Clash of Steel - USA vs British - 125 points

Clash of Steel

I was able to get in a rare game of Flames of War... or Clash of Steel. Clash of Steel is just the rules for Flames of War, using only tanks. The setting is a 1947 What-If scenario with the Western Allies and Germans taking on the Soviets. While I love pure historical scenarios in Flames of War, I do have a soft spot for prototype tanks (but don't really care for paper panzers!). As you may have seen in some posts from several years ago, I already have a lot of US and German prototype tanks in 15mm, but it is really nice to now have them in plastic.

The Game

My friend Bryan and I got together at the local hobby shop and played a 125 point game of clash. 125 points is a rather large game, and after the fact, we decided to likely stay at 100 points for future games. My force was a mixture of the US options. 

1 - HQ T29

3 - T29 Heavy Tanks

2 - T30 Heavy Tanks

3 - Super Pershings

5 - M26 Pershings

2 - T28 Super Heavy Tanks

5 - M4A3E8 Medium Tanks

4 - M36 Tank Destroyers

Bryan,s British force was all about the Centurion Tanks. He had 15 Centurion Mk III's and 4 Tortoise's. His commander was one of the Tortoises.

For Clash of Steel the players draw one a mission deployment card and then a separate mission rules card. That means there are hundreds of variations for the missions, keeping things fresh. Also, the objectives have special rules, that can give extra points, give fewer points, add concealment around them, etc. Then there are special tactics cards that players draw to add one-use bonuses. These variations give every single game a totally different flavor.

In my many years of playing Flames of War, we could role for a mission, and I could see how many of the games would play out, before rolling any dice! That is not the case for Clash of Steel.

Our mission divided the board into table quarters with each player deploying in opposite diagonal quarters with three objectives, two in the unused quarters and one in the center. Our mission rule was simply night fighting for 6 turns.

The board during deployment.

The US deployment table quarter. The Shermans make a run around the left flank.

T28's and M36's facing off against the British on the right.

The US pushed the center hard.

The British on the right.

The T29 HQ and Super Pershings in a useless overwatch position.

Turn One

The British had first turn and advanced a third of their forces towards each objective. They were able to reach the right most objective, but it's special rule was that it was only worth one point to who controlled it instead of the normal three. Suddenly the right-side objective was not nearly as important as the others. The British failed to see any of the American tanks.

The Americans just advanced in the center and on the left. On the right the T28's and Jackson's moved over to hold off the British forces, but not aggressively push that objective. There was no shooting on by the Americans, using the darkness and cover instead.

The British scored a few points for the far-right objective.

A brawl begins in the center of the board.

The M36's flank and destroy three Centurions.

Turn Two

The British continued to advance all across the board. Some Centurions moved onto the left most objective with a terrain dash but could not hold it in their turn because of that. But some excellent spotting and shooting by the advancing Centurions saw off two Pershings in the center. A T29 was also bailed by and aggressive flank attack from a troop of Centurions.

The US forces then retaliated by flanking and destroying the three Centurions on the railroad tracks and the Pershings took out one of the Centurions that shot them up but their commander failed its rear shot into the Tortoise on the center objective. A T28 also bailed a Centurion on the right. The Shermans hid behind a building, ready to jump on the left objective next turn.

Again, the British scored more points this turn.

The M26's in the center taking a beating from a troop of Centurion III's.

The M36's go for a second troop of Centurions but miss.

The Shermans fought a wild fight on the left flank, eventually winning!

Turn Three

The British firmly took over the left objective and scored a full three points for it. Another Pershing was destroyed and a M36 bailed. But American armor and a failure of British firepower tests saved most of the US tanks.

The T28's destroyed a Centurion and the Shermans another, when they raced around the left flank, but American gunnery in the center failed and the British were left unscathed there. A Pershing missed two-point blank, stationary shots into the rear of a Tortoise. The T29s struggled over the rail line and the craters, failing several cross checks over multiple turns, the darkness made it all the harder.

I'm not a huge fan of the T28's but they did work this game, winning out on the right flank.

The Tortoise command troop moved in on the center.

The last Pershings were taken out as the T29's came in and took over the center.

The T30's and their 155mm cannons ended up doing well.

