The US Civil War turns 1 and 2

Lawrence and I played turns 1 and 2 of the US Civil War today, it took us roughly 4 hours to get through the two turns.  None of the game subsystems are complicated but being a strategic game it has a lot of moving parts to keep track of.

Situation at the start of the game.

End of Turn 1

In the TransMississippi the opponents danced around each other with no combat taking place.  In the West nothing of note happened either.  In the East the Confederates pushed the Federals back to one of the northern VP hexes but could not go further after getting only a tie for a couple of the fights.  McClellan earns himself a reputation in what will become West Virginia.  Meanwhile in Florida a Union invasion takes a northern Florida port space.

End of Turn 2 (despite the marker placement)

Situation in the East.  A confederate army of 7 strength should have been in position to take Harrisburg  but the Confederate commander made a mistake and did not try to retreat from a Federal advance against part of the army (two other SP were a hex away).  The result was a 2 strength point loss keeping any chance of making a 7+ strength army out of reach (at 7 strength a second general can add his values to the combat).  Meanwhile General Peterson heeds the cry of "On to Richmond!" and makes lunge with 3sp.  He beats the 1sp unit in Fredericksburg.  The now undemoralized force under Johnston moves next to Peterson to try and bring him to battle or intercept him if he makes another drive on Richmond.  The Federals win the next initiative roll and Peterson skedaddles back to DC.  Finally, in what will be West Virgina Longstreet holds the final resource space to keep the Feds at bay.

In the West and TransMississippi a battle is fought in the Trans which the Rebs win but are unable to followup.  So the Reb commander moves back to his base.  East of the Mississippi both sides wait for Kentucky to join the war before moving.

Both my opponent and I are pleased with the game so far, we are playing with the basic rules so amphibious assaults can only be done with a special action card hence the limited amount of amphibious combat.  DC is far easier to hold than in For the People and basically it would take a Federal mistake for it to fall *BUT* keeping it so well garrisoned that it is totally safe makes it hard for the US to keep up with the progress of war requirements.  At the end of turn 2 they are supposed to have a 4 VP lead but are only at 1 so far.

Looking forward to continuing the game in a few weeks.

First batch of painted minis for the New Year

Finished up these 6mm tanks, paper buildings, and paper bridges a couple days back.  Not going to be as much painting this year as last year but I hope there is more gaming with them!  The games I hope to play are FFT3, IABNM, IABSM, and Sabre Squadron (and heck, anything else that fits!)

The tally is

10 T54
10 JS3  (not sure I would ever need that many for WWII but just in case)
5 Bishop
5 Panther G

All of the above are GHQ

2 Paper Terrain buildings (with a damaged inner building)
2 Paper terrain bridges.  One with 3 ridges, one with 2

T54

Bishops and Panther Gs

Panther Gs

JS3s

Buildings

Bridges

Happy New Year! Otherwise known as ASL 111: Balkan Sideshow

I had a choice of watching this...

the annual New Years Day Mummers parade in Philadelphia.

INSTEAD, for the second year in a row (the start of a GREAT tradition!) Tycho and I played ASL with VASL.  This year's game was the first half of Scenario 111 Balkan Sideshow.  The scenario features Yugoslavians holding a bridge with 8 squads while a bunch more come on from the North edge quickly followed by Hungarians.  There are a LOT of Hungarians and they have lots of tanks, 7 of them to be precise.  Indeed, the first few turns makes the Yugoslavian player feel like the cat on the right...

Start of Game.  Pillboxes are hidden as is Wire and Mines on the bridge.  Hungarian player knows they have to be on the bridge though.

In a twist the defender moves first.  I move on the sacrificial lambs for the slaughter.  I have not figured a way to save them, the Hungarian armor VBM freeze sleezes them and it is all over...

End of Hungarian turn 1, the ACs hold three Yugoslavian squads in Melee.  Stacking was a bad idea too...

End of Yugoslavian turn 2, one squad broke but my leader and squad jumped on the AC and killed it, BAD idea.  Should have left them to their fate and run for the (away from the) hills.  Well perhaps to that spot on the far side with the woods but I digress.

