Tangiers 1662

Have been away to London on holiday.  Really enjoyed being back in England and the cooler weather.  While there I went to the Orc's Nest (nice little shop) and splurged on SAGA's Crescent and Cross.  The rules are expensive for what you get but I will admit it is a nice book.  Since then I have played several games and enjoyed them all.  I have even decided to paint up some Knights Hospitaliers.
Then I wondered if I could take the system into the black powder era with a couple of rules I really like from Donnybrook.  "Sagabrook" is born!!!

Tangiers spring 1662
Lt Preston is suppose to take a platoon of infantry to an outlying village to ensure the safety of British rule...

Preston's column moves forward when they spot hostile Arabs ahead.  Preston has his elite Spanish cavalry in front, followed by 2 8 man sections of infantry (warriors) and 4 elite Marines in the rear.  He also has himself (D10), Sgt York (D8) and Sgt Dittle (D8) of His Majesties Marines.

Arabs lying in ambush.  Turkish musketeers also wait for their prey.

Lt Preston with " Hail Britannia"

Preston deploys his first 8 men to meet the threat while the cavalry discharge their carbines

Their fire drops one Arab but when swords are crossed the Arabs emerge victorious!

Turkish rifle fire devastates Preston's forces. His men are forced back blocking the Marines advance!

Steady lads--the British hold fire until the end.  Still ineffective and they are beat up by the Arabs.

The bitter end-- Sgt York holds off the final Arab charge while Lt Preston (wounded) retreats ahead with the colors intact.

Really fun as a proof of concept game.  Musket fire was too ineffective though.  I also ran a game between firearms just to see what would happen and it worked better.  

 Who knows, if this really works maybe you will see it in WSS!

Enjoy

Joe

Enemies in high places

                                        This picture has nothing to do with the story; I just thought it looked good!





Lt Blake disliked LCdr Caros.  He saw Caros as a lazy Romeo.  Why couldn't Cdr Broadstreet and the Admiral see that.  Blake knew he could do better; but he was stuck as a mission planner at Admiral Hollyworth's. 
So, when a diversion was needed to occupy some Jap guns while special forces were inserted he knew just what to plan.  LCdr Caros' PT boats could go up against the 3 inch guns!
[ Last battle I rolled that Lt Blake did something to block LCdr Caros. ]  

"What a crazy idea is this?" LCdr Caros thought.   Act as a diversion for some Jap coastal guns.  Why not send some Catalinas?  Still, orders were orders.

LCdr Caros    lazy/skirt chaser        eagle eye      Gr III
Ens Elmwood  coarse/wealth                               Gr I
Ens Jackson   cunning/ alcohol                             Gr I
Ens Rains       mercurical/ skirt chaser                  Gr I

Caros would pair with Elmwood who was brand new to the unit.  Jackson would lead the other two boats and approach from the other side of the small bay.

The PT boats separate to start the mission.

Visability was 1,400 yards which helped

Caros and Elmwood approach the target.

The Target

Caros and Elmwood demonstrated against the 3 inch gun for 20 minutes.  Caros' boat had a 40mm gun mounted on the back in the hopes of causing damage to the gun.  
Caros' boat took some damage but then a Jap hit severely damaged Elmwoods boat and cut his speed to 10 knots.  Caros' boat fired furiously at the guns and moved up to make smoke. 

A lucky hit starts a fire!

Meanwhile Jackson and Rains were busy with a pair of 37mm guns on the other side.  They also found a barge that they heavily damaged. 

As they were pulling out Elmwoods boat was hit with 20mm shells and she gave up her ghost.

Ens Jackson taking off Ens Elmwood and his crew.

The mission was successful!   While losing one boat they created the diversion, damaged a barge, 37mm gun and a 3 inch gun.  Afterwards the CO, Cdr Broadstreet, greeted them warmly with congratulations.  Lt Blake was disappointed to say the least.  LCdr Caros was relieved the mission was over; he still did not realize he had an enemy in high places.

Enjoy

Joe

Playtest for Fighting Season

I volunteered to playtest TFLs modern version of their CoC rules.  It made sense in that I was a playtester for CoC.  To get use to the rules I did not add Grunt's Forward to them though they would work just fine.  Fighting Season is suppose to come with a campaign game built in which we don't have yet.  I suspect it will be based on "hearts and minds" rather than characters so players could chose either or both!
As I only have one US squad painted up it was going to be a patrol across the country.  I did use Platoon Forward to roll up the board and had a key building in square 1.  For change of pace I went with an abandoned monastery. 

Sgt Humphrey checks his watch as the squad hits another waypoint.  In the distance you can see two civilians working a field.  Civilians are important in FS, they provide intelligence and have to be unharmed during battles. 

