It's beginning to look a lot like D-Day

Christmas Gifts
Originally uploaded by The Gonk

I hope everybody had a great Christmas! Ours was great. With three kids and a dog, it was quite a spectacle around our house. But, now all the kids' toys have been played with, the Christmas turkey has been finally devoured, and it's back to work for me. I did manage to receive a nice little hobby-related Christmas this year. Mostly because I ordered it myself! I got some of the new Flames of War Battle for France items-- the D-Day slipcase books, the 29th Assault Company, and the LCVP set. Kind of special purpose, but I've been considering getting D-Day landing stuff for a while, and when the 29th was re-released, I thought there probably wasn't a better way to do it. My wife also got a few books off my Amazon wish list-- Company Commander, a book I've considered an oversight not to have read yet for some time, and the controversial yet popular Forgotten Soldier. I'm already about halfway through Company Commander.

Gaming Tip

IMG00163-20101203-2250
Originally uploaded by The Gonk

I stumbled across a nifty little gaming tip the other day. When we play the great air combat game Check Your 6!, the guys running the game usually hand out clipboards to the guys running the planes, who clip their planes' roster on it and plot their actions each turn. Most of us will usually clip the quick reference sheet underneath for easy access. Well, the other day I received a clipboard with a clear plastic back. It wasn't intended, but I realized I could put the most useful side of the QRS facing backwards and just flip my clipboard over to take a look at it! Simple, and useful.

On the Road to Sainte-Mère-Église

FoW Objective Vandervoort
Originally uploaded by The Gonk

I finally got my Vandervoort objective finished up and photographed. I'm not much of a scratch builder, so I'm pretty pleased with how my creation came out. Here we see Lt. Colonel Vandervoort being hauled down a side road after injuring his leg upon landing during the 82nd's D-Day drop. He's passing a sign post showing that he's headed for Sainte-Mère-Église, one of the 505th PIR's objectives, and-- well, would you look at that! I misspelled Eglise!!!!!!!!!!! Argh!!!! I quit this stupid hobby!!!

Roadblock on Hell's Highway

Roadblock!
Originally uploaded by The Gonk

We had a fun Flames of War game on Friday. We almost didn't, though! As we were determining the specifics of the scenario, I turned to the player that I had thought was bringing the Germans and asked, "How many platoons do you have?" At which point, he said, "I thought you said you had everything!" Well, that was a bit of a surprise, to say the least! Rather than punt to a board game, though, I whipped up as much as I could of my Gepanzerte Panzergrenadiers, and we had a 2,500 point game. That's not much less than the 3,000 point game I was expecting, so the evening turned out fine, despite the organizational hiccup.

Paratrooper Objective

FoW Objective Vandervoort
Originally uploaded by The Gonk

I've been threatening to do a Flames of War paratrooper objective of the officer being hauled around in a supply cart a la John Wayne in the Longest Day. Well, I finally got around to doing it! John Wayne played Lt. Col. Benjamin Vandervoort, commander of the 2nd Battalion of the 505th on D-Day when he broke his ankle landing. However, a similar incident occurred with the CO of the 502nd, Colonel George Van Horn Moseley-- in fact, that claims that John Wayne played a "composite character" in the Longest Day! Whoever he is, though, he's finally done. Looking at pictures of the M3A4 Utility Cart, I decided the FoW ones were too large. And since I was going to have to scratch build one anyway, as that appeared easier than removing the equipment bag, I made it smaller. I kept the wheels, though-- too tough to scratch build.

Setting up for Flames of War

Flames of War table
Originally uploaded by The Gonk

We're prepping for a 3,000 point game of Flames of War this weekend. I went ahead and got the table ready. It's looking like we'll have five, maybe even six players. We'll be doing the Roadblock mission with Mik's Guards Armoured squadron reinforced by some of my US 101st paratroopers heading down the highway and getting cut off by some Germans of yet-to-be-discovered origin.

Used Books

Used Books
Originally uploaded by The Gonk

Scored some interesting used books over the Thanksgiving holiday. The local book store there sells both new and used books, which I thought was a pretty clever way of cutting down on the competition. Anyway, I found these and got them at less than half the Amazon price. Combat Jump and Beyond the Beachhead both had very high reviews. I thought Combat Jump might be useful reading as I already had WW2 US Paratroopers, and didn't know a lot of the detail of their jumps into Sicily. I was particularly interested in Beyond the Beachhead, the story of the 29th Division in Normandy. I'm about halfway through it right now. It's very readable and I'm enjoying it. I never caught on that their blue and grey insignia was a reference to the American Civil War. The more you know...

Taking Stock of my German Forces

German Forces
Originally uploaded by The Gonk

I wanted to take stock of my Flames of War Germans, much as I had my Paratroopers. Ostensibly Gepanzerte Panzergrenadiers, I haven't quite built as closely to the list with them as I have the Americans. Along the right hand side, I have the GPzG Company HQ with Panzerfausts and Anti-Tank Section (135 pts) and two Combat Platoons with Panzerfausts and three squads each and the Sd Kfz 251/10 (285 pts each). I have a third platoon I still haven't painted...they weren't much fun and I'm not looking forward to it. But I will do it soon. Ish.

Memoir '44 Online Open Beta

I have credible intel that a certain out-of-shape jolly commando will be airdropped on my position sometime near the end of December in an attempt to deliver a medium game box sized device of unknown origin to a reasonably well-behaved child. In entirely unrelated news, Days of Wonder has a free beta testing program for Memoir '44 Online! I downloaded it-- for freakin' Linux, no less-- and have played several games of it. It's my first experience with the game, and I have to say I've found it a little addictive. I've played Pegasus Bridge, Ste.-Mere-Eglisse and Pointe-du-Hoc scenarios so far, and there's a lot more of them. I've only played Solo so far, but it also includes head to head. Fun and easy!