Happy New Year

2023 has come to a close and 2024 has started. I had a good Christmas that netted me some new books. I picked up British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793-1817 by Rif Winfield. While it is outside of the period that I am working on for the AWI scenarios, it is actually a significant help. It has shed some light on ships from the AWI as there were numbers of veterans of the AWI that continued service into the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. I also picked up James Henderson's Frigates - Sloops & Brigs. It is two books published together and was a great read. It gave me some ideas about the use of tenders. The British had armed tenders serving larger vessels to expand their reach. I have previously looked at examples around Charelston in the early stages of the AWI. These two have given me additional information to push forward on the AWI scenarios.

I also picked up Sacrifice on the Steppe: The Italian Alpine Corps in the Stalingrad Campaign, 1942–1943 by Hope Hamilton. This could become a follow up to In the Name of Roma.

Santa left me two new jugs of water washable rein under the tree this year. I have already used it to print out some 1/700th scale ships for a convoy scenario for To Covet Glory. With 1/700th scale, I find that I can get more than one complete ship on the build plate unlike 1/300th scale. I am trying to find out how to print out some smaller vessels than what are currently available. I am having fun with the resin printer. It seems to be much more straight forward than the filament printer I was using earlier.

I have found a figure to convert for my 1982 Israelis for Lebanon. I plan on printing a few and seeing how they look when I match them with my exising Peter Pig miniatures. I printed a Merkava Mk2 that came out rather well. I need to sand the barrel a bit to fit with the turret. Somehow I lost the turret hatch cover and need to print that.

------- 15 days later ---------

Somehow I forgot to hit the publish button here. I found out that even with water washable resin, you MUST wear gloves. The resin gave me a bad rash and swelling around both eyes when printing. It took about a week to heal. I am going to invest in lots of gloves. Will probably wear a mask and goggles as well.

I did purchase a 3d Model for a Bermuda Sloop from Wargaming3d. The model is very nice and the producer was more than willing to talk to me. I am shrinking the hull down to 1/700the scale. I am printing it with and without guns. For a mast and spars set, I had tinkered with some for a cutter a while back and I am going to try to reuse that even though the topsail will be too large for a Bermuda sloop.

I had done some more work on my AWI book for To Covet Glory. I am having great fun going through Winfield's book on the Royal Navy in the Age of Sail. He has a vast amount of information on ships below the rate. Thus far I have been making ship stats for all of the Ship Sloops of the Royal Navy. It has shown me a few mistakes in the original To Covet Glory. I will have to update the book at somepoint.

ImagiNations - Cold War - Game 1

Having the house to myself, I managed to get a game of Chain of Command in last night. I am using them to game a fictional Cold War campaign that I posted about yesterday.

Setup

While the Soviets are fully painted and based, I just did not have any attachment to them for some reason. So I spent my set up time prepping for the Israeli platoon. I used the force composition from Rock the Casbah for a full strength Paratrooper platoon. This would prove to be too strong in my opinion and unbalanced the game. The Israelis were flush with leaders. They had two senior leaders in the form of the Platoon Commander (Segen Mishne), the Platoon Sergeant (Samal Rishon), a Sergeant (Segen) commanding the headquarters squad and three squad sergeants (Segen). The HQ Squad was a small formation with a radio operator, a designated marksman, two riflemen and a medic. I chose to leave out the two man Dragon anti-tank missile team as an optional support item. The squads were large and broken into three fire teams. The first team containing the Corporal (Rabat - did not treat as a leader for the game), a Light Machine gunner and a rifleman. The second fire team had a rifleman with an RPG-7 (the Israelis had captured so many of these weapons in 1973 and again in Lebanon that they were widely distributed among their troops but were not officially part of their organization) and two riflemen. The last fire team was formed with the second corporal and three riflemen. One of these three was to be equipped with an M203 under their Galil rifle but Peter Pig does not make such a miniature and my scratch building skills stink. Here is where I made a mistake. This was an 11 man squad. The paper strength of the squads were 18 men. But I doubt this was ever achieved. The squads could have had 12 or more men. What I did not do was leave any behind with their vehicles. The whole platoon dismounted. I should have left a driver and gunner behind at the very least if not also a track commander.

