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...

FOW V4-EW/LW - First Impressions

My copy of the Flames of War V4 EW/LW rules arrived on Friday, and while we haven't put it on the table yet, my general first impression is favourable. Here are a few observations from reading it through, many of which are good things.

• You have greater freedom than ever to operate out of command, but it has the potential to go horribly wrong once you start getting shot at. If you split a platoon you are probably asking to lose it.
• While the consequences of failure are less significant than they used to be, tanks are much less likely to be able to successfully move through difficult going. Assaulting into woods on a 3+ cross check is going to be a very different proposition to doing it under the old 2+ bogging check.
• Weapons platoons are more important now than they have been since Support/Combat platoon ratios were removed in V2. Since Support platoons don't contribute towards Formation Last Stand, stacking a list with divisional support is going to make it fragile. It's going to take a bit of gametime to work out what impact this will have on Early War tank lists at the 1000pt level usually played here, as (with the exception of the Germans) they generally don't have any Weapons platoons available to them.
• Another potential impact on small games: I usually run pairs of anti-tank guns, but this doesn't seem sensible under V4 as the platoon will be testing as soon as one is lost.
• Mortars are going to become more popular due to their low price, increase in FP, and being Weapons Platoons. This is despite losing their reroll on the first attempt to range in. Nebelwerfers have lost their primary advantage of not suffering a To Hit penalty for failing to range in on their first attempt.
• Significant changes to the rules for flamethrowers to bring them into line with normal shooting. They now have a normal roll to hit rather than skill checks to hit. The addition of Breakthrough Gun to their statline means that teams hit by flamethrowers now get rerolled successful saves instead of being automatically destroyed. Balancing this, they no longer appear to be single use weapons, and there is no longer a restriction on movement prior to shooting.
• Curious that going to ground does not improve survivability against artillery. The only difference between being caught moving in the open, and being dug in, concealed and gone to ground, is the Firepower roll. Combined with rerolling made saves under repeat bombardments, it looks like a deliberate attempt to make infantry easier to dig out, and is a big change from the previous philosophy of artillery being largely ineffective against entrenched infantry. 
• I note that Spearhead doesn't stack like it does in TY: the move cannot be made if the Spearhead unit is placed outside of its normal deployment area using the Spearhead rule. The rule as a whole is very restrictive, and in most missions it is either not able to be used due to the layout of deployment and objective areas, or is only useful for cribbing a few extra inches of deployment area. Reconnaissance doesn't seem to be as important in this game as it was in previous editions.
• Struggling to get my head around the logic of the air support rules. Your flight has a number of planes that is determined by the level of air support you purchased, but the number of planes has no impact on the effectiveness of the air strike. The only benefit of a more expensive level of air support appears to be that it may last a bit longer in the face of anti-aircraft fire. 
• Staying with the topic of air support, Typhoon rockets used to have AT 6 FP 3+, which has now been mapped to AT 3 FP 3+. This feels a bit light given their reputation, and is probably not at a level where I'd feel the need to bring Wirbelwinds to the table.

On the whole it feels like a good upgrade, and I'm looking forward to getting the chance to try it out.

ValleyCon 2017 Review

Another excellent ValleyCon is now over. A huge thanks to the Hutt Club committee for putting on the weekend, to Chris for umpiring the FOW comp, and to the guys that I played. My Greece-themed motor company won four games out of the seven, placing 7th out of 14, and was awarded the prize for Best Army. The games went as follows:

1. Encounter - vs German Pioneers - 5-2 win by objective.
2. Free For All - vs New Zealand infantry - 4-3 win by company break.
3. Fighting Withdrawal - defending vs Matildas - 4-3 win by turn count
4. Breakthrough - defending vs Finnish armour - 6-1 loss by objective.
5. Dust Up - vs French armour - 6-1 loss by company break.
6. Cauldron - attacking vs French armoured cars - 6-1 loss by clock.
7. No Retreat - defending vs Soviet armour - 4-3 win by clock.

