THE DOG WARS WORLD

For this world, I had a few basic requirements. First, names would be in English or simple German. I wanted everything to be pronounceable. Second, personal names were going to be based on dog sounds as much as my imagination would allow. Later I went with breeds and activities when I ran out of steam on sounds. Third, locations were going to be local as this was my personal game. This required me to change some names to English from their French, or Native American ones. It also required me to find original street names as I was not about to use things like Martin Luther King or Eisenhower.

Wolfenstein Empire Forces on Parade

The Union of Pacts of the Commonwealth Forces

The Principality of Mutt Troops

DOG WARS: THE BEGINNING

For a very long time I have wanted to play the Programmed Wargames Scenarios by Charles Stewart Grant. I have owned the book for decades along with the companion Scenarios for Wargames, which for decades I have used in many periods, but I had never played the solo version of these. Last year I decided that I would build a force specifically for this purpose and, after many rules and figure debates, decided on Honours of War (HoW) for the rules and Alternative Armies Pudigrochumsburg dogmen in tricorns for my troops. This was going to be an ImagiNation world.

I chose the HoW rules because they use a dice activation system for Command and Control that provides additional constraints on possible actions. This was important to me in solo gaming. I also simply like the rules and the results they give, especially the opportunity to reorganize spent units, as for me the more command options in a game, the better I like it.

I picked the AA figures because I really like what the company does, even if they are nonhistorical. Additionally, they provide a painting service that is very good and priced right. Given the size of the project of around 900-1000 figures, I did not want to wait years for other services, or decades for me to stay motivated long enough to paint all of these. I have worked with them for decades and I knew they would also get things right. I do have a personal set of figures I am doing for this project, but that will be for a later post.

With rules and figures decided on, I next needed a campaign idea to set the scenarios in. My idea is to use a simple ladder campaign of taking the results of the last game to decide on the scenario for the following game and who would be attacking and defending. I can then go through the scenario book and pick an A or B possibility for the next game based on the winner. The rest would all be story arc to keep me entertained by what was going to happen next.

To get the best use out of the figures, I decided on three factions. The first would be the largest having the biggest concentration of all arms. The second would be the primary opponent having nearly as much infantry, but only half the artillery and cavalry. The third would be the forces used to augment the needs of the other two forces in any scenario. It had half the infantry of the others and an equal amount of cavalry and artillery as the second force. Each force was named and a general uniform was chosen. The primary is the Wolfenstein Empire in white uniforms loosely based on Austria. The second was the Union of Packs of the Commonwealth in blue uniforms. The third is the Principality of Mutt in red uniforms based somewhat on Hannover.

The Wolfenstein Empire

The Union of Pacts of the Commonwealth

The Principality of Mutt

STUCK INSIDE BUT VERY ACTIVE

Like most of the US I am under the Stay at Home order, so I am dedicating more time to game projects, specifically my Dog Wars. I was lucky that my latest units arrived just before the shutdown. I have been basing and creating flags, names, maps and the various other bits needed to run a campaign. I have now completed enough units to start playing games, but before I get to that I thought I would put some of the units on parade. Without further ado, here are some the Empire of Wolfenstein’s forces.

Wolfenstein Empire Banners

Empire Woofing's Battalion

Union of Packs Commonwealth Shakesalot's Rangers

I will be adding more unit pictures and an AAR of the Battle of Willow Road Bridge in the coming days as time permits.  

AND SO IT BEGINGS

This is an odd day since it only comes around once every four years and I wanted to take the opportunity to use it for something special. This is the first post on the beginning of my Dog Wars project.

For over thirty-five years I have wanted to have a collection of figures to game out all the scenarios from Charles S. Stewarts Wargames Scenarios and Programed Scenarios books. This is the start of this project. 

The first Brigade based with both artillery and light infantry in support. This is the first three line regiments lead by their converged grenadiers. 

When completed there will be twenty-four infantry regiments, eight regiments each of cuirassier, dragoons, and hussars, six light infantry regiments, eights batteries of medium and four batteries of heavy artillery. These are all based and organized for the Osprey Honours of War rules. Ah, the joys of a wildly ambitious project.

A New Year and New Projects.

Well 2019 has come and gone and I did get some work on older projects done. Now with the New Year I am adding a few more games to my list of goal.

The National Flags for Dog Wars

The BIG PROJECT: The Dog Wars for Honours of War (HoW). This is my 28mm Seven Years War ImagiNation project. This one is really big with twenty-four battalions of infantry and an additional four full battalions, or seven small of converged grenadier. Along with them will be eight regiments each of cuirassier, dragoons, hussars, plus eight batteries of artillery with their limbers. This was supposed to be done for the Holidays this past year, but inevitable delays came up. Things are well on track now.

 

A Very British Civil War 15mm Vehicles

Next up will be A Very British Civil War in 15mm. I found a bargain on some early war British and French tankettes, armored cars and tanks. I will be ordering figures to go with this sometime this Spring. This is a project I have been working the rules, campaign and organization on for several years. Time to pull the trigger and make this a game.

