Doc's 'Art' of War

ANZACs - the Light Horse

2012-02-13T21:33:00.000+11:00

A quick check of the blog stats showed me the 70,000 hits milestone coming up, so I thought I'd make a quick post on some figures I have recently worked on - made some time ago but needing a retouch and some fixing after recent breakage. They depict the famous Australian Light Horse cavalry that served in the Middle East - Palestine - and on Gallipoli (as infantry) in WW1. I have a personal connection with these as several of my ancestors were Light Horsemen who took part in the legendary charge at Beersheba - one of the last great (and successful) cavalry charges in history.

One ancestor was with the Tasmanian 3rd Light Horse who secured the hills next to Beersheba, the other managed to get into Turkish Headquarters where they disarmed the circuit charges set to demolish the wells - the only substantial water for several hundred miles. The maps he helped himself to are still part of the Australian War Memorial collection - I remember a few used to be in the hand of the Turkish officer model that used to be on display. But another I discovered years later in an old army trunk and now takes pride of place in my father's study after I restored, mounted and framed it for him.

The figure is mounted on a wooden base with one of my ancestor's original 'Rising Sun' Australian slouched hat badges and depicts one of the 12th LH regt., composed mainly of Queenslanders and Tasmanians.

I started the flesh off with the usual pale tones but highlighted and used repeated washes to get that sunburned look. The horse was the normal coloration of one of the 'Walers' - beautiful horses of legendary toughness, intelligence and endurance (bred mainly in New South Wales - hence the name) of at least 16 hands or more - big men on big horses!

They were armed with the famed Lee Enfield 303 and not armed with swords (as they were mounted infantry) charged home against the Turk entrenchments (with their machineguns and covering artillery) with their 18 inch bayonets!

The second figure is also an ANZAC (Australia New Zealand Army Corps) - one of the Tasmanian units on Gallipoli. Both figures are of Australian manufacture but I cannot recall the maker. Not a bad sculpt though - I just wish our War Memorial sold them rather than a lot of the foreign crap (and totally unrelated models etc) that they do sell!!! I shouldn't grumble though - they kind of make up for it with an excellent bookshop covering nearly every aspect of Australian military history.

Well, that's it for now. I've just counted up all the figures I've got scheduled for painting in 2012 - nearly 500 of 'em - I must be crazy! And that's without doing any of my ACW Confederate army or my WWII German paras and vehicles. They may have to wait until I retire next year! Still, just about finished the Turkos for Doug before I make a start on my Wurttemburgers. Because the latter only come in a few poses I've had to do some extensive conversion work to make a standard bearer and a jaeger musician for the light infantry command stand. But all that is to come - when I have time to blog!

Also a very BIG thank you to all my fellow bloggers who have visited and supported my humble blog, provide me with a constant source of inspiration and encourage me to continue my quirky contribution to blogdom!

Cheers,

Doc

The schedule for 2012 and the Alamo at Cancon

2012-01-31T00:36:00.001+11:00

Had no sooner finished my FPW Prussians and French then discovered I require more of 'em! (and who'd a thought THAT right?!?) Well, I've committed to doing a Black Powder FPW demo at the next Cancon (in 2013) as both myself and mate Doug will have enough 28mm figures between us to do a corps-sized encounter (thinking Froeschwiller or Spicheren) BUT we've gotta paint 'em first! And there's the rub - I get more Prussians and their allies by painting more figures for Doug's French. Just finishing yet more Turkos (we will have no less than five battalions of them!) - this time the Foundry figures. I'll post the results when I'm done. Then I'll have to get stuck into a brigade's worth of Wurttemburgers I've acquired for painting the Turkos. Got some beautiful Pomeranian Hussars too that someone else has done a brilliant job on (just had to re-base and touch them up a bit) - so I'll post shots of those too.

As promised last post - a pic of my finished French Second Empire Army

In the meantime I started (but have not finished) a small Napoleonic Regiment des Dromadaires (the French Camel Corps) unit from the1798-1800 Egyptian campaign (one of my favourite Napoleonic periods). They're about 2/3rds done and I'll post shots of those too when I finish the basing. Plenty to look forward too if Doc's Project of Works gets underway!

Other Napoleonic goodness in that pipeline will include Berg Lancers (Perry's of course), a battalion of Front Rank German Austrians (in helmets) and three battalions of Victrix Austrian Landwehr which I think I'll do as 6th & 4th Vienna Volunteers (the heroes of Ebelsberg in the 1809 campaign). The latter I've just constructed using a little conversion work too (God bless the invention of plastic figures!) AND I'm awaiting my order of a battalion of the new Perry's Hungarian Grenadiers - phew!!! Lots of Napoleonic goodness to come in 2012! Other projects also rumbling along in the background are my WWII German Fallschirmjaeger company (with armour support!) and my ACW Confederate army - so I'll probably visit them from time to time this year too.

The other thing worth reporting on was Cancon 2011. For those who don't know, Cancon or the Canberra Gaming Convention is Australia's premier gaming fest held every year on our national day weekend/holiday. Its the largest of its kind in the southern hemisphere with around 10,000 or so attending over the three days. Maybe because the weather was a bit kinder this year (perversely its usually held in the scorching height of the Canberra summer!) it appeared to be less chaotic - although there were good numbers attending it wasn't as packed as usual. But apart from the usual comps there were only one or two really good (as in visually attractive) demo games this year. The best of them by far in my opinion was the Alamo game organised and run by my mate Greg (who's spectacular Kokoda photos have graced this blog). Unfortunately I didn't get back from the coast in time (again!) to participate but managed to catch some of the early action on Day 1 at Cancon. To Greg's credit all the players I saw participating were young'uns! The attractive demo caught the attention of a lot of the younger Cancon attendees and they were really enjoying it either commanding Santa Ana's Mexican hordes or Travis' Texans!

As shown above, Greg's table was simple but dramatic with the beautifully detailed Alamo fort. The numbers of protagonists were proportionally correct - you really notice just how few defenders there were and the huge area, particularly the outer walls, that they had to defend against thousands of Mexican troops.

Yes folks, your eyes do not deceive you - that attractive young lady commanded the Texans defending the (main) southern gate - the Texans are withdrawing to the inner defences so as not to get caught on the outer walls in the Mexican assault - after delivering some punishing fire of course! The two Mexican commanders are looking at the main citadel and thinking 'Oi Carumba' - they've still gotta get into it after crossing that wide open inner courtyard!

The Mexicans assault the southern gate - the Texan commander kept her men manning the walls until the last possible moment to inflict maximum damage on the hordes of attackers. Luckily for the Texans, the Mexicans are lousy shots and rely on massed volleys at close range - sheer firepower - to inflict any real casualties (which they did!)

Arriba mi amigos - keel the Texan dogs! more Mexicans scale the outer walls.

Davey and his mates give the Mexicans a hot time before skeedadlin'

back to the Citadel - yur cutting it mighty fine partner!

Col Travis (top RH side) tellin' those boys to quit being such durned fools - an get offa that wall! The Texans had to fire until the last moment then cross the wide open inner courtyard, hopefully keeping out of Mexican musket range. The detail on the Alamo fort was fantastic. Jim Bowie is somewhere in there with two very large pieces of cutlery just waiting for those Mexicans to show up!

About one third(?) to half of the Mexican force patiently waiting for the next assault on the Alamo! Even the cavernous main hall at Cancon can't diminish just how many damned Mexicans there are!

There were also a number of other shots I got of the H&M comp that shows some of the beautiful figures of Doug, George and the boys as well as a Flames of War version of Stalingrad with some amazing wrecked buildings but its late and I'll have to sort them out for the next posting.

Ye Gods I've got a lot of figures to paint.

Cheers,

Doc

Franco-Prussian War French army finished

2012-01-10T15:17:00.000+11:00

Back from my little break down the coast where (much to my wife's disgust) I took the last of my French line down with my little painting 'traveling kit'. I think it ground her gears simply because she was the one who suggested the 'traveling kit' - even supplying an old metal cosmetics case for the purpose. Perhaps she thought I wouldn't take her seriously (one should ALWAYS take one's Minister of War and Finance seriously!) LOL - I thought it was a great idea and it worked perfectly!

All the figures for the 48th are Castaways save for the drummer (Kitney&Co - with a different head) and the bearer, a Foundry figure.

The flag is my own creation.

In the early hours after my walk along the beach I'd relaxed with a cup of tea and a paintbrush - finishing the 2nd Battalion of the 48th Regiment and a mounted Brigadier. All I had to do when I got home was a few touch-ups and the basing.

Mon General from ze back! The lace on the sleaves was gold to denote rank whereas the rest was commonly black.

While doing the basing for the 48th also made up my French cavalry commander and his Guard Lancer escort (good use for an extra figure too) - again Foundry figures from their wonderful FPW range.

The 48th and the 36th (three battions of each) made up the Line brigades of the 3rd Division, along with the 2nd Zouaves and the 2nd Tirailleurs Algeriens (Turkos) - uniform-wise, a very colourful division.

1st and 2nd Battalions, 48th Line Regiment.

Just doing a few prone markers (lying down shooting figures) and that'll be it for now. Still some 60 odd foot to paint if I've a mind too but that'll do for the time being, besides which my mate Doug has found me a brigades-worth of Wurttemburgers that'll need doing.

Oui Mon General - zat ees a truckload of painting!

The price for that and a regiment of Pomeranian hussars will be painting up another brigade for him - more Turkos! Between us we'll be able to field pretty much all of MacMahon's 1st Corps - at least that's the plan - so we can do a Black Powder demo of Spicheren or Froschwiller at the next con.

A full Corp of figures - tell 'im e's dreamin' Pierre!

Well, that's about it for now. Might photo the full French army and post it but now I must away to finish required domestic chores from a very, very long list thoughtfully provided by the Minister (She Who Must Be Obeyed) who will expecte them done by the time she gets home. Discovery of extra blogging being commited without said tasks completed may result in a summary execution.

Cheers,
Doc (the foolhardy)

Spahi - French North African cavalry

2011-12-28T22:06:00.001+11:00

Well, I've survived another Christmas excessive feasting and drinking with family and relatives and also finally managed to finish that regiment of North African (Algerian) French cavalry, the Spahis. The Spahis gained fame in the second (Republican) phase of the Franco-Prussian War after the disasters of Sedan and Metz, in which most of the French cavalry were destroyed in fruitless suicidal charges trying to break the Prussian encirclement. Apart from a few units who escaped (such as a regiment of the Chasseurs d'Afrique), the surviving French cavalry went into captivity.

North African Spahi trooper and French officer circa 1870.

Although the Spahi were colonial cavalry I read somewhere they not allowed by law to serve in France, but such was the desperation of the French Republican government that they were shipped over from French Algeria. In the FPW they quickly gained a reputation for their fearlessness and although not exactly inconspicuous in their colourful Arab robe uniform, were superb horsemen (superbly mounted on Arabian horses), proving to be outstanding as light horse cavalry. Together with the surviving Chasseurs d'Afrique, they were more than a match for the otherwise excellent Prussian light cavalry. Finally used in a role more suited for modern warfare (ironically the traditional role of light cavalry) and rifle armed, they caused the Prussians a real headache, particularly marauding behind the lines and ambushing communications. Superb swordsmen, man for man they were also a ready match in close combat.

I started things off as usual, mounting them up on Paddlepop sticks and base-coating before laying down the base colours.

Painting just about finished, based up and ready for a good flocking!

Spahi Command

I'm not sure what make the Spahi figures are (but the horses look very similar to Australian manufacturer Castaway Arts who also do native Arabs and FPW figures) but fortunately I had a spare Foundry mounted French officer to make up a full regiment. I shaved the figure's thigh-high boots off and used filler to create the native baggy trousers favoured by the Spahi's French officers. For the bugler it was just a simple hand transplant from sword to bugle (supplied by a Perry's French Hussar!) to finish the command stand.

The only other bit of remodeling was the substitute of a rifle for a sword for one of the Spahis (the one holding it aloft). The biggest challenge was painting the Arabian horses - again perhaps licence but I've made them all grays as all the historical pics I've seen have the Spahis mounted on grays.

Spahi NCO

One of the things I liked about the uniform is the flowing robes and in particular the dark red hooded cape they wore over the burnoose. It had a white lining and I have also seen it depicted as white or off-white. This would have been particularly useful in winter as often mounted on Arabian grays, I'd imagine they would have been quite hard to spot. No covering up those cornflower blue baggy pantaloons though!

They look just as colourful from the back!

The Spahis were formed in the early 1840s and the native-style uniform remained virtually unchanged from the 1860s until the 1st World War.

Spahis En Avant!

Well, that's the last of the colourful French cavalry but I've still got some French line battalions to finish so I've got matched sides for wargaming (approx. a division of infantry each with attached cav brigade). But I'm tiring of the FPW after painting some many of them over the last few months and apart from (hopefully) a game or two over the break, the next project I'm thinking of attempting is (1st Empire) French Eclaireurs of the Guard (Napoleon's answer to the cossacks!) from various Perry's figures. It should be possible with all the various bits you get in their French cavalry boxes and I have some lances, so we'll see.

Merry Christmas to one and all as this will be my last post for 2011! I'm taking a break down the coast for a week or so before coming back to resume some domestic duties (a list of 'to-dos' as long as your arm). Click on the pics for enlargement and please feel free to leave a comment if you want.

Cheers,

Doc

Les Turkos Algeriens - fini!

2011-12-12T16:05:00.001+11:00

After my little foray back into Napoleonics (my first love in collecting/gaming I admit) it was back to finishing the FPW French. I have several battalions of infantry to do and a regiment of Spahi (Algerian native cavalry). I'm itching to get at the latter but had to finish my second Turkos battalion.

All Askari figures save the Bearer - he's a Castaway Arts - and the Eagle Standard he's holding is a mish-mash of Foundry bits!

The Askari Miniatures Turkos are really nice figures, although the very long rifles and bayonets are rather thin - I've lost the odd bayonet or two along the way (before purchase). The figures didn't come with a Standard Bearer so I borrowed one from my Castaway Arts FPW French, then chopped up some Foundry flags to create the Eagle without the full flag, just the ribbon which was frequently carried into action. Maybe a bit of licence here but I think it looks OK for the command stand.

I particularly like the officer figure, who I have tried to paint as more Algerian than French

The officers were usually French but there were some native North Africans (Arab or mixed-race) officers so I've made our commander more of a native Algerian with one of those attractive Muslim beards sans moustache - what a look! [Note to self for next 'Movember': grow a mo or grow a beard WITH a mo but never, ever grow a beard without the mo!]

The other figure I particularly liked was the very beardy NCO (what a hairy lot they were in those days!). Note also I've given them their full dress blue pantaloons - hey, they're the 1st battalion - they gotta look snappy! The second battalion have the bleached linen baggy pants to differentiate between 'em.

!st & 2nd Battalions, 1st Regiment Turkos Algeriens (part of McMahon's 2nd Division)

Some of these guys carry those remarkable packs that seem to have everything but the kitchen sink in them. I read somewhere they actually were given permission to take them off before attacking, which I'm sure would have been a bit of a relief for the Turko soldats. You can see what they packed in the next photo - very tiring lugging that lot around I'm sure!

2nd Bttn command - probably miffed at one of those damned Arab types being given command of the 1st battalion,

so I've given him a bit more braid on his uniform and cap to compensate.

Well that completes my French 'exotics' - the infantry anyway - they were brigaded with a Zouave regiment and a line infantry regiment. Just one battalion of line to finish the brigade. Then I'll do the cavalry - even more colourful - but I haven't been in the rudest of health. A dreaded lurgy that keeps coming back, so between that and work going crazy, I'll have to leave off most of my painting until after Christmas.

I'm unlikely to post again before Christmas so for those who regularly visit my little blog and particularly to those of you kind enough to take the time and leave a comment, thanks for taking an interest in Docs' 'Art of War' for another year.

Season's greetings to all and best wishes for the New Year to you and yours from Doc.

French Napoleonic Artillery Limbers

2011-11-20T22:47:00.003+11:00

I know many of you are Napoleonic enthusiasts - as am I - despite my eclectic postings on just about everything else lately!

