First Battlegroup Game - Verdict: Why did I wait six years to play?

My wife ordered new wardrobes and while rearranging furniture in the bedroom my Battlegroup rule book appeared behind a chest of drawers. I knew I had lost it upon reading it on the toilet. Feverishly reading the rules over the past few days has enabled me to be ready to play. Tonight I did it.

I chose army lists from the Overlord supplement:

US Infantry division.

1 Platoon consisting of a command squad, 3 rifle squads, and 3 BAR squads.

1 Bazooka team.

1 MMG .30cal team.

M4 Sherman

I upgraded them to regulars, but I was unclear about whether the upgrade only counts for the platoon itself or if it included the support weapons so I just upgraded everything. It came out at 182 points and had a Battle Rating of 18.

German Infantry division.

1 Platoon consisting of a command squad, 3 rifle squads and 3 MG teams.

1 Panzerschrek team.

1 HMG team (MG34).

StuG IIIG.

These were already regular. Battle Rating 16.

In Battlegroup there are various things that occur and you pull a Battle Token. This include a unit dying, an enemy taking over an objective, attempting to rally pinned units. These tokens have numbers on or other random events. If you pull enough tokens that the sum exceeds your Battle Rating then you lose the engagement. 

Right: Let's see how it goes.

Scenario: Attack/Counterattack. The Amis have broken out of the bocage, finally. To try and stem the tide a Wehrmacht platoon is sent to fortify the village on the main road of advance. They might, however, be too late.The objectives are three: the centre hill, the large wooded stand, the house furthest from the right edge.

The Americans will enter from the bottom left. Germans top right. Scenario rules state that reece units enter on turn one, but there are none, so I just started. You can enter the board with 1D6 of units. Each turn you can add another 1D6 of units. Also at the beginning of each turn you roll 1D6 and then add the number of officers you have. You mad activate that number of units. Each side in this fight only has one officer so it will always be 1D6 +1.

Turn 1: The Americans advance. A rifle squad rush up the left flank to secure the high ground, while the bazooka team heads for the hedge rows to fire along the road. The platoon commander and BAR team advance towards the woods.

I rolled 4 to allow 4 units onto the board. For my command roll I rolled 6 (plus an irrelevant 1 for having an officer). They all did a double movement as their activation.

Conversely the German platoon commander tentatively advances alone towards the village.

Rolled a 1 for units onto the board and there was no point in rolling a command roll as I can get a minimum of 2 (1 +1 for officer).

Turn 2: Another squad enters the fray for the Americans, and they all advance. On the right flank the BAR squad and platoon command make it to the woods and seek firing positions. 1 unit enters the board. 5+1 can activate. The Americans taking positions in the objective force the German side to pull a Battle Token: it is a number 3. 13 more and they break.

 The bazooka team and rifle squad keep advancing up the left flank.

A large amount of the German platoon approach and are successfully able to follow orders. An MG34 team and rifle squad advance to secure the village. The platoon commander takes up position behind the house which is one of the objectives. A StuG IIIG rushes up the centre to try and find a position from which to fire on any infantry.

The StuG again and the German advance. A rifle squad and MG34 team advance around the hill. Another MG34 team, this time with a tripod mount advance in support.

6 units entered the board and 6(+1) were able to activate. This was a strong round for the Germans. But am I burning through too many good dice rolls too soon? The German platoon commander taking the objective forces the US commander to pull a Battle Token. It was a mine strike to be played against enemy armour. 

Suddenly the StuG hits an unexpected landmine, but luckily the blast is ineffective and does little more than rattle the crew a little.

Turn 3: The Sherman makes an appearance and advances up towards the hedgerow from which to fire at enemy armour. Infantry get into positions, such as the bazooka team, nestling in against the hedge.

The infantry secure positions in the woods from which to fire on the village. The rifle squad lay down some ineffectual fire at long range.

I attempted some area fire. 1D6 to hit. 1D6 defender cover save. If they fail the save then the unit is pinned - cannot be ordered to do anything. In the "rally" phase at the end of the turn the commander pulls a Battle Token and rolls a D6 to see how many units it can unpin.

The StuG advances to lay down fire against the infantry in the woods. A squad is successfully pinned but no casualties suffered.

