Britons Versus Romans – After Action Report
This game should really be titled – “When the Roman commander can’t roll higher than a 3 on a D6 all night”…
Its been a while since we have played Hail Caesar by Warlord games so we were all a bit rusty on the rules and a few mistakes were made, more on those later. Nevertheless great fun was had as usual when using these rules.
The two armies are my Ancient Britons and Chris’ Romans. Both of these are fledgling armies as we try to work out what we both need to have a good game and get them painted. That said, my Ancient Britons are almost complete. On the other hand the Romans are really only the core units of an army.
This is the second time they have faced each other. Last time it was on a smaller table (6ft x 4ft) with no room to maneuver. That battle was a real meat grinder with the Briton skirmishers getting driven off and then the Warbands being ground down by the Romans. It was pretty bloody on both sides but ultimately a decisive Roman victory with most of the Britons being back in the ‘box’ before the battle ended. In that battle we even forgot to use the pilum special rule for the Romans. My over riding memory of that battle is the Romans saving almost every hit they suffered.
This time the Britons have expanded by three small units of light horse…the Romans were the same as last time. Their reinforcements have apparently not been issued with equipment yet i.e. they are not painted! We also used the new 8ft x 5ft table top that I have recently made, although the blanket did not cover it all (about 7ft x 5ft). Incidentally the blanket is a family heirloom of sorts. It is the last blanket my Grandad was issued during WW2…
We wanted a fairly simple game, so an open table was the order of the day.
Setting up:
The Britons were on the table pretty sharpish. There was no time to waste!. On the right wing Magicstix the Druid had 3 warbands, 2 small light horse, and a bunch of skirmishers with slings.
In the middle ‘the chieftan’ had 2 warbands, a unit of light chariots, 2 skirmishes with slings and a skirmishing unit of dogs (we give these stats equivalent to javelin armed skirmishers).
On the left wing a third command with 1 warband, 1 light chariot, 1 medium cavalry and a small unit of light horse. They were fidgeting about so the camera is a bit out of focus…
Opposite the Romans considered their deployment and adjusted themselves to make sure they were perfectly regular. It almost brought a tear to the eye to see them so neatly arranged as they faffed about adjusting half an inch here and there… 😛
The Plan…For the Britons the plan was to engage the Romans with skirmishers while the left wing advanced around their flank, and then charge in with a decisive blow.
For the Romans it was fairly clear they were going to form a continuous line between the woods and then steamroller everything in front of them at once. Just like last time…
First Turn
The Romans got first turn and shuffled forwards a little. Would you believe they fluffed all the command rolls and only moved at all because most of them have the ‘drilled’ special rule. We didn’t realise this was going to be pretty much how the whole night was going to go.
For the Britons. The left flank light horse decided that they really should be a lot further over to their left, rather than going forwards (blunder command roll!).
In the centre the skirmish screen ran forwards to engage the Roman line, the warbands staying behind to give the skirmishers room to maneuver. On the right Magicstix moved his command forward as one.
Second Turn
The Romans continued to shuffle forward in a continuous line, each legionnaire being careful to stay in line and not become exposed.
The light cavalry on the Briton left wing were now satisfied with their deployment and advanced. The rest of the left wing were a bit grumpy with their general attitude and decided to stay where they were (failed command). In the centre and on the right the skirmishers closed in to start pelting the Romans. They were unusually effective and Roman units began to suffer stamina reductions, clearly something was wrong with the Roman armour.
Third Turn
The Romans chased off the skirmishers in the centre by threatening to charge them. We (I) made a mistake at this point and we made the evade rolls before the checking to see if the Romans would make contact during their charge. The Romans continued to shuffle forwards, but the skirmishers ran for their lives…a good long distance! If we had done it properly the skirmishers would have stayed put as none of the Romans made a sufficiently decent charge move to make contact. They clearly were not in a mood to listen to orders… On the Roman left, we did the charge moves properly. The Roman infantry surged forwards to chase off the Briton light horse that was throwing pointy sticks at them, and the light horse ran off all the way back to their starting positions (annoying when they do a three move evade…).
At last the Briton left wing jumped into action and advanced. The light horse (see photo above) swept around the back of the Roman line making for the Scorpion ballista. In the centre the skirmishers returned to hassle the advancing Romans. On the right Magicstix was jumping in the air and waving his staff but nobody was listening, or could make out what he was getting excited about. The exposed unit of Romans that had chased off the light horse was left completely unmolested and the opportunity slipped by…(another failed command roll).
Fourth Turn
Roman auxiliary archers moved into the wood on the Roman right flank and crossed to the right hand edge to threaten the advancing Briton left wing cavalry (just out of shot on the photo). The exposed unit on the Roman left retired back into the battle line. At the back of the Roman line a unit of legionnaires tried to charge the light horse to their rear. They needed two moves to be successful (one to turn around and the next to charge), as we were beginning to expect, the command roll was failed and they only turned around on the spot because of the ‘drilled’ special rule.
The Briton light horse then charged the Roman Scorpion Ballistae… lost the combat, and ran for the hills in their shame (break result in the morale test)! The medium horse charged the auxiliary archers that were in the wood. We (I) made another mistake here…The horsemen needed to get a three move command to make the charge, they needed to turn to face the archers (which were on their flank), then adopt open order. And finally with the third move they could charge. To be on the safe side the Archers (in open order) elected to evade. The medium horse made the roll and got the required three moves…the archers then rolled for their evade and only got one move! Now the mistake happened, instead of the horsemen moving as infantry (6″) in the wood, they moved as cavalry (9″) and caught the evading archers who were then destroyed. If we had done it correctly they would have evaded the charge…
In the centre the skirmishers continued to pelt the Romans, and on the right Magicstix was still jumping up and down over the legionnaires that had managed to escape. Nobody was listening to him…
Fifth Turn
During the Briton fourth turn the light chariots had advanced around the edge of the wood to threaten the Roman flank but…one of the Roman units was facing to their rear (having failed to charge the light horse). Being rather rash, they decided to charge the chariots and did…the chariots counter charged, immediately disorganising the advancing infantry and then proceeded to batter them in the melee. After the melee the Romans retreated, but the chariots declined to follow up. Elsewhere the Roman line stood splendidly still and attempted to throw javelins and send out small groups to chase off the skirmishers which had been pelting them continuously. They (the Romans) were not very successful in their endeavours…
On the Briton right flank Magicstix had finally calmed down enough to be shouting actual words, and his light horse swept forwards to re-engage the Romans.
On the Briton left the time was now! The Roman right flank was in disarray! The warband on the left flank raced to get around the wood and the cavalry prepared to charge the disorganised legionnaires. They needed a three move command to get out of the wood, form back into close order and then charge…! They actually only got one move. Disaster! they were now out of the wood right in front of formed heavy infantry, and in open order! To protect them the Briton chief ordered his skirmishers to close on the flank of the Romans to try and prevent the inevitable charge in the next turn that would be so costly to the medium cavalry. He then commanded his 2 warbands and light chariots to charge the Roman line! They were having none of it and decided a better coarse of action was to retreat (blunder – result two moves to the rear)! At this point they ‘should’ have been moved off the table but again we (I) made a mistake and just moved them to the base edge.
And then the shooting began…The second unit on the Roman left flank (behind the ones that had retreated from the chariots) were Praetorians. In a desperate bid to try and save the cavalry the Britons threw everything at them. Their armour was decidedly lacking whilst the Briton cavalry javelins and slingers made their presence felt, almost every shot casued a reduction in unit stamina and then horror of horrors (if you were Roman)…a morale test was required…the dice rolled, they clacked together…they spun slowly…you know what is coming….”snake eyes”. Goodbye Praetorians, it was unpleasant knowing you.
Sixth Turn
The Romans were feeling a bit bleak…they needed something. So, the ballistae shot at the cavalry in desperation, and the Briton cavalry were unnerved and ran off in disorder to the other side of the wood. The legionnaires then threw javelins at the light chariots and chased them away in disorder too… Another unit of Legionnaires charged forward to chase off the bothersome skirmishers, who simply skipped away.
On the Roman right Magicstix had ‘played a blinder’. Whether by luck or judgement (lets go with judgement) the unit of light horse between the lines of Britons and Romans was perfectly placed so that if the Romans charged as a Division they would only get as far as the intervening, lets call them ‘speed bump’ and then have to stop to fight. They would then be too far away from the main Briton line that even a sweeping advance would not get them into combat. Feeling demoralised the Roman commander decided not to charge.
On the Briton left, the chariots and medium cavalry could do nothing. The warband was commanded to charge around the wood and engage the Romans. They sort of listened but did it their own way (blunder – uncontrolled advance for 1 move). In the centre, skirmishers closed in around the exposed legionnaires that were still in a sorry state after their chariot affair (since the warband had neglected to become involved).
On the right Magicstix persuaded his other unit of light horse to join the first and between them both they managed to cause the Praetorians to their front to retire in disorder.
Perhaps you are wondering where the Briton chief is with his warbands and light chariots in the centre of the Briton line? Well, he was still issuing commands…they just weren’t listening.
Seventh Turn
On the Roman right the legionnaires at the back tried to escape the skirmishers by charging at the warband that had began to come around the edge of the wood. They fluffed the command roll and only advanced one move forwards because of the ‘drilled’ special rule. As a consolatory prize the ensuing volley of javelins they launched disordered the warband.
The other roman units on the right flank tried to chase off the skirmishers but either didn’t get enough of a move to make contact, or where they did the skirmishers managed to successfully evade them.
On the Roman left. The Praetorians failed to recover from disorder (they are elite 4+…) and the other legionnaires attempted to charge the Briton warbands to their front. This time it was inevitable…if they got the charge distance then they would either chase off the skirmishers and then contact the warbands behind. Or fight the skirmishers and be able to charge the warbands in a sweeping advance afterwards. All they needed was to get a two move charge…all they needed was to roll two under the command requirement…and…they rolled…and they got…one move! So ground to a halt in front of the skirmishers!
