Combat Commander

Apologies for the lack of posts this month.  I have been ultra slack at painting (done none).  Playing too much Call of Duty live on the Xbox.  But I have also been playing a lot of tabletop games, averaging one a week.  That's been a mixture of Dystopian Wars, Blitzkrieg Commander and Victory at Sea.

My latest shinny thing is Combat Commander Pacific and the New Guinea expansion pack from GMT Games.  .Combat Commander Pacific is ranked number 3 on Boardgame Geeks best wargames of all time list.  It's a Squad Leader style game with squad counters and squad weapons such as LMG's, HMG's and mortars.  You control platoons of units fighting historical scenarios.  All your moves are card driven which is a great game mechanic because you can't really pre-plan anything.  You need to think on the spot with this game.  Combat Commander Pacific has Australian units and battles so that's why I got it.  And I can convert a lot of the scenarios to miniature wargaming.  Anyway, my friend Jason is going to walk me through a game shortly.  He is a veteran gamer of Combat Commander Europe.  I will let you know how I go.

And I will paint something soon - I promise.  And if anyone want's to link up on Xbox live.  Let me know.

Afrika Korps v Australians : Blitzkrieg Commander Battle Report

Welcome to another Blitzkrieg Commander Battle Report.  This time we return to the desert in 1943 and pit the Deutschland Afrika Korps against the Australian Imperial Force.  Godders commands the Germans, I command the AIF.   At stake is the small town of El Godfrey, a place where weary goat herders can rest after a long day of goat herding.  (Does anyone know where I can buy some 15mm goats?)  Rommel needs this town as a staging point for his thrust to Cairo.  The Australian plan is simple and it worked at Tobruk.  Let Rommels tanks pass the outer defensive perimeter and draw them onto hidden guns.  Ambush the following infantry.  And cut off the panzers retreat. 
 

 The Panzers advance towards El Godfrey in two powerful formations.

"It's a trap!"  The Australian anti-tank guns sited in the town open fire on the Germans.  British armoured support hits the Panzers in the flanks.  The German commander is not worried.  His following infantry will deal with the guns while he turns to deal with the flank tank attack.  "Where are the infantry?"  

"It's another trap!"  The Australians rise out of their caves and ambush the panzer grenadiers on the left & right flanks.  This was a blood bath.  All the bonus flank shots decimated the Germans.  After the first round of shooting only a few Germans remained. (Apologies for unpainted figures - that's a carton).  

 The Panzers take a terrible beating from the Anti-Tank guns.

 But the Australians don't get it all their own way.

 The Germans turn to secure their flanks.

The British are out gunned and out armoured.  Very soon the British tanks are all burning wrecks.  However enough damage has been done to the German Battlegroup and they reach breaking point.  A roll of the dice seals their fate and they are forced to retreat.

El Godfrey has been held.

This game was set up in scenario format ignoring army points.  It was going to be a hard ask for the Germans to win.  The idea was to have a fun game.  All it takes are a few failed CV rolls on the Australians part and the Germans would have a good chance of winning.  We tried to simulate the circumstances of the first battle of Tobruk, using a later time period to suit our models.  It seemed to work.  A good interesting game that lasted 2 hours.  We have seen what German do to cows, thankfully the goats where saved.    

Over the Top

SHOCK!

I checked my emails this morning and found a Warhammer Historical Newsletter proclaiming the release of Over the Top.  This is the long awaited supplement to The Great War, containing army lists for the whole war and new trench fighting rules.  As you will remember The Great War only covered 1914 & 1918 when the war was mobile.  Full colour WWI.  I had to order a copy.  

Belgians v Germans : Blitzkrieg Commander Battle Report

The brave Belgians and the Germans face off in a 1000 point meeting engagement of Blitzkrieg Commander.  Both sides advance towards a farmhouse destroyed by the relentless Luftwaffe.  Yours truly commands the Belgians, Guido commands the Hun.

The Belgians win initiative and move first, attempting an outflanking maneuver on the left.  The Belgians have one awesome ACG-1, and two not so awesome FT-17's.

Unfortunately, the Belgian flanking tanks are up against a nasty German tank formation.  Outranged and outgunned the Belgians are destroyed in a matter of minutes.  Flanking maneuver failed.

The Germans decided they don't like cows and shoot them all.  Here two German mortar teams set up behind a stone wall.  Ready to rain suppression down on any Belgian infantry that advance towards the farm.

