Italy Acquires Machine Guns from England!

The Italian forces mobilized against the Austro-Hungarian Empire have received shipments of Vickers machine guns from their English allies.

The new guns, manufactured by the North Yorkshire firm of Irregular, are being distributed across the front to supplement the Italian-made Fiat-Revelli models which have been in short supply.

This is the Irregular Miniatures British HMG & 2 crew with Adrian helmeted heads from their Empire multi-part figures line.

My sloppy painting job aside, I am very happy with these models and plan to purchase at least one more set.

They are a touch smaller than I anticipated. While they match very well with the Waterloo 1815 Bersaglierri figures, like those, these are slight compared to Armies in Plastic. When you see the Austrian MG next to their AiP fellows, you will notice the difference.

It also means the heads from the multi-part figure line are less useful for swaps, at least with the AiP bodies.

Fictional Citadel: July 5, 1943

On July 5th, 1943, three German divisions pressed onward into the Soviet Union with the goal of reaching the Kursk salient. It was arguably a small force for the task, but intelligence suggested the region was only lightly defended.

In the pre-dawn hours, General Fichte’s PanGermania Division advanced with Phantom Division under General Feuerbach to their right. At Butovo, PanGermania's 1st Fusiliers, supported by the division's recon battalion and panzer regiment encountered resistance from the 2nd Rifle Regiment of the 1st  Soviet Guard Rifle Division (SGRD), commanded by General Novikov.

With their artillery tied up engaging Phantom division, 2nd Rifle Regiment fought essentially without support. As the defenders were being forced from the town, PanGermania's 1st Panzer Grenadier Regiment, supported by the division's artillery cleared out the 1st Rifle Regiment from their defensive positions in front of Cherkasskoye. The 1st SGRD's AT battalion and engineers were not enough to hold off the advance as the two halves of PanGermania combined to press forward.

The Jagdpanther is filling in for my lack of 1/50th StuG

The huge minefield to the West narrowed the frontage 1st Soviet Guard Rifle Division was forced to defend. But it had no effect on the German artillery.

General Feuerbach ’s Phantom Division engaged the remaining elements of 1st SGRD that had been protecting that unit's flank. Quickly pressing past the Soviet's recon company, the advance was delayed by the Soviet 3rd Rifle Regiment which valiantly defended its position. Although eventually they and the artillery were forced back, it was not without significant casualties to the 4th Panzer Grenadier Regiment.

After seven hours of hard fighting, General Novikov ordered his troops to fall back.

In the aftermath, as PanGermania pressed forward, Phantom Division was forced to halt their own advance due to vehicle congestion on the limited roadways.

East of Phantom Division, General Schopenhauer’s 1st Panzer Grenadier Division clashed with the 2nd Soviet Guard Rifle Division, led by General Blavatsky. Blavatsky's troops held fortified hilltop positions and presented an outsized challenge for the attackers.

From their height beyond the river, the Soviet 2nd Artillery Regiment bombarded the advancing Germans with stunning accuracy. Stiff resistance from the entrenched rifle units with additional support from 2nd Recon company resulted in a general mauling of the 2nd and 3rd Panzer Grenadier Regiments before Schopenhauer ordered his units to fall back to regroup.

Campaign Notes:

• PanGermania - Starting SP: 29. Now 28. 0 in the hospital.
  
• 1st Panzer Grenadier Division - Starting SP: 22. Now 16. 1 in the hospital.
  
• Phantom Division - Starting SP:27. Now 25. 0 in the hospital.
• 1st Soviet Guard Rifle Division - Starting SP 25. Now 17. 1 in the hospital.
• 2nd Soviet Guard Rifle Division - Starting SP 25. Now 25. 0 in hospital.

All of the games lasted 7 turns. That was probably a coincidence but I found it interesting.

One note, I am not using the standard initiative rules for The Portable Wargame. Instead, I am pulling out the cards as per the solo mode, but instead keep them in separate decks. The sides dice for initiative and then the winner draws from their card deck. Artillery attacks are simultaneous before the dice are rolled and count against the number of units that may move according to each side's card. 

