15mm Roads

Last year I was looking at urban roads to add to my 15mm terrain for Flames of War. As nice as the Battlefield in a Box roads are, they're quite expensive, so I looked at making my own.

I had tried a variety of materials for roading in the past. The most successful was railway ballast glued to felt as gravel, but I was after a sealed look this time. EVA foam looked okay, but curls with age and is so light that it blows away in the slightest draught. MDF is rigid so doesn’t conform to terrain.

In the end I went with 1.5mm rubber sheet. This was $40/metre on a 1.2m wide roll from Para Rubber (https://pararubber.co.nz/industrial-rubber-strip/692-rubber-insertion-sheet.html).

I cut it into 3" wide strips, scuffed the surface with sandpaper (otherwise the glue beads up), brushed  on PVA, and covered it with budgie sand. Once the glue was dry and the excess brushed off, I sprayed it with flat black to help seal it. Using an art foam roller, I rolled on grey acrylic paint. It would have been quicker to spray them grey, but the hope was a heavier coat of acrylic would help give the surface some durability. The total cost worked out to be about NZ$1/foot.

The rubber scuffed up with sandpaper

Gluing down the sand

After being rolled with paint

The finished product

On the reverse side I am working through rolling on the grey paint without any sand, and adding centreline markings, for when I want a more modern look for Team Yankee.

Here are some photos of it in action in a game late last year.

ValleyCon 2019 Review

ValleyCon this weekend was another excellent event, and a huge thanks goes to McBeth for organising it. I won three games and lost two, placing fourth overall. I won't go through a blow-by-blow account of the weekend, and I don't have any photos to share from it, but will just pick out a few key thoughts.

The weekend has established my faith in Mid War V4 as a good system. Up until now, MW has seemed incredibly bland, a way of biding time until the interesting lists come out with LW, but it surprised me how enjoyable it was. 85pts on a 6x4 was a bit denser than we’ve usually played, but it worked well. There was a wide range of armies represented, with the top three placings going to Armoured Rifles, Grants, and Honeys.

Using the Battle Plans mission selector was good. It added another layer of thinking about your opponent and what posture they would likely take, and what type of mission you wanted to face them in. It did limit the variety of missions played: I had two Bridgeheads, two No Retreats, and a Dust Up. One tweak might be having the TO specify which line to use. It should work well in a five-round tournament if you played lines 2-6 in a random order.

The Rifle Company is a solid list. The fact that I won a few games, quite possibly my first FOW wins in over a year, speaks to how robust and forgiving it is.

The cards I took worked out well. Artillery Expert and Diversionary Tactics are gold. Bagpiper, Sticky Bombs, and transports for the 6pdrs all helped at different times.

As expected my Reserves decisions were challenging. In each game that I needed to, I put two Rifle Platoons in Reserve, leaving another 8pts to find. In the first couple of games that was the 6pdrs, relying on their transports to get them where they needed to be. In the second, I switched that to being the mortars and the carriers, as I really needed to have all of my guns on the table. My Ambush platoon was always the Bofors, which gave me flexibility for dealing with armoured cars.

I had one bad loss that should have been avoidable. Ending up attacking in Bridgehead, I remember thinking "I should Night Attack in this", but then immediately forgot to. I also forgot that I had two batteries with smoke, which would have also made life a whole lot easier.

It was disappointing that I didn't end up running into either Honeys or M14/41s, as that would have been an interesting test of the list.

One thing that would be interesting to see would be how to get Churchills into 85pts. At 33pts for three, it's a tough ask as it would require running a much smaller core formation. No one brought heavy tanks of any kind, and apart from the three players with M10s and Marders, no one was really geared up to deal with them.

I left my painting really late, with a couple of really late nights leading up to the event, but was pretty happy with how they turned out in the end. They are painted in the colours of 78th Division in the Italian campaign.

Next time: I have received a copy of Impetus 2nd Edition, so I'll have a look at the changes, and update any progress on painting my light cavalry. Since it took me a whole evening to paint my first horse, I'm not that optimistic...

ValleyCon 2019 Preview

ValleyCon this year is a much smaller affair than usual, being club-focused and limited in numbers and scope, so that people who would travel to play are more likely to attend Natcon in Kapiti at Easter instead. The FOW event is 85 points Mid War, restricted to Mediterranean theatre lists. 

