Team Yankee Battle Report 1; Proxy War

With the rules for Battlefront's new Team Yankee Cold War now fully available if you know where to look (hint: it involves friendly local gaming stores) I decided to try a relatively simple test game to see how things work.

There were a few problems with this, though:

1. I didn't have the proper minis for any of the vehicles I'd want to use. So, time for proxies.
2. I don't have any proper wargaming terrain at home; that's all at the FLGS. Fortunately, I had some stuff to improvise with.
3. I didn't have an opponent. Easily solved by playing both sides, with some helpful tactical input from a few anonymous posters on a certain imageboard.

The forces used would be like this:

Red Banner Tank Division

BMP Motor Rifle Battalion

HQ AK-74 and BMP-2 - 2 points - proxied with WW2 Soviet infantry and a reversed T-34/76

BMP-2 Motor Rifle Company: 4 AK-74, 3 RPG-7, 4 BMP-2 - 8 points - proxied with WW2 Soviet infantry and reversed T-34/76s

BMP-2 Motor Rifle Company: 4 AK-74, 3 RPG-7, 4 BMP-2 - 8 points - proxied with WW2 Soviet infantry and reversed T-34/76s

2S1 SP Howitzer Battery: 3 2S1 - 5 points - proxied with reversed T-34/85s

T-72 Company: 6 T-72 - 27 points - proxied with T-55s

25th Armoured Division

M1 Abrams Armoured Combat Team

HQ: 1 M1 Abrams - 8 points - proxied with a M48 Patton

M1 Abrams Platoon: 2 Abrams - 16 points - proxied with M48 Pattons

M1 Abrams Platoon: 2 Abrams - 16 points - proxied with M48 Pattons

M113 Mech Platoon: 4 SAW, 4 Dragon, 4 M113 - 7 points - proxied with Canadian infantry and turretless welded-hull Shermans

M106 Heavy Mortar Platoon: 3 M106 - 3 points - proxied with turretless cast-hull Shermans

Both sides have 50 points of units. All are part of their formations, with no support units from the larger organisation.

So, what would the battlefield look like?

Like this:

Flames of War Battle Report 8; Heer Grenadiers vs Desert Rats Lorried Rifles

Our local Infantry/Mech is still going strong and I was able to take some pictures of my most recent game in it.

This time, I would be playing Germans against the slowly-growing British force of one of our local players.

We're in the second round of our league, which means 700-point games where Support Platoons are allowed but can't capture or contest objectives.

Keep that bit in mind; it'll be relevant.

This is the battlefield we'd be fighting over.
The mission would be No Retreat.

FoW Team Yankee pics from Spiel Essen

Last weekend, I went to Spiel Essen, one of the premier board games conventions in the world.

Aside from board games, there's also a wargaming presence. One of the companies that tranditionally has a stand there is Battlefront, the makers of Flames of War.

This year, they had a whole bunch of previews for one of their upcoming releases, Team Yankee.

This ruleset is a streamlined version of the Flames of War rules that focuses on a hypothetical scenario: what if the cold war "went hot" in the mid-1980s.

The forces in the initial release will be based on those from the novel "Team Yankee" by Harold Coyle. This means US versus Soviets in southern Germany. 

One of the ways things have changed is that units will now have reference cards which contain their stats, points values and special rules so they're easy to check.

They had a whole bunch of these at Spiel and I managed to take decent pictures of most of them. I also got to read part of the rulebook.

A few of these have been spoiled on Breakthrough Assault since I took these pictures, but I left them in anyway.

However, we start off with a card that doesn't contain unit stats:

Instead, we get a couple of special movement options units will apparently have in this ruleset.
They offer improved mobility options, but only if you pass a skill check. Which means that more skilled troops are better at using these advanced tactics as well, which makes sense. I do think the restriction of being close to the command team is going to be tricky.

