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.

Fitter to be tied

Just a quick post this time. I finally finished my Su-22 from Academy. It is a 1/144 model and the best thing I can say about it is that there are not a lot of parts. The fit is meh, the decals are meh, the weapons load is meh. Still, for 4 euros it cannot be beat. I plan to some more Dragon Fitters, giving me a complete flight. Although it is not an exceptional plane, the Fitter looks very Russian to me and would be very common among Frontal Aviation units used for ground support.

That's all for now from Athens, where most people are watching the Eurovision song contest. Model on!

GSG 9

OK, maybe not GSG9. These are the Revell figures for the German Commando Special Forces, but I will be using them as GSG9 as well in my Cold War Gone Hot games. Just the thing to deal with Spetsnaz and Russian sleeper agents about to cause havoc before WWIII kicks off. They are also great for some "SWAT vs. terrorists" action. Mind you, the weapons are definitely not right for the late 80s, but these look much more varied than the Caesar SAS (that languish somewhere in The Stash).

Here is the complete team. I painted one of each pose. Although these are going to be used in an urban environment, I used my typical "countryside" basing. Black on grey is sooo boring, plus central European cities have substantial park areas (often courtesy of Bomber Command's Urban Planning Division).

Sniper and Spotter. Stay back figures providing intel and long-range hitting power. I would have preferred the spotter having a sniper rifle of his own for those tricky "two-gun jobs", but they look pretty good.

The rest of the team. These were easy to paint, with everything being mostly black. I did paint the helmets, shield and "door knocker" dark blue in order to make them stand out. Probably not entirely correct, but if you belong in the color fanatic crowd, you are probably reading the wrong blog.

That's all from sunny Athens. Now, if I can only entice Thanos of Miniatures and Terrain for a special op against those pesky Soviet agents..

Cold War Gone Hot APCs

My forays into the Cold War continue with 2 more models. The first is the old and venerable M-163 from Esci, this time reissued by Italeri. Italeri is slowly reissuing all the M-113 variants that Esci produced, and a jolly good thing it is too. This is an old kit, one that I built as a teenager. Hated the lenght and link tracks then, still hate them now. I don't have a problem with Revell's L&L tracks, because they actually FIT. These took some cursing and chopping, but they finally conformed somewhat. I added a commander from the other M-113 kit I am building, and called it a day. Yes, it is not my best job by far, but I just wanted to build something after my divorce and this was a pleasant distraction.

The other is the (essentially quick-build) M-113 from JB, reissued by Airfix. Although this is supposedly 1/76 scale, it is very very similar to the Esci offering which is 1/72. Oh well, makes my life simpler. Great little model, easy to build, very durable, perfect for wargaming. Once again, quick build, quick paint. Nothing to really write home about, but it gets the job done. If you buy one (or three) make sure you wash the parts extra well. Some sort of weird releasing agent was used and I had trouble getting paint to stick, despite washing things with water and detergent.

That's all for now. Off to the bunker where more Cold War goodness (plus WWII, Napoleonics and even some stuff for Mogadishu) awaits.

Which way to Paris comrades?

A few months back I completed this squad of Vozdysho Desantnye Voyska (or Spetsnaz if you are feeling more adventurous) for my Cold War Gone Hot project. Needless to say, I had spent another two days of my life re-reading Red Storm Rising, and I was in the mood for some Warsaw Pact vs. NATO action. This was the result. Naturally, I used the old Esci Spetsnaz issued when I was in my (very early teens) and recently re-issued by Italeri. Excellent sculpts, if a little boring in terms of poses. Although they are kitted out for Afghanistan, they will see action in Central Europe, maybe even south Europe just fine. 

Fist completed squad.

NCO/Junior CO

Squad Machine Gun

Squad Sniper

Squad RPG

Grunts

I have a few more metal VDV from Elhiem and with these I will be able to boost my forces to a full platoon, if not more. The lack of any vehicles in styrene is an issue, but I think I will make do with Hinds. I already have my eyes set on an old Airfix Hind-D and I aquired some 1/144 air support today. Given my current gaming table, I find it doubtfull that I will be able to field more than a platoon anytime soon.

British Doorknocker

A few months back I got a Zvezda 2-pounder for my BEF project (still plodding along with that one; with a bit of luck they will be ready in a couple of months). Just when I had given up on getting a plastic 2-lb anti-tank gun, Zvezda came to the rescue. To my understanding, it is not entirely accurate for France, since a lot of units used a French 25mm anti-tank gun (almost as useless), but hey, it is too good to pass up. I used it as it, adding another figure from the Zvezda Vickers machinegun kit.

Lovely little kit, as most if not all of Zvezda's offerings are. I need to finish my command stand, the rest of the artillery and the Mathildas, and I will be pretty much done. Not everything will be entirely accurate, but it promises to be a fun little army on the table top.

Here is the state of the bench as of this afternoon. Most of the stuff is commission work.

That's all for now from Athens. Keep modeling!

"Uri, uinciri, uerberari, ferroque necari"

"To endure burning with fire, shackling with chains, to be whipped with rods and killed with steel". Not a fun time! Still, this was the Roman gladiator's oath of submission and it illustrated the life they led pretty well. Last year, I decided I wanted me some action in the arena, so I got a box each of the Italeri and Pegasus gladiators and a copy of the "Red Sands, Blue Sky: Heroes of the Arena" rules from Two Hour Wargames. This is a neat sense of rules that allows you to play at three levels: solo game (always a good idea), head-head campaign where you are the head of a troupe of gladiators or familia gladiatoria, or a campaign where your gladiator(s) try to make it to Rome and win the coveted rudis (wooden sword) and freedom.

The game is pretty complete, coming with pretty much all the rules you will need, paper miniatures and a paper arena. Paper is for pussies I tell you. We are here to get our hands dirty with styrene and polyethelene and paints. So I went ahead and painted one each of the six gladiator types outlined in the rules:

Hoplomachus (sans shield): Italeri

Murmillo (front): Italeri

Murmillo (back) 

Retarius (net added from gauze): Italeri

Secutor (without helmet): Pegasus

Thraex: Pegasus

Dimachaerus: Pegasus

It was a fun little project. I still have more gladiators to paint if I so desire (including women and midgets who are also included in the ruleset) and some animals. Now, to motivate myself to build a small arena and invite fellow blogger Thanos from Miniatures and Terrain for an evening of casual slaughter sine missione (without mercy) on the sands.