Village Games, July 21st, 2009 'Flames of War' Match

John and Josh played a match of Flames at Village last Tuesday. I think this was the first Flames night in a month or so.

Well, Elefants are big...

In the end, John actually annihilated much of Josh's force. However, Josh had one or two tanks remaining in most of his platoons. They ultimately ran out of time, and initially called a draw. However, upon review of the victory point system in Flames, Josh technically won as he destroyed two of John's platoons to his one platoon lost. All of that despite suffering heavy losses to Josh's force! I think part of the issue is John lost his 88mm, which I think is classified as a "platoon" for game purposes. Anyhow, it was a fairly quick game, under two hours I think.

Village Games, July 7th, 2009 'Combat Cards' Summer League Opener

Last night was the first day of the Combat Cards Summer League.

There were six players total. A seventh showed up but the eighth wasn't able to make it, so #7 had to sit out.

The campaign is based during the Kursk campaign, specifically at Ponyri Station. Ponyri was a heavily fortified railway station, which sat on the main rail link between Kursk and Orel. It was also a major agricultural marshaling yard area for the surrounding region's collective farms. It would see some of the most brutal fighting of the Kursk campaign.

This was Dan versus Herb.

Another pairing at war.

Josh meeting his doom. Josh had almost no terrain and had some force construction issues involving artillery if I remember correctly. At the end all he had left at the final turn was a couple or mortar stands behind the buildings at the lower left. Unfortunately for them, their commander had long been useless and as a result they pretty much sat there as easy pickings. He should do better next round though, provided he doesn't take the same forces. ;)

Village Games, June 30th, 2009 'Flames of War' Match

At the Village on Tuesday, I spied a father/son group playing a FoW match in the RPG/CCG room. They were playing a North Africa scenario with Brits vs Germans. I have no idea how it turned out, though it did appear as if the Brit arty was doing a fairly good job. It should, given the bonuses the British forces get in the game for arty. ;)

Village Games, June 30th, 2009 Miniatures Painting Night

Pretty decent turnout this past Tuesday. I think part of it is that there are a number of leagues that will be starting in the near future, including Combat Cards, a Warhammer Escalation League and one or two others I think. Warhammer PlanetStrike is one of them I believe. Lots of guys painting Flames of War stuff for Combat Cards (and/or Flames of War). A number were also working on 15mm range terrain; apparently they get two square feet each for the CC League. I didn't get many photos this night and only one really from painting.

Ben at work as usual on his Eldar. He blended up a nice pink color for his Eldar Hearts vehicle unit. I will try and get a photo of all his stuff if he brings them next week.

Village Games, June 16th, 2009 'Flames of War' Germans vs Soviets 6000 Point Battle

Last night was the bi-weekly "Flames of War' night at Village. It was all the usual suspects present.

The match was a 6000 point Germans vs Soviets match between John/Mark and Josh/Bobby. Mark is a newcomer to the game, and is involved in the modern armor games (I think) run at Village. I didn't get as many photos as I usually do as I was bopping around between things last night, so I apologize if this isn't up to the usual coverage.


Not far into the game, things were moving along for the Germans. Very little damage to the Germans, but this would change. The game was a 'Hold the Line' scenario IIRC, with the Germans defending the lower side of the table as you see here. I think their two markers were in the trees at the middle of the table, and the other I am not sure about. It might have been the tree at the bottom. John had his 88mm and Elefant in action, two units that Josh doesn't like very much...

As the game developed, most of the action was focused on the lower left side of the table...

In the end, it ended as a huge fur ball as you see on the left. You can't see it in this pic, but there's a lot of armor under all that fire and smoke. The game was ultimately called a draw, but I would have enjoyed seeing it fully played out. John/Mark had lost a lot of their forces, but so had Josh/Bobby. John/Mark did have some considerable forces, including his Elefant IIRC, surviving on that center hill. John did lose his 88mm ('my precious!') though. Great ending to the game though!

Village Games, June 9th, 2009 Miniatures Painting Night

A pretty good turnout last night for mini painting at the Ville. Mostly 40K stuff, but also at least one doing 'Battlefleet Gothic' and some historicals (mostly 'Flames of War' 15mm stuff).

Here's Ben, whose Eldar Falcon I showed last time around. He's still on his Eldar mission as you can see. Later in the evening he helped out with basing some 'Flames of War' armored vehicles.

He's been working on these Eldar, which will eventually look like the one he's holding.

A close up of Ben's Eldar.

