WWI at Game Connection

A group of the Basement of Heaped Miniature players headed to the Game Connection in Knightdale NC for a play test game ran by Dave Bonk. He is planning to run a Price of Glory game for Southern Front gaming convention in September. We helped him get familiar with the system and run through the scenario he plans to run.



The Scenario
Late May 1918 An American force composed of both Army and Marine elements advance toward a french village, with orders to secure it. In the village a group of German regular army and Stormtroopers are digging in preparing to hold at all costs.

The game table from the American entry. The American entered from the right corner and had to advance through the field toward the village.

The bombarded village. Dave really had some nice terrain and well painted miniatures.

German infantry and a heavy machine gun set up in the heavy woods on the German right. This is also were they would set and drink beer most of the game. The Americans wouldn't move into their line of sight for the duration of the game.

A Stormtrooper unit set up forward of the village.

Another German infantry squad and heavy machine gun set up in the graveyard. These guys ,on the other hand, will be in the middle of the action.

American 37mm antitank gun set up at the end of the center lane. It was a great position until their controlling player learned it could only fire 24 inches and would have to spend several turns moving it up to get into range.

Army troops move up to the hedge grove and start firing into the village.

Return fire from the German defenders double suppress the American and cause them to fall back.

A group of Stormtroopers manage to double suppress another Army unit on the German right flank.

A group of Stormtroopers move up to try and get a shot at the American light machine guns across the lane.

While the Army troops are pinned down the US marines are moving up to join the fight.

An Army squad sneaks over the hedge grove and to flank the Storm trooper squad that has kept the American advance stalled.

A German rifle squad crowds into the top floor to add it fire to the heavy machine gun that is emplaced there.

The french standoff, The American rounds the corner of the hedge grove and exchanges fire with the Stormtroopers.

The last three Stormtroopers go down clearing the American advance.

The Marines reach the hedge grove and begin to pour a murderous fire into the village. With the Marine rule of getting an extra dice to fire if they don't move, they proceeded to burn down a German squad or machine gun every activation.

The Stormtroopers move up to the closest hedge grove to try and stop the American advance on the German right.

Return fire from Marines and the 37mm guns cause the Stormtroopers to fall back.

The German infantry squad breaks cover to run forward and reinforce the suppressed Stormtroopers.

The Americans move forward rolling the 37mm guns up.

The American flanking force moves up the German right.

There were still German forces on the board but we ended up calling the game. The Americans still had more troops on the table and had enough fire superiority to knock out any German unit they had line of sight to.

I had a fun time playing on the German side and even though the American side had some claim about winning, I stick to the German Delaying action was successful.

Comment Changes

Hello

It seems I have been hit by a spammer. I have reset my comment controls so all comments are moderated. Sorry about that.
Somebody always messes it up for everybody eventually.

ColKG

Operation Fast Run pt2

Early morning Mogadishu, Grom operators mount up in their MRAPs and then speed deep into the heart of Warlord country.

As the convoy speeds to its SP the commander contacts the rest of the strike force.

A maneuver team sneaks up closer to a group of Somali technicals. The three snipers have already identified the objective location and have set up in hides to over watch till the strike begins.

The Little Bird comes in low out of the morning sun and strafes the Warlord's bodyguard guarding the ammo dump and fuel stores. With a roar of minguns and exploding rockets most of the Bodyguards are killed. Unknown to me at the time, they were also the only Somali unit with Antitank ammo for their RPGs.

A technical moves out and spots the infiltrating team, then fires them up.

The command MRAP stops and fires up the remainder of the Warlords Bodyguard.

The rear MRAP pulls up to provide security and spots a surprise.

A Somali T-55 hull down in the rubble.

Concentrated fire from several technicals kill both crewmen and the Little bird crashes.

Through the smoke of the crashed helicopter, a second Somali T-55 is spotted.

After Sniper fire routs the hostages guards, the T-55 recons by fire and starts shooting up huts hoping to hit the sniper.

The Infiltrating team recovers from the pin and destroys two technicals.

The command team disembarks and finishes off the remainder of the Warlords Bodyguard.

The T-55 moves up and fires on the MRAP and misses. This would begin a bad run of very poor shooting by the Somali gunners.

The Infiltrating team destroys a third technical.

The gun truck MRAP moves up and destroys the BTR-152 with a salvo of MK19 fire. The Maneuver team disembarks and heads into the valley of death.

The car 15 sniper is spotted on the back side of the table. There was some debate about me deploying him there with a few accusations of cheating thrown around. We agreed it was a simple misunderstanding and continued the game.

