Chateau n'importe où

I am hosting two FOW1918 games at Cold Wars this March. One of the games is based on the German Blücher-Yorck Offensive of May 1918. I want to have nice rolling terrain with plenty of woods. This area is wine country and had not been devastated in combat. Some diaries mention how peaceful and beautiful the area was.

I was looking at my buildings and terrain and thinking of the new Crescent Root bases decided to create a chateau. Thinking of the German high command building in the movie "A Bridge too Far" where the young boy spots the staff car, it had to have high hedges around the outside.

So this is what I came up with.

This should add to the table and I am sure it will draw some great infantry assaults.

German 7.7cm Feldkanone 96 n.A. Battery

The workhorse of the German Artillery during World War One. With over 5000 available in 1914 and still in service in 1918 the 7.7cm Feldkanone was very common.

Specifications

Weight: 1020kg

Barrel length: 2080mm

Calibre: 77mm

Elevation: -12 degrees to +15 degrees

Traverse: 4 degrees

Muzzle velocity: 465 kg

Maximum range: 5km (3.1 miles)

My Battery is painted in the Dappler Camo and the crew are in the M1916 Stahlhelm making it MW/LW. The guns, crew and limbers are all Minifigs. The staff team wagon is Battlefront and the staff team table, chair and optics are Peter Pig.

Sources:
http://www.landships.freeservers.com/

What's on the work bench?

Just two shots of the work bench. On the left side (above) are the Turkish waiting to be worked on. It is the QRF Turkish Arab cav dismounted a Bedu camel objective and two artillery limber drivers. The limbers were take back by the Germans (more on that later).

On the right is the transport for my MW/LW Germans, the staff team, another squad of cav and a hospital tent objective. This will finish of my German artillery which I will do a post on when done and up my MW/LW cav to three squads. All in prep for MW Russian Front action. The limbers are all Minifigs but for most of the other nations I will probably go with the Battlefront generic limber as it is much cheaper and they only see the table for a few turns if at all. The Staff team wagon is Battlefront and the Command team mounted is just two left over cav figures. SO the whole battery can be mounted/limbered to go into action.

the Hospital tent objective is a JR miniature Medieval tent with the ruffled sides filled in some with wood glue and a Peter Pig stretcher team. Pretty simple but I think it will look okay.

Yes, that is a British Cav command stand hiding behind the tent. They are actually the artillery mounted command stand. I plan on doing the British Artillery limbers next, after I finish another platoon of Turks.

Battle report - FOW1918 September 1918 Western Front

Taking a break from painting Turks I got a game in with Jan at the LGS.

It was the standard FOW Fighting Withdraw mission that works well with late 1918 after Amien. The Germans were mainly fighting a delaying action to keep the Allies off German soil until the Armistice. Jan took the British Bicycle Infantry Company and I had a regular German Line force. The British had two cycle platoons, one lorry mounted infantry platoon, one cavalry troop, a full RHA battery and a 17th Battalion A/C section. The Germans had three full infantry platoons, on HMG section, one Light mortar battery with the new lMW n.A. and a 37mm ATG, and a full 7.7cm battery with an AA MG team.

Set-up was straight out of the rule book with the three objectives.



Turn one the British advance and the Germans immediately respond with HMG and Artillery fire. The RHA take a bloody nose off and loose two guns.

The German Artillery continues to dish out the hurt on the RHA. The British Cav sneaks through the woods dismounts and assaults the left flank throwing the Germans back a little but the lMW battery that was in ambush pops up and takes range. The British push up the road on right cautiously.

The left flank becomes a heavy fire fight with the lMWs starting to take some toll. The area around the villa is starting to heat up as the British continue to push forward.

The Cav are taking the short end of the stick as the mortars continue to cause damage.

The British get to the edge of the villa and the fighting becomes hand to hand. The British push in but are counter attacked. The attacks taking many casualties. The A/C unit starts exchanging fire with the HMG teams in the fields.

The final positions at the start of turn six and the LGS telling us to pack up our toys and go home. The British concede.

The situation on the left is clear.

It was a good game even if er did not get to completely finish. The RFC only showed once and did not do anything. The A/Cs provided great support to the infantry trying to take the villa but with literally no artillery the British had an uphill battle. In WWI the artillery was the king of the battlefield and it proved itself today.

Middle East project

I have decided to start in earnest on my Middle East FOW1918 project. The intels are still a work in progress but are looking good so far (posted on the FOW1918 Yahoo group). I plan on creating an Ottoman Turk Army, Australian Light Horse Squadron and an Arab Irregular Army. I had dabbled in some of the figures like the Rolls Royce A/Cs and some Turkish stands and have all the minis for the ALH but kept putting it off in favor of my 1918 Western Front projects. Since most of those are finished or to a point that I am happy with it is on to the ME.

First will be the Turks. The nice thing about them is that they did not change uniforms or equipment pretty much through the whole war. Next I plan on creating an Arab Irregular Army, this should be a nice project with all the color and Allies available to them.

There are even some nice WoW air support projects for this theater.

WoW future releases news!

From: http://merlindex.free.fr/spip/index.php

Wings of War Miniatures série 4 :
Se5a
Pfalz D.III
Breguet 14
Rumpler C.IV-C.VII
Wings of War Miniatures série 5 :
Morane Saulnier N
Fokker E.III
Airco DH.2
Halberstadt D.III
Wings of War Miniatures séries 6 :
Hanriot HD.1 ( ?)
Sopwith Triplane ( ?)


These are some great releases and I am especially looking forward to the early planes in Series 5. No idea on the actual in-store date but probably not till mid/late 2009. Worth the wait!

Jasta 12, Albatros D.V, late 1917

It has come to my attention that my Tutschek is more than likely wrong. A print showing his DV as having green/purple wings, black fuselage and regular white edged Maltese crosses was posted on the WoW Yahoo group. I will repaint and decal the model and post a picture soon. 01/21/09

Jasta 12 was one of the highest scoring Staffeln during "Bloody April" 1917. The unit markings while under Adolf von Tutschek were a black rear fuselage and tail.



These are to represent mid to late 1917. I used the WoW Albatros D.Va (Jentsch) WW07I model.

Ltn Viktor Schobinger

Unknown

Obltn Adolf Ritter von Tutschek

(I am still looking for proof that he flew an all black D.V. He did fly a D.III so it is possible.)

The crosses are I-94 decals and the pilots are Reviresco.

They will make some nice 1917 air support for my FOW1918 Germans.

Sources:

http://members.cox.net/tbittners/schobinger_d5.html

http://mwmiller.theaerodrome.com/alb/schemes/j12/j12.htm

http://www.theaerodrome.com/services/germany/jasta/jasta12.php