Summer is over

My US forces got their armored support ready for battle and I have even gotten two games in with them. The support consist of a M7 Priest battery, Armored Recon and an AA section. There are also five HT transports so I can use my rifle company as a armored rifle platoon.

Operation: Overlord - Saint-Lô - Final fight

Taking up their final stand around the church in Saint-Lô, the Fallschirmjägers will fight until the bitter end.

The lists are like before:
1st ID: 
Compulsory Rifle Company HQ - 1x CinC Carbine, 1x 2iC Carbine
- Bazooka - 2x Bazooka

Compulsory Rifle Platoon - 1x Command Rifle, 1x Bazooka, 9x Rifle
Compulsory Rifle Platoon - 1x Command Rifle, 1x Bazooka, 9x Rifle

Mortar Platoon - 1x Command Carbine, 4x M1 81mm Mortar
- Bazookas - 2x Bazooka
Independent Tank Platoon - 1x Command M4 or M4A1 Sherman, 2x M4 or M4A1 Sherman
Field Artillery Battery - 1x Command Carbine, 1x Staff, 1x Observer Carbine, 4x M2A1 105mm Howitzer

995 Points, 5 Platoons

6th FJ:
Compulsory Fallschirmjager Company HQ - 1x CinC SMG, 1x 2iC SMG

Compulsory Fallschirmjager Platoon - 1x Command Rifle/MG, 9x Rifle/MG
Compulsory Fallschirmjager Platoon - 1x Command Rifle/MG, 9x Rifle/MG

Fallschirmjager Machine-gun Platoon - 1x Command SMG, 4x MG42 HMG 
Grenadier Assault Gun Platoon - 1x Command StuG G, 1x StuG G
Luftwaffe Anti-Aircraft Assault Platoon - 1x Command SMG, 2x 8.8cm FlaK36 gun
- Extra Crew - 2x Extra Crew

995 Points, 5 Platoons

Added some more houses to the table, turning it into a smaller city.

In the cover of the houses, the Americans manage to push up towards the church, with a lucky ToT from the 105s one FJ platoon is almost wiped out and leaves the table. Not having the full force on the table from the start and a better route with more cover for the Americans in this last battle, made them move quicker over the table without suffering any casualties. The last FJ platoon made a good last stand in the church but it was not enough to win the game. No platoons wiped out on the American side, 6-1 victory. Hopefully enough for the Allies to win the Overlord-campaign.

Operation: Overlord - Saint-Lô - US Rifle vs retreating Fallschirmjägers

Even though the Fallschirmjaegers repelled the attack from the Americans, they will not be able to hold on for much longer and plan for a withdrawal to improve the defenses in other sectors.

Operation: Overlord - Saint-Lô - German FJ vs US Rifle

Finally, the goal for the operation is in sight: Saint-Lô!
The church tower making for the skies in the distance with the rest of the city spreading out around it. The Big Red One has taken up positions outside the city and are making ready to go in to take a foot hold in the outskirts.

One objective is placed near a small square on the US right flank and another behind a house on the left. The Germans deploy one FJ platoon and two 88s in ambush, leaving the Americans to guess where to attack. In reserves are two Stugs and another FJ platoon. Both FJ platoons get two HMGs attached to them.
On the American side, the commander let a battery of 105s dig in, put a the first rifle platoon on the left flank and the second on the right and a tank platoon of three Shermans in the middle. A support platoon of four 81mm mortars find a nice spot behind a small hill to assist the grunts with some smoke, they dig in just like the 105s.

Operation: Overlord - Fallschirmjägers defending versus 1st ID

The Big Red One has gotten off from Omaha beach and started their push inland. Reports have come in about a Fallschirmjäger company defending a road junction which is needed to secure the supply transports for further progress inland. Initial recon confirm two anti tank bunkers and a platoon of Green Devils having set up defences around a farm just outside town.

Two platoons of GIs with artillery support and a few light tanks begin their advance through the fields. 

