Sacramento Miniature Wargaming Society August meeting

 There were two games at the August SMWS meeting.   DBA and a modern armor game I ran using Lightning War - Red Storm.

LWRS is a free set of rules covering WW2 to present day and is available by joining   https://groups.io/g/LWRS

Each element in LWRS represents about 15 vehicles or 150 men.  About a company or a battalion of artillery.  Units are multi-company battalions.  Battalion units are grouped into brigade/regiment formations under a commander.   With several brigades forming a division under a higher level commander.   A player can handle a division.   

Units are rated for five levels of quality, and four to five levels of equipment technology.   Rated from a low of 1 to a high of 5.   Formation and division commanders are also rated from 1 to 5 and can have a different rating from the units they command.  With this rating system an early war PZIV would count as a class 4 heavy tank, but by the end of the war it might be only a class 2.

Instead of IGOYGO the game has an interactive activation sequence.   Players roll a die for each formation.  Priority is assigned from the highest score to the lowest.   Starting with the highest score each player can choose to move immediately or pass and wait until later in the turn with the ability to interrupt the sequence at any point.   If all the higher scores pass the lowest scoring formation is forced to move and the sequence is repeated until all formations have moved.   Combat is then resolved with air strikes, followed by artillery, then direct fire and finally close assaults.  Each phase is simultaneous and units can become disordered due to damage in any and all phases.   Morale checks are made for losses or situations and units can become fatigued and whole formations become exhausted ending their offensive capabilities.

For this game the opposing sides were two fictional Latin American countries.   The Peoples' Democratic Republic of La Cucaracha led by El Supremo Jefe Patronis and The Federal Union of Buena Vista ruled by President for Life, Elvis Narcisco.   The PDRC uses Russian equipment and the FUBV uses German equipment.

As a side note, on YouTube there are several videos of Chiles annual military parade.   Chile uses modern German equipment and has kept the Prussian military traditions.   Units in historical Prussian uniforms take part in the parade and Prussian military music is played by the bands.

The game matched the first divisions of both nations in a meeting engagement and lasted a full day of six turns.   Each turn is two hours long.   The FUBV was starting to gain an advantage by the end of the day.   The table was six feet by six feet or 18km by 18km at the game scale of 1cm - 100m.

Below are some photos of the game.  Most are from the north side of the table with the PDRC on the left and the FUBV on the right.   Mike O'Brien took the first two pictures.

More Leopard 2 Revolutions for the Federal Union of Buena Vista

Spent part of today painting the latest batch of Leopard 2 Revolutions.   Sprayed them with green primer, then added black, followed by red/brown.  These are available on shapeways at https://www.shapeways.com/product/F2QMAGMJ6/6mm-leopard-2-revolution-x3?optionId=65587045&li=ostatus

 all twelve

 Right side

 Top

Left side

Battle of Ciudad Tiempo Pasado

The war between the Federal Union of Buena Vista and the Peoples Democratic Republic of  La Cucaracha continues.   This time the Buena Vista Presidential Guard Brigade and third Mountain Brigade were attacking two motorized brigades of the La Cucaracha army.   The Presidential Guard Brigade had two tank battalions and two mechanized infantry battalions in Puma IFVs.  The mountain brigade had three battalions in Boxer APCs.   The Cucaracha brigades had a tank battalion a BMP battalion and two BTR battalions.   Both sides had a divisional artillery brigade in support along with the brigade artillery battalions.  Rules used were Fistful of Tows 3.   The Buena vista brigades were rated as good and the La Cucaracha brigades were average.  Commanders on the La Cucaracha side were Jeff (Jefe) the overall commander, David on the left flank, and Brent on the right flank.    Greg was the overall Buena Vista commander and had the Presidential Guard brigade and Jesse commanded the mountain brigade.   Rick joined later and helped with the mountain brigade.  Objectives were for the Buena Vista army to punch a hole in the La Cucaracha defenses in order to get to the east edge of the table, while La Cucaracha had to prevent this.

