Battalions and Regiments! Oh my!

As I continue work on my Eastern Front WWII forces, I've been playing around with the idea of fielding WWII games with a company per stand and a battalion or more per side - both on and off grid .This would let me tackle some larger battles - in theory, in practice they'd be no bigger than a One Hour Wargame "army" one one end, and twice that on the other. Indeed, many people treat the stands in OHW as companies, not the suggested platoons, given the force composition.

Nominally, for the sake of building my forces, I'm treating a stand, gun, or vehicle as a platoon - this means I'l have enough variety to field just about anything for squad vs squad (unusual, given my figures are based two to a base) to a battalion or two where 2 infantry bases or 1 gun/vehicle equals a company. I'm using TO&Es from the GHQ WWII TO&E series available on wargamevault to guide this process by the way, and prevent me from buying everything that catches my eye (my empty wallet helps limit the acquisitions too!)

Anyway, here is some goofing around just setting them up on the table to get a look at the idea of two base companies (4" base frontage for infantry)- my Soviets are not following doctrine for deploying in depth by any means:

Dark grey PAK is 21st C. / Unimax / 32x / Ultimate Soldier

Above, two Panzergrenadier battalions with two companies of PZ IVs prepare to attack a Soviet rifle battalion with artillery support and a battalion of T-34s. And here is a close up of one of the battalions:

Mortar is 21st C. / Unimax / Ultimate Soldier and MG is CanDo Pocket Army. PAK is Italeri 1/32 model. Unpainted crew are CTS. PZ IV's are CTS as well. Soviet ZiS is Italeri 1/32.

In the above picture, the MG and mortar together represent a Panzergrenadier support company (2 MGs platoons, 1 mortar platoon), while the  PAK-40 represents the P/G heavy company (1 ATG platoon, 1 infantry gun, and 1 Engineer platoon, which I admit doesn't make sense given this representation - I am thinking of basing the guns on 4x4 squares, and putting the engineer base alongside)

I decided for giggles to quickly modify Morschauser Moderns and play a game. I settled on 1" = 100 yards (which meant a 400 yard frontage for infantry stands, and adjusting weapon and movement ranges) and played a small game on a 36" x 36" table (representing 2 miles x 2 miles roughly), using the roster option. The scenario was based on my faulty memory of a OHW scenario: a Panzergrenadier battalion had to capture a cross-roads and dislodge the Soviets from a hill, while the Soviets had to hold the hill and capture the cross-roads.


For fun, I decided to break out my transport vehicles, which I don't have nearly enough of, nor do I know anything about how they were used in actual combat situations. Looking at the photos, they're a bit, no make that WAY too spread out for battalion frontage I believe - but this was just a proof of concept so I'll forgive myself.

A mix of vehicles including 21st C., Marx (yes, it's a US vehicle. I was desperate!), Deetail, and CTS. The PAK next to the transport is a convenience to take up less space - this is how I'd do it in a square, but really it's trailing the vehicle

None the less, non-combat transports probably shouldn't move into small arms range of the enemy before disembarking their troops!

In any event, 1st and 2nd P/G companies race forward and attack the hill:

2 P/G companies with support attack the Soviet support companies - in this case the Britain's gun is playing the role of a Soviet ATG battery (of 2 ATG platoons). The kublewagen is for transport only - it's MG is not part of the fight. Ditto for the Sd.Kfz 251s MG, which snapped off anyway.

The Soviets sent three infantry companies on foot to take the crossroads from 3rd P/G company, who was supported by the battalion's heavy company:

I had a hard time remembering that the rifle company range was 6"(remember it includes all rifles, lmgs, and support paltoon weapons including any light mortar if present) and not the 9" spotting distance (these ranges come from a set of company-per-base rules which I'll talk about in its own post and work well with 1" = 100 yards).

At the hill, the Germans were driven back handily and the crossroads fell to the Soviet attackers in close combat (Morschauser close combat is deadly and gun bases have very little melee power).


