More NUTS.

After a few successful infantry games of NUTS Evan and I decided to add some tanks to the mix. Rather than do a small game I (somewhat recklessly) decided to throw plenty of stuff on the table at once to see how it all works together.

Set in Normandy the game saw my mixed bag of Germans defend against Evan’s attacking British.

The table- the Brits attacked from the far edge.

The respective briefings were as follows:

German Briefing.

Date: 1944.
Location: France.
Situation: Your sector has been expecting a tank attack, all morning and now you can hear the rumble of caterpillar tracks. Prepare to defend yourselves.
Victory Conditions: Stop the British attack.
Initial deployment: Deploy hidden on the map.
Special Rules: All infantry carry grenades.

Forces:

Panther, Crew are REP 5.

Rifle squad, REP 4, NCO SMG, JNCO SMG, Gunner LMG, Assistant BA Rfile, 6 men BA Rifles, 2 Panzer fausts for the squad.

PanzerSchrek team, REP 5, NCO SMG, Gunner BA Rifle and PzS, Assistant BA Rifle.

50mm PAK, REP 4, NCO BA Rifle, 4 Gunners BA Rifles.

British Briefing.

Date: 1944.
Location: France.
Situation: Your platoons have been sent forward to take the enemy position.
Victory Conditions: Kill the Germans.
Initial deployment: Enter from your board edge.
Special Rules: All infantry carry grenades.

Forces:

3 Shermans (75mm). 5 crew. All REP 4.

1 Sherman Firefly (17pdr). 5 crew. All REP4.

1 Cromwell (75mm). 5 crew. All REP4.

Platoon HQ, REP4: Lt, SMG, SNCO SMG, Gunner BA Rifle and 2” mortar, Assistant BA Rifle, Gunner BA Rifle and PIAT, Assistant BA Rifle.

Squad 1, REP 4: NCO SMG, JNCO BA Rifle, Gunner Bren LMG, Assistant BA Rifle, 5 men BA Rifles.

Squad 2, REP 4: NCO SMG, JNCO BA Rifle, Gunner Bren LMG, Assistant BA Rifle, 3 men BA Rifles.

Squad 3, REP 4: NCO SMG, JNCO BA Rifle, Gunner Bren LMG, Assistant BA Rifle, 3 men BA Rifles.

The Brits lined up to go on the table.

The Germans await….

The advancing Brits begin to take losses.

But force back the PAK crew with coax fire.

The first units get to the outskirts of the village.

The superior number of Shermans allowed Evan to encircle the lone German tank, finally taking it out of the game with a well placed flank shot. With the Panzer smoking, the PAK crew cowering and the Panzerschreck team dead we called the game there. We felt we’d learned as much as we needed from the game to put vehicles in any future games.

Zombies.

Right we’re 2 weeks in to our Zombies campaign so I thought I upload some pics and outline where we’ve got up to.

Given that half the group is new to the system we started fairly slowly with some smaller games.

Brian (GM’ing/ umpiring the games) decided to set the opening game on day one of the Zombie outbreak and gave us 2 small 4′ by 2′ boards to fight down so the beginners got a chance to get familiar with the mechanics before they were overwhelmed with the undead hordes. Our character were all REP5 stars with 2 attributes each.

My character is on the right- a police officer with trusty K9 side kick. Fans of 70s exploitation cinema should recognise the female figure…. All figures are 20mm from Elhiem

The first board was a simple suburban street. Our party had to go from one end to the other to get to our cars to drive into the city- my police officer had to report in.

Keeping things simple got players used to the mechanics such as Fast Move.

Spotting the first Zombie… a quick nip into the house for guns and an even quicker shot resulted in an ex Zombie.

With all of the PCs in their respective cars the action on that board ended.

The action on the second board was just to get us all used to driving cars…

… and running over Zombies.

With the 2 mini games completed that was the end of the first session.

For the 2nd session the following week a bigger game was planned by Brian. 3 of the characters (one player was missing) were tasked with going to a hunting lodge to rescue the Police Chief’s (my character’s boss) father and daughter.

