Dusty's PrairieCon XLIV After Action Report Part 3 - "Bolt Action" - Defense of the Polish Post Office Danzig, 1 September 1939

On Sunday morning I ran a Bolt Action scenario from the 'Germany Strikes' campaign book, specifically the defence of the Polish Post Office in Danzig on 1 September 1939. This it the third time I have run this scenario, and each time the results have been very different. In preparation for the game I painted up for 2' x 2' MDF boards that had urban grey on one side and desert brown on the other to maximize utility. It gave me an opportunity to deploy my Polish Post Office building that I constructed in 2020 along with the brick and wrought iron fencing I built a few years ago for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

Set up at PrairieCon

The Polish defenders consisted of six 4-man rifle sections, three 2-man BAR section, an anti-tank rifle section, and Lieutenant Guderski
 

Polish defenders

 The German attackers consisted of three waves with a mix of light and medium howitzers, a pair of armoured cars, two sections of Ordanzpolizei, three sections of SS Heimwehr Danzig, a section of SA, a MMG, and a small engineer detachment. 

The 3 waves of German attackers

 I had three players participate in the game, so there was a single Polish commander and two German commanders. While the Germans have a definite advantage in numbers and weapons, the Polish troop quality is higher, and they have the 'No Where To Run' special rule allowing them to re-roll failed morale checks. Most of the German infantry units were inexperienced which gave them a negative modifier when shooting.

After the Poles were positioned in the various rooms of the post office, the Germans deployed their first wave at the rear of the building, despite being informed that the only entrance was at the front. With more Polish die in the cup than German at this point, the attackers suffered major casualties as the Poles had the opportunity to shoot before the Germans had a chance to move. 

 

Initial Polish deployment in an off-board grid
representing the rooms of the post office,

Initial German deployment

The Germans learning a hard lesson of deploying in the open

On the third turn the German second wave came on and a focused attack on one end of the building commenced.

SS Heimwehr Danzig going into action

 The German assault pioneers were able to plant their satchel charge against the building as further assets came on the board on turn 4. 

SS Steyr ADGZ armoured car advancing

 

A squad of SA advancing on the left

 

Unfortunately for the Germans the first die out of the bag at the beginning of turn 5 was a Polish one, and the defenders wasted no time in cutting down the remaining assault pioneers before they could set off the satchel charge. With the front entrance now the only means of assaulting the building the German attackers were out of position to capture any rooms before time ran out, and we called the game after 2½ hours of play.

Despite their loss, even the German players had fun

Thus concluded my third game of the weekend. I had an enjoyable time, and I hope circumstance will let me attend again next year. Thanks for reading.

HALT!
Gefahr! Es wird
scharf geschossen.

Dusty's PrairieCon XLIV After Action Report Part 2 - "Arena of Blood"

 On Saturday morning of PrairieCon I was scheduled to run 'Arena of Blood' by Wiley Games. I didn't have any preregistered participants, but over the course of the two hour slot I was able to recruit a total of eight players who played at least two games each. (The event organizers had stands with a sign that read 'Players Wanted' which I used to attract some players.)

 

Set up at PrairieCon with 'Players Wanted' sign

Samnite defeats Murmillo

Murmillo defeats Crupellarius

Hoplomachus and Murmillo versus Velite  

Hoplomachus and Murmillo versus another Murmillo

Murmillo victorious over Secutor

Murmillo vs Thracian, Dimachaerus vs Sagittarius

Sagittarius vs Thracian

Sagittarius victorious over Dimachaerus

Velite defeats Murmillo

The games were all 'fast and furious' with much of the play determined by the luck of the die rolls, but with still a bit of tactical decision making required with regards to which special skills a player was willing to lose to any major wounds, whether it was better to loose a defensive ability versus an offensive one. The best play of all the games was a young player fielding a Murmillo who played a Jack for an extra attack dice, and rolling three 6s to take out his opponent, 

No games went the full three turns, each of four phases, and game duration was generally 15-20 minutes. Conscript Dave and I have taken the game to several conventions already, but this was the first opportunity I have had to put all the gladiator figures I painted for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge to use.  

Later in the afternoon I participated in a 'Wings of Glory' WW1 aerial combat game, flying a Sopwith Camel along with two other Allied players trying to taking down a Zeppelin Staaken R. VI bomber defended by a Fokker Dr 1.The defensive fire from the bomber was quite brutal and all the Allied planes were shot down before the bomber had suffered any significant damage. The only thing that kept us from being downed sooner was the frequent jams suffered by the German player.

Somewhere in France

 

The might Staaken bomber

 Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for Part 3 of my AAR.

Dusty's PrairieCon XLIV After Action Report Part 1 - "What a Cowboy!"

After many years of thinking about attending PrairieCon, only to have other commitment interfere, I finally got out to the event for the entire weekend. I ran a total of three games and participated in a fourth while I was there. I am splitting my AAR into three parts, one for each day of attendance.

 First up is the game of 'What a Cowboy!' with rules by TooFatLardies that I ran on Friday evening. It went quite smoothly, thanks in part to a play test held with other members of the Fawcett Avenue Conscripts a week earlier. In that game I used a lot of the Western buildings belonging to Conscript Dallas, but felt the game needed terrain that provided more cover that didn't completely block line of sight. 

