More comparisons

I was really unhappy with the pictures I took of the building I have and decided to fix that.

Lets start with Blue Moon.
BlueMoon
Here I have several Old Glory AWI Militia miniatures standing with a Freikorps Mounted Militia figure.



The figures look like they have the ability to enter the building. The roof and the second floor can be removed on the building. Their line is quickly becoming my favorite.

Hovels
This is the farmstead pack from Hovels. Only the metal fencing is not pictured. The fences are very nice. I like the haystacks. The two barns/outbuildings/chicken coops are nice with a dilapidated look to them. The buildings are similar to JR in that the




It is the same set of miniatures as before. Sorry about the quality of the pictures. I still don't have the knack of it yet.

JR Miniatures
These were my first set of buildings that I purchased. These I actually got around to painting. As you can see, the miniatures dominate the building as if they are all NBA basketball players. I liked the cloth roof of the buildings.



The second picture has an example from their tents pack, their outhouse pack and a turf roof cabin.

Hovels Miniatures Buildings received

I have received the buildings from Hovels. The fencing is very nice. The haystacks are good too. The buildings will match perfectly with Jr miniatures. I will take some pictures later.

Just a question, for 15mm miniatures, do you prefer the buildings to be a bit small for the miniatures or to match the size of the minis? Now that I have some of the Blue Moon buildings, I like the look of the larger buildings better.

What does everyone else think?

Terrain Comparison

I took some pictures side by side of my JR Miniatures terrain and my new Blue Moon terrain. It was a surprise to see just how different the two are size wise. The JR Miniatures door ways are around 10mm tall. A Old Glory ACW Confederate soldier would be over a head taller than the doorway. With the Blue Moon houses, the same miniature would not have to bend over to enter.

Blurry Picture 1
Here is the Lean To Cabin from Blue Moon (left) and a JR Miniatures cabin side by side. The Blue Moon building is far more substantial.



You can see the gap I mentioned before between the removable roof and the base of the building with the Blue Moon building. The JR house looks like it houses munchkins in comparison.

Blue Moon Manufacturing Terrain

Just got in my terrain from Blue Moon. WOW! The lines are sharp. Few to no bubbles in the resin. And all of them open up to allow miniature placement within them.

15LOM 140 Cabin #6 - Two Story w/ Large Porch
This have a removable roof and second floor. The cabin is a log cabin with a shingle roof. The shingles are rough cut and work well with the building. This will be useful for both the AWI and ACW.

15 LOM 138 Cabin #4 Lean To Style Cabin
The lean to cabin does not fit together as well. There is a gap in the chimney when the two are put together. Other than that, the stone chimney and log cabin look great. The roof is removable and is cut board and not shingle. This will be useful for both the AWI and ACW.

15 LOM 149 Stone Base Blockhouse
The bottom floor is stone and the upper floor is log. The upper floor and roof both can be removed. The upper floor has three sides with loopholes. This is an excellent building and will be great for the AWI.

Of the buildings, they will move to the head of my painting table.

15 LOM 119 Colonial Civilians
These are great looking miniatures. Some could find use on both an AWI or an ACW table. Some are decidedly leaning more toward the AWI. In fact, these are designed for the French and Indian War. Of the ones that stand out is a useful chap with a shotgun holding a duck he has just killed. Several women with farm implements and a bull pulling a plow. These will be part of future scenarios to be sure.

All in all, I am thrilled with the purchase.

ACW Terrain

I have recently acquired several new buildings. From JR Miniatures, I picked up a log cabin, a set of 4 outhouses, a L shaped farm house and four tents.

From Hovels, I purchased the Farmstead set that includes a farmhouse, a barn and some hay stacks.

From Blue Moon, I picked up a Stone Blockhouse (ok that is more for my AWI games), a lean to cabin and a two story house.

The JR Miniatures ones came in this week and they look great. I hope to get some painting in over the weekend and post some pictures.

On the painting front, I managed to paint up another group of miniatures for my Terrible Sharp Sword Confederate army. Also painted two standard bearers and a running drummer - all from Eureka miniatures.

One day this week, I will break out the camera and take some pictures of all of this.