Mortars and objectives

Painted up a blister of 81mm US mortars, perfect to lay down smoke screens and pin the enemy before my grunts rush in and assault.
Now all my FoW minis are done but the next project is already planned: A MW/LW German SS Panzer force.

I have also made two objectives. Just a plain piece of hard board, some sand, paint and grass. I printed a stencil for the allied star, then put some PVA glue in the cut outs from the stencil and used my Grassinator to make the grass stand up nicely. The grass was not contrasting enough in my opinion so I took some white paint and dry brushed the grass pattern and now it shows a lot better on the table top.

2012 March/April - US Rifle

As I posted in 2012 February/March I was going to finish up my howitzers and some other random things that week, but a week became a month instead. Last night I put the finishing touches on the last teams for my current US Rifles.


First up, the little AOP. I won't leave home without it, even though it has become a little bit worse with V3 it is still awesome to be able to rain down some fire any place you want on the table. The paint job stuck through the last game and it seems like if I can avoid scratching it the paint will stick.

1500 US Rifle Coy

Very close to being done now. The staff team for the howitzers is missing, the command team for the pioneers need some basing and a few jeeps has to be painted up too.
So I just had to unpack and take a picture of them together.

1500 points

When those things are done, it is time to give my Flesh Tearers some love.

FJ vs American RP - 1500p FFA

In the weekend me and Lasse got together to have a game of FoW, 1500 points, Free for all.
He had gotten some new terrain features since last time; a city piece with five buildings and some wooden areas. He also had a lake piece coming up but it was in the drying state. Good that at least one of us is building some terrain.


The board of the day looked something like this.

The Americans brought the following
1 x HQ with 2 bazookas
2 x Full rifle platoons (Command, bazooka and nine teams )
1 x Weapons platoon (Four LMG and three mortars)
1 x Towed Anti Tank Platoon (Command, three jeeps, four 3" guns, four bazookas)
1 x A&P platoon (Command, four teams and two bazookas)
1 x 5 Stuarts
1 x Artillery platoon (Command, observer, staff team and four 105mm howitzers)
1 x AOP


The Germans brought something like this (from the top of my head).
1 x HQ
3 x FJ with panzer faust or panzer schreck
1 x Four heavy mortars
1 x Two Tigers
1 x Stukas air support


I placed my AT guns and 60mm mortars in the middle and the arty in the right hand corner. On the left flank I put one rifle platoon and the Stuarts, for the left flank I put the other rifle platoon and my pioneers. My plan was to lure the Tigers over to the left flank with my little Stuarts and then zip over with the on the other flank to support a thrust on the objective. Unfortunately everything did not go as planned.

3" guns looking for targets

My Stuarts pushed forward but did not even manage to pin the FJ-platoon in place. At the same time, his air support whittled down my howitzers so I was not able to reliably hit anything with them during the game (when they were allowed to shoot from not being pinned).
My 60mm mortars lost their command, while being out of range for anything, so my 2IC had to run over to appoint them a new commander.

Howitzers, ready for some more punishment

After a few turns, the Stuarts had been relocated to the right flank and were supposed to push forward to nail his mortars but a combined strike from the Stukas and a few shots from the Tigers (big mistake in looking at the fire lanes from me) they were left as burning wrecks.

Successful air strike

  In the end, I did a bum rush for the objective on the right flank which left me with just the A&P platoon left but the Germans lost their FJ platoon on that side as well. Since it was getting late and we were running out of beer we shook hands and called it a draw. Another joyful game!
In a bit of retrospect, we should probably not play Free-For-All with two infantry forces, it makes for quite a drawn out game of no one wanting to really get out of their fox holes. Next time, we will probably try something new.

US Rifle Company part one done

I have been out of the country for most part of September, so there has not been much time to spend on the minis. Giving the marines a little rest for now and giving the US Rifle Company some attention instead.
Everything (except staff, observer, jeep) for my US Rifle Company is ready for the table.

The Rifle Company so far

Command

Platoon one

Platoon two

Weapons Platoon with some  minor variations on the bases.

