T-62 - Soviet Heavy Metal

Somewhere in Germany circa 1979

Courtesy of my pal Tamas, I took delivery the other day of three Grubby Tanks T-62.  This brings my count of T-62s to six now, which with three left to go - is almost a full combat.  

The figures themselves are resin and metal and have their problems.  There's a bit of bubbling in the resin, which I had to attack with green stuff and I'm not sure the game was worth the candle. Regardless Tamas has done a lovely job on them and hopefully they will be storming across the North German Plain before too long.  

The T-62 equipped units in the 62nd Shock Army, which is the unit I'm sort of modelling.  Armed with substantial armour and a powerful 115mm gun, they were a match for the Centurions and M60s they were arrayed against.

Steel beasts unleashed

I had five minutes and threw a bit of set dressing together to snap some pics.   If there is one piece of advice I can give the budding Cold War gamer it is get yourself some toy cars in your preferred scale because they dress a battlefield like nobodies business. 

I had originally collected these with a view to using them with Battlegroup Northag, many many moons ago, but lost interest when they decided to shift to 12mm figures.  I've run a fair bit of Cold War skirmish stuff using Savage Worlds, Force on Force and Black Ops.  Of those Black Ops is the best wargame, but it is firmly a skirmish wargame and doesn't lend itself to tanks. 

Tom is making noises about Seven Days to the Rhine which is very much a tank heavy game and I do have a copy, so I might have a look at that.  Though between COVID and everything else, God knows when these will finally see the field. 

Not the best picture I've ever taken

I wasn't going to use this picture, because I'd framed it badly, but it does at least give you a decent view of the tanks. 

Scary Soviets

Elheim Soviet Officers 

Once a year, some friends and I meet up for birthday con, a day of gaming in March or April which is roughly when our birthdays occur. The last two years, we’ve played “Rogue Troopers” - a game set in my Soviet occupied UK setting.  The game follows the adventures of four members of the Parachute Regiment who were betrayed by a senior officer during the Haartz Zone massacre and now resist the Soviets at home. 

No doubt fans of 2000AD are beginning to join the dots. 

Soviet officers

A game like this needs some suitable baddies and Matt at Elheim supplied these guys. They are great, enough detail to be distinctive, but not so much that they over come the figure. 

These were painted with washes and with preference to the photos of painted figures on the Elheim page.  I found it extremely useful to have something to work from as I didn’t have to faff around looking for references and could just get stuck in. 

These guys have a certain something. Matt is really excellent at animating his figures and making something quite small seem alive.

A  more aggressive looking staff officer and a female MVD officer. 

This lady did good service in our last game as a radio operator at a Soviet secret base. One of the rogue troopers turned his back on her and was shot with a concealed pistol for his pains.

These two are my favourites.  The chap on the right is a Soviet Military Policeman on traffic duty.  I used the picture on the Elheim site as a guide, but I believe those details were taken from an Osprey. 

The second chap is Comrade Comissar Hugo Boche,  complete with white gloves and eyepatch, of the MVD (late of the East German military police).  He’s a recurring villain in the Rogue Troopers games.  

His villainy has included torturing one of the Rogue Troopers, assassinating high level members of the Resistance, leading Project Nightwing and very slowly removing his white gloves while delivering monologues. 

During the last game,  the RTs successfully put  a stop to Project Nightwing,  but Boche escaped by leaping out of a window to go get reinforcements. 

Where will he strike next? 

During a trip to the National Gallery,  the Kinchlets stopped to listen to Mr Shaw.  I’m not sure he made a great impression, though the LadyBaby did threaten him with a banana before she fell asleep. 

It is truly inspiring to have a daughter filled with such robust good sense. 

One ping only

I watched this recently with the Kinchlets and very good it was too.  John McTiernan’s submarine thriller is taut and well served by its cast.  Basil Poledouris's score is a joy and I really didn't find Connery's Scottish accent off putting, which I know some viewers did.   Alec Baldwin does a good turn as an unlikely action hero and the supporting cast are uniformly excellent.

All in all recommended.

The Kinchlets wriggled enthusiastically to the music which is also a plus.  But they just seem to like anything that's loud.

