Von Luck Redux

Hans Von Luck

Myself and Mike were able to restart our Kampfgruppe Von Luck campaign yesterday. We had messed up the supports as well as the terrain table in our first go and decided to replay both games. I had set up 2 tables in anticipation of playing the 1st two scenarios in one go but unfortunately Mike was running late so I decided to tear down the 1st table and call it an automatic withdrawal for the Brits and go straight to the 2nd table. As it turned out, I would have withdrawn anyway as none of my troops showed up for the 1st battle except 1 SL, a Piat team and Section 1!

Initial Platoon Ratings

Brits: CO +1, MO +2, PLO Happy

Germans: CO 0, MO +1, PLO Content

Post Turn 1

Brits: CO +1, MO +3, PLO Happy

Germans: CO +2, MO +3, PLO Happy

So on to table 2.....

British Paratroopers (FM 11)

2 SL

Sniper

Piat Team

Section 1

Section 2 with JL and Bren Team

Section 3 with Bren Team

FO

German Panzer Grenadiers (FM 9)

Panzer Grenadier Platoon

SL

FO

MMG Team

Halftrack

On to some photos....

The Patrol Phase went well for the Brits with the Germans isolated to 1 quadrant of the table.

Few photos were taken but we were bot able to get our FO's firing but theGermans got their Mortar Barrage  down first and my single intact section was rapidly chopped up. I have to say Mike had the most incredible luck with the dice getting multiple double phases as well as numerous 5's and 6's on his to hit dice, so despite my troops being elite my troops dropped like flies.....

.........I got 2 double phases one on my 2nd phase which was of little value and one triple 6 on the last phase which eliminated my Mortar Barrage just after I laid it down. I really had the most appalling luck with the die! So with both our FM at 8, I withdrew from the table. I believe I ended up with 4 dead and 2 missing while Mike had 1 dead and 2 missing. 

Post Turn 2

Brits: CO +1, MO +2, PLO Happy

Germans: CO +3, MO +6, PLO Affable

This moves the Germans to +1 in Supports and +3 on Force Morale throws

On to turn 3................

Naval Bombardment occurs preventing Germans from advancing on table 3.

Next game turn 4, Mike has 5 turns to achieve Victory by taking the next 3 tables. It is going to be a challenge.............for the Brits!

Some Frozen Lard

I had two great games last week in Montreal and discovered the existence of a new Canadian Lardie Group called Frozen Lard. I am not a big fan of facebook but it seems one does not have a whole lot of choice in the gaming world as there appears to be a wholesale migration from webpages etc to facebook.

I drove up last Monday and surprisingly enough it was it was 26 degrees C, so not frozen at all. I have a portable table and mat in place in my apartment there but there was still a lot of stuff to lug up in the car. It is always nice to see my daughter with whom we share the apartment. She has a new job with Nicole Benisti so hopefully she is getting settled in her career choice of Fashion Design.

Chain of Command

On Tuesday evening I had planned an introductory game of CoC with Pierre-Yves T. who had contacted me through the TFL forum. I believe there to be a dearth of historical wargamers in Montreal so I was excited to hear from him. Although he had not played CoC before he as you can see through his twitter feed has done some great work on a German Panzergrenadier force as well as a lot of terrain. 

I decided to set up a German Grenadier Platoon versus British Rifle Platoon game using the Probe scenario from the rulebook. We chose table sides and PY elected to be the German defender. We threw for Force Support and got a 6. The Germans selected a Sniper and I took a MMG Team and a 2" Mortar. I will not bother to do an AR but here are some snaps of the game.

PY took a defensive position on the right.

 

I started my advance but the Germans got stuck in behind the wall on my left flank and in the trees on my right flank and set up a squad on the centre road.

As you can see although I get to cover I am getting pretty shot up. PY did a great job in his first game.

It was actually a complete rout as one can see from above and I ended up losing when my FM dropped to 0, while the Germans were still at 8! It was a fun game and I believe PY enjoyed himself.

We are planning to have our next game in late June or early July, this time we will be playing at PY's, he has a 28mm set up and I am looking forward to seeing his great terrain and figures.

Général d'Armée

Wednesday night, Iannick came over to my place. We have been playing Napoleonics for around 10 years now and I believe we have tried at least 4-5 rulesets over that time. We have played GdA twice before but most recently 14 months ago. My last game was in September of last year so I spend a lot of time going over the rules prior to the game. The more you get into these rules, the more you realize they are quite simple to play but it is always difficult if you do not play any ruleset for extended periods of time.