One of my issues with mid war has been that very few of the lists are actually of any interest to me. Part of this I think is fatigue, I’ve been playing MW Flames since 2001, and it’s a very vanilla period without the variety that the other periods offer. There were only two lists that I felt I’d want to run this year: the “Death or Glory” Valentine/Crusader combination, or a stock British Rifle Company. Since I’ve had all the infantry figures  sitting in a container for ages, I felt it was time to get them painted rather than buying a bunch of new tanks.

The list I have settled on is this:

Rifle Company - Armoured Fist

Rifle Company HQ, 2pts

Rifle Platoon - Full Strength plus the 'Sticky Bombs' card, 13pts

Rifle Platoon - Full Strength plus the 'Sticky Bombs' card, 13pts

Rifle Platoon - Full Strength plus the 'Sticky Bombs' card, 13pts

3-inch Mortar Platoon, 6pts
   4 x 3-inch Mortar

6pdr Anti-tank Platoon, 13pts
   4 x 6pdr Anti-tank Gun plus the 'Softskin Transport' card

Universal Carrier Patrol, 3pts
   3 x Universal Carriers with Boys AT Rifles

25pdr Field Troop, 14pts
   4 x 25pdr Gun

Bofors Light AA Troop, 4pts
   3 x Bofors 40mm AA Gun

'Bagpiper' card

'Diversionary Tactics' card

'Artillery Expert' card

Total Cost: 85 pts

It's a big list, partly because there are no tanks to soak up the points, but also because 85pts is larger than we would usually play here. Under V3 it would have come out in the mid-1400pt range. Some of the thinking that has gone into creating it is:

• I have gone tank-less due to the prevalence of Marders. They're popular due to being underpriced; with no high armour targets they become expensive machine-gun carriers.
• Another popular type of list is the light armour horde, and it's one that I probably have the most concern about. Nearly everything I'm taking has some ability to kill tanks. The Bofors, for example, are there solely for their ROF3 AT7, not because I have much to fear from air attack.
• The 'Softskin Transport' command card on the 6pdrs. I dithered a bit over this one. Would the points be better spent going towards another Carrier Patrol? Transport is highly vulnerable on a 6x4, but the penalty for having no tanks is that I have no mobile AT, so this at least gives me an option for repositioning them, or bringing them forward in support of an attack.
• 'Bagpiper' command card. My infantry are going to have to do all the heavy lifting when it comes to taking objectives, so this card that provides a 3+ Rally within 6" of the Formation Commander is to try and keep them moving in the event that I have to attack.

Apart from a chronic lack of mobility, a major issue I will face will be reserves: there is no natural choice for the 34 points I'll have to leave off in some games, and difficult decisions will need to be made.

I’ve left the painting my army far too late this year. Usually I’ve been proactive and have finished by the end of the previous year, but now with less than two weeks to go I still have some major gaps: a whole platoon of infantry, additional teams for the other two platoons, the actual guns for the AA platoon, and the artillery battery.

Next up: I'll post photos once all of the painting is completed, and review how it all went once the tournament is over.

First Run with the East Germans

On Saturday I took my Team Yankee 45pt East German list for a run at the club, against Che's Dutch. With my Gaskins still winging their way over from the UK, I swapped them out for two Gophers, who weren't needed anyway as Che didn't bring any air support.

T-72M Tank Battalion - Volksarmee

Battalion HQ - 1 x T-72M

T-72M Company - 4 x T-72M

T-72M Company - 4 x T-72M

BMP1 Motor Rifle Company - Minimum size plus AGS-17 and SA-14 Gremlin

BRDM-2 Scout Platoon - 4 x BRDM-2

SA-13 Gopher Platoon - 2 x SA-13 Gopher

Spandrel Platoon - 3 x Spandrel

Hind Helicopter Company - 2 x Hind

Che's list was based around a YPR-765 platoon backed up by PRATs, PRTLs, Stingers, M113 C&V, and a pair of Leopard 2s. We rolled up No Retreat, with the Dutch defending a village.

The table viewed from the East German end

Che put his Leopard 2s, PRTLs and M113 C&V units in reserve, with his PRATs in Ambush. The infantry held the front objective in the village, with his HQ sitting on the rear objective and the Stingers lurking at the back.

I pushed my infantry through the middle, with one T-72 company on each flank. The PRATs popped out of ambush on my left, but completely missed with their first round of shooting. The Leopards arrived from reserve, and made up for it by killing two T-72s, again on the left.

