Happy New Year - Plans and Preparations

At the start of the year, I am contemplating the hobby projects that I am planning for this year. I think I have settled on 4 main projects.

#1 - Chain of Command - Third Battle of Kharkov

This one is just starting out. I am just gathering sources for this one. The Third Battle of Kharkov features plenty of armor and much of it mid war stuff that should make it more popular. This one I don't expect to finish out until 4th Quarter of the Year, provided I can find good accounts of the action rather than the large overviews that I have round so far. The action takes place out in the country side as well as plenty of house to house fighting.

#2 - Chain of Command - 3rd Armored Division

This is being spawned by a book I am currently reading - Spearhead by Adam Makos. Among the battles covered by the book is the acquisition of the Pershing tank by the 3rd Armored Division and its employment in battle. It features a good account of the battle for Cologne where a Pershing took out a Panther tank in the town center. The battles are broken down into small enough encounters that make them ideal for Chain of Command.

One battle in particular captured my attention. This was the first combat deployment of the Pershing. I am trying to find a good account outside the Spearhead book. There is an armored assault across a field that is covered by dug in 88's. What struck me as interesting was the solution to the problem of the 88s. Given the size of the engagement, my thought was that this might be a great scenario to try with 6mm miniatures. (of course I have sold off all of my 6mm stuff.) The Americans would have a tough go with this scenario. I have no idea when or what shape this project will take.

#3 - War of Jenkin's Ear

I have the project nearly complete. I am play testing scenarios now. This one should see the light of day within a couple of months. I still have some miniatures to paint up. I am looking to get some Blue Moon Miniatures to fill out my Indians with a storming party. I have plenty of Peter Pig Minis to paint up to round out my Spanish Regulars and Grenadiers. I have some Khurasan British to paint up as the 42nd Regiment of Foot. Need a few more to finish them off. I'm a little disappointed that they only have marching poses.

The play test that I did on the last Games day revealed that I need to paint up more fort wall sections. I thought I already had done them. Turns out, I had not.

#4 - Infamy, Infamy

This project is a whole lot of fun. I need to do more play tests. But I have been shopping for STL files to round out my terrain. Speaking of STL files, for Christmas, I got a new 3d printer. Very excited about it. I have finished setting it up yesterday and will do a test print tonight. Once that is done, I will be printing up a whole bunch of stuff for all of the projects above.

For Infamy, I am getting closer to having all of the troops that I want. I have a full centuria of Auxilia and enough additional auxilia for two more centuries. For the oposing forces, I have enough Celts for a British force. I have the lead for the start of a German force. I had done more research on the German Limes and am anxious to get this on the table.

I just jumped in on the Kickstarter from 3d-Print-Terrain.de. I used it as an opportunity to grab his earlier Rome kickstarter. Two more days for this one to end. In his Rome kickstarter he has some awesome fort pieces that will let me build the forts that I want to build. In addition to the fort pieces, there are limes towers, palisades, legionary fieldcamps, a forum, temples and some city buildings.

Also on Thingiverse I found a temple of Hercules that I want to build. Plenty to use to make a nice Vicus for a fort. I just need to figure out a bath house.

Anyway, we will see how well I do with this plan. Happy New Year.

East Front Bundle - Scenarios a plenty

I made an East Front Bundle deal on my PayHip Store. It has five different scenario books within and works out to over Sixty-Two scenarios in multiple campaigns.

It includes:
1) Campaign for Ustilug - $2.00 (Six Scenarios for Chain of Command)
2) First Encounters - $0.99 (One Scenario for Chain of Command or What a Tanker)
3) Campaign for Kharkov: October 1941 - $6.00 (Twelve scenarios for Chain of Command)
4) In the Name of Roma - $11.00 (30 scenarios for IABSM and Chain of Command)
5) Second Battle of Kharkov: May 1942 - $9.25(13 scenarios for Chain of Command and What a Tanker campaign)

The bundle is $20 on the PayHip Store and saves you $9.24 over buying the books individually.

Please stop by and check it out here: https://payhip.com/b/pG2X.

If you will help me promote this, I would be very appreciative. Send me the link to where you posted about it and your email address and I will send you a coupon for my web store. I am dealing with some medical bills and could use all the help I can get. Thanks.

