6th and Final FOW League Game: Hasty Assualt vs Chris's Grenadiers

Hi Folks,

Its been a couple of weeks since I played this game and I have been quite busy with Real Life hence the delay in posting.

For my 6th and Final FOW League game I was up against Chris with his Grenadierkompanie. He had;

• Grenadier HQ with Mortar Section and Panzershreck team.
• 2 * Grenadier Platoons
• 2 PaK 40's
• T-34/85 Beutepanzer
• King Tiger!

I was a tad concerned about the King Tiger as here was a beast that my Panther's and M-1o's couldn't touch! Time to settle it the old fashioned way, by a frontal assault!

We rolled up Hasty Assault, on of my least favourite missions. I think it is too biased towards the defender as not only does he go first, but he gets an ambush and the attacker is still stuck with an objective of his own to defend as well as only starting with half his forces!

The Board was pretty standard with a Village on my side and a river bisecting it from long to long edge. We did have a dirty great big Forested (skill test) hill Chris's side so he duly stuck and objective in it up the top. The rest of the objectives were spread out along his table side with my one I had to defend completely undefended in the Village.

As below I deployed in they far right corner opposite the Giant Hill of Forested Doom (GFHoD) my Universal Carrier Rota and the BA-64's to screen for a potential ambush. Chris made a Kampfgruppe of Grenadiers and had this as his ambush with a small Grenadier Platoon holding the hill Objective, his King Tiger back in the Center and the HQ mortars in a field center left.

My BA-64's have recce'd forward, here is Chris measuring to deploy his immediate ambush.
The KG deploys out of ambush in the corner of the GFHoD. The King Tiger drives forward and obliterates a BA-64 - talk about overkill! The rest break off and reorganise by the ford. The UC Rota swing to the side to get behind the wood.
The Tiger drives aggressively forward and kills a Carrier and its passengers.
Right, no more dicking around - The rota swarm forward to within 2" of the King Tigger. I cant assault until next turn but that's a Flame Thrower team in the closest UC (note the fuel tank on the back) so if he fails to stormtroper he's toast...
Meanwhile M-10's have turned up from reserve and double onto the board into the Village.
Somehow I missed Chris's turn here but he passed his Stormtrooper roll for the King Tigger and he was safe from being BBQ'd. Below M-10s lurk in the Village and spray the Mortars with 50cal fire to little effect.
Back to the Action on the GFHoD and my Half Track Rota have turned up and powered forward at the Double to debus next turn. My Rota keep in their carriers and move up to within 6' (but out of 4") to give the Gren KG a good old MG'ing. In Chris's turn he tries a 2 team flank assault on my UC's but the Tiger fails to kill any and even though I am smoked he cant make it through the storm of defensive fire.

Gun sight view of the King Tiger from my M-10's...
Bam! M-10's get the beast with a flank shot for my first ever King Tiger kill!. He was toast anyway as right in front of him is a flamethrower team...
My far HT Rota have debussed and are advancing through the woods (top right). This is the shot after my UC Rota have shot and and assaulted the KG Grens who have fallen back further up the GFHoD (top middle). Meanwhile Grenadier reserves have arrived and have advanced downhill towards the me.
Chris sends in the Reserve Grens and then they come down the GFHoD in a viscous assault that grinds my platoon down to one team (who runs away) and forces the IC teams in their transports out of the GFHoD and away. The 2iC is caught in his M3A1 Transporter and buys the farm. Meanwhile the Panthers have arrived and are advancing forward. I think the T-34/85 Beutepanzer has arrived in the middle as well, and spends the rest of the game hiding from my M-10's
On the other flank the M-10's storm the Mortar Position...
And the Ht Rota, with Supporting fire from the Panthers, BA-64's and CO in his M3 Half track, assault and wipe out the Reserve Grens. The road to the objective is clear!
So with his PaK-40s still to turn up and the top objective on top of the Giant Forested Hill of Doom devoid of defending troops the Soviets have pulled off my first ever win as an Attacker in Hasty Assault.

5-2 to the Mighty Rota!

After game we discussed what Chris might have done differently and he said he should of deployed on my side of the table and also should have deployed the PaK's. This would have given him better lines of sight and forced me to move in the open more, and under fire from the PaK's...