This year felt different to last year, with many more medium/heavy tanks than I recall seeing in 2016. Trained tank lists did well, taking four of the top five places, with the highest-placing infantry list being German pioneers in fourth. I ran into a Finnish T34/T28/T26 list, a Soviet KV/T26 list, a Matilda squadron, Valentines supporting NZ Rifles, and French H35s/Panhards in two of the games that I played.

On the whole I was pretty happy with my list. I attacked and won two fair fights against infantry companies in rounds one and two, and it felt handy enough in those situations, but I struggled against the masses of tanks that I spent the rest of the event facing. The loss of either the 2pdrs or the A10s usually signalled the beginning of the end, and even with them in play I struggled to kill enough tanks with Armour 3+ to break any platoons.

The competition also reminded me that the Mobile Reserves rule in Breakthrough makes life difficult for mechanised defenders, and that as an infantry-based list facing tanks in Dust Up, no matter how well you play, there doesn't seem to be anything you can do to prevent your opponent from setting up a gun line and destroying half of your platoons as they are forced to come on from reserve. To me, that's an indication of a bad scenario - in the others there always seems to be a way that you could play it better and get a different result, but not in this one. I'm hoping that the "Battle Plans" concept from Team Yankee will be carried over into Version 4, as that at least gives you the ability to try and avoid a particular matchup through your choice of stance. That, and ensuring that there is plenty of good cover within 6" of all of the corners when setting up terrain.

My son Jaime played in the competition, taking a DAK Panzerkompanie of three Panzer IVs, three Panzer IIs, armoured cars and infantry, placing last with one win. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to have dampened his attitude towards the game. Now, if I can only get him into painting...

The Mid-War American tank company that I took to the Bring and Buy didn't sell, so I'm thinking I'll end up listing them on Trade Me. I bought a box of German armour, containing Panthers, Panzer IVs, Sturmtigers, Pumas, Lynx, Brummbars, an Elefant and a whole lot more. I thought this would be a fantastic addition to our collection, as it instantly gives us the ability to play a much wider variety of games than we have in the past. Funnily enough, it also contained a pair of Nashorns that I painted about 15 years ago.

So, on to plotting for next year, although there's no word yet on format. Having played 1000pt EW British lists for the last two years, I feel it's time for me to have a change, but whether that's taking a different nation or playing a different system, I haven't yet decided.

Completed Army for ValleyCon 2017

I have finally completed my army for the  Flames of War competition at ValleyCon 2017, which I have themed on 1st Armoured Brigade in Greece, April 1941.

Photos of the Commonwealth equipment in the Greek campaign show a real mix of colour schemes: single overall colours, Caunter, the two-tone green European camouflage of the period, and seemingly random disruptive patterns that look to have been sprayed on in a hurry.

There are a number of photos of abandoned 3rd RTR A10s, and good drawings in the Mike Starmer book on Caunter. The general pattern that they carry, with some variation between tanks, is a modified version of the official Caunter scheme, with silver grey replaced with the basic colour, and a single disruptive colour applied where the official scheme specifies slate. I originally tried light stone and slate, but the contrast between those two colours was far greater than was apparent in the photos, so I went with the silver grey instead.

The 15cwt trucks for the infantry have been painted in overall light stone to match the only photo I've found that is definitely a 1st Armoured Brigade 15cwt, backed up by the Rangers war diary which suggests that only their carriers and scout cars were given a disruptive pattern on arrival in Greece.

The Battlefront one-piece resin carriers are convenient and well detailed, but there were a few quality issues with the track mouldings, which I didn't dare try to rectify due to the brittleness of the material. The hull sides are also very thin and likely to break with handling. I also overlooked the fact that each pack only contain a single anti-tank rifle, not the one per vehicle that I needed, but it's too late to do anything about that now.

