More Pathetic Panzers

 My obsession with pitiful Panzers continues.  This time it's the wholly inadequate Panzer I Auf B.  It has everything you want in an early war tank, or rather it doesn't.  Armour you can poke a stick through, weapons only really good against soft skinned targets and a crew of two one to drive the beast and one to do everything else.  On the plus side they had a reputation for reliability and as long as you kept them away from proper grown up tanks they were a useful recce asset and could work as a mobile pill box.

The mighty Panzer 1 Auf B

Still they are quite cute in a strange sort of way and would probably have put the fear of God into the Home Guard if Operation Sealion had actually happened.

The entire Pz1 force, I mean how many do you really need?

Castings are from Heroics & Ros in 1/300th scale so closer to 5mm than 6mm but at 75p per vehicle the price is smaller than average too.

More Panzers rolling off the production line.

Unfortunately they are not the biggest or best Panzers.  However, I have rather a soft spot for early war tanks as you will have noticed from earlier posts.  Not for me the King Tiger or even the Tiger I, no JagdTiger or Maus here.  Instead I present you with the mighty Panzer II Ausf B complete with 20mm autocannon.  All in stunning 1/300th scale from Heroics & Ros.  Apologies if you find the symbol on the air recognition flag offensive, but it's what they actually used.

The mighty (well not that mighty) Panzer II Ausf B.

In case you fear these may lack the required punch to deal with allied armour I have also added Panzer III Ausf Bs to the Panzer Army with a huge 37mm gun.  Yes, quake in your boots British Tank crews, bite your nails in fear you French Char-B jockey's, Germany's almost adequate tank force is upon you!  Plus as an added bonus it will be bolstered by half a dozen Panzer Is whose armaments are without even a 20mm autocannon.  No those bad boys only have a pair of machine guns.

The marginally more mighty Panzer III Ausf B

Actually I do have some Panzer IVs with a short 75mm lurking around, but , come on, who doesn't love a tank with armour so thin that a Boy's AT rifle is a significant threat to it's survival, eh?  It's the joy of gaming 1940 battles for us.

These are all fairly easy to paint compared to the mid and late war schemes.  Spray undercoat in white. Followed by a coat of Vallejo German grey and a dry brush of Ghost Grey.  Pick out the tracks in gun metal and the exhaust in a rust red-brown mix and that's pretty much job done.  Bases are cardstock painted Raw Umber on both sides to prevent warping, add to that a coat of heavy duty woodworking PVA and a sprinkle of fine sand and lastly some patches of fine flock.  I use cheap block paving jointing sand and a mixed up batch of summer meadow and spring grass flock.

In due course I will probably succumb and buy some mid war armour to go along with the handful of stuff I have already.  This will be focussed on mid to late 1942 for the Winter Storm campaign and onwards into '43 so I can have a couple of Tiger Is, After all it can't be real World War Two gaming without eventually adding a Tiger somewhere in the mix.

A Fistful of TOWs - Light

Following on from my aborted set of World War Two rules, I reverted to Fistful of Tows 3 (hereafter FFT3).  Well, I say reverted I didn't go all the way to the full set instead I spotted that Little Wars TV had dusted down the free FFT3 introductory set and retitled it a Fistful of T34s (lets call these FF-T34 going forwards).  This was done with full permission from the rules authors and is really just a repackaging of the existing introductory set from the FFT website.  As a bonus it is free (you know how much I like free don't you)

I had used the modern FFT3 introductory rules before splashing out on the full set and found they give a good game so I expect that the World War 2 set will do the same.  Actually the FF-T34 set doesn't need to drop a huge amount from the main rules as the period is much more straightforward than modern combat.  Artillery rules and airstrike rules are simplified and merged, close combat is removed and terrain is simplified.  Lastly the number of quality levels for troops is reduced.  They hit all the key rule concepts and  have a good feel of the full rules.

I actually read through both the original FFT3 introductory rules and FF-T34 and found a couple of differences.  The rules on tank riders are more complete on the FFT3 set so I added them back into FF-T34s.  I also added back the full range of quality levels.  I only added them back in as I want to try the free rules out in other theatres of World War Two.  But really, FF-T34 doesn't suffer from the lack of that stuff as it is intended for a specific campaign setting from Little Wars TV, called Winter Storm set in December 1942. This is also free from the Little Wars TV website.  The campaign is a linked set of battles based on the 4th Panzer Army drive to relieve Stalingrad.  Spoiler alert it failed! There are videos of the refights on the Little Wars site.

So if like JBM you were wondering if the rules are any good this is a great way to try them out.  Little Wars TV have even provided paper templates with top down views of the vehicles and other troops for the campaign setting and some paper buildings to help with terrain.  So you could try the rules out for a very small expenditure on printer ink and glue!

All of the Little Wars Tv freebies can be found here >Fistful of T34s - Little Wars TV

The original introductory rules are here >FFG-FFT3-Introductory-Rules-Modern-v06.pdf

There used to be data sheets published online by FFT.com with vehicle and infantry data but these seem to have disappeared.

