French Farmhouse minature

The French farm house made its first on board appearance it looks quite nice next to Ted's River.
 

4th armor Vs. Feldhermhalle (Encounter) at Game Castle

 Ted and I met up at Game Castle last night.  This was my first trip and I was impressed with the gaming space, Ted provided much of the terrain and I put down my housed and a bridge I have since the field was cut by a river.

Some one once observed to me that deployment is the first turn of the game and I would say I lost deployment.  I only had two Platoons available so I did one Armor and my Artillery. Ted was able to position two Powerful AT assets were they would have my tanks in a cross fire. To Make matters worse I won the initiative roll so I had fist move, so my artillery were not able to fire.  If they had the smoke bombardment might have save many tanks.

As it was I moved my men up and opened fire with smoke on the 88s for shots and not one hit I did kill one of Teds Pack 40s with shots from the CO but that was too little damage.  Ted was swift in his responce.

Ted killed three tanks with the 88s and got one more with his Pack 40s 4/5ths of a platoon gone in a single turn. I did manager keep the last tank alive, he even shot down one of the three planes that took a shot at me. Ted got his air support a lot but he didn't get any kills from it.

Turn 2 I covered the Pack 40s with smoke and had my surviving tanks run for the objective to the left side of the table as it was weakly defended. Ted did get my last platoon tank with a shot from the 88s.

Turn 4 I got my infantry platoon but the random arrival had them show up on the opposite side of the table from were I need them. So I used Truscott Trot to try and get them there.  They got shot up by the 88s as they were just in range I only lost 2 stands but they were pinned and did not unpin the next turn. At the same time my CO and 2iC were pushing to the left at the objective and were almost on it when... Ted got his reserves! Three Panthers to my Flank!

For the second time I thought I might well have lost the game!  Ted however managed to miss with all three of his shots on my Warrior teams. and I got my tanks the next turn.  They were at long range but two of them had side shots and we managed to take out two of the Panthers and bail the third.

Of course on the opposite side of the turn Ted got all three of his remaining platoons with Panzer JagerIVs and Panzergrenadiers now on the objective as well as Teds command teams the objective was no longer thinly guarded on the bright side the last Panther ran off. Unfortunately my CO was also killed.
Ted also had some recon that started driving on one of my objectives wile his AT guns sniped my Artillery with some success.

I pushed in with my tanks and was fortunate enough to kill the Panzer JagerIVs (Ted was unlucky with armor saves all night) while losing only one more Sherman and pushed for the objective.

The Time had come for assault and and I managed to kill most of Teds Panzergrenadiers with MG fire (Ted also had bad luck with digging in).  Ted's panzerfaust bailed one of my tanks and his counter attack killed another of mine but in the end he just didn't have enough men and I took the objective.

Ted was on the verge of potentially taking one of mine at the same time. I think I could have held it but maybe not as my Infantry were only trained, still since I would have won a the stat of the next turn Ted opted to concede .

The was a great game very close I thought Ted had me dead to right at least 3 times.  I would give Ted a slight edge on Generalship and especially complement his excellent initial deployment. I played aggressively and had Ted reacting to me but he was constantly turning the tables on me great game.

There were a lot of other games being played Bergi, Bob, Richard and Frank were playing Warhammer Fantasy Ogres V. Dwarves. The Ogers were getting the worst of it "clubbed like baby seals" is I think the phrase Bergi used.

Hoby Bunker Game day

I have offered to run a game for the Hobby Bunker game day. The game in 8/18/2012 this is the basic info.  I should be able to run this out of my current collection of 7 Years War miniatures

Description: French Invasion of England 1759.  Sickness and storms cripple Hawkes Fleet off Quiberon Bay and the French Fleet with aid from Sweden and Russia are able to land an invasion force in England. Many of Britons best troops are in Germany. John Ligonier prepares his regulars and English militia to face the French south of London.
GM: Adam Carriere
Period: 7 Years War
Rules: Black Powder
Players: 3 to 6
Table size: 3 x 6
Session: unknown at this time.

I will need to arrange some play tests any interested parties?

Half Traks on Ebay (Sold)

My friend Rob who has been painting my soviets has some FOW items up on EBay go here to bid http://www.ebay.com/itm/271002058491?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

These are British markings the Stars are for air recognition.

