Category: <span>World War Two</span>

Battle at Blavatsky Station – August 1944 – Battle Report

Society member Stephen kicks of our posts for 2025 with a WW2 game of Crossfire.

During the Festive period I decided to have a non-Festive WW2 game using Crossfire rules.

It was a late-war Eastern Front game with the Russians on the attack. Each side had a company which comprised three platoons with a company HQ and machine gun. In addition, since the Russians were attacking, I gave the Russians an extra SMG platoon. I made these veterans (an NKVD unit, no doubt) and decided this platoon’s command bonus would help in both close combat as well as morale (obviously led by a commissar – usually Russian commanders only assist in close combat). Since it was a late-war game, to reflect the change in training and doctrine the Russian army went through, I also decided that Russian squads could end movement out of line of sight of platoon commanders but still had to start movement within LOS as usual (normally, Russian squads have to start and end movement in LOS). This reflects the Russian adoption of the British and American structure they went through when the Russian army went on the attack.

The battlefield was set up as follows:

The Germans deployed on table with all units deployed north of the east/west road. The two large barns and the railway station were big enough to accommodate three squads. The other houses and the chapel could only accommodate two squads.

The Germans put their first platoon in the easternmost barn. In the house looking south down the road was the German company command and machine gun – this would make it very risky for any Russian squad trying to cross that road. In the big barn in the middle went the second German platoon. The final German platoon deployed with one squad in the chapel and a squad in each of the wooded areas either side.

The Russians would deploy by activating from the southern edge.

Each side would gain 1 Victory Point for each enemy squad/machine gun killed. The first to 7 VP would be declared winner.

This was obviously going to be a difficult job for the Russians. The sides were more or less equal (Russians with four platoons and the Germans with three) but the Germans had the advantage of being in defence and set up in protective cover.

Right then, on with the game.

The Russians started activation by bringing on their first platoon and occupying the sunken ground on the extreme left. Second platoon came on and took position in the adjacent woods, and the third platoon came on and took cover behind the fence that ran alongside the wheat field. The plan was for the Russians to attack on one flank where they could concentrate their firepower and force the Germans to break cover or risk being rolled up. The Russians held the NKVD sub-machine gun platoon and the company HQ with HMG back – these were due to deploy on the right.

Initiative still lay with the Russians and so the platoon in the sunken ground made a group move to advance across the rail track and into the woods in front of them. At this point the Germans opened up with Reactive Fire. Using a coordinated crossfire, the German first platoon in the woods and chapel let rip – a series of Pinned results ensued but no Suppression, so the Russians maintained initiative. The Russian platoon decided to return the favour – they Pinned the German squad in the woods on the left but also failed to cause a Suppression. This meant they lost initiative and it switched to the Germans.

With all the action taking place on the western side of the battlefield the Germans decided to advance one of their platoons: those on the right, in the other barn, crossed the road and rail track and took up position in the woods. The German first platoon chose to keep up the pressure and poured more fire on the Russians in the woods. They caused a Suppression, so carried on firing, hoping for a kill on the Russians. But they failed to cause another Suppression which meant the initiative switched to the Russians.

The Russians did two things. Firstly, they brought on the NKVD platoon, which came on at the extreme right in the sunken ground there. They also decided to advance their third platoon across the wheatfield into cover behind the fence overlooking the rail track. At this point the German second platoon, in the barn opposite, engaged them with Reactive Fire. Not only that, but the machine gun also had line of sight and fire arc to the Russians in the field. This would be a lot of Reactive Fire. The machine gun was firing independently and fortunately scored a Suppression, meaning the Germans could carry on. The Germans in the barn shot as a firegroup but only caused Pinned results and so initiative went back to the Russians. But the Russian platoon had taken a lot of fire and all squads were either Pinned or Suppressed.

Both Russian platoons that had advanced found themselves with their heads down – all Pinned and Suppressed. So the Russians needed to start putting the pressure on elsewhere. They did this by bringing on the company HQ and machine gun. These took position on the edge of the fence by the farm. The German platoon in the woods on the right had line of sight and took Reactive Fire, but failed to score even a Pinned result – squads failing to score at least a Pin are marked No Fire (NF) and are unable to conduct any more Reactive Fire during that initiative. This gave the NKVD squad a chance – since they would receive no Reactive Fire they could charge forward and try to engage the German platoon in close combat! Being SMG armed and veterans would give them a bonus. So that is what they did. And it paid off very well indeed – the NKVD over-ran and eliminated the German platoon!

The Russian Company Command and machine gun moved into the first of the farm buildings. What they needed to do next, though, was try to rally some of their squads. However, failing a rally roll also means initiative is lost. As it happened the platoon in the wheatfield managed to rally all its squads, whilst the platoon in the woods on the left managed to rally one squad but failed the others. So initiative once more went over to the Germans.

The loss of the German platoon to the SMG platoon really blunted the German options. The other two platoons had little choice but to dig in and see what they could do. As such, both platoons were organised into firegroups and crossfires to make the most of what they had. The Germans in the barn once again Suppressed the Russians in the wheat field but the platoon in the woods and chapel could only cause Pins on the Russians in the wood so they lost initiative.

The Russian second platoon which, up to now, had remained ensconced in the woods behind the railway station were given the order to move up – by bringing the whole Russian company into line it would spread the German fire. As a group they moved into the railway station and took Reactive Fire from the Germans in front of them – the Germans causing Pins on each of the Russian squads!

Now, by causing a Pin a squad may continue Reactive Fire, but should they fail to cause a Pin then they may no longer do Reactive Fire during that initiative. So the Germans could carry on with their Reactive Fire, hoping to Suppress and steal initiative. But they’d seen what could happen if they get a No Fire marker and are charged. So rather than continue Reactive Fire they chose to hold back and allow the Russians to continue with their activations and maybe another opportunity to react may present itself.

