Re-posting from What Would Patton Do with my own thoughts

I do not normally re-post other peoples work but this one struck a cord and I want to shar and provide some thoughts of my own.  The original article is here: Symbols in Miniature Wargames I think most people who play "Historic War Games" are historically minded and know symbols like the Nazi or Confederate Flag and can put them in their proper context.  That said I have never decorated a German tank with a Nazi Flag it just didn't seem right.

Like wise when I started looking for images for German Propaganda posters for use as Flames of War Objectives.  I went with images form World War I as I didn't want nay anti-Semitic hiding in the images or languages.  I felt this sensitivity was necessary.

 As readers of this blog will know I have an extensive Civil War collection including a large Confederate Army with quite a few Confederate Battle Flags.  It never once crossed my mind to consider this an embalm of racism in this context, Maybe it should have.  I am giving this some though but I don't think I will change it.  For good or ill Confederate history is American History. I happen to think the Confederacy was about slavery yes states rights were an issue but the right in question was the right to own human property.  I would strongly recommenced any one interested in the subject to read General Lee's Army From Victory to Collapse by Joseph Gatthaar  it gives a sense of the strong correlation between owning slaves and serving in the Confederate Army.  No I am not saying that every Confederate was Racists or a slaveholder that wouldn't be true, but it was a major motivation and one that cannot be dismissed.

That said I think of the Confederate Flag as the Flag of a brave army not as a symbol of racism when it relates to that army.  I don't think the Confederate Flag should appear on Government building unless they are museums, or National parks that relate specifically to the Civil War. When used a certain why this flag is a symbol of Racism but then again so is this one.

In the end I think Symbols have only the meaning we give them... we can take a negative symbol and give it a positive meaning we just have to have the right mind set.  I won't say any one who claims the Confederate Flag is a symbol of Racism is wrong because they are not... its a symbol any one can use it.   I'll take my chances with your comments but please try to be respectful.

Kampfgroup Bake Vs US 2nd Armor (Dust Up)

 I made my way to the Whiz with my to give my Kampf Group Bake list a try.  I paired off with Chris who was trying to tweak a US Armor list.  We talked over his list and I felt it could do well against mine.  Dust up meant he had two platoons on board and I had 3. I started with my Tigers and Panthers on the board, with my Panzer pioneers to hold the two objectives.

 The US 2iC foolishly advanced and fired smoke at me... and died for his cheekiness.

 My cats were swinging left and right to bring pressure on the US objectives form two directions.

 US Artillery got me bunched up it the town and killed my 2iC

 Chris and his Easy Eights fire on my Tigers and failed to penetrate his dice were very bad early on.

 I had better luck with the Tigers taking out one E8.

 My Panthers took out regular Sherman tanks...

 The the US reinforcements came in behind me.

 They got one of my Panthers and turned that Prong of my attack back around to protect my objectives... an hope for my own reinforcements.

 I get my Jagers and they advance on the objective and the US Battery.

 Tanks exchange fire I bail one and destroy another.

 My Jagers destroy a US gun and then take the objective...

 then get bounce back by the remains of the US armor.

Now the Airborne infantry arrive and they got lucky killing one of my in Panzer Pioneers,

My men don't unpin so I pulled them back and tried to take out the US tanks but missed.

The US infantry is closing it on my objectives...

and one of my tanks is bailed this is probably the most dangerous moment of the game for me...

The US Airborne try to charge for a close assault but with they learn the danger of charging massed MG 42s with 9 shots plus some extra fire from the one panther with a shot they tumble back.

The nest turn Chris get on more Panther with his last Sherman 76...

But I take him out in turn

My now unpinned infantry take the objective wiping not the bailed US commander

I got plastered by US artillery soon after  and in two turn my boys had run away.

Chris had one man holding the objective but with two platoons dead and two more on the edge of being destroyed Chris conceded.  It was a tough game I thought Chris was out several times but he held on.  I made some suggestion to tweak his list.  I was pleased with how mine performed I lost only one platoon, I may change it a bit as I am not sure all the platoons work.

Cruiser Action Naval Thunder at the Relentless Dragon

 A US squadron of the USS Minneapolis, USS Quincy and USS Boise faced off gains a Japanese squadron of of the Chokai and Suzuya. The Japanese fleet was slightly more powerful according to the points the Japanese force was slightly more powerful so I gave that force to my opponent Tyler as he did not have a strong feeling about which force he wanted to play. We used basic rule an divided movement and ranges by half because our play area was limited.

 The ships closed and extreme range fire was ineffective. when the range dropped to long the Boise got a lucky hit with her six inch guns Setting the Chokai on fire

 Both fleets were now at effective range and damage stated to add up quickly.

 Suzuya received the first of two bridge hits while Minneapolis was hit repeatedly by Suzya and was soon taking on water and listing badly.  Quincy landed several hits on Chokai but something was wrong with her ammunition as no penetrations were obtained.  Boise had better luck with here lighter six inch guns and soon Chokai has some serious damage including the destruction of all secondary mounts.

