Hungarian Students Vs 3rd Armor

 Since both of us had the day off I met up with Gerry Lane at the Whiz on Monday.  It was the first time I had been to the Whiz in months and I hadn't seen Gerry since Huzzah in May so it was great to reconect.

My reluctant Veteran 3rd Armor are ready to looking to move into and beyond some European Village.

Gerry and his Fearless Conscript Hungarian Students battalion are also ready to go.

Jerry sent his Tankettes (L3/35s I believe) forward for recon and the Stugs soon followed fire on my big infantry platoon didn't result in any hits

Gerry also had his Pioneer troops advance into the woods in the center to either support the armor or deny it to me depending on how things played out

My platoon of standard Sherman Tanks moved into the village and landed multiple hits on Stugs two went up in flames while the third was bailed out

Gerry failed his moral check so the crew of the third set charges and ran for the rear.

Gerry got a bit of his own back as his big AA Gun hit one of my tanks and blew it up to the cheers of the Gerry next tried to get his recon tankettes in to position to hit my mortar half tracks...

instead he found himself surrounded by Sherman tanks who eliminated the threat with a liberal dosage of 50 and 30 Caliber MG ammunition.

Gerry's attempts to kill my Jumbo with artillery failed thanks to a good armor save on my part..

but he did get of of my Easy 8 Sherman tanks.

The Tanks moved forward a bit to clear the smoke and landed multiple hits on the battery we pinned them but didn't get any kills.

I survived another bombardment and Gerry is threatening my flank with those pioneers.

Multiple tanks spray the woods and two pioneer teams die.  Gerry kills another Easy 8 and I get one of his big guns we've played about 2.5 hours and both of us have thrown some good punches Gerry has lost two platoons while I have lost none (I am down three tanks).  I have to get heading home so we decided to call it a draw I probably couldn't have shifted Gerry off his objectives but his army probably can't advance against me with both its armored elements eliminated. All in all it was a fun way to spend the day after Christmas.

Dragon Rampant: Sausage and Mustard

Dave and I met up Thursday for some Dragon Rampant.  I had my Green and White Knights defending the village.  We decide to play a Lion Rampant scenario called "Sausage and Mustard"

Dave's Dwarves have a grudge and are looking to burn my village down.

I didn't move much on the first turn

Dave gets his dwarf berserkers into position light one hose afire...

They succeed but we don't have any flame effects so you will have to use your imagination meanwhile my men are advancing.

And my heavy riders are flanking around to the left. My Ax wielding heavy infantry successfully defends the house sending Dave's boar mounted dwarves back.

On the fight the blue and purple infantry companies are maneuvering to block the dwarves

The Blue company attempts to attack but fails to charge intimated by the Dwarf Shield maiden's heavy "metal."

Instead the Dwarf Berserkers charge in... we manage to send them back

but we are not so lucky with the Dwarf elites charge us.

Sending the blue company tumbling back with heavy casulties

My Heavy Cavalry joins the fray

The Red Company is moving up in support as a second melee between the riders brings and end to the Dwarves

Dave brings and end to the Blue Company

The Purple Company gets suck in at last tangling with the much reduced Dwarven Berserkers

The Dwarves not nearly as effective on the defense as on the attack fall back.

The Red Company launches the first assault on the Dwarve's heavy foot driving it back and breaking the wall of spears

Then my Heavy and Elite Cavalry begin to pound it one form each flank

Dave Sets one more house on fire...

As my infantry turns form the heavy foot to guard the last two buildings

While my cavalry hunts down the survivors of other battles to break the Moral of Dave's army.  Two Dwarven untis escape to drink meed in their halls of stone and tell the tail of how the burned two of my house but paid a heavy prices.  This is a minor victory for the Green and White or you might call it a draw if your a Dwarf.

Secret Santa and Merry Christmas

 When I opened my secret Santa package I found this nice little note from Annie (AKA Dice Bag lady) I especially liked that she specified it was "Not from MEEEE!"

 The Package was festively wrapped and I wondered if I might not be getting some of Annie's wonderful female miniatures

This was not the case But I have been considering picking up a second Undead Encounters set for a while so it was a good call by my Secret Santa.  The Ice Toad will fill a gap in my Frostgrave Bestiary so I was very pleased to get that. I'm planning to repurpose the snow leopard slightly for a project later in the challenge. Thanks again to Ian Willey and his wife Catherine for organizing this exchange

Thursday Dave and I met for a game of Dragon Rampant and Promise and AAR in the next few days.  I am off to a slow start in the painting challenge but I have my first entry in.

