Dangerous Books for Men of a Certain Age: Rommel

It always happens, men get to a certain age and they pick up a book and start reading. Then dangerous ideas start forming in their heads. I believe there is a list of these dangerous books; Napoleon, Caesar, Alexander commonly feature in the titles. The wife is also attuned to the warning signs. "You are awfully quiet. What are you reading?" she inquired. "Oh it's nothing", I replied deep in thought, "Just a book about a German general called Rommel." She went and made herself a cup of tea (see below, a free book for audible subscribers a totally unexpected bonus, double plus good - Desert Fox, by Samuel W Micham Jr): 

Fascinating details on the desert war, a theme is developing here. Fascinating to note that he had a great respect for Wavell as an opponent and daunted at how Patton conducted mobile warfare. The last chapter on his death was quite tragic and poignant. Yes it has already got me shifting through board games and models ;) 

DAK Attack - Rules from "Offensive Miniatures"

Shiny Alert! I am on a Western Desert LRDP and SAS theme at the moment (see below, I saw this mentioned between wargaming friends online, looks appealing): 

https://www.offensiveminiatures.com/product-page/dak-attack-lrdg-rule-set

But I know "nothing" of it (other than it looks appealing).

BBC Series - SAS Rogue Heroes (North Africa)

With some trepidation I started to watch Episode One of the new BBC - SAS Rogue Heroes series. It had come with dare I say it, surprised recommendations from fellow some wargamers whom I deeply respect for their taste and acumen, so I took a deep breath and watched (or rather binged it on iPlayer). The jury was out in parts, the legend and the lore of the SAS are so easily overdone but as the story progressed I was totally hooked (for better or worse) but would it hold up in the cold light of day? It certainly had all the trappings of a professional marketing sell, the line-up of actors had clout, a "sexy rock and roll-heavy metal" sound track to boot and a very pacey delivery! (see below, would this montage of history, fiction, rock music and brat-pack acting [in a good sense] actually work?):     

And the verdict was .. well .. after some (short) deliberation .. I thought it was bloody brilliant! Somehow it all came together and seemed to get the gist of all the madness and stupidity associated with that era of the war - spot on. The wife even watched the series all the way through with me (partly due to the link with Sex Education actor and the lad who played the strapping Irishman [despite the beard]), it was simply such gripping television. Well done BBC how you pulled this off I do not know, in my heart I was expecting a "bitter lemon". There should not be a way that 1970's and 1980's rock music [Motorhead] could work for WWII - but it did. How? I still don't know, but do not care! Previously I was an instrumental "Where Eagles Dare" soundtrack person for top war stories but heck, (Rock Music) it worked, along with racing jeeps across the desert. You would, wouldn't you? The depiction of the LRDP was superb, they could have been over easily done, but no, a taxi service with guns who could navigate the desert like nobody else could. As for the storyline: I was laughing at moments, crying at moments and literally in awe - terrified at what was going to happen next - moments when I though "don't be daft - they wouldn't would they?" It has left me rushing for Michael Asher's history of The Regiment for the back story (it has been on the bookshelf long enough waiting to be read) .. and I bet I will get an Xmas book (and there are a few of them already out there) from the supermarket book isle! Sure I will find "discontinuity errors" as bits will have been simply "ripping yarns" but I love the disclaimer .. "the most incredible and unbelievable bits are the bits that are probably true"! Spoiler alert .. the last episode ended with Stirling down (captured), but will there be a Series Two following Paddy Mayne (and perhaps shots of Stirling musing in Colditz)? Meanwhile I unpacked "Undaunted: North Africa" and took a look at my 20mm Western Desert collection (with the classic LRDP set and some Dixon SAS metals, Strelets SAS-North African figures and Italians/DAK). There is a game or two in there to be had there ;) 

Purchase Number 4: Reinforcements for Undaunted

It says in the title it was a purchase (technically, yes), but I put this forth as an investment (and it was in a sale) as "Undaunted Reinforcements" is an expansion for the two Undaunted games (Normandy and North Africa) that I already have, so I call it a "force multiplier" (see below, not helped by the fact that the wife was in when the "diligent" Amazon man brought it to my door late at night, instead of teh next day when she would have been out!): 

Note: I vow that both original games will be played and the expansion too. It is all a case of when (not if). But first Beda Fomm must be played!

Heading to Beda Fomm .. a troop of A13 Mk IIa (10mm Pendrakon)

All this talk of the simulation of the battle of Beda Fomm has left me (or the collective "us") a few models short of being ale to create the British RTRs for Beda Fomm on the table top. Particularly because the A9, A10 and A13 fleets of British cruiser tanks did not have a long shelf life, particularly when they later came into contact with the Africa Korp. So A9s, A10a and A13s don't make it into the 1942+ battles, which is the popular 8th Army collection phase [for us currently]. Therefore "I had to" (or rather chose to) order some early war British kit from Pendrakon - well that was my excuse anyhow. That really meant I better start painting the three A13's I already had (see below, stunned into action I have primed in the Airfix acrylic primer grey): 

Next stop will be a Vallejo Brown Wash and a dark sand colour. I am thinking four collections of three tanks  (comprising or rather representing a squadron) would make up the armoured regiment, with a couple of the precious CS tanks (which could fire HE to take out AT Guns and fire smoke) in the HQ Troop. That should be enough for Beda Fomm as the cruiser formations were understrength by that point in the campaign anyhow.

Beda Fomm - Board Game Play - Play Testing

You read the set of rules, they seem straightforward (but even ten pages can contain a lot - now don't get me talking on DBA's six pages of simple rules needing seventy two pages of fan based explanation spanning several years of collaborative argumentation - over the meaning of rules after well-meaning and competition gamers get their mucky little hands on them) but until .. you get the playing pieces out on the board and start moving them around .. you don't realise the limitations of the brain's short term memory in understanding stuff. All good fun when play testing with friends though (see below, Beda Fomm set-up after what we thought was an accurate turn one - but looking at the board, flicking back to the rules and then reading the small print we realised "how wrong we were"): 

In the above you see an overuse of the "Move - No AT Fire" marker - which looked messy and we thought that cannot be right. Reading the rules again we find this isn't needed for all troops as not all troop types have AT fire capability (makes kind of sense). So particularly with respect to infantry, AT and Artillery if they do have inherent AT capability and they move they get a marker (tick). Art, AT and Regular firings are split out into different phases so this is an  fiddly but important "aide memoire" for the game (and as I sit typing I could not tell you for sure if that also applies to armour - I don't think so as it represents set-up time for guns etc but I will have to check). 

Secondly stacking limits really make this a "puzzle game" (as per the comment in the video I watched), but the Italian has some crazy "battalion sized truck units" (that represent feeing Italian non-fighting admin units) that have "minimal combat value" (aka the mighty "1") and serve mainly to get in the way of Italian unit movement and be VPs for the British and Commonwealth player. As it is a battalion size it will block another battalion from moving through them on the road - but the Italian has the option of "parking by the road" (stacking value zero but an auto kill if in combat). On the game test we even read simple movement values wrong, as we saw one Italian unit had a movement value of eight which translated into thirty two road hexes (wow) .. but only as we were packing away did we discover other units had a value of six (twenty four road hexes) so the convoy would really have travelled at the speed of the slowest unit until "first contact" with the enemy. This meant that the above board is wrong and a turn one encounter is impossible which also explains why our first move looked so unhistorical (as historically British and Commonwealth infantry blocked the road while the armoured cars prowled the flank shooting up "parked" lorries - but as we were playing it, the infantry would not have time to get there). 

As a design comment I can so see Frank Chadwick's interest in morale (which came through hard and fast in the later Command Decision set[s] of rules), as each formation (not counter) has its own morale tracker. Some of the Italian (mostly infantry) start really low at 6 (and as morale checks are equal to or under this value on 2d6, they are already behind the curve). Lots of combat results ask for "morale checks", lose one and you can die or retreat - and losing a morale also check means your formation "morale tracker" goes down by one and as continual combats keep asking you to pass a "morale check" - life becomes very hard vey quickly, which makes a nice vicious circle. With all these vital statistics captured on the board with small counters on tracks, it is a game that you don't want to play around cats or small inquisitive children! Nevertheless I am looking forward to the next game test when we move onto a bit of combat. I am interested to see how the game plays for the first five turns as the game quickly board fills up with Italians facing Combeforce (the RTR start arriving for the British and Commonwealth forces at the start of turn six). 

Note: The goals here are to (a) play the game in full 'correctly' and (b) spot battalion+ sized vignettes on the table top in Command Decision.

 

WWII Desert War Information - Beds Fomm and more

http://www.desertrats.org.uk/battles1941.htm#Beda

Beda Fomm Board Game - YouTube Game Report (1979 version)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7TBpoAj1Qg

Found by a friend for me, amazing what is out there on the internet!

Interestingly this was for the 1979, not 2010 version! Point taken with respect to it being a scenario specific puzzle game based on the uniqueness of he Beda Fomm circumstances rather than a generic battle system. 

Beda Fomm Boxed Game

A few weeks into 2022 and already there seems to be a steady meme or theme to my interests emerging, aka around the battles from the early Western Desert 1940-41 with the Western Desert Force taking on the Italians 10th Army. I was just thinking out loud to myself on a previous post of pushing this thought experiment forward, along the lines of perhaps revisiting the old Command Decisions rules set (aka Frank Chadwick) .. Benghazi Handicap being long out of print and circulation (but there is a Beda Fomm scenario on the Command Decision: Test of Battle website). Then out of the blue a good friend (who read the earlier blog post) sent me a special "surprise" package through the post - a very, very relevant game called Beda Fomm. This is an absolute gem, being a Consim Press 2010 republished version of a 1979 game from Frank Chadwick [yes, of my favourite Command Decision fame .. but note the year "1979", this is pre-Command Decision I publication date, but reading the game you can clearly see the influences coming through that he tool and emerged/developed into Command Decision miniature rules set]. Please see the Boardgamegeek links below for more detail (see below, and it just goes to show that a "good game" is still a "good game" no matter the "age of the game"; the difference between the two edition just seems to be more of map and counter production quality not rules):

1979: Original

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/6914/beda-fomm

2010: Re-Published

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/72941/beda-fomm

There is some lovely evocative box art too on the new game too, along with excellent quality counters and maps inside (see below, you have got to love seeing those MK VIs tin-can light tanks looking busy as they boldly go striding across the desert): 

The actual game map (or battle area) is only a very small part of the Western Desert as the battle came at the very end of Operation Compass - when the Italians were in full retreat and was in effect a brilliant "closing the door" swinging movement of British armour from out the desert which sealed the fate of the Italian 10th Army once and for all in Cyrenaica (see below, the map; the plan is to play the game to see where the battles occur and then put this area of interest onto the table top under "Edition One(?)" Command Decision [CD I]): 

Note: All this Western Desert Force interest in 10mm means that there has been lack of painting progress on the15mm Malburians - they are "furloughed" as such for the time being, but rest assured their time will come.

Breaking News: Somebody else seems to be doing something very similar to me in 2022! Lovely terrain, some nice 6mm models and Command Decision (IV) Test of Battle, see link below: 

http://ooh-shiny-complex.blogspot.com/2022/01/swanning-about-in-desert-command.html

Test of Battle Beda Fomm Scenario

The last revision of the Command Decision WWII wargame rules system was Command Decision: Test of Battle (see link below): 

https://testofbattle.com/upload/bob/Pimple_OB.htm

https://testofbattle.com/

https://testofbattle.com/phpBB2/index.php

The site itself does not seem to have been updated since 2011, however from here you can see the OrBats and scenario (see below, a screenshot of the British Order of Battle):

And the Italians too (see below, quite a few M13/40's required)

Command Decision formation morale values are shown (see below, not sure what game system WPD is referring to)

The aim for me is perhaps to do this in 10mm Pendrakon. It would be interesting to find out if CD: Test of Battle (or any other variant is still actively being played in the wargaming community). There does seem to be "some" activity on the linked CD:TOB forum. 

WWII Western Desert interest for 2022

This will be a thing for me in 2022, the Western Desert theatre of operations - starting with the British 1940 Western Desert Force (O'Connor's boys) Tolls Royce Armoured Cars, those quaint light (MK VI) tanks and woeful early cruiser tanks (A9, A10, A13). Doing it in 10mm Pendrakon (see blow, my first British Cruiser troop assembled - A13 Cruiser Mk II): 

Meanwhile scanning the internet and bookshelf for inspiration ... and hitting You Tube over the remaining part of the holiday ..

Operation Compass: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b71kdhj27rk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw4-ytNktYg

Churchill:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK0FNnTX6c

Monty:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1QapjJzTRE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duOYnIGivys

Recommendations gratefully accepted ;) 

A13 Mk II British Cruiser Tank: 10mm Pendrakon

Time to see how this little fella paints up. Recently picked up from the Battleground 2021 Stockton Show from Pendrakon miniatures(see below, the early war Western Desert Force, the precursor to the famous 8th Army): 

I am keen to build up an early war British force to face against my painted Italians, probably using Sam Mustafa's Rommel as a set of rules. I also have some 8th Army Infantry to paint up. First I should check out what tanks were with the 7th Armoured at this time.

Additional source of inspiration for this Western Desert Force project scenarios courtesy of Bob Mackenzie's website:

• https://testofbattle.com/upload/bob/Pimple_OB.htm
• https://testofbattle.com/upload/bob/

Orders of Battle and Command Decision Websites:

http://www.veridical.co.za/default.aspx?tabid=639

http://www.rothwell.force9.co.uk/NA150541.htm

http://www.veridical.co.za/Default.aspx?tabid=637

10mm Pendrakon Western Desert Italians Storage

Finally with several layers of PVA'ed breakfast cereal cardboard reinforcing the bottom of the empty chocolate box the Italians have a secure home (for storage purposes at least, their lifespan on a wargames table against the Matildas of the 8th Army may be open to conjecture). Internally the ever useful coffee stirrers garnered from coffee establishments when they were open become excellent dividers (see below, infantry divided from armour and supports and subdivided into:  various types of armour - infantry v infantry support - anti-tank assets, recon and HQ): 

Altogether a nice excuse to treat the family to chocolates and then put the "upgraded firm bottomed" box to good use.

Painting Italian 10mm Supports: ATG, HMG and Mortar

The bare silver supports based on 40mm and 30mm wooden discs (see below, ATG - Mortar - HMG):

The crews mounted on coffee stirrer strips (see below, those are quite hard to come by just now, gulp):

Primed with Airfix Acrylic Primer and washed in Vallejo Brown Dipping Wash (see below, this is following the standard infantry painting pattern):

The uniforms are done (see below, Vallejo Desert Yellow with Vallejo Buff mixed in for the highlights):

Supports are painted (see below, Vallejo Desert Yellow)

The crews follow the standard Italia Infantry painting scheme (see below, I am not sure how accurate but the HMGs went from black, to gunmetal, to washed black to dull down, to fine highlights of gunmetal):

The supports are ready for their base texturing (see below, the Italian Infantry seem to be well endowed with supports - the large figure in the background is a D&D Clay Golem monster that he was painting at the same time):

Next: Basing the supports and moving onto the Italian AFVs

WW2 Western Desert Italians: 10mm

A Note to Self: This is how I painted these (so I can remember how I did it when I get another set or want to paint Italians in a different scale)

The Italian Western Desert Party Pack (Blitzkreg Commander - alt high I don't have that particular set of rules we have plenty more that can just be as useful)  of 10mm wonder from Pendrakon Miniatures, which I am proud to say is a local 'Smoggie' firm near Middlesbrough, UK (see below, a mixture of roughly some 40 infantry with MG supports (3), mortars (3) and anti-tank guns (2); plus a mixture of Italian light armour - to be fair they didn't have anything really heavy metal to speak of - an armoured car AB/41, 3 x M13/40 and 2 x M11/39, plus a random truck, which I suppose the CO can travel around in): 

Separating out the infantry into sections of thee (see below, that way I can get a ten plus  bases to make platoon or  squad/section bases for most WWII Battalion-Company OrBats):

"Ubiquitous" general purpose coffee stirrers [one thousand and one other uses thereof] are used to based the files and washed miniatures (see below, a good strong [but relatively cheap] drop of superglue attaches said figures to the coffee stirrers, strong enough to hold them in place through the following painting process):

The infantry are "en masse" primed with Airfix Acrylic (01) Grey Primer - my favourite priming tipple, now back in circulation (see below, painted on not sprayed - you get to know the figures better that way):

Vallejo Brown wash is liberally inserted into all their nooks and crannies (see below, that overall yucky brown which accentuates shadows and is a lovely surface to paint on with the paint adhering beautifully):

Vallejo Game Colour Dark Flesh (see below, faces, hands and the off sunburned pair of legs in Italian football shorts):

An undercoat of Khaki (Vallejo Model Colour 70.988) for all the material parts of the Italian kit, a base colour (see below, this just lightened the grey/brown washed area to paint the true colours on later):

Helmets come next, Vallejo Model Colour 70.914 - Ochre Green (see below, there must be fifty shades of sand to match their fifty shades of grey in the Vallejo paint ranges):

The soldiers long socks (puttees - which are just like long rolls of bandages) are next with Vallejo Model Colour 70.888 Olive Grey (see below, a little green which comes as a bit of light relief):

Getting their the base-coats are now pretty much their apart from the shoes and rifles (see below, an Italian officer "becoming the part"):

I am adopting the "factory style" production line, trying to be a "ruthless finisher" of projects (see below - keeping pesky 28mm models that need assembling to one side out of sight, just for now at least):

This is the point where I start to believe it's working, the Vallejo Model Desert Yellow 70.977 takes hold on the tunics and pants (see below, I see them now as "sons of the desert"):

Khaki (70.988) is (re)applied on the canvas bags, water bottles and webbing, in addition to the famous Italian desert jacket so beloved by their officers, the Sahariana Jacket (see below, the Italian equivalent of the "the Rommel look"):

Vallejo Game Colour of Beasty Brown on the rifle stocks (see below, a small and quick detail):

Next comes the shoes and belts, Vallejo Model 70.894 Flat Brown (see below, small changes but creeping towards a finished product):

Flat Black on the rifle barrels, Vallejo Model Colour 70. and the face and hands [and some knees] gets the flesh highlight Vallejo Game Colour Dwarf Flesh (below, the model has now been covered all over since the Vallejo Brown Wash stage - the flesh highlight bringing them "to life"):

A little closer inspection on the WIP (see below, it has been a bit of a trek to get to this point and it is tempting to base "as-is" but a few extra highlights is well worth it):

Highlight on the tunic, mixing Desert Yellow (70.977) with Buff (70.976) on the upper edges (see below, it lightens the figures up nicely):

Highlighting the puttees with Olive Grey (70.888) mixed with Khaki (70.988) to sparkle the socks (see below, just a tiny dab you hardly notice):

Highlight the rifle with Gun Metal to give a light shine on the edges (see below, it breaks the black up nicely):

Highlight the shoes and belts with Red Leather (70.818) for a highlight spot effect (see below, the shoes get a dab and the belt a fine traced line, less is more here):

Highlight the canvas with Khaki (70.988) and Stone Grey (70.884) aka the bags and fancy commander jackets (see below, coming together nicely):

Highlight the Rifle Stock with Snakebite Leather (see below, to be fair the before and after shot looked the same to me so you could easily skip this step):

Highlight the helmet Green Ochre (70.914) mixed with Buff (70.976) to give a nice reflective contrast (see below, the figures are technically complete):

A quick check that nothing has been missed (see below, there is always something that is missed on the first pass):

The gallery tour: A Commander in cool Sahariana Jacket (see below, obviously looking at something far off on the horizon, perhaps an approaching Rommel in his 250 half-track or a 8th Army Matilda):

The Commander with some infantry (see below, they seem pretty animated chaps):

A strip of infantry, not many infantry poses [four I think] but they mix well (see below, all told I painted thirty seven for my battalion/company/platoon [delete as applicable] force):

Varnish: Using Humbrol Matte Coat as my varnish of choice, as in what was close to hand and seems to work nicely despite being twenty years old [surely not?] - safe to say that I don't varnish as a matter of course, perhaps it is the smell that puts me off (see below, the overall effect is to dull down, conceal any chalkiness of the paints and homogenise the feel of the figure):

My Italian "paint" part of the the Job has been done (see below, I am quite proud of them):

Next Stage: Basing them in the "sands of the desert" as "sons of the desert".