I recently obtained a couple of beautiful Front Rank French artillery limbers for a song (and a few more $!) from my mate Dean at Olympian (see also logo left side of this blog). Quite a bargain considering how good they are. They were a bit banged about and were just the limbers - no artillery pieces attached.

After a few repairs and some minor repainting and a bit of touching up, I made up two 8 pdr artillery pieces to go with them and finished them off. The following (below) is the Line Horse Artillery limber - my favourite of the two.

French Line Horse Artillery - after 1807? - the rider at the front has a new plume!

No, second thoughts the Guard (Foot) Artillery limber is my fave, no wait... Actually they are both beautifully done.

French Guard Artillery limber

Don't know how I'll use them on the table in a Black Powder game but they'll make great eye-candy anyway.

While I'm at it I'd just like to say a big thank you to my Irish mate Angry Lurker for his generous donation to the Movember cause (my previous post) - the only one so far - so I'd like to again appeal to my fellow bloggers to donate to the very good cause of men's health. The link takes you to the Movember site and my son's account on it. Any donation (click under the Mo symbol, left hand side) will generate a receipt for tax purposes. Last shameless plug - I promise!

Well, that's it for now - still sorting out computer problems with my old PC but have another battalion of FPW French line and Turkos about half done. Also got a regiment of Spahi - French colonial cavalry used in the Republican phase of the conflict - that will make a very colourful addition when I paint them up.

And another thank you to BRB for pointing out my brain-fart calling them all caissons rather than limbers - now corrected - cheers mate - what can I say - its been a long day!!

Cheers,
Doc

'Movember' - a bloody good cause

2011-11-18T17:58:00.003+11:00

As the many visitors to this blog may or may not know, I usually refrain from naked appeals for money, and particularly on behalf of others, but on this occasion I'll throw caution to the wind.

You see my eldest is on a quest.

Its a very noble quest.

Its a quest to grow a mo.

He's part of 'Movember' and is trying mightily to grow a mo like his old man once had - see the above pic (not really)

So, think of a skinny Lebanese version of Burt Reynolds with a Zapata and you'll get the picture.

He will definitely NOT look like this showoff.

So, like Kitchener says, your country needs YOU - not to grow a 'tache like him - but to donate to those who are trying to emulate famous mos through the ages.

You see its for a very good cause - research into men's prostate cancer - which kills far, far too many of us middle aged bewhiskered chaps every year.

The figures are as bad as those are for breast cancer in women or even worse because with us it frequently goes unreported and thus undiscovered until its too late (if you're aged 40 or over and haven't done so yet, go and have your prostate examination NOW!)

Follow the link below and donate (click on the 'Donate to me' button on the left hand side) to a very worthy cause for us blokes:

http://mobro.co/ruggedgentleman88

It would do a young lad's confidence no end of good if he could see that his scraggly rat-like whiskery sprouting will eventually flourish into a luxuriant mustache of the sort sported by famous generals and film stars, encouraged by generous (tax deductible) donations from bloggers all over the world!

Donate and no doubt he'll end up just like a chip off the old block!

Cheers,
Doc

More FPW French - Guard Bde and a unit of Turkos completed

2011-11-02T17:57:00.002+11:00

I have been a very poor blogger of late - posts few and far between - but I have not been completely idle as I've managed to complete some more French FPW (2nd Empire) figures.

This time its infantry. To finish my FPW project (if 'finish' is the appropriate term) I needed to complete the same number of French infantry units to match the Prussians - roughly three brigades of infantry, one of cavalry and two artillery batteries. For the French I only had five battalions of infantry (give or take) completed. With various swaps and deals I acquired nearly a full regiment's worth (enough for two battalions of 18 figures each) of Guard Grenadiers. This is the second lot of Grenadiers I have acquired as in a moment of madness some years ago I sold the first lot - beautiful Foundry figures they were too (there are some pics in my earliest FPW posts).

Hairy men in bearskin 'ats - Les Grognards of the 2nd Empire

Dunno who made the current lot but they're not bad figures if a trifle lacking in variety for poses - all are marching with shouldered arms - just the heads differ. Still, musn't grumble as these Grognards have come up a treat once painted and based.

Only one thing different with the painting of this lot - as my own eyesight is failing with age, I didn't do the eyeballs on 'em! Quel Horreur! What is the world coming too? Standards are certainly slipping!

Nonetheless I'm quite happy with the command stand - even eyeball-less they still look OK. In addition to the Grenadiers of course are the Guard Voltigeurs, with another two battalions of them completing the rather small Guard Brigade. These are all Foundry figures I painted some time ago, when my eyeballs were good enough to enable me to paint eyeballs!

Some of the officer figures are Maximillian Adventure French (how they got around in the Mexican heat with that clobber on I'll never know!) - very nice Foundry range that gave a nice bit of variety to the FPW French whose uniform was almost identical.

Last but certainly not least are my sky-blue coated Turkos Algeriens - French North African colonial troops that won respect of the Germans in the war's early encounters. McMahon had a regiment of them in his 2nd Division brigaded with Zouaves and a very colourful lot they were too! For the moment I'm going to brigade them with the Guard to make up the numbers and give the brigade some enhanced skirmish capability.

I had to experiment a bit with the skin-tone for the Algerians which in real life can range from swarthy European to Negroid. A few brown washes over GW Dark Flesh got the result I was after. Followed with a weak black ink wash to pick out the details. Can't remember who made the figures but the officer is Foundry - and they all fit in nicely with the other odds 'n sods of the Guards Bde.

Finally, the Guard Brigade, with mounted commander in front - Avant mes Amis!

I have three 18-figure battalions of line to finish to complete the army - but not even half-way through them at the moment. I'll post the results when I finish the French army - then perhaps a game or two!

Between the last post and this 'Doc's Art of War' has ticked over 60,000 hits which is a bit of a blogging milestone I'm led to believe. Many thanks to all my fellow bloggers who take the time to visit my humble blog and particularly those who leave comment, its much appreciated.

Cheers,

Doc

More FPW painted - the French cavalry

2011-10-14T12:51:00.000+11:00

While between Kokoda games I decided to get stuck into my Franco-Prussian Wars figures and now having finished the Prussians, paint up the French. I'd done about half the cavalry but with various figure swaps and new acquisitions, had a small brigade's worth (and command) to do.

I used the Alphonse Neuville painting of a Dragoon of the period as a reference - great artwork I reckon!

The figures are mostly early Foundry and represent a Dragoon regiment, a small Cuirassier unit and a mounted command (general & escort). Finished they represent two small cavalry brigades - one light, one heavy.

French Line Dragoons regt. - early Foundry figures - small but good!

The French trot out to meet the enemy in the afternoon light - en avant mes Amie!

Of the Dragoons the command figures are particularly well-sculpted. Dunno who did these for Foundry although the Perry's did do a lot of their FPW range I believe - the officer in particular is a classic if he's one of theirs or not.

The trumpeter is not too shabby either, as French trumpeter's go!

The other mounted command is of mixed origin - the Dragoon escort is Foundry but the mounted general (who looks to be a mounted figure of French FPW General McMahon) isn't. Slightly larger than the other Foundry figures at 28mm? - the early Foundry are closer to true 25mm. Mightn't be appropriate but he'll do for my cav bde general.

Pardon Mon General - but you appear a little out of focus zis morning!

The others finished painting and basing are the Cuirassier of which I managed to obtain 8 figures (but alas, no command). They are smallish (true 25s) early Foundry that come with separate sword arms in resting or charging poses. Not the greatest figures in my opinion but hey, they're cuirassier - so what's not to like?

We are small but we are MIGHTY - chaaaarge!

Followers of this blog may have noticed a certain trend in the posts. I admit to a fairly eclectic mix of historical periods and even the very odd bit of fantasy BUT if there's one lot that are truly over-represented here it'd be French cavalry. Well, they are pretty boys ain't they? Second Empire nearly as nice to look at as the First. One'd be forgiven for thinking my Napoleonic armies consist mainly of French and mainly of cavalry. They aren't and they don't but somehow there are still heaps of cavalry to paint up - Perry plastics and metal - which I will have to have another serious go at soon.

One thing that happens when collecting so many figures is that there's always one or two left over that you don't know what to do with. The FPW French cav are no exception as I ended up with a spare dismounted dragoon (could do with a few more of those - still on the hunt!) and a late (Republic period FPW) Chasseur d'Afrique - who was going to be my general's escort but is now officially the scout! Nice looking figure so I felt obliged to paint 'im!

But my FPW French cavalry are finally finished - I now have all the cav, artillery and commands done and seven battalions of infantry also finished - with another seven to go!

The complete cav: Chasseurs d'Afrique in front with Guard Lancers behind, the Heavy's (Dragoon & Cuirassier) in back and cav command in between.

Just finishing a battalion of Turkos (Algeriens mon amie) to go with the Zouaves to make up one infantry brigade. The plan is to have another line brigade (x 4 bttns @18 figs each) and one of Guard, of which half the figures are now done. Once that is completed I will have finished the biggest wargaming projects I've ever taken on - two complete and complimentary FPW armies. Now just to find a decent rule set to game them with...

Cheers,

Doc

Battle at Isurava - 1st action

2011-10-11T07:54:00.000+11:00

Finally after much waiting we had the eagerly anticipated first full-on action between the (so far) victorious Japanese and the hard-pressed and outnumbered Allies. And closely following history, a bloody encounter it was. The Japanese launched a full-blooded assault across the cleared area opposite Isurava creek. At 0500 hrs in the morning with the usual light drizzle and mist, it was pitch black and visibility for both Japs and defenders negligible. The cleared area opposite the Allied positions was set up with trip wires and attached HMGs cover set overlapping lanes of fire. One major quibble I had was the lack of ANY illumination for the defenders - they carried no star shells in the heavy mortar support (historically correct) only HE and smoke - but it appeared there were no flares either which was a ridiculous oversight in my opinion. This severely hampered the vastly outnumbered defenders who for the most part simply could not acquire the masses of Japanese storming across the cleared area in front of their positions. This in turn had dire consequences for the Allies.

The Japs attack across the cleared area - the lead unit, caught by our HMGs has just stalled in front of the Allied position.

Those they could acquire, they opened up on and started to inflict heavy casualties almost immediately. But it was not long before the first of many disasters struck the Allies. While the trip-wires worked, the HMGs had barely got into action before being spotted by the Japs and shot to pieces or mortared into oblivion.

Something's hit the trip-wire: an Aussie Vickers HMG opens up on the invisable enemy

The clearing itself, although littered with fallen trees, did not pose any obstacle for the fast-moving Japs who crossed it in one move and were soon amongst the Allied positions. If you didn't spot the Japs in the open - and I rolled excruciatingly poorly in trying to do this for most of the game - they were on top of you in the next turn. If by some miracle you did spot, if you did not wipe them out with your shooting (difficult to achieve with the numerically larger Jap units) they inevitably failed their Gut Check and BANZAIIIEEE!!! - right at you for a bit of hand-to-hand. You had to rely on the normally useless snap-shooting (hit on a 1 with a D6) which was rarely effective enough to even up the numbers in the following hand-to-hand.

What the Mgunners were shooting at: the Japs successfully laid smoke down to cover their left flank from the enfilading fire of the other HMG.

The other problem for the Allies was the sheer numbers - the two nine-man sections initially engaged were faced with no less than eight sections of Japs (the Jap sections nearly twice the number in size of the Allied equivalent). If you managed to spot AND successfully shoot one section down, the other you didn't manage to acquire either spotted and shot or charged into you.

An example of the confused fighting - the Japs on the right got in amongst us and were wiped out but those on the left passed right over our positions - and in the dark neither managed to spot the other for five turns!

Nonetheless the Aussie section of the 2/14th (regular AIF veterans and historically magnificent soldiers) gave good account of themselves in the confused fighting, wiping out the first unit of Japs in their lines for the loss of only three men. But they were soon faced with a second, then a third group of Japs and their firing made it easier for the Japs to spot them and bring their superior fire-power to bear on the Allied positions. The inevitable result was that the Japs started to overrun us.

As the Allied losses started to mount up, a large gap appeared in the Allied position. All of one section and most of another wiped out (basically leaving the platoon HQ section and by some miracle our forward observers), the Japs soon poured into the hole and attacked our second line of trenches.

The second wave of Japs pour into the Aussie position - notice they successfully laid more smoke to cover their right flank and mask it from one of the two surviving Allied HMGs.

At this point things were looking decidedly grim for the Allies - there was no stopping the Jap assault. Nonetheless there was some success for the beleaguered Allies and I'm happy to report that the 2/14th company sniper managed to pot a Jap officer in their command unit. That's in the dark against a fast-moving target - not a bad effort at all! We also had better luck on our left under Allied 2/14 commander Michael who rolled much better on spotting and more consistently on shooting - cutting up several sections of Japs and preventing the entire Allied position from collapsing under the sustained Jap assault.

The view from the 2nd section position - you can hear 'em coming but you can't see a bleedin' thing!

At this point, with the survivors of the first platoon fleeing into the jungle one step ahead of Jap bayonets, it was decided there was nothing to be gained from engaging our second line of defence and the remaining company platoon, which was successfully withdrawn. This was also hazardous as it required us to disengage from the enemy who were already in amongst our positions, but we managed it without further serious losses.

The surviving platoon HQ section (in the middle above) - note all the empty entrenchments in front of them where the 1st and 2nd platoons of A coy, 2/14th used to be! The half dozen survivors have already scarpered (OK - routed!) and the 2nd line of defenders are about to do the same.

While things did not go our way - our dispositions made a difficult defence impossible under the well-directed and constant Jap pressure - it was nonetheless a well-fought and enjoyable encounter. My redoubtable opponent Loadmaster (aka Dave - a devoted follower of this blog so he tells me - and he blows a mean bit of derriere-smoke too!) certainly got the better of me in the end - the final protracted hand-to-hand on the right flank decidedly going his (i.e. the Jap's) way. But at least we managed to out-run 'em!

Another fantastic 'atmospheric' action shot from Greg Blake - one of the Jap commanders - showing his lads going in while the Aussies once more unsuccessfully snap fire (over their heads at point blank range too!)

I should also thank Big George for his gaming room and hospitality and of course Andrew who once again organised everything. Against the inscrutable cunning of the Jap commanders (Cameron, Greg, George and Dave) the Allied commanders Michael (2/14th) and Ian (2/16th) prevented what could have been a complete disaster - started by my initial crappy dice-rolling!

The victorious Japanese overrun the Allied positions - the shell hole in the middle of them is where one of our HMGs used to be!

The Allies will now consolidate their positions at Isurava and await the continuation of the Jap attack (some 2,000 bayonets against about 8,000 Japanese!) We have to stop the Jap's advance or at least slow it down - at the same time preserving our only AIF veteran formations available - the 2/14 & 2/16th battalions. The 39th militia have fought magnificently but are battered and exhausted and as for the poor old 53rd who just arrived (my command) - well, lets just say it may not be a good idea to throw them straight into battle!

We are now into the crucial stage of the Kokoda campaign with Isurava to finish and Milne Bay still to fight.

As before, click on the photos to enlarge and feel free to leave a comment.

Cheers,

Doc

Kokoda - the non-action at Fela?

2011-09-13T21:57:00.000+10:00

Unfortunately I couldn't make the game last weekend due to unforeseen (by me it seems) family commitments. The scenario had a small PIB unit virtually surrounded by Japs coming from possibly three directions and cutting us off from our base in Isurava with other Allied forces led by Doug and Ian coming to the rescue US cavalry-style. I'm reliably informed it didn't quite go that way.

I dunno how it went other than the Japs got what they were after (whatever that was) and withdrew. I think we may have lost a section but otherwise were able to withdraw back to Isurava. Not a lot of action it seems.

Nonetheless my wargaming pal and redoubtable Jap commander Greg sent some of his beautifully Photoshopped pictures of what action there was - from a Japanese perspective of course. One shot appears to be of Andrew's Aircobra - implying we (the Allies) may have had some air cover? Wonders never cease as 'Dugout Doug' MacArthur had only recently withdrawn all combat aircraft to the Australian mainland - just in time for us to make the forlorn assault to retake Kokoda (yeh, right!)

The table set-up with Allied commanders deep in conference with game umpire Andrew - where are those bloody Japs?

