My sister-in-law gave me some really nice paint brushes. I gave myself the TFL Dawns & Departures supplement and the Christmas Special. Best yet, I have some Amazon Gift Cards. I am already scanning it for new toys and reference books.
The year is almost over and I am quite glad to see the end of it. Merry Christmas everyone and a happy and healthy New Year to you all.
Poking around Amazon and needing some retail therapy, I found someone selling a used copy of volume 1 for a fairly reasonable price. It just arrived. It looks like someone chewed on one corner of the cover and the dust jacket is nowhere to be found but it is in good condition otherwise. This book covers from 1933 to 1942. So it is perfect for the early war period and even has information for the German troops in Spain. It should provide some enlightening reading.
To that end, I had a look at what figures I owned for Napoleonics. I did not even bother to open the Russian drawer was I know nothing is painted. One day I will have to do that. But the British Drawer was much more hopeful. I had been going for making a one to one battalion of British troops. I did not make it too far. What I have though is pretty good. I have a 64 man light company of infantry. They are led by two officers and two sergeants. There is also a drummer and color party. I also have some miniatures that I bought off of ebay that I have not painted yet. This expands the force to 16 men of a center company led by an officer and a sergeant with their own drummer. I also have a mounted officer ready to go. All in all, more than enough figures to get in a game of Sharp Practice using the core forces from the rule set.
The French were also an exercise in Megalomania. I was looking to do a battalion of Legere infantry. What I have is a Chasseur company of 72 men led by three officers, five sergeants, two drummers, a horn player (forgot what they are called) and a mounted officer. In addition, I have some skirmishing carabiniers (light regiment grenadiers). I have nine of those fellows led by a sergeant. For supports I have a group of 25 cavalry. Included in their number is a musician, a standard bearer and an officer. Plus I have a single cannon with a four man crew.
I was worried that I did not have enough Frenchmen so I was on Ebay last night. Something I should avoid for a while. I picked up a some more figures. The first auction had a mounted officer, five Chasseurs and 8 voltigeurs. The second auction netted me 16 more miniatures with Carabiniers, Voltigeurs and a couple of Chasseurs. I should be able to field two groups of skirmishing Voltigeurs when they arrive in the new year.
What I am lacking is British support items. I have no artillery and no cavalry for those poor chaps. Those will probably be an ebay purchase for the new year.
Thus far it has not offered much on small unit actions that I am looking for but it is still very interesting. What is better, is I got it dirt cheap on Amazon. I also purchased Jentz's Panzer Truppen volume 1. I had picked up Volume 2 a long time ago but never got around to purchasing the first volume. I found it for a decent price on Amazon and one click and it was on its way. Should arrive in the next couple of days. Now to find time to read with all of the hustle and bustle of the season going on.
It seems like the Santa Clause is running successfully. I have heard from most of the participants that gifts are on their way or will be shortly.
At this point I have a near complete platoon of British troops. I need some FV432s to round them out.
My US troops are a full platoon (circa early 1980s) with M113s. One needs some camo but the rest is complete. I need some armor for supports. I really want some form of M60 as the armor rather than an M1 Abrams.
The Soviets are a platoon of Motor Infantry with BMP-1s. I have one T-55 but it is painted as a Syrian vehicle. I really need some T-72s or T-55s to go along with them. There are some infantry that need some paint to round out the platoon. But other than that, they are complete.
I also reprinted my playtest copy of Cold War gone Hot (Chain of Command for the Cold War) and started to reread them. Hopefully, I can get some down time and paint or play a game here in the near future. Really should paint terrain......
For the German trucks, I don't think this will be an issue. If my Radio and tanker truck are slightly bigger than an Opel Blitz truck, I don't think anyone will notice. But the tank is very noticeable when next to the others. I will still use it but I may pick up another Old Glory pack of T34 1940s at some point in the future.
I started to inventory my Early War Soviet collection to see if there are any gaps that I have for the support list in Chain of Command. Honestly, my vehicle recognition skills stink so I was trying to compare my vehicles with pictures on the internet to figure what was what.
