Project Kursk 31: Yet More German Bits and Bobs

I finally feel like I'm reaching the end of my Kursk project, and starting to extend the forces I have into the late and early war in the east. On the workbench is a second platoon of German Panzergrenadiers and their halftracks, but I've also just finished a Sturmpanzer Iv Brummbaer and Bergepanzer III.

Many thanks to Man Cave Paul for both these models, that he picked up for me at ?Cancon (is that right Paul?) Both are made by Skytrex/Command Decision.



The Brummbaer has a coating of Zimmerit, so really it postdates the battle of Kursk by about 6 months. As a result, I painted it with green and red/brown over Dunkelgelb, rather than the more usual solely green, so that I can use it in games of Fall of the Reich. If I can keep my OCD tendencies under control though I might also use it in Kursk games.



Battle Group has nice rules for recovery vehicles, and I do love the way that the rules give you a reason to include such exotic vehicles in your force. I'm quite looking forward to fielding the Bergepanzer in my next game.

Project Kursk 30: On to Prokhorovka! 1000 Point Game AAR

The stress of command

I've started a Battle Group Kursk campaign, using a map generated from Google Earth. On Monday night we played the first game at the D6 Lounge, Roseville, a 1000 point Defence Line game as the Germans started their attack on the first day of the Kursk offensive. I played the Germans with my friend Paul (proxying for Man Cave Paul), who has never played a miniatures game before and had to be told what 'D6' means. The Soviets were commanded by two recent graduates from the school wargames club. Let's call them Piotr and Lorenz.


Soviet Commanders looking cocky

For those interested in such things, here are the codes for our battlegroups, which can be loaded into the excellent online force builder. German Panzer Division battlegroup:
AAA-AFC-AB0BB1AB-CBB_B-CBB_C-CB1C1ABB_BB_C10CB-ABD-AB0DEN-AB0GC0HA-AB-BB0JBB_BF0

Soviet Rifle Division battlegroup:
DAA0BA1AB-ABB_B-ABB_C-ABB_D-AB1A_B1ABB_BB_CB_D10CAA_BBC0DCC_BF0EFF_BF_CF_DMPP_BP_CSU0HA-AB0JBB_BB_C0

I'll hand over now to the German Commander's report.

'Herr General-Major!

Following an initial bombardment our troops advanced on a narrow front against the Soviet line at 6am. The road on our right flank led through wheat fields to a village, where our observers identified a number of dug-in Bolshevik tanks. To our left was an open field, heavily mined, but with seemingly little covering fire. I therefore began by advancing our StuG squadron on the right as a feint, and in the hope of engaging an exposed Bolshevik KV1.

Our StuGs immediately came under heavy fire from prepared Bolshevik artillery, and remained pinned throughout much of the morning. Our mortars returned fire on the village, where we had already mapped a target point, with some success at pinned some enemy infantry dug in around the houses.


Strong Soviet defences around the village

As reinforcements arrived, I deployed them into the open field on our left. Our Panzer IV squadron advanced to draw the ambush fire of a dug in enemy T-34, allowing a squad of armoured pioneers to advance rapidly and clear the nearest minefield. I have recommended their Unteroffizier for a decoration. Our armour sought to exploit this gap on our left decisively, but suffered considerably from pre-registered enemy artillery which was cleverly sited to cover the enemy minefields, something we had not anticipated.. One of our Panzer IVs was abandoned after taking direct hits from heavy Bolshevik mortars. Our attack was failing to make ground, and to make matters worse the Bolsheviks launched a reckless tank attack which destroyed our battery of Hanomags with Wurframen rockets, although the enemy lost two tanks in return.



With aerial reconnaissance reporting the advance of Soviet armour reinforcements, I considered it vital to establish a foothold in the enemy village. Since the centre of our line was not under artillery fire I launched what forces were able to move obliquely from the left through the wheatfields and into the village. Our Panzergrenadiers attacked with great elan, rapidly occupying some houses and putting Soviet artillery under fire. Despite my own Panzer IV being pinned by heavy fire, two StuGs and the remaining Panzers also managed to rapidly knock out several enemy tanks and crack the front defensive line before the arrival of Bolshevik reinforcements. Seeing this, the remaining enemy withdrew, leaving the village in our hands by 11am.



Through the gap!


My forces are pursuing. Heil!
Major von Durnen.'

As always with BGK this was a cracking good game that had everything - tanks hitting random mines, dogged Soviet tanks refusing to die, air attacks being driven off by Flak... Paul and I were happy to pull off a win on points, with our Battle rating much healthier than the Soviets when we had to finish up, although we failed to achieve the decisive brakthrough I had hoped for. The pre-registered Soviet artillery made it very difficult to get our attack underway, and although it only cost us one tank, we had to take multiple Battle Counters to try to keep our troops moving. Fortunately, once we found a gap through the artillery zones we were able to move decisively enough to force a result.

