Mid War 1485 - Historicon Practice

Got another game in with Jake to test-drive my Historicon list one more time.  This was his first time designing a list without any assistance.  My list has two Grenadier platoons, Nebs, StuH 42s, Marder IIIs, a Scout platoon and Fw 190s.  Jake used a Grenadier list from North Africa and had two Grenadier platoons, a Scout platoon, a Pionier platoon, 15cm Nebs, 15cm infantry guns, 5cm Pak38s, a HMG platoon, an 8.8cm Flak and Priority Hs 129s.  We played Fighting Withdraw with Jake defending.

The table.  Got to use my new railroad tracks!

Turn One: I loaded the left side with everything except the Marders and pushed ahead.  The Scouts got the extra move and made it into the trees while the Grenadier platoons advanced up to the railroad burm.  StuH 42s in the lead while the Marders make their way towards the wooded hill in the center.  Shooting is uneventful, Fw 190s are intercepted.  Jake holds with everything he has, his artillery misses.

My Turn Two: Infantry continue to advance, StuH 42s can't fire... Oops.  Marders get into the trees but two Bog Down.

Jake's Turn Two: Nebs Pin Down both the Grenadiers and the Scouts but don't kill any.  He begins to move some more troops to the Objectives.

My Turn Three: The second Grenadier platoon make it to Jake's Neb observer and assault him!

Marders come over and fire on Jake's Pioniers, but miss.

Jake's Turn Three: The ambush is sprung but cannot penetrate the heavily armored StuHs.  He also withdraws his HMGs.

The view from Jake's end of the table.

Jake's Grenadiers fire on my troops in the trees, killing one and Pinning them for the rest of the game...

The Pioniers attempt to assault the Marders, but are pushed back by defensive fire.

My Turn Four: The large Grenadier platoon fires on the Paks, pinning them before assaulting them and destroying them.  

The StuHs fire on the Scouts, killing three teams.  This is the last guy here in the trees.

Jake's Turn Four: The last Scout fails his Sole Survivor check and runs.  Jake must now pull his second Grenadier platoon instead.

The 88 finally has some shots, but misses.

The Pioniers continue their aggressive march, flaming the poor Marder that was still Bogged.  The Observer jumps in his Schwimmwagen and runs for it.  They again get pushed back by defensive fire.

My Turn Five: The StuHs kill three stands from the Jake's Grenadiers on the objective, gutting the platoon.  My Grenadiers and Scouts prepare for a final assault.

Once this guy is assaulted Jake's last chanceis for his Nebs to Unpin and contest for one more turn, long enough to pull this objective, but he fails and the game is over.  6-1 for me, but it was closer than that.

If only Jake would have unpinned that Neb battery!  He only needed one turn until this objective would have been pulled, which would have forced me to turn to the center objective.  Attacking with infantry in Fighting Withdrawl is rough, but the StuHs are monsters.  Two times they killed three stands of Veteran, concealed infantry in one volley.  Guess that's why their 510 points for a pair.

Teaching the Game

My nephew, Jake, has recently come to live with us for a bit and asked me to show him how to play Flames of War.  He asked me lots of questions and  showed him the books I have and decided to try a Late War list.  Since all I own are German forces, he started looking through Grey Wolf and picked Schwere Panzer Bäke.  Not only did I have all of the models, but he thought a tank list with a small model count would be easier to learn to play.  We played a quick Free For All at 1650 points.  Jake had:
  HQ Panther with Bäke, a platoon of four Panthers, a platoon of two Tiger Is, a 15cm Nebelwerfer battery with trucks, and a Half-tracked Recon platoon of one 250/1 and two 250/9s.

I quickly threw a list together of Hermann Göring Panzergrenadiers using whatever models I had and in about five minutes (it was like 11:30 at night and we'd better get started!).  I had:
  HQ with one Panzerknacker and three Panzershreck teams, two platoons of HG Panzergrenadiers with a Panzerfaust, a platoon of four HG StuG IIIs, a platoon of one Elefant, a platoon of two HG 8 Rads, a battery of 21cm Nebelwerfers, a platoon of two HG 2cm AA guns with portee trucks, and Limited Fw 190 air support.  Not a list I would ever run at a tournament, but it was late.

The board!  Loving the Crescent Root town base, think I may need to invest into some of his other items.  I also need to upgrade my hills from the old GeoHex stuff.  Probably need to build some more trees too and flock the templates.

I rolled to go first and decided to make a daring charge for the lightly defended Objective.  Bäke was defending it with only a Nebelwerfer battery to assist.

