Flames - and an update?

 Hi all,

Got in a Flames of War game with the Cub again.  A trip over to the Fundy side for apple picking put us close to Gametronics in New Minas, the local(ish) pervayor of FoW goodness.  Cub took the opportunity to pick up some more Finns, and with his usual industry, had them painted up in a weekend.

Soviet initial position.  We need to defend the crossroads, hill, and red building from attack - but don't know from where the attack will come!

We're using a modified / fudged / newguy version of 3rd edition for now.  Cub's Finns are in a weird place in the newest version of the game, as they don't really have updated or official rules.  He's using a specific briefing for Finn commandos (came across them in an old Wargames Illustrated of mine), and making them work takes a bit of tweaking.  Add in that I've not played the game in 7 or 8 years, and we're playing something more FoW-esque than strict Fow, but it works.

As a good chunk of my 15mm stuff is individually based for Bolt Action, I just fudged in the 45mm AT gun.

We also home-brewed a scenario.  Three objectives (crossroads, supply depot, and hill commanding the town).  Soviets start in control of all three, and if Finns take 2 (i.e., start their turn in control of them), they win.  Seemed like a suitable thing for Finn raiders to be doing - hit and run attack on a Soviet garrison, looking for supplies.

Finns move on to the table, concentrated behind Soviet lines, the tricky fiends.

Cub's Finn commandos get to make a pre-game move, move quickly when they move at the double, and we gave them first turn.  Basically, it meant that Cub could chose the terms of engagement, and he used the option to swarm in from what we'd designated as the "Soviet" side of the table.  We had roughly the same number of troops on the table, but Cub's are better (Finn commandos have the best ratings in the game, for both motivation and skill), so we decided that Soviet reinforcements could start arriving on turn 2 (5+ roll, then a 4+ on turn 3, etc.).

Crossroads about to be hit hard and fast.

It made for a pretty cool deployment, actually.  The unsuspecting Soviet garrison were confronted with a sudden, close-contact attack by Finns pouring out of the woods behind Soviet lines.  It also meant Cub could close to assault distance turn 1, which he used to good effect, gutting the Soviet platoon defending the crossroads.

After the assault.  Soviets still have a toehold, but probably can't pull it off again.

The soviets managed to hold off the initial attack, but it cost them, and I started my own turn one hanging on to my right flank by my fingernails.

Cub, making good use of LoS blocking terrain ;)

I opted to pull the remaining teams in town into some buildings, with the hope that they'd be harder to dig out, and slow the Finn advance.  Meanwhile, on the outskirts of town, the Finns swarmed over the objective hill, and moved in to attack the supply depot.

More Finns surge over the hill commanding the town.

There was an initial firefight here.  The Finns had the advantage, both in terms of their superior troops, and because the elevated terrain let them bring more teams to bear.

With their right flank more or less collapsed, the remaining Soviets spread out into a firing line.

Cub then followed up with a close assault that was much more one-sided than his attack on the crossroads.  My soviets were driven back, and the Finns moved in to raid the supply depot.

Finns push forward.

The arrival of a supporting SU-76, and a daring attack out of the buildings, let me retake the crossroads, but there was nothing I could do about Cub's control of the other two objectives.  Finns win.

Soviet reinforcements arrive, but possibly too late to matter.

For all that this was a bit of a bodge game, it turned out to be really fun.  In retrospect, I might have deployed in a more dispersed way, but I really only have a couple of formations, and at deployment, had no idea from which direction Cub would attack.  I also underestimated how far onto the table he could move with the combination of his pre-game shenanigans and the first turn, and it really felt like I was playing a garrison surprised by a sudden commando raid.

Soviets retake the crossroad, but Finns control the supply depot and hill.  Finns take it.

.I think (hope?) we'll be playing more of this.  I know there's a lot of purists who don't like FoW, and I get it, but the game always struck me as falling firmly in the "game, not simulation" category.  Cub's interested, and I have enough stuff to build up Soviets that we can play larger games as his collection grows.  It'll also be a nice spur to get some terrain done - the mdf buildings we used are functional, but could use some sprucing, and there's lots of opportunity for scatter and area terrain that would enhance our games.

Speaking of game enhancement, I've decided to take the plunge, and have begun the Great Rebasing of 2020.  All of my ancients stuff is based for Impetus, as that's what I played in Toronto when I first got into the period.

The only problem is, no one around here plays the game, I've had limited success (or motivation, if I'm being honest) in sparking a community, and much as I enjoy Impetus, I enjoy actually playing games more.  As a result, I'm rebasing my entire 15mm ancients collection to DBx standard.  Turns out, I have a lot of hoplites.

It should be noted - I can still play Impetus with the new basing (though I'll need to paint more figs), but the basing shift also means I can play a lot of other games as well, including more DBA, which, via remote gaming, is my best prospect right now.

In point of fact, I'll be "hosting" a DBA game today, probably running Successors vs. Sparta.  My Successors are a bit of a fudge, as they were built initial for Pyrrhus, and then morphed to Antigonus, but they'll serve.  I'll also need to work up something for camps, but I'm chuffed at the prospect of getting in a legit ancients game at my place.  I'll take pics, and throw up a post later on to cover it.  Until then, take care.