An Atlantic Convoy laid out on the board

My pal, Dr. Creaner, has a copy of "The Hunt for Red October" board game released by TSR many moons ago.  I haven't played many naval games, but this one seemed to strike the right balance for me - proceeding at a decent clip, but also presenting some genuine tactical problems.

For those who are unaware - The Hunt for Red October board game is superficially a board game of the book/film.  There are eight scenarios in the box, one of which involves chasing the rogue Soviet submarine across the Atlantic.  Having read it, I'm not sure how much fun it would be.

The other seven scenarios are devoted to naval engagements during a Cold War turned hot. Game play is very simple, the pieces are designed to allow the players to see where an enemy is, but nothing more.  Pieces are rated by type (surface vessel, sub, aircraft, etc), attack value and detection value.

Detection is everything, if you can spot your enemy before he spots you, it is likely going to end very badly for him. There is an old saying, which I am probably misremembering but it goes something like this, "Blessed is he whose cause is just, but three times blessed is he who gets his blow in first." No where is that more true than in submarine combat.

Soviet subs attempting to harass a NATO convoy

We managed to play three games in a very leisurely evening, while learning the rules and I hope that we'll be able to give this another go in the near future.  In our first game, I managed to swarm the USN and RN around Iceland and while my Foxtrots and Alfas were sent to the bottom, the exchange rate in Trafalgars and Los Angele's was equal which was very bad news for NATO.

Admiral Creaner considering his Anti-Sub screen

Sydney and Admiral Creaner played a convoy game which didn't go so well for the Soviets. Penetrating a convoys anti submarine piquet is no joke and we worked out that it was far more useful to work out where the convoy needed to be and then lie in wait for them.  This is slightly complicated by the fact that while the US convoy is slow moving and fairly predictable, they do have Los Angeles class subs attempting to disrupt the Soviet attacks - so a Soviet player who is too cautious could find himself being counter ambushed.

An enjoyable game and at a sufficient level of complexity - actually I think it might be fairer to say - of sufficient simplicity  - to keep my interest while still reflecting some of the problems of naval engagements.  Actually, I came across an interesting idea recently in the work of a Canadian academic called Jordan Peterson, which was the idea of the "low resolution representation".  The idea is that people have cognitive structures that they use to deal with problems - essentially stories that they tell themselves. These stories vary in complexity, but what matters is if they are true enough for the purpose they are put to.  A hydrologist might have a higher resolution mental model of currents and movements of water than a fisherman, but that might not matter to the fisherman who will have to make more decisions much more quickly than the hydrologist.  The fisherman's "rules of thumb" might be inaccurate in some cases, but so long as they as mostly true, most of the time, they serve their purpose.

A good game might need to be sufficiently high resolution to capture some sense of the thing that it is representing, while being of a sufficiently low resolution to be playable in a reasonable amount of time. The appropriate level of resolution will depend on what your goal is. 

My father in law put this together while we were all dying of the lurgy. It's solid, the cover is screwed to the timber underneath and then again to the floor. It's on legs so that Arthur Kinch cannot repeat his trick of building a ramp of cushions against it. Something similar was tried by the Romans at the Siege of Jerusalem I believe. 

Unfortunately the Kinch household is just a riot of chest infections, coughs, spluttering, paracetemol and anti-biotics, so we've had to batten down the hatches. Arthur and Gordon have borne it with remarkable stoicism for babies their age, something I wish I could say about their parents. 

Unfortunately, we somewhat underestimated Arthur's ingenuity.  Within twelve hours, he'd managed to pile cushions against the window and wedge himself against the wall in such a way that he could get up to swipe the little wooden bandsmen that went around the tree. 

Arthur Kinch will be getting this for Christmas.  I may have made a terrible mistake. 

Gordon is getting far more sensible LEGO, which she really enjoys (having played with a friends), but which doesn't make a noise. 

Popping smoke II

Having painted one set of two green smoke plumes, I've started on a second set of red smoke plumes.  The first lot were painted goblin green and then highlighted with pure yellow. However I'm not entirely sure what I can use to highlight this without turning it pink. 

These things will probably be used for objective markers and signalling in Black Ops games. 