As to how these rules compare to the ones I was working on, they cover pretty much the same things although they are at the one stand is a platoon level.  That said the full rules have an option for playing at a lower level where one vehicle stand is one vehicle and one infantry stand is roughly a section.  Which is around where my rules were sitting.  Other than that they cover weight of fire using a concept of Rate of Fire which has the same effect.  Combat works in a similar way and the spotting and artillery rules are clearer than those I was working with.  Plus as a bonus it was designed as a set of rules for 6mm usage.   All in all I really don't know what made me want to try to reinvent the wheel.

Cold War gone Hot solo campaign - a quick update

In view of the current events in Ukraine I'm shelving the cold war campaign.  It seems incredibly crass to game a Russian invasion while one is under way in real life.  I will dig out FFT again but probably using my 6mm 1940 stuff.  

In the mean time my hopes and best wishes are with the Ukrainian forces.  We have donated to the Red Cross Ukraine fund as there is little else that we can do.  My days of lugging a GPMG or an SLR are long behind me and I was only a weekend warrior in any case but that is enough to give a very small insight into what the defenders and civilian population are facing.  Strangely I have some sympathy for the 18 and 19 year old Russian conscripts, told they were going on exercise and then thrown into a shooting war.  I have rather less for the politicians and senior officers who green lighted the invasion.  

So as a result BAOR will not be facing off against the Red Horde again for the foreseeable future.

Cold War 82 - further information

 If you are trying to follow the Soviet invasion on the campaign map it helps to understand the grid reference system I am using.  The horizontal rows are named alphabetically A - J so the top row is row A and the bottom is J.  The vertical bit is slightly confusing as rows don't line up as exact columns.  The horizontal rectangles are numbered from left to right 1 - 9 in each row.  so each potential table has an alpha numeric reference such as E9.  All features on that map are given the feature name (e.g. a hill) the table reference and a number if there is more than one of that feature so Hill E92 for example.  Hopefully it makes sense. 

The campaign map for day 1 objectives (click for a larger version)

The Soviets had nine potential entry points (marked by the small red arrows on the east side of the map(the right of the map).  I started by assigning units to assault forces and placing them into three columns.  I then diced for entry points for each column.  Which gave me entry points in tables B9, C9 and E9.  of those only E9 was occupied.  British forces are B Gp (Battle Group) Charlie in B8, B Gp Bravo in E9, B Gp Hotel in F8, B Gp India in H7 and BG Alpha in I9.  Those formations (two company sized units each) are supported by Recce groups (R Gp) in D9, H9 and J9.  Artillery support in the form of an Abbot regiment are located G4,

What that all means is that the Russians have chosen to concentrate in the North and BAOR assets in the south will have to relocate.  But they have to be aware that a further Warsaw Pact Formation is available and could enter to the south.  Two Soviet formations are yet to meet any resistance and will be pushing deeper into the Federal Republic unless BAOR can relocate blocking forces.

The current plan is for B Gp Alpha to move north to J8 allowing B Gp India to move North West to where the fighting will probably be concentrated by the time they are in position.  Recce Groups Alpha  and Bravo in the south will move slightly north to help cover the gap left by B Gp India moving away.  Other units may need to move westwards to support each other and prevent Soviet flanking movement.

Last but not least (at least for me) there will now be a short break in blogging as I have to undergo some medical treatment in hospital.  This will keep me away from the keyboard, other than checking in on my phone from time to time.  Hopefully It won't keep me away for too long.  

Cold war gone hot - Nato goes on alert

NATO Northag HQ - Intelligence briefing 09:00hrs Friday 4th June

"Good morning Gentlemen.  We face a concerning development today.  It appears that our old friend Ivan may be attempting to pull a fast one on us.  

Their recent exercises may have been a cover for a rapid mobilisation.  Intelligence sources within East Germany and Poland are all saying similar things about the military rail convoys returning units eastward.  They do not appear to be fully loaded and in many cases are apparently running empty or with only ballast onboard.  I won't bore you with the details of how this has been determined it involves some very brave chaps checking weighbridge data and other arcane stuff but it seems that the formations which came west for the exercise are not being returned to base.

Our American colleagues have satellite data supporting this hypothesis.  The heat signatures of the locomotives do not accord with them pulling fully loaded transporters and they have picked up isolated infra-red signatures within forest areas close to the internal German border suggestive of troops in bivouac.  This is the case everywhere we have eyes on Ivan and to be frank it is worrying.

Our normal presence on monitoring duties inside East Germany is facing the usual harassment and in a couple of cases this has included their vehicles being blocked from entering areas of interest.  In one case a vehicle was forced off the road.  Not spectacularly unusual but it does show a pattern. We are also noticing a reduction in the number of East German civilians coming over to our side of the border which suggests a tightening up of security in the border zone.  As a result NATO HQ is raising the alert level to 'attack imminent'.  I know we have been here before and it has always been a precautionary measure with a stand down following within 24 hours, but this time it has a different feel.  

I do not intend to allow us to be caught with our trousers down and have deployed reconnaissance formations forward towards the internal border as a trip wire these are supported by heavier assets from BAOR a few miles behind although in some locations they have been pushed further forwards."

