Showing posts with label Totenkinder Force. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Totenkinder Force. Show all posts

Saturday, February 25, 2012

A Weird World War II Battle: Germans defend against the Soviet-US invasion.

Last night we had a game to test out the final version of the rules we'll be using. Since only four of us were able to show up we decided to have a 2 vs 2 battle, of Germans vrs an alliance of Soviets & Americans.

The German side was:

Totenkinder's Ahnenerbe: Small command squad, 2 Ahnenerbe squads (2 LMGs each) and 1 soldat squad of rifles.  3 Panzer I, a Panzer III and two Panzer IV walkers.  They also had the Gingerbread Man and Wulf in ambush.

German Counter Strike force: 3 infantry squads in half tracks, 3 motorcycles, a Pz38T, a Panzer IV walker, and two Panzer III in ambush, one with a howitzer.  No supers.

The Soviets had a serious horde of poorly trained & equipped infantry.  A T28, two BT7s and two walkers with 4 anti aircraft guns.  Note: I didn't realize they were anti-aircraft guns at the time. More on this later.
He also had The Soviet Bear, a super character.

The American force looked very small, but had mortar artillery, a couple snipers, camo'd anti-tank gun, and a squad of specialist in walker-suits: expensive and deadly.

The Germans were defending:
and from the other view:

The soviet starting position: That's a lot of troops!  I hope we brought enough ammunition.
The soviet bear:

The Americans:

We're using card activation now, which I like for the randomness of it, and not knowing when or if you'll be able to activate.  Others like it a lot less.  We'll be trying a modification of it next time, where every unit will have a chance to activate, but must roll to see if they do when their random time comes up. 

The German Counter Strike force opted for a very active defense: deciding if he defeats the Americans that will mean any defense is complete. 

Oddball, an American tanker in the heaviest walker suit:

The American artillery fell only once, to no effect, the rest of the battle, the radio operators Marge & Madge sat gossiping on the line. They're going to get a stern talking to from Rosie the Riveter you can be sure. 

I started taking shots on one of my Panzer Striders from Oddball, and since he had such good cover behind a house and assistance from a well entrenched anti-tank gun, my walkers went deeper into the forest and the other out of the ruins, behind the forest to get a better position against the Soviet horde. He'd disabled my main gun shown below, but the next action I'd repaired it and moved to take better cover:


The Soviet T28 and the Strike Force walker exchanged shots across the wide field until the T28 got the worst of it and released a column of smoke: X  <- right below this x is T28 wreckage. Nice shooting Karl!
Unfortunately the next action saw this walker destroyed by a lucky shot from one of the BT7s. 

On my flank, as the soviet infantry advanced I gunned them down: The Panzer I's were ideal for this, though I did lose one to fire from the BT7s: i kept trying to shoot them down with my Panzer Striders, but they made a lot of lucky armor saves, so it took some time.  One BT7 was taken out by a panzerfaust.  


When some of the soviets reached the bridge, Wulf charged them, killed half and the rest ran, only to be gunned down my my troops.  


To take out the soviet walkers in a breath of fire, Gingerbread man flew off only to discover those walkers didn't just have 4 machine guns, they had four anti-aircraft machine guns! So Gingerbread Man got shot out of the sky before having a chance to wreck havoc. Well, that's how the cookie crumbles.  (Sorry, I had to). 



He did have Regeneration, so the Bear ran up to snack on the sweet left over food, as bears will do, preventing the regeneration from working.  A bad turn, since those walkers would soon shoot up Wulf, leaving him on one wound. But his work done, and all soviets clear of a threatening position, and his rival, the Soviet Bear, far away back in the woods, Wulf decided it'd be better to retreat to the woods, lick his wounds, and wait for the next threat.  We're defending after all.  My troops defending the bridge got cut down, but the rest of my troops were well protected from them. If they came out further to get a better shot my walkers could pop them: the Soviets were pretty well held off.  

On the other flank, the German advance stalled out.  The motorcycles were destroyed and he was left with just two elements with anti-tank weapons to face the 3 remaining yank armored pieces. Hard to say how that would have gone down after the last turn: if he'd been able to give as good as he got before being eliminated then the Americans wouldn't have much hope of reaching the ruined keep in strength to take it from what I could bring to bear on them, but if the Germans failed to damage the Americans at all it could have been very different.  As it was, the last turn came up and the defense was complete. 

A good game.  It will be interesting to try out the modified activation system.  Also, this is a great simulation of an arms race.  Now that I see the Soviets have anti-aircraft guns and what they can do, I have to get my scientists to make some similar ones for my army.  I'm also going to need some artillery, but with operators who don't gossip as much as Americans do.  I also have some vehicle ideas for the Belgian Liberation Army to get them to a competitive size of these other armies, without breaking my theme, so I'm excited about that too. 

