Cold War on the Edge of Europe : Cold War Commander

We have had a small European Cold War project running in the background and managed to get two small forces on the battlefield last weekend. Early days so not part of a larger campaign or with any specific historical context. But a small Soviet strike force has broken across the border, a strong British tank force has been sent to counter this aggressive action.

 A squad of Soviet T62’s push across into the security zone

With them are Soviet mobile artillery 2s1’s

In the distance BMP’s carry infantry towards the small village and more T62’s fan our on the right flank

But the advance has not gone unnoticed and British Centurions have already gained the high ground

It seems too easy for them to pick of the Russian tanks which appear slightly outdated !

Worse still for the Soviet commander on the ground a cloud of dust heralds the arrival of a Squadron of Chieftain Mk5’s whilst they come under fire they seem impervious to the Soviet tanks !!

Using the town as cover the Soviets on the right flank push forward towards the copse on the small hill

Following up the Chieftains are British infantry but they are foolishly out in the open and the Soviets call in an artillery strike

Out in the open the infantry are decimated in front of their commanders eyes 😱

Overview of the battlefield, smoke can be seen rising from isolated Soviet tanks which are burning 

Centurions in the Wood continue to exchange fire with the Soviet tanks in the fields below them

Period shot

The Soviets have now made it to the edge of the woods

But they are soon picked off by the Chieftains now in the village

The remaining T62’s duel with British AT rocket launchers but generally get the worst of it

Having been pinned down the Soviet infantry rushes forward into the village

Whilst Soviet long range Spandrel ATGW takes on the centurions at long range

The BMP’s redeploy to support the tanks assaulting through the woods.

At this point the British failed a rally test, due to the lucky strike form their artillery they had already reached their break point. It was pretty much a draw  as the Soviets didn’t have an answer to the british heavy tanks. This was pretty much a test game as we haven’t played much Cold War Commander we got a few things wrong and didn’t really utilise the long range forces correctly, the challenge seems to be using long range weapons but this is tough when line of sight is blocked. I have ordered a few more bits to supplement this little Soviet force and I will then have enough to take on my Americans !

SYW and Cold War everything has gone small in the Dungeon !

Everything seems to have gone really small in the dungeon....it must be just a phase. So first up I completed my first SYW unit. A Prussian Infantry Regiment, this was really a test to see how they painted up, how long and what technique works best for me at 10 mm.

Here they are on their single unit base, thirty figures in two ranks. As to be expected I have brightened the colours considerably with Prussian blue becoming a French blue, but when viewed from normal standing height you can still only tell they are slightly blue.

The unit was actually pretty quick to paint and were completed on Sunday, but I was waiting for the scatter to arrive from ebay before taking a photo. My guess would be it took about 5 or 6 hours to complete the unit, I am looking to simplify the bases and am pretty happy with the overall effect. The trees in the background are 6mm scale and I need a few more larger options to create some height. At 10 mm the sculpting isn’t perfect but my normal slapdash painting techniques seem to work ok at this scale. My only gripe at this stage is the standard who carries his hat over the centre of the flag which is a bit annoying.

While I was waiting for the scatter to arrive I needed to rebase these little babies for a small Cold War project. I picked these up from Martin a while ago but haven’t used them, but they are the star of a small 1980’s Cold War Soviet Army. I have ordered a few more bits to add variety as you do.

A mixture of T62’s, BMP1’s some 122mm Artillery and some Command bases, they were already painted, not fantastically but good enough for this small project, I do have quite a lot of 6 mm Americans so might get a few of these done some time.

Finally an amusing shot of the diminutive Prussians next to some more Iron Brigade who are being painted this week 😀

Back in the Desert 1967 Arab/Israeli War

Putting aside all the American Civil War obsession and I managed a third game yesterday which I will blog later in the week. We squeezed in a return to the Sinai Desert in 1967. No real historical context to the battle but we had two roughly equal armoured forces looking to capture the high ground in the central part of the battlefield. A fun way to get my small collection of Arab/Israeli takes onto the table 😀. I didn’t take too many pictures....fair to say desert conflicts in 6 mm are not as photogenic as 28 mm ACW ! However.......

Israeli centurions pushing forward

Arab forces move rapidly to take the high ground

SU-100’s cross the valley supported by heavily armoured JS Tanks

A full battalion of Israeli Super Shermans

Israeli Magach’s open up at long range

Starting to cause casualties amongst the Arab T55’s

A wider shot of desert the Arabs having the advantage by taken both hills

Advancing PT76’s are too weakly armoured and are badly mauled by the Magach’s 

But the super Sherman’s aren’t able to hold the high ground

Stalin’s best push across the open ground

...and the Israeli centurions can’t react quickly enough 

Tanks from both sides are in flames....but the Rab forces are getting the bets of it

The Magach’s can fight at long range but are unable to move forward to take the objectives

The depleated Arab Forces hold the high ground to claim a minor victory

A fun game and nice to get the Arab Israeli forces back on the table 🙂

The Six Day’s War 1967 : Cold War Commander

Finally got enough of my Arab Israeli forces to the stage where we could reasonably get them on the table and we were keen to try out Cold War Commander for the first time. You will spot some of the Israeli armour didn’t get their bases covered in sand but I will remedy that soon.

Anyway as a test we didn’t set up anything complex or historically based two reasonably well matched forces clash somewhere in the Sinai.

The Egyptian forces IS3’s, some T55’s, some antiquated SU 100’s, T34’s and some lighter PT76’s

The Israelis have three strong tank formations Magach’s (M48’s), Centurions and some slightly obsolete Super Sherman’s. The Egyptians are going to find it tough as they are pretty much outgunned especially on range

The T55 cruise onto the battlefield whilst the lighter Infantry support PT’s immediately start taking casualties from long rage fire

The long range fire is coming from these ‘big boys’

To the south the Israeli CO has taken control of the high ground with the Magach’s but they come under fire from the wadi where the IS-3’s have halted. Big mistake here by the Egyptians who should have pushed their tanks into the wadi for cover and they will pay for this later

The ground is open for the T55’s to advance

The Infantry support has been al but wiped out but Egyptians reserves having been delayed are coming on in the centre

Two of the Magach’s are now burning

But despite their Very heavy armour two of the IS-3’s are also burning, they really should have moved into cover

The centurions have had to redeploy having been caught in the flank and losing two of their number

Trying to exploit this the Egyptians have sent the T55’s on a long flanking advance

They do eventually get into position and. Are able to take out another centurion but it is a little late in the day

A wider shot of the battlefield towards the end whilst the Egyptians still have the T55’s they have been held back in the centre and in the distance

Having eventually all but one of the IS-3’s the super Sherman’s are sent forward

At this point we called a halt to the battle. Probabaly a minor win for the Israeli’s but more importantly nice to get these forces on the table. The project was always meant to be a minor diversion into some more modern gaming in the desert. I do have a few more bits to paint which I will complete soon and then hopefully another battle sometime soon.😀