Black Sea's Spanish v British

For our next few Black Sea's games Dave and I thought we would do a sort-of-campaign by running through the scenarios to fight a theoretical Spanish invasion of Ireland around 1804. Basically we both started with 500 pt fleets and gained extra points after each game to repair/replace ships.

The first scenario was the Spanish attempt to run out of a port blockaded by the English. I took two Frigates, the sturdy "Santa Margarita" and the "Santa Catalina" with the Brigs "Juno" and "Agulia":

The fleet heads out to sea:

The English await at anchor:

The English swing on their anchor cables to open fire while getting ready to set sail:

The Spanish press on:

The Spanish break through the blockaders delivering cannon fire into the English line as they break it:

English return fire forces both Spanish Brigs to strike while the Frigates pass through and out to sea. One English Frigate is heavily damaged but fights on:

We both thought this would be a no contest victory for the Spanish on set up but it didn't work out like that, the English fired surprisingly well from anchor and it does not take many hits for a Brig to strike. The Spanish won the scenario as they got more than 2/3 of their initial ship points out to sea but only just. We assumed that the English would follow the frigates and the struck Spanish Brigs would return to port to be repaired.

The second game was a chance encounter between the two fleets with an island and some sandbars in the area. Dave added another Brig to his force while I repaired my two Brigs and added a third. The Spanish fleet prepares for action divided into two groups by the island and sand bars:

The English fleet is more concentrated and it looks bad for the Spanish Brigs as the entire English fleet heads for them:

One English frigate takes a battering from the Santa Catalina and catches fire. It is also heading directly for a sandbar! The English are in difficulty with not enough sea room for all their ships and the wind direction against them. One of the English Brigs has hit a sandbar resulting in one of it's two masts falling down!:

The Spanish Brigs have slipped past the English line though the "Ventura" has taken heavy damage. Fire continues to rage on the English Frigate and it heads for the sandbank as the crew concentrate on trying to put out the fire:

The other English Frigate is about to hit a sandbar:

The English fleet is in total disarray, the burning Frigate has hit the sandbar and struck it's colour's while still on fire:

The struck English Frigate's crew put the fire out before it explodes or sinks:

By this point it was obvious that there would not be much more action for a while as neither fleet could get at the other so we called it a day with a minor Spanish victory:

Two interesting games which gave us more of an idea how the rules work. The first one was much closer than we expected and in all honesty most of the problems Dave's English faced in the second were from his own ships, when we set up I thought it looked bad for me but in fact Dave quickly found that the island and sandbanks constricted his fleet greatly so they spent most of their efforts avoiding running into things and each other! We have still not tried boarding but I think have learned a bit more and are happy to continue the campaign later.

Chain of Command "29 Let's Go!"Game 7 "Home Run at Osmanville"

First game of the year and potentially the last one (if I won) of Gary and I's 29 Let's Go! PSC.

The Americans are facing a rather battered German platoon and, if they can take the German HQ at Osmanville, will burst through the German lines capturing the bridge at Isigny and isolating a large number of German units.

For this scenario the Americans have a mighty 19 support points with the Germans having 13. Given the difficulty of using armour so far in the campaign I chose a single Sherman, a HMG, a mortar, a flamethrower team, an extra BAR and a mine clearing team as it seemed obvious Gary would take a lot of entrenchments and defences.

The Americans enter from the left, the Germans from the right:

Set up didn't go well for the Americans with a low force morale of 8 compared to the German 11. The patrol phase resulted in a cramped area for the Americans to deploy hemmed in on their left  by minefields and on the right by wire and a very open field with Rommel's Asparagus in it stopping any armour from operating in the area. Two squads deployed together with the lone Sherman:

There is an immediate response from the Germans with a full strength squad deploying and opening up on the advancing American infantry:

The Sergeant deploys with the HMG and mortar to fire back at the Germans:

A German MMG arrives to support it's colleagues:

 American firepower is effective breaking a rifle team and forcing the LMG team to withdraw:

The American infantry squad has taken some losses while the Sherman moves up in support:

The Germans have been driven back from the hedge line:

 The Lieutenant leads the last American squad and the flamethrower team forward:

The Sherman creeps forward. For a while the mine clearing team has been attempting to clear the minefield on the left but has not succeeded. The American squad in the centre is sadly reduced in numbers:

The advance continues:

The first hedge line is reached:

The Germans deploy their slightly under-strength squad in the abandoned entrenchments and the MMG moves back up to the hedge. Several Americans are cut down but the flamethrower gets to fire!:

The German MMG is routed but return fire from the German squad forces the flamethrower team to flee:

Casualties are heavy on both sides and another German team breaks. Their morale is falling but it is a long way down from 11!:

The German Panzerfaust team had earlier hit the Sherman from ambush but remarkably it had survived. The Sherman was not so lucky the second time and exploded in flames. To add to the disaster the mortar team, HMG team and a nearby section all took losses from the explosion wiping out the section and killing several crew from the mortar and HMG:

Both sides have now taken huge losses, most of the Germans have fallen back to regroup and the Americans only have one viable squad, the one on the left that has seen little action. The mine clearing team have finally cleared the minefield but there is no one left to exploit it!:

The American squad moves around to take on the remaining Germans while sending a scout team to attempt to capture a German JoP and end the game:

The Germans gather their last few men in the orchard for a final stand. The Americans gather their last usable squad to make a final attack!:

The Americans use marching fire to close in following a lucky double turn (though they also had two CoC dice to use to interrupt if they have to). Firepower combined with a couple of well aimed grenades cuts down the Germans!:

With only a single man and the German Lieutenant left the Americans close for the kill and the Germans are routed. The breakthrough is on!

