Disposable Heroes does Squad Leader AAR: The Niscemi-Biscari Highway

Hi Kids,  Got another game in using my WW2 Americans and Germans this week.  Rather than just take X point value vs. other guy's X point value troops we decided to use a Squad Leader scenario to set up the game.  The mapboards are not an exact match and I have some doubts about whether the game is balanced, but what the hell, its all fun. 

 

Here we have the map, somewhere in Sicily in 1943.  The US are defending, the Germans have to enter from the east or west edges of the far side and take two out of three victory condition buildings.  The three buildings are the three story one, the grey cutout on the far right, and the brown one with the blue-grey chimney.  The US troops are Paratroopers (also known as the Good Guys), and Huns are Herman Goering Division (also known as the Bad Guys).

 The Niscemi-Biscari Highway, Scenario E out of the General magazine oh so many moons ago.  So many moons that this is still Squad Leader; Advanced Squad Leader has not yet been published. I didn't feel like reading the minefield rules, so just ignored them.  Could have been a mistake....

 First blood!  The Huns advance onto the table next to an American squad and exchange fire on turn one.  Figs are Westwind, Black Tree Designs, Battlefront (the OTHER Battlefront!) and even some Artizan floating around somewhere.  Since the buildings are not hollow we just put the guys around the edges to signify that they are inside.

 Holy Cow!  Maybe Huns is a more apt description than I realized as the entire Horde sweeps down on the luckless Americans! That Sdkfz 261 is from Company B.  The three axle is just so much sexier than the 8 rad!  C'mon, you know its true!

 After crushing the lads in the church, the Hun Horde continues to sweep forward. The lads are the far side of the road don't last long, check the next picture.

 That black strap is supposed to represent a gully.  My terrain still leaves much to be desired.  The Huns appear unstoppable as they maneuver across the map, right up to the front door of the first victory condition house.  It doesn't go all their way though, as a full squad gets killed on the other side of the gully by the US defenders.  And you can see in this shot some of the other Hun squads are taking heavy losses.

 The Armored Car leads the charge towards the second victory condition house.

 Lots of half strength Huns in the middle of the table.

 More "Skull Tokens" are placed where squads are wiped out.  In Disposable Heroes when a side loses a squad their Guts goes down by one.  Skull tokens are a fun way of keeping track.  We've never actually put them on the table before, but what the heck.  US defenders are taking a lot of hits, too, and are nearly out of troops.

 The long view, a few US troops still are hanging out down in the gully.

 The dreaded Huns capture the second building after wiping out two US squads!

 

At the end of the game, the US has lost two buildings and don't have enough troops to mount a counterattack.  Victory to the Huns!  Bummer!

 

So some of the stuff of which I am still uncertain:  SL has individual leaders, DS has command squads containing the leaders.  Single leaders running around the map exercise a lot more control over the game. SL has rules like a squad loses it's inherent firepower if they shoot a support weapon with more than 4 firepower.  In DS we just added the support weapons to the squad, giving some Hun squads about 16 dice!  Yowza!! The US squads are not much different, as 12 guys have about 14 dice.  But the Paratroopers do not have as many MG's.  Might have to try some modifications...

Second Chance Skeletons or one more step toward 10,000 points

In my quest to build a legal ten thousand point Vampire Count army I recently picked up a lot of old style skeletons from Evil bay, cheap. The real challenge for fielding the army is building up 2500 points of core troops. I have a good start on the force but even with this lot and the skeletons in the bits box. I did the numbers and without using any proxies I will need about 150 zombies, or 75 or so skeletons or 40 ghouls plus 25 skeletons. The skeletons are easier to paint so I will be going with them. That isn't the best army strategy but I am a realist and even if I did manage to come up with 150 zombies it will take me too long to paint them.

The lot was in bad shape before it was shipped and took a couple more casualties in transit but nothing that I couldn't fix or replace.

The first group finished. I pulled all the armored torso skeletons to rebuild and add to the my unit of armored skeletons. The major fix on most was removing the old shield boss and adding the same skull boss as the armored skeleton unit. The model on the far right received a new axe arm from the bits box and had is shield arm repositioned so it would rank up better.

