CoC in 28mm-A Very Short Game

 

A week ago, I got together with Julian at the Abyss for our Wednesday Gamesnight. Interest in gaming appears to wan in the summer, so it was just two of us for this game. Julian previously had a couple of games of CoC and wanted to get some of his 28mm Warlord Games figures on the table. This was a bit of a challenge for me as I game CoC in 20mm, but fortunately an early club project was to paint up the Band of Brothers boxsets from WL games. We leave these at the Abyss for use as members. 

This actually worked quite well and I was easily able to put together a German Volksgrenadier Sturm platoon as well as a US Airborne platoon. We were quite short on supports but we had some AFV's that I had printed so when I calculated the Force Ratings we could take one of these each.

I auto diced for supports before the game, we were playing the Attack and Defend scenario from the main rulebook. The Germans were the Attacker with 8 support points and the American defenders ended up 7 points after FR adjustments. I was playing the Germans and took a PzIV as well as an adjutant while Julian took a M10 as well as a Medic.

Here are the JOP with the PM's left on that table. I believe Julian got the better of me in the Patrol Phase as he got 2 JOP's in the compound and one Close to the forest on his left flank.

A pretty solid defence position with stone wall and some huts. I have no 28mm terrain but was able to cobble together some stuff that looked WWII from the extensive collection of terrain available at the Abyss.

Well I forgot to take any photos of the game as I was pretty busy clarifying the rules.

We both placed our vehicles early and exchanged fire twice, I hit his M10 with my PzIV first putting 2 shock on the M10 and killing the driver. The M10 comander in the next turn rallied off one shock and fired back. Ten AP vs 6 Armour, 5 net hits my PzIV exploded and my FM dropped to 4! I was able to get my LMG squad around to the US left flank in the forest but could not get them into position to fire before Julian got his whole platoon in hard cover behind the stone wall on overwatch. He was still at a FM of 10 while i had only 4 command dice. I withdrew.

V for Victory

A week ago, I had one of my regular games with my friend PY. We usually play at his house, so he generally will suggest a game to me. This time he suggested V for Victory a new game from Studio Tomahawk set in WWII. Click on the link and you find a QRS and a FAQ which will give a sense of the game.

I have been a little dubious of this game as most of Studio Tomahawks games are semi-historical or alternate historical in nature. I also would not call them simulations but rather games. As anyone who reads my blog knows, my main WWII game is Chain of Command. This is very, very unlikely to change. But I do enjoy Studio Tomahawk games and after rulesets from Too Fat Ladies there is no question that I really favour games from Studio Tomahawk, such as SAGA, Muskets & Tomahawks, Dracula's America and Congo. All great games, so I was quite willing to try V for Victory.

A lovely table as usual by PY.

I am not a big fan of markers, but these worked well.

I played a British Airborne unit and PY played the Germans

As you can see, it is a pretty small scale game with maybe 20 figures per side. we did not play with heavy weapons teams or AFV's. But I would think that the game scales up well.

Each unit has different attributes and the quality of the weapons defines the type of dice used. Negative attributes burn dice meaning that they drop down a level (d8 to d6) or that you lose a dice.

The activation method is very similar to Congo (almost exact I would say) with each player having a hand of cards with a certain number and type of actions on each card. Each card is also numbered which defines priority in play. Once each player exhausts their hand, the turn ends. I like this activation method. I should say that Dracula's America has somewhat of a similar method. Muskets and Tomahawks also uses cards but in a different way with each card activating specific unit type, either yours or your opponents.

I did eke out a victory which is unusual as PY usually beats me!

I have to say I quite enjoyed the game and would play it again. I am not planning to paint up any troops for it and have no plans to buy the ruleset except for maybe the book itself. It comes with a deck of cards as well as markers which are all well thought out. If someone sets it up at the club we have a full US Airborne platoon as well as a German Grenadier platoon which will work well for the game.

Charleroi!

Last Sunday I had another game of GdA from the Hundred Years sourcebook. I had the game at my place with Helge, another member of our wargaming club, with whom I had yet to meet. He had not played GdA before but he has quite an impressive 28mm Napoleonic collection, probably one of the biggest collections I have seen (https://www.youtube.com/@WargamingWorkshop)

Helge had not played GdA before but I have to say that he was well prepared having gone through the rules very carefully before the game. 

I played the French coming from the left and Helge played the Prussians coming from the right. This was a smallish battle with just 4-5 brigades per side.

The French advance on the village of Gilly, there was one central BUA with a bridge enclosed within the village. The river could only be crossed by artillery and cavalry at this bridge and a ford to the right. There was a swamp to the left of the village which prevented infantry from crossing the river. Helge had set up his Prussians well making it a bit of a challenge.

As usual, I took very few photos and all the following photos are post game snaps.

Some ammunition caissons, I painted.

I did get some of my troops across the table, but not this battalion.

I was successful in getting my cavalry across the rivers and was able to take out the Prussian cavalry, I almost flanked the Prussian infantry but we hit 10 turns (the maximum allowed by the scenario).

I was unable to drive the Prussians out of Gilly, despite multiple attempts.

I did get one battalion across the river.

Well it was a great game, we did spend a lot of time in the rulebook. We again had problems with the BUA rules and screwed up some of the melees, especially with the cavalry. I also discovered that I need to do a bit more work on the movement rules, with which I am a little sloppy.

It was a fun game though and I was quite happy to introduce a new player to the ruleset, expanding our core Napoleonic group to 10 players. Helge has a real eye for detail and will be a great addition.

