WWWII AAR: The Assault on Facility 621

Operation TESTUDO, Stage 2. 

Initial report of Father Jonathan Harkness 25 October 1944

Myself and a small party from the 1st Assault Infantry Brigade entered the facility through Entrance Alpha. At first all that we encountered was a chemical stench. Dark and grimy, the facility unsettled the men.

 

Windows offered a vantage point overlooking the facility, we noted our objectives below: almost certainly the pump room directly below and a storehouse across the corridor. We started to trade shots with defending German infantry.

Rounding the corner, the lead SteelSuit encountered two Nazi abominations. A burst of purifying flames followed by hot steel put paid to both.

Fwoooosh!

Meanwhile, reports came in that out staging post was under heavy assault from German battlesuits - the Panzerkampfsoldaten.  

 After a firefight lasting around an hour, the attackers were repulsed with minimal losses.

Sniped by Herr Flick!

 In Facility 621, with a burst of heroism worthy of merit, Corporal Wojeck clambered through the shattered window and jumped down to the lower level. We offered covering fire as be began laying the charges. But we were unable to prevent German infantryman shrugging off our fire, rounding the corner and gunning Wojeck down.

To add to our misfortune, a Panzerfaust scored a direct hit on the SteelSuit overlooking the facility, killing the pilot Jenkins and showering us with rubble. With both British casualties and German resistance mounting, the assault was paused in order to to bring up our reserves. To be continued...?



Direct hit!

To be continued...?

(This and Part 1 were the three WWWII games Gharak and I got in over Christmas. The miniatures are msotly West Wind or Artizan with a few other manufacturers thrown in for good measure. The Terrain is all from Gharak's collection. Markers were gems for an action allocated to a miniature and numbered poker chips with flags stuck on for Blinds or objectives, depending on the scenario.

The story is left hanging slightly, there is another level of the facility to explore, if the British have any men left to do so!

The makeshift explosion was idly constructed as we were playing out of the wrappers from a box of chocolates. Not a bad effort - that Gharak is quite brilliant at bulding things 'out' of 'stuff'!

We used the Brink of Battle rules which we agreed made it quite easy to set up a balanced and fun game and were perfectly servicable for this size of skirmish. We wrote a few extra skills to account for the Weird, including a basic multiple wound system to cover the armoured battlesuits. I do wonder if we had made our men too tough, I seemed to have a devil of a time actually taking any Germans out, hence the less than impressive British progress through the attack missions. I also find the wound system often comes up with an odd result  - if hit, you get no effect, 'shocked' or killed outright depending on damage score compared to defense score, but if a model has already taken their action 'shocked'  doesn't do anything. And to kill something outright you seem to need to roll average or well on D10s on hit and wound rolls and your opponent needs to roll poorly on both too. But we did have a lot of cover on the board which seems to makes things more survivable.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the writeup. Finally, a Happy New Year to you all.

EDIT: turns out we were playing the shocked rules wrong, there is a CBT penalty for becoming shocked and if you incur a second, the model is removed from play. SWhich makes quite a bit more sense. Apologies! 

WWWII AAR: Securing Facility 621

Initial Contact report,  17 Commando Troop,  Second Squad, 24 October 1944. 

Operation TESTUDO

Most secret intelligence provided the location of 'Facility 621', whose purpose was unknown beyond that it was purported to be managed by the Nazi 'Science Advancement Service'.

Dropped by glider, the mission of 17 Commando Troop was to secure and hold three known entrances to the facility, allowing troops of the 1st Assault Infantry Brigade to enter, exploit and destroy the facility. Intelligence and Aerial Reconnaissance suggested that Resistance would  be high. 

The raiders approach

The assault began one hour after dusk and the squad split into two, to approach Entrance B through thickly wooded terrain either side of a dirt track. Initial fire was exchanged with regular Heer infantry, with initial casualties inflicted and incurred. Jacky-Boy caught a lucky shot and was killed, while the defenders brought up heavier weapons. That mad Scot Rossy surged forwards only to catch a panzerschreck blast. To our astonishment, he survived with barely a scratch - the giant has the luck of the devil, well or a very thick head!

