Kreta

Saturday (I know I’m a little late with this – been ill and very busy!) Bob, Louis, and I ran a little Invasion of Crete action.

Rules were Flames of War utilizing the special rules from the Diving Eagles manual, Death from Above scenario.

Initially, my opponent (Louis) set up his 3 platoons or so in an ’L’ shape on one corner of the board.

Then we made our first mistake; I rolled for wind direction – placed my landing points on the table – then Bob realized we had done that in reverse! See, you can choose where you want to drop your troops, you can even have some advance knowledge of the disposition of enemy troops – but you can’t know the wind direction until you are on the D.Z.

So, I re-rolled for wind direction – and the direction came up the same!

I placed my two platoons of glider assault troops – a glider assault platoon and my GebG76 mountain guns – on the table. I rolled for them to land and they did wonderfully. No crashes and all stayed on the table!

Next, I lay out the drop zones for my paras. The Fallschirmjagers kicked their equipment canisters out the door of the Junkers, followed by the troops leaping to death or glory.

Initially my Mortar platoon landed partially off the table – so I removed the entire team and brought them back on as reserves.

Total casualties for the drop were three stands of infantry. Not bad at all!

Next, the pre-first turn action begins!

The gliders slide to a stop, the squad machine gunners open up on the unsuspecting troops nearby, and the glider assault platoon leaps out and into battle, just inches from the enemy.

Unfortunately, with only 2 teams per glider, the command team and two assault sections (1 squad) made it into contact with the enemy – the rest of the platoon was too far away.

With just the command team and two assault sections entering into assault against basically two platoons (1 infantry, 1 HMG), things didn’t look good – but the choices were, stay in place and receive full fire on the enemy’s’ turn or assault and try.

Try they did, but they were nearly wiped out and fell back.

Then turn one began.
The battle appeared to go downhill for my part, from the start. Though pinned and with limited fire, Louis Brits were able to focus their fire effectively and nearly wipe out the 450 point Glider Assault Platoon in just one turn. That’s nearly 1/4th of my entire force! OUCH!

Lady Luck intervened, as Louis had abominable to hit die, failed to roll for his reserves, and I made all my saves.

On my portion of turn 1, I rolled for reserves – and failed. I rolled for Air support, needing only a 3+ on a six-sided die – and failed. My HMG crew made it to their equipment canister

My Mountain guns unlimbered and set up, the rest of my troops began the sprint to their equipment canisters, and the Glider Assault platoon “unpinned” and passed their morale. Nice!

Turn two – Louis rolled for reserves – and failed. He fired at the remnants of the Glider assault platoon and finished them off. He fired on the Light Artillery platoon (Mountain guns) and hit them a few times – I made my saving throws.

On my half of turn two, the HMG crew, now with weapons began to sprint for an objective on the far side of the table from all of Louis’ forces. The infantry platoon on that side of the table went into the woods near the table’s edge, opposite the side near the objective, to provide cover for the Mortar Platoon – which I successfully rolled onto the table using the ‘reserves’ rule. I rolled for air before any of this occurred and failed. Again.

Louis kicked off turn three by bringing on the first of his reserves. Using the “scattered reserves” rule, he rolled to see where they would come on – unfortunately for him, his limbered 105 battery came onto the table directly in front of my set up and prepared HMGs. He lost the entire battery. For revenge, he began firing and advancing on Second Platoon, who was moving to take the objective on his side of the board. Casualties were light, but even light casualties hurt at this stage. He fired and advanced on the light arty again – and I made all my saves, again.

I rolled for Air – and failed – again. My light gun crew (7.6cm recoilless rifle platoon) made it to their canister and began to set up. The mortar team began the long trek to their equipment canister, while first platoon covered them.

Louis kicked off turn four by rolling more reserves on. He brought on the Bren gun carriers, fired them into the light gun platoon and wiped it out. His heavily hurting infantry platoon again fired on the light arty and managed to kill the observers and one gun. The other gun and command saved. His other platoons, including the HMG platoon fired on my second platoon and chewed them up pretty bad. They were now below 50% and I had to roll for morale – they were happy and stayed in place.

I rolled for Air and… got it! I aimed my single aircraft at Louis’ Bren guns. I killed one. My anti-tank gun (a 2.8cm anti-tank rifle!) fired on the Brens and killed another. The light gun fired on his advancing infantry – and missed. My mortars continued to move towards elevation nearer to the combat, first platoon began to sprint towards the contested objective.