Terrain is two foot rubber matts painted light tan with blue grey streams and model railroad ground foam.   Trees from ebay dealer on 50mm Litko hexes, foam core board hills, buildings by Paperterrain.   Vehicles are mostly GHQ with Heroics and Ros infantry.

 View of the battlefield from the south.   La Cucaracha forces are defending and have deployed in depth.   One motorized battalion is defending the city of Tiempo Padado  in the center of the battlefield another is deployed on the ridge and woods south of it and another is occupying the woods north of it.   Part of another infantry battalion is in the woods and hill further south with a bmp battalion near the woods east of the center ridge.   A tank battalion is just out of picture on the south edge.   The other BMP battalion is off of the north edge of the picture and the last tank battalion is in reserve near the top right of the picture. The Buena Vista mountain brigade advanced on a wide front with its three battalion in line.  One advanced towards the city and the other two were further north.  The Presidential Guard brigade swapped a tank company from each battalion with an infantry company from each of the Puma battalions. attacked in depth on the south side of the field.  The Buena Vista brigades both had three recon platoons, but only one was used on the first turn of the game on the south flank.  It was destroyed almost immediately when it advanced up the road on the south edge.   Recon units get an additional five hundred meters of spotting distance.   Due to cover provided by the towns, woods, and hills most units were not visible unless they were firing or moving and even then vehicles are only spotted at 2000 meters or less if they are in cover.

 Full view showing the tank battalion on the south end. and the north edge.

 View from behind the south flank of the Buena Vista army 

 View from behind the north flank of the Buena vista army.   The mountain brigade advanced cautiously initially.   About the fifth turn the left battalion made a dash for the town near the north center of the field taking heavy casualties.   

 The southern end of the battlefield.   Buena Vista Leopard 3A6 tanks have decimated the La Cucaracha T90 battalion

 The remaining T90s have been eliminated exposing the left flank of the La Cucaracha defenses.  The Buena Vista divisional artillery brigade and helped damage the defenders with its MRL barrages.   La Cucaracha artillery support had been intermittent throughout the battle due to poor communications (artillery request die rolls)

One of the Buena Vista mountain brigade battalions begins to assault the city.   Though taking some casualties from defensive fire, by standing off in the woods and concentrating fire from its infantry and APCs it was able to cause twice as many casualties as it took.

At this point we called the game.  We had started about 11:30 and ended at 4:30 with a 45 minute lunch break.   It was the seventh turn of ten.   We averaged about 30 minutes for each 12 minute game turn.  The game was declared a winning draw for the Buena Vista army.   While one of the mountain brigades battalions was in trouble the La Cucaracha left flank was in danger of being turned.   As long as the Buena Vista army could continue to engage the La Cucaracha infantry frontally and avoid being flanked they were likely to achieve their objective.   They had a four to three advantage in battalions, better quality (good vs average), and their armored vehicles were almost invulnerable to the infantry\s anti-tank missiles from the front.  The right flank motorized brigade would not be able to shift any support in time to the south and by doing so may have left an opening for the Buena Vista mountain brigade to create an opening in the La Cucaracha line.

New additions.

Since my last post I have not been able to do anything with wargaming except some internet browsing.   Things are back to normal now and yesterday I received some GHQ items I ordered.   Fortunately they arrived a day earlier than scheduled and I spent last evening gluing turrets onto the hulls.   Today I primed them with green spray primer and added the other two NATO camo colors.   I am also working on the Lace Wars figures that I have.  Getting them painted and based and determining what additional figures may be needed.   So far the only infantry that I am going to need are a couple of packs of grenadiers.    I may have enough cavalry.  The only uncertainty is the number of Hussars that I may need.

There are 10 Leopard 2 Revolutions, 10 Pumas, and 30 Boxers.  I was able to find painting diagrams for the Boxer and Puma by searching the internet and some help from people on The Miniatures Page.