The Blitz move could be really devastating if used well, for example to have a unit with anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs) which can only fire from the halt pop up and shoot anyway. Of course, the penalty for failing this check is pretty harsh as well.
Follow Me! reminds me strongly of Avanti! and similar special rules used by a few countries in FoW. A simple option if you want some extra movement and weren't planning to shoot anyway. This one would be especially useful if it can be used after a Dash movement.
Shoot and Scoot is basically a Stormtrooper move. Who doesn't wish their non-German troops could make those? Well, in the 1980s, they can.
Cross Here allows extra mobility across difficult terrain, always useful to have.
Dig In is as might be expected, although the distance restriction could be tricky here as well. I'll have to see how this works out when we've got the full rulebook to look at.

Battletech Alpha Strike Battle Report 1; Lyran Commonwealth vs Free Worlds League

Recently, I've been getting into Battletech.

It's a rather entertaining game system which goes into a lot of detail in how your giant robots are blasting each other apart.

However, that level of detail is also its greatest weakness; games of Battletech tend to take a while. For example, a game with one lance (four 'mechs) per side might take an entire evening.

That's where the Alpha Strike ruleset comes in.

It's a standalone game based on Battletech and shares many of its mechanics, but makes things a lot more streamlined.

Where a single 'mech's stats in normal BT take up an A4 page (including locations of all internal components like actuators, engine, weapons, ammo and your pilot, which you can damage with ingame effects) all of its AS stats fit on one TCG-sized card, as you can see below.

This is one of the two forces I'm using for this game; a Free Worlds League lance containing a Cyclops, Catapult, Hunchback and Jenner.

The Cyclops and Hunchback are kind of slow but can deal a ton of damage at close range.
The Catapult is best at mid-range fire support. Its jump jets give it pretty decent mobility as well.
The Jenner is small and fragile, but well-armed for its size, with the mobility to deliver that firepower where needed.

Here is their opposition, a Lyran Commonwealth lance containing a Zeus, Dervish, Dragon and Panther.

The Zeus is primarily a mid-range fighter with some decent firepower at the other ranges as well.
The Dervish is a pretty mobile (including jump jets) middleweight with a lot of potential firepower for its size if it overheats for it.
The Dragon is pretty well-armoured and fast for its weight, but slightly low on firepower.
The Panther is a light fire-support machine with decent firepower and jump jets to get in position.

War at Sea Fleet Muster

It's been a pretty quiet week for me in terms of wargaming.

I did get quite a bit of stuff painted for Battletech, which might get posted in the near future.

Meanwhile, here's a little overview of the work I've done so far for my 1/1800 scale WW2 naval minis. 

It's a bit of a mish-mash of stuff I got from Axis and Allies Naval products and minis I bought from Shapeways.

These are the Japanese vessels I've got painted up so far.

Flames of War Battle Report 7; Red Army Strelkovy vs FHH Panzergrenadiers

Well, it's time for some more Flames of War, this time for the Infantry/Mech escalation league we just started at out local store, De Purperen Draak in Groningen.

In fact, this was the first game played for it, with six more played over the course of the day by a bunch of our local players.

In the first month, we're playing 500-point games on smaller tables, with no Support Platoons allowed. Only HQ, Combat and Weapons platoons.

Hopefully, there will be a bunch of additional battle reports in the next few weeks.

If people are interested, I could also do a series where I showcase the different forces used by the various players in the league.

My apologies for the mediocre quality of some of the pictures; I only had my phone camera available.

In this game, we ended up playing Breakthrough.

I was playing the following list:

Strelkovy Batalon (Red Army) - Confident Trained

HQ: CC Rifle, 2iC Rifle, Bat Kommissar, 4 PTRD AT Rifles. (2 PTRDs attached aan elke Strelk unit)

Strelk Company: Cmd Rifle/MG, 7 SMG

Strelk Company: Cmd Rifle/MG, 7 Rifle/MG

HMG Company: Cmd RIfle, 3 Maksim HMG

Mortar Company: CMd Rifle, 6 82mm mortars

My opponent was fielding the following:

Feldherrnhalle Panzergrenadierkompanie - Confident Veteran

HQ - 2x Cmd SMG teams

Combat platoon - 1 Cmd MG team, 4x MG teams

Combat platoon - 1 Cmd MG team, 4x MG teams

Combat platoon - 1 Cmd SMG team, 2x MG42 HMG

Weapons platoon - 1 Cmd SMG team, 2x observers, 4x 8cm GW34 mortars

We rolled off to determine attacker/defender and the Red Army would be trying to break through a German encirclement to connect to their troops in a pocket.