A bit of a bloodbath for the last game, the Americans lost 29 men out of 56 plus the Sherman yet only lost 3 force morale in the entire game. German casualties were also heavy and they showed their usual resilience and fanatical will to fight on, at several points especially when the Sherman exploded, I thought it was all over for the Americans.

All in all a really enjoyable campaign and we are already keen to do another one. I learned a lot over the campaign (especially the weakness of armour against late war German man portable anti-tank weapons!), how to use the Americans walking fire and semi-automatic rifles and how tough it is to crack a well thought out defence. It was certainly a costly victory for the Americans over the course of the campaign with numerous Sherman's being lost and several infantry platoons taking heavy losses.

2019 Review Part 2: Painting

In January 2019 I had several projects on the go and a few thoughts as to potential things to start on.

Looking first at the projects on the go:

28 mm FoGR ECW/TYW army: I did manage to finish this army and am very happy with them.

The difficulty I've had is arranging games with them, they still have not played their first game and nothing is on the horizon at the moment.

28 mm British Peninsular army: Another force that made it to completion but has not played a game. Since I mainly intended to use them for competitions not having played a game with them is less of an issue.

Basically these guy's are ready for action if required!

28 mm Blitzkrieg Germans: Also completed and managed to play a couple of games. Partly I did these as an option for solo games and didn't really expect to play that many games with them though that may change if we start a PSC with me as the Germans.

15 mm Early Prussians for Blucher: Not so successful here, I did do a couple of units more but the army is still some way off finished.

I should probably just commit to finishing these, one reason I think I have not is that I did all the cavalry units as 6 figures to save on the cost and painting but they just look too small so I think they need expanding to 12 figures which might provide the inspiration to finish them (as may basing the ones that I have done).

28 mm Woodland Indians: pretty much no progress, I added a few more colours to some of them and gave up again. Given the lack of SP games at the moment not a priority for me.

I had three potential projects I was looking at:

10 mm WW2 Germans: These went ahead and were finished quickly. They have had some action already and I expect will continue to be used for Rommel.

Dragon Rampant: These rules continue to be popular at the club but so far I've resisted the temptation to get involved. Still a possibility (and I do have an unpainted 15 mm Goblin/Orc army which, as it is "fantasy" I suppose I could use against the other players 28 mm armies?!) but not that likely to go ahead I think.

28 mm Confederates: Another idea that made no progress, partly as I have so many 15 mm ACW figures and partly as the 28 mm Union army I have is not based for F&F so would need rebasing.

With only one out of three potential projects going ahead what actually did get done? Firstly things that were based on rules I already played:

28 mm Soviets for CoC: One of the beauties of CoC is that the forces involved, to start off with at least, are fairly small and cheap to buy with a single box of plastic infantry and maybe a tank or two giving you enough to start playing. I've done a lot of Soviets adding Partisans and some Naval Brigade plus several vehicles as I really enjoyed using them.

28 mm Finnish for CoC: Something I'd not intended doing at all and only started as Dave didn't like the figures and was going to throw them away! As a result I just did a quick paint job on them so we could use them if we wanted to. They came out better than I thought they would and had some nice ideas let down by extremely variable sculpting. I finnished them all but have not used them yet, partly as none of us have any snow themed terrain. They might get a game sooner or later.

28 mm Americans for CoC: Started partly from a give-away sprue of American infantry with Miniature Wargames the Americans have already taken part in the "29 Let's Go!" PSC. Still a relatively small force there is probably room for expansion:

28 mm Home Guard for Chain of Command: A bit of an ongoing project to add to my BEF force for the "Sea Lion" idea. I probably have enough now to field them.

10 mm Russians for Rommel: The Russians seem a bit different in Rommel and having enjoyed all my games combined with the ease of painting 10 mm WW2 it seemed a good idea to add them to my collection.

15 mm Kingdom of Italy Napoleonic's for Blucher: I completed a few random units for Blucher including a small force of Italians.

Next the new periods that I've started on:

20 mm Vietnam: Bit of an odd one this, inspired by some boxes of plastic figures I'd bought years ago a whole load of them were painted up and some terrain built in a burst of enthusiasm. The lack of a rule set is an issue though and I need to find some suitable rules to get this project going again:

1/300th Cruel Seas: Again based on a Miniature Wargames give away and a couple of games against Mike I've done a fair bit of stuff for Cruel Seas and will probably add to the collection.

1/700th Black Seas: The last project I started this year and another one I wasn't expecting to do as I am generally inept at sailing games. The ships look fantastic and I am currently completing some 3rd Rates for my Spanish. When they are done that will probably be enough but resisting the temptation to do more may be difficult!

Looking to this year what projects are on the horizon?

28 mm WW1 1914 French and Germans: I have some of these already painted from long ago and am thinking of doing two small forces for the CoC WW1 variant. The figures are Renegade and no longer in production so I've been keeping an eye on E-Bay for some extra figures to make up the numbers.

15 mm SYW Austrians for King of the Battlefield: KoB is very popular at my club, probably second only to ADLG in the number of players. Oddly enough I've never had much interest in the SYW thinking it is a duller version of Napoleonic's apart from the AWI which is more interesting. Not sure if I will do this, maybe I will buy a small command and see how it goes.....

15 mm Boxer Rebellion Austrian Sailors for Men Who Would Be Kings: Gordon has painted up some Boxers so I might invest in some Blue Moon Austrian sailors to oppose them. Relatively cheap and everyone loves a sailor!