Area fire apparently rarely causes casualties. The idea is it forces the commander to pull Battle Tokens to unpin them and crawl further towards their breaking point.

 On the German left flank an infantry squad and MG34 advance up to the hedge...

 ...while the MG34 team take up firing positions on top of the hill. Infantry advances along this flank also.

All German units are now on the board and 7 can be ordered to move. At the end of turn 3 the Germans have 3 towards their BR of 16. The Americans are still on 0, because their Battle Token was the Mine Strike token.

Turn 4: To tackle the StuG the Sherman advances to the hedgerow to lay down some fire. It scores a direct hit brewing up the vehicle and killing the crew in the process as ammunition begin to cook off inside.

 A large plume of black smoke marks the death pyre of the StuG and its' crew.

I am quite pleased with the smoke marker, although it was a pain to make and paint properly. Aimed AP fire is pretty easy to resolve, you just need to know what your gun is and what their armour is. It reminds me of the AP fire in the old Airfix Guide WW2 rules. The destruction of this vehicle forces the pulling of another Battle Token. It was an Airstrike token, but the Germans fail to successfully call it in.

 Riflemen in the woods open fire on the German platoon commander pinning him.

 US infantry advance up the hill, securing the objective for now.

This forces another token on the Germans. They are up to 5/16.

 German infantry open fire on the Americans in the woods pinning two squads. This may prove costly with morale overall.

The US will have to pull a Battle Token at the end of their next turn to un-pin these guys.








































To tackle the Sherman the Panzerschrek team advances. At the same time the MG34 team opens fire on the bazooka team in an attempt to avenge the burning StuG.

The bazooka team dive for cover but to no avail. They fall in a hail of bullets.

This was aimed fire. Fire to inflict casualties. I figured with the small figure count of this team, getting caught by the MG34 would be deadly. I was right. This death forced the pulling of a Battle Token.

The US and Germans had to pull a Battle Token each to unpin units this turn. Or will have to next turn. The Germans are up at 9/16. US are at 5/18.

Turn 5: The Sherman opens fire on the German infantry using its HE rounds. This is to support the advancing infantry who are hoping to secure the left flank.

 The fire is effective! The MG34 team is wiped out and the advancing infantry are pinned out in the open.

The death of the MG team forces the pulling of a Battle Token. It is high. They are up to 13/16. Close to their breaking point.

US infantry rush up to secure the hill and support the squad already sheltering in the lee of the central hill.

 US infantry in the woods take fire from the infantry over the hedge, but as the Germans spot movements in the woods, and as the platoon commander gets reports of infantry flooding towards their weakened other flank he decides to pull back and regroup further up the road. Hopefully soon enough resources can be pulled together to stop the US advance.

This is how it all looked at the end. 3 units killed. Multiple pins that force Battle Token pulls. In all, I like what I have seen so far. Next game I will try and get some mortars in the mix, maybe some off board HE fire also. 

I recommend. This is a 3x3 table so I didn't in any way edit the distances. I had thought to reduce inches to centimetres but didn't need to based on the small size of the forces.

Battlegroup Rules and WW2

My planning for the Sergeants' War campaign are stalled? I just have no motivation. Bedtime with the children is a nightmare right now and my wife and I are collapsing on the sofa at 8pm after fighting with the children, then rushing out and watering plants, washing up. We are exhausted. I can just about read my book, let alone wargame. 

However, for some reason I have gotten it into my head that I will finally try out my Battlegroup rules, especially since picking up three more supplements in their round or reprints. I finally have Fall of the Reich, which is my massive regret. Now hopefully they reprint Blitzkrieg and I will die happy. I may even pick up the Pacific and North Africa supplements at some point, but don't really feel it.

As such, I have written up a US Infantry division battlegroup and a Wehrmacht Infantry division battlegroup for a Normandy battle. The guidelines suggest not having an entire board of bocage, so I will limit that. However, I cannot for the life of me find the actual rule book. Back in 2014 I picked up BG Overlord and BG Barbarossa (I was painting up some T34s and had some grey Panzers) and with them came a small paperback version of the rules. The problem is, it isn't with my supplements. I have taken it to read on the toilet at some point and not put it back properly. I have already torn the house apart but have honestly no idea. I am sick of looking through the same places to find it. This battle is essentially paused until I can find it. 