The Russian company command and machine gun chose to move up to the next farm building which brought them directly opposite the German company command and machine gun. And these decided to do Reactive Fire against the Russians – causing a Suppression and taking initiative away from the Russians! So the German machine gun kept on chattering away, this time turning to the NKVD platoon in the woods in front of them – a kill! One of the NKVD squads was off. The Germans decided to make the most of their firing so the platoon in the barn resumed fire against the Russians in the wheat field – another kill!

Things were starting to improve for the Germans.

But not for much longer – they attempted more fire against the Russians in the station but failed. Initiative went back to the Russians. There then followed an extended exchange of fire between the Russian and German machine guns – one side would fire, fail and initiative would switch, and this went on for several rounds, changing initiative after just a single activation. This ended up inconclusive. Occasionally one side or the other would be Pinned or Suppressed, but then rally this off and resume firing.

Something needed to be done.

Then during one activation the Russians Suppressed the German machine gun and decided to advance the NKVD platoon into the barn on the opposite side of the road on the right. But as they moved into the open crossing the road the German squads further down opened up with Reactive Fire. Being in the open was never going to go down well and one of the NKVD squads was killed and the other Suppressed! The Germans took initiative, rallied their machine gun, which opened fire on the Russian machine gun and…eliminated it!

Victory Points were now equal – 3 each. If the Russians were going to win they would have to think of something daring. For the time being, though, it was still with the Germans who continued with their fire against the Russians in the station, but a failure to Suppress soon meant it went back to the Russians.

Close Combat is very decisive in Crossfire – a simple win means the opposing squad/s are destroyed. So the Russians looked to bring things to close combat since they had advantage of numbers on the left. The Russian platoon in the woods on the left opened up on the solitary squad beside the chapel, causing a Suppression. With that, they decided to go for it and charged across the road with guns blazing.

As soon as they broke cover the Germans in the chapel opened up with Reactive Fire. They scored a Pin against the first squad meaning they could carry on, but failing to score any more hits meant they received a No Fire marker and the other two Russian squads charged the Germans with the inevitable result – one dead German squad. With their blood up, and a No Fire marker on the Germans in the chapel, they kept up the momentum and sought to charge the squad in the chapel. However, they could only get one squad against them (remember, the chapel has a capacity of two squads and there was already a German squad in there), which meant it was an even combat and on the dice roll. Which favoured the Russians! Another German squad gone.

The remaining German squad of this platoon, in the woods to the right of the chapel, used Reactive Fire on the Russian attackers and scored a Suppression. With initiative, what could the Germans do? Truth be told, they didn’t have many options. The machine gun opened up on the Suppressed NKVD squad and killed it. Victory Points were now 5 to the Russians and 5 to the Germans – still tight. The German machine gun then turned its attention to the Russian company command but failed to score a hit.

So what could the Russians do? They decided to see if they could Suppress the Germans in the barn. They did even better than that and killed one squad. With a platoon in the railway station and another moving up through the woods and chapel, they decided to bring things to a close. The platoon in the station opened up at the German squad in the woods and caused a Suppression – this was what they wanted and made a charge against the Germans. The platoon in the station fixed bayonets and moved out. They drew Reactive Fire from the Germans in the barn and found themselves Pinned down by the roadside! So the Russian squad in the chapel, under cover of the woods, made a final charge against the Suppressed German squad.

And that was that. The German squad was killed which meant the Russians had reached their Victory Points – 7 German squads eliminated.

It had been a very close game and a very enjoyable one, and the Russians had won.

D DAY FOR WW2 RULES

Stephen presents a comparison of three different WW2 rules.

I’m only an occasional WW2 gamer. Probably not even that often. I often tussle with what rules to use because I’m not sure what kind of game I want. Generally, I’m more interested in the infantry experience, but WW2 is all about the tanks as well, isn’t it?

So what I’ve decided to do is have a game with the three sets of WW2 rules I have – Crossfire by Arty Conliffe, Battlegroup by Warwick Kincaid, and Fireball Forward by Mark Fastoso and Jonathan Miller. To test the games I have decided to play exactly the same scenario with the same forces to see how it goes.

Scenario

To give a true compare and contrast between the rules all games will use the same layout and the same forces (more or less), a German company with machine gun support and a Russian company with mortar support.

The games will be small ones, on a 3’x2’ board. To the south east is a farm with a road running north/south and a junction heading west. Wheat fields lie either side of the western road. To the north east and south west are areas of light woodland. In the north west there is an area of high ground.

It is August 1944 somewhere in east Europe. Stalin has launched Operation Bagration. The Germans are on a strategic withdrawal in the face of a Russian advance. The German armour is making its way south, down the road, so it can turn west back to Germany. The Russians are coming from the south east. Both sides need to capture the farm and the road junction – so the Germans can get their tanks to safety, and so the Russians can stop them! A German infantry platoon has been sent to capture the objective, just as a Russian scout platoon arrives on the scene…

Game #1: Battlegroup

As written, Battlegroup uses individually based figures. But mine are based in 3s. This is easily dealt with by adding wound markers. Each player’s battlegroup is composed of ‘units’ (e.g. a squad of infantry). Each unit will add to the Battlegroup’s Battle Rating. During the game a player will have to draw a token from a bag after certain events (e.g. a unit is destroyed, or you try to unpin units, plus other events). This token could have a numerical value (from 1 to 5) or be a special event. When the numbered tokens add up to the battlegroup’s Battle Rating it is game over.

The Russians went first. At the start of each turn the player rolls one or more D6s (depending on the size of the game) and adds one for each officer. This total is the number of units you can activate this turn. This means you won’t always be able to activate everything every turn. I like that – it creates tension and decision making.

The Russians advanced north along the road and west behind the wheat fields. In response the Germans advanced – one squad with MG34 went into the wheat fields and the other two squads advanced toward the two areas of woodland. To activate a unit you must choose from specific orders. These include moving and firing, firing and moving, double move, double fire, plus many others (e.g. calling in mortars). One such order is to put your unit on reactive movement or reactive fire, which occurs in your opponent’s turn.

