Desired scans : Rank and File supplements Harpoon 3 & 4 supplements Force on Force supplements Hind Commander At Close Quarters War and Conquest
Ryan Wilson
14th February in military history:
748 – Abbasid Revolution: The Hashimi rebels take Merv, marking the consolidation of the revolt. 1778 – The United States flag is formally recognized by a foreign naval vessel for the first time, when French Admiral de la Motte renders a nine gun salute to USS Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones. 1779 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Kettle Creek is fought in Georgia. 1779 – James Cook is killed by Native Hawaiians near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii. 1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Cape St. Vincent: John Jervis and Horatio Nelson lead the British Royal Navy to victory over a Spanish fleet. 1804 – Karađorđe leads the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire. 1831 – Ras Marye of Yejju marches into Tigray and defeats and kills Dejazmach Sabagadis in the Battle of Debre Abbay. 1879 – The War of the Pacific breaks out when Chilean armed forces occupy the Bolivian port city of Antofagasta. 1900 – British forces begin the Battle of the Tugela Heights in an effort to lift the Siege of Ladysmith. 1912 – In Groton, Connecticut, the first diesel-powered submarine is commissioned. 1919 – The Polish–Soviet War begins. 1929 – Saint Valentine's Day Massacre: Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone's gang, are murdered in Chicago. 1942 – Battle of Pasir Panjang contributes to the fall of Singapore. 1943 – World War II: Tunisia Campaign: Von Arnim's Fifth Panzer Army launches a concerted attack against Allied positions in Tunisia. 1944 – World War II: A British submarine sinks a German-controlled Italian submarine in the Strait of Malacca. 1945 – World War II: The first day of the bombing of Dresden. 1950 – Chinese Civil War: The National Revolutionary Army instigates the unsuccessful Battle of Tianquan. 1979 – In Kabul, militants kidnap the American ambassador to Afghanistan who is later killed during a gunfight between his kidnappers and police.
Carson Miller
It is 220 years since the Battle of Cape St Vincent, one of the opening battles of the Anglo-Spanish War (1796–1808, part of the larger French Revolutionary Wars), where a British fleet under Admiral Sir John Jervis defeated a larger Spanish fleet under Admiral Don José de Córdoba y Ramos near Cape St. Vincent, Portugal.
In late 1796, the military situation ashore in Italy led to the Royal Navy being compelled to abandon the Mediterranean. The commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, Admiral Jervis instructed Commodore Nelson to oversee the final aspects of the evacuation. With the British withdrawing, Admiral Córdoba elected to move his fleet of 27 ships of the line from Cartagena through the Straits of Gibraltar to Cadiz in preparation for joining with the French at Brest.
As Córdoba's ships got underway, Jervis was departing the Tagus with 10 ships of the line to take up a position off Cape St. Vincent. Having left Cartagena on February 1, 1797, Córdoba encountered a strong easterly wind, known as a Levanter, as his ships cleared the straits.
As a result, his fleet was blown out into the Atlantic and forced to work their way back towards Cadiz. Six days later, Jervis was reinforced by five ships of the line from the Channel Fleet. His work in the Mediterranean completed, Nelson sailed aboard the frigate HMS Minerve to rejoin Jervis. On the night of February 11, Minerve encountered the Spanish fleet and successfully passed through it without being detected.
Reaching Jervis, Nelson came aboard the flagship, HMS Victory (102 guns) and reported Córdoba's position. While Nelson returned to HMS Captain (74), Jervis made preparations to intercept the Spanish. Through the fog on the night of February 13/14, the British began to hear the signal guns of the Spanish ships. Turning towards the noise, Jervis ordered his ships to prepare for action around dawn and stated, "A victory to England is very essential at this moment."
Luke Peterson
As the fog began to lift, it became clear that the British were outnumbered nearly two-to-one. Unfazed by the odds, Jervis instructed his fleet to form a line of battle. As the British approached, the Spanish fleet was divided into two groups. The larger, consisting of 18 ships of the line, was to the west, while the smaller, made up of 9 ships of the line stood to the east. Seeking to maximize the firepower of his ships, Jervis intended to pass between the two Spanish formations. Led by Captain Thomas Troubridge's HMS Culloden (74) Jervis' line began to pass the western Spanish group.
