ACW Game(s)

We played an ACW game Saturday, that turned into two games!

But first - Robert Kraft and Bill Belicheat disgust me.  Proof again that NFL teams will continue to cheat if it means they ultimately can win the biggest prize, the Super Bowl.  The arrogance of an owner of a cheating franchise that out and out demands the league provide an apology for having the temerity to question the ball inflation issue, plus the continued track record of a head coach that has clear contempt for league rules - you must be proud, Patriot nation.   Someone needs to figure out that the more Robert Kraft speaks, the worse the Patriots appear.

As for the Seahawks.....what were you thinking????  Passing at the 1 yard line?  Really?????  Sheesh.

Anyway, on to our games.   The first game (FoB2) had an Abysmal CSA deck vs. an Average USA deck.  An even bigger factor was the D8 CiC die for the Confederates vs. the D12 (!) for the USA.    It wasn't much of a competitive game, as the USA was aggressive in attacking the Confederates (meaning - the CSA couldn't ever seem to get Move cards!) they caused loss after loss.   The game ended after 1 hour and 15 minutes with a crushing USA victory.

Game 2 was a bit better for the CSA.  I adjusted the decks to make them both average, and we re-rolled the CiC's - both ended up D10s.   This game ran about 1 1/2 hours, with the CSA pressing the attack.  Alas, the end result was the same - a decisive (rather than crushing) victory for the US forces.   A bad day to be Confederate!

I rated 90% or the troops as Raw, as this was a series of early war battles.  I'll adjust those to be a spread around a Regular rating as we move forward in beginning the campaign.  We ran through the campaign procedures (A Bold Enterprise) and set up the game for next month.

Photos follow below.

Photos from my ECW Collection

Thought I'd post some photos of one of the 10 ECW foot regiments that I've completed. The photo quality isn't great, but hey - it's Sunday night and tomorrow brings the first full week of work that I've had to do since my vacation started on Dec. 18!

The figures are Old Glory - a range I really like.  I also have a couple of Redoubt regiments as well.  The flag is homemade, with the basic layout done in Excel (I'm an engineer....what do you expect???).

100,000!

I just checked the blog stats and noticed that yesterday the blog passed 100,000 views!  That is amazing to me.  Who knows how many views it might have if I actually updated it more frequently....

Just a quick post for now, but I'll be posting some images of my growing 25mm ECW collection shortly.

Welcome 2015

I thought I'd start of my 2015 with a new post, and a renewed effort to post more regularly.

I had some extra vacation saved up, so I've been off for the past two weeks. I always like having nice blocks of time, as it allows for some concentrated project time. This year was a bit less productive, given the frigid temperatures/snow (can't spray prime!) and the head cold I've been battling for a week and a half.

Even so, I've made great progress on my 15mm collection for FoB:WW2. I had remounted my 25mm WWII stuff for the new lower scale game (was '39-'45, now tentatively titled "Fields of Valor"), so while it "could" work for FoBWW2, it didn't feel right to me. I'm concentrating my initial 15mm armies on the first couple of years of the Russian campaign. Since 12/18, I completed 8 companies of Soviet infantry, 2 battalion heavy weapon markers/stands, 3 companies of German Mk.III's, 1 company of Mk. II's, and 12 companies of infantry, plus 6 battalion heavy weapon markers/stands. I've also based up 4 stands of German air cover, plus 5 Town Sections. A couple of photos below:

 Soviet battalion of 3 companies

 German tank companies

German infantry company

The holiday has also provided more time for reading.  In this instance, I am close to finishing "Battle of Surigao Strait" by Anthony P. Tully.  http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Surigao-Strait-Twentieth-Century-Battles/dp/0253352428/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420159146&sr=1-1&keywords=battle+of+surigao+strait

Being a landlubber to my core, I have to remember which direction is port and which is starboard.   BUT - this is a FANTASTIC book and read.  Tully covers all aspects of the battle, spending considerable time at the start of the book to go through the Japanese plans, the ships involved, and then move on to the approach to the battle, culminating in the surface then surface/air battle.  Tully covers both sides very thoroughly, but it feels more focused on the Japanese point of view.   The odds faced, the determination shown by the Japanese force are awe inspiring.   The refusal by nearly all survivors to be rescued and the USN reluctantly (at first) leaving them to their fate, was.....troubling to me.  The descriptions of the PT boat attacks, destroyer torpedo attacks, the night combat - all are fantastic.   Rule mechanisms were bouncing around in my head as I was reading!  If you have ANY interest at all in WW2 naval combat, read this book.

After Action Report - 39-45

This wasn't much of a contest, I'm afraid.  I kind of stacked the game against the US, giving the Germans a Tiger II and a Panther platoon.  I wanted to find out if the best of the German tanks were really powerful.

Guess what?

They are!

The Germans attacked on the right flank of the US, and pretty much destroyed everything on that flank with the Panthers and Tiger II.  The far right US infantry platoon (3 squads) and 76mm Sherman platoon (2 sections) lasted a while, but didn't do any significant damage.  One of the Sherman sections managed to suppress and put a hit on the Tiger II section, but that was the high point.   When things were going tough, the US tried to Heroically Rally the far right infantry platoon, but the platoon Lt. only made it through one rally before he bought the farm.  BOOM!  After that loss, the entire infantry platoon went suppressed, and the writing was on the wall.

I thought the US was deployed too linearly, and the Germans made them pay.  At the point of contact, the Germans had at least a 2:1 numerical advantage, not to mention the qualitative superiority of their armor.

So - '39-'45 worked well.   My scenario skills need honing, however....

Some shots from the game (a crushing German victory):

Pre-Battle View of My '39-'45 Tabletop

So, the guys are on their way over.  We're playing a late war game, US vs. Germans.  The Germans have a rather intimidating force - King Tiger section, a platoon of Panthers, a platoon of PanzerGrenadiers, etc.   To counter this, the US is fairly light in infantry, but should benefit from having a couple of FO's to facilitate their sections of off-table 105mm artillery.  They also have a platoon of 76mm Shermans, 2 platoons of 75mm Shermans, and a platoon of M10 TD's.   How many Shermans does it take to take out a King Tiger?   We'll find out in a few hours....

Here is the battlefield, prior to the troops being set out.

39-45 Game

We played another game of 39-45 this past Saturday.  The Germans were outnumbered by about 50% but had the advantage of being on the defensive  (2+ US companies, plus Sherman platoon, AT gun, offboard support vs. 1 German company plus Stug section, 20mm and 75mm AT gun.  The game played well, with a narrow German victory - they had 1 Morale Point remaining when the US failed their Morale test!

I made a few modifications based on the post game discussion and observations.  At this point, the game feels pretty "tight", and should only need a few tweaks here and there.  I'm very happy with it - it plays fast, with many swings in momentum.

I didn't get many photos of the game, but here are a few -

German commanders.  Terry and Adolfo appear to be clapping in glee at an American misstep.  Greg appears to be doing a Coca-Cola commercial with great product placement.  Greg (in red) just waits to destroy the Americans.

John's American squads race up the hill to take out the 20mm gun section.   They eventually did so, but at a very high cost.