More General de Brigade

Not that long ago we (David, Magnus and I) teamed up for some more General de Brigade. As David is the more experienced of us, he took command of his French troops to defend a ridge line against a Russian Prussian coalition. Magnus and I had two brigades each, I used my Landwehr and was supported by some more experienced Prussians from Davids collection.

Magnus took the role of main attack against the ridge, while my troops that consisted a fair amount of skirmishing troops attacked against the village. The Landwehr was assigned the role of reserve, witch in hindsight was rather stupid of us. As my better troops became the "cannon fooder" a role that the Landwehr is more suited for.

Warmaster - first trials

This is something kind of unique at least if you look at the latest years, a project that involves most of the once I meet once a week to paint, drink coffee and have deep discussions with....

We been trying to get forces together to play Warmaster, this started as a spin-of from a Warhammer campaign project that Peder I´ve been doing for a couple of years. We selected a force each and started to collect, build and paint with the same goal in mind, it was set in north of the Old world and would pit Peders Dwarfs against my Warriors of chaos all with a winter theme. As many of our projects they don't have to be quick but we almost never throw away a project. So we have played maybe two to three times, but it looks great as Peder done some nice winter terrain.

UK games Expo 2015 (Part two) - Bushido Grand Masters

In this second part of UK games expo I'll focus on the Bushido tournament I participated in. It was run by GCT studios (the producers of the game) in one of the big gaming halls at the Expo.

The mighty Char-B

After some skirmishes in the desert, Axel and I decided it was time for a fight in France. Stepping up from our previous 600 points battle we added 200 points, and I figured it was time for a tank!

By fire and sword Championship 2015 - the report

I started my Warsaw trip by going by train to Kastrup airport in the morning on Friday, on the train I meet up with Robin and his friend Martin. Without any problems we arrived at Warsaw airport where we got picked up by Jakub (Kuba), a Wargamer employee that were kind enough to meet up with all of the foreign players and give them a ride to their hotels. On the way to our hotel we picked up Anders that arrived the day before. After check-in at the hotel we went and spend some hours at the Polish war museum looking at weapons and armor through the ages.

Flavion: Breakout from the Meuse - France ´40

From SC France ´40 The Ghost Division

It´s been awhile now, but Magnus and I have finally played the third scenario in the France´40 campaign. The reason for the hiatus is that the scenario involved quite a lot of tanks, that neither of us had since before. Magnus even painted up a great looking unit of motorcycle mounted troops.

Background

Seeing the danger in the German bridgehead the French ordered General Bruneau´s 1st armored division to counter the threat from the bridgehead. During the movements the fuel trucks was separated from the armor. The french tanks waited at Flavion to get re-fueled, and as that was in progress the German 7th panzer division descended upon them.

Normandie ´44 - a BA battle

Just some days after new years eve we gathered again at Bunkerkommando Süd, this time it was
Magnus who had put together a large Bolt action battle. It was location wise inspired by the battles around Bretteville-l'Orgueilleusea small french town close to Caen that was fought over in right after the D-day landings. Magnus took inspiration from a scenario that is in one of the Rapid fire scenario books.

Normandie ´44 - a FoW battle

Before Christmas Oscar did gather some of Bunkerkommando süds members to play a big FoW battle. We were eight players and each player built a 1200 pints list from either Atlantik wall or Overlord, but only from combat- and weapons platoons.

From the beginning I was supposed to play a offensive infantry list, which I really like. To keep with the Normandie theme I choose my US airborne, but one of the players on our team dropped out, so I got stuck with the role of a defending infantry company.

The Invincibles

During the Christmas holidays I meet up with "the wonder from Nottingham" Anders to fight our by now annual battle in Halmstad. This year we played "By fire and sword" at HFF,

It seems that all I get to play is PDF lists, this time was no exception, as Anders played the Swedish force the Invincibles. Its the same list as he played last summer but he had a bigger force, he had 11 points. I played the same list as I played last time against Andreas and Alexander, so I had 12 points.

The tournament that became a nice gamingday

So we tried to get together a second By fire and sword tournament. We had grand planes with five games over two days, but it all whittled down to 3½ players so we decided just to play some games. In hindsight I think the date were the biggest reason to why people didn't commit to this event, this close to Christmas I  guess people has other things to do!

I played a newly painted mounted muscovite force with 12 points.
It had:

• Golova and lieutenant colonel
• 2 Servant cossacks with 4 bases each.
• 5 Boyar sons sotnias of different sizes, a total of 16 bases.
• 3 Reiter rotas, 6 bases.
• 1 Skirmish sotnia, 4 bases.

Division!