Turn 2, I decided that I needed to commit the Hinds before the PRTLs arrived from reserve and made air operations impossible.  They made it through the Stingers and bailed out one Leopard, forcing the platoon to run. They then pushed their luck too far and were shot down trying to strafe the PRATs, but for the second time in two games the sacrifice of a unit of Hinds had brought about a huge return by taking out a platoon of Leopard 2s. Meanwhile, the infantry cleared the Dutch pickets out of the first line of houses, and prepared to push on through the rest of the platoon to the objective. Everything appeared to be going according to plan.

Turn 3 saw the PRTLs arrive, who demonstrated how big a threat they are by killing a T-72 with flank shots. The East German infantry set up for another assault, hoping to push on rapidly while the defenders were still pinned, but were driven off by defensive fire. The next turn was huge, as the PRTLs killed yet another T-72 breaking the platoon on the right, the PRATs finished off the last T-72 on the left, while the Dutch infantry rallied and counter-attacked, clearing my infantry out of the village. By the start of turn 5, the East Germans had no offensive capability remaining, having been reduced to the Battalion HQ, Spandrels and Gophers. We called the game at this point as I wouldn't be in a position to be within 8" of an objective by the end of Turn 6 to keep the game going.

The game turned quickly. I was well-placed at the end of Turn 2, had the table position I wanted, had drawn out the Dutch TOW ambush away from my main attack, and through some good fortune had eliminated the Leopards. But the Dutch infantry proved to be tougher than expected, and I possibly should have taken an extra turn or two to set up properly to reduce them before throwing in another assault.

A few thoughts from the game:

• The game confirmed that 45pts plays really well on a 6x4. The model density was good, and we were finished in about 90 minutes.
• 45pts is a very difficult size for 3rd Generation MBTs. They're still scary, but in two-tank platoons  they are incredibly fragile.
• The minimum-sized motor rifles aren't a great assault force, only having four teams with Assault 5+, and everyone else sitting at Assault 6.
• The PRTLs taking out T-72s from the flank was a nasty shock, and they deserved greater respect than I afforded them.
• I really need to take more photos during my games.

The game also served as an opportunity to use some minefield templates that I had made the night before. CDs are the perfect size, so I covered a couple of spare CD-Rs with basing material to match my army, and the hole in the centre covered by the official token.

In other news, the Czechs are now up on Forces, and my list above comes to 38pts. The gain of 7pts through the reduction in motivation stats would be enough for an observer and three DANAs, or a couple more T-72Ms. I am tempted to remain with the East German stats, however, as Rally/Remount 5+ units are going to be so much more difficult to use. More to ponder over the next few days before the lists needs to be locked in.

New Project - 1938 Czechoslovaks

Early War has always been my favourite period of Flames of War: the wide range of nations involved, their different ideas about how a mechanised war should be fought, and tanks they built to implement those ideas. It has huge variety to it, making it far more flavourful than the other periods. Unfortunately, that is exactly why, according to comments at the Battlefront Open Day earlier this year, Early War won't get the full V4 treatment: it requires too large a range for shops to carry, and probably lacks the broad appeal of Late War. The suggestion was that the period would come out as Osprey publications, as have Vietnam and Fate Of A Nation. This would probably be fine for those of us with existing armies, but I wonder if the availability of models is going to cripple the period.

Back to the point. In the days of V1 when the Early War lists were free PDFs, I wrote up a set for 1938 Fall Grün Czechoslovaks. I can't remember whether the list ever made it onto the FOW website, but in any event I never progressed to the point of assembling an army. That work has been lost to the sands of time and archaic storage media, however Early War Slovak lists were published as part of the Barbarossa digital release, and on that basis I have decided to jump into the project.

I bought the models last year with the intent of taking them to ValleyCon 2018, but that ended up being a Mid War event so they've sat in a box waiting for a reason to start painting them. Normally it's competitions that provide that impetus, but as it's unlikely that we'll see another Early War competition until the period is rereleased, the aim of posting weekly updates to this blog, combined with McZermof having a bunch of Panzer Is and IIs that could do with a run sometime, will be the motivation.

