A Pulpy, Saga Christmas

Seasons greetings, no game last week has we made a trip to Foundry for paints and figures. No game this week for obvious reasons but hope to squeeze one in next Monday. In the meantime, 

Merry Christmas

Frohe Weihnachten

Joyeux Noel

 ¡Feliz Navidad

Buon Natale

To You One And All 

Top Santa a Viking from Foundry, bottom Santa, a Pulp Santa from Northstar. Hence the post title, both Christmas freebies.

TTFN

Bergehetzer

Managed to squeeze this little baby in between commission work, a Bergehetzer to repair or recover my little bear baiters. Vehicle is from Milicast, the figures from AB and Foundry and the MDF base from Warbases.



Holding Action

We played a scenario from the "Battlegroup" Fall of the Reich supplement earlier this week, the German force was tasked with holding the Russians at bay for 9 turns.

The Scene Is Set, The Germans Will Deploy In The Farm And Beyond

The Germans had to dice for their initial forces, they managed to get on a healthy amount of units for the task ahead, which was fortunate has no help was forthcoming later. The Russians commenced with just their Recon units on the table and then have to dice each turn to bring on a number of units. The Russian's took first turn, emboldened by seeing the German PAK40 retire due to lack of ammunition they advanced on the right in an attempt to flank the village, meanwhile a T34 platoon advanced on the left flank, to be met by a German foot patrol holed up in the farm and a Hetzer supported by a Tiger II.

The Lead T34 Is Taken Out By A Panzerfaust Shot From The German Foot Patrol In The Farm

The Waiting Panzerschrek Team Are Made Redundant, The Russian Recon Force Was Taken Out By Artillery Fire

After the initial rush there appeared to be a communication breakdown on the Russian side, coupled with the very poor results from firing off the Russian units who received orders, the same could not be said of the Germans whose fire was both accurate and deadly, indeed the only real Russian success was in keeping the German Tiger II pinned for a while by shots bouncing off its armour. Hopes on the Russian side were raised when the German Hetzer had to retire due to running out of ammunition, this was short lived when another emerged from the village. With the Russian force remaining also running out of ammunition it was clear that they would be unable to brush aside the opposing Germans in time to stop their main force escaping, so the Russian commander called off the attack to await further support.

The Hetzer And Tiger II Await The Russian Bear 

The Russian ISII Fires On The Germans With Little Effect

Russian 45mm ATG Advances To Support The Now Destroyed Recon Units

The Second Hetzer Replaces The Out Of Ammo One

Russian Infantry Appear To Late To Effect The Battle

A cracking little game, one of those times where the dice gods totally deserted the Russians and totally favoured the Germans, a case of chalk and cheese.

The Triumph Of Don Byklos, A First Carlist War AAR

Having recently finished some skirmishers for each side we decided to play another First Carlist War game,

we again used Neil Thomas's 19th century with a few modifications to suit our needs. Below is the battlefield prior to the engagement, Dave AKA Don Byklos Esparanto commanded the government force whilst I Don Felipe De Rawnla took command of the Pretenders forces.

Add caption

Below Don Felipe deploys his forces

Meanwhile Don Byklos begins his attack, on his  left he deploys a light infantry battalion and his skirmishers, in the centre the Princessa line battalion, whilst over on his right which will be his main attack he deploys two battalions of British Auxiliary Legion and the Espana battalion, these will be supported by a horse artillery battery and a Royal Marine rocket troop, at this point his cavalry are held in reserve looking to exploit any gaps or weak spots in the Carlist line.

The BAL begin their advance on the Carlist positions, facing them are the Navarre battalion who are going to make them pay dear in due course, the rocket battery prepare to deploy on the elevated position of the
wayside shrine to support either flank when necessary

In the centre and on the left flank the forces of Don Byklos advance to pin their opponents whilst the attack on the right goes in, he also brings across his cavalry to counter the Carlist lancers.

The Pricessa battalion is seen off by the weight of fire, forcing Don Byklos to commit his cavalry and charge the Carlist Vizcaya battalion forcing them to retire, the Carlists advance their lancers who flushed by success are charged by the Liberals, despite the advantage of the charge they are bested by the lancers of Navarre who in turn are afterwards forced to flee by fire from the Royal Marine rockets. Despite this things are looking good for the Carlists, over on the other flank the artillery and brave men of Navarre have forced both BAL battalions to retire.

