Bacaudae - first progress pictures

I've had a very productive period painting-wise over the last week or so.  As well as finishing a winter-uniform Russian platoon for Chain of Command (pics to follow) I've made considerable progress on forces for my planned Late Roman Gaul campaign.

First up are some Bacaudae (local rebel forces), in this case made from some rescued Foundry Arthurians mixed in with Bad Squiddo shieldmaidens and a Scheltrum Models Hebridean sailor repurposed as an armed slave.

I'm using Michael Leck's 1-2-3 basing style for all of my Lion Rampant forces but I'm running short of the 40mm circles I use for three infantry or one horse.

Next up there's the first unit from my box of Gripping Beast plastic Late Roman infantry - a unit of Auxilia Palatina archers.

Alongside the archers here is a mounted shepherd.  The few mounted bacaudae probably came from such a source.  This is a conversion of an Ebay-purchased Numidian cavalryman on a spare horse I've had awaiting a rider for over thirty years.  The figure has a head transplant from the Perry plastic Wars of the Roses infantry set and sits on a Green Stuff-sculpted sheepskin saddle cloth
 (what else would a mounted shepherd use?).

Finally, we have some Hunnic nobles, also rescued from a batch of battered, second hand figures I bought on the bring and buy at Vapnartak this year.

Korsun Pocket Chain of Commend - the rules

These are the house rules I'm planning on adopting for the SOTCW Chain of Command game at Gauntlet in early July.

Set Up

All German players start with a platoon.  The platoon starts with Force Morale of 11.

Defensive positions are set up at the north east end of the tables.  These count as the German jump off points.  The Germans get 3 phases of action to start the game without any Soviet interference.

If more than one German platoon is deployed on a table, the “Bigging It Up” rules (pg 102) are in use except that the die roll to see if a turn ends on three or more sixes is 4, 5 or 6.

After three unopposed phases, the Russian player/umpires may begin rolling command dice.  Initial forces consist of an unreinforced infantry platoon.

Resources/encounters

One resource marker is placed in each terrain piece.  On contacting the resource marker roll 1d20:

D20 roll	Result
1	Stash of food – roll 1d6 on the morale recovery table: 1 = no effect, 2-5 = +1 to Force Morale, 6 = +2 to Force Morale Force Morale can never be higher than 11.
2	Stash of alcohol – roll 1d6 on the morale recovery table
3	Stash of warm clothing – roll 1d6 on the morale recovery table
4	Transport – add a vehicle to the unit (selected by umpire)
5	German JOP – may roll to resupply ammunition for AT weapons (9.3.1, pg 41).  Can also be used to deploy reinforcements.
6	1d6 reinforcement credits
7	Wounded/demoralised troops – 1d6 rifle armed troops with 1d6 points of Shock
8	Stragglers – 1d6 rifle armed troops
9	Fuel shortage – a German vehicle selected randomly runs out of fuel or bogs down
10	Roll on special encounters table
11-20	Nothing

 

Special encounters – can only occur once:

D6 roll	Result
1	Divisional records – can be burned (roll on the morale recovery table) or transported to the Gniloi Tikitsch for extra VP
2	Hero – add a Ranking Senior Leader to your force
3	Wounded Hero – a seriously wounded commander is encountered – extra VP if you can evacuate him.  Requires a vehicle to transport him.
4	Fuel – if you can pick it up with a vehicle you can ignore one “Fuel Shortage” result
5	A boat! – no use now but if you can find a way to transport it to the Gniloi Tikitsch it’ll be worth  extra VP
6	2d6 reinforcement credits

 

Russian jump off point positions

Table 1	(1d6+4)x10% of the way from the NE edge on each side of the table. Roll separately for each side.
Table 2	1d6x15% of the way from the NE edge on each side of the table. Roll separately for each side.
Final Table	As Table 2 plus one JOP on Hill and one in BUA.

 

By spending a CoC die, any Soviet player/umpire can position an additional JOP in any cover not currently occupied by Germans.

A Soldier of the Time War

Back from a most enjoyable long weekend in South Wales, I'm now able to post some pics I took at the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff.  It's well worth a visit if you're any kind of fan of the programme.

Jamie's been talking for some time about painting his Ainsty police phone box as the "War TARDIS" and possibly doing some Time Lord soldiers.  It seemed like a good idea to get him some reference shots...

I popped into Firestorm Games whilst in Cardiff.  Wow!  It's not a small place.  Sadly I was pushed for time though so I only had time to whizz round and buy some paints, a paintbrush and a copy of Dragon Rampant (of which more later).

Finally, it was really nice to stay with Richard Baber and his lovely family in Swansea for a couple of days.  Richard was great fun as ever and is bearing up well under the strain of teenage sons as this picture shows.....

Richard anticipating Alex's A-Levels

Bacaudae Planning

Getting a start made on my Hunnic nobles and Gripping Beast plastic Late Romans, has inspired me to work out how to structure the two forces in my forthcoming Bacaudae campaign.

The Bacaudae themselves are, I believe, a mixture of Gaullish locals, mostly lower class types but with a few richer land-owning types and city dwellers.  There will be one of two armed slaves in there too.

My main two units will be classed as Auxilia using David Sullivan's Crepusculum Imperii adaptation of the Lion Rampant rules.  This means 12 figures and four points per unit.  I have a collection of second-hand Foundry Late Roman/Arthurian and Germanic types who will form the basis of these units along with some Bad Squiddo Games shieldmaidens and a few other bits and pieces.
After that, I think I should have a unit of archers.  I don't have the figures for these yet.  A second box of GB plastics may be required.  12 figures at four points the unit.
A unit of skirmishers (six figures, two points) seems sensible.  I see these guys as countrymen, shepherds and hunters who know how to make the best of available cover.  I'll probably add some undergrowth to their bases to distinguish them from the more line-of-battle archers.  I have one Dark Ages figure with an early crossbow who'll probably join this unit.


