Saturday 4 February 2023

Somewhere in the Western Desert WW2

After discussing the potential for a WW2 Western Desert project at the back end of last year myself and Steve were in a position to field our developing forces this Friday for the first time. 

First up I took a quick snap of the British force so far, not so much to add to this, possibly some Matilda’s and some infantry. I already have the anti-tank guns and carriers to build and paint. For a first battle we picked a simple encounter scenario without worrying too much about the balance of the forces. This meant some of the British had to sit out this first battle as they currently out number the Italians. We are also developing the rules we want to use most likely Bolt action based, but we came up with a number of ideas for future games.
We gave the British a minefield, both sides would have two objectives close to the enemy baseline.
The British right flank
The Italians effectively have two armoured platoons, supported but some 88’s and antitank guns
The British 25lbrs open up at long range against the 88’s.
Italians drive down the British right and immediately knock out the leading valentine
On the left the Honeys get into hull down position
On the right two Italian vehicles have been immobilised but two Valentines are already burning
Two Grants have been ordered to close the gap but another Valentine is now brewed up !
Fierce fighting over the high ground
But the Italians on the left are getting out gunned
Just as the Italians are about the break through on the British right an activation blunder drives them back ๐Ÿ‘
The British now make a bid for the objective but still have to cope with the remaining 88 !
Eventually the British squeak a minor victory
But all across the desert tanks are burning……

A fun first run out and we have some good ideas for the rules we want. Looking forward to completing the force and playing them on a larger table where they have more space to manoeuvre. We’ll be looking out for a few bits at York over the weekend ๐Ÿ‘

Thanks as always for checking in

Matt


33 comments:

  1. This looks like a terrific first outing for your newly raised armies. Well done to you both!

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    1. Thanks Jon a few more bits to add to the project later in the year๐Ÿ‘

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  2. Great stuff, it's a fine day when you can get a new project on the table.

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    1. The tanks have been surprisingly easy to paint really ๐Ÿ‘

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  3. Always nice to see a new project reach critical mass in a game on your table.

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    1. Thanks David, indeed after a shortish time nice to get our labours on the battlefield ๐Ÿ‘

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  4. What a splendid looking game there Matt:)! It takes me back to my FoW British that kick started my return to historical wargaming. I want to return to the Western Desert at some point, but probably with 6mm figures and vehicles to get that sense of large open spaces. I did dabble with 3mm at one point but the look just didn't work for me.

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    1. Thanks Steve, I agree 6mm a great scale for the desert but we had been enjoying 15mm at the time so the decision was taken. We are planning a bigger game in the summer on my bigger table to give us some space to manoeuvre , watch this space๐Ÿ‘

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  5. Great to see the collection roll out for its first game Matt. Everything looks terrific on the table and it seemed like a nice close game to start things off.

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    1. Thanks Lawrence, this was really just a test to see how things looked and worked on the table, the good thing is the forces are fairly balanced

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  6. Must second all the previous comments Matt, the models and game look fantastic. The Italians seemed to do better than might have been expected...which is good, as there is little point in collecting and painting up an army that never has any chance of winning....I know, I have Austrians! The early war British armour always looks really cool, but of course, it wasn't actually all that good, hence the desert sands littered with burning wrecks!

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    1. Thanks Keith yes the Italian early armour is actually fairly well matched to the early British. The valentines and honeys both being fairly lightly armoured. The Western desert was a great example of an ‘arms race’ in a single theatre of war where each side soon realised they needed to up grade and they did. Except the Italians. So we will need to keep our battle fairly early in the war.

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  7. Superb and great to see the collection get its first runout

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  8. very nice, lots of dead tanks

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  9. Off to a flying start Matt, looks good.

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    1. Thanks George, not sure if the project will go much further as my attention is elsewhere, we’ll see ๐Ÿ˜€

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  10. Wonderful outing for your desert troops. Very evocative with the armor and terrain making contributions to catch the eye.

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    1. Thanks Joe ….the terrain is of course very easy ๐Ÿ‘

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    2. I will take your word on that, I have experimented and have too narrow or too broad a palette of colors in mine. Being in New England doesn't show many local examples.

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  11. Super cool, Matt! A great fight, and congratulations on getting all that gear completed and on the table..

    V/R,
    Jack

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    1. Thanks Jack nice to get a new project up and running in fairly short time ๐Ÿ‘

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  12. good looking desert tank battle. putting explosions on tank miniatures is always kinda fun (even on your own tanks).๐Ÿ˜ What are the rules you're gonna use? something that focuses only on tanks or just leaving infantry out of the battles?

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    1. Thanks Stew, a lot of explosions. As for rules we are using an adapted version of Bolt action, which we used for previous 15mm battles. Each platoon gets a command die until they get split up or lose their command. We are still experimenting with minor additions mainly in the way command works. We do plan to bring some infantry to the desert but I haven’t bought any yet and am waiting for a bargain ๐Ÿ˜€

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  13. A proper ding dong battle that! Very nice indeed ๐Ÿ˜Ž
    Cheers
    Matt

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  14. Looks to have been a bloody great battle. Brewed tanks aplenty! As a side note Matt, Norton was freaking out from my home computer on your site stating it was dangerous, however my work computer doesn't seem to find anything of note.

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    1. Thanks Terry. No idea about the Norton issue ? The blog is obviously hosted by Google so I don’t have any control over security as far as I know ? Perhaps others if they read this could confirm if they have similar warnings ?

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  15. Looking good Matt and nice to see a good mix of armour on the table.

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    1. Thanks Stu….the Italians were tougher than we had expected. But I wish the Germans hadn’t lent them the 88’s !

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