How do you like this set up? (games table)

Looked at what my max possibilites are gaming table wise. Storage underneath, book case at the end. You can move around the 3 sides easily enough. What do you think?

First game of Frostgrave without a mentor

Some errors were made during this battle. No egos were harmed. Lots of fun was had, and 2 more are enthusiastic about the game.

I brought almost my entire scenery collection tonight, plus a selection of miniatures, playsheets etc. All 3 of us had the book, but me, guiding the other two, was the only one using it.

I created lots of cover points and managed to fill the enttire 120x80 table. The guys played a very tactical game, hiding as much as possible, and casting leap tons of times (too much in fact, they used it on each others teams too to drag the treasure carrier back from the edge. Great fun, but not allowed! Oops!) Also a great favorite of Henri was casting wall, I think he succesfully cast 4 or 5 of the things.

And it worked perfectly for him, screening his force from being attacked by Modhail. We used the variable game length mod and the treasure not off the table and in your hands - 50% chance you have it - mod. Also, no XP for wizards killing stuff. They did not really need it, Henri had in 7 turns 13 succesful castings and Modhail had 9. And not just on the easy spells either, even 14's to cast were on target. They did not go for kills either, purely to get the treasure and get out again asap.

Bringing the counter with troll poo cause an interesting result. Two turns in a row, they managed to activate a Snow Troll, each time at the exact same starting point. Some impressive shooting managed to kill one, and after some sacrificially cast Imps to delay the other he was blocked by a wall or 2. Other then that about half a dozen skeletons showed up. In the end, only 3 henchmen were killed (and 2 imps) and the game ended with 1 chest on the table in Henri's hands and the rest off table (3 for Modhail, 2 for Henri. Modhail had a great action, leaping one of his mercenaries to the top of the tower, grabbing the treasure in the next turn and then being leaped right back off the tower again. We laughed a lot at the results of some of the spells and their effects on our little men.

They both seriously enjoyed it. Henri is the most likely one to have an entire band painted within 2 weeks time, Modhail won't be too far behind finishing it this year I think. I've decided to focus on finishing as much scenery as possible before the years end, and then spend time on painting my warband. We'll meet up again in 2 weeks time, probably at my place so I want to have more finished.

Also nice, the local independent shopkeeper has decided to stock the Frostgrave rulebook and the mini's as well, so it looks like there will be some thursday night gaming in the future for me.  Another reason to have painted stuff, it attracts more people.

I'm nackered now. The guys played from 20:30 to 23:30, picking up the rules very quickly, correcting some mistakes we made soon enough and like I said before, really enjoyed ourselves. And that is the best thing.

This weekend - Saturday night is the new gaming night with my wife - boardgames, and maybe some painting sundaynight.

Now: bed.

Wargaming @ De Landmachtdagen

I went to the Dutch Army Open Days (Landmachtdagen) this weekend to give a demonstartion about Wargaming with Dutch forces. I brought my Cold War troops, there were 2 tables about Afghanistan, several WW2 ones, from 1940 as well as 44-45 plus an action in Indonesia, a Medieval one, a Renaissance one and even a Roman one. Everything was themed on Dutch Forces or battles on Dutch soil and my table was the only (thank God) hypothetical one.

Friday - No battle as the Russians had not arrived yet so display only. Lots of veterans and current servicemen came for a chat, I learned a great deal about the strategy I should use from a active recce commander.

Saturday - The first battle, with me as the Dutch and Evin and Rutger as the Russians.I deployed too far back, used my Leopard as a Fireman force and had terrible dice. I held the enemy off from reaching my tableedge for 13 turns but lost all of my armour and half my infantry in the process. I call it a Dutch loss even if we held the Russians off long enough, as such losses are unsustainable as you are supposed to do a fighting withdrawal to the next defensive line. That means having troops and tanks left to actually man those lines!

Sunday - Rutger fought with my Dutch, Evin played the Russian side (i'd been on the base since thursday so I was feeling a bit knackered). Rutger fought a textbook action, deploying some of his tanks and AT teams far forward, killing the enemy Recce and then withdrawing to positions futher back while artillery shelled the advancing Soviets. He received the assistance of Lt. who was there to support the various players and who had mentioned he'd like to play a game. Under his command many 6's were rolled and he smashed the Russian left flank. In the end the battle was a resounding win for the Dutch plus it proved the tactic actually worked. As a bonus the display received a visit from the commander of the Dutch Army, Lt-Gen de Kruif, and the man grinned from ear to ear at our table. We spent some time explaining the game, he spotted the inaccuracies at one (Technically, I need YP-408's for this period, not YPR-456's, and the Leopard 1's should be Leopard 2's, or at least 1V's). We were then ordered to defeat the Russians :) Very impressive.

I made quite a few pics, but due to the light conditions sadly not too many came out right.

Battle 1 - Saturday (pictures are not in correct order)

 The enemy made good use of smokescreens.

 His recce reached the forward blocking position very quickly (this one surviving a Leopard 1 hit btw)

 The Soviet wave seen from my side. I was too far back for a proper response.

 I placed but did not use fortified positions.