In this way I can more easily track turns (I'm treating each one as an hour, and limiting fighting to 12 turns max generally) and maintain the IGO-UGO system which I think makes more sense with the simultaneous artillery fire.

Armored cars / scout cars with their machine guns are devastating against infantry. I have been counting each roll of 5+ on the three dice as a hit. I think I may change that to "if one or more of the dice is 5+ then a single hit is scored".

Final Map Positions at the end of Turn 1:

Fictional Citadel: A Portable Wargame Campaign

This weekend I kicked off a map based campaign for The Portable Wargame which for lack of a better one I'm calling Fictional Citadel.  The first battles have been fought, but before I post those, I thought I'd share a little of the campaign game itself.

The map is based on the one provided by Flames of War on their Axis of Attack : Kursk page, I created a simple campaign grid map by drawing on top of their map, using Google Draw. Mine is stylized, has some extra towns without names, and dispenses with the movement tracks as it's not a ladder campaign:

Much of the map detail isn't used for its specifics, but rather, with Bob Cordery's terrain generator v2 to produce the tabletop battlefield map. I assume generally hilly terrain for the most part.

The Germans have three divisions: PanGermania (based on Grossdeutschland Division), Phantom (based on the 11th Panzer "Ghost" Division), and 1st Panzer Grenadier (any resemblance to an actual unit by that name is purely coincidental). The names of the subunits probably don't make sense - that's OK.

PanGermania - General Fichte@6SP, DivHQ@2SP,1st Panzer Regiment@3SP, 1st PzGren Regiment@4SP, 1st Fusilier Regiment@4SP, 1st Pioneer Battalion@2SP, 1st Recon Battalion@2SP, 1st PanzerJaeger Battalion@2SP, 1st StuG Battalion@2SP, 1st Artillery Battery@2SP : total 29SP

1st Panzer Grenadier Division - General Schopenhauer@6SP, DivHQ@2SP,
2nd PzGren Regiment@4SP, 3rd PzGren Regiment@4SP, 2nd Pioneer Battalion@2SP, 2nd PanzerJaeger Battalion@2SP, 2nd Artillery Battalion@2SP: total 22SP

Phantom Division - General Feuerbach@6SP, DivHQ@2SP, 2nd Panzer Regiment@3SP, 4th PzGren Regiment@4SP, 5th PzGren Regiment@4SP, 1st Panzer Engineer Battalion@2SP, 1st Panzer Recon Battalion@2SP, 3rd PanzerJaeger Battalion@2SP, 1st Panzer Artillery Battery@2SP: total 27SP

The Soviets have four divisions: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Soviet Guard Rifle Regiments (SGRD) and 1st Tank Corps (these are copied wholesale from posts by Bob Cordery).

1st Soviet Guard Rifle Division - General Novikov@6SP, 1st Rifle Regiment@4SP, 2nd Rifle Regiment@4SP, 3rd Rifle Regiment@4SP, 1st Antitank Battalion@2SP, 1st Artillery Regiment@2SP, 1st Sapper Battalion@2SP, 1st Recon Company@1SP: total 25SP

2nd Soviet Guard Rifle Division - General Blavatsky@6SP, 4th Rifle Regiment@4SP, 5thRifle Regiment@4SP, 6th Rifle Regiment@4SP, 2nd Antitank Battalion@2SP, 2nd Artillery Regiment@2SP, 2nd Sapper Battalion@2SP, 2nd Recon Company@1SP: total 25SP

3rd Soviet Guard Rifle Division - General Gurdjieff@6SP, 7th Rifle Regiment@4SP, 8th Rifle Regiment@4SP, 9th Rifle Regiment@4SP, 3rd Antitank Battalion@2SP, 3rd Artillery Regiment@2SP, 3rd Sapper Battalion@2SP, 3rd Recon Company@1SP: total 25SP

1st Tank Corps - Division Commander Ouspensky@6SP, 1st ARmored Car Regiment@2SP, 1st Tank Brigade@3SP, 2nd Tank Brigade@3SP, 3rd Tank Brigade@3SP, 10th Motor Rifle Regiment@4SP : total 21 SP

The Soviets start with four divisions because I fully expect 1st SGRD to take a severe beating as they have to split their force between two German units.

