A New Project: Afrika Korps

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One of the gaps in my collection of WW2 figures is the Afrika Korps. I have Western Desert Brits and Italians, but no Germans. When, therefore, I was at the Vanquish show a couple of weeks ago, and saw the Battlefront Kasserine boxed set, already good value at £42 for twenty-one vehicles/guns, reduced by another 20% by those nice gentlemen from The Pit, I quickly reached for my wallet and snapped it up.

I also bought one of their Team Yankee sets to join the others currently languishing in the lead mountain: so when I do eventually get around to painting some modern Russians, I will have everything I need to hand.

Anyhow, those who are regular readers will know that this year’s rule is that I’m only allowed to paint something new if I also paint something from the lead mountain as well. Lucky then that also lurking at the back of the cupboard of shame was the Battlefront 90th Light Africa Division “themed formation” box set that I’d also picked up at a heavy discount somewhere else. A quick shop to buy the right paints and bases etc, and I was ready to go.

SdKfz 6/3 “Diana”

The first unit off the painting table was a zug of SdKfz 6/3 “Diana” self-propelled anti-tank guns, unique to the aforementioned 90th Light Africa Division. There were only nine of these ever produced but, hey, I might be able to field them one day even if I have to write the scenario for myself.

The models were very easy to put together, even the usually tricky ‘mounting the gun and shield’ bit and, as you can hopefully see, paint up nicely as well. I painted the crew figures (there are two manning the gun in the back) effectively on the sprue by cutting a small slit in a blister pack blister and fitting the tab on the end of the crewman figure into the slit. That was much easier than detaching them and trying to hold a small tab whilst painting.

PaK 36(r) 7.62mm AT Guns

Next up, and from the same 90th Light Africa Division boxset were some ex-Soviet anti-tank guns. These had been captured in 1941 and re-purposed for north Africa.

The models (metal guns with plastic crews) also went together very well, although I had the usual problems with getting the gun barrels absolutely straight after the mangling they had taken in the Battlefront factory and in transit. Is it really so hard to take what is arguably the most important part of the model, or certainly one of the most noticeable parts, and ask your staff to be particularly careful when extracting them from the mold?

Finally I was on to the first unit from the Kasserine box set: a zug of PaK 38 anti-tank guns. The whole box set is plastic, so these needed to be clipped from a sprue before use.

Pak 38 5cm AT guns

Now plastic gun barrels don’t bend like the metal ones but you have to very careful when clipping them from the sprue, as thin barrels can flex as the clippers go in and end up snapping…which is what happened to the gun at the back in the photo above. I glued the barrel back together, but it just looks wrong at most angles. How very annoying! Of course I could have scrabbled around in the bits box for a different barrel, or sent off for a replacement etc, but I was painting them now, so I didn’t, so will have to put up with the wonky barrel for evermore!

So that’s a fair start on the Afrika Korps. Nine Panzers to paint and then I’d better think about what infantry to buy…and what I’m going to paint from the lead mountain to justify that expenditure!

Colours

Vehicles and guns were undercoated with Army Painter Desert Yellow spray then washed with GW Agrax Earthshade. They were then dry-brushed with Vallejo Iraqi Sand.

Crew were undercoated with GW Wraithbone spray then the uniforms block painted using Vallejo Yellow Green. I painted this lot wearing full Afrika Korps uniforms, but when I come to do the infantry, there’ll be a mix of Afrika Korps green and Italian yellow elements i.e. trousers, tops, caps. The helmets, gas mask cases and webbing were Iraqi Sand. The whole figure was then washed using GW Agrax Earthshade. I had then intended to highlight using Yellow Green, and did on the crew for the Dianas but, to tell the truth, it didn’t make much difference, so I just highlighted the faces on the gun crews (forehead, nose, chin, cheeks).

Q13 AAR: Snake in the Space Dog's Shadow

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It had been ages since I’d last played Quadrant 13, the company-sized sci-fi game using the basic IABSM engine that I wrote for the Lardies, so it was great to be able to take advantage of a day’s holiday and take the Astagar (space snakes) and Protolene Khanate (space dogs) for a ride.

Click on the pic below to see the whole report.

The majority of both armies originally come from Critical Mass Games, with the Khanate being one of the original races available and the Astagar added vis a Kickstarter campaign.

Unfortunately, CMG closed down, but the infantry figures (not the vehicles, just the infantry) are available from Ral Patha Europe.

