First Blood ‐ Verkhniy‐Kumskiy

The Germans have taken the village of Verkhniy‐Kumskiy and send their panzers towards the Soviets approaching from the East.

Game nine of the Winter Storm campaign is a bit different than a standard Chain of Command game. This scenario features only tanks and no infantry. Also the tanks do not arrive at the table edges but may use jump-off points. As usual we let the dice decide who played the Germans and who the Soviets.

This time I played the Germans (three panzer III and one panzer IV). The Soviets had three T34/76 and two T70 tanks (represented by T60 tanks, because I wasn't able to acquire the T70's).

Due to the lack of cover most jump-off points ended up at the table edges anyway.

I deployed my panzer IV which was soon facing two T34's!

In an attempt to be able to fire at the side armour I deployed my senior leader on a flank.

The panzer IV did however manage to knock out one T34 and the woods and smoke obscured the other one from the German senior leader.

My opponent then deployed his third T34 and blazed away at the German senior leader, scoring an incredible six out of six hits! I was only able to save two and lost my senior leader and his tank.

The panzer IV got hit repeatedly, but managed to survive. After rallying the crew and removing all shock the tank commander moved to get a shot at the side armour of the T34 that knocked out the German senior leader.

 Net three hits and the T34 exploded!

My opponent now brought up his smaller tanks and concentrated fire on the panzer IV that had knocked out two T34's already.

I deployed my remaining two panzer III's. One on the flank and one able to fire directly at the Soviets.

The panzer IV destroyed one T70 and drove the other one off the table before being destroyed itself by the last remaining T34.

Then the panzer III punched a hole in the T34 and it was over for the Soviets.

It was a fast game which went quite smooth. Activation options were limited, since only fours and threes could be used to activate units. The next scenario requires the Soviets to move from one short table edge to the other in order to claim victory so it will probably have more movement than this game.

Project Star Wars: First game!

After painting (almost) all my Star Wars stuff last year (see the blog Project Star Wars entries), the miniatures finally made it to the gaming table for our very first game of the year.

Using Fistful of Lead: Galactic Heroes and a scenario borrowed from Baron von J my son took charge of Darth Vader and four Royal guards while I had a Jedi with 4 supporters.

The bad guys

The good guys

The scenario takes place after order 66, which killed most Jedi. In order to lure the Jedi that escaped order 66 out of their hiding places, the Empire has set up a false Jedi beacon in an old Jedi temple on the planet Aniron. Jedi Master Judwan Vhing recognizes the trap (It's a Trap!) and must destroy the beacon. Darth Vader happens to visit Aniron on an inspection tour and must take out Vhing's party leaving the beacon intact to attract more Jedi.

 

The Imperial beacon

Both the Rebels and the Imperials started their turns moving towards the temple.

I included three jokers in the deck, representing Aniron wildlife looking for prey. Two of these appeared immediately in the first turn and turned out to be Maw beasts.

The beasts moved towards the nearest prey. One group headed for the Imperials, another group towards the Rebels.

Ptanak managed to pick one off, but Tashik missed, allowing the beasts to close on him.

Next turn the third joker fell and a Nexu appeared, heading for the Rebels!

The beasts were now also closing in on the Imperials.

On the Rebel side, Blayne aimed his heavy blaster at the oncoming Nexu and killed it before it could come close.

One Royal guard spotted the Rebel scout Sluur and shot him with his laser lance, putting Sluur out of action.

Master Vhing closed the distance to the droid operating as the beacon and tried to destroy it with his light saber. He must've been distracted by something because the droid won the close combat and inflicted a wound on Vhing!

Ptanak dropped another maw beast, emptying his blaster. Two beasts left, heading full speed for Tashik.

Darth Vader decided to neutralize the maw beast threat first before engaging the Rebels.

The beasts took down one Royal guard before they had to give up the hunt.

In the same turn, two maw beasts jumped Tashik, taking him down and causing a wound.

A Royal guard joined the fight between the droid and Master Vhing and was immediately cut down. The droid proved very hard to hit however.  Darth Vader saw the light saber flashes and made his way to Master Vhing. With a mighty blow, Master Vhing put Darth Vader out of action (he did have the high ground).

Finally the droid wasn't able to escape Master Vhing's light saber any more and was cut in half.

After using The Force to heal his wound, Master Vhing rushed over to keep the maw beasts off Tashik.

With Blayne joining in and another Force Heal on Tashik, the Rebel party claimed victory.

Darth Vader was dragged to a gunship evac, and lived to fight another day.

Again a fun Fistful of Lead game, with the early appearance of the local wildlife disrupting the plans of both sides.

Njam, njam.