The Lucky T-80 - A Legiocon Battle Honour

T-80U tank no. 342 in action at Legiocon. It would significantly outlast its warranty...

Dallas posted a report of our roadshow game at Legiocon in Winnipeg last weekend.  Convention-goers Ray and John joined the game to play along.  They were great guys and I think they really got into the game.

My portion of the Warpac contingent included a platoon of T-80U tanks, and these squared off against Dallas' and John's Leopard 2A6s and MILAN teams.  Many of the Soviet tanks were on fire after a couple of turns, but one particular vehicle - T-80U no. 342 - survived hit after hit after hit after hit.  John finally remarked that the tank should be named "Felix the cat".

Legiocon gamer John helped me with the translation of "cat"

After John made that remark, the T-80U in question survived another hit from a Leopard and yet another couple of MILANs.  The tank would eventually be knocked out of action, but only after tying up a lot of NATO attention and giving the Chemical Commies a chance to get the job done.

I promised John I would paint the battle honour in question on to the vehicle. Here are the photos for proof!

Low-key pseudo bourgeois personalization of the People's Property - tolerated under combat duress only...

John used his tablet to look up the Russian translation of "cat", and I figured this would be the right nickname.

Dallas and I tried to figure out how long we have had these Kitech models in action - I think it has been since 2006, so over six years! Tank no. 342 has repeatedly seen action in West Germany (all for perfectly legitimate, legal responses to unprovoked NATO aggression of course) and after this death-defying performance I figured it was time that at least one of these commie battle wagons earned an action honour.

That weird face is supposed to be "Felix the Cat". So nobody is going to give me any commission work for cat cartoons...

So "Kowka" went on to the tank. I also painted a (very, very) rough approximation of "Felix the Cat" beside the moniker on the stowage & bits along the side rear of the turret.

We will beat their swords into ploughshares...after we beat them up...

Would a T-80U actually survive long enough against NATO's tanks, missiles and air force to accumulate any kind of meaningful battle honour?  Well, I'm glad we never had to find out for real.  But toy-soldier T-80U no. 342 has earned it - the next time it rolls into liberate the proletariat of Helmuth Kohl's corrupt bourgeois regime, it will do so as "The Cat".

LegioCon Roadshow Game!

LegioCon is a long-running local wargames show masterminded by Bryan and Garth of Legions IV Hire and Maxx Collectibles, respectively. The businesses are local retail establishments that cater to historical wargamers and cardgame/boardgame/tabletop gaming types here in Winnipeg. LegioCon is staged at a local branch of the Royal Canadian Legion that has a lot going for it, not least of which that it is licensed and serves cheap draft beer ;-)

Conscript Greg and I rolled out to the show about noon on Saturday to put on a WW3 game featuring Bundeswehr vs. the infamous Chemical Commies. I set up a pastoral setting with a small German village dead centre in the table.
 

The Bundeswehr had bivvied in the village with a convoy of trucks. The local Fuchs News/Deutsche Welle affiliate had live reporters on the scene.

The German objective was to exit the trucks off one of the short table edges (their choice). The Russians were more numerous but had to split their forces, with half their strength deploying from each short edge.

Commies came strapped with BTRs and scary chemical warfare gear.

Initial dispositions. I know it looks like the vehicles are insanely close together (they are) but for convention games we like the opposing forces to get into action right away, both for time management purposes and to hold the interest of the people playing. On Saturday we had two very cool walk-ups, Ray and John, who played the game along with Greg and me.

Greg's T-80s face off with Marders and a Leopard 2A6 at middle extreme right.

Facing the other short edge, the tanks deployed to support the trucks (carrying Kraftwerk master tapes, Helmut Kohl's adult film collection, or some other cargo vital to the continued existence of the Bundesrepublik) in their mad dash off-table.

"...Klaudia Klum, Fuchs News."

We used our proprietary "Red Storm!" ruleset for the game. It's very fast playing and stuff blows up good, typified by the result when Ray's T-72 went head-to-head with a Leo 2A6... (Ray had been warned by Greg that the T-72s were somewhat cupcake-like in terms of toughness vs. the Leo...)

Bundeswehr command group mit hund. 2IC has iPhone (back row) while the Oberleutnant has upgraded to an iPad (front centre). Soldier with assault rifle carries a Samsung Galaxy S in flecktarn holster.

Trucks begin to roll out of the village. Snipers are in the building at centre and did nothing for the whole game, although true to form for the "cool models" they will likely report back that their presence was instrumental to the win...

Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, Greg's T-80 is knocked out on the road along with two BTRs. Commie infantry has deployed along the rail cut and exchanges fire with the BW troops behind the hedge.

Ray's T-72 angles for a side shot on the Leopard; he's already knocked out its main gun.

Second Leopard moves out. BW infantry move to support the truck convoy; the Russians had to take the convoy with infantry models as opposed to blowing them up.

"I'm here with Lieutenant Ivanov of the 322nd Motor Rifle Brigade just outside Altfeld. Lieutenant, your squad has just been decimated by Bundeswehr 20mm automatic cannon fire. How are you feeling right now?"

Trucks manage to sneak past in a conga line. Ray just missed winning the Priority roll that would have allowed him to block the convoy with his T-72...

A table full of burning vehicles is the sign of a fun game. Thanks to Ray and John for playing our game, and to Greg for bringing out his awesome Commies and the explosion markers (and for the beer :-)  Roll on PrairieCon in June!!

There was also a bunch of other games going on, including a Flames of War tourney and 40K gaming... but what I really wanted to show you is this...

A couple of guys brought out an amazing modular table on which they were playing a Lord of the Rings game - "The Siege of Pelargir".

