AK47 Battle Report: November 10, 2012

I got together with Gary, Mark and Mike on November 11, 2012 to play AK47. Gary had cooked up a scenario for us that allowed me to bring my US Marines. We basically ended up playing two 2 on 2 games on the same table. (Gary's table is about a football field in length).

I am still very much in the learning phase of AK47. This picture shows me trying to correct my mistake of driving into the town. I could have easily gone toe to toe with Gary's Africans but do to my stupidity with movement, I spent a lot of the game inching my way across the table.

The picture on the right shows my continuing blunders with movement. I went up on the hill on the left. My strategy from the jump was flawed. Take the hill. Take the town. It should have been, take the fight to them. Go AROUND the hill and the town. Gary blew up an infantry stand with an artillery strike. My Abrams tank was a reserve unit and I tried to get him into action as quickly as possible.

Here comes Gary's horde. They finally make it across the river. I am still trying to get my Bradley's out of the town. Gawd.

I did NOT get any pictures of the corner to the top left of these pictures. I actually had a helicopter on the board that spent a lot of time trying (successfully) to light up one of Gary's infantry stands.

Just in time for the time clock to expire, I finally start doing some damage. The Abrams is hammering away. The humvees are too. The Bradleys have caused a rout. It was not looking good for Gary's troops. :)

I definitely want to play on a smaller table. 3x3. Maybe 4x4. I really like the AK47 rule set. I love the random chaos it creates. I want to amp that up by closing the quarters a bit.

WIP: US Modern Marines

The figures are Modern US Marines from Rebel Minis. I bought an infantry pack and a command pack. (I also bought a pack of contractors but those will be saved for later.) I primed the minis with Army Painter Desert Yellow.

After priming, I gave them all a wash of Vallejo Sepia Wash (73300).

The first layer is a mix of 60% (ish) Vallejo British Tank Crew (321 Panzer Ace) and 40% (ish) Vallejo White (951 Model Colour). I am borrowing the scheme from a description on the Eureka forums for Moderns. I was trying for a dark sand look, almost clay. Almost gray. And I did a highlight. Very rough, I know I overlapped onto equipment, etc. But I like the shade from the wash. So I am sticking with it.

Next, I will do the packs and gear. I have a scheme for those as well.

DBA at Pair-A-Dice 10-20-2012

I played DBA on Saturday at Pair-A-Dice. I did horribly. And I could not roll a die for anything. Ugh. It was a frustrating day. I took my Order of St. John. I thought about bringing the Seljuk Turks. But I definitely need to start mixing it up. DBA at Dave's this summer is going to be Book I armies. I am going to get some Spartans.

 My first game was against Mark, part of my AK-47 crew. He brought Philistines. If you blow up the picture you can see the two chariots that I was worried about. You can also see my attempt to distract him. On my first turn, I ran 2 elements of psiloi down the left side of the board. They are in the woods.

The plan was semi-successful. I drew him out. But, even with Mark's steady 1's on the die, I could only kill 2 elements. He took 4 of mine for the win.

My second game was against Zip's Selucids. Two elephants. I lost this game, 0-4. I could not get the psiloi into position to go for the kill on the elephants. I pushed them back a few times.

Ultimately, I just could hold. 

Next up, Marian Romans. From Gary, another AK-47 crew member. I completely screwed the pooch on this. The green piece of terrain is a woods. With no trees. I thought it wouldn't be a problem to play with no trees. I quickly started viewing them as a hill. This was insanely stupid of me. I bogged EVERY element in the woods.

I lost 1-3. He killed my general.

In the woods.

Because I am an idiot. 

The games ended. Jeff won. Grats.

I played another game with Zip and his elephants. I took Early Crusaders. I bought these from Jeff. Rod S. had painted them and I wanted to add to my collection since he passed away. :(

I gambled. And lost. I gambled by running the Knights up the hill. Quick killed. Awesome.

All in all, possibly the worst day of DBA that I have played since starting out. Bad decisions. Stupidity. I was grumpy the rest of the day.

Battle Report: Bolt Action First Game

Jon L. invited me over for a game of the new Bolt Action WWII rules. Quick summary: I really enjoyed playing the rule set. I like a simple set of rules. BA is not overly complicated - it isn't even complicated. It definitely reminds me of earlier Warhammer rules. Which makes sense because there is a connection there. :)

We played Americans versus Germans. I got to use some of my Warlord Bolt Action figures that Rod Stafford had painted for me. I took the Americans and Jon took the Germans. We were playing for capture of the crossroads you see on the right of the picture.

This is the end of the first turn. I made a mistake. You can see my Airborne in the middle, flanked by an element of Rangers. I meant to run the Rangers to the right. Not sure what I was thinking.  I have my AT gun set up on the hill. I am running my Stuart forward. Both to guard the left flank.

This picture shows my right flank. Bazooka team in the building for overwatch on the crossroads. MG team was heading for that right building. In retrospect, I should have run the jeep with MG farther out to the right.

Here is a view of Jon's Germans. Infantry into the woods. His AT hiding and taking up an overwatch  position. Infantry moving up my right flank. He's got a halftrack and a 222 armored car in the back.