First and second blood

Fschoo-BOOM!!

Hunkered down and exchanging fire

Progress was slow through the rough terrain and resistance mounted by the minute. Our misfortune was compounded by the untimely return of a dog patrol, which did for 'Stiffy' Simpkins. Casualties mounted and further progress in the face of such resistance looked increasingly unlikely. 

Savaged!

Showing the utmost daring and bravery, Corporal Anderson scrambled over a steep incline, but we immediately came under fire and were unable to follow. We heard an exchange of fire with an unknown number of opponents, before Anderson's Sten went quiet. 



At 0217 hours, the assault was aborted. 

Casualties incurred: two KIA, one MIA, two minor injuries, leaving three combat effectives. May our colleagues have had better fortune. 

Signed,

The Major

WWWII characters, last of the 10mm WWII

I sent my first Challenge entry to Curt well before Christmas, but my own posting has had to wait s few days. I managed to get two more Weird World War II characters finished just in time for a couple of games over Christmas. Last year, I went away for the holidays before even picking up a brush, only to be left watching others rack up points for a week. Not this time! 

On the left is a British army Chaplain taking up arms to confront the German monstrosities. A really characterful, if slight, Warlord Games miniature. I've named him Padre Jonathan Harkness. On the right, 'Mad' Ross of Erracht,  an Infinity miniature that I though would serve perfectly well as a furious claymore-wielding Scot from centuries earlier.

I couldn't resist adding a little Saltire on his backpack and decided on a simplified 'Cameron of Erracht' tartan, as the green base echoes my Commandos' berets and the flash of red that also features elsewhere in the WWWII force.

Full dress of the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders in 1940, 
wearing Cameron of Erracht tartan. Courtesy of Wikipedia

I supplemented these two with a few 10mm WWII from Pendraken, which pretty much finish my British force for Blitzkrieg Commander.  Two stands of mortars and two of  Commandos. 

I haven't decided if I will blog all of my entries, in a way it is a repeat of what Curt puts up, but also gives me a chance to ramble a little more and preserve my entries on my own corner on the blogosphere. I suspect it will come down to whether I have time to or am back at the painting table!

More Weird World War Two (not a Challenge entry)

I had a few Weird War British to paint before Christmas, which was my last effort before the Challenge starts proper. Unfortunately I've been really busy recently, so I didn't get these infantry finished until a day into the challenge.

The miniatures are from West Wind's Secrets of the Third Reich range. I converted one to have a long-barrelled Bren when I first bought them many moons ago. I particularly like the officer miniature.

I've found the main 'Weird War' providers are a bit lacking in inspiration for the British and found I haven't been able to do much better. While Nazis usually get all sorts of weird science and occult offerings, the British are a bit of a mish-mash of science and the mythological with no solid theme. I might go down a quasi-religious route with mine, you'll see why I mean when my first challenge entry is done.

With their more Stompy suits offering support. 

I've also knocked these barbed wire barricades up, courtesy of 4Ground. Really quick paint job on these - just some brown ink to make the wood more uniform.

Finall, I received my bloggers Secret Santa this week. Two packages - how exciting! After a good poke and shake, I've identified that one rattles a bit but isn't Lego (longstanding family joke). I think I know what might be inside each but must leave it wrapped for now!

Some Weird World War Two

Having dug out the WWWII for a little Christmas Pulpy goodness, I've a few bits to finish over the next week. First up was one of these 'British Steel' suits from West Wind's SOTR range. They aren't the most inspiring sculpts (compared the Incursion American ones, say), but they have quite a cute styling. Pity about the static poses, though.

I finished the left hand one a couple of years ago but think I've managed to colour-match the second, equipped with a flamethrower. You will note the new one is shinier, but I should be able to fix that with some Dullcote.

My camera also seems to have developed a Black Blob of Doom, more prevalent in this second photo. Probably some dust in the lens - it has had had a milder blob before but it went away. It's back with a vengeance, not good timing!