June's Peninsular War projects

June's projects

Once lockdown became inevitable a few months ago, I started to imagine grand hobby schemes. Surely I could paint several hundred 28mm hoplites? Romans and Germans for Infamy, Infamy? Recreate the battle of Leipzig in 6mm? Play a game every day?

And then the realities of social distancing, working at home [living at work?] and home-schooling children hit hard. Even the painting desk was re-appropriated for work - cue violins. I'm pretty sure lots of people had a worse time of it.

So I downsized my imagination (is that even a thing? downsizing, not imagination) and focused on finishing off projects and focusing on things like scenery. Finishing all these things off has certainly been good for the soul. And the unpainted plastic-lead mountain is ... still an unpainted plastic-lead mountain.

28mm Peninsular War Terrain and Scenery

I really enjoyed painting the British Peninsular force for SP2 last year so I wanted some good terrain for that period. Charlie's wonderful WW2 CoC game a few months back made me realise how little (and big) touches such as barriers, boxes, veg patches and the occasional exploding toilet can make all the difference to a skirmish-level game. 

So I took the plunge and invested in a lot of scatter scenery, roads, etc from various places such as Take Cover Scenics, Warbases and Timecast. These don't take all that long to paint and base but make each game more immersive (I hesitate to say realistic when I consider the daft shenanigans associated with most of the games I play!)

The biggest project was some Charlie Foxtrot mdf/resin pantile buildings. I love these buildings - they're great quality and just the right size to add to the battlefield without completely dominating. The resin roofs make these stand out. Here they are in action with some freshly painted French dragoons on foot. Needless to say, the dragoons succumbed to newly-painted syndrome and did not last long on the tabletop!

I'll move on to creating specific bases for the buildings and adding some pantile walls.

I found the buildings easy to construct and the painting/modelling guide on CF's webpage is easy to follow/adapt. I spent a jolly weekend on these in between various other non-hobby related nonsense that tends to get in the way of fun.

Once the mdf was glued together, I spread thin and cheap polyfiller over the exterior walls and added some patches of fine sand/glue (they appear darker in the pictures.) Walls were painted with cheap Dulux tester pots - Cookie Dough; Soft Stone highlight and occasionally some Moroccan Sands 4 for variety (usually mixed with the other paints.) The white areas such as the windows etc were based with a basic off-white acrylic and highlighted with white Citadel drybrushing paints that I never seem to use on minis. I followed the CF advice and added the classic Agrax Earthshade underneath and around windows, doors and blended it into the "sand" patches on the walls. I also tried to add darker tones to the bottom of buildings too. 

The insides are mainly painted in watered-down umber acrylic. I experimented with Wholemeal Honey for an interior of the small building. I don't think I'd do that again as it burns the eyes just to look at it, but a fairly heavy brown staining seems to have dulled it down enough.

The roofs received a base spray of skeleton bone followed by Sumatran Melody 2 and a highlight of Sumatran Melody 3. Everything received a couple of good licks of matt varnish. The resin pieces got some extra varnish. One thing to watch out for: the roofs have bits of wall on them (obviously) and I forgot to paint these at the same time as the main walls. Getting the right tone again was a real pain!!

I noticed that DereksWeeToys recently suggested watercolour-based pigment pens for this sort of job. Certainly one to try out and the results look darned good.

"Peninsular War" civilians

I also completed a couple of groups of Spanish civilians and a group of priests from Perry Miniatures. They can act as minor characters, doctors, inspirational "holy men/women" or just as scatter terrain. Sure, these are designed for the Carlist/Isobelino civil war which is a little later than the Napoleonic period, and a some are wearing the wrong kind of hats. But I can live with a few inconsistencies. After all, some of my French line seem to be wearing blue overcoats ... 

These minis were easy to paint once the flash was removed and I rather shamelessly copied the examples on the Perry website for most of the colouring. This was my first foray into Citadel contrast paint for flesh (with some highlighting.) Basically, I've found it to be a rather good and simple base coat and shade. I felt that a fleshtone wash and highlight was needed in some places.

I've managed a couple of solo games with these additions (occasionally joined by the "bouncy one".) If I could go back a year or so, I'd buy all these sooner because having decent terrain, scatter and civilians makes all the difference.

2a - Osen

Campaign Scenario 2A - Osen

With the Soviets scoring the victory in the first encounter, we followed the scenario tree for the next encounter. Full details and forces can be found in Bashnya or Bust campaign book. In brief, this clash takes place around the small town of Osen. The Germans are holding out whilst their engineers set charges on the last remaining bridge (bottom left in the picture below), before withdrawing their remaining troops over the river and blowing the bridge to bits. They are outnumbered and face a swift Soviet attack that features plenty of T34s and SMG-armed tank-riders. They need to drive through and capture the bridge.

