Freeman's farm at Jon's house

 The Battle of Freemans Farm one for the key battles of the American Revolution. Cortland took the role of General Poor while I in the dual roll of General Learned and General Morgan. We start with two small units of Morgan's brigade on the board.  They are hiding in the woods in theory the British don't know they are there but since every one read the book we just kept them on the board.

 Jon was in command of Hamilton's Brigade including these pickets in advance of the main body.

Adrian on the left is in the roll of General Frasier and commands British elites and some Canadians and Indians.

Adrian advanced on the left...

Jon advances on the right.... I try to advance but my turn but i fail my first of many command rolls.

The British advance into range and Morgan's light troops open fire. This allows us to arrive on the board

Courtland sweeps in on the road.... flanking our British cousins.

Learned has more trouble it takes two turns to get on and then its in a ragged formation.

I continue with poor command toll the 8th Mass advances to fight all of Hamilton's brigade alone! Oddly with Poor's brigade helping and the lights sniping form the woods Hamilton's Brigade breaks and Jon is sent back pedaling.

Cortland and Poor's brigade advance.  I call a flag on the play for illegal formation! No one used Attack column in the American Revolution! But Black Powder allows it.

With Jon backing up I send I try to send Learned's Brigade in to Adrien's flank but only one unit move! Darn command Rolls!

What a mess! two intermixed American brigades... Fortunately Jon with broken brigade cannot take advantage of it

A turn latter you would think we had it all under control. The 8th Mass just like when I was a reenactor is opposite the grenadiers. We get in some good shots... so do the.

Especially when Adrian unlimbers the gun.

Natives in the Woods break my light troops my flank is now open

The shootout continues and the 2nd Mass Breaks my Brigade can only loose one more unit so...

I charge with the 9th Mass and they drive back the Grenadiers!  Though just barely.

Its looking up but Adrian does the same and charges me.

His much maligned Canadian troops break the 9th Mass breaking Learned's Brigade and the American army.  It was a close thing but a British Victory.

1st game at my place

My Friend Luke is home on leave from the Marines, he always like to get in a game of Flames of War so I was happy to host.  My dinning room table is a bit narrow but my hope was that would lead to a fast result and maybe get us two game. I was half right but traffic kept us from getting in a second game.

We played a "free for all"  mission. I had first move but other than advancing my infantry to cover an objective better I didn't move much. I drew first blood with my 8.8 AA guns killing a T-34/76.  Luke got two of my Neblewerfers and two infantry men with his tanks MGs.

On turn two I had some realy good luck and Smashed both Luke's T-70s and his T-34/76 platoons.

Luke did manage to bail a StuG (Luke's dice were very unfair to him) with his T-34/85s on my right. He also made a bold flanking move with his HQ and lone surviving T-34/76 on my left. They missed their side shots unfortunately for him.

I Got the HQ on the next turn though I lost a StuG in the process.

Luke Also got on of my 8.8 Flack guns with shots from his SU-85s but on the following turn my Stugs with the Help of a Pack 40 kill his T-34/85s.  By this point it was getting late, we considered switching sides but in the end decided against it. I am hopping we can get in at least one more game before Luke heads back for his next deployment.

Troll in the Corner Article

Building and imagine-nation or at least my take on it: http://trollitc.com/2013/06/use-your-imagine-nation/

Troll in the Corner

Jon form War Game Recon asked me to join the team at Troll in The Corner.  Along with Adrian of New England Grognard I will be bringing some War Game and modeling content to the site. 

There will be some duplication between the two sites but I will try to make it worth your wile to look at both. I fully intend to keep Fencing Frog going at more or less the same rate of posts you have seen in the past.

Since Troll in The Corner has focused on RPGs I'll be drawing parallels between the two gaming experiences and explaining a few things that I figure the war gamer crowed here understands without being told.   Troll in the Corner also gives me the opportunity to talk about the gaming industry, and culture some thing I have flirted with here a few times but I have never felt entirely comfortable doing in this venue. Troll in the Corner has a staff of editors who I can bounce things off of when I fear I am getting too out spoken something I feel I need when I am speaking about things beyond my own  gaming circle. That should keep me out of unintended trouble.

Ople Maultiers Pioneer Vehicles

These are Opel Maultiers from Battle Front which will soon see use as Pioneer vehicles. Pioneer vehicles are special they give you a re-roll when you try to dig your troops in. They also grant you minefields, or barbed wire in certain missions. I stuck to a simple paint job using Vallejo green ocher for the body and cork brown for the flat-bed. A sky blue with a little white highlighting in silver-gray. The wash is Secret Weapon's armor wash not my usual brand but what was available and its working well enough so far.

