The Sword and the Flame in North Africa

Hi Kids,  The local lads got a collective wild hair and decided to have a game!  I think this is about the third this year.  I'm telling ya, 2014 has been a really non-event as far as gaming is concerned. Here's hoping 2015 is a little more lively! We didn't know what we were going to do for this battle; FoW, Disposable Heroes, Naval, the possibilities were endless...
Since we decided not to bother building armies with point values and spreadsheets the natural choice was The Sword and The Flame, and what could be easier than French Foreign Legion vs. Arabs?

 Here we have the 25mm Old Glory & Falcon Arab forces deployed for battle.  There are more of them out of the shot.  Two units of riflemen, about eight for Melee, and two cavalry. We snuck in a machine gun at the last minute. Against all expectations I decided to play the Arabs.

 The French look a little thinner, but have huge amounts of firepower, complete with two machine guns! The Frog players were crying for the other 5 crew serverd weapons too, but there's a limit to just how many bullets/shells we wanted coming our way. Most were Foundry and Falcon.

 The French move up. Those dudes with the red hats were Zouves.

 Headlong rush! The Arabs start moving in.

 The French start blasting away!

 At the end of every charge was a Frog infantry unit forming square! It would have been nice if the movement cards had some compassion, or the Frogs could have failed one of those activation roles, but (literally) no dice!

By the end of the game it was looking really bad for the Arabs; 90% dead or routed off the map, the Frogs lost a few guys but not more than 10%.  Maybe next time we'll go back to hidden set up and movement for the native forces.  I think the high point of the game was my Arab cavalry charging the French MG team from the rear and failing morale to close.  Nice. That's the MG on top of the hill on the left of the picture.

 

All crying aside, we had an astounding turnout; Steve, John, Patrick and Tom all showed up to play, and Bryan (aka "Super B") snuck in at the last minute too!  Even W stopped by to use the bathroom.* He's a gamer, so it still counts!

 

After the game everyone seemed to think we need to game more. Always a good thing, if we can just get our schedules figured out and make it happen!

 

*Ok, I wrote that cause it's funny, in addition to true.  In W's defense, he lives 100 miles away and was halfway someplace on a roadtrip.

 

Flames of War Early War team battle

Early War Flames of War at the Basement of Heaped Miniatures, this time allied French and Soviet against the Germans at 3000 point. I teamed with Chuckaroobob whom fielded the French and I fielded Soviets against Krovars Germans.

The combined French and Soviet line. We played the meeting engagement scenario so half of our forces started off board.

The German armored advance.

French at guns score three firepower tests

German artillery hits Soviet machine gunners and French at guns.

End game. The Soviet Machine gunners were decimated by machine guns and the French at guns failed to recover from the pin. It was a quick game. Two early war infantry lists against a Armored German list is just a bad match up. We deployed to cover both objectives and that left up unable to keep the one rushed by the armor. Like I said the other day I need to invest in some early war armor.

ColKG

GDW's "Citadel" The Battle of Dien Bien Phu

 Hi Kids,  So I know what you've been wondering....  "What are those hardcore gaming lads over in the next county up to lately?"  They've finished Marshal Enterprises' "Leipzig" and breezed through the Gamers'  "Ardenne," next up is GDW's "Citadel," Dien Bien Phu!  No doubt they are celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Battle!  Or maybe they just got lucky with the timing....

 Here's the valley of Dien Bien Phu, looking north.  The Commie Viet Minh are the red counters (how appropriate) in the green areas of jungle hills, while the glorious French Union forces are in the center and south.  Naturally, any game with the French Foreign Legion is worth owning!  And playing if you get the chance!  This is the set-up.

A close up of the north chunk of the map, you can see Strongpoints Beatrice and Gabrielle, along with the airstrip and central base.  Turn one has just started with overcast skies here over the battlefield as well as over the Red River Delta.  Time for new dice!



