What a Tanker! - France, 1940

It was time.  The German Panzers were painted.  The French armor was painted.  The field of battle was set.  It was time.....

Somewhere in France, May 1940.  The French were to slow the German advance and defend the town crossroads of Le Petite Rutherford.  Assigned to the small defensive group was:
Kevin in a Char B heavy tank and Gary and myself in two R-35 light tanks.

Fording a river on the right of the picture, the German advance was spearheaded by:

Joe in a Pz IVd, Dave in a Pz IIIe and Mike in a Pz38.

Gary advanced up the French right and came into sight of Mike's Pz38.

(and a Diet Coke)...his shot went wild...

Kevin in his Char B trundled up the road and came face to face with Joe's Pz IV.  

He shot and missed ...

Joe returned fire and bounced...but scared Kevin.  He ordered his driver forward, maybe to the safety of the woods...?

Meanwhile Gary in his R-35 danced with Mike's Pz 38.  Dave bogged down with his Pz III.  I on the other hand (in my R-35) advanced upon the bridge and thought I'd spring a little surprise on Joe's Pz IV....

But before I could cry out "Driver, hard left stick!" Mike had tired of playing with Gary and charged over the bridge.  As I crashed through the hedges Hell bent to shoot at Joe I found myself nose to nose with Mike's Pz 38!

"YIPES!" I cried out (but with a bad French accent).  I shot wildly at Mike....and destroyed the top floor of the house in front of me.......😆

With Joe and Mike distracted by me, Kevin's Char B driver punched it (if that's a thing in a Char B) and crashed through the woods and over the river to come face to face with Dave's Pz III...

Dave maneuvered his Pz III with all the skill and grace that a first time WoT player could and he damaged Kevin.  Me, finding retreat the better part of valor backed off the road through the hedges and tried to beat feet (in a R-35?) outta danger.  This gave Mike a chance to rear shot Kevin....which he took and destroyed him....

Joe took the opportunity to chase me down.....which to did.  He plunked at me...and plunked at me...until the inevitable happened...

Gary in his speeding R-35 started coming up the road only to run into Mike (who had just finished painting a kill ring on his Pz 38) coming back over the bridge...

 They exchanged shots and damage.  Mike backed over the bridge to gain a hull down position.  Dave, still maneuvering his Pz III with all the skill of a first time WoT player and was itching for a kill (since Mike had stolen Kevin's Char B) tried to work his way behind Gary.  Gary sensed the trap about to spring pulled off the road and tried to work his way between the woods.  It didn't work...the end of the French tanks came shortly...

Mike was the first the hunt Gary down...

Followed by Dave, er, Darryl...who took over because Dave had to leave...the end of Gary's R-35...

And the end of me...Joe getting his first kill in his first ever miniature game...

We all had a GREAT time playing What a Tanker !!  There were so many great quotes, most of which I couldn't repeat in public, but none of which I took the time to write down.  

If you haven't tried the What a Tanker rules, do so if you get a chance .

Fun times.....

Gaming Models - 1940 French Armor for "What a Tanker"

As promised in my last post, here are pictures of the French armor I purchased from Gaming Models.  They are 15mm resin, they come painted and dry brushed.  They can go right to the table, but I wanted to put my brush to them.  Unfortunately I have no other French armor from other manufacturers to compare them to, but, eh?  I thought all things considered, they are fine models well cast and they'll fight hard on my table.

I purchased a Char B and two R-35s.  According to my copy of What a Tanker they'll be a good match for my German armor.

Here they are in their just arrived in the mail condition:

Char B

 R-35

And here they are after I put the brush to them:

 Char B

 R-35

These were painted like the examples on the Warlord Games web page. 

The second R-35 is painted like my tank in World of Tanks.  One of my favorite tanks, I once held a bridge and destroyed 4 tanks attacking it.  I got all sorts of WOOT WOOT messages to my Xbox app..... 😎

And finally a group shot

As I said in my last post these are $5 each.  I think they are well cast and very table worthy.  I recommend them and Gaming Models in general.  He definitely will be getting more of my business. 

Next post:  The epic showdown somewhere in France, May 1940.......

Stay tuned........ 

Gaming Models - 1940 German Armor for "What a Tanker"

     Recently I picked up a copy of What a Tanker from Too Fat Lardies.  An easy game that simulates WW II armored warfare on an individual tank level.  It offers many different combatants over the war years.

https://toofatlardies.co.uk

     My problem is I didn't have many tanks available.  I have some American and German tanks for Flames of War, but what about other countries during other WW II time periods?

     Then I remembered reading on The Miniatures Page about a company that made 15mm tanks "pre-painted" for $5.00 each.  A little investigation lead me to a company called Gaming Models.

http://www.gamodls.com

     They offer resin models for the WW II years that they cast on demand.  For $5 each.  They also send them primed or painted in a base color and then washed.  They come "ready to game out of the box".  So I thought I'd give them a try.  I've never done France 1940, here was a perfect opportunity.  I ordered (for the Germans) a Pz38, a Pz IIIe and a Pz IVd.  For the French I ordered two R-35 "short" and a Char B.