On the Briton left. The skirmishers continued to pelt the hapless legionnaires in the rearmost unit. The Briton cavalry managed to form into close order at last, in position behind the disorganised warband. In the following shooting the Romans were at last reduced to ‘shaken’.
This is the view from the Briton’s chief…
A lovely exposed Roman flank, just ripe for a unit of Light Chariots to go and cause some mischief. And did they? No they did not, another failed command roll!
Meanwhile on the Briton right flank Magicstix had order his whole command of Warbands to charge, after moving his skirmishers out of the way (with an initiative move). It was perfect! A warband on its first charge, supported to right, left and behind against a Roman unit which only had rear support!
The melee was impressive! Even with their pilum the Romans managed only 3 successful points of stamina off the Britons. In return they suffered 8! (We give the warbands the’ wild fighters 3′ special rule as per the scenario in the Hail Caesar rule book). The Romans needed a break test. They needed to roll well… And they did! Retreat one move in disorder but then when we came to move them, because of the angle of their initial charge the Briton light cavalry was now behind them…preventing their retreat. Awesome planning from the Druid, he must have foreseen it!
Result = two Roman units destroyed!
Eighth Turn
The Romans were in trouble now. One Division (on their left) was broken, another (on their right) had all commands shaken. It was down to a roll of the dice, could they rally the shaken legionnaires on their right flank to prevent the army being broken…No.
And that was that.
An excellent game of Hail Caesar and the first time in about five years, in fact the first time ever that the Britons have won against the Romans. All those years of playing Warhammer Ancients and being unceremoniously destroyed can now be forgotten. And the less said about Chris and Dean’s appalling luck with the dice the better.
Thanks to Chris and Dean the hapless Roman commanders, Michael (Briton left flank) and Nigel (Magicstix the Druid). For my part I’ll take all the glory thank you very much as the victorious Briton Chieftan even though the centre Warbands and Light Chariots refused to listen to me all battle…
Alternative Bolt Action Rules
Here are my thoughts on some alternative rules for use in Bolt Action.
This isn’t me saying that Bolt Action is anything other than great fun, I just feel like it could have been something else. Maybe you’ll find something you agree with, maybe you won’t.
25/28mm American Civil War
Nigel put on a game of good old ‘Fire and Fury’. It had been years since the last time I had a game of ACW using those rules but as expected I fell right into his trap.
The scenario he put on was a quite simple attack defence affair with a couple of Confederate brigades of foot with a few cannon supporting them trying to oust a fairly similar number of union regiments from a defensive position at a river crossing. It was a great game though. The Union dismounted cavalry took an amazing amount of shifting and the lines of infantry surged and recoiled across the battlefield in that manner which is peculiar to F&F and both exciting and excruciating as a player.
If you have never played F&F I urge you to do so, it is always an exciting game and predictably the outcome was that feeling that begins in the pit of your stomach and you know is going to cost you ££’s especially as Nigel had put the game on using 25/28mm figures! It was also a bit of a perfect storm as only matter of a couple of weeks away was the Gateshead wargames show. After a quick chat with Nigel it was decided that what he really needed was a few more Union infantry…
At the show…I picked up a couple of boxes of Perry plastics – Union Infantry and Cannons with limbers. Also Old Glory UK had a stand and it has to be said that I really like their miniatures, so I picked up a Union regiment pack from their 25mm range too. I also had a bit of luck that one of the traders had a single ACW mounted commander for sale at a discounted price!
Here are the plastics, painted and in the process of being based…and then with the bases partly done.
The Perry plastics are really good, the miniatures went together well and they have a decent amount of detail. The artillery pack is fantastic since it provides a good amount of options but most importantly (to me) the three cannon it contains all come with a limber! Of course it would be even better if they had horses but its not a great chore to get horses especially when you can swap one of the cannons + limber with a mate for them (thanks Nigel!).
As I have already said, I do really like Old Glory miniatures and these ACW were a joy. There was a large variety of poses in the regiment pack – in fact I don’t think any two miniatures were actually identical! Here is a photo of them undercoated and dry brushed with white prior to painting:
And then a photo of the completed Division awaiting the bases to be completed:
For painting these I used Vallejo ‘Oxford Blue’ for the main dark blue of the Union coats and I mixed up a light blue just using what I had to hand for their trousers. I was not too fussed about the actual shade of the blue for either since there was not such good colour control during manufacturing back then anyway.
For the bases I use a slightly different method these days since reading Henry Hydes ‘Wargaming Emporium’ ( a very fine book). In there he talks about his method of mixing sand with PVA glue and then using a cocktail stick to spread it around the base. This is the method I use now, but I also mix some of the paint in with the sand so that it makes painting it afterwards easier. I have found that using this method is much easier than painting a base with PVA and then sprinkling sand on it because it is less messy and also gives a bit more depth to the look of the base.
The paint I use is ‘Dancing Bear’ emulsion from B&Q, its only a few £’s for a tester pot and goes a very long way.
When this is dry I dry brush the base coat with ‘Lions Slumber’ from the same B&Q range, this gives (I think) a very natural earth look to the bases and they are then ready for flocking. For these I used some static grass and a some fine whitish gravel (ballast from N-gauge railway I think).
Photos of the completed division all ready to go! Note the missing horses on one of the limbers – this has since been rectified.
Flags are currently simple colour printouts so will be replaced with something of higher quality at some time in the future…
Bolt Action – House Rules
When we play Bolt Action at our club we use a selection of house rules that we find add to the game. In case anyone else wants to see what we do and so that I can record them somewhere we can all view them easily I have decided to post them on here.
Note that this is in no-way a criticism of Bolt Action as it is played if you follow the rules to the letter, its just how we like to play it. We are not ‘competition’ gamers and we seldom if ever use the points values as a way of deriving the forces for our games. We also like to alter rules to fit how we like to play. Games with more uncertainty appeal to us more than those without and generally provide more opportunity to laugh at each others misfortune, which is how we like it. Read on at your peril 😛
Rough ground
We use a random modifier of -D6″ to any movement over rough ground/obstacles.
Orders Dice
We tend to use more orders dice then there are units as a means of giving one side an advantage in command control i.e. Germans versus early war Soviet. Also we use a ‘dice of doom’ (more later…), so we don’t actually remove dice from the bag when a unit is eliminated. Instead when a player has moved/activated/attempted to activate, all his units then any extra orders dice pulled from the bag are set to one side. Every dice extra to the first spare that is pulled from the bag is then discarded.
Dice of Doom
We place one (or two) orders dice of a unique colour in the orders bag. When these have both been drawn the turn ends. Units that have not activated do not get to activate…we find this makes gaming the orders sequence a risky business. We did originally just use a single dice for the end of the turn but after trying with two we have found the added tension of knowing one of them has been drawn adds to the game.
Single figure units
When a unit is reduced to a single figure it is removed, this only applies to squads. For support weapons etc. we allow the single figure to remain and operate the weapon.
Unoccupied transports
Unoccupied transports can move freely once per turn without the need of an orders dice, providing they do so before the ‘end of turn’ dice is revealed. This is because we don’t consider unoccupied transports to be a unit (unlike the rulebook).
Dug-in in prepared positions
Troops dug-in in prepared positions count as in hard cover and as if ‘down’ for the purposes of taking casualties from indirect fire (i.e. half the number of hits), going ‘down’ does not give any extra benefits.
Barbed wire
Impassable to wheeled vehicles.
Tracked vehicles cross at advance rate -D6″ and destroy a section of barbed wire on passing.
Infantry must take an orders check to cross and treat as rough ground.
Engineers cross as rough ground without the need to take an orders test and remove a section of barbed wire.
No assaults can be made over barbed wire (that was its actual purpose).
Mine fields
Exposed when troops come into contact. Roll 1D6 (as per preparatory bombardment pg118 of the rule book).
Strikes the bottom armour of armoured vehicles (+1 penetration). Engineers roll at -1 modifier. If the unit has RUN orders apply +1 modifier to the roll.
Fully armoured vehicles count any penetrating hit as light damage only.
All movement stops at the edge of the minefield. Minefield is impassable to all except engineers which clear the minefield on passing an orders test, they cannot fire while clearing mines.
Close combat results
Instead of the looser being eliminated: The looser retreats one full RUN move and takes a pin marker for every casualty suffered in the close combat.
Indirect artillery/mortar fire
Roll a scatter dice ( 4 arrows, 2 hits) + a dice marked 2,4,6,8,10. misfire.
The result Is either a hit, a direction and a distance deviated, or a misfire.
If the shot deviates use a 2″ radius circle to determine if it still hits any viable targets. If it does continue as normal as if it were a ‘hit’ on that unit.
If the misfire is rolled then either the shot deviates widely, or is a dud or something else happens that means it has no effect.
Other notes and ideas we are playing with:
The ranges for the weapons in BA are a bit strange to us. For example: Medium mortars have a longer range than 75mm field guns when historically it was substantially the other way around. One of the ideas we are considering at the moment is making all indirect fire from artillery have an unlimited range. We would still keep the range limitations as they are for direct fire. The argument being that the actual battlefield is somewhat more difficult to see over than our table top. Mortars would be unaffected by this so the light, medium and heavy mortar would still retain their normal range limitations.
Bolt Action Scenario AAR
Finally…some months after we played this game I have got the time to update this post.
The basic scenario was a couple of inexperienced Soviet platoons racing to cut off the retreat of the remnants from a failed German attack that were trying to get back to their own lines. The terrain was an unfordable river with a single bridge that the Germans had to get over in order to return to the safety of their own lines. The remaining table was made up of forest. The forest was made up of impassable areas that blocked line of sight (thick clumps of trees, rocky outcrops, dense marsh….use your imagination!) and more open areas that did not hinder line of sight but provided concealing cover. We allowed infantry to move as normal but vehicles suffered a -D6″ on every move.
