There were several crossing points to include small bridges. This shows the rubber terrain (river and craters) as well as the new bridges that Bwana Bill just acquired while at Cold Wars 2006! 

The survivors of the SS detachment of Pak 38s mounted on SdKfz-10s round the hill and open fire on the surprised T-34s. Someone will be dying from the 9mm flu for allowing an entire platoon of T-34s to be decimated by jeeps with guns! 

On the right flank, the T-34 platoon advances (slowly!) across the river; several were held up in the woods on the hill across the river, while another bogged in the river. Their support was 2 massive SU-152s - one of them bogged in the river as well. Meanwhile, the slugfest knocked out two panzer IIINs, while the other panzer III and the two panzer IVs use cover wisely. 

A closeup of the carnage. The platoon commander passes his morale check and holds for one more turn. The Luchs and 231s are surrounding the Tiger (objective). In the next turn, the T-34 commander will die bravely and the Luchs will advance past the village to occupy a bridge that is critical to the advance on the second objective. 

The SU-152s move through the river; one is already in the woods, ready to kill the remaining panzers.  

Unfortunately for Bwana and his Guards unit, the other flank has already fallen at this point. The 152 that bogged, along with 3 T-34s that are bogged in the river and the trees on the hill spelled out the fate of this battle. A win for the Aufklarungschwadron; One would think that a tank company against a recon unit would be a "no brainer" win for the tank company. Not so, when you consider that this was a Soviet Guards unit. Bwana had around 1165 points to use to build his force, while I was able to use a full 1500 points. It was a close battle because of that and a learning experience for us both!  

Two Models from Aircraft in Miniature

Sorry about the lighting - this is the newly remodeled P-40E. I'll be using this to support my American Paratroopers in the desert! 

The newly modeled Italian CR-42AS Ground attack aircraft from Armaments In Miniature."Fear me! I am a biplane with bombs!" :-) 

French Colonial Infantry

I thought you might like to see one of the latest painting projects that I plan to undertake. There is a new line of 28mm minitures called "Askari Miniatures" that are very nice quality and very well priced. I saw a painted unit of French Foreign Legionnaires (FFL) on display at the Cold Wars convention and decided that I had to have them. I also grabbed a bag of tiralluers algeriens to use as French colonial allies. I thought they would be a colorful addition to the table top. So, the problem is finding information on how to paint them. I don't have any books with color plates on the FFL and the internet sources are rather sparse. The first picture is about all I have found so far. I get the impression that the tiralluers algeriens normally wore blue over blue unlike the zouaves that wore blue over red. I am also assuming that it is not a very dark blue either. I also see that the Askari Miniature chaps painted theirs blue over white! (second picture) Maybe there were variations from regiment to regiment? If anyone knows, please leave a comment.

New Material for the Reading Room

I don't know if you wargamers out there have noticed it or not, but it seems to me that just within the past few years there has been an sudden rush of memoirs from German WWII veterans. These books provide new perspectives that are of great interst to anyone with an interest in WWII. I have seen several already. The best examples are the "Panzer Aces" books by Franz Kurowski and "Blood Red Snow" by Gunther Koschorrek. So far my "hands down" favorite is "Blood Red Snow."

Just this morning I started the latest release, "Sniper on the Eastern Front" by Albrecht Wacker. I have only read a couple of chapters, but so far it looks promising. I'll write more on it when I'm finished, which shouldn't take long, it's a short book.

Sihayo's Kraal Concluded

To conlude the description of this game let me just say that it was a good close game. In the end the British side failed to earn the required number of victory points, but not by much. The NNC units were only moderately successful in charging up the hill. Two of them took too much "friendly" fire from the British infantry units behind them and they evaporated. The two Brit infantry units continued on without them but they were not able to capture enough objectives before time ran out. I was able to get the NMP unit to the top and exit it off the table for two whole victory points. I thought I might have the game won at that point but I still fell short.

Sihayo's Kraal Opening Moves

Here you can see the NNC advancing toward the Zulu positions in the rocks and the hill sides. You can't see the British infantry that are right behind them in every picture, but believe me they are there.

Sihayo's Kraal Scenario (continued)

Today we'll get back to the Sihayo's Kraal scenario I brought up earlier. Here you can see my wife Teri, the worlds most recent TSATF convert, and scenario designer Roy Jones plotting the Zulu defensive strategy. In the bottom photo you can see the task facing the British force. They have to scale the plateaus, capture objectives, and exit troops off the table edge at the top. If you look carefully you can see clumps of boulders and caves in the side of the cliff, these are both objectives and places for hidden Zulu units. The path going up the middle is the only way for the British regulars to get up onto the cliffs. Their Natal Native Contingent (NNC) allies are the only one who can scale the cliffs at any point.

Speaking of the NNC, this was the most intriguing aspect of the scenario. There are only four NNC units, two regular Brit infantry, and one cavalry unit of Natal Mounted Police (NMP). The idea is to put the NNC out in front to attack uphill. As long as there is a British unit directly in their rear they get a -2 die roll bonus on all there morale checks, including "closing-to-assualt" and "standing-to-fight." This makes an otherwise totally unreliable force fairly effective. Just imagine the scene! The NNC are advancing toward Zulus who are waiting for them up above (and in this scenario all Zulus have muzzleloaders), they are of course reluctant, but because of the rows of British bayonets right behind them... Well, you get the idea! I thought it was a brilliant idea that really made the scenario something special. It was a blast! (pun intended, sorry) Next time I'll tell what happened!