*****

I realized when all was done that I had forgotten my morale recovery rule, used back during my Thanksgiving SoloCon. Perhaps the game would have gone longer than 30 minutes if I had remembered!

In any case, visually this game worked for me (ymmv) - I would go so far to say it felt more "toy soldiery",  which is always a  plus in my opinion. The feeling was no doubt aided by wonderfully simple rules, and by the presence of the transport vehicles, which look both wrong in a practical sense (they're like 600+ yards long) and right in a smiles sense. I found I had no problem thinking of 4-figure bases as companies (perhaps because that's how many other people game in other periods, if not WWII) and that confirmed for me I'm on the right track with this idea.

I think a grid might be even more effective, particularly when buildings are involved, but I haven't tried yet - I can definitely see using the Portable Wargame for this kind of thing if I go down that road. As for the rules I used this time, I have some thoughts for another post.

In the Village, the Peaceful Village - One Hour Skirmish Wargames

This is game 2 of my Escaping an Encirclement OHSW campaign. Unfortunately, I got so caught up in the action, I took almost no pictures.

For reference, here's the map (they're headed to point 4):

 

 
Having crossed the road, Frege's squad proceeded southeast towards a small war torn village. After a quick recon of the village from the edge of the fields, he split the men into two fire teams, but this time, he sent the sniper, Heidegger, forward on his own, with orders to take position inside what was hoped to be an abandoned cottage. From there Heidegger could command a view of the church and the buildings beyond the field and forest.

There is a Soviet in the church, the top left cottage, the field right top,  and the ruins in front of the field.

Unteroffizer Hegel took Carnap (grenades), Fichte (now armed with the late Schiller's grenades) and Schopenhauer into the fields northwest of the village, while Frege, Husserl(MG), Stein, and Leibnitz made for the woods to the southwest.

Turn 1

Heidegger scuttled up to the burned out building making use of every scrap of cover he could. He peered through the broken windows, listening for any sound of an enemy within.

To the right, Hegel's team crept through the field - the summer crops provided concealment but wouldn't make them invisible and caution was of the utmost importance to avoid drawing any fire from potential Soviet patrols.

With the church looming as a large and obvious choice for an enemy position, Frege ordered Leibnitz and Stein to advance through the woods and reconnoiter the church, and to keep moving to the fields beyond if able to do so
.

Heidegger outside the cottage - move was just short. Hegel's team advances on right, Stein and Leibnitz have reached the field (left center).

As soon as he reached the edge of the woods, Leibnitz made a dash to the field beyond; Stein followed close behind. Peaking through the summer wheat, Leibnitz was certain he saw a shape in the church. His nerves got the best of him; instinctively, his rifle came to his shoulder..

Leibnitz (right) about to shoot at something in the church (never mind that there's no windows on this side. That's the model, not the actual church).

Meanwhile, the Soviet jr. leader, on his way back from patrolling the fields east of the village, made his way towards the ruined farm house to check on the private stationed there. Rumors abounded of German squads trying to make their way through the area to get across the river to rejoin their units - the commissar had made clear that failing to stop the enemy was not an option.

The private was all too glad for his arrival.

"Comrade, there is movement in the fields northwest of the village!" They both scanned the fields directly in front of their position, hoping that the private was just nervous - at this distance their SMGs would be of little benefit.

Just then, off to the right from beyond the church, the crack of a rifle broke the silence.

Turn 2

Hearing Leibnitz's shot, Frege and Husserl ran forward. At the same time, Stein leapfrogged past Leibnitz to get a shot at the enemy in the church - his shots shattered glass and splintered wood, but had little other effect. Soviet return fire, an SMG, erupted from a window of the church, spraying up dirt and slicing leaves and stalks around Leibntiz..From the cottage east of the their location another Soviet SMG fired on their position.

With the sounds of a violent exchange to his front left, Hegel sent Carnap and Schopenhauer to the edge of the field to get a better shot at the church and to cover the ruined farm house due east. Almost immediately, SMG fire rang out from the dark empty windows of the farm house and Schopenhauer crashed to the dirt.

Carnap called out to Schopenhauer but received no reply.


Turn 3
[Germans won initiative but then drew a Joker for their activation.]

Turn 4

The Soviets continued firing from their defensive positions with the net effect of dropping both Stein and Leibnitz (the Germans in the fields south of the church).

Frege ordered Husserl to set up at the edge of the woods with lines of fire at the church and the ruins opposite Hegel's team. Heidegger, satisfied the cottage was abandoned, entered and crawled to a window where he finally get a shot off at the Soviets opposite Hegel's team.

Heidegger finally does something almost useful.

Hegel and Fichte moved up to join Carnap in shooting at the ruined farm house while Frege ineffectually opened fire on the shooter in the church..

Turn 5:

Sensing a desperate situation, Fichte ran forward and hurled a grenade at the farm house but the occupants were sheltered from the blast by the ruins. Poorly planned, Fichte was then exposed in the open.

From his position in the abandoned cottage, Heidegger picked out the Soviet private in the ruins through his scope. He took careful aim and then smoothly squeezed the trigger. The private slumped in his place. Before the jr. leader could check his comrade, bullets from Husserl's MG tore through the wooden building, killing him instantly.

Turn 6:

The shooter in the church continued to harass Husserl in an effort to silence the German's heavy weapon. With the threat in the fields neutralized, the Soviet leader raced towards the the sounds of fighting from the ruined farm in an effort to cut off the German advance..


Husserl returned fire at the church, while Fichte, who had miraculously avoided being killed in the open, charged into the ruined farm and fired at the church as well..

As the Soviet leader reached the edge of the fields, he could see Fichte shooting at the church. A moment later Fichte doubled over the window frame, cut down by the leader's SMG.

Seeing the muzzle flash from the SMG, Heidegger carefully sighted on the Soviet leader and delivered the bullet precisely where he wanted it. Hegel charged the fallen leader to make sure Heidegger's shooting was accurate..

With the threat in the fields neutralized, Carnap advanced and secured exit for the remainder of the Germans [he moved off map].

Hegel verifies Heidegger's accuracy.

Although the Soviet in the church held on, he was of no further threat to the German escape.

*****
The first thing I'll note is a disclaimer of sorts: the narrative is cobbled together from the events that happened each turn and accurately reflect what occurred, if not the exact timing it occurred in the game. That is, things that are described as simultaneous, were of course, not simultaneous in play as each figure must complete its actions before another figure can act. Similarly, there is no reaction mechanism, so the idea that someone could return fire immediately is unlikely as well.

German OOB

Description	Points	Rank	Name
Army Motivation:4	4
Leader(3), SMG(2 shots)	8	Feldwebel	Frege
Leader(2), SMG(2 shots), Bruiser(2)	8	Unteroffizier	Hegel
Sniper - Deadshot (2), rifle (1)	3	Gefreiter	Heidegger
MG-42 gunner - MG-42(2 shots), range infinite	2	Obergefreiter	Husserl
Grenadier 1 - rifle (1), two grenades (2), tough(2)	5	Grenadier	Carnap
Grenadier 1 - rifle (1), two grenades (2)	3	Grenadier	Fichte
Rifle 1	1	Grenadier	Schopenhauer
Rifle 2	1	Grenadier	Leibnitz
Rifle 3	1	Grenadier	Stein
TOTAL POINTS	36

Soviet OOB:

Patrol 5	26
Army motivation:3	3
NCO	9	NCO - Leader(3), smg(2), inspiring
Jr Nco	6	Jr Nco - Leader(2), smg(2)
Grenade	4	- SMG(2), grenade(2)
Grenade	4	- SMG(2), grenade(2)

On paper, it looked like a "gimme" for the Germans.

And yet the Germans lost four men during play to the Soviet three. In the after game test, three of the four Germans were permanently removed. Only Schopenhauer recovered to rejoin his fellows.

So, the Germans won a costly tactical victory by getting Carnap off of the map.. They are down to six and the largest of the Soviet patrols remain with two more battles left.

