Cabins, Fences and Corn Fields

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

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.

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

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

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.