Book Recommendation; Blunders on the Danube

It's been a very busy month; I started a new job on March 5, and I've had pneumonia for the last week. The job is great and the pneumonia is better. A few days ago my copy of "Blunders on the Danube," by Peter Anderson arrived. Peter, aka Gonsolvo from the Blunders on the Danube blog, has done a good job with these scenarios and I very much recommend this for the Napoleonic gamer.

There are 23 scenarios, including one for the entire Wagram battle, and then three smaller scenarios that break the battle into smaller pieces. The size of the scenarios varies from a few divisions to Wagram.
I don't play Field of Battle, but it will be quite simple to convert the OB's to Volley and Bayonet.
One of the features I like about the scenario format is that each comes with two maps; one with only the terrain, and a second with the troop deployment. Nice touch.
I haven't decided which of the scenarios I will play first, but I will be painting more Austrians. I also recommend the Blunders on the Danube blog. It is a great resource.

A Generous Gift

I have worked at my current job for 11years; Friday will be my last day here at the County. I have taken another positon with more oportunity, and money. My staff took my wife and I to lunch last Friday and presented me with a gift card to the local gaming store. They only carry Warhammer and WH40K. I haven't played Warhammer since 1991, but I want to buy an army and paint it to remind me of my hard working staff. There is a local group that plays WH, my doctor is a member, so it appears the stars are aligning.

Battle of Mokre, Command Decision AAR

 We played a game of Command Decision-Test of Battle yesterday, the Battle of Mokre. The scenario is from Bob MacKenzie's excellant website. If you aren't familiar with it, please stop by and have a look. 

 http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bob_mackenzie/

There are many good scenarios and game pictures.

Jerry brought his camera with the new macro lens, so the quality of the pictures is much better than normal.

The Germans have launched a counter attack, just as the Soviets are reinforcing. Historically, the Soviets ambushed Kampfgruppe Collins as it entered the area. In our game, the Germans pushed their Panthers and Tiger II toward Mokre and engaged and destroyed the Soviet armor there. On the other end of the table, the Germans were unable to withstand the Soviet reinforcements. Their one StuG platoon was destroyed before help could arrive. At the end of the day, the Germans conceded.

A fun game; good scenario and good company. In two weeks I will run the Battle of Smolensk, 1812, at my home and our club game for March will be Flames of War.

The table, before the Germans deply

Kampfgruppe Collins

The Engineer Company attacks with flamethrowers!

T-34's lined up hub to hub in Mokre

Suddenly a stand of knights appears and charges the SU's

First Game of Flames of War

I played my first game of FoW this weekend and really enjoyed it. To be perfectly honest, I was not expecting to like this system at all. I have played Command Decision in it's different versions since it was first published in the late '80's and it is one of my favorite rule sets. It still is for the level of play it represents, the battalion commander.
FoW on the other hand is one level lower, the company commander. It is a fun system. If you haven't played this system, don't be narrow minded as I was, play it and have some fun. Richard provided the figures and terrain (and the coffee.) We played a meeting engagement between a mobile German force and and US paratroop force supported by arty and M-10's. I used the German mobility and zipped all over the place. In the end, I knocked out all of the US tank destroyers and most of an airborne platoon. Great fun, we will be playing more of this.

Richard has already purchased quite a collection, so I have offered to paint some infantry and vehicles as my contribution to this scale. All of my WW II collection is 20mm, plastic for the most part.

Kampfgruppe Mike

M-10's appear at the top of the photo, recon leads the way.

250/9's zip over to shoot at the US arty

End of the road for the M-10's

Recon on the flank!

Our next club game will be a Command Decision game. In March we will do a FoW game for the group.

More Austrians

 I have been painting Napoleonic Austrians. I plan to play the battle of Raab from 1809 and need to add some specific units. The first is a stand of Hungarian Insurrection infantry. In an army of white, these guys in their blue will break up the landscape. Each large, 3"x3" base in Volley and Bayonet is either a brigade or large regiment. I need three of these Insurrection brigades.
I added some landscaping to this base. The plowed field is one of my wife's blouses that she no longer wanted. I looked at it as I put it into the charity pile and decided it would look good on the tabletop as terrain. I'm working on larger plowed fields in my spare time. The stone wall was created with air dry clay. I still need to put the flag on this unit and ink their faces.

 Next is a stand of Hungarian Insurrection cavalry. This specific base is a one strength point "skirmish" stand. Normal cavalry stands in my armies have 6-8 figures on them. The skirmish bases have only three figures. I need to paint one more of these bases.

Finally there are three infantry skirmisher bases. In Volley and Bayonet, these 1.5"x1.5" bases represent detachments of light infantry or small units of other infantry. There are two jager bases and one landwehr detachment.

Time for more painting.

Christmas Day Attack Command Decision AAR

At the February gathering of the IU Conflict Simulations Club we played the Christmas Day Attack from the Command Decision Bastogne scenario booklet. It's a big game and needed more time than we had available, but we are concentrating on Command Decision so we can learn the latest version.This was the last attack on Bastogne before Patton's army relieved the city. Vehicles, figures, and terrain provided by Jeff, my ground cloth.

Bob, Richard and I played the Germans while Jeff, Big Mike, and Jim T were the US defenders.

Bob and I split a regiment of Volksgrenadiers and attacked the US right flank. We were supported by a company of Panzer IV's. Bob's battalion attacked Champs, while I moved through the woods toward Chateau de Rolle.




The US left is held by two batteries of artillery.

 Richard rolled panzergrenadiers and armor down the road in a bold flanking maneuver.


The German attacks go in...

 

 

 

 

 

Champs at the top, Chateau de Rolle below

The German attacks captured Champs, overran the artillery, and threatened Chateau de Rolle. The US reinforcements were sent to deal with Richard's attack and temporarily stopped him. He pulled back to organize for another attack.

After taking Champs, Bob turned his armor to support my attack.

US Reinforcements

US defenses behind Chateau de Rolle

German reinforcements rolled on. I was confident that one more turn of fighting would have give my control of Chateau de Rolle. Richard was ready to attack again supported by our reinforcements. We were celebrating our victory.

The US players were just as positive that they could hold against anything we could throw against them.

And of course, time ran out. A fun game. We are getting confident with the rules. If the US players had just given up, it would have been a perfect day.

Next month we will play the Mokre scenario from Bob Mackenzie's excellant website. It is a smaller game and we believe we can finish it.

Hordes of the Things!

Last night, my son and I stopped by the local game store to watch some games of Warmachine. My friend Bob told me about it on Sunday and I wanted to see how the system played. It's an interesting setting and system, but I don't plan to get involved.
However, after the first round of games was finished, they brought out the HOTT armies. I estimate that I have played over 1000 games of DBA or HOTT in the past. I haven't played either for years. Brady and I played a game and my son beat me in his very first game of HOTT. I'm looking for my old figures and will post more on this entertaining rule set.
It's fun to show up and then not only play a game, but teach it to the youth.