T

New additions

I received my order of GHQ vehicles on Monday and got them primed that evening.    After spending some time, between taking care of other things, yesterday and today I finished painting them this morning.

 Buena Vista additions - recon, artillery command vehicles and Puma IFVs.

 La Cucaracha additions - recon, anti-tank, self propelled mortars, and MRLs.

 Artillery command and a Puma

 Fennek recon vehicles

 2S9 self propelled mortars.

More Pumas

Modern Russian Green

Often people obsess over the proper color to paint their vehicles.   Sunlight and weather will affect paint colors.   When painting smaller scales it is best to use lighter shades of the desired color due to the smaller figures not reflecting as much light as larger ones.   I came across this photo of Russian BTRs showing the wide range of colors that could be used when painting modern Russian green.

NATO Three Color Camouflage

In the mid 1980's the United States and Germany agreed to adopt a new camouflage pattern using a combination of green, grey-black, and red-brown.   They also devised specific patterns to be used on each type of vehicle.    There is a US army field manual  tb43-209   with almost all the patterns for each vehicle in it.   The Team Yankee website also has PDFs of some of the German paint diagrams  A website with paint diagrams for German, US, French and other nations is Panzerbaer  Be advised though that the diagrams for the French vehicles have green and black reversed.   Where it shows green it should be black and green where it is black.

Vehicles primed with green spray primer from Amazon (local OSH store used to carry it, but not anymore), then black, and finally red-brown spots using a 10/0 brush.   Black and Red-Brown paint from Stone Mountain Miniatures this time and on the Terminator and Cimmerian in a previous POST  I have used GHQ paints on some previous  batches and for some scifi vehicles

 TPZ vehicles for Union Federal de Buena Vista

Leopard 2A6M for Union Federal de Buena Vista

For those who are doing the earlier US army MERDC scheme this manual will be helpful

Tank Drifting

Drifting cars has become a completion sport.   Drifting tanks in the snow and ice is part of training in Norway and the US has taken part in that training.   Some tank crews have also done it for fun and to demonstrate the abilities of their tanks.   The following link is to YouTube videos documenting these and also some failures.   The one with the Chinese driver is quite impressive.  drifting tanks

Projects for 2018

Time to set some goals for the coming year.  In no particular order I hope to accomplish the following items for the coming year:

Finish painting and basing 18th century armies (Duchy of Clove-Hamhock and Principality of Turanschlag).  I will need to purchase some additional Hussars and maybe some grenadiers and heavy cavalry from Heroics and Ros.   Got some new figures from a friend.

Expand Franco-Prussian War armies.  Need quite a few additional figures from Heroics and Ros.  Fortunately they are easy to paint.

Finish painting and basing additions to American Civil War armies.   Also print flags for them.  Almost finished painting them.  One of six unfinished items from last year.

Finish painting and basing the Carthaginian figures I was given.

Finish painting and basing the barbarian infantry additions.

Finish painting and basing the early Byzantine cavalry,

Finish painting and basing the Sassanian cavalry.

Finish painting space ships.  About a dozen to paint.

Flock bases for Napoleonic armies along with any repairs that need to be done.  Most boring project.

Place a special order with GHQ for a couple of replacement tank gun barrels, a 5cm AT gun and crew, and a 7.5cm AT gun and crew for WW2 Germans.  WW2 done except for those items.

Add helicopters to the two fictitious modern countries (The Peoples Democratic Republic of La Cucaracha and the Federal Union of Buena Vista). Already ordered and on their way.

Choose a set of ancient naval rules for large fleet actions along with printing and basing ancient fleets.   Might be the most time consuming project when cutting and gluing them.

Battle of Santa Clara

Another battle in the ongoing war between the People's Democratic Republic of La Cucaracha led by El Supremo Jefe Patronis and the Confederate Union of Buena Vista ruled by President for Life Elvis Narcisso.  This took place at Pacificon and used OPFOR from Hoplite Research.