My big mistake, I think, was being too cautious - even with the terrible card draws for the Germans (seriously, they would draw face cards for defensive rolls or to see which side got initiative, then draw aces and twos for their phases), I should have raced for the opposite side of the map rather than engaging the Soviets. After all, the overall objective is escape, not to destroy the enemy.

Some notes:

Buildings are not specifically covered in the rules that I saw, despite their appearance in several scenarios therein. Left to my own devices, and not wanting to add additional rules, I decided that the buildings counted as area terrain.


According to the rules, figures in area terrain can see out of the terrain piece and can be seen from outside of it. As an aside, I counted a figure in a building if it was in contact with it because with the exceptions of the ruins, the buildings are all birdhouses with inaccessible (for toy soldiers) interiors.

So, by treating buildings as area terrain, a figure in a building can be fired on and fire out - and I took that to mean from all sides. This is a rather abstract way to handle buildings, but it is similar to how Disposable Heroes / Coffin for Seven Brothers (1st ed.) does it, if I recall, and I think it worked well for the game.


Similarly, being in the fields, meant the soldiers could be targeted and could fire out. Which was something I I wasn't doing correctly until part way through turn two or so.

At least that's how I read it that time. I'll revisit the rules before I play again. At the very least, it made victory for the Germans harder, which, playing solo, with the Germans as my side, was a good thing.

First Painted Figures of 2020!

The painting mojo was strong this weekend and so rather than play game two of my OHSW campaign, I went with it, as I hadn't painted anything since early December.

First up, the leader of the Ginland force. His rank and name have yet to be determined, only that no matter where the fighting takes place, he insists on riding a camel.

Are they over here?

Maybe they're over here.

The commander bravely leads his troops into battle!

The officer and his camel are Armies in Plastic figures. The camel you may have seen previously here, but the officer was sadly lacking a paint job until now. The color schemes for both came from Britains and other examples on eBay (not exactly first rate historical uniform research on my part but I think the figures look the part).

And, while less colorful, certainly no less useful if you're the Soviet army in WWII:

Zdis!

I went with the grey coat this time (my other stand has a brown great coat) - watching Russian WWII movies has given me the impression that Soviet uniforms were anything but, and so I'm trying to capture that variety here and there.

These figures are the inexpensive knock-offs of Italeri figures. The plastic is hard and takes scraping with a knife well, although you'd never know it, since apparently I couldn't be bothered cleaning these two. In any case, the only real downside besides the mold lines are the deep injection points - green stuff and/or glue is your friend!

Tonight will see the delayed game two of my campaign - unless I really feel the need to paint of course!

The Great War Reading Pile

The last few days have brought two much wanted additions to my bookshelf.

The first, The British Army in Italy :1917-1918 by Wilks and Wilks is a dip of the toe into allied support during the later stages of WWI on the Italian Front. The other book on this topic  that looks a good choice is 'Allies are a Tiresome Lot: The British Army in Italy in the First World War by Dillon. I suspect there's a good deal of overlap between the two, but never the less, I'll probably read both.

Undoubtedly this will lead to the fielding of some British troops at some point. These turn up pretty regularly at the local model figure show, and I should be able to grab a bunch used for just a few dollars if I choose to go down that road.

The next one was inspired by an eBay find that I haven't pulled the trigger on yet( Sopwith Camels Over Italy 1917-18: Rare Photographs from Wartime Archives by Franks). It got me thinking about how little has been mentioned of the air war in Italy in any of the books I have read thus far.

Enter Italian Aces of World War 1 by Varriale, an entry in the Osprey Aircraft of the Aces series. This book isn't really about the air war per se, but provides brief biographies, including wartime accomplishments, of Italy's top fliers. Typical of Osprey, the color plates are worth the price of admission. There are, I believe, two companion Austrian books in the series that I've added to my list in my effort to read all of the English language corpus on the Great War in Italy.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't considering fielding some WWI air wargames. The Wings of War models are stunning, if perhaps a tad pricey, but Irregular offers some planes in their 6mm line at a price where building up a fleet of a variety of planes becomes a viable option. Of course, then I have to paint them. The other difficulty is finding some solo suitable air wargame rules- I know several have been written up in Lone Warrior for WWII, but I'll have to dig through the back issue table of contents to see if any exist for WWI.

