SOTCW Events

Big Game at Sheffield, 21-22 April 2012

2011-12-06T12:28:00.000-08:00

There seeming to be little enthusiasm for an SOTCW game at Hammerhead, it seems our next event will be the Big Game I am organising for Sheffield this coming Spring.

The event will be a weekend-long tabletop campaign based upon General Sir John Hackett's The Third World War. The plan is to put on a game (using Cold War Commander rules) that explores modern(-ish) mechanised warfare in width and depth. I want commanders to have to worry about their supply lines (without getting bogged down in book-keeping) and to have to think about protecting key points from raids by enemy airborne forces etc.

The venue is Dungworth Green Hall in Dungworth, near Sheffield. The cost will be £10 per player and the event will run from 10am to 5pm on the Sunday and Saturday. There are B&Bs within walking distance.

Please make yourself known if you'd like to play.

Hammerhead show, 12th February 2012

2011-11-20T02:01:00.001-08:00

Do we want to put on a participation game at Hammerhead in Newark, Notts this coming year?

I had originally planned to put on a 6mm scale Cold War Commander game set in Andreivia and designed to showcase The Baggage Train's 1/300th scale Arnhem Bridge model. However, the show coincides with a family commitment of mine so I can't make it. I'll lend kit, though, if there's the enthusiasm to put on a game and it's needed.

I haven't specified to the organisers what, if anything, we'd put on so were not committed to scale or subject it just has to be a participation game within our society's scope.

Can you please let me know what you think so I can let the organisers know if we are interested.

Richard

Game for 2012

2011-10-13T13:35:00.000-07:00

The time has come to plan the SOTCW game(s) for Hammerhead, Gauntlet and where ever else we end up playing.

I've agreed with Stephen Oates from The Baggage Train that we'll showcase his massive Arnhem Bridge. Now I'm not keen on building Arnhem so I thought we'd move the bridge to Andreivia.

If you're up for discussion of the possibilities of a 6mm scale Andreivian game using (I propose) Cold War Commander, follow me now to Andreivian Tales....

Saturday in Barnsley

2011-09-18T05:17:00.000-07:00

The Gathering this weekend was a pleasant and successful event thanks to the cheerful participation of the visiting SOTCW members and local Barnsley club members and in particular thanks to the organising efforts of Mark Kniveton.

We ended up with five games (I left my Arc of Fire game it is boxes as we didn't need it). On the "big table" Mark Kniveton ran the Battle for Lingevres in 28mm using Disposable Heroes. This looked really good and kept its four or five players enthralled all day. Here we see a Panther that's just taken a fatal penetrating hit on the mantlet from the Sherman Firefly in the distance.

We had a couple of small, fast play games. Phil Gray presented "The Men From Del Monte" in which, hours after Pearl Harbor, USAAF B-17s operating from dispersal fields on a Del Monte pineapple plantation, try to launch ad hoc bombing raids against the Japanese. Meanwhile, Gordon Hanson ran his
short game "Intervention Strategy".

Meanwhile, a couple of the Barnsley members put on a very pretty Rapid Fire game:

And I got to play in Rob Connolly's epic Plickem Ridge game. This was a Square Bashing game using the authentic order of battle for this bloody sector of the Passchendaele campaign. Phil took on the role of General Blackadder (no, really, one of the British commanders actually was...) and Carl Luxford and I took the Germans.

The muddy fields of Flanders can be seen below. Huge mass of Brits in front of Phil in the foreground; thin line of gallant Landsers in front of Carl in the distance:

A Map of Barnsley

2011-09-16T10:59:00.000-07:00

This map shows where to park your fuel guzzling, CO2 belching, death machine.

I'll be bringing mine ;-)

Northern Gathering 11am, Saturday 17th September 2011

2011-08-30T13:44:00.001-07:00

Can I please remind you all of the SOTCW Gathering taking place in Barnsley shortly?

We will be meeting at Barnsley Association of Wargamers' premises above D.C. Studios on Shambles Street (about 5 minutes' walk from the station). 1100-2000 on Saturday 17/9/11.

All SOTCW members and any interested non-members are welcome to attend.

There should be at least three twentieth century games in a variety of scales but there's room for a couple more if you fancy running something. Please let me know if you're interested.

Richard Crawley

SOTCW Events Co-ordinator

Next Year's Game?

2011-07-19T11:55:00.000-07:00

For some time I've been discussing with Stephen Oates of The Baggage Train the possibility of SOTCW putting on some sponsored participation games using Stephen's recently completed, massive 1/300th scale Arnhem Bridge.

At Gauntlet I suggested to the team that we put on a series of Cold War Commander games using the bridge as a centre-piece of the terrain. I thought we could do a series of scenarios linked by a common narrative thread with the result of each game influencing the set-up of the following game.

Now as usual my first thought was to pick a setting for which I could provide all of the toys now as that way, other people could get involved but in the case of a disastrous no-show by someone we would already have everything we need. this in turn led me to suggest that the game be set in the fictional North African republic of Maghrebia - I'd like to use my late 1980s Spanish Marines as interventionists against the republic's suspiciously Iranian-looking armed forces.

However, I think I may have been too prescriptive in my enthusiasm for my idea. Ian Shaw suggested reusing the Andreivia setting and in retrospect I think that's got a lot going for it.

So what do you think? I'd like to hear from the members. What should we do?

55 Days At Peking - Richard C's pics

2011-07-04T13:03:00.000-07:00

As we've had plenty of pictures of the models, I thought some pictures of the players and surroundings might be of interest.

From left to right: Pete Jones, Jamie Crawley (partly hidden), Gary Hinchliffe, Ian Shaw, Meic, Peter, Alan Fleming, Richard Baber and Will (floating head) McNally.

And here's Ian Shaw with his lunch.

Oh, no, sorry - that was Adam who ran the American civilians for an hour or so on day 2.

55 Days at Peking - Will's pictures

2011-07-04T00:40:00.000-07:00

This is just my collection of photos from the game, Pete's report (next post down) is more comprehensive and it's better to read his report first.

The Boxers make an early rush at the French legation (figures provided by Alan Owen a SOTCW member in Denmark specially for the game)

For some reason Luigi and his ice cream cart was in Peking. But sensibly left the Italian Legation early. Counters in the legations reflect the mix of supplies available to the national contingents

After the officers staff conference in the British Legation an explosion occurred in the rear wall conveniently allowing the Russian and American officers a quick route back to their own legations

All quiet in US and Russian legations with no officers around to order people about

But not for long as waves of boxers attacked the US legation

An unfortunate problem at the important bridge on Legation Street

Thornhill's Roughs and the Japanese prepare to defend the little Fu.

French looking vulnerable after both the Austrian and Italian legations were abandoned

Alan's Boxers again (with some quick basing) attacking the British legation

Fort Halliday under attack from a random band of Boxers. Clear plastic CDs were used as movement trays for large boxer groups)

Frenchmen being slaughtered as they defend an outer position.

French legation under severe threat, The Austrians abandoned their gun just after their officer was hospitalised due to sunstroke, note the Boxers on the right heading off to the Japanese Legation now held by Italians

A major thrust by the Boxers through the Imperial Carriage Park against the British Legation

The Boxers didn't ignore the Germans (who won the prize for the least enterprising national contingent as they stayed hunkered down behind their walls for almost the complete siege.

Boxers massing against the Little Fu, which would shortly fall. The Boxers at bottom left had just wiped out the Japanese defenders on the outer defenses

The French in real trouble, with no ammunition left they have fallen back to a position inside the legation. Those boxers mentioned earlier have sneaked round and entered the Japanese Legation from the rear.

The retreating Italians meet up with the International gun and the quote of the game “Losing one legation is unfortunate, losing two is just careless”

Shortly after this a random shell hit the bridge causing the international gun to drop into the waters of the Imperial Canal without firing a shot.

55 Days at Peking - Gauntlet 2011

2011-07-03T15:17:00.001-07:00

A turn by turn After Action Report of the 55 Days at Peking game at Gauntlet 2011
By Pete Jones

“Losing One Legation Is Unfortunate, Losing Two Is Just Careless”

The Legation players were as follows:
United States : Meic (day 1), Jamie (day 2)
Russian : Peter (Day 1), Rich C (day 2)
British : Alan Fleming
German : Garry Hinchcliffe
Japanese : Ian Shaw
French : Richard Baber
Italian : Jamie Crawley
Austro-Hungarian : Richard Crawley (day1), Rich B (day 2)
Umpires: Pete Jones and Will McNally

A report from Peking City by your reporter Pete Jones

1: Following the assassination of the German Minister 2 groups of Boxers appeared in Peking. 1 South of the Fu and 1 South of the Austro-Hungarian Legation. The Coolies refuse to work today for fear of reprisals. Therefore all Legation troops remained within their Legations as they could not build barricades.

2: On the Chinese wall the Germans and Americans received harassing fire to no effect. In the Hanlin 6 Boxers shot at the British Legation and killed 2 Marines, they returned fire and killed ½ the Boxers. The Hospital lost medical supplies so could not discharge any patients. The German Legation was short of food and lost 3 of its men to the Hospital.

3: Things are rapidly going down hill within the City. A new well had to be dug which once again restricted Coolie labour elsewhere in the Legation Quarter. Information was received of an ammunition store west of the French Legation and orders were sent to recover the much needed ammunition. The shooting on the wall continued and armed groups of Boxers now appeared North of the canal and South of the City. 2 Italians ended up in Hospital due to food shortages.

4: Extra water was received in the British Legation this morning but we have no problems here unlike the South of the City. A Boxer mob charged the French Legation but as they came into contact sustained firing wiped the group out. A Boxer group came into contact with the Italian Legation killing 1 Marine and wounding another, but they managed to fight the mob off. The American Legation manhandled their Colt Machine Gun into the street facing north and built a barricade to protect it. Boxer mobs were fought off with combined gunfire from the Russians and Americans.

