Last week at the club (yes I actually went) I had the absolute pleasure of playing Battlegroup with a group of people. They let me roll some dice, even though I wasn't actually involved in the planning. I was happy to just rock up and be there, watching. A few of the guys recognised me, I made a point of going over and saying hi. One of them even commented about how I had managed to get permission and day release. Classic. I cracked wise about how I would come for a few weeks and then disappear again for another year.
The "Oh no!" from the title boils down to this. The game of Battlegroup was played in 15mm AND I LOVED IT. The miniatures looked good, the terrain looked good. The asthetic of miniature size and table size worked really well. I messaged my brother of The Players' Aid fame and he commented about how 15mm is the sweet spot in terms of how it looks on the table, what you can fit on the table, and still being fun to build and paint.
Last year he sent me some assorted 15mm spares that have sat in the bottom of my storage area. Well, I opened them up this weekend, looked at possible basing methods, spent the entire weekend umming and ahing about buying a box of 15mm Brits. I will try and get for my birthday.
Here are some poor images from the game.
We played a scenario from Italy that was historically a poorly planned British attack across open ground that resulted in high casualties and a retreat. Well...this time art imitated history. It was a bloodbath. The Brits gained most of their successed from pulling two air attack counters, and the pre-timed barrage. British started bottom right, off the photo. Germans deployed all across the rear, with some in the farm, the Pantherturm in the woods, along with a squad of Germans, and some more overlooking the burning vehicle objective in foxholes.
As Brits we were going to charge up the right, get into the woods and try to roll up the flank. But while charging across the open, they just got totally bogged down and shredded. The 2nd British platoon came on on turn 3 and tried to sneak along the bottom edge of the table and enter the woods (you can just see the feld edge). But once in the woods, they
I am happy to not purchase BG Italy yet though. Oh, it was a print on demand copy and the paper quality was definitely worse, but I will just have to accept that when I get around to buying it.
The Shermans basically all got knocked out where you see them here.
Pantherturm at the back there was the MVP. Killed two of the Shermans. One died to a Panzerfaust and the other died to a mine strike.
Conclusion - I am clearing out and sorting my hobby area to make room for 15mm figures and terrain. I am also consolidating my 20mm collection down. I have a bunch of pre-loved vehicles I was going to restore...14 years ago, infantry I haven't really touched either. I think I will get rid of a bunch of them. Last summer I bought a bunch of 20mm MDF ruins and started building them. They take up space and I'm not even sure I will really use them now! Turns out 20mm is not my thing anymore. Maybe for Chain of Command, but I plan on basing my 15mm figures to be playable for both Battlegroup and Chain of Command.
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