Historics come galloping back in

If you began to frequent this blog to look at things to do with historical wargaming you might be a bit bemused by the rash of posts featuring superheroes lately. 'He's gone a bit nuts', you might say. 'He'll be painting that bizarre warhammer stuff next.' Well, fear not fellow lovers of historical lead, here is this week's painting, and it is satisfyingly not composed of Orks, Orcs or Awcks.
First up, a dozen 28mm Renegade Great War British cavalry for John:

Followed by a couple of Magachs and 4 anti-tank jeeps for Craig.

But what did I paint for myself, you might ask? You've already seen him:

I just had to post him again!

This week I have a dozen 28mm Renegade Great War German cavalry to paint for John. These will be followed by 15mm Japanese tanks for Craig, and by that time I will probably have Geoff's next batch of 28mm figures to paint after which I'll be painting 15mm British paras for Craig. Dan might have sent me the 10mm ACW he wants me to paint by then, and when that is all finished it will probably be Christmas! Somewhere in there I aim to paint up a few more homegrown heroes and villains. In fact, there are a couple sitting on the painting tray for tonight.

Nate

Desert set-up

Today I finished off some desert buildings for the Arab Israeli Wars.

A close up of the village

Panoramic shot with a MiG lurking over some Israeli Shermans.

The first buildings that I made I gave to John when I sold him the Arab-Israeli stuff last year. They weren't part of the swap back so I needed to make some more. These have been on the go over the last few weekends, and the final coat of paint went on today. The last thing I need for the set up is a well (makes no sense having a village in the desert without one), so I'll be thinking about how I'm going to put that one together.

Other triumphs this weekend are cleaning and basing all of my Pakistani infantry, the Indian recoiless rifles and gluing together two Pakistani M48s and two anti-tank jeeps. The Crimean War Russian hussars and artillery arrived on Thursday and they are all now based and undercoated. I also glued together 6 Warg riders to complete my Dragon Rampant armies for Lord of the Rings. All very productive forms of procrastination before I get the Herman Goering Divison figures painted for Craig. But from here it feels like I've been getting the house in order before embarking on this commission. Now I'm set and it will be into the first 40 figures tomorrow night!

Nate

Welcome home.

As a consequence of my disillusionment with the Force Awakens I began toying with the idea of moving on my rather large collection of Star Wars miniatures. When I mentioned it to John he said that he was interested, and I suggested a swap. In return for the Star Wars collection, I could have the Arab-Israeli, Crimean War and Great Northern War figures returned to their place of origin. He seemed to think that was fair, so in the last week this deal has been duly done. John dropped them all around today (minus the Arab-Israeli jets which I'll get later) and I felt I needed to take a few photos of my prodigal sons before they are returned to the cabinets.

From left to right: Great Northern War, Arab Israelis, Crimean War

The Great Northern War Pocket Project. This might be expanded in 2016 as I have a few extra regiments to paint

The Israeli army, originally built for the Yom Kippur War but kitted out to work for 1967 as well.

The Egyptians (UAR) which has the same back story.

The Crimean War pocket project. I may yet expand this a bit further as well - particularly artillery and cavalry

It is great to have these guys back. The latest Flames of War book for Fate of a Nation is on my shopping list, and expect a few battle reports in 2016 involving these chaps.

Nate

Kippur - a brief review

Kippur is an Israeli movie set during the Yom Kippur War of 1973. I saw it on the shelf for $8 having never heard of it before, so figured I'd give it a go.

The DVD cover

The basic plot is about two Israeli soldiers who can't find their unit during mobilisation, run into an air force doctor and after giving him a lift to his base join his helicopter rescue party. It is an autobiographical work by the director Amos Gitai.

So what is it like? Well, it is all in Hebrew, so if you don't speak the language, be prepared to read subtitles. Having said that, there is very little in the way of dialogue anyway.

The film does a good job in portraying the chaos of the first days of the war - traffic jams and lost people. The main characters also very casually drive between units, and no-one seems to suspect them of being deserters. And this is a really interesting point. At no stage does anyone shout 'we're doing this for Israel' or 'your country needs you'. No motivational speeches or melodramatic calls to patriotic duty. Everyone just does their job - if not the one they expected to do, then they do a different job. It is all very matter of fact.

The soundtrack is pretty spartan - the abiding sound is that of helicopter rotors or tanks moving about. The actions of the characters speak for themselves.

A still from the movie. Note Shot Kal in the background.

