Work in Progress Wednesday

Welcome to another work in progress Wednesday. We start this week with Peter M and another amazing scratchbuild. Peter has been mixing and matching with various models to create a new spaceship. Can you guess what the parts are?

Next up and Tony F has been putting the final touches to some 6mm buildings for a Hammers Slammers game. I think he can stop now.

For the same game Tony has also painted up some 6mm Hindi faction forces.

We move on to Marcus who has made progress on his tower for Frostgrave.

Complete with interior staircase and additional scenic pieces for the roof.

And lastly for this week, I discovered and old miniature I’d forgotten I had, the old Ral Partha D&D Ettin miniature, I plan to strip the 30+ year old paint and start again.

And that’s it for this week, we will see you at the next work in progress Wednesday.

Work in Progress Wednesday

Welcome to another work in progress post. This week we start with Marcus and some Denizens for the Labyrinth appearing at the Open Day later this month. He has also been busy scratchbuilding a tower for Frostgrave. Apparently this is one of three to be constructed.

Moving on and Tony F is also busy painting for an upcoming game, although I believe these are for a 6mm Hammers Slammers game at the Broadside wargames show this Saturday.

First up we have a small 6mm town which will be a likely objective in the game.

There will also be lots of wooded areas apparently, well you need to break up those lines of sight.

And finally from Tony F some monorail tracks.

Last but not least for this week and Phil has been painting some more 10mm orcs, it’s becoming a nice looking horde, but a little bird tells me he is supposed to be sorting out his 28mm orcs for his open day game!

That’s it for this week, we’ll see you next Wednesday.

Somewhere In The Hills Above Dak To

At a recent meeting Stephen ran a 15mm Vietnam game using the Charlie Don’t Surf rules. The scenario was based on the Battle for Hill 875.

Stephen umpired the game and ran the Communist forces. The US forces (A Company, 2nd Battalion, 173rd Airborne) were under the command of Captain Pete, who also ran the Weapons Platoon, with the three Rifle Platoons under the command of Lieutenants Tony F, Andy and Jeremey respectively.

We’ll start with Stephen’s summary of the game:

A Company of the 2nd Battalion, 173rd Airborne, scored an important military victory against the North Vietnamese Army today.
Led by Cpt Pete the company advanced up Hill 875, located the enemy and engaged them.
It was 3rd Platoon under the command of Lt Jeremey who first reached the top of 875.  Meanwhile, a grenadier of Lt Andy 2nd Platoon earned recognition for posting a M79 round through a bunker slit. Lt Tony’ 1st Platoon got bogged down in a vicious firefight and took several MIA.
Company mortars, and a Huey gunship that shredded some NVA recoilless rifles, helped the 173rd to victory.
News on stateside TV reported the battle and civil demonstrations ensued at the loss of American life. It may have been a military victory for the US but the NVA scored a political victory.

Here follows the US Platoon commander’s accounts of the battle.

1st Platoon

First Platoon (Tony) advances early in the game.

This is as far as I got, a vicious firefight with an NVA platoon (and some less than favourable activation draws) saw me pretty much stuck in place for the rest of the game.

The NVA platoon in question, about to receive some 60mm mortar vengeance courtesy of Pete.

The 1st Platoon under fire and pinned. 1st squad suffered badly (7 KIA out of 10), although remarkably 2nd and 3rd squads emerged from the action unscathed.

