Welcome to the Eastern Front

I managed to put together a game for the club last week, yet another outing in 6th panzer Divisions tour of the Baltic States. This covered the famous tank battle at Rassienie on 25th June 1941 when the Russian 14th Tank Corps attacked the flank of 6th Panzer Div. Only 2nd Tank Div actually made it into contact and sources vary about its exact tank strength, some claim it had 60 operational KV1s! Historically around 200 tanks attacked on the 25th, and Bob Mackenzies strength estimates seemed the most plausible. It was tempting to model the Soviet tank regiments a single entities, but in the end I split them into seperate (small) battalions which went some way to replicating the coordination problems the RedArmy had in this era. This gave the 2nd Tank Div half a dozen tank battalions in two regiments and overall the division was at around 50% strength with 180 tanks, a weak motorised infantry regiment and a battalion of 152mm howitzers. I included 60 T34s and KVs, which subjected the Germans to tank terror.

6th Panzer Recce Abteilung dug in holding the bridge, the divisional Rollbahn runs through the swamp just visible to the NW.

Motorised infantry battalion, 105mm artillery battalion and Regimental HQ resting around Rassienie.

Russian 2nd Tank Division assembled in the woods east of the River Dubsya. 2nd Tank Regiment (T34s and T26s) is towards the bottom, 1st Tank Regiment towards the top. The KV-1s are lined up on the road.

Russians roll forward behing a pre-planned artillery barrage. The Germans were looking throughly fed up at this point.

Motorised infantry, engineers and infantry guns start frantically digging in on and around the ridge east of the town. The first Russian tanks have already forded the shallow river.

6th Recce calls in defensive artillery, but a battalion of T26s overruns the position as the Russian infantry moves up in support. The other Russian tanks bypass the defenders. The Russian artillery decided this would be a good time limber up and move forward.

As heavy fighting rages around the bridge, a battalion from 11th Panzer Regiment arrives from the bridgehead to the north. At this point most of the Russian tanks are over the river and the German tanks are out of sight.

The Panzers overun the Russian artillery while it is still limbered, the 152mm regiment is completely destroyed. Meanwhile the Russian infantry dig in as the 6th recce bn finally breaks and runs. Soviet armoured cars harrass the panzers but fall back.

Further west, more German reinforcements (another infantry battalion plus batteries of Flak 36 and 100mm K18 guns) reinforce the defenders just in time and the Russian assault beats itself to pieces against the Pakfront. The T34s are knocked out by 88s and K18s and the KVs fall back in disorder after a failed overrun attack on the dug in German infantry. Only two companies of the original defenders are left on their feet at this point. Welcome to the Eastern Front!

I was very pleased with the way this game (broadly) followed the flow of historical events, although in the actual battle 11th Panzer Regiment withdrew in disorder after encountering the KVs. 6th recce Bn and a column from 114th IR were overrun by the Russians, but their attack was eventually stopped by a hastily formed pakfront east of Rassienie, which we managed to recreate. The German player was suitable awed by the mass of Soviet armour, but by great efforts did finally manage to stop them. Historically the attacks continued for a few more days as the rest of XIVth Mechanised Corps straggled up to the front, and after the fighting finally ended, some 250 tanks were found scattered in an arc east of the town, many of them out of fuel and ammo. One of the KVs made its way northwards and parked itself on the Rollbahn, where it held out for six days before being destroyed.

The Guns of August

Tim Gow put on a small session last week to try out Richard Brooks new Operational WW1 rules. Tim has already reported in some detail on the various games he has run with these, but I was pleased to get a chance to try them out. Suffice to say I was robbed, even if the Russian airforce did distinguish itself. The rules themselves look very promising, and in due course I'd like to try them out with my various WW1 armies.

Speaking of WW1, I finished painting and basing all the heavy artillery I bought at Triples and that is now safely stowed away. I was particualrly pleased with the 6" howitzers, they look very imposing pieces and I managed to get that sort of stained metallic look on the steel wheels by heavily drybrushing steel paint on the rims followed by a heavy brown ink wash.

I had promised to run a game this week at the club, and as I've been working on the next scenario for 6th Panzer Divs tour of the Baltic States, I finally sorted the terrain for that out yesterday. The toys are all sorted and I just need to finish typing up the briefings.

Next major painting job is all the 2mm WSS stuff I bought, but I haven't had time to make a start on that yet.

The guns, the guns

I see my resolutionto keep the blog up to date is flagging already! Oh well.

After our efforts at Triples I took a small colonial game along to the club last week to help everyone unwind without too much mental effort. This was run using my colonial version of Battle Cry and which looks a lot like Rudi Geudens Afriboria, but is somewhat simpler. I rolled up a scenario, the British attacking a Mahdist hilltop position, but the Mahdists didn't skulk and hide, they came charging down on the British. The Brits never really got a chance to deploy properly before the Mahdists were all over them, and although they shot down hundreds, their right flank collapsed and the Mahdists were into the baggage train in no time. A shattering defeat and a very quick game!

