Wargamer's Odds and Ends

Best Laid Plans.....

2012-02-09T20:08:00.000-08:00

Well, I finished off the last of my Russian Front Italians to complete out my last two platoons. Quickly I headed out to the garage to brush on some Army Painter Strong Tone dip and what did I find? The stuff had congealed to a solid mass inside the can. 3/4ths of the thing was unused and it solidified. Convinced that it just must be the top layer, I poked it with a screw driver seeing if maybe I could stir it up. Nope. It was a solid goo that mocked my efforts.

Well, that put a wrench in things. So I looked at what else was on my painting bench and spotted my single pack of Peter Pig Russian WWI riflemen advancing. I have put these on painting sticks and primed them then shoved them to the corner of my painting table. I did not have a clue how to go about painting them. Some serious googling revealed that there was little in the way of paint specific instructions for these guys (at least not for vallejo paints. I had asked on the Lead Adventure forum and got great answers, I just did not own any paints that matched the advice.

What I did find was a couple of references to things that were close. Taking one of these, I just went to it. Well here are my results. Normally I would dip these but as you can see above, I can't right now. I am only a little bit bitter.

Front. You should be able to click on them to see a larger version.

And Back

I am not sure how close I got. I am none too sure about the equipment colors. If anyone has some suggestions, I am all ears.

Well, I have some more time before I decide to go to bed. I think I will base some Early Saxons for Dux Britanniarum.

Dark Ages and other musings

2012-02-09T14:22:00.000-08:00

So Rich and the TFL crew have come up with their play test of some Dark Age rules. Very nifty stuff. I just got the rules last night and took some time to read them through today. I must say, I am excited about these. Excited enough to change directions in what I am working on.

I will finish out painting my Italians that I have done as they are so close. But as soon as those are off the painting table, out will come the Romano-British. My Saxon host is done enough to get a game in. I really need to get going with the Britons now.

Of course, even though I have a pile of lead just waiting to be finished off, I started surfing for more minis. What I really want are some casualty figures. The only place that I found 15mm Dark Age casualty figures was on QRF's website in their Freikorps range. They have some Viking casualties that would work for heavy infantry casualties and possibly the Pict casualty for any medium infantry figures. I really want some dead peasant levy though. Any ideas out there?

I also started to surf around to look for some foederati mercenaries as supports. I spotted the Khurasan German range and thought that they just might work. Based on the rules, I should be able to get away with just 2 packs (Spear & Francisca and chief with standard). Take a look. These are pretty nifty. Khurasan Miniatures' Late Germans

Anyway, I was starting to get a case of the blahs about miniatures. But once again, the excitement level is back up.

More WWII East Front Italians

2012-02-02T08:24:00.000-08:00

Managed to get some more painting time in over the past couple of days. I have 32 more Italian infantrymen in the queue waiting for dip. That adds to the other 24 infantry and five artillerymen that are waiting for the same treatment and a lovely 65mm gun.

These are all Battlefront/FOW figures. I am mostly a fan of these particular miniatures. There are some poses that have some heavy flash on the rifle barrels that had to be dealt with. That has led them to have a couple of ugly figures in the mix.

I have another 24 miniatures to paint up before the Infantry company is complete. I hope to have a full company ready to go by the end of February or sooner. Hopefully this will motivate me to finish up my supplement.

New Miniatures - East Front WWI Russians

2012-01-29T19:23:00.000-08:00

Just purchased my first World War I figures the other day. OK. Not entirely true. I have some French and German figures that I got from Minifigs USA before they disapeared but I was extremely disappointed in them and did nothing with them.

The new figures are a pack of Peter Pig Russians. Seven riflemen and a pistol waving officer were in the pack. The pack contents probably makes sense with their Square Bashing rules but they are not nearly as helpful for someone looking to use them for TFL's Mud and Blood.

I really like the figures. I managed to put them on a painting stick and prime them. I received some painting advice on the Lead Adventure Forum but it was from painters far more skilled than I who utilized a much more multi-layered approach than I would attempt. Lets face it, I am a lazy painter who is color blind. I need something closer to color by numbers for me to get close.

So, if anyone has any recommendations, I am all ears. I normally paint with Vallejo paints. I am looking to model a force for the 1914 to 1917.

Anyway, it is one more thing to distract me from my East Front WWII scenarios and painting my Italians for it. Once it is primed black, does it still count as an "Ooohh Shiny" moment?

Down on the Farm - An IABSM3 AAR

2012-01-29T18:52:00.000-08:00

I was able to get in a half a game of IABSM on Saturday night (1/21/2012) and completed the game on Sunday night. Needing a scenario, I grabbed scenario 1 from the rule book and used it. Never one to leave well enough alone, I modified it to change the British to Germans, the Germans to Soviets and set it in the Ukraine in August of 1941. The table layout was the same but much of the fields were cut off as I had a short 5' by 4' table to work with. This would cause a number of early casualties. If I had to do it over again, I would drop some of the collective farm and leave the fields. Also, I need to make some fields. Anyway....

Our Story
August 1, 1941: The 11th German Army continues to push toward the Bug River. In an effort to surround the Russians in a Kessel of their own, the 11th Army sends out men to find the enemy and attempt to herd them towards the river to pin them in place.

One such expedition was undertaken by Hauptmann Hermann Schmidt of the 285th Regiment. Hauptmann Schmidt has three fully manned platoons at his disposal. His Company headquarters is reduced as it only has one full strength squad. Each platoon has a light mortar. Ordered to advance upon a collective farm, the company has advanced through harvested wheat fields towards the collective.

The Collective farm was defended by elements of the 469th Rifle Regiment of the 8th Soviet Army. The soviet commander is joined by a commissar, two maxim machine-guns (this forms his headquarters) and two platoons of three 10 man squads.

The Germans entered through the fields and quickly found and began to engage the Russians deployed in the first set of trees. The distance from the table edge to these first hedge/tree line was way too close. Most of the troops counted as auto spotted. The Germans attempted to close assault immediately with two squads from the first platoon. Both were repulsed but suffered no shock. The second two squads decided to soften the Soviet positions up rather than follow the fate of their peers.

The next platoon to arrive attempted to turn the flank of the Russians in the initial tree line. It took several turns for them to do so as they advanced much more cautiously than the first platoon. Eventually they were successful.

Once the Germans were in the trees with the remnants of the Russian platoon, they were able to roll up the Soviets and destroyed two platoons to a man.

The German third platoon and had a much longer distance to travel. The Russian's moved their headquarters to attempt to intercept and halt the German advance. Unfortunately for the Russians, this did not occur until they had already lost their first platoon.

Once deployed, the two Soviet MMGs with the headquarters were able to cause significant trouble for the third platoon. For several turns they managed to pin or suppress two squads until they were broken. The remaining two squads laid fire down on the Russian second platoon while the headquarters squad flanked their position as well.

It was at this point of the game where my three year old decided he wanted to play the game too.

By this point the Russian troops were pretty much destroyed. The casualties were very high on both sides. Starting the game too close together leads to a very bloody game. For a first game of IABSM 3, it was a fun learning experience. I am looking forward to the Early War supplements to be released and see if my assumptions of force structures match. I used the cards and the markers for the first time. I was dubious of the markers when I first saw them. Now, I really like them.

Next game.... armor.

The Coming Thunder Reaches 50...

2012-01-17T13:50:00.000-08:00

... sales that is. Fortunately, it was pointed out to me that Blogger did something odd with the page for "The Coming Thunder." The text was wiped out and replaced with... nothing. That should be fixed now.

I have just received a copy of Charge!(Issue 34). Scott Mingus did a nice recap of the scenario supplement. Thanks Scott. Hopefully, this will generate a little more traffic.

Following on with this, I have been making some real progress now on the East Front Supplement for IABSM. This morning, waiting on my desk at work was not only Charge!, but also IABSM version 3, the IABSM Card Deck and the IABSM tokens. All very, very nice. I am a very happy gamer. Hopefully, I can get some time and put a game together this weekend. Possibly.

On the Bag the Hun front, progress continues on the second desert supplement. Hopefully, I will have more on this later.

A Weekends Work

2012-01-09T06:44:00.000-08:00

Surprise, Surprise. I actually was able to get some painting in this weekend. I managed to paint up 25 East Front Italians, a single 65mm gun and a staff car.

This was quite productive for one night's work, especially considering how slowly I paint. I still have to use the Army Painter dip, dull coat and base them up. But that is the easier part for me.

In other parts, I finally received my Christmas present. Håkan Gustavsson's awesome book "Desert Prelude: Operation Compass." This book should help me finish off my second Western Desert Campaign book. I was having difficulty with the scenarios during Operation Compass. Now I should be able to knock that out without difficulty. If you are interested in the air war in 1940 over the Western Desert, his two books on this period are probably the best there is on the subject. For the wargamer, you will not find a more detailed reference on individual battles to create scenarios from. He also has a fantastic website devoted to biplane combat in the second world war. Please check it out if you have any interest. He is also a very nice guy. He has responded quickly to any inquiry that I have sent him and been very helpful with the supplement. I was glad I could finally get his book.

A Slow Start

2012-01-06T17:23:00.000-08:00

So far 2012 is having a slow start hobby wise. A little work has been done on the Italian supplement for IABSM. I found a really nice overview in English. Patrick Cloutier's book "Regio Esercito: The Italian Royal Army in Mussolini's Wars 1935-1943." For my purposes, it provides a very nice overview that utilizes both Russian and Italian sources.

Turns out he just released a second edition last month but Barnes & Noble only had the first edition. Now I need to buy another copy. Fortunately it is much cheaper on Lulu.

More later. I might just get to paint tonight.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T09:54:00.000-08:00

The joy and peace of the season to you all. I hope Santa brought everyone lots of goodies. Happy New Year and prosperous gaming in 2012.Chris

WWII: Early War Russian Army 15mm

2011-12-22T20:48:00.000-08:00

WWII: Early War Russian Army 15mm

The paper strength of a Russian Rifle Battalion was rather impressive. It was a well armed and balanced force that had rarely achieved full strength in the units deployed at the start of the war. Let alone in the regiments raised once the war started. Still, there are plenty of options available to present a historical yet strong force.

According to the old archived Bayonet Strength site, by July of 1941, the order of battle changed and greatly trimmed down the number of troops in the battalion. For some units that had been mobilized at the start of the war, it would be possible that they would be able to retain some of the support elements that they had at the start of the war in June. Newly called up battalions would reflect the much reduced order of battle.

As I get around to it, this page will be updated as I complete and get pictures together.

Russian Army 1941

Rifle Company

Rifle Company HQ

Well the basing is not done but the Company HQ has a Commissar, a Company Commander and two MMG teams. The MMG Teams really need some additional crew members but they will do for now. I also have a standard bearer, just for fun.Rifle Platoon 1
The platoon headquarters consisted of an officer and two runners. At the start of the war, it also had a 50mm mortar attached to it. This mortar team was eliminated by July of 1941.

The platoon was made up of four rifle squads, each of eleven men. In theory this was to be an NCO squad leader armed with a rifle, two SMG armed men for close support, a six man rifle team and a two man LMG team. In theory, this was a well armed unit. The reality is that shortages of SMGs and light machine guns limited this deployment. By July of 1941, the SMGs were eliminated and only two of the four squads were issued light machine guns.

Rifle Platoon 2
This platoon was based initially for FOW but works just fine for IABSM. Two of the squad members from each squad are individually based for casualty removal.

Rifle Platoon 3
MG Platoon
This had an officer and two maxim MMGs with five crew each. This platoon was eliminated in the July 1941 restructure.

Battalion Supports
Anti-Tank Platoon
This element contained an officer and two 45mm anti-tank guns. This platoon was eliminated in July of 1941. This removed the best tank defense that the common infantry man had.

Machine Gun Company
Company HQ (1 Officer, 1 Commissar, 6 men)Three Platoons, each comprised of;1 Officer, 28 men

Mortar Company
Company HQ (1 Officer, 1 Commissar, 5 men)Three Platoons, each comprised of;1 Officer, 14 men

Early War Russian Armor

Just as with the Germans, I am too lazy to figure out the proper order of battle for armor. Especially since my games tend to be infantry centric. The basic platoon size was three vehicles. A company would have one or two vehicles in the headquarters.

T34
Lets start with the big guy on the block. This was probably the best tank at the start of the war in the east (or any other theater). The early model had limited turret space and suffered from lack of a radio net. But it definitely put a fear in the enemy. German troops took great delight in scaring incoming Italian troops throughout August of 1941 with tales of the T34.

T26
This is one of those tanks that to me defines the Russian armor in 1941. The T26 had a number of variants. Some just plain odd - like the double turreted version.

The Coming Thunder - Errata

2011-12-21T12:27:00.000-08:00

Well it was brought to my attention that I messed up and created cards with no definitions to them.

Here is what I have spotted so far:
They’s a Comin - When this card is drawn from the deck it is played immediately. Any green force on the table that is still on blinds, has one of their blinds open fire in panic at the nearest blind to them (friend or foe) or upon the closest enemy unit (if the deployed enemy unit is deployed. The unit is immediately deployed and in an unloaded status. When firing on the blind, treat the unit receiving fire as in heavy cover. If that blind is already in heavy cover, reduce the amount of dice by half again. Casualties are determined when that blind deploys.

Others will be posted as I find them. I will update the doc going forward.

WWII: Early War German Army

2011-12-19T11:01:00.001-08:00

Introduction

I honestly have no idea how to organize this. What I will attempt to do is show the miniatures that I have for my German Army in 15mm. It is broken down by the order of battle based on the year of the war according to the Bayonet Strength Website (http://www.bayonetstrength.150m.com/), Dr. Leo Niehorster's web site (http://orbat.com/site/ww2/drleo) and the IABSM Supplements.

As more gets painted, this site will be updated. I will put a version number and update notes here at the top. This is version 1.02 (12/21/2011). fixed armored section changed PZ38ts to Pz35t. Thanks Mark.Version 1.01 (12/21/2011). Added Armored Elements and bicycle troops.Version 1.0 (12/20/2011). Its all new.

German Army Circa 1940

Motorized Infantry Company

Motorized Infantry Company Headquarters

The Rifle Company Headquarters is nearly complete. They are to have four MMG Teams, two rifle squads, four trucks and a pair of kubelwagons. I lack some of the motor transport for Company HQ. I will probably replace these with Gamdols trucks as they are the cheapest available for something that won't play much of a part on the table top. I am also lacking a complete squad. I have the NCO and one rifleman painted. The rest are on painting sticks and not yet base coated. The MMG teams need the most base work.

The infantry are all Old Glory/Skytrex figures. The MMG Teams might be Battlefront but I am not sure at this point. The two trucks are Old Glory as well. I have no idea about the kubelwagon as I received that in a lot I purchased off of Bartertown many, many moons ago.

Motorized Infantry Platoon 1

Now, the first platoon was also from that long ago Bartertown purchase. Luckily between 1940 and 1941, the Germans did not mess with the order of battle too terribly for their infantry platoons. As motorized troops they are supposed to have two LMGs per squad and I only have one. I have additional LMGs on painting sticks to add in but just have not been bothered to do so. The platoon is lead by and officer or NCO and have a Anti-Tank Rifle and light mortar team for support. The core of the platoon are the four rifle squads of eight men each. The platoon travels in the comfort of five trucks.

The platoon is complete but needs a little something more for the bases. Some flock should fix it right up. For some reason, the paint does not adhere well to copper/nickle pennies. When looking at them closely, you can see where my gravel/pumice/sand/glue mixture did not completely cover the penny. The flock should hide that.

The figures are all Old Glory I believe. They may be painted for a slightly later period of the war but I am not bothered by it as they are done. The trucks, well I have no idea of where the trucks are from. They too came in that Bartertown lot I spoke of. Purchased in the dim haze of memory before I had a child, when I had some money (I am married) and free time. Inspite of the poverty and the no time to play, I am a richer man by far now.

Motorized Infantry Platoon 2

This is my favorite platoon. I painted all of the figures in this one. The platoon leader is one of my favorite as it is some poor chump trying to figure out just where he is on the map. The walking rather than deployed figures of the ATR team and light mortar team are also nice. The platoons should be identical to the one above but I just need to get more motor transport. I have two of the five trucks they should have. I am loathe to purchase something that will either leave the table quickly or get blown up early on in the game. But in 2012, I will extend every effort to buy some more.

Now I did have one falsehood above. The open top truck, I did not paint. That was part of that Bartertown deal I made. The rest I did paint. They are all Old Glory with the exception of the light mortar team and ATR team. The ATR team might be Battlefront. The light mortar team might be Quick Reaction Force. I should have posted something up on this years ago when I painted them.

Motorized Infantry Platoon 3

This platoon is the fun one as it is mounted in the SDKFZ 251 half-tracks. The half-tracks are all Old Glory. The figures are dominantly Old Glory and the ATR might be Battlefront and the light mortar team might be QRF or Battlefront. Just can't remember.

Again, these are complete but for some basing work that needs to be done. All in all I am pleased with the miniatures. Once the basing and company HQ is sorted out, I should be good to go. I will update the pictures as things change.

Motorized Battalion Support
Well we can't just send our poor troops up by themselves now can we? Now the Battalion contains stuff that I am just not interested in modeling. So we will restrict this just to the stuff that should go out on a tabletop. An assault against the typing pool just is not my idea of an exciting game. The Battalion had a heavy company and a MG Company that provided the normal support that the infantry man in the line would be likely to see.

Battalion Heavy Company
The Motorized units had a much more unique organization. Here the heavy company had some unique elements compared to its line counterpart.

First the Heavy Company had a Anti-Tank Platoon. This unit consisted of three 3.7-cm Pak 35/36 guns. These underpowered weapons had a longevity far past their usefulness on the battlefield. Each weapon was towed by a truck. (Agghhhh!!!! More motor transport to buy.)

