Some Soviet AA cover

Still pottering, still clearing up LONG delayed projects. I found these three GAZ trucks tucked away in a dark corner requiring assembly and painting. The 20mm Soviet army needed AA cover, and while not the most effective in game terms (nor probably in real life terms either) these will do for a start. These vehicles exemplify one of the many aspects of Spearhead that I enjoy, the need to co-ordinate all arms to maximise success. Army lists that are one dimensional tend to suffer at the hands of balanced forces.

The vehicles had been given to me so many moons ago I can't even recall their manufacturer (they came sans packaging, just in plastic bags). There were some crew, but the quality is such that I decided to forego their presence on the back. I could have completed all three as AA trucks, but no army list I've constructed calls for three (although I still have the parts for the third, so if ever I need one...).

The third truck may be a nice tow for an AT gun at some stage.

The kits lacked enough wheels to have the trucks dual wheeled at the era, and I fretted over this, but I did find this photo of a GAZ with two rear axles, but only single wheels, so maybe it's OK. You need to scroll down to find the GAZ truck photo.

http://englishrussia.com/2012/03/16/car-design-trends-throughout-decades/

More Necrons for the 40K painting challenge

It was only ever meant to be 400 points, but Adrian felt the 'calling', pushing the Necron 'horde' out to 1500 points with these most recent additions.

Orsogna 1944

There are several attractions of the 20mm Spearhead project. It brings another nice guy into the Spearhead playing group in Christchurch, it has given me a use for a large collection of 20mm stuff that has huge nostalgic value for me, and (as Nick and I would both say) we get to put some really cool toys out on the table top. So in planning our second game for the term break we decided to go with Nick's favoured Kiwis (2nd New Zealand Division) vs Germans in Italy 1944. Nick's Grandfather was billeted at one stage near Orsogna in Italy, so he set up a table that looked similar to that area. Nick's report on the subsequent battle can be found here.

I had no particular affinity for the campaign itself, and so  decided to construct a Panzer Division list that used the very cool Sdkfz 251's that I've had in my collection for a number of years (just because the look great). I think these were painted by good friend Gerard Davey for Scott Taylor (correct me if I'm wrong, Gerard), and I bought them off Scott quite a long time ago. However I'd never yet managed to use them in a game. Off we set.... I travelled right across the city which (for those of you who may be unaware takes quite a lot of time as roads and infrastructure are repaired post-earthquakes). Traffic delays are huge in our local area.

Plans were made, initiative diced for, Germans win the initiative, and I let Nick move first. Righto, now for the Germans.. only problem is.. here is the box of armoured infantry.. sitting back on my own games table at home.... B***R!!

No going back, so I had to 'proxy' ordinary infantry stands for the armoured infantry which doesn't shape up for a very pleasing AAR. So I'll leave that to Nick, just follow the link above. However, you can see the sort of scene that unfolded as the Kiwi reserve came into contact with the German forces. An M4 brewed up, another in the background suppressed, and the battalion 6pdr AT gun suppressed.

Of course there's more to it than that as the German armour was worn down by the Kiwi numbers.

My right flank commanded a dominant ridge, one of the objectives of the battle) and I held this with an infantry battalion supported by two platoons of STuG IIIs. The Kiwi push against this objective ground to a halt.

Meanwhile, just in order to show off these lovely 251s, here they are still in their box.

And three of them on the table top (just the wrong table top, on the wrong day!! GAH!!!)

Nice stuff, effective but expensive in Spearhead terms. Next time!!!!!

Liberating Novosty ...

It's late 1943 and the Russian summer counter offensive is underway. The town of Novosty in the Southern Front area of operations needs to be liberated, and the commander of an infantry division has been given the task. In support he has a break through battalion of heavy tanks (KV1s) two artillery battalions and two battalions of 152 mm howitzers allocated from the Front artillery reserve for counter battery fire. (This is a reposting of the original battle report which was accidentally deleted!!)

The battlefield seen from the south, the Russian forces entering form the left. The town of Novosty can be seen at the top of the photo.

The Russian forces deploying for action

The German forces deploy, the southern most battalion (top of photo) pushing forward to capture Novosty (just out of shot at the top of the hot), with the German armour pushing through the centre. The force nearest camera is the reserve.

The Russian battalion given the task of capturing Novosty advances to the town.

The Russian left, an infantry battalion with two of the platoons of KV1's in support swings around in to the flank of the German battalion assaulting Novosty

The German armour pushes through the centre

That Russian left again

The Russian commander refused his right flank. One battalion with the Regimental AT battery in support takes the small town on that flank, and digs in.