A fine day for Lardy Gaming

Today I not only got to play one game of Sharp Practice but I also got to run a game of Terrible Sharp Sword. Mark was kind enough to put on the SP game. What a cracker it was too. A fantastic AWI scenario set around the siege of Savannah. I played a loyalist unit attempting to secure a bridge and destroy it before the arrival of the French hordes. The game pivoted back and forth and hinged on the final turns of the game. I finally had a successful close assault and managed to storm a redoubt to drive out some rebel militia and take their gun. The scenario was one of Mark's best yet.

The game of TSS was a learning experience with the new rules. We played scenario one from the campaign with a half company of troops on either side with two big men each. The game went fairly well for Terry, Mark and my first attempt with the rules. They were fun but it was a very small scenario. We finished in under an hour and a half.

Cabins, Fences and Corn Fields

Spent a few hours on Friday working some terrain for the upcoming Terrible Sharp Sword rules. I painted up two small cabins and assembled some snake fences. A quick coat of paint is needed to complete these up. Next, I tore apart a cornfield that I made as I was not happy with the base material that I was using. I will be reassembling it with a foam material.

This should all be useful for AWI as well. I hope to put some more fences together shortly. Right now I have about 12" of fences done.

ACW Maps

I just discovered a fantastic resource online. The Library of Congress "American Memory" website has a huge collection of Civil War maps.

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/civil_war_maps/index.html

I have been looking at maps of Northern Virgina to get an idea of the terrain fought over in the skirmishes that dominated the months following the First Battle of Manassas. This site is fantastic. It has several maps that were prepared for General McDowell in early 1862 in which individual farmsteads are listed and a good idea can be had as to the location of orchards and the like. If you have not browsed this site before, I highly recommend it.

What a week for gaming.

Well after an excellent game hosted by Mark, I have had quite a weekend.  The first game was Thursday night.  It was an Eastern Front Scenario where the Russians were defending the bridgehead that they established on the Vistua River.  The scenario was based on the writings of Evgenii D Moniushko, then a Junior Lieutenant in command of an anti-tank gun.  He described several "episodes" of his experiences on the Vistula River including a Nebelwerfer (sp?) attack, the tactics used by the Russian AT gunners, killing a Tiger tank at point blank range and attempting to attack a PZIVH hidden in a barn with a grenade bundle.  It turned out that the tank was not there but these elements made for creating an interesting scenario.  I dropped the rocket attack from the scenario.

The scenario pitted a Russian platoon with two MMGs and two anti-tank guns against a panzer grenadier platoon, and three panzer IV H's, an off board Tiger I and a Tiger I in reinforcement.


I played this scenario twice.  The first time was with 15mm miniatures on a 6' x 4' table.  There the Russians held out for most of the game but were eventually overrun. The second time I ran the game it was at Mark's house using his 6mm stuff.  We reduced the measurements from inches to centimeters.  The table was still 6' by 4'.  


It was an interesting comparison.  The 15mm game moved much quicker.  The Germans were able to advance rapidly to the Russian positions.  In the 6mm game, the Germans did not advance as quickly.  The AT guns could reach out at a much longer distance to stall the advance.  

Both games were fun.  I think the 6mm game felt right in terms of the engagement distances but the 15mm game played faster.  I will continue to use 15mm for TW&T based on this.


The third game was Mark's IABSM game at Giga-Bites in Marietta.  That scenario was a Russian river crossing.  The Germans were defending.  I played the Germans and managed to stall out the Russian advance.   All in all, a great week.

Troops, Weapons & Tactics - Late War Germans

I managed to take some pictures of the 15mm miniatures that I am using for TW&T.  I have just finished painting some of these.

Late War Panzer Grenadiers

Platoon

 There are three squads of 11 men each with a platoon HQ of an officer, a sniper and two runners.

Tank Hunters

This is a four man team.

Medium Panzer Platoon 1

 Three Panzer III Ls.

Medium Panzer Platoon

 I have one Panzer IV H painted and one more that is primed.

Recon Panzer Platoon

 Just one Panzer II Luchs at the moment.