I should note that Helge did win the game as I failed on the Victory conditions of taking the village or causing the stipulated damage on his troops. Well played!

Some AB Napoleonics

 

Over the last month, I have painted a Command stand for the French as well as battalion of Wûrttembergers. I had ordered the Wûrttemberg figures by accident when I placed an order with Eureka. 

I recently played a game of GdA, centred around the Battle at Gilly in the lead up to Waterloo. This is one of the very few later battles that Napoleon took personal command so I needed a little Napoleon.

I wonder if anyone could point out the anomaly in respect to the composition of this stand..

Wûrttemberg was part of the Confederation of the Rhine which joined with Napoleon in 1809. They were thought of as excellent soldiers.

IR Nr.4 with pink facings.

I believe that might be it for at least awhile with Napoleonics, although occasionally I need a couple of more skirmish stands, so we will have to see.

Dracula's America-The Nameless Ritual

A little over a week ago myself and Luis got together at his place to play our third game in our DA's Forbidden Powers campaign. I was quite looking forward to the game, as I had lost the last game and I had built up my posse of Nephilim to take on Luis's Cultists.

We are playing the scenarios in order from the source book and in this scenario a cult (we presume a different cult than Luis's, maybe something like the cult in Inspector Legrasse's adventure in the Louisiana swamps in 1908)  has seized some villagers and are keeping them in an abandoned church in the middle of the swamp. There are 5 villagers and 6 cultists. If a posse can save them they are worth 4VP, but if one delays they end up being killed by the cult.

As usual Luis put forward an excellent terrain, here is the ruined church with the cultists and the villagers

I started my posse in the lower left while Luis started in the upper right

Before I could do much, a Shoggoth showed up on my side of the table, I had put Loki and Azrael in a boat so I could move them rapidly to the house south of the church so they could set up a firing position looking at the church to cover the rescue party. I also sent out my Bokor to harass Luis's characters as they tried to rescue the villagers. Best laid plans! I had to turn the boat around and rapidly retreat from the Shoggoth. By now I had sent in Malpas to be the first of my posse to try to bring back a villager. By turn 3, the cultists had focused their attention almost exclusively on Luis posse, but I had to deal with the Shoggoth. Surprisingly, on his second try, Astaroth was able to summon the Seraphim to try to kill the the Shoggoth. This was almost an impossible task.

By now, my posse had rescued 2 of the hostages while Luis was in the process of rescuing 2 as well. I gave up trying to kill the Shoggoth with the summoned Seraphim, but I was able to get Astaroth close enough to cast a Banish spell and the Shoggoth was gone. The game was quite close now, as Luis had also gained points by killing a creature himself and was on his way out with the 5th and final hostage......

......but I had a plan, I sent in the Seraphim to kill Luis's posse member who was escorting the villager. They were still in the church just moving out, but what Luis had done was to put Mr T on Lookout. I moved in, and with great dice rolling and an abysmal save roll on behalf of the Seraphim...he was killed! Victory to the Luis's Cultists.

This was the best DA game I have played to date, it was a lot of fun and up until Turn 6 it could have been any one's game. I look forward to the next.

Serafimovich- Game 3 Bobrovsky

Ten days ago myself and Dan got together to play our next game in our Battle of the Sunflowers campaign set in July-August of 1942 during the German Fall Blau operation. We cannot use the same platoon in consecutive games. Dan decided to go with a fresh platoon, I used the platoon from my first game, this was a new table which replicates the Assault on Bobrovsky on July 30, 1942.

Italian Attackers- 3rd Bersaglieri (FM 10)

Bersaglieri Autoportati Platone #3 (Superior Regulars FR -1)

1 Senior Leader

3 Squadras of 13 men, lead by a JL (3 man Breda LMG w/ rifleman team, 8 man Rifle team)

Supports 13

2 x Semovente 47/32

Extra Squad

SMG's

Soviet Defenders-154th Rifle Division (FM 11)

Platoon #1 (Regulars FR 0)

1 Senior Leader

4 sections of 11 men, lead by a JL  (no teams, LMG with 3 crew and 7 rifles)-less 3 men

Supports 6

MMG Team

M1937 45mm ATG w/JL

The Game

Soviets on the left

Attack and Defend Scenario

Italian Approach

Patrol Markers, I believe I finally got the better of Dan for the first time in 3 games.

Italian JOP's

Soviet JOP's

I deduced to make this farm with stom=ne walls my main line of defence

Dan advanced into this house but my second line of defence as seen below gave him quite a lot of grief both getting in there and one he was in....

Hard to stand up to a section, a MMG team as well as a 47mm ATG

Dan also tried to advance through the forest into the fields but 2 sections in the farmhouse compound were able to thwart that attempt. Dan's 2 tanks advance barely but in the open. My 47mm ATG took quite awhile to zero in but were able to eventually cause both tank teams to bail out. As you can also quite a bit of shock was accumulated all round on the Italians and their FM fell to 3 at which point Dan wisely chose to withdraw.

Well, a much better game played by the Soviets but I have to say that this was a much easier table to defend on. We are hoping to play our next game at Dan's so same scenario but a different looking terrain. It should be interesting.

The Butcher's Bill

Italian Platoon #3 (FM 3)

21 figures lost + JL

10 dead, 6 missing

CO -1

MO -3

Outlook Thoughtful

Soviet Platoon #1  (FM 9)

2 figures lost

1 dead, 1 missing (2 dead in this platoon, 1 missing for next game)

CO +2

MO +4

Outlook Cheerful