I found one photo that is presumed to be a Rangers carrier, but I wasn't able to recreate the hastily-resprayed look without making the model look like a mess. In the end, I have gone for a scheme inspired by the tanks. I'm not 100% happy with it, so I can't guarantee that they'll still look like this come the tournament.

Without a reference for the portees and guns of the Northumberland Hussars, I had to guess at a possible colour scheme. On the assumption that as frontline vehicles and thus would have had a disruptive pattern of some kind, I chose full Caunter.

With just under two weeks to go, the plan now is to do a couple of objective markers and a few more sangar entrenchment markers, and touch up some mid-war Americans for the Bring and Buy table, before moving onto Team Yankee.

ValleyCon 2017 - Modelling 1st Armoured Brigade

In this post I take a look at the decisions I've made for modelling for my ValleyCon 2017 list, themed on 1st Armoured Brigade in Greece, 1941. Photos show a wide variety of colour schemes on Commonwealth vehicles, the result of the rush to get units deployed, and one of the challenges will be achieving a coherent appearance.

Infantry
The weather in March had been cold, with snow and heavy frosts, gradually improving through April. Photos show infantry in full battledress or greatcoats. This raises a similar issue to that which I encountered last year, with a lack of early war 15mm figures meeting this description. As a result, I will again compromise and build on the infantry I painted last year from the 'Italy Campaign' range, meaning I already have one platoon banked with one more plus the Company HQ to go.

Armour
Part of my background reading for this project has included "The Gods Were Neutral", an autobiographical account of the campaign by Robert Crisp, a troop commander in C Squadron, 3rd RTR. In the first couple of chapters he describes the various colour permutations that their tanks went through between arriving in Egypt through to deployment to Greece. Starting with "having their camouflage altered from the green and brown of paddocked England to an exotic shade of red and yellow" - the scheme for the Sudan - through "hot yellow" - when it appeared that they would be sent to the Western Desert - to "a more civilised olive-green effect", "broad, deceptive patterns of green".

In his book "The Caunter Scheme", Mike Starmer provides drawings for, and spends quite a bit of time discussing colours for, the average scheme for 3rd RTR. The suggestion there is either Slate over Light Stone, or Silver Grey over Portland Stone, and I will be running with Light Stone/Slate.

While 3rd RTR had their tanks painted in Egypt, the 4th Hussars war diary has their vehicles being recamouflaged on arrival in Greece. The photos I've found appear to be a light base colour with a darker disruptive colour, but I can't discern any consistent pattern. Mike says that a number were deployed in European colours without repainting, and some were in Caunter.

I was confused for a while on the issue of tac signs. With 4th Hussars having a '51' Arm of Service Flash and 3rd RTR having a '52', in theory their tac signs should have been red and yellow respectively. Photos show Mk VIb tanks in Greece having tac signs in both dark and light colours, probably red and yellow. 3rd RTR tac signs are too dark to be yellow and are different to the red divisional symbol, so are possibly blue, although I've read one opinion that they might be in the regimental colour of green. I'm wondering whether the colours have something to do with the King's Dragoon Guards. They were the senior armoured regiment in the brigade until they converted to armoured cars in January 1941 and handed their Mk VIbs over to 4th Hussars. This combined with moving to Greece at short notice might help explain the apparent discrepancy but I have nothing solid to back up this thought.

Transport
The 1st Rangers war diary for 12 and 13 March says "During this period opportunity taken to spray paint carriers and scout cars at Athens aerodrome, all vehicles at this time being camouflaged for the desert." I have taken this to mean that the soft skin transports were either in Caunter or overall Light Stone, but it provides no further clues.

I've been sent a photo of a 2nd Armoured Division Quad in Caunter, and there is one of a 2nd Armoured Division 15cwt CMP (here) that looks like it's in an overall light colour. There is a photo of an abandoned Rangers carrier in the Images of War book "War in the Balkans". It is definitely not in Caunter - it looks like a light base colour with a wavy darker disruptive pattern. It is also a Universal Carrier rather than the Scout Carriers specified in the list, and I will be modelling them as such.