[Note all photos in this post are by Greg Blake]

Oh, there they are!

And there...

And finally, there! That's a lot of bleedin' Japs Sir! Er, Sir?...

(Jap commander) Big George picks his nose... er, sorry contemplates his patch of jungle and realises just how bloody annoying those (Jap) starshells can be!

A much-vaunted Aircobra makes a tree-top run - hope he plastered some of those Japs with cannon-fire or dropped his bloody great 500 pounder bomb right on top of 'em! (although fat chance of that unless Ian was flying it!)

The next game promises to be more of a real battle as it'll be the campaign-turning battles at either Isurava or Milne Bay - the latter of course being the first serious Japanese defeat of WWII. As it was achieved by the Australians and as his Marines were in pretty dire straights in Guadalcanal at the time, MacArthur ensured that we got none of the publicity and little of the kudos such a victory would have otherwise received (had it been by the Americans). It remained that way for 50 years as few war histories - and virtually no American histories of the war in the Pacific and even of the Papuan campaign mentioned it or accorded it any significance. But of course with our wargaming, if the Allies loose either battle it could be the end of the campaign - so big stakes at play for us!

The following is totally unrelated to the above but is a link to the Angry Lurker's blog, which has recently achieved some dizzying heights in blogdom with now over 800 followers. As Mr Lurker is also a fine deranged wargaming enthusiast like the rest of us, I thought I'd make a link to his site and give it a plug. He's a zombie movie affectionado too, which further commends him to us!

The Angry Lurker: 800 Followers and the One.

Definitely a quality blog. Mr Lurker produces great wargaming figures, movie reviews and as a bonus, the most tasteful shots of a pneumatically-endowed lady or two.

Nice.

So be a lurker at Angry's blog - you won't regret it!

Cheerz,
Doc

FPW Prussian Army

2011-09-08T12:47:00.000+10:00

After over two years of collecting and painting, and painting... and MORE painting! ...I finally finished my Franco-Prussian Wars (FPW) Prussian army.

Doc's Prussian horde - Vorwarts meine Kinder, der Franzosiche ist Kaput!

Its the approximate size representing a Prussian division and I've set it up as three infantry brigades of two regiments (each of two battalions of 24 figures) plus a small jaeger battalion of 12 figures. Only the Guard Bde is a bit short with three battalions plus jaeger. Added to that I've created two artillery batteries of the famous Krupps breech-loaders and a cavalry brigade of three 10-figure regiments. There's a command for each brigade and a separate divisional command - all of which have been covered in previous posts. The figures are on 60x30mm bases @ three figs each for Black Powder rules (although they are also suitable for other rules too). I made the bases a bit deeper as they accommodated the figures better and look better on the table en masse.

Prussian army made for Black Powder rules

The last unit I had to do was a Prussian allied Hesse Darmstadt regiment. Other than the Bavarian, Saxon and Wurttemburg contingents, many of these allied regiments were almost indistinguishable from the Prussians as they used virtually the same uniforms and equipment. Which was fortunate as I have only Foundry Prussian figures available at the moment!

Hesse Darmstadt Infantry Bde mit Jaeger!

The Foundry FPW range is one of my favourites and one of the better ones of their older figure lines in my opinion. There is also a reasonable amount of poses and figure/uniform types to give it some real variation - often conspicuously lacking in ranges first made over a decade ago.

Hesse Darmstadt Regt, jaeger & line commands

I should also give Ian Croxall's 'Warflag' site a plug too as he provided the most of the Prussian and the Hesse flag. Warflag has wargaming flags for a large range of era's including one of the few decent collections on the net of those for 19th C conflicts. The range obviously includes Prussians and some of their allies but that for the French 2nd Empire is also excellent and comprehensive too - including command pennants.

Its probably a little over-sized and I nearly mucked it up with the glue

but a bit of paint and the Hesse flag came up a treat!

One of the challenges presented with the Hesse contingent was representing a light infantry battalion. I have seen old pictures of Rhineland contingent light infantry wearing the standard Prussian feldmutze flat cloth cap instead of the classic jaegerhut and as I only had enough figures in the latter for two small battalions, I took some artistic licence and made the Hesse boys up from Prussian cloth cap figures. I converted one of the marching figures to a jaeger bugler with the addition of a plastic arm with bugle and a 'swallows nest' shoulder tab for musicians. The plastic spare bits box is the wargamer's friend - worth its weight in gold!

Hesse Darmstadt Jaeger Command in feldmutze

Other figures that I did a little (or rather a lot!) of conversion work included the cavalry command (detailed in a previous post) and more recently, and infantry brigade command with one mounted officer (formerly an artillery outrider) and a standard bearer with a command pennant. The mounted figure took quite a bit of shaping with the Dremel tool to make tight-fitting officer's jodhpurs and boots from baggy old outriders pants but Meine Herr is now a figure of sartorial splendour - even if the nag he's on is a bit over-loaded with campaign baggage (undt ver ist zat verdammten orderly!)

Line command - the artilleryman got a promotion

- sharpened the point on his pickelhaube too!

The other part of the army I like is the Guard Bde consisting of six battalions of line & one of jaeger - four in greatcoat - which made them a bit easier to paint up. It should be a minimum of eight battalions - nine with jaeger - but I ran out of figures and what the heck - it can be an under-strength brigade (after Gravolette or wherever it was they got flogged by French Chassepots!)

The Guard Brigade

The mounted Guard commander looked a bit lonely by himself and being probably an elder gent, slightly hard of hearing too so I gave him a staff officer who's shouting advice to him.

Eh, what's that young feller - speak up!

Last but not least are the awesome breech-loading Krupps artillery - almost a war-winner for the the Germans all by themselves as they literally blew away the competition! These guns with their peculiar crew seats were actually quite hard to find - I had one but it took me over a year to finally find one that matched (thanks Doug!) In Black Powder one model can represent a battery, so four guns is more than enough for a full division, although I plan to run them in matched pairs. Again, Foundry at their best IMO.

And because I can't resist - more Prussian cavalry - Achtung! Der Kuirass kommt! The command is the other conversion I talked about earlier - very simple, just a bit of Dremel tool action and a heated and shaped plastic cloak and viola! - you have the cav brigade commander!

The Magdeburg regiment of heavies thunder forward on another Tottenritt at the French guns

Well, that's it for my Prussians. Hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures of them in action, as soon as I've finished painting up my FPW French - only about 8 or 9 battalions of infantry and two or three regiments of cav to go!

Nah, just kiddin'! My mate Doug's got the other half of the French good to go so although I do have plenty more to paint up, it should allow us to have a game or two in the not-to-distant future.

Prussian Line in battalion (of 24 figures each) in column with Jaeger skirmish-line

As always, click on the pics to enlarge and feel free to leave a comment - I mightn't post too regularly but I have been known to reply to comments!

Cheers,

Doc

Doc's Warhammer fantasy stuff

2011-09-02T23:24:00.000+10:00

I was trying to finish off the Prussians - inching towards that goal incrementally - more by millimetres than inches! But I recently discovered that I had in fact run out of space to store them. The only solution (acceptable to the Minister of War & Finances, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed) was to get rid of a few figures. They're all my 'children' - how can you get rid of one lot over another? Shouldn't all children be loved equally?

Some 'eavy Orcs!

The answer to this dilemma was the most obvious - those I haven't touched in years - should be the first to be considered. I started with all the old Warhammer/fantasy armies I collected and painted up for my sons over the years. Two of them - the Undead and the Orcs - I literally hadn't touched in nearly a decade! But first I had to see what I had and fix up any bits that needed fixing. I also had to ask the permission of the boys who I collected the armies for in the first place. The owner of the Orcs was unfazed - he hadn't been interested in 10 years and wouldn't be again any time soon - more interested in any money I could get for them!

'ordes of Orcs!

The 'owner' of the Undead took a quite different view. He chucked a wobbly over it. No matter that I hadn't even gotten to the point of actually cataloguing what I had (and no, he wouldn't have a clue either - he also hadn't touched them in over ten years!) The end of the tale was that after listing them all and fixing them up, back they went into the boxes to gather dust for another decade. Ironically its touching that he actually appreciated what I did for him all those years ago, whereas the other two who didn't kick up a fuss, couldn't give a monkey's about the figures. Funny old world innit?

Orc Shaman an' some Orc Arraboyz

Meanwhile, I've recorded what I've got - and mighty proud of the painting effort, given my relative lack of experience at the time. So I thought I'd post the pics of them at least. The Orcs will soon be going on Ebay (unless anyone viewing this blog wants to make a generous offer!) but the Undead will have to moulder in their undead-ness (in my garage) for another eon or two... [sigh]

Undead Necromancer & Armoured Skels

Some more Undead gruesomeness...

Vampire Lords & their batswarms - amongst the first figures I ever painted!

Nagash - the Undead Lord - unfortunately no longer part of the Undead

- but a nice collector's item you'd think!

One of the figures I'm most proud of - a mounted Vampire Lord.

Took a bit of trial & error but I finally got the ghastly flesh-tone right!

One of GW's best figures IMO.

One of the first vignettes I ever attempted was that for the Orc general who I think went by the name of Morgrimm Necksnapper! Went to town adding gruesome bits and pieces of slain opponents from a 'deboned' Brettonian Knight (well, the head and spine anyway!) and a cleaved dwarf with a splitting headache! It'll be part of the Orc army that's for sale (if I can sell it that is!)

Amongst the other Orcs up for grabs will be the ghastly Nightgoblins. I particularly like their shaman with his magic mushrooms and the hilarious goblin beserkers. The latter operate kind of like whirling dervishes - with wrecking balls. Once let loose their trajectory is determined by the dice and they literally blast through anything in their rather erratic path - friend or foe.

Last but not least is one of the original Orc catapults - rocklobbas - just picked them up in bits and pieces at the trade stands at various cons and put them all together. A rather special crew, one of whom is rather rude orc mooning his intended targets while his grinning companion looks on.

There is a lot more but I think that's enough for me for the time being - gotta finish those damned Prussians!

If anyone is interested in an Orc army in all its gruesome green orkiness - leave a comment or send an email to: wonchangers@gmail.com

Cheers,

Doc

Kokoda Campaign: Pitoki patrol & Deniki Hill action

2011-08-19T21:25:00.003+10:00

Its been ages since my last post but for some reason winter has been as hectic as anything - barely time to finish painting my Prussians! (which I will and post the results) But of course, there's always time for a decent wargame. We have patiently awaited our Allied commander Doug to return from foreign lands so that we can resume the Kokoda campaign. Herewith is the next instalment of the action.

PITOKI PATROL

Following the previous patrol actions at Naro and Fela, the battered 39^th, ordered by Allied Headquarters in Australia (now also known as ‘Fantasyland HQ’) to retake Kokoda, attempted to fulfil those orders without getting wiped out in the process. We started with patrols carefully probing Jap positions around Pitoki village, the scene of the previous near-disastrous attempted ambush of the Japs advancing from Kokoda. A depleted company of the 39^th of three platoons with attached PIB (Papuan Infantry Battalion) acting as guides led by Michael, Ian and me under the overall command of Doug, cautiously approached Pitoki village from three directions.

The Pitoki table - all the action took places in the jungle at the corners!

And yes, those are conifers - we had to dragoon foliage from everywhere to pad out the jungle patches.

The Japanese under Greg, Cameron and George had time to dig in and so were awaiting us in prepared positions rather than the usual scrapes we had used when they were attacking us. Our Papuan scouts had told us that there could be up to a company of Japs now entrenched in and about Pitoki but concealed in thick jungle, the well-prepared Japs were difficult to spot even with our redoubtable PIB scouts. And moving through the jungle no matter how cautiously, there was the real risk that they would spot you first. The first contacts occurred when we were practically on top of one another.

I think Michael's patrol made the first contact - note the Papuan scout diving for cover!

Ian to the north of Pitoki (and on the other side of the river) had great difficulty locating the entrenched Jap positions in the jungle but Michael to the south ended up getting spotted by the Japs who immediately opened up on his lead patrol (with PIB scout). Originally he had intended to cut across open ground to the native gardens opposite the village but luckily his platoon never got that far, encountering and exposing dug-in Japs ringing the edge of the jungle in front. Had his men stepped out into the open Greg revealed later he had one of his dreaded snipers lying in wait to pot the officers and NCOs. Fortunately for the Allies, this was the first of our encounters where we didn’t suffer officer casualties from snipers.

Having probed the defences and provoked a reaction (forces equal to or greater than theirs) both Ian and Michael’s platoons conducted a reasonably secure withdrawal. On the other side of the table south of the village, it was a very different story.

I had intended to stagger my advance with one rifle section, LMG and PIB scouts going first, followed by the platoon headquarters section (with our precious radios) and the second rifle section with the Bren LMG following up the rear. C-inC Doug insisted that they all sweep forward in a single or joined group so that (sensibly) if any element were attacked, one of the others would be close enough to support it.

Rifle section with HQ section behind (eventually) find a Jap foxhole

After three turns my HQ section came under fire (George’s Japs spotted them first) but my PIB scouts and leading section finally spotted other entrenched Japs to our left. In the thick jungle actually hitting your target is extremely difficult and it took the concentrated fire of the entire rifle section three rounds to wipe out just two foxholes of Japs – we never found a third right in front of us.

2nd section advances while the 1st eliminates a second Jap foxhole

(red marker notes the position is 'suppressed')

At this point George advanced a section to our right, threatening my flank then at the same time advanced a full platoon directly behind me (from the direction we had come from in fact), effectively trapping the Australians between them and threatening to cut my platoon off completely. The ongoing fire-fight had been confusing but the honours up till that point in our favour (1 dead to 3 Japs). Then all Hell broke loose.

Georges' cunning Nipponese sneak up behind - note the 2nd foxhole in front has been eliminated

We couldn’t spot the Japs behind us but they spotted our HQ section just in front of them and a murderous volley at close range virtually wiped it out. While we knew we were being fired at from behind as well as in front, we just couldn't spot the Japs in the thick jungle. Another intense round of shooting left just the officer, who managed to join the section in front of him. At this point there was no question of continuing to push towards the village, but rather of cutting our way out of the Jap forces who all but encircled us.

The surviving Japs from the nearest section BANZAI!!! - a desperate hand-to-hand ensues.

After the HQ section were cut down, the next Jap section opened up on the closest Militia rifle section. Fortunately this time their shooting was off and for a loss of two or three, we returned fire, accounting for all but four of the 15-man section. But rather than flee into the jungle, the Japs once again (predictably) failed their 'Guts' test and decided to die for the Emperor - BANZAIIII!!!!

Here's where it got really nasty - in the hand-to-hand for the loss of one rifleman and a PIB scout, three of the surviving Japs were taken down which left just the officer. With his Samurai sword he then proceeded to slice and dice teppenyaki-style through the remainder of the Aussie squad. Four times I rolled to cut him down and four times failed - that's four D8's in a row! At long last the remaining PIB took him out - he must have been worn out from all that chopping as Papuans normally don't mix it hand-to-hand. But just as I was just about to promote the brave chappie to corporal, he may have disappeared into the bush, never to be seen again!

The stunned survivors of the 1st section have cleared the way for our withdrawal - only just - and in the nick of time from the converging Japs

With less than half my platoon left alive and hordes more Japs closing in from front and behind, it was time to bug out as best we could. We used our LMG to cut down more Japs from Georges HQ section that tried to interdict and managed to use the jungle to cover our hasty retreat back to Deniki. Big George's clever ambush/encirclement very nearly came off - only the steady courage of the Aussies and some good shooting when we needed it most that saved us.

ACTION AT DENIKI HILL

Meanwhile at Deniki our PIB scouts had reported finding lots of tracks behind our lines. They led up a hill near Deniki and a force of tired militia from the depleted company at Deniki were dispatched to hunt down the Jap patrol. Ideally, we should have taken prisoners to find out what the Japs were up to - but we found out just how difficult that is with Japs determined to die for the Emperor!

Doug took command of one platoon and HQ section on one side of the hill while Michael and I took the other two sections with attached PIB scouts to sweep around the other side, with my section edging around the base of the hill to (hopefully) cut off the Jap's remaining avenue of escape. Campaign referee Andrew also told us that the Japs had dug in overnight. Great. After what we'd just experienced with dug-in Japs at Pitoki, we weren't too happy at the prospect of entrenched Japs waiting somewhere on a jungle clad hill to bushwhack us, so we proceeded with great caution.

