Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Blitzkrieg Commander : Escort the StuG

Yesterday, I started having uncontrollable urges to play Blitzkrieg Commander again. 

After clicking around the Internet, I found a bunch of scenarios for company-level actions and came upon a number of Crossfire scenarios over on Lloydian Aspects.  (which I had bookmarked already, funny that). I liked the simplicity of the  "StuG smuggling" scenario, so that's what you see here, albeit shrunk down to a 3 x 4 playing surface, and with my 1/32 toys.

Unfortunately, as is often the case, it was too late to start gaming by the time I had the table setup. Luck was on my side though, and Pumpkin didn't launch the attack without me.


The mission for the Germans is to get the StuG off the opposite side of the table; infantry are entirely expendable. The US is there to try and stop them.

I got two turns in at lunch today. Here's the cluttered table after turn 2:


This is way more stuff than I usually put on the table - I tried to stick to the fact that the scenario was for Crossfire, which has tons of terrain and scenery. In retrospect, I probably should have used the whole 4 x 4 space, but as you can see peeking out the top of the frame, there's a pile of junk I would have to move.

It isn't pretty, but, still, I think it looks like playing toy soldiers.

7 comments:

  1. I think the main thing is if you have/had fun. Seems like you have.

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    1. Hi Fitz-Badger,
      I pretty much always have fun with the big figures, and this time is no different. I'm actually trying something new for me, which is playing a turn here and a turn there, rather than racing to finish the game in small time slot. I much prefer this relaxed pace and wonder why I don't do this more often!
      -John

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    2. I've actually gone the other way. For the first few years playing solo, I do not think I ever playing a game in one session. some lasting months. And these were usually small games with fast rules! In the last year, I have found that I cannot start the game if I know I will not finish it before the day is over. I am getting a little better but even this week I have not started any of the games I have lined up - they will only take an hour to play but I know I won't finish them in the same evening so cannot get up the energy to start :-)

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    3. Hi Shaun,
      I took the approach of playing and then rushing to finish, which was sapping a bit of the fun out of it, so I certainly understand where you're coming from. One thing that helped there was setting up the table in advance (for years I worried my cat would knock everything over, and now I worry both she and my 3 year old will. So far the damage has been minimal.) Obviously, my terrain can take a beating - it's all card stock, construction paper, craft foam and foam core, so you might not want to leave it to chance if yours is more delicate.

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    4. I do not normally push my own blog, but this may interest you - this is our (large) cat eating some trees:

      http://shaun-wargaming-minis.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/ww2-battle-report-western-front-1944.html

      I do not put these plastic tress out anymore if I ham having the table setup and I will not be there!

      Secondly, I have games setup for months as I tend to play 2'x2'. With small children, I could not leave stuff setup in the open, so I commandeered some map drawers we had in our lounge. I describe the setup in this post:

      http://shaun-wargaming-minis.blogspot.com.au/search/label/100000

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  2. You had fun and I don't think it looks particularly crowded. I have those times when I have the small table and large figures (not as large as yours though!) and it looks like the picture above.

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    1. Now that there's been some time since I played this game, when I look at the picture, I don't think it's particularly crowded either. That said, had I used the full 4' x 4' I think it would have been closer to the source map, which had more maneuver room north and south of the village..

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