ValleyCon 2020 Thoughts

As usual, the gaming year began with ValleyCon earlier this month. I played Team Yankee, which was 100pts on 8x4 tables using the 2nd Edition rules.

I was originally planning on runnings Syrians using the lists in 'Oil War', and started repainting my T-72s for this purpose. The thinking here was that Soviet T-72s aren't a particularly strong choice relative to later books. In the end, the Syrian force was too large a challenge in the time I had available, so I painted up my remaining T-64s and went with Soviets instead.

My final list was:

T-64 Tank Battalion - Red Thunder

Battalion HQ - 1 x T-64, 6pts

T-64 Company - 3 x T-64, 13pts

T-64 Company - 3 x T-64, 13pts

T-64 Company - 3 x T-64, 13pts

BMP-1 Motor Rifle Company - Medium size plus SA-14 Gremlin, 15pts

BMP-2 Recon Platoon - 3 x BMP-2 Scout, 5pts

SA-13 Gopher Platoon - 2 x Gopher, 2pts

Shilka AA Platoon - 4 x Shilka, 4pts

2S1 Carnation SP Howitzer Battery - 6 x 2S1 Carnation, 10pts

Hail Rocket Launcher Battery - 6 x BM-21 Hail, 8pts

BMP-1 Observation Post, 1pt

Hind Helicopter Company - 4 x Hind, 10pts

Total Cost: 100 pts

The thinking behind this list was:

• I only have ten T-64s in my collection, and running them in three groups of three saves 5pts relative to having two larger units. 
• The Shilkas are a must have, and I went with Gophers over Gaskins due to the extra range being of use on the wider table.
• 2nd Edition gives a big bump to the effectiveness of artillery, so I decided to maximise this by taking both Carnations and Hails, plus the observer.
• I have found minimum sized infantry units to be too small in the past, so have gone up a size. The Gremlin was a cheap addition to further boost my AA cover.
• The BMP-2 scouts are extra AT-21, plus Spearhead for the few missions that can use it.
• The big unit of Hinds was to provide an alternative to having to punch through the front of high armour targets.

In the end I placed second, with three 7-2 wins, a 2-7 loss, and a 2-3 time-out (after about 10 turns, so you can't accuse either of us of trying to play for a draw). There were a number of thoughts coming out of the event.

The standard of painting was very high across the board, making it one of the best looking competitions I can remember playing in.

This was the first Soviet build that I felt has worked for me. Largely this is because T-64s are good. Very good. That extra point of front armour, plus the 14" tactical move, makes them far superior to the Soviet T-72, and the three platoons of three definitely felt better than two larger platoons. The biggest problem I had was when I ran into McBeth's Stillbrew Chieftains - the 7-2 loss. Front 18 at range is tough for AT22 to crack. Ten tanks vs eight, but harder to hit and firing twice as many dice in return. That's a matchup that I'm going to need to rethink, even more so as we start to see Front 20 Challengers make an appearance.

I think the behaviour of NATO tanks (with the exception of the Chieftain) is something that TY gets wrong. It doesn't seem right for M1s and Leopards to be encouraged to knife-fight, but that's exactly what ROF 2/2 does.

I had too much artillery. Over the weekend they killed:

• a platoon of Fliegerfaust (both batteries repeating on them for a couple of turns), 
• a couple of Sheridans (Carnations with lucky armour saves), 
• a platoon of T-64s (shotgunned in the back by the Carnations arriving from Reserve)
• a landed Blackhawk (Hails), and 
• a few infantry teams caught in the open (Hails). 

It wasn't a significant benefit for the 19pt investment. Carnations were more useful, and I would look to keep them at full strength and drop the Hails. The new artillery rules make them scary, but it was the wrong mix for my list.

Getting the right quantity and mix of air defence is tricky. I had 7pts of it, and it simply wasn't enough in the two games where I ran into aircraft. This particularly relates to my final game against Pooch. He had brought 34pts of air: four A10s and four Cobras, and my air defence just didn't faze him. This was underscored late in the game when, hunting a company break, he rolled his A10s directly at my Gophers and GAUed them out of existence without even being scratched. I had benefitted in the same way in earlier games, ending up not too worried about Humvee Stingers, and I was even okay against Pooch's VADS, which I managed to get running from left to right throughout the game, minimising their shots and keeping rolling saves for my Hinds. It all came apart when they finally got 28 shots off in a turn, but it highlighted two problems: the short range of gun AA (which was a major factor on our 8x4 tables), and the number of dice you need to be rolling to make FP5+ AA effective. Playing the same format again, I would probably look to move another six points into AA: two more Gophers and a pair of Geckos, funded by dropping the Hails. It's 13pts that is wasted if my opponent doesn't bring air, but it's better than feeling helpless in the few games where they do.

