North Africa Campaign (2)

Last night I stopped by Adler hobby to drop off some laser-cut bases I made for Adam, pick up some unpainted, figures I bought from Keith and to pick up my copy of the Black Powder rulebook. While I was there I participated in another game in the North Africa campaign we're playing there. My contribution was my light armor squadron. Chris brought his infantry company which included three Matilda tanks and an eight gun artillery battery.

We deployed with Chris on the left facing Gordon's Italian armor swarm supported by some German Stug G tanks. Chris was reinforced with our firestorm unit - my Deacon 6-LB self-propelled ATGs. On the right my armor faced against Adam's Fallschirmjäger infantry rhich was reinforced by some 8-rad armored cars, mortars and an 88 which Adam placed opposite Chris' Matilda tanks.

Chris held off Gordon's tidal wave of light tanks although he lost the Decaons and an both infantry platoons, one of which got blown up in their trucks by Adam's Infantry. I lost one platoon of Crusader II tanks which got destroyed trying to assault Adam's panzerknacker-armed infantry. The Germans lost Adam's armored cars, two platoons of Gordon's tanks. By the time we called it my tanks had reached our objective and it was a matter of time before they would capture it. On the other side Gordon's assault faltered as he started to run out of tanks in the face of the nearly indestructible Matildas. It was a good game, and I finally got my first win with my British armor.

Chris finished up the guns for his 8-gun battery of British 25-lb artillery. While I was taking photos of it Chris asked me to snap a couple photos of his Matildas.

Northern Conspiracy Game Night - July 2011

This past Friday we had our monthly club game night. Since it was a summer month we had two games scheduled instead of the normal three we put on during colder months. Pictured on the left is Michael the game master for one of the two games: Viking Dawn. This local version of the megga-game from this past year's Huzzah! convention. Michael ran this game with the help of the other club members who participated in the Huzzah! game as part of our club's participation in the convention event. This large game featured plenty of Vikings, Saxons, long boats, cogs, civilians, livestock and other valuables to plunder! I didn't play in the game but everyone seemed to have boatloads of fun.

The other game was a battle of the bulge WWII game run by club member Charlie (pictured below) using 15mm figures and Battlefront rules. I played one of the three attacking German commands with a small infantry contingent and four Stug assault guns. The Stugs fared well against the American's Sherman tanks, but were unable to dislodge the stubborn paratroopers defending the small town. In the end time ran out with the Americans firmly holding both objectives. Good game by them. They took heavy losses in their armor assets but the Airborne held firm.

Caribbean

Saturday at Adler we had a smaller than normal turn out due to Historicon being this weekend and it being a very nice day outside. Adam continued to use the day as a modeling day flocking the bases of a bunch of his 7YW figures. Gordon, Eric and I played a game of Caribbean.

Caribbean is a pure beer-and-pretzels game of piracy in the Caribbean. You play the role of a European merchant company who controls several ports in the area. Your goal is to get the local pirates to deliver their 'booty' to your ports. To accomplish this goal you bribe them with barrels of rum of course! Early on I ran off with a small lead due to a couple of clever steals of cargo. Gordon was close on my heals with Eric a distant third....but he was scheming a plan. During the mid game Eric climbed back into contention and in the final few turns he pushed Gordon and I down to 2nd and 3rd place with a couple of great cargo steals in the last two turns. Well played.

Thursday night at Adler Hobby & Bee Template

With so many people on vacation this week the Thursday night Adler Hobby gaming group decided to have a modeling night instead of a gaming night. Adam was painting some 15mm 18th century Russians (Seven Years War I believe) and re-basing some of his other 7YW figures. Chris was painting a FOW British 25 lb. battery including gunners and Gordon was working on his 28mm WWI desert figures for his 'Battle of the Bees' scenario.

For my contribution I brought a couple new 'Bee Templates' for Gordon to use in his game. The templates were made on my laser and will represent the swarms of bees that plagued the battlefield. The bee swarms will move randomly about the table and cause havoc for any troops who are unlucky enough to be 'swarmed'. If you're interested in a bee template or similar custom laser-cut gaming aids, feel free to contact me at my business site, Wright Brothers R/C and Engraving.

While people painted we talked about various things and had a great relaxing evening.
 

National Civil War Museum

One of the great things about vacationing in an RV is the fact that you can take side trips on a moment's notice when the mood hits you. During one afternoon of our trip it was particularly hot so instead of going to Hershey park for another day we took a drive to neighboring Harrisburg, PA to visit the National Civil War Museum. This Smithsonian affiliated museum is not something you'd stumble upon, but is well worth the trip to visit. They have a well organized and wonderfully presented collection of artifacts. The self-led tour of the museum is punctuated with many video presentations including a movie in a small theater.  There are two additional galleries with temporary exhibits which are rotated periodically. During our visit these featured an exhibit on animals in the Civil war and an exhibit on the first year of the war in time for the 150th anniversary.  Outdoors there are several artillery pieces on exhibit. Our visit took a couple of hours, but could have easily taken twice that time had we wished.

Of particular note for wargamers are two excellent dioramas. One of  Rohrbach bridge at Antietam (in 25mm) seen below on the left, and one of the "Hornets Nest" at Shiloh (in 40mm) seen below on the right.

Off on Holiday!

My wife and I are off for a long overdue and well needed holiday in our RV motorhome. We'll be starting off in Carslile, PA by attending the Polecat/Soaring Circuits 2K11 Open Soar sailplane contest.