Louis started turn 5 by rolling on the last of his reserves – a Matilda platoon. He opened fire on my light arty, killed it off. His Bren carrier made it’s morale roll and headed towards my HMG platoon, firing on it and killing 2 stands – that’s 50% - they made their morale roll! Second platoon finally took enough losses that it had to retreat off the contested objective (I failed my morale roll!) and Louis moved troops closer to the objective.

I rolled for air – and got it again! I dropped one attack on his Matildas – killing one, and the other attack went against his last Bren – and killed it. My mortars set up on a hill, just in range of his infantry; 1st platoon continued to sprint towards the sound of the guns, and 2nd platoon recovered enough to stand fast still contesting the objective. My HMG platoon was still sitting pretty, with no enemy in range on the far objective. Thus ends the game.

The game ended at the beginning of turn six: victory conditions were met by the attacker (me) having control of one of the objectives.

Just for giggles and grins, Bob had me roll for air one last time – remember, I only needed a 3 or better to get air support – and I failed again. Two successful rolls out of 6 is not good odds!

Louis and I both made some “silly beginner” mistakes and I hope we both learned a lot. I am grateful for Bobs’ patience and assistance in making this game happen.

Crete revisited

Bob, Hailey, and I are working on a game of Flames of War. This will finally test my Fallschirmjagers using their "Death From Above" special rules. We are going to attempt to land two glider platoons, and the rest of the company will parachute in.

I am going to try to get a digital camera and record the event turn by turn and give you an accurate AAR of the battle.

Yes John, I'll get more work done on your tanks too! ;-)

The Continuing Quest for 25mm WWII Rules

Comments needed!

Lon from Brigade Games sends this in response to my moaning about a dearth of WWII rule sets for 25mm...

"Disposable Heroes (great rules!)
Platoon Commander
A Corner of Hell"

Has anyone seen these played, played them yourself, or have any idea about them?

I hope to have a review of TAC: Skirmish. It's a good ruleset that we just haven't been able to get folks together to try out. That sounds like a project!

More Progress - and a Rant about Mud

I skipped something last night I probably shouldn't have, but got a good deal more done on Johns' tanks. This afternoon I'll get a bit more RLM-62 light tan on the last two that I built, and then I'll do the camo. Then lettering, markings, then finally inking, highlighting, and then the very best part...

mud!

What's not to like about mud?

One of the things I distinctly recall from my few times in the field, is that after a few hours in the boonies, everyone’s uniform looks pretty much alike, unless they're a slacker! Muddy! Dirty! Salt stains where your straps and belt rest.

Those parade soldiers are just a bunch of pretty boys! Real soldiers, meat-eaters, mud-crunchers - they get dirty and grimy, and they don't have a chance to clean up very often.

So you're thinking, “But those great little figs have so very much beautiful detail! I don't want to cover it up!”

What detail are you talking about?

The boots? Yeah, nice detail; usually the weakest bit on a figure.

The pants? Hey, a little mud won't cover the detail on the pants - and it might actually bring out the detail a bit!

Ok, before any of you Nappy (Napoleonic’s!) gamers start looking for measurement lumber to adjust my attitude, please keep in mind I'm talking modern warfare here - Hooo eeee! Modern warfare includes, for Keith’s purposes, anything from 1914 to current day.

Now... I'm also painting up my Johnny Rebs - or that is to say they are sitting on my table. I painted one command set, officer, drummer boy, and banna wava. I muddied them slightly and it looks good.

Just a touch on the boots, elbows and knees won't destroy any of that lovely detail on their chests (ribbons, medals, etc) or the braid on their epaulets.

Go on... dab a bit on... you know you want to!

Vallejo Paints

What's not to like about these critters?

You have an eye-dropper bottle of paint that comes in all the colors a gamer might want, with names that are useful, like, "German Uniform."

The eye-dropper bottle is pretty small, but it's thick paint - so you drop a tiny bit on your palette, add a heap of water, and voila! You have enough paint to do what you have to do!

It dries pretty quickly, so they even sell a “slower” that, strangely enough, slows the drying process. Note – if you are painting something on Saturday morning that you need for a noon-ish game, don’t add the “slower!” Your figs won’t be dry till much later!

There are many distributors in the states – and now that they are creating special packages for Flames of War, a box of paints for each army-type, you’ll be able to find them nearly anywhere!

Now, if you're not a historical gamer, that's all right too! They have "Game Colors," which are the fantasy colors. The names are close enough to Citadel paint colors that you will be able to figure out color switches with ease.

