Homemade TacWWII markers

The TacWWII rules originally came with an A4 sheet of tiny (7mm x 4mm) counters for you to cut out and use with the game. They were printed on bright green thin card and although there were more than you'd ever need of each type, they were fiddly to use and surprisingly visually intrusive in game photos.

I'd always thought these counters could be replaced with something more visually attractive. My return to the rules came at a time when I had a 3D printer. Creating counters was a first chance to learn some basic 3D design skills with Tinkercad. The result was a comprehensive set of markers for the game.

Mode Counters

In TacWWII each company is in a "Mode" that reflects the tactical stance of the company and its component platoons. For example, we can imagine that a platoon within a company in Bold Attack Mode probably has two of its sections advancing while the third is giving covering fire or watching for enemy  reactions.

My Mode counters are in different shapes to help with recognition from a distance. The March Mode marker is column shaped with a puff of cotton wool to represent dust kicked up by the fast-moving units.

The Prepared Defence markers are prism-shaped and painted in brick red. I like to think of them being used by units hunkered down behind the rubble of part-demolished buildings.

Tinkercad doesn't support to use of textures so my markers were painted with Modpodge and sprinkled with sand before being painted and dry-brushed. A little flock helps them blend in with the terrain.

This late war German Pankzerkompanie is advancing in Bold Attack Mode.

My own additions to the rules include some additional functions for recce units. This Soviet tank HQ gets plus one on its Tac rolls this turn as a result of information provided by an armoured car patrol. The singly-based figure reminds us of this.

Marking Casualties

In general with a 6mm scale game where a single unit represents a platoon spread over hundreds of square metres, there's no need to keep knocked-out units on the table. However, in TacWWII it's useful to have a reminder, at the end of the turn, which units' loss triggers a morale check. In addition, units can be Neutralised - they don't fight but can test at the end of the turn to recover. I show these with markers made from paint-dyed cotton wool on small card bases.

The same Panzer IV company is now in Deliberate Attack Mode. They have had one platoon KO'd (marked with fire and smoke) and one Neutralised (marked with kicked-up dust). They will test at -6 (for two-thirds casualties) at the end of the turn at which point the destroyed platoon and its marker will be removed.

Morale Status Markers

This British tank squadron from 11th Armoured Division has lost one of its three Comet troops and had another Neutralised. The resulting morale test has seen them receive a "Halt" result.

Later in the battle (the destroyed troops having been removed) they suffer a "Retire" result. Note that one troop is still Neutralised. In my interpretation of the rules they do withdraw despite the usual prohibition on Neutralised units moving.

Locating the Enemy

Spotting in TacWWII is subject to a Tac roll. Better-trained troops have a better chance of spotting enemy units at distance. Experience shows that it's really helpful to track which units have passed their spotting Tac roll. The "Loc" marker shows that this Panzer IV company is fully alert. Being in Defence Mode they've also been successful in adopting hull-down positions along the ridge line.

Artillery Fire

I've printed out and laminated some markers in the correct size for one, two or three batteries firing. The explosion marker was made years ago from some kind of modelling clay and hamster bedding!

Digging In

Speaking of defensive positions, I've recently (inspired by Andy Taylor) created some markers for dug-in infantry. 

I printed some parapet shapes (30mm wide to match the frontage of my infantry platoons) and stuck them to thin card (cut from old business cards) before adding sand for texture and painting. This way I don't need dug-in duplicates of each unit type.

During the Approach March

We'll sometimes want to move companies with a single marker before battle is joined. This can speed up the early stages of the game but can also add some useful fog of war. These 3D printed "company blinds" are marked on the rear with a letter that can be keyed to the player's Order of Battle sheet. Here we a see an undetected company approaching some peat cuttings.

Finally, it can also be useful to know which tank platoons are carrying infantry on their rear decks. My "tank rider" markers use the same thin card I used in the "dug-in" markers, suitable figures and the gauge of card I use for unit bases to make a channel into which the tank unit base can sit.

When battle is joined the tank rider markers will be replaced by conventional infantry bases.

Wargaming Haute Couture

Mick the Postman came by this morning and delivered my new, personalised Steel Lard polo shirt from Matt at Saddle-Goose Designs.

Thanks Matt. Sorry we won't be seeing you at Steel Lard this year. Maybe next time.

Running from Bull Run Again!

