More leaders pt 2 - Russian

 In my WW2 leadership drive the Russians were the ones in the worst situation. My 15mm Russians are mainly from the PSC Russian infantry and heavy weapons sets, and actual officers are few and far between. I had enough for a few HQ stands, a couple of individual leaders (I converted one into 'Megaphone Guy' from Enemy at the Gates) and the rest are kneeling gunners in various pointing poses.

These are some of the existing 'leaders', just kneeling gunners in various poses. I have better uses for these.

So, the Russians got an extra HQ and no less than five extra individual officers. Like the British, these are all from a Skytrex 15mm Command Decision pack. Excellent value and lovely figures, all in different poses again. They are a lot more intersting than the PSC officers as they are wearing a variety of clothing, not just gymnastorkia and breeches.

I did an extra battalion (2 figure) HQ. The guy on the left is in a side cap and holding a map while pointing with his plash-palatka wrapped around him, while the guy on the right is a very serious looking chap in greatcoat and field cap. No doubt keeping an eye on the intellectual.

These three are all in lighter weight dress in a range of sidecaps and service caps. Two of them are waving pistols around while a third has a PPsH and one has his plash-palatka wrapped around his chest The guy on the right is clearly modelled on the extremely famous photo of a commissar urging his troops on, and which graced the cover of the 'Cross of Iron' Squad Leader expansion.

These two are in winter gear, both have leather overcoats of different styles and the one on the left is in a helmet. The guy on the left is straight out 'Stalins Army' so I matched the colour plate with a light tan shuba sheepskin jacket and fur cuffs. The one on the right is toting a PPsH too and seems to be wearing a sort of large waistcoat a bit like the British Army ones. It has a lot of folds so may be a representation of a plash worn as a raincape, but it doesn't hang right or have a hood if that is the case. Anyway, I did in natural leather with an inkwash.

They are a really smart set of figures, highly recommended. I did the uniforms a base brown colour as my years of WW2 Russian re-enacting shows a lot more brown uniforms than the wierd green ones many people like to paint, but I accept that the uniforms were a vast range of colours from light tan to dark green, depending what they were made of. Officers winter weight jackets were pretty green (like the one Jude Law is handed in Enemy at the Gates). So having started with brown I added some variety by lightening some of the browns up, added some greens and did a few of the breeches as dark blue walking out trousers.

I was very pleased with those indeed and they will no doubt be appearing in future Eastern Front games. The only disappointment was when I went to put them in the box, I realised I'd miscounted - the Russians need two more battalion HQs, not one!

I still had plenty of spare officers, so I knocked up another Battalion HQ base with this pair of likely lads. I wouldn't normally put two figures waving their arms on one base, but the other figures were all pointing pistols, which didn't seem very appropriate for a higher HQ.

They are both very nice, figures. One is in a cap with a rolled plash palatka, while the other is in a sidecap and a very well modelled greatcoat. He's also got one of the those drawstring rucksacks the Russians occasionally used. I just did them both in khaki as they were a bit of an afterthought.

May Day Parade

 A few years ago, Chris K of NQM suggested half seriously having a May Day Parade. Several years later I finally summoned the energy to get some stuff out of boxes just in time for International Workers Day earlier this week. So, the bulk of my 15mm Red Army of Workers and Peasants gets to strut its stuff.

The first lot of stuff marches bravely down the dining table. I rapidly realised that if I put everything out, I'd need a table 2-3 times as long, so this lot is mainly mechanised.

Comrade Stalin oversees proceedings. Originally there were other people on the podium with him, but they seem to have ben mysteriously airbrushed out.

We start with Soviet armoured car forces. Three Battlefront BA64s, a QRF BA-10 (9?) and a Zvezda BA-9/10. The BA64s are from the estate of a late member of the Sheffield Wargames Society. RIP Frank.

Next up we early war light tanks. Four Zvezda T26, four Peter Pig T26 and three Zvezda BT5. The Peter Pig T26 are amongst the oldest of my 15mm Soviet vehicles, originally bought for SCW gaming at the turn of the century. 

More light tanks, three PSC T70 and three Skytrex T70. The Skytrex ones are notably smaller than the PSC ones.

Medium tanks. A fleet of ten T34s, these are all PSC mid war T34s with hexagonal turrets and they all have spare 85mm turrets which is rather handy.

Multi turreted monsters! A pair of Zvezda T28s and a  T35. I can't recall the manufacturer, some east european company, but it is 1/87th, which makes it huge. I did manage to set up a scenario to use it once. I've got alternate turrets for the T28s without the bedrails. 

