Puebla siege works

With the summer moving onwards I am conscious that I need to get on with the terrain for my planned Siege of Puebla 1863 game that I hope will see the light of day at Steel Lard in November.

I'd done a bit of planning with paper templates and drawn up a rough layout for the French siege trenches on three sheets of hardboard. This week I've started building (or is it digging?).

The parapets of the trenches are sculpted from an off-cut of 25mm Kingspan insulation. I created a card template that I can use to make sure the ends of the parapets are the same shape so the three sections will go together in any order (although there is a specific order for my scenario and the bases are marked "L", "C", and "R" underneath to help with quick setting up).

I wanted to include a ruined building somewhere in the line of entrenchments and "Derelict Adobe House", an MDF model from Sarissa does the job nicely. I've mounted it on a sheet of foam core with a hole cut out to give the impression of a cellar beneath the ruined floorboards.

Each of the three sections will have a deeper emplacement. Two of these are likely to be artillery positions with the third used to keep engineers' stores.

The corners of the emplacements are reinforced using 3d printed gabions from Thingiverse. A few of the prints failed due to print-bed adhesion issues but this must gave me shorter gabions that I could fill with filler and cat litter!

The next step was to begin lining the trenches with duckboards and revetted sides made from wooden coffee stirrers.

The coffee stirrers mostly in place I've started smoothing out the revetments by adding a coating of quick-drying Polyfilla. I've also used thin card to create a paved path leading to the door of the ruined house. I want to find something else in the way of ruins (possibly a small shrine?) to add to the near right corner of this base. Any suggestions gratefully received!

 

The impetus to make a start on the entrenchments had actually come over the preceding weekend when I decided to grab some offcuts of foam core and Wills pantile sheet to make a destroyed version of my venerable "Spanish barn" (previously seen in the streets of Matamoros for the Cortina scenario as well as serving in the Peninsula). It's yet to be painted but I'm pleased with how it's gone and I'm considering adding it to the Puebla set-up.

That's all for now but look out for updates as the sappers continue to do their siege work.

Storage Wars

The lovely Baroness Counterpane was on one of her antique-scouting trips last week and messaged me with a photo of a rather nice storage cabinet she thought would do for figures. As we'd just had a reasonably satisfactory meeting with our financial advisor, we decided to get it.

With two drawers yet to use I've managed to empty fifteen of the box files I've previously used for 28mm figure storage. This has freed up half a shelf for terrain storage. The box files, or at least some of them, will be used for storing family paperwork replacing some of the forty-year-old cardboard folders in our filing cabinet.

There's still plenty of room to add more figures to this beast and the great advantage is that, because it's a nice-looking piece of furniture, it doesn't have to be tucked away in my workshop/games room.

TacWW3?

I've been having a go at a couple of small games of TacWW2 with some adaptations to the Cold War era. Here's what's just happened.

Sometime in the mid-1970s a Soviet tank battalion (Tac 7, Normal Morale, in T-62s, supported by a Motor Rifle Company in BMP-1s) is attacking an area held by a small British battlegroup (Tac 5, Normal Morale) with a squadron of Chieftains supported by a company of infantry and a couple of reconnaissance troops in Scimitars. The positions after the Movement Phase are as follows:

The table, after the Move Phase

I began by making Tac rolls for the two Scimitars to communicate with their HQ (on the assumption that they would have located the enemy units previously). One of the two Tac rolls was successful so the British Tac score improves from 5 to 4 this turn (this is one of my version 1.5 additions to the rules).

In the Spotting Phase all of the British rolled 4 or better to pass their Spotting Tac tests. Of the Soviet units, only the BMP company managed to pass. This would make no difference, though, as none of the Soviet companies was close enough to spot the infantry and the Scimitars would bug out before they could be fired at. 

In Fire Phase A the Chieftains (in Defence Mode) fired at the left T-62 company. They needed a base 5+ (up to 128mm gun in the 80cm range bracket) to which I applied modifiers of +1 (superior fire control - a new addition) and -4 (assumed T-62 armour) meaning they needed to roll 8+. They scored 3,5 and 7 - all misses!

The Milan team elected to hold their fire (for reasons that will become apparent).

In Fire Phase B the left T-62 company returned fire. They needed a base 5+ modified by -1 (cover) and -5 (Chieftains' armour). In this case (target number = 11) they score Neutralisations on a 10. They rolled 10, 10, 7! Two Chieftains were Neutralised, the Soviet commander having declined the option of a Tac roll to specifically target the HQ Chieftain (another recent rules addition).

In Fire Phase C, the remaining Chieftains (two including the battlegroup HQ troop) could fire again. Scores of 4 and 9 led to one T-62 of the left company being Neutralised.

Also in Fire Phase C, the Milan platoon fired at the centre T-62 company. The T-62s got to try a Tac roll to see if they could respond to the incoming missiles but failed so the combat was resolved unmodified. I'd decided that at this range the Milan needs 4+ to hit and that the T-62s' armour would be ignored. If they had been T-80s with modern composite armour I'd count their armour modifier at half effect. The Milans rolled a 4 so a T-62 platoon was Neutralised.

