British paratroops in 20mm

My interest in gaming world war 2 in 20mm (with my fave Spearhead rules by Arty Conliffe, of course) has been rekindled after I gave Murray a game to show the difference between gaming in 6mm vs 20mm. He enjoyed the game, and bein g of th4e same age as me we share a 'heritage', a tradition if you like, of gaming in 20mm. Now, don't get me wrong, in my opinion 6mm is still the best scale in which to game using the WW2 Spearhead rules, and will continue to be my preferred 'go to' rules set. It's just that a bit of me still hankers for that 20mm aesthetic that takes me back to my teens when I first began in this hobby (although I would never willing return to the sorts of rules we used at that time.. we remain scarred for life by that experience).

In the '90's I painted a large number of 20mm British Paras and Commandos for use with the WRG 2nd Edition WW2 rules, and then for the Rapid Fire rules. The latter were widely used in the group of which I was a part at the time, until being overtaken by other period interests (especially Ancients with the DBM rules etc).

I did rebase enough paras for a SH battalion, or a Crossfire company, 12 ish years ago, but they have been largely unused, and there were still many more figures, all painted with the Denison smock, sitting in a box untouched.

Righto.. I have now based almost all of them, giving a para regiment. I also had quite a few of the support elements for the regiment. So, here is the lot!! There are some elements missing, the m/c SMG element for example. I already have a typical para scenario in mind for a game next week. Watch this space.

The assembled partroop force

These were Britannia miniatures released for the Arnhem anniversary, as I recall. I based them complete with ruined brick wall, because of course every paratrooper goes in to battle with his own bespoke ruined brick wall (ahem)

Recon squadron in jeeps

Regimental command stand

Two Tetrarch tanks, scratch built by an old school mate 50+ years ago, and gifted to me when he abandoned the hobby. Phil was a gifted modeller.

Two batteries of air dropped 75mm pack howitzers, with jeep tows. The jeeps were gifted by friend Gerard (who sadly passed away several years ago, one of the world's wonderful humans who we still we miss)

Two batteries of the airborne 6pdr AT guns

While these won't get a massive amount of use compared with my 6mm collections, expect to see them fighting it out in the future. I look forward to it.

Can you ever have too many trees?

Some time ago I bought some tres form Temu, hoping they would be suitable for use with 15mm figures. They are, although they come without bases.

I bought some galv washers from a hardware store, and based the trees. This is the end result.

The 'foliage' on the trees tends to fall off with handling, so I sprayed the trees with a scenic cement. For the next batch though, I will spray them before I start the basing process. 

I also made a classic 'rookie' error, and miscounted the number of washers I need, so another trip to the hardware store is in order to buy another two dozen washers. 

In case you want to buy some of the trees yourself, here is the product detail:

And.. oh yes, they are indeed sized to work well with 15mm figures.

A medieval camp element for DBA

Latest project off the painting table is a generic 'camp' for the 15mm DBA armies. The tent and well are from the Essex range. I can't recall the origins of the other figures, acquired as they were quite a few years ago (although I think the dog might be from the Irregular range). The barrels were 3D printed form an original file created by Andy. The camp is based on two 40x40mm bases, inspired by Keith's good work.

Additions to the ACW artillery parks

I've gradually been adding additional units ot my 15mm ACW armies (based for Volley and Bayonet). I had prepared two 3000 point lists based around the historical guidelines given in the 'Road to Glory' scenario system, and needed some extra artillery stands. I had to buy some crew, and having painted all of the crew, then matched them with guns. The crew are mostly Essex (with a few from the old FreiKorps range) while the guns are from the Minifigs range. I have quite bafew more guns, but probably won't need them. I would need to buy more crew If I did find the need for the extra stands.

CSA smoothbore artillery

The Union rifled artillery pieces

Barring the way to Moscow ... October 1941

Having introduced Murray to WW2 Spearhead in 6mm, we decided to have a look at playing it in 20mm. The issue with this is that, when retaining the same ground scale (a preference I have for two reasons .. retaining my sanity by not adding yet another layer of memory challenge, and an acknowledgement of the limited table top 'real estate' at my disposal), vehicles and gun stands then take up a disproportionate amount of that tabletop real estate, negatively impacting issues of troop density.

 The visual aesthetic is also an issue as suddenly the tabletop can appear to be 'crammed' with tanks. We are old enough to remember those childhood 'gaming experiences where this was so. These are not the fiondest of memories.

