Fox & The Rat: Day 2, Minefield Clearance

Having successfully lead his men through enemy lines the night before to destroy the Commonwealth anti-tank gun Lt. Gruber was back in action again. This night he needed to clear a path through the minefield to help with the anticipated main assault.

The brave lieutenant was once again accompanied by Sgt. Klinkerhoffen and Pvt. Schafer with his sniper rifle. Pvt's Geerhart, Grosse, Weiss, Kopp, Leitz and Moller made up the rest of the attacking force. 

The defenders had already left a couple of routes through the mines for patrolling so Lt. Gruber split his force in half and worked down both flanks towards the mines.

Pvt. Schafer took up a central position with his trusty sniper rifle with the aim of providing covering fire once the alarm was raised. His hope was to further add to his three kills from the first patrol.

Both flanking forces initially made steady progress towards the minefield with Lt. Gruber even managing to start clearing a path but then things took a turn for the worse. A nosey British officer started to patrol along the stretch of mines the Lt. was trying to clear putting the area under a close watch which seriously hampered efforts.

Sgt. Klinkerhoffen had no such hinderances on the left flank and he and his men quickly opened up a path through the mines.

However Pvt's Leitz & Moller drew the attention of the guards as they pushed on to clear further mines and so decided to withdraw back into the shadows in the hope of throwing off the enemy.

At this point all hell broke loose as Pvt. Geerhart who was in the process of removing a mine instead managed to set of a chain of mines. Only quick reactions by his kameraden Grosse in pulling him to the ground meant he avoided being blown to pieces.

This however meant that the guards where driven into a frenzy of activity as the alarm was well and truly sounded.

This was particularly bad new for Pvt. Moller as the guards on the left flank started to fire wildly into the dark and he was struck. As he slumped to the ground Leitz could see he was already dead so had no choice but to carry on moving back into the night. This drew further fire from the guards nearby and things started to look bad for Klinkerhoffen and his remaining men. Fortunately at this point Schafer started to pick off the defenders one by one until three more men lay dead on the sand and the left flank managed to disengage. 

On the right flank the explosions had unnerved the British officer so he'd pulled back to a safer distance, spotting his chance to try and clear a path all the way through mine field Gruber darted forwards. In his rush however he too set off the very mines he was trying to clear. Again, either cat-like reflexes or god given fortune allowed him to come away unharmed.

Knowing that the game was now up Lt. Gruber also led his men back into the night, he just hoped they's done enough to allow the full scale attack to break through the enemy lines.

Sengoku Japanese: Commanders

This week's painting has been some commanders for my Samurai forces, once again making use of the Fireforge Games line of miniatures, this time from the command box.

This contains a good variety of poses and extra equipment not available in the other boxes they produce to add some extra flavour to the commanders.

You get one commander sat on a campaign chair with a couple of kneeling retainers and some Ashigaru carrying large banners and even a sun-shade. 

As I bought two boxes I have one for each side and will be painting up some further foot command figures for the Mori before I work on the three mounted commanders that also come in the box.

Fox & The Rat - Day 1 - Battle 2 - Minefield Clearance

 0200 hours 10/10/1942

Location - Western Desert; Undisclosed location west of Benghazi, Libya

Roster: Lieutenant Tonkin

Sergeant Wilson

Troopers Pike; Crabtree; Flashman; Fraser; Walker; Carstairs; Godfrey

Moonless night.  Minefield belt.  Unknown number and quality of DAK sentries.

Sub-unit of L Detachment SAS led by Lt. Tonkin charged with clearing multiple paths through a minefield in preparation for a breakthrough by the main column.

The main sections of mines were protected by barbed wire.  Lt. Tonkin with Crabtree, Flashman and Godfrey probed the mines on the right.  Pike with the bren set up on a sand dune overlooking the centre to provide covering and supporting fire if necessary.  Fraser and Walker set up opposite the centre with Sgt Wilson in close support while Carstairs was probing on the left ready to be supported by the centre if it was a viable route.   

Lt. Tonkin on the right met no resistance in the form of direct sentries and was able to remove a significant portion of mines.  Crabtree, Flashman and Godfrey were slower in arriving at the mines and were less successful.

