The Red Cavalry - Ukraine 1941

 Time for another trip to Tigers at Minsk, slowly playing my way through the scenarios in the Fireball Forward rulebook. I've had  a bit of gap from TaM, partly due to focussing on the ACW and Unconditional Surrender, and partly because the next scenario in sequence wasn't very appealing - yet another mass infantry night assault against dug in defenders, albeit Japanese vs US Marines. I'd had enough of that with the Volkhov Crossing.

Anyway, I skipped ahead to this one, set in late June 1941 in Ukraine, near the town of Sitmoye. A Russian counterattack by 8th Mechanised Corps had been repulsed but a gap had opened up between the panzer divisions and their supporting infantry divisions. Into the gap went the Soviet 14th Cavalry Division, while the German 75th infantry division also tried to make contact with the panzers.

Battlefield from the west. There is a marsh and gully in the top left, various corn and sunflower fields (the latter being the first outing for my recently made cornfields), a low hill and some scattered open woods. The sunflower fields block LOS and all fields are boggy going for vehicles.

Victory goes to whoever controls all three of the small buildings scattered above the road. The Russians come on from the right (south) with flank marchers on the bottom (west). The Germans come on from the left (north) with flank marchers on the top (east). This is a 70 minute game and the table is a bit bigger than usual to accommodate the quite complex terrain.

The Germans from 75th Infantry Division. The written scenario has a very odd OB, essentially a motorised infantry company and a mechanised recce platoon in halftracks! Very unlike any 1941 leg infantry division I've ever seen, so I changed the troop types to something more historical but kept the overall balance of forces.

The leg infantry component are two rifle platoons of three sections each, plus a company HQ with a tripod MG team and an anti-tank rifle team. I've rated all the Germans as average, but with good formation cohesion. I also gave the Germans two activation dice re-rolls (as the original FF scenario gives them a single use activation chit).

These guys are all coming on from the north.

The recce element has been modelled rather more on an infantry division. There is a small armoured car platoon with two Sdkfz 222s, and a rifle platoon of three sections riding bicycles (!). The heaviest anti-tank weapons the Germans have are 20mm autocannon and their ATR.

The German breakpoint is 7 units and they will move first. They have the option to send the recce units on a flank march but it could take anything up to six turns for them to arrive, so they will march on with everyone else.

Opposing them is a cavalry squadron from 14th Cavalry Division, supported by armoured cars and tanks. 14th Cav was a pretty good division (it was later uprated to Guards status) so I made the cavalry average and with good force cohesion. The tanks and a/cs I rated as poor due to the all the various well known problems with the 1941 Soviet armoured force, I also gave the Russians poor C3.

The cavalry component is three platoons (troops?) of two cavalry sections each, plus another section in company HQ plus a mule packed Maxim MG section.

One platoon of cavalry elected to flank march and got lucky, arriving on turn 2.

There is a tank platoon of two x BT-7s. These are vastly better than the Sdkfz 222s,  but obviously handicapped by poor quality crews and C3. The lighter German guns can have some effect on them though.

Plus a pair of heavy armoured cars. Like the BTs, these are also armed with scary 45mm guns, but are more lightly armoured than the tanks. The armoured cars elected to support the cavalry flank platoon and also managed to roll 2 for their turn of arrival.

The Germans advanced on a fairly broad front, partly to take advantage of the available cover and avoid over stacking, but also to put lines of sight on as much ground as possible to impede Russian movement. Unopposed all these units could move at maximum speed, although the marsh constrained some movement options.

The Germans main weight was in the centre, as that was where the objective was.

Over on the extreme flank, one 222 supported by a section of cyclists flanked the marsh. This tiny force would prove to be invaluable.

The Russians were largely screened by terrain so made good ground in the centre, occupying one of the buildings in the village with a section and the Maxims, while two more sections headed for the eastern building with a third in reserve.

The BTs supported by a fifth section advanced in the west, but were constrained by LOS from various German units so ended up halting after only two hexes. One of the BTs braved not one but two bogging rolls to move through the sunflower fields.

The Germans aggressively pushed forwards in the centre, occupying the woods line next to the third house, while another section plus the ATR moved on the hill. The section on the right stayed in the field as its LOS seriously constrained Russian movement - that is such a clever mechanism.

The armoured car detachment on the far side of the marsh had only been able to advance one hex due to Russian LOS, but it blazed away with opportunity fire as the Russians moved up to occupy the second house. The Germans had to use one of their one time chits to activate these guys.

The Russians were firmly in control of two of the building snow, despite losing a cavalry section to German fire. The Russian CO stayed here to maintain command. With poor C3, he can only command two hexes.

Predictably the entire Soviet left wing went out of command! They cant do anything this turn except conduct opportunity fire.

However the flank marchers now put in an appearance, the two BAs and two more cavalry sections.

