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...