Saturday, December 30, 2023

"Hell on Wheels" - US 2nd Armoured Division in 15mm: Senior Leaders/Forward HQ and the HQ Squad

My next 15mm project for WW2 - a Platoon US Armoured, suitable for the battles from North Africa, to Sicily, Italy up until the Normandy.
I have based them so they can be used both for Chain of Command as well as Battlegroup.



This base will serve me as the Platoon Leader (SL) for CoC and as Forward HQ for Battlegroup

Platoon Sergeant (SL) for CoC - in Battlegroup this base is simply part of the HQ Squad

HQ Squad for Chain of Command

10 men HQ Squad for Battlegroup (which simply includes the Plt. Sergeant from CoC)

Thursday, December 21, 2023

Chain of Command AAR: Operation Husky - putting my US Airborne vs. Italian Bersaglieri again

The last game for this year pitted my US Airborne against Max Bersaglieri again, this time my A>irborne defending a small village against the Bersaglieri trying to push me back into the Mediterranean (Scenario "Attack and Defend").
He was able to use 14 support points, while I only had a meagre 3 🙈

While the Bersaglieri could rely on the support of an additional MMG, a grenade launcher and a Semovente with the short 75mm cannon, I decided to try out a sniper.
As it turned out, the moral combat value on Max himself was much higher than the actual damage caused 😁

A small village somewhere on Sicily. The Airborne are still sitting and lying in their houses, being provided with breakfast by the locals, when the first shots whip through the air ...

One of my squads, supported by a 60mm mortar and a sniper, entrench themselves in the farmstead while one of the Bersaglieri squads advances and seizes the edge of the forest

Closer shot of the Bersaglieri

The Bersaglieri are likewise supported by a mortar, which immediately fires smoke to obscure the Airborne in the farmstead.

To the surprise of the enemy, my 2nd squad has advanced aggressively on the right flank, capturing a JoP and blocking the Bersaglieri's counterattack, which is supported by an MMG.
However, it suffers heavy losses and shock, which sap its fighting strength, especially as it is completely isolated and cannot count on support.

The smoke is getting thicker and thicker, targeted fire to hold down the advancing Bersaglieri is hardly possible, so the Airborne decide to counterattack ...

After much procrastination on the part of the Italian commander, the Semovente is sent on the march after all.

But too late, as it turns out: A bazooka team was lying in ambush and took out the armoured monster with a well-aimed shot. "Burn baby, burn!"

The losses and casualties pile up on both sides, but the Italian attackers are the first to run out of steam now ...

The Bersaglieri have to break off the attack and begin an orderly retreat, much to the relief of the Airborne, who have also suffered heavy losses.


Conclusion:
The Airborne had a lot of luck and the result could easily have been different.

On the one hand, the Bersaglieri were intimidated by the sniper's ability to pick out targets and shoot at them as if they were standing in open terrain.
He didn't really cause any casualties (one hit in the whole game), but he made sure that the Bersaglieri, who were worried about their commanders, acted more cautiously than was good for them.

On the other hand, they were far too worried about their Semovente because of my Bazooka team and only used the Assault Gun when it was too late and I had already accumulated a CoC dice and could therefore even play an ambush with the Bazooka team.

Nevertheless, it was a very close game in the end.
My isolated approach on the right flank could have ended in a fiasco, the squad was completely on its own and I wouldn't have been able to provide any support if the Bersaglieri had taken out this squad first, especially with support from the Semovente.

With the last remaining squad I would then have had no chance of stopping the Bersaglieri.

Tuesday, December 12, 2023

15mm Terrain: Mediterranean buildings - 3d printed and scratch built

Of course, we also need buildings for our games set in a Mediterranean environment, so I scaled down a few of Jens Najewitz's files to 15mm and printed them on my Ender 3 S1.
I also built a barn out of foam, corrugated cardboard and balsa wood.

And here they are, bit arranged as a small village.


















Last but not least - the scratch built barn with a heavily weathered gate:





Saturday, November 25, 2023

Blitz Bowl: The "Rudertshausen Furballs", my first team for Blitz Bowl

I had been interested in Blood Bowl and its little brother Blitz Bowl for a while and since I've been attending some TTC Illuminatus Frankenstein meetings in Ingolstadt on Wednesdays, I've had a few opportunities to play Blitz Bowl.

So of course I wanted to have my own teams and I'm starting off with a Skaven team, the "Rudertshausen Furballs" 💪

I will upgrade them to a full team for Blood Bowl in the near future.


The complete team of the Rudertshausen Furballs


Thrower (Werfer)




Gutter Runner (Gossenläufer)




Blitzer




Lineman (Feldspieler)


Saturday, November 18, 2023

AAR: Operation Husky - US Airborne vs. Italian Bersaglieri - The Probe

Because my gaming mate had so much fun playing his first game of Chain of Command, we had another one with much more to follow 😎

This time he fielded his freshly painted Italian Bersaglieri against my US Airborne again.
Setting remained the same: Operation Husky but this time "The Probe" as the scenario, putting me as attacker again.

He rolled a Force Moral of just 8 (!), my Airborne in sharp contrast to this were highly motivated this day starting with 11! 😲
For Support he chose a Minefield, a truck and a M13/40, my choice fell on a M5A1.

Somewhere on Sicily: A small village surrounded by fields of date palms, apple trees and wheat fields.

Morning is just dawning and averything is still quiet

A few moments later the  noise of engines shatters this silence and shots from tank guns thunder through the air.

US Airborne advance along both sides of a small road to the village hold by a platoon of Bersaglieri.

The M13/40 is hit by the 37mm gun of the M5A1 Stuart and immediately starts to burn

A truck is rushing forward and is hit, but the squad of Bersaglieri is able to jump off just in time and reach the edge of the forest.

A squad Bersaglieri launches a desperate attack from the farmstead on the Airborne opposite them.
The Airborne squad suffer heavy losses, but completely annihilate the Bersaglieri in the process.

The Bersaglieri are defeated and leave the village to the attacking US Airborne to retreat to another line of defence (Force Morale dropped to 0).