A Bit of Terrain, Fantasy Heroic Battles & WWII

Yesterday was quite a full on day supporting other parent carers, so when I got home I was rather pooped. To unwind I thought I'd do a bit of an update on what I've been up to of late, aside from the Normandy campaign.

BUA's

A few years ago I made some bespoke bases for a lot of my Leven Miniature buildings, but not all. In the mood for some terrain building of late, I finally got around to making some some more, specifically for my more European buildings. Not all have been completed, but the ones that have are featured below, as I will need them for the Normandy campaign.

A 3" x 3" base (or 76.2mm x 76.2mm for metric pedants😉).

The fences are HO/OO ones cut down to size.

I will add some vegetables to the garden at some point.

I try to vary the position and angles of the houses to add variety to the look when they are aligned along a road.

A veg patch to be added.

A 3" x 4" base this time for the churchyard, just to break up the uniformity and the fact that it looked better with more space.

I'm torn between making a few headstones and tombs, but can't make up my mind. Thoughts on a postcard?

Midgard or Dragon Rampant?

The Midgard rules are certainly the 'jeu de jour' at present, with plenty of virtual ink being spilt on various Blogs etc and I imagine they will feature at many a show next year. I must say they have piqued my interest, but I have not made my mind up with regards to them to be honest. I'm currently watching some Youtube videos to get a flavour for them, but do wonder if I would ever actually play them, given that I have Hail Caesar II and Dragon Rampant already. I have had plenty of ideas for games for the latter rules, but have not really explored them in any meaningful way, so I fear the same might be the case for Midgard.

But whilst I ponder and hover over the 'buy' icon at the same time (well it is Xmas soon), I dug out an old tin containing some of my earliest miniatures for way back in the dark ages known as the late 1970's. As you will see, sculpting has come on leaps and bounds since then I my painting too, but still only at a serviceable journey man level. I have planned on using these in Dragon Rampant, but see they could be used in Midgard too. Purists may complain to their MP at the thought of using 10mm figures with old school 25mm ones, but I think it could be fun and a good way to get these toys back on the table.

So just a few photos of some of my collection in no particular order:

This is a Fire Giant I believe, that I repainted nearly 30 years ago now and boy does it show!

A Frost Giant from the same range as the above, but with my terrible attempts at some sculpting using Milliput, to make him look more 'Viking' as he had really skinny legs IIRC. The paint job doesn't bear too close an inspection.

Another Frost Giant I believe, but this time a Ral Partha one, still in his 1970's Humbrol enamel colours. Still a favourite sculpt from that period and even now.

At this time we had a habit of using metallic colours for jewellery, and a thinned coat of red on weapons to look like blood.

I think another Ral Partha figure, a barbarian that inevitably was called 'Conan'. The paint has rubbed off his nose and I didn't take much care on storing him. I'm loathed to repaint him, but I think I may have to...

A real mix of figures and manufacturers, from left to right: A Werewolf, Dragon, Balrog, Thief and Wind Elemental.

I piece of terrain that would fit well with Midgard or Dragon Rampant, but I have used it for Sicily and the Italian Campaign too. I'd forgotten I had it so have moved it to where I can access it easily.

Normandy

As a little teaser for the next scenario, I set the table up last night and took a quick photo. Normally if I can, I will do this a day or two in advance, so that I can look at it with fresh eyes the following day and tweak things if required. It is amazing at what you 'see' when doing it this way that you missed first time around. 

Hopefully you found something of interest or even took a bit of a trip down memory lane. As always comments grealty appreciated!

TTFN.

Normandy 1944 Campaign - The South Gloucestershire Fusiliers - D-Day +1 - Advance On Norrey

First off I will set up some background fluff and info before getting to the AAR itself.

Background

The 1st Battalion, South Gloucestershire Fusiliers, supported by the 2nd Regiment Royal Gloucestershire Hussars, have advanced inland from Sword beach and, after some initial small skimishes, have established a defensive perimeter a few miles inland by nightfall. Elements of the German 21st Pz Div and associated units, have been preparing to make a recce probe come dawn, to try and establish where the British are. Come the morning on 7th June, both sides have sent recce units forward towards the crossroads at Norrey, before moving forward with their main force.

Campaign Mechanics

Both sides have 750 pts to play with as a base force. The British have a +1 to add to their Random Dice roll to reflect the stockpile of materiel available to them. In contrast, the Germans have a -2, due to Allied interdiction and general shortages of materiel. After both sides rolled their dice, the British gained +10% to their total, and the Germans -10%. 