I've meanwhile been working on some of the stuff I bought at Triples. First priority was all the WW1 heavy artillery, I really didn't mean to buy quite so much, but I need it for my COW sessions. Irregular Really Useful Guns, a variety of 6" (ish) howitzers, they all went together reasonably well although I had to resort to plasticene for a couple of the Schneiders. The guns themselves are painted up and I'm working on the crews. Unfortunately I hadn't noticed that I've been supplied with early war French gun crews rather than German ones. I couldn't be bothered to send them back and wait for replacements, so I hacked them around a bit and now they are a passalbe representation of Germans in field caps. Well, I'll paint them field grey and see if anyone notices.... The 2mm stuff is on hold until I get these sorted, but they will be up next. I did a quick check of the castings and they are astonishingly crisp.

Speaking of COW, I've finally booked my session in. I'll be running Drumfire and a mid-late war corps level trench assault. I'm hoping to run it as a split session, with the senior comanders coming up with the plan in the bar and then run the attack a day or two later. It may be a bit ambitious, but we'll see. Paddy Griffiths is threatening to run an 'Oh What a Lovely War' game including dressing up, so I have spent some time seeing if I can assemble enough bits to look like a WW1 uniform. My olive green utilities and shirt don't actually look too bad, coupled with a repro haversack, biggest problem is headgear, as however much I pretend, a Mark V helmet with hessian cover still doesn't look like a WW1 tin hat. I do have my pith helmet I suppose. My 1980s era puttees aren't long enough to go up to my knees either. Oh well, have to have a think about that.

Looking for helmets led me into a terrifying new stream of madness..... WW2 re-enacting. Well, the gear isn't actually that expensive, and it looks cool, and I 'need' a WW1/WW2 helmet, and and and. I'll have to see if this is a passing fad, if it isn't then the poor old wallet is going to take quite a bashing. It will of course be an ideal excuse to buy an SMLE, and a Bren, and a Sten and even a Thompson. Judging by my internet searches, the prospects aren't looking good.

When not drooling over uniforms, webbing and WW2 weaponry, I managed to fit in the Sheffield Half Marathon. Ran it in my best time ever for that distance (sub two hour), which was very pleasing.

Triples 2010

Not done much gaming in the last couple of weeks, I was away at Easter and nothing much happened at the club this week although we had some useful conversations. It was however Triples 2010 this weekend at its shiny new venue at the English Institute of Sport. There were a few minor niggles, but in general it was a really good venue, spacious and airy and a welcome change from the Octagon Centre. The traders I spoke to all seemed pretty pleased and the numbers were good.

WD Display Team (north) put on our new game, 'The End', covering the last year of WW2 in Europe. I could only go on Saturday, but the game was well received and we ran it many times, leaving all the umpires with rather sore throats! I had already ordered a load of 2mm Horse & Musket stuff from Irregular and I supplemented it with some WW1 heavy artillery from their Really Useful Gun range. I also picked up some dirt cheap Roco tanks on the Bring & Buy (for AK47) and haggled a bit for a hardcover version of CS Grants 'From Pike to Shot'.

This is the End

Had another run through of the new WD Display Team (north) game for 2010 at the club this week. It is called 'The End' and covers the last year of WW2 in Europe.

We made a few fiddles and changes and now the basic mechanisms, units and map are set. There is some production work to do on the toys and the final version of the map, and a bit more research on timelines for the briefing material, but it is all looking good. Its first outing will be at the Sheffield Wargames Society show, Triples, later in April.

Otherwise not much gaming activity. I've finalised my lists of 2mm figures and phoned the order into Irregular for collection at Triples. It ended up being a surprising amount of gear, but to do something like Blenheim you need British, Dutch, French, Bavarians and Imperialists, and by the time you've added in horse and guns for all of them as well as foot, HQs, baggage etc it all adds up. I am particularly excited by the prospect of painting the Army pontoon trains. Well I suppose it takes all sorts....

I'm still working on a scheme for base labelling, at the moment I'm going with national coloured paint dots on the rear base edges, but I'll see how distinctive the flags are when the figures are assembled en masse.

To the Green Fields Beyond

Well, perhaps not quite the green fields... Ran another game of Drumfire last night, Spring 1917 this time (so Arras/Vimy Ridge sort of thing). A smaller game than before, one British and one French division against the new 1917 style German defence in depth.

More lavish support assets were available, and the Allies are definately learning how to do it right. Some 300 guns were available for an attack on a two mile front including some 15" rail guns, as well as gas shells, mines, British tanks and the first outing of some French Schneider CA-1s. The Allies had a very brief bombardment, concentrating on counter battery fire and wire cutting, and most important, leaving the ground relatively uncratered. The short bombardment surprised the Germans who did not have time to move up any significant reserves, but left the chains of concrete pillboxes intact.

