Tanks…. Brit Cruisers

Aircraft & Vehicles, Miniatures, World War II

Purchased Plastic Soldier Company’s Cruiser Tanks.

Function of bad packaging by Zvezda and bad thinking by me.

Zvezda markets their Mk IV tank as a Crusader.  Not the case.  It’s actually an A13, which would have been just fine for my 1940 Brit vs. Germans skirmishes.  But no….overthought plus faulty research (there’s a great combination) resulted in the decision to make the purchase of PSC’s A9s and A10s.

Not a bad thing.  They’re fun, especially the wacky A-9.  But, the assembly process was something.  Not to complain, because any company that will create  quality models of this type of obscure and ineffective AFV is to be commended.  On the other hand, here’s a scan of the turret assembly.  OK, I’ve been spoiled by that snap-fit world……

 

There were problems.  I’ll ascribe those to my ham-fisted modeling techniques and lack of perceptional awareness.   It took me two tries to figure out that you build the turret from the bottom.  Yes, look at the damn thing from the bottom while manipulating the pieces with glue soaked fingers.

Resulting fit was not the greatest, but I used my New/Old Best Modeling Friend.  Apply, sand, prime,  base coat and everything will be just fine.  That’s the best thing about AFV modeling…….cover mistakes with dirt…..that’s authentic!

Third World War

Boardgames, Sessions

Played Southern Front from the old GDW Third World War series last weekend at Tim’s.

Much lower counter density than Battle For Germany, and with very tough victory conditions for the Warsaw Pact.

Victory points are awarded for controlling cities and ports, and the Pact must control almost every city and port in Yugoslavia (if hostile), Greece and Turkey to score a decisive victory.

The NATO player is outmanned and outgunned, and must grimly hang on during a seemingly endless series of Pact high odds attacks.

While the game is only eight turns long, each turn is lengthy and involved.

Aircraft maintenance and missions assignment occurs before any movement takes place.  Aircraft can fly deep strikes including logistical strikes (effecting supply status), runway cratering, or escort; interdiction missions resulting in additional movement costs and disruption for enemy units, as well as plain old ground attack and ground attack escort missions.

Movement and combat takes place in impulses.  The turn sequence is Pact First Impulse (movement and combat), Pact Sub Impulse (units not in enemy ZOCs may move and attack, with regroup), a NATO Reserve Impulse (units not in enemy ZOCs may move and attack, units may also regroup), Pact Second Impulse (same as first with two sub-impulses) , and finally a NATO First and Second Impulse.

A key element in this game system is Proficiency Rating.  Differences in ratings shift combat odds in the favor of the side with higher average proficiency.  The regroup phase allows players to “rebuild” units, recovering one proficiency step if the unit has not done anything in the previous phase and is not in an enemy ZOC.  Pact units can never be totally “rebuilt” and retain a one factor proficiency loss, regardless.

Yugoslavia is either neutral, an ally of NATO, or becomes a NATO ally during Turn 4.  This determination by a chit pull.

A special rule in Southern Front precludes any NATO deep strikes, cratering or escort missions during the first turn.  Also, the NATO initial ground dispositions are mandated.  The result is that the first Pact impulses result in significant attrition of NATO Turkish forces, with the Greeks taking some hits, also.  Not surprisingly, Turks and Greeks cannot cooperate or enter each other’s country.

In our game, Tim initially focused on Turkey, making an amphibious landing east of Istanbul, which is the bottleneck leading to Anatolia.   Despite severe losses, the Turks held  Istanbul and, with the arrival of reinforcement, destroyed the flanking Soviet Marines.  Tim’s attempts were handicapped by some horrific die rolling during the maintenance phase of Turn 2, which temporarily gave NATO air superiority.

Beginning with Turn 3, Tim’s attention  turned towards Yugoslavia (which had entered on Turn 1), and Greece.  When the game ended at Turn 5, the Yugoslavs were in disarray, with Pact forces massing for an attack on Greece.  However, Turkey was still controlled by NATO.

A good game.  I’ll post up Tim’s comments later.

