WW2 Gurkhas

While taking stock of the Chindits and Gurkhas the other day, I realized the only thing I had to finish that collection (and have another army at 1000 points) was to finish up the two sections of Gurkhas... So... I did that... 

Two Sections of Gurkhas complete!

First Section

Second Section

All the Chindits and Gurkhas! 

I've created a Gallery Page for the force where you can see more - individual pics of the squads and teams and a breakdown of the force for Bolt Action (Third Edition):

WW2 Chindits and Gurkhas

I really, REALLY need to take a break from the WW2 stuff and finish Torgilius the Chamberlain for our Warhammer Quest campagin!!

(after that I'll probably be straight back to the WW2 stuff as I seem to be fired up about this at the moment and being super productive and motivated to paint and I want to ride that wave for all it's worth!! I don't have THAT much to paint to finish up a number of forces... I don't have THAT much that I need to buy to finish up many either! it would be cool to have a complete collection that I could say; "Well... those are all done, don't NEED to spend a moment stressing about unfinished business in that corner of the Game Room!") 

WW2 - Corpsmans and Casualties.

(Sounds like a role-playing game from the early 80s!?) 

Not entirely newly painted... I did just repaint the uniforms of most of these though. As the only marines I have that I'll likely ever make use of are the USMC raiders, I figured the casualty figures I have should probably get repainted to reflect the Frog Skin camouflage they're wearing, rather than the light olive drab they'd previously been painted wearing!

The Navy Corpsmen attached to the raiders I repainted a few of them, thinking that, as attachments, they may not necessarily have had the same uniform...? 

All the Corpsmen and Casualties 

The Naval Corpsmen

The Marine Raider Casualties!

I have the Gurkhas on the workbench this weekend, expect to see those painted, shortly.

I also got in a SECOND game of Bolt Action wtih Orion this week - we replayed the previous scenario, but in reverse - the Vichy trying to take the Oasis and High Points from the Americans! 

WW2 - Taking Stock of the 8th Army

 Well not the WHOLE 8th Army... just a few Diggers... 

I was tempted to call it "Taking Stock of the Desert Rats"... but, technically, the Desert Rats is just the 7th Armoured Division and, while at some point I'd love to have some of the armour the 7th fielded... there weren't no diggers in the BRITISH 7th Armoured Division. 

None of this is newly painted (well... I did repaint the 25 Pounder - as it had been olive green!?)m just taking stock of what I have and thinking about what, if anything, I might add at some future date?

All of my 8th Army in North Africa forces. 

It's not a lot... But it's a start... and to this I would totally, at some point, add a pile of armoured options - probably some Matildas to start (as that's what would have populated the Army Tank Brigades that likely would have been supporting the Australians. I going with them being Australians because... well... half of them are very definitely Australians in their iconic Slouch Hats... and the rest in tin hats could me more sensible Australians! 

Here's what this would look like in Bolt Action:

Rifle Platoon

Platoon Commander 

30 points (Regular) 

First Infantry Section 

1 NCO + 4 men (Regular ) 50 points, +5 Men @ 10, + Light Machine-Gun @15, +Submachine-Gun @4 = 119 points

Second Infantry Section 

1 NCO + 4 men (Regular ) 50 points, +5 Men @ 10, + Light Machine-Gun @15, +Submachine-Gun @4 = 119 points

Honestly I could probably mix and match these to there is an assortment of slouch hats and tin hats throughout the force... If there is just the two, though, having them in different hats makes the two sections more easy to identify!? 

Artillery Platoon

Artillery Platoon Commander

30 points (Regular) 

25 Pounder 

Light Howitzer 45 points (Regular) + AT shells @5 points + Gunshield @5 points = 55 points 

Spotter for the 25 Pounder 

+10 points

Armoured Troop

Rolls Royce Armoured Car 

70 Points (Regular) + Command Vehicle @10 = 80 points

Did Australian Infantry Divisions have Armoured Cars in their reconaissance units...? I have not idea... It's just what I happed to have (from WW1 gaming!) 

