Encore!

"Two in one day? The man must have nothing to do!"

Actually... no, but there's a lull in the activity, a calm before the storm, a hiss before the water boils... or something like that. In any event, I am blogging about last Saturday's games at the Hamilton Road Games Group.

A few of us wished to play some WWII skirmish using Iron Ivan's Disposable Heroes rules. Rich was interested in colonial wargaming using Osprey's The Men Who Would Be King, a set I'd never seen. He said the number of players would be limited to 2-4, so he, Stephen, and Bob played the game. I'll refer you to his blog for a better overview of his game:
 http://rhannibalswargamingblog.blogspot.ca/2016/11/anglo-zulu-war-game-prep.html
It's well worth taking a look... when you've finished reading this and looking at the photos of a few of the games. Andy brought Muskets & Tomahawks, but the game was not used. His son, Stephen decided to play the Zulu War instead. By the way, this is an excellent game and I'd recommend it to those interested in the French & Indian War in North America.

I set two tables with more or less identical terrain and a few guys jumped right in. (No photos; sorry.) My son, Rob and his "Red Devils" British Paras fought Martin and his early war American GIs. Martin prevailed in that one. I didn't see much of the game because I was assisting the other half of the table: Matt and a Canadian force vs. Bear and his SS Kampfgruppe. Matt had only played Disposable Heroes once before, and he probably didn't need my help anyway. I was able to assist in some communications difficulties that cropped up. Bear's late war troops defeated Matt. A gripe I have with the DH rules is the sense that British and Commonwealth troops are at a great disadvantage against almost any other army. The late war Germans bristle with LMGs and their morale is quite good. The British Commonwealth forces are a bit under-gunned and their morale is brittle, so you end up playing early war equipment and organization with late war morale. I should do something about this. ("Adjutant! Add that to the list, the ever-growing list! In fact, get them on the phone!")

The only photo of the first game - Martin's M3 Lee, which he used to great effect as a machine gun circus.
Both sides had options, one of with was a vehicle. Rob chose an additional squad while Martin chose this beast. 

Rob played a second game against Bear using later war US infantry against Bear's SS. This one he won. I was busy elsewhere and I didn't keep track of the game - Rob knows the rules better than I do anyway.

Bear's troops advancing and apparently taking come casualties.

Rob's GIs using the distant woods to break the German's line of sight.

SS troops in the woods. The white yarn shows the edge of the woods, the light green shows light woods.

Past the house and the standing grain.

An MG-42 crew at the edge of the woods. The green bead shows the section has been activated.

Matt and Stephen take it all in.

At one point, I took a few minutes and journeyed all the way across the room to the other table to see Rich's game. He did a very nice job on the terrain (home-made for the most part) and the 20mm plastic figs. His blog has a tutorial of sort on how to make the terrain using felt and epoxy and using upholstery foam and shop towels. Well worth reading.

A portion of the Impi advances.

The stalwart British infantry rush to take up a good position.

Another portion of the Impi which has seen better days.

So far as I could tell, everybody enjoyed the games. We spent some time planning out games for the future, but that'll be for another time.

Another Delayed Blog --- Over the Top 2015

It has been a bit busy and I've not been keeping up with current events as it were. A few weeks ago, Andy, Kevin, Martin, and I journeyed to Brantford, ON to take part in a games day. We met Ralph, Dan, and Mark there as well as a number of other people we knew. It wasn't a convention as conventions usually go. There were a few vendors from the local area and a number of games were offered, but there were no panels, discussions, or presentations. Just games, and that's what we go to thing like this for, not so?

In the morning, we played an American Civil War game using Ralph's 25mm figs and the Black Powder rules. It was a good game although my luck held and it was all bad. My troops failed to activate during a number of turns and when they did activate there were cut to pieces half the time. I controlled a mixed brigade of two infantry regiments, one cavalry regiment, and a batch of "pickets" which usually mean skirmishers.

the field of battle - Confederate lines to the left, Union to the right.

My infantry brigade, including a veteran Zouave regiment... not that it helped.

Rebel infantry. Oddly they all seem to hail from the Carolinas.

More Rebel foot behind the plowed field.

The most amazing play in the game was a melee in which 15 hits were scored against the Union side, which promptly saved 14 of them! This should be a record.

My cavalry finally activated and countercharged the Reb horsemen... who sent my boys packing in one round of melee. My pickets also did the same sort of run-off. My opponent turned his infantry to attempt to flank the player on my right, but he got bogged down and was concerned I might flank HIM! No worries! I couldn't activate my infantry enough to do any more than amble forward a little bit. Not my best day in the lists.

