Open Fire session, FOW bat rep

Our Monday night games club sometimes gets an influx of members, last night was one of them. Because we had planned on FOW we split up into two groups and were forced into using some unpainted miniatures. Chris and I drew the short straw and played a game on a makeshift table with our semi painted Open Fire troops. I played the Germans Grenadiers with two grenadier platoons, three StuGs, and two PaK40s. Chris Played the Brits armoured company, with two platoons of Shermans and a firefly and an american paratrooper force. Because I had lent my camera to Chris' wife the pics are shoddy coming of a Huawei android phone.

We were playing free for all and the set up looked something like this:

Here it is, the grand set up. As WWII photos where black and white
I imagine they grew their grass with similar colour scheme.

The game started with Chris advancing his tanks and troops. Unfortunately he boldly sent one of his tank platoons out in the open, unsuspecting of the impact a few StuGs would have on his Shermans. On my turn I dug in my troops in the trees to keep my objective safe, shot the Americans who moved at the double with my PaKs taking out a team, and best of all... I moved my StuGs through the trees, one bogged down but I the other two, at half rate of fire hit two of his shermans, one bailed and other destroyed. After all this fuss the Brits were a bit unsettled and failed their motivation! Nice.

StuGs showing the Brits how its done. 

Chris was crestfallen, however he carried on (not the person to storm off in a fit of rage).  His turn two consisted of him moving his other Shermans and command shermans into cover as he learn't his lesson, don't put your tanks out in the open! He also moved his paratroopers behind a fence in bullet proof cover. If I remember rightly he managed to shoot one of my grenadier teams this round. Now my turn two, I moved into a building just opposite Chris' paratroopers, did some unsuccessful shooting with my troops and StuGs but pinned down his Americans! Now the question was should I assault, of course! So my troops made a bold move forgetting about his tanks nearby! Oh no, they got shot to pieces, having to fall back before making to the americans and a couple of teams lost, my 2IC sitting out in the open!

After the assault. Things looking more bleak. 

The next turn Chris took some pot shots at me, killing my troops out in the open and kept on trying to destroy my pesky StuGs who were straddling the area terrain for concealment. No success. Being cautious chris kept his tanks and troops in cover just across the road from my grenadiers. My turn involved me leaving my other platoon in the trees they started in and my PaK40s. I probably should have done something with them but was worried about his tanks. Well I shouldn't have because my StuGs managed to destroy his last tank platoon! Whoopee, just his command and Americans left.

Chris next turn was a bit hazy but I recall him leaving his Americans safety in cover and cautiously moving his command tanks into some area terrain. I then moved my StuGs up, one bogging down again and took some shots at his command, destroying his 2IC. Then I moved my grenadiers on the left at the double to try get to his objective!

Then Chris made a bold move and assaulted my StuGs from behind, unable to shoot at him I lost two Stugs as I failed to motivate for counter assault and one was bailed out from some bazooka fire during Chris' shooting phase. Luckily my last one passed their moral check. During my turn my Grenadiers moved up close enough to contest the objective leaving his 2IC the only one to defend this. However I managed to shoot him down and victory was mine!

Contesting the objective. 

All in all a fun game, more so for me than Chris admittedly. However a learning experience. I feel we are getting more of a handle on the rules, although still having to consult the rule book every round for this and that. Assault rules seem the hardest to handle. We both learn't some lessons, Chris more than me, like don't advance your tanks out in the open Chris! Also I shouldn't have put my StuGs in a position to be assaulted from behind and perhaps tried to get the objective earlier.

From the sounds of things Dan lost his game next door to a failed stormtrooper role. I have been painting up my American 2nd (or 3rd) armoured devision. Photos to come in the next couple of days.

Guess Who? Stugs and Star Wars.

Finally throughout a few busy weeks I have managed to fit in the time to finish my Open Fire StuG G anti-tank guns. Without further to do here they are:

I don't have any terrain at my house so they are being displayed on my quilt

The Lieutenant with his red and blue corded headphones. 

The fabled StuG with the graphite Geboren Um Zu Toten
translated as "Born To Kill"

I thought I would have a bit of fun with my graffitied stug, it also happened to be the first one I painted. I looked at about four different translators to try and get the most accurate translation. I ended up using this website http://imtranslator.net/compare/ which compared four of the most common translators so I could pick the most common translation. Every translator except babylon had Geboren Um Zu Toten. 

