AAR: Bolt Action: A Race to the Center of Town.

     I usually make no secret that I will play at least one game on a mat I make for someone else. I like to think of it as testing the balance. Besides, when you put work into something for gaming, it is only natural to want to play on it. That brought my wife and I into a game of Bolt Action.
     This was typical slugfest between the Germans and the British. In this case, it was going to be British Airborne against German Fallschirmjaegers. I assure you all that I have other types of German units other than the Fallshirmjaeger. I just don't bring them out as often. But today, I did bring out my Krieg's Marines to see how well they can do, since they are rated as "Inexperenced." They have never seen combat, so I thought it would be nice to see them on the table. If I'd known that they would never come on the whole game, I might not have unpacked them. I am sure that is what I get for hiding my wife's Bren teams. I could not figure out where I placed them. I found out after the game that they were under the extra movement tray next to me the whole time. Oops!
    Kalissa sent her four squads of Airborne across the field, and some mechanized infantry into town. That was until I shot the snot out of one of the M5 halftracks with my 222 armored car. This also killed to men in the explosion. My Jagdpanther tried to hit a Sherman Firefly in the distance, but fail. The return shot kill the Jagdpanther on a bridge, blocking it. The one Stug III G I had could not hit well. The one kill was a regular Sherman, but was also diced by a Firefly!
    The main engagement in town was a one-sided affair. After my armored car was shot and killed by another armored car, the gig was up. I started a large amount of flanking towards the store. Other than some not-so-lethal firefights, it came down to assaults. The Germans did not win out on this. And like I said earlier, the Krieg's Marines failed to come on the table. At least the Fubars were them off table!
   I would like to say I photographed the whole game, but I ran out of battery juice. I only have up to turn 3. Either way, enjoy!

One side of the board.

Another side of the board.

A Jagdpather moves up with infantry support.

A Stug III G moves down a road.

A M5 Half track and a Daimler Armored Car race up the road to flank the town.

A German 222 Armored car makes into the town first firing!

Another group of armor for combat.

British Airborne race across a plowed field.

A Sherman Firefly provides a nice over watch.

This Sherman Firefly hides in a tree line.

The half track gets it!

Closing in.

Command wants all the buildings cleared.

A nice side shot to the Jagdpanther!

The half track plays chicken with the 222! 

Think about fording the stream?

Germans on the move.

More Germans!

More British armor!

The Firefly gets their prey!

The 222 buys the farm!

Foot bridge crossing.

German flanking.

The British are prepared!

Teddy Bear Fur Tutorial: Another Link.

This was just a Normandy Chain of Command game. 

     I have been making quite a few mats, lately. Whether is has been just for fun or a commission work, I have found there was a lot of interest in what I do. At this point in time, I get an average 50 people looking at this blog under my Teddy Bear Fur Terrain. I think that is pretty nifty! But what makes this more nifty is that Warlord Games contacted me to write and article in the beginning of September. Of course, I would! After all, visual terrain is always great to play on, even if you do not play well on it. We tend to remember the cool looking battles better, anyway.
   So this last Wednesday, Sept. 28, Warlord posted the article I wrote titled "Covering Normandy with Teddy Bear Fur". Sure there are some changes, but that is to be expected in edited. I was asked to provide imagines, so my fellow wargaming friends and I decided to do a massive photo shoot of miniature awesomeness. This way, we could get different miniatures and paint styles represented. Though, I did feel bad about sending 96 photos for the affair. I took about 150 total for that morning. Some were just accidental duplicates or shots that could have been better. So we gave them quite a challenge for a layout, but they did an excellent job! Anyway, here is the link to that article: http://www.warlordgames.com/covering-normandy-in-teddy-bear-fur/

More terrain.

Germans versus British fighting.

AAR: Iron Cross: Purple D10's are Evil!

A Cromwell explodes making a 27 ton roadblock.

     It was another lovely round of weekly wargaming with my friend, Danny that I meet up with one Tuesdays. And for this game, we chose to play Iron Cross. Danny has really gotten into this game to the point of buying the rules. That is an accomplishment in itself! Part of the new found interests is probably heavily fueled by the fact he has won all of the games we've played using these rules. But I also believe that it is a game that is brutal, quick, and fair. I have just realized he has and was using a purple D10. As anyone who knows me or may have read throughout this blog, purple dice and me have a history. And this game was no exception!
   Both sides went to 780 points per side. I had five Panthers, four Panzer IV H's, and one Stug III G. Danny had 9 Cromwells, three Sherman Fireflies, and three M-10 tank destroyers. So I was out numbered as to be expected against the Allied forces. But with Danny's purple D10, it was like round house kicks from Chuck Norris. Most all of my force was killed by reaction fire! The numbers of the day we saw from his D10 were 8 and 10 for about 85% of the game. It went down hill after all, but two of my tanks were dead! But by that point, there was not much to do about it.
   Besides the uncanny die rounding, I found that was actually disappointed in the game. After the game, we talked about how people could get upset in the game by experiencing what I went through. Because, the game is about pins and morale first, taking big cat like Panthers could be considered wasteful. Danny had mentioned reading about how a guy was upset about losing a King Tiger II to a M5 Stuart tank. Guess what? We looked that up to see if it was possible. A King Tiger II has a 19 Front, and side of 15. A M5 Stuart tank has a weapon rating of 6. So on a D10, a M5 Stuart tank can penetrate and kill a King Tiger II on the side by rolling a 10, and then, rolling a 4+ on a D6 to kill. That could be upsetting! And apparently, it was his commander.
    After losing all of the Panther tanks in the first two rounds, it was apparent to me that points would have been better spent on other tanks. For five Panthers, you can get 9 Panzer IV's. I don't quite have those, unless we play this in 15 mm where I could pull it off. But then, my wargaming mind remembers that this was just a game that was rolled well against me. We will have a rematch, again. Maybe, by then, we will be using infantry as well.  Below is the shots of the game.

The Board. Allied side.

The board. German Side.

Town center.

Water crossings.

A Panther dies from reaction fire. And a Panzer IV burns after being hit after bogging down on some trees.

Another Panther dies to reaction fire!

A slight German revenge against a Cromwell tank.

The British try to cross the bridge.

More German armor rolls in. 

A burning Cromwell blocks the bridge after being stopped by a Stug III.

The burning tank becomes useful cover.

A Cromwell fires reaction fire from the rear towards the Stug III.

All of the Panther tanks are gone by turn two.

Cromwell reaction fire takes out the Stug III.

Two Panzer IV's left at turn 3, because none of the British can see them to shoot at them.

Two Sherman Fireflies ford the stream to hunt for German Panzers.

The rest are knocked out at turn four. Guess this would not make it to turn seven!