Distractions

Well it's been an exciting week. With the launch of Action at Ustilug, it has gotten me focused on finishing my terrain for the Kharkov supplement. I have gotten some good feedback on the TFL forum about some missing items that I will try to round out with the Kharkov supplement. But I need to get cracking with the terrain.

I am focusing my efforts on the rail station scenario terrain. I have a solid idea on what to do for the passenger platforms. I picked up an HO scale passenger walkway at the local train store. It is a nice piece but fiddly. I have it mostly superglued together. What I needed was the passenger platforms that they would rest upon.

I stole the idea for the platform from Matt. He purchased some laminate tiles from Home Depot that looked reasonably like concrete. They come in 1' by 2" lengths. I cut them into 4" wide by 2' long strips. I will have to do this for two of the tiles to get the station to cross my games table. I intend on mounting these on some wood to keep them flat. Then mount them again on a long board to keep the whole thing stable. This will also give the train track bed some depth from the passenger platform.

For train tracks, I purchased a bunch of them from Mark IV Miniatures. I just got the straight lengths. I will have four sets of 4' long track sections to paint up. I just need to figure out the spacing between the passenger platforms to have room for the double track lengths.

Once this is all together, I can start to worry about the train station. I have assembled the structure that I will use but I have not painted it at all. All of this will occupy about half of a 6' by 4' table. The rest of the table will be generic urban buildings.

The Squirrel Moment

I was trying to save my pennies and buy a shapeways Soviet train in 15mm to go with the station. But the TFL yahoo group was all in a flutter about Rich mentioning that he was thinking about doing a Roman version of Dux Brit. That had me out in the garage looking at my roman figures. Thus far I have an auxilia force of 16 men painted with an optio, signifer and a cornicen. I have figures primed for another 16 auxilia. Reading about Rich's plans saw my Paypal account balance drop as I bought a couple of Rebel Miniatures Auxilia packs to round out this force. I really need to figure out how to stay focused on projects.

Thank you!

Late last night, I decided to post up my Action At Ustilug Pint Sized Campaign. The response has been fantastic. I just got caught up with sending out all of the orders so far. Thank you my friends for your generous support.

Action at Ustilug - Now on Sale

The Action At Ustilug is a pint sized campaign for Chain of Command. It contains a half ladder campaign with a variable support system that adds an extra level of friction to your support choices. The campaign covers the opening day of Operation Barbarossa. The German 289th Infantry Division crossed the Ukrainian border at the bridges near Ustilug and encountered the Soviet 87th Rifle Division and elements of the 41st Tank Division. The scenarios cover rural as well as urban engagements. The Soviet defenders acquitted themselves well and delayed the German advance through the town at every opportunity.

The booklet weighs in at 22 pages with full maps for each scenario. This does not have the same production quality as the Pint Sized Campaigns published through TooFatLardies as it has no graphics other than game maps.

This is the first early war Eastern Front Supplement designed for Chain of Command to be released. I am charging $2.00 for the supplement through this blog. Simply send a paypal payment to cstoesen@corecard.com and once I receive the payment, I will mail you the PDF.

I would appreciate it if you can spread the word to your friends and gaming partners.

Thanks,

Chris

More Retail Therapy

I have really been laid low by this illness (UC). It is starting to get me down. So I decided to engage in a little retail therapy. I found a book I have been wanting on Amazon - Christopher Shores and Giovanni Massimello's A History of the Mediterranean Air War 1940-1945 Volume II. This covers 1942 to March of 1943. It is a great, big, thick tome. I look forward to giving it a read.

Next up, I decided to revisit a dormant project - Dux B for the Romans. I looked at the figures that I have. I now have suitable Centurions that I am happy with. I have more than enough command for 3 Centuries at a 1:1 scale. I have enough auxillia for one century that is garrison bound and not full strength. What I was lacking was the junior leaders - the Optios. I have one Optio. It is a great figure from Corvus Belli. It looks fantastic. But, when I went to order more, I can't find any. Oops. Only one of these fellows came in a pack of command figures. I have so many other command figures that I hesitated ordering more packs just for one figure out of it. I thought I was stuck. Then eBay came to the rescue. There was a guy selling 5 15mm Early Roman Command figures from an unknown manufacturer. They looked vaguely like optios from the fuzzy pictures. So I clicked buy. They were cheap enough.

I just got them today. They are perfect. They have the same feathers on the helmet that the CB figure has. But they have some kind of mane running down the middle. That should not be too hard to remove with a little time with a file. Three figures are waving a sword while two are standing there holding a banner. I figure I will cut off the banner and they will be holding a pilum.

All in all, two great purchases. Now to find the energy to read or paint.

Reinforcements for North Africa

After the game last week, I broke out my North Africa aircraft. I had a quick game of Check Your Six to get the rules stuck in my head. As I reviewed my aircraft, I started thinking about what I would want to add to my aircraft.

First, I inventoried what I have.

Nation	Aircraft	Painted	Unpainted	Notes
Italy	Cr42	3	6	These were a pain to assemble
Italy	G50bis	6	3	These were simple to paint up.
Italy	SM79	1	7	I copied aircraft with no camo pattern.
Germany	Bf109e Trop	8	16	Simple pattern to paint. Slight megalomania as I wanted a complete Staffel of aircraft.
Germany	Ju87B Trop	3	5	3 of the unpainted really just need markings.
UK	Hurricane Mk1	8	4	Had wanted to do a squadron of these.
UK	Tomahawks	8	4	One of the unpainted has an accidental hole through it.
UK	Spitfire	0	8	These are for later in the war.

So, as you can see, I have a nice selection to start with. But I was lacking some aircraft for some scenarios that I wanted to do. Basically, not enough bombers. So, I went shopping. My Picoarmor order just came in. It is great.

Nation	Aircraft	Numbers	Notes
Italy	Br20	3	Nice clean castings.
Italy	Ba65	8	Neat little aircraft that did not fare well.
Germany	Bf110C	8	These should be fun.
Germany	Ju88A-1	3	Should be a nice little bomber.
UK	Martin Maryland	3	Nice bomber for the Brits
UK	Blenheim IV	3	This was an impulse buy.

I also placed an order with Tumbling Dice. I am waiting on some Blenheim Is, Caparoni 310s and some Hs126s. Now to take some time to paint them. I also checked and I only have 14 flight stands so the possibility of doing larger actions is unlikely.

Chain of Command Pint Sized Campaign - Action at Ustilug, 1941

I just found a supplement that I had written over a year ago. It is a pint sized campaign consisting of six scenarios in a half ladder campaign. It follows the defense of the town of Ustilug by the 87th Soviet Rifle Division against the attack of the German 298th Infantry Division. The action takes place in the town of Ustilug and across the open plains behind the town up to train station at Piatydnie.

The booklet consists of the historical background of the action, information about the forces that were deployed, and specific rules on the support elements that are available for the campaign.

A quick note, this does not currently have the nice layout that Rich puts into the pint sized campaigns he releases. I am checking with Rich to see if he is interested in it first. If not, I may put this up on my blog later this week.