Villers Bocage Mini Campaign 2/2

Some months ago, Fels and I played through the Mini Campaign in the same-named FoW-book about the fight between British and Germans.

As the initial first two battles were severe defeats, I had  no big hope that the last battle would be any different. It didn’t help much that the fight for the village of Villers Bocage would be held directly in the city.

Sadly, we had no matching surface, so the last photographs are a little… confusing. But at the least, we had a very entertaining refight of this campaign. It was also very satisfying because this was the very first book I bught for Flames of War.

Both parties would have to gain control over several checkpoints to win this battle. While the Germans were completely motorized, the British had some walking troops to their aid. I attempted a “scissor-like” breakthrough at both streets; due to the obligatory city map, there were not many other options for the Tigers and Panzer IV.

To put it short, the Tanks managed to gain some meters on the street, but the well-dug-in British troops were able to keep them away long enough to win the battle. A well deserved victory for the stoic defenders. Congrats.

Villers Bocage Mini Campaign 1/2

Two weeks ago, Fels and I replayed the first two of three scenarios of the Mini Campaign in Villers Bocage. In Wittmanns Wild Ride, one Tiger tries to break through an unseated British motorized column. In the Battle for Point 213, four Tigers encircle a small British armed battle group. The three scenarios are linked together, so the outcome of the first two encounters would matter for the last and final battle for Villers Bocage.

Wittmanns Wild Ride

A rather straightforward scenario, as the German player only controls one tank while the British players troops are unmoveable.

The alley, just before the battle starts.

Thankfully, our gaming club is well endowed with all sorts of wargaming supplies, so it was no big deal to build a nice, pleasant valley for this shootout. The German tank had to race against a time limit (ten rounds). 

We played the scenario three times (switching sides in the third battle).

It was proofed that the tank was able to knock out the first two Churchills and the infantrymen with ease, but was unable to beat the waiting 6-pdr-gun. Perhaps, if the tank had more time, he could just shoot the thing with its main gun, but due to the time restriction, this seemed unlikely to work.

Battle for Point 213

We still had time that evening, so we decided to play the second scenario just afterwards. Four Tigers (with random starting positions) ambushed a group of British tanks. The survivors of this battle would show up as reinforcements in the last battle.

We played this scenario twice. While the German tanks (which showed up conveniently together in the same corner of the battlefield) were able to knock out some Churchills, the counterfire from the two Fireflys was too much and it was a really quick defeat.

In the second attempt, we just rolled the dice again and got the same result.

Despite the clear outcome, it was a fun evening recreating the historical scenarios. We’ll fight the last and defining battle in early November.

Tank Mass Production with Airbrush

This week, a regular gaming partner was so kind to help me to finish my tanks by airbrushing my whole vehicle collection. In about three hours, he did this great paintjob which added a great improvement to my Flames of War Germans. Thanks, Fels!

Flames of War – First Pioneer Infantry Base

Finally, I was able to finish at least one “normal” Pioneer Rifle Base. I played a bit with the possibilities the Milliput allowed me by experimenting with the bases, especially adding deep footsteps and a decent “muddiness” to the base.  I also want to add certain terrain pieces that are suitable for engineers, such as rusty steel plates lying around. As a whole, I’m content with the final look of the miniatures and the base. Hopefully, I will be able to finish many more bases during this year.

Flames of War – Scientist Objective

The Mission Objective from the Sturmtiger Box.

Back to 15 mm’s – Introducing the Pionierkompanie

For Warhammer is about to literally face its End Times and I therefore had no decent motivation for painting Warhammer Miniatures in the near future (although I’ll surely continue, yet don’t know when), I decided to use my painting motivation to at least finish some other paint jobs I have avoided to work on for far too long. I decided to finally give my collection of Flames of War Germans the attention they clearly deserve and to (hopefully) finish to paint at least one company this year.

I will start with my pioneers, then move on with the tanks and eventually will finish with the Fallschirmjäger (parachute light infantry). The pioneers were given the honour to be first mostly because their PDF is free on  the FoW website and their interesting platoon composition with flame-throwers and Goliaths. Also, being engineers, I could add some nice gimmicks like barbed wire, broken infrastructure parts and defoliated trees to the infantry bases.

I started with a Command Pioneer Panzerfaust SMG Team. Sadly, the sand I tried to add to the base was a little… volatile and didn’t want to stay on the spots I wanted him to be. So the sand poured over the whole base which I had not intended.

In this painting project, I changed my usual metal colour from a light bronze to a much darker tone (from Dwarf Bronze to Warplock Bronze from Games Workshop). This had to be because GW doesn’t produce Dwarf Bronze any more.

As usual, I used a combination of GW and Vallejo colours on the models.

I tried to create a “wet look” with adding footsteps and bullet impacts on the base (formed with Milliput). With this, I tried to hide the single miniatures bases in the Milliput mass.

My current paintjob, a mission objective.