Italian Alpini Platoon

Starting a new platoon for Chain of Command ... I decided on an Italian platoon but wanted to do the eastern front Italians instead of the desert. I saw the Great Escape Games released some Alpini troops and read that those soldiers were sent to Russia. So I set out to do that platoon, using the list from the 1940s book. I'll check on any differences for Barbarossa but at first blush does not seem like it.

The Italians sent three Alpini Divisions to Russia, the 2nd Tridentina, the 3rd Julia, and the 4th Cuneense, which together formed the Alipin Corps. They fought with the Italian II corps forming the 8th Italian Army.

This is a big platoon with 47 men in it as each of the three squads are 15 men and there is a two man hq squad. I'll add in an HMG and a couple of light mortars to use as the "main" force, but will also have a 45mm AT Gun and L6 Light tank to use depending on the game.I'll also paint up an FO, Medic & perhaps an ATR.

This will be my test squad for painting.

I then test painted up half a dozen figures using Vallejo Model Color Olive Grey for the base uniform color. The color works well, though I have noticed that sitting on the game table, the uniform color looks suspiciously like the German uniform color!

I primed the figures using Vallejo Air Color Olive Grey with my airbrush, as I happen to be spraying up some German vehicles for CoC:

SdKfz 10/5 with 20mm AA gun.

One of two SdKfz 184 elefant tank destroyer!

Pz V 'Panther' medium tank

Pz IV H no zimmeret

SdKfz 251/1D Halftrack

I must admit that at first I was not impressed with the Great Escape figures, both with the posing and quality of the casting. After painting them though the quality of the casting turns out to be much better than I thought and I did enjoy painting the figures. The detail was easy to get at and clearly delineated so did not take to long to finish the six figures. 

That said, the posing of the figures suck! GEG made the cardinal wargame foul of mixing postures within a squad. I am not doing up a diorama, these are wargame figures, so all I need is advancing figures for my squad (as opposed to a prone/kneeling squad). Also please do not have any crazy action/running figures mixed in with walking figures. I just don't get how companies that sell GAME figures (even for the own games) can't figure this out.

I have nine more figures for the squad and will get them painted up in the next week so as to have one complete squad. Still waiting on the figures for other two other squads, so may work on the MMG and AT gun while I wait on them. Once complete will update the blog to show the complete platoon.

Jump-Off Points for CoC

We've been playing more and more of the Chain of Command rules by Too Fat Lardies at the store of late. And one of the really cool parts of the game, is the Patrol phase that starts each game. It is a quick mini-game to see where your Jump-Off Points are located, and these in turn are where you can deploy your troops from. As the JoP's were going to be on the table, I thought it was about time I started making some diorama JoP's bases instead of the wooden discs we've been using.

As the patrol markers will only be on the table for a short time, I just found some images online, printed them out and glued them to a thin 50mm circular base. Once a patrol marker moves to within 12" of an enemy marker, you flip the marker over to locked both of them into place.

Once all of ONE sides markers are locked, the Patrol phase ends and the Jump-Off Points need to be placed. Basically you use one of your patrol markers and the two closest enemy markers to find an area that a JoP can be placed in, which must be in or behind cover.

I am using 60mm bases for JoP's and since they are going to stay on the table, thought it would look best to turn each of them into a mini diorama.

The first couple of ones I did, I used a barrel and fuel can resin piece from Micro Art Studios.

I painted them up in varies shades of green and olive drab. Rusted them with dabs of red-brown with a piece sponge and the washed them in a couple of shades of brown, green and black.

The result was some pretty used and beat up barrels. This was compounded when I based the pieces and washed the area around them with the same colors plus some yellowish orange wash!

They turned out very well ... for a toxic spill site :) I am still going to use them in our games, especially when tanks are present. But will only use one per side and they will most likely be the JoP closest to the table edge.

So it was back to the drawing board for the next JoP's. I fished out a miniature that a friend of mine had painted up (hoping it was not one that Steve needed!) and started thinking of ways to use him on a base. My first thought was to have him behind a hedge, but when fiddling around with the miniature on a base I realized that it was going to be too "plain".