End of Hungarian turn 2.  My AT gun opens fire (I thought this would keep Hungarians honest and extract some kills for his VBM sleeze).  It misses twice but gets ACQ.  As you can see, this game would have HUGE piles of counters if played on a real board.  Prisoners abound!  Captured when fired on while in CC with the armor.

End of Yugoslavian turn 3.  The gun takes a risky IF shot (especially since I NEED the threat of this gun kept alive) and just after I said "this is a bad idea but...", I roll snakes and fry the Hungarian tank.

Scratch one tank!  (Picture courtesy of the History Channel who swears it is an early war Hungarian tank)

Hungarian turn 3, the gun takes a regular shot to gain ACQ and rolls boxcars...  Up near the top left a CC breaks out, the Hungarian shoots for capturing my squads (what?  Not enough prisoners yet?) and with ambush captures one squad, my return attack turned him into a half squad though.

End of Yugoslavian turn 4.  The Melee ends in the squads favor while the Hungarians start setting up the big guns (105s).  Gonna be some hurtin when they score a hit!

End of Hungarian turn 4, back into CC goes my squad up at the top right (the unarmed guy was eliminated but the squad held on).  In my turn he will be outgunned 4 to 7.  The Pillbox lights up a squad retrieving an MG in the woods and in return is fired on by the 105 and a tank main gun using AP. 

End of Yugoslavian turn 5, the squad in CC survives AND rolls snakes!  Killing the 447 and creating a leader and allowing him to skeedadle.  The pillbox actually fired at the leader and squads in the woods breaking them (that is shown in the next pic, I got confused...)

End of Hungarian turn 5, half time.  Somehow my squad at the top left survived and is in position to be a pain in the rump for the Hungarians.  In order to win the Hungarians have to clear my Yugoslavians away from within 3 hexes of the bridge.  With five turns left to go it is still up in the air, with the punching bad portion of the game done it will boil down to the Hungarians getting across the bridge.  Which two wire counters and a 4 factor AT mine that will hopefully take more time then he has left.  We will find out on the 16th!

Big batch of Microarmor Tanks, Guns, and troops completed

Finished off the Painting Challenge with one last gasp of miniatures painted.  A mix of GHQ Ultra-Moderns and WWII.  With a few odds and ends thrown in.  Most of these have been on the painting table for months waiting for some inspiration to finish them off.

2 SU-152
2 SU-122
4 2lber portee
5 T-55 MV
10 FV 432
6 CMP carriers for 25 lber
6 25 lber limbered
6 25lber unlimbered
60 individual ultra-modern US (20 3 man squad stands)
34 individual ultra-modern US riflemen in standing and nealing poses
5 Individual Ultra-Modern US troops sitting and firing (regular rifles I think)
5 Javelin launchers
15 Laser Designators
14 leaders
24 MG crew (12 2 man teams)
12 Mortar crew and mortar (6 2 man teams)
9 LMG men  (SAW I imagine)
10 Snipers with what appears to be Barret 50 cal sniper rifles

WWII (green based infantry)
12 leaders
12 standing riflemen
12 grenade throwers (why do companies insist on making so many of these?)
16 SMG armed troops (appears to be Thompson)
12 Kneeling Riflemen


Totals
29 Vehicles
12 Guns
252 Infantry

The "Squad/Platoon" stands.  These are based for Fistful of Tows and the modern version of Fireball Forward (whenever it is released).  Also very useful for IABNM.

Detail shot of a squad stand.

25 LBers and transport.

CMP transport for the 25lbers and FV-432s for IABNM.

FV 432 and T55MV

T55MV, 6 lber Portee, SU152 and SU122

Laser Designators

Ultra-Modern US Riflemen.

Barret Sniper rifles.  Probably some others in there but my eyes have enough trouble making out the difference between a sniper and an LMG at this scale...

SAW gunners

Mortars

MG Teams

Leaders.  GHQ's normal over-abundance.  Better too many than too little though.

WWII US SMGs.  I went with the lighter color jackets for this batch vs my earlier attempts.  All of these guys are based for Skirmish gaming so I wanted them to have a little more pizzazz (Chain of Command in 6mm Anyone?)

