Really Small Skirmishing

 I've been thinking about Black Ops a lot recently. The games are small, suitable for solo play and, apparently, the rules are simple to learn. What stopped me was that it would involve quite an investment in scenery, troops and time to build up a sufficient collection in 20mm or 28mm.

My solution was to swap all distances in the rules from inches to centimetres and play in 6mm. That way, any scenery could also be used for CWC games, so I would get some of my unpainted scenery actually done. Also even with my glacial painting speed it would not take that long to get some forces together for a game. The only question then was what era and theatre of war to choose.

My mucker Neil solved that dilemma by sending me some Middle Eastern buildings that he had knocked together one evening:

He has constructed them by applying sticky envelope labels over chunks of foam. They wouldn't win any modelling competitions, but they only took him about an hour to complete. Cheap, quick scenery made basically out of leftovers, cracking.

So, a Middle East setting then. All that was left was to get some troops ready:

A section of German infantry, patrolling in the Kunduz region of Afghanistan as part of ISAF. Figures are GHQ modern German infantry.

A small Taliban force, led by the self-styled "Lion of Kunduz", a local militia leader who has proved to be a thorn in the side of ISAF. Figures are H&R Mujahadeen/Taliban. 

The  stage is set then. German forces have been tasked with hunting the Lion of Kunduz down. I had hoped to play the game before Christmas, but work, shopping and general malaise have combined to scupper that plan. First game of the new year is planned and ready then!

West German Reinforcements

 Lockdown, Tiers and Lockdown 2.0 have all combined to sap my painting mojo for the last few months. Nonetheless I have ploughed on through the malaise and finally got a few units finished. I decided that my West Germans needed a few reinforcements, mostly from H&R:

I've beefed up my artillery support with some FH70s, which were adopted by the Heer in the mid-80s. I've used H&R West German artillery crew and added a MIDGE launcher for a bit of character, since it's the only use that I can think of for it.

Even more potent is this battery of MLRS. I bought these for a game set in 1989 a few years ago, before looking again at their in service date. It turns out that they weren't in use by the Heer until 1990. As most of our games are set in 1986 I'm not sure if these will ever see action. Still, they look cool and that's reason enough for me to get them painted.

Incidentally, I've added the fiddly GHQ Iron Cross transfers to some of these vehicles, with a small dab of varnish to protect them. The varnish seems to have clouded over again. Hey ho.

Air defence has been enhanced by these Roland launchers from Scotia. I think that they will mostly feature in fixed defensive positions.

Another oddity, a pair of Skorpion minelayers. I don't think that mines can be laid during a game of CWC, so I may have to think of some house rules to get them into action. If not, they can just hang around in REMF positions during a battle. 

Finally, I thought that I should make a new CO stand, so here is General Von Klinkerhoffen explaining his master plan to his subordinates. I've used GHQ M577s with deployed tents, H&R infantry (from their newish West German 1980s range) and a table from a H&R WW2 German command sprue that Andy Kirk kindly let me have for free. I've added a small scrap of paper and painted it up as a map for the table. It works well enough.

It's always good to get some stuff finished and off the lead mountain. I'm off on another tangent for my next project, hopefully more on that soon.

Aegean Blue on Blue

 Opportunities to meet up for a game have been scarce this year, so m'colleague Neil and I decided to play out solo games of Cold War Commander today. My collection of troops is exclusively NATO, so I decided to use a scenario that the group have been discussing of late: a Turkish invasion of the Aegean islands (inspired by the Operation Nostalgia article in Miniature Wargames Magazine of old and Grymauch's solo wargame blog).

The ongoing war of words between Greece and Turkey has escalated into a hot war and Turkish troops have invaded several islands in the Aegean. The hard pressed Greek government has requested assistance from their NATO allies. 41 Commando, on exercise in Cyprus, have been tasked with liberating one of the occupied islands.

Initial table set up, with buildings set on the sea front.

2 companies of Turkish defenders, dug in and ready to defend the beach.

The Royal Marines commenced the game by landing a company in Sea King Commandoes to take out a dug in AA site on the hill overlooking the beach.

The main attack then began. The first company successfully arrived ashore on their BV206s, looking to turn the Turkish right flank. However, they strayed into range of the defenders and lost a platoon to Opportunity fire. The second company HQ managed to blunder on his first command roll and got himself knocked out by a crossfire. They'd obviously been enjoying the Cyprus nightlife a little too much, as the third company HQ also blundered and called in friendly fire on his own troops thankfully without loss. The Marine CO then took command and succeeded in rolling a double 1, using the opportunity to get his troops ashore. 

The immediate Turkish response was muted: the HQ at the beach failed his command roll and the CO also blundered, calling more friendly fire on his own troops. 

