Stalingrad - Red Barricades Factory

I've been wanting to wargame Stalingrad the last twenty five years or so.  The thing you always run up against is the sheer amount of gear required.  I've played plenty of Stalingrad games in 6mm, never in 1/72 which is my preferred scale. I managed to get the Red Barricades Factory scenario to the table towards the end of 2023.  

My pals Sydney and KT came over and we gave it a run through.  As a first draft of a table, it wasn't bad. 

There are some things I'd like to fix before I go much further, but it's getting there.  

The table setup 

The scenario briefing; 

"By mid October the fighting amidst the rubble of the Red Barricades Factory Complex in the northern section of Stalingrad had drawn in more and more of the German 6th Army’s forces. On the 22nd the 79th Infantry division, supported by engineers, tanks and artillery, launched an intense attack over the Railroad embankment toward the Barricades Factory.

Under heavy fire from dug-in tanks and Russian snipers, the German troops slowly made ground toward the Factory. The Soviet line finally broke, but by day’s end only a corner of the factory had been taken.

The stage is set, the battle lines are drawn, and you are in command. The rest is history."

KT regarding Sydney with perplexity as he advances

I need to do some more work on the table.  Having the buildings sit on the white table without some attempt to blend the two together doesn't look right. 

German infantry probes making their way forward.  

Sydney was very careful to use his armour to destroy barbed wire to clear the way for the infantry.

Soviet infantry contesting the bombed out buildings as the German's advanced. 

The building in the foreground is a 3d print that was very kindly supplied by KT and painted by Capability Savage.  I had a shortage of suitable buildings for the board, so I subbed in some European buildings that I build for our Bastogne game. These were taken from the European Buildings book by Peter Dennis published by Helion.  These are scaled for 28mm, but they worked just fine for 1/72.  The paper buildings went together very quickly and needed no painting strictly speaking.  To make them work for the winter board, I gave them a quick dusting with a white spray paint and then added snow effect flock to the rooves. 

Soviet infantry (foreground) being outflanked and surrounded by German infantry (background)

A strong push on the German left by infantry forced the Soviets out of their initial positions.  The Germans then began to put the Soviet second line under pressure.  German engineers are clearing land mines, but they were taking casualties from the Soviet snipers.  The snipers were deadly, but they didn't cause enough casualties quickly enough to stop the German advance. 

Once the infantry had cleared the way, the Panzers started to roll. The barbed wire marks barbed wire (obviously enough), but the shell holes actually mark minefields.  I use these because the minefields have a concealed effectiveness, being rated as 0, 2 or 4 depending on how thickly the mines are spread.  The 0 minefields are dummies and using the shell holes allows me to put a slip of paper underneath to show how effective they are.  The German player only finds this out when they either enter the minefield or probe it with engineers, while the Soviets can check at any time. 

Soviet infantry fleeing encirclement. 

You can see that the forward German armour unit has taken one hit, which I've marked with a blast marker. 

The scenario actually uses  Beach Obstactles to represent rubble that is impassable to tanks, but which infantry can shelter behind.  As I didn't have anything suitable, I used the Beach Obstactles I built for our last D-Day game. I had a look for photos of Stalingrad and I know that the Soviets made extensive use of tank traps, so I'll substitute those.  KT very kindly 3d printed some for me. 

After developing the German attack on his left, Sydney begins pushing on his right. KT's Soviet artillery managed to find the range after several turns of lack lustre shooting and rains shells down on the advancing German armour. 

The final move

Having pummeled and out outmanoeuvred his opponent, Sydney unleashed the panzers. The Soviets just weren't able to withstand the pressure and that ended the game. 

I think Sydney definitely had the upper hand throughout the game as KT found it hard to co-ordinate a response because of the Soviet command rules.  Sydney was also more methodical in his approach, carefully bringing infantry, armour and artillery to bear to crumble the Soviet defences.  He was also better at evacuating badly mauled units from the front line which prevented KT finishing them off and scoring badly needed victory points. 

A fine game with two good friends.  I hope to do it more often, but this year keeps getting away from me. 

Lastly, I've actually got back into shooting recently, something I really enjoyed as a youngster and that I would like to go back to again.  Heading out to the range with a rented .22 was a lot of fun. There is something very satisfying about poking small holes in bits of paper far away.  I'm not sure if I'd take the plunge of getting my own kit, but there was a lot of entertainment in knocking about with rented stuff.  Perhaps I make a habit of it. 