Papuan scouts out front, my section cautiously moves around the base of the hill at Deniki

After a few turns of finding nothing (Jap commander Dom had hidden his boys well), the first contact came all at once - a Jap squad in a string of foxholes directly in front of us - both sides opened up simultaneously! What happened next I think I will dine out on for some time during this campaign. Having a full section of nine with a Bren LMG I got 14 x D10 to roll. Dom's rifle-armed squad got 7 x D10. Result - Aussies: seven hits and seven kills, Japs 0. After my crap rolling earlier I felt vindicated - until Doug 'Blamey' informed me I was meant to take prisoners! Bit difficult if they insist on dying for the Emperor SIR!

Empty emplacements show where we cleaned out the Japs - the more important officer and his radio on top of the hill has just been spotted by Michael's Papuan scout - now if we can just get him to surrender...

I swear we tried to take some prisoners, but Dom's Japs just weren't interested! We got into a fire-fight with the Jap command squad on top of the hill, rather than get into a hand-to-hand and then try to affect a capture, with the predictable result. Doug's endeavours were not much better - those Japs just didn't want to come quietly!

Doug's and Michael's sections converging on the remaining dug-in Japs who predictably died for the Emperor.

We were told by Andrew that the Japs didn't have any documents for our intel boys - just a radio - so that to find out what they were up to or what they knew we had to capture them. Somehow I think if we didn't capture the officer or radioman we wouldn't have found out much anyway. On the plus side the use of the PIB - splitting them up amongst the militia units in a scouting role - has proved to be much more effective. For all the fighting and even further losses, only one seems to have deserted permanently - a remarkable achievement.

Deniki Hill was the most successful action of the campaign so far for the Allies in terms of casualties - I think 1 Aussie/PIB for an entire section of Japanese.

It was a fun way to end an afternoon's long-awaited gaming - having both the best and worst of the dice rolls that day too. The poor 39^th are slowly but inexorably being ground down - but a shadow of the inexperienced young men who started out from Port Moresby only a few short weeks ago. But they have become experienced, forged in the crucible of the merciless battles of the Kokoda campaign.

The Japs emerge from the jungle south of Pitoki village, attempting to pin the Aussie militia's left flank, sandwiching us between the rest of the Jap platoon coming from the Deniki direction and cutting off our line of retreat.

Things are going pretty much for us as they did for the original Aussie militia in 1942; at this stage, not so good!

Anyhow, I'm reliably informed that Japanese spies may read this blog - so I can't give too much away. As usual thanks go to Andrew for running the campaign and refereeing the games, Doug for the venue, table (and the rations!) and of course the rest of the boys for as ever, congenial company and gentlemanly gaming. And for not hanging too much crap on my dice rolling and mutinous mutterings - except 'Blamey' Doug that is! ;-)

My next post will hopefully not be so long after this and will likely be my finished FPW Prussian army. Just one battalion of Rhineland contingent infantry (Hesse-Darmstadt) to go. Yippee!

As always, click on the pics for an enlargement and feel free to leave a comment or two, they are gratefully appreciated.

Cheers,

Doc

More Prussians finished

2011-07-21T23:30:00.000+10:00

Just a quick post as I've been hellishly busy at work and home, with recent school hols etc etc BUT haven't entirely abandoned my FPW Prussian Army project. Actually, all things considered its been rattling along quite well - I now have 10 battalions of 24 figures each completed and all the commands, with one extra for the Guard. Quite happy with my Prussian Guard Regt. (x 3 bttns) finished. Just two battalions of a Hesse-Darmstadt (Rhineland Confederation) regiment to do to make up a brigade with another regiment. I'm also doing a small battalion of jaeger/light infantry so I can run them in either three brigades or two of infantry so that my FPW Prussians will roughly represent a full Prussian infantry division, accompanied with a brigade of cavalry and two artillery batteries.

Anyway, my extra command stand. The officer on the horse started life as an artillery teamster (Foundry figure of course) but got him another horse (officers, for the use of Meine Herr...) and with a bit of Dremel tool work to give him some boots and a proper Picklehaube (with pointy bit on top) and even a pointing arm (courtesy of a Perry's or Victrix Frenchman). We made him into fit and proper company for the good Feldwebel carrying the battalion headquarters pennant (bit of license there but I've got a pic of a 20th Century version). Turned much better than my rushed and poor quality low-light photography which does not do any justice to it.

And the same from the back which is little better! Note I had to leave the meal bag on him - but he's a sehr Praktische Prussian officer on campaign right? - and lucky to have a horse!

The Guard turned out nicely and I've given them the luxury of a command stand for each half battalion (i.e. every 12 figures). I do like the Foundry figures of this range and would love to expand the division at some future date with perhaps a Bavarian or Saxon brigade.

Guard-in-a-box (one battalion).

The photos of the three battalions of Prussian Guard are a bit blurry and dark or contrasty. After I've finished my endless list of domestic chores that have accumulated lately I'll try and take some decent shots of the Prussian division so far.

The rest of the Guard-in-a-box.

Well, that's about it for now. Apologies for the lousy photography and my blogging tardiness of late. The hiatus of our Kokoda campaign will soon be over too with the return of Allied commander Doug from foreign parts and we will soon be girding our loins again to present ourselves for another Banzai-bashing at the hands of our very numerous Japanese foes!

Cheers,

Doc

Italian Grenadier Command

2011-06-03T23:57:00.000+10:00

I've decided to return to my roots as it were - if only briefly. Kind of forced on me by a little disaster I had with this stand while I was moving some figures around. The display cabinets and bookcase I was using had become chockkers with figures - so much so that to fit in the extra Prussians I've been painting I had to transfer several hundred others - mainly TYW & Napoleonics - to other storage. And thats when the accident happened - my Italian Line Grenadier command got dropped. From a great height and even being plastic didn't help. It was carnage - they kinda bounced and shed bits as they did so. Mama Mia! The bearer was the biggest casualty with the flag snapping clean off. The drummer's head likewise. I may have even said several rude words at the time.

Who's a pretty boy then? That officer with the cape doesn't 'alf fancy hisself!

The good news is the paint and restoration job went better than expected. The paint job got a bit of a touch up too with the end result, after a bit of matt varnish, you can't see too much of the damage. If you look carefully at the pic below, the flagpole has been repaired just above the bearer's right lug'ole! Bit of a lump - but that's it - phew! Mucho relief!

Wassamatta you - why u looka so sad? Itsa not so bad!

Itsa nice a flag - ah shuttup-u-face!

(With apologies to Joe Dolche!)

So with the strains of Joe Dolche's old hit 'Shuttupa Your Face' pinging round inside my head (I swear I heard it on the radio while I was fixing the flag bit!) I thought I'd re-shoot them with the Lumix. No natural light I'm afraid as its winter here and gets quite dark early in the evening so one colour-balanced light and a bit of flash for one or two shots and trying without it for the others. Not unhappy with the results.

Detail officer's cape and Port Aigle's jacket

Strike the pose!

All the figures are Victrix by the way. Made up from the spare bits from the box - so the figures and command stand are spares for when I want to field them as I also have a light infantry (Cacciattore) and a Line command stands as well for a two-battalion regiment.

They were fiddly buggers to make up too as I recall - the figures are quite large being closer to 30 than 28mm, and with those bearskins... mama mia!

I wonder how Victrix will go with their planned Austrians? The Perry's are also releasing sets of Austrians and Russians too - great for us gamers as we'll be spoiled for choice - but it'll be tough for at least one figure maker I reckon and my money would be with the Perrys - marketing machine just too slick and figures too beautiful!

Hmmm, must-not-get-distracted-by-bleedin'-Napoleonics... too many damned FPW Prussians to paint!

Cheers,

Doc

Kokoda campaign - patrol action Naro and Fowani Creek

2011-05-29T11:11:00.001+10:00

Following the retreat to Deniki by the Australian militia and the accompanying Papuan Infantry Battalion (PIB) troops after the desperate action at Pitoki (the ambush that nearly wasn't!), there was the briefest of lulls as contact with the Japanese was lost. Some of the survivors (two sections of PIB and a depleted one of 39th) had to go the long way 'round to avoid being cut off by the Japs. The Australians of the 39th are being led through the jungle by a section of PIB, but have yet to reappear at the next Australian post on the Kokoda track, Deniki.

Guided by PIB, the surviving Aussies abandon the track to avoid being cut off at Pitoki.

Having to go the long way around, they are yet to emerge from the bush and make it to Deniki.

To find out just where the Japs are and how close they may be to Deniki, several patrols of PIB with accompanying 39th sections were sent out. Doug took the right flank at Fowani Creek and I took the left at Naro, very gingerly probing our way forward. The Japs were doing the same and it wasn't long before we ran into one another!

PIB patrol carefully feels their way forward through the jungle

Crafty Jap commander Greg concealed (or rather didn't commit) his larger section to the patrol, but rather sent a two man scouting party forward to find us. It didn't take long. While I have an issue with ANYBODY spotting motionless Papuans in the jungle (as its been my experience you just don't unless they want you to see them!) at the end of the day, my dice rolling with additional factors for PIB failed to spot the Japs before Greg's better rolling enabled his scouts to spot me!

Contact at Naro!

Perhaps it was the clumsy white man with the Papuans that gave the game away (all PIB sections have Australian NCOs in command) but we all opened up on each other, the Japs missing their targets and the Papuans hitting both Japs but only killing one. The Jap predictably failed his 'gut check' (morale) and charged the nearest Papuan. Amazingly the Papuan stood his ground and a short but indecisive melee ensued. The Papuans can actually fight as well as shoot as long as their NCOs remain alive but once he's killed, their fragile morale means they usually break and run into the nearest jungle - an all-to-familiar occurrence in the campaign so far!

Bit of 'cut and thrust' in the jungle!

After the brief encounter in which the brave Papuan didn't run - the PIB were ordered to fall back on the second PIB section immediately behind them. I fully expected a full section of Japanese to appear on top of my position by the canny Greg did not oblige, his scouts having done their job of spotting us, withdrawing themselves. It was a smart move as we had several sections of PIB and even an ANGAU (Australian New Guinea Administration Unit) section waiting to ambush any significant force of Japs that should appear. The mutual withdrawal signaled the end of the first patrol action at Naro.

PIB carefully withdraw from the contact

The second patrol action at Naro was an even shorter affair with my PIB stationary in the native gardens north west(?) of Naro and once again spotted first by the Japanese (absolute bollocks I say - but them's the rules and I only have my own crappy dice rolling to blame!) This time Greg had pushed forward a few snipers, one of whom my PIB did manage to spot!

PIB in the native gardens managed to spot a Jap sniper

The Jap sniper also spotted the 39th section next to the PIB and firing soon commenced. Here Greg's usual good rolling deserted him and the sniper hit nothing whereas the PIB managed to 'pot' the sniper - huzzah! One up for the (usually) luckless PIB! At this point Greg announced he had seen all he needed to see and was withdrawing whatever he had back toward Pitoki. Our PIB scouts had performed well and we assessed that a platoon-sized Jap patrol had probed the northern (flank) approaches to Deniki.

Aggressive patrolling - the Japs decide to show themselves at Fela

The real action was between the more aggressive Japs under Cameron at Fowani Creek and the more 'European oriented' (ahem) Australian commander Doug. Here the PIB and Japs once again ran into each other without the 'extra' factors in the jungle helping the PIB to spot the Japs - both the Allied commander's rolling for this was consistently appalling. Doug managed to account for about one section of Japanese and about nine PIB and five Australians he lost (so the 'honours' roughly even). I'm sorry to say I didn't get any pics of the action.

I was pretty happy with my PIB who accounted for two Japs without loss themselves. As a result of these actions, the Allies have assessed platoon-sized patrolling by the Japs but no sign of the main force. We think they may be digging in around Pitoki or even Kokoda itself to await Horii's main Jap force which historically arrived mid August - in our campaign its only the end of July - so there's a long way to go yet!

Just to make things difficult, we have just received a rocket from Blamey (Australian commander under MacArthur) to retake Kokoda. Just great. The Allied High Command who had absolutely no idea of the conditions on the ground in New Guinea are ordering exhausted, ill-equipped (Allied logistics were a disaster) out-numbered and inexperienced militia to attack the 2,000 veterans of the Jap advance force who now appear to be digging in. They also ordered a road to be built over the Own Stanley's to Kokoda - they really had no idea that it was an impossibility. Nearly seventy years on, there's still no road to Kokoda!

The Allied commanders contemplate yet another rotten situation at Kokoda

(earlier game, Yours Truly closest to the camera)

I've just noticed this blog has now passed its 50,000 hits milestone - yaaaay! Anyhow, enjoy the pics (click to enlarge) and feel free to leave a comment.

Now back to some yard work before the real Supreme Commander (aka She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed, Minster of War & Finance etc etc) grants permission to paint some more Prussians!

Cheers,

Doc

FPW - the Prussian High Command

2011-05-12T20:59:00.000+10:00

Finally got around to finishing the Prussian High Command stand. To compliment the French one I've made it similarly with an MDF coaster, command figures gathered around a table under a tree. But there the similarities end!

You'll notice that apart from a few less figures, the Prussians appear considerably more relaxed than their French counterparts! That is entirely Foundry's doing. Instead of having his head in his hands like the French general, the Prussian one is calmly puffing away on an enormous Meerschaum.

My only addition to the Foundry vignette is the conversion of a standard bearer to that of a courier by putting a wedge of official documents (bound with a leather strap) into his hand instead of a flagstaff, trimming off the bearer's holder and shaping a plastic pack from the Perry's French into a sort of courier's satchel.

To round off the group I added a pair of infantry officers observing the action through binoculars. I've got one brigade command stand to re-do then get stuck into another battalion of infantry. At 24 figures each - now only about half a dozen of those left to do - Achtung! Ich muss verrückt sein!

Cheers,
Doc

Interlude with table and Tigers (and T34s)

2011-05-06T23:55:00.001+10:00

Right at the moment I'm painting up my FPW Prussian High Command stand, having finished the figures. I tried photographing the individual figures with my own little light box but it didn't work - couldn't get the focus right. So I won't persist but just do the command stand once its finished. Meanwhile I thought I'd post some shots of the new gaming table I built (and shot the last post on the FPW figures) as a sort of 'how-to'. I made it out of three old doors, with one cut down to fit across the other two. The end result is a nearly 3 x 2 meter table that fits nicely over the top of my rickety old table-tennis table but can be easily broken down and packed away.

Interestingly enough, the manufactured doors are not exactly plum so the joins are not completely seamless nor do the doors lay totally flat for that matter. To fix these otherwise annoying anomalies the trick is to keep the three pieces flat and together firmly with latches and dowel guides. Nice and solid.

The olive green paint is given a matt varnish finish - Cabot's low sheen polyurethane - which makes it tough and scratch-proof. Bits of terrain can be plonked directly on it without terrain boards or sheets if you like.

OK - that was very boring, especially if you don't have some spare doors and the inclination to turn 'em into a wargaming table! So to make up for it I have some really cool photos of some Tiger tanks in action!

My wargaming mate Greg Blake, some of whose photos I have used previously in the Kokoda campaign posts, recently sent me some photos of a game he played - an Eastern Front Kursk-type tank battle pitting 25 T34s against 3 Tigers and 2 PZW IVs defending a village, using slightly modified Disposable Heroes rules.

Greg is a bit of a whizz at Photoshopping the photos he takes into action scenes ( have a look at what he did with my Aircobra straffing the Japs in my last Kokoda post). He suggested the game was a lot closer than his photos suggest. Not that it matters, the action photos Greg has created are brilliant in my opinion. Enjoy.

Achtung! Der Ivan kommt! Macht schnell!

Greg's Tiger Ace strikes again.

Cop that Ivan!

Good shooting Hans!

The Ivan's T34s copped a pasting but Greg reckons they dished it out too, turning one of the Tigers into a bit of a colander after knocking off one of its tracks and immobilizing it. Looks like it was a terrific game - and I love the atmospheric feel of the action shots he has created.