I only had five armored torsos but needed six models to have thirty in the unit of armored skeletons. I lacked any armored heads so I took a surplus tomb king skeleton head and trimmed down the streamers on the side so they were similar to the face guard plates of the other helmet heads. Then I trimmed down the crest of the head band and added a green stuff dome to make it more like the other helmets.

ColKG

Oop Skaven Warp Lightning Cannon update

Here is an update on the oop Skaven Warp Lightning cannon. I have the chassis basically finished.

I had to redo the crossbeams on the bottom to make the frame wider. This allowed room for the warp engineer to man the cannon on the top platform. I also added a couple pieces of styrene rod to act a spacers and support arms for the cannon.

Here the crew are added and the wheel just placed on. The engineer is manning the gun and the two skaven slaves are pushing the contraption from inside the frame.

I still need to add a couple more cross braces and a front plate with spikes. The base is a 50x100mm so it is right on the size needed. It comes apart so I will be able to paint it easier. The model itself is going to be slightly larger than the new kit but still close enough for me.

ColKG

Chassis for Oop Skaven Warp lightning cannon

I have been collecting up a Skaven army for Warhammer Fantasy battle for a long time. The army stared with the ten skaven model I picked up in the Fantasy Regiment box set so many moons ago. I finally have enough that I can field a decent sized army I just have to build them. The army has models from just about every generation of the Skaven including this Oop Warp lightning cannon.

I have had this model for quite awhile but I recently picked up one of the new plastic Warp lightning cannons with the whipping boy prize money from the 40k league. The new style cannon is elevated on a chassis so it can fire over the units in front of  it. I could use the old style cannon as is but I want to have that built in elevation like the newer models.

So using the plastic frame from the new Warp Lightning cannon as a template, I started building a wooden frame.

The basic frame reinforced with bass wood strips and a gear added

I drilled a hole in the center of the gear and used brass pins to mount the oop warp lighting cannon.

More bracing added and reinforced. I cut a platform and plan to mount the engineer on it next to the gun.

I added some cross beams and reinforced them to use as the mounting points for the wheels. The front two are some extra plastic wheels and the back two are from the original warp lightning kit.

The whole model with the gun in place. I need a bit more detailing but I think it is going to work. I an planning to add the two skaven slave crewmen to the inside of the chassis pushing the whole contraption.

Last is the beginning of the detailing. I took .5mm styrene sheet and cut irregular strips. I used the tip of a file to punch the rivets in the strips and then glued them on.

I have a good bit of work to go. It is going to be on  the same sized base and a similar size and height as the plastic warp lightning cannon so if somebody has a problem with the conversion them I probably don't need to be playing them any way.

ColKG

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.

Boltaction Soviet anti-tank riflemen

The 28mm WWII Soviet project continues. Chuckaroo has picked up some Soviets from the Plastic Soldier Company and Wargames Factory. One thing they lack out of the box that the Boltaction Soviets have are anti-tank rifles. The Disposable heroes Soviet list allows up to three antitank rifle teams so I offered to trade some of my surplus anti tank rifle men for some regular rifleman from Chuckaroo. He agreed so I went ahead and built them.

first a comparison picture of the PTRD12.7mm anti-tank rifle compared to an Imperial Guard Las-gun from Warhammer 40k. You can really see the difference in the regular scale and the 40k heroic scale.

The first rifle man minus his head.

First anti-tank rifleman complete.

A close up of the rifle detail

All three ready for the trade.

I still have four of the prone bodies and I plan to build three anti-tank rifles for my army and use to last one to build a sniper with a scoped Mosin Nagant.

ColKG

Bolt Action plastic 28mm WWII Soviets

I have finally started working on  the Bolt Action 28mm Soviet models Chuckaroobob picked up fro me a while back.

The box came with forty miniatures but I was able to pick up some more sprues from Warlord Games during a half price sprue sale.

The first assembled rifle man.

The second assembled rifleman.

I am building the armies using the Disposeable Heroes supplement Urraugh! After pointing out early war list and  late war Infantry platoon lists I will need 59 models to be able to field them. After some trading with chuckaroo I have enough models for the Infantry. I still want to pick up a couple of the maxim hmgs and crew to add to the army. As a short term fix I will use a Chinese maxim until I acquire the Soviet ones.

ColKG