British OOB - The Duke of Beaufort's Horse

1 x CO

2 x HQ

1 x FAO

3 x Armoured Cars

1 x 6 pdr ATg + tow

2 x Carrier Platoons

1 x 25 pdr Battery (off table)

German OOB - Kampfgruppe Gruber

1 x CO

2 x HQ

2 x SdKfz 250 + Infantry

1 x SdKfz 250 + MG42

1 x SdKfz 250/7 (mortar)

1 x SdKfz 250/8 (infantry gun)

The Scenario - Encounter

Both sides started the game using Mobile Deployment, with a dice roll to see who would move first. The objective was to make contact with the enemy and also to control the crossroads at Norrey. The British had a slightly higher Breakpoint than the Germans.

The Game

The British won the roll off and chose to move first. Annotated photos will show how the action unfolded.

An overview of the table, with the British to the left, the Germans the right. The objective is in the centre of the table.

The crossroads and hamlet of Norrey had been targeted in advance of the invasion.

Francois the Farmer is blissfully unaware of what is about to unfold.

The German deployment, with the infantry to the left, the supporting units to the right.

The British deployed their Armoured Cars to advance down the road, with the Carrier Platoons providing flank support.

The end of Turn 1. The British AC's advanced cautiously up the road, slightly ahead of the Carrier Platoons. The Germans did likewise. Neither side as yet could see the other. 

The FAO in his Dingo tries to merge with the cows.

The Carrier Platoon move forward.

Two AC's move along the road with the third providing cover from the orchard to the left.

The German infantry reach the cornfield.

The support units can't quite reach the hedgeline.

The end of Turn 2. The British AC's reach the crossroads and take up a defensive posture, awaiting for the Carrier Platoons to arrive. The FAO moves into the bombed BUA. There they sit and wait and the Germans to a man all fail their command rolls!

The FAO in position.

The Carrier Platoons still lag behind.

The AC's at the crossroads.

One AC has moved forward to take up an excellent position covering the road out of Norrey.

The start of Turn 3 and the British Artillery arrives!

The end of Turn 3. The British FAO gets through to the City of Bristol Volunteer Artillery, the 25 pdr battery that is in call. The effect is devastating, as they KO 1 x German Infantry unit and suppress the others, forcing them to dismount. As this is happening the Carrier Platoons advance and the AC's moved into the orchard. Yet again the Germans fail to move, even for those units not hit by the artillery.

The Carrier Platoons reach the edge of Norrey. The AC's are in the orchard.

In the distance they can see the effects of the City of Bristol Volunteers barrage.

The AC's are out of range or cannot see any targets.

The end of Turn 4. Once again the CoBV's and their 25 pdr's are on target, KO'ing another SdKfz 250 and suppressing the infantry and HQ. As the artillery barrage strikes, the Carrier Platoons deploy.

The Germans have suffered grieviously from the CoBV and their 25 pdrs.

The Carrier Platoons deploy.

The 6pdr ATg takes position to support the AC's.

Kampfgruppe Gruber beats a hasty retreat, as they have reached their Breakpoint and have no realistic chance of contesting Norrey.

End of the Game

An emphatic victory for the Duke of Beaufort's Horse! They secured the objective without coming under fire or taking any casualties, so not a bad start to their campaign.

Campaign Effects

Rolling post-game on the campaign chart, the British have gained 25% reinforcements for the next game, with the Germans receiving none, which was quite lucky for them. The British hold the Campaign Initiative and the next scenario with be a Hasty Assault one.

Post Game Thoughts

Well that was short and sweet and, although one-sided, had a good historical feel to it and helps drive the campaign narrative. I certainly enjoyed it! Just a few thoughts:

• Obviously the City of Bristol Volunteers Artillery were the game winners here, as two strikes in a row caught the Germans out before they could deploy and get into the game.
• The failed German command rolls in Turn 2 and then the following Turn put pay to any chance they had. Mind you given the British access to Artillery, I think their offensive capabilities were more limited, but they never got a chance to try them.
• If this was a FtF game, then it would not have been much fun, but as this is part of a campaign, which is being played solo, then it works fine and, as mentioned above, drives part of the narrative.
• My 'imaginary but plausible' forces are fun to use as it gives me some nice background fluff to work with. So once again thanks to 'David in Suffolk' for giving me this idea. Maybe the West Suffolks might make a cameo appearance at some point...

What Next?

Well of course I need to start working on details of the next scenario, which will mainly be the OOB as the terrain is already broadly sorted, courtesy of the 'Battlegroup' scenarios. I do hope to get a game in this coming week, before we have visitors for a week, which will certainly put pay to any gaming.

I would also like to paint some units for the game, but I doubt I will have the time. Most likely I will focus on finishing some BUA's for the next game, which is more of a priority. Then I need to figure out how to distinguish my HQ AFV's for both sides. I have some ideas, which might include a few more 'toys for the boys' from Pendraken. Time to get my thinking cap on.

Well I hope you enjoyed it and as always any comments are greatly appreciated!

TTFN.

