What a Tanker! Monday Knights Christmas Break Up

The Monday Knights' Christmas party was a quiet one, with only about 10 able to make it (in part people away on holidays, others not well, etc). The TooFatLardies' WWII tank combat game What a Tanker! was chosen for its simplicity and allowing us to bring a 15mm tank model of our choice. I brought my United Nations T-72, simply as it doesn't get much table time. This was just representative, as each of us had 12 points to allocate between armour and strike (the tank's gun). I went with a 5 / 7 configuration. Most other were this or 4/8. Tyler went with 6/6.

Games were of four, with the two winners of game one playing each other, and the same for the two losers (based on kills). I quickly got to grips with the rules, but my luck was not with me tonight. After two games I only managed to kill Paul.

A pretty bad year, looking forward to 2023.

Naval Wargaming Splash Markers

During the Battle of the Denmark Strait anniversary game I realised I really wanted better looking splash / blast markers for naval wargaming. Nic suggested Irregular Miniatures' 'Two explosions and two shell craters' (code GWV14) which are also available from Eureka Miniatures (code IRR-GWV14).

Designed for 6mm WWI wargaming, these are perfect for naval games and were very easy to paint up (black undercoat, heavy grey dry brush, light white dry brush, white highlights).

I have another 10 (in both sizes) that I'll paint up black to use for land warfare. Really happy how easy these were to create. With the current lock down due to Covid restrictions, I have no idea when I'll get to use them.

Battle of the Denmark Strait 80th Anniversary

I had finished basing my first War at Sea 1/1800 ships (see here) and it was time to use them in a game. A few months ago I realised it would be the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Denmark Strait that occurred on 24 May 1941 (during the Second World War) between ships of the Royal Navy and the Kriegsmarine. The British battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser HMS Hood fought the German battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, which were attempting to break out into the North Atlantic to attack Allied merchant shipping (codenamed Operation Rheinübung).

Ara, Jack, Liam, Mike and Nic all were keen for some naval wargaming and I set about in organising the game. The rules were Mongoose Publishing's Victory at Sea, which Warlord Games has recently updated and re-released. They're a simple set of rules, but I like them as they're easy to pick up, have some historical flavour and are able to deal with large fleet actions (Ara, Liam and I have played the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay without issue).

To make things interesting, I also designed a set of 'Captain Cards', for each captain and fleet commander. They would award additional victory point if certain actions were performed during the battle (detailed blog post pending). They are based on historical commanders, and how they behaved during battle or orders they were given. Based on what happened during this battle, e.g. the victory conditions for Lütjens and Lindemann are not compatible.

 The cards were allocated randomly and the players commands were:

• Admiral Lütjens (Bismarck) - Nic
• Kapitän zur See Lindemann (Bismarck) - Mike
• Kapitän zur See Brinkmann (Prinz Eugen) - Jack
• Vice Admiral Holland (HMS Hood) - Ara
• Captain Kerr (HMS Hood) - Ara
• Captain Leach (HMS Prince of Wales) - myself, but later Liam

The ships were set up per the scenario in the rulebook, with the German commander having the option to choose the order the ships were deployed, Mike (Lütjens had deferred decisions to his subordinates at this stage still) electing to keep the faster Prinz Eugen in the front of the line.

I included the optional rules for the guns on the Prince of Wales (i.e. the guns not being fully operational and in part being manned by non-navy technicians), mainly as it added historical flavour. To get into the theme, I also drank an English beer (something I rarely do!).

Opening move had the British ships split to try and envelop the Germans to stop them escaping, while the Prinz Eugen went as fast as she could down the gap that had been created (torpedoes anyone?). After a few rounds of firing (and missing - Victory at Sea doesn't allow pre-measuring), the Prince of Wales already had one barrel out of action.

At this point the battle was paused as all commanders got together for blue cake (it had recently been Ara's birthday), I just love that maniacal look on Liam's face.

After a belly full of the raspberry cake it was back to the sea. Things started getting serious with the Hood receiving a few critical hits, one on her engine slowing her down and a fire breaking out.

Mike, as Captain Lindemann, confidently declared the Bismarck still had a fair bit of armour in response to the Hood's situation. The Prinz Eugen was one hit away from being crippled, while the Prince of Wales was almost undamaged.

Moments later all this changed, Ara scored a critical hit (4+ on a D6), vital systems (12 on 2D6) and a catastrophic explosion (6 on a D6); sinking the Bismarck in spectacular fashion in much the same way the Hood was historically sunk.

If that isn’t a belated birthday present I don’t know what is. Victory points wise it was a clear British victory (the Germans also had very weak overall command with Lindemann shooting before it was optimal for Lütjens' victory conditions to do so. It also made the follow on battle, recreating the last battle of the Bismarck on 26-27 May 1941, redundant. However, I plan on basing these additional ships, as the two battles are a good scenario to introduce people to WWII naval wargaming.

Finally I also picked up a few sets of Irregular Miniatures' 'GWV14 Two explosions and two shell craters' sets, that I will paint as water explosions (so mainly white). They are definitely a candidate for obscure miniature of the week.