So I shrunk down the hedge to a large bush, but I thought a sign post would look good next to it, so I drilled out a small hole in the base for it. I of course then realized I would need to place the signpost next to a road, so I marked off some of the base to be the edge of a road.

I glued down the figure and did my normal basing steps on most of the base, though leaving the road bare. I normally don't use spackle on bases, but wanted the road to be different from my regular basing steps, so put a small layer of spackle on the area marked off and gouged it with a hobby knife for a "road effect".




I then glued down a large chunk of clump foliage and soaked it with water downed glue to stiffen it up. The sign post was quickly made from some scrap material I had lying around and painted in white, added the St. Lo and then glued it to the base. Next was some weathering of the road and sign post, as well as touching up the figure. The figure needed to brighten and touched up. I then called this JoP finished!

I'll do up another two for the Germans, then mimic them and do a set of three for the British. I ordered some small farm animals and have an idea about adding a pig or chicken to one of the bases. Still looking for more ideas, but am thinking using some of my "hated" prone figures.

Hopefully will get some of the British ones done quickly as we want to start up one of the mini campaigns (Martlet) and will post those JoP's as they are finished.

Russia 1943 - KGCII

Mark drove up from Olympia last Saturday to host a game of Kampfgruppe Commander II. He has an extensive collection of 15mm WWII Germans and Soviets so it was no surprise that the scenario pitted four battalions of Germans assaulting a russian fortified line. Well ok it was only one battalion of very good Germans and three battalions of not so good Hungarians attacking so so russian infantry regiments.

The axis force had to clear the center lane and capture the Village sitting astride the road. The Soviet main line of defense sat along an east west road, centered on a fortified hamlet at the crossroads, though they had refused their right flank.



The Axis plan was to have the German battalion sweep wide left and outflank the soviet line, they were to be supported by a battalion of Hungarian infantry. Two other Hungarian battalions would attack down the center to keep the Russians from reinforcing the flank. The Soviet plan was just to hold up in their field works and wait for the tanks to arrive.

Soviet strongpoint in the center. This proved to hard of a nut to crack for the Hungarians.

Two Hungarian battalions preparing to attack.

German Bn crossing its start line.

Supporting Hungarian infantry companies.

The Axis attack on the soviet right flank got off to a slow start. Terrain disrupted the movements and the Hungarians supporting attack stalled out quickly. However after massive artillery and mortar fire on the hilltop location, the Germans eventually got around the flank (covered by a woods) and forced the remnants of the defending Russian battalion to retire.

Hungarian infantry moving forward to attack.

The Germans were supported by a veteran StuG III company.

Hungarians finally move up and occupy the vacant hilltop fortifications.

By this time the Hungarian commander called off the attack on the hamlet. There were just too many russians to make an assault, and russians had moved down to flank them on the right. Soviet tanks also showed up at this time.

This small hamlet was bombarded extensively. The Soviet defends dug in and could not be dislodge.

Relief is coming!

T-34's finally show up.

 As it became clear there was no threat in the center, most of the Russian tank regiment moved to counter the Germans flanking the Russian line. While the Germans got the better of the Russians, and had completely turned the flank, they did not have enough troops to push the reformed flank back onto the village.

Most of the tank regiment moved to stem the Soviet right flank.

Though battered Soviet infantry holds on in the hamlet.

The Germans just about to turn right and attack the Soviet flank.

T-70's raced to cover the flank ... went into action and were knocked out quickly.

T-34's with infantry support cover the open area. They were later driven off from Stug and mortar fire.

We called the game after several hours of gaming. The axis side felt they did not have enough troops to effectively continue the attack, even though they had turned the flank and the German battalion was in relatively good shape.

We all thought it would be a cool idea to take this result, adjust the table somewhat and game out a follow up attack by the axis side. We'll see if that comes to fruition, as I suspect Ken will be hosting the next game and there was talk of British...

Bombers Over Germany

Last Saturday Ken ran a Check Your 6! game, it was a medium sized scenario as he wanted to tryout a few house rules. One was combining the pilot and plane agility modifiers, simplifying bomber defensive fire and using two CABs.  Below is his write up of how the game went.

