Brezel mit Senft: Cold War AAR

Been a long time since I was able to roll d10s in mock anger... but had a chance to do so last night.  I convinced a couple of the local club gamers to participate in a moderns game in 20mm, using Seek Out Close With and Destroy.  This was my first "basement game" in the house.

The scenario was a fall offensive set in 1983 in West Germany.  The Soviets, including veteran units redeployed from Afghanistan, smashed their way through NATO forces, driving a broken force of Canadian infantry back into the town of Brezel mit Senft.  Our game started with the Soviets regrouping for a final try at the town.  A few burning Soviet wrecks litter the edge of the town... but the Canadians have been reduced to the breaking point, and have exhausted their heavy AT weapons.  They do have the support of a pair of French AML 90s... though the entire force has a surprisingly Argentine look to them... hmmmm...  Fast approaching to assist them were a heavy platoon of Scots Guards (veterans of recent fighting in the South Atlantic) mounted in FV432s, supported by a platoon of Chieftains.  The Chieftains would prove to be very formidable foes for the Soviets.  A pair of much lighter Scorpions would be able to arrive directly in the town.

This was a lot of vehicles for such a small space, I was thinking along the lines of a very intense, very desperate action, fought between armored forces at close range.  I expected to see many, many burning vehicles at the end of the game.  A kind of mechanized knife fight.

We ended up one player short, so one player would have to manage both the Canadian and British forces.  I allowed the other two players to select which force they ran... Wagmanov chose the onboard Soviet BTR and T-55 platoons, and Maranovitch chose the arriving BMP and T-72 platoons.  That left the NATO forces to the command of your own Chalfant "Hoser" Smythe-Conley.

Because of several days of rain, the ground was soft.  Some vehicles had the potential to bog if they moved at Fast speed.  A fine drizzle was still coming down which forced a -1 Firing modifier for all shooting over 30" (except for ATGMs and vehicles with any class of Modern sights).  This drizzle did affect some of the infantry shooting.  The table at the start of the game...

... showing the Canadian positions at the start of the game, in and near the objective buildings.
A view of a Soviet BTR platoon, supported by T-55s and a T-62 (the Soviet player was allowed to move his infantry around in the general area, knowing that the Canadians were allowed to move a squad up after he was done)... take note of the workers dorm in the right of the picture, at the edge of Brezel mit Senft... this building placement was to have unexpected consequences for these Soviets.

Maranovitch would arrive from the southeast, and drive straight for the town...

while Smythe-Conley would arrive from the south west....

The board was deliberately terrain intensive.  I used all of my generic modern buildings, plus the Falklands specific buildings, breaking up the board with fields and wooded areas.

Once the BTR deployment was complete, the Canadians pushed up a squad (for free) into the worker dorm.  This squad started the game with fire on some exposed tank riding infantry, and were then subsequently routed from the dorm.  The Canadians were supposed to be bady demoralized so were deployed with an 8 Guts scale for this scenario.  And they failed roughly half of the Guts checks they had to make during the game.  Their small arms fire claimed a handful of Soviet infantry, but most of the hard work in Brezel mit Senft was completed by the AML 90s and arriving Scorpions.

The BTR platoon, having quickly routed the Canadian squad in the dorm, found itself having to channel around the dorm itself, creating bottlenecks that the NATO forces were able to capitalize on.  One after another Soviet vehicle fell victim to the AML-90s and Scorpions.  The workers dorm became the greatest tank obstacle I have ever had in a game.

Meanwhile, the T-72s found themselves completely outmatched by the Chieftains... and the devilishly lucky British dice rolling.  The Soviets scored very few hits against the British tanks, and the only one that penetrated was a track hit that did no damage (other than a single PH) due to the good DM of the Chieftain.

Here the bottlenecks in Brezel mit Senft begin to fill with burning Soviet armor, much to the growing frustration of Wagmanov.....

while Chieftains and T-72s hunted each other in the outskirts of town.  Maranovitch struggled with his own frustration as he was unable to bring down any of the British vehicles.

The terrain impeded the Scots Guards arrival in Brezel mit Senft.  The Milan team walked onto the table (the only British infantry element to do so), taking up a good firing position... though they didn't do much good.  A single Scots squad deployed from their 432 to support a MAG in HMG role (the HMG took one shot the entire game, killing a couple of Soviets hunkered in a field).  The bulk of the British infantry remained in their 432s trying to make it into town.  They only began to disembark at the end of the game and took no offensive action at all.

