A Thank You

So, the blog has now passed the 2000 visits mark. Just a short post to say thanks to any and all who have visited, and an especial thanks if you have taken the trouble to post a comment.

Posts in the pipeline are another Benghazi Handicap AAR (probably 'Rally Forward'), a Polish scenario and maybe a set of 18th Century rules (simple) developed from the Featherstonian set already posted. I know, just what the wargaming world needs, another set of rules. Well, it keeps me happy!

A few photos just to make the post a bit more worthwhile. Thanks again everyone.

Swiss pikemen of the Italian Wars (15mm). This unit was part of the army sold to finance my SYW collection. Gone but not forgotten!

French heavy cavalry of the Italian Wars.

Advancing Polish hordes from a 2007

game.

Encirclement or Breakout

This is a scenario from the Charles Grant and Stuart Asquith book Scenarios for all Ages.

The scenario map from the book is shown above, which as you can see uses a 7' x 5' table. I myself will have to make the scenario fit onto a 6' x 6' table, but this shouldn't cause any problems.

The idea is that the Red force (which will be the Austrians in my refight) has been pursuing Blue force 2 (the Prussians) with the object of bringing them to battle. Unfortunately this has brought Red force too deep into enemy territory and it now encounters two further Blue forces (1 and 3). Red is now outnumbered 2 to 1 and in danger of being surrounded. Red forces must breakout or be encircled and destroyed.
The terrain symbols are fairly obvious: the rounded, dotted shapes are small hills, and there is a stream to the south-east. I have no stream sections so this will be shown by a meandering line of bushes and trees representing the vegetation along the stream banks. The various forces are set up in their deployment areas as shown on the map. One thing missing from the scenario as published is detail on what formations and facing are assumed: for example, is Red force in column, still chasing Blue and so facing north-west? Or have they deployed into an all round defence? I decided to lay out the terrain and then deploy the forces as seemed reasonable, trying to give a mix of formations and facings to provide a challenge to both players. Thus all forces would be set out on the table by me before the start of the game. Once my opponent arrived, the highest roller on a dice would get to play the Prussians. This would also have the advantage of getting the game started quickly.

I was able to provide forces that fitted the published scenario almost exactly, except that one Prussian infantry unit would have to be light infantry. I would also be using the battle to test a simple set of rules I have devised, originally inspired by the horse and musket rules of Donald Featherstone. The forces were therefore organised into brigades with an overall commanding general. They were as follows:

RED (Austrian)

Commanding General

Infantry Brigade - Brigade Commander
1st and 2nd Battalions, IR10 Wolfenbuttel
1st and 2nd Battalions, IR37 Josef Esterhazy

Cavalry Brigade - Brigade Commander
KR10 Stampach
DR6 Liechtenstein

Artillery Battery

BLUE (Prussian)

Force 1 - Brigade Commander
DR6 Schorlemmer
1st and 2nd Battalions, IR1 von Winterfeldt

Force 2 - Commanding General

Cavalry Brigade - Brigade Commander
KR8 von Rochow
DR9 Herzog George

Infantry Brigade - Brigade Commander
1st and 2nd Battalions, IR33 de la Motte

Artillery Battery

Force 3 - Brigade Commander
Wedel Grenadier Battalion
Kremzow Grenadier Battalion

Jager Battalion

Artillery Battery

Victory Conditions
These would be exactly as in the book. Red must get at least 80% of his force off the table (any edge) to win. If he loses 60% or more of his force he has lost. Between these figures the game is drawn. Therefore, once all surviving Red forces have left the table, the game ends and losses are assessed. (Red starts the game with 30 stands):
If Red has lost 6 stands or less - Red wins
If Red has lost 18 stands or more - Red loses
If Red has lost 7 to 17 stands, the game is drawn.


The Game.
The course of the game is shown in the subsequent shots. I deployed all the forces before Paul arrived as already mentioned. Order of movement of the 4 participating forces was decided each move by dice rolls.

Terrain set up and opening dispositions.

Austrian intentions start to emerge. They are heading for the east table edge, but do they also intend to attack Prussian Force 3? Their cavalry is about to be charged in flank by the Prussian dragoons of Force 2.

