Operation Sea Lion: Scenario One - the rematch

So, time for the rematch. 

After a week of pondering about how I was going to take the British HQ, I decided to go for a different force to the one that Terry used last week. I took two assault squads, one 5 man and the other 6. Similarly to Terry, they were all armed with SMGs, but also carrying a little explosive powder as well. Unlike the Saboteurs, they need a 6+ to destroy the HQ, but one or two extra chances is good.

A very pretty table to play on.

They were backed up by two saboteurs squads, and an infiltrator dressed in his best English Uniform and home knitted scarf, he’d be sent off infiltrating into the Kent countryside, and if need be, he would have a chance to explode the HQ as well.

I didn’t have much of a game plan, going into the battle, but seeing Terry deploy his forces on to the table helped me. I was facing two Home Guard Units, and a MMG. I was going to send my two squads to deal with the Home Guard, and hope that my infiltrators could sneak past the MMG and blow up the HQ.

Turn 1:

I pulled out the early dice, and my boats came to shore, two squads disembarked on my left flank, and headed up the boat, hoping to get in and disrupt the inexperienced Home Guard. 

Terry, had wisely put one of his squads onto ambush, but how does this resolve with the night fighting rules, which, dictate how far you can see in any given moment. After a gentlemanly discussion, we decided to allow it, but to interpret the rules, thusly.

A unit can go on over watch, when a unit moves into line of sight, it rolls 2D6, as per the night fighting rules. If they can see the unit, they can shoot, if not they just imagined the sound of someone walking on the beach. 

Survivng, for the moment

However, Terry was able to see, and put a pin marker on one of my units. However, worse was to happen. Activating his squad in the model, he opened fire, and my five man squad disappeared in a hail of bullets. Things were not looking to good.

However, on the right side the Infiltration agent had slipped in, unnoticed by the MMG team, and then the officer and one of the Saboteur squads crept forward and opened fire, causing two hit markers and two wounds. Terry, somehow passed his test, and it was left for my final saboteur squad to run up the beach, as a man ran to the phone box to ring for reinforcements.

The Germans are here. 

Turn 2:

With a roll of a six, the sun burst over the beaches of Kent, revealing to the stoic British defenders, the forces of the Germans infront of them. 

Pulling the first dice, Terry elected to open fire with the MMG on the infiltrating Germans, however a failed order later, the MMG went down. Only to be caught in a hail of bullets from the German Officer.

The six man squad on the left, in an act of retribution, and to bring them closer to the objective, moved towards the ten man squad in the centre, and opened fire with their SMG’s, killing 5 men. The squad, being new to this soldering, bottled their order test and fled. Leaving a big hole in the middle of Terry’s centre. 

However, the squad on the right, though diminished from fire in the previous turn, opened fire on the six man squad, and killed one of them. 

Meanwhile, on the right flank the infiltratrors headed towards the objective. As the turn came to a close, the first of Terry’s reinforcement’s came on to the board, and a single squad made their way to defend the beach. 

Turn 3: 

In a clever move, I was going to charge my five man squad into Terry’s remaining Home Guard unit, wipe them out in combat. Then I’d use their free move to bring them into touch with the objective and blow it up in the next turn.

It would have been fantastic, until I failed the order roll on a double 6. FUBAR, my battle plan was ruined and the squad ran off to paddle in the sea. 

Meanwhile on the right flank, Terry’s dice came out allowing him to advance his squad forward with the aim to wipe them off the face of the earth. However, combining the squad going down, and being a small unit, Terry was only able to put a single hit marker on, they both lived.

Boyed on by this success, the other saboteur squad charged forward, and made it into contact with the HQ. This was a game winning move.

Or it would have been if it were not for the home guard squad who charged in and wiped them out in comat.

The game was pretty much over by this point, but as turn 3, the infiltrator, dressed in his nice English Uniform and his scarf, disappeared into the undergrowth and into the English Country side, only stopping to salute the British Officer running to the front line. 

Hum... these English holidays' are no fun.

Turn 4: 

Terry, took the initive this turn, and the Saboteur squad holded up between the fortificatons were quickly mowen down by the English Regualrs in a round of combat. The German Commander, who was just contemplating which boat was quicker to get to was then cut down by the Home Guard unit.

Meanwhile, Terry’s final squad finally came onto the field to find out what all this fuss was about

My final squad, decided that escape was a better part of valour and with a final shout of “we’ll be back” disappeared back into the channel.

Final Score

Terry: 8 vicotry points David: 2 Victory points.

This was a remarkably quick game, over within an hour and a half, and fair play to Terry, the dice were in his favour and he fully deserves the 3 campaign points he took. 