I found I have three KV-1s from two different manufacturers. The odd man out looks like the little brother of the other two. I believe that the two larger ones are from Flames of War. But the smaller one has a resin body and metal treads as well. As such, I am stumped as to what it is.
My T34s I recognize without having to compare pictures.
I have a plastic flamethrower variant of a T-26 (Kht-26 maybe? or OT-26). I think it is a Zveda model. Nice but feels fragile.
I have three Gaming Models T-26s. Looking at their site, I actually don't see the same turret as the ones that I have. It looks like his Radio antenna model with out the antenna. Speaking of which, I want one of those.
I have five of the Gaming Models KhTz-16 tractor tanks. Love these models. They were built in two places, Kharkov and Stalingrad. They were a terrible tank and most of them ended up as fiery wrecks but they are just too cool not to have. Gamine Models is the only place to get these. The owner built them for me by request. He did it because he thought they looked cool. Very nice models.
Then I have three Ba-10 armored cars. Two are metal models but are not Old Glory. Not sure whose work they are. And one is a plastic one (probably Zveda again). The plastic one was fiddly to put together. The front bumper snapped right off. But it fits in very well with the others.
That takes me to seven vehicles that I have no clue what they are. I bought them as part of a collection that someone was selling off.
I think two of them are BT-7s. I still have to figure out the others. Back to the search.
Putting away my train station, I pulled out one of my new favorite books, "The Bloody Triangle" that covers the armored battles in the opening days of Operation Barbarossa in the Ukraine. This was a source I used for the Ustilug Campaign. Great book that is chock full of good stuff to base scenarios on.
As I was reading, I came across a section discussing the 15th Panzer Regiment/11th Panzer Division's advance through the Ukraine. To Quote the author, Victor Kamenir, the town of Radekhov was the site of "the first significant tank battle in Ukraine" (pg 139). This got me excited. It seemed like a great candidate for an IABSM scenario and I know Mark has the miniatures in 6mm to get this done. I kept reading. It seems that the small town of Radekhov was occupied by two tank battalions and one Motor Rifle Battalion from the IV Mechanized Corps. OK. This could be a BIG scenario.
But where on earth is Radekhov? Unfortunately, it is not on www.wwii-photos-maps.com. It is in map M35-62-A which he does not carry. The book describes the town and its neighboring village of Stoyanov as "equally small and insignificant town"(pg 139). But, I found a 1929 Polish map of the area that has both towns referenced by the book present. Much harder to find as they used the Polish names for the towns instead of the Russian/Ukrainian names. You can pull the map up here: http://www.mapywig.org/m/WIG_maps/series/100K/P47_S39_RADZIECHOW_1928_600dpi_bcuj302541-291698.jpg. Below is the part that I am interested in.
Caution, original image is 28MB. I added it here as a small image. I hope it does not bog things down.
Here is where I am left slightly disappointed. The description of the battle tells me nothing about the forces that engaged one another. I have no clue what was in the 10th Tank Division at this time. So it was time to dig. Well, I found this little gem: TECHNICAL REPORT FROM THE 10th TANK DIVISION, AUGUST 1941. This was a report filed by the acting commander of the 10th Tank Division in August of 1941. He provides a breakdown of the losses suffered by tank type in the division. Now we are starting to get somewhere. Tanks listed in the losses section are: KV, T-34, T-28, BT-7 and T-26. Unfortunately, there are multiple models of the T-26 and KV tanks so this does not completely clear the muddy waters. But I did remember that I had a book by Charles Sharp somewhere. "The Deadly Beginning: Soviet Tank, Mechanized, Motorized Divisions and Tank Brigades of 1940-1942." Surely this will be enlightening. And it is.
