Bolt Action Tank War Battle Report - Hungary 1945

Last Thursday the group gathered at Conscript Towers for a game put on by Conscript Greg:

"We'll play 'Bolt Action' - using the 'Tank War' supplement and 15mm models.  The game is set in Hungary, January of 1945, and 50,000 German and Hungarian troops are trapped in Budapest, surrounded by Russian forces. The Panzers of IV SS Panzer Corps have launched a relief attempt, hoping to reach the Danube and the trapped defenders in the city, and also buy some more time for Germany to fight on.  The Panzers have caught the Russian forces by surprise, but Soviet Guards Armoured Regiments are now rushing to block them. Germans will confront the Red Army and the winter as they fight to break through Soviet defences."

Here's the table: German short table edge at top, Soviet at bottom. Germans need to destroy Soviet units, but get more VPs for exiting their own units off the Soviet table edge. The rules used were "Bolt Action" of course, but unlike most of our BA games we played this one with 15mm models, most of which were tanks!

Conscript Mike F and I played the Germans and we had a straightforward plan: foot to the floor and devil take the hindmost! Our first activations were "Run" orders and we used the armoured troop leader's activations to order the other two Panthers with him. That worked well.

Of course the Soviets had to appear and mess up our plans... they had two IS-2s and three T-34/85s with two infantry sections against our four Panthers and two Pionere Hanomags.

Peter Pig tank riders get into action...

We started to run into problems about halfway across the table. The lead Hanomag was picked on by the Soviet tankers and despite surviving being set on fire, it was destroyed in the next turn.

Here the second engineer track veers away from enemy fire in the direction of the Panthers, while one of the big cats burns in the field. Just past the trees another knocked-out Panther is visible - it was supposed to anchor our flank after daringly driving onto a frozen pond. While the ice held, the incoming 85mm round finished it off...

More bad news on the German left as the remaining Panthers are knocked out. We did manage to mislead the Soviets somewhat as to which vehicle was the troop commander's, because we'd lost track of that ourselves and were therefore quite believable... "Oh no, there goes the commander!" "Oh no, that's not him!" etc.

The surviving Pionier zug beside its crippled vehicle...

The game itself was super-fun but Mike and I underestimated the hitting power of the T-34/85s for sure. Those suckers lit us up comprehensively and no mistake. I'm not sure if deploying differently would've helped as the Soviets had several turns to get into firing position while we steamed across the table. This made it difficult for us to maneuver to minimize their firing solutions. The big cats sure looked awesome though.

Thanks Greg for bringing out the amazing looking game and to the boys for playing!

Panthers in Winter: 15mm Chain of Command Battle Report

Conscripts Hugh and Frederick are rapt as the Hand of Greg points back towards Berlin 

Last week I had a notion to play a game with a winter theme, so I imposed upon Conscript Greg to run a Chain of Command Eastern Front game on a wintry table. He obliged with a game using the "Big Chain of Command" (Big CoC?) variant.

The scenario was pretty straightforward - the Germans are being pressed back and need to relieve pressure, so a counterattack has been ordered. The German attackers need to seize the crossroads (pictured above at the centre of the table) and the Russians must stop them and keep the general offensive rolling.

Here's the objective, surrounded by a small farming village, woods, snowdrifts and a couple of icy ponds. And a knocked out Panther.

After the Patrol Phase (and I am so glad that Greg knows what he's doing with that because I STILL don't have a clue) we deployed our Panthers along the road. Off-road was pretty bad going and we knew time was of the essence.

Some supporting infantry (or "dismounts" as Conscript Hugh calls them with a tanker's disdain) deployed in the woods.

After taking a few shots at the T-34 that appeared at the very top left on the road, the Panther platoon commander ordered all ahead full and left his subordinates to deal with the enemy, which they, being good subordinates, did.

Meanwhile, some Russians deployed in the houses around the crossroads. You can see some Shock markers placed by German infantry fire.

Panther commander steams up the road as friendly infantry scrambles to redeploy to an open flank.

