Hobby Update - 30 Jun 26

 I have made a little bit more progress on the painting (and repair) pile over the last week or so. I am still prioritizing stuff for the little one, either stuff that is his or stuff that is going to him. That means a lot of 28mm stuff, which although it isn't expanding my collection too much, it is at least saving some space as they leave my pile and enter his room!

 

First up is a bunch of Soviets: some Bad Squiddo Soviets (Platoon command, plus a sniper pair) and a Warlord Games sprue, kindly donated by a member of TWW! Also, the Russian from Hour of Glory and a few repaired Romans.

 

 

Some repaired Zulus, Mahdists and a 24th Foot Ensign.

Some repaired and some fresh-built British Paras, including a couple of women to use as SOE operatives and suchlike!

A couple of free gift sprues of Germans: one sprue of Panzer Lehr and another of winter German paratroopers. Anyway, they are really nice figures, both types. I will keep these ones I think, no doubt I will find a use for them at some point!

Okay, back to stuff for the bairn: US infantry and paratroopers spares and repairs:

And a USMC platoon command pack for the Pacific:

 So definitely maintaining a bit of forward momentum now. I am looking for some proverbial easy wins next, so will prioritize stuff going to the bairn (plus he has NO issues getting stuff to the table. and under the bed. and on the stairs. etc...)

 

Hobby Update 08 Apr 26 - A Million Hits

One million hits used to be the sign of a very popular blog. These days it isn't quite as true since much of the traffic will be scripted bots but still, I guess it is a nice milestone to have reached anyway!

 Recent lack of blogging has very much reflected a lack of activity on my part. A combination of being super-busy at work and (another) move around at home has eaten up both my time and space. And also, as is very much the pattern for me, when I reach a certain level of stress I seem to gravitate towards RPGs rather than wargames. I have created quite a nifty OD&D character generator and editor, I suppose!

So, apart from a somewhat unsatisfactory WW2 game that I abandoned, I haven't done any wargaming at all, and only a little bit of model-making. Such as that was, it included an mdf Roman Villa: 

A very nice piece from Sarissa I think, and not too complicated to build - for my youngest.

And then a bunch of Warlord WW2 US Marines - as usual for WW2 28mm stuff, these were for my youngest: 

And finally a few Baccus WW2 bits and pieces for me:

German anti-tank guns (75mm and 88mm), anti-aircraft guns (quad 20s and 37s, Mobelwinds), some movers (Sd7s) and some Demags.

And some British Bofors guns, some 2pdrs, some carriers and some scout cars. I found doing the WW2 figures strangely difficult, I think my eyes really are going a bit - I don't find the equipment that easy to pick out.
 

Next up will be some more stuff for the bairn - some Warlord British for the Zulu War,  some WW2 Japanese and doing some repair work on some Space Marines that he tried but didn't quite turn out as he hoped. After that, hopefully I will be able to get back to some of my own projects, although I am not quite sure what I will prioritize. I have some more WSS stuff to do (which I just love painting!), some Ancients I want to rebase and add to (particularly Successors, who seem to be really useful as Ancient armies go), a Byzantine Army to paint up, some Napoleonic Poles, and quite a bunch of little additions. It feels like I have cut back on buying stuff a bit over the last couple of years, but not as much as my painting has been cut back, plus I am painting for two and that really slows things down. So I should proabbly cut down even further on the buying but...I don't particularly buy much stuff for me generally so part of the way I structure my life is in thinking about the next show and buying myself a few figures. Ho hum. So, at Hammerhead for example, I limited myself to a pack of WSS figures. I wanted to buy a fair bit more but restrained myself, hoping I will get the pile down a bit. Perhaps I need to start thinking about buying more painted miniatures in the future?

I am off for a couple of days at the moment. More important than the painting is actually working out a way of getting some games in, and where the models can be stored and accessed to make that happen. My lovely long-awaited table in the garage has yet again been buried under the excess stuff from the house, so it is really a matter of finding a place to squeeze in somewhere.  The key thing to decide is how much to try and attempt this way. For example, I could do 6mm WSS no problem, two sides, small board, limited terrain, easy. Should I try and fit something else in? 6mm Ancients is a possibility. 6mm WW2 works great on a small board, but seems to really benefit from having a wider range of models and terrain to support it. 6mm TYW/ECW works quite well too I guess, as does 6mm Napoleonics. 15mm WW2 skirmish might work, but terrain gets to be an issue much more quickly. Portable Wargame stuff is obviously designed for this kind of thing. 28mm skirmish is harder to pull off on very small boards unless you keep the figures to a minimum, and then it feels like a lot of terrain for a quite limited number of games. 1/4800 Napoleonic Naval and 1/600 WW2 Air might work. So lots of options to choose from, but I do need to actually make that choice if I am going to get more games in - wish me luck!

Not Quite Dead...

The summer has seemed to pass in a hot fug of work and family stuff to so, so ages since I have been able to post, or game very much. Starting my own business has been a real roller-coaster! So just a short, proof-of-life post... 

More pictures to follow shortly, but I have managed to get some painting done. This has mainly been a bunch of Roman Auxilia for my youngest, but I have also done some more troops for the War of the Spanish Succession: some Hanoverian Horse and Foot, complete except for the flags, with some Prussian and Bavarian Foot underway, with a couple of odds-and-ends units from other nations too. Earlier I completed a bunch of Baccus WW2 stuff, which I don't think I have posted before:

 

US SP artillery and anti-aircraft, plus some 105mm Shermans

German SP anti-aircraft artillery, plus an SP gun and a Desert PzIII with the long 50

Some Nebelwerfers (critical for doing Normandy!) and a few Achilles SP AT guns

The Nebelwerfers

Some German guns

and the whole lot in one go

Some Crusaders and some Valentines, plus some more SP AT guns

more German SP guns, Panzer IIIS, and some Sd222s.

And some more US tanks, including an ARV

And for something completely different, some Cataphracts! Realized I was missing some, but they are a very versatile troop type for Roman-era warfare.

I have played a couple more battles in my shadowing of the Polemarch's 'War of the Stuart Succession' campaign, but not had time to write them up properly. However, as a snippet:

A French invasion!

 

Fighing amongst the coal pits!

 

Hope springs eternal, and I have been promised a bit of a break next month, so I should be able to complete a few more models and get some more games to the table, whereas the majority of gaming time in the last couple of months has gone under the category of 'pondering gaming' rather than painting or playing. Still, that's not nothing and I have managed to at least refine a vary disparate list of things I was vaguely considering to something more like a plan, with an attached shopping list. But we shall see! We have also had a bit of a change-around at home, so I might have a little more storage, painting and gaming space to use, which should help a bit too.

 

Capturing Caesar's Camp: Actions 06 & 07 - Counter-attack at Villiers

For the next two actions in this re-fight of the TooFatLardies' pint-sized campaign Capturing Caesar's Camp, as the British offensive began to slow, the Germans launch a counter-attack at the village of Villiers-sur-Mareuil. The aim is to force a diversion of British effort and energy to remove this 'thorn in the side' of the advance.

 

The British are fielding a slightly weakened platoon to defend Villiers - the Germans have a fresh platoon with which to attack. The British are supported by an additional FOO and 3" mortar section, and an additional Vickers MMG and Rifle section.

The British are in a somewhat offset 2-up 1-back defensive position. One section is by the hedgerow by the road on the left;Two section is just in front of the church by the wall; the FOO is actually in the church, along with an additional Rifle section; Platoon HQ is in and around the old barn (bottom-left building); the Vickers MMG is by the bottom junction; and Three Section is in reserve by the hedgerow below the church. Three section is also responsible for guarding the right flank, if uncommitted.

One section (left) and Platoon HQ (bottom-centre)

Two section (top-centre); FOO (church); Three Section (bottom-right); Vickers MMG (bottom-left)

The Battle (Action One):

Somewhat giving the game away, there were two actions that took place in quick succession - I have rolled them into the same report. 

Jerry! A German squad is moving down the extreme flank (behind the hedgerow)

A better look.

The Germans have also managed to get a Pak36 forward too!

However, all this is being observed by the FOO - he calls in the mortars! The anti-tank gun's crew become casualties

As the mortar fire continues, some of the German riflemen manage to get forward, but the MG34 team is eliminated. The British (bottom) are holding their fire, not wanting to give away their position until they have to.

A wider shot

More Germans turn up.

But just as these Germans try to get forward on the other side of the hedge...the mortars arrive again!

Another 8 Germans fall in a few moments. The Germans have still not spotted a single defender.

The remaining Germans retreat!

Understandbly furious, the German company commander throws in another attack!! He also calls for some additional support...

Action Two: 

The Germans push forward another Pak36 (top, just on the far side of the road)

Yet again, it is quickly identified and a further 3" mortar strike is carried out

But this time...Stuka! No it isn't, it is a 109E Jabo. But still bad news...

The very-sharp eyed pilot identifies the British position in and around the church...

And neatly lands is bombs into the church tower, eliminating the FOO team and the supporting section! The nearby Two section are suppressed also.

The 109E pulls away...

Meanwhile, the Germans are again going right-flanking. I assume that their Recce patrols must have spotted the main British position in the centre and are determined to avoid it!

The Germans push forward, encouraged by their Platoon commander (base to the rear)

Rapid fire!!!

Some good shooting by the Camerons - the German squad is entirely eliminated!

Less good news - this has attracted the attention of the Jabo...

The 109 strafes the British section...thankfully they were more scared than actually hurt...

Another pass by the 109 - by now, some of the Camerons are in harder cover; the German platoon commander has managed to slip away into the further field

On the 109E's last pass, it gets hit by the Vickers MMG! I would like to report it went down in flames...but it was barely scratched. Still, it aborted its last run.

A German sniper works his way forward rather gingerly (by the wooden shed and the three tall trees in the centre of the village)

Meanwhile, another German squad appeas, this one going right-flanking, skirting the woods.

And then slipping through them

The British reserve section's Bren is covering the road

A German Kubelwagen turns up?!

Some German engineers are poking forward into the edge of the village too. Everyone is busy not spotting each other.

The British Bren gunner wasn't napping - as the Germans advance, four of the German riflemen go down!

This is followed by a very ineffective exchange of fire

But the Germans have shot their bolt - the Platoon Commander knows that there is little point in pressing the attack further, and gives the order to pull back.

Scene at the end of the battle - note that One Section on the Left has pushed forward a little - it managed to suppress the German engineer group (amongst the buildings).

 Game Notes:

That concludes the campaign! In the first action, the Germans lost 6 KIA, 13 WIA and the British nothing at all, unsurprisingly, since there were only a few moments where the Germans might have spotted a British soldier. The second action was rather more even: 6 KIA and 14 WIA for the Germans, 4 KIA and 10 WIA for the British. The Germans were a little unlucky in the second game, and the British Bren gunners really earned their pay. 

The first action would obviously have been terrible in H2H play, but it was quite satisfying solo: an attack getting hit by mortar fire and failing seems to have been a thing which happened quite a lot in WW2 in France (both in 1940 and 1944). There wasn't anything obviously wrong, or even generally unfair about it, except in that the British tended to have a FOO as potential support in all scenarios, and the Germans didn't.  I suspect there might be an element of rules-preference here, which I noticed in the KG Heller campaign too: if the rules a scenario is designed for are slightly more direct-fire than indirect-fire friendly, that same scenario will play out somewhat differently if used with rules which are more support-fire friendly. I would definitely count these rules, and the WRG rules family more generally, as somewhat more support fire friendly. 

The second action nicely demonstrated that bombing can be very effective! It should have been a Stuka, but I didn't have a model to hand, so I used a 109E as an early Jabo instead. Air support can be quite effective in these rules, especially with bombs or bigger cannons. Despite early losses, it was worth pressing on - the British were actually not in that great shape after the loss of those four elements in the air strike - both sides were equally shaky, is what I am getting at, so if the last Bren gunner had shot less well, then even a moderately successful German advance on the flank could have 'unlocked' the position. But it really wasn't that kind of campaign for the Germans!

Anyway, despite it not being that close in the end, I hope readers have enjoyed the write-ups. I promised new readers I do lose reasonably often in these scenarios, including once losing the entire campaign! But sometimes, things do go well and I get lucky too...

There have been lots of useful comments and suggestions on the blog and on The Wargames Website and The Miniatures Page. For those, many thanks, and  I will look to carry out a few refinements on my solo system before it is next in action.

 

Models by Baccus 6mm and Heroics and Ros. The 109E is from the Plastic Soldier Company. Buildings are a mixture of Battlescale and Leven. Rules used were Wargames Rules for Armoured Warfare 1925-1950, aka The Farquhar Version.