Emergency Miniature Work – 15mm USMC Super Cobra
Recommendations: 1804
About the Project
It's the return of Oriskany's Web Wargames, where we connect with YOU, members of the community, over the web to stage live wargames. This thread will go over the ideas, concept development, design, LIVE PLAYS, and after-action reports for these games, covering all periods and ranges of the historical genre.
For anyone who's ever interested in participating in one of these games, all you need is an internet connection (so software downloads required). Reach out me (Oriskany) on a PM and so we can agree on a time and a system.
Systems so far include multiple iterations of Panzer Leader (1939-2020), Valor & Victory (1918-1993), Naval Command, AirWar C21, Contact Front, and others!
So feel free to toss in ideas, reach out to play, just spectate, or just comment and +1 on the design and after action reports!
Related Genre: Historical
This Project is Active
"Thirteen Hours" - Benghazi 2012 Transit Game - Playtest 2 - Part One
Gaz and Jim sit down for another swing at the Benghazi Transit Game, designed for the Sitrep “Thirteen Days to Thirteen Hours” project. We’ve made some tweaks to the rules, playing pieces, and tables, and now it’s time to see if our GRS contractors can make it to the US Consulate in time to make a difference on that fateful night.
This promises to be a wild one, folks. Enjoy!
PanzerBlitz Video Battle Review - Battle of Studzianki (Yavasa v. Oriskany) - PART 2
The conclusion to the discussion between Piotr and Jim, a “battle review” of a recent game of PanzerBlitz depicting part of the Battle of Studzianki in August 1944. In this game, Piotr commanded the forces of Soviet 8th Guards Army and 1st Polish Armored Brigade and Jim commanded elements of the “HG” Panzergrenadier Division and 19th Panzer Division.
Live Stream: 7PM UK / 2PM ET: 13 Hours (Benghazi 2012)
Today’s live stream will feature the pre-pre-pre-alpha play test of the “Thirteen Days to Thirteen Hours” Transit Game.
Thirteen Hours refers to the Benghazi Incident of September 11-12, 2012, where Libyan militia attacked US Ambassador and CIA annexes in the city of Benghazi.
The transit game will attempt to recreate the journey of six GRS private military contractors from the CIA annex to the Ambassador’s Compound, already under attack. Can these reinforcements arrive in time to help salvage the situation at the Ambassador’s Compound?
Historically they did not, because of a series of controversial delays and chain of command snarls that postponed their departure by up to 35 minutes. Here we’re imagining what might have been if they’d left for the Ambassador’s Compound when the attack first started.
The main point of the Transit Game will not be so much a “win or lose” situation, but to establish the start conditions of the main 28mm miniature game being built at Sitrep Podcast HQ in Chicago, Illinois.
The game features the GRS contractors of course, as well as hostile militia and the friendly “February 17 Brigade” militia, as well as lots of ambivalent militia that could join either side when they get done looting or fighting each other.
It promises to be a wild game, with neither knowing completely who’s really on their side.
We hope to see some of you there!
Ops Center Episode 14: Pacific War - Surface Naval Actions
The Ops Center returns, picking up after our Iwo Jima special presentation to complete a series on the Pacific War. In this episode, we take a look at wargaming Pacific naval battles that were fought between surface ships, i.e., destroyers, cruisers and battleships.
Yes, operational naval warfare in the Pacific was dominated by the aircraft carrier, but when the sun went down and aircraft couldn’t really strike small tactical targets … it was time to sound general quarters, present broadside, and open fire the old fashioned way.
We take a look at what kind of warships we’re covering, review some of the more interesting surface actions in the Pacific War, review the tactical conditions that allowed surface gunnery duels to take place (and how to ensure these are present on your wargaming table), and review a few wargaming systems that are available today for players to try these battles on your own.
Just a few screen shots from the new episode!
PanzerBlitz - The Battle of Studzianki (Piotr v. "Oriskany Jim")
@yavasa and @oriskany sit down to review the game of PanzerBlitz they recently played, where Yavasa commanded the forces of Soviet 8th Guards Army and 1st Polish Armored Brigade and Oriskany commanded elements of the “HG” Panzergrenadier Division and 19th Panzer at the Battle of Studzianki, August 1944.
These are just short, <30-minute reviews of large 6-8 hour games, discussed by the two players in retrospect.
Video Replay - Dutch vs. Spanish in Letters of Marque
Here is the video replay of Sunday’s game (live streamed on Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook).
