Team Yankee British vs Soviet 100pt

 After a long time away from this I thought I'd post a recent battle report from our British vs Soviet Team Yankee game!

Last night saw Aarons British take on...well...Aarons Russians (played by me!). Mission was dust-up. table quarter deployment with meeting engagement and delayed reseves.

The Sacred Mole of Ukkert

Following on from thoughts myself and Just John had about using Dragon Rampant for skirmish we decided to organize a game. Rather than full skirmish we decided on the heroic approach. A small band of dwarf heroes (with each model representing 6 strength points) vs an entire Orc raiding warband. Heroic stuff in the Fantasy Age!

King Thorgrimm Ranulfsson has lead a mission to investigate a hold not hear from in recent months. upon arrival they find their dwarfen kin slaughtered and the hold ransacked and occupied by greenskins. Thorgrimm leads his small band of dwarfs in to the hold to recover heirlooms they know will still be sealed in the secret vault. They fight their way in and out, killing anything in their way, and bring out the lost treasure to take home. As they gain the surface they see a large orc warband arrayed before them. Obviously some sneaky goblin went for help! Shouldering their weapons they prepare to fight their way out!

This was a 30pt game with only 24pts allowed to be spent on units. The remaining 6pts had to be upgrades.

 The Dwarven heroes venture in to the mine.

Dragon Rampant Dwarfs vs Orcs

Me and JustJohn managed to get another game of Dragon Rampant in this weekend. We had slightly different army lists this time. I had a greater warbeast (Ancient Bron...See previous post) and he had a giant (Bellicose Foot). It was another fun game of Dragon Rampant with us both still learning the rules a bit (and forgetting to do stuff!).

Our lists were:

Dwarfs

Elite Foot - Hammerers with leader

Heavy Foot - Dwarf Warriors

Heavy Foot - Dwarf Warriors

Greater Warbeast - Ancient Bron

Scouts - Dwarf Rangers

Scouts - Dwarf Rangers

Orcs

Heavy Foot with Offensive - Orc Leader and 2 Bodyguards

Bellicose Foot - Giant

Bellicose Foot with Shiny Armour - Orcs with 2h weapons

Light Foot with Mixed weapons - Orcs with spears and bows

Light Foot - Orcs with spear and shield.

We rolled for scenarios and got The Ringbearer. We completely forgot to name quests, which has quite an effect later on!

The Orcs had recently come across two small fellows sneaking through their lands on foot. These annoying hairy footed chaps had been quickly stuffed in a pot and boiled up with something nice. On their person the Orc leader found a lovely shiny ring, which he quickly stuffed in its pocket.

Having heard of the news of their death King Thorgrimm wakes Ancient Bron and sets off to avenge their rather short unbearded friends (and get his hands on a magic shiny gold ring in the process! ). The Dwarfs are attacking and Orcs defending.

The location of the ring written down for safekeeping. What has it got in its pocketses?

Dragon Rampant Game 2 Dwarfs vs Elves

This was another introductory game of Dragon Rampant. This time introducing Panzermonkey and his Elves to the rules. Yet again we decided to ignore the movement penalty for terrain and to treat the stream as open as it kind of dominated the centre of the table!

The dwarfs were the same as the last game
Elite foot with leader - lord with Hammerers
HeavyFoot - Dwarf warriors
Heavy Foot - Dwarf warriors
Bellicose Foot - Troll Slayers
Heavy Missiles - Dwarf Crossbows
Scouts - Dwarf Rangers

The Elves were different to reflect their nature and Panzermonkeys models!
Elite Riders with leader - Lord with Silver Helms
Elite Foot - Elven White Lions
Light Foot - Elf spearmen
Light Foot - Elf spearmen
Light Missiles - Elf archers
Scouts - Elven Shadow Warriors

Both Warbands came to 24 points.

The scenario was the standard kill all your opponents models just for simplicity.

The Elf Cavalry are so fast they are a blur!

The Dwarf Lord and his bodyguard look on unimpressed

The two battle lines draw up againt one another

The Dwarfs (attacking) decide to stand and grumble a bit as they fail their first activation of the game

The Elves surge forwards while the dwarfs stumble along

The Dwarf Rangers make the bridge first and fire upon the Shadow Warriors killing 1

The Dwarf battle line makes it to the river

The Elf archers move forwards to fire on the Dwarf warriors

The Scouts hold the vital bridge crossing point (well not really with our terrain rules!)

The Lord and Silver Helms wild charge into the dwarf warriors 

Its a bloody combat typical of Dragon Rampant (you remove models quickly once combat joined 1)

The Dwarfs are pushed back across the river

And then fired upon by the Elf archers forcing them to retreat further (and also meaning they no longer block a charge on the crossbows)

The Silver Helms charge the crossbows battering them

The Stoic warriors charge the cavalry but get counter charged in return

The casualties are enough to rout them off the table

Elf spearmen move on to the bridge to engage the scouts but move too close and are charge by the Dwarf Lord and Hammerers

Who see them off and batter them. They then rout in their following activation

The Troll slayers charge the Elf spearmen and batter them. In return they are charged by the White Lions and routed

The Dwarf Lord then manages to charge the Shadow Warriors, wiping them out.

A bad dice roll sees the Elf cavalry fail to charge the crossbows before they retreat into the ruins. The crossbows get a round of shooting at them and then the depleted Silver Helms charge the crossbows in rough terrain.

And are wiped out.

The Elf archers fail to activate and are caught by the Dwarf Lord. They rout from the field.

We called the game there as the Dwarfs had three units remaining (Lord and Hammerers, Dwarf Warriors and crossbows) while the elves only had a half strength unit of White Lions. I may have to stop going overboard with scenery. It really hampered the cavalry in this game, or would have done if the river had been rough terrain too!

