SB5 Monthly Update - 20/5/17

Its time for another update!


Warmaster Vampire Counts

Mike has been very busy painting a Warmaster Vampire counts army to fight against the other forces that we can muster - here are the Black Knights, Winged Nightmare and General that he's recently finished.

 

 Line of Battle

Ed has launched his own ruleset - Line of Battle. Line of Battle is an awesome set of rules that covers large scale wargaming over a wide variety of time periods that SB5 helped develop. You can find out more and download a copy here.


Warhammer 40,000 and Shadow War

I've been busy working through a backlog of 40k models and have recently finished my latest project -a 1st Company Task Force for my homemade Space Marine Chapter, the Blades of Fire

I've also completed 3 Kill Teams for Shadow War: Armageddon

Beta Two Zero - Deathwatch Scout Kill Team

Tiberius' Cadre - Inquisitorial Kill Team led by Lord Inquisitor Tiberius

51st Kerysian Veteran Kill Team

Warhammer Preston Grand Opening

My local Gdub store has recently moved and had their Grand Re-opening yesterday. It was an awesome day with gaming, cake and lots of Warhammer related prizes to be won - I, myself won this awesome piece of artwork

That's all for now - see you next month!

NFTR

Dan

SB5 Monthly Update 16/4/17

Hello and Happy Easter!


Another update to let you know of what we've been getting on with



March to War

I recently took part in an event at my local Games Workshop store, where individuals had to pledge to complete a project, starting in January, of their choosing, It could be as big or as little as they wanted, but it had be completed by the 31st of March (hence the 'March' in 'March to War', clever Gdub)

I had 2 projects I wanted to complete. Firstly A Freeguild/Empire army for Age of Sigmar, Which consisted of: A General
                     10 Greatswords
                     30 Swordsmen
                     20 Crossbowmen
                     5 Outriders
                     and a Warrior Priest


My Freeguild Army - The Unbound Sons

 Second was an Imperial Guard Platoon, I used Elysian models for these guys as I love the look of them. The Platoon Consisted of: 5 man Command Squad
                                                     3x 10 man Infantry Squads
                                                     Missile Launcher Squad
                                                     Heavy Bolter Squad
                                                     Special Weapon Squad with Demolition Charges
                                                     A Taurox
                                                     2 Elysian Tauros'
                                                     2 Elysian Drop-Sentinals

Introducing the Kerysian Critical Asset Recovery Division  

I'm proud to say I completed them with a few days in hand!


Line Of Battle


As you can see from Ed's post below and on his personal blog, The 'Line of Battle' rules are now available! Check them out if you haven't already



New Super-Campaign

Hot off the heels of his last one, Ed is planning a new Super-Campaign, this time focusing on the Spring Offensive in 1918. This focuses on a series of German attacks against the Western front as a last ditch attempt to win the war. It going to be a lot of fun to do and we'll keep you updated as it progresses

The Ground we'll be fighting over

That's all for this month

NFTR

Dan

Line of Battle

They're always closer than you think.

Today I unveil a project I've been working on for several years: Line of Battle.  This is a universal set of wargaming rules for large scale line battles between 1600 and 1914, and I'll be putting them up for sale from today.  Read on for details about the game, as well as how to get a free copy for yourself!

What is Line of Battle?

It's a set of rules for historical wargames that we have developed over the last three years.  The concept was inspired by other big-battle rules, like Warmaster and Give Them The Cold Steel, and it has been developed from a set of house rules and amendments to become a completely unique rules system.  Almost every 2mm or 6mm game you have seen on this blog since 2015 has probably been one iteration or another of Line of Battle.

SB5 Monthly Update

Hello,


Its been a while since I've been on here, so to help remedy that I'm going to start doing a monthly update to keep everyone up to date with what we're getting up to.

So here we go!

 
SB5 Books

We've run numerous super-campaigns, and Ed has written up the narratives in several, osprey style books.

Team Yankee

We've started Getting forces for the game Team Yankee, based on the Flames of War rules.

Team Yankee is set in and alternate history where the cold war got really hot. stay posted for potential super-campaigns!