The centre quietened down as both sides spent most of the turn rallying or removing opportunity fire markers. The Germans finally occupied the third building though, covered by fire from a 222.

In the west though, things hotted up, the Germans pushed a section onto the hill which was promptly cut down by massed opp fire from the Russian left wing. Another section and the ATR took up a rather safer position on the reverse slope.

More ineffective firing in the centre. I had to come up with a method to indicate which units had opportunity fired and which had just shot normally, so I put smoke on top of the opp firers and next to the others. Both sides armour was being very, very careful to keep out of LOS of each other.

In the west the opp firers sorted themselves out and the Russian cavalry charged the hill! Well that has put the cat among the pigeons.

Back at the village the Germans managed to rout the cavalry holding the eastern building, and the bicycle section from the bicycle/ac detachment hastened forwards to occupy it. They managed to make their roll to cross the gully but were pinned by Russian defensive fire as they occupied the buildings. I'm so glad I sent that detachment around the marsh!

Back at the hill the great cavalry charge bogged down in an inconclusive firefight. Both sides had units our of command which limited what they could do. The Russians did manage to pin the ATR team, but the BTs and BAs were so busy firing they couldn't take advanatge of it.

The Germans in the village managed to rally but a section of Russian cavalry charged them anyway.

The Russians managed to inflict one hit on the defenders pinning them, but they themselves also suffered a hit and fell back, only to be gunned down by MG34 fire in the sunflower fields.

In an interesting development you may notice that one of the BTs has advanced next to the village, hoping to duel with the armoured car across the stream. With better armour and a considerably better gun, it just has to survive the German defensive fire next turn...

More units going out of command in the west, including BOTH BAs and one of the cavalry on the hill. The other BT changes arc and scores a hit on one of the 222s, and promptly rolls a '1' for effect. The German armoured car survives.

The Germans instead concentrate their small arms fire on the last building and both armoured cars on the leading BT. Both hit it, and one has no effect but the other manages to roll a magnificent 6 for effect, the only score which would be enough to destroy it. BOOM. scratch one BT. My experience of armoured combat in TaM is it fast and lethal.

Naturally on the other flank the other BT goes out of command so can't fire at all. The armoured cars are up and running again, so one advances covered by the other. The Russian cavalry assault the German section in the woods who had been pinned earlier, but both sides manage to annihilate each other. There so many corpses on and around the hill now it is starting to look like a Greek Tragedy.

All the remaining Russian armour goes out of command, and the Germans manage to finish off the last Russian cavalry on the hill. The Russians are at their break point now, but time is ticking down.... a number of Russian units retire as a result of this break test but none leave the table.

The Germans in the far village had moved out into the sunflower fields now, concealed from view. I need someone who can move into or assault that last village hex and everyone else is a bit stuck at the moment.

The Germans push their anti-tank rifle team (and infantry support) into the woods on the forward slope of the hill to threaten the Russian armour. They survive a hail of opp fire from the dithering Russians, and to add insult to injury, the German armoured car behind the gully manages to hit the last BT and roll a 6 for effect, destroying it.

All the other Russian units here have retreated one hex after failing their break test, but the last village defenders are hanging on. Sadly the Maxim team retreated and was cut down as it moved into open ground.

With so few effective units left, the Russian CO joins the BAs to keep them in command. The village goes out of command. 64 minutes on the clock now, only six minutes left....

The Germans managed to stun one of the BAs with the ATR, while one of the 222s (which had sneakily advanced past the wreck of the BT), knocks th other one out. Another break test for the Russians and the last Russian cavalry section in the south retreats off the table.

Massed German fire overcomes the last village defenders, leaving one German unit able to move in just as time runs out! A German victory, but the skin of their teeth.

Historically 14th Cavalry Div repulsed the first German attacks, something which contributed to its elevation to Guards status, but that was a very tough fight for both sides and the Germans only just made it. That was a very enjoyable scenario and has a lot of replay value, I think next time I wouldn't bother with the flank marchers for the Russians and concentrate instead. As it was they were lucky they came on when they did, but the dispersed Russians suffered terrible C3 problems whereas the Germans could afford to spread out a bit more.

I was a bit rusty with TaM after a prolonged break,  but it came back quickly enough. That is probably about the largest engagement I'd be happy doing, and even then I extended to playing area to 8x9, which was perhaps a bit too much but I needed to model the gaps between terrain items as well as the terrain itself. I rather enjoyed the cat and mouse armour combat, but the Russians suffered very much from their armour arriving in piecemeal dribs and drabs, just like real life in 1941 I guess, 

   

Air War - Mysteres over Mitla

 After the previous outing with SPIs Air War, John organised another Zoom session, this time with rather more players. To keep things (relatively) simple, this was another early jet cannon encounter, this time over the Mitla Pass in 1956 during the Suez crisis. Israeli paras had seized the Mitla Pass and the Egyptians sent a flight of Meteors to attack them. The Israeli top cover was a couple of Mysteres. We had no less than seven players for this, plus John running it and once again we were graced by the presence of the games original designer, David Isby, to keep us all straight.  

