FoW Demo Game Played Tonight

Put on a small demo battle of FoW tonight. Was very fun even considering the small size of the forces. It's been a while for myself as well and I seemed to have forgot how fun FoW is. Definitely planning more games over the weekend.

Below are a few pics of the battle. We featured a U.S. Sherman 75 platoon vs. a German Panzer IV H platoon. Each entered the battlefield from the short sides along a road. Terrain was simple with a few gentle hills scattered about, some fields and a large wood to one side. We used the Europe II mat from Cigar Box for this battle.

The lay-out. Germans would be entering on the edge closest; Americans the opposite.

Lots of rough ground to cross.

Americans had the first turn of the battle, moving up the road for a couple turns (as did the Germans). We taught the basics of moving at this stage. The Americans quickly moved their tanks up on to the high ground just off to the side of the road. The Germans brought their guns closer by advancing on down the road.




Americans take the high ground. One Sherman bogs in the ruins on the left.

The Germans started to break off from the road and sought cover in the fields to their right. Would the American's be up on the German (me) out-flanking move?

Germans head off the road to get into the fields. Shots are taken.

The Germans start to get clustered together as the lead tank bogs twice trying to get off the road.

Both sides traded long range shots with little effect (we were teaching the shooting rules at this point). However, both the Germans and Americans managed to repeatedly "bog" one tank apiece foolishly trying to navigate into the rubble buildings along the road. the Germans in particular had their leading PzIV tank bog twice trying to get off the road and into the fields! This caused some clustering in the road which slowed any further advance.




The fight starts to heat up as both sides engage in the fields.

The German bogged tank on the road was soon destroyed by a well placed side armor shot from a hull-down Sherman ahead along the road. Not good news at all for the German side. First blood to the Americans! But wait! There is more...

The Americans start taking losses as they come off the high ground and get into the fields.

... the German platoon commander was soon destroyed as well right behind the previous PzIV that got blown to pieces. Thankfully, the commander transferred over to one of the PzIV tanks in the field.

At this point both sides sat back (Americans attempting smoke several times but failing) and blasted at one another from cover. Slowly they advanced closer through the fields.

The tide turned for the Germans for a turn as they managed to take out three Shermans along the road (one PzIV getting a side armor shot). However, the Germans had to make a risky move closing in on the Shermans in the field in order to accomplish this. If they didn't take out the closest Shermans, they would be flanked!

Three Shermans destroyed along the road. Ahead of them, the two PzIV destroyed earlier.

The Shermans get the edge at the end, destroying the German platoon commander and his back up panzer.

Disaster! Although three Shermans on the road were taken out, the remaining two (including the platoon commander) were close enough to close in on the German command tank and get some side armor shots at very close range. in addition, the Americans also managed to pass there platoon morale (trained). Using their stabilizers they managed to take out the panzer commander as well as a second tank behind (which effectively left the German platoon commander with no tank - i.e., DEAD!).

With the battle lost, the last panzer makes off the battlefield full throttle!.

With the loss of four out of five Panzer the Germans failed their platoon morale and headed off the battlefield - a loss!

Was a very fun battle.

American and German Reinforcements Have Arrived!

As if I had a lot of free time, I have managed to boost my WW II forces considerably in the past month. New additions include a second platoon of U.S. Para, a second platoon of Armored Infantry (including five additional M3 half-tracks), and three more Sherman M4 (two 75 and one 76). Not shown in the pics is a P-38 I also finished. So I also have more "air" capability in the game (to go along with what I already have).



The Americans got major reinforcements this month!



Two full platoons of infantry added! To the left is my second platoon of armored infantry;
to the right another platoon of paratroops.

 

Three new Shermans, as well as 5 more M3 half-tracks!

For the Germans I managed to get another platoon of Luftwaffe field division infantry painted. Well, actually they are standard grenadiers - I just painted them in a more grey uniform. I will probably over-paint these guys in the more proper "green" tinted uniform. We shall see. Take note that these guys are actually mounted for the Panzer Grenadier rules. As shown in the pics this represents a full platoon of grenadiers (four bases). I also included an extra stand of LMG so I can swap out a "rifle" stand. In addition I also included a panzerfaust model (mounted individually). In Panzer Grenadier these little guys are added to a platoon to show the platoon has access to such an at weapon; once used, it is removed from the table (the panzerfaust model). So in a way this little guy is a simple marker  - but looks awesome! :)



The basing turned out quite good.



A full platoon with panzerfaust attached. Note the extra LMG team across the river.

Most are mounted for Flames of War (except the Germans who I mounted for Panzer Grenadier/Battlegroup). I may go back later and remount some of the American infantry on Panzer Grenadier bases so I can add to my forces for that game. Of course I will still be able to use them in FoW using my "lip" bases I created a few months back (see my earlier post on this).

All in all I am happy with the new forces. All are plastics (except for the three Shermans). This was my first time working with the BF plastics and although a bit fragile (to be expected of hard-plastic), they look pretty nice - better than say the PSC one which look a bit small and rigid, imo.

The painting is not finished of course. I still need to wash the models and finish off the bases with more detail. I basically followed my standard process of "painting to play", and worrying about the finer details later down the road.

Also, take note of some of the new terrain pieces I completed since last month. Managed to get a lot done actually, including stone walls, barbed-wire, barricades, farm animals! and a whole lot more. What funs :)

Some of the new terrain finished. Here are some barricades and barbed -wire.

Considering I have been extremely busy with school, as well as my ancients and colonial wargaming, I am pretty proud of myself for sticking with this project.