Early War Tanks

Miniatures, Sessions, World War II

Had a quick game this afternoon.

Used my draft cards for early-war German and Soviet armor.  They are a real beta given my lack of proofing and child-like work with the scissors.

A Pz-II and Pz-38t tasked with stopping a break-thru by a BT-5 and two Soviet T-26s.

Terrain was placed helter skelter.  Both sides used maximum maneuver to take advantage of terrain and the accompanying speed defense modifiers.

Fun little game.  Germans had an early edge using their higher initiative ratings, but just couldn’t put away the Soviets, especially with the Pz-II’s popgun of a 20mm worth only one die in the attack.  But, they almost pulled it off.

Here’s a few photos.

Early Maneuvering. Pz-38t Heads To The Woods.  New Card In Foreground.
Pz-II Sets Up For Flank Shot On BT-5.
Attacking The Pz-38t Now In The Woods.  German Wants Cover/Stationary Mods.
PZ 38t Leaves Woods Trying For Point Blank Flanking Shot On T-26.  Iron Dice Of War Say NO.
Iron Dice Of War Say BLAMMO! BT-5 Gets The Pz-II.
Pz-II Burns Unavenged While Its Kamerad Flees.  German Counterattack Fails.

Extremes

Miniatures, World War II

Continuing to work on the Tanks project.  It really is a fun game, and “game” should be emphasized.  That’s not a bad thing.

Finished up the early British tanks this past weekend.  Now have the following early war tanks:

Soviets:  T-34 (1940), KV-1 (1940), BT-7, 2x T-26s.

British:  Matilda MK 1, 2x Matilda MK II

German:  2x PZ IV, PZ III, PZ II, PZ-38

Spent way too much time messing around with the card template over at Boardgame Geek.  The author did one helluva job, but the GIMP graphics system is not intuitive, and these early war tanks need some lower values than provided in the template.  I’m working around it/with it/through it.

At the other extreme, am spending time with ASL, gingerly working myself up to dealing the AFV rules.  We’ll see how that goes.

New Project – Part 3 – Now Play The Damn Game

Miniatures, Terrain and Buildings, World War II

Played a quick scenario this afternoon.

M36 Jackson, a 75mm Sherman and a 76mm Sherman took on a PZ V Panther.  Panther was in a treeline, with the three US tanks behind bocage.  It’s a mismatch, but added an elite commander, gunner and loader to the Panther’s crew.  No additions for the US.

Decided that moving through the bocage would take one move, but without a movement modifier  reducing  the chance of a Panther to-hit die roll.

The  M36 would provide a base of fire, with the  76 mm Shermans maneuvering to engage the Panther from the front, with the 75mm Sherman trying to outflank it.

Battlefield Before I Decided To Add Another Marsh
Final Initial Set-Up….With Additional Marsh To Channelize US Attack

Well, it didn’t take long.  The M36 put three hits on the Panther in Turn 2, and in Turn 3, the 76mm Sherman put another three hits on the Pz V.  Take a look at these rolls….hits on 4-6, with a 6 being a critical hit.  Defense has to roll 4-6 to take off a hit.  Blammo!

75mm Sherman Takes a Hit But Keeps Moving
76mm Sherman Crushes The Panther
That’s It……..Add 3 More Hits and It’s Over!

Quick game, and an unexpected outcome.  Will try it again and see what happens.

Next project up, the buildings.  Oh yes, that was a complete bone-head move.  Spent the extra money to have laser print copies made – as per instructions’ recommendation.  Forgot to reduce them to 50 percent for 15mm.  Files are for 28-30mm.  Doh!

New Project – Pt 2

Miniatures, Terrain and Buildings, World War II

Had another flash of insight while painting the battle mats.  Maybe it was the olfactory stimulus from the spray cans.

Was getting ready to start cutting up card for terrain bases when I realized……why not use beer mats?  They are thin, come in a variety of sizes and are a good match for 15mm vehicles.  Fantastic!  One of the things we have plenty of here at The Lodge is beer mats.