I'm working towards 1100pts based around a LT vz.35 company, and will chip away at them between now and the end of the year. The Slovak list can be used directly with only minor additional restrictions, such as no LT vz.38 tanks (available for service from 1939), and of course no German equipment or allied platoons. Models are available for most things in the list, with the exception of softskin transport and the 3.7cm anti-tank gun.

Obrnený Rota - Barbarossa Digital

Obrnený Rota HQ - 2 x LT vz.35

Obrnený Platoon - 3 x LT vz.35

Obrnený Platoon - 3 x LT vz.35

Armoured Car Platoon - 3 x OA vz.30

Motorizovaná Pechota Platoon - 8 x Rifle/MG teams

Artillery Battery - 4 x 10cm vz.30 howitzer

Anti-aircraft Platoon - 2 x 2cm vz.36 gun

Sporadic Air Support - 1 x Avia B-534

This week I had a go at painting the first tank platoon, using the Battlefront Panzer 35(t). The tank commander is a steel helmeted US figure, being the closest I've found to the Czech tankers' uniform. I'm not totally happy with how they've turned out, and will have another look when I start working on the next batch.

In other events this week, I had another 45pt game of Team Yankee with Scott. This was using More Missions, on a 6x4 table. I ran Afgantsy for the first time, defending in Bridgehead against West German Panzergrenadiers, and was pretty happy with how they went.

Air Assault Battalion - Red Thunder

Battalion HQ

Air Assault Company - minimum size plus AGS-17 and AT-4

Air Assault Company - minimum size plus SA-14 and AT-4

Hind Assault Helicopter Company - 2 x Hind

Hind Assault Helicopter Company - 2 x Hind

BMP-1 Scout Platoon - 3 x BMP-1

T-64 Company - 3 x T-64

Shilka AA Platoon - 2 x Shilka

Scott elected to attack at dawn, making the most of his tech advantage. Being required to put everything that wasn't Afgantsy in reserve, I had to play a waiting game until the cavalry arrived. It was going well for him until I realised that even with radar, night limited the range of his AA umbrella to 24", allowing me to Spiral his Leopards with relative impunity, killing one and causing the second to flee. I lost the Hinds the following turn, but it was a good trade. The Panzergrenadiers pressed on and made a good fist of it, clearing out my right hand Afgantsy company and closing in on the objectives, but then my reserves arrived and the West Germans ran out of steam.

The game itself played much better than the same number of points on a 4x4 from three weeks ago. The table wasn't overloaded with models, and Scott wasn't forced to charge a wall of ATGMs and RPGs. There were Marines on the table next door, and even with the number of LAVs and Hummers involved, it looked good.

This coming week, I'll be back to painting more Soviets. It's now only eight weeks until Remember December, so in my next post I'll outline the list I'm proposing to take, and provide a BRDM update...

Czechoslovakian Hinds

The plan for this week had been to paint BRDMs and two Hinds, but in the end it became painting one Hind, then repainting a second one because I decided I didn't like the colours I'd previously chosen for the scheme. More on that in a bit.

Here is the finished product.

These Hinds are a 1/100 Aoshima kit, which is a reboxing of a Revell Mi-24D.

I'm using them for my Czechs, as the differences between this and the Battlefront Hinds I've been using for my Soviets are enough that they don't sit nicely together. Apart from its slightly larger size, most notable is the difference in armament, with the missiles being AT-2 vs AT-6, and the rocket pods being B8V20 vs UB-32.

The Aoshima kit is okay, it certainly looks like a Hind, but as a gaming piece the Battlefront one is far superior. While the BF kit certainly has its flaws, it has fewer pieces, has been thoughtfully designed, has nicer detail, and goes together well. An example of the difference in detail is in the photos below, of the main rotor hub. The Battlefront kit is in green on the left, while the Aoshima is the black one on the right. Then again, I'm not totally sure that the assembly of the Aoshima 's rotors is quite correct. I followed the kit instructions to the letter, but I'm pretty sure the blades are upside down.

The reference for the colour scheme came from an Eduard kit, whose instruction sheet is on their website. Unfortunately, the only colour references are to Gunze paints, so I had to guess at the Vallejo equivalents. And this is where the repainting that I mentioned earlier comes in: I had previously painted one of these kits and estimated that the closest colours were 885 Pastel Green and 823 Luftwaffe Camouflage Green. I've since changed my mind and am now going with 886 Green Grey and 830 German Fieldgrey. The 886 is probably a bit dark, which is mildly annoying as the new bottle of this colour I have is a much darker shade than my previous one.

