Trench Warfare

For the past month Morning Star Games have been hosting several World War I games, it being the 100th anniversary of the Great War. I had been hoping to get in on Chris's game of Victory at Sea but I had to work. Finally last Saturday, I managed to get in on all this Great War goodness by playing in Mike's Warhammer Great War game. I've had these rules for a while but hadn't had the time or money to paint the miniatures for a game. The scenario mike set was for a basic trench assault. There were 4 players, with me being one of the German players. Here are the old timey photos of the battle.

The enemy objective/

The battle field prior to any troop placement.

My forces setup. I had two platoons, both of which I placed well forward in the trench line.  I also had various support weapons including a HMG (seen in the entrenchment above), a light mortar, and a medium mortar.

Mike's set up of his forces. He had pretty much the same thing I had. He however only had one of his platoons in the trenches. The other was set up near the objective as a reserve. You can also see our one field gun.

The enemy set up. They had almost twice a many troops as we did as well as the feared tank.

 

A look at the enemy from the trench line.

The enemy  moves forward.

After sustaining heavy casualties, moves the tank forward. Due to an error we made reading the rules, we came under the wrong impression that the tank could only be hit with a side shot. This would nearly cost us the game.

Under heavy fire  from both the tank and an HMG team, I take several hits all but losing one of my entire platoons.



The enemy forces slowly move forward, but are still taking hits from the right.

The end of the game my troops start withdrawing from the trench. We may of lost the trench but we were able to hold the rear objective, thus giving our side the victory.

If we hadn't misread the rules, our field gun could have blown that tank to hell. Making living allot easier for us. I hope to play this system again soon. As for the immediate future, I've started gathering stuff for a new Megablitz unit and I hope to do my next early Cold War Shipwreck scenario soon.

Red Air

Over the weekend I painted some more aircraft for Megablitz. Being that my next scenario is in the east front I decided to buildup my Russian air force. I also decided to start mounting my aircraft with magnets. Here are the pictures of the new aircraft.



Here we have all the aircraft together, 3 light bombers and 3 fighters. Behind them you can see one of my new flight stands. Not as pretty as the Warhammer, but it works with the new magnets

For early war ground support, I've got a division's worth of SB light bombers. These were all made by Scotia. The first two are early models done in the bare metal which was common in the early days of the war. The second one has some improvised camouflage applied shortly after the invasion. The third one is a late model SB3 and is done in the official Soviet camouflage.



Now for the fighters. (The picture doesn't do them justice.) I was originally planning to paint 2 Russian I-15 fighters and my Finnish Buffalo. I then noticed that my two I-15 fighters looked different from each other even though they were both from H&R. At first I thought I got an old and a newer molding of the aircraft. However, after some research, I realized I instead had a mis-packaged Hs-123. So I now have a new German aircraft. Not that I mind, it's just that now I need to buy another Russian Biplane as the scenario calls for about 2 regiments.

Anyway those are the new planes. I'm not sure what I'm going to post next, though I do plan to play in Christain's Victory at Sea game on the 23rd.
Anyway those are the new aircraft

Cruiser Modification and Other Things.

I recently got some new ships for my next game of Shipwreck and just finished painting them. There was a little modification involved with this group. I had ordered the Skytrex Galveston class cruiser. Unfortunately the Skytrex Galveston was the regular missile cruiser version, not the flag ship version I needed. So I had to modify it to make it look like the flag ship I need. I didn't take a picture of the model before I started cutting it up, but here's what it looked like before.

USS Galveston cruiser of which only one was modified.

 Here's what I needed.

USS Oklahoma City, 6th Fleet flagship.

 Now, behold the butchery!

I would later realize that I glued the 5" turret on its side.

 And now the final product, which doesn't look too bad.

I'll probably end up repainting the top of the command center.

Now for the rest of the ships.

Here we have the Belknap CG USS Sterett.

