Operation Nostalgia: Clash at Kleindorf

ISABELSTADT (Reuters)- There are reports of renewed intense fighting along the frontier tonight from the small alpine country of Mantovia. The sound of heavy artillery can be heard in the nations capitol and there are reports of heavy columns of Tartarian tanks making deep penetrations....

Hauptman Johannes Wahl was shaken awake by his driver. "Sir! O Group at the CP!"

Wahl made the short walk from the back of the Landrover where he'd been trying to sleep to the collection of radio vans. Pushing under the camouflage netting he found the Brigade Command Post to be a buzz of carefully camouflaged activity with an edge of panic.  The Brigade Commander was listening to a report from one of his Intelligence Officers, who was drawing on a map . Big angry red arrows were exploding across the Area of Operations.

The General looked at him. "Wahl, the Tartars have broken through the 2nd Dragoons at Grossklumpen and are pushing up the Duppleburg valley. The 1st Fusiliers have got a weak company strung between Kleindorf and Altendorf here." He indicated a pair of small villages on either side of a wooded valley with a big red arrow pointing directly to the fields between them. "I need you and your Centurions to reinforce them. Gruber will give you details on route and intelligence estimates. Get moving, now!"

They drove through the night towards the thunderstorm of Tartarian artillery that rumbled and flashed in the dark sky. When his Centurion growled into Altendorf, he found a worried and exhausted Fusiliers Hauptmann outside a gasthuas. "Thank God you're here! I've only just arrived myself. No time for mines or wire. I've got my landsers in the houses covering the intersections and some panzerjaeger and machine gun teams strung along the road connecting the two villages." Wahl conferred with his tank commanders and they deployed one platoon behind each village to create a cross fire in the fields. Wahl posted his command tank on a small wooded hill from where he could direct the battle and call in artillery fire.

1 Platoon Queen's Leibgard Battlegroup deploys behind Kleindorf

Comrade Platoon Commander Stepan Bosvic was in the hatch of his BTR watching the sunrise over the mountains while his Motor Rifle Platoon drove past an old factory. The afternoon before they had followed behind a devastating artillery barrage and driven past burning tanks and foxholes filled with bleeding shattered men. It had been a night of flames and chaos as onwards they rushed. His platoon was to secure the village he could see past the trees up ahead. They'd dismount just outside of the village and methodically clear the houses and then enjoy whatever food these Capitalists had hoarded in their kitchen larders. Just then he noticed the squat square outline of a tank emerge from behind a house. "Dismount!" he shouted, too late.

"Target front! BTR. One Five Zero meters. Fire!" The 20 pounder cannon roared, shattering the morning quiet.

1 Platoon opens the bowls, firing on the Tea Break card.

"Everyone out!" screamed Comrade Platoon Commander Stepan Bosvic as he watched his lead section die in a fireball. His section dismounted to the right of the road, scrambling through the bushes. The other section dismounted to the left and began advancing towards a copse. Some light mortars found them still in the open. Before they could get among the pine trees and approach the village under cover, automatic rifle fire erupted from the windows of a yellow house. Comrade Platoon Commander Stepan Bosvic and half of the men with him went down, bleeding out into the tall grass. The remains of the section ran back down the road as a second BTR exploded behind them.

1st Motor Rifle platoon dismounts under tank and mortar fire.

The company of T54 tanks, with an attached platoon of Motor Rifles, charge forward across the farm fields.

Making use of the Armoured Bonus card to make a faster advance.

1 Platoon engages the T54s

2nd platoon of Motor Rifles, attached to the tank company, dismount after another BTR gets destroyed

3rd platoon Motor Rifles dismounts outside of Altendorf, lead section gets under cover of the trees.

Cautious advance. Leading section is taking heavy fire from both houses

Carl G team bags a BTR

Here you can see leading MR section (lower right) caught in a heavy crossfire from the terrace house to it's front and the red house on it's flank.

2 platoon puts the T54s in a crossfire with some very good shooting dice.

2nd tank platoon attempt to flank right to get away from the Centurions behind Kleindorf. But they've exposed their flanks to fire from the Centurions behind Altendorf

Hauptman Wahl in his command tank engages the Tartarian 2nd tank platoon trying to flank to the right and avoid 1 Platoon.

A ranging round from Mantovian artillery drops among the Motor Rifles who charge forward towards Kleindorf to get out of the barrage.

They engage the skirmish line of machineguns and tank hunter teams in Close Combat. The Mantovians are wiped out, but they take half the MR and Comrade Platoon Commander with them.

