Uniform Upgrade Mod

As I zero in on collections that work for me, I have been reviewing and thinning the herd quite a bit. While doing so, I realized that the plastic WWII figures I am keeping really needed a sprucing up. 

Many of them had never been sealed and dozens of games over the last decade had taken their toll. Plus there was some noticeably sloppy paint work. 

Finally, since some of the colors have ceased to work for me aesthetically, I decided to give them an update, too.

To see what they looked like before, here's an example.

Up first, the Germans:

If you've followed me for any length of time, or looked at the link above, you may recall that they previously had light grey trousers. I decided to go full on feld grau to better match my Britains and 21str Century pre-paints. 

It feels like I got a whole new army!

You may also notice that these are primarily Matchbox, supplemented with a few Classic Toy Soldiers figures. As much as I love the Airfix poses, I am reducing all of my forces for 1/32 WWII to 20 figures or less - the Germans have two Britains and four 21st centruy in addition to what is here. 

The Matchbox Germans were the first set of 1/32 WWII figures I got when I started wargaming.

The Americans never had as many plastic troops, as I have quite a few Britains "Big Red One" figures. 

Originally, I had tried to match the Britains color - which is close to Vallejo Middlestone - for the webbing but it was never satisfactory. I did some digging around online, and went with Vallejo Grey Green (it's the same color as my WWI Italians) and I much prefer it.

If I keep my Britain's weapon teams, they'll look noticeably different -I guess I could paint them to match the plastic figs? Or I can sell them and use the TSSD crew figures supplemented with some Classic Toy Solider crew figures.

I also painted the helmets with Vallejo Brown Violet rather than Olive Drab (I believe I had previously used Jo-Anns Olive Drab. It took like a dozen coats to become opaque) and the khaki jackets with Vallejo German Camo Beige (ironically). 

These are subtle changes but do make them more "correct" to my eyes.

A few of the Americans were given later war US Green jackets or trousers to reflect that newer troops often had the green while veteran troops had a ramshackle combination.

You may also have noticed the Americans don't have bases while the Germans do. The TSSD figures have tall integral bases and this way the Matchbox figures are much closer in height.

Hopefully, now that they are all sealed (with Mod Podge), they'll hold up for at least another decade.

The Weston Brits will be on their way into the queue, once I find the right colors - I have three Britains British WWII infantry figures (my first metal 1/32 figures) to at least try to match with them.

In the meantime, I've got 1/72 rebasing, tanks to paint, 1/35 French WWI to finish, some fantasy figures, and who knows what else.

On a Dusty Venutian Plain

I haven't had much time to play wargames of late - a lot of time was spent prepping for the wrap up of our D&D campaign. But, I did have about an hour late one evening last week where I put a small G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. game on a 36" x 30" clearing on the kitchen table.

The picture below is everything I dreamed of when I first started wargaming!

Tally ho!

Regardless of your feelings about the orange and black Tanitians (not Carthaginians), or the bare table, I think you will find there is a definite Victorian adventure novel flair to it. 

I have been drawing maps, brainstorming histories and personalities. This is the kind of thing I do not get from strictly historically-inspired games. And it has caused a revaluation of what collections I want to maintain and what I might want to move on.

That's the topic of a different post.

For now, I am working on finishing up a few French Foreign Legion to fill out their Gatling crew. I also have 5 of the black-with-orange-lines Tanitians to finish up.

And I should probably rebase the British and Russians to match the VSF collection as I think it's clear there needs to be more of these glorious lancer charges against lost civilizations or the civilizations of other planets.

A Hobby Heavy Weekend

Every once in awhile, the stars align and a weekend arrives with sufficient hobby time to do multiple activities.

I started the weekend off by finishing up a couple of new additions for my Tanitians (aka "not Carthaginians"). Up first is a unit leader and an ordinary swordsperson:

The figure on the left, who will function as a leader figure in rules that have them, is by Classic Toy Soldiers (CTS), from their Carthaginians box. The fellow on the right is from HaT, Spanish Infantry I believe it's called.

The CTS figure appears to be Spanish infantry as well - albeit substantially taller. In fact, I believe the HaT figures from the Spanish infantry box are undersized (compared even to the HaT Carthaginians).

Another CTS figure will serve as the army commander:

His shield design was copied from an Eldritch horror font set. Size-wise he fits in perfectly with the HaT Carthaginians.