The Russians moving behind the wheat field held in place and went on reactive fire (wondering what one of the German squads would do). The Russian Maxim gun attempted to open fire on the other German squad in the other piece of woodland. To open fire first you must roll to spot. This seems to be the case even if you have previously shot at a unit (the wording certainly implies this is the case), the rules highlighting how seldom opposing enemies saw each other, especially when trying to keep low and out of sight themselves. Once spotted you then total up all the figures firing – each weapon has a ROF and this is the number of dice rolled. Chance to hit is based on range and ROF. The target then makes a save roll (based on any cover). Remaining hits are then taken as casualties and a morale roll is taken which could be anything from OK, to Pinned, to Rout. Standard stuff.

The Germans were starting to encircle the Russians, holding both areas of woodland and also the wheat fields in the centre. Then, on the Russian turn, the Russian officer called in some mortars. This caused two German casualties and the Germans failed their morale and went pinned. A pinned unit can take no action at all and stays pinned until rallied. To rally a player must draw a token from the bag. For each token 1D6 pinned markers can be removed. I drew a token and pulled out a 3 – a significant number for a game as small as this. The German MG34 decided to return the favour and opened up. The Russians took casualties and also got a Pin result. But on the Russian turn I decided to leave them pinned (you don’t have to rally) for fear of drawing a bad token.

The Russians in the fenced field have taken casualties and one unit is pinned.

The Germans had taken more pinned markers, which I had to try and rally or else they’d sit there doing nothing.

Germans have taken casualties and are Pinned, but they drew a “Beyond the Call of Duty” token.

But this time I drew a special marker: Beyond the Call of Duty. Not only did the pin marker come off, but it came off without any harm to their Battle Rating. The Beyond the Call of Duty marker allowed them to make a roll to see if they could take an extra activation. They failed. But at least they were no longer pinned.

Ultimately, it would be a Russian victory. The Germans found themselves taking shelter in the woods and with Russian mortars falling they soon took enough casualties for game end.

Game #2: Crossfire

A confession: I’ve played Crossfire quite a few times. Models in Crossfire are based in multiples, with 3 on a base for a squad. It’s pitched at company level infantry actions, which is precisely what I’m interested in.

Russias occupy the farm, but some are Suppressed.

So Crossfire has some key concepts – no fixed turns (units can keep activating, multiple times), no ranges (if you can see it, you can shoot at it), no move distances (I’ll say a bit more about this). The core mechanics are very simple though – when shooting you’ll roll a few D6 and need a 5 or 6. One hit is a Pin, two hits a Suppression, 3 hits a Kill. Not rocket science.

The game started with the Germans on the high ground. The Russians came on by activating. You can either move them by individual squads or you can do a group move. So I brought the first Russian platoon on, behind the barn. I put the mortar observer in the barn where he’d have a good view. And so on. In Crossfire units move in straight lines. Players have to indicate to their opponent the route they are taking and if an enemy squad can draw LOS it can make a reactive fire. If the reactive fire fails to Suppress then the active player can carry on. If it does Suppress then initiative switches. Units move from terrain piece to terrain piece (or into the open). All the time they have initiative they can activate again, even with the same unit.

The Russians moved up to the western road with two of their platoons whilst the Germans came off the hills to take cover behind the wheat fields. The Russian FO then called in smoke to obscure the Russian advance and the Russian squads moved up behind it. The Russian Maxim MG took up position in one of the farm buildings to prevent a German flank attack, it opened fire on the Germans but failed to score a hit.

Over to the Germans.

With little to stop them the Germans made their way along the top of the battlefield and into the woods, where they engaged the Russian Maxim. The MG crew attempted reactive fire but failed to score a hit which means they would be unable to do any more reactive fire until after initiative switches, so they are marked with a No Fire counter. The Germans opened up.

Russian Maxim gun team are Pinned, and may Not Fire until initiative changes hands

Things were a bit slower along the western road, with neither side daring to break cover. One of the Russian platoons dug-in and the German machine guns repositioned. Meanwhile the attack on the farm buildings was going well for the Germans – they destroyed the Russian MG and moved up to occupy the buildings. To counter this a Russian platoon moved into one of the wheat fields and a prolonged firefight broke out, but the Russians finally managed to dislodge the Germans from the farm.

The game would end as another Russian victory! This game had been a lot more dynamic and fast-paced – one of the advantages of Crossfire. It had been more tactical as well (compared to the line ‘em up, face each other, and start shooting affair of Battlegroup). This is the real advantage of Crossfire – you start to think like an infantry commander – laying down smoke for cover, trying to organise squads in to firegroups or the eponymous crossfires, when to react, when to rally…lots of decision points. That’s where the complexity lies in the game, in the tactics. Very enjoyable.

Game #3: Fireball Forward

OK, let’s deal with the elephant in the room. The dice. If you know anything about Fireball Forward it’s the whole dice thing. So here’s how it works. To shoot you will be rolling some white D6 and some red D6 (for infantry squads it’s actually one of each). And you will also be rolling a range dice (a D20 for infantry). The red dice hits on a 6. Only a 6, and it’s never modified. The white dice can be modified and will hit on either a 4, 5, or 6. Then we come to the range dice. A weapon has an effective range (e.g. 10”) PLUS what you roll on the range dice – so for infantry squads it could be up to 30” (10” plus you roll a 20 on the D20). You do not pre-measure! So after rolling, if the range is higher than the effective range plus the range dice you have missed regardless of what you roll on the white/red dice and if the target is within the effective range plus range dice then there’s the chance of a hit – check the white/red dice. If the actual range is less than the D20 roll you get a +1 on the white dice.

Russians open up, if the range to their target is <=13″ they’ll score a hit with the 5 on the white die.

That sounds more complicated than it actually is. It only gets messy when you are dealing with weapons with range dice like D20D20D8.

You are either going to get on with this or you aren’t. It’s a marmite thing. Like I just said, it’s not as bad as it sounds like it could be, so long as you restrict yourself to predominantly infantry actions with just a few different armoured vehicles.

Movement is also a bit novel. Infantry can, in theory, have an unlimited move. But what they can’t do is finish their move, nor can any part of their move, take them more than 12” from where they started. The player must trace the movement route so the opposing player can announce if and where he can make an opportunity shot.

