US Paratroopers Army Update -9: Hittin’ the Books

Retrocative Data: 17 January 2007

At this point I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do with the army, and I knew it was going to take a lot of research. I was already familiar with the 101st and Easy Company, but at nothing approaching the level of detail and accuracy I wanted to achieve. Reading all the books and articles I’d assembled for the project took a while, but as I did a much clearer picture of what I would need to do in order to mesh my artistic desires, game requirements, and history together. I needed a roster. And I couldn’t find one.

If you haven’t researched World War II very much or are unfamiliar with Army organization, let me just tell you that trying to get a platoon-level specific, historically accurate roster for any given unit on any given day is… difficult. I wanted my army to reflect Easy Company on “the first day of snow” in December, 1944. For one, I’d have to nail down the exact date that it started snowing (the 17th? 18th?) but beyond that I couldn’t find a roster anywhere. I did find a post on http://forums.wildbillguarnere.com/ with D-Day stick lists – on D-Day, the paratroopers jumping from each plane were called “sticks,” and consisted of a single platoon. Starting with these stick lists I added and removed names for every casualty, replacement, transfer, and promotion I could find until mid December.

At that point, I figured I was close enough.

If anyone ever wants to actually see this roster, post a comment on this blog. Just one requesting comment (admin does not count) and I’ll bother to post the Easy Company roster I came up with for everyone. Actually, maybe I should take it back to Wild Bill’s sight and have them pick it apart…

Once I had the roster completed, I could move on to Obsessive/Compulsive Document #2. I figured the only way I could keep all the teams in order, with the right names, right game bits, and look like the parts of the Band of Brothers miniseries I wanted them to was with another list. I made a spreadsheet for every model in the army, organized by platoon. The data included the in-game Team Type, its model’s serial number, the castings I might use and what would be required for the game, the names of the men I was representing, sometimes a quote, and a screen shot from the move. I would try to match these screen shots as closely as possible when I (someday…) got to modeling the army. Yes, this is actually as retarded and excessive as it sounds.



Meanwhile, as Christmas rolled through, I dealt with the various shipping difficulties associated with all the miniatures. Everything from Battle Front was late (as each release has been to the time of this posting), either because Battle Front delayed it, the local game store dropped the ball, or US Customs seized it. Things started to trickle in though, and D-1 was finally released. This book is the Late War army guide for the Paratroopers in Flames of War, and before it came out I was sort of guessing as to what would and wouldn’t be legal in the new army lists. Its pretty good as far as army books go. The first new models to arrive were the Resistant Roosters US Infantry in Great Coats. Between them and the used figures I’d been picking up, I was starting to need to find some place to billet all these guys…

I can't believe this shit

So, at some point this afternoon I got a blog on a whim. Now I've been glued to the computer for 12 fucking hours scrapping shit together and playing with the stupid thing.... this fucker better not start cutting into my painting time!

July 4th Table

I did this lay out for a game we played on the

Star Wars - The Shadows Hand

Originally written for swminiatures.com, this article was something of a survey for me of toys and models available in game-useful scales (not always accurate, but good enough). At the time of its writing, many of the characters included in this article had not been addressed by Wizards. This is not so much the case now, but that matters not as the last releases from Wizards have SUCKED. I hope no one at swminiatures minds me reprinting my own stuff, but I doubt any one will care.


The Shadow’s Hand
Conversions and substitutions for “Shadows of the Coast,” an upcomming fan-made card set expantion for Wizard's of the Coast's Star Wars Collectable Miniatures Game. God, I hate Collectable stuff...

I hope you’ve enjoyed the first part of my custom card set, posted to swminiatures.com under the rather colorless title, “Custom Cards.” Released 2 August 2005, this package was really one of those strange mutants never intended for mass production. But someone made a request in the forums that I thought my cards could fill, so now the mynock’s out of the bag. This initial, haphazard release will soon be followed by a second serving, and the whole mess will be repackaged for public consumption under the title, “Shadows of the Coast.” Some characters will be removed (having been replaced by Official material in Universe Huge), others updated (based on user feedback in the forum), and additional characters will be added to bring the count up to an even 60.