Finally, for the Tanitians, a figure I'm most happy about. She started out as an SCS Direct mermaid figure and will now serve as a Tanitian warrior-priestess (in Fistful of Lead:Bigger Battles, she'd be a hero figure):

I lopped off her tailfin, and then a bit of PVA coated tissue covered her mer-person lower extremeties. Some tin-foil folded on itself many times and glued over the mermaid's sad little wand (or was it a dagger?), formed her sword. I *may* paint some tentacles coming up over skirt, but then again, I may not.

At this point, I am five of the black-figure pottery figures from completing my originally planned Tanitian force.

Because I am a man of extremes, I tried my hand at some 2mm figures as well:

I think it's pretty clear they are Austrians, late war, circa 1917-1918. Close-up (below) you can see how the paint was sort of hit-or-miss on my part, but the figures, at least the prone ones, are clearly there. Some of the other poses confuse me as to what they represent.

The base is the 20th Century infantry base from Irregular Miniatures. They are, to borrow a phrase, "cheap as chips." They also paint very quickly. It took maybe 5 minutes from base coat to flock to do these two bases and I could have done a good dozen or so in barely any more time.

 I have in mind to do a divisional level game set in Italy, in WWI (obviously).  However, 2mm may not be the ideal choice, as much as I like them. Everything looks fine in bright light, but by and large, I like dim lights and that makes the figures nearly impossible to see against the base. I also really want to do a Granny Grate army (I did some tests a decade a go that I was quite pleased with but I had not project in mind at the time and so painted some generic British red-coats), so I'll try that next.

Early Sunday morning, I finished the last three of my Marine Iguana inspired Lizard Warriors:

This gives me a complete unit of ten. By my original plans, I need only complete the shaman and the force will be complete (I do have a few other figures to paint though to act as handlers for the Spinosaurus, but they are not necessary).

Finally, all work and no play blah blah blah.  On Sunday, I was invited by Cloud Captain to join him and a friend for a game of Age of Fantasy out at Hobby Town.  It was a battle of Greeks (28mm) vs Ogres (Cloud Captain's 54mm barbarians for our planned Venus games and a frost dragon). 

Cloud Captain shared command of his ogres with me, so that I could learn the rules.

Greek general attacks the frost dragon.

My favorite picture - this fellow held on to the end, bravely, but futilely, swinging his weapon above his head at the ogres on the hill.

Although we ogres lost, it was great fun and a rare non-solo game for me. The rules are straightforward and I would say by the end of turn 2 that I had a decent enough grasp on them. 

You can pretty much map army ideas to existing concepts (apparently, if you support the patreon, you get access to a points calculator for full customization). My Tanitians, for example, map well to the Dark Elves (and I plan to field them as such), while the lizards are clearly Saurians.

I hope to get a solo game in soon using the rules.The rules would certainly work for battles among the various native Venusian factions. Incorporating the Europeans with their rifles and Gatlings may require a small amount of effort to do so.

Operation Hasty : Game 1

Corporal May took a look at his map. "There's a farmhouse on the other side of this ridge. Eddie, Atkinson, 'Stain', you're with me. Whiteford, take Saunders, Cross, and 'Lucky' around the base of the hill. I want the Bren covering the road and the farmhouse in case someone's home and isn't glad for the company." 

These paratroopers were among those chosen cause havoc for the Germans and prevent them from destroying infrastructure as they pulled back from Sora to Avezzano and that part of the Gothic Line. It had been christened by the higher-ups as 'Operation Hasty', wich didn't fill May, Whiteford, or any of the others with a lot of confidence.

"Yes, Corporal! Alright you lot, let's move!"  That was Lt. Corporal Frank Whiteford, the second in command for this squad. He had been in it since Dunkirk, and with May since the Moro River. He knew May could smell trouble a mile away.

Of course, May often was the one causing trouble.

A boxer before the war, he was always ready for a scrap in and out of the ring - and always willing to get one started if no one was forthcoming. In war, he learned not only was he good at knocking men out, but he was good at leading them, too.

As May and his team moved down the hill to the edge of the woods, they spotted a German patrol moving up along the farmhouse.

There are two blinds on the board - one in the field, one in the house. Rather than using the Nuts! patrol scenario and PEFs, I used the patrol scenario and forces from Platoon Forward. There are two blinds, one of which is the real patrol, and the patrol will consist of several blinds as well which have to be resolved.

"Looks like the welcoming committee is already here. Let them have it!" May's Sten was already spitting lead before he finished his command, bringing down the German squad's LMG team.

