Catawba Gamers Action @ Parker, Banner, Kent & Wayne Store

 Hi Kids, Last Saturday was the monthly historical gameday for the Catawba Gamers group, this time Brian brought out his 1:72 Napoleonics for some 200 year old replays!  The Frogs are on the left, all Imperial Guard (!), the good guys (Russians) were on the right.  From that unbiased remark I'm sure you all know which side I was on! To win the Frogs had to capture the hill under the rules, while the Pre-Commies had to capture the bridge near the table edge. Rules: Black Powder.

 A close up of the Frog starting positions. The Young Guard in the foreground was rated as inexperienced.

 The Good Guys!  My Russians are on the left, Patrick's are on the right.

 As soon as the dice allow, the Prussians enter from the south edge.  Gary rolled on at the first opportunity, making a huge difference in the game! "Old Forwards" lived up to the name!

 The Russians advance towards the town while the Frog Cavalry climbs the hill, after fighting off two units of Russian Dragoons.

 In a brief interlude, I sneak over to the other tables and spot an Early War FOW game, using those massive T-35's!

 And massive numbers of T-26's too!  The best of both worlds!  There was also a game of "Song of Drums and Shakos" going on, and a few 40k'ers!  And about 30 Magic gamers.  WoooooHoooooo!

 Meanwhile, the action is getting tense! The Frogs have taken the hill, and the Russian main force has been encircled from that flank!  It's temporary, as the Russians detach some units and shoot the Frog cav down. In the distance the Prussian threat draws near!

 After a double blunder command roll, two Russian units fall back a full move! the Frog Old Guard closes in!  Skirmishers out!

 The Prussians swing up from the south at full speed!

 Prussian Cav take the bridge!  The Old Guard arty takes an interest, but its too little too late! The Russian side wins big!

 The after dinner game was the best rules ever written, God's Chosen Ruleset: "Disposable Heroes" in 15mm!  Yes, we all know its not the One True Scale, but ya can't have everything!  A german delaying action in the hedgerows of Normandy.  About 4 squads of US infantry try to push through 2 squads of Huns.  Naturally, the Huns had some machine guns and suitcases full of ammo!

The US players all swarm over the wide open spaces on one side of the map, trying to stay in cover but moving forward as fast as their little 15mm legs can carry them!  Although both sides lost about the same (12 guys) the US players managed to carry the day, the Huns are just too thin and the board too large for them to swing other defenders to the decisive point!

A great day was had by all!  The Catawba Gamers meet every third Saturday of the month at the "Parker, Banner, Kent & Wayne" store in Cornelius NC, and post on their yahoogroup what games will be set up. More games, more gamers, more better! So why aren't the rest of you kids turning up?

Disposable Heroes WW2 with the Catawba Gamers

Hi Kids,  This is the other game the Catawba Gamers played on PTO Wednesday, when sneaky employees mysteriously disappeared from work and reappeared minutes later at a gaming store, Parker, Banner Kent & Wayne in Cornelius, NC.  When its tactical level World War Two, its got to be Disposable Heroes.  Any other ruleset is a gesture.  We didn't have a huge block of time, so we played a 600 pt defender (German Grenadiers) vs. 800 pts of attackers (US Army).

 Here we have the peaceful village of Tinyvillette, infested with Huns!  They've even occupied the church!  Are they seeking redemption?  Nope, just thick walls!

 The view of the other side; US Army troops sneak through the trees, with two M5 Stuart tanks in support.

 Further north, the last few Americans face a 3.7cm flak gun and a squad of infantry in a walled field.  Yeah, I know, I couldn't find the walls in the Basement of Heaped Miniatures.  The Basement can be a fickle beast.

 A few turns later, US Forces creep closer.  Both sides are taking casualties, although the Huns are taking considerably more.  The two Stuarts tanks approach the south edge of town and blow the living crud out of everything in sight, 12 MG dice per tank!!!  Whoa Nellie!  The Huns respond with numerous Panzerfaust shots, but can't buy a hit!  Things are looking grim for the defense.  The Hun sniper shoots a tank commander, so that tank looses the use of the pintle mounted MG.  He also kills the American Lt, upsetting the mortar crew who had been using him as a spotter.

 The wall of firepower creeps closer, wiping out the Huns in the field, only the town dwellers are left, and not many of them.

 At the end of the game only two or three Huns are left alive, everyone else has been gunned down, mortared, or riddled with tank MG fire! One of the few survivors is lurking next to the green roofed building with double pin markers.

 The other survivors are the two man sniper team, who decided to escape off the edge of the world at the last minute.  Well, if you've read this far perhaps you're wondering who made all this stuff.  The tanks and flak gun are Westwind, most of the figs are 25mm Westwind and Battlefront (no, the OTHER Battlefront from 19th Century Miniatures), the assorted crops are from Flag Dude, the roads are from that outfit in Roanoke VA, Battlefield Terrain Concepts I think.  The buildings were purchased second hand from a crackhead in Statesville.  Or so it seemed at the time.  Most of the miniature troops were painted by Dutch Pond painting service.

Game & Comic Store in Cornelius, NC: Parker, Banner, Kent & Wayne

Hi Kids,  Took a page out of The Scattergun Gamer's blog and figured I'd post the (almost) local gaming store: Parker, Banner, Kent and Wayne in Cornelius, NC.  That's exit 28 on I-77 near Lake Norman, 15 miles north of Charlotte.  It's quite the dish for the Catawba Gamers, offering all sorts of GW stuff, as well as Warmachine/Hordes, Flames of War, and a huge assortment of boardgames.

