The Great Plastic Revival - Prussian Cavalry

 This is the third batch of Prussians to be completed, in this case the cavalry.  When I went through the boxes there were lots of cavalry in odd colours, mainly white and gree.  I think they were supposed to be part of the Austrian army, however, they did not look quite right.

On closer inspection I worked out that, apart from some Revell black hussars and early war Revell Cuirassiers, the bulk were in fact ESCI/Italeri British Scots Greys wearing oilskin shako covers. I thought that with a dab of paint they could be passed off as Prussian dragoons.  Here is the result:

From a couple of feet away they don't look to out of place.

Next, I might tackle some of the Airfix Prussian Landwehr, but these are completely unpainted and will take a little longer.

Operation Barbarossa - Crossing the River Bug 1941

 Over the last couple of days, Phil visited and we decided to have a go at a WW2 scenario.

This battle is based upon the Rapid Fire scenario (which adapts the historical action to make it more challenging) and reflects the start of the German invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941.  The game sees the German 18th Panzer Division mount an amphibious assault over the River Bug on the Polish border.  The Germans have three objectives. Launching from their harbour area around Patulin, they must cross the river Bug and construct a pontoon bridge, break through the first defence line and take the town of Matykaly, and finally capture the bridge over the river Ljasnaja;

Map copyright Rapid Fire

The Germans start in a surprise move with the assault boats in the water and the first troops landing. An initial view showing the bulk of 18th Panzer Division, with the assault just beginning:

The Germans have a significant advantage in artillery with a complete regiment in support:

The initial objective, once across the river, will be to break through the soviet first line of defence, which consists of a pill box, a T-26 turret and quite thinly spread infantry.  There are wire and minefield obstacles too:

Beyond that is a soviet Rifle battalion holding the village of Matykaly with several anti-tank guns:

Further on, after crossing a railway line, is the river Ljasnaja and the key bridge.  A further soviet battalion is defending here, along with artillery and air defence weapons:

The Germans have two battalions in the initial assault, with a third following on.  There is also a Panzer regiment, as well as the full regiment of field artillery.  Here is the initial assault going in:

With more troops waiting in nearby woods:

The engineer field park is in the village of Patulin and nearby the tanks of 18th Panzer wait for the bridge to be built:

During the previous night German recce teams sneak across the river and take up positions in the trees on the enemy bank:

Soon the Germans have several companies across the river but they are exposed to fire from the pill box, the T-26 turret and a machine gun in the wheat field. Casualties are heavy as the German infantry attempt to advance over open ground:

Air support is called in but is not very effective.  German casualties continue to mount and now they begin to receive soviet artillery fire, directed from a nearby hill:

Even more worrying, the first tanks from the soviet reserve begin to arrive on the field.  Seen here is a T-26 trundling over the railway beyond Matykaly.

As soon as possible the Germans begin the construction of the pontoon bridge, having first laid a smoke screen.  Meanwhile the boats continue ferry troops across.

After suffering heavy casualties from machine gun fire from the bunkers, the pill box is pounded into submission.  Meanwhile, under cover of another smoke screen German engineers take out the T-26 turret with a flame thrower.

The first T-26 advances around the village but is hit by an airstrike and burns:

German Panzer IIIs line the bank to provide cover as engineers are close to completing the bridge. They receive a setback though when a soviet shell damages the roadway. The engineers work frantically to finish the bridge.

Now that the bunkers have been dealt with the German infantry can make some progress.

At last the bridge is completed and German tanks begin to cross.  The minefields have yet to be cleared and this creates an obstruction that will need to be bypassed:

The tanks fan out and begin to deal with the remaining soviet forward defences:

They flank the hill that caused the infantry so much trouble and approach the village.  To the rear of the village is an anti-tank screen, which will have to be dealt with before the tanks can break through.

An overview of the scene at this point in the battle. Soviet tanks sent forward piecemeal are quickly dealt with as two burn in the foreground as clearing the village begins.

Back at the bridge more tanks cross the river:

The Soviets bring forward another tank and their 3rd rifle battalion, but their anti-tank capability is all but destroyed.

The final German infantry units cross the Bug.

Using a spotter aircraft, artillery is rained down onto the German advance with little effect, however the one remaining anti-tank gun scores a hit on a Panzer III.

At this point, the remaining Soviet units begin to withdraw.  Their ability to stop the tanks is now very limited and their infantry are being cut down by heavy German artillery strikes. At the same time, the Germans have been severely bruised and decide to lick their wounds until more infantry support can be brought up, before attempting to capture the Ljanaja bridge.

The German chefs cook up a well earned gulash for the tired troops!

