Cruel Seas Playtest

I had an opportunity to run a play test of my Cruel Seas scenario for an upcoming local gaming convention in May.  The scenario that I am running at the convention is based on the D-Day convoy crossing the English Channel on June 5, 1944.

Allied forces are American and British and include PT Boats, Fairmile D's, US Submarine Chasers, and a Corvette escorting some landing craft, a trawler and a tanker.  The Allied objective is to move their convoy across the long table edge without being sunk.

German forces are based around 6 S-Boats (2 x S38 and 4 S100), a Minesweeper and a Flakship.  The German objective is simply to sink as many Allied ships as possible.

Highest number of points is the winner - nice and simple for a convention game.

Here are some photos of the play test that I did at our local gaming store:

The Germans begin to chase the Convoy which is just out of the photo to the  right.  Allied escorts move out to engage the German torpedo boats.

The rest of the picture above showing the relative position of the Allied convoy.  Sort of dangerous for the Corvette to be heading out towards the torpedo boats as they would be launching their fish in an all-out effort to sink as many of the convoy ships as possible (of course)!

Shots being traded in a very high number!  Many of the boats were down to ten or less hull points by the end of the game.

Torpedos about to strike home on the LCT (G).  The results would be devastating and the LCT was quickly on the bottom of the English Channel.  At the bottom of the picture is the remains (flames and smoke) of a US Submarine Chaser which had been sent to the bottom by gunfire from a couple of S-Boats.

The melee continues.  At the top of the page two S-boats collide.  This would result in one of them sinking.  Above them, a US PT-Boat collides with the German Flakship which resulted in the PT Boat sinking!

We learned several lessons to incorporate into my game next month.  I will change the deployment of both sides in a couple of ways in an effort to speed up the first two turns of the game.  The convoy also has to start the game a ways down the table edge if they expect to exit any boats off the table by the end of the game.  Time will be limited in the convention setting.

Overall I think we should be able to get a good game in for participants.  I will keep you posted on how the game goes!

Warlords of Erehwon

Here are some pics of recent battles I have participated in from the new (for me at least) Warlords of Erehwon.  I have an Elven Army that I have fought through 7 battles now and I have both won and lost with it.  I really enjoy the game system - even if my sucky dice make it more than a challenge sometimes.  One example is that I have, while attempting to cast spells with my Mage, changed myself into a frog a total of four times in seven games.  Ask anyone who plays - that is a pretty high percentage!

My Elves are a pretty strong army and I have enjoyed putting the force together and have also enjoyed getting them on the table a fair number of times.

Now for the pics with some explanation of the force in the captions:

My Elves are at the top of this photo.  I have a small bolt thrower at the far right, what's left of my Guard in front of my Mounted Elven Lord, in front of my Mage (who miscast yet another spell), then continuing left to my Mounted Hero, an Elven Warrior Unit in front of a small unit of Archers.  My Giant Eagle in on the right of the photo taking the battle to my opponent's Gnoll force.

From bottom to top - Giant Eagle, Small Bolt Thrower, Guard with Long Spear, Mounted Lord with two Bodyguards, Mounted Hero, Archers, Mage with Bound Daemons, Warrior Unit

Giant Eagle (on the right) on the attack!  Besides my Allied Griffon the Eagle has been my singularly most effective battle unit.

My Mage stinks!  He has been since been replaced by another figure who has proven to be just as ineffective in providing support to my Army!  Looking for a third figure to take over the position!

As you might be able to discern from these photos, my force is made up almost exclusively of pre-painted Mage Knight and D&D figures.  I love the fact that I have spent about $200 on this game system (with Rules!) and I have two complete armies ready to put on the table. Can't ask for more than that.  I will get a few photos of my Undead Army on the blog in a future post.

Naval Gaming on the Cruel Seas

Here are some pics of forces I am painting up for the new Game - Cruel Seas.  It is a 1/300 scale naval game that I recently started playing.  I am painting up two forces right now - a German Kriegsmarine Force and a British (Free French) Flotilla Force.  I have continued my Free French WWII theme into this game system as I can be the add on to the many different British forces that people are painting up.

Enjoy these pics while I finish painting the larger boats and get some action photos of a game soon.

The Vosper MkII's in foreground, MkI's in the background.

Decals from MiscMini 1/300 range and Flames of War 15mm French Armor sets will help with identifying boats during a game. 

Close up of a Vosper MkII.

British Dog Boats to give my force some punch!  I have some other really cool models on the painting table that will add an even heavier punch!  I will have photos soon!

The Fleet Air Arm is also well represented in my force.  Decals also from the excellent MiscMini 1/300 MTB decal sheet! I think this is one of my favorite paint jobs of the year so far.

I have made a pretty good dent in the 'too paint pile' for Cruel Seas.  I am currently working on larger ships like the Armed Trawlers and Minesweepers.  I will get pics up as soon as I can.

Warlord of a New Game System

Recently I started playing a new Game System - Warlords of Erehwon - by Warlord Games.  It is really the first Magic, Fantasy type wargame that I have played.  I purchased the rule book on a whim when I realized that I might be able to outfit an army without any real painting and for well under $100!  As far as wargames these days, it was almost too good to be true!

Although I am short and hobbit-like portly, I chose the very tall and elegant Elven force for my base army.  The special rules for the Elves have a distinct French flavor.  Haughty Disdain, Longbows, Spangly Armor and did I mention Haughty Disdain?  The base force also includes a Giant Eagle which can be very helpful.  I really like the way the army plays on the table.  Sort of like the German SS in a WWII rules set - small units of very good troops with a lot of firepower!  Playing against Gordon's Orcs/Goblins/whatever is like trying to stop the Russian Horde on the Eastern Front!  It is quite a bit of fun.