We're having the next phase of the Kokoda campaign towards the end of the month consisting of a few patrol actions and our first pitched battle. I will post the result as soon as I can afterwards - if there are any of the Allies left this time!

Well, a big footy game tomorrow with the lad and my Prussian command stand also awaits my attentions.

Cheers,
Doc

FPW - progress with the Prussians

2011-04-30T01:58:00.003+10:00

After all the frivolity of Blog Style Awards (the receiving and giving thereof) I got stuck into my Prussian Guard and Jaeger battalions and various command stands. I now have 7 x 24 figure battalions, with at least another five of same to get a division's worth to enable a Black Powder game. Just a small amount of painting & basing to get through!

The Prussian Guard on the march and under fire!

I know the BP boys are keen but while Doug and I can muster nearly two divisions of French between us, we have a shortage of Prussians - nobody seems to have any. As I have the lead, I have to get painting - and I would like to have a FPW game myself this year!

Jaeger skirmish screen advances through smoke and French shelling outside Mars La Tour

With this in mind, once I finished the Guard & Jaeger I decided to get all the FPW figures I had out to see where I needed to go next. Well, one thing lead to another AND as I had assembled my recently completed gaming table I decided to do a little reenactment - just 'cos I could! Not a game mind, but with all my painted FPW on the table I couldn't resist. Having finished the Prussian 12th Cavalry Bde I decided to try and depict the Mars-La-Tour 'Tottenritt' (Death-ride).

French guns on a ridge to the north of Mars-La-Tour

The story of Mars-La-Tour started with the French army in a good defensive position around Gravolette to the north. The Prussians were somewhat strung out in an attempted out flanking move further to the south. Neither side knew precisely the position of the other. The French furthest south were under Cranrobert just outside Mars-La-Tour village. A better part of a Prussian corps were passing to the south of the French position, strung out in line of march but well within range of French guns set up on a low ridge a bit over two miles to the north. Canrobert concentrated his artillery and plastered the Prussian infantry as they passed through and beyond the village.

Prussian command under fire at Mars-La-Tour face a dilemma -

silence the French guns or risk getting caught on the march

So much of a nuisance was the French fire that it threatened to disrupt the Prussian flanking movement. The ground between was undulating but open and the French guns were supported by infantry behind - any attempted attack by massed infantry would have resulted in even heavier casualties.

Jaeger skirmishers screening Mars-La-Tour come under increasing fire

The Prussians could only bring up a few guns which were no match for the massed French batteries and began to take heavy casualties. Prussian troops passing through the village also came under increasingly accurate fire which threatened to disrupt the Prussian march.

Prussian counter-battery fire is ineffective (even with Krupps guns!)

The Prussian Corps commander decided to use his available cavalry to buy him some time, ordering the 12th Brigade consisting of the famous Magdeberg Kuirassiers, Uhlan (lancers) and Dragoon regiments, about 1800 men in all, to silence the French guns. The Prussians must have known they were sacrificing their cavalry but were in desperate straights - if only Cranrobert had known how precarious the Prussian position was! Had he attacked with his infantry, he would have hit the Prussians in their flank and likely have inflicted a decisive defeat... but that never happened, instead it was the Prussians who attacked!

French command on ridge north of Mars-La-Tour (supporting infantry behind)

The Prussians reconnoitered and discovered a shallow fold in the undulating ground about 1,000 meters in front of the French position. They used this to carefully assemble their cavalry out of sight of the French.

The Prussian cavalry assemble in hollow ground before the French position

The French were startled when the Prussians literally popped out of the ground less than a kilometer in front of them. The Prussians approached at a brisk trot, shaking out into overlapping lines as they came on. It took them less than two minutes to cover the distance to the guns on the ridge, coming on so fast that the French could not depress their guns sufficiently to bring them to bear, most of the fire flying over the heads of the oncoming Prussians.

Most of the French artillery fire passed over the heads of the rapidly advancing Prussians

As the Prussian cavalry approached the French their guns, firing over open sights, started to tear holes in the Prussian lines but the momentum of the cavalry, who increased their pace to a full charge, carried them on into the French position.

The Prussians shake out into overlapping lines as the French guns begin to find their mark

- although most shells still sailed over the heads of the Prussians

So quick was the Prussian advance that it caught most of the French gun crews still serving their guns. The French supporting infantry, although only a few hundred yards behind, were also caught unawares by the Prussian advance and were rattled by sudden appearance of hordes of Prussian cavalry and the destruction of the French guns in front of them.

Prussians do great execution once among the French guns

Once through the gun line, the Prussians slammed into the startled French infantry who were unable to take advantage of the range of their Chassepot rifles (otherwise accurate up to 1800 meters in battlefield conditions!) The rattled French were driven back.

At this point the French Guard cavalry, who had ridden hard to intercept, should have taken the now disorganised Prussians in the flank, but further disaster struck. In all the dust and smoke, the French infantry mistook the white and light blue tunics of the French for Prussians and after repeated attacks by the latter, were shooting at anything on a horse. The French cavalry attack was disrupted by friendly fire, suffered considerable casualties and instead of driving home, were driven off by their Prussian counterparts.

French Lancers of the Guard were mistaken for Prussians at Mars La Tour

The end result of this Prussian "Death ride" was that although suffering over 50% casualties with covering fire from the Prussian artillery, they were able to withdraw virtually unmolested and had not only succeeded in silencing the French artillery but precipitated the panicked withdrawal of Cranrobert's French infantry.

The Prussians drive off the disorganised French counter-attack.

Rattled French infantry behind the ridge start to withdraw and the surviving

but exhausted Prussian cavalry are able to return to their lines unmolested.

Well, that was my painted FPW figures (so far) in action! Nearly enough for a game I think - its frustrating not being able to game with them at present - but a lot of painting still required. I've just finished another brigade command and and putting together a high command for the Prussians, similar to that done for the French (see earlier posts and the above photo of the French command at Mars-La-Tour).

Some of the above photos appear a little rough its because I had to use the low-light function on my Lumix. I've actually tried to replicate the look and feel of old French lithographs I've seen of FPW battles in some shots.

My next post will likely be the Prussian High Command stand when I finish it.

Cheers,

Doc

The 'Art of War' gets nominated for an 'award' and ANZAC Day 2011

2011-04-26T12:17:00.003+10:00

I was quite chuffed to have been nominated for a blogging award the other day by the redoubtable Miles of 'Lair of the Uber Geek' - so a big 'thanks' to him (his latest post has some drool-worthy pics of his latest AWI game at his mate Ernie's wargames room - a gamer's sanctuary most of us can only dream about - lucky sod!)

As far as I can tell its a kind of chain-mail type of thing where you are nominated and in turn nominate others - which is quite OK as it is a form of peer recognition and shares the love!

Now the rules of this award are to:

1. A 'thank you' and link back to the nominating blog (done!)

2. Share seven things about yourself.

3. Nominate 10 or so other blogs you deem worthy of such an award (the chain-mail aspect)

4. Let them know of your nominating them for the award.

Hmmm... seven things about me. Now what can I tell the world that won't have me hunted down by Interpol or burned at the stake? I'd better keep it simple - always follow the KISS principle - and make it about things not obvious from reading my blog!

(true confession time) I'm an avid AFL tragic. For all non-Australians and rugby league supporters its our distinctly national code/form of football - and just the fastest, most exciting and most dazzlingly athletic form of footy on the planet. It has similarities to Gaelic football and a national AFL team tours Ireland every year to play the Irish.

Taking a 'screamer' - mark - catching the ball aloft in AFL

I've both coached (schoolboys) and played (in my distant youth) other forms of football, particularly soccer and rugby (union) but AFL was always the one for me - and apologies to the schoolboy's Queenscliff/Point Lonsdale team for being such a crap centre back!

I'm a born and bred St. Kilda supporter - I remember the only flag (Grand Final) they ever won when I were but a young'un in 1966! And the two lost GF's in the last two years - so I know all about pain and suffering!

I have passed this sad affliction onto several of my children, the youngest of whom is not only the best Xbox AFL player in the country (really!) but also a very good 1st div U14 centre forward (did NOT inherit his skills from his old man) and even my beautiful daughter who was a national level gymnast and has the ambition to be betrothed to champion St Kilda centre Leigh Montagna (provided he stumps up the required dowry!)

My youngster (blue & white jersey) successfully 'roves' the ball from the centre bounce

Other non-football related revelations include just finishing (very late in life) my Masters at Uni. 'Terrorism, Safety and Security' for those who are interested (I can hear the snores already...) Quite proud it took me two and a half years instead of the usual 4 - 5 while I also held down a full-time job and helped out officiating at my son's AFL games etc, etc AND retained my sanity (questionable) through my hobby of 'collecting and painting little men' (as my spouse derisively calls it)

In my past I was a reasonably successful graphic designer and even got into the New York School of Art once upon-a-time, neither path pursued as a career option but rather channeled into my hobby some twenty or so years on! Have also edited, art directed and published a wargaming rule set written by another ('Elan') which almost saw the end of me BUT am also a huge admirer of Battlegames' Henry Hyde who DID manage to be both a successful graphic designer and wargames mag publisher! This is what I'd really like to do - combine my hobby and skills in a job that would pay me to... indulge in further fantasy!

Plan for my (early) retirement which is not too far away (and would involve a substantial lottery win) to enable me to get back into my fine art pursuits (painting and drawing), publishing and writing (or vice versa) and pay for furthering my indulgence in collecting and painting little men! (OK - the last not much of a revelation to followers of this blog but a feller can still dream can't he?)

On a different tack, I took my youngest Son and Heir to the War Memorial on ANZAC Day. Although not sharing in my hobby enthusiasm he does have a genuine interest and enjoys his dad's amateur military historian ramblings as a guided tour. It is a superb museum and although there are some things I would like to see them do better (like promote and sell Australian model and figure manufacturers in the Memorial shop instead of all the irrelevant foreign rubbish they flog!) it is the best repository of our military history and can rightly boast of being one of the best museums of its kind in the world.

Some of the interactive multi-media exhibitions are truly mind-blowing including the G for George (above Lancaster bomber - air war over Europe), the WW1 air war on the Western Front (Peter Jackson's mini film with some stunning CGI from his Weta Studios) and the latest Battle of Kapyong (Korean War exhibition - where you are also in a trench system on the 48th Parallel).

Restored German Albatros fighter

Night attack, Kapyong (Korean War)

I heard one visitor remark that it was why he got into collecting and making models in the first place. The model dioramas, particularly of the fighting in WW1, similarly inspired me at a young age.

Light Horse charging Turkish trenches at Magrehba, Palestine

Bullecourt, winter 1916 (one of the earliest uses of tanks)

These are truly inspirational and but a small glimpse of what is on display. Most of the WW1 dioramas were made in the 1920's from exact records and photos of the actual battlefields, much of which were still as they were at the time. This and the restoration work done by the War Memorial itself is amazing. While I have not tired to replicate any of the above in my hobby, I DID do a restoration job on a Turkish map taken from the Turk HQ at Bersheeba as a gift for my father and donated several others to the Memorial.

One of my ancestors was with the Light Horse at that famous charge and helped himself to some 'memorabilia' in the Turk headquarters in Bersheeba after the battle. Many years later I discovered them in an old trunk and got an Arab-speaking friend of mine to translate and work out where they depicted - only the entire Turkish positions in northern Palestine! They also had pencil drawn estimations of the Allied positions - pretty accurate too. The maps were extremely good - much better than the Allied ones as they were done by German survey just before the war. I'm sure my light-fingered ancestor gave the important ones to the intelligence boys at the time!

Well that's my indulgence for ANZAC Day 2011. Now to finish off my FPW Prussian Guard and Jaeger and maybe catch a movie to fill in the end of the Easter break.

Cheers,

Doc

The Sikh Lancers

2011-04-21T18:25:00.001+10:00

Well, after the latest Kokoda clash it was time to pay my dues (for my bodyweight in FPW Prussian lead!) by finishing the painting of the Sikh Wars Sikh cavalry for my lead-pimp Doug. These are some early Perry sculpts for Foundry, or so I am reliably informed. And lovely figures they are too.

They are still on their painting sticks as Doug prefers to base them - he has his own 'Punjab' mix of flocking ( a very desert-y looking mix with flecks of green) so he can flocking-well do it himself! Besides, saves me another job, right?

I got some very good brass lances from the lance-guy (Dean @ Olympian Games) - just like the real thing and sharp too. Got jabbed numerous times - aggressive little buggers those Sikhs! I tried to replicate the unusual lance pennants which are basically four different coloured flat ribbons tied on the end. - sort of turned out alright but not 100% accurate in my opinion.

These are still very nice figures although they appear in only two basic poses - lances upright or couched. Probably prefer the latter - but that might only be because the others kept on stabbing me!

One of my favourites is the trumpeter - must have been a bugger of a job blowing 'is horn with all that luxuriant facial hair!

The lancers from the rear - AFTER they've ridden over and jabbed you. Very British style uniforms must have saved the Commissary a few bob when they eventually joined Her Majesty's Imperial force after they were defeated!

Just a few more Ghorchurras (irregular cavalry) to paint up and then get stuck into the Prussians again before the next Kokoda battle. Have also managed to put together another gaming table out of old doors - 2.75 x 1.67 meter board that fits nicely on the old table-tennis table but can be readily broken down and packed away. Have to see if I can fit it in the old lounge room (much to the horror of She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed!) If all goes well, a few games at home may be on the cards.

Cheers,
Doc

Man long Yapan ekum - PIB's attempted ambush at Pitoki

2011-04-13T23:11:00.002+10:00

The withdrawal from Kokoda didn’t quite turn into a rout but the battered survivors needed time to re-group, reinforce and rest at Deniki before the next major encounter with the Japs. Part of the plan was to try and ambush the Japs at the village of Pitoki, about halfway along the track between Kokoda and Deniki. The job fell to a platoon of Papuan Infantry Battalion (PIB) supported by a 39^th Battalion section with a Lewis gun. My humble command was split between Ian and myself (four 8-man sections each commanded by an Australian NCO with an automatic weapon) with Doug commanding the Australian Lewis-gun section located in the village.

Japs cross the creek into the jungle below Pitoki

The big surprise we had for the Japs at Pitoki was the air cover - although Cameron and Greg probably guessed it was something like that as they spent most of the time avoiding any open ground in their approach to the village. Ian, Doug and I spent the first three moves watching the Japs advancing stealthily through the jungle mainly either side of the creek that ran past the native village. We had to nominate which move the air cover came on - Turn 5 - which was (I think) only one turn after we opened fire, revealing our positions. Given we had been hammered every time we had done so previously, the Allies were determined to avoid another possible pasting until the last possible moment - and hand one out to the Japs for a change!

Jungle ambush - PIB squad prepare to meet the advancing Japs

Ian very gallantly let me position one of his Papuan squads on an isolated finger of jungle on the far left, to try and hit the Japs as they massed before crossing the creek. It was a calculated risk of course - revealing our position not just to inflict casualties on the Japanese (which they did) but to hopefully lure them out into the open to attack us in time for the air support! Didn't work out that way of course. Japs stayed in the jungle and actually flushed US out into the open!

The poor old PIB gallantly inflicted a few more casualties with their attempt to 'shoot 'n scoot' but were forced to retreat onto the open ground in front of the native gardens to escape the advancing Japanese.

Despite the covering fire from Ian's 2nd PIB squad concealed in the gardens, the first squad were cut down to a man before they could regain cover.

The 2nd squad of PIB well hidden in the native gardens

It was supposed to be an ambush designed to slow the Japs down and give them a bloody nose, but it had gotten off to a shaky start. Mercifully for the Allies things didn't go entirely the Jap's way with the arrival of the P39 Aircobra on Turn 5.

The Aircobra's first bombing run

We soon discovered just how difficult it was to acquire targets from the air when they're hiding in dense jungle! Amazingly the Aircobra pilot spotted movement - a hapless Jap sniper on the edge of the jungle and let loose his 500 pdr bomb. It was deemed to have buried itself in the soft earth and killed a few trees. An ignominious start for our much-vaunted air cover!

Strafed! A Jap HMG & crew cop a pasting!

