Warmaster Revolution: Demon Temple with a Dimension Gate

At the moment I'm in a kind of terrain-building mood, so next up is a completely self-made Temple including a Dimension Gate for my Warmaster demons.

Styrodur, MDF, cork litter and lots of Mode Podge form the basis, followed by turf, tufts and ivy for the details.

The great thing is that this temple can also be used in other settings and even other scales too.

For example, it could be a Stargate in a sci-fi setting (I'm going to print and paint a suitable terminal for this version soon).

On the other hand, the temple itself can also be used as a ruin in historical settings - the dimension gate is fixed to the base with a magnet and could therefore be replaced by a statue of a god, for example.

For size comparison - some of my Demons spawned from the new gate!

And here are following some pictures from the WiP stage:

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Chain of Command AAR: Another Teaching Game

Yesterday there was another chance to introduce a fellow gamer from the Weiß-Blaue Strategen (a club from Munich) to Chain of Command.

Bernhard is an experienced player of rules like Battlegroup and has plenty of Brits for North Africa, but for the sake of simplicity he commanded my US Airborne (played as Regular) against Alexander's German Grenadiers.

For once, I only acted as match director and referee.

The patrol phase in full swing

The first of the 3 Grenadier squads deploy, immediately going on Overwatch

While the Airborne deploy their 60mm Mortar first, to make sure that the Germans keep their heads down

One of the airborne squads cautiously approaches the village occupied by the grenadiers, who are completely isolated there.

The other squads advances too ...

... but mounting Shock from the crossfire of 2 Grenadier squads will force them to back a little bit

Firefight between the grenadiers in the village and parachute infantry, which is additionally supported by well-placed fire from the 60mm mortar ...

... accordingly, the defenders, who had all squeezed themselves into a house and were therefore unable to bring all their weapons to bear, are shot up shortly afterwards and flee. The village is thus liberated.

Only now does the lieutenant commanding the grenadier platoon decide to concentrate the fire of the 2 remaining squads on the airborne squad in the orchard and allows the squad positioned in the centre to advance.

While his other remaining squad tries to hold the position against well-placed fire from the Airborne.

But too late, the advancing squad is caught in the concentrated fire of the Parachute Infantry and the mortar fire and finally has to withdraw as well.

This finally broke the morale of the German grenadiers and they hurriedly cleared the field before they could be completely wiped out.

Conclusion:

1. One could see Bernhard's experience. He formed focal points and always concentrated his fire on one of the grenadier squads and was thus able to take them out one by one.

He also utilised one of the US Boys' greatest advantages whenever possible: Marching Fire.

2. CoC has once again proven its potential one can play the period even if he don't know the rules as such.

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Warmaster Revolution: Daemons vs. Chaos

Last Friday Helmut an me fought two battles of Warmaster Revolution (1500pts per side) putting my Daemons versus his Force of Chaos.

Helmuts General commanding the forces of Chaos.

My center ...

and the right flank.

Dragon Ogres, Chaos Warriors and Chaos Spawn pushing forward - the Chaos Knights hat to retreat disordered.

My Daemonic Hordes have entered some defendable positions meanwhile, anchoring my left flank.

Daemonic Chariots led by my General crashed into Marauders and Trolls while my flyers blocked their possible line of retreat.

My left flank under attack from Chaos led by their General - but thanks to the defended position they survived this onslaught long enough ...

... until my Chariots could save the day but with losses mounting.

Two exciting and fun games in a relaxed atmosphere, in which we both learnt a lot at the same time.

Normally I usually have the smaller army because of the high point costs of my units, but in this case it was the other way round.

A nice experience 😁

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Game Marker for CoC, 'O'-Group and Battlegroup: Sections of Barbed Wire in 15mm

After completing the markers for Minefields the next ones we needed for our games were some sections of Barbed Wire.

Measuring 6" x 2" using cocktail sticks cut to length for the posts and Security Wire to represent the barbed wire.

In addition to normal sections, I also built 3 destroyed sections of these barbed wire entanglements, which were either destroyed by artillery/mortar fire, tanks driving through them, or by pioneers with wire cutters.

And a closer look at the destroyed sections:

Some pics of the WiP stage

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Chain of Command AAR: Operation Husky - Encounter at Cotomino

Max and me had another great game of Chain of Command last Saturday.

After the defeat at San Leo the depleted US units were replaced by fresh troops and the advance resumed in order to finally break out of the beachhead at Gela.

In order to look for another route into mainland Sicily, a platoon of Parachute Infantry was tasked to conducting armes reconnaissance.

This platoon encountered advancing Bersaglieri at Cotomina, who had order to reconnoitre American troop movements detected by the Axis and a skirmish battle developed (Scenario 1 "The Probe").

All quiet in and around Cotomino ... at least for now.

But then the vanguards meet and a bloody combat with heavy losses for both sides ensues.

A squad of Parachute Infantry advances through an orchard of apple trees ...

... and takes up position behind a dry-stone wall.

The second squad covers the left flank and tries to hold down the enemy in the village.

The forward squad suffers heavy casualities even if behind hard cover ...

... as more and more Bersaglieri try to dislodge them with all the fire power they can muster.

But somehow the manage to survive and hold this isolated position and thus enable the other squad to push forward.

The Bersaglieri suffered badly too especially losing leaders and with leaders wounded or even killed their Force Morals drops at an alarming rate.

With a last assault at the village the US Airborne finally managed to dislodge the Bersaglieri and they had to retreat.

This was a very close fight after all:

The Parachute Infantry had suffered so many losses that their Force Moral was down to 3 when the Bersaglieri had to quit the field - one more Roll for losses and it would have been a draw as you need a Force Moral of 3+ to win.

I made several mistakes, which fortunately were not penalised:

Firstly, the foremost position, heavy cover to or fro, was far too isolated.

If Max hadn't attacked sporadically, but had utilised the numerical superiority of his Bersaglieri, this position would have become untenable and the squad would have been worn down much earlier in the game and not only when it was already too late, because my other squad had advanced into the village in the meantime.

Secondly, I committed way too early in the game and deployed my second squad - part of the downside of having a platoon of only 2 squads and not enough support points to deploy another squad.

Max knew early on what I was planning and it was too far away to support the other platoon.

Another game that could tip one way or the other in terms of victory right up to the final minute.

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Game Marker for CoC, 'O'-Group and Battlegroup: Minefields

As I need some more game marker, I started a little project to make them - first are marker for minefields in two versions: German and an Allied ones.

Used popsicle sticks that are nearly perfectly 6" long - it´s much more flexible how to lay down the Minefields on the gaming table this way.

And here some impressions from the WiP stage:

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