TOTAL: 443 points

Not a lot... I'd need a fair bit more to make this into a viable force... There are staggeringly few makers of metal 8th Army miniatures anymore. I think most of these were produced by Battle Honors...? and it doesn't look like they make their WW2 line anymore. Perry Miniatures and Warlord games have plastic 8th army troops and they're so cheap... it's hard to compete with that, I guess... 

So a part of me feels like maybe that's all I need and this force will predominantly be armour!? 

For right now it would do for a game of Five Men at Kursk... but kind of even lacks the stuff that could be rolled for on the random support tables... 

TO DO

I think I have a second Rolls Royce Armoured car somewhere... so I could actually make a troop of them. Other than that, I have nothing else to assemble or paint for this force at this time.

I did order 2 Pounder and 6 Pounder Anti-Tank Guns and teams... they should be here next week. But that will really only add 50 and 70 points, respectively...  Luckily, they show up as part of an Artillery Battery (Platoon) so I don't need to dig up another officer!

STILL TO GET

I'd love to get a bunch of armour for these - and I don't mean Second El Alamein/Supercharge/Tunisa kind of Desert War... I'd love to have a force of those crazy little (and BIG) tanks they had in North Africa when the Italians invaded or for Wavell's offensive (Operation Compass) up to the introduction of the Afrikakorps... 

Like the Mk VI Light Tank, or the Cruiser Mk I (A9), or Cruiser Mk II (A10), or Cruiser Mk III (A13)... or maybe the Matilda II - which, as I mentioned, was what populated the Army Tank Brigades which would have been supporting Australian Divisions... I'm a little reluctant to get those as they had such crazy thick armour, it was difficult for the Italians (and later Germans) to actually destroy them with the guns they had available at the time (learned THAT playing Flames of War)... and My intentions are always to build things that make historical sense and not take stupid broken stuff that my opposing force wouldn't be able to deal with...!? That's not fun!?

(having a look at the rules, it is only rated as Medium Tank 8+... so.. that isn't THAT bad...) 

Warlord Games DOES sell a Matilda II troop... That would add 475 points to the force! 

It'll be a while before I can add anything else to this. I went a little overboard ordering things the last few weeks... and really need to get all the stuff I have (or at least the stuff I recently bought) painted before I go buying anything else! 

I may or may not add a heavy weapons platoon with mortars and machine-guns... 

WW2 - Taking Stock of the Chindits and Gurkhas

I have a small force of Commonwealth forces (British and Gurkhas) for fighting against the Japanese in the Far East. I guess they could just be called "14th Army" troops..? 

All the forces. I just need to paint the two squads of Gurkhas to finish these!!

In Bolt Action, this could look like:

Chindit Rifle Platoon

Chindit Platoon Command - 39 points (Veteran) + 1 Man @13 = 52

Chindits Section NCO + 4 men 70 points (Veteran), +5 Men @14, + LMG @15 = 155

Chindits Section NCO + 4 men 70 points (Veteran), +5 Men @14, + LMG @15, + SMG @4 = 159

Medic 30 points (Veteran) + 1 man(mule?) @11  = 42

Light Mortar Team 39 points (Veteran) 

Forward Observer 90 (Veteran), +1 Man @ 11pts = 101

Gurkha Rifle Platoon

Gurkha Platoon Command - 39 points (Veteran) + 1 Man @13 = 52

Gurkha Section NCO + 4 men 75 points (Veteran), +5 Men @15, + LMG @15 = 165

Gurkha Section NCO + 4 men 75 points (Veteran), +4 Men @15, + LMG @15 = 150

Chindit Heavy Weapons Platoon 

Heavy Weapon Platoon Command 39 points (Veteran) + 1 Man(mule?) @13 = 52

Machine-Gun Team 65 points (Veteran) 

Machine-Gun Team 65 points (Veteran) 

TOTAL: 1097

Just over 1000 points! Yay! 

I could lose the Forward Observer and be just under 1000! 

Conveniently, one of the options for the Japanese forces (single platoon, no tanks) is also just under 1000 points - so I have two matched forces of primarily infantry - with no armour! 