I decided to set up a game from the new source book: 1815 The Hundred Days. The Battle of Gilly seemed the business but I had no Prussians but could find enough of my new Dutch-Belgians and Brunswickers to fill the OB. Had to add a few Allied troops from the Peninsula but all good.

As usual Iannick played the French and I took the Prussians. Again not a true AR to follow but I did take a few photos.

The table showing the troops on each side, I should note that this was not there final dispositions in the battle line.

Both side had 4 brigades with the French having 5 ADC's and the Prussians 4. Most French Inafntry Brigades had 5 standard sized battalions while the Prussians had 3 large battalions. There was a Cavalry brigade per side with 2 and 3 Artillery batteries.

The Prussian right flank with line units to the left in line and the reservists in the centre-left in column.

The Prussians deployed both of their Fusiliers battalions in Skirmish order making the Skirmisher Tasking quite useful.

The French Veteran brigade advancing on the Prussian right flank.

Disaster for the Prussians. The Empress Dragoons( in the upper left of the photo) charge the Prussian Musketeers, they fail their Discipline test and are thrown back in retreat, their supportin unit also withdraws unformed. In the next turn they falter and subsequently suffer a Sauve qui Peut on the Falter Table!

The Prussian cavalry charges the centre unit in the middle French Brigade but fails also being thrown back in Retreat.

The Prussian right flank is much more successful with the Artillery successfully throwing cannister at the French Veterans. The Prussian Skirmishers aided by the formed unit in the BUA add casualties.

The Prussian skirmishers flank the attacking French. A French battalions is dispersed.

 

 

 

The Prussian reservists on the right form into line but by now the French have two Brigades on Infantry Assault orders.

Another Prussian Battalian retreats. It is over the Prussian withdraw failing to slow the French advance to Waterloo.

 

Although we did not exactly meet the victory  conditions set out in the scenario after 3 hours and 6 turns we decided that the French had achieved a victory. They had caused one Sauve qui Peut effect on the main Prussian brigade and had not even brought on their reserve cavalry. The Prussian right flank was solid but it was going to be increasingly difficult to hold their left flank with reservists. 

It was a fun game and I am quite convinced that this is a great ruleset as is I believe Iannick. Looking forward to our next game.

SAGA- Meeting Encounter

 

Myself and Adam got together at the Hobby Bunker last night to have our first game of SAGA in more than a month. Holidays are nice but I miss my gaming. I stuck with my Skraelings and Adam decided to go with Vikings, a faction he has not played for some time.

Skraelings (5 SAGA Dice)

Warlord

1 unit of Bow Armed Levy (12)

4 units of  Warriors (10,10,10,10)

Vikings (6 SAGA Dice)

Ragnar Lothbrook

Shieldmadens (6)

1 unit of Hearthguard (8)

2 units of Warriors (8,8) 

We used the chaos method of skirmish setup using the Book of Battles which resulted in the following:
Scenery-Rough Ground
Deployment-Meeting Encounter
Game Length-Pitched Battle
Special Rule-Forced March
Victory Conditions-Subjugation

Initial set up

Skraelings tightly packed

Shieldmaidens leading the charge for the Vikings

Despite having automatic light cover the Shieldmaidens are no match for an onslaught of arrows, javelins and tomahawks. They are rapidily taken down. To the left 2 units of Skraeling Warriors are trying to get to the rough ground as does a unit of Viking Warriors. To the upper right a unit of Viking Warriors as attacked a unit of Skraelings. Five dead aside!

Ragnar advances his Hearthguard, the Skraeling missles are somewhat successful, and a Skraeling Warrior band charges. They are thrown back and evade to the rough ground, but the mighty Hearthguard are down to 3.

The Vikings are looking pretty ragged but Ragnar being Ragnar attacks a unit of Skraeling Warriors, he defeats them but is exhausted, making him easy pickings for the Skraeling missles. Applying the Eagle Totem to the Skraeling levy appeared to be a more sucessful utilization of it than giving it to a Warrior unit.

The Skraeling Warlord surveys the field now absent of but 2 Vikings.

So a massive Skraeling Victory of 34 to 14 massacre points. It is not often that I get such a significant victory playing Adam, he is a very wily opponent. I believe the dice probably favoured me and the Viking BB is new to Adam. I also believe that I am getting the measure of the Skraeling BB and am finally figuring out how to use javelin armed troops.