The Second Kharkov Campaign is Released!

The Second Kharkov Campaign is a pair of Pint Sized campaigns for the TooFatLardies rule set Chain of Command. The first campaign covers the initial Soviet attack on German lines in May 12th of 1942. It follows the advance of the Soviet 38th Tank Brigade and the 226th Rifle Division in their attack on the German 294th Infantry Division which was blocking the main roads leading to the city of Kharkov. The campaign has seven scenarios and involves British Lend-Lease tanks. The entire campaign spans a single day of this battle where the Soviets made significant gains and in many cases broke the German lines.

The second campaign covers the German counterattack on May 13th of 1942. Having released the armored divisions that were being held in reserves, the German 3rd Panzer Division pushed up from Kharkov and cut through a number of Soviet units. This campaign has six separate scenarios and covers the time from the 13th to the 16th of May 1942. This campaign has scenarios that may be played out with the What A Tanker rule set as well due to their armor heavy nature.

The third campaign in this book is a What A Tanker Campaign. This allows the player to create a map based campaign to move their forces in a kreigspiel type manner until their forces make contact, then play out the scenario using the What A Tanker rules.

Lastly, the book provides some sketches of other units and actions that can be used to create your own campaigns with. The maps are based on period maps from German and Soviet armies. Each scenario has a game map and a picture of the table that I used to game these out.

The PDF comes out to 105 pages and includes a short history of the campaigns to provide the player with a background on the action that they are fighting.

You can buy the supplement from here: https://payhip.com/b/5Mhv or on Wargames Vault https://www.wargamevault.com/product/280662/The-Second-Kharkov-Campaign-May-1942. It is also now availible as a paperback on Amazon.

Ukrainian Village

All of my Things From the Basement Buildings are now complete (chapel and well). I also finished off that Star Fort Miniatures Water Mill.

Things From the Basement has a few more items that I want to order. #1 - Their windmill. It looks great. #2 - Outhouses. I need many more. So far my village has to share a single one. I can see that being a health and safety issue that even the communists wouldn't go for. #3 - Their fence packs. this is my only complaint about TFTB. The fence packs do not have enough fences to be practical. I need a bunch of them. I plan on using theirs for interior fences for animal pens and the like. They are really nice but not enough.

Speaking of fences, I have ordered some 46" of fences from Blotz along with a pack of tombstones as I do not have a graveyard. In terms of terrain items that I need to do, I think I am done. I have a ruined Red Vectors village that is now glued together. It is a bit basic but should paint up well. They match their regular village pack and can be used to hot swap buildings as they take damage. So that is on the "want to do" next list. I also have 2 more tiny chicken coops from Things From the Basement. I also found some haystacks that I should paint up.

After that, it is laying out the terrain for the Second Kharkov campaign. I am starting with Scenario One. This is a big hill with a Balka (dry river bed - the Ukrainian version of a wadi I guess). To accomplish this, I had the idea of cutting up a thin exercise mat and layering it up. The problem was, someone had already chopped up the mat I intended to use. I want to blame someone else but no one else did.

Plan B involved Home Depot. I found some 14" x 48" x 1" foam sheets. it came in a pack of 6 of these for $15. I bought one pack (foolishly) and thought it would be enough. Well, it is not. I did the bottom of the hill and part of the second level. I need another pack. I should have that finished by Sunday.

The plan is to have a 1" thick exercise mat as the base. Then pin the hill structures to it. Then cover and pin a ground cloth to the under structure and decorate that. All in all, it should be workable.

Progress on The Second Kharkov Campaign

I have finally finished the text and maps for my second Kharkov pint sized campaign book. I am ready to begin some serious work playtesting and getting editing done. I was so happy with it, I had to print it out and take a picture.

The cover will be replaced with some pictures. I am trying to decide if I like the fake Russian Font on the cover or not. I keep changing my mind about it. Any opinions out there?

I also got two more houses from Things From the Basement finished. One is a rather fancy house with a stone base and a tin roof. The picture came out much lighter than it actually is. The other is a smaller house with a thatched roof again. Very happy with how these turned out. I have since rusted up the tin roof some.

