I have just finished another four vehicles for my WW2 German force, which now brings the tally up to eight.
I already had the Panzer IV and three half tracks, I then painted up a troop leaders half track, the SD.KFZ 251/10 (PAK 36) with the fitted anti-tank gun. A Puma armoured car, a Tiger 1 and a Kubelwagen.
Unfortunately the Kubelwagen arrived without any front doors but I decided it would still be usable, as in a war zone I am sure a lot of vehicles would have been adapted and this one would have the doors left off so the crew could bail out on the hurry up. All the vehicles are from Warlord.
The Tiger 1 tank commander is a conversion, I had a spare British tank commander, so I chopped his head off and gave the figure a German head from the Warlord plastic infantry box set and then painted him up in appropriate colours.
I also painted up an additional officer for my German platoon, as I may be needing him when I get started with the Chain of Command campaign rules. I also did another German officer as a dismounted tank commander, which may come in handy if the crew have to bail out.
There is also a Panzerschreck team and an additional figure that I painted up for my mortar team. I did this last chap in summer camo, whereas the rest of the crew have the autumn camo. Again, these are all Warlord figures, both plastic and metal.
And the usual staged action shots.........
On the Chain of Command front, as I mentioned last week, I played scenario 6, 'Attack on an Objective'. Dave G played the defending side with his Russians, whilst I had my Germans using the Panzer Grenadiers from the list. Maybe I was just lucky with the dice but the two LMG's with each squad and the forward observer with the mortar battery made short work of the Russians, so this week we are going to keep the same scenario and table layout and I will defend with the Germans. This will give the attacking Russians a lot more points to choose from the support list and I will try using a standard German Infantry platoon instead of the Panzer Grenadiers, which will mean only one LMG per squad.
Hopefully this will make a more balanced game for the Russians and if so, I will use the standard German platoon for when we start our campaign. Having said that, I don't think the Panzer Grenadiers are the 'be all and end all' with their two LMG's per squad, as I have played these twice, both as the German and American, against American Paratroopers and they lost on both occasions.
Having looked at all the different lists that Chain of Command has produced, I think they all have their strengths and weaknesses and this is one of the great things about the rules, they reflect the challenges each of the fighting nations had to deal with and your platoon commander has to step up to the challenge and get on with it. 'All is fair in love and war'.
Here are a couple of pictures of the game from the other week, with Dave's collection of Russians on the defence.
I also went around to John Warren's place on Friday, where I played yet another game of Chain of Command. This time it was Japanese against Australians. Up until this game, I had not had occasion to use 'Close Combat' in the rules but with the limited visibility caused by the terrain of the dense jungle, it was 'close combat' after 'close combat' and the rules worked a treat.
I have played more games this year than I do normally in a whole 12 months. That has to say a lot about Chain of Command and with their campaign rules now out, I think I will be playing a lot more.
The rematch with the Russians tomorrow.
Cheers,
Pat.
