WWPD Operation Overlord Campaign Game "Seize and Hold"

The guys at WWPD have launched a new worldwide multiplayer interactive campaign for Operation Overlord...so you KNOW me and my buddy Michael had to get involved.  The campaign is similar to their "Operation Sealion" campaign where players individual games are reported and the results of that battle are complied with the results of other players around the world who fought in that location to determine the results and which sides controls that location.

This year the theme was Operation Overlord....Normandy 1944.  The first round of Overlord simulated either the airborne drops or the beach assault.  In our game Michael chose his 101st Airborne and I chose a German Fusilier Kompanie...and the mission was "Seize and Hold."

In Seize and Hold the defender (me in this case) set up on board with half their force waiting for an attack that can come from any direction as all reserves come in as scattered reserves, except the airborne player has a better chance of getting his reserves where his pathfinder is located.  The mission starts at night and players roll starting on turn 3 for the dawn to break.  Objectives go live on turn 6.  Our map represented a small little village just behind Omaha beach, that the Americans had to gain control of to allow the beach forces to move freely inland.  We had a small little village pretty much center of the table that had some rubble (damage from pre-drop bombardments).

Germans:                                                US:
3 Fusiler Plts                                             3 Para Inf Plts
1 HMG Plt                                                1 LMG Plt
1 Plt StuGs                                               1 Glider Recce (Jeeps w/MGs) Plt
1 Battery 150mm Arty                             1 Battery 105mm Glider Arty   
1 Plt 150mm Infantry Guns                      1 Plt Glider Mortars
1 Mortar Plt                                               1 57mm AT Gun Plt
37mm AA                                                  Limited P47s
1 Sniper

As the Germans, I set up my 2 Infantry plts in the village...one guarding each objective and the HMGs in the middle, supporting both platoons. The Americans land to the east of the village and began moving through wheat fields and hedges (not bocage) towards the objective on that side...and one mis-dropped infantry platoon landed on the west side of the village and makes his way towards the village and the objective on THAT side of the village. 

I moved the HMGs to the East to help the platoon on that side as the bulk of his force is coming in there...and his pathfinder is there so he has s greater chance to get troops there.  I fight a delaying action with my infantry platoon in the West...just trying to delay the Americans until reserves come on.

The bulk of the action happened on the East side of the table as my delaying action went very well...pinning the Paras for several turns and preventing them from advancing.  In the East however, he was on the objective on Turn 2. The Infantry and HMGs take a few casualties and dish out a few as well.  Plan is to wait until turn 3 and pray for reserves before O make a push.  On Turn 3 Michael gets his 105s to come in the South East corner...and then I get my StuGs on the same side...and how the Guns are stacked, I can assault and only take Defensive from one gun...ensuring the assault goes through (He could kill 2 tanks and stop the assault).  I make a tactical error and only send 2 of the 3 StuGs in the assault with the 3rd assaulting a lone infantry team from the LMG plt (Dumpkopf!).  He killed one Stug, and I killed a gun before the Assault peters out (If I went in with all 3 StuGs it would have been much uglier).  He gets a 3rd infantry plt coming in on the road in the Northeast corner and advances to the East objective....Looking grim. 

I then get my last Infantry platoon to come in right  behind his on the road (popular road)... and they kill his platoon...only to be killed by his Recce jeeps on the next turn how came blazing up the same road (a pattern in games I have with Michael). with that, I don't have enough to push Michal off of the objective.

A close fought 5-2 victory for the Allies.  We loved the "Seize and Hold" mission and look forward to trying it again.

German PzIVH Platoon #2

Continuing to post pictures of the rest of my Germans that have managed to escape the grip of my total obsession of posting pictures of all my models......my 2nd PzIVH Platoon.

You can see the Command Section and the 1st Platoon elsewhere on my blog (although I have rebased the 1st Platoon since these pictures were taken)

Platoon Leader:

 

 

1st Section:

 

 

 

2nd Section:

 

 

Field Repair on Tank 125 (broke left front corner of turret Schuertzen)

 

I painted these exactly the same as my PzIVH Command Section (So the below is a repeat of that process :-) ) 

The exception is on tank 125 where after a few games he sustained some real battle damage and the left front corner of the turret Schuertzen broke off.  Whatever was I to do!!!!!!  To cover the damage I added a little stowage.  I took some aluminum foil and folded several times and cut down to shape...making sure I kept fold lines and areas where edges didn't overlap exactly.  Then I painted it a basecoat of Vallejo 830 Field Grey, a wash of 979 German Camo Dark Green, a highlight of a mix of 886 Green Grey and 830 Field Grey and a final highlight of just 886 Green Grey.  Looks like a piece of tarp lying on the turret and covers that missing section quite well...thank God!

The vehicles were all airbrushed with Vallejo Middlestone (882) as a base color and then stripes of Reflective Green (890) were added by hand. I was still new at airbrushing when I did these and wasn't comfortable with airbrushing the green lines at that point.  The tracks were painted 950 Black and then a heavy drybrush of 982 Cavalry Brown with a final light drybrush of 863 Gunmetal Grey and a #2 pencil. Then I gloss coated the model, applied decals and a pin wash to bring our the models' details, a little touch up where the pinwash was too heavy and then flat matte coated the model.

I used MIG pigments for the dirty look. When you layer pigments start with the lighter color first as it represents the dried dirt...darker, wetter colors are always on the top and towards the bottom. I applied MIG Pigments to the lower hull using a MIG Fixer and then MIG Europe Dust P028 pigment. When that dried, I started to apply Track Brown (P414) below and on top of the Europe Dust pigment...and heavy in the tracks. This is all the freshly chewed up earth that hasn't had a chance t dry and the upper layers is that dirt/mud that has splashed high and dried. Finally, I applied another coat of MIG Fixer over the pigments I had placed earlier to lock them down really good. When that was dry, I gave it a final Flat Matte finish. Don't be alarmed when you apply fixer or varnish and the pigments get all wet and dark...as they dry they will go back to their true color.

The number decals on the turret were homemade using Testors decal paper. and the crosses are from Battlefront.