The dice gods were clearly bored today, as turn 2 started with yet another blunder by the 1st Marine HQ, who ordered his troops to pull back. Unfortunately he was attempting to call in mortar support at the time so the Marines' mortar platoon promptly disappeared off the table edge, back out to sea. With one of his HQs absent, the RM CO took command and started to roll up the Turkish defenders on the beach. In the meantime, the company inland close assaulted the dug in platoon defending the AA guns, knocking them out and blasting the Bofors guns.

With the AA guns out of action, the Marines could call in air support, pounding the Turkish defenders on the beach. The replacement HQ for the 2nd company landed ashore and distinguished himself by immediately rolling yet another blunder.

Despite repeated bombing runs by RAF Harriers, the Turkish troops were mounting a determined defence and, with the Marine commanders apparently incapable of rolling anything but a double 6, the battle on the beach became bogged down in hand to hand trench clearances.

Meanwhile, the air assault company had despatched the Turkish Bofors guns and were moving to a blocking position to cover the beach from any counterattack. 

The Turkish reinforcements finally arrived and found that the Marines had 2 Milan posts dug in and a village occupied.

The Turkish tank company came under fire from the RM Milan posts. Despite pummelling the hilltop with HE rounds, they were unable to shift the dug in Milan team.

The Marines finally mopped up the last of the dug in Turkish platoons on the beach. 

The Turkish reinforcement mechanised companies battled to relieve the beach, but came up against the Marine air assault company, now occupying the village.

With the beach defenders wiped out, Harriers lurking and casualties and suppressions mounting, the Turkish CO decided that he did not have sufficient numbers to break through to the beach so, giving up his position by the Acropolis View Hotel, ordered a general withdrawal.

A victory for the Royal Marines, but certainly not a foregone conclusion and a far more difficult fight than I expected. We have been kicking around the idea of an Operation Nostalgia 1986 campaign, featuring either Soviet naval and airbourne troops as the occupying force or a NATO internecine struggle, with Greece and Turkey at loggerheads. I would definitely be keen to explore this scenario further.

Having vowed to not build any more armies I am now researching the Greek Marines. Vietnam era US troops would look about right...

Andreivian Road Test

 Now that the Royal Army of Andreivia is complete, I thought I would try them out in a small solo game, using the Combat of St Ulrich scenario from the Honours Of War rulebook.

The opposing forces: A Hessian brigade (there would be Hessians in the BS Co expeditionary force surely?) consisting of General, 3 battalions of infantry, 1 regiment of cavalry and a gun. Facing them is a small Andreivian force of General, 2 regular pike armed infantry battalions, 1 regiment of irregular cavalry and a gun. It's only now, when I see them next to each other, that I have noticed the size disparity between the Baccus Ottoman and Prussian guns. The Andreivian gun is massive!

Initial set up and deployment. The Hessians are marching in column towards a ford by a small village, defended by the Andreivians. 

The initial few turns saw the Hessians cautiously march their cavalry forward and deploy into line, to cover their flank from the Andreivian cavalry. The Andreivian commander, conscious that his troops were outnumbered, commenced bombarding the Hessian infantry with his cannon. With the cavalry deployed, the Hessians marched their infantry forward, but misjudged the distance and brought them into charging range of the Andreivian cavalry:

The opportunity was too great and the irregular cavalry slammed into the Hessian infantry, caught in column. This could have turned very nasty for the infantry... 

But the dice gods had other ideas and the Andreivian cavalry were repulsed in dissary. The Hessians responded by charging the disrupted Andreivians with their own cavalry, using the Caught! card to stop their irregular opponents from evading. The attack ended inconsequentially though and the Hessian cavalry pulled back. 

Following the cavalry drama the Hessians managed to deploy their infantry into a firing line. The Andreivians, outnumbered and with a -1 disadvantage when firing due to their pikes, decided not to invoke a volley and charged instead:

Despite causing several disrupts, the Andreivians were unable to break the stout Hessian infantry and fell back. In the following volley phase the left hand Andreivian infantry battalion was broken and fled in the face of disciplined musket fire. The Hessian cavalry then charged the Andreivian cavalry again and finally broke them, leaving the Andreivians with a single infantry battalion on this side of the ford.

There then followed a cat and mouse game in which the Andreivians, through withdrawing and clever use of Event cards, rallied their infantry and prevented the Hessians from catching them in a volley. In an attempt to bring matters to a head, the Hessian General expended his action card deck to charge the Andreivians in the flank with his cavalry:

Yet again though the dice had other ideas and the pike armed Andreivian infantry repulsed the Hessian horse without difficulty.