Tank Regiments of the 10th Tank Division
| Parent Unit | 1st Battalion | Second Battalion | Third Battalion | Fourth Battalion | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19th Tank Rgt | 31 KV Tanks | 52 Mixed T-34, T-28, BT-7 | 31 KV Tanks | 52 Mixed T-34, T-28, BT-7 | 31 KV Tanks | 52 Mixed T-34, T-28, BT-7 | Light Tanks |
| 20th Tank Rgt | 31 KV Tanks | 52 Mixed T-34, T-28, BT-7 | 31 KV Tanks | 52 Mixed T-34, T-28, BT-7 | 31 KV Tanks | 52 Mixed T-34, T-28, BT-7 | Light Tanks |
Well, it helps some. We can assume that the Light tanks are probably T-26's based on the August Report as that is the only tank type missing from it in Charles Sharp's account of the division. In the initial action, the T-34 tanks were not yet encountered. We know this from the next revelation from "The Bloody Triangle."
German aerial reconnaissance spotted a significant body of Soviet Armor approaching Radekhov from the east. This was the bulk of the 10th Tank Division. The whole of the 15th Panzer Regiment deployed in line and waited for the arrival of the 10th. They were supported by artillery and anti-aircraft artillery. This allowed the forward deployed elements of the 10th Tank Division to escape and fall back to join Lysenko's main force.
The Germans pressed on towards Radekhov and were met by Soviet artillery fire and a dozen tanks (no mention of types). The first battalion of the 15th Panzer Regiment dealt with the 12 Soviet tanks. They knocked out three and lost only one of their own vehicles in return. They then took Radekhov. The defenders fled to the south and southeast.
Now this is where the account gets interesting. The 15th halted south of Radekhov just before a hill to the southeast of the town. Lieutenant von Renesse volunteered to lead a reconnaissance of the hill and its surrounding area. His entire platoon (2nd platoon) from the 5th Company volunteered to go forward for the mission. Now we get some details. There were five tanks in the platoon. Three of the tans were armed with the short 5cm cannons and two were armed with the 3.7cm KwK cannons. One of these later types had a non-operational gun but still was eager to go forward.
In researching what tanks were part of the 15th Panzer Regiment, I found a source that said the 5th Company was a light tank company. But this does not work based on the armament of the tanks. The Panzer I and Panzer II light tanks did not have such heavy armament. But, the Panzer III tanks had exactly this armament. So we have one side determined.
The panzers aligned themselves in a wedge formation and moved up to 100 meters before a highway that was on the hill. The panzers encountered a few enemy infantry but reported back that it was smooth going. Then they spotted a formation of four Soviet tanks advancing in a single file line spaced fifty meters apart. The book states that they were of a type that the tankers had never seen before. The panzers got off the road and into position to ambush the advancing Soviet tanks. The Soviet tanks advanced at full speed down the road. At nearly point blank range, the panzers opened fire. Firing as rapidly as possible, the platoon scored hit after hit on the Soviet tanks. The Soviet tanks reaction was to turn around and drive off. The Soviets did not fire a shot, were hit repeatedly and did not lose a single tank.
This was one of the first encounters that the German Army had with the Soviet T-34 tank. This description, coupled with the Polish map should provide enough information for a nice game of Chain of Command. At the bottom of the map above, the hill can clearly be seen as well as the highway that was hidden to the Germans from the base of the hill. The hill itself did not have much in the way of trees but the elevations should provide some interesting cover to move in and out of.
AnywaY, I hope this was interesting for you. I will try out this scenario at some point with my 15mm Toys. Now to see if I have the right types of Panzer IIIs.
How are you doing with your preparations? Everything coming along well?
Action at Ustilug - $1.00
In the Name of Roma - $6.00
The Coming Thunder - $5.00
The Falcon and the Gladiator - $4.00
Air War in the Western Desert June 41 to Nov 42 - $1.00
Then there is the individual scenarios that I am grouping together for $1.00 These include:
a) GreenHill Tennessee - Terrible Sharp Sword Scenario
b) Action at Sonolenta Aldeia - Sharp Pracrive v1 Scenarios
c) M&B - To Catch a General - Mud and Blood Scenario (WWI)
d) Kfar Darom 1948 - IABSM Scenario for Israel's war of Independence
e) SCW - First Flight- SCW Scenario for Bag the Hun and CY6
Or get the whole mixed bag of nuts for just $16.00. To order, Paypal the money to me at cstoesen@corecard.com. I will respond usually in less than 24 hours. Thanks for taking a look.
