Zomtober 2014 Part 5! (The Finale!) & 6MMRPC 2-Month roundup!!!

It's 50 minutes into the Day of the Dead, but this will still count by my reckoning as my last post for Zomtober. So lots of pics, an AAR and a few other things. Here we go!

I'll start off with an AAR for a game of Flames of War I played on Saturday against Densmol to get some practice in with my Canadian Armoured list for the D-Day tournament on the 22nd of November.
We played at 1500 points with Densmol fielding a Mechanised Panzergrenadier list out of the Atlantik Wall book.
We rolled for Mission and came up with Breakthrough, which was a good one to practice on as it seems to come up more often than not at tournaments.

Me: 4th Canadian Armoured
CT
HQ - 1iC and 2iC Shermans with .50cal MG's +1 Extra Sherman
Armoured Platoon - 3x Shermans and a Firefly
Armoured Platoon - 3x Shermans and a Firefly
Armoured Car Platoon - 2x Staghound, 1x Daimler Dingo
Self Propelled Anti-Tank Platoon - 4x M10 Achilles 17pdr
Full Lorried Infantry Platoon (With no lorries....)
AA Gun Platoon - Cmdr, 2x 40mm Bofors AA guns
Artillery Platoon - 2x Cmdr, Staff team, OP, 4x 25pdr Guns

Densmol: Panzergrenadier Company who's name I can't remember
CV
HQ - 1iC & 2iC infantry command stands (Think they got half-tracks too?) and I think 2 Panzerschreck Anti-tank teams too.
Panzergrenadier Platoon - Cmdr with Panzerfaust, 6x MG Infantry, 4x half-tracks
Panzergrenadier Platoon - Cmdr with Panzerfaust, 6x MG Infantry, 4x half-tracks
Light Armour Platoon - 3x Panzer ii Luchs
Light Armour Platoon - 3x Panzer ii Luchs
Self Propelled Artillery Platoon - Cmdr, 3x Hummels, OP
Heavy AA Platoon - Cmd, 2x 8.8" Guns
Panzergrenadier Heavy Platoon - 2x HMG's, 2x Mortars + OP


Pictures are shady, but the lighting in the garage is suspect at the best of times.

Setup: I was heading into the opposite diagonal corner, to the far church. I held the M10's, infantry and Anti-Air guns in reserve. I placed an objective pretty close to the corner where they would come on and so wasn't worried about having to travel far to be able to contest later in the game if need be.
I stuck the Artillery in a well protected corner and loaded up my tank platoons for an armoured strike toward to the opposite corner using the buildings and smoke as cover.

Densmol was annoyed as this mission used the Mobile Reserves rule and so was left having only his 88's, one platoon of Luchs and an Infantry platoon to deploy (Minus it's halftracks.). He also combat attached out his mortars and HMG's to the infantry.
The infantry hugged the tree line along the long straight road that followed the river, had his 88's sat with good fields of fire in the opposite corner and a lone platoon of wee (SO CUTE) Luchs to defend the objectives my boys were going after.

Turn 1: The 2iC and his sherman pal decided to move off to provide covering fire as the rest of the shermans headed off toward the objectives, hugging the buildings for cover against 88 shots.

That git Densmol got his Hummels like Turn 2 to start horrible bombardments far too early in my humble opinion.

Tanks are ready to roll across the ford. Please take note of the lack of 88's in this picture - they died horribly to a withering hail of MG fire.

The poor brave Luchs start taking fire. It's only my typical poor dice rolls that leave them down only one tank though.

Densmol starts getting a little frustrated as I get reserves and roll on my M10 Achilles tank destroyers to help secure one objective.

That little black tank next to the bridge is the Hummel battery's OP. It sees all of my poor advancing shermans. :(

Densmol gets reserves (2nd Luchs platoon and another infantry platoon in 1/2 tracks.)! My poor Armoured Car recce lads take it in the bum with the last car buggering orf. Wisely.

Shermans at long range typically kill what they aim at. Good bye krauts.

And we'll take this objective too, though these jammy gits didn't run away even though they had one dead and the other two bailed.

Infantry and Luchs toddle over to try to take out my 25 pounders. Sadly he had his half-tracks go through the slow going of the plowed field..... 4" a turn is grueling at the best of times...

Whilst the Shermans and Firefly send shots down to try to take out the Hummels, the M10's finish off those stubborn Luchs. The 2nd objective is mine!

You see that tank on the left, next to that building? Yeah, that the 1iC. He finished off stuff very valiantly.

With me holding the objectives safely and Densmol managing to take out my poor Recce platoon, I won 5-2. Not bad. Made some mistakes, but otherwise I feel that this list can do exceedingly well against a Mechanised infantry force. Now, if he had brought a King Tiger or some silliness.... I think it might have been a different story.

Things I learnt:

1. Trained Artillery is shite. Horribly so. I tried to range in/hit on five different occasions andonly got one barrage (Smoke or otherwise.) ONCE! 4-guns only for me.

2. Playing aggressively is not typically my forte, but this game I tried to step out of my comfortable Defensive-playing slippers and it paid off. Mostly. Some better placing and remembering where the opponent's reserves deploy and this may well have ended 6-1 instead.

3. Semi-Indirect fire is super fun. :)

After this, we got in a second game, this time with Densmol playing the actual list he plans to take to the tournament. 13 Luchs!!!! (And two Tigers and 3 Jagdpanzer iv's and some other stuff.) It was a good game and a lot closer than the first. In the end I think he won 4-3. I think. No pics though as by then the wine was flowing freely.

On to hobby stuff.

I put together these!

One resin and 5 plastic German 1/2-tracks from the latest Panzergrenadier boxed set. The Plastic models went together really well with only a little clean up. Not sure when I'll get to painting them, but at least they are ready for primer and paint. Speaking of my Germans project - I decided I didn't like my airbrush jobs on my Panzer iv's and so stuck them all in a bath of Simple Green. We'll see what different scheme takes my fancy in the near future.

The post title says it and so it must be true, Zombtober is over. (Officially it ended last weekend, but I felt that with Friday (Yesterday) being the last day of October, that I could squeak in a last post before I call it quits. So the final 2 zombies of my collection got some paint slapped on. I hope you like.

The fellow on the left brought a snack it seems, whilst his erstwhile companion on the right may well perform an impressive nosedive from a standing position any time now...

A family pic. Say.... "Brains!"

Thought I'd add in this fun pic of the brave Paladin of Greyskull, defending holy ground against the vile necromancer and his summoned deathless horde!

Lastly, I'd like to babble a bit on the whole 6 Month challenge I've been stumbling down. I've been doing rather well I feel, having still not spent any funds on new minis to add to my unpainted mountain. I will admit though to using a birthday giftcard to picking up a Serpent Priestess for my Relic Knights Noh Empire faction; but I think that keeps me good. 2 months now almost done and I'm feeling rather proud of what I've gotten painted. Tanks, zombies, roleplay minis - not bad really.
Now Zomtober is over I aim to get some more Flames of War Desert Brits done and get working also on my Germans project. Then there's also some Dreamforge Eisenkern Stormtroopers that have been grabbing my attention... Lots to do still. Too much.

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween - Happy Day of the Dead!