Never trust the Bey!

Well I am still building up my 1/600 fleet of ships.  I have agreed to have my ships and "Release the Hounds" debut at the Williamsburg Muster on Saturday 7 Feb.  It is a great show so for any of you around stop by to play or just to chat!
I couldn't just paint ships so last weekend played a scenario of my modified Donnybrook.  I didn't roll up any of the forces- just decided what I wanted and played.

Lt Chester Shellbourne received his orders from the Admiral.  " Some unfriendly little chap near Tangiers is trying to intercept shipping and becoming successful.   Take your brig and pay him a visit.  Let him know that the Crown will not tolerate his actions!  And Chester, if I have learned one thing in the past 6 months it is never trust a Bey!"

Forces

Lt Shellbourne  (D12 and Gr III leader)
Lt Sullivan  (D10 and Gr II leader plus 6 elite marines)
Bo'sun "Tip" Brooks (D10 and Gr II leader plus 8 drilled sailors)

Overview of the square just before fighting broke out.  Arabs rush in from the left while rifle toting Turks appear from behind the Mosque.

Close up of the meeting between Lt Shellbourne and Bey MoroTunisgrad.  The Bey is behind the green guard.   Who is the stranger in black?

The turks volley take out two sailors. then the foot Arabs rush the remainder.  Both sides take casualties and Bo'sun Tip is wounded.
Meanwhile the marines dispatch the guards but the Bey slips away

Melee in the square.   The Bey and the Black cloaked man are behind the house.  What are they plotting?

The sailors retreat to the stalls leaving room for the marines to fire.  They do and the Arabs break and run.

Next the Turks and Marines trade fire with the Turks getting the worse.  They retreat behind a house.

Tip goes hunting for Turks with Lt Shellbourne close behind.

The sailors plow into the disorganized Turks and rout them!

During the melee Lt Shellbourne comes face to face with a black cloaked gentleman.  They both fire pistols.  When the smoke clears the black cloacked figure is wounded in the arm while Lt Shellbourne lies mortally wounded. 

Meanwhile on the other side of the house the Bey shows up with mounted horsemen intent on doing harm!
The marines lose three and back up to fire.

Once again their fire is effective and the cavalry flee.  With his forces defeated the Bey also retreat with a plan to lay low.

Tip swings around the house and meets Lt Sullivan.  The Lt decides they must get back to ship before any more forces arrive.


Great game that I declared a British victory as they managed to get some people back to the ship.  I was shocked by the death of Lt Shellbourne.  In my modified wounds table you have to roll a "1" to be killed outright.  That I managed to roll that on a D12 was unfortunately impressive.
I bet the blacked cloaked man and Bey will encounter forces of the crown again!  I can't wait.
For those of you that want to try this the Bey's forces were:
Bey (D10 and Gr II leader)
Black cloaked man (D12 and Gr I leader)
6 Mercenary drilled Turks  led by Sgt (D10 Gr I leader)
8 Raw Arab foot soldiers led by leader ( D8 Gr 0)
Reinforcements after a total of "9" is rolled on a D6.
4 elite cavalry led by D10 Gr I.

Enjoy

Joe

Go Big or Go home!

Hope everyone had a great holiday season!!  I actually did traveling to family; something I haven't been able to do for three years.  The new job is actually starting to ramp up; now when I go to work people ask me hard questions.  Before everyone ignored me!

The first news is Grunts Forward is done!  I sent the document to Rich Clark yesterday.  Hopefully he will publish it by summer.  For new readers Grunts Forward is the asymetrical warfare expansion for Platoon Forward.  It includes more in depth character generation, medals, a new NPC table and 6 new scenarios such as "Ft Apache" ( rebel attack on your base) and "One of our planes is missing" ( A race to find the crew of a downed plane).  As usual these are all very solitaire friendly with great replay value.

The second news is I splurged and treated myself.  I tried to run several USN PT boat vrs IJN barges and the pieces were just too small.  I have decided to go up to 1/600 scale for at least my smaller ships.

                                               Go big or Go home!!  1/600 PT boat vrs 1/1200.

I found some old Skytrex ships on e-bay, bought a bunch from PT Dockyard and also purchased 2 1/700 model kit IJN DDs.  I spent more than I wanted to but it has re invigorated me working on my Release the Hounds rules.

That looks cool!!!

Japanese barges I can actually see.  They even have stuff in them!

IJN runs for the shore at 10 kts!

Gotcha!

A heavily damaged boat with a dead skipper runs from a land based 75mm.

Look for some more battle reports with my bigger ships. Bigger is better!

Cheers

Joe




 

Channel Convoy

Been busy with Grunt's Forward but had a yen to play a naval game.  Decided to try out my scenario generator with Flotilla Forward.  Decided two German TBs would go hunting in 1943.