105 mm Field Artillery

On the 14th I have a battle evening planned, I hope it will be good. Going to order the other half of my company and with some luck it arrives before the 14th and I will be able to field some tanks as well. Not painted but it will be better then nothing.

US 105mm Artillery - Part 2

Two months to almost finish the guns, not bad for being me.
Been a busy summer, trying to fix up some parts of the house. With no vacation, working full time at my usual work and then having our small side business picking up some customers as well the little plastic/metal soldiers haven't gotten the attention I was hoping for.


The four guns are painted, varnished and based (a few straws of grass and some other basing material left) so for the full battery, I will have to paint the command, observer and a jeep.

I was fixing up some marines with some green stuff and got a piece left over, so I tried to model some sand bags for one of the snipers.

US 105mm Artillery - Part 1

The FoW-bug has bitten me again so yesterday I primed the rest of my infantry and the guns and bases for my 105mm artillery. Working with the airbrush is a joy, makes priming so easy. With the new work room in place, the work gets even easier. To improve my air brush experience I need to build a small stand for the air brushes though, at the moment I have to fiddle around a bit when I refill paint and so on.

Additions to my US Rifle Company

105 mm howitzer has gotten some paint

As always, when the minis has been primed the mold lines that I missed show up. Guess the old file has to work a bit again.

Basing my US Rifle Company - Part 2

The basing material has finally arrived and I have started to base my Rifle Company. Part one can be found here: Basing my US Rifle Company - Part 1


I started out by mixing up green and brown turf. This is the mix that major of the bases will have, the two base shades will be used to break up the pattern a bit.


Pu the base that will get some nice greenery on a piece of paper, this will let you bring up the turf that is not sticking to the base. To stick the turf to the bases, I use PVA/water about 50:50 and I put it on the base with a good old brush and then just sprinkle some turf on it. I let it dry for a bit and then shake the excess off.

Repeat this for the different shades that are going to be used.

When the turf is done, I put some static grass in a few spots. I tried a small sift but it was more difficult and did not produce the result I was looking for. Instead I just stick some grass on to a glue spot and shake it off, holding the base up-side-down to have the grass stand a little bit (at least I imagine it will help).

After this, I go for the foliage in two different shades. To put it on the bases, I use a pair of tweezers, grab the flock, dab in a bit of PVA (not watered down) and then stick it to the base. It might need a little press and squeeze here and there to come out the way you want it.

Final step for these bases is the grass tufts. 

A note on the grass: I bought some "Field Grass" from Woodland Scenics but I am not that happy with it. Very hard to handle since it comes in individual straws and 15mm scale is not very big. Next time I order some miniatures I will try out Silfor's grass tufts (or similar from some other brand) since they seem to be easier to handle: just some glue and stick it to the base. The WS-stuff takes a lot more time, cutting, shaping and so on. If anyone has any ideas to make it look good, please stick a comment below.

Reinforcements!

A small package arrived in the mail the other day, some 105mm Howitzers for my Rifle Company is here!
I will probably not have time to paint for them for a while, but I can put them together with some hobby-tac and play test them at least.

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There was also some hair (as my wife called it) in the parcel, just waiting for the rest of my order and I will finally be able to finish all the basing I have left to do for both my Rifle Company and my Flesh Tearers.

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Basing my US Rifle Company - Part 1

I got a question about my basing, I thought I would take some pictures and explain what I did. This will be in two parts since I don't have any grass material.

My wife found me some modelling paste in the local store, so I had to try it out and it seems to work fine.

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Put a layer of the paste and then stick the miniatures in the paste. I don't use any glue or anything for the miniatures. Hopefully they won't fall off, they seem to stick there. To move around the paste, I use a coffee stirrer.

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When the paste is dry, I use a mix of water and PVA glue that I just brush on with an ordinary brush. Then I dip the whole base in a small bucket of sand I picked up in a sand box outside. Make sure to cover them up good. I let them rest in the sand for a while so the sand doesn't fall off.

