Gaming weekend, Battle Report

Just back from a long weekend with my brother, where we itnended to get some solid gaming in while the womenfolk knitted and gossipped. Unfortunately, fate was against us, with a two hour delay on the trains on Friday writing off any gaming then, and my brother coming down with something which although mild, was an unwanted distraction.

Still, we rolled out the 10mm WWII for two games using Baptism of Fire. Mostly, we were chuffed to both be using fully painted forces of the first time in an age. And they did both look mighty spiffing, if I do say so myself. I've added a few photos of the first game below - British attackers aiming to break through the German position.

The assault begins

The markers are for defensive hidden deployment of troops and defenses, as well as D6 dummy markers. Smoke and flames is for morale statue (one for suppressed, two for pinned) - these were from my initial bombardment.

Shermans crest the hill

The terrain is mostly scratch built, with Hovels Ltd farm buildings, which painted up nicely. Note the table has moved - kicked out for dinner to be served! A substantial benefit to being able to play on 2' by 4'.

Panzer IV knocks out the Firefly's turret

Enough said really - the Brit armour is in a fix, having lost their main firepower.

Endgame

We called it a wrap, with by brother unable to stop the start of a tide of Tommies flooding past his right flank. Although the Brits were losing the tank battle, they had succeeded at holding back the German centre for long enough to start acheiving their objective in numbers.


Lessons learned:
- The rules play well, but a turn takes 30 - 40 minutes or so and are very interactive so require a lot of attention.
- As we've only played a few times, and the rulebook design does leave quite a lot to be desired, there is a lot of rulebook flicking to slow things down.
- Bring plenty of transport - infantry is slow to maneuver on such a large board.
-Never underestimate the panic a single 2" mortar can cause with a good barrage.
- Armour is strong, but goes down fast to the heaviest guns, or is impossible to beat from others. We may need to tweak the armour rules to prevent armoured one-upmanship forcing us both to always bring some major AT firepower at the expense of everything else. The next game highlighted this perfectly, when the Tiger I showed itself...
- Fully painted figs and terrain are hughely rewarding

We also made a short trip to Triples on Saturday, to stock on on supplies and inspiration. More on that later!