From LeeH: 6mm WWII German Panzer IV F1s & Panzer IIIs (30 points)

From Lee:

Well I'm inching towards my target and might just make it now...providing I get my final Bonus round model in on time! In the meantime today's submission is part of my ongoing North Africa 1942 project and marks the beginning of a new phase of expansion for my Desert collection. This latest batch of German tanks will fill a few holes in the existing ranks and help flesh out the core companies I am building before going on and starting new ones.

There are a mix of 6mm models in this formation. First off a platoon of Panzer IV F1's by GHQ. As usual the quality of these models is superb and with the right amount of highlighting and pigmented wash all the detail can be seen. Then I have some Panzer III N's again by GHQ. I'll need to buy several more platoons as these form the backbone of my panzer forces for late 1942. Lastly some more Panzer IV F1's but this time from Scotia. I came across these particular models by chance at a show recently and decided to give them a try. They are less detailed and slightly smaller than the GHQ examples - Scotia are 1/300 while GHQ are 1/285. I'll assign the two platoons of Pzr IV F1's to different companies and my players probably won't even notice the difference.

Incidentally I have altered my base labels for these models to include a national flag symbol and a regiment number. I have been reorganising my existing platoons into newly constituted companies as part of a longer term plan (something I should have done before I started the project!) so I will be going back and replacing all the base labels on my existing collection over the next few weeks.... but not until after the Challenge is over!

The Oasis model is also a newly completed project, even though I know I can't enter it into the Challenge. Once the idea was lodged in my head the urge to do some terrain building was more than I could resist!

Wonderful work Lee. As I've mentioned before I've been a great admirer of your basing and overall presentation with this project. The labels are ace, I feel for you having to change tack mid-stream.

Love the oasis, but it needs more camel... ;-p

These microscale DAK tanks will give Lee 30 points, enough for him to reach his 600 point target. The pressure's off Lee - well done and congratulations!

Guest Post AAR - A Touch of Blau - WW2 Spearhead

From Greg (with cheezy photo editorial by Curt):

Greetings again challengers! I encourage you to put down your brushes (particularly Ray and Tamsin - give a guy a chance!) and enjoy my final guest post AAR from operation Wacht Am Wascana, my recent trip to Regina.  We had already played 15mm Golan Heights 1973 and two rounds of 28mm Colonial Sudan.  For our last game I had brought along a small (literally) contingent of miniatures for a game system that Curt and I count among our favourites - Spearhead.

Spearhead is a division-level game, with each model or base of models representing a platoon of infantry or tanks, or a battery of guns.  The maneuver elements are battalions - groups of nine to twelve platoons, depending on nationality, period of the war, scenario circumstances etc. 

Spearhead requires that players come up with a battle plan, with written orders for each battalion.  This is a great check on the player's "helicopter view" of the battlefield, and changing these orders is not always easy - again dependent on nationality and what period of the war.  If your battalions end up on the wrong side of the table, you will not easily scramble them over to the other side.

This game was a small one, set in the summer of 1942 in the opening period of Operation Blau, the German drive on the Caucasus region (we all know how that worked out in the end).  It was derived from a much larger scenario from the book scenario book "Where the Iron Crosses Grow" - that is a great book, but the scenarios in there assume players have entire divisions of models at their disposal.

We used a 4' x 4' table. The Germans had a panzer battalion and a schutzen battalion, and they were confronting a Soviet armoured brigade (three tank battalions and an infantry battalion) which had been ordered to counter attack them.  Victory conditions were simple - the Soviets won if they broke one of the German battalions.  The Germans won if they broke two of the Soviet battalions.  I played the Germans and Curt played the Soviets.

The game last about seven turns before the victory conditions were met - by Curt (!@!@!!).  It had all been going so smoothly too - my schutzen lads moved into the middle of the table while my panzers darted around the flank with a panache that would have impressed Guderian himself.  The panzers rolled up one of Curt's tank battalions and were descending on the heavily exposed flanks of his other units.

Victory was in sight, and my panzer crews were practicing their thank-you speeches for the Iron Cross ceremony that was sure to follow.

But then all of a sudden Curt managed to change his orders. For THREE of his four units. This NEVER happens for Russians. You may recall I mentioned that in Spearhead you have to draw up a battle plan, and then stick with it - and changing orders depends on period and nationality.  Well the early war Russian player - even though they get tons of kit to cover the table - can almost never change orders for their maneuver elements, even with the intervention of higher command.  You needed to roll a '6', or at least a '5' if the brigade commander is taking a hand.  But the bugger pulled it off...