These are the two big Fireball Forward things and I wanted to get them out in the air at the beginning.

For initiative you need a pack of playing cards. You draw a card and keep drawing until a different colour comes up – you put that card back on top of the deck. You check how many cards you have and then you mark your units with a number and activate them in that order – lowest first. So let’s say I draw 3 red cards and the fourth is black. The black card is put back. I have three red cards which means I can now activate three Allied units. Once all units, of both sides, have activated a new turn begins. What’s really good about this is that both players are involved at all times and there’s always a chance you can salvage a bad situation.

I realise I’ve spent more time discussing mechanics than actual game play, but that’s OK – after all, this is about letting you know about these very different sets of rules. I bet those of you who are into rules writing and game design will enjoy reading Fireball Forward.

So let’s deal with the actual game. This one turned into a much harder fought encounter. Both sides used more or less the same tactics as previous games – the Germans moved along the northern edge into the woods and then tried to force their way south, down the road, into the farmyard. Meanwhile, the Russians advanced along the southern edge, behind the wheat fields, hoping to outflank the Germans.

This time the Germans were more successful. They eliminated the Russian platoon occupying the farm and then moved in themselves. The German machine guns halted the Russian advance down the western road and brought up a platoon through the fields to outflank the guns. Meanwhile, the Germans in the farm pressed the attack and came round behind the Russians to launch an attack against the Russian company command and Maxim gun. The Germans finally achieved a win!

Conclusion

I’m not going to offer scores or say which is best and that kind of thing. Instead I am going to say how they suit me and my gaming – in a club setting with multiple players on a Saturday.

Battlegroup is a very ‘traditional’ game. By that I mean it is an IGOUGO system with nothing particularly ground-breaking mechanics wise. I don’t mean that negatively. If you have several players, none of whom have played Battlegroup before (or even WW2), then they will pick it up soon enough. Which is what you need in a club. It’s also aimed at being a ‘big’ game – with combined arms. Battlegroup, as the name suggests, is about lots of infantry and armoured columns having at each other. The simplicity of the rules does mean it has less subtlety or tactical finesse and I imagine it could get a bit vanilla, but that also suits group play.

By contrast, Crossfire is a game for the gamer. It may be the oldest of the three but it’s also the most innovative. It’s really aimed at infantry-only games. Yes, there are armoured vehicle rules, but they do seem a bit tacked on and the rules writer himself admits they aren’t the best. And they aren’t. Fortunately for me, infantry actions are what I’m most interested in, so I don’t play Crossfire with vehicles. Although it’s a simple game, the novelty of some of the processes will take a bit of getting used to for a newcomer. The game mechanics are very simple, but the tactical choices and options are what make it complex – the mark of a good game! A one-on-one game with someone new would be a good way of introducing the rules and be a real pleasure. Crossfire is my go-to WW2 rules. If you are inclined to the tactics and experience of the infantry commander then you could do a lot worse.

This leaves us with Fireball Forward. Like Crossfire, it has some innovative components, particularly the dice mechanism. Like Battlegroup, it is also about combined arms and integrates vehicles into the rules in a better way than Crossfire. But I have to underline the dice mechanism. It reads worse than it plays. In practice, you roll the hit dice and range dice at the same time, and I found myself looking at the hit dice first to see if there was even a chance of hit. This made it playable and you will pick it up in just a couple of turns of combat. This is OK so long as you aren’t dealing with too many varieties of range dice. Infantry will, generally, be using a D20. Though some vehicles will use a tortured combination such as D20D20D8D8. No. Just no. As such, for my money Fireball Forward works somewhere between Battlegroup and Crossfire – mainly infantry actions with two or three vehicles in support. Which is what I’m looking for.

There’s a place for all these rules. What you go for will depend on what you are looking for. They all provide a different kind of game and they all provide a good game. You won’t go wrong with any of them, but I think I will mostly be sticking with Crossfire (with the odd game of Fireball Forward).

Oh, one last thing. Yes, I have heard of Chain of Command. Yes, it is a very good game. But I don’t own a copy.

Open Day 2024

Our 2024 Open Day is just over a month away and there has been lots of progress on this years games. The Open Day is on the 22th 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 maybe throw some dice at one of the various games we will have on the day.

This year we have a good selection of games, 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.

We will have a game of Barons War complete with scratchbuilt castle.

There will be a game of Project Z for some post-apocalypse fun!

The Elephants will be on the rampage in a battle between Romans and Carthaginians

The Soviet/Afghan war will also be covered this year

Along with a big World War 2 battle somewhere in Europe

And last but not least the magical treefolk will be fighting their ancient enemy the rock warriors in an entirely scratchbuilt fantasy game.

Details of where the club meets and location of the Open Day can be found on our About the Society page.

Summer of 77 show game coming to Salute 51

The Maidstone Wargames Society is pleased to announce our show game for 2024.

The Luftwaffe approach the south coast of Britain and their first set of targets, the radar stations.

We present the Summer of 77, a world war two Battle of Britain participation game. Why 1977? I hear you cry. Our show game is based on a simple game that appeared in the 1977 summer edition of Warlord magazine and is the brainchild of society member Phil who has turned it into a full scale 3D landscape.

Fully detailed landscape of the English countryside, towns and villages. Not to mention those all important airfields and radar stations!

The game has already made a successful appearance at this years Cavalier show in Tonbridge and will make its next appearance at Salute 51 on the 13th April, we are table GJ05 on the show plan. If you’re at the show come and try your hand at thwarting the Luftwaffe. You can also find out all about the game including how it was constructed on our show game page Summer of 77.

Spitfires prepare to scramble to meet the incoming German fighters and bombers.

A busy weekend, Society meeting 24th February and Cavalier 25th February

Andy rounds up a busy weekend for the Society. Photos by Andy unless stated otherwise, header photo by Stephen.

Last weekend saw both a Society meeting and our annual trip to the Cavalier Wargames show run by Tunbridge Wells Wargames Society.

Only three games at the meeting on Saturday, perhaps due to some members only being able to get out on one of the days.