Taking all of this into consideration, for the sake of coherency I'm leaning towards using a base colour of Light Stone on all vehicles, with disruptive patterns in Slate on the carriers.

Guns
I have found nothing for the colour of the Northumberland Hussars' 2pdr portees. There are a couple of relevant photos on the web: an Australian 2pdr in Caunter (here), and a spiked 2pdr claimed to be in Greece (here) that is in the two tone green European scheme. Both options are entirely plausible, as is light base colour with or without a disruptive pattern per the other vehicles. I'm going to paint this platoon last, once I've had a chance to see what works for the rest of the list.

Army List for ValleyCon 2017

ValleyCon is coming up at the end of January 2017. The format is the same as the 2017 edition: 1000pts Early War. After taking another look through the possible options, I've settled on my second choice list from last year: a British Motor Company themed on 1st Armoured Brigade in Greece, April 1941.

1st Armoured Brigade arrived in Egypt with 2nd Armoured Division in January 1941.  While the bulk of the division relieved 7th Armoured Division in Cyrenaica following the defeat of the Italians during Operation Compass, 1st Armoured Brigade was sent to Greece in March as part of an expeditionary force known as 'W Force', along with 2nd New Zealand Division and 6th Australian Division.

1st Armoured Brigade comprised 3rd RTR (A10 cruisers), 4th Hussars (Vickers Mk VIb), 1st Rangers (motor battalion), and a support group including artillery (2nd RHA), anti-tank (102nd Anti-tank Regiment, RA) and anti-aircraft (155th Light Anti-aircraft Battery) units.

With the Greek army fully engaged either against the Italians in Albania or holding the Metaxas Line protecting the border with Bulgaria, W Force took up positions in the north near the border with Yugoslavia. The German invasion began on 6 April, entering Greece through Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. The Allied defence quickly became a series of delaying actions, leading to the evacuation between 24 April and 30 April of 50,000 of the 63,000 Commonwealth troops in the country.

The particular action that I have themed the list on occurred on Easter Sunday, 13 April. 2/4 Australian Battalion had fought a delaying action at Sotir that morning, buying time for 1st Armoured Brigade to establish a defensive line along a ridge near Proasteion. 9th Panzer Division attacked throughout the afternoon, pressing along the front with infantry while attempting to outflank the position with armour, but the Commonwealth defences held. The German attack was abandoned in the evening due to lack of fuel and ammunition, allowing the defenders to continue their withdrawal overnight.

Proasteion was the first major action involving A10s in Greece. It was also the last. The following day 3rd RTR was reorganised as a composite squadron, having lost two thirds of its tanks to mechaical failure, mostly broken track pins, over the previous week. A few days later the last remaining cruiser was abandoned, the long retreat and lack of spare parts having taken its toll.

To represent 1st Armoured Brigade at Proasteion, I am using the Jock Column from 'Hellfire and Back', centred around a company of 1st Rangers. Beyond the minimum compulsory choices of two Motor Platoons, a Carrier Platoon provides additional mobility and firepower. The list has one tank platoon slot, for which I have chosen the A10 rather than the Vickers Mk VIb. The small size of the games rules out the use of 25pdrs of 2nd RHA, but I have included a pair of 2pdr portees from 102nd Anti-tank Regiment. The spare points are taken up by bulking out the Motor Platoons with anti-tank rifles.

Several New Zealand machine-gun platoons were involved, but there is no option for including them in the list. Interestingly, the 'Reports on Operations' for 1st Armoured Brigade (WO 201/509) recommends the inclusion in Motor Battalions of at least two platoons of MMGs, or at least the inclusion of an MMG Company in Armoured Brigade Groups, on the basis of the support provided to the group by the NZ machine-gunners from 13 April onwards, and you can see this being implemented in battalion structures later in the war.

