28mm WW2 Italian Bersaglieri

28mm WW2 Italian Bersaglieri (Desert)

These guys were never really part of the plan, I was going for a Battalion of standard Italian Infantry plus the Giovani Facisti I featured in a previous blog. However I went to the Recon show last Xmas near my home in Leeds and couldn't find anything I needed, in danger of being cast out for not buying something at a show, I went for the "oh, they are nice" option and bought the Warlord Games Bersaglieri box set.

The box contains 21 figs, 15 foot, a light mortar with 2 crew and an MMG with 3 crew, also shown is a 47mm ATG l bought over tinterwebnet last month.

Basic Infantry types

Breda MMG and crew, sandbags added by me

Pea Shooter and crew

47mm ATG looked a bit bare with no gun shield so I added some sand bags

Front and rear view of one of the figs

They have painted up quite well, I prefer the Perry stuff, they have that touch more detail and character but will certainly get some more of these to make up enough for a company (or 2, or a battalion, I know !)

Certainly looking forward to getting a big game on with the Desert stuff, I have the next batch of vehicles half done so when the current Naval Mini Campaign is done (see other posts and the background of the top photo, oops) that might be next.

In general wargame world it was a pleasant trip to Triples a couple of weeks ago. My lead mountain was on the way down but I ended up buying a couple more boxes of Perrys desert stuff, some Panzer 1s for SCW and a box of the 28mm Agema Romans to try out. It might just be me but I find the current venue for Triples "soulless" its a big sports hall at the end of the day, to me things just get lost in the enormodome.

The old Octagon had character, lots of different rooms lots of soul, it was a pain to park near, even a bigger pain if you were a trader or putting a game on but it just had something about it. It might just be nostalgia but I genuinely used to look forward to Triples now I can take it or leave it, for me York is now the best show in the area and one I always look forward too (its near my birthday as well so usually have lost of figure tokens to use up). Sheffield Wargames Society do a great job organising the thing its not a criticism of them, its horses for courses and I'm running at York.

WW2 Naval Campaign Day 2

WW2 British v Japanese Naval Campaign Day 2

Sadly shift work has scuppered the gaming a bit recently but last weekend we managed to get a few of us in the same room at the same time. We left the game with daylight breaking and the two fleets separating after the night action,  the Japanese shadowing the British from a distance with the British circling the waggons in preparation for air attack.

The British Fleet close up for an air attack

A second Japanese Squadron had arrived on table containing two Battlecruisers Kongo and Hiei, supported by 2 more Heavy Cruisers Takoa and Atago.

Japanese Battlecruisers arrive

The first 10 moves were designed to represent a Japanese land based air attack, each move they rolled 3d6 receiving 12 aircraft per roll of 5 or 6. For each successful roll a d12 was used to determine what arrived, a 1 or 2 brought Zero fighters which could be used as CAP over the table or held back to escort the Dive or Torpedo bombers which were randomly selected on a 3 to 12. The Japanese could hold aircraft off table for a maximum of 4 turns before using or losing them.

The first Japanese airwave arrives

The British had 12 land based fighters which could be called up with a 4 move delay, there  where also the planes of the carrier HMS Indomnitable, there were 18 Sea Hurricanes, 18 Fulmars and 18 Swordfish. The Japanese players managed to be very average and get 12 planes a turn most turns. In total they managed three attacks on the British Fleet.

Indomnitable under air attack

The carrier took the brunt of the attacks and was badly damaged by a couple of torpedo hits, down to 10 knots it was only due to some quality damage control that she survived at all. A third strike against Prince of Wales wasn't as successful a single 500lb bomb striking the deck and causing minimal damage.

The air war rages over the table

The British player wisely decided against launching an air attack in this phase aware of the risks of having armed aircraft on deck whilst under attack. All British Air operations were limited to Intercepting attacking bombers. This part of the game ended with Indomnitable withdrawing, limping off the table covered by the smoke of the destroyers Valentine and Vimeria.

In the second phase of the days gaming the next 10 turns represented a slackening off of the land based air, the Japanese still threw 3d6 per turn but needed a 6 for aircraft. The British still had the 12 land based planes plus those of the withdrawing aircraft carrier. The Japanese fleet were released by their Admiral and moved towards the British Ships.

Bad die rolls meant their 1 air attack failed to do any damage

As expected air power was less of a factor in this phase. The British managed to get one attack wave in but poor dice meant no hits were obtained. The Japanese managed an attack too, this time against Repulse a single torpedo hit caused minimal damage.

