15mm WWII US Infantry 'The Big Red One'...part 1

A couple of the guys here are heavy into 15mm WWII and they managed to get me excited to the point that I actually started painting a new company. The last few weeks I played about five games of Flames of War and while I was initially a bit sceptical I can report here that I actually liked every single game. Now of course I have good company but a long as you avoid the 'car park' scenes you sometimes see and don't get hung up over points  it works fine for me.

So with my renewed interest I decided to try to paint this infantry company as quick as I could with the nice side effect it would also earn me some points in Curt's Painting Challenge, While I do have two other armies from my previous wanderings in 15mm ready to game, nothing beats the excitement to start something completely new.

Today I'm posting the Rifle and Weapon Platoons, support will follow soon after they appear on the Challenge pages at Anologue Hobbies. Complete gallery with many more pictures: LINK 

Sudan Game

I'm a bit behind on our battlereports but fortunately the guys here agreed to help me out. Each game we now have one volunteer who writes up a little story of the battle. For this game Jacco was so kind to write the report. I will take the blame for the comments with the pictures...
Complete gallery of the game uploaded in photobucket again.


Jacco:
On Saturday October the 14th we played our first game using the Black
Powder rules. The setting for this game was Sudan. Mike and Jacco played
the Mahdi's, while Rob and Sam played the Egyptians and
British. The scenario we used was made by Marc and was a simple besieged
hamlet, garrisoned by poorly trained Egyptian troops led by Sam. They were
short of supplies, ammunition and courage. Around them were swarms of
Mahdi's followers. But at the other end of the table waited the
professional trained British forces led by Rob who is always in for a
charge. Their mission was to relieve the garrison with supplies, deliver
fresh troops and to send the Mahdi's back to oblivion. We started a little
slow because nobody actually read the rules on beforehand (déjà vu). Yeah
we all like learning the rules on the run! We never actually came into a
flow of turns and as the game progressed we got more and more frustrated
by the rules. In the end we were not happy with how the rules played and
we never had the feeling we were playing a Colonial wargame.

Maybe it was the ghost of Sudan games past that was hunting us. We all
remember the epic game we played using the TFL rules and how the Mahdi¹s
drove off the British and captured the fortified town in a heroic assault
(thanks to the Riot in the town card) and this all in the first turn of
the game.

Sometimes you¹ve got to stick to a good thing.
 

We might need to agree on basing colours going forward...

Remember my rebasing post a while where I gave an insight in the tactics I would use?

Well, it worked! In the distance you can see the British routing in despair. Lucky dice I guess

Skirmish on the zócalo

Happy New Year!

All is still quiet at the zócalo

I'm kicking off 2013 with a report of the last game of 2012: Skirmish on the zócalo.

The scenario was made by Rob and Marc and since we had troops for the Texian war as well as the Mexican American War ten tears later the game was in a fictional setting. The Texians are attacking a fortified town and had to blow away the gate and get within townwalls  before the sentries could mobilize the complete Mexican garrison.
We used the TFL supplement for Sharp Practice So Far From God to guide us this game. After we settled for some extra rules, troop types and created the game deck (the most annoying part of the game for me, apart from the tiffin card being dealt before your senior officers all the time:) we could fire away.

The battle ended in a draw with the fighting still going on on the zócalo. The four commanding officers were tired of fighting and had to make their way to festive meals and drinking parties later that night.

Lots of pictures but if you still want more go here for all the pics I took during the day.

The objective

Sentries notice the approaching Texians and start to run all over town to wake up the important people.

The Alabama Red Rovers moving in as well. Properly dressed for the time of the year

Marc's excellent command vignette leads the pack

Jacco's Greys, impressive bunch

Moving up the gun to blow away the gate

Disturbed from their cardgame these guys were alerted by the sentries and rushed out

Artillery managed to wake up as well

They positioned themselves quickly on the defensive walls that provided medium cover in the game

The Texians get closer and closer

More help on it's way to the sentries as the dismounted cavalry comes to the rescue. They did not get very far though. With rolls of 2,3 and another 2 for movement and then a couple of cards after the tiffin they did not get very involved...

Panic on the zócalo

As Jacco's Texian Cavalry is about to charge through the shattered gate

Only the artillery still on the walls and the gate blown away. The Texians are about to enter

Fortunately Rob's excellent troops arrived just in time, watched by the supreme upper commander enjoying his cigar on the roof. Thrilled to see some action they forgot to reposition in the cover nearby.

So they got wiped out by the charge of the day.

More and more Texians are entering the zócalo

While Rob's other Mexicans try to make it on time

The situation at the zócalo when we had to stop. It calls for a new game to finish the final skirmish in the streets...