AHPC XV Submission #8 - 15mm American Civil War Cavalry

 

 My eighth submission of this year's challenge is a collection of 15mm American Civil War Cavalry, both Union and Confederate. The figures are from a variety of manufacturers, although I have only been able to identify those by Old Glory and Essex.  I think the bulk of the Union cavalry are by Falcon, but I am not certain regarding that. Perhaps some of the "grognards" out there can provide some insight as to their origin.

 With terrain being dropped from the point tally, I needed to do a last minute course change, and found all these figures in a box in one of my storage drawers, already primed and glued onto popsicle sticks for ease of handling. They had been prepped some thirty years ago when I was gaming with a group that did a lot of American Civil War using 'Johnnie Reb' rules, but for some reason (available time, family obligations, the new 'shiny', etc.) that was as far as they got. 

 As mentioned above they were already primed black with a rattle can. I then painted them with Vallejo acrylics. The Union cavalry was the easiest to paint, both in terms of the standard colour palette, and the poses. The Confederate cavalry was more challenging as I tried to put some variety into the uniform colours with different shades of brown and grey, plus some of the poses made it difficult to get the brush into some of the deeper recesses. Regarding the sculpts, I liked the Essex and Falcon(?) the best. The riders were separate from the horse and saddle, and the poses and detail were easy to paint. The Old Glory sculpts were much more animated, but the fit of the rider and saddle (which came as one piece) to the horse often had large gaps between the saddle cloth and the horse's body. I would also describe the sculpts as a bit more 'rough and ready'.

Here are the final results - four 15 figure Union cavalry regiments, one 15 figure dismounted Union cavalry regiment, one 15 figure Confederate cavalry regiment, two 11 figure Confederate cavalry regiments. 

Encounter in the East Cavalry Field

Confederate troopers of General Jeb Stuart

US troopers of General David Gregg

Union cavalry brigade deploying

Union cavalry regiment No. 1

Union cavalry regiment No. 2

Union cavalry regiment No. 3

Union cavalry regiment No. 4

Dismounted Union cavalry with horse holder in the background

Confederate cavalry regiment No. 1

Confederate cavalry regiment No. 2

Confederate cavalry regiment No. 3

Anyone recognize the manufacturer?

Anyone recognize the manufacturer?

Thanks for stopping by.

Regina 2013 - AAR Number One - Golan Heights, 15mm

Syrian T-62s rumble into action - models by QRF

Note - This post was originally published as a guest post at Analogue Hobbies.  Click here for the original. GB.

Greetings again to the visitors at Analogue Hobbies.  I'm sorry to interrupt the steady stream of entries to the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge (well, not sorry if it interrupts Ray), but I'm sure many of you have noticed your recent entries to the competition have been slow to appear on the Blog.  That's because I have rocketed out to Regina for a wonderful visit with Curt and Sarah, and we have been gaming our faces off!  Here is the first of a few AARs from the trip - a tank battle set in on the Golan Heights during the Yom Kippur War in 1973.

Syrian T-62 company - nearly all QRF models, with a few Old Glory

Those of you who visit the Fawcett Avenue Conscripts pages will have seen the Golan Heights in 1973 appear as one of my not-infrequent "new insane projects" back in the summer of 2012. I have painted a good sized pile of 15mm Syrian and IDF tanks and infantry since then, and it was fun to kick off the gaming here in the centre of God's prairies with a Yom Kippur game.  We used the Bolt Action rules engine for the game, with the platoon-activation modifications our Fawcett group has used previously for 15mm WW2 games.

Centurion Sh'ot MBT - model by Peter Pig

In the 1973 surprise attack on the Golan Heights a small number of IDF tank battalions, spread thin along the "purple line" at the frontier, held out heroically - and at very high cost - against several Syrian divisions.  Many Syrian units broke through holes in the IDF lines during the first two days and tried to find their way to the bridges over  the Jordan River. If they had succeeded, it would have been game over in the north for the IDF. This scenario imagined an action involving of one of those units - a company of Syrian T-62s approaching the "customs house", a very old bridge and collection of buildings that straddled the previous border with Palestine.

Table on the first turn - Syrian platoon enters along the road

Historically the Syrian spearheads approached this location, met some resistance, and turned back - night was approaching and they were not sure what defences were in place. If only they had known at the time there was practically none, the 1973 war might have turned out differently. So this scenario is a "what-if" of sorts - what if the Syrians were more aggressive?