German infantry units are trying to close the gap, but the troops in the pocket are moving in to reinforce.

War at Sea Battle Report 2: USN vs IJN

First off, my apologies for the lack of updates recently; I've been kind of busy with other stuff. 

The only games I've played were one game of Warmachine (my first in about a year) and a bunch of games of Battletech, which I just got started with.

There might be batreps for both of those in the near future, along with more Flames of War stuff as our local Infantry/Mechanised slow-grow league is getting started.

But for now, it's time for some Axis and Allies Naval Miniatures, since I got to play a couple of games of that this week and took pictures for one of them.

We were playing 100 points in the standard scenario, which plays nice and quickly.

You score points by capturing the three objectives on the centerline (worth 50 points each), destroying enemy units (worth their points value) and destroying all surface elements in the enemy fleet (worth 50 points once).

The first player to score 150 points by the end of a turn wins.

Flames of War battle report 6; Guards Strelkovy vs Panzerspähkompanie

Last weekend I co-organised and played in a local FoW tournament at de Purperen Draak, the place to be for miniature wargaming in the northern Netherlands.

We were playing 1500 points, Late War.
I ended up playing in the first round only, but that game was pretty interesting.

The scenario was Free-for-all.

I was playing the following list:

Strelkovy Batalon (Guards) - Fearless Trained

HQ: CC, 2iC Rifle, Komissar, 4x PTRD

Strelkovy Company: Cmd Rifle/MG, Komissar, 7x Rifle/MG, 7x SMG, Maksim HMG

Strelkovy Company: Cmd RIfle/MG, 7x Rifle/MG, Maksim HMG

Scout Platoon: 5x SMG

Heavy Mortar Company: Cmd Rifle, Observer Rifle, 6x 120-PM-38 mortar

Guards Heavy Tank Company: 3x IS-2 obr 1943

Tank Destruction Company: Cmd Rifle, 4x 57mm ZiS-2

Building up to the Battle of the Java Sea; simple beginnings

First of all, my apologies for the lack of posts recently. There simply hasn't been anything on my workbench worthy of a post and I've hardly played any games as well.

However, I do have some things in the pipeline.
There will probably be a battle report for a double-blind game of Axis and Allies Naval Miniatures I refereed soon, once I've got all my notes from that in order.
In addition to that, there will probably be a fair amount of FoW coming up as we'll be having a local tournament soon.

Today's feature is something a bit different; an overview of a long-term project I'm working on.

Specifically, to assemble the full order of battle for the Battle of the Java Sea in 1/1800 scale.

Mini Review: Plastic Soldier Company 15mm IS-2

Currently, I'm doing more painting than playing, although that should change with a local Flames of War tournament coming up.

While I'm painting/modeling, I'll be putting up some reviews for a few of the kits I'm working on.

This starts today with the unit I've finished most recently; a company of IS-2 obr 1943 heavy tanks in 15mm scale for use in FoW.

Mini review continued: 1/1800 HNLMS Java painted

After receiving my Shapeways order earlier this week, I got started on painting them fairly quickly.

When the aircraft models presented some difficulties because of the material's rough texture (kind of annoying on aircraft) I decided to switch my attentions to the 1/1800 scale warship I had also received instead.

This is the 1/1800 NL CL Java[1942] by matt_atknsn, for your reference.

Here's a picture of it painted up:

 

Mini Reviews: 1/1800 HNLMS Java by matt_atknsn and 1/350 F-8 and MiG-21 by Kampfflieger

Earlier this week, I decided to explore a new source of miniatures, especially historical ones; 3D printing on demand via sites such as Shapeways.