The sources suggest that the Bacaudae in some places had a small number of cavalry.  I plan to portray a mix of richer locals and shepherd types.  One conversion of a Numidian cavalryman to sit on a horse from the spares box is already underway.  Not sure yet whether to rate these guys as javelin-armed light horse or as "horsemen" in David Sullivan's terms. Either way I'll need at least another five figures.


Finally, the Sarmatian cataphracts will be serving as mercenaries fighting for the Bacaudae.  This is a reversal of my previous plan and comes about because I'm thinking of bulking out the "Roman" side with Huns.

  
The "Roman" side in this campaign (perhaps "Imperial" would be better as both sides will include a fair leavening of citizens) will be based around the GB plastics box.


The eight armoured spearmen, backed up by an officer, a draconarius and two unarmored spearmen will give me a 12-man legio unit - six points worth of real staying power on the field of battle.
One unit of archers (at four points, twelve figures) in already under construction.  Again from the GBP box; ten archers, an officer and a trumpeter.

One unit of Auxilia (four points, twelve figures) will use twelve of the remaining unarmoured spearmen from the GPB box.  I’ll give one the optional sword arm as an officer.

One unit of skirmishers (two points, six figures).  I’ll use the remaining GBP archers for this unit.  Again, a bit of suitable “bad going” on the bases will emphasise their role and distinguish them from the massed archers above.

One unit of noble Hun foederati (Heavy cavalry, four points, six figures in the unit). I already have some Foundry figures that I’m in the middle of renovating.
And finally one unit of Hun expert horse archers (three points, six figures).  Haven’t got these at all.  A search for suitable figures is needed.


I'm off to South Wales this weekend.  I wonder if Firestorm Games in Cardiff can help with these requirements?

So what have I been up to?

As usual, I've been failing to concentrate properly on the game that's got a deadline coming up. This happens at work too but at least there I can blame other people badgering me to get stuff done for their particular project.

Right now I should be concentrating on getting myself ready to run big game of Chain of Command at Gauntlet in July.  And to some extent I have been working on that.  I've had several goes at playing Chain of Command solo to try out different bits of the rules.

I tried adapting one of the scenarios from Grossdeutschland at Kursk:

I've also played a few straight up scenarios from the rules.   I'm increasingly thinking that the initial patrol scenario's not particularly interesting.  It seems to bog down a bit when everything is on the table.

I'm also entirely on board with the suggestion in the rules that the British infantry and motor platoons will always have to out-manoever their German opponents.  They ain't gonna win by firepower alone!

The most recent game, below, was  about exploring the terrain classes in the game and seeing how I could use them to model different real world structures. For example, the row of trees beside the standalone garage of the ruined cottage provide no cover at ground level  but because of their dose foliage they provide light cover to both outgoing and incoming fire for any troops in position on the roof.

I've also been working on a platoon of Soviet infantry in winter dress for Gauntlet.  They are a mix of Italeri and Revell plastics:

When they're finished I want to add some snow to their bases.  Not sure yet what material I'll use to do that.

Less suitable use of my time has been the painting of these Gripping Beast plastic Late Romans for the Bacaudae Campaign.  I quite like these chaps.  Better photos when they're painted.

I've also been resurrecting these Hun Nobles (Foundry I think) that I got on the Bring and Buy at Vapnartak.  I'm repainting the horses from scratch but I'm managing to retain most of the original paintwork on the riders.

Tcherkassy Kessel German Supports

Moving on from the Soviets, here's my attempt at a supports list for the Germans in what they called the Tcherkassy pocket.  Again, any comments gratefully received:

IS-2 In Service Dates

My little initial Googling on the in service dates for the IS-2 heavy tank suggested it could have been used at the end of the Korsun Pocket action.  However, Richard Naylor was kind enough to volunteer some feedback and suggested that the IS-2 wasn't in action yet. So I've had another dig through my books and internet sources.

Tanks encyclopaedia says: 

"Their first action was in February 1944 at Korsun Chevchenkovski, Ukraine."

Flames of War agrees:

"It first saw combat in February 1944 during fighting around Korsun-Chevchenkovski pocket." 

However, Militaryfactory.com says:

“First combat action was recorded in April of 1944 when IS-2, operating under the banners of the 11th and 72nd Independent Guards Heavy Tank Regiments, fared well against German Panther tanks - for all intents and purposes, the legacy of the Joseph Stalin tank had begun.”

The Archive Awareness blog has signal to Marshal Konev on the first arrival of IS-2s with 2nd Ukrainian Front, the start of which reads:

"USSR NKO

Military Council of Armoured and Mechanized Forces of the Red Army

April 1st, 1944#481904SS

To the commander of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, Marshal of the Soviet Union, comrade Konev.

The heavy IS and ISU-152 regiments sent to your disposal contain the first batch of tanks and SPGs of this type.Both the tanks and SPGs have a series of small technical omissions. In addition, there is not yet sufficient experience regarding their use and application in combat.”

Peter Chen says:

"The IS-2 heavy tanks entered service in Apr 1944."

Meanwhile Mitch Williamson's Soviet Hammer blog says:

"By the end of 1943, the Kirov Factory had produced a total of 102 IS-2 heavy tanks and they were used for the first time in February of 1944 at Korsun Shevkenskovsky." 

Whilst at the same time he gives the production dates as "April 44 to June 45"!

I think I'll park this for now.  After all it's all irrelevant if no one brings an IS-2 model!