My xbox has died.

:(

Me an Skip submit to Domination.

So we played our first of the I95 domination games aptly titled "Domination" on monday night. The premise being slightly different to a standard mission. Your game is now fought over more than the usual objectives.  The objectives are placed on table by a third party, each obj is rated in points ranging from 1 to no more than 5 and for a total of 12 points in all. The obj are taken by standard method, in the mission we played once taken they could be left but remain in the victors possesion until captured by the opposition.  But different rules apply to different missions.
In ours the mission was simple... take 8 points on or after turn 4 and the game is yours, failing standard parameters,  company morale failure or total destruction.
Skip was taking jerry and I was taking the aussies (borrowed from a pal), at this point I realised I needed something mobile, and as it turned out I should have taken more. Hey hindsights a beautiful thing.
So, to my plan, with ten platoons in comparison to skips 8, I was gonna see his panzers before he'd see my 25 pdrs (MW game), this mission is just like free for all accept you're much closer and depending on obj placement you have to engage and quickly, which is how we like it! So as the polite fellows we are, we thought we'd oblige. As it panned out my UC's held off an advance by probing jerry recon on my left flank (1pt obj) and if they'd driven round have faced 3-4 25 pdrs, the bofors AA did the same on the right (2pt obj) with a short vickers platoon in support. The Matildas and 1st platoon advanced with 25's in support on the next 3 pointer in skips half, mine was already safe (straddled by 2nd & 3rd platoon either side), ha! Skip pushed up into town, his pioneers moving up through the wadi supported by panzers, recon and 10.5's. 3rd platoon thought they'd have summa that so off they headed, however the dice gods thought different as I failed several infantry saves on the way in, but hey the proverbial happens, so toe to toe time, once again the dice gods ignored me or thought they'd twist my melon. See the pic below for two separate rounds of assault dice. So that was 3rd platoon gone. 1st platoon and the tildas made their way onto the 3 pointer, although I waved goodbye to the brits. 2nd platoon dissappeared along with a UC platoon in a similarly spectacular way to 3rd platoon, they were turned back by 7 out of 8 4+'s and more rare infantry saves. And then decided that they no longer wanted to stay in the fight and take the c.o. along with them. Skip made my vickers pay for moving out into the open. Time wasn't on our side, but the game was over, it was and could only be skips. If skip hadn't failed some earlier firepower tests, would I have made it to that 3 pointer? The game was a blast, I love the 25pdrs along with the british rules for them, I'm glad to see my FV troops performing to the best of my opositions ability, but like the Murphys... Loved the mission and it panned out as we expected, a nice fist fight in the middle. Here's to the next domination game.

See the below link to the I95 domination PDF.

http://forum.wwpd.net/resources/Complete%20Domination%20Missions..pdf

And back again.

Alright all?

I know it's been a while, almost a year, so where n what have I been in that time, well apart from the kids, life, births (couple, not mine), deaths (at least 3 in close family), stressed, the council, touring britain from south to north an back.

Main reason for absence, no decent internet access, ever tried uploading pics from ure phone with a crap connection? My advice, don't bother, as our hobby is a visual splendour, text doesn't really cut it, an rather than putting youse off I thought i'd stay quiet, the council predicted our house adaptions to takesomewhere between 3-4 months, 6 months down the line and too many cock ups too list. We're back, although I sit here surrounded by boxes an bin liners (no i've not done a lady gaga, although most would agree I am the latter).

 

M8's are the dogs!





So hobbywise, after talk of the brighton bash tourney being d-day based I thought I can take my f.j.'s add the at boxes, some obstacles and a captured panzer platoon and form the brest company, i've managed to finally finish my AT boxes, from small styrofoam boxes do pak40 at boxes grow. Using Mike Haughts guide, antenocitti's french propaganda posters and the infamous and now out of print (heard through the grapevine these were changing hands for big dollars recently) modeldads french decals. I got them finished to a playable standard, if anyones interested in any of the processes in any of the thread I can post a more extensive explanation and a lot more pics.