Any thoughts?
It's not much, but it was significant in that I managed it with the shaking in my hands. Hopefully, that will stop soon when I can tune back the UC meds. I have started work on the rail station/govt building. Hopefully, I will get some paint on it today.
"One day, Roy Rogers rode into town to pick up some new boots that Dale Evans had purchased for him. He picked up the new red boots and rode back to the ranch. On the way to the ranch, he was attacked by a wildcat that tore the new boots to shreds. Taking out his pistol, Roy killed the wildcat and put it on the back of his horse Trigger with the now ruined boots. At he reached the ranch, Dale Evans came out and immediately burst into song, 'Pardon me Roy, is that the cat that chewed your new shoes?'"
Dad loved jokes like that. It's been long enough now that these memories are treasured and sweet rather than painful. This was all driven by the return address of my Rebel Minis was listed at Chattanooga. Thus this long ramble.
Anyway, I picked up a few packs of Rebel minis Roman Auxillia. They look great. They come with separate shields. Some are standing while others are attacking. There were Four total poses. In the first pack, there were 17 of the attacking pose and one each of the other poses. The second pack had better variety. Nine of the standing pose, two with sword raised but still heavily weighted to the attacking pose. This should provide me with plenty of miniatures to round out my Roman force for the time being. I also picked up a mounted officer to go with them.
The second package was three Game Craft card buildings.
Rule number 1:
To enter you need to either have a blog or be a regular follower of this blog (or Ian's) already. This is to give confidence to all involved that everyone will follow through to the end. If you have a blog and don't follow this one it's OK to join in. (I would still appreciate it if you did follow)
Rule number 2:
The idea is that each person involved buys a figure or figures to the value of less than £5 and paints them up to fit in with what the target blogger wargames or collects. Best would be some kind of command for the bigger scales but maybe a unit or two of such as 6mm or a building or... you get the idea.
Rule number 3:
Please try to send out your items so that they will arrive by December 20th in plenty of time for the big day. I will send out who you have on September 30th.
Rule number 4:
Please post on your blog about your participation. The more we can get on board, the more fun for all of us.
Rule number 5:
This is not intended to be a cheap alternative to Ian's Secret SantaTM. Instead it is a great opportunity to send and receive something that will be special BECAUSE it's a one off from a fellow blogger. Not that you have to limit yourself to something useful, feel free to paint up something that will just sit aside the painting desk or study etc and just give pleasure.
Rule number 6:
When you mail your package to your target, lets add "SC" into their name so that they know they received their Santa Clause gift and not just something else that they happened to have ordered and promptly forgotten about. For example, the name should be listed as "Bob SC Hope". This will give us the opportunity to place it under the tree with the care that it deserves.
That's it folks, lets get this going! I hope to see all of last year's participants back involved. It was a great time.
Thanks
A while ago, I started a game out there to test out some ideas for a Roman version of Dux Brit. I ended up converting it to an AD&D 3.5 game. Its actually survived quite a while and I have a couple of dedicated players who are pushing on.
The story is set on the Roman Limes wall in Germania Superior. The players are Auxilia troops stationed at the fort at Saalburg. The players have been dispatched as an esploratori unit to investigate some strange happenings north of the wall. A barbarian migration had begun and is forcing the local tribes out of their homes and across the wall.
Since it is AD&D, it departs from history at this point but it has been fun. If you are interested, stop by and take a look. RPOL.net
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 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
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.
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. |
| 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. |
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.
Anyway, yesterday was a bust. I was too sick to get in a game. Didn't get to paint either. But today is a new day.