But all that comes later. Today, we’re going to take a look at how I chose to represent some of these characters on the table top, either by conversion or substitution, plus a few odds and ends I couldn’t resist throwing in – I haven’t made figures for every card, and some figs don’t have cards yet. Some of the pieces I discuss will be rather hard to come by, as they may have been out of production for over 20 years. Please, don’t let this discourage you. This is only how I solved this dilemma, and my suggestions here are no more official than the character stats I made up off the top of my head. That said, I’ve bent a bit of thought on these miniatures. Perhaps you’ll find my comments useful, and I certainly welcome constructive feedback.

But enough talk, lets get on with it!

Conversions

Heavy ARC Trooper

I’m going to start with the Heavy ARC, because I like him, and he’s one of my more involved conversions for Star Wars. This guy started life as the blue ROTS Clone Trooper, who then traded legs with the Separatist Commando before being issued the Big Gun. Inspired by the support gunners in The Clone Wars cartoon, I got the minigun from some HeroClix figure, Scullbasher or something like that. The muzzle flash came from a Jango Fett action figure, the shoulder pad was sculpted with green stuff, and he got various details scraped off of Jango’s mini before getting the blue paint job.

Jedi Fodder

I based both of these out pretty quickly, which is fine, since Jedi Fodder is just a renamed Jedi Knight, anyway. The chap in brown is a Rebel Storm starter set Luke, with a brown ink wash and CS Kenobi’s head and lightsaber. The lady in red is a HeroClix Electra, with her staff replaced by lightsabers. She could really use a paint job, don’t you think?
You could crank out these suckers by the dozen if you had a mind to. Just about any miniature with a lightsaber looks like an alien Jedi, bonus points if they look like they are wearing a robe.

Jarjar Binks

This was a simple conversion, based entirely on the Gungan Infantry model. I repositioned him using a combination of the boiling-water bend and the wedge-cut and bend. I like the flexability you get from boiling, but it doesn’t stay without some glue, and you get a greater range of motion if you just cut out a little wedge from the back side of the bend.

Sith Cult Priestess

After taking Scullbasher’s minigun, she was still an interesting miniature. A quick leg swap with a Dark Side Acolyte, a quick black and purple ink wash, and the addition of two short lightsabers (I like Philippino stick fighting) had her turning to the Dark Side.

Sith Cultists

You can’t have a cult Priestess without a cult full of followers! From the looks of these two, I’d say the local comic shop was running a sale on HeroClix Electras. These girls are in serious need of a repaint, but slapping lightsabers in their hand took about two minut – see, I just cranked out another while you were reading this! Its that fast.

Sith Cult Assassin

What do you get when you take a Ninja, slap some alien’s face on him, and give him a lightsaber? Some punk who things he’s Darth Maul or something. This guy is probably going to be rendered obsolete by Universe Huge’s Sith Marauder, but maybe not. Always in motion is the future…

Starter Set Skywalkers

While we’re talking about lightsabers, here’s a little something to do with the Vader and Luke from the Rebel Storm set. Vader mixes pieces from the RS Vader (not Lord of the Dance, the other one) while Luke found a helmet with the blast shield down. I don’t know how he’s going to fight, but he does have his blaster in the holster.
What can I say, I had about 20 of these guys.

General Kenobi

I’m pretty fond of this guy. I was a huge fan of the Clone Wars cartoon, and the image of a Jedi in stormtrooper armor was just too cool. Its like, how wrong does the universe have to get for that to happen? Next thing you know, old Ben’s going to drop some punk with a blaster…
What we’ve got here is a Clone Grenadier with ROTS Kenobi’s head and the cloak from an Imperial Guard (don’t remember which set). The hands are from Kenobi, and the rest is green stuff.
No need for another Kenobi card – I just use this when I field General Kenobi.

Han and Luke in Stormtrooper Armor

This one is also just for fun. No card or anything special, just a scenario-specific conversion. Really just a pair of head swaps. Han’s head came from the Epic Duels figure, so it’s a bit small.

Lord Tion

I was always a big fan of the radio dramas, so Lord Tion was my first pick for a named Imperial Officer. Seen here with his hands glued behind his back and a trooper helmet for fun, the only real work was straightening his legs. You can still see the unpainted greenstuff filling the gaps on this miniature.

