Zikanga - The rescue

Welcome to Part 2

With the Warlords militia firmly in control of the village, intel has reached command that the UN prisoners are still being held in the village - Strike Force Dagger have orders to infiltrate the village find the missing Blue Helmets and get them out.

8 Buildings but which one was holding the prisoners? - The mission started well with the silencer armed spec ops men taking out several guards randomly patrolling the village, the operators peered into a number of the buildings. No hostages only sleeping militia men.

Guards are taken out very often at close range, before any alarms can be raised.

Strike Force Dagger went on over watch on several of the huts just in case any of the warlords troopers awoke. Each hunt contained between 1-4 men.

5 Huts down and no sign of the UN men, at the far end of the village a guard spotted a trooper (double 6) and shouted an alarm.

The militia man went down under several silenced rounds, but the village was starting to stir.

Finally X marks the spot and Hut 7 revealed the prisoners....

The alarm was sounded and a number of the garrison spilled into the street, several never made it as the operators on overwatch fired a burst into the militia men before heading out into the early morning mist.

Slipping out of the back window of hut 7, the UN men were escorted away as a trooper kept the heads down of the militia men.

Several rounds whizzed past the escaping hostages, one wounding a special ops man in the arm, but they made good their escape.

At the far end of the village the main force fell back drawing many of the garrison with them, allowing the hostages to slip into the hinterland.

Mission accomplished.

Not a bad encounter, a couple more tweaks to the rules adding in over watch and the ability of the SF teams to improve their targeting. 

I also split the models into NPC's and Characters only recording location of wounds for the leaders of the militia and all of the SF Team which made the recording of wounds simpler and made the militia men far more expendable.

The body count was 12 militia men for one wounded SF trooper which felt about right.

Old is the new, new - back to Zikanga.

It's been a while since we took a trip to Zikanga, I was wasting a few hours on the web when I came upon Joe Legan's Grunts Forward rules a variation to his Platoon Forward rules these are for isometric warfare and come with a whole bunch of new scenarios and adjusted blinds for irregular forces.

We got chatting about about rules for modern skirmish games and some of the rules of the past and how some of the older rule sets seem to be coming back into fashion - Warhammer Historical, Rapid Fire even some of Charles Grant rule sets...

One that cropped up was Foundry's Rules With No Name for Westerns games, then we remembered that they did a modern variant and what do we know they are still available and for free on the Foundry site...  Street Violence – WargamesFoundry

Giving them the once over they needed a couple of tweaks around activations and a couple of other ideas pinched from other rules sets but we had a reasonable rule set across a couple of pages.

A UN Outpost in a village in the hinterland, no Visitors this time but they are not always needed when the whole world collaborates.

With the UN in control of the village, order was starting to return to the region, several gang members were arrested.

But trouble was only a phone call away.

The local Warlord's gang members burst into the village pouring fire into the peace keepers.

The blue helmets stood little chance with militia members appearing from every nook and cranny.

A fun quick game giving these rules a run out, the wound rules were interesting rolling to see where you were hit, in the hope that elements of the cover protected you from the flying lead.

Despite the UN professional soldiers being a better class, quantity had it's own quality and the militia were able to force enough of the defenders to dive for cover, whilst other gang members got close.

Dropping the cards initiative to a quality level approach allowed us to get more figures on the table, but we may need to slim down the counters and markers, all in all a fun game with poor quality troops very often pinned down by the fewer better armed troops.

Let's see how a team of special forces get on next time?

Western Desert - German Armour.

After last weeks outing where the Italians were soundly beaten, I thought I might as well stick with a theme and get the last of Germans off the paint table. They were in need of some extra support and mobility given how the allies have now acquired a number of pieces of heavy metal which most certainly gives them the edge...

Sticking with the 3D prints a Medium Pz III to try and counter the Matilda, this one from 3D valley comes with it's two turret's one closed up and the other with an open copula, it sculpted with a number of bits of campaign clutter, canvas sheeting and the like so has that on campaign feel.

The Pz II acquired off e-bay, a nice printed it needed an officer to sit in the top to really finish it off and goes nicely with the Sdkfz 250 which is one of the latest releases from Warlord in kit form, the box has plenty of variants including Rommel's version - This one is fine for pushing recon elements forward.

Also in shot some wheeled transport for the Germans, unlike the British lorries who come with the option of open topped or an enclosed canvas back, the German print only comes exposed, but a good excuse to bag some Perry dismounted infantry to sit in the back.

Some great bits of kit the miniature arms race for desert superiority really hots up.

WMMS - Alumwell 2024 - The Battle For Fort Nibeiwa

It good to be back on gaming circuit, it been quite a while. Alumwell is the closest show to the Wyre Forest Club and it was good to see a whole bunch of club members and old faces on the day.

So to the game..... Sponsored by Costa...