And here come the Belgians advancing along the right road.  Infantry with a couple of HMGs in support.  They come under heavy mortar fire.  Yellow markers are suppression.  Blue dice are the hits taken.  Each unit needs 6 hits to be knocked out of the game.

More Belgian infantry advancing in the centre.  This time they have 47mm SA-FRC anti-tank guns in support.  However highly mobile German infantry are now in the farmhouse and are raining down fire on the attackers.  Both AT Guns are suppressed and are soon knocked out without firing a shot.

The Belgians Alamo.  They make it towards the protective cover of a stone wall and find more German cow atrocities.  The Belgians have two anti-tank rifles which will surely put a halt to the advancing Panzers.

The Panzers line up on the Belgians left flank and let rip.  The Belgians are under intense fire from armour, mortars, infantry and HMG's.  Before long the Belgians reach breakpoint, fail their break dice roll and run off the battlefield.  Germany victorious.  The Belgians lost three tank units, two AT units, two AT Rifle units, and three infantry units before breaking and fleeing.  The Germans lost one HMG unit and two Infantry units.  Thanks for the game Guido.

1st Game of Dystopian Wars

 The ocean battleground. 

The heroic Empire of the Blazing Sun on the right.  The evil Federated States of America on the left.  This was a 400pt recon game.

 

 Two fine squadrons of Empire ships.  A mighty Battleship and two cruisers.

 Two sneaky Federation blimps and one solitary heroic squadron of Empire tiny flyer fighters.

The final shame.  My Empire battleship was boarded by Marines from three Federation cruisers and taken as a prize.  

Last night I travelled to the Outpost North gaming club to participate in my first ever game of Dystopian Wars.  It was a simple 400 point recon game.  My opponent was Jason, a fine outstanding gentleman with excellent modeling and game tutorial skills.  The game lasted three turns.  To put it simply, I got SMASHED.  My whole fleet was sunk, except the battleship which was taken as a prize.  My Tiny Flyers were all shot down.  I did get a couple of campaign points for having a fully painted fleet.  YAY.  The Federals lost three frigates sunk, and one taken as a prize. (That only happened because Jason was gracious enough to tell me how to carry out that maneuver).

My thoughts on Dystopian Wars.  This is not an easy game to play.  You need to be aware of your ships capabilities.  When to link attack and defensive weapons, when not to link them.  Be aware of ranges.  Watch out for blimps.  They are nasty.  Tiny Flyers suck.  They are really complex to use, get shot down easily, and they don't do much damage.  Jason explained that they are better to use as a swarm.  Frigates are nasty little ships.  Fast, and they throw out a heap of firepower.  I really underrated the frigate but I now have a greater appreciation for them.  Boarding ships is nasty.  The number of marines in each ship is very important.  Stay away from ships with a lot of marines.  The battlefield gets ugly with a lot of counters next to damaged ships.  I really don't like that but its part of the game.  In summary, I really enjoyed myself.  I have to study the rulebook more.  Again, many thanks to Jason for his time.  I learnt a lot.  But will I remember it!  

Tiny Flyers

I have not been very painting pro-active lately and in a mad rush today I had to paint up six bases of tiny flyers for my Dystopian Wars campaign game tonight.  White are my fighters, and the silvers are my torpedo bombers.  These things are tiny.  The bases are 20mm x 20mm and each plane is 6mm in length.

Bombers over the Phillippines

I just signed up to a Dystopian Wars escalation campaign with a bunch of local D-Wars players.  Bombers over the Philippines written by Mr D6G Craig Gallant will have us all waring over the above map with sea, air and land forces.  It's a casual paced campaign which really suits me.

First mission is recon.  400 pts.  I am thinking about throwing in a Battleship, two Cruisers, and eight frigates with 6 squadrons of tiny flyer's as air support.  Any suggestions welcome.

Black Powder - The Last Argument of Kings

Warlord Games have announced the impending arrival of the first Black Powder supplement titled The Last Argument of Kings : Warfare in the 18th Century.  Wars covered will include

• The War of the Spanish Succession – the Battle of Blenheim (1704)
• The Great Northern War – the Battle of Holowczyn (1708)
• The Austro-Turkish Wars – the Battle of Petrovardin (1716)
• The War of the Austrian Succession – the Battle of Fontenoy (1745)
• The Wars of the English Succession – the 1745 Rebellion
• The Seven Years’ War – the Battle of Hundorf (1762)
• War in the Colonies – The French Indian War & The War in India
• Raids and Invasions – Amphibious Warfare in the 18th Century 

Very interesting indeed.  Can't wait for an American Civil War supplement.