Finally, the Hessians trapped the Andreivians on the banks of the river. Surrounded on three sides, the plucky Andreivians decided to go for a death or glory final charge. Again though, the Hessian regular infantry held their ground and refused to break. The situation for the Andreivians was looking grim:

To make matters worse, the Hessian General threw in his last Action card, to make sure of the job:

The resulting volley was too much for the embattled Andreivians and they were shattered under a hail of musket balls.

So, a comprehensive victory for the Hessians, leaving them masters of the ford and the Andreivian General fleeing for his life:

All in all, a fun game and a useful reminder of the Maurice rules. Regular infantry are nigh on impossible to shift in combat, unless they have been softened up with a few volleys first. The cavalry were spectacularly ineffective throughout the game. Had the dice rolled more favourably for the Andreivian cavalry when they charged the Hessian infantry in column, things may have turned out very different. 

I'm already thinking of a follow up game, perhaps an ambush in heavily wooded country, where the Andreivian irregular units would have the advantage. 

Hope that was entertaining.

Andreivia, land that I love

I read in a magazine once that the average wargamer spends around 90% of their painting time on their armies and only 10% on terrain. I think that I would probably be more a 95% - 5% split. Nevertheless, a fictional army needs a fictional country to defend, so I've been working on a few buildings for Andreivia.

The cathedral of St Andrew in the capital, Tcherbervan. This is a Russian church from Leven. I've added a fountain and plinth, both also Leven, plus a grave of a noted Andreivian hero or martyr, from Perfect Six. I copied the simple, monotone colour scheme from online photos of Armenian churches - many of which are quite beautiful. I have based it on embossed plasticard, to give the surroundings a paved look.

Andreivians are Greek in origin and were part of the Eastern Roman Empire, so I wanted to reflect that. This is a bit of tourist tat that I bought in Athens and has been repurposed as a ruin. I filed off the "Athens" at the front and covered it with flock. I added a few more Leven plinths to the base. At some point I may acquire a pair of 10mm Romans, cut their heads & arms off and add them to the plinths. In Maurice, built up areas occupy 10 cm squares so that is the common base size I have used. I might go back and round off the corners of this one.

Finally for now is a small village. These are the first buildings that I painted when I got back into the hobby, in 2010. They also represent the entire H&R building range, being their large and small farmhouses and Eastern European houses. I recycled them and added a few barrels and pots from Perfect Six then added textured paint and a few different flocks to the base. All very quick. M'colleague Neil has made some villages already, so I've tried to match with his. I'll find out if I have succeeded when we next meet up. 

I hope that was of some interest. Next in the pipeline are town houses for Tcherbervan. 

Equally Cursed and Blessed

Andreivia is a multi-ethnic country and so I wanted to feature the other main ethnic groups in the Royal Andreivian Army. 

These are ethnic Turkish light infantry:

I've used Austrian Grenzers from the Baccus 7 Years War range. The minis have a short, military cut jacket worn open. Like the regular infantry, I wanted them to look more "Eastern" so have painted them grey, with a red-brown waistcoat instead. I used 3 different shades of grey on the figures, but that isn't very obvious when looking at the finished product. There are 3 regiments of light infantry. 

Next we have ethnic Armenian horsemen:

These are Baccus Cossacks from their Great Northern War Russians. I was not sure how to paint these chaps, but ended up with a mix of greys, black and white tunics, with again a random selection of hat colours, to create a less uniform look. I also mixed up how they were positioned on their bases rather than gluing them in line abreast, as befits irregular cavalry.

Upon further research, it turns out that Armenia is quite a mountainous country, so I'm not sure that they would have been noted horsemen at all. Perhaps the Turks should have been the horsemen and the Armenians light infantry? Hey ho.

I also created a Armenian officer/Notable:

I have used another Cossack plus a chap from the Mahdist Emirs pack. The Armenian cavalry have also been bulked with commanders from the Mahdist Emirs.

I really hope that we can get the Crisis Point weekend reorganised for another date. If not, Neil and I will have to determine the outcome of the War of Andreivian Succession over a series of battles ourselves.

Andreivia oi oi oi oi! (To the tune of the old Subbuteo advert)

The main gaming effort this year was the annual Crisis Point weekend, organised by Richard Crawley at Dungworth near Sheffield. The theme this year was "Andreivia Through The Ages". Andreivia is a fictional Black Sea country situated between Turkey and Armenia. It was created by Richard in 2008 (I think) for a SOTCW game, set as a UN intervention in a Balkans-esque, multi-ethnic Civil War in the early 90s.