Wagmanov's infantry were the most active foot elements in the entire game, but they needed support from their vehicles which were tending to spontaneously burst into flames.  Maranovitch's infantry were trying to do their best, including a suicidal move into the open by one squad to get close enough to a Chieftain to fire an RPG-7 (to no effect).  The BMPs managed to mostly stay out of LOS of the NATO MBTs, thought they did try a few shots.  One BMP flew a Sagger into a building, killing 3 Canadians in an attempt to support Wagmanov's flagging advance.

It was around this point that "Hoser" Smythe-Conley began to feel a little guilty, as he fired an offboard 81mm mortar speculatively at a Soviet truck moving across a field.  With no los from the platoon command, I needed a "1" to hit, which I managed to roll... then rolled a "10" for penetration, which meant a "Quick Kill 10" on the results table (modifiers took this up to 12, but who is counting?)... immolating the truck, crew, and all passengers instantly.  The passengers were 2 Soviet PK HMG teams.  It would have been crass of me to celebrate this misfortune by taking a photo, but I managed to do it anyway...

The game at this point wound down.  The Canadian infantry had been mauled, and forced back in several places... but not a single Scots Guard was killed, nor was a single NATO vehicle lost.  The Soviet BMP infantry sustained few casualties (except for those brewed up HMG teams), while the BTR infantry took moderate casualties.  Soviet armor on the other hand was devastated.  They lost 1 of 1 T-62, 2 of 3 T-55s, 2 of 3 T-72's, and 2 of 4 BTR-80's (as well as 1 of 2 trucks).

They were still trying though.  Notice the remaining T-55 desperately trying to get into position for a flank shot on a Chieftain, at the end of the game....

We called it, and by scenario definition NATO could claim a marginal victory.  I failed to take the south east road exit by game's end, so could not claim a decisive victory. 

In post game wrap up, both Soviet players said the force balance was fine (the Soviets had a few hundred points edge in vehicles and infantry).  We did all agree that, while NATO forces did botch some rolls, I did manage quite a few lucky rolls.  Neither Soviet player did.  The primary problem was the terrain.  While the T-72s and BMPs had a straight shot, they were too busy playing with the Chieftains to make a real run into town.  The T-55s and BTRs just could not form a cohesive advance because of that worker dorm.  And once wrecks began to clutter up the board, it became even harder for them to maneuver.  Though it did not have as catastrophic effects for NATO, the Scots Guards had a terrible time trying to get into Brezel mit Senft, and I was convinced to not even try to reach the south east exit road.  I decided to be content with a marginal victory.

It actually did make the game more interesting, having that much broken terrain on the table, with limited line of sights, and plenty of mobility problems.  In conclusion though, the cumulative terrain effect on the primary Soviet assault force was the deciding factor in the game.  But everyone had fun (maybe me more than them!)... I was just glad to finally get a game in again!  I am busy working on our latest project, and actually moving miniatures, rolling dice, and seeing stuff brew up is a big boost for me.

Thanks for reading!

Big Trouble in Little Germantown

Howdie.  Shortly before Fall In I finally managed a small Colonial Horror game at our local gaming spot, the Comic Store West.  The rules as written parallel Where Heroes Dare, but with a different emphasis on abilities and characteristics.  My first tested scenario, Big Trouble in Little Germantown, was written as a combat and goal game, pretty straightforward, meant to test these skills and traits.

As usual, I forgot my camera, and, as usual, Dieter managed to photograph a few things.  The board is set with terrain and mysteries locations (places to search and solve), and is themed in the 1750-60's.  There were four adversarial parties, the local militia backed by Scottish Highlanders, an Iroqouis raiding party, a band of witches, and the King of the Pumpkin Patch and his ghoul retinue.

It seems, one Thomas Orhme, a feared necromancer, once ruled this valley until his grisly death at the hands of his neighbors.  60 years later, the valley was resettled.... much to the woe of the settlers!  The race is on to reclaim, or, finally destroy, the legacy of Orhme...

Each party was given personal objectives.  Dieter chose the colonists, Yabu chose the Indians, Al chose the Pumpkin, and that left me with the witches.  The Indians scored additional points for the deaths of the colonists (as they intended to reclaim this territory), the Pumpkin King and Ghouls scored points for killing, well, anyone else, the Witches scored points for casting magic, and the colonists scored points for the death of the Witches.  Each party also had an additional, random task to complete.  For the Indians, this ended up being collecting harvest items (vegetables, and such)... luckily enough for Dieter, the colonists drew "burn the meeting house down", a task they set to promptly...