La Cucaracha fielded two brigades.  One with three T90 tank battalions, a BMP2 battalion, and a 122mm artillery battalion plus brigade assets.  The other with one T90 battalion, a BMP2 battalion, two BTR82 battalions, and a 122mm artillery along with brigade assets.

The Buena Vistans had two battle groups of one Leopard2A6 battalion, one Puma battalion, a 155mm artillery battalion, and attachments.  The Buena Vistans cross-attached companies.  One group had two battalions of two tank companies and two mechanized companies, while the other had battalions of three and one companies.

The ground scale was 1cm = 100 meters, but movement rates were kept at the full distance in the rules.   The battlefield was 24km wide by 18kmn deep.

During the opening stages of the battle the Buena Vistans quickly advanced to hold the city of Santa Clara and two other town to the north of Santa Clara.  The Buena Vista battle group on their right wing was able to rout the La Cucaracha infantry brigade, but their other battle group was driven from the city by the La Cucaracha armored brigade.  With the La Cucaracha army in control of the city and surviving Buena Vista battle group not being strong enough to retake the city victory went to La Cucaracha.

NATO equipment tends to have an advantage over WARPAC equipment due to the additional plus factors that their tanks have.   A Leopard 2A6 gets a basic +3 to its attack die and another +1 for superior weapon.  Additional plus factors for attachments can alos be gained making it very possible to double or even triple the defense die roll of Russian tanks.

view of the battlefield

 view form the other end 

 Buena Vista, on the left advances to take control of the towns and city of Santa Clara

 fighting for control of Santa Clara. La Cucaracha tank brigade below and to left of city

 La Cucaracha motorized brigade's morale collapses

 Motorized  Brigade retreats

 

 

 

 

 

 

OPFOR The Battle of Carmichael

I ran a game of OPFOR at the Sacramento Miniature Wargaming Society meeting on Sunday.  OPFOR is the modern addendum to PanzerKorps.  The forces involved were the 1st Brigade of the La Cucaracha army and the German Brigade of the Buena Vista army.  This was a playtest of the scenario that I would be running at Pacificon on the first weekend of September.

The La Cucaracha 1st brigade had two T-90 battalions, one BMP battalion, three BTR battalions, and one SP 122mm artillery battalion.   The Buena Vistans had two Leopard 2A6 battalions, one Puma IFV battalion, and one SP 155mm artillery battalion.  The Buena Vistans cross attached one infantry company with one tank company from each of the Leopard battalions leaving the Leopard battalions with three tank companies and one infantry company.   The Puma battalion ended up with two infantry companies and two tank companies.  Both sides used a Red decision die and had career commanders.   La Cucaracha troops were reservists, while the Buena Vistans were regulars.

Both sides had some attachments that they parceled out between the battalions.   The La Cucarachans had an AA battery, a recon company, an engineer company, an ATGM company, and a 120mm mortar battery.   The Buena Vistans had a recon company, an engineer company, an ATGM company, and a 120 mortar battery.



Ground Scale was 1cm = 100 meters.  The six foot by six foot table gave a battlefield of 18km by 18km.   Except for the movement distances everything else was at the 1cm = 100 meters scale.   Movement rates were kept as per the rules.  The scenario was a meeting engagement with both sides entering from their table edge.  Aaron and Gary commanded the La Cucaracha army and Chris commanded the Buena Vista army.  



Aaron on the left, Gary on the right

Chris



Chris chose to enter all three of his brigades in deployed formations on the left half of his table edge, while Gary and Aaron split the six La Cucaracha battalions between them for each half of their table edge.   Gary entered his battalions in a deployed state while Aaron came on in road column.  The battle started at 6AM with the first day segment having three turns.   The next three day segments had one turn and the last one had two.



Chris advanced and engaged Aaron's battalions, while Gary moved his battalions forward as quickly as he could to engage Chris from the flank.   Chris had initially advanced with the Puma battalion in the center of his formation.   After he started engaging Aaron's command he shifted the Leopard battalion on the right all the way over to his left.  Aaron had pulled his two BTR battalions back into a couple of woods where he dismounted the infantry.  His tank battalion was in the center of his command.