There were two moments, that defined the battle., Firstly, my losing the squad in the middle of the table, on turn 1. That had a major impact on the battle. Secondly, failing my order test and FUBARing, with my other squad, who ran back to the boats. If it wasn’t for these two, I could have won this game.

At least, that’s what I keep telling myself.

You’ll notice that the Infiltration Agent crept off into the undergrowth at the end of turn 3, Terry and I decided, that this would be a good idea to add an additional thematic element to the campaign 

We'll be back

and so this whole raid was actually a roose, to get him into England, and we agreed that in one of our future games, he’ll make a reappearance on the German side. 

If I remember him.

Next week, Hitler’s forces descended upon the beaches. 

Operation Sea Lion Scenario 1

"Put that light out."

Scenario 1: Brandenburg Costal Raid

I blame Band of Brothers for this

Throughout 2018, Terry and myself had worked our way through the Battle of the Bulge scenarios. With the US forces having successfully broken out of the German pocket, our thoughts turned to what’s next. 

Operation Sealion.

Hitler’s plan to invade Britain. Something, he never put into action, but it’ll be good fun to see what if. So, after some planning, watching Dad’s Army (mainly on my part) and a bit of painting we gathered together to play the first scenario, Brandenburg Costal Raid. 

Walmington on Sea's finest

Terry and I had a discussion and we decided to add a bit of flavour to this scenario and we were going to add the night fighting rules. Our thinking was clear. It’s late in the night, the sun is close to rising, when the German’s attack is launched. 

The objective for the Germans was to destroy the British HQ, a lovely British cottage, with a beautiful sea view. The Brits had to stop them. I knew I was taking the British Forces, and having read through the scenario I decided the key to my success, will be having as many men on the board as I can.

So, three 10 man squads, a smaller 5 man home guard squad, made up of the Dad’s army soldiers, a MMG, and a officer and his man (Captain Mainwearing and Sargent Wilson look alikes no less) made up my 500 point force.

As per the scenario guidelines, I split my force into two. Three units would start on the board, and three off. I chose to set up the MMG, and the forces of Walmington on Sea. This was nothing more, than it was fun and looked awesome, seeing the Home Guard platoon patrolling. 

Turn 1:

 The early dice pulled were mine, and I decided to wisely put the squads, off the board, down, waiting to see how Terry would launch his assault. Meanwhile, off the coast, the boat’s came in on my right of the table. Deny, the MMG set up on my left of the table, valuable targets. 

Don't panic

With the boats successfully beached, Terry ran his forces up the coastal force. His lead assault squad, charged forward, and into a volley of shots from the Home Guard squad. As he charged, forward, a German was shot down. However, in response the squads Assault rifles, let rip and three men were mowen down from the Home Guard. A passed order test later, and the squad was going nowhere. Over the battlefield, all could be heard was shouts of “Don’t Panic”

Elsewhere the MMG, despite it’s poor positioning, was able to see Terry’s other assault squad, and let rip adding a hit marker and another dead German. 

Ring the bells, the Germans are here

The turn came to an end with Sargent Wilson heading to the phone box, and the words “Would you  mind awfully sending some reinforcements please. The  Germans are here". 

Turn 2:

  We rolled to see if dawn broke, but the night was still young. Terry, took the early dice and his assault squad and sabotage squad advance forward, pouring fire into the Home Guard squad. However, a combination of going down, cover, and poor dice rolling kept them alive, for another turn.

My first dice of the turn was pulled, and I tired to bring on a squad of the board, but I Fubar’d with a double 6. The squad was going nowhere, a blow to my plan. Meanwhile, my other two squads came on successfully, and ran forward to engage with the Germans that had appeared on the Right hand side.

Jones did not like it up him.

Turn 3:

Taking the first dice, Terry charged his assault squad over the hedge and into combat with the last two men of the home guard squad. It was inevitable, and despite shouts of they don’t like it up them, they were wiped out, earning Terry.

Meanwhile Terry moved two of his sabotage squads towards the edge of the house. Meanwhile, in the battle of the field, Terry’s squad had advanced towards the house, and into the line of fire of one of my squads later, they were still alive. But down to two men, and heavily pinned. 

Good news for me, saw the third squad advance on to the board, and in what will be a moment of tactical brilliance (what joy hindsight is) I advance them down the right hand side of the cottage, knowing that I might not be able to stop Terry getting to the cottage, but I can then charge them with a full squad. 

I was going to move my second squad forward, however it ended up under heavy fire, and losing four men. Even advancing my captain to help, reduce the pin markers, didn’t help. 

The final man, from Terry’s assault squad was cut down by the MMG.

