First 4Ground Building

The first item I tackled from the vacation haul was the 4Ground building.  I have really been looking forward to building one of these kits ever since I first learned of them.  This kit was $20 from Brookhurst and that makes it comparable to the Battlefront houses I have been getting on the subscription deal.  The BF houses run about $21 each.

These kits come in a plastic bag package, so nothing real fancy.  Inside there are several laser-cut sprues with the various parts.  The 'pre-painted' aspect of these involves using different painted MDF boards for various parts.  These boards are painted prior to the laser cuts and, therefore, show some scorch marks that mar the color.  In addition, the color is not on the edges of the pieces which is quite noticeable once the model has been built.

I found the instructions for this kit to be excellent.  The are full color and have a nice step by step process.  If you take your time and follow the instructions the kits is not too difficult to assemble.  If you are like me and think you know it all you might have to redo some bits here and there.

At the end of the instructions they have included some color signs and posters to enhance your model.  I thought this was a nice touch.  Being the 'with it' dude I am I promptly threw away these instructions, and the cool signs and posters, once I was done building the model. *sigh*

I am not going to do a step by step on the assembly as the instructions do a really nice job of that.  Besides, I forgot to take pictures as I was working on it.  One important thing I learned is that some of the parts can be quite delicate.  It is strange to me that some parts will literally fall of the sprue and others take some work.  I did manage to break one of the roof sides while taking it off the sprue.  Fortunately I was able to repair it and the damage is not noticeable.

The ability to remove the roof and the second floor for interior access is really nice.  You can fit one Flames of War medium base in each side of the building but to fit them in the bases must be facing the walls rather than the windows (sorry, no picture of that).  This not that big of a deal but if the model was just a few mm longer you could fit bases in much easier and in all directions.

Here is a side by side with one of the Battlefront houses.  In the end, being that these are basically the same price, I prefer the BF model.  The BF model is fully assembled and nicely painted for only $1 more.  The 4Ground building took me nearly 8 hours to assemble as was fiddly in a few spots.  I can see that people who do not enjoy building models will not like these kits.  The paint on the 4Ground model needs work in my opinion.  Either the whole thing needs to be repainted or I need to find the 4Ground paints that they produce to match the kits.  As hard as it is to find these kits in my area the paint would be impossible so I would have to order it online.  For a $20 kit that is too much trouble so I will just repaint it.

I will likely purchase a couple more of the 4Ground kits but I think next I will try one of the unpainted kits.  These are cheaper but, it seems, they are simpler kits than the pre-paints.

If I were t do the whole star rating thing I would have to give these 3 out of 5.  If this was a few dollars cheaper they would rate much higher.

Vacation Hobby Haul

Last week the family and I, along with Tim and his wife, spent an amazing week in Southern California for our annual family vacation.  We spent several days at the beach and going to various attractions around the LA area.  As usual, Tim and I had to take some time to hit a couple of our favorite game/hobby stores in the area - The War House and Brookhurst Hobbies.  You can read about Tim's experiences here.

As usual, I went with a rather large list of items for existing or new projects.  Mostly I am looking for items that are hard to find locally but I do have my eye out for just about anything interesting.  This year I really looking for lots of Flames of War items.  I have learned that Battlefront has a bit of a supply issue so if you see a FoW item in a shop and you want it, buy it.  Your local shop might not get it for months, if at all.

The first stop was The War House in Long Beach.  This is a cool little hole-in-the-wall shop that looks like it has been around for a 100 years.  It has an interesting mix of old and new products.  It is the kind of place that you have to spend some time in to dig through all the stuff.  But that is time well spent if you can dig out one of the gems.  This year I scored a Battlefield in a Box set BB103 Normandy.  This terrain set was originally released in 2008 to support the (then) new Normandy hard back books (or maybe it was the soft back books, I can't remember).  This set contains three large pillboxes, a couple of AA pits and lots of anti-tank obstacles.  The original price was $90 and they tend to go much higher on eBay when you can find them.  It appears that these items are not available at all from BF anymore.  I got this at the original 2008 retail price for an unopened, but shelf worn, box.

