Thoughts: Dropzone Commander

At Hold The Line, I bought some raffle tickets. Unusually, I won something. Specifically, a copy of the Dropzone Commander rules and a box of figures for the rules.

This isn't really a review because I haven't played the game yet. So what we are dealing with is basically a set of first impressions. My first thought was to sell the two to make some money to buy something that I really wanted.

Now that I've read the rules (how could I not when I actually have a copy in my possession?), I'm more inclined to keep them, but I realize that it means that I need to spend money too.

Anyway, so you get the book and there's about 10 pages or so of background fluff that I still haven't read (and probably won't). Then there's about 14 pages of rules. The rules engine is basically IGOYGO but it's by group instead of the whole side. Units move and shoot or shoot and move. The wrinkle is that all shooting occurs at the same time and you have to designate targets before shooting. The emphasis is on movement, but the real key is on using the dropships and troop carriers to do the movement.

The combat is very deadly. Stuff dies quickly and easily. Especially, it looks like, infantry. Yet infantry are crucial because they are basically the only units that can enter buildings. So you are forced to protect them, even at the point of sacrificing other units.

After the rules, there are a healthy number of scenarios. Most are quick with only 6 turns or so. The focus is typically on grabbing an objective. You can win even though you lose 90% of your force and your opponent loses nothing. Basically, killing your opponent is a secondary thing used to break victory point ties.

The final part of the book is a reference with lots of pictures and stats.

Overall, it's a decent package. The rules are pretty straight forward and there isn't many of them. I still haven't made up my mind about them but they are at least under consideration.

Big Chain of Command: Russians vs Germans

This is David's report of the game:

Last Friday we had 5 people (Ian, Stephen,John,Ray and myself) chewing up the tundra in Mother Russia using Chain of Command. 

Stephen, Ian and I were trying to end the evil machinations of the Nazis but with mixed success.  We were the attackers and had 6 squads of inf, 1 T34 tank, 1 team of anti-tank inf, 1 sniper while they had 3 squads of inf, a Herzer tank, an anti-tank rifle team, a minefield and a stretch of barbed wire.

It started well with a Russian arty barrage having an impact on the arrival of die Krauten although they did get more people on table faster than the  Germans did the last time we played this. Stephen's right flank inf platoon moved ahead as did my left flank platoon while Ian had the tank, sniper and anti-tank team.  My leftmost squad had terrible movement rolls leaving them in the open for Nazi fire to hit.  My other two teams got to a hill where they could shoot down at  the Germans.  

Stephen moved a squad into a field and eventually used a CoC die to relocate a jump-off point to beyond the barbwire.  He then brought on a squad which inflicted casualties on the Nazis over there but they stabilized the situation with their tank. My rightmost squad inflicted damage before they took a pummeling from the Bosch and had to pull back into the woods and down a slope.  My left somehow held on under the withering fire of 2 squads (one in a building) for most of the night before they had to retire during the last phase.  

Our tank rolled along in a big circle on the right and back towards the centre where it poured HE into a machine gun nest in the building until an anti-tank rifle team appeared beside the house and scored a lucky hit on it.  Tank gone!  Stephen's forces in the field inflicted damage on the Krauts and my centre team dealt out some hurt to a machine gun and others.  

All the while, morale was dropping and the Germans were getting so close to getting to roll only 4 dice per phase.  12:30 came so we packed it in but it could have gone either way.  It would be the Russian turn if we continued and we just needed a couple of kills on one almost gone German team and on the anti-tank gunner and that probably would have been it (thanks for a number of German leader casualties).  However, the Stephen's morale status was almost as bad and mine was a bit better so it could have gone either way.  Thanks to Ian for running this.

Second Thoughts: Warlord's Panzergrenadiers (30 figures and 3 vehicles) and Late War Germans (25 figures)

While I was initially impressed by these boxes, now that I've been assembling them, I'm feeling let down, especially when compared to the Soviet box.

There are a number of problems:

• There are only 5 poses so I now have 11 of each.
• Warlord compounds the above problem by repeating three sets of arms. 
• There is no prone figure so you have no choice but to make the LMG gunners into Rambo.
• The right hands of the rifle arms don't hold the weapon well, unlike the Soviet figures.
• The arms don't integrate very well with the bodies. The shoulders stick out far too much and you don't get a nice joint. Each shoulder requires some knife work to make them far more seamless.
• The one accessory that I expected was some MG ammo belts to add to the figures. The late war Germans, especially Panzergrenediers, are notorious for lugging belts of ammo around with them, but none are included. There's sort of an ammo box but it seems awfully thin. Belts would have been far more useful.

And on top of that, I cannot even borrow the extra Soviet arms I have. The Russian arms are significantly bigger.

It's my understanding that the Soviet box is a later product. The experience that Warlord gained from these inferior German figures shows up.

Bocage

I have created some test bocage. I' rather pleased with the randomness and bulk of them so I plan to go into production of them (about 3 feet worth at a minimum) after Hold the Line next month.

Yes, there's a rather lost Soviet officer but he's the only fully painted figure I have for scale.

