AAR - Pikes and Panzers

A two-for-one after-action report today: a game of Pikeman's Lament followed by Iron Cross. (Scroll down for the Panzers)

Russell brought his 15mm miniatures and terrain over to the shed for a game of English Civil War using the Pikeman's Lament ruleset. PL is really easy to pick up, but provides some fun gaming as the uncertainty about passing the various activation tests means that nothing ever quite turns out as you want it to. Not knowing much about the ECW period hasn't really hampered me either: I've managed to win a couple of games out of the few that we have played over the last couple of months.

We both started with 24 points of troops, plus an officer, as per the rules, though because Russell had some "Commanded Shot" units, he had one more unit on the table than me. I had two units of Trotters (slower cavalry with guns), two units of pikes and two units of muskets, which I deployed on my table edge.

Russell advanced a lot more quickly (better dice rolling), so managed to bring his Commanded Shot into range quite quickly.

On unit of my pikes pushed forward as quickly as possible intending to have a "push of pikes", but never quite made it as far as his pikemen because of the infernal Commanded Shot.

On the other side of the table, my Trotters held off his Gallopers for a couple of turns, though after several turns of ineffectual combat, I lost one too many units (after Wavering) and my army routed from the battlefield.

Thankfully, my knowledge of WWII permits to write a more informed after-action report of a game of Iron Cross. We played the Capture scenario again, but with me taking the role of defender (Greeks) this time versus Russell as the attacker, who had a very well equipped Panzer army. 

All of my defenders started the game hidden, which caused the advancing Germans to cautiously move forward. The centre of the gaming table had a church surrounded by a stone wall, with an incomplete barbed wire fence flanked by trees and vineyards off to either flank.

I used my new terrain pieces on this board, which provided a bit of cover for the attackers.

One of the great advantages of being a hidden defender is that you get lots of dummy tokens to place around the battlefield.

As soon as some German infantry disembarked from their transport, the Greek sniper opened up from behind the church bell tower...where else are snipers supposed to go?  He successfully engaged the infantry placing down plenty of accurate shots before he was spotted. The heavy machine gun, also placed within the compound, opened up on the same units causing lots of damage.

A couple of turns into the game, the Germans started advancing on a broad front, necessitating the revealing of more hidden Greek troops. The supporting panzers were still hanging back near their starting point trading shots with a single anti-tank gun.

With the German attack stalling, Hauptman Russ ordered his scout units forward, only for them to stumble onto a hidden anti-tank rifle.

In the centre of the battleground, the Greeks, sensing victory, skirmished forward aggressively.

However, on their right flank, things started to turn sour. The Greek infantry faced panzers crashing through the barbed wire, their commander having foolishly chosen to place all his anti-tank weapons in the centre and left of the battlefield.

Back in the centre, the Greeks rapidly deployed additional units in form of some captured Italian CV-35 light tanks to start putting an increasing weight of fire onto the German infantry.

On the left flank, a couple of units of infantry and an anti-tank rifle caused more casualties to the German motorised units, who were lacking infantry support, who were in turn suffering a pounding from the resilient Greeks.

The gap in the right flank was plugged following the rapid redeployment of a mountain gun and some additional infantry units.

Late in the game, the Greeks, with their blood up, advanced incautiously and broke through the German line causing a rout.

The Greeks certainly benefited from being dug in and hidden for the first couple of turns, which enabled me to reactivate just a couple of units many times (and take several important morale checks), which slowed the German advance sufficiently. Another fun game and, unusually, one that I won!

Operation Marita - German invasion of Greece

I've been working on painting up a German invasion force and defending Greeks, supported by some Brits, for a few months now. The armies shown here have been put together for Iron Cross, where a handful of miniatures represents an infantry or support unit and one vehicle per vehicle unit.

Other than adding tufts and flock to the bases, I finally finished all of the miniatures this afternoon. Here is the whole of the Allied forces, awaiting some armoured support...

The core of the force is made of an HQ squad...

...and four infantry platoons

A sniper is really useful when defending, which I am expecting to be doing in the majority of scenarios with this Greek army.

A couple of CV-35s (captured from the Italians), which are useful for putting down heavy fire onto infantry.

A couple of infantry support units: a medium machine gun (again, good for putting down a weight of fire and stopping infantry assaults) and a mortar team, which I mainly use to cause units-in-cover to move and lose their cover bonus, which is especially useful for disrupting support weapons and limiting their rate of fire.

A Skoda M.15 75mm mountain gun, an anti-tank rifle, and an 'Elephantino' anti-tank gun to provide some heavier fire against advancing panzers.

In support of the Greeks, I've got some extra British infantry mounted in a lorry. I've also got a British 2 pounder anti-tank gun on the painting pile to provide extra AT punch.

I've also got a few more armoured vehicles to paint for the British

• a platoon of universal carriers to add further mobility to the reserves, 
• a couple of Vickers MkVI's just for the nuisance value, and
• a couple of A13's which have a reasonable chance against the panzers.