 

6mm Byzantines

Close up of the 6m infantry

Later in the year I will be revisiting 6mm ancient. Primarily this will be the Byzantines and Sassasnids, but it is just as likely to get a Tony Bath Hyborean treatment. I will most likely be writing my own rules for this. I also suspect that 28mm ancients will also rise like a phoenix with two companies creating new lines for Archimedean Persians.



Games Workshop will be dipping into my wallet with the release of the reimagined High Elves, the Lumineth Aelves. I have always had a fondness for the pointy eared troops and the new sculpting for this line is amazing. Everything but my back account can’t wait.  

 

Song of Ice and Fire Lannister Halberd

The rest of the goals are to continue, I never complete any of these as I am always adding on, with the main project of last year. These being adding to the Toy Soldiers, adding vehicles and infantry to my WWII 6mm forces, along with finishing play testing my rules. Painting up more of my medieval period 28mm thing, Lord of the Rings (LotR), Song of Ice and Fire (SIF), and 12^th century medieval. I have no delusions that all these things will get finish. They won’t. Nor that these are all my new projects. I know there will be things coming out throughout the year that will sing their sirens song and tempt me down another path.



Now back to basing 28mm figures.

RUSSIAN RUMBLE

This past week the Wednesday Group played another Russian Civil War game using the Perfect Captain’s Red Action Rules. http://perfectcaptain.50megs.com/redactions.html

The battle had the Whites trying to locate and recover a cache of supplies located in a small town along the rail line. The Red’s goal was simply to prevent that occurring. The battle opened with the White’s cavalry sweeping in on the right flank along the rail line at a full gallop, speed being more important than combat. The Red’s were slow to make an appearance, with only a pair of Tchanca, MG’s in horse drawn wagons, guarding the village. White artillery quickly destroyed the first, while a fire fight with the cavalry forced the other to retire deeper into the town.

 

Whites Advance on the Town

After several turns of unopposed White maneuvering the rest of the Red army started to make an appearance. Red cavalry moved up to oppose their opposite number while their artillery and a meager number of infantry began advancing down the main road. By this time the White infantry had joined the cavalry in searching the town for supplies. Extremely accurate artillery fire from the Whites drove off part of the Red’s infantry, while a steady fire from their cavalry pushed the Red’s further and further back. By games end the Whites had discovered there were no supplies to be found. Having sustained few casualties, themselves and having eliminated or driven off the Reds the White army was declared victors of this encounter.

 

Whites Clear the Town

The Village Secured, but Where are the Supplies?

Our group likes these rules a lot and will be playing more of these games in the future. Battles flow back and forth with combat results being more prone to degrading and repulsing units rather than destroying them. Quality is rare in our games with most of the forces being mobs with only a few elite troops having the Storm and Specialist abilities. Best tactics are don’t ask to much of your troops and have a reserve ready.  

Toon Tanks Tangle

US tanks occupy the town. The Haunted tank on the left. 

Recently the Wednesday group played a game of What a Tanker by Two Fat Lardies. If you are not familiar with this game, it is a simple tank on tank duel using command dice to cover the various operations of moving, shooting, aiming and loading. Our forces for the game were 3 Panthers and a Hetzer on the German side, with 3 Sherman M4A1s, an M36 Tank Destroyer, 2 M4A4E8 Easy Eights, and an M5 Stuart as the famous “Haunted Tank” for the Americans.

 

US tanks enter the battlefield

Panther out hunting. US tanks can be seen in the far center behind the trees. 

Things started quickly with one of the Panthers being in a spot to both spot, aim and fire at the M36 doing some serious damage to the Tank Destroyer before it had even had a chance to do anything. The rest of the forces on both sides maneuvered around to gain cover for themselves and set-up to get sights on their enemies. The wounded M36 darted deep into a nearby grove of trees to break line of sight with the offending Panther and gain some much-needed cover.

Easy Eight in woods over watching the road

The following turn the M36 activated first, moved to the edge of the woods to fire on the Panthers and missed. It was rewarded for its trouble by being the target of a pair of Panthers that finished it off. Shortly after one of the Easy Eights got an amazing shot that destroyed a Panther, but the Panther commander played his Special card that reduced all damage to no effect and survived unscathed. With all the American tanks seeking cover around the village the Germans needed to maneuver to gain shots in the upcoming turns.

 

First Kill. M36 on fire

The third turn saw a standard Sherman take out a different Panther. This evened the odds back up. The rest of the American tanks kept to cover, while the Germans became impatient and started aggressively maneuvering.

 

US revenged. Burning Panther

The next turns saw the Germans taking shots on the tanks in the town. They damaged a few, but left themselves open for counter attacks. The Hetzer was the first to go down to the Easy Eight that had been sighted in on the main road. The Panthers then through caution to the wind. In order to get better shots on the tanks in town they exposed their flanks to the Easy Eight over watching the road. It proved a poor choice as another Panther went down in flames. With only a single tank remaining the lucky Panther that survived to first killing shot departed the board for safer hunting grounds.

 

The Hetzer goes down as the Panthers maneuver to engage the US tanks

The third Panther goes down to a flank shot as the lone surviving German heads off the battlefield

Overall it was a fun game with great looking terrain. I am sure there will be a rematch soon.