04.26.08
Posted in Uncategorized
at 7:06 pm
In a previous post I put together a scenario tree for the battles for the start of the war. In the first battles, the Keuhankans and their Freedonian allies are attacking a couple of isolated outposts. I have roughly 60 Indians from Old Glory and two half-companies of the Canaries painted up (around 21 figures) so these formed the basis of the fights. I wasn’t too concerned about the force ratios as I wanted the garrisons to lose.
There were three leaders on the Indian side with one being the overall war chief. The garrisons had a mounted company commander and a member of the Franksian order of monks who was armed with a musket and treated as a grenadier NCO stats-wise and gave units a +1 for morale when within 6 inches.
First a few words about the rules. This Very Ground is written for small scale actions in the French and Indian Wars in America. The units used in the scenarios in the back of the rules use units of 5-10 men for the most part. My groups were in the 30s for the Indians and 12 or so for the regulars. This made the game pretty predictable as there were only four units to move. If the units had been smaller for the Indians, it would have meant a different style of game, however, as the units might have been more fragile.
The game mechanics are pretty straight forward although I did have some rules questions I could not find answers to. At the start of each turn, the players roll a D10 and add the courage value for their highest rated leader. The winner then goes first and activates a unit then the other player goes. The turn proceeds in alternating phases until all units have taken their actions (if one side or the other has more units, the remainder of the unactivated units go at the end of the turn.) Units may move and fire, or reverse that order. Close Combat comes at the end of each unit’s activation and is played out by matching the figures against each other and fighting until one side or the other is victorious. The winning unit may then occupy the loser’s position. Firing is done by individual model as well and there are several rates at which units can fire (volley for formed units – all figures fire and it takes one turn to reload, fire – up to half the models fire each turn, fire at will – up to three figures but less than half). The rate of fire is marked by puffs of cotton balls so you can keep track of what happens.
The battlefield is shown to the left. There were two buildings in a clearing and a cornfield. The woods are treated as light woods so movement is only slightly reduced. the cornfield is walled and it cost one inch to move over the walls. The cornfield effects movement in the same way as the woods.
The garrison gets a choice of where to deploy and the entry for the Indians is randomized. The Indians rolled a D6 for each unit and came in on the sides as follows:
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D1 – bottom of the map |
D4 Top |
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D2 – bottom right |
D5 – Top Left |
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D3 – Top right |
D6 – Bottom Left |
In the first game the Indians came in at locations 6 and 4 so were able to act in concert early on. One unit was stationed in the building and the other in the abandoned building.
The units were automatically activated when the Indians came within 10 inches, otherwise, they had a 20% chance of hearing something that would alert them (9 or 10 on a D10). Once the battle broke out, the other unit would have a 50% chance to activate. As it turned out, the Indians got within 10 inches of the building and the unit activated. The next turn, the unit in the ruins was alerted by the gunshots they heard. The pictures below show how the battle developed. What essentially happened was that the Indians swarmed the building, taking heavy casualties, and then carried on across the road and destroyed the other unit. The second unit died in a blaze at glory by charging the advancing Indian unit when they only had 6 regulars left. Although they sold their lives dearly, they fell. At the end of the game,the Indians had lost 21 casualties while killing 21 defenders. The popup photos have comments on them.
The second game started with the defenders in the same positions. The Indians came in at locations 3 and 6 so they attacked each garrison unit separately. In this game, the units activated on the first turn. The unit in the building was destroyed as the Indians broke through the back window and ground their way through the defenders, even the now-revered Father Francisco. The other garrison unit formed up and moved into the cornfield for a first volley. Then they retired slowly, keeping the Indians at bay with half volleys. After losing three casualties they were able to move off the field towards their base.
Here are some of the questions I had:
1) How many men can be in hand to hand combat against one man, we got almost 6 against one man… rtaher deadly…
2) How do you handle attacks through windows?
3) What effects do doors and buildings have on hand to hand?
4) The rules talk about realigning between the phases of hand to hand combat – we played it as you would in Grant’s The Wargame where if you had an opponent open you could move up and engage, don’t know if that was correct or not.
Otherwise it’s a good set of rules and we’ll use it for our next scenario "The Supply Train." We’ll do two battles, one with the wagon train not alerted, the next with the train alerted by the defenders.
