I've been pondering buying some more lead in the last couple of weeks. Fortunately I have not yet had to spend money as Heroics and Ros are 'on sabatical' while Andy recovers from surgery (which went well and he's doing nicely).
To continue on from my Austrian project, I have been thinking about adding to their opponents. I already have a collection of Czech models which are sufficient without being complete to Lukes army lists and so I was leaning towards Hungarians. While not having a complete list a general collection could be purchased to do the job while waiting for other information to come to light.
I have had a look at the Fire and Fury collection and;
A) Can't quite decipher them in terms of the number of models required as the numbers don't translate to reality sensibly.
B) I'm "quite" skeptical about some of the details. The East Germans did not have T62's in service to start with, and if there are obvious mistakes like that, then who knows whats lurking in the depths.
C) It has to be the most bizarre/arcane/unreadable/confusing way of constructing an army list. it takes 5 minutes just to locate what you are after.
Anyhoo, with all that out of the way, I thought I would start with a T55 tank regiment.
RHQ T55
3 battalions 7 T55.
recce coy
1 PT76
2 Fug
AA coy
1 ZSU 23/4
1 SA 9
Artillery battalion
AOP in fug
4 M1938 + tows
So far pretty straightforward. The artillery battalion is rather a moot point as depending on the sources it either didn't exist, or was just a battery etc. . For arguments sake lets just let it ride for the moment.
The other option would be to have 2 ZSU 57-2 in the AA company.
For infantry support there are some interesting possibilities. Hungary brought 350 BMP-1 in the 1970's which gives enough for about 9-10 battalions plus odds and ends. so 3 regiments in the front line units (5th TD, and the 4th and 8th MRD ). This doesn't leave enough for any sort of infantry support for any of the tank regiments, so possibly add a company (battalion?) of PSZH-IV.
Interestingly if you then purchase a company of BMP-1, A company of BTR-50 (which will have to do until H&R makes a proper OT62) and some D-30 122mm artillery, and you can use the unit for East Germans, Polish and Czechs, as well as 1960's Russians.
Thursday, June 9, 2016
Sunday, May 1, 2016
Organisations
The modeling room has been,for want of a better word, a tip for quite a while now.
At the moment I do my modeling and painting on 600mm shelves that were in place in the house when we brought it which are now surplus to requirements. Now, normally these just live on the floor when not the current project, which is a bit limiting as there is only so much floor to go round.
last weekend I knocked up a storage rack out of some old MDF bits, and smuggled it into the house while the wife was out this morning.
Some of you will be wondering why I didn't just buy something from a shop. Mostly its beause I'm cheap, but more because I wanted something that fitted into the rooom without wasting any space. The lesser bit is because we don't have many options in terms of buying items like this in a shop.
However those living in civilised countries might be able to find something that fits the bill much better.
At the moment I do my modeling and painting on 600mm shelves that were in place in the house when we brought it which are now surplus to requirements. Now, normally these just live on the floor when not the current project, which is a bit limiting as there is only so much floor to go round.
last weekend I knocked up a storage rack out of some old MDF bits, and smuggled it into the house while the wife was out this morning.
Some of you will be wondering why I didn't just buy something from a shop. Mostly its beause I'm cheap, but more because I wanted something that fitted into the rooom without wasting any space. The lesser bit is because we don't have many options in terms of buying items like this in a shop.
However those living in civilised countries might be able to find something that fits the bill much better.
Monday, April 18, 2016
SPI games as a campaign base.
Something most SH/MSH players attempt at some point is some sort of campaign. This normally founders on not having any sort of system to generate the games. Keith came up with "Race to Leningrad" based on a German Panzer division advancing towards Leningrad (surprise surprise). The Russian forces were randomly generated. I can't remember how the terrain was set up. I borrowed the idea for an MSH campaign "Race to the Rhine".
A later attempt used the old SPI boardgames from the Central front series. These were (north to south) North German Plain, BAOR, V Corps, Hof Gap and Donau Front.
Here we see a game in progress with the Soviet attack underway.
The problem with these games was the execution. There was not much detail on the maps and it was difficult to generate maps on the fly as we did back then (remember this is going back 10 years). The battles that were chosen were the ones that we thought would be interesting on the table. Without a decent terrain system this was not much good.
As the Russian player on more than one occasion I felt that shifting games to the table did favour the side that had a grasp about what was required in the greater scheme of things. Thus there was one large 2 day battle where all the Russians had to do was sit back and wait as they were holding one shoulder of the main breakthrough. In this case NATO had to make all the running and the result was somewhat of a disaster for them. when you have 1 Leopard II facing a tank regiment advancing down a road something has gone horrible wrong. Likewise attacking defending British troops with 10 Hinds ( I recall it was Jakes fault) was somewhat overkill, and gave the defending players a nervous tic whenever any Russian players started making helicopter noises over the rest of the weekend.