First up, David ran a Napoleonic Corps game using General d’Armee rules and figures from his collection. This was a popular game with half a dozen members partaking.

Eric ran a Judge Dredd RPG, only a couple of photos of this one I’m afraid.

Finally on Saturday Andy and Stephen finished off their Lion Rampant Five Battles campaign, joined this time by Treasurer Mark and new member Charlotte.

Game one.

This was a Convoy mission, the Christians had to escort three “baggage” markers diagonally across the table, a cart, some monks and some civilians. The Muslim forces had to stop them.

Much reduced cavalry face off (Charlotte)

Game 2. This was to be our “Big Battle”, with two commands on each side. Here the objective was simply to defeat the opposition.

We will post a write up of the final games in the campaign in the near future.

CAVALIER

On Sunday half a dozen or so members travelled to Tonbridge for Cavalier.

The Society’s game for this year was masterminded and built by Phil, and was a 3D representation of a map game published in the 1977 Warlord Comic Summer Special portraying a Luftwaffe raid on Southern England during the Battle of Britain.

Phil’s board, 560 individually marked squares!

Airfields and ammunition dumps are three of the targets for the Luftwaffe

A copy of the original game can just be seen at the bottom of the photo

Society meeting 27th January

Andy presents a short round up of the games at the second meeting of the year.

Stephen and I started our Lion Rampant Five Battles campaign. We had planned to play two games today, but actually got through three games.

First Battle: Stephen’s Ayyubid Egyptians spread out

Second Battle: Andy’s Pullani brace themselves for the attack.

Third Battle: Andy’s Pullani defend the shrine

A full report on these battles will be posted soon.

Eric ran a Darkheim – En Garde! fantasy skirmish game pitting four factions against each other in a free for all.

Paul put on a 3mm Eastern front game set in late 1943

Finally, David, Alan and Chris played a Star Wars Armada game.

That’s all for this week.

The diary for this year’s meetings can be found here.

First Society meeting of the year

Andy rounds up the first meeting of the year.

A good turn out for the Society’s first meeting of 2024, which included the Annual General Meeting, as well as half a dozen games.

The games staged were representative of the many periods and genes covered at the Society, consisting of historical, fictional, fantasy and sci-fi games.

Tony and Phil made a start with their “Quest of the Ringbearer” Middle-Earth campaign, playing out 4 scenarios of the journey from the Shire to Mount Doom.

Scenario 1 Farmer Maggot’s Crop

Starting positions for scenario 1. The hobbits by their stash (giant tomato), Grip, Fang and Wolf by the kennel and Farmer Maggot asleep in his cottage.

One of the Hobbits fends off Fang while the others gather cabbages

Scenario 2 – Short cuts make long delays

Pippin gets left behind as Frodo and Sam head for Gildor Inglorion. The Nazgul blunder their way through the woods

Sam has three Nazgul to face, Pippin has fallen and Frodo is nowhere to be seen.

Scenario 3 – Buckleberry Ferry

Starting positions for Scenario three, Three Nazgul spread out near the ferry, the Hobbits are in the trees near the top of the picture.

Stalemate, the sole surviving Nazgul (with 5 points of Will left) has crossed the Brandywine tying the ferry on the far side of the river. The four Hobbits have taken some damage and can’t face swimming the river with a Nazgul waiting for them.

A more detailed report on these scenarios will appear in due course.

Stephen staged a 15mm American Civil War game using Brigade Fire & Fury, ‘The Battle of Mansfield April 1864’

Union fall back as the Confederates take the hill

Alan put on a Pulp Alley game “The Castle of Terror”, teams from the Intelligence Agencies of various countries have been dispatched to investigate secret German activity at Schloß Weidergänger.

The teams approach the castle through the woods

The enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend

Sentries patrol, “Hast du etwas gehört, Fritz?”

Jeremey and Eric tried out –“Grimdark Future” from One Hour Wargames using their Space Marines and Robot collections.

John staged a FoG Renaissance 15mm ECW game pitching Royalists vs Covenanters

Kings’s Lifeguard of Foot supported by cavalry attack the Covenanters

And finally, David put on a 28mm Napoleonic Corps game, Russians vs Prussians using General d’Armee rules

Cavalry clash while infantry hide in the woods.

Russian foot attack the Prussians in the woods

Well, that’s it for the round up of our first meeting.

The Society meets on the 2nd & 4th Saturdays of the month at Linton Village Hall. You can find our diary of games here.

For new members/visitors, we will always endeavour to find you a spot in a game if we can.

A year’s worth of gaming (Part 1)

Club member Stephen reviews the games he has played at Maidstone Wargames Society this year. This is part 1 of the article covering January to June.

This article is a review of all the different games I’ve played over 2023 just to see, and remind myself, of the variety of games I’ve done. At the beginning of the year I made two decisions – play more sci fi, and play more games that other people put on (my general attitude is ‘I paid for these models and took the time to paint them so I want to use them!’ which means I generally put on a game at most meetings). So this year I wanted to mix things up.

The first game of the year was at the club meeting on January 28^th. This was a game of Sword & Spear and part of a campaign (which started in 2022) to re-fight the Wars of the Roses with Jeremey.

January – Sword and Spear – Mortimer’s Cross

I love playing Sword & Spear. I do. But I don’t seem to be any good at it. In all the games I’ve ever played of S&S I think I’ve only ever won twice. Surely it can’t be my superior tactics, that seems to be beyond reproach, right? This game was a re-fight of Mortimer’s Cross (you can find the full, and gloating, write-up here: Wars of the Roses – Battle of Mortimers Cross – Battle Report – Maidstone Wargames Society (brigademodels.co.uk)). As is traditional with S&S, I lost. But you know what, I couldn’t care less because the games are always a lot of fun with plenty of pre-game trash talk and goading, and each game has a story. Playing in good company always helps as well. I’d willingly keep on losing so long as I keep on enjoying it.

February brought another couple of games at the club.

