Labour Day October Hammer

Today is the holiday Monday of Labour Day. Most things are closed and the kiddos don’t go start school until Wednesday. 

The youngest wanted to play with my red and blue soldiers (Bolsheviks -Trotsky’s train guard and Red sailors).

I had played a convention game of Squad Hammer at Hotlead 2022 and so thoroughly enjoyed it I bought the rules (PDF on Wargamevault.com).

Here’s the basic set up. Bolsheviks on the left. German Freikorps on the right. It’s an attack/defend scenario around the barn. While attackers usually should have a larger force I chose to keep it even as the boys haven’t gotten the grasp of uneven battles yet (“Why do you have more figures” etc).

We each had a leader, 3 rifle squads, an automatic rifle squad, and a machine gun. One platoon had shock troops and the other had cavalry.

Each son had one platoon of Bolsheviks and I had 2 platoons of Friekorps.

We played 8 rounds (6 plus 1D6) and I had failed to capture the barn.

My 1st platoon was wiped out and my 2nd platoon had 1 rifle squad with 6 hit points (1 away from wiped out) and an automatic rifle squad with the leader with no damage ( both in the foreground)

James had 1 rifle squad (in the fenced paddock) and his machine gun (in the barn’s loft)

Charlie had 1 automatic rifle squad (on the other side of the barn in the other fenced paddock), a machine gun (on the back left hill), 1 rifle squad with the leader (on the ground in front of the machine gun) and his cavalry (on the top right, having flanked me).

We all had fun. I think this was the first time we’ve played using an actual rule set (as opposed to home brew rules) and with minimal tantrums when things didn’t go as planned (the boys were good too 😂).

Here’s a couple photos showing the casualties. What can I say, “War is hell.”

Charlie’s two sailor squads (6 dudes per squad) and James’ Leader, 3 squads and shock troops.

Here’s my losses. 6 squads, both machine guns, one leader, my cavalry and shock troops.

I had a great time using a rule set I enjoy and the boys said the same. The game can be fast and bloody.

Here’s a list of everything below from the photos in case anybody is interested.

Until next time.

The figures are:

Russians - Copplestone Castings

Germans - Brigade Games and Great War Miniatures

Barn - Tinned Fruit Buildings (on Facebook)

Outbuilding - Colin Rush commission 

Trees - The Last Valley (on Facebook)

Hills - Miniature Landscape Hobbies

Fences - Pegasus Hobbies

Barricades - Gale Force 9

Mat- Cigar Box Battle

Reinforcements (or I’m going to need a bigger box)

July 2021 was a looong time ago. Lots of hobby stuff has happened, I just haven’t posted ANY of it for no particular reason.

I’ve been into Chain of Command for a while and have  been collecting a 101st Airborne force.

Looks a little cramped in the box so on the tabletop it looks like this:

HQ, bazooka, three squads, and mortar squad.

I also have two additional bazooka teams, three medics, a sniper, a MG and 4 spare infantry I can use to be a 3 man engineer demo team or to bump up the MG team to have 5 crew. Oh and two Sherman’s and a firefly for reasons.

Finally the other pieces have been completed. Another Sherman which gives me a full tank platoon. A Jeep with a mounted MG. An anti-tank gun and another mortar.

I also grabbed 8 crew for the weapons teams as I don’t really like using riflemen for crew. And another 8 riflemen to get the three squads into full compliance with rifles instead of songs or carbines.

Here’s a scale comparison of the troops.

L to R: Bolt Action, Artizan, Bolt Action, Artizan.

So they are basically done. I have decals for shoulder flashes and should put some markings on the Sherman’s but that’s for some other rainy day.