DBP is an olde fav of mine, possibly due to the FFL connection.  All sorts of interesting stuff....
A fortress in the jungle, supplied only by air, CIA pilots, including the legendary "Earthquake McGoon," commies using American 105mm arty captured during the Korean War, including fresh ammo misdropped by the supply flights, entire units of Red Chinese manning anti-aircraft guns, human wave assaults, arty firing in self defense over open sights, huge tunneled mines just like in WW1, the "Paratroop Mafia," some units had so much surplus elan they actually went into combat singing!  Volunteers were still parachuting in the night before the fortress fell.  The night before Camerone Day one legion unit executed an assault just to capture some vinogel (wine concentrate) which had landed in no-mans-land.  Near the very end, when the Viet Minh were closing in, one Legionnaire came out of his bunker wearing his Kepi Blanc, saying, "I want them to know, they're facing the Legion." There was even a plan for the US Air Force to send in B-29's!  (Possibly with nukes!)
To learn more, here are a few books you could check out:
Martin Windrow "The Last Valley"
Jules Roy "The Battle of Dien Bien Phu"
Ted Morgan "Valley of Death"
Bernard Fall "Hell in a Very Small Place"
John Prados "Operation Vulture"
and just recently there's a new one out, JC Bourg "The Man Who Walked Out of Isabelle."
The 1992 movie "Dien Bien Phu" is definitely worth watching, its about as far from a Hollywood action/ war movie as you can get.  It was directed by a participant/witness of the battle,  Pierre Schoendoerffer.

La Bataille de Leipzig endgame

Hi Kids,  Late last year I posted about the new game released by Marshal Enterprises, and all the pictures were of the early stages of the game, before all the reinforcements arrived and made everything oh so much more impressive.  I figured I'd rectify that and show some pictures later in the game.  These are from the last few turns before everything was cleaned up.

 Oh yeah, we got your counter density up quite a bit!  The French are on the left of the picture, while the Allies are wrapped around them.

I've heard through the grapevine that all the copies of this game (they printed 400) have all been sold, so if you still need one your local store might have it, or you might need to go searching Consimworld or Boardgamegeek.  Or ebay. Or all three.

La Bataille de Leipzig: Mayhem in a Plain White Box

Hi Kids,  There's a new game in town, a labor of love from the lads at Marshal Enterprises.  Leipzig 1813, the Battle of Nations!  Where our boy Nappie took on all comers in the wilds of what used to be Prussia.  In the Big tradition of La Bataille monster games everywhere, this one is pretty honkin' big too.  Huge maps, 2000 counters, 180 page rulebook, playing time a couple months....  This one is somewhat of a departure from the standard La Bataille game; there is no printed rule book, just a cd so you can print it yourself; the maps show two areas that do not connect; and a really flimsy white box almost free of decoration and strength.  M.E. has been in the Nappie battle monster game business for at least 20-30 years, with all sorts of stuff out there; Austerlitz, Wagram, Moscova, and a bunch of battles from the Peninsula and the 100 Days.  Most of them are good solid games, just ask the lads on ComSimWorld.  Some are even worth Big Money; a couple years ago a copy of Austerlitz went for US$1100 on ebay.  Wow.  They only printed 400 copies of this newest monster, and last week they had already sold 350, so if you want one you better act fast!  US$200 smackers and it can be yours!  The lads out in the sticks west of here have already broken out a copy and started playing it. There are about 5 of them playing on Monday nights.

 The Order of Battle for the scenario the lads are playing.  These are the reinforcements.

 

 Close up of the French.

 

 And the Austrians.

 This map is about 4 or 5 feet across and 4 feet tall.  The two maps show areas where there was a lot of action in the areas around Leipzig, but do not match up.  Lots of scenarios!  This is turn one.  Unit density is still pretty low, the reinforcements have yet to show up.   Have a beer!

 The Vistula Legion perhaps?

 Russians on the left, French on the right.

Did I mention the plain white box?  No one would suspect there was a monster game lurking within!  This thing is about as strong as those crumby boxes in which shirts are packed.  Exercise extreme caution opening this thing.