My home made Air War setup has expanded considerably! This was a six map sheet game, and coupled with the QRS, control sheets for six aircraft, my laptop, dice and various charts and tables, it all took up quite a bit of room. I had to use the chairs either side hold various other bits of paper as my back isn't up to standing up over a table for two hours wearing my headset.

I said the scenario was 'simple', well it isn't really. All those counters are various types of IDF ground forces blue = trucks, red = M3 halftracks, green = occupied buildings, red = quad .50 cal AA and yellow = ammo dump. The Egyptians get various amounts of VPs for destroying them. I'd actually misplaced the ammo dump, it should be up by the AA guns. 

The real complexity is the terrain. The four sheets either side of the central two are ground level 8, the four hex columns either side of the pass are ground level 12, and the base of the pass itself (where all the targets are) is level 4. So the Egyptians need to crest the hills either side of the pass, dive down and then run along the trench blowing stuff up. As we played this on 4th May, Star Wars day, it seemed entirely appropriate that we were playing a flying trench assault game - their is even a 'Death Star exhaust port' in the ammo dump.

The simplicity was mainly that we weren't using missiles and the targets are all static - much easier to hit than something flying around!

Here are the good guys, a pair of Israeli Mysteres. As I'd been practicing, I was elected to be Israeli and was paired with Nigel, whose played this much more than me. Nigel was Blue 1, I was Blue 2, and Nigel was also the IDF 'honcho', or more experienced pilot, as he was.

The Mysteres are marginally better than Meteors, they turn on a button, cruise, accelerate and dive faster and carry more ammo, but there are only two of them.

We also had Micheal manning the Israeli AA guns and John running the IDF paras as well as running the games.

The Egyptians have no less than four Meteors, Red 1 (Russell), 2 (Divid), 3 (Tim) and 4 (Chris). Russell was the CO, and had to secretly plan the attack. He opted for a cannon only attack, no bombs at low altitude. At altitude 13 they would just skim the top of the mountains before diving into the pass. They would come on two waves, R1 leading on turn 2, R2, R3 and R4 coming on in line abreast on turn 3.

Nigels brother Ian had made up these revised aircraft control sheets which I used for the IDF olanes. They are much clearer and easier to use than the supplied ones, and big enough for me to use tiddlywinks to record altitude, acceleration etc. I used my custom counters for energy, throttle, movement and flight attitude.

The assembled multitudes.

We were all tracking the progress on our own maps, so I don't have to worry too much with blurry shots like this one, but we kept Tims map pinned as the main control map. There was a lot going on so it was useful to have a master reference map.

We didnt know the Egyptian plan up front, but had ot pick a flight profile. All we knew was the Egyptians were coming from the west somewhere between altitude 9 and 61 (approx 15,000 feet). We started in the southwest quadrant at altitude 70, full throttle and a shallow dive to gain some energy. It was a bit of a gamble as the Egyptians could have come on behind us, but we were manouverable enough to  dive and turn.

We were fortunate to retain the initiative for the entire game, partly thanks to Nigels 'honcho' status. On turn 2 Red 1 appeared at the far end of the map, and far away and thousands of feet below us.

We then essentially spend several turns in a power dive to get down to the level of the Egyptians, while also accumulating a mass of energy and making turns and lateral rolls to get into position for  a high speed diving attack.

It takes a while to pull out of a steep dive, so I did a few calculations as to when I'd have to start pulling up. It would be very embarrassing to pile into the ground. The Egyptians kept reasonable formation as they chugged across our front, but Red 2 decided he wanted a bit more altitude to clear the mountains. With only 1 level of clearance it precluding them from some manouvres, particularly turns at 90 degrees, as they result in a loss of altitude. 

The Egyptians all successfully crested the mountains and went into shallow dives to target the northern convoy. Nigel and I screamed down after them. Nigel had pulled out a bit too soon and was at level 15 whereas the Egyptians were all between 10 and 12, whereas I was at 13. The range and height differential meant that Blue 1 was out of range whereas I wasn't. We'd been able to line up as we'd got behind the Egyptians as they made their attack run, so were able to line up as they moved first.

The IDF AA all missed, the Egyptians managed to hit a couple of trucks - it was a hard shot as although the planes look adjacent, they are still relatively high, so the height difference extended the range. Blue 1 was out of range of the Egyptians, but I was in medium range of Red 2 and let fly. It was a decent shot, not quite up the tail pipe, but not a deflection shot either and duly landed a hit which exceeded the Meteors damage tolerance. David failed to eject and went down in flames!