The mules I've treated as "extra men" with the Medic and Heavy Weapons Platoon Commander - I figure the mules would be carrying extra supplies for the medic or Heavy Weapons Platoon... could take a bullet for the medic or platoon commander and, in a desperate situation, could be ornery enough to deal a blow in close assault!? 

The only plan I have for these right now is to finish painting the Gurkhas.. 

Not sure what I could even add to them? I guess a third squad of Gurkhas and/or Chindits? A Medium Mortar Team? Maybe an anti-tank rifle or PIAT? Sniper? (not sure where it'd GET some of these!?). Some combination of those could bring them to 1250... 

Not going to worry about it for the moment!

Bolt Action: Operation Torch Part 2

15 November 1942

Pushing out further into the desert our heroes in the 92nd infantry were tasked with securing two high points and an oasis nestled between them! A platoon and two tanks were despatched to clear off any Vichy that might be trying to hold on to them. 

My copy of Bolt Action arrived today. Usually on Tuesday we play Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound. But Nick was busy working on a costume for a show this friday, so we cancelled... but then Orion came over to play some more Bolt Action! 

I still haven't had a chance to fully read through the rules. I'm mostly going on memory of how the first edition worked and the quick reference sheet. I looked up a few things to clarify stuff I hadn't bee sure about, but I really need to give it a thorough read-through... 

We played Points Defence (a "story scenario") where a small force of Vichy French were holding three objectives and the Americans had to wrest at least two of them away from the French. 

We both used similar forces to last time. Orion dropped the M10 and added a Mortar team and made a few of the units veteran. I ditched the tank and a squad of regulars and all the VB launchers and added an understrength platoon of French Foreign Legionnaires. 

The French position from the South East. Point 435 in the foreground had a Machine-Gun Team sitting on the ridge with a Squad of Moroccan Tirailleurs on the reverse slope. The Tirailleur Platoon Headquarters was stationed in a ruined tower (along with the platoon medic). The Second Squad of Tirailleurs was stationed in the Oasis. 

 

From the Southwest corner. A Forward Observer Team sits atop Point 437. Behind the rise are Mortars and a close-supporting 75mm Howitzer (and some accompanying staff)  

The second squad of Moroccan Tirailleurs waiting in the Oasis. 

The French Foreign Legion Platoon was waiting in reserve. 

After a brief preperatory barrage, the Americans started to close with the Oasis and Point 435 - the tanks hammering the latter with shell and machine-gun fire, destroying the MG before it even got off a shot. 

Mortar, Sniper Team, Forward Air Controllers and a Bazooka Team moving into positions in the foreground, above. 

The first Moroccan Tirailleur squad, behind Point 435 was ordered to reposition into the Oasis, to support the solitary squad holding it, which seemed the more likely main destination of the attacking Americans. 

Tanks moving up supported by infantry squads. 

POW! firing upon Point 435 and destroying the MG team positioned there! 

At the beginning of the second turn, the artillery barrage my Forward Observers had called in on the first turn arrived. It went wide... but saturated a rather large area and still hit the original target - and a few others as well!! 

I'm going to be sad when I play something that ISN'T French and doesn't get these two barrages per game... 

Initially I was just trying to hit the Mortar Team, but the barrage ended up catching the Bazooka and the Snipers AND the Forward Air Controllers!! It didn't kill anyone - or even seriously injure anyone - but it sure did make a few people keep their heads down! 

Orions Forward Air Controller had called in an air strike... unfortunately a rookie pilot thought the attacking American Stuart tank as a "Kraut tank" and attacked that instead of the French holding the oasis! The Tank survived the attack - but was damaged and the crew extremely rattled! 

The next round another French artillery barrage landed among some of the attacking infantry and the Sherman tank. Again, there were no serious injuries, but it did momentarily blunt the attack and pin many of the Americans down. 

Eventually the part of the platoon of French Foreign Legionairres arrived to hold behing Point 435. 

The Stuart and supporting squad of US infantry regained the advance on the Oasis, but the infantry began taking fire from the Moroccans within, taking serious casualties! 

