Tuesday 31 January 2017

Modern Spearhead Rules

If anyone is waiting on a set of Modern Spearhead from Caliver Books - just got this email:


***

Hi,
Unfortunately we are still waiting on our delivery from the USA, our supplier had been in hospital having surgery but is back at work now and we are expecting our delivery end of this week.
As soon as its in it will be posted straight out to you.
Cheers
Clare
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2017 1:38 PM
Subject: Re: Your Caliver order

Hi - any news on this order?

Thanks,

Ozy

Monday 30 January 2017

StarWars Armada day...





So I offered to host an Armada day on a weekend at my place so that we can get some practice in before we decide to do any tournament games.

Are we still up for this?

If so who is interested and whats the best date?

Ozy

Wednesday 25 January 2017

Foo

Indirect fire and battalion Foo’
 Battalion level and Regimental HQ indirect weapons (mortars, infantry guns and regimental HQ gun/cannon  companies may be called in by any fighting stand, recon or battalion HQ of the fighting battalion which the indirect weapons are attached to, These are called battalion FOO’s
On the artillery response chart you use the battalion support section.
The battalion FOO (fighting stand, recon or battalion HQ) may call in up to 3No indirect fire platoons.
The battalion FOO must follow target priority and call in on the nearest enemy platoons
The battalion FOO must use indirect fire in support of its parent battalion.


Indirect fire and Divisional Foo’s
Divisional artillery regiments are made up of a number of battalions. Each battalion has its own Foo these are called Divisional FOO.
On the artillery response chart you use the Divisional support section.
Divisional artillery battalions are assigned to a fighting battalion along with a Divisional FOO who controls them.
The Divisional FOO does not follow target priority and may pick and choose its targets, not necessarily the nearest. It must use indirect fire in support of its parent battalion.
The Divisional FOO must stay within the command radius of the fighting battalion
The Divisional FOO does not add to the attached battalion’s break point and neither does the assigned artillery battalion as long as it is off table or on table as a complete artillery regiment.
This artillery regiment on table will require a HQ to move the regiment.
When a fighting battalion breaks and is removed from play the Divisional FOO and its assigned artillery battalion move into general support.
This Divisional FOO can then move to a fighting battalion and offer its services to it along with any remaining fire missions, on the artillery response chart you use the Divisional support section with a -1 for general support.
In operational games the spotter aircraft can be used as a Divisional FOO for all divisional artillery using the Divisional support section with a -1 for general support.
If the artillery regiment is on table then its battalions may be broken up and attached directly to fighting battalions the fighting battalion’s break point increases. If the fighting battalion routs it will also take the attached artillery battalion, this attached artillery may only be used by the Divisional FOO which comes with it.
Divisional FOO is represented by a stand, it may not be targeted unless it is the nearest target (it counts as being in cover at all times i.e. 3”), it cannot fight, and if contacted will be destroyed. It will be last on any target priority for firing, close combat and overruns.
It has a more relaxed movement and may turn any No of times with a 12” range.
If a Divisional FOO is lost then the contact to the divisional artillery battalion is lost and only the spotter aircraft can use any remaining fire missions from the artillery battalion.


Sunday 22 January 2017

General Quarters - Aircraft Rules for Thursday



It turns out that the Aircraft rules for GC are possibly more complex than the ship rules!

After 3 reads I have grasped a fair understanding of the Aircraft rules so thought it best to put a summary on the blog to save time on Thursday.


Basically you are dealing with tactical and campaign movement for aircraft.

Planes move on hexes and all have a cruising speed associated with each aircraft type and then a tactical speed in inches. For the time we will be using tactical movement rules...

Together with speeds all aircraft have an endurance factor which is the number of map turns they can fly for, again only relates to campaigns and an AA strength value.



Below are the WW2 French aircraft. You can see that each plane has it's own mission code and also a ceiling rating (we wont be using this yet!)

Missions are:

A - Anti Submarine Patrols
B - Bombing - medium or high level
D  - Dive Bombing
F - Fighter Missions, CAP to defend ships and bases or escort to defend B,T & D missions
FB - Fighter bomber mission
R - Recon mission (including gunnery spotting)
T - Torpedo bombing








Each side needs to use an AMC (Aircraft management chart) to log all their aircraft actions by game turn.

You will write down which aircraft and how many will execute a mission on a specific game turn.

One your planes are airborne (see below) they can circle the carrier (we are using aircraft carriers on Thursday to launch planes from) because a map turn is actually 1 hour and a game turn is 6 minutes and most of the planes have enough endurance to stay airborne for a full game.

Note that the QRS sheet seems to have elaborated the aircraft rules and made them more complex.

For simplicity I am geared towards using the rules as written in the book because there seems to be terminology which although makes sense (the ceiling heights) will over complicated the game at this stage of learning.


