A Great WWI Aerial Game

Well, this is a great game!  Wings of Glory (WW1) has really captured my imagination and it is pretty popular at our FLGS here in New Hampshire.  I have gotten several new planes over the past week and one of them is the massive Zeppelin Staaken VI R.   All of the Ares models are beautifully painted making them really fun to collect and use on the game table.  For only 

$16 - $20 for a single engine fighter and less than $30 for the larger single engine bombers, they are really affordable.  Even the huge Zeppelin bombers at around $70 not that bad.  Don't forget, for that price you are not only getting a wonderfully painted aircraft, but the decals are historically accurate and they well applied.  

So, with the pandemic going on around here (were is it not going on?) I had to play a solo game to get my new Zeppelin on the game table.  The scenario was simple - a Zeppelin moving in to bomb dockyards at a small Belgian city.  Two American aircraft in the area (Rickenbacher in a SPAD XIII and Hartney in a Nieuport Ni. 28) spotted the German mammoth flying through their zone and move to intercept.

There were no German fighters available to escort the bomber so the defending gunners had to be really on their game.

Here are some photos of the game:

The end of the first turn with everyone charging straight ahead in an effort to close the range and get within fighting distance.

The first phase of Turn 2 and here is the damage dealt out in the first round of firing in the game.  This is devastating for the Zeppelin as it suffers 19 points of damage!  The charge has cost Rickenbacker

as he no longer can shoot.  But Hartney hasn't even gotten within range yet.   From this point on the bomber is doomed.  Now it is a question of whether or not bombs can be effectively brought onto the target.

End of the second impulse of the second turn.  The Zeppelin has taken an additional five points of damage and is heading into a final run on the docks.  Rickenbacker at the top has taken a jammed rudder and damaged machine gun.  He is effectively out of the fight.  Hartney at the bottom of the photo dealt out the damage to the bomber but is now suffering from a smoking engine.

The bomber moves away from the target during Turn 3 as the docks are pulverized by the entire bomb load.  Rickenbacker is headed back to base to have his machine guns and aircraft repaired.  Hartney turns around to take his revenge on the bomber.

Rickenbacker flies off the board.  The docks burn.  Hartney puts the final five points of damage on the bomber and it slowly falls into the fields just outside of the Town.

The final damage cards for the bomber.

Final damage records for the two fighters.

   As I said, I really like this game and I look forward to many more games in the future.

Fleet Air Arm Corsairs

 I had a great time painting up these corsairs for my British Blood Red Skies Fleet Air Arm Squadrons!  I clipped the wing tips to reflect the British aircraft. Apparently, the British Aircraft Carriers had less room between the flight deck and the hanger deck so the wing tips had to be removed so the folded wings fit into the hold. 

The decals are for 1836 Naval Air Squadron, HMS Victorious, during Operation TUNGSTEN and are from my good friend, Kevin, at Miscellaneous Miniatures.  Operation Tungsten was an air strike plan to attack the German battleship Tirpitz in her Norwegian base at Kaafjord.  During the attack on 4 April, 1944, Fairey Barracuda dive bombers, escorted by Corsairs and Seafires from Victorious and HMS Furious conducted level and dive bombing attacks  

I have not had the opportunity to gloss coat and flat coat the aircraft yet. I will post another photo when I get them totally complete.

Hope you like the photos. I am looking forward to trying them out on the gaming table!

Cruel Seas and Airbrush Tutorial

 My Friend AJ of AJ’s Wargaming Blog came to visit yesterday to give me some pointers on airbrush techniques and maintenance. After the airbrush tutorial we had a game of Warlord’s Cruel Seas. It was a nail biting, good old fashioned Donnybrook between my Kriegsmarine force and AJ’s Royal Navy flotilla including an American Elco pressed into British service. 

AJ gives you a blow-by-blow account and shows some game pics HERE. As AJ points out, the real winner was the English Channel as 7 out of the 10 boats/ships engaged were sunk during the battle!

I had forgotten how fun Cruel Seas can be.  It is fast paced and there are many tactical decisions to make during a game.  Each skipper has to think a turn or two ahead to make sure that he doesn’t run into his own boat or random shoal (a lesson I needed to re-learn a couple of times during this game!).  Now that I have been reminded of how much fun this can be, I am looking forward to getting some additional boats painted up - AJ’s airbrush lessons  will come in right handy - and look at the scenario list which is available on the Dock Office FB HomePage.  If you are interested in torpedo boat actions of WWII, I would recommend that you join this FB page and checkout all of the resources available to help you run challenging scenarios or use a new type of boat.  There are a lot of really great ideas out there for you to take advantage of.  