The Bazooka team maneuvered to a spot where it could fire on the French 75! Their first shot killed of the guns crew! 

The American attack stalled as more artillery and mortar fire was brought to bear! 

The Tanks started filling the treed area around the oasis with fire, causing some casualties among the Moroccans! 

Another air attack... another rookie pilot... completely missed the forward observers on Point 437 and instead attacked the Artillery Battery Commander - killing him - but leaving the guns and crews and forward observers untouched! 

The Platoon command team maneuvered around to a position where they could close assault the American Bazooka Team! After a brief and violent melee, the two Americans were killed and the Platoon Sergeant and Runner were seriously injured - but the American threat had been neutralized! 

(and we learned how close combat worked!) 

Not to be outdone, the single surviving member of the infantry squad that had been following the Stuart, charged the French in the Oasis! Grossly outnumbered, he was almost instantly killed... but not before injuring two Moroccans in the spray of bullets from his Thompson Submachine-gun! 

The Stuart also decided to assault the Oasis and cleared away the rest of the Moroccan Squad. 

At that point, however, we called it... there was NO WAY the Americans were going to get enough infantry onto the objectives before the end of the game! 

I guess that's why you give squads anti-tank grenades - especially when you don't really have ANY other anti-tank weapons!

I'm still hopeful and think the game has definite possibilities... there are a few things that I'm not so sure about... but hopefully a full read-through of the rules may clear things up. 

I don't know about scenarios where you attack troops holding a position with a roughly equivalent force!? That seems odd to me... 

We agreed to try and play the same scenario on Friday but in reverse roles - a Vichy counter-attack trying to shift Americans off of a position that they're holding! 

WW2 - Italian Weapons Teams

Today I finished up the Italian Weapons Teams that arrived last week. The miniatures were Bersaglieri, but I tried carving off the feathers on the side of their helmets. Some came off okay. Some ended up with damaged helmets. On one I shattered half the rifle slung across the back, and ended up having to carve the rest of it off as well. Despite these setbacks, I think they turned out pretty okay.... 

After the lack of success I had with the French VB launchers in our first game, I'm not sure how useful!?

Italian Weapons Teams - Anti-Tank Rifle, Light Mortar (Brixia) and Marksman. 

Italian Army Solothurn Anti-Tank Rifle 

Italian Army Brixia Model 35 Light Mortar

Italian Army Marksman Team

Italian Army Rifle Platoon

Italian Army Rifle Platoon plus supporting elements of the Heavy Weapons Platoon

ALL THE ITALIANS!? 

Also, this arrived today! With the actual lists, I expect I'll do a bunch more stock-taking this week... (and a game report later in the week!). 

WW2 - US Marine Corps Raiders

A few more soldiers of the Second World War rolling off the workbench this week! 

An assortment of USMC Raiders from Warlord games. 

These are joining a few raiders I already had (from Brigade Games, I think..?) 

These new ones took WAY TOO LONG to paint!? I painted and repainted them ALL a few times as I just wasn't happy with the frog skin camouflage... It STILL doesn't QUITE match the previously painted ones (which were probably painted between 10-15 years ago!? with paints I made no notes about and likely no longer have!?) 

I made notes this time!!

Just in case I buy more of them... 

Which would be silly... 

I have enough, now that I could organize these into an understrength platoon with a command team of three and three squads of eight... there are a CrAzY number of Thompson submachine-guns and B.A.R.s... I was wondering if I'd need to find some actual RIFLEmen to make something remotely historical... but according to the first edition rules for Marines - which doesn't have a listing for Marine Raiders, specifically - an early war squad can have 5-8 men and up to THREE submachine-guns and TWO BAR!? 

In mid-late war the squads can have up to 12 men and THREE men can have BARs and three men can have SHOTGUNS?!

When my book arrives I'll figure out how many points this is for Bolt Action. 

I have a handful of regular USMC (like, one infantry infantry squad and a four medics and four casualties) and I might just repaint their uniforms in the Frog Skin camouflage to look a little more the rest of these. There's no point in having ONE  squad of regular infantry, is there...? (Unless I was going to use them for Embassy guard duty in some pulp adventure game..?) 

