Friday, 9 September 2022

Show & Tell - AK47 Collection

Dave was recently asking me for an inventory of my AK47 collection, which has to be admitted were mostly originally produced by him and John - as far as I can remember. After much procrastination I eventually went up into the loft and recovered the four boxes of figures!

Here is the collection laid out, there seems to have been 3 forces put together, the Yellows and Oranges, plus a small group of Reds and my own small contribution of 'uncoloured' figures. Additionally there is a motley collection of various vehicles, to which I contributed quite a few, that can be used by side in these scenarios.


THE YELLOWS

As might be expected all of these units have their stands 'flagged' with yellow rear corners.

Almost all of the Yellow Team on display - see below!
I missed one of the yellow units that was in another box...

The wayward unit..
These guys with yellow berets appear to be regulars,
with a smattering of mercenaries within their ranks.

The bulk of the Yellow forces, lower grade regulars or militias.


A bit of a close-up on another Militia unit


And again on another unit

Yellow Mortar teams

Yellow Recoilless Rifle team

Three Yellow HMG Teams

And finally some more Yellow Berets

Yellow Inventory

57 x Infantry Stands
5 x Mortar Stands
3 x HMG Stands
2 x Recoilless Rifle Stand

THE ORANGES

Similar to the Yellow team, all of these units have their stands 'flagged' with orange rear corners.


The Orange Team laid out and arrayed on the table

Blue Beret, professionals

What appears to be regulars and/or Militia units

Weapons teams, in front of the Blue Berets

More Weapons Teams

Regular Orange Infantry Teams

A fairly large number of Revolutionary Guards teams, in distinctive khaki uniforms

And finally more Weapons Teams


Orange Inventory

51 x Infantry Stands
6 x Mortar Stands
8 x HMG Stands
2 x Recoilless Rifle Stand
1 x Auto-Cannon Stand

THE REDS

Again all of these units have their stands 'flagged' with red rear corners, as can be seen, this is a much smaller team, that can presumably be allied (or be a locally raised mercenary force) with either the Yellows or Oranges...

A small but perfectly formed Red Team!

A regular Red infantry team

Green Berets, elite forces

And a few Heavy Weapons teams in front of some more regulars 

Red Inventory

15 x Infantry Stands
6 x Mortar Stands
1 x HMG Stands
1 x Recoilless Rifle Stand

THE 'UNCOLOURED'

These are Mike W's contribution to the collection, as can be seen by his distinctive basing technique!

Again a very small force with a base from either John or Dave's
contributions that missed it's coloured tags, now acting as a command stand.


'Uncoloured' Inventory

12 x Infantry Stands
2 x Recoilless Rifle Stands

THE VEHICLES & OTHER STUFF

All of these can be assigned to any team, according to scenario needs, shown in no particular order...

Heliport with Warlord / President arriving to bard helicopter,
all covered by local TV crew. Note the two standard bearers
- to provide focal point for either the Yellow or Orange teams!


Another Helicopter

A moltey group of vehicles. A Russian made jeep, an M113, a South African ATV, another
Russian Armoured Car and finally another unknown Armoured Car

Three more transports lorries, of various ages and reliability, two are armed with MGs

Trucks, Bus, Technicals and Crocodiles!

Five Armoured Cars, two MG armed, three with significantly more firepower!

Three Field Guns

Eight ubiquitous Uni-Mogs, for transporting troops

Four Armoured Cars, converted by Dave from old Dinky Toys,
believe these represent ex-British Army AFVs.

Three US built and possibly dodgy supplied M48 Pattons

Five Transport Tucks, in Cammo finish,
two carrying Recoilless Rifles, sourced by Mike W,
from cheap kids toy sets

As above but painted Drab Green



Vehicle & Others Stuff  Inventory

14 x Trucks
11 x Armoured Cars
8 x Uni-Mog Trucks
3 x Field Guns
3 x Crocodiles
2 x Technical Pick-up Trucks
2 x Tanks
2 x Standard Bearers
1 x M113
1 x Armoured ATV
1 x Jeep
1 x Bus
1 x Limo
2 x Helicopters
1 x TV Truck

Saturday, 3 September 2022

Friday Night Games - Pony Wars

At the SAS Wargames Club we are lucky enough that Mike N. has a wonderful 15mm Pony Wars set-up that we are able to breakout and use every so often.

Action around the church and a settler's farm

I first stumbled across Pony Wars as a display game back in the 1970s, if I remember correctly at Farnborough Air Show, where it was being played by an enthusiastic group in a marquee by the original games designers (sorry I forget their names). Being a great Wild West fan, I was mesmerised  ignoring the aeroplanes and watching the game for as long as I could.

"Its too quiet, I don't like it Sir!" - more hostiles arriving

Anyway, this game was graciously hosted by Mike N. with Nigel, Phil  Rupert & Mike W. commanding the various Cavalry Troops in this scenario entitled 'Soldier Blue'.

Mike W's re-enforcement troop retiring towards the Fort,
note the empty saddles due to casualties taken

As per the film  the Cavalry has to destroy a village as well and ensure various settlers were protected in the Fort, whilst ever increasing numbers of hostiles appeared.

For those in the know, smoke signals aren't good!
But arguably not as bad as the drums!

At one stage, after the beating of drums  a group of 200 hostiles appeared, right next to a gun runner's wagon resulting in an instant upgrade to 50 of them to carbine armed status ...