In campaign terms, our victory saw the Germans bludgeoning their way through the first Soviet line, but failing to reach the second. Our next battle will be a smaller rearguard action or meeting engagement as the German advance units attempt to maintain the tempo of the attack.

Great game, enoyed by all, and Paul discovered the pleasure of tabletop mayhem. Here he is recording his first knocked out tank for posterity.

Project Kursk 29: German Extras

Had an absolutely cracking game of Battle Group Kursk last night, which I'll write up when I have a chance. For the game I painted up a couple of specialist German vehicles. The first is a SdKfz 251/16 flamethrower vehicle, which BGK lists as the platoon commander's vehicle for an armoured pioneer platoon. I'm pretty sure that's not accurate, as I would have thought they were used as specialist support rather than command vehicles, but hey. The kit is a standard PSC Hanomag converted using their very handy special conversion set.



Vehicles like StuGs tend to run out of ammo very rapidly in BGK, which makes it imperative to bring along some logistical support. I generally just use supply trucks, but I have a box of the Minairons 15mm Panzer Is that the good people at War & Peace Games sent me, so I converted one as a armoured Munitionsschlepper.



I just had a few photos to work with, but as I understand it the later Munitionsschlepper I just had a box superstructure on top, off-centred to allow access to the side crew hatches. This was much simpler than the earlier version that had a large hatch over the turret ring, but must have much less room for stowage. This was a dead easy conversion, which is no doubt only vaguely accurate, but I'm pretty happy with it.

Battle Group Bits and Pieces

I'm still regaining my painting mojo after time away and busyness. However, the Dux is not one to be idle! Goodness me no. Here are a few bits and bobs for Battle Group. First up, some 15mm Brits, including:

A brace of Morris Quads from Flames of War...


...four Lloyd Carriers from Forged in Battle...


...and a couple of Forged in Battle 6pdrs.


My Soviets have also received some reinforcements, with a couple of Zvezda Sturmoviks.


I also got around to painting up the T34/85 turrets left over from my Plastic Soldier Company T34s. so now I can field an entire company of the tanks for Kursk all the way to 1945.


It's good to be getting a few things painted again!

Soviet Tank Destroyers

I've finished a box of the 15mm Battlefront plastic Soviet Tank Destroyers, and they are really lovely. The fit of parts is as good as PSC, and the metal crew figures are a nice bonus. Unlike PSC the box also includes decals, although be warned! They are very fiddly and prone to disintegrate. Sadly, there are no items of stowage to make the vehicles look less uniform. All the slogans are hand painted.



The box set allows you to make five SU-85s or Su-100s. I made three SU-85s, which first appeared in the aftermath of the Kursk battles. As a result, they don't appear in the Battle Group Kursk rulebook, but official lists were published for them in Dispatches 1, an occasional Battle Group supplement published on the official forum. The list allows SU-85s to be bought in units of three.



SU-100s appear in Battle Group Fall of the Reich, where they can be purchased as a battery of two vehicles, so that's what I did with the remaining two from my box set.



So there we go. Two units of tank killers from a very affordable box set box. I'm very happy about the increasing move Battlefront is making to plastic sets.

The Dux Homunculorum Guide to Weathering Tanks

A couple of people have asked me recently how I do the weathering on my 15mm vehicles. I have developed a bit of a method that suits me, although I feel a total fraud when I compare what I bodge together with things like the magnificent weathering techniques that feature in the modelling sections of the Battlegroup rule books. Nothing I do approaches that standard, but if you're after a quick and lazy method that looks ok, this might interest you.

Step 1



Here's the basic model, a Zvezda T34. I just threw this together in a hurry, so didn't bother with extras like adding stowage or a bow MG. The model was spray undercoated with Army Painter white, then sprayed with Tamiya Olive Drab 2, which is my usual Soviet armour colour. The tracks, tires and tools were painted with Vallejo acrylics, then a hand painted slogan added ('For Stalin!') There's your basic painting done.

Step 2



Now I apply my secret weapon. Basically this is an acrylic equivalent of the Army Painter dip that I use. You can read about it here. Not only does the varnish make the tank look dirty and shaded, but it adds some protection as well.

I brush this on, but it does require a bit of patience. The stuff doesn't really like covering flat sections of armour much, but tends pool unevenly. However, I find that just brushing over the same section a few times eventually results in a reasonably even coat. I try to brush from top to bottom on vertical sections of the tank, and I stay on the lookout for puddles forming in corners. The important thing is just to take the time and not try to take a shortcut by splashing on loads of the stuff. It won't look good.

Step 3



Once the ersatz dip is dry I give the model a spray with Army Painter Anti-Shine. You need to be a bit careful here. If you spray too much, the matt spray reacts with the 'dip' and causes the surface to crack a little. What I have found though is that a certain amount of this can look pretty good, giving the tank's paintwork a distressed look. Experiment and see what you like.