I ordered two different products:

-1/1800 NL CL Java[1942] by matt_atknsn

-1/350 F-8 Crusader & MiG-21PF by kampfflieger

Shapeways offers options for different materials for some models, such as the aircraft in my order.

I went with the default and cheapest option, WSF (White, Stong and Flexible).

I'd read that this material would have a slightly rough texture, which might become visible when painting, but decided that it would be OK for a test case.

After placing the order on monday, I the indicated time to delivery was roughly 1 week. However, the models were completed even faster than that, as they were shipped on thursday and arrived on my doorstep on friday. A pleasant surprise.

Airwar C21 Battle Report 1; Showdown over the Sea of Japan

1988, Sea of Japan.

Unknown to the Western powers, a Soviet transport ship carrying nuclear warheads has suffered major technical issues and is adrift in international waters.
While the situation cannot be viewed clearly by satellite due to bad weather, this has also hampered recovery efforts.
The politbureau is adamant that no US or US-aligned eyes can be allowed to fall on the vessel for classified reasons. Air superiority over the area must be established. In this effort, pilots have received orders to open fire at any craft crossing the set exclusion line.

US intelligence has figured out that there is obviously something special going on in the general area, although initial recon efforts have been threatened away by Soviet air and naval power. Even observation attempts by a pair of state-of-the-art nuclear submarines were driven off by agressive ASW units.
The weather does not look like it will improve any time soon, so a different approach will be tried; several small groups of aircraft will attempt to infiltrate the area in such a way that the Soviet air cover will not be able to intercept all of them.

One of these groups is a pair of F/A-18C Hornets from VFA-195, the Dambusters, which is stationed in Japan. Callsigns are "Hogger" and "Stilts".
They are part of the first wave, most likely to be intercepted. Their Rules of Engagement allow them to open fire BVR if enemy weapon launches are detected.
As luck would have it, they are indeed intercepted by a pair of Su-27 Flankers, well within the exclusion area.
Hogger and Stilts were about to have a very bad day.

Flames of War battle report 5; Guards Tankovy vs FHH Panzergrenadiers

After our previous game ended pretty quickly, my opponent and I decided to have another go after dinner, this time on another scenario which would probably be used in the upcoming tournament.

This time, we would be playing Breakthrough.
Neither of us had played this scenario before, so this was going to be interesting.

Flames of War battle report 4; Guards Tankovy vs FHH Panzergrenadiers

Another week, another couple of games of FoW played.

This week, me and one other local player played a pair of games as preparation for an upcoming local tournament which will be 1500 points Late War.

My apologies in advance for the poor quality of some of the pictures; I had to use my mobile phone to take them this time.

In our first game, we played Hold the Line.
He was using a FHH Panzergrenadierkompanie from Grey Wolf Revised, I was using a Guards Tankovy Batalion (Guards quality) from Red Bear Revised.

Void Warfare Alpha rules v0.3

In the not-too-distant future, Mankind has expanded into the solar system; space stations and orbital elevators have been built. Asteroids are being ferried closer to inhabited areas to mine from. The first long-term space colonies are under construction.

Most of the manual labour in zero-g is done using powered exoskeletons which can mount various tools depending on the task at hand.

Of course, when political tensions escalated and military actions in space started occurring, these exoskeletons were put into action for the close-range battles surrounding various installations. Here, these battles are fought.

Version 0.3 of the rules is here.

This update includes the following:
-A proper scenario focusing on controlling a zone in space.
-Two additional units.
-New weapons, including remote weapons launched by other units.
-Sensor Pod special equipment allowing one unit to assist others in detection.
-Changed weapon loadouts.

If you'd like to test these rules, please do so and inform me of the results. I appreciate all constructive feedback I receive.

You might also be interested in these printable trajectory markers and this post explaining how maneuvering in Void Warfare works with illustrations.

Flames of War Battle Report 3; Red Army Strelkovy vs Feldherrnhalle Panzergrenadiers

During my previous 500-point Infantry Aces style game, one other local player had sown up, willing to have a go at a game at this scale as well; my opponent in my first battle report.

He didn't have his minis with him, so we decided to put something together using the models we had standing in the store and some proxies.

