Seize the Day

I decided to get stuck into the Magister Miltum models that I purchased at Britcon….

The M10’s were OK.

Two of the Priests were missing the crew figures….

None of the M8 greyhounds had axles for the wheels…

All of the M3’s were supplied with left-hand running gear…

I am not impressed!

Now I have two greyhounds to add to the platoon of SdKfz 251’s (purchased from Magister Militum last year at Britcon) that are defunct…

I have had to model the running gear of the M3’s so that they can be used although I really don’t think it should be necessary for me to have to do this…

Magister Militum need to address this problem with their pickers/packers as it is damaging to their sales - this was for me my last purchase and in future I will stick to Pendraken Miniatures!

I went to the Britcon show today held at the University of Manchester. It was at this show in August 2008 that I purchased my first WW2 figures.

The show itself was OK but it did not really cater for WW2 wargamers and, in particular, for collectors of 10mm WW2 figures.

Back in August 2008 I purchased a boxed German Battlegroup from Magister Militum and they were at the show today.

I bought what I thought was another boxed set but this time it was a US Armoured Infantry Battalion. I thought that it was a good bargain given the number of figures in the box. However, once I went outside and opened the box I found I had made a mistake - the figures looked very small? It tuned out that the figures were GHQ and a lot smaller than 10mm!

Thankfully the owner of Magister Militum was helpful enough and took them back. However, I still wanted some US kit so I exchanged the boxed set and picked up the following;

• M10 Tank Destroyer x 4
• M8 Greyhound Armoured Car x 2
• Priest x 4
• M3 half-track x 6

Now, I only actually wanted 3 of the M-10’s and 5 of the M3’s but Magister Militum sell in packs of two’s and would not split a pack - this is unfortunate since it results in having to buy more models than you require. However, the owner did explain that the figures I wanted split were not cast by them and it was not their practice to split these packs. He did cast the Priest models and was willing to split a pack of them - in fact, he then gave me the fourth Priest free! So, a mixed feeling about the sales policy.

There is no doubting the quality of the figures and the casting is very crisp. On the other side of the coin I do like to mix-n-match and have the option to buy single vehicles.

I have also noticed since returning home that there are no axles supplied with the Greyhounds which is irritating since they have three sets of wheels each and the wheels clearly have holes for the axles - this is not the first time I have had this problem either - in the German boxed set I first purchased in August 2006 the 5 Sdkfz 251’s were not useable since they had all been supplied with left-hand tracks!

I don’t think I shall be attending the Britcon show next year as there was nothing really there for me and I have mixed feelings about what I ended up purchasing.

One good thing did come out of the day - I bought the revised Blitzkrieg Commander rules!

I have returned to my NWE Americans. In fact, I have returned to my wargaming after an absence over the summer while I concentrated on other things (mainly my allotment). However, I have returned with a vengeance!

This last week I have really got stuck in to my American battlegroup and am in the process of finishing off most of the units - particularly the command stands.

Some time back I decided to add a second infantry battalion to my battlegroup and that alone set my time-table back considerably. Well, the second battalion is in the process of being based and finished.

I am also in the final stages of completing the bases for the following;

• CO
• 2 x HQ
• FAO
• Recce
• 57mm Anti-Tank gun

All that remains now is to paint a 105mm infantry gun and cew to complete the first infantry battalion.

Also, since I have added the second infantry battalion I will need to get some more support units; mortars, machine-guns, anti-tank guns (and trucks), M16  anti-aircraft and an infantry gun (with truck)!

The Americans have turned into a real labour of love and with adding the second infantry battalion I have further extended the amount of work involved in completing them. To be honest, I’m looking forward to painting some german grey again!

An entrenched Russian Infantry Company waits for the enemy.

The days of men being ordered ‘over the top’ may be long gone but the use of trenches remains an integral part of most defence plans.

By the time of WW2 strategic reliance on a system of entrenchments running from Central Europe to the Atlantic was no longer a viable choice and the development of Blitzkrieg emphatically proved this to be the case.

Nonetheless, trenches still had a major role to play at the tactical level and in games played using Blitzkrieg Commander it’s not unusual to find yourself faced with the thorny problem of how to deal with them.

I’ve made some trenches for my terrain collection and am going to try a few defensive scenarios to see how tough they are and to develop tactics for dealing with them.

Minifigs US Army figures in the final stages of having the base-coats applied.

OK, so I waited a long time for them and moaned a bit about having to wait and how the delay was holding up my progress on my US Army Battlegroup. They finally arrived some time back and…. I haven’t really got stuck into them!

Perhaps it’s because I have already painted a battalion of Pendraken figures? Perhaps it’s because the Minifigs figures don’t appeal to me as much as those from Pendraken? All I know is that I am slowly working my way through them without any great enthusiasm.

The figures aren’t bad either. They are not as chuncky as those from Pendraken and although the detail is there it is not as easy to discern. It’s almost like it is too much to scale. For instance, webbing straps should, at 10mm scale, be almost invisible - which they are on the Minifigs figures. Only, I like to be able to see and pick out webbing when I am painting, like I can with the Pendraken figures.