Small acorns





The Saplings

The Oaks.

Achtung minen!

 

 

Murzuq mission see a mock up from card of the murzuq hangar, i've used modern pics of the hangar and a little licence too plan the model, still working on the foamboard and hopefully playtesting the mission once the hangar is built (sorry it's taken so long Mike).

 

Cheers for the box Barbie, extension to be added.



 



I finished my LRDG and off to the Milton Keynes tourney we went, I was consistant, I lost every one of my 5 games, my closest being a 3-4 (my favourite game btw, not just the score) however we (3 members of brighton warlords) managed to place 2^nd in our league, which meant we got a trophy, honestly I was and am still well chuffed. Thankyou Skip for pulling me out of the mire. I tried to play using somebody elses set up, but not being that person doesn't help. Have been playing better since I swapped my tirraileurs out for commandos (which was my original plan), do commandos chew up other infantry, oh and p.s. I'm glad I put so much effort into my SAS, as they are the dogs!

 

Get me ma lewis gun boy.



Another shemagh nightmare.

Lewis gun conversion.

Tirraileurs HMG

 



So since finishing my boys from chad (tirraileurs support for the LRDG), I've added another combat platoon (there's a few fez's in there), a mortar platoon, HQ and a 60mm mortar SP truck to my Decouverte (the french LRDG), i'm currently constructing the flatbeds for the Breda 20mm SP trucks then it'll just be a question of getting another couple of bases done for my magnetised hot swappable AT/AA/Arti, covers almost all the desert forces in Burning Empires cheapskate armies. :) This will all bleed into being able to field the FF and Vichy forces.

 

Hhhmmm magnets, Arti/AA.

 

 

Breda SP truck inserts. Thanks again to BF UK customer services for all there help.

 

Darth Gamgee loses an arm.

 

Banzai Motherfunker







So onto the latest project and my current favourite Japan, the weekend I decided to take them on as a new force (wargames illustrated helped, as soon as I read the japanese rules I was hooked), on the sunday my mum came over with a copy of a photo for me she'd found in with a load of my grans stuff (she died earlier this year), it's a picture of my great grandad (Jack "oogie" Noakes) shaking hands with Emperor Hirohito, so no turning back now. In regards to the pic I'd assumed it was taken in the thirties, my great grandad was out in the far east trying to flog the Beardsmore Inflexible (monoplane bomber) he'd help designed and tested. But upon closer inspection of the pic both my GG and hirhito look to be in their twenties, an the houses in the background don't appear to be of Japanese origin. So as I recently found out due to my daughters school project hirohito was the first of the Imperial Japanese Family to leave Japan and went on a tour of Europe in 1926 and maybe the pic was taken at this time, any help in dating this would be useful.

 

 

 

Oogie & Hirohito

The Raid.

My first raid.

After taking my long flames sabatical, i was painting honest, I was finally back in the pew or driving seat. Praying to the flames dice gods has returned, and about time too, this being my third, yes third game of the new V3 rules, the club adopted the new ones within the first month of release, it shows how out of action i've been.

To the desert and my first outing of my LRDG and the mission, aptly titled The Raid. My german opponent Safetystick being the kind soul that he is gave me the option to pick, I decided on EW as I thought my oppo would get even more m.g.s for his buck, kradshutzen the idea made me shudder pre-game. I took HQ, T & G full half patrols, 2 x 0.5” vickers, four extra hull mounted m.g.s per patrol and opted for the breda over the bofors, knowing that I didn't want to get into a shoot out and that 1 extra ROF and a 360 degree field of fire (AA) would come in useful on the move. And finally and by no means least 200 points of interdiction (a raiders must). As it turned out it was never needed, but I wouldn't leave Siwa without it.