The IDF helped out with equipment, and the fantastic thing about the movie for people like me (and the majority of people who would read this blog) is the number of Centurions and M3 halftracks driving back and forth. And I'm not kidding there. In the background as the casualties are recovered the Centurions literally drive forward, wait 20 seconds and then reverse while another moves up in its place. Only once do you see one fire. I'm wondering if this is actual tactics (don't stay in one place for too long), or an effect the director was looking for to indicate chaos and constant movement? I've a sneaking suspicion it is the latter - after all, we are meant to be focused on the main characters. And this leads to another problem. The tanks seem to drive around in circles, and the helicopter definitely flies in circles. It is classic 'we are making a movie in a limited area so fly around in a circle and try and make it look like there is more than there actually is.'

Depressingly, after all of the correct kit for 1973 for most of the movie, there are a couple of Merkavas and M60s on the Golan in one flyover scene towards the end. You also never see the Syrians, although that is hardly the point of the movie.

As a film, it isn't too bad. There is limited character development, the emphasis being on highlighting the chaos and confusion, the exhaustion of the troops and the horror of the high casualty toll. Some scenes are too long, and some are just pointless - who throws paint on their bed and then rolls around having sex in it... in a war movie?

Would I recommend it? Yeah, it is worth a watch, even if just for the sheer novelty of viewing a film about the Yom Kippur War. Are there holes in it? Hell, yeah. But are there cool tanks in it? Yes there are... many, many tanks.

Incidentally, the tanks are all in the greener later Sinai Grey, as opposed the sandier colour that they would have had in 1973 (or so my reading suggests - I'm open to being wrong about that).

Nate

Repainted Israeli Army ready for Fate of a Nation

So here are the tanks that I've been working on. The whole army is now repainted with the Hannants acrylic, but these photos are just the vehicles that I haven't featured before:

Quality Castings M51 Ishermans

A side shot of the M51 Ishermans

Quality Castings M50 Shermans

A close-up of one of the M50s.

Command Decision jeeps with the Quality Castings recoiless rifles attached. I found the QC jeeps too small alongside everything else.

Command Decision M48s with barrels from Quality Castings, the spare turret hatches from the M50 Shermans (you get the option of closed or open), and .50 cals from some Plastic Soldier Company Shermans.

2 QRF M48 Magachs.

The QRF Magachs from the front. I think I prefer my conversions, but you can make up your own mind.

M3 halftracks from the Plastic Soldier Company. these are a delight. In painting them, I used a mix of Vallejo Green grey and US field drab. I really like the result.

A close up of one of the M3s where I drilled a hole through the windshield and trimmed down the M1919 Browning to go through it.

Quality Castings AMX 13s. Very small tanks. I added the .50 cals from the old jeeps which are now sporting the recoiless rifles.  Not my favourite kit but it hasn't painted up too bad.

Not to be left out, here are the Command Decision BTR-152s. Nice models, although there were holes in the bodies of two of the vehicles which wasn't ideal.

So there we have it - the latest vehicles for the 6 Day War and Yom Kippur. Roll on October!

Nate

Fate of a Nation - official Arab-Israeli FoW

Announced on Chris Townley's blog a couple of weeks ago was the news that Battlefront are releasing a Six Day War supplement for Flames of War. The day before it was on the FoW forums, and yesterday Modeldads did a sneak peek at it.

The promo shot taken from the Wargames Illustrated Facebook page

To say I am excited about this development is a slight understatement. There are a whole load of new releases, and although I have all the T-55s, Magachs and Sho'ts that I could need, there is still plenty to whet my appetite. Here is a still shot from the Modeldad's blog of what we can expect:

From Wargames Illustrated via Modeldads blog via Flames of war forum

Out of that list I need the M3 halftrack mortars and anti-aircraft, Israeli Tokens and objectives, the Arab anti-aircraft, decals, tokens and objectives. I'd also be interested in getting the Battlefront infantry to replace or add to my Quality Castings stuff if they are nice sculpts.

I've been in touch with Owen and we both want to have a good go at recosting and rejigging the Yom Kippur lists, based on this release.

The blog has been quiet lately and I need to get the camera out and take photos of the completed Israeli army, not to mention a whole pile of other stuff. I may try and do that this afternoon.

Nate

1973 Flames of War: The Yom Kippur War

I'm blowed if I can get Blogger to upload word documents, but i wanted a link on this blog to the Yom Kippur War Rules. So the solution is to copy the page on my old blog, NDCblog at Wordpress and repost it here. Let's hope it works.

