3rd FOW 1k League Game: Fighting Withdrawal vs Stephens Canucks

Hey Folks,

Here is my third Flames of War League Game, this time against Stephen's Canadian Rifles in a Fighting Withdrawal.

I split my forces (which was a bad idea in hindsight) and this is the right flank. Half Track Rota, 2iC and M10's face off against a Rifle Platoon off to the left and a scout carrier patrol.
Left Flank Deployment: Panthers and the Universal Carrier Rota with the BA-64s against another Rifle Platoon dug into the hill. Centrally Stephen has some Medium and Heavy Mortars and somewhere there is a Sherman platoon in Ambush.
On the left I use my Decoy Infiltration + Recce Move to run the Panthers up a flank and the BA-64's and UC Rota through the town. This photo is after my first move where I have moved up and started to MG the dug in Rifles, to little effect. The BA-64's MG the 3" Morter platoon and pin them down, and they then fail to unpin.

On the Right Flank I move up and the Canuck Heavy Mortars (4.2") claim an M10.
Not to muck around I move up and debus the UC Rota and prepare to SMG, BBQ the rifles with the Flamethrower team and assault...except the Flamethrower fails epically and doesn't hit anyone. I pin the platoon down but decide not to assault as I had hoped on there being a dirty great hole in the defences and Stephen is still throwing 10ish dice for Defensive Fire.

On the Right Flank I move up and the M10's get the Scout Patrol with 50cals after they fail to disengage. The HT Rota sneak up to contest the objective.

On the Left flank the rifles fail to unpin but I still get punished by multiple mortar bombardments and rifle fire...the survivors hang on just.

After this for some reason Stephen dosnt Ambush with his Sherman's on the Right Flank and drive out to contest the objective, or even deploy them to shoot me off it. Therefore I win at the start of my turn 4 as the HT Rota are still contesting the objective.

6-1 to the mighty Razvedki

I did ask Stephen why he through in the towel, and he wasn't really sure. I guess we can have a rematch sometime. Thanks for the game though!

Commission Work: WHFB Nurgle Chaos Maruaders

Some Commission Work: Nurgle Chaos Marauders for my mate Isaac's Warhammer Chaos Army. These are actually the 4th lot of Ten Marauders I have painted (among other things). This gives him enough painted to field a Horde Unit of 40 :)

Roman Ballista Scratch Build

I have been sick the last few days and in between Nana naps have managed to get my last war machine for my Roman/Remans built, a Ballista. The Ballista was a torsion powered catapult that the Romans acquired from the Greeks. It came in a variety of sizes with small bolt shooting types known as scorpions (like an oversize crossbow) and large stone throwing types. From records of ancient sieges it has been found that the larger stone throwers could hurl round stones as heavy as 45kg. I have built one of the larger types, and I think its entirely appropriate to use it as a cannon in my WHFB Reman Army:

Its made from balsa, plasticard, wire and some sculpted grey stuff. I based it on the one you can buy form Warlord Games seen here: http://shop.warlordgames.co.uk/roman-ballista-274-p.asp
It probably only took me a few hours so it was a good way to save 18 pounds :P By far the longest and most annoying part was doing the "riveting" I hate riveting, I really do. What you have to do is cut small circles from a 1mm styrene rod and then individually glue them on with a pin. At least its done now!

I also finished of the detail ling on my two Onagar/ Mortars so my artillery park is all good to go.

Roman/ Reman Conversion Progress

Hey Folks,

A bit more progress on the Roman/ Reman Front. I have been lusting after some light cavalry to support my courageous Legionaries in battle, but being poor I cant afford to get the metal models at the moment. I therefore "re tasked" some spare Riders of Rohan and converted some Auxiliary Cavalry:

The horses and legs are Rohirram. I cut their feet off and stuck the plastic Auxiliary sandals on. I then uses the plastic Auxiliary upper torso as is with some chain mail sculpted on top the Rohan cloak/ skirt thing to meld them together. I was a bit impatient and should have taken longer with it so may redo the chain later. The Spear quivers are Balsa. In game terms they will count as Pistollers for WHFB.

Likewise I decided to build some war engines for the Roman/Remans, and first up is a pair of Oangers.
These are all balsa with plasticard details. The chain is from WHFB while the cup is a cut down Uruk Hai bomb from War of the Ring. They will be full of "hot coals and Greek fire" so hence the big pot as opposed to the normal leather sling. They are not quite finished yet, I need to add to a few bolts and other details. In game terms these count as Mortars :)

1st Roman Colour Test - Veteran Legionary

Hey,

This is the first colour test for my Roman/ Remans. The armour and gilding is painted grey/ yellow with only the highlighting done in metallics. The reason that is is because I felt that with the large solid mass of armour would be a bit boring.