The final book I'm listing here was a Christmas present that I realized I haven’t mentioned yet but feel merits some acknowledgement. 

MacKay's Asiago is part travel guide of the battlefields today / part history and is filled with wonderful maps throughout that could be useful in campaign play (mind, I haven't read the book yet, just thumbed through it).

As I've mentioned before, I'm reading my way through Rommel's Infantry Attacks which covers, in part, his time in Italy during WWI.. For anyone interested in the period, the book is full of everything from small skirmishes between a handful of men to battalion attacks with support, all well detailed and many are suitable for the wargame table.

Why Did the Germans Cross the Road? - One Hour Skirmish Wargames

This is game one of my Escaping an Encirclement OHSW campaign.

A ragtag unit of men, the survivors of various squads in his platoon, assembled under Feldwebel Frege and moved southward with the intention of crossing the road running east to west, and then advancing on the Russian village south-west of there.

Frege split his group and using the fields for cover, he would take the left with Husserl (the MG gunner), Heidegger (sniper) and Schopenhauer (rifle), to set up a base of fire to cover the remainder of the unit advancing under command of Unteroffizier Hegel to their right.

German setup on the North edge of the table.

Husserl reached the edge of the field first and spotted some Soviet scouts in the center woods. He opened fire with his MG but it was ineffectual as the scouts made excellent use of the cover the thick trees afforded them.

Heidegger had advanced to the edge as well and spotted a Soviet sniper in the copse of trees to the left. He fired and was fairly certain he had hit her. However, the Soviet scouts evened the score, felling Husserl with their return fire.

On the right, the Germans advanced their assault team under Hegel with Carnap and Schiller, each armed with grenades as well as their rifles, leading the way.

[Turn 1 ended with the draw of a Joker during Soviet defense to more shooting by the Germans.

The Soviet sniper recovered. 

Husserl (mg) drew a red card and was out - however, according the campaign rules, I'd have a chance to make an additional draw for him after the game was over to see if he was really KIA or not.  In addition, I decided that there's no way someone else wouldn't grap the MG-42. So i left him on the table with a "wounded" marker. And allowed that someone else could move into contact and take the gun (which would also count as a move action) ]

Germans have begun to move up. Heidegger the MG is out (red card) but is left so someone can pick up the MG..

Schopenhauer raced over and picked up the MG, and while he wrestled with that, Heidegger fired another shot at the Soviet sniper but missed.

[Turn 2 was short, Heidegger (sniper) draws three cards to shoot - because he is a rifle (1) + deadshot (2) and one of those was a Joker.

No one was downed so nothing really changed. 

I switched the tape with the names on it for Schopenhauer and Husserl and removed the Husserl labeled figure. Schopenhauer now had the MG.]

The German assault team advanced into the woods.

Assault team in woods.

The Soviets had begun to move in that direction as well and a firefight erupted. At the same time a sniper's duel was well underway on the German left / Soviet right.

The female Soviet sniper is one of my favorite figures.

The Soviets managed to knock Fichte out of the fight and a Soviet scout advanced into the woods to join the fray.

Battle in the woods.

However, Carnap and Schiller charged into close combat and brought down both the Soviet jr NCO and the scout.

German assault team rolls onward.

 The Soviet NCO unloaded his SMG into Schiller in revenge.

 [Here my notes are illegible and I didn't get any pictures of the Soviet NCO in action,  but turn 3 ended with Fichte down. He drew a black card and was back in it.

Somewhere in this turn or the next, the other Soviet scout was killed.

Schiller drew a red card and was out as well.]

A stalwart defender of the Motherland, the Soviet leader then charged Carnap in close combat and dropped him in place. He was then cut down by Schopenhauer's MG.