Captain Antilles, Rebel

The commander of the Tantivi IV started life as one of his rebel troopers before I shaved off the cargo pockets and gave him arms from a Cloud City guard. After that, it was all in the paint job. These were all custom mixed colors left over from painting a batch of Rohirrim, so just do your best to color match from the film. As an afterthought, he could really use a Rebel-issue blaster.

Ponda Baba

OK, sure, he’s going to be in Universe Huge… but will the official mini be short an arm? I think not!
He’s totally unpainted, so you can see there all the parts came from – Cloud City guard for the body, Aquellish spy for the head, and arms off a Gran. No big deal.

Nute Gunray

Also to be replaced by Universe Huge, I really just include this guy for fun. The body came from some crazy D&D wizard type figure, with the head off a RS Duros. Obviously, the rest was greenstuff. This guy never really got finished, which is fine, since I only want him for one little scenario on Mustafar…

Aerial Clone Trooper Commander

I did this guy up for a few reasons, but mostly because I can’t stand the “random and rare” packaging Wizards lives by, especially in a context where sets go out of print so fast. This guy is just a blue clone trooper on a flying base (itself converted using a GW transparent stand and a Wizards base) with a Stormtrooper blaster and bits from Jango Fett.

Mos Eisley Spy

I don’t remember this guy’s species, but I’ll look it up when I make the card. He’s just some funky D&D miniature with a big nose. I cut off his dagger and gave him a blaster. Later, I should go back and add goggles with green stuff. But if I do that, I’ll have to paint him…

Twilek Body Guard

After all the Sith Cultists, I had a lot of bits from Dark Side Acolytes laying about, so one of them inherited the head and arms from the Body Guard. Again, this is just for variation, and she really needs a paint job. Red isn’t her color.

Sandtroopers

I love these guys, and here you can see a bit of evolution in the technique. The guy on the far left got his long gun, shoulder pad, and back pack from an old Action Fleet figure.

After that, I had to get a bit more creative, so I turned to the old green stuff. The Officer with a white pad actually got another Action Fleet backpack, but aside from that all the packs, pads, and extra pouches are putty. It seems like that would be hard, but it really isn’t. The shoulder pad is just a triangle of putty, pressed into place against the neck and curved into shape, then lines with the tip of the knife. The backpack is just a box, with smaller boxes pressed into is. No big deal.

Oh, and before anyone says anything, I know the official cannon says officers wear orange and grunts get black. Well, not in THIS man’s army!

Model and Toy Substitution
That about wraps it up for conversions for now; maybe we’ll take a look at some more later. Next
up, figure substitution. There are a number of alternate sources for miniatures, some easier to come by than others. I’ve been collecting Star Wars miniatures for over 20 years (I didn’t know that’s what I was doing at age 6, but hay – they were 25mm, and I still have ‘em!)

Model kits are an excellent resource. I still have bits an pieces left over from an old Jaba’s Pallace diorama kit, and just the other day I found an old model for Mos Eisley Cantina. Perhaps we’ll take a look at some of them for the second portion of Shadows of the Coast. These kits, while great, are ancient, and very hard to come by. However, several vehicle kits have recently been re-released. Most of them are way off scale for war gaming, but the one most interesting to gamers is the AT-ST, and it is spot on. Lets do the old Pepsi Challenge:

While the model shown above is unpainted, you can quickly see that it is in the “right” scale. Is it a perfect fit? Who cares, I don’t know how tall a “real” AT-ST is anyway. But it looks right. In fact, I think I like it just a tad better than the Universe Huge piece.


The legs look a bit too long on that chicken walker, but it
might just be the picture. We’ll have to put them side by side after
Huge comes out to see for sure, but
either way, we’re talking about a $15 alternative to an Ultra Rare. It may not be tournament legal, but if you too have visions of an Imperial Light Armored company, these kits are the bee’s knees.

Action Fleet

The “next best” alternative source for models is the Galoob Action Fleet line from the 90’s. Some of these get reissued from time to time, and they are still pretty common from dealers, eBay, and such. Let’s take a look, shall we?