It will, however  give me the breathing space to put together some lone standing trees. I till go old school and put some of them on some green felt to represent woods. I will base them on pennies. That is my task tonight. I also need to do something to the trees because they are crappy, plastic, shiny ones from China. 

Lockdown Terrain Part 2 and a Biodome?

Three nights in a row? What is going on? Tonight, though was brief, as I was building a Lego house for my children to play with tomorrow, and now fully intend to play Northgard for a couple of hours.

The weird thing and the Mos Eisley leaning thing. It will have much brighter highlights and I may even have things growing on it.

Space McDonalds?

The first attempt to get my head around creating bio-domes. I have two halves of a sphere with which to create two bio-domes. I like the idea of it being detachable so I can move miniatures inside.

The field under it is part one of me chopping up a hand towel that I soaked in watered down green paint ages ago.

Lockdown Terrain: Dirt roads and Sci Fi bits

I have been reading Harry Turtledove's "The War That Came Early" series in the evenings over the Easter weekend while my wife does puzzles. I have kept thinking I should get on and paint some miniatures or make some terrain, so tonight I finally did it. Took the plunge. I would have had a game, but she is taking up all the floor space.

Simple roads: Brown felt strips, drybrushed (too) lightly and then flocked on the edges. Cheap, easy. I now have enough for a decent crossroads or something on a 4x4 table.

 Sci fi stuff. This is a MDF box that likely held small Christmas decorations in it. Plastic cover disposed of, the box could be a good single story building: a supermarket or something. I stuck a bunch of greeblies on it as someone recommended that on a previous project. I will prime it tomorrow and then go from there.

 The red and green thing: the tip of a mechanical pencil greenstuffed into the mechanism of a clicking ball point pen, stuck to a 2p coin. I was thinking of Mos Eisley when I made this (see below). I almost reversed the green nib to turn it into a missile.

I simply glued a folding plastic thing onto this babyproofing plug protector. It is destined to be some kind of computer console area, good for an objective.

WW2 Campaign Part 2: The forces

The forces have been decided. Miniatures have been inspected and sorted out.

The defenders:

1 Company of German Infantry, consisting of the following:

Company HQ
3x Platoons of infantry (4 squads of 4 men + 3 LMG teams + 4 Leaders)
2x Attached HMG teams
2x Panzer Shreck teams
1x Pak 40
1x StuG Zug (3x StuG IIIs)


Attackers:

1 US infantry battalion with some armoured support.

3x Companies consisting of 3x Platoons (4 squads of 5 men + 3 BAR teams + 1 Bazooka)
1x Sherman 76
5x Regular M4s
1x M10 Tank Destroyer

Outnumbered and outgunned the Wehrmacht company will attempt to stop the US from cutting off the escape of German forces defending the town to the west.

My miniature situation makes it clear that I can only field a platoon of German infantry + another squad at any one time. With the US infantry I can field two understrength platoons. This might flop.

New WW2 Campaign Plans

Lockdown. What have I been doing? Mostly playing with my kids, working on the garden, trying to work from home, stress about how I am also changing jobs at this time, and be sad about going into self isolation without a chance to say goodbye to my students, most of whom I will never see again. Evenings have been spent collapsing in exhaustion on the sofa and binge watching The Clone Wars, in order to catch up for the new season. I have also spent some evenings playing Northgard, a cool indie computer game with a loyal fanbase, although I play exclusively single player.

I have seen a few blog posts and threads over on The Wargames Website about grid campaigns. I am unhappy with the state of all of my miniatures campaigns, so thought I would give it a go and see what happens. Here we have a map of nine possible battle grounds. The scenario: Wehrmacht forces hastily blocking the road to attempt to hold off the encircling of a town off to the West. They need to delay the allies, repulse them if possible, and failing that blow the bridge. 

Forces? I have no idea yet. I will get my miniatures out tomorrow and have a look at what I have. It will be interesting playing the Germans as the "good guys". Rules I will be using: A Sergeant's War.