Soviet heavies. Four Zevzda KV-1, a Roscopf KV--85 and four PSC IS-IIs. These have all seen action at least once, the KVs get used more than the others.

The anti-tank artillery and field artillery. Three Skytrex 45mm guns, one PSC 57mm gun, four PSC 76.2mm guns and a pair of Syborg 76,2mm guns - the latter without muzzle brakes. The tows are a mixture of Peter Pig and Zvezda Gaz AA trucks, and generic horse limbers from 3D Printing Valley.

Medium and heavy artillery. A pair of Zvezda Katyushas, a pair of 122mm howitzers from 3D Printing Valley, a couple of quad maxims (Peter Pig) on the back of trucks, a pair of QRF 152mm guns (absolutely horrible models to assemble) and a Syborg 203mm howitzer. The tows are Battlefront and Syborg tractors of various types.

The Assault Artillery. Four PSC SU-76 (with two different configurations of fighting compartment), a pair of Battlefront SU85, a pair of Zevzda SU122 and then a pair of Zevzda SU152 and a couple of ISU122s. One of the ISUs is Roscopf and the other is converted from a PSC IS-II chassis. I did much the same thing to the Airfix IS-III when I was a kid.

The next table load is (some) of the infantry and cavalry!

We start with the Red Cavalry. These are all Peter Pig, various types of Cossack or RCW Bolshevik cavalry with their budvinovkas filed down. Largely second hand off eBay, and  I use these with both my first and second world war Russians. They have appeared in numerous games, especially the guy with the big red flag.

The first two battalions. The first lot are SMG troops, the second lot are rifle troops in helmets. These are all from the PSC Russian Infantry set, apart from some of the leaders who are Skytrex or Peter Pig (as well as PSC). 

The next two battalions are also PSC, the first are in a mix of helmets and side caps, while the second is in side caps. It is one way to tell the units apart without marking the bases.

Next up are the infantry support weapons. I didn't put then all out, but here we have Maxim machineguns, 82mm mortars, towed 120mm mortars and a 76.2mm Regimental Gun. The latter from 3D Printing Valley.

Finally we have the anti-aircraft artillery. A pair of quad maxim guns in trucks (the guns are Peter Pig and removeable) plus a pair of 85mm AA guns. The 85s are scratch built using spare gun barrels and appeared in my recent battle of Tula games. As the crews are all in side caps, they will also do if I need any British 3.7" AA guns.

The Russians also have some Lend Lease vehicles, tanks and SPAA guns, but we don't talk about those in front of Comrade Stalin. Shhhh......

The whole parade finished with a fly past by the Red Airforce.

Fighters in the lead. An I-15, MiG 3 and a pair of La 5s. All Zvezda 1/144th and lovely little models.

Next up light bombers and assault aircraft. A pair of IL-II Sturmoviks and a Pe-2, again all 1/144th Zvezda.

Finally medium bombers, a pair of SB-2s and a pair of IL-4s. The SB-2s are 1/200th Zvezda (why the annoying scale??) and the IL-4s are 1/144th diecasts.

So, there we have my 15mm WW2 Russians. I'm sure regular readers recognise various elements from different games, but not the whole lot together. Apart from the planes, T28s and T35, it all fits into three A4 box files, and I have no particular plans to expand any more. It was a lot of fun getting everything out, but it took up an alarming amount of space! I might do that for some other armies in future....

Having mentioned this to Mr Kemp, he pointed me to photos of his own 'parade' a few years ago where everything was lined up in serried ranks! If only I'd thought of that, I could fitted it all into one table. Well, maybe I will do some other armies in future.

2mm Swedes and Russians

 After having many Pike & Shot and Horse & Musket games of Dominion, I was inspired to expand my 2mm collection a bit. Although tbh when they are on the table the 'figures' are largely interchangeable as they are so small, it is nice to know you at last have some of the correct troops with the right flags, uniforms etc.

This was also my first order to Irregular since the 2mm/6mm business was hived off, and I was pleasantly surprised that the order was fulfilled quickly and with nothing missing. I've got plenty of figures with pikes, so I wanted to get some more of the line musket infantry types more suitable for the seventeenth century.

First up some smallish contingents of Swedes and Russians. I didn't get masses of them as I can always make the numbers up from other base types.