Turn 4:

The dark was starting to get lighter, but the sun was still a long way off. 

Fix bayonets, and charge. 

Things started well for Terry, and he was able to get the first of his sabotage squads into contact with the building. A quick read of the rules for demolition charges (found in Operation Sealion, just don’t ask me to pronounce them) and I could breathe, he had to be in base contact at the start of the turn. 

The next dice was mine, and the saboteur life was cut short under a hail of fire. Meanwhile, Terry, moved his two remaining saboteurs squads towards the cottage. Along, with the lieutenant, and the final squad. 

Turn 5:

Finally, the sun rose, revealing the true extant of the danger to the British forces, the saboteurs were lighting the fuse. It went off with a huge bang, but the building stood firm. 

It's not going to end well for the Germans.

To counter this, the third squad charged the saboteurs and wiped them out. They decided, to stay put, causing a nice blockage between Terry’s third, and final sabotuers squad. 

Their was an exchange of fire, between the first squd, and Terry’s final assault squad, but with little result. The final action of the turn, was to see if the second squad, missing 4 men, and having four pin markers would do anything, and they decided to hunker down for a cup of tea, behind the hedge.

As turn 5 came to a close, we rolled to see if there would be a final turn. With a roll of a two,

Final score.

David 9 Terry 1

It does sound a very comprehensive drubbing of the german forces, however, there were two moments where I though the game had been lost. The first was when my squad, on turn 2, decided not to turn up. However, the fact they came in on the next turn, allowed me to send them in a different direction, that I would have done and I think helped me win the game.

The second moment, was when Terry detonated the bomb, trying to bring down the building. If he had been successful, he would have gain 5 victory, points, and I would have lost 3, making it a 6-6 and a draw. 

However, I’ve won, and I’ve gained 3 campaign points. Now, time to decide what German forces I want to use. 

Pelennor, an update

I'm done, finally....

So my life has been crazy for the last few weeks, however, I have been able to finish my Fell Beast mounted Ringwraith off. Here he is in his painted goodness:) 

So one down, and only another 5 to go. Oh well, on we go, or the battle for Pelennor Fields will never go. I’m actually a bit on a painting break as I need to get some basing done, which is never my favourite task, but once it’s done, it’s done and the models do look better because of it. 

There has been some movement forwards on the battle for Pelennor Fields project. We’ve been talking about unit sizes. We’ve agreed quite easily that infantry, as a whole will be sixteen strong and will be shown as two ranks of 8 models. This is because we’ve got a lot of War of the Rings trays (two ranks of 4) and our historical gaming has seen us use units of sixteen models quite a lot. 

There is one exception to this, which is the units of normal Orcs and Goblins. For this, we are going to go with units of 32 models. This is because Tolkien’s describes Orcs as cowardly types who fight better in bigger units. So units of 32 models seem to fit this. We’ve also had experience of this, again from the historical games, where units of Celts come in at 32, a nice warband. 

However, I’ve decided for Uruk Hai, Morannon Orcs and the Lovely Black Guard of Barad Dur (Which are pretty much Uruk Hai) I feel, that as there bred for war, or to be better than an Orc, that these can be used in units of 16, to differentiate between the class. 

They don't match, and can't be right
way up when you take a photo

I’m going to pause at this point, to talk about weaponry. GW, in the Middle Earth SBG, have given the option for individual warrior(s) to be equipped with individual weapons. So you can have two orcs with bows, four with hand weapon and shields, two with two-handed axes, and four with spears, as an example (which is also what you get on an individual sprue of plastic orcs) 

As I want a smooth game, without a lot of consulting about what each unit is equipped with, I’ve condensed infantry into two types. Bow armed, and everything else. This should make it nice and easy. Yes, for the visual look, I’ll add the spear-armed models, to be behind the hand weapon armed models, but it’ll have no impact on the game. 

However, cavalry units have been a bit more problematic. My original thinking was to go with units of six models, however, when they get into combat, as you can see from the photo to the left, it shows that the unit is wider than the infantry models. Which is a bit annoying.

Matching, and the next thing on my painting table.

So after some discussion, it was proposed to go cavalry units of eight models. Four wide, and two deep. This is great as the units match up with each, and gives us the chance to get more models on the board without the hassle of trying to match up units. 

In other news, I’m now the owner of the Battle for Pelennor Fields box sets, and frankly, it’s an awesome set, and I can’t wait to build, paint and play with the models inside. I’m not going to do a full review, as others have done it, and anyway I’m not great at reviewing. 