All figs and tanks by the ever-reliable (and recently relocated) Heroics and Ros. Buildings, roads, etc by Timecast.

Overviews of the battlefield before any blinds were dropped:

Opening phases:

The Soviet blinds chip made a couple of appearances and they began the engagement. In an unexpected move, the Germans deployed a single "dummy" blind which shot up and spotted the tank HQ and accompanying T34-85s with (invisible) tank riders.

 It's a trap! Or ambush. Or ambuscade. Whatever word you choose, the Soviets are now in a spot of bother. Two Hetzer tank-killers open up on the Soviets at extreme close range.
Predictably the T34s take a pounding but remarkably none explode! Nice dice rolling by the Don. "Fritz" Freddie tramped outside to burn his dice. 

  

Trying out a new system for tank damage - yellow dice for shock and red dice for number of actions remaining next turn (a common thing in IABSM).

Chits explain nature of damage. It's a bit messy, so maybe a return to pen and paper for those details?

Aha, found you! A second Soviet tank zvod (the much-maligned T34-76s) plus tank riders spot a blind in the town. This is auto-spotted at the end of the turn. A German rifle zug with attached PaK40 support replete with extra Big Man to command it (special German rule). 

At this point, it might have been a painful and quick end for the Russkis! 

The Tank Riders dismounted and, after a quick think and a spot of yodelling [why?], decide on the time-honoured charge into the face of the entrenched enemy. The thing is, it worked. Very much. 

Well, ok, one section fled after suffering extreme machine-gunning and mega-shock (mid-right) but the PaK40 was massacred. Can you massacre a gun? 

Cue question about Russians using captured German weaponry. 

Ouch! White dice were Russian (that's a lot of dead and shock). Black dice are German. That'll be a fistful of nothing, then. And just like that, the German centre started to evaporate.

The mid-game

More Russian blinds - a dummy followed by more tanks and riders.

After a lull we return to the original ambush, where the Hetzers brewed up / bailed the T34s this time. But they ran out of actions to attack the lone HQ tank. Would this be costly in the future? 

The tank riders got lucky and dismounted - they then scooted past the Hetzers and dug in on the far side of the wood. Over the next hour or so they crawled their way towards the bridge with grim determination ...

See that smoking house? It used to be intact and feature a section of German rifles plus NCO. The "useless" T34-76s got lucky with a double-6 with High Explosive. Boom! In the house directly above this, another High Explosive shell sees off another squad. 

Have we found out what the 76s should be doing? I think so ...

Meanwhile, Germans were racking up the demolition points whenever the Turn Card was drawn. 

Just 14 more to go ...

Nein! HQ tank gets a bit of revenge on the Hetzers who are now somewhat screwed (technical term).

Fritz got a bit nervous as his advanced guard disintegrated and he had no troops left on the table. Out plopped the blinds chit a couple of times and the Germans showed their hand. Mind you, the troops would be dug-in and had a few more surprises up their sleeves.

Pooofffph! Another High Explosive shell from the 76s gets the lucky "66" and a house collapses around another squad. Ouch. Yup, load the HE boys!

No, I'm not quite sure what happened below either. 

Russians a bit strung out but heading en-masse for the bridge and to hang with the casualties!

Germans seem to have deployed their Stug IVs in the wood (mid-left).

Ah yes, the end is nigh. The Russian blind got this close to the bridge (below) before the Stugs revealed themselves on a chip - the result was catastrophic for the last zvod of T34-85s. Once again the best Soviet tanks in the force go up in flames. The Soviet players began a dismal communist hymn to the fallen and prepare to throw in the towel.

The situation deteriorates for the Russians as their infantry is slaughtered in the open fields by a rifle gruppe and 2 MG teams activated by the CO Big Man (level 4 - powerful!)

SMG vzvod going, going, going, gone ...

Just a few more chips ... it seems to be drawing to a close. 

The Russians score some revenge on the centre rifle gruppe, rendering it useless.

Human Wave! Urrrraaaaaaahhh!

A run of unusual Soviet chips emerged, allowing the remaining infantry to scoot into position and charge the remained PaK40, German CO and associated MG teams in the rear/flank. Painful.

Heroic Leader! 

After a discussion, it seemed fair that the Russian CO (who finally arrived on the scene) could organise a last-ditch charge into the German rifle section that was guarding the bridge. 

It was swift and bloody.

Now the Soviets had control of the bridge!

The sideshow continued as the Soviet tank HQ zipped about and dispatched the final Hetzer.

Back at the bridge. One SMG vzvod was wiped out by the German rifles supported by Stug fire.