HQ Battlegroup Bravo - Saturday 5th June 20:00hrs

"Listen in everyone.  I have a nasty feeling that this is not another one of those damn silly readiness exercises Brigade likes to chuck at us.  I'm hearing from our Bundeswehr liaison that German 1st Corps to the North is also on high alert tonight. Sorry but no beers tonight I'm afraid.  Stand too is at 03:00hrs, full combat load outs and full light discipline will be in effect.  Early to bed chaps we may be busy in the morning!"

Battlegroup Bravo - Sunday 6th June 03:45hrs

"Heads up, the games on!  We have solid reports of Soviet armoured formations breeching the internal border at multiple points across our frontage.  Its time to earn our pay and find out if we are as good as we think we are.  Mount up and  be ready to move in ten.  Full NBC precautions are now in effect make sure your guys are suited and booted.  Our recon troop is withdrawing rapidly without making full contact and we will shortly be the front line.  It looks like tanks with infantry support coming our way Our job is to slow the initial thrust and to identify the axis of advance.  If this is really 'it' then we are going on a bear hunt and it's going to be a long day"

As the day starts to dawn Battle Group Bravo moves forwards into their fighting positions. 

The first battlefield - Ingelund Crossroads

The image above shows the battlefield for the first clash in and around the village of Ingelund.  It is a fairly open area with a low ridge running to the east of the village at right angles to the Soviet line of advance.  The yellow lines show ridges which block line of sight but don't have any other effect on combat or movement.  The actual table will have other features non of which will have any effect other than as cosmetic features.

The initial Soviet formations entering the Map are a Battalion of T-64s and a Battalion of BMP-1 mounted infantry.  In reserve is a second Battalion of T-64s.  They enter from any point on the right of the table.  BAOR has a Squadron of Chieftains and a company of infantry with FV432s as transport.  There is a further Battle Group in positions to the immediate south of this table and recon formation to the North East (so on adjacent tables).  These will be tasked with holding at those locations until it is clear that there is no risk of parallel Russian columns advancing through those areas.  Both sides have off table artillery support available.

  

So you want to invade Western Europe? (and other other problems for rampant expansionists)

While I still have some painting to do the 1982 cold war campaign has been taking shape and I have most of the combatants ready to roll (in the Warsaw Pact case quite literally so).  I'm running it with a time limit for the Warsaw Pact.  They have to exit the west side of the campaign map (and maintain a supply line back to the east side) within 24 hours.  After all they only have a time budget of seven days to the Rhine.  I have come up with an alternative time line that doesn't involve a limited theatre nuclear exchange as a starting point, which was the case with the actual Soviet plan: Seven days to the Rhine.  

It’s an alternative 1982!  

After some persuasion from Ronald Reagan, Mrs Thatcher decides not to withdraw HMS Endurance from the South Atlantic and instead she increases the garrison on the Falkland Islands.  Reagan wanted Britain to shoulder more of the burden for security in the South Atlantic as he was concerned about Communist influence in SW Africa and didn’t want them to gain any kind of additional influence in South America which might allow them to interdict the other half of the South Atlantic trade routes.  This prevented the Argentine invasion but slightly weakened the British presence in Germany.

Reagan supported the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan and increased support to Pakistan which in turn allowed high tech weapons to cross over the border.  The impact of these was a shock to Soviet analysts and hastened the end of the Soviet occupation.

Meanwhile in the Soviet Union Chairman Brezhnev’s fading health opened the way for hardliners to exert increased influence over Politburo policy.  Soviet concerns over the rise of Solidarity in Poland and the possibility of Western intervention should Soviet forces be required to suppress the movement created a climate of deep concern in Moscow.  This was not helped by President Reagan’s strongly anti-communist rhetoric and the American's forthcoming deployment of both cruise and Pershing intermediate range ballistic missiles to Western Europe.  The unsuccessful involvement in Afghanistan also created dissatisfaction in the civilian population at Soviet policy and the Politburo needed to do something to distract them.

In our new timeline these factors spur the hard-line camp into action.  The military see that there is only a limited window of opportunity for action against the capitalist west before Soviet military forces become incapable of meeting NATO on advantageous terms.  Intelligence is available about the next generation NATO weapon systems which are starting to become available (Challenger, Leopard 2 and Abrams MBTs for example) suggesting that they will never have a better chance of victory than this summer.  The politicians have concerns that any perceived weakness will also bring about liberalisation in their Warsaw Pact allies and this will become a uncontrollable downward spiral.  This laid the foundations for an update to the 1970’s operational plan.

The original plan for ‘Seven Days to the Rhine’ was based on a NATO first strike and had called for a limited nuclear response upon NATO facilities and ports in Europe to hamper US re-enforcements reaching Germany.  If, instead, Warsaw Pact forces launched that first strike it was expected that NATO would retaliate in kind hitting targets along the Polish Russian border to restrict Soviet resupply and re-enforcements.  There were worries that this would lead to a rising within Poland and so a non-nuclear initial assault was planned.

Soviet forces in East Germany along with East German and Polish forces were told to prepare for large scale exercises and under cover of this troops in the western Russian republics were also activated.  After troops moved up to their jump off points dummy convoys were used to make it appear that they had returned to base at the end of the exercise.  As far as Soviet military planners are aware this worked.  The attack was scheduled to commence on Sunday 6^th June 1982 in the hope that some NATO units would be less field ready as it was known many western servicemen had a habit of going out on the town on Saturday evenings and as this was also the anniversary of D-Day this might have exacerbated the effects of the night’s drinking!  

