WW2 Western Desert project - rules approach

With my current batch of WW2 Western Desert models painted I have started to test out the modified rules with a couple of games. The core rules I am using are Lock n Load's "Tank on Tank" boardgame rules which are available as a free download from their website. These rule are geared towards the later part of WW2 for both the East Front and West Front games.

A German armoured infantry attack upon a village is costly

In adapting the core rules for the earlier period in North Africa I have adjusted the unit's defence values along with their weapon ranges. In the rules each unit comes with three values:

• a range value representing the range in hexes, 
• a defence factor, 
• and movement points. 

For example, in the boardgame a Panzer IV with 75mm (long) has a range of 2 hexes, a defence value of 9, and 2 movement points.

The range presented a problem as 50mm and 2 pounder guns were common and would have a range of 1 hex. This was not the feel or look I wanted on the tabletop, so I have increased the caliber ranges by 1 hex.

• Small caliber (47mm, 50mm, and 2 pounder) = 2 hexes
• Medium caliber (6 pounder and 75mm) = 3 hexes
• Heavy caliber (88mm) = 4 hexes

To compensate for the increased ranges I have, for the most part, increased the defence values for tanks (or combat units as they are termed in the rules) by one.

• Light tanks and Armoured Cars (Honey, Sdkfz 222, and Sdkfz 231) defence = 8
• Medium light tanks (Panzer III and Crusader) defence = 9
• Medium tanks (Panzer IV, Grant, and Sherman) defence = 10
• Medium heavy tanks (Matilda) defence = 11

Other rules changes are...

HQ
As with the rules, but if lost can be promoted to any type of unit. My tabletop contains more hexes than the board game, so attaching HQs to fast mobile units is useful.

Aces (Experienced commander)
As with the original rules but can be used as an HQ, but cannot be promoted once lost.

Self-Propelled Guns
Are treated as personnel units (so they are not allowed to move and shoot).

AT Guns and Artillery
Any AT gun or artillery unit which is not self propelled (eg, a 2 pounder Portee style unit) must remain static.

Minefields
Units must stop movement upon entering a minefield zone and may only move 1 zone when leaving a minefield hex. When attacked in minefield attacker can adds 1 to the result.

Rough Ground
All units must stop upon entering and may only move 1 zone when leaving.
Treat as cover for personnel units (use second value). Don’t add the +1.

Prepared Positions
As per the rules.

Escarpment
Impassible to motorised units (combat units) personnel can move. Treat as hill for combat.

Ridge/sand dune
Treat as a hill.

Buildings
Provide cover for personnel units only and they get 360 degree shooting.

Wadi
Treat as depression

Sighting units
When using artillery indirect fire or air support. The target must be within 4 bounds and LoS by friendly unit. This can be increased by 1 bound if on ridge.

Salt-marsh
Impassible

Optional - Hidden Units
Units in cover can start the game as hidden. Hidden units cannot be eliminated until they are known to the enemy. Units cease being hidden when:

• They shoot or move
• An enemy unit moves into an adjacent hex
• An enemy unit shoots at the hidden unit. The hidden unit takes no damage, but is no longer hidden.

Optional Sand Storm Rule
If weather occurs in a scenario, in this case sand storms. At the beginning of a new turn and before players have made a move. Roll 1D6, on a score of 1-3 units not on a road can only move 1 bound and sighting of enemy is restricted to 1 hex. A result of 4-6 move and units move normally.

The following photos are of my recently completed units with example range, defence and movement values. The brackets around the two defence values is for personnel units and follows the core rule convention.

Marder II    3-(9/9)-2

Panzerjeager 1    2-(8/8)-2

Armoured Infantry   1-(9/9)-2

50mm AT unit   2-(7/9)-0

88mm AT unit   4-(7/8)-0

88mm mounted on half-track   4-(7/8)-2

Panzer IV   3-10-2 (range-defence-movement)

Panzer III   2-9-2

Panzer II    1-8-2

Sdkfz 231   1-8-3

Sdkfz 222   1-8-3

Wespe   6-8/8-2

50mm AT units    2-(7/9)-0

Infantry*   1-(7/10)-1
Armoured Infantry   1-(9/9)-2
Motorcycle Unit   1-(7/9)-3

* I add trucks and vehicles to the infantry units stand to help recognise them as infantry and I think they look batter for it.