The final 1000pt list looks like this:

British Jock Column - Hellfire and Back 

Company HQ, 35 pts

Motor Platoon + 2 x Anti-tank Rifles, 170 pts

Motor Platoon + 2 x Anti-tank Rifles, 170 pts

Scout Platoon, 230 pts
   6 x Scout Carriers 

Anti-tank Platoon, Royal Horse Artillery, 105 pts
   2 x 2pdr Portee 

Heavy Armoured Platoon, 285 pts
   3 x A10 

Total Cost: 995 pts

As a mechanised company this list will be attacking infantry and defending against armour. It has the mobility needed to be able to attack, but lacks direct-fire HE so will rely on infantry assaults to clear objectives. On defence, it has two decent platoons of AT7, so should be better placed to cover a wide table than my list last year which had a platoon each of AT8 and AT6. And crucially it reaches six platoons due to the Scout Platoon counting as two.

My next post will look into my choice of models and colour schemes.

All Finished

And here we have it, my completed army for the Flames of War tournament at ValleyCon next month.

Armoured Cars

CHQ and three platoons of Rolls Royce and Morris armoured cars. Built out of the box. I toyed around with ideas for conversions, particularly for more variety in crew figures, but ended up sticking with the kit figures. Caunter colours are Vallejo Model Color: Buff, Green-Grey and German Fieldgrey, with patterns per Mike Starmer's excellent book on the subject. Half were given a wash of Windsor and Newton Peat Brown ink, but after a replacement bottle turned out to be a completely different colour, the rest were done with Army Painter Strong Shade, and I'm never going back. 

Anti-Tank Platoon

Two 37mm Bofors portees. The dismounted option is provided by two Polish wz.36 guns and 8th Army 6pdr crews. Figures in shorts had trousers moulded on with Milliput. 

Motor Platoon

Three squads plus two ATRs, using the Battlefront Italian Campaign figures 

Artillery

A section of four 18/25pdrs from the BEF box, recrewed with Italian Campaign crew pack. I looked at mixing in the BEF figures, and did use the gun layers, but the rest didn't really grab me. 

Disco Stu didn't make the cut...

Objectives

I've done two objectives to go with the army. One is the BF Destroyed M13/40 kit, the other is two of the 18/25pdr limbers.

So there we go, three months of work complete. Thanks for following the process, I've enjoyed posting about it as it's gradually come together.

ValleyCon List - First Team Completed

Last night I completed the first model for my ValleyCon army: a Rolls Royce armoured car. A simple build, straight out of the box, with just the addition of a (hugely overscale) radio antenna.

I don't usually base vehicles, but have decided to base the armoured cars here as they are narrow and top heavy. The trucks and quad tractors for the support elements are all one-piece resin models with bases moulded on, so it also helps tie everything together. And, it was a chance to decide on basing style before getting stuck into the infantry and gun teams.

Some photos:

Reasonably happy with the result, although of course the close-up photos are incredibly unforgiving and I can now see defects that were invisible before. Now I only have to remember how I did it and repeat it ten times...

I have been toying with the idea of swapping one of the Morris/RR platoons for an RAF Rolls Royce platoon, as this gives a couple of upgrades that can use up the last 10 points that I have spare. This fits nicely with the theme of the list, as Combeforce also included cars from No. 2 Armoured Car Company, RAF.

I believe the RAF Rolls Royce armoured cars had the older, fully-enclosed turret, rather than the open-topped turret used by the Hussars. I have had a go at scratch-building the alternative turret, to give me an option of swapping out the kit turrets if I decide to go with the RAF option. The results are shown below, on the hull of the car posted earlier.

Games Today

Two very interesting games of Flames of War today, both 1000pts Early War against an Italian Carri Company, to try out ValleyCon ideas. I proxied my British armoured car list, as I was really keen to see how they went against light armour.