It just didn't feel right.

Both of these are 886 Green Grey, yet very different shades

This is also an opportunity to show how I'm storing and transporting my Soviet Hinds. It's a Tactix storage box from Bunnings that I attacked with a multitool and lined with strategically cut pieces of foam to allow it to carry four Hinds and my two SU-22s. The rotors attach to magnets glued to the lid. I'll do the same thing for the Czechs.

Helicopter transport. Hind quarters.

So still no BRDMs, but this coming week I think I'll take a break from the moderns and head back to 1938.

More Soviets for Team Yankee

This week I managed to paint a set of Soviet Motor Rifle heavy weapons for Team Yankee. This was the new plastic set, of one AGS-17 team and two AT-4 Spigot teams. I was a little disappointed when I first saw the figures - my first experience of Battlefront's plastic infantry - but they grew on me and were pretty good to paint. I'd be quite happy buying more of them.

AGS-17 team.  At a truly ridiculous ROF 9.

AT-4 Spigot team. AT 19, ROF 3.

I have now completed a full Motor Rifle Company including heavy weapons The Spigots are not an option in the BMP companies, only the BTR company which I have no intention of doing. They will however find a use when running Afgantsy, and to this end I'll pick up another Gremlin team and an AGS-17 team for running two minimum sized companies in small games.

The other painting I did this week were three Spandrels. These came out of watching a game last week where the Soviets were trying to fend off about a million LAVs. It was a useful reminder that you can spend a lot of effort focusing on how to deal with the M1s and Leopard 2s, but there will be games where it's the volume, rather than quality, of shots that matters. You don't get that from T-72s. And so, three AT21 shots for 2pts seems like a good start.

The Battlefront model is a good resin and metal kit, crisp and nicely detailed, including suspension in the wheel wells where no one will ever see it.

The plan for this week is to paint up the BRDM-2s I had originally planned for this week (another strand in my "get more shots" plan), plus a couple of Hinds. Because you always need more Hinds.

45 point Team Yankee

All of a sudden it's been nearly 10 months since I last posted. I've been inspired to start again by McZermof at The Regiment, who has been posting weekly and keeping himself on track by committing to what his next post will be about. It's working for him, so I thought I'd try the same thing.

This weekend saw a 45pt game of Team Yankee on a 4x4 table at the club with Scott, seeing how it plays ahead of the format being used at the club's Remember December event at the end of the year.

The mission we played was 'Recon in Force' from the Quick Missions pack.

I ran a T72 company, which was possible since the list building rules for Remember December reduce the minimum compulsory platoons to one:

T-72 Tank Battalion - Red Thunder

Battalion HQ - 1 x T-72

T-72 Company - 4 x T-72

BMP2 Motor Rifle Company - Minimum size plus SA-14 Gremlin

SA-13 Gopher Platoon - 2 x Gopher

Shilka AA Platoon - 2 x Shilka

Hind Helicopter Company - 2 x Hind

Scott ran Marder Panzergrenadiers, supported by two Leopard 2s, Gepards, Fliegerfaust, and Tornados.

We worked out later that we'd deployed wrong, overlooking the clause on the Spearhead rule that requires you to treat objectives outside your deployment area as enemy teams. Always read to the last line of the rule! This completely broke the game, allowing an attacker with spearhead to win at the end of their turn one. To get around this, we played that the objectives didn't become live until turn three, but the misunderstanding still affected the game significantly, as it put my BMP2s into a position where some lucky dice allowed me to take out one of Scott's Leopard 2s in turn one. We also forgot that his Leopards had Chobham, which would have prevented the second one being RPGed in the back near the end of the game.

One of the challenges was the table size: nowhere was safe from my Gophers or Scott's Gepards. His Tornados came in once, saved all the hits from the Gremlin and Gophers, but lost one to the Shilkas. The resulting cluster bomb template, which seemed to cover about half the table, and even though it was hitting on 5s for there only being on aircraft left, cleaned up my T72s and most of my BMP1s. I kept my Hinds off for as long as possible, but brought them on because I needed to deal with the remaining Leopard. One fell to the Gepards, the other missed its target, and was dispatched the following turn.