This afternoon I had a very productive run-through of my Running from Bull Run scenario prior to next weekend's Steel Lard.

The objective was to test the changes I made to the Union Leaders, to the options the Fate players have for spending Flag cards, and to revisit the calibration of Victory Points. I also wanted to see how the game looks with my recently painted terrain bits and using the "Rocky Grass" Geek Villain mat.

I was pleased with the visual effect on a 6'x4' table.

This was the first outing for my piles of stores and discarded equipment and for half of the twenty ACW-period telegraph poles I created this last week.

At least part of the turnpike road to Centreville was asphalted (new technology at the time). My version includes an asphalt section made from a couple of lengths of MDF that turned up among the packaging of some household goods. I may add a bit of sponged or stippled paler grey to give an appropriate texture.

I'd already painted a Union officer as a surgeon (a green sash is an indication of his status) and a hospital steward with his medical knapsack (actually not issued until 1862; I guess this was an experimental one being field tested) but today saw the first appearance of the 1st Corps stretcher bearers.

The game begins with Groups of varying sizes strung out along the road. They are from more than one regiment and they begin with two points of Shock per figure. At the start of the game the Union Leaders need to rally them into some kind of order.

Since the last play-test I've added a Surrey (without a fringe on top) to carry the party of members of Congress who followed the army to observe the inevitable Union victory and who now find themselves caught up in the retreat.

The 1st Corps ambulance is another recent addition to the collection. Contemporary reports have ambulances being used by unwounded men who simply didn't want to walk back to Washington!

The feared Black Horse Cavalry again made an appearance.

And Confederate artillery brought the Cub Run bridge under long-range fire.

Confederate infantry were late arriving. This time they took the form of some Louisiana Tiger Zouaves.

It's hard to say who won on this occasion as I was playing the game to calibrate the victory points to be awarded. I think I'm happy with this. Balance is part of the equation but more relevant is how the victory points incentivise players to behave in a way that captures the historical feel of the retreat from Bull Run.

I'm really looking forward to giving the game its first serious outing at Steel Lard.

Making the most of spare parts

Since I first got into making models as a kid I've always followed the advice (from books and magazine articles) that you should hold onto any unused kit parts. You never know (goes the theory) when they might come in useful for later conversions. I have boxes full of bombs, missiles, undercarriage components and other parts from Airfix and Matchbox kits that I completed (or in some cases didn't complete) in the 1970s and 80s!

With the advent of 28mm plastic soldiers from the likes of Victrix, Warlord Games, Perry Miniatures, and Gripping Beast I now have a multitude of limbs, bodies, and heads awaiting a future use.

Manufacturers want to make their sets as flexible as possible so you aren't limited to building a single type of unit from a given set of sprues. As a result they often provide multiple options for particular parts.

The Warlord Games War of the Spanish Succession Cavalry box is an example here providing heads with tricorns and cuirassier helmets and alternative torsos (torsi?) with armour or in a variety of unarmored uniforms. Coupled with bits from other sets, the extra bodies have contributed to my American Civil War armies as reported here and here.

The ACW figures are generally produced by sticking together existing parts in new ways. The amount of surgery needed to change an arm holding a sword into one holding a revolver is not beyond any modeller's capabilities, particularly as hard plastic figures can be cut with a craft knife and glued securely with liquid polystyrene cement.

The next stage in using spare parts is to try some more advanced surgery.

Having bought some Perry Miniatures French Napoleonic Hussars 1792-1815 to act as the basis of French contre-guerilla cavalry in Mexico, I had enough parts left over to cobble together a wounded French hussar officer for my A Spy in the Suburbs Sharp Practice game.

This involved taking modelling tools to a pair of overall-clad hussar's legs. After carving off the stirrups and associated straps (not done in the picture below) a number of cuts were needed on each side. First the green cut took the leg off at the groin. 

Next I made a cut at the level of the knee (turquoise line) and bent it outwards to remove the slightly bow-legged effect. A bit of plastic filler and maybe a small piece of plastic card to wedge open the cut were used to repair the join.

Next I removed a wedge of plastic (between the two red lines) and glue the leg back on; effectively gluing the two red lines together. When that was set, I rebuilt the outer thigh with Green Stuff. Because the "red wedge" was half the width of the thigh, the effect was to preserve the overall length of the leg.

With the other leg done in a similar way I had a reasonable standing figure.