 The view from the parking lot, on Highway 115 about a mile from I-77, exit 28.

 The display of recent arrivals, behind which is all the gaming space.

 Did I mention the HUGE assortment of board games?  GMT is one of the few "wargames" companies they stock, but they've got quite a few Euro-style games, along with X-Wing, Star Trek, etcetc.  I've picked up some of the Lock n Load games here, too.

 GW and Privateer Press displays.

 More GW, Flames of War, Dystopia Wars, Firestorm Armada, and Malifioux.  Damn, I don't play the game, don't expect me to type in French!

 Reaper paint, they stock Privateer and GW paint as well.  I just happen to really dig Reaper paint.

 Flames of War.

 Battlefront, Army Painter, terrain....

 Cards...  Lots and lots of cards.

 Loaner terrain you can use for in-store gaming.

Some of the local mob playing Pokémon on a Wednesday.  So if there's anybody in this chunk of North Carolina who's searching for true happiness, slide on over to Parker, Banner, Kent & Wayne.  The Flames of War crowd meet here every 2nd and 4th Saturdays of every month at 1pm.  The Catawba Gamers (Historical Mini crowd) meet here the 3rd Saturday of every month.   PBK&W have a website and a Facebook page as well.  Yeah, they sell comics too.

Flames of War Soviet IS-2 verses Konigstiger

Another battle report from the Charlotte Flames of War game day on 25 May 13 at PBKW.

This time a change back to Late war and 1500 points. My list was a Guards Heavy tank company with eight IS-2s with tank escorts, a pioneer platoon and a Zis-3 artillery batalon. Against me a German late war army lead by a Konigstiger and backed by Stuka air support.

I moved up the IS-2 behind the building to get cover from his Panzer IVs and double timed the pioneers to keep up with the tanks. The German player got his air support and killed several of the pioneers.

The other group of IS-2s move up playing cat and mouse with the Konigstiger in the center of the town. His Stuka returned and I managed to drive it off with IS-2 companies AA machine guns.

The Konigstiger moves up to shoot the IS-2 but it line of fire is blocked by the pioneer truck.

The Konigstiger caught in an IS-2 crossfire. The lower IS-2 aims at one flank and another IS-2 aims down the tracks at the other while the Pioneers get ready to assault. Both IS-2s miss and the pioneers fail their morale so don't assault. One Is-2 assaults the German infantry, wins and they pull back.

The German player takes his turn doesn't move the Konigstiger and destroys one IS-2. Then he withdraws the infantry unit next to the objective. He fails to storm trooper move the Konigstiger and that leaves me in control of the objective. So my turn starts and I win.

It was an interesting game but the German player seemed distracted and gave me the win.

Things I learned, Konigstigers can't be touched from the front by anything the Soviets can field.

Thanks for looking
ColKG

Flames of War Early War French defend town against Italians

Another Battle report from the Charlotte Flames of War game day at Parker Banner Kent and Wayne on 25 May 13. This was a four player game. Chuckaroo and Tom playing the French Fusilier defenders deployed in the town against Brian and Chris fielding the Italian armor onslaught. They played for over three hours but finally finished the game.

The sleepy hamlet filled to the brim with French infantry.

Italian armor rolls on from one flank

More Italian armor rolls on from the other flank.

French infantry await the onslaught.

French light tanks wait in the town center.

The Italian armor moves into range.

Italian infantry advance into the French machine gun company with bad results.

Italian armor burning.

Italian tanks press the flank.

End game, the French hold the town while the wave of Italian armor breaks on its walls.

I really enjoy seeing well painted armies on great terrain.

ColKG

Flames of War Early War Soviet Purge Part 2

The battle continues, Early War Strelkovy verses Strelkovy in a purge of the traitors.

We played this game on 25 May 13 at PBKW during the Charlotte Flames of War game day. We we left my Strelkovy had just won an assault against Patrick's Strelkovy but thing were about to change.

Patrick's second Strelkovy company arrives from reserves.

My 45mm at guns dig in a with for them to get in range.

The light tanks gun down many of my Strelkovy. The Command Commissar leaves the unit to go find the second wave, the closing tanks had nothing to do with that decision.

Patrick's Strelkovy brave the guns and assault them from the side, denying a defensive fire.

Patrick wins the assault and my guns flee the field.

Patrick's fire whittles down my Strelkovy to the commissar and one rifle stand. They role morale and fail.

The Commissar kills the last rifle stand and rerolls. He succeeds and stands alone on the objective.

Then the tanks move in and the commissar is cut down, a Hero of the Revolution.

The commissar's death let me make a second wave roll, and I succeed. The second wave comes on.

With Patrick camped on the objective, I bring the wave on as close as possible but can't do enough damage to move them off the objective.

Win for Patrick.

It was a great game and I feel that this army played much better than my first early war army did. I had decided not to field any tanks because of the sabotage rule for the early war Soviet armor but Patrick's tanks really impressed me. After having to run my Strelkovy across the board three turns to just get into range, I think some mobility is needed. I have picked up some more infantry and want to get some 45mm at guns so I will not have to proxy them next time.

Thanks for looking, keep an eye out for more flames of war battle reports.

ColKG