Seafox!

My latest modelling output is the Matchbox 1/72nd scale Fairey Seafox I bought in Warwick.

There are two schemes included in the kit. I chose to build the one in bare metal; an aircraft of 713 Catapult Flight, HMS Arethusa at Kalafrana, Malta in 1939. 

The kit is not the easiest to build. The thin struts mean that several stages have to be glued up and then left to dry for quite some time. In the end I found myself applying superglue to fix joints that came apart when handling the model to fix later parts.

The decals went on remarkably well for their age. The only problems were with the small stencils on the undersides of the wing trailing edges. These mostly disintegrated but as they aren't visible from most angles I'm not too bothered.

The Seafox was a naval reconnaissance aircraft used for finding enemy ships at sea. It's unlikely I'll be playing WW2 Mediterranean naval combat in 1/72nd scale but I included a magnet in the body of the model just in case I want to deploy it on one of my magnetised flight stands.

There should be rigging wires between the wing struts and a wire aerial between the tail and the mast but for now I think I'm happy with the model as it stands.

I've done a lot of aircraft in bare metal recently; the Vallejo Air Aluminium is fabulous paint. However, I'll be taking a break from it now. Next on the workbench is a camouflaged Vampire T.11 in Chilean Air Force colours using an after-market decal sheet.

Indian summer

This year's Cold War Commanders' game for the Joy of Six convention in Sheffield depicts a somewhat tweaked version of Operation Vijay, the Indian annexation of Portuguese India in 1961.

The game was inspired by an Indian Army training manual Sample Appreciations of Tactics by Major H W Kulkarni of The Maratha Light Infantry. I had originally hoped to persuade the guys to run the game using the TacWWII rules but on mature reflection it will be more of a visual spectacle on a 6'x4' table using Cold War Commander 2 rather than the 3'x'2' space that the former would have needed.

Sample Appreciations of Tactics sets out half a dozen situations in which the student is required to create a written appreciation of the situation along with proposed orders to the force (usually as reinforced battalion) under his command. Effectively, in wargames terms, it's a book of six scenarios along with a demonstration of the correct way to format a plan to fight the resulting battles.

As we'll need some suitable models for the game, I've been busy with the 3D printer:

These Indian Shermans are my approximation to M4A3E4s. These were VVSS Shermans with the standard 75mm turret but up-gunned to carry a variety of 76mm weapons. In this case I was aiming to represent the US 76mm tank gun. They didn't have muzzle brakes but the threaded attachment site was still present. A spot of gunmetal on the tip of the barrel represents this. They are painted in Vallejo US Dark Green to represent the jungle green used on Indian tanks at the time.

Although Kulkarni's book envisages the opposition forces being equipped along Indian Army lines, we thought it would be more interesting to imagine a scaled-up version of the fighting around Goa in 1961. As such we need some Portuguese forces to fight. Andy Taylor is providing them (mostly; my French EBR armoured cars will be joining in) but I've 3D printed an F86 Sabre to support them.

I've done some display information for the game and a suitably colonial-looking church for Goa's Christian community is printing as we speak. Now I just need to remind myself how the rules work!

Haulin' our asses from Manassas

On Saturday I had Ron and Mark come over to try a first playtest of Running from Bull Run with live victims... sorry, volunteers.

This was the first time I'd set up the game on a 6'x4' table. 

Running along the table is the Warrenton Turnpike, at the far end of which is the Cub Run where some Union engineers were working on the bridge.

It turned out that Ron had driven along this road a few years ago. Mark and I learned some interesting stuff about the operation of toll roads in the USA!

The game began with various wagons strung out along the road and among them four clumps of fleeing  Union soldiers. As the Union player, Mark's aim was to organise them into a coherent rearguard. By doing so he might perhaps salvage some personal renown from the disaster and maybe mark himself out for higher command later in the conflict.

Ron's role was that of Fate. He would control all of those factors conspiring to make life difficult for the retreating boys in blue (and often grey too - in these early days of the war national uniform colours have yet to become established).

One such factor that made an early appearance (determined by Ron's drawing Event Cards) was the Black Horse Cavalry. This greatly feared confederate unit caused a couple of groups of Union soldiers to rout in panic before they were revealed to be in fact stampeding artillery draft horses!

