Clash at Altmarienmarkt

BBC Announcer: Violent clashes continue in the tiny Alpine country of Mantovia today as Communist backed Tartarian armoured forces drive towards the nation's capitol of Isabelstadt, best known for it's Cheese Festival. Meanwhile, the UN Security Council has continued to have emergency meetings throughout the night to find an end to the crisis.

The Foreign Office released a statement today, reading...

I got a craving for some more action in my 1950s Imagine-Nation, and I wanted to field the new Comet tanks and Centaur AA tank that I'd painted last fall. I also wanted to try and see if  Seven Days to the River Rhine could handle a more infantry oriented battle.

A battle group of 2 companies from the 1st Fusiliers with a troop of Comets from the 2nd Dragoons is defending the town of Altmarienmarkt. The Fusiliers have attachments from the Weapons Company. The Tartarians are attacking with a battalion of Motor Rifles supported by a company of T54s.

Covering the left flank

Mantovian Forward Line of Resistance (they're dug into the tree line, but this was easier to manage)

Gebirsjaegern watching from the mountain

Ferrets watching the right flank

Forward Line of Resistance on the right

The Tartarians got the Divisional Artillery card and three sorties of the new MiG-15s.

Some artillery hits on the Mantovian left

MiGs! A Tartarian fighter bomber makes a strafing run, but misses everything. Mantovian air defenses are equally ineffective.

First kill! Recoilless Rifle from the Armour Defense Platoon knocks out the leading T54 advancing on the right flank. 

The Gebirsjaegern react to the following Motor Rifle platoon moving on and roll a '6'! 

Both BTRs are hit by Carl Gustav rounds. The infantry bail out and are then destroyed by the Mortar Platoon.

With the initiative seized, the rest of the column is knocked out by Comets firing from the flank.

View of destroyed column of Tartarian tanks and BTRs

On the opposite flank, a Mantovian J29 strafes the Tartarian column ineffectually. 

But a Comet lurking in the orchard brews up the lead T54 and causes the next to bail out. 

With nothing left to shoot at, the Mantovians surrender the initiative back to the Tartarians.

The next evening I returned to the game with the Tartarians down 14 Command Tokens. The PDRT renew their assault and bring on the other two sorties of MiGs.

A MiG blasts a Comet on the edge of town.

Second MiG is damaged by the Centaur, but it hits the armour defense section and a Comet during it's strafing run before returning to base trailing smoke.

No messing about now! The PDRT commander abandons his left and puts everything into the center. A 3rd platoon of T54s and 4 platoons of Motor Rifles move onto the table. The infantry quickly dismount before their BTRs get targeted.

3rd tank platoon has advanced on the treeline, but Carl Gustav rockets knock out two. (That is an armour defense section in the ruined house in the center firing into the flank.) The Motor Rifle platoon on PDRT right tries pushing forward through the grain field but gets cut up by small arms and GPMG fire from the town

Using the Za Rodina! card, five sections of Motor Rifles charge forward behind a mortar barrage on the tree line

A vicious firefight erupts. Only the entrenchments save the Fusiliers.

This T54 is incredibly lucky, getting hit multiple times by Carl G rockets and 77mm APDS rounds from the Comet, until the crew finally bailed out.

The PDRT Commander rolls on to reinforce the attack.

Comet inthe orchard reacts and kaboom!, the Command T54 blows sky high! The loss of Command Tokens at this moment keeps some Reserves from moving up.

Lots of small arms shoooting in the center, but the Motor Rifles are getting cut down.

The Ace Comet  crew engages a second T54 and brews it up as well.

Not to be outdone, the other survivng Comet advances to engage the BTRs and one of the remaining T54s. But it rolls terribly for penetration.

Ferrets on the right have done sterling work laying down MG fire into the flank of the Motor Rifles, eliminating three sections

At the end of turn 3 with the PDRT having lost 10 out of 12 T54s and 12 stands of infantry out of 27, it was time to call the game. 

I'm getting a better handle on infantry and support weapon stands. The humble Ferret armoured cars contributed to the victory, their machine gun fire was critical in stopping the PDRT infantry assault. The Comet tanks did very well. That crew in the orchard desrve a barrel of beer, accounting for 4 or 5 of the kills. But I keep forgetting to keep Command Tokens back for units that are off table. The initial wave of Tartarians had ALL the Command Tokens, even though most of the infantry and half the tanks were still off table until the second night, which was awkward.

The battle was big. It was messy. It was immensely satisfying. It was my FIFTH game for 2026. Fun was had, even though I didn't get Motor Rifles fighting house to house with Fusiliers. 

Maybe next week, the PDRT will bring on another wave.

Tank, Anti-Tank, and Anti-Air Assets

Some more additions to the Royal Mantovian Army, all printed for me by Don.

First up some replacements for the Sherman Fireflies, which honestly aren't doing badly, except because they are on attachment from my WW2 Canadian army, they are in plain olive green instead of the NATO Three Colour the rest of the Mantovian vehicles are sporting.

I settled on the Comet because of it's visual similarity to the Centurion, and British armoured units were still using them up to the early 50s as well.

In most rule sets it compares favorably to the Firefly, so it's more of an aesthetic switch than an  upgrade in capability. 

I can't decide if they are from entirely separate light armoured battalions, or a light squadron in a battalion of Centurions, or from a heavy squadron in an armoured recce battalion to support the Ferret armoured cars. Since the names I give my units are more reminiscent of a Napoleonic army than anything modern, it doesn't matter I guess. 

I added some camo netting made from cheese cloth soaked in white glue before priming.

To protect the battlegroup from marauding MiGs I got them an AA tank. Because I like coherency in my AFV formations I opted to add the Centaur AA tank (based on the Cromwell/Comet chassis) to the Squadron HQ troops. If there had ever been a Centurion AA tank, I'd have gone with that. Sadly there never was, not even in prototype. Which is too bad; a Centurion turret with four 20mm cannon jutting up to shoot down MiGs would look cool.

I have a second print that needs gun barrels in reserve.

Finally, the Battalion Armour Defense Platoons for the infantry get recoilless rifles. I couldn't find a 1/100 scale. stl for the British BAT1, but Don found this little gun.

On both prints, the carriage was so swarmed with supports I lost both, barely salvaging the wheels and the rotating bit the gun barrel attaches to.

But I clipped some T shapes out of left over plastic windows in the Bits Stores and glued everything on.

They're so tiny I boosted them up on some thick card so the wheels are even with the tops of the crew puddle bases. The crew are kneeling command figures and mortar men holding mortar bombs, which are close enough to look like a shell. 

Of course within 10 years everyone was putting these on Jeeps and Landrovers, but for now they're towed.

British Army ca 1959. 

The barrels are shorter than normal, but my excuse for that and not being on the bed of a Jeep, is so that they can be hauled up the side of a mountain.