I have two more buildings to work on. The Things From the Basement Church and the Star Fort Miniatures water mill. I have thatched the roof of the water mill. Still waiting for the glue to dry on the thatch to continue on the roof. I need to prime both buildings and will take care of that today. I also have a things From the Basement Well. I will work on that today as well. Possibly by Sunday, I just might have everything painted that I need for the Second Kharkov Campaign.

What is frustrating is that I had some thin mats that i use for hills that go under my ground cloth. They have mostly disappeared. I can only find a couple of them. No idea what i did with them. Now I have to find plan B to accomplish the hills and Balkas that I need.

In unrelated news, the first Episode of LARD TV is out and they are playing a scenario from The Swamp Fox! I was really happy to see this and it is well worth the time investment. Check it out here.

Progress at last

I finally got some painting done. Two of my Red Vectors russian village pieces are now complete.

I used an old washcloth for the thatching and I think it came out alright. I still have another shed and two houses to do as well as a pig sty. Then that little corner of my village will be complete and I can move on to Things From the Basesment's Russian village. Those are far more intricate buildings and have intimidated me to paint them so far. I am hoping to overcome that and knock them out by next week.

Speaking of Things From the Basement, they are run by a great guy who is adapting his 28mm chicken coop to 15mm for me just because I asked. I ordered some fences from him and he offered to send me a test run of the chicken coop in 15mm. That is an item that I have been wanting for some time. I have an HO scale chicken coop that I am not entirely happy with.

Yesterday, I engaged in retail therapy. Besides the fences I ordered, I also ordered the ruined version of the Red Vector's Russian village. And some roof shingles from Warbases. I am excited about this and it should help me finish the Second Kharkov campaign. Speaking of which, I and well into the second campaign that will be in the book. Have been working on scenario 2 of 6 for the second campaign. The map is done and I think it looks pretty good. I am doing all of the game maps in Campaign Cartographer instead of using aerial photos like I did in the first book. Hopefully they will be clearer.

Once this is done, I will be back to making 1/300 sailing ships to wrap up the last bit for my KMH supplement. Onward and upward.

Thatched Roofs

One thing I have been wanting to do was to create thatched roof buildings for the Eastern Front. I have the buildings that have some rather plain MDF roofs. I have been struggling with this. I attempted to copy what the Red Beard Baron did on youtube with caulk. The caulk I had dried clear and looked bad. I switched to spackle. That was worse, brittle and ended up needing to be cut off of the roof. Furiously searching the net I came across the War Bard's article on his towel roofing. I decided to give that a shot. And... It looks like it works. I have three of 4 buildings with strips of a worn out wash cloth across them. I glued them down with a mix of tacky glue and water. Then once attached, I have covered it in more glue and water. It has dried hard and looks sturdy. The tough part is working around the chimney's of two of the buildings.

My goal for tomorrow is to give the whole mess a base coat in black. If I have any motivation left after that, I may even paint some. I'm not holding my breath though. Still really tired and weak from the hospital. But at least I am back home.

With these four buildings, I should have a decent amount of terrain to start laying out my Second Kharkov games. The buildings are really nice but I can't remember who the manufacturer is.

Messing About with Terrain again

I had a free day this past weekend and grabbed some brushes and went to work getting some terrain finished. I didn't finish much but got started on plenty.

I got an outhouse and a metal roofed barn completed. I didn't undercoat either of these. I am not sure I like them but I don't dislike them enough to do it over.

Then some of the work I started on but didn't come close to finishing. There are some large swampy sections and a bunch more rural Ukrainian buildings.

One of the images shows an attempt at making a thatched roof. I am close to abandoning this effort. Not sure it is achieving the effect I am looking for. Worse, the think dried clear instead of white making it harder for me to tell what it looks like.

These last two I finished earlier and forgot to post about them.

Second Kharkov Campaign - Part 1 Complete

I just finished with the first of two Pint Sized Campaigns for Chain of Command for the Second Battle of Kharkov. There are seven scenarios based around the Soviet assault on the positions of Kampfgruppe Winkler in May 1942. The follow the account from Federovka through Nepokrytaya. The campaign puts the Germans on the defensive and have a tough fight to hold the line as the Soviets attack with veteran infantry and green armored troops.