Latest update - #Squaduary2019

Games Workshop Negavolt Cultists

I finished these guys on Friday and they were a complete pain in the neck. Awkward, fiddly and completely unsatisfying to paint. However, they are finished and that is the main thing. I really like Blackstone Fortress and I love the idea of being able to play with a complete set of painted figures, so they just had to be done. These were painted as part of #Squaduary2019, which is a month long project by some wargamers to get some stuff done. There's actually been quite a bit of work done and you can see the results here.

I think I might have to paint a proper 1/32 scale toy soldier next though, just to get the taste out of my mouth.

Stalingrad

Savage and I have been discussing what our wargaming project will be this year and we've settled on Stalingrad.  Having looked at the available scenarios,  it has come to my attention that there are about half a dozen Overlord* Stalingrad scenarios that are roughly balanced (i.e. have a win/loss ratio of no more than 60/40). 

What we’re proposing is an ambitious plan to play the battle of Stalingrad in its entirety, over 5-6 overlord games over two days. This would be two days of three games each, probably two successive Saturdays during the summer.

Savage has volunteered to create bespoke terrain covering key Stalingrad landmarks like Pavlov’s house, the Grain Silo and the Tractor Factory. We would build two boards, one for the battles in Autumn and a second one covering Winter battles. Savage hopes to be able to produce specific winter terrain for the later battles, so the whole thing should look pretty impressive.

For figures we’ll be using my existing collection of 1/72 figures with some new stuff for the winter battles.

Barmaley Fountain

This is the Barmaley Fountain in Stalingrad and I've been trying to find someone who makes it in something like 15mm or 20mm.  Any ideas? It's such an iconic image of the city that it would be odd to leave it out of the game. Also, click on the link above to read the story of Barmaley, which is a bit peculiar. 

Does anyone know of a commercially produced one? 

*6-8 player team games. 
 

D-Day Part Two - Sword Beach

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Sword Beach - Someone appears to have removed the artillery from this German emplacement.

This game was played quite some time ago. You can read about the first game of three we played here.   Looking back at my records, we played it in February - which just goes to show how long its been taking me to get around to blogging. 

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But there are still enough troops inside to wreck the Allies day. 

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Sword Beach - the Germans ponder their options.  Beach landing scenarios can be difficult to turn into interesting games because the defender often doesn't have much to do other than hunker down and fire at the closest target.   A good game isn't impossible, but in this case it relied on the Germans having some artillery and some limited reserves. 

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Sword Beach

Now one of the advantages of playing Memoir '44 is that the scenarios are available and lots of folks have played them.  Consequently there are a lot of statistics available on the games as whole.  The British typically win this scenario 75% of the time, but with a far lower margin of victory than the shellacking that the Americans typically get at Omaha.  They win, but they don't win by a country mile. 

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The Allied players were a lot happier with this setup as the terrain wasn't as steep and actually getting off the beach wasn't so challenging. 

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Allied armour charges up the beach. 

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The landing craft are mainly set dressing - in that they don't have a game effect, but we used them to count victory medals.  Each time the Germans scored a point, we added some smoke to "blow up" a landing craft. 

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The British armour is trying for a breakthrough. 

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The British infantry slog it up the beach, forcing a lodgement in the centre, while the German pummel them with artillery. 

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A British commando appears behind the cafe and knifes a German sentry.  This marked an early lead for the British as they stormed up the beach. 

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The German commanders had some tricky decisions to make.  Should they try to contest the allied landing while it is still on the beach, but risk committing their small reserves too soon or should they try and draw them into the close country further up?

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German infantry occupy the town, counter attacking the advancing British commandos. 

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A desperate German counter-attack onto the beach can't save the rapidly collapsing German centre. 

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The Cafe  gets rather crowded as the last few defenders are driven from the beach.  A British victory put the Allies even going into the final game.  We used the 'Allo 'Allo figures as a means of counting victory medals.  Every time the Allies scored a medal, we added another character to the Cafe Rene.

It inspired Edith to give us a bit of a song.

After setting up the next table, we repaired to a local greasy spoon where several mixed grills were consumed.  I had the fish and chips and they were tip top.  Savage joined us briefly for grub, but he'd snorted some absinthe that didn't agree with him the night before and had to head relatively soonish.

Hopefully, I will get to the next post and the end of the campaign before too long, but I'm trying to discipline myself and update J&F at least once a week. We shall see if that lasts. 

D-Day - Part One

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"That chap right there, I just plain don't like him." Gen. BRO discussing tactics with his Field Generals. The Americans plan was basically get up the beach and work the rest out later. 