@Rasmus has his Dutch (perhaps of the East India Trading Company) and I have my Spanish War Galleon and escorting sloop.
See what happens when we raise sails and prime the guns!
Live stream for Community Game - Sunday 7PM UK, 2PM US
It’s time to sharpen your cutlass and pour some run, the Sitrep Podcast is running another community game of Letters of Marque, a light naval wargame designed for Naval Combat the Age of Piracy.
This is in response to our recent Facebook poll where our community cast the most votes for pirate-related content. While others on our team gear up for miniatures and terrain tables, I’m getting the ball rolling with some community wargaming in this fun and interesting period.
This will be a live game with members of the Sitrep Team and the Sitrep / OTT community, sure to be a blast!
We hope to see some of you there!
Community game, Gaz v. Rasmus in "Letters of Marque"
Here is a video replay of last week’s live community game of Letters of Marque, where Rasmus’ pirates challenged the Royal Navy’s supremacy of the Caribbean, under the flag of Commodore Gaz.
A highlight reel of this video should be edited and presented by the end of this week.
Meanwhile, if you’re ever interested in trying out a wargame with members of the OTT community and Sitrep Podcast team, please leave a comment and we’ll get something scheduled.
First test run of "Letters of Marque"
In preparation for today’s live stream, @gladesrunner and I undertook the first test run of the Letters of Marque system last night. We hit just a few questions, but referred to the rules and resolved them. I think things are much smoother now and we’re ready for a great stream.
The game ran 90 minutes and 14 turns, but that was in the course of both of us learning the system.
The scenario was a small one, 8 points.
I played the British with a frigate (6 points) and a pinnace (2 points).
Jenn played the Pirates with two barques at 4 points each.
Okay, you start with your stern within two hexes of the map edge. My King's ships (or perhaps Queen Anne, given the period), start at the top. Jenn's villainous pirates cower from the might and justice of Empire in the south. We both have set full sails (faster, but more vulnerable). The wind starts off in a random d6 direction, and for now it is southerly. Bad news for me, the pirates have the wind at their backs. Movement will be much easier for them at least for now. To mitigate this, I have set up on the far east of the table, so I can tack into the wind with alternating oblique angles. I feel the game does a good job at approximating "real" sailing dynamics while not bogging the system with too much detail.
By the end of Turn 2, we're getting closer. The range template is shown for reference. Still too far away. Note one of Jenn's pirates, has taken down full sail. Now only at half sail, her sails are less vulnerable. I have no choice but to leave mine up, tacking back and forth into the wind to try and close the distance. 
First fire! With her first salvo, Jenn's pirate ship "Revenge" clips the mast clean off the little pinnace HMS Swift. She only HAS one mast, so she's literally crippled for the rest of the game. That was fast. The Royal Navy frigate HMS Inflexible cuts behind Revenge "Darkstar Style" and broadsides into her stern. I knock out one sail and some guns.
Here are the ships sheets for Jenn's two pirate barques. You can see where I've clipped the mainmast off the first one, and knocked out her aft guns with a salvo through the aft castle.
Here are my frigate and pinnace. WIth that single "6" result, Jenn has shorn off the pinnace's one and only mast. I might tweak the design of these sheets later, making the text bigger and easier to read.
Turn 5, and things are getting serious. The pinnace HMS Swift is sinking, in this game it remains on the table a certain amount of time for navigational and LOS purposes.
By the end of Turn 10, Inflexible FINALLY manages to sink pirate ship "Revenge." At the time of her sinking she had lost ALL guns, her fo'c'sle is basically a splintered wreck .... make that a BURNING splintered wreck now that I've set a fire in that section. Critical hits (successive hits on ships areas that have already taken "critical damage") have led to hull breaches, finally flooding the lower decks and sending this plague of the Caribbean to the bottom. 
The end of Turn 14. Okay, my HMS Inflexible and the remaining pirate barque Jasmine have been trading blows for a while. I'm bigger than she is, but I've now lost two of the three gun batteries, and my aft mast (reducing speed by one). The Jasmine's lost one of her two gun batteries, and her foremast and aft mast, leaving with a speed of 2. So we're equal in guns, but U can outsail her slightly. I was just starting of thinking about a boarding, but a shot from Jasmine scored a crit and inflicted crew casualties on my Frigate. Without a numerical edge in crew, I decide not to board (defenders against boarders have a lot of advantages). So decide to break off the engagement and take the win (having sunk a 4-point barque in exchange for a 2-point pinnace). I maneuver to get the wind on my starboard quarter and get off the northern edge of the table.Live Stream for LETTERS OF MARQUE - Age of Piracy
The Sitrep Podcast is taking a turn toward the argghh! with Letters of Marque, a light naval wargame designed for the Age of Piracy.