In this case I didn't have a hussar torso but I was able to make a figure in shirtsleeves using a body from the Warlord WSS Cavalry set and a pair of ACW arms. A hand with a pistol from the Warlord set, a scabbard, sabretache an busby-ed head from the Perry Miniatures French Napoleonic Hussars 1792-1815 box completed the picture.

The Perry Napoleonic Allied Cavalry box is particularly guilty in terms of providing an excess of body parts. Because it includes parts to make both Russian and Prussian dragoons in short jackets (Kollet) or longer coats (Litewka) the box contains enough parts to make twice as many riders as there are horses!

I've used similar techniques on this set to produce some dismounted Russian dragoons...

The running figure was made by cutting one of the legs at the knee, again removing a wedge of plastic, and rebuilding the front of the knee with Green Stuff. The arm with the musket is an ACW infantryman's with the bayonet carved away.

Finally, I've built a Prussian Deployment Point base using the same set and similar techniques.

The figures are gathered around a chess board (plastic card with tiny pieces of fine plastic rod) glue onto a 3D printed tree stump. A 3D printed anvil provides the seated guy with somewhere to perch.

The two bare heads are stolen from Wargames Atlantic's Citizens of Rome set. Shakos were carved from unused heads and glued to the base beside the two bare-head guys.

Even more supplies littering the road...

My order from 1st Corps has arrived and the first products of a seriously concentrated period of painting and gluing are ready to use.

I ordered "Ambulance with driver and two horses", "Stretcher bearers wearing kepi" and "Battlefield Debris". The last of these has provided more debris to be strewn along the side of the Warrenton Pike.

The Battlefield Debris pack includes about a dozen small resin castings with discarded muskets, kepis, haversacks, pistols, careens and the like. They are generally well-cast although there were a few bubbles that had to fill with Humbrol Model Filler.

Taken with what I did previously, I now have about 12 inches length of debris. It's not enough the truly match the described state of the road after the Union defeat but it should go some way to reflecting historical picture.

“Supplies littered the road back to Washington”

For my "Running from Bull Run" game at Steel Lard, I need to capture the feel of the Warrenton Pike being scattered with stores abandoned by the collapsing Union logistics system as well as personal equipment discarded by fleeing Yankees.

I have some suitable castings on order from 1st Corps but whilst I'm waiting for them to arrive, I thought I'd have a go at creating some of my own.

This pile of crates was 3D printed from an STL 
downloaded from Thingiverse

Richard Phillips gave me these barrels. I've scattered
around some bits from various plastic sets

Likewise: 3D printed ammo box, hatchet from Warlord
Colonial Militia, shako and drum from Perry ACW infantry, 
carbine from Warlord WSS cavalry.

The bases are off-cuts of cheap floor tile from Poundland. I painted them with Modpodge and then poured on sand. Once the first layer was dry I sealed the whole with a second coat of Modpodge before painting and dry-brushing.

More to follow when the 1st Corps order arrives!

Ebor Lard 2025

I drove up to North Yorkshire on Saturday for this year's Ebor Lard. It's one of my favourite wargames events of the the year and I was disappointed to miss it last year due to a family holiday.

In the morning I played in Johno Rollinson's lovely-looking Western Desert game.

The outskirts of Bardia. The Australians were expected from the road 
at top left of the picture.

Using the Chain of Command 2 rules, this was a platoon-a-side affair depicting the first action of the 15th Australian Division. The Diggers (commanded by Steve Porter and Ian Hammond) were pushing into Italian-held Bardia and were tasked with capturing a supply dump before its owners (Jason South and I) could blow it up!

The Supply dump occupied the triangular compound in the picture above.

Jason and I chose a 47mm AT gun (in case the Aussies brought tanks), a roadblock, and a couple of lengths of barbed wire. We also got two free entrenchments but we ended up deploying them stupidly and they were of little use during the game.

The roadblock is between the two houses near the 
damaged truck, the barbed wire beyond at the base
of the hill.

The Patrol Phase was over very quickly, somewhat to the surprise of both sides. We ended up with a skewed battle with the Australians' centre of mass way over on the Italian left.

Italian Jump-off-Points in red, Australian in blue

The game kicked off with the Australian players rolling three sixes thus ending the Turn and with it their pre-game bombardment. However, things went well for them from that point onwards. Despite a hastily deployed Italian anti-tank gun...

