Expect strange things.....

I'm trying to integrate a photo gallery into the site, so there may be some periods of non-availability or strange page views over the next 48 hours.

It's so cold......

 We had some good timing this week. The snow came down. We also happened to play a game based on a Russian retreat in the snow. Paul had set up his gaming table with snow tiles and coupled with the real cold (myself and Shaun had to wait outside when we arrived with no coats, and then the gaming room needed to have the fire turned on!), everything was very atmospheric. The picture above shows some of the Russians I was trying to retreat southwards. They got pinned and suppressed at the north end of the battlefield before they even made the first bit of woods. The German tank ignores them to chase after the bigger Russian group in the far distance (and the German tank support infantry were following anyway).

The retreat was chaotic, with German units actually getting ahead of some of the Russian units they were pursuing. This made the Russian units scatter, occasionally using the woods to make a stand. Any pinned or suppressed units were left behind to fend for themselves! As the German armour got further south, they did take a casualty, by fire from the 2 Russian artillery and a single tank. However, these also were retreating, and withdrew soon after their single tank kill. At one point, a German tank moved between Russian units only feet away, the tank being on a road sided by dry-stone walls which had infantry sheltering behind. The tank crew were lucky their vehicle was not assaulted.

All in all, it was a fun game. There was real confusion over large ordinance firing as both German and Russian troops looked near identical in snow smocks. We also used a snow rule requiring a dice throw to see if units within range could actually be spotted in the snow. This is how so many Russians held out even in open ground.   

Ethnic uniform variants

I'm currently modifying some German infantry to create Sikh Tiger Legion infantry. This will mainly involve simple head swaps, as most of the uniform remains standard German issue.

However, I'm getting distracted after watching the "Days of Glory" film, with French Algerians wearing ethnic variant uniforms. 

The film is worth a watch and for me it seems to be re-reinforcing lessons learned from recent gaming campaigns where I was trying to enter towns and take buildings. The clip below certainly reminds me:

• sub machine guns at close range are very effective
• hidden in a building, you can draw the enemy in close enough for sub machine guns
• Make sure you take out German MG42 and Panzershreck at the start
• Don't do a group move down the main street!

Fallshirmjager

I have added a few pics of the 50 Fallshirmjager to the Gallery. I painted them up quite swiftly for a the Arnhem campaign we are currently playing (we need a lot of them!), and will probably use them tomorrow night. They have the plain jump smocks as they are going to be used for my early war Seaford project at some point.

The campaign continues...

German transports hit at extreme close range by PIAT teams in the building they were trying to take.

Last night we played a battle in our "Bridge Too Far" campaign. The campaign is working well using the map and campaign board from Flames of War, and then selecting the most decisive battles to play on the tabletop in 28mm.