First up was a new game to me – Charlie Don’t Surf by Two Fat Lardies. I find TFL games a bit marmite. I’ve played Chain of Command – loved it. I’ve played What A Tanker – didn’t like it. And this was the first time for CDS. And I loved that as well. The game and models are all Pete S’s, and he’s done a blinding job on them. They are 10mm Pendraken models (I think) and it has just the right look for Vietnam.

We’re used to seeing 20mm and 28mm Vietnam games which focus on platoon actions. But Vietnam was bigger than that – often brigade sized actions with the company as the manoeuvre unit. And 10mm captures that perfectly. I had command of the armoured platoon. We put Mark J (newly appointed club chairman) to prove his mettle in command so he took company HQ. The game was a victory for the US side!

The second game in February was planned to be a Barons’ War game with Andy. But in the week leading up I suggested to Andy we could do a ‘compare and contrast’ and have a game of both Lion Rampant and Barons’ War to see how the two handle the same period. You can read a summary of our findings here (Lion Rampant and Baron’s War – Maidstone Wargames Society (brigademodels.co.uk)).

First club meeting in March was a Stargrave game. I said I wanted to play more sci fi in 2023 and this was the first sci fi of the year. I found the original scenario online and tweaked it to be what I wanted it to be. Stargrave is a great toolbox of a game – you can make it what you want it to be. This game had both an overland and underground part, which was new for us.

I prefer running Stargrave as an umpire, like a RPG. You get a different kind of pleasure as umpire because it’s about providing challenges and running the NPCs/monsters and hopefully providing an enjoyable scenario. Well, for me anyway. In this game Eric’s crew had fought hard to get to the bunker where the Warp Sextant was hidden. But coming out he found Tony F’s crew waiting outside, guns pointed at the entrance. A brief exchange of fire and it was Tony who made off with the treasure. Poor Eric.

End of March it was another chance to lose at Sword & Spear – Second Battle of St Albans. In this campaign I have the Lancastrians which means the onus is on me to win in battles where the Lancastrians came out on top. Such as Second St Albans.

March – Sword and Spear – Second Battle of St Albans

Again, rather than go into details here, anyone wanting to know more about this game can read the battle report (Wars of the Roses – 2nd Battle of St Albans – Battle Report – Maidstone Wargames Society (brigademodels.co.uk)). Suffice to say, it was business as usual! Tony joined me again on the Lancastrian side. I was feeling good about this one, felt I was due a win. And the early part of the game was looking good – the local militia archers engaged the Yorkist artillery and eliminated them for no loss! Yup, first blood to Lancaster. And then it steadily went downhill. Never mind.

More sci fi in April! This time it was Pete M’s Space 1889 game. A different kind of sci fi – Victorian rather than futuristic. The stand out thing were Pete’s scratchbuilt aeronefs, and we spent a bit of time playing ‘guess what bits have been used for the models’. Truly outstanding.

We played two games. I was on the human side for both games, and both games were very close. And Jeremey got a leathering in both games with his colleagues leaving him to do all the work. Excellent game.

The end of April was Salute and this coincided with a club meeting day. Naturally, it was going to be a quiet meeting with a fair few members at Salute. I ran an American Civil War game (battle of Cedar Mountain) using brigade Fire & Fury.

April – Fire & Fury – The Battle of Cedar Mountain

The Union army is in a difficult position for this battle – making an attack against a much larger Confederate army. John R took control of the Union troops and did a good job – but his artillery ran out of ammo early in the game and he never had the time or opportunity to replenish them. This left him conducting a fighting retreat, and he made a good job of it, slowing down the Confederates.

First game in May was another in our Wars of the Roses campaign – the battle of Towton. Like all the others…I lost. Now, I’m not just saying this, but the dice rolling on our side was pretty poor, compared to the other side rolling really well. No, no! Stop that! It’s true on this occasion. To read more about this game you can check out the blog post (Wars of the Roses – Battle of Towton – Battle Report – Maidstone Wargames Society (brigademodels.co.uk))

Next was another sci fi game – Full Thrust. Jeremey and Tony were running the game which meant only one thing: vector movement. My fluffy little head struggles with that and prefers the cinematic movement option.

A mixed bag of results. The first game was two opposed fleets with an asteroid field cutting the table in two – Tony F and myself using some of Brigade’s German ships, and Jeremey and Tony G using some of Jeremey’s scratch built (out of false nails) ships. Tony and myself came out on top in that one. We then played a couple of one ship per player games (first was cruisers, second was destroyers) and the alien nail ships won those games.

Along came flaming June and I decided not to attend Broadside since I was trying to restrict spending and if you go to a show you have to buy something, eh? John Lambert and myself had a game of Crossfire. We played this quite a bit a few years ago but then it fell by the wayside. The models for this game were from my collection – WW2 eastern front.

The scenario was a late war one – Russian advance through Poland with the Germans on the retreat. Naturally, we were re-learning the rules, but it steadily came back to us. MUST ensure we play more of this one.

June 24th was the club Open Day. My game was a Saga: Crusades games. We played two scenarios, I had Saracens and Andy had Milites Christi. Saracens carried the day and won both games. I love Saga. It’s just the right game for me.

June – SAGA Crusades – The Road to Damascus

You can read more about the Open Day here: Review of 2023 Open Day – Maidstone Wargames Society (brigademodels.co.uk)

That concludes part 1 of the review of 2023, part 2 will be published in a couple of weeks.

A helping hand for a worthy cause.

Andy reports on a model build for a good cause.

A few weeks ago, I had a call from my brother-in-law, Dominic, asking for help with an IBG Models 1:35^th scale model of Bedford QLD truck.

First off, a bit of background: Dominic is a follower of Al Murray’s We Have Ways podcast, and regularly attends the We Have Ways Festivals. He is also a subscriber to the “Independent Company”, a Patreon group associated with the podcast, that was set up during the lockdowns to share live streams and other benefits.

Within the “Independent Company” are many modellers (of varying skill levels), who, at a previous festival, put on a display of 1:100^th 3D printed models representing the entire Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry (SRY) AFVs, rear echelon vehicles etc.

