ONE DAY LEFT, PART TWO

By Albert, Anna, Barbara, and James Blackwell

ONE DAY LEFT, PART ONE

Today we begin a new series that represents a collaborative work between Albert, Anna, Barbara, and James. They all developed the concept and story together, while Albert has taken on the task of pencils, ink, and colours.

It's an alternate history with comedic and sci fi elements. We hope our readers enjoy this quirky comic series.

 

FLAMES OF WAR: TIGER

By James Blackwell and Godfrey Blackwell

Tank body and weathering by James, tank commander by Godfrey.

FLAMES OF WAR: PANZERKAMPFWAGEN III

By James Blackwell (July 2019, age 8)

FLAMES OF WAR: KATYUSHA BATTERY

Battle Report: First Ever Flames of War Battle

For our first battle, we wanted to use models that are either complete or nearly complete. We had to house-rule a bit since we don't have the vehicles ready to make a legal German force. The Germans brought a "Mixed Panzer Company" but only one platoon since that all we have, so there's a Company Commander in PzKpfw IV Ausf H (on the left) plus a three-strong platoon of the same tanks. The German force was commanded by ALBERT.

For the Soviets, we brought a "Mixed Tank Battalion" with a KV-1 Company of three tanks (bottom right), a T-34 company of three (bottom left), and a tank hunter platoon of four 76 mm Anti Tank guns. The AT guns haven't been based yet because we haven't received the flock and static grass we ordered yet. The Soviet force was commanded by JAMES.

Here is the initial setup: the Germans deployed in the woods at the top of the map, with the PzKfw IV platoon to the left and the Company commander's tank to the right. The Soviets deployed in a line with the 76 mm anti tank guns to the left, the KV-1s in the centre, and T-34s to the right.

To the right is a little bombed-out German village with several houses and craters at a crossroads. To the left is a river and a ruined factory across the river.

FIRST TURN:

The Soviet forces all moved forward, with the much quicker T-34s passing their cross check and moving tactically through the forest. The Soviet gunners were unable to hit the German tanks, however, who were concealed in trees and over 16" away requiring 6+ to hit.

The Germans made use of "blitz"  orders on their turn to get better firing positions and destroy one T-34 and bail out another, then using "shoot and scoot" the Pz. Kpfw. IV platoon backed out of view behind the forest (the company commander failed his orders check).

TURN 2:

The one remaining T-34 crew decided they had had enough and, notwithstanding "Not One Step Back" fled the battle (failed last stand check) and were duly executed for cowardice by the commissars (technically the battle should have ended here since the Soviet Force only had one unit left in their formation, meaning failed Formation Last Stand, but we house-ruled it given the small forces). The KV-1 company pressed forward and were able to destroy the German Company Commander. The Germans in their turn blitzed out again and were unable to beat the KV-1 heavy armour, then "shoot and scoot"-ed back behind the forest.

TURN 3:

Pretty much a repeat of turn 2, with the KV-1 moving forward again and the 76 mm anti tank guns being forced to reposition as the remaining Germans were now out of range. The Germans managed to bail-out one KV-1.

TURN 4:

The Soviets continued to close-in but were unable to hit the PzKpfw IV through the trees. On his turn, Albert decided that his static tact was not working and he needed to reposition to make use of the Panzers' speed and greater range vs. the Soviet cannon. Instead of shooting, his platoon therefore made a cross-country dashed and then did a "follow me" order in an attempt to get into new cover behind the village log cabins.

TURN 5:

Albert had taken a calculated risk, exposing his PzKpfw IVs' weak side/rear armour to the Soviets in favour of moving as fast as possible. Fortunately, given the long range and some poor rolls, James' KV-1s were unable to do any damage, while the 76 mm slowly tried to reposition (soft skin transports would have been nice). On the German turn, the Panzers were able to get in amongst the buildings, although with a failed "follow me" the commander ended up ahead of his troops.

TURN 6:

The KV-1s trundled along, trying to get into position, with one of them getting bogged-down in the woods. Their fire was once again, ineffective given the long range and the concealment behind the buildings the Panzers enjoyed.