This meant my comfortable little Schutzen lads were confronted with a Stalin-level "uuuurrrahhh!" as the Soviet tanks and infantry surged forward.  To add to the mayhem, Curt hot-rolled with his battalion mortars - I lost my MG platoon - ouch - while my mortars fired blanks.  My lads blew it on the approach fire, blew it on the close combat role, and then blew it on the morale check! F***!  German attack halted while division sends reinforcements over - and no doubt the German commander in question was sacked for letting this little counter attack set things back! 

To Curt's credit he was a little queasy about the victory - after all the table was covered in charred BT-5s and other wrecked Soviet bits.  But looking back I made a major mistake - not attaching some armour directly to the infantry! I was sure the infantry's PAK 38 battery, together with their organic anti-tank elements, would easily handle the BT-5s (which didn't even have MGs for goodness sake - Curt had to roll "6"s on a D6 to even scratch my infantry units).  But treads are treads, and when they are driving over your fox hole it sucks - even if they are on obsolete tanks.

A good lesson for next time - and another reason of why I love Spearhead.  It's a great example of balanced abstraction & engagement concepts in a thin set of rules.  It provides great flavour for the period, and keeps players worrying about what division-level players should be worried about - "why are my orders not working!?!"

This is my final guest AAR from this trip, but it is not the last AAR for the weekend - Curt ran a game on the Friday night for the regular Regina gaming crew of which I will say no more other than it is connected to one of his many recent bonkers projects, and I was thrilled to take part!  I'm sure Curt's showman instincts will provide a proper rollout here on his blog in due course...

Thanks again to Curt and Sarah for their wonderful hospitality.  Five games in one weekend - now that's a weekend! Curt is visiting Winnipeg soon, and I am hoping to fire up a gaming reception to make the return visit worthwhile.

From ChrisP: 1:285 Modern Vehicles and Infantry & 1:2400 USS New Jersey (108 points)

From Chris: 

Here are the 6mm I promised. I was waiting to have them all done before sending them through, some have been done since the first couple of days of the competition! 

Anyway, it is more 6mm stuff from me, this time, some Russians and some US support stuff. Miniatures are from Heroics and Ros and Scotia. 

First up for the Russians we have 6 T-80 MBT (see above), then 3 T-62 and 3 ZSU-57mm AA, all done in two tone camo. The camo worked out really well, I am looking forward to acquiring more of them and having another go at it.

Then we have some of the cooler support weapons, first is 6 PT-76 amphibious tanks for the Naval Infantry, and 3 ASU-85's for the Airborne. Both were specialised pieces of kit- the PT-76 can swim well (how well depends on how much you believe the Russian designers), the ASU-85 was designed to be air transported and to give the airborne some AT support! 

As ever, an army needs transport. The Russians have it in the form of 9 plain green trucks.Not much to say about them except they are darn useful! Much better than walking.

Lastly for the Russians we have some missile support, in the form of 3 Frog-7 Ballistic Missile launchers. Used by the Iraqis against coalition (and civilian) targets, carrying a conventional, nuclear or chemical warhead these are some scarily big missiles with red noses! 

On to the Western forces.

First for them is 3 M60 MBT, along with 1 M113 ACAV. The ACAV is definitly from Scotia, and is pretty horrible. But.. it is one of those things which I couldn't resist painting! So I gave it a vietnam era colour scheme, and it will sit on my shelf as a reminder to buy GHQ. The M60s are in desert colours, and may well get used as Israelis.

Then, we have a collection of infantry support weapons. Front rank is 3 Browning M2 50cal machineguns, followed by 6 81mm mortars. These will form a support formation in the rules. Infantry are from GHQ.

Of course, the West needs a ride too, so we have just the 9 trucks for them as well. Desert yellow, with an orange air recognition panel on the bonnet. I am not super happy with how these turned out, but I am not so unhappy with them that I want to redo them.

Not to be out-rocketed by the WARPAC, NATO now can call on support from a Lance SSM battery. Not much to say about these, the models are a bit so-so, but they paint up ok.

Lastly, we have some serious firepower support in the form of the USS New Jersey, ready to unleash fire from it's three primary turrets, or it might just lob a cruise missile or two. This is a GHQ model, which I have had for a really long time. I found it in the move, and figured I should paint it!

Another great batch of microscale models Chris! These will give you 108 points.

From TimG: 1:285 WWII Japanese Artillery & Armour (18 points)

More microscale WWII Japanese for Tim's collection. This time artillery and armour.

From Tim:

To assist my 6mm Japanese in their quest for world (or at least regional) domination, I have provided them with these mighty artillery units. The 75mm Infantry Guns may not be the most feared weapons but these chaps look as if they know what they're doing.  The larger gun being towed (by another GHQ Isuzu lorry) is a Heroics & Ros model of a Polish 75mm gun.  Don't tell the Japs.

 

This rather larger gun is a Scotia model - I found it at the bottom of a box of stuff so it's origins are shrouded in mystery! Whatever it was intended to be, it certainly looks the part and my Japs are very pleased to have it.

There are 1/285 scale GHQ castings of the later 'Shinhoto' version of the Type 97 medium tank. Rather than the stubby 57mm gun of the opriginal, this had a longer 47mm gun which was easily capable of punching a hole in a dry paper bag.

Great work Tim, I really like the camouflage on the tanks (they'll need all the help they can get). Are the little tabs on the rear-left of the bases magnetic for labels?

These forces for the Emperor will give Tim 18 points.

From TimG: 6mm WWII Japanese Motorized Infantry (20 points)

Tim switches gears from his 54mm Tratvian project and sends us these WWII microscale Japanese.

From Tim:

(Slightly) in keeping with the theme are these WW2 Japanese. 

All 6mm (1/285 & 1/300) scale.  GHQ figures - mostly the old 'block' style and lorries.  The staff car is by Scotia.

Plenty more where they came from...

I'm usually not a big fan of GHQ's older 'block' infantry but I think Tim's done a great job with these.  (They look like they're at review in front of their vehicles.)

These five bases will give Tim 20 points.

From SebG: 1:285 Modern French Armour (10 points)

Seb submits another group of excellent modern microscale French armour for use with 'Cold War Commander'.

From Seb:

I know my second isn't very impressive, but sadly I didn't really have time to show you more. The family is about to arrive and they'll stay for a week. So no more painted minis from me, which is sad because I had almost finished another batch. Ah well.

These are 5 1/285 AMX-30 B2, from GHQ. They're supposed to belong to the 12th Cuirassiers. These tanks were the MBT for the French army until the Leclerc arrived. I really enjoed painting them. Yes, GHQ minis are expensive, but I have to say, I love them.

Great work Seb! Its interesting to see something in this period outside the typical NATO/Warsaw Pact mix. I look forward to seeing your next batch. 

Have a great visit with your family!

This group will give Seb 10 points.

From ChrisP: 1:285 Modern Air, Armour, Land & Submarine!! (150 points)

As you can see Chris has turned the heat up on the Challenge with producing a veritable invasion force in modern microscale.

From Chris:

First up here we have some USMC Armour. A platoon of 4 M1A1 Abrams tanks, and an understrength company of 10 M60A1 tanks (should be 14), upgraded with Blazer Reactive Armour.

Then we have the LAR Company, with it's 10 LAV-25 along with their dismounted infantry. In game terms, a LAV can't transport infantry, but is better in Firefight (actually one of the best in the game).

fThen we have the support elements for the LAR, consisting of 2 spare LAV-25's, 2 LAV Mortars and 4 LAV TOW.

On to the Infantry!

First up we have the infantry Command elements, 2 LAV Command and 1 M577 with a Battalion XO out front.

Then we have the grunts, 20 bases of USMC infantry armed with M16s and good intentions. They are in a representation of MOPP suits which they invaded Iraq in, but have been based pretty generic so that I can use them for Iraq, or for defending Germany.

Then there are the Infantry Support Weapons. Front rank is two Scout-Snipers, then 5 Dragon ATGM teams behind. Behind them is 4 Stinger MANPAD teams.

But of course, the Marines need a sweet ride. For all your amphibious assault needs, you have the AAV-7, an enormous amphibious vehicle. One is from Scotia, the others are from GHQ.

Lastly here are some random support elements, this time 2 HMMWV, a 1 M109 SP Howitzer and a ground mounted Avenger Missile System.

Below we have 2 shots of a US Coastguard Helicopter, which will be used as an objective/cool looking thing for our moderns game. The model is a plastic kit from Tamiya, and is slightly smaller at 1/350th scale. I do love the colours, so I can handle it being a little small!

Next up is some real support for the Marine landing party. This takes the form of a Trafalgar Class Attack Submarine! This is a 1/350th scale plastic kit which I simply couldn't resist when I saw it. A little converting, plus a made base with some putty to make breakwater later, we have a sweet as support weapon! Initially designed to defeat enemy submarines, the Trafalgar class was equipped to be able to fire Tomahawk Cruise Missiles out of it's torpedo tubes! Which is ridiculously cool. As you can see from the scale shot, it is enormous! 

Wow, that is a shed-load of little models Chris - very impressive. That submarine is 'da bomb' (and I'm sure it carries a few as well). For this entry Chris gets 150 points.