With the blessing of the author of these lists, Owen Heather, this page is a resource for any wargamers who would like to use the Flames of War rules for more Modern conflicts. In this particular case the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 – 1973, and with a focus on the Yom Kippur conflict/October War/Ramadan War.

Two caveats.

One is that these rules were written for second edition and thus points costs have not yet been adjusted for third edition. Neihter Owen nor myself has yet taken them through their paces for third edition.

The second is that Owen has put quite a bit of work into these lists and you are free to download them to your heart’s content.  All documents are in word so you can play around with them, but please respect where they have come from and let us know if you come up with good ideas in your playtesting through the comments section on this blog.

Thanks, and I hope that they allow you many hours of enjoyable gaming.

Modern_Flames_rules_for_1967_to_73

Israeli_Orbat_1973

Egyptian_Company_1973

Syrian_Company_1973

Jordanian_Orbat_1973 (1)

Nate and Owen

Repaints continue

Here are some Centurions from my repainted company. They don't have their individual markings yet and it isn't the greatest photo taken tonight in poor lighting, but it gives the general impression.

Ready for action

The Hannants paint is interesting. It has been providing quite a brown shade with most of my painting, but the other day it came out a much greener grey. For the life of me I haven't been able to figure out why. I've tried not shaking it, and I've tried shaking it lots. Neither seems to be able to replicate the colour. Go figure.

On the other hand I've finally cracked the Vallejo recipe for Sinai Grey - Use Green Grey and US Field Drab combined. It doesn't actually matter what the ratio is, because Sinai Grey itself isn't consistent. I'm going to paint my halftracks with this mixture and I'll post them once they are complete.

And here is another hint at the next project:

Is there something on my shoe?

Nate

First repaints

Here are the first Sho't and Magach to be repainted in the Hannants Israeli Tank Sand colour.

First tanks painted correctly.

and the before shot (no pun intended)

The first photo isn't finished - I haven't painted the lenses, the markings or weathered it, but you can already see the difference in shade. I painted the new paint on, and find that it dries very quickly after you put it on the palette, so I'm going to go for an even damper wet pallette when I paint up the next tanks. It took me 1 and and a half hours to repaint two tanks, which is a bit of a shock to the system after the super quick Tamiya spray, army painter dip and varnish that I originally used to paint them!

I didn't strip the tanks down and I don't think that I've lost any detail in painting over the previous coat, but it was important to highlight the edges - that is the laborious part of the process.  I didn't weant to use the Army painter dip again partly because I don't know how effective it would be and partly because I don't want to risk a reaction with the paint when the varnish goes on.

I'll slowly paint up all of the tanks, one platoon at a time, and of course I'll paint anything new in this style as well. And I do have a bit of new stuff - two M48s Magachs from QRF, 5 M3 halftracks from Plastic Soldier Company, 6 BTR 152s, 3 M50 Shermans and 4 AMX 13s. 

And the repainted Magach 3

I'll post more on this project as I continue to build it.

Nate

The Sigh-nai Grey blues

I've known all along that the colour of my Israeli tanks was only correct if you look at them at a certain hour through a certain lens on a certain camera.  In other words, it is wrong. In an act of reciprocity I have been inspired by the painting of fellow gamer Daniel McCoy to repaint my Israeli tanks (apparently this blog inspired him to get back into his Arab Israeli Six Day War project, which is nice to know). He uses Vallejo Medium Grey, a colour that I never even considered, but which gives an excellent finish. This will be my fall back colour if the following is unsuccessful. I trawled the net looking for just the right colour and believe that I have found it in the Hannants Xtracrylix Israeli Tank Sand Grey. I went to order directly from Hannants, but they don't accept any order less than 20 quid, so I found Relish Models who have despatched three bottles of this precious pigment to me. When I get it, my first mission will be to repaint a tank and post a picture.

Changing the colour from this...

...to this

Wow... that colour difference is really noticeable - even for a colour blind guy like me!

The other announcement on the Arab-Israeli front is that I have been inspired to extend the collection to cover the Six Day War as well. Now there will be a certain amount of 'make-do' - my T-55s are in 1973 camo and I am not repainting them or buying another 21. But I am going to buy some T-34/85s (10) and paint them in the light sand colour of '67 Egyptian armour. I've already repainted the SU100s for this (the scheme hadn't changed by '73).

I also need new APCs, and I think that I'm going to go with BTR-50s rather than BTR-152s. Both will also cross over into the Yom Kippur War, but I like the idea of the 50s better I think. 