With hindsight here is a list of things I would look at to give the start of a rudimentary translation system.
1) A system to match the games fatigue system with the troops deployed on table in a set way. I recall we tried dicing for each stand, but this took a lot of time and resulted in some very odd results. maybe a system where at each level the battalion/regiment has x number of fighting platoons and a selection of support stands.
2) A better way to generate terrain for the battle. Google maps is handy for roads, towns and woods but not for topography (hills). I'm wondering if a variation on the Scenario generator system could be used, with a set number of features per 2' dictated by the terrain hex type.
3) A set way of translating the table results back into the campaign.
Theres some initial thoughts, though I suppose I need to pay the game a couple of times to get a better handle on how the mechanics actually work.
A later attempt used the old SPI boardgames from the Central front series. These were (north to south) North German Plain, BAOR, V Corps, Hof Gap and Donau Front.
Here we see a game in progress with the Soviet attack underway.
The problem with these games was the execution. There was not much detail on the maps and it was difficult to generate maps on the fly as we did back then (remember this is going back 10 years). The battles that were chosen were the ones that we thought would be interesting on the table. Without a decent terrain system this was not much good.
As the Russian player on more than one occasion I felt that shifting games to the table did favour the side that had a grasp about what was required in the greater scheme of things. Thus there was one large 2 day battle where all the Russians had to do was sit back and wait as they were holding one shoulder of the main breakthrough. In this case NATO had to make all the running and the result was somewhat of a disaster for them. when you have 1 Leopard II facing a tank regiment advancing down a road something has gone horrible wrong. Likewise attacking defending British troops with 10 Hinds ( I recall it was Jakes fault) was somewhat overkill, and gave the defending players a nervous tic whenever any Russian players started making helicopter noises over the rest of the weekend.
With hindsight here is a list of things I would look at to give the start of a rudimentary translation system.
1) A system to match the games fatigue system with the troops deployed on table in a set way. I recall we tried dicing for each stand, but this took a lot of time and resulted in some very odd results. maybe a system where at each level the battalion/regiment has x number of fighting platoons and a selection of support stands.
2) A better way to generate terrain for the battle. Google maps is handy for roads, towns and woods but not for topography (hills). I'm wondering if a variation on the Scenario generator system could be used, with a set number of features per 2' dictated by the terrain hex type.
3) A set way of translating the table results back into the campaign.
Theres some initial thoughts, though I suppose I need to pay the game a couple of times to get a better handle on how the mechanics actually work.
Thursday, April 14, 2016
Finally Done
Its only taken me 9 years but this week I have finally finished painting my Russian 1944 cavalry division. It started while I was still finishing my PhD in Wellington, and has followed me to Nelson and then Palmy. And here it is, 5 battalions (4 large plus one small) and 115 stands at 650 points. Not a lot of tanks or infantry but 48 stands of SMG troops (and thats a lot of dice to throw to kill it). Its really not a cheap army money wise to build up as H&R do cavalry in packs of 21 figures, and as I've used 4 per stand plus extras on other stands, you can do the math...
Taking a closer look at one of the battalions I have modeled all the support units as well, including Tachanka's (which are subbing in for HMG's on carts. I can't seem to find any comments on if they were used as such in WW2, but assume the Russians were smart enough to use them as they had in the Civil war). 45mm ATG stands are useless for shooting at tanks, but do add to the battalion break point quite cheaply.
The stands at the left are the divisional artillery, all horse drawn, in fact everything apart from the 37mm AA gun is on horseback ( and I can't work out why they were lucky enough to get a truck, but its one less gun team to paint.)
I've also provided for the option of either T34s or M4's (with a suitable Hq stand). The mottly collection of vehicles at the front is the divisional Hq.
Now all I have to do is arrange to get it onto the table and see how my lighting fast dismounting SMG stands perform.
I'm also pondering if I can get an entire Rusian infantry division (with heavy tank support) on table at 650points. I think its possible, but some of the troops will be green, and there won't be enough artillery to be usefull. Its also a lot of points to gift your enemy if it gets wiped out. I'm leaning towards using the using the Infantry brigade from a 1944 tank corps to get access to all the useful support units, though I must admit that 18 T34's are also attractive.
(Sorry Keith, I'm still writing a post on the SPI games as campaigns)
Taking a closer look at one of the battalions I have modeled all the support units as well, including Tachanka's (which are subbing in for HMG's on carts. I can't seem to find any comments on if they were used as such in WW2, but assume the Russians were smart enough to use them as they had in the Civil war). 45mm ATG stands are useless for shooting at tanks, but do add to the battalion break point quite cheaply.
