Arc of Fire miniatures game

 Played a playtest round of Arc of Fire with the South Africans versus the Angolans in the eighties.

My South African forces.  90mm armed wheeled vehicles with light armor, 20mm armed autocannon ones, and a spotter truck.

The game table (lots and lots of trees!).

My South Africans (in blue) spot the Angolans and take out two T55 tanks straight away (lucky rolls).

Another T55 taken out and more spotted further back.

Lots of destroyed vehicles (mostly Angolans).  A few South African 90mm armed vehicles lost as well but lousy shooting (and crews) for the Angolans makes it a lopsided fight.

I forget what was happening here...

Angolan infantry being mopped up by South African infantry.  Almost all of the Angolan vehicles are destroyed.

End of game.  South African arty was chewing up the Angolan infantry till it tried to switch targets and then it just kept going way off target.

Miniatures "Modern" gaming

 Got in a playtest game of Arc of Fire featuring a scenario from the book itself.  Fun to play with "modern" toys (scenario set in the eighties - which is now as far back in time as WWII was when I started gaming...)

The board layout.  The Angolans and Cubans come in from the left and have to exit off to the right.

Same board from the other perspective.

End of turn 1.  The Cuban scouts get knocked around by a missile (lucky considering).  A scout car is out in the front of this group - can't spot nuttin though!

End of turn 2 or 3.  More Angolan forces come on.  The South African missile launcher was found and taken out.

A couple turns later and the missile launcher was not taken out - it took out a T55 and then was destroyed.  the other T55 failed a MC and got neutralized for a turn.

Continuing to move up to the stream when a barrage starts coming down.

Game Over man!  Game over. 
My forces are spotted by a 90mm armed vehicle that takes out the PT-76s one by one and then my scout car.  THEN the arty falls.  The game ends pretty much historically with my Angolans getting smacked around.

A closer view of the 90mm armed vehicles.  I think the name was ratele.

This is once again at John's house and as you see he has a nice large spot for laying out a map and a nice layout to go along with it.  

Arc of Fire game 2

 Played another round of Arc of Fire.  This time with recon forces.  A German Puma and other Armored Cars with an infantry platoon versus American Greyhounds and Stuart tanks also with an infantry platoon along.

The Germans block the road so the US go off to the right (for the most part).

A close up of that.

The situation after the Germans move to the right as well.  The two ACs that were on the road went forward.  One is next to the destroyed Stuart and the other is just to the right of that.

Another shot of the action.

I think this was end of game.  The Germans moved forward after shooting up some US jeeps and ACs moving across the road.  German infantry had been eliminated but US losses were high.

John's Napoleonics.

More of them,

And a few more.

Barkman's Corner done in Arc of Fire

John hosted a game of Arc of Fire for my son and I today.  Fun game.  My son took the Germans and I got the Americans.  

The setup.  The US enters at the bottom and need to exit off the top.  The Germans setup somewhere near the top.  The first group I encountered were at the middle hedgerow and I am fairly certain the Panther was at the crossroads.

The Panther makes itself known by knocking out two tanks.  The rest of the US forces get bunched up on the table entry.  3rd platoon makes the fastest headway going off toe the right.

3rd platoon moves up and just about now an over-eager Jerry fires off a faust and misses due to being just out of range.  2nd platoon gets bogged and fails morale check after morale check.

3rd platoon pasted the German squad that fired on it and then moved into the hedgerow, only to be nailed with a faust (this time taking out a sherman) from the next hedgerow.  Return fire from the remaining two shermans kills off the second German squad.  Then another unit kills another sherman and the remaining one made a run for it.  On the right the 76mm armed platoon also take a bunch of time getting through the bocage and the mud on the right.

The action moved to the right flank.  The Germans got tired of waiting and moved the Panther up.  The US fired on smoke shell which did just about nothing since everyone made spotting rolls through it and fired like crazy.  The Panther hit the US tank in the front but did not manage to kill it outright - merely making the crew bail out.

The US get the next few activations and manage to roll a 10 (out of 10) three times in a for three solid hits on the Panther, knocking it out.  At that the game is called for the US, they still had not run into the Pak-40 but could have skirted around it when it was found.

A close up shot of the knocked out panther and the losses from the us 3rd platoon.

Fireball Forward: Darkness Before the Dawn

 Got in a Face to Face game of Fireball Forward at the Dragon's Lair game store in Fort Myers.  An old standby scenario my son and I have played a few times before.  It is good one so almost certainly will play again.

The setup.  The German Panthers come on at the road at the bottom.  The German infantry within 6" of the road.  Points are scored for controlling the buildings, destroying Panthers, or getting Panthers off the board.

End of turn 1 (of 5).  The Germans come on with Infantry to scout ahead.  A few Americans are spotted.  Nobody is harmed in the first batch of fire.  

End of Turn 2.  Germans move up into position, still nobody is hurt even with many more units opening fire.

End of Turn 3.  The Americans get crushed by fire this turn and the Germans hardly hurt.  The first building is cleared out and a rampaging Panther finishes off some routed US squads by overrun (top right just beyond the building).  Further to the right a Panther is destroyed by an M10.  To the left of the building two M10s are destroyed with no loss to the Germans in a shootout over there.

End of turn 4 and the game.  The remaining US infantry on the left break and run.  A Panther is shocked by a hit from an M10 while the other Panthers move up on the US infantry to clear out the building.
On the Right 3 M10s and 2 Panthers trade a bunch of shots.  The Panthers miss and the M10 rounds bounce off the front armor of the panthers even at close range.  The one M10 that probably could have killed a Panther (since it was at point blank) missed it's shot.