I also push the Panzergrens with the attached shrek teams across the river to assist the StuGs, leaving the Objective guarded by the 2iC and Elefant.

The big tank destroyer rumbled forwards to engage the Panthers who had used their Bäke recon move to try and get into the town.  The Elefant hit the closest Panther, but only Bailed it.

The rest of my forces Dug In and held on.

Bäke bags a StuG through the concealment.  Jake's nebelwerfers also hit the infantry in the open, killing two stands.

On my Turn Two the StuGs continue their push against Bäke while the Panzergrens unpin and keep moving.  The Fw 190s arrive, but miss.  Jake's scond turn is pretty uneventful.

My Turn Three: The StuGs make a near-suicidal charge at Bäke (roleplayed by a Bergepanther this game), missing.

The Panzergrens continue to push forward.

The big guy bags the Bailed Panther!  My Fw 190s come back but again miss.

Jake's Turn Three: The Tigers weave their way between the dropping bombs of my air support and make their way to my second Panzergrenadier platoon, but don't get any kills.

His Panthers and Recon move through the town and fire on my 8 Rads, who Disengage.

Bäke kills two StuGs and then Stormtroopers back around the shed.  The final StuG makes his Morale check.

My Turn Four: My heavy nebelwerfers get lucky and Range In on the rear Panther, hitting and killing two of Jake's recon halftracks.

The big kill.  The last StuG gets around behind Bäke and kills him.

The Elephant tries to get sneaky vs. the Panthers, but misses.

The StuG assaults the nebs, killing two.  Panzergrenadiers Stormtrooper forwards.

Jake's Turn Four: His Nebelwerfer battery does not Unpin, so this is his last chance to get a point.  His Tigers and Panthers Assault into the Panzergrenadiers and Nebelwerfers, but the Tigers are killed by the Faust and the 1iCs Knacker.  The Panthers kill two rocket launchers before being forced back.  

Not a bad tune-up before Nationals next month and Jake played a very smart game, especially for his first time out.  We discussed a few things afte the game and we both agreed that the big mistake was the ST behind the shed.  Bäke's only chance not to get hit in the flank was to back up into the nebs.  That would have bought him a turn or two and might have been enough.  His Tigers were in posistion to do some damage against a pretty lightly defended Objective supported by three Panthers and Recon for Gone to Ground lifting.

Few Vehicles from the Kublacon Grenadiers

Needed to make a fourth Marder III H to add to the ones I built for Shifting Sands.  Also a few close-ups of the Schwimmwagen.

Added a license plate to front and rear.  Used a muddy pigment on the lower parts of the hull.

Went back to the rest of the platoon and added some pigments to the tracks and wheels.

Splinter jacket, random stowage.

Blister plastic and gloss varnish for the windscreen.

Got to use the headlight lenses from AK Interactive on this guy too.  Super cool, kinda pricey though.  Wouldn't want to do a whole platoon and $2.50 per jeep.

Heer 15cm Nebelwerfer 41 Battery

Yet another Neb battery.  These will fill in as my 'generic' Nebs for any list with matching ground work.  Finally made something that isn't theatre or season specific.  Planning a LLW Panzerkompanie from Desperate Measures that these will be part of.

Ran out of 15cm neb rounds!  Need to find a few or trade for some and I'll add them later.  

Tried to match the uniforms on the Schwimmwagen crew and the Observer team.  Added a paper map the the command team.

Luftwaffe Scout Platoon

These guys were the only option for Recon in the list I wanted to run and the HG lists can get real armored cars.  Used MidWar Grenadiers and went with the blue-grey uniform.

I really wish the cuff titles would have come out a little brighter, only the NCO ones are very visable.

Hermann Göring Division / Luftwaffe Felddivision Platoons

Finally finished these guys!  I started this project about two years ago and planned them out so I could use them for HG or LFD troops.  I actually did quite a bit of modifications to some of these in order to get some varietyon my bases.  About half of them are the HG Panzergrenadier figures, most of the others are Mid War Grenadiers.  There are also several of the SMG troops from the Assault Group and even a few converted Fins, FJ and SS sculpts too.  Plenty of head swaps to get some early style  M38 caps too.

Company Commander and 2iC.  2iC is a converted LW SS officer.

I still want to add some extra vegetation or something to the bases, I had to get these finished up for Kublacon.  Plan on running these at Historicon as well.  Did the LW Blue edging on the bases again, really like the look.

This is the full-size Mid War LFD configuration.

Second platoon with Light Mortar team.