Normandy 1944 Campaign - The South Gloucestershire Fusiliers

After my recent post, I was inpsired by Norm Smith's comment to look at getting a narrative campaign in using my favourite BKCII rules, as gaming had somewhat dried up alongside my painting mojo. this was the sort of kick up the butt that I needed to be honest! But what to play? I fancied something set in Normandy, and after having looked around my book collection for ideas, I stumbled across a copy of the 'Battlegroup' rulebook that had a point-to-point campaign in it, as well as 4 scenarios based upon some actions that the Canadians fought early on. These I could see easily translate into scenarios for my 4' x 4' table, so that was one issue resolved.

Then it was a case of coming up with forces for the campaign. Now normally I would use historical OOB, but this time I fancied having a go using the D-Day Dodgers West Suffolks idea as brought to the table by David in Suffolk. So looking at my County Regiments book, I saw that the Gloucestershire Regiment had two Battalions, the second being the South Gloucestershire's, which was perfect as that is where I live, thus becoming the South Glos Fusiliers. 

With the infantry sorted out, for the tank johnnies I thought the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars in Shermans or a tank regiment in Churchills. I haven't made my mind up and will probably go with both, depending upon how the campaign unfolds and as I firm up the background fluff as it were.

For the Germans, I couldn't resist something based around the 21st Panzer Division, given their wonderful mix of kit, some of which I have buy unpainted. Again taking the lead from David, a Kampfgruppe would give a nice historical feel, but with plenty of leeway too. I'm still toying with what to call it, with the rather unimaginative Steiner (as in the Cross of Iron hero) in the lead, but Rosenkrantz coming in from left field too. I need to get my thinking hat on a bit for this one I feel.

As for the campaign, aside from being very narrative driven, this time around I will be using the campaign system and random points modifiers from the original BKC rulebook. It's been a long time since I used this, but in the past they did give some nice and interesting games. The advantage of playing solo of course is that I can come up with quite one-sided scenarios early on to help set the scene and drive the story, which wouldn't be fun to play face-to-face.

In fact I have already played the first game, but haven't had the time to write it up yet, as I don't want to rush it. I also want to give a better flavour of the campaign mechanics in the post, to help understand how things are working in the background so-to-speak. But in advance of this, here's a sneak peak from the game:

Alongside this, I've been working on some terrain bases for my BUAs, which I've been meaning to do for years. These have been fun and I need to do some for the bomb damaged buildings I bought from Pendraken at Partizan earlier in the year. This campaign is a nice spur to get those little items finished off that have lain in the 'to do' pile for far too long. More updates on these in due course.

I'm away for the next few days, so the first campaign AAR will have to wait, but hopefully it will appear sometime next week. I fear the follow on action will be delayed by family visiting, but you never know...

Thanks for reading and comments are always greatly appreciated!

TTFN.

Sun, Sea, Sand & Gaming

Over the years I've played the odd seaborne landing or two, either for WWII or my AVBCW milieu, but I've never gotten around to actually making the sea and beach to go with the actions. Instead I've fudged it with the sea just off the table, ditto the beach itself. I have pondered making some bespoke terrain boards to be used, but as they would require quite a bit of time and effort, talk less of storing them, the project never got further than the odd sketch.

So last week whilst SWMBO was out with friends, a Geek Villain newsletter popped up into my inbox saying they had all their mats back in stock. So with not much else going on, as it had been a hectic day, I did a quick browse of their products and noticed their Normandy Beach mat was available, ditto the Juno one. Whilst the latter is more to scale for my 10mm games, I found it too dark visually, preferring the brighter and sandier Normandy one. 

A few clicks later and I'd bought a mat, not something I had intended to do at all! However I have wanted to have some 'proper' terrain as mentioned above, plus the mat can be used for the Pacific landings (OK I know the sand might be more volcanic!), Burma and anything else from Ancients onwards.

The mat duly arrived today and after tidying a game away (more on that in another post), i unpacked it to take a few quick shots that can be seen below.

The mat on my 4' x 4' table. 

With it roughly divided into thirds of sea, sand and land, it looks really good to me. The beach is technically way too deep for my BKCII games, but that doesn't bother me at all.

A few items dropped on to give an idea of scale. The house bases are 3"/75mm square.

It does give some nice sense of space for the vehicles etc to cross the beach, rather than being clustered together as happened on D-Day.

The cloth is not too far off my Summer Field one, should I ever need to combine the two.

Well I'm very happy with my purchase and like the other mat, is so easy to fold away and store, even in my bijou games room! Even though it is a fleece cover, the sea doesn't look out of place not being glossy and in fact I really didn't notice it as being 'wrong'.

I think that now I have this it will push me towards finishing my WWII British additions that I started on ages ago for my Assault troops, as well as landing craft etc. I would like to get the odd battleship or cruiser to sit offshore, just to aid the visual impression of the game. It has also got me thinking of some say AWI or ACW actions, combining both sea and land operations, especially as the Glory Hallelujah! supplement has some rules for riverine actions.

Thanks for checking in and for leaving a comment too, as they are greatly appreciated!

TTFN.