Looking back to 2010 and forward to 2011

Whew! The heavy rains have come and gone. Unfortunately, the rains saturated the phone lines, wiping out my DSL. Service says it may be a few weeks before everything is back to normal. Ugh.

In other news, another year has come and gone. It's that time of year to pause and reflect on the year that was 2010.

Here are the FOW goals I set for myself at the end of 2009:

For 2010, I hereby resolve to the following:

1) Do at least 1 FOW-related activity a month
2) Complete MW Panzer, LW Jagdpanther and LW Lend Lease Tankovy
3) Start and complete at least one army before the end of the year
4) Have fun


Resolution 1: I think I did very good and met it. I went to The Realm several times on Weds and made many of the Game Day's on Sat. I didn't always get a game in, but I did get to talk shop with other FOW'ers. I played in my first FOW Tourney in April (Lion's Den I) and did well for a noob.

Resolution 2: They are all complete. I received the mortars and Sturmoviks to finish the 654th Heavy Tank Hunter Battalion and the Lend Lease (Sherman 75's) from Hammer & Sickle from Carlos T. Great work, Carlos, thanks! RJM you still javascript:void(0)owe me a Kfz 70 truck and 2 stands of pioneers.

Resolution 3: Epic fail. I started a Panzer Kompanie for the upcoming Barbarossa book. I complete 4 Pz IV E's, and need to weather 3 Pz III E's. I have to build 6 Pz III F's (Old Glory). I also traded and received 2 platoons of Grenadiers to give the Barbarossa force some infantry. I didn't bother with any other force for the whole year, instead focusing on Lend Lease Tankovy for LW and MW.

Resolution 4: Yep, had plenty of fun this year and met some very fun people.

On the side, I created more Excel Army files (hosted by Hien) for MW Mittlerepanzerkompanie, HG Panzerpioneer and SE Lend Lease Tankovy.

I made several trades through Bartertown. I've decided I'm an Eastern Front kind of guy and traded away Dogs & Devils sourcebook and equipment for more Soviet-type tanks and infantry.

Bruce O created two pieces of art that I use for objective markers (July 2010 post).

Took the plunge and got not one but two FOW Bags from Battlefoam and love them!

Carlos T built and painted King Tiger 214 for my nephew in 2 days. Thanks Carlos!

Battlefront released Eastern Front, Dogs & Devils, Blitzkrieg, Stalin's Europe and the D-Day compilation. That's 5 books (6 actually since D-Day is 2 volumes) to feed the hungry FOW-player. 2011 we'll probably see EW North Africa, a Monte Cassino book for Italy and something for MW. I don't see 5 books being pumped out in 1 year again. That's a big hit to anyone's budget.

A great year!!!

For 2011 resolutions, I'm going to weenie out and not make a specific resolution (well, except for 76mm Sherman Lend Lease cough cough) and just do as much FOW as I can and have fun. Hopefully the DSL will be back and running soon.

Lastly, I want to thank all of you. Thank you for visiting this blog. Thank you for any and all comments. I appreciate the support and feedback.

The Fighting Withdrawal that Wasn't

I played Michael K last month on Game Day at the Knights of Columbus. It took awhile, but I downloaded and resized the pictures and can now share them in an AAR.

I pulled out 1,500pts of 11th Panzer Division. Michael though wanted to go to 1,750pts and use his Panzer Pioneers. I was cool with that and I selected Priority Air Support to get close to 1,700. Michael also had 7 Dice of Air.

My Force:

CiC, 2iC - Pz III L/M
1st Platoon - 4x Pz III L/M
2nd Platoon - 3x Pz IV F-2
3rd Platoon - 7x R/MG Pioneer Stands plus Goliath
4th Platoon - 2x 8-Rads
Priority Stukas

Michael's Force:

Very vague (it's been over a month), but he has 2 platoons of 3x Pz III N's. A Ferdinand. A Pioneer Platoon. Another foot slogging platoon with a puppchen. Priority Stukas.

We rolled up Fighting Withdrawal. As the armored force, I get to attack.

Quick photos of Rapid Fire game

I'm compiling the 30+ photos of an AAR against Michael's MW panzer kompanie. Or was it his pioneer kompanie? It was that type of game for both of us.

While Michael and I were flaying fruitlessly at one another, Frank the Building Maker was playing Rapid Fire. I own two Rapid Fire supplements. They are both PDF's and cover the German and Russian forces from Barbarossa to Kursk. I find them to be good research resources when designing FOW army lists.

I've never played the game before, but the 28mm models look great!


At this point in the fight, the Russians are wondering what happened to all the area terrain.



The only thing missing for this PaK 40 crew is hot dogs.



Soviet infantry hide behind burning T-34's. Not a good idea in a real battle as T-34 tended to suffer internal explosions and send shrapnel in all directions.



Holiday time is coming up and hopefully I'll get a couple of games in. AAR report to follow next time.

Thanks for stopping by.