Centurion arriving as a reinforcement

The table was 6'x4', with the Syrian force - a company of 13 T-62 MBTs - entering at one edge, and having ten turns to get at least two tanks across the old bridge representing the crossing of the Jordan river (I think the actual bridge was a Bailey-type bridge, but I found the stone piece evocative of the age of the place in question).

Traffic jam on the advance - the tank in the foreground is Old Glory

Another picture of the Old Glory tanks - one has already been dealt with by IDF gunners

Opposing this tide of armour was a small force of IDF tankers composed of reservists coming up into the fighting - two Centurion Sh'ots behind some improvised defences, and three more arriving from off the table during the game. The old buildings represented an orchard and farm area near the "customs house". The IDF mission was to stop the Syrians at all costs - if they could knock out or disable eight of the Syrian tanks, it would halt the attack. But would they last?

T-62 platoon struggles forward under fire, but at least they took out one of the Centurions (at top)

Curt took the IDF side and I plated the Syrians. The Syrians started with one 3-tank platoon already coming down the road, and would arrive in platoon-sized batches over the first three turns, while Curt would receive another Centurion on each turn starting with the first until all five were on the table.

IDF Centurions await the Syrians

I tried to split the difference between moving and firing, thinking I could put enough fire on the IDF to to knock them out AND overrun them. I mean, I had a 13 to 5 advantage, right? No such luck! Soon T-62s were burning on the road, causing a traffic jam and causing the tanks to detour. The Bolt Action rules model the movement of tracked vehicles very well, limiting the turns of the vehicles.  You need to think ahead a bit - sure you can turn and move, but will your flank be exposed? Will you be able to move again from where you end up? When you are trying to get 13 tanks moving, this is a challenge.

Syrian T-62 settles in for some cover to duel with the Sh'ots

As more T-62s arrived the battle heated up.  The Syrians managed to knock out one of the Sh'ots.  For good measure Curt parked one reinforcing Sh'ot on the bridge over the river, and moved the other Centurions forward aggressively.  Tank shells criss-crossed the battlefield as both sides blazed away.

The fate of most Syrian tanks on the Golan Heights in 1973

IDF tanks under heavy fire - one knocked out

I had one platoon which managed to stay relatively pin-free, and they cause some trouble for the IDF - immobilizing a second Sh'ot and putting some heavy pins on a third. It was the opening I had hoped for.  But I was not able to get the other tanks moving consistently - I had one fellow zipping down the flank, but he got tagged by the Sh'ot on the bridge.

Curt's last line of defence

Ultimately the IDF knocked out the eight T-62s needed in order to halt the attack by the ninth turn, but it was a close-run engagement, with the IDF having lost two MBTs themselves. My early decision to try and engage hurt me in the end - we should have been running up that road for all we were worth, losses be dammed!

More burning and immobilized T-62s

The game was a blast - I love a table filled with burning tanks, and the Golan Heights in 1973 is a setting that obliges that preference for sure!

Table at the end of the game

Following the battle we sortied for lunch in Regina and then re-set the table for our second game - the Sudan in 1884. Now let me see if I can find all of those entries from Ray here on Curt's computer and delete them...

Battle Report - King Tiger Fail (Bolt Action in 15mm)

German King Tigers lead counter attack (not exactly as depicted)

Last week Dallas hosted our regular game.  We played the popular (and excellent) new Bolt Action rules, but used 15mm models instead of 25mm-28mm figures. The scenario was late war Eastern Front, set in Poland in the summer of 1944, with a German counter-attack against the Russian bridgehead over the Vistula River.  The actual counterattack included the 501st Schwere Panzer Abteilung, equipped with King Tiger tanks, so this provided us with an excuse to roll a platoon of fabled "big cats" on to the table.

Panzer Grenadiers and Mark IV-H - models from Battlefront

King Tiger platoon - models from Battlefront.  This would be terrifying...in most games.....

The table was 6'x4'.  The Germans had to enter on one short edge and cross the table to exit the other short edge.  The German force included a platoon of panzer grenadiers in half tracks, a Panzer IV-H, and a platoon of four mighty King Tiger tanks!  The Russian opposition consisted of a blocking force of a platoon of infantry and a platoon of T-34/76s, and off-table reinforcements in the order of a company of 10 T-34/85s and another platoon of infantry.   The blocking force was able to occupy a ruined village at the centre of the table before the game started while the Germans marched on.  The Germans would have 10 turns to make the crossing of the table.