2nd Platoon

2nd Platoon (Andy) A Company were deployed at the base of Hill 875 with the Weapons Platoon and Company HQ to our left, and 3rd Platoon to our right.
The platoon began its advance with 1st and 2nd squad leading, with 3rd Squad and the Platoon CO in reserve.
1st squad soon spotted insurgent troops further up the hill, the first of the Company to do so, and promptly engaged them. 2nd squad and part of 3rd squad joined in, the remainder of 3rd squad being out of line of sight of the enemy. The fire was effective, causing part of the enemy unit to suffer casualties and become pinned. 2LT Andy reported the sighting to CPT Pete, with a request for mortar support.
3rd squad deployed from reserve to the right of 2nd squad in order to bring its full firepower to bear.
The firefight with the enemy continued, with 3rd Platoon joining in, both 2nd and 3rd Platoons suffered some KIAs, but appeared to inflict more than they suffered.
Under the relentless fire of 2nd & 3rd Platoons the insurgents suffered further casualties and were seen running from their positions back over the crest of Hill 875 and presumably they continued down the reverse slope.
Slightly later a few ranging rounds began to land near 2nd Platoon’s position, expecting an NVA mortar barrage 2LT Andy ordered all squads to advance up the hill as fast as they could. 1st & 3rd squads succeeded, but 2nd squad got bogged down and didn’t move very far.
1st squad’s success in movement proved to be their undoing. They soon came under heavy automatic fire, believed to be either a DShK 1938 or KPV heavy machine gun, in a previously unseen bunker.
1st squad took a couple of casualties, but immediately hunkered down and returned fire, the squad’s M79 gunner achieving an excellent shot which put a 40mm HE round into the bunker, silencing the HMG.
2nd and 3rd squads advanced past the battered 1st squad, joining elements of 3rd Platoon in sweeping across the hill, engaging the remnants of the NVA defenders in the flank and driving them from the hill, at the cost of some more US KIA.
Eventually 2LT Andy’s prediction of a VC mortar barrage came true, but by the time it arrived on it’s original target all US forces had moved further up the hill and none were in the beaten zone.
As 1st squad looked after their dead they discovered a food and material cache buried on the hill side.
The mission proved to be something of a Pyrrhic victory for 2nd Platoon, we engaged and defeated the enemy, destroying a bunker and locating a cache, but at a cost of 5 KIA, 4 of them in 1st squad.
3rd Platoon
3rd Platoon (Jeremey) deployed on the far right of Hill 875. The mission was to assault the hill and so I decided to get moving and threw caution to the wind and advanced quickly up the hill.
Unfortunately after a few moves this left my three squads quite scattered. On top of that the first contact with the NVA turned out to be a real unit who immediately scored a casualty. My return fire was more effective and with support from Andy’s 2nd platoon the NVA were soon routed.
Despite the resistance I decided to continue my advance up the hill, I reached the top of the hill without further resistance but then the bunker was revealed along with more NVA troops. I took a few more casualties and would have taken more if not for Andy’s 2nd Platoon taking out the bunker on the first try.
Laying down some more fire on the remaining NVA, they routed and we claimed the hill.
Company Command
A company’s Forward Observer (Pete) performed well by adjusting the ranging mortar rounds and the subsequent Firing for Effect on the NVA positions on the hill which contributed to the general degrading of the enemy.
Also, significant contributions to the victory came from :-
      • Lt. Tony’s 1st Platoon made steady progress up the left flank but took heavy casualties due fire from a heavy weapons squad with recoilless rifles. These were suppressed by the fire of the Co HQ’s MG squad lower down the hill.
      • Lt. Andy’s 2nd platoon’s impressive accurate fire which neutralised the fortified position on the summit of the hill  soon after the position was observed. The HMG in that bunker would have caused devastating casualties if not dealt with swiftly.
      • Lt. Jeremey’s 3rd platoon made a rapid advance up the slopes of our right flank, although sustaining several casualties, routed the enemy troops before them.
Although Air Support was requested, a Huey gunship arrived after a delay due to the Priority 2 rating of our Area of Operations, but completely destroyed the NVA Heavy Weapons squad enabling all platoons to advance and secure the enemy position on the summit of the hill, seizing enemy weapons and rice caches on the way.
 I, Capt. Pete commanding officer of A Company,2nd Battalion,173rd Airborne, recommend citations for all the commanding officers of A Company platoons.
The view from the other side of the hill
The NVA side of things, as recounted by Stephen. Hill 875 was occupied by a reinforced NVA company – three rifle platoons with AK47s, a pair of recoilless rifle teams, plus the regimental HQ (historically, the rest of the regiment was situated in the hills adjacent and being engaged by the ARVN). Regimental HQ had a mortar spotter (the mortars were actually sited on a hill to the west), wireless team, and HMG in a bunker.
My general plan was to close with the enemy as soon as contact was made to mitigate against the inevitable artillery and airstrikes the US would call in, a tactic referred to as “belt-grabbing”.
The bunker being taken out promptly by US 2nd Platoon took the smile off my face. That HMG would have caused havoc and blunted the US advance and I was going to walk the mortars up to leave the US forces
sandwiched between the HMG and the mortars. But it never came to that.
It was a very historical outcome – the US captured the hill but suffered heavy casualties doing so, and there was considerable public outcry because of it.
And the final word also goes to Stephen:
Thanks to Andy, Tony, Pete, and Jeremey for making it an enjoyable game as I learn the rules. But a special thanks to Pete for his help and knowledge.
Just need to come up with a better name than the toe-curling ‘Big Men’ next…