The SRY were chosen as James Holland, who hosts the podcast with Al Murray, had edited the SRY’s CO Stanley Christopherson’s diaries and then wrote Brothers In Arms which was about their NW Europe Campaign in World War 2.

Then someone, who we will call Al Murray, said “Wouldn’t it be great doing that Tank Regiment but BIGGER”.

So, a plan to do the same in 1:35^th scale was born, and as an added incentive, this would be organised as a Fundraising effort for a charity close to Al Murray’s heart, Finlay’s Touch.

Finley was Al’s nephew, he developed a rare form of Leukaemia at 6 years old and had 3 stem cell transplants in under a year. Despite amazing care, he could not be cured and passed away on the 6th December 2021 aged 8

Link to Finlay’s Touch : https://finleystouch.org.uk/

So, back to the model.

Dominic had made a start on the kit, but came to the conclusion that he didn’t have the skills to finish it to the required standard. I wasn’t sure I would either, as I haven’t made a kit like this for decades, but as it was for a good cause I said I would take it on.

When I received the kit I had a good read through the instructions, and looked at what Dominic had done so far. I decided that this was definitely a kit for people who like sticking small parts together, why else would the rear axle be made up of at least three separate parts when it could have been moulded as a single piece? I also decided that I could split the build into four separate modules which could be worked on separately and then assembled at the end.

1. 1. 1. The engine / chassis
    2. The cab
    3. The fuel tank and spare tyre rack
    4. The rear truck body.

Dominic had also bought some extras, in the form of a set of Revell Weathering powders and a Tamiya Jerry can kit to serve as the truck’s cargo. This had 6 oil drums, 9 German Jerrycans and 9 US Jerrycans. If these were to be seen this meant that the truck body had to be built open rather than using the optional closed tilt piece, and Dominic asked for the tilt supports to be included. He had made a start on the engine / chassis, fuel tank rack and cab, but hadn’t started on the truck body.

So, where to start?

The part Dominic was having most trouble with was the cab, so I thought I’d start there. First off, I fixed the seat backs to the cab base, and added in the gear sticks, hand brakes etc. One of the problems Dominic had was that he had primed a lot of the parts whilst still on the sprue, this meant that the surfaces that had to be glued together had a coat of paint that prevented the glue from doing its job, so I had to scrape back this paint to expose bare plastic before assembling the parts.

I continued with the cab, adding the back of the cab and mudguards, and more parts to the engine and chassis.

I added the left side panel and front of the cab, these had to be in place before I could add the steering wheel. I also built the rear of the truck and the cargo. These went together relatively easily and I did a dry fit of the cargo into the truck to see how much of the load bed would be occupied. I worked out that I could get 12 of the 18 jerrycans across the width of the load bay.

I went back and did some more work on the cab and chassis, adding the exhaust pipes and leaf springs to the latter, and painting the wheels and the inside of the cab.

Regarding painting, Dominic had bought some enamel paints, and had painted some parts with them, however I hadn’t used enamels in years, and fortunately I had all but one of the Vallejo acrylic paints specified by the kit instructions so I decided to use those instead.

	Vallejo Model Colour	Vallejo Description
Black	70950	Black
Rust	70846	Mahogany Brown
Gunmetal	70863	Gunmetal Grey
Olive Drab	70889	Olive Brown
Light green	70942	Light Green

The only substitution I had to make was to use 70967 Olive Green instead of 70942 Light Green for the seats.

To make the painting of the cargo a little easier I glued the jerrycans into groups of 6 and 3 and temporarily glued these and the oil drums to some large lollipop sticks.

I then primed the cargo with Humbrol grey brush primer and the rear of the truck with Halfords grey spray primer, using masking tape to keep the area where the oil drums were to go bare. On the chassis I added the axles, engine and drive shafts and finished assembling the cab. I also painted the inside of the load bay.

I added the wheels and a few last pieces to the chassis, added the cargo and tilt frame to the rear of the truck (10 separate pieces!) and finished painting the model.

The four modules finished, ready for assembly

Now for the final assembly, well almost. I would eventually need to varnish the model, I usually use spray varnish on my wargames figures, but I wasn’t sure how that would affect the clear plastic windows on the cab, so I decided that I would keep the cab separate and use brush varnish for the cab

So, I fitted the truck body and the fuel tank / spare tyre rack to the chassis and added some black camouflage to the model. I also added all the fiddley bits to the cab, headlights and sidelights, grab handles, door handles etc. I had a problem with one of the later, it sprang off my tweezers when I was trying to fit it and I couldn’t find it. Fortunately, I came up with a replacement. The Jerrycan kit had four buckets, I cut down one of the bucket handles to the right size and used that as a replacement door handle!

Chassis, truck body and spare wheel / fuel tank assembled.

The kit came with a set of transfers, but the organisers of the build had also commissioned some Sherwood Rangers specific tactical markings, these would be used to replace the tactical markings from the kit.

When applying transfers to models, I put a coat of gloss varnish over the areas where the transfers are to go, this gives the underlying paint a smooth surface for the transfer to adhere to and prevents the “silvery” finish you can sometimes see with transfers applied to matt paints.

Once the transfers were dry, I gave the cab a coat of matt brush varnish and the rest of the truck a coat of spray varnish. Once that was dry, I fixed the cab to the chassis.

I made a couple of the buckets from the Tamiya Jerrycan kit, putting one in the back of the truck and hanging the second off the towing hook.

The almost finished model showing the cargo

Finally I used some Revell weathering paint (also supplied by Dominic) to add mud to the tyres, mudguards and the underside of the truck.

I had forgotten to add the rear-view mirrors before I took the photos above, another really fiddley bit, so these were the last thing to be added to the kit.

So, the kit was finished in time, and made its way to WeHaveWaysFestDrei over the weekend of 9^th & 10^th September to join all the other models that had been built, including four models built by Al Murray: three Shermans including the SRY CO’s tank called Robin Hood and a Crusader AA tank..

You can just make out the one I built in the right rear.

After the event the models were auctioned / raffled off to raise more money for Finlay’s Touch, so far raising £5,755.