5: The Japanese sent troops out towards the Fu to help Thornhills Roughs protect the it as the Boxers were now targeting the camp for Women and Children. Shellfire from the Chinese artillery started a fire in the German Legation. The Austro-Hungarian Legation came under Boxer attack and 1 soldier was killed and 1 wounded. A German patrol recovered the ammunition store west of the French Legation as the Boxer mobs approached. The British fire on the Hanlin could not get rid of the Boxer shooters. Fortunately, the Boxers are not very good with the rifles. The Italians send out a couple of troops escorting the Gun Carriage to see if it is any help in the North of the City.

6: A horde of food was found North of the Austro-Hungarian Legation however too many Boxer mobs prevented its retrieval. The Japanese shot many Boxers as the Fu is besieged. Meanwhile in the Austro-Hungarian Legation another melee was fought off at the loss of 2 injured marines. The Russians also had 2 men hospitalised whilst in hand hand to hand with the Boxers. The Hospital was now filling up with wounded which meant a lot less troops are available to fight. The Hospital now catches fire which endangers all within it. This is quickly put out with all Legations supplying water to help.

7: Shellfire starts a fire in the French Legation. Under sustained pressure the Austro-Hungarians partly abandon the South of their compound. The Japanese manage to retake the Fu and combine attacks with the Roughs. Russian troops are dispatched to the American Legation as the fighting becomes fierce. The French attempt to douse the fire but despite all the water the fire spreads. These are desperate times. Looting in Legation Street forces the Germans to send out patrols to protect the civilians.

8: Things are now critical at the American, Italian, French and Austro-Hungarian Legations and at this point the Ministers recall all officers to the British Legation for a conference. Morale drops across the City and this halves the effect of all shooting as the troops who no officers for direction. Whilst the conference is taking place the west wall of the British Legation is mined narrowly missing the Hospital. The Italian Gun carriage reaches the Japanese Legation. The French bring their fire under control preventing the loss of their Legation.

9: Food in the German Legation becomes contaminated and they lose troops to the Hospital. The British lose 1 dead to shooting from the Hanlin which is still occupied. The Italians abandon their Legation under weight of numbers of the Boxers. The Russians and British link up their Legations through the mined wall and build barricades to the North to protect themselves.

10: The Boxers climb over the wall of the Italian Legation and raise the Chinese Imperial Flag. They begin looting and setting the building on fire. The second Legation has fallen. The Italian forward party now occupy the vacated Japanese Legation making this their new base. The Coolies in the US Legation leave in the night fearing the Boxers will breach the wall. The Russians and Americans combine fire and stop the Boxer hordes. The Austro Hungarians recover the much needed food North of their Legation.

11. Reports are received of armed gangs killing civilians in the Mongol Market so the Russians sent a patrol out to help. They lose 2 men killed further down the line as the Boxers are fought off.

Our casualties killed so far are: 3 British, 1 Italian, 2 Russians, 1 Austo-Hungarian and 8 Roughs. In the hospital are 2 Germans, 3 Russians, 1 Japanese, 2 British, 5 Americans. The Hospital has patched up many soldiers already and returned them to the Fight.

12: A new start today perhaps? There is no let up from the Boxers with Shellfire starting a fire in the Japanese Legation which is quickly brought under control. The central stone bridge is damaged by Boxers and Coolie workers are dispatched to repair it. 3 groups of Boxers appear to the East of the Fu. Hand to hand at the US Legation kills 1 and wounds 2 others.

13: Doctors work hard in the Hospital helping to patch up soldiers and sending them to the besieged American Legation who are intense pressure. At both ends of the Chinese wall Boxers mobs appear. The colonial troops are now sandwiched between them. Another American is killed in hand to hand fighting.

14: The West French wall is mined and 1 man is killed in the blast. A gun barrel is found and we name it the International Gun. We gave a gun carriage from the Italians, the Russians provide the ammunition and the Americans have 2 men who are prepared to fire it. Firing at the US end of the wall is ineffective. The British are short of ammo and as 2 groups approach they are helpless. Boxers are at the French barricades and the Japanese barricade by the Fu. They have 1 man killed and 3 wounded as 2 Boxer groups approach.

15: Now the Boxers mine the West wall of the US Legation, fortunately no one is injured. The British receive ammunition just in time. The infiltrators are everywhere. At the German end of the wall sustained firing prevents Boxers reaching their barricade. Hand to hand fighting takes place at the US barricade and 1 American is a casualty. A Boxer mob heads towards the front of the British Legation by the Nordenfeldt gun. The British have 1 killed and 2 wounded but hold the front of their compound. The French lose 4 men outside their barricades but holding their barricade just it is very close.

16: The wooden footbridge which is an escape route for the Japanese from the Fu is damaged and is impassable. Coolies desperately repair it. The Austro-Hungarian officer is hospitalised with heat exhaustion. In the South of the City 4 Boxer mobs approach the Colonial troops. The French lose 2 killed and 1 wounded at the barricades. The Russians take further casualties losing 2 dead and 1 wounded but they hold the North part of the City still.

17: Now the infiltrators mine the Russian West wall, the French fall back to their Legation as the Boxer mobs advance and they have run out of ammunition. Another boxer mob contacts the west wall and a further mob are North of the French Legation they are surrounded on 3 sides with no ammo. The Germans hold the wall whilst a second mob tries to rush their barricade. The Russians drive back all the boxer with 2 well aimed volleys.

18: Disaster for the French they cannot find any ammunition. They fall back from their walls making a second line within their Legation. In addition in the confusion they lose their medical supplies to treat their wounded, disaster is imminent. Another Boxer mob contacts the Russians who have another 1 dead and 1 wounded. The German ramp to the wall is damaged preventing them from sending any reinforcements and more importantly retreating.

19: Ammunition is discovered in the Customs house in Boxer country and the Italians dispatch 2 men 2 recover it. The Japanese in the Fu lose 2 dead and 4 injured as 2 mobs attack them and break into the Fu. In the French embassy as the Boxer climb over the walls the French find ammunition opening fire in volleys killing all the Boxers that enter the Legation a heroic last stand. They survive at the point of defeat.

20: The German ramp is repaired and the soldiers on the wall or no longer cut off. With all the Boxer activity no water can be got from the well in the British Legation. The Hanlin which is still occupied by the Boxers has an ammunition cache but no one can get to it. Its just too dangerous out in the streets. There is hand to hand all over the Legation Quarter and our losses mount 1 dead and 1 wounded French, 1 dead and 2 wounded Germans, 3 dead Americans, 2 wounded British and 1 dead and 1 wounded Russians. The Japanese Legation being held by the Italians falls as the Boxer breach the walls. The Italian officer has now lost 2 Legations resulting in the Response by the Russian Minister of “ Losing One Legation Is Unfortunate, Losing Two Is Just Careless”.

21: Much needed food is found in a Chinese store north of the Russian Legation however due to Boxer activity no patrols can retrieve it. 3 Boxer mobs are attacking the Fu and I don't think it can hold. 2 Italians recover the food west of the Austro-Hungarian Legation but are ambushed by 3 Boxers and wounded. In the Fu there are 9 Roughs left and 4 Japanese and its time to abandon it. They head for the British Legation, strength in numbers. The Americans lose another 4, 1 killed and 3 wounded, we don't know how much longer they can hold. The British throw fire pots over the walls causing a fire outside the camp and it keeps the Boxers away.

22: A Chinese cannon appears at the German end of the wall. The Germans leave their Legation pushing South and taking the fight to the Boxers. The French are short of water but now strong in their embassy. The fire outside the British embassy now prevents the British form firing at the Boxers because of the smoke, this might be an own goal. Fortunately the men firing the cannon on the wall are not very competent and cause no casualties.

23: The Americans site the International gun on the middle bridge across the canal. It has a nice line of sight down Legation Street when suddenly there is a loud explosion. The bridge disappears in a cloud of smoke and the gun falls into the canal, it is lost. Boxers appear North and South of the City in 1 big final push.

24: The British Legation catches fire from Chinese shellfire and whilst fighting the fire the troops on the wall finally kill off the remaining Boxers in the Hanlin who have been there since the start of the siege. Desperate hand to hand are taking place everywhere as the Boxers attempt their final assaults. 1 Russian is killed and 4 wounded, but all the lines hold.

25: The Germans report the Relief Column has entered the City, we are saved.

The total killed after 50 days fighting was : 8 Americans, 7 Russians, 4 French, 1 Austro-Hungarian, 3 Japanese, 1 Italian, 2 Germans and 5 British. Total = 31

Conclusion
In the real Siege 52 soldiers were killed, in our refight it was 62. The location of the Colonial Perimeter was almost identical to the historical ending of the siege. Our siege last 50 days, 5 days shorter than the actual siege.

A big thank you to all players.

Boxer Rebellion - Ready to roll

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

It's already to go, we spent the afternoon setting up all the tables for Gaauntlet and then Pete and I laid out the table for the SOTCW game based on the 55 day siege at Peking

Some general views of the table

Austrian Legation

Italian Legation

French Legation

German Legation

US Legation

Russian Legation

British Legation

The Fu Place

Japanese Legation

If you are anywhere near the Airbus plant at Broughton near Chester please pop in and say "Hi" (Gauntlet link)

Boxer Rebellion - final playtest

2011-06-16T23:48:00.000-07:00

The final playtest for the Boxer rebellion game prior to Gauntlet was held at Deeside Defenders last night with a host of willing volunteers.

The briefing

The British show that they learned something in the Zulu War and construct a wagon laager in the Imperial carriage park.

The US and Russians await the onslaught

All seems calm on the other flank, until you see that the Italian legation has been abondoned

The last stand of the Austro-Hungarian legation before they too pulled out.

Just for my records the almost completed Fort Halliday covering the entrance to the British legation.