We'd been playing for two and a quarter hours at that point and it seemed a good time to stop and wash up. Tim and Russell both ran the rest of the their attack runs later, but failed to do any significant damage.

That was far more fun than the rather dry account seems. Having Nigel and David playing was really helpful as they corrected a few basic mistakes a number of us had been making around things like turning and diving. Coupled with the practice sessions I'd had before, I actually felt like I was flying the plane and had some idea of getting it to go where I wanted, rather than just randomly setting controls and hoping for the best. I think we all got a lot out of it, and David Isby commented that he was delighted we'd managed to achieve a roughly historical result.

More sessions are planned for the future, but tbh I think I'm 'Air Warred out' at that point. I may come back to it at some point, but it was an interesting intellectual challenge I felt I wanted to beat and I feel I've done that. I've got new things I want to try, and while the occasional bit of retro gaming is fun, I'd like to do some new stuff.

Tarting up the Panzer Is

 As I was refreshing my early war German armour I thought I'd have a look at my old Panzer Is. Originally I thought I'd replace them with 3D prints like everything else, but actually they are quite decent models (some of the better QRF ones). They don't come out to play much, in fact they have seen more action in the SCW than WW2, so I thought I'd just re-paint them in line with my newer models.

One of the originals is on the right, it is quite a light grey and devoid of any markings. I did then that way so I could use them for both the SCW and WW2, but now I feel the need for some heraldry. The one on the left is that same as the one on the right, but I've given it a wash of Vallejo Panzer Grey which darkens it down a lot although it will lighten up again later in the process.

I went over all of them with a Panzer Grey wash, and as with the other vehicles I used various degrees of colour concentration so some came out a mid grey and others were proper Negrillos as the Spanish used to call them. I found that a bit of drybrushing lightens them considerably so better to start a bit dark.

And here are all six marching across the dining table. A sight to gladden the Fuhrers eye no doubt. Reputedly he was very keen on the Panzer I as they were cheap to make so he could have lots and lots of them. I've tried to do them in a variety of colour schemes and markings to represent the 1939 to 41 period.

This first pair are in early war grey and brown camo complete with the solid crosses the Polish anti-tank gunners so liked to shoot at. The one on the left has its crosses filled in yellow, which was more of a post Poland thing. Both have the large two digit numbers on the turret which were common in the early war period.

Unfortunately I had to paint the crosses by hand so they look a bit rough close up, but OK from a distance. Thank you Posca paint pens.

More handy aiming marks for rear shots. I did also put crosses all over the hulls but then painted them out later, for reasons which will be revealed. You can see how these two are still pretty dark but the dryrbushing has raised the colours a bit.

These two are in the slightly more subdued markings typical of the 1940 campaign. They still have the two digit turret numbers and are in grey and brown, but have hollow balkan crosses on the hull. These are quite small vehicles and being metal, there are various raised bits which make it hard to get decals on.

I ended up cutting the balkan crosses to get them behind that rail thingy, but they look OK I think. Mmmm, maybe need a bit more matt varnish on those turret numbers!

I managed to squeeze enough khaki out of my 'empty' Vallejo English Uniform bottle to do the tracks and running gear. I also painted the tyres on all the wheels, which gives me a certain sense of satisfaction, but is almost impossible to see under the mud and dust.

The last two are plain panzer grey, so more like 1941 Balkans/early Russia. Balkan crosses on the hull, but three digit numbers on the turrets, one red outlined in white the other black outlined in white..

I ended up putting the left hand side crosses a bit far back on the hulls but it doesn't look too goofy. I've got this vague idea of doing a series of games featuring our old pal 4th Panzer over the first three years of the war but swapping out the various types of vehicles, colour schemes and markings in the panzer battalions as time progresses. Well, we will see.

Finally, should the Nationalists feel like the need some support from the Condor Legion, I can swap the plain number turrets from the 1940 Panzer Is onto the unmarked hulls of the 1939 Panzer Is and add my temporary Nationalist crosses to them. That was why I painted out the hull crosses on the 1939 ones. On to Madrid! The camo patterns on the hull and turrets even match up, I might have planned that. 

Very pleased with that lot, and now I have yet another diversion from getting back to the serious business of fighting the American Civil War and the Battle of Gazala. I will write some games around the Panzer Is in due course.

That is pretty much it for modelling posts for some time to come I think. I've had some family stuff going on and not much time to do any painting, although I've been trying to keep playing some games. In times past I'd have done all these grey panzers in one post rather than four, but hey ho. My lead/plastic/resin pile  is virtually non existant so I'll mainly be doing gaming posts for a bit. I've got a medium project and a big project in the pipeline, but not right now, plus a couple of little bits which I will do at some point.