Each aircraft model represents 2 real planes so please bear this in mind when working out what to bring with you on Thursday.


Generally a squadron consists of  9 models (18 real planes) but for more specialist aircraft like for instance Swordfish I guess you could use smaller squadrons of say 2 or 3 models representing 4 or 6 real aircraft on table.

4 aircraft can be launched from your carriers every game turn (2 models). Once they are airborne they are free to circle and wait for others to join up formation or they can just go off and perform their missions.

You can choose what to attack as you wish and just move the aircraft as per the rates above.

dogfights will occur when opposing aircraft are within 1" of each other and are of the same mission type (this abstracts that they are both flying the same altitude)

To bomb a ship - your plane must move over that ship

To do a torpedo drop your plane needs to be 6" min from the target.

I am not going to go into the actual rules for resolving attacks, these we can run through Thursday.



Both sides should select a carrier. The Japanese and British aircraft lists will be e mailed out later, please choose any 12 aircraft models (24 real planes on table) to use on the night.

Note that your selections must be marked with an asterix as these are carrier capable.
For dog fighting purposes note that you can group like aircraft together to boost you attack value but you can't mix different types of fighters to use against one type of fighter. Everything is paired off in dogfights.

Not too worried about imbalances at this stage, I just want to see how the rules work out.

Excluding the carriers I am going to go with a 200 point cap on other ships. I will send out the SDS sheets later -Ian and Jon - please can you create  a 200 point fleet to use based on the models you have in your collections?

Each ships point value is its Defence factor plus it's Attack factor (use the one in the far left box)




As mentioned last week we will be switching to inches and increasing the play area to 10 x 10ft.

We will be using wind direction because your aircraft can only take off into the direction of the wind...

May I also bring to your attention that we have been moving the ships wrongly. According to the rules you must organise your ships into divisions of up to 2 - 8 models.

These divisions must be moved in strict formation

Line ahead, Line astern, Line abreast or quarter line.

A division may not exceed the speed of it's slowest ship. Individual ships are allowed to do certain moves when launching or trying to evade a torpedo attack but must re form into formation afterwards.


Please bear this in mind when creating your fleets.....

















Friday 20 January 2017

Modern Spearhead OOB's



Here are a few MSH OOB's

USA - FRANCE - UK....




































































Senate meeting

Friends, gamers, countrymen
lend me your ears!
So the 2017 AGM  of our group was last night,
here are the minutes of the meeting
 
Joy of 6 will be American civil war, playing the Bull run battle.
 
Jon
develop scenery for Bull run and ACW in general
Bull run playtest will be at Easter may 6th
Possible half size operational ACW game
Selection of Thursday night ACW games for march
Modern Spearhead - West Germany
Blog articles, Highlight certain rule aspect and meaning,-ACW
Skirting round the outside, American war of Independence
 
Russ
WW2 naval , incorporate aircraft elements, possible mini campaign
WW1 spearhead
Star wars Armada
Modern Spearhead- Russians
 
Ozi
 Ain't been shot mum WW2 company level
Modern Spearhead - USA
 
Ian
Operational game- North Africa
Operational game- Siege of Chester
Modern spearhead -Undecided
 
Phil
Build and develop winter war operational game
 
Mark
Magnus imperium- ancient battles, develop armies
WW1 Russians to complete
WW2 early war British vehicles
spearhead city games
Modern Spearhead- Luxemburg or Swiss naval division but probably British of France or Sweden who knows
Develop terrain, too many pieces bought and unpainted
Blog articles, Highlight certain rule aspect and meaning, mainly Spearhead
Star wars armada
 
 Games
Operation Barbarossa - 4th March
North Africa
1942 Russian counter attack
Siege of Chester
Somme
 
Dates
Spearhead -mark- February
ACW-Jon-March
naval - Russ - June
WW2 skirmish- Ozi- October
 
Purchases
General Quarters -Ian ,Mark
Modern Spearhead - everybody
 
Operational Games
general consensus is that we need to standardise the terrain for Operational games
I will Blog an article about this for discussion
 
Days out
We didn't discuss this but  I am up for battle field /military visits
we will need something for joy of 6 weekend
 


Monday 16 January 2017

General Quarters and 2017 review Thursday



We will be reviewing 2017 plans on Thursday and then a game of General Quarters WW2 to folllow.

I'll field my Russian fleet and I just need either Ian or Phil to let me know if they want to use their German or Japanese.

The lucky winner will receive an e mail of the fleet lists so they can put together a points based flotilla.


Will be good to get back into the swing of these rules as I am keen to use them more this Year.


Thursday star wars

Another star wars game
A lot cagier this time With the empire using an Imperial star destroyer to lead the way and a strong fighter/bomber wing to supplement it.
The rebels used no fighters and kept their distance by moving around the debris field.
Points were awarded for destroyed ships and face up damage cards issued.
Both fleets lost a ship but the rebels came out on top with more damage cards put on the empire fleet
Fine performance young Fewtrell.