Despite this, Mark did manage to organise some Union units into, albeit fragile, fighting stance. This was just in time as Sergeant Dexter Slab turned up with a group of Confederate infantry.

Mark thought the two Groups of Union infantry he'd managed to rally could take on Slab's Rebs, particularly if he could rally off some more Shock before the range closed too much.

Unfortunately at this point the Union commander's status was somewhat reduced when he trod in a pile of day-old racoon shit.

The bandage marker indicates the leader's
reduced status

Mark was some what peeved...

Fortunately Mark was able to get a couple of stragglers from the 13th New York to manhandle over an abandoned water bowser and clean off the crap!

As Mark got his Union battle line formed up they found themselves facing a similar Confederate formation let by Lt Jessop West.

It looked like the Confederates, with an advantage in terms of the amount of Shock taken, would be victorious in the coming firefight but then they fell victim to a "damp powder" random event.

The "fouled barrels" marker doing duty to
show "damp powder".

Another Union group joined in from the turnpike.

Lt West was injured by a stray Minié ball.

In the end, after about four hours of leisurely play (including tea breaks) we reached to end of the scenario with the exhaustion of the Event Card deck. Counting the ratio of routed or dead Union troops to rallied ones, I declared a Confederate victory.

It's very difficult, after just a couple of test runs, to have a real handle on the balance of the scenario in terms of either side being able to win but I'm reasonably happy with the way the victory conditions incentivise play that recreates the historical narrative.

I'll be making a few tweaks to the scenario before the next test:

• Restructuring the game as two Union players versus two Fate players,
• Adding a fourth Union Leader (a sergeant with a special knack for finding stragglers), 
• Reducing the card count slightly by adding one of the late-arriving wagons to the initial traffic jam, and
• Creating some more options for the Fate players when it comes to using command flags.

A first run from Bull Run

Today I essayed a first, tentative, alpha test of my Steel Lard scenario Running from Bull Run. 

It's an exploration of the Union retreat after the first battle of Bull Run in 1861. The emphasis is on the Union players attempting to impose some kind of order on the fleeing troops. An officer who can march back to Washington at the head of a formed body of troops, rather than as just one man among a fleeing multitude, may be destined for greater things in the battles to come!

I didn't lay out the full terrain this time - just enough to get the basic mechanisms tested.

This is quite different to just designing a Sharp Practice scenario. Because I'm dealing with troops who are effectively already routing, I'm pretty much designing a new game. The first contact between what I thought was a pretty good plan and the wargames table has already led to a load of changes!

I wanted to capture the impression of a road crowded with fleeing men and vehicles. I think this worked reasonably well....

At one point a few Confederate pursuers made an appearance. Led by Lt Jessop West, they let fly a volley needing 5s and 6s to hit. Rolling ten dice they could surely expect some success...

...or perhaps not.

The Black Horse Cavalry kicked up some dust. More on them as play-testing proceeds.

I'm reasonably pleased with how this is going. If it proves to be a functional scenario it may also see the light of day at Posh Lard in November. The drive down to Peterborough in the morning is a chore, being directly into the rising sun, but it's always a good laugh and great to catch up with Mike Whitaker and the Posh Crew.  In the meantime I'm hoping to get in a first test with actual players this weekend.

Painting horses - colour recipes

Richard Phillips pointed me to a Youtube channel, I think it was called something like "Loki's Great Hall", that had an excellent series of tutorials on painting 28mm horses. The creator used Vallejo acrylics and because that's the range I mostly use, it was really useful. Sadly the channel seems to have disappeared.

Russian dragoons - a chestnut nearest the camera,
a brown behind it.

Fortunately, though, I scribbled down some of the recipes. I'm sharing them here in case they're of use to anyone and as a bit of insurance in case I lose the piece of paper.

In each case there are three colours in order from darkest to lightest. The technique is to base coat the horse in the darker colour and them gradually apply layers with the lighter colours applied to increasingly smaller areas that are higher up and/or catch the light more. These layers are applied as follows:

• Layer 1 - first colour
• Layer 2 - 50% first colour + 50% second colour
• Layer 3 - second colour
• Layer 4 - 50% second colour + 50% third colour
• Layer 5 - third colour.

My usual technique for mains and tails is to paint them in the base colour and, at the end, dry brush over the third colour.

