Morschauser Bridge Demolition

Two battalions of Panzer-Grenadiers (insert your favorite regiment number) with two panzer companies, raced to the village of Krasnya to prevent the Soviets from blowing the bridge there.

So goes the flimsiest setup for not one but two plays of Tabeltop Teaser #1 : The Bridge Demolition (courtesy of Steve the Wargamer's wonderful resource). These pictures are from the second play, which occurred Sunday afternoon. The Soviets can blow the bridge on turn 12 based - based on doubling the turns it takes for infantry to reach the village.

I accidentally left some rubble on the table while setting up and didn't realize it until turn 3 or 4.

View from the German recon unit.

The random arrival of Blue force was particularly unfortunate for the Germans: on turn 1 the only unit to arrive was an ATG (represented here with the Sd.K. which is "towing" the gun). They got no further. The Soviet tanks caught and destroyed them . Turn 1 and one unit down.

The recon unit raced for the road but came under fire from the other Soviet tank company. Turn 1 and two units down.

With no arrivals on turn 2, the Soviets held their position. By turn six the entire German force was finally present for the festivities.

The half-track is another ATG tow. I modified the infantry vs tank rules due to the 1" = 100 yard scale I was using. The Soviet tanks were forced to fall back.

On the Soviet left tanks clashed north of the woods.

An overview of the situation around turn 7 or  8?

Gratuitous close-up.

The Soviet tanks on the right fell back to the river to buy some time to reorganize.

On the German right/Soviet left, the 2nd battalion / ATG arrived and deployed.

A view from the German left.

And the German right.

The German ATGs setup within rifle range of the Soviet infantry in the hamlet, so that ended the way you would expect it to. Before the ATGs even fired once. On the bright side, the German infantry eliminated the Soviet rifles from the woods.

Things started to take a turn for the worse for the Soviets in the hamlet. Their commander kept them beyond the bridge too long.

And the Huns overran their position. 1st and 2nd battalions link up at the hamlet before heading south to the bridge.

On the Soviet right, tanks shoot out at 500 yards.The Soviets tanks are pushed up to the river - is this a last stand? [that 1 sure makes it seem like it]

Panzers win the tank battle on German right / Soviet left and the P/G companies surge forward.

Turn 11. The Germans clear out the buildings north of the river. Panzers return fire on the Soviet ATGs. But lo and behold the Soviet tanks (upper right in the picture) still hold on!

 Panzers reach the bridge, and the Soviet engineers suffer devastating fire on Turn 12!  There's no chance the bridge will be blown. A last minute German victory! Given their start, I was pretty surprised.

*****

Rules for both attempts at this scenario were variants on Morschauser, but today's game was pretty much just the version I played at Thanksgiving SoloCon, with modifications for range and movement where 1" = 100 yards, and a tweak for mixed heavy weapons companies.

Friday's game was more of a mashup and did feature a strength point recovery/resupply method that I prefer stylistically, but that doesn't really work with Morschauser's recommended strength points. I may write it up eventually because I think it works well

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.

Soviet Maxim Team No. 2 and a Conversion

Let's start with the first part (always a good choice).

The second Zvezda MG team is complete and on their base. If you look carefully you will still see the blue tint to the air that resulted from this exercise.

The hard part was getting both of their hands onto the gun's handle, without raising the MG in the air. The end result is that they appear to be holding hands from certain angles. I'm quite alright with that, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't the intention and that I botched the arm attachment.

Here's another view because I'm pleased as punch with the outcome:

Speaking of arm attachment. I rapidly went from "what happens if I try to use heat to bend this figure's arm" to "better lop that melted mess off with an X-acto and find a replacement":

The donor was already missing a hand - he came that way - and so I figured he was the best donor candidate. I also have like 10 of the grenade throwers, most of whom I have no other plans for.

I consider this a proof of concept for a "leader" figure - a company commander, for example, in my G Company or Company Fire - that doesn't look exactly like the figure I painted for the Commissar. I mean it really doesn't matter, but if they're going to be standing side-by-side, I thought it was too uniform and besides this is my first "big"-ish conversion attempt (i.e not hacking off a gun or a paint conversion).

The arm is presently held in place with blu-tac, just to prove to myself that it will work.

I will drill and pin it, and then fill in the gaps (probably) with green stuff before hacking off some of the excess bits that resulted from my previous hacking. 

Painting Madness and Plans

I got quite  bit of painting done in the last few days, much to my own surprise

Both the Germans and Soviets can now field nine infantry units.

And even better, the Soviets can field their first proper HMG:

Nothing fancy but they will serve the Motherland well. Just don't get me started on the pain of attaching the Maxim to the base.  All hail blu-tack!

The next figures in the queue include a German sniper (CTS), a Soviet commander (Marx, which will be my first "real" conversion attempt), and the second Soviet HMG team (the Zvezda box includes two) . It's probable I'll work on those this week.

Once those are painted, and assuming my painting mojo sticks around, I'll probably return to painting figures for my colonial Imagin-nation / VSF project involving the conflict between Ginland (or is it Gntania?) and Vodkya in the late 19th C. I figure a break before painting any more WWII forces will help prevent burnout.


I'd really like to get a game on the table with my figures, but I'm afraid to stop painting lest another long painting lull begin.

I love the smell of Testor’s glue in the morning

The other night I was ready to wax rhapsodic about 1/35 figure kits. Assembling the soldiers was a breeze, cleaning mold lines with a blade was a delight (so easy with this plastic), and you can leave off bits and bobs that your Airfix and Marx figures don’t have if desired. 

Of course, there are slight gaps at the joins that the more detail oriented would take the time to deal with but I am not that person and am not bothered by them.

In my joy-filled haze, I moved on to the Maxims next. How anyone can call this hobby relaxing is beyond me! Minuscule pieces lost, found, lost again (this time with glue on them), tiny little bits to be stuck perfectly in place with no support/hole/anything. Clearly these were created by a sadistic mind and dutifully, I masochistically went through the process. 

The end result, however, was worth it in that I now have two proper Soviet HMG teams and for a reasonable price (dollar-wise, the jury is out on the cost of sanity).

One team and both guns. The nose of the gun on the right came from a broken resin kit I have as I lost the one included.

Despite my frustration with the fiddly gun bits,  I expect I’ll be turning to more 1/35 figure kits for some of the specialists that no one makes in 1/32 plastic.