The Russian infantry have a firm grip on Novosty

At this stage the German commander decided to commit his reserve battalion: infantry with armour in support. Nick had made an error in his cross attachments, hence the single tank stand here attached to a full German infantry battalion.

However the German armour ran into an on table Russian artillery battalion. The Russian commander also decided to commit his reserve (an infantry battalion supported by the other two platoons of the break through regiment. Between them they made very quick work of the German armoured battalion.

At this stage an artillery battle developed. German 105s were finally brought down on the Russian left flank, but were quickly silenced by the Russian 152 CB battalions. In exchange the German 150mm CB battalion destroyed one of the Russian 152 battalions.. ouch!!

The actin on the Russian left was fierce.

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The German right flank battalion trying to advance in to Novosty has had to re-orient itself to defend itself against the Russian left flank attack.

However troops from Novosty advance from the town sector in support of the Russian left and the situation looks desperate for the German attackers.

The Russian reserve is also well positioned to bring down fire on the flank of the German reserve formation.

The position is lost and the German commander decides to withdraw his troops in preparation for another attack.

This was a great game. The forces were organised using Keith McNelly's scenario generation system, using forces of 350 points. The game was an encounter scenario. We kept the size down because the window of time available to us was limited.

I'm unsure of the size, as the loss of two stank stands severely impacted on Nick's battle plan. However he had made an error with cross attachment which, had this been done correctly, would have kept the armour in the game for longer.

Nick learned that he needs to concentrate his forces so that they can be mutually supportive.

I opted for a very conventional advance. I bought the main artillery as on board guns because of the communications difficulties that plague Russian forces. This paid off as none of the observer calls throughout the game were successful, but the one battalion firing over open sights decided the armoured engagement.

The force size may have been a little small, although we clearly avoided the 'track to track' problem that I am so desperately trying to avoid. Our next game will be 450 points. Keep watching.

Nick's account of the action is here.

Lost and the Damned outing #3

The Lost and the Damned seem to be perpetually lost and damned... funny that. Choosing to take on those tin men, the Necrons again, may not have been such a good idea, even though they say success in their previous meeting. This time we played 600 points, although we still applied the Combat Patrol force limitations.

On their right the Mutants ran forward to tackle the Necron left, supported by the two Traitor Sentinels.

The centre was held by the Chaos Space Marines supported by a unit of Traitors and a squad of Auto cannons, with another unit of Traitors on the left.

The mutants doubled forward ready to attack the unit of Necron warriors holding their left, but these were supported by a large Necron Stalker.. ooo darn, this may not end well. The Stalker assaulted the Mutants and the few remaining mutants broke and fled.

The Traitors on the left doubled forward to attack the Necron right, but those warriors were spoiling for a fight and after a round of Gaus Rifle fire they advanced to take the fight to the Traitors.

They quickly despatched that unit, but were then hit in the flank by the Traitors that had advanced in the centre.

The Chaos Space Marines assaulted the Wraiths that had emerged from cover to protect the central unit of warriors.

The Mutants disappeared in a wave of blood and gore, allowing the Necron left to advance. A battle developed between the Stalker and the Sentinels.

With Traitors and CSM's locked in combat, and the Stalker immobilized, the game came to an end. The L&tD casualties were significant with one unit of Traitors and the Mutants eliminated. All of the Necron units were still in place. The Wraiths had been reduced to two stands, and the Stalker had been immobilized, but each of the three Warrior units had lost only one of two figures.

IG Sentinels...

I run hot and cold on the whole GW and 40K genre. I still think the miniatures are fantastic, and (again) quite some time go, when I was running hot on 40K I bought two Imperial Guard Sentinels. I reckon these look fantastic, very Star Wars. I finally got around to assembling them last week, and finished painting them today (in between bouts of holiday marking). They may even get a run around on the table tonight, as Adrian and I have a smallish 40K game planned. I can't say that I'm strictly adhering to any Lost and the Damned codex, and I thought that just as Guard troopers etc might well have gone over to the dark side, why couldn't a Sentinel squadron.

These two 'vehicles' can double up as a part of either a traditional IG army, or as a part of the L&tD army.. jolly good show, what's next?

And now for something ...

... completely different. I placed these zombie figures on the pins ready for painting a week or so ago, and then got sidetracked with the 20mm Spearhead modelling. However they had to be done as additions to the 20mm HotT Undead army.

The figures have created two Beasts bases (Zombie dogs) ...

And three bases of zombie Hordes (these seem to be the 'flavour of the month' in our popular culture at the moment - no idea why,  I'm obviously missing something).

I have a bit of a plan to expand two of the HotT armies to three commands to play Big Battle HotT. The Undead and the British VSF are the likely candidates at the moment, with expansion 'sort of' under way with each of them. This one might take some time though with the other distractions around.