The Last Valley by Martin Windrow book review

Hi Kids, Some of you might know that one of my favorite units of all time is the French Foreign Legion, and I tend to buy most of the books in English regarding them.  (Well, if I can afford them!) Martin Windrow has written quite a few of those books, and naturally the battle of Dien Bien Phu crops up every once and awhile.  "The Last Valley" is about that battle, and it is an absolute masterpiece!  It has replaced Jules Roy's "The Battle of DienBienPhu" as my favorite, and that's saying a lot.  If I had to have just one book about the French in Indochina, this would be the one.  Even if you have no particular interest in the battle, some of the descriptions of the military action are worth reading. It's been out in paperback for awhile now, so you kids should rush right out and pick one up!  I bet www.abebooks.com has 'em cheap!  If John Keegan digs it, its got to be good!

Chuckster at Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Smithsonian Part One

 Hi Kids,  Made a blitz visit to DC last weekend to put my bro on a plane to Pakistan, he'll be gone a year.  My other bro made the trip from LA just so the three of us could hang out for a bit.  While we were in the capital we managed to hit the Udvar-Hazy (sounds Hungarian, eh?) Smithsonian.  Its quite the gunshow for us aviation nuts!  First off is a P-40E, an actual warbird from the RCAF.  Somebody along the line decided to paint it up like a Flying Tiger.  Hell, I would too if I had one.

 Hanging next door is a Corsair.  I'm going to guess it's an early model due to the 3 bladed prop, but don't really know.

Underneath both is a world famous SR-71 Black Bird.  Way cool!  If you haven't read "Sled Driver" you should.

 Closer to the entrance is a Pitts Special.  I've wanted one of these for years, back when I was under the impression I would have some cash laying around.  They are still somewhat affordable as far as planes go.  I bet you could still get one under $25K but I haven't priced them in 10 years.

 A Westland Lysander.  I always thought this plane just looked really cool.  You could just buzz around without a huge amount of drama.  They called 'em Moon Planes in WW2, they flew in and out of Occupied Europe once the sun went down!

 The modern-ish side of the place. F-105, F-4, F-8, F-14, etc.

 An F-100 Super Sabre.  A nice jet with clean lines, just the thing!

 An F-105 Thud.  Always thought that was a cool nickname for a plane.  IIRC these things could really scream at low level, something to do with the massive intakes.  The two seaters were the first of the Wild Weasels, too.  No, that term was not invented for Star Fleet Battles.

 And here we have the reason they invented the Wild Weasel, to screw around with the North Vietnamese air defenses.  This is a SAM-2 missile.  And an F-4 behind it!  So cool!

 Oh yeah, here's my baby!  Ever since I saw the Blue Angels perform in the early 1970's in F-4's I've always dug this plane!  IIRC this one was a MiG killer during its career.  STILL the ONLY plane cool enough to serve in all 3 air arms of the US Armed Forces!  It shoots down whats up and blows up whats down!

Yep, got the T-shirt.

 And here's what all the excitement was about, a MiG-21!  This entire plane combat loaded was still lighter than the internal fuel in an F-4.  (Although maybe that was the MiG-15..... hmmmm......)

 E-6 Intruder, dropped out of the Navy before there was a replacement.  I heard we made some artificial reefs with these even though they had just had their service life extended with new wings.  Yeah, that's our government.  I'm sure they had a good reason. Like they've lost their minds.  Maybe you saw these in the movie "Flight of the Intruder."  There were some awesome low level shots with A-1 Skyraiders in that show too!

 A shot of a Joint Strike Fighter, complete with funky engine.  Directional nozzles and all!  So why is this thing in a museum when I'm not even sure they've entered service yet?  I guess it's because it takes 20 years to build a new plane, what with computers speeding everything up.

 An F-8 Crusader, "Last of the Gunfighters!"  The power brokers decided that planes no longer needed guns, since the missile was so much cooler.  Needless to say, they started retro-fitting the gunless fighters with guns almost immediately.

 An F-14 Tomcat, this particular one is a MiG killer, from that little brouhaha in the Gulf Of Libya.

And here's the long shot, from the end of the modern wing looking back at the entrance and towards the WW1, WW2 and commercial areas.  Yeah, that's the Enola Gay back there.  When a B-29 doesn't fill the space, you know you're in a Big building.