Unlike the first battle of Kharkov supplement, this supplement takes place in rural areas and in open terrain. The maps are based on period maps of the area supplemented by Google Earth views of the terrain today. I have included snippets of the historical maps for players to choose their own interesting location for the battles if their terrain availible would better match other areas. The game maps are done in Campaign Cartographer and are labeled as to what types of buildings and structures are on the table.

One of my favorite scenarios from the batch involves a 10.5cm gun that is fired over open sights at lend lease armor. The scenario features a hastily assembles German platoon brought forward from a rear collection point and the gun attempting to stave off a Soviet armored advance.

Why seven scenarios instead of a six half ladder campaign? Well, it fit with the flow of the battle. I began with the initial defensive line and ended with the fall back position in the woods to the rear of Nepokrytaya.

What else will be in it? I am working on the second pint sized campaign now. This one covers the counter attack of Gruppe Schmidt-Ott of the 3rd Panzer Division that was called out of reserves on the second day of the battle and moved from the south of Kharkov up to the northeast to retake Nepokrytaya and push beyond.

This action involved both armor and infantry from the German side and the accounts of the battle have the Germans engaging a wide variety of Soviet vehicles including T-34s, KV-1s and older tanks. What makes this interesting, is it opens up for the possibility of a What A Tanker campaign. Once the Chain of Command scenario set is complete, I am looking to have modifications to run it as a What A Tanker campaign as well.

I am still working on a number of East Front Terrain pieces to complete out my collection for these campaigns. I am currently working on my Wild Lands store terrain. I am close to completing the first of the set that I had purchased from them last year. It turned out rather well and I am really happy with the purchase. They sell off of Facebook and are based in the Ukraine. The purchase process is a bit different than most of the online stores I have dealt with but the product is outstanding.

What I really hope to build up is the scatter terrain to make the rural houses look like places people actually live in. This will include chicken coops, sheds, barns, storage huts and the like. I also need more garden plots as well.

I hope to run a few play tests soon and post some pictures. I am also waiting on some friends to finish reviewing it and letting me know what they think. Hopefully, I will be able to release this in the spring this year. (I may be a bit optimistic.)

Second Kharkov Campaign

I have been making some progress on the new campaign supplement. Thus far I have it broken down into two campaigns so far. The first campaign covers the Soviet offensive on May 12th and the attack of the Soviet 36th Tank Brigade and 226th Rifle Division against the positions of the 294th Infantry Division. Among the changes I am looking to add to the campaign is a support option for the Soviets on the advance based on a reference from William Russ on his book of the battle.

"there is heard a loud and cheerful conduct, with lots of liquor distribution."

This was from a report from the 79th Infantry Division. The officers apparently were getting the men drunk before the offensive to improve morale. I am thinking about a support option. It will be a level two support option that will raise Soviet force morale by 2 points for a given battle. It can only be used for one of the initial battles and then discarded. I need to test this out a bit before actually including it.

I have also been preparing my armor for it. The first campaign features no armor for the Germans and plenty for the Soviets. It is possible to play the game with a Soviet tank force that is supported by infantry. The 36th Tank Brigade was largely equipped with lend-lease equipment. It began the battle with 17 of the new T-60 tanks, 10 Matilda IIs and 20 Valentine IIIs.

There are several instances in the battle where the tanks outpaced the infantry and assaulted German positions without them. This proved to be very costly as the Germans used field artillery aimed over open sights to engage Soviet armor to great effect. But ammo shortages caused the gunners in most cases to spike their guns and leave.

The Germans will be equipped with mainly infantry forces. Each ladder rung will result in the Germans having a mix of troops made up of soldiers that had fallen back from the forward outposts and thrown together to blunt the Soviet attacks.

The second campaign will be the German counterattack launched on May 13th by the 3rd Panzer Division. The 3rd Panzer Division was undergoing refit at the time of attack. It was a veteran unit that had been fighting since the invasion of France in 1940. The division had only a single battalion of armor that was combat effective and a single battalion of panzer grenadiers. These infantry were largely truck mounted rather than in half tracks. They were supported by a reconnaissance battalion of mostly motorcyclists. They possessed towed anti-tank guns and some artillery.

The tanks of the 3rd Panzer were 5 working Panzer IIs, 34 operational Panzer IIIs (both 37mm guns and 50mm guns combines) and 6 operational Panzer IVs (all short barreled versions f1 or older).