Though he had numbers, Córdoba directed his fleet to turn north to pass alongside the British and escape towards Cadiz. Seeing this, Jervis ordered Troubridge to tack to the north to pursue the larger body of Spanish ships. As the British fleet began to turn, several of its ships engaged the smaller Spanish squadron to the east. Turning to the north, the Jervis' line soon formed a "U" as it changed course. Third from the end of the line, Nelson realized that the present situation would not produce the decisive battle that Jervis wanted as the British would be forced to chase the Spanish.
Liberally interpreting Jervis' earlier order of "Take suitable stations for mutual support and engage the enemy as coming up in succession," Nelson told Captain Ralph Miller to pull Captain out of line and wear ship. Passing through HMS Diadem (64) and Excellent (74), Captain charged into the Spanish vanguard and engaged Santísima Trinidad (130). Though severely out-gunned, Captain battled six Spanish ships, including three that mounted over 100 guns. This bold move slowed the Spanish formation and allowed Culloden and subsequent British ships to catch up and join the fray.
David Long
Charging forward, Culloden entered the fight around 1:30 PM, while Captain Cuthbert Collingwood led Excellent into the battle. The arrival of additional British ships prevented the Spanish from banding together and drew fire away from Captain. Pushing forward, Collingwood pummeled Salvator del Mundo (112) before compelling San Ysidro (74) to surrender. Aided by Diadem and Victory, Excellent returned to Salvator del Mundo and forced that ship to strike its colors. Around 3:00, Excellent opened fire on San Nicolás (84) causing the Spanish ship to collide with San José (112).
Nearly out of control, the badly damaged Captain opened fire on the two fouled Spanish vessels before hooking onto San Nicolás. Leading his men forward, Nelson boarded San Nicolás and captured the vessel. While accepting its surrender, his men were fired upon by San José. Rallying his forces, Nelson surged aboard San José and compelled its crew to surrender. While Nelson was accomplishing this amazing feat, Santísima Trinidad had been forced to strike by the other British ships.
At this point, Pelayo (74) and San Pablo (74) came to the flagship's assistance. Bearing down on Diadem and Excellent, Captain Cayetano Valdés of Pelayo ordered Santísima Trinidad to re-hoist its colors or be treated as an enemy vessel. Doing so, Santísima Trinidad limped away as the two Spanish ships provided cover. By 4:00, the fighting effectively ended as the Spanish retreated east while Jervis ordered his ships to cover the prizes
The British captured four Spanish ships of the line including two first-rates. In the fighting, Spanish losses numbered around 250 killed and 550 wounded, while Jervis' fleet suffered 73 killed and 327 wounded. In reward for this stunning victory, Jervis was elevated to the peerage as Earl St. Vincent, while Nelson was promoted to rear admiral and made a knight in the Order of Bath.
Michael Turner
The victory at Cape St. Vincent led to a containment of the Spanish fleet and ultimately allowed Jervis to send a squadron back to the Mediterranean the following year. Led by Nelson, this fleet achieved a decisive victory over the French at the Battle of the Nile.
Córdoba was arrested on his arrival at Cadiz, taken under military escort to Madrid and dismissed from the service by King Charles IV. Several of the Spanish captains were tried by court martial and dismissed or reduced in rank.
The Royal Navy referred to Nelson's extraordinary feat in capturing the two Spanish ships as "Nelson's Patent Bridge for Boarding" i.e. capturing one ship by crossing another.
It is 73 years since the Action of 14 February 1944, one of the few naval engagements of the Asian and Pacific Theater involving German and Italian forces.
Following Italy's surrender to the Allies, a group of Italian submarines — including the Reginaldo Giuliani — were interned at Singapore by the occupying Japanese military on 10 September 1943. The Japanese turned the vessels over to the Kriegsmarine which operated several bases in southeast Asia. Reginaldo Giuliani had been converted to cargo service after being found unsatisfactory in an offensive role. The Kriegsmarine renamed her UIT-23, and she sailed for France on 15 February 1944 under the command of Oberleutnant zur See Werner Striegler with a cargo of tin, quinine and other goods. Aboard UIT-23 were several Italian submariners who made up part of the boat's crew.
The submarine was cruising on the surface about 80 nautical miles (150 km; 92 mi) south of Penang, Malaysia just off the western mouth of the Strait of Malacca when it was discovered by the British submarine HMS Tally-Ho, under the command of Lieutenant Commander Leslie Bennington of the 4th Submarine Flotilla. Tally-Ho was campaigning in the strait, where she sank several enemy vessels. Lt. Cdr. Bennington was also cruising on the surface, patrolling for enemy shipping, when she sighted UIT-23 in the daytime. Tally-Ho attacked at full speed. Tally-Ho and UIT-23 were headed straight for one another when they both fired a spread of torpedoes.
