Battle of Stonne - Early-WW2 Bolt Action Battle Report

So last week I hosted an in-person game here at Conscript Towers - Bolt Action. I'd been wanting to do an early-war game for some time, so I picked a likely-looking scenario out of the early-war Bolt Action book, Germany Strikes!. This was the Battle of Stonne, basically a meeting engagement coincident to the battles for Sedan. The tabletop is pictured above - village of Stonne at centre with the long table edge at the top of the photo being North. The French entry is along the south-west, south of the east-west road and west of the north-south road, while the Germans enter along the short eastern table edge. Victory would go to the side that held the crossroads, with no enemy units within 6".

  

German forces: three sections of infantry each in a Sdkfz.251/1, one Pzkpfw. 38(t), two Panzer IIs, one Panzer IV, one MMG team, one 37mm AT gun and crew, led by a Hauptmann (captain) and command section in a Kubelwagen.

French forces: three infantry sections each in a truck (models are Solido Simca-Unics), one Somua S35, two Renault R35s, one Char B1 bis, one MMG team, one 25mm AT gun and crew, led by a Capitaine and command section in a light civilian car.

The French force quickly moved onto the table on the southern road, trucks with infantry in the lead.

The French tanks and AT gun turned to face off the German Panzer 38(t) just out of picture to the right. The French blazed away at that tank for several turns but the dice had abandoned them - or maybe the crews skipped gunnery practice??

 

To the north, the Panzer IIs and Sdkfz. 251 moved around the village.

The rest of the German force moved directly towards the crossroads at the centre of the village.

The Germans moved into the village from the north and east, and methodically began to clear the buildings of French defenders, assisted by some hot rolling. Meanwhile the last French R35 rolled into the crossroads to prevent it being taken by the Germans.

View from the south. The Germans have taken the buildings to the north of the road; Panzer II manoeuvering around the buildings.

And that's how the game pretty much ended - victory conditions were a draw, as neither side had clear undisputed control of the crossroads. As far as tiebreakers, the Germans were ahead, as they destroyed far more enemy units than the French had.

Early war games are an interesting challenge for both sides. French tanks are heavily armoured (making them hard to kill by German AT) but they also have weak AT guns and are slow. German tanks are relatively lightly armoured and also have light AT weapons, but are faster and more manoeuverable. The problem with this scenario is the emphasis on the crossroads as the victory location - this draws every single unit on the board towards that location and reduces the potential for movement. This game was fun though - it was great to get all the early war stuff out again (including the newly painted early war German infantry) and see the boys for a game. Until next time!

Battle of Chemulpo Bay, February 9, 1904

Remote miniatures gaming on Zoom!

Last week I ran a naval war game on Zoom, using Gridded Naval Rules, by Bob Cordery. We re-fought the Battle of Chemulpo Bay, which occurred on 9 February 1904, at the start of the Russo-Japanese War: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chemulpo_Bay

A Japanese squadron attacked Russian forces trying to break out from a neutral Korean port into the open seas. Frederick and Dallas managed to navigate their Japanese forces remotely, against my doomed Russian force.

All the ships are 1/2400 scale resin models from Panzerschiffe. The beautiful cloth battle mat is from Cigar Box (you can have them add hex grids of various sizes).

Below, the Russian cruiser Variag, accompanied by the old gunboat Korietz.

 

The superior Japanese forces, arrayed into 4 divisions: 3 divisions of two cruisers each, and a torpedo boat division. Frederick ran two cruiser divisions: the lead division with the most modern warship leading, the armoured cruiser Asama; he also ran the Naniwa and the Niitaka. Dallas ran the third cruiser division (the Akashi and the Takachiho) and the torpedo boat division.

 

 

Initial setup of the opposing forces.

 

The initial stages of the battle, as the Japanese move to try a squeeze play on the Russians, who in turn used the cover of an island to shield themselves from gun fire as long as possible.

 

 

First blood to the Japanese, as the Korietz started taking long range hits from the leading Japanese cruiser, the Asama.

 

 

Just before the climax of the game. The Russians tried to cross the Japanese T, but were beat to the punch. Meanwhile, the Japanese torpedo boats had set up a nice deflection shot on the Variag.

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In only ONE turn of furious shooting and torpedo fire, both Russian ships were sunk, all the Japanese torpedo boats were sunk, and the Chitose took serious damage. A decisive Japanese victory!

 

 

 

Historically, the Japanese forces turned away from the Russians, to keep them at long range. 

However, in the game Frederick and Dallas played the Japanese forces very aggressively, getting into knife fighting range with their 8" and 6" naval guns, and torpedoes. (Click on the maps below to enlarge them.)

I used multiple cameras, but the hand held iPhone SE did most of the work, zooming in and out upon different parts of the battle area.

The simple rules and hex grid allowed the players to maneuver pretty easily. I look forward to trying out these rules again.

Horus Heresy Battle Report and New Game Mat!

Some of the Conscripts gathered last Thursday evening for our first in-person game in some time. For a variety of reasons we decided on a Horus Heresy game - mainly because both Conscript Greg and I (especially Greg) have painted a lot of new models that hadn't yet seen tabletop action. In addition, I wanted to try out a new game mat I bought some time ago but hadn't a chance to get out for a game. So I sent out the invitation along with a request to refrain from attending if you were feeling unwell, and to wear a mask if you were coming out. And to bring your own snacks of course :-)

How good does that mat look with the ruined buildings, eh? I'm really quite pleased with this product. It comes from the good people at urbanmatz.com in the Czech Republic, and it is fantastic, a nice neoprene mouse-pad type material that rolls up fairly easily as well. It came with its own storage bag too, for a quite reasonable cost of 57.77 euros. Unfortunately the only shipping method is FedEx, and that's where the pain comes in... but let's not talk about that. They also sell some really cool pre-painted resin buildings that Conscript Dave and I have added to our terrain collections.

