V for Victory: British Bulldog

Actually the third scenario is called A Question of Balance, but it really should have been called Bulldog or Run Across. The aim is to get as many of you infantry across to the opposite table edge as possible (2 VP's per man) whilst stopping the enemy from doing the same, you also get VP's for units killed.

We went for 6 Stars of reinforcements for our base 2 sections with the Sikh's adding a MMG, Humber, and 2 Stars of infantry reinforcements to their roster. The DAK added a light AT gun, SDKFZ 222, recon Kubelwagon and 1 Star of infantry reinforcements. Both sides took a free truck with capacity 10 in order to boost their mobility.

As both sides had recon units we both pushed them forwards on the DAK's left flank but keeping out of LOS using the buildings on that side of the field.

Both sides then pushed forwards towards the buildings and the Sikh Humber committing itself to the fight early on. The 222 tried and failed to take out the Humber missing with both it shots, however the AT gun hit and scored a kill on it's first try so the Germans raced into an early VP lead.

The euphoria however was short lived as four brave Sikh's dashed out of cover armed only with rifles and grenades to tackle the 222. Somehow surviving a hail of bullets from a DAK LMG team they dispatched the 222 at close quarters and then took cover behind a nearby sand-bank.

Part of the Sikh command section had also mounted their truck and raced across the table outside the arc of the AT gun.

This proved to be the high point for the Sikh's as the Germans started to pile the pressure on in the village with stress mounting. The DAK recon team had also decamped from their building, into the Kubelwagon and raced across the table to the opposite edge.

The light ATG also scored a second hit and kill, taking out the truck and causing it's occupants to fling themselves out onto the desert floor. The Sikh's did gain some pay back as their MMG poured accurate fire into the gun's crew and cut them all down.

In the last turn it all went wrong for the Sikh's as in the village a lone DAK team stormed the opposite building killing 5 of the defenders and forcing them to flee. The remaining DAK where in turn attacked by a Sikh team from the wadi but one lone German managed to survive and fall back. The fleeing Sikh's where in turn cut down by fire from the recon team and the survivors fled into the desert. Further misery was heaped on the Commonwealth forces as the command section that had reached the table edge was itself cut down by accurate LMG fire.

So the DAK ran out clear winners, it had been fairly close throughout most of the game but a strong last turn allowed the Germans to run away with it in the end.

Under the Sea

Last year at a Deadzone event I purchased a few models with a view to using them in the wargames room which was just about coming to fruition. 

These Crooked Dice miniatures are part of range intended to be used with their own rules to recreate the sort of TV show people of my age watched back in the old days. 

I finally got the models out of their boxes and washed the Piranha ship (as it's resin) and got busy with the painting.

I did opt to glue the side fins on the 'wrong' way up so the ship would lie flat on it's stomach rather than being perched on it's fins. Other than that is was very easy to put together. The Atlanteans are metal so required only a light file and sticking into their slot bases.

I do need to work out a spot for them to live but for the moment they've joined the Carnevale fight that is going on under the stairs up to the loft.

V for Victory: Every Objective Counts

 As we continue learning the VfV rules we played the second scenario this week at 10 stars. This time we both picked out our own forces from the options available. The scenario see's 5 objectives placed on the table that need to be held with their VP value not revealed unless you hold the objective. VP's are also gained for destroying enemy units / vehicles.

In addition to the command section and 2 infantry sections which are the base of your force the Sikh's opted to add mortar and sniper teams along with an M3 Honey and a 6pdr (medium ATG) towed by a truck. 

The Germans opted to add an extra infantry section, MMG team, PAK 38 (medium ATG) with truck and a Panzer II. They also purchased 3 extra riflemen to add to across their three infantry sections.

The initial deployment had somewhat favoured the Sikh's as they massed their AT weapons against the Panzer II which immediately looked to take cover behind the oasis. It survived a reaction shot from the 6pdr and another shot from the rear from the Honey which charged forwards. The Honey also started to cause casualties with it's hull mounted MMG which it could fire at the infantry in the shrubbery.

To counter the bold advance of the Honey I moved my towed ATG to a position in which could engage it.

On the left flank both sets of infantry moved forwards to occupy their respective ridge lines. The decision of the Sikh's to bring along a mortar paid off here as they could hit multiple units with splash damage by targeting the central one.