The Soviets did leave three members behind as I only painted up the dismounted elements. The Soviets had their platoon leader, the platoon sergeant and three squad leaders. The squads had six men in addition to their squad leaders and were broken down into two teams of three men each. One with a light machine gun and two riflemen and the other with three riflemen, one of which was sporting an RPG-7.

I treated both similar to how the main Chain rules treat US or German mechanized troops. The base unit is the infantry in the vehicles. Their vehicles are extra. I treated the M113 as a List 5 item and the BMP-1 as a list 6 item. But that was just me as I was making stuff up. Given that for support for mission 1, I rolled one List one item for support, it was dismounts only. I really did not have anything for a List One support so everyone was running with what they had.

Platoon Background

The Segen Mishne for the Israelis was a fellow by the name of Raul Speyer. Originally born in Sao Paulo, he made Aliya in 1974. He found a home in the army and has not left. He is a barrel of a man.

The Samal Rishon of the platoon is Meir Ben-Shahar. Born in Haifa, he is a tall and thin who is somewhat of a gear head. The command track for the platoon is the smoothest running vehicle in the company.

Commanding the headquarters squad is Samal Levy Kantor. He is a kibbutznik from the Galilee. He is extremely happy for this posting and gives thanks daily he is not in Lebanon. He is even taller than Meir and once considered a career in basketball.

The first squad is commanded by Samal Phineas Homa. Phineas is a Tel Aviv beach bum of average build. He would rather be back looking for a felafel on Rechov Shenken.

Second squad is commanded by the dour Samal Yannis Friedman. An average man from Jerusalem who still carries his Haredim curls.

Third squad is under the command of another man from Tel Aviv. Uriel Sachar is of average build but with his blonde hair and blue eyes appears more Aryan than a son of Abraham.

The Battlefield

Raul's platoon was rushed forward toward the border to attempt to intercept any Soviet advances. They were moved to an area known as the Saddle for its twin hills with a shallow pass through it. It was a fertile area that was fed by a stream on the eastern side of the Saddle.

The farms on either side of the saddle have been in an ongoing feud for the past 70 years. Neither party is sure how it started but rumor has it that inappropriate activities with sheep were involved. In retaliation, the other farmer signed his name in the other farmer's field in 12' tall letters in salt. The feud has mostly be fought out in pranks and mostly harmless things. But the advent of the war caused all the farms in the area to be abandoned hastily.

The Patrol Phase was carried out. I am still not really good at this part. The Israelis had the higher force morale of 11 (lucky roll) so they went first. The Soviets, with a terrible die roll, had a force morale of 8. I figure the Soviets were assigned to East Bratislovakia as a punishment. That would make them have a lower morale at the start of a campaign.

The Israelis began in the center section of the table. The Soviets from the bottom left corner. The advancing scouts moved forward with the Israeli's getting to the hill and over it before the Soviets.

And yes, the patrol markers used are Italian WWII Patrol Markers. I never got around to making any others. Both sides went with just three patrol markers each.

Using US Pennies and Dimes as Jump Off Points, the Soviets had crummy positions. The Israelis had two that were on the hill and one on a table edge. In the diagram below, the Jump Off Points locations are circled in what I think is Blue for the Israelis and Red for the Soviets.

Turn One

Rolling 64432, the Israelis moved with the Platoon Sergeant to the middle jump off point with one squad following him there. Another Squad was deployed on the second jump off point right in the middle of the saddle.

The Soviets next came up with a 5,5,4,2,1 for their initial phase. Deploying their platoon sergeant and one squad into the sheep pen, I made the mistake of not placing them up against the wall in cover. This would be a mistake. The one was thrown away as I was not willing to break the squads up yet.

The next Israeli phase gave them a 5,5,4,3,3. This was a dandy roll. The squad at the middle jump off point moved up on one die and was placed on over watch by the platoon sergeant.

That left more room for action. So the squad deployed in the Saddle was placed on tactical and began to creep forward.

Somehow, I let the other 3 drop. The Soviets had a really good roll of a 6,6,3,3,2. This gave them the next phase. They deployed a second squad to to the top corner of the sheep pen. And another squad near the ford. With the remaining die, the initially deployed squad attempted to fix their error and hugged the wall. This movement drew the fire of the Israelis placed on overwatch. Net result was two shock on the squad.