After that we're heading to Hershey, PA, the sweetest town on earth. While there we'll be visiting Hershey Park, Hershey Chocolate World and the Hershey Gardens with their excellent butterfly aviary.

On the way out of PA we'll also be stopping for a day at Dorney Park. Hershey Park and Dorney Park hold some of the country's classic park ride treasures including between the two of them four carousels (my wife's favorite) and two of the few remaining still operating models of the turn of the century classic ride, "The Whip".  Strangely I only know of four copies of the ride currently operating and they're all in Pennsylvania: Hershey Park, Dorney Park, Knobles Park and Kennywood Park. I'm sure there are others that I don't know about.

We'll be back home around the 4th of July. Until then the blog will most likely go dark.

North Africa - Light Armoured Squadron (2)

This is the second combat platoon for my British North Africa light armored squadron. It's a platoon of three Crusader II tanks. These are painted up similarly to my first combat platoon in two-color disruptive pattern.

I decided to go with a full platoon of three Crusader II tanks after reading up on various design methodologies for this army list. Most of the posts on the FOW forums indicate that people like to use this list as a swarming light tank list. The Crusader II tanks with their "Tally Ho!" rule, which allows them to fire at full rate of fire on the move, are the workhorse of this tactic. If I'm going to play the list like the 'pros' do I'll at least have to build it like they do. This platoon is the start of that effort. My other platoon with one Crusader II and two Crusader III tanks is still a good asset with the up-gunned Crusader III tanks able to add some punch to an otherwise featherweight hitter. Eventually I may mix the platoons as one Crusader III and two Crusader II tanks per platoon. We'll see how it goes.


Next up on the painting table is a battery of British 25-lb artillery to go with this company.

North Africa Campaign (1)

Saturday I played a Flames of War game with Eric at Adler hobby as part of our continuing North Africa campaign. I brought my British armour and Eric pushed Gordon's Italian armour company. On paper I thought I was in good position to carry extra armour weight against the lightly armoured Italian tanks. No plan survives contact with the enemy as they say. Once we selected our Firestorm units things turned the other way around. I was given an extra unit comprised of all things, Italian M14/41 tanks. Eric drew a unit of three Shermans IIs.

I underestimated how potent the Shermans would be and committed two platoons of Crusaders to counter them: two Crusader III tanks and four Crusader II tanks. In the middle I placed my HQ and Grants to press the objective against Eric's platoon of Italian tanks. On the left my 'captured' Italian tanks faced off against Eric's tanks.

Things went fairly well for me early with me knocking out Eric's AA trucks. Then I shot my Crusader II tanks against the Shermans. A quick look at the table showed me that to my 2-lb main guns the Shermans might as well be King Tigers. I couldn't penetrate them. My two Crusader III tanks with their 6-lb guns had a better chance, but were quickly knocked out before they could be brought to bear on the captured Sherman tanks in Italian service.

In the middle combined fire from the Grants and some Hurricane air support brought Eric's battery close to the breaking point but they passed morale with a single gun left. Similarly Eric's battered tank platoon on his right held tough long enough for his Shermans to knock out my HQ tanks and all three Grants.

Without a company commander my company was forced to withdraw losing 3-4. This was a close-fought game with Eric's three Firestorm Shermans causing all but one of my company's casualties.

I think my force is going to have similar trouble with Panzer IV and Tiger forces as it did with the Shermans. I think I had best figure out a solution for this challenge or I'm going to be in trouble. Good thing for me I have some 25-Lb artillery on the painting table!

ACW Re-basing Project (2)

This is the final instalment of my 15mm ACW re-basing project. I've now fully converted all of my Fire & Fury lead to Volley & Bayonet basing. The Union figures consist of a dozen artillery bases of various types from smooth bore field guns all the way to siege mortars, a brigade of infantry and a regiment of dismounted cavalry. The latter includes a horse holder on the stand and is mounted as a linear infantry stand representing the less dense formation dismounted cavalry adopted compared to infantry brigades.

Below are the confederates. They're comprised of four artillery stands, three infantry brigades and four dismounted cavalry stands.

This completes another of my goals for 2011. In order to motivate myself to get this one done, I put the box containing the last of the un-based figures on my painting table. Each time I wanted to do a different project I had to move this one out of the way. Eventually I got tired of moving the box each time and got the project finished. Next up is another platoon of British Crusader tanks for my WWII British North Africa armoured force. Maybe when I finish that I'll look into working on finishing up my Seleucid FOG army which was goal #3 on my January list.

British Sherman II

This is a British Sherman II for use in one of my heavy armour platoons. It will be substituted as the command tank with a couple of Grant tanks as the rest of the platoon. I can have whole platoons of Shermans if I like, but honestly I like the Lee's semi-indirect fire rule and multiple guns a lot. Using a single Sherman gives me a little more punch when I have a few extra points to spend.

The cammo scheme is two-color grey over desert sand. I used the grey to simulate scale 'dirty black'. I just can't bring myself to imagine black staying true black in the desert. I found this scheme in the same book that I found my Grant cammo scheme. It looked very striking with the high-contrast stripe on the side of the tank so I thought I'd use it. Since the Shermans were mixed into units as they arrived, having two different cammo schemes within a platoon is fairly historical.

Paint and detailing techniques are the same as I've used on my other British desert tanks. I did leave the ammo tin for the .50 cal in US OD-green under the rationale that they probably wouldn't have re-painted them in dessert sand.