turn ended, Barrage lifted. I was now in good shape but then made a fatal mistake. I ran back down the road and entered the farmyard, I had another double phase (I probably had 10 double phases to PY's 4). I fired at the Germans in the yard, lots of targets including a SL, JL and FO with the squad. Did not cause a whole lot of damage and foolishly charged. I lost 9 men to PY's 6. FM down to 4 with the German FM at 6. I withdrew. German victory!

Well it was a fun game, I blew it at the end and now have a pretty torn up platoon 2. We will have to see how the next game goes. Great game by PY!

After 3rd turn

German Platoon: Unlimited platoons so not tracked

American Platoon 1: 3 dead.
American Platoon 2: 6 dead, 4 wounded (1 SL 6"CR w/2CI)

Campaign Tracker

Germans

Commander's Opinion +1

Men's Opinion+2

Platoon Leaders's Outlook: Sociable (+1FM)

Americans

Commander's Opinion +3 (+1 Support)

Men's Opinion -3(-1 Support)

Platoon Leaders's Outlook: Thoughtful

 

SAGA: Age of Crusades

 

I played my first game of Age of Crusades last night at L'Abyss in Montreal. Had a great time and met a new gamer Luis F. who has a great sense of humour and was a lot of fun with whom to game. He appears to be quite an experienced gamer and had some great looking figures. L'Abyss is quite a gaming shop with a lot of fantasy figures but also some Bolt Action, Flames of War, Gripping Beast SAGA books, dice and figures and an enormous selection of multiple brands of Fantasy miniatures. They also have a lot of terrain and gaming supplies available including paints from Vallejo (superb Model Air collection), Citadel, Army Painter as well as Scale75. They also had a lot of mdf terrain from a Quebec company called XOLK, which I will have to explore further.

The gaming area was quite impressive with I think 20-25 tables, all sit down with an enormous selection of terrain tiles, mats and terrain to use. The place was blocked (this was a Tuesday night) with all tables in operation. They even had specialised 4x3' SAGA boards. Very nice.

We set up using the Book of Battles Chaos method, Luis was not familar with this game setup as the  French version of the BoB has not yet arrived in Montreal.

Game Set-up (BoB Chaos)

Scenery-Rough Ground

Deployment-March Column

Special Rule-Forced March

Victory Conditions-Targe

Game Length-Cautious

The Levantine Crusaders (6 SAGA Dice)

Mounted Warlord
3 units of Mounted Hearthguard in 2 groups
1 unit of Crossbow armed Warriors
1 unit of Bow armed Archers
1 unit of Fanatical Pilgrims

Saracens (6 SAGA Dice)

Mounted Warlord
1 unit of Mounted Hearthguard
1 unit of Mounted Warriors
1 unit of Composite Bow armed Mounted Warriors
2 units of Warriors
1 unit of Bow armed Levy

I could tell pretty quickly that this was going to be a challenging game, I was quite unfamilar with the Saracen BB and seldom play mounted warbands. I was helped though by the fact that the special rule Forced March limits movement to half of normal in the first 2 turns, and we had a 5 turn game because of Cautious.  So on to some photos......

Initial Set up from the Saracen end

Beautifully done Crusader Warriors. Luis has the cavalrymen attached to the horses using tiny magnets so he can change out the riders, but more amazingly so the shields are also magnetised to the figures so he can change them out!

Crusader Bowmen, the unit I targeted for my bonus.

Fanatical Pilgrims, they are quite interesting as every time I killed one Luis can to add a SAGA dice to his BB. This is a very interesting ability as he really does not have to set up his BB defensively for the next turn.

My Mounted Warriors, Luis targeted this unit as his bonus.

My Levy Bowmen

This is about half way through the game. My targeted unit was the Bowarmed Warriors so I moved my Levy bowmen as well as my composite bow armed Warriors to take them out as well as the Fanatical Pilgrims on my right flank. At the same time Luis focused on my left flank and took out my Blackrobed warriors. He also forced my mounted Warriors back and threatened my Bluerobed warriors.

Luis moved in for the kill on Turn 4, it was looking bad for the Saracens

I was down to 3 SAGA dice, so I sent my mounted Hearthguard in against 1 unit of Crusading Hearthguard, I was able to kill 4 of them, I then followed up with Warlord attacking the other Crusader Hearthguard unit, I had only 1 of my Hearthguard in S of the Warlord but I was able to survive with 2 fatigues taking out 3 more Hearthguard. In turn 5 Luis sent his Hearthguard into take out my Warlord, he just succeded he wanted to follow up with his Warlord to take out my my 2 remaining Hearthguard but he had fatigue so I was able to slow him. End of turn 5, game over!