Repulse under air attack

The ship to ship combat saw minimal damage to the capital ships, both sides kept switching targets and losing ranging bonuses. HMS Ajax was sunk from the fire of 3 heavy cruisers and the Japanese destroyer Akebono sank after she suffererd a fuel fire on board. Someone then said "You know what we haven't had a Bridge hit today", guess what 3 Bridge hits in 2 turns. HMS Jaguar withdrew as a result of the loss of its Captain whilst the destroyer Akitsuki ended the phases trying to regain control after its Bridge hit.

The day ended there, one more session of the Campaign remains, both sides are due reinforcements and hopefully an exciting conclusion.

28mm WW2 Desert British Armour Pt 2

28mm WW2 Desert British Armour Part 2

Honey, Crusader I and a Daimler I

Got round to finishing these off after a week away, there is quite a queue on the vehicle production line at the moment, I have 2 Semoventes, 3 M13/40s and a Lancia Truck mounting a 90mm gun for my Italians and a Mk 6 Light tank, 3 A10 cruisers, a jeep and another Daimler for the Brits in various stages of construction, priming and undercoating.

First up a blitzkrieg miniatures M3 Stuart or "Honey" as it is more popularly known, this model has been around for a while and has proved quite deadly in our early war play testing, advanced sights and a gun which isn't a 2pdr make light work of my Italian stuff. It has been painted in standard desert brown to get it on the table, got finished off this week in the lt blue caunter scheme and finished with the wonderful domsdecals . The name Bellman is a genuine tank name of this type.

Next up a Crusader MkI this time from warlordgames , have to say I'm really happy with how this one came out, especially in the top photo. Still experimenting with the green on this version of the caunter scheme, after being too green on the Matilda (see previous post) this might be not green enough, anyway I've got 3 A10s to do some more practice on. The tank has been named "Battleaxe" painted on the rear of the turret (not in view) a common British tank name of the period. The tank commander is from Perrys.

Finally from this batch is a Daimler I again from Warlord. I couldn't find any pictures of this vehicle in caunter so I have gone for a two tone scheme which is on the example at Bovington. This one is as yet un named, I haven't found any examples of named Daimlers, if you know different let me know.

Now for a bit of a steam release regarding Warlord, they are a relatively new company and they have come a long way in a short time, mostly their stuff is great but recently I have noticed a marked drop off in quality of the castings. Both the Crusader and the Daimler above have badly warped chassis and there were some very bad casting lines on the rear of the Daimler turret, which I gave up on and covered with the turret hatch. Both these models are released in the fancy printed boxes meaning that they will be the ones that go to model shops etc and therefore the molds will get a big hammering. The Mk6 I bought recently had one of the tracks miss formed and part of the resin wasn't set, I'm still waiting for a replacement part 6 weeks later, they haven't even dealt with my complaint yet.

I do hope that they haven't got so big that they forget about production standards and customer care.

WW2 Naval 1941 British v Japanese Campaign

WW2 1/3000 Naval 1941 British v Japanese Mini Campaign

HMS Prince of Wales British Flag Ship

HMS Repulse a WW1 Battlecruiser

After a year to date of 28mm gaming it was time to go off piste for a while. WW2 Naval is an old love, when I moved to my current area 25 years ago, I joined the local club and the en vogue game at the time was WW1 Naval, the lad who ran the games, Richard ( haven't seen him for years, hope he's well ) had everything and I mean everything, a model for every ship, so there was no scope to build a fleet, so I moved into WW2. My collection now has every Japanese and Italian ship from the war down to destroyer plus a good selection of Brits, Yanks and Germans.

I put together a set of rules then which remain remarkably intact to this day. Its a great fall back game, quick to set up, easy to grasp and I think fun to play. The rules to many these days will seem old school, with "sharp intake of breath" tables and "horror" record keeping. But these are the sort of rules I grew up with, I just don't understand how you can attempt to deal with all the detail of WW2 with a single roll of a d6.

A data card, each ship has one with all the info to play that ship, damage points and speed on the right. A 10x6 grid representing the ships deck to allocate hits and at the bottom a table with gun data giving number of dice and armour penetration. 

I think rule sets did use to be too complicated but to my mind they have gone too far the other way. I had my first game of Rapid Fire this week at a friends house, fun game, great company, great set of rules ? No not for me, too basic, not enough attention to detail, I'll play them again with that group but wouldn't choose them myself, horses for courses.

The Initial Japanese Fleet

The mini campaign is a "what if" based on an idea from navalwargamessociety a game based around the South China Sea in December 1941. Most of us will be aware of the loss of Prince of Wales and Repulse to air power and the shock waves it sent through the world of Naval Warfare signifying the end of the Battleship as king of the sea. HMS Indomitable an aircraft carrier, ran aground in Jamaica whilst on route to the area and this campaign explores what might have happened if she had arrived to take part. I have used ships available from my collection which is based on a Med Fleet so the names maybe wrong for the theatre ( for the pedants among you).