The first battle of El Teb

Bolt Action Waffen SS vs Americans

Myself and Justjohn have decided to take part in a bolt action 1000pt league run by our local gaming store, The Gathering. I kicked off the league with a game against one of the local historical gamers, Simon. Most people seem to be taking part in the league to give people a better grounding in the rules, test out their shiny toys and to motivate everyone to paint up their models, rather than being a truly competitive league.

I play Waffen SS in bolt action, I love the warlord metal miniatures and have a good sized force. All I need is the extra little bits and pieces to round off my collection.

For this game I took

Leutnant w/SMG + veteran rifleman

2x 6 man squads with PF, 3x AR, 2x rifle and NCO w/SMG

8 man squad - 5x rifle Infantry, PF, 2x LMG, NCO w/SMG

8 man squad - 5x rifle infantry, 2xPF, 2x AR, NCO w/SMG

Veteran MMG

Regular mortar team w/spotter

Veteran sniper

Regular Puma armoured car

Regular Hanomag

10 order dice

I'm not sure on exactly what Simon had but roughly his force consisted of

1 1st Lt with 2 riflemen

12x regular infantry

12x veteran infantry

Medium mortar

Forward air observer

Armoured car

M36 tank destroyer

7 order dice

I was attacking and the objective was to get off the American table edge. 1VP for each of his units killed, 2VPs for every unit in his deployment zone at game end and 3VPs for every unit that leaves off his table edge. The US objective was to stop the German forces, 2VPs per kill.

Simon deployed all his units on the table with an infantry unit and vehicle on each side, support units in the middle and HQ on the left. I then set up my sniper and mortar observer for good LoS. The Hanomag with 2 6 man infantry squads onboard and the Puma both outflanked to the left.

Turn1 

The Germans forgot to wait for their preparatory bombardment and advanced on to the table into the waiting fire of the Americans (i pulled all my dice first) who began to quickly stick pin markers on the German infantry units before they had chance to react. The German sniper took out the US mortar and the M36 managed a lucky hit (3 6's in a row), taking out the German MMG team.

Turn 2

The Americans had the initiative early on (Simon pulled all 6 of his dice before any of my 9!), their air support came on to the table inflicting pins on the rifle/AR unit and sniper and the ground attack fighter mowed down 5 infantrymen caught in the open, despite them hitting the dirt (10 hits for Simon, halved for me being down. All 5 wounded the veterans!). The US infantry and armour opened fire while advancing, pinning both German infantry units down and reducing the recently strafed unit to just the NCO. The Germans in return managed to snipe a sergeant out of one of the US units but otherwise hit the dirt.

The US airstrike catches a unit in the open

Turn 3

The Americans, sensing they had the caught the Germans on the back foot advanced allowing the German mobile outflanking units to come in behind them on the left. Firstly the Puma closed to point blank with the American armoured car but failed to penetrate and then the Hanomag arrived, infantry clambering out the kill the US Lt and his accompanying riflemen. The US forces poured more fire into the German infantry, laying on pins but not killing many.

Turn 4

The 2 infantry units got back in their transport, while the rest of the Germans provided covering fire. The puma failed to penetrate again and sought cover behind woods after being targeted by the large M36. The veteran US infantry closed on the single surviving NCO, opening fire but failing to wound. The lone sergeant managed to pull himself together and rally while the German infantry unit on the left hunkered down after taking fire from the armoured car and the nearby US infantry took cover after the sniper killed the BAR carrier.

Turn 5

The Hanomag swiftly departed behind the US lines, too fast for the M36 to stop. Unfortunately the puma wasn't so lucky, getting stunned in the US deployment zone as it tried to retreat. The surviving NCO ran into cover to hide while the German and US infantry units on the left exchanged fire to little effect. The game ended there due to time constraints. 13-2 win for the SS forces, mainly due to getting 3 units of the table in the final turn, which gave 9VPs and the puma being in the US deployment zone. It was a lucky gamble hoping to get the first dice of the turn for the Hanomag but with 9-5 dice in my favour I had good odds and it paid off.

The M36 ambushes the retreating Puma

The NCO seeks cover from the veteran US troops

All in all a good first game for the league!

Warhammer Trafalgar

I'll say this first. I love this system. Now before anyone argues against this I'll admit the system isn't without its faults. Firstly, it needs a good few tweaks to make it better and I plan to post these up sometime in the near future. Secondly, it isn't the most historically accurate system. However it is a good place for Napoleonic naval beginners, which we are. It's rules generally try to reflect a historical condition, such as movement of ships, which start from that most downwind first, to reflect the advantage of having the wind gage. Having recently had a brief look at the old Man o' war system I can definitely see the similarities between the systems, but Trafalgar has more emphasis on sailing vessels and wind direction.

A nerdy gaming weekend at JustJohns

So JustJohn had a few people over for the weekend in his purpose built mancave. In attendance was myself, MrSaturday, Cheetor, The Otto Von Bismark and Craig, who has just moved back to Limerick and I'm unsure if he has a blog... Sorry Craig.

A few games were sampled including Man O'War, Bolt Action, Pulp Alley and a number of boardgames. Most of the games this weekend were to introduce new people to systems already played by others and good fun was had by all!

Unfortunately Inquisitor Thrawn and his retinue suffered from a malign curse and fared rather badly in the Pulp Alley game, pretty much getting wounded in every combat they participated and never passing a single health or recover check. Arbitrator Callaghan and Commissar Holt (both ally characters) even lost their lives trying to climb a wall into the ruined temple. Assassin 46, usually a terror in Pulp Alley game, came a cropper as he tried to snipe opponents from cover. Shocking! Below is a series of photographs from the Pulp Alley game.