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Herr Hans Hossenfeffer & Schildkröte: Specialists of the Ahnenerbe

Frau Totenkinder has an unknown quantity of minions at her disposal: some once human, some crafted from thoughts and feelings of those who hear their tales.  One of the newest to appear in the war is Herr Hans Hossenfeffer.  Hans, to be blunt, is a rabbit.  Not since the days of medieval knights questing for the holy grail have the hearts of men quaked in fear at the mention of a rabbit as they do now.  Totenkinder has other animals, and near-animals at her disposal, so some may wonder what use a mere rabbit is when she has the likes of Wulf and Baby Bear under her direction.

Hans Hossenfeffer is incredibly fast.  Striking out across the battlefield in a brown blurr, he flanks unsuspecting enemy and unleashes a torrent in mad glee.  Those few who have seen him and lived are surprised to find a turtle near him.  That no matter how far afield he goes, a turtle is often close behind, or as improbably as it may seem, just ahead of his position, though none ever see the turtle moving in anything more than a slow motion.  Nothing much is known about this reptile, and he is simply known as "Schildkröte". Often taking cover behind the invulnerable shell, Hans opens fire in the name of his master.


............................................................................................................................

So the Tortoise & the Hare are painted now... here they are in color:
(click for larger pictures)

I probably have too many of the weird-super characters for this force now, but they're just so fun to paint and develop their backgrounds.. can't resist. 

Monday, February 13, 2012

Another Fable Agent for Totenkinder: work in progress

Been awhile since I've had an update for the Weird World War II gaming: holiday slow down, etc for gaming and with an apparent scale back in army size we're expecting, I find I have more than I need for the campaign, so nothing new on the building front.  But I did order a mini late last year with a vague notion in mind for Frau Totenkinder's force.

A minor supernatural character: Hans Hossenfeffer. Lightning speed and a terror with a machine gun.
I ordered the 'Rambit' mini from Ammon Miniatures.  First thing I noticed is this must be designed as a display piece. It is expected to connect to the base by the belt of ammo! a delicate resin string... even in gently washing it this piece broke: no way it would stand up to gaming conditions. I had thought about adding a turtle character for the 'Tortoise and the Hare" duo, but seeing the problem of the rabbit's connection to the base, i decided they'd be best as a single-based duo:


Bit hard to tell in the photo (and since the ammon studio paint job had the ammo an almost-red I didn't even realize until the mini arrived) but the ammo is actually carrots.  an unexpected treat. With careful drilling, I sunk some thin brass rod into his foot:should be sturdier than the resin ammo.



Enjoy the film!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Weird World War II Battle: one of last tests

On Friday we rolled up our starting territories for the campaign, which will start in January, and had a big 3 player per side battle.

Polish, American & Russian on one side against 2 Germans and Belgians on the other (one guy borrowed my BLA to jump in and play).

There was a lot of wetland areas, so I dubbed the battlefield to be in Belarus.

We had to stop before a real conclusion could be made- discussion of how to handle summoned creatures slowed it down, but it was a good game.  The allies had more vehicles, our side had more supers- but they didn't get a chance to close, so the fact the battle seemed pretty even means we were getting pretty lucky I think.  It's hard when guns have good ranges and no one wants to cross open no-man's land: supers have a tough time getting to where they need to be. The Americans solved that problem with a henchman squad of jump-pack troops armed with a bazooka team.. scary stuff! But Frau Totenkinder summoned some zombies close enough to charge them and eventually the spooked Americans retreated back to their end of the field.

Here's some pictures:
The Polish army with their mud-golem tanks.

Part of Frau Totenkinder's Ahnenerbe force.  Here you can see the new Panzer I  tanks most recently finished that I haven't had time to photo yet.  They're very cheap tanks and without an anti-tank gun, but they're good against infantry, and I made some amazing lucky armor saves with them, which was quite fun. My forces were on the corner, facing off against the Polish army.

A Stalking Panzer IV crests the hill to fire at the largest Polish tank,...

Success! Nice shooting.


One Panzer I down, but the other survived the next 3 hits it took! Which is about 3 more than you'd expect.


Knowing the German tendency to run through Belgians, the men & monkeys of the BLA decided to move behind the center player's tanks, but the bottleneck slowed the advance.



Friday, December 16, 2011

Agents of the Ahnenerbe: Red & Wulf

One of Frau Totenkinder's oldest extensions, possibly back to the stone age, is Wolf.
A force born of mankind's fear of the natural world around them, Wolf, sometimes known as Big Bad Wolf, and now identified simply as code name Wulf, is the most dangerous of Frau Totenkinder's minions.

Some may mistake him for a werewolf, but such underestimation will only hasten their demise.

His howl can freeze men in their tracks.  His breath can blow a tempest, sending debris blasting out like a gigantic shotgun, and he is unimaginably fast and strong.

Wulf is accompanied by Red, the most recent human soul grafted to his expression by Frau Totenkinder.

Now an ally of the Wolf, she aids him with covering fire and as an energy pool.
Their symbiotic nature is only fully comprehended by Totenkinder of course, but the soldiers of the Ahnenerbe give her a wide berth of fear and respect.

On to the pictures...

Red:
Armed with a compact Light Machine Gun, she's much to be feared in her own right. 

Wulf:
Click for larger image.


The duo:

Monday, October 24, 2011

Letting Loose the Lynx: Panzer II's completed for Frau Tottenkinder

The Panzer II Luchs tanks, 'Lynx' are finished.