The colonists not only managed to burn down the meeting house, but were successful in killing a number of opposing models.  My witches, on the other hand, had a heck of a time.  They very rarely succeeded in casting magic though the Green Hag did manage to use Arise to summon undead amidst the graveyard (the below picture is of the graveyard, but not of the undead... notice the gnarled hand of the Pumpkin King... and Jay Strongbow collecting harvest goods in the background)...

The Indians quickly searched a cave near the stream, and ransacked the house on the hill.... before finishing off my Green Hag at the site of the lonely grave....

... and for the witches, it was hardly a moment too soon, given their horrid luck.  The Puumpkin King remained standing, though his ghouls (who became encumbered by the poltergeist of Orhme early in the game) were cut down with very little effort.  The Indians scored some points, and at least had some presence on the table at the end of the game.

The clear victor were the colonists and their Scottish saviors.  Not only did they collect the most mysteries, finding the means to dispel Orhme once and for all, they scored big with the wiping out of the witches, and their burning of the meeting house.  Sometimes you have to destroy that which you love, in order to save it.... ???

Once again, my thanks for the inspiration provided by the excellent blog Geektactica, and for the players willing to try out my still somewhat rough system.  Tastes good,  needs more salt :)  Once the game play is ironed out, I can move on to the more challenging task of game narrative... but that is a blog for another time...

Marching Armies

Well, given that I have been posting images of armies, here are a few more.  These are going with me to Fall In to sit on the table....

25mm (28mm) Battle Honors WWII Bersaglieri in European dress.  I like these guys, and through the years they have seen a fair share of campaigning.  The best thing about them is that in European uniforms, you can fight just about everyone else... Russians, Americans, British, Germans....  I typically mix the look of the uniforms, shades, colors of harness, which to my eye gives a better overall appearance than everyone exactly the same.  Included are a BH field gun team (which is not Bersaglieri), and a pair of Army Group North resin vehicles.  I still do not know why I chose to paint the Semovente in desert tan... maybe I thought of it as a vehicle that came back from North Africa...

25mm (28mm) West Wind Vietnam, VC and Americans.  I have a large number of Battle Honors Vietnam PAVN (NVA) and Americans which get on the table whenever I can.  When one of our club guys decided to sell these West Wind ones, I bought them up to run larger games.  At this time, I think I can go on with just my original Battle Honors stuff.  I use BH casualties, on a base painted red, for my suppression counters.

28mm Persians, mostly Foundry, with some Old Glory infantry and some Essex cavalry.  Years ago, we were gaming Chipco frequently, including for historical actions.  I was collecting a Carthaginian army and basing it for Chipco, and somewhere along the line traded a fellow gamer for a mound of Persian lead.  I painted these up very quickly, choosing bright alternating colors in large patterns over smaller, more detailed (but much harder to complete) patterns.  I think they turned out pretty well.  And at one time these guys saw a number of battles, managing to win more than they lost.

I used to have a Greek mercenary contingent, about 8 bases worth, but sold them several years ago.

These are all armies that need to march.  I have plenty of Vietnam stuff, plenty of WWII stuff, and no need for the Persians anymore (though gaming those ancients battles were a real blast).  I'd like to get back into 15mm Napoleonics, so I need to make room.

Chalfant

Army of the Four Winds

Howdie.  The past few months have been busy, filled with one small crisis after another, but I am hoping to get back into regular posts on Miniatures of Wrath.  To ease back into it, I thought I would share some photos and background on my last big fantasy project, which I stopped working on and gaming with about 8 years or so ago.  I gamed a Wood Elf army for Warhammer in the 80's, somewhere in the late 90's started playing Warhammer again, but was unsatisfied with the look of the old miniatures. 

Previously, my wood elves were painted in shades of green and brown, but I wanted something different.  After all, if the wood elves are rustics in tune with nature, they'd have some connection with the changing patterns of the world around them.  Taking some inspiration from Vivaldi's Four Seasons (one of my favorite compositions) I began to repaint Scarloc's Wood Elf Archers (the habitual core of my Warhammer army) with winter colors.  Then, I started to paint the supporting spears the same way... but redirected into bright fall colors.  And thus began the Army of the Four Winds...

I wanted to bring together all four seasons, dividing the army into units painted for each.  Here are some images of Scarloc's Winter Tempest....