Another Confederate brigade

The Boys in Blue answer the challenge.

The fight over the field heats up.

My pickets/skirmishers wander forward without enthusiasm or direction.

My cavalry regiment prepares to counter-charge (and melt away like an ice cube on the front steps in August.)

Ralph in his Flame shirt instructs.

All the troops were Ralph's and the terrain was Andy's. We hope to capitalize on this in the new year with both Ralph and Martin (from J&M Miniatures) bringing their substantial collections of ACW troops to the Hamilton Road Games Group. I'll keep you informed.

Later in the day, Andy and I hosted a "Tiger Hunt" game, a Disposable Heroes "free-for-all" where each player starts with a Tiger I and runs it until it's knocked out. The respawn (as it were) with a Panther until that's knocked out. They then respawn as a Mark IV. After that, you're sidelined. This makes for a fun game, especially for younger players. It also serves as a primer for the rules for armoured fighting in the DH/C7B game system by Iron Ivan.

Mark, another friend Dan, two adult women, and an adolescent girl played. The young lady truely enjoyed the game and was quite vocal in her delight when she brewed up an enemy tank.

A view of the lovely village of Panzerdorf-am-Schlecht.

Down near the sheep pasture.

The game... already in progress.

 One targeted and one brewed up.

Gotcha!

Panzerdorf-am-Schlecht with a view of Flat Oak Hill.
(I was given some "flats" of the old school type a number of years ago. I ended up calling them Flat Oaks.)

My understanding is that we hope to have games days like this every three months or so in various venues in Southwestern Ontario as a way of keeping interest, communication and cross-pollination going. There are possibly three or maybe four true conventions within a day's drive of where I live, so this alternative is a way of keeping interest alive and avoid wargaming isolation.

Disposable Heroes - experimental 2.0

I figure I'd better get this down before my memory fades and the Advent/Christmas season lessens my chance for rational thought.

Rational thought... wargames... oxymoron? Never mind.

On Saturday (yesterday), the usual suspects played a game of Disposable Heroes at the Hamilton Road Games Group. Andy and I took the British and Martin and Bear too the Germans in an early war, Battle of France scenario. We also tried an experiment  and used the Advanced Squad Leader sequence of play with the Disposable Heroes mechanics. Originally I thought we might use Martin's French, but his schedule as a graduate student and teaching assistant at the University of Western Ontario proved too packed to allow him to finish some of the painting he deemed necessary. We did use one of his vehicles, though.

The German objective was to take a church building on the British side of the table. Both sides had about a full platoon with some support units (mortars, HMGs, Anti-tank rifles, sniper team, armour.)
The sequence of play when something like this:

• Preparatory fire by side A
• Defencive fire by side B
• Movement and moving fire by side A (movement beyond "sneaking" cuts your range and rate of fire in half)
• close combat

Martin and Bear advanced with the armour (a short gun Pz. IV and a 38t) coming up the road and two squads of infantry on either side of the road. The mortar stayed in the back but the HMG moved up with Bear's troops,

The German armour moves up.

The British armour hung back a bit to stay out of the initial line of fire -
Martin's Matilda -- quite a nice model

Andy's first squads LMG team at the wall with the Boys AT rifle in the church bell tower.
The stone walls and the church were heavy cover.

Bear's one squad clusters around the back of a hill before advancing.

My squadies - all of 3rd squad with the Bren gun of 4th squad in the foreground.
The wooded areas were medium cover.

Bear's right-hand squad supports the tanks from the hedge line. (Light cover)

Martin had more cover on his side of the road so Bear got shot up rather more quickly. However, he gave better than he got and his Wehrmacht boys cut my troops up. The HMG was rather effective, if I remember correctly. Martin's troops took fewer casualties, but they dealt less damage to Andy's squads since they were prevented from firing by the forest area that protected them.

Andy's 3-inch mortar and the command section behind the church.

Bear sets out some of his troops.

Here you can see Bear's rather sparse terrain. The hill blocked line of sight, but the hedges were just light cover
and things to shoot over.

Andy's squadies come up to the line.

My 4th squad's Bren gunner after the rest of his section "disappeared."
All the figures used were Andy's.

What do you think of Andy's new measuring device? It also doubles as a phone in some situations.
Or even an "OK" sign in Hawaii. ("Ain't no big t'ing, Bro'der!")