 I attempted to withdraw the Minneapolis but with two hits to her engine compartment mean while Boise was hit in her fire control and both Chokai and Minneapolis went down,  Torpedoes from the Chokai missed the Quincy.  The next turn Quincy and Boise concentrated fire on Suzuya, while Suzuya fired on Boise.  Boise was sunk and then it was on one.

 Quincy finally managed some penetrating hits and Tylers dice went dry. scoring only very minor damage on the Quincy.

Japanese Torpedoes miss and fire from the Quincy at last cracks enough armor plate on the Suzuya to cause her to sink...  This was a fairly even fight and this time numbers mattered but with a little more luck the Japanese could have won. The Boise with only secondary armament let me focus fire on two ships while not suffering form multiple splash marks which helped (only primary armament counts for splash marks, I personally would call her 6 inch guns primary armament but I am not ready to muck around with the rules just yet).

Panthers and Jagdpathers

 So I first mentioned these guys last week and I am happy to be unavailing them as I am very happy with how they came out.  These are from the "new" plastic Panther Jagdpather box set by Battlefront/Flames of war.

 I used a "dot ambush camouflage" patter following the guidance of the Flames of War website in the article Hinterhalt: The Art of Panther Camouflage these are hand painted not air brushed.

 This fellow will act as company CO and sometimes as the Warrior Team Bake for Kampfgroup Bake in Flames of war.

 The models went together very well especially since the top an bottom are not glued together, more on that latter.

 This fellow will probably act as the Platoon Command team when I am running a Panzer platoon.  The helmet as opposed to the more usual soft hat will make him easy to pick out.

 I can not claim to have come up with the idea below as I was inspired by the folks at Breakthrough Assault  we did a similar modification.

 I tried several approaches but putting a steel base on on part of the model...

and a magnet on the other seemed to work best.  So I can also field 5 JagdPathers  instead of 5 Panther tanks.

 I don't know that I would ever use this many of them at once but its nice to have the option.

Platoon or company commander (I don't know if there are any Jagdpather company lists) but these will be some nice heavy metal to add to Gelbirgjagers

Fighting Sail test game

Our naval thunder game finished early enough that we were able to get out my sailing-ships to play test Fighting Sail the new rule set by Osprey publishing.  I commanded a French "Fleet" of two 3rd rates and a small 6th rate frigate. Adrian took a British "Fleet" of one 1st Rate and a 4th Rate. We both maneuvered for two turns before getting into range.  (I like the random movement process in these rules).

My first 3rd rate the Languedoc got a shot on the Royal Savage (1st rate) but she shrugged it off. Not so her fire on Laguedoc that inflicted 5 damage on me, Critical damage under the rules, and Languedoc is reduced to a wreck...

I Screwed up my maneuvers and Africa took Orient the same way with a raking shot. The system played quick, very quick! I am not sure I got it right as it seems odd that two ships of the line should go down as the result of TWO Broadsides! I am back to reread the rules to make sure I got this right, so the jury is still out on these rules.

Naval Thunder at the Whiz

 Adrian set up a game of Naval Thunder using my ships their first foray onto the table. The USS Washington and USS Pensacola faced off with the Huruna, Kongo and Aoba.  I too the USN and I actually thought it would be the harder side to handle... I was very worried about Japanese torpedoes.

 The Washington managed to advanced and turn taking the Huruna under fire...

 of 9 shots 7 landed home breaking through for multiple critical hits including several flooding hits the ship develops a serious list. The Japanese troops respond but does only minor damage to the Washington.

 Adrian then screwed up and managed to put the Haruna between the USN and the Aoba making her a nice little torpedo net for me. I shifted the fire of the Washington to the Kongo which I hit hard but not nearly as hard as I hit Haruna.  Pensacola keeps picking away at the Haruna doing minor damage.

 Adrian got a little of his own back as his secondary armament the Bridge of the Washington...  this hurt my ability to maneuver for a turn and lowers my command ratting due to some of my command staff being out of action.

 My damage control was able to handle the issue quickly... and we continure to exchange broad sides.

 The Aoba is still having trouble getting around the Haruna

 The Washington get another major critical hit on the Kongo and it catches fire

 The Washington's secondary armament hit the Aoba hard taking out it torpedoes! as fire form the Pensacola starts it burning.

The Washington got more hits on both Japanese BCs and sinks the Aoba.  The Washington only took about 15% damage.  In theory these were equal forces but I think the Washington could probably have taken on at least one more BC with no trouble. Adrian might have done better if the he had gotten his torpedoes into action and his concentrating fire on Washington actual lead to fewer hits... he probably should have tried to sink Pensacola first.  That said Washington's Armor was so tough it might not have been possible for the Kongos to hurt her badly.