FOW Early Desert Game (Part Two)

 

The Italian tankettes move swiftly to try and flank the British force and end up having a gunfight with the British armoured cars which swung backwards and forwards for the rest of the game.

 

 

The Italian infantry move forward (somewhat slowly) to engage the enemy infantry in the buildings as the tanks start to take causalities from the British guns.

 

 

The casualties were not all one way though- a British gun is knocked out !.

 

 

The tanketes start to take casualties as well.

 

 

The tankettes in the centre charge the guns in a desperate bid to reach the objective and are knocked out and fail a morale test.

 

 

The Italian heavy tanks are blown up one after the other - Hodge the cat looks on in disdain - he is more of a SYW period cat and secretly disapproves of FOW !.

 

 

By move 7 the Italians had no operational units in the British half of the table and so lost the battle !. The British armoured cars where the man of the match gallantly holding off the Italian tankettes , the Italians failed a lot of motivation tests and so were not able to exploit any successes they had and were a bit unlucky with their shooting. A great game I  thought and nice to get my figures on the table once again. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FOW Early Desert Game (Part One)

 

I have decided to do an FOW  desert game as I have been busy painting up some extra bits and pieces for the Brits. I made up 6 X 800pt armies for both the British and the Italians and dice for which ones would take the field , the British 'Jock Force' ended up facing a Italian Tank Company (!) . I then dice for the scenario as in the rule book and got 'Hold the Line' , the British have to hold 2 objectives at the far end of the table and the Italians have to capture them . The British only have 2 platoons on at start (gulp!) , the Italians all their forces .

 

The Italians set up out of the way of the British 18/25pdr's .

 

 

The British have dug their guns in to cover both objectives . The Motorised infantry platoon is being held in ambush on the table.

 

 

The Italians speed forward with their Tanketts and the British ambush is revealed and opens fire on the leading Tanketts - and does no harm !.

 

 

The Artillery however is more successful and its bombardment takes out a anti-tank gun and pins the Italian Conscript infantry.

 

 

The first of the British reserves come onto the table and decide to lurk in ambush . Too be continued.........

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gebirgsjager (Mountain Troops)

Been very busy in other aspects of my gaming life and am aware that my Flames of War late war Germans/Russians seem to have fallen by the wayside somewhat . So I decided to paint up some German infantry to support my at the moment tank only force .

I decided to do Mountain troops just to be that bit different and the figures are cute.

Next to the Russians the Germans are up there with unpronounceable unit titles !. The scenery is some of the excellent 'Battlefield in a Box' which comes ready painted ( I don't like painting scenery !) at a reasonable price. The figures are Battlefronts 15mm . For those of you awaiting further news of my 'wargaming pledge' 

http://thesteadfasttinsldier.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/a-wargaming-pledge-and-apology.html  I am taking the PP Samurai rules on holiday with me to read again and a game will follow on my return !.

Russian Tank Riders.

Got my tank-riders done, these will give much needed support for my tanks from infantry attacks.

As I wanted to have the option to be able to remove them from the tanks I have mounted each group on a thin piece of card .

This was a bit fiddly as some of the tanks have various bits of storage molded onto them so various sizes where needed.

The finished product .

Got a few more to do, then I am going to finish the Germans off .

Tiger-Tiger......

Got some German Tiger tanks done to oppose the Russians already done - you need a change after a while - all them green tanks !

 These were a bit harder to construct and the camouflage took a bit of investigating - so much info on the Internet and a lot of it conflicting - in the end I copied from the FOW  campaign book .

As I said in my last post I am going for something different in these two armies . The German force is based on 'Kampfgruppe Bake' , so I get to use Tiger and Panther tanks in the same company.

Back to finishing off more Russian tanks and some 'tankriders' for them.

First FOW Russian .

I have been churning out tanks like the proverbial Russian tank factory .

Here seen with some of the very nice 'Battlefield in a box' buildings (which come ready painted - at a reasonable price - I think) - the church is superb !

Here is my Company Commander - although a bit fiddly to glue together they are easy enough to paint up as the Russians tend not to go in for camouflage patterns.

I have also made up some objective markers - next the German opposition !.

British Tank Company ( Early Desert )

Been playing lots of  FOW  lately within our group of gamers and this has inspired me to finish off my British tank unit.

It is made up of  A10 Cruiser Mark IIAs and a couple of A9s for the HQ .

Organised into 3 platoons each of 3 tanks and a HQ  of 2 tanks .

Company commanders A9, rather antiquated - but very cute I think with the two MG turrets .

British Light Cavalry ( Of WW2 )

Sorry for the delay in posting anything but a combination of a visit to Salute ( see my other blog http://tinsoldieringon.blogspot.co.uk/ ) , problems with camera battery and real life held things up.

Got my British Vickers MkVI Bs  done for FOW  , looked up the 'Caunter' style camouflage on the web and there seems to be conflicting evidence on the actual colours used !.

In the end I copied the colour scheme from the FOW 'Hellfire and Back' campaign book. After a defeat at the hands of 'S' and the Italians I will need all the armoured support I can get !.

FOW Italian Artillery.

Decided the Italians were falling behind in the arms race , so painted up some artillery for them.

They are a battery of 75/27 Guns with command and spotting team.

FOW Unit Cheat Sheet (2)

Flushed with the success of the Italian unit stats sheet I have done a British one which illustrates the units I have in my collection . Have laminated them both and they should help speed up the game . (click on photo to enlarge)

FOW Unit Cheat Sheet.

Getting ready for the release of the new FOW rulebook I decided to make a info sheet with all the unit stats at a glance of each army. Above is my attempt at the Italian one. (click on photo to enlarge) 

FOW Italian Firepower.

These where a real pain to put together ! . They are 102mm Naval guns mounted on 6 ton Fiat trucks.

The building and well are ready painted from 'Battlefield in a box' .

I am rather pleased with myself - all the FOW models/figures I have purchased over the last 6 month or so are now painted and ready for action - tick VG ! ( if only I could accomplish  this with other areas of my gaming ! )

Finished !.

Got the British 25pdr Battery finished !.

Seemed to take forever , but am pleased with the results .

Battery H.Q. planning the bombardment . I am playing a FOW  game at the moment but the problem is that my wargaming room is the coldest in the whole house (as my wargaming colleagues can testify - when 'S' came for a game about a fortnight ago he looked like he had dressed for polar exploration!) and trying to play a game set in the Libyan desert takes some believing ! 

FOW 25pdr Guns

I've started on my Early Desert British artillery battery , got them at Christmas and when opening the box was alarmed at the amount of 'bits' .

They were a total pain to glue together - the gun shields took some time and bad language to fit .

Having glued them all together, based them and sprayed them brown I have got these 2 guns finished .Think the 4 guns and battery staff etc will look impressive when I finally get them done, am constantly impressed by the quality and thought that goes into FOW models (even when they don't glue together well !) - I just thank the Lord I  didn't go for the full 8 guns !

Pass The Port(ee)

Got some more vehicles done for my Early Desert FOW, this time its gun portees . I really must get a proper backdrop for desert photo shoots .

I always like painting FOW vehicles - they go together well and paint up easily .

These are 2pdr Anti Tank guns mounted on a CMP 3 ton trucks

Captured Italian 20mm Breda gun mounted on CMP 3 ton trucks. I have four  British 25pdr guns to glue together next , I'm pleased how well I've got on with my FOW  and have got most of what I  have bought painted - which makes me a good boy !!.( click on photos to enlarge )

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