20mm Soviet tankodesantniki platoon for Chain of Command

I painted these in the spring already but haven't gotten around to taking photos of them. The tank rider platoon is a nice, small project for chain of command and especially in 20mm as there are just a few figures to paint. They can't field three tanks in Chain of Command obviously but the plastic soldier company box includes three and there are even turret variants for each so I decided to paint them all for completeness.

As for playing them, the tank rider platoon is a risky pick in CoC. Up close, they have lots of firepower because of all those SMG's, but they can't shoot anything at a distance (especially if they lack the support points for armored support in the scenario). Their limited numbers also mean that they can't really take a punch so you need to handle them carefully.

I had a hard time finding a good shade for the uniforms. I wanted green so that was no mistake, I just couldn't get the shade to look like the pictures. Well, that's the kind of cloth that was produced when these guys were issued their uniforms and there was plenty of variation!

The plastic soldier company T-34 box has complete variant turrets so you can change between a couple of versions which is really nice! Some trouble getting the tone right with these as well.

I still need to do a couple of low-tier supports for these and later paint a bunch of riflemen so I can field a rifle platoon as well.

More reinforcements for my Germans / SHQ miniatures vs. PSC size comparison

Getting some of the support options for early war Germans can be a bit tricky in 20mm. I want to be able to game Barbarossa in Chain of Command so I need at least the small 50mm mortar and preferably the Panzerbüchse 39 AT rifle. My Germans are mostly Plastic Soldier Company, who don't stock what I need, but my friend tipped me off on SHQ miniatures. Their site is antique and they don't have photos of everything but delivery was fast and shipping costs reasonable. Oddly enough the figure bags were labeled "WARNING: these pieces contain lead". I though we're not supposed to have actual lead in our lead pile anymore in the EU? I'm not complaining though, a bit of the ol' Pb makes the figures more durable as they will bend rather than break, and painting and varnishing them will seal the metal inside a protective layer anyway.

Panzerbüchse

An engineer team with a flamethrower. A scary weapon in  CoC!

The 5cm Granatwerfer is a standard support weapon in early war platoons.

The models are nicely detailed (especially after painting up those horrid Strelets Finns!) and fun to paint. But will they blend in with Plastic Soldier Company 20mm´s?

The answer is.. not perfectly. The PSC models are slightly taller and plenty bulkier. I think they work in a pinch however, and blend in when looked at from a "wargaming distance". It'll help not to mix them within units also.

I definitely like the models and anyone looking at getting an all metal 20mm German force should give these a look. I have some more stuff from them in The Pile(tm) but didn't paint everything straight away.

Strelets-R 1/72 Finnish army 1944: Summer uniformed Finns for your Continuation War project.

I noticed Strelets made a box of plastic 1944 Finns last year so naturally I had to get a box to see what they were like. The advance reports were not promising so I didn't expect too much. If nothing else, they would be cheap as a box of 52 figures costs less than 10 euros.

Strelets box art is quite unique :)

The box doesn't take much space and contains four of these sprues:

Each sprue has an officer with a pistol, two riflemen with panzerfausts, a Light Machinegun, three SMG's and six vanilla riflemen. You should get two boxes to field a full rifle platoon as there are too many SMG's in the mix in relation to the riflemen.

The plastic is soft and the casting is bad. It is as expected. I saw the master models from the Strelets site and they're not that bad, actually. The molds and the plastic clearly dont do the figures any favours. The worst offender is the LMG, all the sprues have the MG bent like this:

That machinegun has been fired A LOT!

The thing is, if you want to do summer uniformed Finns in 1/72, and my gaming group does as there are already suitable soviets painted up in that scale, there are pretty much just two options. These ones or the ones made by CP Models, and they're not that handsome either. If you know others, let me know. I think I'll have to mix the two to get a force I can game with. Good thing vehicles and guns are pretty much German hardware or stuff captured from the Soviets.

Here's a rifle squad painted up. I didn't spend too much effort on them as they're pretty mushy where it comes to detail:

In the end I'd say they look ok for wargaming. They look appropriate from a wargaming distance and shouldn't raise any eyebrows. Unless you take a closer look:

derp.

K-k-kill me!

Well, at least they paint up quickly. I'll aim for a platoon sized force with some supports so I can game some fighting by my countrymen in the Continuation War.

Chain of Command Market Garden campaign game 3

For the third game in the Chain of Command Market Garden  campaign I introduce some new terrain I've been working on. The roads on this table have been made by applying a acrylic caulk/paint/sand mixture on the backside of some brown wax cloth. The cloth has been cut to shape once dry. I think it worked out pretty good, although there's a bit of warping going on at the ends of the pieces. I wonder if I should store them compressed or glue bits of wire to the ends to keep them flat? What about the colour, do you think I should give it a drybrush?