Overall a fun game and a great way to finish the league. You can see the results here:

http://roughwotr.blogspot.com/2011/01/current-cavaliers-league-standings.html

This means I ended up 3rd or 4th which I thought was pretty awesome for me :)

Cheers

Jason

1st Sperr Infantry Platoon Finished

Hi Folks,

This week I have finished the first Sperr Infantry Platoon. One of the oddities of the Sperrverband is that their Infantry Platoons are only 5 teams strong, but can have up to two optional MG-42 HMG's

I have also tried my hand at painting eagles on the field caps of a few of the infantry. I think they came up ok but may need more of a contrasting dark/grey black base to make them pop.

Following on from the StuG's I have once again used graphite pencil to do the metallics as well.









I was thinking of using gauze and some matchsticks to make camo netting hides for the HMG teams, but unsure if this might be too much?

I also am going to reward myself with some more Armour for the next unit I paint. Hummels or PaK 40 RSO's?

Cheers
Jason

StuG Platoon Finished

Hi Folks,

I have finally finished repainting the other three StuG's in the Assault Gun Platoon. Now I know Sperrverband only get three StuG's but I thought I would use the fourth as an potion for swapping in or out the StuH 42. I will also run these as a 4 tank platoon when I play my Sperr as Grenadiers.

The Command StuG has log Schurzen as originally I was going to use him in my Late War Finnish Panassarikompania, and their StuG's are pictured with this. I'm just calling it in this case a "field conversion" thrown together by the Divisional repair workshop. Plus I think it looks cool :P

I watched an awesome You Tube Video on the Battlefront Website today where Jeff Brooks demo's how he painted the Panzer IV/70's from Stalin's Europe:

While I cant do the airbrush work of course his colour selections tips at he end and also his techniques are really handy. He is very fast and one thing that I took from it an applied to the StuG's was his use of a 2B Pencil to do all the Metal work!. Truly inspired that is, I may never use metallic paint on my FOW models again!

I also bought a coarser weave bandage today for the camo nets, I am happier with how they look compared to the first one on the StuH as it was a bit "tight". Given the skies are ruled by Jabo's I can see the need for MUCH camo netting on my vehicles!

Just relaised I will have to add a few paintbrush bristle aerials too.

Overall am pretty happy with progress so far. Next up will be a Sperr Platoon.

Cheers
Jason

StuG Repaint

Hi Folks,

Below is my first repaint of my old StuG's I painted about 4-5 years ago. I have tried to get this as close to the German three tone camo as I can without an airbrush (I would LOVE an airbrush but I cant afford one sadly).

This took about 4 hours with multiple washes, stippling and wet blending the edges to get that feathered look. I added the little grey/ bone coloured dashes that the really late war camo had as a way of adding a bit of detail, as well as paint chipping.

Here is the first StuG (well actually a StuH42):



The camo netting is a bandage chopped up, soaked in PVA and painted. Then I have added some foliage bits.

Overall I am pretty stoked, and have 3 more StuG's on the painting table...but they take so long to do! Oh well :)

LW Germans: Autumn Sperr Pioneers - New Basing Scheme

Hey Folks,

Below is my second finished unit for my Late War Germans, a Sperr Pioneer Platoon. This lads are the last hardened Pioneers left in the Division and were called upon time and time again to attempt to stop the Soviet Armoured Juggernaut. The models are a mix of the Speerverband Pioneers with the odd Late War Panzergrenadier mixed in. They were painted the same way as my first lads here: http://krugerskreations.blogspot.com/2011/01/fow-german-sperrverband-first-painted.html

You get this really cool Supply Maultier in the Speerverband box set so it would be criminal not to paint it up. I also used it as a test bed for how I'm going to paint the Vehicles and it came up pretty well I think. It's just so bloody hard to get a good three tone Kraut camo effect withou an airbrush...

Now as you may have noticed I have added some Autumn foliage to my bases. I have done this as I a) Like Autumn and b) it makes the bases really POP.

I have also discovered the Red Bush Tea (also known as Rooibos from South Africa) is the perfect size, colour and texture for Autumn leaf litter! It also smells nice too LOL. Im pretty stoked how it worked out so I went back and did the other bases too:

And here is all the painted Germans so far.
Next I will be repainting some of my first every German tanks I painted about 5 years ago...StuG's

I'm getting excited about this army now, its chance of completion is growing rapidly!

Cheers
Jason

5th FOW League Game: Roadblock vs Jamie's Grenadier List (With Brumbars and Tigers Oh My!)