The careful observer will note that the anti-tank platoon is still on painting sticks and only has one crew for the three weapons. This is because (in my mind at least) a single company in the front will probably not have the entire platoon at their disposal. Thus I will only be bothered with painting one crew for these. These ended up lower on the priority list. The crew are likely to be QRF miniatures.

Next the heavy company had an infantry gun platoon. This battery had two 7.5-cm infantry guns. These too were towed by trucks but could be manhandled by the crew to where they needed to go. They also had a truck for ammunition that pulled a trailer. The platoon HQ had two cars that moved the platoon leader and a small signals section. Is anyone keeping track here? I have a boat load of trucks to buy, don't I? Please, feel pity on me and send a donation toward the buy Chris a truck fund. Just 25 cents would be most welcome. (just kidding. But seriously, there is a link to the right somewhere.)

These fearsome fellows look ready to wreck someone's day. Still lack motor transport. I only painted one of these as I really am not sure how they would be deployed forward. I suppose that one really could just have a forward observer team to call in their fire as opposed to letting the guns be on the table, but that does not seem as much fun.

Lastly, there was a pioneer platoon. This was a large unit equipped with trucks and motorcycles. It had three large 13 man (including the NCO) squads that were equipped with a single lmg each. The bayonet strength site did not list if they had flamethrowers or not. I just can't tell from Dr Leo's site either. The Blitzkreig supplement from TFL gives them 2 flamethrowers and a AT rifle team. I would assume that they did not, but where is the fun in that. Pioneers need flamethrowers. So......

As you can see, the pioneer platoon is nearly incomplete. I only have two flamethrower guys. Since folks tended to stay away from the targets...er...flamethrower men, this might not be unrealistic in how they were deployed forward. :) Both of these guys were probably from QRF and came with the Bartertown buy I had made. Their fellow platoon mates do exist, just on painting sticks without even primer. I will get to them one day.

Motorized Machine Gun CompanyI know that there was a type A and a type B battalion organization in 1940. I will not be bothered by such distinctions. The Machine gun Company had two Machine gun Platoons and a single Mortar Platoon.

The Machine Gun Platoons were equipped with four tripod mounted MG34s each. Each team/machine gun was equipped with a truck. (More Trucks! When will it end.) The headquarters had a car and a motorcycle with side car. I actually have the MMGs to populate a platoon of these guns but as it is, that could mean up to eight MMGs on the table at once. That seems more than would likely be the case for a company sized engagement. As such, my 1940 Wehrmacht will probably not have more than 4 MMGs on the table at any given time unless someone else's scenario calls for it.

The mortar platoon had three sections of two 81mm mortars each. Each section had three trucks to cart them around from place to place and their ammo. Mortars are an off table asset. And as such, a forward observer team mounted in a car and a motorcycle with side car will probably all that will see the table. At least that will cut out an additional 9 trucks to buy. Good grief that would get expensive quick. (Hmmmm... I am really starting to sound like a cheapskate here.)

Motorized Regimental Support
Here is sadly where the Bayonet Strength site is not as strong. Dr Leo's site picks up where this left off. My issue is I have trouble with the German organizational markings and spend all my time flipping between the units and the key.

Motorcycle Reconnaissance Platoon
This unit has three squads with a single lmg in each squad (if I am reading the diagram right). The platoon HQ probably had a car and a motorcycle attached but I just do not know. The squads would have both motorcycles and motorcycles with sidecars.

I have two squads worth of motorcyclists ready to go besides the obvious lack of basing. I only have two squads though. I think these are Peter Pig figures but I am not sure. I want to flesh out the platoon but that is lower on the priority list.

Infantry Gun Company
It appears that the Regiment had an infantry gun company attached. It appeared to have eight of the 75mm Infantry guns and some LMGs in support. I am not modeling the Regimental level since I have some from the Battalion.

Motorized Anti-Tank Company
Apparently there were more anti-tank guns at the Regimental level as well. Possibly twelve of these weapons in the company. Again, these are modeled at the battalion level.

Line Infantry Company

Line Infantry Company Headquarters

The line company lacks any motor transport. It closely maps to the Motorized company in that it has the two squads and four MMG teams. Since they are the same infantry figures, they are in the same shape. What is added is the Company supply wagon. This is obviously barely glued together at this point without even primer on it. While it is not something you would see at the front lines, I think it could be useful in some games. Especially with a company that is ambushed or an enemy penetration back to a more rear area.Line Infantry Platoons 1-3
Rather than subject you to the same pictures above, you can see that the platoons are complete but lack some base work. The infantry for a line/foot company are actually more complete as they have their single lmg ready.

Battalion Support
The Line infantry Battalion had a Heavy Weapons or Machine Gun Company for its support.

Machine Gun CompanyThis formation had two elements: a Mortar Platoon and two or three MMG Platoons. The mortar platoon was made up of six 81mm mortars. These will not be deployed on the table. Instead we can add a forward Observer model to the table to call in the shots or have the Company Commander and his radio operator take care of this task.

But since I have a picture of my Forward Observers, by golly I am going to include them. :) The figures are Old Glory, I think.

The MMG Platoons had four MMG teams, giving the company between 8 to 12 of these weapons. This would provide significant punch to the infantry especially if the company level assets were truly present. I wonder if the company level assets are in some cases incorrectly allocated Battalion level assets.

Battalion Supports
The ....Regimental Support Elements
Bicycle Recon Troops
I am not sure these are actually Regimental supports. Dr Leo's site shows a motorcycle platoon at the Divisional level. Given the less than powered nature of most of the division, doubtless the Germans would have deployed bicycle troops at some point. I have no idea of who makes these or I would have bought some more. I got these in that bulk Bartertown deal. I just think they are very clever little models. The basing is incomplete. The paint job is just as I had bought them.

The basing needs to be finished. But these are fun troops that I am determined to get on the table in 2011. I just wish I had a whole platoon of them.

******************************

German Army Circa 1941

Motorized Infantry Company

Motorized Infantry Company Headquarters

The 1941 version of the Company Headquarters drops the machine-gun teams from the headquarters and is reduced to just one squad. It still needs a second LMG team to round it out but it is closer to ready than its earlier incarnation as it does not need the extra trucks! It also has a sniper as part of the headquarters and a radio operator. All of the figures are Old Glory. The radio operator might be a QRF figure. Motorized Infantry Platoons 1-3
Again, these are identical to the ones above. The force only changes in that it drops the light mortar team from its organization.Motorized Support Platoon

Ah, there the MMG teams are. The MMG teams are Battlefront and possibly an Old Glory one in there. The Support Platoon also has a Mortar Squad with two 81mm Mortars for a stronger punch than the platoon based 50mm mortars that the 1940 version had. What is missing is the Motor Transport for these guys. Ugh! Anyone have some Early War German trucks in 15mm they don't have a use for? It seems that I need them.

Battalion Support
Battalion MG Company
This formation had two elements: a Mortar Platoon and two MMG Platoons. The mortar platoon was made up of six 81mm mortars. These will not be deployed on the table. Instead we can add a forward Observer model to the table to call in the shots or have the Company Commander and his radio operator take care of this task.

But since I have a picture of my Forward Observers, by golly I am going to include them. :)

The MMG Platoons had four MMG teams, giving the company 8 of these weapons. This *********************************

At this point, the pictures taper off until we get to the Battalion/Regimental/Divisional Support Elements and the armor.

Line Infantry Company

Company Headquarters
The line companies maintained two squads in their order of battle. They also added a pair or ATR teams to the mix. Here is a question for the reader, how many wagons would the Germans have for an infantry company? Just one or would there be one per platoon? Just curious. Also gone are the MMG teams. The Company has no MMG support. These are now allocated at the Battalion level. This is a significantly leaner formation that advanced across the wide steppes of the Ukraine than had trod across France.

Infantry Platoon 1-3
The foot Infantry are nearly the same. Each platoon carries with it the 50mm mortar that its motorized fellows have discarded. The ATR teams have disappeared from the platoon and the four squads of 8 men each are maintained.Line Battalion Support
The battalion supports for the Line infantry were critical assets as the company lacked the fighting punch of the earlier incarnation.

Battalion MG Company
This formation had two elements: a Mortar Platoon and three MMG Platoons. The mortar platoon was made up of six 81mm mortars. These will not be deployed on the table. Instead we can add a forward Observer model to the table to call in the shots or have the Company Commander and his radio operator take care of this task. I won't include the same picture again.

The MMG Platoons had four MMG teams, giving the company 12 of these weapons. This would provide significant punch to the infantry. Obviously any one company in the field would only see a fraction of these troops. But even if divided evenly, that still provided a full platoon per company if allocated that way.

German Early War Armor: 1940-1941(2)

Rather than place the armor into an order of battle the way I have with the infantry, this is a much more adhoc approach just detailing what figures that I have available.

Panzer I bef
The early war command vehicle. I have several of these for some odd reason. I am not sure where they all came from. I think I have a three pack from Old Glory plus another odd one or so.

These are fun vehicles. By that I mean they can easily be brewed up by most things available on the table. From Anti-Tank Rifles to the light British 2-pounders. I don't think that you would really have more than one of these guys in an entire company. Yet, I have three....

Panzer I mk ???
My tank recognition skills have left me. I am not sure which mark of the Panzer I that I have. Help anyone? I am also not sure of the manufacturer. They are resin and might be Gamdols miniatures.

These are great fun. They pose a threat to infantry but it is an example of not learning the lesson of the previous war. They suffered against Russian T-26s in the Spanish Civil War but they were still fielded in numbers even in Russia.

Panzer II mk F
The Panzer IIs that I have are from a couple of sources. I got one in the bulk lot I bought on Bartertown. That is the one that is based. Three are Old Glory tanks and another is a Battlefront mini. At least I am pretty sure that is what they are.

I think these are the Mark F tanks that saw service in Russia and possibly France. My tank recognition skills are lacking today.

Panzer III mk E
Finally some decent early war armor. If I am right (and I may not be) this is the earlier E variant. Again there should be three Old Glory vehicles and one that came from a Bartertown purchase of unknown manufacturer. I don't like basing vehicles. Especially with such a thick base. But I just have not had the heart to attempt to remove it as I would doubtlessly wreck the thing.

There is something about the Panzer III that I really like. I am not sure what it is. But to me, it just seems to be the tank I think of when I think of German tanks. It lacks the cool factor of the late war heavy's but I don't think the average infantryman in the field saw many of those. Now a PzIII would probably have been a much more common sight to the poor guy with a rifle.

Panzer III Mk F or G?
My second set of panzer IIIs for the early war period. These would probably last into the mid war period (1942 & 1943) as well. Not sure which mark these are. I think both vehicles are Battlefront minis as the commanders look like their work.

I received these as part of a lot from a Lardy in California. I finished off the commanders. They came with the antennas on them. I like the look of the antennas. Normally, I would only have one vehicle with a commander with his head popped out but the vehicles came painted this way and I was not about to modify it. At some point, I would like to get a few more of these. The addition of the box thing in the back of the turret (I know ya'll love it when I talk all technical like this) added something to the look of the tank. I like it. I am sure its military purpose was much more significant than looking cool.

Panzer IV mk B
For some reason, I really hate the look of the early Panzer IVs. That short stubby barrel just looks like someone ran around and broke the thing off. It is the tank I feel sorry for when it is on the table.

Three of these I picked up in an online purchase (maybe that Bartertown one, I am not sure). The other two are Battlefront (actually I think they all are). I painted the front two. I did not add the balkenkreuz to them like I did with some of the other tanks I painted. Actually, I don't think I ever even finished painting the treads. This is just a tank I don't like and it suffers because of it. I need to get over that and finish these out.

Panzer 35(t)
These little tanks made up for the lack of tanks that the expanding German army had at the beginning of the war. Taking in some 200+ of these from Czechoslovakia in 1939, they served from 1939 through 1941 and beyond.

These are a neat looking little tanks. All of these were picked up from Bartertown. Not sure if it was in that bulk buy or not. No clue as to the manufacturer. Might be Quality Castings. These were bought painted. I like them.

SiG 33B
Nothing says good morning like self propelled artillery. These are both Quality Castings miniatures. The vehicle is great for urban scenarios when you just really need to knock down a building.

Again they only have a basic coat of paint. No markings or even tread details. I will get around to fixing that at some point. I just don't like to paint vehicles. Hopefully airing my dirty laundry like this will force me to go back and touch these up so I can replace the picture if nothing else.

PanzerJager I
Well, at least I think these guys are all Pzjager Is. There are definitely two different manufacturers. I have no idea which is what. The lighter colored one was purchased painted. The other two are mine. Again only the most basic paint on these and the treads need to be done.

'Surprisingly I have nothing against these. I think they were the best thing that could have been done to the old Panzer Is in their inventory.

Stug III
I think these are both Battlefront models. The unbased one is the one I painted up and the based one was bought that way. This is another one of those vehicles I think of when I think of German armor. Here the short stubby barrel does not bother me for some reason. It just looks the business to me.

Sdkfz 221 and 222
The Germans could make some nice looking armored cars. These probably should be up above in some Motorized units support elements but I am too lazy to figure out where at the moment. I will move it around at some point.

These are from an Old Glory Pack. They are some of my favorite vehicles and yet, I don't think they have seen a table top more than once or twice. I painted these up a while back.

======================================================================

Well that is my early war Germans. Please tell me what you think. I would appreciate any tips. If you suggest any colors to use, please mention the actual paint color as I don't do colors to well being partially color blind. (That is also my excuse for crummy painting) If you have any suggestions, comments or observations, I welcome them.

A Vain Attempt to Organize

2011-12-18T17:42:00.001-08:00

Well I have decided that I will be doing a series of posts on the lead pile that I have to attempt to sort our what is complete and what work is left to do. I will be placing these in the Miniature Collection tab at the top of the site.

These posts will be ongoing and will be updated as progress is made. Hopefully this will serve and an encouragement to complete some projects rather than overwhelm with what is left to finish.

East Front Italians

2011-12-15T10:08:00.000-08:00

I have started to complete out my IABSM Infantry company of East Front Italians in 15mm. I have a platoon ready to go but I need another two platoons. One thing that I have been wondering was the use of the 20mm Solothrun Anti-Tank Rifle by the Italians in the East Front in 1941. I have not found any references as to its use in the history of the 80th Infantry Regiment so far. As such, I am thinking that they may not have had them.

Does anyone have any information that would show if they were there? In my searches, I did find some interesting things. One was that the 100mm artillery that the Italians had seemed to be an effective anti-tank gun. The WWII In Color forum had a picture of the damage to a turret of a T34 caused by one. It is below but I do not know who to give credit to for the picture.

Without the ATR, the infantry really does not have a decent AT weapon without their artillery being deployed rather close to the fighting. It would be good to find out if they were used that early in the Ukraine. Apparently the Hungarians used the Solothrun and they operated close by the Italian units.

Anyway, the supplement for the Italians is shaping up. It has a title, "For the Glory of Rome" which comes from the praise that the Colonel of the 80th Roma Regiment gave to his men after one of their first battles on the Eastern Front. The first scenario is done and the outline for four others are done as well. Well, back to work.

An Early Christmas: Expansion of the Italian Navy

2011-12-08T18:32:00.001-08:00

Well I just received a beautiful new ship model in the mail from master sculptor Chas Emerson. It is a model of the gunship Porto Corsini. It is a beautiful model that came prepainted! YEA!

The Porto Corsini was one of several small vessels that were part of the Italian fleet in East Africa during WWII. It began its life as a Japanese fishing vessel, the Fumi Maru. Having some 280 tons displacement, it was launched in 1912. The Italians purchased her in 1917. The Porto Corsini had a top speed of 9 knots, carried a complement of 24 and was armed with two 3-inch anti-aircraft guns (76/40) and a pair of machine guns. Initially taken on as a minelayer, by 1921 she was converted to a gunboat.

Following the Italian collapse in East Africa, the Porto Corsini was captured intact in 1941 and taken into British service as the HMS General Platt. In the post war it became a lighthouse tender.

Looking around the internet, there are plenty of ships in 1:1250 scale. The WWII Italian navy is well represented in terms of coastal vessels. Lots of MAS boats and other torpedo boats were available and some destroyers and larger ships. What I was looking for are some of the other ships that were commonly used. After working on an IABSM supplement for East Africa, I had a complete naval order of battle for the Regia Marina in East Africa. Looking through it several ships stood out as interesting vessels. The first was the Eritrea, a colonial ship. Models exist of this ship but are rather expensive. Next were the Torpedo boats Giovanni Acerbi and Vincenzo Giordano Orsini. I found these ships as well. Again they are available but expensive as well. The Porto Corsini stood out as something that I would like to have.

Searching the internet did not show anything even close. What I did find was Chas. After an email exchange, he agreed to make a model of the ship for me. Through the process he sent me pictures of the ship as he was creating it.

The picture above is what Chas sent as he was creating it. Well the final product arrived today and it looks fantastic.

Chas has a company KS models. product designer for Airfx and then moved into architectural and engineering modelmaking. I am now semi-retired in my 60s and I have started producing these 1250 scale models partly as hobby and partly income. At the time he began to create the Porto Corsini he had five ships: Skandi Falcon UT 705 (red), North Vanguard UT 705 (blue), Bourbon Liberty 200 (green).

To contact Chas, send him an e-mail at kimberleystudio@btinternet.com.

AAR: Captain Dillman's Pickets

2011-12-05T11:26:00.001-08:00

Saturday evening I was able to get another Terrible Sharp Sword game in. I played the scenario "Scenario 2 – Bailey’s Corners – August 28-30, 1861" from my The Coming Thunder supplement. (See the for sale page above) This is a small scenario with just infantry on the table. Unfortunately, I had to play rather late at night so I was getting pretty sleepy by the time I finished.