The Maultier is actually a half-track so it can deal with the mud of Russian roads.

 This particular Maultier is loaded with entrenching tools, mines, boxes of supplies and tanks of gas.

Hey you maggots unload the supplies!

Locked and Loaded at Game Castle

Its been a little quiet game/hobby wise over the past few weeks.  Chris had a new chit game Locked and Load Band of Heroes.  I was playing part of the 6th Falshimjager regiment defending Carentan while Chris had command of Easy Company of the 506th regiment (101st Air Born)

One of the things I liked was the deployment arrangement I got elements of my unit I could reveal as the game went on.  I got to see how Chris was approaching my side of the board and deploy men to meet them. Basically I was trying to keep Chris out of the east side of the town the part to right of the center road.

I was mostly successful doing this, successful enough to secure victory though Chris did kill two of my quads and had partial control of one of the large building. Over all I liked the game and would play it again.   Deployment worked well as did shooting.  I am not sure how I real about assaults as their is not closing or defensive fire of any kind. The Sniper worked really well much better than I have ever seen in Flames of War. Over all I prefer miniatures but these are a good occasional alternative.

Great Rebasing Project of 2013 (8) Prussian Cavalry

 A mix unit of Prussian Dragoons with representatives of the 1st, 3rd, 4th and 10th dragoons. My one gripe with old Glory15s Dragoons is too may musicians, two trumpeters and one drummer fill out this unit.

Another mixed unit this time Cuirassiers with members of the 1st, 3rd 7th, 8th, and 12th regiments. Both units were painted to be Prussian contingents to the British Army but often as not served with my Prussian forces

 The 2nd Cuirassier Regiment a favorite of mine because of their yellow (I used more of Buff color but some images show a very bright yellow) coats.

 The yellow and read make a striking contrast and realy stand out

The 5th Cuirassier regiment Sky Blue and White also make a sharp appearance.  4 to a unit does make the like look a little thin, maybe as paint time allows I may expand these two units too 6 or 8 figures. 

Great Rebasing Project of 2013 (7)

 This is a vary generic Unit of German Cuirassiers with no flag bearer they can serve in Prussian, Reich, Austrian or even Russian armies. I painted these a long long time ago when I was in school at Marquette University.

 It may be time to hit them with some wash and maybe touch up a detail or two but they will serve for now.

 This rather gruesome figure was once part of the Austrian unit shown in the previous post.

Since both Maurice and Black Powder use casualty markers he has been plucked from his unit to serve in that fashion. I always though he rather threw off the unit in the old days an looks much better on his own as a casualty marker

Great Rebasing Project of 2013 (6) Imperial Cavalry (2)

 Nothing too fancy here just some Austrian Cuirassiers, actually they could work for almost any German state at least until I ad a flag.

 This unit was a little short on men but one man per stand except for the command stand isn't terrible.

 A fuller set of Austrian Cuirassiers these are Friecorps15s Figures I got as a test.  I actually like the figures a lot except for two things.

1) the horse legs are very thin and can bend easily if not handled with care. 2) the flag staff has to be glued into the soldiers hand and does not fit well.

German Training Exercises at The Whiz

 We had a common problem a the Whiz of too many Germans so Mark and played a "training excerices" his Grenadier platoon VS my StuG battery.  Take a look at his Batter comander in full dress a heck of paint job.

 Mark has his 10.5 CM, Flasheirmjagers and his three Tigers.  Lets get something out of the way Mark had a horrible game from a dice stand point, he took his beating like a man but his luck was so bad it went form funny to no fun fast so this will be fast AAR, I don't want to rub it in.

I started with my Two Tigers, Sturm Platoon and one platoon of StuGs on the board

 The game of Cat and mouse begins, Mark had Every shot counts, I had Rappid fire... a good match up.

 Mark had not luck here and he got out of line of sight so I stayed put leaving these behind cover and...

 Letting my 8.8s who just arrived on the board take on the Tigers and I got a lucky hit.

 Marks own rienforcemtnes after takikng out one my Stugs went after my Tigers for side shots but had no luck at all.

 At this point Marks already bad luck went bad I killed another Tiger with my 8.8s (the side shot missed)

 And my Tiger got one hit with the big gun and then my Sturm troops hosed them with MG fire and both platoons faild thier break test.  Mark go his Grenadiers on board but the next turn I hit them hard and Mark having faield about 10 infantry save in the same turn Makr decided he conceaded. I honestly felt bad about the game.

Chris who is with the Ranger program from a store in the Conneticut.  Aparently Battle Front forgot we had our own Ranger team at the Whiz, (oups!) not his falt and we made him welcome. He did some Vietnam demo, not a period I am intersted but the tanks looked very sharp.