This was an immensely enjoyable game.  I played the Germans and Phil the Soviets. Fortune swung from side to side. During the early stages it looked like the Germanswould be stalled by the first line of defences. Fortunately attempts to disrupt the bridge building were limited and the late arrival of Soviet tanks in any number helped tip the balance.  Once the German tanks had crossed the river the end became inevitable, but it could have gone the other way.  This was a costly victory for the Germans.

We used home grown rules for the game.  The German figures are mostly from the collection of Eric Knowles and the Russians are from my own collection, consisting of a mix of Hinchliffe and Zvezda figures. The bridge, engineers and boats are all originally from Eric Knowles. The tanks and vehicles, mostly plastic come from a variety of sources.  The river came from the ABC wargamers collection and may have been made by Jack Alexander.  It was great to get all of these wonderful modles onto the table.

The Great Plastic Revival - Prussian Infantry

 The next batch of figures to be dusted off and rebased are the Prussian foot,  Consisting of Revell and Airfix figures they make quite a colourful contribution to the collection:

Next up will be the cavalry, after which I will turn my attention to the Russians.

The Great Plastics Revival - Prussian Gunners

 Over the last few days I have finished patching up and rebasing the first of the Prussian - the artillery.  I think they are all by HaT and look rather splendid lined up:

Ersatz Japanese Infantry

 I think I mentioned earlier the imbalance in numbers between the Russians and Japanese forces.  I have now reorganised all of the Japanese and ideally, I could do with another two or three battalions.  Finding 20mm Japanese for 1905 is near impossible and so I turned to converting some plastic figures.  Here I have paint converted some Airfix and Emhar WW1 figures:

I think that they will look OK from a few feet away!

Russo Japanese war 1905, Jacklex Russians

 Finally, I have finished basing the last of the Jacklex Russians.  Thee was a lot of them.  I still have some unpainted figures and a few odds and ends to sort out, but the bulk of the collection is now ready for action.

Here is an overview of the Russian army:

The artillery:

Army command:

The rest of the artillery:

The cavalry Brigade:

The infantry:

The Cossack Brigade:

I'm working on some more Red Army troops and then back to the Great Plastics Revival - unless i get distracted again!

Battle of Naseby 1645

 Will came over during the weekend and we decided to have another go at an English Civil War battle. Naseby turned out to be the venue for the game and the board was duly set up.  I would play Parliament and Will the Royalists.  The field consisted of a shallow valley, largely open, with just a couple of small wooded areas, although on one side were some high hedge enclosures.  The hills were not steep enough to cause movement penalties but gave cover from view and uphill troops had a melee advantage.  Here is the battlefield as set up at the beginning, with Parliament forces nearest the camera.

The two commanders meet prior to the action:

I was feeling rather smug as, in the real battle Parliament wins and has a considerable numerical advantage.  I kicked off the battle with an artillery bombardment that had little effect.  Will immediately responded by pushing forward all of his cavalry regiments, hurtling hell for leather towards my lines.  Having more cavalry I ordered four regiments forward to counter attack. Soon the Royalist cavalry were amongst my artillery lines:

My cavalry counter attacks on the right:

Over in the enclosures a regiment of Parliamentary dragoons begins to harry the enemy infantry and Will sends two regiments of foot to clear the dragoons away.

Will's cavalry continue to charge forward, this time on my left.

Over on the right a significant cavalry battle begins:

And, back on the left my cavalry begin to engage the Royalists:

An exchange of fire between the dragoons and Royalist foot begins, with little effect, although the dragoons take a few hits from Royalist musketeers.

Over on the left a confused battle between the horse units of both sides continues.  My foot units hold the ridge:

The action in the enclosures continues and the dragoons now are being pushed back, losing half of their number:

An overview of the battle, with the horse from both sides on the flanks fighting it out.  The dice was not in my favour and bit by bit I lose initiative points and seem to be failing in combat:

Will begins to move his infantry forward and one of my guns is destroyed.

On the left the Royalists begin to take casualties, but continue to hit back.  A Royalist general falls as his cavalry rout.

The same on the right with the cavalry of both sides continuing to fight.  By now all of the Parliament cavalry have been committed to the fray:

Having broken through my cavalry, the Royalist horse charge up the ridge:

Will's foot regiments advance and clash with their opposite numbers in the centre:

Meanwhile the dragoons and Royalist foot pop away at each other.  One of the Royalist foot regiments is beaten off:

Close quarter action in the centre:

At this point in the battle most of the Parliament horse have either been destroyed or routed, two guns are lost and Parliament's nerve is weakened.  Cromwell's army pulls away from the field and although badly battered the Royalists claim victory.  History is reversed and the monarchy is saved - for now!

This was a terrific game.  Once again we used the rules from the Portable ECW Wargame book and they worked very well, providing a fast moving fun game.  

This was a big action involving a lot of troops, however, the whole battle lasted just over two hours as we adjourned for lunch!