As yesterday was D-Day, a couple of Phoenix Club pals [Paul and Graham] came to visit to play the game as originally envisaged: US Airborne versus local defence elements in Normandy.
As I also mentioned in the too-brief show report, my pic-taking mojo temporarily left me. My new flat isn't as convenient wrt laying out a large table as my old place, but there is a lot more light. I took advantage of this, and reinforced by some of the very helpful suggestions in a good article in issue 361 of Miniature Wargames giving practical tips for toy soldier photography.
The results were much better than I managed at the show - hopefully I'll be able to repeat this success at Claymore in August.
Here are a couple of pics of the table.
The buildings are by Conflix and EM-4. Tiles by Eslo. Bocage and matching roads by Mandertory - who are now making them for Battlefront I believe. 15mm scale - but work fine here. Craters and trenches by someone at Claymore! Drums/storage by Snapdragon. Railtrack by Hornby.
The forces are quite small - 500pts or so each. Germans matching the 500pts starter army from Warlord and the US Airborne rather heavy on support weapons and rather short on squaddies.
The officer commands from behind the reassuring solidity of the Hanomag.
The Heer peer cautiously over the hedges.
US mortar gets ready to provide support.
The US Lieutenant called in very accurate support fire from the mortar and howitzer all game. I know you need FOs according to the BA rules, but until those are painted it seems a reasonable house rule to allow officers to call in indirect fire.
Crunch at the Crossroads.
Some close-ups of a few of the lads. With the exception of the US light howitzer, these were all painted by Jim Brent - very well and at good prices. Jim sells via eBay and probably won't mind me pointing interested parties onto his profile: Jim's eBay profile and items for sale - Jim is a very good painter and knows his stuff. I think I might edge him in photography though.
The Germans did well in the early game, taking out one of the precious squads of US Airborne. The US commander then exploited the gap between elements of the German forces to concentrate fire - direct and critically indirect - on an isolated portion, swinging the game back in his favour. We find these rules give plenty of flavour and action, and I'm going to build my pair of forces up to about a 1000 points a side. More US Airborne squaddies on their way from Jim.
Thanks for looking. Full gallery at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/46755253@N00/sets/72157633996168702/
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