Work in Progress Wednesday

Back to our work in progress this week and we start with Mark J and some Microart Studio MDF buildings for a future game of Chain of Command.

Next up and Tony F has been scratchbuilding 6mm storage tanks from IKEA doorknobs.

Moving on and Stephen has been covering a few genres, first by finishing his sci-fi cantina, complete with droid server.

And some resplendent 15mm medieval knights, a great chance to add some bright colours to miniatures.

And with that we will see you next week.

It’s Getting a Bit Chile – A Slow Burn Project

Club member John reports on a game from a lesser known historical conflict.

Introduction

Our youngest daughter lives in Chile and she gave me a copy of ‘Andean Tragedy’ a history of the Pacific War 1879 – 1884. This detailed book covered the war between Chile and the allied forces of Peru and Bolivia, a war which started over mining claims in the Atacama Desert. The area was an important source of Nitrates for explosives and fertilisers and when the Bolivian government sought to tax Chilean mining companies mining on Bolivian soil, war was inevitable.

It was impractical to march a Chilean army by land through the Atacama Desert so the initial campaign was a Naval one (itself a good subject for wargaming) where Chile gained control of the sea and could then launch amphibious operations initially on the Bolivian coast and later the Peruvian coast. These were successful with Lima being captured and resulted in Bolivia being land locked (still contentious today). A later Guerrilla war took the fighting high into the Andes before Peru was finally defeated.

The Andean Tragedy, W.F. Sater University of Nebraska Press, Jan 2007

I started to paint up forces from Pendraken intending to use ‘Principles of War’ as the rule set but in 2020 a new rule set ‘It’s Getting a Bit Chile’ was launched and I decided to use this period specific set. This required more troops and a gridded cloth. The project stagnated then Stephen kindly donated me a cloth, the reverse side being ideal for a desert, it was the kick up the backside I needed and within a few weeks I was ready.

Pendraken 10mm  Range of 19th Century Pacific War Figures

Chilean infantry
Battalion Misti Peru
Bolivian Colorado Btn
Libres del Sur Bolivia
Artillery

Review of ‘It’s Getting a Bit Chile’

It’s Getting a Bit Chile, G. Evans, Wargaming for Grown Ups Publications 2020

I was attracted to this set of rules for its period specific nature which I felt was merited after reading ‘Andean Tragedy,’ I didn’t want to use any generic 19th Century rules. When I received my copy, I realised it was more than just a rule book. The book includes a history of the war, a uniform painting guide and a bibliography, it is well laid out and the rules are easy to follow with diagrams to help with explanation, there is a scenario included with the rules and a quick play sheet is included. I also discovered that the author had visited the same location in Peru which was his inspiration, the previous year to us.