Taliban fighters set up at their jump off. 

Sgt Humphrey took two men to go and talk to the farmers.  Through sign language the two farmers reported Taliban in the monastery. 

As Humphrey's came back over AK-47s opened up and Pvt Jenkins was hit.  He dragged Jenkins back over to the trees and made a quick assesment; shot in the thigh.  Some quick-clot and a bandage and he would be okay.  He dispatched two men to carry Jenkins back to a medical hummer that was coming to meet them.  (When the coalition has a casualty you have to see how severe it is and if bad, get the man to medical care.  I really like this not only because I was a military surgeon but reflects life on the modern battlefield. ) 

A firefight breaks out across the stream.  The US firepower starts to tell and the Taliban pull back from the trees.

Humphrey's sends a fireteam across at the same time the Taliban commander also decides to outflank across the bridge.  The fireteam is pinned but the taliban force is broken.

The remnents of the broken force retreat to the monastery.  With surprise lost and outmanned and outgunned the Taliban store their rifles in a cache and walk out the back as terrified farmers. 

Fun quick game.   It plays differently than CoC but is very familiar to anyone who knows that system.  There are all kinds of rules for aircraft and RPGs that I have yet to explore.  Stay tuned for more playtests.  .  If you like the CoC system you will like this.  For now suffice to say I think this will be a great ruleset for modern skirmish gaming

Cheers

Joe 

The Food Train

Finally played a land based war game!  Using Donnybrook as the tactical rules and Rifles Forward as the campaign.  Still testing out Rifles Forward and really need to paint more troops.

Pennsylvania  1777

Lt Elisha Fish was in a Pennsylvanian regiment commanded by Col Brooks.  His Company commander, Capt Madison, called him into his tent.  "Elisha, our spies have sent word of a food convoy leaving Clarksburg for Philadelphia.  I want you to take a platoon and ambush the convoy; bring the wagons back here."

Lt Fish   son of a Banker/cheery/position   Lvl  2
Sgt Turner   thief/pragmatic/ alcohol     lvl 0  hesitant card
Sgt Clark    dockworker/naive/wealth  Lvl 1 
  
Lt Fish took 18 men.  They picked a spot where the road narrowed as it entered some marshy ground.
Sgt Clark was a much better NCO so Lt Fish put him on the right flank closest to the ambush with 7 men.  Lt Fish was in the middle with 7 and Sgt Turner was on the left with 4.  Sgt Turner glared at Elisha when the assignments were made but he didn't care.  He felt Turner was a dud and he couldn't risk this ambush.

The british failed to spot the ambush ( unlikely) and ...

The positons of the forces.

Moments before the first volley rips through the British forces!!

The lead group loses 4 of it's 10 men before they know it.  The aft group loses 3 of the 10 and it's NCO is wounded.  Both forces hold morale and turn to face their tormentors.  From the woods the Rebels win the gun duel despite the Redcoats greater rate of fire.  Elisha notes that Turner's group is not firing. 

Lt Fish orders a general advance into the weakened positions.  Sgt Turner doesn't move.  (Hesitation card came up!)

Lt Fish leads from the front.  Sgt Turner is behind in the trees.

Once in the open the Rebels falter .  They stop to fire.

5 vrs 4 with Turner still camping in the background. (Yep, hesitant card again!)

Fish rallies his men and charges!

The final battle


The fisticuffs proves the rebels better today.  They lose no one with the redcoats losing 2.  The British NCO moves into the farmhouse and with a lucky sequence of cards escapes out the back! 

Sgt Clark easily wipes out the lead redcoats including their officer.

Huzzah on another victory!!!!

Post game Lt Fish demands to have Sgt Turner removed; Capt Madison states that Sgt Turner is a good NCO and Fish needs to work with him.   ( Unbeknownst to Lt Fish, Sgt Turner use to work for Col Brooks and Brooks thinks he is a fine chap.)  Our other post game event was Col Brooks asks a favor; for Sgt Turner, Lt Fish and several other men to get a message to a farmer behind the lines! 
Is Turner up to the challenge?  Will Fish succeed?  I don't know but it will be exciting!

For those of you that want to play this the British had the following:
1 Officer ( lvl 1) and 10 men
1 NCO  (lvl 1) and 10 men
3 carts full of food.
The game generated 10 additional British troops but I didn't have any painted up yet!

Enjoy

Joe

Race Forward

On this memorial day I would like to remember all veterans; especially those that gave their lives for our freedom.
Grunt's Forward is still waiting Rich to get started.
Have been playing the formula one racing game "Race formula 90" that I mentioned last post.  Bought some 1/200 scale cars and painted them up.  Big difference from most of the drab army/navy stuff I paint.
Wanted to run a whole formula 1 season and got to thinking about the Forward system.  Am going to see if it works with my 2005 BMW team.  You take the role of the team boss and have 8 major characters that work for you.  Your job is to keep them moving in the correct direction to win the Championship.

