Una volta un bellissimo villaggio.

On show today are some Italy themed terrain pieces I produced last week. I'm building these in anticipation of a new army I'm starting, which is the 5th Gebirgsjager division in Italy. This will also be the start of an early war army, for which I will use the Burning Empires book. I intend to make some more buildings, walls and maybe roads.

Rear

Overview

Gepanzerte Panzergrenadiers vs. Grenadier guards/Airlanding FoW Batrep

Yesterday Peter, Guy and I met up for a second battle. Peter once again ran his gepanzerte panzergrenadiers,  but this time Guy took his Grenadier Guards and I took my airlanding.

General overview of the forces:

Germans: Totenkopf" SS-Panzergrenadierkampfgruppe.
HQ (2 panzerschrecks, 3 halftracks) 
Gepanzerte panzergrandier platoons 
Gepanzerte panzergrandier platoons
1 Panzer platoon (4 Stug G)
1 Armoured anti-aircraft gun platoon (2 armoured sd kfz 7/1)
1 Armoured mortar platoon (HQ, 2 observers in kübelwagen, 4 sd kfz 251/2)

British: Grenadier Guards combined with 1st Airborne
This time we played the British as one company, only using the airlanding HQ

Grenadier Guards 
Motor Rifle platoon I
Armoured platoon (3 Sherman, 1 Firefly)
4 Sextons

1st Airborne HQ
Rifle platoon I
Light tankplatoon (3 tetrarchs)
HMG platoon (Vickers)
AT platoon (6 pdrs)

The battle takes place once again somewhere in Normandy, despite the fact that the Germans are organised in an eastfront roster. The British find themselves once more on the defensive, facing a full force of gepanzerte panzergrenadiers. The objectives were placed on the west end, with Germans approaching from the east (pincer scenario). Para's hide in the woods, while the sextons prepare their barrage. The third platoon that starts on the table are the 6pdrs in ambush.

British positions ()

German positions (east)

In their prepared positions the British can't do more than wait and hope to stem the German tide long enough for their reinforcements to arrive.

Did we hit them? Did we?!

Hold on to your hats men!

Halftracks race through the little, quintessential french village, only to receive the full force of 4 six pounders opening up on them. The result is devastating for the halftracks, but the grenadiers press onward.

                           

The stuggs on the northern flank swing to the center, which proves to be their undoing. After 1 of the tanks is destroyed and 1 bailed out by combined fire of sextons and a six pounder, the stuggs present an easy target to charge for the nearby infantry. After the paratroopers destroy the 2 remaining stuggs they can safely return to their foxholes with minimal casualties.

After their moment of glory, the six pounders are easily swarmed by the grenadiers, opening up the southern flank for the German infantry. Luckily for the British, reinforcements arrive in time to defend the objective.

Right on time chaps!

On the other flank some tetrarchs come up to harass the remaining halftracks, destroying them all.

The shermans park in front of the objective to screen it from the infantry. The Germans however are not yet considering a retreat, and boldly charge the tanks. The overconfident shermans pay the price and must retreat with 1 remaining tank.

Wir brauchen die panzerschreck!

Tanks go up in flames

At this point the only remaining German platoons are the kubelwagen scouts, the first in command and a grenadier command team. When the british receive their last reinforcements Peter reluctantly concedes the battle.

We once again played a very enjoyable battle, I hope you enjoyed the report too.

Flames of War Battle report

Last weekend I met up with Peter and Guy at Peter's place for a 1500pts late war battle. Guy and I teamed up with both 750 points. This being Peter's first game we didn't go all official on the allies rules and such, we just tried to make it easy going. The mission we rolled was Cauldron, and the British chose not use their nightfighting rules, making them the defender. We had a great game, so please continue reading!

A General overview of the forces:

Germans: Totenkopf" SS-Panzergrenadierkampfgruppe.
HQ (2 panzerschrecks, 3 halftracks) 
Gepanzerte panzergrandier platoons 
Gepanzerte panzergrandier platoons
1 Panzer platoon (4 Stug G)
1 Armoured anti-aircraft gun platoon (2 armoured sd kfz 7/1)
1 Armoured mortar platoon (HQ, 2 observers in kübelwagen, 4 sd kfz 251/2)

British: 51st Highland division combined with 1st Airborne

51st HQ 
Rifle platoon I
Rifle platoon II
Morris Armoured cars
Armoured platoon (3 Sherman, 1 Firefly)
1st Airborne HQ
Rifle platoon I
Mortar platoon (3")
HMG platoon (Vickers)
AT platoon (6 pdrs)

Somewhere in Normandie:

Dig in!

The rain had been pouring down on them for hours, and the men were growing weary. They had dug in as best as they could in the mud and woods, after being cut off of the main advance. The German motorized division had encircled them quickly, and pinned them down at the outskirts of a small village. Just as the sky started to clear they could hear a distant rumble approach them. Tank commander McKinsey was the first to spot the German panzers rolling over the top of the hill.

Over the hills and far away

Overview of the board

His shouts of warning were to no avail however. The first salvo of the sturmgeschütze took out half of the tanks in his squadron, forcing the remainder of them to seek cover behind the woods and houses, effectively putting them out of action.
This fierce opening of the German offence shook the British infantry quite a bit, but they had no time to recover from the sight of their burning tanks, for there was a more imminent threat approaching them.

Burning tanks

Around the corner of the nearest hedgerow came a full squad of gepanzerte panzergrenadiers, machineguns blazing. Bitter fighting ensued, resulting in two destroyed halftracks and some scattered infantry on the allied side.Seeing that the infantry platoon would not break, the Germans smartly withdrew to regain their strengths. The arrival of a second gepanzerte panzergrendier platoon turned the tide for the Germans, shattering the British infantry.

Hold the line!

Vorwärts kameraden!

This forced the paratroopers of the first airborne to leave their foxholes and reclaim the objective.
The rear now totally exposed, the stugs swung around the back to claim the second objective. Still waiting for reinforcements the paratroopers had to spread thin to keep a claim on both objectives.

Go to it!

The stugs now had a firm hold on the objective though. The arrival of the British reinforcements could no longer win the battle, even though a unit of Morris cars made short work of the German halftracks.

Too late

Realizing they had come too late, the British reinforcements withdrew, leaving the village in the hands of the Germans.

Thanks for reading! We had a great time, and if you did enjoy reading this as well I might write some more battle reports. Let me know!

Bolt Action, Bretonnia, FoW

The first picture of my bolt action miniatures. Germans, to be painted as Hermann Goring luftwaffe forces

Bolt action late-war plastic germans

 Also some bretonnians that are keeping me from painting the last flames of war para's which I need to finish before next weekend to participate in operation Cannonshot, a tournament in Amersfoort, The Netherlands.

Bretonnian Men at Arms Command

Bretonnian Men at Arms Banner

I did manage to paint two hmg stands yesterday though.

Flames of war Airlanding hmg's

Flames of war Airlanding hmg

This is the work that still needs to be done!

How stands the workbench

8th Army, Desert Rats

From time to time I'll post some pictures of old or finished projects.
Today, it's time for the desert rats to make an appearance. This is my first finished flames of war army, with which I took part in a mid-war tournament here in the Netherlands. I think I ended second place in the painting competition. The first picture shows the full armylist and two objectives. Enjoy

1500 points Desert Rats

Grants (free-handed markings!)

Command and Second in Command