These speeders provide a pretty good example. While the game doesn’t really have mechanics for “vehicles” just yet, they do make nice set pieces, and are nicely scaled, as Luke has demonstrated. They haven’t really been in demand since the XP-38 came out, but they should be enough.
Tusken Raider on Bantha

Another Action Fleet piece, this Bantha is just right for wargaming, even if he is a little small and feels like a My Little Pony. Again, he’ll be replaced in Huge, but I’ve already got two of these, so they may continue to serve. The Tusken to its left shows the scale, and it is a bit small – this is the general trend of the Action Fleet stuff – nice, and close enough, but not really the same scale at all. But close enough for hand grenades.

Sandtrooper on Dewback

This is probably one of the closest matches from the whole Action Fleet line. While the trooper is a bit small, the lizard is spot on – the difference between the two just look like male and female specimens to me. What small scale problem does exist is easily rectified by placing a Wizards stormtrooper on the Action Fleet Dewback – something I’ve seen done, but not something I’ve taken the time to do myself. But I’ve got two or three of these things, so I’ll probably give it a try.

Droids – Fringe

I’m not sure if they considered it Action Fleet or just MicroMachines, but Galoob put out a collection of druids at some point. These things were all over the map in terms of scale – R5 is way too big, 2-1B is too small, but there they are. R2 is in front for comparison. Close enough in my book. Probably the worst of the batch is the Mouse druid, which actually came with an action figure accessory kit. Then again, if he was the right size, I’d probably just loose it.

Jawas

For a time, MicroMachine released several packs of nameless grunt troops. Roughly 15mm to 20mm in scale, these things are useless for mixing with Wizards 28/30mm scale models. But Jawas are so little, who’s going to say anything? Or maybe I just think they are cute.

Droids – Imperial

The interrogation droid came from the same pack as the Fringe droids above. All he really needs is a flying base. The probe droid came with an Action Fleet Death Star playset, is set atop a flying base using the clear stick from GW, and in my opinion looks better than the one Wizards put out. At least mine is floating.

Swoop Ganger

As you can tell from the Stormtrooper beside him, this guy has the same slightly-small scale problem as most of the other Action Fleet stuff. But he’s removable, comes with a flying base, and I didn’t have to convert anything. What’s not to like? They did Rebel and Imperial speeder bikes like this, too.

The Action Fleet line had a lot to offer the wargammer, and I’m sorry they’ve let it fall short. The playsets would make excellent terrain – if I could bring myself to mark them with a grid. Several of the vehicles are also useful as set pieces, but any discussion of substitution leads inexorable to a debate on scale. My .02 credits on this matter is, if it looks right it plays, if it looks wrong it stays… in the box. Sorry, the rhyme fell short.

What I’m really saying is that “close enough” is close enough, and if you get uptight about, “Well, this guy is heroic 28mm, and that vehicle is 25mm, and this squad is 30mm, and it all looks wrong!” then you are simply going to have to play without several elements and items you love from Star Wars. No one has ever done what I’d call a “good job” on this title – every single line has been dropped right when it was getting good, and they are all in slightly different scales. At this point, I must have more than 20 Hans, in ever scale from 15mm to 54mm. But to put together, say, a full Company of Stormtroopers? Oh, gee, the manufacturer never thought of that. I don’t mean to go off on a rant here, but if you want all the variety the galaxy far, far away has to offer, you are going to have to not take scale too seriously.

That said, there are some things that just look wrong. Like flying cow wrong. But rather than describe where I’ve drawn the line for myself (just as you will have to draw your own) the pictures below should give you an idea of what I mean:
Ugly

This shuttle is pretty good. Ya, it’s a bit small, but how much board space do you want to give to something that doesn’t move, shoot, or do anything? Like I said, its close enough, and while it is obviously too small, it doesn’t make me cringe.

Bad

The Falcon, on the other hand, is just way too small. I mean, its shorter than a Stormtrooper. This is what I mean by cringe-inducing. It would work fine with 15mm miniatures, but not with 30mm. Thing is, this was heart breaking to me -- I'd searched the world for years for that version of the Melinium Falcon. You are looking at the finest toy of Han Solo's ship ever made, and yet it may find little place on my table. At least not in 28mm.