So, here would be my revised list based on the experience of the weekend:

T-64 Tank Battalion - Red Thunder

Battalion HQ - 1 x T-64, 6pts

T-64 Company - 3 x T-64, 13pts

T-64 Company - 3 x T-64, 13pts

T-64 Company - 3 x T-64, 13pts

BMP-1 Motor Rifle Company - Medium size plus SA-14 Gremlin, 15pts

BMP-2 Recon Platoon - 4 x BMP-2 Scout, 6pts

SA-13 Gopher Platoon - 4 x Gopher, 4pts

Shilka AA Platoon - 4 x Shilka, 4pts

2S1 Carnation SP Howitzer Battery - 6 x 2S1 Carnation, 10pts

BMP-1 Observation Post, 1pt

SA-8 Gecko Platoon - 2 x Gecko, 4pts

Hind Helicopter Company - 4 x Hind, 10pts

Total Cost: 100 pts

It’s largely similar, reflecting how well I think it performed overall. I haven't really resolved the high Front Armour problem yet, with the temptation being to chuck in a platoon of Storms, but that's not a huge gain: two or three dice at 4s or 5s to hit, with Firepower 3+, so you would still be lucky to kill one tank a turn, and they're easily hit in return. And I would also like a few more T-64s, maybe upping the platoons to four tanks each, but that's 18pts that I simply don't think I can spare - everything else has an important role to play.

Next week is the end of January, so I will post an update about how I am progressing with my goals for the 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.

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

Army List for ValleyCon 2018

ValleyCon is coming up at the end of January 2018. After two years of 1000pt Early War, the format has changed to be full V4 at 80pt Mid War. This is an interesting call, given that V4 at Call To Arms last year (albeit prior to the release of Fighting First) was cancelled due to a lack of registrations, but I'm of the opinion that it was the right one. V3 was remarkable for the completionist nature of its lists, but the core ruleset has done its dash and the community needs to move on to the new version, however there are still issues with the balance of the EW and LW conversion. Starting afresh with the native V4 lists is absolutely the best approach. I do have lingering concerns about the suitability of V4 as a tournament ruleset, so the event should be able to confirm or refute those.

Whereas there are probably half a dozen Early War lists that I would have felt inspired to build, and probably twice that number of Late War lists, the MW books are slim pickings, and I couldn't get excited about anything. Maybe it’s that we've all been playing the North Africa setting for a long time, this is now the fifth version of these lists in 15 years, and it’s also the only version of lists that didn’t correct and expand on the edition that preceded it. Whatever the reason, I've left it too late and have ended up limited by what is already in my collection. Having played Brits for the last couple of tournaments, it’s time for a change, so I’ve decided to take Germans.

The list I have ended up with is themed on 21st Panzer Division at Gazala, May/June 1942. The theme establishes the bounds in terms of the types of equipment I can use - a mix of short- and long-barreled Panzer IIIs, the division only had a handful of long-barreled Panzer IVs at this time, and Marders hadn't yet made an appearance.

I also want to try and capture the flavour of DAK operations, which is stereotyped in my mind as close cooperation between tanks and anti-tank guns, with the iconic image being the 8.8cm FlaK, firing off its trailer.

That means that my 80pt list looks like this:

Panzer III Company - Afrika Korps

Company HQ - 1 x Panzer III (short), 5pts

Panzer III Platoon - 2 x Panzer III (short) and 2 x Panzer III (long), 24pts

Panzer IV Platoon - 3 x Panzer IV (short), 18pts

Panzer II Platoon - 3 x Panzer II plus the 'Forward Scouts' command card, 8pts

5cm Tank-hunter Platoon, 12pts
   3 x 5cm PaK38 

8.8cm Heavy AA Platoon, 12pts
   2 x 8.8cm FlaK36 

'Pure Luck' command card

Total Cost: 80 pts

In game terms, I'm not really sure how it'll go. It'll be the first list I've taken to a competition without any infantry. The PaK38s will help keep Crusaders and Stuarts out of my flanks, but AT9 struggles against FA6, so Shermans will be a problem. The sweet spot for Afrika Korps is definitely the Marder III platoon, and three of those would be far better than two 88s. The Panzer IIs, while a lot more expensive than a platoon of armoured cars, provides an extra combat platoon, which is critical given the unforgiving nature of the V4 morale rules.

