3/28/2020

Stiff upper lip. Nuts! Blood upon the Risers

Afternoon, June 6th, 1944 - Sainte-Mère-Église, France

Situation
"Lieutenant Wray is coming back in from his solo recon. Looks like he single-handedly took out the commander of the 1st battalion of the German 1058th and threw them a bit of confusion. But that doesn't mean they still might not steamrolls us!

Objective  
To defend the northern end of Sainte-Mère-Église from German elements from 1058th and 709th static infantry division push past the American defenses, avoiding any German from exiting the south table edge for 12 turns.


View of the battlefield with the American troops already deployed in the town. The blue line is a sunken road flooded by the Germans to slow Allied advance.

Another view with the 57mm ATG saved from the previous mission, guarding the highway.

A different perspective with all Americans deployed and waiting. There are three scouts at the bottom left.

And one last view, this time with the .30 cal machine gun deployed in the second story and controlling all the battlefield, with a servant and a Rep 6 officer to help the gunner with both the activatiions and In Sight and Recover Tests.

Turn one and the scouts fast moving forward cross paths with Lt. Wray and his prisoners on their way back.

Germans are gunned down by the .30 cal as soon as they enter the table. They quickly move to both flanks to take cover in the houses.

Same situation from different angle. A scout section at the bottom, and an assault group running along the bocage to avoid being fired.

But that didn't help them and were caught by the machine gun and forced to duck back.

The Germans arrived to the "pause line" (waiting for HQ orders) bordering the sunken lane, where they must wait until they score 4+ in any activation (they waited for two turns). Lt. Wray spot them first, killing one and supressing the others (he's a marksman).

Then the scouts closed to the hedge, saw the enemy first, fired and put them all out of action. Good boys!

Meanwhile Lt. Wray kept moving back to his lines.

But the Germans finally deployed their two MG-42 on the second floor from both houses, and then a firing duel started.


 The green square marker represents they are on second floor.

The scouts decided to try to cross the sunken lane to clear the house in close combat with the MG team who was unprotected, but they were spotted midway and fell down in a deadly crossfire.

After that, the two German HMGs quickly finished the allied .30 cal MG

And then they did the same with the ATG as they killed one crew and made the other one flee the battlefield, abandoning the gun.

Now things were getting pretty hard for the 82nd as everytime they popped up their heads they were fired and suppressed by the German MGs.

This allowed the German soldiers to advance unmolested under the friendly covering fire. 
This picture belongs to turn 10. There were only two turns to end the encounter and no Germans had exited the board yet, though they were close.

When the German assault squad was crossing the town it was caught in an ambush. The point man was killed and two more run forward ducking for cover.

Then it was German turn and they fired and killed most opposition and could leave the board. It was turn 11.

Only two Germans were supressed in the last moment and one of them put out of fight and couldn't leave on turn 11, but in the last moment one recovered and picked up his wounded comrade and left the battlefield with him.

So the Germans finally exited more than 50% of the remaining American troops and won the scenario, capturing Sainte-Mère-Église and finishing here the whole campaign.

Well, it was shocking to be defeated after many easily won scenarios and also with both sides starting with the same number of troops; but that is how real life happens I guess.

Soon I will start playing a new campaign, probably Peiper at the gates, but first I need to get two cent coins to base my miniatures and I cannot find any because of the covid-19 quarantine!

On a side note, I wanted to comment that for this game I used the last edition of Nuts! which is a major improvement in all ways to the second edition I was using before. I recommend all players sticking to their older versions to buy the new one because of this.

3/26/2020

Painting from the quarantine

This is the first group of figures I paint during the quarantine. Actually, it's the second one as I finished painting the 1/72 WWII American soldiers already in quarantine, but as I started painting them before the quarantine I'm not counting them.

Anyway, this is a group of twelve levies for SAGA that I'll be using for both Late Roman and Briton armies. They are from the Gripping Beast's Dark Age Warriors plastic set.

I painted them at very tabletop quality level. I gave them basic colour, wash, one light for flesh, tunics, shields and metals (didn't touch trousers, shoes, spear shafts, dark hair nor belts). Job done.

My next unit already waiting at the painting table is one of eight warriors plus one standard, and I am going to give them exactly the same treatment as these guys.

Stay indoors and stay safe!


3/24/2020

Mad Puppies. Nuts! Blood upon the risers campaign scenario.

Before sunrise, June 6th, 1944 - Merderet marsh, France.
Situation
"Oh man, I thought we were the only friendlies in the area. Damn glad to see you! We're with the 18th AAA. Watch out, there's Krauts everywhere!"
"Most of the other guys on this glider didn't make it. My gun commander took a patrol out to do a quick sweep around and see if he could find someone to link up with, but we heard shooting a bit ago, and I think they're done for. We've received a couple of pot shots ourselves, but neither of us has been hurt, so that's good."
"Ok, enough chitchat. You help us to get this jeep and gun out of the glider so we can get to San Mere and do some of what we came here for, and we'll let you ride is style!."
Objective
To extricate a jeep and tow a 57mm ATG from a crashed glider and get them to Sainte-Mere-Église in 12 turns.

I didn't have any aeroplane at home so I had to improvise. The two white dice on the top right and left down corners are German PEFs with Rep 4 and 1 respectively. My squad plus three more soldiers started six inches within the plane.

On the first turn the German PEF advanced and I resolved it. I score a 1 which meant nobody showed up, and as the other PEF was Rep 1 and it wasn't going anywhere, I decided to roll again. This time I got a full assault squad, but I was already in position waiting for them...

So in the In Sight all my troops reacted opening fire and killing almost all of them with the .30 cal MG and other automatic fire weapons.

It took me two turns to get the jeep out from the plane. I know, it's not a Willys! but I didn't have one and I was locked down at home due to the quarantine, so I had to improvise once again.

On turn three I moved forward until made contact with one of the surviving German soldiers who shot at me in reaction, but then I killed him when I returned fire. The other German was beyond six inches and as we both were in cover and it was night time, we couldn't see each other.

Then, the last German soldier move towards the enemy using cover, but he was shot down nonetheless in the In Sight by the officer with his colt. He is the parachutist who has killed more Germans during the campaign so far. I'm thinking about naming him Clint.


Turn four and all my troops are about to leave the area with the "jeep" and the ATG.

On turn five I scored a seven in the activation so some Germans appeared in the last moment.

They fast moved 16" and then they were shot in reaction. Their leader was killed and the rest retired. Game over.

This campaign is being too easy so far. I do hope things will get tougher in Sainte-Mere-Église. In any case, I'm upgrading my Nuts! second edition to the final one to see if AI gets more dangerous.


3/17/2020

Italeri WWII American infantry

First squad of this soft plastic infantry box from Italeri. I ordered it because you get .30 cal machine guns and mortars apart from the standard infantry guys.
These new models have got great detail as you can see, and soon they will see some action!

Great natural poses, though I miss somebody actually firing a rifle!

Mortar team with radio and a guy looking at a grenade he's holding on his right hand?

MG team with officer.

Some guys next to a building.