So, despite all of that, I set up a 1941 Russia scenario inspired by the actions of Katukov commanding an independent tank brigade, causing mayhem for the German panzers advancing towards Moscow. Katukov's success lay in a series of effective ambush actions. I decided to simplify things as this was a second introductory game - it would be an encounter game, an advance to contact.  The German objective was to get acroos the narrow river, and take the road bridge, or the ford, to allow the mostly horse drawn logistics, and the follow up infantry, to continue to advance in support. The Russian objective was to hold the river and halt the German advance.

The battlefield, the Germans advancing from the left, the Russians from the right.

The German OOB, a veteran tank battalion (under strength), and two regular infantry battalions, with some air support (sorry the Stuka is a late war model, it's all I had.. use your imagination, go on!!). The German commander also had the advantage of a battalion of off table 105mm artillery guns.

The Russian independent tank brigade, supported by an under strength cavalry regiment, and an additional (green) infantry battalion

The German attack plan

The Russian attack plan

The Russians had the advantage of four manoeuvre units to the Germans' three, albeit that their attached infantry battalion was 'green'. As this was another introductory game, we didn't use the advanced rules for cross attachment.

Initial advances

The German right flank battalion

The Russian left flank advance was undertaken by the cavalry regiment, and the light tank battalion  from the division's assets (yep, for the rivet counters out there, those are T70s when at this early stage they should be T60s.. again, go on, use your imagination.. just this once)

The Russian cavalry unit included the cart mounted MMG.. the Tchanka.. this had been modelled years ago by old friend Gerard who sadly passed a couple of years ago)

The Russian armour.. at this early stage these tank brigades were mixed in composition, a BT7 command, a T34/76A, and two T26s. The BA32 is the regiment command stand. The armour had an AA asset attached too.. the quad Maxim mounted on a GAZ truck.

Our plans ended up being quite symmetrical (mirror images, in fact), so the Russian armour came up directly against the veteran German armour. This did mean that the game was probably less interesting at a tactical level.

The armoured action begins

Murray successfully calls in an air attack, but fails to hit.,., he did this twice (the scenario allowed two air attack missions).. rolling a 1 and then a 2 .. normally a bomb attack like this would hit on a 2, but the defending AA, while failing to destroy the aircraft, did make it more difficult to hit.

The armoured fight heats up

Action on the Russian left also takes off, with the first Russian casualties (I forgot to dismount the cavalry.. blimey!!!)

Under cover of the Russian armour, the infantry pushes forward to also attack the German armour which has advanced without infantry support.

The Russian armour succeeds in destroying one of the sections of Pz IIIs (remember that in Spearhead one model represents from 3 to 5 vehicles, so it's not a 1:1 tank action going on here).

 

You get the idea.. with all of the explaining, coaching, and general wargames yarning, the game only proceeded to 5 turns, whereas it really needed 10-12 to allow a conclusion. In a normal evening's gaming we would achieve that. There was a lot of learning going on, and no doubt there will be more games.

Here's the thing, well multiple things:

1. Spearhead is a game that is outcomes focussed. It rewards combined arms planning. Murray had  his armour unsupported by infantry, and they MAY have then paid the price (we always have to remember that ultimately we play a game with dice, so there are no certainties). I think he was surprised by my decision to push the Russian infantry forward against his armour. Some would argue that is unrealistic.. however as I said, this is an outcomes focus. As my infantry were supported by my own armour, the target priority rules meant the infantry could do what they did. 
2. 20mm isn't the ideal scale at which to game Spearhead, as I stated in the introduction. However both Murray and I cut our teeth on 20mm models and games as youngsters. I have often thought about selling my 20mm collections because they get so little use. However we both (even at our more advanced ages) enjoy the 20mm aesthetic on the tabletop. Perhaps it's nostalgia? Who knows, but I think this is the reason I have been reluctant to dispose of these armies. The secret is just to keep vehicle numbers down. I suspect that on a 6x4 playing surface you wouldn't want any more models than we had, otherwise you end up with that 'wall to wall tanks' problem, an aesthetic neither of us likes.
3. Spearhead is an elegant rules system. Is it perfect? Hell no.. but then no rules system is. Does it create some possible planning, command and control challenges for the player? Hell yes.  But from years gone by we both remember those arguments that ensured about whether the tank commander could pop out of his cupola and fire his pistol, or whether you were shooting at the front or the side, or whether the side armour was 68mm or 71mm. Spearhead eliminates these and offers a coherent challenging game for players. As a personal comment I all too often see rules systems come onto the market that offer all that was bad and little of what is good in this regard.