Game Day at Ogre's Den

Six of us came to check out a newish shop (to us, anyways) and were able to get a few games of Flames of War in, 110 points of Late War.  I wanted to try out a Bagration Panzer IV list and Wyn had some US Armor.  We rolled up a Fighting Withdrawl with the Americans defending.  Nothing is painted yet, apologies!

Panzer IVs concentrate on the left side of the board, but it is heavily mined.

My Panzergrenadiers and some supporting units converge on the town, but the entry is mined as well.

The infantry manage to get into the town, but become Pinned Down for the next five turns! (They just wouldn't roll a 4+) and the attack stalls.  The 2cm Flak and some supporting artillery put tons of fire, into the Americans, but it isn't enough by itself.

Wyn's large platoon of 76mm-armed Shermans come from Ambush and deal some serious damage, but eventually the Panzer IVs get them.  The other Shermans nearby get the rest of my Panzers though!

Wyn was able to hold my attack off, though I feel like I had a chance.  I've never tried Late War armor before and thought it might be fun, and I wasn't disappointed! The game was pretty even, and if my troops could have unpinned I would have had a chance to capture the game.

Artillery Observation Vehicles

 I finally finished a Panzer III observer tank that I originally built and base-painted about 10 years ago.  I went ahead and painted a Sd. Kfz. 253 observer half-track too, just in case.  I'm not sure why anyone would take it instead of the tank though, since they're the same cost.

This is an old resin kit and needed to be converted.  I started with an old Panzer III E and modified the mantlet, adding a MG and false gun barrel.

Simple green line camo so I can easily use it for Mid War or Late.

This is also resin and received a basic dunkelgelb to match my Mid War Grossdeutchland force.

7.5cm PaK40 Platoon

    While I was in the mood to update my army for V4, I took the 3.7cm Pak36s from my Mid War army and rebased them too since they aren't an option anymore.  I moved the crew over to large bases and gave them some harder-hitting 7.5cm PaK40s.  All minis are metal Battlefront.

Command team has a fourth crewman.

Here are the three guns I built for my last event.  Airbrushed with Tamiya acrylics.

Rebased Antitank Teams

 With the switch to V4 came new rules for old units, and I finally decided to take my old Panzershreck teams from my HG Panzergrenadiers and put them on smaller bases.  I'll probably dress the bases up more when I add to the rest of the army.

I can't see ever needing four of them, but I had eight dudes that needed a new home.

Late War Game With Ziv

 I got to play a game with my friend Ziv not too long ago, and I hadn't seen his since the Before Times.  We had a great game of Soviets vs. Germans, and we just played Free For All.

Our scene of battle

The Panthers finally seemed to have the upper hand against Soviet tanks!

Late War Event on USS Hornet

There was a Late War 105 point event on the USS Hornet last month, four rounds over two days so that we all had a chance to check out the museum.  I brought an Armored Panzergrenadier list and didn't expect much out of it, since I had only played once since the pandemic hit. 

Here's my list:

In Round One I faced a British force with six Churchill Crocodiles and a bunch of Achilles.

My opponent ran the Crocs up and sat in front of my troops and blasted flamethrowers at me until I died.  
I was able to destroy the Universal Carriers.

I tried to get flank shots, since nothing in my army could kill them, but it wasn't happening.  1-8 loss.

Crocodiles are never fun to face, and even less so when only your Panthers can kill them and they never arrive from reserve.  Round Two was against a Finnish all-infantry force.

Finns preparing for an assault.  1-8 loss, but I felt better about it.

I managed to hold out for a bit, but once they unpinned it was repeated assaults from multiple angles.  Again, my reserves failed arrive in time to matter.  Round Three saw me matched up against a very new player with US Rifles.

My infantry were aggressive, and I was able to do some damage against the Rifles in the center.

The Marders managed to keep the M10s busy from long range.

My opponent's main attack came at my artillery and PaKs, but I held them off.  Time was called as my reserves arrived, 2-2 draw.

If I had gotten more than four turns I feel like I could've gotten a win in this one, but it wasn't to be...

In Round Four I faced another Finnish army, this time with mostly tanks.

Panthers holding the center, while the infantry advance.

For the first time all weekend I didn't have reserves, and it showed.  The Panthers went to work, destroying T-34/85s at range, and T-26s up close as they tried to flank.  Casualties were high on both sides, but I finally got a win, 4-3.

The event was fantastic, and I never expected to do very well.  Panthers are overpriced in V4 and I only brought them because my Panzer IV/70s weren't painted yet, but the rest of the list did ok.  I learned that you need to have a good plan for reserves, and a plan for killing Crocs, but this game continues to feel like a giant Rock-Paper-Scissors match.  

18 Months Later...

Now that I'm fully vaccinated and can come out of my cave, I was able to meet up with Russ for a game of Late War at 105 points.  Without any memory of how to play Flames of War  decided to bring the same list I had played against him way back in January of 2020, Tigers.

http://flamesofnerd.blogspot.com/2020/02/tigers-marsch-at-great-escape-games.html

This time we met up at Game Kastle and had a bit better selection of terrain, and would play Free For All since it had been so long.

The main force of my attack, wth a large unit of Fallschirmjager, a pair of Tigers, and supporting AA make frontal assault on some Rifles with 6 Pounders and Universal Carriers in support.

Russ' Typhoons come in on the Tigers from the rear, but the flak guns shoot one down!

Another pair of Tigers keep an eye on the center.

The assault begins, and the Tigers hit and destroy the Carriers, leaving the Rifles without support.  The Fallschirmjager have taken heavy casualties, but enough remain to finish the job.

Russ sent a unit of Rifles to attack my objectives, but the Tigers catch up to them before they can secure it.

The Tigers and infantry push the Rifles back far enough to capture the objective and clam a win.

2020 Review

 Man, what a strange year!  I was able to paint a bunch of minis during the first half of the year, but all of them were for other people.  Pre-shutdown I managed to get a single game of Flames of War in, and a handful of other games before March.  I only purchased a few units for Legion, and added a few scale aircraft to my stash, but sold a ton of 28mm D&D minis and some other random bits from my mountain.  That's one way to reduce the pile of unpainted minis I guess, just not as much fun.  I also picked up some Transformers minis from WizKids, but there's no game for me to use them in.  Maybe 2021 will see an eventual return to normal gaming, but I don't see that happening before summer.  I find it hard to paint anything without an event on the horizon to use them in.

Flames of War Japanese Type 89 Tanks

Flames of War Japanese Type 94s and Type 97 Tankettes

Flames of War Polish 7TPs

Flames of War Polish 7TP Dual Turrets

Flames of War Polish Vickers Mark Es

Flames of War Polish TKS Tankettes

Flames of War Polish wz.34s

Flames of War Polish C2P Tractors

Team Yankee West German Panzergrenadiers

Team Yankee West German Leopard I

Team Yankee West German Leopard 2s

Team Yankee West German Marder I IFVs

Team Yankee West German Roland AA

Team Yankee West German Fuchs

I managed to reduce my mountain of unpainted miniatures and also painted more than I bought, even if I didn't get to keep any of them!  I painted 74 models, sold 113 more, and only bought a few things here and there, for a total difference of -175.

Some new projects for 2021!