The Soviet forces:
SOVIET platoon 1 comprising of 5 units and given 7 red dice in the dice bag.
| PHQ | 1 x Second Lt (+1 to orders), 1 x anti-tank rifle OR 1 x light mortar. | REGULAR |
| Infantry Section 1 | 7 x Rifle + LMG (8 figures in total). | INEXPERIENCED |
| Infantry Section 2 | 7 x Rifle + LMG (8 figures in total). | INEXPERIENCED |
| Infantry Section 3 | 8 x Rifle (8 figures in total). | INEXPERIENCED |
| Support | 1 x Truck1 x Light Howitzer, 4 Crew | INEXPERIENCED |
SOVIET platoon 1 comprising of 5 units and given 7 dark brown dice in the dice bag.
| PHQ | 1 x Second Lt (+1 to orders), 1 x anti-tank rifle OR 1 x light mortar. | REGULAR |
| Infantry Section 1 | 7 x Rifle + LMG (8 figures in total). | INEXPERIENCED |
| Infantry Section 2 | 7 x Rifle + LMG (8 figures in total). | INEXPERIENCED |
| Infantry Section 3 | 8 x Rifle (8 figures in total). | INEXPERIENCED |
| Support | 1 x T-26 | INEXPERIENCED |
Note: We gave the soviet player(s) a choice of either a light mortar or an anti-tank rifle as part of the PHQ. In this game these support weapons were an integral part of the PHQ, its not quite how they are used/chosen in the BA rule book, but that’s how we roll!
Also, notice that the two Soviet platoons have dedicated orders dice of a different colour. When I thought up this scenario it was designed as a three player with two Soviet players (any extra players above three would be German…).
The German Forces: 9 units, 15 dice in the bag (all the same colour).
| PHQ | 1 x Major (+3 to orders)1 x anti-tank rifle
1 x light mortar. |
REGULAR |
| Infantry Section 1 | 1 x SMG, 5 x Rifle + LMG (7 figures in total). | REGULAR |
| Infantry Section 2 | 1 x SMG, 5 x Rifle + LMG (7 figures in total). | REGULAR |
| Infantry Section 3 | 1 x SMG, 5 x Rifle + LMG (7 figures in total). | REGULAR |
| Infantry Section 4 | 1 x SMG, 5 x Rifle + LMG (7 figures in total). | REGULAR |
| Support | 1 x 80mm (Medium) Mortar | REGULAR |
| Support | 1 x MG34 Team (MMG) | REGULAR |
| Support | 1 x Panzer III (37mm) | REGULAR |
| Support | 1 x Panzer III (37mm) | REGULAR |
Special Rules:
German – 1) The units of the PHQ cannot be assigned to other units, you are too busy retreating… 2) No mortar spotter, open sights from the mortar team only.
Soviet – 1) Place one black dice in the orders bag. This represents a spotter from the pursuing Soviet force getting sight of one of the German units. A shot can be taken from any point on the Eastern table edge (the German starting edge). It counts as a light Howitzer, with range measured along the line of sight from the table edge. 2) Units from the PHQ can not be split from the PHQ. 3) Soviet platoons use different coloured orders dice to represent the lack of shared command control / radio.
Victory Conditions:
No German units exit from the Western table edge and Soviets control the bridge at the end of the game = MAJOR SOVIET VICTORY
Destroy all German ‘support units’ = MINOR SOVIET VICTORY
Germans control bridge at the end of the game, less than four units exited = DRAW
Any 4 units exit the Western table edge = MINOR GERMAN VICTORY
MMG, Mortar and 2 x Panzer III exit the Western table edge = MAJOR GERMAN VICTORY
Setting-up:
German units move on during their first activation from the centre of the Eastern table edge.
Soviet units move on from the North or South road ends in their first activation. Each platoon must enter entirely from one road end and they can not both enter from the same one.
If the first turn ends without all units entering, subsequent units enter as reserves (i.e. orders test at -1 to enter).
How it Played:
We have played this scenario twice now, these photos are from the first game but it has been too long and I can’t remember all the details of exactly what happened on each turn. You can get a basic gist of it from the photos though.
It was a Soviet white-wash. From what I remember Chris (Germans) brought his usual good fortune and Nigel’s (South edge Soviet with the Howitzer) inexperienced Soviets managed to decimate the Germans in fire fights. We named one of the Soviet units ‘the squirrel shooters’ as they were clearly all marksmen! The Soviet T-26 lumbered onto the table and spent a number of moves not quite sure where it could add any value. Eventually it rounded a clump of dense foliage to take a shot at a Panzer III and was promptly blown to pieces by the return shot. Meanwhile at the Southern end the other Panzer III was being repeatedly hit by the Soviet artillery, but being of WW1 vintage it could not penetrate the thick (relatively!) armour, the crew were getting mightily shaken-up though.
At the end of the game the Germans had been all but annihilated in the dense forest. Both tanks were still operational but the one in the South was badly shot-up…(pinned beyond being useful!). A resounding Soviet victory.
The second game we played was identical in every way except for the result. This time the Germans went all out for the bridge and (from what I remember) took control of it. The Soviets were then eliminated in detail. Notably the Soviet artillery was overrun in fairly short order!
If you have a go at this scenario let me know how you find it.
KR Multi-Case for BA
Normally I like to make scratch built cardboard boxes out of thick card (2mm thick…) to store miniatures. When I make thes boxes I include specifically sized compartments to match the specific miniatures/basing. However, the other guys all have these fantastic foam filled cases that are a lot less effort to make and dont need to be carefully carried or stacked. So, at long last I sucumbed and ordered a case from KR Multicase.
Wow…thats it really! I dont think I will make another cardboard box, even though I actually enjoy making them.
The first set of miniatures to get the special comfortable box were my 28mm WW2 Russians and Germans. I spent a bit of time on the KR website oooing and arring and gernerally procrastinating over making a purchase but eventually went for one of the half depth pick-and pluck trays and two 1/4 depth trays with enough compartments in to fit 50 figures.
My WW2 is based to include two-man teams on 50mm diameter bases, which all conveniently fit into the pick and pluck tray. Including the prone miniatures which could be slid in on their ends. The tray comes with all the slots filled with foam that is fairly easily cut out.
The next tray is mostly plastic Russians:
And the final tray is all the Germans and some extra russians that didnt fit in the one tray.
I did slightly modify the trays so that I could put the kneeling miniatures in the right way up. This meant I could cut out the dividing foam between two sections and fit 3 miniatures in the space for 2.
My verdict though…these cases are fantastic. I have finally seen the light. Thank you KR…
28mm WW2 Soviets
Well what would you know…completed another project! This time my WW2 Soviets which are aimed at the period from the German invasion to Kursk, but mostly the earlier period.
All the miniatures are from the Plastic Soldier 28mm Russian Infantry pack, as discussed in my previous post about them. There are a couple of odd metal minatures from Crusader among them but they are very hard to spot until you pick them up (metal vs plastic)…look for rifles with bayonets.
Firstly the overview of everything. On the left are the early war armour of two T-28 and three T-26, on the right is the mid/late war armour of an Su-76. Of course these armoured vehicles should never really be fielded toghether as all the T-26 and T-28 were destroyed before the Su-76 made its appearance.
The infantry, five sections each made up of 2 x SMG, 5 x rifle and a DPMG team (or record players as a certain person at our club calls them…)
Mortar supports. two 80mm Mortar (medium mortar) and two 50mm Mortar (light mortar).
MMG’s…two of, deployed and moving.
A Flame thrower team. Including a single miniature for casualty removal purposes, or until I get another command type miniature to put with him on a base.
Anti-tank rifle teams. Better photos in the other post about these miniatures.
45mm Anti-tank guns
76mm Putilov artillery. It is a current bugbear of mine that these 7km range guns are classed as ‘light howitzer’ in Bolt Action which gives them an on table maximum range of 48″ which is somewhat less than the range of a medium mortar (60″). Anyway, grumping aside, here they are with trucks for pulling them around. These guns are from the Battle Honnors WW1 range but they are (or seem to be) the 1930’s version with an elongated barrel so actually fit WW2 rather than WW1.
Armour support, two lumbering but deadly to infantry T-28 and three utterly hopelessly armoured T-26 death traps, good gun on them though…
Not pictured sperately (look back at the overview shot) are two command groups each of three figures and three female figures that could be used to represent a medical team. And…I have three spare prone LMG teams that I don’t quite know what to do with…
As usual, I am telling myself that this lot is now complete but…I know that should I come accross one I will probably get either a KV-1 or a KV-2 for that extra Russian sense of presence.
28mm WW2 Germans
Finally!
I have got my 28mm WW2 Germans sorted out for Bolt Action or any other 28mm scale game for that matter.
First the entire lot:
Close-up of the infantry Platoon, bit of a mish/mash photo but there are better photos in the other German Infantry post. Anyway, the main thing is that there are now three complete sections each consisting of 1 NCO with SMG, 7 rifles and a MG34 team. I know Bolt Action uses the loader as a ‘duty’ rather than a dedicated model but I just prefer to base the team together. It makes no difference whatsoever to game play but makes the MG34 much easier for me to spot on the table. And, simply, I prefer it this way :).
Platoon HQ, in a kubelwagon.
50mm Mortar (light mortar) and Anti-tank rifle, which would strictly be part of the platoon HQ but are independant teams in Bolt Action.
80mm Mortar (medium mortar) and tripod mounted MG34 (MMG).
PAK36 (37mm) Anti-Tank gun. This photo was supposed to also show the two 75mm Infantry Guns but they were horrendously out of focus so I had to cut them off. So…if you look back at the overview photo you will notice two 75mm IG behind, and a sdkfz11 half-track.