Here, some more Russian tanks have appeared (on road to left of building at top, and just above the woods at right) and the Panther platoon redeploys to address this.

Endgame. While the two T-34s at top left have deployed to face down the German infantry, the tanks have almost reached their goal - the crossroads. The combined fire of the tanks and the infantry (especially the section at right) finally wore down the Russian defenders to the point where the Germans could use a Chain of Command die to end the turn, and the game - if the turn ends while a unit has more shock than surviving members, it disappears.

I enjoyed the game a bunch - it looked superb with Greg's lovely models and swell terrain from Miniature Building Authority and the "Battlefield in a Box" guys, supplemented by a few Lemax Christmas trees - still the best value in wargaming ;-)

Thanks again to Greg for rolling out a fantastic game and to the lads for coming out. Oh and to Conscript Kevin for bringing out a 15-pack of Lucky Lager which we will continue to enjoy this week! :-D

Winter Has Arrived Yay! (Not)

More 15mm winter WW2 troops and tanks

Well the winter has once again locked the Canadian prairies with its dreadful embrace.  The current day time "high" temperatures range in the minus 25 degree Celsius range, and once our enviro-guess-Canada weather "forecasting" service adds its random wind chill, the temps are even more awful.  So of course this is all perfect inspiration to finish some more winter WW2 stuff...

Matching the current weather outside my house. Note that an additional 30cms of snow has come since this photo was taken some time ago

Not much to show in this post - I've been away from the painting table for a few weeks, back just in time to take a stab at yet another Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.  But it was good to get these bits cleared off before the Challenge started - a set of half-tracks, 251/7s, a few more infantrymen and another pair of Panther "A"s.

An SdKfz 251/7 - will need to warm up after starting the engine...

I opted for these half-tracks over more conventional ones to give the option of having an engineer/pioneer force.  Often they have the worst jobs - repairing bridge crossings, clearing minefields and other work, all under fire.

I believe those are meant to be temporary bridging sections on top there, but I have never been too sure...

This force is also semi-inspired by Scwhere Panzer Regiment Bäke, which included an engineer battalion on its roster for at least some of the period it was in action. The Panzer crews would have relied heavily on them to help keep their advances/breakouts moving, particularly in the face of tough weather conditions.

Peter Pig vehicles are real beauties, sharp castings with nice details like the stowage on the front.

A scenario where some engineers are trying to secure some rickety bridges somewhere on the Eastern Front during the winter, then trying to blow them just as the Russians approach - this appeals to me! I think that would make for a good Chain of Command game.

Some foot sloggers from Battlefront.  These castings look depressed, which I love about them.

The half-tracks are from Peter Pig, and were quite lovely to work with and paint. To my mind they remain top-of-the-list when it comes to quality 15mm figures and vehicles.There are enough half tracks to mount up a platoon - three vehicles.

Panzerschrek team.  I bet that was a fun piece of kit to haul through the snow...

The infantry are a smattering of spare castings from Battlefront - a panzerschrek team and a few regular panzer grenadiers. Once again I am impressed with the quality of these particular castings from Battlefront - their winter Germans are really well done.

Another snow cat, weathered to show it has fought its way through several kessels since the snow fell...

The Panthers are "A" variants, and the models are from Battlefront.  These were real beauties to work with and I had a lot of fun painting them.  The details on the hull are top notch.  While they are of course more expensive than the very, very nice models from Plastic Soldier Company, I still think these are tops in my books and a great value.

Panzer 314 ready to roll out.

As with my previous batch of winter tanks, these received heavy winter weathering treatment. Again, it's probably a little too much, but I still have a lot to learn when it comes to being a bit more subtle with the weathering on vehicles :)

Lots of wonderful, sharp little details on the Battlefront Panthers

So the Painting Challenge starts this weekend - I will be a slow starter in this challenge, but I've got a fairly high points goal (although the others are all just low-balling and sandbagging - right, Ray?) so I hope to tear out a few good starting pieces over Christmas.  During the Challenge I hope to do projects in different scales and periods including 28mm Napoleonics and Sudan, 15mm Arab-Israeli Wars, more WW2 stuff of course, and maybe some sci-fi! I know Dallas, Byron and Kevin are in for the Challenge too, so I'm looking forward to seeing lots of great Fawcett Avenue content lighting up the blogosphere!