T 17 going a hunting!

Tried out my new blinds system.   Like Platoon Forward the trick is to have some uncertainty with blinds but not allow unrealistic use of ships.  (Like a DD in the middle and a MTB or trawler on the periphery.  )  In addition you want a balanced game.  This scenario would test my system. 

Both sides picked up radar contact of "something" before the 2 mile visibility.  The germans slowed to get a sense of what was in front.

The british convoy.   Each hex is 250 yards.  The germans approached at 4 o clock in the picture. 

As both sides grappled with the night one of the escorts took independent action and raced out to investigate by trying to go around the contact.   (Several starshells fell short.) 

The first contact surprises the Germans and turns out to be a Flower DE. 
Further ahead a "B" class DD opens fire. 
The Germans are mad they have been surprised.  They pick up speed; the lead vessel fires 3 tordepos at the DD and they search for the merchantmen. 

Torpedos away.  Several small merchant ships dead ahead. 

Success!  One DD crippled or sunk.

Mid battle.  The lead TB had heavy damage and an engine room hit so broke off.  The second TB moves around the convoy looking for a shot.

T 13 launches torpedoes at the convoy.  The two British MS are starting to damage him so he breaks off.

Reward!!



Great game that played fast as the Germans don't stay around if damaged.   Really need to publish my tactical rules sometime (RTH).   Meanwhile the generator gave a good force to fight stationed reasonably.

For those of you who wish to play this battle the brits had

1 Class B DD up front.
1 Flower DE on the starboard side
1 Minesweeper on the port side
1 Minesweeper in the starboard side.  


Enjoy

Joe

Helping Fr Francesco

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.   I certainly have a great deal to be thankful for.  In your prayers remember those servicemen and women serving far from home.

Am still working on Grunt's forward and got some great looking desert buildings from C resent Studio.  So how do you combine these two?  Have my Italians in Ethiopia of course.  Played a new scenario called "Cordon". 

Capt Butro called Lt Chianti into his office.  The heat was oppressive and the ceiling fan was out again Lt Chianti noted.  "LT, please get a dozen men together for tomorrow.  Fr Francesco is unveiling a new monument to Italio-Ethiopean relations in the town square.  We don't want too big a presence lest we scare the locals.  Lt Stinna spoke to the Col and he will have an armored car on standby.  Maybe the priests can do something with these people!" 

Capt Butro      Condescending/ position                    Gr I
Lt Chianti     (ran a shoe store before joining the army)  Gr I
Cpl Petrocella   (worked in a mine)  cooth/ wealth     Gr 0
12 men, 2 LMGs

Mission:  Protect the ceremony.  Barring that keep Fr Francesco from being killed or captured.

The Village square.  The square and stalls and 2 buildings are Cresent Root.  Top stuff!

The Italians deploy.  Things look promising.

Fr Francesco gabbing with Capt Butro. (Italians talk with there hands.)

The silence is disturbed by several shots ringing out from across the square.  One building is entered and several more rebels charge the square.   They are quick enough to slay 3 Italians.  

Rebels charge the square.  ( I know they don't look like Ethiopians.  I don't have any yet.  On the christmas list from Peter Pig.)

Cpl Petrocella, manning the second LMG makes short work of this lot.

However the building across from the church is captured along with an Italian LMG.  The Capt takes the preists into the church to protect them while Lt Chianti organizes a counter attack. 

Lt Chianti organizing.

After several effective volleys the rebels, realizing they won't win, slip out into town where they are quickly lost in the crowd. 

Short sharp engagement.   The rebels rolled terrible for their blinds.  Of their 4 blinds only 1 reveled troops!  Thus a relatively easy victory.  Post game Lt Chianti goes up to Gr II for his leadership.  Fr Francisco is grateful to the platoon.  The battalion CSM hears of this tale and is impressed. 

For those of you wanting to try it I only rolled 10 rebels with a Gr II leader.  The men are poor shots bur normal in hand to hand.  If playing two player suggest you give them another 8 rebels and a Gr I leader.

Enjoy

Joe

The Black Rams over the Philippines

I normally play about 2 land games to every air/naval game I play.  Land games are more visually appealing.  ( However see my article in WI last year.)  Even on this blog I rarely get comments about air/naval games.  I am posting this as it really struck a cord with me. 
I painted up 6 Georges recently and wanted to give them a go.  I really wanted a George/Corsair battle as the planes are evenly matched.  I played a 6 v 6 without Squadron Forward and it was fine but something was missing.  I then played the following mission using my Black Ram squadron and it was great!  The difference?  The US pilots were no longer nameless; there were people in those planes.  Maj McGee, the naive person living only for today.  Lt Franklin, a former enlisted man determined to make it in an officer's world.  It added a dimension to the game that took it from good to great.  I have been using Squadron Forward so long that I guess I have taken this all for granted. 