Russian forces prepare to try and block the German advance - models from Old Glory and Plastic Soldier Company

Germans would have to enter from the left side of the photo, and get all the way across to exit from the right side (across the bridge)

 Hugh and Dallas took command of the Germans while I played the Russian side.  Historically the King Tiger tank, although fearsome, was beset with all sorts of challenges - it was slow, and very prone to breakdown.  To reflect this, we slowed the King Tiger's move pace to 6", as opposed to the regular move of 9" for tracked vehicles.  The King Tigers were also prone to a "Scottish Check" if they ever tried a run order (i.e. double move) to reflect the tendency of the drive trains on the big tanks to break.  If a "1" was rolled, the tank would be immobilized.

One other modification - the sheer number of Russian units/vehicles may have made the game difficult, so we applied a kind of "hen and chicks" rule to the Russian tanks, making them operate in platoons.  If the platoon was to fire, all tanks would have to try and hit the same target.

T-34/76s move up into the village

"I'll just race through the village - what could go wrong?"

Even though we were playing a smaller scale, we left the ranges un-changed, so both sides were getting stuck in right from the first turn.  Dallas had smoked the T-34/76s by the end of the second turn, and my off-table reinforcements started to appear in the third turn.  The fortunes of the King Tigers took a turn for the worse...

T-34/85s enter from the flank - note the pin markers starting to accumulate on the Tiger in the village...

Dallas had one of the worst bad-luck dice-rolling evenings I can recall in a long time.  "1" after "1" after "1"....it was really something.  The Tigers would miss their shots, or miss the penetration roll, or fail to do anything serious if they did penetrate...it was something else.  Meanwhile, on the Russian side, we had some pretty hot rolls, and the T-34/85s were able to score a couple of kills on the big cats.

King Tiger hammers away at T-34/76s

T-34/85s arrive with tank riders for support

Hugh sent the panzer grenadiers in for an assault into the village, with the support of his Panzer IV-H.  I sent one platoon of tanks directly in to the village, and two more up behind the village in a blocking position.  Because of Dallas' horrible luck, we were able to slow the German assault to the point where it was not going to make it across the table.  Pressed for time, Dallas took the chance on double-moving his King Tiger tanks, and when it came time for the check on whether the tank would break down, he rolled...."1"s, of course.

T-34/85s advance over a bridge

Now THAT is how you take out a King Tiger! Double sixes on two penetration rolls...

Panzer grenadiers capture a building in the village

Russian infantry continues to attack

Crumps show the withering fire endured by the T-34/85s as they approached the village

The Germans still chewed up the Russian force - they lost two and a half squads of infantry, seven tanks knocked out and two more immobilized.  The Germans lost a squad of infantry, the Mark IV-H was immobilized, two of the King Tigers were knocked out and a third broke down.  We called the game at the end of the sixth turn.

Russian go after a German squad that got a little too close...

T-34/85s hammer the village

This King Tiger broke down during the advance...to add insult to injury, the T-34/85s later knocked it out!

This was my first run through the new Bolt Action rules and I was really, really impressed with them.  We played what was essentially a massive game - over 3,100 points of stuff per side. Still, the game moved fast. Keeping track of kills to the infantry (which were based in groups) was only a minor headache, easily handled with a tally sheet, "casualty caps" or some other such approach.  If you have WW2 stuff based for "Flames of War", feel free to give Bolt Action a try - I think you will enjoy it.

This King Tiger ALSO broke down during the advance

Looking back I think slowing the King Tigers down was a little too hard on the Germans, considering how much table they had to cover. But I think a more - er - "average" outing by the Tiger gunners would have changed things for the Germans.  I am looking forward to playing the Bolt Action rules again - and I am looking at using them for my Golan Heights project too.


Immobilized and burning King Tigers

The final turn - lots of wrecked tanks, but the German advance had been stopped

The platoon-based action for the Russian tanks worked very well too - it was a good way to have a great deal of armour on the table, but still reflect the Russians' relative lack of initiative when it came to the operations of their tanks.

Thanks again to Dallas for hosting.  I can't wait to play Bolt Action again.

Meanwhile, I expect Dallas will burn those dice...