Since then the history of Andreivia has continued to be developed. Over recent years games have been set during the War of Independence, as Andreivia fought to free itself from the collapsing Russian Empire in 1919. Games this year were set over such diverse periods as the Roman invasion and WW2 Eastern Front. Neil and I were (all in past tense of course, since this was all planned before The Event) to host the War of Andreivian Succession of 1764. Neil took the part of General Horace Wilberforce of the Honourable Black Sea Trading Company's British expeditionary army (Wilberforce Force). This left me to create the Royal Andreivian Army:

First we have the regular infantry:

There are 6 battalions of regular infantry, using the Baccus Levant infantry from the Ottoman Great Northern War range. Andreivians are of Greek ethnicity, so I've based their uniforms on traditional Greek costume. I wanted them to have a different feel to Western European troops, so I have used unformed musket armed infantry and the centre companies have spears. In fact they are quite dexterous chaps, as they have a shield on their left arm, a spear in their left hand and a musket on the right, which slots on to a rest on the side of the shields. Our chosen ruleset, Maurice, includes pike armed troops, so they would have had an effect on the tabletop.

Next, the artillery:

These are also from the Ottoman range from the Great Northern War era. I am not  aware of any country using black for their guns, so thought that it would make a distinctive (and also quick) paint scheme.

Every army needs its General:

These lads are from the Baccus Mahdist Emirs pack, with some Irregular baggage and a Leven tent. I did buy some Irregular pavilions for a more 'Eastern' look but they turned out to be far too big, so they will have to wait for another project.

Finally for now we have this chap:

In Maurice terms he is a Notable. For our game he is Prince Jerzy Drahomanov, dashing cavalry officer, arch plotter, brother of the late King and sworn enemy of the Queen Regent.

I hope that was of some interest. Part 2 will feature some allied units.

Across The Line

I've gone back over the chaps and highlighted the white & blue areas, with a few green highlights too and decided that they're done:

It's been an interesting experiment, adding the brown wash. I think that I should have started with brighter base colours than I usually use.

Tejler's Foot, with one of my Hessian regiments for comparison

I've never painted troops for someone else before. It is enjoyable, being part of a group effort, but I feel a bit sad that I won't get to see them, based and with colours flying, forming up with the rest of the army. Had timing and, you know, the world, been different, it would have been good to see both completed armies in action at Joy of Six. Maybe whoever wins them could put on a demonstration game next year? 

Thanks for looking. Next up: troops for the War of Andreivian Succession. 

Do you think that's wise, sir?

I think that I may have made an error with Tejler's Foot. Got them painted to a standard that I was pleased with and then moved on to the final stage...

I've not added an ink wash to any of my 6mm infantry before. When using inks & washes, I would normally add them after the base coat and before highlighting. I also do not own the same ink that Per uses. So it was with some trepidation that I mixed up some Coat D'Arms brown ink in a 40:60 ink to water mix and set to...

In hindsight, that mix was too strong and they are now too brown. The white areas in particular have been badly affected. It's too late to do anything now of course. I'm going to leave them overnight then go back over the white areas tomorrow, then see how they look. Might need a bit of a highlight on the blue as well.

Nearly There

Henry Hyde, in an article in Miniature Wargames magazine, once suggested finding just 30 minutes a day to paint. These short periods build up and very soon progress will be made on the lead mountain (we've all got one). I've been doing 45 mins or so a day and am nearly there:

I've taken these photos with the flash on and the green shows up much better.

I need to finish the pikes and flag poles, add some highlights to the cartridge belts, tidy up the scarved then do some work on the drummer and then these bad boys will be ready to join their fellow Denswe army regiments.

Marching On

More progress on Tejler's regiment of foot:

I've added the green facings but the effect is quite subtle (ie too dark) so I may go back and add a lighter green highlight.

I started a blog... which started the whole world crying

Having enjoyed reading the blogs of Messrs Crawley, Canham, Phillips et al over the years, I've decided to have a bash myself. This blog will document my attempts to bring various wargaming & painting projects to fruition. I might even get to play a game one of these days...

First featured project is a bit of a random one. I have joined Per Broden's communal effort to paint two 6mm Imagination armies, to be auctioned off for charity. My allocated unit is Tejler's Regiment of Foot, of the Kingdom of Denswe:

Here they are having had a grey spray undercoat followed by a black wash.

The photos are bit dark, but they have now had their blue coats base coated with Moody Blue from the Citadel Monster Paint set that I bought in around 1989. Somehow it's still going strong. They've then had a quick drybrush with a lighter blue, before the musket barrels and some hair painted brown. The other chaps' hair has been done in black.

The regiment is to have blue coats with green facings. I've decided to use Revell Fern Green (I have no brand loyalty when it comes to paints and just use whatever paint I like the look of) as it's bright but not too dayglo or gaudy. I'm going to have reversed colours on my drummer, while Colonel Anders "Bullet Magnet" Tejler shall have fair hair and a smart white coat. Just because I can.

Further progress to follow.