With the lead T54 platoon destroyed, the Company Commander and the 3rd platoon go left to get out of the crossfire and support the attack on Altendorf

3rd Motor Rifle platoon rushes the big red house. The defending section is wiped out, but at heavy cost. The Motor Rifles lose their third Platoon Commander.

Carl Gustav tank hunter teams in Altendorf finally bag a T54 after several shots.

Remains of 1st MR plt in woods and 2nd MR plt along hedge outside of Kleindorf

View from 2 Platoon

Tartarian 2nd Motor Rifle Platoon and another spotting round lands among them

Remains of Tartarian 1st Motor Rifle Platoon

Overview. Tartarians only have 5x T54s still running and have lost about 70% of their infantry, including all of their platoon commanders. The Mantovians have lost 12 men, including an MMG team.

Hauptman Wahl watched as one of his Centurions put a couple of high explosive rounds into the red house captured by the Tartarians. Fusiliers covered by machinegun fire from an upper story then dashed across the street. The muffled bang of some grenades and brief chatter of rifle fire. After a few moments a couple of Fusiliers emerged with a bleeding prisoner.

Feldwebel Mueller walked over. "Looks like they've fucked off back down the road." He paused. "For now."

Wahl accepted the canteen cup of tea his driver handed him. "Ja. For now."

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So ended a solo, highly indulgent, game of I Ain't Been Shot Mum. I used some stats for T54s and Centurions provided for me by a contact on Bluesky who plays Fate of a Nation, the Arab-Israeli War variant of Team Yankee. I will probably adjust these for future games, and lean more to the stats someone came up with for Korean War and Yom Kippur War IABSM. 

It was just hedonistic fun getting the toys on the table and enjoying the look and feel of things. This was very much the sort of game I had in my imagination as a kid. Since I had primed the Mantovian infantry with olive green spray paint, I felt very much like I was 12 again, painting my Airfix figures. And to be honest, the paint jobs on the infantry are no great hell and probably what I would have achieved as a teenager to be honest. But they look the business at arm's length and do the job on the table.

I suppose for better scenario balance the Mantovians should get fewer Centurions (boo!) or the Tartarians need more T54s and infantry. Or I could reinforce the Tartarian armoured attack with some T34/85s too. They'd be weak, but they'd still be a threat to be dealt with. I did give the Tartarians artillery support and airstrikes, but the cards never came up for the artillery and the air support didn't make it's die roll.

Huvi Pen

Aelf considered the Huvi.

The Huvi considered Aelf. It's black eyes devoid of emotion. It opened and closed it's mandibles, sensing the grubs in the feed bucket Aelf held. With a burbling coo it scuttled sideways on it's four legs, long neck swaying. 

Aelf opened the gate, shoving another of the creatures out of the way. He quickly closed it behind him before any wandered out into the yard. He felt a pair of mandibles clamp onto the back of his trousers. "Ach! Git off ye wee daftie!" The Huvi scuttled out of range of his boot.

He stuck his hand into the feed bucket and drew out a handful of wiggling grubs and scattered them on the ground. The Huvis cooed with excitement and began jostling with each other to peck at their food. Once the bucket was empty he began looking for clutches of eggs.

His dyna, Dwfwyn, was baking moth cakes for the village fête. It was a bit of fun. Games for the kits. Baking and gardening and livestock competitions among the villagers. Trading gossip in the beer tent with the other farmers. Any money raised went to fix the roof on the Shrine to the Ancestors and support the local crippled veterans.

 

He saw a Huvi standing over a recently laid clutch of eggs. The green balls were in a blob of brown jelly that helped keep them warm and safe from smaller predators. The Huvi trilled at him, scuttling back and forth, it's crest flaring.

He reached into the blob of goo and scooped out a couple of the warm eggs, placing them carefully in his bucket. He reached down for another handful. The Huvi trilled again and crouched, claws pumping up and down. 

Just as it sprang at him, Aelf put his bucket in the way and the beast slammed into it headlong with a loud clunk. "Ach! Ye silly wee beastie!" The Huvi shook it's head and wobbled away. Aelf put more eggs in the bucket.

Close up of the Huvis. Some of them are guarding clutches of eggs.

When he got into the kitchen, he set the bucket on the sideboard. "Was thinkin' I might enter my fried Huvi tenders into the the cookery competition at fête this year. Ye know, tha ones wi' the red cricket batter."