Two Gearing class destroyers. Built at the end of WWII and modified with helipads and ASROC launchers, the Gearings were a workhorse of the throughout the Cold War until they were replaced by the Spruance class in the Mid 70s. They went on to serve in many allied navies including: Greece, Turkey, Pakistan, Taiwan, and South Korea.

Finally I decided to expand my Vietnamese navy for some early cold war action with 3 P-6 PT Boats and a Komar PTM. The Komar is just an Osa I cut in half, which is pretty much what the real one is.

Anyway those are the new ships. I hope to use them in a Vietnam scenario soon.

Finnish Megablitz Unit

I just finished painting my latest Megablitz unit last night. I've decided that the next game will be on the east front, so I decided to start with the Finnish 6th Infantry Division. Here's how it came out.

First up we have the 12th, 33rd , and 54th Infantry Regiments. I decided to use H&R WWI Germans for the infantry.

Next up we have the division support units. On the top row we have the 3rd Light Infantry Battalion, 14th Artillery Regiment, and 36th Engineer Battalion. On the bottom row we have COL Viikla the divsion commander, the 35th Signal company, and the 6th Supply Company.

Here's the unit all together, ready to take on the Soviets in the Northern front. I thinking of maybe adding an attached StuG III for anti-tank support later.

That's the new unit. I'm still waiting for my new ships to come in. If they don't arrive soon I'll start on something else for Megablitz.

Check Your Six: Jet Age

Last Sunday me, Christian, and Ziggy played a game of Check you're six. I've been curious about the rules so decided to try them out. The scenario was Vietnam with 4 F-4 Phantoms verses 3 MiG-21s. I ended up controlling two of the F-4s Basco 3 and 4. Here are the pictures of the game.

My planes the red based Basco 4 and the more experienced white based Basco 3.

The game table. The white felt pieces represented clouds. In the for ground you can see my planes. One the right side of the table you can see Christians planes Bosco 1 & 2. On the right side of the last cloud you can see two of the MiGs controlled by Ziggy. Unseen is another Veteran MiG that was hidden.

Ziggy's Pink Based MiG turns to Basco 1 & 2.

Suddenly the Veteran MiG-21 appears right behind me and takes a pot shot at Basco 4. Luckily I suffer little damage.

Basco 3 does a Split-S to engage the Veteran MiG.

One of Christian's F-4s was then hit with an AA-2 and destroyed.

Another missile was fired at Christians Green based plane, but it only damaged him. The Pink based MiG-21 then fled off board having shot all his missiles.

I fired a
I fired an AIM-7E at the Yellow based MiG-21 but I missed.

Basco 4 fires again this time at the Veteran MiG-21 but once again misses.

Basco 3 fires his last AIM-9 Sidewinder at the Veteran MiG only to miss once again. What really angered me was that every roll a missed, I missed by 1.

After we had used up most of our missiles, we decided to call it with Ziggy as the winner. I really enjoy the game and my try to some more later. On my end I've order some new ships for an up coming game of shipwreck. This time it will be an historical scenario. I'm also almost painting my next Megablitz unit. I should have pictures of it up next.

Latorial Warfare in the Fake Strait

   Yesterday me and Christain played a game of Shipwreck. I wanted to use my new LCSs so I made a cut down version of Harpoons Streetfighter scenario. Christian was playing the US forces helping the factious state of Greyback. While I was playing the guard gorillas who were supported by naval and air forces of Red Bamboo. The US had 2 LCS and also had 2 Greyback patrol boats. Their mission was to insure safe transit for merchant ships in the strait.
   I was controlling the Red Guard with 1 armed trawler, 4 armed motorboats, and 2 suicide boats with big bombs on them. Supporting the Red Guard were the naval forces of Red Bamboo with 2 Tarantul I missile boats, 2 Natya I minesweepers, and 1 Mi-24  Hind D. I also had four minefields set up in the strait and a few more on the minesweepers and trawlers I could maybe deploy later.
    The Red Guard had free pass to attack anything. Both the US and Red Bamboo had strict rules of engagement. The US could attack identified Red Guard freely, but could not attack Red Bamboo units unless they were seen attacking US or Merchant ships. Like wise the Red Bamboo units could attack civilian shipping (as long as no one saw them do it) but could only attack US units if attacked.