Our Racing director is Thomas Bundt.  He is very condescending of immorality and what he considers poor work ethic.  This makes him hard to get along with but is a great strategist (skill level 8) and so so at teamwork ( level 6).  Our #1 pit crew is below average skill (4) and so so at teamwork (5).  (Hey, the season just started.) Thomas was very critical of the pit crew during the pre season and their teamwork went down accordingly.

I had high hopes for Monza.  Our team was relatively new but had some great folks on it and the teamwork was improving.   We also had a highly skilled #1 driver in Nick Heildfeld.  Nick grabbed the pole position while Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren) took second.  Our second driver Jacques Villeneuve took third with Michael Schumacher (Ferrari) taking fourth.  To get the pole we had to commit to a three pit race.

The starting grid!!!!!

The other teams include Red Bull, Toyota and Renault.

I think the cars painted up pretty well and add a lot to the game.

The race started well though our #2 (fast car) rapidly fell back.  

Nick out in front followed by McLaren and Ferrari.

Unfortunately for BMW our #1 pit team was called on for a skill check and failed, adding one to each of our pit stops!  Despite this Nick held onto first almost the whole race. 

Toyota makes a stab at the lead!  Schumacher bides his time.

With 14 laps to go Ferrari makes their last pit and selects a very aggressive strategy ( Hazardous)

Michael Schumacher makes his move!

Schumacher takes the lead with 4 laps to go and Nick can't catch him.

Final results:

Michael Schumacher  (Ferrari)
Nick Heildfeld  ( BMW)
Jarno Trulli  ( Toyota)
Giancario Fisichellaa  ( Renault)
Kimi Raikkonen  ( McLaren)

Jacques Villeneuve finishes 9th just out of the points.  Juan Montoya (McLaren) DNF crashing on turn 4.

The press conference goes well as Nick holds his tongue about the slow pits.  I try rapprochement with the pit crew that fails.  Thomas Bundt is more sure than ever that he is right and his skill also goes up by one.
Next up Hockenheim.   Will the pit crew rally?  Will Bundt's skill show through?  Will Nick put on another sterling performance?  We can only keep the race team moving forward.

Joe  

Sometimes the escorts win

Have been busy with a couple of different things as of late.  Grunt's Forward has been moved back to after Salute.  Played a couple of AoS games with "Blood, Bilge and Iron Balls" that I picked up at a used book store.  Bought an outstanding formula 1 racing game called "Race.  Formula 90" and painted up some more 1/600 ships.
"Blood Bilge and Iron Balls" ios a nice simple system that focuses on repairing your ship and damage to command.  I like the system but still has too much book keeping for me.  I need to come up with "Releases the Hounds" for AoS at some point.  The tricky part is the french shooting at sails; how do you model that easily?
I have been interested in the strategy of Formula 1 racing since my parents got me "Speed Circuit" as an early teen.  (This was when the 3m version was new!)  It was a little fitly and difficult to play solitaire.  Still I had several racing seasons taking BMW all the way to second place!   I read very favorable reviews about "Race Formula 90" and took the plunge.  What a great game!  Just as much strategy without as much fittle and easy to play solitaire.  Unfortunately BMW is out of formula 1 so I will either have to go retro or switch to Ferrari.  Now I just need to find some 1/200 cars that I can afford!
Finally I had a Hunt DE and 3 E-boats painted up so had to enter the Narrow Sea!

French and English 74s battle it out with BBB!

Fire on the HMS Orion.

OK, back to the narrow sea.     Cmdr Lightfoot aboard the HMS Cleveland (Hunt DE) was glad the clouds were breaking this night.  It would be easier to see E-Boats and Jerry rarely bombed at night.  Visibility must be 2 miles at least.  No e-boats would chance an encounter with the small ships he was escorting.  Besides himself he had a minesweeper (HMS Rye) with a 3 inch gun and two Fairmile Bs also with 3 inch guns. 

HMS Cleveland in 1/600 glory!

Convoy steaming through the narrow seas.  Due to visibility each hex is 200 yards rather than 100. 

E-Boats in line ahead cursing the improving weather.  

Cmdr Lightfoot's thoughts were broken by a shout of a starshell to starboard.  Sharp eyed crewmen on the HMS Rye had tracked and illuminated 3 E-boats trying to move into the convoy at just 2 miles.  Without orders the three supple ships turned to port.  The Fairmile on the starbord side engaged while making smoke, HMS Rye and the HMS Cleveland made a starboard turn to engage. 