Armoured supports. Currently a Panzer II, Panzer III (with 37mm gun) and a Panzer IV Ausf C (with short 75mm).
All of the above is aimed at early/mid war period, roughly from the invasion of Russia to Kursk which is my favourite period to game WW2. However, it seems I am unique in this, at least at our club, so…I bought a few late-war figures with panzerfausts to spread through my existing infantry if I need to 44′ or 45′ them. Of course you can’t do late war without a Panzerschreck…or two.
All the other miniatures are from Crusader (appart from a couple of artillery miniatures from Black Tree Designs). The following late war miniatures are from Black Tree Design.
Close-up of the ‘tank hunters’…
Of course I am kidding myself that any project is ever really completed. I do have plans to get a couple of Opel Blitz or other suitable trucks at some point when I come accross them. I also like the look of Hetzer tank destroyers so no doubt I’ll get one of those.
The worry (for my wallet :P) is that Chris (British Paras) or Graham (US Paras) tempt me to the dark side of Western Front 1944-45 and I end up feeling the need for more supports that fit with that theatre such as PAK 40 or some other late war armour…something that really makes a statement…perhaps a Tiger I.
AAR – Bolt Action Scenario British Para vs Whermacht
Well Chris finally got the opportunity to put his newly painted British Paras on the table.
The scenario was Chris’ invention based on one of the character miniatures he got from Artizan who is apparently a glider pilot that lead a mission to re-take a cross roads during Operation Market Garden. So the mission is for a reinforced platoon of British Paras to take a cross roads back from a platoon of German defenders and rescue the prisoners that were taken. You can read this AAR from Chris’ point of view on his blog here http://blog.cjsutherland.co.uk/aar-british-paras/ A few more photos too.
So here is the initial table set-up.
Para deployment. From the glider…MMG, light howitzer, sniper,PIAT, squad with 3 SMG, Bren and 4 rifles, Command section, Cromwell, Arty spotter, Spotter for the 75mm Howitzer, squad with 3 SMG, Bren and 4 rifles, medical team. All veteran except for the Cromwell which was regular.
Initial German deployment. Squad of 2 SMG, LMG, 7 Rifle including a couple of panzerfaust. Sdkfz 251/1 with a panzerschreck team in it. Marder III. Medium mortar with spotter in the church tower (where else??). Command squad in the building with grey roof. British prisoners in the small ruin. Sdkfz 222. Squad of 2 SMG, LMG, 7 Rifle including a couple of panzerfaust. Panzerschreck team, MMG team.
Off table reserve of Squad of 2 SMG, LMG, 7 Rifle including a couple of panzerfaust in an opel blitz truck.
All German forces were regular and began deployed behind the road.
Turn 1 the Para’s do a general advance on their left flank whilst on the right the MMG and sniper adopt a defensive line against the hedgerow.
While the Germans advance to the hede row and occupy the buildings on the opopsite side of the road.
The British MMG makes a run for the apex of the next field to bring the German squad into line of sight. We were playing that two obstacles in the line of fire blocked line of sight so from the initial position they had a very poor LOS. The german half-track was moving to cover the open ground on the flank of the hedge line.
The halftrack gets round the corner and shoots up the MMG team. The PIAT then jumps over the hedge and launches a bomb at the halftrack which miraculously misses. The sniper gets a pin on it though.
The German MMG sets up in the corner of the wheatfield on the German right flank to cover all the open ground in front of the buildings.
The Marder sneaks around the corner of the buildings and takes a pot shot at the Cromwell. The Cromwell is destroyed with the first hit! The orange marker beside the MArder is marking where the Artillery spotter is ranging the big guns in…
German re-inforcements arrive in their truck.
At this point, which was about turn 4 or 5 the excitement got too much and I stopped taking pictures! But the rest of the game went like this:
On the German left flank the PIAT knocked out the halftrack before it could do anymore damage to the MMG team, and destroyed the panzerschreck team at the same time. However, spotting a weak point in the line and with the Cromwell destroyed the Sdkfz 222 made a run right accross the table and took up the same position vacated by the recently exploded halftrack. A bit of duel broke out between the PIAT and the 20mm cannon which eventually ended up with the PIAT team destroyed. All this time the MMG team had repeatedly failed to act but had managed to cause a few cassualties to the German squad defending the hedge row. The British light howitzer was being spoiled for choice of targets and after launching a few shots at the Marder changed targets to the Sdkfz222. Two direct hits bounced off! and one deviated onto the German squad at the hedge causing a few casualties. (We use house rules that allow indirect fire to deviate!).
In the German centre the Marder achieved very little before the British off-table artillery arrived. The explosions were terrific but luckily the fire was well spread (12″radius…) and none of the German squads actually got hit although everything was severley pinned including the Marder which took 5 pins! The Paras had been too cautious up to this point and were luckily (for the Germans) too far away to really take advantage of almost all the German squads/teams being severly pinned. Eventually one of the Para squads managed to get to the hedge row opposite the defending German squad which was by now quite depleted and severly pinned still from the off table artillery having not managed to shake pins off any quicker than the MMG was replacing them. However, the german Mortar got lucky and landed a couple of hits on the Paras giving them 4 pins (over a couple of turns) and reducing them to 4 men. At this point the NCO decided enough was enough and led them in a charge accross the wheat field that destroyed the opposing Germans in hand to hand for the loss of another two of the good guys.
On the German right flank the MMG had set up in a perfect position to cover the open ground and the main squad had occupied the dominating building. From here the squad poured fire into the British Para squad huddled behind the hedge at long range. They managed to keep the pin markers on the Paras but couldn’t manage to cause cassualties until…the off table artillery pinned the squad to the point of being useless. At this point the British rushed forward to the next hedge line. In the meantime the German reinforcements had driven over to the MMG and debussed along the same hedgerow. The MMG finally came off ambush orders and started laying fire into the Paras that had just occupied the nearby hedge, assisted by the squad newly deployed beside them. Fire was pasingly effective and caused only one British casualty.
And then night fell…and everyone stopped fighting and made a nice cup of tea!
The hands of the gods decended upon the battlefield and the scenery was removed before any photos of the end poisitions could be taken.
The game ended with British casualties: the PIAT team, Cromwell were destroyed and one squad reduced to two men. On the German side one squad, halftrack, panzerschreck team had been destroyed. Another squad and the Marder were severley pinned almost to the point of being useless and a few other casualties had been suffered. It was a German victory due to the failure of the British to rescue the prisoners but it was a nearer run thing than it first appeared. There was little to stop the second squad of Paras from assaulting the German squads and the German left flank was wide open. I think we all knew that the survivability of the Marder would be low once they got among the buildings and the Mortar would have been useless due to its minimum effective range.
All in all a good fun game.
Thanks to Ron and Rick – the Paras, Herr Nigel – the other German player and of course Chris who put the scenario together and then gratiously let somebody else take control of his Paras on their very first outing! Such consideration for other is to be praised…I wouldn’t have 🙂
Assault Over The Bug River, Operation Barbarrossa Day 1
Well…we won ‘best in show’ for our demo game of the first day of operation Barbarrossa depicting an assault over the Bug River in the vicinity of Patulin and Matykaly, North of Brest.
Chris has done a great detailed After Action Report on his blog so here is a link:
http://blog.cjsutherland.co.uk/attack-on-the-bug-river-28mm/
Extra to that here are some photos that I took (much better photos on Chris’ blog though).
German + Russian OOB:Bug River Scenario
Opening dispositions from the Russian end, a bit difficult to see much on the photo though…
A shot of the initial Russian emplacements showing the long line of barbed wire and a few suspicious breaks in the wire…
Initial German deployment…or at least part of it, the tauch panzers had not been placed yet. Notice the engineers with the pontoon bridge and the emplaced 150mm Artillery (bane of my life in this game) behind them.
After the first couple of turns, from the Russian end. Germans have had an opening barage which hit all Russian squads on the ‘second’ board and provided quite a lot of pin markers, they also laid a few rather annoying smoke screens. The sharp eyed will also notice that the barage appears to have created some ‘rough ground’ at various points. Actually Nigel forgot to mention he had brought it, and then I spotted it in a box under the table. So shortly after the first turn a few areas of ‘concealing’ rough ground appeared. We allowed line of sight over/through these but applied a -1 to hit modifier. It also counted as rough ground.
Closer shot of the German infantry getting into boats and the first tauchpanzer dipping its tracks in the water…the other is lurking behind the wood in the centre. Engineers have got to the bank of the river and start building the pontoon, which all going well will take them four turns.
First section of the pontoon bridge is up…first boat hits the opposite bank! Russians are rather annoyed by the smoke which prevents any of the Germans being visible.
Second sectionof pontoon bridge built, tauch panzers nearing the opposite bank and second wave of infantry climbing into boats.
A few turns later…the pontoon bridge is up. All the smoke blew away but they just layed more…An advance German squad was in an unfortunate position when the smoke blew away and has been hit quite a few times, no cassualties to speak of but pin markers are starting to mount! The far tauchpanzer has been spanked! but the Russian rounds just bounced off. Still it gave the crew a bit of a shock and they retired back to cover at the river bank. In the second photo, the plume of grey smoke by the river bank shows where a German squad was anihilated by a Russian mortar.
German reinforcements are coming on thick and fast. Here they are building up a grand battery on their side of the river. Medium mortar plus two 75mm infantry guns (light howitzers). It will be several turns before the NKVD border guards in the bunker realise this lot is all in range of their MMG. In the meantime the Russian mortars can only reach the middle of the river…notice the mortar shell splash, which gives the Germans a secure base for indirect fire support of the attack. Unseen by the Russians, the spotter for the 150mm artillery is lurking in the woods.
And then the smoke all blew away again!
And the advanced German squad got hammered…but they were doing a good job of keeping their heads down and avoided taking many casualties.
