Black Sea Boats! - An Age of Deadnoughts AAR

 On Saturday, Mark, David and I kept our Memorial Day weekend gaming tradition alive, this time with Victory at Sea Age of Dreadnoughts. I brought out my original two fleets and put together a couple of straightforward opposing forces. Because there were only three of us  due to a couple of cancellations, I removed all of the destroyers and we only played with the capital ships. 

In the red corner we have the mighty Turkish Navy featuring:

The Barbarossa and the Torgud Reis - both Barbarossa-class pre-dreadnought Battleships

and the Midilli and the Medjidieh - two protected cruisers

And in the white corner, hailing from Sevastopol, the Russian Black Sea Fleet featuring:

The Patelimon and Tri Svyatitelya - two pre-dreadnoughts,

Pamiat Merkuria a better-than-typical protected cruiser and

The Almaz, a very early aviation cruiser, with no planes deployed.

Mark chose the Turkish Navy and David and I split the Russians with one battleship and one cruiser each. I captained the Pantelimon and the Almaz.

Mark, David and bits of the table. I think this was the first outing for those islands with I made years ago.

I sent the Almaz to the left, implying it was going to hook around the island to our front. Mark fell for the bait and sent a ship to cut it off.

The Almaz cut back to follow the rest of the Russians. That Turkish would be wasting time getting turned around. Meanwhile, all guns that could reach began hitting one of the Turkish cruisers, I think it was the Medjidieh.

The cruiser went under the waves in short order.

The two lead Turkish ships were getting turned around back towards the battle, allowing the Russians to engage another lone target, the Torgus Reis.

Things weren't all rosy for the Russians though, the Almaz gets hammered by the Reis and is sunk.

And as the ships closed, things just just got nastier. The Pantelimon hit the Barbarossa with a torpedo, wrecking then engine, causing it to stop, dead in the water. The Reis was hit with barrage after barrage, ultimately resulting in all weapons becoming ineffective. The other Turkish cruiser, Midilli, had also become crippled. The other Russian cruiser, Pamiat Merkuria joined the Almaz beneath the waves.

At the end, the Turks had two severely damaged ships, one that couldn't move and another that could not shoot. The Russians still had two very healthy battleships. A brutal engagement for sure but a fine time was had by all.

Victory at Sea doesn't make it on the table quite enough but is always a lot of fun. We need to get it out a bit more often. Until next time, be well and good gaming!

Checking In

 Not detailed reports, but it has been a month and life has been busy, strange and otherwise filled since my last post. I have gotten in gaming, just haven't written about it. A couple of weeks ago, Wayne and Mark came over for a day of What A Cowboy followed by Check Your 6 Jet Age.

 The Ski-Mark gang won that outing.. Wayne's dice just hated him and didn't want him to have a fighting chance.

 Up next was CY6JA. I set up an early Cold War scenario featuring MiG-15s facing off against some F-3 Demons. Again it was me and Mark against Wayne.

It was an entertaining encounter. The Demons have first-generation AIM-7 Sparrows and guns. Although we got a few lock-ons during the game, Mark and I never had a chance to fire a missile. We did well in the gunfighting department though, knocking out two while losing one with one more damaged. A fun day of gaming for sure.

Last weekend Ziggy came over for a round of old-school Battletech. We each ran two heavies. He had an Orion and a Black Knight while I used a Flashman and a Guillotine. 

Halfway through, my Flashman took back-to-back headshots from the Orion's AC10 and Medium Laser. That finished that mech off in one fell swoop.

I peeled off the whole left side of the Black Knight, then cackled as the engine went full Chernobyl. The Orion beat my Guillotine to a wreck for few turns then we called the game. Fun outing!

No painting recently. We've got my F-I-L staying with us for a bit so I don't have access to the room where I paint. I weep.
 

AAR: Eastern Front Action with Rate of Fire

 Mark and I got together on Saturday afternoon to let the 1/72 toys out for a spin. I set up a very simple "capture the crossroads" scenario and put together two force lists from my Soviet and German collections using the excellent Rate of Fire rules from Crusader Publishing. The Soviets started a bit closer to the crossroad so they felt a bit more like defenders, fitting given the 1942 date I assumed when I put it all together. 

Pregame... the junction sort of in the center is what we're both attempting to control at the end of 10 turns.

The blown out building near the crossroad became a target for me. It was bloody tough to shift those reds once they'd taken up a position in there!

Oh God... the KV moves to threaten my Panzer II!

I had my little tank pull back, but both the KV and BT-7 could both still see it! The BT's shot missed but the big 76mm shell from the KV got the tank's attention! The shot went wide and the German crew all thanked their lucky stars. The Panzer peppered the infantry in the central ruin, it's little guns unable to do much at that range against the green tanks.

Finally, some German reinforcements arrive, in the shape of a Panzer III. Still basically ineffective against the KV, but it could at least challenge the BT. Mark must've though it was more of a threat because the KV pulled back instead of forcing the issue.

I moved the Panzer II out again, trying to keep fire on the infantry in the middle, Mark's big tank peek around the building at it. Not this again! This time the tank found its mark but it was a glancing hit that only caused a morale test which I of course failed. Panzer II, suppressed. Not terrible though, it just is unable to advance towards visible anti-tank threats.

Now that's an anti-tank threat! Some REAL reinforcements arrive. I need to get this thing set up and hope it doesn't get wrecked while vulnerable.

The Panzer II continues harassing infantry, this time some SMG troops in the woods. At this point, Mark was violently cursing and spewing hate at the little tank that could. 

Time to put up or shut up! The halftrack drops the Flak36 and the crew start prepping it right away. The KV watches. It takes a shot.... weeeoooooooowwww.... boom. The shot sails over the 88, it was a bit high. Won't get that lucky next time!

The BT advances to trade more shots with my Panzer III using the woods for some protection. Our shots missed each other.

The BT bursts out of the woods, screaming towards the 88! My Panzer II took its opportunity fire shot and A HIT! Not a great hit, but it caused crew survival checks for the Russian crew... survey says, dead driver! Fantastic for me, the fast Russian tank was immobilized. Sucks for me that :

1) it has a fully functional gun 

2) it is perhaps seven meters in front of my tank

3) the rest of the crew is screaming for vengeance

The 88 and KV trade shots, both missing. Hmm. At least my 251 filled with infantry survived the quick dart across the gap! 

Yeah, there you go. Mark rolled a 12 to hit. That gun against that "armor" and Ze Schnellhund was done. At least the BT was now just a turret. Unfortunately it was in a really good spot to cover the middle of the table.

The dudes from the halftrack and the squad that had been in the woods to the right side of this picture crept towards the ruined building of death and destruction. The Panzergrenadiers had gotten pasted by mortar and small arms fire, thus the few troops you see here. 

My final spite attack. The Panzer III get in position to take a pot-shot at the KV. The 88 had just hit it and killed the commander. The Soviet mortar rained death on the 88 and killed four crew! My Panzer takes the shot which I really really really needed to hit the tracks. I forgot to aim the shot, but it's a good thing I didn't because I got the hit and hit the tracks anyway! If I had aimed, I'd have missed altogether. Just a "track damaged" result reducing the tank to Slow speed and forcing a morale test. It failed. Heh. Scram, Commie! That was 10 turns and we had ourselves a draw. We'd both been mauled, I think I took more of a beating, but that'll happen to an attacking force in this sort of engagement. Either way, it was a darn entertaining few hours of dice and toy soldiers. Thanks Mark!

AAR: Junkyard Pickin'

 Mark, Wayne and I got together at Roll the Bones game store in Savannah on Sunday afternoon for a game of Shakedown, my modern What A Cowboy variant. I put the scenario together earlier in the week and came up with the following.

