Sunday 19 January 2014

Warpath WWII Germans vs Brits

Hi Guys

We had a game the other evening, again using a version of the "Warpath" rules modified to suit WWII. Ed & Peter have put a lot of work into these rules and they work very well.  We were using 15mm figures, all Ed's and his lovely 4ground buildings. I wish they would do some 15mm ancients..
I took the Germans and had 2 companies of infantry, 1 on foot, 1 mechanised, a truck towed AT gun and a truck towed infantry gun. Ed, playing the British, was defending a village and took infantry and a light tank. My objective was to get through the village and off the other board edge with as much of my force intact as possible. I tried to do a drive by but got distracted as usual.

Here are a few pictures from the game :

A 4ground building with garden walls.

The Germans deploy

The Brits move into defensive postions

A scratchbuilt watch tower by Ed

Due to poor command rolls, the Germans on foot outpace the halftracks.....

The edge of the village fron the German side

A halftrack burning nicely...

The lead vehicle is on fire and the british infantry close in

More Brits in cover

The foot sloggers slowly close on the village

The German infantry dismount and engage


The British close assault the Germans flank

It is getting messy...


The Germans drive the British back but take heavy losses doing so

A firefight breaks out in the village

The foot company approach the village, taking fire from the houses.

The Germans eventually won. They got off the board but had taken losses in doing so.When Ed had balanced out the scenario, we think he gave the British too few infantry, some extra forces could have swung the game in their favour. We had fun and the rules held up, so that is all that really matters.

Next game will be ancients, Carthage vs Mid Republican Romans. The Romans are freshly painted and this will be their first outting, so it will probably be 2-0 to Carthage....

Phil

Wednesday 1 January 2014

Finished Mid Republican Roman boxed set army

Hi Guys

 I finished the Warmodelling FoG starter army boxed set for the mid republican Romans yesterday. The figures were nice, if a little large, with shields seperate, as were most spears for the Triarii and most of the pila for the other troops. The metal was were hard, which made the plentiful flash a complete pain to trim. I intended to use this army for Basic Impetus, as it gave me everything I could field, except the option for some Spanish light horse, with a few figures to spare. A unit in Imetus would use 4 bases of infantry based for DBM or FoG, so I based them so I could use them for either system. I painted them in two groups.The first group had 4 bases of Hastati with red shields and red helmet plumes and 4 bases of Princeps with red shields and black plumes. The second group were done in the same fashion, but with black shields. This mean I could do a unit of all hastati, all of princeps, or a unit of 2 hastati and 2 princeps, with matching shields, but diffenciated by helmet plume colour.  The triarii were done with white shields and white plumes, so they would stand out. They would count as the unit with the General if I wasn't using the mounted general figure, as the Roman cavalry can be a little brittle, and the triarii are a lot more solid.  I had 4 lictors left over from the set and had no use for them until an idea stuck, like a headache with pictures. In Impetus, untis can become temporarily disrupted from enemy attacks and I dislike using markers on the table, perfering casualty figures to denote losses and I will place a singly based lictor next to any disrupted unit, marking the unit status without looking out of place. Presumably the lictor is slapping the men back into line with the rods of his office.



The mounted General

The two Roman cavalry units, done with different shield colours



The heavy foot.

A side view, pila at the ready

The Triarii

The old men of the army



Samnite allies, medium foot with javelins and dodgy crests.

A side view of the skirmishers, with poor taste in headgear.

The velites/leves

The Lictors who will serve as disruption markers

The assembles hordette

Roman army with floral cushions


 
 
Overall, I enjoyed painting this army, but am relieved to have it done. There is a definate satisfaction in competing a project, even if there will be more Romans added to this force, although probably from another manufacturer, as the customer service I had with the supplier of these figures was the wrong side of appaling.
 
Next up on the painting station is a hefty artillery piece to finish Syracuse and 12 stands of Spanish cavalry/light horse to bulk out Rome & Carthage, although I will place an order with Timecast in the spring for enough Spanish infantry to do a Basic Impetus army so they can fight against either the Romans or the Carthaginians as well as probably serving with my Later Republican Roman army. The Gauls will need reinforcing so....
 
Phil