End of turn two: I try to correct my Ranger mistake. This too was a mistake. I should have committed. He who hesitates is lost. Rangers into the woods. Stuart pushes up the flank.

Jon brought the 222 up and the Stuart hammered it and took it out of commission.

My right flank bogs down in a hurry. Jeep was taken out by the infantry. I manage to get the MG team into the small building. Jon also has a sniper in the building in the top right of the picture.

So - Jon tried a series of charges on the Stuart. Maybe as many as five over the whole game. This one was ineffective.

The red are suppression/pin markers. Any shot that hits in an "order" results in a pin mark that has to be cleared via a morale check in the opponent's next turn. You can see the makers piling up on Jon's unit. They took fire from the Stuart, the 3 man officer unit and the Rangers.

Back to my right flank. I've managed to move my Airborne to light cover. They are taking aim at the unit in the building opposite them. My bazooka took out the motorcycle/sidecar with MG. Again...mired over here. The Airborne is just going to get whittled down by the sniper, the infantry unit and the half track which will show up soon.

The Haunted Tank as we started calling it, finally succumbs to a charge. Many panzershreks either whizzed by or stuck into the side without detonating. It finally had to give up the ghost. That Stuart did a lot of damage though.





I conceeded. I was done. Jon took out my truck, so I couldn't move my AT gun. My right flank, the infantry that was pinned had about a dozen pin markers on it. Going nowhere fast. Bazooka team didn't make it. HMG team got shot up. I had a lot of momentum and quickly lost it. I couldn't capitalize.

I look forward to playing again. I need to build out these armies/forces. I will be buying the Bolt Action rules.

WIP: Modern US Vehicles IV

I applied the first dry brush highlight. I say first because I am already thinking about a final highlight of a lighter color just to pick off the edges.

I used a 1:1 mix of Vallejo Iraqi Sand (819) and Pale Sand (837).

And I am still following (mostly) Sgt. Scream/Chris's scheme. I like it. I am not sure the pictures are doing it justice. But these models look like they belong in the desert or even Afghanistan to me. Tomorrow, I will try to hit the black. Tracks and tires. And the weaponry.

I am planning on playing some Bolt Action tomorrow! Can't wait.

WIP: Modern US Vehicles III

The second layer is a 2:1 mix of Vallejo Beige (917) and Vallejo Desert Yellow (977).

I used a heavy dry brush technique. I can already see the difference between the completed tank and these models. The heavy handed dry brush lets more of the wash show.

Again, just the first coat. I need to paint the stowage and the treads/tires. And highlight.

Next step is the first true highlight layer. 

WIP: Modern US Vehicles II

Here are some pictures of the next stage of painting these vehicles. I used the Sepia Wash from Vallejo.   Sgt. Scream recommends using an oil based paint. But I am just not ready for oil based paint. Washes are a new concept to me. Here are a couple of the tanks.

Here is a closeup of one of the turrets. I originally watered down the wash but quickly realized that I could (and should) go full strength. 

Lastly, a close up of the body of a tank.

I will confess that I was a little skeptical of how this was going to turn out. So, I finished a tank. And I am pretty happy with it. But I won't show it just yet. You will have to wait for it.

Next up: putting on the first layer of the main color.

WIP: Modern US Vehicles

I primed the QRF US modern vehicles yesterday. It took me awhile to put them all together. This is the first time in maybe 20 years that I have put together and attempted to paint any kind of miniature. It was slow going. The last time was probably some Orcs and Goblins for Warhammer.

You should be able to click to expand. The vehicles are all QRF:

M1 Abrams
M2 Bradley IFVs
Humvees

They are primed with Army Painter Desert Yellow. I am going to try to follow this painting guide from Small Scale Operations. I have just ordered some Vallejo paint. I am not going to use the oil wash. I will use just a regular wash. I'm nervous, we didn't wash 20 years ago. :)

Book Review: In Rommel's Backyard

In Rommel's Backyard: A Memoir of the Long Range Desert Group provides a first-hand and meticulously detailed look at the LRDG's activities in North Africa during World War II. Alastair Timpson of the Scots Guards provides the accounts in a very matter of fact manner. The book reads like a series of After Action Reports. That is not a negative. There is no hype here. His writing forces the reader to do a little work.

The LRDG supported the British 8th Army in a few ways: reconnaissance or "road watch" - counting trucks, supplies, tanks and men; harassing the enemy by destroying airfields, supply dumps and communcations; and providing escorts and delivery services for the SAS.

The missions described are done so without emotion. Again, the author works from his notes. The LRDG became the experts at desert navigation. These troops were truly Special Forces even though they do not get the publicity that the SAS received.

From a gaming perspective, this book offers a huge amount of detail. He provides unit composition including changes to the structure and going from full patrols to half patrols. He provides detail on vehicles and aircraft. Both British and Italian/German. Including the switch from Ford to Chevy trucks. Locations and types of missions. For example, blowing up water trucks. Terrain - including finding a cave with baby cheetahs. (Somehow, that will have to make it onto a table.)

The end of the book provides its most harrowing tale. That of being discovered inside a German camp and being chased across the desert.