In the centre it soon became clear Jerry was patrolling in strength making approaches for Fraser and Walker more problematic and slow.  Sgt. Wilson deployed to the left in support of Carstairs.  Precious time had thus been lost and by the time they were able to get in position to start clearing a path Jerry was aware what was happening.  Carstairs was subject of concentrated fire and was struck but as luck would have it he was struck on his cigarette case and bullet ricocheted harmlessly off.  Sgt. Wilson wisely took the decision to withdraw rather than be less lucky than Carstairs and no headway was made on the left.

Meanwhile on the right Jerry now started paying attention to Tonkin and his team.  Luckily their wild firing into the void failed to find the mark but it would only have been a matter of time especially as Hermans from a nearby hut were now rushing to join their comrades and would overwhelm Tonkin and his chaps.

Unfortunately Fraser and Walker were caught out in the open as Jerry got his act together as they were making a surreptitious approach towards the centre.  They were outgunned and although were able to loose off some rounds on this occasion their world renowned marksmanship was sub par.  Walker was downed by a lucky shot but was able to crawl away to fight - literally - another day.  Alas Fraser went into the bag holding the Jerry’s up and allowing his comrades to make an orderly withdrawal.  

While this commotion was unfolding Pike offered covering fire from the bren and took out a couple of Jerry’s but ultimately drew the conclusion that discretion was the better part of valour and crept away to fight another day.

Overall a disappointing show despite some heroic efforts from Lt. Tonkin but most of the chaps got away with just their pride dented and importantly no permanent losses. 

Sengoku Japanese: Mounted Samurai

Continuing on with my Fireforge Samurai this week I've completed a unit of mounted Samurai. As I'm going for battles later on in the Sengoku period the troops are mostly armed with melee weapons as opposed to the bow of the earlier times.

I have added on bow armed Samurai as he could be used in Test of Honour so it's good to have that choice later on down the line.

As with many wargamers I'm not a massive fan of painting cavalry but I only have 30 to do in total for both sides so they won't be a large feature of the armies.

Next up I have some command units on the go.

Fox and the Rat: Day 1, Battle 1.

The first act of our new campaign saw Lt. Gruber lead his small band of picked men on the offensive behind enemy lines. Their objective was to knock out the anti-tank gun emplacement which over looked the minefield. They then needed to withdraw, hopefully with minimal losses to achieve a complete victory. 

The 8th Army had set several patrols up around the target and an officer was making sure they stuck to their tasks. 

For this mission Lt. Gruber had picked Sergeant Klinkerhoffen and Privates Geerhart, Grosse, Schafer, & Weiss to accompany him. Gruber and Klinkerhoffen had demolition charges whilst Geerhart was equipped with an MG34 and Schafer a sniper rifle.

The early stages of the mission saw Gruber and Klinkerhoffen advance on the enemy patrol route whilst the rest of the men took up position to give supporting fire. Schafer took up a good position on a hill and awaited his chance to start picking off the guards.

This didn't take long as the British officer had been generally wondering around to the north of the objective and the guard with a dog had become separated from the rest of the guards patrolling around the perimeter. Schafer took aim and did not miss his target. The guard fell and the dog ran off into the night.

This allowed Klinkerhoffen to advance and hide the body of the fallen guard on his way to the gun emplacement. Disaster almost struck as he discovered the emplacement was in fact a booby-trapped dummy! However Klinkerhoffen was not so easily dealt with and after disarming the trap he pushed on towards the objective.

Schafer had also been busy during this time and as the British officer came into view he too was felled with a single shot. This however had alerted the rest of the defenders and reinforcements had started to come into the area.

They could not stop Klinkerhoffen from placing his charge, but disaster struck again! This time the clock on the charge was faulty and it went off before he had a chance to retire to a safe distance. The angels must have been on his side though as he avoided injury by ducking behind some crates and then scampered further away.

Whilst the Tommies blundered around and tried to find the raiders they could not pin them down successfully and as a last act Schafer shot his third bullet which felled the British Sergeant and ended all hope of a coordinated search.

Lt. Gruber and his men slipped away into the night to report back a complete success to headquarters.

This means that the 8th Army A/T gun has been knocked out and will not be available for the VfV game when the DAK attack.

Sengoku Japanese: Yari Samurai 2

As I've been on leave this week I've cracked on with a second unit of melee Samurai, again mostly Yari armed.

These chaps carry the colours of the Mori clan and are once again Fireforge Games miniatures. I did print off some tetsubo and converted one of them to carry this instead. 

Next up are some mounted Samurai and then probably some commanders.