Permalink
04.06.08
Posted in Uncategorized
at 12:13 pm
Here is a sample TO&E for the reduced unit sizes:
90 RD (90th Rifle Division)
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90th Rifle Division |
Exp |
8 |
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5.5 |
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Headquarters |
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command |
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command |
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command infantry |
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engineer |
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| 7 |
82mm mortar |
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76L39 |
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| 9 |
gun crew |
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gun crew |
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limber |
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| 12 |
recon patrol |
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recon\infantry |
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quadAAMG truck |
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| 15 |
1st Rifle Company |
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1\1 infantry |
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1\2 infantry |
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1\3 Infantry |
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2nd Rifle Company |
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1 command\infantry |
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2\1 infantry |
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2\2 infantry |
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2\3 infantry |
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3rd Rifle Company |
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3\1 infantry |
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3\2 infantry |
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3\3 infantry |
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MG Company |
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1 MG |
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2 MG |
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3 MG |
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AAHMG Company |
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1 AAHMG |
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2 AAHMG |
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Artillery Battery |
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76L39 |
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gun crew (ds) |
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limber |
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122L22 |
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gun crew (ds) |
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limber |
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support |
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support |
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ammo wagon |
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122L22 |
Second Battle of Tartu, July II, 16:30 – 22:00
Game played today with Mike Cannon doing the Soviets and me (Gary Rhay) playing the Germans (toss of a coin). Our table was slightly smaller than the map but it did not seem to effect the game. Game went to 2200.
16:30 – Soviet air all arrives on time. The KG1/I Ju-88A was intercepted and destroyed by 20 PVO IAP/1 (wouldn’t be the last of Mike’s lucky rolls, drat) 1 DBAP bombs Tartu bombs all scatter but still hit 1 Shutzen/6 PzD, also pins the HQ 6 PzD and SS Tot/2. Note all hits were due to bomb scatter, no bombs fell on target.
Initial Air Raids
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16:45 – 2 DBAP/1 bombs Tartu SS Tot HQ -1 morale (I mostly rolled great but had sporadic stinkers).
17:00 - 2 DBAP/2 bombs Tartu SS Tot/2 -1 morale. KG 1/II bombs woods but scatter hits SS Recon, hitting recon infantry and destroying the light truck.
More Air Strikes
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17:15 – 2 DBAP/3 bombs Tartu hitting the RR station. 20 PVO IAP/3 arrives on patrol (one turn late)
17:30 – 3 DBAP/3 bombs Tartu, 6 PzD 75 mm IG hit and destroyed. SS Tot begins its movement
17:45 - 3 IAP/1 arrives on patrol
18:00 - 4 BAP/2 bombs Tartu pins 6 PzD HQ, Recon Mcycl and ATG. 6 PzD/2 is morale -1 (bad turn for rolls) 20 PVO IAP/3 strafes no effect
18:15 - Movement continues SS Recon spotting inconclusive.
18:30 - SS recon advances and armored car is destroyed by 76 mm fire. Recon infantry spots enemy.
18:45 - SS arrives in force, artillery falls on 76 mm and supporting infantry. 299 ID arrives at Tartu, 3 IAP/1 strafes column hitting ID’s engineers.
19:00 – General firefight between SS and 90 RD. Considerable Soviet artillery hits SS, SS arty and mortars force lead elements of 90 RD to fall back.
19:15 - Firefight continues, 679 EngR arrives at Tartu.
19:30 – SS Tot enters woods but encounters significant resistance, heavy artillery fire by both sides continues.
20:00 - River crossing begun by 299 ID screened by smoke fired by 6 PzD and 299 ID arty.
20:15 – SS assumes the defensive, 90 RD disengaging.
Germans Achieve Objectives
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20:30 - 299 ID and 6 PzD attack across Emajogi River into 1B 1308, supported by heavy fire and artillery
20:45 - Attack continues under supporting artillery and last of the smoke. BT-7 hit, Soviets appear to be disengaging back into woods. 1 ID makes a passage of lines through SS T and advances cautiously towards objective, no enemy contact.
