Les Boches, Les Boches.. ils sont arrivee

Textbook. Absolutely textbook. The instructors at St Cyr Academy would be proud. A textbook deployment in defence. High ground dominated. Interlocking fields of fire. Battalion reserves. Flanks protected. Ils ne passerant pas.,, the Bosches will not pass.

The setting is northern France, April 1940. Our first WW2 Spearhead in over a year, and the first outing for the new 6mm French army, fighting Keith's German army (both modelled from the Heroics & Ros range).

Keith's force was modelled form a Panzer Division (a panzer battalion, a recon battalion, a motorised battalion, and a mechanised battalion), while mine was from a French infantry division (three infantry battalions, an independent tank battalion equipped with FT17s, and artillery support).

The French plan was to hold positions behind the river, and support the open left flank with the independent tank battalion which was held back off table in reserve  and available for commitment on command. All of the French units are 'Random' morale, that is their morale is determined when they first come under fire.

The German plan was to hold on the left with the motorised battalion, and probe down the right flank with the recon. The Panzer battalion was held off table in reserve ready to commit down this flank dependent on the situation, while the Gepanzert battalion was held in reserve off table in the centre, and so available to commit dependent on the situation.

The battlefield looking from the south. The French positions are on the left facing east. The Germans attack from the right (the west).

The French right with refused flank

The German motorised battalion advances against the French right

The French left

German recon advances

The French independent tank battalion was deployed behind the French left in reserve awaiting orders to advance and protect the flank.

The German recon battalion pushes forward attempting to bypass the French positions

Recon advance

The German left (motorised battalion) advanced and took up a holding position in front of the French right

The French reserve is committed in order to hold the flank

The recon motorcycle platoon pushes forward, with the armoured car components of the recon battalion supporting.

The FT17s engage the advanced motorcycle platoon

The motorcycle platoon takes fire and is suppressed

German recon elements call down fire from a supporting battalion of 105mm guns. They suppress and kill two platoons of FT17s. The battalion turns out tom be Regular

The German artillery fire immediately drew counter battery fire from French 155mm guns tasked with CB support. One German battery was eliminated in the first turn of CB fore.

The motorcycle platoon is suppressed again

French 105mm guns suppress the SP artillery support on their right (the German left)

The German Panzer battalion is committed against the French left, the recon having established that the road was only held by the independent tank battalion of FT17s

The French FT17 battalion is reduced to below half strength and withdraws from the battlefield (fails its moral check)

With the French armour eliminated the German recon pushes forward again, in advance of the German armour

The French plan was fundamentally flawed from the outset. Leaving the left open with only the armour to counterattack from reserve was clearly NOT the best thing to do. In addition I had laboured under the (mistaken) belief that independent battalions could only change orders when they individually spotted enemy. This is clearly wrong, but memory is a damned unreliable thing, and that's a commentary on how long it is since we had played any Spearhead games. Had I got that right, I may have attempted to counterattack with one of the infantry battalions.

The choice of four artillery battalions supporting the infantry in the army list composition phase may (or may not) have been the right thing to do too. My rationale was that given the lower AI factors of French infantry, they need plenty of support if they are to hold against the German counterparts. I also rarely ever leave home without some sort of counter battery capability - I have suffered under the impact of German 105mm and 150mm artillery before - devastating!!That may have worked had my deployment and overall plan have been more robust.

However regardless, this was still a good game. It was great to flex the 'Spearhead muscle' again.

Indulging our creativity in our hobby

I would never really describe myself as creative. I have never developed my ability to draw, or sculpt, for example. That said, I played music in my younger days (the violin, and then the viola.. and I was quite reasonable at it), and of course I have painted miniatures since 'I were a yung laad'. I guess that counts.

On top of that, in my professional work as a school leader I have lead our kura to a school vision to be a centre of creative excellence, recognising the importance of creativity to our capacity to be human.

Our school vision, writ large at our main entrance.

That said, I love nothing more than the creative challenge of creating interesting things from rubbish. It is enriching, invigorating, and most of all challenging. When Lorraine presented me with the empty reals from some ribbon she had used in her own hobby craft work (she is an amazing and prolific knitter), I relished the challenge of what to do with it. I am not one of those creatives who conceptualises things , sketches them, and then creates. Rather, I will take 'bits', and literally 'play' with them, shuffle them, hold them against other interesting bits, play with them to see what I can come up with.

The ribbon reels 'au natural'

After lots of 'playing around, I added them to a few paper towel rolls/cardboard tubes. I could se was piece of wargames scenery, from one of those dismal dystopian worlds, a chemical complex making deeply noxious poisonous 'gloop'. This would be ideal for HotT (Hordes of the Things) games set in the Weird World War 1 concept.

The basic cardboard pieces

I wanted that 'industrial' or 'steampunk' look, which in my head means rivets. So I took some heavy paper, and punctures rivets into it. The idea was that if glued to  the 'towers' and vats with the indentations facing inwards, I could create the raised profile of rivets.

Black paper strips with the indentations created.

The first strip glued to a tower.. I often do this with a single piece as 'proof of concept'

I also rummaged though my spares box looking for 'bits' that I could use to create detail on the components of the industrial complex.

Include din the detailing was the use of old Bic biro ink tubes, and the plastic sprues from old kits, to create some pipe work.

Oh, and there was a ladder...

I painted the 'towers' before assembly. A red brown coat over a black undercoat, with steel grey 'stipple' over the top

In addition to the strips that were 'joiners' of the sections of the towers and vats, I also used the same 'rivet' technique on an irregular rectangle of card to look like a'patch' on one of the towers.

The pipework was given a pseudo industrial look

The open vats (the inner parts of those ribbon spools) were filled with 'No More Gaps' to create the 'goop' that filed them. I also added a piece of an aquarium plant. I wanted the idea of a mutant plant grown because of corruption from the chemical goop that was being produced at the plant.

The goop was painted in greens, layered up from dark to light green to add light back into the terrain piece.

The new inductrial complex placed alongside an earlier creation made again from 'rubbish' (a piece of packaging, and a ping pong ball

The finished piece, with steam/smoke rising from one of the vats

Goop leaking from one of the vats

A mutant plant growing form a large spill of goop from one of the open vats

The terrain piece with a couple of Weird World War 1 pieces, the left a behemoth tank created from another 'ribbon reel'

With some 40K orcs

And with 40K mutants

And with some HotT 20mm Orcs

So this is me indulging my creative urges.  find this absorbing and relaxing, engaging and immensely satisfying. I love this stuff.