The mission was a nice change from the usual FOW/TY ones. It would have played better if we had got Spearhead right, but even then I have reservations about how easily a more mobile force can potentially sneak a quick win. The table size felt a little cramped for the number of vehicles in my list, and it makes it really difficult for aircraft to operate. But we did put down a lot of terrain, and the location of the objectives forces everyone to converge on the centre of the table.
I'm looking forward to trying out a few of the other Quick Missions:

• Seize the Bridge looks very thematic, and I'd love to play it with Afgantsy trying to hold a river crossing against a NATO counterattack. Not so good for tournaments though, as every table would need a river added for that round.
• Bypass is unlike any other FOW mission: a reverse fighting withdrawal where a platoon that captures an objective is removed from the table, and you have to do that three times to win. Your force becomes weaker as you do this, so it looks like it could be quite hard.
• Gauntlet is the other different one, and looks like it could be quite tough for infantry forces as both sides need to move to contest the objective.

There's no reason why the Quick Missions couldn't be adapted for use on a larger table, and are a welcome addition to the existing selection of missions.

So, to emulate McZermof's example, what will I write about in a week's time? I plan to paint up some more for units TY, focusing on some Soviet heavy weapons teams for the loaner army I'll be contributing for the event, and a couple of other units with the intention of spinning my 45pt list into Czechoslovakians, using Volksarmee as it seems unlikely that the official Czech lists will be published in time.

Completed Army for ValleyCon 2018

Over the weekend I completed the painting for my ValleyCon list. There wasn't much to do, as it's built around units that I already had. The tanks are painted up as belonging to II./Panzer-Regiment 5, themed on the attack on the Gazala Line in May/June 1942.

I've had to make a few compromises with the Panzer IIIs - I was short a couple of Ausf. Js and don't have time to source new ones, so I've had to use a couple of Ausf. Ls, replacing their guns to try and make it look like they're not actually the up-armoured version.

All 80 points - not much considering an equivalent British force would probably comprise a full regiment of Honeys...

Panzer III Platoon

Panzer IV Platoon

Panzer II Platoon

5cm PaK38 Platoon

One of the 5cm PaK38 guns

8.8cm FlaK36

Objective Markers

Of Gauge and Scale

There was a recent question on the TY Facebook page asking about what railway track to use for terrain, and the discussion that followed has driven me to write this post on the topic.

The first key concept for railway miniatures is scale ratio, which relates to the size of the rolling stock relative to the full sized original.

The other concept is track gauge, which is the distance between the inner edges of the rails. Half of the world's railways, including those in France, Germany and Poland, have a gauge of 1435mm, which is known as Standard Gauge.

All model railway track, rolling stock and accessories are sold at a particular scale, which in this context refers to a specific combination of scale ratio, track gauge, and other factors that makes up the parameters of the system as a whole.

Scale	Scale Ratio	Track Gauge	Scale Error for Standard Gauge
O	1/46	32mm	+6.4mm at 1/56
S	1/64	22.5mm	-3.1mm at 1/56
OO	1/76	16.5mm	+2.2mm at 1/100
HO	1/87	16.5mm	+2.2mm at 1/100
TT	1/120	12mm	-2.4mm at 1/100
N	1/160	9mm	-5.4mm at 1/100
Z	1/220	6.5mm	+1.7mm at 1/300

For most scales, the scale ratio and the track gauge combine to create an accurate representation of a Standard Gauge railway. OO is a bit of an oddball where the track is underscale compared to the rolling stock for historical reasons. There are a multitude of other specialty scales, usually for narrow gauge prototypes. An example is NZ120, which is 1/120 on 9mm track, to represent New Zealand's railway network which has a gauge of 1067mm.

Obviously none of these are a perfect match for representing Standard Gauge in common wargaming scales. In 15mm you would require rolling stock with a scale ratio of 1/100 running on a track gauge of about 14.3mm, so it comes down to what compromises you are prepared to make: do you accept something too large, too small, do you go and scratchbuild your own, or do you simply avoid the problem?

I don't know why Battlefront chose to base their 'Battlefield In A Box' railway track on TT, but it seems to have led to an apparently widely-held but incorrect idea that TT is the perfect match for FOW. In reality, neither the track nor the rolling stock are any more accurate in 15mm than HO. As noted before, not all railways have the same gauge: in Russia the gauge is 1520mm, so for Eastern Front terrain the TT track is even more underscale than it is for the vast majority of rail lines in Northwest Europe.

