Flames of War: Great War "The Big Push"

When "The Great War" came out for Flames of War, I really had my doubts about it being a viable game system. From my experience with Flames of War for WWII, I just didn't think it would work for WWI; boy, was I wrong.  Battlefront did a great job in balancing the scenarios and special rules to make the games challenging; I haven't seen a "bad" game (one-sided without it being fun for one of the players) for this era yet using this system.  After being pushed to play by Robert, I have gone full in with a large 15mm German force and a decent sized 15mm French force now in my inventory.  I have even invested in the great trench line and a few of the other terrain pieces; I still have to get a set of the regular craters.

Yesterday, Robert, Tim, Randy and I got together for a 3000 point per side game; Randy and I ran 1500 points of Germans each while Robert and Tim ran 1500 points of British each.  We played the Big Push scenario where one side defends a trench line and the other has to seize the communication trench junctions. We have played this scenario several times and it always seems like the attacker makes it to the trench, but never has enough to hold on against the counter-attack.  To switch things up, I took a Stosskompanie with 2 platoons of Stoss, 2 Stoss MG platoons and 2 regular (trained) Infantrie platoons. The Stosskompanie is an always attack force, but the Brits had tanks making them always attack as well, so luckily after a dice off the Brits decided to defend.  This allowed the Germans to night attack.  This certainly helped us survive the initial rounds of defensive fire, and though I had to recycle one Stoss platoon (using the "Overwhelming Force" rule for this scenario; Randy on the left flank also had to recycle one platoon), I was able to break the platoon defending the trench in front of me, take out several pits and nests, decimate the reinforcing infantry platoon and capture a bogged MKIV tank!  Great victory for the Germans!  So, here are some pictures:

View down the table length (with a WWII game just past our game)

 Stosskompanie hits the wire 

 View from the left flank of the attack.  Randy also got to the trenches stopping Tim from reinforcing Robert.

 2nd Stoss platoon (left) making it through the wire while the regular Infantrie stall.

 Whittling down the defenders with some good shooting and assaults.

 Randy is pushing things on the left flank.

 Wire finally cleared as is the trench line, but reinforcements are trying to outrace the new wave of Stoss on the right flank.

 Better hurry because here comes the British Armour!

 Devastating fire (and poor saving by Robert) has his reinforcing platoon at half-strength and pinned while the only British team left in the trench on my front is the Company commander who can't last for long.

 And the 2nd Stoss platoon is disputing the other trench junction, which will end shortly....

 As Randy kills off the 18-pounder in the gun pit and Robert's last hurrah bogs down...

This was a great, fun game.  I hope we play again soon.  I also hope to get my French on the table soon.

In the meantime, I've got some 10mm ancients ready to paint and just spent some time prepping 40 early war Soviet tanks...T26's, T28's and KV's...still lots of work to do on them, but it's a start.

Time Is Flying By in 2016

Man, where have the first 3 months of 2016 gone?  It seems like it was just New Years.  I certainly haven't been as active posting here as I would like; it seems like I find excuses not to post when it doesn't really take all that much time...something I need to work on for sure.

The good news is that I have been pretty active on the gaming front.  I've played a lot of different games, including playing in the Shifting Sands Flames of War event in January, and the Gathering in the Desert Bolt Action Operation Torch campaign event in February.  I enjoyed both thoroughly...played some excellent opponents and had a fun time.  I actually managed to be the top Axis commander with my Italian Paras in the Bolt Action event with a 1 win, 1 loss, and 3 tie record...just goes to show how poorly the Axis did!  Next year Shifting Sands is supposed to be Team Yankee, so I'll be passing on it...not that I have anything against Team Yankee, it's just that I have plenty else to do and I need to draw some lines.  Gathering in the Desert next year is supposed to be Normandy, so I am more likely to build a force for that than I am getting into a new period.

I haven't completed much painting this year, though I have been working a a few different things.  I prepped a couple of 15mm WWI armies for Great War to be painted by Saguaro Painting Service, painted some 28mm WWII, based some figures for SAGA, and have been rebasing a 10mm army as I shift to that scale for my big battle ancients and medieval gaming.

Here are 3 Perry Brother WWII German Fallschirmjager MG teams.  I am going to use these as additions to my Italian Para force when I want to play Chain of Command as the unit structure is different than that in Bolt Action.  They are nice figures, but a little smaller than the Warlord Games Italian Paras as you can see in the comparison shot:

 Comparison - Perry on the left and Warlord on the right

I also contracted some 28mm Varangian Guard for my SAGA Byzantines.  The painter, Andrew K., had posted some stuff for sale on a forum and I liked his work.  He was great to deal with and said he liked painting these up.  The figures are from Crusader Miniatures with the exception of Harald Hardrada which is a Gripping Beast figures.  All have LMBS shield transfers.

Harald Hardrada

 Command

 Spearmen - Front

 Spearmen - Rear

Well, that's it for now.  The next post will definitely be sometime in April as I show off the 10mm figures I've been working on.  I am not sure what I'm going to work on after that...it will be something as I think I'm starting to get back into a groove.