Over all the game was great fun and only a few minor tweaks need to be made, so roll on Gauntlet (2nd & 3rd of July)

Hook-up with The Baggage Train

2011-06-16T00:38:00.000-07:00

Steve Oates at The Baggage Train has recently completed work on his 1/300th scale Arnhem Bridge model and it's now available to buy. The model is an awesome 80cm long and you can be add Steve's extension modules to represent the bridge at Nijmegen. To celebrate this, we've agreed to put on a game using this and some other models from Steve's range.

Now I don't suggest that we try to build Arnhem town in 1/300th - that would involve thousands of buildings and, I suspect, wouldn't work brilliantly as a game - so I've taken the liberty of transplanting the bridge to the north African republic of Maghrebia. Maghrebia looks remarkably like Libya in its geography but there is more than a hint of Iran about the make-up of its armed forces.

For at least some of next year's games, then, SOTCW will be presenting the Spanish invasion of north Africa! I propose to use Cold War Commander rules and to set up a "matrix campaign" where the result of each game takes us down one of a number of possible paths to the next action.

More later!

Boxer Rebellion - test game

2011-06-11T08:57:00.000-07:00

The first test game on a full sized layout was held at the Deeside Defenders club on Thursday. Here are a couple of pictures of the action.

The British Legation is in the foreground with the British order cards laid out alongside so we could keep track of them (only three of us were play-testing).

German, French and Japanese legations, all quiet here except the problem of food supplies

One obvious need is for more ruins, we still couldn't fill the table using Pete's, mine and the Clubs terrain, so I have started work on more.

Overall the test went well, just needing tweeks to the orders and event cards.

WIP2 - Peking 1900 for Gauntlet

2011-06-10T08:10:00.000-07:00

Things are progressing I've assembled the sheets of textured paper and painted on the roads and insides of the legations. Further progress has been made with the buildings

Immediately in the foreground are from L to R the British, Russian and US legations

Next are the Japanese (J) German (G) and French (F) Legations with the Italians out on a limb.

Finally the opposite view showing how isolated the Austrian legation is.

A test game will be held tonight down at the club, so I'll see how it all works out then.

Draft layout of Peking 1900

2011-06-03T09:43:00.001-07:00

Given the good weather I thought it was time to lay out the legations to see how well everything fitted together. This is an overview of the entire table 6' x 10' with the edges and roads marked in yellow chalk.

Immediately in the foreground are from L to R the British, Russian and US legations

Next are the Japanese (J) German (G) and French (F) Legations with the Italians out on a limb.

Finally the opposite view showing how isolated the Austrian legation is.

It was just as well I had laid everything out as I found I had failed to count some walls, so more need to be added. The whole areas outside the legations needed to be filled up with burnt out buildings, walls, etc. The final layout will be marked out on some old wallpaper, which has a cobbled effect

Will

Northern Gathering 2011

2011-05-30T01:23:00.000-07:00

SOTCW's Northern Gathering returns this year on September 17th in Barnsley! All members (and interested non-members) are welcome to what should be an interesting new venue.

Barnsley Association of Wargamers have offered us the use of their dedicated town-centre wargames room.

The Barnsley venue is handy for shops, transport links and food outlets. In a departure from previous arrangements we'll be starting at 12 noon but we have the venue until 8pm so I'm going to suggest that we plan to break at about 6pm and go for a meal before returning to complete any unfinished business.

For many years the Northern Gathering at Middlewood Hall (and later the Garrison Hotel) in Sheffield was a major event for SOTCW. Unfortunately we lost affordable access to both venues and since then the event has largely lapsed. I'm optimistic that this venue can see the Gathering returning returning to the SOTCW calendar as a regular event.

Rob Connolly has already made some noises about putting on a western desert game and I'm sure Mark Kniveton will provide 20mm goodness. But that still leaves room for at least three more games. Volunteers please!

Alternative Map

2011-04-11T15:04:00.000-07:00

Will the below map is taken from the 1901 book The Siege of Peking being a diary of Rev Roland Allen. It is a direct scan from the book.

Hope this helps.

Peking 1900 - draft table plan

2011-03-27T04:06:00.001-07:00

Here's the first first layout of the table for the game, based on a 6' x 10' table

Looking at another map of the Legation quarter in the Osprey Boxer rebellion book, the French legation may need to be further to the right, joining the road.

Terrain Build

2011-03-19T18:01:00.000-07:00

Will bought down some test walling for the compounds last Thursday.

We have now worked out the size of the compound for all the Legations, so Will is going to start building them.

I have also done some work on the rules and event cards. Unfortunately I haven't got a day off for 2 weeks now so this will slow things down.

Colonial Flags

2011-03-09T08:24:00.000-08:00

I managed to find some authentic flags for the period:

Austro Hungarian:

British:

French:

German:

Italian:

Japanese:

Russian:

United States:

There were only 45 stars in 1900

Some other flags of interest.
Russian Navy:

Italian Navy:

German Navy:

2011-03-09T06:04:00.000-08:00

After a few days off I have been busy.

All the Austrians are painted and based thats 5 officers and 30 men. Also on the painting table are 48 British, just need varnishing and basing. More figures are on order to get the correct amount.

43 Germans also on painting table to go with the 1 officer and 8 men I already have. Onto the Austrian Hungarians, already painted are 1 officer and 8 Hungarians. I have undercoated 4 officers and 22 men.

I have out an order in for some more Russians as I am short of a few for these, I have sufficient for the other Nationalities French and Japanese. I know Rich is supplying Japanese but for completeness I am painting these up to.

I have the Nordenfeldt gun painted, so have ordered Maxim Gun, Colt MG and a field gun for the Italians. Also ordered are a number of sandbags from Ironclad Miniatures.

Its all going very well, and I have more time to take off so am really into the swing of painting again, the good weather helps.

More Boxers

2011-03-07T07:04:00.000-08:00

Alan Owen has sent some pictures of the Boxers he is painting for the Gauntlet game:

I have got a dew days off work now so will get stuck into painting some more colonials.

Crossing the Lippe, August 1985

2011-02-13T13:31:00.000-08:00

A group of Lancashire and Yorkshire-based SOTCW members today put on a Cold War Commander game at the Hammerhead show in Newark. The venue's a bit gloomy but hopeflly these pics will give an idea of how it went.

Here's Rob Connolly setting up the Soviet forces.

The white lines are ridge lines; they block line of sight in a more realistic way than the small hills usually seen on wargames tables.
The scenario involved a Soviet Motor Rifle Regiment (less one MR battalion but reinforced by an East German T-55 battalion) advancing from the north (left of table in this shot) and attempting to establish a bridgehead on the southern bank of the Lippe.

We diced randomly for air superiority each turn. A Luftwaffe F-104G showed when the NATO side had air superiority.

One of my new Su-15 Flagons indicated Warsaw Pact air superiority.

Phil Gray particularly asked for this shot - Soviet Air Force menaces Stuart Adams's Chieftain squadron.

Here we see the Warsaw Pact forces approaching the river. They continue to take heavy casualties among the Motor Rifle Battalions, many infantry dying whilst still mounted in their BTR-70s. The T-55s and T-62s are unable to do much to the enemy Chieftains.

T-62s attempt to cross a hastily laid bridge in the teeth of heavy fire from the Carl Gustavs of British infantry lurking in the woods.

In the west, The T-55s move up to cross the railway bridge. They were to get across only to roll double sixes on their next command roll. The resulting command blunder led to them withdrawing back across the bridge never to return!
Not long after this shot was taken the Soviet force reached its break point and failed its next command roll. The British had held the River line!

Thanks to Rob Connolly, Stuart Adams, and Phil Gray for playing. It was good to meet up with some other members (Hi, Rob!) and some potential members.

The Japanese have arrived!

2010-08-21T02:21:00.000-07:00

I finished painting my Japanese contingent for the game.

As per our decision to go for a 1:1 ratio for the defenders, I`ve done 24 men and four officers (including the two visitors).

Most of the figures are Combat Miniatures 20mm from their Russo-Japnaese War range.

The bulk of my force, painted up as line infantry in tropical uniform and light order equipment. The yellow hat band indicates a line regiment, the red shoulder boards are for their infantry branch of service.

Imperial Guard in full kit and dress uniform. Red hat band indicates they are Imperial Guard, once again red shoulder flashes for infantry branch of service.

Naval ratings (Elheim Figures - British Naval Landing Party)

Imperial Guard Lt. Haraj (converted standard bearer), Naval Capt. Morita (Elheim naval officer)

Capt. Ando, Col. Shirba - military attache (painted up with green hat band and shoulder boards as a cavalry officer)

2010-08-21T00:23:00.001-07:00

First Game

2010-08-07T12:34:00.000-07:00

On Thursday night Will and I tried our first Boxer game using the figures I already had together with Terrain we had lying around. I had written a set of simple rules and had a few ideas I wanted to try out.

The table was set up with several legations:

The rules for the Colonials was using a D6 to hit. Range of 12" hitting on a 5. During the game we amended this to 0-6" hit on 4, 6-12" hit on 5,6 and 12-18" hit on a 6. Boxers who were poor shots only hit on a 6. Troops in the open get no saving roll. Behind sandbags and boxes save on a 4+ and behind a hard wall save on a 3+

Melee was by rolling a D6 for each figure in contact and adding all dice together. For each multiple of 6 a figure in the open is killed. Behind sand bags each multiple of 9 kills a figure and behind a wall each multiple of 12 killed a figure.

The basic combat rules worked very well.

D3 groups of boxers arrived per turn. At first we used a clock dial (on a D12) for arrivals. We tweaked this through the game so that boxers arrived in the Foo:

We settled on the numbers of boxers in a group as 8 + D6. There was certainly pressures on the legation.

Morale for the boxers was 2D6. when they took a casualty they had to score equal or less than the number of boxers left. Its surprising how a small group of 4 or 5 boxers can keep coming!!! If they failed a morale test and the group was very small it was removed from the table. larger groups that retreated stopped out of range (or joined another group). Each turn the group grew by 1D3 figures. Once they reached 12 they could advance again.