A second pass proved more successful with more target acquisitions and more hits - the Aircobra's four 30 Cals taking out most of a Jap machine-gun crew. But it was our final strafing run that proved the most effective. The Japanese had dug in their mortars and were pasting our Australian Lewis gun squad (supposedly) hidden in the village. After wiping out the pursuing Japs (who had cut down the fleeing PIB) with some of the best shooting of the day, Ian then took further honours and rolled for the last Aircobra run and KA-BOOM! - a 500 pdr right down the Japs throat! The bomb hit inside the emplacement and wiped the crew (the tube was deemed to have survived - what a load of it!) Needless to say, this gave great heart to the Allies who had once more found themselves hard-pressed by the Japanese.

Aircobra scores a direct hit on the Jap mortar pit

On the other side of the creek in the approaches to the village, the Japanese had used the jungle to get virtually on top of the concealed Australian positions. My other PIB section was divided into two squads, one hidden in front of the village and the other along the creek. The one next to the creek allowed the Jap scouts to pass through then opened up on the main body as it came up but fatally for them - it was too early! Half the squad cut down the scouts and the other half - including the Thompson-armed Australian NCO - managed to get a few more with the main body but in doing so exposed himself and was taken out in turn by a Jap sniper. This proved disastrous as with the death of their NCO, the fragile PIB morale broke and they ran.

The Japs approach Pitoki with caution

The PIB entrenched in their 'scrapes' in a patch of jungle before Pitoki

Behind them the Australian militia squad is getting plastered with Jap mortar fire.

The other PIB squad was made of sterner stuff (their Aussie NCO remained alive!) and they opened up on the approaching Japs, taking out a few more including the blasted sniper and a forward observer who had been bringing down a rain of mortar fire on the village. That was the last of the successes for the Allies who decided NOT to get caught again and started to withdraw.

Survivors of the Aussie militia section with their precious Lewis gun start to pull out

with the surviving PIB squad covering the withdrawal

The Australians were the first to pull out - after callously allowing the Jap's to concentrate their fire on the running Papuans (they could have attempted to rally them into the shelter of the village) - then followed in turn by the surviving PIB squad. Ian's remaining squad had withdrawn the previous turn and suddenly appearing where they had been was another section of Japs, one of two that had circled around behind us! The Australians would have been cut off but for the Papuans of the PIB who with their Australian officer, led the Australians into the jungle to escape the encircling Japanese. Its going to be a very long walk to Deniki!

The surviving Allies at Pitoki head for the jungle, the Papuan guides faithfully saving them from the rapidly closing Japanese - just as more Jap mortar fire starts to rain down behind!

Well, the ambush proved a little harder to execute than the Allies planned. From the Jap perspective they had gained their objective - the village - with some losses (only slightly more than our own) but we hope the sacrifice of the PIB has brought some time for the main force at Deniki to prepare for the next Japanese onslaught!

The jungle fighting is extremely difficult to replicate on the table - I screwed up the timing of the ambush on one side of Pitoki as I allowed the scouts through but should have allowed the main body too before opening fire - and revealing my position. The fragile morale of the PIB depends on their Australian officers and NCOs - once they are killed the poor old Papuans tend to rout - which is exactly what happened to my squad. To ambush successfully it would appear that in the jungle you have to literally cut the enemy down at point blank range but I confess that I haven't got a handle on just how this is supposed to work with Disposable Heroes. The strafing from the air was much more straight forward and a lot of fun - it saved whatever of our bacon was saved at Pitoki and caused at least half of the Jap casualties including a mortar, HMG and crews.

A nice bit of Photoshop-ing from Greg Blake showing what the Allies would have liked to have seen

happen to the Japs with an Aircobra strafing run (using the nose cannon too!)

Another great game and once more thanks to Andrew (who designed and adjudicates our game) Ian for some great work on the Allied left, Doug our genial host and Cameron and Greg our inscrutable foes who once again proved formidable opponents on the table!

Next game - Deniki, last stop before the apocalyptic clash at Isureva which nearly decided the whole campaign. Stay tuned folks!

Cheers,

Doc

Kokoda: Airpower!

2011-04-10T09:10:00.002+10:00

As the shattered survivors of the 39th retreat back up the Kokoda track, we have a little surprise for our Japanese friends.

Basically the Allies made pretty good use of air cover for ground support, whereas from what I've read of the campaign, the Japanese generally didn't. A big mistake for them as the Jap planes like the Zero were superior to most of the Allied planes available at the time.

Flying out of Port Moresby was the US Army's 8th Pursuit Group which initially consisted of about 26 P39 Bell Aircobras (out of over 40 originally sent - there were a lot of accidents!) These planes were no good for dogfighting above 10,000 feet - completely outclassed by the faster and more maneuverable Zeros - but they packed a huge wallop in armament AND were hard to shoot down as they were armoured! They had 4 x 30 Cals in the wings, 2 x 50 Cals mounted above the nose and in the nose a 37mm cannon! They made a great ground attack aircraft that could also readily defend themselves at lower altitude.

They had a very short range which they extended with a drop tank but lost the tank when carrying a 500 lb bomb! Must have been very vulnerable trundling over the Owen Stanleys with a full load of fuel etc - you have to get up to nearly 20,000 feet just to avoid flying into the mountains in Papua! But the Japanese were too far away in Rabaul to intercept as a result the Aircobras really got stuck into the Japs on the ground on the northern Papuan coast and foothills around Kokoda. There were a few Aircobra aces too - they could readily take care of themselves at lower altitudes.

I found an old 1/72nd scale Airfix model I made as a teenager that required a bit of repair - part of the tail-plane comes from a model French Dewotine fighter - and new paint (I had to hand paint all the decals - the old ones were disintegrating with age!) to make it one of the 8th FPG out of Moresby. Also made up a stand & its now ready for the next phase of our Kokoda campaign!

The last thing the Japanese will see as it comes skimming over the jungle top guns blazing!

The next post will be of the next phase of the Kokoda battle - ambush at Deniki. Stay tuned for more Kokoda action!

Cheers,

Doc

Sikh Wars Interlude

2011-04-05T13:22:00.002+10:00

While we work out our next clash on the Kokoda trail, I had to do a few 'jobs' that were required for my bodyweight in FPW Prussian & French lead. Suffice to say I have two enormous (well, by my standards anyway) armies 14 battalions (@24 & 18 figures each!) artillery batteries and 3-4 cavalry regiments plus commands. Thats a lifetime's worth of painting of course and I will be concentrating on the Prussians first. BUT - there is a price to be paid for such frivolity. The painting of (my lead pimp) Doug's small mountain of Sikh cavalry. I must confess, if it were not for the threat of divorce and financial ruin, I would seriously consider collecting Sikh Wars/Indian Mutiny figures (I seem to have painted an army's worth as it is!) They are lovely figures too - all Foundry and some of the earliest of the Perry brother's handiwork (when Foundry was their day-job). Michael has a real love of the period, even illustrating Ian Heath's Osprey on the subject (The Sikh Army 1799 - 1849) - my painting reference for most of these figures.

Sikh Cuirassier Jamadar (General) - my first and favourite of the Foundry figures.

Should have put more gold braid detail on the saddle cover - but I had too many more to paint!

The Sikh cavalry were as formidable as their infantry and the Sikh army, known as the Khalsa, very nearly inflicted defeat on the British - after one such Pyhrric victory the Viceroy of India, Lord Dalhousie remarked: "A few more such victories will loose us the Empire!" Didn't help that the British general, Gough, was also an idiot. His use of 'Tipperary tactics' - frontal charge with bayonet - cost the British thousands of casualties. The Sikhs, as well as good infantry and well-armed, mad cavalry, possessed quite a large number of guns. Sikh gunners were describes as 'huge' - most six foot or over, well drilled and utterly fearless. As well as not having to face them, I am relieved to say the job for Doug did not entail painting dozens of Sikh guns and crews!

Perry-designed (?) Sikh cuirassier finished - & Doug can do his own basing!

And the trumpeter. As per European fashion: sans cuiras

Prominent amongst the cavalry arm were various types of irregulars. The British found them to be very tough customers and often better armed than they were. Like many Sikhs utterly fearless but as cavalry, virtually uncontrollable on the battlefield. Bit too charge-happy to be really useful - fortunately for the better-disciplined Brits. The next lot are Ghorchurras - armed with a medieval mix of armour, chain-mail, wickedly sharp scimitars, a variety of knives and even reflex-bows (powerful enough to punch through armour) and pistols or muskets. The guys I've painted here are jamadars or commanders but I've got another bunch of irregular cav to go as well (he does extract his pound or two of flesh does our Doug ;-0 )

Yes folks, that IS a Rohan shield (with a few obligatory sword notches in it)

Other side, Ghorchurra commander

Another of the Sikh wildmen: a Ghorchurra Khas sowar (unit commander/NCO)

Not to be outdone for the period were (of course) the British. The following is a British cavalry commander - could be a general or could be an officer (very Hodson's Horse-like; a young Hodson himself perhaps?) Nice figure - not Foundry, as far as I can tell.

Last by certainly not the least (over a dozen more lancer types and more irregs to paint up!) are the Sikh Dragoons. There were a number of Sikh cavalry units that copied the British and were organised and drilled in the classic European way. There were a number of Europeans who fought for the Sikhs and organised these units. One French Napoleonic veteran, General Jean-Francois Allard, not only commanded a Sikh army but sourced and brought over the carabinier-type cuirasses to equip the Sikh heavy cavalry (pics at top of blog). But these are not they. These are the dragoons m'Lord - nasty beggars that ride away then turn around and shoot you - very unsporting eh what?

Foundry figures again - very nice too.

And their jamadar - similar uniforms to the Brits but black leather webbing to go with a snazzy red turban!

Well that's it for the Sikh Wars cavalry for now. I have a few more to do including the famous lancers but they will have to wait (sorry Doug!) as we have to try and avoid defeat on the Kokoda track - likely my next post but hopefully not weeks away this time round!

Remember to click on the pics for enlargement and leave a comment if you want.

Cheers,

Doc

Battle for Kokoda West Part 2.

2011-03-19T03:06:00.001+11:00

Headquarters section, Kokoda

(Photo courtesy of Greg Blake, foggy bits etc, by Doc)

It’s been so long since the last post on the Kokoda campaign that I should have included a short history and synopsis of it so far for those new to the blog or perhaps not familiar with this as it was one of the more obscure military campaigns of WWII. I have to say that it may be remote and tiny in terms of geographic location and numbers involved (initially under 20,000 all told - 13,000 Japanese faced by less than 4,000 Australian and local Papuan militia), but it is of immense and increasing historical importance to many Australians. In my opinion it now equals that of the better known Gallipoli campaign of WWI, and rightly so as it was on our doorstep and involved incredible heroism and sacrifice by a generation that is still with us.

Jap patrols pushed through the mist shrouded jungle and native gardens,

probing towards the Kokoda escarpment

The Japanese task force, the Nankai Shitai, has landed on the north coast of Papua and and advance force of over 1,000 Japanese veterans has rapidly pushed inland from the coast with the immediate aim of capturing the vital airstrip at the old colonial administration outpost of Kokoda, located on a flat plateau jutting out from the foothills of the formidable Own Stanley mountain range. The Australian forces in Papua New Guinea at the time consisted only of the inexperienced, barely trained and badly equipped 39th Militia battalion, commanded by a leavening of experienced AIF officers led by Col. Owen. They were augmented by a few companies of the native Papuan Infantry Battalion, local recruits and former native constabulary led by Australian officers and NCOs - most of them also former police and colonial administrators.

39th Bttn militia, Kokoda.

(Photo courtesy of Greg Blake, foggy bits etc, by Doc)

Aggressive Japanese tactics have seen an advance patrol under the gallant Templeton wiped out at Ovi river and Templeton killed. Papuan militia help the survivors escape. Owen has withdrawn most of his forces to Deniki in the mountains behind Kokoda but soon realises his mistake and force marches his exhausted troops back. A second smaller patrol is ambushed and also destroyed, shortly afterwards the assault on Kokoda East begins. The Australians just have time to dig in - temporary trenches called 'scrapes' - they give the bare minimum of cover. At first they inflict heavy casualties on the Japanese but numbers and firepower, in particular mountain guns, mortars and heavy machine guns start to take their toll. The Australian advance platoon is cut off and the Aussies, attempting to withdraw across open ground lit by star shells are cut down, almost to a man, ending the battle for Kokoda East [for full story and lots of pics, see earlier posts on Kokoda East, parts 1 & 2 in Dec last year, links on LH side].

Much the same fate has now befallen the Australian command at Kokoda West under Owen (both historically and in the game he was killed by a sniper!) Heavy Japanese assault on the Aussie positions in front of the native huts at the top of the Kokoda escarpment have wiped out several sections. As is the familiar pattern, Jap assaults initially suffer heavy casualties: one section wiped out and a second decimated and forced back. But the Japs can afford to absorb these casualties (Jap platoon sections are 15-18 men while Aussie sections range from 6 to 8 men) as the Japs have two+ full strength companies, as apposed by a weakened company of three under strength militia platoons. Once again the Japanese threaten to cut off most of the Australians defending the far end of the escarpment.

The determined Jap assault reaches the foot of the escarpment.

The first Jap assault was stopped in its tracks but at a very heavy price. It was followed by second and then third waves, each one becoming increasingly hard to hold off. As before the defenders were hugely disadvantaged by their positions being exposed and targeted once they opened fire, lit up by constant star shells. The Jap commander Greg held off his third and final assault, keeping his men outside of visible range while using his numbers and firepower to suppress the Australian positions - a very effective tactic. Meanwhile, at the other end of the escarpment Jap C-in-C Cameron's men got within visible range of my positions so by Turn Three I was forced to open fire.

The action at the end of the village. The Japs attack through deteriorating visibility with a light drizzle adding to the mist and gloom. The conditions were NOT conducive to good shooting. The Aussie automatic weapons failed completely, the blasted Owen gun jamming yet again (red marker). The Jap section on the left is suppressed (green marker), having passed its gut check. Repeated attempts to get them to charge failed, so I could not use grenades on them. I eventually wiped out one section and with the support of one of Doug's sections, most of another but the Japanese used concentrated fire from mortars and HMGs in the clump of jungle in the top LH corner to completely obliterate the first section at the end of the village. The third Jap section held back and used its superior firepower to shoot up the second Aussie section. Time for the beleaguered Aussies to withdraw - 'shoot & scoot'!

Doug adds his reserve to my own diminishing firepower
to hold off the Japs long enough to pull out

The idea was for one section to cover the other, retreating in stages. But the star shells lit up our position and Cameron rolled consistently well on shooting to decimate my troops. Two eight man sections were soon reduced to just four men.

My two sections pull back - the surviving Bren gunner heroically shoots and scoots three times

all the way back to the edge of the table, where he tried just one more parting burst...

After own East Kokoda experience, we tried to pull back in plenty of time but were frustrated by the rules not allowing the dug in section an overwatch (covering) capability which would have seen them cut down the Japanese as they appeared at the top of the escarpment. The Japanese lost one group but brought up another and two HMGs which they used to cut us down. And the Jap snipers once again acquired and killed all our officers almost as soon as they exposed themselves to order the withdrawal.

The Australians withdraw

(Photo courtesy of Greg Blake)

As the Aussies withdraw through the village

they are once again lit up by another star shell

Victorious Japs enter Kokoda - just next to Doc Vernon's 1st aid hut.

After this my brave Bren gunner cut down all but the flag bearer from the lead group!

The thing that finally did us in was the proximity of the Japs to our one exit point at the other end of the village. Greg persisted and got enough men into a position where they could concentrate their fire on the remaining Australians as they attempted to get off the board. Apart from the cooks and clerks section - who picked up the Vickers in the process - nearly everyone was cut down by Japanese fire as they tried to escape.

The Japs finally cut off the Aussie withdrawal - didn't get it all their own way: the group at the top

were virtually wiped out by grenades - the only time the Aussies managed it during the entire game!