ML 193 making smoke

The British 3 inch guns outranged the Germans and hit e-boats number one and two.  E boat #1 was heavily damaged and launched torpedoes at the HMS Rye at a mile that missed.  She broke off.  E-boat #2 dueled the Fairmile.  The Fairmile lost her aft 20 mm while E-boat #2 was put on fire with heavy casualties.

E-boat #2 breaks off the action

E-boat #3 , feeling lonely,  decided to fire two torpedoes at the HMS Cleveland which had finally entered the fight.   Fortunately crew on the Cleveland saw the wakes and started a turn.  The minute turned into an hour as Cmdr Lightfoot waited for the crash; it never came. 

E-boat #3 has broken off after firering his torpedoes.  HMS Cleveland has turned away and HMS Rye also turned while laying smoke. 

With that the e-boats left and danger averted! 

 The fairmile crew would later pull into port heavily damaged but the only damage the convoy received.  Cmdr Lightfoot realized that, even those this was 1940, sometimes the escorts did win!

Fast fun game!   The e-boats were clearly at a disadvantage due to visibility but it played fast.  One torpedo hit would have changed the game.

For those of you wanting to play this I used early e-boats armed with LMGs up front and 20mm gun aft.  The fairmiles had a 3 inch gun up front and a lone 20mm aft.  Would be interesting to try this with later model e-boats. 

Enjoy

Joe

The Saar 1939

Have been doing a little bit of everything the last couple of weeks.  Have actually abandoned WW II Donnybrooke and gone back to Lazy TWAT as my tactical rules.   Years ago Chris  had an article about the French invasion of Germany in 1939 in a Lardie special.   I have always enjoyed that article as it taught me about a campaign I knew nothing about.  So when I rolled up a new French platoon (using parts of Grunts Forward) I decided I would let them go on the offensive!
First the platoon
Lt Tulasne  Son of a university Proffessor from Lyon.  Professional soldier who is pleseant and cares about his family.  Gr I leader and +1 as he is just a nice guy.
Sgt LeGloan  Son of a police officer in a Norman town.  Has seen how it works "in the real world" and is corrupt but believes in France.  Gr I leader
Sgt Lemare  Son of a farmer so grew up on a farm with nothing.  Joined the army to escape poverty.  He is cheap and lives for money.  Gr O leader
Sgt Mandon Son of a villiage Preacher from Alsace Had a choice between the ministry and the military and joined the army.  Still a bit scholarly for an NCO and loves his country.  Is hesitant in combat.  Gr O

So you can see that the new tables really bring more background out in the characters.

Capt Mural started speaking to all the assembled platoon commanders.  " Today, for the honor of France, we will take the first of many German cities.  Today we conquer Neukirchen!"  (Scenario is Company attack"

Forces:    Whole platoon above + 1 MMG, 1 Renault tank 1 60mm mtr.


The Town

French enter the town from the left.   Must secure the bridge across the river.

Another look at the bridge

The plan was to have the MMG and MTR scale the hill to provide supporting fire.  First squad would take the first three houses.  Third squad would try the open ground along the river and make for the bridge.  Second squad was held in reserve.  The tank would try to suppress positions as needed.

  When all the dummies were rolled up they had infantry in the houses and warehouse with support elements across the river at the bank.  ( I hate when the system is smarter than me!)
Third suad quickly got stuck.  Sgt LeGloan's first did well through the first house.  (These Germans had low morale.  All the  good troops being in Poland.)

Germans retreat from the first house.

Sgt LeGloan's squad battle it out in the gardens ( or backyards for our US readers.)

Close up

Remnants of third squad reach the bridge.

At this point Lt Tulasne has a discussion with Sgt Lemare of second squad.

" Go up the street by the houses and attack the warehouse!"

Second squad starts to move.  Lt Tulasne moves to rally third squad elements pinned down by mortars

A random event occurs!  French armor arrives to silence a ATG and german mortar.

LMG provides suppressive fire before the final sprint to the warehouse!

A German LMG is busy as well.

With French Elan!!!!

Sgt Lemare leads them into the warehouse.  Close quarters fighting sees the french victorious!

Great game with an exciting finish!   Sgt Lemare had an unlikely chance of becoming a Gr I leader and failed the roll.  He was also not noticed for a medal  (Something else new to Grunts Forward.) Lt Roche, an artillery officer and friend of Lt Tulasne, requested a favor.  After a little thought I decided that his guns were being overrun and he requests help from his friend.  So the next battle will be scenario Q with some modifications!

For those of you that want to try this out the Germans had:
2 infantry squads (12 man squads in 1939).  1 with low morale.  A Gr I and a Gr 0 leader.
1 37mm ATG and 1 75 howitzer plus a 50mm mtr and an extra LMG

Enjoy!

Joe