[Again, no pictures of the Soviet NCO. The turn ended and Carnap drew a red card]

[Turn 5, the Soviets had the high draw for initiative (Queen of Diamonds vs Queen of Clubs), but then drew a Joker for their phase points and the turn ended]

With the commissar's threats echoing in her head, retreat was not an option, and so the lone Soviet sniper kept to her task.

She brought down Schopenhauer (MG), but then Heidegger managed to gain the upper hand in their tete a tete, while the German assault team advanced into the woods on the southern edge of the table

Fichte finished off the sniper and with no Soviet patrol left, the Feldwebel ordered the men to tend to the wounded and then get moving before another patrol showed up.

End of Game.

Aftermath:

In the end, only Schiller was KIA, the rest returned to the fight (they drew black cards on their post-battle draw). His grenades were picked up and so i will assign them to another figure, but they won't have his Tough(2) ability.. Of course, that didn't save him, anyway.

The table is 3' x 3' and was sketched out in a notebook.. I liked the way it looked on paper, but as a game table it might not have been ideal.  For the next scenario, assuming the Germans encounter a patrol in the village, I may use a randomized layout.

To determine which of the Soviet patrols were encountered, I had my son choose a number out of a hat. I was elated it was a 2/3 point patrol but seeing as how I'm down a man now (Schiller), I may have been better off with a matched opponent, just to get that out of the way while I still have the soldiers to handle it.

Soviet Patrol 3

Army motivation:3		3
NCO	NCO - Leader(3), smg(2), tough(2)	10
Jr Nco	Jr Nco - Leader(1), smg(2)	4
Sniper	Deadshot(2) rifle	3
Scout 1	Scout(2), Rifle 1	3
Scout 2	Scout(2), Rifle 1	3

Finally, the campaign rules note that the games end at 6 turns (or until the Germans exit the table,or one of the armies breaks) but doesn't say what happens if a game just ends at turn 6 with no clear resolution. I'm thinking if the Germans break they have surrendered, but if they reach turn 6 with no clear victory, then I may have to dice for it or just have them move back along the campaign path and try the other route.

Escaping an Encirclement - Preparation

In One Hour Skirmish Wargames, John Lambshead presents some ideas for skirmish campaigns. Among these is an enticing map campaign entitled, 'Escaping an Encirclement' which features a German force cut off by one of the Soviet spearheads that broke through German lines, north and south of Orel as part of Operation Kutusov.

The German goal is to escape beyond the railroad tracks on the west edge of the map - meanwhile the Soviets have patrols scattered in the area that must be dealt with.

The Germans should have a force between 25 and 50 points (which, depending on any special abilities and weapons, could range from a half-squad to two squads). The Soviets get 6 'patrols' - four equal to 2/3 of the points of the German force, and two with the same point value.

The Soviet forces are allocated to points on the map, other than the one marked '1'. Which means three of the locations are empty of patrols.

My German unit is as follows:

Description	Points	Rank	Name
Army Motivation:4	4
Leader(3), SMG(2 shots)	8	Feldwebel	Frege
Leader(2), SMG(2 shots), Bruiser(2)	8	Unteroffizier	Hegel
Sniper - Deadshot (2), rifle (1)	3	Gefreiter	Heidegger
MG-42 gunner - MG-42(2 shots), range infinite	2	Obergefreiter	Husserl
Grenadier 1 - rifle (1), two grenades (2), tough(2)	5	Grenadier	Carnap
Grenadier 1 - rifle (1), two grenades (2), tough(2)	5	Grenadier	Schiller
Rifle 1	1	Grenadier	Schopenhauer
Rifle 2	1	Grenadier	Fichte
Rifle 3	1	Grenadier	Leibnitz
Rifle 4	1	Grenadier	Stein
TOTAL POINTS	39

Inspired by Mark, Man of Tin's latest adventures in personalized wargaming, I gave each figure a name (as you can see in the list above), which is taped to the bottom:

I majored in philosophy as an undergraduate and so I just grabbed a bunch of German philosopher names. Some are philosophers I am familiar with, others were just names chosen for no particular reason, so don't read too much into them. 