Only Tally-Ho made hits, and UIT-23 quickly sank with a loss of 26 men. Fourteen men went into the water where they remained for some time before being rescued by Axis seaplanes and taken to Penang. The survivors were forced to strap themselves to the floats of the planes where they rode out the eighty miles back to base.
Grayson Powell
The community project this month, is a mini or unit based on something from military fiction. The cutoff date is the 16th.
Jose Ramirez
>No Valentine tank
OP, I...
Isaac Gray
Base unfinished, and the black boots are a bit rough. Any other feedback on my WIP?
Josiah Cruz
Black leggings trimmed red, black moccassins and black and red breach clout.
All perfectly reasonable, but together they make your miniature a bit bland. It's really screaming out for some colour, to my mind.
John Morris
You're right, but unless I attempt the black warpaint it's pretty accurate to the film...
Lincoln Roberts
1800hrs 3 Nov 1956 Sinai Peninsula
After having cleared what resistance remained in the Gaza Strip the bulk of the Gaza Division was tasked to advance down the coastal road west to assist the 77th Division. Two battalions of infantry from the 77th and 24 Super Shermans from the 37th Armored launched an attack on the Egyptian defenders at El Arish along a 4 kilometer front. The Egyptians had fewer fortifications than expected but the defending infantry was backed up by several Archer SPATGs and Sherman tanks. The Egyptian tanks had their normal turrets removed and were armed with turrets from the French made AMX series of tanks. By noon the Egyptian forces had been thrown back out of the city with the only exception being some infantry on the south end of town.
In the center the 38th had finally cleared Abu Agheila and at dawn the division was unleashed to drive west towards the Suez Canal. The division made good time with lead elements clearing 75 kilometers by nightfall. The bulk of the division was scattered up and down the road leading those 75 kilometers back to Abu Agheila, but they were making good progress, passing the mountain Jebel Libni, the corssroads at Bir El Hamma, and securing Tasa Pass.
Juan Parker
The Paras at Mitia Pass regrouped a bit and then they drove hard along the road west as well capturing some Egyptian supply vehicles as the sped twords the town of Port Tewfet at the southern end of the Suez Canal. The paras then turned south and drove for the village of Ras El Suda and then they would continue on to the villages of Tur and Jebel almost 100 kilometers away where the last of the paratrooper companies had landed the night before.
The 9th Infantry Brigade continued to move south and cautiously approached the town of Nabak. Intelligence had reported that there were Egyptian forces garrisoned there but the Israeli troops entered a quite town. The civilians had shuttered doors and windows and there was no sign of the Egyptians anywhere. A quick check of one of the garrisons revealed still warm embers where it looked as if the Egyptians had burned documents before bugging out. The 9th passed through and continued south.
But where was the bulk of the Egyptian army at? Recon flights had shown they had left their staging areas at the Suez Cannal...but no sign of them had been seen since. Where the hell were they?
Ryder King
It's back!
Elijah James
Thrilling! Keep it up mate
Noah Hill
Keep em coming!
Colton Clark
What precisely are you playing?
I think I missed the first post and I'm actually curious about playing this myself.
Austin Edwards
got a few more turns to go. wouldnt leave you guys hanging, but dont want to overwhelm you either. 1 post a day is good I think ;) And I will say i think this was probably one of the better campaign games to start off with. 40 turns-only 3 weak divisions and some other units. gives me a good feel for operating large unit formations before i step into one of the monster campaigns. Like the 185 turn campaign game from his Fulda Gap '85 game....with the soviets having 11+ Divisions. not sure im going to do that one yet
Its the 1956 campaign game for "Middle East '67" from john tiller software.
ive never seen them go on sale, not even at christmas time. It sucks yeah.
Wyatt Garcia
on the up side-the Command Ops 2 series is coming to Steam. And they do have sales...quite often!
Camden Peterson
Speaking of, I just downloaded the core engine a couple of days ago to try it out and really enjoyed the default scenarios. One it goes up on Steam I think I'll pick up the Cauldron and Highway to the Reich modules next time they go on sale.
Jonathan Collins
The pain of being in a relatively niche market.
Christopher Mitchell
I know this is only tangentially related, but I don't know a better place to ask.
What are your favourite /hwg/ relevant vidya games?