At 04:12hrs in the twilight of Sunday 6^th June, the first Soviet assault units cross the internal German border heading West.  Operation Krasny Shchit (Red Shield) is underway.

The opposing forces 

BAOR has an armoured Brigade consisting of two regiments of Chieftain Mk5 MBTs and an armoured infantry battalion plus an attached recon squadron of Scimitars, divided up into 9 individual battle groups.  In support is a a artillery regiment of Abbot SP artillery and some royal artillery anti-tank detachments.

The Soviet initial attack consists of four Tank Regiments with T-64A MBTs and two Motor Rifle Regiments mounted in BMP-1 or BTR-70s with an integrated T-62 MBT battalion.  These are supported by a Hind attack helicopter company and a Recon battalion.  Off table support consists of an MRL Regiment and a SP artillery Battalion.  The second echelon adds a further two Tank Regiments and a single Motor Rifle Regiment from Warsaw Pact allies.

Other rampant expansionists?

While all this is going I haven't forgotten the Dark Ages campaign and further action will be forth coming.  There are only a couple of potential battles to resolve before the clock ticks over to the next turn.

3mm Infantry bases

This is a follow up to the post on 3mm basing a made a couple of days ago.  I'm doing it for completeness sake as a couple of people asked about the basing.  

Basing vehicles was easy infantry caused me a bit more of an issue.  The BAOR force uses specialist teams of less then platoon size in some front line roles.  These are mounted in the FV103 Spartan based on the CVR(T) chassis.  That vehicle provides transport for dismountable Blowpipe manpack anti-aircraft teams and Milan ATGM teams.  It also provides the mount for fire control officers for artillery and mortar support.  Its a smaller vehicle than the FV432

So I was going to need to be able to distinguish between platoon sized infantry units and specialist teams.  The team based solution seemed obvious, mount them on pennies just like the vehicles.  For an infantry platoon I clearly needed a bigger base to reflect the larger frontage so after some humming and hawing I decided on a rectangular base and plumped for 40mm x 20mm as a reasonable compromise.  This gives a platoon a game frontage of just over 150 yards.  Its not an exact science though as frontages differ in different terrain, attack or defence postures.  So I'm going to go on record as saying the base shows the unit's 'centre of gravity' not necessarily the actual operational footprint at any given time.

A BMP company and dismounts

For figures per base I have worked on the basis of the platoon transport being represented by one vehicle so its troop payload can be represented by the same number of figures as that single vehicle's passenger count, give or take a figure.  This works well for the BAOR with a standardised system of transport but less well for the Soviets who have a number of different APCs and IFVs in use at the same time.  In general BTRs carry slightly less men than BMPs so I just went with an average.

The bottom line is that it doesn't really matter.  A base is a base and provided both sides have the same footprints no-one is disadvantaged.  If it was real issue I would mark the same central spot on all bases and measure weapon ranges from that point.

One issue I have found with the Oddzial Osmy infantry is that as they are cast in strips they need to be separated into smaller groups or individual figures.  Although the bases have some narrowing where you might want to split them it is difficult as the metal they use is very hard.   My trusty side cutters struggle to cut it, so instead of the random groups I wanted to use I often end up with lines of troops.  I suppose its the price for the level of detail the casting metal makes possible.

The basing technique I use for the infantry is almost the same as that for the vehicle stands except more untextured base is left. So That involves random patterns in undiluted PVA with fine sand sprinkled on then more random patterns of PVA with my flock mix.  It breaks the bases up while still allowing them to stay visible on the playing surface.  probably not at all realistic but it works.

The Soviet dismounts are listed for FFT as having options of for each company of either three Rifle Platoons, or Companies with mixtures of Rifle Platoons, ATGM and Rifle or SAM and Rifle Platoons.  in each Company one platoon can be changed to a ATGM equipped one and/or a SAM equipped one.  The photo above has one of each option.  That then brings in the issue of telling them apart.  While I can tell the difference opponents might not be able to so the rear corner (left in the photo has either AA or AT marked in black and a coloured dot; light blue for SAM and Green for ATGM (sky blue cos the SAM is shooting into the sky and green as the ATGM is shooting ground targets I'm literal minded that way!).  It makes sense to me honest.

3mm basing and unit ID techniques and my storage solution.

1. The finished base effect

 As promised here is my basing technique for the Oddizial Osmy (which incidentally means Eighth Division in Polish) 1/600th models.  The first thing to realise is that these are small really small and even though they are cast in a hard white metal they lack heft so I am basing vehicles on UK 1p coins to add weight and make them easier to handle.  Yes I really did throw money at this project! Pennies are cheaper than washers and still easy to get hold of and of course they are a uniform size and thickness.  Out of some half remembered childhood memory of some old law about debasing coinage I always use the 'tails' side so as not to desecrate the Queen's face on the other side.