FMB

Ayyubid goodbye . . .

 

 . . . but I bid hello?

Okay, a bit of a stretch, I'll warrant, but these are strange days, and I figure one should find one's cheap laughs wherever they might be found.  Bit of a mish mash today, a combination of an update on the Ayyubid DBx project, and a few shots from a small game of Flames of War I got in with the Cub, before he went back to his mom's for the school year.

What's been done so far, some rebased, some newly completed

The Ghulams are the same figs I've had kicking around for years, but rebased for DBx.  The plan is that post-plague, these guys can go up against Jura's Eurotrash kniggits in a real-live face to face game.  

Mamluk Ghulam general

More Ghulams

I also knocked out some Kurdish Javelinment (3Ax in DBA).

Kurd Javelinmen

And some Quaraghulam lancers.  

Quaraghulam lancers

There's a fair ways to go on this, and not a huge rush, but I've been picking away at it fairly consistently - there's a unit of Turkik archers in the painting queue as I write this.

In addition, the Cub has been busily painting a platoon of Finnish commandos he picked up back at the end of summer, and we managed to sneak in a small game of FoW; it was pretty much everything I had painted vs. everything he had painted.

Finn Commandos top, Heroes of the Soviet Union bottom

The finn commandos are some of the best infantry in the game, whereas the Soviets, even in the relatively veteran form I'm taking, are on the good side of mediocre at best.  Very much a quality vs. quantity match-up.

The Finnish commander reviews his troops

In the end, quantity took it; Cub was attacking into some big blobs of soviet infantry, and as it was his first game, hadn't really got the hang of coordinating attacks.  That said, he pushed pretty hard, and on the last turn had put himself in a position to win, holding key objectives.  If the Soviets hadn't regained control, he would have taken the game.

Soviets dig in.

.

I'm pretty sure he had fun, as he's been talking about getting some more Finns.  We might stop in at the game shop as part of an apple-picking excursion over the next couple weeks.  In the meantime, my soviet tanks have arrived, and I've been busily assembling T-34s.  I'll probably do a post on the PSC kits soonish.  Until then, stay safe.

More Heroes. Also, lists.

Hi all,

Some more Heroes of the Soviet Union join the ranks today.  Traditionally, Soviets in Flames of War have been the "horde" army.  Most FoW forces are basically reinforced companies in scale; the Soviets, in contrast, run reinforced battalions.  For purposes of game balance, the inflated number of troops is compensated by generally lower quality; Soviets are much easier to target, lower skilled, and lack critical defensive options like smoke.

In the latest version of FoW, Soviets have the option to go with a scale of force a little more in keeping with the other nations; the "heroic" formation option.  In terms of background, the conceit is that these are formations after several days of fighting, where the survivors have learned a few tricks.  Generally speaking, they're higher quality, if a little more cautious on the field.  I suspect the option was included to make starting Soviets a little less daunting for new players, but it works just as well for someone like me, who's gettting back into the game.

I'm still getting over the clarity in these pics compared to before.

I'm likely going to base my force around a "Heroic" rifle battalion, primarily because it lets me use as much of the stuff I already have as possible.  As the group I'll be playing with seems to have opted for Late War (FoW divides the war by period, and to some degree theatre), I'll base the list for now on the "Fortress Europe" book.  The core list will likely look something like this:

Battalion HQ 2 points
2x Rifle Company (10 stands) 18 points
Attached MHG, Flamethrower, Mortar/PTRD 8 Points

My usual in-game view.  Hopefully not the opponent's.

For a total of 28.  I'll almost certainly attach a full unit of 45mm AT guns (I have one, and can pick up some PSC ones cheap to fill out the unit) for another 6 points, leaving me with 16 points to add some artillery or tanks.  I also have enough infantry for another company, if I'm feeling masochistic.

By the time I get all that done, and we've played a few games, the first "dedicated" LW soviet book should be available, and I'll likely have a wider selection of toys to expand the force.  In the mean time, I'll just have to keep watching Russian movies on YouTube (White Tiger, Panfilov's 28, and Schtrafbat are all recommended).

Back to Russians. No, not those Russians.

Hello all,

Many, many (many) moons ago, I had a soviet force for Flames of War.  Due to a variety of circumstances, I ended up selling it.  While in Toronto, I then restarted soviets, but due to a variety of similar circumstances, ended up selling it.  Then I did them again, this time with a cossack theme.  But due to a variety of circumstances, I ended up selling most of it, and used the dismounts I'd done for a 15mm Bolt Action force.  I seem to have the same track record with Soviets that I do with orks - I build up a horde, and then for one reason or another, end up having to sell it off.

"Heroic" infantry, i.e., what's left after 3 days of fighting.

So, I figured, why not tempt fate, and try again?  As it turns out, I still have a pile of stray soviet infantry kicking around.  Not enough for a real Soviety infantry force, but more than enough to start one, and build out from a core, especially with the new "hero" battalion in 4th edition (which is smaller than the usual Soviet conscript horde).