But the remaining SMG group plus Big Man dig in on the opposite bank.

German rifles come under fire from T34s and SMGs.

And that was where we decided to end it. Time was pressing on and the Germans were in a right old mess. Even the Stugs were being hit in the flank by now as they desperately tried to rescue the bridge. So, out of thin air, the Soviets pulled the win out of the bag!

German dispatches:
Urgh. It was all going rather well until the final few rounds. It was another great scenario which was evenly balanced despite the uneven forces. The Russian steamroller was hard to stop. The Hetzer ambush did a decent job but their chip stubbornly refused to re-emerge and so they could not pull back to help defend the bridge. The Stug ambush also worked a treat. I think the exploding houses probably swung it as that weakened my defence in the town and allowed the Russian infantry to get to the bridge. If I had it over again? Get the FOO onto the table sooner (attach him to a forward platoon before the battle); place at least one AT gun on the flank to make the Russians think about diverting to deal with it; I'd be tempted to deploy nearly everything near to the bridge, just to see how that panned out. My force was defeated in detail, really. That said, we were sitting pretty comfortably until that cinematic Uraaaahhh! turned the tide. You've got to love that. But with 2 losses now, the campaign is in danger of ending pretty quickly for the Germans. Next time? It's off to Zima. My Tiger Is make an appearance and we have some hard-hitting troops to play with.

Russian regimental history:
Kolbasa! This was an epic battle. The newspapers have no need to make up a story this time! Mind you, they might want to gloss over the inept T34-85 displays. Did any of them fire a shot? At all? After our surprising discovery that Russian scout cars can lay down some serious firepower in a previous battle, it was interesting to see what the much maligned T34-76s achieved. The fast steamroller (swiftroller?) tactics seemed to work well enough and we had enough hardware to waste a few tanks here and there. Tank riding worked well and they can hop off pretty effectively if they come under fire. I also loved how the COs on both sides intervened dramatically and decisively. Of course, bragging rights go to our boys for the charge that overwhelmed the German command stands. The next "Zima" scenario looks tough. We have swarms of infantry again and the ISIIs make a pleasant appearance but other than that the support is pretty thin ...

IABSM 6mm - Bashnya or Bust 

Scenario 1: Near Osen

This is a great little scenario to kick off the campaign - not too long or complicated with only a couple of tank zugs/vzvods, a single infantry platoon and some recon on each side. We got through it in around 3 hours. The Soviets edge it a little with some air support and the T34/85s' superior stats over the Panzer IVs. Then again, the Germans benefited from better quality troops (more actions) and slightly better Big Men / Commanders. All in all, a balanced pair of OOBs.

The finer details are in the Bashnya or Bust! supplement (and jolly good it is too, bravo Mr Avery.) In brief, both sides needed to have infantry on the bridge (top-leftish in the photo above) by the end of the game. If no-one made the bridge, the force with more AFVs on the enemy's side of the table would win.

Below: the initial deployment of "blinds." We adjusted the scenario to allow one blind from each force to move up the shorter side of the river - just for a bit of variety and to see buildings in action. The Germans got the jump. That's the Assault Rifle gruppe moving towards the bridge. The other two are a Panzer zug (centre) and a "dummy" blind. The Russians led with a dummy, closely followed by tanks and a recon group on the far side. All blinds are included in the supplement. They look great on the table.

German tank blinds move into a small wood (below) whilst the Soviet recon group try some spotting. They identified several trees and a bit of wildlife. But they remained stoically underwhelming at spotting Germans.

The first shots are exchanged (below). The Soviets went for a mad tank rush towards the bridge in Napoleonic style (too much Sharp Practice methinks - ed.) They were easily spotted by the German infantry in the house by the bridge. 

Panzer IVs deployed and brewed up a T36/85 and immobilised another for the rest of the game (the one sitting on the red circle.)

"Hans, this is so easy ..." The Panzer IVs use up all their favours with the dice gods to destroy another 2x T-34/85s and damage the turret of another (red circle with the dice behind it.) Must get some markers for these things! At this point, the Soviets considered throwing in the towel as they only had 2 undamaged tanks left and their infantry had not yet entered the table. A pot of tea and maybe something a tad stronger settled the nerves.

 

The Germans don't have it all their own way (above and below.) The heavier guns on the Soviet tanks punched through a Panzer's front armour. The Panzers returned fire but abysmal rolling (3s for every shot!!) led to the Soviet general needing a moment to wipe away the tears of laughter. It was a game played in good spirits, so everyone saw the funny side of it. 

I mean, 4 consecutive rolls of 3? I think they only needed a 4 to hit.

