WW2 playtest - part 2

As play progressed the naughty Yank mortar managed a second direct hit on the assault gun (what were the chances?)  Undaunted, the Jerries pressed forward with their left-flanking attack.

Quoth the German CO "Gott in Himmel, der Jagdpanther ist kaput!"

In went the close assault - the dice are to test the stands' enthusiasm for the job, needing to score equal to or less then the number of figures on the stand.  These lads were dead keen!

The Americans also has a tank to play with, and a 'special' officer figure pointing gamely.

They too were up for a fight.

The blood and Sherman parts were soon flowing freely.

The second round of close assault continued the slaughter following which the Sherman fled...

...while the reserve platoon braved mortar fire to move up in support.

The Germans were battered by the experience but would they press on or pack it in?

One man and his 'Hog - part 1

I recently picked up this old (originally released in 1978) kit and uncharacteristically, rather than stashing it away for a few years, I decided to build the thing!  This had originally been part of the Matchbox 'Orange' range, which if memory serves were priced at about the same level as Airfix Series 3.  Which explains why out of a range of around 50 Orange aircraft kits released in the 1970s I only recall having three: Beaufighter, Swordfish and F-16.

 Anyway, back to the Warthog.  The parts - moulded in three colours - were largely flash free and not intimidatingly numerous.  Initial build progressed smoothly enough.

 The decals related to a prototype and a pre-production aircraft.

 Rather a lot of tape holding it all together!

And now for some paint...

Horsing around 3

This is the final batch of the figures Neil P kindly sent me for the recent Waterloo game.  These elderly Timpo chaps are - I decided  - Prussian hussars and have been re-horsed on Supreme nags.  That aside, work was confined to some repairs and touching in of paint.

WW2 playtest part 1

One bit of gaming I did fit in over the past few weeks was a first playtest of a WW2 game I've been tinkering with.  This owes much to the Little Cold Wars game seen on these pages before but is intended and an even lighter and less serious excuse to shove some toy soldiers around.  I'll explain the detail of it another time, but the look of the thing is also important - working on the basis that 'if it looks right it is right'. I feel it does look right - what do you think?

The game saw an attack by a German battalion-sized force of two rifle companies supported by a platoon each of mortars, tanks and assault guns. All of the figures are from the old Britains Deetail range.  The AFVs are Solido diecasts.

The defenders.  A US infantry company with platoons of mortars, AT and tanks.  The terrain was laid out on my 6x3 foot table - the surface is a carpet mat purchased a few months back from Aldi.

The German mortar battery in action.  The matchstick in the distance was fired by the US mortar.  The unforgiving camera flash showed up the amount of dust on my Panther - I've since cleaned it up a bit!

The German mortar mostly fired smoke....

...while the US mortar got an early lucky hit on the assault gun!

Will the Germans be able to recover from this early setback?

Free stuff alert!

I noticed one of our fellow bloggers running a giveaway.  Want to know more?  Then head over to Wargame News and Terrain.


What do we do? Wargame News and Terrain is a wargame hobby blog dedicated to supply you with your daily wargame news, straight from the source and our own online research. We also have an extensive collection of reviews and tutorials which you can find in the pages above.

The prizes
I also want to thank the companies that supported this event being Heroic Maps, Alternative Armies, The Ion Age, 15mm.co.uk, Wargames Terrain Workshop and The Wargame Vault for supplying the following great prizes totalling around €100.00!

On the Loos

 This was a corps-level Great War game run by Martin using his modified Drumfire system.  Martin also provided most of the 15mm toys....

...though the 1/144 aircraft were supplied by me and (in the case of the DH2), John.

My division with added artillery awaiting to order to attack.  There were two British divisions in the attack.  The other one, under the command of Graham, had far more support!

After detonating two mines...

...the chaps surged over the top!

Quite a few perished in No-Man's Land as (astonishingly) not all the German defenders had been killed.

The DH2 raising the tone of the air war.

As the lead brigades fought for control of the German front line trenches enemy artillery arrived.  Meanwhile the DH2 has been replaced with my battered and much-repaired Re8.

Soon it was on to the German second line...

...while the remainder of the division advanced across NML.

The Germans launched several counter attacks from the town - all were beaten back.

Ultimately we secured all the German trenches and were poised to advance over 'The Green Fields Beyond...'.  Well the surviving half of the division was...

Dragon Hunt

Apologies for the recent dearth of posts.  It has been - and continues to be - a busy time.  That said, I do have a fair few game reports still to present, starting off with this Challenges and Adventures role playing game run at the Sheffield Club by John on 23rd September(!)

As usual, we the payers represented a group of retired soldiers summoned by the local governor to undertake a mission.

 This time out patron was none other then the Prince of Wales - seen here with his hangers-on.  We were to find out why a mine in Wales had suddenly ceased production.  Communications from the nearby village has also ceased.

 Here we are at the entrance to the mine chatting to the dwarven inmates.  There emerged talk of dragons in the vicinity.  But that couldn't be true.....could it?

 Apparently it could.  We encountered this bugger en route to the village.  This was a dodgy rubbery-plastic toy I had picked up in a batch of toys earlier this year and passed on to John.  But when you're only 25mm tall and made from low melting point metal it looks pretty damn scary!

 While we were having a nice chat (did I tell you i speak a few words of Dragon?) about it's missing baby dragon...

 ...it's mate appeared.  Time to head off to the village.

 There we were welcomed by the Postmaster who doubled as innkeper.

 Long story short - one of the local shops was selling very popular ice cream and the shopkeeper's nubile daughter had a new pet.  The pet of course, turned out to be the baby dragon who had become addicted to the ice cream.  We soon returned the dragonette to Mum and Dad, the mine reopened and all was well.  Off home then for tea and medals, and hopefully a huge reward from the Prince.