And after a few more turns the game came to an end…
The positions at the end of the game:
German armour had surged forward and the Panzer III headed for the break in the wire, only to discover it was a minefield! A carefully placed Russian teller-mine managed to seriously damage the tank and it was out of action. The Germans had finally managed to storm and take the first line of Russian trenches. They actually did this with very little casualties but were then exposed to fire from the second line which was begining to take its toll.
More German armour (two Panzer IV/D) was making its way over the bridge supported by a squad of infantry in an armoured half-track (sdkfz 251/1)
On the German left (Russian right) an infantry squad had finally managed to storm the hill and take out the Russian mortar spotters.
On the Russian left a T-26 had rushed out from Brest and positioned itself behind the second line of defence to lend some fire support. Unfortunately the thin armour was no match for the penetration of the German guns and it was soon on-fire. The crew managed to put the fire out before the tank was put out of action but they were effectively rendered ineffective due to the number of hits and pins they had received.
The Russian anti-tank battery had done a stirling job all battle and repeatedly hit the advancing German tanks, but failed to penetrate…
A Russian T-28 had managed to get onto the field and was putting heavy pressure on the German infantry and light tanks….
The Russians attempted to capitalise on this but only suceeded in drawing the attention of the spotter for the 150mm artillery which promptly destroyed the other T-28 as it emerged from the village of Matykaly…
The Germans launche a bold move in an attempt to grab some land with a half-track containing an infantry squad. HMG fire disabled the halftrack forcing the infantry to dismount. Seeing this the NKVD stormed out of their bunker and assaulted the bewildered German squad which after a sound thrashing made a run for it back to their own lines (thats them beside the T-26 turret), and the NKVD consolidated back into the safety of their bunker.
The T-26 turret took a hamering in the battle but somehow repeatedly survived penetrating hits! It may have been the most effective unit on the Russian side.
This would have been a better battle report if I had taken more photos but it was a great fun game and I was just too carried away to remember the camera. However, hopefully this gives you a summary and an overview of how the game went, and you can look on Chris’ blog for better pictures and more detailed narrative (link at the top of this post).
Many thanks to Nigel the (almost) impartial umpire who went distinctly German after lunch…just what was in that sandwhich?
Also to Graham and Chris the German players.
And a special thanks to Comrade Brian helping me stem the advancing hoarde.
German Attack Day 2 Operation Barbarrossa A 1941 Bolt Action Scenario
Tonight we had a crack at a Bolt Action scenario to test out how some of our solutions to various mechanics we don’t like will work in the big game at Dumfries in a few days time. Specifically we were testing out the house rules for barbed wire and dug-in troops versus indirect artillery.
Here is the scenario: Scenario for BA This is entirely made up but it could have happened…
If you are into points, and we are not…then I think this works out at a little over 2:1 in favour of the Germans, but of course in a game like this half the advantage is related to the terrain and the Russians also had the advantage of being dug-in which is worth ??? points?
Anyway, on to the game:
The first couple of turns were uneventful with the Germans moving onto the board although only a few units managed to get on the board in the first turn, and the first Russian T-26 turned up on turn 2!
The first photo is the position at the end of turn 2. You can see the layout of the Russian defences and the Bunker.
Hard to make out on the photo now it is compressed but the German infantry platoons have moved cautiously to the edge of the woods. The infantry gun has rolled on and immediately deployed on the road and ananti-tank rifle has taken a shot at the T-26 (on the right hand edge of the table) and managed to fail to penetrate, so it has a pin marker. One section of German infantry ran forward out of the woods and got stonked by the Russain mortar, several casualties and 2 pin markers. The majority of the Russian units have taken up ‘Ambush’ orders.
Turn 3 was over pretty swiftly with the ‘end of turn’ dice being pulled out early on. Not much has changed from Turn 2 except…possibly the most significant event of the battle. The german infantry gun had set-up on the road but before it could get to act it was stonked by the Russian mortar, over half of the crew were killed and the remaining crew member decided he had had enough and ran for it. Later in the move the German Medium Mortar moved on table and set-up in the same place the infantry gun had just vacated – presumably taking advantage of the fact shells dont hit the same place twice..??!!
End of Turn 3 from the German end…
End of turn 4, with eager arms retrieving orders dice…the German players are keen to get on with the advance! During this turn the German infantry started to pour out of the woods. The T-26 was just a little too far away to be assaulted and the anti-tank rifle gunner could not hit the target! The German mortar attempted to lay smoke to block the Russian MMG field of fire on the Russian Left, but the shot deviated and landed directly on top of the Russian anti-tank gun!
End of turn 5… The German advance continued, they had decided to adopt zerg tactics! The pesky T-26 continued to elude the anti-tank rifle and shot-up the infantry section in front of it. Seeing this was more than the Platoon commander could bear and he stormed forward and put a grenade in the turret! Apparently “that is how you deal with a Russian bag of bolts”. More smoke was laid by the German mortar but it just would not land on target. The Russian mortar managed to drop a shot in the middle of nowhere – you can see the splash behind the advancing German infantry.
End of Turn 6…Continuing the push forward. The Russian mortar obliterates the platoon command of the German left whilst the infantry close on the Russian trenches and wire.
End of Turn 7. German smoke has been placed around the Russian slit trench whilst an assault goes in on the other trench. The barbed wire prevents an actual assault this turn but the German infantry struggles accross the wire whilst underfire and pours close range fire into the Russian trench. The Russians take over 50% casualties, have had enough and run for it. Leaving the trench empty… On the other side the NKVD manned MMG is proving to be woefully inaccurate and the German infantry is pushing forward with little casualties.
End of Turn 8…the German left has taken the trenches on the Russian right but at what cost! All the smoke blew away just before the assaults went in which left the German platoon to be cut to ribbons. The few survivors managed to take the remaining Russian trench in bloody and desperate hand to hand fighting, but the German platoon is all but wiped out!
Meanwhile accross the other side of the battlefield the lead German platoon assaults the NKVD MMG position and is beaten off after two rounds of hand to hand combat. The MMG crew lost one member in the struggle over their position but the sharpened shovel of the gunner managed to dispatch three of the five attacking infantry and send them scurrying back to Berlin. At last the Panzer IV arrived and stormed onto the battlefield at full speed! The Geman company HQ volkswagen was targetted by the Russian mortar crew but despite a direct hit no damage was suffered! The round passing halmlessly through the soft top and exploding away from the vehicle, however the debris from the explosion spatted back over the car and 2 pins were sustained!
Turn 9.. The second T-26 arrived on the battlefield. The German anti-tank gunner immediately set off towards it to redeem his earlier poor performance and managed to score a glancing hit that passed right through but without causing any significant damage. The T-26 crew retaliated by gunning down the anti-tank rifle loader! The Panzer IV commander saw an easy kill and forsaking the infantry in dire need of his help, turned his turret to take on the T-26. A direct hit was scored but the round bounced harmlessly off the T-26 turret, although the impact had seriously shaken up the crew (2 pin markers).
Final Turn…in the last turn the German Mortar tried to drop a smoke round to obscure the advaning infantry on the German Right flank. As usual the smoke did not land on target. The T-26 managed to destroy the anti-tank rifle crew but was then knocked out by a direct hit from the Panzer IV.
Aftermath…
The Game ended with the Bunker still in Russian hands and severe casualties had been dealt to the attacking Germans (over 50%) but the German armour was still intact, so it was in the end a Russian minor victory. The Germans tactic of a zerg like rush to the objective had carried the Russian trenches but at such a high cost the attack completely stalled. No doubt if the infantry gun from the support company had been able to lend a hand it would have managed to pin some of the Russians in the trenches and with the reductionin effective fire perhaps the German attack could have penetrated all the way to the bunker.
A lesson in the requirement for fire support when attacking perhaps?
And here are the Russian survivors celebrating outside the bunker…
Thanks to the soon to be promoted Comrade Ron and Comrade Nigel – the Russians.
And to Chris and Graham – the Germans.
Also to Rick for pulling the order dice out of the bag!
28mm Sand Bags
I know that these days everything should be described with a load of pictures or a video..but here are some old fashioned instructions:
If you want to make sand bags for 28mm, or any other scale using milliput (or green stuff) here is how I do it.
Firstly have a clean board to work on, the chopping board from the kitchen is apprently not acceptable, nor is it appropriate to work directly on a kitchen worktop or the dining table. This board needs to be large enough for you to roll out the milliput. I found a 12″ square of MDF was just right (eventually).
Make sure you have a small bowl of water to hand.
Get equal sized portions of the two elelments of miliput, I found pieces about the size of a large marble were a decent size to work with, about the size of a gobstopper if you are young enough you don’t even know what a marble is. If you don’t know what a gobstopper is either nobody can help you…knead them together until they are well mixed. Remember to wet your hands before you start kneading and as required during the kneading process to stop your hands/fingers being covered in milliput.
Next splash a little bit of water on your board and then roll out the milliput until it is in a large sausage just a little bit thinner than the width you want for the sand bags.
Next, dip the blade of your modelling knife in the water and then cut the rolled out milliput into sand bag sized pieces.
Now put a bead of PVA glue on the model where you want the sand bags. Take up a single sand bag, give a little more squashing into a pleasing shape with your fingers and place it onthe model.
When you have done a full layer, take something that is textured (I used aluminium mesh used for car body repairs, because I have some waiting to be turned into chainlink fences…that is another project I will get on to one day) and press it into the sand bags to give them a hessian sack appearance. You could also run your modelling knife blade along the edge of the ‘bags’ to give the impression of a seam, I did this on some…
Start again with the next layer. You don’t need to use the PVA glue for the next layer because the milliput will stick to itself, but i found that using it helps to fill out the gaps between bags.
Here are some pictures of slip trenches I made and added sand bags to, these are the sand bags unpainted and in the raw colour of standard yellow/grey milliput.
