Trotsky, Persians and more…

Some more painting time this week, continuing the recent theme I quickly focussed my enthusiasm on some Persian light troops who I have had in the lead pile for ages. foundry figures these I think so pretty easy to paint. Although the slingers each had to have the sling attached which was a bit fiddly. I kept the colours simple as they would have been the poorer troops. As I somehow ended up with 20 I extended the bases backwards to give that feel of the unit being spread out whilst keeping the frontage the same, this seems to have worked quite well so I may use this idea again.

Persian light troops

Trotsky is the Wargames Illustrated Giants in miniature figure, think I have had him for about 2 years so it was time he got painted.

Also invited to another remote battle with Jon this time replaying the battle of Ucles on his set up and a slightly larger scale. I am sure Jon will be posting a report on the battle if he hasn’t already. I will just share a couple of photos.

I chose the Christian’s on this occasion, the challenge is how to use the heavy cavalry without it just being burnt out ?

The second photo is right at the end of the battle, the suffice to say the Christians had a good day out crushing their way through the Almoravid lines, capturing their baggage, the one sided nature of the end result didn’t really reflect what felt like a very tight contest….and very enjoyable.

Hopefully another game this weekend …..but I have spent a lot of time this week on a major tidy up in the dungeon 👍

The Second Battle of Elham : Operation Sealion

Having fought the Germans to a standstill in our last battle in the village of Elham the British now outnumbered have been forced to start pulling back. 

The Battle takes place just to the north of the previous battle so those with a keen eye can compare the edge of the village which I have recreated from the previous battle.

To make this a different and interesting scenario the following. The two forces were made up only of units or vehicles which survived the previous battle, but I balanced them to 12  each side. The British who are pulling back have a random setup as shown above, each unit placed on the battlefield at the start, we rolled a D6 for which quadrant they were in but then could be placed as required. The red dots indicate the dispersed location of the British forces as a result of this setup. The Germans would come on in 2 waves with the first only being the faster moving vehicles. All German forces would again have a random entry point on a D6. This creating the fog of war and the rapid redeployment of both forces after the first battle.

The Beaverette and Bren carrier have ended up deployed far over to the west.

The British are still holding the small petrol station, the Matilda tank pushes forward along the small river Nail Borne

The first German tank arrives down the main road Pz III which immediately starts to engage the British tanks to the right

The PzII arrives on the west, not ideal ! But it can chase the two British light vehicles away

The Pzjager risks driving down the main road to take up a central position

The German second wave arrives and the German infantry immediately assault the petrol station forcing the British defenders out.

More German infantry run down the road

The British defenders choose to attack rather than defend and a squad assaults the PzJ , unfortunately for them they fail and are pushed back

The Pak 34 arrives but again on the far left 

Armoured vehicles exchange shots on the right but with little effect

The British unit are now assaulted and caught in the rear by a German unit, it doesn’t end well for the British

Meanwhile the PzIII has taken a direct hit and is in flames

Whilst the armour continues to blast away at each other the German infantry have now pushed all the British infantry back and are breaking across the open ground towards the road junction

The Bren Carrier has been knocked out by the Pak 34

The centre of the village has now been cleared of British and the Germans are regrouping to drive towards their objectives

Their final objective is the lone house, the British are dug in here and come under extremely heavy fire, they survive the initial assault

German infantry in the distance have knocked out the British antitank gun which had been dug in by the damaged bus

As a final (literally) roll of the dice the Only German unit within range of the final British defenders is the German officer, he gallantly (foolishly) assaults the building but they fail to push the British out.

An excellent and fun battle with hot fighting right from the start. In the end we called this a draw, almost all the British had been wiped out apart from those holding the building and the Matilda , but the British were holding this last house.

More to come soon 👍

Persian Cavalry and destroyed Bus ?

An odd combination but I am cracking on with various hobby projects helped by the fairly wet weather. Enthused by the recent Persian game I have pulled my finger out and completed another unit of Persian light cavalry (truth is they were part painted ages ago).

