Tuesday 29 September 2020
3D Printing
Tuesday 22 September 2020
One Glorious Morning. AWI OHW
Simon put on an American War of Independance game using a grid based version of One Hour Wargames. I was interested to see how this worked as the bases I've adopted for my WW2 variant are so huge they may as well be grid areas!
I did an early hex version for WW2 but that used a 9x9 grid, whereas Simon went for the very bold approach of using a 6x6 grid.
The British forces were myself (with two line regiments), Graham (with two regiments of Hessians) and Tim G with a regiment each of Light Infantry and Scottish Infantry. The Scots were classed as shock troops and had a morale and melee bonus.
The wicked Rebs were John with two units of rifle armed frontier types, and Tim C with two regiments of continental infantry.
The scenario was based on one in the OHW book, itself based on an AiW counter insurgency sweep against the 'Swamp Fox'. Tim Cs general was the Swan Fox himself.
Tuesday 15 September 2020
Panzers on Parade!
https://notquitemechanised.wordpress.com/2020/06/11/a-proportionate-view-of-german-armour-2/
http://archdukepiccolo.blogspot.com/2020/06/armoured-inventory-ww2-german.html
Chris had looked at overall wartime production of vehicle types, divided by 600 to generate the comparison figures. I chose to focus on my 15mm tank fleet, as I have so many in 6mm it would be hard to count them all, while my 20mm collection is fairly small and curated.
So looking at overall production, it is something like this. Figures for real world production are in hundreds, whereas 'my fleet' is individual vehicles!
Model (total Production)
|
43
|
War
|
Toys
|
Notes
|
Pz I
|
0
|
16
|
8
|
Incl 1 x PzBfl
|
Pz II
|
0.5
|
18
|
5
|
(plus 4 unbuilt)
|
Wespe
|
5
|
6
|
1
| |
Marder II
|
4.5
|
7
|
0
| |
All Pz I/II chassis
|
10
|
45
|
14
| |
Pz 38(t)
|
1
|
14
|
6
| |
Marder III
|
10
|
12
|
2
| |
Grille
|
2
|
5
|
1
| |
Hetzer
|
0
|
30
|
0
|
So many!
|
All 38(t) chassis
|
13
|
64
|
9
| |
Pz III A-H
|
1
|
29
|
5
|
Plus one unbuilt
|
Pz III J2-N
|
16
|
27
|
3
| |
Stug A-E
|
0.5
|
8
|
2
| |
Stug F-G
|
33.5
|
55
|
6
| |
StuH 42
|
2
|
12
|
1
| |
All Pz III chassis
|
53
|
132
|
17
| |
Pz IV A-F1
|
0.5
|
9
|
2
|
Plus two unbuilt
|
Pz IV F2-J
|
34.5
|
74
|
9
| |
Stug IV
|
10
|
11
|
0
|
I use stugs
|
JagdPz IV
|
15
|
19
|
2
|
Plus 2 x 20mm
|
Sturm Pz IV
|
2.5
|
3
|
1
| |
Hornisse/Hummel
|
7
|
12
|
0
| |
Pz IV AA
|
2
|
3
|
1
| |
All Pz IV chassis
|
71.5
|
131
|
15
| |
Pz V
|
18
|
58
|
11
|
Incl 4 x Corgi
|
JagdPz V
|
2
|
4
|
2
| |
All Pz V chassis
|
20
|
62
|
13
| |
Tiger I
|
6.5
|
13
|
3
| |
SturmTiger
|
0
|
2
|
0
| |
Tiger II
|
0
|
5
|
4
|
1 x Porsche
|
JagdTiger
|
0
|
1
|
1
| |
Ferdinand
|
1
|
1
|
2
| |
All Tigers
|
7.5
|
22
|
10
|
I have to say I'm not convinced by war production as a metric as the operational consumption of vehicles rose so sharply in the war. In 1944/45 German AFV production was at its highest ever level, but so was its loss rate. The production figures for Pz 1 look a bit low here too.
Another metric to consider is actual inventory at a point in time ie stock of tanks to hand as a comparator of sensible vehicle ratios. Fortunately Jentz saves us the bother of trying to work this stuff out. I struggled to find comparable inventories for SP guns, I did find some for Stugs, which will have to do.
Tank inventory at June of the specified year (hundreds)
Model
|
39
|
40
|
41
|
42
|
43
|
44
|
45
|
My fleet
|
Pz I
|
14
|
10
|
9
|
7
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
8
|
Pz II
|
12
|
9
|
10
|
8
|
3
|
4
|
-
|
4
|
Pz III (37)
|
1
|
3
|
4
|
1
|
0*
| |||
Pz III (50,75)
|
0
|
0
|
10
|
23
|
14
|
8
|
5
|
8
|
Pz IV
|
2
|
2
|
5
|
7
|
12
|
23
|
15
|
11
|
PzV
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
20
|
21
|
11
|
Tiger I
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
(1)
|
2
|
7
|
2
|
3
|
Tiger II
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
(1)
|
2
|
4
|
Pz 35
|
2
|
1
|
2
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
| 0** |
Pz 38
|
1
|
3
|
8
|
5
|
2
|
2
|
-
|
6
|
Stug III/IV
|
18
|
28
|
18
|
9
|
**I cheat and use Pz38s
I think this gives a much better idea of vehicle ratios. The real standouts for me are the vast numbers of Panzer I right into 1942, the small numbers of Pz IV until 1944 and the large number of Panthers in 44/45. Some vehicle types are over-represented in my collection (esp Tigers) and others under-presetned (SP artillery, Marders) but by and large I was collecting vehicles with a view to one stand = one platoon type games and the mix more reflects company and battalion organisations at particualr points of the war than anything else. I am a bit light on Pz IIs for the 1939-40 period, but that is why I have four unbuilt.
Anyway, enough tables, lets have some pictures.
So there we go, a whistlestop tour of my 15mm German tanks and SPs. I've only been collecting these since the late 90s, so it isn't a bad haul. A lot of my 6mm stuff dates back to the mid 1970s, and there really is an awful lot of that. I think I've got at least 20 Panthers and countless hordes of Pz III and Pz IV.