Black Powder Demo at 3 Trolls

I had discussed the game Black Powder  with Dick several times and Saturday offered a good opportunity for a demo. I had thought Dick had British Napoleonic at the store but it turned out not to be the case so we split up my army of French and added some French Cavalry that Dick had in his display case.

 Charlie took one army and Warren the other and I walked them through about a three turn game. We used a narrow table so it was a case of march up and shoot then close for melee. Both players had a brigade of 4 Infantry and another brigade of 2 Cavalry units. We had to get creative with commanders Gandalf leading one army and a Rohirim figure leading a cavalry brigade.

 Both players used a combination of "column line and square" (apologies to that august rule set) so we got to experiment with a lot of the basic rules. Charlie felt the game played a little like the aforementioned rule set, and in this game our results were spectacularly bloody, both side racking up causalities at an alarming rate. 

 With no real room for maneuver both armies broke more or less at the same time with the battle ending in draw as expected.

Houses Part 2 Repairs.

 I am sure you recall my little incident with the house taking a fall last week, if not go here. well I have done some repair work and the damage was not as bad as I thought it would be. AJ provided me with some laser cut bases and I built this one up with cork to make a low hill of sorts. I my uptimate in tention is to build a hill piece that this villa can slot into.

 I used some ivy to cover the chipped and broken chimney and the result is effective. The basing was done using the materials form a the Gale Force 9 Tundra set.  I think this works for an alpine setting as well, though I may add s piece or two from the wild flower set.

 I created a wall of scrap pieces of cork painted stone gray making the French peasant home into a noble's hunting lodge or the home of a prosperous farmer.  I think this house will look good integrated into a town scape or on its own.  No repairs were needed here. 

 Basing materials are a combination of Gale force 9 tundra for the path, and the yellow patch the green is woodland scenic static grass. I think I will put some wild flower effect in the yellow patch to give the impression of a small herb garden.

4th Armor Vs. Panzer Brigade at 3 Trolls

 Since Arianna was again working this Saturday I made my way to 3 Trolls in Chelmsford.  I Had an army of my own design this time and I was running it by myself as Dick had to man the register. I had 2 armored platoons with 1 Jumbo and 2 Easy8s each and third platoon with one M3A4 (76) and 4 M3A4 Shermans these were backed up with a battery of 105s and HQ units consisting of an Easy 8 and a Jumbo.  My plan was to hold on the left and advance on the right. Charlie had two 3 Panther platoons and two 3 Panzer IV(70)s platoon with a platoon Volks Grenadiers. He split them up Warren taking those on my right and Charlie handling those on the left.  Charlies plan was an all out advance with the Panzer IV(70s) trying to wrap around both flanks.

  Germans advance cautiously on the fist turn on both sides. I moved my E8s and Jumbos forward slowly and engaged the Panthers at long range.  I got one of Warrens but for about two turns things where fairly static.

I advanced my regular Shermans up to that low hill and hid be hind it hoping Warren would play aggressively.  He did trying to close the range so he could hit on 4 rather than 5s.  He even bailed my Sherman 76.

 I was however able to pull my trap moving my Shermans in an among his Panthers so I could hit them with side shots using my stabilizers.  As you can see they wreaked some havoc

 Waren had no luck getting shots back using his Panzer IVs and I got two of them next turn

Charlie fell to long range fire from my Easy 8s and we called the game as the germans had only two operational platoons at that point. Terrain makes all the diference foramerican armor. if they someplace to hid they can be deadly.  I am not shure a pure German armor force and fight a Pure US Armor force in what I call a fun game.  In the games i have played so far one side or the other wipes the flore with the oposition and terrain seems to be the main factor.

Fist full of lead shoot out at Adler

Great game Thursday night at Adler Hobby.  Two of my three men were gunned down early by Gordon's buffalo soldiers.  My third gunfighter got away. The game plays fast and fun, the rules are simple and sensible.  A good or bad night with the dice can kill you or make you unstoppable and we saw some of each.

 My gunfighters and Chirs' Confederate Zouaves

 Gordon and AJ had a force of Yankee Infantry and Buffalo Soldiers

 Chris dominated the game from this sniper position

 My lead gunfighter from the stables... Lasted one turn and got one shot :(

 Chris made almost all his rolls AJ well he didn't Gordon and I were average

 Running with the loot

 I learned after turn two that if you have to move get out of the line of sight.  Gordon ignored me by design or mistake I am not sure.

And my last man make it out with Chris' men close behind.