Sand and Undead

This week at the club we had twogames played, a Kings of War match and a Fate of a Nation game.   

In the Fate of a Nation game Wayne & Ren fought out a hypothetical engagement between the Egyptians (Ren) and the Israelis (Wayne) during the Six Day War of 1967.

An Egyptian motorized infantry company supported by
a platoon of T-62s arrives to secure the Mosque. 

Egyptian infantry dismounts and secures the mosque
while BTRs engage Israeli M3 Tank Destroyers.

Egyptian T-62s advance on the right flank.

Israeli Mirages strike the Egyptian infantry
in and around the mosque.

While the BTRs take heavy casualties in the center, more
T-62s arrive and secure the left flank as the first T-62s
advance on the right.

Israeli infantry (dark bases) launches an assault on the Egyptian
infantry in the mosque, driving them out.

Finishing off the Israeli M3 half tracks, the remaining 
Egyptian BTRs secure the main street.

Egyptian infantry launches an assault on the mosque. Both
sides remain deadlocked in the mosque, unable to expel the other.

Another Israeli airstrikes hits the BTRs, but the game ends
with a draw, neither side having secured the town.

In the Kings of War game, Paul's Kingdoms of Men merc company, the Bondswords, took on Chuck's undead horde. 

Having won the dice roll, Chuck defended the side with the
majority of the objectives. Paul went on the offensive immediately.
in the center and on his right.

On the Bondsword's right, the militia spearmen and the scouts
faced off with skeletons and wraiths (after the wraiths destroyed
with easy the Bondsword's lancers), supported by Captain Gildor. 
In the center the Bondsword's Sword Company advanced on the zombies.

Chuck contemplates the board after the Bondsword's assassin,
Athavul, slays his necromancer. Behind him, Wayne
maneuvers his Israelis in the desert sands.

In the end, despite their fierce assault, the Bondswords were
unable to take enough objectives and they suffered yet another 
brutal loss to the forces of evil. 

Mid-June at the Club

We've had two Friday's back now, keeping the numbers down (fewer then 10 players) and trying to be safe while getting the mental break gaming gives us.  

On the first Friday we just had two games.  Eric and I refought the Battle of the Denmark Strait using his own homebrew naval rules, Salt Spray & Cordite and 1:1200 miniatures. I ran the Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen while Ken ran HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Hood. Neither Ken nor I used the historical tactics, and I never got very lucky with my rolls, Hood survived many hits from my vessels, and while Prinz Eugen survived the battle, Bismarck went down in a resounding victory for the British! My biggest regret was I didn't take any pictures of game! But Ken provided me after the fact with pics of the models, at least.

Meanwhile, Chris and Chuck were playing Saga, respectively Norse-Gaels versus Anglo-Danes.

Despite jocular assertions that the Anglo-Danes were an unbalanced 'Master Race' in Saga, Chris' Norse-Gaels fought them to a tie on points. 

This past Friday we ran three games, Wayne and Eric G played Black Sails, French versus British in the 'capture the fort' scenario. 

With the fort in the center the two fleets sail into danger.

Soon both sides were exchanging broadsides and bombarding the fort.

Caught in a crossfire of French broadsides,
a British 3rd rate ship of the line catches fire and strikes its colors,
but before the French can board her she exploded!

In the end, neither side one, as they both demolished the objective, the island fort, with multiple broadsides. 

We also got a couple Kings of War games played.

Ken played his Northern Alliance list versus
Paul's Bondswords, a Kingdoms of Men list.
We played the Control scenario.

Ken's wolves swept away Lance Company on the Bondswords
left and went on to clear the flank of Sword Company as well.

In the end, Ken destroyed most of my troops but we tied
 since we each only earned 2 victory points.

The lesson I took from the game is I needed to field some wizards with the heal spell to make the Bondswords competitive. But I still rather dislike Kings of War, not my kind of fantasy wargame at all. I prefer the old 2nd edition Battlesystem, but aside from some scenario games I won't get that with my fellow club members. I do prefer Kings of War to Age of Sigmar, which we were playing last year. 

Meanwhile, alongside us Chris took his Orc army up against Chuck's undead legions in another Kings of War match up. 

Chris places troops as orcs and undead prepare to clash!

It doesn't take long for the two lines of evil
to converge near the center of the battlefield.

An impressive, club wielding giant
fought alongside the orc army!

In the center the battle was fierce, mostly swirling
about the Krudger on a Winged Slasher..