I opted for a full night raid my only major mistake (but a biggie), pre game i'd thought about how i'd play it, did I want to go night or dawn, I imagined the chevys gunning it through the desert in dawns early light with the burning objectives in the background and then preceded to see them getting gunned down in an ambush, Kufra stylee. So I went for full darkness, the sneaky option.

To the game, sorry about the lack of turn photos, you'll get the gist hopefully.

Pre game recce move, HQ & T-Patrol heads towards it's first objective on the west side of the town, G-Patrol does the same on the East.

HQ & T Patrol head out.

Turn 1. LRDG It must be black as pitch, as no one can see for toffee.

Jerry T1. They were on “recon” in the desert somewhere...

Turn 2. LRDG. more of the same, shooting at them however, T-Patrol must still have a load of sand in their goggles and can't see further than the chevy in front, G-Patrol find their mark, but the tracer rounds don't catch.

Turn. 3. LRDG. T chevys head towards objective 2 passing obj 1, unleashing a torrent of m.g. And breda fire but not having cleared that sand, strike home but not enough to get the ammo truck burning. CIC and 2IC pull up to obj 1 readying their charges, no need the gunners managed to set the truck ablaze, meanwhile on the other side of town G-Patrol do the same and gun it towards obj four on the hill, again two chevys heading towards the centre of town to rendevous with HQ and that last obj number five. Things are looking good (I was a little surprised, as I imagined pre-game that it would be quite difficult to get them going through m.g. Fire, but then when you're rolling a bucketfull of dice it pays off eventually).

Jerry. I'm hazy on whether they entered the fray turn 2 or 3 (I think it's probably 3), they appeared right at my exit point though. A unit of bikes spot the burning trucks from a long way off and head towards the town.

G-Patrol strike.

Turn 4. LRDG. The mainstay of T-Patrol carry on towards obj 2, HQ and two chevys head towards the truck in the centre of town guns blazing. Obj two goes up as T-Patrol finds it's mark again, along with the town centre obj making even more noise attracting the local garrisons attention, things are about to get a lot warmer, literally. G-Patrol makes it too the bottom of the hill, however the night takes hold again and their target is lost in the dark

Jerry. Here they come. Unleashing hell on the LRDG, the 2 R/m.g. & HMG platoons engage, on the east G-Patrol is peppered by a r/m.g. But shrugs the fire off, the other rifle m.g. And HMG platoon rake T-Patrol prior to their assault luckily the assault fails under a massive hail of Lewis, Vickers and Breda fire, they lose a few stands and unsurprisingly get pinned down which is where they stay for the rest of the game, “you know hans I think they've moved off,” “yes Fritz, so what's all that noise, it took me time to dig this scrape and i'm thinking of adding a bathroom!”.

Turn 5.

LRDG. Turn Five. Let's get the f**k outta dodge.

Turning tail and heading for the hills T patrol and H.Q. About face and head back south through the town trying to duck m.g. Fire. G-Patrol attempts the same, leaving the broken down breda truck to take out that final objective, but to no avail.

Jerry. The iron fist closes.

Here come the armoured cars, the bain of the LRDG, fast moving, armoured and bristling with automatic fire, they head into town from the west. The krads head north towards town along with the easterly R/m.g. platoon. The amount of lead that jerry unleashes whittles T almost to nothing, 2IC spends a lot of time jumping from truck to truck, the CIC is protected by a building and lots of burning chevys. G-Patrol manages to shrug off the limited fire from the r/m.g. Platoon.

The net begins to close.

Turn 6.

2IC and breda still don't find their mark, the final objective must be well hidden. G-Patrol gets into the desert with the CIC riding shotgun to face the krads coming straight at them along with the closing infantry platoon on the east. The net is closing, maybe one or two of G-Patrol could make it through the pass...

Jerry. Another 222 platoon enters the field from the South along with a pair of Pz4s who block the pass. Meanwhile back in town the last of T-Patrol burns, the breda from G-Patrol has a new pilot in the form of the 2IC after he lost his Ford trying to block the 222's in.