Pic related is Steel Panthers MBT and one of my favourites for sheer variety of factions and conflicts.
Ryan Fisher
Obligatory Total War comment, but the Conflict Series on Android really tickles my fancy for some reason, especially the Western Front one. It's not particularly complex, but it's good fun.
Asher Davis
I really liked World In Conflict, because I also love all the old Cold War Gone Hot wargames, and it's just about the only vidya like that
Cameron Ortiz
I can't get enough of CK2. I'm enjoying Total Warhammer, which isn't /hwg/, but that series has never been particularly realistic - I just like lining up my dorfs and cannon.
I keep going back to Firefight over the years. windowsgames.co.uk/ff.html Real-time WW2 tactics where your units will bog down into suppression hell, making you really appreciate the importance of reserves.
Advanced Tactics Gold is also pretty fun.
I keep meaning to try to learn SAM Simulator. sites.google.com/site/samsimulator1972/home I mean, I've given it a very shallow look and done a few war crimes against airliners, but anything more than that...
Jace Green
Original Shogun Total War, both Medieval Total War games too, mostly for the mods. So many mods. Close Combat series, especially #3. Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm for dat WW3 Samurai Warriors 4-II; I'd know far less about the Sengoku Jidai if that game hadn't given me reason to be constantly looking up who the characters were IRL, which the Total War games never managed
Henry Cook
"Historical" Wargames
An excuse to play your white conqueror sims.
Adrian Cook
It annoys me when games are written by historical illiterates who spend years studying minute details of the 69th SS Fuksteins but lump all brown people into "lol they're like tribal and shit" and consider in-depth research for the game they're writing to be reading the *whole* of the wikipedia article's summary paragraph.
Also I'm bad at games so the white conquerors tend to die horribly. :)
Grayson Harris
t.butthurt former colonies
Dominic Russell
England's still a colony, though?
fucking saxons, coming over here, stealing our land and acting like they own the place
and don't even get me started on rome
Jaxson Wood
ROMANES EUNT DOMUS
Julian Reyes
remove garum
Jace Russell
SP:MBT is indeed a superb game, especially with the mods they put out; there was a Twilight 2000 campaign that I particularly loved. Of course Close Combat and the Total War series too, as already mentioned. I would add the Sturmovik series too; not just was it a cracking flight sim but the amazing editor allowed you to design huge battles with all air/ground/naval elements, then sit back and watch them play out. I've never encountered a game that had the same kind of variety.
All right... all right... but apart from better sanitation and medicine and education and irrigation and public health and roads and a freshwater system and baths and public order... what have the Romans done for us?
Nathaniel Mitchell
>free version >40 bucks to get artillery and the ability to see how high terrain is fuck
Hudson Hernandez
>The mods they put out there
Ok you've peaked my interest, what mods would these be?
Luis Parker
>what mods would these be? It's been a while since I looked - years honestly - but there was one based on battles from T2K as I mentioned, an Indonesian/Australian war one based around the "Tomorrow When The War Comes" books, and stuff for the wars in Rhodesia/Mozambique. I'm trying to dig up the old link but it's been so long I don't know if it's even active, so you may have to google around.
Adam Foster
I found Men of War to be excellent. 1 V 1 head to head LANs were some of my best vidya / wargaming experiences. True fog of war (meaning recon is actually important - get those binocs out...) and fairly accurate armor / infantry / artillery tactics and implementation, plus the ability to actually drive tanks and go on crazy suicide scouting missions in cars.
Vidya is definitely one place where fog of war can be done excellently.
Carson Rivera
>1 post a day is good I think ;)
One a day is perfectly fine. Your AAR posts are gifts, so no one should be squawking about their frequency.
Jaxon Price
Conjugate the verb!
Evan Barnes
If you don't like how games handle it write your won rather than whinging. I know you're shitty bait but other more reasonable people may see this.
Kevin Thompson
Did anyone have a copy of the expansion for Crossfire? I didn't see it in the list.
Brayden Morris
t.infinity player
Grayson Watson
...
Sebastian Myers
What? No George?
Anthony Collins
at least they are not as bad as some of the Matrix stuff...that stuff pushes $100 for some titles. ok mostly just the stuff by Gary Grigsby
i tried the tutorial some months back. I want to like it..I really do...but i found what the turotial was telling me to do and how to do it in game were 2 different things. I suppose if I sat down with it and dug into it pretty hard I would be able to figure it out.
and more than likely I will at some point now that its on steam.....