I had spent a few hours making some cards up for the game. Here is what I came up with:

If anyone wants these cards, they can download them from the two links below. They are in the Quick Cards format. The demo version of this app can be downloaded at http://plaincards.com.It is a useful little program to make your own cards with.Main Cards and Bonus Deck.

The table looked rather weak as I could not find the two story house that I had painted. It seemed to have vanished somewhere. Next, I only had a few inches of snake rail fencing and needed several feet of the stuff. I improvised by placing small wooden dowels on the table where they should be.

The layout does not call for livestock but what is a farm without animals.

The Union troops begin the game with only two groups on the table watching a small farm. I deployed one group, with Captain Dillman, in a house as a hidden blind. The other group with another Big Man was deployed in a field across the road. Their reserves were deployed off table and available via the Blank Card/Reinforcement Card once shooting began.

I used regular envelopes for the blinds as I was too lazy to make any.

The Confederate forces entered on blinds at the first turn. The force was divided in half with the Captain leading half of the force and two low grade big men leading the other half. The Confederate Captain moved up the road while the other half moved through some corn fields towards the farm buildings.

The first turn ended with the Confederates moving steadily forward. They spotted the Union troops in the field ahead of them. The Yankees initially failed to spot anyone. The opening of the second turn had the Yankees spotting the Confederate Captain's force while it was still deployed in Column. Taking advantage of a great target, the group opened fire. This lone group of Union troops proved to be the fiercest group on the table. They inflicted four of the five casualties suffered by the Confederates. This did two things. First it added the reinforcement card to the deck and prompted Captain Dillman to move his command out of the house to see what was happening.

For the next few turns, the Confederate Captain kept attempting to deploy his troops to a line formation.The other half of the Confederate Company had much better luck. They moved to a fence line and promptly spotted Captain Dillman and his group. At this point, a random event was rolled and a herd of sheep went rampaging through Captain Dillman's troops.

With three groups, they opened fire on Captain Dillman's group using a Crashing Volley card. Captain Dillman suffered a light wound and his men lost one dead. They also took on some 18 points of shock what effectively routed them off of the table.

Around the start of turn 4, the Union reinforcements arrived.

Finally, the Confederate captain was able to deploy his men to a line. They held their fire waiting on a better shot.

The Union reinforcements were also able to deploy to a line. I was very sleepy at this point and lost the ability to count. The Union ended up with seven group in the reinforcements instead of six. Through an excellent run of cards, the Confederates had the first shot at the Union line.

And the second shot by the second half of the Confederates against the Union flank. Again, they were able to play a Crashing Volley card. In total an additional five Union soldiers fell but the shock taken by the force, even distributed among the various group in the large line formation were staggering. The formation broke and retreated off the table giving the Confederate forces the field.

It was a very fun game that was quickly played to conclusion.

Distractions and Diversions: Or What I am doing instead of completing what I started

2011-11-30T07:07:00.001-08:00

Once again, I have drifted off from my hobby to do list and ventured into something different. Since the release of The Coming Thunder, I have been aimlessly drifting between projects. A little work here, a little work there but nothing coming close to completion. Then I found myself on the most dangerous of websites - Google.

Taking a few minutes, I wondered, "Hey, what happened during the Civil War in my county (Gwinnett)." A quick Google search came up with the answer - not much. There was one action that occurred at the very edge of the county near a small town call Jug Tavern.(August 2, 1864) The name of the town alone caught my attention. But how big was this fight? Since it was a part of the overall Battle for Atlanta in 1864, surely it is WAY too big to game with Terrible Sharp Sword, right? Not entirely.

It seems that this battle took place following the dispersion of General Stoneman's force following his defeat outside of Macon. A Brigade of Cavalry under the command of Colonel Horace Capron was fleeing around Atlanta with Colonel Adams Brigade of cavalry. The two got separated in an attempt at attacking Athens. Capron had a local guide who led him astray. Capron's men raided the small town of Jug Tavern (now Winder, Georgia) and moved on to a spot called King's Tanyard to stop for the night.

So far, it looks too big. Capron's men included the 14th Illinois Cavalry, the 8th Michigan Cavalry and McLaughlin's Independent Ohio Cavalry Squadron. Plus they had some remnants from the 6th Indiana Cavalry Regiment with them. All had fled the Battle of Sunshine Church where General Stoneman was captured.

This seems like a huge force for a skirmish game. But how many men were in it? Well, the 8th Michigan had hacked their way through Confederate lines to escape from Sunshine Church.(Sunshine Church. Not really a name you would associate with battle is it.) They were down to 70 men lead by Major Buck. Colonel Capron's was not only the Brigade Commander but the regimental commander of the 14th Illinois Cavalry who numbered some 300 men on the 31st of July. The 6th Indiana cavalry had an additional 350 men or so. This gives Capron's force a total of about 720 men or there about. This is WAY to many figures to paint in 15mm and I am too lazy to even paint that many in 6mm. Things do not look good for a scenario here.

The Confederates that engaged them were another Brigade of cavalry under Breckinridge that had been pursuing them since Sunshine Church.(Each time I read this, I picture a brightly painted structure with a big yellow sun painted on the side with a smiley face and a large children's playground to the side. Not a site of blood and slaughter. But I guess that is just me.) He had the 1st Kentucky Mounted Infantry (I think. They may have been true cavalry), the 16th Georgia cavalry and Major Cook's Armory Battalion Cavalry.

But wait, there is hope!

From the description of the action, it seems that only about a company of the Confederates engaged Capron's Brigade. A company! That is doable. But wait, why would about 50 to 100 guys charge 700+ men? That seems suicidal? Well, it seems that the Confederates found the napping Yankees after they finished pillaging the town. They charged through a large group of camp followers and escaped slaves and made a huge noise that panicked the bulk of Capron's force. It seems that in their haste to flee, the stormed across a nearby bridge that collapsed dropping many into the river to drown. A small group did mount and form a line and engage the Confederates. In this smaller action, the Confederates beat those that chose to stand. Over the next day, hundreds of troops were captured and taken to the University of Georgia as prisoners. Capron, his son and five others walked back to Marietta four days later. Capron fled at first noise and hid in a ditch with his son. It seems he was not in command of those that stood and fought.

William Tecumseh Sherman with typical aplomb, wired Washington after their arrival stating, "On the whole the cavalry raid was not deemed a success." Sherman is normally a name, that as a resident of Georgia, I am not permitted to say without surrounding it with appropriate profanity has earned a little more merit in my eyes with that dry humor. However, Capron must have had some friends in high places as he was again given a new command almost immediately even though he lost his entire command and fled from battle not once but twice!

I think I can make a good scenario out of this action. Stay tuned for it and an associated action at barber's Creek.

The Coming Thunder: Opps

2011-11-26T11:53:00.001-08:00

I had it pointed out to me that the Campaign section was... well, missing something. He was absolutely correct. I have now corrected that mistake. I am making this available as a download from right here.

This now has options for Not only the Confederate forces but Union forces as well. Numbers of troops available for the artillery batteries are also present. Also starting troop ratings are present for each company type.

The Union troops are all based on troops that fought in the area throughout the time. While the New Jersey troops were technically in reserve, they did participate in several actions in the area of the Peach Orchard Battle that occurred along the Taylor's Tavern, Munson Hill, Mason's Hill and Falls Church line. The Union Cavalry, while not a New York or New Jersey unit was split up in penny packets (as was typical Union practice at the time) and two companies served with the New Jersey regiments.

Please take a look. This replaces the last few pages of The Coming Thunder.

French & Indian War AAR: Caravan to William Henry

2011-11-20T16:18:00.001-08:00

Many of my readers may remember that a few weeks ago I posted about a discovery of two separate documents relating to a battle during the French and Indian War. (Click here for the reference) I received many e-mails asking for more information about the battle and the prominent men featured in the action. After searching online and library sources I have finally found a reference to a few of these men. In particular, I found an early reference to Sergeant Duncan Kelley. This reference also contains mention of Jerome Long Tree, the Indian chief from the Abenaki Indians.

The reference was found in the memoirs of Captain Blaine Downs. It seems that this was an unpublished memoir that he wrote some years after the war but before the Revolutionary war. It is unclear as to the exact year he wrote the memoir but Captain Downs had left the Colony of New York and moved to Scotland by this time. The details of the events must have been blurred over the years but his account of the action is quite interesting.

His account begins as follows. "It was two years before the beginning of the war that I had joined the county militia. I was elected Lieutenant for our company. Militia service was one of the best times of my life. Our unit was far less martial and far more social. Most of our musters took place in the local tavern than on any parade field. As the Provincial units were being assembled in the year before the war, I was offered a commission with the Provincial unit as a captain of infantry. I was told my experience as a militia officer was valuable."

Given this background the following report of the battle that follows is slightly more clear. Captain Downs continued with his description of the training that they underwent. It seems that despite his lack of military efficiency, his battalion officer was an energetic officer and managed to teach the rudiments of drill to the company. We will skip on to the interesting bits.

"It was in the first year of the war, prior to the fall of Fort William Henry. My company was selected to escort a party of civilians and some essential military stores forward to Fort William Henry. From the edge of civilization it was over 14 miles through the darkest wilderness to the fort. It is no wonder that we could not hold the place."

"It was before our departure that I had the dubious honor of meeting Sergeant Duncan Kelley of the Rangers. The Rangers at this time were not the most military of units. None of Kelley's men had uniforms. Yet these backwoodsmen were reputed to be among the best troops when engaging the Indian in his natural habitat. I was not to find this to be the case. Kelley, a mere sergeant, accosted me before we left and informed me that he was related to my new ensign. Now I believe his name was Moss. Yes, Tyler Moss. The lad was not yet fifteen years in this world and his father had purchased his ensign's commission. The boy was worthless. Yet he was some kind of cater cousin to this Kelley who appeared to be fond of the boy. I was actually threatened by him to ensure that nothing would happen to him. Well, I informed him that my duty was to my King and my orders were to supply the fort and not play nursemaid to some pimply boy who had no business being an officer. I do not think this was a stellar beginning to our professional relationship."

"The trees were absolutely stunning as it was a crisp fall day. We approached the river we had to ford in order to reach the fort. We were still miles from the fort. The Rangers were no where in sight. I was told that if I could not see the Rangers, then they were doing their job. Needless to say, I was skeptical."

"I had deployed my small company with two thirds of the men at the head of the column and the remaining third in the rear under the capable command of Sergeant Mike Iggluden. The man was huge. A giant of a fellow. Just the thing to lead when under the guns of the enemy. Had to have come from some kind of foreign stock with a break teeth last name like that. The men took to calling him Sergeant Iggy. I could not disapprove as I could not pronounce that name either. I placed Moss with the men to for fore and myself directly behind the leading group. Behind myself was two cannon and their limbers, two ammunition wagons and many civilians. Also a strange Mohawk warrior was with us. A dour individual that barely spoke a word the entire trip."

"We had barely advanced far enough to have the river in sight when the woods to either side of the road erupted in gunfire. It was quite alarming. Reacting quickly, I placed the lead units in a line and halted the caravan. In addition, I called Sergeant Iggy and his men forward. As the gun fire continued to either side of the road, I decided to utilize the assets that we had. I ordered one of the guns to be unlimbered and brought forward. Being unfamiliar with artillery, we had a gun crew with us as part of the caravan. They rushed forward to get the gun into action."

"I was to learn several days later that the fight on the right hand side of the road went very poorly for the Rangers. It seems that they had stumbled upon an Indian and French Marine ambush on both sides of the road. Hopelessly outnumbered, the Rangers on the right were routed. However, most of those men survived the action. I was assured that they stood and fought for as long as they could but one has to wonder given their extraordinarily light butchers bill. I believe that the group on the right only lost one man of the twelve."

"Kelley, I was to later learn, led another group of twelve men on the left hand side of the road. His men fought on much longer than those on the right. But they too were repulsed. Kelley himself stayed to fight even though his men had fled the field, or so I have been told. I did hear the odd pop of a musket from the left apart from the shooting from the French and Indians."

"My men were engaged from the right hand side of the road by a large party of Indians. In their first volley, the Indians cut loose with a ferocious war cry that turned our bowels to water. Their musketry left much to be desired but one round did happen to find the young Mr Moss. The Ensign was struck between the eyes with a single shot and dropped dead at my feet. Not one man in the formation he was with even noticed the loss of the boy. My drummer was shaking in his boots yet he stood beside me throughout the entire fusillade."

"Our men fired back into the woods but not one man saw an Indian fall. Sergeant Iggy was able to get his men in a line on our left. The gunners were struggling to get the artillery into position. It seemed to take forever to move the gun and each second that ticked away cost my men their lives."

"Half of the men on the right had fired so much that their barrels were fouled and fighting was no longer an option. The other half had lost four men. Neither group could remain in the line and began to flee to the rear regardless of the encouragement and threats shouted at them. I ordered Sergeant Iggy to fall back but he was so involved in the firefight with the Indians to his front that he could not move. Finally, the gun was in position and loaded. A beautiful target presented itself. The French Marines formed a line near the road that was directly in line with the gun. We promptly fired on this target before it moved and we saw several men fall."

"The civilians had fled back down the road. Most of my command had fled as well. I was able to save Sergeant Iggy and his men and pull them back from the engagement. Unable to save the guns, I ordered them spiked and we set the ammunition carts alight as we fled the field. I was to later learn that the only Indians killed in this action were those that perished when the ammunition carts detonated. A French Marine officer that was captured two years later spoke to me of the skirmish. It seems that he was present at the time. The Indians rushed the ammunition carts looking for loot when the carts exploded. Three of the savages simply disappeared. So there was no bodies to be found. The French officer informed me that the Indians were lead by some fellow named Jerome Long Tree. A fierce individual that proved a terror to the settlers in the wilds of New York for years to come."

"The outcome of this embarrassing episode was that I was posted to a provincial unit guarding an island in New York harbor for the next year."

==============================================================================

Saturday I had the privileged to play one of Mark's French and Indian War games. I commanded the Provincial unit and led them to ignominious defeat. The game was great fun even though my Captain's card seemed to cling to the bottom of the chip bag as if it were glued there. The player commanding the Rangers by pure luck destroyed the carefully planned ambush set up by the Indian and French players. However, his forces being so split had no real chance to win the fight against the Superior numbers of French and Indians.

Mark has more images of the game on his Flicker site. It was great fun. Sergeant Kelley attempted to use his Longue Carbine ability several times but failed to hit both times. The Rangers and Provincial troops could not buy good die rolls. The French rolled very well but the casualties were very light. Mostly alarming amounts of shock were accumulated that led to both units of Rangers breaking and nearly all three groups of Provincials breaking. I look forward to the next game in this series.

The Coming Thunder: Scenarios for Terrible Sharp Sword

2011-11-16T13:22:00.001-08:00

I have finished the supplement for the Too Fat Lardies Rules: Terrible Sharp Sword. There are 17 scenarios plus a campaign background to use with the campaign generator that comes with the rules. The scenarios are all from the first year of the war as is the campaign generator.

The campaign generator is focused on the "Battle of the Peach Orchard" in the Fall of 1861. The battle was no one battle but a series of linked skirmishes that occurred across numerous orchards of peaches in Northern Virginia. It is an entertaining piece of history as the skirmishes had basically come to a stop once the troops had picked the peach trees clean of fruit.
The scenarios cover the following skirmishes:
1) The Battle of Fairfax Courthouse - June 1, 1861
2) Ball's Crossroads - August 27, 1861
3) Bailey's Corners - August 28 - 30, 1861
4) Munson's Hill - August 31, 1861
5) Lewinsville Part 1 - September 10, 1861
6) Lewinsville Part 2 - September 10, 1861
7) Lewinsville - September 11, 1861
8) Lewinsville - September 25, 1861
9) Munson's Hill - September 28, 1861
10) Springfield Station - October 3, 1861
11) Little River Turnpike - October 15, 1861
12) Doolan's Farm - November 16, 1861
13) A Running Skirmish - November 18, 1861 (on the Fairfax Courthouse road)
14) Hunter's Mill - November 26, 1861
15) Dranesville - November 26, 1861
16) Falls Church - November 27, 1861
17) Annandale - December 2, 1861

All of these occur in a relatively small area of northern Virginia involving many of the same units. I am selling this for $10.00. Just send the money via Paypal to my cstoesen@corecard.com address and I will send you the PDF. The PDF is just over 3MB in size. I can split the file if needed.
*** Update ***
Just a reminder, I have Rich's permission to use the Terrible Sharp Sword name and though published by me, it has his approval.
******Update 11/21/2011*******
I had a request for a sample of the scenario pack for folks to see what they would get. Click the link below for a sample from the document including the table of contents and most of a scenario.
Download Sample file
******Update 12/21/2011*******
I have created an errata page for a couple of other issues that have been pointed out. You can download the errata here:

Italians in the East: Pokrowskoje

2011-11-10T13:55:00.000-08:00

I stumbled across a very interesting site: http://www.wwii-photos-maps.com. This has both Soviet and Pre-War German maps of Eastern Europe. I was able to find a 1:50,000 scale maps of the first two battles fought by the Italians in Russia.

