Battle Report: Bolt Action January 20, 2013

Jon L. organized a Winter Games Day at his church in Henrietta yesterday. I got in another fun game of Bolt Action. We played a 2 on 2 game. I brought my American Airborne supplemented by another airborne unit of Jon's. My partners had British troops. We were playing against Gary C. and Bo as the Germans. The scenario was for the Germans to "hold until relieved" the crossroads in the middle of the town. Here's a shot of the initial deployment:

My forces are deployed on the bottom quadrant (if you will). Bo had an infantry unit hiding in the leftmost house on the far side of the road. There is an observer and a MG team in the right most house on the far side of the road too.

We essentially played two games on the same board. We weren't really all that integrated in our attacks. It was me against Bo. My plan was to run around the left flank, let my mortar team do its job and then clear houses and Bo's mortar.

Turn 2 or 3 on the right. I have a command stand on the corner of the near house. These are working as observers for my mortar. I have an MG team in the house too. Infantry is in cover except from the mortar. Mortar mechanics are interesting. It takes a 6 to hit the first time. If the target does not move it goes to a 5 and so on. If you hit, from then on, it hits on a 2. As long as the target doesn't move.

I think I missed a picture. My mortars hit. Bo's mortar kept missing. I hit the house with Bo's infantry. Resulting in a pin marker. Pinning is a dynamic part of the rules that can be your friend or enemy. You have to rally from it. And you take -1 penalties for every marker when shooting. Bo took out my MG team in the house. My infantry teams landed some hits. I effectively took his team  out of commission. I kept the pressure on.

This is a close up of the current turn. Bo did manage to take out some of my Airborne. But I continue the press.

You can see the pin markers stacking up on Bo. The funny side action is in the foremost house on the right. Bo ran a command section at my mortar. They are between the houses. I moved a bazooka team into the house. They are literally right on top of Bo's unit. Neither of us could hit each other! It was funny.

I missed another shot here. I took out the unit in the house finally. Bo actually rolled double 6s which is a FUBAR role. The unit ran from the house into the crossroads and were cut down by my allies. I also took at a MG team that Gary backed out of the house. Another instance of getting some pin markers down. I took out the mortar team. Then I started running towards the crossroads. This was the final turn. We actually failed the objective. We did not take the crossroads. I needed another turn.

I really like this game. 2 on 2 bogged down a little bit with the dice pulls. We could have easily played it as 2, 1 x 1 games. I am really looking forward to playing this more.

WIP: 15mm Essex Spartans

I attached the spears to the Spartans today. Hooooleeee Jeebus. That s.t.u.n.k. But, I'm done. Click the pics to see larger photos. You can see where I have started playing with some colors. I'm still taking a very old school approach. I primed them black, then I drybrushed white. I need that drybrush to pick out the details. We'll see how it goes. I am going to start with the flesh tone first. Work up from that layer. I gotta get these done so I can practice with them before June. 

Next up: Bolt Action battle report. Maybe some X-wing too. 

WIP: US Modern Vehicles Final

Thanks to Chris over at Small Scale Operations for the reminder that I never posted the final pictures of the US Modern vehicles I was working on!

I used Chris' paint scheme on these. I think it worked out very well. Keep in mind, these are the first things I have painted in 20 years. So be gentle with me. :)

Click the pictures to see them on a bigger scale. No decals on the humvees. I couldn't find enough surface area to use. And I am too shaky to free hand a chevron.

You can go here to see these minis in action. I was rushing to get these ready for the AK47 game in the battle report.

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.