On Albert's turn, he moved his platoon commander to within command distance of the other two tanks, who moved around for a side shot. Despite only one shot apiece, they each hit, and each penetrated the KV-1 heavy side armour (a pair of 2's rolled by James on his armour save). Two KV-1s down.

TURN 7:

Another "Last Stand" check failure for James, and the remaining Soviet forces fled the field. Victory to the Germans!

Post battle thoughts: The Flames of War rules are quite fun and make for a fairly quick game. They are straightforward and streamlined. Some people hate the unit cards because they "clutter" up the game space, but at least for us new players the quick reference helped speed things up. We found that the game was a lot more intense for the Germans who had to be very careful and crafty whereas the Soviets are more like a sledge hammer -- a nice historical feel. We're looking forward to doing games with more proper forces next time (the German army in this game was actually illegal and the Soviet one far from optimized).

FLAMES OF WAR: KV-1 TANK COMPANY

Company Commander and Tank #2 by Albert Blackwell

Tank #3 by James Blackwell

FLAMES OF WAR: T-34

"Crush the Fascists" painted by James Blackwell

"Victory" painted by Albert Blackwell

The latest "toy soldiers" foray we've entered into is Flames of War, a 15mm scale World War II tabletop game. 15mm is proving to be a lot faster and easier to paint than the 30mm Warhammer and Star Wars: Legion stuff. Albert and James accomplished these great paint jobs with just a bit of "liquid skill" (Citedel shades) and some dry brushing.

Axis and Allies (Boardgame Review)

Name: Axis and Allies
Game Designer: Larry Harris, Jr.
Publisher: Milton Bradley
Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)
Summary: A classic WWII-themed boardgame for 2-5 players; starting in 1942 the game covers the whole globe on a game-map broken up into chunks like Risk; similar to Risk in some ways with with a satisfying increase in complexity without becoming overly detailed.

Albert and James both list Axis and Allies as one of their top three favourite board games, so we decided we'd best do a review of it as soon as possible. We recently finished playing a game doing a turn or two each evening for a week to give us extra inspiration.

For anyone who enjoys boardgames and is interested in World War II history, this game is pretty much a "must have". The game is recommended for ages 12+ but James (7 years old) had no difficulty playing and in fact he and Albert playing the Axis defeated me last time we played. The game is similar to Risk in many ways in that it is based on a global map broken into chunks, battles are fought by moving playing pieces from one map section to another and rolling dice. The "economic" system is a bit more complex -- IPC's (Industrial Production Points) are earned for each map space occupied, although each space is worth varying numbers of IPCs. You can also only build new units on map spaces where you have an industrial complex.

Board Initial Setup showing player reference sheets, IPCs

A look at the game map partway through our recent play-through showing 

how the map is divided and with different IPC values on regions

A big plus for this game is the very nicely sculpted miniatures which beat the pants off of any abstract tokens. Each nation's infantry is unique to that country (i.e. the German infantry look like Wehrmacht troops). In later editions the aircraft, tank, and naval counters are unique as well athough in the edition we have (2nd) they are all the same just different colours.

The game takes about 2-3 hours to play depending on how many players and how quick they are. The reason we give it 4 instead of the full 5 is that since it is history-based and the map starts the same every game this limits replay value slightly (versus games with random setup) and if played too often could get repetitive. In the game manual, the designers note that some players complain that the odds are too heavily stacked in the Allies favour, but Albert and James were able to defeat me using very aggressive tactics (and some of James' trademark "hot dice").

The game is true enough to history for a good game that feels like WWII without getting bogged-down in details. There are more advanced versions of Axis and Allies which we look forward to acquiring, but the "basic" or "classic" version is probably the best for more "casual" board gamers or people who don't feel like investing 6+ hours. Setup does take a while, so we recommend that if you're getting together with friends to play, set the board up ahead to save a lot of time.

A view of the full board, showing the Axis victory

Highlights/favourite parts of our contributors:

Albert: "I like that teamwork is involved in the game." The game does involve two teams (that cannot be changed) and players, Allies and Axis alike, must work together to have any hope of success.

James: "I like how you can build different types of units." What makes this game really stand out as superior to Risk is the fact that there are units with different attack/defence and movement characteristics. In the classic game the options are infantry, armour, fighters, bombers, battleships, submarines, and transports.