The campaign begins on July 5, 1943, The Germans start in positions dictated by the Flames of War map to make the first conflicts occur in the same places. The Soviets 1st and 2nd SGRD were placed to in the same fashion. 3rd SGRD and 1st Tank were randomly placed by the roll of dice.

The grass seems to have gotten greener on this map!

Units in spaces that share a side engage in at tabletop battle. For 1st SGRD that meant splitting its forces between two different German divisions.

The Campaign Turn rules are simple but allow me to have losses matter going forward in the campaign.

I present it here in a summary form for those who might find it useful. It is however, a work in progress even as I use it. The rules make use of "the hospital" concept, whereby some casualties may end up in a hospital where their exact fate is undetermined until diced for at a later time.

The campaign turn in this campaign represents one day.

Campaign Turn

Resupply Phase - Units may attempt to recover lost strength points from "the hospital". Some units may be eligible for additional SP recovery. Each unit has its own hospital - they are not shared.

For each SP in the hospital roll 1d6. On a 1-2 the SP is lost, 3-4 it stays in the hospital, 5+ it is returned to the unit to be assigned to a sub-unit.

Units on their baseline receive 1 additional SP.

Soviet Units in a space with a rail line, and no German unit on the same line between the Soviet unit and the Soviet baseline, receive 1 additional SP and a +1 to the hospital die rolls that turn.

Soviet Units in a space with a road that can trace their way to their baseline with a path that does not enter a space occupied by a German unit receives +1 to the hospital die rolls that turn. This cannot be combined with the bonus for rail lines.

No subunit may ever increase its SP beyond what it started the campaign with.

Movement Phase - Sides dice for initiative, then alternate moving units, winner moves first. Units move 1 space through the sides of the square. Units may move diagonally between spaces connected by a road. A unit that has reached its exhaustion point or below may only move in a way that does not decrease its distance to the nearest enemy and may not advance towards the enemy baseline.

Battle Phase - any enemy units in spaces sharing a side may engage in a tabletop battle. Units facing more than one enemy divide their force. No battle may feature more than 6 units per side.

Post-Battle Withdrawal Phase - When a unit loses a battle it must retreat two spaces. The winner may advance into the space vacated by the loser.

Post-Battle Recovery Phase - SP lost during a battle are possibly recovered: 1/3 automatically recovered, 1/3 diced for (1-2 lost, 3-4 goes to hospital, 5-6 returns to unit.), 1/3 are lost. Recovered SP can only be distributed to sub-units that have less SP than they started the campaign with.

Second Movement Phase - Any unit that did not engage in a battle may move again as per the Movement Phase.

 

Second Resupply Phase - Any unit that neither moves nor engages in a battle may regain SP as dictated under the Resupply Phase

 

Italy Sends Bersaglieri to the Line!

Although greatly under strength, the Italian Bersaglieri prepare to square off against their Austrian foes!

The officer gets fancier black leather shoes.

These Waterloo 1815 figures painted up fairly quickly by my standard.

I attribute this to two things. One, there is an overall lack of kit with these figures - akin to Airfix WWII Soviets. The  other reason is that I discovered that if I take a little more time with each step, there is less need to go back and fix errors. Not no need mind you, but far less need. Who knew?

Sadly, there was some peeling when I removed the figures from their painting bases which you can see in the picture.

I will seal the bases with PVA and regloss the bases once I settle on what the final actual basing will be.

At present, I am leaning towards individual figures on the same size bases I use for my Great Game armies (I don't recall the size, so hopefully I have the order receipt from Litko so I can order more!). Trench Hammer works equally well either way, and H.M.G. which I would like to try, by default uses individually-based figures.

