Saturday, September 26, 2020

A few Germans and a bit of terrain

It's not all games, sometimes I get to finish modelling projects as well. 


I've made more river segments than just this one, 
but it has been matt varnished 
and consequentially the limited water effect I had managed has become extremely limited.
Easy to fix.

Bits of balsa and popsticks and toothpicks,
sand and PVA glue and a good lick of paint.

Look over there! 
The grass is greener!

Always loved these 75mm guns.
I've put them on big bases
as they represent artillery assets for use with Rommel
and because I have spare large bases.



Friday, September 25, 2020

Snappy Nappy in Italy

What do you do when you Basic Impetus opponent is a no show?  Join in a game of Snappy Nappy.

Darren had devised a game based on the Battle of Trebbia 1799.  Always interesting when a rule set is used to refight an actual battle.  I have been looking at these rules as a way of gaming Napoleonics on a club night so the opportunity to join a game was much appreciated.

Russell and Dave were the hated French, Darren was the Russians and I went Austrians.  All figures and terrain was Darren's with extra figures supplied by Dave.

Austrians in Road Column
Only to be used on a road.

Darren had produced some spectacular terrain for the game.
I apologise for not removing the clutter before taking this photo

Second hour and the Austrians start to deploy.

Third hour and the Austrians are finishing their deployment.
The lead brigade has started to come under long range French artillery fire.
The French heavy guns can reach out to 1,800 yards which seems a bit excessive.
Infantry fire is 150 yards.
1"equals 150 yards.
With two fire phases per turn,
artillery is pretty potent.

By the end of the fourth hour,
the Austrian cavalry has moved up to menace the French infantry.

At the fifth hour mark the Austrian artillery is attempting to move up.
The Austrian infantry is getting ready to attack.

Come the sixth hour the Austrian infantry is ready to renew the attack.
The conscripts have routed, but at least the artillery has a nice target.

The seventh hour saw the Austrian grenadiers (the elite unit near the general) storm across the bridge and hit the square.  It pushed it back, only to be shattered by the French artillery.  The other infantry brigade suffered a similar result.

Hmmm...

I was somewhat disappointed.  The rules are simple, but this appears to be due to not covering or explaining the mechanics fully.  For example, change of formation seemed a bit problematic.  Part of my problem is that as a Napoleon's Battles player for many decades I am used to a detailed rule set that covers all eventualities.  However this was my first game and so probably more accurately reflects my limitations than the rules.

There is a challenge between grand tactical Napoleonic rules and tactical rules and players who have the latter mindest (which of course is assisted by the figure scale requiring a bit of suspension of disbelief tasht six figures represents a brigade).  This same problem exists with NB and is not helped by units being in column, line or square.

Artillery seems too powerful.  Forming grand batteries did occur of course, but each gun model represents a collection of 24 guns which in reality were distributed amongst the formations.  This would be easily fixed with the scenario OOB.

Each turn being an hour also seems a bit limiting given in our game it took half a day to get into action.  Even in Road Column the movement is just one mile an hour.

The morale check system is interesting.  The system of orders I think needs to be reflected back into movement rates and combat factors.

On a positive note the rules are now available as a PDF download.  I received this email today from the Snappy Nappy support group at groups.io:

News: Due to almost insane postage costs for mailing to non-US addresses, Snappy Nappy publisher On Military Matters made a PDF version of Snappy Nappy. It is identical to the original version, but also includes six pages of errata (all of which have already been posted here for years). I agreed to allow OMM to make a PDF as a sort of experiment. It is available only via OMM. Cost is $24 and the OMM # is 2-190320. OMM still sells the paper version of Snappy Nappy ($29 plus postage), which will also have the errata included.

Yes, if you live in the US, you can order the PDF version. :)

On Military Matters is at www.onmilitarymatters.com  and if you have questions, Dennis' e-mail is militarymatters@att.net and the phone number to his store is 609-466-2329.

Thanks for your continued support of SN.

--
Russ Snappy Nappy Lockwood




Wednesday, September 23, 2020

The Soviets Have Arrived

More than I expected, but with a surprise.

Some of the vehicles are a bit obscure as befits Soviet AFVs of WW2.  

Attribution of manufacturer is my best guess

Five KV-2 PSC

Five JSU-122 PSC
Easy repair job to do on the mg.

5 JS-IIs PSC
2 mgs to fix on this lot.

Four SU-76 Battlefront
Would like to add more crew figures.

Three SU-85 Battlefront

Two SU-85-100 Battlefront

Four Zis-5 3 on trucks Battlefront

Four T-26 Battlefront
Need some replacement barrels

 Six BA-10 Battlefront
The two on the right are Peter Pig

Eight BA-64 Battlefront
One wheel to fix.

T-60 Battlefront
Easy to fix

Four T-38
Light Amphibious Tank

Five T-20 Komsomolets Battlefront

Three BA-1M ?
and a ?
All solid metal

Seven Universal Carriers 
Have the number 119 inscribed on the base.

Five White Scout Cars 
Resin, not sure of brand.

Nine T-70 Battlefront

A KV-1 1940 model Battlefront
and three KV-85 unknown manufacturer.
The middle one with the white resin has possibly had an adverse reaction with the undercoat

Fifteen T-34/76 Battlefront
1941 model has the single top hatch,
the 1943 model has the two top hatches.

Eleven T-35/85 Battlefront and PSC

Three staff cars

Four 122mm Gun Model 1931

Four 152mm Howitzer M 1943

Four 76.2mm M 1936 Divisional Gun 

Four 76mm Infantry Guns,
possibly Command Decision
A bit wonky.

Four 45mm Anti Tank guns
A bit bent.

Four limbers

Three light AA guns

Horses

Four Russian army tchanka Peter Pig
These can have just two horse which would then give me enough to use on the other limbers.

Tank riders.

Snipers

120mm Mortars

A few decals

A bit of a mortar and a few crew.
That guy laying down doesn't look right...

What motivated me to make the purchase was that the figures were all painted.  Having now seen them up close I am not that taken with the style.  There is some re-detailing I will probably do as I don't like some of the colours used.  I will also try a black wash and then a dry brush of buff, but it depends on how sharp the detail is.  I will also redo the flesh.  Then again I might just leave them as they are (unlikely).  Basing is really the key.

27 infantry including flamethrowers

42 infantry

35 infantry including AT rifles 
which go with those little piles of rocks in the sniper image
BUT
Note the odd looking figure top left hand corner in this image.
An infiltrator?

47 infantry including some artillery crew (but possibly for mortars)

58 infantry

51 infantry

40 infantry

Worth their weight in gold.

Still in the box.

What?

This is a surprise.
Hard to tell from the image, but these are late war Germans painted as Soviets.
Whoops.

Might have use for the counters.

The book is a nice touch,
much appreciated.

This force is more than I need for Rommel, 
but will also do for Crossfire and Blitzkrieg Commander. 

 Now to get stuck into the make good.