I've already ordered some M5 halftracks for my Israelis, so they are on the way, but I need a few more tanks - specifically AMX-13s. I also need some more Shermans, and I'm tempted to get some M48s and not upgrade their guns but leave them as 90mm.

I've ordered a Tamiya 1/100 Mirage III and a MiG 19 for the air support (such as the Egyptians had). I'm halfway tempted to build a Jordanian army, but this will be built from scratch - infantry plus Centurions and Pattons. So all pretty exciting really.  We played another Arab-Israeli Flames of War game on Friday night. This time the Egyptians actually managed a win with a double envelopment! Forgot my camera, so no pics sorry.

If anyone had told me three years ago that modern tank battles would be my main project focus for wargaming , I wouldn't have believed them. Now I can't get enough of it!

Nate

Rethinking Israeli stats and rules

A little extra research has seen me revise the stats and special rules for Israeli tanks, but I haven't playtested to look at points balance yet.

Sh’ot Kal	155	Tracked	13	6	2	105mm gun, coax MG, 0.50” AAMG, Protected Ammo,Semi Indirect Fire, Rangefinder, Hull down, unflappable, stabilisers
105mm tank gun		100cm	2	17	2+	Smoke
MAGACH 3	140	Tracked	13	7	1	105mm gun, AAHMG, coax MG, Rangefinder, Wide track, burns easily, hull down, unflappable
105mm tank gun		100cm	2	17	2+	Smoke

First up, stabilisers are removed. From what I can tell, the Israeli tanks did not have stabilisers at all. So out they go. This significantly reduces the mobility of the Israelis. So what then, did the Israelis manage to do well in the Yom Kippur War? Well, they were actually best on the defensive in hull down positions, so I've added a hull down rule.

Hull Down
tanks with Hull down are able to conceal themselves particularly well, so as well as being concealed for using a reverse slope, they also give a -1 to the enemy's firepower rating.

I could have made it an extra +1 to hit, but that means that the Egyptians and Syrians would not even be able to hit the Israelis from distance or on the move (+1 for hen and Chicks, +1 for concealed is already a 6 to hit against veterans), and I don't think that that is a fair reflection. A large number of Israeli tanks were destroyed whilst in hull down positions, although I think artillery had a big say in this. By altering the firepower rating it gives the Israelis greater survivability - more chance of a penetration becoming a bail. I think that this is a pretty good result.

'Umm - I hope we count as hull down here?'

The Magach 3 had flammable hydraulics at the front of the tank which made it burn easily. So it loses protected ammo and gains the burns easily rule.

Burns Easily
Enemy players can reroll their firepower rolls if they fail to bail or penetrate the Magach 3.

As the firepower on a T-55 is 2+ it effectively means rerolling '1's.

I've also added in unflappable (reroll platoon morale), wide tracks (for the Magach) and rangefinders (no +1 to hit at long range). All of this means that when the Israelis are hull down in firing positions at a distance they are at a huge advantage over the enemy- just like in the actual war. It also means that there is now a significant difference between taking a Sho't Kal and a Magach. I'm not sure if the points adjustment is quite right, but I will playtest this soon.

Nate

Edit: On further reading of Simon Dunstan's book Centurion vs T-55, it would appear that the Centurion was indeed built with stabilisers. So I've modified the above table and included them. If someone can tell me that the Magach was fitted with them too, that would be great.

Friday night is games night

We went out to John's place for our monthly games night on Friday and this gave me a chance to try out a couple of things.
First of all, I've been playing around with the Yom Kippur Flames of War stats based on those that have come out in the Vietnam Tour of Duty supplement. As a result I've had to upgrade the points on a T-55 so that it now costs the same to field 7 T-55s as it does 3 Centurion Shot Cal or M48A4 Magachs. I played three games of 420 points that was basically Israeli tank platoon on Egyptian tank company to see how the points balance.

In starting positions - scenario 1 is the 'Valley of Death'. With new points and uparmoured/upgunned  on previous stats, could T-55s survive charging headlong into an Israeli platoon of similar points?

The Magachs wait at extreme range. Their 105mm guns have an extra 20cm on the T-55s' 100mm gun.

The first round of Israeli firing leads to four bails and a burn. This forces a morale test which the confident Egyptians pass quite happily.

The brave Egyptians get back into their tanks and advance again.With Hen and Chicks they are rolling a single d6 at +1 for over 40cm and an additional +1 for moving. That means sixes to hit the veteran Israelis.

The inevitable end result. The company commander dies and the remaining tank can't test morale. Israeli clear win!