In Fire Phase D one of the BMP platoons could now see the Milan platoon but at extreme range for the 73mm low pressure gun it failed to get the 10 it needed to cause suppression.

Company Morale Tests were now required for the Chieftains (passed rolling a 10 despite having two out of three troops Neutralised), the centre T-62 company (passed with a 7) and the left T-62 company (a Halt result on a roll of 4).

With the British still effectively on Tac 4, one of the Chieftains immediately rolled successfully to become unneutralised but the rest of the Neutralised elements would remain so for the next turn.

For those interested my current working ATGW rules are as follows:

Each ATGW has a minimum and maximum range (for the Milan this is 1cm to 50cm, for Sagger it's 12cm to 75cm). Each is rated 10(vs soft)/7(vs hard) at its minimum range band and 10/4 at all other ranges. Armour is ignored unless modern composite armour which has half its usual modifier.

ATGWs can only be fired once per turn and only by units in Defence or Prepared Defence. They may fire in phases A or C at the owner's option.

When the firing player declares ATGW fire and nominates a target element, the owner of the element may make a Tac roll for the target's company. Only one such roll is made per company per Fire Phase. The effect of this Tac roll is as follows:

Failed Tac roll - resolve the fire as normal.

Tac roll succeeds by 0 or 1 - target element(s) may evade, company immediately enters Default Mode.

Tac roll succeeds by 2 or more - elements of the target company may make one or more of the following responses:

• pop smoke
• evade
• return fire.

Evade - ATGW fire is resolved with a -2 modifier, the target element may move up to one increment and if this takes it into cover the usual -1 cover modifier applies in addition. If the move takes the target element out of line of sight, the ATGW automatically misses.

Pop smoke - place as more marker on the element, the ATGW shot is resolved at -3. Any subsequent fire (in either direction) this turn is blocked by the smoke.

Return fire - any elements of the target company may, if they have an unused opportunity to fire this turn, fire at the ATGW-firing element. If the firing element is Neutralised or knocked out, the ATGW misses.

Examples:

In Fire Phase A an Egyptian Sagger platoon fires at the centre troop of an Israeli tank company that's in Deliberate Attack mode. The Israeli company (Tac 6) roll a 7. They get the -2 for evading but as there's no nearby cover the Israeli player elects no not actually move the model representing the target troop. The tank company immediately goes into Default mode.

In Fire Phase C another Israeli tank company is also targeted by a Saggers in identical circumstances but this time the player rolls an 8 (passing by two). The targeted tank elects to pop smoke and is now targeted at -3 to the die roll, while the other two tank troops shoot at the Sagger team (as they have an unused fire opportunity this turn in Fire Phase D).

That'll do for now, I'll report back later on progress.

A bit of random painting

At a bit of a loose end this morning, I decided to paint a couple of random figures.

Jamie has a significant collection of the Games Workshop Lord of the Rings figures, mostly unpainted or painted before he'd reached his current skill level. They're now largely abandoned as he's moved on to other projects. Every so often I paint one or two. I may have them all finished in a century or so.

They are nice sculpts and very rewarding to paint. Looking through the Khazad-Dūm sourcebook I think these ones may be Khazad Guards.

Maybe one day we'll do something with them, perhaps with Song of Blades and Heroes?

Jo6 Purchases and what's on the bench?

As I said previously, Joy of Six wasn't much of a shopping trip for me this time; I was much too busy running the Cold War Commanders game and talking to punters.

What I did buy came from our two nearest trading neighbours at the show, PG Studio and Kore.

From PG Studio I got these:

I like to have a variety of sizes and colours of static grass on hand and these will greatly improve my options. They are marked as 500ml and I have to say the containers were very full; great value for money.

I had quite a long chat about 3d printing with the chap from Kore. I ended up buying a small pack of his 1930s/40s cars. 

They are very clean 3d resin prints. They were generally in very good condition. The only quibbles were a slightly damaged bumper on the highly streamline car in the front row and the fact that the Autobahn bus (rear right) was slightly sticky - I guess it needed a bit more curing under a UV light.

I'm happy with how the vehicles have turned out. I certainly recommend them if you want so different vehicles for a WW2 or early Cold War game. I have contacted Kore to find out what each model represents but haven't heard back. If I do, I'll amend this post to tell you what's what. 

Also recently on the workbench are these 6mm Soviet infantry.

They were originally painted about forty years ago but I've recently rebased them. A couple of points to note are the first use of the PG Studio Wild Autumn 2mm static grass plus the fact that the two Spigot ATGW teams are on 20mm square bases. I think this is going to be my new standard for infantry ATGW platoons and anti-tank rifle units.

Finally for now I've also been extending the collection of 20mm Cold War Polish marines.

The third section of the platoon should have a man with the SVD sniper rifle (already done) and a tripod for its PKM machine gun. The standing figure on the left has an MG. He might have to represent the platoon's SFMG gunner for now.

The two unpainted figures on the rear right were sculpted with breeches tucked into Soviet-style jackboots. I've used a little Green Stuff to sculpt long trousers bloused over ankle boots.

Finally, I freed up a little storage space by means of some eBay sales. This chap:

... a couple of old Triang railroad cars...