My flight came in at a higher altitude and spotted the Italians immediately. Pattle and his wingman dove down on Mark's CR42s. The last Gladiator remained at altitude and turned towards the G50s. And this is pretty much where my plan fell apart.
Turn 11 saw Pattle land another hit resulting in airframe damage to one of Max's Cr42s. Max climbed and ran for it with this pilot. The same turn saw my other pilot take engine damage. He attempted to dive out of combat but was followed by a G50 and two Cr42s and probably would have been shot down.
I am working on finishing off the Engineers and then will move on to some more mounted militia to finish off a group.
Hopefully, I can get some pictures before the end of the day.
The plastic kit is a snap together kit. That mostly works. But it will not be stable enough for the gaming table. I bought two of them and put them together. I had to trim part of one walkway to get them to join up. I need to break out the super glue and stabilize the whole thing.
Next, I need to figure out how much train track I actually need. The intent is to copy this.
The second picture above is of the station itself. It is a one story structure with a curved roof. Here is where my Game Craft Miniatures Government Building will step in. I will remove the second story and create a flat roof for the structure. Then using a pringles can, create the curved roof structure. I have some balsa wood blocks that I will make a clock tower with to have on one of the corners. I just hope my building skills are up to the challenge. If I can pull it off, the Government building will become even more versatile and can mimic several buildings with a simple roof change. Well, that is the theory anyway. I will pull the tile out later today and see if I can start laying out what the track sections will look like.
Speaking of SP, I need to get a game in. I have all of the gear ready, just need to time to give the rules a spin. Hopefully, my health will start improving and I can change all of that.
In the works, I have a nearly finished Pint sized campaign (maybe quart sized is better since there are technically 2 campaigns in it) and a half finished 3rd AWI book. The new book is made specifically for SP2. I should start seeing work take shape on these soon enough.
Until then, I am still planning on launching my second novel on Amazon on the 15th. I am just doing some last minute clean up on it and hoping to hit publish soon.
Until next time, roll some dice and have fun.
I have it's partner up on the painting table. Just finished gluing on the balconies. It should make a nice addition. I also have the warehouse building that is ready for paint. Just lack the energy to complete anything at the moment. I may make some rubble for the ruined buildings next.
One of the side effects of working on these scenarios is that it is making me revisit my previous scenario books "This Land Divided" and "With Fire and Sword." The next project will be to bring those up to Sharp Practice 2.0 standards. They are actually quite usable as they are with just minor tweaking. There are some timed events that have to be rethought through, but other than that, they are usable still.
The other side effect was I now have a project for NaNoWriMo. I am doing a novel about Captain John McClure of the Turkey Creek Regiment in 1780. Should be interesting.
The next force became the Frei-Infantrie of von Mayr. I settled on Eureka and Blue Moon 15/18mm figures for. I just received my group of Hussars, infantry NCOs, Officers, standard bearers and drummer. Also have an artillery piece and crew. Also picked up a mounted officer to be the overall commander. I bought some Old Glory 15mm Prussian Jagers for this force as well. Two more packages to arrive and I will have my von Mayr infantry ready to go. Now I just have to find time to paint them.
I just finished the assembly of the building. It is really nice.
Once thing that I cannot see from the period picture is if the building has a name on the front. The modern one does and I was thinking of copying that and making a wire frame to hold the letters on that could be set on the facing above the stairs on my kit. The modern building also has a pair of statues there on either side of the train station sign. I was thinking about getting 2 10 or 6mm miniatures and painting them white and sticking them up there as decoration. Just trying to find the right figure first. Something heroic looking holding a teardrop shield seems about right from the pictures that I have seen.
I will never have the time or money to get it to match, but I think this is a useful middle ground. Any ideas or helpful suggestions?
I have been wanting an Ottoman army for my Napoleonics. They would work rather nicely for this purpose as well. So this is a possibility.
