Cangames Battle Report #1 - Trench Raiders

Howdy folks,

I took part in the recent Cangames convention that happens in Ottawa every May long weekend.  As always, there were some great tables, some great games, and a lot of folks seemed to have a good time.  Unfortunately, I did not have a chance to get to my desired end-state of running a game myself and given a few holes in the schedule, an extra miniatures/historical game or two would have served the con well.

Regardless, I did have a good time and enjoyed immensely the 3 games I took part in ...So, in the interest of getting these pictures online for the GM, I am starting backwards this year with my last game as my first report. 

The last game I played in was a Great War trench raider scenario with an adapted ruleset from the GM based in large part off of a Wargames Illustrated #235 article: 

The game was quick, easy to play, had a small footprint, and did not require an outrageous amount of figures...so if one was inclined to STEAL or be inspired by the idea, it is within grasp...the linchpin being, the GM had some great looking figs and terrain...so, yeah...

Anyway, here goes...a small slice of brutal hell from the Western Front...thanks Seth!!

A small line of allied trenchline, sections 1 to 7 from left to right, ...includes 'suicide corner' on the far left #1, 'the Ritz' in the middle #4, and a communications trench cutting into the far right #7.  Each section was a 4-6 inch square, built up from styro...Seth did a great job scratch-building his own terrain...

 

The view leading into 'suicide corner'...

 

...the corner itself...again, a great job from Seth, who went so far as to get an appropriate level of grit and filth in this painting, top it off with water effect to get a good sense for just how wet, damp, and gross trenchlife was.  And, I think my personal OCD favourite, he even made sure to model gas alarm gongs...love the shell casing!!

The majority of the German raiders were from North Star's Great War Miniatures line...and, they were painted up very nicely...for gameplay, the poker chips with numbers referred to the individual soldier, the green discs signified the number of grenades that the soldier had.  To activate a soldier, Seth would draw a chip out of a helmet until all were activated OR a tea time chip was triggered.  Very slick, very easy to catch on...oh, and for this game there were 4 of us with 2 British and 2 German players.

Taking a long look down the line...

 

Quick reference sheet for the game...

Initial deployment, the bulk of the raiders deployed in section 2 and 3 while the British deployed around the Ritz in sections 4 and 5; there was only one or two lone Tommies that deployed in section 1 and 2...each soldier was deployed by their chip number and randomly rolled into a terrain piece.  The premise being that each raider basically rolled into the trenchline and the British defenders were unawares that Fritz was in the wire...in-close and personal...

 

Overhead view of section #2, three raiders and one lone defender at the bottom right...just out of frame is another raider, a very tight spot to be in for Tom.

In this frame, you can see Tom with 2 raiders on his right in section #3...

So, I received the first draw of the game...with that I sent one of my raiders up to section #1 to knife the lone Brit soldier...I roll, he defends, I win the fight, but fail to roll for wound...my partner in crime was the second draw and followed up with shovel and shield guy...he rolls, he wins, and knocks the Brit down and steals an initiative token.  The initiative tokens indicated the number of actions that each soldier could take.

a tough spot to be in...lone British soldier with 5 Germans around him...some would say a fair fight, some wouldn't...

 

 

If I recall correctly, we drew a free activation chip next which allowed us to move with any raider, even one that had already activated...we elected to go with the shoveler and have him re-pummel the British soldier that we had knocked down.  One defender eliminated...

Horribly out of focus, but a great action-looking shot...again, IIRC, the British soldier that had 5 raiders around him activated, killed one of the raiders and then ran towards the dugout...or was killed in return...can't entirely remember...but cool action shot anyway...

The Brits are merging around the Ritz...it kind of just naturally happened, but kind of fitting considering that is Officer country...

 

Looking down the line from #1 to #7...the left end of the trench is in raider hands...

 

British defender moves into section #3 (at top of picture) shoots at the raiders and has a grenade land just behind him...IIRC, he kills one of the raiders and manages to move away from the grenade without effect...until a grenade or two later...then he is out of the war...

 

The German raiders start to push towards the Ritz...by this time we had killed a couple of defenders and had two of our own killed as well.  We started to take to lobbing a plethora of grenades targeted at the Ritz.  There was a roll to see if you landed your grenade where you threw it...and for the most part, we ended up throwing them where we needed them.  As well, once you threw it, we had to roll for how long it took to cook of the grenade (1d6 for number of activations before detonation).  I lobbed a masher near the entrance to the Ritz and had it detonate after 3 activations...I think I was able to kill a defender, wound another, and left no mark on a third.

 

The troop in the middle would end up surviving 3 detonations without a mark...I think he was one of the few that deployed in that section to actually make it to the end.

 

  

View of the Ritz and main dugout for this piece of the line...section #4, you can see another gas alarm gong next to the sign.  The Germans retired from the field before this grenade could cook off...the game itself only took about 90 minutes-ish...was extremely enjoyable, BUT very very bloody with close action occurring with nearly every activation...very effective at giving some sense of the urgency and doom of the trenchlife!

 

I have to admit, I was looking forward to this game when I signed up for it...I even made sure to prep myself for the day by wearing a new acquisition of mine...the Zero Foxtrot vengeance trench raider shirt (no, that's not me in the pic)...definitely fit the mood of the game!!