As the game went on, my squads were cut to pieces by Bear's very accurate LMG and rifle fire. He took damage - make no mistake - but I took more. The Matilda and the 38t exchanged some fire but both were less than effective. I got a few penetrating hits on the Czech titan, but I couldn't do any serious damage. And the 38t's cannon barely scratched the paint on the Matilda's hull. It wasn't a good day to be me, I suppose.

Martin's force spend a good bit of time sliding throughthe forest which allowed them to get closer to
Andy's position but kept them from firing and suppressing the British squads on that side of the road.

The titans square off - the 38t takes aim at the Matilda

Bear's HMG team with an LMG team in front.
The red bingo chip denotes that the team is pinned or suppressed.

Martin's on rifle section uses the Pz. IV for cover as they advance.

The boys in Feldgrau take a moment to form up while still in cover.

The experiment of using Advanced Squad Leader's sequence of play with DH's mechanics went OK. In my case, the jury is still out. I'm not one to monkey with rules for the most part. (Oh, I've done enough monkeying with rules but not too often.) Andy and Bear, both veterans, both agreed that the experiment felt right and allowed them to remember their infantry small unit tactics more that the usual DH unit-by-unit-activation-ping-pong. Not being a veteran, I have to leave it to them to do those things. I'd have to play the adjusted hybrid game again, but I'd also play the game "as written."

We'll have to see. I am glad that we didn't burden the table with multiple platoons and lots of support weapons. That would've bogged the game down 'way too much. A while back we discoverd that you can "break" the game by having too many units/activations.

Late in the game (third or fourth turn!), Martin ran his tanks up to the wall at the church.
Andy and I dropped mortar bombs on it and thought we had destroyed it, but...

Andy's one Bren section hunkers down with mortar smoke in front of their position.

We thought we had destroyed the Pz. IV, but two closer readings of the rules proved us wrong.

Next week is the Group's Christmas party with the Wings of War extravaganza including Die Rotte Baron and Snoopy. If you can't make it to London, ON., here are some cookies for you to taste... with your minds!

Beth, Katie, and I kept up our pre-Christmas tradition of helping an older member of my congregation with her Christmas baking. She makes Lebkuchen dough and we shape, bake, and decorate it. She often has lots of her extended family in at the holiday, but her health isn't what it used to be. So we help and get a healthy cut of the procedes.

Good stuff!

... In the Forest of the Night

A few years back, Andy hit upon an idea to practise the procedures for tank combat in Iron Ivan's Disposable Heroes. He called it a "Tiger Hunt." On a rather full table-top, each player would enter the table with a German Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger I tank, which would keep everything equal. This way we could learn and become familiar with the mechanics of that part of the game. Each player received a playing card and the referee had a deck of card made up of those cards that had been given out. When your card was pulled, it was your turn. Once your Tiger was "killed", you reentered the game with a Pz. V Panther. Once that was knocked out, you entered with a Pz. IV. Well, this ended up being so much fun, we continue to play it as is, with no infantry, artillery, or air power.

Our friend Mark asked us to set up one of these games and he was going to bring down a bunch of his buddies. Unfortunately, some had to change their plans and only Mike came with him. From the London area, Martin, Derek, Bear, Tyler, DJ, Katie, and your humble blogger joined in the fun. Andy refereed and Beth took photos. The photos in this entry are by Beth, Martin, and myself. Another table was in use by Wayne and Kevin with a WWI game Wayne has been preparing for the next Hot Lead convention.

Since the thing was a "free-for-all", there's no sense trying to describe the thing or do an After-action Report. Only Mike made it through the game with one tank, or almost all the way through the game. I ended up using three different chassis with varying success. Martin brought along his Armoured Recovery Vehicles which are "drones" that will fix any blown treads for any player. He also brought along his 1946 tanks from his "What if" scenarios.

Katie and one of the local library kids set up roads and houses for the board.

Andy briefs Mike and Mark on the mechanics of the game.

The field of battle with the first entries coming down the roads.
My Tiger is in the left foreground.

I'm making progress toward some cardboard houses. They'll still provide cover.

DJ's Tiger used the raised aspect of the bridge to pinpoint targets.
The bunkers meant nothing in this game. In other outings, Andy would put an 88 in the bunker near the bridge,
which would fire at anything and everything

Martian Lizardmen stalk around the board.  I told people they were "in the market" to buy some advanced armoured vehicles from the Germans or Soviets or whoever.