Germans Go Onto Defensive
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21:00 - 6 PzD and 299 ID consolidate in 1B 1308, no enemy in sight, considerable automatic weapon and AT fire was encountered in attack and commander of 6th Panzer elects not to pursue into woods. 1 ID continues advance and 58 ID passes through left flank of SS T. SS begins reorganization and trucks move forward.
22:00 - all units have arrived at objectives and no enemy forces are in contact.
Ending positions: AXIS: 1210 – 86th ID, 1209 – 1st ID, 1310-1311 SS Totenkopf, 1308 – 6th Pz and 299th ID, 1407 – 667 Eng and 1408 – Pz Support and 18th ARKO.
Soviet: 90th RD departed 1109 at 2100, 21st NKVD (and all units from 1308 are in the nortern part of 1109 and 1008 at 2200.
Overall the Soviets did well and gave worse than they got. Germans were pummeled by the airstrikes, sheer mass of air and congestion in Tartu ensured some effect. German artillery was their big killer. OBs to follow.
Permalink
03.31.08
Posted in Uncategorized
at 11:33 am
I took the head off of the stock figure and replaced it with on of the heads from the Separate Head System that had a gas mask. I like the look of the figure this way as it shows the nature of the SOTR1949 environment.
I tried a different approach with the camouflage on his smock. Instead of outlining the pieces of the camouflage, I left the boundaries regular. This makes the camouflage indistinct from a distance which it is supposed to be. The colors I used are also closer in terms of hue than ones I had used on the mortar team. Comments on this approach would be appreciated as I have a lot of these left to do.
Permalink
03.25.08
Posted in Uncategorized
at 7:33 pm
This is from Anne Foerester off of the Reaper Fora:
Or, for those who don’t mind repeating themselves, with a bit more
depth…because why say it in twenty words when I can use a couple
hundred?
Our inks are dyes suspended in a clear acrylic lacquer base.
Our liners are pigments suspended in a black-tinted acrylic enamel base.
Dyes are fully-soluble (meaning that they will dissolve completely
in a solution) and will often re-activate when moisture is added even
to a dried product (thus the "bleed" effects when paint is applied over
some inks). Pigments stay particulate in solution, though the particles
ground by today’s high-end machinery are too fine for the human eye to
discern. This means no bleed, and since there are particles of various
sizes involved it also means varying degrees of coverage.
Both
acrylic lacquers and acrylic enamels are known for their toughness.
Lacquer is usually seen as a sealer and enamel as a coating. Enamels
are more fluid and transparent than most paint bases. Thus, the liners
are more fluid than other paints (extra flow improver added to the mix
further aids this). The innate translucency in the acrylic enamel base
is what makes the liners great for
shading/glazing/washing/underpaintig.
And further…
Reaper Inks have flow improver added. And we try to thin them a little more so that they aren’t thick goo out of the bottle. They are suspended in a water-based acrylic lacquer. Unfortunately, even during my time working for GW I was never involved in their paint formulation (they outsourced it rather than doing it in-house like Reaper does) so I can’t tell you what their suspension is for comparison. 
I know that back in the day I did have to add flow improver and a ton of water to get their stuff to where I wanted it, which is one of the reasons we decided to add flow improver to the MSP inks. GW does have a few more ink colors than we do, and generally our colors are darker as well (at least in MSP’s) because the MSP ink colors were chosen to be useful for shading rather than glazing for intensifying colors. The reason for this is that we already had color-intensifiers in the Clear Bright paints.
For the record, the MSP Liner colors are paints rather than inks. They use a different, more fluid base than the rest of the line, and have extra flow improver added, so they do behave somewhat like a cross between ink and paint.
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03.01.08
Posted in Uncategorized
at 10:33 pm
First a bit from madog_barfrog in answer to the question:
Any recommendations for clear coat after the painting has been done?
Minwax Satin Polyurethane. Cheap & tough enough for floors.
I used to use Testor’s dull coat, but it can yellow, so I’ve switched to Golden’s archival spray matte.
Now from Judith:
2 coats of polyurethane and then a coat or 2 of dull coat as needed
work for me.Furniture polyurethanes are tough as nails. I can’t think of any initial layer that would be more protective, and Golden’s spray matte contains UV protectants to help keep your paint colors from fading or shifting with exposure to sunlight.