The Navarrese should really have followed up this success but were deterred by the loss of the artillery battery to fire from the Liberals artillery, this allowed Don Byklos to regroup and launch another attack against them, this time whether due to fatigue or being low of ammunition they were unable to repeat their earlier success and were forced to flee, this left the Liberals able to attack the Carlist right flank in support of the light battalion and the skirmishers who had driven in their counterparts.

With the Vizcaya and Guipuzcoa battalions seriously depleted and only untried volunteers in support Don Felipe conceded the field to the government forces. All in all a rather splendid game, not sure about the rules yet but the game does rattle along with them with thirteen turns played in a little under three hours with a break for lunch and drinks in between.



Waterlogged Terrain

Painted up the piece I purchased from Coritani at Warfare last week

Played the First Carlist War game earlier today, pics and report over the weekend.

TTFN

Shrapnel Villa III

More progress at Shrapnel Villa

Inserts Ready To Grit

Inserts In The Villa

Rubbled Up Inserts

The chair is from the new 4Ground furniture range

Going forward in time I have finally got around to painting up my Hetzer (love these wee beasties) from the Ready To Roll range, ready to bait the Russian bear in a forthcoming WWII game

Front View



Rear View



Its looking like the First Carlist War game will be on, will have my camera on hand to post a full report.

TTFN 

Shrapnel Villa II

Apart from fiiling gaps and laying down some Miliput retainers for the detachable pieces not much has gone at the villa the last couple of weeks.

This changed today, yesterday at Warfare I picked up the new 4Ground fireplace, at £3.50 a tad pricey you may feel. However it took just 10 minutes to assemble and is already coloured, you couldn't do it yourself for that price in time alone.

The Bits

In Place



With Debris Added

Overview



Whilst at Warfare I also purchased a resin Swamp/Oasis/Marsh piece from Coritani, I thoght it would be ideal for some waterlogged ground in my Great War games, today I added a couple of shell damaged trees, a sunken wheel and some picket posts, again a purchase yesterday from Tablescape.

  

Also yesterday I purchased the latest Battlegroup supplement "Fall of the Reich" together with the mini rulebook so I no longer have to leaf through the massive Battlegroup Kursk tome during games and the new morale chits to go with it from Commission Figures, also on the WWII theme I got a SU37 for the Soviets, although available it is doubtful that they saw service before the war ended but it looks nice, I also got a crew for my Ostwind, a ready painted die-cast by Panzerstahl via EBay. Oh and some more MDF bases for rebasing my WWII collection from the wonderful chaps at Warbases, quality stuff with quality service.

Hope to play a First Carlist War game at the end of the week pending new grandad to William David being in a fit state, congratulations to parents Ruth and Craig.

TTFN

Fateful August

Monday has become our regular day for gaming of late, with the guns falling silent on the Western Front this day 95 years ago it seemed only fitting to play a game set in that fateful month of August 99 years ago. A full report can be found on Dave's blog



We will remember them

Shrapnel Villa

I thought it was about time that I added another terrain piece to enhance my Great War collection, I wish you a warm welcome to Shrapnel Villa

The circled cross hatched areas are to be kept clear for the placement of machine gun teams, I will make separate pieces with debris to put in when the ruin is unoccupied.

The building remains are the ruined farmhouse from Warlord Games, the MDF base is from War Bases, I can't remember who makes the small shell crater.

More as it progresses.

TTFN



Encouraged To Try Again

Although I'm sure no one is really bothered whether I post again or not I have been encouraged to have another go with Blogger. Here is the report I had to give up on before, it features a recent  Great War game here at OHQ between Dave and myself using Bolt Action rules with the GajoGames amendments and add ons, he took control of the brave Tommies, whose objective was to take three objectives in the German front line. The game would last twelve turns with a D6 being thrown at the end of turn twelve to determine the number of further turns.

The objectives are, the pill box, the position to the left of the ruin and the one directly behind, these were covered in camoflage netting so the British did not know what was positioned there until the Germans fired or were spotted, we used the spotting rule from "Battlegroup Kursk".

The British Mass For The Attack

The British were given a preliminary bombardment, again we used the mechanism for indirect fire from BGK, this resulted in two units being pinned but no casualties. The British commenced their attack on the right spearheaded by a Whippet tank.