You can check her out here: http://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2016/12/from-adamc-bess-butchers-wife-5-points.html
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Good Yull, Happy Kwanza and general merriment to all my readers and friends.  I have had a most amazing Christmas weekend and I am grateful for all of you.

WIP Tower Roof 2

After Yesterday's post I got some really good advice form Mike Paine and AJ Wright and the roof looks much improved I think this project is ready for priming and paint.

Analog Hobbies Painting Challenge

I am once again taking part in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge  In previous years I have done duplicate posts here for each of my entries.  I don't plan to do that this year. Rather I will simply post one picture and a link to the original post on the challenge web page.  I'll still post my terrain work, some work in progress posts and any gaming reports that happen between today  in March 20th.  After that I will return to posting every thing here.

WIP: Tower Roof

So this project had been on hiatus for a while because I had to come up with a plan for making a roof. You can see the earlier images here: http://fencingfrog.blogspot.com/2016/11/terrain-work-in-progress.html

I built a rough frame then added some cardboard for an old miniatures box

Then it was time to add some shingles to the roof.  I'm not much of  roofer but I think the effect is OK... I was thinking I might add a second layer so I can get the over lap of true shingles but I might also consider this ready for paint.  Any thoughts?

Runs for the Fijords

You may recall that in October Frank and I played a game were a German force tried to break out and get at a British Convoy. Defense of convoy pq 187 We took the end result as my starting force for the game the Scharnorst and Gneisenau are starting at 100% the Tripitsz has lost one hull box and two main turrets. We have a relief force coming up to help us from the south. Once again our battle field is chocked with fog and ice

as a major British force intercepting us

Frank wanted to try out the air rules but after a turn we realized it was slowing the game down far to much for what it was adding to the game.  So we pulled the aircraft and aircraft carrier.

This time the British are having some manuvering issues as Frank deployed too close and two ships slam into each other...

German Destroyers knife in from the south as the relieve force arrives and the two formation open fire.  Franks shooting is exceptionally good...

My shooting is... not bad but no where near as good as his... still one British destroyers blows up when a shell penetrates the magazine .

Franks gunnery unerringly hit my engine rooms three of 4 destroyers are adrift before turn 2 has ended!

Still they are able to loose torpedoes and the Cruiser Dido is blasted from the water

My one mobile destroyer launches torpedoes as well we land multiple hits Queen Elizabeth loses two hull boxes and take some engineering damage (which she will repair)

Renowned suffers multiple torpedo hits and sinks swiftly below the waves.  The Rodney take a torpedo hit an anti-climatic "critical" that does a single hull box of damage and knocks out one fire control tower (she has two so it hardly matters).

Frank's torpedoes aren't as effective but his gun fire continues to be good the Admiral Scheer is smashed her guns are out and her bridge is hit.  She fails moral and must run but can only move straight ahead for a turn.  Her torpedoes will eventual get Belfast and Scheer will end the fight a battered wreck with one hull box left.

The big ships are in range and start battering each other.  Scharnorst and Gneisenau both take damage to their rudders and hulls.  My hits on the British Battle ships are not nearly so effective. 

Shooting form my secondaries all but annihilates the remaining British destroyers. At this point it was getting late and we regretted the time spent messing with air craft as one more turn would have told the tale.   Frank was down to Rodney and Queen Elizabeth and single battered destroyer.  One of my destroyers managed to limp off the table the others were a complete loss.  Hipper was unhurt and could probably have made do and die torpedo attack on the BBs the next turn  and Blucher was heavily damaged and might have added its torpedoes (they didn't get in any pictures some how!)  Assuming Both British ship survived that the Germans would have been in very bad shape as they were both out of control and Gneisenaue was also taking on water due to a bulkhead hit.  We ruled both Battle Cruisers as probable losses but the Tirpitz probably escaped.  I would have liked about another 30 minutes of gaming time to get a solid decision.  This close action was deadly I think we may have recorded more torpedo hits in this one action then the surface forces of both navies managed in the whole war.