If you’re going to be doing a lot of transport, consider adding an extra layer of the polyurethane on the tips of weapons and other extended bits that will take a lot of rubs and knocks, and also consider lining your foam carrying cases with plastic grocery bags. They’ll prevent the slightly-abrasive surface of the foam from gradually scraping at the paint over time.
On Golden’s matte:
If you use it lightly and hold it at the distance specified on the can, it’s extremely matte. Heavier coats can take time to flatten out, but back when I lived where spraying was practical, I never had a mini take more than a day or two to become as matte as Testor’s.
I have equally good luck with the brush-on, now that I live where spraying is a PITA, but it took a bit of experimentation with how much to thin it and how thickly to apply it. If you apply too thick a coat of the brush-on, it can also take a day or two to become fully matte.
Permalink
02.29.08
Posted in Uncategorized
at 11:01 pm
This miniature has a lot of good animation in his face. I can see him on the battlefield or on the march shouting "NO! You can’t DO that!!!" and then smacking the offender with his cross. The facial detail on this guy is nicely done. He’s not a handsome figure of a man and probably reflects the hygiene and dental work of the period. His hands are a bit large, but I just assume he got them from his having to hold onto the cross as he swings it. I imagine his forearms will match the size of his hands! He is mounted on a 3/4" base of airplane plywood from Litko Aero and has a magnet in the bottom of the base to hold him on the metal plate in the storage box.
Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized
at 10:47 pm
I put this figure on a large, inch in diameter washer. He comes with the cobblestone under him as a base and since he was so heavy, I was afraid he’d topple if not supported. I put a small magnet from Amazing Magnets in the base to hold him steady in the storage box (as seen to the right). It’s held in place with superglue.
The sculpt has a lot of character and I was afraid to start on it as I wasn’t sure how I would get it to look good with all of that detail! Once I got started, however, it went quickly and fairly smoothly. There are a lot of deep areas that make the blending and layering easy to do. The accouterments are all different and have different textures and fastenings, giving the figure a lot of unique areas. I wonder what he has in the barrel – it must be important since the barrel and contents certainly aren’t light!
Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized
at 10:09 pm
This piece and crew will be used in conjunction with the game Secrets of the Third Reich – an alternate history game with several science fiction and horror based twists to it. There will be some vehicles, battlesuits, and mecha in the game so the gun will, eventually get some work. The gun and crew are from the Berlin or Bust line and are a bit smaller than the SOTR figures
I was concerned about storing the gun and also about it being handled on the game table so I decided to mount it on a piece of airplane plywood I got for another purpose from Litko Aero. I put sheet vinyl magnet on the bottom and glued the gun to the base. In retrospect, what I should have done was mount the wheels on a piece of metal that would run under both wheels and then magnetize that to the larger base. Then I would have had the option to use it on or off the base. The biggest problem right now is that the crew can’t get tucked up behind the gun shield.
Nice model, nice miniatures….
Permalink
02.25.08
Posted in Uncategorized
at 10:40 am
Permalink
02.15.08
Posted in Uncategorized
at 3:59 pm
Luck writes -
Then, at the end of March, an order reached me to report at once, in person, to von Arnim. I had no idea what was wanted of me.
General Gause received me.
"Rommel has gotten nowhere with Hitler. We shall neither receive adequate supplies, nor does the Fuehrer want to know anything about a German Dunkirk. Rommel has been sent for treatment and forbidden to return to Africa as planned. Come, the commander in chief is expecting you."
What did von Arnim want from me? I didn’t know him nor had I ever heard anything about him
A tall, slim man with sharp features awaited me.
"Here to report, Colonel-General," I presented myself.
"Good to meet you, Luck. I have the pleasure of presenting you in the name of the Duce with the Medaglia d’Argento, a decoration that corresponds roughly to our Knight’s Cross." He pinned the order to my chest and handed me the certificate.
I was naturally pleased and undoubtedly had my friends of the Nizza Battalion [an Italian battalion that had been attached to Luck's Recon Battalion] to thank for the decoration. Associated with the order, there was even a small monthly pension and free first-class travel for two on all Italian railways for life.
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