Another German was dropped by rifle fire and then Whiteford's team opened fire as they came around the hill, to terrible effect. 

The few Jerries who had survived the attack fell back behind the house.

Gott im Himmel!

Celebrations were cut short by the sputtering of bullets from a window of the farmhouse. 

"Spandau!"shouted Whiteford, as he was knocked to the ground. Lucky opened fire with his Bren - killing the gunner and leaving the loader scrambling.

From their left, alongside the farmhouse another LMG team appeared and again Lucky's Bren made quick work of them.

A kubelwagen raced up the road to provide cover for the badly mauled German patrol which was trying to withdraw. With its mounted MG-42 it opened fire and wounded Lucky, but Saunders caught the worst of it. 

Under a hail of lead, Whiteford scrambled, grabbed Lucky and Saunders and dragged them into cover behind the hill.

Meanwhile, the MG-42 in the house had repositioned and prepared to open fire on May's team on the hill. The trunk of the tree to his left exploded in splinters and May hit the dirt. Dragging Stainton who had caught one in the arm, he slipped back into the shadows of the trees.

The firefight ended as quickly as it started. The Germans withdrew- unaware that they had come against a single squad - as Cpl. May led his men to temporary safety deeper into the woods. 

Stain and Lucky would be OK and could keep going, but Saunders, on the other hand, was in bad shape.

"What do we do, Corporal?"

 

*****

• Rules used: Nuts! Final Edition
• Platoon Forward generated the German patrol - it was far better equipped than I had expected. I was OK with that given the historical situation.
• I used the Nuts! non-player force movement and such. The decision to withdraw was made immediately after first contact (by the Nuts! table for that). I figured that since the other blinds were in position, they would provide cover for the withdrawal - hence the tripod MG, the extra LMG team, and the kubelwagen getting some action before ending the game. 

Orange You Glad I Didn't Say 'Banana'?

Finishing out April and kicking off May, I finished two 'not Carthaginians' (Tanitians in my world(s) - named after the Punic goddess Tanit). I say finished because I started these early in the year but it takes many, many, MANY coats of orange to actually cover the base coat. I have tried black, grey, and, with this pair, raw Sienna. Next time, white.

The black-lining is done with architecture pens and takes considerably less time,especially since I learned the trick of varnishing the figure before black-lining (then again after).

The figure on the left is by HaT. The figure on the right is by Classic Toy Soldiers. They scale well together and the CTS figure is the only plastic Carthaginian leader figure I am aware of.

The shield designs are simple - they have to be because I am hand- painting and do not have great brush control! The leader has the well-known symbol of Chaos, while the hoplite has a design inspired by one found when searching for 'Eldritch symbols' online. Despite being named for Tanit, the Tanitians tend to worship, or at least interact with, a fair number of entities best described as cosmic horrors.

Indeed, it is rumored there may be a portal to Carocosa and to the court of the famed King in Yellow in one of the Tanitian temples. Who's to say?

Any individual figure does not bear close scrutiny, but at wargame distance and en masse (as much as seven counts as a mass), they capture the look of what I imagined when I conceived of this idea (albeit in a shade of orange not at all like the one I sought. I gave up after awhile and just went with one I found pleasing to my eye).

In the following overexposed picture, you can witness a 'rumble in the jungle' of sorts as Tanitians and a force of lizard warriors collide in a clearing.

Another 3 to 5 figures are required to fill out the unit for Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles or for use with G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T., etc. However as they are now, I can field them in smaller games like Fistful of Lead, particularly as I purchased the Might & Melee rule book awhile back.

Currently on the paint table are three Armies in Plastic French Foreign Legionnaires to finish up a 10-figure unit of those.

Games (how's that for a generic title?)

Gaming for the new year has kicked off with a revisit of a game from Minden Games, Battle Over Britain.

As you can probably surmise, it's a representation of WWII aerial combat. Less obvious perhaps is that it's 1 on 1, is abstract, and plays quite quickly. There is a solitaire module which I own (it adds little to the existing solitaire rules but does give you more planes to choose from) and other air battles as well.

d12 are hit points, white d6 are ammo remaining.

It's an interesting little game that feels right even if it looks completely wrong. The rules are straightforward but there are enough special rules and optional rules to add flavor and variety.

The average game is probably less than 10 minutes, so it's a prefect space filler or you can play a longer campaign of connected battles, if desired, including one where you play a particular pilot through multiple (hopefully) encounters.