The map above is taken from the map L36-16C from that site. In addition to that, I have finally been able to translate some of the Regimental history that I have for the 80 Roma Regiment. The regiment was mounted using the all truck transport allotted to the Pausubio Division and the Torino Division. This enabled them to keep the timetable set for them to move from Voznesensk toward the port town of Nikolaiev. The terrain was very difficult with the roads nearly dissolved in the rain and the constant threat of a Russian attack from the rear guard troops.August 11, 1941 - The Battle for PokrowskojeThe Battle for Pokrowskoje was begun when elements of the 1st Bersaglieri Motorcycle Company was performing a reconnaissance of the town. From the descriptions that I have found of this reconnaissance, it appears that it is possible that only one rider was forward rather than the whole company. Bersaglieri Alfredo Santino Lutri and his riding partner were leading the reconnaissance element when they triggered an ambush by the Russians. Apparently, his partner (Germano Narduzzi) was hit early on in the ambush. According to his medal citation, Lutri, continued his mission and returned back to his company commander to report his findings even though he himself was wounded. He insisted that Narduzzi was seen to before he had his wounds examined. While brave, it ultimately led to his own death. His actions provided vital intelligence to the Pausubio Division as it advanced on the town of Pokrowskoje. His actions of putting his wounded partner first sealed his fate and earned the young man the first Gold Bravery Military Medal of the war in Russia.Interestingly, Lutri's remains had been buried in an Italian Military graveyard in the Ukraine for 60 years. In 2001, as part of the improving relationship with the Ukraine and Italy, many of the Italian dead have been brought back to Italy. Lutri's body was one of those returned. As part of the remembrance ceremonies, a play was written to celebrate the man's life and his selfless actions on his final day.Once the information was relayed back to the Colonel Epifanio Chiaramonti, of the 80th Roma Regiment, the 3rd Battalion of Major Minchiotti was dispatched to deal with the Russian rear guard. He was reinforced with the 75mm/27 artillery from the 3rd Battalion/8th Artillery Regiment (Pausubio Division), the battery of the 80th Regiment's 65mm/17 artillery and the Bersaglieri Motorcycle Company. The description from Armando Rati's "L'80° Fanteria. La lunga Storia Eroica di un Reggimento Mantovano Diventata Leggenda" does not mention the presence of the 141st Anti-Tank Company. Other sources do mention the presence of the 141st at this first encounter. Rati does mention that they were approached by seven Russian tanks that were driven off by the guns of Captain Caranci. It is unsure if Captain Caranci is from the 141st Anti-Tank company or the battery commander the Divisional 75mm guns. It is not likely that he is the battery commander of the 65mm guns from the Regiment as his name does not appear on the officer roll presented by Rati in his book. I need to search for this name earlier in the book to see if I can find out more.This (Rati's) is the only account of this battle where the Russian tanks are mentioned. Most record the battle of Jasnaja Poljana as where Russian tanks appear. Instead Rati mentions the presence of Russian Armored Cars at the later battle and no Tanks. One other interesting tidbit from this all to brief account of the battle, Rati mentions that the Battalion was lead by its scouts (esploratori). Some wondering of what such a unit was, I went to http://www.bayonetstrength.150m.com for some answers. They list the scouts as consisting of 1 Officer and 42 men. The best guess of this unit was that it was divided into three large squads of 14 men each. It does not appear that these men had any kind of support weapons such as a light machine-gun. This presents an interesting unit to attempt to field on the table top. Rati's book contains a nice picture of Italian troops clearing the town of Pokrowskoje on page 72.

The end result of this first battle was the loss of 2 men killed and another three wounded for the Italians. As to Russian losses, this is completely unknown. Rati mentions that many corpses were found the next day and that the enemy fell back to Jasnaja Poljana, the sight of the 80th Roma's second battle. Given this, it is possible to make a guess that the unit fought on the 11th was 469th Rifle Regiment. One of the few accounts where the Russian unit that was fought has been made clear.I will be making a series of scenarios using this information. Another interesting source that I found was the diary of a medical orderly from the Pausubio Division (http://www.maserada.com/pasubio.htm). He notes that the first action of the division took place in a field of sunflowers. Rati places Jasnaja Poljana as a battle field that was between wheat and sunflower fields. The map at the top shows field boundaries. It is quite possible that both battles took place mostly outside of the towns themselves. I am trying to figure out if I will be making this into a scenario booklet through the TFL's or just releasing bits and pieces out in Specials or attempting to publish it myself.

Tinkering with Terrain

2011-11-07T08:58:00.000-08:00

What little hobby time there was this weekend, I was able to make a few small terrain pieces. I need more trees. So I started with this in mind. I began to create a small orchard, a small wooded area and an open field. I began each of them with a section of fiber board (have no clue of the name of the stuff anymore. It is the fiberglass board that they make computer motherboards with). Then I glued the bases of the Woodland Scenics trees to it. Then covered the whole mess with a mixture of Elmers glue, sand and small fine rocks - all mixed together. Once that dried overnight, I painted the result with a Woodland Scenics ground paint. and flocked it. The small stand of trees came out quite nicely.

~~The orchard still has work as I did not have a chance to finish out the trees.~~ I just finished the orchard out last night. The Raw Ochre Woodland Scenics paint, when dry, left some of the sand from the glue mixture a lighter sand color than I wanted. I repainted those areas. It came out better than I expected.

The field is also not done. Here I was experimenting with a scenic kit that I had purchased. I had some standing grass that I attempted to use. That was a miserable failure. I ripped that up and glued a bush over the attempt. I will add some more bushes on it later. It is supposed to be a spot of rough ground with a path. The rough ground was finished out with an additional tree.

~~The pictures came out so bad, that I will have to update this later with new ones.~~I had some time and tinkered with some trench sections that Terry had given me about 4 years ago that I had sitting in a box. I have several more pieces to work on but this was just a couple of test sections that I needed to try out.

Well, the pictures are up. Please let me know what you think and what I can do to improve them. I have several more wooded pieces that I want to do to have a decent stand of woods for my table.

Just Checking In

2011-11-01T14:45:00.000-07:00

Not much to report lately. Family and work have kept the hobby side of things to a minimum lately. Been working on furthering the Desert War Air Campaign for 1940. It is really coming together.

Books, and other things.

2011-10-24T08:16:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I posted something here. Well, work and family have kept me busy and away from my queue of painting. The Frigate is on the shelf waiting out my indecision on what to do for sails. I think I have resolved that issues and I will attempt a furled main sail in the next couple of days. In terms of writing, the Prequel to the Desert campaign is coming along rather nicely. I have found a couple of great books that have greatly helped resolve the orders of battle and what units transferred in and out of theater and when. My current favorite is "Courage Alone" by Chris Dunning. This has proven to be quite helpful, especially where non-fighter units are concerned. Lots of other places have details on fighter units. Very few have anything on bomber and reconnaissance units. Even better, it covers every theater that the Italians fought in. Not much detail on individual actions but that is not what this book is about.Two books on my inter library loan list are "Desert Prelude: Early Clashes" and "Desert Prelude: Operation Compass." Both of these are by Håkan Gustavsson and Ludovico Slongo. Håkan Gustavsson is the author of the fantastic Håkans aviation page web page. It is a must visit if you have any interest what so ever in biplanes in WWII - for any front. It is pure gold when it comes to getting good information on how biplanes were used in the war. Since the Gloster Gladiator and the CR.42 are two of my favorite all time airplanes, this is a perfect place for me. I have spent countless hours pouring over this site.Lastly, I have looked at working more on a follow up to "With Fire and Sword" for Sharp Practice. It seems about time now and I really want to get in some more Sharp Practice games in. "With Fire and Sword" Left off after Musgrove's Mill and Fishing Creek in Mid August. The next one would cover Kings Mountain and the Cowpens Campaign. I am not sure how far to go with it. I want to cover Col Elijah Clake's South Carolina actions but not his Savannah adventure. I don't think I will cover any of Francis Marion's actions and instead stick with those of Sumter.

6mm AWI Sale!

2011-10-14T19:34:00.000-07:00

Well I have been sorting through the lead pile and decided to sell some of my miniatures. I have been trying to get the motivation to finish these for years now and it just is not happening. About 10 or so years ago, I was looking for a set of AWI rules. I decided that 6mm miniatures was what I wanted. I discovered the Red Coats and Rebels rules on the web and thought they would fit the bill. Adler had just started to release their AWI lines and I jumped right in. I quickly painted a couple of stands and then, they went on a shelf. A few years later, the TooFatLardies published a special with Taxes, Tea and Tories (2006 Christmas Special). Back out the miniatures came. Another unit got painted and some Baccus AWI figures were added to the pile. Then they went back in the drawer. I have reevaluated and decided that mass battles are not really what I was looking for. Sharp Practice skirmishes are really what I have been looking to do. As such, I am selling off these figures, hopefully to a happy new home.Rebel Forces:Adler Minis (4 miniatures per strip)5 bases of six figures each (7 on the command base) - Painted, Virginia Continentals (Firing pose)5 bases of six figures each (7 on the command base) - Painted, GA Continentals (Marching and Charging Poses)7 bases of six figures each (7 on the command base) - Painted, MD Continentals (Marching and Charging Poses)3 bases of six figures each - Painted but basing work needed. Blue coated Continentals1 foot officer painted and based carrying a sword (converted figure)2 loose painted unbased figures------------------------------------------123 miniatures

11 strips of Tricorne Infantry in Marching pose on painting sticks - some primed black.2 strips of Tricorne infantry command on painting sticks - primed black5 strips of Slouch hat infantry in marching pose on painting sticks - some primed black1 strip of slouch hat command on painting sticks - primed black6 strips of slouch hat infantry in firing pose on painting sticks - some primed black.4 strips of tricorne hat infantry charging on painting sticks - some primed black.--------------96 Miniatures2 individual flag bearers in tricorne hat.1 individual slouch hat officer with sword 6 individual Tricorne hat infantry firing 4 individual slouch hat infantry firing2 individual slouch hat command figures15 individual tricorne hat infantry charging poseA few other odd assorted figures as well.-------------------------------------------> 30 Miniatures

Adler sells new at £1.95 for 8 strips of 4 (or 32 figures). Baccus Rebels10 Strips of Dragoons (3 figures per strip)5 strips of Dragoon Command (3 figures per strip)2 strips of Mounted Officers (3 figures per strip)2 guns and crew (4 crew per gun)1 painted baggage mule----------------------------62 miniatures - All unpainted and unprimedBaccus sells the dragoons at £5.50 for the 10 strips plus 5 command stripsFor the all of the figures above I am asking for $45.00 US plus whatever the shipping and handling is to your location.British ForcesBaccus AWI1 unopened pack of SBR6 - British Artillery (4 guns and 4 crew per gun)4 guns with 4 crew each on painting sticks - unprimed.3 command strips of light dragoons on painting sticks - unprimed. (3 figures per strip)6 strips of light dragoon command on painting sticks - unprimed (3 figures per strip)44 strips of Infantry on painting sticks - unprimed (4 figures per strip)8 command strips of infantry on painting sticks - unprimed (4 figures per strip) 6 strips of Grenadiers on painting sticks - unprimed (4 figures per strip) 5 strips of highlanders on painting sticks - unprimed. (4 figures per strip) 1 strip of highlander command on painting sticks - unprimed (4 figures per strip) 6 strips of Light Infantry on painting sticks - unprimed. (4 figures per strip) 3 strips of mounted officers on painting sticks - unprimed. (3 figures per strip) -------------------------------------------356 figures - All unpainted and unprimedBaccus is selling these in an army pack for £17.08. I am looking to get $20.00 US plus shipping to your location.If you are interested in any of these, please send me an e-mail - cstoesen@corecard.com to make an offer.

Scenario Background

2011-10-12T11:52:00.001-07:00

I have figured out the scenario for my next Sharp Practice game and how I will incorporate the Frigate into it. Now I just have to get time to finish the Frigate and play the scenario. For the write up, read here: http://platoonforwardstories.blogspot.com/2011/10/captains-courageous-or-light-company.html

IABSM3: The waiting is almost over

2011-10-06T14:24:00.000-07:00

Well Rich has now put up the order form to buy the latest and greatest version of IABSM. I am looking forward to getting my hands on this.Here is the question I have for everyone. Is it worth my time to update the older supplements I have written for it, mainly the Greek Supplement (1941), the East Africa Supplement - "Call this a Bloody Picnic" (1940-1941) and Rock the Casbah (1982)? Since I wrote the Greek supplement, I have come across a book on the Australians in Greece and Crete. I think it is the official history of the campaign. It was among my Dad's effects that has been sitting in a box in my garage for nearly 11 years. I was thinking of including a few new scenarios to round out the changes.

Distractions, Distractions, Distractions

2011-10-05T13:41:00.000-07:00

Well I started work revising the original Western Desert Campaign and it morphed quickly into its own stand along supplement covering June 1940 to February 14th 1941. I have plotted out no less than 30 individual historical scenarios on top of the campaign system. It is sitting at about 60% complete at the moment. The scenarios are quite expanded from those in the original and include information to run both Bag the Hun and Check Your Six games with them. I have added Altitude, a map of the board with notes on entry, cloud cover information and cards needed for scenarios (BTH) to each scenario. In all, it is a great improvement over the original. Eventually, the original will get this treatment too. Original purchasers will get the upgrade of the original for free once it is done.Oh, Look! Shiny!Then I read a post on Ray's Don't Throw a 1 blog and am now distracted to a new period entirely. I am looking at making a skirmish army in 15mm for the 3rd Prussian Regiment - Anhalt-Dessau. I have some figures from another project that went no where that it seems would fit the bill. It would be a small force to start off with. Now I am off and looking for drill information for the period with reckless abandon leaving other project to collect virtual dust.According to the some spots I found on the internet, I can use the Peter Pig Govt Figures from their pirate range for these soldiers. Which is a good thing as I have some laying around collecting real dust. I was going to do a pirate game and that never materialized. Now I have a project to use these for. Never did buy pirate figures was part of the problem. So I have the basis of an infantry unit. Now rules..... Hmmmm.... Since I have Sharp Practice, that seems a good starting point. Beyond the information on the Wikipedia page covering the Nine Years War, I really know nothing about the period. Colorful clothing. That is about it. I gather that it was pretty much the world against France for much of the fighting of this period. (Here my ignorance stands as a shining beacon of non-illumination)Oh well. Back to Google to see what I can find.

Rigging is Complete! The scenario is coming together.

2011-10-03T21:16:00.000-07:00

Well a few hours of work and the rigging is complete. The wire has received a coat of black paint and looks the part. The mesh stays do not look as bad as I had feared they would. I wish I could have gotten them tighter but that just was not going to happen.

I started cutting sails from the cloth provided. I was starting with the fore mast sails when I realized that the look I was going for would require me to gather the sail in to represent them furled. The cloth was very heavy and just did not look right nor would it take the right shape. I think I need to get an old handkerchief and use that for the sail material. I checked around the internet to see what other manufacturers are doing for sails. Sail Power and Old Glory do not seem to use them. Thoroughbred Miniatures uses paper. I think I will try the handkerchief.

This view shows the difference in the sizes between the thread and the wire for the rigging. I took one more shot but it was blurry, so I will put it at the bottom.

Now, what on earth am I going to use this for? Well, the scenario is coming together quite nicely and will be the fourth installment of Captain Beesley and the Light Company - my Platoon Forward campaign. Stay tuned. This is getting close to being done.

AAR - La Longue Carbine (F&IW Sharp Practice)

2011-09-26T10:17:00.000-07:00

A recent discovery was made while going through my wife's family heirlooms. In the back of an old desk that was recovered from the family home place in Oxford, Georgia. Taking the desk to an appraiser to determine if there was any value to this antique revealed a secret compartment in the back of the desk where in a bundle of yellowed and faded letters were found. These turned out to be a series of correspondence of a distant relative Elihu Roberts. In addition to the letters was a surprising roll of charcoal drawings depicting scenes from Elihu's military service. These are reproduced faithfully here.

What we have discovered was that Elihu was the second generation of the family to live in the United States. Born on a frontier farm in New Hampshire, Elihu served as a Ranger during the French and Indian War. What makes the letters interesting is that they provide some colorful and insightful glimpses into the small actions that occurred in the back woods during this conflict. The only action we have discovered so far that Elihu details that an official report verifies is a brief action that took place where Elihu's Ranger Company were attempting to rescue some hostages captured by a band of hostile Abenakis Indians. The letter is dated 1756. The month and day are obscured with the age of the document.

The letter begins with a personal greeting to his wife Martha. Quickly he moves to the meat of the story. He begins with outrage at the "Damnable lies and outright falsification of facts offered by that yellow cur dog in an officer's uniform." It was this sentence that led for a search for another account of the action. It was found in the papers of Colonel Sir Bradly Pascall, then a lieutenant of Light Infantry serving on the frontier. What is fascinating is the descriptions of the skirmish read as if they were two separate actions except for the personnel referenced and the situations being identical.

What both accounts agree upon is that there were a body of captives taken by the Indians. The previous day, an unsuccessful attempt was made to secure the captives in a fight near a beaver pond. Here both accounts agree. The next day, the Rangers continue the pursuit and reach the party on the downward slope of a mountain before the Light Infantry arrive. It is here that the similarities begin to diverge. I will begin with quoting from Elihu's letter. His spelling and verbiage are maintained except for a few instances where his script is unintelligible.

From Elihu's letter, "Our Serjeant was one of the best marksmen and trackers in all of the Rangers. He was as quiet in the woods as any red injun and twice the man of any Regular we had ever met. Serjeant Duncan Kelley was acting as captain of the company and led us in pursuit of the red villains that done took them folks. We were in hot pursuit. Sending a couple of fleet footed boys ahead of the company, they fouled up the ambush ole Burning Brook had set for us. Spyin them out, Kelley had us split into two parties. He took ten men with him and Corporeal ??? took the other ten. I was with the Corporeal. Kelley took his party straight at those red devils and commenced to fire upon them. Kelley's men fired accurate and true. I personally saw several of them fall from his men's fire. Our bunch tried to move through the woods in order to catch'em up from behind."

At this point lets look at the official report of the action as filed by then Lieutenant Pascall. "In the morning the Rangers that accompanied our party moved off into the wilderness in pursuit of the savages. The Sergeant leading their number had spied a party of red skins and began to engage them from an impractical distance doing little harm other than notifying the enemy of the presence of his men."

