Thursday 30 March 2017

Back in the game - FOW 2017-03-25

Last Saturday my "irregular" Jakarta opponent and I played FOW for the afternoon.  Chun Long hails from Singapore and had recently brought over scenery and fresh tanks.

We played a scenario based on the battle of Kursk, 1943 - I took the Germans and Chun Long the Russians.  The objective was a railway station at the centre of the Russian base edge.

My OOB was:

Tiger Platoon
Command Tiger Tank x 1
Troop 1 - 2 x Tiger Tank
Troop 2 - 2 x Tiger Tank

Panther Platoon
Command Panther x 1
Recon - 2 x 234/1 (8 wheel Armoured Car)
Panther Troop - 3 x Panther
PzIV Troop - 3 x Pz IV


The German force.



















The Russians had lots of:
T34/76
Matildas
Valentines
76mm ATG
Su 100
ISU 152




Chun Long started with his ATG dug in on table, his tanks arrived in turn 1.

I deployed the Tigers to my left, the Panther team to my right.  My initial move was to send my Recce up the road, followed by the Panthers, whilst my Pz IVs stayed on a hill to give support.

Meanwhile my Tigers advanced menacingly & ponderously towards the Soviet defences.  My Recce unit got hit, took casualties & retreated off table, but had stopped the Soviets using the road. 
The Tigers traded shots with the ATG – Disaster!  1 platoon failed its morale test & retreated off table.

The remaining 3 Tigers then set about demolishing the oncoming waves of Russians, whilst on the right the Panthers advanced, halted & retired slowly, their path marked by burning Russian tanks.  

The Panther withdrawal - a trail of burning Russians...

























The Pz IVs took a hit and retreated off table, the Panthers likewise a couple of turns later.

The ones that "got away".  The 2 Tigers only fired 1 or 2 shots !
















The Tigers continued to shoot/reload/advance to the railway station.  88mm Ammo was getting low, as were Russian stocks of spare tanks & smoke markers.  One Tiger died on a hill, the remaining pair made it to the station and took turns to destroy tanks and ATG at will. 

The "Tiger on the Hill", with some of its victims....




















In the end both Tigers succumbed to mass ATG fire, but having destroyed nearly every tank sent against them.  I was still within a whisker of a win.

The Tigers burning at the railway station



















The Tigers were superb, with Soviet shot bouncing off or ineffectual.  Chun Long scoured the rulebook but could not find the for the Rodina! ram rule!

The end - from the Russian table edge. Panthers came up the road on the left, Tigers over the hill to the right



It was a thoroughly enjoyable and well fought game (..and I lost).


Wednesday 8 March 2017

Tumbling Dice Ju 52 - part 2

Tumbling Dice Ju 52 - undercarriage conversion & detailing


The second part of this blog looks at some other small additions to enhance your fleet of Ju 52s, thus enabling them to strike more terror / die with greater gallantry, depending on who has air superiority.

If part 1 seems too much, you can just use the wheels as supplied and add the following:

Ju 52 Tante Exhaust Plane 1/600 Tumbling Dice Conversion Scratchbuild
Ju 52 - post 2 - starboard exhaust



Ju 52 Tante Plane 1/600 Tumbling Dice Conversion
Ju 52 - post 2 - port exhaust

































Ju 52 Tante 1/600 Plane Conversion Dorsal Gunner
Ju 52 post 2 the dorsal gunner position

Ju 52 Tante 1/600 Plane Tumbling Dice Gunner MG
Ju 52 post 2 - gunner & MG

Ju 52 Tante 1/600 Tumbling Dice upgrade
Ju 52 post 2 - the end result!































































































So there you have it, a neat Ju52 ready to take to the skies.  Due to my nomadic nature, my planes have yet to be painted, but I hope to add pictures of the final results later.

Thanks for watching!

Colin