The first step is to create a smooth surface to place the model upon.  I use Milliput for this as it sticks to the coin really well.  It also has the advantage that as a two part epoxy putty it will harden even if wet so I can smooth it over using a damp finger tip.  I recommend a small dish of water for that rather than licking the finger as Milliput has an interesting after taste!  A piece about the size of a garden pea seems about right to cover a penny.  I smooth that all over the surface of the coin making sure to get all the way to the edge and even a little over.  I trim off the excess around the rim with a piece of card.  I just use whatever I have to hand.  Use cardboard to trim the edge as some of the wet Milliput will stay stuck to the card an harden rendering the card useless after a while so it has to be changed.  The idea is that the Milliput is only slightly higher than the rim of the coin and doesn't extend beyond the edge.  For larger vehicles I make to grooves to represent the track marks behind the AFV.  Once that is done put the base aside to harden.  The trick is to make up batches of about 20 - 30 bases at a time ready for the next stages.

2. Milliput layer and painting done

3. Side view showing the depth of Milliput used.

Next I paint the base, for this I use Vallejo Green Brown (Model Color 70.879) for this.  At some point I need to get this colour matched at a DIY store and get some acrylic house paint in the same shade as I do seem to use this for a lot scenic work.  I paint the Milliput surface and all around the rim of the coin.  This actually needs two steps as there is a small part masked by my finger tip where I hold the penny.  Painting in batches allows the first bases to have dried ready for me to paint the uncovered part by the time I have dome the last base.  I could tack the bases onto  a roof nail or similar I suppose but it would take longer to tack the base to a nail than going back to paint the masked bit of the edge.  A stripe of a dark brown (Vallejo Model Colour  70.872 Chocolate Brown in my case) in the track marks helps bring them out.  Again leave to dry before going to the next step.

4. A darker brown in the wheel ruts helps them to stand out.

The next thing to do is glue the vehicle to the painted base.  I do this after painting as a lot of clear glues dry to such a high gloss finish that it's hard to get paint to take on it.  Again, yes you guessed it, set aside to dry.

5. With vehicles glued on things are starting to come together

The last step is to texture the base.  There are a number of ways to do this.  Over the years I have settled on a couple of variations on the theme of sand and flock.   I apply some random areas of neat PVA glue to the base and sprinkle a fine sand over the base.  The sand sinks into the PVA and leaves a slightly raised area.  I knock off the loose sand and leave it for the PVA to dry.  I then do the same again on the bits that didn't get a sand covering but sprinkle flock onto those areas.  My flock isn't actually pure flock its a mix of a summer (or it might be spring) meadow flock (which has coloured bits to act as flowers) and a short static grass.  I sprinkle this by taking a pinch between my fingers and rubbing the finger tips together like sprinkling salt on a meal.  This seems to create a bit of a static charge which helps the grass part stand upright.  Once done I turn the base upside down and give the underside a sharp tap as a further incentive for the grass to stay upright.  And that, as the man said, is that!  It isn't necessary to cover every bit of the base in sand and flock as the base green-brown colour blends in really well.

6.  You can see how the sand sits 'proud' of the bases here.  

If you need to ID the models, which I do for Fistful of Tows, then a small patch of colour on the edge of the coin identifies the vehicle type and by default the regiment and a dot of contrasting colour (or two or three) shows which battalion they belong to.  For FFT models have to stay within a set cohesion distance of other members of their parent formation.  For Soviets the cohesion unit is the Battalion and for NATO it is Companies which requires a little more complexity using two colours of dot one for Battalion and one for company.  There is no real need to track formations beyond that.  I place this mark at the rear of the base as hopefully my troops will be advancing away from me!

7. Unit ID.  Green for T-72, left stripe is regiment 1 second is battalion 1 and 2. 

The last part of this post deals with storage.  I'm a big fan of the Really Useful Box range of plastic storage containers.  I use the 4 litre size with two of their hobby trays in each for most of my DBA armies.  However, those trays wouldn't do the job for these models as the spaces in each division of the tray would be too big and too deep to hold 3mm models securely, so I looked at using foam insert trays instead. 

8.  The foam trays in use.  

A quick trawl around Google lead me to a business called Just Lasered.  I contacted the owner via Face Book and explained what I needed and he designed the trays, checked back with me to be sure it was what I wanted and had them with me within a week!  Each tray has 80 x 2.1 cm diameter holes and  each tray has an offset so that by reversing the direction I place each one the holes do not line up.  Pennies are slightly over 2cm in diameter so the bases drop neatly into the hole with just enough space around so that when I lift the tray the model stays behind making it easy for my fat fingers to pick them up.  Better yet the trays are designed to fit exactly into the 4 litre Really Useful Box. I can get four 1.25cm thick trays plus a 1 cm topper into each box.  Great price too at £1.50 per tray, although postage hiked that up by another £4.50.  If I had ordered more at the same time the impact of postage would not have been so great I suppose.  So that is storage for 320 models in each 4 litre box.  More than enough for this project.

The Soviet menace is growing

The Soviet war machine.  Not complete by a long way!

I have been busily painting and basing the Oddizial Osmy cold war models ready for the full version of A Fistful of TOWs 3 (FFT3 hereafter) arriving.   They were delivered a couple of days ago and I have spent my spare time since going through the rules to see where the differences to the introductory versions lie.  My first impression is that rules are well thought out and do create a very fast and deadly game exactly as I found in the test play through with the free introductory rules.