A little rougher than my older stuff, but getting back in the swing of it.

The plan is to start with the Hero Motostrelkovy battalion, and if and when I paint them (plus whatever support elements I dig up), I can always expand.  Historically, that's been T-34s, KV-85s, and SU-152s, but maybe this time I'll try something different.  There's a number of fairly nice 15mm and 1:100 scale plastic kits out there worth looking into (I'm looking at you PSC).  In extra good news, one of my GW buddies also used to play the game, and I have hopes I've hooked him into getting back into it.  Plus, he's been working on another mutual friend to join us.  Fingers crossed!

FMB

Dog's eye view

Hi,

Got down to the Dueling Grounds last night for a THMG club night.  Didn't actually get a game in, due to some scheduling / time constraints, but I did get some good pictures of the games going on, as well as serving as ref / rules looker-upper / cheering section for a game of Bolt Action.

We rolled the first scenario (Envelopment), which requires the attacker to try and move across the table, into the defenders deployment zone, or ideally off the defender's table edge.  Defender gets 2 points per enemy unit destroyed, attacker gets 1, plus 2 for ending up in the defender's zone, plus 3 for going off the defender's edge.  The game had Vonplutz's fallschirmjaegers, assisted by Mikola, defending against AlexM's yank airborne, assisted by michaeld.

Turn one saw the Americans move on to the table, with one squad moving up the gully on their right, and the other advancing through pockets of cover on their left.  They'd also set up a fire base in the field on the far left, including an MMG and a medium mortar.



The Germans were hidden in various cover across their table edge, with one unit in reserve, and flanking.  Hidden status considerably magnifies the cover bonus against shooting.  While units can be targeted (the opponent knows they're there), they're sufficiently uncertain that actually getting effecting fire on the unit is difficult.  The status is lost once a unit moves, fires, or is successfully fired upon.  A flanking move in reserve allows a player to bring a unit in from a pre-determined table edge, and the later you bring them on, the further up the table edge you can bring them.



In turn two, the Americans continued their advance, while the Germans repositioned a unit to counter the Americans in the gully.  Both sides exchanged some fire at long range, with minimal effect.





Turn three, things started to heat up.  The Americans in the gully worked their way out, and started trading fire in earnest with the German squad across the table, while the other two squads traded pot shots around the edge of the large hedgerow.





At this point, the Germans made one of their bolder moves in the game.  Their flanking reserves came on deep on the American's left, within 6 inches of the US MMG and mortar, the latter of which they assaulted, wiping it out.  On their next activation die, AlexM decided to counter-attack with his mortar team, but they were also overwhelmed.  Vonplutz had wiped out the US firebase in one move.  It would be up to the paratroop squads themselves to pull out the mission.



The Americans consolidated their position into a firing line, taking cover behind the low brush, and started trading shots with the Germans in earnest.  The effect was a steady stacking of pins on one of the German positions.





The yanks kept pushing forward, but the squad on the left bogged down under heavy fire.  They were taking hits from the fallschirmjaeger squad in front of them, a MMG, and occasional fire from the German command squad, and it started to pile up.



Meanwhile, the remnants of their outflanking squad redeployed to cover, looking for more targets of opportunity.



By the final turn of the game, the firefight was at point blank range.  Vonplutz decided he was better off staying put than risking an assault over the hedge, while michaeld's squad had taken so many pins he couldn't manage to successfully activate it!  Meanwhile, AlexM's paratroops continued to pour fire into any German unit that exposed itself, racking up enemy casualties as opportunity permitted.



In the final turn, AlexM's squad, having picked off the remnants on their side of the table, swung across in an assault move against Vonplutz's lieutenant.  In a flurry of boots and riflebutts, the German officer went down.




The Americans had pulled it out, 5 points to 4.  This was a pretty fun game, even without me actively playing.  Even around turn 4, I thought the Germans were going to pull it out, but the Americans were able to concentrate fire, and put the hurt on some weakened German units, while still driving forward consistently enough to pick up some scenario points.  Good game, and I hope we picked up a few new converts to BA.

While this was going on, we had a couple of FoW games being played in the background, and a Hail Caesar game as well.  Pretty pics follow.  I am reliably informed the itsy-bitsy tanks are Czech 38ts.















FMB

More cossacks

Hi,

A little pre-Christmas update, as posting might be sketchy over the next week. I've had these guys painted for some time, but only finished up basing today.



Pics are a little suboptimal, as I've yet to pin down a good location in the new place, but they'll do for now, and I'll try to get some better ones down the road.



This brings me to two mounted platoons and one dismounted. I might branch out and paint up some mortars next, just for a change of pace.



These guys will likely be a priority project for 2012, as I'd like to get a playable FOW force on the table by mid year.



Top priority in the short term remains the SYW French. I'd like to knock out two units of them to one of anything else, at least until I have something playable. Good thing is that the 6mm figs tend to paint up pretty quickly.

Merry Christmas to any and all who read this, and here's hoping 2012 is a fun, productive year in geeking for you all.