GHQ Desert Armies For Sale

I have decided to sell my British, Italian and German desert armies to try a new period. The whole collection consists of around 200 vehicles of all types, 80 or so infantry/heavy weapon bases, and 20 bases with ATGs or artillery. The quality of the pieces can be viewed on my various 'WW2 Desert' posts. I am also interested in selling off my related terrain items including sand TSS tiles. 

I would be looking for £1 per vehicle or infantry/gun base. All items painted of course, and all GHQ. I would prefer to sell the whole collection as a job lot but might consider breaking it down subject to negotiation.

Leave a comment if you're interested and we can go from there.

Update, 5th November.

Details:
Infantry bases (2cm x 2cm) have 3 figures. Heavy weapon bases have the weapon plus crew. Towed guns have a base with the deployed weapon and crew, plus a combined base with the tow vehicle and second gun in the towed position.
Some of the trucks and tanks numbered below are included on command bases designed for BKC, all the other vehicles are unbased. The listings are the fully painted models, all undamaged and painted to a good standard. I have a good deal of unpainted infantry plus a few unpainted vehicles and guns which I will throw in for free if you want them. If you want terrain items we can negotiate.


British
9 x Matilda II, 10 x Crusader I, 10 x A13 MkII, 10 x Lt tank MkVI, 5 x A9, 5 x A10.
5 x RR a/c (3 mg, 2 ATR conversion), 4 Marmon Herrington a/c (3 mg, 1 20mm), 3 x Dingo.
8 x universal carrier, 10 x 15cwt truck, 5 x 3ton truck.
2 x 2pdr portee, 2 x 2pdr+tow, 2 x 25pdr+tow, 2 x Bofors AA+tow.
20 infantry bases, 4 mmg bases, 3 engineer bases, 2 ATR bases, 2 x 2" mortar bases, 2 x 3" mortar bases.

Italian
15 x M13/40, 10 x M11/39, 7 x L3/33, 2 x AB40 a/c.
5 x Lancia heavy trucks, 4 medium trucks, 2 light trucks, 2 radio trucks, 4 motorcycle bases.
2 x 20mm AA+tow, 2 x 47mm ATG+tow, 2 x 100mm gun+tow, 1 x 105mm gun+tow.
18 x infantry bases, 4 x mmg bases, 3 x 8cm mortar bases, 4 x light mortar bases, 2 x ATR bases.

German
4 x MkIV, 10 x MkIII, 5 x MkII, 2 x PzJgr I.
2 x 222 a/c, 1 x 234 a/c, 1 x Radio a/c, 3 x 250/1, 1 x 250/10
5 x light truck, 2 x Blitz truck, 1 x Blitz radio truck, 2 x Kubelwagen, 6 x motorcycle bases
3 SP 20mm, 2 x 88mm+tow, 2 x 37mm ATG+tow, 1 x 50mm ATG+two, 1 x 75mm IG+tow.
9 x infantry bases, 4 x mmg bases, 3 x engineer bases, 1 x 8cm mortar base.

Terrain etc.
5 GHQ middle eastern houses, 2 pillboxes, 16 x 10cm lengths barbed wire, 4 palm tree bases (2 or 3 trees per base), 4 x 5cm lengths walling, around 30 dug in markers designed for my 2cm x 2cm infantry bases.

Pickled Brains Update

Just in case some of you thought I was going nuts, I wanted to demonstrate that those dust clouds did really exist. They are now promised in October, according to the FoW website. I thought they might have been quietly dropped; but apparently not.

So you see, I'm not going mad. On the other hand, a few more products like this one and I just might...

Battlefront Release Pickled Brains

It's not often you hear that kind of title in a blog post. But it's true. Well, they look like pickled brains to me. The pickled brains of small mammals. Or something that you might find growing off the side of an old tree.

Yes, they're one of the latest releases from Battlefront/Flames of War. They certainly get my vote for the daftest and worst looking wargames accessory ever - and remember, I'm someone who thinks themed dice sets are really cool. What are they actually supposed to be? 'Dust Clouds', for your desert war games. Product code BB122. Check 'em out when you can. I believe they're to be released in September, but you heard it here first. Guaranteed to bring the hobby into disrepute.

And which of these two thoughts is more frightening - that even as you read this, someone is pre-ordering a box of these? Or that adults acting in cold blood conceived and designed these things, stood back and thought: yeah, they're great!?

Ah well, that's the best laugh I got from WI issue 287. The first magazine of my subscription, and already I'm thinking: subscribe in haste, repent at leisure. The ACW theme takes over a big block of the issue, and I'm not really into ACW. And there's something about the whole thing that puts me off. Have any readers been in a nightclub and thought - this is too noisy, too many flashing lights, get me out of here? Or felt the same when visiting a funfair at night? I got a similar feeling from WI 287. Too many flashy graphics, too many large colour pictures, too many miniatures painted to collector's standard. It makes my head spin. I need something more sober.

Anyway, enough negativity. The articles are in fact mostly well written and have solid content. I'll keep an open mind.

Maybe at some point in the not too distant future I'll get round to playing a game or doing some painting, rather than just pontificating. You'll be the first to know.

Cheers to all.

Breaches of Copyright

I recently received an email from Henry Hyde of Battlegames magazine, who was clearly extremely cross that I had used two maps from his magazine on my blog without permission. The maps were originally featured in the posts 'Chance Encounter' (WW2 Poland) and 'Black Powder: The Minimalist Approach' (SYW).

This blog does not exist to genuinely offend anyone, and Henry was clearly genuinely offended. Therefore my first duty is to apologise. The maps have duly been removed.

However, I feel I have a right to justify my actions, and to say I feel a little offended in return. My personal view is that the images were correctly credited to Battlegames, were clearly used for no personal gain, and were likely to bring credit to the magazine and its editor. Maybe they would even result in extra sales. 

I said in the SYW post "I hope I'm not going to get into trouble for scanning in the map and presenting it below". I guess I have egg on my face. But that tongue-in-cheek comment expressed the belief that if the copyright holders did see the post, they would realise that no harm or loss to them could possibly result. Naively, I also expected them to see that I was posting in an innocent spirit of sharing my sources of inspiration.

Of course, had I taken the trouble to contact Henry and ask his permission, he may well have given it, so not doing so was clearly a mistake. But I genuinely thought no offence could possibly occur considering the context. 

As readers will note, numerous examples of images and text scanned in from various sources or dragged from the internet have been used throughout this blog. Three occur in the post preceding this one. This is done to show where I get my inspiration from, and to share with others the best that the hobby has to offer, in a spirit of genuine appreciation. I admit they help to bring a splash of colour to the blog, but they also represent free advertising for all the products and publications featured. I expect they all represent breaches of copyright. If I am to receive further irate emails from copyright holders it might be best just to give up.

The only thing I gain from this blog is the pleasure of sharing my activities, ideas and sources with other gamers. Legally it seems I am at fault but I feel no moral qualms. Perhaps readers (maybe even Henry himself) would like to put me straight. Be as brutal as you like.

Best wishes to all, Keith.

Pride and Prejudice (and other stuff)

Pride

I am indeed proud (in a small, non-boastful way) to have accumulated 50 followers. It was only a few months ago that this little blog only had 2 or 3 followers, but word seems to have got round. Or maybe it was putting the display widget for followers in place that did the trick. I demurred from posting any self congratulation when I passed 20,000 hits, so I will allow myself this little pat on the back.

Even more pleasing is that a modest but steady stream of comments now greets each post, usually with friendly messages or interesting and useful suggestions and information. Thank you to every follower, commenter or reader.

Prejudice

Well now, I am asking myself whether I have abandoned my prejudice or my principles. To come straight out with it, I have signed up for a years subscription to Wargames Illustrated, influenced in no small way by the possibility of some shiny new toys. Let me tell you briefly how it came about.

Here we have the latest issue, WI286. I bought it because the theme on Beda Fomm would be of interest, and I needed some undemanding holiday reading. I found that the magazine continues to be a pretty good read. No slippage yet towards a Flames of War/Battlefront house magazine, beyond what was evident from the start. I don't really like magazines with themed editions, but on the evidence of this issue WI has been sensible enough not to let the theme take over the magazine.

And then there were the subscription offers. £48 gets you 12 issues, so that's £4 an issue rather than the £4.50 cover price. Plus you can choose a free box set, one of which turned out to be a French self-propelled 75mm AA platoon. Now just a minute - those are the same elderly De Dion Bouton vehicles mounting 75mm guns that were used by the Poles in 1939 (see this post).

This was a chance to get hold of an esoteric vehicle that I never imagined would become available as a model in 15mm. Alright, a box set of 4 was more than I wanted (this is definitely a pattern - see previous post), but they were free, for goodness sake. They duly arrived just 3 days after ordering, and are indeed very nice models. Having more than I need I can produce the vehicles in 'travelling' and 'firing' configurations. As for the magazine, I will have to trust WI to continue to be varied and interesting.

Regarding abandoning principles and prejudices... Well, I've nothing against FoW as a rules set, or Battlefront as a manufacturer of wargames figures and vehicles. The models I have bought have all been good. But I do rather dislike the Games Workshop style, one-stop-shop approach which they have brought to historical wargaming. And I resent the endless supplements. And I get the feeling I've been suckered in by some clever marketing. But I guess sometimes you just have to cut yourself some slack.

Naval Wargames
My old buddy Paul is getting back into naval gaming, and we have had a couple of games this year using Battle Stations, Battle Stations. Finding these a bit slow moving Paul has turned to Victory At Sea, which look a lot simpler. Apparently those truly into naval wargaming find Victory At Sea a little too simplistic, which sounds promising for a beginner like me.

On that subject, is there any set of rules released in the last 5 years which doesn't call itself a 'fast-play' set? All I can say is, some people's ideas of 'fast-play' and 'simple' are different from mine. There are still loads of sets out there with long lists of modifiers and firing that takes forever (for example). Maybe readers could tell me about their 'favourite' over-complex rules? And any thoughts on Victory At Sea would be interesting.

Colours 2011
This great UK show is coming up on the weekend of 10th-11th September, at Newbury Racecourse. If any wargamers within range of the show haven't yet tried it out, I'd highly recommend it. Well organised, big, and a great venue full of light and space overlooking the racecourse.

Unfortunately I won't be able to put on my Hochkirch game (see here) as the other gamers I was hoping to attend with can't make it, for various reasons. I don't think putting on the game solo as 'Billy No Mates' would really work! But I won't miss the show and will go down as a regular punter. Fortunately some friends of mine from the Blitzkrieg Commander website and the Portbury Knights club will be there with a couple of WW2 games, so there will be people to meet up with and chat to.

A sprinkling of SYW models to show you soon, and probably another Polish battle. See you then.

New Additions

It's not often these days I buy anything significant for my wargaming. Firstly, money is very tight so I find it hard to justify even a modest purchase when cash is needed for important things like food and petrol. More positively, my three collections are perfectly adequate for my purposes and I can have a good game with any of them without having to worry about needing more stuff. I find these days the butterfly impulse is very weak: without meaning to give offence, I find the attitude of 'oh, I've just seen those new figures and I just had to buy them' a bit daft. People even do this when the 'new figures' aren't in a period they currently wargame, or when they already have a perfectly good collection in that period. I guess for those with more time and money than me, this is one way to get enjoyment out of the hobby. But I'm afraid my response to such statements is usually something like, come on, get a life. I'm just being honest here.

Further to this point, I mentioned in the previous post that I have been reading through old issues of Battlegames, and this included the regular 'Forward Observer' column by Mike Siggins. The column has recently come to an end and I shall miss it, but Mike was an unreconstructed butterfly who couldn't seem to resist anything new. I remember my astonishment (mixed, I have to admit, with a feeling of considerable superiority) when in the very first issue of Battlegames Mike congratulated himself on 'focusing down' to 'just ten projects'. Ten projects! Was this guy nuts? You can't possibly do justice to that many projects if you live a normal life. Surely even a full time wargamer would have trouble getting on top of ten projects? But there we are. Mike is an example of a wargamer who enjoys getting into everything. Maybe I'm just a miserable old git. Maybe there's no maybe about it.

Anyway, moving on, I did weaken recently and posted off for a few things. On the Polish front, Battlefront Miniatures received an order for the new Polish Dice Set. I know, I know. Come on, get a life. But I'm afraid themed dice sets are a definite weakness of mine. Unfortunately, the national symbol on these sets now appears on the six rather the one, as the comparison with the old German dice set below illustrates. Why this has been found necessary beats me, but I guess it doesn't make a great deal of difference. I'm quite happy with them.

Also in the order was an Sdkfz231 6-rad armoured car, another fairly recent release from Battlefront in connection with their new Blitzkrieg range. Unfortunately these models only come in twos, even if you only want one, but the model is only available in 15mm from this manufacturer and I have wanted one for a while, to give my recce units a bit of real early war flavour. The photos below show what a very nice model this is. The resin cast body is beautifully done with no flash or imperfections, and the metal parts fit onto it nicely, although they do need a bit of filing and cleaning up before use. The top three photos give you an idea of how the vehicle looks after construction.

As for painting, those of you who want to know how a master does it can refer to this tutorial. For myself, I did a quick job with Humbrol paints. First I undercoated the metal parts in panzer grey, then once dry I gave the entire model a coat of the same. The wheels and underparts got a dry brush of dark earth, then the whole vehicle received a dry brush of khaki drill. And that was about it. The commander was painted black with blobs of flesh in roughly the right places. The only fiddly bit was painting the white crosses.  

Now personally I think that looks fine for a wargames model. As I have said before on this blog, painting is about my least favourite part of the hobby so I like to keep things to a minimum.

Finally, deciding I 'needed' some additional Polish machine gun teams, I thought I would check out the new range of 15mm figures available from Forged In Battle. Once again I had to order a blister pack of models which was more than I wanted (are you sensing a pattern here?), but the figures that arrived were excellent and are a very good fit for my True North infantry, though just a little smaller and finer than Battlefront figures. The Forged In Battle site shows you how these figures look painted, so here they are as they come out of the pack. I would heartily recommend a look at this manufacturer's products.

And that's about it for now. Some modest SYW additions have also recently been made, but they will have to wait for another post until some painting has been done. I also want to show off the civilians I acquired recently from Hovels and Willie Figures which are now mostly painted. 

Good gaming until next time.

Defending The Gorge, 3rd September 1939

My relentless search for other people's scenarios that I can rip-off for my own games has once more borne fruit. 

Of late I have been enhancing my moments of relaxation by looking through old issues of Battlegames, and in issues 1 and 2 I found the Battle of Liebenau, a scenario by Jim Purky (aka Der Alte Fritz) for the SYW. Liebenau is a real place where in 1757 a rearguard action by the Austrians against the Prussians was contemplated but never fought. 

Deciding to fight this 'might have been' battle, Jim based his scenario on the Battle of Guildford Courthouse, which of course took place in 1781 during the American War of Independence. In Jim's battle the Prussians must overcome the Austrians who are deployed in depth in three lines, as the Americans were in 1781. The narrow table derives from the supposition that the attack is taking place along a valley with steep hills to either side. Jim's map for the battle is shown below (with written permission of Battlegames magazine. If you wish to use this map contact the copyright holder at the email address given):

My first intention was to refight the scenario as given, as a straight SYW battle. But something in the idea of defending a narrow valley in a rearguard or delaying action rang a bell. Eventually I realised I was remembering 'Defending the Gorges', a 'real' battle from Fall Weiss, Chris Pringle's 1997 scenario booklet covering the 1939 Poland campaign. Chris's map for the scenario is large scale and rather basic, and covers 3 gorges (hence his plural). For the detail of a battle for one gorge, I thought why not go for a table based on Jim's SYW idea. 

There you have it then. From the fictional Battle of Liebenau (1757), via the real Battle of Guildford Courthouse (1781), to 'Defending the Gorge', a representation of 10th Mechanised Brigade's defence against the attack of 2nd Panzer Division in southern Poland, on 3rd September 1939. I have selected the centre of Chris's 3 gorges for my re-fight. Like Liebenau, Tenczyn is a real town, but rest of the terrain is fictional and based on Jim's map. The forces however come from Chris's scenario so should be reasonably correct historically. The game will, as always, be fought using Blitzkrieg Commander. The map below gives the basic layout of the game: the dark green areas are woods. Jim's original table size was 10' x 6' - mine will be 6' x 4'. As you can see the main change is leaving out the river, which didn't feature in the 1781 or 1939 battles:

The Poles

The 10th Mounted Rifles, one of the 2 motorised infantry battalions within 10th Mechanised Brigade, form the heart of the defence. The first line consists of the tankettes of 121st Scout Tank Company supported by a company of the 10th Mounted Rifles. The rest of 10th MR forms the second line. The third line consists of 121st Light Tank Company with its Vickers tanks, supported by the Brigade's reconnaissance infantry company. Off table is a 75mm artillery battery and a 100mm artillery battery. 