 In hindsight, chanelling his forces, while succesful, just strengthend him. So don't do this again!

 Just a nice pic.

Tactical use of smokescreens.

Recce on the prowl.

The Recce Leopard failed to hit......story of my life for this game. Either that or hitting on unmodifed 6's at long range but then rolling 2's and 3's for damage.

Minefield were spotted by his recce but he managed to pass 2 out of 3. After which Usuthu demonstrated to us how this should be almost impossible due to the density of these minefield...maybe we need a houserule to improve them, say a 3+ or maybe even a 2+.

The last few yards.....there is a TOW in the woods that rolled a 1.....practically at the end of the smoking T-72's barrel. I say it rolled a 1 cause the missile didn't arm itself at that range

The counterattack that never should have happend anyway. I only managed to smoke 2 T-72's after which the rest trashed my Leopards. They should have deployed in a manner like Rutger did in his game.



Game 2 - Sadly I didn't take too many pics and due to the light conditions most are rubbish, so I just have these.

  The Soviet recce moved forward in a wide line, their AT support in the middle and using what cover they could.

But the Leopards were here....

....there......

....everywhere!

Just a nice pic, this is the YPR that carried the Dragon team. That fired one shot and then bugged out through the woods only to redeploy a bit more back.

Wargaming @ De Landmachtdagen could not have been possible without the planning and organisation of Overste Ludwig van Dijk, supported by his son Joey and Lt. Bart. 

KGN Weekend - The First Town - Tilly-Sur-Seulles, June 1944 - AAR East Flank

After Action Report Feldwebel Brasche, Eastern flank

Taken over positions in St Pierre which endured a strong British attack 2 days ago. 75% of the village is in ruins. Our platoon was to hold and defend the village for as long as possible, and guard a possible crossing of the river. The bridge leading to Tilly-sur-Seulles was not our responsibility.

 I deployed my men in the ruins facing the river and the forest. I deployed the PaK covering a opening in the forest which could be used to send armour through. The Stugs were put on reserve on my Eastern flank, but we were limited in ammo for them. Our spotter joined the unit in the Eastern most house of St Pierre for a good field of view over the river and a clearing in the forest. High command sent us a armoured car and cleared us for the use of a 105mm battery. We managed to scrounge up a 2nd HMG and built a bunker for it guarding the bend in the river, this had a clear line of sight to the river.

 Listening in on the radio net we could hear the enemy making a move for the farm on the Kampfgruppes Western flank. My platoon then got hit by British artillery, targetting the last intact house on my Eastern flank. This destroyed the PaK and its crew plus the unit inside the house. Their MMG and the spotter survived unharmed, though their transport was riddled with shrapnel. (5.5 inch artillery hit the building, the PaK deployed next to it got the full brunt of it and was destroyed, I failed the save for the infanry unit but saved the MMG and the FAO. Their vehicle got supressed)

Recovering from shock, the spotter informed me the British were deploying a bridging unit towards us and he would ask for higher up artillery support. This was granted and a 210mm Nebelwerfer battery fired a barrage at the bridging tank. The barrage went wide and hit a position to the west of it, behind a wood. I spotted large secondary explosions and what appeared to be a Sherman turret flung high into the air. (High command used a messenger to get Corps level support, we targetted the bridge but the round scattered.... right on top of an British Infantry and tank unit. I rolled 4 direct hits and 3 supressions for this one and destroyed 1 Shermans and the entire British Infantry unit. Of course the Firefly made its save)

We assume shrapnel did hit the bridging unit as it caught fire, but this was quickly put out again (we pulled the Mechanical Breakdown chit, put it on the bridge and rolled a 6. The British ARV was parked right behind it and in their turn promptly rolled a 6 as well!)

 We could make out British units moving up through the forest so brought down several rounds of artillery, and also sent out Panzershreck team towards the forest gap (For a few turns I brought down 105 artillery on the forest, managing to nibble off 1 or 2 infantry men at a time but never supressing them)

The radio gaves us many updates about the strong attack on the central positions of our Kampfgruppe, and British units has already made it into town. I was about to send out more orders to my men when we got slammed into the wall of our hideout by a massive blastwave. Several of us passed out. (The British used their messenger to get Navy artillery support and put that straight onto the bridge. This cost my fellow commanders a Stug and most of the infantry around it. Gamewise, it propably should have ruined the bridge as well, but we decided to keep it up)

 Our Stugs, already low on ammo, were about to run out so I requested resupply. This made it as far as the bridge before being vaporised (My Eastern stug had a running gun duel with a Churchill and survived all it got thrown at it, it got supressed a few times and finished the game with 1 HE shell left. The 2 Western Stugs ended the game with 1 AP and 1 HE left. The enemy targetted the bridge again (it was their RTP) and wasted the supply truck)

 We spotted the British trying to bring up more infantry and this was engaged by the HMG bunker. When they brought up more infantry they shielded them with their tanks. (First try the HMG kills 2 british including their Bren. Second try they move up the Firefly and use it to cover the troops. The Firefly fails to destroy or supress the bunker)