I’ve also picked up the Armies of the LOTR which is the book that contains all of the profiles for models that appear in the LOTR. There is another planned for models from the Hobbit shortly. In this book is a number of scenarios that play out some of the key battles, including Pelennor fields, which has given me some ideas for the scenario.

See you soon.

Dragons of a Middlehammer age.

So, my life has taken a little bit of a left turn in the last few weeks or so, but despite the hardships, I’ve been able to paint 35 models in four days. It’s the nice thing about Bolt Action, and historical wargaming in general, is that the models don’t have a lot of additional extras sculpted on, except maybe ECW musketeers, and so you can paint them up real quick. It’s also helped the painting figures for the year.

Please, paint me....

Anyway, as I paint my Fell Beast mounted ringwraith, and yes work is proceeding on that, I’ve pulled down this chappy. It’s the old Wood Elf Lord mounted on Dragon model. It was first released in 1995/ 1996 and it was the first Games Workshop model I ever saw, back in 1996, and it was the model that drew me into the Games Workshop, and later the wider wargaming, scene. 

I finally bought a copy of the model in September 2011, and he came prebuilt, which is great, as I don’t enjoy pinning models, and has sat like that ever since. I’ve always loved the GW dragons from my youth. I already own the original Prince Imirk on Dragon, again released in the 90’s and I’ve added a few more since then. Mainly, the Plastic High Elf Dragon and the Lord of the Rings Dragon and Smaug.

Old school

I'm not going to paint him in the traditional colours, as seen to the left. I've started a Wood Elf force a few years ago, consisting of Archers, and Glade Riders on the advice of a friend. He could do wonders with the army. I didn't have the same ability to win as he did. 

The colour scheme I've chosen in a winter themed, and so the dragon is going to match that. Possibly a grey white body, and dark grey or pale blue scales. We'll see when we get to the painting stage, which is going to be a while as I've got to rebuild him, again.

So, why am I talking about dragons, well obviously, there cool, but thanks to the Games Workshop Made to Order range, I’ve added four more dragons to my collection. They are Zacharias the Everling, the 2001 version of Prince Imrik, the Sister of Twilight and Malekith on Dragon. 

And this has got me thinking, is it possible to get all of the GW dragons. Now I would love the original Chicken Dragon and the great spined dragon, but they go for a lot on eBay, more than I’m willing to pay for. So I’ve decided to get all of the Dragons released from, or were available when I started playing in 1996.

So the Dragons that were available, thanks to the catalogs on So Legends are.

High Elves

Prince Imrik (got)

Wood Elves Lord on Dragon (got)

Orcs and Goblins

Azhag the Slaughter

Chaos
Egrim Von Horstmann

Undead

Liche on Zombie Dragon

Dark Elves

Rakarth on Dragon

So, I’ve got two out of the 6 models available when I started playing. It’s a good start, 33% of the way there. I’m also going to add in this model, Thaindon, Elf lord of Caledor, if I can get hold of him. He was in the back pages of my 4^th edition High Elf Army book, and so I feel that if I can get him, for a good price, I’ll get him. 

So, what releases since then do I need to get

One of the best models out there

High Elves

Prince Imrik (got)

High Elf Sorcerer on Dragon

Plastic Prince Imrik, though never formerly published, you can make an Imrik out of the plastic kit

Wood Elves 

Sisters of Twilight (got)

Orcs and Goblins

Orc Warlord on Wyvern (got)

Azhag the Slaughter

 Chaos

Galruuch

Undead

Zacharias the Everliving (got)

Terrorgiest

Vampire lord on Dragon 

Dark Elves

Malekith (Got)

Dark Elf Lord on Dragon

Dark Elf Sorceress on Dragon

So, this is another 13 models, of which 5 have already been purchased. 38% models I now own. So that means, I’ve got to purchase 14 more models. 

I’m also going to add in three models that they’ve made for Age of Simar. Archaon, on his demonic mount. Though, not a Dragon as such, it’s an awesome model. The Stormcast Star Drake and the Maw Crusha.

So actually 17 models. 

Oh well, off to the painting table we go.

Siege of Gondor - The vision

Inspired by the forthcoming Battle for Pelennor Fields starter set, I've decided to get a move on with my dream game. Assaulting the walls of Minas Tirith.

So, the plan is simple, recreate the whole of the Siege of Gondor in miniature form. It sounds simple, but when you start to sit down and plan, you realise that there are a quite a few hurdles to cross, such as how many models and what rules to use and perhaps the biggest, what to use as the walls of Mias Tirith, before you can get to the stage of putting the models down and playing.

Coming soon to a tabletop near me.

Thankfully, I work in Project Management, and so I can put my work skills into something a lot more useful. The first thing I need to do is define the vision or goal of the project. 