The next phase had the Soviets move again but with a less immediately useful roll of 6,5,5,5,3. The newly deployed squad in the sheep pen attempted to dash to the trees in front of them. This drew some fire from one fire team that had them in their line of sight causing one casualty and two points of shock from moving flat out. Worse yet, my poor movement die rolling stranded the Soviets in the center of a stream.

With this next turn, I forgot to take some notes. The Israelis deployed their final squad behind the hill in an attempt to counter the movement of the Soviet squad. Also the headquarters squad was deployed behind the squad on the saddle.

The Soviets fired on one of the fire teams on top of the hill and scored their only casualty for the day.

Also the squad in the stream darted forward to the cover of the trees.

Apparently, I am hard headed and have not learned anything from Rich's tactics lessons. The Israelis on the hill got bogged down into a fire fight with the Soviets opposite them. What they did have was good dice rolls. They managed to put down three men and brought them to 4 total shock on the squad. The Soviet Platoon Sergeant would attach himself to the squad to attempt to reduce shock.

The Soviet Platoon leader arrived and now the whole Soviet force was on the table. He tried to move the squad across the ford. Abysmal die rolling did not even get the squad to the edge of the ford.

At this point the game was all but over. The squad in the saddle fired on the Soviets at the ford and knocked one man out. The newest squad moved around the base of the hill with two teams moving tactically and the third (lmg team) on over watch. This stopped the one Russian squad in the trees.

The squad across the hill poured fire into the one Russian squad and killed 5 out of 6 of the men with the two attached leaders making it out safely. But the squad broke from accumulated shock. They fled back nearly to the table edge. The Soviets burned a Chain of Command die to avoid the morale test but the Israelis burned one as well to end the turn. This routed the remains of the squad (1 man), the squad sergeant and the platoon sergeant off the table putting the Soviet morale at 4. Seeing as the Israelis still had a morale of 11 and were only down one man, the Soviets withdrew, giving the field to the Israelis.

Aftermath

Well, the Israelis had too big of an advantage with the super sized squads. I should have pulled three men from each squad to serve as the crew for the vehicles. The Soviets lost 8 men in the battle which worked out to 4 men KIA, two that will miss at least the next action and two that could return to duty.

The Israelis had their man return to duty right away. They obtained what was essentially an easy victory. I was not sure what to do when the defenders win the first scenario in a half ladder campaign. So what I will do is fight over the same terrain using scenario 2 as the game with the Israelis as defenders again. This time both sides will get their vehicles. Mostly because I want to play with those toys on the table. When dismounted, the Israelis will be down 3 men.

The Soviets will be deploying a brand new platoon as the men are being divided among their regiment as replacements and the Platoon Leader will be "interviewed" by the GRU to understand where the failure occurred and then "transferred" elsewhere. Either to a shallow grave or to Afghanistan depending on how merciful the GRU officer is.

Raul is sitting pretty. His men's opinion of him is now at a +2. His commander's opinion is at a +1. No one was recommended for a medal. Depending on when I get home, I may play this tonight.

ImagiNations - Cold War

I have been thinking about my Cold War project as of late. I want to start fiddling around with it sooner rather than later, least I loose my motivation for it and it suddenly have another project that collects dust. So here was my thought to push some toys around the table with what I have. Create an ImagiNation of East and West Bratislovakia that is located in the intersection of Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Austria.

The small nation was largely overlooked during World War II due to its tiny size and the fact that it did not appear on German or Soviet maps. As a result, the nation suffered no damage during the war. The nation was an absolute monarchy. It was centuries ago it was a minor portion of the Austro-Hungrian Empire until its Duke declared himself Emperor of Bratislovakia and independent from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The nation was rather disappointed when no one noticed. Cooler heads prevailed and they downgraded themselves to a kingdom a few years later.

The main export of Bratislovakia is a plant based yellow dye that is used in making artificial cheese products. Kraft foods has the only contract with the nation and patented its usage in their "Mac and Cheese" products. They are also known for being the only nation to have perfected an artificial beet flavor. Strangely the production facilities for the beet flavoring were all located in the eastern portion of the country.

In the 1950s, the small country split into eastern and western sections following a nearly bloodless revolution. The now two nations were so small that they had been largely ignored by NATO and the Warsaw Pact until the late 1970s. Fortunately for Kraft, the processing plants for the yellow dye was located in West Bratislovakia.