The rules are army level where each army can be organised into divisions, though these are smaller than European armies. The rules are I go – you go. The lowest organisational unit is an Infantry battalion or Cavalry Regiment consisting of four bases, Artillery are a single base. Unit formation is determined by how the bases are aligned in a grid square.

Each formation has a different number of firing bases, support bases and melee bases and is a specific target type if fired at and a separate melee target type. For combat a dice is rolled for each eligible base and the sum of the dice rolls is compared on a “To hit multiple” table to determine how much damage is dished out. This avoids the 6 to hit method of casualty calculation and damage is instead noted as disorder. A fresh unit with no disorder fights using a d8 per eligible base, a unit with one disorder uses d6’s and a unit with two disorders uses d4’s. If the target formation has a support base, a disorder marker can be absorbed by the support base allowing the formation to fight unaffected if all disorder is absorbed. Changing formation can reduce the number of support bases and hence increased unabsorbed disorder, reducing fighting capability. Disorder can be rallied off by the unit itself or an adjacent Divisional or Army Commander and this is key to maintaining fighting capability.

The “to hit multiple” table and disorder mechanic are very neat and set these rules apart.

Play Test

The set up

As usually happens with a new project, there was lots of last minute stuff to do which meant I hadn’t spent much time on planning a scenario. I decided to have three objectives on table, two minor ones were to secure water supply either at a village or Nitrate mine.

Peruvians advance on the village
Chileans occupy the Oficina

The main objective being capturing the hill. The Allied forces had an extra infantry battalion and an extra Cavalry unit, this last tied down some Chilean artillery as it threatened to outflank.

The Battle for the hill

In the centre, the Chilean assault on the hill ran out of steam and in true style, the Chilean Cavalry followed the routed Bolivian cavalry off table.

The Cavalry Battle

Thanks to Tony Gibbs and Jon Roche for helping. The rules played very smoothly with hardly any queries. Afterwards, I read through the rules again and posted some queries with the Author. I received an e mail back within 24 hours so excellent support.

Next Steps

I have three Peruvian battalions ready for painting and artillery limbers have arrived this week. I’m considering the small dice holders and dice to keep track of disorder. Whilst the card buildings are OK from three feet away, I’m considering making some better alternatives. Finally, I’ll need to put some time aside to consider scenarios, perhaps working those into a campaign.

Open Day 2025 – Games preview

As we get closer to our open day let’s have a look at some of the games being put on.

Mark J is putting on a large Vietnam game, complete with tanks, helicopters and a whole host of miniatures. Mark has been putting on a number of Vietnam games at the society, this game will be a good example of that. If it’s a period you’ve been thinking of getting then the open day will be a good chance to see a game in action.

Next up Marcus has repurposed his award winning 3D Labyrinth game into a Frostgrave / Fantasy Adventure game. If you fancy a treasure hunt this will be a good game, Marcus’ set up is a huge selection of 3D dungeon tiles. There will be adventurers and monsters galore.

Next up and we have a Lord of the Rings games being put on by Tony F and Phil, who have an extensive range of miniatures. This time round we are promised the battle of Azanulbizar. So it will be a clash between Dwarves and Orcs/Goblins, with no doubt the odd troll or two. If big fantasy battles are your thing, they often appear at the society as either Lord of the Rings or Dragon Rampant. Or any other fantasy rules we feel like giving a try.

And the last game we are show casing is Stephen’s Medieval Barons War game. Stephen has an impressive collection of scratchbuilt terrain for the period so expect an almost model village feel to his game with plenty of armoured  knights running amok.

We have two other games members are still putting together and will post details nearer the time.

Details of how to find us on the day are on out About us page. The open day runs from 11am to 4pm and is a good day to introduce yourself to the society, re-ignite your passion for miniature wargaming or to find out what it’s all about and if it’s the hobby for you.