The goal is simple, play through the Seige of Gondor. I keep repeating this, as this is the goal.

Now that we've got the goal, we need to know what the game will look like and that means turning to the source material, the Return of the King book and movie.

The first thing we learn is that there are two distinct parts to Sauron's assault on Gondor.

First up, we've got Sauron's assault on the city of Osgiliath. Now, this is a lot of fun to wargame, a tabletop filled with winding streets, a large river, and lots of potential for ambush spots.

However, as fun as this, this is not what I want to do. I want to recreate the second phase, the siege of Minas Tirith. As I've alluded to earlier, I've recreated Helms Deep, in a large format and looking back at the photo's it's clear that it's this phase I want to do.

In fact, what drives me to do recreate the attack on Minas Tirith, and why I chose the above photo, is that I love the charges of the Rohan Something, that Peter Jackson captured perfectly in the films. Having got the goal, we need to define what events will happen in the battle.

For me, there are four distinct phases to this battle.

1) The assault on the walls of Minas Tirith

2) Ride of the Rohirrim

3) Charge of the Mumak

4) The arrival of the King.

 By defining these four phases, I have made my first miniature related decision. When we recreated the battle of Helms Deep, we did a blend of the Book and Movie. So, as an example, Haldir's Elves were found upon the walls, helping the weary defenders repel the unwanted attention of the Uruk Hai.

And as much as I like the moment where Aragorn jumps over the ship and charges the Orc horde, backed up by a horde of screaming ghosts, this is not in the book, and so the first decision made is that the Army of the Dead won't be seen upon this battle. Even if I'm getting more models in the new starter set.

So, I've got a vision, I want to play a game, where we have all four phases will happen. The next question is how do we do this practically. Phase one is a siege, which is not easy to recreate in a wargame. Phase 3 contains massive monster charging into the ranks of the horse lords, how will we use them. Well, in the next article, I'll be talking about what rules system we'll be using. However, next up a battle report or two. 

Ooops

So, the plan for today was to paint a Fell Beast that I've already started.

Why am I not painted yet?

I was looking forward to painting him, I've got five Fell Beasts. Two of the original metals, two of the plastics, as seen here to the right, and the original metal Witch King atop a Fell Beast.

The forthcoming Battle for Pellanor fields also has the plastic variant Witch King on Fell Beast, which will give me six. The plastic model has a spare Ringwraith and I plan to use him instead of the Metal Witch King model so that I can have 6.

I just need to paint them. 

Instead, I painted something else.

We're not Ringwraiths.

 Yep, a squad of plastic SS appeared on my desk. These were bought earlier in the year as I've been playing through the Battle of the Bulge with Terry. One of the scenarios needs an SS army, so I purchased the plastic box from Warlord. 

And here we are painted.

You get thirty models in the box, enough to build three ten man squads. This is squad two and you can see all of the 'fun' models. LMG, Assault Rifle, Panzerfaust.

Painting these have been a lot of fun, and I've used a new technique to paint them. A sponge.

The SS had a pea dot camo scene, which as you can see below is a pain to paint.

Chaps with rifles.

So, to do my best pea dot, I painted the jackets in Baneblade Brown and then whipped out a piece of foam. In my case, a bit of foam of a blister pack, it does have use :) The whole area was dotted with Necromantic Black, and the Witches Green, before giving a liberal wash of Agrax Earthshade.

The photos have not come out as well, and I'm working on something better, but I'm happy with the result and can't wait to get them based, that'll be done later, and back out on a table top. Now it's time to paint the Ringwraith.

It's been a while,

So it's been a while, but I had some bad news about a job yesterday, and so I've decided to start blogging again.

So, what did I do to get over this bad news? Painting, of course. With the Battle for Pelennor Fields coming out soon, I've gone back into Lord of the Rings wargaming mode, and so time to paint up some models for my long-held dream to recreate the Seige of Gondor, similar to how my friends and I did Helms Deep.

Knock Knock

It's very much a case of going large or going home.  If I remember correctly, the forces of Isengard contained over a 1000 Uruks, Orcs, and evil men. It was a lot of fun, and if I can find the write-up, I'll post it up here. 

So, what do I paint to get going? Some Warriors of Minas Tirith or perhaps a horde of Orcs to usher the end of the Age of Man in. 

Nope, I painted Isildur. 

Before

After

So, he was a quick paint, mainly metal for the armour, and the purple-red for the tunic. GW had painted their version red, but most of the reference shots and the Weta statue show it to be more purple. 

So, up next, on the painting table is going to be a plastic Fell Beast with Ringwraith that I've started painting. 

See you soon.

David