Project Kursk 25: Ahoy to Paul and some Tiger Tanks

It was great this week to catch up with Paul of the Man Cave, following his return from months of derring-do in charge of about a billion dollars worth of hardware and over 200 crew on the high seas. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, visit his excellent blog.



German beer, sausages, wargaming and a good friend. Happy days.

Over sausages and beer we talked for hours, and planned some games for the next few weeks. As Neil Shuck from Meeples and Miniatures would say, 'watch this space'. Paul was generous enough to bring me back a spiffy framed dagger from Jordan, which will have pride of place on the wall of my man cave. I'll post a pic when I put it up. Thanks Paul!



The cumulative effect of German beer: Unit attrition.

Meanwhile, the production lines for Battle Group Kursk continue to produce materiel. Strange as it may seem, I think I have been making models and wargaming for about 35 years, but I have never made a Tiger Tank. Well, I rectified that shameful state of affairs this week with a brace of 15mm early Tigers from Plastic Soldier Company. As always from PSC, these were lovely kits to put together, and should scare the boys at school quite a lot. Heh.



And finally, here's a little squad of Soviert tank riders, also from PSC.



Happy gaming!

Project Kursk 24: Soviet Reinforcements and a 250 Point Game

This week I have been mostly...adding a few reinforcements to my Soviets.



Sorry for the bad photo, but you should be able to see in there some A/T rifle and MG teams, mortars, snipers and an NKVD officer with his GAZ jeep.

I was also lucky enough to get in a couple of 250 point games with the lads at school, when I should have been doing marking. Today we played a meeting engagement. I had two platoons of T-34s, a sniper, a squad of tank riders and an NKVD senior officer. My opponent brought two snipers, a squad of Panzergrenadiers in a halftrack, three Stug Gs and a Sturm Haubitze 42H. This was the first 250 point game I've played, and like Chris who commented on my last post, I was wondering how well the game would work with such small forces.





I was very pleasantly surprised! To start with, we finished a complete game (!!), taking just over an hour and a half to reach a decisive result. Despite being small, both our forces had high enough Battle Ratings to avoid a sudden defeat. The Soviets had a BR of 25, thanks to the NKVD officer's ability to boost the Soviet 'morale', the Germans a BR of 18.



The game was lots of fun. I used the mobility of my T-34s and the ability of the Soviets to activate multiple tanks with one order to charge the German Stugs, gaining a decisive advantage by staying out of the firing arc of their guns. This was a game where the tactical advantage of tanks over assault guns was well on display, and I was able to knock out all the German armour for the cost of two T-34s, plus a third that maddeningly ran over a mine. The Germans executed a daring raid with their halftrack that killed my NKVD officer, but that was their swansong. After half an infantry squad was wiped out by HE fire from a couple of T-34s, the Germans exceeded their battle rating and threw in the towel.

T-34s showing the advantage of having a turret



All in all a very satisfying game against one of the school club stalwarts. It was particularly great to see his nicely painted army on the table for the first time.

Project Kursk 23: 400 Point AAR

The battlefield from behind the Soviet defensive line



We played a 400 point game of Battle Group Kursk at the club at school last Thursday, which was also the first time we have used our spiffy new terrain boards that we spent all last term making. The Soviets had a very defensive Rifle Division force, with lots of dug in infantry, anti tank guns and a dug in KV1. In reserve, they could draw on a platoon of T-34s and another infantry platoon from the start of Turn 4. The Germans had an armoured car, a platoon of Panzergrenadiers in half tracks, four Pz IVs and some off-table mortars.

I was the Soviet Generalissimo, delegating command decisions to any other boys who were interested in joining in. The Germans tried to get stuck in early, charging up their halftracks with unsurprisingly bloody results. Despite losing three of their four halftracks they did manage to deploy all their infantry, concentrating all their firepower on the infantry and a 45mm A/T gun holding the Soviet left flank. Fortunately for the Soviets their reserves became available before the Germans broke through on the flank, so we called the game as a Soviet victory after the T-34s rolled up to massacre the German Panzergrenadiers that were exposed without armoured support.



The dug in KV-1 makes short work of a German halftrack



Another great of BGK that confirmed everything I like about the rules. Although there is a fair bit of flipping around the rulebook involved, I'm finding this easier and easier, and the rules for different types of firing (area, aimed fire with AP, aimed fire with HE etc) are becoming more natural. The opposed dice rolls and ability to give units reserve fire and reserve move orders mean that all players are engaged all the time, and it really is a very exciting game to play. The rules also reward historical tactics. When the Germans used firepower to try to pin the Soviet positions they had some success, but when they treated their vehicles like they were playing Warhammer, they got massacred.



Panzergrenadiers attempt to rush the Soviet left flank

Next week we are going to try to play a couple of 250 point games, which is probably more realistic in the hour and a half we have after school!

Project Kursk 22: Dug in Soviet KV1

I'm planning on a few games with lots of Soviet defensive positions, so came up with a little piece of scenery to turn a KV1 into a dug in KV1.



The emplacement is just made from plasticard and Milliput. I'm pretty pleased with the result! We'll be using this in a game at school on Thursday, so stay tuned for the AAR.

Project Kursk 21: Some More German Armour

This week I have been mostly...painting a few extra bits for my German Battle Group Kursk force. First up, BGK is a game where reconnaissance is very iportant, so I boosted my force with a lovely little Sdkfz 222 from Zvezda. As always, this was such a nice little kit to put together. Simple, and I spruced it up with some extra stowage, but lovely detail.



Next up, some Panzer III Ms. Plastic Soldier Company hasn't got around to releasing these yet, so I bought a few from Forged in Battle. These are nice little kits - resin hulls, with the base moulded on, with metal turrets and other bits. I like these a lot, with only the minor quibble that they have moulded the tank commander wearing the pre-war beret for some reason, which would have been a pretty rare sight by 1943!



The Forged in Battle tanks come in packs of four, so I turned the fourth one into a Panzer III N with the 75mm gun for close support. Helpfully, the kits come with extra barrels for either the Ausf. M, N or for the Flammpanzer III.



And speaking of which, here is a Flammpanzer III, this time the Zvezda kit. This will be great for a game I plan to run involving German engineers trying to hack their way through Soviet defences.

A Little Present for a Top Blogger

Top Bloke Paul of the Man Cave is currently steaming home from overseas deployment in his 1:1 scale Frigate. That's him giving a wave to his replacement.
As a little welcome home present I've painted up some steampunk figures for him. I know he's a bit interested in In Her Majesty's Name, so I got hold of the Scotland Yard set from Northstar Miniatures. If it turns out he doesn't like the game, most of the figures are generic enough for various pulp or Cthulu games, with the exception of the four coppers with their English All Electric Truncheons. Here's the whole gang.



Advised of course by a consulting detective and his oafish doctor friend to help with plot exposition....



...to the chagrin of the actual detectives who are actually paid to do their job...



...but when there are gigantic hounds or Imperial German zombies or inscrutable Tong gangs to be taken down, it falls to the special constables....





...or even the plods on the beat!



Happy returns, Paul!

Pagan Rus Levies

It has taken me ages to get around to finishing them, but at last I've completed some levies for my Pagan Rus SAGA warband. As mentioned in a previous post, I really like this faction, particularly since I was quite involved with playtesting it. Adding a unit of Levies is a useful way of giving the warband some missile weapons, but more importantly the ability to soak up casualties when playing factions like the Jomsvikings and shielding more important units.

I've maintained the black/white/red colour scheme of the rest of the warband on the Levy's shields, but given them more Slavic designs such as sun wheels.

And just because I like them so much, here are a couple of pictures of the complete warband.