The joy of Naval Wargaming, sod all terrain cost and zero set up time.

The initial set up is in darkness, a Japanese scouting force is looking for the Brits, 4 heavy cruisers and 3 destroyers, spread out seeking contact. The Brits with a Battleship, a Battle Cruiser, an Aircraft Carrier, 2 Light Cruisers and 8 destroyers are heading to intercept an invasion force north of their location. Prince of Wales is the only ship with radar fire control so the Brits know where the Japanese are, they on the other hand are blind, they do wake up however when on the first turn a 15" shell from PoW lands on the cruiser Suzuya.

Pic showing the general confusion of night actions. The white discs are star shells, if they are behind a target from an observer they can see the ship, if in front they blind the observer. You can see counters for unobserved ships as well as upturned golf tees acting as shell splashes.

Initially this is quite an unbalanced game, but that's the idea, the Japanese stumble into a bigger badder bully boy and need to survive till daylight and (hopefully) some air cover or reinforcements. It got worse very quickly as well, the first hit on Suzuya hit the torpedo tubes causing a fire. Not the best thing to have as it makes you quite visible at night ! Over the next couple of turns, outclassed by bigger better guns the Cruiser quickly sank.

Suzuya learns that having a fire at night is bad

Things weren't going well for the Japanese with the other cruisers starting to suffer, then a shot hit a turret on a British destroyer, someone had left a blast door open and the explosion flashed to the ships magazine causing it to explode. It damaged the two ships next to it setting a fire on HMS Neptune, a light cruiser. It certainly lifted the Japanese players morale who had been getting a hit badly till that point.

HMS Ashanti explodes after a hit on a turret flashes to the magazine, the yellow counters signify a ship either using or illuminated by a searchlight, the card strips in the background are torpedo tracks.

The Japanese lost a destroyer before HMS Neptune learnt the don't be on fire in the dark in a naval battle lesson and was sunk from sheer weight of firepower.

HMS Neptune sinks surrounded by shell splashes.

As the sun came up the British withdrew into a tighter formation for an anticipated air attack, whilst the Japanese withdrew to maximum visibility, the destroyers using smoke to cover the cruisers and any reinforcements which arrive. The players have been given their briefings for the mornings battle and we are ready for the next game in about 3 weeks time.

Japanese fleet shadowing the British ready for daylight action

The British fleet closes up to prepare for air attack.

Starting Fleets

Japanese

Suzuya Mogami Class CA                      Arashi Kagero Class DD
Kumano Mogami Class CA                    Akebono Mod Fubuki Class DD
Chokai Atago Class CA                           Akitsuki Akitsuki Class DD
Myoko Nachi Class CA

British

Indomintable Illustrious Class CV         Kashmir J/K Class DD
Prince of Wales KGV Class BB               Lance L Class DD
Repulse Renown Class BC                      Vanity V & W Class DD
Ajax Leander Class LC                             Eskimo Tribal Class DD
Neptune Leander Class LC                      Vimeria V & W Class DD
Jaguar J Class DD                                    Valentine V & W Class DD
Ashanti Tribal Class DD

Losses to date are British 1 Light Cruiser, 1 Destroyer, Japanese 1 Heavy Cruiser and 1 Destroyer plus one Heavy Cruiser with significant damage.

New Unit - 28mm AWI 5th Foot

New Unit -28mm AWI 5th Foot

Well that recent AWI game got the creative juices flowing in the late 18th Century again and as a result I have just birthed this lot.

These are the first unit of Perry-miniatures plastic Brits I have done, despite having the figs for ages. I had heard a few putting together horror stories but I did these easily whilst watching an episode of DCI Banks with a swear word per hour rate close to zero.

Black Halfords Matt Primer and acrylic paints, mostly Vallejo with a sprinkling of ink wash on faces and Muskets. Flags are by Gmbdesigns. Love the GMB stuff but I have had a bit of a mare with them of late. Other units with GMB flags were left set up on a table over a few days under a bright artificial light, all the whites dyed pink and all the other colours faded badly. I had to paint over what was left as a template, they came out well, just see the last AWI game write up, but you dont want to have to repaint your flags after every game !

Found some others on t'net who had a similar problem which is solved by a good coat of varnish. That was great until the varnish clouded, arse as Father Jack would say, using Humbrol Enamel Matt Cote if anyone knows what the problems is.

A picture of the rear of a British unit just in case the Americans havent seen one before ;-)

Got to say I am quite happy with these, not sure about their robustness, I have changed by basing size for these, frontage is the same but I have increased the depth to 60mm to protect the muskets a bit. See how they go when they see action. Got an Artillery unit done as well today which is waiting basing, lets see how long the enthusiasm lasts.

