Things have been rather quiet here on the Home Front, courtesy of a lingering and frankly rather boring cold. 'Tis the time of year I suppose and, fingers crossed, at least we've got it out of the way before Xmas! Only time will tell...
Startline
Despite this, a few things have been going on in the background, one such being an invite for another FtF trial game of Keith Flint's Startline rules. Once again the setting was Germany March 1945, with the Germans mounting a counter-attack against an American Combat Command in and around a village. I took command of the Americans, with Adam the Germans and Keith umpiring, clarifying and taking notes etc. It was rather a busy day, but I managed to take a few shots towards the end of the game.
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| An overview of the table, with the Americans deployed along the lower part of the table. The Germans are beginning to threaten parts of the village and are contesting others. |
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| Wolverines have turned up just in time to provide the Shermans and infantry with much needed firepowere. |
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| Adam tries to hide the Sdkfz 251's behind the smoke screen to avoid those nasty Wolverines. |
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| One Sdkfz 251 has already been brewed up by a Sherman and the Panzer Grenadiers have debussed as they came under mortar fire. |
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| Shermans take position behind a hill and go on overwatch to await what might come from behind the smoke screen. |
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| Stug III's move into the village, unaware of the Shermans on the other side of the smoke. |
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| The Panzer Grenadiers begin to enter and assault the village. |
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| Panthers and more Panzer Grenadiers move forward, luckily avoiding the American artillery and air support (ie my dice rolling was shocking!). |
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| Panzer IV's move up alongside the Panthers. |
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| An overview near the end of the game. |
Sadly time was against us and by the end of Turn 6, the Germans were still a way off being able to realistically contest 2 of the 3 objectives for a win. There were another 2 Turns left, but Adam and I both had to leave to get home in time.
As always a fun game playing with friends, as well as helping Keith see how the rules panned out with how we played, as well as questions we posed. Hopefully we provided plenty of useful feedback and ideas.
Books, Books And More Books
My family know my love for the printed page, so I received some book vouchers as part of my birthday, which was very nice of them. The problem as always, was what to actually buy, given that I have plenty already, and the equivalent of a 'lead pile' in unread books! However with a few days perusal, I came up with tomes that interested me on many levels.
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| One of those books to add to those related to 'Operation Sealion'. Like many gamers of a certain age, a perennial 'what if?' that has a Siren like call that is hard to resist. Whilst reading the Crimean War book and realising how unprepared the British Army and Navy was in the 1850's, the butterfly in me wondered on a German invasion whilst Britain was weak and relatively undefended! Maybe something to ponder for a future campaign? |
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| I'd heard of this book, but never read it, but at a bargain price, it was hard to resist and looks to be an informative read for all theatres of WWII in Europe and North Africa. |
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| The Osprey campaign books are, with careful selection, really good primers and set at a perfect level as an introduction for wargamers. I thought I would add to the ones I already have on the Italian campaign, so that at some point I could have my fictional South Gloucestershire force fight their way from Sicily all the way up to the Gothic Line. I have the Anzio book on order too to aid this. |
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| I've never considered fighting the later part of the Italian campaign, but as mentioned above, this could be a fine way to wrap a campaign up. |
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| Rather like 'Operation Sealion', the opening stages of 'Operation Barbarossa' have a similar pull for me. My German forces are almost at a point where I could field a decent force, but the Russians are sadly lagging behind, especially on the armour front. |
Toys For the Boys
Whilst laid low by the cold, it has given me plenty of time to reflect upon the hobby and what I really like and what to concentrate on. First and foremost this will be finishing up all those 'odds'n'sods' for my British and German forces for 1944, which will help me finish my 'Canadians in Normandy' campaign.
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| The rather large collection of my 'odds'n'sods'! Mainly Germans but with a smattering of British too. |
More updates on this to follow in due course. At the same time I have decided which stalled projects, of which there are many, that in all honesty I will never get to start, and so will be disposed of in due course. A rather cathartic decision and one that has been in the offing for a long time. A bit of a pain to sort it all out, but I'm sure I will feel the better for it, as well as it allowing me to maintain greater focus on painting and gaming. Time will tell of course!
What Next?
Well, with Xmas nearly upon us and the house full once gain in a week or so, not much gaming or painting will be done for sure. At least reading will still be undertaken, ideas generated and mulled over, so not all bad! Hopefully a bit of priming can still go ahead whilst the weather is good, so I've got stock ready as and when time allows for painting.
Steve -
ReplyDeleteI do recommend 'Panzer Battles' - written, I gather, at a time that Major-General von Mellinthin was supposed to be collaborating post-War with the US military on its WW2 historiographical project. Some doubt in recent years has been cast upon the veracity of the narrative, though it has, I think, to be borne in mind that the writer relied pretty much on his own recall, and the testimony of others. You'd probably have to take the good general's remarks upon the 'Soviet Soldier' cum grano salis, but overall I found the thing informative as well as entertaining. I've had my paperback copy these 46 years - must about be due for another re-read...
