Friday 3 July 2015

Mid War Raiding - Italians vs Indians

Kieth dropped by today and wanted to try out his Italian raiding force!  He brought along 585 points of an Arditi Jeep Company with sporadic air.

  Fearless    Veteran  103a Compagnia Arditi Comionettisti (MW)
Arditi Jeep Company
Italian Mid-War
Mechanised Company
PlatoonQtyUnitPoints
Combat Platoons
Arditi Camionettisti Platoon p.150
1
3
1
2
1
1
AS42 Sahariana with extra AA MG
AS42 da 20/65 with AA MG
AS37 da 20/65 with AA MG
AS42 da Solothurn
AS42 da 47/32 with AA MG
AS37 da 47/32 (late) with AA MG
495
Support Platoons
Air Support p.149
3Sporadic Air Support FIAT CR.42 Falco90
Company Points:585

www.EasyArmy.comSource document: Burning Empires

I fielded 1150 points of an Indian Rifle CO with 1st Army support.

  Fearless    Veteran  Rifle Company (Indian) (Tunisia)
British Mid-War
Infantry Company
PlatoonQtyUnitPoints
Headquarters
Rifle Company HQ (Indian) (Tunisia) p.171
2
1
Cmd Rifle team
Troop Carrier
40
Combat Platoons
Rifle Platoon (Indian) p.171
1
1
1
6
1
Cmd Rifle/MG team
Light Mortar team
Anti-tank Rifle team
Rifle/MG team
Entire platoon turned into Gurkha Rifle Platoon
235
Rifle Platoon (Indian) p.171
1
1
1
6
Cmd Rifle/MG team
Light Mortar team
Anti-tank Rifle team
Rifle/MG team
225
Weapons Platoon
Carrier Platoon (Indian) p.172
3Indian Pattern Carrier with extra hull-mounted MG115
Anti-tank Platoon (Indian) p.173
1
1
2
Cmd Rifle team
Jeep
6 pdr portee
110
Brigade Support Platoons
Transport Section (1st Army) Confident  Trained   p.175
43-ton lorry15
Divisional Support
Infantry Tank Platoon (1st Army) Confident  Trained   p.165
3Churchill III410
Company Points:1150

www.EasyArmy.comSource document: North Africa

I really enjoy both "The Convoy" and "Get The General" missions.  We decided on Get the General.  I choose to have my Ghurka's as far foward as possible near the town and the Pattern Carriers in close escort with the staff vehicles x5.  The rest of the defending force is in scattered reserves.
Keith's Italian raiding force starts with one platoon swooping around the town and the other in Ambush!  My pattern carriers make a recce deployement move to try and protect the staff vehicles. 

 The Ghurkas are dug in protecting the centre area that the convoy will pass through shortly.

 Keith moves into position preparing to bring all his guns to bear.

The convoy carrying the General spots the Italian raiders and puts the pedal to the metal!

 Turn 2 Keith pops his ambush and lights up a couple trucks!  The road is now difficult going due to the pair of trucks on fire!  This will slow the Jeep rated staff vehicles down to 4" move for a turn.

  Behind the convoy keith is concentrating fire on the Indian pattern carrier escorts.  His MGs end up bailing one and destroying another!  Return fire takes down one raider.

Turn 3 the Indians get their 2pdr portees on the table.  And a lucky roll for scattered reserves places them right in firing range of the ambushing Italians.

 One kill!

Things are getting messy.  Keith relentlessly and mercilessly takes out the remaining carriers.  However the Indians are able to take out one more of the Raiders before being eliminated.
The Ghurkas start taking pot shots with AT rifle, mortar and any in range MG teams possible but are ineffective.  

Turn 4 the last remaining staff cars make it off the table to safety.  Keith now has 3 staff car objectives in his pocket.  He just has to escape with the platoon that did the killing in order to get an 4-3 minor victory. 

Burning vehicles.   

Turn 4 also saw the Indians receive reserves.  An Indian Rifle platoon and the churchills.  The Indians race to catch up to the escaping Italians.  I chose to keep them in their lorries!  Bad decision...  Keith opens up destroying over half the platoon in the process.  The survivors cower in the nearby palms.  Only the CO and 2IC remain charging forward. 

Its now or never for both sides as the Italians only have a short distance to go before making it to safety.  The churchills move forward and take ROF 1 shots hoping to connect.  In a huge stroke of luck for the Indians they manage to pull of the needed hits while keith expertly failed both saves. 

That brought the match to a close.  We both had a blast and like every raiding mission ive ever played this one could have gone either way.  Fast and fun right down to the wire!

Saturday 31 January 2015

Volkssturm

So I have been painting ALOT of stuff and neglecting to post it all up.  I will be trying to remedy that!  First of all since Bridge at Remagen came out I have really wanted to get my King Tigers on the table.  And there is no better way than using the Reluctant Veteran Schwere (506) out of said book.
 That being said I ordered up some Volkssturm.  Or as Steven from WWPD calls them "Blood bags."
 There was no way I was going to paint these bad ass old vets without basing them on rubble.  So that is what I set out to do!  Cool Eye patch Herr General!
 I painted everyone on golf tees before gluing them in place on the rubble.  I then used 3 different grades of basing grit from Gale Force 9.  First I sprinkle the Medium grit followed by fine.  Then lastly the super fine to fill in any holes.
 I figured that these guys would be fighting in the ruins of Berlin.  So the rubble should be grey pulverized stone.  Unlike Italy, which I tend to add in alot of Buff or Light browns.
 So I stuck with a base of German Camo Black brown followed by heavy drybrush of German grey.  Then London grey and finally sky grey highlights.  (Vallejo)
 I really wanted the dudes to pop and not be hidden by the basing.  I spent a ton of time making every figure unique.
 There are guys wearing Luftwaffe blue stuff, guys in full Nazi party tan.  Guys in regular wehrmacht kit.  Guys in a mismatch of every branch.
 FYI the painting guide in the back of Bridge at Remagen is great!
 Here you can see some of the upcoming projects I will post about in the back ground.
 Now some shots of the Volkssturm in action.  I picture them protecting the flanks of the KTs for as long as possible.
 The LMG "Downgrade"  is essential in my opinion.  It has ROF5.  And you will need it to pin incoming assaults.
 The old man.....  Literally,  this guy has an eye patch.  Hes hardcore!
 These guys are all Panzerfaust rifle teams.  Every other figure has one.  And a couple on bikes have 2!


Now I need to finish a 2nd platoon.  Ill be doing them up exactly the same.  Until next time!