Terrain

Painted up a few of my new terrain items- cargo containers and desert walls.

Force on Force

Played my first two games of Force on Force with my son. Kept it simple by making them all regulars but gave a TQ and MQ advantage to his forces and they wiped me out twice.

Still getting a handle on the reaction system but the basic game mechanics are fairly simple.

Krasnovian Reinforcements

These are the last of my modern skirmish figures. A mixed bag of police, rebels, thugs, pimps, civilians, and others that can be used for modern battles and in my future sci-fi project.



Field of Battle 2nd ed - pre battle

I used the pre-battle maneuver concepts from the new Field of Battle 2nd edition rules to help set up the next game in the campaign. This system could be used by itself for setting up a one-off battle, but it worked great to flesh out details for my battle.

The general scheme is that a Katzian division is marching to cut the line of retreat of the Poo-Boochen forces defeated in my last battle. The remaining P-B forces at the border have marshalled and are marching to stop this flank move.

The pre-battle system involves two parts. First each army rolls on some charts to come up with modifiers and some "key words" to work into the story. Then, each side assigns dice to roll off against each other in four catagories. The winner get certain advantages.

The catagories are:
Deployment
Recon
Strength
Tactical Adjustment

After making the roles, I worked up how they impacted the campaign story.

During the first part, the Katzian roles gave me: "march", "seize", and "consolidated". The P-B forces had "support distance", "cavalry screen", and "hasty (negative)".

The Poo-Boochen forces won all the role offs and gained some key advanatges... force the enemy to deploy two commands, gained one deployment zone, reposition forces in one zone, and an enemy command being delayed.

All this (done in a few minutes) worked nicely in the story.

The Katzain MG Grumm was quickly marching (march) his division along the valley road with the light infantry brigade screening the right flank across the stream. He planned to quickly seize (seize) a strong position across the enemy lines of communication. Mid-day saw the division approaching the objective with the troops formed up 9consolidated) ready for battle except for the light brigade still looking for a usable ford or bridge.

General Schwartz of Poo-Boochen had a small force protecting the critical border fort taken during the opening battles of the war. His grenadier brigade that had stormed the defenses was almost up to full strength, but there were few other troops available when word of the Katzian approach reached the border. Schwartz quickly gathered some troops and marched to meet the enemy. Luckily he had enough available troops (consolidated), and good intelligence from the two regiments of cavalry (cav screen). Schwartz's only weakness would be in the hodge-podge nature of his command (hasty)...a mixed bag of grenadiers, line regiments, and march columns.


The stage is set... a Katzian victory could place the Poo-Boochen forces in an untenable position and maybe even end the war in the South.

Fall In 2011

Just back from the Fall In convention at Lancaster, PA.

I stayed overnight this time and got in two games. Had planned on being in a 3rd but arrived too late on Friday. Bought lots of stuff...mostly buildings. Unexpected snow storm looks like it effected attendance.


S-194 - Battle of Eggmuhl, 22 April 1809

Sat. 9:00:00 AM, 4 hrs, 6 players registered
GM: Steven Gelhard and the HAWKs
Napoleonic 15mm, Rules: Shako
Charles thought he knew where Napoleon's army was. He planned an attack with most of his Korps to envelop and destroy the French army located South of Ratisbon, Bavaria. The problem was that the French army was not there, but Davout's corps was and it was concentrating on Rosenberg's IV Korps, forming the Southern hook of Charles' pincer. Even worse, for Rosenberg, Napoleon was on his way there. How long can Rosenberg hold out?
---I was one of the two Austrian players and this was my first time with the rules. It was also my first group game and first convention game. Other than lossing two horse batteries because I did not understand the rules, it was a great game. Came down to the last turn when the French took the last two villages. I had bottled up one enemy division the whole game and made it a tough fight on the flank. We collapsed in the center early on and the broke down into two seperate fights. Good fun all around.

Looking at the Austrian position on the hill. The objective was to take all four villages.

French attack in my sector...I held these guys pinned in the corner all game.

But the Bavarians overran my horse guns (misunderstood the rule) and took one of the center villages.

The Genzers outfought the French skirmishers!

My light cavalry proved to be useless.

The right side of the line.

The cavalry moved forward to slow the Bavarians but only destroyed one unit. The enemy genral made good use of square formation supported by guns to cover his attacks on the towns.

The center getting hit hard. We did OK on the flanks, but the center crumbled quickly.

After my Jagers lost the town, I sent in a regiment to retake the town.

The French are about to crack the line.

Things are getting bad now.

My second set of cavalry charges failed.

But the left flank kept the enemy cavalry pinned in the back with no room to move.

I even launched a local counterattack to defeat the brigade on the far left flank.

12lb batteries pulled back to avoid being overrun.

Battle around the town went to the last turn.

I lost the town and had my counterattack force an inch short.

The second game was a Civil War action


S-166 - The Sound of Silence, Battle of Iuka 1862

Sat. 6:00:00 PM, 4 hrs, 6 players
GM: Tom Cusa
American Civil War 15mm, Rules: Carnage&GloryII
In an effort to crush half the Confederate army in Mississippi, Grant has divided his Army. As soon as Rosecrans makes contact the rest of the army will advance
---I was on the Federal side during this battle...1st time with the rules other than my solo play. We attacked early on but then by brigade took the brunt of the enemy attack. Held the line but were pushed back. I did use my cavalry to flank the enemy and slow down their reinforcing brigade.

Looking at the Union line; my brigade is marching up the road.

Our center.

I went right on the attack to draw the enemy towards me and give my partner a chance to attack the opposite flank. Plan worked but my poor quality troops were no match for the TX and LA troops.

I threatened the center and left to force the Confederates to commit to my side.

Lead regiments made it to the fence line.

10th Missouri got honors during the battle for defeating one attack and the holding the line.

Cav flanking action in progress.

10th MO trade a volley.

My guns were hit hard and lost two cannon.

The Cav run away after a successful delaying action.

October 2011

After a poor month in September, I got back in high gear this month and finished my generic 15mm modern skirmish figures for what I call the Krasnovia project.

This project is now mature but I do see some nice new figures out there such as the SEAL team from Khurasan.

133 figures for 133 points


I still need to base (on order) and dip the figures.

I also started on my first sci-fi figures and primed two ancients units.

I attended Fall In for two days but more about that in another post.

Plans for November include working on some sci-fi figures and maybe my first ancients unit. I also have a whole batch of Blue Moon and JR Miniatures Middle East buildings to paint. These will be used with the ME buildings from Miniature Building Authority to populate my sci-fi world.

Drive for Victory

26 April- The Katzian voctory at Mario's Ridge on the 21st has set the stage for a critical battle in the campaign. While the Poo-Boochen forces are retreating from Farthing ford towards the border fort, a second Katzian division has driven into their strategic rear and may cut off the bloodied Poo-Boochen forces. Scraping together all available forces, the Poo-Boochen commander marches out to meet the oncoming force in the Nieder Valley.

The stage is set for my next battle. Deciding if I am going to use Field of Battle 2 or Die Fighting. Will fight the battle sometime in November after attending Fall In at the end of October.