It was a typical fighter sweep just off the coast.  The squadron reputation was suffering and he hoped some easy kills of antiquated Zeros would perk everyone up. 
Characters

Dingy McGee     Naive/skirt chaser                   Vet         1 kill in P-38s
2lt Joe Thurmond   Cheery/skirt chaser                             1 kill

Lt Paul Franklin   mercurical/posiiton  mustang    Vet         1 kill
2LT Greg Polk    cheap/wealth

Lt Blue Mooney    cocky/family                         Vet   eagle eye    ( Dad is state senator)
2Lt Flash Reeves  addict/skirt chaser                  Green



I rolled up clear skies and that we met fighters!    I did not bother to roll up the type of enemy we encountered- it had to be my new Georges. 

The planes met at 45 degrees to another and the battle was on!

Dingy encounters 3 Georges.  Lt Thurmond is left hanging.

Red/blue stands are veterans.  Green is ...well green.

After a close call with a George Dingy felt something he had not felt before--fear.  He had never thought he could lose.   He tried to fight down his fear but could not bear to close with the aggressive enemy.  

The battle swirls

Random event brings in two Oscars to the battle!  Dingy would rather fight the Oscars.

A Japanese ace received a minor gas tank hit from Blue before he latches on to Lt Franklin's tail.  Franklin of course had lost his wingman early in the battle. 

Before Blue can come to his aid Franklin's engine is smoking and he has to bail out!

Fun game but the Black Rams lose as they fail to down any Japanese planes.  The George proves to be a tough opponent, particularly with a skilled pilot in the cockpit.  

Fortunately air sea rescue pulls Franklin from the water so he will miss one mission.  Luckily we do not lose any more squadron reputation since we were outnumbered.   Joe Thurmond notices Dingy's behaviour but decides to say nothing at this point since it is his word against a Major's.  [ I rolled a gut check on Dingy and he got "hang to the outside."  I have never got this on a SQ/CC before. ]  So we will see where this goes.  The Group/CC pulls Lt Richards for other duties and he will miss three missions.  

So there it is; I fell in love with my own design again and the Black Rams are not doing well.  Their reputation is down and there SQ/CC has a case of nerves.   Will they hit again?  (I would say "likely".)

For those of you that want to play this out the system generated 6 Georges with one ace, 2 veterans, 1 average and 2 green.  On turn 5 two Oscars IIs showed up with a veteran and a green.  Make Dingy hang back for the entire battle.  Good Luck!!

Cheers

Joe

A Heavy Loss in Africa

Over the summer I painted up my Africa Korps.  This was my first chance to use them.  It was also a chance to try out the expanded background table that I have decided to include in Middle of NoWhere.  I also think I might rename MoNW to Grunts Forward.  It stays with the "Forward" theme and while it can be used for any asymetrical combat I use it mostly for Vietnam.
I rolled up a recce mission.  True confessions, I don't like the recce mission very much; though realistic, I want to shoot at people most of the time.  So I substituted the bonus scenario from the lardy special which is a motorized meeting engagement.  This is perfect for Africa. 

Lt "Jackie" Toff's platoon was in reserve.  Shortly after the battle started Hpt Mackled radioed instructions.  " Proceed northeast past the farm to the next town.  Hold that position as a flanking one.  Await further instructions."
The cast
Lt "Jackie Toff  Son of a civil servant from Hamburg.  Obnoxious/lech    Lvl 1
FW Strossman  Orphan from Potsdam, army all he knows   Foolish/alcohol   Lvl 0
FW Sauer   Dockworker from Kiel  haughty/avarice    Lvl 2
FW Plusse   Son of a professor in Berlin  inept/ govt  Lvl 0

Added to his platoon Jackie had a Stug, armored car, 50mm ATG and 3 trucks.  
You can see FW Sauer is the only decent NCO in the platoon.  This will come into play later.

The road ahead.  The farm is to the left.  Warning-- it is a cornfield--why not?  I rolled up crops on the chart and wanted to use the cool crops I got from Wargamer's Terrain. 

Cool!

Immediately upon entering the board dust rose up from down the road.  Soon two Crusader tanks came into view.  The British must be doing their own maneuvering.  Was this just a couple of tanks or a whole Kampgrupe?  Jackie let the Stug deal with the tanks,sent the armored car around the corn filed to the right, brought up the ATG and deployed 2 squads toward the corn leaving 3rd squad in reserve in the truck. 

One crusader retreated before the Stug and one hid behind the corn.  The Stug moved into a better position moving into a wrecked house and broke a track!

1st squad under FW Strossman moved up through the corn while 2nd squad under the able leadership of FW Sauer went left around the cornfield. 