The next step was to go out to the shed and dig out the old foam and nail trees made decades ago, having accompanied me during countless moves, just for this day.  The scrounged foam had been cut, glue sprayed and rolled in green flock.  The painted nails made excellent trunks.

When I opened the box I also found – ready to go with minimal work – rows of bocage just right for Normandy scenarios.  Yes!

I painted the beer mats using the same techniques/colors as the battle mats.   The Panther tank served as  a template for placing trees and shrubs so a tank could actually occupy the terrain piece.   How many times has elegant terrain been incapable of properly “holding” a figure or vehicle base?  That type of terrain looks realistic, but doesn’t “work” all that well.

Used a couple of larger mats for wet/swampy/bog ground.  Just sprayed a little dark blue over the battle mat mix.

After the paint had dried, super glued the trees onto the mats, as well as adding some plants and flowers to PUB.

Added a couple of 9-inch sections of bocage using stray balsa and trees without trunks.

Woods Terrain Piece
Bocage With Marshy Ground
Marshy Ground. PUB Flowers Make It So Cute!
Tree Line Ready For Trouble

New Project – Pt 1

Miniatures, Terrain and Buildings, World War II

Crummy weather, bad sports TV,  and an injured leg made for a busy wargame weekend here at The Pine Cone Lodge.

Focus was on my Tanks board and scenery.  As previously discussed, the game comes with a few quality 2-D terrain and building pieces. However, I wanted to go 3-D, but on a budget.  Battle Mats can be expensive at $30+ a throw for a 3×3 foot piece.

Last Thursday, I realized that a mat could be fabricated using thin, plastic, kitchen cutting mats.  I couldn’t find any at the Dollar Store, but Freddies had them at $4.99 for two 12×18 inch mats.   Needed six, so I shelled out the $15 bucks, then bought a can of green textured spray paint for another $5 or so.  Not quite the required 3×3 playing area, but close enough (which should be/is the motto of my wargaming efforts).

I had some other spray paint lying around that could be used, so economically this project made sense……if it didn’t degenerate into another Gunboat fiasco.   While cruising Freddies discovered that Krylon is making camouflage paints – marketed using the Duck Dynasty crew of all things.  Limited colors, but much much cheaper than shelling out $6+ bucks for a small can of green Model Master paint.

By Saturday morning the garage looked and smelled like a Spray Booth.  I started out with some brown “primer plus paint”.  Let that dry for about 2 hours, then started working with gray and green textured paint.  Let that sit, then started random sprays from stray cans of medium and dark green flat modeling paint, along with a few shots of an almost empty can of Krylon khaki.

 

Speaking of Vortexes – Pt 3, or Vortex Subsiding

Aircraft & Vehicles, Miniatures, World War II

The photos at the end of the post sum up my latest gaming efforts.  Finished the initial batch of tanks, and getting deeper and deeper into Advanced Squad Leader (ASL).

Managed to find a helpful article for painting the late war Pz IV and Pz V.  Also picked up a tip here on gloss coating the painted tanks, and then applying a black wash to bring out the camouflaged model’s highlights.

The early war Pz IVs were a piece of cake, with most of the effort involved in dry brushing mud and dirt.  I’m looking forward to this low effort painting for the early-war German and Russian tanks that are on the way.  I really like the Zvezda tanks.  They have some detail and are easy to assemble.  The plastic Flames of War/TANKS are great, but a little more fiddly then initially reported.

Not content to simply play the damn game, I downloaded a bunch of David Graffam’s  paper buildings over at WargameVault.  At a buck each, it’s money well spent, and there’s a free guide to help with assembly.  Never worked with this medium before, so another learning curve.

Speaking of learning curves, the TANKS page over at Boardgamegeek has a tank card template file for download.  Works with the “GIMP” graphics program, which always get me thinking about Pulp Fiction.  Haven’t got that up and working just yet….kinda afraid.

The best part is that the whole project has calmed down and I can start enjoying it rather than spinning around.

 

Speaking of Vortexes – Pt 2, or Dancing on the Head of a Pin

Aircraft & Vehicles, World War II

So much for the master plan cited in my last post.