We tried a couple of method of ammunition limitations and we settled on a system I designed some time ago. At the start of the game each legation has 3 ammo chips (we used counters but for the final game we will use wooden cubes from german board games). Each turn a legation could fire as many times as they wished (up to 3). Now here's the kicker. At the end of each turn you have to draw new ammo chips from a bag, however, there are a number of dummy chips in there of a different colour. So you may get no ammo for next turn!!

Next turn you can throw all the dummy chips in and draw back up to 3. It gave a real dilemma for legations do they fire at long range or at medium range how many times do you fire. The British legation did run out of ammo at a critical time, yikes and the Italian legation was abandoned:

We also had random event by putting 2 or 3 different coloured chips in the bag too, fires to legations, the finding of the international gun etc.

The other thing we did was recovery of casualties. For each casualty you threw a D6 if a 6 is rolled you got one of your wounded back. If your legation was on fire you could not get them back so in encouraged the colonial players to put out the fires. Likewise if you abandoned the legation you could not get casualties back.

The game went really well and legations were under pressure and had difficult decisions to make.

The final photo shows Wills wall which we agreed he could extend and we'll use it as the city wall for 1 length of the table

German Boxer Game

2010-07-31T14:41:00.001-07:00

More research bought up these pictures of a German boxer game from:
http://www.ths-wargames.de/index2.htm

Help From Danish Society Member

2010-07-26T12:07:00.000-07:00

Rich Baber spoke to Alan Owen who lives in Denmark has offered to paint up some Boxers for the game and post them over to us to use. He has 50 boxers painted up and based in 2's.

This is excellent news and I thank Alan for his kind offer which we have accepted. This also means that I will be able to paint up some Chinese Imperial troops, as we now have a healthy supply of Boxers.

Alan also states

Stan Johansen Miniatures in the US he does the International gun with crew, a Colt and a Austrian Maxim as well as figures for the combatants.

Will's Boxers

2010-07-20T13:25:00.000-07:00

Sine Pete has posted some of his figures to be used in next years game, here are my Boxers that I painted a while ago and still haven't seen action

The figures used are a mixture of Qualiticast 20mm metal and Orion plastics

For my own gaming convenience I have organised them into units with common jacket colours

The flags came from Matakishi's Tea House, which has some useful bits on the boxers

Andrews Wargaming Pages also has some information on the Boxers including some period colour pictures

Early Troop Pictures

2010-07-11T10:40:00.000-07:00

I already have some troops from long ago painted up. However the number you see in the picture is what I currently have. I intend to paint up at 1:1 for all the Colonial Troops.

Germany

Italy

Britain

Austro Hungarian
One of the reports I read said they hastily made unifroms out of Khaki Material

USA

Japan

Russia

Boxers
Currently have approx 100 boxers, I intend to double the numbers.

A Nordenfeldt Gun

2010-07-10T03:05:00.000-07:00

This is a Nordenfeldt gun on a naval mounting that's on display at the Royal Armouries in Leeds.

Figure manufacturers

2010-07-10T00:58:00.000-07:00

Jacklex - www.spencersmithminiatures.co.uk produce a range for Russo-Japanese War figures including Japanese infantry; they also do Yanks in Montana cap in their Pershing`s Expedition into Mexico range. They also do a Zulu War range with Brits in sun helmet and naval personel.

Newline Designs - www.newlinedesigns.co.uk do lots of nice figures in their Zulu War range

Combat Miniatures - do Russo-Japanese war figures

Boxer Resources

2010-07-09T14:16:00.000-07:00

I have drawn up a list of essential resources:

Books
Osprey's Men at Arms no. 95 The Boxer Rebellion by Lynn E. Bodin. A great general reference and the painting guide.

Osprey Campaign Series no. 85, Peking 1900 by Peter Harrington. Good photos and illustrations, bird's eye view of Peking legation, and maps.

The Boxer Rebellion by Paul H. Clements. Addresses causes, politics, and may give some insight into motivations. No photos or illustrations.

The Siege at Peking by Peter Flemming. Offers some useful details with respect to modelling and general details of the relief expeditions and battles. Few maps, no photos.

James Ricalton's Photographs of China During the Boxer Rebellion by Christopher J. Lucas. Only a few photos were specifically of the legations.

The Colonial Wars Sourcebook by Philip J. Haythornethwaite. A small section is dedicated to the Boxer Rebellion, it offers an overview of the Rebellion. B&W photos throughout.

The Fists of Righteous Harmony by Henry Keown Boyd. Similar to Flemmings book above. Many good photos and maps.

The Boxer Rebellion by Diana Preston . A well-written account of the Boxer Rebellion but as seen through the eyes of the Western participants only.. Some b&w photos and maps.

Magazines
Miniature Wargames magazine Nos. 65,66,67,68 (Oct '88 thru Jan'89) have a four part article. It covers uniforms, history, maps, etc.

Practical Wargamer magazine Autumn '88 has an article on the British Legation with birdseye view.

Wargames Illustrated no. 27 contains an article called "55 Minutes at Peking", which inspired me for the period. Contains pictures and rules.

Forces at Peking

2010-07-09T13:52:00.000-07:00

8 nations were represented in the legations and the following forces were involved:

Autro-Hungary: 5 officers and 30 men
France: 2 officers and 45 men
Germany: 1 officer and 51 men
Great Britain: 3 officers and 79 men
Italy: 1 officer and 28 men
Japan: 2 officer and 24 men
Russia: 2 officers and 79 men
USA: 3 officers and 53 men

There were also 75 men who had military experience.

Lastly there was second group of 50 civilians who called themselves Thornhill's Rough.

Heavy weapons included:
Austrian Maxim Gun
British Nordenfeldt gun (which incidentally jammed every 3 to 4 rounds)
Italian 1 pdr quick firing gun
US Colt Machine Gun

Later on some Chinese workers found an old Anglo-French rifled cannon. The Russians had some old 9lb artillery shells which they had thrown down the well to stop them getting in Chinese hands. The Americans got the cannon working, the Italians supplied a working gun carriage to place it on. It was called many names but the name that stuck was the International Gun.

In 20mm there are 3 manufacturers that I know:
Kennington Miniatures
Orion Plastic Boxers
Rec Box Plastics that cover a host of colonial troops and some of the relief troops too.

Legation Buildings

2010-07-09T13:49:00.001-07:00

Old Glory used to make some legation building but these are now long out of production but I have some images of them as we are going to have to scratch build them:

Boxer Rebellion Siege

2010-07-09T13:44:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of wikipedia:

The compound in Beijing remained under siege from Boxer forces from 20 June - 14 August. A total of 473 foreign civilians, 409 soldiers from eight countries, and about 3,000 Chinese Christians took refuge in the Legation Quarter. Under the command of the British minister to China, Claude Maxwell MacDonald, the legation staff and security personnel defended the compound with one old muzzle-loaded cannon; it was nicknamed the International Gun because the barrel was British, the carriage was Italian, the shells were Russian and the crew was American.

During the defence of the legations, a small Japanese force of one officer and 24 sailors commanded by Colonel Shiba, distinguished itself in several ways. Of particular note was that it had the almost unique distinction of suffering greater than 100 percent casualties. This was possible because a great many of the Japanese troops were wounded, entered into the casualty lists, then returned to the line of battle only to be wounded once more and again entered in the casualty lists.

Also under siege in Peking was the North Cathedral, the Beidang, of the Catholic Church. The Beidang was defended by 43 French and Italian soldiers, 33 Catholic Priests and nuns, and about 3,200 Chinese Catholics. The defenders suffered heavy casualties especially from lack of food and Chinese mines exploded in tunnels dug beneath the compound.

Foreign media described the fighting going on in Beijing, as well as the alleged torture and murder of captured foreigners. While it is true that thousands of Chinese Christians were massacred in north China, many horrible stories that appeared in world newspapers were based on the actual murder of men, women and children within the foreign legation. Nonetheless a wave of anti-Chinese[citation needed] sentiment arose in Europe, the United States and Japan. The poorly-armed Boxer rebels were unable to break into the compound, which was relieved by an international army of the Eight-Nation Alliance in August.

The map of the city looked like this:

Gauntlet 2011

2010-07-09T13:41:00.000-07:00

Now 2010 is over its time to look forward to next years show which is: 2nd and 3rd July 2011.

This time we are going to push the Twentieth Century Wargamers to its limits. Next year will be:

55 Days at Peking

Pictures and videos of Tifaruin game

2010-07-04T11:38:00.000-07:00

I now have photos and videos of the two day game at gauntlet.

SOTCW Game 2010 - The Rif Wars from Pete Jones on Vimeo.

You can find more photos at my flickr page:
flickr

Tifaruin/Gauntlet ready

2010-07-02T13:53:00.000-07:00

Sorry, no pictures but the table is now set up for this weekend's game, and it looks impressive already without figures.

Will

Tifaruin - secret of Rif success revealed.

2010-07-01T02:58:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the Journal's roving reporter, we can revel to readers the reason for the low morale in the Spanish garrison of Tifaruin.

This gentleman, Antonio Gelati, has been supplying Ice Creams and other cold delights to the Rifs surrounding the town. Often this is in plain sight of the garrison.

One unnamed soldier said he'd willingly surrender for a 99.

Tifaruin - buildings complete

2010-06-30T00:34:00.000-07:00

The fearless reporter for the Journal, Martin Adie, also known as the man in the off-white suit, arrives in Afrau.

A couple of views of Afrau

Tifaruin, Mullah Baber can be seen on the mosque

Sidi Massuad

Tifaruin buildings - WIP

2010-06-28T03:20:00.000-07:00

A quick update on my progress for "Tifaruin 1923" the SOTCW game at Gauntlet.

Here is the set up for the various towns. Afrau at the front (on the coast) Tifaruin on the right with the mosque and Sidi Messaud on the left.