Dwfwyn started breaking eggs into her batter. "Oh aye? wha's brought this on then?"

Aelf thought of the annoying Huvi. "Ach, no reason. Jus' thinking like."

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Back to Quar with a bit of fun terrain. 

The pen is a pig sty 3d printed for me by the Mad Padre a few years ago when he was exploring resin printing. The gate had gone walk about so it's sat on my shelf for a few years while I got around to taking 30 minutes to make a new one out of coffee stirrers. It was printed in two pieces. The straw pile with the fork stuck into it, and then one big piece of hutch, fences and water trough all together.

The Huvis are from the MyMiniFactory Tribe and came in the latest box from Don.

Once I had a plan and everything primed it was completed very quickly, even with waiting for sand to set and gloss varnish in the water trough to dry. I've got some other Quar livestock I should work on too. A game featuring patrols foraging and partisans trying to stop them could be an amusing break from trenches and barbed wire.

Midgard

 

In my on going quest for some satisfying Middle Earth rules, I have purchased Midgard, the exciting new "heroic era" wargaming rules by James Morris (see his Midgard stuff HERE and his Middle Earth stuff HERE) and published by Too Fat Lardies. Find the Lard TV Midgard videos HERE.

I've watched the development of these rules with interest. The 20% off pre-order deal was just too good to pass up on so I jumped on it (especially with the current exchange rate with the Pound).

A nice value added with TFL products is getting the pdf when you purchase the physical book. Normally I am not overly bothered with the pdf. I dutifully save it to all my devices. I will open it to print the Player QRS. And then promptly ignore it. 

Canada Post going on strike while my copy is in transit was a bit annoying. But thanks to the pdf, I can load it onto Mrs. Rabbitman's tablet and get stuck in and start thinking about elves, dwarves, and orcs again. 

There will be a tiny bit of reorganization required, but nothing too onerous. Midgard doesn't use fixed unit sizes. But it does use a fixed unit frontage. Everything is based on the "spear throw". Nominally 120mm, but you can make 80mm a "spear throw" if that works for your armies.

My dwarves already fit nicely into 120mm x 40mm for a unit. Or I might make a spear throw equal to the nice movement trays Don designed and printed for me. I can cut different measuring sticks and see what I like.

Elves and orcs will need some trays. But with everyone being on washers, I can do that easily. 

My Medieval armies are already on 40x40 bases, so 3x stands across will be a unit. Which is 12x heavy infantry or 6x skirmishers, which is how I organized them for Lion Rampant, so no rebasing required!

Midgard might even work with Samurai. The Age of War is starting to get away from the heroic leadership of earlier Samurai wars, but sub commanders still got stuck in.

Could these rules be the "magic bullet"?

We won't know until we try.

Watch this space!

Puddle Pity Party

I notice a lot of folks borrowing trouble over puddle bases.

Some people really get their girdles in a twist over them, going to all sorts of complicated lengths to hide them. 

• Plastic wood
• Spackle 
• Modge Podge 
• Glue and sand
• Miliput or Green Stuff (!$$)
• Sprue Goo (which I gather is plastic sprue dissolved in plastic cement, can you say "hazardous material"?)
• Clipping them off

Yeah, some old miniatures had pretty hefty bases on them, which required a bit of work to hide the cliff face. 

These 15mm 3d printed figures all have rather thick bases. But I think I hide most of them fairly well. 

Nowadays companies put pretty thin puddle bases on their figures. 

So why do the extra step? It seems to me to be a lot of fuss and bother for minimal return. 

And remember, I'm a proponent of "good basing really helps set the figures off."

Unless I'm going for a sandy base, in which case I'll use glue and sand. Otherwise, I just paint brown and use white glue and flock. Of course I like a coarse, multi-coloured flocking mix, because it's more natural. Tactical positioning of tufts or bits of lichen can hide any remaining edges. 

Glue, sand, paint

Extra faff with sand and flock. Is it worth it? 

I guess I'm just getting an unexpected dividend from my elaborate witch's brew of a flocking mixture?

Sure, sometimes you can still detect an edge. But most of the time? If you're staring that hard to see the puddle base, then the game isn't engaging enough. 

Battalions on Parade!

Full battalion with squadron of armoured support

King Raymond fidgeted, tugging at the high, stiff collar of his white dress tunic. Kony, his valet, brushed at his gold encrusted shoulder boards. "Goodness mein Herr! You fuss so! I haven't seen you like this since your wedding day." 

"This collar is very tight."