     When they arrived I got exactly what was advertised.  They are not fine scale models, they don't claim to be.  They are models to be moved around on a gaming table.  They were gray for the Germans and green for the French.  I wouldn't say they were "washed", they look more dry brushed.  The casting look nice and yes they could have hit the table as is.  But I wanted to paint them up more.

     I present the following pictures of the German armor.  They are shots of the vehicles as received, shots of them after I "painted them up" and then comparison shots with other manufacturers.  Generally speaking I don't believe they fit too well with Zvesda or Battlefront (as you'll see) but they fit the purpose for which they were purchased perfectly.

Yes, I will be ordering more.  I hope you enjoy these pictures. 

Pz 38 as received

Pz 38 painted up

Pz 38: Zvesda on the left, Gaming Model on the right.

Pz IIIe as received (And yes, I have the Pz IV turret on it by mistake 😕)

Pz IIIe painted up

Pz III: Battlefront on the left, Gaming Model on the right.

Pz IVe as received (Displaying the two Pz III turrets I received, one a 37mm, the other a short 50mm.

Pz IVe painted up.

Pz IV: Gaming Models on the left, Battlefront on the right.

Next up is the French....

World at War Game Day at Ft. Meigs

I'm FINALLY getting around to posting pictures from my All Quiet on the Martian Front game that I hosted at this year's World at War game day held at Ft. Meigs in Perrysburg, Ohio.

It was a fun game, came down to the last few die rolls. 

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The Martians arrive for a food restocking.  They were to advance upon the town, the Red Martian being accompanied by the newly arrived Harvester, and get in there to grind up some Earthling crunchies and munchies!!
 

 
 The Humans are ready for the Martian advance and are spoiling for a fight.  Little do the Martians realize that this time the Humans have brought with them the latest innovation from the brilliant Nikola Tesla, his Lightning Gun!  (Seen near the middle top of the 2nd picture below)

 The Martians advance.......

The Harvester ready to grind up a defenseless human it scooped up.....

Unafraid, the Humans move forward.  Defense of a homeland, or in this case, a homeworld, is a powerful motivator...

Cannons booming, Heat Rays burning flesh and melting steel the battle is joined.  In a war between worlds no quarter is asked or given.....

A direct hit is scored and an Assault Tripod explodes catastrophically taking a Scout Tripod behind with it!

 

The battle raged with losses being taken on both side.  The remaining Human defenders move into position and draw up a last line of defense.

The Martians continued their advance and taking losses until it finally came down to next side to lose a unit would break.  The Humans got the initiative (to much cheering and throwing of arms into the air) but failed to score a kill (to much groaning and throwing of arms into the air).  The Martians returned in kind and destroyed most of the units seen in the picture above.

A hard fought but Pyrrhic Martian Victory!!!!! 

Rebel attack in Bongolesia - One Survivor tells the story!

My gaming buddies and I have been wanting to dig out our Bongolesia forces for some time, last week we decided the time was right.  Shock Force / War Engine from Demon Blade was the rules of choice.  Mike has the Bongolesian Government forces while I have the Rebels.  We kept the force creation kind of stock, I used "The Organization" from the Shock Force book as a basis of my troops, adding just a few tweaks.  I'm not really sure what Mike based his on; they may have been made from scratch.  We decided that we would each create a force, declare how many points we had used then adjust accordingly before game time.

When declaration time came, we both had chosen a force of 27 figures and a tank, but Mike's force was about 600 points more than mine.  No problem, I grabbed 2 more tanks and added a ton of Hero Points to them and my force Commander and we were ready to play....

 Somewhere in the jungles of Bongolesia Government and Rebel forces prepare to clash.....

Rebel forces win the initiative and begin a cautious advance...

Government forces move out.....
 

 The latest acquisition from a "Friendly Sponsor Nation" makes an appearance.....But the Rebels get the first shot and......

 WHAM!!!!!

Mike rolled horribly, Kevin not too bad.  I had to get a shot of the opposing dice:

21-14.  Not enough hero points to save it.  First blood Rebels......

 On the Rebel right flank a firefight broke out as the Government  forces attempted to push across the road.  One of the Rebel tanks was hit by anti-tank fire and destroyed...
 

A Rebel T-72 covers the road allowing fellow troops to move into the building...

Flush with a tank kill, a Rebel tanks moves into Government territory hoping to support the Infantry rushing across the street......

And runs head long into the opposition....

As the tank explodes the Rebels took the opportunity to move to the courtyard hoping to get a line of sight on the Government troops.  At this point all hell broke loose with devastating gunfire and bloody hand to hand combats.....

 Gunfire crisscrossed the streets as Rebels behind the walls traded fire with Soldiers on the roof tops (yes, if you look hard you can see their heads)...

The last remaining Rebel tank tries to attack the Government Soldiers on the Rebel right.  Intense fighting resulting in many Infantry causalities and the tank expending Hero Points (the red chips).  In the end it didn't have enough.....

Back on the left, house to house fight was short but intense.  The Mercenary Advisor was killed, but the Rebels won out....

After a small pause to regroup the remaining Warfighters from both side made one final assault against each other, but in the end, only one man was left standing...

Army of Bongolesia Sergeant Youtubeo

The final causality count: 53 of 54 figures and all 4 vehicles.....

Below is satellite photos of the carnage:

A good time in Bongolesia was had.  Thanks for looking 👴