The two games were Fighting Withdrawal and Dust Up. They could have gone either way, but both were won 4-3 by the British thanks to a bunch of lucky dice rolls.

A few lessons:

1. 1000pt games are quick. Each one today took about an hour.
2. In Dust Up, it's an awfully long way for your reserves to go if you need their help to shore up the defence of your objectives.
3. Fearless Veteran 18/25pdrs are excellent. They take up just over a third of my points, but so far they've been a great investment. Just make sure you dig them in as soon as you get the chance...
4. Don't bother trying to use the armoured cars' AT Rifles to take on anything above Armour 1.
5. M13/40s are good. Not fantastic, but solid. The 3/2/1 armour, 24" range, AT 6 and five MG dice are gold. They are hampered by their variable skill/motivation ratings, slow speed and lack of decent support options.

One aspect of ValleyCon that I didn't mention in earlier posts is that, unlike other FOW tournaments where placings are based on total Victory Points, this time placings will be determined by the number of wins, with VPs only being used as a tie-breaker. I think this is fantastic and would love it to be done this way more often. There's a whole bunch of units that you never see fielded at tournaments because they're such an easy VP, and a lot of lists that never seem to be used, largely because they have no chance of winning games 6-1.

Overall, I was very happy with the way the list played. It has a variety of options for handling half on/half off deployments, a core of solid AT, and lots of fast MG platforms. I've managed to pick up a platoon of the armoured cars (thanks Tom) and my CHQ, so can start working towards painting them up. I also have the infantry and artillery. Unfortunately the other two platoons of armoured cars and the portees are still on backorder, but there's still three months to go, so I'm not panicking just yet...

Gearing Up For ValleyCon 2016 - The Infantry

One of the things I had to decide before getting stuck in to building my early war British Armoured Car Squadron for Flames of War was what style of infantry figure to use. This is a short post on the process I went through to decide.

My army is set in February 1941, the tail end of winter, which in North Africa can apparently be quite cold. Many of the photos of the time show soldiers wearing battledress or greatcoats. I wanted to use Battlefront Miniatures figures, but with no British greatcoats in their range, the basic look I am after is long trousers and the Mark II helmet.

I was able to rule out many of the BF figures immediately due to unsuitable headgear, including those with 1944 pattern helmets, berets and slouch hats, as I don't want to have to do a stack of head swaps. The 8th Army range is in shorts, while the BEF figures, which are in battledress, are carrying gas mask bags on their chest, which I believe stopped sometime during 1940.

That leaves just the Italian Campaign range. Battlefront say these are suitable for 1942 onwards, but I can't see anything too anachronistic for early 1941, at least nothing obvious in 15mm scale. They are in trousers and rolled up shirt sleeves, wearing the right helmet and no gas mask bag, so to me they look about right.

Of course, chances are that by the time I've painted them, none of these details I've agonised over will be visible...

Gearing Up For ValleyCon 2016 - Part 1

I'm making an attempt to resurrect this blog, and this time I may actually have something to write about. In January 2016, the Hutt Miniature Wargaming Club will be hosting their annual ValleyCon tournament, and I have entered to play Flames of War. The tournament is going to be 1000pts in the Early War era. The intention is to write a series of posts as I put together an army ready to play.

1000pts is quite a small game in Flames of War, and it has been challenging to come up with a viable list of that size. I spent a few weeks trawling the relevant books and talking with other players about different options, and the general feeling is that at this level of points, mobile light armoured lists are the way to go. The sweet spot is probably going to be the Panzer 35(t), Panzer 38(t) and M13/40: AT6, range 24" and front armour 2 or 3, for 60-90pts each. The other key point is that four platoons is the smallest workable company, given the number of scenarios that require at least half of your platoons deployed in reserve.

None of my existing Early War armies, which are a Crusader Squadron and an Afrika Korps Panzer Company, both from "Hellfire and Back", really feel up to scratch at 1000pts.