Incidentally, one thing I missed out on Astagar-wise was the SP artillery. If anyone does have any that they don’t want any more, the snakeheads could do with a bit of support. E-mail me at admin@vislardica.com if you have some to sell.

And just for completeness, once I start collecting one particular category of sci-fi race, I have to have every variant possible…so my core Protolene Khanate space dogs are augmented by a platoon of Garrhul from Dark Star and a platoon of Raug from Khuarasan. If you are after dog-men, you have the choice of three different manufacturers or, like me, all three!

Musketballs 1812 War Gaming

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Last weekend I had to drop a couple of people off at Southampton docks (they were going on a cruise) and, as I usually do when I visit somewhere I don’t go very often, I Google’d to see if there were any wargame shops nearby.

Up came the interestingly named Musketballs 1812 War Gaming : a mere 2.7 miles from said docks, so I set the satnav and headed over for a visit.

First up, it’s in an interesting location. You go into an industrial estate, then into another one at the end of the first one, then head between various sinister looking factory units until you get to the end. There you see a corridor, which you go down, then up some stairs and then, finally, you’re there. Sounds hard, but it’s all clearly signposted and easy to find…I just kept looking round for the rest of the Fellowship!

But don’t let me put you off: it’s well worth the journey. Musketballs is an Aladdin’s cave of goodies and I ended up spending far more than I had intended to. The shop has every kind of painting and basing materials you can think off (and some you can’t) plus a goodly selection of figures and box sets as well. Lots of GW stuff, I also spotted Cruel Seas, those 10mm Napoleonic figures that come in strips, and a lot of RPG figures as well.

Bob Graham, the proprietor, is very friendly, and even made me a cup of tea to ready me for the long drive home. They also have a gaming room, attached, and although I couldn’t stay, I could tell that if I’d wanted to, I could probably have found someone to game with.

I’ve got to go back to Southampton to pick up the aforementioned cruise takers, and will definitely be writing a shopping list of paint and basing supplies for when I do so. Highly, highly recommended!

FK&P AAR: Swedish vs Cossacks

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Now that I had my Swedes all planned out, it was time to take them into action against my only other vaguely contemporaneous army, the Zaphorogian Cossacks.

This would be an interesting clash, as the two armies were very different: essentially a western pike & shot army (the Swedes) against an eastern pike & shot army (the Cossacks). Indeed, so different were the Cossacks that Bevan, my opponent, asked if he could use the Swedes (despite the dice initially saying otherwise) as he wasn’t sure how to fight with the Cossacks.

The Cossacks, therefore under my command, consisted of a brigade of four tabor war-wagon bases and some artillery; two brigades of Tatar cavalry, each consisting of two horse archer units and one heavier cavalry unit; and two brigades of infantry, each consisting of two Moloitsy units and one Registered Cossack units.

The Left Wing of the Cossacks

The Swedes, commanded by Bevan, were more like a conventional ECW army. They fielded two brigades of Reiters (like harquebusiers) , each with three squadrons; two brigades of pike, one consisting of three “Swedish” or pike-heavy battalia, the other consisting of four “German” standard battalia; and finally a battery of artillery and an orphan brigade of mixed cavalry consisting of a small unit of cuirassiers and another unit of standard Reiters.

The Reiters grouped together on the Swedish left wing

Despite having all the Tatar bowmen to seek out the opposition, the Cossacks were out-scouted and had to deploy first. The ground wasn’t ideal for war-wagons, with the only open space on my left, so that’s where they went along with a brigade of Tatar horse. The two infantry brigades went in the centre and centre right, with the final brigade of horse out on my right. I planned to hold the hedgerows on my right whilst the war wagons dealt with the Swedish left wing, and go from there!

The battlefield from the Cossack side. My CinC is obviously off to visit the church in the middle of the field!

The Swedes massed their cavalry on their left wing, and lined their infantry up next to them but stretching across the rest of the battlefield. That looked like an awful lot of cavalry facing my right, and I could immediately see that Bevan was intending to punch through my right hand cavalry brigade and then bring his horse round onto my flank. Gulp! I’d better win elsewhere rather quickly then!

The Battle Itself

The battle itself divided neatly into two halves: with action taking place on either side of but not along the road that ran up the centre of the field.

On the Cossack left flank, the tabor trundled forward with the Tatar horse easily keeping pace. Opposite them, the pike-heavy Swedish battalia advanced in a slightly ragged line, with the orphan brigade of cavalry behind them.