28mm Artillery Position
The scenario we are using for the Dumfries show on 9th March requires the German artillery to be dug-in.
Also it turns out that Nigel has ordered a 150mm howitzer for the Germans, so an artillery position is required.
I dug about on the internet a bit but the contemporary photos I found were basically holes that had been dug into the ground and didn’t really offer anything in terms of looking like a prepared artillery position. I did a bit more digging looking at various scenic items offered by the various terrain selling companys in various scales. Also I had this desire to use corrugated tin sheeting in the model.
If you look at most tinned food cans you will notice that at least a part of the tin is ridged. Heinz soup tins have a bit of this but Heinz sweet corn tins have much more, for whatever reason… Anyway it seems to me that these ridged tins are perfect for making corrugated tin sheeting at 28mm scale and I was keen to try this out on an actual model.
So…I decided on a fairly basic premis of a dug-out area that would accomodate a gun (or two) with a covered area that could either be an ammo store or a make-shift shelter for the crew. And here it is:
The base is 2mm MDF and the blue is 5mm thickness blue foam board, 3 layers throughout with an additonal layer for the covered area.
The problem (it turns out) with making tin sheeting from food tins is that it is curved and does not want to lie flat, even after persuasion with gentle bending. the problem being if you hammer it flat which could be done, it will also remove the corrugations which are the whole purpose for using the stuff in the first place! So I ended up gluing the foam board into place and letting it dry. Next I had to glue/position the tin sheeting pieces and then drill holes in the base so that the match stick supports would actually hold the sheeting flat against the foam board. The pleasing aspect of this was that the match sticks have to be placed according to the need to hold the sheeting flat, which feels like it must be authentic to a full scale situation. In the photo the two pieces on the right have been bent further (around a paint pot) to make a curved roof for the covered area.
The sheeting is not difficult to cut but you must be careful as the cut sheets are sharp! I used a stanley knife which was more than up to the task of cutting through a food can but there was the danger of slipping while cutting which kind of focussed my mind on the job! I’d suggest extreme caution and wearing cut resistant gloves. Anyway, once the main body of the corrugated section was cut from the tin I tidied it up with an angle grinder fitted with a coarse flap-wheel, making sure to remove any burrs, and flattened the sheet as much as I could with gentle bending. Actually cutting the individual sheets from this was easy. Basically give it a fairly heavy score with a stanley knife and then bend/snap along the scored line. I cut all my sheets into standard sized sections of approcimately 20mm x 40mm which is roughly 4ft x 8ft in scale terms and approximately equal to standard corrugated sheet sizes. Actually it was a little less than 20mm as they were cut at an oportune corrugation.
After it was all glued and dry I coated all the foam board with polyfiller:
Photographed with a ruler to give an idea of dimensions.
Next I painted all the areas that would be ‘earth’ and added sandbags made from milliput. You could use green-stuff if you are affluent and even buy it from GW if you are really rich…
The problem with using this method for tin sheeting is that the metal sheets have very thin (sharp) edges and in particular sharp corners that could easily cut somebody. My solution to this was the liberal application of sandbags to the model to cover the sharp bits sufficiently that they are not a hazzard.
And then, the finished item:
Pictured with a BlackTree Designs German 75mm Infantry gun to give an idea of scale.
The sand bags were painted ‘khaki’ and then highlighted with a blend of khaki/light grey.
The actual model is probably not quite the right size. It feels to small for two guns but a little generous for a single piece. Perhaps it will suit Nigels 150mm gun though.
There was no authentic basis for this but it seems to me that troops would make use of what was available to them. There was certainly plenty of tin sheeting around in the England during the 1940’s so why would there not be a few sheets that could be scavenged from somewhere in Poland or elsewhere in Europe? Perhaps a little tenuous but it made a decent looking model I think.
28mm WWII Russian Tanks
These were all obtained from Wargames Command Post, they are all Company B models.
I like the early and mid-war period and if you are going to get a Russian army at this time there are certain vehicles that I think are must haves. One of those is the T-26.
By this time it was a bit naff, but at the time it was designed it was streets ahead of anything any other nation had. The T-26 with its 45mm gun was superb in the Spanish Civil War. It seems to me that Russia was always ahead of the game in terms of tank design right through the war, the problem was that they didn’t retire the old designs and used them on the field. So the T-26 was still a major part of the tank divisions at the start of hostilities in Summer 1941…not that many of them survived very long afterwards since they only had an equivalent amount of armour to an armoured half-track!
I particulalry like this tank commander miniature. Firstly I like the pose and secondly because the miniature is holding the top of the hatch it means that the open hatch can be securely glued in place, which is always a bonus. The droopy gun is a bit of a let down though. I dont know how/when this occured.
For a medium tank of course there are a few iconic vehicles in the Soviet Russian aresnal. The T-34 is probably the one most people would think of but to me it is just too good. I dont really like wargames with things that excell at everything they do and the T-34 certainly did that. Admittedly during the early war it had its problems (lack of radio…) but I just dont like the idea of it, at the moment anyway.
So bring on the T-28! What a monster! Multiple turrets…it looks like a proper early war vehicle.
Now you could take umbridge at my previous comments about uber vehicles but the T-28 is certainly not that. They did all have radios but the tank performed very poorly in the Winter war against Finland becasue of its thin armour. As a result this was increased to ~80mm which is comparable to a Panzer IV but the extra weight took the top speed from something around 45km/h to ~25km/h. The main armament is also lacking in punch since it was designed as an infantry support tank and fitted with a low velocity 76mm gun. So in game terms, this is decently armoured but slow and only passingly effective against other armoured targets. And it is huge…there is no way you are going to be able to conceal it behind anything much.
To get a better idea of the size of the T-28 here it is with the three T-26 I have.
You will notice there are no markings on any of the tanks. Strictly for early war they should have coloured bands around the turret that designated the organisational level of the tank. However, in later war it was common for Russian vehicles to leave the markings up to the local Brigade to decide or have no markings at all – that way you can’t tell what formation you are fighting. taking that into account I trawled the ‘internet’ for contemporary pictures of T-26 so I could copy the markings. What I actually fouond was loads of pictures of tanks with no markings. So I went for that. Of course I can always add markings at some point in the future.
Now, although I prefer early/mid-war I dont want to constrain my opponents. If they really must field a late war German Kampfrugge complete with Tiger II, Panther and all manner of infantry equipped to the teeth with assault rifles and panzerfausts, then I need something of that period too.
So here is my answer, an Su-76…its not spectacular but it was extremely common and had a long post war carreer too.
And finally..in order to get about sometimes a comrade needs a truck:
One fine day I’ll probably sell-out and get a KV-2, if for no other reason than it is just sooo Russian! The T-35 sorely tempts me too…although it would be a purely early war tank since mostly they were used on the parade ground. Some did see action though, for what they were worth – which was not a lot.
28mm WWII German Tanks
Obtained these from Wargames Command Post.
Not sure now if they are Company B or Army Group North models…
Painted up in mid war German panzer grey, gotta love simple and easy paint schemes. Of course I could have painted some chocolate brown camo pattern over them, but then they would not have been quite so simple to paint. Lazy I am… The bases still need to be finished off but I have not entirely decided how I am going to do the bases for all my 28mm WWII yet.
The tanks are still waiting to be weathered, mud splashed up the sides, around the tracks etc…but I am waiting until I have painted all the vehicles I intend to get and then I’ll weather them all at the same time in the same shades to tie everything toghether.
Panzer III, all photos of the same model (I only have the one). Short 50mm but without the extended turret that had extra storage added to the rear. The photos seem to have invented a lot of light reflections that weren’t there, still they give a decent impression of the model.
Panzer II
Soon be joined by a Panzer IV D (short 75mm), which should then give me all I need, although still far less than I want! Curses to WCP and the photographs on your pages!
28mm WWII German Infantry
I prefer early and mid-war period and specifically the Russian front for a couple of reasons, firstly there are no uber tanks that completely imbalance the games (Ok so there is the KV-1 and KV-2 but they were more an annoyance historically than a real threat) and secondly it was a dynamic period with possibilities for almost any scenario you can think of….and early war equipment ‘can’ be used in later periods, but not the other way around.
So for my Germans I needed early war uniforms and MG-34, rather than MG-42.
After much umming and arring, spending hours looking at various sites, reading forums etc I finally went for Crusader Miniatures, and very impressed I am with them too.
I bought one of the Rapid Fire Platoon packs and a MG34 + 81mm Mortar team. The models are superbly detailed and had almost no flash or mould lines. They needed virtually no clean-up.
Painting German WWII uniforms is not as straightforward as other nationalities and it took me a lot of digging about to find enough details and cross-check enough sites to work out the colours I wanted to represent. Finally I ended up more or less following the advice given on this site: http://www.lloydianaspects.co.uk/models/paintgerm.html this was basically the same as many others but gathered together in a decent level of detail for painting 28mm figures.
So here they are:
Firstly the CO. I went for a field grey tunic with light grey pants. The straps are all a natural leather colour and I decided on black for the SMG ammo pouches just for contrast. Since officers bought their own tailor made equipment you can almost choose to paint them how you like, as long as it fits the general feel of the period.
Infantry Sections:
Each of these cotains an SMG armed NCO, seven rifles and an MG-34 team. Since the MG-34 is a two man weapon I decided to base them on a larger base with two figures. The actual base is the same diameter as two of the single bases so they only take up about as much space as two single based miniatures anyway, but I think it looks better and they stand out more. I really like the poses for the riflemen especially the ones with rolled up sleeves which I think is a really nice touch. +10pts to Crusader.