"Ajax" Leads The Way

The British took advantage of the cover of the wood to advance on the German left flank, the rifle grenadier section taking up position to bombard the German trenches there, meanwhile the Germans had positioned their anti-tank gun in the forward position on ambush orders and it opened fire on the advancing Whippet with no effect.

The German Anti-tank Gun Opens Fire

Over on the British left, Dave positioned a rifle and a Lewis gun section to threaten the Germans on their right flank and pin them down with harrasing fire.
 

Keep Their 'eads Down Lads

Dave's excellent fire and movement tactics over on the the German  left coupled with the inaccurate fire from the German defenders finally saw that flank give way, luckily the Whippet was disabled by fire from the German A/T gun eventually or the carnage could have been much worse. Pinned from the front and their flank about to be rolled up the Germans on the right gave way and retreated to the second line.

With The Germans Pinned By Fire From The Whippet And Rifle Grenades, British Bombers Advance To Finish The Job

Finally Had Enough

Having spent the last hour and half trying to post something to no avail, I have had enough, this is happening more and more now and time is to precious to waste, I will leave this in situ for now but will not be blogging again. Thank you all for the kind comments on my posts and for following my blog, I will continue to post pics and battle reports on the Lead Adventure forum and the Guild from time to time. Hope to keep my website updated more often too.

Goodbye and take care.

Still Serving On The Eastern Front

JUZTUKOV JUNCTION

Yet another WWII game using "Battlegroup Kursk" based on the Narwa scenario in the Rapid Fire 3rd supplement.

The Soviet objective is the road junction to the rear of the large wheat field behind the barn, the Germans will have to take morale chits for the loss of each farm building, each of which has been fortified and provides hard cover, any German squad occupying these at the start of the game can begin on ambush fire orders. The poplars lining the railway denote an embankment which slopes down to the road, the Soviet tanks can only cross at this point, the embankment is a obstacle to infantry. Any Soviets within 6" of the embankment cannot be seen by any German observers on the hill to the left, German FO can be begin the game dug in here, the Soviet FO and ATG can begin the game dug in on top of the embankment. The road to the farm buildings is rural and does not give any movement benefits. The forest is marshy and counts as difficult terrain.

Turn One

The Soviet T34 platoon advances, supported by infantry and an SU122. A 45mm ATG and FO are dug in on the embankment, whilst the 82mm mortar battery deploys in cover of the embankment.

German forces await the Soviet onslaught, infantry are deployed in the buildings, a tripod mounted MG42 on the edge of the woods, FHQ is on the hill dug in with FO team.

Turn Two

The Soviets continue their advance on the occupied buildings, fire from the Tiger deployed on the Soviet objective point gives fire to no effect, something it was going to repeat until turn 5! The Stug's is unable to acquire its target in the meantime, the Soviets timed 122mm barrage hits the barn only managing to pin the Stug.

Turn Three

The Soviets only manage to get four orders which limits their options, although the fire from the off table Katyhuskas cause several infantry casualties along the large field but has no effect on the Tiger stationed there. Meanwhile another Tiger enters the fray, and a nebelwerfer stonk has a negligible effect on the Soviets.

Turn Four

More happening this turn, German 150mm timed barrage arrives, targeting the road just in front of the barn, unfortunately the Soviets not having advanced as far as expected are spared much damage, in fact the Germans were in more danger! The Stug is taken out by the T34 in the wheat field which in turn is taken out by the recently arrived Tiger. The other Tiger again appears to have a myopic crew.

Turn Five

Continued Soviet fire against the Germans in the buildings was starting to take effect, the left hand buildings occupants were all taken out and the MG team in the adjacent field reduced to two men. Meanwhile in the other building under fire from infantry, the SU76 and the SU122 the infantry their retired to the wood. The German tiger that had hit nowt now took out the remaining Soviet T34, things were looking grim for the Soviets.

Turn Six

Unknown to the Soviets the German battle rating was near to its limit, the loss of one of the buildings and another infantry team was enough to take them over, so although the Soviets had yet to take their objective the German force with just the two Tigers, four infantry and HQ remaining together with the half track mounted 20mmQuad quit the field to the Soviets.

A selection of shots from the game

An hard fought game that could have gone either way at various points, Comrade Bykkliski continues his run of victories, the Gulag as yet to beckon it seems.

TTFN