More Portable Wargame and Campaign Thoughts

For giggles, I broke out my 1/50 or thereabouts armor and played an inaugural game on my 5" grid cloth - a replay of Tabletop Teaser #3. It was also the first appearance in a game ever of my Churchill (lend-lease, like the jeep).

Overview of the armies arriving.

So many Soviet infantry yet there were not able to hold off the Germans.

Oh what's this? Another lend-lease vehicle.

Germans hold off the final Soviet push for the town.

The Germans held the bridge and the town quite securely at game's end.

I used the card activation method described in The Portable Wargame (PW) which made for an interesting piecemeal arrival on the table and having to choose whether to bring on a new unit or press home with those on the table.

Satisfied with the 5" grid (and I still have the 6" grid) and The Portable Wargame generally (although I still think shooting should be prior to movement and I may tinker a bit), I turned my thoughts to a possible mini-campaign - a fictionalized Operation Citadel. 

I was inspired by Bob Cordery's most recent approach to his Great Patriotic War campaign (the Red Flags & Iron Crosses campaign).  I want to use PW to play it out but it occurred to me that if the units are regiments then the ranges in The Portable Wargame are way too long.

So I tried a game where only artillery has any ranged attack. It resulted, perhaps not surprisingly, in something of a scrum. For one, there may have been too many units on the table for using full strength points (because I like the idea of tracking SP through the campaign although it can be done with the two hit variety the more I think about it) and for another, if everything has to close for combat, well, eventually it's a pileup.

I reset everything and played again but with the regular PW rules and it was much more enjoyable even if it stretched credulity. I may retry the adjacent space only rules with some slight modification, but I may not. It's toy soldiers after all, not a detailed simulation. I also may limit how many units a division can field in any given battle - to prevent too much crowding.

The pictures below show the PanGermania Division in battle against elements of the 1st Soviet Guard Rifle Division (the remainder of the Soviet division I reasoned was otherwise engaged - a test of an idea for how I'd start my imagined campaign). The grid uses 5" squares.

1st Fusiliers regiment , 1st Panzer regiment, and 1st Assault Gun battalion, approach as members of the Soviet AT battalion reconsider their life choices. (Vehicles in a multitude of scales)

The Germans reach Cherkasskoye as they hit their exhaustion point. The Soviets are in no condition to maintain fighting and fall back.

A Tale of Two Portable Wargames and Smaller Grid Space

For some time, I have been contemplating the benefit of a smaller square for my grid. 6" feels right, but limits the grid to 6 x 6 most of the time (It can go 8x8 on my 4' square plywood, but I can't easily set that up and leave it out). 4" doesn't look quite right with the large scale CTS armor, and is a bit small even for 1/43-1/50 vehicles, although it has the benefit of a 9x9 table. 5" allows me to go with 7x7 (4.75 would give me 8x8 on my card table, but I don't feel like messing with fractions when measuring).

So, Friday, I painstakingly set out little stones to indicate 5" squares and setup Tabletop Teaser #1 (yes, again). For some ambience I kept the lights low and used the light from my little houses:

Soviet infantry and HMG companies guard the town while their commander entertains a visitor.

I turned the overhead light on to get a picture of the entire table.

The commander, furious about all of the noise that has ruined his evening, comes out to find the Germans at his doorstep.

The Germans managed to capture the bridge before the Soviets had a chance to blow it up. The 5" grid seemed to work well enough.

Was it better than the 6x6 game? Not significantly.  

However, it did allow me have a little more space to maneuver, for units to fall back to avoid taking damage, and turned a one grid space woods into a three grid space woods, which I rather liked. However, in terms of fun, I think it was about the same. Then again, I have fun just pushing figures around my table next to my laptop and rolling dice, so my standard is pretty low.

Next, I set out Tabletop Teaser #3, The Advance Guard Action,(available here) to try out the smaller square/more squares further. I had never played this one before which made it harder to judge the impact of the grid. 

The sides have identical forces but at "mid-day" they may receive reinforcements.

The Lend-Lease recon unit is visible on the Soviet side.

German motorised infantry race for the town.