The stands at the left are the divisional artillery, all horse drawn, in fact everything apart from the 37mm AA gun is on horseback ( and I can't work out why they were lucky enough to get a truck, but its one less gun team to paint.)
I've also provided for the option of either T34s or M4's (with a suitable Hq stand). The mottly collection of vehicles at the front is the divisional Hq.
Now all I have to do is arrange to get it onto the table and see how my lighting fast dismounting SMG stands perform.
I'm also pondering if I can get an entire Rusian infantry division (with heavy tank support) on table at 650points. I think its possible, but some of the troops will be green, and there won't be enough artillery to be usefull. Its also a lot of points to gift your enemy if it gets wiped out. I'm leaning towards using the using the Infantry brigade from a 1944 tank corps to get access to all the useful support units, though I must admit that 18 T34's are also attractive.
(Sorry Keith, I'm still writing a post on the SPI games as campaigns)
Friday, March 18, 2016
No photoshop
Many moons ago on one of our trips to Christchurch to play MSH my collection of Russian helicopters suffered a catastrophic accident which resulted in the remains being left in a box. Last week I dug them out and reassembled the bits.
Theres 2 Hind F's on the near end (not obvious and I was about to order 2 more...) and the rest Hind D. I'll have to see if I can buy some of the sprues separately to get the rocket pods and AT missiles replaced. I have never been keen on rotor representations a the single blades look silly, and the plastic disks get scratched over time and look just as bad.
I'm still not sure quite how I've wound up with 7 (and I'm sure that there is a Hind A somewhere in the bits box) but they are not photoshopped into a picture to make a game look larger than it is.
And at least under MSH the forward HMG can shoot as far as the tip of the models tail.
Theres 2 Hind F's on the near end (not obvious and I was about to order 2 more...) and the rest Hind D. I'll have to see if I can buy some of the sprues separately to get the rocket pods and AT missiles replaced. I have never been keen on rotor representations a the single blades look silly, and the plastic disks get scratched over time and look just as bad.
I'm still not sure quite how I've wound up with 7 (and I'm sure that there is a Hind A somewhere in the bits box) but they are not photoshopped into a picture to make a game look larger than it is.
And at least under MSH the forward HMG can shoot as far as the tip of the models tail.
Thursday, March 10, 2016
Whats on the workbench then.
As a break from lists and gaming, I thought I would browse through what is passing across the painting table(s) at the moment. In no particular order these are.....
Russian 45mm AT guns (front 2 rows) and 76mm Infantry guns. for my russian cavalry division. I've been working on this army before I left Wellington, so its only been 9-10 years in the making. Its all horse drawn as well, which may explain why it is still ongoing. The list is quite interesting as the entire 1944 SH list comes in at 650 points. All H&R.
P-47s for my 1944 US armies. the 2 painted ons are Collectair, and the pair in front are GHQ. For some odd reason the Collectair ones had a large out of scale exhaust vent moulded proud of the fusalage which only became a problem when I tried to put some decals over them. A look at pictures then confirmed that this didn't exist, so out with the file and an eventual repaint. for the record, the GHQ models at $6 US each are not that much better than the 80p Collectair models, and Collectair also do the bubbletop version. They do however do the bombs and rockets.
1944 21st Panzer Division. This unit was equiped with rebuilt french equipment, and so has some quite different looking kit. To the left are the SPZ 304 halftracks. (SdKfz 251 equivalent), then a collection of halftrack SPAT, SPAA and MRL's, with some artillery on lorrain chassis at the front.
In the plastic container are some of the base unarmoured halftracks that I brought in error. All H&R (ex armstrong models) and very nice castings.
The Austrians. Not the best photo, but its taken me 2 days to work out how to taken decent model photos with the camera......
M60A1 to the left, SK105 to the right, with some M42's thrown in. at the front in the middle are the $K$ APC models, which I must buy some more of. Again all H&R and new mouldings which are very good.
Russian 45mm AT guns (front 2 rows) and 76mm Infantry guns. for my russian cavalry division. I've been working on this army before I left Wellington, so its only been 9-10 years in the making. Its all horse drawn as well, which may explain why it is still ongoing. The list is quite interesting as the entire 1944 SH list comes in at 650 points. All H&R.
P-47s for my 1944 US armies. the 2 painted ons are Collectair, and the pair in front are GHQ. For some odd reason the Collectair ones had a large out of scale exhaust vent moulded proud of the fusalage which only became a problem when I tried to put some decals over them. A look at pictures then confirmed that this didn't exist, so out with the file and an eventual repaint. for the record, the GHQ models at $6 US each are not that much better than the 80p Collectair models, and Collectair also do the bubbletop version. They do however do the bombs and rockets.
