Bolt Action - Streets of Stalingrad!

 Orion had a free afternoon, so I set up a quick scenario in the Streets of Stalingrad (or, really, it could be any ruined city on the eastern front... Orion pointed out it would work well for the siege of Budapest when she gets enough of her Hungarians done!) 

That matt is newer, but those that have been following some time will recognize these ruins from many a battle from.. Stalingrad to post apocalypse to Frostrgrave. 

I provided both forces and, because we were using a smaller matt, built them around 500 points. 

The Germans, which Orion took, included:

Platoon Commander (Regular) + 2 men + 2x SMG + pistol = 57

First Infantry Squad (Regular) NCO + 9 men with LMG and SMG = 119 points

Second Infantry Squad (Regular) NCO + 9 men with LMG and SMG = 119 points

Third Infantry Squad (Regular) NCO + 9 men with LMG and SMG = 119 points

Medic (Regular) = 23 points

Sniper Team (Regular) = 52 points

Total = 489 points

The Soviets, which I played, included:

Platoon Commander (Regular) + 2 men = 50

First (Heavy) Infantry Squad (Regular) NCO + 7 men with 2x LMG and SMG = 114 points

Second (Heavy) Infantry Squad (Regular) NCO + 7 men with 2x LMG and SMG = 114 points

Third (Light) Infantry Squad (Regular) NCO + 8 men with LMG and SMG = 109 points

Fourth (Light) Infantry Squad (Regular) NCO + 8 men with LMG and SMG = 109 points

Total = 496 points

The basic scenario was that the area had been vacated by both sides during a particularly heavy bombardment and when the dust settled, both sides tasked a platoon with reestablishing control of the area. 

We used Battle Scenario rules: Seek and Destroy victory conditions, Meeting Engagement deployment type, and Long Edges deployment zones.... except we used the short edges and played across the length of the matt... but that's because the matt is HALF the size of a regular battlefield (and playing with forces half the size of a regular force) and so the distance across was essentially the same... 

Soviet forces infiltrating into the area on the first turn.. 

Teh Germans cautiously enter the mission area. 

the two sides spot each other. 

A German sniper team takes a shot at an approaching Soviet patrol and is pinned by the return fire. 

Soviets approaching in the distance

German and Soviet squads start exchanging fire as they encounter each other moving amongst the rubble. 

Advancing Soviets encounter a German squad that's fortified itself in a ruined building and begin exchanging fire

So... I needed fives to hit... 

More Soviets spot Germans across the way and begin exchanging fire with them as well. 

A general firefight ensues, mostly between squads hunkered down in the cover of the brick and concrete rubble. 

Germans attempt to maneuver closer. 

A German squad is caught in the open and... not entirely wiped out due to continued terrible dice rolls! 

Soviets taking casualties from accurate German fire. 

Germans maneuvering again. 

So the Soviets that had caught the German squad in the open, got to go first in the next round and desperately wanted to light them up before they got to cover - or assaulted their position. As they had pin markers they had to make an order test... 

FUBAR... 

...and so they ran! 

Right past the Platoon commander!?

Luckily the Platoon commander and assistants took up their positions and fired on the Germans in the open! 

Another Soviet squad moved out into the open to get a line of fire on them and light them up. 

Another Soviet squad taking serious casualties. So many that they needed to make a moral test... and failed and fled the field of battle! 

Platoon Commander continues to pour fire on the Germans in the street who'd become pinned down at this point. Flanking fire from the squad that had panicked and fled the building but rallied and returned on the pinned units flank. 

Soviet squad that had been shooting on the Germans in the street ran for the cover the wiped out platoon had been in.

The German platoon command team tried to assault the Soviet infantry squad!? The Germans did manage to take out two of the defending Soviets... but were themselves wiped out!? 

Positions at the end of the game. 

 The game ended at the end of the sixth turn. I was ahead by a victory point but not enough to win. Really could have gone either way if we'd played another turn...  

I also had a hat! 

Good fun. Fairly quick game and I didn't COMPLETELY forget ALL of the rules... (even though we hadn't played for a month and a half, so... there's that!) 

I never did finish the battle report from the last game.. and.. honestly... I'm not sure I'm going to get to it at this point!? I do plan to finish up the last three Warhammer Quest game reports (They're mostly done!) 

Not sure if we're going to get in too many more games until July... Hopefully Orion will have enough of her Hungarians done that we can play with those! 

Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Session Twenty-One - Deliverance Journey

 This game was played over a month ago on last week of April... 

The loss of Cleona was a bit of a blow to the group. We missed a week. Radukar was just so brutal, I wondered how they would even have a chance... It WAS after dark that they faced him, though... and they'd been spread out... and taken apart piecemeal... 

It was decided to play a Deliverance Journey (as they're a bit easier...). Finnegan played Brutogg Corpse-Eater and Dagnai Holdenstock. Usually he'd take Octren on this kind of Journey, but Dagnai needed one more successful mission to get to third level. Amanda took Glaurio Ven Alten III and Qulathis the Exile... as they are the only characters she has left... 

Right at the gates of the landing zone, the heroes encountered a large swarm of Corpse Rats, which Dagnai waded into, hacking and slashing. They had to be careful. If bitten by rats, they would become diseased and there was no Cleona to remove that condition anymore! 

Dagnai and Qulathis smashed all the rats, and Brutogg and Glaurio surged foward to start knocking bats out of the air... 

Glaurio opened the next gate... only to find MORE bats and rats... and Torgilius the Chamberlain waiting there! 

Brutogg barged past the rats and bats and beat down the crazed old man... 

Ulfenwatch... more bats... 

And then Radukar appeared... 

Their murderous rampage through the city finally caught the attention of The Wolf... and now that he had their scent, there was no shaking him... 

It was daytime though... and he is MUCH less deadly, and easier to deal with in the day time... especially if a couple of the fighters can get some blows in before Radukar even gets to attack! 

and past him they strode, facing more Ulfenwatch... 

and another Vargskyr! 

It took some teamwork, but the Vargskyr was dealt with quickly and efficiently. 

In the wake of the Vargskyr there were hordes of rats and zombies... 

but they were easily pushed past. 

There was a group of Vyrkos Blood-Born Vampires they faced. 

and one last horde of Zombies... 

and then they were out! 

WHEW!!

The Fear Level was brought down to Two, while the Influence crept up to five.

The extraction event involved a slow take-off and zombies swarming the ship and everyone starting the next adventure with a wound... 

Well.. Radukar didn't seem THAT invincible, this time. When dealt with during the day, he wasn't really much of a problem. 

When it comes to taking him out, it will almost guaranteed be nightfall by the time his lair is reached... and there will likely be at least three phylacteries they need to smash... but as long as they stick together... it might be doable! 

Well now that everyone was Level Three... it was time for another Decapitation Journey! 

STUG!!!

In early May, while working on those Fallschirmjägers, I got to thinking about what else I'd like to have as options for the force and I thought a Stug might be fun and I happened to find a good deal on one with reasonable shipping... and I ordered it... 

and it wasn't until TODAY, when it arrived, that I remembered THEY NEED TO BE FIELDED IN PLATOONS (of at least TWO!?)

DOH!!

Ah well... I'm probably not going to get to it for a bit... I guess I'll worry about it then. 

I know... I COULD use just about any German AFV (including a kubelwagon with a machine-gun!?) I'm not fond of not-so-historical mixed platoons. I know, scratch forces of whatever's available happen... but I feel like that should be the exception, rather than the norm... 

I haven't been doing much in the way of hobby stuff... I've been a little overwhelmed by stuff. I have spent a little time working on organizing the hobby area. Hopefully I'll get back to cranking stuff out at some point! 

Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Session Twenty - Enter Radukar the Wolf!

This was our Twentieth game of Warhammer Quest: Cursed City! It was played over a month ago!? I've gotten a bit behind on all the game reports - we played our twenty-fourth game yesterday!! Hopefully I'll get caught up soon! Much had happened!

This was the first journey that Radukar the Wolf showed up. The previous week a few of the Heroes made it to Level Three and Radukar starts showing up in the Level Three Encounter Deck. I have to admit, I never even looked at his stats and abilities until this evening when he showed up... 

The Journey started off as a regular Scavenge Journey. The plan was to gather Realmstone - to maybe pick up more weapons that could deal with the last few baddies that needed to be cleared out - and gain experience for Cleona and Dagnai! 

Making plans for how to most efficiently round up all the treasures...

Finnegan was playing Brutogg Corpse-Eater and Dagnai Holdenstock. Amanda was playing Cleona Zeitengale and Glaurio Ven Alten III

Ready to go...