Gunfight in the streets of Laramie play test game

Gunfight in the streets of Laramie play test game

Gunfight in the streets of Laramie play test game

Gunfight in the streets of Laramie play test game

 I had some 2' x 2' pieces of ½" MDF that I had cut for another terrain board project, but had decided against using it. Instead I painted one side with desert browns and the flip side with urban greys to maximize utility. I also constructed a number of sections of various types of Western fencing using some plastic pieces from the Perry farmhouse kit supplemented by some crafting dowels and large toothpicks. These would provide obstacles to cross, as well as making it more difficult to spot targets. I also made some scatter terrain using some barrels that came with the Perry kit.

Fence sections prior to painting

Layout for the PrairieCon game with a 3'x3' playing area

 I had three participants for the game, so I played as well to even up the sides. We all started with a 'Shootist', giving the character a 'Bonanza token' which could be used to interrupt an opponent's turn, and a special skill to enhance abilities. We ended up playing two games in quick succession as one of the players learned the hard way that strolling up the middle of the road is a good way to get shot. The second game lasted a little longer with players making use of the fences to close the range under cover, as well as their 'Bonanza' tokens to get off some snap shots before their opponent got a chance to shoot. All the players had fun, plus a number of people strolling around the gaming area stopped by to watch or ask questions about the game mechanics.
 

Set up at Prairiecon

Game 2 in progress

Caught in the crossfire

Shoot out at the Blacksmith's shop.

'What a Cowboy!' participants at the end of the game

I certainly enjoyed running the game as it gave me an opportunity to debut all the Western gunslingers I painted up for the last Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. If circumstance allow, I hope to be back next year with a different board layout. Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for Part 2 of my AAR.

Western Desert and PrairieCon XLIV Report!

Well a couple weeks ago I attended Prairiecon XLIV (44 for the Roman-numeral-impaired), the annual Brandon event we used to proudly call "Western Manitoba's Longest-Running Game Convention (tm)". I've been going to Prairiecon since Prairiecon III (!!) so I'm an old hand.

Since the pandemic Prairiecon has been growing and growing, and this year's event was the biggest ever, with over 300 badges issued. There's all kinds of boardgames as well as the original Prairiecon attraction - roleplaying games and the AD&D tournament - and a few tabletop miniatures games too.

There were vendors of course, selling everything from boardgames to 3D prints to crocheted stuffies to dice, comics, and everything else you typically see at nerd-culture events. All good stuff.

I always run at least one game at Prairiecon, and typically volunteer a shift or two at the desk (above), but this year with a new volunteer registration portal, I wasn't needed for that!

So I got to save my volunteer energy for auctioneering at the annual auction, and it is a pretty big job. The auction ran for over two hours (with a 10-minute break for me to have a drink) and we sold over $5,000 worth of games and gaming stuff, with part of the proceeds donated to a local charity.

This year Conscript Frederick and I both brought miniatures games to the convention, mine was a Bolt Action game set in the Western Desert. And although there was a full-on Warhammer 40K tournament at Prairiecon this year, it's never been a hotbed of miniatures gaming. I was happy to have two players for my game.

Mike C. (left) is a Prairiecon original whom I've known for 40 years. He said he hadn't played a miniatures game in a long while but he made a good fist of it playing the Germans. Olaf (right) had fun and did a creditable job playing the British defenders.

Here I am explaining the scenario. Basically it was "Surrounded!" from the 3rd Ed rulebook, but reinforcements were restricted to coming in on their own half of the table - we'd playtested the game previously and using all four table edges for both sides was just too much.

I think the Germans had 15 order dice to the Brits' 12. This made for a good game with lots of stuff on the table. I think the boys had a good time, which is the main thing!

Of course being Bolt Action the game turned into wheel to wheel armour on one corner of the table, but so it goes... and as I said earlier, Conscript Frederick took several good-looking games to Prairiecon (including the infamous Polish Post Office game!) and I hope he'll post an after-action report as well.

I love Prairiecon and wouldn't ever miss it if I can help it. Every year it's great to catch up with old gaming friends and put on a game or two. This year Founding Conscript Curt and Sylvain came out from Regina, and Sylvain put on a very cool Gundam game for us, using action figures! That was super fun. And of course there's always great food and beer after the evening is done. Good times.

Toodles and heya safari! 

Spring Projects

 Since the end of the challenge I’ve really gotten behind on posting on the blog. That doesn’t mean my painting has been idle. In fact, I’be been painting quite a bit. Much of it were odds and ends left over from various other projects. The most prominent one has been a return to the Executioners Space Marine chapter. I painted a test squad before the painting challenge, but hadn’t been able to work on them again until recently. I’ve painted up the command squad, terminator squad and a second tactical squad. 

Apothecary and veteran 

Champion and veteran

Standard Bearer and Captain

The chapter decals all came from Fallout Hobbies. They have a big range of space marine chapter decals for all the various Badab War factions. The quality of the decals is quite high and shipping is pretty fast (and expensive to Canada). He also has flash sales on a fairly regular basis with 15% off.

In between each squad I would also paint a vehicle for Gaslands. I’ve added three so far using this strategy!

The first one drops oil slick and glue. The second one drops mines and caltrops and the third is a ramming specialist.

Hopefully I can stay motivated to keep posting in a more timely manner.

Thanks for visiting!