Edge of the Storm part 4: Into the Jungle

It has been a while. This must be the longest running campaign I have managed...even though it is only four sessions. 

Corde and Lief are trying to unravel the mystery of why these people are here and who they are. 

The shotgun-armed lady is Tonita Wildner - de facto leader of this small community of escapees. 

"Escapees of what though" Lief attempts to gather further information.

"Slavery. Dancers, house maids, other more nefarious things. You name it, we have escaped from it. Some of us have been on the run for years, decades even" explains Tonita.  "Every now and then attempts are made to find us, but we have managed to settle here on Deon B for a while now. We were hoping this might be a long term situation.Your presence and loud entrance probably mean we need to get packed up and move on. There are more of us in the jungle. We are just the farm community, growing these nutri-pods in order to feed the rest of the community.

They had planned for this. Everything important was packed up within the hour and the route was planned through the jungle to the central hub where the rest of the escapees were ready to ship out and search for a new home. 

 Ready to enter the jungle, it would be a three hour trek to the central community hub.

 Lief and Corde take fire from nowhere! Corde is forced into cover, pinned. Where is this coming from? Unbeknownst to our heroes, atop a rocky outcrop a mysterious figure fires down. 

 Luckily Tonita spots the muzzle flash and opens fire at the shadow, forcing it down.

 The grunts and other community members advance into the jungle.

 The shadow is gone, but fire comes from somewhere! Luckily it has little effect and Tonita and Lief continue to cautiously advance into the jungle.

 Spotted, the shadow appears again and Corde advances, firing but it all goes wide, killing some unfortunate leaves.

 Grunts advance to help deal with the shadow but fall to precision shots. This shadow knows what it is doing.

 Further advance into the jungle. The tension rises as it dawns on the team that they are being hunted.

 More shots from an unknown source. How is this sniper/shadow in so many places at once? Surely there isn't a team hidden in the jungle? I mean the plants can't be shooting at them can they?

 Grunts catch sight of the shadow again and open fire but again the shots go far and wide!

 The escapees try and avoid the fire by taking cover behind a bank of foliage.

 Unfortunately the shadow reappears, killing one of the women as she attempts to flee.

 Then killing another grunt with more precision fire.

 And the other grunts. Things are looking bleak for this journey through the jungle. Something needs to happen and it needs to happen fast or they are going to just keep getting picked off.

 "We stop here" announces Corde.
"Here we stand" agrees Lief.
"These ancient ruins are as good a place as any to die I suppose" Tonita puts forward.
"We form a perimeter and dig in. Let's make sure this shadow has to come to us. I refuse to be hunted" states Corde.

And now we wait.

This was a fairly quick game. The shadow was almost impossible to kill (GM decided) and I wanted to see who would survive. The next encounter may be just as bloody.

Modular Sci Fi interior part. 2

Tonight I finally got off my butt and made something. I used some green stuff and bits from my box of terrain making crap to give some character to my Hexbug stuff.

The thing, however,  is that once added, I can't un-add them. Thus I intend to leave the majority blank and just paint some details into the walls. I want them as generic as can be.

Rubble and junk in a corridor. Aliens was my inspiration but I want more scatter terrain perhaps. I am dreaming up solid pieces that I could hook onto the edges to keep in place.

 A few bits. Nothing fancy.  A ship could still land here.

Modular Sci Fi Interior pt 1.

It has finally happened. The universe has come together, the planets have aligned, and I have managed to stumble across a godsend. While browsing Facebook Marketplace at unwanted Christmas gifts and former toys who have been assigned the role of "making way for new presents" I came across a listing for Hexbugs toys for £10. Hexbugs? What the hell are those? I had never heard of them. But the image got me excited. I searched for them and found more locally and cheaper. Tonight I went over and picked up a set. £10. Take a look at my initial setup:

Those are all the hexagons. I do, however, have a bunch a corridors and other little extra bits that require further investigation. But I mean seriously?! £10 for this setup? Sign me up for more. My only problem will be finding a place to store it all.

 These miniatures are based on 1 Euro cent coins. Not ideal, but you will see my smaller bases later on. Still, Xenomorphs charging down a narrow hallway. Fetch me my brown trousers.