Eastern Bratislovakia began forging closer ties with the Soviet Union and began receiving military aid in exchange for beet flavored candies and jellies. Western Bratislovakia promptly appealed for aid from NATO as this was happening.

Eastern Bratislovakia began to receive equipment and some Soviet advisers. The west looked to improve their ties and offered some space within their borders for a NATO base. NATO accepted their offer but under the direction of the Carter administration were hesitant to post troops there. During the Regan administration, the base was populated with a training battalion and troops from around the world were sent to Western Bratislovakia for training.

Beginning in 1983, the NATO base in Western Bratislovakia had the training battalion and units from Israel, Brazil and Spain present. To the East, the Soviets had upgraded their advisory presence to a full Infantry Regiment and had equipped the Eastern Bratislovakia Defense Forces with modernized equipment. Both the East and West Bratislovakian militaries were brigade size forces. Each trained and equipped according to their sponsor nation's doctrines.

On July 10th, 1983, Eastern Bratislovakia's Independence Day, an incident occurred that began a shooting war. A flock of Western Bratislovakian goats wandered across the border into Eastern Bratislovakia and destroyed several acres of crops that are used to make the artificial beet flavor a week before the harvest. The loss of these plants was catastrophic to the Eastern Bratislovakian economy as they had a huge order of Beet Flavored Lolipops that were needed to be shipped to Moscow in payment for the brand new BMP-1s that the EBDF was training with.

The goatherds had managed to wrangle the animals and were retuning back to West Bratislovakia when a patrol of EBDF arrived on the scene and opened fire on the goatherds and their flock. Western analysts question the events and have forwarded claims that the photographed animals were already dead before being shot at by the EBDF patrol as some goats clearly have their throats cut. It was also argued that a significant amount of the agricultural damage was due to the Sagger missiles fired at the fleeing goats that were running away from the automatic weapons fire.

In the sabre rattling and political denunciations that followed, Soviet and US diplomats quietly met to ensure that the conflict remained isolated to Bratislovakia and would not cross other borders. The deal brokered by the Soviet and US ambassadors would effectively isolate the two Bratislovakias from the outside world. They had permission to utilize any advisory forces present within their borders as of July 10, 1983. Later satellite evidence shows that a Regiment of Hungarian Infantry came across the border on July 11th after the deal was brokered. In the long term, it would temporarily sour US and Soviet relations but for the course of the Bratislovakian War, it would have no real impact.

After the slaughter of the goats, the EBDF moved forces into West Bratislovakia the next day. They did not cross the border until 2pm in the afternoon. First, each of the nations with troops in either side of the border were given the option of withdrawing or remaining to fight. Despite objections of some of the western nation's diplomats, all of the military forces chose to stay and fight.

In a hastily organized defense, several of the units at the NATO training base were rushed forward to encounter the enemy. Thus the saga of IDF Task Force Mordecai was born.

Task Force Mordecai was the name given to the company commanded my Captain Uzi Mordecai. His was a company of Israeli paratroopers operating as mechanized infantry. Most of his vehicles were standard M113 tracks but a few of them had been upgraded to the new TOGA armor. Those were in limited supply as most of the more recent equipment was being sent into Lebanon rather than on a single company on training exercises in Europe.

The first field headquarters of TFM was a small village just a kilometer from the border. The village had been largely unchanged for the past two centuries. It is from this position that they were to hold their area of the border. To their right was a unit of the West Bratislovakia Police. West Bratislovakia lacking the manpower for both a police force and a military, they combined both functions into the same force. Calling their army "police" seemed less provocative. Besides, that way they could claim they did not have an army. Just police mounted in armored personnel carriers with a few tanks as a bonus. What police force would not want an M60 tank to deter burglars?

To TFM's left was the Brazilian contingent. Surprising everyone was that the Segen Mishne of TFM was a Brazilian emigre to Israel who was therefore, fluent in Brazilian Portuguese. Thus the two companies had vexed their American trainers by cooperating far more closely than any other training units had before. This would help them in the coming battle. The Brazilian contingent had a platoon of M-48 Patton tanks that they were borrowing from the Americans for the training exercise. The tanks were a permanent part of the American training force.

Well this is what I have cooked up for tonight. Lets see what happens. Scenario 1 of a Chain of Command campaign coming up!