The mandatory grenade throwing guys.  I generally dislike them, a few is OK - 6 total would have been good...

Standing Riflemen

Kneeling Riflemen

The commanders once again.  Unlike the Grenade guys extra commanders almost always come in handy.

Plans for next year, paint the remaining (considerable) lead pile, put together the paper terrain I purchased in a sale a couple months back, and play play play...

Guilford Courthouse replay. Great Battles of the American Revolution part 2

Yesterday my opponent and I played the Guilford Courthouse title in the GBAR series for the second time.  This time getting most of the rules correct but learning a bit about tactics near the end...

An overview of the map, Continentals setup and the British enter at the top right.

End of Turn 1.  British entry order as shown on the Time Track.

Tarlton (Mr. T) enters the map and gets within one hex of Continental Cavalry using road movement. (can not go adjacent when doing so)

End of Turn 2.

Still no fighting.  Mr T is reinforced with militia while the Continentals bring up some riflemen and light troops.  (they can move quickly through the woods)

End of Turn 3.

First blood goes to the British!

The Continentals used their light troops to spot the British regulars coming in this turn, this will allow General Greene to start moving on turn 5 instead of turn 6  (the battle took place at the top right...)

End of turn 4.

The Continentals move more riflemen up to slow the British advance.  Since it costs one extra to enter a Riflmen's ZOC and the units have 4 movement factors the crafty Continental player will hold the British advance to 3 hexes a turn..

End of turn 5

At the top of the map the Continental Cavalry holds the Infantry back by using a Cavalry withdrawal.  While the Riflemen hold up the British advance on the right.

End of turn 7 (I forgot turn 6?!?!)

Up top the Cavalry is holding up the infantry but Mr. T is coming up - that will keep them from doing a Cavalry Withdrawal again.  On the Right the main army with Cornwallis is plodding along.

End of turn 8

Up top the Cavalry is pushed back but not eliminated.  To the right the British keep plodding along.

End of turn 10?  Did I skip a turn, that would have a big effect on the end game...

The British finish off the Lt Rifle troops holding them from the main part of Greene's army (Greene is with the other portion of the army however).  Things will get hot here shortly...

Mr. T works with Cornwallis' subordinated to attack from the other direction.  The good troops were sent this way (with +2 morale ratings they are tough fighters)

End of turn 11.  The Continental army suffers major losses a leader, their Dragoons captured and another combat unit.

Cornwallis attacks (the lowest portion of the map there) and forced the Continentals to retreat.  When the Continental army tried to force the Rifle armed British units away (right next to the cannon) they failed and were instead sent running.  One of them demoralized and the others retreated.

Up top Greene forced a retreat of one of the units there.

End of Turn 12.  Based on Points the British now have a solid Marginal victory!  But Cornwallis wants more  - even though it is impossible at this point for the most part.

The British Rifles fire on the Cannon and kill it off.Cornwallis steps in to try and force a crossing, to no effect.

Up top the British try to skirt the Continentals (silly move, should have simply tried to grab Greene, that IS a major victory)

British get the Initiative on turn 13 and Cornwallis Crosses the stream to attack!  Disaster strikes as the Continental Rifleman finally score a hit and a leader casualty..

Cornwallis Falls in battle!  The previous good fortune for the British is now almost completely gone.  The game now being a draw.

Without Cornwallis to lead them (a lesser leader is still in the stack next door) they fight to a PIN result.  The Continentals have to attack back on their half of the turn.

On the other part of the field Mr. T mangles a good part of the Continental force there.  Another turn might have lead to the capture of Greene... 

End of Continental turn 13 (forgot to flip the counter)  Final losses, one General for the British and a whole slug of stuff for the Continentals but it is a draw since the Continentals hold the VC spaces.

The Continental counterattack ends up a disruption for them but the other units pass their morale checks to stay in place.

And Greene retreats his forces. 

The lesson learned is that a General can use his tactical prowess from an adjacent hex, no need to stack with the attacking troops and risk being shot.