It was a great bit of fun in an otherwise barren gaming season this spring and summer. Thanks to AJ for the great airbrush tips and for a really fun game. I look forward to the next game on the high seas!

Blood Red Skies Collection Continues to Grow

Here are some photos of aircraft that I completed since the start of the COVID 19 situation.  I have really gotten back to my hobby desk as of late and hopefully this is the first of several posts as I complete some long dormant projects and get started on other efforts.

Russian Lend-Lease Hurricanes.  Still want to add some patriotic slogans, but I may wait until they have been through a battle or two and become 'veterans.'  These appear very dark, almost black, in this photo but they are actually Bronze Green and are much lighter in person.

Bf-109's for the Mediterranean Theatre.  They will be the primary foe for the Martlett's below.

Il-2 Stormovik's ready to take on some German ground targets.  Need to work out some better bases, but for right now these will be ok.

Here are the Martlett III's to take on my Africa/Italian themed 109's above.  These are painted as 880 Squadron, Fleet Air Arm.

Good start to the year.  At the moment, I have several things on the painting table, including the other three Stormovik's.  These three will be in some form of winter camp scheme but I don't know exactly what they will end up being.

How Time Flies!

Wow,

Almost six months since my last post!  It doesn't seem possible.  But I am re-committing to posting my hobby activities in the coming weeks.  As a start, I will post my activities from 2019:

Hobby Activity - 2019

Figures Painted

25-28mm

Figures - 26 Infantry

8 Cavalry

Vehicles/Guns - 8

Other Game Pieces - 10

1/200 

Aircraft - 42

6mm (1/300)

Boats - 21

Aircraft - 2
Games Played - 45

Napoleon's Rules of War - 4

Blood Red Skies - 12

Cruel Seas - 6

Warlords of Erehwon - 8

X-Wing 2nd Ed. - 3

Nexus - 1

Iron Cross - 3

Volley & Bayonet Wing Scale - 4

GW Kill Team - 1

Fistful of Lead - 1

Star Wars Destiny - 1 

Hannibal at the Gates - 1

Other  
28mm Figures Rebased - 173 Foot, 33 Mounted

Not that many new 28mm figures, but I sure did get quite a few rebased (at least for me).  The biggest new addition was the Blood Red Skies game system and related aircraft that I got painted.  That will hopefully continue into the new year.

As I write this we are starting the fourth week of the COVID 19 Pandemic.  Governments are warning that the next two weeks will be the most difficult - which is a very sobering statement given what we have already been through.  I will try to continue to hobby and post what I am getting done.  Hopefully, the activity will help both you and I mentally to get through this very trying time in our lives.

World War Two Games

Over the past week I have had an opportunity to play two games of Iron Cross WWII. Both of them turned out very well.

The first game was at our monthly club game night hosted by my friend Charlie G.  The battle was an infantry and armor assault by New Zealand and Indian forces against the town of Cassino being defended by Falschirmjagers.

Here are some photos of the game

The entire table.  The British started on the near edge (Indian Infantry Company) and the right edge of the table (New Zealand Infantry Company and Armor Platoon).  The Germans (three reduced Falschirmjager Infantry Companies) set up within the town. 

The German command check the rules to see if they are short of MG42's!!  The Machine Gun squads would definitely play a huge role in the defensive plan.

The Allies look forlorn as (l to r) Bob, John, Ralph and Phil [just off-camera] endure yet another round of MG fire into their vulnerable infantry.  Just a couple of turns later they would be celebrating the victory as John moved up their armor and destroyed the German AT gun position.

The Allied attack developed slowly with the Indian units pushing in from the German left flank.  The New Zealanders moved very slowly but kept some pressure on the German front.  Being the first to attack, the Indians paid a heavy price as two machine gun squads tore into them.  Just as the Indian attack started to falter, one of the New Zealand companies rushed the right front part of the German defense and made it into the cover of some ruins without any casualties.  At the same time the Armor Platoon made a move up their right flank in an effort to assist the Indians.  The bold move did cost the tankers one Sherman as they advanced, but they pressed the attack.  Once the armor made it to the German flank, the Green Devils were not able to hit either of the remaining metal monsters with effective AT fire and the German AT gun position could not pivot to bring fire on the enemy.  In the end the AT position was destroyed giving the Allies a minor victory.  The win did cost the Allies dearly with almost two companies rendered combat ineffective and 1/3 of the armor force destroyed.