I plan on making some terrain pieces too: trench works to give the defenders some protection and barbed wire and minefields to slow them down a little and channel the enemy's advance onto the AT guns.

On the attack are the Germans with 3 x Panzer 38(t)s, 2 x Panzer IVs and 6 x Panzer IIIs...

...and 1 x HQ unit, 6 x infantry squads (3 in trucks), a mortar team, an HMG team, a Pak36 AT gun, 2 x anti-tank rifle teams, and 2 x teams of Panzerjagers armed with AT grenades. A formidable force!

A selection of German armour. I have no idea how the Greeks are going to stop that lot!  I might need to "dig" a few anti-tank ditches in addition to making the other terrain pieces to stop the Greeks from being overrun immediately.

German panzers scouting ahead of the main force...

Greek anti-tank units concealed in the pine forest lie in wait...

I will crack on with making the terrain pieces now and also finish off the British armoured units and then maybe by then we will be out of lockdown and get some gaming in.

Greek Mobile Support (CV-35s)

I've finished painting a pair of captured CV 35 tankettes for my Greek force. They are armed with dual machine guns, so no match for the German panzers, but useful as mobile pillboxes to suppress the attacking infantry.

They are a boring green, but I did add some hand-painted national identification flags to the hull sides. ;-)

These tankettes are pretty small - some Greek infantry figures alongside the tankettes for comparison.

More Greeks to come soon (plus some I have already painted here). The tankettes are from Company B; figures from Great Escape Games.

Some more WWII Greek Infantry

I've not been particularly productive so far in 2021...probably general apathy brought on by being in lockdown for so long. Anyway, I have painted some more Greek Evzones from Great Escape Games. I've fully finished, other then adding some vegetation to the bases, 21 individual figures now; 23 left to finish, plus the mortar and anti-gun models. 

Here are a few shots of a little vignette containing three infantry figures. I have started basing some figures on multi stands like this, even though they are 28mm, because it makes moving them around the gaming table so much easier. I intend to use this army for Iron Cross, so there is no requirement to have them based individually anyway.

I have also started work on painting two (captured from the Italians) CV-35 tankettes. I have only applied the base coat of dark green so far. I started off using an airbrush, but gave up with that after three coats: there are so many little nooks and crannies on the model that it is virtually impossible to get the airbrush angled correctly, so I ended up painting a couple of watery coats all over and into the many recessed areas.

I wish that I had bought a tank commander and stuck him in the top hatch to reassure me that they are the correct scale! Every time I look at them I think they are 15mm sized models! Here is a CV-35 with the Greek Lochagos.

These tankettes are tiny in comparison to every other armoured fighting vehicle; it must have been terrifying for the crews to go into battle during the Second World War in such a diminutive bit of kit. Here is what it looks like next to a Panzer 38(t) in the same 1/56 scale.

The CV-35s are only armed with machine guns, so won't be tasked with taking on the Panzers, but will certainly have to keep out of their way or get trampled beneath the tracks. It should make for some interesting gaming!

The CV-35s are from Company B, the Panzer 38(t) is from Warlord Games and the infantry figures are from Great Escape Games.

Greek infantry figures

I have started painting some Greek infantry from the Great Escape Games range. I intend to use them in games of Iron Cross, in an Invasion of Greece scenario, so these first 10 figures will represent two platoons.

The colours I used (this helps me to remember in case I come back at a later date and want to add more figures to the existing army) were all from Vallejo Model Color range. I based the colours on some photos of a group of WWII Greek re-enactors, who I assume have paid plenty of attention to getting the authenticity of the uniform correct.

• Helmets - 70890 Reflective Green
• Tunics, trousers and greatcoats - 70924 Russian Uniform WWII (painted over with a wash of Citadel Agrax Earthshade to make the green a bit browner)
• Rifles and webbing - 70846 Mahogany Brown
• Metal - 70995 German Grey
• Ammo pouches and holsters - 70822 German Cam Black Brown
• Bags - 70882 Middlestone
• Puttees and waterbottle cover - 70921 English Uniform
• Boots - 70843 Cork Brown
• Cap badges and rank insignia - 70824 German Cam Orange Ochre
• Collar tabs - 70946 Dark red

The bases are 4Ground 'New Wood' with a dry brush of Dulux Sandstone.

Some of the figures have "bushy tails" on the back of their caps (does anyone know what these are called?), which I have painted black and very lightly dry-brushed with 70991 Dark Sea Grey to pick out the detail.

I have so far purchased 20 infantry + 4 HQ figures; a mortar; a heavy machine gun; a sniper team; three anti-tank units and a couple of captured Italian CV35 tankettes.

These will be supplemented by several squads of British infantry and a 2 pounder. I've got a variety of early war British tanks too, so just need to research which ones can be fielded in Greece.

I've not worked out the points value for Iron Cross yet, but it seems like I have enough to hold back the invading Germans. Just need lockdown to be over so that I can get back to some tabletop gaming!