The scrappy Shermans refuse to go down!

Turn Four

Dawn Broke!

The British finally destroy all the Pershings in the center. The Remaining two Centurions on the right risk a turn of fire to get into the rear of the T28's. A Sherman goes down on the left but they still contest.

The risky maneuver does not pay off and the T28's destroy both Centurions that were attempting to race past them. The Shermans kill and bail a Centurion on the left, taking that objective, and the T29's destroy the last Centurions in the center. The T30's and Supper Pershing are working their way around the left center of the board to encircle the two Tortoise's stubbornly contesting the center objective.

The British lead on points has now been cut by the US.

In the end the British Center was enveloped.

With the arrival of the super Pershing's the left was finally secured.

Turn Five

Not a lot of pictures of this turn as the action really ramped up.

A Tortoise in the center nailed a T30 and another Sherman went up with one more bailed, but the British were firmly being squeezed now. The last two troops of Centurions were now fighting for their lives on the left objective. The command Tortoises continued to slowly trundle towards the center.

The US surrounded the center Tortoise, but it survived. The Centurions on the left were whittled down to a single tank in each troop, but they both stayed.

The US moved solidly into the lead on points.

The T28's bagged a Tortoise at the end.

Finally, the US tanks navigated the destruction in the center to take out the Tortoise there.

Turn 6

The Tortoises knocked out a Super Pershing and bailed another, but the platoon stayed. The command Tortoises exposed their flanks to the T28's to go for flank shots on the T29's... but missed.

The T29's and last T30 surrounded the Tortoises in the center and destroyed both! Slow firing didn't save the British super heavies. The T28's took out one of the command Tortoise's with rear shots and the Shermans and Super Pershings finished off the Centurions on the left.

Victory to the Americans!

Game Recap

A quick description of this game would be that it was very close until all of a sudden it wasn't! The British got ahead on points quickly and I was worried about catching up, but I stayed steady and didn't feed in platoons piecemeal. That is except for the M26's who I need to contest that center objective until all my fat heavies got over the railroad tracks! 

A few take aways, Tortoises are tough! I gave my T29 commander an ability to increase its AT by 2, and it still could not penetrate the front of the Tortoise. 

Night helped us both get into position but really hurt the shooting, and my cross checks! 

This was a very dense board so the British couldn't use their accurate guns very often, but they did have stabilizers. Yet, at the end of the day, the US slow firing guns got the job done.

Bryan hit well but failed a large number of firepowers! The 2+ or Automatic firepowers on most of the US guns came in clutch!

A Vehicle Worthy of a Primarch!

 Thunderhawk Gunship

This project completely came out of nowhere! After speaking with a friend who recently got a Bambu X1 Carbon printer and wanted to really try it out on a big project, I thought of what I could add to my Horus Heresy Imperial Fists. While I've never really considered buying any of Forgeworlds mega expensive models, they sure are impressive. So after a quick search on Cults 3D I found Nordwand's Deliverance Pattern Heavy Assault Gunship and thought it looked like a great project! 

Nordwand's 3d model is set up more like a model kit than a wargaming miniature with lots of individual parts. It took me a long time to get all the print plates set up with the many pieces of the kit. I then printed most of the small parts on my Elegoo Mars Pro II. Then in just a few days all the parts were finished, and it only took a single roll of the cheapest Bambu filament! 3D printing consistently blows my mind with how quickly technology is progressing!

Originally, I had grand plans on magnetizing parts of the hull to reveal the detailed interiors and have marines preparing to disembark. However, I quickly reeled myself in and remembered that I have very little time and a mountain of projects to finish. So, I instead decided to focus on a detailed cockpit as a mini diorama and eventually some troops at the assault ramp.

I modified various 3d marines to make my crew miniatures. I can do minor changes to stl files but am not skilled enough to make models from scratch.

Only some of the first batch of printed parts!

The fuselage assembled.

I wanted to make sure I had a detailed cockpit.

I was very happy to get a clear canopy printed.

I was assembling everything as they came off the plates.

The completed gunship.

Still working on the crew.

Had to do some work to get the assault ramp to open easily.

First round of paint.

Bright, but I plan on weathering it.

Painted, with no decals.