The Austrian Cuirassiers distinguish themselves by not only turning to face and countercharging, but winning the following melee. This only gets them into more trouble as their accompanying dragoons abandon them for the attractions of the table edge. They are left facing Prussian Force 2 alone.

Hungarian infantry cross the stream with dragoons from Force 1 in hot pursuit.

Prussian Force 3 is under command of a deficient brigadier, and doesn't move much the whole game. The Austrians of 1st Battalion, IR10, confront them supported only by the artillery. In this way the Prussians are held off, though IR10 will pay the price by eventually being destroyed.

The Prussians are closing in. The Austrian cuirassiers have predictably been destroyed in their melee, but their gallant action has delayed the Prussian cavalry of Force 2. They now hasten to catch up with the retreating Austrians.

One Austrian battalion has already escaped over the baseline. The 1st Battalion of the Hungarians is forced to turn and engage pursuing dragoons in a desperate melee at the stream, in which they manage to force back the cavalrymen and gain some breathing space.

Overview as the game enters its final phase.

The Hungarians of regiment Josef Esterhazy make their final dash for the table edge, along with the artillery. The leading Prussian infantry (from Force 1) are almost up with them.

Prussians of IR1 form line for a farewell volley at the retreating Hungarians. Prussian cuirassiers of KR8 hope to make a final charge into the rear of the disappearing Austrian artillery.

The artillery are caught before they can exit the edge and are destroyed

in the final action of the game.

The Austrians have gone. Final dispositions of the Prussian forces.

Result
After 9 moves the Austrians have left the table and have lost 15 stands. The game is therefore drawn. On the evidence of this game, an Austrian victory would be tough to achieve. Losing only 20% of your force in the retreat would need excellent tactics and a bit of luck. On the other hand, the Prussians came quite close to winning this game, and they seem to have the easier task. Nevertheless, this is an interesting and fun scenario.
Actual playing time was 2.5 hours.

New Prussian Jager

Readers of some of my earlier posts will know painting is not my favourite part of the hobby. Nevertheless, progress is occasionally made, and I have been able to add these Prussian jager to my Seven Years War collection recently.

The figures are, of course, RSM95s (what else?). I decided to create a composite battalion of four stands, for a bit of variety. The two stands on the left are from the Feldjager-Corps zu Fuss, what you might call the 'normal' Prussian jager. The other two stands are from the jager detachment of Frei-Corps Le Noble. These latter stands use the 'Austrian Jager Advancing' figure from RSM, with the hat plume removed, plus a standard officer figure. All painted mostly in Humbrol enamels with the odd acrilic colour for the detail areas, then finished with a coat of acrylic matt varnish.

I intend to give these chaps their first outing in my next game, which will be a refight of the Grant/Asquith scenario 'Encirclement or Breakout', from their book Scenarios For All Ages. With luck a report of the action should form my next post. Bet you can't wait!

First Battle of Mechilli - The Refight

And so, under the light of a blazing desert sun (or rather under the light of a blazing high wattage bulb), the refight commences. By a strange coincidence, it is 68 years almost to the day since the actual battle. See the previous post on this blog for details of situation and forces. I'll describe the refight by using captioned photos.

A reminder of the set-up. Palm trees added from solo run to give a real
desert flavour! Italian baseline to left, British baseline to right.

Deployment of 42nd Artillery Regt. in and around Mechilli. IIIrd Medium Tank Battalion, deployed on Ras el Mechilli, can be seen on the left. The light tanks were deployed west of Mechilli, just off the bottom left of the photo. The Italians were commanded by myself.

The British were commanded by Paul James. Foolishly, I mentioned in the previous post about this battle that the tracks were really only there for visual effect. Paul rather disagreed with that and decided to attack down the track in column! This is the end of move 1. As there was only one British artillery unit (just 3 attacks in BKC) there was not much chance of inflicting significant damage with the artillery, so Paul decided that using smoke might be more useful. The British FAO is seen on the hill in the foreground.

Paul didn't get as many orders in as he had hoped during the first 3 moves, but he managed to deploy his light tanks off the track on the Mechilli side of the Wadi el Ramla. Unfortunately the Italians then took the initiative and in move 3 managed to knock out 4 MkVI tanks. The light L3s have moved up to support the infantry in Mechilli.