Line of Battle

Ed has written a set of rules designed for various periods from anywhere up the Napoleonic era on a regimental scale (6-10mm), these are the basis for some of our books and will be available soon



Recension

I, too, have been writing my own set of rules. Recension is a squad based game set in a Zombie Apocalypse, where the zombies act a 3rd player and can cause trouble or opportunities for players.


Lots of Projects and Models
Self explanatory really.... we've all had many projects we've been working on. Stay posted to see what we've been up to.



That's all for now, I'll be trying to stay on top of blog from now on with regular updates, so I'll see you soon


NFTR

Dan

  

Battle Report: The Civil Wars In Scotland

Yours truly, doing some experimental archeology...

Afternoon, and welcome back to what will soon be regular blogging again.  Two SB5 members recently had a 6mm ECW game which was on the Palladian Guard blog - read on to find out how it turned out!

Some of you may recall the 6mm American Civil War rules I wrote - detailed rules for regimental-level combat, with a focus on period battlefield tactics and drill.  We used these to refight every battle in which the 4th Texas fought. Well, I've now done the same for the British Civil Wars, using my 6mm Baccus figures.

Warre Without An Enemie is a tactical game where you command a body of pike and shot, supported by some cavalry and skirmishers.  You need to get all the different types of troops to work together effectively, in particular your musketeers and pikemen.  The rules revolve around morale and ground - casualties are almost an afterthought.  Your men will start to fragment long before they all die.

To playtest the rules - which are very similar to the ACW version, with suitable tweaks for things like pikes, cavalry and matchlock muskets - I went to the sangar with Mike to playtest the rules.  It was a really fun game, and a Sunday afternoon spent with bacon butties, coffee and general good humour reminded me what good wargaming is all about.

As with all my 'battle reports', I won't try and report every dice roll - just some annotated pictures which should give you a feel for how it all went.

A regiment of New Model pike and shot.  These are slow units, but powerful in close combat.

The New Model force drawn up.  A small body of commanded shot is on the flank, closest to the camera.  These aren't as vulnerable to cavalry as you might think, particularly if they are in good cover like some woods.

Some rapacious Scots to oppose them!  In this scenario, the Scots have more cavalry, which is higher-quality, but their infantry are composed mostly of levvies and are not that dependable.

The battlefield.  To make it as realistic as possible, it's full of fields which will impede movement and prevent cavalry from operating at full effectiveness.

I switched one of my P&S units to column to manoeuvre through some woods.

The very formidable New Model Army!

I dispatch some Lancers to the flank to guard against a sneak attack, but pretty quickly they start taking fire from the NMA guns, and I have to bring them back over the river and take cover, allowing me to redress the ranks.

The NMA having some trouble over here; their commander shot are becoming disordered by trying to manoeuvre through woodlands.  They'll need to spend a turn redressing the ranks before they can fight at full effectiveness.

Methinks a push of pike is in the offing!

A vicious fight errupts for the village.  The Scots get there first, but the NMA troops are exhausted and unsupported after driving them out the houses.  They have no choice but to retreat - the various morale levels give each unit a distance.  If there are any enemies within this distance at the start of the turn, they've got no choice but to back off.

I unforgivably forgot to get any pictures of the pike push itself.  But thanks to being slightly less tired, and having their flanks secure, the Scots perservere and drive the NMA off.  This game rewards the careful husbanding of reserves - after winning a pike push, these Scots are in no shape to chase off the enemy.  Thankfully, I have some nearby cavalry who I can push up to finish the job.

A nice cinematic shot of some Scottish lancers hiding behind some trees!

To be fair to Mike, this was only a playtest and his first game to boot, so it wasn't entirely fair.  We tweaked the rules as we went along as well, so the Scottish victory is certainly not the result of better generalship on my side!

All went well, I think.  Mike actually lost comparitively few troops, and even fewer were killed on my side.  I was just lucky to keep winning initiative rolls, and my cavalry were lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time to drive the enemy off.  An excellent game, and a fantastic chance to show off my newly-painted 6mm stuff.

Hope you enjoyed this!

