What happens when your wife lets you decorate the Christmas cake 😱

I guess this might be my last post of the year.........Christmas has come and gone where we have spent lots of time as a family which is great. I have a struggled with a humdinger of a chesty cough which has been a real pain, so none of the gaming I had planned. I did get some lovely gifts

I can see some Arab/Israeli wars in 6 mm this year ! The lead at the bottom is a unit of German Blitzkrieg cavalry which I have managed to make up and undercoat

I have also managed to get some painting done between the coughing, I had picked up a couple more of the Corgie Buses with a view to conversion, here is the first as an army transport for my Sealion games although it might well make it into a VBCW game as well

I have been to three shows to try and pick up one of the Pulp camera crews, but they are always sold out so I made my own, after all when the Germans invade they want to capture it on camera. The german general picked up at Battleground is I think Himmler ? but I have painted him as The Minister for Propoganda

Another german Officer....I picked up a job lot !

These guys have sat undercoated for ages so got painted when I did the camera crew a sniper team

Another finished Arabic unit (not a great photo as they are a bit more colourful ‘blue’ in real life) Griping Beast figures rarely roughly hand painted shields

And so what does happen when your wife lets you decorate the Christmas cake ! Well I decided to add a Wargame theme

Christmas 1939 German Plan for Operation Sealion Revealed

To all my loyal followers and any occasional wargamers out there have a great Christmas hopefully Santa will bring you some new toys, get some painting and some gaming done if you can 😀 Matt

Churchill Tank and German Assault troops

The Churchill tank used in the previous game hadn’t quite been finished so I needed to quickly subdue the Wargaming gods in case they noticed I had played with an unfinished unit 😀 and curse my dice rolling ......

The Churchill comes with almost two complete turrets so for flexibility I have made a Mk IV with 75mm

and a MkIII with 6lb gun as usual I haven’t been strict with markings as it will be use in a variety of games and periods

Finally some assault troops in their rubber dinghies. These are black tree I tried and failed to get

 the figures to sit differently in the boats but they just wouldn’t fit so they are a bit ‘similar’ these guys are all set to Continue the invasion of Britain or Russia.

Hopefully get a few more bits done before Christmas 🎄 

Somewhere in the Scottish Borders 1947 : Konflikt 47

When Warlord brought out their Konflikt 47 system it was an obvious expansion to their vast WW2 bringing in a twist of sci-fi. I didn’t rush out to buy any stuff but one of my mates hasn’t been painting up a German force (this is of course what I would prefer to be collecting) so I cobbled together a British force. Now there are some really neat stuff in the “game system” for the Germans, Russians and Americans but it is obvious the designers ran out of enthusiasm for the British. But I had a Churchill tank waiting to be completed and stole some suitable walkers from my Tau army.

When I put the terrain together I didn’t really have any idea but it quickly developed into a secret British weapons establishment. Who knows what terrible experiments are taking place. Who knows how the Germans have invaded .....that is for another story.

The Germans have arrived heavily armoured a Panzer IV

They have also brought a large horde of Russian zombies with them after all you wouldn’t want

To fight along side your own dead buddies would you........let’s hope they can be kept under control.

The Brits as well as normal troops have three state of the art Guardian light walkers, these are effectively

Mobile armoured Heavy Machine guns ! Nice 👍 and some Armoured infantry

Also new to the battlefield is a German Antitank Walker

The British have approached the crossroads.

One of the Guardian walkers has advanced to capture the central objective (fuel dump)

...bout then he gets over excited and charges forward into the horde of zombies

Who manage to set him on fire 🔥 that’ll teach him

The armoured British infantry advance slowly in formation towards the objective

 (we had thinned the number down a bit as they seemed too powerful)

The Panzer IV has circled around the flank, the two big tank spent the entire battle

Trading shots without even a scratch. I didn’t get a picture of it but the German walker

Rolled a fubar and scuttled off the battlefield 😀😀

Germans infantry has made it to the objective now but the Heavily armoured Brits are pushing

forward to get them out the way.....hopefully

They have done it ! Hoorah the smoke you can see is from all three of the British guardian walkers 

Who have been knocked out of the game, shortly after the zombies were also wiped out 😱

A successful mission can be radioed back to British command the Germans have been pushed back, reaserch on the new 

weapons can continue ! Over and out ........