A couple of weeks ago some of the local By fire and sword players meet up under the initiative of Alexander to play a divison sized battle 'By fire and sword'. As only Alexander has enough to play at that level, Robin, David and myself gathered our forces in an alliance between Muscovite and and the Ottomans (not 100% legal gamewise). I am currently painting boyar sons to be able to play the muscovites cavalry skirmish force, and when my models from the Deluge kickstarter arrive I will have enough to muster my own Division force. With a bit off effort it will be done early 2015!

Bottleneck at Onhaye - France ´40

From SC: France ´40: The ghost division

This weekend we played the second game in France ´40 . the Ghost Division. For this scenario Magnus had painted some lovely armor for his german, Panzer II and Panzer 38(t) and I had tried to do a french 47 cm AT gun, a model that no one does in 1:56 scale.

As the tanks started to come across the Meuse at the small bridgehead elements of the 7th infantry regiment was tasked with clearing a way for the german panzer through the difficult terrain at Onhaye. A miscommunication between Rommel and the regiment leader colonel Bismarck, lead to Rommel committing 30 tanks to the engagement at Onhaye. The french forces of 5th infantry division just had to hold their ground for a short while until the 1st armoured division would be available.

HammarFoW - 2014

Så var årets HammarFoW avklarat, det nioende i ordningen. Som vanligt var det BKW/HFF som arrangerade det hela med Daniel Sjunnesson vid rodret. Nytt för i år var lokalen som i år var i Folkets park, bättre än de tidigare men tydligen dyrare. Precis som förra året var det en parturnering och i år hade 9 par anmält sig. Det var en 'Latewar' turnering där 1770 poängslistor från Normandie och Italien böckerna var tillåtna, som extra krydda hade man möjlighet att ha en 300 poäng sideboard.

Då mitt FoW engagemang varit rätt lågt det senaste året så körde jag precis som på Warcon tidigare i år med en Hermann Göring pansarlista från Italien. Men fick stuva om i listan lite för att fylla ut poängen lite bättre.

• HQ 1 Panzer IV H + 1 Panzer III N  = 155 p
• HG Panzer Platoon 2 Panzer III M + 2 Panzer IV H = 330 p
• HG Panzer Platoon 2 Panzer III M + 2 Panzer III N = 280 p
• HG Panzer Platoon 2 Panzer III M + 2 Panzer IV H = 330 p
• HG Panzer Anti-aircraft Gun Platoon 2 Flakpanzer 38(t) = 90 p
• Heavy Tank Platoon 2 Tiger I E = 430 p
• HG Heavy Panzerspäh Platoon 2 Sd Kfz 231 (8-rad) = 80 p
• Rocket Launcher Battery 2x 15cm NW41 rocket launcher = 75 pts

Som lagkamrat hade jag Hamza som körde amerikanskt infanteri.

Dragoons at Haut le Wastia - France ´40

From Skirmish Campaigns: France ´40 The Ghost division

A couple of weeks ago Magnus and I started to play a skirmish campaign that we been planning and
collecting models for awhile. Magnus been collecting and painting germans and I the mighty army of France. There are four books in the Skirmish campaign series that lets you to replay Fall Gelb. We started with France ´40 - the Ghost Division, with the intention to try and play all the mission and in the future all the four books. Some of the scenarios have alot of tanks, and our intention is to scale them down to half the amount.

The first scenario is called "Dragoons at Haut le Wastia" and recounts the fighting around the village Haut le Wastia, close to the Meuse river. On the 13th of May the French planed a major counter attack at the german bridgehead at Houx, but after some delays it amounted to nothing more than some probing actions. In the morning of the 14th, the french troops tried again to attack the german forces that had set up defences in the village. As the germans hadnt got anything across the Meuse in the form heavy support or tanks it came down to some motorcycle troops to hold Haut le Wastia and the bridgehead.

By Fire and sword tournament

This weekend there was a 'By fire and sword tournament' at SF in Lund. To my knowledge its the first of its kind in Sweden. We had managed to gather ten players, which is quite good as BF&S is still new outside Poland. I was taking my 'Muscovites' and I had struggled the week before to get everything painted of the 'Zasieczna guard' skirmish force.
My list was:

• Golova and lieutenant colonel
• 6 border dragoon companies
• 4 Servant cossacks sotnia
• 2 falconet 1,5 pdr
• + 3 servant cossacks bases because of the 'Ludiej unas mnoga' rule.

Gubbspel Galore - the aftermath

I helgen så var vi (Magnus W, Peder och jag) i Göteborg för det femte Gubbspel Galore (och sista?). Vi åkte upp tidigt på lördag morgon då vi hade med oss fyra spelbord med terräng till Bushido turneringen som vi skulle vara med i.