Cheers,
Ion
It was first published in 1955, so sounds about right re: collaborating with the US military. Trying to recall things from 10-15 years ago from memory and relatively few resources, must have been hard and naturally errors will have crept in. If I look back at WWII history books from when I was a kid in the 1970's, written without the knowledge of Ultra etc, compared to today, and there is a marked difference in the quality of the books now IMHO.
DeleteYour game at Keiths place looked great Steve - a lot of German armour for that late in the war!
ReplyDeleteLots of interesting stuff going on in the planning and reading space too - I think we all read the Operation Seelowe articles in the Airfix Magazine circa 1972-4, and have had a hankering for it ever since!
Historically way too much armour for sure Keith, but it allowed for a good playtest, which was the main aim. I did read a few days ago that a German Panzer Division was down to to only 7 tanks by March or April 1945! Ah those Seelowe articles bring back many fond memories for sure:).
DeleteThere is plenty of ‘Lurgy’ about - I left two shops yesterday due to people spluttering and coughing! Hope yours is a full recovery in time for Christmas.
ReplyDeleteEach time I read a startline report, the impression that I get is that everyone has an enjoyable game, but the clock always runs out before the game can play out to a conclusion and that is with the designer in the room moving things along. If they are intended to work in a single session, then either the rules or the scenarios need addressing to achieve that.
Yes, yes, yes ….. to getting rid of things :-)
The schools are full of kids coughing and spluttering at present, with even a few closed to try and break the cycle of transmission. Ditto hospitals and the face masks reintroduction.
DeleteIn the short post match chat, we did talk a lot about how to make any scenario work within a 6-8 Turn time frame with the rules, or for any others for that matter. On average I would expect initial contact to be made by Turn 3, to allow for a few good Turns of combat and then a couple to be able to decide the outcome. Movement rates will often dictate deployment zones, table size etc. I remember playing a OHW scenario with the HoW rules, where the Attacker simply couldn't get close enough in the alloted Turns to have a realistic chance to win the game. Lesson learnt. One reason to stick with a few core rules, so scenario becomes second nature.
With the decision made, I feel a hurdle has been crossed and hope to at least box stuff up before the Xmas invasion by the kids;)!
"What I really like and what to concentrate on". Not always the same thing of course but wise words nevertheless. For myself at least, I might add, and what not to start in the first place. However tempting the daydreams are [a hobby essential] a bit of realism is worthwhile. I keep telling myself not to buy more until I've painted what I have [bad news for the retailers I'm afraid].
ReplyDeleteI also liked the thought of a book equivalent to a lead pile - perhaps a paper pile. I'm trying to reread books I've carried for years and not read in a long time.
I look forward to your next posts.
Stephen
"What I really like and what to concentrate on" is not always the same thing, for sure!
DeleteI suppose I should have said "concentrate on what I like"! Over the years too much stress and long hours at work has led to retail therapy purchases, which have lain in their bags ever since:(. Age has hopefully brought some realism to my gaming, but we shall see on that front;).
DeleteGreat game and interesting books recommendation sir!
ReplyDeleteThanks Michal and I look forward to reading all the books in due course.
DeleteLooked like a lovely late war game and a moderate to do pile,I think my weakness is books as I can buy them and don't have to paint them!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Books are my weakness too Iain and a fair point that you don't have to paint them!
DeleteStarting new projects and disposing of old projects. Hmm. Sounds like this could be a vicious cycle. New projects seem to be headed into Italy. Good to see you lending a hand to working out the kinks in Keith's WWII rules. I will be watching to see which of your projects get the axe and which new projects fill in these voids.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping it will be more of a case of finishing long ago started projects first and foremost, alongside disposing of ones I know in my heart will never really grab me. Initially it's a case of fleshing out my core WWII British and Germans, which is what's currently on the storage units in the games room. I'm currently enjoying this quite focussed phase to my gaming and fingers crossed long may it continue!
DeleteThe end of the year is always a good time to cast a critical eye over things... good luck!
ReplyDeleteA good point there Richard, especially when many of us also do an end of year post on how things have gone in the previous 12 months.
DeleteLovely battle Steve and lots of other things to think about. I find it too easy to buy books and then forget to read them or just chose to paint more figures. I’m Thinking about thinking about what stuff or things I should move onto new owners ?
ReplyDeleteAlways plenty of ideas whirling around in my head Matt! Buying books is very easy these days and some real bargains to be had. The Panzer Battles one was £3.00 including postage, so hard to resist when they're that cheap and of interest too.
DeleteHaving made me mind up for a cull, it's now the tricky part of sorting through the 'projects' and deciding what to keep and what to move one. From an initial look, most will hopefully depart to pastures new in the New Year, assuming people what them of course!