Meanwhile the Soviet infantry arrives. The Big Man clearly forgot he was meant to be riding tanks. He was summarily shot and replaced with a new lead figure who obeyed orders blindly and was therefore promoted at the end of the battle.

Well there goes that plan ... Below the Russian infantry is spotted loitering in a wood around a country mile from the bridge. It would take hours to get them moving again!

German infantry finally spotted (below.) The remaining Soviet tank in zvzod 2 zoomed across the bridge and took up position by a demolished house. A couple of rounds of HE later and the German infantry was starting to wobble. The German cunning plan to seize the bridge was now in tatters.

 Meanwhile, after their brilliant start, the German tanks took a pounding. The Soviet HQ tank obliterated the German HQ tank by tank. The HQ Panzer IV exploded in a rather dramatic fashion, spelling the doom of the chief Big Man. A foolish dash out into the open had left them hanging in a rather distasteful whirlwind of AP shells. The remaining Panzers in the wood were also destroyed in a single turn. The second and last remaining German Panzer zug sped into the trees and discovered some light Russian scout cars. They looked worried but the Germans had bigger fish to fry.

Below - Pop! The German Puma goes up in smoke (far side.)

HE and MMG fire pounds the German infantry into oblivion.

The Russian infantry leg it for the bridge. As ever in a lardy game, as the initiative swayed back and forth, it was that classic moment: whose chip would come out next? The Panzer chip would mean trouble for the Soviet footsloggers ...

But the Russian infantry Big Man's chip emerged first. He deployed his rustic charm to holler at his lads and get them moving towards that blinking bridge. We ended it at that point - time was nearly up and the Germans could not really see a way of turning this around (although another couple of T34/85s went up in smoke before the final Tea Break.)

Soviet AAR - Kapitan Evgeny Dushkin [sipping on a molotov cocktail]

Never give up, that's my motto (actually, it's get ready to chuck in the towel and ask for a rematch because nearly all my tanks got exploded so quickly, then forget all that because all of my chips came out in the right order - less catchy but certainly accurate). You just never know with this random activation. That's the beauty of it.

My unsophisticated patriotic rush for the bridge worked perfectlyish. The strategy was politically sound, based on the Soviet doctrine of stubborn sacrifice, and the tactical deployment of troops was first rate - at least it would appear so in the reports to HQ. But just between you and my un-tuned balalaika, I will confess I relied on a healthy dose of Uncle Joe's luck. We were carrying the Red Tsar's pipe into battle and after a vigorous session of rubbing it behind the trees, it finally poked the infantry into appearing and making a dash for the bridge. Luck was on my side. A lot of my chips came up and the German chips seemed to be MIA (ed - a couple actually were because they spent a turn in the box until we realised they were missing - must remember to add them when coming off blinds!!)

Lessons learned? Those scout cars are abysmal. T34/85s are not indestructible. Panzer IVs have a bigger punch than I expected. But T34/85s are remarkably good at blowing up Panzer IVs in return. Oh, and read the bit in the scenario instructions that says the infantry can ride tanks into battle. We'd have been at the bridge about an hour earlier!

We win! On to scenario 2A: Osen where we face 1001st Infantry.

German AAR - Leutnant Warsteiner, writing on behalf of Hauptmann Sauerbrauten KIA

Kerput! Mein kampfgruppe, what a nasty series of unfortunate events. In the first couple of turns I was as smug as a smuggy thing. My tanks could not miss, Soviet tanks kept exploding, my infantry was ready to swoop onto the bridge and I had more AFVs in winning positions than the Russkis. Then the red chips just kept coming, aided and abetted by devilishly untimely Tea Breaks. I hate tea. I mean, any self-respecting general would be drinking schnapps at times like this. Then to have my HQ tank explode (7 - count 'em - 7 unsaved hits on front armour. That's enough to kill it twice over) just rubbed salt into the wound.

Lessons learned? Infantry needs close support from AFVs (or other stuff.) Don't commit the infantry too early in a game like this. I didn't make use of the Puma at all. Oh, and try to get to the side of the T34/85s as that makes a kill very much more likely. I lost count of the number of times a good shot simply plinked off the Russian armour (lots of defence dice.) 

Ah well, the campaign needed a Soviet win to make it interesting. Let's see how Dushkin's tanks handle a face full of 'fausts and PaK 40s in the next one! Looking forward to seeing how the rules for FOOs work too.

For the record

All units by Heroics and Ros (great value for money and they paint up really well)

All scenery - houses, roads, river, haystacks by Timecast (really impressed by these)

Trees by Scenics

Hills by Citadel of yore with annoying skulls covered with putty

Tea Break provided by the dauntless Mrs B