Victory at Last!

   Last Wednesday I went up to the north side of town - that's a 90 minute drive if you're not familiar with Houston's size and traffic - to play a game of Team Yankee with my newly painted Soviet T-64 Battalion. I still had to borrow a few bits, but my T-64s and my infantry were on the battlefield for the first time! My friend Jim ran his East Germans alongside me, a BTR-60 Panzergrenadier company with T-55s in support.

   And we won! The Warsaw Pact forces held the objective strongly with a weakened  American Marine infantry force trying to take it away. This was unlikely to succeed in the face of an overwhelming number of East German and Soviet infantry stands, already dug in, and with supporting fire power from their BMP and BTR transports. We called the game for time, at a 4-3 victory for the Soviets (we had lost three platoons of tanks and one of ZSU-23-4 Shilkas).

Starting positions for WarPac forces

Using Spearhead special ability, the East Germans deploy into woods overlooking the objective. In turn one, they will move to cover it. Unfortunately, in their hurry to the front, they forgot their shovels and it wasn't until turn four that they finally dug in.

T-64s advance into contact. Cowardly American Dragon missiles are hiding behind the hedgeline there. They would survive the battle, the T-64s did not.

With two of their tanks burning, and one bailed out, the remaining T-64 abandons the battlefield. His bailed out comrade joins him in cowardly flight. Subordination by Yankee agents is suspected. The battalion political officer will be having a short discussion with those tank commanders, and a demonstration of Morale Rule Makarov.

Lots of WarPac parked on the objective. My BMP-2s have not dismounted their infantry yet.

   Before fleeing, my T-64s did manage to take an upgraded Abrams tanks out of the game. It should have been all three, but... my dice did what my dice do, and that is fail me miserably when shooting, and our opponent, Bryce, made a lucky Morale save when I had his second tank bailed out. The second platoon died to a tank, earning a (posthumous) Hero of the Soviet Union for the platoon commander.

Pledge Update - I'm winning!

   It's hard to believe it, but I am actually ahead on my figure count. Not on my vehicles, but I will start really working on that soon, with my OGRE miniatures. What has really made the difference is finishing off an entire Soviet Motor Rifle Company of infantry, including support weapons.

1x Command Stand, 3 figures (officer, radioman, other)

9x RPG-7 Stands, 18 figures (9x RPG-7 gunner, 9x assistant)

10x AK-47 Stands, 40 figures (5x NCO, 5x RPK LMG, 30x AK-47)

1x SA-7 "Grail" Stand, 6 figures (3x SA-7 gunners, 3x assistants)

2x PKM MG Stands, 12 figures (6x PKM gunners, 6x assistants)

  I have almost finished the first five T-64s as well. I will probably end up with about 12 or 15 of these in the end.

Found more books

This time around, it's a bunch of Osprey Men At Arms series books for Napoleonic Wars. Sixteen of them to be precise. So that's pretty great.

This is one of them.

I also found a couple of wooden bookcase editions of boardgames. Stratego and Clue. And that's pretty nice too. But I still haven't located my copy of Arkham Horror or the supplements that went with it. And I have noticed some odd gaps in my minis collection. For example, I have one Matilda II, where I should have three. And one of my Valentine IIs is missing. And four (!) of my Honeys, as well as both of the M3 Stuarts I painted for my USMC force. I am hoping I forgot them at a friend's house a while back... because if not, it means I left them at a game store over a year ago. They're gone if that's the case.

Getting close to done unpacking

   I'm getting pretty close to being finished with the unpacking process of the game room. Which means I am getting close to figuring out what all I actually lost in the flooding.

   It's discouraging.

   I'm fairly certain that I lost virtually all of my GURPS materials. That includes my original copy of Man to Man and Orcslayer (which I just found on eBay and snapped up). It also includes tons of homemade (a la GURPS Vehicles) vehicles and weapons. Literally hundreds of designs spanning almost thirty years, and including stuff my sons made when they were kids. I hate floods.

And some more minis

   A few bits and bobs here. I got some more Bolt Action figures finished today too but I haven't taken photos yet. I will get those up next time, I promise.

A trio of Minotaur Howitzers. This particular battery is based out of Mexico

in the North American Combine, hence the flag on the concrete pads.

(OGRE, 6mm sci-fi)

A Republic of Wales medium machinegun team.

These are Territorial Army forces.

(Very British Civil War, figures by Warlord)

A repainted Fast Food Restaurant for Team Yankee.

When I get the sign on it, it will be a Waffle Haus.

Thinking about trying to do some window inserts, too.

(Battlefield in a Box, from Battlefront, repainted by me)

Finally, a humble cart for Pathfinder or D&D, or any RPG