The Look is the Thing

I have been adding to my terrain collection of late. I am always looking to find the Nirvana of the perfect looking game table. Part of this process is creating unit status markers to eliminate the need for unsightly beads and such. For my upcoming ACW game, I have dead soldiers used to represent disorder and soldiers loading guns to represent out of ammo. I found that I was running out last game and resorting to beads. I dug around my bits box and found some items to use to build more of these markers. I found some muskets which I stacked to act as a low on ammo marker.

I found some horse casualties and added an artillery wheel to represent a damaged gun.

I found some crates to use as low on ammo markers for artillery.

Here is a wagon used to represent the ammunition wagon.

I was at my favorite hobby store and purchased some rubber pre painted horse and cattle that scale up perfectly with 15mm. I glued them to pennies and flocked them. They are adorning one of the fields in my upcoming battle.

I am heading back to the game now. Starting turn 3 with casualties mounting the Confederate batteries forming up to support the main attack.... stay tuned for the newsL

Stones River 1862

I am ready to give my ACW rules another trial run. My favorite part about gaming this period is the opportunity to put together a really nice looking table with lots of interesting terrain. Many of the scenarios I have for Regimental Fire and Fury require a 5' wide table but my game table was only 4'x8'. Necessity and obsession are the mothers of invention. I bought a 1' wide board and bolted it onto the side of my existing table, held in place with 2x2s. Then I discovered the table was a bit wobbly so I remounted the legs so they were centred to the new table width. Now I have a 5x8 table and more options for scenarios especially for Fire and Fury and Napoleons Battles which usually call for 9x5 tables.

I selected a scenario from the main RF&F rulebook called " The Battle Comes to Sheridan: Stones River". I cut the hills out of my 1" thick foam and placed them under the game mat. I had enough fences and trees but needed to cut up some teddy bear fur and floormats to make the various crops. I bought a little hand vacuum which allowed me to use my home made flock liberally, as I knew it would be easy to clean. Here are some pictures of the battlefield without troops.

The troops have been sorted, labeled and marched onto the table. I added some flock to one of the fields and painted up a second ammunition wagon.

Skirmish in Italy

I have always wanted to play some battles in the Italian campaign for WW2. Challenging terrain, cool scenario ideas, Canadian troop presence and not a big focus on tanks. I had fun putting together a couple of Italian style buildings. They were a fun to do and I stole the design from photos found on another blog. These building had a drywall mud layer added to the walls which I textured using a sponge before the plaster dried. The roof was made out of corrugated cardboard sheets found at my local craft store in the scrapbooking section. Both houses have a removable roof and the large house has a removable second floor.

Casa #1

Casa #2

I also bought some nice Birch trees from the same craft store for 50% off. I added a washer to the base for stability and voila.

A stand of Birch trees

I decided to put my game cloth over the hills and built some hills from soft foam with lots of altitude to accommodate the larger 28mm scale of my planned game.

Hills ready for battle

Now to set the table for battle. I have been preparing my troops and terrain for several weeks to give Bolt Action a try. In keeping with the Italian theme, I set the table to resemble a small village set in the Italian hills. Bolt Action is a game that lends itself well to a narrative style of play. This scenario had a defecting high ranking Italian officer trying to meet with Allied troops to give sensitive information over. The local German garrison got wind of the meeting and dispatched troops to capture the defector.

Table set up

The American contingent consisted of the following troops:

1st Lieutenant + NCO

5x10 man squads of regular infantry with 1 SMG and 1 BAR

The German contingent consisted of the following troops:

1st Lieutenant + NCO

2x 10 man squads of regular infantry with 2 SMGs, 1 LMG and loader, 2 Panzerfausts

2x10 man squads of veteran Fallschirmjager  with 2 SMGs, 1 LMG and loader, 2 Panzerfausts

1 sniper team

1 medium mortar team with spotter

1 MMG team

2 armored half tracks

I had help with photography for this battle from my opponent Martin.

The first turn saw both forces march onto the table. The American half track gunned down an infantry unit in the open with it's HMG  causing a casualty and a pin. The Americans tried to keep in cover of the hill while the Germans occupied the large building. The lone figure in front off the house is the defecting officer.

The Americans decided to let the Germans try to snatch the defector and then counter attack them while they were exposed. A unit of Fallschirmjager  dismounted from their half track and successfully grabbed the defector, shooting up an American infantry squad for good measure. The Americans behind the hill advanced and shot up the Fallschirmjager , reducing it to 4 models. A third American squad assaulted the remnants of the Fallschirmjager  unit but were wiped out in the attempt. 

German regulars occupy a house

Fallschirmjager  survive the counterattack and and head for home

German regulars in support + sniper team

2nd Fallschirmjager unit cover the retreat

Fallschirmjager survivors

 Half tracks exchange fire

American view down Main St

 Americans kill a half track in assault

The remaining Fallschirmjager  headed for friendly lines with their captive. The Americans tried to pursue but were repulsed by German units waiting in ambush covering the retreat. The American sniper had some success in forcing the German unit in the big casa to keep it's head down and away from open windows. The American mortar manage to drop a shell into this same building, killing the German commander and mortar spotter.  The German MMG managed to take out the American HMG.