On move 4 the Hussars pulled back, after first knocking out the 47mm ATG guarding the track at Mechilli. The artillery covered their withdrawal by plastering the Italian M13s with smoke.

A reduced 7th Hussars (with their attached portees) consider their next move.

Overview later during move 4. 2nd RTR have arrived, and Paul is determined to continue with the use of the Mechilli track as his main axis. The 11th Hussars have used flank deployment and are approaching Mechilli in the left of the picture. On the Italian baseline, their reinforcements have also arrived, but failed command rolls are preventing their effective advance. Bersaglieri can be seen on the left, medium tanks on the right. The 75mm battery is behind the crest of the Ras el Mechilli.

Move 4 and 11th Hussars arrive on the Italian right flank. Discerning readers will note that 2 of these Rolls Royces have had a quick conversion job to give them an open topped turret with anti-tank rifle. This gives them some fighting power against Italian tankettes and armoured cars.

Closer view of the Italian right flank. The Italian command rolls are only intermittently successful, and the orders to face the new threat are so far not forthcoming.

End of move 4. The smoke has been taken away. The Bersaglieri and the 75mm guns of the 12th Artillery Regt have managed to make a move forward from their deployment area.

Move 5. 2nd RTR have got in a number of orders and have pushed down the track past Mechilli, distributing fire all around as they go. Smoke again covers their right flank. With suporting fire from 7th Hussars they have taken on IIIrd Medium Tank Battalion decisively, knocking out three and pushing back the fourth. 11th Hussars have managed to knock out the Italian 20mm AA gun on their side of Mechilli.
The Italians in Mechilli are reacting with some return fire - one of the MkVIs in the column has been suppressed, and will be knocked out next move. The British tanks are now head to head with the Bersaglieri, who are desperately trying to clear the line of fire of their anti-tank gun and bring it into action. Behind the smoke, the strong V Tank Battalion have finally passed a command roll and are heading over to counter the British tanks. Any thoughts they had of advancing across the Wadi el Ramla have been abandoned.

A9 and portees of 7th Hussars providing supporting fire for 2nd RTR, as the game moves into its final phase.

Move 6. 2nd RTR abandon the track and send the A13s of 'A' Squadron across the rough ground to face the advancing Italian tanks of Vth Battalion. The rest of the regiment is off hunting L3s around Mechilli, and 2 of the Italian light tanks have already been destroyed. A solitary A9 is left to face the Bersaglieri. An attempt to mask the Bersaglieri with smoke is only partly sucessful - you can see the 47mm gun has scored 2 hits on the A9. 7th Hussars are back in the game (with a run of 4 successful command rolls) - the A9 and portees move forward to assist against the Italian mediums, whilst their light tanks have got in amongst the Italian 75mm battery. This latter unit has suffered from failed command rolls and has not even managed to deploy properly. It has been forced to do so by the destruction of its transport, and the command unit has been overrun and forced to join one of the gun sections. The initiative is now very much with the British, with the Italians on the back foot. However, the Italian infantry in Mechilli continue to fight back and claim a MkVI on the main track, as well as 2 of the Rolls Royces from 11th Hussars (foreground).

Another view of move 6, concentrating on the Ras el Mechilli area.

Move 7. Holy double Jerboah! The only double one (command bonus) to occur in the game. 11th Hussars, having lost 2 armoured cars to the anti-tank rifles of the Italians at Mechilli, pull back the surviving car which now tries to infiltrate in behind the Bersaglieri.

Overview of move 7, the last of the game. There is fierce fighting on the Ras el Mechilli, the British losing a MkVI to opportunity fire whilst the Italians lose the leading M13, plus another suppressed. However, the decisive action takes place in Mechilli. In the British phase, the last L3s are destroyed and the 'Defence of Mechilli' rule comes into force before the Italian phase commences. Unfortunately there are 6 British AFVs within 10cm, so 6 dice are rolled and all the surviving Italian units fall back more than 10cm and are destroyed. This takes Italian losses to 17 units, 3 over their breakpoint. They must try to score 5 or less to carry on, but predictably they fail and so the British win. British losses were 8 units (all AFVs). They have achieved one of their minor objectives by capturing Mechilli and so claim a minor victory.
The Italians must abandon the area.

