It has been a while since the last entry - my apologies for that. We have been very busy around the store with new games, bringing in new product lines and the like.
I personally have been busy prepping and painting a variety of miniatures: I finished a squad of WWII American paratroopers and German Wermacht (w/a couple of light machine guns) in 25mm. Some KV-1's, German command teams and a Tiger I for 6mm. Making more progress on my 15mm American armored company. Finished a 5-man hostage rescue squad in 25mm (now to finish the actual hostages and bad guys) as well as building a bunch of new terrain including starship tiles for 25mm, more hedgerows and bushes for 25mm and a Russian village for 6mm.
OFF TO RECON
I am taking the WWII 25mm to a local miniatures convention today - ReCon. Should be a good time sharing the challenges of skirmish level combat with others. Again we will be using the NUTS! rules from Two-Hour Wargames. With luck we will be able to run a couple of different games, including a scenario where just after the D-Day drop the paratroopers are scattered and have to regroup into an effective force!
D&D MINIATURES
I did also manage to get in a game of D&D Miniatures this week. I ran a pretty nasty army in a 500 point epic game: 2x Bluespawn Godslayers, 2x Helmed Horrors, a Mind Flayer and a Beholder. The Mind Flayer was thrown in to provide the warband with a commander to rally routed troops, but it turned out he was superfluous as everything except the Beholder was fearless. Next time I may try a Ghostly Consort instead. In any event, I was matched up against a predominantly spell caster army which found the speed and punch of my warband a little too much to handle.
As a side note, my teamate in this brawl also pulled off I trick I though to be near suicide: on the first turn he charaged his Beholder out in to the middle of the map only to have it pounded on by his opponent's "mounted combat" pieces. I thought we might be in for a very short fight at that point (sorry for the lack of faith Robert!). In the end though, it turns out that it was all part of his grand strategy - the Beholder was a diversion & healer for an epic-level Aspect of Nerull, which combined with the Beholder and another Bluespawn Godslayer put the hurt on his opponent.
All in all it was a very enjoyable game, with thanks to Don & Matt for a good time.
THE RUSSIANS ROLL ON
I also managed to get in a game of Blitzkrieg Commander in 6mm. Jeff P. and I commanded a Russian infantry battalion that had stumbled upon a similarly sized German force - commanded by Ron & Aaron - while trying to seize (liberate?) a Russian village in mid-'44.
The plan was to swarm the village with an infantry company, while the supporting tank platoons encircled the village from the north and south.
On the southern flank a platoon of T34/85's went toe-to-toe with a platoon of Panthers for much of the battle. And despite having the advantage of the woods, the T34's took the worst of the meeting in the end. However, it took the better part of the battle for the Panthers to win the day, which prevented them from playing much of a role in the rest of the fight.
The infantry in the center (with very limited armor support - a lone T34/76) took fire right away from a couple of Panthers in the village (are these things everywhere????) and never could manage to really get their assault on the village going. The T34 eventually succumed to the Panthers' fire, and while the infantry made a brave rush towards the village, they were ravaged by some very deadly German artillery fire which prevented any further progress.
The real success for the Russians was on the northern flank where a platoon of T34/76's, supported by a couple of KV-1's, knocked out a pair of Tiger I's and then began rolling up the flank towards the village. The Germans threw every bit of infantry they could muster at the oncoming Russians but with great skill (and some incredibly timely rolls!!!) the Russians were able to fend off the localized counterattack and push into the village. It was at that time that the German commander realized how tenuous his position now was and decided to retire from the battlefield to fight another day.
All-in-all a very fun game with a nail-biter of an ending!
Hopefull I will be able to blog a little more frequently over the next few weeks!
Until then- cheers!
Dan