And here is the force under Feldwebel Frege (standing with SMG in the back):

I have also pre-generated the six Soviet patrols, which took a bit of effort.

Because I only have 16 TSSD Soviets, I am reusing the figures for the various patrols, but by playing around with motivation, leadership ratings, and special abilities, I was able to make six distinctly different patrols.

The biggest challenge of the campaign will be if a depleted German force encounters one of the full point Soviet patrols.

Because I already know I want to take the southern route - crossing the road to (2), then making my way through the village, solely because I don't have any real marsh terrain -  I may limit the blank chits, for no patrol, to just one, in order to guarantee at least three games make it to the table (or perhaps none, since this is the more populated part of the map). Even without an encounter, having names for the soldiers should help inspire a narrative of some kind.

A Goodbye

Last night, I said good bye to my sweet baby girl. She had a long, and I hope she felt, happy life. I miss her terribly but I am grateful we had so many years together. I will love her always.

May she rest in peace.

Pumpkin  napping on me on Thursday.

Regular posting to resume shortly- over the years I have found this hobby a great way to buy some respite from overwhelming feelings and to give me a chance to find my center.

Ps If you’re asking yourself, “Do his knuckles say ‘nerd’?” The answer is yes. My knuckle tattoos spell out “book nerd” - i love books, reading, bookstores, libraries, and have a masters in library science, so it’s not without justification.

First of the 2020 Draftees

The post has been busy the past few days, bringing me packages filled with hobby joy!

Up first, a pre-painted 1/35 Can Do German MG team. This brings up my Germans to three MG-42 bases. I'm aiming for four eventually and will probably pick up one more of these sets in the not too distant future.

Two boxes of the much ballyhooed Waterloo 1815 WWI Italians arrived next. First, notice the box art - ordinary helments.

But the figures are Bersaglieri! I knew this going in, but nothing on the box indicates this.

The pictures below could not look more bland (grey figures on a gray-white background - white balance would have been a good thing to use I suppose) but you can at least see the poses. They'll obviously need some cleaning up - almost every helmet has a plume of flash.

Finally, what amounts to my biggest eBay score in awhile - five 1/32 Waffen SS figures (a mix of 3 Britain's, duplicating a set I already have, and two Conte figures).

I usually lose auctions on eBay (foolishly I bid the max I'm willing to pay and I won't increase my bid beyond that) and so I tend to stick to Buy-It-Now offerings, but this time I put in a reasonable bid, and won the whole lot for far less - just $28USD. At less than $6 for a fully painted metal figure, I'm pretty stoked.

I'll also probably never win another auction again.

These join the other five SS figures I already have and will see service against my British paratroopers and my "Big Red One" US infantry in small skirmish games using One Hour Skirmish Wargames, Five Men in Normandy, or Fistful of Lead (which I just picked up in PDF format after reading Reese's recent game report.)

When I'll get any of these on the table is a good question - I'm dying to kick off an OHSW campaign with my TSSD winter Germans and winter Soviets and so that will probably take precedence when the next gaming moment presents itself.

Figures on the Table!

Last night, I managed to get some figures on the table for the first time in 2020. It wasn't exactly a game but rather a play test of some concepts for G Company. Although it was an enjoyable outing, unfortunately, it wasn't the right setup for testing all of the concepts in question.

The setup was based on a portion of the Deux Fermes Crossfire scenario from IanH's wargame pages and further modified and adapted to a 6x6 grid (3' x 3'):

The Righteous Red Army Prepare to Battle Horrible Huns!

Heroic Soviet Infantry Advance!

Gallant Soviet Guards Press the Attack!

Contrary to the captions (read:  propaganda), the Soviets were completely walloped by the Germans.

The MG in the farmhouse sprayed the woods closest to the road every time the Soviets tried to advance into them. Generally speaking, the Soviet rifles couldn't hit a billboard at point-blank range. Oh and the Soviet MG jammed the first time it had a chance to shoot. Meanwhile, the German rifles pulled off stunning displays of marksmanship, even while disordered.

