"Holding Carentan - Historicon '15!" Topic

Hi all! I'm dazedly staring at the computer after a five day gaming extravaganza in Fredericksburg, VA where I ran two exceptionally exciting games of Battlegroup Overlord. I ran one game Friday night and one on Saturday afternoon. I slacked on pictures for the Friday one but thanks to a great fellow named Charles Cabell who offered to either remind me or take the pictures himself I ended up with loads from the second session. The scenario is in the Overlord book and I did it almost exactly as written, although for the sake of more player participation I let the Americans bring their first platoon of reinforcing tanks in one turn earlier than the scenario dictated.

The game starts with just a platoon of US Paratroops on the table, facing a platoon of Fallscirmjagers. Both are Veterans. Second turn the Germans get three StuG IIIs and a Forward Observer in a Kubelwagon. Third turn they get a platoon of Panzergrenadiers riding on StuG IVs, and turn four they get yet another platoon of Grenadiers and a PaK 40 auf 38(H). At that point the US finally gets five Shermans, followed by five more on Turn five, and a platoon of Armored Infantry legging it after an FO in an M3 halftrack. It was a challenging tactical exercise for both sides.

Figures are 20mm and are mostly AB (Eureka US sponsored me with some free AB stuff for the players) with some Fantassin on the German side, and FAA, Sojers, and Elheim for the US Paratroops. Vehicles are all Milicast.

A few shots from the first game--

The game ended with the Germans winning with All Objectives Taken. If we had simply counted up the chits it would have been a drubbing. They paid heavily taking the farm, losing three or four teams storming the building. Paras are HARD! I was pleased because I had never had a win in a game from taking all objectives. Thrilling finish!

The second game--

Early on I was joined by my friend Scott Fisher (on the left in the black shirt and author of Arc of Fire, almost all of the Skirmish Campaigns books, and Check Your Six!). That's me in the green shirt. It didn't take me long to convince him to buy into the system. He bought the mini rule book and ALL the Theater books!!! Score! :grin:

The first turn or so had minimal combat due to poor spotting rolls, but the US came off a little better than the Germans.


The Germans get their StuG IVs with tank riders in and overload their right flank with both them and the StuG IIIs. They advance a bit TOO far down the road, and when the US gets their first platoon of Shermans the lead tank, "Bonnie", pops the overly bold lead StuG with a difficult shot. The PzGrenadiers debuss broken with a few casualties.


It figures-- I was just telling the US player how hard it is for Shermans to penetrate StuGs, and he comes in and does it on the move. Then he destroys the StuG near the top of the picture, and pins two more which are closer to him behind the woods. The Germans can't hit squat with numerous shots. "Bonnie" is looking like a panzer Ace!

"Big Dog" and "Belle" come in to aid "Bonnie".


The terrifying PaK 40 auf 39(H) enters the fray. It died in every play test, and both convention games. :roll:








Tiring of missing with the StuGs, the Germans use their FO to call in some 105s. Unfortunately it drifts danger close to their own men but they elect to drop it anyway. They get THREE direct hits, but one has to be put on the pinned Grenadiers behind the burning StuG. It destroys the squad and to add insult to injury they only succeed in pinning the left hand Sherman. Bonnie is free to rain more death on the StuGs.

The second Sherman platoon arrives and steamrolls toward Donville Farm in the center. Damn, but those things are fast on the road!



Another barrage of 105s with two direct hits this time puts paid to both "Bonnie" and "Boston". These two players were in a close up prize fight and were beating the TAR out of one another in spectacular fashion. It was the most fun section of either game for me to watch.


Insult to injury-- the death of "Bonnie" brings out an airplane chit. One "5" later and a Jug is dropping four small bombs on the advancing Germans in the field. It only succeeds in pinning some infantry. But even the Pak 40 auf 39(H) rolls through the blasts.


My prize for excellence in the foreground. :blush:

Disposition at the end when we had to quit. The Germans were surrounding the farm, but there is a full platoon of armored Infantry solidly entrenched there with plenty of armored support and an FO ready to drop some 105mm death on them. But the Germans won this one 25-32, mainly because they drew FOUR special chits. Had those even been twos they would have lost.

Some extra shots from a friend (and far, FAR better than mine!)

Thanks for looking, and let me know if you have any questions.

Jerry

Fantastic looking game!
I love the tank riders, well painted all around. It's the little details that make a table, telephone/hydro poles, dead cows, etc.
Those Milicast vehicles are really nice. However twice the price of Britannia or Ready to Roll. Wish I could afford those.
How did you make you explosions, they really make the artillery barrage look real.

Excellent! The game looks awesome. 👍

Now I am really sad to not hVe been able to go. That set up was very nice. I enjoyed the AAR. You award was well earned!

Matthew

I owe ye a pint (or three) Jerry…

Ye just have to come to Ireland to get them.

Great advert for the game, truly ace work by you and the other guys and so stoked you got the award!

Thanks dude, awesome stuff.

Congrats Jerry! Great looking game; love the details and paint jobs on all the toys.

I was never a fan of the multi stands but you've done such a marvelous job of basing I'm a convert to the idea now…

All round great job and a worthy winner; Well done :)

Jerry: great looking game! Really like those Litko Group movement stands.