If you are able, please make a donation to this worthy cause.

Link to the Just Giving Page Simon Errington is fundraising for Finley’s Touch (justgiving.com)

What a (Christmas) Tanker !

Marcus takes us through this year’s Christmas shenanigans, as we all turned into complete tankers…

I think I first suggested having a game of “What A Tanker” (WAT) as a club Christmas game in early 2020. We all know what happened next. This year we finally got a Christmas outing for this Lardy game at the club, with ten participants. Thanks to Phil and Tony, we were able to choose from a wide variety of tanks, from recently painted Pz 35’s and FCM-36’s to Phil’s scratch-built Maus. (“No Phil, there are no stats for a Maus!”) No-one even noticed that I didn’t complete my ESCI Jagd. Pz. IV, or finish re-conditioning my Jagd. Panther, as Phil had managed to recondition his with a generous helping of agrax earthshade, nuln oil or some such alchemy

Between Alan and Tony, we were provided with a couple of great tables (perhaps too great…) with plenty of cover representing western European towns with villages, woods and crossroads etc. Plenty of cover…

The idea was that we would have two tables; late war and early war. If you got knocked out you would simply join the other table, not necessarily on the same side. However, while you were on a table, you would be either German or Allied; no “own goals” to boost your scoring as it were.

We also generated a simple system of scoring. If you got a kill you divided the points value of the target as listed in the WAT rulebook by the firer (TV/FV * 10 = score). Tony produced a nice table to cross reference the values easily.

Late War Table

I started on the late war table driving a Stuart, with Steve and “Baggins” (my youngest) driving Shermans. Our initial nasty Nazi opponents were Andy and Alan, both with Pz.IV’s.
While Steve and Baggins drove up the flanks, I ventured through the outskirts of a village to find Alan’s Pz.IV on the road more or less blocking my advance. Both Steve and I struggled to manoeuvre with our dice, which can be a frustration with the rules. Many modifications were suggested, and I took notes with a view to my own Grav Tanker variant. As I tried to extricate myself from the built-up area and with Steve attempt to outflank him on our left, Baggins moved up on the right all guns blazing at Andy. These two ended up in a protracted fire fight with Baggins in position behind a wall and Andy, IIRC, initially behind some hedges and the traversing between the woods and hedges as a result of a series of non-damaging hits. Eventually Andy paid a heavy penalty and brewed up and Boaz picked up the “Impressive Bush” camouflage card. Meanwhile, first Steve and then I joined in pumping rounds into Alan, with Steve finishing him off and earning a “Hell Driver” card.

Jeremy joined us having suffered brutally on the early war table, and boosted the axis forces with Andy’s departure. Baggins traded shots with a returning Alan as Jeremy moved up. Baggins then got his come-uppance and while attempting to get up close and personal with Jeremy (talk of ramming was heard) suffered a kill at Jeremy’s hands and promptly left for the early war table. Steve and I again poured fire into the luckless Alan, whose dice rolls deserted him. Somewhere amongst the melee (as it was very much close quarters stuff) my Stuart went BOOM and it was Steve again who got the kill, then promptly had to leave the game early. Meanwhile Baggins had got a kill on the early war table where Andy had suffered more ill-fortune!

Between us, we took a grand total of two photos of the late war table – a bit of an oversight when it came to writing up the game here ! Here’s Andy’s view of the table(Ed)

Early War Table
Marcus didn’t make it onto the 1940 table, so Tony F outlines what happened over there

The early war table was slightly larger with less cover than the late war one, which probably made for a more open game. We also ruled early on that the flimsy wooden fences didn’t count as obstacles – we allowed tankers to see and drive through them without penalty. There were plenty of tanks to choose from – 9 French (FCM-36, R-35, H-35, H-39/40, FT-17, AMC-35, Char D2, Char B1 bis and SOMUA S-35), 5 British (Mk.IVc, A-9, A-10, A-13 and Matilda), 10 German (Pz.IIC, Pz.IIE, Pz.IIIF, Pz.IVA. Pz.IVD. Pz.35(t), Pz.38(t), PzJg.I, StuG IIIA and a Neubaufahrzeug!), and even some Belgians (T.13B3, T.15 and ACG-1). Not all of these are in the rulebook, but coming up with stats for them was pretty straightforward – I drew up a chart for easy reference.

All tankers started the game with a Level 1 tank, and we allowed upgrades to better vehicles as the game went on. The Germans, Brian, Jeremey and Pete, started out with a Pz.35(t), Pz.IVA and Pz.Jg I respectively. Dave and Chris both chose British Cruisers (A10 and A9), while I took a French Hotchkiss H-35. All we can say is that if the Allies had performed on the battlefield like they did on our table, WW2 would have been over in June 1940 ! Chris took up a firing position looking straight down the road and proceeded to ping away at anything that moved with his trusty 2pdr, while Dave and I ‘raced’ up the flanks (in our slow tanks). Details are hazy, but we wiped out the first wave of Germans without loss, including Jeremey’s brave Pz.IVA that advanced across the fields to challenge Chris at point blank. The duel at the abandoned farm between Pete’s PzJg.I and my H.35 was a contest between his powerful Czech-made 47mm gun and my thicker-than-average armour, offset by his tin plate defence and my short 37mm popgun. In the end, unlike in 1940, it went the way of the French. As we wore down the Germans various tank commanders switched tables – Andy turned up in a StuG.IIIA and Boaz a late model Pz.38(t), but they were seen off in equally short order, although there were some interesting cat-and-mouse chases around the village. Dave and Chris both eventually lost their original mounts (Dave swapped his for a shiny new Matilda.II) but my Hotchkiss led a charmed life and survived the day with just the permanent loss of one dice (and a lot of dents in the armour).

In the end we didn’t keep an accurate tally of the overall scoring, but Dave seems to have emerged as Top Tanker with four kills set against a single loss, followed by my plucky H-35 with four kills and no losses (Dave’s kills were of higher value targets which offset the loss of his A10). Kills seemed to be harder to come by on the late war table.