WW2 - Taking Stock of the Fallschirmjägers

This weekend I also took stock of the small force of Fallschirmjägers that I have - to see how close they might be to fielding a playable force for Bolt Action (Third Edition)... Or, at least, a force that is 1000-1250 points in Bolt Action (Third Edition) - as I really have no idea what makes a "good" or "playable" force in the game... 

Of all the World War Two figures I have, this is one collection that has barely any of them painted!? MOST of the World War Two forces, with the exception of the Italians and DAK and my Desert Raider (SAS/LRDG) trucks, most, if not all are painted! 

These I only ever painted a handful testing out schemes for camouflage jump smocks... and I could never decide if I wanted to paint them for early war - Blitzkrieg or Operations Sea Lion - or for use in Crete or North Africa or Italy... or for the Eastern Front...? 

When I started considering finally getting them painted a few weeks ago, a part of me thought I should paint them for use in the Mediterranean.. but then returned to the idea of Operation Sea Lion (thanks in no small part to the fun little games Alan has been playing over at The Duchy of Tradgardland). Ultimately I've decided to go with a Mediterranean them for them - as much of the other stuff I'm working on is for the campaigns in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy - and I'll just have to enjoy Fallshirmjägers landing on Jolly Old England vicariously through Alan's blog. 

As with the Japanese I took stock of earlier this weekend, Fallschirmjägers seem to have a preponderance of light machine-guns... and my initial plan was to try and incorporate ALL of them into a force of two platoons!? 

This would look like:

1st Fallshirmjäger Platoon

Platoon Commander - 1st Lieutenant - 39pts (Veteran) + 1 men @13pts per man (Veteran) = 52pts

Fallshirmjäger Squad - 1 NCO and 4 men with Rifles 70pts (Veteran), light machine gun for +15pts, SMG for + 4 pts = 89

Fallshirmjäger Squad - 1 NCO and 4 men with Rifles 70pts (Veteran), light machine gun for +15pts, SMG for + 4 pts = 89

Fallshirmjäger Squad - 1 NCO and 4 men with Rifles 70pts (Veteran), light machine gun for +15pts, SMG for + 4 pts = 89

Forward Observer (air force or artillery) 90pts (Veteran), +2 men @14pts  = 118

Medic 30pts (Veteran)

Light Mortar Team 39pts (Veteran)

2nd  Fallshirmjäger Platoon

Platoon Commander - 1st Lieutenant - 39pts (Veteran) + 1 men @13pts per man (Veteran) = 52pts

Fallshirmjäger Squad - 1 NCO and 4 men with Rifles 70pts (Veteran), light machine gun for +15pts, SMG for + 4 pts = 89

Fallshirmjäger Squad - 1 NCO and 4 men with Rifles 70pts (Veteran), light machine gun for +15pts, SMG for + 4 pts = 89

Fallshirmjäger Squad - 1 NCO and 4 men with Rifles 70pts (Veteran), light machine gun for +15pts, SMG for + 4 pts = 89

Heavy Weapons Platoon

Platoon Commander (2nd Lieutenant) 39pts (Veteran) - don’t actually HAVE a model for this… unless I grab one of those spares in the background!? 

Machine Gun Team  - 65pts (Veteran) 

Mortar Team -  45pts (Regular) 

Total: 974pts

Soooo... pretty close to 1000 - which is a good place to start!  

To this I could add… 

+1 man in each squad (6) @ 14pts each = +84pts 

+1 man to Heavy Weapons Platoon command = +13pts

Artillery Platoon

Platoon Commander - 1st Lieutenant - 39pts (Veteran) + 1 men @13pts per man (Veteran) = 52pts

2.8 cm schwere Panzerbüchse 41 - 65 (Veteran) 

7.5 cm Leichtgeschütz 40 - 59pts (Veteran) 

That would bring the total to 1247 points! 

Or maybe add a company commander (instead of the extra men in the squads)...? 

Or make the second platoon into pioneers? but maybe with just two squads? 