The casting were pretty decent, some of the them had the familiar Irregular heavy flash on the base underside but most were pretty clean. Perhaps 20% (?) of the strips had significant flash lines on the upperside too, so possibly just one duff mould section. They are easy enough to clean up on this scale, although you have to be careful not to accidentally file off the flags.

For 2mm I usually put them on their final bases before undercoating them, it makes them much easier to handle. I undercoated them matt black them misted them with white to raise the highlights.

First up eight bases of Swedish musket infantry. Each base has two of the three rank deep strips with flags. My 2mm Horse and Musket stuff is mainly painted up for the WSS, but as Sweden didn't take part, I did them for the 7YW. They have mid blue jackets and yellow trousers, and I added faces and hats, which really makes a difference. Doing the faces is a sort of mixture of dabbing and drybrushing, but it  is well worth the effort. If you do paint the faces though, you have to do the headgear as the flesh paint goes everywhere, but a simple black drybrush (carefully) does the trick. When I was younger with better eyesight I even painted the muskets, bayonets and hands, but that is beyond me now.

I did each base with one regimental flag (essentially white with the royal coat of arms in the middle and a tiny dot for the regimental distinction) and one national flag - the Swedish blue flag with a yellow cross. In a sign of ageing I really struggled with the flags and they were a right dogs dinner. In the end my micron lining pens and Posca paint pens came to the rescue, and I ended up doing the colour detail bits with the paint pens and edging them with micron liner pen.

Back when I started with 2mm I was able to hand paint union flags on the British infantry stands, but sadly no more.

It is a bit hard to see but I put the national colours on the rear base edge. It helps with troop identification and to keep them pointing the right way! Yellow was already taken for Imperial troops and Blue for Prussia so I did the Swedes half yellow and half blue.

They are flocked which I think looks much better than painted bases. Woodland Scenics Blended Turf which is quite fine. 

I also did four cavalry bases, two heavy and two light, each being a pair of the eight figure close order strips or six figure open order strips.

For the SYW Swedish heavy cavalry uniforms were pretty boring, just blue and yellow, but they had at least one Regiment of Hussars in black, so I did one of the light cavalry bases in black uniforms and the other light blue.

The horses are a range of shades of brown, light shades for the light cavalry, one unit of heavies even has a whole rank of black horses. Looking back at my old figures, I have even painted some white socks, noses etc on some of the horses so I might go back and redo that.

The cavalry guidons I just did in red and blue for the heavies and yellow and green for the lights. No idea if that is right, and I have a strong suspicion those colours were inspired by the horse colours in 'Totopoly'!

Ten bases of Russian infantry, more than the Swedes as there are a lot of Russians. Two of them are Guards. I had vague ideas about using some of these guys for Napoleonics, but no chance with these. Although they have green jackets, they also have bright red trousers, very un-Napoleonic! No real problem as I have tons of 6mm Napoleonics. I later found out that the red trousers were a short lived innovation of Catherine the Great which was rapidly reversed. Oh well, I can't be bothered to repaint them now.

Much the same process as the Swedes, but different colours this time. Quite a bright green on the jackets so they stand out. With their red trousers these guys could be ACW Zouaves! These troops are also three rank blocks.

I used the jacket green for the national colour on the bases (again, hard to see, sorry). The flags were a nightmare though, every single Regiment was different and there isn't even any consistency as to whether they have vertical or diagonal crosses. I went with a similar scheme to the Swedes with one regimental and one 'national' flag per base, which sort of repeat the contrast colours across them.

For these flags I just block painted the base colour and then dabbed on the contrasts with paint pens. The two Guards Regiments have the right flag colours, but the others are a bit of a random collection of colours which look nice together. I drew the Imperial eagle symbols with a micron pen, and en masse they don't look too bad. 

Similar to the Swedish cavalry, two bases  of heavies and two of lights. A lot of the heavies in this period seem to be cuirassiers in buff uniforms with breastplates, so I did them buff and dabbed on gunmetal for the breastplates. I need more cuirassiers for some of the Dominion scenarios, so these will do nicely.

Russian hussars in this period were very jazzy however, so I did a Regiment of 'yellows' (Hungarian I think) and one of 'reds' (Moldovan?). They do look pretty smart and pop more than the boring Swedes.

Like the Swedes the heavies got a higher proportion of dark brown and black horses with red and blue guidons, the lights had lighter browns and red and yellow guidons.