Ending result was a German win.  A lot of lucky results on firing in the third turn along with almost all the M10 shots being no effect sealed the game.  Could easily have gone the other way.

Fireball Forward; Find the English! (and boy were they found...)

 Played a round of Fireball Forward with John at Dragon's Lair.  My Brits got stomped!  The Brits had arty but rolled a 3 (second to worst result) and a 4 (third worst result) for each attempt - having no effect on the Germans.  The German arty rolled an 11 and a 12 and an 11.  The best and then 2 second best results, leaving the majority of my armor broken from failed morale checks or destroyed from two failed morale checks.  The only breaks the Brits got were the German 50mm guns all breaking and the 88mm gun being destroyed before it could shoot.

End of turn 1.  A couple of Honeys have already been taken out at long range by fast moving Panzer IIH tanks.

End of turn 2 and things are only getting worse for the Brits.

Fireball Forward, Operation Crusader: Counter Reconnaissance Encounter

 My first FTF game in year (Thanks Danny!).  Also my first time getting the miniatures out in an even longer time.  The Counter Recon Encounter scenario from the Operation Crusader scenario book.  A good clean intro to the Desert and back into Fireball Forward.

First turn of the game.  The UK rushes onto the board.  The Germans did not fire so no losses were taken.  The UK spots the Germans in the depression to the left.  They fired upon them but due to range they miss with all shots.

End of turn 4.  The German PzJgr 1 AT vehicles were taken out by Arty when I used the initiative to call in back to back arty.  That plus forgetting the +1 to the morale check for an open top vehicle.  Though I think one of them still would have been eliminated and the other broken.  This left the table pretty much open for the Crusaders.
The red markers are destroyed vehicles and the black are those out of ammo.

End of turn 5 and game called. Due to the Arty wiping out the PzJgr vehicles the Crusaders cleaned up.  The Germans were down to 1 operational vehicle at the end of the turn and 1 with no ammo.

Fireball Forward: Stiffening Resistance

 Played this one today with Jeff and my son.  The Brits did not get to the VC conditions in time (mainly due to my messing up the vehicle terrain crossings with hills not applying).  Germans were doing great till turn 4 when the Brits took out half of their force).

Overview at game end.  The Brits needed to get the two buildings at the bottom on the picture and needed another turn just to reach them.  The tank on the left could have made it off the board but would have needed to use an initiative chit to do so (they brits had one chit left and no chance to get more).

A closeup of the advancing British Sherman V tanks and a piat team (the team had taken out the Burning German Halftrack near the top left of the picture).

Fireball Forward: The Crossroads. From Panzer Lehr at Saint Lo

Reffed this one with a new friend and my son.  Jeff (new guy) took the US and Jordan (My son) took the Germans.  A six turn fight over a crossroads in Normandy.

The Germans enter from the bottom and the US setup behind the line.  I made a mistake and the US roll of a 1 on the setup only allowed a single unit to setup south of the topmost hedgerow.  It would make a big difference.  Also forgetting that moving off a road required a bog check.

The Germans throw in the towel on turn 3.  The first US shot at a PZIV is a crit and kills the tank.  The unit morale makes the survivor run off the board.  The next shot is another crit and kills another German tank.  The remaining German tank managed to kill that Sherman (the exchange of shots shown) but then failed it's unit morale check for having lost a tank.  The US passed their check so at this point the Germans were down 4 tanks (one broken tank left) while the US were down a single tank with 9 left.  Points wise it was over.  If the hits had not been crits or if they had missed it may have ended differently but the odds are with the US in this one.  It also does not help that the stats on the PZIV are different between the 2nd edition rules, this module, and the latest unit charts.  The latest unit charts probably would have given the PZIV an edge since they had more armor and might have stopped another hit.  The M4s also had another point of armor too though.

Fireball Forward: Operation Crusader scenario 1

 Played the Counter Recon Encounter scenario from the Operation Crusader scenario book with my son today.  It was partly a test of using Tabletop Simulator to play Fireball Forward.  The test worked great.  Hidden units work as well as measuring and dice rolls.  Going to start playing it more and hope to get more involved in it as well.

The Brits won this one handily due to very effective Arty (Germans had to spread out more!).  I will be giving it another go sometime but there are many other scenarios to try first.

Fireball Forward: Darkness Before the Dawn continues

We continued the Fireball Forward game on Tabletop Simulator and managed to finish up one and a half turns (turn 2 and half of turn 3).  All pictures are from the end of the game session.

Overview of the action.   The smoke markers are killed tanks.  

A close up view of the end of session carnage.  The US used an initiative chit to do a double activation of their M10s.  They go lucky and killed a Panther and the rest of the Panther platoon failed Morale Checks caused by the loss of the one.  So the US is in great shape right now, though a lot will rest on who wins initiative next turn though the US has the shifting initiative chit next turn.

From the other end of the table.  The other M10 platoon took out another Panther.  Off to the left is a dead M10 from turn 1.

Fireball Forward on Tabletop Simulator. Darkness before the Dawn

Played Fireball Forward on Tabletop Simulator.  We finished up the first turn of the scenario and will be continuing on two weeks from now.  Overall it flowed very smoothly - much better then I thought.  The only real problem is making sure voice communication works beforehand!  (TTS itself as well of course).

The table at the end of turn 1.  The Germans entered the road on the right.  They have more forces to enter next turn.  To win they have to get more VC then the US by taking the buildings at the bottom and/or getting tanks off the top or bottom road exit.

A closeup of the German entry area.