This is Paul, apparently a minis night newcomer. He's painting some 40K Ultramarines.

Some of Paul's unfinished Ultras.

And last but not least, Dan painting some Reds. These are 'Flames of War' 15mm Soviets.

Village Games, June 9th, 2009 'Combat Cards' Germans vs Soviets

Stopped by the Ville last night. Ran into Herb and Josh, who were playing Combat Cards. It's a card based wargaming system.

As usual, Herb's playing Germans and Josh is playing Reds. I didn't watch much of the game, but from what I heard afterwards Herb's forces couldn't take the other side of the table. His forces were required to capture three of the five houses, I think, and hold them for a turn. That's Herb on the left and Josh on the right.

Village Games, June 2nd, 2009 'Flames of War' Germans vs Soviets 6000 Point Battle

Stopped by Village Games for the 'Flames of War' match. For the second week, I was drafted by John to play some of the German forces. This week, some armor reserves.

It was a 6000 point match, 3000 to a side. On the Soviet side was Bobby and Josh (as usual), against John, myself and a gentleman whose name I forgot to ask. Sorry! Anyhow, we played on the usual store table. The scenario was 'Breakthrough'. The objective was to occupy ground adjacent to the two haystacks seen in a below pic.

Placement of forces...

Initial gameplay. Although it is hard to see, John has an 88mm next to the tanks in the upper left portion of the table.

The haystacks (in the road and on top of the hill) were the objectives for the game. Of course, as I inquired, why is one of the haystacks on the road? Hiding a Goliath no doubt. ;)

Some of the action on the field. Unfortunately for the Germans, the 88mm and other units were quickly smacked, and John rolled badly for the morale check. According to our understanding of the rules, the Germans lost the match early in the game due to a failed morale check. We decided to play on for awhile though.

Eventually the Germans managed to roll for reserves to come in, but it was to late to do much good and the Soviets ultimately occupied the area of the haystacks, winning the scenario in addition to the possible earlier loss due to the failed morale check. I did get to deploy some of John's tanks in the upper right hand side and destroyed a fair bit of Josh's tanks in the area, and the other gentleman destroyed a tank in the lower left. A bit of a frustrating game really, and some (myself included) question to some degree the way that the morale checks apparently work. But hey...it's just a game. ;)

Village Games, May 26th, 2009 'Flames of War' Germans vs Soviets 6000 Point Battle

I swung by the Ville yesterday for 'Flames of War' day. I knew John was going to muster me into the game somehow, and of course the game keeps pulling me back in....


There were essentially four players in the game: John (on the left above), Bobby (the guy on the right in the foreground), Josh (in the background) and Herb (not shown). The game was played in 'The Cauldron' scenario format from the rules book. Herb and John played the Germans with 1500 points each, with Bobby and Josh as the Soviets, also at 1500 points each. The basic objective of the game is for the Soviet forces to hold their three objectives, which are shown (somewhat) in a pic farther down. Herb/John were pretty much a solid armor force and Bobby/Josh were a mixed force, with armor, infantry and air support.

The main objective for the Soviets was to essentially hold the area marked by the defensive works you see in the left center of the pic. The Germans job was to hold one of the objectives until the end of the Soviet's fifth or sixth turn if I remember correctly. The objectives were marked by pennies which can't be seen here, and later there was some confusion on the distance of the distance between the pennies during the placement. But we're all still learning the rules here, so...

This is a shot of the early placement/movement. John's forces are mainly in the upper portions of the table, while Herb's forces moved in from the bottom. Josh mainly operated in the area you see him in here, while Bobby more or less played the Soviet infantry/mortar/ATG guys in the center. You can see Herb's Tiger at the bottom center.

This is a decent shot showing the Soviet defence positions. Later I'd end up taking down much of the Soviet infantry and mortar positions, but most of his tanks seen in this photo would survive the game. In the rear center you see two Soviet SU-152s next to some of his tanks. In front of them is a Tiger and three Marders I believe. You can see some of Herb's armor rolling up on the right.

Well, eventually I was drafted by John to take over part of his force while he did rules checks. Mostly I was involved in the battle at the rear of the table, between Josh's and John's armor and some of Bobby's infantry. Two of Josh's SU-152s can be seen burning here, my first Flames of War kills. They were taken down by the Marders next to the Tiger.

The Tiger and the Marders would not survive the game. Soviet armor ultimately overwhelmed them and all four were lost. You can see one of the objective markers next to the white house below. The Soviet tank next to it was taken out not long after this.

