The little things that can be done.

With my bicycle training hitting its most demanding period and starting a new job I have had very little time for gaming. I did manage to 're-base' my WoW WWI aircraft in the few minutes I could find. It is a really neat way to enhance the gaming with the miniatures but I can not take the credit for it. Harry did something similar for his Check Your Six miniatures.

It is a steel ball hot glued to the stand and a ring magnet glued to the plane. It allows total variance in yaw, pitch and roll of the plane with little effort and it stays in place. It makes a difference when using the miniatures and the plane to plane rule instead of the base for shooting.

Now to just find time to game!

Trench Battle Game - FOW1918

The other day I hosted a game for the DAHWG's (Dulles Area Historical Wargamers) at the Monday night fights. It was a pure infantry attack based in 1917. I used a combination of The Big Push mission in the main FOW rule book and the D-Day mission. I will work it up as a FOW1918 mission and post it on the Yahoo group after a few more play tests.

The British had four infantry platoons, a Stoke mortar section, a rolling barrage and a counter battery barrage. The Germans had two full platoons, one with three squads (no bombers), a HMG section and a Defensive (SOS) barrage.

The Pre Lim bombardment was fairly effective in clearing some wire but did little damage to the one German platoon on the table.

By turn three some of the Tommies were through the wire and into the trench. Will the Hun finally got their SOS barrage only to have it blasted away by the British counter battery. On turn four the German HMGs come on the table as his ambush.

Turn six the Germans finally get their reserves (both platoons) and they rush to cover the objectives.

It came down to a real nail biter at the end of turn 11 beginning of turn 12.

Jan wrote up a more detailed review from his point of view as the British CO at http://knightrecoil.blogspot.com/2009/05/western-front-wwi-tactical-combat.html

I think we may actually have it. The feel is good the game flows. The different weapons and FOG is good.

Turkish duldroms

I have been working on my Middle East project, specifically the Arabs at the moment. With the limited number of figures available I will be using 19th century Mahdist/Ansar figures which has sparked an interest in the Wars in the Sudan and other British colonial affairs. The variety of units makes it a very colorful period and looks to be a lot of fun to paint and play but what it has done is dampened my enthusiasm for my Turks. The Turks generally come in two flavors, regulars or Arab. Both wore the same uniform with the Arabs donning a keffiyeh instead of the kabalak. They did have cavalry and even a Camel Corp but generally it was foot sloggers with some HMGs and Artillery. Nothing really fancy or flashy, not that you have to have that to have good troops but it sure does help motivation when painting. You can add some German support if gaming Palestine 1918 but no one makes any 15mm figures for them. I have looked at some Peter Pig EW British to modify. They really did not have any air support so that is out. There are pictures and documents that discuss Stoss troops but that again is Palestine and there uniform is the same just with a Turkish version of the German M1916 Stahlhelm.

They fought on a number of fronts, so your opponents can be varied but Johnny Turk stays the same. I know I should just buck up and get at them since I only have one infantry platoon, one 10.5 How and some limbers and then they can hit the gaming table but it seems like taking medicine to do so. I have been reading "In the Clouds Above Baghdad" by M.C. Lt Col J. E. Tennant. It discusses the war in Mesopotamia with a focus on the air operations. It gives a variety of possible wargame scenarios but sadly nothing to increase the motivation. Hopefully when I finish some Arabs I will move to the Turks and finish them.

Going over the top

What is a WWI gamer without his own set of trenches?

I had created trenches a year or two ago but they were very blah and I think if the terrain is blah the game is more than likely to be blah.

Well, I got side tracked, not sure how or why, from my ME project these past few weeks and started looking at the trench battle side of FOW1918. I purchased a copy of "Through the Mud and Blood" to see how they handled a few things that I thought were week in FOW1918. This with some discussions with Robert Dunlop (GWSH designer and historian) and I think we are on our way, just some play testing.

Back to the terrain, I started looking for pictures of other peoples trench terrain and actual photos. I modified my existing pieces. I think the angle pieces make a big difference. The sand bags are modeling clay and the metal sheets are some plastic sheet I got at the local train store supported by small dowels (logs). The actual trench is made from foam cut on my table saw (very messy).

One of my inspirations was this from Landships.com http://www.landships.freeservers.com/new_pages/trench_schematics.htm

I think it makes a big difference.

Bedu seen on the horizon!

It has been some time since a post. With my spring bicycle racing, family and work I have still been doing a little painting. One of the things that I managed to finish was some Minifig Bedouins with rifles and swords. They are not my favorite figures, I think the camels look a little odd and the riders don't seem to fit just right but after painting they actually tunred out okay. I modified the flag figure to represent Lawerence. I painted them up per a nice print in the Osprey book THE ARAB REVOLT 1916-18 depicting the capture of Aqaba with the Howeitat tribe. I plan on using them as his body guard. I may get another pack and have them as an additional tribe.

In FOW1918, Lawerence is an optional hero. I think he will make an interesting figure in the game.

The rest of my Arabs will be Old Glory Colonial ANSAR figures also pulling duty with PITS.

Inspiration and PITS ramble

In my search for 15mm Arab figures to create my FOW1918 Arab Revolt army; I have come across a number of European colonial themes. This has sparked an interest in something that I have intentionally strayed from. I remember my first Airfix FFL figures and how much they conjured up day dreams of sand dune deserts and wild lands. My friends never caught that interest, all being big into BIG tanks, so on to WWII. With the search for the correct Arabs, I found that most figures available are of the Dervish style and only a few of the al-Hejaz regions flowing garb. I will create a post later discussing the actual figures and which I will be using. In researching what these other figures should look like I got into the late British colonial period. I found some other blogs on the period and then came across PITS. Patrols in the Sudan is a set of rules based on the company level, perfect crossover for FOW1918. I borrowed a copy from Harry and skimmed them over. Looks like a smashing good time! (in my best victorian English accent) So one thing leads to another and I am skimming the 'free' movies On Demand and come across the 1939 version of The Four Feathers. How timely! I vaguely remember the 2002 version with Heath Ledger and decided I would give this one a look. It was great! The Dervish & Fuzzy Wuzzies looked as I found in my research. The huge sweeping desert scenes are right up there with Lawrence of Arabia. (another must see, inspiring movie) This has motivated me to push harder on my painting projects so that the gaming can commence. At the moment I have a little more to do on my Turks and I have started on the Arabs. My FOW1918 Arabs will look a lot like Dervish but I will explain that in a later post. I plan on trying these two armies out with both FOW1918 and PITS. May even try a combination of the two. Then I plan to move right into a colonial Anglo-Egyptian army and some Fuzzy Wuzzies. I love saying that!

Here is a link on the 1939 movie -
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031334/

the 2002 movie -
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0240510/fullcredits#cast

PITS -

http://www.peterpig.co.uk/range22.htm

More Turkish delight!

Eureka Turkish Infantry, nice posses and paint up well. The only negative is the thin tip to the rifles that breaks off easily.

A trench catapult I scratch built out of balsa and card stock. Figures are Eureka. Mainly to be used in Galipoli games.

Snipers - Minifig figures.

I redid my Turkish officers Serpuş. After reading this article, http://www.turkeyswar.com/army/ranksuniforms.htm

,I repainted them all grey with a red top.

I have one more infantry platoon, artillery limbers and another 10.5 How to paint up and I will be done. I have pulled out my Arabs and ALH and started preping them for paint.