Lend-Lease

I had long planned to add some Lend-Lease fighting vehicles to my 20mm Soviets, a flash sale by the Plastic Soldier Company was a prompt to get on and do it. Cue.......

76mm armed Shermans, crew figures from Wargames Foundry and the bases from Warbases. Painted and weathered with products from Abteilung 502, AK Interactive, MIG Ammo and Vallejo.

Followed by a Valentine IX for the reconnaissance element.

Despite my misgivings about finishing another figure unit before the year end I managed to finish a small unit of Paraguayan dismounted cavalry for the Triple Alliance collection. These are currently being based up.

Until next time............

TTFN & KBO 

28mm Late World War Two Additions

Some light refreshnent after your festive indulgences. Empress Miniatures recently added a 6pdr anti-gun and crew to their 28mm World War Two range, some much needed Platoon support arrived at last.

Around the same time Rubicon released their RSO towing vehicle adding to their World War Two German vehicle range. I built this on the run up to Christmas and finished it Christmas Day morning, it can built up as two different variants 1 or 3 mine being the third iteration.

I hope you all had some hobby related gifts, none here but I do have the following on pre-order for January delivery printers permitting.

Having got a better grasp of airbrushing using my Bager Patriot 105 I have decided to step up a notch and pre-ordered the new Harder and Steenbeck Evolution CR2024.

Back to 20mm next time with some Soviet Lend-Lease vehicles as a change from all the T34s.

Until then......

TTFN & KBO

Merry Christmas!

Best wishes for Christmas to all my followers, visitors and especially those who have taken precious time to leave kind and encouraging comments along the way. Hope you all have a splendid time and that Santa fills your stockings with gaming goodness.

TTFN and God bless you one and all.

Soldiers of Don Carlos

For this week's game I gave the First Carlist War collection another run out. For this game we would be using the Soldiers of Napoleon rules, I knocked out some troops stats based on on what I have read about the forces involved, gleaned mainly from Conrad Cairns articles in WI and his book published by the Perry brothers and Edward M. Brett's "The British Auxiliary Legion in the First Carlist War" I should also mention that Mr. Cairns has a Wargamers guide to be published by Helion, due out in the New Year.

As we are still getting to grips with the rules we did not use the tactical advantage and deployment faff prior to the game. We did however use the How Went The Day part of the rules to determine who had the initiative, this went to Dave commanding the government forces, who also gained two Victory Points due to rolling triple the Carlist score.

I unfortunately didn't take enough photos to do a coherent annotated picture report, here are some photos anyway, and if you are not bored, at the end of them a brief description of how the game went.

On the Carlist left flank both sides cavalry brigades faced off one another for most of the game, with the tide turning against the Carlists elsewhere in the field the Ontario hussars attempted to charge the Isabelino line cavalry and failed.

In the centre both sides advanced cautiously while over on the Carlist right their newly raised volunteers hotly contested the advancing British Auxiliary Legion advance, both sides losing battalions a calm came over that side of the field with neither having the strength to attack one another further. While this was going on the Royal Marine rocket battery was giving the Carlist cavalry some nuisance fire, I should really have dealt with them. After the break for lunch the tide turned in the Isabelino 's favour, the Carlist hussars finally charged and came off worse and the Carlists fruitless attempts to rally gifting the enemy victory points. The disruption points piled up breaking two Carlist battalions in the centre in turn five giving the government forces victory.

Until next time........

TTFN & KBO 

Another Year Over?

Well nearly. Although I now only do commission work for existing customers they are keeping me rather busy, well into the New Year at least.

Consequencely painting this month is and will be rather slow, the only unit likely to muster out from under the brush is the second French battalion for the Peninsular project.

All Perry metal figures on bases from Warbases naturally, flag from GMB painted almost entirely with GW Contrast paints. It is back to the Triple Alliance and 1940 projects with what remains of the month.

The last game here at OHQ will be a First Carlist War game using Soldiers of Napoleon to see if they work for the period and to help us further our understanding of how the rules work. 

Until next time...........

TTFN & KBO

Tank Riders

While painting up some Soviet infantry in less wintery attire I dug these out of the stash. I couldn't even hazard a guess as to how long I have had them. A mix of FAA and AB Figures stuck to clear plastic so I can anchor them to the vehicles by sliding it under the turret.

Not much else to report on really, I am well on with a second French battalion for the Peninsular project and I have three Lend Lease Shermans for the Soviet forces awaiting weathering which I hope to work in during December. No game this week but we should get a game in at OHQ before Christmas "stuff and health" permitting.

That's all for now, TTFN & KBO

Shermans

A couple of Shermans armed with 75mm guns to make things a little more interesting for the Americans🙂

Italeri 1/72nd quick build kits.

Bases from Warbases.

Thats all for now folks, TTFN & KBO

Rahnstadt Falls

Soviet forces are advancing in the the industrial town of Rahnstadt which has been largely reduced to rubble by Allied bombing. Nether the less it has been designated a Festung and must be held to the last bullet.

Regular forces are being heavily pressed elsewhere and can only provide a solitary Pak43 for its defence. The brunt of the assault must be borne by the Rahnstadt Volksturm.