 

 

An unused section of the line...it was linked to a random event that would have involved friendly fire and large bore artillery...another excellent terrain piece.

Last long look of the line from #7 to #1...great work Seth...thanks for the game!!

Jacobite Rebellion, Prestonpans - Battle Report

Howdy everyone,

Around mid-October I had the chance to get together with the usual suspects and try out a new battleground of sorts, for me at least.  My buddy Ed has recently been doing a bunch of work and painting around the Jacobite Rebellion and some of the history and battles of that conflict.

As always, the research and extra work that Ed puts into his projects shines through...the numbers of well painted figures that he brings to bear combined with some top notch scratch built terrain combined with extensive historical research always with a much higher appreciation of the era and battlespace that I'm bleeding 1's over.

The Battle of Prestonpans

By Hoodinski - Own work, [1], CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15433911

From the British end of the table, the picture below is Ed's vision of the battlespace...

You can see the town in the centre on the Brit's table edge, a main road running left to right with a branch moving towards the Scottish edge of the table.  There is a French force of 'observers' and 'advisors' overlooking the battle...one of the event cards in Ed's scenario allowed for a French intervention into the battle.

The strong British centre composed of experienced Grenadiers.

 

The British right flank, anchored by the guns of the Royal Artillery...able to fire ball or canister...the canister proved fairly effective in reducing pressure on the right, the ball proved annoying but not overly effective.

 

The local militia troops, not overly high quality but willing to march forth for the King...of England.

The overall battle was fought at two different paces...on the British left, the Scottish horde pushed forward, charging hard to get into hand-to-hand contact.  The British had the advantage in long range, but the Scots excelled at close combat...axes, swords, and Scottish pluck would soon put a lot of pressure to bear on the British left.

 

Conversely, the British right was quite orderly...the British took the time to establish themselves in a proper firing line, while the Scottish similarly took care to advance in column of route and then break into advance order once they were closer to the Brits.

 

On the British left, the situation quickly took a rather dire tone...the Scots were doing an excellent job of getting in close and putting hard steel to British skulls...various formations were taking having morale reductions and taking casualties.

 

On the right, the artillery struck first blood and put some serious hurt on the Scottish front rank reducing their numbers nicely...the canister rounds proved very effective and caused some morale disruptions...I think this was a high water mark for the British contingent... 

 

fighting from the left flank is starting to interfere with the right rank actions...die rolls are not going well, the militia and main regiment on the right are suffering serious morale issues from casualties...

 

in the distance, the French intervention card comes up...they begin a very slow advance towards the battlefield.  Because the troops are in close combat and arcs of fire are getting tight, the Royal Artillery cannot put any more canister fire into the Scots...they adjust fire, switch to ball due to range, and try to get some long range tags onto the French...

 

The right flank is having some serious difficulties...the strong Grenadier centre stands tall...

 

and after some very bitter fighting...is greatly reduced in strength...for most of the game, the Scots had a very good grip on the British left and made consistent, steady progress on the right flank...although the French intervened, they had little influence on the overall battle. 

 

The main strengths of the Scots definitely laid with their close combat ability and clan/warband structure that allowed for more leadership at lower levels proved critical and allowed for more movement on the battlefield.  Funny enough, the greatest achievement for the British came through a chance event when it was revealed that the Colonel...who was ill and billeted in another town away from the fighting...turned out to be 'okay'...it had the effect of ensuring that the Scottish cavalry could not intervene on the left flank...every time a British soldier fell, a skull was crushed, another regiment was routed...it was all okay, cause thank God the Colonel was okay...

 

the glorious dead...Scottish and British casualties...although I must admit I think those were mostly British troops... 

More Great War heavy metal...British Mark IV's...and weathering...

Evening folks,

For your viewing pleasure I have a couple of Battlefront Mark IV tanks from their new Great War line...you can get these on their own or they come along with the British army box.  Overall, the model went together really well...no issue with the sponsons, tracks, or the hulls.  There is some construction required with the top rails, but these went on fairly easy with minimal finger gluing...always a good sign.

As for the painting...I used the colour guide found on the Great War landing page on the Flames of War website.  The colours seemed a good match and I actually enjoyed painting these hulks up a lot.

I went a little further with the weathering than I did with my German tanks...with the standard green paintjob, the weathering was guaranteed to show much better on these ones.  I tried a couple of different techniques with subtle changes...the main layers stayed the same: Vallejo Flat Earth, Vallejo Beige Brown, and then Vallejo US Tan Earth.  The first time I went from darkest to lightest...the second go...which I think went better, I went from tan earth to flat earth.

I have plenty of pics to look at, so enjoy and see which worked best for yourselves.  I'm not sure which I liked the most...but the first technique forced me to weather higher up the sides than the second method...food for thought

Weathering steps:

Technique #2...tan earth first...tank on the left for comparison

Second layer, beige brown...applied closer to the bottom of the tank track, does not extend up the side as far as the tan earth layer...leave some tan earth to look at...

Third layer is the flat earth...the tank on the left I went a little higher up the side...it pops out much clearer, the tank on the right, I tried to stay near the track, leaving the tan earth, but also leaving the beige brown exposed.

I finished the weathering off with a Strong Tone wash applied to only the flat earth layer...and to random streaks along the hull side...some finished pics:

Final layer of strong tone wash to highlight the 'heavier' mud painted on with the flat earth...