I only have the PaK38s to paint, so will post photos of the army once they're done.

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.

ValleyCon Reflections

So, ValleyCon is over for another year. The venue was excellent: good location, plenty of space and an on-site cafe. All seven games were with people who I'd never played before, against a good mix of lists, the games were relaxed, played in good spirits, and I really enjoyed the weekend.

My armoured cars won four games out of the seven, placing 7th out of 18, and were also awarded the prize for Best Army. The games went as follows:

1. Encounter - vs Soviet T-26s and KhT-26s - 5-2 loss by objective. 
2. Free For All - vs German Schutzen - 4-3 win by objective.
3. Fighting Withdrawal - defending vs British M13/40s - 5-2 loss by company break. 
4. Breakthrough - attacking vs Strelkovy - 6-1 win by company break. 
5. Dust Up - vs French armour - 6-1 win by company break. 
6. Cauldron - defending vs Slovak LT35s - 4-3 win by clock. 
7. No Retreat - attacking vs German Pioneers - 6-1 loss by company break. 

The 1000pt format was interesting. The tournament was won by German Pioneers with Finnish infantry coming second, both on five wins, so the format didn't favour mobility quite as strongly as I had expected. But certainly, defending a 6' front with a static army against a mobile opponent, sometimes with half your force in reserve, is tough. On most tables the terrain was relatively dense, which limited lines of sight for anti-tank weapons and often providing concealed approaches. For less mobile armies, the situation called for either two platoons of good (AT7+) anti-tank capability to try and cover the width, or solid blocks of infantry that are capable of holding their own when assaulted by armour. The German Pioneers were from Blitzkrieg, two big platoons of TA3 infantry backed up by three PaK38s and four Panzer IIs, so that well and truly fitted the pattern.  I didn't play the Finns so don't know their composition, but I wonder if they were the Jääkäri with TA4.

Elsewhere, my son Jaime was playing in the Warmachine tournament. He won three of his six games with his Khador Butcher1/Vlad1/Sorscha1 combination of lists. A huge thanks to Tank Engine for lending him some extra units and jacks to help make up the numbers.

I bought a copy of Skrimish Outbreak, having enjoyed a demo game at the club last year, and also bought a secondhand Impetus army.

The table I'd put together seemed to meet the goal of being interesting and practical to play on. I had finished it off with some bushes along the riverbanks, and a cypress-lined track crossing the ford. There were issues with the trees falling over, so I'll look at weighting the bases. The vineyard posts proved a bit fragile, and should have been set into holes in the base instead of glued to the surface. The magnetised olive trees worked well. Future work will involve adding more bits to create a variety of possible layouts, maybe with the ultimate goal of extending it to cover an 8x6 table. 

Throughout the process, I've learned that making terrain isn't cheap. I tried to keep the cost down, but it was still in the order of NZ$150 by the time you account for the basecloth, tree armatures, flocks, gravels, foam for the hills, styrene sheet for roofs, and various cards, felt, glue and paint along the way.

One thing did happen that gave me pause for thought. A man came up as we were setting up for a round, and said that his father had fought at the action my list was themed on, and (sarcastically) that he would no doubt have appreciated us making a game out of something that traumatised him for the rest of his life.

All of us have probably at times reflected on the fact that we are gaining entertainment from playing a game that is based around historical events that are within living memory, from books filled with lists that are sometimes specific to actual units that real people served in, in some cases including the option of taking characters that bear the names and personalities of historical figures. 

Is it disrespectful, insensitive or worse to play games themed on Arnhem, Alamein or Prokhorovka? If so, how about Gettysburg, Waterloo or Crécy, and where in time is the line where it becomes okay? I don't know the answer, but my personal decision has always been to try to theme my FOW lists around a historical unit, and in doing so I have had to learn about and face up to their story, rather than glossing over it as if the game was based instead on some abstract concept. Having reflected on this for the last couple of days, I will continue to take this approach, but maybe it's good that every now and again something happens that makes you stop and reconsider where you stand.