Pretty pleased with those although volume-wise they are about the same size as my Bavarian and Dutch 'armies' for the WSS. I do the bases in pairs as I still have in my head basing for Twilight of the Sun King. Two bases per brigade means you can do line formation, supported line, square and march column just by aligning the two bases differently, and having two strips per bases means each strip represents roughly a battalion or cavalry regiment.

I do have a slight hankering to do 'big base' 2mm with lots of strips on a base representing a large brigade or a division, but the smaller strips are so much more flexible, if a bit fiddly without a sabot base. I put magnetic strip on all of them so I can use my steel covered sabot bases.

August Storm, the 1945 Soviet Strategic Offensive in Manchuria

 I recently read 'August Storm' by David Glantz. As the title suggests, it covers the Soviet offensive into Manchuria in August 1945. 

Like many of Glantz's campaign histories this is liberally sprinkled with very legible maps, full orders of battle and the sorts of things I like such as the detailed March Order of various types of military formations.

The campaign itself was primarily a victory of logistics - the Soviets managed to manouvre overwhelming forces into the places the Japanese didn't expect and at a rate they didn't expect, so the overall defence just fell apart in a matter of days. Tactically the few Japanese units which were seriously engaged fought well, but but general they were outmanouvred, outflanked and either largely cut off and left to wither on the vine or fell back precipitously before surrendering.

The stuff on Soviet planning, force structures and execution of operational manouvre are fascinating though, particularly the way the force structures carried over into the postwar Soviet Army eg the vast majority of the Rifle Divisions had attached Tank Regiments or Tank Brigades which prefigured postwar Motor Rifle Divisions. Colonel Glantz's style can be a little repetitious and hectoring at times, but that doesn't detract from the content. The sections on riverine warfare in particular were every interesting and something I know little about in the context of the USSR.  Based on the very lengthy and detailed Orbats, it is a theatre which also involve the deployment of many, many armoured trains. 

As it is available for free from the US Army military press, it is hard to argue with the price either! Highly recommended.

It is available for download here: https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Portals/7/combat-studies-institute/csi-books/Glantz-lp7.pdf

Wizard of the Kremlin

 I recently read this book, which was recommended to me by a friend with a keen interest in international relations. 

Essentially it is an account of the transformation of Russia from communism to Putins oligarchy via gangster capitalism from the pov of a (fictional) Kremlin adviser.

Some of the insights aren't particularly new to anyone who has watched the fate of Russia since the Wall came down, but some of it was very interesting and it presents a very Russian view of its relations with the West and the rest of the world. It also has some insights into Putins personality and background,  as well as how to dismantle and subvert democracy and dissent to achieve total state control. Very much 'full spectrum dominance'.   

Anyway, it is a nice easy read and reminded me that when I visited St Petersburg in around 2012, I think it was the scariest place I've ever been in my life, even compared to downtown Rabat at 3am. I gather it has now been made into a TV series airing later this year (or early next?) so I'll be interested to see how they have handled it. Better than 'King and Conqueror' I hope!

Zvezda 1/144th I-16 Rata

 I was a picking up some planes anyway so I thought I'd add to my early war Russian air fleet. Like the Ju 52 I had a vague idea about doing this in SCW colours, but in the end I just did it as a WW2 plane. I don't play enough SCW these days to justify getting 1/144th scale planes for it when I have loads of 6mm ones. 

There it is all finished, waiting to deal with the fascist Hitlerites. I can't believe these old clunkers were still in service in 1942 and even later in some sectors. They have a bit of a Tin Tin feel to them.

Here it is in its raw state. It is a pretty basic kit! It only had a few parts but the nose assembly was unnecessarily complicated. It went together fine though and hardly had any flash. It has lovely fine detail moulded on, perhaps too fine in the case of the MGs, radio mast etc which are so thin it is hard to see them surviving any sort of handling. 

I opted for undercarriage up. It is a bit of a scrappy assembly as I haven't got the wheels flush, but I don't bother much with the undersides in any case. I've only just noticed that there are teeny tiny MG case ejection slits moulded onto the underside of the wings. Blimey.

Although I have my 'Soviet Aces of WW2' as a reference for paint jobs, I did a bit of digging into WW2 Soviet aircraft paint schemes and the modelling consensus now is that the predominant schemes up until mid war for VVs fighters is olive green with black or dark green disruptive No brown at all! Well blow me down with a feather (bombers and assault aircraft are different). Sadly it means my Mig 3s are the wrong colour, but my Lagg 5s in their late war grey/dark grey are fine.

Anyway, it looks rather smart in green and black with the wierd loop pattern on the wings, and it really makes the decals pop.