News Flash! Sudan Wargame Scenario book in the "Pipeline"

"Charge of the 21st Lancers at Omdurman"  

Interesting news everybody! I just found out from a good source that Mark Fastoso and Roy Jones have plans to write a Sudan Scenario book once they finish their "Zulu War 1879" book. But here is the big surprise; they say it will cover the "Late Sudan campaign," in other words, the Kitchener/Omdurman campaign as opposed to the Gordon Relief Expedition campaign that is commonly gamed with the "Sword and the Flame Rules." To quote my source: "...there will be a massive 21st Lancers scenario." Now that sounds jolly good, doesn't it?

Remember, YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST!

Sihayo's Kraal Wargame Scenario

Well, my wife and I had a great weekend at the Cold Wars, gaming convention. I will start off by talking about the Zulu War scenario we played with 25mm miniatures and Larry Brom's classic "The Sword and the Flame" rules. I was looking forward to perhaps play testing another scenario from Mark Fastoso and Roy Jones', Zulu War 1879 scenario book. When we got there we found out that Mark ran a scenario called "17th Lancers at Zungeni" on Friday afternoon. I'm still kicking myself for missing out on that. However, we noticed that Roy Jones had another scenario listed in the addendum and we quickly scooped up tickets for it. The scenario is "Sihayo's Kraal" which was the first engagement in the Zulu War. Chief Sihayo, if you will remember, is the chap who obliged the British Governor with a pretext for war. He sent a party of warriors into the British colony of Natal to retrieve a couple of adulterous women from his kraal. They were brought back and promptly executed.

Anyway, to our great surprise on Saturday morning, my wife and I ended up being the only ones with tickets for the game! Let me tell you something folks, when you see these scenarios listed, you need to jump on them! You are guaranteed a good time! Well, your loss was our gain! The two of us had a great time playing the scenario ourselves with Roy Jones' providing his usual stellar performance as gamemaster.

Like the other scenarios from this collection I have played this one was outstanding. The situation was challenging and interesting and the balance seemed to be perfect. These guys really have talent for writing well-crafted scenarios and coming up with some really innovative ideas.

I'll write more about the scenario next time. In the meantime, check out these photos of Roy Jones and I setting up the scenery and the 25mm miniatures. In both these photos, Roy is the guy on the left and I am on the right.

Also, I was hoping that the scenario book would be available for purchase at this convention, but Roy says it is not ready yet. Hopefully it will be out for Historicon in July.

"Cold Wars" or Bust!

Well everybody, it is the morning of March 17, 2006, but am I planning to celebrate St. Patick's Day? Heck no! Not only am I not Irish, I'm hitting the road for that sun and fun capital of the world, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and I'm going to the HMGS East "Cold Wars" convention! If any of you have not been to this annual event you really need to try to make it some day. You won't regret it. The theme of this year's convention is the "Rise and Fall of Rome: A Millenium of War."

All the details can be found here.


I am hoping to participate in a lot of World War II "Flames of War" action for all you mavens of mechanized mayhem, and a lot "Sword and the Flame" action for all you round-eyed imperialists! We'll discuss it all when I get back! Hope to see you there!

German Hetzer

My co-blogger Klumzey Keith is down with the flu. So to cheer him up I'd thought I'd post this picture of Keith's favorite AFV, the German Hetzer, which was a jadgpanzer adapted from the Czech T38 tank. This left side is open so you can look inside and see exactly how "cozy" it must have been for the crew of four. You can even see the remote control mechanism for the MG up on top. Now I ask you, who else but the Germans could have come up with something like that in those days?
My son Andy took this picture just this past Saturday up in Aberdeen. Maryland that is.

Italian M13/40

Keith has also been painting up a 15mm force of Italian Areite Division tanks, guns, and troops. So, in order to inspire him to get off his sick bed and back to working on them, I am posting this new and improved picture of the M13/40. This is the "mystery tank" I posted a few days ago under "Stump the Blogmeister." Since nobody ventured a guess; I win! Anyway this is a much better picture. To begin with the sun was shining, and my son Andy used his camera which actually takes better pictures than mine! How did I let that situation occur?

British Mark IV and Whippet from WWI

Okay everybody, as I said before, I drove back to Aberdeen to get some better pictures. My son Andrew and I both had our cameras going and between the two of us we got about 120 shots. It's a lot to go through. In the first round of looking through the pictures, these two that Andrew took stood out for me. These close ups of the British Mark IV and the Whippet were just so clear and detailed that I just had to post them. I hope you not tired of looking at pictures of tanks because its about all we have right now. Keith and I have been so preoccupied with things lately that neither of us has been able to do hardly anything gaming-wise. That will be rectified soon because I am going to the Cold Wars convention in Lancaster, Pennsylvania this weekend! If any of you have a chance to go, I highly recommend it. Check out our "Historical Miniature Gaming Society, East" link under "Gamer Resources" if you want to learn more about it.

Blogmeister Keith and a Panzer I

Here's another interesting picture for you. This is our very own Klumzey Keith standing next to a Panzer I on a cold, misty, rainy day. You can't get a good feel for how small those things are until you stand someone next to one. Keith is not a short man, he is about 6 feet tall.

Incidently, I drove back to Aberdeen this past Saturday to get better pictures. I'll be posting some of them soon.
So, more later,
Bwana Bill