The differences other than all the extra rules such as chemical and tactical nuclear attacks, airborne assaults, and helicopter and airstrikes are the extra detail in the combat rules.  These cover things like the effect of stabilised guns, ( move and shoot and engaging multiple targets per turn), shoot and scoot attacks.  In other sections are a really well thought out set of guidelines for interpreting rules and disputes.  The full rules add chrome and make the use fire and manoeuvre tactics achievable.   They are pitched at the sweet spot between detail and playability (at least in what is the sweet spot for me).  The rules include data on a lot of weapons and combat formation TOEs (expressed in FFT3 bases).  Players still need to know their period as some of the fine detail isn't there in the lists and not all of the armies and formations you might want are not there (no Warsaw pact formations other than Russians for example) but there is enough to get started with.  FFT3 works at the one base is a platoon level but once playing my head switches to a tank is a tank and a stand of infantry is a section or fire team and it makes no difference to the fun.  For those who want it there are suggestions for changes to run the rules at 1:1 ratios but I really don't see the need.

For the Soviets 6 tank bases makes a battalion (edited from 9 so if you read this once already you are not going nuts it did have different numbers in this sentence) so I have the equivalent of 12 battalions ready to roll with 15 T-80s ready to have base work done.

(L-R) T-55, T-62, T-64, T-72 and last T-80 with unfinished base

On the painting front  there are more BTRs and BMPs plus their infantry passengers to complete plus a raft of support kit ZSU and BRDM support and recon plus Hinds and SU-25 Frogfoots.  The BAOR need some more FV432s and FV438s and crews plus their air support to work on. Sounds like a huge task but it really isn't at 1/600.

I have thrown money at this project, literally I ran out 1p coins to base stuff on and had to convert a £5 into pennies to ensure I have enough for the project and follow ons! I will explain the basing and ID system in the next post.

Cold War Gone Hot - the first campaign map

 As mentioned in the last post I have created a campaign map which should cover the first 24 hours of a Warsaw Pact attack, give or take a couple of hours.  Apologies for the slightly washed out reproduction I need to play around with the scanner settings to get a bit more colour saturation. 

The campaign map for the initial fighting 

Soviet Forces will enter at the right hand side and try to exit from the left. I will be covering this frontage with BAOR forces.  Recon units will cover the area in the first two rows of rectangles (each one of which is a game table measuring 6' by 4').  Heavier formations will be to the west.  I will probably deploy a brigade sized battlegroup to cover the area consisting of a Chieftain regiment, one or possibly two mechanised infantry battalions plus a couple of Milan platoons, A Striker detachment (mounting Swingfire ATGM) and a Blowpipe AAGM detachment.  Artillery will be offboard.  Soviets will have (initially) three Motorised Rifle Regiments backed up with a T-62 Regiment. Stacked up behind that will be a T-64 Tank Regiment.  Which means that I need to get on with the painting and basing!  15 T-64As are painted and will be based by later today.

Based upon my initial test game it took the Soviets 36 game minutes to achieve their initial objectives on a 6' x 4' table and they would perhaps probably needed another 24 minutes (two turns) to get forces off the table excluding time for the second echelon to come up.  I intend throwing WarPac lines of assault open to input both through this blog and elsewhere on Face Book and through real life (TM pending) contacts.  So it is probably worth mentioning that WarPac forces may enter the map on any of the roads marked with a red arrow and the rules require battalions to be kept together.  Other than that express your opinions on the best WarPac operational plan for day one in the comments.  I will throw the actual table tactics open in due course.

A Fist Full of Tows 3 - what next

I enjoyed the test game I played last weekend and it has reignited my interest in 'the war that never was'. I have placed an order for the rules via Lulu and as I have never used Lulu or any other print on demand service before that will be interesting in it's own right. I also placed a second order to Magister Militum to expand my troop range to include the support arms along with a couple of (read that as four) different Warsaw Pact tank types. I have added some T-55s for third tier formations, and some T-64s and T-80Us for first line formations plus T-72As. I have air support Recon, AA and AT plus more infantry and transport. Let’s just say it wasn’t a small order!

An additional 75 Russian tanks are only part of the order!

 I'm still getting my head around where the T-72 fits in.  Most sources term it a mobilisation model which was intended to be mass produced when war was imminent but at the same time it appears to have equipped existing formations in the second echelon.  I read an interesting (read that as depressing) quote from someone who served in Germany at the time, they believed that if they came up against T-72s the war would have been almost over. Either the Russians were winning and we were about to go nuclear, or they were loosing and they were about to go nuclear!

I think the 1980's is the obvious period to set scenarios for NATO v WarPac as the electronic and cyber aspects of warfare have not become an overpowering factor yet and active counter measures to anti tank munitions are only just appearing.  In a lot of ways it is akin to late World War Two with better equipment (and nerve gas and nuclear weapons!).  It's also the period where the Soviet doctrine had moved away from massive use of tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield so there is something to play out other then just dousing the playing table in petrol and applying a match!  It's also probably the latest period where we know a good deal about the capabilities of the equipment and can be reasonably comfortable that it is accurate(ish).  Plus in doing the research its interesting to compare what we thought we knew at the time and what turns out to be the truth.

