Friendly Fire

This was a game put on by Tim a few weeks ago. For no apparent reason, our erstwhile allies and ideological comrades, Svenhasselstein conducted a raid on peace loving Vulgaria and made off with the only motor vehicle in the entire country. Time to teach our pointy headed neighbours a lesson.

The table from Svenhasslestein. The river marks the border.

The Vulgarian army assembles, a brigade each of infantry and cavalry (at half scale for a tabletop game).

Svenhasselstein forces climb out of their boxes.

The enemy column enters the table.

British observer.

Detached Vulgarian forces move to cut the road.

Vulgarian infantry and guns under Johns supervision move to cut off the enemy retreat.

The defenceless column approaches as our troops move to intercept.

While the bridge is firmly brought under fire.

Oh dear, enemy infantry and cavalry appear.

One lot appear right behind the heroic Vulgarians. What a shabby trick!

Fortunately our brave cavalry ride to the rescue on the other flank.

And also turn up to help our infantry.

Leaving the field littered with enemy corpses.

The cavalry screen the flank of the  surviving infantry

On the other flank the cavalry ride off to sieze the car

A stray shell lands right behind the enemy staff car, which certainly reduced the number of wounded to evacate.

Confused melee on the approaches to the bridge

Just a few survivors as more of our troops cross the bridge

On the other side of the river one lonely gunner survives the enemy counterbattery fire

Events ended with the Svenhasselstein survivors being escorted back over the border by the remaining Vulgarians. The Vulgarian High Command is still slightly baffled as to why Svenhasselstein should have risked all out war with Vulgaria for no apparent reason at all, and the engagement proved hideously costly for both sides. The Vulgarian losses were mainly infantrymen however, and there are plenty more where they came from.

Zvezda KV-1

On my shopping list for Triples this year were four KV-1s for my 15mm Russians, just the thing to give Fritz a scare. The Zvezda offerings are far and away the cheapest available, and although they do the early war model with the short 76mm gun they aren't too wildly different to their mid war counterparts. Four seemed a sensible number to be used as a mid-war heavy tank regiment at 1 base = 5 tanks.

The assembled regiment, some with the obligatory slogans painted on. The big turret makes it easier to paint these, the slogans are all from photos in the Concorde special, 'Stalins Heavy Tanks'.

Not a nice view for the Germans.

These are nice models and go together well, with real bulk to them. The only let down are the basic tracks but from the side they aren't very obvious.

Much more obvious from the front. Looks like I did my usual sloppy job of not cleaning the flash off enough.

The raised detail on the engine deck and track guards drybrushed up very nicely.

Although this photo doesn't show it very well, the Zvezda KVs are identical in size to my old Roskopf KV-85. I did try putting spare T34/85 turrets on the Zvezda KVs but the shape is just too different. Possibly a scratch bulding job for the winter months.

These are finished in my usual Vallejo Russian green (894) over a black base, although for these I added an extra highlight layer of heavily drybrushed Russian Green mixed with a dollop of ochre which lightened the basic green quite well and looks a bit more like the faded green you see on old modern Russian equipment. The whole lot was dirted up with mud around the running gear and an overall light drybrush of pale tan.

Breaking the Line

This was the second of our ongoing 1943 Eastern Front campaign games based on the excellent Skirmish Campaigns publication 'Red Guards at Kursk'. This particular scenario covered the Soviet infantry attack on the German main line of resistance north of Orel. For this game I'd bumped the scenario up a few levels into a battalion level engagement and after the somewhat dismal time had by the Germans in the first game, put all the players on the Russian (attacking) side. The Russians had a full strength Guards rifle battalion against a weak (60% strength) German infantry battalion holding a 2.5km front albeit well dug in. I ran it using a slightly modified version of Johns 'Battlegroup' rules, which uses platoon bases and 1" = 50 yards.

I apologise in advance for the awful quality of the pictures, I used the flash and it just washed out all the colour.

View from the German side, comrades John and Tim absorb the briefing notes. Barbed wire entanglements are visible on the table, otherwise the Germans are hidden.

Soviets pick their line of advance, coming east of the stream and using the handy ridge to form up behind prior to assault the German line.A full strength Guards rifle battalion has a fair amount of kit.

Tim pauses for a photo opportunity. The Russians are all heading for that big gap in the wire. I wonder if the Germans have forgotten to defend it?

The first Soviet company heads for the gap in the wire, covered by their pals on the ridgeline. Somewhat worryingly German mortar fire starts to land among them.

Oh dear, there seems to be a German company dug in covering this section of front. Most of the first Soviet company go down in a hail of mortar and MG42 fire.

The Soviets respond with a barrage of 82mm mortar, 76mm artillery and Maxim gun fire which (eventually) manages to pin the defenders down. The Soviet second company cautiously approaches the wire covered by its weapons platoon.

The Russians rush the German trenches behind the barrage.

Unfortunately two of the assault platoons fail their morale checks and are pinned down. One platoon of Russians makes it and the German company morale fails (the big yellow marker).