Matilda   2-11-1
Grant**    2-10-2
Valantine II   2-10-2

** The Grant tank has a range of 2 hexes due to its sponson mounted gun.

Humber A/C   1-8-3
Crusader II   2-9-3
Honey   1-8-3

25 Pounder unit   6-(7/9)-0
Sexton   6-(8/8)-2

2 pounder Portee    2-(7/8)-2
6 pounders    3-(7/9)-0

Armoured infantry (Bren Gun Carriers)   1-(9/9)-3
Infantry   1-(7/10)-1

I use additional models to indicate an HQ (left) and experienced commander (right)

Western Desert project - making a gaming mat

Having arrived back from New Zealand today on the first flight I had most of the day free. The weather was fine and sunny and I thought it would be a good opportunity to create a battle mat for the Western Desert (as I need to do the work outside).

The process involves watering down various colours and sponging them on to a painters canvas drop sheet (purchased at the local hardware store). When starting the sponging the first two colours, there is always the nagging feeling in the back of my mind that it is not going to work. I ended up using four colours, in some cases redoing colours to ensure a good coverage. Once I had the look wanted, the whole sheet got a light spray of a sand colour to help even out the look. When this was dry I added small random dots of green for vegetation.

Canvas drop sheet

Sponged effect

Lightly sprayed with sand colour and small dots of green to represent vegetation.

Units on the finished battle mat showing the dots of vegetation

A wider photo of the battle mat on the tabletop

My next step is either to add a square or hex grid. Presently I am leaning to using a hex grid. I have created a 4 inch hex template and plan to start tomorrow slowly drawing on the hexes.

In the post today arrived a secondhand copy of "Tank Battles in Miniature - 1. A warmers' guide to the Western Desert Campaign 1940-1942" by Donald Featherstone. I am looking forward to reading this over the weekend.

While in a used condition the book was missing its dust cover.

Starting WW2 Western Desert Project

I have been able to paint a few test units for my WW2 Western Desert project. The Bases are 2x2 inches. They are photographed on a canvas drop sheet bought cheaply at the local hardware store. The plan is to use a combination of sponging and stippling to get similar colour tones to the bases.

Since completing these tanks a few more 1/300 Heroics and Ros models have left the painting table. I am hoping this will keep me going during the Christmas and New Year holidays.

Some secondhand books and models

This week has been very much about secondhand items. I don't have a single painting project at present since finishing my ECW figures. For the moment I plan to: add a few extra Napoleonic units from my stash of secondhand plastic Spencer Smith miniatures, and add to my WW2 1/72 collection with a few recent secondhand purchases.

French Dragoon unit to add to my generic Napoleonic forces. These figures are not Spencer Smith, but I believe are by Segom Miniatures.

On the painting table two Churchills, a flail tank, and some Spencer Smith SYW painted to look like Napoleonic Austrian infantry for my very generic Napoleonic Third Coalition armies

Continuing the secondhand theme of this post. A couple of books arrived in the post this week. Both are in surprisingly good condition given their age and will be enjoyable additions to by collection of wargaming books.

WW2 unit and preparing for ECW campaign games

My painting effort is dawdling along, something which often happens after finishing a project. But  while I am in-between projects I am continuing to fill the void with finishing off a few WW2 units. This week saw the completion of a Sd.Kfz. 250/10 using one of a pair of Sd.Kfz. 253 I have and a spare Pak36 found in the bits box.