One of the advantages of Memoir '44 is the wealth of scenarios that are available and the fact there have been so many battle reports recorded.  This allows you to work out roughly how slanted the scenarios are one way or the other.  I have had a hankering to do a D-Day game for quite a while and while our much ambitious ideas haven't come to fruition, nor are they likely to, I was glad that we managed to tackle it to some extent. 

Troops wading through the surf at Omaha beach

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We played three game on the day.  Omaha Beach, followed by Sword Beach and concluding with St. Lo.  This made it much easier to organise as I didn't have to write any scenarios and I had a good idea of what the win/loss percentages are. 

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A spot of Robert Capa style camera shake as the lads dash up the beach. 

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I was lucky enough to get a lucky eBay from a chap who was disposing of a large collection of landing craft. These are I think Airfix and aren't waterline models, but seem to work fairly well just plonked on the mat. 

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The venerable Airfix D-Day beach defences looking out over the seawall. 

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Another shot of the Airfix D-Day defences, Conflix pill box in the middle distance. 

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The American Commanders ponder their options.

 Note the shell craters in the foreground indicate hexes that are out of play. 

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General Clint Fatzenberg discusses the utility of using the seawall as cover. 

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We also had some very special visitors. Boomerowski Junior's clenched fist and gimlet eye were exactly the sort of thing that the Americans needed to give them some backbone. 

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The Americans are making some progress, but are taking casualties. 

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The landing craft don't actually have a game function in this scenario. They were mainly used for set dressing. We used them to count victory points. Each time an American unit was killed, we placed an explosion marker on one of the landing craft to keep score. 

A Frenchman awaiting liberation

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This chap might look a bit familiar to some of the more sharp eyed amongst you. I was given this figures as a gift several years ago by my good pal Mr. E. We used them to keep score during the game. Each time a German unit was killed, we added a French civilian to the cafe. 

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Having discussed their strategy upstairs the German team descended to view the flotilla facing them. 

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General GT Boomerowski orders the troops ashore, cigar clenched between his teeth, while Fatzenberg's DD Shermans take the sea wall. 

I didn't actually take any more pictures of this game as the whole thing was fast moving. Omaha Beach is a very tough scenario for the Americans and they lose 80% of the time.  The result was about on par with previous games, but hard fought none the less. If the Americans can get armour off the beach things can get very dicey for the defenders, but alas it was not to be. 

To be continued with Part Two: Sword Beach. 

Barbarossa - The Day of Battle

Note: This games day was run in September, but for a variety of reasons I've been worrying away at this report for a little while. 

The Soviet High Command putting their heads together
Comrade Siskey (left) has clearly been marked for purging and didn't get the memo.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Barbarossa Campaign in Memoir '44 Campaign Book One.  It is a campaign of two player Memoir '44 games linked together.  The campaign is divided into Army Group Centre, Army Group North and Army Group South.  Each player takes on control of one of these groups and plays through a series of games that advance that particular part of the grander campaign. All the players draw from a greater pool of reinforcements which are assigned at the beginning of the game.

The game is divided into two phases.  The first phase consists of two scenarios, after which each side can deploy their reserves across the whole front.  The second phase consists of another two to three scenarios.

The dastardly Germans doing the same

I had set things up before most of the players arrived so we were actually able to get the show on the road reasonably quickly. Du Gourmand had not need able to make it, but had generously lent me his copy of the Campaign Book so that we were able to give each side a copy each. Sydney brought his along as well - which speeded things up admirably. 

A soviet excursion party by the River Bug thinking "There are an awful lot of Germans over there."

Over the day we had ten players, some of whom were able to stay for the whole day and others who weren't - but everybody who wanted one got a game. I was happy with that.  One advantage of the single board format rather than our more usual Overlord is that the players can play at their own pace, rather than playing at the pace of the slowest player. 

The German assault started with the traditional drubbing at Bug River.  This is one of the most unbalanced scenarios in the game, so much so that the German player must win by a margin of three medals to count it as a win.  It does run up the German medal count though and Mr. Target really struggled with the Commissar rule. 

The panzers are laying all about them at Brody

Meanwhile, the Soviets at Brody were dealing with a massive penetration of German armour and again were on the back foot from the word go.  Mr E began the game damning the Commissar rule and it was a refrain that lasted for the rest of the day. Brody wasn't quite the kicking that Bug River was, but it was still a German win. 

For those of you that are unfamiliar with the Commissar rule. In Memoir '44 each player has a hand of cards which he can use to activate his units.  Each turn he plays a card and then draws another.  The Commissar rule simulates the often crude command arrangements of the Red Army in the early portion of the war, when it struggled to overcome the legacy of the purges, which had stripped it of senior leaders. 