Just to emphasise how small the I-16 is, here it is next to a Lagg (by no means the worlds largest fighter).

And here it is flying over the dining table on its 'flight stand'. I've moved over to using acrylic cups for all my planes now, they are just so much more stable than flight stands. The only exceptions are my heavy diecast planes which use their heavy duty supplied stands as long as they are stable enough. 

Not sure how much action it is going to see, but it is nice to have one 'just in case'. I'm sure I can work it into a game somehow. 

Sheffield CALF 2025 - One Hour Eylau

 After solo testing my One Hour Napoleonic version of the Eylau scenario in Bloody Big Napoleonic Battles, I thought it deserved a public outing at CALF 2025. It was scheduled late in the afternoon, so I only had four players, but that was fine.  Jerry and Tom took the French, while Chris K and Phil S took the Russians.

View(?) from the east. Apologies for the appalling photos, the light in this room was very poor and even the super camera on my new phone struggled.

Eylau is the town in the depression on the left, with around half the Grande Armee drawn up around it. The Russians under Bennigsen are on the other side of the valley on the right. The rest of the French army is arriving from the east (Davout) and the west (Ney), the latter is pursuing Lestocqs Prussians who are marching to the sound of the guns.

The battle is complicated by frequent snow storms blowing across the battlefield, although all the streams are frozen over. To win, either side must hold the majority of the towns and villages, the Russians currently hold three and the French just Eylau itself, so the onus of attack is on the French.

The Russian left is the obvious spot to attack as it is isolated from the main army, and Davouts Corps comes trudging on to attack it. Just visible on the left is Murats reserve cavalry Corps, also heading for the hill.

Along with attacking on his right, Napoleon, perhaps unwisely also pushes Soult into the valley on the left. The Russians outnumber the French 2:1 in this sector, and it will be quite some time before Ney arrives. Sensing an opportunity, Bennigsen (Phil) begins shuffling units around.

Back in the east, the weather clears, allowing Davout and the French reserve artillery to shoot Murat in, who overruns the Russian redoubts on the hill! This does leave them under a crossfire from the main Russian position, but it is very heroic.  

The Russian reserve cavalry swings around the French left flank, shot in by the Russian divisions on the heights. One Cavalry Corps falls back rather shot up (you can just see the heap of hit markers on it), but the other is neatly across the stream and ready to roll up the French flank.

The French have to fall back towards Eylau, and form a new line facing northwest.

Murats cavalry withdraw to deal with the new threat, leaving Davout to take the village on the hill. It is on the reverse slope so the French infantry can advance under full cover. 

The Russians keep up the pressure on the French left. They engage the French centre and start pushing infantry across the valley. The French line is looking more concentrated now, but their left flank is still hanging in the air. Murat is now in close support of the French infantry.

Davout is now trying to take the village, but villages are tough.

With Eylau firmly held, Soult extends his line back along the ridge line again. There is a major firefight in the centre.

Soults westernmmost units are very exposed and take a hammering from the Russian infantry divisions in the valley. Lestocq has now arrived and marches to join the main Russian army and garrison the right end of their line on the ridge.

The Russians keep pushing hard and gaps appear in the French line. Ney has now appeared, but it is too little, too late. Lestocq is in the village up on the ridge. 

The Russians overrun Soults battered infantry, despite the best efforts of the French cavalry.

View from the west. Ney is trying to take on the Prussians, but the main Russian army is now hard up against Eylau and things aren't looking too good for Napoleon. Davout still hasn't cleared the Russians out of the eastern village, and with the ratio of objectives still very firmly 3:1, we call it a well earned Russian victory.

That was a great game and very different to my solo replay. The Russians were very aggressive and took full advantage of their initial numerical superiority. The weather was also much better than in my solo playtest, and although there was considerable light snow which restricted visibility, there was only one blizzard and even a few clear weather turns, so unlike my solo game, there was plenty of scope for sweeping manouvre. I was probably a bit over cautious as the Russians in my solo game, but I think if I was playing this again, I'd use cards for the weather instead of dice to give an average result as it has such a big  impact on the flow of the game.

I used a very minimal set of the rules for this, stripping out the morale rules completely as they added extra complexity but had very little impact on the game. Units in fact retreated when it was sensible to do so of their own (or player) accord. One thing I did keep was rallying, and the players seemed quite happy to do that. As only half the hits are regained and the rest become permanent, it isn't game breaking, and it gives something for leaders to do if units are in a tight spot.