In the end, the undead overwhelmed the orcs, with the
Krudger on a Winged Slasher.finally falling and the 
undead claiming the victory.

Pandemic Painting V

As June rolls on some club members have begun to get games in, socially distanced, but our Pandemic Painting continues unabated!

And, finally, I myself got some projects down and in this entry. 😂

Dutch's Three Hunters lead the 
Dead Men of Dunharrow into battle!

Jeffrey's P-51s. "My grandpa’s squadron of the 357th fighter SQ I painted them all from guys in his unit including My grandpas plane I just need custom Decals for plane names done "

Eric's Iron Hills Dwarves for Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game.

Close up of Dain on his war pig.

Close up of Dain's troops.

Paul's wrecked sailing ship. I started this in a class I took
in Hobby University at Historicon 2019 and finally finished it.

Paul's Persians for Mortal Gods. I'm eager to play this army,
with Immortals, Sparabara, archers, and spearmen. I put them together
from free convention miniature handouts over the years. 

I hate having all those extra parts from sets go to waste!
So, I made these, at the top are pin markers for Bolt Action. 
At the bottom, fatigue markers for Saga.

Jeffrey's 6 M1A1s are ready to roll!

Ren's Finns for Bolt Action. Ready to fight the Winter War!

Ren's Foot Knights for any medieval wargame in 28mm!

D-Day Assault on Fox Green!

The Fox Green sector beach, prior to the battle...

Every year the SAG runs a game on or near 6 June to commemorate D-Day. This year we combined with one of SAG's sub-clubs, the YHP Bolt Action Club to reenact the Big Red One's assault on the Fox Green sector of Omaha Beach on 6 June 1944.

The game was designed by Wayne, a member of both SAG and YHP-BA, originally intended as part of Your Hobby Place - Fredericksburg's D-Day celebrations, but sadly the pandemic forced a venue change.

Wayne and the players (minus Paul) after the battle.

Instead, we ran it a the clubs normal meeting place.  Wayne and Allen did an outstanding job on the terrain, as usual.  The board was simply gorgeous and as always, Wayne's figures more then lived up to it, as you can see in the pics below. 

The scenario was centered on a draw that provided a natural exit from the beach. It was defending by a  Wiederstandnesten or strongpoint, WN-61 in this case, on one side of the draw. A nice, short history of the Fox Green assault can be found here.

For the game, German forces included several 'Tobruk' style machine gun bunkers, a couple 50mm AT pits and machine gun bunkers, some mortars, a Renault tank turret bunker, and a couple, squads of infantry. The most powerful asset was a PAK88 in a bunker. Myself and my son Ren ran the German defences. The germans also had one barrage of artillery support.

The Americans of the 1st Infantry Division came ashore  for our game, multiple squads of infantry, machine guns, mortars, bazookas, flamethrowers, and engineers in LCVPs and an LCM, there was also a floating Sherman. Allen, Matt, Al, and Eric ran the American assault troops. 

Wayne acted as our (obviously biased in favor of the Americans 😉) gamemaster. 

Looking down on the beach from above the Pak88's bunker.

Inside the Pak88's bunker.

In the first wave of landings, one of Matt's LCVP's hits a mined obstacle,
destroying the landing craft and leaving its troops stunned and scattered.

The German's initial fire is ineffective, allowing the Americans to move up the beach.

The Americans manage to knock out the 50mm gun pit, and
start climbing despite the fire of the Tobruk MG bunkers and
the Renault tank turret bunker,

Eric cackles as his Americans finish off the bunkers defending the Pak88's flank
and he moves up enfilade to assault it.

Across the draw, the German machine gun bunker and howitzer gun pit survive
despite withering fire and constant naval gunfire bombardment.

A squad of German infantry rush to reinforce the MG bunker
and howitzer while a dual- MG42 tries to stop the Americans
advancing up the draw.

Despite cross-fire from two Tobruk MG bunkers, 
American squads advance to their sign post objective.

Behind the Pak88 bunker, German grenadiers and
American riflemen square off.

The Americans take the Pak88 bunker, but in the confusion
a German flame throwing team rushes up to the front of the
bunker and roasts all of those inside.

In the end, the Americans managed to capture 3 of the 5 objectives by turn 9 (two of them in the final turn), earning the victory by the skin of their teeth. 

It was one of the better games Wayne has put on, and that is saying quite a bit!  My only regret is that I didn't take more pictures, for example, Wayne's floating Sherman was gorgeous and Allen used it to good effect, keeping it well out of the Pak88's arc of fire.