The table was 5x10 feet, half of it an amazing medieval-style town complete with harbour, and the other half countryside.

The buildings are all scratch-built from foamboard and other materials. The tile roofing is all hand-cut.

Great detail!

View from the countryside. The city wall has a removable section that has been swapped out for a "breached" section.

Close-up of the breach.

The amount of work and detail that went into this is mind-blowing, as is the sheer quality, especially in the town section. This kind of layout takes a huge effort to transport and set-up for a weekend show and my hat's off to these lads. It makes our convention efforts seem pretty lame by comparison, but at least we're out there putting on a game.

Bolt Action at LegioCon XI

On Sunday afternoon I ran a Bolt Action game at a local show, LegioCon. This time I brought out Germans and Russians for a late-war battle, of about 1,900 points per side, with the Russians as attackers.

The opposing forces were:

Germans:

Veteran Oberleutnant and two grenadiers
Regular medic and two grenadiers
Veteran sniper team
One 10-man Regular grenadier section
One  8-man Regular grenadier section
One 10-man Veteran grenadier section
One 5-man Inexperienced Green Volkssturm section (told you it was late war!)
Two Regular MMG teams
Regular PaK-40 AT Gun team
One Regular Panzerschreck team
Hetzer tank destroyer (Regular)
Tiger heavy tank (Regular)
Panther medium tank (Regular)

Russians:

Regular Lietenant and two riflemen
Regular Medic and two riflemen
Regular sniper team
One 10-man Veteran NKVD squad
Three 11-man Regular rifle squads
One 11-man Inexperienced rifle squad
Two Maxim MMG teams
Three T-34/85 medium tanks (Regular)
JS-II heavy tank (Regular) 

I chose the third scenario from the rulebook, and placed three supply dump objectives in the German deployment zone.

The Germans cannily deployed only half of their force with the rest left in reserve. Here is their right flank with a Regular section beside an objective.

Benoit is carefully placing the command squad...

Here come the Red hordes! Two of the T-34s came up the Russian right with infantry in the middle and the other T-34 on their left.

Preliminary bombardment caught the command squad but the other section got caught in the open by the T-34's machine guns... ouch.

The Panther came on from reserve at top... both T-34's at bottom took potshots at it. They hit it and set it on fire but Benoit's good die rolling kept the crew aboard and the tank in action...

Russian squad shot up the Volkssturm in the woods to good effect, killing three. However the "Green" Germans came through, passing their Morale check and advancing to "Regular" status for the remainder of the game!

Wider view of the action... Conscripts Kevin and Bill move the Russians along.

There was a good amount of space at the venue and lots of games going on.

Mostly 40K over in this corner of the room.

Back to the action on the German right. Panther has a few Pin markers from the T-34's way over on the other side of the table, and the German section has withdrawn under fire to a position behind a hedge.

But they are accumulating Pins all the time... and what's that up the road to their left? (see next photo)

Over on the other side, the Germans have taken up a position behind a hedge and the Russians are forming up for a close assault... behind the Russian infantry the JS-II took up a position in the wood, first annihilating the overwatching PaK gun crew with high explosive, then doing the same to a German section with enfilading fire.

The Hetzer moves up through the woods to face off the T-34s...

...which continue to harass the Panther across the table.

John and Kevin plot the Red Army's strategy. The close assault at middle left failed miserably, with the German section seeing off the Reds through some appalling die rolling from Nathan for the Russians.

Doug finally brought on the Tiger for the Germans and lit up the T-34 right in front of it. Note the heroic survivor from the Volkssturm section running out with his Panzerfaust... it did not end well for him... "heldentodt" courtesy of a Maxim MMG at the edge of the wood at centre top. The German section moved from the hedge to behind the wood, wary of the Russian MGs.

Disaster for the Germans on the right flank! The Oberleutnant moved behind the tank intending to help it Rally after surviving a close assault from a Russian rifle squad. However the Rally roll was the dreaded "double six" (a Fubar). The roll on the Fubar table resulted in the tank reversing directly backwards in panic... straight over the Oberleutnant and his squad, who had failed their "get out of the way" Morale check. Quite awful but very cinematic ;-)
 

Then the T-34 drove up and shot the Panther again, resulting in another "on fire" and subsequent abandonment by the crew. Doug had brought the Veteran section on table to deal with the Russians close assaulting the Panther but behind that squad was the Veteran NKVD squad chock full of SMG love bombs...

Not so bad over on the other side as the Tiger blew up the T-34 facing it (surprise) and the immobilized Hetzer killed its opponent directly in front.

At this point we had to call "time" in the middle of turn six. The Germans were solidly in control of two objectives but were about to lose the third and if a turn seven were played, might lose another. Call it a close draw. I really enjoyed running the game, and everybody seemed to have a good time, which is the main goal after all. Thanks to the guys for playing and to LegioCon (Bryan G. and Garth) for the invitation and supplying the venue.

On thing that the game brought up again  - and about the only thing that I don't love about the Bolt Action rules - is one thing about close combat - that both units shed all of their Pins before fighting. This means that the only reason to suppress a unit before close assaulting is so that their shooting at you "on the way in" is less effective; the Pins placed on the target unit all disappear and have no effect on the ensuing combat. In this game, the German unit was carrying two or three Pins when the Russians hit them - no shooting at the assaulting unit on the way in, but also no detriment in the ensuing close combat, which the Russians whiffed, resulting in their utter destruction. Quaere whether units carrying several Pins should be disadvantaged in some greater way when engaged in close combat, given that the infantry tactics of the time prescribed suppression by fire followed by close assault to finish the job.