Arriving at the lodge our PCs found out that they were fishing at the stream. Advancing towards them we could hear screams so hurried along.

Zombies approached the father and his granddaughter. The man died of a heart attack, causing the girl to scream, attracting the zombies.

We got there in time to fight off the zombies and rescue the girl.

We moved cautiously out of the woods shooting the zombies as the appeared.

Given the low number of zombies that appeared it was relatively easy to shoot our way out… as the in the next session I have been reliable informed we are heading into the city it may bit a bit trickier.

All in all 2 great sessions of gaming.

Falklands War- Airfix Pucara

Airfix Pucara.

I’ve just finished this kit for the Guild forum’s year long project build. I picked the theme of ‘Aircraft’ simply because I’ve got more off them unmade in my stash than anything else.

I wanted at least one Pucara to go with my Falkands project so I thought the Airfix would be a nice quick build… sadly it was not to be. Rather than being an Airfix original it is a reissue of a limited run kit. This means badly fitting warped parts, loads of flash and no locating pins. Needless to say it was a bit of a pig to do; lots and lots of filler and sanding. Also there was no way to get the cockpit canopy to fit. After a coat of paint it is passable at wargames distances but it doesn’t hold up to close inspection.

I had planned to get four ultimately as targets for a scaled down Pebble Island raid but given the state of the kit I’ve abandoned that idea.

RIOT figures.

As part of my modern dystopia project I needed some rioting figures, so last Triples I picked some suitable ones up from Irregular and Combat miniatures/ Stonewall. I decided to use the sabot bases from Warbases as movement trays; the little filler bases are there mainly to allow the figures I used to go further.

I’ve finished the first four bases and I’ve got five more to go. They should be useful for my zombie games too….

Cheers,

Pete.

Preparing for Zombies.

I mentioned quite a few posts ago that my group had played ‘All Things Zombie’ by 2 Hour Wargames, well this Friday we are starting a full campaign….

Friday night is usually RPG night, but experiences with recent RPG has left me feeling there is no roleplaying any more just a skirmish game done badly (RPG combat systems rarely make any sense), so the four of us decided to give a Zombie campaign ago. ATZ has a proven, working combat system and enough bolt on character elements to make things interesting.

A game of ATZ consists of your character(s) exploring the table to find more allies, guns, supplies etc whilst fighting/ avoiding zombies. As such it’ll be up to me each week to set up the table; as noted last time I’m rather short of intact buildings (90% of mine are damaged). To this end I turned to the very old range still carried by Dapol. I picked 2 kits up at Halifax Modeller’s World and 5 arrived this morning from Gaugemaster. Also I dug out an old Heljan kit I’ve had for 15 years and not made; its a satellite dish mounted on top a building: should be an interesting objective.

In fact I’m looking forward to getting some terrain built up especially for our campaign. I’ll ask everyone to see if they have any in mind that want in the game, in a quick chat with Brian a dock, prison and army base were all mentioned.

The Dapol buildings will come in handy for other projects too: any Cold War goes hot games as well as my previously mentioned Urban Dystopia idea. On that topic a small package of figures arrived from Eureka: some SLR armed squaddies and some Squaddies kitted out for riot duties. I recently picked up a Saracen and Land Rover ambulance too, from JB models, now Airfix. All I’m wanting for the project now is another Saracen, 2 Shorlands from Hobby Den and I’m pretty much set.

Once I’ve got the building glued and painted I’ll put the pics up.

NUTS! AAR- Sweep and Clear.

Once again I ran a game for Brian and Evan. The difficulties that we were experiencing with the rules have been resolved by the excellent support of Ed (Runs 2 Hour Wargames) on the 2Hour Wargames yahoo group.

This time a picked an anti partisan action on the Eastern front. 2 Squads of Germans had to check the table for partisans whilst they entered the board to set up an ambush. Both sides were given a map on which they had to plan their initial moves which had to be followed until the enemy is spotted by the squad. Both players seemed to think this was a good thing as it cut down on the god’s eye view from the start so we’ll be using this idea in the future.