Popping smoke

I

Despite Mrs. Kinchs best efforts she has not managed to ban toy soldiers from the bedroom entirely.  I nodded off during dinner this evening - so Mrs Kinch declared an early night and very right she was too. 

Before I nodded off again, I did a job on two resin smoke plumes. These will be used as markers in Black Ops games. A coat of goblin green highlighted with pure yellow did the trick. 

Having reflected in it - I think making more Indian lancers would be an unnecessary diversion of effort.  Definitely no more of those. An unnecessary frippery that would only serve as a distraction to a serious minded fellow like myself. 

Train in vain

It's all a bit grim in the country

I've always been of the opinion that the rural idyll is a bit like thrilling to the fortunes of an association football team, a very fine thing no doubt - but not really my bag. 

However, proving that anything is possible, Savage and I packed our bags and set out for a trip to the country.  After the assassination of Foyski, local reprisals were swift and merciless. The Soviets rely on local commanders and civil servants to see to the day to day running of the Second Commonwealth. These folk, viewed as traitors by the Resistance, ensure the buses run on time and that the children get to school. Alistair McGallimaufry, a senior figure in the Loamshire local government and intimately familiar with Soviet operations has been kidnapped.  He is being held at a small farmhouse in sleepy rural Loamshire and is being interrogated by the Resistance.  Fortunately, a double agent in the Loamshire resistance organisation has leaked information to the Soviets and help is on the way. 

Savage sets his sentries out

This was an extraction mission played on the compound board. I played as the dastardly Soviets and Savage took up the cudgels for the plucky Resistance.  My job was to get in and rescue McGallimaufry while he still had some finger nails left. As the attacker, I had the choice of hitting the site either at night or during daylight. 

I opted to attack at night and took a small, high quality force of four spetznatz troopers equipped with night vision and silenced pistols.  These were led by buccaneering, cigar chomping Kapitan Gowovitch, a ruthless Muscovite, whose ancestors left their native Scotland to serve the Tsar. 

Note: During the last game, I used black and white pictures to represent night fighting. Did you think that added to your reading of the report or do you prefer this more traditional approach? 

One team of three at the front, one GPMG team at the rear

Savage set up his guards in two groups clustering them together so that I wouldn't be able to pick them off.  He used a conscript list, so we presumed that his fighters were made up of demobbed lads from the 2nd Battalion (Territorial) of the Loamshires, reservists who didn't make it to the colours in time to do their bit in Central Europe and who were keen to give Johnny Ivan a damn good kicking now that he was firmly ensconced on their native heath. 

Soviet Spetkatz conducts preliminary reconaissance

In the early hours of the morning, the Trev and Dave fingered their SLRs nervously and stamped their feet against the chill.  The thrum of a distant helicopter set their pulses racing, but soon faded. They tried not to listen too closely to the sounds coming from the out buildings where the prisoner was being interrogated. 

Looking at the board, I reckoned Savage had erred by grouping his sentries so closely together as it made it possible for my troops to avoid contact until they were right on top of the target. 

Do you see anything Dave?

I grouped my troops together and moved cautiously for the first two turns.  This meant trading time for certainty as the scenario has a seven turn time limit. However, moving slowly meant that I was able to get almost on top of one group of sentries before I had to commit. 

Did you hear something? 

Trev, Dave and Tony lurked about the entrance to the farmhouse, walking a beat and failing to spot the Spetznatz that were bellying through the trees towards them.

"Phut! Phut! Phut!"

Closing the distance, the special forces troops padded forward and drew their silenced PB pistols. Dave heard a fox barking far off in the chill night and turned to make a joke to Trev and Tony. 

As he turned, he saw four men appearing out of the shadows and his friends lying sprawled on the ground. He felt something whistle past his face as he stood open mouthed. 

"Oh Gawd, it's the Rooskies!"

Now this was where things were about to get interesting. My flurry of silenced pistol shots had been quite effective downing two out of the three sentries and hitting the third, who made his save. Savage opted to have him use his action to yell and immediately put two noise counters on the table.  The card draw would be key here, if Savage got another activation, he would be able to open up with Dave and put more noise on the table. I might be able to weather two noise counters, but four would be a much more difficult prospect. 

"Phut!"