For anyone who's interested, these are the recipes I captured:

Liver Chestnut:

1. German Camo Black Brown 822
2. Hull Red 985
3. Mahogany Brown 846

Standard Chestnut:

1. Hull Red 
2. Cavalry Brown 982
3. Red Leather 818

Bay:

Paint as a standard or liver chestnut but with black stockings, main, tail, and ear tips. The colour recipe for the black parts is Black, Black Grey, Basalt Grey)

Red or Golden Chestnut:

1. Cavalry Brown 982
2. Red Leather 818
3. Orange Brown 981

Brown:

1. German Camo Medium Brown 826
2. Beige Brown 875
3. Cork Brown 843

Brown (alternative):

1. Leather Brown 871
2. Mahogany Brown 846
3. Beige Brown 875

Palamino:

1. Splinter Blotches II 347
2. Feldgrau Highlight 339
3. Light Mud 315

Palamino main and tail:

1. Dark Sand 847
2. Pale Sand 837
3. Off White

Black:

1. Matt Black 950
2. Black Red 859 or Black Green 980

Black main and tail - black with Black Grey 863 highlights.

Grey:

1. Deck Tan 986
2. Silver Grey 883
3. White Grey 993

Grey main and tail - Pale Sand highlighted with Off White.

Grey horse's nose:

1. Rose Brown 803
2. Beige Red 804
3. Salmon Rose 825

Note that where horses have white markings on the foot, the hoof is paler. I've seen a horse with a tiny white marking on part of the foot and a corresponding pale band on the the bit of the otherwise dark hoof below it.  "Loki" recommended two hoof colour recipes:

• Dark - Burnt Umber and US Field Drab
• Light - Beige Brown and Brown Sand

Kamikaze Tank Destruction Teams

The Approach to Mutanchiang scenario called for the use of special suicide teams of anti-tank troops by the Japanese. 

Here are the rules I drafted for the purpose.

Any company that has an attached Kamikaze Tank Destruction Team may, once per game, launch a "human bullet" (nikuhaku kōgeki) attack subject to a successful Tac roll.

The attack must be declared at the start of any Fire Phase during which the parent company is able to fire. The range of the attack is the movement distance of an infantry element in Bold Attack Mode in the appropriate terrain, measured from any element of the parent company. Note that the parent company can be in any Mode that allows firing (PD, D, DT, DA or BA).

It's not necessary to have figures representing the team but feel free to make some! The path from the parent unit to the target platoon should be indicated and the enemy may fire at them, treating them as a soft target, with any unit able to detect them and fire in the current Fire Phase.

The team ignores Neutralised combat results. If they are not destroyed, they attack the targeted unit counting as Assault Engineers (4/1).

After the attack the team is removed from play without any negative impact on the morale of the parent company. However, if the team is destroyed by enemy fire during the attack, a Company Morale Test is triggered (although the team does not count towards percentage losses).

Note that the TacWWII rules already allow for infantry units making attacks against hard targets with "grenades and heroism". No specific range is given in the rules for these attacks. My proposal is that they may be made if the attackers ended the Movement Phase in contact with the target or if the target passed within 1cm of the attacking unit during the Movement Phase. I'd suggest that these attacks may be made in addition to "human bullet" attacks.

The Approach to Mutanchiang

Over the the last few days I've gradually played through my solo version of Bob Mackenzie's Mutanchiang scenario adapted for TacWWII.

The scenario has a Soviet combined-arms force attacking along a valley with the aim of capturing the village of Ssutaoling and clearing Japanese forces from the valley. 

We begin with most of the attacking Soviet rifle regiment deployed in the woods with a tank brigade arriving on their right flank. A somewhat reinforced Japanese infantry battalion opposes them.

A fierce firefight erupted in the woods as the Soviet infantry (green ovals) needed only to make a single move for their lead companies to close with their Japanese opposite numbers (red ovals) in the woods. These particular Japanese were dug in but had failed the Tac roll to start the game in Prepared Defence Mode. The result was both sides losing one platoon and the Japanese company and one of the two Soviet companies getting Halt morale results. Because the other Soviet company remained in Bold Attack, a Neutralised Japanese platoon surrendered.