The game was a pretty bloody affair with the partisans getting the upper hand early on and coming out best in a vicious melee in the woods; however the slight qualitative edge that the Germans enjoyed came through in the end to pin down the partisans with out them achieving any of their objectives. That and the MG34s always help….

All figures are 20mm including the now sadly OOP Battlefield Schuma…

For the sake of completeness here are the briefings for both sides:

Sweep and Clear 1942.

Axis Briefing.

Date: Autumn 1942.
Location: Baltic.
Situation: Partisan attacks have become a frequent occurrence in your sector disrupting communications and supplies. You have been given command of a small kampfgruppe to clear them from a section of railway.
Victory Conditions: You have to make sure that the railway is clear of demolition charges by walking a squad along its length. Also you have to check the nearby hill and ruin to ensure that these areas are not being used by the partisans, this will take a squad to be at the location one activation.
Initial deployment:You enter from the table corner of your choice. For each squad mark its route on the map provided. These must be followed until the squad spots the enemy.
Special Rules: All men have grenades. Squads should be split into a Rifle group and a LMG group.

Forces:

1- Rifle Squad REP5
1 NCO, SMG (L)
1 JNCO, SMG (L)
1 Machine Gunner, Belt fed LMG & Pistol
1 Assistant Gunner, BA Rifle
5 Riflemen, BA Rifles

2- Rifle Squad REP5
1 NCO, SMG (L)
1 JNCO, SMG (L)
1 Machine Gunner, Belt fed LMG & Pistol
1 Assistant Gunner, BA Rifle
4 Riflemen, BA Rifles

3- Schuma Squad REP4
1 NCO, SMG (L)
1 NCO, BA Rifle (L)
1 Machine Gunner, Clip fed LMG & Pistol
1 Assistant Gunner, BA Rifle
4 Riflemen, BA Rifles.

Railway Sabotage. 1942.

Partisan Briefing.

Date: Autumn 1942
Location: Baltic.
Situation: Your band of partisans has been active in the area staging ambushes and disrupting railway travel. You have been given orders to carry out a little sabotage.
Victory Conditions:Escort a demolition team to the railway line and ensure is destruction. Also assist an observation team to set up on the hill.
Initial deployment: Enter the board below the ruin. For each squad mark its route on the map provided. These must be followed until the squad spots the enemy.
Special Rules: All men have grenades. Teams with more than one leader may be split up as required.

Forces:

1- SMG Team REP 4
1 Partisan, SMG (L)
1 Partisan, Clip fed LMG
1 Partisan Assistant gunner BA Rifle
3 Partisans, BA Rifle

2- Rifle team REP 4
1 Partisan, SMG (L)
1 Partisan , SMG (L).
1 Partisan, Clip fed LMG
1 Partisan Assistant gunner BA Rifle
3 Partisans, BA Rifles.
2 Partisans, SMGs.

3- Rifle team REP 4
1 Partisan, SMG (L)
1 Partisan, SMG (L)
1 Partisan, belt fed LMG
1 Partisan Assistant gunner BA Rifle
3 Partisans, BA Rifles.
2 Partisans, SMGs.

4- Demolition team REP4
1 Partisan, SMG (L)
3 Partisan, Rifle, demo charges

5- Observation team REP4
1 Partisan, SMG (L)
1 Partisan, Rifle

Cheers,

Pete.

Quarterly progress report.

I decided at the start of the year to keep a log of what I’d got done hobby wise. I’d noticed no matter what I had got finished stuff kept piling up…

… and so far in 2012 I’ve:

bought 24 books and read 21, bought 7 kits (plastic/ resin/ metal etc) and finished 16 and bought 96 20mm figures and painted 109.

So overall in credit, apart from the books (I’m a complete bibliophile and love ferreting out cheap books).

Keeping the list was quite motivating so I’m going to keep at it; let’s see what the next quarter brings.