This is in response to our recent Facebook poll where our community cast the most votes for pirate-related content. While others on our team gear up for miniatures and terrain tables, I’m getting the ball rolling with some community wargaming in this fun and interesting period.
This will be a live game with members of the Sitrep Team and the Sitrep / OTT community, sure to be a blast!
Now, the rules don’t say we have to be drinking rum while playing …
howwww-ever …
There are six ship types in this game. From biggest to smallest, they are War Galleon, Frigate, Merchantman, Barque, Sloop, and Pinnace. We have virtual playing pieces for all types, as well as ship sheets (relax, nowhere near as involved as Darkstar), a map, game function pieces, etc. Simplified mechanics for real-life sailing and wind are included, as well as crew casualties, fire, loss of sails, boarding, etc. This is a fun, LIGHT game (Dennis Ugolini, designer) which I hope will adopt well for virtual community play.Sitrep Gaming Stream 12 - 1967 Six Day War
For those of you who may still be awake … 🙂 … Sitrep will be streaming some gaming for the 1967 Six-Day War between Israeli and Egypt, June 6, 1967.
7PM ET US – Midnight UK Time
We hope to see some of you there.
If not, sleep well!
The Sitrep Cup Championship Live Stream!
Tomorrow at 11AM Central, 12 Noon East US, and 5PM UK time, we’ll be hosting the first edition of the SITREP CUP, a championship live game streamed for the community.
Gianna and Marty will be playing the Patriot Rebels, and Gaz will be playing the British regulars in a game of Battlefield: Revolution.
The Sitrep Cup is an award that’s being inaugurated for the current champion of our online community gaming. The reigning champion gets all trash-talking rights until he or she is dethroned by the next intrepid challenger!
So stop by our live stream tomorrow and see who comes out on top! Root for your favorite player or your favorite faction!
God Save the King? Liberty or Death? We’ll find out tomorrow which prevails.
"Final Verdict" Recap Video: Prokhorovka PanzerBlitz
This is a final recap video of the PanzerBlitz game between “Oriskany” Jim and Gianna played over two previous live streams.
The game recreated a very small sliver of the opening hours of the tank clash at Prokhorovka, widely considered the largest single clash of tanks ever gathered on one battlefield.
The video includes better sound, music, animations, and inserted clips from the live streams for humor / commentary.
This was mostly done to overcome / remediate the bad luck we had with the Part 2 stream on Sunday. The stream was extremely laggy, it didn’t record properly on Twitch, YouTube, or Facebook, and completely dropped the last hour of the stream (i.e., the RESULT).
So I hope this video makes things a little better. Please accept it with my apologies.
Gianna v. Oriskany Live Game, Part 2
In preparation for today’s stream, the conclusion of last week’s German-Soviet showdown between Gianna and Jim, I thought I would post just a few pics of where the game is at the moment.
In all the game is set up for 10 turns. Five turns are complete. Five more turns will be resolved today.
There are five objective hexes on the table. Currently my Soviets hold four of them. Whoever holds three at the end of the game is the winner. So Gianna’s Germans have to take at least two.
She just might do it.
Again, the stream is scheduled for Sunday, 7PM UK time (2PM Eastern US). We hope to see some of your there!
So here are the dispositions on Turn 1. To get the stream going, I had both forces enter the table through the designated entry zones and try to take the most objective terrain possible. The Germans end Turn One winning 3-2.
Gianna decides to fall back in the center, giving up one objective hex to deny a point-blank battle against large Soviet armored forces. Personally I feel she underestimated the resilience and firepower of her German force (including Tigers, including Michael Wittmann who was there on 12 July 1943), but she does have a strong case where she's now engaging the Soviets at LONG range over open Russian steppe, where her tanks are MUCH better than mine. As I take the objective, however, she fires against my spearhead with opportunity fire - it's a sound tactic, she just rolls a "6" (worst possible roll).
The Germans fall back AGAIN, pivoting to turn the left Soviet wing on Hill 252.2. It is admittedly a craft move, but its also yields me a FOURTH objective hex, and allows me to turn the inside wing of their Panzerjaeger Abtg, where mass Soviet tank fire manages to take out a battery of Marder III tank destroyers.