So the date is summer 1982 the Falkland conflict never happened as we re-enforced the islands rather than going ahead with the removal of HMS Endurance (The FCO were furious).  This deterred Argentina, but required the maintaining of a strengthened garrison and RAF presence.  That weakened our presence in Germany slightly.  Meanwhile the Russians are concerned about the rise of pro democracy movements in Poland and are seeking a means of diverting attention from the poor results in Afghanistan.  Brezhnev is dying and no longer able to control the hardliners in the Politburo and many of the foreign policy decisions are being made by his ultimate successor Yuri Andropov.  This coupled with US President Reagan's anti Communist rhetoric sows the seeds for military action to reunify Germany by force.  The final straw is the forthcoming deployment of Pershing and land based cruise missiles into West Germany by the US.  Russian military planners consider that these weapons, especially the precision guided missiles, would be as effective as tactical nuclear weapons at disrupting command and control nets but without the long term wide ranging collateral damage.  If a war is to be waged and won without a need to use tactical nuclear weapons on a massive scale there is a narrow window of opportunity and summer 1982 is that window.

I have set up a 'campaign' map divided into oblongs each of which is equivalent to the area of my standard game table.  The initial map area covers about 30 miles north to south and 40 miles East to West, sufficient for the first day's fighting if WarPac rates of advance are as NATO expected in the early stages.  Just waiting for the rules to arrive now which should be in the next couple of days.

The Soviet Tank Force has made it to the painting table

Defending Bad Heredaisse - A Fistfull of Tows 3 play test

1982, somewhere close to the inner German border. In a final attempt to cripple the West and bolster their position at home the Politbureau authorise an invasion of West Germany. At some point in the last hour Warsaw Pact formations breached the internal German border.   As part of the attack a Soviet battlegroup from a Motorised Rifle Regiment is approaching the small town of Bad Heredaisse probing forward trying to identify the main areas of defence of the BAOR.   Its objective is to take and occupy the important road nexus within the town. If they can exit the west side of the table with a company sized formation they will score a decisive victory. 

The Soviet force consists of three T-62 companies and two Infantry companies mounted in BTR-70s. Facing them is a Squadron of Chieftain mk5s and a company of Infantry mounted in FV432s. The infantry are already dismounted and in makeshift positions when the advancing Red Army formation is spotted. Two Chieftain troops and a company of infantry on the reverse slope of Hill 1 supported by a third Chieftain troop luring in the dead ground behind Wood B. A company of infantry dismounted in the flooded quarry area another on Hill 3 and the last in the rough ground west of Bad Heredaisse. No troops in the town as it was expected to be an artillery target.

The Soviets are attempting to use three axis's of advance towards the town. a company of T-62s spearheading the advance down each road from the east table edge each with a company of BTR-70s following up and a third tank company to the North flank. The Table is 6 feet by four feet so there is a lot of ground for the Russians to cover.

Rules are the free version of a Fistful of Tows 3 but with the 'average' modern vehicles replaced with period specific ones from the excel data sheet on the game website.  The game scale is one model represents a troop/platoon and one inch is 100 yards on the table.

1. The Table.  East is at the Top.

The schematic of the table above shows the key features the oblong and triangle areas are rough ground.  All other fields and hedges are there for the look of things but don't have any effect.  Black rectangles represent built up areas they are difficult ground but most are small enough to work around.

2. The table from the BAoR end

Turn one. 

The Soviets move first as the attacker and push forward with their three companies of T-62s backed up by the BTR 70s as the second echelon. As they break into the open ground to the east of their objective British Chieftain main battle tanks move forward from their hidden defensive positions and open fire at long range.  All four chieftain troops engage and each destroys a T-62 platoon.  This doesn't look as though it's going to be a good day for the Red Army. 

3. Initial NATO positions on Hill 1

4. The Soviet's initial set up

5.  The first shots from long range find their mark.  Scratch four T-62 Platoons

Turn two.

In response the Soviet commander calls down a major barrage of artillery on and around Hill 1 but it is singularly ineffective. Only one Chieftain troop is suppressed all of the other strikes are ineffective. The surviving T-62s rush the forward British defensive position on the Hill closing to within 400 yards before engaging.  The sheer volume of fire destroyed two of the forward Chieftain troops.  However the push to close the range brings them within reach of the infantry on the hill.   They are on overwatch and take out one of the attacking T-62s with their Charlie G (MAW in game terms). After which they evacuate their position and retire towards town covered by a troop of Chieftains.

6.  Soviet Infantry and Tanks on Hill 1 while tanks burn all around.

 

A second round of long-range anti-tank fire is laid down by the two surviving Chieftain troops. Again the impact of the 120 mm guns is devastating and the northernmost and southern Soviet tank companies are reduced to one platoon each they fail the resulting quality test and are rendered combat ineffective.

Turn three. 

Soviet artillery so far has been remarkably ineffective so far so the Soviet commander calls in a pre-planned interdiction barrage to the west of the objective hoping to dissuade the British from moving troops forward into the town.  One BTR company occupies Hill 1 while elements of the second push into the town and debus.  Not all of these make it as a Chieftain on overwatch destroys one of the APC platoons.  The infantry onboard survive but now reduced to moving on foot are not going to play any real role in the rest of proceedings.  The Soviet tanks are now concentrated on the west slopes of Hill 1 and destroy both the retreating FV432 platoon and it's mounted infantry as well as the Chieftain troop covering them.  