Rather than playing a card from his hand, the Soviet player must take a card and place it under the Commissar chip. This card is then played NEXT turn, where it may have been totally superseded by events. 

"Sergei, does that look like a lot of tanks to you?"

Cut off at Pripet marshes - the Soviets launch a counter attack. 

Kiev - a grudge match between Mr E and Savage

This was, if memory serves, a very tight game. The armoured train proved tough and childhood foes Mr E and Savage, conducted a close fought match.  

I'm no poker player, but I think Comrade Siskey's Ivanskoye counter attack is going rather well. 

As I only had one Commissar button, so Savage produced this thing. 

Lady's and germs that is a gold Kruger-rand. I can only presume he hand forged it from gold he pulled from the teeth of his enemies. 

It's all getting a bit too much for Savage as Mr E takes that last roll of the dice. 

And fluffs it. 

Phew! A win for Team Nazi.

Meanwhile, the Germans mount an amphibious landing on the Baltic islands.  

I was very happy with how this turned out.  The beach landing setup was the first outing of my beach and sea overlays. I made these using a stencil from Litko accessories and felt.  They were laid over the standard green mat and shingle added with cat litter. Ultimately the plan is to try some of the D-Day scenarios, but that might take a little while and the addition of some landing craft. 

If I recall correctly, Siskey had a hard time dealing with the German onslaught.  The combination of an amphibious and a paratrooper assault being too much for his defences. 

Mr. Target is looking distinctly nonplussed at the Gates of Moscow 

It's all very serious here. Sydney versus Lorcan Hibernia McEireanneach

Well he's not happy with that dice roll. 

But even less happier when a German flanking force shows up in his rear. 

And the dice are on fire at the Gates of Moscow. General Creaner and Mr Target can't even look...

After a hard days gaming, we retire to the bar 

The end result was a major German victory.  Looking back on the campaign, the German team were able to stack up a commanding lead in the first few scenarios of the campaign.  As their resources began to peter out, the Soviet numbers began to bear, but the Russians were unable to make up the ground.  This is the second time we've run this campaign and the second German victory.  I wonder perhaps if it might benefit from just a shade of rebalancing, perhaps scoring the Bug River scenario differently might be an idea. 

After the battle, the tidy up. 

I really enjoyed the day, though I'm not sure I would do things the same way again. Because each player was playing his own game against his opponent as an individual and there was no concluding Overlord battle which brought all the players together, I think it lacked some of the shared experience that I've found so rewarding in our other games. 

That said, playing so many individual battles allowed everyone to play at their own pace and ensured that no-one was stranded in a "quiet sector".  There may be a case for a middle ground approach* to a games day which combines a series of two player games with a multi-player Overlord to finish. A series of starters with a main course to finish? 

All the boxes must go back on their shelves before Kinch can declare the game over. 

But dissecting the technical aspects of the day aside- it was an exceptionally pleasant way to spend a few hours in the company of good friends, who turned up and played the game in the best way possible. 

NOTE: I've received a couple of emails wondering where exactly "Joy & Forgetfulness" has been of late and suggesting that I should get a wriggle on and write something. Thank you for taking an interest in the blog - I'm always mildly astonished that people do so, particularly so much so that they take time to write. 

I'm afraid that I will not be able to post to J&F as much as I would like for at least the next couple of months. There are two reasons for this.  The firstly, I've become a father, which is wonderful and of which more later.  Miniature Kinchs demand a great deal of time, which sadly leaves fewer hours in the day to write for you lovely people. 

But secondly and to be honest, the far more limiting factor at present is that I'm recovering from a brain injury.  A confrontation in work in August resulted in me taking a blow to the head from which I have yet to fully recover.  Fortunately, the Good Lord has blessed me with an unusually thick skull so I've avoided all the nastiness of a depressed skull fracture, but it has left me with balance problems, headaches** and even more frustratingly, difficulty concentrating for prolonged periods of time. This has impacted on my reading and, even more maddeningly, on my writing.  I have to ration my attention carefully and make the best use of available resources.  Unfortunately this means that I have to prioritise and J&F has had to take a back seat for a little while.  

Thankfully, there is no permanent brain damage***, but the recovery time is a little longer than I'd hoped.  I'm still writing, just slowly and in small bursts. Facebook is proving a useful means of keeping my hand in in the mean time. 

But J&F is not going anywhere. It's just catching it's breath. 

*Ok, so some days I'm more Anglican than others.
**I will never complain about another hangover ever again, so help me God.
**To quote my darling father, Mr Kinch Senior "How would they tell?"