Along with the mosque there are a number of other new buildings, plus quite a few old oneswhich I am tarting up ready for the game.

Roads for Tifaruin

2010-06-24T05:11:00.000-07:00

Just finished creating all the roads to be used for Tifaruin. Those who were at Gauntlet last year will recognise them as I have used the same materials as I used for the road over the Chiunzi pass.

Here's a sample

Rif bits and pieces

2010-06-02T11:26:00.000-07:00

Firstly, since there were comments that the trial layout needed to look more Moroccan rather than generic middle east. Here are some Rif/Moroccan flags trawled from the web, I always like to add some flags to my games to add a bit of colour.

Some useful stuff here on Steve Balagan's site for those interested (link)

Most of the flags above came from the Flags of the World site (link)

More Carronade pics

2010-05-11T11:11:00.001-07:00

OK, so I'm back from Carronade and listening to Gin Blossoms on the stereo while I let you know how it went.

The battle of the Krefeld Salient resulted in a narrow NATO victory and provided a great opportunity to let the good wargamers of Scotland know about SOTCW. The Falkirk club are to be congratulated on a well-run and enjoyable show.

As usual click on the pics to see larger versions. The first shot (below) shows the battlefield from the west with the British entering the battle area. The Brits (commanded by Richard Crawley) deployed as two battalion sized forces - an infantry battalion less one company and reinforced by a squadron of Challengers advanced between the railway line and the secondary road on the left (foreground of the picture below) while a tank heavy force (the rest of the Challenger regiment plus a company of mechanised infantry) straddled the Autobahn.

Here (below) we see the battlefield from the eastern corner. The Soviets split their force into two commands - the mechanised infantry hid in the woods either side of the Autobahn bridge whilst the T-72 battalion lined up on the large hill on the northeast bank. The CO and his supporting elements took up a position on the right flank.

We managed to get a number of players to join in. This is Callum - he was a wicked dice roller!
The Soviet airsupport table seemed to have a glitch. Whatever interesting units I included Stuart only ever rulled a 3 or a 4 so kept getting the MiG 27. Here we see it contributing to the destruction of the British infantry company that tried to dash across the secondary bridge.

Jim McCoy joined us for an hour or two and was a most welcome addition to the British personnel. Jim himself would have been involved in the war had it happened!

The Brits were luckier on the air support table - here we see three Harriers going in for the kill.

Stuart and Jim enjoy a break.

Stuart desperately tries to find some intact Warpact forces to move!

But it's not enough - as turn ten draws to a close, a cluster of 4s, 5s and 6s inflicts decimates the reinforcing T-80 company and the Soviet rearguard starts to break contact.

Carronade game - first pictures

2010-05-09T10:01:00.000-07:00

I popped into Carronade for a short while in transit to points North. I'm please to reveal that the Game was underway and casualties were already being inflicted on both sides.

Krefeld Salient Terrain Test

2010-05-02T02:24:00.001-07:00

My terrain cloth looked a bit monotone in some previous pics so I decided to try adding some texture by sponging on some paint. Let me know what you think. A bit too bright?

The new railway bridge (above) is by Irregular Miniatures. I've also added a Sukhoi Su-24 (Scotia) and an East German MiG-21 (Navwar? - had it for years partially-painted but only finished it this week).

And finally one of three electricity pylons from Lasermodellbau.de

Spanish orbat

2010-04-26T06:02:00.000-07:00

Spanish Foreign Legion Bandera
Command - Mounted colonel, 2IC, RSM, National standard, Bandera Std, bugler
Support - 3 x Hotchkiss MMG (2 crew each), 80mm mortar (3 crew), 2 pack mules + handlers, 4 ammo bearers, officer
Rifle company with -
HQ - 2 officers, bugler, standard
3 x 11 figure platoons each off - 7 rifles, grenadier, 2-man LMG team, officer/NCO

Army of Africa column
2 x 8 figure mounted cavalry troops
Infantry company with -
HQ - 2 officers, bugler, standard
Support - MMG (2 crew), 65mm mountain gun (3 crew), mules + handlers
2 x 10 man rifle platoons

Regulares Column
HQ - mounted Spanish officer, 2 native officers, standard
Support - 3 x 2-man LMG teams
5 x 9 man rifle platoons

Naval landing force
Support - "La Tiburon" (6pdr + 2 MMG)
3 x 9 man naval infantry platoons

Support services
`75 battery
Signals unit
Ambulance unit
Air support

Tifaruin Spanish forces

2010-04-26T05:33:00.001-07:00

Infanteria de Marina (naval infantry)

Figures from Kelly`s Heroes and FAA

Spanish Foreign Legion

Figures from Bandera, Irregular and BUM

Spanish Army of Africa infantry

Bandera and Irregular figures

Army of Africa cavalry

Converted BUM plastics and Warrior minis SCW cavalry

Regulares (Moroccans spanish service)

figures from Bandera and Barcino (of Spain)

Tifaruin, a trial layout

2010-04-25T03:56:00.000-07:00

With just over two months to go till Gauntlet I though I's better try a quick test of the terrain so I could see what was needed. The hills will go under the cloth, but I will need to construct some larger versions to correspond better with Richard B's map. This is all laid out on my 9' x 5' table tennis table

View from the west, Afrau on the coast and Tifaruin inland to the south

View from the east with Sidi Messaud

view from the north

Overall it's a bit tight on the north/south axis, so I'll either reduce the area covered by sea or expand the width to 6'.

So my immediate plan is to create the large hills needed, more palm groves to replace my deciduous trees (I've still got a pile in a box somewhere in the attic), then work on upgrading the villages, including addin a dock to Afrau.

More Krefeld Salient terrain

2010-04-18T13:12:00.000-07:00

My larger river sections are going to see action in the Krefeld Salient game. They've given years of good service in larger scales but I believe this may be the first time I've used them in 6mm.

We need some at least another river crossing for the game so I decided to see if I could do something usable with an Irregular Miniatures railway bridge I've had for a while. The result (so far is this...

The base is an off cut of the same hardboard I've used for my other river sections. River bank is built up from tile grout and the railway embankments are expanded polystyrene.

The bridge and rail sections are white metal castings from Irregular. The rail sections I'm going to glue to thin plastic card to get them to line up correctly. Having go this far I'm now at the "I wouldn't start from here" point. I think if I ever did anything like this again I'd build the ramps from plastic card frameworks - the expanded polystyrene is just too hard to get level (at least without a hot wire cutter.

More pics later.

Looks like a fish...

2010-04-13T11:21:00.000-07:00

... moves like a fish, steers like a cow!

This F104 has been sitting unused in my drawer of 1/300th scale aircraft for years. I think I bought it with an abortive Indo-Pakistan war project in mind.

Determined to find some oddball air support for the NATO side I did a bit of research and found that the Belgian Air Force had a couple of squadrons of F104s for the strike role. They could even deliver nuclear bombs if NATO released them to the BAF!

It will appear as an option on the NATO "Rare and improvised air support table" of which more later.

2010-04-05T08:58:00.000-07:00

Some pictures of the Autobahn for the Krefeld game, just about 5 metres of it! including 1 Bridge Section and 2 slip roads.

Stuart

We're getting there

2010-03-30T00:18:00.000-07:00

We had our second run-through of the Krefeld Salient scenario this weekend. The battlefield is beginning to look more like the finished article. Stuart Adams has built a lovely Autobahn complete with river bridge and I've done a swathe of bomb-cratered terrain showing the effects of the B-52 strike.

The next steps are to tidy up my river sections and add some secondary bridges. I might also have a go at painting the ground cloth to break up its even colour.

The (French) Cavalry Are Coming!

2010-03-22T08:54:00.000-07:00

One of my plans for this year is to get all of my 6mm stuff painted. I'm more than 35% of the way through the unpainted lead I had on 1st January so it's looking good. What it does mean though is that I'm reluctant to buy more toys for the Krefeld Salient game.

The NATO force is currently using most of the appropriate Western kit I possess some I've been casting though the old and unpainted models wondering what else I could add. The following unit is a result.

These EBR-90s are among the first micro-armour I ever bought. They'll appear in the game as elements of 1er Spahis from 1(Fr) Corps.

In Cold War Commender terms these would be recce troops but I've re-designated them as light armour for the purposes of this game. The cost 20 points less and don't get the special recce abilities.

The EBRs are, I think, H&R (but they may be Skytrex). The Jeep is GHQ, the AML-90 is H&R and the dug in infantry are Irregular Miniatures.

Krefeld and Playtest game

2010-03-01T10:33:00.000-08:00

Yesterday's game was good fun. Many thank Richard for putting all the effort in.

Just been taking a look at the Krefeld area.

Here is a map of the area around Krefeld as is now

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&source=hp&q=krefeld%20germany&oq=krefeld&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl

The area around Meerbusch to the south east of Krefeld looks like a good area to try and get on the table somehow, two roads the 44 and 52 cross the river going back to the Union and plenty of minor roads and some forests to give the Soviets some cover. Thoughts?

NATO pushes ahead

2010-02-28T13:08:00.000-08:00

Stuart, Phil and I took the first draft of the Krefeld Salient game to the Maltby Club today. The forces used were those currently intended for the final game but the terrain was just what we could throw together.

Jim and Justin look happy enough as the Soviet rearguard commanders. Little do they know...

The NATO force included a couple of Jaguar strike aircraft. These provided lots of fun as they bombed both sides and (see below) empty German factory units.

The were no aircraft units in the Soviet line-up but when the British Forward Air Controller rolled a Command Blunder and was found to have been strafed from the air we couldn't resist deploying this MiG-27.

By the ned of the battle the Soviet forces had been seriously bloodied. The British Challengers were virtually unstoppable. Here we can see them sweeping round the woods and shooting up BMP-2s at close range.

The Soviets were focred beyond their breakpoint and by the end of game turn 5 they needed to roll zero or less on two six sided dice to keep fighting!