Wash Up.
A good game, which took three hours to play. The scenario fulfils a number of the conditions mentioned by Bob Mackenzie in his blog article - most importantly, although an attack/defence game, the defence is a mobile one and there are many decisions to make on both sides. Both players had plenty of opportunity to move lead and roll dice. I congratulate Paul - his determination to push up that track, and keep pushing until he was right in amongst the Italians paid off in the end.

Myself on left, Paul James on right. I think our next scenario will be Seven Years War, so watch this space.

Action at Mechilli, January 24th 1941

I always find historical scenarios fun and satisfying to play. The problem is finding the information you need for a historical re-fight, and having the right miniatures available. Hence, the 12 ready made scenarios in Benghazi Handicap, by Frank Chadwick, are of great interest if, like me, you wargame the Western Desert campaign. The scenarios are well worked out with detailed forces and generally cover small actions or smallish parts of bigger battles, which means the forces involved are of a reasonable size, and are easy to field if you already wargame the period. They are designed to go with the Command Decision - Test of Battle rules, but these use the same basic level of play (one figure base or vehicle = one platoon) as the set I use, Blitzkrieg Commander. With this in mind, I expected the adaption to BKC to be straightforward, and was keen to try out some of the actions described. For my first re-fight, I chose scenario 3, 'First Batlle of Mechilli'. I had two sources of my own to refer to for this battle, Barrie Pitt's Wavells Offensive and Ian Walker's Iron Hulls, Iron Hearts. Reading them gave me confidence that Frank had the overall feel of the action correct.

Deciding the basic opposing forces was indeed easy enough, and they are shown below. Terrain needed a bit more thought, but not too much more. With 6mm miniatures, I thought the battle could be set successfully on a 4' x 4' table, and this seemed to work out OK. The wadis were an obvious problem; rather than gouge out the appropriate furrows in my TSS tiles, I cut out some shapes from light brown felt which could be placed in the right position. There were gaps between the shapes which allowed the passage of troops, in line with Frank's concept of 'broken banks'. They could have some scenic scatter on top to improve their appearance.

The main problem was understanding scenario concepts like deployment, objectives and victory conditions from a rule set I didn't have, and which consequently I didn't fully appreciate. Thanks to the guys on the CD - TOB forum for sorting out a few basic points. It was, of course, important to get these things right. Setting up the opposing forces on the terrain and having at it wouldn't replicate the historical action. Units need to be deployed correctly in time and space and have the right objectives.

Getting all this sorted took a week or so of part-time thought and tinkering (I don't have the quickest brain in the world for this sort of thing), and culminated in a solo run through to see if the scenario worked. As I thought, it turned out to be an uphill struggle for the Brits, and a bit of further tinkering was needed. Readers will see the forces and set up below, but basically the Italians out-gun the British, and this needs to be balanced by reflecting the greater training and battle skills that the British had. To do this, I raised the Command Values of the British formations above their normal level to give them a really significant advantage in issuing orders for movement and firing.

One or two minor compromises in equipment were needed to cater for models which I didn't have (like the SP 75mm gun and FIAT armoured cars of the Italians). I also 'lost' one of the Italian 47mm anti-tank guns, partly because I only had 2 models and partly to reduce the Italian firepower advantage slightly. I don't want this to be an essay on BKC, but some further points might be of interest to those familiar with these rules. Firstly, of course, it is necessary to use the 'Fixed Formations' optional rule for a historical re-fight. Secondly, the 'Brigade Troops' from the original Benghazi Handicap scenario were mixed down into the formations, so that the battlegroup CO commanded the most important formation on each side and any Brigade level units were attached to formations as I saw fit. Also, the special rule for the defence of Mechilli had to be adapted for BKC, as did the rules for actually capturing a BUA (in the absence of any infantry on the British side). Finally, Ian Walker's book gave me a finish time for the original action of 1330 (a time not provided in Mr Chadwick's book). This would give a game length of 11 turns in BKC (up to 30 minutes a turn). With the modest forces involved, I felt it unlikely the game would ever get to that number of turns. As there was also plenty of daylight left when the original battle ended, there seemed no point in setting a turn limit. In the end, the scenario and forces using Blitzkrieg Commander came out like this:

Mechilli

‘Benghazi Handicap’ scenario adapted for BKC. Table size 4’ x 4’

British

Initial Troops: Advanced Guard, 4th Armoured Brigade:

7th Hussars + D Battery, 3rd RHA: HQ (CV9), 7xMkVI, 1xA9, 2x2pdr portee

F Battery, 4th RHA: FAO (CV8), 1x25pdr unit (off table), 3 assets

Reinforcements: Main Body, 4th Armoured Brigade:

2nd RTR: CO (CV9), 3xMkVI, 3xA13, 2xA9, 1xA10, 1xRR a/c (ATR, recce)

B Squadron, 11th Hussars: HQ (CV9), 1xRR a/c (mg), 2xRR a/c (ATR)

25% - 6 units; 50% & Breakpoint - 12 units; Points - 1050

Initial troops deploy up to 10cm from baseline. Reinforcements deploy in same way on move 4 (command phase). 11th Hussars may use flank deployment in first two thirds of table, but on the left flank only.


Italians

Initial Troops: Elements of 80th Sabratha Division + Advanced Guard, Special Armoured Brigade:

III Battalion, 42nd Artillery Regt: HQ (CV7), 3xinfantry units, 1xmortar unit, 1x47mm ATG + tow, 1x20mm AA + tow

III Medium Tank Battalion: HQ (CV7), 4x M13/40

LX Light Tank Battalion: HQ (CV7), 4 L3/35

Reinforcements: Main Body, Special Armoured Brigade:

V Medium Tank Battalion: CO (CV8), 6xM13/40, 1xAB40 (recce)

Bersaglieri Motorcycle Company (+): HQ (CV7), 2xm/c units, 1xm/c unit (mmg), 1x47mm ATG + tow

II Battalion, 12th Artillery Regt: FAO/HQ (CV7), 2x75mm gun units + tows (on table)

Initial Troops: 42nd Artillery deploy in Mechilli or within 10cm of the BUA. May be dug in. Other formations deploy anywhere up to 25cm from baseline. Reinforcements arrive on move 3 (command phase) and deploy up to 10cm from baseline. No flank deployment allowed.

25% - 7; 50% & Breakpoint - 14; Points - 1030


Other Game Conditions.
Initial troops deployment: Deploy opposing formations one at a time, Italians first. British play first.
Defence of Mechilli special rule: If at the end of any turn there are unsuppressed British AFVs within 10cm of Mechilli, but no unsuppressed Italian AFVs within the same radius, each Italian unit in or within 10cm of Mechilli dices for fallback. Throw 1 dice for each British unsuppressed AFV within the radius.
Capturing Mechilli: the British have no infantry, so to capture Mechilli there must be no Italian units within the BUA, and more unsuppressed British units than unsuppressed Italian units within 10cm of Mechilli
Terrain: Wadis are impassable except at gaps. Rough ground counts as dense terrain to all vehicle units.
Victory conditions: No turn limit. Italian minor objective is to have 25% of their units on the far side of the Wadi el Ramla. Major objective is to have 50% of their units on the far side of the wadi.
British minor objectives are to capture Mechilli and to exit 25% of units off Italian baseline. Major objective is to exit 50% of units off Italian baseline. Achieving both minor objectives counts as achieving a major objective.
Breaking your opponent’s battlegroup will end the game, but you will only win if you have achieved at least one of your objectives.
Combined HQ/FAO: command unit may act as one or the other using normal rules, but may not act as both in the same turn.
Special Rules: Units of Italian III Battalion, 42nd Artillery are counted as 'fragile' and 'reluctant'.


Finally, a picture of the terrain as used for the solo run-through. Owners of the Benghazi Handicap book will see I have simplified the pattern of tracks, but they are really only there for visual effect. Italian baseline to left, British baseline to right. The Wadi el Ramla runs from centre top to bottom right. Mechilli is at the junction of the tracks. The hill near the Italian baseline was called the Ras el Mechilli. The scenic scatter made of tiny stones represents areas of rough ground. TSS tiles and hills, felt tracks and wadis, GHQ buildings.

Watch this space for the full refight of the scenario. Battle takes place Friday 23rd January.

The Joy of Scenarios

I recently returned to some WW2 wargaming, after several months spent pretty much exclusively in building up and using my new SYW collection. The return took the form of a Polish - German battle set in 1939, and for an easy re-introduction to the rules I made it a straightforward attack-defence game with limited forces. As usual with games against my most common opponent, Paul James, it was an enjoyable evening and a pleasant game (I provide the set-up, Paul provides the booze, which seems a fair division of labour).

Nevertheless, there was a certain air of predictability about the game - the Germans came on towards the objective, and the Poles mostly stayed in place and shot back at them. Of course, the attack-defence battle is probably the type of battle most common in real life, at least in this period, and I have played very many of them. But this recent game reminded me how easy it is to get stuck in something of a rut, scenario-wise. With the modern period we have the classic attack-defence scenario, with earlier periods the equally classic encounter scenario, where both sides set up opposite each other in roughly equal numbers then advance to contact.

The classic source for the latter experience was (and is) the world of the Wargames Research Group, particularly the various editions of the old Ancients rules and more recently the DBX group of rules. There were rules for flank marches in these sets but in my (limited) experience they were rarely used. It was a case of setting up opposite your opponent and setting to, almost every time. I think the extensive use of these rules in competition games served to emphasise the trend. However, I shouldn't give WRG all the blame. This is how most wargamers seem to set up most of their battles most of the time: line 'em up and fight' em. Many would argue that this was how battles were in most historical periods. Sometimes I wonder if the actual situations were quite so cut and dried. I was influenced in particular by Angus Konstam's Osprey book on the Battle of Pavia. The battle had always been depicted in the usual linear 'set up opposite each other' style, but Angus did the research and came up with a much more convincing scenario which explained the course of the battle well. This had units and formations encountering each other in 2 or 3 different locations, and from different directions. One doesn't have to read much military history to conclude how confused and unexpected many battle situations are.

Of course, the rather unimaginative set-ups described above are still technically 'scenarios'. But most wargamers would understand the term to mean a variety of imaginative set-ups that provide rather more varied and interesting games. Further to my point above about Pavia, when the appropriate research is done, historical encounters often provide for scenarios that lead to unusual and surprising set-ups, with (for example) baselines that are not always opposite each other, reinforcements that arrive at odd times, initial deployments which take place all over the table, and unevenly matched forces. Armies find themselves attacked from the rear, or both sides, or surprised in various ways. And these types of situations can be reproduced in fictional scenarios as well.

The king of the latter is of course Charles Grant, or rather Charles Grant, then his son C.S. Grant. Their 'Table Top Teasers' are well known to most wargamers, from old copies of Battle or Military Modelling, to the current Battlegames. C.S. Grant and Stuart Asquith have also produced a couple of books consisting of around 50 scenarios each to tempt the wargamer. The more recent of these, Scenarios For All Ages, I have recently been using to pep up my SYW gaming. The books in particular are a testimony to how, with a bit of imagination, each of your games can be very different from the last. If I have one criticism, it is that most Grant scenarios are written for the horse and musket period. There is usually a sentence stating that the scenario can be easily adapted to a number of periods - but somehow that easy adaption is never taken up by the author. A Battlegames Table Top Teaser set in Ancient times, or WW2, would be a real treat.

Two photos from a recent refight of Charles Grant's
Teaser 'Advance Guard', from 1978.
These old scenarios can be downloaded from
Steve-the-wargamers blog, on my Favourite Links

Apart from simply making games more interesting, varied scenarios are useful for testing out whatever rules you are using, and furthering your understanding of them. Can your rules cope with unusual situations? Do you need to develope better conventions for deployment? If you always play the same kind of game, your rules will not get the workout they need for you to appreciate their strengths and weaknesses fully. The better sort of rules these days will also come with deployment options to provide for a number of scenarios. My current WW2 set, Blitzkrieg Commander, is a case in point. Fifteen different scenarios are provided as part of the rules, giving deployment conditions, force ratios, game lengths and victory conditions.

Finding good scenarios based on real battles is more difficult than getting hold of fictional ones specifically designed to give varied games. Doing your own research and developing your own reality-based scenarios is the answer, even if obtaining the right amount of detail for actual actions can often be difficult. What's interesting from my point of view is that when you do develop a scenario from details of a real battle, one often finds (as already mentioned) that the resulting set up is much more unusual than the attack/defence or balanced encounter which forms the basis of so many wargames battles. I was particularly pleased recently to obtain a copy of the book Benghazi Handicap by Frank Chadwick. This is designed to support the Command Decision - Test of Battle rules, but the level of research and presentation is so high it is an outstanding source for the early Desert War (to the end of 1941), regardless of which set of rules you use. It contains 12 scenarios at the end of the book, all eminently gameable without having to acquire large armies. Indeed, using my 1/285th scale miniatures, it seems the 6' x 6' tables suggested for most of the games might be reduced to 4' x 4' in many cases, giving scenarios that are realistic but also ridiculously easy to set up. I have decided to try the Battle of Mechilli scenario first, and will be posting the re-fight soon.

Unfortunately, time is often limited when setting up one's games, and this can be particularly true in a club environment when a quick pick-up game is played. This restricts the amount of thought that can go into the scenario. The answer of course is forward planning, but on the other hand this is a drawback of the more involved scenario - it needs to be thought about in advance, and all the right terrain and the right forces need to be available. Nevertheless, the effort is almost always worth making. It can bring a whole new level of enjoyment to your wargaming.

Happy Gaming!

Post Script

Anyone interested in this subject should take a look at Bob Mackenzie's website: the link to Bob's site is included in My Favourites. On Bob's homepage, go to Wargames and then Scenario Design. An interesting and well written article awaits you.

A baby for my armoured train

When I changed from 20mm to 15mm for my WW2 gaming, I also wanted a new period to play. So I went from late war to early war, and decided to make it as early war as possible - i.e. the 1939 Polish campaign. Besides giving me a whole new era to research, the campaign had the interest of whole new categories of kit. There was cavalry, main battle tanks with the armour and gun power of late war armoured cars, things called tankettes, whole battalions of motorcycles, and armoured trains.

My armoured train was a late addition to my Polish collection. After considering scratch building (or rather, having someone else scratch build one for me), I went for the simple option and purchased the Peter Pig armoured train, intended for the Russian Civil War. This is not quite correct for 1939 Polish trains, but artillery cars captured from the Russians were used by the Poles in 1939, so it is quite close. I have 2 artillery cars with a loco and tender, as can be seen in the photo. There should also be an 'assault car', basically an armoured troop carrying wagon, but PP don't do one. In fact, this is an advantage as the train is quite long enough on the table as it is. I allow the train to deploy some infantry, but basically just imagine the assault car. The train is fun to have on table, but wargaming experience indicates it is not particularly effective as a fighting unit, being rather vulnerable. But it looks quite good and always creates interest from gamers who haven't seen one before.

However, to get to the point, whilst checking the Armaments in Miniature site recently I noticed they had a new model available - a Tatra T-18 armoured draisine. This is basically a small armoured car designed to run only on rails. They were, of course, a Czech design but the Poles bought 15, 4 of which seem to have seen service in 1939. Two were attached to each of 2 Polish armoured trains, as scout/recce vehicles. Armour was 5-8mm, armament 2 Maxim machine guns and crew 3.

This was one of those wargames purchases which is really just for show, and for the hell of it. If my armoured train was a bit of a white elephant in fighting terms, this little rail car would probably be about the most ineffective armoured unit I had ever possessed - restricted to the rails, machine guns only, paper thin armour. But, of course, I had to have one, to represent the 'platoon' of 2 vehicles used by the Poles.

Armaments in Miniature are a 'one man band' operation who nevertheless produce resin castings of a very high standard. I have a couple of their 15mm aircraft and they are gems. I was not disappointed by the Tatra when it arrived. The model is only 35mm long, but detail is good and the casting clear of any bubbles or flash. Even the detail parts like headlights and machine guns are resin, and they also are beautifully done. About the only fault is a bit of a mould line around the turret.


'Work bench' shots seem to be the thing on all the best wargaming blogs, so I thought it only right that I should join the trend. Unfortunately, I don't have a work bench, only the dining room table! Finally, a picture of the finished article in company with the armoured train.


Those interested in more background should refer to the 'PIBWL Military Site', which is the online source for info about Polish armour in general and Polish armoured trains in particular. Well worth a visit.