The next stop was Brookhurst Hobbies in Garden Grove.  I have been going to BH for many years and I must say it just keeps getting better and better.  I did find a bunch of items I was looking for but I have already spend a big chunk of the budget so I had to keep some composure.  I picked up a box of Perry Miniatures plastic British 8th Arny figures.  I have been waiting for a long time for these and I am excited to start working on them.  I also picked up a 4Ground 15mm building.  I have been really interested in these for a while and I was glad to find a 15mm building.  They had lots of the 28mm but very few of the 15mm.  I also picked up a box of Plastic Soldier Company Panthers for my Kursk project.  I actually need two boxes but I will get the rest locally.  The final item was a Battlefront P-38 for my mid-war Americans.  You can use this for late war but to me the P-47 is THE late war ground attack plane for the Americans.

I must say I am pretty happy with this trip even if I didn't bring back LOTS of stuff.

El Guettar Turns 9 and 10

Our El Guettar campaign continues, slowly, but surely.  I have already covered turn 9 in detail in a previous post. 

Turn 10 saw a return of the same US force that fought in turn 9.  The Germans, however, were another story.  Tim decided to go back to the Panzer Grenadiers for this game.  He took the CO and two platoons in half-tracks.  He had a couple of PaK38 and some 105 artty.  The icing on the crap cake was not one but two Tigers!  And if that was not enough he also had air support.  This was going to suck but I knew I only needed 2 VP in order to capture El Guettar so I was ready.

The scenario for this battle was Hold the Line with the US defending.  I have come to the conclusion that I am not very good at these Defensive Battles as the defender.  I have a very hard time making good decisions as it relates to reserves and deployed units and this game would be no different.  I started the game with an HMG platoon, an infantry platoon and the 105 artillery on the table.  Why?  I couldn't tell you other than it seemed like a good idea at the time.

The objective placement for this scenario seems to follow a predicable pattern - defender places an objective marker in the center-rear and the attacker place one forward towards one side.  Naturally, Tim would move his Tigers towards the near objective so I placed my artillery there...then I realized that they cannot do much to the front of a Tiger.  This really set the tone for the rest of the game.

In the end, the game became a slugging match for the near objective.  I was able to get my reserves in and gradually fed them into the German meat grinder.  The Germans would win the game but could only manage a 4-3.  The Americans capture El Guettar!

The current campaign scores are:

Victory Points
US - 37
Germans - 33

Casualties
US - 170
Germans - 95

Vehicles lost
US - 58
Germans - 50

Guns lost
US - 7
Germans - 7

For the next campaign I think we will track planes shot down.  The Germans have lost a lot of planes. 

Flames of War French Army Project - Update

 Last summer I wrote a series of posts about my plans for doing an early war French army for Flames of War.  In that series I took a very methodical approach to selecting the period, nationality and the army for the project.  I ended the series with a detailed army list with the pack numbers and prices.  I had a solid plan but I knew it was going to be tough for me to stick to it.  See the links below if you would like to read these posts.

http://dspaintingblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/thinking-about-new-flames-of-war-army.html
http://dspaintingblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/thinking-about-new-flames-of-war-army_21.html
http://dspaintingblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/thinking-about-new-flames-of-war-army_29.html

 With all the details worked out I set off on the path of building this army.  I knew that the need for large numbers of trucks was going to pose a major issue but I was sure I could get it done.

For the next few weeks I collected items that I needed and slowly began the assembly of the new army.  Then came the first of the year and my new interest in US mid-war tanks forces.  Without any plan I just started collecting and painting Sherman tanks and M10 tank destroyers.  Before I knew what happened the French army idea was put on the shelf.

It is not as if I no longer had an interest in an early war French army, I just had so much going on with the new American project and our Tunisian campaign to really put any time in.  Recently, however, I have been able to make a couple of major acquisitions for the French collection.  In addition, I have come to the realization that my original plan was overly ambitious and doomed to failure.  My idea was to actually plan an army first and the collect the models and, as I pointed out in my article series, this is very different from how I normally do things.