New Unit 28mm Western Desert British Armour

New Unit 28mm Western Desert British Armour

Monkey, Hotspur and Fat Badger L to R

These guys have been used for a number of play tests over the last few months, in various states of completeness, this week I finally got round to finishing them.

This is a Marmon Herrington Armoured Car to be used as Recce for my South African Infantry, a Company B model, supplied by the ever superb Wargames Command Post Painted in the caunter scheme with decals from domsdecals. Dom does a limited range but the stuff he does is great and really finishes these models nicely.

One word of note don't use Matt Cote enamel varnish over Doms stuff, the decals melt ! To be fair to Dom if you read his instructions he does tell you this, I did the usual man thing and didn't bother reading the info sheet before varnishing, luckily I was only daft enough to varnish over the vehicle numbers which I had to remove and replace.

Nicknamed "Monkey" during the war I have used that for a vehicle name, I have done a rough sketch of the PG Tips character Monkey (a TV advert for tea for any non UK readers, Tea the taste of Empire not that coffee muck) on each side of the model for a bit of fun. I have two more of these to do. One will be Monkey from the 80s TV series, any suggestions for the third ?

 

Next up is a Valentine tank from Blitzkrieg Miniatures with Doms Decals painted in the caunter scheme. This model started the current 28mm Desert project, a "wooh that looks pretty" moment, led to impulse sample purchase, led to new period, you all know how it works. Hotspur is a genuine name for this vehicle.

Last up is a Matilda from Blitzkrieg Miniatures finished with Doms Decals and a Perry Miniatures commander. Have to say the light green has come out very dark in these photos, in real life its quite a subtle light shade honest. I do like the detail on this and the other Blitzkrieg stuff, I prefer it to the Warlord stuff which I have had some problems with recently ( I will blog re this when I get that model done ). Company B do some obscure stuff which fills a gap, they are showing their age a bit in terms of quality and are quite expensive compared with other makers. The Monkey was £22.50 where as something similar size from Warlord would be £16-18 but no one else makes them.

Badger is a genuine Matilda tank name, I couldn't resist adding the Fat in front after a local restaurant of the same name. A Matilda does look like a Fat Badger in my eyes.

AWI 1778 End Game

AWI 1778 End Game

A target rich environment, US Artillery gets into action at last

Well we finally got enough people in the same place at the same time to get the game finished, there was no dream rescue of the Hesse Grenadiers, they failed their rally test held over from our previous session and promptly dispersed.

British Infantry line out and join the fray

The main action carried on around the blue farm with the building finally being taken by another brave Hesse charge this time supported by British Infantry. The loss of the melee sent the battalion routing back to the American lines, Durkees brigade failed their subsequent Brigade Morale test and left the field. No shame on them though they held the main attack off long enough to get re enforcements there.

The Blue Farm finally falls

The arrival of the British turned the battle, one brigade marched around the North flank the other around the south, leaving the Americans in the North badly outflanked, this area of the battle had seen a largely ineffective long range musketry duel but with their flank threatened the Americans had to react.

The Northern flank attack by the British put pressure on the North

The flank attacks by the allies had done one thing and that was weaken the centre, seeing the chance of an attack the Americans threw everything across the fenced fields into the Hesse and British lines.

The American attack rolls forward towards some confused livestock

The gamble sadly didn't pay off, only 2 of the 6 charging units got into contact, both those won their melee, but the losses gained in the advance and the threat from the flank meant the attack could not be sustained, with the situation starting to become untenable, the American General ordered the withdraw. Victory to the Hesse / Brit combo but a good hard fought game.

The General sounds the withdrawal.

So general thoughts on the game, a good scenario with enough variation to make it playable more than once. The lack of big super good British units (have you ever tried to stop a 36 fig elite Highland Unit) made the game very playable. The turning point for me was right at the beginning of the game. One American General sat back on their objective while allowing the Brits to get more troops on, with a single entry point getting troops on fast was not possible for the Allies.

An enjoyable game, we haven't used our AWI collection for a while and it was really good to get them back on the table, the owner of the American figs couldn't make the games, sad cause the figs look great at least thanks to the t'interwebnet he can. British Grenadier worked well I think, quite old school but that's what we like, it takes a while to get used to the dp rules but once you get stuck in it all comes back.

We have a WW2 Naval campaign ready to go and the 28mm Western Desert is getting close to being ready for a big game, with everything else it might be a while before the collection is out again, the game has given me enthusiasm to paint up the first of my Perry plastic Brits which is nice.