Bolt Action played well although we spent a bit of time flipping through the rulebook as neither of us had played the rules, We both enjoyed the 28mm scale and thought it looked great. The random unit activation allowed for some strategy and decision making. The rules for shooting, movement are straight forward especially around infantry, Building combat, indirect fire and vehicle rules required the most time with my nose in the rulebook.

Thanks for a fun game Martin!

Next up will either be Napoleonics with the group and or a solo game of ACW.

Fun with Building Buildings

Having been bitten by the 28mm WW2 bug, I decided to try my hand and building some houses and ruins to adorn my game table. I thought I would start with a ruin because that would require the least skill. I gathered up some material: 3mm MDF for basing, black foam core, card 5mm cork, sand, thin card, thick framing card, coffee stir sticks and wire. I used super glue, PVA and tacky PVA as well as pins to hold things together.

Flushed with a bit of success I tried my hand at a couple of simple building designs. I decided on designs and cut the bases from MDF and cut the buildings using a square to make sure things stayed straight. The roof is made of thick framing card. This part went fairly quickly...

The challenging part is adding in on the detailing. I tried my hand at making shingles with thick card indented with a pen. The roof on the smaller building has cereal box tiles made from strips. Next time I will make some shingles shorter than others. The chimney was made of foam core and covered in spackle. I marked in the brick work while it was still wet. The larger building had its windows framed with cut strips of thin card. The eaves and timber framing was made from coffee stir sticks. This part of the project was very time consuming. I am glad I did two buildings at one as I could work on one while the other dried.

The Devil is in the Details

The next step was adding ground detail, black undercoating and painting. I built the rock walls by laying a strip of tacky PVA and pouring aquarium gravel on top. Repeat three times and voila. I have used this system for my 15mm rock walls for 15mm ACW. They came out a little short but will do the trick for providing cover.

Next I will do some Italian style buildings in hopes of doing mid war Italy skirmishing on the Gothic Line.

Challenging Game

Have you ever tried out a scenario and it did not quite work out? That was the case for our gaming group at our event last night. We played a game of Sword and Spear last night with the Romans taking on the hated Carthaginians. Rather than play the usual game of line em up and charge, we tried a scenario from the rule book and played Attack on a Prepared Position. The Romans were defending and set up  behind a river as there defensive terrain. We put a forlorn hope of skirmishing Velites and Numidian Cavalry over the river with a captain to make sure they followed orders.

 Roman Deployment

Carthaginians on the left

The Carthaginians as the attackers had the option to send an attack on the flank which they elected to do. They flankers were put aside and the remaining Carthaginians set up with an plan of eradicating our Forlorn Hope to get an early advantage and then attack the river defenses.

Roman Deployment

The first couple of turns saw the Carthaginians slowly advance the heavy infantry while their skirmishers dueled with our advanced skirmish screen. Unfortunately for the Carthaginians, their best skirmishers had joined the flank attack and the Romans were able to win the initial engagement between the skirmishers.

Skirmishers mix it up in the centre

The Carthaginian flank attack appeared on turn 4. The Romans had guessed that the flank attack would appear on their left as this had the most open terrain and would be most easily supported by the main force of Carthaginians. The Carthaginians achieved surprise by turning up on the opposite flank led by Hannibal himself. The Romans scrambled to form a line to defend against this new threat and were able to do so due to the Generals presence and the presence of a forest that slowed the Carthaginian advance. The Carthaginian Cavalry charged forward bravely but Roman Legionaries on the defense were able to see off the attackers and even managed to unhorse Hannibal and remove him from the battle. Below is an after shot showing the victorious Romans chasing the flank attackers off the board.

Victorious Romans regroup

The Carthaginians continued to advance toward the river line but with the loss of their flanking force, they would not have the ability to defeat superior Roman infantry defending a river line. The game ended with the Carthaginians continuing their pursuit of the Roman skirmish screen with no luck. The Carthaginians lost an elephant to bow and javelin fire in the last turn.

Roman missiles fell an elephant

Carthaginians approach the Roman held river line

The game ended in a lopsided victory for the Romans. We learned some lessons from this scenario. 
1)This scenario should have had the attacker having a 10-20% advantage in troops. 
2)The two sides should have started closer together the picture above shows the Carthaginian main battle line approaching the defended river line. After 8 turns they were still 3 or 4 moves away from engagement. 
3)Roman Heavy Infantry are a tough nut to crack!
4)The river gave too much advantage to the Romans and should have been downgraded to a stream or fords and bridges should have been added.

Excellently painted figures and beautiful terrain and playing space provided by Zak. My newly acquired Greeks from Ross MacFarlane made their first game appearance as stand ins for Carthaginian African Spearmen.

Veterans

Thanks to Brent, Martin and Zak for the good company and fun game. Credit goes to Martin for Roman success in fending off the Carthaginian flank attackers.