So more ships were purchased and the empire fleet grows


Tuesday 10 January 2017

Thursday Night Is Star Wars Armada Night




For all those fans of Star Wars Armada Mark & I will be hosting a 400 point  Game this Thursday night.


Best to announce this now so everyone can make alternative arrangements like:

I can't come tonight as the cat needs shampooing.....

Sorry I am catching up on omnibus editions of Eastenders....

Apologies but I can't make it down this week to play Star Wars, next door's chip pan has got a hole in it and I promised to try and fix it.

Really sorry as I would of liked to of played Star Wars this week but I promised to peel some potatoes for the woman who lives at no 45 (she was attacked by her pet lobster during Christmas and cant use the potato peeler). I would feel dreadfully guilty if I could not be of some use, see you next week....


For those brave enough to venture out to wild lands this Thursday I will be fielding my new Rebel fleet which up until now has been truly squashed by Mark on the last 3 outings. I will be looking for some help to try and defeat the empire.......








Bull Run XMAS Game

 Its early morning and the Federal attempt to turn the Confederate left and roll up their line has met the thin grey line of Brigadier Evans Brigade. Can he buy time for the Confederates to call up reinforcements
 The first of General Johnsons Brigades arrive from the Shenandoah Valley and rush to reinforce Evans
 The road to Centerville and Washington across the Stone bridge at the far end of the table. To the extreme right the road snakes through the trees to Manassas and the exposed Rebel left flank
 More Federal Brigades arrive and advance toward the Sudley ford. Evans is unable to hold and is swept away before the advancing blue columns

 From the Stone Bridge yet another Federal brigade advances across the Bull Run. The Confederates despair as numbers continue to stack up against them.
 The first Confederate brigades arrive on Henry Hill and rush to form a defensive line bolstered by two small confederate batteries.
 Below them the first Union brigade shakes into line and prepares to ford the stream
 The first confederate volley halts the Federal troops on the edge of Henry Hill but such is the ferocity of the exchange the left hand Confederate brigade runs low on ammunition and their fire slackens.
 Face Off at Henry Hill. In the back ground Brigadier Shermans Federals continue to cross the Stone Bridge to support the attack

 A Union traffic jam starts to form at the Sudley Ford. The Union left flank commander openly criticises his colleagues cautiousness!

 The single Confederate Brigade of Cockes command stands stationary on the road to Manassass as Rebel reinforcements rush past toward the action on Henry Hill
 The Federal units on the Hill continue to take punishment from the defiant rebels and in one of many charge actions the farm changes hands and the Confederates of Bees Brigade rush forward

 View from the Federal rear across Sudley Ford toward Henry Hill
 From across the stream a Union Brigade pours fire into the tiny brigade of Hamptons Legion  holding the confederate left but the results are only to cause disorder amongst the Rebel ranks
 On the extreme left an entire Federal division finally manages after a number of failed attempts to get into position to threaten the rebel flank. Ahead of them Jacksons Brigade forms in the trees at the edge of the ridge.
 The Federal Brigade at Sudley Ford crosses and crashes into the exposed flank companies of the Hampton Legion. The Confederate brigade has had enough and with the Union troops in pursuit the small rebel unit runs for the rear. In the confusion that follows Bees brigade holding the farm buildings and ridge is hit and after a short melee is pushed back onto the ridge beyond. The farm changes hands again


 On the Federal extreme right the Union division continues to form up for what may prove to be an overwhelming assault on Jacksons line

















 The Federal attack rolls in and Jacksons defensive fire faails to have an effect on the doyuble ranked divisional strength attack.
 Meanwhile on the right opposite the Stone Bridge the Federal and Confederate troops trade fire and casualties in a grinding stalemate
 The Confederates push forward Stuarts dismounted cavalry and despite the amount of fire directed at the them (and the hand of GOD) the stalwart troopers refuse to run
 The extreme Confederate flank though is grudgingly giving ground but the large confederate units wont give in and as afternoon turn to night the Confederates still hold (just about ) the field




This was a absolute cracker of a battle. Fights happened all across the table and the large but usually GREEN units proved as hard to manoeuvre as I had hoped. Russ was much more aggressive with the Confederates than I had anticipated and the battle swayed across Henry Hill as he refused to give ground. The Divisional strength double line assault by the Union was pivotal but with time running out the Confederates held for a stubborn draw.  The war will continue, the Confederates will withdraw from Manassass and meet the Union again in the  Peninsular where General McClellan will dither as his men wither and the Confederacy will find a new leader to rally behind beneath a new banner. Roll on the Seven Days battles.In the meantime I need Roads, rivers, streams, trails and trees!!