Overview of much of the table, the Fort is to the right of the Church,
the Hostile's village is off picture to the left. Rupert's attack column can be clearly seen.

Nevertheless, Rupert's column reached the village and did its dastardly work, whilst Phil and Nigel collected in most of the settlers. Phil then setup a strong point in the Fort whilst Nigel's troop was chased across the table-top by various hostile groups.

Close-up of the lovely figures

Mike W's troop were re-enforcements that had arrived turn one at the end of the table, chased by a group of hostiles. They initially approached the village but were caught on high group by the pursuing Indians  whom they fought off.

Regrouping, the troop then headed for the Fort but ran across several hostiles groups, which they dodged before holding out in a church outside the Fort.

Early in the game, hostiles attack the cavalry re-enforcements,
who have reached high ground and formed a defensive position,
in the background can be seen the hostile village.

Thee firefights later they emerged  largely unscathed as Rupert work was done and the Cavalry's work was done....

Finally a close-up of Mike N's one of magnificent Buttes!
Ooh Err!

Friday, 26 August 2022

Latest 28mm Vikings

So here are my latest additions to the 28mm Viking Horde that I have been collecting for a few years, there must be enough to represent the Great Heathen Horde in a pretty realistic scale now!

Almost all of these figures are Gripping Beast guys, purchased on a whim from eBay as I saw the lot going at a reasonable price and already made and undercoated. There are three metal 'Ulfhednar' Berserkers in there as will plus a metal Gripping Beast model of Harald Hardada, whom I am obviously using as a commander for this group.


The completed group, on some nice new figure trays (made from MDF)

As noted the figures came pre-made and undercoated, I did a little chopping and gluing to repair broken and weapons and also to swap out some of the Gripping Beast heads that I didn't really like with Victrix spares that I had.

Unit Commander

The trays allow for eight or sixteen figures to be placed as a unit and thus ease movement and unit recognition for the coming games that I'm planning. 

First Group of Armoured Vikings

Second Group of Armoured Vikings, note the Ulfhednars lurking in these units,
they will be subject to a frenzy rule and may just charge out directly at the nearest enemy at their whim

The bulk of the lot were made up of unarmoured Dark Ages infantry, I have given them a slight Viking look and feel but in reality they can be used for pretty much any Dark Age army if you don't look too closely! 

The great unwashed of the Viking Army!

Monday, 22 August 2022

Friday Night Games - WW2 Eastern Front, 1945

Friday 12th & 19th August has seen us playing the next in Mark's sequential set of linked scenarios as Russian Forces fight their way towards Berlin on the Eastern Front in 1945. The photos below are from week #2 of the game, and as ever these will do most of the 'talking' in this post.

Rules by Mark, figures by Mark, Mike N & John.

Germans were being played by Dave, Ollie (sub for John who was on holiday for week2) & Mike N, whilst the Russians were being played by Steve, Rupert, Nigel, Phil & Mike W (sub for Mat who was unable to attend Week 2).

The Russians, under Steve, are forcing an attack along the length of the board and Wee 2 starts with a general Russian advance, pushing German Volkssturm forces back almost at will, with little of no meaningful resistance on the right flank.

Russian advance on eth right flank, lead by tanks as they approach
Volkssturm positions behind the hedgeline.

Close-up of the Volkssturm positions

On the left flank, under Rupert & Mike W,  the going is a little more difficult with wood s and barricades across the railway line slowing up the advance. Additionally an embedded tank turret caused some consternation, as did a Volkssturm Panzerfaust team that took out the lead Russian tank, before they were themselves destroyed.


Rupert's Infantry & Mike W's tanks advance
on the Russian Left, through woods.

Switch to a squadron of low flying Stormoviks, screaming in low over the battlefield laden with rockets to attack two houses and a known German AA Position. The lead section was driven off by newly revealed German AA resources, saving one of eth houses. The second section unleashed all eight rockets on it's target house only to find four shots overshot by a wide margin, two more flew long and to the fight and one dropped short, leaving only one on target.

The Stormoviks arrive on the table

The railway track on the left flank,
with destroyed Russian Tank in view

Initial Russian disappointment turned to celebrations when it became apparent that the four long shot had missed the house but landed square in a hidden German HQ, destroying the transport and admin staff. Just as the German CnC was dusting himself off and thanking his lucky stars that he'd survived another rocket came skidding over the house to land directly on his position and wiping him out

The final Stormovik delivered a wide ranging scatter of rockets on the AA position missing with most but then eliminating the target.

Later on the right as the Russians continued to advance they began to encounter elements of a Hitler Youth formation was again roughly handled by the Soviets.

Russian T34 Mine clearing tank on eth Russian right
Western half of the board, with the two houses attacked by the Stormoviks,
both remained untouched although a hidden German HQ unit behind the blue
building (front right)was destroyed.

Off table German Supply Units

Start positions for Mike W's tanks Week #2.

T34 Tanks of the Russian right, rolling forwards.

Valentine tanks lumber forwards to the right of the Russian Centre

Russian Central start off positions,
a heavily defended river

Behind the Russian Centre,
a self-propelled artillery unit 

Back on the Russian Left, a destroyed house from which a
Volkssturm Panzerfaust unit took out a Russian light tank.

A cool Russian Command Vehicle

Final shot, from the Russian left,
watching the Right Flank attack press forwards