Historically of course the Japs found getting up the escarpment extremely difficult, suffering heavily from Australian grenades and the Australians successfully withdrew. A Bren gunner stayed behind to cover the withdrawal, hiding about 50 yards from Doc Vernon's fist aid hut. He emptied a full clip of 30 rounds into celebrating Japanese, killing about 20 of them. He casually remarked to an officer as he withdrew "you couldn't miss!" My intrepid Bren gunner kind of paralleled that feat (but the rules only give you a measly 3 dice for shooting - not thirty!) - tried a burst into the Japs at the end of the table - the only time he missed - and paid the ultimate price.

Well folks, that another disaster for the Allies even though once again they inflicted a huge number of casualties on the Japanese. Both sides lost about four sections which meant the Japs lost more than twice as many as we did but we probably needed to inflict three times the casualties to have any chance of success.

It was enormous fun to play and we will have to tinker with the Disposable Heroes rules to get a fairer and more historically accurate result - they are incredibly bloody - but you are guaranteed a result in about five turns! The next stage of our campaign will be the Allies defence of our next outpost along the Kokoda track - Deniki - where the remains of the 39th will try to hold out, but I believe help may be on the way for us. We certainly need it!

Cheers,

Doc

The Battle of West Kokoda Pt.1

2011-03-15T23:00:00.000+11:00

After much unavoidable delay we finally finished our initial Kokoda battles for the airfield with the fight for West Kokoda. These battles are following an increasingly familiar outcome: determined and ferocious attacks by overwhelming numbers of Japanese in the most difficult of conditions resulting in the annihilation of the Allied forces (after some fierce resistance of course).

The Japanese night attack with HMG fire overhead and a ubiquitous star shell drifting down as they

advance through native gardens towards the Aussie positions at the top of the escarpment.

(Photo courtesy of Greg Blake)

After the debacle of the East Kokoda fight, the Allies (Australian militia with some local Papuan constabulary) under the command of C-in-C Doug (who played Col. Owen, the ill-fated Aussie commander of the 39th) and myself now faced at least two companies of veteran Japanese. At our disposal for West Kokoda we had three under-strength platoons of militia, one of which was the Headquarters platoon made up of the battalion’s cooks and clerks and supported by one Vickers HMG – our only heavy weapon.

The Japanese assemble and advance through the mist shrouded native gardens below the escarpment.

Our opponents were the redoubtable Greg and Cameron commanding the South Seas Detachment – Nankai Shitai – (the 144^th Regt) of Japanese veterans. Apart from several HMGs of the Woodpecker variety they were accompanied by numerous mortar tubes and a mountain gun - more freaking star shells! Now a less experienced opponent may have just relied on their overwhelming numbers and thrown them against us in virtual human wave attacks (not too far removed from what happened historically!) but not these two. I'm afraid they were rather stingy in offering their troops opportunities to die for the Emperor.

The next wave of Japs makes it to the base of the escarpment directly blow the village

(Photo courtesy of Greg Blake)

Greg’s first attack was on the centre of the Aussie line located along the edge of a tall escarpment, the Japs advancing through the native gardens, cleverly created by Andrew (the game adjudicator and Master of Terrain) to the base of the escarpment and (temporarily) out of the Allied fire. Like all previous attacks, these were made in the dark of early morning, visibility also hampered by mist and heavy drizzle. The Japs weren't visible until they closed within 15” of our positions. Bearing in mind that firing would expose the location of our positions and although dug in, they were only ‘scrapes’ – shallow emergency trenches – and only one pip's worth of cover!

By Turn 2 the first Japanese sections managed to climb the escarpment and

were into our positions before we could cut them down.

Being once again at night with mist and rain made the Allied job of acquiring targets amongst the advancing Japanese extraordinarily difficult. Our rolling for shooting did not help either - the lone HMG did some long range execution once - then failed to inflict any significant damage and was repeatedly under return fire. We ended up trying to withdraw it on about Turn 3 and only managed to get the crew wiped out. In the end it was the brave cooks and clerks platoon who managed to carry it off to safety. We also made a rather costly blunder (in my opinion) by failing to grenade the Japs at the bottom of the escarpment. Historically the Japs suffered grievous losses from Aussie grenades while scrambling up the near vertical slope. We fired everything off but failed to kill more than half of the lead section who slightly outnumbered us in the subsequent hand-to-hand. The end result was the total loss of the two sections of the 1st platoon - and I whined about grenades for the rest of the game!

Doc's dilemma - now I've stopped whining about grenades, should I shoot again or just run away?

Andrew's helpful advice - you can do both - and so we'll attempt to 'shoot 'n scoot'!

To be fair we did get to use them once and they were remarkably effective, causing about four casualties on a decimated Jap section which then routed - the only time I can recall it happening so far this campaign! Mind you they did manage to rally but the usual experience is Jap units that fail their Gut Check (morale) immediately BANZAI!!! right at you!

The ominous view from Maj Callow's position at the end of the village:

the Japs close in through the mist and rain.

At the other end of the village at the furthest point on the escarpment was Major Callow's depleted platoon of two 7-man sections. Here I deliberately held fire until the Japanese were in visible range so didn't open up until Turn 3. The idea was not to reveal my positions and invite an overwhelming response from over three times the number of advancing Japs. But either way you were going to cop it as the Japs lit up our positions anyway with repeated star shells which meant of course Japs outside of normal visible range (but well within shooting range) could also range in on you once you fired but without you being able to see them and effectively fire back!

The Aussie positions are lit up once again by the ever present Jap star shells.

How the heck you are supposed to defend a position in those circumstances is beyond me - the Allies have tried three times so far and failed completely each time! I even invited my Jap commander Cameron to fail his Gut Check - the idea is to provoke a charge and grenade 'em at close range - but in spite of his best efforts he passed every time! Nothing seemed to be working for the Allies.

How will they stop the Japanese hordes?

Will anybody survive?

Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Battle for West Kokoda!

Cheers,

Doc

Franco-Prussian War French - Chasseurs d'Afrique and Doc's basing technique demo'd

2011-02-20T18:56:00.001+11:00

Well it took a little longer than anticipated, but that wasn't because they were harder to paint. There's a lot happening both with figures from various periods as well as at work so just a bit time poor of late. I decided to give the Chasseurs - the pretty boys of French FPW cavalry - the 'deluxe' basing treatment. And I used the Army Painter shading as well to give them a nice finish. The last bit alone added an extra 24 hours to ensure it was properly dry and hardened before varnishing.

The other thing I had to sort out is my new camera - a Panasonic Lumix TZ10. Its a great little digi compact with a very good Leica lense and all sorts of macro and manual controls. It takes terrific low light macro shots but like anything, you need to practice to get it right. The pics I'm posting are my first attempts, so bear with me.

I've recorded the stages of my 'deluxe' basing technique, starting with the figures after the final painting and the application of the Army Painter shade dip. BTW - I don't dip - I brush it on which gives far greater control of where you want the shade effect concentrated and it is a far less wasteful way of doing it.

Dipped, cured and ready for basing

The boys based & ready for a good flocking!

I make my own bases from 6mm heavy card & magnetic adhesive sheets, all cut to size & sealed with black acrylic paint.

The three stages above are first: add a small blob of PVA glue and carefully place some scenery rocks in it. I use the reasonably fine light railway scenery rocks - if you want they can be stained up realistically with diluted fleshwash afterwords. Second; press on a pinch of static grass - not too hard, just enough for it to bed into the PVA & rocks mix, then tap off the excess - it should look like the third pic. The next part is an addition of mine - adding some patches of 'burnt summer grass' mix on the base.

While the paint is wet put a decent pinch of the grass mix on - press it lightly so you get a good amount sticking, then tap off the rest. At the risk of stating the bleedin' obvious I do say 'tap' as if you blow on it, its so fine it'll go everywhere - and its not stuff you'd want to inhale!

The patches of grass & rocks done, its now time to finish the flocking off.

I use a nice sloppy acrylic green paint that I've watered down a bit (not too thick, not too thin!). I work quickly but carefully, covering the base with plenty of paint but trying not to slop it on the grass patches or the figures, I use an old brush about 2 cm long with some point left so I can push the paint mix into all the nooks and crannies. Once all the base is covered I put it into my flock mix container, making sure its well covered by mix. I push it threw the mix several times, tapping it off in between. This allows any larger bits to fall off and the finer material to adhere to the paint. Again, resist the urge to blow the excess away - its healthier to tap! The final pic above shows the bases flocked and the figures ready for the (final) varnishing.

The Chasseur regiment after the matt varnish has dried - all Foundry figures and very nice to paint up.

The officer is wearing the shako like the men did at the time of the attempted breakout from Metz, where the Chasseurs sacrificed themselves charging Prussian rifles and artillery to give time for the Emperor and the rest of the army to escape. It proved fruitless as most went into the bag - including the surviving Chasseurs - although at least one regiment of them busted out and fought with distinction for the rest of the Republican phase of the war. They were the finest mounted of all the French cavalry, all being on pure blood Arabians, mostly grays. Although Prussian cavalry generally outclassed the French, they never bettered the Chasseurs who were arguably the best cavalry of the war, albeit on the loosing side.

Well, that's the lot so far. Click on the pics for enlargement and leave a comment if you like. My French are just about done - still toying with the idea of another couple of battalions but the rest of the Prussian army awaits!

Cheers,

Doc

Franco-Prussian War Prussian Infantry

2011-02-08T16:38:00.001+11:00

Finished my first batch of the Prussian infantry. No huge dramas in painting, just a few decisions to make on the basing and projected unit size. I hunted around a bit for the right shade of blue and finally found by accident a hobby paint - 'Blue Ink' 642 acrylic by FolkArt. Hit it once with a weak black ink wash and finished with the Army Painter shade and got what I think is a great result. I didn't abandon the washes entirely - just cut back on their use. I ended up doing just one wash (of heavily diluted flesh or black ink) rather than layering them for all the colours. I then sealed the figures up with the Army Painter and left them for 24 hours to make sure the coating was well cured and hardened.

I have to say, despite their outrageous price nowadays, the FPW range is one of Foundry's finest in my opinion. Beautifully sculpted figures with good detail and a nice range of poses. There are some rough bits left from the moulding but nothing worse than you get with Perry figures (metal or plastic) and they were easily cleaned up. Given half of mine were 2nd hand the worse aspect of the preparation was getting someone else's globs of dried bright blue paint off (we think they may have had Bavarians in mind then realised they were the wrong figures!)

The only 'ring-in' for these is Herr Oberst's horse, which is one of the Castaway one's I got with the Uhlans. Not the greatest but with some minor adjustment of Herr Oberst's greatcoat he was able to fit his ample Prussian backside on the rather slender Nellie's saddle - dignity intact!

You may notice that to the right of Herr Oberst is a bit of what was left of a French artillery wheel accompanied by what was left of a French artilleryman. He originally started life as a Prussian casualty but with a bit of file and blade work and one of those handy spare kepis from the Perry's ACW box, I convinced him to change sides! I did him to match the Prussian artillery casualty marker I made a few posts ago for Black Powder gaming. Dunno if it'll work, but it looks good on the table - so worth trying I reckon!

Unlucky Pierre!

The other thing I really liked and that turned out well is the Prussian infantry standard. This is the line one from Ian Croxall's Warflag site. I highly recommend Ian's site - the flags are excellent and cover a huge range of periods.

As I said earlier, the basing presented a few challenges but I decided to keep it consistent with my other FPW collection and made up 60 x 30mm bases with three figures per base. Prussian units were larger than the French, reflecting better organisation as the Prussians and their German allied forces mobilised quicker and more effectively than the French. There were on average 900-1000 men per battalion, four battalions to the regiment (three in the field & one depot), two regiments to the brigade. The battalions consisted of four companies of up to 250 men each and a headquarters section of another dozen, so roughly 1,000 in total. I also have the French in stands of three figures, 18 to a battalion, so six stands. To make the Prussian battalions reflect their greater numbers I would have to make up ten stands per battalion, which is a bit much so I've knocked it back to eight or 24 figures. That will still need 72 figures per regiment, 144 for just one Prussian brigade. Phew! Thatsa lotta figures to paint! After this lot, only 108 to go. Easypeasy... NOT!

For the flocking I use my own mix but I added a leavening of 'Summer' blend from the Hobby Scenics flocking I picked up from my mate Dean's Olympian Games. Gives it a nice variation without resorting to the static grass which otherwise tends to get over-used (and goes everywhere AND makes you sneeze!)

Well, thats my first Prussian unit, minus another 12 figures to make up two battalions for the first regiment. There's that or 12 Chasseurs d'Afrique to do to finish my French cav. Whichever ones I do, I know I'll enjoy it as I'm stuck at home for a few days to get rid of a rather annoying chest infection (and as my work colleagues don't appreciate my incessant coughing!) so plenty to keep me occupied!

Remember to click on the pixs to enlarge and leave a comment if you like (or even if you don't like!)

Cheers,
Doc

Milestone passed - and a big thanks from Doc's 'Art of War'

2011-02-04T11:51:00.001+11:00

It slipped by unnoticed a few days ago but Doc's 'Art of War' blog just passed a blogging milestone of sorts. Since October 2009, some 99 posts later, this blog passed the 40,000 hits mark! Yaaaay!

So as Old Mate Karl says, a big 'thank you' to all of you who have visited this blog and particularly those who have taken the time to make such generous comments on it.

This blog has been an eclectic mix of militaria from many periods ranging from the Renaissance to WWII and even fantasy including Warhammer and LOTR, both artwork and figures, models and wargaming - with the odd bit of military history thrown in from time to time. It reflects my own reasonably diverse interests and is, of course, entirely self-indulgent!

Needless to say the discovery of blogging has been somewhat of a revelation and has proven to be a tremendous avenue of release for creativity - all constantly inspired by the brilliant efforts of my fellow blogging enthusiasts!

I am constantly amazed at the quality and artistic creativity of my fellow enthusiasts and have learned so much from so many of you - so thanks again to all for supporting my own very modest efforts.

At the end of the day its great therapy. I've found that later in life, when one does mad things like finishing a university degree near the end of one's career while at the same time juggling work and a large and busy family, to retain sanity some indulgence is called for.

Blogging Doc's 'Art of War' fits the bill nicely!

Hope you've all enjoyed it as much as I have, I look forward to the next 100 posts/40,000 hits!

Cheers,
Doc

Franco-Prussian War French Command

2011-01-25T23:31:00.000+11:00

Back from my hols in sunnier climes (sand, surf and sun - when the rain wasn't too torrential!) and first off decided to finish the French command base I previewed in my last post. They are all Foundry figures I've had for years and finally decided to do something with. The scene is French commanding general Bazaine has a massive headache while his corps commanders argue about where the Prussians are coming from and how the hell they're going to get out of the mess they're in. Two field officers are observing the battle while the conference goes on behind and a courier has just arrived with what looks like could be more bad news for Bazaine. Typical FPW French command debacle.

First French officer to 2nd officer (observing the battle in front): 'Are we in a bit of trouble mon ami?'

2nd officer to 1st officer: 'Oui - judging from the noise behind us - we're screwed!'

The courier arrives: 'Well - if you REALLY want to give it to him... '

Bazaine - wishing they'd invented Aspro's in 1870

'I know where the Prussians are - it says so right here on this map!'

Other general: 'Imbecile!' Bazaine: [groan]'Mon Dieu!'

The chair, table and maps were part of the original Foundry set but I added the box with a spare Perry's French officer's sword and kepi. The flocking on the base was a flocking nightmare being about 35C today and being a clumsy old sod I got the muck everywhere. At least the tree turned out OK.

I love the FPW period and have also made up a number of casualty markers for the French included one of my artillery ones like I made for the Prussians. Don't know how if they'll make any difference playing the game but at least like the respective command stands - they'll be good eye-candy for the table - and you can't have too much of that I say!

Cheers,

Doc

FPW: Prussian Cavalry Command & WIP French Command

2011-01-13T23:32:00.001+11:00

Must be some sort of record for this blog - can't remember when I lasted posted twice in a day! Managed to finish my command stand for the Prussian cavalry. Its meant to represent the command for the 12th Cavalry Bde of the III Corps (7th Kuirassier, 19th Dragoons & 16th Uhlans) under Maj Gen von Bredow. The standard is an 1870 Prussian cavalry standard (many thanks to Ian Croxall's Warflag site) as I couldn't find a specific one for the 12th Brigade. I also made them both Kuirassier although pictures I've seen of von Bredow don't have him dressed as one (didn't have a beard either but hey - he was on campaign, OK?) Bit of artistic license on my part! To make him a proper general he has all the silver lace and a rakish greatcoat slung over the shoulder. Took a bit of work with the high speed drill and hair-dryer to bend it into the shape required. I knew one of those spare ones from the Victrix box would come in handy! The Standard-bearer's arm came from Perry's ACW figures and the sword pommel from their French Heavy Cav (only fitting really!)