My normal approach to building armies is much more free form and driven as much by the deal I can get right now as it is by what I actually need.  This self-imposed restriction made it hard for me to justify picking up something that might be a good deal but did not fit with my plan.  I must admit that this made me crazy and helped drive me away from the project.  In fact, this is why (as much as anything) I started working on the US stuff.  I could just go where inpiration took me which is way more comfortable for me.

So, long story short, I now have a French Tank squadron army box and the French infantry company box and will be starting the project from scratch.  I still have plans to do the Escadron de Fusiliers Portes but it will be an evolutionary effort rather than the main focus.  With these two boxes, as well as the items I had already collected, I can almost do the original army anyway (but I still need a butt-load of trucks).  So the new plan is to start with the Escadron de Combat and then add in additional elements that can be used in both forces.  I have also redone my list for the Fusiliers to leverage the tank items that I now have in the collection.

The good news is that this project is back on track and I am now inspired to work on it.  In fact, I have already assembled all the tanks and will be putting together a unit of artillery next.  Then the paint begins.  I would love to have something playable and on the table by the time my original idea is a year old.

First Battle of El Guettar

Tim and I got in another of our El Guettar games about a week and a half ago.  This would be the first battle of El Guettar and the Americans were hoping it would be the only battle.  The Germans took a Panzer Company with a mix of PzII, PzIII and PzIV tanks.  Tim also brought an 88.  I was really expecting a Tiger this time...

The Americans had an Infantry Company with 105's, Shermans and M10's in support.  The US also have P-40 air support.  The scenario was Fighting Withdrawal with the US defending.  This was an extremely tough battle.

The battlefield....

US deployment...

The German deployment...

Kampfgruppe platoon advances...

...and is promptly bombed!

German tanks enter the Village of Doom....

The second airstrike knocks out the 88.

Panzers attack the hill.

Panzers move up the hill and past the Americans on the peak.  The objective is within reach!

PzII confronted with well dug in infantry.  This is going to be tough.

PzII platoon cautiously advance on the US infantry, trying to thin out the Bazookas before the attack.

M10 finish off the kampfgruppe platoon.

PzII continue the flank attack against the US Infantry platoon.

 

Sherman platoon springs their ambush but then forget to move into position.

The Panzer Company Commander is knocked out and too far away to jump to a new tank.

The Sherman platoon finally gets moving but failed to knock any of the German tanks.  Payback is going to be a bitch...

American infantry assault the PzII platoon.

And it was.. The Sherman platoon is destroyed but the M10 platoon quickly moves to fill the gap.

Panzer attempt to assault into the rough ground at the peak but have two tanks knocked out by the Bazooka teams. 

The Bazookas finish off one Panzer platoon while the M10s punish the other.  The Germans are at break point and with no HQ are forced to withdraw.

Finally, after only 5 turns the Germans could take no more and broke.  This was a brutal fight and the Americans pulled out a 4-3 victory.  In the final analysis if Tim had concentrated his full armor force on the center objective I think he could have pulled out a big win.

City Ruins Find a New Home

 After several years of sitting on a shelf in my garage my large city ruins collection has found a new home.  These ruins were built over the span of about 10 years by me and my friends Tim and Neil.  Neil actually built the first pieces many years ago and after much wheeling and dealing, and several owners, I acquired them.  Tim and I then set out to do an entire table with these style buildings.  We kind of went overboard and a couple years ago I threw away a bunch of unfinished pieces.

These are all made of wood and are very sturdy.  At the time my friends and I were playing lots of 40K and this stuff was made to be generic sci-fi ruins.  I have used these for 28mm WW2 and they was cool.  I also used these the one and only time I played Inquisitor in 28mm.

Anyway, these now belong to my local shop, Imperial Outpost Games.  Like most shops the need for lots of terrain for event and open gaming is never ending so they jumped at the chance to add these to the shop collection.  Below are a few pictures of the building, most for my own reference.  I never properly documented this stuff.