Playtest game today

2010-02-27T23:47:00.000-08:00

Sorry about the size of the photos on the previous posting. I was trying a new approach of linking directly to the pics at Imageshack but something didn't go quite right. Unfortunately, the photos in question were stored on a laptop that has since died so I need to recover them before reposting properly. As things stand you can click on the images to see them properly.

I hoping today to get in a playtest of the Krefeld Salient scenario at the Maltby club. This should give an opportunity to take some more pictures.

Krefeld Salient NATO forces

2010-02-20T12:44:00.000-08:00

I've taken some pics of the NATO base force for the SOTCW game at Caronnade in May.

The main force consists of a Challenger regiment and a battalion of mechanised infantry in FV432s.

The Challengers were painted by Phil Gray some time ago. They are accompanied by a Scimitar recce platoon and a GW troop in FV438s. The Challenger on a square base is the Unit's HQ. I might well add a second HQ to the unit to help capture the superior flexibility of NATO doctrine.

The Infantry battalion (I'm calling them the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders) are in FV432s. The Challie-432 mix is true to Hackett's The Third World war which is the source for our scenario. As well as infantry there's an HQ, a machine gun platoon with GPMGs and three Milan teams.

Artillery support is in the form of three Abbots and an M110. Actually, it might end up being six Abbots - we'll see how the points balance out.

A Cold War Commander army needs a Commanding Officer element. In our case the British CO rides an FV439. I made this element years ago - the tarpaulin at the rear is made from lead foil and stretched sprue.
Air support for the Brits is in the form of a couple of Jaguars.

Among the planned reinforcements is a squadron of Chieftains from the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (seemed appropriate as we're playing in Scotland). The NATO forces are obviously scraping together forces for this operation. Infantry support is in the form of elements of 1st Armoured Squadron RAF Regiment in Spartan APCs.

I had a damaged Skytrex Chieftain and decided to replace the missing barral with a piece of brass rod. Rather than try to model the bore evacuator and thermal jacket I decided to depict some camouflage by gluing a pice of ragged-edged tissue paper over the barrel. The resulting model forms the HQ element for the Dragoons.

In addition to the Brits we have an interloper from 1(Ne) Corps in the form of a Leopard 2 platoon. I intend to build a few more Dutch elements to form a small reinforcing command.

Finally, here's a pic of the whole main force.

Carronade Game Terrain

2010-02-04T11:55:00.000-08:00

Hi All

My first post for the game :)

Richard and Phil, have dimensions been finalised for the tablesize, what size are we looking at?

Other than the cratered ground, what other terrain features do we need? Autobahn, Forest, Town?

Am off to Vapnartak on Sunday, so its the ideal time to pick up supplies.

Stuart

Carronade Game Agreed

2010-01-31T06:46:00.000-08:00

Following a meeting at the Maltby club this morning (it’s amazing how much SOTCW business you get through whilst refighting Jutland) we now have a plan for a SOTCW game at the Falkirk show in May.

The Krefeld Salient will mark the 25th anniversary of the fictional events in General Sir John Hackett’s The Third World War and The Third World War: The Untold Story.

We’ll be playing in 6mm (1/300th) scale and using Cold War Commander rules.

The scenario sees elements of II British Corps attacking (yes NATO on the offensive) a rearguard of 20th Guards Army in an attempt to prevent the Soviet main force slipping away from the encircling III US Corps (shades of Normandy and Cobra there perhaps).

I (Richard Crawley) am looking after recruiting the main forces of each side and Stuart Adams has volunteered to the co-ordinate the construction of the terrain. The letter should be interesting because the attack follows a major B-52 strike that shattered 20GA’s fighting capacity for several days. The countryside will be really ploughed up!

Anyone else who wants to get involved can do so by contributing reinforcing elements. I’ll post some example units here shortly. You can also get involved by playing, playtesting, or by suggesting ideas for reinforcing units or random events.

We hope to get as many people as possible involved in determining the course of the battle on the day. If you’re coming to Carronade you could play all day or for a short period by taking on one of our pre-generated reinforcement units or you could just purchase a few chance cards and decide how they are used. All proceeds will go charity as usual.

Look out here for more details shortly!

El Tiburon

2010-01-20T01:56:00.000-08:00

A couple of photos of El Tiburon "The Shark" pride of my Spanish Navy.

She's a resin model by Britannia Miniatures (a German WW2 armed trawler) crewed with various Kreigsmarine and Russian Naval Marines from Grubby Tanks and Britannia.

The photos were taken at two of our recent games.

test photo

2010-01-16T13:31:00.001-08:00

Spanish landing barge loaded with Infanteria de Marina

Breaking the Siege of Tifaruin

2010-01-16T10:03:00.001-08:00

A bit of background for those not familiar with this action -

The Rifian attempt to wipeout the Spanish outpost at Tizzi-Azza (the siege started around May 27, 1923) led to one of the most vicious battles of the campaign. Again and again both Regulares (Moroccan soldiers in the service of Spain) and soldier of The Spanish Foreign Legion (La Legion) attempted to break the siege, this climaxed with 2nd Bandera (of La Legion) led personally by Lieutenant Colonel Valenzuela the commander of La Legion; leading from the front as was expected of a Legion officer, Valenzuela was shot and killed, he became the only commander of La Legion to be killed during the conflict.

Major Francisco Franco Bahamonde, long looked upon with suspicion by his superiors and those opposed to Spain’s colonial adventure, was the obvious choice to take over. With his promotion to Lieutenant Colonel on June 6 with the blessings of the king, he returned to Morocco to assume command.

(After the death of Col. Valenzuela the Spanish authorities refused requests from the military to prosecute the war further, this of course left Tizzi-Azza a vulnerable position for many months to come. Invigorated by this success Abd el-Krim decided in August to move against Tifaurin, Sidi Mesaud and Afrau in the hope of another Annual like victory (a massive defeat for the Spanish back in 1921 which was the opening round of Abd el Krim's rebelion).

All three towns were quickly isolated and so began a series of engagements with the Riffians besieging the towns whilst preventing relief columns from breaking through. After several failed attempts on August 19 the defenders of Tifaurin sent a cablegram stating that they would blow up their position before ever surrendering to the Riffians!

Col. Franco acting with General Fernandez Perez organized a relief plan. Whilst the Regulares de Alhucemas would push against the Riffian defenses in front of Sidi Mesaud. Two Legion Banderas (1st and 2nd) together with a battalion of Infanteria de Marina (naval marines) would come ashore at Afrau and envelope the Riffians. This surprise-flanking maneuver stunned the Riffians and broke the sieges causing numerous casualties.

We are planning to recreate the final act of the siege with converging columns of Spanish troops trying to fight their way through to the beseiged town. We will have three land based columns plus a landing by Infanteria de Marina, each column pitted against dug in Riffi positions and local attacks. The Spanish will be supported by both field and mountain artillery, plus naval gunfire and aircraft.

The game will be played in 20mm mostly using figures and kit from my collection.

2010 Anniversaries

2010-01-16T02:56:00.000-08:00

We need to come up with a subject for a game at Carronade in May so I thought I’d go back through the last 100 years and see what anniversaries it might be interesting to commemorate.

One hundred years ago in 1910 we have an Albanian uprising against Ottoman rule, the Wadai War (French colonial conflict in what is now Chad), and the outbreak of revolution in Mexico. 1910 also saw Royal Navy patrols active against gun runners in the Persian Gulf and on the coasts of Baluchistan - this was the subject of our 2007 game at Gauntlet.

In 1935 (75 years ago) we have the beginning of the Second Italo-Abyssinian War as Italian forces under General Emilio de Bono invade Ethiopia.

I’m ignoring, for now, the seventieth anniversary of the Blitzkrieg campaigns in western Europe - I think we all know what the options are there. Much of it’s been done before.

60 years ago takes us to 1950; not a great year for world peace. The French-Indo China War was in full swing. June saw the beginning of the Korean War and October the Chinese invasion of Tibet.

2010 is the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Mau Mau insurgency in Kenya (January 1960). That month also saw a major insurrection in French Algiers. In February there were clashes on the snowy borders of India and China and in December there was a failed coup d’etat in Ethiopia.

Moving on to 1980 (30 years ago) we have Operation Eagle Claw - the failed Delta Force operation to rescue the US Hostages in Tehran. A few days later, the SAS successfully retook the Irnaian Embassy in London after it had been seized by six Iranian-born terrorists.

Meanwhile, the Soviet involvement in Afghanistan was on-going. The first offensive in the Panjsher Valley took place in Spring this year and the Soviets began to adopt a scorched earth policy to deny resources to the Mujahideen.

In September, Iraqi forces moved into Iran initiating the longest conventional war of the twentieth century.

Finally, as far as interesting anniversaries go we come to 1985 and the silver anniversary of the Third World War! You missed that one? Well it was actually a fictional war as covered in General Sir John Hackett’s book of the same name - a great excuse to dust off those Cold War forces and go at it on the North German Plain one more time!

2010 Events

2010-01-05T01:21:00.000-08:00

It's snowing here in Yorkshire and I'm stuck at home as the kids haven't been able to get to school. So there's just a little time to mention upcoming events.

Over the April 30th - May 2nd weekend there will be an SOTCW Gathering at Huzzah! in Portland, Maine. (Go on admit it: those of you of a certain age and musical disposition are now "Rolling down the 295 out of Portland, Maine"). I'm hoping Dean Emmerson will be signing up here so he can tell you more about it.

The Gauntlet crew (without me; I'm at Cornbury Festival) are putting on The Siege of Tifaruin, a Rif War extravaganza over the weekend 4th - 5th July.

And I'm planning on getting up to Carronade in Falkirk on the 8th May. This year sees the 25th anniversary of the events in General Sir John Hackett's "The Third World War". I'm considering a 6mm game based on the book using Cold War Commander but if any of the local members have a better idea I'm keen to hear what they have to say.