Sengoku Japanese: Yari Samurai

Having painted plenty of Ashigaru it's now time for some Samurai to take the field. These are all Fireforge Games models from the melee box which gives plenty of options to make up different warriors. 

I've armed the majority with Yari as this became the dominant melee weapon as the period progressed but with a few chaps hanging onto their Naginata for use in Test of Honour. This also adds some more variety to the unit, not that it really needs it with the various armour and cloth colours. I also made a Nodachi armed leader for the unit by cutting the top off his sword and gluing another blade on top. It's probably not the strongest construction but plastic glue is normally pretty good. 

This gives me one of the two Samurai melee blocks I have planned for each side, these sports the mon of the Shimazu clan. Next up will be a similar unit for the Mori clan and then I've got some mounted Samurai ready to go. The good thing with the various different troops types is the ability to mix up what's on the painting table and keep things fresh. The multi-coloured armour ties are a bit hard on the old eyes though so I'll be glad to get back on the Ashigaru who have less of those to paint.

WW2: Fox and the Rat Campaign

After a couple of refresher games of V for Victory we are ready to kick off our combined VfV and 0200 Hours campaign, which should run over the next few months. I've knocked up a map and some campaign rules which are subject to change as we go along but at least give a starting point for some linked games.

The year is 1942 and the fight for North Africa has reached a critical junction with both sides taking the offensive. The Allies have opted to  attack along the coastal route whilst the DAK have taken to the interior in a flanking manoeuvre.

Each turn will consist of either one day action or one night action being taken by each side. So most turns will consist of two battles, one being chose by each side. Commando raids always happen at night and VFV actions can either be in the day or night time.

The aim is for each force to reach and capture the opposing town before the other side takes their town. Towns can only be taken by advancing your main force into the town square but this advance can be supported by commando raids to weaken the enemies fighting strength.

No more than 2 commando raids can be launched in a row before you need to make a VFV attack.

Commando targets

Name	Effect	Rebuilt?
Minefield	A thick belt of mines is present on the battlefield to hinder any advance.	N
A/T Gun	A free A/T gun can be placed on the battlefield by the defender for VFV battles.	N
Airfield/Artillery Battery	Gives a free artillery / plane barrage at the start of a VFV battle.	Y
Barracks	Allows you to assign reinforcements to either your defensive POI or your VFV forces. Captured commando’s are held at the barracks if one is available.	Y
Fuel Dump	Fuel and ammo is vital for your forces to fight effectively. Whilst the dump is destroyed you gain an addition Burn in any shoot/fight action in VFV and vehicles cannot go L in a move step.	Y

You can spend a turns action to rebuild a destroyed infrastructure item rather than attacking.

Experience & Recovery

VFV:

Recruit’s become Regular after one battle.

Regular’s become Elite after three battles.

Divisional units can never gain / lose experience levels.

Unit’s stationed in reserve regain 1 man per day with no loss of experience.

Men in the reserve platoon can be used to fill out the ranks of the fighting platoon but if they are of lower quality than the unit they are joining the unit drops one experience level.

Defending armies never gain experience and never track losses, they start as Regular each battle with the normal complement of men (unless bolstered by reserves from the Barracks).

0200

One commando that survived a battle (even if wounded or captured) may retain a Veteran card they have been assigned. A commando may never have more than one card assigned.

After action roll for dead/disabled commando’s

1	Miraculous escape, add the soldier straight back to your roster.
2-4	Limping in, the soldier escaped but must recover from his wounds. Add back to roster but he must sit out one day’s actions.
4-7	Captured, place in the enemies Barracks. If the barracks is not available then count as lost as he is sent straight back to HQ.
8	He’s dead Jim, send a letter back home as the soldier has made the ultimate sacrifice.

 

Barracks

Each barracks has eight men who can each be assigned each turn to either:

1). An attacking / defending VFV force where they fill up the grey infantry slots and do not impact the units experience rating.

2). Assigned as extra guards to a commando raid target.

You can change this each turn and divide them amongst multiple VFV forces / commando targets.

Airfield/Artillery Battery

Resources are limited so you must choose each turn if you are assigning these to either your attacking or defending army.

 

VFV battles

When you make your force selection you can choose to swap units from the main platoon with those in the reserve platoon. Men can also be moved from reserve sections to top up losses in heavy/special weapon teams, these teams can also be placed in reserve to regain losses as described above.

0200 battles

You must choose your commando team from the men available on your commando roster.