Joe

Thanks, Joe. I never could have done that scenario without those Sentry buildings I bought from you.

The stands aren't Litko, they are from Warbases in the UK. Now I have to go look at Litko and see what they offer… 8)=

Jerry: wow, they look just like the Litko 'horde' bases we use in our 20mm games.

You did an excellent job on the buildings!

Joe

Well done and beautiful kit. Thanks for sharing.

Duane

Thanks Jerry for putting on a top notch game. The table was simply gorgeous and a real delight to play on and the game ran great. I went to Historicon with "recon Battlegroup: Overlord" at the top of my mission list and your game didn't disappoint. I enjoyed it so mu ch I went and played in one of Michael Pierce's Battleground demo games on Saturday. I was all set to go and buy the rule books myself, but responsibly went to make sure my own game was ready to Saturday afternoon. By the time I got to the dealer's room on Sunday every copy of the basic rules and all of the theater books I wanted were sold out.

Fortunately, I was able to get the PDF of the rules and of the Kursk campaign book to satisfy my need for instant rules gratification.

Great-looking game, with beautiful figures, vehicles, and terrain. It sounds like it was exciting to play too!

One last thing: is it just me, or have people had an especially good time at Historicon this year? From all the posts on TMP, I'm getting the impression many people really enjoyed themselves. Although I live in Texas, all this excitement inspires me to get off my butt and attend again in 2016.

I can say I really enjoyed this year at Historicon. I didn't get to play in the Carentan game, although I walked by a few times to admire how pretty it was. The games I did play in were all top notch and reflected a lot of effort on behalf of the GM's putting them on.

Well done Jerry! Well done!

Yes, Jerry, a great game. I did not play in it, but I sure enjoyed looking at it.

Tom

Great kit, where is you get your field mats?

Lovely set-up and sounds like they were great games, thanks for posting pics and an AAR.

The mats are from Home Depot. Six bucks and one makes a crapload of 6x6 pieces.

Jeigheff, even though all my closest friends had to skip this year the con was amongst the best I have been to. Part of that was the Battlegroup rules and the wonderful players I was graced to have in my games. The rest was ephemeral but I was relaxed and having a super time from minute one, and it seemed there was far less grousing and complaining to be heard as you walked around. Maybe the stars were aligned or something… 8)=

I can't wait for Fall In!!!

Ah, I just realized I didn't answer one question-- the explosions were made for me by my nephew's son Imago. He helped me with some flocking and scenery painting along the way and I had mentioned it would be nice to have four more (I had bought one at Siege of Augusta). He took a picture of that one and when I was heading out for the con he called and told me to drop by his house on the way out. The beautiful bluish grey ones are his and I received a TON of compliments about them at every game. He's a talented kid (18 but still definitely a kid to me) and has asked me if he can come to a con in the future and maybe sell more explosion markers in the flea market. I told him bring 'em on! I think he would sell a boat load of them as they are nicer than ANY I have seen out there.

Plus I really want to see him become a gamer… 8)=

Soooooooooo awesome!
I hope some day I can get off my hump, get some stuff painted, and actually play some Battlegroup! Such a lazy sod…..
:)

Nazrat,
As I recently purchased a few AB Germans for a Christmas project for my Grandson, who makes the most compatible American Para's to these figures. I have FAA and they're a little smaller and chunkier than the AB Germans.

Also excellent looking game!!

I also thought this was one of the best Historicons I've been to. For me a big factor was that two of my old friends from Texas flew up, so we got to have a gamer reunion. But in general, it seemeclub d relaxed and everyone was having a great time. It seemed that the gamer:game ration was about right as it seemed that almost all of the games were filling and there were few players who could not find a game. All of the games I played in or ran were full. The staff continues to make little tweaks as they acclimate to the venue that seem small but make a big difference. For me this year that was the rearranged tables in the Hobby University area that made it much easier to get into the adjacent gaming areas. This made it easier for everyone to get in and seemed to really increase traffic through those areas.

Blucher-- Mine were FAA, Sojers, and Elheim. FAA is slightly chunkier than AB, the Elheim bigger by a hair, and the Sojers a bit smaller. The Blitz Paras I have are near perfect but are almost all in Winter gear. I have some CP Models but they are slimmer and taller. None of these are perfect but I REALLY like the FAA best of the bunch I have. There's a great bit of selection and they are pretty accurate. I will field the FAA platoon right beside my Elheim one, though, because I like both and at a distance you can't see the tiny differences between them and the AB forces.

Maybe someday Tony will relent and we'll have a nice line of AB US Paratroopers to make all our dreams come true… 8)=

Beautiful game. I love looking at the gorgeous figures, AFVs and buildings. Thanks for posting.

Thanks for looking! It was a labor of love.

Wow everything looks great, both miniatures and terrain. Those German AB tank riders are amazing. Thanks for posting all those pics.

Nazrat

Looks great!!

Had to cancel out this year at the last moment!!

Planned to join in some of your games.

Where can the Battlegroup books be purchased in the states?

Kirk

Age of Glory, Brigade Games, and the Warstore all spring to mind.