Late night game with Reno

Had another great game with Reno a little while ago to practice for the NorCal circuit February event.  Reno had a late start and didn't get to my house until around 10 pm, so we decided to play a lower points level at 1280.  I ran Grenadiers from Grey Wolf and he had Soviet Light Self propelled artillery.
Mission we rolled up was Counter Assault with his Mech list attacking.

Table setup for the evening.

I chose to defend the corner with the town, the open objective was just off camera to the north.  Grenadiers with attatched shreck team and the 2iC (Windgruber) ready to move to it and dig in before the Reds get there.  Other Grenadiers, Neb battery and a small mortar platoon hold the town.  Marder platoon in ambush, Stugs in reserve. 

Reno's deployment.  IS-2s with tankos up front supported by two platoons of SU-122s.  SU-76s and Scouts behind.

 Here they come, right at me!

On Reno's turn he took some shots on the mobile Grenadiers (off camera) and killed four of them!  That's the punishment for a failed Stormtrooper move...  He pushed his other forward platoons across the ford in the stream and came right at my force in the town.  His other platoons (off camera) made for the open objective.  I counterd by scurrying my now half-strength Grenadiers into some trees and ambushing with the Marders from behind the walls, trying to slow down the IS-2s, who bounced 7 hits!  Most of them miraculously survived the return fire (poor Reno's dice mocked him) before they hid behind the building to the south.  Soviets still totally untouched. 

And here is where Reno's luck ran out.  He tried to push over the walls to assault the Nebs, and bogged two IS-2s.  The Grenadiers and 1iC were dragged in as well and counter attacked, knocking them out before they failed the motivation to continue.  Crisis averted! (just barely)  The rest of the game consisted of Marders hiding and sniping at his remaning tanks until theMarders were destroyed, and the Stugs (off camera) dueling with about eight SU-76s and some Scouts.  Game ended as a 4-3 for me.  Lost the Nebs and the Marders, about half strength with both Grenadier platoons too.  Very close game, Reno almost had me!  If he would have just stood and fired all those breakthrough guns at me, he could probably have broken my company.  This ended up being pretty good practice for the NorCal event too!

Looted T-34/76

Built up a T-34/76 for my Grenadiers too, perfect ninth platoon, right?  Painted it up to represent a      T-34/76 of 1. Ski-jäger-Division.  This division had a whole company of modified T-34s.

Almost tried the white-wash, but it wouldn't match my other vehicles.

Added some tool boxes to both rear side boards and the front left side, also a jack and some spare track.

Right side showing tool box, more spare track and a bucket full of fresh snow.

Painted this up to match a modified T-34/76 from 1. Ski-jäger-Division.  Divisional symbol visible on fender.

Used the large sized Balkenkreuz all around and company symbols on the turret.

New Marder III Ms

Finally finished some Marder III Ms for a Late War Grenadier list.  Decided to match the winter theme that most of my Late War germans follow, mostly because I'm too lazy to paint new infantry, hehe.

I decided to make rain tarps for these to distinguish them from regular Marders.  Figured open vehicles in the snow would at least keep the tarps at the ready.

Used some different vehicle crew to mix it up.

Unfortunately the light at this angle shows some silvering of the decal...  didn't see it until post-varnish.

Vehicle two.  More silvering.  Grr..

Better looking from this side.

Vehicle three.  Built the tarp to cover the whole crew compartment, came out pretty good for tissue paper. 

Group shot with all four Marders.

Group shot two!

And one more.

Riha Rematch!

Had another game with The Riha this week, decided to mix it up a bit.  I've been playing the Cassino FJs for a few months now and wanted to try out something different.  I put together a list of Grenadiers from Grey Wolf to practice for an upcoming tournament. (NorCal 2013 event numero uno)
My list was:
HQ with Windguber 2ic upgrade, CiC faust and shrek, 2x Grenadier platoons with fausts, Scouts,      4x Marder IIIM, 3x 5cm Pak 38s, 4x Stugs, 15cm artillery battery, 2x 8cm mortars, 2x MG42 (attatched out), and a looted T-34/76.  Nine platoons of fun!  Riha ran the same 101st Airborne fan-boi list with 2 bulked up platoons, 2 Hellcat platoons, Recon patrol and a pair of medium mortars.
    We played Counter-attack with Riha attacking.  I deployed my Grens in the corner with the fields and we both had to get to the open objective, but Riha couldn't capture until turn 6.  There was a series of bloody assaults up the middle by his Airborne, supported by both of the TD security sections and the Recon too while his other Airborne platoon tried to get through the town and to the objective.  Luckily for me my Stugs and Looted T-34 were able to catch them in the open and kept them away from the objective.  His assault up the middle did cost me the Pak platoon, a Grenadier platoon, most of my 15cm artillery battery and my CiC before Windgruber was able to lead the Scout platoon back into the crops to finish the now battered Airborne off.  They were also assisted by a rather lucky one-gun mortar bombardment that killed 4 stands!  The game was very close from start to finish and my Marder platoon ambush worked super well.  4 hits, 4 kills on a TD platoon.  The Scouts (assisted by Windgruber) were ultimately the Heros of the game though, killing an Airborne platoon, and a Security Section in two separate asaults, while securing the objective long enough for the Stugs and Marders to break his company.  The game went about 8 turns before I got his company to break, 4-3 for me!

Riha moving his Airborne turn one.

My deployment corner.  Grens with attatched Shrek on the left, second Gren with Windgruber in front of the artillery.  Scouts dashing towards the open objective on the lower right.

Riha rushed me on turn one, hitting my poor light Paks with every .50 MG he had.  I really hate those things..