Giga Historical Games Day - Part One of Three

Saturday, November 10, 2018 was a historical games day at Gigabytes Cafe in Marrietta, Georgia. William Thorpe did a fantastic job or organizing and getting games lined up for the entire day. He even got sponsors to donate prizes for a raffle that we were doing. Very impressed. He almost had the games running on time, but given the material he was working with (me included) that was asking too much of the poor man.

Starting at 10am I didn't leave until 7pm when my games finished and I was able to pack up. It was a great but exhausting day.

It was a terrific event and it was used as a fundraiser for Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. From what I gather, there were 16 games that went on throughout the day. I hosted two games: a Kiss Me Hardy variant and a Sharp Practice game. In both games I had a full table of participants and they were at least kind enough to pretend they were having a good time for my benefit. :) Well I had a great time anyway. I also did a poor job of getting pictures of the games as they developed. Half the time I just forgot and the other half the pictures were questionable.

The first game was a five player game of Kiss Me Hardy using some modifications that I made for ships under the rate. It was a quasi-historical scenario based on actions of the Georgia and South Carolina State Navies in the American Revolution.

The game began with a merchant brig anchored in the center of the table. This is a Sea Dog Studios 6mm Brigantine model. The dots that you notice on this mat are markings from an attempt to make a hex mat on the reverse side of the felt for a game of Bag the Hun. It taught me to never make my own hex sheet.

To the southwest corner was a sloop from the Georgia Navy named the John B. As for the name, I am sorry, I couldn't help myself. During the game, I only heard one passerby groan when they noticed the name so I am guessing there is a dwindling number of Beach Boy fans left. The John B was a six gunned sloop armed with 6-6pdr guns. This model is a Sea Dog Studios 6mm Bermuda Sloop.

In the Northwestern corner was two small vessels from the South Carolina State Navy - the Defiance and the Liberty. Both were actual ship names but applied to different vessels. The Liberty was actually the name of a Georgia sloop. Both were very small vessels. The Defiance had a single gun in the bow and a stern gun on a pivot. The Liberty was a pilot boat with a single bow gun. Both of these miniatures are from Langton Miniatures 1/300th scale Napoleonic line. One is a armed ships's launch and the other is a British Gunboat. Excellent models that my painting does not do justice to.

To the Northeast was a Royal Navy galley Tamar. The Tamar was the name of an actual RN sloop that was very active off the coast of South Carolina but it was most certainly not a galley. It was a galley for this scenario as I didn't have a chance to make the ship that would have corresponded to it. It was an eight gunned vessel with 8-4pdr guns. No individual photos of this ship. But in the later pics, she is the only one with lanteen sails. This is a Warartisan paper model.

The last ship actually matched it's historical counterpart. The RN schooner St John. The St John had an extremely active career in the Revolution. It was involved in a number of actions including the Rebel raid on Nassau. It was armed with 12-4pdrs. It started in the southeastern corner of the table. Another model I don't have a good picture of. Which is just as well as I have dropped it at least 4 times and had to reattach its topsails and equal number of times. It is a WarArtisan paper model. Not the ONLY thing that happened to it when it was dropped from about 4' from the ground is the loss of one or two topsails that were fixed with the application of superglue. In the instructions, it mentions that rigging the ship makes it stronger. This is 100% true. Where I have rigging, it is much sturdier. I ran out of time to complete the job.

At the start of the game, the wind was blowing to the east which confounded the Royal Navy in moving towards the merchantman. The Rebels were able to move with great ease and quickly moved to intercept the merchantman.

The Liberty took a scenic tour through the rocks. One of the things I missed was pointing out that there was shoal water surrounding the rocks. The Liberty was so shallow drafted that it wouldn't have mattered anyway. But she shot through the rocks and spent a good amount of the game out of the action until the end.

One of the items that I was trying out was rules for "Flying False Flags". The Rebels weren't operating in a coordinated fashion as the Georgia Navy didn't know that the South Carolina Navy would even be there. The Royal Navy wasn't sure what any of the ships were. The Tamar and the St John were aware of each other, though. So I had a system of spotting test to determine friend from foe. It worked out mostly well. With the close confines of the space we had availible, it was obvious to the players who was who, but they were game for whatever the dice showed. Everyone was able to avoid a friendly fire incident but only just barely.