Picture Time

I have not posted a picture of any miniatures in a long time. Here are some pictures of some Provincial infantry that I have been painting. These are the first few. I will be painting these in a total of four 8 figure groups with two foot officers, two standard bearers, a drummer and a mounted officer.  The regimental flag was taken from warflag.com. 

The next picture is of the Colonel of the regiment.  Unfortunately this one came out rather blurry.

I will try to get around and post a better picture of this guy.  He looks a litter better in person than the picture lets on.

Peter Pig Mounted Militia & Scouts First Look

Well the postman just brought in my new pack of Peter Pig Mounted Militia(5.39) and Scouts (5.40). The Mounted Militia come in two poses: One with a round hat looking straight ahead with his musket leveled above his horse's head. The second is in a tricorn hat looking to his right with the musket leveled next to his horse's head. Four figures in all come in the pack. The figures look nice to my eye and will add some variety to the other mounted militia that I have from QRF/Freikorps and Lancashire.

The Scouts are interesting. This pack comes with two mounted miniatures (identical pose) with slung rifles looking off to the left side of their mounts. They are wearing round hats. Also in the pack are two horses with two men that are kneeling on the ground looking at something. The kneeling man is supporting himself with his rifle and has his hat in his hand. I will definitely add the mounted figures to my Mounted militia units. While I like the dismounted scouts, I am not sure what I will do with them yet.

All in all, I do not regret the purchase and will probably get another pack of the mounted militia before too long. Now we need to convince them at Peter Pig to create some dead militia miniatures.

Next step is to get some more primer and start painting these guys.....

East Front Italians for Troops, Weapons and Tactics

Now that "With Fire and Sword" is published, I have been looking for a new research project. I decided to go back to the Second World War and look at the early Italian actions on the Eastern Front.

I am looking at the actions from August to October 1941 that were fought by the Pasubio Division. I purchased awhile back two regimental histories from this division 79th & 80th Roma Regiments. Lots of good information - if you speak Italian. Which I do not. But that is ok. I am not easily discouraged. Armed with a handy dandy Italian/English dictionary much can be discovered.

The first action that I am looking at is the encounter at the village of Pokrovskoje. Just south of the larger town of Voznesensk, the village of Pokrovskoje was on the road paralleling the course of the Bug river. The advance down the road was hindered by bad weather and terrible mud roads.

The CSIR was to block the retreat of the Russian army by heading down the length of the Bug River from Voznesensk to the town of Nikolaiev. The bad weather stopped most of their movements except for a small force consisting of the 80th Roma Regiment, 1st Company of Bersaglieri Motorcyclists and two groups of artillery frm the division. Leaving Voznesensk on the 10th of August, Colonel Chiaramonti managed to move his group another 30 kilometers to Pokrovskoje.

The Bersaglieri were leading the advance and arrived at the village only to be ambushed by a delaying force of Russian soldiers. The Russians fired upon the Bersaglieri with machine guns and artillery. The Bersaglieri remained to gather intelligence and returned back to the main body of troops. III Batalion of the 80th Roma advanced against the Russians and began to drive back the infantry in the town. At this point, the Russians counterattacked with some tanks. Accurate artillery fire drove off the attacking tanks.

I am thinking in breaking this down into three small scenarios for each phase of the action.


Sources so Far:
http://www.italie1935-45.com/
http://www.ilduce.net/russia.htm
http://digilander.libero.it/lacorsainfinita/guerra2/41/russia.htm
http://digilander.libero.it/avantisavoiait/Campagna%20di%20Russia.htm
http://www.fronterussounirr.it/introduzione_storica.htm
http://www.unucimonza.org/bio_federico_rossi.htm
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~broszies/generalstab/arsenal/italian_army/tw_it_csir.html
http://www.bersaglieripaceco.net/medaglie/oro.php
http://fralo.blogspot.com/2010/04/trebisacce-21042010-leroe-alfredo-lutri.html
http://www.maxafiero.it/csir.htm
http://www.italie1935-45.com/RE/histoire/csir1.html

Update on With Fire and Sword

Rich has the final draft and has done some amazing work editing and formatting my scribbles. The maps look great and he has restrained my megalomaniac scenario for the Second Battle of Hanging Rock. My original scenario was huge with over 23 Big men for the Rebels/Patriots alone. Now he has rearranged it to five linked scenarios that cover the ebb and flow of the battle quite nicely without needing a lead mountain of militia miniatures - not that there is anything wrong with that....