On their extreme left flank, the Japanese regimental HQ's 75mm gun engaged the ongoing Soviet armour (green arrow) but to no effect. Return fire from an ISU-122 platoon destroyed the gun and the resulting morale check saw the Japanese RHQ forced to retire.

The second game turn began with the arrival of air support for both sides. First a flight of Soviet Il-2s attempted to bomb the Japanese company on the extreme right flank. The bombs missed but by chance they hit and neutralised the rightmost platoon of the neighbouring company in the woods.

Meanwhile a kamikaze attack by a Mitsubishi Zero occurred on the opposite flank. Tasked with taking out an ISU-122 platoon, the Japanese pilot failed badly! The Japanese regimental HQ was retreating down the road in the face of the Soviet armour and our pilot, though imbued with the spirit of Bushido, mistook the limbered gun platoon for tanks. 

I don't have a Japanese horse team so a generic wagon
model had to stand in. 

On game turn 3 the Soviet armour closed with and destroyed the Japanese company on the left flank. The Japanese had failed their rolls to deploy kamikaze tank killer teams.

By this stage the Japanese battalion's morale was such that all of its component companies had "Halt" morale results but this was no great problem as they were happy in their entrenchments.

Game turn 5 saw the Soviet armour swing round to fire upon Ssutaoling while the infantry continued slogging through the woods.

With two companies now lost (one to the tanks and the other in the woods) the Japanese battalion now received a "Retire" morale test result. At this point I thought the game was over but it was not to be.

Two game turns later (the soonest it could possibly have occurred) the Japanese regimental commander managed to transmit new orders to his remaining companies. "Retake Ssutaoling or die trying!" was the instruction.

On game turn 8 the 479th Guards SU Regiment (two ISU-122 platoons; Soviet self-propelled gun regiments were company-sized units at this point in the war) entered Ssutaoling at the same time as elements of both of the two remaining Japanese companies. 

The resulting exchange of grenades and HE shells saw one SU platoon destroyed and the other Neutralised and both Japanese units pinned down ("Halt" morale results). I'd have expected the remaining SU crews to surrender but because Halted companies go into Confused Mode, there were no suitable infantry to capture them and they remained somewhat incongruously parked in the built-up area.

On game turn 9 the Japanese 126th Raiding battalion arrived on the road alongside the railway line.

The situation in Ssutaoling remained unchanged with neither side's morale status allowing for the moves that might resolve matters.

Two Soviet tank companies were in a position to fire on the village but boggy ground to their front prevented them advancing while lack of space and Japanese fire made it difficult for the accompanying SMG troops to assault the position.

By game turn 12 the newly arrived raiding battalion (accompanied by a mixed tank company - one platoon each of Chi-Ha and Ha-Go) had fanned out to attack the right flank of the Soviets. The tanks were no match for T-34/85sthough and both platoons were quickly lost. Japanese morale held on this occasion.

With a whole Japanese battalion converging on them, the Soviet SMG companies were looking exposed. Sure enough they took sufficient casualties to trigger a cascade of morale tests that saw the whole tank battalion forced to retire.

With the tanks in retreat and Japanese heavy artillery interdicting the only route into the village that didn't require wading though flooded fields, I decided there was no chance of the Soviets achieving their objectives in the remaining five turns. The Battle of Ssutaoling was a Japanese victory on this occasion!

The end:
A - 126th Raiding Battalion advancing towards Ssutaoling
B - Japanese heavy guns interdict the road junction
C - Japanese infantry reoccupy Ssutaoling
D - A Soviet rifle company is checked by the artillery
while behind them ISUs and tank riders retire

In retrospect, the amount of woods and boggy ground on the valley floor makes it a bit of a slog for the Soviets to get their forces into position. This is not helped by the fact that in TacWWII MMG platoons move more slowly than their rifle-armed buddies and all of the Soviet rifle companies have a mixture of both. With the woods counting as Heavy Going, an MMG platoon in the woods moves 2.5cm per turn even in March Mode out of sight of the enemy.

Rules wise, I came away with a couple of additions:

I was happy with my draft Kamikaze Tank Killer rules (I'll post them here later). 

I'm going to make it a house rule that companies with mixed-speed platoons (e.g. fast and medium tanks, or rifle- and MMG platoons) can comply with the Modes' minimum move distances by electing to move at the speed of the slower elements. This will avoid having companies increasingly spread out as they advance.