This run out of the rules with someone other than my 10 year old was very valuable. The early moves of the game can seem very slow. I am thinking of adding an optional rule to allow the first turn to be conducted in Inches rather than Centimeters to allow the ships to get into action faster. Also, the strike system needs to be adjusted from the base Kiss Me Hardy rules as no one passed a strike test during the game.

This shot is toward the end of the game where the John B has taken the Merchantman and was starting to be pummeled into submission by the St John. You can see the Liberty has made a come back and would sail circles around the St John before fleeing the table.

The scenario played out well. The Defiance menaced the St John for a while but one broadside put an end to her. Not unexpected for such a tiny vessel (a sailed ship's launch). The Tamar was beaten by the John B (turns out a father v son battle with the son as victor). The Tamar struck and had lost a mast in the fighting.

The John B went on to take the merchantman that had started to flee. Once the Merchantman was on its way to safety, the John B and the St John has a quick engagement that forced the John B to strike to the superior gunnery of the St John.

With the Liberty as the last Rebel vessel on the waters, their victory conditions assured by the merchantman's escape, it deftly dodged the St John's best efforts and escaped.

It was a well fought game. Top honors went to the captain of the St John who was our youngest player at the table. He was also a son of the Tamar's Captain as well. He captured two Rebel vessels and re-secured the Tamar. The Rebels also counted the action as a victory as they absconded with the gunpowder.

Rewarding his gallant victory, the captain of the St John was awarded with a 6mm Sea Dog Studios Bermuda Sloop. Ironically, the same model as the John B sailed by his brother who he happened to capture. (Players forgive me if I get this wrong) The St John was captained by Collin. The Tamar was captained by Tim. Jake was captain of the John B. Jim was captain of the Liberty and Chris (not me) was the captain of the Defiance.

One of the things I have noticed, is that I rarely take pictures of the gamer's during events. After Terry Haney's passing, this became evident as I went through a bunch of pictures of our games together and I didn't find a single picture of Terry among them. This one I hesitated to take since it involved a minor but I asked his Dad for permission. I wanted to show Brian over at Sea Dog the recipient of the prize.

I am going to stop for now and make another post on the Sharp Practice game and a third on the other events as this is starting to get long. Thanks again, William for a great event. I came so close to winning the raffle twice. :)

Bloody Bucket and Pirate Ships

Just picked up the new Ardennes supplement from TooFatlardies. It looks great from the initial glance. Rich really makes nice supplements.

Also received my 15mm and 6mm Buccaneer sloop from Sea Dog Studios. It looks fantastic. I need to do a tiny bit of cleanup in the gun ports but other than that, it is perfect. I can't wait till I can start work on it.

Naval Landing Party & More 6mm Naval

I just got in a new order from Sea Dog Studios. They ran a special on their FB page for a new 18 gun Brig-Sloop in 6mm that they had done. What I liked about this one is that the guns are part of the casting rather than the separate guns as on their previous 6mm models. I also picked up some islands and buildings in 6mm as well. These are very nice pieces that should go well with my planned scenarios. Langton does a shore battery in 6mm that I may need to pick up at some point.

I also picked up two more row boats from them. These are larger row boats that can be sailed. One is an armed pinnace and the other is a cutter. The gun to the bow of the pinnace is removable. They did not come with masts but they have a hole where a mast can be mounted. I will probably add masts to both and make them removable like they are for the 6mm ships. I am very happy with these boats. This brings my total of 15mm ships to a 26 gun frigate, a tripoli Gunboat, two dingys, an armed pinnace and a rowed cutter.

I have ordered 8 more rowboats to support a landing operation or cutting out expedition. These will be from Old Glory. I also ordered the rowing figures from Peter Pig's pirates range. The plan is to paint up the rowers so they can be dropped in on any of the row boats. These sailors should be generic enough that they could be used for anything. Eventually, I would like to buy some seated Marines and soldiers that I can put on the ships as well.

An Unexpected Encounter - A IABSM AAR from In the Name of Roma

October 12th, 1941
Tenente Strombolli
Commanding Officer B Company II/80° Roma

This morning Collonello Chiarimonti dispatched my company with some reinforcements to investigate a position north of our line of march. Intelligence reported that there was an enemy formation in the vicinity. I am happy to report that by force of Italian arms, we have repulsed the enemy armor and shattered their infantry.