It appears that Elihu was aware of the text of the official report and would comment on this report throughout his letter. "That no account liar was not even present when the Serjeant began to fight. We fought them from no more than 20 yards away."

Continuing his account, "We had difficulty moving through the rough ground. We had only moved about half way around them rascals when the Corporeal spotted some movement down toward the lake. Looking closely, he spotted a group of Canadian Militia in the woods. We had climbed on top of a rocky outcropping and had the drop on them Frenchies. The Corporeal ordered us to fire and it shook them mighty hard. I am pretty sure my round struck home as as saw my man fall. This put the militia into considerable confusion."

What is interesting to note is that Pascall's report does not feature the Canadien Militia at all. He only mentions the French Compaigne Franche de la Marine soldiers who came to the Indians aide. Elihu also discusses the French Marines in his letter. Their arrival was after the initial arrival of the British Light Infantry led by Pascall.

"After firing on the Frenchies, we backed down off the hill to approach the Injuns from their flank. Once we had backed down the hill, we had a good sight of the path on the other side of the Injun war party. That is when I recognized their chief - Black Brook. This was definitely the bunch we was looking for. I never did spy out the other fellow, Big Tree. Once we spotted them, they spun and turned their backs to us. We next saw what had spooked them, the Light Infantry had finally arrived. They stopped some 20 feet from Black Brook's bunch and just looked at them. It was the oddest thing. Black Brook fired into the Light Infantry but it did not appear to have any effect as the next thing you knew, the Lights got their backs up and charged. What I thought odd was that they did not fix bayonets. The one advantage they had over the savages in a fight and they did not use them. Well that decision cost them dearly. I spotted at least two red coats laying on the ground and the backs of the Lights as they ran away from Black Brooks band. Ole Black Brook seemed dazed by the exchange and did not pursue."

The account provided by Pascall differs considerably. "We burst upon the trail and spotted a large formation of the Abenakis Indians. We promptly charged into the backs of the Indians. In a fierce fight, I lost two men under my command. Given their strong position we were obliged to fall back, but not before taking a terrible toll on them. From our new position we began a murderous fire upon them. This broke them and they fled down to flee in their canoes across the lake. It was at this point that we rescued one of the captives. The man had taken the initiative and fled from the Indians as they approached the lake. From his story, I learned that the head start that Chief Jarome had was just too great. The captives had surely been taken across the lake before we even fired a shot. To continue pursuit would incur too great a loss for no chance of reward."

Elihu contends that upon being repulsed, Pascall began to fall back. "Once the Lights were compelled to fall back from loosing their fight against Big Tree, the French Marines made their appearance. The appearance of the French Marines was the straw that broke the cowardly camels back and the lobster backs began their flight away even though we were so close to rescuing the whole body of captives."

It appears that Elihu and the Rangers were not aware that Pascall's men had rescued one of the captives. They believed that the captives were just ahead at the lake shore, there to be rescued. "We watched in horror as the light infantry backed away. They left us to deal with the French and Injuns by ourselves. However, it is at this point that the most humorous event occurred. The French Marines moved to the wood line to take an advantageous position to fire on the retreating Light Infantry. When all of a sudden they fled across the path opening themselves to Serjeant Kelley's men. A bear chased them from the wood. The look of fright upon their faces caused many a man among the rangers to laugh. The beast was a scrawny hungry thing that was looking for any scrap of food to last it through the winter. The Marines sorted themselves out and detailed some men to put down the poor creature. Kelley's boys took advantage of the exposed Marines and began to pick them off. I learned from Buford that Kelly took careful aim at the French Captain and shot his hat from the man's head in a show of great marksmanship."

"Later I learned that it was not all of the Lights that were yellabellies, just their officer. Their serjeant ordered a volley fire during their retreat that took a considerable toll on the French Marines. We added our fire to their and Kelley's men. Surely it was hot work for for those Frenchmen pinned three ways on the trail."

It is important to note the differences in Pascall's claims. "Knowing that the captives were lost, we fell back along the path that we came up. We formed a line and put volley after volley into the French Marines that had come to support their fleeing Indian allies. The French Marines were shaken badly by the force of our volleys and we were able to safely make our way back to the fort."

Elihu notes that the skirmish was hardly over when they left. "The echoes of the Light Infantry muskets fades as they ran back to the fort when out of the woods, the Canadien Militia burst out upon us. We exchanged volleys briefly but both parties had enough for that day. In the fighting, our Corporeal was gravely wounded. I was one of the men who carried him from the wood back up the mountain. We lost one other man before we were able to break away. The militia turned on their heels and fled back as well. Kelley moved with great discipline backwards keeping the French Marines pinned as they pulled away. Kelley lost two good men dead in this foolishness."

===================================================================================================

I played the game on Saturday, September 24th, 2011. Mark created a whale of a scenario that the two of us played through. It was made for four players but only the two of us were available. The pictures do not show it, but the game was absolutely beautiful. Mark modeled a mountainside leading down to a lake where the Indian's canoes were waiting for them.

The game was great fun. The bear appearance was very humorous. The Indians under Black Brook fled to the lake and actually sank two of their canoes in their haste. The Indians under Jarome/Big Tree attempted to recapture one of the captives who got loose early on in the game. This prevented them from fleeing early on. Once the men returned, the Indians made their escape with 4 or 5 of their captives. Lieutenant Pascall was generally disliked by his men. As such, I made him a weasel who fled out on the Rangers when things looked tough. The Rangers did not do badly but never came close to the captives. They got stuck in a fight with the Indians first and the French Marines after them. I hope Mark publishes this one in a special or supplement of some kind as it was not only a good scenario, but great fun too.

One of these days, we need to have a games day here in Atlanta.

More Work on the Frigate

2011-09-16T09:01:00.000-07:00

Well last night I had the opportunity to work a little bit more on the Frigate. Most of the main rigging in in place. The braces still have to be done as well as deciding how to do the shrouds and backstays. The model came with a mesh that you are supposed to cut to shape and glue in place. I am tempted to just go with this. Another method would be to cut more wire and glue a multitude of those together for them. I do not think my patience can handle that. Anyway, I spent an hour on it and achieved remarkably little for the effort. I should be able to get cracking on it again this weekend. My mother-in-law has offered to babysit and my wife feels the urge to scrapbook. This could be one of those rare golden opportunities to get something done.

New Terrain has arrived!

2011-09-14T14:38:00.000-07:00

I just got my brand spanking new ruined building from Fieldworks. It is item F10 "Derelict Buildings". It is an L shaped building with one section with a removable second floor. It looks like it will be entirely compatible with the three buildings that I have from JR Miniatures. It has a base of about 7 1/4" by 6 3/4". There are no discernible air bubbles in the piece which is nice. It arrived in a much larger box and was packed extraordinarily well. I now have plenty of bubble wrap to play with.

Once unpacked it was a nice model.

Anyway, this will make a nice addition to my slowly growing collection of urban terrain.

Reassessing the Project Bin

2011-09-09T06:48:00.000-07:00

In my continuing fight with my Wargamer's Attention Deficit, I am struggling with what to work on next. The CY6 Game this past weekend has gotten me back interested in North Africa again. Inter-library loan has once again come through and I have Christopher Shores book on North Africa again. I am looking to expand the supplement I wrote with the first few desert actions leading up and through Operation Compass. Fortunately, there is some new scholarship out there concentrating on the Italians for this period. In support of this I have purchased additional Pico Armor aircraft. I picked up 9 CR.42s, 9 MC.200s and 8 SM.79s. The fighters are multi-part models which are slightly daunting but not nearly as daunting as the thought of painting them. What I have found online gives some references to the camo patterns but what I need is something more explicit. Does anyone out there have a painting guide that gives some specific paint colors and a how to on these camo patterns?At the same time I am working on scenarios for the Italians on the Eastern Front during August to December 1941. This has been fun to research but is requiring me to learn some Italians in the process. With 4 years of High School Catholic education, they never taught me any Latin. The standards dropped post Vatican 2. While it made the experience less painful at the time, I sure could have used that now.Then there is still the frigate. Boldly taunting me from my painting table. My wire cutters are nearly worn out and each wire I cut is bent at the end and needs to be straightened thus slowing the process. I will get back to this by the weekend.

AAR - Check Your Six over Greece

2011-09-06T04:34:00.001-07:00

A recently discovered document has been unearthed has been unearthed dealing with the German invasion of Greece. This document is the proceedings from a courts-martial of a Greek officer following an unusual incident. The trial an incident the striking of a superior officer after a particularly disastrous action attempting to defend the harbour facilities near Athens on the 14th of April, 1941.

"If it will please the court, in order to fully explain the events that led to the incident it is necessary to recap the several days preceding. On Thursday evening a rather spirited game of cards was held between the pilots of 24 Mira and the Captain's artillery company of Evanzone's Division. Lieutenant Milos Papadopolouis and myself won a considerable sum from the Evanzones and Captain Yannis Manos in particular. At the close of the evening, the Evanzones were unable to pay their debts and went so far as to accuse us of having cheated. Threats were issues and the implication was that if our aircraft were seen over their anti aircraft guns, we would be fair targets."

"Friday, Lieutenant Papadopolouis and myself were called upon to join elements of the British 80 Squadron and 33 Squadron."

Translators note, the section of 33 Squadron was lead by the Ace Prattle and included later Children's Author Roald Dahl. It was unclear who the pilots were from 80 Squadron but this day also would see 80 Squadron's ace Flight Lieutenant Woods would also be hot down during some aspect of this fight. It is unclear if Lieutenant Elias Stephanopolous and his wing man were witnesses to Woods demise as well. British records clearly indicate that Dahl survived the day but this record implies he was also shot down. No other sources verify this.

"We kept well clear of the guns surrounding the port facility given the threats we had received from the Captain and his men. We spotted the first four German aircraft, Bf 110s, arriving in pairs and headed directly for the port. We maneuvered to come in behind the Bf 110s while the two British sections drove straight ahead at the aircraft. As they closed, we spotted two additional German fighters arriving above us. We adjusted our course to attempt to intercept the new aircraft which were Bf109s. Our French MB 151s were far slower aircraft and we were to circle behind them."

"The air battle between the British and German fighters did not go well. One suicidal lunatic among the Bf110s rammed two British planes causing all three two eventually crash. This left only the ace Prattle in the air from 33 squadron. The 80 Squadron fellows drove straight at the lead Bf 110s but failed to shoot one down. They turned to follow the lead aircraft when the wingman of the suicidal chap began to hammer away at one of the British planes. It appeared that the Bf 110 was behind the hurricane for a full minute but did not do significant damage to shoot the plane down. This had to be the luckiest pilot that I have ever seen. Eventually he was able to loop away from the German."

"We were still closing in on the incoming Bf 109s that were following behind the Bf 110s. It is at this point that the initial German aircraft reached the anti-aircraft guns of the Evanzones. Whatever their faults, they new their business. The two initial Bf 110s flew in very low and did not present a target to the gunners until they were on top of their positions. As I learned later, one of the light guns was destroyed in the engagement. But both of the attacking planes were hit. One took numerous hits from the AA batteries and fell from the sky. However, one of the AA Batteries took a direct hit from the low flying aircraft and was destroyed."

"The Bf109s led us into the main fight with the British and German fighters. We had several shots on the Bf 109s and caused some hits but our light guns were not strong enough to damage the aircraft. 80 Squadron has similar luck and chased one of the Bf 110s from our field of view. As the battle raged on, Prattle was closed on by one of the Bf 109s and shot down. This pilot also claimed one of the fighters from 80 Squadron as well."

"At this point, we were the last remaining allied aircraft in the area. My wingman and I were flying among four enemy aircraft. The battle brought us lower and lower towards the earth. My wingman was shot down leaving me as the sole allied aircraft on the table. I pulled up and left the Germans to return home at this point."

Translators note: It is at this point the document begins to cover the cause of the courts-martial. But being that the incident is not entirely germane to our study of the air conflict over Greece in 1941 we will just summarize it here. Apparently the Evanzones sought out Lieutenant Elias Stephanopolous and began an altercation in which the battery captain challenged his courage and resolve in the fight and blamed him for the cause of the death of his men. At which point, Lt Stephanopolous resorted to fisticuffs and breaking the Captain's jaw before authorities could arrive. Little has been discovered of the combatants before or after this one incident. The document was discovered in a farmhouse outside of Athens. It seems there was a large quantity of paperwork stored at this farm that the farmer had been using for some time now to line the bottom of a chicken coop. This was one of the salvaged documents. How it came to be here, we may never know.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

This is my biased AAR of a great Check Your 6 game that I enjoyed last Sunday with Mark and James. I commanded the two Greek aircraft as well as the AA Batteries. It was great fun. Thanks Mark and James. The lighting at the new Gigabytes store is terrible and that accounts for there only being one picture in this AAR as they all came out bad. Until I can steal away the camera and get better shots, I will limit the poor quality of pictures I subject everyone too.

Frigate Updates - More Rigging

2011-09-03T19:42:00.000-07:00

The rigging of the ship is proving to be a tedious task. Unfortunately the pictures I took are rather terrible. So I will only post one of them here. You can make out the wire that I am using on the table top and on the model. I think this will take several more hours of work to get this part done.

Frigate Update - Rigging

2011-09-02T07:24:00.000-07:00

I attempted to use the rigging that came with the kit. It was a close to nine feet of elastic cord. This did not look the way I wanted it to so I pulled it off of the ship and tried again. War Artisan Workshop has instructions for rigging their ships by running elmer's glue on cotton thread. This creates a stiff thread that you cut to size and glue in place. Their ships are 1/300th scale. I tried to fix the elastic cord this way and that was a total failure. What I settled on was using lengths of cut floral wire. This will need to be painted black but it will serve the same purpose as the stiffened cotton thread for the smaller scale ships. It is sturdy and will hold its shape while it is glued in place.I also glued a dolphin striker and a spar across the bow spirit. Both of these still need to be painted. And speaking of paint, I got the interior railings painted as well. It is really starting to shape up. No pictures this post. I will try to take some at lunch and update this.

More Terrian

2011-08-30T11:52:00.000-07:00

Well my latest Ebay purchase has arrived. I picked up the GUM Department store and the Commissar's House in 15mm from JR Miniatures. The price was nice and it was delivered quickly.

Now what suck out the most was that there are several air bubbles present in the model. Not a deal breaker but annoying. Next was the size of the GUM department store. Instead of a department store, this is more of a corner drug store. The building is supposed to be a two story building but the base floor under the shown second floor is filled in. Not a problem but it seems that this was an older model compared to some of their other items. This will still be a nice model. The Commissar's house is very nice. These two with the other building I have already painted should provide a nice core to the urban terrain I am building.

The commissar's house has a nice poster on the side of the building. I need to think about what to put on that. Should be something fun that can be used in more than one theater.

Western Desert Air Campaign

2011-08-23T17:18:00.001-07:00

Thank you to all who have viewed and purchased this supplement. I am making updates to the doc based on some of the feedback that I have received. I will also update the doc for the Check Your 6 air combat rules with the next update. When the updates are ready, I will notify everyone who purchased on how to get the updates - for free.

Thanks again and tell you friends if you liked it.

Ruined Urban Terrain

2011-08-21T04:10:00.000-07:00

I managed to purchase two more of JR Miniatures Stalingrad Buildings. I picked up the "Chemist Shop" and their "GUM Department store" to go along with my City Block Corner that I already had.

Most of the terrain that I have is based on a felt cloth. What would you place ruined urban buildings on to make them appear more city-ish on the table?

Frigate Updates pt 5 - Painting Started

2011-08-20T18:57:00.000-07:00

Well this has been a productive weekend for the Frigate. I managed to get the ship primed and an initial coat of paint on it. I am using the painting guide found here: http://www.larsonweb.com/Transfer/Miniatures/Sail/NAPSHIPS.htm I went with the Black hull with yellow stripe.

I realized that I never made the gun ports for the five main deck guns that are open. I will make these out of card stock paper and super glue them in place. I managed to make one but have not gotten around to fitting it in place yet. It seems very fiddly and I am not looking forward to it. I am also wondering if that would be entirely necessary. Looking at the Fist Full of Seaman blog I see that his French Frigate of similar size (just in 28mm) does not have those same gun ports with hatches. I may just leave off.

Still looking for a good name. So far The Pickle and Bessie have been the suggestions so far. Neither are grabbing me yet. There used to be a great Campaign for India naval game on the web that had some good French ship names like Ville de Fromage and Droits des Animaux. The website that chronicled the campaign seems to have dropped off the web now and I can't find my link to look it up on the internet archive. Oh well.

I was thinking of something along the lines of HMS Indigestible, or HMS Inconceivable or something along those lines. Some other thoughts I had ran along the lines of: Indecipherable, Indeterminate, Irrelavant, Irritable and Irredeemable. No one can top the names of the ships over at the Fist Full of Seaman Blog (fistfullofseamen.blogspot.com). He even has a back story on the names of most of them. Very clever. Anyway, the ship has a nice little spot on the stern to paint it in. Speaking of, here is a picture of the stern.

The project really feels as if it is coming along now. Once I get some more of the painting done, it will be time to rig this thing. I found an excellent guide to rigging the ship on this site: http://www.warartisan.com This guy has paper models in 1/300 scale and they look fantastic. If there were crews and such available from Baccus or Adler, I would think seriously about going with this scale for small ship actions in Kiss Me Hardy. His rigging suggestion is to use cotton thread and rub the thread down with elmer's glue. This stiffens the thread and actually serves to reinforce the overall result. He said if rigged, his 1/300 models can be dropped from a table top height and not suffer damage. That will be worth looking at.

Aghhh! I keep forgetting to add the dolphin striker. Well, maybe tomorrow.