As the two sides got closer, the tabor turned and deployed ready for action, quickly opening fire with their light guns and muskets. One Swedish battalia was disordered by their fire, so the Tatar horse archers moved forward and double-disordered them with bowfire.

This was too good an opportunity to miss: the veteran Tatar Noble Lancers charged the disordered pike and smashed them from the table! Behind the pike were the Cuirassiers, but they were also dashed from the field by the rampaging Tatars. Unfortunately, the exhausted Nobles were then dispersed by the Reiters accompanying the cuirassiers, but they in turn were then routed by the horse archers following up their Noble comrades.

Meanwhile, one tabor was locked in combat with a battalia of pikemen. The action swayed back and forth, but the Swedish pike were too strong, and the tabor’s crew fled the field.

That was, however, the limit of Swedish success on this flank. Another battalia was hit in the flank and routed by horse archers, and as the battle on the other side of the field reached its climax, more Swedish infantry were about to be charged in the rear by the rampant Tatar horse: the combination of fortress-like tabor shooting any enemy that moved and the nimble Tatar horsemen proving a winnig combination.

It was, however, on the other flank that the battle was decided.

The Swedes wanted to push their horse forward en masse and just overwhelm the outnumbered Tatars in front of them. Unfortunately the cards did not smile on this endeavour, and their attack was first delayed and then delivered piecemeal.

This allowed the Tatars to focus their efforts on the front-runners and break two squadron of horse, but this initial success turned into a gradual retreat in the face of overwhelming numbers of Reiters and, as the battle ended, all three Tatar/Cossack units had been routed and the Swedish horse was preparing to lap around the right flank of the Cossack infantry.

The three Tatar/Cossack units had, however, effectively neutralised the initial Swedish plan of punching huge numbers of Reiters around the Cossack right flank meaning that, along with the successes on the left flank, the Cossacks had a real chance to win the battle with their infantry in the centre…provided they could do so before the Reiters eventually arrived.

The gallery below shows the cavalry action on the right of the Cossack position:

So the battle would be decided in the centre-right axis of the Swedish advance, where the good quality “Swedish” (pike-heavy) infantry moved forward against the Cossack foot: mostly raw infantry armed with long spears rather than pike.

The Cossacks lined the hedgerows near the crossroads and the Swedes advanced to contact. Cossack musket fire was largely ineffective, and they were soon forced to retreat away from the hedgerows in the face of a series of determined charges by the enemy pike.

I brought up reinforcements from the other flank, but so crowded was the nature of the fighting that I couldn’t find a way of extricating my disordered troops from the front line so that I could replace them with fresh. This, as I said, was due to the ferocity of the Swedish attack: continually pressing forward.

And then Lady Luck smiled upon the Cossacks: the Swedish Commanding General was cut down by Cossack musket fire as he led his infantry line forward!

In FK&P, your c-in-c is worth a lot (and I mean a lot) of victory medals, so this really tipped things in my favour. If I could break just two more Swedish units (across the battlefield, not just on this flank, so including all the action on the other flank, happening simultaneously with what I’m now describing) then the day would be mine.

The death of the swedish C-in-C

Unfortunately, Lady Luck is nothing if not even handed, and the very next turn the Cossack commanding general was first lightly wounded and then also killed, losing me an equal number of victory medals!

Death of the Cossack Commanding General

Both sides were now down to just two victory medals remaining: whoever next broke a unit would win the battle.

The initiative was with the Cossacks, so my line of Moloitsy and Registered Cossacks opened fire, bur failed to break the enemy. They returned fire…and this proved too much for one of my raw Moloitsy battalia. They broke and fled the field, taking the rest of my infantry with them.

Seeing their right flank broken and, indeed, with the survivors about to be cut down by rampaging Reiters, the victorious Tatar cavalry and tabor on the left flank remembered an important appointment elsewhere and also skedaddled. The day was with the Swedes!

Aftermath

It had been an epic game that, once again, came down to the final action.

All credit to Bevan for having a great plan and deployment: if his infantry hadn’t carried the day then his Reiters coming in from my right would have finished me off for sure.

17th Century Swedish Command

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Over the last couple of year’s I’ve built up a sizeable 15mm collection of English Civil War figures. To them I’ve added some Cossacks and am in the process of building a contemporary Polish army as well.

Looking to get more use out of all the above, I realised that I could quite easily use the bulk of my English Civil War collection as Swedish troops for the Thirty Years War. After all, the Swedish troops dressed in “western” styles rather than the “eastern” styles of the native Polish or Cossack infantry: so my “Swedish-style” ECW cavalry could masquerade as Swedish reiters, and the infantry could be fielded as is.

That was a good start, but I didn’t have any idea as to the composition of a Swedish army…but a couple of hours online and with the FK&P rulebook enabled me to put together the following, which I think does the trick nicely.

The main elements of the army would be reiters and either “Swedish” of “German” foot. “Swedish” foot were rarely actually Swedish of course (a lot of Finns and a surprising amount of Scots): the name comes from the way they were fielded in terms of pike/musket ratio following Carl Gustav’s reforms. Likewise, “German” foot were not all German, and the term applies to any foot with a more conventional pike/musket ratio.

I could have gone into more detail and noted that CG’s army were often short of pikemen, so all the infantry were effectively “German” stylee, but that’s probably an unnecessary complication: it’s enough that I can call pike-heavy battalia “Swedish” and standard battalia “German”.

The next question was how to make the army look a bit more Swedish. The solution was actually quite easy: the Swedish Command pack from By Fire & Sword gives you seven different command stands plus flags.

One problem is that the By Fire & Sword models are really difficult to get hold of in the UK: exports from Poland presumably more difficult now due to a mixture of Brexit, COVID and the dramatic increase in postage/transport costs. I manged to get one of the last I could find from Entoyment in Poole.

The models are generally up to the usual high standard of By Fire & Sword except, unfortunately, for a lot of the faces. I don’t know whether it’s the original sculpts or the casting, or even worn out molds, but many of the faces just didn’t have the relief that you’d normally expect. I’m not the best painter in the world, so I reply on clearly defined detail on figures to bring out the, er, detail, including faces. Base colour, a wash then highlight forehead, nose, cheeks and chin only really works if you have a clearly defined forehead, nose, cheeks and chin…otherwise you’re actually painting faces from scratch, well beyond my talents!

This was disappointing, but I still think the By Fire & Sword packs are great: everything you need plus flags.

So that’s a Swedish army created from existing stock and one pack of command figures. I might see if I can do the same with some of the other TYW nations…

Assyrian Lights

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With the Akkadian army now tweaked to fit in with the latest lists (i.e. with the new, slimline infantry units) I decided to go through all my armies checking that I had everything that I could need.

First pause for purchase were the Assyrians: I have all the core troops but could do with some more light archer units as the one that I had was almost certainly not enough.

Most of the existing Assyrians are from Essex, so it was off to their website I went to get some more. After all, as the madaxeman says on his blog:

Essex have a vast range of 15mm figures in all periods and are often seen as the "baseline" for all other manufacturers - whatever army you are looking to buy Essex will have a figure range for it, and the decision you need to make is "can I find any manufacturer of figures I like better than those from Essex?" (or maybe "everyone will have these Essex figures - I want my stuff to look different as it will then give the impression that I have a personality of my own!"). IMO their figures are always to a good standard, take paint nicely but are sometimes accused of lacking a little in "personality" or animation. Very good consistency and compatibility throughout the entire range.

Wise words!

Essex also have excellent service: I ordered on a Saturday and by Tuesday the figures were sitting on the painting table ready for a bit of attention.

Lovely figures, and easy to paint up: I used Contrast Paints and did the whole lot in a couple of hours.

Highly recommended.

TFL Painting Challenge: Second May Update

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Here’s another Painting Challenge update, with entries Steve Burt, Carole Flint, Mark Luther, Andrew Helliwell, Mervyn Douglas and Sapper.

See their individual galleries for all their work, but here’s a taster to whet your whistle…

TTS AAR: Slim-Line Akkadians Take The Field!

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Amongst those of you who read my previous post (last Tuesday) about the changes to the To The Strongest army lists turning my Akkadian double-depth units into normal-depth Spearmen was friend Bevan. He suggested that the best thing to do was to immediately try out the new look “slim-line” Akkadians and proposed a battle.

This we duly arranged, fielding the Akka’s against a Classical Indian army. Figures for both sides came from the Museum Miniatures CAD-designed “Z” ranges, so looked very good indeed.

akkadians (left) versus classical indians (right)

The Akkadians boasted four brigades: a shock brigade of two units of battle carts (good in a straight line!) supported by a unit of lights; two foot brigades each of one “bodyguard” unit of Spearmen with extra bows and two normal Spearmen units; and then a reserve brigade of two raw, militia Spearmen units and two units of light archers.

The Classical Indians, on the other hand, had only three brigades. One consisted of a couple of units of veteran Heavy Chariots supported by a unit of crappy horse. The other two were built around a unit of escorted elephants: one had the veteran Maiden Guard (hard women all!) and two Longbowmen units, the other had three Longbowmen units.

The Game Itself

The two sides set up very differently. The Akkadians concentrated their battle carts on the left, opposite one of the Indian elephant brigades. The Indians concentrated their heavy chariots on the left (i.e. at the opposite end of the battlefield to the Akkadian battle carts) opposite the Akkadian reserves. Both sides deployed their main infantry bodies in the centre.

The game began with both sides moving forwards whilst maintaining their battle lines. On the Akkadian right, the reserve brigade refused the flank, leaving the Indian chariots with no-one to immediately charge.

the advance

The Indian longbowmen opened fire as soon as the Akkadians came into range. A storm of arrows headed their way, but there was something wrong with the Indian bows and the results of two rounds of longbow fire were one disordered Akkadian spear unit. Admittedly this unit then spent the rest of the game skulking in broken ground trying to rally, but the Akkadians had still got off lightly.

On the Indian right, one unit of elephants and the raw longbowmen headed forward, but the longbowmen hung back as the elephants surged towards the enemy…who wasn’t really there any more. Not liking the smell of the pachyderms (you don’t get too many elephants in Akkad) the battle carts had headed into the centre of the battlefield to join the main charge there, leaving some lights to keep the nellie’s occupied. The elephants would spend the rest of the game uselessly chasing the Akkadian skirmishers around that area.

elephants

The Akkadians initiated the main clash of the two battle lines, which rapidly turned into a disaster!

The Maiden Guard destroyed a unit of Spearmen, and either combat or longbow fire accounted for another…which happened to be the veteran unit carrying the Akkadian army standard and lost their accompanying general as well. That was seven coins (out of 13) down in one hit!

Losing generals seemed to be the theme of the game. Out of the seven generals who arrived on the battlefield at the start of the game, five were killed!

Losing to a bunch of ladies!

All was not lost, however, as the Akkadians settled down and got stuck in.

One Akkadian spear unit (the one out front in the first picture in this post) burst through the Indian line, destroying some longbowmen in the process, and managed to take the enemy camp, a significant loss of coins for the Indians.

The Akkadian reserves moved forward and filled the hole caused by the losses suffered so far, preventing the Indian chariots from lapping around the flank.

Other Akkadian units also saw off enemy units, killing generals in the process.

Taking the camp

The reserves are committed to cover the right flank

The climax of the battle was now upon us: with each side having just one victory coin left i.e. the next kill would win the game…and with disordered units all round, and lights on the Akkadian side, there were plenty of opportunities for either side to win.

The initiative was with the Akkadians: no kills on their turn!

The Indians tried their best: no kills (phew!) but the Akkadians were wavering. If I didn’t pull off a win in my next turn, there was no way I was surviving another round of Indian attacks.

I went through all my obvious kill possibilities (my good morale units versus his disordered units, flank fire on the raw Indian cavalry etc) with no result. Oh dear: this was not looking good.

There was, however, one last thing to try. Veteran, but disordered, battle carts charging diagonally at the disordered Indian Maiden Guard.

The battle carts managed to make the difficult move into contact, but failed to hit the Guard. Oh no!

But what was this? Striding forward came an Akkadian hero (the chap under the blue parasol in the picture below) and smote the Maiden Guard with a cracking hit. Bevan and I held our breaths as his save card was turned: a five and therefore a fail. The Guard fled the field and I and the Akkadians had won the day!

As always, a cracking game of To The Strongest and a game that had gone down to the wire. The narrowest of victories for the new slim-line Akkadians!

19C AAR: Crimean War Clash

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Having re-based my Crimean Russian army a couple of weeks ago, it was now time to get them onto the tabletop. These figures had last seen action 23 years ago, so it was a real pleasure to wheel them out again and just proves my adage: never sell any figures, never give any away!

The game, using Neil Thomas’ Rules for 19th C Warfare, would therefore feature my Crimean Russians against John playing my Crimean French army in a fight for control of a strategically vital crossroads atop a ridge somewhere near Sebastopol.

Russians to the left, Frenchies to the right. The aim of the game was to take the crossroads in the middle of the table

As we wanted a big game and weren’t too bothered about making things fair, we fielded every figure that I had in the two armies concerned. This left the French pretty outnumbered, but with much better command and troops of generally better quality. The French could also form line for firing, unlike the Russians who were forced to stay in column throughout the game, and were armed with rifled muskets unlike the smoothbores of the Russians. Finally, the French could also field skirmishers (the Legere units) to harass the Russian columns as they advanced.

The Russians fielded four infantry divisions and a cavalry division for a total of ten infantry units, four cavalry units, five batteries of artillery and a couple of dubious looking sotnias of Cossacks.

The French fielded three infantry and one cavalry division for a total of six infantry units, three skirmisher units, four cavalry units and three artillery batteries.

So a hard fought victory for the Russians!

The French retreated in good order having lost all their skirmishers and half their line infantry. They managed to save two batteries of artillery, but lost most of their cavalry.

The Russians advanced to occupy the crossroads, but had lost half their infantry, half their artillery, half their cavalry and most of the Cossacks.

As the Russian commander, I knew my only route to a win was to just grind the French down, and grind them down I did.

John admitted that his infantry got bogged down in the fields and hedges near the town: his infantry mainly stayed static and tried to win by musket fire alone, which was a shame as every time the French attacked they smashed the Russian columns back. More elan needed next time!

The cavalry action on the Russian right was just a distraction: three units of Russians took care of two units of French, but hadn’t the strength to do much more. On the Russian left, the Cossacks were effectively wiped out by the French Guides, and it was again a shame that the French Cuirassiers had to be sacrificed in a vain attempt to stop the three columns of Russian infantry coming forward. At least they dies knowing that they gave the surviving French infantry in the centre time to retreat in good order!

All in all a cracking game!

All Change for the Akkadians

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Over the many years that I have been gaming, I have often heard people discussing the negative effects of a change in codex i.e. an official change to a set of rules or army list that renders an army or units that they use effectively useless. The codex change eithers removes that army or unit entirely from the lists available (the best example of this is the demise of the entire Squat/Space Dwarf race from the 40K universe) or severely lessens their fighting effectiveness.

I, personally, have never encountered this…until now!

Regular visitors will know that one of the armies I use to play the To The Strongest Ancients rules is an Akkadian army, representing a force from the city of Akkad dating between 2334 and 2154BCE. Up until now, the core of the army has been deep (i.e. double depth) units of Spearmen that are unwieldy to manoeuvre but have a lot of staying power.

I have duly painted up six units of spearmen, each of 48 figures, i.e. 288 figures in total.

A bit unwieldy, but plenty of staying power

The latest version of the lists, however, accompanied by a new v10 edition of the Even Stronger official amendments, has changed all this.

No longer are the Akkadian spear units deep: they have reverted to being normal depth.

Now I don’t actually have a problem with this - I get more units in my army, my force becomes more flexible tactically, and my army can now have an army standard, something I have always felt lacking in the pre-biblical lists - but that does mean that half of my 288 figures will now be sitting on the sidelines during a game rather than marching to victory with their comrades.

Luckily I have based them so that I can easily represent the change (I’ll just field the front two elements rather than former four, and it’s lucky that the command figures are in the second rank not the third where I’d originally intended to put them) but it still seems a shame that half the core army won’t now see action. Perhaps I’ll just field them as is, but treat them as normal depth!

On the plus side, however, as mentioned above I can now field an army standard so, as I wanted a different standard to my existing Museum Miniatures Z Range Sumerian unit standards, I quickly ordered a standard and some additional figures from Eureka…which leapt to the front of the painting queue as soon as they arrived.

Nice figures that size well with my existing collection. I still prefer the Museum Miniatures figures for their chunkiness (the axes and standard pole are a bit puny on the Eureka figures) but these make a nice change.

As I was already on the Eureka site, I also took the opportunity to buy some light javelinmen for the Akkadians. Even Stronger now allows mounted troops (such as my Akkadian Gish Gigir 4-wheeled battle cars) to be supported by lights in a way that means that I can take a hit meant for the battle cars onto the lights rather than onto the battle cars themselves. As the battle cars are my only mounted troops, so nasty to lose, and I don’t get that many of them, this is a very useful rule change indeed.

The Eureka lights are a bit stiffer in pose than my Museum lot, but do enjoy magnificently flowing locks of, presumably, black hair. I’d better look for a regimental barber figure too!

So it’s all change for the Akkadians, and I look forward to trying out the new, nimbler version of the army as soon as possible!

IABSM AAR: Take the Ztarmerski Bridge!

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Lovely looking game of IABSM posted onto the IABSM Facebook Group by Phil Turner.

The Wehrmacht is advancing across the Russian Steppe at speed. It is of vital importance that the Ztarmerski bridge over the river Korbynskia is taken before the Ivan’s have the opportunity to destroy it.

Click on the picture below to see the full AAR:

TFL Painting Challenge: First May Update

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Which is happening on the seventh of May!

Some entries from the hard core this week: Stumpy, Sapper, Steve, Andrew Helliwell, and Cooperman.

Check out the individual galleries, but here’s a taster of what they’ve sent in:

IABSM AAR: D-Day Spectacular

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Here’s a superb write up of what looked like an absolutely cracking game of I Ain’t Been Shot Mum featuring another of Desmondo’s brilliant Sword Beach D-Day spectaculars.

The report is taken from Iain Fuller’s marvellous Tracks and Threads blog, and with extra pictures from the IABSM Facebook group.

Click on the picture below to see all:

Polish WW2 Howitzers

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Even though IABSM is a company-level game, where any artillery heavier than 75mm would be way off-table, I like to have one artillery unit per army painted up and ready to go. There’s the occasional scenario featuring things being so bad that the artillery is firing over open sights, or they can act as objectives or even battlefield scatter.

With the Poles, I’d already painted up all the limbers and tractors I needed: all that was now required was the guns. With Battlefront hit hard by the COVID crisis, I just couldn’t get hold of any set Polish artillery packs so had to try and make up my own.

Luckily the Poles used the ubiquitous Czech Skoda 100mm guns produced under license, which they called the wz. 14/19, so I was able to order four plastic sprues from Battlefront. They look ages to arrive, and at first I thought that I had the wrong model: the wheels didn’t look exactly the same as the image in the Battlefront shop, and it looked as if either the Poles used a shorter barrel for their version or that I had mounted either the shield in too laid back a position or the gun too far forward as the barrels seem to stick out more than they should. Here’s a picture from the Battlefront website to show you what I mean:

This was all very disheartening, but then I did a search on the web and found this picture:

And loads of other variants as well.

It seems the wheels could be correct for some versions, the gun shield didn’t necessarily cover the wheels, and it seems the barrel did stick out - perhaps not quite as far as mine, but closer than the Battlefront picture model. One thing: the barrel seems to have extended past the recoil cylinder. Annoyingly, the wz. 14/19 is one of the few guns not looked at in detail on the the otherwise very comprehensive PIBWL military site.

So a bit up in the air, but my models will definitely do!

The crews are from Peter Pig, who are usually excellent for providing small packs of figures. Here I used two packs of Soviet artillerymen, who are usually a very good substitute for Poles. Unfortunately I must say that I don’t think these are up to the usual Piggy standard. The faces, usually very detailed, are a bit stodgy, and the limbs/poses a bit off too. I had to double check that I hadn’t used early Battlefront models by mistake!

But they are done, and at a range of 3ft they will look perfectly good on the tabletop. It’s just me that will worry all the time that they are not quite right!

Crimean Russians Re-based

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Thermopylae, Flanders, the Crimea…it’s the same places that get fought over again and again and again.

Here’s the latest re-basing for my 19th Century collection: the Russian army of the Crimean War, another pointless campaign that achieved far more misery than lasting effect.

I’ve exchanged the existing somewhat esoteric basing scheme for a more ubiquitous version: infantry in units of 32 figures mounted on 40mm wide and 30mm deep bases; cavalry on the same size bases in units of 12 figures.

A right pain in the backside to do, but good for my Painting Challenge score and means that I will get the army onto the tabletop again. Looking at my records, I last used them in anger on 9th March 1999: just over 23 years ago. Ridiculous, but I’m still glad I’ve kept hold of them all this time.

TFL Painting Challenge: Another April Update

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It’s a sunny day outside, the washing is done and on the line, everyone else is still asleep…so here’s another quick update to this year’s Challenge.

Today we have entries from Carole, Lloyd, Andrew, Pete, Mervyn and Stumpy. You can see their latest works in their full galleries via the top nav bar, but here’s a taster of what they sent in:

More Battles on the Border

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Even though the border was a different one!

It was off to friend Bevan’s house for some more To The Strongest. Our last games had involved Feudal English and Feudal Welsh battling it out on the border: this sessions would involve the Feudal English again, but this time facing the Feudal Scots.

This promised to be an interesting match up. The English had large amounts of Knights supported by equally large amounts of longbowmen, with a load of rabble Raw Spearmen following on behind. The Scots, on the other hand, had only one unit of cavalry (light chaps armed with lances), very few missile-men, but a lot of deep spearmen and warriors.

Game One

For the first game, I would command the Feudal Scots. My plan was to wait for his troops to come to me, largely ignore the longbowmen, tie his Knights up with some spearmen, and use my warrior-types to hack into his raw troops. The loss of all the English raw troops should give me the battle before the rest of my men gave way to his Knights.

The English began the game with Knights advancing on either flank. I responded by bravely doing nothing. I had a bit of luck in that one English command refused to go forward, meaning that the Sassenachs would approach my line piecemeal as opposed to together.

Not advancing on the left meant that the wood there effectively protected my flank. This was good news, as the more the Knights advance was delayed the better. Bevan, realising what was happening, sent one lot of Knights into the woods, delaying their arrival even more.

I still got hammered by the other unit of Knights, but my men dug deep and held on. I had, however, lost a couple of units more than I had killed myself, so things were definitely not in my favour.

Meanwhile things were coming to a climax on the other flank.

I had distracted the other of his Knights units with my light horse, who had kept evading away until they left the table. The Knights then turned round and headed back to the action, whereupon my Lights re-entered the table and charged their rear.

The Knights survived this, but not a flank attack from a unit of Spearmen: with the Knights losing both themselves and the General who was with them. Not only this but the other, already disordered, unit of Knights, seeing their comrades destroyed, also fled the field.

This, combined with the casualties on the other wing and the units my Warriors had destroyed, meant that Bevan was, much to both our surprises, out of Victory Coins. I had won!

The Roles Reversed

With neither of us sure how I had managed a victory, we decided to play again, but this time with the roles reversed i.e. I would take the English, Bevan would take the Scottish.

I had a very clear plan in my head: put all four of my Knights units on the right flank and send them forward as fast as possible. Refuse everything else, and let the Knights lap around the end of his line, turn, and roll the Scots up. Simples!

So that’s what I attempted to do.

The initial advance went well. It would have been better if I had broken one of his units with one of my initial charges, but my aim had always been for most of my Knights to pin the left side of his line whilst the remainder rolled them up.

Incredibly, Bevan made a (very rare) tactical mistake, and let my Knights lap around his flank.

Look at the picture below. The Knights on the far right have turned and are about to hit the enemy’s flank. The rest of my Knights are perfectly in position. I had done it: I had the Scots exactly where I wanted them and it was now just a question of playing out the roll up.

Or not.

For those of you who don’t know what two Aces mean, it means my men won’t be moving that turn.

And on the next turn they didn’t manage to break the Scots either.

In all, it took me three turns to break that one unit when they should have fallen on turn one.

That meant that the meat of the Scottish force had enough time to hit my rabble Raw Spearmen and drive them from the field. I could only watch as my Knights stayed still or bounced off the Spearmen’s flank whilst the rest of the army crumbled.

To say that I was robbed is understatement in the extreme! Even Bevan couldn’t believe that he had survived the onslaught…but all credit to him for recognising what was happening and driving his men forward against my rabble as fast as he possible could.

Aftermath

Another two great games of TTS, and two surprise victories…one of which was a very big surprise.

In fact, all that remained was for me to give the packs of cards I had been using a final shuffle:

IABSM AAR: Break-Through

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For those of you who are on Facebook, I recommend joining the I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum group. People there answer questions about the rules, post up pictures of their forces, ideas for scenarios and, of course, after action reports.

Here’s one from James Moulding featuring late war action in a break-through scenario. Click on the picture below to see all.

IABSM AAR: Return to Le Haut-Perrier

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I was adding another IABSM battle report to the 500+ already on the site (plenty more room: keep sending them in) when I noticed the links to five reports in particular were broken.

The reports were all from from the extremely talented Sergeant Perry: five different AAR featuring the same scenario from the Welsh Guards scenario pack played at the same convention back in August 2012.

The table set up and games look magnificent so, having repaired the links, I thought it worthwhile to highlight them again. Click on the links below to see all:

Sergeant Perry/01

Sergeant Perry/02

Sergeant Perry/03

Sergeant Perry/04

Sergeant Perry/05

And here are a couple of photos to whet your whistle: