Desert Basing

Here are a few photo's of the Arab Israeli armour I've currently got based.









BMPs and T54 with the chinchilla sand and paint mix.










Close up of the T54











T62s with chinchilla sand mixed with a dark brown commercial flock.










More T62s with chinchilla sand and commercial flock mix









Israeli HQ










M113 with plain chinchilla sand too light and lacking in texture so due for some new bases.

An update woohoo as my daughter would say. Bought some 6mm houses from Najewitz Modellbau which I have to admit provides an excellent service, models ordered on Saturday from Germany and they arrived Friday. Well I would have got them Friday but even free post they were a signed for delivery, no one home and going to Paris on the weekend so I had to wait another week to collect them.

Some pics of the models.


The school building












The tenement block










The apartment block

The Château

The Normandy Row Houses

The first three are cut from a very thin MDF like material the others are resin cast and very nice models. The only thing that really needs doing is to insert an interior to make them feel a bit more solid, but they go together well using PVA glue which seems to dry very quickly .

http://www.lasermodellbau.de/

Cap Badge

My father in law has this badge which he is attempting to identify. Any assistance would be welcome

Austria

I went on holiday to Austria in August and what a beautiful country it is. We stayed in the area around Saltzburg and being a wargamer I naturally looked at its potential as a setting for scenario's, the nature of the terrain in the western part of the country in particular, long valleys surrounded by mountains. Ideal for games where a WARPAC force has to fight it's way along the main roads in the valley bottoms. Kurrasiers and M60's fighting to stem the advance of the Russian hordes. The cogs have been turning ever since and I've just got to give it a try.

With a country this like this to devastate and the terrain providing naturally defined battlefields where can you go wrong.

Is it really that long.

Well it's been an age since the last post. Things have been progressing quite well with the BKC stable of games. FWC has now been added and we have played a few games.

The terrain has been improved and expanded with a variety of fields, trees and buildings, some my own card buildings and some resin cast.


A selection of fields, the rather white looking area's don't look too bad in natural light but the flash does tend to lighten them up a bit.




These are the cheap as chips Chinese trees sold on Ebay and although they aren't brilliant at less than 10p each and used en masse they don't look too bad. The edges of the bases on the fields and tree bases require painting but until I get my new boards completed I'm still not sure what colour to paint them.

I'm still waiting for the release of the new BKC book and so are some members of the Kirklees Crusaders a club I have recently begun attending. They meet Monday nights at Patriot Games Wood St Huddersfield and are a friendly enough bunch and play a variety of games. I still attend the club at Claremount Cons Club on Wednesdays so two nights a week wargaming is pretty good, just need to find somewhere for the other five nights to make my wife a true wargames widow. The only snag would then be finding time to paint up new figures.

My old club at Scunthorpe is running a games weekend on the 3rd and 4th of Octber and I'm hoping to run a large CWC game which should provide a some new content for the blog. I started gaming at the Scunthorpe Club which has undergone several incarnations but is now probably in the healthiest condition it has ever been. A lot of members and a dedicated room at the Grange Farm Hobbies Centre so in theory available seven days a week. Paradise!.

The Scunthorpe Club still holds fond memories of Modern Campaigns and some characters who have influenced my thinking on wargaming in general. It is rather sad that I've lost touch with some of them.

I've got some more photo's of terrain to post when I manage to find them so hopefully I'll be able to maintain some momentum with the blog but things have changed a bit over the last few months with a new job and my daughter going away to university which I hope she will find a fulfilling experience.

The Sand War

Another little war gamed conflict is that between Morocco and the Polisario Front fought in the Western Sahara from the mid seventies through to a cease fire agreed in 1991. After the withdrawal of Spain from the Western Sahara the region was split between Morocco and Mauritania but the indigenous peoples desired independence and with the backing of Algeria and Libya formed the Polisario Front. Mauritania dropped out and signed a peace agreement with the PF but Morocco annexed the area and the conflict continued.

By the mid to late eighties backing for the PF from Libya and Algeria had declined due to their own internal problems. Up to 1985 the PF had been well equipped with BMP1s, BTR50s,T55s, BM21 and SA7s. They were organised and equipped along similar lines to the Libyan military.

Morocco had received equipment from the US and France amongst others including M48A3, M60A3, M113, Ratel, Steyr4k, jeeps with TOW, VAB, AML90 and AMX10RC. The armoured cars were organised in squadrons and were the main striking force with the tanks used mainly at company strength parcelled out to support the infantry battalions.

This is one of those conflicts I have wanted to have a go at for quite some time and have now finally got round to it. The fighting was mainly over sparsely populated areas and in theory ideal terrain for a fast moving armoured conflict. The AML90s have languishing in my micro box since the late eighties with only the occasional outing as Recce units. The first game will take place this week hopefully.