Chris's artillery was fairly accurate and hit one of the BTR battalions and the tank battalion.   The La Cucaracha artillery targeted the Leopard battalion that had started on Chris's left flank.   Aaron later attempted to retarget the artillery on the Puma battalion, but it went long and fell on the far side of the town.   We used a scatter die from Games workshop to determine deviation direction.   This is a die with arrows on all faces (there is a hit marker on one of the faces with a small arrow).  The next attempt to hit the Puma battalion fell short.



Gary's battalions finally arrived on the right flank of Chris's Puma Battalion, but they had arrived too late as Aaron's BTR battalions panicked taking the tank battalion with them.  At this point Gary and Aaron conceded the game to Chris.   Both Aaron and Gary tended to have poor die rolls throughout the game, while Chris tended to have better than average die rolls.



After assessing the game the La Cucarach forces will upgrade with brigades that have BTR's.   The BTR's were armed with a heavy machine gun and had to dismount the infantry in order to be able to engage their opponents with any hope of damaging them.  I will be replacing them with the improved version that has the 30mm Auto-cannon and also mounts an ATGM from GHQ, but they will not arrive before the convention.  The game started at 11 and finished by 1:30

OPFOR at South Bay Game Club

The Battle of Santa Clara

At the March meeting of the SBGC I ran  OPFOR  the modern warfare supplement for PanzerKorps from Hoplite Research.  Manny Granillo commanded the 7th Brigade of the Peoples Democratic Republic of Cucaracha army, consisting of one T90 battalion, two BMP2 batalions, two BTR battalions, and one SP122mm artillery battalion.   Greg commanded the German Brigade of the Federal Union of Buena Vista consisting of two Puma battalions, one Leopard 2A6 battalion, and one SP155 battalion.

The La Cucaracha infantry battalions each had a 120 mortar battery attached.  The brigade also had three ATGM companies,  two recon companies and three FOs available for attachment to any battalion.   The La Cucaracha brigade was rated as reservists.  The commander was rated as career.  Each battalion received one decorated leader and two decorated leaders were kept at brigade level.

The Buena Vista battalions each had four companies.  The tank battalion cross attached two of its tank companies with the two infantry battalions.  This gave the two infantry battalions three Puma infantry companies, one Leopard company, one mortar battery, and one FO.  The tank battalion had two Leopard companies, two Puma companies, and an FO.  There were also two recon companies and one ATGM available to be attached to any battalion.  The tank battalion received a recon company and the infantry battalions split the other two companies.  The Buena Vistans were rated as regular.   Each battalion received two decorated leaders and one decorated leader was kept at brigade level.  Both sides  used red decision dice.

The game was played at one centimeter = 100 meters instead of the one inch = 100 meters scale on page 6.  Direct fire ranges were adjusted accordingly and converted to inches.   Movement was kept at the full amount of inches per turn instead of reducing to centimeters.   The battlefield was six feet square.  This converts to an 18km by 18km area.  The companies are based on 50mm(two inch) wide bases. At this scale a battalion could cover and defend a 5km wide zone as mentioned in several cold war documents.

Several views of the battlefield.  The buildings are from PaperTerrain.





Greg won the initiative for the first day segment and rolled for four turns.  His battalions entered in three separate zones.  Manny chose to enter in two road columns on the left half of his edge.  The opposing forces were unable to see each other until the fourth turn of the first day segment.  The Buena Vistans made use of cover preventing them from being seen, but were able to see the advancing La Cucarach forces and opened fire with the two infantry battalions at long range causing minor damage.   The Buena Vista tank battalion bogged down and did not advance for two turns due to low activation die rolls.   The Buena Vista army had a +1 die modifier for the decorated leader, but a -3 modifier for only having four battalions.

Towards the end of the first day segment.  Buena Vista on the left.  La Cucaracha on the right.