... a Scotia dungeon thingie...

... and an old GW hobgoblin have all gone off to new owners:

That's all for now. I'll be off to work out what else I could sell on.

Joy of Six 2024

On Sunday morning I got up early to drive down to Sheffield Hallam University's city centre campus for the annual Joy of Six event.

Unfortunately Richard Phillips was unable to join us thanks to an automotive failure so the terrain needs of the game we met by Andy Taylor, Neil McCusker and myself. Although I'd have preferred to have Richard's Mat-o-War as our base cloth we managed OK with a couple of Games Workshop battlemats.

Neil moves Soviet airborne troops towards
the Phase 1 target

The game depicted the events at Stary Boleslav which, in our alternative timeline, was the site of a Soviet airborne attack to seize a bridge over a major river.

Looking towards Stary Boleslav from the east

We played the game in four phases:

1. Soviet pathfinder troops take out an anti-aircraft battery outside the city,
2. A Soviet airborne brigade lands and moves to capture the bridge,
3. Czechoslovak troops counterattack from the west,
4. Soviet ground troops attempt to fight through to the bridge from the east.

Stary Boleslav with the AA site in the background 

The game went OK in its little periods of action but we spent most of the day talking to people about the models, the alternative history, and the rules. Unfortunately, being so busy, I forget to take any pictures of the progressive destruction of the city. 

I also failed to take pictures of many of the other games but here are the few I did capture starting with the Battle of Guarda by the Legion of Blokes:

Then there was an interesting-looking ancients game using Matrix Game mechanisms:

Charles Rowntree put together this fabulous Omaha Beach game using a set of rules called All Hell Let Loose: 

Right next-door to us was the battle of Soissons, 1918 by Robert Dunlop. WW1 Spearhead I think:

Also near our table was this game using rules called Sabre Squadron:

Finally for the games I got any pics of there was Per Brodén and Nick Dorrell's lovely Great Northern War offering:

Purchases at Joy of Six were few and far between but I'll get back to you about them in a few days.

My City of Ruins

This Sunday sees the Cold War Commanders putting on a game at Joy of Six in Sheffield. We're once more going with the Prague Summer 1948 setting, this time depicting the Soviet airborne assault on the city of Stary Boleslav.

We want people visiting the table more than once to see progress throughout the day so we'll be playing out the action in multiple phases. The terrain is the most visually obvious part of a 6mm game so our terrain will change as the day goes on. 

Among the changes during the day will be a gradual increase in the number of damaged buildings. This means having intact and damaged versions of the same urban modules. I had a couple but I've completed a few more in the last day or so.

These farm buildings have been part of my collection for years. They have been rebased multiple times. I've long forgotten who they were sold by. The colour schemes don't quite match but that's not too much of an issue as they'll never be seen together on the day.

These buildings are typical of many Eastern European cites, Riga in particular. The blue-grey intact building is by Stephen Oates of The Baggage Train. I have two each of the two variations Stephen sells. For a bit of variety I designed and 3D printed the yellow (it's actually pale green; a peculiarity of the lighting) to accompany the Baggage Train models.

The two damaged buildings are based on the same print, one completed and then hacked about a bit and the other part printed and then covered with a variety of texturing material to form a pile of rubble.

The factory complex is largely 3D printed; only the boundary walls are made from cardboard. In the case of the ruined version I chopped cardboard into brick-shaped pieces and stuck them down with Modpodge before painting more over the top to seal them in place.

I actually have a 3D print file somewhere for a damaged version of the chimney but in this case our ruined one is built up from parts of a failed print and the same rubble mix as above.

The ruined and intact versions of the factory buildings are 3D files downloaded from Thingiverse.

If you're going to Joy of Six, please do stop by and say hello.

 

Another Early Jet

The 1/72nd scale early jet aircraft kick continues. This time I've gone for one of the newer Airfix kits; the Meteor F Mk8. Apparently, in design terms, this is scaled down from their 1/48th scale version and it shows in the complexity.

The aircraft kits of my youth rarely included more cockpit detail that a floor, a pilot's seat and maybe a control column. This one takes thirteen parts and twelve diagrammed steps just to give the (undersized) pilot somewhere to sit. 

The fit of the parts is generally pretty good. A few issues presented themselves, however. The tolerances on several of the undercarriage components are very fine. It may be better to assemble them all before painting. In addition the fine tolerances make it tricky to seat the air brakes properly in the closed position. I opted to glue them in the open position. 

As you can see I went with the Royal Belgian Air Force markings. The kit also comes with two RAF options one of which has a full bubble canopy and differently shaped jet intakes for which alternative parts are supplied. 

The decals are by Cartograf, which basically means they're excellent and go on with practically no problems. This is just as well as Airfix have not skimped here. Somewhere in the vicinity of 90 separate stencils are provided, some of them less than half a millimetre long! I stopped applying them when I felt I'd reached the point of diminishing returns.

There are also a few unused clear parts so I suspect a photo-reconnaissance version is not far away. 

If you fancy having a go at a more complex kit and/or want to see how Airfix's modern products outshine their earlier output, you could do worse than trying the Meteor.