World War II 15mm WIP: Back to Basics...

I've been doing alot of crazy stuff lately.  Painting orcs and building gaming tables and what not.  I thought since the Nappy progress and ACW progress was winding down (at least for now) I would start up some brand new WWII units - these of a more elite flavor.

Enter the US Airborne, British Paras, and Soviet SMG gunners!  All 15mm, all are Old Glory or Battlefront, and all will be joining their 15mm compatriots during GHQ and BKC games.  Huzzah!

All are still in progress and have a few days to go.  I thought I could switch between WWII and AWI projects each day.

still need to add camo to their smocks and detail their webbing.

the old glory guys have alot of pizzazz...

The faces look like the guys from  the"Band of Brothers" miniseries.

painting mini US flags was a pain. 

Very happy with how they are turning out though and will have a Battalion of them soon enough.

Soviet SMG Gunners.  Need a few more details and they'll be good to go!

Surprise!  Pennsylvania Militia Man in 15mm AWI.

World War III Disposable Heroes (SOCWAD) Action: END GAME

Fought the remaining turns of a sharp and brutal modern DH game set in a fictional WWIII in Northern Germany.  British conducting an infantry probe against a small town held by Soviet paratroopers.  Ostensibly this small town is part of a larger defensive scheme and the British are sending reserve forces forward to gauge the enemy's strength.

This post covers the remaining 7 turns of the game.  LOTS of pictures!

Brit weapons team sets up position at the south end of the land while the scimitar moves forward

DPM Camo looks good on this guy!  What a pain to paint but worth it.

Soviet team on the road

The Soviet squad fans out in the rubble.

"lucky" RPG 16 shot kills the Scimitar and crew.

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 The game progressed as expected.  Both sides were relatively understrength so there were no sweeping advances to be made without fear of large casualties.  The British cautiously advanced while the Soviets put up a stiff resistance.

The luckiest toy soldier in the world.  Hit by the Soviet Sniper with the Dragunov and PASSES the AP test!  He lives on through the game.  Perhaps I'll retire this figure?

Soviet sniper. 

British team from 1st Squad advances up the side of the farm field.

 The British made slow advances and were turned back by Sov Airborne squads at each point, but with great cost to the Soviets.  The GPMG really took its toll on the Soviet teams.

You can see the British advancing up the left side and against the hedgerow in the upper right of the pic

a sharp firefight broke out between the brits at the hedgerow and the sovs in the rubble with the sovs eventually forcing the brits back but at the loss of an entire team.  

British team mixing it up at the base of the rubble.  There was a bren keeping the Russkie's heads down

pinned and eventually wiped out

lots of activation and pinned markers

minimi posing as a bren today.  The A team keeping the red's heads down.

meanwhile on the British left flank...Soviets form up for a counterattack against the team moving along the fenceline.  The GPMG's beaten zone didn't extend into the woods!  No cover fire!

lots of Dead Russians around the rubble now

and on the road...

casualties mounting - they would eventually fail all their morale checks and rout.

firefight continues as the British Platoon Leader decides he'd had enough and pulls back

gotta love that sterling!

Scimitar still burning

british marshalling up at the rally point

final dispositions

LESSONS LEARNED

Well by this time you're anxious to be done with this blog post!  So I'll cut to the chase.

Support by Fire: Remember to have mutually supporting fireteams.  When one moves, the other one can cover it.  In this instance, teams from the squad on the left were not able to cover their moving teams, leaving those guys out in the cold without any lead to cover their advance.  Not a good thing...

Stay in Command Radius:  This is much harder on the defensive when you're covering more positions.  The Soviet squads were moving out of command radius making it too expensive to activate each team each turn.  This left a team stranded on an open road and they were constantly getting chewed up by GPMG fire until it was too late.  The only one routing into cover was the squad leader.

All in all a great time.  The "big" war between NATO and the USSR never happened obviously, but it makes for great gaming material.  This game was a great time and a good opportunity to fine tune my Seek Out, Close With, and Destroy rules supplement.  I could have played with jamming and artillery but that's not fun in a small battle.  Next I'd like to play a huge World War II battle with my Northeastern Europe forces, armor and maybe even airpower.  Also have my Vietnam forces to play with and can include airpower and helos.  Cant wait.

Disposable Heroes WW III Modern Fight (SOCWAD) TURN ONE

Played the first turn of a pretty sweet Disposable Heroes (seek out, close with and destroy) World War III Scenario pitting a modern (mid 80s) British platoon against a Soviet Airborne platoon.  The British platoon is conducting a "zone recon" against approaches to Hameln to counter attack the Weser Bridge crossing.  This is the first game in a series to re-take the Weser crossing from the Soviet airborne.

Soviet airborne troops on patrol...

Scimitar moves at slow down the lane and scans for targets.

Got to use my snazzy IronIvan DH markers!!  The scimitar acquires a team of scouts but the Rarden only achieves a pin.

Soviet scouts fail their first MC...

RPG-16 gunner takes aim at the Scimitar....and misses!!  

Soviet commander awaits the Brits.

British open fire on the Airborne scouts!!

Soviet squad leader points out the direction of the enemy

The British Bren and SLR fire starts to get some hits

First shots see the Scimitar crew pin down the Soviet scouts and the British fireteam finishing the job by knocking out a scout.  Oddly, they fail their morale check from the Scimitar's fire but PASS the check from the small arms even after taking a KIA.  What was it Winston Churchill said about the Russians??

RPG 16 gunner hoping for another shot

The RPG-16, I was hoping, was going to knock out the Scimitar but only serves to piss off the Brits.  The rest of turn one is alot of maneuver.  Most of the Airborne troops scurry into better firing positions and defensive positions while the British approach.  The Brits are moving up into their attack positions.  The British have GPMGs and alot of firepower to bring to bear.  The Soviets have the manpower.

meanwhile another British team moves up to take firing positions

British scan for targets

The rest of turn 1 ended pretty quietly as teams stealthily move into position and that's a wrap for this round!
Gotta love Disposable Heroes.  Another of my "old, worn shoe" rules that fit well, feel right and deliver a cracking good time.  Next post will be the next few turns as the British attempt to move up and seize the post office building.  Huzzah!