The paths of the two campaigns cover much of the same ground. The 3rd Panzer swept up from Kharkov and sped straight towards the 36th Tank Brigade in Nepokrytaya. This was also the town where the 294th Infantry Division had the last stand of Kampfgruppe Winkler.

I think I will have the first campaign largely complete before the end of the week. The 3rd Panzer's campaign will take a bit longer as I am trying to get more details on their actions. I have a good history of the division but it doesn't give many details that are useful for scenarios.

I put together a map of the areas that the campaigns will cover. There is a great Russian language site that has excellent WWII maps of the Eastern Front, especially the Ukraine. http://freemap.com.ua/karty-ukrainy/nemeczkie-karty-vtoroj-mirovoj-vojny-3-x-kilommetrovki The maps are taken from maps Y50, Z50, Z51 and Y51 on their site. These were German operational maps.

I need to do some work on making sure I have enough armor painted up. I have everything that I need but just need to get them smartened up a bit. They all have rather basic paint jobs on them. That is the update for now.

One idea I had for this campaign book was to provide enough of a map for each portion of the battle for folks to be able to move the battle to a place that they have terrain for. For instance, there are two scenarios that take place in Federovka. The first is on the outskirts with the Germans having defensive positions in a balka (dry ditch). The second is the fall back positions in the town itself. I found a great period 1/50,000 scale map of the town and its environs. I am providing enough of that map for the player to say, I don't have a church but I do have homes with gardens and trees. They can then use the map to move the location of the battle to match it with the terrain that they have and still be in the historical context of where the battle took place.

That is the update for now. Will probably post more later. Been trying to get stuff off the paint table that has languished for too long.

Second Kharkov Campain

Wanted to post an update here. I managed to break my 3d printer. I think I have replacement parts already but I am very sad about it.

I managed to get some writing done and have the first of several pint sized campaigns laid out. It begins with the initial assault of the german positions at Federovka. The small town was laid out on a dirt road that ran north to south. It provided a natural spot for the Germans to set up a hedgehog defense line. It was in the direct line from Stari Staltov to Kharkov.

From the 1:50,000 scale map that I have, i have outlined the two areas I am looking to use for the town battle. The first is the initial outposts that are positioned along a balka or deep ditch that runs outside of the town on the hill the town resides on.

I annotated the map based on a document I found on-line that explains russian map symbols. It is very comprehensive and makes for a very useful key. I am going to provide a map like this in the booklet so people can move the map around to match the terrain that they have if they wish instead of the spots that I picked.

The Germans had a bad position as their line of retreat was through a grassy swamp that was directly to their rear. Initially the infantry held up against the infantry assault. But when airsupport and tanks arrived, the Germans at Federovka broke and fled to the rear. These troop pulled back to hill 119 that is just to the left of the map above.

Second Battle of Kharkov

I found in my research an interesting potential scenario for Chain of Command. On the first day of the Russian Offensive (May 12th, 1942), the town of Nepokrytaya was the headquarters of Gruppe Winkler. Most of the infantry had abandoned the town due to the approach of Soviet tanks (Actually British Matilda IIs and some Valentines) that their poor quality anti-tank weapons could not damage. What remained in the town were the Regimental Headquarters and two German 1.FH 18 howitzer batteries. These were 10.5cm guns. These directly engaged the approaching tanks and disabled six of them causing the Soviets to break off their attack.

I thought this could make for an interesting encounter. I have been searching the web for appropriate maps of the area. My go to spot http://www.wwii-maps-photos.com does not have maps of the area east of Kharkov. It does have situational maps for each day of the battle though. Here is an excerpt of the May 11th, 1942 map that covers the general area.

You can clearly see the 6 AOK position in Kharkov and the bridgehead at Staryi Saltov.

I did find a new site today. It is a Russian site but it has fantastic maps. It may have what I want in a 1:25000 scale which would be perfect. The problem is, I have to translate them to figure out what I am looking at. I have the general area M 37-062. I just need to find the right subpart.

Campaign for Kharkov - Errata Now Availible

I have created an Eratta Doc for the Campaign for Kharkov. There were some things I missed the first go and I have had questions on. The Errata doc is availible here. Thanks again.