The tank/anti-tank battle around the oasis was a stalemate for many rounds of fire as both sides failed to land any hits and it they did then failed to convert the hit into a kill.

Meanwhile the Sikh's continued to wear away at the DAK but couldn't wipe any units out.

Then on turn 3 a decisive moment at the PAK 38 hit for the first time (following a dice change) and immediately killed the Honey, giving the DAK 3 VP's.

Despite this the DAK forces where still very much under the cosh with stress and casualties mounting up. I did opt to retire the central infantry team to help recover it's morale and this took the obvious mortar target away from the action. 

On the last turn the DAK finally made a move for two objectives which both came up as 1 VP, giving me 5 VP's in total.

The 8th Army held two 2 VP objectives so came away with 4 VP's. So a narrow victory for the DAK was gained due to the destruction of the Honey.

The Kursk of the Desert

Well not quite on that scale but the best we could manage between us. As we are still in the learning phase for V for Victory I thought it would fun and useful to zero in on the vehicle rules and have a game with all our tanks out and add some troop transports in as well. This did mean that the Commonwealth had a slight advantage in points (not making excuses for my performance!) but it also meant that we would be playing the with all the vehicle rules in a concentrated manner.

We set up with each side fielding all it's tanks, their platoon command in an APC and a infantry section in a truck. The objective was to secure and if possible drive off an abandoned truck laden with fuel. VfV isn't really designed with this sort of game in mind I think but the rules played well and didn't fall over at any point.

As we both had truck borne infantry the central objective was within easy reach of both sides so by the middle of turn one we both had it within touching distance. On my right the two heavy tanks settled into a long range shooting match which lasted the entire game. The Grant was firing twice as many guns but this was negated by the cover I'd managed to take with the Panzer III. In the end neither of us managed to get the roll to knock the other out.

On my left it was a bit more lively as the light tanks and armoured cars of each side faced off against each other. Both sides pushed forwards with the DAK letting off some reaction shots which had little effect.

At the end of turn 1 I moved one of my infantry teams into the fuel truck ready to drive it off at the start of the next round. We had agreed that the truck could be assaulted like a building in order to give each side a chance to wrestle control of the vehicle. It was a bit of a surprise then when the Indians opened fire on the truck from the Indian Pattern Carrier and destroyed it. This meant neither side could win but we could still kill the enemy. My Panzer II rushed forwards to try and kill the IPC but failed (only immobilizing it) and was itself killed by the Honey as it swept forwards.

The Honey also went on to kill the 222 whilst the infantry on both sides shot each other up.

The Indians certainly came out on top with the most kills so presumably could claim a morale victory as they walked back to camp having run out of fuel. A/T fire is reasonably binary with out much chipping away at health points, so vehicles tend to go from all ok to dead in one leap. I think adding in more granularity could be done but then you'd be adding time onto the game and it's probably better to be able to complete a game than have that extra detail slowing things down.

My Little Tank & other Hobby

 Shameless plagiarism on my part referencing 'Allo Allo' and the well worn phrase of Lieutenant (or I guess that should be Leutnant) Hubert Gruber.

All this waffle is a long winded way of me introducing my recently finished M3 Stuart - British 8th army variant for our run of 'V for Victory'.

This is the first 'little' or any tank I've built since the halcyon days of Tamiya 1/35th scale circa 1982 but it was remarkably enjoyable.  The kit is the Warlord Games iteration of an Italeri model and I had to go to YouTube for some tips on assembling it - but this is all part of the experience I guess.

I opted for the caunter camouflage scheme albeit I suspect my colour scheme is not historically accurate which I accept but which I think Herr Gruber might approve of.

                                                     

The other bit of Hobby referred to is an updated KoW Lesser Obsidian Golem regiment.  I was obsessing a little too much over PMC (preferred model count) and my gaming buddy (and originator of this great blog) made the very sensible suggestion to have the two Golems which I'd painted (I'm very slow at painting!) and fill the base out with some 'fluff',  What a great idea and something I should've been all over myself.

It's all very basic - some pillar type pieces from the KoW Nightstalker Butchers kit (part of a 'medium' term project for Firefight Nightstalkers) and a little mutant rat which I had lying about never really thinking I'd be using him.  I've got enough models for an additional horde of LOG so will be utilising something very similar for those when I eventually get round to painting them.

For the present though it's all about stopping Rommel!