Our scouting forces consisted of a Company of Infantry supplemented by two machinegun teams and a battery of anti-tank guns.

Below is an aerial reconnaissance photo of the battlefield looking down from the Soviet side of the field.

With a patch of woods in the center the Italian half of the table was dominated by a ridge that ran from left to right. On the Italian right was a stream that ran across the table. There were two muddy dirt tracks that crossed the stream - one on either side of the area. On the Italian left was a stand of woods that would be occupied by the Soviets for the entire game.

The Italians took the field sending out small scouting teams on either flank (dummy blinds). The infantry was dispersed across the line with the Anti-tank guns on the center right. The anti-tank guns were to establish a position on top of the ridge line with an excellent view of much of the battlefield. While in most cases Caporale Andretti was a magnificent driver, he had some difficulties with the snowy terrain. Upon cresting the ridge he encountered difficulties stopping and ended up at the base of the ridge on the far side. (I forgot to declare that he would stop at the ridge before I rolled and achieved one of the best movement rolls I have ever had. Lesson Learned.)

Upon reaching the bottom of the hill, the anti-tank guns were immediately spotted by Soviet units.

The Soviets began to move and we noticed that they concentrated their efforts on the Italian Left which was substantially weaker than broader line that the Italians had chosen to deploy on. Our forces spotted some tanks almost immediately.

Immediately behind the tanks were more units but we could not clearly make them out due to the snow and debris kicked up by the Soviet tanks. Fortunately these were only the T-37 tanks and not the T-34 monstrosities that we were warned about in Romania.

What concerned us more was the deployment of troops in the woods nearest the run away anti tank guns. The Vehicles immediately came under fire. Fortunately the fire was none too accurate.

The primary concern was to not loose the anti-tank guns with Soviet armor close at hand. Our third platoon was spotted by the Soviets and began to received some unwanted attention.

We positioned the Forward Observer on top of the hill.

In record time he had provided some relief to our troops and called the most accurate mortar barrage on top of the soviet armor with pinpoint accuracy. (In all of the games that I have played IABSM I have never gotten such a lucky run of cards that allowed me to call in artillery where it was needed and when it was needed and hit the target on the first try. A miracle I tell you.)

The barrage had little effect on the Soviet armor but whatever it was that was behind the Soviet armor disappeared in the explosions. (I would find out later that the Soviet Forward observer was in the blind that was in the target zone and perished in the barrage.)

The T-37 proved to be far more menacing than we initially believed. The fast tanks made the most of their mobility and were largely able to emerge from the barrage unscathed. The first platoon of Italian Infantry was spotted by the Soviets as they sent the T-37s to turn the Italian flank. The exposed third platoon was able to run for cover of a gully near the woods and managed to avoid any casualties.

With the First platoon taking the focus of the T-37s now that the 3rd platoon found cover, the first Italian casualties are taken. The Sottotenente leading first platoon took a mortal wound leading his brave men out from the hail of Soviet machinegun fire. (I needed anything above a 1 on a d10 and I roll a 1. It figures.) The only thing slowing the Soviets was mechanical failures. (They failed several vehicle breakdown checks throughout the game.) If the tank platoon had managed to stay together, the Italian position would have been much worse.

To ensure that 1st Platoon made its way safe, the attached machine gun team stayed behind and engaged the tanks in a furious duel. Meanwhile more soviet troops deployed on the Italian left.

The platoon leader of 3rd platoon saw a glorious opportunity. He inched his way forward along the ravine and with a cry of Avanti Savoia, charged into the recently deployed Soviet troops. Killing a large number of the enemy, including the Commissar that was attached to the unit, the 3rd platoon completely broke the Soviet platoon, sending the few remnants scattered to the winds. The toll on the Italians was heavy as well and left the Italian platoon isolated from relief. Third platoon found itself isolated and cut off. With a shout of "Uhraaaah" the Soviets ran from the woods and assaulted the tired 3rd platoon. In a fight that left many of the enemy dead, the young sottotenente surrendered the remnants of his command to preserve his young soldiers lives.