A big thanks to AD over at miniawi.blogspot.com who spotted some errors in the original drafts and made some great suggestions to improve the accuracy of the overall work. Now to get back to some painting.

Back to the ACW again....

Well now that the AWI special is completed, I wanted to work on something else for a bit. Last night I finished my first 15 ACW miniatures. I bought some Old Glory bags of ACW skirmishing infantry a while back that have been collecting dust in the bag. I started on the Confederates first. I used the Army Painter Gray primer on them and painted them as they recommended on their web site. I am actually quite pleased with the results. I used their medium dip (brushed on) and will use the anti-shine spray tonight.

I will take some pictures of my AWI Brits and the new Confederates tonight.

Draft Complete

Well it is finished. I have shot it on to Rich to take a look. Now to get back to painting.

I got distracted from painting militia and provincials to finish off an older unit with an officer and bugler for Lauzon's Legion. I also primed a bunch of confederate infantry.

Last Two Scenarios left for "By Fire and Sword"

I have it down to just two left. I am struggling with the Battle of Hanging Rock. I think I know how I will treat Fishing Creek. Once these two are addressed, I will be done.

If you have never been to his blog, AD does a wonderful job presenting a clear view of the battles of Sumter's Brigade on his blog. http://miniawi.blogspot.com. There is a bunch of great stuff.

The main problem is how to present some of the larger actions in Sharp Practice without needing hundreds of miniatures Hanging Rock has close to 1600 participants. It was a fiercely contested battle that involved some really good units on both sides.

Peter Pig AWI Miniatures

Just received some Peter Pig miniatures in the mail. I ordered one of the British Dragoon command packs and 3 of the British Dragoon packs. I also ordered one of the British Light Infantry packs, four of the militia packs, one of the Gun crew packs, a pack of the waving ladies and a pack of disordered markers. I really like these miniatures. I believe that they will jump to the front of my painting queue.

I also managed to get some painting in this weekend. Painted 10 British Light Infantry as New York volunteers (Lancashire Miniatures British Light Infantry Marching pose) - Red Coats, Buff facings and white pants. Also managed to paint a mounted British colonel (Friecorps).

I have another 25 or so Light Infantry figures from Old Glory to paint up. I think I will paint them as Delancey's Brigade - Red Coats, blue facings. I also have some Lancashire Southern Loyalist militia to paint up. I might combine these with the Peter Pig miniatures to create a large unit of Loyalist militia if they look compatible with one another.

Once these are done, I have 8 more mounted militia and some other assorted figures. I still need some grasshopper guns for both the British and Rebel militia. At some point I also want some Catawba Indians. But those can wait for the time being.

From the picture on the Peter Pig site, I am trying to determine if the Battalion guns will work as Grasshopper guns.

I have finished the first 16 scenarios of "With Fire and Sword". Just six more to go, then I will be submitting it to Rich for publication. Some of the scenarios are quite large. Others are a much more modest size.

Progress At Last

More work has been done on "With Fire and Sword". The first 10 scenarios are now complete. At this point I think I am half way done. Hopefully by the end of the month, I can submit it to Rich to publish.

Now I just need to get some more painting done.

Chain of Command playtesting

It is exciting to see that TFL has decided to go with the WWII Mud and Blood variant next. I am very interested to see how the game play will differ between their existing rules Troops, Weapons & Tactics.

Using the existing Mud & Blood rules, I am thinking of doing a scenario for France in 1940. The scenario will be an attack on Ville de Fromage by a German Motorized Infantry Platoon accompanied by a early STUG III. The destroyed town will be defended by a platoon of French infantry supported by a FT17 (provided I can paint one quickly). I am thinking of keeping the prone to break down rules for armor in place for the FT17 as it is a Great War vet.