Open Day of the Maidstone Wargames Society 2025

Our Open Day will be on the 28th June this year. We’re open to the public from 11am – 4pm on the day.

This is a great day to come and see the society in action and throw some dice in one of the various games we will have on the day and chat to the membership about the hobby and the club.

This year we have an eclectic selection of games on offer, which might just be the incentive you need to either get back into the hobby or to find a new home for your own armies and games.

Name Scale Period
Vietnam 28mm Vietnam
Technicals 15mm Modern/Alternative History
Battle of Azanulbizar 28mm Lord of the Rings
Second Barons War 28mm Medieval
Catacombs 28mm Labyrinth/Frostgrave
Spearhead 6mm World War 2

Pictures and more details of the games will be appearing on our blog as we approach the day.

Details of where the club meets and location of the Open Day can be found here:
https://www.brigademodels.co.uk/mws/directions.html

Work in Progress Wednesday

It’s Wednesday and this week we have a small offering of progress for you. I blame the sudden nice weather, always slows down the members projects.
First up we have a wonderful picture from Marcus of a bunch of aircraft miniatures for the RAAF and their New Guinea theatre of war.

Next we have an Age of Sigmar miniature from Tony F. Sigmar is not something he plays but was given a freebie miniature so decided to paint it up as a statue.

Moving on and Mark J has started on some 10mm WW2 German Panzers, I think he may be going full company on this one.

And lastly for this week, I’ve managed to paint up a 3mm Spherical dropship. I originally sculpted the dropship for the 3mm range some twenty years ago, but now that the moulds have worn out Brigade Models have redesigned it as a one piece resin miniature.

And that’s us for this week, see you next Wednesday.

Work in Progress Wednesday

It’s Wednesday and the progress continues with some 10mm 3D printed Orcs and Trolls from Phil.

We follow that with Mark J and progress on building a Huey helicopter.

Next up and Eric has been painting up more Mechs for an upcoming game of Alpha Strike. This time it’s a group of Clan Mechs.

Marcus continues to be busy with various aircraft projects, the first being some Mirage F1’s and a Buccaneer.

And some G4 Betty’s for the Japanese.

And that’s us for this week, we’ll see you at the next one.

Eisenhower – Rules First Look

Colin, John Le and Paul L had a try out game of the new Eisenhower rules from Sam Mustafa. The rules were released earlier this year and are ww2 strategic / operational in scope.

Players control up to 6 divisional formations across a table representing a ground scale of 24 by 16 miles.
Our game was a home brew eastern front Barbarossa type scenario pitching 2 Panzer divisions and a motorized infantry division against a Soviet defence of 2 infantry divisions with a reserve tank corps.

The armies were made up from 2mm Irregular ww2 models with bases of 4x4cm representing battalion strength units.
The table is gridded in 6×6 inch squares and this controls placement and movement of the units.

This works well for this scale of game where the players represent corps commanders. At this scale its not mm placement of units which count but key decisions such as which areas of the front are you attempting to break through in, which units are you structuring your offensive with and are your reserves in the correct position based on the timescales of the offensive.

The rules feature a number of innovative mechanisms including an objectives based victory point mechanism where the objectives move once they are secured so ensuring a dynamic game of movement for the two sides, each of which takes the role of strategic offensive or defensive.
The time period represented in the game is between 4 to 6 days with each day consisting of separate rounds which allow formations to move and combat across the table. At the end of each day is a night phase where supply is checked with potential attrition of units. Exhausted units can also be recovered to a worn status.

In our game we had the Soviets dug in with prepared positions across the table. The panzer divisions lead the attack with mixed success in achieving objectives early on and forcing a breakthrough. We ended up concluding that in our scenario the Soviet reserve tank corps was too powerful when placed on the table at the outset. A more balanced game would probably be achieved by holding it as reinforcements off table which is catered for within the rules.
Future scenarios we will explore include France 1940 and a Normandy amphibious landing.