Then I was thinking of my Mother's stories about growing up in Dessau before and during WWII. For several years she lived in Schloss von Anhalt with the Duke and his daughter. That had me searching for what Anhalt had as troops during the SYW. It turns out that the Anhalt family fought for a multitude of sides.
I stumbled across this project and it seems to be a gold mine of information: http://www.kronoskaf.com/syw.
French Army
Prince de Anhalt-Cöethen Infantry regiment fought for the French. Before 1759 it was the Bentheim Regiment until it was taken over by the Prince.
Saxon Army
Fürst von Anhalt-Dessau Cuirassiers. This cavalry regiment fought for the Saxons until they were captured by the Austrians.
Prussian Army
von Anhalt-Dessau Infantry (IR3). This was a standard Prussian regiment that had three battalions.
Prinz Moritz Infantry (IR22).
Austrian Army
Anhalt-Zerbst Cuirassiers. 6 squadrons of cavalry and one company of carabiniers.
Anhalt-Zerbst Infantry. 1 battalion of four companies and 50 cavalry. My favorite quote on this regiment which tempts me to model it is "an under-strength unit of undersized soldiers, and of little military use."
Hesse-Kassel Army
Prinz von Anhalt Infantry Regiment. This unit also made its way to the United States for the American War of Independence.
These provide some confusing and odd choices. I still think an Anhalt-Zerbst troops would be fun to do. I am thinking about three groups of musketeers and a group of grenadiers. Then a group of Carabiniers from the Cuirassier regiment.
I have no idea of what to do for an opposing force.
I am using craft store paints to get this project done. The large of the two is base coated in "Oyster Beige" then washed in Windsor & Newton Peat Brown ink. I watered down the ink a little as they are strong inks. Now I am going to drybrush the mess in the same Oyster Beige.
Two hours later, I had all three matt boards assembled. They went together so easily. I was very impressed. Then I spent another hour on the top of the government building. I barely got the thing glued together before I could not longer keep my eyes open.
The matt board buildings are very nice. I sprayed them down with the sanding lacquer that Game Craft recommends. So far, they are coming along nicely.
I have mapped out six scenarios for each division's advance. Both divisions approached the city from the west. It took them three days to secure the city against newly raised, green troops that were supported by armor.
I have located some excellent pictures of the city and maps and I am mostly sure of where the action was taking place during the advance (wwii-photos-maps.com - best source on the internet). So the maps will be based on reconnaissance photos of the city before the attack. The background and initial briefings are all done. The scenarios are in skeleton format and just need to be fleshed out. Once that is done, I need to playtest.
In looking at the scenarios, the rail line through Kharkov plays an important role. It is the 1st objective of both divisions. In looking at the pictures of the rail yard, there are passenger walkways that rise above the tracks and to the other platforms. Anyone have an idea on how to make one? There is one for HO scale but I am not sold on it yet.
Also, I need to place an order with Mark IV miniatures. I need some more tracks. Lots more infact. That and some more train buildings: a signal town, an engine shed and something else that I have not thought of yet.
The first shot is of my original 4 groups of 10 militia. They are lead by two foot officers and accompanied by musicians. Mark Luther gave me three casualty figures a few years back that I managed to paint up. Unfortunately, they are the only casualty figures that I have for the entire force. I have a number of unpainted ones, but that is for later.
I managed to paint up a figure for Marion. The picture came out shiny and I am not sure why. I used a swamp tuft from Army Painter on it as it seemed appropriate.
Taking some time last night to get some painting in, I painted none of the above. I instead painted an officer and six men of the Maryland Brigade. Yep, I painted Continentals. Why? I am not sure. I am violating Rich's groups of three policy with these as I am only going to paint 2 groups of them (for now). I have two more painting sticks of the men but just did not even get started on the others.
I have a few terrain pieces to begin work on as well. I managed to knock out two tents last night. I still have several out buildings that need painting and at least two more houses. I also got some woodland scenic trees that I will mount on a base. Never can have enough trees.