A few little funky touches spread around the table. The Slurm machine is a must for the thirsty Legion Space Marine.

Of course any Heresy game has to incorporate the "God Box 2.0". What a great little piece of scatter terrain.

I'm not going to go through the battle in detail... honestly, the point of the game was less to play out a battle and more just to get together and put some figures out on a good-looking wargame table.

The battle itself pitted my own IV Legion Iron Warriors against Conscript Greg's superb VI Legion Space Wolves reinforced by some X Legion Iron Hands Space Marines.

 

One of the big draws of the game was to get Greg's and my new Storm Eagle aircraft out onto the table. They are certainly monsters in game terms!

Loyalist dreadnoughts take out an Iron Warriors dread.

Greg's new Space Wolves Vindicator also made its first appearance. Unfortunately the Iron Warriors Havoc team posted in an upper-storey window (five Marines each with a lascannon) were able to knock it out.

Speaking of the Havoc squad, here they are...

The IV Legion Medusa siege gun never quite lives up to the hype in my mind... high strength and a good gun, but I always forget that the range is only 36".

 

The Iron Hands Medusan Immortals cower take cover behind the promethium pipeline, guarding the (new) GF9 Power Generators.

A closer look at the Immortals.

IV Legion command squad advances. Apothecary is visible at left... to me the Apothecary in 30K is much like Brad Marchand. If he's on your team you love him, but if he's on the other team you hate him with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns.

Iron Warriors approach an Imperial statue, as yet untoppled by peaceful protestors or otherwise.

 

Space Wolves Terminators teleported in to ruin the Iron Warriors' day.

Iron Warriors Siege Tyrant Terminators sought to return the favour, but their missile racks didn't quite do the massive damage they have done in past games.

 

Legion Medusa blown up by Space Wolves Storm Eagle.

Like I said, in the end it wasn't necessarily about playing a game, so we won't go into how badly the Iron Warriors got hosed. But it was great to get a few of the guys together, push around some figures, and oooh and ahhh about the great models and terrain. Unfortunately we seem to be on another upswing in the pandemic so I don't anticipate any in-person get-togethers again anytime soon, but we'll keep collecting, painting, and waiting for the vaccine...

In the meantime stay safe and healthy everyone!

Star Wars Legion - Breaching Enemy Lines

Game 4 of my ongoing Star Wars Legion campaign play test. This time I ran the Imperials, and used Crabbok’s solo AI card deck to run the Rebels. An Imperial Officer led some Stormtroopers and Scout bikers, accompanied by the notorious bounty hunter Boba Fett. Han Solo and Chewbacca led several Rebel squads and a light walker. The Rebels outnumbered the Imps by 20% in points, to make up for their card-driven tactics.





FORCES:

Imperials:
Imperial Officer (50 + 0 = 50)

Boba Fett (140 + 12 = 152)
- Hunter (6), Endurance (6)

Stormtroopers (44 + 41 = 85)
- RT-97C Stormtrooper (26), Stormtrooper Specialist (15)

Stormtroopers (44 + 24 = 68)
- DLT-19 Stormtrooper (24)

Stormtroopers (44 + 24 = 68)
- DLT-19 Stormtrooper (24)

74-Z Speeder Bikes (75 + 0 = 75)

Commands:
Ambush (1), Whipcord Launcher (1), Pinned Down (2), ZX Flame Projector (2), Z-6 Jetpack Rocket (3), Coordinated Fire (3), Standing Orders (4)

Total = 498 points


Rebels (Run by AI card deck):
Han Solo (120 + 7 = 127)
- Duck and Cover (4), Environmental Gear (3)

Chewbacca (95 + 8 = 103)
- Duck and Cover (4), Tenacity (4)

Rebel Troopers (40 + 30 = 70)
- Z-6 Trooper (22), R5 Astromech Droid (8)

Fleet Troopers (44 + 23 = 67)
- Scatter Gun Trooper (23)

Rebel Troopers (40 + 22 = 62)
- Z-6 Trooper (22)

Rebel Pathfinders (68 + 28 = 96)
- Pao (22), Duck and Cover (4), Recon Intel (2), A-300 Short Range Config (0)

AT-RT (55 + 20 = 75)
- AT-RT Laser Cannon (20)

Total = 600 points

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Each side set up within 6” of their respective table edges. The goal for each side was to get their unit leaders into the enemy deployment zones. As an added bonus, Boba Fett was trying to obtain a bounty on Chewie, garnering an extra VP if he defeated the Wookiee.

The table was a Scarif-like beach setting. I counted the 13 squares that were covered in water as bad going. This would not hinder the bikes (which hovered), Chewie (he is immune to such effects), and Han (who was equipped with suitable environmental gear).





The game quickly devolved into a series of close-range firefights, as both sides tried to get past each other. The turning point was mid-game, when the biggest Stormtrooper squad split its fire and in one turn managed to gun down the remnants of 2 Rebel units. Their Stormtrooper armour even allowed a couple of them to survive!
































I kept a Stormtrooper squad within its own setup zone, to draw Rebel fire. This worked, but they ended up fleeing off the table.

















By the game’s end , no surviving Imperial unit had more than a couple of members/wounds left, but they managed to get one more unit leader into an enemy deployment zone than the Rebels, squeaking out the win. Boba Fett was denied a bounty, as Chewbacca survived all the shots fired his way.

Losing all their forces but the walker, Han and Chewie will be hard pressed to accomplish any further sabotage against Imperial facilities...