Anyway, here's the game, commentary embedded on the pictures as usual:

In a nutshell, a big firefight developed on the open area of the map. The Germans had the upper hand at first but the brits rebounded (perhaps aided by us playing the shock reducing rules wrong). The British made a flanking manoeuver forcing the Germans to deploy a portion of their force in opposition, but this fight never got off the ground as the German force morale disintegrated.

A third loss for the Germans but this was the toughest game yet. Now the British started to take an appreciable amount of casualties as well, and not a moment too soon! The next game will be the last in the campaign.

Playing a Green force versus an elite force is definitely tough. The difference in firepower is great and only by a significant terrain advantage (troops in buildings versus troops in woods in a firefight) was I able to stall what seemed inevitable again. The Green force gets loads of points for support options to make up for the difference but the difference in Force morale means that the Green force will still be easy to rout in comparison and even with plenty of support choices the lower amount of activation dice means it is more difficult to take advantage of the greater numbers.

For casual Chain of Command play I recommend sticking to a maximum of one "level" of grade difference. Greens versus regulars or regulars versus elites.

Reinforcements for my 20mm WW2 Germans

Chain of Command is played using a typical infantry platoon plus a variety of support options to give the force some color. I haven't had many support options yet and I've been borrowing my opponent's Germans so far. This latest batch remedies that and gives my Heer rifle platoon some much needed help.

A radio operator to act as a forward observer, a panzerschreck for those late war engagements and a sniper which is quite handy in CoC.

Two MG34's with a drum magazine and a tripod mount. HMG's to add firepower to my force. Note that some of these weapon teams require additional riflemen, which I need to do more of if I field a lot of these at once.

A medical orderly and some walking wounded.

A Pak36 to keep enemy vehicles worried.

A Panzer IV, which starts to be a bit heavy for Chain of Command, but might see the field if there's an abundance of support points in a scenario.

I found a Dragon models halftrack in the bargain bin of a local toy store and grabbed it. In CoC it will be more useful as a machine gun nest than a transport but you never know.

Building the halftrack took quite a while as Dragon models are really detailed and valued by military modelers. Even the inside compartment was fully detailed even though it is really hard to see inside once the model is complete.

So there you have it, more meat in the grinder.

Chain of Command Market Garden campaign game 2

We continued our Market Garden mini-campaign from WSS 74. In our previous game, the British paratroopers and the green SS recruits clashed for the first time. The Germans were sent running, suffering two permanent casualties and two miss-next-games for the campaign. The British managed to shrug off all their losses.

This game takes place shortly after the last encounter. The SS have regrouped and set up a more substantial defence near the road to Arnhem. This time around they have some light entrenchments and a halftrack in support. How will the paratroopers fare now?

Commentary is embedded in the images, as usual

 

 

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So, another clear defeat for the Germans. This time they suffered 6 permanent casualties and 3 miss-next-games, as well as losing one NCO as captured. The paras suffered two permanent losses and one miss-next-game. I really have to think about how I will play the Germans next time. They have the numbers and ample support compared to the Brits, but are doomed to lose in a long range exchange of fire. The grade difference between the forces means that it's easy for the British to hit the Germans who don't know how to keep their heads down yet, whereas the Germans struggle to hit the elite British hiding in terrain. The Germans also suffer from poor force morale, which means they will break long before their numbers suffer heavily. I find it prudent to retreat my force when I start to be penalised on chain of command dice, as I cannot take advantage of my numbers at that point anymore.

The campaign system of Chain of Command (the "at the sharp end" -expansion) also includes the success of the platoon commander by tracking the opinion of the CO and the men in relation to the platoon commander. At this point, the morale of the Germans has not yet suffered nor the opinion of the CO soured, but the British player will receive additional support next game and the men have an even higher morale rating. I'll be in for a tough challenge, that's for sure!

Chain of Command mini-campaign set during Market Garden

I got a game of Chain of Command in and decided with my opponent that we would start playing a four game mini-campaign I found in Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy #74. Excellent magazine by the way, I traded my Wargames Illustrated sub for it and couldn't be more pleased! Amyway, the campaign pits a British paratrooper platoon against a green SS platoon during Operation Market Garden. It gives us a reason to try out At the Sharp End, the campaign supplement for Chain of Command. We rolled out our own personal commanders and all.

The German platoon

The British paras (part played by BEF, I think)

The first scenario was  a recon mission with the platoons bumping into each other along a Dutch highway. Commentary in the pictures.

A defeat for my Germans, but only a minor one. The Brits ended up surviving without a single casualty, the Germans lost one man permanently and a couple of miss-next-games. This is good as crippling the platoons right at he start of the campaign would be quite boring.

I'll tell you more about the campaign system and such after we do our second game in the near future. Suffice to say now, Chain of Command is really growing on me and I think it provides the best "feel" of commanding a platoon of troops I've yet experienced. The fact that it's a campaign also provides an additional layer of realism as neither player can sacrifice too many troops just to win one scenario.