The downside is that the waterslide transfer is quite hard to put on the shield well, as its quite big and overlaps the edges. The camera has picked up the shine badley, I am going to have tp get some Micro Sol to do the army with.

Also the light was crap.

Still, pleased with the starting result.

2nd FOW League Game: Free for All vs Adam's US Cavalry

Last night I played my second League game vs Adams very nicely painted US Cavalry. The Cavalry are a very light force normally but vs my equally lightly armoured carriers, half tracks and armoured cars I was quite confident I would be in for a struggle...and I wasn't proven wrong!

Adam had a nice mix of armour and armoured car patrols with a smattering of infantry. IIRC it was:

• Cav HQ in M8's
• 2 Cav Patrols
• 3 Scott HMC's
• Smallish Armoured Rifle Platoon
• 3 Sherman's
• Full M10 Tank Destroyer Platoon
  

The mission was originally Break Through, but as I always attack we took a look at Adams list and decided that it would be a very short and unfair battle as he could only deploy one platoon!. A one was duly rolled and we set up for a Free For All.

Soviet Deployment. Panthers near the close objective, M10's in the centre and the rest of the Rota massed down by the far objective ready to nip round the far hill towards the objective on that side.

American Deployment: Adam deployed his infantry guarding the objective opposite the Panthers. There are M10's lurking in those trees with a Cav Patrol, the Scott's and Sherman's deployed center. The last Cav Patrol is guarding the far objective opposite my Gypsy horde with the Cav HQ

I managed to roll a "7" for first turn and after we did Recce moves started to creep forward. My M10's managed to not bog going up the hill and blew all three Sherman's away in the opening salvo!. That was lucky.

The Gypsy Horde masses behind the big hill. Note that the M7 Gun Tractors are actually "cunningly" disguised BA-64 Armoured Cars that we acquired from Poochie when the proper BA-64's failed to show up for duty (read: left at home)

In Adams first turn it appears that those M10's were closer then I thought, and promptly blew up one of my M10's and bailed the rest...who then ran away :(


In my second turn I swing the Rota round the hill and start pumping 50cal rounds into the AC's in the woods, to little effect. The UC Rota park up by the woods near Adams objective and prepare to debus.

Adam retaliates in his turn by racing the Scott's over (I forget how light tanks can MOVE) and then hosing me with 50cal fire in return. Its crazy how the Americans stuck a 50 on anything that could move!) I get of lightly with a few bailed vehicles as Adam is unlucky and cant get those 5+ Firepower rolls going.



Meanwhile in the centre the M10's and Panthers are both hiding from each other on either side of the big hill. His Cav platoon come down the road and have a crack at my BA-64's to little effect.

The Panthers decide to 'man up' and move up to the ridge line and get lucky, the M10 threat is halved.

I have swung round to the other side of the woods now and have the flamethrower assault all prepared and good to go. Adam drops a bombardment on me from the Scott's and 37mm fire takes out the 2iC in his M3A1.


I didn't get a Photo but in our last Turn (as we were running out of time) Adam storms out of the woods with his Cav Patrol, Cav HQ and the Scott's and MG's the UC Rota platoon to rags. They promptly flee and take the CO with them. While I still have the HT Rota intact they are out of position to force the Cav in the far woods away from the objective and form an effective cordon.

In this final photo the Panthers have got another M10 but the platoon is still above half due to the Scout and Command teams. The Cav Patrol has lost its jeeps due to BA-64 MG fire but the M8 passes its morale test and gets 2 BA-64s in revenge. In the last act of the game the last M10 puts a shot through the closest Panther but only bails it luckily.

So in the end neither of us were on an objective so we both lost. I had lost 2 platoons to Adam's one but as the mission is Fair Fight we ended up with a 2-2 Draw

Good game Adam, your force is nice and quirky and a real pleasure to see on the table.

1st Roman Cohort + Commanders Built

Hey Folks,

I have been busy basing and building my Romans (or "Remans" as they shall be known for Warhammer Fantasy) and have managed to get the first "Cohort" done. Now while I haven't managed to build and an actual Cohort of 500 men I figure 50 men is a good scale equivalent.

The first Cohort is a unit of 40 "Reman" Legionnaires (Empire Swordsmen) deployed in "horde" formation, that is 10 wide. In WHFB this means that 3 ranks can fight in combat. Given that they are Weapon Skill 4 and Initiative 4 they should put quite a few human opponent's down before they can fight. Of course inhuman opponents could pose a problem!

They are supported by 2 "Vexallations" or Detachments. The first is a unit of 10 more Legionnaires. I have used the Veteran models to represent the hard bitten men who have been detailed this mission, and the battle worn state of there shields and armour shows that they will often as not die!