In the picture, I'm using my laptop as the playing space - I have been playing Verdun a lot on Steam and decided I need to shut the laptop down and enjoy some screen-free time (my son isn't the only one who needs to step away from the computer sometimes!).

Also of note, my copy of The Princess Bride Adventure Book Game arrived:

I purchased this on a whim on Black Friday - the price was something like $9.99 USD. Even if it's a terrible game, it comes with figures (I'll give the game a proper post once we play it).

Finally, some figures have entered the preparation stages:

Two things are probably worth noting about the picture.

On the human figures, the black that follows the mold lines is soot from a candle. It ends up on the needle that I heat up and run along the lines. I've mentioned using the hot needle before - it works well enough to smooth them out without marring the figure too badly, but I care less and less about mold lines (with the exception of the one on the helmet). Life is too short.

The gold figure is a Classic Toy Solders Carthaginian. I had no idea they had Carthaginians of their own until recently. Everyone always focuses on HaT (like the figure to his left). The shield is a little skimpy - accurate or not I don't know- but it'll do for my purposes

Fictional Citadel : July 8, 1943, Part 2

In the predawn hours of July 8, 1943, the 4th Panzer Grenadier Regiment, Phantom Division (under the command of General Feuerbach), took up positions north east of Tomarovka. Their objective was to capture a bridge and the hills overlooking the main road to Yakarlevo,

As the sun rose, the Soviets advanced southward from their position west of Yarkalevo, carried forward by the momentum of their success against Phantom Division on July 7th. Communication difficulties due in part to physical exhaustion of the troops invovled, resulted in the 3rd Artillery Battery and 3rd Antitank Battalion arriving in positions far from their objectives. 

The Germans suffered similar command and control issues. More than once the entire division was forced to hold its position while orders were sorted out.

German engineers led off with a double move special event But the German Division would receive a No Units May Move special event twice!

The 9th Soviet Guard Rifle Regiment advanced through the woods north of the German position behind the river, which brought the German artillery under fire,  before the German crews had a chance to unlimber their guns. It would be some time before the German artillery could relocate and deploy.

"Are ze communists close or is it mein binoculars?"

At the hills, the 7th Soviet Guard Rifle Regiment engaged in a furious battle with the 4th Panzer Grenadiers, before abandoning the position for the protection of the village. The fighting continued and the 7th SGRR was soon no longer a fighting force. 

Meanwhile, the 8th Soviet Guard Rifle Regiment arrived from the north east - it's objective being the hills east of the road. A traffic jam of Soviet units presented difficulties in meeting the timetables set for their assault.

 The Soviet drive for the bridge coalesced around the advance of 3rd Recon Battalion, in support of 9th SGRR. 

Stopped first by the 1st Panzer Engineers and then Feuerbach's division HQ (the General himself was commanding from the front with the 4th Panzer Grenadier regiment), eventually it met destruction at the hands of 4th Panzer Grenadier Regiment.

The final showdown of the engagement occurred when 2nd Panzer engaged in a close range duel with the Soviet AT battalion that saw both sides break from the field.

Sensing the momentum draining from both sides, 3rd PanzerJaeger was able to secure the bridge while 4th Panzer Grenadier held the hill - tenuous though their grasp was. 

Gurdjieff was forced to concede and ordered the withdrawal of the 3rd Soviet Guard Rifle Division north, to an area just east of Systevo. Phantom Division still reeling from the effects of the previous days of fighting, found itself unable to pursue the retreating Soviets.

****** Campaign Notes *****

You will notice I forgot to take a picture of the end of the game. I was too caught up in it to remember and then I ran to take care of the bookkeeping.

This was as small battle. Not just in terms of number of units but in strength points involved.  Both sides had been pretty well beaten up previously and were not near full strength. 

Consequently it was also short. There were six  complete turns - so 3-6 hours of fighting (i figure a turn is 30  - 60 minutes).

The Germans went second on turn 6 and knowing they would be at exhaustion at the end of the turn, and having rolled a No Units May Fire special event, I charged into close combat where I could to push the Soviets to break as well. Was that gamey? Yes. Does that bother me? No. I view it as Feuerbach seeing the Soviets on the ropes and hoping to deliver the knock out blow with the last of his strength.

At the end both had reached their exhaustion points for movement on the campaign map.  As it stands, Phantom Division will need two turns on their baseline to be able to advance.

While the Germans got back 3 of their lost strength points, the Soviets had two points go into the hospital, so it's possible that 3rd SGRD will be ready to advance as early as next turn.