Each side has reached its primary objective and threatens the enemy at the other.

The Soviets assault the German defenders in the town. A rather uninspiring picture of a tank battle.

The struggle for the town.

The Soviets force out the Germans and get comfy.

The German attacks on the Soviet positions near the bridge are repelled and the Soviet infantry occupies the cover of the woods.

The German reinforcements arrive.

But are outgunned by the Soviet reinforcements.

The Germans are running out of steam and have neither objective in hand.

Although their armor was able to drive the Soviet armor out of the town, they were flanked and destroyed by the second Soviet armor unit. Their force whittled to nothing, they abandoned the field.

The Germans had very little success in this one and when they reached their exhaustion point it really was the end for them - as by that rule, they couldn't advance to either objective. The Soviet T-34 reinforcement drove the last nail in.

This scenario definitely benefited from the extra squares - motorized infantry (subbed in for the light infantry) and recon units (light cavalry) chew up ground quickly.

The only time I really felt the smaller space was off was when enemy tanks faced off in adjacent spaces - their butts had to hang into the squares behind them even as their fronts nearly touched. Still, a minor inconvenience, and I do have a number of 1/50 scale tanks (just not for the Soviets although I have finally found some reasonably priced sources for resin prints of them) if it really bothers me. 

Is it worth sacrificing a few feet of my ground cloth to make a second grid cloth so I don't have to put out little stones? I think so. So, that's next on the docket.

First Shots Fired on the Italian Front

Finally managed to finish my Austrians (Armies in Plastic WWI Germans) - all the bits that were bothering me have been retouched and a suitable gloss applied.

Of course, it wouldn't due to just let them sit and so, I commenced with my first infantry contact on the Southern Front using Trench Hammer.

The scenario is based on a actual historical event - three Austrian stormtrooper assault patrols burst out of hidden tunnels in the snow to surprise lightly held Italian positions. Ideally the Italians would have a machine gun on the table as they did in real life, but I am awaiting mine from England, so it will be awhile yet. 

In the meantime, two Italian rifle sections and their "leader" stand watch or mostly just complain about the cold and the incompetent fools who think this icy section of rock is worth protecting.

The eyes! The eyes! (they freak me out)

Without warning two Austrian stormtrooper assault patrols burst forth from the snow! (In Trench Hammer terms, one unit is a bombing section, and the other unit is being treated as an Assault section)

The Italians are caught completely unprepared and the stormtroops advance rapidly, firing rifles as the bombers prepare to unleash their fury.

As they get closer the Italian officer is able to get his men to start firing.

As the first units of Austrians reach the trench, another assault patrol bursts forth from a hidden tunnel. (Another unit I classified as a Bombing section)

A struggle ensues for control of the trench but the Italian infantry on the right give a good accounting of themselves, driving off two of the Austrian units.

The unit on the left on the other hand was forced to abandon the trench, which the Austrians took quick advantage of.

The Italian infantry on the right raced down the trench and close combat ensued. After forcing them back, the Austrians closed to assault again but it was not enough and the Italian defenders were victorious.

In Trench Hammer units are sections and have specific purposes - as they did historically in the British and German armies at least. Generally speaking each side fields a platoon with some support (which I don't have yet). Since Austrian stormtroops don't have a platoon organization to speak of, the assault patrol of 9 men being the basic unit of the company, this is an ad hoc attack assembled from three assault patrols. 

These troops are a specialist type of their own but are not directly accounted for in the rules. For German stormtroops the rules suggest making most of the sections Bombing units and so that's what I went with (After all, the Austrians were trained by the Germans).

The Alpini are Dulcop and were not painted by me - I just painted their bases (well some of them) to match my preferred green. They will do for now, but they will eventually get some paint.  I'm also not set on the basing I used here - I may move to 2 figures on a 2" square like I use for WW2.

Speaking of, painting, getting the Austrians done and on the table has inspired me to get back to painting. I will either extend my Austrians - possibly with some ordinary rifle infantry (assault patrols often led the way for regular army units) - or some of my unpainted Bersaglieri.