Somewhere Over Germany, February 1944.
The American raid consisted of 16x B-17s (F’s and G’s) escorted at first by 4x P-51C’s and later by 4x P-47D Razorbacks. The Luftwaffe sent up to intercepted the bombers 4x ME-109G-6, 2x ME-110G-2/R3 and 2x FW-190A-8/R2.  Chris piloted the Allies while John and Ken flew the Defenders of the Reich.

Only the lead bomber of each group tracked altitude. 

 The P-51s preceded the bombers and dove to meet the incoming fighters aiming for the lumbering ME-110’s. The ME-109s maneuvered to protect the 110’s and 190’s.

The Dogfight Begins!

After a turn or two of maneuvering planes where in a position of open fire.

John’s ace ME-109 quickly dispatched three of the four P-51s, while heavy bomber fire damaged the ME-110s and FW-190s (despite the latter’s heavy armor).

The green ME-110 pilot scored the first bomber kill with a hail of cannon fire. The lone P-51 circled the periphery of the battle while the P-47s lead by Ace Robert Johnson closed with the German attackers.  John was able to maneuver his Ace ME-109 pilot behind a wounded bomber.  Needing to roll a 4 or higher on 2d6 to score an “aimed” hit, the pilot flinched at the wrong moment and John rolled a 3, just missing.

This pictorial evidence needs to be destroyed :)

Unfortunately for the bombers, both ME-110s maneuvered into trailing positions and opened up. Two turns in a row the Germans downed at least one bomber.  However the defensive fire from the remaining B-17's finally downed the slow moving 110’s.

After 12 turns the bombers had reached their drop point and we ended the game (the Luftwaffe had nothing to stop them at this point!). We then calculated victory points, though we had forgot to check crew survival at the moment of destruction, so the totals are swayed to the favor of the Germans initially but after all the victory points were tallied, the US gained a slight victory.
 
The butcher’s bill:
8 B-17s, 3 P-51s, 2 ME-110s, 2 FW-190 and 2 ME-109, 1 German Ace, 2 German Veteran pilots, 1 US Ace and 1 US Veteran pilot.

Not seen are two damaged ME-109's, one at a max speed of one!

Notes from the game
We used a modification to the bomber defensive fire rules in an attempt to speed up play. Basically the closet bomber to a fight was designated as the primary firer for base To_hit #, while other nearby bombers added in  To-Hit modifiers (Edit: it worked ok IMO). We also simplified the modifier by combing the pilot and plane modifiers together. We used the differential between the attack and defender and a chart for the range categories, then cross indexed with deflecting or tailing to locate To-hit #. It is simpler than it sounds. (Edit: this work really well and would take it a step further, use one range chart with To-Hit numbers increased by two. Then To-Hit roll is Range # = 2d6 + Attacker - Defender +2 Tailing. The usual cannon modifiers would apply if appropriate.)

Cannon fire is very deadly.  After playing some Pacific Theater games with Zeroes rolling 2d4 and 2d10s and Wildcats rolling 4d6 for damage, FW-190A-8/R2s rolling 2d20s and 2d10s results in more outright destructions over damaging.  This was also the first time in our playing of CY6! that an Ace pilot was shot down.

Next up Jets over Germany!

US 155mm Battery

Lately I have been finishing up old projects, and this week it was a section of US 155mm howitzers for Flames of War that I finally finished.

A new 4th edition FOW is coming out this year (IMO entirely NOT needed), though it is geared toward Mid-War (which is entirely needed). Fortunately most of my American forces can be used in both mid or late war, as can these 155mm's.

US 155mm Howitzer Section

The green on the howitzers was darker than I wanted, but it will suffice for gaming. With all the 28mm figures I have painted these past few years, I had forgotten how much darker paints looks on 15's.

The 155mm Howitzer model barely fits on the supplied base

I went with a painted table, as I felt a wood color would blend to much with the pants. I like this staff team set, especially as it is just a generic set.

The Staff Team, ready to repeat any bombardments or coordinate other indirect fire.

I was not happy with how the tan jackets turned out, and they really don't look the same as my original US figures. I will just tell myself that they are newer issued jackets and have not faded as much :)

Battery Commander, he also can acts as a secondary spotter.