I would like to commend our HMG team in the bunker as they stayed on their post and managed to supress a Firefly, that was then targetted by a Panzershreck and destroyed (Rolled to supress the Firefly, achieved this, then Warwick moved his Panzerschreck next to it and blew it to smithereens. The Firefly had been resupplied the turn before so it must have been quite the fireworks )




I would like to request a posthumous Iron Cross for my Panzerschreck team as they had enemy infantry on their right and front but still moved forward and targetted the bridging unit just as it was to deploy their bridge. They managed to destroy it, survive the attention all fire aimed at them but sadly never made it back to our positions. (I had been moving the Panzershreck team forward every turn after the destruction of my PaK and with the Churchill at almost max range spotted it, hit it and destroyed it (10+ needed, rolled 11). They then survived the fire of a full British unit before succumbing to the fire of another British unit. Definately the man of the match for my army)

We then received the call to withdraw and left our positions.

Total casualties for my platoon:
1 PaK with 3 crew
5 infantrymen
1 Panzershreck team
And the AOP Beetle has lost about a 50 kilos in weight due to all of the holes.

Commendations for the HMG Bunker crew and the Panzershreck crew.

KGN Weekend - The First Town - Tilly-Sur-Seulles, June 1944 - Army finished!

Last bits!

120mm mortar team 1

120mm mortar team 2

HMG team

MMG team 1

MMG team 2

MMG team 3 went awol from my painting table and I'm loaning one from the club for this one.

Infantry Gun plus crew (1 of them has artillery piping and will be removed once I paint more guns and crews for them)

And the total lot, minus 2 transport trucks and the FAO transport

Now to cut the last bits of foam packaging, then pack it snugly in my flightcase and off to Ireland tomorrow :)

Minefield

For the first Big Game I had in 2010 I needed minefield for NATO to defend themselves with vs the Great Russian Horde. I spent some time cutting out 10x10 cm sheets of plasticcard, basing them, painting them and eventually just finishing 2, the rest languishing in my spares bin.

10x10 Unmarked Minefield

This turned out to be a  waste of time and resources as unmarked minefield are not put down on the table....bit of a Doh! moment <facepalm>



10x10 Marked Minefield

Looks very nice, but in the end also a waste of time and resources, cause how am I easily going to carry 10 of these without damaging them, in my transport case through 2 airports? Thinking before acting isn't my forte, thats for sure.

So, how change it? Well, like this:

Simple really, in the logic that I just need to mark the field 4 signs on the corners should suffice, right?

Easy, peasy.

Made for Rapid Fire Moderns, they are generic enough to work for other systems as well. They take hardly any time to build as well, cause the bases are 20x20mm precuts, a bit of brass wire and 0.5mm plasticcard I cut out with a punch actually meant for scrapbooking. More importantly, 1 minefield now takes up 40x40mm so more fit my small scenery storage boxes and they are a lot less susceptible to damage.

I'll be making another set with other markers, and the shape is great for most common roadsigns as well.

Test succesful.

A busy WIP table

I have a very busy WIP table at the moment, and these are just a few of the vehicles.

From left to right:
FoF Renault UE, a bit of cleaning to do and then convert it to the Wurfrahm version, my first model for KGN.
Hobbyden Technical, based and washed, ready for weathering. Just a display tester as I won't be doing Militia (any time soon that is).
Hobbyden Shorland, based and ready to be turned into a ZNN news car for the Africa game and propably quite a few other things.
Hobbyden Mercedes, suitably trashed and based, a bit of detail needs to be added before it is ready to be painted for the scrapyard.
The hard shelter of a Eastern European truck kit, based by itself, meant as a small (guard) shack for my Stalker project.

Decided to replace my MD-500 gunship (it just didn't look right)) with a old Matchbox Dauphin that I am turning into a Harbin Z-9W. So far so good, fit isn't that good but filler helps as does crossbracing the cockpit area. As the weapon mounts are quite thin my usual magnet trick didn't work so I opted for aluminum tubing. I've started out with turning 2 modern 500 pound bombs into 7.65 gun pods, just need to add the barrels, good excercise. After this I need to make a set of 23mm cannons and a set of AT missiles. Their rocket pods are a bit different compared to anything in my collection so not sure how to work my way around that. Decals weren't really easy to find but with some assistance from Sgt. Scream these have been sourced as well. Lots of work to do though, sensors, tail, more sanding, weapon pods etc. But the Rutger Base (TM) works like a charm.

I've been updating these Britannia M35 trucks into M35A2's by adding an exhaust system.

I also removed the winch from 2 of them and need to change the soft top into a hard top, basically add a bit of putty.

They are meant for transporting my US troops for Fire in the North and TW:2K but can double for almost anything as you see them second hand all over the world.

This one will double for TW:2K as well as my mercs for the Big game Africa, but is has been on and off my table for a dozen times now. I can't seem to make up my mind about what course to go with it. Uparmoured the cab area but took it all off again as it looked like shit. Anyone got ideas?

A objective for modern games (or something for the junkyard....) with Fire in the North in mind, a F-111 cockpit:

Picked up a few ECM F-111's after the holiday sales for a few euros each but their wargaming potential is minimal. At least this way I'm getting some use from it and the rest can go into the spares bin.

More letterboxes!