The bare minimum legal company using only Crusaders is nine tanks at 1170pts, so would require dropping a platoon of three back to A13s in order to fit under the cap. They're simply all too expensive, and results in a three-platoon list.

The Africa Korps Panzers need to be built either around Panzer III Gs or Panzer IV Es, both of which are excellent tanks for the time, but also horribly expensive. The compulsory choices for a Panzer III company are four tanks, totalling 615pts, leaving precious few points for support options, and probably tops out at a maximum of three platoons. The Panzer IVs are slightly better off, needing a core of only three tanks at 450pts, being bulked out with Panzer Is and IIs and having room to squeeze in two more platoons to get to the magic four, but neither feel viable as there simply aren't enough models on the table. At this size of game, the more numerous and lower-specced Panzers from "Blitzkrieg" seem like a better option.

Having ruled out my existing armies, I need to build something new. After exploring a few avenues, I have settled on an option that I feel would be fun to play, could cause opponents a few problems, look nice on the table, and has a good historical back story. This is the 11th Hussars, at the end of Operation Compass, the British defeat of the Italian army in North Africa in 1940/41.

As the British Western Desert Force pursued the retreating Italians across Libya, they sent a flying column of armoured cars, infantry and artillery cross-country to block and delay the Italians. This column was named "Combeforce" after its commander, Lieutenant-Colonel J. F. B. Combe. Combeforce arrived at Beda Fomm half an hour ahead of the Italians, repulsed multiple attacks over the next two days, and the action resulted in the entire Italian Tenth Army, a total of 25,000 men, being captured when the main body of the British 7th Armoured Division arrived.

Combeforce can be represented in Flames of War using an Armoured Car Squadron from "Hellfire and Back". The armoured cars in use by 11th Hussars at the time were the Rolls Royce, being a 1920s design, and the more modern Morris CS9 from the late 1930s. After the minimum compulsory choices of 11 armoured cars, a platoon each of motorised infantry, 25pdr Mk 1 field guns and 37mm portee anti-tank guns round out the list to 990pts.

British Armoured Car Squadron - Hellfire and Back 

Armoured Car Squadron HQ, 70 pts
   2 Morris CS9 

Armoured Car Platoon, 105 pts
   1 Morris CS9
   2 Rolls-Royce

Armoured Car Platoon, 105 pts
   1 Morris CS9
   2 Rolls-Royce

Armoured Car Platoon, 105 pts
   1 Morris CS9
   2 Rolls-Royce

1 Motor Platoon + 2 x Anti-tank Rifles, 170 pts

Anti-tank Platoon, Royal Horse Artillery, 90 pts
   2 Bofors 37mm Portee 

Royal Horse Artillery Battery + Transport, 345 pts
   4 OQF 18/25pdr gun 

Total Cost: 990 pts

In play, this list has a few quirks. It is rated as a Mechanised Company, so will be required to attack infantry and defend against tank companies. It has six platoons, which is crucial for games where half need to be held in reserve. Its trump card on the attack is a special rule that allows one objective to be moved by up to 12" after deployment. It relies on this to upset the opposition's plans, with the mobility and massed machine-guns of the armoured cars working to deliver the infantry onto the objective. With the armoured cars being open topped, wheeled and in platoons of three, they will be poor on the assault, and will be totally hamstrung if anyone deploys barbed wire. In defence, the list will rely on the infantry and guns to hold objectives, as the armoured cars simply won't be able to compete against anything that even vaguely resembles a proper tank.

That's the plan, at least. I've trialled the list in a few games, and it feels like it will be fun to play, and a squadron of armoured cars in caunter camouflage should look fantastic on the table. I have half of the models that I need sitting ready to go, and I'm now hoping that the order I've placed for the other half will arrive in time for the tournament.

The aim is to post updates here as things get done and games get played, and maybe a few other things that get done as I'm waiting for kits to turn up, so let's see how that works out.