Great War - Later Period German Artillery update

Due to word blindness I clicked on "with helmets" rather than "with picklehaub". End result a pack of 77mm Guns with the wrong crew,  Oh well I thought I can always use the guns as part of later army I will just order the right pack.  This time managed to click on  2 packs of "Howitzer" rather than "Field Gun". End result the right crews for the first Field guns and one of the packs of Howitzers.  So the crew "with helmets" have now become a Howitzer battalion rather than 77mm in the front line.

As they are in helmets these will be for a later period army than my 1914 - 1915 collection. Fancied my hand at some of the more elaborate camo.  No idea if it is realistic but they were fun to paint.

Usual basing material using a mix of PVA and flexible filler.  Given a watered down coat of GW Graveyard earth which I am now on my last pot of.  GW Desert Yellow dry brush (loads of that left) and finally "burnt grass" static grass.

The go with the Stormtroopers and the A7V I did a while ago so happy that they aren't on their lonesome.

Great-War-Eastern Front updates

The very nice people over at Pendraken have been cracking out additions to their WW1 range at a prodigious rate. So I asked Pete to pick up a largish package from Salute.  This will enable me to crack on and update both the Russian and Imperial German units to Roughly Corps sized formations.  As usual now I have read what I ordered I have no idea of the rationale behind some of the numbers so was probably suffering from word blindness at the time :)

Germans

• 1st Corps
• 150 Infantry - Rough equivalent of 50 bases (3 figs to a base) which should give me the Infantry component for 1st Infantry Division of Francois's 1st Corps.
• 6 Field Guns - Divisional Artillery for the 1st Infantry. 
• 3 Howitzers - Howitzer Battalion for the 1st Infantry

• 1st Cavalry Division
• 30 Kuirassiers - Two regiments for the 1st and 4th Cavalry Brigades.
• 30 Dragoons - One regiment the for 1st Cavalry Brigade, the other to use as Jager Zu Pferde for the 2nd Cavalry Brigade.
• 90 Dismounts - Roughly 30 bases which is hopefully more than I will every need

Russians

• Imperial Russian Army
• 120 Infantry - Rough equivalent of 40 bases which is no where near enough for the 16 battalions needed for a second Russian division.  Get these painted up and then add the missing units.
• 3 MGs - Enough for very early games where the MG Coy is at Regimental level
• 15 Cavalry - Two per base in my armies so 7 bases or just over one Regiment (6 sotnia per regiment)
• 15 Cossacks
• 3 Field Guns - Again only half of what I need so will need more and I haven't accounted for the horse artillery for the cavalry formations yet either.

What is still to do...

So forgot the horse artillery and the third Field artillery Abteilung for the Germans.

The old Uhlans will get moved into Divisional Cavalry.

I haven't added any MG units for the Germans, For very early 1914 games that isn't a problem but will need to add more as I go forward.

Russian Cavalry organisation needs about 24 bases per Division which is the same as the Germans. But the Germans only have 1 division in the East so will need a a few more for the Russians.

Russian Infantry need 16 battalions per division so I will need about two more packs pretty soon.  Will see how the new marching poses fit in.

Great War - 1916+ Brits & Shell Holes

I have been toying with an idea to spread out the lead a little while waiting for 1/600th aircraft to dry.  This was prompted by comments about my "tidy" bases when I first ventured onto the Western Front.  I have played with Barbed wire and posts etc but these are the first I have done with Shell Holes.  There are two flavours.  The first is a simple 30 x 30 base to swop one for one into each 4 stand battalion of British.  This then provides a 3 figure base as reinforcements to the next division in the Corps.  Corps oh well that will be more artillery oh well.........

The second flavour is to act as casualty markers.  I currently use single figure bases but thought about trying something else.  I copied the idea from a fellow gamer who uses 15mm and came up with the concept of shell holes and casualty figures.  I didn't have any casualty figures per se so thought about combining live figures.  The idea is that you just count the shell holes and that tells you how many casualty figures.

Took a little more time than single figures but I am content with the look of these.  (The photos have a mix of flash on and flash off.  I am struggling with my old Samsung digi at the moment and couldn't get the contract right to show the depressions)

Nightfighter - Terrain Board (Pt 2)

With a quick base coat and some markers made up I played Scenario 3 again.

The Ju88C-2 looking Lonely.  The tiles have been given a quick base coat and then the edge of the searchlight zones have been given a purple dot to enable me to differentiate between them

Early maneuvering againts what I believe are two Wellingtons.  Turned out to be a bit of a bluff by the Umpire as no aircraft had actually entered the area



The Ju88 is prosecuting a contact towards the RHS of the board

 The Searchlight zone indicates a bomber overhead but no contact and I am now risking the Nightfighter by entering a Flak Zone. 

Probably got these the wrong way round.  I finally managed to get a tally on one aircraft and then ran out of space again.  The Blue works fine as a base coat and will gradually have more detail added.  

The next couple of tiles are going to have a Pacific Island or two on them for the Rabaul, Guadalcanal, Saipan and Home Islands scenarios.  I want two with the Searchlight zone and Task Forces painted on as well for some variety.

I have change the colours of the markers to a delicate pink and have all the Radar Counters and Sweep markers made up (I need to do another four sweep markers for the MEW).

Track Counters for plotting fleeting contacts have been started but I have run out of 25mm squares so need a load more from Minibits.

Nightfighter - Terrain Board

Well not really a terrain board. More a playing surface.  I looked at hex mats etc and couldn't find something that I liked or that would give me the flexibility I wanted for search lights etc.

So.. I decided to give Minibits a call to see if they could knock up a custom MDF tile with the 24 hexes that make up each searchlight zone and then send me 18.  Cost be about £36.

