Flying Lead. Tons of it.

Fellow modeler and wargamer Thanos, of the Miniatures and Terrain blog made it to the Fuhrerbunker tonight for yet another game. World War II skirmishing, using Flying Lead from Ganesha Games. If you don't know them, visit their site. Andrea is an awesome guy to deal with and his rules are ALWAYS great fun. Flying Lead is a generic skirmish game that can be used for WWII, pulp adventures, cops and robbers, science fiction and probably more types of wargaming. Not having used it for WWII (I used to play Hit the Dirt from Free Wargames Rules) I decided to try it out. Heck, I had a squad or three of US infantry and Germans painted for while now and the rules just sitting on my shelves.

So, the rules came out, two forces of 600 points each were assembled, the battlefield was laid out, and battle was joined.

The battlefield. I would have liked some more terrain. Next time.

Rules, army list, QR sheet, dice, measuring sticks. Ready to rock and roll.

The Yanks. Heroic sarge, corporal, BAR gunner, 4 privates, 1 veteran in CQB, 1 veteran with hand grenades.

The Krauts. Heroic unteroffizier, gefreiter, MG-34 gunner and loader, 4 grenadiers, 1 veteran grenadier with rifle grenades.

Thanos' task was simple. Patrol the area, entering from one table edge, exiting from the opposite. All I had to do was stop him. Since he will be posting about the game in his blog, here is my part. I split my force in two. The bulk was placed in the courtyard of the intact house where they would have cover, a safe line of retreat to the house and be able to command the road with the MG34. Two were placed in one of the ruins across the street to act as a mobile reserve and dislodge any Yanks that tried to use the ruins to form a base of fire. One more grenadier joined them later in the game.

Group one of the Amis.

Group 2 of the Americans.

Hiding behind a stone wall is always a good idea.

Thanos checking line of sight.

Before I go any further, let me tell you, Thanos had terrible luck with his dice. And I do mean terrible. Twice he had the chance of ending the game then and there. Twice he rolled a succession of "1"s and "2"s that allowed me to rally.

One of his teams tried to occupy the top ruin (the old Airfix command post) but continuous fire from the MG34 and rifle grenades killed the sergeant early in the game. The BAR gunner followed suit after a few rounds of combat leaving 3 riflemen to hold the area against 3 grenadiers and the weight of fire from the machine gun.

The other team delayed in reaching the cover of the stone fence near the oak tree. From there, they became a serious hazard to my command and fire support group. The unteroffizier was twice forced to seek cover and the grenades from the veteran rifleman came close to wiping out all of the troops (by that time, the MG34 had already crossed the street to try and find a better vantage point). Thanos' dice however were anything but hot, so the veteran grenadier and the gefreiter wounded the veteran and the corporal.

Sarge is down. I repeat Sarge is down.

There goes the BAR.

One man is a waste of ammo. Six men is a good target

Before long the MG34 was close to reaching a position to enfilade the group taking cover behind the stone fence. Some of the Americans climbed the fence and tried to enter the house from the back door. The Germans retreated and used the windows to pour out defensive fire, forcing the Americans to stop their advance.

While all this was happening, the grenadiers across the street had gotten into melee with 2 of the Americans. The third was shot and gruesomely killed when his M-1 jammed. This lead to morale rolls for the remaining Yanks who failed them and were cut down as they were fleeing. This left Thanos with one dead, four wounded and three uninjured men. 

Hand to hand combat in the ruins.

Going through the back door.

The house, endgame.

The ruins, endgame.

We called it a night there. Thanos had suffered severe losses and although my troops were divided, he lacked the power to either enter the house or clear the ruins and evade. He had had the chance to end the game twice, but the dice cheated him of a well-deserved victory (or at the very least a tie).

If you are looking for a fun, fast and cheap set of rules, Flying Lead delivers. We are looking forward to our next game, where Thanos will bring his British and I plan to include a StuG ΙΙΙ so that I can test the vehicle rules.

That is all for now from Athens. Stay tuned for our next battle report.