Monday, May 13, 2024

Wednesday, May 8, 2024

Big Chain of Command: Operation Husky in the Hallertau 😎

Since I moved from near Cologne into the Hallertau in Bavaria I could play CoC on a regular basis as I met Max at the end of last year and now another player, Alexander, who comes from Norway, has joined the team.
And now there is also Stefan who would like to give CoC a try.

So what could be more obvious than to organise a game of Big Chain of Command and, of course, again as part of Operation Husky.

And so Max Bersaglieri and Alexander's Panzergrenadiers competed against my US Airborne and US Armoured led by Stefan and myself.

After jumping off, a platoon of Parachute Infantry had fought its way towards a village on a high plateau surrounded by citrus, fruit and date palm plantations.
Shortly before a counterattack by Bersaglieri supported by Panzergrenadiers, the Parachute Infantry also received reinforcements from a vanguard of US Armoured Infantry.

This led to fierce attacks by the Axis troops, which fortunately for the US Boys were sporadic and uncoordinated.
The Bersaglieri in particular charged forward with extreme aggression and contempt for death, while the Panzergrenadiers carried out impenetrable manoeuvres and were thus unable to bring their superior firepower to bear.

And so it came as it had to:
Although the US Armoured in particular suffered heavy losses, the morale of the Italians collapsed after they had thrown one team after another to the front and lost, so that they finally had to break off the battle.
This left the Panzergrenadiers with no choice but to retreat if they did not want to run the risk of being defeated alone now.

The future battlefield, it´s still quite now ... but not for long.

Closer look at the village and it´s surrounding citrus plantations

The positions are set (the JoP after the Patrol Phase)

First blood - the PzGren have suffered badly from the Armoured´s MG teams

Another Squad of PzGrens ready to attack the village?

A squad of Bersaglieri on Overwatch in case the US boys wants to attack them ...

... all the while the US Airborne are waiting for them ... on Overwatch of course 😅

The 2nd squad Parachute Infantry moves in position to storm the village.

Mortar team in firing position and an M15 CGMC joined the fray to fire at the German positions to dislodge some nasty LMGs.

The nasty squad of PzGrens breaks finally

But some even more nasty sPzB41 finished the Half-Track totally humourless.

The village could be taken by the Armoured Rifle Infantry in the end but with some heavy losses!


The game was exciting and entertaining, with the usual commando frictions of multiplayer games, but we all agreed to do it again - in 3 weeks it will continue!




Saturday, May 4, 2024

Forces françaises libres (FFL) in 15mm: Goumiers for Operation Husky and Italy, 1st Squad done

My first squad of Goumiers in 15mm is finished just in time for our Big Chain of Command game Today.
There are definitely much more relaxing things to do than painting striped coats in 15mm, that´s for sure but at least there will be not that much competition in this scale 😅

These are 3D printed miniatures using my trusted TGM-7 resin from Ameralabs, STLs are from Eskice Miniatures rescaled from 28mm to 15mm.

The Goumiers were part of the Forces françaises libres (Free French) and  paticipated in Operation Husky, landing together with the US troops on Sicily and later fought in the Italian campaign.




Some close-ups: