Christmas Presents

As we spend our Christmas in France every year, we only open our presents when we return home, by family tradition on New Year's Day. This year we decided to open them today, as the middle spring is away tomorrow in Bristol at a party. I was lucky enough to get some cracking wargaming presents this year including some 28mm Japanese MDF buildings from my son, who is keen to have a go at some samurai skirmish games this year, an Airfix Tiger tank kit from the other son, which will be useful for What a Tanker!, and the aforementioned double sided hex cloth for air wargaming from the other half. My daughter bought be a two year re-subscription to Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy, which is brilliant! To round it off, I bought myself in the sales a brand new copy of Thunderbolt Apache Leader, a game I've been after for years having really enjoyed Phantom Leader. All in all, a great haul of very nice presents, topped off with a Christmas brunch cooked by my daughter! 

What a Tanker Club Game

It's a bit like double decker buses, you wait ages for one to turn up then two arrive at the same time. Following on from the Armoured Storm admin thing, there's a multiplayer game of What a Tanker! at the club tomorrow, so I thought I'd join in for a change. I played and also umpired several games of this in the distant past but I'm a bit rusty, so will have to reread the rules again to brush up on the key points. Who knows, perhaps this might lead on to more club games in the future, or perhaps even a campaign?

Winter Hammer Terrain Upcycling

A few years ago I repurposed an old canvas covered framed picture into a desert terrain board for 15mm and 28mm wargaming. I used it for a couple of cowboy gunfights then it got relegated to the garden shed, as the other half didn't want it cluttering up the garage. It's about a metre square and pretty rigid yet lightweight, so easily transportable. Although it's not bad in it's intended role, I've decided to recycle and reuse it as a snow themed terrain board for the Winter Hammer project and for other wargaming rules, where scale isn't really an issue. For example, I have some 20mm / 28mm winter woodland terrain that I made for What a Tanker that I can plonk on top straight away, which means it has a good deal of flexibility. To upcycle it will involve repainting the board and perhaps a little remedial repair work where it has been scuffed in storage, so nothing too arduous or time consuming, although I will need to make some bespoke terrain templates for my Winter Hammer games. 

What a Tanker! Club Game?

I played a fair bit of What a Tanker! when it was published and built up some decent sized forces in 20mm for the Eastern Front, but my attempt to get it going at the club didn't take off. Now, there's a club member who is promising to set up a game in the not too distant future, so I'm hoping it might reboot the whole thing, giving me a chance to finish off the US or British tank models that I've built but not painted, assuming of course it's NW Europe and not North Africa that is?! I just have to find where I've stashed the rules and give them a once over, then see if I can get up to get club for the game.

Brothers in Arms

 

The weather hasn't been great today and I've been feeling a bit under the weather as well, so I dug in and started reading James Holland's account of the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry in NW Europe, Brothers in Arms. I've read a lot about this regiment and the wider 8th Armoured Brigade, as they supported the 5th DCLI during much of the campaign, which is a particular interest of mine as well as a long-term wargaming focus, not that I've realised it yet. 

http://jimswargamesworkbench.blogspot.com/search?q=5th+dcli

It's a testimony to the readable style in which the author pens his narrative, which is similar in approach to that of Max Hastings, that I've got all the way to Chapter Ten already, with the added bonus that he's actually a professional historian (although some may disagree). I've enjoyed this a lot so far and will be digging in deeper this week, as the weather forecast is now looking pretty ropey for the next twenty-four hours or so.

Magazine de Presse

 

I'm in Brittany for the weekend at a wedding, so have grabbed some magazines to read on the way back. The Vae Victis game looks really good, being a strategic level Indian Mutiny wargame, with the rules available in English as a down load. The Batailles & Blinde issue has an excellent article on the Battle of the Bulge that would be great for What a Tanker and my 28mm US late war Bolt Action platoon, while the Aerojournal issue has a fascinating article on Fritz X missile attacks on Plymouth of all places, which has given me all sorts of ideas for Bag the Hun. A good haul!

What a Cowboy

                     

There's a new set of rules based on the What a Tanker system currently under development and in playtesting for Wild Western gunfighting, aptly if rather unimaginatively titled What a Cowboy. As I am a keen Western wargamer and also play What a Tanker, this looks really interesting and would require no extra costs for me to set up, bar the rules. I won't be ditching Fistful of Lead any time soon but will definitely give this a go. There's now an FB page dedicated to the rules if you are interested as much as I am in the project. Excellent! 

Lard Magazine 2021

And drum roll please...Ta Da. The Lard Magazine 2021 has just been made available for you to download and it includes my Khalkhin Gol article and scenarios, as well as quite a lot of really good stuff for a wide selection of the Lardy rules, which is a nice change from the usual. 

There's also a very interesting interview with Mark Backhouse about Strength and Honour, which is well worth a look if you want to get a better grip on the system and how it works. It all makes up just a little bit for what can only be described as a bit of a ***** year! 

2020 Review

That was definitely a year to forget. However, I did manage to make it a less than 'a little bit crap' year for the hobby, both from a project and wargaming point of view. I'm not going to go through everything I've done this year but just pick out some of the positives rather than the negatives, which seems like a good thing to do and a great way to finish off the year.

In terms of games played this year, I only managed to get to the club on a very few occasions, where I ran Broadside and Ram and What A Tanker introductory sessions as well as taking part in Cruel Seas and Kiss Me Hardy games, which I really enjoyed. As usual, I set up and umpired another spectacular AK47 game, which is a club crowd pleaser. I also ran a very successful Bag the Hun game at the Lard Day in March, which seemed to be a hit with most if not all of the players.

At home, however, I was able to play more games than ever before, both with the sprogs during lock down but also solo, which is something I often do even when things are normal. These games included an excellent AK47 bash and a Back of Beyond game with my eldest son, a whole series of Target Locked On games with my daughter and several brilliant Fistful of Lead games with all three of the kids. 

I also played half a dozen games of Broadside and Ram and Dahlgren and Columbiad, including a mini-campaign of linked 'What If?' scenarios with the former which were really good fun. The INWARD game this year was a semi-historical Dahlgren and Columbiad scenario, which was a great way to learn the rules, and I finally got round to re-enacting the 1864 Battle of Jasmund with Broadside and Ram, albeit with card counters not proper metal warships.

In terms of projects, I went a bit 'off piste' this year, although in the same ball park as my initial project planning at the start of the year. I started with a 1/2400th scale ACW painting commission which distracted me a bit, but I soon got back on track by completing two squadrons of 1/285th scale Spitfires, Fw190's and Bf109's of the RAF and Luftwaffe for the Come and Have a Go If You Think You're Lard Enough 2 day. 

I also finished off some 1/2400th scale broadside ironclads for my French and British fleets, then added a whole squadron of US ironclads and warships as well, which subsequently appeared in my mini-campaign. I even squeezed in some Danish ships for 1864 but half of these are now re-purposed as Chilean or Peruvian warships, with the rest of my 1/2400th scale War of the Pacific ironclads added in to complete that unplanned but enjoyable project. 

The things I hadn't planned at all came along as a direct result of lockdown and quarantine. These were the 28mm Beja army for The Men Who Would Be Kings, which I completed up to a point, as I'd like to re-do the bases when I get the time. I was happy with the figures, all ninety eight of them, but the bases are definitely up for improvement, being a bit rushed and not quite the right look. I also need to paint a matching British or Egyptian army so they actually get to see some action!

The enforced two week quarantine after our holiday, also gave me the time to scratch build some modular river terrain and two flotillas of river gunboats in 1/2400th scale, which is something that appeared out of nowhere but was actually really good fun. I'm still pondering the shade of brown that I used on the river sections, however, and may well go back and repaint them in a less red oxide shade. I particularly enjoyed scratch building and converting the model gunboats for this project.

There were a few more side lines and dead ends this year, with one or two projects still not finished, or even started in some cases, but overall it's been a fairly productive year all things considered. I've got some things to carry over into 2021, the 1/2400th scale pre-dreadnoughts and 1/3000th scale modern naval projects for starters, but also some new ideas for interesting projects that I'm definitely looking forward too....more about those in 2021!

Happy New Year!

Tarting up Terrible Tufts

Tarted Up into Winter Tufts

A while ago I bought some cheap desert and scrub tufts from a seller on eBay to use for my 28mm Beja bases, as they were much less expensive than the Army Painter and Gamers Grass ones that I normally use. When they arrived, I was disappointed to find that they were a bit too big but also very synthetic looking, with a nasty plastic shine not unlike a really cheap suit. After a failed attempt to dry brush them, I shoved them in my scenery box rather than in the bin. I've now ordered some proper tufts for the Beja so the ones I originally bought are surplus to requirements.

I had an idea today. I wondered if I could use some rattle can spray paints to upgrade them to something useable, so gave a few of them a blast with a combination of Halfords Camouflage Green, Camouflage Khaki and Appliance White, to create some pretty nifty winter tufts, albeit rather large ones. I think they look pretty good and the paint doesn't rub or drop off, so I'll have a go repurposing the rest of the brown tufts that I have as well as the buff coloured desert tufts, which will get a blast of green paint for use in the jungle, once I've popped up to Halfords tomorrow.

The winter tufts are now looking for a purpose, so I may use them for my 20mm What a Tanker! scenery or for my 28mm Battle of the Bulge terrain, which is a project that I haven't put together yet despite having a full platoon of US figures and armour already painted and based. Another option would be to use them for some 28mm Lion Rampant War of the Roses scenery, but I doubt I'll be tackling that project any time soon so they'll probably go back into storage until I need them. At least they won't be in the bin!

What a Tanker!

The lad wasn't at work today, so we set up a quick game of What a Tanker! as he likes it and we hadn't played in ages. To keep it simple I selected a T34/85 (Strike 8 / Armour 8 / Fast) and he had a Panther (Strike 9 / Armour 9 / Fast), so a fairly even match. In retrospect, this was a mistake as neither side had  the edge, so the game went on a bit longer than expected. I dug out my winter terrain but noticed that it could do with a bit of tarting up, so the cloth is now in the washing machine! Anyway, it was a good game and we now have a refreshed grasp of the rules. 

In the game, the T34/85 advanced into some woods, from which it managed to get several hits on the frontal armour of the Panther, with little effect either to the tank or the crew, which failed even to acquire the Russian for several turns. When it did, the shots flew backwards and forwards but again failed to do much damage, leading the Russian commander to shift out of cover to get a clear shot on the enemy panzer. 

This worked up to a point, with the Panther suffering some permanent damage to the hull and some temporary hits, causing the commander to shift up a gear and cross the bridge, in an attempt to get a flank shot on the T34. With the range now down to point blank, which was a bit ridiculous, the superior fire power of the Panther led to some nasty damage on the T34, eventually resulting in the loss of all the command dice and a hasty crew bailout.

In retrospect, this game highlighted both the good and the not so good aspects of the rules, the former being the simple turn sequence and neat dice pool mechanisms, and the latter being the tortuous damage system and lack of decisive outcomes. This is partly down to having evenly matched tanks but also cropped up in previous games that I've played at the club. I think it's one of the reasons that it never took off at my local club, even though I've run a few games in the past. It didn't spoil our fun, however, and both of us enjoyed the game immensely.

Operation Blackcock Kangaroos

I've been looking for a 1/72nd scale Ram Kangaroo model to use in my What A Tanker! Operation Blackcock project and think I've found one. This 3D printed model is from Paint and Glue Models, who make 1/56th scale wargaming stuff but also re-scale to other sizes:

https://www.paintandglue.co.uk/ram-kangaroo

I've sent off an email asking about prices and, if it's not too expensive I'll order three or four. The idea is to kit them out with AB infantry and have them as a feature in one or more scenarios, with the tanks having to get them across the table before the get knocked out.

WAT! Pop Up Panzerknackers

TQD Castings

AB Miniatures

I've been designing a What a Tanker! set of linked scenarios for Operation Blackcock over the last few months, with a view to running a series of games at Come and Have a Go if You Think You're Lard Enough next year. The idea is to have two or three scenarios based on the 7th Armoured Division assault on Sint Joost in January 1945. The village of Sint Joost was defended by the 2nd Battalion of Fallschirmjager Regiment Hubner, with a mixed force of anti-tank guns, assault guns and infantry. So, I've been looking for figures to use as pop-up anti-tank panzerfaust and panzerschreck teams to use in one of the scenarios. 

These need to be 1/72nd scale fallschirmjager, obviously, but also in late war winter kit. I've found two possible options so far, the first from AB Miniatures consists of a set of three figures which is perfect but also quite limited. On the plus side, AB also do sets of British infantry in smocks and leather jerkins, which I can also use in the games. The second option is from TQD Castings and includes two sets of late war fallschirmjager with panzerfausts and panzerschreks, giving a better variety of poses and two man teams. I prefer the AB figures but the TQD ones are also cheaper.

I have some ideas for pop up anti-tank teams too but would appreciate any other suggestions for how they might work.

What a Tanker Club Game

We had a very enjoyable game of What a Tanker at the club last night, even though there were only three of us and I umpired rather than taking an active role. A quick run through of the rules and we were off to a flying start, which came to an abrupt end for the sprog when his Mark IV got a nasty shot in the flank and brewed up. Ouch!

In the follow on game, he managed to hold on a lot longer and inflicted some nasty permanent damage on both of the T34's but ended up with both his Mark IV's outflanked then blown to bits. It was a good game and he picked up the rules in no time, despite getting a bloody nose and a lesson in tank tactics. He took it firmly on the chin and will be back for more, so a win all round.

It made me think about the need for several players to keep the game rolling and a solid objective driven scenario to underpin the game, rather than a basic 'shoot 'em up' approach, which tends to result in a 'last man standing' situation. In the end, the much vaunted KV2 failed to make an appearance but I'll definitely be running another game at the club later in the year.