Battle of the Bulge - 30 December 2010

Back to Jonathan's for another big WW2 game, this time the Relief of Bastogne over Christmas 1944, part of the Battle of the Bulge.  We were greeted by a 4'x12' table covered in scenery and dozens of figures and vehicles waiting for deployment.  Jonathan had resisted the temptation to dust the entire table in icing sugar to recreate that winter wonderland feel but there was enough snow outside to keep us happy.

Here's the setup on the first turn.  Patton's 4th Armoured Division are entering the near edge, aiming to break through the German-held Sibret to link up with the American's occupying Bastogne in the centre of the table.  The German Panzergrenadiers (and others) are entering in the far left corner, intending to clear the outlying buildings and destroy the American's holding Bastogne.

Sadly, Adrian couldn't make it at the last minute, so Jonathan's cunning plan was for him to play the Defenders (Germans in Sibret, Americans in Bastogne) with James as Patton and Andy as the attacking Germans.  This worked well without slowing us down too much and also meant that: we each had our own areas of play to deal with; Andy got his wish of not having to play on the same side as James(!); and Jonathan was guaranteed to be on the winning side(!!).

James first mistake was not sending any infantry into the building on the very edge of the game board.

Fortunately, the chap inside with the Panzershreck bottled it and ducked out the back door.  James continued bringing on his tanks regardless since his figures weren't aware of the German even if he was, and subsequently the Panzershreck fired on Sherman bulldozer but didn't take it out.  The Sherman's MG made short work of the German.

James also brought tanks on the right hand side in a formation now known as the Artillery Deathwish.  They survived to split up into more sensible formation and it was the jeep on the road that took the artillery hit.

On the other side of Bastogne, Andy's troops started to advance after pulverising with artillery Jonathan's paratroopers holed up in the buildings in Champs.  Those out in the open started having firefights across the hedgerows.

Jonathan's artillery was similarly effective - taking out one of Andy's Stugs (although the other had a free rein to drive into town without any paratroopers left to threaten it) and having a devastating effect later in the game as Andy's infantry pressed on towards Bastogne.

Back in Sibret, American artillery was taking its toll on the German defenders.  But as proper daylight hours approached, there was worse in store...

Avoiding the church (this time at least - it did turn out to be full of Germans!), the airstrike dropped two medium bombs on one building and strafed the other with MG fire.  Very satisfying!

With the town softened up, the Americans moved in and occupied it.  As the Germans did with Champs on the other side of the board...

This is where Jonathan's (American) artillery was particularly lethal and Andy's Germans started to thin out on their approach to Bastogne.

The Americans pushed on beyond Sibret and started successfully clearing the bunkers of German defenders.  On the other side of Sibret, Andy's 88 and Panzershrecks slowed but couldn't stop the rest of the tank command making progress.  It was then that Andy brought on his Panzer IVs around Hermanville - just visible on the left hand side below:

The Panzers did some damage but were heavily damaged themselves by American artillery and tanks, and couldn't hold back Patton's advance.

This final photo shows the good progress the Germans had made through Champs and Hermanville to reach Bastogne but in the foreground American tanks have breached the German defences and relieved Bastogne.  A victory for the Allies!

Thanks again to Jonathan for organising and setting up the game.  Lots of fun.

Show and Tell 31 December: 28mm Zulu War British

Got some further British infantry painted before year's end. Two officers from Black Tree plus a Black Tree bugler boy and two Privates carrying ammunition boxes (from Redoubt). I've now got two painted units of 24th Foot for Black Powder plus a Gatling gun and crew and I'm on the way to having a third unit done.

Despite it being quite a busy year with work and other pursuits, in 2010 I've managed to paint up 89 elements of 15mm figures for Field of Glory (mostly Neo-Babylonians) and 62 individually based 28mm Darkest Africa (latterly Zulu Wars figures). Aside from the Zulus my projects for 2011 are going to be doing a 15mm Medieval French army for Field of Glory (the Agincourt challenge with Andy), getting stuck into a 15mm Ottoman army for FoG, completing the update of my Later Polish from DBM to FoG, plus possibly doing something South American to take on my Aztecs (given the success with speed-painting Zulus, I'm thinking about acquiring brown spray paint and using that plus inks to do a horde of Tupi). Of course all this may go out of the window if Anderida is on and the theme requires a completely new army. We shall see...

Show and Tell 30 December: 28mm Zulu Wars Zulus

This is the second batch of speed-painted Zulus, meaning that I now have two units of 20 figures each painted up. Still very many to go before we can have a full-on Black Powder game, but this is no longer the daunting task that I thought it would be. And Xmas holiday evenings are great for catching up on painting. Figures again by Redoubt.

Show and Tell 29 December: 28mm Zulu Wars British

Another three redoubtable redcoats of the 24th Foot - 2 sergeants and a private to add to the ranks. Figures by Black Tree.

Show and Tell 28 December: 15mm Later Polish

The second Field of Glory battlegroup of Later Polish knights backed up by mounted crossbowmen. This lot are led by Krystyn of Ostrow (lady and bear flag), Iwo of Obichowa (bull's head flag) and Jan of Tarnow (star and crescent moon flag). Three more elements of the mounted crossbows to go and then the army will be FoG compliant. Once again the figures are Essex, the flags hand painted.

War On Terror - 22 December 2010

Amazingly, it's almost four years since we last (and first) played this game.  It's not a great game in comparison with the rest of our stock but we did again have a great time playing it (as long as you don't take it too seriously).

Stuart was the first to don the Evil Balaclava and spent most of the rest of the evening wearing it - with brief interludes by Kieron's brother-in-law Mark, James, and for the last couple of minutes David.

But it suited Stuart best.  In his second turn, he attempted to extort money from Kieron.  Instead of paying, Kieron took the risk of a die-roll and ended up having to pay twice as much.  But this early in the game, he didn't have enough resources or money to cover the costs, and so was bankrupted and instantly converted to a terrorist.

Kieron struggled for many turns with little money to fund his terrorist activities and both Mark and Andy came close to winning the game conventionally.  But then Evil Stu donated $1.5billion to the terrorist cause - and Kieron gleefully swamped the board in terrorist cells.

To protect his South American interests, Andy paid Kieron a billion to place those terrorists elsewhere.  Kieron complied.  And then promptly accepted a further billion from Mark to fund more terrorists and place those in South America instead.

Mark, David and Andy all had a lot of cities but the tide felt like it was turning for the terrorists.  First to leap was James, followed by Stuart.  But extra terrorists also means a lowering of the victory conditions and with some upgrades and useful cards, David built enough cities and held Australasia which gave him the win.

A fun evening and probably our last games night of 2010.  I'm looking forward to playing War On Terror again in 2014 (although I believe they are releasing a 2nd edition so perhaps it's time to get a rules upgrade and see if it compares more favourably with the Eurogames we prefer to play).

A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our readers!

Show and Tell 12 December: 28mm Zulu War Zulus

Noting that I'll have to paint a fair few Zulus if the 24th Foot are going to get a fair fight using the Black Powder rules, I experimented with a much faster painting technique to my normal approach. For these (Redoubt Figures which Andy got me a while back) I used a black spray undercoat, a dark grey drybrush to bring out the details, then a max of 2 colour shades for each colour and really trying not to try too hard. It felt a bit unnatural at first, but the result was that I painted 11 Zulus in one evening session - which is quite a result, given that I've only painted about 30 other 28mm figures all year. These married warriors are from the uHlwayi ('Shower of Shot') regiment.