Here are a few battle reports that I have done over the years that feature these buildings.  If you have been following for a while you might remember these.

http://dspaintingblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/40k-game-images-part-3.html
http://dspaintingblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/40k-game-images-part-2.html
http://dspaintingblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/40k-battle-report.html

The nice thing is that if I want to use these for a game I know right where they are.

El Guettar Turns 7 and 8

After a few weeks break from Flames of War and our El Guettar campaign Tim and I got in a couple of games over the weekend.

Game seven of the campaign was a Hasty Attack with the Germans attacking and the American defending.  Tim took his Panzer Company with mostly PZIIIL and a platoon of PZII.  His command were in PZIVF2. Tim also had ari support. I took my US Tank Company with Shermans, M10s and two batteries of armored artillery.

Hasty Attack has the attacker placing two objective markers on the defender's side of the table and the defender place on objective marker on their own side.  The defender then places one objective marker on the attacker's side of the table.  Once the defender has deployed the attacker removes one of their objective markers.  This keep the defender from just piling stuff on the objectives and allow the attack the chance to wrong-foot the defender.  Tim removed the objective marker on my extreme right.

Tim's plan was simple and sound.  He would attack the US right with his strongest platoon and bring in the kampfgruppe platoon from his center in support.  My right was held with an M7 battery and the CO and 2IC in Shermans.  While he attacked the right flank the US left flank, the M10 platoon, took a chance and swung around a village with the hope of taking the German objective.  As usual, this game would come down to reserves.

Tim got his reserves on early and slammed head first into the M10 security section.  In support he also had his PZII's.  Meanwhile, the Germans shot and bombed their way through the M7 battery and knocked out the 2IC.  They were getting very close to the objective and there were no US reserves in site.  The M10 platoon destroyed the PZIII platoon and shot up the PZII platoon.  Then, strangely, the PZII platoon (now down to 2 tanks) made a mad dash down a railroad line for the US objective.  This left the German objective uncovered.  The US commander made a dash for the PZII and destroyed the reamining tanks only to be knocked out by Tim's flank attack.  Meanwhile the M10 platoon moved to capture the German objective.  US victory 5-2.  Afterwards we decided that Tim would have won easily if he had left the objective marker on the US right and taken the one from the center.

Game 8 was Dust Up.  I really love this scenario but I haven't played it in a long time.  We each played the same forces as in game 7.

This game is really about reserves and proper force management.  You have to pick the right forces for your reserve force and for your defensive forces.  In this game I failed in this task miserably.  I started the game with the same initial forces as the last game - M10 and M7 with the company command and 2IC.  The M7 platoon was deployed and tasked with defending the objectives but I failed to actually secure the objectives.  The M10 platoon was tasked with moving into the center of the German table edge and acting as the right pincer and the reserves would be the left pincer.

Tim deployed his large PZIII platoon to cover the objectives and had a small panzer platoon to attack early with.  Tim moved towards the center of the table with his attacking force but got bogged down on a date grove.  From here he gave and received harassing fire but was in  no position to influence the battle.  The M!0 security section made it across the table but lost a couple of jeeps to enemy fire.  The rest dismounted and took cover in some rocky ground.  The Germans used their air superiority to try and smash the M7 but repeatedly suffered losses from "Ma Duce".

The key to the battle was the arrival of the reserves.  The Germans go their early and made good use of them.  The American reserves were tardy but worse the M10 attack was one turn late.  Tim took a pounding defending his objectives but is attacking force made short work of the M7 platoon.  Germans win 6-1.  Reserves, reserves, reserves.  How many of these games have come down to this?

The US performance was good enough for them to keep the time table of the offensive and capture of Gafsa.  Now the fight for El Guettar is on.  The current scoring is as follows:

Victory Points
US - 30
Germans - 26

Casualties
US - 118
Germans - 71

Vehicles lost
US - 49
Germans - 36

Guns lost
US - 2
Germans - 6

It sure was nice to get this game back on the table.  It is always a good time.