Step 4 After the matt spray, it's time for highlights. I just tend to use the armour colour (in this case Vallejo Russian Green) lightened with Vallejo Buff (a very useful colour!), then get a flat brush and do some drybrushing over the raised details. You can see the effect in the comparison photo above.

Step 5



Finally, it's just a matter of dirtying the tank up. I always find this difficult, but usually add some soot to gun barrels and exhausts, then some dirt around the tracks and running gear. Lately I've been trying to give the mud a bit of texture by diluting Tamiya Diorama Paint, adding some lighter brown, and drybrushing it on with a very old paintbrush. Still deciding whether this works. The last step is a final very light drybrush of some brown, usually a sandy colour, to highlight the tracks a little more.

Here's the finished tank:
So there we have it! It's pretty easy, and although it won't win any awards, I find it a quick method to make my vehicles look a little better. Here are a couple more.

Battle Group Markers

Here's a brilliant thing - a set of situation markers for the Battle Group Games made from laser-cut MDF by Commission Figurines. These are excellent little tokens that will make our games a lot easier. They also make full sets of Battle Rating tokens for Kursk, Overlord and Fall of the Reich, and you can even choose from a range of different finishes.

I owe these to the generosity of Man Cave Paul, who was kind enough to pick me up a set. Thanks Paul!

Project Kursk 27: First Company-Level Game

As I may have mentioned before, I think Battle Group Kursk is one of the most enjoyable and fulfilling games I've ever played, and certainly my standout WWII game. Well, that feeling was reinforced still further today when I got together with Conan the Librarian and Laurentius the Year 12 Club Warlord for a holiday game. We were able to devote a good 5 or so hours to the game, on a 6X6 table. We played 1000 points, which was a large Company-Level Game. Conan and I took a Soviet Rifle Division force, Laurentius a Panzer Division battlegroup, and we played the defence line scenario.



I tried something different for this game, the largest I've yet played with the rules. My battlegroup was made up of the following:

NKVD Officer
2 Infantry platoons (one in foxholes)
1 Maxim MG in reinforced cover
1 AT Rifle in Reinforced cover
1 Dug-in KV1
1 Platoon of KV1Es
2 Platoons of T34s
2 Zis 3 batteries (one with loaders)
1 Off-table battery of 152mm howitzers
1 Battery of 82mm mortars
1 Sniper
5 Pre-registered aiming points


This gave a force with a Battle Rating of 53 + D6 for the NKVD officer, with three officers. So essentially, I thought I'd try playing with the traditional Soviet strength in artillery, and see what happened. In response, Laurentius went for a vehicle-heavy Panzer force with a Battle Rating of 60, including two platoons in half-tracks, a Platoon each of Pz IIIs, IVs, Tigers and StuGs and no artillery support.

In our initial deployment, Conan and I deliberately sited our strongest defenses (the dug-in infantry and KV1) to encourage funnelling the attackers into some obvious lines of attack, then sited our pre-registered target points where we expected the Germans would mass for their attacks. It was important we got this right, as our force included no artillery observers, so we weren't going to be able to change our fire plan.

Generally we got our tactics pretty right. We started hammering the Germans with artillery from turn 1, which didn't destroy much apart from a couple of spectacular hits on halftracks full of infantry and a PzIII, but it did cause a steady attrition on the German battle rating, as Laurentius had to keep taking battle counters to unpin units.



Pinning a steady stream of German units, combined with Laurentius' propensity for excessive caution, meant that the German attack took a while to get started, and when it did it developed in two main thrusts down the flanks on very narrow fronts, as the Germans tried to avoid all the incoming hate. The biggest threat was on our left flank, but by the time the Germans were pushing through the woods there our tanks which were in reserve started arriving, and we were able to smash the attack at the cost of three T34s. The highlight was causing a Tiger crew to pail out of its tank after first pinning it with area fire, then hitting it with a couple of shells that couldn't possibly penetrate its armour. Indeed, the game confirmed a suspicion that has been steadily growing in me, which is this: Tigers are rubbish. Laurentius' big cats contributed little to his effort, despite being big and scary, and habitually failed their morale tests.



When we called the game at 4pm, Laurentius' Battle Rating was down to 16, but the Soviets still had 33, so a clear victory. All of us had a great day, and were really impressed by the way that scaling up the game means that different ways of playing it become possible, as one would expect in a real engagement. With 1000 points, it becomes possible to decide to emphasise artillery, or tanks, but still highlights the need to maintain a well-balanced force. In short, BGK continues to impress with its ability to produce a really fun and engaging game that rewards realistic force composition and tactics.

Project Kursk 26: The Volvos of the Wehrmacht

I really like Stugs. They're boxy, but good, like Volvos.



So this week I finished a box of 15mm PSC Stug IIIs. As always, they were a joy to build. Four of them are Stug IIIGs, with the fifth done up as a Sturmhaubitze IIIF.



And guess what I've noticed now that I've photographed them? Yep, I forgot to put the decals on.