WWII Campaign

I am thinking of doing a "Platoon Forward" style TW&T campaign. I am looking into the Actions of Easy Company, 38th Infantry Regiment US Army on July 11th, 1944. They were part of the attack on Hill 192.

Opposing "E" Company was elements of the III Battalion, Falschrimjager Regiment 9. A half company occupied a farmstead known as Kraut Corner. They were further supported by some armor elements in the town of Cloville. Depending on the sources, the armor was a Panzer IV and some form of self propelled gun. One marked this as an 88mm gun on a Panzer III chassis. In my thinking, this was likely a StuG III or similar vehicle. "E" Company was supported by tanks from B Company, 741st Tank Battalion. One was a dozer tank and the other had a cullins device.

I just picked up a FOW Sherman Dozer tank and a StuGIII & PZ IV just for this. I am still thinking how to make the campaign work.

A New Year - Old Projects

Well to start off 2010, I finally put some paint on the Lancashire Southern Loyalists I bought. I am painting them with the colors for the New York Volunteers. I took the color guide from the old dauphinehotel web site. They have removed the webpage but thanks to the magic of archive.org, we can pull it back.

I will paint up Loyalist groups for the New York Volunteers, the Royal NC Regiment, South Carolina Royalists, the British Legion and possibly some of Delancey's 3rd Battalion.

So far the figures have not gotten much attention other than a red coat. If my son will go to sleep at a decent hour tonight, I might make some progress on the rest of the uniform.

Note: Updated on 3/18/2016 with web address for site.

Another OOHHH, Shiny moment.

Having heard a rumor about a set of Dark Age Skirmish rules from the Land of Lard, I reached back into my cabinet and reexamined my 10mm Dark Age figures. I have a Norman and Anglo-Danish army that I have started to paint and base for "This One's Split." I was wondering if they could server double duty but quickly dismissed the idea. Sticking with my main scale I decided to jump into this in 15mm. Cruising the internet I found a miniature company that is local to me! Splintered Light Miniatures (http://www.splinteredlightminis.com/).

They produce 3 Dark Ages lines: Post Romano-British, Early Saxons and Early Scots/Irish. Having read the Cornwall Arthur series, I was entranced by the Early Saxons. I wanted to create a Saxon raiding party. I contacted SLM and told the owner about what I was looking for. He made a custom skirmish pack for me and allowed me to specify the contents. For $20.00 I received over 25 miniatures. 2 bowmen, 2 with javelins, 11 medium infantry with spears, 4 armored spearmen, 3 armored men with swords, 1 armored musician, 1 armored standard bearer, and one armored guy with a big axe.

Since Armor and swords were marks of wealthy men, I figured that they would be fairly rare. I will be treating the fellows with swords as Big Men. One has a Sutton Hoo type helmet which was nice to see. I wanted a group that was mostly unarmored spearmen. With SLM's help, that is exactly what I got. I am very pleased. This will definitely derail my painting plans over the holidays.

I will be spending some more at SLM in the future to be sure. One thing I really like is the Personality packs that they have. The Saxon pack contains a giant of a man and some shamans/wizard types. It looks like the Sutton Hoo helmet fellow was from this pack so that was a nice bonus. It also has some other infantry poses that are not in the other packs. Great variety all around. Perfect for skirmish armies. The standard bearers for the Saxons have some sort of dead animal skull on a stick to wave about and inspire the troops with. Another bonus pack that they have that I did not get was some War Dogs. They might end up on a future wish list.

My plans are to create two Saxon Raiding parties. One that is completely unarmored and this one. Then once those are painted up, I will get a Post Romano-British infantry only force. (Can't assume Arthur and his knights are everywhere after all.)

SLM also has some Dark Ages buildings for your skirmishers to defend or attack. Very nice miniatures and worth checking out.

Google Analytics & Other nonsense

While reading the "This One's Split" blog a few weeks ago, I learned about Google Analytics. Absolutely nifty little tool. Using this, you can track how many people actually visit your blog. Saturday November 21st seems to be a banner day as I had 6 visits! Whoo Hoo!. :)

Anyway, it is a very clever tool that would prove to be really useful for someone who gets significant traffic to their blog or any website and it is absolutely free. Thank you Google.

Anyway, enough of that. I have just purchased from TheWarStore.com, two finished river sections of terrain (JR Miniatures - muddy river). I have a home made bridge section that was about 11" long that looked just silly with just felt on either side of it to serve as a stream or river. Now I have a mighty river for my gaming table of a whole 31.5" in length! Hmm.... I guess I know what to ask Santa for this year.

They seem to be nice sections that should match up enough with my home made piece and will look much better than the felt I had been using. Once Thanksgiving is over, I will try to get a game in at home. Something just to use my AWI items with again and to keep up the enthusiasm for the follow up for This Land Divided.

So here is my question for my faithful readership (yes, all 6 of you), what do you believe is the most essential piece of terrain that you have/use on your wargames table? Which piece do you find makes it on to the table time and time again?

Lancashire Miniatures Arrive

I just received my miniatures from Lancashire (http://www.test.gtns.co.uk/). they are rather nice models.

The first pack is: ARC9 Light Infantry/ Mounted in Hunting Shirts.

There are four models in two poses. The first pose is a man with slung rifle holding a sword out in front of him wearing a tricorn hat and a hunting shirt. The second is a man cradling a rifle in a round hat. Both are nice poses but have some flash on them that will need to be corrected. They look very compatible with my Freikorps mounted infantry.

The second pack is: ARB10 Southern Tories.

The southern Tories have ten miniatures in just one pose. The pose is well done of a soldier marching at shoulder arms. Again the hats seem a bit larger than they should and ride rather low on the miniatures head.

The third pack is: ARB11 Tory Command.

The command pack has two drummers, two officers and two standard bearers. The officers are holding their swords out in front of them. The drummers are holding their drums. The standard bearers have a cast on standard poles. The metal is very soft on the standard poles which might prove difficult later on. The hats are pulled low over the eyes of each of the miniatures. This is the opposite issue than the OG Militia drummer has with his hat pushed far on top of his head as if it were several sizes too small. there is little to no flash on the miniatures and they seem to have very nice detail.

The fourth pack is: ARA1 Militia

11 miniatures were included in this pack. Three are loading weapons, three resting on them, three cradling their rifles and two advancing. They come in five different poses and have several different hats. The detail is less pronounced compared to the Tory militia but still quite nice casts.

Overall view:

This was money well spent. The figures look like they would be very compatible with my existing Old Glory miniatures. At least much more so than the Freikorps infantry miniatures. I will try to get some pictures done tonight to give a better idea of what these miniatures look like. The mailing time took slightly longer than Freikorps but not by more than a couple of days. I am definitely going to be going back to Lancashire again. My only gripe is that they do not have any artillery - just crew.