600 pt Escalation comes to a close.

Sorry to Marty: I should have posted our game much sooner, so we can see the finished US Paras.



And here are some vids

vs US Paras



600 Pt Total War mega battle, 3 x 600 point armies, vs another 3 x 600 pt armies.

The Escalation Escalates - 26. Panzer-Division Support

I am very happy to have completed a large portion of my support options for my Mid-War Fallshirmjager Company.  I am holding off on gluing on the aerials until I figure a way to transport them so that they don't bend/break...

Front Row: 2 Panzer III L/Ms. 2 Panzer IV Gs, 2 Panzer III Ns.
Back Row: 2 Marder III Ms, 3 Tiger I Es

See more after the break.

Panzer IV H Platoon

My platoon of Panzer IVH arrived in the post on Tuesday and I got straight to work. Here are some shots of the completed platoon. I used the same camo colors across the platoon, varying the pattern on each tank to maintain unit cohesion, all the while adding uniqueness to each vehicle:

Click on after the break to see some more close up shots! As always, feedback is encouraged and appreciated.

Germans vs Soviets: 1000pt MW Tag Team (Demo)

Lists:
Soviets -Moto HQ w/ 1 company with 3 platoons, 1 company with 1 SMG platoon, sappers, 4 AT guns, 5 T-70s.
Germans - GepanzertepanzerGrens HQ, 2 platoons, 4 panzers, 2 pak 38s.

Deployment: Soviet horde company on the right soviet objective. AT guns on the left Soviet objective. Soviets deployed first and get first turn. German AT guns on their left objective. One platoon of GepanzertepanzerGrens in the middle. Scattered Reserves for both sides.

Turn 1: Soviets fail to dig in. German Pak38s move to the rock wall.

Turn 2: Soviets bring on 5 T-70s on the far right flank with Scattered Reserves and they come down off the escarpment and line up with the infantry. Sappers come on at the farm house by the left Soviet objective. Germans get Panzers right in front of the Soviet light tanks an bail 2 T-70s and kill one.

Game Summit Prep Work

I offered to help Corey out again with some prep work he needed done. Last event I helped with painting some boards. This time he asked me to paint up a Fortress of Redemption. Its a decent chunk of plastic. Lots of nice details. I had to cut a few corners as I only got the piece a week ago and had FoW models to paint up as well...I think it turned out OK.

USSR Heavy KV-1S

Here are some newly finished KV-1S tanks supporting some infantry in there advance off my painting area.

FoW AAR 15 plus added TerrainGuys to the blogroll

(Above) Marty placing 105mm Arty templates in an overview shot.

Hey guys, been chatting with Shawn Morris of the TerrainGuys blog, and so added their blog to the roll..

Alright, here are some shots from Marty's US vs Chris' Russians. Chris has a list of 6 lists,and rolled up a dual artillery list.
Marty's Shermans, sporting a new camo scheme, put the pressure on Chris' guns.

Chris has this blob of infantry guarding the US reserve deployment zone.


Yet another arty template slams into the russians.. I'll let the video tell the rest

FoW AAR 14: S vs S - Lothlann takes on Pripyat

Deployment: Pripyat's force is on the bottom ("nearside"). Made up of scouts (grey bases), large conscript horde with attached sappers (brown bases) and flamethrowers (blackish bases). Both near objectives are straddling the large horde by the river and the hill (small infantry, AT guns and 6 T-34s in reserves). Lothlann's armoured force from left to right; trained moto-infantry along the road, T-34s behind small houses, Armoured recon amongst tall buildings (in reserve are 2 Su-85s, 4 Su-76s and a buttload of Stuarts). First turn passes uneventfully. Barely any movement. Both recon units move up slightly after deployment.

Top of 2: Pripyat gets two reserve companies. Tanks aggressively push up the left flank - 12 inches (top). Conscript horde is free to move forward as the arriving reserve AT guns move in to secure rear objective. Scouts step into the treeline. [Bottom of 2, Lothlann's tank company moves forward and fails to impress (bails one or does nothing). Transports engage scouts in treeline and kill one.]

Top of 3: Pripyat's nearside tanks advance and kill one and bail one or two. Infantry push forward.

Bottom of 3: Lothlann's tanks split fire at the advancing tanks and infantry. He manages to bail a nearside tank and with machine guns punishes the advancing infantry focusing on conscript horde on the right.

Top of 4: Nearside tanks advance and continue to punish enemy T-34s. Nearside infantry continue pushing forward. Two flamethrowers get in range and attempt to cook some tankers but fail to impress. Scouts weave right to give right flank some extra meat.



Bottom of turn 4: Lothlann's T-34s advance towards the enemy tanks and pop and bail nearside T-34s....and continues to decimate the advancing soviet horde. Armoured recon (top right) continue to punish infantry on Blood Hill.

Top of 6: Pripyat's tanks engage Lothlann's transports. Pop two and kill 3 embarked infantry. AT guns move up and attempt to take out a few enemy recon vehicles and manage to push them back (right).
[in turn 5 Pripyat attempted to snipe the 1ic by moving one tank forward onto the road (top left). He destroyed the enemy command vehicle but the warrior managed to transfer to a nearby conscript tank. The tank company then fled... BUT after having zero reserves arrive Lothlann finally had some luck and got two Assault Gun companies and lined them up behind the row of houses, facing the lone T-34...and slaughtered it. Lothlann's transports book it way from advancing tanks and continue to engage infantry.]