A Tiger "brews up" - the first in the game.

The Typhoon decorates Katie's Go-Pro camera.

The Go-Pro follows the Martians on their trek. The Typhoon remains a decoration.
If it were more than a decoration, the game would be over quickly!

Derek measures a shot from his Tiger to Martin's. Of course, Martin HAD to use the Porsche prototype model.
(That's the only Porsche he'll ever own!)

The friendly Bergepanther from CAA provides repairs for a blown track.

A lurking Tiger.

Martin's Porsche prototype Tiger. The white chit shows he's targeted someone. The blue bingo chips indicate a "penetrating hit." This means your tank is damaged/ventilated. Each penetrating hit adds a +1 to the damage roll.

Not the greatest vacation spot.
Terrain from Andy's and my collections.

Katie helpfully points out the destruction wrought by her SU-101, another of Martin's PanzerDisney tanks.
My daughter - how blood-thirsty! But so is my wife - on the table.

From the left - Tyler's son, Mike, Mark (smiling), Andy, DJ, and Bear. Derek is just barely seen on the far right.
We had quite a gathering. Our numbers help the library's stats and we're glad to have a good place to play.

A lone Tiger with a few hits on it motors away from the swamp, lovingly referred to as "The Rubber Vomit."

There he is! 4 penetrating hits, a blown track (the blue chip under the stand) and a chit showing he's targeted by someone. This will not end well. Most of the tanks are Flames of War models with some Peter Pig models and a few oddballs as well.

Quite a crowd around the table.

 

Katie had Tyler's son roll dice for her while Tyler looks on. Martin checks a point on the stat sheet.

When my Tiger was knocked out, I re-spawned with a KV-2 (a crappy remould I picked up at a convention bring-and-buy years ago.) It was knocked out fairly quickly, but not before spanking a Panther!

My final ride - The dreaded Maus, seen here with a Martian taking a test drive.

Tyler's son's second tank - an American M-103 heavy. He goes for the big ones.

Another of Martin's PanzerDisney tracks brews up.

This will not end well.

At one point, Martin fielded a T-44 with side skirts. I've always been partial to the looks of that tank.

Some of Andy's Panthers and Mark IV's in the bull pen.

Some of my collection of weirdness that I brought along - a Mark IV Male,  a Sherman 76 ("Fury"), a Japanese Type 97, a Sherman Firefly, and a Soviet T-35, which we sometimes refer to as the "Mobile resort." ("Sir, the billiards room is on fire and we've evacuated the auxiliary dining rooms.")

This Panther tried to get away from the Maus. Didn't happen. With a 128mm main gun and a 75mm coaxial gun in the turret, it can hand out major damage.

The T-44 sneaks around the town while one of the last remaining Tigers hunts it. (Foreground, behind the big tree.)

Somebody tried to sneak up on me from behind, but I got 'em.

The Maus' victims - Someone else got the Panther, but I got the Centurion and the T-54.

Katie's SU-101 faces off with the Maus... but not for long.

The ARV's dash away after doing their repair work on the Maus.
The pile of chips shows how many penetrating hits I'd taken.

Now I go a-huntin'.

An M-34 Taylor burns in the town along with a Tiger, a Panther, and the KV-2

The last face-off of the day - my Maus vs. Tyler's T-10 (or IS-10 if you're a revisionist)
We exchanged fire for quite a long time, but I finally knocked him out.
I'm amazed! I actually won the day!
Martin said Katie had reserved the Maus for me since she knocked me out last time with a shot to the rear by a Jagdtiger!

At the other table, Wayne and Kevin were fine-tuning a WWI game of Canadians vs. Germans. It involved gas, the Canadians finding Lee-Enfield rifles and trading their Ross rifles for them, and an assault on a trench system. They were using Iron Ivan's WWI rules.

An over-view of the game. The green stuff is gas, either clouds on the ground or gas pooling in shell holes.

Canadians in the trenches behind barbed wire.

How long will they stay with the gas that close?

Another over-view later in the game.

Kevin and Wayne play the game while Andy takes a break from the armoured chaos to watch.

Canadians defending a ruin

German stosstruppen move into the trenches.

Wayne told me the figures were all Revell plastics.

As always, even though the historical games often schedule a game for a certain weekend, this is not written in stone and other types of games are most welcome. Next week, I believe that a WWI naval game is scheduled for a few of us, using the Naval Thunder rules.