American Civil War - Battle of Antietam

Hi everyone!  This is a repost from Palladian Guard, showing what some of our chaps got up to recently with our new 6mm game.  Once this is fully playtested we're hoping to make a full participation game for everyone.

The Battle of Antietam, or Sharpsburg as it was known in the Confederacy, remains the bloodiest day in the history of the United States to this day; 25,000 casualties of whom 4,000 were killed.  So it was not without some trepidation that we embarked on our latest game of Two Splendid Lines, following the history of the Fourth Texas Infantry through the Civil War, battle by battle.

For those who've missed the preceeding posts, TSL is a 6mm game based on the Give Them The Cold Steel ruleset.  It focuses on the morale and tactical dynamics of regimental-level combat - all about the snapshot of a battle.

 

This is how the battle opened.  The infamous Miller's Cornfield is towards the top, and the Federal attack is coming along the road.  Hood's now-famous Texas Brigade is hasilty deployed - the 1st and 5th Texas are just off the top of the board at this point and don't take any direct part in the battle.  We're facing off against the equally tenacious Iron Brigade...

 From our angle you can see the challenge we face.  The ground is difficult and varied, which means it will be difficult to attack in line - but the fact that there's a regular U.S. Army artillery battery preculdes a column approach!

This is how the Federals begin.  Because of their slightly awkward start, they can't deploy in a full line as the 19th Indiana advanced too quickly.  The 35th New York, on the other end of the line, would have to stand in front of the guns to complete the line.  Instead, the 19th forms an impromptu line with the 7th Wisconsin and the New Yorkers march by the flank (ie. sideways) to get behind them in support.

Contrary to experience and practice, the 19th Indiana let loose a battalion volley at 80 yards.  This sounds bad, but is actually ideal for the Confederates - at that range the majority of the shots will fly high, and the entire regiment is left standing there with empty muskets.  Still, we lose about 20 men in one volley!

 In response, I double my regiment forward to about 40 yards, fire a volley of my own just as the Yankees are reloading, then charge!  At that very close range the fire of my Texans is much more devastating and the 19th are forced to withdraw in disorder, to avoid being impaled.  However, I can't advance any further myself because my own ranks are disordered from all the running and the men are tired.  I've just won a little bit of ground.  Reading the official records, this is how about 95% of all bayonet charges went, and accounts for the low casualty figures.  They were shock weapons rather than physical ones.

The other two regiments put up a brave fight.  The Georgians and Hampton's Legion cannot advance any closer because of the vicious canister fire from the artillery, so with their flanks secure they expertly alternate their two regiments to hold off our three - one fighting, the other resting.  To break the stalemate, I despatched my lieutenant colonel with two companies of skirmishers to go into the woods and harras the enemy.  This prevented the 19th Indiana from rallying, and also stopped the 'recovering' regiment from resting so easily.  Also, they scored a big hit when Brigadier General John Gibbon was shot in the upper arm and carried from the field.  (Our fate dice showed that he subsequently died following an unsucessful amputation).

With this, the Federals started to withdraw, but there was no way our shattered brigade could advance any further.  We soon withdrew - both sides had been stopped, but at tremendous cost.  Out of 422 men, the 4th Texas lost 43 killed and 64 wounded (a slightly smaller proportion than in real life).  I quote the following passage from the colonel's report after the battle:

No words can convey the depth of emotion and admiration I hold for the men of the 4^th Texas; they responded instantly to whatever order I gave as if on the parade-ground and seemingly disregarding the scores of dead and wounded about them.  Each man who stood on that field deserves, and has earned, a higher praise than I can herein give.

Ed

Assualting the trenches part 2

Good morning and welcome to the assault on the trenches from my perspective, the defender.
As Coldsteel eluded to this will be a 4 part post and next time I shall have the job of trying to dislodge his poxy Space Marines from those trenches I only just managed to hold.

We don't tend to play huge point games for 40k, not just because of the space needed but for sheer time factors. I hardly moved at all and we spent nearly 6 hours at Games Workshop HQ playing this game! But we both fancied getting our whole collection out and onto the field. So without further ado let me introduce you to my Tau.