The half-track and some WW2 Airfix Germans 

Armoured infantry unit

This weekend I plan to play game 3 of my English Civil War campaign. The preparation of a game starts with the selection of the terrain for the tabletop. The approach I am using in this campaign is to divide the tabletop into 6 squares each 2x2 foot (I have a 6x4 foot table). Each of these squares will contain a piece of terrain.

When choosing the terrain I use some homemade cards with terrain features drawn on them. These are shuffled and six are selected for each of the 2x2 foot squares. Some of the features are deliberately offset and not centred to show placement within the 2x2 square.

The current set of cards

If a river square is drawn, then that particular square will be treated as open terrain and the position of the river will need to be calculated. Rivers flow across the tabletop longways. Two dice are rolled, one for either side of the table (see diagram below).

An example of 6 cards drawn and placed starting left to right top row first then second.

Calculating a river's position - Dice are rolled for opposite sides and the river flows between the two marks

Once the river is in place the other selected terrain is positioned. Occasionally it may be necessary to adjust a terrain features position to accommodate the river. Then roads/tracks are added, I generally try to have two roads which avoid terrain features excluding towns, and help identify where to place any bridges.

One final note on the rivers there are two cards, one with an unfordable river and one which can be treated as fordable.

Bergepanther painted and sticky notes to track hits

The Bergepather has now left the painting table and has been added to my WW2 forces. I should really play a game of two with them, but the English Civil War games are dominating my tabletop at present with two games played through on the campaign. Both battle reports are yet to be written up.

Bergepanther and panther

I generally fill in any open areas of a model and paint a dark grey to show openings.

Moving on to a completely different subject. Pretty much all the miniatures are based as units and during a game hits are tracked with dice positioned behind the unit, or placed carefully on the stand so dice and unit move as one. In my next game I plan to us sticky notes, the smaller sized ones, to track hits. They stick quite nicely to the underside of a unit's base with a small overlap which allows hits to be recorded.

A sticky note is applied to the base underside.

Hits are marked off

WW2 armoured recovery vehicle conversion

Now that painting of English Civil War units is complete, I have a few WW2 units to build and paint and add to my existing armies. These few items will keep me occupied while I decide upon my next painting project.

First up was to repurpose a spare Jagdpanther I have to a Bergepanther, an armoured recovery vehicle equiped with a 40 ton winch, spade and 1.5 ton derrick. This conversion aims to give the impression a Bergepanther for a wargaming table rather than be a detailed scale model.

Much of the model's front is removed and replaced with plastic card

Spade attached at the rear

Ready for painting

Finally, a quick shout-out to Jonathan of Palouse Wargaming Journal who is celebrating 6 years of blogging with a competition. Jonathan is an active commenter providing many bloggers with encouraging and supportive comments. Congratulations on six years!

Progress on ECW project and additional WW2

Over the last couple of weeks I have been making steady progress on my English Civil War (ECW) project. 4 of the 32 units I need to paint have now been completed. In addition a few WW2 tanks made it on to the painting desk. They were some second hand models picked up from Hinds Figures Ltd when ordering a few additional Hinchliffe figures for my ECW units.

ECW units

Additional WW2 German units

WW2 additions

To take a break from painting of Hundred Years War miniatures, I painted up some WW2 models to add to the growing collection I seem to now have. Generally I adhere to the rule, only work on one project at a time. However, I do allow myself to add to my existing collections to create some variety when painting. This way I try and avoid the situation of multiple unfinished armies.

Puma Armoured Car and other recently painted units

I have been on the lookout for a Puma armoured car for a while now and found a second hand one from Hinds Figures Limited. I generally pick the poor or average quality models as they seem reasonable priced and I always give them a lick of paint to fit in with my existing at armies. While looking for the Puma I picked up a few more models of interest to me which I have not seen in my local model shops.

Additional models picked up and painted

New WW2 kit and rule modification

This is a short post as we have just returned from a weekend visit to Wellington (NZ) to see our kids. The day before leaving a Wespe kit I had ordered arrived, so I can now add some more mobile artillery to my ever growing WW2 armies. Since I completed what I thought were sufficient units, some six months ago. I have been adding a unit here or a unit there regularly as I have come across model kits that I remember as a young teenager or just like the look of. I am now beginning to have a storage problem (others would say I have a collecting problem).