We called it after turn 6 or 7. Pripyat's advance had been stopped. The red tide was turning....

FoW AAR 13: Canadians vs Desert Rats

(Above) Overview of the map. The Royal Canadian Artillery decided to park behind the huge hill, and my Priests deploy behind the small forest. First of many Huge MistakesTM is made here. My Priests have shorter range than his guns, so he can hit me with impunity.


As evidenced here, wih my Shermans who are trying to rectify Huge MistakeTM #2, don't leave an objective open to a sherman rush with nothing to contest, thinking reserves come in turn 1 (Turn 3 really) and that you can pick where they come in (Scattered Reserves) and that your RAF and Arty can demolish them since if they move on the double, they get hit twice( They don't) READ THE MISSION PROPERLY NEXT TIME haha


My shermans from the above pic actually survived long enough to get into the Canadian Artillery park and harass. However, Huge MistakeTM #3: Don't stay in trucks if you don't have to, as the survivors of this arty barrage fled the field, forcing me into compay morale checks

Huge MistakeTM #4 and weird situation: Turn hull mounted MGs to face potential assaults!!

Video Rules question:

And lastly, the full Video AAR vs Drew's Canuckleheads..speaking of, check out Drew's excellent shots of this game on his FoW blog, Covering Fire: http://covering-fire.blogspot.com/2011/01/upstart-colonials.html

FoW AAR 12 Russia v Germans

(Above) German Halftracks belonging to Tristan deploy near the Farming Collective vs Brett's Soviets


Overview of the Board. I didn't get many shots of this game or video, since I was busy playing AAR 13, maybe someone else needs to take some pics next time?

Brett's painted AT guns skulking on the edge of the forest there.. they are so used to shootig at Tristans all tank army, they don't know what to shoot at now that he is taking Grenadiers!

Brief Video of this game below

FoW AAR 11: Sov's vs Germans

(above) Marder's Guard a flank in the best spot: Straddling a forest edge, so they are concealed.


Overview of the map, the Russians are charging up the center towards objectives..


Losing many men to the MG42's in the woods near to the Marders. Unfortunately, the first IL-2 bombing run fails to range in on the Germans at all.. too bad, they were clustered together nicely...


After getting the Strelkovy's unpinned, the 2nd Russian bombing run spots halftracks that have Stormtrooper-moved really close to an objective...
..And this time the ranging in is perfect.. massive casualties ensue
Russians make it to this objective near the crashed plane and burnt out building.. Video Below to finish out. Enjoy

FoW AAR 10: Team America vs Team Tigers

Well well, what have we here coming into town?
Marty graces us with his presence for an afternoon FoW battle vs Alex's hastily assembled Germans.. If you'll recall, 2 weeks ago he participated in his first game, and now he gets to use his own stuff.. all 7 models of it.


(above) Here we have the main layout, Mission was Free For All, you can see the King Tiger model is the tiger HQ on the hill, another Tiger to its left, one near the main town, and 4 Panzerknacker armed stands guarding the town objective. Marty's Americans have fast movers coming down the left flank there, with the M10 Jeeps waiting for the perfect time to remove the tarps from the 4 Wolverines..

Marty's Shermans wisely stay in the trees, out of LOS to the Tiger coming down Haupt Strasse.. 40 inch range is very far, and all 3 Tiger's rolled 3 ROF skill.


Above: The center ground between the two hamlets is covered by a Tiger and HQ (King) Tiger, which is on the bluffs, in the shadow of the Blackthorn Cider-sponsored grain silo!


Marty's Rifle Half Tracks cozy up the hamlet, trying to stay concealed from the (barely visible) gun barrel of the Tiger in the town across the field..


Marty's Rifles


Marty's M10s spring a trap on the Tiger moving to claim an objective.. the Rifles had to also break cover to contest it or lose.. would 5 bazooka teams plus 4 Wolverines be enough to stop the german armor? Video Below

Flames of War Escalation league

The Drunken Gamers of Ottawa are starting a Flames of War Escalation league!

With Flames of War picking up steam, all of us busily working away on terrain/armies, and more people showing interest every week. This is a GREAT time to start one!

Some of my inspiration comes from HERE  

We will start out small, say 600 points, 1 HQ and 1 combat platoon minimum, and grow from there. This will encourage painting (which we are all pretty good at already) for newer players, and make all our games look awesome with always playing with painted stuff. It will also encourage small, faster, simpler games for use to really learn the nuances of the rules and tactics of this awesome game. It also allows us to keep playing regularly, and not burn out on trying to get loads done asap. Again, we can even encourage people to bring new players to test it out, knowing that games will be smaller and easier to "demo" weekly if needed.

I'm thinking we will have 3 stages, each of 4 weeks starting with 600 points, then 1000, then 1500. That gives people a month to paint roughly 500 point blocks of models, so we can work on other things (if we want) and still progress.

We can also be setting certain pre-determined scenarios for each point bracket, so as to ease the list building and make the games link together like a campaign. Each player will have to play as many different opponents as possible. I would also like to cap it off with a round robin tourney over the course of a Sat or Sun and the end!

I'm looking to kick things off in the next week or two so stay tuned to this space (keyword "Escalation League") to see people's progress and lists!

Cheers,

Russian Infantry

Here are my 4 finished motostrelkovy platoons minus there commands which are next up. After that I have to paint up my BA-10M scout cars as well as a 4 razvedki squads, command and there transports.