Brutogg started out by rushing the Vyrkos Blood-Born Vampires. 

And Dagnai just started collecting treasures. Once per turn he can shoot a mysterious object token to collect the treasure (or trigger trap or crisis!) and that is what he was doing here as he ran past this room of Ulfenwatch! 

Cleona joins Brutogg in beating down the vampires. 

The Ulfenwatch had chased after Dagnai and Glaurio came to his aid!

"Ye'll never catch me, coppers!" Dagnai yelled as he ran on... 

There were Vampires blocking the path to the next bit of treasure... 

So Dagnai had to help out here... 

And then on he went, blasting his way through zombies on his way to the next treasure... 

Brutogg Corpse-Eater grabs himself a quick snack while things are relatively quiet... 

He is less fond of the skeletons of the Ulfenwatch - not enough meat left on their bones! 

TWO mysterious objects in ONE ROOM!? SCORE!! 

On to the next one... 

And back to grab this one... 

There are only ever four mysterious objects on the board. Potential locations are marked on the map. when one is removed, another appears at the location marked on the map furthest from any character... Sometimes Dagnai would search one, only to have another appear in the room he just left, because it was the furthest from any of the characters, which had gotten quite spread out... despite Amanda's insistence that they should stick together!? 

Cleona swarmed by bats! 

Which, got lucky and dealt her some serious damage!!

Things seemed relatively under control... sure, Torgilius was on the board and he is definitely deadly... but he's slow and was quite far from anyone... and he will quickly bring on hordes of bats and rats... and the was one Vyrkos Blood-Born... 

And then Radukar the Wolf showed up....

Honestly, it's kind of wild that it took this long for him to show up in a game. There is an entry on the Extraction Event table that makes him show up in the next game... it's a d12 and we got through 19 games without rolling that! 

And then night fell... 

Radukar chased down the treasure hunter... 

and cut him down with two blows... 

Yikes... 

Togilus summoned bats which swarmed Glaurio. 

RAdukar eyed up Cleona... Brutogg rushed to face The Wolf of Ulfenkarn and hopefully save Cleona! 

leaving Glaurio to deal with ALL the Rats and Bats!? 

The Ogor and Radukar start swinging at each other... 

Brutogg MIGHT have been able to take him... but Radukar started summoning vampire helpers.... who get to go twice... and, it being after nightfall, are insanely fast and deadly... 

Soon the Ogor was down... 

Glaurio swarmed by rats and bats, was getting a bit overwhelmed... 

He tried to fall back... but the swarm just chased him down... 

and he too was taken out of action... 

Cleano tried to flee. I think before Dagnai was taken out, they MAY have searched ten of the Mysterious objects... So she just needed to get out... 

If she failed to do so, the mission would be a failure, and no one would gain experience!!

She made it to the entry to the extraction point... but was overtaken by the vampires... 

So, all the characters had to make survival rolls to see if they managed to crawl away and make it to one of the back-up extraction points... 

It's normally only on a one (on a d12) that the character permanently DIES... but there is a -1 to the roll for each Condition you had when you were taken out (diseased, cursed, etc) and anyone taken out by Radukar was Cursed! 

Amanda rolled for Glaurio first and gave us all a fright when she rolled a three... as a one or two would have meant he was gone... 

And then she rolled a two for Cleona... Being the last taken out by the Vampire, they clearly devoured her while the other three adventurers managed to slip away!?

(both of Finnegan's characters managed to slip away into the night and make their way back to the Adamant) 

Finnegan was so disapointed with how the dice had performed, he went and got his dice jail and threw them in there for the week... (though there wasn't quite enough room for all of them!) 

Fear and Influence grew in the city and none of the adventurers gained experience... 

The DID manage to collect up a great deal of Realmstone... and there is NOTHING that says you don't get to KEEP Realmstone collected during the journey... so... there was that... 

The lost of Cleona was a pretty HUGE blow... Her ability to remove conditions was very useful... now anyone cursed or diseased during a game will remain so until they can return to the Adamant at the end of the Journey. 

That's THREE characters they've lost since the beginning of the campaign! Two more, and the campaign would be lost! Although, I do have the Saviours of Cinderfall that could step in to take up the torch (their stats for use in Cursed City are available on the Warhammer website!)... but they'd have to work their way up to third/fourth level to take on any of the remaining baddies!!