I will then replay the scenario using TW&T just as a comparison. I have the initial scenario blocked out. Just need to find time to run it.

Weekend Gaming

Well, Saturday proved to be a very good day. Met with Jim, Rick, Mark and our host, Robert to play a game of Flaklighter. Having never heard of the rules before that moment, it proved to be a fast and fun game. I commanded a group of 3 S-151 class German S Boats. Great fun all around. I managed to sink one British ship at the cost of well, all of mine. One ran aground after a critical hit to the steering. One took a critical hit to the engine room and it floated off while under heavy fire. And the third was destroyed as it closed in on a final British ship. The good news is,we blocked the Brits from completing their mission. Not sure, but I think I remember Rick loosing 2 of his three ships as well. The British lost 2 of their 3 Logs. I don't think any of Mark's ships suffered any serious damage.

Once I got home, I started to work on a game mat for Bag the Hun. I managed to complete a 3' by 4' section with another 3' by 4' portion to go.

A discussion with Jim and an e-mail from Terry after the game spawned another idea for Sharp Practice. I am thinking of a campaign for the AWI. Each player would play a colonel raising a regiment of militia. Depending on the side you are playing you could get possible supports from either Regulars or Continentals or other militia. The main idea is to get players to think beyond the current scenario so each one does not become a battle to the death and rewards strategic thinking. I really ought to finish on of the other 6 projects that I am currently working on first though. What are your ideas on how to accomplish this?

AWI Sharp Practice

I just took another look at the next SP supplement that I am working on. So far the Title is completely uninspired, "Partisan Warfare in South Carolina During the American Revolutionary War June to August 1780". Any ideas out there?

Well I have expanded it to 21 scenarios now. It will cover several actions divided into three Chapters.

Chapter 1: Captain Huck’s Wild Ride - Scenarios 1 to 8
------------------------------------------------------------------
Scenario 1: Alexander’s Old Field - June 6th, 1780
Scenario 2: Bullock’s Fork - Early June, 1780
Scenario 3: Mobley’s Meeting House - June 8th, 1780
Scenario 4: Hill’s Iron Works - June 18th, 1780
Scenario 5: Williamson’s Plantation - July 12, 1780
Scenario 6: Brandon’s Camp - June 8 or July 12, 1780
Scenario 7: Stallion’s Plantation - July 12, 1780
Scenario 8: Cedar Springs - July 12, 1780

Chapter 2: Rebel Reunions and McDowell’s Summer Campaign
------------------------------------------------------------------
Scenario 9: Gowen’s Old Fort - July 14th, 1780
Scenario 10: McDowell’s Camp - July 15th, 1780
Scenario 11: Captain Hampton’s Revenge - July 16th, 1780
Scenario 12: The Siege of Fort Anderson - July 22, 1780
Scenario 13: Green Spring - August 1, 1780
Scenario 14: Wofford’s Iron Works - August 8, 1780
Scenario 15: Battle of Musgrove Mill - August 19th, 1780

Chapter 3: Sumter’s Actions
-----------------------------------------------
Scenario 16: Rocky Mount - July 31, 1780
Scenario 17: Hanging Rock #1 - July 30, 1780
Scenario 19: Hanging Rock #2 - August 6th, 1780
Scenario 20: Carey’s Fort - August 15th 1780
Scenario 21: Fishing Creek - August 18th 1780

Some of the scenarios will depart from the historical action in that seiges are not that much fun to play out on a table. Each chapter is divided by the principle Rebel commanders involved. Chapter 2 features one of my favorite Big Men of the Revolution - Elijah Clarke. A true giant among men with a seeming amazing ability to survive injury and battle. Like many such men, he has his flaws but he was definitely a presence on the battlefield that men would follow.

Most of these are smallish battles that can be redone at a 1:1 scale without having 1,000s of miniatures for each side.

Anyway, I am looking forward to this weekend. I have my kitchen pass and have the whole day Saturday free. Now to find someone up for a game.

Ship Models for BTH2

Well the ships came in and it turns out that they are for the Axis and Allies board game. Not what I really wanted and it explained the great deal I got on them. Oh well. A quick coat of gray paint should get them to be usable.