Campaign for Kharkov

I just want to say a big thank you to everyone that purchased a copy of the Campaign for Kharkov. Between Wargame Vault and the blog, I have sold just under 50 copies. Not too bad. I am calling it a success at this point. I have also sold a couple of hard copies on Amazon (more than the one I bought) so I am very happy with that. Kindle just does not seem to be a useful format for wargaming books, in my opinion. I think that a PDF or hard copy works better.

I am not sitting idle. I have picked up an old work in progress and am running with it. It is a Napoleonic Naval supplement for Kiss Me Hardy by the TooFatLardies. This will focus on small ship actions of vessels below the rate. The current rules are great but they do not provide enough differentiation between a 20 gun sloop of war and a 4 gun schooner. The rule modifications are done. It started as another AWI supplement focused on the South Carolina Navy but has grown to encompass more of the Age of Sail.

I would really like some help from any of you that have an interest in this to playtest. The concepts work in my head and what I have done on my table top but that does not mean that I have communicated them clearly. Any volunteers? Reach out to me on the contact box. I would appreciate it.

Lastly, Rich has my AWI SP2 supplement. It is in his hands and I anxiously await the verdict.

Thanks for reading.

Campaign for Kharkov - Now in Print on Amazon.

I just received my copy from Amazon this morning. I am very pleasantly surprised. The pictures came out very clearly. The cover is in full color and the inside is in black and white. I am very happy with how it turned out.

Click here for the Print version on Amazon.

The Campaign for Kharkov now in Print

I managed to get the settings right and now the Campaign for Kharkov can be purchased on Amazon both as a kindle book and as a hardcopy. The link to the hard copy is here.

The link to the kindle version is here.

You will notice that this is MUCH cheaper than my print version of In the Name of Roma. This is because I am using a beta feature on Amazon where they do direct print that is much cheaper than Createspace. I have not ordered a sample yet but will before the day is up.

The Campaign For Kharkov Pint Sized Campaigns are Complete

I have finished the work on the pint sized campaigns. There are two campaigns designed for the Chain of Command rules from TooFatLardies. But these can be applied to any skirmish level rule system. One covers the advance of the German 57th Infantry Division and the other the German 101st Light Division. The attack came in October of 1941. This city would be the site of three major battles for the city. The interesting aspect of the October 1941 battle is in the nature of the troops involved. The Soviets had superiority in armor. The Germans advanced with only a single STUG battalion in support of the 57th ID. The Soviets fielded the T34 as well as several improvised armored vehicles such as the KhTZ-16. While not a success on the battlefield, it demonstrated the Soviet inventiveness under the extreme pressure of the blitzkrieg.

There are twelve total scenarios in the campaign. Full force lists are availible for both German Divisions and the Soviet troops present. Maps are based on aerial reconnaissance photographs taken by German troops in September 1941.

I will be adding this to Wargames Vault later today. But it is availible here for only $6.00 US. Simply PayPal the money to my account - cstoesen@corecard.com and I will email you the PDF.

I would appreciate any reviews that I can get either here on the blog or on Wargames Vault. Thanks.

Note that a Kindle and a hard copy will be available on Amazon within the next couple of days. Stay tuned.

Note: An Errata document has been created for this. It is availible here.

Train Station

I started work on the train station today. After putting a base coat of paint on, I realized my mistake. I had not filled in the gaps in my not so great gluing job. I am trying to think what else I need to do to finish out the building.

Any thoughts?

More Progress

I managed to finish gluing the walkway together without gluing my fingers to it. I also mounted the passenger platforms to some wood. Unfortunately, I don't have the height that I wanted on the platforms. I may go back later and cut these out and add a second layer. But I am too lazy to do that right now. I need to paint the walkway. Possibly add more writing on it as well. I am still debating on permanently mounting the walkway to the passenger platforms. Any opinions on that? I am thinking of leaving it separate for ease of storage. I need to make one more similar board and I have what I need for my scenario.

It's not much, but it was significant in that I managed it with the shaking in my hands. Hopefully, that will stop soon when I can tune back the UC meds. I have started work on the rail station/govt building. Hopefully, I will get some paint on it today.

Warehouse Completed

I finished off a warehouse building today. Managed to get it painted. It was an ebay purchase that was a little fiddly to put together but I really like it.

The paint job does not do justice to the building. It will make a great addition to my eventual Kharkov table.