Game 2 was entitled 'Use some cover you idiot'. The Egyptians started behind a hill and advanced with tthe town blocking the Israeli line of sight.

"Hey! We've moved more than 20cm and we aren't dead yet!"

Already a better start for the Egyptians. Frontal armour on a Magach is 13 + 2 (blue dice) is a 15. AP on a 100mm is 16 and Firepower is 2+ (green dice).  Boom!

The Israelis find they have to move. Never mind, with modern stabilisers they have full RoF and if they move 15cm or less they suffer no +1 penalty to hit. It has never been so easy to be mobile! Take that T-55s - one bail and one kill.

Hen and Chicks is not especially noted for enhancing mobility, but the chance of a flank shot is just too good to pass up. The miracle 5 is rolled - but not by the flanking tank! Nevertheless the shot penetrates when you roll a 1 for your armour save and then it is pretty likely to go klabooie! Scratch one more Magach. The surviving Israeli tanker fails his morale test - but Israeli armour is unflappable. He rerolls morale successfully.

The end of the game. The last Magach bails one tank and kills another, but can't force a morale check. In the next round  a one is rolled, which is never a good result. The Egyptians win! It is 1 game all. Time for the decider.

The last game saw the Magachs replaced with Centurions. A Shot Cal is practically the same as a Magach in terms of stats but I just wanted to use some different models. We played out the same scenario as game 2 again.

The Israelis started with a much more mobile defence and moved up to the town hoping to cover all of the flanks. The right hand Centurion got bogged, but managed to free himself. Hen and Chicks prevented the T-55s from making an impression - moving +1, target concealed +1 = 6s to hit. On the other hand the Israelis were +1 for concealed target against conscripts - they needed threes. The resulting carnage can be seen above.

It is hard to know exactly how balanced a full 2000 point game will be because neither side had any support or the chance to bring superior numbers to bear on any one particular point, but it is already obvious that the Egyptians are better off than they were. Suicidal charges are just that - The superior Israeli gunnery makes a real difference, but just using a bit of terrain was a big game changer and forced the Israelis to counter with their own manoeuvring. When you have 9 Israeli tanks vs 21 Egyptians then the Israelis are going to have to think very carefully about how they deal with these numbers. This is a good thing.

The stats that I used are here:

Sh’ot Cal	140	Tracked	13	6	2	105mm gun, coax MG, 0.50” AAMG, Protected Ammo, Modern Stabiliser, Semi Indirect Fire, unflappable
105mm tank gun		100cm/40”	2	17	2+	Smoke

M48A4 (mod)	140	Tracked	13	7	1	105mm, coax MG, 0.50” AAMG, Protected Ammo, Semi Indirect Fire, unflappable
105mm tank gun		40”	2	17	2+	Canister, Smoke

T55	60	Tracked	12	6	1	100mm gun, 12.7mm AAMG, coax MG, Smoke Generator, Hen and Chicks, infra-red night fighting
100mm tank gun		32”	2	16	2+

I have to admit, I'm not used to using smoke and didn't think to include it in any of the playtests. I have used it in previous games and it has made a slight difference. The RoF on the T-55 is to account for slightly more room for the crew and the addition of stabilisers to the T-55 compared to the BF stats for the T-54. I've run these past Owen who thinks that AT on the 105mm gun should be 18, but I think that this unbalances the game too much in favour of the Israelis. It means that T-55s need to get a 6 at close range  for a bail. I think a 5 to bail gives better balance when you lump it in with all of the other special rules working in the Israeli favour - hen and chicks and modern stabilisers in particular.

Alongside these test runs I also had my first couple of games of X-Wing. Very reminiscent of Wings of War and a really fun little game. I had the basics down very quickly and we were able to have a prolonged dogfight in our second game because we were choosing better options for manoeuvre and actions.

Y Wing in a crossfire - lucky it has good shields!

On a side note, as I left to go to John's I dropped the Millenium Falcon on the ground. I had a heart wrenching moment where I thought it might have shattered, but it didn't even have a scratch on it. What I didn't realise is that I had also dropped Darth Vader's Advanced TIE on the ground until I was unpacking at John's place. I realised it must have been under the car as I drove out. Sure enough, when I got home, there it was on the garage floor. Damage report? One wing fell off, which I easily glued back on. These models are tough - or maybe they just know how to use the force!

There is a bit more of a write up including the other games that were played on the club blog here:
http://rotoirregulars.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/games-night-5th-april-2013/

Nate