I have a really busy 2 weeks of gaming coming up with me being off to Montreal on Monday. I have a CoC game planned for Tuesday, a GdA planned for Wednesday; Saturday back to MA for a CoC game to continue the Too Many Rivers campaign, Monday week hopefully the restart of the CoC Von Luck campaign and then the next Friday off to Portland for Huzzah.

The Blood Angels are Ready for Battle

Two years ago as a part of the AHPC VII, I presented the start of a Blood Angels Horus Heresy Epic Army with the hope that some day a Pan-Canadian Epic Challenge could take place. We have made a couple of attempts but as one knows Canada is a big country and to get three gamers (Curt, Greg and Byron) from Western Canada to meet up with 2 gamers (Iannick and myself) from Eastern Canada presents a challenge. An attempt was made last summer but quickly floundered due to scheduling difficulties.

Well at least I can say now that I am ready as my 4000+ point Epic army is completed. My painting of small figures has evolved and I have to say that painting the final 40 tiny Space Marines was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. As usual once photographed I can see some errors but overall I believe they will look good on the table.

Jet Bikes

Assault Squad

with a Chaplain

Glaive

Using a calculator, here is the make up of my Blood Angels force. I have designed the army to have 3 wings with infantry assault force, an armoured force and an airborne force. I have no idea how the rules work but I am hopeful that the force is balanced.

As you can see, I have one too many supports for my Terminator Squadron. Just could not decide between the Thunderhawk Gunship and the Storm Eagle. I think I also have one too many Lords of War units but maybe not as I believe the cut off is 33% of the total core force with supports.

Here we have the whole force, it is funny how little space they take. The beauty of 6mm, I suppose. 

The Revenant Warband is Done!

In October 2016, I started to paint up a 4 point Revenant Warband for SAGA. This was a special release from Gripping Beast in coordination with Studio Tomahawk. I followed with a completely different style in the AHPC VII and then again in AHPC VIII another style emerged. Painting the exact same 12 figures does get a little boring so I have gone with yet another style this year. 

I like painting in shades of grey so I thought I would give it a try with this final unit of Levy. I also liked how my Carnevale Raadru came out so I decided to combine the two. Maybe a bit strange but I like them. I could of done a little better job of removing flash from the figures but they have just all crawled out from the dirt so I think it is probably OK. Anyway another SAGA warband done......watch out for these guys Adam.

SAGA: Refused Flank

Another Norman vs Skraeling Battle at the Hobby Bunker last Thursday. Adam changed up things a bit and went with a unit of mounted warriors armed with javelins rather than the Flemish mercenaries. I went with the same configuration.

Normans

Warlord

3 units of Mounted Hearthguard
1 unit of Javelin Armed  Mounted Warriors

1 unit of Crossbow Armed Warriors

1 unit of Bow Armed Levy

Skraelings

Warlord

5 units of Javelin/Tomahawk Armed Warriors

1 unit of Bow Armed Levy

We opted to go Chaos again, which means on all 5 attributes we threw a d6 to randomly generate the conditions of the scenario. We ended up with the following.

Scenery: Bleak Moor

Deployment: Refused Flank

Game Length: Until Dusk
Victory Conditions: Subjugation

Special Rule: Night Fight

The basic 4x3 terrain, we were fighting along the long axis of the terrain rather than the usual short axis. The Srkraelings started to the right and the Normans to the left.

The inital Skraeling dispositions.

The initial Norman dsiposition.

Turn 4: I had taken down Adam's mounted warriors but had lost 2 units of warriors and had positioned my levy poorly so they never got off a shot in the whole game. As you can see both my warrior units are threatening but the large unit of Norman mounted Hearthguard is quite close. I really messed up the next 2 turns and by the end of the game I think I had lost almost 30 of my 48 warriors. 

Adam's very nice crossbowmen.

Again a pretty quick game maybe a little over 2 hours. The dice favoured Adam in this game but I have to say he played a tactically better game than I. So the reverse of last week with a decisive Norman victory with a final score of 18 to 7 for the the Normans. 

I realised that there is no way that I can take on the mounted Norman Hearthguard in melee, they are just too powerful. A unit of 12 mounted Hearthguard  with a banner generates 22 melee dice before any BB abilities are used. There is just no way to confront this with 12 die no matter what BB abiltiies are available. Couple this with their ability to move L, and they are a bit of challenge. Definitely have to come up with a different plan next time.