What remains is PanGermania vs the 1st Tank Corps. It is the 2nd time the two have met - it will be a rematch of two armored units. 

Even if PanGermania wins their July 8th battle. am not sure about the campaign going forward. At this point it's almost a guarantee that the Germans won't be able to advance much farther. Is the loss of men and machines worth it?

A Bridge Over Troubled Waters

Table Top Teaser #1 is one of my favorite scenarios. So I thought it'd be a good test of my Frankenstein's monster of a grid-based rule set for WW2 for 1 base = 1 company. Friday night, I broke out the card table and setup.

With a 6x6 grid, the table gets very crowded very fast despite the attacker's piecemeal arrival (the attacker has quite a few units for so few grid spaces). In my first game, several German units suffered losses very quickly due to an inability to fall back(I use the hit result table from The Portable Wargame) without colliding with another unit. But, because they have staying power, the situation didn't improve for the remaining units.

I chose to ignore the exhaustion point because had I not, the game would have been over by turn 5 or so.

Turn 6 or so - the last arrivals, er, arrive.

I reset the table and tried again using the two-hit variant for strength points originally proposed by Ross Mac and incorporated into Developing the Portable Wargame. This was a much more exciting game. The Germans still suffered some losses early but as they were eliminated whole cloth, it left breathing room for the remaining elements to maneuver. 

This isn't really an issue with the rules so much as recognizing that a large (for me) scenario in a small space, where stacking is not allowed, requires adjustments.

The Soviet defenders had lost two complete units by this point.

But on turn 10, they managed to blow the bridge . Admittedly, stranding their HMG company and a tank company on the other side of the river. Sacrifices for the integrity of the Motherland.

It occurred to me after the game, that in essence, my rules are really just a modified version of The Portable Wargame. 

I use a different firing mechanism (Similar to Memoir of Modern Battle (Cordery) and Hold the Line! units roll 3 dice to hit at 1 space, 2 at 2 spaces, and 1 at three or more spaces - the limit being dependent on the unit type), all hits count, hits are 4 or 6 in the open, 6 in cover, MGs hit on 2/4/6 or 4/6 against targets in cover (these are Morschauser's "to hit" numbers). Close combat is more violent than in The Portable Wargame, with infantry rolling 4 dice, and others rolling two or three, with the same hit numbers given. The number of dice doesn't change regardless of the hit points remaining. This makes close combat potentially decisive and possibly swingy even with mismatched units - closer to Morschauser (who, if it's not clear, I am a big fan of) than The Portable Wargame. There are some other rules changes that I like (units have to fire before moving, a unit can't initiate close combat unless they start adjacent to the enemy unit, and a few more).

All that said, as much as I *like* my modifications, I think I really ought to give The Portable Wargame a try again as written, but this time with the two-hit variant to see if that difference makes the rules-as-written close combat more acceptable to me.

On the Grid Again

 Friday the dam burst and I played a flurry of games on a grid - spurred in no small part by my acquisition of a foldable card table.

It measures 38 in. square, which with my current grid cloth is still just 6x6 of 6 inch squares. But that's fine for One Hour Wargames scenarios with small forces.

I set out Scenario 14: Static Defence  - a favorite of mine  - and I tried some rules I had written up over the course of the preceding week. 

In this iteration, weapon companies were split up into attachments to rifle companies.

Soviet ATR companies can engage armor up to 1 space away. Other infantry have to close assault it.

I played two games like this. They were Ok but they weren't quite what I had hoped and had some flaws I found bothersome.  I combined them with some ideas from The Portable Wargame and tried again.

That was better but still not quite right. So I gave The Portable Wargame a chance as written - but using three hits per unit.

Soviets held off the attack on the town - which was the German target. They instead captured the hill rather accidentally.

That still wasn't quite right, for me. So, I scribbled some ideas down and slept on it.

Saturday morning, I set up a new scenario (Scenario 20: Fighting Retreat) because I needed a change from the last one.

Dramatic sunlight.

Classic Toy Solider MG team holding off the Soviet advance.

Very close to what the end of the last game looked like. The Soviet advance collapsed due to losses. I set exhaustion at 50% of strength points due to the small totals for each force.

The end result was exactly the kind of game I had wanted to play. I played twice even, just to be sure.

In the end it was an amalgamation of my own preferences, Hold the  Line, Bob Cordery's Memoir of Modern Battle and The Portable Wargame, and a little Morschauser (4's and 6's to hit and 2/4/6 for MGs).