Went looking to find some but have not found a local store that has the real miniatures yet. But I should come up with something this week.

Bag the Hun 2 Over North Africa

I am really enjoying the 1/600th miniatures from Tumbling Dice. I have painted up 8 P40s and started painting another 8 Hurricanes. I just drilled and added magnets to 12 Bf109Es and another 8 Ju87s. And I base coated these.

Giving into temptation offered by reading about Kev using these, I made a purchase on Ebay of some Axis and Allies ships. I will have to use these for the next game.

Hard Luck Miniatures

Ever have miniatures that bad things kept happening to them? I have a mounted officer and trumpeter of the Lauzon legion that I have dumped on a concrete floor not once but twice now. The officer's horse has broken off at the ankles and the trumpeter has been knocked off of the back of the horse yet again. The other miniature on the table with them - why they are just fine. This pair seems doomed for some reason.

This Land Divided's 8th Month in Print & other nonsense

Well, since its publication in August of 2009, This Land Divided has sold 141 copies! I am quite happy with that. For a campaign that covers a marginal segment of the AWI, that is actually quite good that 141 copies actually sold. I must admit, that this has the best name of any supplement that I have published. I just wish I could take credit for the name (thanks Rich). Hopefully, if I ever finish it, the follow up to it should do a little better as it covers the war in South Carolina. But I have not had any enthusiasm for it at present.

I just finished a campaign for Bag the Hun 2 that covers several of the principal battles between 1941 and October 1942. We will see where that goes.

The only other things in the works are a campaign for Troops, Weapons & Tactics related to the siege of Hill 192 in 1944 and the follow up to This Land Divided.

So, what do you think I should finish first? The Campaign for TW&T or the sequel to This Land Divided?

A most enjoyable game

While waiting for my new 1/600 miniatures from Dom's Decals, I decided to get started with a Campaign from my upcoming supplement for Bag the Hun 2 based on the North African Campaigns. I picked Operation Battleaxe as it is a short duration campaign. I was modeling the actions of 150a Squadriglia of the Regia Aeronautica and No 73 Squadron of the RAF.
I randomly rolled for the pilot status of each squadron then rolled for the number of missions for the day. Since the British were on the offensive for the short campaign, the British rolled for the missions. They had one offensive and one defensive mission to conduct today. Next I checked for what mission they would undertake. This would be a combat air patrol. Next I rolled for the size of the mission. The die roll showed that 4 aircraft should participate in the mission but since the British were still using the vic formation in North Africa, this dropped the participants down to 3. For the defending Italians, they rolled an intercept mission. Their die rolls were better and they would have 6 aircraft on this mission in 2 three aircraft sezione.

The game started out with the two sezione of Italians on the left and the one section of Brits on the right. Both entered on bogeys. Spotting rapidly, the RAF and first sezione of Italians were placed on the board. The second sezione of Italians would stay on blinds a while longer. Deciding to fire at long range, the Italian Squadriglia commander Capitano Alfredo fired on Pilot Officer Logan resulting in minor damage. PO Logan was able to return the favor but missed.

Both sides aggressively advanced towards one another. Two of the three pilots of sezione two were spotted but Sergente Ernesto would remain unspotted. From sezione two, Sototenente Celentano fired on Pilot Officer Ward causing minor damage. Sezione two's flight leader, Tenente Delgado fired on PO Logan and missed.

Turn 3 had Sergente Ernesto fail getting on the tail of PO Logan. Sergente Maggiore Callende managed to get on the tail of Flight Lieutenant Smith. Firing on the Fl Lt, the Sergente Maggiore hit the cockpit. To make matters worse for Fl Lt Smith, Tenente Delgado fired a deflection shot and caused a temporary loss of control that eventually would lead to the Fl Lt Smith exiting the board in unfriendly territory.
Turn 4 started with Sergente Maggiore and the rest of his flight continued pursuit of the Flight Lieutenant and he scored another hit resulting in wing damage. PO Ward tried an overhead attack on Tenente Delgado that resulted in a critical hit with instrument damage. The Tenente would point his aircraft at a friendly side of the board and head in that direction unopposed. Flight Lieutenant Smith would leave the table at the end of the turn on the enemy side. Sergente Eduardo was still a bogey with no one spotting him.