THE BATTLE FOR FORT NIBEIWA, 9 DECEMBER 1940

A portrayal of the Battle for Fort Nibeiwa part of the opening moves of Operation Compass, an attack of British & Commonwealth forces against Italian Positions in Western Egypt.  The Western Desert Force (Consisting of the 4^th Infantry Division & 7^th Armoured Division are tasked with an attack against Group Maletti

 

Under the cover of RAF Bombardments and Artillery. At 7.30am Matilda tanks flanked by Bren Carrier Platoons of  the 7^th Rajput Regiment attacked, Italian tanks and defenders were caught off guard with many of the crew asleep, as the crew scrambled for their vehicles they were overwhelmed by the Indian Infantry and lumbering Matilda's.

 

By 10.40 the Fort was in British Hands in what one Italian described as “the nearest thing to hell he had ever seen.” Over 4000 Italians surrendered.

 

The Game.

Can the Italians slow the allied advance and destroy the Allied Armour before the Commonwealth forces capture the fort and the Italian Morale collapses?

 

A good day in the field for the Allies the Italians were routed and the Matilda's crushed all before them, the Italian armour burned where it was parked, the crew cut down as they attempted to run to their vehicles.

A rare victory for the Italians it what was a significant defeat, a Matilda crossing the trench line is hit by a HE round and the crew are forced to bailout.

Played with using the Bolt Action Core rules alongside elements of Chain of Command introducing Force Morale, variable movement and turn end.

A Gentleman's War all smiles..... after a hard day in the desert.

Now the customary picture of the loot from the day.... 

No significant purchases but some extra's for the Outremer Project, a fresh bunker for Operation Exporter and the ground works for the AWI in 10mm for the summer.

Now back to the day job.

February Club night round up.

Plenty of projects on the go at the moment, but always time for something old and something new.

First up back to an old favourite and AVBCW, one of the joy's of this project is the ability to research your local area and try and replicate it on the table top.... what is now a largely built up area in Worcester was once a country lane and the long established council estate was under construction as a new build. 

In this scenario the BUF under pressure in the city have called for reinforcements from Evesham but find the way locked into the city. But whose side will the St Martin's militia in the new estate side with?

The BUF deploy early having triggered an ambush from the socialist defenders, who have rigged up a trench mortar to fling HE over the hedge rows.

The BUF looking to take a turn to right, more than they already are :-) 

Only for the local militia to decide they did not like the presence of the men in black in their nice new housing estate. The call out their local defence forces to block the road and man the hedge rows.

Knowing time was not on their side the BUF try to rush the main road into the city but find that communist forces have their own armoured car who pin the attackers back.... with burning vehicles and many killed and wounded. the city would not be getting any reinforcements any time soon. 

Leap forward 45 years and another what if.... a game a Team Yankee and a Russian attempt to break though NATO lines as the American recon units beat a hasty retreat on the face of wall to wall Soviet armour.

Pretty pleased with myself I had massed my Abrams all in one place and watched as the Russians chased my recon units as we drew them into range of my main guns.

Ambush !!!! - 60% of the Russian Armour is destroyed in the first round.

Now for the Air Power and on the opposite flank the A10's knock out another bunch of heavy metal.

I may have then got a little cocky and swept down off the hill to turn the Russian flank, forgetting that they to have air power.... and several of my valuable armour went up in flames.... 

I perhaps should have stayed where I was but got a little bit carried away and will most certainly be disciplined by high ups.... If I had not been blown to bits in the final round.

Team Yankee is rather unforgiving.... or is it realistic you perhaps only have to look to the Ukraine to see the life of a tanker is not very long...

Two very different games - Team Yankee was quick, not sure about the ranges and it might be better in 6mm but it was fun and you certainly get a big game done in 2-3 hours....

WMMS Prep - The Battle for Fort Nibeiwa Dec 1940

Nothing focuses the painting activity like a show and deadline, we had a run through a few weeks ago and felt we needed a few more Matildas for the Commonwealth forces, so we all chipped in to bolster the numbers.

Rather worrying we now have a over 10 for the forthcoming battle, the Italians will really have their work cut out, if of course they can raise themselves from their beds to even get to the trenches.

I might have got a little carried away and added a Cruiser for good measure. 

I read some of the reports that the Indian 7th Rajput Regiment followed on the initial assault in trucks, so a good excuse to add some transports to the allied forces, I did think about adding more markings but figured more generic trucks could be used for any side if required.

All 3D prints from the guys at 3D Printing Valley | eBay Stores

Well worth a visit great detail and most of the vehicles come printed in a single piece.

Now back to the Crusades......

Battle of Lemberg - Part 3 - 5 years in the making......

Well that may have been a little optimistic.... The last post was back in 2019 - Dust, Tears & Dice: Battle around Janow, Lemberg, Galicia 1914 - Mud & Blood (dusttears.blogspot.com)

One might have thought that 4 years was bad but this time it was 5....... we really must get better at this.

Another outing in the fight for Lemberg with the Russian's and Austrians seeking to break through each others lines, with the victor securing the most jump off points on the table.