- Richard C

Welcome!

2010-01-04T13:34:00.000-08:00

Hello, and welcome to the new SOTCW Events Blog!

Our idea here is to provide somewhere that we can show the development of SOTCW members' plans for putting on games and other events. I've uploaded the postings from last year's Achse and Avalanche game so you've got something to look at straight away.

2010 should see at least a first SOTCW Gathering in North America thanks to Dean Emmerson and another SOTCW participation game at Gauntlet in North Wales. Keep an eye on this page for further plans.

The game - Will's view

2009-07-06T06:35:00.000-07:00

Well Gauntlet is over for another year and all the attendees seem to have enjoyed themselves.

I only took pictures of the SOTCW game at the show other pictures will appear over on the Deeside Defenders site shortly

. I produced all the terrain with the exception of the excellent terraced hills by Richard Crawley. The bunker above Vietri was Richards as well, it is rather over sized, but it would have been a shame not to have used it.

The high point must have been the random event air strike that succeeded in taking out a Panzer IIIN. These random events could occur during the normal turn sequence, but a card could be drawn and played by a passer-by in return for a small donation to charity. Andrew paid for two cards and drew a pair of air strikes. The first was driven off, but the second dropped two bombs, both on target and both gave a destroyed result.

Little Time Left

2009-07-02T11:24:00.000-07:00

Not long to go now. I have to get the hill above Vietri finished and I'm wrestling between the prospect of spending the evening applying sand and glue and consuming a large amount of cheap Californian red wine.

Think I'll put Millie to bed and see how I feel afterwards....

Pagani

2009-07-02T07:40:00.000-07:00

Just beyond the Chiunzi pass is the town of Pagani on the mail road to Vietri/Salerno

Dragonea

2009-07-02T07:38:00.000-07:00

More pre-game reconnaisance, this time the village of Dragonea

HG at Salerno

2009-06-30T06:20:00.000-07:00

Some extracts from Salerno— A Defender’s View By Winfried Heinemann Army History Spring 2008

..."While the major Allied force did indeed land along the plain south of Salerno, light troops attacked into the mountains west of Salerno. U.S. Rangers first captured the coastal village of Maiori, and British Commandos took Vietri. Both then qickly ascended the dorsal mountain rdge of the Sorrento Peninsula, wresting control of a section of the ridge from the Germans and seizing the heights overlooking the Naples-Salerno road, along which mechanized reinforcements would have to pass. The Germans had not anticipated any assault on these heights and had left the area virtually undefended. Part of their counterattack would now have to be diverted to regain control of the mountainous Sorrento Peninsula.

General Balck’s XIV Panzer Corps reacted by ordering its Hermann Göring Panzer Division to advance into the area, with its armored reconnaissance battalion sent in advance of the main body to operate under the 16th Panzer Division’s command until the headquarters of the Hermann Göring Division reached the area. In particular, the reconnaissance battalion was to stop the Allied advances from Maiori and Vietri. Now, this was no easy task for an armored unit, as the ridge rises steeply on both sides to heights of
over 1,000 meters (some 3,300 feet) above sea level, and the roads were narrow, winding, and difficult to negotiate—ideal terrain for Rangers and Commandos, but not for tanks, especially tanks hampered once again by fuel constraints.17

By about noon, the battalion’s advanced elements established contact with the 16th Panzer Division’s organic reconnaissance element, the 16th Reconnaissance Battalion,
north of the ridge at Nocera, about 13 kilometers (8 miles) northwest of Salerno, as the latter battalion had been pushed that far back during the morning. The Hermann Göring Division’s reconnaissance battalion then tried to dislodge the Rangers
from the ridge south of Nocera but throughout the entire day failed to do so. The push along the road toward the town of Salerno ended at Cava de Tirreni, four or five kilometers north of the objective.18 To reinforce this battalion, the XIV Panzer Corps tasked Col. Wilhelm Schmalz, the Hermann Göring Division’s deputy commander, with forming a regimental-size combat team to assist the 16th Panzer
Division.19 As this would leave the Hermann Göring sector weakened in the face of a possible subsequent Allied landing further north, the corps ordered the 15th Panzer Grenadier Division to send replacements from the Rome area.20"...

..."During the day, the main body of the Hermann Göring Panzer Division arrived in the area between Naples and Salerno, concentrating around Nocera. As the 16th Panzer
Division’s armored reconnaissance battalion was already fighting in that area, Vietinghoff placed it under the Hermann Göring Division’s operational control."...

..."Another change in German command arrangements was implemented on 12 September. The Hermann Göring Panzer Division was relieved of responsibility for the Gulf
of Naples and told to concentrate on winning the battle for the heights north of Maiori and Vietri. The division managed to take and hold the heights above Vietri despite murderous naval gunfire. The 16th Panzer Division’s reconnaissance
battalion, still operating as part of the Hermann Göring Division, pushed south to within two kilometers of Salerno, but it too encountered increasing Allied resistance during the afternoon.32"....

Maiori

2009-06-29T02:21:00.000-07:00

Recent reconnaissance flight over the town.

------------------------------------------------
I will now move on and base up the my remaining new buildings as Dragonea and Pagani. I'll just use my older ones for Nocera Inferiore and Superiore.

Vietri

2009-06-29T02:18:00.000-07:00

Recent reconnaisance flight over the town.

Cava de Tirreni

2009-06-29T02:12:00.000-07:00

Recent reconnaissance flight over the village

Herman Goering division mustering

2009-06-29T02:04:00.000-07:00

Allied intelligence sources have identified units of the Herman Goering FJ Panzer Division in the Naples plain to the north of the landing beaches.

Spotted are an Aufklarungs battalion (right) Panzer grenadier battalion (front) backed by two Panzer companies and panzer Jaeger company AA and an artillery battalion.

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If any members have any exact details of the HG organisation on this date please add a comment
----------------------------------------------------
Some input from Neil on the HG orbat for Salerno link

Interesting to see Panzer III's in the line up

2009-06-27T15:10:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics of the hills I've done for the game. To be honest they look better in real life than they do in the photos.

The first pic shows the full set of completed hills with sand texture added but before painting.

Next a few pictures of the completed hills with the Ranger Cannon Company for scale. You also get a chance the see the Crawley family's new hall carpet. You lucky people.

The dry-stone retaining walls of the terraces took ages to build. I'd be quite happy never to handle cat litter again!

The Allies are up to something!!

2009-06-27T11:25:00.000-07:00

Spotted on a reconnaissance flight over Sicily

Initial estimate is 3 x LCA; 2 x LCVP; 2 x DUKW and 8 x LCM

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

Hopefully enough for the game

Will

Buildings of Salerno

2009-06-25T00:56:00.000-07:00

Here are the buildings I've just finished for the game. Like most of my buildings they are built as modules each mostly 12cm x 6cm with a few 6cm square.

Construction is foamcore with Wills pantile tiles for the roofs. I started with the very basic rectangular buildings but I really prefer the second wave where I split the building 1:2 as they look far less monolithic

The next step is to try and create some scenic village bases to place these on. Typically I'll place 3/4 buildings in each location.

The Hills of Salerno

2009-06-14T05:02:00.000-07:00

Inspired by "Alcal"on The Guild wargamers' forum, I decided to have a go at building some Italian style hills with dry stone walled terraces. The plan is to have enough to do all of the hills we need for the game with the exception of the Chiunzi Pass feature that Will has already started.

The hills are built on hardboard bases. First I chamfer the edges and then glue on layers of expanded polystyrene using PVA glue.

Then the retaining walls are built up. These use large pieces of cat litter and gravel attached to a bed of "grab adhesive" (something like No More Nails brand).

Then the surface texture is added by gluing on sand with PVA. Painting and static grassing will follow.

As I say, this is enough hills for the game except that I'll need to add one more for the gun battery hill above Vietri.

Some more mortars

2009-06-13T14:57:00.000-07:00

Will has already built two nice models of US 4.2" Chemical Mortars but we need a grand total of four for the game. Here are a couple of very simple scratch-built ones I've produced to make up the numbers. They are very much in the style of the late John Sanders whose articles on modelling the 8th Army in Airfix Magazine played a large part in getting me in to wargaming in the first place.

They're just placeholders really, to show the location of our second Chemical Mortar Company. If they ever need to fight at close quarters we'll need to add a few more crew figures.

The figures are from the Hasegawa Willys jeep set and all of the rest is scratch-built on bases made from old mini CD-ROMs.

Buildings for the game

2009-05-29T12:25:00.000-07:00

Here is my progress to date on the buildings for the Gauntlet game, I still plan to add a number of others so suggestions are welcomed. I plan to use 2-3 for each of the villages.

They are all based on a 60mm x 120mm footprint and built with foamcore and the roofing is the Will's Finecast pantile roofing.

15 minutes in Maori

2009-05-16T12:26:00.000-07:00

OK, well I just managed to get to Maori, the US Rangers landing beach, from Sorrento. I would have liked to get to Vietri, but that would have been another hour there and at least that back again and combined with the road works I decided not to risk it.

First a couple of views from further along the coast at Ravello (above Amalfi)

It certainly gives a good impression of the terrain involved, very steep terraced slopes

And closer from the bus

Maori beach looking east

Looking inland, up the river, which is now covered over on most of the main street, up towards the Chiunzi pass

Looking west.

Compared to the other beaches/harbours further to the west this is large and seems to be more gently shelving with less rocks.

Most of the town centre was washed away in floods in the 1950's so the whole front has been rebuilt in 60's styling

Once you get away from the terracing the hills are mainly covered in beech woods or coppiced sweet chestnuts, which are quite dense/impenetrable. Higher again you get rock/scrub vegetation

Will

First DUKW

2009-04-23T13:20:00.000-07:00

The Allies' logistic train begins to take shape.

This is one of the old Airfix polythene DUKWs converted into a waterline model by the simple expedient of running a sharp knife around the hull.
I've added a driver (or is he a coxswain) and a tilt made from plastic card and tissue paper. So just the three more to do for now.