Turn 5 had a considerable amount of maneuvering. Sezione one of the Italians attempted to preform an immelman to get back towards the remaining British aircraft but the flight leader failed his hard maneuver roll.

Turn 6 let the remaining British pilots decide to get out quickly and they turned tail and fled. They were chased doggedly by both sezione. Sergente Eduardo - now spotted, failed a get on tail test, jammed his guns and then promptly ran out of ammo firing on PO Logan. Sototenente Celentano also failed to get on tail and also jammed his guns while attacking PO Ward.

The final turn of the game saw Sergente Edwardo break off his attack due to out of ammo. Sototenente Celentano fired again on PO Ward but to no avail. At this point the Italians decided to call it a day and broke off the attack while the faster Hurricanes sped away.

The Italians definitely won. Rolling for the results, Flight Lieutenant Smith crashlanded behind enemy lines and was captured.

Italians:
Capitano Augusto was credited with 1 damaged.
Sototenente Celentano was credited with 1 damaged.
Sergente Maggiore Callende was credited with one kill.
Sergente Eduardo gained some valuable experience.
Tenente Delgado was able to return to his home base safely.
Sototenente Biagio did not accomplish anything.

British:
Flight Lieutenant Smith was shot down
PO Ward was credited with one damaged
PO Logan returned with a damaged aircraft.

The next mission has already been rolled up. This will be defensive mission for the British. It will be a scramble mission. They will intercept an Italian reconnaissance flight. Stay tuned for more.

Bag the Hun 2

I just submitted a campaign for North Africa to Rich for BTH2. I am going to play this out for Operation Battleaxe tonight. This is a nice short operation of only a couple days long. I will be playing a single Squadriglia of 9 G.50s against a Squadron of 9 Hurricanes.

Bag the Hun 2 and other things

Well, I have just seen a copy of Bag the Hun 2. It looks great. In celebration of this, I have purchased some 1/600 scale aircraft from Tumbling Dice. I will use this for a North African campaign I have been working on. The campaign is about 80% complete. I have 12 BF 109s, 8 Ju87s, 12 P40Es and 12 Hurricanes. Now while I am waiting on these to arrive, anyone have some suggestions for painting guides.

On other fronts, I am still working on a campaign for TW&T based on the 38th Infantry Regiment's attack on Hill 192 on July 11th, 1944.

Lastly, I am still kicking around another AWI supplement for Sharp Practice.

Now if I can only get a game in.....

WWII Campaign

I am thinking of doing a "Platoon Forward" style TW&T campaign. I am looking into the Actions of Easy Company, 38th Infantry Regiment US Army on July 11th, 1944. They were part of the attack on Hill 192.

Opposing "E" Company was elements of the III Battalion, Falschrimjager Regiment 9. A half company occupied a farmstead known as Kraut Corner. They were further supported by some armor elements in the town of Cloville. Depending on the sources, the armor was a Panzer IV and some form of self propelled gun. One marked this as an 88mm gun on a Panzer III chassis. In my thinking, this was likely a StuG III or similar vehicle. "E" Company was supported by tanks from B Company, 741st Tank Battalion. One was a dozer tank and the other had a cullins device.

I just picked up a FOW Sherman Dozer tank and a StuGIII & PZ IV just for this. I am still thinking how to make the campaign work.

A New Year - Old Projects

Well to start off 2010, I finally put some paint on the Lancashire Southern Loyalists I bought. I am painting them with the colors for the New York Volunteers. I took the color guide from the old dauphinehotel web site. They have removed the webpage but thanks to the magic of archive.org, we can pull it back.

I will paint up Loyalist groups for the New York Volunteers, the Royal NC Regiment, South Carolina Royalists, the British Legion and possibly some of Delancey's 3rd Battalion.

So far the figures have not gotten much attention other than a red coat. If my son will go to sleep at a decent hour tonight, I might make some progress on the rest of the uniform.

Note: Updated on 3/18/2016 with web address for site.