 

My Left flank - Kroot in the first lines, XV8 suits and broadsides in the second line with XV108 Riptide, XV09 and Hammerhead Support



My Right flank, Fire warriors in both lines with Hammerhead support

My army comprised of the following:

HQ
1x Commander in XV8 suit with 2 XV8 crisis bodyguards
1x Cadre fireblade

Elite
1 x XV108 Riptide
3 x XV8 crisis suits
2 x 4 XV25 stealth suits

Troops
11 x Fire warriors
12 x Fire warriors 1 x Devilfish transport
20 x Kroot with 2 x krootox

Fast attack
3 x XV09 hazard suits
2 x 5 Path finders

Heavy Support
1 x R'vanna experimental battlesuit
2 x Hammerhead Gunships
3 x XV88 Broadside suit

I decided to put my R'vanna, XV09 and Riptide stationed on the bridge to help which ever side Coldsteel pushed hardest. The Path finders and Stealth suits were split on both flanks. My right flank I placed both my Fire warriors with a Hammerhead and Crisis suit support. My left I left rather lightly defended with the kroot up front and a Hammerhead, Broadside and Commander to support.
My thinking being that Coldsteel would rather face relatively weak Kroot than face the massed volley fire of my Fire warriors. One he took the bait I was planning to reinforce in strength across the bridge. The battle turned out very differently..........

The Fire warriors see the bait has not been taken and the are the intended target!

As you can see Coldsteel decided to put his best units against my strong gun line.


 

I luckily managed to get the first turn. However my dice rolling was poor to say the least. I only managed to destroy the Vindicator! Tau excel at shooting but are basically made of cardboard, they can dish out a whole lot of hurt but cant take it in return! My long range meant I would have at least 2 turns of unopposed shooting, but I had just wasted one!

This Quickly turned into a battle of two sides so I will briefly cover the holding action on the left flank. Coldsteel pushed up a Dreadnaught and tactical squad with scout squad support.

 

The holding action begins

The Kroot started to take casualties and eventually fled the battle.



The Kroot valiantly held for as long as they could



After pulling my Riptide and XV09 suits away from the left to deal with the impending terminator assault I was forced to push my commander into the front line to hold my left with broadside support.

 

Broadsides search for their next target

Luckily this managed to hold my left and we pretty much fought each other into a standstill here. Now onto the main event the right flank.

 

The R'vanna locks onto the Centurion devastators

Despite being hit with volley after volley the Space marines weathered the storm

Slowly the Space marines advanced, shaking off multiple hits from my ionised weapons. I managed to take out a tactical squad and the devastators lurking in a building but still the armoured warriors advanced.

The Fireblade shouted inspiration to his troops! FOR THE GREATER GOOD!

Finally the inevitable happened. The terminators hit home, and hit hard they did. The Tau are pathetic at combat. My first squad was wiped out. The crisis suits sent in to hold the line suffered the same fate.

The Terminators hit my first line

Terminators mop up

While what was left of the Terminators peeled left to mop up my Path finders and Stealth suits, his commander dealt with my XV09 suits that managed to arrive in the fight. Even with Space marine killing weapons these were quickly dispatched!

The terminators finally fell to my massed fire from the second line, and the R'vanna's duel with the Centurions ended with their death. Dans reserve bikers flew up the table and locked my R'vanna in combat until the end of the game. Tying up my most deadly asset while his flying gunship continued to strafe my lines.

His commander and what was left of his command squad turned their eyes to my second line. Despite only being two strong they weathered my fire and took out a second complete squad!

Coldsteels command squad breaks cover to assault while his bikes move to pin my R'vanna

The Slaughter begins

After decimating my right flank I finally managed to put an end to his commander with a well placed Hammerhead round. With us pretty much having fought each other to a standstill we decided to call it there. I managed to hold the trench lines but at such a high cost it wasn't much of a victory.


Aftermath on the left flank



What was left of the right flank

The Glorious dead 

As you can see we both were left with very little. It was a hugely enjoyable day and the next round shall be played next month. I am not looking forward to trying to dislodge Space marines from prepared defences. But that is for another day.

NFTR

Trojan8578