This is my fourth and probably final unit of  Wargames Factory cavalry, not the best but they look ok as a unit. I may seek some more Persian cavalry but will look for alternatives. I may look at some of the Victrix figures but will have to replace all the javelins etc as the break too easily ! Some nice Wargames Foundry would be nice perhaps secondhand ? If I’m lucky

After our last Sealion game I remembered I had a couple of spare buses and thought as a fun interlude I would turn one into a crash/blown version of an East Kent Bus. I also fixed up the two large craters I picked up a while ago in York. The craters just needed to be fixed onto round bases and blended in with some quick drying filler. The bus got hit several times with a hammer ! Then painted as it was originally white🤓

Thanks as always for popping by 😀

The Battle for Elham : Operation Sealion

A return to Operation Sealion this weekend and the next stage of the German breakout on S-day plus 1. One of the key directions of advance remains North towards Canterbury and the German command is probing in several directions. One of these is along the Elham Valley along the B2065. Not surprisingly the British command in the area have identified the village of Elham as a potential holding point for the advance and pushed forces in that direction. 

We were looking for a fairly large game so both sides would come to the Battle in three waves. The first wave is a small recon force looking to secure objectives in the village, the second wave which would arrive once the fighting started (first casualties) would see significant armoured support arrive from both sides, the third and final wave only allowed to arrive once the first tank, on either side, was destroyed consists of infantry with associated support.

The village of Elham looking south back down the valley. Our victory conditions involve controlling the village. The British do have two units, one Home guard squad and a unit of Kent Police randomly hidden in the village. They can be revealed at any point by the British commander. Both sides have air support 🙂

The Main Street in Elham still quiet at the moment

The German Recon force arrives down the main road

First into the village are German Kradschutzen although they start to come under fire immediately

The British recon force has been cobbled together with a mix of lightly armed vehicles although one has managed to tow a Smith gun into an advanced position

…and an armadillo towing a track mounted Oerlikon gun, so the British do have some fire power 

All is quiet to the East where the railway runs down the valley

But it turns out the police were hiding in the Church and they leap out and have initial success in forcing the German motorcycle to pull back

Germans reach the church and begin to fan out

Initially deployed further back they now pull their Pak 34 forward to cover the main road

Unfortunately for the crew the Smith gun takes a direct hit and is blown up

With the first phase of fighting now in full swing the armoured second wave now advances into the village. The British powerful cruiser tanks move into the village

German armour moving down the road

…and spreading across the fields to outflank the defenders

With the tanks comes air support and the wail of German bombers in the sky, the armadillo is targeted and takes a direct hit ! Leaving a crater in the road

German bomber in the sky !

The British also have some lightly armed Vickers tanks but the German Panzerjager is powerful to knock it out at long range

The British do have a heavily armoured Matilda which moves to block the road

The Royal Tank Regiment spread out to hold the village

German armour is now pushing into the village

A lone British spitfire chases the Stuka but can get a direct hit

With the tanks now fighting in the village the third wave of infantry arrives to secure the village

Fierce tank duel, with the British blowing up the German transport

German infantry arrives from the south East 

German pioneers who had been first into the village rush out from one of the buildings to blow up the Mark 3 Cruiser

The Mark 2 has also taken a direct hit and is on fire

With the British tanks being heavily assaulted the German infantry rush forward to capture more buildings

But the British are going to contest every building, the home guard are currently dug in in the Postoffice

Germans advancing across the fields

A random event gives the British Home guard a rush of blood and the charge out of the post office to assault the Remains of the pioneer squad surely a mistake but some how they catch the pioneers with their surprise assault and wipe them out

German aircraft continues to look for targets on the ground

German artillery is now firing into the village

The German armour Pz II and Pz III have pushed around the village and are supporting the infantry to advance from the East

But they come under heavy defensive fire and are pinned in the open fields

British defenders in the Main Street

The British armour has been hit really hard on the right and the final cruiser now faces a pincer attack 

German Stug brought upto the edge of the village to support the final assault

At this point we had to bring the battle to a close, the Germans had captured about a third of the village and pretty much wiped out the British armour. The British only having the Matilda and Mark IV Cruiser still fighting. However the Germans haven’t reached their main objective of half of the village, so we gave it to the British. They are in a precarious position though and with a couple more turns the British infantry would be at the mercy of the strong German armour. The British then must pull back and the German advance continues.

 Short trip out this weekend again and a visit to Pendragon Castle, initially a Norman Castle in the 12th Century to control the North and linked to castles at Appleby and Brough. Not much left but a spectacular location in Mallerstang valley in the Yorkshire Dales. Legend would have it the castle was founded by Uther Pendragon, King Arthur’s father but this is generally considered nonsense…it was the Normans who built here first.

Pendragon Castle

Beautiful views up the valley

Lots of painting at the moment so more to come soon, thanks for visiting 👍

Matt