I don't know... I guess there are a lot of ways to play around with this. The important thing is, I HAVE enough stuff that I can kind of pull off a 1000 point force if I got all this painted up. If I add an artillery platoon with two guns and a platoon commander and a handful of extra guys (which could be accomplished by ordering four pack sof minis from Perry Miniatures)... I can make it 1250...

Because I have NO IDEA if a larger number of understrength squads is better or worse than a smaller number of larger squads (and can kind of see advantages and drawbacks to both!) I wondered if I dropped two of the LMG teams and organized them all into a single platoon of slightly larger squads what that would look like: 

(not going to lie, I'm not fond of prone LMG teams, which is also a reason I'm considering a single platoon of four squads - so I can ditch that MG team!) 

Fallshirmjäger Platoon

Platoon Commander - 1st Lieutenant - 39pts (Veteran) + 2 men @13pts each (Veteran) = 65pts

Fallshirmjäger Squad - 1 NCO and 4 men with Rifles 70pts (Veteran), +1 Man @ 14pts , light machine gun for +15pts, SMG for + 4 pts = 103

Fallshirmjäger Squad - 1 NCO and 4 men with Rifles 70pts (Veteran), +1 Man @ 14pts , light machine gun for +15pts, SMG for + 4 pts = 103

Fallshirmjäger Squad - 1 NCO and 4 men with Rifles 70pts (Veteran), +1 Man @ 14pts , light machine gun for +15pts, SMG for + 4 pts = 103

Fallshirmjäger Squad - 1 NCO and 4 men with Rifles 70pts (Veteran), +1 Man @ 14pts , light machine gun for +15pts, SMG for + 4 pts = 103

Forward Observer (air force or artillery) 90pts (Veteran), +2 men @14pts  = 118

Medic 30pts (Veteran)

Light Mortar Team 39pts (Veteran)

Heavy Weapons Platoon

Platoon Commander (2nd Lieutenant) 39pts (Veteran) + 1 men @13pts (Veteran) = 52pts

Machine Gun Team  - 65pts (Veteran) 

Mortar Team -  45pts (Regular) 

TOTAL: 826pts

Again, to this I could add… 

Artillery Platoon

Platoon Commander - 1st Lieutenant - 39pts (Veteran) + 1 men @13pts per man (Veteran) = 52pts

2.8 cm schwere Panzerbüchse 41 - 65 (Veteran) 

7.5 cm Leichtgeschütz 40 - 59pts (Veteran) 

Which would bring the total to 1002 points! Dammit! Where do I lose 2 points?!  One of the platoon commands loses one of their extra men, I guess…which would make it 989

What could I add to make it 1250, though…? 

I have a few ideas... but for now this is all fine and I just need to work on painting these up and then acquiring the Schwere Panzerbüchse 41 and Leichtgeschütz 40 and additional platoon commanders... then I'll worry about what other options could be considered... 

The three groups of three soldiers lurking in the background of the above pics that aren't really accounted for in the lists

Three random dudes that look like Pioneers...? One thing I might consider is making a two platoon force, but having the second platoon have only two squads of pioneers...? They would mostly be regular Fallschirmjägers with these three mixed into them - I can't seem to find any other Fallschirmjäger pioneers... and I have no idea where these even came from!? I thought they might be Bolt Action minatures from Warlord Games. But if Warlord made them in the past, they do not seem to any longer! 

When I get to later parts of the war, I can add in these guys with FG42s... 

Three guys with captures weapons... There were five in the pack the other two were a guy with a soviet submachinegun (which i left on another table and forgot to include in the pick) and a guy with a rifle (possibly a soviet one? it was close enough so he's hiding in one of the regular squads.... I might use the guy with the thompson... I don't care for the prone one with the sten (because he's on an odd-sized base) and the one with the M1 Carbine looks like that rifle barrel is going to break off... which I HATE... 

Speaking of broken barrels... this is why I may end up using the Thompson! (and an additional reason to go with the single platoon)... GAH!? 

There will probably be more of this in the next few weeks as I figure out what I might need - if anything - for each collection...