The guys running the questionably legal towing business in town towed a car to their junkyard a yesterday that belonged to a weed dealer. They didn't know whose vehicle it was when they towed it. The Clanton family heard about and knew the vehicle was owned by that dealer. They decided to break into the junkyard, find the drugs which are likely still in the vehicle, and make a nice score! Of course the Clantons tripped an alarm on their way in so the local police are on the scene to respond. The police also have long suspected the scumbags running the "towing" operation of also running a chop shop so this would give them a good opportunity to get into the office and look for evidence.

Mark took the Clantons, Wayne took the Towhook Gang and I got to run the boys in blue. 

Our 36 x 36 game area. Twelve cars to search. The Clantons are in the back, circled in yellow. They just popped a section of fence. The Towhooks are in the double-wide office (just made this week!). My police are nearest the bottom of the photo.

In no time at all, Little Dale of the Towhooks had located the wannabe thieves. He gave his MAC-10 a long pull on the trigger and gave Uncle Cy a hell of a spray. One of the bullets hit Cy in the head and he was out of action right away!

Since the other guys started the fight straight away at the other end of the yard, I had a long slog ahead of me!

And then it happened. The godforsaken junkyard dog rushed Officer Murtaugh. Roger was rattled but otherwise OK.

And it wasn't long before the JYD was on top of Earl Clanton! Poor Earl got a bit of a bite during his run-in.

"You OK, man? Was that a dog that got you?"

Meanwhile, Officer Callahan had gotten into the office. He was expecting company and was in position to cover the door. When Cale came in after him, "Dirty" Harry was waiting and with a Bonanza token,  knocked Cale down a peg. Cale was taken out of action a turn later.

The summanabatching dog reappeared and took a bit out of Officer Hannah's ass.

Earl's worked his way over to the other row of cars. I worked Murtaugh up to the shotgun fight between Ricky and Booger Clanton because a third shotgun is always fun!

After Harry had enough evidence on the Towhooks, he rejoined the fight was was pinned by Ricky and his sawed-off 12-gauge. Roger took the opportunity to join the shotgun fight and took Ricky down at close range.

Boom, done.

Meanwhile on the other side of the lot, Earl and Booger were making good progress looking for the dope. Surprise surprise, they found it in the Hippy Van! Earl had hit the jackpot.

Callahan moves up to finish off Darrell, the last of the Towhooks. Of course, their trusty dog was right there, screwing things up! I still managed to get a shot off at Darrell forcing him to fall back pinned.

A minute later Harry slapped the cuffs on him. A nice day's work!

But while that was going on, "Fast Earl" had found his calling and made his way out of the lot with the loot! 

So we called the game there. Wayne's group had taken a beating with three KO'ed and one arrested. The cops had plenty of evidence on the Towhook Gang to shut that operation down but failed to stop the break-in and couldn't round up the drugs. The Clanton's lost two of their group and had two make it out intact. My cops performed well, Clancy Wiggums was knocked out, but the others were OK, except for needing rabies shots. That dog was just the worst!

A darn fun game for sure! When Mark chose to enter the junkyard so close to the office, the game turned into a high-intensity firefight right away. Mark did well to extract two guys and continue searching for the loot while Wayne's guys were busy with me. We all enjoyed things and I'm here to tell you, the addition of the dog (a last minute idea thanks to my wife) was just hugely entertaining. The dog would appear instantly and attack any cop or Clanton that rolled triples on any of his activation dice. So you rolled three sixes, great! Fight this dog first though, sucker! Wayne's idea of being able to summon the dog and sic it on someone for its first appearance is pretty strong and I'll remember that the next time it's appropriate. 

Lizards II

 I finished up the second lot of Wargames Atlantic Lizardmen this morning. This group is armed with some very 19th century-style firearms and should make for a neat Sci-Fi or Pulp force. Other than the weapons, I did everything the same as I did with the previous 12 spear-armed Lizzies. Cheerful and colorful for sure!

 

 

 

Wayne, Mark and I are supposed to be getting together for a game of Shakedown tomorrow, my modern What A Cowboy customization. Looking forward to that for sure and I'll of course get some pictures for the blog. Be well!