Snow Cats - Winter Panthers, WW2 15mm

15mm German Panther tanks in winter paint

More 15mm winter WW2 stuff for this post.  This time, some big cats - German Panther tanks. These are 15mm models, three Panther "A"s from Battlefront, and one Panther "G" from Plastic Soldier Company. We had the chance to get a couple of these on the table during a "Chain of Command" game last night at Dallas' place.  He kindly set up his excellent Optex light studio so I could take some propaganda-worthy photos for the blog. 

Panther "G" from Plastic Soldier Company

I'm a certified tank tool, and the Panther is of course one of my favourites.  I have a few of them done up for non-winter fighting, but couldn't resist doing up a bunch in worn winter paint to go along with the other recent 15mm Winter WW2 stuff I've been doing. Reading about formations like Panzer Regiment Bäke, which saw most of its fighting in the winter of 43/44, was an inspiration in this regard - fun to have German tanks on the table attempting some sort of against-the-odds drive at any one of the many winter crisis points on the Eastern Front in the winter.

The two antennas are meant to present this as a command tank - "300" would be a company command tank (I think...)

These will also do nicely for games set during the Battle of the Bulge, once I get some 15mm winter Americans painted up.

Battlefront Panther "A" - again two antennas for a command tank

I want this to be a Regimental Command tank, but I can't find an "R" decal in 15mm yet...working on that. So he's "01" for now...

The details on the Battlefront models are so impressive - I love the chipped zimmerit and spent shells on the deck

The Panther "A"s are from a Battlefront box set, and they are just awesome castings.  These are a LOT of fun to paint.  The little details on them are amazing - damaged fenders, chips in the zimmerit finish, helmets hanging with the stowage, and my favourite, the spent 75mm shell casings sitting on the engine deck.  It is very fun to get cracking on them and they really are a joy to paint.

Another Panther "A" - again, the zimmerit is chipped and give the tank a "lived in" look.

The Panther "G" is from Plastic Soldier Company's box set. Those sets are very flexible - you can assemble your Panthers in any mark, either "D", "A" or "G".   The downside is that they don't have zimmerit on them (which is not the end of the world - not every tank did) and as I have observed previously, the detail on Battlefront castings is crisper.  But it is still a very, very nice box set, and you get great value. 

This Panther is covered in lots of extra tracks...do you ever have "enough" armour?

I am always keen to weather the tanks a lot, and these were no exception. I was reading about the attempted relief of the Cherkassy Pocket in Jan/Feb 1944, and the reported weather conditions caught my eye.  It was freezing cold, with a lot of snow, and then would suddenly rain (!) in February as the thaw started, but still freeze at night. This is a weather pattern I am quite familiar with growing up in the Canadian Prairies (a climate not unlike that around the western Ukraine/Russia).  It sucks, and I can't imagine being in a war (in any conditions), much less with that kind of weather misery.

The zimmerit finish adds a very spooky aura to some of the German tanks, particularly the Panther, which already has a fairly menacing silhouette

A Panther tank in that situation would have received a very rushed white-wash when the snow came, sometime in November/December 1943.  Then fought all through the winter into the new year, facing freezing temps, snow storms, woods, fighting etc.  THEN the rain, the mud, more freezing, flooding creeks...I figured it would be really, really messy, so that's what I had in mind when painted these.

Rear view of the Panther "G"

My cars are always a mess here at home in the winter.  And I (mostly) stay on the road, and don't have any T-34s and Sturmoviks to deal with (although Winnipeg drivers do have their moments).  So I thought the Panthers would be a real mess. I painted the tanks to a panzer-yellow type base as I would with any WW2 German vehicle of that period, and even applied the decals, but then stippled many layers of different shades of white.  I followed that up with sponge-chipping and spotting of mud, ice etc.  I did some "bird-poop" style runs of titanium white in different spots as well to show the paint and/or ice running off from the rain.