The second Vexallation is a unit of 10 Auxiliary Bowmen. Unfortunately I cant given them Light Armour in WHFB so the mail and helmets are just for show. I converted these from the Auxiliary Spearmen unit using short bows form the WHFB Goblin sprues. I didn't quite have enough quivers so I took arrows from an really old school WHFB Bretonnian one piece archer and sculpted basic quivers around them with Grey Stuff.

Last but not least my two Commanders. The Tribune on foot will be a "Captain of the Empire" and lead one of the Legionary Cohorts into battle. The Legate on Pony (as its a bit small to be called a horse!) is based on a 40mm base with a Centurion from the the Praetorian Guard and a Signifier bearing a Vexillium (small flag). He will just count as a model on Foot + 3 troopers of whatever unit he has joined. The pony is just for show.

So all good to undercoat. I am going to undercoat one model and do a colour test soon. I also have to scratch build up a couple of Onagers (or in WHFB: Mortars) as well as build the Praetorian Guard unit before Tuesday so I can use them vs Jamie's (currently proxied) 30 Years War Empire.

Hope to have some painted models up by the end of the week. :)

First 1k League Game: No Retreat vs Andys SS Wiking

This was my first game of Stephen Stouts' 1000pt Late War Flames of War Gaming League. I had decided to take a Rota Razvedki list from Hammer and Sickle as I really like the hodgepodge "gypsy caravan" look. The list for this and the next 5 games is:

• Rota HQ in M3A1 Scout cars with .50cals
• Full (9 team) Rota Platoon in Universal Carriers
• 7 team Rota in Captured SfKfz 251 Half tracks
• 4 BA-64 Armoured Cars
• 4 M10 Tank Destroyers
• 2 Decoy Panthers
  

So almost no Soviet vehicles at all! The mission was No Retreat with the table being set up around a river with fortifications on both banks.

Andy had an interesting Wiking list. It was small with two infantry platoons and a couple of 8-Rads but he also had 3 Panthers! Fearless Trained Panthers but Panthers none the less.

Here is how it turned out:

Soviet Deployment: The cunning Germans had pulled back from the river and had dug in along a hill line. In a moment of tactical ineptitude I decided to deploy on the far side of the river and then cross the ford and head for the far (lightly defended) objective...bad idea!

Decoy Panthers Move up to engage the enemy...is that another Panther I see?

The gypsy horde crosses the river (mostly). I had 2 BA-64's and a UC stuck in the ford for half the game. The M10's have moved up on the hill and one is promptly swatted by a Panther. They do force the Wiking Panthers back though as they don't want to run the risk of being in short range of them. The Rota in carriers are heading off towards the far objective while the Rota in the half tracks start to hose the Wiking troops on the hill with MG fire.

Andy's reinforcements ( a short infantry platoon and the 8-rads) have turned up and are camping on the far objective. The UC Rota are massing in the trench lines for an assault while the HT Rota pick away at the infantry. The M10's dispatch the 8-Rads with some lucky hits while the Decoy Panthers kill an enemy Half track. At this point I should say that Andy has had seriously bad luck with his Panthers, and had either missed with most of his shots or failed his Firepower rolls.

Massed MG and .50cal fire pays off, Andy's saves for his infantry on the hill. I then manage to pass 3 5+ firepower rolls...

At this point I'm still picking away at the Wiking infantry on the closest objective while my far UC Rota stand off against the far objective and draw fire from the Panthers

Massed firepower has picked apart the Wiking infantry on this flank and I start to creep forward for the assault. Andy pulls his Panthers over and I kill his Panther in the top right, but he gets one of mine next turn.

Last photo as I forgot to take more. After this shot I disembark and race forward and Flamethrower the German CO. 4 dice and one hit bails the Half Track. Its driven off by the 2iC i his scout car with his trusty 50cal. The Assault goes in after I bail a Panther with an M10. I dance through 4 hits in Defensive Fire and kill the CO but fail to hurt the Panther. It then crushes a team but I come back and drive it off when it fails a morale test...and capture the Bailed Panther. Yay, now we have a spare!

Meanwhile on the other flank my assault is stopped when my UC Rota (disembarked) move up through cover to get into assault range and the Lieutenant cops a bullet. They fall back on the trench line to preserve their strength.

Andy counter attacks with the last Panther and drives off my HT Rota to contest the objective. I move back up but my M10's roll into short range and put a shot through the hull to win me the game.

Huzzah, a 6-1 Victory.

I could have played this a lot better and I was very lucky to get away with the mistakes I made vs a player of Andy's calibre. if he had have been playing his usual CV Germans instead of the FT Wiking I would have been punished. Hitting his fragile troops on 3+ is a big disadvantage for him. His Panthers were cool but unlucky, and they are half his points total. They cant be everywhere so once I figured this out and ignored them to focus on the rest of the army their impact was limited.

Unit of the Match: M10's - 3' Guns and .50cals, whats not to love?. I had best get them painted by next week!