Fight Your Own Battles

So, which fool said "After the DAK, I'll have nothing left to do??!"

The DAK are prepped and mounted on their plastic card bases.  The flesh coloured base coat is on and while it was drying. I had a quick look at my "Formations" lists to make sure that I had everything covered.  That was my big mistake.  I had a look at my "8th Army" figures, a generic title for a collection of platoons for Western Desert games against the aforementioned DAK.  I had a platoon of British infantry and a platoon of ANZACs with the required HQ platoon but few CSW's.  However, I found a box of Stretlets "8th Army Heavy Weapons" containing mortars, machine guns, Bren guns and some AA tripod-mounted Brens.  I reckoned that I had enough to equip my Battalion Support units for both British and Anzacs so quickly prepped and based them as well.

I now have some 70 figures waiting my paintbrush!  Beyond that, I reckon another 30 figures need finishing and I will have troops covering either a Battalion or a Re-inforced platoon for British Infantry, British Airborne, German Infantry, German Airborne, American Infantry, American Airborne, Italian Infantry, British Commandos, DAK, British 8th Army Infantry, ANZAC Infantry, French Infantry, Japanese Infantry and Resistance/Militia.

Once everything is done, I will turn my thoughts to what comes next - probably US Marines and Chindits as I said earlier.

Just to prove that I am still here and breathing (!), a few pictures of my efforts to finish the final few outstanding figures.

(Below) British paratroopers have been strengthened by the addition of a pair of 3-inch mortar teams and a "Command Base" has been added comprising a CO, radioman and escort.  Both groups from Britannia Miniatures.

(Below) A group of British paratrooper engineers have been painted up, comprising 2 figures using mine detector equipment (as pictured), 2 figures probing for mines with bayonets and 2 figures removing Teller mines.  I have also added a 2-man FOO team.  On the right are 3 of the 10 figures added to my collection of "Resistance".  They are a mixture of French, Cretan and Yugoslavs for use in whatever theatre I fancy.  Figures, again, from Britannia.

In all cases, the figures are painted using Humrol or Vallejo acrylics.  They are given an undercoat of "flesh" - Humbrol 63 - before the trousers, hats, boots and tops are blocked in  Ammo packs etc are painted along with weapons - usually Humbrol "gunmetal" 53.  Hair and whiskers are light cream.  The figures are given a coating in Vallejo Black Wash, dabbed off with a tissue almost immediately to leave just the details showing.  When dry, a quick burst of Games Workshop matt varnish from a spray can finishes the job.  Basing is green flock over a coat of brown paint + PVA mix.  Elite soldiers, such as the paratroopers, have a red edge to their bases as a reminder.

I now only have about a dozen DAK troops to paint and I have none left to do!!!  That is, until I go back to Britannia for another batch.  I probably need some 8th Army CSW teams.  When I have a spare week, there are about 40 Japanese (Airfix) figures to clean and paint - bought 2nd-hand from eBay.  Again CSW's are needed but that will give me a Company strength to take on the US Marines or Chindits that I don't yet have.............

I have an annoying habit of half-doing jobs.  I have to carefully self-manage this to ensure that I am not surrounded by piles of half-painted figures, unfinished kits, bits of scenery and other clutter.  Therefore, in recent years, it has been a case of "one job at a time"!!

To get to a suitable start point, I ordered and then painted/based a whole bunch of figures and weapons teams.

To play Heroes All, I created about 30 Ready-Made-Units.  These are battalions, Regiments, Companies etc of infantry, tanks, etc all listed with named/rated CO's and a full breakdown of their consist.  I named them - mostly ficticious titles - in line with my desire for personalised wargaming and even named the NCO's (although this practice has now ceased in view of time it takes).  NCOs are ranked, however, so to play a game, I just select a suitable formation, 1st Company 1st Battalion Strathconan Forresters (for example), and simply put them on the table wth their CO and NCOs already rated.  This has massively speeded up the prep time for games I play most Monday evenings at the local Tabletop club.

But this revealed a flaw in my organisational abilities (of lack thereof).  The ORBATS for the Ready Made Units did not match the ORBATS for the formations I had created in my storage boxes.  Ooops!  As a result, I have had to re-organise the figures and supplement them with more stuff.  Typical of the errors were a lack of Battalion assets - like flamethrowers, AT teams, FOO teams etc, too few support weapons (where the ORBAT showed 3 medium mortars in the formation, I only owned two) and too few vehicles (a Company of infantry typically needs 15 trucks as organic transport).

Thus, the spring and summer were consumed with listing, buying and painting the missing items - across 8 armies!!

Whilst I have a few figures still to complete, I can happily report that I now have forces representing British infantry, British Airborne, British Commandos, German infantry, German Airborne, US infantry, US Airborne, Italian infantry and Militia/resistance fighters.  Over the winter, I will bring the 8th Army and DAK up to strength and consider the use of adding a French force.  There is also room for improvement in the Italian force which (despite their reputation), I enjoy playing with.  Under consideration are Japanese and US Marine companies and a Battalion of Russians.  In these 3 latter cases, I will need to add vehicles as well, so they will not be simple additions.