Unfortunately, my camera tends to wash out the colors, these are really sharp looking.  Though I originally painted these for Warhammer, somewhere in the early 2000's I switched them over to group basing for Chipco Fantasy Rules.  Here is the supporting spears, Autumn Leaves Falling (yes, I gave specific names to each unit, nerd that I am)...

Summer of course was still represented, with this cavalry unit Sunlight on the Meadows (I know, the names, right?)...

Where I stopped was the second supporting spear unit, painted for spring, Silent Rain ...

Now, I did want to add some more strength to the army, so later on, I painted plastic High Elf archers, to go with some heavy cavalry.  The heavy cav would be visiting High Elf nobles or merchants, the archers are a stand of personal retinue and two stands of ships companies or marines.

Of course, being wood elves, they should find cooperation from their animal neighbors, at least those with the size and strength to assist.  From the old days, I had a couple of Grenadier giant eagles (Fantasy Warriors), though I lost one rider.  The rider below is not attached.  These never fit very well for me with the Warhammer army, but made great flying monsters for Chipco, as my Lords of the Skies.  I found a large scale toy Elk for a large Chipco monster, the Lord of the Forest.  I had a dragon that I was going to include as either the Lord of the Mountain or the Lord of the Lake but never repainted.  Also, I had an old Zoat Mage which I also never repainted (looks a bit shabby next to the rest), but included as a magical Chipco character.

There are a number of other bases of miniatures that I never repainted and am not showing here, as those old 80's paint jobs just don't cut it.  So my final images are of the Four Winds themselves...
the Winter North Wind
the Spring East Wind
the Summer South Wind, and
the Autumn West Wind
which I represented with scratch built chariots, using mostly Grenadier models for the crew.  The horses came from a a private collection that I purchased, and chose to use in creating the chariots.  These four chariots were a extremely effective strike force in "one" version of Warhammer for me, and continued to be a visual treat in Chipco.  So here are the Four Winds...

The Army of the Four Winds represent the epitome of my painting, and design theme ability.  It is the only theme army I created, and obviously I created it before I had children (ha!).... I can not believe that I could commit this time and energy into any new project again.  But it hasn't been gamed with in about 8 years, and has sat in storage for the past three years, so... I am taking this army with me to Fall In 2011.  Iron Ivan Games will have a vendor table in the dealer hall, and I will be trying to sell this army there.  Honestly, it will be a little sad to see them go... but I don't have much time for gaming anymore, and have made that dreaded decision to cut back and focus only on the games that I enjoy the most.

Thanks for sharing in my nostalgia, I hope that it was worth your time.

Highway to Hell: Soviets in Afghanistan

Howdie.  A few weeks ago, I shanghaied Dieter, one of our local club members, into squaring off with me in a "everyone loses" scenario (these are the kinds of scenarios I am best at) for Seek Out ,Close With, and Destroy.  A Soviet mixed column would have to fight their way through a valley controlled by Mujahideen.  The object for the Soviets was to exit the board... the object for the Mujah was to kill Soviets.

The Mujahideen had a partial hidden deployment where units were placed in certain areas as they activated on the first turn.  The Soviets had chances to spot some of these prior to game start, and were required to list their vehicle order secretly.  The Mujah nominated a specific point at which a command detonated bomb had been placed, and chose blindly which vehicle in order would be targeted.

Dieter chose the Mujahideen, I ended up with the Soviets.

The Soviets rolled poorly for spotting additional units, and the game was started with a bang as the command detonated mine ripped through a Soviet truck, completely annihilating it.  As the first Mujah activation, Dieter revealed his B-11 --the "B" stands for big, by the way :) -- and managed to acquire, hit, and destroy the lead vehicle, a BRDM-2. 

What followed was a mad scramble by the Soviets to deploy their infantry sections (out of the sitting duck targets of their BMP-2s) and begin to engage the Mujahideen that began to spring into action on all sides.  The Soviets took casualties, but they also dealt them out too.  A Mujah DShK team (a particularly dangerous weapon in this game) was depleted to the last gunner, but was never eliminated. Fortunately for the Soviets, that opening B-11 shot was it for them, as they were pinned throughout most of the rest of the game.

Here you see one Soviet infantry section crossing a shallow stream to engage the DsHK, with another section prepares to storm a Mujah held hill.  The Soviet command were engaged while still in their truck, and while the truck was not destroyed, they were pinned and bailed.  This forced me to choose another unit to act as command... I picked the rearmost infantry section (and they would remain in command for the rest of the game).