Anyway, this will provide a little diversion from the HYW armies I am currently painting.

Arrived in the post - Wespe Sd.Kfz. 124 Weeps

I am yet to get back to my WW2 campaign. As I am playing around with some ACW rules and introducing ideas as I read through "Rally Once Again - Battle Tactics of the American Civil War" by Paddy Griffith. However, there are a couple of modifications I am adding to the Reorganising/Regrouping section of the WW2 grid-based rules. These are:

• Units can reorganise themselves to remove disruption markers providing they have not engaged in shooting (combat) during their turn and are not adjacent to any enemy occupied squares.
• All units except for poor quality troop units that only moved are able to attempt a Regroup.
• To attempt a Regroup a player rolls 1D6 per unit on any 3+ score a unit is successfully reorganised.
• Tank and elite units can re-roll failures.
• Disrupted units may never advance in squares adjacent to enemy units. If they are already in an adjacent square they may remain there.
• Any disrupted units which are adjacent to enemy units and cannot observe any friendly units, cannot attack and must attempt to move out of the adjacent square away from enemy units.

Rather than have a successful 4+ to reorganise with plus or minus factors. I chose simplify it to a 3+ and never allow poor quality troops reorganise, while elite/tank units get to re-roll failures. The change is to encourage quality units to retire and regroup for a counter attack and not just hang in there until eliminated.

Second bridge and 17 Pdr AT Gun gets painted

As I start to plan a mini WW2 campaign I have been chipping away at some much needed 20mm scenery which will be used in the campaign, and which now includes a second bridge. As with my first bridge its made from balsa wood and with detail painted on. (A previous post goes into more detail on painting.)

A Bren Gun Carrier crossed the balsa bridge.

My 17 Pounder AT Gun, a kit bash of a 25 Pounder and 5.5 Inch Gun, has come together. I used the 5.5 Inch Gun carriage with wheels from the 25 Pounder kit. The gun is the 25 Pounder Gun with an extended barrel from my box of leftover bits and plastic rod. The shield was extended by sticking plastic card to the back and then cutting to shape. It is by no means an accurate model, its construction is more aligned to the approach of conversions described in Operation Warboard by Gavin Lyall - simple and strong. By the time it has some figures clustered around it and scenic material added to the base it will look the part.

Plans to kit bash a 17 Pdr AT gun

Not much wargaming or modelling happening this week with a long weekend visit to Wellington, NZ, for my daughters graduation. We were very happy and very proud parents. While in Wellington I did pop into the local model store which I used to frequent when I lived there before returning to Melbourne, and purchased a Bren Gun Carrier and 6 Pdr AT Gun, 25 Pdr Gun and Quad, and Matador and 5.5 Inch Gun.

My NZ purchases

I will be using the 25 Pdr Gun and 5.5 Inch Guns to kit bash a 17 Pdr AT Gun. The Bren Gun Carrier was more of an impulse purchase as another one will always be a useful addition.

Next Project

I have now completed painting pretty much all the WW2 models I need. There are more than enough for a 6' x 4' table and I find I increasingly enjoy wargaming smaller games on a 4' x 4' table setup. Any more models I add will be for specific games or because I find a model I really like.

German AA unit

British Mortar Unit

Now that the house rules I am using are reasonably settled (another way to put it - I have stopped messing around with the rules) I think a little mini campaign would be fun to try out over the coming weeks.

So what is next on the painting table? Possibly some scenery and I have a few W40K Chaos kits I recently purchased to bring up my Chaos Marine army up to a reasonable size and variety of units.  This will most likely take me a few weeks, after which I will be repainting my old 25mm Minifig 100 years war figures and start using them with Lion Rampant rules. They were originally painted by myself when I was 15 years old and will need to have the paint stripped back and be repainted.