Wednesday 22 February 2012

KGN Game Order of Battle

I figured I would post the order of battle I used in my Hold the Line game.

First the U.S. infantry division.
1 Battle group HQ
1 Supply Column
1 Forward Aid Post
1 M8 Armoured car
1 M4 Squadron 2 with 76mm cannon
2 M10 Tank Destroyers
1 Infantry Platoon
1 infantry Squad
1 medium machinegun team
1 medic
1 Forward Artillery Observer
1 High Priority Fire Mission
1 Low Priority Fire Mission


The 2 M10s and a squad stayed off as reinforcements.

The German tried attacking the following force.
1 Battlegroup HQ (Proxied the spw 251/6 with a 251/1)
1 Supply column
1 SdKfz 234/2 Puma Armoured car
1 Panzer Grenadier Platoon
1 Panzer Grenadier Squad
1 Medic
1 Squadron PzKpw IV
1 Forward Artillery Observer
2 High Priority Fire Missions

The Germans left a Mark IV, a squad and the supply column off as their required reinforcements.
 
Pulling the figures for this game made me realize that I need more specialist figures i.e radio guys, medics, dudes with Panzerfausts and that I need to finish my other Armourfast(tm) MG teams as Wehrmact and paint a few more US MG Teams.

Tuesday 21 February 2012

KGN game

First game of KGN (Kampgruppe Normandy).

I went for the smallest point size game (250 a side) so I could finish it in an afternoon. I can't play many of the scenarios that come in the book, I'll have to increase my vehicles, both quantity and variety, many of the scenarios require vehicles types I don't have or more than I have. Example: one scenario requires 6+ M5 Stuarts, and I don't have any.

I opted for a "Hold the line" scenario with an American Infantry division defending vs. a German Panzer division. The table is 4' x 4'.
German setup.

US Setup.



The impregnable farm complex, in six turn of being fired upon it suffered only 2 casualties both on the FAO, from artillery no less and was suppressed once.
With the Mark IV on this flank dead a sherman moves to get angle on the grey two storey house.


German surviors at game end, bottled up in the start building. The other mark IV is burning just to the right of this picture.
M8 Greyhound killed by a Mark IV, the only effect they Mark IVs had.

Puma kills a M10
U.S. REMFs hanging around.


The scenario as arranged was unwinnable for the German. Attacking a larger force of same quality troops across open ground the outcome was inevitable. I was just trying out the rules to get a feel for the mechanics, so I carried on (it was only a solo run through anyway, so I wasn't inflicting it on an opponent)

The game started with the Germans dropping artillery onto the the crossroads, deviation also hit the mortar team and a sherman, supressed the mortar team and direct hit vs the sherman followed by snake eyes for no effect, then firing with all 3 MMG teams for no effect (the last MMG team being wiped out before it could fire by the sole US unit on covering fire), then moving forward a rifle team into a building and firing on the farm house, no effect, another rifle team advanced in the wheatfield, firing at the US MMG team for no effect, the Puma opened fire (Small arms direct) on the US MMG team and wiped it out. Then the US went, first the rifle squad in the farm complex opened fire on the rifle team in the building nearest, having seen from the German attacks how hard it was to get effects, it decided on two suppressing small arms attacks rolled two 6s on the suppressing fire chart resulting in 2 direct fire attacks, first shot eliminated the entire German rifle team, Another US rifle team the one that had been on covering fire eliminated the Platoon HQ and another rifle team. After the first turn the Germans got to activate 5 units a turn (at most). The Germans only lasted as long as they did by drawing 1 each; heroic action, mechanical failure and air support chits and a several 1s but at end of turn 7, had 2 mmg team, 1 rifle team, the FAO (no missions, left though), Puma, supply tuck and BG HQ. US had lost their FOA (1 mission unused) 1xSquad, 1xM0 Wolverine, 1XM8 Greyhound and 2 other figures.
 
The shermans were surprisingly invulnerable to cannon fire, they were hit 2 or 3 times each and survived all, and with their 76mm guns were able to rapidly kill all the Mark IVs. German bullets had virtually no effect (i.e. couldn't hit, and when they did the US almost always saved them away), save one burst from a MMG that caused the withdrawal of a squad at the crossroads.

The rules were easy to pick up.

I did find it slightly annoying when I had to go the book to look something up, it is a very hefty tome, I wish it had been two books, one with just the rules (the first 60ish pages), and then another with the army lists, scenarios and data.

Monday 13 February 2012

Gallery - M26 Pershing

Gallery - M26 Pershing

I decided why only have one when I can buy two for double the price, and I needed to buy some more glue anyway, so I picked up the second Pershing from the hobby store.

This post was originally going to be a Work In Progress post, but there ain't no more progress to be made on them. They are both built, painted, gloss coated, decaled, second gloss coated (a.k.a. the decal anti-silvering technique) and the dull-coated. Just need to weather them and add some antennas.

With out further ado I present:

My first M26 Pershing
 





AND

My second M26 Pershing




You may have noticed I opted to not place the huge circled star on the glacis plate. I figured no crew would be so stupid to place a big white aiming spot on the front of their vehicle.

I managed to do both vehicles with one sheet of decals.
and.... just to show I actually have two of them. :)

Friday 3 February 2012

WIP- Build up to Hotlead 2

WIP- Build up to Hotlead 2

My build up to Hotlead 2012 continues now on game design.

So I thought about what would make a good game and quick, continuous action seems to me, to be the goal. Rules are a Squad Leader miniatures conversion, scale is 1/72nd, and must accomodate 4-6 players. One big change we have made is that vehicles can not enter woods (mainly to speed up play)

Its going to be late '44 Eastern front with the Soviets on the attack.  I want the Soviets to have a lot of troops so they can take loses and keep going, their orders are "take the crossings or this" an enclosed cynide pill (last year I had a player who didn't want to lose any troops, so moved his infantry deep into a forest and did nothing else the entire game)

My initial thinking is a small German force is defending 3 river crossings (bridge and 2 fords), Soviets arrive, and fighting begins. There is little cover on the German side of the river so they have to cross over the bridge. The Soviets win if they control 2 crossings, otherwise Germans win.


Soviets enter F edge, germans row C and halfway onto D, reinforcements enter on road A3 for the Germans and roads F1 and F4
Soviet OB is 7xT34/76, 2xSU-122, 2xM3 halftracks, 2xM3a1 halftracks, up to 10 rifle squads, 2 Machine gun teams at start. German started with 4 squads 1 of which had a Panzerfaust, a Panzerschrek team 2x Sturngeschutze IIIG (Stug for Short) and a SdKfz 234/2 Puma Armoured car

I laid out some terrain (I wanted short Lines of Sight and plenty of cover), pulled some figs and vehicles and played 3 turns.
Terrain layout doesn't exactly match my map, but close enough




The Germans had lost 2 vehicles (Stug IIIG and Puma), vs. 2x T34 and a SU122 (to a panzerfaust) and the infantry were just starting to squabble.

Both side get reinforcements;
Turn 1: 3x German squads in 3 halftracks arrive, plus a SdKfz 250/1.
Turn 2: 3x Mark IVs
Turn 3: 3x T34/85s, 2xSU-85s
Turn 4: 2x Tigers
Turn 5: 2x JS II

My short playtest is encouraging, I may remove the Puma, as it can't really hurt anything's front armour and its unlikely to get a side shot, due to the terrain layout.