Kittys got claws...

First of all, I hope everyone had a great christmas, and I will take this chance to wish everyone a happy and prosperous new year...

Christmas was quiet on the hobby side of things - all I got was three boxes of Zvezda Stukas from the cat and a K R Multicase from the inlaws as my Flames of War stuff is now too numerous to fit into one box.

So, onto a little battle I had against one of my regular opponents at Hulls Angels, Alan. After pondering a suitable list I realised that I hadn't taken out my Panthers to play yet. They are great tanks if used correctly and I wanted to see if they lived up to their fearsome reputation.

We played a modified cauldron scenario where, as this was a campaign game, the Germans wouldnt get delayed reserves but standard reserves.

Starting on the table were 2 Panzer IV's and a fallschirmjager platoon.

Unfortunately, Alan, who had taken a US armoured force, had deployed a platoon of 76mm shermans in close proximity. The 76mm guns did what they do best, and turned the Panzer IVs into mincemeat



The Panthers turned up to even up the odds. It was clear from an early stage that the central objective was going to be where it was all going to happen so Alan began to maneuvre accordingly. Some long range sniping took out a couple of shermans, before Alan decided to try and knock out one of my 3 panthers with a sneaky shot at the side armour...



Which ended about as well as you would expect if a sherman tried to stare down a Panther...



Some lucky long range shooting took out a Panther and the other advanced on the objective taking the fight to the Americans. Had the game ended there, it would have been a German victory, but unfortunately I had to wait until at least Turn 4 with the objective uncontested.

The arrival of the tiger tank!


Which was promptly knocked out by Alans air force (Doug, take note - this is how you use air power :D )



Meanwhile the fallschirmjager, who had become pinned by the aforementioned US force, decided discretion was the better part of valour and promptly refused to move for ooh, about 6 turns...



Heavy fighting erupts around the objective as the two panthers show the Americans how to fight



The falschirmjager finally realise that they are there to fight not have a picnic and get stuck in. Unfortunately a lack of anti-tank kit hampered me, but they did knock out two shermans.



Before finally falling back, almost wiped out to a man



By this stage, a second panther had succumbed to weight of fire, and the last remaining panther crew bailed out and decided to head home.



A hard fought game with the allies suffering 12 shermans lost out of 17 but victory belonged to Alan.



Thanks for reading!

Marching on...

Well it's taken a few months but I've finally finished my Late War British Infantry, which I will be using almost exclusively as the infantry element of the Polish 1st Armoured Division. Although not as complicated to paint as the fallschirmjager, they still had lots of tricksy detail to paint (gaiters!). They will never win an award for best painted army (unless it's the only painted army at the competition) but they do look decent from table top height. The only thing I would want to add is rank to the command bases, but I just don't have the skill for that!









Next up are some plastic Panzer IV's from the Plastic Soldier Company. These models are truly excellent and I only fear that my paint job has not done them justice. I cannot wait for the Panthers that are coming out in January from these guys!

The only thing they need are transfers applying but I've run out :(









SO what's next on my table? This will be my last Flames of War army in the Late War period due to time constraints. I've gone with US Airborne plus some supporting elements (i.e. it was reduced at the Hobbycraft sale and it's all that was left...)

Artillery


Paras


More tanks!


Take a look at the sprues - remember this is a 15mm tank. Awesome! And so reasonably priced!!! Battlefront (and GW) take note - this is how you get people to spend their money on your products!



As always, any comments, much appreciated :)

Flames over europe

Started playing a campaign at the local club, Hulls Angels. It's only two a side as there arent many of us playing yet, but it's gaining in popularity (as is warmachine) and we've gained a couple of extra guys for turn 2.

It's a 4 turn campaign based loosely on Operation Goodwood and it's 2 real weeks per game turn to allow those plenty of time to get some games in.

So first game I played was against John, who took a British Tank Company from FE I think. The mission was Hold The Line for the Germans but with some extra rules to spice things up - the Germans got a couple of MG nests, anti-tank nests and a one shot rocket launcher, whilst the Allies got a naval bombardment viable as long as the c-i-c remained on the table.

This was the first time I had played John, who is an experienced 40k and Fantasy player, and I knew he wouldn't be a push over.

A tough fought game but my Tiger tank was the star of the match, shrugging off the fire of John's Shermans and decimating the platoon in return. The final coup de grace was delivered by an infantry platoon which destroyed another sherman platoon in close combat, forcing them all to bail, at which point the three remaining stuarts failed their morale check and fled the table.

The following week was against my regular opponent Doug. If you've been bored enough to read my previous blog entries I last faced Doug and his British paras in a slightly mismatched scenario. This time around the scenario was more balances, Doug was using the British special rules to force a night fight, and his paras were out for revenge...

The Germans set up - 1000pts of Fallschirmjager but roughly half were reserves off the table.


The paras advance under cover of darkness...


Some poor shooting by both sides due to the night fight rules meant this was going to get a lot bloodier before it was resolved.



German AA lie in wait


German reserves move up (after about 3 turns of failing to roll for my reinforcements). Meanwhile, the paras get ever closer to their objective (the pill boxes)



The machine guns in the pill box take a heavy toll on the paras but they take their objective and prepare to hold against the inevitable, desperate, counter-attack.



The fallschirmjager launch their attack knowing that time is running out. The timely arrival of the RAF pins the reinforcements (just to the left of the photo) and stops them pushing within charge range, so it's just one platoon that can get their on time.



And it all comes down to this. The British paras company commander hunkers down in the bunker. The tiger tank chooses to fire it's MGs knowing that it needs some lucky dice rolls to win the game...



Two hits. One failed saving throw. The bulletproof cover means a firepower test is needed to win the game for the Germans. One roll - can the Germans roll a six to win the game??




Well played Douglas ;) Get ya next time!

New House :)

So, not much has happened hobby-wise this last month.

With a new arrival on the way in January(!) the mrs and I have been busy trying to sell our old house and find a new place. After what seems like ages we finally moved in on Friday...



A nice double garage with plenty of room for a gaming table :) Not to mention storage for all of the old models I've found...



And although I've lost my "Ape Cave" - I've still got room to paint...



I did manage to find some time to do some painting. Some WIP British infantry that will be used as Late War Polish infantry (looking a little rough but nothing a liberal coating of Devlan Mud can't fix...)



That's all for now - plenty more on it's way soon!

Flames of War Battle report

Played a game of flames of war with my fallschirmjager - the battle for the white road of la sa oman (apparently) - against Doug, one of the gents at my local gaming club - Hulls Angels...

It was a 1500 point game with Doug's British Paras trying to take the village that my German Paras were holed up in. I had expected him to advance down the road but he left me flat footed by focusing the majority of his force on my left flank. Unfortunately, I had some uncharacteristicly good luck with my dice, and my platoon that was in cover and the target of much of his firepower didnt suffer a single casualty all game!

The scenario wasnt one out of the book so on reflection it was a bit unbalanced against poor Doug's paras who were caught in open ground with the inevitable outcome. Still, we both needed to play the game to learn the rules a bit better, so it was a good learning experience for both of us and I'm pretty sure the next time we play - with a balanced scenario - it will be a tough fight.

Here are some pics taken on my iphone (so please excuse the quality)