6mm Cold War East Germans - DDR

Newly finished and in their storage already - 6mm Cold War East Germans. All on magnetised bases hence the adherence to the sides of the container! One of my mates has thousands of moderns, so thought I'd add a small force to play Team Yankee or other rule system with him, plus it seems there are a few other locals who play this too. Very quick and easy to paint compared to every other wargame I play!

In picture below there are Hind Helicopters, Su25 Frogfoot Bombers, T72M1 Tanks, BMP1's and BMP2's, 2S1 Carnation Artillery, Shilka AA.  I went with the plain Vallejo Refractive Green scheme for the land vehicles, with some strong buff drybrushing to bring out the detail from a distance.

Hinds, T-72's, and 2S1's are GHQ. Frogfoots and BMP1's are Scotia Grendel. Rest (including infantry) are Heroics and Ross.

And on the lid, a heap of infantry. Rifle Teams, RPG7's and MG's.

And some later additions. Forty T55-AM2's.

I don't really play anything historical after the Napoleonic era, so these things are basically sci-fi and incredible to me!  Like the BMP1 - a vehicle that can travel at 65km/hr, with anti-infantry, anti-tank, missile, carrying a squad, hostile environment protection, can go over all terrain and swim across a river... amazing!

Here's some reference pics I used. Some nice pics of the BMP inside and outside can be found here.

The mighty T72.

Shilka AA.

SU25.

Hinds.

Infantry with BMP2.

Infantry showing distinctive East German helmet. The helmet was normally covered with the same green/brown uniform I believe, but I gave them grey helmets to make them stand out on the table as East German a bit more.

Here's the sad state of these vehicles now - in the graveyard. Though from everyone's perspective thank goodness the Cold War ended up like this rather than in WWIII!

And the DDR Anthem. Socialists seem to come up with the best anthems!

Republican Roman vs Carthaginian - 28mm ADLG

Some photos of a classical era game last night. Later Republican Roman  (Brutus) with Galatian Allies vs Later Carthaginian (Hannibal).

Here's the initial deployments. Romans are the defenders. To right of field is a flooded and impassable river, plus a Built Up Area. There's some rough ground to the left, and gentle hill straight ahead.

My Romans havetwo blocks of Elite Legions (Elite Heavy Sword Armour Impact) either side of the Galatian Ally (Elite Heavy Sword Impetuous), with a couple of Light Horse Bow off the right of photo below. 

Carthaginian have a mass of various Gallic and Italian  mercenaries (Heavy Sword - most ordinary grade, and some with Armour) with Elite Carthaginian Spear either end of the line. They have Elite Heavy Cavalry (Carthaginian) and Light Cavalry Javelin (Numidians) on the right in photo below. To the left of this they also a couple of Medium Sword and an African Elephant (just out of photo). 

Carthaginians advance, and my Galatians are unreliable and will not advance! Legion on my right starts to slowly struggle through the built up area...

However the Carthaginians decide to come out of their defensive position and attack my left flank. 

As the enemy draw close the Galatians commit to the battle and surge forward, driving back the Numidian skirmishers.

On my left my horse archers weaken the Medium Sword, and the Roman Cavalry and Legionaires gain the upper hand. The Carthaginian Veterans destroy three Roman maniples, but the rest of the Carthaginian force cannot withstand the shock and numbers of the Roman and Galatian infantry on level ground. Victory to the Romans/Galatians. Losses 21/21 Carthaginians, to 13/19 Romans.

Conclusion

Love 28mm Ancients with all the colourful troop types of this era! I think the Carthaginians here would have been better to stay in their rough terrain and on the hill where they had an advantage, using their superior light troops to harass the Roman and Galatian Heavy Infantry (especially the unarmoured and impetuous Galatians!), inflicting disorder and forcing them to assault an unfavourable position. My Roman army had no light troops bar two Light Horse in the game! As it was the Carthaginians advanced into the open plain and ended up unable to withstand the charge of the Roman and Galatian Heavies.

Epic3K: Airborne Orks vs Dreadnought Marines

Been a while since I played an Epic game, so time to hit the table again. Airborne Orks vs Dreadnought heavy Marines.

I wanted to an airborne list using my three Vanguard Landas, which I haven't done before:

MEKBOY STOMPAMOB [500] 

Supa Stompa, 3 Stompa

WARBAND [200] 

2 Nobz, 6 Boyz, 2 Grotz, Warlord

WARBAND [200] 

2 Nobz, 6 Boyz, 2 Grotz

WARBAND [200] 

2 Nobz, 6 Boyz, 2 Grotz

MEKBOY GUNZMOB [175] 

5 Big Gunz, Oddboy

MEKBOY GUNZMOB [175] 

5 Big Gunz, Oddboy

MEKBOY GUNZMOB [175] 

5 Big Gunz, Oddboy

MEKBOY GUNZMOB [175] 

5 Big Gunz, Oddboy

BLITZ BRIGADE (BIG) [250] 

8 Deth Kopta

LANDA [200] 

