Mostly WWII and Building a 15mm Bridge Really Quick!

Almost everything I've gamed in the last few weeks has been a WWII theme.

A solo game of Wings of War WWII.

A game of Tide of Iron using the Desert Fox expansion.

A game of Flames of War.

Well on second thought it looks like everything I gamed was WWII.

When I started playing miniature games around grade 7 I gamed almost exclusively WWII using a set of rules called Operation Warboard with two of my pals Gord and Danny. Gord had a 4 by 8 foot board set up in his basement and we played many hours using 1/72 Airfix and Matchbox models and figures. I believe these rules have recently been republished though I still have 3 copies my original books. Since then I have gamed quite a few other periods as well as non-historicals but I have always enjoyed playing WWII games and it is sort of my fall back period. It is also the period I know the most about so it can make the games more interesting having that general knowledge.
 
The first game I played was a solo Wings of War scenario from the Fire From the Sky expansion where I would control a Stuka and ME109 attacking ground defenses on Malta. And it ended pretty quick with the first AA shot on the Stuka being an explosion that destroyed the aircraft followed by ground fire causing 4 points of damage on the ME109 at which point I figured the Germans would probably head for home. 

The planes fly in and the Stuka comes under fire...

and is promptly shot down!

Next I played Tide of Iron against my son. This was the first time I played using the Desert Fox expansion though I've had it for a few years. We played the first scenario from the expansion, Hell Fire Pass, with me playing the Germans and Tristan playing the attacking British. The British had to occupy the two hexes on either side of the pass that held the 2 German 88's by turn 6. Tristan was able to knock out the guns but could not occupy the positions in time. The 88's were able to leave quite a trail of burning and disabled British tanks as he tried to close with them. Another fun game that was quite quick to play.

The setup for the game. Germans on the left, British coming in on the right. The British reserves for turns 1,2 and 3 are at the bottom of the picture.

Next up was the Flames of War game with my friend Chet who traveled a fair distance to play out the game. This was a 1500pt late war match up pitting his Canadians against my armoured panzergrenadiers. It has been quite awhile since either of us played so it was a bit of a learning game but still moved fairly quick though we did get a few things wrong after I read through the rules again after the battle. I took a number of pictures so I will leave the AAR to be told in pictures.

The board setup.

My card buildings got replaced by Chet's Battlefield in a Box buildings and units get placed. I setup with a strong left flank to attack through the town.

The Canadian deployment with enough units to have a strong center and flank facing my attack.

Typhoon's doing what they do best!

Sherman's take out one of my Stug's in the center.

Curse those Typhoons! Chet has stayed in position and weakened my units with fairly good fire.

Finally on turn 3 I hit something, one of the Shermans goes up.(yes it was turn 3 before I actually hit something)

I tried to redirect my Panthers but the Typhoons took care of them, pretty much how it really happened I guess.

Bolstered by my loses the Canadians move up.

The end, Chet's Canadians have their objective on the right.

The destroyed German thrust.

And pretty much what the German's managed to destroy other than almost taking out an infantry platoon in the town.

In retrospect I lost because I positioned my units poorly at the beginning. Having not played in awhile I forgot how much I would be outnumbered and should have put my Panthers in the middle of the board so they could have influenced more of the battlefield and advanced through the more open ground on the right rather than the left. Of course those Typhoons didn't help or my ability to not hit anything till turn 3!

Finally in preparation for the Flames of War game I built a bridge to replace the cardstock one I had been using. I built this in 1 to 2 hours the morning of the game though I will take the time now to add some texture and detail.

Top is the card template. I drew the shape I wanted for 1/2 the bridge on 1 side and then folded the paper in half to make a mirror image when I cut it out. Next piece is the foamcore roadbed with slits cut in it to allow it to curve. Next is the wood sides cut out in wood using the paper pattern.

I used pins to hold the arch at the length required.

Then glued the wood sides to it.

Sprayed it grey...

and done.(except some details and weather)

 

Cottage Con & Free Comic Book Day, Yay!

Another few busy weekends of gaming and just cool stuff.

The first event was the annual Cottage Con hosted by a friend of mine, Rob T. He opens up his cottage to a bunch of his friends and we play board games all weekend. Tristan and I arrived a little late due to some previous commitments so we missed the first night and morning of games but once we got there we enjoyed playing a number of games, BBQ some food and had a great breakfast cooked by the host.

Some of the games we played were Smash-Up, Dust the Strategy Game, Gloom, Elder Sign, Lord of the Rings LCG, X-Wing, Werewolf among others and there was a stack of games there that we never got to.

Speaking of which one of the games there was Clash of Cultures which I had wanted to try but didn't get the chance so Shawn let me borrow the game and give it a try at home which Tristan and I did. It's a good game and does the  civilization style of game very well without being complicated.

The next weekend was Free Comic Book Day. Last year my wife and I took the kids and met Shawn at one of the stores and then went for lunch which made for a pretty fun day. This year Michelle was heading south of the border so the kids and I took her out to the airport early in the morning, then we killed some time at a Tim Horton's and a playground till I figured it was late enough to call Shawn up. This time we went and had breakfast first before hitting the stores. We went to Monster Comics first as Mike usually runs a store wide sale at the same time. We got some comics and Tristan picked up Small World Underworld while I picked up the last expansion for Tide of Iron, Fury of the Bear. Shawn stocked up as well and then we went to Strange Adventures, both their old and new location and Games People Play(no comics but I hadn't been into this store yet). Our last stop was at Quantum Frontier for a Halcon BBQ. By that time I think my youngest had had enough and so had I to tell you the truth but another great Free Comic Book Day and I look forward to next year.

Later in the week Tristan and I played a 2 player Small World and then Michelle joined us for a 3 player game and I believe I won both.

The Call of Cthulhu rpg campaign is continuing with the investigators starting the climatic conclusion, I expect that some of us will not remain quite intact, well our characters anyways.

On the modelling front I have been doing some work getting my Flames of War armies finished(well they never really get finished do they). I am working on a late war German and American force as well as finishing off a model of an AAV-7 by Dragon models for my modern 20mm USMC to use with the Force on Force rules.

I am hoping to get some Flames of War to the table soon as well as some Force on Force.

Cottage Con - Clash of Cultures

Elder Sign

Dust Strategy

? not sure ?

Mage Wars I believe.

Warhammer Invasion

Dust Strategy continues.

Smash Up the new hit of the con.

The popular Zombicide.

Another Smash Up game getting started.

Legendary the Marvel deck building game.

X-Wing.

Darth Vader (me) about to be taken out.

My AAV-7 nearing completion.

A row of M4's awaiting decals and details. These are a mix of Battlefront and Plastic Soldier Company.

The other angle showing some M10's and Priests.