Back to the Front!

I worked through a good-sized mass of plastic warriors yesterday. These are 1/72 minis that were begun a couple months ago and sat, annoying my wife, until they were good and ready to be finished.

For the record, we've got two Soviet rifle squads, a DShK section, a custom-built AT rifle and nine submachinegunners. I still need a few more SMG guys to finish up a full tank-rider platoon for Chain of Command.

Also, you'll see some Germans. I finished up the third 251 from the PSC box I got back around July 4th. I did up a flamethrower section and a couple extra SMG guys since they're in demand in the Kursk scenario book I picked up.

 The whole shootin' match.

 The home-made tripod legs worked out very nicely.

 Anti-Tank rifles are BIG!

 The good ol' flammenwerfer.

No stowage or other shmanciness on the halftrack - I went for simplicity. Plus, I broke one of the machineguns and was in no mood for more fiddling around.

I didn't get any gaming in this weekend - we had a lot going on family-wise. Maybe next weekend...

Quick Pics

I finished that ZIS-2 up earlier in the week - it turned out nicely. The infantry and AA MG are still in process, although the scratch-built tripod legs for the DShK turned out a lot better than I expected. They came from a safety pin I had lying around.

I've got Modern Spearhead lined up for tomorrow - much smaller engagements than is typical for MSH, but I think they'll work well. The scenarios are re-writes of some that came from a Skirmish Campaigns Kursk book. They've been redone for the WW3 1980's Europe battlefield that we all know and love.

New Toys!

I got some 1/72 Soviets in yesterday - reinforcements for Chain of Command.

So, that's another platoon of Ruskies, a ZIS-2 and some DShK AA MGs. I started assembling some of the infantry and the ZIS-2. The ATG is nice - its a standard model kit, so it does have some fiddly bits, but has been a straightforward assembly thusfar. No crew models, but I can pinch crew from another gun for a game. No complaints and I'd buy it again.

The Zvezda infantry is nice, except that every figure requires assembly and the assembly has been taxing thusfar. There are enough models for a full platoon and the poses are cool and varied. Not entirely my cuppa when it comes to 1/72 toy soldiers, but I'll finish up at least one squad, maybe two. Unfortunately, there are a lot of SMG troops mixed in which I don't really need. I guess I could work on a Tank Rider platoon - I think I've got enough models. I doubt I'll but more Zvezda infantry, simply because I don't want to have to put them together. I'll probably get Revell or something else next time.

The DShKs are going to be a bear. It comes with 3 guns and 15 crew. The kit is soft plastic and trying to put a tripod together yesterday, I felt like Sisyphus. I'm going to replace the legs with cut-up paperclips and try again. The crew models are good single-piece toy soldiers like we're used to. I'd buy this set again, if only because DShK models don't exactly grow on trees.

I've going to play HOTT with James Sunday and might do some other gaming tonight or Saturday. I'll certainly post if I do play!

Finished Airfix Ruined House

I finally finished that resin house I picked up some time back. It's from Airfix, 1/76 scale (20mm). My original unboxing post is here. I didn't go nuts with it - I was simply after an acceptable tabletop finish.

I know the attic is a bit sloppy, but that won't show during a game. It should be getting its first game this weekend - Zig and I are supposed to play Chain of Command on Saturday.

New Thing Review!

Last week I ordered an Airfix 1/76 scale European Country Cottage Ruin and received it today. Joy! I'm trying to grow my 20mm collection and this seemed like a good way to go. Since the box art is not much to go on, I've taken some pics of the contents. Airfix has a lot of other buildings in their range and I can only assume the rest are very similar. I'm rather pleased with the model.

 Good packaging - no shipping damage which was surprising considering the condition of the box it came in.

4 inches wide, about 2.3 inches deep

Enough room inside for some miniatures

Clear plastic windows and metal window frames. They'll probably go unused - war zone houses don't keep their glass for very long!

I'll try to get it painted up soon and on the table.

Recent Work...

I made myself finish off a couple of 1/72 halftracks this week. They'd been sitting around primed and base-coated for nearly a month so I owed it to them. The models are Plastic Soldier Co. and there is yet a third one in the box still in the box. They're very good gaming models - no fiddly small parts, no pain in the ass rubber tracks.

I completed one as a platoon leader variant with the 37mm gun on it. These will be getting a workout in Chain of Command soon enough!

I've also started on a thatch-roofed hut, based on the design I found here. I haven't started on the roof yet. That's on the to-do list.

I haven't done a scratch building in a while - it has been a fun little project so far.

Chain of Command - Sunday Bloody Sunday

Mike and I met at Morningstar Games Sunday afternoon for a game of Chain of Command. I'd been talking it up for months but never really found time to give him a demo. We ran the Patrol scenario - Mike used the Jerry Grenadiers and I used a basic Soviet rifle platoon. My support was in the form of a Maxim MMG. Mike took a Medic with his single lousy support choice.

Mike gets cracking. I've circled our jump-off points. Note how shite mine are.

My MMG team and yellow squad were my only troops to begin with. We've been exchanging gunfire here for a little bit. Oh, due to a sad logistical error, there were no proper roads available at the game store, thus the classy "black-outline" roads.

Ah, that's what I'm talking about - the reinforcements arrive!