There is enough information in this book to get me started on building a LRDG force. I've just started the process of mapping out a small starter force for each. The good news is that Battlefront has a great line of 15mm LRDG figures. There are also 28mm figures available from various suppliers.

Western NY Game Day July 28, 2012: AK-47

I played another crazy game of AK-47. This was my third time playing. It was a 3 on 3 board. I had the Cubans.

As you can see, the board was big although not as big as what I have played on previously.

I started on the left flank. AK-47 is such a random game. You don't start with all your troops. I was very lucky with the die rolls in this game. I managed to get my reserve tanks on the board and also called in two(!!) airstrikes. Both actually hit something too.

Cubans move into position.

There were objectives on all sides of the board. For some reason 3 objectives were in my sector. My plan was to take and hold. There was also a Truck of French Miners moving through that I could capture.

Mining Truck is mine.

I got my tanks into a good position. Shielded on the left. My opponent spent a lot of time washing his trucks and tanks in the river. I could have taken better pictures. 

Tank reserves make it on the board!

The objectives were the town, the bridge and the small patch of jungle on the bottom, right. I drove the mining truck to the edge of the table.

Owen clears the river!

I didn't take a picture of the last turn, but this is the second to last turn. I control all the objectives. My tanks have blasted Owen's jeeps. I called in a successful airstrike on the jeeps/general. I took out a stand of infantry.

Meanwhile, on the other sides of the board, there were a lot of machete attacks on tanks. Successfully! Ultimately we won because of the objective control. I did not loose any stands. 

I think I would like to try this game on a smaller board. I was slow going with 6 people playing. I would like to try a smaller board with a 2 on 2 or 1 on 1. More troops in a smaller area where the random stuff could really cause a lot of chaos. I'm going to build a modern US force. 

Western NY Game Day July 28, 2012: Arena Match

I had a great time yesterday at our local Western New York Game Day put on by Jon Lundberg and Dave Abraham [edit per Dave :) - Mike]. Mike V. put on a couple of matches of Arena Games:Gladiatorial Combat. Gary C. put on a game of AK-47 Republic. Frank C. put on a 15mm Sudan Game. I played an Arena Match and in the AK-47 mayhem errrrr game.

[Here is a link to Mike Vasile's Arena Games: Gladiatorial Combat - Mike]


[Be sure to check out the page with Mike's 54mm Gladiators! Sigh - more to add to my list. - Mike]

I wandered into my first Arena Match. I selected my gladiator, Hoplomachus and we entered the AMAZING coliseum of Mike V.

The Gladiators entering the arena and Jeff and Jim immediately closing each other. 

Jeff and Jim continue to go at it. Hoplomachus is in range for a spear attack. He chooses Jim in the Yankees shirt. 

The father/son team closes in. Jeff gets NETTED. That's never good. 

Jeff doesn't make it after getting speared and tridented. 

I finish off Jim and wait for the tag team. 

Sorry for the blurry shot but it won't be long now. 

The son in the father/son team unleases a torrent of blows and decapitates Hoplomachus!

Final Turn

We called it a night before capturing any of the bridges. The end was near for the Germans.

The American tank battery took out 2 of the Tigers and pinned another. Gary's Shermans took out one of the StuGs. Gary's guns made quick work of Pete's guns across the river. You can see American infantry coming up the road. There are also 2 other groups of Shermans at the FAR end of the table. These are reinforcements that came in late. They are running to the two, undefended, bridges.

The red puffies indicate morale fails. 3 puffies and you break. (I think. We never got that far.)

All in all, I am very thankful these guys invited me to join them. I hope they have me back. I really liked the rule set. Simple. I like simple. Here is a link to the AK-47 Republic rules we used.

The Tigers Decided to Play

Pete's Tigers finally made it out of the town! Mark is seen measuring move distances for the Mark IVs and StuGs. My Destroyers and Shermans have sat in that spot for a turn or two at this point. They blasted away at some infantry in the town. I pinned and then killed a heavy machine gun.

Behind the tanks, my co-commander, Gary, has deployed his AT guns to stop Pete's guns across the river. Gary also has gotten his armored cars up the board.

Closer View of the Pending Tank Battle

This is a slightly closer look at the pending tank battle. There is another unit of Shermans coming up the right flank, on the other side of the tree-line.

15mm WWII Using AK-47 Rules

I got together with a group of guys last night to play a 15mm WWII game. We used a modified version of the AK-47 rules. I really liked the rule set. Very simple. Move, shoot, morale check. I snapped a couple of photos. It was teams of two, Americans as the aggressor. Germans defending. It was objective based. As the attacker, the Americans could pick the objectives. My partner and I chose the 3 bridges.

One bridge was in the middle of the town. I liked that you could pick what table corner you came in on. In the picture, you can see the Americans chose to come in on one side of the river. This proved decisive. If you double-click the picture, you will see 3 German Tigers stuck in the village. Several really bad die rolls had them visiting the bier tent in the town. They refused to come out!

This let the American forces advance. You can see my line of tank destroyers and Shermans advancing to position themselves to take on the Tigers when they decided to pop out and/or the Mark IVs and StuGs.