Direct Wargames? Anything from John Tiller Software, The Scourge of War series, most anything Matrix puts out...
cursory wargames-almost anything Paradox does, the Total War series, I will lump the Sid Miers Civilization games in here.
Ill admit I always hated Steel Panthers. far to easy to manipulate the game. Want to make sure you are guaranteed a victory-hunt down his HQ and kill it. Stack the biggest arty you can and load it up with ammo depots next to them-unlimited artillery......far too many-cheesy exploits
Andrew Jones
>Can't help but see Rick Moranis as a Tommy.
Julian Davis
1800 4 Nov 1956 Sinai Penninsula
The question on the minds of all Israeli forces was where the hell was the Egyptian Divisions? Air recon hadnt been able to find a single trace of them anywhere. Because of this-in the north the 77th and Gaza Division decided to stop advancing one reaching the town of Misfak. A bulk of both divisions were scattered back along the road all the wat back to Israeli territory. IF one of the Egyptian divisions was in the area, now was the time to form up a cohesive combat formation.
In the center the 38th Division continued its advance and managed to reach their major divisional target and found it occupied by Egytpian forces. Was this part of one of the Egyptian divisions? Israeli tanks formed up and started their attack with the AMX tanks in the lead and backed up by 20 Super Shermans. It looked like it was going to be a long night for the 38th.
The paratroopers made huge gains as they raced down the coast and manage to occupy the village of Abu Zenima with little trouble. The decision was that the paras would stop at this village and reform.
The 9th Infantry Brigade cautiously approached the village of Ras Nasrani, and were unsure if they would be met with gunfire or if it was going to be unoccupied as the village of Nabak had been. Gunfire erupted from the village and a sharp bitter firefight erupted but the Egyptians were quickly routed and the 9th continued on. Thier goal of Sharm El-Sheikh was only a few kilometers away. As the Israelis approached the town they ran into a string of pill boxes and both battalions of the 9th deployed for combat. b nightfall they had pushed several Egyptian forces back out of the town, capturing several pillboxes and the bulk of the town.
Benjamin Phillips
I would appreciate if anybody has any advice on these campaign ideas for Hail Caesar in 15mm. (Hellenistic/Punic era)
The groups of players are represented by the red side and the green side. Winning the first battle will result in the armies belonging to the winning side setting foot in the territory controlled by their opponent. (For example, if the green side wins the first Pitched Battle, the next battle would be a Raid scenario in the red territory. If they win again the next battle will move another box to the left and so forth) The campaign lasts until one side successfully conquers their opponents’ capital, represented by the Siege battle on the linear campaign representation below. .
Each month each player’s army increases by 30 points to be spent in your chosen Hail Caesar army list (excluding generals). Points may be saved to buy more expensive units later on in the campaign.
If a unit was broken during the game, roll a die. On a 4+ this unit is considered shattered and the procedure for shattered units shown below is applied. On any other result the unit has retained enough men and organization to return to normal fighting capacity.
If a unit was shattered during the game, roll a die. This unit gains one of the following special rules: - 1 or 2: Freshly raised - 3 or 4: Levy - 5 or 6: Militia
If a unit has broken an enemy unit in combat and has survived the battle unbroken, roll a die. This unit gains one of the following special rules: - 1: Steady - 2: Stubborn - 3: Eager - 4: Brave - 5: Elite - 6: Drilled
If a unit already already has the special rule rolled for, the controlling player must roll again on the table.
Adrian Price
Not sure if you want to count it since its battles are mostly skirmishes but Jagged Alliance 2 (with the 1.13 mod obviously) remains my number 1.
Panzer Corps with its immense german DLC campaign is pretty awesome too.
Jaxson Murphy
>1944 – World War II: A British submarine sinks a German-controlled Italian submarine in the Strait of Malacca. This piqued my interest, and I found this ibiblio.org/hyperwar/Germany/KM/IndianOcean/index.html Absolutely bloody fascinating.
Ian Scott
I had similar Strategic rules for my first attempt - it bombed real quick, as I (essentially) fought one and the same battle over & over again.
Your rules are pretty good (although less harsh than mine) - standard post-battle, reinforcements-are-coming, stuff, no problem there. The main problem is (or will become, IMHO) linearity.
Top advice: Make some rules that will throw a curveball at you.
James Robinson
Low quality bait.
Colton King
It seems as if one side would snowball in terms of quality, and points increases are linear and equal.
Perhaps have defeats lead to an increased point value going into the next game, as a balancing mechanism.