Complete with weathering and decals.

The transparent cockpit turned out great.

This will mainly be used as terrain, but I still love it!

Ready to make landfall!

I am happy with how the cockpit turned out.

I'll have to make some other photos as there are a lot of extra details in the cockpit.

I've never bought a FDM printer due to the layer lines, but this Thunderhawk has proven to me that the technology is definitely there to print miniatures with incredible detail on a FDM printer!

At the end of the day, I could not be happier with this project and how it turned out. With very limited time to build and paint, I have far too many projects that get boxed away unfinished, I'm very glad this one was completed.

Horus Heresy Battle - Imperial Fists vs... Imperial Fists

3000 Point Imperial Fist Civil War

It has been a while since I have been able to play a game of Horus Heresy V2 but I have really wanted to get back into it. This last week I was able to get a game in at the local gaming club and play a 3000 point Warhammer Horus Heresy game!

This was my first 3000 point game, typically we have played at 2000-2500 points. My list was a toned-down version of my 3000 point Stone Gauntlet list (since this was friendly game), so I did not use a Rite of War at all and dropped a unit of Phalanx Warders for a vanilla Despoiler squad. It was still, what I consider, a good list but not as overpowered and finetuned as it could be. I did not realize my opponent wanted to play 3000 points in order to use all his favorite Heresy era characters! But what it did mean, is that our armies were polar opposites, and not in a good way.

What we ended up with was my list with three really cheap characters and tons of great infantry and dreadnoughts, and his list that had Rogal Dorn, Sigismund and Rafnir Rann! Even with a Primarch, things went really badly for my opponent. 

My force of disgruntled Imperial Fists.

My opponent's army of super characters!

The board.

My deployment, short edge deployment helped me.

It made his force have to cover more ground to get into assault range.

But even when his force got to mine, I had a tough fighting force.

The Casteferrum Dreads are my favorite HH unit!

My warlord and his autocannon retinue.

Recon Marines ready to take out his lascannon squad.

Sigismund and his Templars are in the landraider.

A tactical squad and his lascannon squad.

Rann and his Phalanx Warders to the right of Sigismund.

I got first turn and advanced all my front line.

Then the shooting started!

The Landraider is glanced to death and the Templars get out.

The dangerous front line advances.

Rogal Dorn and the Huscarls deepstrike.

But scatter off the board and I move them far from me!

The Lord of the Seventh will have to walk for a while!

My left flank does not love the idea of fighting their gene father in close combat.

His Dreadnoughts begin to drop from concentrated fire.

My Autocannons suffered some for their good position, as eventually everything was out of range.

Rann at the last. The Rhino's multi melta did him in.

His Contemptor charged my Casteferrum, but was destroyed in the stand and shoot.

Eventually Dorn and the Huscarls got into the Leviathan.

But it survived the first turn of combat with the Primarch and his bodyguard!

Eventually a Casteferrum Dread made it to combat.

The Leviathan goes down, but the Casteferrum killed all the Huscarls!

My Champion challenges Sigismund!

With the expect results.

But my Templars got the better of his Templars.

The Chaplain and Phalanx Warders were waiting to assist.

Excuse me sir.

In the end it was Sigismund and Dorn, alone.

Sigismund fought his brothers to the last, when there was no one left to challenge.

The Casteferrum Dread did not have a good feeling about this.

We ended the game when it was just Dorn left remaining.

As I had planned when making my list, the shooting was brutal, and my assaults on the survivor's was also brutal. My Scouts and Recon Marines wiped out the opposing Tactical Squads and the Heavy Support Squad. What was crazy is that my Leviathan dread took out one of my opponents Contemptor Dreads in a single turn of shooting. The Leviathan had a storm cannon and two Illiastus Assault cannons, and I rolled a lot of rends! 

I didn't need to advance but I wanted there to be some close combat. I sent my Centurion Champion forward to take on Sigismund to add some drama, hoping he would somehow survive a turn... he did not! My Leviathan went into combat with Dorn and his Huscarls, and somehow only lost a single wound! But then it failed to hit a single time! Then when the Castaferrum charged the Huscarls the next turn, it killed them all! There were some fun moments in the game, but it was pretty one sided.