A fun game and I think we might well see a few more games in the future, rather than a large on going campaign I think I see these as one off battles taking place at different locations all over the world. Perhaps the North African desert next time ? We hadn’t costed the points very carefully and discovered the British were probably a bit ‘overweight’ mainly because of the Churchill tank. Definately some scope for the future....but I really want to collect Germans ☹️

Attack at Gavrishi : Operation Rumyantsev August 1943

Introduced Martin to WW2 6mm with a game very loosely based around my ongoing Rumyantsev campaign. The SS Das Reich Division has pushed north and attacked Krivoshein’s 3rd Mechanised Corps. Near Gavrishi on the morning of 12th August 1943. This threatened to split the 1st Tank Army and the 5th Guards Tank Army. Rotmistrov immediately sent a brigade from the 29 Tank Corps. What resulted was a fearce tank engagement where historically both sides were badly mauled. Only 4 or 5 hours of gaming would see if history would be repeated ?

Overview of the battlefield looking West Das Reich entering from the left

Remnants of the 3rd Mechanised Corps remain close to the village and take up defensive positions on the wooded hills

The ominous armour of Das Reich...smoke can already be seen in the distance as one of the Tiger Tanks claims its first victim

The 29 Tank Corps Brigade arrives with powerful SU152’s and SU76’s

Unsure whether to hold or run the heavy antitank battery of the 3rd MC refuses to obey orders and won’t unlimbers their guns! 

If Stalin founds out it will be Siberia for this lot

German antitank armour moves into position to support the attack 2 Marders dig in in one of the small farms

Suddenly the first Battalion of Tanks of the 29th TC arrive and immediate try to engage the SS division but initially they are outgunned

A view looking East, Russian antitank Battery dug in on the hill

After about an hour of fearce fighting the Russian play their ‘joker’ and a second Battalion attack’s from the flank

a single german Tiger sits in wait

I wider shot....the Russian General appears to be waving a white flag or are they fresh orders from Uncle Joe to hold the line ?

On the German alert flank the second SS Battalion is turning East to travel down the road

Another wide shot..mainly taken to give s ense of the terrain (ps I do need to tidy up the dungeon)

Panzers advance down the road

But they come under fire from the Russian Heavy KV1 Battalion

On the right flank, two Marders and the Tiger have been knocked out and the Russian flank attack is looking very dangerous

two Stugs have redeployed to hopefully plug the gap

Germans are being held in the centre

Finally the german Artillery support has arrived on the battlefield, they deploy immediately to hold the right flank

....but the Russian tanks redeploy around the hill and surge forward towards the gap between the fields

Those fresh orders have finally arrived at the front, and the commander of the Russian heavy artillery has been threatened

with a long holiday in Siberia, they immediately unlimbers and open fire

In the centre the German reserve Tank Battalion (slightly inferior Pz IV’s and III’s) pushes forward

theough the trees towards the village, in the distance many Russian and german tanks are burning 

A wide angle shot of the battlefield at this point both sides are now moving closer to their own break points the 

Russian general well aware that his leadership is lower than the german SS commander.

Through the smoke the Russian flank attack has reformed again when they are threatened themselves in the flank by the company of Wespe’s

At this stage both sides have reached their breaking point, but the Germans in a last ditch attempt to swing the battle rich forward a company

of Pak 40 antitank guns, with German efficiency they are able to limber up move unlimber and fire in a single turn, knocking out a key enemy 

Tank, they then fail their test with a ‘blunder’ and choose to move forward! With their guns.

But it is too late for the Russians who have broken (when you reach break point you have to test at the start of each turn), Das Reich 

have won thought but they have been badly mauled and only their obsessive belief in their commanders has held them on the battlefield.

The guns of the 3rd Mechanised Corps can withdraw knowing that they have held their position and the fearsome SS Panzer Divisions

are not invincible

A splendid game, after a brief skirmish to teach Martin the rules it ran pretty well. Sadly when we play again he may have learnt the true value of the KV-1’s which weren’t put to the best use. So our game reflect the historical outcome.

Crescent and Cross : the First Crusade

A second try out with my Arabs forces, when I originally bought them the drive was the release of the Crescent and Cross update to Saga. So it is great to finally get them onto the table. For those not aquatinted with the Saga supplements the core rules remain the same but the boards which help you to control your force have gradually become more complex and challenging to play. This really suits those with experience but it would not be a good place to jump into the system.

Two of the new Boards, both have an additional layer of complexity 

My Arab Force for C&C

I didn’t capture many photos, the Crusaders mounted knights surge forward

Joined by a mix of warriors and crossbow men

The light but hopefully mobile Arabs prepare to receive the charge

After several turns of heavy fighting the Arab line is severely thinning 

They do have a large unit of Fanatics in reserve

The Crusader lord pulls back to rest before charging in again

I didn’t capture a picture but eventually the two lords clashed , with two such skilled fighters inevitability they were both slain !

A fun game and the new boards give a fresh look at the game😀