He decided to go with a FHH Gepanzerte Panzergrenadiers force from Blood, Guts and Glory.

The scenario would be Cauldron.

Flames of War Battle Report 2; Red Army Strelkovy vs SS-Panzergrenadiers

This week, I played a couple of 500-point games testing for a possible Infantry+Mechanised Aces league.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Aces system: it's a small escalation league style campaign, ideal for new players to start grasping the rules.

I brought along a Red Army Strelkovy force from Red Bear Revised while my opponent would be using a SS-Panzergrenadier list from Atlantikwall.

Void Warfare Battle report 2

I had the opportunity to play a test game at my FLGS this week.

Unfortunately, I missed one or two moments where taking a picture of the game would have been useful; we were too much into the game. Still, I've got enough to provide a proper report.

My adversary was one of our local players, although he mostly plays board and card games; which made this a good way to see if someone relatively new to miniature games would be able to grasp the game's mechanics.

We used the v0.2 alpha rules, with 3 Javelins per side. I used the Blue units, he the Red ones.

We had a 6" by 6" square zone in the middle of our 48" by 48" battlefield. There were two large rock fragments (represented by the craters) flanking the zone providing some cover.

The objective in this game was to capture the zone.

This could be done by having one or more units in the zone at the end of a turn while the opponent has no units in the zone to contest it.

Managing to claim the zone for 3 turns would win you the game. Destroying all opposing forces was, of course, also a way to win.

FATE Accelerated: Sea of Dimensions - Current test version

For some time now I've been working on a setting module for FATE that would allow one to play games in a certain magitech sci-fi setting.
After a couple of months of intermittent work, the module is now in a playable state.

Here's the current version of the setting module.

Flames of War Battle Report 1; Hero Motorstrelkovy vs Grenadiers

Time for a battle report for a game of Flames of War I played last week. 1650 points, Late-War.

This battle would be fought over a railway station in one of the more rural parts of eastern Europe, 1944.

Void Warfare mechanics: maneuvering

Here's a demonstration of how inertia-based movement works. It's one of the core mechanics of the game, so it needs to be relatively straightforward.

Void Warfare Battle Report 1

Unexpected activity has been detected near supply station 04-MRE-H8. Check the area for any hostile presence. If hostile forces are encountered, either destroy them or drive them off.

Okay, time for a simple battle report.
This battle involves 2 units on each side, all with identical stats and equipment.
Simply put, it's the Encounter scenario from the v0.2 rules, except with 2 units on each side instead of 3.

Here's the deployment.

Void Warfare Alpha rules v0.2

In the not-too-distant future, Mankind has expanded into the solar system; space stations and orbital elevators have been built. Asteroids are being ferried closer to inhabited areas to mine from. The first long-term space colonies are under construction.

Most of the manual labour in zero-g is done using powered exoskeletons which can mount various tools depending on the task at hand.

Of course, when political tensions escalated and military actions in space started occurring, these exoskeletons were put into action for the close-range battles surrounding various installations. Here, these battles are fought.

Void Warfare is a sci-fi tabletop miniatures wargame representing battles over critical installations fought by small, mobile vehicles.

The game is currently in early development, but in a playable state.

If you'd like to playtest, feel free to download the rules here:

Current testing rules plus printable unit and trajectory markers.

If you've got constructive feedback about the game, please post it here or mail me at eltharius at gmail.

Introduction

Well, this is the first post here.

I'll be using this blog mostly for battle/session reports for wargames/RPGs I play, along with some development work on traditional games I'm working on.

My main project at the moment is a space combat game titled Void Warfare focusing on zero-g battles with inertia based movement in an accessible way.

In addition to that, I'm working on a setting guide for FATE Accelerated called Sea of Dimensions. It's a sci-fi magitech setting based on a Japanese multimedia franchise.
The current version of the module should be posted soon, and session reports will follow once I've got a group together to play.

Another thing that should be appearing here are battle reports for at least Flames of War and possibly other wargames as well.

There may be other stuff, but that's all in the future.