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When the sand has dried up, I paint the base with thinned out Calthan Brown. Make sure you thin it out, otherwise it will cover the details.

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Finally I drybrush the base with Khemri Brown and then pick out some bigger stones which I paint with Adeptus Battlegrey followed by a light dry brush of Astronomican Grey.

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When I get my grass, turf and so on I will post a part two of this.

One on One

Today it was time for me and Lasse to try out and hopefully learn some Flames of War, our first battle!
We decided to keep it small, so we just involved an HQ and a platoon each. This would let us try out moving and shooting.

Lasse's Fallschirmjägers, a six squad strong force.

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My US Rifle Platoon, had to fill it out with some guys in Terminator-camouflage since they are only CV.

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The table, a 4x2 to keep it small and simple. We put some woods, some fields and a church with stonewalls to hide behind. Since it was our first game, we skipped objectives, no turn limit, just slugging it out to try to figure out moving, shooting and assaulting. Since we didn't use any turns, I have not really kept track of the turns in the battle, just the general outlines of what happened.

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The Fallschirmjäger platoon was split in to two smaller groups, which was a good move to distract my attention, one starting in the corner with the wheat field and the other in the small forest.

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The US Rifles hid in a wheat field, I guess this was a lazy deployment from my side, they were unpacked in that spot.

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My US forces and Germans in the forest exchanged some fire, while the half-platoon lead by the CiC moved up. They wanted to get in to position behind the stone wall for maximum cover. Two of my squads got shot down and I decided to dig in, let him come to me!

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The Germans moved out of the forest to assault me in my fox holes, just let him come.

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The Captain yelled (while standing back): Get 'em boys!
GIs rushed up, and assaulted the germans.

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The Germans failed to kill any Americans in their defensive fire, lost a squad in the fight and then failed their morale making them run away! What a victory!

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The Americans, confident after beating up some elite Fallschirmjägers, decided to move up behind the hedges instead of chasing after them. Don't ask me why, their Captain must be fresh from West Point.

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So the Germans by the church, lined up their sights and mowed down the poor US soldiers, only leaving the Captain and Lieutenant who quickly surrendered.

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So, from this small skirmish, what did we learn?

• Infantry in cover, are very hard to kill. Veteran infantry in cover is almost impossible to kill: 6+ to hit, 3+ save, then a 6+ firepower test.
• Assault is where things happen when it comes to infantry fighting infantry.
• We move our platoons as if they were squads in 40K, very close and tight. This will probably not be a good habit when we bring templates to the table.
• Use cover.
• Morale is important.
• I need to get some more units for my army. For the next battle I need at least two rifle platoons.
  

Next step in our learning process will probably be to bring in some more foot soldiers and some mortars.

HQ, small platoon and partial WP almost done

The painting part is done for most of the stands for the upcoming battle.

HQ with bazooka (supposed to go with the rifle platoon)

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Rifle Platoon (6 squads)

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Partial Weapons Platoon

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I have three mortars left to paint now, plus some kind of basing and a sealer. I have some kind of fixative sealer as well as some of Vallejo's gloss and matte varnish, which I will try on something else before I risk messing up something important. Will probably test it in the air brush, should work out pretty fine I guess.
My wife me some modelling paste which I will try out for the basing. Thinking of mixing it with some brown paint and sand. To give it a bit of color and texture, at the moment it looks a bit blend.

Further more, I put an order for the D-Day books for FoW, some paint, a US dice set and somehow a Sanguinary Guard box ended up in the shopping cart too. Gonna try to build some HQ units out of the SG box, mix it up with the honor guard box I have gotten earlier.

Three stands painted

My first three stands, one platoon command and two rifle squads, are painted. They are not glued to the bases yet, as I want to make sure I get them right.
I have gone for the 1941 uniform look but I will mix in some green horns with the 1943 uniform as well. The painting guide I have used is the one that can be found on the Flames of War web page.


All three stands

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Platoon command

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Rifle squad with BAR rifle

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Rifle squad

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