Night Naval Brawl: Empress Augusta Bay, 1943

Join us at the South Florida Miniatures Game Club for a 15mm recreation of the Battle of Nasiriyah, one of the opening engagements of Operation Iraqi Freedom in March, 2003.

The system on the table is Seven Days to the River Rhine by Great Escape Games, adapted to include A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, AH-1W Super Cobras, and Improvised Explosive Devices so infamous during the Iraq War. T

he scenario features “Task Force Tarawa” – a Marine battlegroup heavily engaged in the early stages of this battle. Thus, this episode adds to our ongoing series commemorating the upcoming 250th Birthday of the US Marine Corps.

We had a great game of Seven Days to the River Rhine yesterday at Das Krieg Haus, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Presented in 15mm, the scenario was designed to recreate part of the Battle of Nasiriyah, an engagement during the opening days of Operation Iraqi Freedom in March, 2003. In summary, an American Army unit (507th Maintenance Company) had strayed into the AO of the Iraqi 6th Armored Division, Third Corps, where they were pinned down with heavy casualties. Elements of Task Force “Tarawa,” 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, were tasked with breaking through Iraqi forces to relieve the 507th.

The game included new house rules for IEDs. American victory conditions were to get one third of their break points off the north edge of the table along the Nasiriyah Highway, while keeping at least a third on the table to hold open a path of reinforcement or possible fall back. This had to be accomplished by the end of Turn 5. Iraqis victory conditions were to prevent the Marine mission.

I might be the slowest painter in the hobby today, given that it’s taken me since last Christmas to finally finish 66 20mm Middle East Militia figures from Caesar Miniatures.

Hey, if I didn’t make it part of the channel’s production, I’d have NEVER gotten these guys done.

What projects do you have hung up in painting limbo?

We’re back to finish up our speculative wargame, taking some guesses at how  British armored forces might perform in a potential future conflict in Estonia.

In Part 1, we saw the British seize key terrain early on, forcing the Russians to assault entrenched defensive positions.  But rather than attack the British head-on, the Russians flanked them to the north — and when the British responded, the Russians also struck in the south and center, forcing the British into some very tough decisions.

Can the British hold against the onslaught?  Or will Russian numbers pry them off their objectives?

Once again we take our wargames into the near future, with a look at what Britain’s armored forces could possibly look like on tomorrow’s battlefield.

The scenario is Estonia in 2028-2030. Having closed the Ukraine War and taken a pause to recover, the Russians now push into the Baltic States. Here, Britain’s “Operation Cabrit” force finds itself amidst an Article V NATO response, deployed to check one of the spearheads of the 1st Guards Tank Army.

Using unclassified technical data, I’ve put together a “guestimated” Panzer Leader force including Britain’s upcoming armored vehicle programs like the Ares, Ajax, Boxer, and Challenger 3. Heavily outnumbered by older Russian equipment, will the Kings Royal Hussars and Yorkshire Regiment hold out against the 27th Motor Rifle Brigade?

Once more we step into the boots US Marines of yesteryear with a wargame set in the historic Battle of Belleau Wood.  They system is “Tactical Combat” – presented by Mark Ritchie in 15mm.

Belleau Wood was a ferocious battle in the last year of World War I, part of the Aisne Counterattack that stalemated Ludendorff’s Blücher Offensive toward Paris.  The most famous part of the battle was fought between Marines of the 4^th Marine Brigade (5^th and 6^th Marine Regiments) and the Germans (technically many of the troops were Bohemian in ancestry) of 237^th Infantry Division.

Belleau Wood stands beside places like Iwo Jima, Khe Sanh, and Chapultepec, iconic milestones in the history of the Marine Corps, part of the bedrock of their history and traditions to this day.

Join as we wrap up last week’s 15mm miniature wargame scenario set in the War in Ukraine.

Our system is Seven Days to the River Rhine by Great Escape Games, with some house rules for off-board artillery, battlefield attack drones, and first person view (FPV) drones.

Join us at the miniature gaming table as we return once more to modern military wargaming, taking another look at the ongoing War in Ukraine.

Our system today is Seven Days to the River Rhine by Great Escape Games.  The engagement in hand might be the most recent we’ve tackled, fought just eight months ago at the time of recording.

We’ve got new tanks on the table in the form of Leopard 1A5s, sent from several NATO countries to support Ukraine’s war effort.  We also have new rules for First Person View, or FPV, attack drones, bringing a new cutting-edge element into the Seven Days system.