Terrain Items

Just built several barbed wire obstacles (Spanish Rider or Knife Rests or something like that . . . ).    Used Battlefield Accessories barbed wire and bass wood sticks.  Base is plastic sheet with Durham Rock Hard putty mixed with suitably sized gravel.  Wood structure stuck into putty and when it dries it holds the "X" shaped rests.  I wrapped the barbed wire around the lateral beam and glued the beam down.  Painted wire with black gesso and then a rusty shade of brown.

Hay stacks were my other creation.  I'm working with some faux fur for fields (say that real fast several times) and what I shave off the fur can be pressed into a ball, sprayed with varnish, stuck to cardboard and shaped some as the varnish dries.  Cover the cardboard base with your choice of basing materials.  One other tip, I dry brush the fur with a highlighting paint to not only highlight the fur field but also to make it easier to shave or trim.  Otherwise you have the fur sticking everywhere.  Painted, it tends to clump together when cut and that is where I got the idea of making hay stacks.

Battle for Ogledov August 12 1944

Played a Command Decision Test of Battle game recently.  Game went well. The battle was Ogledow Aug 12 1944. This little fight was the debut of the German King Tiger, a Panther on sterioids with faulty mechanics just like the Panther. A battalion of the Royal Tigers left the rail yard in Poland, 11 made it to the battlefield, the rest broken down in transit. A single T34/85 KO'd three of the Tigers and a mix of T34's and JS-2's defeated the remainder. The Germans were attempting to counterattack to reduce the Soviet Sandomierz bridgehead over the Vistula. That was the historical battle.

The battle on Sunday saw the JS-2's playing king of the hill with the Tigers. The Tigers left the road to get within striking distance but started bogging down. The Soviet infantry "battalions," really just a strong company by this time in their summer campaign, were roughly handled by a company of StuGs with grenadiers supporting them . But with the JS-2's holding the central hill, the Germans couldn't break a tough nut.

JTFM 1/56th Scale (28mm) Vehicles

Just painted up 2 each US Shermans and German halftracks.  Posed in front of some Normandy-style buildings I also just completed.

WWII Germans in Winter Parka

Germans in Parka.  28mm.

Things to do while it snows

Wow, it's been 3 months since an update.  Things got a bit hectic in my basement lab this winter.  Water service broke under the house and partially flooded the basement.  Luckily the plumbers and restoration folks moved quickly and damage was minimal.  I had to replace padding under the carpet and my Ikea Billy bookcases were damaged from the water.  But as I store everything in plastic bins, nothing in my wargaming stuff or my wife's yarn stash was damaged.  Did have to move it all out to the garage while the basement was restored.  Everything is dried out, no mold, carpet is back down and new bookcases have been installed.  While I had everything moved out, I relocated my painting area.  Several years ago I had made a craft space for my wife in a 12x12 alcove in the basement.  The "Handmade Afghan Project for Our Wounded Soldiers" took over several years ago and she had not been using the space and my eye kept wandering to it.  Being the lovely person she is, she let me move in to her space.   What a gal!


But now it is snowing buckets outside, I'm home from work and will likely be off Monday too.  So I must paint.  Just finished KGL Hussars from AB Miniatures and I think I'll start on British Rifles next.

Got to get back to taking pictures too, now that the basement is back in order.

A Leader of Men

So I just received and read a set of mini rules from Task Force Publishing, http://www.tfpgames.com/ , called "A Leader of Men."

Looks very good on first read.  Has several features I like such as a strong command and morale mechanisms and otherwise simple firing and movement mechanisms.  The other thing I like about the rules is there is no need for special rules for Germans behaving differently than Russians or other silly fluff.   A German Rifle-mg stand shoots and moves like a Russian rifle-mg stand.  Differences between forces are covered by the various morale and quality ratings and the turn-activation sequence.

The rules do use card activation, which I don't usually care for when it is just a rules gimmick, but the designer of "A Leader of Men" thought a lot and designed the game around the card activation system.  The game will tend to draw focus and action on where the fighting is most intense (i.e. stands are closest) and if  this focus is not getting a player closer to his objective, then in effect the player has lost control of events and will need to strive mightily to shift the focus back to where it needs to be.

The game runs by pulling a card, a player activates a unit that then takes morale checks, rally checks, moves and fires and can modify these actions with the unit commander's command points.  Sort of like the Ambush Alley or Two-Hour Wargames sequence, but the whole things reads a lot easier and should play easier.  At least for someone just starting a set of rules.

The rules do suffer from multiple terms for the same checks in both the rules and quick reference sheet which serve to confuse the reader.  But a careful reading of the examples included in the rules will clear up that confusion.  Also, the movement rate for infantry does not seem be defined anywhere in the rules but I'm sure an email to the author or the game forums would reveal that answer.  Over all, the rules will receive no award for the best written, but the designer's intent still comes through clear.

It looks to be a wild and woolly game system with units (platoon of 4-8 stands) being easily affected by morale and command problems but, if not quite as easily, also brought back on the firing line.  A players troops, under the stress of combat, may decide to fall back or go to ground despite what the owning player wants them to do.  Makes a player want to keep a small reserve to exploit those times when the enemy falters and you need a fresh force to throw into the breach.  Or plug a whole in your own defenses when a well placed artillery rounds takes out your key MG nest.

Basing is general so forces bases for FoW, Crossfire, or Poor Bloody Infantry will work well.  Typically, these rules use 3-5 figures mounted on a stand.  Individually based 28mm can work to by just keeping 3-5 figures in base to base contact to represent a "stand."

I look forward to running a game with these rules one day soon.

Paining Up Soviet WWII Troops

Over the past week, I've been very busy . . . Partisan Brigade, 4x KV-85, 6x T-70, 6x BA-64, 2x GAZ-67, 4x Wagons, 6x Limbers.  Vehicles are Battle Honors/Quality Castings 15mm, partisans are Eureka 15mm.