Napoleonic French General

Having sat on my painting desk for many a long month I finally finished this chap off.
He was the Partizan giveaway model in 2015. Based on the French General Bauduin who died leading his men in the assault on Hougoumont.
However I've painted him as a generic French Infantry general de Brigade with white trousers, Bauduin, leading lights, would probably have had blue trousers on.

Lovely little model sculpted by Bill Thornhill

(not sure what's different about this image, but I had all three in the camera)

Napoleonic 5/60th rifles

A pair of likely lads somewhere in the Peninsular.

These are the plastic Perry riflemen that come in their British infantry sets.
I painted them up as 60th rather than 95th with one in the uniform issue blue trousers and one in some scavenged brown trousers that would have become more prevalent as the campaign continued.

Looks a bit 'Daniel Craig' this one

They're 60th so they could potentially do double duty in war of 1812 games. Though possibly the 7/60th would have had green breeches and anyway didn't see any combat as far as I can tell. Apart from that it's a plan with no flaws.

I've a few more on the painting table already - only need 6 or so for a tiny BP unit or if we ever go Sharp Practice again. I've got a metal command set somewhere too.

Of Gods and Mortals, Zeus takes on Hermes

Chum James has been keen to play some more OGAM and with my newly finished harpies and a recent game against the Gaming Heir under my belt I was happy to oblige.

James has a splendid scenery collection and had been aided by his daughter in creating a marvelous Greek townscape for us to fight over.

Naturally i took the newly painted harpies. I also had the war sheep, brass bull, minotaur, various Spartans (naked and archers) and Hermes.
James had Zeus, the Talos, Greek soldiers, Jason and a minotaur.

Now technically the minotaur is supposed to be unique, but we thought "what the Hades" we'll go with two and see who is the best bull headed fella around.

The game began with the Talos moving off to fight the Brass Bull and the Minotaurs engaged in a Minoan Stand Off.

Eventually the metal monstrosities came to blows.

Hermes meanwhile ran around in back field and smacked into Jason.
Unfortunately he lost. And died.
Fortunately frantic bleating by the war sheep returned him to the mortal plane.

Meanwhile the brass based battle of the big guys ended suddenly and spectacularly when they drew a fight and both died utterly on the ground.

The Greeks meanwhile formed shield walls and taunted one another.
However the Spartans were being steadily whittled by a rain of lightning bolts from Zeus.

Tiring of this Hermes flew up to fight the big guy, but was beaten back.

Finally we got to see some hardcore Bull on Bull action as the Minotaurs went toe to toe. Or possibly hoof to hoof.
A fight won by the slightly less authentically Greek minotaur on my side.

Zeus descended from his cloud to get stuck in.

And Jason chased off the harpies.

Hermes, his forces dwindling went after the archers.

And was eventually knocked down by a thunderbolt from Zeus.

Finally Zeus and the boys cornered Hermes and the Lightning God delivered the coup-de-grace.

Great fun game (though it did take rather a long time for Zeus to kill of Hermes at the end).
I forgot until too late in the day that ganging up is the best way to kill things and I ran out of warm bodies before I could put that into practice.
I think we both felt that Zeus' lightning power is a bit OP - he can basically just kill a mortal every turn, especially in this scenario  where the winning side automatically gets two free invocations each turn.
But this is a minor quibble OGAM gives a great game each time we play.

Chain of Command US v German Delaying Action (2)

When you left us gentle reader the US forces had rather come up short in their quest to liberate the mille-fueilles from the petite patisserie.
Continue reading to discover if they can turn things around.

As the rest of my force was pinned down I (finally) pushed the section that had spent the battle lurking in a sunken road toward the Germans in the field.

Meanwhile Ballzimmer's men continued to pour fire into my beleaguered section in the centre of the field. assisted by the firepower of the Stug.

In a desperate roll of the Chain of Command dice I used my only CoC die to fire with the recently deployed bazooka team.
They missed. And an HE shell saw them blown from the field.

Finally my centre squad cracked and broke. Somewhere in the middle of the Germans getting three consecutive phases. At the end of these consecutive phases Oberstleutnant Ballzimmer inevitably used a CoC die to end the turn and ensure the section and attached senior leader routed.
US force morale plummeted and I was down to just three activation dice.

As the Stug manouvered to lay fire into the US squad on my right flank the Americans on the left, seeing Germans break cover, did likewise and ran forward firing from the hip.
They missed.
And before the Germans could return fire I ran up the surrender flag.

A short and brutal continuation of the battle with a rather predictable end.
My plan was thrown off from the start when the initial barrage failed to delay German deployment, and instead of reacting to that I tried to press on with a speedy attack and ended up advancing piecemeal.
Also not having anything to hurt a tank was a bad plan.
Still a good fun game. Need to paint up my 57mm anti-tank gun.

Harpies

That's because you're thick.
And a cunt.

Chain of Command US v German Delaying Action (1)

Once more Oberstleutnant Ballzimmer and I cross sword on the outskirts of Tromnee-sur-Ilq, Normandy, June 1944.
Having thrown back the German counter attack the American forces are pushing on. The Germans meanwhile are determined to slow down the advance.

 View from the American end of the table

 Jump off points marked (German in Red, US in blue - ignore the big red one!)

I had selected a preliminary barrage. Hoping to disrupt German deployment for a few phases and allow me to rapidly deploy up the table. I can only win by capturing the German jump off point in the petite patisserie in the centre of the rear of the board, so wanted to make rapid progress toward German lines.

Predictably I rolled triple 6 with my first roll. ending the turn and with it the barrage before it had any chance to wreck Ballzimmer's plans.

At this point I should have reconsidered my options, but I didn't and instead deployed three squads from the get-go. rather revealing the American hand too early.

I pushed one section forward on the right flank where cover was heaviest, hoping to swing around there whilst pinning Germans down on the more exposed left.

The Heer quickly moved to occupy the field on my left. Leaving my squad loitering in the roadway, wary of advancing on the MG42.

Over on the right more Heer moved to occupy the woods facing my advancing squad.

And a final section of Germans put down their vanilla slices and tartes and left the patisserie.

Inevitably a heavy firefight commenced on the right. I'd managed to get a second section up into the other woods on this flank.

However, despite throwing everything possible at the Germans they stubbornly refused to break and casualties and shock began to mount in my sections.

Even the mortar and 30 cal were not enough to swing it.

The Germans were pinned and I launched an assault but terrible dice saw my men flung back and the Germans still in possession of the woods.

And then, to make matters worse, an ominous clanking signaled the arrival of some German heavy metal...

We called a halt at this point and will continue next week...

I'm in all sorts of bother. The attack on my right flank has stalled - one squad is pinned and the other is badly shot up. Even though the Germans are in slightly worse shape I'm not sure I have the manpower left to shift them.
The arrival of the Stug, spraying MG fire has further worsened the situation on that flank. I also don't have anything much in the force to deal with armour. Let's hope the bazooka boys can arrive and save the day.
I think if this were a proper campaign where my casualties carried over into future games I'd be pulling out by now. As it is a couple of good turns of shooting from the Germans are likely to see my force morale collapse.