1944 21st Panzer Division. This unit was equiped with rebuilt french equipment, and so has some quite different looking kit. To the left are the SPZ 304 halftracks. (SdKfz 251 equivalent), then a collection of halftrack SPAT, SPAA and MRL's, with some artillery on lorrain chassis at the front.
In the plastic container are some of the base unarmoured halftracks that I brought in error. All H&R (ex armstrong models) and very nice castings.
The Austrians. Not the best photo, but its taken me 2 days to work out how to taken decent model photos with the camera......
M60A1 to the left, SK105 to the right, with some M42's thrown in. at the front in the middle are the $K$ APC models, which I must buy some more of. Again all H&R and new mouldings which are very good.
Thursday, February 18, 2016
Bring on the Brits.
After running against my 'left field' British Attach list several times now, for two loses and a win (which I was lucky to get),I thought I would put it up to see what everyone thinks.
Battalion 1, Brigade Hq rifle stand 5 pts
Battalion Hq rifle stand 5 pts
9 rifle stands 45 pts
1 6 pdr/ carrier 7 pts
1 3" mortar stand /carrier 4 pts
1 engineer stand 6 pts
1 carrier platoon 6 pts
2 HMG stand /carrier 12 pts
3 Churchill VII 66 pts
156 pts
20 stands/ Break 10
Battalion 2, Battalion Hq rifle stand 5 pts
Battalion Hq 1 Churchill VII 22 pts
8 rifle stands 40 pts
1 6 pdr/ carrier 7 pts
1 3" mortar stand /carrier 4 pts
1 engineer stand 6 pts
1 carrier platoon 6 pts
3 Churchill VII 66 pts
160 pts
17 stands/ Break 9
Battalion 3, Battalion Hq rifle stand 5 pts
9 rifle stands 45 pts
1 6 pdr/ carrier 7 pts
1 3" mortar stand /carrier 4 pts
1 engineer stand 6 pts
1 carrier platoon 6 pts
3 Churchill VII 66 pts
139 pts
17 stands/ Break 9
Artillery support (general)
Regiment 1 3 FO's (one per battalion) 30 pts
6 25 pdr/truck (off table) 34 pts
Regiment 2 3 FO's (one per battalion) 30 pts
6 25 pdr/truck (off table) 34 pts
Regiment 3 3 FO's (one per battalion) 30 pts
6 25 pdr/truck (off table) 34 pts
192 pts
Grand total 647 pts.
OK, so there's no big antitank guns, but you can add them in an option A or B.
another option would be to ditch 2 stands for an AGC and buy 3 Typhoons as an option A.
I'm not sure if you could knock out a decent defend list along these lines, possibly with 2 large battalions (with AT guns as well) and a 3rd small battalion in support with only 2 artillery regiments.
Feel free to have a go with this and see what you results are, and Axis players, try to come up with ways of beating it.....
Battalion 1, Brigade Hq rifle stand 5 pts
Battalion Hq rifle stand 5 pts
9 rifle stands 45 pts
1 6 pdr/ carrier 7 pts
1 3" mortar stand /carrier 4 pts
1 engineer stand 6 pts
1 carrier platoon 6 pts
2 HMG stand /carrier 12 pts
3 Churchill VII 66 pts
156 pts
20 stands/ Break 10
Battalion 2, Battalion Hq rifle stand 5 pts
Battalion Hq 1 Churchill VII 22 pts
8 rifle stands 40 pts
1 6 pdr/ carrier 7 pts
1 3" mortar stand /carrier 4 pts
1 engineer stand 6 pts
1 carrier platoon 6 pts
3 Churchill VII 66 pts
160 pts
17 stands/ Break 9
Battalion 3, Battalion Hq rifle stand 5 pts
9 rifle stands 45 pts
1 6 pdr/ carrier 7 pts
1 3" mortar stand /carrier 4 pts
1 engineer stand 6 pts
1 carrier platoon 6 pts
3 Churchill VII 66 pts
139 pts
17 stands/ Break 9
Artillery support (general)
Regiment 1 3 FO's (one per battalion) 30 pts
6 25 pdr/truck (off table) 34 pts
Regiment 2 3 FO's (one per battalion) 30 pts
6 25 pdr/truck (off table) 34 pts
Regiment 3 3 FO's (one per battalion) 30 pts
6 25 pdr/truck (off table) 34 pts
192 pts
Grand total 647 pts.
OK, so there's no big antitank guns, but you can add them in an option A or B.
another option would be to ditch 2 stands for an AGC and buy 3 Typhoons as an option A.
I'm not sure if you could knock out a decent defend list along these lines, possibly with 2 large battalions (with AT guns as well) and a 3rd small battalion in support with only 2 artillery regiments.
Feel free to have a go with this and see what you results are, and Axis players, try to come up with ways of beating it.....
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