Just my Two-cents worth!

Update: For new readers, or those who don't go that extra step to delve into the Comments, Brian left a very good and important comment relating to Vallejo Game Colors, their fantasy colors - He says the red (I'm assuming "Bloody Red?") runs like ink. That's not good! I'll stick to what I know - their historical colors are fantastic - so far! I'm trying to replace all my Citadel and Polly 'S' paints with Vallejo!

But Hey! That's just me!

Brigade Games - New Stuff

For the 25mm gamer, head over to Brigade Games and see what Lon Weiss has to offer.

Both the Renegade line, as well as BGs own line of WWI are fantastic.

They run 28mm for BG, a little larger for Renegade.

So, what does that mean to the average gamer?

If you have built your army using mass-produced, buck or less per figure bags from Old Glory or Battle Honours, you may want some new poses and some extra nice command figures that will stand out - or even a platoon or company that is your "elite" force! The BG figs will fit nicely with Old Glory. Renegade tend to be a bit larger, but if you are tired of "dirty mold" figures and are willing to lay down the bucks for a fine army, Renegade is the way to go.

After all, it's not Games Workshop! You're still getting a bargain!

So what's new?

Lon has just released the new FT-17 Tank in resin/pewter. The picute on his website is actually the pre-mold metal version.

It's an amazing model with some of the finest detail on an affordable wargames model I've ever seen. It's size is right, the weapons are right - you get a choice between the little canon and the MG. Sweet! Since this tank was fielded in WWI by both French and American forces, it's very useful to the WWI wargamer!

I had a little trouble on one model with the tracks, however, other than some minor bubble issues, which all resin models have to a greater or lesser degree, I found these to be sweet models. On a scale of 1-10, 10 being sacharine, 1 being salt - they are an 8. Very sweet models and well worth the price.

Also have a look at his Panzer II Luchs. It's a sweet model as well, very clean lines, and it paints up nice!

The Ink Technique

I wont' dally on this one, just a quick post on the Ink technique. This is a real time saver if you are painting up whole pile of lead.

Clean and prime your figures - a good job cleaning is imperative - Mold lines will stand out like Pikes Peak once you ink.

Paint all basic colors on the figs, starting from the inside out. That means, paint the lowest lying portions or deepest detail portions first - like the face on a figure with a helmet - the face, neck, hair - that sort of thing.

Now, selecting an appropriate color of ink or wash (if using Citadel inks or washes, I find that a 50% water/ink or wash solution will do nicely!), paint the figure and let it dry. It takes a lot longer for inks and washes to dry than your standard acrylic paint.

What happens? The ink runs into all low-lying areas and then drys there. The ink only lightly shades the raised detail - however it does alter the color slightly!

Go back and look at each figure after it dries and highlight or drybrush up as needed. Look especially for any flat spots where the ink may have pooled. take the original color, water it down a bit and cover the dried ink pool.

Voila! Your figure now looks highly detailed! Aren't you a clever Tabletop General!?


On Ink colors: for modern war figures (WWI through current warfare) I use Citadel Brown Ink at a 50/50 water/ink solution.

Another technique I've read about, but not tried is the "miracle dip" method.

Feeling brave? I mean, it's only several hundred dollars of pewter and or lead, with many, many hours of painting involved. Go ahead! Be brave! If it doesn't work - you can always melt it down and go black powder hunting! ;-)

Flames of War

FoW is a points-based World War II wargame using 15mm miniatures. The company that produces the game is Battlefront Miniatures of New Zealand.

This is particularly fun for a gamer, as you can select and build an army, then just find an opponent to play, decided on the number of points you want to play, and start rolling the bones.

Check your local games shop for minis, rules (or “Intelligence Briefings”) and opponents!

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Why the Geeky Gamer Blog?

Like I don't already have enough to do with my limited time, I split my Blog into two - one to cover my geeky gamer stuff, the other for punditry and general rants. What fun!

For the folks who surf into Baby Wings from Blog Explosion, or my 6.25 loyal readers, this will take the gamer-stuff to a land of its own, and leave my rantings and vaguely amusing punditry undiluted with geeky-gamer-stuff.

So, a welcome to all fellow geeky gamers - we'll leave politics and punditry aside, and concentrate on the more serious things like: "Does size really matter? 15mm V.S. 25mm!"

Or "Secrets of the Dip technique."

Time will tell. Stick with me and see what happens.