As can be seen in this reconnaissance photograph, our men being taken into captivity. This did relieve the pressure on the Anti-Tank gun teams as these were the troops that had been firing on them as they slowly turned around to head back up the ridge. Meanwhile, the isolated machine gun team kept up its duel with several of the enemy tanks. The forward observer attempted to contact the mortar battery to adjust the fire but to no avail. The machine gun team actually stalled the tanks for quite a while until one of the tankers in a last ditch effort charged the machine gun and ran the team to ground.

The team's heroic efforts provided the time needed to get the anti-tank guns in position to drive off the Soviet armor. Revenge was had on the tank that crushed the machine gun team when after three shots, the team finally managed to place a direct hit on the attacking tank.

This picture was taken by one of our combat photographers attached to the anti-tank gun crew. The company headquarters was able to link up with the first platoon and reestablish order since the loss of their platoon leader. Under my direction, the remaining machinegun team, the headquarters team and the first platoon moved through the woods to launch an assault on the remnants of the Soviet infantry.

The Soviets in the open were down to two reduced squads. With great difficulty, the Italians moved through the woods to launch their attack. Movement proved nearly impossible for most of the troops and only the machine gun team was able to get into position to fire upon the Soviet infantry. The machine gunners managed to fire a few shots and caused one casualty before the Soviets began to flee in terror from our forces. (OK, it was really an orderly withdrawal but hey, this is my account. Doug can write his own. :) )

The Italians did not have everything their own way however. The Soviet tanks had moved rapidly to a covering position and began to fire into the woods and drove back the machine gun team to allow the Soviets to escape. (The fast tanks were just that - fast. Doug did a great job keeping these tanks moving and in action. They were a real thorn in my side.)

Our Forward Observer spotted a concentration of enemy infantry in a tree line across the map. He began to adjust his targeting to bring the mortar battery to bear on these troop.

End Notes:
At this point the game ended. The Soviet player (Doug) had to leave. The game did not play out as it did in my play testing at all. However, it was great fun. The Soviets were hard to control as they were poor troops and poorly lead. A full platoon remained in the woods the whole game and never fired a shot as did a machine gun platoon. The Italians were in better shape leadership wise. At this point, I think the Italians had taken the field. The mortars would have started coming down near the woods where the infantry was and they would have been forced to pull out. The Italians lost an entire infantry platoon and one machine gun team. Plus they lost the officer to first platoon. The Soviets had two badly mauled infantry platoons. The Italians won but it was a costly victory and close to a draw.

The game was great fun as always and Mark did an incredible job with the terrain. Thanks Mark. The scenario was "An Unexpected Encounter" from Campaign 4 scenario 1 of In the Name of Roma. For more information on the supplement, please check out my blog: http://cstoesen.blogspot.com/.

Outflanked - An IABSM3 Scenario: Greece 1941 - Part 2

We last left off with the British tanks in the center of the table getting increasingly in trouble. A blind of British infantry were spotted and immediately fled to a ditch nearby for cover as they had several Panzer IIIs nearby.

The headquarters of the platoon was unfortunate and was not able to reach the cover of the ditch. The HQ of the platoon was beaten to a pulp by repeated machine gunnings from the tanks in the area. Their Boys AT Rifle was completely ineffective at stopping the Panzer IIIs. Meanwhile, in the village, a traffic jam was developing. The British sent two platoons of Mark IV tanks into the town. All were the C model equipped with machine guns.

This led to a point blank tank fight between a Panzer I, a Panzer II and several (6) Mark IVC tanks. It was an ugly fight with little real damage being dealt other than immobilizations all around.

The tanks kept piling into the town. Eventually we had two CS tanks join the Mark IVCs and behind them was a command vehicle with a tank ace. Interestingly, this vehicle had some real potential to cause damage but he spent his time leading rather than fighting. In an attempt to break up the near stalemate in the town, I deployed an infantry platoon in the back of the village. They promptly drew the attention of the CS tanks who fired on the house causing some mild shock.

Now, the cards had not been unkind to me. I had some excellent early movement and all of my deployed t

roops were routinely coming up. But the blind card (which was controlling my reinforcement arrival) was not coming up. I had several blinds that were just idle.