Unusually the Poles will have some air support. Even more unusually we have a brief account of the actual mission, flown by the 24th Reconnaissance Flight, in Tomasz Kopanski's book PZL.23 Karas:

"On 3rd September another bombing raid (six Karases) was flown. This time it was directed against a German armoured column moving in the mountainnous terrain in the area of Rabka-Podwilk. Each Karas carried six 100kg and two 50kg bombs. Having located the enemy column, the Flight crews bombed it from an altitude of 600-800m, obtaining direct hits on some vehicles. Then they strafed the column. German AA defences managed to shoot down one aeroplane."

The Poles are thus granted 2 ground attack units (Karas), along with 2 air assets. As the Germans automatically have full air superiority according to the BKC rules, it remains to be seen whether this air support will get through during the game.

The Germans

Elements of 2nd Panzer Division were attacking the Tenczyn gorge. In the game they are allocated a Panzer Battalion (a total of 10 model tanks), 2 Schutzen Battalions, a reconnaissance detachment (standing in for Jim's hussars) and a strong off-table artillery force of 3 105mm batteries and 1 150mm battery. German air support in the real battle apparently came from a force of Me110 fighter bombers, but I allocated 3 JU87 dive bomber units with 6 assets, as I have a Ju87 model available.

Scenario Notes

The game would be played basically as an assault scenario with Tenczyn as the objective. The points balance was about right, but with the Poles able to deploy further forward than normal and with no flank deployment possible, the turn limit was removed. We would just see how it went.

It is not normal for the defenders to have air support, but as described this was available in real life. To speed things up for an evening game I intended to deploy both sides fully in advance. Aiming points for air and artillery assets would therefore be plotted with full knowledge of enemy dispositions. This rather takes the normal guesswork out of this activity, but the advantage would be the same for both sides' air assets, whilst the advantage to the German artillery would help compensate for the forward deployment of the Poles. 

Note there are no FACs, even for the Germans. The rules state an FAC is possible for the Germans, but this seems a bit doubtful to me for the Polish campaign. If one did allow a German FAC in 1939, I think a CV of 6 or 7 would be appropriate rather the 8 given in the rules.

The Game

The game got underway with scheduled artillery and air strikes. 

The Stukas picked off the exposed TKS tankettes supporting the Polish first line. On the right you can see 2 PzIs that have been caught in a Polish minefield.

As the Germans advanced (rather slowly), the Polish Karas made their appearance.

They were shot down by a storm of AA fire and had no effect.

Vickers tanks and the recce company wait in Tenczyn. Bofors AA unit on hill at left: a really useful weapon that makes a pretty good anti-tank gun in this period.

Dug-in troops are a bitch to shift in BKC II: it usually comes down to a close assault. Even then you need to assemble a heavy advantage in numbers to assure success, as here. 

The German right flank has now broken through to the Polish second line.

View of the same situation showing the Polish Vickers tanks taking some revenge against the leading German Panzers.

To the left of the road, the Germans failed miserably to make any significant progress, with a succession of failed command rolls. This was their position at the end of five moves: total advance 20cm!

Unfortunately that was as far as we got. That was the end of move 5 and we had run out of time, mainly due to being rather rusty with the rules. We had gamed from 8.00pm to 11.00pm, with half an hour of pre-game preparation and then taking an average of half an hour per move. Although the game was unfinished, and neither side was anywhere near their breakpoint, I would give a moral victory to the Poles who seem unlikely to be shifted from their second line. The Germans were not really on form and their left flank was a disgrace - some demotions seem likely! It was interesting to see what a tall order breaking through 3 lines of defence is, even when there is a reasonable superiority in numbers. 

Despite the frustrations, we found we had enjoyed ourselves and a pleasant evenings wargaming had taken place. BKC II is always a pleasure to play.

Finally, it's great to see the number of followers of this blog increasing. Thanks for your interest, and for the interesting comments that have been coming in recently.