I like the helmet hanging off the turret on this vehicle.

My plan is to finish nine of these beasts for winter fighting.  That is plenty - likely too many - for any kind of Flames-of-War type game, but just right to represent a Panzer battalion in a game of Spearhead. 

Ready for winter fighting

 From the hopeless breakthrough attempts of Regiment Bäke, to the drive through the Ardennes, to desperate rear-guard actions in the Ukraine, to last stands along the Narva line and near the Baltic, to "Sleepwaking in Kurland", there are many different scenarios for these tanks. It was fun to see them on the table last night, and tread-head that I am, I will hatch more tank battles soon. 

Thanks again to Dallas for setting up the light box for these photos! I really do need to get one of those things...and stay tuned for a report on the "Chain of Command" game...

Big Cats, Small Figures - WW2 Pico Armor

Company of Oddzial Osmy T-34/85s

 I continue to dabble away at random projects, including some more 3mm scale Oddzial Osmy castings, this time in the WW2 setting. I've already painted a good pile for Cold-War-Gone-Hot games, and a budding collection for the Arab-Israeli wars, and I'm curious to see if the gaming fun in this scale can extend into WW2. In this post we have a small selection of late-war Eastern Front armour, T-34/85s, a couple of JS-2s and some German Panther As (which I think was somehow a later model than the Panther D - I am permanently confused by this...)

20mm square bases from Litko

These vehicles are all based on 20mm squares, with 20mm round bases used for command models.  The models are available in North America from the great folks at Pico Armor, who are a real pleasure to deal with - excellent service!  The bases are from Litko Aerosystems - another group of excellent folks.

JS-2s to punch through the lines

These bruisers are a tight fit on the 20mm base

I can't get over the detail on these tiny sculpts - artfully exaggerated so as to show up to the eye, without throwing off the overall impression of the sculpt.  As an example, the spare tracks are right there on the Panthers!! Incredible sculpting.

Panther As - round base for a command tank

I really enjoy painting tanks, and these models are real beauties!  It is a lot of fun to paint up an entire platoon of tanks in one short painting session.  Trying to come up with something that will show up well enough on the table for my gaming friends to enjoy using these tiny models is an entertaining challenge.

Ready for action on the Eastern Front

 As others often recommend, when it comes to the smaller scales, it helps to punch up to a higher/brighter colour than you might normally use otherwise. This is what I am trying to do with these tanks - the panzer yellow colour I used here, for example, would look like a traffic cone on 1/72 or 1/50 scale model. But I'm hoping it jumps enough for a gamer to go "oh, later period German tank...." from about three feet away. We'll see!

No camo on these, but I tried to soot-up the engine deck with weathering powder

I thought the recent game we did with individually based models in this scale went really well, so I'm keen to experiment with the WW2 setting.  The reason it might not work? Well, it all boils down to the infantry...

Panther D next to a (now-defunct) Canadian penny

In the modern gaming, particularly in the Cold-War-Gone-Hot setting, nearly every front line fighting unit has vehicles. The infantry are modelled, and fun to paint, but it's about the IFVs and the MBTs.  And they are big suckers - even the T-80BV is a hefty little casting - I mean, for a 1/600 scale tank.  The infantry castings are almost little terrain enhancements to the IFVs like the Bradleys and BMPs.  Even a third-tier Soviet formation will have BTR-60s to move them around the battlefield (however briefly) - so vehicles dominate the modelling and gaming action in that kind of setting - fair or not, it's how it goes.

T-34/85s next to Canadian Penny

In WW2 the mechanization of the infantry did not reach modern levels we see in the OBs of the 1980s.  The use of half-tracks grew and grew and by the end of the war some Allied units were heavily mechanized, but to represent WW2 on the table, you need to be able to come up with little stands of infantry that are cool and fun to play with, and stand out from their opponents...I'm experimenting with that right now - we'll see how it turns out.