Here's a picture of the table, all the ships started hidden with the US player having 2 helicopters in the air. He couldn't deploy more until he detected enemy units. I borrowed Christain's Heroscape to make up the shore lines.

Turn 1: The LCS Fort Worth nearly hits a mine and is spotted by the Red Bamboo Mi-24. The US pilots had trouble telling the neutral ships from the red guard. They did identify 1 of the tarantuls.

Fort Worth steering clear of a mine as the Mi-24 flies past.

US MH-60 flying close to aTarantul I missile boat.

Turn 2: In turn 2 more ships entered the board. All the Red Guard boats started moving into the strait. I knew my little boats wouldn't stand a chance against the US ships so I was going to have them concentrate on the civilian ships that the Mi-24 spotted.

A MH-60 harassing the trawler L.J. Silver.

Turn 3: The US pilots finally identified one of my attack boats and sunk it with a hellfire missile.

One of my boats being destroyed by a hellfire fired from a MH-60.

 Turn 4: Not much happened

Turn 5: I had a huge stroke of luck as the LCS Independence struck a mine. The explosion crippled the ship which was ironically the US minesweeper. Unfortunately one of my bomb boats were discovered by a MH-60 and destroyed with a hellfire missile. Then an ecological disaster happened when the Exxon Hazelwood came under a "mysterious" missile attack and was heavily damage spieling oil into the strait.

Independence burns after striking a mine.

When the US accused Red Bamboo of firing SS-N-2 missiles that started the ecological disaster, the Central Committee stated that the US couldn't provide any prof that it was their missiles that hit the tanker. That and it all bunch of tree hugging hippie crap anyway.

 Turn 6: The US player spots two of my attack boats firing on the merchants. Both are heavily damaged; one by 57mm gunfire from Fort Worth and one by hellfire from an MH-60.

Turn 7: The Independence can't control the fires and sinks. In retaliation the US sinks one of my damaged attack boats with more 57mm fire. Fort Worth also launches the MQ-1B firescout which with the MH-60 spots one of my Natya I minesweeper and another neutral trawler. Finally the captain of the SS Gas Can reported that he was under attack by a sea borne VBIED, but it turned out that the boat driver was drunk.

Independence goes under as the SS Big Oil and Capt Dee watch.



US helicopters observing one of my Natya I minesweeper and Lucky Dragon #5.

Not a terrorist.

Turn 8: Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures for turn 8. My last bomb boat made an attempt on the container ship MSC Shanghai. Although the bomb went off without a hitch, it little damage to the large ship. I decided to call it then as I had to get some sleep before I went to work.
     I didn't do as much damage as I had hoped to. I wanted to inflect damage on some of the smaller merchants. Still I did manage to sink a US warship so that is something.

    Next week I'm hoping to try out Check Your Six: Jet Age.

The Latest Ships

I got my new ships painted over the weekend. Here's the pictures.

First up is the new additions to my American fleet. Both a Freedom and Independence class LCS. The Freedom class in done in a camouflage pattern that was recently used. On the left is a Hamilton class Coast Guard cutter. Of course having a USCG cutter, I had to repaint one of my Seahawks, making it a Jayhawk.

I painted the Perchim FFL I had bought into as a Koni FFL and used it as the base for my new Cuban fleet. The fleet includes (left to right) a Koni FFL, a Pauk PC, and 2 Osa II PTM. I hope to use these and the cutter for some Caribbean scenarios.

The next ship is a fine addition to my merchant fleet. The Xiamen container ship. I really like how this turned out. 

Last but not least, I also bought some of Shapways awesome missile markers. I'm definitely looking forward to using these.

Anyway that's the new sea gear. Me and Christian will be playing a Shipwreck game this Saturday, and I'll be using some of these very units.