In the end though, it was close combat that proved the deciding factor - it caused the loss of all three Soviet rifles and their platoon leader!

This was also the first time using the two-figure 2" square bases and I'm rather pleased with them (I said that about the 3" bases and the 3" x 2" bases before that, so don't put much stock in my reaction). One of the reasons for the change is that I received a copy of Crossfire for Christmas and I decided, quite without much thought, to give it a go as close to the rules as written as possible, given my gaming idiosyncracies. That is, with limited table space and large figures.

In practice, this means keeping my basing as close to the recommended size as I can, while still having multiple figures per base (prone figures kind of mess this up but I did my best to keep at least one dimension 2"). This way, I can field a company or two in the same space smaller scale figures  might use, with approximately the same number of terrain pieces. Conveniently, this works well for other rules as well.


The 2" square makes a less convincing platoon on its own, but two together make a nice 4" wide platoon (or company or battalion for that matter) of four figures - and that works for OHW scenarios (for which I tend to prefer Morschauser for the rules). I can even fit in a vehicle along with a few infantry stands in my 6" grid space, for higher level scenarios/rules where a unit is a company or battalion.

First Game of 2020

Per the title, I got my first game of 2020 in last night. Admittedly, it was a board game, Long Range Desert Group from Decision Games, but the ease of set up and the ability to play board games sitting down with my cat on me makes them an obvious choice right now.

LRDG is a solitaire, low counter count, low complexity, point-to-point counter based game. Realizing it may be awhile until I get around to fielding any toy soldiers for WWII desert battles, this is a quick fix.

It comes in a zippy bag.

This was the second time I played this game - the first was in late December. I purposely played the same scenario, 1941's Crusader! mission, because I botched it badly the first time through by spreading my force too far from the objectives with only 8 turns to achieve them.

This was due in large part for failing to remember that I could stack unlimited units on a base point.

This time, I put everyone in one base, Kufra - in the picture below I broke it into two stacks just to keep it from falling over. Again.

I really need to invest in a small sheet of plexiglass to flatten my maps.

I decided to take a small but fast force out to Jalo to see what was there, before following with others, and only if necessary. On the way we were bogged down in the Calashano Sand Sea, which of I anticipated of course.

In game terms that means we have to stop movement there. I drew the Orders from Cairo! card but as we had no wireless, it had no effect.

On arrival in Jalo, I took a survey of our force's morale give our slight delay, but as we had suffered no loses nor dealt the enemy any blows, nothing was to be noted . There we also acquired the first objective. I sent it back with one of my recon units to our base.

Along the way we received  some intel (a card that let's the player reveal two objective markers, take an additional turn, or make an air or water move) that revealed that Sirte and El Aghelia were both mined, and not locations for our second objective. That eliminated moving in that direction and instead I sent my force on to Mechili.

In Mechili, we ran into a mine field but managed to avoid any damage. From there, we moved on to Beda Littorio. In addition to more intel, we nabbed the second objective there.

Through an act of unheralded daring, I stole a plane from an airfield there and escaped by air to our base in Kufra (I used the air move option on the intel card). The armored car and remaining recon trucks would have to make their way back without me because "I'm much to important to be captured."*

****

It sounds like a victory. Right? Wrong. I had to score 6+ KIAs against the Germans as well as get the two objectives and I didn't encounter any! I suppose I could have gone looking for some rather than taking the objective back to base, but then I would have risked running out of turns to get back or losing my force for that matter.

In any case, LRDG is an inexpensive, fun, quick game, with enough player decisions to be interesting and enough randomness to provide friction and variety. On BGG, some players noted that after enough plays, you'll know what cards remain in the deck and so some of the surprise is lost, but I don't find that troublesome - most of the cards have multiple possible outcomes and so even if you know what's left, it doesn't guarantee a particular result.

Looking forward to playing again!


*Flintstone's reference