... their carrier section were able to rush forward and lock down the  Italian JoP beside the roadblock  before killing the gun crew at close range.

The Diggers surged forward over the next few phases.

Reduced to two, poorly placed, JoPs the Italians were in no position to put together a defensive line with interlocking fire. We managed to get an attached Afrika Korps section into the front of our position and decided that much of the Italian platoon should concentrate on setting the explosive charges.

One Italian squad moved up on the right, though.

Italian squads are huge and frequently
difficult to manage

2" mortar smoke reduced casualties on both sides and an Australian close assault was beaten off by the Germans.

Two Italian light machine-gun teams managed to occupy a building that gave them limited ability to enfilade the road in front of the German position but they lost their corporal putting the defenders' Force Morale down to dangerous levels.

In the end the Italians got their charges set and started the Final Countdown mechanism. With phases running out they were in the process of bugging out when an Aussie lieutenant made a dash into the compound to try and cut the wires to the explosives. 

He needed to score an 8 or higher on his movement dice but rolled seven! The retreating Afrika Korps men tried to drag him out of the compounds gateway as they passed but were unsuccessful.

Johno declared the game a marginal Italian victory but to be honest I think their Force Morale would have reached zero had the casualties for Germans caught in the blast been correctly assessed.

This was a fabulous game played in a great spirit (both sides pointing out things their opponents had missed), that both sides thought they'd lost at several points, and that went down to the last die roll of the last Phase. Terrific stuff!

I tried to capture some shots of all the other games:

David Hunter's Of Gongolfin and the Ruin of Maerbad,
Midgard Heroic Battles rules

Joe Bilton's Normandie '44
Chain of Command 2

Matt Slade's 1066 And All That (Hastings),
Midgard Heroic Battles

Ian Hemingway's What a Scaver,
What a Cowboy variant

Charley Walker's The Nelson Touch,
Kiss Me Hardy 2

John Savage's Tet à Tet, Vietnam variant Chain of Command 2

I'll share more pics in a future post but now on with the afternoon game.

This was Malcolm Bowe's Yom Kippur '73 game using the What a Tanker game system. I'd played WaT a couple of times previously and found that it worked OK but wasn't something I'd rush back to. The experience of the afternoon did nothing to enhance my opinion of the rules.

Malcolm's 10-12mm scale models were nicely painted and the use of dummy tank markers to disguise the enemy until actually acquired was interesting.

The MDF tank "dashboards" worked well and the terrain was convincingly Sinai-like.

Ultimately though, for me, the game failed. Let me express this in terms of the Simulation-Game-Narrative triangle.

As a simulation of Cold War era tank combat I couldn't buy it, particularly as on several occasions tanks were able to drive right up in front of an opponent, circle around behind them, and then shoot them a close range in the rear armour! This might be just believable among the hedgerows of Normandy but in the flat plains of Sinai it was simply ludicrous.

As a game, ideally testing opponents' skill and rewarding astute and informed play, it also failed. Apart from the complete inability to defend against the unrealistic tactics described above, the Israelis' only defence against the Saggers was to hope for improbably good luck. 

A further thought on mature reflection: the game was set on only the second day of the war so the Saggers were a new factor and making them impossible to defend against might just be realistic. 

Finally as a narrative, I found the game unengaging. Because the above factors made progress across the table of only marginal value and because the automatic replacement of casualties with new tanks meant there was little progress towards achievement of aims, the game devolved into a series of largely unconnected, mechanistic interactions.

I'm genuinely sorry to be so brutal in my assessment. Maybe it was just me; the other players seemed to enjoy it despite agreeing that the game bore little resemblance to reality.

I want to give some thought as to how WaT might be used to simulate modern warfare on the open plains of Sinai. Certainly some kind of overwatch/interruption mechanism is essential. 

As I understand it, once the initial shock had worn off, Israeli tank commanders adopted a number of measures to respond to Sagger ATGWs including popping smoke, reversing into their own dust cloud and having friends on overwatch to fire at and hopefully suppress the missile controller. Maybe something could be added to the scenario to reflect these factors.

-o0o-

On to happier matters. The whole event went off in the friendliest of manners and the evening social, with steak dinners at a pop-up restaurant on a local beef farm, was definitely the best of any Lardy Day I've attended. Well done John Savage for a stellar job of organisation despite some challenges in the months prior!