Now here is where Gianna has me worried. On the Soviet left, a whole SS StuG battalion, plus Tigers, plus the bulk of an SS Panzer battalion (PzKpfw III and IVs) are piling up against my infantry and airborne guards. Two objective hexes could be put BACK into play here, depending on how Gianna handles her artillery and reinforced grenadier company now deep in my rear.
Things get serious in the center, where I am more or less dominating. Two platoons of PzKpfw-IVGs are toast, as are all the Mader IIIs. I am taking some losses, though, especially from those HS-129 tank-buster planes that just showed up.
The situation at the beginning of Turn 6, where tomorrow's game will start. In broad terms, Gianna has yielded the center of the field, which I have graciously accepted and will NOT be giving back. However, there are issues on my right wing, where German grenadiers and artillery is on high ground ... 1000 meters in my rear where more German grenadiers are poised to strike from under the cover of Okbriabsky State Farm, and definitely on my right where a NIGHTMARE of German Waffen SS armor and assault guns are about to come around the east side of that tree line like the Kool-Aid Man on bath salts. :)Gianna v. Oriskany Live Game, Part 2
Last week on July 12, the Sitrep Podcast marked the July 12 anniversary of the Battle of Prokhorovka with a live game of PanzerBlitz between Jim and Gianna.
Part of the Battle of Kursk, the engagement at Prokhorovka is considered the largest single clash of tanks in history, with the bulk of eight armored divisions on a single field of 1943 southern Russia.
After a great first session, we’re coming back to finish the game on Sunday, July 19! At the moment, Jim’s Soviets are currently “winning,” but Gianna’s Germans are poised to launch major counterattacks in at least two places, so this one is definitely still up in the air!
The stream is scheduled for Sunday, 7PM UK time (2PM Eastern US). We hope to see some of your there!
Video Replay - East Front Tank Battle
Here is part one of the PanzerBlitz game between myself and Gianna last Sunday. History lasts from 5:00 to 17:00, Army and Scenario Review last until about 28:30, and then we get to the slaughter!
The conclusion of this game is scheduled for Sunday live. We hope you’ll join us!
At the moment my Soviets are winning, but this one could still easily go either way!
Live Stream - Tank Clash at Prokhorovka (July 12 Anniversary)
The Sitrep Podcast is marking the July 12 anniversary of the Battle of Prokhorovka with a live game of PanzerBlitz between Jim and Gianna.
Part of the Battle of Kursk, the engagement at Prokhorovka is considered the largest single clash of tanks in history, with the bulk of eight armored divisions on a single field of 1943 southern Russia.
And yes, before you ask … Michael Wittmann was historically there, he was in his Tiger, and he will be on our table.
The stream is scheduled for Sunday, 7PM UK time (2PM Eastern US). We hope to see some of your there!
Some of the background materials
Game Map
German Forces
Soviet ForcesSunday's Replay Video - Two American Revolution Battles
The replay from Sunday’s “Independence Weekend” stream, where we take a look at the Battle of Oriskany and the First Battle of Freeman’s Farm in Robert Mary’s American Revolution mod of SSI’s People’s General system.
Just how deadly are Mohawk sharpshooters?
Just how hard-core are British grenadiers?
Just how bad was The Patriot movie?
Just some of the topics we cover with the chat in a great discussion. 😀
Independence Weekend Stream!
The Sitrep Podcast is celebrating Independence Day weekend with some live-streamed American Revolution wargames.
Join us as we take a look at the First Battle of Freeman’s Farm (part of the Battle of Saratoga) and the Battle of Oriskany. These battles were chosen in particular because both can be considered historical victories for either side, so our American friends can root for the Patriots and our British friends can root for the Crown in equal measure!
The stream is at 12 Noon East US time, 5PM UK time. We hope to see some of your there!
Cold War + Red Dawn: Soviet Mechanized Division attacks Fort Bragg (1977 Alternate History)
Had a great stream with our community today. Check it out!
We use the great SSI “People’s General” system to imagine a “Red Dawn” type scenario.
It’s May, 1977 … and in some weird alternate Cold War timeline, the Soviets have managed to get a sizeable army in the American mainland, and are now attacking Fort Bragg, North Carolina!
Soviet VDV paratroopers have already landed behind us!
Can we stop the Soviet assault, using equipment and weapons available to the US Army at the time?
Find out! And you can always jpoin us LIVE on our Sunday wargames, not only to watch but PARTICIPATE in the actual game!