Good

This X-Wing is spot-on. Too bad the landing gear broke off. To my eye, it looks as close to perfect as I’m going to get any time soon. It is in “true” 25mm, so it is a tad small for 28mm, but it is so close. Crazy thing is, its from the same line as the Mellinium Falcon, and I've been able to aquire, destroy, and replace this toy three times (I was a really rough kid...)

What was that? It doesn’t look like Action Fleet, you say? Simple enough answer…

The Kenner Micro Collection
I love this stuff. Released in the early 1980s, this series centered on play sets – the Death Star, Hoth, and Cloud City were the initial offerings. Vehicles were another major component, including the Falcon, X-Wing, TIE, Snow Speeder, and maybe a few others. As for the figures, they were prepainted 28mm (aprox) tin cast miniatures, with an emphasis on grunt troops. What more could a 7 year old want? Everything was nicely scaled to everything else in the series (unlike the action figures…) and everything blew up. The X-Wing above broke in two places along the fuselage, the TIE fighter’s wings came off and broke in half, gun turrets would pop off and come apart, windows would break, and much fun was had by all.

Until they killed off the series. You see, they didn’t market these to gamers at all. In fact, they didn’t really market them to anybody, and sales were never very good. The line was canceled just before the release of a big bucket of grunt troops. I was not pleased.

Since then, I’ve kept most of what I had as a child, and have slowly acquired more. There was a time when I used them to supplement my old West End 25mm RPG miniatures, but no longer – West End’s figures may have been the first wargaming miniatures I ever bought knowing they were for wargaming, but that didn’t make them very good miniatures. And most of what they put out has also been released by Wizards, I don’t really use them anymore. But the Micro Collection has a few things all its own. In fact, my desire to use some of these pieces on the table was my original motivation to make custom cards in the first place. . If you want to see more, check out this site: http://www.toysrgus.com/index.php?action=disp_category&category_id=447

Snowtrooper with eWeb Heavy Blaster

This is my gun. My very big gun. There are many like it, but this one is mine. That is his original factory paint job, too. It may be chipped, but its not too bad for something that’s been in the collection for 20+ years.
eWeb Heavy Blaster, Fringe

You can’t really let something like the eWeb be an Imperial Exclusive, so I knocked up this little bugger. Its just a lascannon from an ancient 40K Land Raider stuck to an old GI Joe tripod. Simplicity itself. And fun against light-armored troops. The open tripod makes it very easy to fit this over the base of most Wizards miniatures.

So, what else does the Micro Collection have to offer? How about Tauntauns?

Han and Luke on Tauntauns

Sure, UH may have Luke, but why no love for the Corellian? Even with the release of Huge, I’ll probably still use these figures. What can I say, the whole reason I like wargaming is I never wanted to stop playing with my old toys.

Wampa

OK, so he looks a little confused on the Death Star. And his paint is showing its age. And his pose is lame. OK, you’re right, it’s a pretty gimpy miniature. But until I pull a random and rare wampa, he’s what I’ve got.

The real strength of the Micro Collection was the play sets (which I may discuss in a future article, or maybe not) and the troops, but Wizards has base troops pretty well covered. That said, I’ve got about 20+ old metal Stormtroopers. In a large enough battle, these grizzled old veterans will see action again. If nothing else, they add a half dozen additional poses to two armies (Hoth Rebels and Snowtroopers) that would look pretty bland if you only used official stuff.

At any rate, that’s our show for today. I hope you found my suggestions useful and my ramblings tolerable. We may revisit this topic again are new material becomes available, and I encourage others to share their own custom or vintage miniatures. Please remember these are only my suggestions and opinions, and probably don’t reflect the opinions of anybody. Have fun.

Prepare for Ground Assault!

LOTR - Rohan Thunagar Bolt Thrower

OK, now its been a while since I've played Games Workshop's, well, anything. But the last time I did play any of their stuff on a regular, it was the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game. This thing really did drag me back into wargaming after several years chasing other distractions. Anyway, as I find some of these old things from left over games they will probably get added in with the more current stuff. And thus I give you the rules and details miniature for one of my Lord of the Rings miniatures....