The burning white technical had earlier moved up and killed two of the command squad. Before they lost the chance, the command squad shot both of it AT4s at the T-55 and barely damaged it. Another round of fire and a lucky shot kills the Lieutenant, leaving a surviving M249 gunner. The MRAP get some revenge and destroys the technical. After trying an improvised assault on the T-55 and failing to close, the surviving gunner mounts back up into the MRAP.

The gun truck MRAP continues down the road and sets it sights on another Somali Militia squad. Unlike most of the other squads that fled the table this one was made up of MEN! The MRAP gunned all but one down but he made the test and stood his ground. He fired his RPG and it bounced off of the MRAP. This is when I found out that the only the Bodyguard had AT rockets for their RPGs. For his bravery he didn't survive the next turn.

With nothing to fear from the MRAP and surviving gunner the T-55 moves into the valley of death to cut off the maneuver squad making a run toward the objective.

Hugging cover and pinned down by two T-55 tanks the operators fire off their AT4 rockets and fail to do any significant damage to either tank.

The Command MRAP move up and the lone gunner enters the building to rescue the hostage cowering there.

The Maneuver team flees from the T-55 on the right and is snap fired at by the T-55 on the left. The flee from it and into the building the hostage is in.

The command MRAP is hit and all the crew is killed, but the vehicle is still running.

The Gun Truck MRAP moves up to protect the Command MRAP and cover the rescue. This move also received many cries of "Foul". I didn't see a problem with it.

The Gunner and Hostage exit the building and enter the crew less command MRAP. The T-55 auto acquires the gun truck MRAP, fire and still misses.

The third MRAP moves up to help cover the evacuation. This is when I discover that the lone gunner can't drive the MRAP because he isn't a crewman. This put a kink in my plan of the command MRAP riding to glory. Then I made my last mistake.

I disembarked the lone Gunner and the hostage and made a run for the board edge but for once the last technical recovered from its pin and gunned them both down. Bad day to be a Journalist.

The picture doesn't really show it but the MVP award for the GROM forces goes to the three snipers. Because of the Somali rabble rules they managed to make the Somali commander and second in command flee the table along with many of the regular militia squads.

On the other hand the T-55s were untouchable once I fired off my AT4s. At the end of the game I still had two AT4s left in the infiltrating squad but they were still out of range of the T-55.

In hindsight there were several things I might have done differently but I still had a fun time and look forward to a rematch.

Operation Fast Run pt1

On 8August 10 I played a game of Disposable Heroes against Chuckaroobob and John B at The Basement of Heaped Miniatures. We used the Seek Out, Close With and Destroy supplement that covers more modern combat. We also used some of the stats from the By the Knife pdf and the Lav-25 stats from the USMC list on the Iron Ivan yahoo group. The basic scenario is a Polish Journalist has been taken hostage by a Somali warlord. A detachment of GROM, the Polish special ops force, has been tasked with rescuing the hostage. I designed a Grom Detachment using the Delta force list in SOCWAD, while Chuckaroo used a Somali Militia Force from the same book.

Here are Chuckaroos three MRAPS. I couldn't find any stats for the MRAPs so we used the armour and movement of a Lav-25. The left one is armed with a Mark 19 grenade launcher, the rear six wheeled one is armed with a M2HB .50 cal hmg and the front one is armed with a M2HB and a Mark 19 grenade launcher. The were used as the transports for the Grom forces.

Some of the Somali support. A Btr 152 and a Btr 70. The Btr 152 is the personal transport for the Warlords bodyguard. The stats for these came from the Iron Ivan By the Knife Pdf.

An AH-6 Little bird. For the game we would play it as a AH-6J carrying mini guns and rockets.

The Journalist and her Somali guards. The journalist is actually a Dr.Who companion I have had for a long time. She would also appear to be the only modern figure I own that isn't armed, doing a martial arts maneuver or bionics. I seem to be in a better boat than Chuckaroo because he doesn't appear to have any modern model who doesn't have a gun. We discussed this and determined that we both are of the "Why buy a model if it doesn't have a gun school."

The Grom Ground force. In the six wheeled MRAP is the command squad with the lieutenant, two M203 grenade launchers and a M249 squad automatic weapon. The next two MRAPs each carry a maneuver squad, one with a M203 and an M60 lmg and the other squad with an M249. On foot is one infiltrating maneuver squad with M203 and an M60 lmg. The command squad and all three maneuver squads also carry 2 At4 antitank rockets each. Last is three Snipers, two armed with M21 rifle and the last with a car15 sniper rifle. The basic plan is a thunder run in with the MRAPS will the sniper pin the rabble and the infiltrating team provides a diversion to draw forces away from the objective.

The Table set up. The badly battered strong hold of the Warlord.

A technical concealed in a rubble strewn alley.

Another technical and group of Militia outside a small settlement.

A group of Militia with a technical holding the highs at the old Italian hill fort.