The Germans in the woods ahead of my positions pull back thanks to some fine gunnery by the Red Army. This would give me lots of opportunity to maneuver.

Which is exactly what I did - sending red and blue squads out to my right.

Blue (center) and Red (right) squads complete their extension of my lines.

Two MGs and a Panzerscheck unload on my weakened MMG team running them off. Bah! Most of my fire was concentrated on the team to my left, circled in orange. I managed to break them after piling enough shock markers and casualties.

I then forgot about taking pictures for a bit. All of my squads moved forward to the woods in the middle. There was a bit of gun fire as the nearest German team tried to run off the beat up yellow squad (the first squad I had on the table to my left). Yellow squad survived. Blue squad in the center launched an assault towards that German team and wiped them out, but took four casualties in the process. Hurrah!

This of course left blue squad as sitting ducks. Mike seized the opportunity and unleashed a hail of bullets at them. Lucky for me, I was holding onto a Chain of Command die and burned it to interrupt his action. My "interrupt" was to move blue squad back, out of line of sight. Brilliant!

We were both now reduced to 50% or less of our starting troops and neither of us was in a situation to attack the other. We both had two machine-guns and two few troops to cross the gap without being wiped out. We called a truce there as dusk set in. 

As usual, CoC delivered a fantastic game. I was on the ropes to begin with, with a terrible deployment situation and Mike halfway across the board with very good jump off points. Some brilliant fire from my MMG put the Germans on their heels midway through the game which allowed me to turn the tables and push him back quite a bit. One stupid move by me with my far right squad got them shot to bits and ruined any chance I had of winning - they got caught crossing open ground. They took six dead in one volley! 

It was Mike's first game of CoC and he seemed to enjoy it quite a bit. It took him a little while to figure out the best use of leaders and activation dice, but by the end of the battle had everything working like clockwork. I'm looking forward to Part II of this battle. We've got enough pictures of the battlefield to re-create it without much trouble. A draw such as this won't stand for long!

Chain of Command - More Russians and Germans!

Ziggy and I put CoC back on the tabletop last evening. It's been a while since our last battle and CoC makes for a rather entertaining few hours. I took the Soviets as usual and Zig commanded the German platoon. The Soviets were holding a bridge at the east end of the table that the Germans wanted to capture. The Germans were reinforced by a StuG IIIF and a 75mm infantry gun. The Soviets took a T-34/76 and a 50mm mortar as their support.

The grey circles show the evil Nazi jump-off points. The red circles show the evil Commie jump-off points. The one on the bridge at the bottom of the frame is the German objective. Z has already deployed one platoon.

I get a good first roll and deploy a squad in the house up at the cross roads and my T-34 rolls in.

The German assault gun roll in.

The forces are really starting to build up now, I get another squad and my mortar. Zig also has another squad arrive as well as the infantry gun.

The light infantry gun fires and immediately kills two of my troops in the house. This would become a recurring theme.

I get squad 2 moved up to the edge of the woods to provide some return firepower. My mortar managed to kill one of the gun crew, but the gun was still pounding the house like there was no tomorrow.

Finally, the squad in the house has had enough and reaches their breaking point.

But moments later, the lead German squad also is pushed past its breaking point and also runs!

At that, I burned six Chain of Command points and ended the turn, sacrificing my broken squad in order to eliminate the German squad. The broken German squad was very near their Senior Leader and would have been able to rally with little effort. Ending the turn was, I think, prudent.

At the start of the next turn, the damned gun got back to work and started pounding my squad on the rise which broke in no time. A magnificent 18" rout roll qualified them for the next Summer Olympics!

The German Panzerschreck team at long last had managed to make its way forward and loosed a rocket at my T-34. I'm not exaggerating when I say that it was a miracle of miracles that the tank survived with nary a scratch! The T-34 returned fire, killing one of the team and routing the other.

The godforsaken light infantry gun zeroes in on blue squad defending the bridge with predictable results. On the plus side, yellow squad which ran a country mile earlier finally rallied and got their act together.

The leIG18 has done this. German machine guns and the StuG might have accounted for one or two of these kills.

The T-34 and StuG exchange fire. A lot. both vehicles are blessed in the armor department and cursed in the "accurate gunner" department. The German infantry "mans up" and charges across open ground next to my tank.

The T-34 gunned down a couple of the Krauts but the accursed 'Schreck which had rallied and made its way back to the fight finally got a rocket to stick and burned up the tank. The T-34 had already soaked 2 rockets and 4-5 hits from the StuG. It was easily "machine of the match."

With that, the game was over. I had just a mortar team left. (The infantry gun had wiped out the remains of yellow squad and my Senior)

So, yeah. That IG18 which was thrown is as a "oh what the hell, let's see how this works" absolutely crushed my platoon and as it turned out, was pretty well immortal. I hit it at least 12 times with my mortar, occasionally getting a shock or the odd kill, to no avail. I hit it with rifles and machine guns countless times and couldn't get a hit to stick. It was infuriating to say the least. The rest of the Germans were easy enough to kill but that gun was touched by the almighty and because I threw so many bullets at it, the rest of the Germans fared rather well.

The game was a hell of a lot of fun and made for a great evening of toy soldiers. Give it a go if you haven't already!