Thursday's Update

2011-08-19T04:52:00.001-07:00

Well I managed to finish work binding the yards to the masts. Tthat has proved to be a very tedious task. Once that was done, I primed the whole mess and began to surf the web for painting ideas. Nothing really jumped out as a great idea. So the color scheme will be rather basic. A black hull with a yellow stripe along the gun ports with the gun ports painted black. The deck... well I still don't know what I will do with that yet.

Any suggestions on a good name for the ship? Funny or serious suggestions are welcome.

Frigate Updates Pt 3

2011-08-17T05:31:00.000-07:00

Not much progress last night. But all of the yards are glued. I decided to add the top gallant masts to the ship as the masts looked too short without them. No royals though and no flying jib. I will add a dolphin striker. Just trying to figure out what the length would look right. I have been lashing the spars to the rigging. It is a tedious chore but I think it will look good when done and add strength.

Here is an over all picture of where I am so far.

This next picture is a close up to show what a 15mm miniature looks like on the deck of the ship. I purchased naval figures from minifigs.com two years ago. As well as some from another vendor that I can't remember. Maybe Battlehonors. Anyway, this is one I have not done anything with. It seems to put figures on the deck, I will have to derive a new basing mechanism as small bases will be needed on the tight confines of the deck. I will be buying some sailors from Thoroughbred Miniatures to put some on the rigging and the like. I have a figure that someone (Terry I think) gave to me that is holding a telescope. Definitely a great officer figure.

Well, at least it is some progress.

Frigate Updates pt 2

2011-08-16T06:39:00.000-07:00

I managed to get some time to mess with the ship again. I have mounted the Masts and Top Masts. The fighting tops are in place and I drilled and mounted the booms for the Spanker sail. I still need to wrap those joins in thread as well as the join between the bow spirit and job boom. Given that, here is what it looks like now.

That one is a little dark but you can make out the detail. Here is a brighter one taken on my work tray.

My wife was frowning greatly at the mess I was making in the living room working on fitting the masts and such.

Here is where I would like some advice from you. Do I add the flying jib, Dolphin striker and top gallant masts to this? Or should I leave the masts as they are? I am not sure what I should attempt. For those not familiar with all of the nautical terms, here is a great reference site that gives all of the parts in a couple of pictures: http://www.wanttaja.com/navlinks/SHIPVIEW.HTM

Frigate updates

2011-08-15T07:23:00.000-07:00

I managed a couple of free moments this weekend to tinker with the frigate. I spent some time working on the gun ports. several of them were filled in by spilled over resin and had to be cut out. Then the detail work of the ship has some rough spots. In the bow of the ship, some of the details were filled in with bubbles of resin that were lodged in various crevices. Some bubbles were present along its outside lines that had to be smoothed.

Also there are several spots on the hull where it appears some of the detail work has broken off and will have to be replaced. Fortunately none of these was catastrophic and all easily dealt with. Once the carving was done, the ship received a thorough washing.

Then came an attempt to fit the masts to the ship. Well, that proved interesting. The instructions that came with the ship mention that all of the masts are cut to length. Yet for a 3 masted ship, it only came with 2 masts. As I fooled with it, the masts themselves were way too big and would need to be cut down. There is plenty of wood for the operation but the instructions were misleading.

Each mast comes with a resin fore, main and mizzen top. Each of these had a huge amount of resin flash that had to be cut away. The Top Masts, Top Gallant Masts and yards included in the model were bamboo skewers that will need to be cut to length. The only problem point that I am seeing is that all three of the masts have holes pre-cut for them. But there is nothing in which to mount the bow-spirit. I think I can figure out where to mount it without too much trouble though.

I will drill the hole for the bow spirit this week and cut and shape the masts to post a picture of the progress. I plan on getting the masts and tops installed before priming

I will get more time to work on this over the coming weekend. Stay tuned.

On other news I have sold 24 copies of the BTH Western Desert Campaign Supplement. Thank you to all who have purchased. Once you have a chance to read through it, I would appreciate it if you would post your thoughts on the blog here. I am interested in improving it. I have had some e-mail feedback and will be making updates to it based on that feedback. If/when the next version is complete, I will notify all who have purchased and give you the opportunity to get the revisions for free. Thanks again everyone.

Bag the Hun - A North Africa Campaign Supplement

2011-08-10T06:01:00.000-07:00

I have decided to go ahead and sell the supplement that I wrote for Bag the Hun in North Africa on my own. Rich is currently overwhelmed with IABSM3 and at least two other projects that I have submitted to him.

The supplement has orders of battle and scenarios for the following campaigns: Operation Battleaxe (June 14 – 18, 1941), Operation Crusader (November 18, 1941 to Jan 18, 1942), The Battle of Gazala (May 26 – June 21, 1942) and
The Second Battle of El Alamein (Oct 23 to Nov 5, 1942). It has a campaign system to recreate an ongoing air campaign. And historical scenarios for each of the above campaigns. Rosters of the men from each squadron are provided from the information available. In many cases, the only available information was from the published losses and victory lists.

What this does not have is Rich's editing and art. As such, it is at a discounted price from what it would be through the TFL's site.

I am taking orders for this supplement through paypal. If you are interested in the supplement, it is only $4 US and will be e-mailed to you once payment has been received via paypal. The document is a 13 MB PDF file. Let me know if you need the document divided into multiple parts due to file size. My paypal address is: cstoesen@corecard.com

Another Oh Shiny Moment

2011-08-04T20:34:00.000-07:00

Well the purchase occurred a while back but I just now have gotten around to looking at it to complete.

I found this 28 gun Frigate online over a year ago. No clue who make it now. I have a bag of parts for the masts and rigging in my cabinet.

The ship is a resin model scaled for 15mm miniatures. I bought some guns for it too. (now where did I put those...)

Now, can anyone recommend how to begin painting this? Do I need to prime it? What primer should I use?

100 Posts and Counting

2011-07-27T13:55:00.000-07:00

Wow. I just realized I have kept this up for 100 posts. Not bad.

I am at a pausing point and wondering what to pursue next. My to do list is long but I am not sure what I want to try next.

1) Finish basing WW2 French infantry.
2) Paint Dark Age Early Saxons.
3) Paint Dark Age Britons.
4) Paint additional Naploleonic French
5) Paint Napoleonic Russians
6) Paint Napoleonic British
7) Paint and rig a 28 gun Frigate
8) Paint some terrain up.

Not sure what I want to do next. Any suggestions?

New Post on Platoon Forward Stories

2011-07-25T10:33:00.000-07:00

I was able to get in a game of Sharp Practice over the weekend. I wrote up what happened to Captain Beesley and his light company over on Joe's Blog: http://platoonforwardstories.blogspot.com/.

It was a fun solo game. I was able to try a French column charging into a British line. It nearly worked. I remembered the more 1s than 6s rule this time and plenty of cards ended up being drawn. Mostly by the British. The French had lousy luck with Bonus Cards. Getting mostly useless ones.

One thought was to include a Pas De Charge card into the main deck for the French. This would be to offset the Sharp Practice card in the main deck for the British. That would have made the British position much more sticky as the French would have been able to close more rapidly.

JR Miniatures Stalingrad terrain

2011-07-20T11:12:00.000-07:00

I started painting my two story ruin yesterday. I had it primed black with Army Painter black paint. I started painting the wooden floor and the primer started coming off as I painted. That got me scratching my head. What happened? I scrubbed the model down to remove most of the primer (about 75% came off). What did I do wrong? I thought I was supposed to prime resin. Does Army painter not work on resin?

Any ideas out there?

Finally Complete!

2011-07-15T07:38:00.000-07:00

Well, I have finished with the Mud and Blood supplement for the Eastern Front featuring the Russians and Austro-Hungarians. I have 9 scenarios as part of it. That may change. Still reading on the 1915 Winter campaign in the Carpathians. That may add one or two to the mix if I find anything suitable.

That and some momentum has started with the Dark Ages supplement. I was glad to see that there is still interest on the lardy list for that.

Ramblings

2011-07-12T13:04:00.000-07:00

Well the blog has actually reached 3,000 page views. Not too bad. This has proved to be a fun way to motivate myself to paint more.

I just picked up a JR Miniatures Stalingrad building online. It is the two story building corner with stairs leading to the second floor. I am very happy with the purchase. Now I just have to paint it up instead of leaving it as it is like most of my terrain.

Can someone offer any tips on painting ruined buildings? I am not sure really where to start.

Oh! Update on the East Front Mud & Blood. I have 8 scenarios finished for it as well as all of the text for the Austro-Hungarians and Russians. If I can carve out some time, I can get this finished in a few days.

The Dark Ages rules keep cropping back up with interest on the Lardy list. So instead of finishing a project, I dabbled with that a bit today. Trying to figure out how many scenarios to include with it. Not really sure.

Well, at least this kept me distracted from missing out on Historicon this year.

It strikes again

2011-07-07T06:03:00.000-07:00

I finally have an evening to paint and relax last night. The 1/1250the scale ships are painted. All that is left is to paint the bases on 4 Vosper Mk II's and 4 MAS 555's. Below is a bad picture of where I am with these. I used the glue to use for waves. Also there is the submarine that I made for use. I created a cut piece of plastic to use as a superstructure and glued it to the base. I will use it as a model for one of the Italian ocean going subs.

So I reach the cupboard and pull out minis to paint. I reach for... 15mm French WWII. Hmmm.....

Well anyway, the painting went well. I managed to have two painting guides. One from Flames of War and the other from Crusader miniatures. I happened to have the paints listed in the Crusader guide so I went with it. The uniforms and great coats are all painted as well as the small packs and helmets. This was done for 8 men armed with VB launchers, 8 riflemen and 6 NCOs. These are all Peter Pig minis. Below is a truly awful picture of the miniatures on my painting tray. These were in a poorly lit garage and taken from a cell phone. I probably should delete it but I promised myself that I should add more pictures to this blog rather than just my lunatic ravings. So I guess it stays.

Coastal Patrol - Figurehead Merchantmen

2011-07-01T04:39:00.000-07:00

The last post featured the Italian MAS boats. Now I have completed some merchantmen.

The tanker is a small coastal tanker of some 750 tons. The ship is was modeled after is the Ben Read. This must have been a hard luck ship as it ran aground twice in its career. The second time proved fatal to the tanker.

Then there are two trawlers. These to my eye looked similar to the Canadian Battle Class trawlers. So I painted them using their gray scheme.

The last of the merchantmen is a tramp steamer modeled after the Belford. This is the same length as the tanker as the original was 135' in length.

I am experimenting with adding additional waves on the base other than the bow wave and the wake. I am not sure how well this is turning out.

These should prove to be useful for coastal games. Next on to the British.

Coastal Patrol - Figurehead Miniatures

2011-06-21T04:36:00.000-07:00

I have finished basing the MAS boats. The first 4 were the early 501 - 526 models. The pictures were taken with my cell phone and did not come out badly considering. The ships themselves are under and inch long.

I am not sure if the Italians used the candy striping on the MAS boats or not. I thought I would add it anyway.

As you can see from the pictures I have finished assembling the merchant ships as well. There are two trawlers (the two on the right), an oil tanker and a tramp steamer (far left).

Again, apologies for the picture quality. These are not much longer than the MAS boats. The masts come separately and with both the tramp and the tanker, the bridges were separate structures that had to be glued in place. The tramp came with painting instructions. For the oil tanker, I will take a few liberties with it.

My father served aboard two oil tankers as a summer job during college and again after graduation. I still have his Merchant Marine card. He served aboard the Esso Pittsburgh and Esso Providence. I also happen to have a book on the Esso tankers that served during the Second World War. I will base the painting scheme for the oil tanker from the Esso Pittsburgh.

Note that the Esso Pittsburgh and Esso Providence are both 4 to 5 times the length of the coastal tanker that I have a model for. I wonder if there is a 1/1250th model for larger tankers? At 100' to the inch, that would put the Pittsburgh at over 5" in length as a model.

In 1949, my father stood on the deck of the Esso Pittsburgh and watched columns of Egyptian troops move across the Suez Canal to invade Israel. It is fun to have a hobby where you can learn history and family at the same time.

Coastal Patrol

2011-06-20T08:09:00.000-07:00

Well the Summer Special from the TFL has come and struck me with another diversion. Jumping into a new set of miniatures I have purchased some 1/1250th scale ships from Figurehead miniatures.

My order with Last Square arrived very quickly from the time I ordered. The ships were rather detailed for their size and painted up very quickly. I am basing these on computer motherboard material that I had laying around the garage. Because my ship recognition skills are virtually non-existent, I will be labeling the rear area of the base with the definition of what the ship is. I have painted the first 4 MAS boats and am in the middle of basing them now.

Once these are finished, I will move on to the merchantmen. The larger ships have details that need to be glued on to them. These have the potential to be a bit fiddly and look to be the more daunting of the ships. I picked up a pair of trawlers, a tanker and a tramp cargo ship. These should make for some interesting games for the Mediterranean. Convoy interception and the like.

The British ships I picked up are all small vessels like the MAS boats so they should go quickly - Harbour Defense motor launches, Vosper MKIIs and some MBG-50s.

The one disappointment is that I cannot find 1/1250th scale models of the older MAS boat types such as the MAS 200 series. These were very prevalent in the backwater regions such as East Africa.

They do have larger ships from the Figurehead line that include destroyers. Those and some Italian sailboats could prove interesting to have on the table.

East Front - Mud & Blood

2011-06-15T11:18:00.000-07:00

More work has been done on the supplement. I have made good progress and found a fantastic site: http://english.mapywig.org/Austro-Hungarian.html. This site has Austro-Hungarian military maps. I am able to find many of the battle sites on these maps to get a better idea of what the terrain would look like.

What I lack is any good information on Russian descriptions of small unit actions. Not sure where to even look. Anyone have an idea?

Mud & Blood: Austro-Hungarians

2011-05-27T14:13:00.000-07:00

One of the fun parts about working on rules, scenarios and supplements is the research. By far learning things that you did not know before and trying to see through the eyes of men now long dead has always fascinated me.

While working on a supplement for Mud & Blood on the Austro-Hungarians I found a great site - www.austro-hungarian-army.co.uk. This has proved to be an interesting site with some rather nice biographies, descriptions of troops and it hosts an excellent forum with knowledgeable folks.

This site served as a starting point for most of my research on the Hapsburg Empire in the Great War. It gave me enough to go on to know where to look deeper. It is also the source for many of the scenarios that I am working on.

One in particular is their biography of Emil Poppr. He has to be the Audie Murphy of the Hapsburg Empire. In his first six months during the war alone he won the bronze and silver bravery medals in both classes and the gold bravery medal. A huge big man on the battlefield.

If you have not discovered this site yet, give it a look.

Mud and Blood - WWI Austrians

2011-05-20T08:35:00.000-07:00

I was able to get Christian Ortner's excellent book Strom Troops: Austro-Hungarian Assault Units and Commandos in the First World War: Tactics, Organization and Equipment through inter library loan. What a great summary of the AH army in World War One. Without inter library loan, this book is WAY out of my current book budget. Used copies are going for $120.00.

It was rather illuminating to see the differences in the tactics and deployment of storm troops between the Germans and Austrians. The main point is the differences in the primary fronts each side dealt with. The Russian and Italian Fronts were almost a year behind in terms of tactical developments compared to the Western Front.

I am looking forward to finishing off this supplement for M&B. There is some great data out there for the AH, especially for some scenarios. The Russians are proving to be a much more difficult nut to crack.

While searching, I came across a great poster. I will leave you with that.

I found this on a newsgroup and do not know the source or copyright holder.

WWI Russians - Any Ideas

2011-05-06T13:49:00.000-07:00

I am having difficulty finding good data on WWI Russians. Can anyone point me to a good reference? Specifically any good descriptions of company, platoon or squad level combat?

Cruising around the internet, I did find some references to Russian ochotnichya komanda or Jadt-Kommandos. These were the Russian version of trench raiders. Not much details but they had a nice picture of a skirmish between Austrians and Russians.

Unfortunately I have no clue who to credit this image to other than link above it where I found it. That and I found a link to an article about Russian formations following the Russo-Japanese war.

Anyone have any suggestions?

ADD Strikes Again

2011-05-05T08:34:00.000-07:00

While attempting to focus and complete a project I stumbled upon two things, four bags of Peter Pig Cowboy miniatures and a play-test set of rules called Rusty Sheriff's Badge by Rich. This led me to rediscover the wonderful paper terrain I bought from Eric Hotz's Whitewash City.

Now my small little mind it taking off in this direction rather than completing the other projects on my painting table.

That made me attempt to reign in my enthusiasms and write out what I wanted to accomplish.

1) Complete a supplement for Mud & Blood involving Austro-Hungarians and Russians. (TFL Summer Special target)
2) Scenarios for the Battle of Atlanta 1864 for TCHAE. (Target for the 150th Anniversary of the events) 3
3) Finish off a Sharp Practice supplement for the Dark Ages. (This one is in play-test now with other folks)
4) Finish painting my WWII French troops for TW&T.
5) Next scenario for my Platoon Forward Campaign for SP.
6) Paint some WWII German dead minis.
7) Paint some French WWI minis.
8) Paint some German WWI minis.
9) Cowboys
10) Supplement for Sharp Practice featuring Ottomans.
11) September 1780 through 1781 supplement for the AWI in South Carolina.
12) Paint more AWI

12 items is far more than I can practically accomplish this year.

What does everyone else have on your project lists?

A Banner Day

2011-04-27T14:44:00.000-07:00

Today I received a notice from the library that my interlibrary loan request showed up. Christian Ortner's book Stormtroopers had arrived. This has to be the best book on the groundforces and stomtroopers of the Austo-Hungarian Empire. I have barely had a chance to flip. Through it so far but I am very happy withwhat I have seen thus far.