German positions in the central woods come to life (these had been re-deploying from the left flank), but again disappear under a hail of Soviet heavy weapons fire.

The Soviets cleared the trenches, but then had to repel a German counterattack over the ridge. This was duly shot down in a fairly ferocious display of infantry fiirepower.

So the game ended with a Soviet breakthrough and the German survivors fleeing south, only a tactical victory for the Russians this time as they had spent a bit too long clearing the trenches to get enough units off the southern table edge for a decisive victory.

Soviet BTR Regiment

We haven't seen my 2mm stuff for a bit, so here is a BTR Regiment. Like its other 2mm contemporaries, it lives in a custom storage tray in one of my A4 box files.

The assembled regiment, exactly 20 elements which fit neatly into the storage tray.

Three BTR battalions, each of three companies. I only need two stands per company for NBC, but I based up three so they can be used as Regiments on Megablitz type games. These are just the standard Irregular BTRs.

Tank Regiment and Artillery battalion. In this case the tanks are the generic T54/55/62 model as BTR regiments were generally supported by older tank types. The artillery is a pair of filed down  M109s standing in for SP 122s plus a battalion HQ. Most regiments would be lucky to have SP guns in 1981 so I also have some bases of towed artillery.

Towed arty battalion, these towed guns are available to substitute for the SPs, depending on scenario.

Regimental assets. Recce co (BRDM), AT Co (BRDM-S)), Engineer Co, AA Co (truck mounted) and Regt HQ. The BRDMs are carved/filed down Sdkfz 222s, not an easy conversion as the models are tiny.

The regiment configured as a Megablitz division. Div recce Bn, tank regiment, one BMP regiment, two BTR regiments, divisional assets (including divisional independant tank battalion) and divisional artillery group.

Luga River Line

This was a WW2 Airsoft game I went to recently, held at RIFT Airsoft in Oxfordshire. It was the first in an ongoing series of games covering operations around Leningrad, in this case the German assault on the Luga fortified region on the approaches to Leningrad in July 1941. It pelted with rain the night before so the day started rather damp and muddy. Not much point in a game commentary but here are some pictures. A pretty good kit turnout for this one, but it is Airsoft and not full re-enactment so people wear the gear they have got, hence anchronisms like gaiters, bergemutze and M43 uniforms in 1941. With my wargamers/modelling hat on, it is always interesting to see what colour full sized uniforms etc look outside.

Germans briefed by their CO

German platoon photo

The heroic defenders of the Motherland. Figure painters may wish to note the huge colour variations in the uniforms, from tan brown to green.

1 Section, which included two real Russians.

2 section, engineers

3 section, artillery crew

Comrade Commanders. Not sure about this dual comand thing.

Soviet briefing.

2 section move out loaded down with mines.

2 sections first task was to mine the road and plant schu mines in the verges. This entailed a lot of milling around.

The German CO looking a bit  like Captain Stransky.

German MG team

More Germans in the woods. Their first task was to cover their engineers clearing lanes through the minefields.

Oh dear.

Camouflaged Soviet AT gun.

Germans hanging on the wire. The wire barrier also had to be cut but was covered by interlocked fire from the Soviet positions.

Hanging around in the car park.

More hanging around. There is always a lot of this.

BMW and sidecar, this was used in the game.

Germans queuing up to get their guns checked. Note how grey the feldgrau looks in daylight, the smart chap on the left is wearing Steingrau trousers, the colour contrast is quite noticeable. In woodland the feldgreu acquires a more green hue (as in the German platoon photo).

A lot of these Russians are wearing the darker green hued heavier wool uniforms, although bizarrely they look dark brown here.

More hanging around. It was quite wet first thing hence the number of rain capes.

Some fine chap with an SVT-40 converted from an M14.

Artillery section make themselves comfortable.

Soviet position in the woods covering the main minefield. This particular strongpoint was very well placed to put down flanking fire on the Germans who for some reason didn't directly attack it until the afternoon.

AT gun, this was on loan from Gunman Airsoft and has an eletcrical firing mechanism which makes a very load bang but doesn't actually fire any projectiles.

Teller mines on the road. There were also a few schu mines (with 12 gauge shotgun blanks in them) buried in the verges.

Airsoft Teller Mine. These are pressure activated with an anti-lift device. Engineers disarm them by (very carefully) unscrewing the fuse cap and disabling the firing switch. I usually blow myself up at least once doing this.

Even more carefully arming the mines with 5 gram charges. Setting them is the reverse of the disarming procedure but you don't want to be holding one of the charges if it goes off.

Looking at maps time

More map time. A map related faux pas produces general hilarity.

And more. Where are we and where are we supposed to go is quite important to get right.

I usually do the 'full kit challenge' for these sort sof things but it isn't very onerous or heavy for the Soviets. In this case, mazagine pouches, grenade bag, raincape, gas mask bag, entrenching tool, water bottle and bayonet.