From my perspective, what would be ideal would be a range of 1/100 rolling stock and accompanying 14.3mm track to use for 15mm wargames, with the next best thing being 1/100 rolling stock that sits on HO track, but alas as far as I can tell there is no such thing on the market. As such, wanting to have railway lines in my collection of TY terrain but being too lazy to scratchbuild, I have chosen to run with HO because of its price and availability, and am happy to accept that everything will be slightly too large.

Team Yankee Day - 25 November

I had a couple of games of Team Yankee with Chris at the club on Saturday, with the main event being 100pts on an 8x6 table. This was the first time we had each brought a full bag of tricks in 15mm.

It had been a mad dash to get ready after work commitments had left me behind schedule on painting a stack of BMPs, and I had also made a late decision to pick up a couple of Academy SU17 kits for air support.


SU17, ready to pretend to be a Frogfoot

PRP-3 observer team

It was also a good chance to try out some of the terrain I had been working on. The EVA-backed railway track was a success: looked okay, solid and stable. The roads not so much - they are light, easily bumped out of place, and don't want to lie flat. Further thought is required for those. We decided to go with a desert setting as we generally have more terrain for that, however in the days leading up to the game I realised that we lacked a suitable 8x6 basecloth. At the last minute I picked up some tan coloured fabric for cheap, and was feeling quite pleased with myself until my wife pointed out that it was actually gold, shiny, and easily crinkled... It didn't look too bad once the rest of the terrain was down, but it wasn't quite right and the smooth surface did nothing to help keep the roads in place.

My Soviet tank battalion list was an attempt to get as wide a variety of kit on the table as possible, to see what things did and test out different aspects of the rules.

T-72 HQ
6 x T-72
6 x T-72
3 x BMP2 scouts
BMP1 Motor Rifle platoon plus Gremlin
2 x Shilka
2 x Gopher
6 x 2S1 and OP
2 x Hind
2 x SU17s (played as SU25s)

Chris ran a tank company from Stripes of:

1 x IPM1 HQ
3 x IPM1
3 x IPM1
1 x M113 Mech platoon
1 x Scout section
2 x M109 ITV
3 x M106 mortar carriers
4 x VADS
2 x Cobra
2 x F16s (played as Harriers)

We played Hasty Attack, with the Soviets attacking. The Americans ended up killing everything expect the Carnations and the SUs, losing the two IPM1 platoons and the Cobras. Notable was a decent infantry scrap for control of the town in the centre of the board, as we were both keen to try the assault rules. Over the course of a few turns, an American assault was driven off, then a Soviet assault was broken up by M113 support, before the Americans came back and managed to clear the area, thereafter using it as a base of fire to pour ATGM fire into the Soviet armour pushing forward on the left flank. Nicely done, and we were pretty happy with how the mechanics worked.

There were quite a few lessons from the game.

1. 100pts on an 8x6 works really well. There was plenty of space, a good quantity of equipment on the table, no weird rule issues, and things died fast enough to keep the game to two hours. I suspect this might change if either of us went large on infantry, but I think we're pretty happy keeping the focus on the MBT lists.
2. IPM1s are a nightmare to deal with. That additional point of front armour swings the balance against T-72s solidly in the Americans' favour.
3. Karen laughs at IPM1s. My SU17s arrived every turn, and their Kh-25 missiles kept me in the game by accounting for the two platoons of tanks. Without them it would have been pretty one-sided.
4. VADS are nasty. Kill them before attempting to bring your air support anywhere near them. I didn't, and my Hinds never got a shot off. Their range however is limited, and on a table this size they were unable to provide any protection against the SUs, and for big games they really need to be partnered with Chaparrals. 
5. Just because you can Spearhead, doesn't mean you should. I used it successfully to get my infantry in the buildings in the middle of the board, but their BMP1s were too exposed and were quickly disposed of by a crossfire of 105mm, TOW, and 20mm gunfire. In retrospect, I was too aggressive across the board. I had good concealed positions, and could have happily held those for a few turns, taken the time to try and chip out the AA, and waited for my reserves to come on, before pressing forward.

Knowing what I do now, I think I'd tweak the list in future by putting BMP1s in the Scouts (so that I'm not pushing too far with my high AT assets), with BMP2s and an AGS-17 team for the infantry, increasing the Hinds and Shilkas to four each, and making space for all of this by dropping two T-72s.