Unfortunately for Dave, I drew a Red Joker and was Gowovitch was able to transfer his activation to his men and the dumb struck young territorial was silenced by eight rounds of 9mm Makarov. 

Spetnatz stack up at the rear of the building

However, Dave's sacrifice meant that Savage was able to roll to see if his commander had noticed the ruckus. He had, but just enough to arouse his suspicion, not sufficient to raise the alarm.  While I stacked up my lads at the back of the farmhouse, Bill Savage roused himself and went to investigate. 

"Phut! Erk! Phut!"

I had hoped to avoid raising the alarm this early, but decided to stick with the plan and eliminate the GPMG team that was covering the rear of the farmhouse.  

"Get moving you horrible bastard"

"I've a feeling in me water," said Savage fingering his shotgun and went to the outhouse where he rousted McGallimaufry out, just as the Soviet commandos stormed the building. Unable to get through the doors, they hurled grenades into the buildings, but their bird had already flown.  The game was well and truly up. 

A one man Bonegruppa

While the commandos tried to force their way into the out building, Gowovitch pelted for the side door. With only three turns left on the clock. things were beginning to look a little tight. 

"Urrah!" 

Casting caution to the wind, Gowovitch booted the side door in and charged into the yard. Bill Savage opened up on him having retreated to the outbuilding, but missed. Gowovitch fired his Tishina from the hip and the grenade skipped across the window sill to detonate inside the building. 

Yelling the traditional "Urrah" of the Russian infantry, he charged across the yard and shot "Bludger" Collins who was herding a limping McGallimaufry towards the door. 

Things were looking pretty grim for the resistance, but they still had a lewis gun team in the main

building overlooking the yard. If they got an activation early in the turn, they could riddle McGallimaufry and Gowovitch, denying the Russians an important victory. 

All was not lost. 

Get ze pekege!

Fearing this I charged the group of troopers, after they (finally) managed to batter the unexpectedly stout door down, into the yard and unloaded as much suppressive fire into the farm house as we could muster.  This forced the British to hunker down, while their radio man called for help. 

Oh I think they heard us. 

Operational security meant that the Septznatz were operating without the co-operation of local forces and so were out of reach of help.  Unfortunately for Johnny Soviet, Savage rolled very well on the reinforcements roll and got a full 25 points worth of troops. 

Here comes the cavalry 

(note the spetznatz smoke in the distance)

These turned up on the road leading to the farmhouse, but as footsloggers weren't able to get into the fight fast enough.  The Spetznatz deployed smoke to cover their escape.

Thinking about it now, an MG team in a vehicle might have been a better choice. 

Follow me!

With the clock almost out of time and the troopers covering their escape, Gowovitch got McGallimaufry away and we called a halt. 

But all for naught

So in the post game washup, we rolled for Intel and I managed to get a blunder which gave a point of Intel in the Resistance. It appeared that while we had managed to extract McGallimaufry, the leaked information blew the cover of a Soviet agent in the Resistance. This led to a major housing cleaning in the Loamshire cells and the rolling up of Soviet infiltration network. 

Curses! Foiled again. 

We rolled up the next mission, which will be a surveillance job at an airport. I'm not entirely sure how we're going to set that out, but I'm sure we'll have fun doing it. 

London Calling

I always enjoyed the old "Invasion" comic strip in 2000AD. It was created by Pat Mills, the man behind Charley's War and a man for all his faults, knows how to write a good yarn. The central conceit was that in the late 90s, the "Volgan Republic" was set up after a military coup in Russia. This state then invaded Britain (led by Ken Livingstone!) seeking to control North Sea oil. 

The hero was a foul mouthed, Sun reading trucker named Bill Savage, who joined the anti-Volgan resistance after his family were killed by a stray tank shell. He wrought grim vengence on the Volgs with a shotgun and whatever else came to hand. My enthusiasm for Bill has led to some interesting Elhiem figures. 

There's a large element of slapstick in "Invasion", but my thoughts have been turning to a slightly less cartoony Soviet occupation game. With that in mind, Du Gourmand, Capability Savage and I played a game of Black Ops on the 28th. 