At this point I utilized the Skelton Gambit and deployed all of my on table blinds to get their cards in the deck.

This proved to be a good strategy as my tank company HQ was immediately in action the next turn. Now my tank commander was not an ace but he sure did act like it. He chose to fire and fire often instead of wasting his time activating troops. Turns out, he was an excellent shot.

This company commander would take a shot on a badly obscured target and I got some extremely lucky die rolls to cook a British tank, much to that player's chagrin. Admittedly, that shot was borderline gamey but not out of the realm of possibility. Back to the poor bloody British infantry. They continued to take a pounding. One of the surviving British tanks managed to kill a Panzer III. In spite of loosing a tank, the Panzer IIIs poured fire on the troops in the ditch and slowly mounted some shock on them.

Now the German infantry was not completely idle. Since firing from the buildings was not working, the infantry - one squad after another, began close assaulting the British tanks. In the process they managed to knock out two tanks of the eight in the traffic jam. This was likely an unrealistic attempt as the infantry began to take hideous casualties shortly there after. The picture below actually captures the swarm covering up two of the tanks quite nicely. And quite deservedly so, I might add. No wonder my little lead guys won't talk to me after a game.

While the RAF was truly "Rarer than Fairies" in the Greek Campaign for the troops, the Luftwaffe proved the same in this game. Their card came up very early in the game and they promptly missed their targets all together. The second time their card came up, nothing came of it either. But this was a cool picture that we can blame on them.

By now, the Second German Tank Platoon was able to recover some of their shock and began to advance down hill to dispatch the infantry in the ditch. The moved well on their way towards that goal.

The German Infantry Headquarters attempted to move to a vantage point where they could overlook the town and aid the heavily engaged tanks.

The German Tank Company Headquarters began to flank the town to finish off the remaining tanks in the town. It was at this point, I ran out of time. The British were able to delay the German advance but not enough to really claim a win. The Germans held the town but were heavily engaged. Both the British and Germans had more reinforcements that had not arrived on table yet. At best, I can claim this as a minor German win. I made several tactical mistakes but did not pay for them nearly as dearly as I should have.

Bottom line, this game was great fun and I wish I could have stayed to play it out to its conclusion. Thanks again Mark!

Outflanked - An IABSM3 Scenario: Greece 1941 - Part 1

What a week this has been for me. I have painted a little bit every night and got in a game of IABSM3 today. Mark hosted a game out of my Greek Supplement - Scenario 5: Outflanked. I had the chance to play the Germans while Brian played the British. It was great fun. I also happened to roll better than I have ever rolled in my life. That made up for some of my poor tactics.

The shop that the game was in was dominated by flying space orcs and the like on the various tables. The table next to us had a giant walking robot thing that dominated the table. The table itself had little other terrain. Nearly wall to wall toys.

Mark was able to once again create a beautiful table. It really gave the feel of the village that the scenario was trying to convey. Here are a couple of shots of the table from my cell phone.

and

The scenario started out with the Germans racing up the road to the village. The Germans were able to reach the town first and held it throughout the game. It was a large scenario and the fight for the town would prove to be very bloody.

The Germans also managed to dominate a small rise just to the right of the village. From there, the German 2nd Tank Platoon deployed in a hull down formation and was able to spot and then destroy several British tanks. However, the deployment proved to be foolish as the tanks were far too close together. When the British returned fire, several other tanks took shock from the explosion of their fellows.

The British advanced in a large column up the road toward the village. Since the Germans already occupied the village, they had the drop on the British column. The first blind was a fake and the second was a 25pdr gun on its limber. The gun and its truck beat a hasty retreat and their card never turned up for the rest of the game. The cards were there, just never drawn. In the background of the next picture, you can see more burning British tanks. Two platoons of British tanks attempted to move up the middle of the table off road. The tough going slowed them down and make them nice targets for the tanks of the German 1st and 2nd platoons.

Did I mention, I love how Mark's terrain looks.

After the British gun ran away from the German tanks in the village, it was a turn or two before the village was again challenged.

But that was not to last too long. Brian began to move a platoon up the road to challenge the defenders of the town. Meanwhile in the field, one British tank was abandoned, one destroyed and another immobilized. The second platoon also started to take damage and I think had also lost a tank by this point.

To be continued.....