Basing War at Sea Ships

So I have over 100 (probably closer to 200) of Wizards of the Coast's 1/1800 Axis & Allies Naval Miniatures: War At Sea ships that I've wanted to base for years but I've been daunted by the size of the task.

I had purchased the 3mm thick basing material (45mm wide MDF for battleships and aircraft carriers and 25mm wide masonite hardboard packer for cruisers and destroyers) during 2020. Now is was just a matter of actually settling on a method that was cheap, easy to replicate and looked good. Not easy.

The first step was cutting the bases into the right lengths, adding an extra 10mm on the front and 20mm to the back, which would accommodate a 10mm long label with ship name, class and nationality, etc. As i was planning to host the Battle of the Denmark Strait in a few weeks I tested the basing solution on the HMS Hood, HMS Prince of Wales, Bismarck and Prinz Eugen miniatures in my collection.

After gluing the ships down with PVA (so if I change my mind in the future they're easily removable) I proceeded to cover the base in pre-mixed plaster (Uni-Pro's multi-purpose interior filler) and move it around while still quite wet with a smooth flat needle file to create waves, bow and propeller wakes.

Once this was completely dry (i.e. leaving it overnight), I painted the whole base (leaving about a 1mm unpainted next to the ship) in Kaisercraft's navy blue craft paint. I did two coats to ensure an even coverage.

This was followed by a heavy dry brush of 3 parts navy blue to 1 part cool grey (a mid grey tone) and then followed by a slightly lighter dry brush of 1 part navy blue to 1 part cool grey.

I was following Yarkshire Gamer's YouTube guide on basing, and so I painted the tips of the wakes in a 1 part white to 1 part cool grey mix to take the brightness down a little. Problem was it looked too fake.

So I dappled a 1 part navy blue to 1 part white to try to blend them in with the rest of the base. That looked even worse in my opinion.

After searching for images of battleships during WWII online, and noting that ships aren't usually moving at their full speed (even during a battle), I went back a few steps (leaving the light grey on the propeller wakes). Much better.

The final step involved sealing the bases with a gloss varnish (also from Kaisercraft) and designing labels for every ship. The ones on the rear of the base were mounted on card and had their edge painted in grey. They're kept in place with Blutac so I can swap out for other ships in the same class. The label underneath is the ship that War at Sea states the ship is and was glued in place with PVA.

I am happy with the outcome - cheap, will be easy to replicate and looks good. In the first instance I will do the other historical battle sets I have all the ships for, namely the Battle of the River Plate and the Battle of the Java Sea. I still imagine it will take years to complete the whole collection.

Luftwaffe 1946 Baby Mobile

With a little one on the way I decided to do something a little different. With some 1/72 late WWII / Luftwaffe 1946 model kits unfinished from a fair few years ago (pre-wargaming life) I decide repurposing them into a baby mobile made perfect sense.

Using what I had I only bought Dragon's Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet for its size (to balance the weight of the Messerschmitt P.1101). Below follows the aircraft, a source photograph and its Wikipedia page.

Republic-Ford JB-2 Loon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic-Ford_JB-2

Bachem Ba 349 Natter

It's also worth reading an account of the first (and last) manned flight of the Natter by Lothar Sieber:

https://www.airspacemag.com/airspacemag/world-war-iis-worst-airplane-180973153/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachem_Ba_349

Fieseler Fi 103R Reichenberg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fieseler_Fi_103R_Reichenberg

Captured British Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Me_163_Komet

Messerschmitt P.1101

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_P.1101

And putting them all together:

A few month in, the little one is loving them. The finish on them is a little rough, but I was working with some that were half painted, and or horrible to put together in the flight mode (I'm looking at you P.1101). But I'm very happy with the overall result.

15mm WWII German 12cm Mortars, PaK 43/41 AT Guns and Command Stand

A small 15mm WWII German painting commission of four 8.8cm PaK 43/41 AT guns (GE530), four 12cm mortars (GE799) and a command stand. All Battlefront miniatures and painted over 10 days.

While the PaKs and command stand were metal and what most of my Flames of War collection is produced in, the mortar stands are in Battlefront’s bendy ABS plastic (introduced after I stopped playing the game seriously), and it's the first time I’ve worked with it. In short it's terrible, mainly as it was hard to clean up and some of the detail was rough.

All and all I’m happy how this turned out - it’s been a while since I painted 15mm WWII and I tried splinter camo on the mortar teams (one smock and every helmet cover on each base), which I think came out pretty well (using Battlefront's painting guide in the back on one of the Late War army books). This was because that particular mortar pack is for SS, but I wanted them to be Heer. An easy soltution as nearly everyone in the German army in World War Two used splinter camo:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splittertarnmuster

The unicorn, dolphin and rainbow flag is (obviously) not historical and was requested by the client (Andrew O). Apparently Flames of War version 4 doesn’t have command teams (as version 3 did), but you still need a marker or similar to indicate which gun team, etc is the platoon commander. Makes no sense to me either.