Moroccan Army

Armoured Car Squadrons were 17 strong 4 platoons of 4 plus 1 command.
EBR 75, AMX10RC, AML90, Eland 90.

Mechanised Companies 3 platoons of 4 APCs plus 2 Command and 2 with 81mm mortar

Attached AT section one per company 2 jeeps with Milan

Brigade AT platoons 4 jeep with TOW

Brigade Support platoons 4 M56 Scorpion or 4 Kurrassier

Attached Tank Platoons 4 M48A3 or 4 M60A3

AA sections were 2 M163 or 2 M48

SA7 teams could be attached to HQ

Artillery
Towed 120mm mortars
SP 105mm(M108) or 155mm(M109 or F3)
SP 122mm MRLS(BM21)


Polisario Front

Organised along typical Russian lines

Tank companies of 10 vehicles.

BMP1 10 vehicle companies.
If BTR50 additional Sagger or Milan teams per platoon.

Motor rifle style companies in EE-11 or OT64A

Recce units BRDM2 or Fiat 6614

AT platoons 3 BRDM-2S
AA 2 ZSU23-4
SA-7 or SA-13

Artillery

120mm towed mortars
SP 122mm (SAU122)
SP 152mm (SAU152)
SP 122mm MRL (RM70)
towed 122mm Howitzers
towed 130mm guns

For additional info see the attached links

http://www.onwar.com/aced/nation/may/morocco/fpolisario1975.htm

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1997/Said.htm

NATO v WARPAC

The last two weeks have seen Soviet forces fighting their way across Norway, our first game was 10,000pts worth of Soviet attacking 5,000pts of Norwegians in a hasty defensive position. This game whilst fun was a little too big to work through in an evening, but to be honest my opponents Soviets were stalled by the mixture of minefields and the longer range fire of my M48's and NM116's, the last straw being the FASCAM being dropped on one of his tank battalions.

The second game was the same antagonists but slightly lower points 8,000 vs 4,000. This time my opponent chose his own army instead of me doing both as there had been complaints in the first game that the army was rubbish and I had for some reason created an army designed to lose. The justification for this accusation was the lower command levels of the Russian HQ's and the shorter range of the MBT's guns. These accusations should not be taken too seriously as they are part of the normal games table banter.

If I had to be subjective about the forces except for the lower command levels of the HQ's my list at least provided Engineers to breach the minefields, enough infantry to fight through built up areas and smoke for the artillery to cover the advance.


The picture shows a view across the battlefield looking from the Norwegian right flank. On the far right of the picture are the bulk of the Russian troops, two BMP1 battalions and a T72 battalion, another BMP1 battalion is closer to the centre behind the village centre right and nearest camera a T64 battalion. On the Norwegian side NM116's with Recce and FAO cover the gap in the minefield. The village further back in the centre and the wood beyond are held by conscript infantry bravely awaiting the Russian onslaught. Things didn't work out so well for the Norwegians on their right flank with the NM116's attempting to do a little shoot and scoot but failing their command roll so after a round of rather ineffective fire at the T64's found themselves exposed on the hill and well within the T64's effective range, things weren't pretty after that with the superior armour of the Russians soaking up the fire and the NM116's dying bravely protecting Norwegian soil.


The major Russian effort was weighted towards the Norwegians left flank with two infantry and one tank battalion driving forward at a fairly sedate pace. The Soviet commander had decided to keep his units rolling forward together and rather than letting some of his formations race off when the command dice were favourable he didn't. This led to units moving generally only once per turn and whilst it presented a formidable force it would have had a serious effect on the game turn limit.


Norwegian infantry deployed in an industrial unit with NM135's lurking behind in the hope of offering at least some support. There is another group of industrial unit to the top of the picture again occupied by infantry.
The Russian hordes lurking in wood land before their mad dash towards the Norwegian defence line, unluckily for them the Norwegian FAO had managed to drop a FASCAM barrage on the far end of the line slowing up the Russian advance. The Russian commander choosing to creep forward out of the mine field at 4cm a time. This really stalled the Russian attack.


The centre village with Norwegian conscript infantry nervously awaiting the Red Horde which luckily for them never arrived and apart from watching the T64's slaughtering the NM116's on the hill to their right never even saw a Russian.


The hero of the day on the Norwegian side was undoubtedly the M48 battalion who managed to do a little bit of long range sniping on a BMP battalion moving from cover to the crest of the hill popping off a couple of rounds before retiring out of sight until their next turn. They also managed to hold up the T64 battalion after they had dispatched the NM116's by firing at maximum range causing enough suppressed units to slow them down. As usual we found ourselves running out of time but the slow Russian advance would have left them struggling to take the objectives before the game time limit in any case.

Another enjoyable game with lessons learned don't try and take on Russian MBT's with NM116's unless its at maximum range or it will all end in tears. Don't buy flock from the model shop if the lightings a bit dim, you could end up with the shocking green that adorns some of the M48 and NM135 stands.