Perhaps have somewhat randomised scenarios/scenario progression.
Lincoln Ross
>Absolutely bloody fascinating.
Sunk by a RN sub, right? Almost like a duel. Both sub spotted each other about the same time, both launched torpedoes, but only the RN aimed true.
There was another sub vs. u-boat "duel" very late in the war. The submerged RN sub detected, tracked, launched on, and sank the submerged u-boat entirely by hydrophone (passive sonar). Fucking fantastic considering the tech at the time.
Justin Foster
Thanks. We have 6 players, 3 of whom have armies ready to field. We don't get together very often, so I didn't think playing the same kind of battle a few times wouldn't be that bad (we do that now anyway).
But maybe you are right about the linearity, I was thinking of maybe giving the ''defender'' some extra troops the closer to his capital he is? City guards, fanatical mobs.. quickly raised troops or mercenaries?
Good idea, but it is also to get people painting their armies. Making them paint extra is maybe not the best. Random scenario's is good. I was thinking some cool stuff in the ''Raid'' battles (cattle stealing, convoy protection, that kind of stuff).
Good to have some input guys!
Benjamin Gutierrez
BMP
Luis Moore
Would there be any way of getting rid of the special rules? So if an Elite unit was broken they would lose elite or a Levy surviving lose Levy?
Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord Combat Mission II: Barbarossa to Berlin Combat Mission 3: Afrika Korps
Countless scenarios are available online for free.
Anthony Jackson
MAH NIGGA
I have Beyond Overall still installed. I spent so many hours on that shit holy fuck.
Easton Carter
>Based Combat Mission mentioned in this thread
I'm more modern, with Combat Mission: Afghanistan Combat Mission: Shock Force Combat Mission: Red Star
How do the old games hold up these days?
Juan Thompson
Oh man, how could I forget Combat Mission! So many hours sunk into those games. What made it so awesome was the fact it was like a minis game where you could zoom down into your army mens' perspective. I loved the alternation between the planning phase and the action phase; nothing like watch your plans fall apart in real time!
>How do the old games hold up these days? They're still playable as hell, there's an active fanbase which continues to crank out skins and scenarios. I played a bit of Afghanistan; particularly the Operation Storm-333 mission which I fucked up completely.
I still have two screenshots saved from my CM days. Here's my valiant Kiwi major going down fighting at Minqar Qaim, as the Afrikakorps overrun his position. This was (both historically and in the game) a desperate last stand, as my valiant diggers had nothing but grenades and their fingernails to fight back against Stukas, PzIIIs and motorized infantry, yet they still clung on to the bitter end.
Carter Collins
On a more successful note was this Barbarossa-era scrap with the SS-Totenkopf regiment fighting against an armoured Soviet counterattack. They had no serious AT to deal with a KV rolling in; so I distracted it with one squad (seen in the distance) while another stalked around behind it in true panzerjager fashion and rained molotov cocktails down on the beast, igniting the wheatfield around it and frying the Ivans.
Caleb Russell
Men of War, Wargame red dragon and Graviteam Tactics Opstar
On the topic, PSA: Command Ops 2 is now available on Steam and all it's modules are 20% off. Would recommend.
Josiah Green
I have added something for that now. An experienced unit utterly destroyed during a battle will get fresh replacements, experience waters down. A freshly raised, militia or levy unit will lose that special rule after having fought and survived a battle.
Jacob Taylor
...
Caleb Wilson
In Bolt Action how much trouble am I in if I base my force around a historically accurate British platoon?
That is HQ, three rifle sections with Bren and an SMG for the NCO plus a PIAT and a 2 inch mortar. I have heard the game does not always favour historical forces.
Jeremiah Lopez
nah. if you want to play tournaments you will encounter assholes playing cheese but in a friendly game you're fine with that.
David Martin
I only played with historical OOBs, and usually to good effect.
Charles Lee
I remember playing Combat Mission for month nonstop. Such a great game.
I even have a couple of pics made in 2004 from it.
Easton Martinez
>I have heard the game does not always favour historical forces.
That's a function of all rule sets which balance game play by build points rather than victory conditions be it DBM, WH40K, Bolt Action, or anything else.
You want a game to be balanced so each side as an equal chance of winning but, unless you're "recycling" historic battles & skirmishes, it's hard to come up with victory conditions that aren't "Destroy/damage more units than your opponent does".