As to the Kharkov stuff, I am intimidated by the sheer volume so I will hide behind my AWI stuff for now.
I also started to base my Francis Marion miniature. If I run into sleep issues tonight, I may work on the standing tank farm and warehouse from Impudent Mortal. They did a great job of putting their instructions online and easy to find.
For the AWI, what I am mostly lacking is forests. Large quantities of trees. I have a few but nothing that will give me the look that I want. I have experimented with using a fixed foliage top that can be removed but that failed badly. I have a few buildings. My favorites are the Blue Moon FIW buildings. I have a pair of two story buildings and two one story shacks. In addition, I have several out buildings from JR miniatures and some tents to paint up. Lastly, I have a block house from Blue Moon. I don't envision using it with this scenario book but it is a really nice model.
What I am lacking is buildings that would suit for Georgetown, SC in 1780. I would ideally love to have a town of 10 to 15 buildings for it. I just am not sure of the direction that I want to go with it.
For the Kharkov campaign, I have most of what I need already. I have plenty of buildings for a small rural village. I also have been building up for an industrial area. I have some HO scale conveyors that I will use with a large rubble pile for a mining area. I just picked up some Impudent Mortal vertical tanks as well. These will add to the IM workshop and large warehouse (game Craft) that I have. I have been on the lookout for buildings that would fit in for a mining area. I am thinking of HO scale toys. I still have scenarios from In the Name of Roma that I have not done justice to.
I also want to get a reasonable rail station setup. Much of the fighting on the east front was around rail lines. Both sides needed them to move equipment and material to the front. Thus far I have about 5 feet of painted tracks. I have another one or two pieces of track that needs to be painted but I have done little with it. I got the Game Craft Government building to use as a train station. It should be a nice piece of kit if I ever build it. I have been shopping for other train station pieces but I have not come up with anything that has grabbed me.
The last piece of the puzzle is an urban board. I really want to accomplish something like what Matt did for his Achen terrain. I have a number of buildings that are in various states of completion but it is painting them that is holding me back. I am just not sure of what to paint them. Between the Impudent Mortal kick starter and several ebay purchases, I think I have the start of a complete city. I also have some matt board and mdf buildings from game craft as well. Then I have a bunch of ruined buildings from JR and now the IM kickstarter ruins. I need a full week just to get these knocked out.
The trouble is I can't focus on one part enough to accomplish anything at the moment. I have gotten my figures painted for the AWI and the WWII east front figures were painted a long time ago. So that is something.
We took bins of buildings like this:
We arrived around 8am at the venue for setup and got right to work. Matt's terrain was beautiful over the course of the day, we played four games. Setup was very straight forward despite the sheer amount of terrain that was there.
Game 3 was very short lived. I picked up the US infantry again. We attempted a flank attack scenario. My battle plan came unravelled almost immediately. I pressed my troops in quickly and in close combat lost the entire squad. The Germans did as well but my starting morale was an 8 and after the close assault, my morale was 4 to the German 6. The US pulled back immediately. A brief lunch at 4pm had us back on the game table for game 4.
We picked up another new player who was enthusiastic about the game. He played a platoon of US Infantry as did I. Matt again playing the Germans. I deployed along the long edge of the table while the other US player started from the short end. Matt's forces were spread out across the government building and two others. I again tried to push too fast and too hard. This time I nearly succeeded. I brought up the halftrack again as a support option. However, Matt had a grudge against "Old Reliable." Yep, I named that half-track. Well, the anti-tank gun appeared and fired a shot that routed off (not destroyed) my halftrack. And thus began my force morale spiral downwards.
The infantry, now unsupported, charged the gun and drove off the crew and close assaulted the senior leader that was directing it. Matt lost a senior leader and I lost my junior leader. I took a worse morale hit. I brought up a second squad only to have the two squads stuck in a firefight with all three of Matt's. By the end of that, our visiting player had fresh forces and nearly no opponents. We played several more turns of an already decided game to give him a better feel for the rules.