LANDA [200] 

LANDA [200] 

FIGHTA SKWADRON [200] 

4 Fighta Bomba

FIGHTA SKWADRON [150] 

3 Fighta Bomba

Andrew used his army of CinC minatures for the Iron Hands list:

3000 Iron Hands v.1.2

400 4 Tacticals, Venerable Dreadnought Supreme Commander, 2 Dreadnoughts, Drop Pods

350 4 Tacticals, Sergeant, Venerable Dreadnought, Ironclad Dreadnought, Drop Pods

350 4 Tacticals, Sergeant, Venerable Dreadnought, Ironclad Dreadnought, Drop Pods

350 4 Tacticals, Techmarine, 3 Hellfire Dreadnoughts, Garrison on Foot (1 Rhino?)

275 4 Tacticals, Sergeant, 2 Siege Dreadnoughts, Garrison on Foot

175 4 Scouts, 2 Rhinos, Razorback

425 4 Tacticals, Sergeant, 2 Rhinos, Razorback, 3 Hellfire Dreadnoughts, Hunter

275 4 Whirlwinds

200 Iron Hands Strike Cruiser

200 2 Storm Talons

Here's the battelfield, with a large built up area in the centre and right and some hills and forests off to the left. Marines chose corner deployment and picked top right corner.

A look at the city in more detail.

Marines begin with planetfalling three formations on my blitz objective, and they wipe out the three Gunzmobs here without losing a marine.

My Stompa Mob approaches the town.

And I begin air attacking the defenders of the Marine Blitz.

The first air assault by the Orks breaks the defending infantry and their accompanying firepower based Dreads.

And the second takes out the Marine Whirlwinds. The Marine fighters are also shot down, and the Hunter is destroyed, leaving the Marines without air defence.

End of turn one a humiliating loss to the Dethkoptas, who end up losing 1 Kopta to Marine scout in firefight, and doing no damage in return despite support fire from the Stompa mob! Disastrous combat resolution sees another 4 Koptas disappear!

End of first turn, both sides securely holding each others Blitz objectives!

Lots of Marines around my base...

Lots of Orks around the Marine base...

Turn 2 the Ork air dominance continues with another air assault into the town by a Warband capturing the Take and Hold Objective. 

And the Stompas engage and wreck the Scouts and capture the other Take and Hold Objective. Other Marines fall back through the town avoiding close assault mobs, and are unable to damage the Stompa mob sufficiently with AT fire.

Turn 3 winning the Strategy roll for the second turn in a row for the Orks, the Supastompa sustain fires at the central Marine formation and melts two Dreads and two Marine Squads with its macro guns.

The Marines are heavily out-activated now, and unable to contest their own objectives, while an Ork Landa survives overwatch fire to contest one of the Ork ones.  Victory to Orks 2-1 with Take and Hold and Blitz, to Blitz for Marines.

Conclusion

An interesting game using the Landas, which I haven't used so many of before. They are quite brutal with a warband assaulting from them. Also tough for the Marines where all formations were quite slow and unmaneuverable, they would have benefited with one to two more faster units perhaps, or guarding the Blitz with some close combat Dreads. My Ork list being so infantry heavy other than the Stompas, meant the AT firepower in the Marine units often didn't have good targets too. My Landa's also meant I got the victory easily enough on turn 3 by contesting once I had secured the Marine obejectives.

Seven Years War - Die Kriegskunst 28mm

Something different, with Seven Years War today. A Prussian Division attacks an Austrian Division in a game at Chris Packer's new games room. Fabulous 28mm Front Rank and Crusader figures, all owned by Chris.

Here's the Austrians that I commanded for today's battle. Hussars on my right, and next to them a 6 pounder battery.

Two Brigades of Infantry in the centre, and then Dragoons on the left.

The Prussian left wing with Hussars.

 Then Prussian Fusiliers and Musketeers.

Dragoons, Cuirassiers and Grenadiers can be seen in the distance on the Prussian right, together with a 12 pounder battery.

Time for a quick march by the Prussians towards the Austrian line, and this very quick history lesson from the film Barry Lyndon.

A big cavalry clash develops on the Austrian left.

The Prussians advance relentlessly towards the Austrian centre.

Prussian Hussars disperse after some roundshot and then canister from the Austrian artillery

Prussians take several devastating blasts of musketry as they close and fail to inflict many casualties in return.

Prussian right flank Dragoons rout, and then the Prussian Cuirassiers slowly lose the battle of attrition against two Austrian Dragoon regiments, though not before routing one regiment.

The Prussian attack peters out with most of their army broken or falling back in confusion, while there is a relative paucity of Austrian losses.

Some good dice rolling by myself, can recommend this as a tactic! ;)

A few more pics of the lovely figures!

Prussian Grenadiers help Fusiliers face off against Austrian Hussars on the Prussian left at the end of the game.

And also, Chris' excellent games room, with shelves of storage and great lighting.

Fabulous looking game, many thanks to Chris for the day!