Take ASL. I can balance a historical scenario by using the historical outcome: Do better, you won. Do worse, you lose. Step away from a historical scenario and suddenly you're using points and army lists in an attempt to create a balance. Because points and army lists are partially subjective, things can get hinky.
As correctly points out, you start getting players who "game" the points and build list rather than playing the game. An example from DBM are players who field entirely legal armies which just happen to be 100% cavalry.
Unless you run into an "asshole playing cheese", using a historical OOB should provide you with a worthwhile game.
Jeremiah Cox
You lack something against armor. Sure, the PIAT, but its not that great. I don't know what would be historically correct as AT-support for such a unit, but bring either a AT-gun or a tank of some sort. Besides that you'll be fine. Sure, some nasty cheese lists can and will beat you, but i wouldn't recommend playing against WAAC-guys anyway.
Anthony Scott
Not him, but with my true-to-organization Tommies I use a 6pdr along with a PIAT, and that's usually enough.
Isaac Baker
Motherfucker, I'm broke until I get paid.
...ooh, base game is free and it comes with a couple of scenarios. That's OK, then.
I've been waiting for this to come to Steam for a while, it looks really neat from some LP-style videos.
Angel Diaz
0600 5 Nov 1956 Sinai Peninsula
The only real action that passed through the night of the 4th and the morning of the 5th was the actions of tanks of the 38th Division clearing the crossroads final division objective and the 9th Infantry brigade securing its hold on Sharm El-Sheikh.
At this point, Israeli forces were put onto standby and told to cease combat operations as actions outside their hands were taking place.
The entire war that the Israelis initiated had been a plan put into effort by the British, French and Israelis against Nasser of Egypt. Since the establishment of Israel in 1948, cargo shipments to and from Israel had been subject to Egyptian authorization, search and seizure while attempting to pass through the Suez Canal. In late 1954, Nasser began a policy of sponsoring raids into Israel by the fedayeen, who almost always attacked civilians.
Starting in 1949 owing to shared nuclear research, France and Israel started to move towards an alliance. Following the outbreak of the Algerian War in late 1954, France began to ship more and more arms to Israel.By 1956 France as one of Israel's largest allies.
Throughout 1955 and 1956 Nasser pursued a number of policies that would frustrate British aims throughout the Middle East, and result in increasing hostility between Britain and Egypt.
Britain was anxious lest it lose efficient access to the remains of its empire. Both Britain and France were eager that the canal should remain open as an important conduit of oil.
Joseph Wood
On late 5 November, an advance element of the 3rd Battalion of the British Parachute Regiment dropped on El Gamil Airfield, a narrow strip of land, led by Brigadier M.A.H. Butler. The "Red Devils" could not return Egyptian fire while landing, but once the paratroopers landed, they used their Sten guns, three-inch mortars and anti-tank weapons with great effect. Having taken the airfield with a dozen casualties, the remainder of the battalion flew in by helicopter. The Battalion then secured the area around the airfield.
At the same time, Lieutenant Colonel Pierre Chateau-Jobert landed with a force of the 2nd RPC at Raswa. Raswa imposed the problem of a small drop zone surrounded by water, but General Jacques Massu of the 10th Parachute Division assured Beaufre that this was not an insolvable problem for his men. 500 heavily armed paratroopers of the French 2nd Colonial Parachute Regiment (2ème RPC), hastily redeployed from combat in Algeria, jumped over the al-Raswa bridges from Nord Noratlas 2501 transports of the Escadrille de Transport (ET) 1/61 and ET 3/61, together with some combat engineers of the Guards Independent Parachute Company
At first light on 6 November, commandos of No. 42 and 40 Commando Royal Marines stormed the beaches, using landing craft of World War II vintage (Landing Craft Assault and Landing Vehicle Tracked).[236] The battle group standing offshore opened fire, giving covering fire for the landings and causing considerable damage to the Egyptian batteries and gun emplacements. The town of Port Said sustained great damage and was seen to be alight.
Charles Barnes
The British government faced political and economic pressure. Sir Anthony Eden, the British Prime Minister, announced a cease fire on 6 November, warning neither France nor Israel beforehand. Troops were still in Port Said and on operational maneuvers when the order came from London. Port Said had been overrun and the military assessment was that the Suez Canal could have been completely taken within 24 hours.Eisenhower initially agreed to meet with Eden and Mollet to resolve their differences, but then canceled the proposed meeting after Secretary of State Dulles advised him it risked inflaming the Middle Eastern situation further.
