Boxes and booms!

And in one of the most boring painting posts I think I've ever done, this one!

Terrain is important for games and all the games of 40K I've had suggest that more terrain is better. As I'm working to extend a collection of classic GF9 ruins into a more 40K-ish table, I picked up the Scions Kill Team starter box for some of the terrain included.

Stuff and things...

The kit came with two Munitorum containers (which I *had* to put storm bolters on) and a whole bunch of crates and barrels. I'm just pondering if I should base up the crates to make them easier to deal with on tables. They'd maybe be less useful in games of Kill Team. Not sure.

Anyway, the containers were a sweet little addition and they went together like a dream. Honestly, the longer GW make multi-part kits I swear the better they get. I remember the days of single pose models in boxes and then the amazing box that was the GW skeleton kit, way back in the mid-90s. It was SO COOL.

and now...the booms! 

Our annual club event is coming up in a couple of weeks and Scotty and I decided to have a test / learning game as Scotty is pretty new to his 90th Light Division from the DAK and his army is a really interesting challenge for my light Italian armour. Scotty has done an amazing job on this army - it looks fantastic and I hope he'll put some close up pics for you, dear reader, I think you'll really enjoy them.

The lists, if you're interested:

Ariete Armoured Division		DAK 90th Light Division
HQ M14/41 - Tenente Pascucci 5x M14/41 5x M14/41 5x M14/41 4x Semovente 75/18 Bersaglieri Rifle Platoon 5x L6/40 4x 100/17 artillery (captured 25pdrs) AB41 OP (L6 proxying)		Panzergrenadier HQ Panzergrenadier Platoon w/ HMG, 2.8cm Panzergrenadier Platoon w/ HMG, 2.8cm SdKfz 222 Platoon w/ 2x 2.8cm SdKfz 222 Platoon w/ 1x 2.8cm 2x SdKfz 231 Platoon 4x Marder III 7.62 3x PaK36R 4x leFH 10.5cm artillery 3x SdKfz 10/4

We pulled out More Missions - Scotty elected to defend and I elected to maneuver. We rolled up Bridgehead. Scotty elected to defend the Alamein Railway Station with his two Panzergrenadier platoons, his SdKfz 222s and the 10.5 cm artillery, with the Marder III 7.62s in ambush. He placed some mightily crafty minefields too!

I hid my 25 pdrs, knowing there weren't any tanks I was going to have to use them on, lightly stacked my left flank and attacked up my right.

I attacked the right hand side of Alamein station as well as sending my L6s hard down my right flank. I had a crafty idea (stolen from Pel's and my last game of FoW) to force Scotty's Marders back. A fired off a few loose shots at the defenders and, with my best weapons, bailed out a 222. Disappointing.

Pew pew!	Avanti!

Scotty sent out his armoured cars to give my tanks a bit of what for, which was quite possible given my reasonably average armour and the effective high ROF of 222s as well as the punch of 2.8cm ATRs. His 231s also arrived on my left and accosted the rear of my tanks! A couple of M14s went down or bailed out. Some direct firing 10.5s didn't give me much hope but snake eyes firepower rolls saved my bacon. 

I took my revenge in my second turn, although only on some 222s. I ignored the 231s in my rear and went after the 10.5s and got one with the spewing MG dice that come from an M14 platoon. It wasn't the most effective turn as my right flank slowed down navigating a tank wide gap between minefields and I attempted to move my Semoventes to direct fire and promptly failed all four cross checks. Derp!

The Marder IIIs appeared and vigorously fired marshmallows at me and the PaK36Rs appeared in my rear. Much regret until we remembered that they have no Tactical speed so can't move and shoot. The 231s and the 10.5s killed and bailed one each of the M14s on my left. In a turn where I forgot to take any sensible photos, I responded by MGing and charging (and killing) the PaK36Rs with three M14s and charging the Marders with my L6s and prompty missing completely. My M14s on my right closed on the railway station and threw a lot of MG dice for no real effect. The Semoventes failed to move. Again. Lolz!

Surrounded.	What? Me? Worry?

Scotty had an exceedingly clever turn as he slipped his Marders around my L6s, surrounded them with a Panzergrenadier platoon and rolled some 10/4s behind my Semoventes. On his right, he shelled, MGed and mortared my attacking Bersaglieri, which utterly shredded them, leaving my with 4 stands. Scotty assaulted the L6s and I promptly failed to shoot them off (although I did remove a couple of stands). His assault was ineffective and I promptly ran away, back behind the Marders. Oh, and I lost a Semovente to the 10/4s. Vexing.

The end of Scotty's third turn

Overrunning the guns	Getting the Marders....?

I made my first push toward the train station compound. I pushed tanks into all three flanks of the compound, attempted to deal to the Marders, unsuccessfully, and ditto the 10/4s that were hooning around blowing up my Semoventes! I assaulted and destroyed the 10.5s with the last of my infantry and finally dealt to the 231s on my left flank. Mostly thanks to a lucky 2cm shot from the L6 OP. 

From here, Scotty's Marders popped the last of the tanks in the centre, including my CO and I was left with one working Semovente thanks to AA guns. The remaining 2.8cm guns popped away at my M14s but my Italian steel held out but the MGs of the defending Panzergrenadiers wiped the Bersaglieri out. In my turn I finally got the Marders and the 10/4s (when I worked out MGs were more betterer than 7.5cm guns!) and I pushed my one working platoon into Scotty's defences.

This is where we ended up - the two badly mauled Panzergrenadier platoons, without their heavy weapons, retreated back to the station compound and the last operating platoon of my M14s in possession of the objective. It was a 5 - 4 result for the Italians but I had one Semovente left on the table and six M14s left operating on the table. A couple of better results with firepower and a few less shenanigan saves against his 10.5s and I think this would have been a completely different result. 

Next time:
Objectives for Batman have been added to the queue and I need to do a massive stack of repair work on my Infinity table as being in a hot car yesterday has weakened a lot of the glue holding the buildings together! So hopefully that won't be too horrific!