"That would be Frau Goldstein's strudel. Herr Doktor has advised you about your diet."

Three rifle companies, plus Support Company with Mortar, Anti-tank and MMG platoons. Squadron of Centurions and attached AVRE in the back.

"Doktor Thielmann is a thief of joy."

Kony set the bicorne on his head and carefully adjusted the fall of the magnificent horse hair plume. "Quite so, mein Herr. But your people love you and need you."

With one last look in the mirror and a final tug at the bottom of his tunic, King Raymond turned to the door. A guard dressed in the antique white tunic and bearskin of the Leibgard, but carrying a modern British supplied FN automatic rifle came to attention and opened the door for him.

In the hallway he met his daughter, Gretchen, resplendent in her dress uniform as the inhaber of the Queen's Leibgard Husaren regiment. "You look very dashing pappa!"

"As do you my dear."

Gretchen cocked her head. "Ready?"

"Would it matter if I wasn't? Our American and British benefactors are quite insistent on this show of readiness."

He began walking down the hallway. Uniformed guards taking position in front and behind. Servants opened the big doors and they stepped out onto the steps at the front of the castle. There was a throng of dignitaries, mostly foreign, and a large contingent of foreign press. He was acutely aware of non-descript men on the edges looking out at the crowds and the rooftops.

A voice bellowed "First Fusilier Regiment! Royal salute, preeee-sent ARMS!" Hundreds of feet crunched on the gravel, hands slapped new rifle stocks, swords swept up to the salute, flags unfurled, the band began playing the anthem. Camera flashes went off and film cameras began whirring, recording Mantovia's preparedness for the entire world. Perhaps a photo from the parade might make it into the back pages of Life or Time magazine.

82mm Mortar platoon

He took his time with the inspection, asking questions, looking down weapons tubes, inquiring about the landser's welfare. It was his only way to show he cared. Junior officers and senior NCOs had fretted and fussed for this moment, so the least he could do was to take notice of all their efforts.

The newly mobilized battalion was presented with colours, duly blessed by the bishop. Awards were given for exceptional training.  He had Gretchen help him pin some medals on veterans who had distinguished themselves in the earlier fighting.

Anti-tank platoon

After the parade there was beer and bratwurst for all ranks in the castle gardens. Early tomorrow they'd be heading to the front.

Centurion of Queen's Liebgard Kampfgruppe moves to the frontier

Tartarian Motor Rifles skirmishing

A few hundred kilometers to the east, a non-descript man watched a cobbled square from behind the dingy curtains in the fourth story window of a drab apartment.

Several hundred field grey clad soldiers, with new AK47 rifles across their chests goose stepped past a dais, followed by dozens of new round turreted T-54 tanks.

Battalion of T-54s, Battalion of Motor Rifles

BTR armoured personnel carriers rolled past as well. Some towing heavy mortars.

Three companies of Motor Rifles

"Hmmm... those are new." He focused the telephoto lens on some tanks rolling past sporting long barreled anti-aircraft guns.

120mm Mortar Company

He quickly changed film as another battalion crunched past on the cobbles. He photographed everything he could. Even the most innocent looking truck displayed a change in Tartarian capabilities. 

He would have to get these rolls of film to the dead letter drop this afternoon. A display of military might like this hadn't been seen outside of Red Square and western intelligence services would want to pour over the photos of the new gear. Thank God there weren't any rockets.

Brigade HQ including BTR-152 artillery command post

T-54 battalion and BTR transport behind

While waiting on more Quar I reached a milestone this week and have enough infantry stands completed for each side to field a battalion of three rifle companies, plus supports in O Group or Seven Days to the River Rhine. Or a full company in I Ain't Been Shot, Mum.

The Mantovian battalion is organized like a British or Canadian infantry battalion, with an organic 82mm mortar, anti-tank, and machine gun platoons. For now the AT Platoon is dedicated Carl Gustav teams with some Landrovers. I might get them some metal BAT L1 recoilless rifles after Christmas. But I kind of like trying to keep everything 3d printed too.

To celebrate, Scott ran a game of Seven Days for Patrick, Dan, Brett and myself. I was too busy having fun to take any pictures except these of the table before the boys arrived. Scott brough some allies for each side, so that we had enough for 4 players. My Mantovians ended up facing off against Scott's T-64s, while Patrick command the T-54s against Scott's Canadians with Leopard 1s. I lost 5 Centurions, but we chewed up the Tartarian and Soviet armoured thrusts enough that they lost on Command chits.