Operation Brushstroke

Mission:

To complete enough 28mm troops and support units to run a game of Big Chain of Command at Hold the Line on June 20th.

Assets: 

I have an number of friends who have some German troops that I can use if I don't get mine done. I also have a semi-dedicated painting space. I also have a good uniform reference book.

Description:

As listed on my inventory page, I have the following things to paint:

• 95 or so Russian figures to add to my existing 46
• 1 45mm AT gun
• 58 German figures
• 1 T34/85
• 1 Hetzer
• 1 Sdkfz 222 armoured car
• 3 Sdkfz 251 halftracks

I have about 6 weeks to complete them.

Plan:

1. Assemble all the figures and vehicles, scrape flash, and clean joins. Status: 55 Russians done. Target: May 4th.
2. Prime everything. Target: May 8th.
3. Paint the Russians. Target: May 25th. 
4. Paint the vehicles and other supports (except for the halftracks) Target: June 1st.
5. Paint the German figures. Target: June 15th.
6. Paint the halftracks. Target: June 16th.
7. Dulcote everything. Target June 18th.

Other items:

• Scenario design
• Scenario briefing
• CoC reference sheets
• More JOP markers
• Moar terrain!

In the Box: Panzergrenadiers from Warlord

I traded a box of 15mm Flames of War Afrika Corps figures with Richard for a box of 28mm Panzergrenadiers from Warlord Games so that I would have an opponent for my rapidly expanding Soviet force.

Let's see what I got. First, here's the box art:

Inside, you get 6 sprues of 5 figures. Here's a front and back shot of two sprues:

Credit to Warlord here: they modeled the figures so you could load them down as ordinary infantry who need to carry everything everywhere or you can lighten their load as panzergrenadiers who leave their packs in their trucks.

Update: I bought the 25 figure Late War Germans by Warlord and they have the exact same sprues. So I now wonder whether they were helping their customers by allowing them to choose what type of infantry they could build or saving money by repackaging existing sprues, Probably both views are correct.

You also get some weapons sprues, bases, and decals:

As panzergrenadiers, the box also comes with 3 sprues to build 3 halftracks (and one gunner figure who, unfortunately, really cannot be used outside of the halftrack):

Here's one that I dry fit together:

Hot Lead 2015

On the last Saturday of March, I had my annual pilgrimage to Stratford. As was usual, Hot Lead was well attended and organized. After signing up for the first game session, I hit the vendor tables to pick up some more Warlord Russian 28mm soldiers. I also picked up a box of 28mm late war Germans. I then went to MeepleMart and pick up a 45mm gun to provide my Russians with a little AT support. Having spent my budget, it was time for some gaming.

Unfortunately, the game I had signed up for was a no-go. With the pickings being rather slim, I ended up in a DBR game set in 15th century Italy with the French attempting to exit with the Italians attacking to the flank and rear. I commanded the far right of the Italians acting as the cork to bottle up the French and prevent them from exiting to the right. Here is the general battlefield with the road that the French are on off camera to the right:

I did really well rolling to maneuver and get my troops into position. I did incredibly poorly rolling for combat, resulting in me losing a lot of troops or missing out on opportunities to destroy enemy units. Here are two shots of my rapidly disintegrating command:

Eventually, my command broke. The other Italian commander near me had his attention split between two separate commands. Unfortunately, he didn't realize how dire things were for me and wasn't able to get his units in position in time to exploit the gaps I had created. The game ended and the GM ruled that the French would have been able to push our troops aside and escape along the road. I have to agree.

In the second game, it was Barbarossa but with Romanians against Russians in a battle of tin cans with cannons and infantry. The rules were Brigade Commander and they are extremely simple and stripped down. A little too stripped down for my taste. The action was a meeting engagement with the Romanians tasked with capturing the village as their objective. I placed my artillery and mortar on the hill, T70s to the left and had my infantry run to the village to occupy it.

This game I had some pretty impressive die rolling and managed to take out half of the Romanian tanks before I suffered any losses. The Romanian tanks settled for dueling it out with my tanks. The infantry formed into a massive column and tried to assault the building held by my troops. It did not go well for them.

The third game was Dux Britannia, where the Britons were defending a village. It was pretty much laid out as three separate battles and stayed that way throughout. Here is the left of the Saxon line. I had the right.

It took me a while to work around the mine to engage the Britons actually in the town. The Saxon cavalry did manage to keep the Britons a bit distracted. However, while this was happening, the Briton cavalry charged the center Saxon units and wiped out two of them. The remaining Saxon unit did manage to hold its own and eventually defeat all of the cavalry units, with the assistance on one Saxon unit from the far left. On the far left, it was two Saxon units frontally against a British shield wall. Predictably, this did not go well and eventually the entire Saxon left routed.

On the right, things went much better for the Saxons. After an aborted charge, my second charge managed to break a two unit British shield wall. My other unit chased the third British unit from the walls and into the village. However, with the rout of the Saxon left, my attacks were just too late and my command had to break off because of the collapse in morale.

The third game was the most fun of the three.