Somewhere in the Soviet Second Commonwealth of England circa 1980

(click to embiggen)

After the brief, but bloody war of 1979, the Soviet occupation of what is now called the Commonwealth of England, Ireland, Scotland & Wales has begun. While the phony war continues between the US and the USSR in the Atlantic and the government in exile in Canada gathers itself together, resistance is growing to Soviet rule.  There were many acts of brutality, heroism and cowardice in this clandestine conflict and somewhere between London and the Liverpool Rad Zone, yet another is being played out. 

We played this as a variation of the Assassination scenario from the Black Ops rulesbook. I mustered 60 points of Soviet conscripts, while Savage and Du Gourmand raised 30 points of Militia each. This was our first time messing with the stealth rules (not solo) and on the whole I think it went rather well.  The resistance had learned that a particularly brutal and hated Soviet commander, Maximilian Foyski, was on a tour of inspection in the area and resolved to assassinate him. 

They had information that he would be in the pub for a pint after a hard days secret policing. 

After dark, a sentry walks his beat outside the Peoples Militia station 

(click to embiggen)

I set up the game and the boys started grappling with the stealth rules. One thing that I thought they handed very well was taking a good look at the ground before deploying.  I had snuck a small surprise into the game, by purposely putting two pub models on the board.  The boys quickly realised that there were two potential sites for Foy and adapted their plan according. 

The lads jump an unfortunate Russian

(click to embiggen)

Du Gourmands boys led by "The Guv'nor" sneak on to the board and run slap bang into a Russian sentry, who promptly fluffed his observation roll. He went down in a hail of rifle butts. 

Meanwhile, Savage's forces scout out "The Hare & Hounds"

(click to embiggen)

The boys had a number of close calls during the stealth portion of the game, which weren't helped by that we managed to balls up the rules at a couple of points.  I had played these before solo and had misinterpreted some key points, not realising that sentries were activated on their own cards and not by enemy action. We also forgot the cumulative effects of noise, which gave the attackers a bit more of an advantage. 

The guvnor plays it cool after being spotted by a Russian sentry

(click to embiggen)

Du Gourmand's boys surround "The Red Lion" when a Soviet sentry makes an observation check to spot the Guv'nor covering the rear exit. Fortunately for Du Gourmand, my observation check matched rather than exceeded the target number, so all the sentry could do was turn to face and then hope to spot something more damning on his next activation.  We worked this out after a hurried consultation of the rules, at which point Du Gourmand announced, "So I've been spotted, but not made? Excellent. I'll knock politely then."

The lads surround the pub

(click to embiggen)

One thing we weren't sure of was what to do with the bodies of deceased sentries. It didn't come up during our game, but I didn't see anything in the rules covering this particular situation. We decided that a common sense approach would be best and that bodies could be picked up as part of an activation. 

While the guv'nor covers the back, the boys go in the front and discover that the pub is full of locals rather than Russian troops. A jammy roll on the civilian interaction table reveals that Foyski is in the other pub. 

The balloon goes up - Savage (with shotgun) running from the scene

(click to embiggen)

Meanwhile, a recce of the Hare & Hounds led to a frustrating series of observation rolls for Savage.  There was no telling which part of the Hare & Hounds, Foyski was in. A resistance member entered the pub and tries to suss out the locals. This goes spectacularly badly with the inebriated local loudly announcing " 'ee's got a bloody gun under 'is coat!" 

This generated a noise marker (white block) and finally raised the alarm. Foyski, who was in the back lounge, immediately made a break for the police station. 

Shots ring out inside the Hare & Hounds

(click to embiggen)

But before he managed to get out of the pub, the rest of the resistance cell bailed into the lounge and riddled him with carbine fire. 

Savage had selected carbines for his troops for reasons best known to himself, I was wondering what that would be in the late 70s context.  Privately held .22 birding or small game rifles I'd imagine. 

Soviet reinforcements dashed out of the old police station and started for the two pubs. 

Soviets reinforcements brass up the rear of The Red Lion

(click to embiggen)

With Foyski dead, the resistance started to pull out, but didn't quite make it entirely unscathed. Savage's GPMG team who were covering the retreat were hit by a hail of Kalashnikov fire and went down, while Du Gourmand's boys in the Red Lion were subjected to a barrage of RPGs, grenades and bullets. Luckily for them, they managed to make their saves and fled the pub as quickly as they could. 