Efter att hälsat på de övriga deltagarna så satte turneringen igång. Turneringen var egentligen en 50 ris turnering, men för att hjälpa nybörjare lite så skulle alla ha med sig en 36 ris lista också. Jag valde att köra 36 ris hela tiden, då jag testat 50 innan och det var svårt att hålla koll på allt då. I min lista hade jag:

• Hitoshi
• Jade mamba guard
• Masunagi Ito
• Satoshi
• Takeji

Svenskarna dominerar

Vi samlades ett litet gäng spelare för att förbättra våra kunskaper i By Fire and Sword. Andreas (svenskar) spelade ett 'Patrol mission' mot Robin (ottomaner) där Andreas vann.

Jag spelade med mina Muscovites som var hela innehållet i skirmishboxen och Anders körde med sina svenskar. Trots att jag utnumrerade svenskarna med 3:1 så hade vi lika mycket poäng (4), så vi spelade ett 'Patrol mission'. Så inga nackdelar/fördelar till någon av oss, inte ens de obligatoriska för de glömde vi. Jag missuppfattade uppdraget lite och trodde man var tvungen att hålla objektiven hela tiden, medans Anders hade fuskat och testspelat scenariot på Gothcon och med sin lilla beridna elitstyrka så tog han snabbt objektiven och fortsatte sedan mot mina linjer för att ge sig på lite lätta enheter och poäng. I slutändan så hade vi båda tagit objektiven så det stod 6-6, Anders hade neutraliserat en hel enhet utan att få några förluster så ytterligare 9 poäng till honom. Jag hade ju dock förlorat en del utan att göra någon påverkande skada på hans enheter så 1 poäng till mig. Så 15 - 7 till Anders Strategisk vinst!

Dagens lärdom är att man måste läsa på mer om 'special maneuvers' och övriga manövrering. Samt att jag nog faller dit på den nye kickstatern med.

Warcon 5 - 2014

Tidigt på lördags morgon drog en tapper skara från Skåne upp mot Varberg och Warcon. På schemat stod det Flames of war turnering, late war Italien. Det var en lagturnering och jag hoppade in som ersättare för Oscar. Teamade upp med David och han valde allierade, så jag skulle välja något från axies sidan. Har inte varit så aktiv på FoW fronten den sista tiden, så när dagen kom för inlämnande av armélista så var det mindre än en vecka kvar till turneringen. Så jag hade ingen tid att måla upp nya grejer, så det fick bli ett HG panzarkompanie som jag målat upp till Köpenhamnskampanjen för något år sedan. En uppdaterad bok har ju kommit ut om Italien fronten och mina vagnar hade blivit lite billigare och turneringen var på 1750 (kampanjen kördes med 1500 listor med en liten sideboard). Så jag fick addera lite till listan, så här blev den tillslut:

• HQ 1 Panzer IV H + 1 Panzer III N + 1 Sd Kfz 9 = 160 p
• HG Panzer Platoon 2 Panzer III M + 2 Panzer IV H = 330 p
• HG Panzer Platoon 2 Panzer III M + 2 Panzer III N = 280 p
• HG Panzer Platoon 2 Panzer III M + 2 Panzer IV H = 330 p
• HG Panzer Anti-aircraft Gun Platoon 3 Flakpanzer 38(t) = 130 p
• Heavy Tank Platoon 2 Tiger I E = 430 p
• HG Heavy Panzerspäh Platoon 2 Sd Kfz 231 (8-rad) = 80 p

Turneringen var som sagt en par turnering där man skulle ha en sida var, så ingen 'blue-on-blue' var det risk för. En grej som gör FoW turneringen till en skön sommar turnering är att den körs bara över en dag så man behöver inte sova över. Alla bord var uppställda med ett specifikt mission i åtanke, så de flesta konstigheter som kan uppkomma av terrängen uppstod inte.

Campaign 2014: Normandie

So this weekend it was of to Copenhagen for the annual Campaign, this time around it was Normandie that should be defended. I have written in an earlier post what the Grenadiers I was bringing included. With me I had two other swedes, Axel and Hamza who both played on the allied team. This time around it wasnt really a real time campaign, it was a simplyfied Firestorm campaign. It was one on one games, with the possibilty of a platoon coming to lend aid to the games that took longer time. There was also some Firestorm troops that you could use if they where close to you on the campaign map. Each side had a general that helped each player to decide were to attack or defend. Attacker/defender and when to place the arrows on the map used a quite nice and simple card deck with numbers. Each player got a card with a number 1-24, the 1-12 where attackers and 13-24 was defenders. Inside each team you could switch two playes cards. Starting with the player with the number one card each player placed an arrow on the map.

Warhammer Fantasy Turnering - Spring Battle Cup 2014

Så var det dags igen, en warhammer turnering på Bunkerkommando Süd i Lund. Det var Fredrik och Jonna som även denna gången arrangerade en endagars turnering. Poäng summan var satt till 1500 poäng och jag tänkte att det var dags för min Warriors of Chaos att ge sig ut på turneringsfältet och
... sprida chaos?!?