Supports:
Mortar section and a fixed MG-34 section. I like the poses of both of these, although the NCO with the mortar section is actually from the infantry platoon pack. The actual miniature that comes with them is identical to the NCO for the MG-34 pack, but I wanted him for something else, since he was armed with SMG. My only criticism of these, and it is a tiny point…I would have prefered if the loader for the MG-34 was crouching the other side of the ammo-box. The basing for these may seem a little odd…we have a convention that we don’t like single figures running around the battlefield, so basing them as two-man team and a single enables the 1st cassualty to be removed, after that the whole stand is gone anyway. Often in games we overlap the single figue onto the bigger base too…
And finally…The complete platoon as it currently stands:
You will notice that there is the beginings of a third section. At the moment this is the NCO from the Mortar pack and a couple of rifles from the platoon pack. The reinforcements are currently in the post and expected to land in the next couple of days. These include:
An anti-tank rifle team.
A 50mm Mortar team.
An MG-34 (LMG) team and 8 rifles.
Once I get them finished I’ll post some pictures.
I also have a 75mm IG18 infantry gun which is currently half painted but it is not a model I like so it may never get any further, I also have a PAK 37 to add but again the model and specifically the crew are diabolical so they may just get binned – honestly they are that bad! I am not going to say who they were manufactured by but it WAS NOT CRUSADER.
A last note on the bases – yeah they are very basic at the moment but I will tart them up at some point with some flock etc…when I get around to it.
28mm Minefield
Question – how do you depict a mine field on a wargames table?
For the Dumfries show we need a couple of 4 inch x 4 inch minefields. Clearly these are placed on the map to begin with and not revealed, but once they are (hopefully) stumbled into then they need to be marked – somehow.
My first idea was to simply make a couple of 4 inch squares and model a few craters in them, as if the mines had exploded. Here they are:
The only somewhat obvious issue with this was wow look at the size of that crater! Clearly if a mine that large had gone off there should be destroyed tank or somethig equally heavy next to it. This would be an option at the micro-armour scale but not really at 25/28mm scale. Also it gives the immediate problem of what vehicle to use? Your Normandy beaches mine field isn’t going to look very convincing with a damaged IS-2 in it. Also anti-personel mines are intended to explode upwards and not waste energy making craters, any crater they do make is likely to be very small and virtually invisible at this scale.
So back to the drawing board.
I had some thoughts about using dead figures, but it felt a little macabre and I would need a selection of minefields for each nationality of casualty. Then I thought of this:
Making the sign in German will fit in any of the european theatres and appealed to me from my days of reading Battle and Victor comics.
The teller mines are made from slicing up a round pencil. If you do this then I’d suggest using a black pencil crayon. The one I used was bright orange which prooved a little difficult to overpaint. The wooden boxes are approximately 5mm square.
28mm scale ploughed field
More Dumfries show extras…
Whilst my partners in crime are providing the buildings for the vilage in the centre of the board I couldn’t resist trying out an idea that came to me for a small ploughed field.
It is made from a sheet of blue-foam (5mm thickness) glued to a base of 2mm MDF.
I then cut a slot roughly 1/2 inch in from the edge and approximately the thickness of a coffee stirer. I then cut triangles out of the middle section to make my ploughed area.
Next I cut a load of coffee stirers into 25mm lengths and glued them all into the slot I had cut out, a couple of 30mm lenghts either side of the gate and retained the rounded end on a few sections to make the gate stand out. Sand was then glued over everything and painted when dry.
This was a littel time consuming because of cutting the coffee stirers but other than that I was really pleased with a simple idea that I think worked out pretty well.
28mm WW2 Bunker
The scenario for the crossing of the Bug River requires a bunker for the soviet border guards.
The border guards are equiped with a MMG so the bunker needs to ideally be large enough to accomodate the squad + the MMG and crew. So in other words it is going to be a sizeable model.
This perturbed me a little. I don’t want the table to be overly dominated by some massive out of scale bunker. So my first thought was to make a small bunker with an associated trench section that would be able to accomodate the squad. So I made a quick prototype, but it turned out to be quite large since around 8 inches of trench was required + the small bunker….and i didn’t like the model.
So back to the drawing board.
After doing a bit of looking around on the internet I found some pictures of actual bunkers defending river crossings that were attacked during operation Barbarrossa. The main point of interest was that they had fixed MG turrets made out of iron. So that gave me an idea for a single bunker that would be large enough to accomodate the squad but with an MG turret. This would have the added benefit of precluding the need to provide an MMG squad.
So here we are:
These are pictures taken before painting. The bunker walls are made from a double thickness of 5mm foam-board (the stuff with cardboard either side and a layer of foam in the middle. The roof is blue-foam board, two 5mm sheets stuck together, because it is easy to shape. The MG turret is a bottle top cut down to the right sort of height. The whole thing was then coated inside and out in a thin wash of polyfiller to give the rough surface of concrete.
This is a view from the back showing the door and a blast shield.
And this is from the front showing how the roof is removable.
At this point I should point out that although I very loosley based the bunker on photographs of existing bunkers it is entirely made-up. My thoughts on this were that it is oversize for the ground scale anyway so could be thought of to actually represent a number of bunkers rather than one. The point being that it gives (hopefully) a decent impression of a bunker.
And here are some photos of the completed and painted article:
Originally I was going to cut out the windows in the MG turret but it is made from a fairly thick plastic and I realised as soon as I put the knife to it that there was a real danger of the blade slipping and giving myself a nasty cut. Painted firing slits seemed a fair compromise…
I don’t know what colour soviet bunkers were painted, the pictures I found of bunkers today were all natural concrete colour but I imagine this is because the paint has been worn away over the years. Painting stripes of Russian green seemed a fairly safe guestimate.
28mm WW2 Scenario for Dumfries Show (3)
Well its been a few weeks since I posted an update on the terrain boards. It wasn’t because they weren’t progressing, or rather it wasn’t becasue I wasn’t trying to make progress…
After layingout the boards and cutting/shaping all the foam boards I then went on to coat all the roads and the road joins with polyfiller. It was at this point I made my first annoying discovery. It is really cold in the loft because all the insulation is under the loft floor (seemed a sensible idea to me at the time), given the recent arctic conditions it has probably been not far off freezing in there. Standing over the open loft hatch you can actually feel the warm air rushing past you!
The effect of this has been that the PVA glue used to stick the boards down had not gone-off in the middle of the boards which meant they were a bit springy as they were not actually stuck down. Easily solved though – just cut out the springy bit, more glue and stick it back in place with a heavy weight on. Annoying that progress went backwards while this was done though.
After this I then made my second annoying discovery.
In order to make the terrain a bit less wargamey – although function is a prime requirement and this is not intended to be the same level of scenery you get on a model train layout – I had champfered all edges of the foam board using a modelling knife. I thought that would be enough. Wrong! It all needed sanding to round off the edges. It was actually very easily done, but I made twenty times as much mess as I needed to and it took longer because I was now also sanding the polyfiller…doh!
Anyway, job done. So on to the next stage, gluing sand onto the boards.
Annoying discovery number 3… Now I am not really that bothered about spending money on important things like wargames models but paying over the odds for sand really grates me. So I bought some months ago, a large bag of builders mix sand that has some nice aggregate in etc. It is a little bit of a chore becasue it needs to be dried and sieved before I can use it. However, I aint got time to wait….So out comes the old chip-pan (banished from sight some time ago by Anne) filled with sand and stuffed in the oven on a low heat (so the pan handles dont burn), cue more despair from the ever suffering Anne. Anyway, I am too impatient and as soon as the sands is dry enough to sieve, it is pushed through and the first board is coated with PVA and covered with sand…Yipee!
So here I am, the next day, looking forward to painting the board only – it isn’t set yet. At first I thought it was the temperature issue again, but after several days I realised it must be becasue the sand was still wet…it took over a week for that board to dry enough that I could paint it. So there is a lesson.
For the other boards I dried the sand (in the chip pan) on the wood burning stove. This time it was bone dry and set in 24hours as you would expect.
So here are the boards all painted and ready for the next stage:
The colours at this point are a dark chocolate brown and moss green (both emulsion from B&Q).
The next stage is the drybrush.
The idea here is to break up the monotonous green of the boards but without making them fussy so they can be festooned with additional terrain pieces without looking like a dogs dinner. Also to paint in the river banks and roads.
The roads were given successive coats of brown mixed with more and more grey until it started to look like a track, then I added more and more white until i was on an almost white mix that was very lightly drybrushed.
The river banks were the same but I used a khaki brown mixed with white.
The grass is just a single dry brush with a 50/50 green/yellow mix.
So there we are…nearly done.
Only the rivers to paint in, which I will do a dark gloss green, possibly with streaks of black in it.
The rail track to add, which should be simplicity itself – coat with glue, place track, pour on balast.
The bridge over the small river to make, it is 50% done but I’ll do a seperate blerb on it.
28mm Barbed Wire
For the upcoming Dumfries show the Soviets are dug in.
Well you can’t be dug in without the ubiquitous barbed wire!
I did some digging about using Google and I came accross quite a lot of images of barbed wire entanglements from WWII. It seemed that it was on the whole fastened down with what ever was to hand. Certainly there are quite a lot of images where the wire has been secured to iron or wooden stakes but also I found a lot where it was wrapped around trestles. Since the trestles have more visual impact (I think) than a base with a couple of stakes and a coil of wire I went for modelling entanglements wrapped around trestles.
They are made using a base of 4″ x 1″ MDF that has been coated with polyfiller. I made the trestles out of long wooden skewers cut to ~25mm and ~50mm lengths. I rounded off the edges by eye so they are a bit irregular.
The base was painted chocloate brown highlighted with 50/50 chocolate brown/white and then a dry brush of light grey.
When that was dry I glued some sand to the base and painted it green and drybrushed with 50/50 green/yellow.
The green is B&Q emulsion moss green, the yellow was a B&Q emulsion called Morrocan Sands.
The skewers were then given a coating of acrylic artists ink called antelope brown.
The wire was obtained from Wargames Command Post and is a double wound wire that gives a good impression of barbed wire when seen from a little distance away, like on a table-top, but has no sharp bits. It was coiled around a drum stick before being wrapped around the trestles.