Here the Soviets begin to push forward.  That T-62 at the end of the column was missed once with an RPG-7, but was hit a total of three times by the same RPG-7 team... and somehow managed to survive!

Dieter's Mujah tracked the lead BMP-2 with an RPG-7, and pinned my "assault" section.  This, I did not enjoy.

Despite this, that infantry section did rally and storm that hill.  They caused considerable damage to the two Mujah units, but were eventually eliminated in a hail of gunfire from multiple directions.  I commend my opponent's use of angles... its something I routinely do in my gaming, but many gamers seem to lock into the four sides of the table, and tend to overlook angles of opportunity.  I must do something about this before I game Dieter again.... and never let him game a sniper.  He popped up his sniper and began shooting at my command section.  My command section stayed pinned, and eventually lost the Lt anyway... as well as a couple of other models.

Yes, here is that command section.... and the infantry section that was forced to step up.

That infantry section began to roll  up the Mujahideen defenders, and while the Soviets drained away, so too did the Mujahideen.  A later view of the game, showing large patches of empty space where models used to be...

Look, some of my enemy on the run!

In the end, there was no clear victor (we had a later start, and should have had 2 more turns completed before ending).  I thought the Mujahideen were winning, Dieter thought the Soviets were winning.  As he pointed out, we were both beset with hard decisions throughout, and that made for a tense and completely interesting game.  I think in final analysis, that it would have been harder for the Soviets to claim victory if Dieter could have gotten his B-11 back into action.  But it was a hell of a fun game for us... not so much fun for the forces involved.

Iran Iraq War 2: Iraqi Armor

Whoa son, has it been a busy month.  I have a number of catch up posts, and will be starting with my progress on the Iran Iraq War project.  Totally intimidated by the sheer volume of Iraqi infantry I need to paint up, I admittedly took the coward's path and started with the vehicles.

This was partly due to the fact that I have several diecast models, already fully painted and ready to go... and partly due to the fact that I like the multipurpose nature of my chosen vehicles and paint scheme.  For the majority of these, I have kept with a sand and green paint pattern that shows up on vehicles used by a number of different nations.  Specifically, I want most of these to also be usable by my 20mm 1980's era Soviets for fighting in Afghanistan.

If I ever want to get the chance to throw these on the table in a Seek Out, Close With, and Destroy game, I need to get a move on.... here is the entire Iraqi armor force, plus 3 uparmored Soviet BMP-2s that I painted at the same time, in the same paint pattern.  The BMP-2s are from Liberation, they are great models, BUT, I regret purchasing them as they are really only appropriate for use in Afghanistan.  I should have bought 3 standard BMP-2s instead.  Still, they are a useful addition to my Soviet forces.  Though this kind of thinking might seem like heresy to some, its a great way for a gamer on a limited budget to get the most out of his dollar (or euro or yen...).  So my Falklands British fight my 80's Soviets which fight my Mujahideen... and these vehicles can show up in more than one theater.  Pragmatic, maybe.  Cheap, definitely.

For the base coat, I used a desert yellow designed for hobby use.  The problem is that it is indeed yellow, I should have more of a whitish-tan.  Some extra paint applied improved the look, but its probably still too yellow.  They turned out well enough for the likes of me.

This next image shows the diecast component, including 3 T-55s from Hobbymaster, painted for Iraqi service already.  I may decide to paint over the Iraqi markings to make them more general purpose.  Also included are 4 T-72s from Forces of Valor, also painted for Iraqi service.  I did repaint one, with tan and green, which helps tie the group into the rest of the vehicles, and also gives me a vehicle to nominate for command function.  These T-72 models are really for later wars against American led coalitions, but they should do fine here in the 1980's.  In the war against Iran, the T-72s were formidable tanks, and the Iranians had difficulty fighting them.

To complete the lot are 2 T-62s, from Combat Ready, and my armored transports, 3 BMP-1s.  These two groups are very useful, and can show up in a number of places as needed... I think that I will need another group of transports eventually.  Maybe something specific to the Iraqis.

Any of these vehicles could show up in Iranian hands too, as captures... effectively doubling my Iranian vehicle pool.  The most likely candidates would be the T-55s and BMP-1s, I think the T-72s would be the least likely to be employed as captures.

Whew!   One step closer to completion.  Thanks for viewing... and look for some quick follow up entries on my Soviets.