On the whole, we were very happy with how the game turned out. The stealth rules once we worked them out properly, there is no substitute for playing a game against an opponent, were slick and added a drama to what could have been a dull exercise for the defending player. The common sense approach employed in the rules was good and all concerned were eager to play again. 

The boys rolled for Intel and gained a point. Intel points are accumulated over a series of loose campaign games and are spent for the opportunity to trigger a final showdown scenario. We rolled for the next scenario while tidying up and got a hostage rescue scenario set in a rural farm, but with the resistance defending.  

We shall see how this plays out. 

Blowing up Russians to the music of Queen

Harriers roaring down the valley

I'd been working on this game for a little while and I'm glad to say it went down very well at Hobocon.  The game itself was identical to BUT LEGALLY DISTINCT from Andy Chambers old Games Workshop game "Bomberz ova da Sulpha Riva". This was essentially the Dambusters, but with Space Orks as the RAF and Imperials as the Germans. It's a good, solid, albeit very simple game, that involves gambling on the results of two dice rolls each turn and moving your fighter accordingly. But for uncomplicated fun, I think its hard to beat.  The game can accomodate 1-5 players and lasts between twenty and twenty five minutes. 

Crash! A Harrier collides with an electricity pylon

In my version, the players took on the roles of pilots in 266 Squadron flying Harrier jumpjets against the Russian hordes poring across the North German plain. The Soviet players picked six cards from a hard of twelve and assigned two to each sector.  These cards remained hidden until the Soviet player revealed them or the RAF player flew over them.  The defences were Shilka AA batteries, SAM sites and AA guns, which one needed to be moving fast to avoid, and Electricity Pylon, which one needed to be moving slowly to avoid. The Soviet player also had some Hind helicopters, which were mechanically similar to the Harriers. 

Hokum I know, but it made for an enjoyable game. 

This made up most of the musical accompaniment

It must be said that when I arrived at the convention the game had a different name that made mention of the 3rd Shock Army and a bunch of other Cold War references that no-one quite understood. I had however brought along a CD player and some Queen CDs (mainly because Mrs. Kinch had tidied, nay hidden, my Clash stuff) and these turned out to be very popular. The two albums were Jazz and A Night at the Opera, both of which are fairly in period for 1979. 

I discovered that accosting random players with "Would you like to play a game about blowing up Russians to the music of Queen?" was a much easier sell than "Would you like to play a game about trying to conduct airstrikes on the 3rd Shock armies artillery reserve?"

Our gallant lads

I managed to run the game seven times over the course of five and a half hours. Our initial crew were Wing Commander Fatzington, Flight Officer Gundam, Flight Lt. Douglas and Air Marshall Du Gourmand. 

Keep it together Gundam!

These gallant lads managed to scrape a win despite, ahem, rugged individualism and nothing approaching team work. This was mainly due to Fatzington rolling dice that were subsequently burned at the stake for suspected witchcraft. 

Having cut down one Hind (seen going down in flames in the back ground) 

Flight Lt. Ash was the highest scoring lady ace of the day.  The Harriers could only move in the clear hexes on the table, so most of what you see in on the board is set dressing and is just there to indicate to the players the "railway" that they have to travel down.  In the original game, the Orks had to blow up Imperial bridges, but I had two 2SU mobile artillery pieces that served as objectives and they did fine. 

A big nasty furball

On the whole, I think the game was a success. From the point of view of quick playtime and number of players that actually played it, it certainly was. It looked nice and the mechanics held up despite Games Workshop removing the free PDF from their website a month before the game.  This did mean that I had to cobble a rulesheet together from memory, but it was none the worse for it. 

Magniminous in victory as always

It did mean that Fatzington returned to the game when he discovered that Ash had beaten his high score. Though truth be told, the top ranking Ace of the day was Billy, who played the game solo against me and brought such shabby Nazi tricks as tactics and concentration of effort to the game. It was observed that the game was actually easier without a group of players that had to be co-ordinated. The music was also a definite draw. 

Perhaps a later iteration of the game will involve a jukebox element - each target that the players blow up, they can change the song on the CD player from a previously approved selection of Blondie, the Clash, Queen, Abba, etc.