On top of that, I just got in a great big box of painted confederate cavalry. They are once again marvelous. I will need to change focus and get a game of Terrible Sharp Sword in as soon as possible.

The Back End of Nowhere - “Chaos in Bhakarsitan”

2011-04-14T11:40:00.000-07:00

I just had a very enjoyable game this evening. Meeting up with Alan from the TFL List, I joined him, his son and another Chris for a game of Mud and Blood.

I had the honor of commanding the Mad Baron's forces of White Russians. The Russians had three groups of 7 Cavalry (Cossacks, Mongols and Who knows what), a group of 10 former Russian officers and another group of Mongolian infantry. The Mad Baron was accompanied by Don the Cossack and Nicolas Lardovich - The faithful lieutenant of the Mad Baron.

Entering the board, the building to our left was guarded by some British infantry with a machine gun covering the bridge. Judging them not to be a threat to White Russians, two groups of cavalry led by Don the Cossack charged for the Bridge. Thinking that at a gallop, I could easily reach and come to grips with the Chinese cavalry I gave it a try. Even with three dice at +3 per die, I missed. This left the cavalry a mighty compact target sitting on the bridge.

This was to prove to be a disastrous move. Little did I know, my allies (the British) had orders to engage anyone attempting to cross the bridge. Between the Chinese HMG who killed the Don the Cossack and the lead group and the British HMG who killed the rear group, that was a failed plan.

Meanwhile, the mad baron and the remainder of his men had arrived on the table. As I began to advance the remaining cavalry around the church - away from the British, a group of Gurkhas emerged from the church to challenge the Baron. Initially this must have alarmed the Baron whose madness swept him backwards towards his starting point. But he rallied and ordered his men to open fire upon the Gurkhas and their Big Man - Lieutenant Blinky. The two Lewis guns of the White Russian officers squad promptly jammed. That's right. Both on the first turn jammed and remained so for the rest of the game. Then the Asian allies opened fire on Lt Blinky followed by a cavalry charge. In two turns of firing and close combat, only Lt Blinky remained.

Lt Blinky surrendered to the Mad Baron and the remnants of his guard cavalry. The Baron opened negotiations with the remaining British for passage across the bridge. This was all but secured when the Baron's madness struck again. The Baron promptly shot Blinky as a communist infiltrator. An act which doomed the negotiations but which removed the remaining shock on his forces.

At this point, knowing that the British would not take this well, the Whites charged in and attacked the remaining British. All of the remaining cavalry belonging to the Baron were killed. The British lost an entire group of infantry and were well on their way to loosing their heavy machine gun when time was called for the game.

On the other side of the river, the Arabs, Chinese and Red Russians expended a considerable amount of ammunition blazing away at one another. Other than the dead cavalry on the bridge, the White Russians had no effect on that side of the game.

I have to thank Alan (a very gracious host), his son and Chris (not me, a different one) for a great game. I hope to participate in another episode of the continuing saga of the Mad Baron.

Mark's AWI Game - Savannah 1779

2011-04-04T06:29:00.001-07:00

Mark ran a wonderful game of Sharp Practice last Saturday (4/2/2011). I will be deliberately vague in describing the overall game as Mark may wish to publish this or submit it for the scenario contest at some point.

I was given a command of a single group of 71st Highlanders tasked with creating an outpost on the farm at the top of a hill.

It was a beautiful game that was well executed. It was a four player game where everyone started out on "unknown" blinds. I started with a series of poor movement rolls and advanced less than a whole foot of distance.

I was able to spot some French troops at the top of the hill who in turn spotted me. At least four groups of French troops, including grenadiers began to move towards my single group of Highlanders.

The highlanders lost two men as they exchanged fire with the advancing French but they gave better than they received. Using a Thin Red Line card, they gave a wonderful volley into the French and charged... and failed to reach the enemy. However, this gave the French a great shot at charging me. They did and rolled three kills and a shock. This is where magic occurred as I rolled five kills and two shock. This broke the French unit and caused them to flee.

A follow up unit arrived and fired a volley into the Highlanders killing their Lieutenant. This was the first Big Man casualty of the game. Not only was the Big Man hit, he also was killed right off. The Highlanders were Big Man heavy for a single group. The Sergeant ordered the Highlanders to fall back. Once again my movement rolls were terrible and they only fell back 3". At this point, I was forced to leave the game. Since my troops were falling back and the French had pressure elsewhere, I was fairly confident that the French would let the Highlanders scamper off with no more attention.

Mark informed me that this was not the case. The French continued to harass the Highlanders and killed the sergeant and broke the unit. Oh well.

All in all, a great game that was considerable fun. Thanks Mark.

Here is the link to Mark's pictures of the game. I added some comments where my command was involved.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/6mmgaming/sets/72157626420311244/

Mud & Blood: 15mm French Continued

2011-04-01T10:18:00.000-07:00

I decided to try out the pack of Peter Pig WWII rifle grenadiers. I did not know they had such a figure pack and I have been wanting some rifle grenadiers for my TW&T French Force anyway. I will use the riflemen and the Chauchat teams from Minifigs for the near future. As soon as I can find better replacements, I will begin to switch over.

It looks like I will be able to get in a game of Mud & Blood this April.

Mud & Blood: 15mm French

2011-03-30T13:39:00.000-07:00

I am looking to create a french force for Mud & Blood that would map to the battle of Verdun (late 1916). I have miniatures that I bought from Mini Figs USA but I am not happy with them.

Does anyone have a recommendation? Can WWII French be used? Are there differences beyond the uniform color?

Also who makes troops with VB launchers? Especially some that are sold separately.

Sharp Practice Game - Debut of the East Southhamstershires

2011-03-27T16:32:00.000-07:00

Had a great game of Sharp Practice yesterday. I umpired and played the late arriving French Cavalry while Mark played the East Southhamstershires. Jim played the naval landing party and Dan (of Foxhole Terrain fame) played the French Legere. We also had a new player, Cody, who took over Jim's Naval landing party when he had to leave.

Dan and Cody both had never played SP before. Cody observed for most of the game and took over when Jim had to leave. Both picked up the game very quickly. What was interesting was seeing the players choices with utilizing formations or not. At the start of the game, no one used formations. But both British players (Jim and Mark) then switched to line formations to engage the French. Dan used all of his big men separately to move individual groups forward and engage.

French Advance through the village

The Naval gun fires on the advancing French
The naval gun only had a few rounds to fire and it put quite a pounding on the French troops. I attempted a modified rule to attempt to open the opportunity for friendly fire. It did not work. Back to the drawing board.

The French movement on the British in the woods
The French troops that moved into the fields got stuck in the fields. With only a level 1 big man to motivate them, they did not make it much further. Those troops did not have much of an effect on the game.

Choosing to not use formations, the various french groups soaked up lots of shock.
The casualties mounted much quicker on the French as the individual big men were focused on engaging the enemy rather than removing shock. The British used the lesser big men to remove shock and allowed the men to fire on their senior officer's activation or on the Tiffin.

British line engages the French

Unfortunately for French, by the time they attempted to form up, the damage was done. At least four groups of French were sent fleeing off table, two big men were badly wounded and another two (including the senior officer) was captured.

The French cavalry arrived too late to have a significant effect on the game. The best they could offer is to cover the infantry's retreat. All in all, it was an excellent game.

A big Thank You to Mark who remembered to bring a camera. All the pictures included here are his. I look forward to the continuing adventures of the East Southhamstershires.

Preping for a game

2011-03-21T07:25:00.000-07:00

I am planning on running a Sharp Practice game this weekend. I have spots for four players. So far, I think I have all of the pieces that I need. The only thing remaining is to make some cards. Normally I go for poker chips but there is something fun with using cards. I will try to get some started today.

Miniature Reviews

2011-03-18T19:04:00.000-07:00

Below are a series of Miniatures reviews that I have posted over the past year or more.

Posts in this series:
Dark Ages Early Saxons

AWI Buildings

Hovels Buildings

Comparison - Blue Moon and JR Miniatures Terrain

Peter Pig AWI

Joe Legan's War Stories

2011-03-17T13:47:00.000-07:00

Following the publishing of his Platoon Forward, Joe has offered up a spot for folks to publish their stories utilizing Platoon forward. So far it looks like it will be nearly as much fun as Joe's regular blog: http://platoonforward.blogspot.com/.

His linked scenario system is great fun and built for solo gaming. Since I never use things as they are out of the box (or rarely do), I am bending it to fit Sharp Practice. My first campaign will be a normal Sharp Practice (*gasp*) campaign. You can read about it here: http://platoonforwardstories.blogspot.com/.

Well that is it for now.

Sharp Practice Thoughts

2011-03-16T18:39:00.000-07:00

I am looking to get in a couple of games of Sharp Practice in the next couple of weeks. I have a full company of British Line Infantry (64 men plus Big Men) and a full company of French Legere (72 men plus Big Men). What would be the largest size game that one could think of doing with SP? My goal is to have 2 Companies of Legere Chasseurs and a half Company of Carabiniers and Voltigeurs. Then Three Center Companies of British Line plus one Flank Company. Would this be too large to wield on a 6x4' table?

What is the largest games you have managed?

TFL Scenario Contest

2011-03-08T13:28:00.000-08:00

Once again, TooFatLardies is running a scenario contest. I am looking forward to seeing the results. All scenarios need to be turned in by April 15th. So dust off your crayons and get to scribbling before tax day.

I hope that there are a large number of entries. I am working on a Napoleonic SP scenario. What is everyone else working on?

Back to the AWI

2011-03-08T13:25:00.000-08:00

Just received an order I placed to Peter Pig last week. That was very fast delivery. I guess the Royal Mail issues from December are over now (lets hope).

I picked up their pack of dead AWI troops (5-59). There are three different poses and they include several figures with floppy hats that would be useful for militia dead. They look like they will be great fun to paint up. The next pack I picked up was the "Happy Workers" pack (5-54). Again very nicely cast figures. They will make for a nice civilian addition to AWI games. There is a little flash left on some figures but not enough to discourage me form buying more. These along with the Blue Moon F&IW minis should give a nice mix of civilians.

Also in the order was a set of sheep (21-35), some Oxen (21-33) and some dead horses (21-59). The dead horses seemed like a good idea to use for cavalry charges in SP as horses can be killed while the riders live to haul off their saddles and wander away. Now I remembered, I hate painting horses. The sheep look like well sheep. They will probably see more use for my Dark Ages games. Why not pigs instead? Ah well, I run a kosher farm. The Oxen are rougher casts than the others and the horns are separate pieces from the oxen themselves. I will reserve judgment on these until I paint some.

Saxon Comparison

2011-03-03T19:30:00.000-08:00

I just received two packs of miniatures from Syr Hobb. They are two command packs from Outpost Wargame Services. The Infantry command pack is rather nice. It has a Saxon with a war dog, a drummer, two officer types looking focused, a shaman and a standard bearer.

The picture is not too clear but it gives some idea of what they look like. The shaman's pose is fun. Reminds me of the Cornwell "Arthur" books from his description of their gyrations prior to a battle.

The Cavalry command pack was disappointing in comparison to the infantry pack. There were 3 mounted figures. all the horses were in the same at rest pose and the riders were all the same figure. The only difference was if they held a spear or a standard. The standard is nice. It is a bulls skull with a banner looking item beneath it. I will definitely use the standard bearer but I am not too sure about the other two. In my opinion, the Splintered Light mounted Saxons are far superior.

As noted, I already have a decent collection of Saxons from Splintered Light Miniatures. I took one more bad picture to compare the two lines. The SLM standard bearer in the picture is at a disadvantage as I did not glue the skull to the standard yet. I also placed the shields from each of the manufacturers next to one another. The Splintered Light shields are much larger than the Outpost ones. Not sure which is more accurate but I like the look of the larger shield.

The Dark Age rules are really shaping up. We have a tentative title now: Grim Men & Sharp Swords. Much better than the nonsense I had earlier. The title was Gary's idea so he gets the credit there.

Up next will be revisiting Sharp Practice with Napoleonics. I wonder how the rules will work as written.... :)

Productive Weekend

2011-02-20T18:10:00.000-08:00

By the grace of my Mother-in-law, my wife and I had a wonderful date weekend. Started with a nice dinner at Chops. Saturday ended with my wife reading and told me to go paint. Who could ask for anything better.

So taking advantage of this I set to work in setting my ACW Yankees to rights. I managed to get more than 32 infantry done and dipped in Army Painter strong tone. I also have the next 32 set to go on painting sticks. I also began to base my 16 Union Zouaves. Those are still my favorite miniatures that I have in my army.

My Confederate Infantry is just about complete. I have a 64 man Infantry company with big men (a captain, two lieutenants and two sergeants). I have to finish basing 16 infantry figures and they are done.

I did get to do a little (very little) painting done on my Early Saxon army. Thus far I have managed to paint a whopping 10 unarmored spear men. Only 35 more of them to go.

I think I have an excellent chance of actually completing my ACW skirmish armies and my Dark Age skirmish armies this year! Possibly by summer.

Saxons and TSS

2011-02-11T21:41:00.000-08:00

Well today proved to be fairly productive. I managed to finish several more scenarios for my TSS Supplement. Only three more to go. Those should be wrapped up in fairly short order. I can see the light at the end of that tunnel finally. I have removed several scenarios that I just could not find sufficient data for to even guess at the orders of battle for.

In addition to the writing, I managed to get a bit of painting done. Five more figures for my Early Saxon army. This brings my army to a whopping 15 painted figures! I was painting figures from the Splintered Light personality pack. Specifically two Saxon shaman/wizards, a Saxon hero (big bare chested brute wielding an axe with two hands) and two Saxons in armor. One sports a sword and a Sutton Hoo looking helmet and the other carrying a two handed axe. Both in Chain mail armor.

I have been thinking of how I would organize an Early Saxon army for skirmish scenarios. I am working on a set of rules that are based off of Sharp Practice with several others from the TooFatLardies list. My thought so far is something like this.

Early Saxon Raiding party
Three groups of unarmored spearmen (24 figures).
One group of armored spearmen (8 figures).
One group of skirmishers (6 figures).
Command Element (party commander(Big Man), standard, trumpeter, shaman)
One additional Big Man and One Hero.

In addition, I am tinkering with making a longship for these Saxons to raid with.

Their opposition will be some Post-Romano British. The British will be a similar sized force except its composition will be different.

Post Romano-British
Two groups of Unarmored Spearment (16 figures)
One group of armed townsfolk (12 figures)
One group of Armored spearmen (8 figures)
One group of skirmishers (6 figures)
Command element (party Commander (big Man, standard, trumpeter, priest)
One additional Big Man and one hero.

I have just purchased the armed townsfolk from Khurasan miniatures. They have some figures carrying pitchforks which suits the bill quite nicely.

I have really enjoyed painting the Splintered Light Saxons.

More Progress

2011-02-06T15:30:00.000-08:00

I picked up some more Splintered Light Miniatures this week. I should have enough miniatures now for a good skirmish game for the Dark Ages now. I also picked up one of the buildings from Splintered Light.

I spent a good bit of Friday night painting the building and basing the few miniatures I finished painting. While the progress was slow it was indeed progress.

Some Progress

2011-01-30T20:04:00.000-08:00

ACW - Terrible Sharp Sword
I finally got the miniatures dipped and sprayed with the anti-shine spray. I have finished off 3/4ths of my Infantry Company. I have three officers (a captain and two lieutenants) and two NCOs as Big men for this company. I have six painted and based groups of eight men. I still have another two groups of eight on painting sticks. Of these most are ones I need to repaint. Enough with words, here is what they look like.

This is an overhead shot of the troops.

This is a closer view of the one complete platoon.

I also have some Union troops painted but not based. These were the Union Zouaves that I purchased off of Ebay. I am very happy with these minis.

Dark Ages Skirmish
I also have painted up my first few Dark Ages 15mm miniatures. I am doing a Saxon army circa 300 - 500 AD. Here are the first few that I have.

These are some of what will be the command elements. The overall leader will be the fellow with the raven shield. I hope to buy some more of these exelent minis from Splintered Light Miniatures in the near future.

Next up are some of the cannon fodder for the shield wall. The bulk of my troops for my Saxons (and for my Romano-Britons too) will be unarmored spearmen.

In the end, I hope to have some 48 unarmored spearmen, some 12 armored spearmen, and a few mounted Saxons for color. I purchased the personality pack and will start on those soon. Two very nifty shaman types in there. One of whom is jumping around with a large snake. There is also a bare chested giant. Very fun miniatures from a great line of minis.

Ah the weekend

2011-01-21T12:46:00.000-08:00

Well another weekend approaches. The hobby plan for the weekend is to base up the painted Zouaves that I have purchased. They add some color to the table top.

Other than that, I may finish off some more Confederates that I have left to do. I did not get as much done as I thought I would the other weekend.

I also purchased one of the scene kits from Woodland Scenic's subsidiaries. I want to experiment around with it to see what I can do. I might play around with that as well.

I did purchase some more early saxons from Splinteredlightminis.com. They added some mounted Saxons to their inventory that looked very nice. The shipping was about a day turn around (the owner lives just 30 minutes from me). I also picked up the Saxon personality pack. If I stray from my ACW, I may paint some of these up.

In terms of writing, the scenarios for Terrible Sharp Sword are coming along nicely if slowly. I have 14 scenarios fleshed out for August to December 1861 in Longstreet's area and a scenario for the midwar that occurs in Green Hill, Tennessee. That and a campaign background for use with the Lardy campaign system for TSS.

The Greenhill scenario is more humorous than serious. The Union army sent a Brigade sized force to engage a company of Confederate militia that was guarding a still in the back woods of Tennessee. The Union army seized 40 kegs of liquor (read moonshine) in their daring raid that scattered the raw recruits defending the still. I am tempted to create a new card called "Revenuers!" for the scenario. The scenario needs a miniature equipped with a banjo as a musician. Does anyone make one in 15mm? If so, please let me know. I need to buy it.