You may have also noted, if you have been following the blog that these stugs have seen some action, not quite completed. Check out the session reports here and here. 

I think I overdid the camo on top of the tanks, not leaving enough khaki brown to brave the world. I also did the same cargo on two of the tanks... oops. I think when I get some more tanks to paint up I will try out some different camo patterns and techniques. I used the stippling technique for these tanks. 

Same baggage, at least they are painted slightly different. 

Eagle eye view

So there you go, the StuG Gs from the Open Fire box set. Pretty neat! 

In other news, I was away in Napier over the weekend and scored Star Wars Guess Who! OK its not that exciting and doesn't warrant its own post so I have tacked it on this one. However I think it will be a bit of fun to play with some younger gamers... Err quite young as I think, as much as I enjoyed Guess Who, I grew out of it around 8-10 and Risk became a fast favourite.  Here is a shot of one of the boards:

Pity its has the new trilogy characters, especially Jar Jar Binks *shudder*,
although Natalie Portman is hot ;)
(I had a high school crush on her, mainly because of Garden State)

Stugs ridding into the night (or ridding into the quilt)

FOW Open Fire construction mistakes

A week out from purchasing Flames of War Open Fire I have began painting and finished six pak40 solders (this may be slow but not to bad for me). However I have also noticed some of the mistakes I made while constructing. I guess mistakes are part of the fun right? Yet I am sure if anyone purchases any of these models or Open Fire they could learn from my mistakes. Perhaps the best way to do this would be to read the instructions before construction! No more Captain skim reading.

Mistake One

Perhaps this isn't a big issue, yet when I stuck my solders to popsicle sticks for easy painting, I stuck them on with super glue. This means I now have to use a hobby knife to detach them. So far the hobby knife has been OK however I do risk damaging the nicely painted models.

How about blue-tak not superglue. 

Next time I will use blue-tak.


Mistake Two

I glued the StuG G machine gun on wrong. The best way to show you this is with a photo.

Machine gun sitting forward

I glued the machine gun to far forward in the little slot where it goes. It is supposed to sit back in. Sadly the glue is to strong and the piece to little to want to risk snapping it while trying to relocate it back into place. I think it will look OK in the end but I hope fanatics won't criticise these if we ever get along to a tournament or such like.

Leasons learnt. 

1. Don't skim read the instructions
2. Use blue-tak
3. Watch where you are glueing things. 

Anyway I thought I would put up a couple of photos of some of the painted guys. I am pretty new to painting so they are not 100% great and they are the first 15mm guys I have painted. Luckily I don't think they look to bad. 

On lookout

I thought I would make the shells red
with white stripes for a bit of intrigue

I like this guy but I can't quite work out what his right hand is doing

More on the Open Fire box set here. 

Flames of War Open Fire - Germans

We had our first games club excursion yesterday to our FLGS, The Hobby Stop. Chris and I decided to  get some of our own FOW troops so acquired a copy of Open Fire a large box set containing a lot of stuff for just $95NZD.

Box art

The box has British tanks and American paratroopers which Chris claimed and I took the Germans which we will have a look into soon. It also came with the rule book, easy rules, some cardboard landscape. We haven't quite worked out how to split that yet.

Germans

The German infantary company comes with three platoons of infantry  If you are using the suggested company there is; one Grendierkompanie HQ which has two command panzerfaust SMG teams and a panzershreck team; Two Grenadier plattons with six rifle/MG teams (or three squads) and a command panzerfaust SMG team each. I am a bit disappointed as I lost one of the command SMG teams officer models.

Here they are on my 'tidy' painting desk

It also came with two PaK40 guns with a HQ section and 3 StuGs making up a Panzer Platoon.

The PaK40 guns were hard to assemble due to
very small parts so took a minor beating during assembling

The Command StuG G tank, I hope I got the right guy. 

The set is pretty cool and a good way to start off a Flames of War collection... I hope. My only complaint would be the American and German infantry were on the same trays without any order at times so it took a little time to work out who was who when cutting them out.

It also came with a random V1 flying bomb which looks like it will be a neat objective. Although I could swear there was a photo on the FOW website which had a (mad) scientist model standing next to it in a lab coat. There were no mad scientists to be found in the box.

The V1 flying bomb.

I am looking forward to painting these guys up and taking them for a spin on the table. I will keep the blog updated.