Operation Z Lion - 2016 Christmas Game

Below are some photos from the 2016 Christmas game  using ome brew rules from Adam and Lon.

Walmington-on-Sea was one of the landing sites for the Nazi Operation Z Lion. Could the British defenders throw the walking dead back into the sea?

A fun game was had by all - lots of crazy moments as zombies were shot up and driven over. Didn't save me (I drove that Grace Bros van into a horde and was eventually ripped apart!).

Battle of Lutter (1626) - a Field of Glory Renaissance Scenario

My 15mm rennaissance collection spans 1500 to at best the early part of the Thirty Years' War.

I decided I wanted to give the collection some focus, so aim to give it a slight Catholic flavour with generals with appropriate banners and themed troop types. And a suitable scenario for a game.

I settled on the Battle of Lutter in 1626 as it was one with equal size opposing forces that could have gone either way. Background infomation on the battle can be found here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lutter

The scenario would be on normal table (6' x 4') using 800 points for each army.
 The table would look something like this:

The Hummecke River with some swampy ground running along the middle length of the table, with the Neile River parallel about a foot away from the defenders (red) right table edge (i.e. a "T" of rivers). The town of Lutter would be in the middle of the defender's baseline. A small hill where Philip of Hesse deployed and forest on most edges and corners.

Because of the bad weather no double and triple moves are allowed. Deployment distance will be reduced. Defenders can deploy up to 24" in (i.e. on the river's edge) and attackers 12" in from their base edge.

The attacker can have one flank march that starts from a wooded edge, but can only be mounted and only be up to two Battle Groups (instead of the normal three). However, no General needs to accompany them and they arrive on a 9+. When the Flank March arrives it will need to test for Straggling as normal.

Everything else follows as normal for a game of FoGR.

Here are some photos of the game:

Reflections after the game had me thinking that if I was to play this game again changes would include:

• Moving the large forest on the western side of the battle to the defender's corner,
• Shortening the Hummecke River four or so inches before it becomes a swamp,
• Allowing double (but not triple) moves,
• Not making any river defensible,
• Having the Neile River about 18" from the table edge, not 12" as stated above (this change was made pre-game),
• Adding a few objectives for the attacker and defender to fight over, which will force both sides to want to cross the river, and
• Possibly allowing delayed reserves (3 BGs) for the defender (turning up on a 5+ from turn 3).

However, it was good to get the Renaissance toys out.

Battle of Empress Augusta Bay

At the League last Sunday we refought the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay using 'Victory at Sea'. Brett and Liam commanded the IJN (coming in from the north west), while Ara and I commanded the US Navy.

Background on the battle can be read on Wikipedia here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Empress_Augusta_Bay

While the US Navy Action Report Film:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJfwtv9e1EQ

And the interrogation of Vice Admiral Omori: 
https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/USSBS/IJO/IJO-78.html

Were useful in setting up the game and terrain.

Fleet compositions were as follows:

Imperial Japanese Navy
Cruiser Squadron
Myōkō (Myōkō-class heavy cruiser)
Haguro (Myōkō-class heavy cruiser)

10th Cruiser Squadron
Agano (Agano-class light cruiser)
Naganami (Yūgumo-class destroyer)
Hatsukaze (Kagerō-class destroyer)
Wakatsuki (Akizuki-class destroyer)

3rd Destroyer Squadron
Sendai (Sendai-class light cruiser)
Shigure (Shiratsuyu-class destroyer)
Samidare (Shiratsuyu-class destroyer)
Shiratsuyu (Shiratsuyu-class destroyer)

United States Navy
CruDiv 12
USS Montpelier (Cleveland-class light cruiser)
USS Cleveland (Cleveland-class light cruiser)
USS Columbia (Cleveland-class light cruiser)
USS Denver (Cleveland-class light cruiser)

DesDiv 45
USS Charles Ausburne (Fletcher-class destroyer)
USS Dyson (Fletcher-class destroyer)
USS Stanley (Fletcher-class destroyer)
USS Claxton (Fletcher-class destroyer)

DesDiv 46
USS Spence (Fletcher-class destroyer)
USS Thatcher (Fletcher-class destroyer)
USS Converse (Fletcher-class destroyer)
USS Foote (Fletcher-class destroyer)

The set up followed the situation from the point Admiral Merril ordered DesDiv 46 to attack with the USS Foote misinterpreting the commandand continuing on south. Game play was streamlined by having the destroyer squadrons' movement and shooting worked out together, and pairs of cruisers (though as the game went on we allowed independent activation for the cruisers) doing the same. The photo below is turn two or three, with the rain clouds (acting as cover) at the bottom of the photo. These would play an important part in the battle.

As it was a night battle, another element we used was flares that two Japenese snooper aircraft could drop over an enemy aircraft that would negate the negative to hit modifers for spotting at night under the rules. The aircraft cound move 15" at the start of each turn when the Japanese players activated their first squadron. The flare marker would then stay with the ship before being removed at the end of the turn. Normal spotting and night fighting rules (as per main rulebook and the OOB supplement) were also used, though I muddled them a little in the heat of the battle.

Ara and I fudged the defensive of the tranport ships (worth 3 victory points each), allowing the 10th Cruiser Squadron to slip through the rain clouds and launch torpedos without any opposition. We called the game when it was clear the ships would've all sunk before the remnants of the US Navy could have returned to protect the transports (none sank as I had made them too resilient). The Americans had only saved some honour in sinking more enemy crusiers (worth 3 victory points each) and detroyers (worth 1 victory point each).

Reflections on the game had us thinking that the torpedos for the Fletcher-class destroyers definitely seemed to be too powerful, so we're going to reread the rules to see if we missed something. I also made the transport ships too powerful (i.e. too many hull boxes), so for the next game I'll make them easier to sink.

Finally, there were too many ships on the table. Our previous games have been refights of River Plate, Cape Spada and the Bismarck with only a handful of ships on the table. For this battle there were a total of 22 ships, plus another 5 transport ships. The 6' x 4' table felt too crowded. Simple solution though - less ships or a bigger table. We'll play smaller actions in the next few months, but the squadron activation certainly allows for larger actions.

Rules: Mongoose Publishing 'Victory at Sea'
Scale: 1/1800 ships and 1/900 aircraft
Miniatures: Wizards of the Coast's 'War at Sea'
Table size: 6' x 4'

Little Wars Melbourne 2016

A low key Little Wars this year, playing in Ben, Django and Tyler's Long Tan game, using Battlefront's Vietnam Rules and figures. I didn't take any photos, but there was a lot of jungle.