So here we go. I am not sure about the scale of the Falcon with these 6mm figures. But with a different sized craft these sections could reasonably double up as a landing pad. I didn't even think about checking out how they look upside-down. What isn't clear is that there are hexagon shapes on the floor which will help it look sci-fi.

Here we have the main complex that is on two levels. This is the section that made me think of the Planetside 2 Biolab, and there is a multiplayer map in Mass Effect 3 that it reminded me of also. Those small holes can be filled with those little black pegs. Those black pegs can be attached to those orange looking walls. So I feel that there could be room for this to be semi-modular in itself. The walls could also be doors. 

 The upper deck. Those orange parts open up. Functioning doors. Win.

Waiting for his quarry. The small bases look much better. Time to order another packet of teeny tiny washers.

I think this scales better, the single seater fighter craft. However, I don't know if I want the concept of single seater fighter in my universe.

A Nubian. Too small. 

My questions are, am I even going to bother painting it all up? Where am I going to keep it? Will I ever even play a game on it? Should I buy up a whole bunch more?

Another 2019 review post.

I haven't touched a paint brush, glue, flocking materials, my bag of dice, etc since September. But if I am being honest with myself I am incredibly pleased with how this year has gone in terms of hobbies. 

Finally, after much hesitation, procrastination and lack of inspiration my 6mm WW2 project took legs and came into its own. I actually played some games. I don't even remember the last time I managed to play a WW2 wargame. Not since doing a couple of solo Flying Lead games back at Christmas 2014 I think. Wow, five years. That is some time. I really committed to the 6mm sci fi scene since then. 

So here we go, a break down of the year:

Let's start with the past three months. I have had a great time not spending money on miniatures, feeling much more secure in my profession, growing together with my family and spending my hobby time playing come old favourites on the computer, namely Diablo 3 and Northgard. I love them so much. I was also tempted to give Starcraft 2 another go, but still don't really want to. This has been a really cool period though, just relaxing and taking a step back.

INSERT SCREEN SHOTS


Then comes my WW2 project. I am incredibly pleased with progress in this department. I just cannot believe how long I have wasted with a lack of roads and terrain holding me back. My US forces are looking good, I managed to create some new basing flock to make them look less cartoony, and changed the size of bases to a standard 1p coin and 1 Euro cent coin for all infantry units. Tanks and cannon are mainly on 2p bases, while some smaller vehicles are on 1p bases. Although I only played two games, and these were small and in August, I intend to play with them more. Coming up with scenarios that are interesting to myself seems to be the largest problem.

There is something about the M8 Greyhound that I just love. These are my favourite.


6mm Sci Fi has taken a pause of late, but was going strong in the first half of the year. I got some armies together for my Activities Week event and have essentially not touched any of it since. Here are some highlights:

Watching The Mandalorian has inspired me to continue my 6mm RPG lite campaign. I am hoping to get onto this ASAP. I have three days left of the Christmas break and I must be honest when I say I doubt I will get onto anything in that time. I am too into Diablo 3 right now. However, when school starts back up and my bedtime routine gets back to normal, and I spend hours of the work day in front of a computer then I won't want to be gaming most evenings.

This terrain feature was also a personal highlight for me. I loved creating it. I cannot wait to finish it off.

Misc. I played Terraforming Mars the other day. It was outstanding. I wish I could play more boardgames. During the first half of the year I managed to play in a monthly games night but it ended up petering out into me playing a couple of games with my friend's children once per month and has since become nothing again.

What is up for 2020?
1. I want to finish the modular industrial complex. This is a must.
2. On Saturday I will be purchasing a child's toy that looks like it has huge potential as a modular interior complex, with part of it being very reminiscent of this.

3. Attend a boardgame group on a semi regular basis. I am stopping attending Slimming World and as such I am gaining a week night on which I can maybe attend a group.
4. Finish my German armour.
5. Paint and base a new platoon of German infantry.
6. Repair damaged infantry and vehicles, who took their damage in the line of duty during Activities Week.

I don't have a huge amount that I want to get done. I think playing more is a general theme for this coming year though. Less time model making, more time actually playing. I would ideally like to play a game per week, but I will settle for two per month as it goes. We will see where we are each half term holiday.

Have a good year.