I had 18 tiles made up which interlock.  I haven't decided about the edging to make it "square" but have some ideas for that.

This is the full 24 hexes wide of the searchlight area which fits neatly on my 36" wide dining table with a width of 24" so pretty small.

I will look at painting this over the weekend but don't want to go off half cocked and ruin it.

Great War - Square Bashing - Stormtroopers

Square Bashings (and GWSH) permit the use of Stormtroops for several nationalies.  SB allows for complete battalions which reflects the attached comanies in the overall performance.  GWSH on the other hand allows the direct modelling of the Companies as independant units.  Either way the latest addtions to the Western Front are two Battalions, with complimentary Half Bases and Casualty figures

The Half Bases are the Casualty step removal element for SB

The battalions as they will be fielded

SB also allows the 1918 German list to field two Flamenwerfer bases.

Great War - GWSH - Jaeger Bns

I have finally found time to finish off the two Pendraken Jaeger Battalions needed for my 1 Kavallerie Divisionen for the 1914 Eastern Front.

They now need a Cyclist Company added.  The Bn MGs were completed at the beginning of the project so just need to be mated up and they are ready to be used

Great War - German A7V

I fancied doing an A7V for my later war German Army.

This is the 10mm one from Pendraken comprising a RTV resin chassis with white metal weapons.  I drilled out the gun mounts and reversed the weapons and then snipped them down to length as I wasn't too sure what the blob on the end of the sprue was.  IMHO these have come out okay

Great War - 1914 Russians (update)

With the impetus to get some SB units finished, I have returned to the Eastern Front.  This is the area that my interest in WW1 started with rather than the Western Front.

My Russian forces are based on a "standard" Infantry Division.  They were based around a Pendraken Starter set with some small additions to get me up and running for the SB playtesting.

Since the play test games I have added more units to provide:

• Two Brigades of 2 Regiments Each of 4 Battalions of Infantry.
• Regimental MG Companies
• Divisional Cavalry Regiment
• Two field regiments of 76.2mm Guns
• One Heavy Regiment of 122mm Guns

GWSH and others seem to suggest the Russians were poorly provided with Artillery compared to the Imperial German Army.  The Batteries were deemed to be inefficient by still retaing 8 gun strucutres rather than 6 pieces.  Stone (The Eastern Front 1914 - 1917) makes a statement on Page 38 that "...their regular Divisions (German) had eighteen such weapons (field-mortars) to fifty-four field cannon, whereas the Russian army, in 1914, had only six per division (and forty-eight field-cannon).  This give me a benchmark for the Germans of:

3 Batteries of 6 Howitzers
9 Batteries of 6 Field Guns

Which translates the Russians to:
1 Battery of 6 Howitzers increasing to two batteries following the reforms
6 Batteries of 8 Field Guns

Great War - SB - Trench Assault Play Test

Latest playtest was a 1916 Western Front game between my British (Attacking) Vs Germans.

Pretty standard forces. I opted for 11 Battalions of Infantry supported by a MkIV tank upagainst a German force with full artillery and MG allocation. Not a blood bath BUT I didn't win. Game was over at the end of turn 4 with some nifty end of game rolls from the Defender. Things not helped out by my poor dice rolling. Out of 30 D6 rolled I managed one 6 which left my attack unsupported. Pretty close in terms of game play with the British finally breaking into the Trench line and taking a forward redoubt but not enough to score a victory and in fact the VPs game an overwhelming victory to the Germans.

Close up view from the Germans looking towards the British start line at the end of the British 3rd Turn, Casualties have started to mount (Top Right corner), however the Germans are very weak. A Damaged gun and a damaged MG are all that oppose two attacking battalions in the objective square (the one with the flag).

Overview at the end of Turn 3. The first attack on the British left flank (Attacking R to L) has been repulsed while the MKIV (unpainted sorry) and infantry have succeeded in taking the forward bunker.

German Turn 3 however was a different picture as a point barrage hits the newly captured position before the two weakened battalions (2 Bases and 3 bases) can be assaulted. End result is the withdrawal of the British to their start lines.

As this was a playtest we spent a few moments checking the mechanism for main and supporting attacks from two flank attacks being launched.in a pincer movement.

8 to 9 on the left hand attack and 8 to 8 on the right hand attack. Not great odds however the German defenders are a single base and I am hoping to win by virtue of destroying the enemy.

All told an enjoyable game again. I need to review my terrain but Western Front isn't my main focus in the Great War so will have to see what happens.

Great War - Eastern Front Cavalry

As the Eastern Front Cavalry operations were the spark that set this particular fire off running I thought it was about time they had some more attention.

First up are a couple of new German bases.  The one on the left is a standard Uhlan base which will just be added to the pile of cavalry being painted up to give me the 1st Cavalry Division for some early 1914 games.  In the middle is my Cavalry Brigade command stand for GWSH and on the right is a WIP for the dismounted cavalry that both SB and GWSH can use.  These will go on to fill up 1st Kavallerie Divisionen which is now in the painting queue.

From a slightly different angle

 And the other side

The Russian Brigade HQ being worked up

Great War - 1916+ British Current Progress

Problem with so many projects is that you keep finding things you hadn't gotten around to.  In this case my 1916+ British Artillery, HQs and Tanks had sat unloved for a while.

Now completed this lot with another load on order from those very nice people at Pendraken

HQ Set with Motorcylist and Carrier Pidgeons and Telephones

MkIV Male

Lions

The Divisional Artillery 

 Supports waiting for the next batch of metal (MGs and another Regiment of 18 Pdrs)

3 Brigades of British Empire Infantry