Australia Day Flames of War Game - Battle of Hannut

With group games becoming a thing again, I put my hand up to take part in Django and Nigel's 'A Thousand Tank' participation game recreating the Battle of Hannut. I played the first day of the game in October 2014 and it was a lot of fun seeing that many 15mm tanks on a table.

The game would use Battlefront's Flames of War (version 3) Total War rules, breaking the wargaming day up into two sessions, representing the first and second days of the battle. Each day will comprise six turns and would be played on a 6x8 foot table with the same terrain layout.

While you may never have heard of it, it was one of the largest tank battles in history, involving about a thousand tanks (and hence the title of the game).

Briefing
13 May 1940 - Following successful attacks on Denmark and Norway, Germany launched its forces against the combined armies of the Netherlands, Belgium, France and the United Kingdom.

Eastern France is secure behind the Maginot Line, a series of powerful forts from the Swiss border as far north as Sedan. Here the Meuse River turns north, marking the western boundary of the Ardennes, a hilly, forested area with narrow roads, presumed impenetrable by tanks. Further north there is a gap between the forest and the Belgian fortifications around Liege, notably Fort Eben-Emael (10-11 May 1940), which fell to the Germans (with heavy casualties) after Fallschirmjäger landed on top of the fortress with gliders and using explosives and flamethrowers to disable the outer defences of the fortress.

Implementing their pre-war plan, the Allies moved into Belgium to defend the river Dyle, east of Brussels. The French and British need at least three days to complete the move and dig in. To cover this, the French High Command ordered General René Prioux’s Corps de Cavalerie to hold the area around Hannut and Gembloux for this time.

German General Erich Hoepner was given the task of the matador, demonstrating with sufficient enthusiasm in the Gembloux Gap to hold the French light mechanised divisions (Division Légère Mécanique (DLM)) in place, far from the breaching of the Meuse at Sedan and elsewhere along the wide river.

The forces were drawn from Prioux’s corps with the elite 2nd DLM and the recently formed and under-trained 3rd DLM for the French and for the Germans the XVI Armee Korps consisting of the 3rd and 4th Panzer Divisions.

The challenge for Andreas and I (as the Germans) to pin the best French armoured troops in Belgium (under Phil and Wal) and prevent them interfering with the crucial crossing of the Meuse, while at the some time ensure we weren't delayed to allow the First Army to dig in.

Andreas and I split our forces roughly in half, with Andreas taking the right flank and myself spearheading the centre left side of the field. The German side is on the right in the first photo. As actual Germans, Andreas communicated in German with each other. And just like the Germans with the Enigma machine we thought it was a secure form of communication...

Day 1

Day 2

Debrief
It's a long day, and coordinating that may platoons (even amongst two players) is exhausting. Andreas and I failed to push hard enough (if not towards the town in the centre then the villages on the right flank) on the first day which made the launching off points on day two that much further back than would be optimal. On the second day I failed to hold the left flank (instead making a piecemeal attack and leaving the Pakfront exposed to Wal's French tank assaults). When Andreas left early I took over his forces, and was able to break Phil's division... but he held on by his fingernails as Wal had granted him control of Somua tanks (all that was left on the right flank). We failed to create a clear line along the roads from our base edge to the opposite table edge. What didn't help was some open terrain for our truck born infantry to traverse and being terrible (extremely terrible) at being unable to unpin a lot of our units. The six-turn time limit for each day doesn't leave much room for early setbacks.

Well done to Phil and Wal (who also understood a lot of what we were saying - which was the biggest mistake we made!) on blunting this attack, obtaining a major strategic and tactical victory.

Thanks too to Django and Nigel for organising, umpiring, and letting us use your miniatures (and apologies to the ones that got a knock).

Playing on a 6’ x 8’ table really gives a good game as armour has a chance to manoeuvre and artillery needs to be deployed with care.

28mm Power Poles / Utility Poles Terrain

Since lock down started in mid-March I've had no time to paint or make terrain. That changed when I had Vietnamese takeaway and thought I could easily make some 28mm power poles / utility poles with them. I also remembered that I had saved some glass beads in the terrain bits collection that would be useful.

Each pole needed:

• 1 chopstick
• 1 matchstick (from craft store)
• Some plasticard / styrene / card (I used an old Ikea gift card)
• 4 glass beads (from craft store / old jewellery)
• 1 plastic tube (from a finished pet poop bag roll)
• Superglue
• 30mm round base
• Steel washers (for weight)

Relatively easy to put together, and I would recommend distressing each pole with a hobby knife to get it looking as non-uniform as possible.

One of the poles got a distribution transformer by adding a cylinder to the side (capping the tube at each end with a circle of plasticard). The bases had the steel washers glued to them, then covered in plaster (use whatever basing finish you prefer).

Painting-wise I first spray painted them black, then undercoated in raw umber, followed by a heavy light grey dry brush (as old timber is grey and not brown). The insulators were painted white and the distribution transformer gunmetal with a brown wash. I wanted these to suit any setting in the 20th and 21st century.

To make these six power poles I think it was two one hour sessions, one building, the other painting. Very easy and very quick to make. They were finished off with some static grass and tufts to add some much needed colour. I am very happy with how these turned out.