I really liked the FO figures, and the only thing that would have made them better is if the figure on the left was either looking through binos or was consulting a map.

FO Team, ready to call in the big guns!

I may look at finishing up my French Foreign legion figures ... I have a few AT guns and another platoon to do for them. Though I am trying to talk myself into doing up a Team Yankee army for the store.

Melee over Gotha, Germany 1944

Ken ran another CY6 game last weekend ... While I started the game, I ended up missing about half the game helping customers (otherwise known as working!).

We have been getting more and more games of CY6! in and now are pretty comfortable with the rules. Though I do seem to still forget a lot of the little details, thankfully Chris and Ken are there to keep me honest :) The only issue I am not keen on is the bomber's shooting ... very time consuming and wish we had a simpler way of adjudicating it.

The sixteen B-17 bombers had to move from one side of the table to the other side. Each flank was protected by a flight of P-51. The Germans had a mix of BF-109 and FW-190's, eight of them to shoot down as many B-17's as they could.

I controlled the right flank P-51's, while Seann controlled the left flank (or all of them while I was away). Ken had FW-190's while Chris flew BF-109's.

My flight swoop forward, then banked to the left at a pair of BF-109's ... and passed right by them without firing! I then poured on the power and raced toward some FW-190's. I got a couple of burst off and was in the process of turning back towards some BF-109's, when I had to step away from the game.

 

I came back in time to see most of the B-17's fly of the board edge, though three had been shot down. Combined with the loss of a couple of German fighters, enough bombers got off the table for an American victory.

 

 Ken is already working on the next game ... I will try and take better pictures next time!

 

Battlegroup 28mm WWII

We had another game of Battlegroup last Saturday … Each side had a reinforced company from the Fall of the Reich supplement. Steve commanded the Russian Mechanized force and Bailey commanded the German Kampfgruppe (I commanded the store … so I was only able to rules mediate for most of the afternoon).

It is hard to see but the SU-85 in the middle of a ridgeline.

 

The game started with both sides recon forces on the table, but it was not long before the first wave of reinforcement troops arrived (each side rolled very well on turn 2). The German forces pushed into the center and up the right flank, while the Russian force mirrored them on the other flank.



It was going well for the Russians as they quickly knocked out a Marder III and Jagd Panzer IV, plus another section of troops were able to move up the German left flank and capture an objective. At this time they held three of the four objectives. They had a good base of fire on the right flank and overwhelming troops on the left. It started going bad when a lend lease Sherman blew up from a mine strike though.



Then it went from bad to critical when the Tiger showed up! It proceeded to drive into the open area, disregarding all enemy tanks. It was hit six times but none of the hits failed to do any damage to it. Of course it put an end to the fire, by brewing up three Russian tanks in rapid succession!

Both sides placed their FO’s in the center of the lines and proceeded to call down mortar and artillery barrages onto the table. The German FO tried several times unsuccessfully to get the division big guns to fire. The artillery fire on both sides really pinned down the action for several turns, but eventually the Germans began to push on both flanks, and moving into close combat range.



The casualties were extremely heavy for both sides, and it looked like the Russian would hold as a T-34 took out a half track and most of a German squad (who failed to hit with their Panzerfausts). But then a Panzerschreke team, which had been sneaking up the right flank woods, fired and brewed up the T-34.

 

This last exchange of fire was to much for the Russians and they retreated from the field.



Aftermath

This game we tried a couple of rules adjustments … as we play in 28mm we increased all measurements by 50%. I thought it worked really well for the most part, though the large open areas seemed more daunting to cross.

The second adjustment was to change most of the tables to formula’s. As an example, armor levels are listed as a Letter and you cross index the letter with the penetration number of the shot to get a “kill” number. If you convert the Armor Letter to a number you can find the Kill number by just subtracting the Pen value from the Armor value.

The only House Rule we used was to add a couple of maneuvers to vehicle movement, so that they did not move exactly like infantry. Namely they could turn, rotate or reverse in addition to moving forward. This worked ok, but do think I need to tweak it some more.