FW Strossman was expelled from the cornfield and retreated to the ATG position.  Jackie sent 3rd squad around to the right of the cornfield.

The Auzzies expell Strossman while the armored car looks on.

FW Sauer took charge and cleared the field of the british squad. 

The Auzzies rallied their second squad and charged back. 
A vicious firefight broke out at 20 yards.  FW Sauer was hit once but rallied his pinned men.  A second .303 bullet hit home and ended his life.  With Sauer gone 2nd squad retreated through the field.  It was a heavy loss for 2nd squad and the platoon lost it's best leader.  With 2 squads shot Lt Toff reluctantly retreated his forces. 

Great game and one of the few losses I have had as of late.  The Auzzies had better leadership and just outfought the Africa Korps.   3rd squad under FW Plusse never managed to move up to support 2nd squad.  In hindsight I should have had Lt Toff move 3rd squad personally and ignore rallying 1st squad.  I did it to protect the ATG but we lost.  Both 1st and 3rd squad had lousy leaders so Lt Toff could not be at two places I guess.  Makes for an interesting game. 

Post game we had only 4 KIAs and 3 get replaced.  2nd squads morale goes down due to the loss of Sauer and he is replaced by FW Wald.  FW Plusse gets a well deserved "hesitant" card.  This could well be the worst platoon in the Afrika Corps now and Hpt Mackle is pissed.    When a tasking comes down for 5 men to guard HQ guess which platoon gets hit? 

For those of you that want to play this out the british had generated:
2 Crusader tanks
1 2pdr ATG
2 squads of infantry with 1 lvl II leader and 2 LvL 1 leaders.
1 extra LMG

In addition a pre game event gave the Auzzies better capability to rally.  Use whatever works for your game system.  For my card driven system I included a "rally" card that allowed any one unit a chance to rally.

Enjoy

Joe

PS  I found my osprey books!

Ambushed on Briggs Rd

Still tinkering with Rifles Forward.  ( It doesn't help that I still haven't found my osprey collection.)  After a discussion on TMP and remembering my Ospreys I have decided to go with a half company (or platoon as it was called) as my base unit.  This will give me about 30-40 troops.  Of course the rules will play fine with a whole company but that would be an awfully lot more figures to paint!  I have decided to take the half without the company commander so in America Lt Fish will be leading.  If you need to read what happened to theses guys it is only 2 posts down.

It seemed like a simple assignment; collect 3 carts of food and escort them back to camp along Briggs road. Lt Fish figured around 15 troops would do along with Sgt Turner.  There had been reports of increased Tory activity in the area and one group was well trained and led by the former British governor's son.

Lt Fish  Cheery posiiton  Lvl II [D10 ]
Sgt Turner  Alcohol/ pragmatic  LvL 0 [ d8}
16 men (drilled)

Arch enemy  Lt Foster   Haughty/ government  LvL II  [ D10]
Roll up enemy troops but first group will be lead by Lt Foster and be drilled.

The platoon plods down Briggs road.  The markers are british blinds.  Also note my new swamp and cornfields from Wargamer's terrain.  I was so pleased with my roads and rivers that I bought these.  The corn is the best I have ever seen!

Back of the column.  Doesn't that corn look ready to eat?

Lt Foster's men fire at the front half of the column achieving surprise.  Lt Fish and two other men go down.  Within a minute Lt Fish is up waving a bible with torn pages that stopped the bullet.  " Good thing I already read it!" he says.  [ Recovered from an unconscious result ]

Lt Fisher forms a firering line but the Tory's are in deep woods and at short range the revolutionaries quickly draw the short stick.

Meanwhile a couple of musket shots at the rear of the column was enough to have Sgt Turner and men in disarray.  [ note celtic cross marker and wagons trying to retreat ]  Lt Fish comes over to rally the men in the barn.

During the events above Lt Foster [ stylish green jacket] and several Tory's manage to capture a cart.  As they are trying to steal a little food and set fire to the rest...

With renewed enthusiasm Lt Fisher's men burst from the barn to take the Tory's down.  Sgt Turner actually confronts Lt Foster but Foster manages to parry the blows.  Both sides lose two men.  Lt Foster realizes that to stay risks the rest of his small force and ...

escapes through the cornfields.  [ Don't they look great! ]

I declare it a victory as none of the carts were destroyed but 11 of the 16 rebels are hurt.  Fortunately 5 are lightly wounded and return.  With a lucky die roll the other 6 will be replaced by next battle.  Sgt Turner performed terribly and earns a "hesitant" card.  Capt Madison is impressed with Fish and Madison's attitude towards the platoon increases by 1.
It was a great game and really showed the leadership rules off.  Both officers kept things moving and Turner could not.

For those of you that want to play Foster had 9 drilled men with him.  [ they only took 3 casualties ]

Cheers

Joe