La Cucaracha infantry advances towards the central town.

Greg again won the initiative for the second day segment and rolled for three turns.   He immediately brought his artillery down on the two La Cucaracha infantry battalions near the middle of the table.  His middle infantry battalion advanced to the central town, while his right flank infantry battalion exchanged fire with the La Cucaracha tank battalion.   Almost every time Greg fired with the infantry battalion he would roll a one on the attack die.   What allowed his battalion to cause damage were the modifiers for the attachments.   These were +2 for the Leopard company +1 for the mortar company, +2 for the ATGM company, +1 for the Puma weapon modifier, and +2 for being equipped with ATGMs.   There was also a +1 for being at short range.  This was reduced by -2 for the T90 defense factor.

Buena Vista forces occupy hills east of the towns.

While the T90s engaged the opposing Buena Vista infantry battalion the two infantry battalions behind them moved towards the center of the table to help the other two infantry battalions that were having difficulties with the other Buena Vista infantry battalion and the artillery barrage.  The other Buena Vista infantry battalion had fewer die modifiers due to not having the ATGM company that the other had.   One of the two center La Cucaracha infantry battalions had taken too much damage from the artillery barrage and was unable to advance.   The other one was able to advance, but was driven back by the opposing Buena Vista infantry losing a decorated leader and the mortar company..   As it was being driven back the Buena Vista tank battalion had finally arrived near the central town, having spent several turns consulting their maps and asking directions from the local peasants. 

Fighting intensifies.  The two La Cucaracha infantry battalions on the left would come under artillery fire during the second day segment when east (right of the town on the left.

Manny won the initiative for the third day segment and rolled for two turns.   He had brought the two left flank infantry battalion up on the hill overlooking the central town during the previous day segment.  Greg had also moved his central infantry battalion up on the hill and the Leopard battalion in front of the town on the previous turn.   Manny called in his artillery on the infantry at the hill and forced them to fall back, losing one decorated leader and the recon company.  The fire from the Leopard battalion was devastating to the two infantry battalions that were caught in the artillery blast zone.   Other than the one turn where one of them had advanced towards the town, they spent six turns within the artillery blast zone.   The Leopard battalion had the following modifiers to its die roll.  -2 for being only two companies, +4 to its fire die, +1 for each for each of the two Puma companies, +2 for ATGM on the Pumas, +1 for the recon company, and +1 for superior weapon.

Leopards making short work of the opposing infantry.   One battalion has already routed and the second would soon follow.   The Buena Vista infantry battalion on the top right had just fallen back from the artillery fire (white die on top of other hill), but would soon recover and rout the opposing infantry battalion.

The Leopards caused both infantry battalions to rout, while the central Buena Vista infantry battalion was able to rout another infantry battalion.   At this point the La Cucaracha army morale failed and they withdrew from the battle.  Greg's plan for the next few turns was to pin the two infantry battalions and tank battalion with his two infantry battalions while the Leopard battalion finished off the central infantry battalions and then sweep around behind the La Cucaracha right flank.

Miniatures are from GHQ.  Buildings are from PaperTerrain.  Trees are from an Ebay dealer.  Battlefield is two foot square interlocking rubber tiles 

 The battle started about 11:00 as several of the club members had brought items for sale, trade or for free.   Thanks to Lawrence for giving me a copy of Vis Bellica.   We finished about 1:15.  This was an average of one turn every 15 minutes.  Using the 1cm = 100 meters scale, while keeping the full normal move resulted in a more dynamic and quick moving game.   The opposing forces were able to maneuver without becoming completely bogged down in a linear slugging match.  Force density was also about the same as that of the Second Armored Divisions attack on the Medina Division during the First Gulf War.   For those who may be interested in reading about the First Gulf War there is a free book from the army center with maps of the battles at Jayhawks  The Second Armored attacked the Medina division on a 30 km front (a ten foot wide table at 1cm = 100 meters)