Had some extra cash, found the Zvezda models cheap, with low shipping, at The War Store.  Couldn’t resist.

Continued my research on how to paint the tanks, and ran into this and this.  With the cheap tank savings, I paid a premium to get the “right” paints.

More research on painting led me to not only the FOW website, but also Warlord Games.  The Warlord site was really helpful with articles on painting the Sherman, and German tanks.

Started painting the Shermans.  There is literally no difference in the colors so hotly debated in my research.  Jeez, what am I trying to do?  All of this shading, washing, dry brushing etc?  Does it really matter?  Nice coat of olive drab, light dry brush, paint the tools, get some dirt on the damn thing and DONE.  Are the “right” paints really going to make a difference?

The right and left sides of my brain are screaming at each other.

Speaking of Vortexes….

Aircraft & Vehicles, Miniatures, World War II

Last post I described the descent into ASL.  Not content to stop there, am in a controlled free-fall into another gaming vortex.

Just like the aircraft fetish described earlier, I have developed one about armor skirmish games using interwar/early WW2 tanks. This has been about 6-12 months in the making.  First thought about ASL, but that was too complicated.  The Infernal Machines module for Landships has interwar armor, but it is also a complicated board game.  The old SPI Kampfpanzer has flaws and can be spendy.  I really wanted miniatures, not cardboard.

Then I started messing around looking at  Shapeways’ 3D models, which come in a variety vehicles and scales, but are not cheap.  Here’s a link to one provider. Lots of possibilities, but I was having trouble finding rules that were fast, fun and in no-way -shape-or-form like Tobruk.

Somehow, someway I found Tanks.  The game is a late war, 15mm,  skirmish-game offshoot of Flames of War (FOW), but uses plastic models that are easy to assemble.  The starter pack is relatively inexpensive, and you can even read download the rules from their website. Also, the scale (more about that later) is compatible with all the FOW stuff that’s out there.  Here’s the Boardgamegeek page with reviews. I’d summarize it as a miniatures, tank skirmish, version of Heroes of Normandie (HON), without some of the hyperbole.

Each tank has a capabilities card, which can be augmented by crew-members with varying skills.  The components are first class, and even include some good quality (again, think HON) 2D terrain pieces.  As earlier mentioned, I found assembly very easy, with plenty of painting guides at the Tanks homepage.   You can even build different versions of each tank.  The Sherman was a little more problematic.  I wound up going over to the FOW website for more , especially when in comes to peripheral items.  The basic instructions are, well, basic.

For earlier tanks it will be a matter of making up my own cards.

My initial purchase included the Starter Set, which has two Shermans and a Panther, as well as a M10 Tank Destroyer and PZ IV. The individual tanks (which come with cards) are about $10.00 each.  The folks at Amazon offered Zvezda PV IVs at $4.95 each, so I grabbed a couple.

I discovered that Zvezda offers a number of early war British, German and Russian tanks and at a lower price than their FOW counterparts.  Fantastic!  Ahhhhhh…..but there’s scale. The Zvezda tanks are 1/100, which is a little over 16mm.  The Tanks models are supposedly 15mm.  OK, not very much difference, right?  Take it from me, the Tanks models are noticeably larger than the Zvezdas, and they should be smaller!

Now to the controlled descent part of the post……..

Step 1:  Finish up Starter Set and the two Tanks models.  Start play in a late-war mode. Gauge enjoyment (it’s not a simulation).

Step 1a:  Download paper building models and/or use HON terrain buildings.  If all of this is fun, go to Step 2.

Step 2:  Buy Zvezda models.  BTW, they are “snap fit”, with few pieces, good fit, and detail enough for me.  Mess around with cards and enjoy France 1940 and Russia 1941 skirmishes.

Step 3:  Shapeways for Japanese tanks (vs. Russians 1939 or Chinese), as well as fictional interwar fights using early British tanks/tankettes.

Hope to finish up assembly/prime/black base coat  of all Step 1 models this weekend.