Rohan Thunagar Bolt Thrower
65 Points

Simple and elegant in its hand-crafted design, the Rohirrim use powerful Thunagar (Thunder Spear) Bolt Throwers to defend fixed positions. When war draws the Eored far from home on a protracted siege campaign, these siege bows may be hitched to horses and pulled into firing position.

____________________STRENGTH__DEFENSE__BATTER POINTS
Thunagar Bolt Thrower______9________ 10_________3____
_______________________F___S___D___A___W___C____
Rohan Crewman_________3/4+__3___4___1___1____3___

Crew: A Thunagar Bolt Thrower consists of one (1) bolt thrower and two (2) Rohan crewmen armed with hand weapons and wearing armor. Extra crewmen may be added at additional cost:
Rohan Crewman 6 pts each
Horse 6 pts each

SPECIAL RULES

Piercing Shot: If shooting at a Battlefield Target, the missile can conceivable hit several enemies. The target model is struck one blow at Strength 9, is knocked to the ground, and is flung 2D6” directly away from the bolt thrower. Except as noted below, any other models that lie in the path of the victim suffer a single Strength 6 hit and are knocked to the ground if they have Strength 5 or less. If the propelled model hits an obstacle or Siege Target it immediately stops and inflicts a single Strength 6 hit upon it.

Accurate: These machines are much easier to aim than Catapults and other heavy siege engines. When firing a Thunagar Bolt Thrower at a Battlefield Target the shot will only scatter 3” rather than 6”.

Horse-Drawn Carriage: Up to two (2) horses may be lashed to the Thunagar Bolt Thrower to drag it into firing position. Both the horse and at least 1 crewman must spend a full movement phase in base to base contact with the Bolt Thrower to attach the weapon’s chassis to the horse or horses. When moving the Bolt Thrower in this way, each horse counts as two (2) models, such that a single horse pulling a bolt thrower will move at ½ rate and two horses will move at their full movement rate. No other models may help a single horse move the bolt thrower, and no movement over any kind of difficult terrain is possible. A single horse pulling a siege engine may not bear riders while doing so; a two-horse team pulling an engine may bear a single rider. If the horses do not move, any model that ends its move in base contact may unhitch the horses immediately, but neither the unhitching model nor the bolt thrower can do anything else that turn. The horse is now free to bear riders, but can do nothing further this turn. Once unhitched from its horses, the crew will spend the rest of that turn preparing the weapon for action. It may fire normally the following turn. Note that the Thunagar bolt thrower may not fire while lashed to a horse team.

UpGRADES

Superior Construction 20 pts
Flaming Ammo 15 pts
Siege Veterans 15 pts
Rohan Siege Engineer Captain 75 pts

Modeling the Thunagar Bolt Thrower

When I set out to build one of these, I wanted to come up with something that would not stand out too much from what had come before it. That is, I didn’t want anything too “Warhammery,” even though I was adding a custom siege weapon to a skirmish game. These tips will get you a long way to converting your own.

GW’s conversions are constrained by contractual agreements – they can’t mix parts between LOTR and Warhammer, and they certainly wouldn’t ever mix in bits from another manufacturer. I myself am free of such constraints, as are most of you. I decided to base my conversion on a Warhammer Dwarven bolt thrower for a few reasons – It’s got a pretty conservative style, as far as warhammer goes, and has a basically “realistic” design. The generally small size of dwarven materials counter-acts the effects of mixing 28mm with 25mm – the smaller siege gear from the larger scale looks fairly heavy in the smaller scale.

COMPONENTS:
1 Dwarven Bolt Thrower (Warhammer)
2 Horse heads (Risk)
1 Cavalry base (LOTR)
3 Warriors of Rohan (LOTR)
2 Horses (LOTR)

CONSTRUCTION:

I wish I had pictures, but I don’t and we’ll all have to live with it. This conversion is very straight-forward.