New Miniatures

2011-01-17T07:37:00.000-08:00

I just bought some painted miniatures - some ACW Union Zouaves. These are beautiful and an excellent ebay purchase. Not ideal for TSS as there is only 15 riflemen and I needed 16 of them. The lot also came with 2 drummers and three officers. The painter's talent far exceeds my own and I will have a rough time getting a figure to match his paint job.

So, anyone have a spare OG Zouave in a fez so I can flesh this unit out?

Painting Time!

2011-01-07T17:29:00.000-08:00

I have a nearly free night in order to get some work done on my miniature backlog. I sorted through my AWI and ACW miniatures that I still have to paint. Once I recovered from the shock of the numbers, I settled on finishing my ACW Confederates. I have eight more infantry to paint and about 30 or so to finish basing. Then all 64 of them need the Army Painter anti Shine spray.

Next I will be base coating the horse holders, horses and artillery crew.

Once those are painted, I have to retouch 16 Confederate Cavalry. That will give me an effective Confederate Terrible Sharp Sword force of 8 groups of infantry, two groups of cavalry and a single gun.

Hopefully, I can knock out most of this tonight.

Happy New Year

2011-01-01T09:42:00.000-08:00

2010 was a pretty good year with a few games and some painting accomplished.

I am hoping to get a 2011 kicked off with a scenario set for TSS. Hopefully a few more games as well. I am looking forward to painting up my Blue Moon Miniatures buildings in January. That and finishing off my Confederate and Union Infantry units.

What is everyone else working on?

More comparisons

2010-11-19T17:08:00.000-08:00

I was really unhappy with the pictures I took of the building I have and decided to fix that.

Lets start with Blue Moon.
BlueMoon
Here I have several Old Glory AWI Militia miniatures standing with a Freikorps Mounted Militia figure.

The figures look like they have the ability to enter the building. The roof and the second floor can be removed on the building. Their line is quickly becoming my favorite.

Hovels
This is the farmstead pack from Hovels. Only the metal fencing is not pictured. The fences are very nice. I like the haystacks. The two barns/outbuildings/chicken coops are nice with a dilapidated look to them. The buildings are similar to JR in that the

It is the same set of miniatures as before. Sorry about the quality of the pictures. I still don't have the knack of it yet.

JR Miniatures
These were my first set of buildings that I purchased. These I actually got around to painting. As you can see, the miniatures dominate the building as if they are all NBA basketball players. I liked the cloth roof of the buildings.

The second picture has an example from their tents pack, their outhouse pack and a turf roof cabin.

Hovels Miniatures Buildings received

2010-11-18T17:14:00.000-08:00

I have received the buildings from Hovels. The fencing is very nice. The haystacks are good too. The buildings will match perfectly with Jr miniatures. I will take some pictures later.

Just a question, for 15mm miniatures, do you prefer the buildings to be a bit small for the miniatures or to match the size of the minis? Now that I have some of the Blue Moon buildings, I like the look of the larger buildings better.

What does everyone else think?

Terrain Comparison

2010-11-17T04:01:00.000-08:00

I took some pictures side by side of my JR Miniatures terrain and my new Blue Moon terrain. It was a surprise to see just how different the two are size wise. The JR Miniatures door ways are around 10mm tall. A Old Glory ACW Confederate soldier would be over a head taller than the doorway. With the Blue Moon houses, the same miniature would not have to bend over to enter.

Blurry Picture 1
Here is the Lean To Cabin from Blue Moon (left) and a JR Miniatures cabin side by side. The Blue Moon building is far more substantial.

You can see the gap I mentioned before between the removable roof and the base of the building with the Blue Moon building. The JR house looks like it houses munchkins in comparison.

Blue Moon Manufacturing Terrain

2010-11-16T13:23:00.000-08:00

Just got in my terrain from Blue Moon. WOW! The lines are sharp. Few to no bubbles in the resin. And all of them open up to allow miniature placement within them.

15LOM 140 Cabin #6 - Two Story w/ Large Porch
This have a removable roof and second floor. The cabin is a log cabin with a shingle roof. The shingles are rough cut and work well with the building. This will be useful for both the AWI and ACW.

15 LOM 138 Cabin #4 Lean To Style Cabin
The lean to cabin does not fit together as well. There is a gap in the chimney when the two are put together. Other than that, the stone chimney and log cabin look great. The roof is removable and is cut board and not shingle. This will be useful for both the AWI and ACW.

15 LOM 149 Stone Base Blockhouse
The bottom floor is stone and the upper floor is log. The upper floor and roof both can be removed. The upper floor has three sides with loopholes. This is an excellent building and will be great for the AWI.

Of the buildings, they will move to the head of my painting table.

15 LOM 119 Colonial Civilians
These are great looking miniatures. Some could find use on both an AWI or an ACW table. Some are decidedly leaning more toward the AWI. In fact, these are designed for the French and Indian War. Of the ones that stand out is a useful chap with a shotgun holding a duck he has just killed. Several women with farm implements and a bull pulling a plow. These will be part of future scenarios to be sure.

All in all, I am thrilled with the purchase.

ACW Terrain

2010-11-12T11:05:00.000-08:00

I have recently acquired several new buildings. From JR Miniatures, I picked up a log cabin, a set of 4 outhouses, a L shaped farm house and four tents.

From Hovels, I purchased the Farmstead set that includes a farmhouse, a barn and some hay stacks.

From Blue Moon, I picked up a Stone Blockhouse (ok that is more for my AWI games), a lean to cabin and a two story house.

The JR Miniatures ones came in this week and they look great. I hope to get some painting in over the weekend and post some pictures.

On the painting front, I managed to paint up another group of miniatures for my Terrible Sharp Sword Confederate army. Also painted two standard bearers and a running drummer - all from Eureka miniatures.

One day this week, I will break out the camera and take some pictures of all of this.

A fine day for Lardy Gaming

2010-10-10T01:08:00.000-07:00

Today I not only got to play one game of Sharp Practice but I also got to run a game of Terrible Sharp Sword. Mark was kind enough to put on the SP game. What a cracker it was too. A fantastic AWI scenario set around the siege of Savannah. I played a loyalist unit attempting to secure a bridge and destroy it before the arrival of the French hordes. The game pivoted back and forth and hinged on the final turns of the game. I finally had a successful close assault and managed to storm a redoubt to drive out some rebel militia and take their gun. The scenario was one of Mark's best yet.

The game of TSS was a learning experience with the new rules. We played scenario one from the campaign with a half company of troops on either side with two big men each. The game went fairly well for Terry, Mark and my first attempt with the rules. They were fun but it was a very small scenario. We finished in under an hour and a half.

Cabins, Fences and Corn Fields

2010-09-19T15:36:00.000-07:00

Spent a few hours on Friday working some terrain for the upcoming Terrible Sharp Sword rules. I painted up two small cabins and assembled some snake fences. A quick coat of paint is needed to complete these up. Next, I tore apart a cornfield that I made as I was not happy with the base material that I was using. I will be reassembling it with a foam material.

This should all be useful for AWI as well. I hope to put some more fences together shortly. Right now I have about 12" of fences done.

ACW Maps

2010-09-15T19:29:00.000-07:00

I just discovered a fantastic resource online. The Library of Congress "American Memory" website has a huge collection of Civil War maps.

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/civil_war_maps/index.html

I have been looking at maps of Northern Virgina to get an idea of the terrain fought over in the skirmishes that dominated the months following the First Battle of Manassas. This site is fantastic. It has several maps that were prepared for General McDowell in early 1862 in which individual farmsteads are listed and a good idea can be had as to the location of orchards and the like. If you have not browsed this site before, I highly recommend it.

What a week for gaming.

2010-08-28T18:39:00.000-07:00

Well after an excellent game hosted by Mark, I have had quite a weekend. The first game was Thursday night. It was an Eastern Front Scenario where the Russians were defending the bridgehead that they established on the Vistua River. The scenario was based on the writings of Evgenii D Moniushko, then a Junior Lieutenant in command of an anti-tank gun. He described several "episodes" of his experiences on the Vistula River including a Nebelwerfer (sp?) attack, the tactics used by the Russian AT gunners, killing a Tiger tank at point blank range and attempting to attack a PZIVH hidden in a barn with a grenade bundle. It turned out that the tank was not there but these elements made for creating an interesting scenario. I dropped the rocket attack from the scenario.

The scenario pitted a Russian platoon with two MMGs and two anti-tank guns against a panzer grenadier platoon, and three panzer IV H's, an off board Tiger I and a Tiger I in reinforcement.

I played this scenario twice. The first time was with 15mm miniatures on a 6' x 4' table. There the Russians held out for most of the game but were eventually overrun. The second time I ran the game it was at Mark's house using his 6mm stuff. We reduced the measurements from inches to centimeters. The table was still 6' by 4'.

It was an interesting comparison. The 15mm game moved much quicker. The Germans were able to advance rapidly to the Russian positions. In the 6mm game, the Germans did not advance as quickly. The AT guns could reach out at a much longer distance to stall the advance.

Both games were fun. I think the 6mm game felt right in terms of the engagement distances but the 15mm game played faster. I will continue to use 15mm for TW&T based on this.

The third game was Mark's IABSM game at Giga-Bites in Marietta. That scenario was a Russian river crossing. The Germans were defending. I played the Germans and managed to stall out the Russian advance. All in all, a great week.

Troops, Weapons & Tactics - Late War Germans

2010-08-25T15:48:00.000-07:00

I managed to take some pictures of the 15mm miniatures that I am using for TW&T. I have just finished painting some of these.

Late War Panzer Grenadiers

Platoon

There are three squads of 11 men each with a platoon HQ of an officer, a sniper and two runners.

Tank Hunters

This is a four man team.

Medium Panzer Platoon 1

Three Panzer III Ls.

Medium Panzer Platoon

I have one Panzer IV H painted and one more that is primed.

Recon Panzer Platoon

Just one Panzer II Luchs at the moment.

Picture Time

2010-08-20T21:00:00.000-07:00

I have not posted a picture of any miniatures in a long time. Here are some pictures of some Provincial infantry that I have been painting. These are the first few. I will be painting these in a total of four 8 figure groups with two foot officers, two standard bearers, a drummer and a mounted officer. The regimental flag was taken from warflag.com.

The next picture is of the Colonel of the regiment. Unfortunately this one came out rather blurry.

I will try to get around and post a better picture of this guy. He looks a litter better in person than the picture lets on.

Peter Pig Mounted Militia & Scouts First Look

2010-08-12T13:06:00.000-07:00

Well the postman just brought in my new pack of Peter Pig Mounted Militia(5.39) and Scouts (5.40). The Mounted Militia come in two poses: One with a round hat looking straight ahead with his musket leveled above his horse's head. The second is in a tricorn hat looking to his right with the musket leveled next to his horse's head. Four figures in all come in the pack. The figures look nice to my eye and will add some variety to the other mounted militia that I have from QRF/Freikorps and Lancashire.

The Scouts are interesting. This pack comes with two mounted miniatures (identical pose) with slung rifles looking off to the left side of their mounts. They are wearing round hats. Also in the pack are two horses with two men that are kneeling on the ground looking at something. The kneeling man is supporting himself with his rifle and has his hat in his hand. I will definitely add the mounted figures to my Mounted militia units. While I like the dismounted scouts, I am not sure what I will do with them yet.

All in all, I do not regret the purchase and will probably get another pack of the mounted militia before too long. Now we need to convince them at Peter Pig to create some dead militia miniatures.

Next step is to get some more primer and start painting these guys.....

East Front Italians for Troops, Weapons and Tactics

2010-07-29T10:48:00.000-07:00

Now that "With Fire and Sword" is published, I have been looking for a new research project. I decided to go back to the Second World War and look at the early Italian actions on the Eastern Front.

I am looking at the actions from August to October 1941 that were fought by the Pasubio Division. I purchased awhile back two regimental histories from this division 79th & 80th Roma Regiments. Lots of good information - if you speak Italian. Which I do not. But that is ok. I am not easily discouraged. Armed with a handy dandy Italian/English dictionary much can be discovered.

The first action that I am looking at is the encounter at the village of Pokrovskoje. Just south of the larger town of Voznesensk, the village of Pokrovskoje was on the road paralleling the course of the Bug river. The advance down the road was hindered by bad weather and terrible mud roads.

The CSIR was to block the retreat of the Russian army by heading down the length of the Bug River from Voznesensk to the town of Nikolaiev. The bad weather stopped most of their movements except for a small force consisting of the 80th Roma Regiment, 1st Company of Bersaglieri Motorcyclists and two groups of artillery frm the division. Leaving Voznesensk on the 10th of August, Colonel Chiaramonti managed to move his group another 30 kilometers to Pokrovskoje.

The Bersaglieri were leading the advance and arrived at the village only to be ambushed by a delaying force of Russian soldiers. The Russians fired upon the Bersaglieri with machine guns and artillery. The Bersaglieri remained to gather intelligence and returned back to the main body of troops. III Batalion of the 80th Roma advanced against the Russians and began to drive back the infantry in the town. At this point, the Russians counterattacked with some tanks. Accurate artillery fire drove off the attacking tanks.

I am thinking in breaking this down into three small scenarios for each phase of the action.

Sources so Far:
http://www.italie1935-45.com/
http://www.ilduce.net/russia.htm
http://digilander.libero.it/lacorsainfinita/guerra2/41/russia.htm
http://digilander.libero.it/avantisavoiait/Campagna%20di%20Russia.htm
http://www.fronterussounirr.it/introduzione_storica.htm
http://www.unucimonza.org/bio_federico_rossi.htm
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~broszies/generalstab/arsenal/italian_army/tw_it_csir.html
http://www.bersaglieripaceco.net/medaglie/oro.php
http://fralo.blogspot.com/2010/04/trebisacce-21042010-leroe-alfredo-lutri.html
http://www.maxafiero.it/csir.htm
http://www.italie1935-45.com/RE/histoire/csir1.html

Update on With Fire and Sword

2010-07-19T06:25:00.000-07:00

Rich has the final draft and has done some amazing work editing and formatting my scribbles. The maps look great and he has restrained my megalomaniac scenario for the Second Battle of Hanging Rock. My original scenario was huge with over 23 Big men for the Rebels/Patriots alone. Now he has rearranged it to five linked scenarios that cover the ebb and flow of the battle quite nicely without needing a lead mountain of militia miniatures - not that there is anything wrong with that....

A big thanks to AD over at miniawi.blogspot.com who spotted some errors in the original drafts and made some great suggestions to improve the accuracy of the overall work. Now to get back to some painting.

Back to the ACW again....

2010-07-01T11:41:00.000-07:00

Well now that the AWI special is completed, I wanted to work on something else for a bit. Last night I finished my first 15 ACW miniatures. I bought some Old Glory bags of ACW skirmishing infantry a while back that have been collecting dust in the bag. I started on the Confederates first. I used the Army Painter Gray primer on them and painted them as they recommended on their web site. I am actually quite pleased with the results. I used their medium dip (brushed on) and will use the anti-shine spray tonight.

I will take some pictures of my AWI Brits and the new Confederates tonight.

Draft Complete

2010-06-23T09:24:00.000-07:00

Well it is finished. I have shot it on to Rich to take a look. Now to get back to painting.

I got distracted from painting militia and provincials to finish off an older unit with an officer and bugler for Lauzon's Legion. I also primed a bunch of confederate infantry.

Last Two Scenarios left for "By Fire and Sword"

2010-06-22T12:15:00.001-07:00

I have it down to just two left. I am struggling with the Battle of Hanging Rock. I think I know how I will treat Fishing Creek. Once these two are addressed, I will be done.

If you have never been to his blog, AD does a wonderful job presenting a clear view of the battles of Sumter's Brigade on his blog. http://miniawi.blogspot.com. There is a bunch of great stuff.

The main problem is how to present some of the larger actions in Sharp Practice without needing hundreds of miniatures Hanging Rock has close to 1600 participants. It was a fiercely contested battle that involved some really good units on both sides.

Peter Pig AWI Miniatures

2010-06-13T15:51:00.000-07:00

Just received some Peter Pig miniatures in the mail. I ordered one of the British Dragoon command packs and 3 of the British Dragoon packs. I also ordered one of the British Light Infantry packs, four of the militia packs, one of the Gun crew packs, a pack of the waving ladies and a pack of disordered markers. I really like these miniatures. I believe that they will jump to the front of my painting queue.

I also managed to get some painting in this weekend. Painted 10 British Light Infantry as New York volunteers (Lancashire Miniatures British Light Infantry Marching pose) - Red Coats, Buff facings and white pants. Also managed to paint a mounted British colonel (Friecorps).

I have another 25 or so Light Infantry figures from Old Glory to paint up. I think I will paint them as Delancey's Brigade - Red Coats, blue facings. I also have some Lancashire Southern Loyalist militia to paint up. I might combine these with the Peter Pig miniatures to create a large unit of Loyalist militia if they look compatible with one another.

Once these are done, I have 8 more mounted militia and some other assorted figures. I still need some grasshopper guns for both the British and Rebel militia. At some point I also want some Catawba Indians. But those can wait for the time being.

From the picture on the Peter Pig site, I am trying to determine if the Battalion guns will work as Grasshopper guns.

I have finished the first 16 scenarios of "With Fire and Sword". Just six more to go, then I will be submitting it to Rich for publication. Some of the scenarios are quite large. Others are a much more modest size.

Progress At Last

2010-05-14T05:46:00.000-07:00

More work has been done on "With Fire and Sword". The first 10 scenarios are now complete. At this point I think I am half way done. Hopefully by the end of the month, I can submit it to Rich to publish.

Now I just need to get some more painting done.