1. Pak43.

2. Dug in Panther.

3. Dug in 80mm Mortar.

4. An old Putilov 76mm field gun pressed into action.

5.Volksturm Platoon HQ, officer, mortar spotter.

6. Volksturm Squad one, eight men, two panzerfausts.

7. Volksturm Squad two, eight men, two panzerfausts.

8. Volksturm LMG team, three men, bipod MG34

9. Volksturm Squad three, eight men, two panzerfausts.

10. Booby trapped building.

Meagre reinforcements will arrive in the form of a Stug IIIG, a Volksgrenadier squad and a 251/21 half-track.

The Soviets would be attacking with a Motorized Infantry Platoon with support from an ISU152 battery, a motorized infantry patrol and an off table 120mm mortar battery.

Intimidated by the dug in Pak43 and Panther the Soviets attacked on a narrow front avoiding them but risking being bunched up and making a juicey target for any indirect fire.

As it turned out they were virtually unscathed, the Germans being unable to contact their mortars during most of the assault.

There was some consolation in that the Soviets also had the same communication issues with their mortar battery.

The Soviets close in, the driver of the Lend-Lease Studebaker deserving an Hero of the Soviet Union award for doggedly resupplying the ISUs throughout the assault.

The Soviets enter the booby trapped building but the charge fails to go off, a dud, drat!

Reinforcements arrive, unfortunately for them the Soviet communication problems are solved and a 120mm stonk disabled their supporting Stug.

Mention must be made if the LMg team in the corner house who literally fought to the last man holding off the Soviets until near the very end.

Turn eight and two and a half hours of tenacious defending the Volksturm had to yield the ruins of Rahnstadt to Bikkliski's Soviet forces.

Until next time.........

KBO 

Underway

I wasn't planning on starting the Peninsular project until early in the New Year but inspired by our recent games using Soldiers of Napoleon rules and the fact that Dave can muster up enough British for the theater I decided to set to.

To speed the project up I have abandoned the plan to highlight the contrast painted parts up except in certain places, whilst they won't win any prizes I did complete twelve figures over about two and a half days.

I have also decided on eighteen figure units instead of twenty four this will better suit my six by four foot table better, as well as adding to speeding up the painting process.

In SofN you can remove bases to rally off disruption, I have done only three bases of six figures where units in SoN can be up to six.

To facilitate this I will do markers to denote bases less than six, if we play with Black Powder where bases are not removed they can be used to denote casualties instead.

We shall be returning to World War Two for tomorrow's game so stand by for an AAR in due course.

TTFN & KBO

 

Alliance Ascendent

The first game using my Triple Alliance collection took place here at OHQ yesterday.

A straightforward encounter game to start with to get a feel of both forces and influence the next additions.

The Alliance forces left flank brigade, two Argentinian battalions and the small Uruguayan Libertad battalion.

The Paraguayans had two brigades of three battalions, the right supported with a 12pdr smoothbore battery and the left three battalions supported by a cavalry squadron.

The Brazilian contingent consisted of, in the centre a brigade of three battalions and on the right a brigade consisting of an infantry battalion, a cavalry squadron and a 4pdr mountain gun battery.

The Alliance forces won the initiative and advanced along the entire front to form a line between the two areas of boggy ground.

The Paraguayans advanced along their front also but sent their cavalry around the boggy ground the threaten the Alliance right flank.

Has can be seen above the Paraguayan advance became a little strung out. The little smoke puffs denote that the unit as yet to first fire, which gives them an added fire dice when first doing so.

The Brazilian cavalry in the bottom corner have been sent to counter the Paraguayans cavalry attempt to turn the flank.

The Paraguayan cavalry duly charged, they had been given the terrifying charge rule, this means the charged unit must take a break test, I realised on reading it's description for the blog that I had tested the Brazilian cavalry before contact when it should have been done on contact which may have had a different outcome on the game. The Brazilian cavalry retired and the Paraguayans decided not to follow up and risk the passing fire from the Brazilian gun battery. Then again it sounds odd has the Brazilians being cavalry could have counter charged before taking test🤔

Meanwhile in the centre the lead Paraguayan battalion was taking heavy fire and failed their resulting break test, the Paraguayans had the stubborn rule which with the addition of one to their usual stamina of three makes them very resilient, which they were, they did not give way easily. However on this occasion the re-roll was exactly the same score as the first!

The left Paraguayan brigade also came under heavy fire first one and then another becoming shaken. This resulted in both brigades being broken and retiring from the field.

A most enjoyable first outing lasting five turns and just under two hours of play.

The following were given to the Paraguayans to reflect their historical nuance's as used by Alan Perry for their games.

Stamina of four.

Terrifying charge.

Stubborn

Tough Fighters 

Terrain wise crossing the marshy areas we deducted a D6 from any movement as we had already halved the movement rates due to 5x4 table being used. We also adopted the one move and fire rule from the Glory Hallelujah ACW supplement.

There are now army sheets for the War for Valour and Fortitude so we may give them a run out next month. Until next time..........

TTFN & KBO