Heroes of the 54mm Empire

Sunday, September 29, 2019

My Second World War Americans

I hadn't featured these here before. Tamiya's sculpt quality varies but I love how easy they are to customize.

Five Men in Sicily part 2

From the personal journal of Lt. Hughes, 91st Reconnaissance Squadron,

July 1943,

We entered the village early in the morning, no sounds except the tramp of our boots and the mechanical shrieking of the steel beast sent to support us.

The village was not large and completely deserted by civilians. A church watched over a town square and a few buildings expanded out to either side. Allied bombardment from air and sea had destroyed a few buildings. I deployed my men in two groups. Sgt. Cox commanded a forward assault team while I led a rifle team in support of our armored friend. Sgt. Cox's fire team took point. My squad and were passing the town square when a sniper's bullet missed a mans head and pinged off the tank. We hastily took cover, searching for the location of the sniper. He was hidden on the roof of a destroyed building across the square. Cpl. Collins, with a particular hatred of snipers, fired a few round in that direction. His counter sniping was cut short by another bullet from the hidden German.

Our armored support peppered the area with machine gun and cannon fire but with no success. Fast acting soldiers grabbed the fallen Ranger and started dragging him to safety. Pvt. Price shot from cover and silenced the sniper. His marksmanship would come to define the skirmish.

Immediately after the sniper was dealt with, then four German soldiers rounded the corner of a building into the square only to be cut down by Pvt. Price's carbine and machine gun fire from the tank.

Our gunfire had drawn the attention of the defending forces. Sgt. Cox and his assault section were also ambushed up the road. Every man in the section was knocked down by a German machine pistol but fast action by my squad drove off the attack and took a wounded German prisoner.

Pvts. Price and Martinez made their way into the abandoned building, scouting possible German defensive positions.

Price took the ground floor but Martinez climbed to the roof. A German antitank gun and a machine gun were zeroed in on this position. We believe Pvt. Martinez was wounded in the hail of fire that erupted but his fate is unknown. He did not return with Pvt. Price.

Pvt. Price dashed back across the square towards me with the location of the antitank gun. He was cut down by German fire but I managed to get to him and drag him to cover. Our big metal friend covered our retreat as we left the village with the intelligence we had gathered. We had taken too many casualties to complete the mission fully, but another raid with fewer men might just do the trick.

I believe this has been my wordiest post yet. The solo system gives a very interesting dynamic to the game that I am growing quite fond of. The unpredictable nature of where forces will be and what the will be composed of provides a challenge for the small skirmish games that I prefer.

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Five Men in Sicily part 1

I apologize for my long absence. Life has a way of causing hobbies to take a back burner. With that said, I have been able to accomplish some things. My conversion of Nordic Weasel's Price of a Mile into a Second World War skirmish game is coming along nicely. I am play testing it currently and decided to make a campaign out of it. What better campaign rules then Nordic Weasel's Five Men in Normandy to frame such a campaign. Without further ado, I will let Lieutenant Walter Hughes of the United States Army introduce you to the small band working its way across Sicily in the summer of 1943.

July 1943

I was assigned to the 91st Reconnaissance Squadron shortly after they had landed in Sicily. Told I was being assigned to an elite unit I felt proud of myself. When I arrived at the front, I was humbled immediately. I was to replace a Lt. Perkins who had been shot by a sniper the day after the 91st was deployed to Sicily. I expected to find a platoon to command but instead I found eight men. These eight were loosely attached to C Troop but were usually on their own in enemy territory, finding intelligence where they could and wrecking havoc on the enemy.

These men were

Sgt. William Cox, a no nonsense soldier who had fought with the 91st since the beginning of the Tunisia Campaign,

Cpl. Peter Wood, a B.A.R. gunner who had been Cox's right hand man from the start,

Cpl. Ben Collins who had deserted the 1st Ranger Division but was happy to fight along side the Cavalry Scouts,

Pvt. Joey Martinez, a somewhat dumb soldier who made up for his lack of brains with his brute strength,

Pvts. Arthur Phillips, Paul Price, Samuel Harding, and Robert Bowman who were assigned to the unit shortly before arrival in Sicily. Almost immediately after meeting my men, I received orders to infiltrate a village where there were reports of a possible antitank position. In order for our armored columns to pass through this area, it would have to be dealt with, and General Patton wanted it done now. I was told I would have support by means of an M3 Lee tank...

Friday, March 1, 2019

Don't Give Up On Me

I am currently working towards a college degree and so my hobbies have been limited. I am, however planning an alternate history campaign. Inspired by the success of previous conversions using Brickarms weapons, I decided to try my hand at doing this again. None of these are painted ( except painted weapons but that will be redone. The figures are Armies in Plastic.

I am building a squad of renegade Russians for the Afghanistan sector of my alternate history campaign.

The sharpshooter. It seems this marksman has found a new-fangled telescopic sight for his trusty Mosin. A handy thing in those hostile mountains.

The Officer. Sword and pistol ready for battle.

The ever present Winchester.

While not entirely accurate to the time period, I do enjoy using things that foreshadow the future, like this handy shotgun.

I also modified this Boer with a Brickarms K98. I haven't decided how I feel about it yet.

Sunday, June 24, 2018

A Rainy Day Battle

One wet day this winter a friend and I gathered around a ping pong table and slugged out a massive Civil War game. It took many hours so I won't give a turn by turn but here are some photos that may be of interest.

Hanging my hat and duster up to dry

Starting positions

The Confederacy's one legged General

A Union scout and Wheat's Tigers Lieutenant duel it out on the field

A cavalry officer and Berdan's Sharpshooter take cover behind a dead horse

The officer is knocked down by enemy fire.

Game Day!

I had the wonderful opportunity to fight three wargames yesterday with a good friend of mine. In total, one was won, one was lost, and one was called a draw due to time restraints. I was introduced to Warhammer 40K and although I enjoyed it, the game doesn't really fit my interests enough for me to buy into it. However, when loaned an army I will happily play. We played two games in 54mm as well. The first was a French and Indian war skirmish that ended with a massacre of British Rangers by a much larger force of Indians. The second was an assault on a destroyed Boer farmhouse by a Zulu raiding party. The game was called short right at the climax. Maybe it will be finished at a later date.

Warhammer 40k

The slaughter I endured. I did manage to knock off a few Shawnee warriors.

The board after the first turn. All games were played on the same wonderful modular terrain boards built by my friend.

My Zulus

The valiant defenders.

The fence would slow my forces down enough to allow the defenders to whittle down my forces. The body pile in the picture below is a testament to the effectiveness of their rifle fire.