This was pretty much the end of the game. Although the German forces had taken a bit of a pasting, all wasn't necessarily lost. The three German tanks next to the white house managed to survive until the end of the required Soviet turn, which was a required action for German victory. However, there were some questions about Morale checks or some such thing, and in the end the battle was declared a draw.

Everyone here is pretty much still learning the game, but it seems to be getting better. This was the first 'Flames of War' match I participated in, and I certainly enjoyed it. Once we all get the rules down, and I figure out what I'm going to play, it will be even better.

Village Games, May 19th, 2009 'Flames of War' Germans vs Soviets 1650 Point Battle

On Tuesday evening, I stopped by Village Games, the closest LGS to my abode. I specifically went to watch a match of Flames of War, a 15mm based WW2 miniatures game. It's produced by a Kiwi company, Battlefront Miniatures. I've been reading about this game for awhile and decided to go watch a match.

I don't recall the specific setting, but as you can see it is Germans vs Soviets. It was a 1650 point game between John and Josh, with John as the Germans and Josh as the Soviets. It was largely an armor and artillery duel, although Josh's IL-2s tried to hack out John's forces on several occasions, but didn't fare too well.

The mission of the game was for Josh's Soviet forces to occupy John's German objective markers and hold them for a turn.

Here are some photos and commentary of the battle.


This was the table used. I don't have a great angle in this shot of Josh's forces, but you can see them a bit further down the page. You can see John's tanks fording the river in the upper left, his Elefant concealed in the trees in the center, and his command element in the lower left, consisting of a command unit, a Kubelwagon, a radio truck (John: "Useless!") and of course three Wespe (or is it Wespen in the plural?). Anyhow, these locations would pretty much be solid throughout the game. John also had forces in reserve to enter later in the game. I don't recall the exact numbers, but I believe it included three more Wespe and at least three other tanks.

In this shot you can see John's two objective markers in the form of the two black dice. The first is of course in front of the Elefant. The unit to the right of the Elefant are his artillery spotters. These guys seem to have played a big part in the game play for John, and survived a fair bit of the game despite Josh's best efforts to destroy them. But they ultimately fell to Josh's guns after a bit of hedge trimming. The other objective marker is the dice in the field in the background, which can better be seen in perspective in the first photo.

This is a better shot of Josh's forces in the back right side and back center of the table. Tanks, tanks and lots more tanks. In other words, Soviets. Very soon these tanks will be in...rubble. You can also see Josh's burning Katyusha rocket launchers in the rear.

Josh's IL-2s attacking John's artillery/command element. On this combat turn, Josh really laid it in on John's forces, but it did little more than scratch the paint. I think everyone at that table thought John's forces here were in for a load of pain, but miraculously they all survived. I don't think Josh was thrilled with the Sturmovik's performances, although late in the game I believe they did manage to destroy a tank or two.

John is the guy on the left, Josh on the right. At this point in the game, Josh was a hurting unit. Much of his force lay in ruin as you can see by the fire/smoke markers on the table (although some are also burning German tanks).

Eventually Josh had little choice but to try and take the objective marker in the field. Unfortunately for him, John's six Wespe plus the Elefant on the hill were waiting for him. The outcome could not bode well for Josh. That's one brave Soviet tanker (or crazy, depending on your feelings on such matters). Comrade tanker is hereby awarded the Order of Lenin (or at least an Order of Glory 3rd Class).

And this is pretty much the end of the battle. I think Josh had a few tanks left on the board plus one Katyusha and some ground personnel left. John had lost several tanks, mostly late in the game, but still retained a fair bit of his forces. In the end, Josh conceded to John.

I am new to this game, but there were a few things that really hurt Josh's game. The destruction of his Katyusha artillery, which occured right off the bat, undoubtedly hurt his game. They could have potentially rained a lot of fire down on John's forces. The inability of his IL-2s to cause any real significant damage also didn't help matters. But, as everyone here is still pretty much learning the game, the thing that really hurt Josh was probably the failure to capture the objectives in a timely manner. Josh's forces remained static too long, with his game objective being to take the dice marked objectives. John essentially sat there and picked off Josh's forces. In the end, all of these factors (and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting) led to the near demise of Josh's force. I smell a rematch though; shall comrade tankers perform better the next time around? Perhaps...

All in all, it was a good intro for me as a FoW newb. Both players were very accommodating to me as a newb and were good sports. Next Tuesday I'm going back, and will possibly take part in the fun. Until then!