I really like the look of these light tanks.  I think they'd even make nice 'city breaker' tanks for 15mm scale!

I got a chance to play them and the Stalking Tiger on Friday... and just like in elementary school, where when a kid has brand new shoes everyone steps on the shoes to get them dirty chanting 'new shoes!' my vehicles got smashed.  Tiger Walker: first shot of the game it got popped by a sherman. Then the first Lynx also was destroyed before it got to do anything.  The 2nd fired at the offending sherman, but with both tanks having moved, reduced the chance to hit so much it wasn't surprising it went foul, then it too was destroyed.  Yikes. Not a good first night for the Ahnenerbe Armor!  -Forgot to bring my camera, so no battle pictures I'm afraid.

Baby bear did get some revenge though-managed to get to the sherman and two-paw throw it onto a hill, reducing it to rubble and squishing a couple enemy in the process.  I'll take what victories I can get.



I don't want to bury the contest...
The contest has started!  Ends Oct 27th.  Go  HERE  for the announcement and the link to enter.

I'll just be waiting till it's time to pick the winner. 

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Mmmm.. Hirn... Death is no excuse to shirk your duty!

Some fast & dirty troops to bolster the ranks of the Ahnenerbe.

Same troops, but divided into more manageable sums for pictures:
&

Painted for speed... they are just zombies after all, but I'm pleased with the effect.

31 Zombies in all.  For the basis of them I used the German Zombies from Studio Miniatures, sold through Brigade Games. 30 zombies for $33.50...hard to go wrong. The set is very simple though, with only 2 poses and those are 1 piece: legs, torso & head connected.  The set has 3 sets of arms for every 2 models, with an extra head (must cut the head off of one to use it) and a soft cap to add to a head without helmet. 

With some removal of portions of limbs, cut heads off to change their angle, etc, you can get a decent amount of variety.  To increase this, I added a sprinkling of heads & some torsos from the Mantic zombie set.. and a couple officer heads from the plastic Germans from Warlord Games. 

Death is not an excuse: you fight until Frau Totenkinder says you can stop. 


I don't want to bury the contest...
The contest has started!  Ends Oct 27th.  Go  HERE  for the announcement and the link to enter.

I'll just be waiting till it's time to pick the winner. 




Friday, October 21, 2011

Stalking Tiger: Totenkinder's WWWII Walker

This model is probably half or more of what motivated me to start the Frau Tottenkinder project.
Dust Tactics really hit it out of the park with this one in my opinion.  Has to be my favorite walker I've seen.
So of course I had to have one in this army.

The Stalking Tiger:

I went for subtle highlights for this one. After the dirt & grease the highlights get a bit lost, but they're there.
I suspect it'd look a lot different if they weren't there, despite I'm not really seeing them as much now.



It comes with alternate weapons.  Actually, I plan to run it as above, with a heavy machine guns and a cannon, to mimic what a tank would be equipped with, though it is intended to be used with either a cannon & energy supply or 2 AA machine guns as below.  But I like the look of mixing the two weapons. 



Still more to come. 



I don't want to bury the contest...
And the contest has started!  Ends Oct 27th.  Go  HERE  for the announcement and the link to enter.

I'll just be waiting till it's time to pick the winner. 


Thursday, October 20, 2011

Hi-ho, Hi-ho, It's off to War we Go: Tottenkinder's Commandos

Allied File FT-0732

On March 7th, 1940 Allied Polish Metaphysical Agents identified a trusted officer under Tottenkinder, Hauptmann Weiss, as one of the immortal cultural personification entities.  Hauptmann Weiss commands a small crack team of commandos, carrying out missions of sabotage and presents a serious threat to communications and vital structures wherever they are put into action.  The commandos are diminutive, in fact they are dwarves, and no reliable reports have been made of them numbering more than seven.

She should be considered a top priority for removal and should not be underestimated.

Her code name has been assigned as Snow. 
End File.

Snow Weiss, or Snow White, has been a servant of Frau Tottenkinder for untold centuries.  Lured by Tottenkinders minions, the dwarves, she now serves them as they serve her.  A spiritual symbiotic relationship between them exists that is not understood by those outside of Tottenkinder's circle.  The dwarves are fiercely loyal to her, and she has the ability to heal them from even the most grievous wounds.  The dwarves excel in all manor of covert warfare.  From stealthy infiltration, to sapping, high explosives and bunker busting.  They are a sledgehammer employed with the grace of a rapier.  Snow herself is a flexible and dangerous opponent, able to use the skills of her squad to far more than their meager number would suggest.  

   

Snow with (L-R) Bashful, Grumpy, Sleepy, Doc(in back), Sneezy, Happy & Dopey.

Latest Frau Tottenkinder squad complete!  These were a lot of fun to work on.

Snow is an Ariadna mini from Infinity, and the Dwarves are Grimn from Hasslefree. 

More to come!


And the contest has started!  Ends Oct 27th.  Go HERE for the announcement and the link to enter.

I'll just be waiting till it's time to pick the winner. 



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