Alongside this, I am still mucking about with 1:144 aircraft on sticks and keep getting sidetracked into various boats, scenery and terrain board projects.  (I recently added an "Airstrip" terrain board for a Monday night game).  Photos of all of the above to follow shortly.

Phew!!

I have recently joined a local tabletop gaming club - a bunch of guys (probably half my age) who play a lot of Warhammer, Star Wars, X-Wing, Magic The Gathering and other modern sci-fi or post-apocolyptic type games with some wonderful figures, machinery and terrain.  They used to have a "Historical Gaming" section but that dried up during the lockdown.  I am on a one-man crusade to bring it back and have played a couple fo FYOB games since joining.

I envy those people who can bash a scenario together in a few days and it turns out to be perfect.  Therefore, for my first game at the Club, I went to an old faithful - a Lost Pilot game.  Table space is at a premium so I ended up with half a table-tennis table giving me 4ft 6in x 4ft.  Smaller than I am used to, but given I only have 4 hours to set up, play and break down, it actually works out well.

Above - two views of the board I used.  I went for the full array of baseboards, hedges, hills and trees to show off my scenery and make sure it looked good.  On the night, a guy joined me and played the Germans under my guidance, using the solo rules.  It worked out fine although he was a bit more cautious given he didn't know the rules.  The right hand picture shows one of the markers used as possible hiding places - I put 3 on the board and gave each side 3 playing cards.  They were shuffled, placed face down and turned over when the CO was activated.  The result told him where his "intelligence" network thought the airmen would be.

The Germans discovered the 2 fliers first only to lose them during a fire-fight with a feisty British platoon.  The British NCO, however, failed a Leadership Test when trying to persuade the fliers to go with him - perhaps they were French???  In an effort to get the pilots back, the Germans attacked the British platoon and, with the last throw of the dice, wiped out both the platoon and the airmen!!!  I guess we call that a draw..........

Back to Sicily

Last night I played a re-run of the Gela Harbour game last seen in some poor pictures taken in the loft of my old house.  Again, a smaller set-up on 4ft 6in x 4ft.  For this one, newly painted Americans took on German defenders and called on a new secret weapon.

Based on a photograph in the Rapid Fire! Normandy Scenarios book, this is made from 1mm framers card with a bit of tube for the funnel and some railings/ladders found in the scrap box.  The ventilation bells are from the German trawler which (I regret) I am yet to get around to.  I am on the hunt for some Oerlikon cannons, or similar, for the rear deck and have printed (but not yet added) the transfers for the bow.  The armour on board represents the American reserves for the game.

On the night, 10 bounds of action saw the Americans sweep all before them early on before losing the ability to make any decent dice rolls.  The German ATG took out the Priest whilst the Raketenwerfer on its first outing accounted for an M8 Greyhound.  American Bazooka teams were called up to deal with the German reserves, a pair of Panzer IVD's with their 75mm L24 guns, but couldn't hit, nor turn hits into damage.  I called the game with the Germans desperately short of infantry to protect their tanks, a US unit preparing a flank attack on the German HQ and the second M8 about to take on the Big Cats.

Other Developments

The need for new games has also spurred me on to make some new scenic stuff and finish other projects.  These include, in no particular order;

• some hill modules that include roads - a couple of "slopes", a straight road and a "T" junction.  They were used in the Gela game and worked well so I will get around to making some more straight roads and maybe a bend.
• The US Infantry Battalion is now complete although my hours of painting was not rewarded by their performance the other night.  When the chips were down, they proved unable to shoot straight!!
• A forthcoming "Raid on Jersey" game will use the German guard dogs I bought about 10 years ago.  Painting has started so I look forward to using them for the first time.  Heroes All includes rules for guard dogs under "Observation".
• I have recently acquired and built a few new vehicles including a Kfz 13 car for German scouts (with a LMG), a German Recovery truck to match the Scammel the British have, a 150mm Nebelwerfer (3D print) with crew and some Fallschirmjager support weapons like MMGs, mortars and a sniper team
• I have added a couple of new baseboards as I didn't seem to have certain combinations of road/river sections to suit some configurations.
• I managed to pick up some cheap "Spruce" type trees on eBay, about 6 or 7 inches high so a decent size.  These have been mounted on bases as usual and complete my woodland collection.  Some can be seen on the photos above.
• Some of the older buildings I had have been disposed of.  The older AIrfix cottages etc are really passed it and although they are being held in reserve, they have made space in the storage boxes for anything new I come across.
• My next acquisition will be some ploughed fields and wheat fields.  I have some material for these, including an old Koi doormat.  I need to experiment with paint and stuff.

So thats me up to date!  I will add some more in due course but don't expect a weekly blog - that's not my thing.  I am still working on FYOW and have started the final Test campaign so, fingers crossed, that goes well and I can finally publish the outcome.  In the interim, happy gaming.