In the second game I had friends visit the house.  Andrew, his son Thomas and their friend Shaun visited and I set up a German vs British scenario to let them play the game for the first time.  Shaun and Thomas played with a couple of reinforced platoons against Andrew and I pushing British Commandos supported by a some armor assets.  The forces were exactly equal in numbers and composition.

Here are some photos of the game in progress:

The British try to push a flank using their Daimler Armored Car.  This would be the best shot of the game as the Daimler took out the German Armored Car with a very difficult shot.  I love it when Andrew S. rolls a 'six' at just the right time!  Unfortunately, it was just about the only positive aspect of the game for the Brits. 

The overview of the Armored Car shot up the left flank of the British advance.

The German Recon Platoon advances under the cover of an MG42 Support Squad.

Commando infantry take a commanding overwatch position on a hill.  In the distance, the Germans begin their well planned attack.

The British of 2 Commando push forward to seize a building enclosure and small woods.

A Commando Vickers MG Support Squad covers as a Commando Squad moves up.  Unfortunately, the infantry faltered a the wall and spent two full turns trying to get over the obstacle.  Their hesitation was a major negative factor on the British Advance.

This was a pretty one-sided game as Shaun and Thomas handed Andrew and I a real drubbing.  They had a better plan than we did; they moved better than we did; and they rolled their dice lights-out.  We played along the long axis of the table - and that made it a much more of a slugging match.  Not much room for maneuver.  But the Germans made the most of the terrain and with a slow advance by us British, the game was one-sided.

I'd like to highlight the game mat that we used for this game.  It is my new Killing Fields Static Grass mat that I just purchased.  I love the way the looks and mixes in with my other terrain and buildings.  If you like it, check out the Killing Field site HERE to get your own.

Club members and my friends really enjoy Iron Cross for our WWII skirmish/tactical gaming.  It is fast paced and the ability to distribute command tokens and activate units in any way during a turn makes players fully engaged in the game at all times.  I highly recommend that if you have an opportunity to play Iron Cross that you give it a try.

Volley & Bayonet Test Game

I recently had a chance to play a game of Volley & Bayonet hosted by my friend Ed.  This was a concept test for his modifications to Volley & Bayonet in Wing/Battalion Scale.  Ed has been working on this particular edit of the base rules for a couple of years now to use his incredible Austrian and Hungarian armies for mid-19th Century European conflicts.  I think that his edits are right on the mark as the game seemed to flow well tactically and was a lot of fun to play.

During this game I faced off against fell Conspirator and blogger, AJ.  AJ has written an excellent review of the game on his blog at this link (look for the entry "Battle of the Bloggers") so I will not go into the details of the game.  I agree with everything that AJ has outlined in his post.

I did take a few of my own pics of the game in progress so here they are:

My advance guard moves the Army frontline forward.  The beautiful Uhlan Squadron would conduct a very hasty charge and be destroyed in the process.

Appropriately massed Austrian infantry, my foot artillery and a half-battalion of Jagers prepare to enter the battlefield.

My Army commander and my foot artillery battery.

A big Jaeger fight erupts in the woods on the Austrian left flank.  The Hungarians definitely got the better of this part of the fight and by the end of the battle one of my Jaeger battalions was destroyed and the other was routed back.

My army commander oversees the musketry of two infantry battalions.  You can just see the Austrian grenadier battalion on the right of the picture.  The White Hats of the Hungarian Army - one of the best units on the board - prepare to conduct an assault.

AJ plots his next move.  Apologies to Ed for cutting off his head!

My pictures of the game cannot do justice to the beautiful figures that Ed has collected for this set of rules and period.  I encourage everyone to visit Ed's Blog here and scroll down to see closeups of the armies and the many different conversions he has put together.  Really an interesting read.

Many thanks to Ed for hosting such a great game and the work he has put into coming up with great rules for the period.  Also, a big shoutout to AJ for being a great adversary across the game table.  I look forward to playing the game again soon.