28mm Soviet Army started

Here are the first parts of my 28mm Russian World War Two army. The T-34/85 is a Corgi 1:50 diecast model and the infantry are Westwind and a single Black Tree.

These are the first things I've painted for months and isn't my best work but I reckon they will do. The infantry will be based when I get some more PVA glue.

I bought these models about five years ago and I bought a Hobbyboss T-34 to go with them a couple of years ago but when I came to build it last week I realised that a frame of parts was missing. It will maybe do for spares. I since discovered that Tamiya have just released a JS-2 in 1:48th scale so I will purchase one soon.

 The Corgi tank has had a bit of a repaint and I used the Hobbyboss decals.

Rules experiment - WW2

I've been doing some work on a rules set hoping to capture some of the spirit of Charles Grant's "Battle" and today I had a little tryout using three infantry squads and three tanks per side and possible artillery and air support.

Here are some shots of the action.

Here are a rough draft of the rules that I used. They are far from being original and the morale rules are based on Charles Grant's rules.

BATTLERS !

20TH CENTURY WARGAME RULES IN THE “OLD SCHOOL” SPIRIT


MOVEMENT:

INFANTRY - 9” VEHICLES - 18”


SHOOTING:

DIRECT FIRE

INFANTRY ROLL 1D6 PER FIGURE UP TO A RANGE OF 18” SCORING A HIT ON A ROLL OF 4+ IF THE TARGET IS IN THE OPEN, 5+ IF THE TARGET IS IN SOFT COVER OR 6 IF THE TARGET IS IN HARD COVER CANNOT HARM ARMOURED TARGETS

HEAVY MACHINE GUNS ROLL 4D6 AND HAVE A RANGE OF 27” AND SCORE HITS AS ABOVE
CANNOT HARM ARMOURED TARGETS

TANK/ANTI-TANK CANNONS ROLL 6-8D6 AND HAVE A RANGE OF 36” AND SCORE HITS AS ABOVE

INDIRECT FIRE

ROLL FOR DEVIATION 1D6/DIRECTION DICE

ARTILLERY ROLL 1D6 PER FIGURE UNDER A TEMPLATE AND SCORE HITS AS ABOVE

TEMPLATES ARE AS FOLLOWS - 2” MORTAR, 3” TANK CANNON/MEDIUM ARTILLERY GUN AND 5” HEAVY ARTILLERY GUN AND AIR ATTACK.

ARMOUR SAVES: ROLL 1D6 PER HIT

UNARMOURED VEHICLE (TRUCKS AND JEEPS) - 5+
LIGHT ARMOUR 4+
MEDIUM ARMOUR 3+
HEAVY ARMOUR 2+
CONCRETE BUNKER 2+

AN UNSAVED HIT WILL KO A VEHICLE

MORALE:
TEST WHEN A SQUAD SUFFERS CASUALTIES
EACH SQUAD HAS A BASIC MORALE SCORE OF 10 WHEN FULL STRENGTH

ROLL ID6

ADDITIONS AND DEDUCTIONS
EACH CASUALTY -1
TRANSPORT KO’D -1
UNDER TANK ATTACK -1
UNDER ARTILLERY OR AIR ATTACK -2
IN SOFT COVER +1
IN HARD COVER +2

+1D6 SCORE TO TEST

IF TOTAL IS 10 OR MORE THE SQUAD IS OK IF UNDER 10 THEY MUST FALL BACK AND TEST AGAIN NEXT MOVE

I also used a table to simulate command and control :  at the start of each turn I rolled 2d6 for the side whose turn it was and used a table like this...
 
Score
2 move and or shoot with 1 squad
3 move and or shoot with 1 tank
4 move and or shoot with 2 squads
5 move and or shoot with 2 tanks
6 move and or shoot with 3 squads
7 move and or shoot with 3 tanks
8 move and or shoot with 1 squad and 1 tank
9 move and shoot with 2 squads and 2 tanks
10 move and shoot with 3 squads and 3 tanks
11 move and shoot with all forces
12 move and shoot with all forces

Memoir '44 - Eastern Front

Here are a few shots from a scenario from the Eastern Front expansion with the addition of some snow covered hills downloaded and glued to mounting board.

The hills were made available to me by a member of the Memoir '44 forum and were originally made by someone going by the name of Dirkgent.

The people on the forum seem very helpful and friendly.

Memoir '44 still going strong!.

I'm still enjoying Memoir '44 and now am the proud owner of the Eastern Front expansion and the winter/desert board. I also treat myself to a box of the new Airfix British Infantry to better represent the British, Canadian and Polish units.

Here are some shots from a Gold Beach scenario downloaded from the Days Of Wonder website.

 The Airfix Brits look pretty good.

 German defenders in Le Hamel.

 Hitting the beach!.

 The card that enabled an Allied victory.

 Le Hamel and the Customshouse are taken.

Losses were quite high, though.

A 6 - 3 victory for the Allies.

I've been playing Memoir '44 several times a week now both on the board and online and I think it's great.

Memoir '44

I've been playing Memoir '44 almost every day for almost three weeks now, both on the board and online.

What a brilliant game and forty quid well spent!.



I learned a lot about the style of play by playing the AI online, aggressive moves seeming to be the way to go.

Anyway, I love it and there are loads of expansions to keep the interest going.

WW1 Battlecruisers

 Here is a game I haven't played for about 12 years. I resurrected it for a fellow wargamer and blogger Stanley Steve who is currently interested in the period. The ships are Davco (Skytrex) 1/3000th and the rules are my own pretentiously named Iron Ships and Iron Men.

 The paint job doesn't stand up to close scrutiny!.

 The German squadron has been quite roughed up and steam away from the action.

The British squadron are less battered but HMS Tiger is reduced to half speed and has a turret destroyed.

I did enjoy that short encounter, I used to use glossy blue painted boards but had to make do with an old curtain, I think it's a good shade of blue though.

Tank battle!.

When I started wargaming it was a made up game using my Airfix model tanks. I was probably about 13 or 14 years old. When I was 15 I bought Bruce Quarries Tank Battles in Miniature 2 which concerns the Eastern Front in WW2. I was bought a selection of GHQ tanks and SPGs and made a winter landscape using ceiling tiles and garden twigs. I painted the tanks badly and played some enjoyable games with them.

I fancied a game capturing some the the simplicity and fun of those early battles and so came up with the idea of a free for all scenario with random deployments and unit entry. I used Rapid Fire! rules without any pesky infantry, anti-tank guns and other complications like morale.

 Where it started.

 The newish and the old.

 A German Panther unit is first on.

SU-152s next.

 Another unit of Panthers arrive on the flank of the SU-152s.

 And do a bit of damage.

 A T-34 unit arrives next. One of these dates from when I was about 13 years old!.

The T-34s have a success.

 Kazinsky's SU-152s fight back.

 StuGs arrive behind the T-34s.

 And do a lot of damage.

 The Russian heavies arrive and target the Panthers.

 A hard fight between the Panthers and the SU_152s.

 The German SPAT unit arrives.

But are flanked by a unit of JSU-152s.

 An overview of the table :- no secure flanks in this game.

 The StuGs advance

 The StuGs are destroyed by the JS-2s.

 The Russians have won but only just.

Here are the original GHQ 1/285th scale models that I used all those years ago.

SU-85s.

T-34s.

JS-2s in both scales.

And Jagdpanthers too.

True veterans these, though I did repaint them about 10 years ago.