Hey Folks,

This was my 5th Flames of War 1000pt League game, this time vs my nemesis Jamie. Jamie's list was as much of a cheese fest as my list, he had:

• Grenadier HQ


• 2 Full Grenadier Platoons


• 1 Tiger


• 3 Brumbarr's


• 3 Panzerwerfer '42's with Loaders

You can see Jamie's Battle Report "From the Other Side of the Hill: http://roughwotr.blogspot.com/2011/01/fow-report-1000pts-league-game-my-place.html

Deployment: UC Rota strung out through the Village, Panthers to the Front

Jamie's new "$2 Dollar Shop House Village". I have 8 of these myself as they come up very well indeed for the pricey sum of $3.90 each...

Ruh Roh!: Brumbarr's in Ambushcade...
Goodbye Panthers: To be expected!

Right, down to business. The UC Rota ignore the Brumbars's (a mistake it turns out) and head off down the road through the forest to threaten the Panzerwerfers and Tiger on the hill as well as interdict any reserves.
M10's turn up on the flank but due to Hens and Chicks can only manage frontal shots. Which are frustrated due to range and FA9 :(

Jamie's Tiger comes down from his perch on the Hill and nabs a Carrier down the road.

The Brumbarr's move and stormtrooper off their hill to contest the objective - forcing me to move to contest or lose!

The UC Rota reverses direction and comes back the way they came to threaten the rear of the Brumbars.
More Rota and the M10's dash forward to contest the objective and prevent auto loss. Sadly the M10's have to move full speed so are unable to shoot.

The Brumbars retreat to their perch on the hill and hit a Carrier and an M10 with 150mm shells, the results are messy!. The Tiger move up but misses. The two Razvedki move up to disembarking points to effect a cordon/ attempt to BBQ some heavy armour with flamethrowers.
Grenadier reinforcements finally arrive and move up in the background. The Brumbars get another team, Jamie's Panzerwerfers have a beautiful shot but he rolls three ones' to range in. That will teach him to place the template prematurely! I move the Razvedki up to assault positions but can quite get the Flamethrowers into position. Jamie plays the 'hide from the FT Teams" game too well. A limited one stand assault on the Tiger is shot down in DF fire while the M10's just cant hit the Brumm's
Now quite a bit happens here and I forgot to get photos. The Tiger and Brumbars MG the Razvedki in the woods, whittling them down to 5 teams and killing the Flamer. The Grenadiers move up to assist and in my turn I move the Razvedki to a flank and assault them. Meanwhile my BA-64's have turned up and drove through the forest and had a crack at the aforementioned Grenadiers, getting a couple of teams. I then assaulted them with the Razvedki and ground them down to the Command Team who fell back in good order and later disengaged. This left me with the three stands below who were MG'd to death by the Tiger of Doom.

Below the UC Razvedki are pinned by a Panzerwerfer barrage and then stay that way...the M10's lurk and try to tempt the Brumbars forward, but are unwilling to risk the 150mm shells! My trained tanks are hit all to easily by these monsters.

By now the Brumbarrs have killed two to the BA-64's and on the other side of the Board a small KG Grenadier platoon is steadily marching towards the Village objective. The other KG Grenadier platoon is seem here on the fringe of the forest linking up with the Tiger (who is still hiding form the M-1o's) Panzerwerfer barrages get another team but I pass my Motivation for both the platoon and the M-10s when one is bailed.

The remaining two BA-64's zip past the Brumbarrs and attempt to take the head of the Fascist commander, but he passes his saves :( They then get obliterated by the Brumm's in a fantastic display of overkill!
By now the Razvedki have run from the field after being bombarded to pieces and the Tiger is steadily advancing with the Grenadiers. The remaining two M-10s and the Company Commander are all I have left and I decided to "tactically retreat". I will be back with a Guards Shock Army (or two)
So the first loss to the mighty Rota :(

6-1 win to the dirty invading Hun...

Cheers for the game Jamie it was super fun and nice to play a new mission. Your right in that its ridiculous that we haven't played this before as its really quite a cool mission. I think provided you have a balanced list and haven't plumped for an "uber" unit that can get Ambuscaded to death then most player stand a good chance. I like it better then Hasty Assault anyway!

I think the critical point was when I moved the UC Rota through the forest first turn and then had to back track. If I had of concentrated on the objective better then I could have quite possibly pushed the Brumbarr's back out of 16 inch's of the objective to secure the win before the Tiger arrived, and especially with your reserves being tardy.

Ah well, I will chalk that one up to experience and look forward to a rematch sometime!