"A Company - Somewhere in Normandy..." Topic

The finished infantry pieces for my Battlegroup Overlord Normandy British…

…But like all projects, it aint finished, just found a 3" Mortar team and a 6-Pounder crew to do… Plus my Bofors…

On Saturday night they got their first outing and we played a 750 point game last to conclusion in just over three hours, with British Infantry facing off against a German Panzer list. Myself and Garry took the British, as its the favourite army for the pair of us, and we went against the unfortunate trio of Skip, Cyril and Sean. The Germans dice were ok, but not great…

Having sunk alot of points into artillery the Germans failed to use it due to lack of spotters and no RTPs. On the other hand our British were a nicely balanced list with a ton of mortars in support and a couple of RTPs covering two of the objectives in the enemy half of the table. This allowed us to drop in artillery every turn on some poor unfortunate. Man of the match went to our British recce command, who from turn 1 was under German fire and managed to live through the entire game! It didnt go well for the Germans, their axis of advance was cut down by our placement of RTPs and a wild scattering 25 pounder shoot came down among the 251s as they advanced and knocked out several!The Germans artillery support was very poor, doing little and when the German FHQ finally got into place to call in the big guns, the marauding Crocodile let them have a dose of flaming vengance and toasted the entire command… To add insult to injury with even had a rocket firing Typhoon turn up who managed to miss with every single rocket he had, but chewed up a Jagdpanzer IV with his 20mm cannons… The Germans had some consolation when the Crocodile went over a mine and caught fire…

So a bit of a pasting for the Germans, but it was Cyrils first try at using Germans and he and Skip were up against the two wily British players in me and Garry… And with the British myself and garry have got pretty handy in orchestrating combined tank and infantry advances, under the cover of artillery support to minimise losses. Was a good game, but a bit of a kicking for the Germans…

Our army (750 Point British Infantry Division List);

Consisting of;

Forward Headquarters
Forward Air Controller
Comms Relay Team
Recce Command Team
2 x Infantry Platoons
Churchill Tank Troop
Crocodile
25 Pounder Battery with Loader Teams
Forward Observation Officer
Off-table 3" Mortar Battery
Off-table 4.2" Mortar Battery
2 x Registered Target Point

All I can say is Oh My Gosh, amazing work!

Thanks for sharing.

Beautiful paint jobs, beautiful game! Sounds like great fun, too!

Absolutely amazing set-up. :-)

Just superb. Love all the little vignettes.

Beautiful.

Rellly nice set up. What make at the buildings?

Yes indeed – figures, vehicles, terrain – all top notch !
EC

Looks fantastic!

Truly inspiring set up there and real character in the figures and vehicles.

That is a pretty tough OB for the British – Churchills and a Crocodile, plus 25pounders and a plenty of mortars too. No wonder the Germans got hammered….

This does seem to be a bit of the theme in your games and while they did lose in the end Normandy was a very tough attritional campaign.

Maybe the German players just haven't got the hang of it yet?

Were I the German player having to deal with this OB I'd want plenty infantry, lots of Panzerfausts, dig my 2-4 sMG42s in deep to survive the shellstorm of RA wrath, then when the Tommies are pinned down call in a hail of mortar fire. I presume the Germans can use some kind of sniper fire – since this was a common theme in the hedgerows – though not 'snipers' as such but individual mauser armed infantrymen. A pair of StuGs in reserve would be nice to pick off tanks that survive the mines and Panzerfausts.

I'm guessing many German players overdid the armour.

Wow, that is just stunning all around!

Beautifully done.

Excellent work!!

Very nice stuff. Thanks for getting me thinking about how I "need" to start doing WW2 in a scale larger than 15mm.

Beautiful. Absolutely stunning work.

Skarper,

To be fair to the German players, it was their first time with the new lists and didnt help themselves with what they choose to bring to the fight… But it was their first game with the new Overlord book.

Myself and my co-player both play British as our first choice as the army is well balanced with all arms.

The German side made a number of key errors, mainly in the use of their recce troops, when at the start of the game, through poor deployment on our part, they had a chance to knock-out the key unit that went on too cause them so much trouble. They also failed to get their artillery spotters into the game while ours were off and shelling from the out-set.

They spent a fair chunk of points on their supporting artillery, which with no spotter getting into place, was wasted and they also took Sdkfz 251s for their grenadiers which were not really needed given the close terrain. They would have been better served with infantry on foot supported by HMGs and Panzerschrek teams to occupy the buildings. They also neglected to take any Registered Target Points which enable artillery to be called in on a specific point without a need for an observer. Had they done that, and placed it around a main road junction we had to negotiate, it would have been very messy for us…

So, really, the Germans did more to lose the game, than we did to win!

Beautiful! What scale? What paint did you use for the British uniforms?

What are RTPs?

Don,

Its all 20mm… Im currently doing a tutorial on how I paint British uniforms as I get alot of people ask me!

RTP = Registered Target Point. In the rules they are a specified area that artillery units already have 'pre-targetted' and can shell at will…

Nice work – with the Brits having that beautifully painted padre no wonder things went so well!

Wow! it all looks absolutely stunning!

Very nice!

Piers Brand must be stopped!

He is making us all feel inadequate and inferior.

I blame him ENTIRELY for my getting back into 20mm WW2. His photos are an inspiration.

Oooooh, pre-registered target points!

Definitely going to have to get those rules and just use the 15mm stuff I have based for Flames (or the 15mm single-based stuff for Force on Force)

Piers, I love to see your minis, but they make my painting look soooooo inadequate!

Thanks Piers. That makes sense.

I suppose we often forget that the Germans in Normandy knew their game pretty well while many of the British and Americans were in their first battle. There is no way a set of rules can really allow for that disparity.

I hope your German oppos stick with it and don't get too discouraged or you'll have no-one to fight with your great looking troops.

PiersBrand:
Those are beautiful figures and vehicles! They are breath-taking. I am very impressed. Alas, I feel so inadequate. Well done on a beautiful presentation and on scarring my psyche.:) Well I can cling to the straw that I paint 15mm figures and they're much smaller. Yah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. I feel better now.
Cheers.
Rod Robertson

Sorry Rod… ;)

Skarper,

My oppos never give in… Started on his second German army now! Though to be fair, if you saw the absolute kicking I got the week before when using my US Airborne, you would know they need not worry!

Very Nice!

I was feeling quite good until I saw your stuff .

Now I am feeling quite sick comparing yours to mine . Git!

Brilliant stuff ! :)

Ill join the word and his dog inspirational.

Awesome!

SFC Retired

To paraphrase a famous line; "By God, that man does war painting honour!"

Looks fantastic--thanks for posting!

Looks absolutely awesome.

15mm might be easier to paint and game with, but 20mm is so much prettier!

Pesonally I could never see the point of 15mm. 20mm seemed the 'right size' to me.

There are some great 15mm figures made these days but the nature of the material tends to make the weapons over size or too fragile.

6mm to save space and money – 20mm to maximize the visual appeal…15mm?? not for me.