1. Basic Assembly – assemble the Dwarven bolt thrower more or less as it normally would be, but don’t include the big rectangle bit (you’ll know what I mean when you see it).
2. Remove stupid details – The stock dwarven bolt thrower is covered in little faces – call them shields, badges, trim, whatever. Cut all that garbage off, and either carving into the metal or with a bit of putty carve a few lines over the area to hide your shaving and extend the wood grain over the “ugly spots.”
3. Take two small plastic horses. There are may sources for these – look in hobby shops for little plastic horse charms or beads. I got two of the horse pieces from the LOTR Risk game and used those, but you won’t want to do that very often or you’ll trash the Risk set. Wherever you get some little horses (You want horses about ½ inch tall) cut their heads off, cutting as low on the neck down by the shoulders as you can.
4. Glue these horse heads onto the front of the bolt thrower on either side of the loaded bolt.
5. Mount and base to taste.
6. Have two riderless horses handy to hitch the bolt thrower to. You may also like to have a loose rider figure to represent this as needed.

This conversion is not very involved, and basically means replacing dwarvish icons with horse heads. You could glue on some shields and stuff if you like, too.

Assault on Kiev Campaign GAME 5 AAR

Game 5 AAR -- Tutonic Victory!

We had us a right fine fight for the Fourth! It came down to the wire, with several critical die rolls (typically failed) that could have really changed things. My list for the day was:

HQ
2 x SdKfz 250/1s
CiC Panzerknacker, 2iC Panzerknacker

1st Platoon
4 x SdKfz 250/1s
CMD SMG Panzerknacker

2nd Platoon
4 x SdKfz 250/1s
CMD SMG Panzerknacker

1st Panzer Zug
3 x Pz V Panther Ds

Heavy Panzer Zug
1 x Tiger IE
2 x PzIIILs


Complicated, hugh?


This first shot came from Luftwaffa ariel intelligence, and shows the lay of the land, initial
deployments, and my first move. Panthers can be seen advancing on Breakdance's infantry holding the line, while panzergrenadier creep up behind. Also note the Tiger tank with PzIII escorts trying to sneak up the other side of the tracks. This would prove lame, as one of the
PzIIIs got stuck on the track on Turn 1 and never moved again.

Not wanting to spend his half of the game dead, Breakdance kept his tanks well concealed until the oportune moment...

While his infantry enjoyed guarding their most inappropriate objective:

Forces started to build up fast in the yard in front of the church, as the Panthers and two platoons of PanzerGrenadiers made ready for their big assault. While the assault itself didn't generate nearly the hoped for rewards (I killed one guy and he backed out of range) it did push him back from center and allow me to get boys onto the objective. It was contested.

This action also saw the most devistating round of small arms fire in Flames of War history, when the grenadiers opened up with all available machine guns and actually killed stuff. Like, a good handful of stands. It was awsome.

This wasn't:

With half the escort stuck on the tracks, the Tiger (who had cunningly navigated the mountain forrest to evade a second platoon of T-34s and concentrate on the objective) came under devistating anti tank fire from Breakdance's ambush. These guns would go on to kill both Pz. III Ls, a few halftracks, and suffer not a casualty in the effort. His T-34s? They were stuck in the mud:

Casualties were mounting on both sides. Both my grenadier platoons were below half strength, and his infantry was there in name only. Tanks were burning, Komisars were failing rolls, it was getting down to the very nitty gritty. Tanks started to roll, jockying for positions around the stone village. Again, the Luftwaffa was able to provide us with a closer view of the action:
[IMG]http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r56/utini420/Kiev%20Campaign/KievCampaignGame5Tactical165.jpg[/IMG]
In other words, things were going my way!

Thing about Panthers, when they shoot things those things explode. Breakdance double bailed this guy with Maria, as close to the board edge as it looks (with a slope!) but he passed his motivation tests, jumped back in his tank, and killed her and her bailed out friend.
The only thing I really had to worry about was his second platoon of T-34s:

It had been taking so long to kill all the stinkin' little tankettes that I was becomming concerned that I would actually have to do something about these tanks, rather than just winning the game while they rolled in the mud for hours on end.

At this point, I was down to my HQ officers, two platoon leaders, one MG team and 2 Panthers. First platoon would not last the day, but neitehr unit ever failed its moral. They were killed to a man and will be decorated acordingly. Most of their transports had been removed. My Panthers had the very simple job of killing everything they could see before any of it could kill the one and only infantry stand in the army, still stubornly contesting the objective from the bottom of his fox hole. As the last Soviet tank in town popped its top, this was the scene around the objective:

But we held.