Here are some pictures:
At the moment the wire is brand new looking but I am sure it will rust down shortly, or rather as soon as I get around to it. I am thinking it will just be a matter of painting some chestnut brown ink over it, when it is done I’ll post some more pictures.
Emplaced Tank Turret
A bit more progress on the boards this weekend, but no photos to prove it…yet.
In the mean time though.
The scenario calls for an emplaced T-26 turret for the Russians. After a lot of looking on Google I couldn’t find any particular photo to use as a source but it would seem they were either mounted on to a concrete or steel plinth or the tank was simply burried. Well, although I am fairly excited about this whole project the prospect of burying a model into the terrain boards does not appeal. So I have gone for making them as turret emplaced on a concrete plinth.
This were simpicity itself to make which is a good thing becasue as you will see, I couldn’t decide what size to make it so I have made two.
The first is the largest one. It is on an irregularly shaped base of approximately 65mm x 65mm. To this I glued to 5mm thick layers of blue-foam board and then a 30mm x 30mm square of 2mm thickness MDF into the centre of the upper foam-board layer. The turrets I am using are form tanks with 10mm diameter holes to accomodate the turret and enable it to be removed / rotated. The MDF was drilled before gluing to the foam-board.
Once the glue (PVA) was dry I cut the board to give a slope and painted it with pollyfiller to make it look rough and earth like (hopefully). Once dry the ‘ground’ was painted chocolate brown and then highlighted with a bit of cholocate brown with ~25% white added, and then a final drybrush of light grey. The ‘concrete plinth’ was painted dark grey, a thinish watery coat of light grey to give a dappled effect and then highlighted with a bit of white.
When all that was dry I glued some sand on the lower edges and painted it green (actually Moss Green emulsion from B&Q colour match…) and highlighted with a 50/50 green and ‘moroccan sand’ (another B&Q emulsion).
The smaller one is approximately 50mm x 60mm and only made from one layer of the blue-foam.
This was my first shot at the colours that will be used on hte main boards. The brown will be used for river banks and roads although I will probably vary the amount of highlighting. The green will be used for almost everything else.
A shot of both bases togehter to show their relative size…I am not sure which one of them will get used in the actual game. The smaller one is less imposing and sits closer to ground level, but the larger is more eye catching simply because it is bigger.
28mm WW2 Scenario For Dumfries Show (2)
Boards have progressed a bit.
I decided to make the terrain using 5mm thickness blue-foam board. This gave me the potential for a ground level of 3 boards thickness (15mm) into which I could easily model the roads at -5mm and the water features at the level of the base board (-15mm).
I haven’t used this foam board before since any previous terrain boards I have used were made from polystyrene ceiling tiles. Got to say though I am seriously impressed with it. Anyone that has tried to sculpt even the simplest of Wargames terrain from polystyrene will have horrible memories of the mess it makes unless you cut it with a hot wire, and then if you decide you want to shave a little bit off something you end up pulling out a ‘bobble’ and just making a terrible mess. This foam board though is a dream. It is very easy to cut with a sharp knife and you can shave pieces off it easily. The manufacturer recomends using PVA glue for sticking it down and this seems to work really well, although I have a slight problem at the moment because the temperature in my loft is pretty close to freezing so it is taking a while for the glue to set. (Before you wonder – the loft is well insulated under the loft flooring, but nothing under the roof tiles).
My approach has been to stick two thicknesses of foam board on each wooden base board, I then stacked them all up and put some boxes on the top one then left them for a couple of days to set. The first time I did this I actually watered the PVA down too much and the boards came off but it was a simple matter to re-glue them with a stronger mixture of PVA. If you try this my advice is not to water down the PVA at all and just use it neat from the bottle. Also go to a local builders merchant and buy a 5 litre bottle, its much cheaper than buying smaller amounts.
Having now got a two board layer. I placed the third layer boards on top, drew out the main terrain features, cut the boards and then stuck down the third layer as previously. For the Rivers I simply cut through all three layers with the third layer held in place by kneeling on it, and then pulled/pried the first two layers off the board. It was then a simple matter of lining up the cut edges when I glued the third layer down.
The roads (which are cut outs from the third layer) will end up being a little less than 5mm depressed against the ground level because I am going to paint polyfiller on them to give a rutted appearance but they should still (hopefully) be depressed by a discernible amount so that they look like worn tracks.
Anyway some pictures of work so far:
First two boards showing the German entry point, River Bug and first section of the roads on the Soviet side. That dark grey block is a 28mm scale Panzer III to give some idea of scale.
The river is cut on the join between the two base boards and is 4″ in from the edge at each of the corners so that the boards could be placed side by side if ever required. All roads exit at the mid point of the board.
The middle section.
Basically a long straight but I curved it a little so it looked a bit more interesting, and then realised I would need a reason for the curve…hence the small hill section which I might sand smoother so that it is more of an undulation than a hill.
The Fourth board is the crossroads that will be in the village of matykaly. I staggered the roads because it looked less contrived that way, and basically I liked it better that way.
The rail track is supposed to offer some cover so I have built it up onto an embankment.
The final board is the River Ljasnaja. Smaller than the Bug but having looked at it on Google Earth it is fairly steep banked. You can see where the road crosses and clearly this needs a bridge. I have a plan for a simple affair based on a couple of girders with planks laid over them. The current bridge over the river is a steel bridge but I think we can get away with something much more simple, and easy to model!
And finally a couple of pictures to give an impression of the whole thing together (you will have to imagine the middle board is not there in one of the photos…but you get the idea).
Next job is to model some more of the individual features on each board and I may increase the ground level on most of the last board around the River Ljasnaja.
After that I will paint the roads and generally fill gaps with Polyfiller.
I also need to go around the boards with the craft knife to cut away excess foam board where it overlaps the edges. I was hoping to avoid having to do this because the foam board is supposed to be 600mm x 600mm but these are clearly approximate dimensions.
Once poly-fillered…I will paint and then coat in PVA, sprinkle on some sand and then paint again + highlight.
28mm WW2 Scenario For Dumfries Show
First post of hopefully a number that will chart my progress towards building a scenic board for a game we are putting on at the Dumfries show in March.
The scenario is taken from the Rapid Fire, Third Supplement, Scenarios for the Russian Front 1941 – 1945, R Marsh.
It is the early hours of the 22nd June 1941 and the whermacht has unleashed operation Barbarrossa on the suspecting but underprepared Soviet forces defending the western frontier. The game is centered around the 18th Panzer division crossing the Bug River North West of Brest using some interesting tanks (Tauchpanzer III) and assault boats with an engineering section setting up a pontoon bridge.
The game is based on the events of that day and representative of a typical assault rather than specific to an actual action. I’ll add more about the scenario in due course…this is supposed to be about the terrain building.
Firstly, I am not doing this alone. I am making up the main boards but it is going to be a collective effort to make all the various pieces.
So far I have decided to make the boards from 10mm ply wood. The table itself will be made in five sections of approximately 2ft x 5ft to give a final table of 10ft x 5 ft. So far I have cut the boards and begun marking out ‘roughly’ where the two rivers are, the roads and the railway line. The current plan is to make up ground level using two/three layers of 5mm blue-foam board. The rivers will be at board level and roads will be recessed by 5mm. The current plan is not to use any battons on the boards and rely on the 10mm ply to resist warping and lay flat with respect to the joints, I may use hooks/eyes on the sides to keep things together – or I may just wrap it around with Gaffer tape. Remains to be seen as the project progresses.
The only place I can lay this out and work on it is in my loft (the closest thing I have to a man-cave 🙂 ) so photos will not be very good since the lighting is poor for photos and I am restricted in headroom.
So far:
Looking towards the bottom section where the Germans enter from. I have put waggly lines in the roads to make them stand out, the next feature is the River Bug, although you can’t make it out too well on the photo. The other side of this is the German set-up area so it needs to be large enough to give them plenty of space but without taking too long to actually get to the river. There is a small track that leads towards the river that marks the German entry point. The scenario map shows a selection of woods along the banks of the Bug on both sides. The track/road on the Soviet side feels a little close to the river at the moment so it may move back a bit, I also plan to make a depression in the banks at some point to give the German infantry a bit of cover. The cross roads will be defended by an emplaced T-26 turret and a bunker so it is going to need a bit of thinking on where exactly to place them so that they are not too much of an easy target for the assaulting forces but do not become an indomintable nut…
The next photo shows the other end of the board. The cross roads marks the village of Matykaly and the railway line (the single black line that crosses the road). The next feature is the bridge over the River Ljasnaja. Looking at photos of the current river (Google Earth) this looks to be a fairly narrow river with steep wooded banks. The scenario map omits the wooded banks but I guess I will probably make it fairly steep sided so that it is clearly non-fordable.
Where the road exits the top edge of the board after crossing the river is the entry point of the Soviet reinforcements.
The pen lines are just guides at the moment and will probably move around a bit once I start adding the blue-foam.
The final photo shows the view from Matykaly looking back towards the Bug River. The green hill is a prototype although it seems fairly reasonably sized so might become the final piece. It has been coated with sand and painted ‘moss green’ (matt emulsion) but still needs dry brushed to give it some definition. Its a trial, so depending on what happens when I do it will inform the painting of the rest of the board.
Where the white cards are is the location of a corn field (door matt to you and me 🙂 ).
I don’t know if we will flock the boards or not. Previous terrain boards I have made were ‘sparsely’ flocked just to break up the colour a bit and this is possibly the approach that I will take, but it depends on what the other players think of the final product.
The roads will all be unmettaled tracks so I’ll paint polyfiller on them to make them look a little rutted and then paint them light brown/sand.
Rivers will be gloss varnished dark green.
More to come especially since I plan on doing a lot this next weekend!
Newt's Wargames Stuff... 