I've modeled my French FPW army on Bazaine's VI Corps under Canrobert. It was the latter's guns that von Bredow was ordered to silence, leading to the famous Mars-La Tour 'Tottenritt'. I have a few things to do to finish off the French including putting together a command stand. I've had the figures for years but never really got around to doing it - umming and ahhing over just how to compose it. Finishing the Prussian command encouraged me to just get on with it - also finding a suitable MDF wood stand of the right size to put it on. The scene shows Bazaine in 'conference' (in despair more like) with his senior commanders, all looking a tad perplexed.

It is a work in progress that I hope to finish before the end of the month and I go back to work. Got a lot of Prussian infantry to do too and my box of Bolt Action Fallschirmjaeger have arrived demanding attention to finish my WWII German para company. [Sigh] so many figures to paint, so little time...

Well, enough of that melodrama - just to even things up a bit, here's one of the Prussian casualty markers I recently finished. Its a bit unusual in that its an artillery marker as I noticed in BP that there were none to denote hits on guns etc. I'll be adding numbers to the corners so it can be used to represent up to four casualties on any unit and/or a destroyed gun.

I'll post more when I finish the French command but that's it from me for a week or two as I'll be out of town for a bit. As before, click on the pix to see the enlargement and please leave any comments or queries about this or any other of my recent postings - which I promise to answer when I return.

Ciao for now.

Doc

Fantasy figure: Amaregus the Slayer of Old Age

2011-01-13T18:08:00.001+11:00

A mate of mine just reached the dreaded big 5-0 and unbeknown to him, I've prepared a little present. Basically its an Orc wielding a large axe that just happens to bear a passing resemblance to it's intended recipient (except my mate isn't green of course!)

To commemorate my friend's roguish and conspicuous aging I have him/the orc 'slay old age' as it were and I have the orc's boot on the head of the former Empire gunner playing the part of 'Old Age'. A bit of slicing and dicing (the head mainly) and cleaning up the rather worse-for-wear and paint encrusted orc, and giving him a face-lift (if that's the proper metaphor to use for an orc!) and it all came together in a quaint but suitably gruesome vignette.

The result is 'Amaregus - Slayer of Old Age':

So there you have it. A few hours work on a rainy afternoon and an old figure gets a new life. That's the thing about doing fantasy figures - they are a lot of fun and you can let your imagination rip!

Fun and frivolity over, its now back to my very serious FPW Prussians. Just finishing off my Von Bredow command stand for the 'Tottenritt' 12th Bde: "Vorwarts Mein Kinder!!!"

Cheers,
Doc

Holiday project: first part of the FPW Prussian army complete

2011-01-10T23:04:00.003+11:00

Just spent the last few days finishing off the first part of my holiday project; my 1870 Prussian army. I've had it sitting largely in unpainted metal for over two years, just starting over a year ago with the cavalry. I did the regiments that featured in Von Bredow's famous Mars-La Tour 'Tottenritt' ('Deathride'); the 7th Kuirassier and the 16th Uhlans (subject of a previous post) and now I've finished the the 19th Dragoons. I have created three 10-figure units but still have a cav command (Von Bredow himself perhaps?) to do. In addition I have finished the re-basing and painting etc, of the Prussian artillery with their deadly breach-loading rapid-fire Krupps guns. Save for a few Uhlanen all figures are Foundry.

To finish the first part of the project I also put together a little command vignette of mounted general in consultation with two field officers (infantry) which I have tentatively titled 'Wo sind die Verdammpt Franzosen?' - one of the officers is pointing and perhaps suggesting 'they ran that-a-way Sir!'.

The figures are Foundry's original Franco-Prussian line but the general's horse is a rather modified version (saddle cut down to fit the otherwise horseless general) - French officer's ride? Not sure, but it is an attractively sculpted nag nonetheless.

The detritus of battle left from the fleeing French has been added to give a little atmosphere to the scene. It includes an officer's kepi, a dragoon helmet, an abandoned pack and a broken rifle. The helmet was a Perry's dragoon head suitably hollowed out. The pack is their British(?) one from one of their boxes (dead handy they are too - I've used them on a few different bases).

The cavalry hung around for quite some time before I got around to finishing them as I just did not have enough figures for full units, particularly of Uhlans. In the end I bought a few Castaway Arts Prussian Uhlans including a trumpeter, to fill the gaps and provide a command. Although Castaway do some very nice figures and their horses in particular a usually well sculpted, their FPW range, at least these cav figures anyway, were a disappointment (expensive too!) They are scrawny with melon-heads and incorrect or missing equipment (no swords etc). This is a pity but they fit in well enough at scale with the Foundry ones.

The 7th (Magdeburg) Kuirassier are beautiful figures but I needed a command for the unit. In the end I managed to find another officer and converted one of the troopers to a trumpeter. I believe the Prussians did armour their trumpeters in 1870 but I couldn't find a pictorial reference so the figure is guess-work on my part.

And the full regiment...

And of course, the dragoons...

Last not not least is my Prussian artillery. In addition to superior organisation and generalship, a war-winning advantage on the battlefield was undoubtedly the Prussian breech-loading artillery. At least one historian I have read (Jeffery Wawro?) tells the story that Napoleon was offered the invention but had already blown the budget on rifled front-loaders of his own design and the French parliament wouldn't vote him any more. So the German inventors went to the Prussians who snapped the breech-loading mechanism up and quickly put it into production. I had a great deal of difficulty trying to scrounge another slightly heavier gun to match for my second battery. Finally managed it but on one of the unique Prussian carriages which had seats built into the gun axle that acted as a kind of shield as well (the way the Prussians used their guns, sometimes dragging them into the infantry's firing-line for close support, they certainly needed them!)

Now all I've left to do are about four brigades of infantry. No problem - have 'em ready by Christmas (the next one that is!)

All the figures are matched to my French FPW army, for which I have to paint up my Chasseurs d'Afrique some time to finish that lot. Once done I'll have all the works for a good old Black Powder battle for the Franco-Prussian War. Its a fascinating period to game and no, the Prussians do not always win!

Hope you enjoy the pics, click on them for enlargement and feel free to leave a comment too.

Cheers,
Doc

ACW: The Battle of Mills Spring Part Two

2011-01-07T19:50:00.004+11:00

Had to take a break in my blog posting to do some serious PC maintenance - given my browser (and thus Blogger) crashed twice this morning it was urgently required!

So, all fixed touch wood and on with the show...

Once Doug and Cameron's advance guard had been dealt with, it was straight up the middle with everything! At which point in the proceedings I blundered again. Took another swig too many from the bottle and fell off my horse - 'Ch-ch-ch (hic) chaaarge!!' (thud) But once again the Dice Gods smiled favourably and allowed my blundered unit to charge the nearest enemy (one of the options on the blunder chart) which actually took them exactly where I had intended. Hooray for the pisspot general!

But the battle in the centre was now reaching its critical moment.

The main assault on the Union centre gets underway - Carroll's cav on the left (minus the dodgy Kentucky marauders) have burst out of the woods and scared the pants of the green Union troops opposite. The Alabama veterans have fallen victim to Doug's artillery in the middle and are shortly to be followed by another unit.

The Union artillery, specifically the 2nd Bde's battery was the most effective unit on either side during the game. It dispatched one of George's cav regiments, then Andrew's Alabama veterans and finally (above) another regiment from the same brigade. It alone accounted for over half the Rebel losses in the game (that is units removed from the table) before I was able to get my guns on it, destroying one gun and driving the other off.

The only dispute of note was with Andrew's cavalry which had burst out of the woods along that road (i.e. they were in column) and caught Doug's artillery on the move. I contended that they would have destroyed the battery regardless of what formation the cav were in. The head of a column would be plenty enough to engage what was a defenseless target. But I was overruled and Doug somehow turned his carriages around and pulled them out of danger. The compromise being he couldn't deploy them (and thus fire) in the next move.

I became a sulky drunk general but went along with the consensus: 'Ah do say sah that the gentleman's rules of Black Powder insist upon gentlemanly conduct - let's have a drink to celebrate our decorum!' 'What a grand notion sah, don't mind if'n ah do - bottomsup!' Besides which, the crucial fight that eventually decided the game was happening in the centre/left of the Union line.

The Union throws out a skirmish line to outflank the Rebel advance but too late to prevent a larger Rebel unit from also deploying in the woods to counter the move. The remainder of Zollicoffer's Bde repeatedly charges the increasingly shaky Union centre...

...which finally starts to give way under repeated assault.

The Union centre/left collapses - an entire brigade blown off the table! Doug's other battery, rescued from Andrew's cav have finally deployed but were unable to come into action before being hit in the flank.

Reb General Crittenden celebrates with another l'il drinky-poo!

The fight on the centre/left went down to the wire with all of (Andrew's) Carroll's Brigade (minus some skirmish units) stalled in mid field after failing orders - twice! The entire weight of the final assault fell on Zollicoffer's depleted brigade - only three of five regiments left.

The guys very kindly let me 'blood' my VMI regiment and guns in substitute for the Missi, Missisip, Missip... them other Rebs - and they excelled! The guns disordered two regiments, causing one to withdraw and finally put paid to Doug's pesky battery. The VMI instructors would have been pleased with their students efforts! The VMI regt. repeatedly attacked, drove off one Union opponent and disordered another before being driven off themselves, only to rally in time to join the final attack. That's mah boys!

The loss of Doug's brigade on the centre/left caused all his army units to test and as a result the disordered units on his right which had been under tremendous pressure from Andrew's constant artillery, skirmisher fire and cavalry attacks (shotties at close quarters!) failed their morale and also collapsed.

With the total loss of two of three brigades for the Union, the result was a resounding Confederate victory.

An th' general celebrated by breakin' outa 'nother bottle o' his fahnest sipping whiskey... YEEEHAH!

Cheers,

Doc

PS: All the scenery and many figures are Doug's with most (many/most? Old Glory) belonging to the redoubtable Andrew. I supplied the VMI cadets and the two 'Apostle' guns and whiskey sah, plenty o' whiskey! (Hic!)

PPS: My current painting project is finishing my Franco-Prussian War Prussian army while I'm on leave. Cav & artillery are done - now for a command & 3 or 4 brigades of infantry. Should be finished by this time next year for sure! Post on the figures I've done so far next week.

Black Powder ACW game - Battle of Mill Springs

2011-01-07T12:34:00.001+11:00

After spending an ordinary Christmas which included being stranded with a broken down car, being rained on and frozen in unseasonably cold weather for a day while waiting for a $3 part to fix the bloody car, I was in the mood for an afternoon of genteel wargaming in the Black Powder manner with some reasonably sane fellow adults. And what a game was had!

The scenario was the Battle of Mills Springs, also known as Logan's Crossroads in which the Confederate Army of East Tennessee under the soused Maj Gen George Crittenden was soundly flogged by the Union 1st Div of the Army of the Ohio under the sober Gen George Thomas. Being fashionably late, I was duly appointed 'Crittenden' and told that I was drunk and in charge. I quickly played the part and in character managed to roll both the blunders of the afternoon but with the uncanny luck of a true dipsomaniac managed to hand out an unhistorical flogging to them thar Blue-bellies. Yeeehaaa!!!!(Hic! Buuuurp!)

The vital crossroads are behind the wooded area on the right. The Rebs come on along the other edge of the table, Carroll's Bde (Andrew) in front of the farm house and Zollicoffer's (George and me) along the road. The weather is dreadful with intermittent pouring rain (diced for each turn). The Union forces (Cameron and Doug) have thrown their cavalry picket (1st Kentucky - henceforth known as the 'Plucky Kentucky') forward to the first defensible position in order to buy time for the rest of the Union forces to come up.

The rest of the brigade is coming on at the other end of the table, with one regiment double-timing it up the road to support the cav picket. The Union had to dice to see when and in what order their other two brigades come on during the game which proved a problem for them. All troops are classed as 'green' on both sides save for the 1st Mississippi (Zollicoffer's Bde) and the 16th Alabama (Carroll's) and perhaps the 10th Indiana of Manson's 2nd Bde (Union). Fortunately for me I rolled a D6 for my inebriated general's characteristics which made him an impetuous drunk, otherwise all commanders were rated 8 with the exception of Thomas (a 9).

Being impetuous I ordered the cav straight in - charging the Union picket behind the fenceline by riding right up and blasting them with shotguns at pointblank (the only way to use them). Not only did the green Union cav hold against 2-to-1 odds, they gave as good as they got and inflicted increasingly heavy casualties from the 1st round. The Union picket managed to hold on for an incredible four moves under repeated attack before being destroyed.

The Union cav picket is finally forced back, unblocking the Reb traffic jam on the road

Which in turn allowed the Reb artillery to be brought into action. Note the right hand infantry column - the result of my first 'blunder' which sent them off on an excursion to the woods.

The Union infantry also fought well against overwhelming odds, deploying from the woods on the left in the nick of time and then holding on for three turns in a vicious hand-to-hand. The advance Union forces bought time for the rest to come on - which proved a problem for Doug and Cameron (even with the latter's uncanny di rolling) as the opportunity their sacrifice afforded was not used to full effect - Doug had to roll to bring his troops on but couldn't match his co-commander Cam's magical di-work! Historically the Union forces caught the Rebs bunched up charging across the open fields in the centre and slaughtered them. But not this time round!

The Alabama veterans (on the right) come up against the green Union troops of Mahon's Bde (Cameron) who - at odds of nearly 3-to-1 - hold them off for three turns AND drive the cav off!

The picket dies but does not surrender! Driven out of the farmhouse and unable to mount their horses and escape, the 'Plucky Kentucky' cav face the final charge (and annihilation) by Carroll's (Andrew's) Tennessee cavalry.

Part two of the Battle of Mills Springs to follow in a sec - ups the guts with guns and smoke! Chaaaarge!!! (Hic!)

Cheers,
Doc

Some mechanicals to go with the Fallschirmjaeger

2011-01-02T17:57:00.001+11:00

The last thing I finished off last year was an armoured recon half-track to go with the Fallschirmjaeger platoon I did earlier. Basically I got two half-tracks and a Kubelwagon to create a motorised platoon for the FJ.

The Kubelwagon is probably superfluous but I can always get a few motorcycle combinations later on for a fully mobile HQ section. I got the half-tracks and wagon already finished and only needing some minor repairs/touch-ups but the Recon Halftrack was a Blacktree Designs metal kit.

While I am reasonably pleased with the result, it was possibly the worst kit I have ever had to build. Firstly, its rough - very rough - and the parts do not fit together. Even the photo of the completed model on the Blacktree site doesn't - you can see the gaps everywhere.

But by far the worst was the stupidity of the manufacturer of including two wheel/track guards for the same side. There is no way you can cut and redo to fit - I was forced to make one of them out of card. That and the tons of bogging required to fill in the gaps in the model made it a right royal pain in the arse to build. As you are paying over UK$20 for the kit, this really isn't good enough in my opinion. That said, the completed model looks OK and fits in well with the rest of the models & figures.

On the plus side it comes with a good MG32 and 35mm canon options - I chose the latter - as there is not enough room for both in the cupola. I also added some track and tow bar to the front for further detail. The figures came in useful as I used one for the missing Kubelwagon driver which fitted well enough (with a bit of surgery) in the smallish wagon model.

Hans - vatch out fur zat verdampten Kfz du Dummkopfen!

The last pic is the recon/HQ sections. Click on the pic for an enlargement and feel free to leave a comment. Happy New Year everyone!

Cheers,

Doc

A Christmas Message from your Dogs of War boys...

2010-12-23T00:43:00.001+11:00

Seasons greetings, Merry Christmas, and another inspirational New Year to all the wargaming, figure painting and collecting fraternity in the blogosphere from Doc's 'Art of War'.