The r/m.g. Platoon descend on the chevys of G-Platoon and demolish it, leaving the platoon commander and one other to escape the melee.

The CIC is last seen heading towards the krads guns blazing as a bike goes up, then nothing.

Turn 7.

LRDG (or what's left)

Gunning it through the pass, what's left of G-Patrol the commander decides discresion at this point is probably best. We're a foot away and only two Pz4s to go...

Jerry.

Opens fire, the second to last of G-Patrols truck goes up, the platoon commander contemplates the long walk home, well others have made it before.

 I now know dawn would have been the best route to head down, that 8" move at night meant the infantry could keep up with me, along with everything else. I'll need to optimize my xtra m.g. layout, and get my head round the new warrior saves and think a little more about position. Overall the battle was awesome, and maybe me an Lee can squeeze a couple of games in next time, only another 5/6 raiding missions to complete, should have the Murzuq game me and Scary biscuits are working on done by then as well.

Heineken anyone...

Getting the **** out of dodge.

101 gets the willys

If you've ever wondered whether it is possible to get a Willys jeep in the back of a Land Rover 101, wonder no further, i'll make my apologies now, but honestly this is an exciting set of photos. Ehem.
http://lrdgroutesrevistited.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-min=2011-01-01T00:00:00Z&updated-max=2012-01-01T00:00:00Z&max-results=17

G & T in Murzuq.

So here they are the first proper offering of my LRDG army, at the moment they're big enough for a raiding force, i've not had the chance to photo the rifle stands yet. And as you can tell i'm still getting the hang of my new camera, those beatiful yellow hues, i'll get there..
 Anyroad in January 1941 the LRDG headed out on their first major raid, the plan, to destroy the planes at Murzuq airfield prior to the combined attack with the Free French on the Fezzan fort of Kufra, Murzuq airfield being the closest Italian airbase to Kufra and the greatest threat any of the desert raiders was to know, namely aircraft.
 The raid was a success, the opposition forces were holed up in Murzuq fort suppressed by G-Patrol and their 37mm Bofors, as the mainstay of T-Patrol headed off to attack the airfield, the Free French officer Colonel d'Ornano and Trooper R. J. Moore being gunned down my an m.g. nest on the airfield perimeter. Three Ghibli light bombers were destroyed in their hangar along with roof, the plumes of smoke seen for miles around.
On the subject of their success, the attack by the Free French on Kufra fort succeded it became the forward base for the LRDG and a lull ensued for T-Patrol who stationed the fort over the summer months. Prior to the main raid the first fight between modern special forces took place, near the Gebel Sherif Wadi. The Autosahariana the italian counterpart to the LRDG ambushed T-Patrol as headed it towards Kufra on a pre assault reconnaisance. T-Patrol lost several vehicles as the italians opened up with their vehicle mounted AA guns, chevys were shreded and lives were lost.
 For all you early war desert fans the word on the web is Mike "the special force" Haught is currently writing a Murzuq assault scenario for Flames, so watch his space for that and this space for a mock up of the Murzuq hangar, when i get the time.
Into the Fezzan...

CiC and 2iC

T-Patrol

G-Patrol

A little gem, Ford F-30s not Land Rovers

Alright all.
Here's something, hopefully of interest to anyone with an interest in the LRDG or British armoured regiment or just a passing interest in the early/mid war, i've just found on the Pathe site a film called desert advance, unfortunately it has no sound, however what it does have is footage of the LRDG (i assume G-Patrol, i've not spotted any markings, yet) mounting and driving Ford F-30 (not the erroneously titled Land Rovers, search fu is not strong with this one), also Mk IV A13 Mk 2s cruiser tanks titled Crusaders, there's also footage of what appears to be a Libyan/Egyptian desert town, it looks like Siwa, but with not enough experience? Please excuse my ignorance.
Hope this is of help, to any or all. Enjoy.
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/desert-advance-1