The BAoR force is now reduced to one troop of Tanks and three companies of Infantry all of who are in positions around the town.  The Soviets are down to one platoon of T-62s and one full company of Infantry and one which has lost a platoon transport.

6. Russian infantry deploy into defensive positions in town

End Game

I called the game at this point.  Unsupported Russian Infantry were not going to get away with an APC charge for the end of the table and two of three tank companies had failed quality tests so only one tank platoon was still in action.  Despite threats from the political officer the commander decided to hold what they had and let the second wave pass through them to take the next objective.  

British forces stayed on the hills overlooking the town and in the quarries to the North but would struggle to push the dismounted Red Army infantry out of Bad Heredaisse.  I'm agreeing with the political officer here and calling this a victory for the progressive forces of the People's Red Army as they took the initial objective.  In military circles it is said that the Soviet commander commented that with a few more such stunning victories they could loose the war.

End game.  Soviet Infantry hold the town  The east is littered with burning armour.

The rules

The introductory set play very fast and are bloody.  If a tank is in range they have a very good chance of killing an enemy tank.  The Chieftain even at long range is pretty much guaranteed a kill against a T-62.  That may in part be due to the simplified game mechanics.  The Russians really have to weather the storm and close to normal or even short range but when they do they too are in the "if I can see it I can kill it" zone.  That said I'm not certain that this is wrong and if it is there are simple tweaks that can be made to reduce the efficiency of tank direct fire.  The game does mirror the long held view of western superiority in technology as the balance to Warsaw Pact numbers.  My only issue is that in the introductory rules at least the "I shoot, I score" issue removes some of the supposed Western superiority.  I suspect things like gun stabilisation and engaging multiple targets each turn would swing things back the other way in the full rules.  Despite these slight reservations I will be buying a set of the full rules based on this play test.  The reasoning is simple one set of rules mechanisms to cover everything from World War One to  ultra Modern conflicts makes life really straight forwards. 

Last but very much not least, the 3mm toys looked really good on the table.  Small enough to avoid the hub to hub deployments from other games which is forced by the discrepancy in figure to ground scale but big enough to be clearly seen as models not counters.  Vehicles and infantry are Oddizial Osmy buildings a mix of Brigade models and scratch built.

PS Bad Heredaisse....bad hair days,  get it?  Oh come on it wasn't that bad!

Cold War going Hot - Oddzial Osmy models and thoughts on a Fistful of Tows

It’s a new project!  You know me I can resist anything except temptation.  In my defence it's the war I would have had to take part in if it had happened.  I was in the TA in the early 1980s and  if the balloon had gone up the infantry battalion my unit formed part of would have been off to join NORTHAG.  Our task would have been guarding supply depots and supply lines but I always expected that we would have been in the shooting war very quickly. So I have more than a passing acquaintance with the kit and sat through hours of AFV recognition sessions (those Airfix modelling days paid dividends there).  So I thought it might be nice to get some early 80's forces together.

Of course I went small for this project.  Small and cheap, O8 1/600th via Magister Militum Miniatures.  15 Chieftain Mk5 (that's a full squadron plus one spare) for £4.00 that will do nicely thanks.  Of course to spread the postage cost I bought a few other bits so 15 FV432 Infantry Fighting vehicles, 12 BTR-70s and 15 T-64s plus a pack of Warpac infantry.  Or I will have when the T-64s arrive.  I ordered T-62s but they are out of stock so I changed the order!  To be fair the T-64 is probably the more common Soviet tank in the initial attack echelons anyway.

A troop of Chieftains

The Oddzial Osmy casts are simply stunning; no flash a tiny amount of sprue and air channel to cut off job done.  I'm thinking of a Fistful of Tows 3 for the rules but haven't settled on basing, as the I don't have the rules yet.  The rules are aimed at 6mm with one model tank being a group of 3-5 vehicles.  I wanted to save space so went 3mm but I haven't decided if I want to base in groups or as single vehicles as I intend to fight a 1:1 model to vehicle ratio.  3mm makes that affordable and I can just change inches to cm and the scale issue is pretty much dealt with, or I could stick with the original and getting bigger fields of fire.  For now I'm going to trial the rules with the free introductory set as the full rules are not cheap.  They look fairly straight forward and should play OK solo.

I had a go at painting three Chieftains (That's a Troop) and they are fairly easy to paint although I need to play with the technique a little.  Dry brushing for contrast is a must and I'm thinking a pin wash in black before the highlight might be needed.  The bases in this first batch are just horrible  That olive drab is too bright I want contrasts between vehicle and base but that's not it!  I'm still not sure about basing on coins either.

I hate the basing but the tanks came out OK.

I have the makings for a Squadron of Chieftains and a Rifle Platoon (without it's supports) for the plucky Brits and a Tank Company plus a Motorised Infantry Platoon (also without support elements) for the Ruski's all for a spit over £20.00  that's about 26p a vehicle.  A second order will be going in for re-enforcements in the not too distant future.

Edited 18/03/21 to correct errors in the title of the post and a couple of spellings