Happy Fouth of July!

 

Happy Fourth of July to all my American followers out there!

 

 

 

Battle Report 6.11.2018

On Monday I was able to head to my buddy's house again and play some Bolt Action. His son was up and he wanted to take his Russian Army for a test drive. My buddy had been working on Hungarians and he wanted to take them out for a spin too.

We did the same as last. Rolled for control of the board and then picked terrain pieces. The farm was already established. Major pieces were a large farm field, a hill, a pond and woods. One side of the table was a bit terrain heavy, but there was some scatter terrain around. A railroad track, orchard and random fields were added, but these were small and provided no real tactical advantage. 

Point values were huge for this game. Over 3,400 for the Russians which my buddy and I split up between our Hungarian and German Units. I fielded two Fallshirmjager squads which was supported by Luftwaffe Field Division, a light mortar, Panzershrek team and a sniper team. They were upported by a StuG assault gun. They were being supported by a half-track as well. Platoon 2 consisted of 2 Waffen SS Unit squads, a mortar team,a  sniper team, a panzershrek team, a Tiger tank, a light howitzer, a medium mortar with spotter and a half-track. 

Took a long time before any real infantry combat occurred. Tanks pushed forward and began firing at one another. The Tiger proved to be useful halting the advance of Russian armor on the right flank. Infantry units were slowed down by the constant rocket artillery attacks. One attack wiped out a panzershrek team as it was moving up to support Hungarian armor. The Hungarian armored car came under fire by Russian armor and anti-tank rifles, but held on and was able to retreat back to safety.

Hungarian cavalry assisted but they were stopped and proved to be combat ineffective as the continually were pinned down by fire and failed orders. Units moved up to assist but began taking causalities.  

Infantry was able to move up and take position behind a rock wall. Fighting was intense and both sides fought hard but in the end one unit was killed, but the victors retreated. A T-34 was pinned down o the roadway by the Hungarian armor and the Tiger. The Tiger missed knocking out the tank on it first shot (bad luck on the roll), but was able to stun the crew and damage the turret.

 A KV-2 pushed ahead and was in the sights of the Pak 40. The PaK fired but missed. The KV 2 approached the farm and the Luftwaffe Field Division opened up with 2 panzerfausts. Both missed. 

In the end the Russian had a tactical victory but did take causalities.  

Fallshirmjager PaK40

Mortar teams

A Waffen SS Unit moves in toward the orchard.

Overhead view of the battle field. 

Fallshirmjager sniper team in the woods. 3d Printed Hungarian armored car in front.

Puma taking a shot at a T-34.

Artillery Position

So I began working on a position for my artillery piece. Looking at some photos and some things from Warlord I figured I'd take a stab and my own rendition of what Warlord made.

I first measured out some MDF I had laying around. I marked out where the walls would be so i could build up a dirt mound in front.

Next I took some DAS air drying clay and began sculpting a hill for the emplacement. I made sure to wet it down as i wanted it to be fairly smooth.

Next I took some small coffee stirrers and put them against the mount of clay. I followed that up with some match stick posts on wither side. I had some of them stick out to show the reinforcement. 

Once everything dries up i will base coat everything with a brown paint and then begin adding flock and the details. 

Wordless Wednesday

Battle Report 5.28.2018

 Took some time on memorial Day to pay a visit to my buddy to get some gaming in. Nothing too crazy this time and I wanted to get some different figures out. Was playing with some small squads of SS and Fallshirmjager and a full squad of Luftwaffe Field Division.

We did things a little different. We started with an open table and rolled for control. I won and then rolled for the number of terrain pieces. We had 4 pieces of terrain added. two sections of foods, a hill and a river. Games was US vs German.

As the battle began all units were loaded on transports and were pushing for the hill. Using the hill as cover some units made it to the hill. As the Puma pushed forward, it came in range of the approaching Shermans. The Puma opened fire, but missed. The Sherman he was shooting at returned fire and was able to knock out the Puma.

With the Puma being knocked out, the Field Division offloaded. A M10 arrived and took aim at the truck, destroying it. Hunkered down the SS unit began approaching to assist.  

As the supporting infantry approached, Allied air superiority was evident as units came under fire from Allied aircraft. The German Half-track attempted to fend off the incoming aircraft but their efforts failed. The German units were no match. Fallshirmjager units attempted to flank but assaults on the armor proved to be unsuccessful and the units were killed in hand to hand combat in one of the wood line areas. German units were forced to pull back. 

Next game we played was objective based. There were three objectives. A patch of woods, the hill and a orchard/farm. The Germans were quick to secure the farm building and make the push for the hill. Units exchanged fire with approaching troops and armor. The Germans were supported by a Tiger tank but the tiger was destroyed by Allied armor and they lacked the support. However the Germans were able to push forward and take the hill and set up defenses around the farm. The Germans held the farm, but lost all support on the hill. The battle was a draw. 

COLD WARS

So in March the annual Cold Wars was held at the Host Conference Center in Lancaster Pennsylvania. A few months prior was the Fall In convention at the same location. I enjoy going ot these events to pick up some items a the Flea Market for a great price and for checking out gaming tables. I use this as a way to gather ideas for terrain for the tabletop so i can make things a little more interesting. 

One of the first tables I as was a demo game for Chain of Command by Two Fat Lardies. The terrain was amazing. the town was great and the cobblestone streets were amazing. I asked the guy at the table how he got the streets to look like that. He said he was able to get a cobble stone picture and had the picture printed on the cloth at his local Wal-Mart. The detail of this was AMAZING. 

The game they were playing was the Allies and the French Resistance against the Germans at a U-Boat dock. 

After lunch and walking around. I headed on down to the Bolt Action tournament that was going on. I got a watch a few games. All the games were objective based with the standard 3 turns. Maybe next year I will get one of my armies together and use them for a tourney. Some of the models out there were just amazing. 

Lastly here is a little overview of the trip to the vendor area and the flea market. Flea market was great. Was able to get a number of figures to finish out a Waffen SS cavalry unit. I also picked up some guys for my Finnish Army. I picked up some of the ski troops as well as a bunch of primed figures. I'm not sure of the maker but they will ad variety. I also picked up the Historicon 2017 figure from Warlord Games for a $1.00 at the flea market. I picked up some other random figures to add variety. I also picked up a Heer mortar team and the Waffen SS Pioneers. All in all it was a good convention. 

Long Overdue Update

Been almost 4 months since I have updated the blog. There have been a lot of projects that have been ongoing. Looking forward to getting them complete and posting about them. In the mean time I plan on getting as much content out there as I can, and hope the the work life doesn't get in the way as much as it has the past few months.

Things to look forward to:

• Some new models have been built and will provide some posts on them
• Review of the Warlord Games Waffen SS plastic range
• Review and pictures of the Warlord Stug G I built and painted
• Review and pictures of the Company B SiG Self-propelled gun
• Pictures and tips on building terrain
• Review of my trip to Cold Wars in Lancaster, PA.

Stay tuned there is a lot on the way!