I haven't taken many photos of the army yet.  And I don't have any of it in action, but here are a couple of photos of my heavy units - my Dragon riding hero and the Allied Griffon.  The Griffon has been involved in a couple of games and has done pretty well.  The Dragon hero has been too expensive to field in a game to date because our points list has been limited.  Looking forward to getting that rectified soon!

The Elven Hero mounted on a dragon.  The dragon is a nod to my sons, Marc Paul and Andrew as it is a figure they used to play with as kids.  A bit of nostalgia that makes me smile!

Another view.  The title of the hero is "No, No, No!" with a hearty figure wave!

The two units mounted on their flying bases.  Rare earth magnets are so cool!

This Elven force now has an enemy to fight as I have organized an Undead Army out yet more ready-painted figures in Gordon's toy bin!  I love these painted figures because you only have to do ~10 figures and you are ready to play a game!  Looking forward to the first clash between these armies.

2018 Hobby Activities

Here is the final list from 2018 for my hobby activities:

Figures Painted
25-28mm

Figures - 153

Vehicles/Guns -11/4

Other Game Pieces - 2

20mm 

Figures -12

Vehicles/Guns - 2

Games Played

Bolt Action - 9

Napoleon's Rules of War - 1

Iron Cross - 2

Chosen Men - 

Fireball Forward! - 1

Redcoats and Blue Jackets - 1

Brother Against Brother - 2

Blood Red Skies - 3

Cruel Seas - 1

Other
28mm Figures Rebased - 145
20mm Vehicles Rebased - 1

Not a bad year.  I participated in a total of 20 games.  Would have liked to done a few more, but life has a way of making other plans!  Painting production has been pretty thin this year. I have a ton of stuff on the table and hopefully I can be more disciplined to complete the MANY projects that I have partially done.

Not too many gaming related goals for the coming year.  I want to clean up all of the old figures and concentrate on the figure scales and periods that I have been doing the most of over the past couple of years.  Mainly that will be mostly 28mm WWII Land, 20mm Modern Land and 28mm Napoleonics.  I am also excited to see how the 1/300th WWII Naval (Cruel Seas) gaming goes as well as 1/200th WWII Aerial (Blood Red Skies).  Terrain stuff is pretty well set and I think I will only have to work on a few remaining pieces to have pretty complete tables.

Going to make a big push to complete several of the forces that I already have in the never-ending queue.  Really want to get them done so I can concentrate on gaming.  I know we all have that same goal every year but I really want to get started on that for myself during 2019.  We shall see what life brings around this year!

I wish all gamers the best in the coming year!  May the dice always roll in your favor!

Bolt Action Campaign Started!

Last week I had a chance to play in the first round of the Adler Hobby WWII Campaign.  This campaign is being played with forces from the new Western Desert campaign book.  We are using the Road to Victory campaign system with variable units.  You can find a copy of the system book here.

In this campaign I am using my French forces (Foreign Legion, Senegalese, and vehicles) as the new Western Desert campaign book has formalized these forces.  I have also started painting figures from the new British 8th Army box.  These will be troops from the North African Infantry units in the 1st Free French Brigade.  I am using these figures with British helmets, French Adrian helmets and wool comforter caps for headgear in this unit.  I only took a couple of photos during the game, but here they are:

The Foreign Legion squad seizes a building!  They were taxied into combat aboard the Laffly truck in the photo.

A Senegalese squad also seizes a building.  Just so happens to be the same building complex the DAK commander was occupying.  It ended up being a very bad day for the DAK commander!

The Senegalese squad and a North African squad push the attack around the building complex that made up a major part of the terrain on our board.

In this system you build two squads of regular infantry of no more than 110 points each.  These are commanded by a regular 2LT with two soldiers.  The French also get a light howitzer as their national based unit.  This is your base force for the campaign.  In addition to the base force, you roll on tables to determine two additional units to add to your force.

For this round I had the two squads of infantry; the command element; a 75mm gun and spotter; an inexperienced infantry squad of Senegalese Tirallieurs; and a veteran infantry squad of Foreign Legionnaires.  I also rolled for two transports/tows which I used to carry the FFL and to tow the howitzer.

The first game went pretty well for my troops.  I ended up with a close victory against a well commanded DAK army run by my friend Patrick.  After the game we rolled to determine the results of the units damaged or destroyed during the game and to find out what two new units would be added to our force.  I ended up permanently losing one of my transports.  I also improved the morale of my officer to Veteran and one of my regular base infantry squads to Veteran.  Then I added a second Veteran infantry squad.  The best roll, however, was when I added an SPAA vehicle to my force!  I will now have a quad HMG on a truck added to the army!  Should be interesting to see how effective this unit is against infantry.

I am going to use the Rubicon Russian Quad HMG on a truck mount.  I know they are Maxim HMG's on the Rubicon model and the French used the naval mount from their ships on trucks in the desert, but I am going to bend history a little bit.  I will provide photos as soon as the models are built and painted.

I will provide another game report as soon as I can get back to the campaign.  Vive la France!

Link to a Recent Game Battle Report

As I told you in my previous post, I had a great time gaming with Ed M. using his excellent Not Brother Against Brother Napoleonic rule set. Here is a report from his perspective. Ed tells the story much better than I ever could!