The table after deployment

Cobras lurking, shortly before being Gremlined...

The SU17s earning their keep.

Last man standing: the Soviet Commander missed. The US Commander did not.

The end: a table full of burning Soviet AFVs

The second game was a lower key 30pt match, Encounter on a standard 6x4. I didn't get any photos of this one, but it was another enjoyable game. 30pts has a very different dynamic, being focused around small infantry platoons and light armour, and I'd be keen to play more of it.

BMP1 CHQ
BMP1 Motor Rifle platoon plus Gremlin
BMP1 Motor Rifle platoon
4 x BMP2 scouts
3 x 2S1
2 x Hind

From memory, Chris ran a mech company of:

Mech HQ
M113 Mech Platoon
M113 Mech platoon
1 x Scout section
2 x M109 ITV
3 x M106 mortar carriers
4 x VADS

My list was far from optimal. The 2S1s were a waste of space and I would have been far better served spending the points on four Shilkas and an AGS-17 team. The Hinds didn't do much, as there were no valuable targets for their Spiral missiles, but I would probably retain them for future games of this size because they are so iconic, and the 1:100 models are a huge part of the visual attraction of TY. Once again the VADS were dangerous, and they quickly gunned down the BMPs that started on table.

All in all it was an excellent day, and I'm looking forward to the next time we get this game on the table. My next steps, apart from picking up a last couple of things for the Soviets, will be a NATO list, before seeing what happens when 'Fate Of A Nation' is rereleased on the TY platform.

New Project - TY Terrain

It's been a quiet winter hobby-wise, with very little to write about. I have, however, recently embarked on making a table of terrain for 15mm Team Yankee.

The parameters for the project are:

1. Covering an 8x6 table, because to me that looks and feels better for TY above about 50 points.
2. To be made from scatter terrain that can be packed down for ease of storage and transportation.
3. Provide sufficient visual clues to be readily identifiable as modern Europe.
4. Provide a range of logical locations for objectives.

That last two points are key for me. This might sound strange to people who play for the game, but I enjoy games that tell a story. The table plays a key role in this: helping place the events in time and space, and answering the question "what is so important about this particular piece of dirt?" An objective in the middle of a wheat field doesn't make sense to me, but a town, a crossroads, a hill: it's easy to imagine someone having a reason to want to seize or defend them. My aim when setting up a table is to have key points in the objective zones no matter which scenario is being played. That's actually easier on an 8x6 than a 6x4, because I believe the best way to play a lengthwise FOW or TY mission on an 8x6 is as a double width 6x4 rather than adding 2ft of almost entirely wasted depth, so you don't have to plan to be able to play down its length.

Here is the progress so far:

I still haven't decided on what season to set the table in, as that will determine the direction I take with trees and agriculture. I had been hoping for more of an olive green basecloth, but the material is darker than it appeared under the shop lighting. Life, and the never-ending search for the perfect basecloth.

Nor have I settled yet on the built up area. The buildings in the photo are from Plastcraft Games' ColorED range, of which I have two kits still to build. These buildings look nice and are reasonably economical, but the range is limited. The church of Sainte Mère Église is an impressive model, but it looks a bit out of place without three times as many smaller buildings clustered around it, so it may not make the final cut. I'm slightly hampered by the general lack of Streetview in Germany, but there is enough photography on the internet to draw inspiration from, and the look of the Plastcraft buildings seems to be reasonable. I do need a few more, and some more modern pieces to go with them. I also need to decide what I'll build around the small railyard in the bottom left.

The autobahn is made from 3mm EVA foam - at $17/metre from a 1.2m roll from Para Rubber it's cheaper and easier to work with than MDF. I'm currently planning an interchange with the local roads (the white pieces of paper in the bottom right), with those roads to be cut from the same material, and I'm looking at options for modern touches like guard rails and lighting.

The railway line uses standard HO track, with the EVA as backing. With a gauge of 16.5mm, at 1/100 it is slightly overscale for the West German track gauge of 1435mm, however the commonly suggested alternative of TT scale at 12mm would be underscale by a similar amount. HO has the advantage of being cheap and readily available in NZ, whereas it looks like TT has to be bought in from Europe, so it was a simple decision that also opens up options for rolling stock and other accesories.

The plan from here is to finish off the rail sections, then move onto the interchange and the rest of the roading, and I'll post updates as progress is made.