When to start?

2009-04-23T11:56:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned on the SOTCW Forum that we may have the possibility of more amphibious kit (more DUKWs) and that this brings the possibility of playing out the operation from the actual landing on the beaches. My original assumption had been that we would start with the Commandos and Rangers ashore having overcome light local resistance.

If we are to go from H-Hour itself we need to decide on things like:

How many troops can the Germans have on the beaches?
Is the Vietri coastal gun emplacement intact? - In reality there were no guns present
At what point can the allied naval forces begin to fire? - There was a ban on pre-landing bombardments as Clark wanted to preserve "tactical surprise".

What do you think? Is it worth the extra effort?

Modelling Chiunzi Pass (2)

2009-04-23T03:53:00.000-07:00

Well I got some wine boxes from Tesco and cut them cut to provide the zig-zag roads.

Once covered with a cloth you can see the intended effect. The would be more rough ground on top of the pass and more hills continuing along either side.

The main problem will be stopping the cloth slipping and I'll have to do this with a combination of methods including parcel tape, pinning and for the roads some double sided tape.

Ranger Cannon Company

2009-04-19T12:10:00.000-07:00

Before mowing the lawn today I managed to get the Ranger Cannon Company half track completed. It had previously seen action in our Anzio try-out game but now it's been pin-washed, dry-brushed and fitted with its crew.

It's a Black Star models 75mm GMC M3 with the crew from Airfix and Matchbox. The Airfix figure lying on one side is prefect for the job, matching nicely an illustration in the Vanguard title on Allied Tank Destroyers.

British AOP

2009-04-11T09:17:00.000-07:00

Just completed the British Air Observation Post for the game

I've used the Auster mark6 Air Observation Post, it is a post war variant included in the Airfix Auster Antactica kit, however it's close enough to the wartime version.

Marine Commando by Raymond Mitchell

2009-04-07T03:47:00.000-07:00

Got this book from Cheshire Libraries when I was trawling through the book list for anything to do with Salerno. It's subtitled Sicily and Salerno 1943 with 41 Royal Marines Commando. It's a great account at an individual marine's level of the actions of the commando and gives a good feel of the terrain involved. At one point the commando is heavily attacked on Black Monday, but the sector he was on was quiet and Captain Stott the troop commander was killed when he led a counter attack when the Germans broke through to Dragonea.

Here's my commando unit that I'll be using in the game as 41 (RM) Commando

Modelling Chiunzi Pass (1)

2009-04-06T02:19:00.000-07:00

In attermpting to keep it simple, here is how I plan to model Chiunzi Pass, It is a cheap simple three box solution that will be covered by a green cloth. The boxes will be taped down to the table to prevent movement and then the cloth will be pinned in place (this is important for the roads)

I will also add more smaller boxes(hills) to the top of the pass (box 1) as well as a farmhouse (as used by Derby's rangers so that it is not a flat expanse. The ascent from the North (German) side (box3) should strictly be opposite, but keeping it on this side makes it a more robust construction and easier to play the game without reaching over.

Once I acquire some suitable boxes I'll post a picture

Will

Back in the Saddle

2009-04-05T00:16:00.000-07:00

Right! The SOTCW HOTT Royal Tournament is now out of the way. Well done to Rob Connolly of this parish for not coming last in his first tournament when playing his first ever HOTT games and with a borrowed army!

This means I should now be able to give an appropriate level of attention to getting this game moving forward again. It's weird how the brain works but within an hour of getting back I was drawn towards the drawer containing the DUKWs I need to complete for the Allied logistics train.

Vietri/Maori 1944

2009-04-02T05:55:00.000-07:00

A nice picture of Vietri found in the Army History magazine covering some of the action at Salerno (link)
It certainly seems that the Herman Goering Division was heavily involved against the Rangers and Commandos

This picture show Maori at the same time with presumably the Chiunzi pass in the distance

Will

Operation Avalanche - Hickey & Smith

2009-04-02T03:36:00.000-07:00

Just finished the book and was rather disappointed, the authors don't seem to understand some basic WW2 military terminology German Infantry are referred to as "Panzers" in a lot of place, they don't understand the differences between Panzer and Panzer-Grenadier Divisions or even at times the basic hierarchy between division/brigade-RCT/battalion.

All the Germans tanks seem to be Tigers and in places quoted as 72 ton, which is the weight of a Tiger II. I haven't read enough around the battle to be certain, but I don't think any Tigers were involved, certainly none of the Heavy Tank battalions were present.

It's very much a narrative account with some nice details covering the operations of the commandos and rangers, although at times the geography is confused.

For wargaming purposes, there is very little detail on what was happening on the German side. However for our game I had the impression that more space needs to be allocated to the La Molina/Dragonea area as this was the major area of fighting for the Commandos.

Terrain test - Vietri

2009-03-01T04:42:00.000-08:00

To get a feel for what is possble on the planned battlefield for the game I tried laying out what was possible based on the existing proposal from Counterpane

The sea was made from a single sheet of opaque plastic from Paperchase I painted the reverse with blue paint and I will dry brush some waves onto it. The two sticks mark the extent of the 4' x 2' table. I have left the main hills on top of the cloth to give a better idea of location.

The hill behind Vietri is slightly undersized , but it can be seen that with the size of Vietri village I have used it effectively fills the gap. From the map it looks like the side of the hill next to the Village is a cliff.

The are to the left of the village looks quite sparse, but I'll fill it up with walls, vineyards, small hills, etc. Te Italian coastal OP can be seen on the extreme left.

The buildings I'll create for the game will be similar to that on the left. The one displayed has the right footprint, but is to short as it is scaled for 15mm.

A copy of the map used.

Terrain thoughts

2009-02-20T04:52:00.000-08:00

Having got Sunday’s Andreivia game out of the way, I’m back in the saddle as far as thinking about Salerno is concerned.

I took delivery on Sunday of Stuart Adams’s rather splendid Ranger battalion so what with Will’s mortars (see below) we’re now sorted for Yanks. I’ll do some pics of Stuart’s models later.

The next issue requiring our attention is the terrain. My first thought is to make sure we can do the basic cloths over plastic trays terrain approach we used last year. Will has offered to build the villages (though I can do at least one if Will struggles) so the main features we need to present are Chiunzi Pass (windy road going up hill steeply), the beaches (Maiori and Vietri), and the German coastal battery above Vietri.

I noted with interest that the members of The Guild (http://www.guildwargamers.com/phpBB3/index.php) in planning their Big Game have standardised base colours for figures. Now this is probably a step too far for us (many of the figures are already done and need to fit in with our own collections) but it might be an idea for our terrain.

Games Workshop may produce some over-priced tat but their paints are generally good and they’re widely available. Even if we didn’t actually use them for painting our bases, they are at least an easy way of specifying colour information. I shall try some combinations of base colour and dry-brushed highlight and see if I can get a reasonable match to photos of the area.

Chemical Weapons (2)

2009-02-15T11:59:00.000-08:00

Just completed a pair of mortars that will form part of one Chemical Weapons company for the game. I still need to add an OP team to make a complete company, and I did wonder whether to add a supply detachment with a hand cart. An excellent set of WW2 figures from Reiver picked up at the Vapanartak show.

Chemical Mortars

2009-02-02T03:30:00.000-08:00

I bought 2 Chemical mortars from Reiver/Under the Bed yesterday at Vapnartak, I had hoped that this would be sufficient to represent C & D companies of the 83rd Chemical Mortar Bn that supported the Rangers.

Further checking today shows that upon entry in combat each of the mortar battalions was composed of 1,010 men: 36 officers, 1 warrant officer, and 973 enlisted men, 32 distributed among a headquarters, a headquarters company, a medical detachment, and four weapons companies. Each company had 2 platoons, each platoon had two sections, and each section had 3 squads. On the basis of one mortar per squad, the battalion complement of mortars was 48. Transportation of the battalion consisted of 88 2½-ton trucks and 36 vehicles of varying smaller sizes. Chemical mortar carts were present in case of rough terrain. Side arms for the battalion included 820 .45-caliber automatics.

Based on this a RF company should have two 4.2 mortars and 15 figures. Given quite a number of the men would be involved in ammo supply I'll stick with two mortars, with four crew each, CO and an OP team of two making a total of eleven.

Will

Cisterna Refight

2009-01-04T07:43:00.000-08:00

Knowing I needed a bit of a refresher with the Rapid fire! rules, I organised a game over the Christmas holidays. Adam and Simon Griffiths are regular RF players so I knew I could rely upon them to keep things moving and Andy Sangar is a relaxed opponent who knows his way round a WW2 tabletop battlefield so an enjoyable day was anticipated.

I thought it would be interesting to see how my new Ranger battalion handled under the RF rules so I set up a scenario based upon the Ranger attack at Cisterna in January 1944. This was the debacle that led to two Ranger battalions being completely wiped out.

Our refight was a little altered to take advantage of the forces I had available. One and a half Ranger battalions were deployed strung out along a road leading from the American front line to the town of Cisterna.

Cisterna town

They were accompanied by the Ranger Cannon Company (a single 75mm M3 GMC halftrack in RF terms).

Surrounding them were a German infantry battalion and a Fallschirmjaeger battalion reinforced by additional companies and a Panzer IV.

Both sides had attached artillery and the promise of tank reinforcements if the battle went on long enough.

The Americans had infiltrated through the German positions during the night and dawn found the two sides at point blank range in some cases.

The fighting was bloody and quick - I think in the end we got through four or five turns before both Ranger battalions threw a 1 on their morale rolls and routed or surrendered as conditions dictated.

An enjoyable game, then, and I think I've got a better a idea of how RF will play on the day.

1st Ranger Pics

2008-12-14T10:34:00.000-08:00

Here's my Ranger battalion. Odd that we've all got Rangers done early on in the process.