So we totaled up the Massacre Points and it was 25 to 23 for the Saracens, a very close game. It was a fun game and I look forward to the next. It was the first outing for my Moorish figures since I painted them several years ago, it was nice to see that they won their first battle. More importantly of course, I have met a new gamer in Montreal who was a fun and engaging player.

Hobby Bunker Games Day-8-24-19

 

Hobby Bunker had it's annual summer gamesday yesterday, there seemed to be an excellent turnout with lots of good looking games. Unfortunately I got wound up into the two games I played and completely neglected to take any photos of the other games.

Maneuver

This was a fan based WWII Tactical ruleset  on the Napoleonic Boardgame Manoeuver. Gabriel from New Hampshire put together the ruleset and from what I understand is hoping to get it published. I really thought it was a lot of fun, a lot of decision making but mechanics were quite simple. Definitely would play it again, so I hope he gets it published.

Microarmour with each element representing a believe a company.

Hex based movement

Eas=ch unit was combined arms with 1 infantry company and 1 armoured company allowed in each hex.

I got crushed!

Sharp Practice

My friend Mike put on a great game  of SP2, I believe set in 1813, just prior to the Battle of Bussaco.

He really has fantastic figures and put on a great game. The other two players had not played before and although I have played it was not for some time. Mike did a brilliant job on teaching the rules and keeping the game flowing.

 

Do not let the 95th get in hard cover!

 

 

A failed but glorious charge of the French Dragoons against the British Red Line.

I really had a great time, and thanks to the Hobby Bunker owner, Matt Murphy for hosting such a great event. 

Now for some Terrain

After painting 20 AB figures for the last couple of months, I needed a bit of a break, so in the past couple of days I painted up some terrain. Our next game in the Von Luck campaign require a lot of high stone walls. In CoC speak these are 10-12' high and are treated as major obstacles. So for 20mm figures, I needed something around 40mm high. I had some Mediterranean walls from Brigade Games on hand, and although 28mm scale they were exactly 40mm high so I said why not. We are also of course talking about France but again it is difficult to get everything perfect. I liked how Rich Clarke had painted walls in his recent Blacksmith Build, so I decided to try to copy it.

Rustoleum Espresso: 50:50 Mixture of Yellow Oxide-Raw Umber: Yellow Oxide

Naples Yellow: 50:50 Mixture of Naples Yellow-Parchement: Parchement

Table 5 in Von Luck....

......forests not yet laid down

The Collection so far

Brick x 2 with Carroburg Crimson, Drybrush of Flat Red on tiles

Gate with Caliban Green, Drybrushed with warboss Green, washed with Camoshade

  

I realy enjoyed this project, I would like a few more straight sections so I will be contacting Brigade Games to see if this is possible, I really do not need any corners or gates.

I am off to Montreal this Tuesday, have my first game of SAGA planned there for many years. I linked up with a Montreal SAGA Facebook group and have arranged a game à Boutique de Jeux L'Abyss, this looks like quite a place so I am looking forward to seeing the shop and meeting some new players. On Wednesday, we are having our next turn in the All American CoC campaign, so lots of gaming. Maybe, I might be able to get in another SAGA game on Thursday.

I am playing a Saracen Warband in my first Age of Crusades SAGA game, taking on some Levantine Crusaders so it should be interesting.

My next project is something completely different, so stay tuned.

WWII AB British

 

And up next we have our British platoon. Again set up for Late War but also can be used fror Early War. Thes are all AB except for the 2pd ATG.

Basic platoon with 3 sections, 2 SL's as well as 2 men Piat and 2" Mortar teams.

This allows me to field either the 1939 platoon or the 1940 platoon. These easly war platoons had Boys ATR teams with 2 men. The 1940 sections had a 11 men but 2 had to man the ATR so 1 extra rifleman was needed. I decided not to bother to paint up new rifle-armed JL's.

Vickers MMG Team

Six man Engineer section with JL with a 3 man Flamethrower Team.

Some Snipers

Extra 2" Mortar and Piat Teams

FO

6pder, 17pder and 2pder interchangeable ATG teams. The 2 pder is from Zvedza.

Lots of room for a tank or an extra section.

Here is the smaller Chessex with a Paratroop Platoon. These are TQD figures.

So a bit of fun painting. Hopefully will do me for a while, I have quite a few vehicles and AFV's for the Brits so pretty good there. 

Time to start painting something completely different.