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 Progress - And First AWI Figure

I now have nine of the 11 armoured cars complete, with just the CHQ to go. Artillery is coming along, with Quads, 15cwt trucks and the guns themselves done, but I still have all of the crew to paint.

I've also been working on the dismounted 37mm guns. There are no BF anti-tank gunner figures for the Italian Campaign range, so I have repurposed some of my 8th Army 6pdr crews, converting them to match the rest of the army by turning their shorts into trousers.

So we're now starting to look a bit more complete, and very nearly finished. I've missed my goal of being finished by Christmas, but definitely looking good to be all done by New Year. With five weeks to go, I should have enough time to finish some terrain, and help my son Jaime with some Khador bits and pieces he needs for the Warmachine competition.

I've also painted up the first of the 28mm AWI Continentals as a test run. The Perry figures are beautiful. Slight filling required where the arms attach at the shoulders, and I had to march around the room trying to work out how the arms were meant to be positioned to look natural (for which I was of course mercilessly mocked by my family), but otherwise brilliant castings and a joy to paint. 17 more to go from this regiment, which I should be able to do in a few batches, then a second regiment of 18 figures to go after that.

ValleyCon - Seven Weeks To Go

We're already halfway through December, with less than seven weeks to go until ValleyCon. I've been chipping away, but ran into a snag late last week. I ran out of the brown ink I use for shading, and the replacement bottle I picked up isn't a colour match. And not just a slight mismatch that I'm being overly picky about: it's pink rather than brown.

So, rather than risk another bottle of the same brand, I've ordered in a different wash in the hope of getting something more reliable. That should turn up in the next few days, and then I'll be able to finish off the teams that are on the bench and post an updated progress photo.

This week I also picked up a box of Perry 28mm AWI Continentals, to paint up for a multiplayer game of Blackpowder being put on next year. I've never done anything in 28mm, but the thinking was "it's only 36 figures, how hard can it be?" My first reaction on opening the box was horror at what I'd taken on: they're incredibly detailed and I don't think my technique built on years of painting in 15mm is quite going to cut it. But I've picked up some inspiration from seeing what others at the club have been doing, and there's an excellent painting guide in the box, so we'll just have to see what happens. And it will certainly make a nice change from caunter...

Quick ValleyCon Army Update

Just a quick update today. Over the last couple of weeks, life has limited the amount of work I've done on my ValleyCon army, but I did knock off four more armoured cars and the two portees. I haven't painted the crew yet, in particular I need to decide whether I'm happy using the gunner that comes with the armoured car kits, or try something else to make them not look so identical.

I had planned to have the 37mm gun removable from the portees, as I think having the dismounted option will be important. Alas, unlike the 6pdr portee, the 37mm portee kit has the gun carriage moulded as part of the truck. Battlefront don't do a British 37mm pack, but the gun is the same as the Polish wz36 so I have picked up a pack of those to use instead.

I'm not going to make much progress over the next couple of weeks either, but I think I'm pretty much on track to have them all finished before Christmas. Quite looking forward to the prospect of something different - painting the same camouflage on so many vehicles is starting to wear a bit thin...

ValleyCon Army Progress

When I last posted two weeks ago, my ValleyCon army looked like this:

One lonely completed team, lots of blank bases and a stack of work to do. Since then, I've painted the Motor Platoon, including transport.

Not 100% happy with the canvas tilts on the trucks, I might revisit them later. It's a bit sad that it probably took more time to paint the trucks than they'll ever spend on the table, but it was good practice for the caunter colours before I do the rest of the armoured cars.

I've painted the full motor platoon with three ATRs, even though I'm only using two of them in the list. Previous experience says that if I don't paint them now then I probably never will, and even if I did get around to it in the future then they won't look the same. Just thinking about that, I should go back and paint three more Rifle teams before too long, to leave open the option of using them as a Rifle Platoon in some other list in future.

So, this is where I'm up to as of the end of the weekend - gradually filling in the blanks.

Some good news is that the 37mm portees and the rest of the armoured cars arrived during the week. I had a pack of the Italian Campaign artillery crew on order from the Battlefront webstore, to replace the BEF crew in the 18/25pdr boxed set, along with a few other special order items, but they've only shipped half the order so I guess the crews aren't available. Luckily, eBay has come to the rescue and there's now a pack of the artillery crew winging its way to me from Minnesota, so that's everything that I need now accounted for.

Next step: get some more armoured cars painted up.