Bringing out the BIG guns!!

 So this post shows some of my work as I trundle along the wargaming path in my mission to paint the random "When the hell did I buy that/them/whole army!!??" projects that I find in long unopened boxes and draws. Two of these boxes contained some Perry's British 9lb artillery pieces and crew, some British casualties and two random Perry plastic sprues of U.S infantry '44-45 containing enough parts to make a 0.30cal machine team and extra crew.

So first up is the artillery. Both are 9lb cannons, one with a firing crew and one loading. They are in the later uniform and due to this are going to be forced in to double duty in my Peninsular force (1811) as well as my Waterloo force (1815). I can't see myself paying another £20 just for a few crew figures for the 1811 period.

Next up I have a few figures I hope don't see the table too often!

Finally we have the remaining 0.30cal machine gun to round out my "Chain of Command" platoon

So that finishes this post and finally finishes some projects. Both my "Sharp Practice" and "Chain of Command" forces are both now finished and ready to game with (though the thought of any project being 100% complete is, in reality, not possible is it?).

This weeks painting is taking the form of some dark ages figures I have re-found and some fantasy chaos warriors that I think I bought on eBay with "Dragon Rampant" in mind. I think all these figures can be amalgamated into one force and do double duty in several rules sets. Added to all this I found some oil paints in the garage, this has led to me messing about with oil washes, so hopefully on my next post we'll see those results.

Additions for my U.S Army platoon ('44-45)

 So this blog post contains several additions for my U.S infantry platoon that I've been playing games of The Too Fat Lardies "Chain of Command". As with the rest of the figures in the platoon these are all Perry Miniatures plastics, from their multi part kit and go together rather well, look rather nice and most importantly are nice and cheap! The kit comes with most options you'd find in the standard infantry platoon, bazookas, 0.30cal machine guns, BAR's, Thompson sub-machine guns, and a good mix of carbines and rifles are all present. 

This should really help bulk out my support units for the platoon. On the paint desk I have a 0.30cal MG and that should add some much needed firepower to the force and that should finish the infantry off. The only question left now is "How many Sherman tanks is too many?!"

A daring rescue mission for Sergeant White's platoon

On the night of the 13th of August 1944 Sergeant White has been issued with the following communications -

The game was played with the "Chain of Command" rules using 28mm figures from Perry miniatures and Warlord Games. 

Ian took control of the Americans, while Norman commanded the German defense. The patrol phase had the Americans hugging the left hand side of the board, while the Germans were spread equally across the board. We had a few rules added for this scenario -

Special Rules

Line of sight is limited to 12 inches for the first turn, from turn 2 onward the sun has risen and Line of sight reverts to normal distances.

The Sherman can only be deployed from turn 2 onward.

No High Explosive fire from the Sherman is to be used against the house.

Assaults on the house are allowed, as is the use of grenades. The captives are being held in the cellar and should be safe from any assault.

Victory conditions for the United States are either retrieval of the captives and bringing them to safety OR forcing the German forces from the board. Any other results will be a German victory.

It shouldn’t need saying but the captives aren’t to be shot, anyone asking will receive a -1 to their force morale.

A few pictures of the action.

It was a hard slog for the Americans with them struggling to find a point of attack to press, this coupled with a handful of double turns for the Germans meant the left hand flank of the Americans was destroyed in three phases and the destruction of the U.S armour reduced the Americans to 2 force moral points at which point the Americans withdrew to regroup for a second attack.