They are compatible with Pendraken in terms of height. The Pendraken figures come on a much thicker base which gives them greater height when stood alongside each other but which can be equalled out when basing the figures.

Still, if I want the two battalions of infantry that I am aiming at I will just have to plough on and get them completed. I reckon about a week at the outside.

There is always at least one moment in the course of a battle that you really do want to kick yourself and what some people call a senior citizen moment!

In the game that I had on Sunday (26th April) my Russian Battlegroup included three stands of SMG armed infantry. This represented one-third of my infantry force. I assigned them to a company of T-34 tanks as riders. I placed the stands off-table ready to bring them on as soon as they either chose or were forced to dismount…. and then I forgot about them and never brought them into play !!

Lesson Learned; anything left off-table will be forgotten about in the heat of battle. If they are not to start out deployed on the table-top then be sure to place them on your baseline where they will at least make you wonder why they are sitting there and maybe help stop you from forgetting all about them.

I played a game of BKC last Sunday (26th April) and learnt a salutory lesson about arrogance. A genuine case of nemesis shall follow hubris.

I had advanced a T-34 to within a short distance of some German infantry and had every intention of blowing them from here to kingdom come. Unfortunately for me they had the same intention!

My tank had its left-flank up against a hedge. In the German command phase the German infantry moved up along the hedge until they were within a centimeter of my tank and then, with good fortune shining on the German CO, they launched a devastating attack. Two stands of infantry, both within 5cms of my tank, unleashed their inherent anti-tank weapons in a tank-busting 20-dice fury of fire.

The tank was toast!

For me the lesson was simple; once your armour is within half-range of a target and entitled to extra attack dice, there are very few reasons for closing the range further, especially towards infantry.

The attack strength of infantry against tanks increases significantly as the range decreases. Sure, they can still cause suppressive hits at normal range but they cannot destroy you. However, once you get within 20cms of them those suppressive hits start turning into real ones, and they begin to throw a lot of attack dice!

On the other side of the coin, from the perspective of the Infantry Commander, the lesson is also quite clear; close the range on tanks as quickly as possible in order to engage and destroy them or to drive them off.

I’ve finally completed my American Armoured Battalion and it’s ready to embark for Europe. The figures are all from Pendraken and despite the fact that it’s taken me a while to complete them due to other commitments, they were fairly straightforward to paint and didn’t take me very long.

US Armoured Battalion NWE

As always, basing the vehicles took longer than the time spent painting them.

Company of M-5 Stuarts

Two Companies of Sherman III (M4A2) 75mm

The vehicles were undercoated with a white primer and then given two successive coats of Vallejo Brown-Violet (887). These were applied very thinly, almost like a wash but with a bit more consistency.

Company of Sherman IIIa (M4A2) 76mm

I then applied a heavy black wash. The vehicles were left to dry completely before being dry-brushed with the original base-coat (Brown-Violet) and then given a final highlight of Brown-Violet mixed with Vallejo Khaki (998).

Platoon of Sherman 105mm

At first glance the unit looks very powerful but from what I have read the Germans appear to rip into Shermans with some ease. We’ll see what happens when this Battalion finally lands in Europe and takes on the experienced German Armour.

I worked late into the night in order to produce some infantry counters. Again, using the work of Jon Oldham and Dirk Schoenberger I have produced counters for Infantry and Infantry Support stands (MG and Mortars), as well as HQ and CO stands.

Here are some examples;

Russian Infantry Stand

German 82mm Mortar stand

Russian Commanding Officer stand

The area at the bottom of the counter (to the right of the counter type) is reserved for information that will appear on the counter during the course of a turn.

The counters can all be manipulated in various ways (such as rotating them and moving them) to simulate their use on a tabletop.

With these now done I have got the hang of producing the stands and can go ahead and produce some more. I am going to reproduce my BKC Battlegroups as detailed on my website; Russian Battlegroup, German Battlegroup

I made some good progress on my Vassal BKC module last night.

One thing that you can automate is dice-throwing, of which there is a lot in BKC. So, I added a couple of automated dice throwers that report back the results.

Automated dice rollers

Command Dice: this allows you to roll 2d6 but also to add a modifier to the total (for instance an extra +1) based on the modifiers given on Page 10 of the rulebook.

Combat Dice: in BKC units have different numbers of attack dice and this roller allows you to enter the number of dice to roll and to add modifiers as per the Firing Modifiers on Page 17 of the rulebook. It automatically sorts the die rolls into ascending order so that you can see at a glance how many 4’s, 5’s and 6’s you have rolled.

The other thing that I have partially managed to automate is the removal of all hits in the End Phase of the player turn. This involved setting up what is known as a Global Key Command. A Global Key Command waits until a certain user-defined condition occurs and then carries out a particular prescribed process. In this case it automatically resets all hits taken so that you don’t have to select each piece individually and clear the hits back to zero.

PzIVH before and after Global Key Command

On the left is a PzIV that has sustained two hits during the course of a player turn. On the right, following the End Phase, the number of hits is reset to zero.

I want to develop this Global approach and set up an ‘End Phase’ button that when clicked will automatically remove or reset certain counters or values.