And what had happened to the 2 Egyptian Divisions? They had taken up positions in the Gidi Pass, north of Mitia Pass and sat there the entire war.
(ok...way to much actual historical stuff in there but i wanted to put some context onto why the war occured. Hope people enjoyed!)
Jonathan Gomez
That is why I said base around.
There will be an AT gun, a tank and such in there too as attached support depending on scenario. I just wanted the core of the list to be a period accurate platoon.
Xavier Torres
Thanks for all that.
Grayson Bell
I run an Operation Lightfoot-era Desert Rats list that is extremely similar to that (swapping a Boyes AT Rifle for the PIAT). It works just fine as long as you have a gentlemen's agreement in your meta to all field historically-inspired and/or historically-accurate lists.
There are two things to note: 1) if you go to open tourneys, you will have a Bad Time. Open tourneys are, as you surmise, completely dominated by a-historical play (notably fielding all minimum-sized infantry groups in multiple platoons to maximize support weapon choices and to generate the largest number of order dice).
2) As you get into Late War era, particularly with Germans, the whole concept of the "gentleman's agreement" starts to break down, because you can almost always find an example of some unit, somewhere, at some time, who through heavy casualties fielded very small numbers of troops and very large numbers of support weapons, playing into the aforementioned min-maxer's hands. This is easily dealt with in a local club setting (just extend the agreement to "paper OrBats are your sources unless the rest of the club agrees to it). This would allow you to field something like Team DeSobry's Day 1 defense of Noville (platoon of M10s, company of M4s, platoon of M8s, company of engineers, company of armored infantry), which had no relation to a proper OrBat but is clearly a theme list that isn't going to be exploitable in the manner I discussed above.
Oh, final note: it's fine to take company and battalion-level assets to support your accurate platoon. A sniper team is a battalion-level asset, as is a 6-pdr AT gun, both of which I strongly recommend. Likewise, a Vickers team is a company-level asset, and you really should have one available.
>ok, off to take pics for the /hwg/ community project
John Mitchell
...or I could have refreshed the page and found most of those points were answered already. Oh well.
Noah Morales
>Bolt Action gives Shermans an "easily catches fire" special rule
Some memes will just never die will they?
Thanks, and see that was just going to be the base. I plan to have an AT gun, a machine gun team and such like.
Austin Clark
>Some memes will just never die will they?
Nope.
Although I did read somewhere an actually interesting defense of everyone giving Shermans a "catch fire easily" special rule. It's there so there's a distinct mechanical contrast against later-model Shermans which had wet storage and thus don't have the "catch fire easily" rule.
Yeah, I know there's some logic holes there, but IMO there's also a valid point.
Oh, and for your comparison, my go-to Bolt Action list is: OPERATION LIGHTFOOT THEATRE LIST 1 Batt, Rifle Brigade + attachments 22nd Armored Brigade, 7th Armoured Division
>No6 Commando Team.....95 pts.....Veteran NCO (70) +4 OTOs (free) 5 SMGs (15) AT Grenades (10) Bren Carrier for Commando Team....72pts....Veteran
>1st Royal Tank Rgt. Mk VI Crusader III........145 pts.....Regular
Total: 994 pts
(I misspoke above about the Boyes. I include that into 1250-pt lists, not 1k lists)
Christopher Garcia
Thanks, that's basically what I was going for but with a PIAT team and a Cromwell vs the commandos and a Crusader.
Since I think I am going to go for late war Western Europe.
Jack Sanders
Why the fuck can't Warhams be as affordable and fun as something like Bolt Action, fuck
You get significantly more fun out of most of Warlord Game's lineup with far less investment than any GW stuff barring like Blood Bowl which is completely different
Nathaniel Martinez
Because it's GW, what did you expect?
Daniel Jenkins
Anyone had any experience painting a lot of 10mm medievals? Struggling to find the motivation at the mo, and don't know how to space them when basing.
Ryan Harris
I just finished my first Napoleonic in 10mm. Stuck them on a base. Now the question is how to get sand between the little guys and paint the sand without getting them all brown.
What a horrible scale! Battalion looks great though.
Adam Hill
>base colors >wash or dip >wait to dry >dull coat >... >PROFIT
good night /hwg/, i'm going to bed
Nolan Ramirez
I've decided to dust off my copy of merc 2000 and give it another go, but I kinda feel weird running games in actual countries, especially in africa, dunno why, so does anyone have any Imagi-nations, african (especially psudo-west african) or central asian to share? Thanks much, lads