Lt General Elsmore set some quite ambitious objectives, planning to break right through the Germans second line positions and into the field gun lines around a hill in the centre. There was a bit of grumbling about this from the division commanders, but the sheer masses of guns and other equipment on such a narrow front brought their grudging acceptance.

The initial assault went swimmingly, shrouded by the morning fog, and the entire German outpost line fell with fairly light casualties as the Allies maintained a tremendous barrage against the German positions and field guns. A pause ensued while the Allies reorganised, and then pressed on through the German pillbox line. This image is the German front line after mines had detonated, the gas had landed and the barrage lifted.



The next advance was a little more ragged as the Allies still hadn't quite got the hang of advancing with successive fresh waves to maintain the momentum of the advance. Some of their reserves had been delayed by the fog as well. The French tanks outran their infantry, forcing a number of blockhouses to surrender and then the Germans rather hesitently attempted to counterattack. Half the Germans didn't leave their positions and the rest were mown down or surrendered. On the other flank the British also easily repulsed a German attack but their advance in the centre had stalled as it hadn't proved possible to regroup the mopping up parties. In this image the French infantry have stalled still clearing the trenches and tanks have driven on ahead, detachments of British and French infantry have pushed on each flank but the British mass is delayed by some pillboxes still holding out.

The French attacked the German second line, driving back the defending battalion at some cost to themselves, but the retreating Germans were mown down in the open as they ran back. The British far right reached is zenith however, as the attack faltered on uncut wire. The British are here seen massed in front of the German second line and French infantry are forming up for an assault too, but in the centre a handful of poilus and thesurviving Schneiders hav ecarried the second line and are preparing to attack the village. Unfortunately this is out of range of the French 75s, so the barrage has ended in this sector. More heavy guns could have continued to support the attack.


As the day dwindled, there was a final magnificent effort. The French infantry on the extreme left managed to advance right through the German reserve line, but their tank attack on the defended village faltered as the last tanks broke down and the leading waves of infantry failed to penetrate the defences and were shot down. The survivors huddled in the captured German positions to hold their gains. In the centre however, the British cavalry came galloping up and a combined infantry/cavalry/tank attack crashed through the German reserve line, ending at the foot of the hill. This the high water mark as the French and British push through the gaps between the defended villages, there is very little left in front of the French as most of the German field batteries in this sector have been destroyed by counter-battery fire. Sadly, time had run out at this point.

As night fell, the Allies were left having taken the entire German front line and comms line, penetrated the second line on a front of one and a half miles and had pushed two thrusts right the the reserve line up to the German gun positions. A glorious victory! The French in particular had excelled themselves, considerably exceeding their assigned objectives, although the Britsh had fallen short. The only problem was that although the French flank was secure, the British right was hanging in the air, and they were forced to withdraw from their salient in the centre, leaving the new front line running diagonally back to the southwest.

So, a pretty historical result, certainly in line with Bullecourt. The game seemed to work OK for this form the Allied point of view, but I need to have a further think about the German counterattacks as my plan for them to use heavy weapons for suppression etc just didn't work.

Tim Gow has published some nice photos of the game, which have come out rather better than mine:

http://megablitzandmore.blogspot.com/2010/03/1917-big-push.html

Slipping already

Argh, I forgot to post last week, I see my New Years resolution is already going out of the window. I was away for work last week anyway so there wasn't much gaming happening.

I've finally finished 7th Armoured Brigade, and I was very pleased to find that the white gel ink pen I found in Rymans is the right diameter for writing unit tactical codes on vehicle markings. They are now safely stored in their box waiting for me to rebase 26th Panzer Div and then I've got a game in mind.....

I've been trying to track down a copy of 'Twilight of the Sun King' published by the Pike & Shot Society but sadly it is OOP. There is a free web based version but there are some significant differences. I contacted the Society and they are going to print more, so I'll just have to be patient.

Otherwise I've been wading through Chandlers 'Art of War in the Age of Marlborough' for some inspiration for my 2mm WSS project, and it has also rekindled interest in my long planned eighteenth century logistics game. Maybe one day.

On John Salts recommendation I recently purchased Steven Biddles 'Military Power' which applies economometric analysis to various modern conflicts to examine the influence of differences in troop deployment on combat effectiveness, a sort of modern Dupuy. It looks fascinating but I must be disciplined as I have to finish Chandler first, and then Patrick O'Briens 'The Wine Dark Sea' (which I started on the train).

Anyway, hopefully we'll be doing 2mm ACW tonight, so I'll get a chance to look at some 2mm strips for my shopping list, and we'll maybe do some prep for a WW1 game next week.

Finally, many thanks to those people who let me know that my blog had been corrupted. A bad widget, which I've removed and the problem has been fixed. Many apologies.