Partizan Scenario try out - Phooey A Franco

Yesterday evening James, Matt and myself met up at the White Hart to try out some ideas I have for one of the scenarios that we will be playing at Partizan next weekend.

After eating in the pub, we went upstairs to set up the table, unfortunately, it was a very busy evening at the club and we would be limited to a 4ft square table rather than a 6ft by 4ft. This did mean though that there were some very nice games to see.

I set up the table as per the aerial photograph and as this was for Partizan I had already pre-picked the forces and set the jump-off points up by the time the chaps had arrived.

The Republicans would be defending a village with the following Republican Militia:

Platoon Force Rating

• Green
• Command Dice: 4

Command:

• Jefe de Centuria, Superior Junior Leader, with rifle or SMG

One Squad of:

• 15 Milicianos with rifle
• 1 Miliciano with Flag

Two Squads each of:

• 15 Milicianos with rifle

One Squad of:

• 13 Milicianos with rifle
• 2 Milicianos with an LMG

Support:

• Adjutant
• Army Officer Advisor with Pistol

The Nationalists would be attacking with a Centuria of Falangista with a little army support:

Platoon Force Rating

• Green
• Command Dice: 5

Centuria Headquarters:

• Jefe de Centuria (Senior Leader) armed with pistols and/or SMG. 
• Subjefe (Senior Leader) armed with pistols and/or SMG. 
• 3 Falangistas armed with rifles.

Three Falange each of:

• Jefe de Falange, Junior Leader, armed with a rifle.
• Rifle Squad - 4 Falangistas
• Rifle Squad - 5 Falangistas
• Rifle Squad - 5 Falangistas

Support:

• Adjutant
• 70/16 Infantry Gun with 5 Crew and a Junior Leader
• Hotchkiss M1914 MMG on tripod mount, 5 crew and a Junior Leader
• Add a Flag to one squad.

It's all smart uniforms and flag waving at the start

This would give us the chance to use the additional Falange and Nationalist support weapons that I have painted recently.

To keep it simple the scenario meant that the Falangista had to capture one of two jump-off points in the Republican held village. The Nationalists started a two pronged attack with me taking a Falange up the left and Matt taking Falange up the right, pretty much where they should always be.

James was soon rushing Milicianos to man the barricades, however this is where the supporting Schnieder Howitzer and Hotchkiss machine-gun are supposed to assist the Nationalist attack. Unfortunately, the howitzer was plugging away at the barricades but having very little effect in the troops behind. Likewise, my Falangista appeared to be using .22 ammo, they were getting loads of hits on the Republicans but doing very little in the way of shock or kills.

Death to the Republican Scum

The Milicianos fire was soon starting to tell, first the Falange on the right were starting to take casualties and then my one on the right was running for the rear, arrant cowards that they are. With our numbers dwindling the Republican Jefe massed one of his squads and led them on a bayonet charge against our Falange on the right.

The Faangista were scattered, but the Hotchkiss caused great damage to the Republicans, firstly wounding and then killing their Jefe.

By now though the Nationalists were down to a single Force Morale point and things were not looking good. The however kept up a spirited defence, holding off the Republican counter attack before finally succumbing.

This was only a try-out so I have few ideas for Partizan, for a start the Republicans in four fifteens will be changed to five twelves as the large units are just too resilient fire and are deadly in close combat. The Nationalists will get an additional 15-man Falange when that gets painted - hopefully this weekend.

The images are not particularly good, the lighting at the White Hart is poor. I stopped taking after the first few phases. None of the pictures of the Republicans came out at all.

When eBay gives you lemons - paint Falangista!

Back in May I got rather carried away with an eBay auction for two lots of Empress Miniatures Spanish Foreign Legion and ended up paying about 90% retail like a div! So, the figures arrived and were counted to ensure the 33 figures were all there. I then ordered from Empress a pack each of Spanish Foreign Legion Officers and LMG teams to make up the platoon then put the lot in my 'to paint soon' pile.

On Sunday I decided to get these out and start cleaning them up, what an arse! Of the 33 figures in the eBay 'deal' there was not a single Spanish Foreign Legion model at all. I had 28 Falange, three Republican Militia and two Condor Legion figures, I will repeat 'Arse!'

Three months have passed and it's far too late to complain to the seller or raise an eBay case so I just decided to get on with it and get them painted. I already have a sizeable collection of Falange, these additional 28 will give me two more Falange of 15 to add to the Centuria. So I decided to make a start on those first. Over the past few days I have completed three batches of six and finished the bases this evening on them all, so the first eighteen are done.

I used my standard Falange scheme, just adding a bit of variance to the blanket and haversack colours.

I have also made a start on the last ten Falangista, five are base-coated and washed, the other five are still being base-coated, I hope to get them done this weekend in time for the game at Partizan.

Speaking of which, chum Mog has made us rather a snazzy couple of posters.

So, despite the bad eBay deal it's not too much of a loss, I do have 33 lovely figures to paint, plus the additional eight that I bought to go with them. Also, my Centuria of Falangista is now much larger and may fare better in our games for the additional numbers, they have not been having a good run of late. The Condor Legion and Republican Militia will all get painted and used too.

Here are a few more close-ups. I did give a coat of Vallejo Matt Varnish, but they still seem a bit glossy.

Some Nationalist and Republican support options

Since getting back from my holidays I have been very busy with the painting. My body is still adjusting from Tokyo time and I am typically waking up at 04:00AM. Putting that time to good use I have been cracking on with painting figures.

'The Other Partizan' is in a couple of weeks and I am putting on a Spanish Civil War game, so I have been painting up support troops for both the Nationalists and Republicans.

First up is a Republican T-26. In our recent games, James has been using one to great effect against my poor Falangists. So, I must have one of my own, this is an Empress Miniatures model, while the crew are from the Mutton Chop VBCW range, also sold by Empress.

The tank is a base-coat of Vallejo Russian Green, washed with Sepia Wash and then the Russian Green re-applied and highlighted by adding Dark Sand.

The Republicans cannot have it all their own way though, the Nationalists also received reinforcements.

Firstly a Hotchkiss HMG with crew, again from Empress Miniatures. The crews are painted pretty much as per my standard Nationalist way that you can find here although the shirts were done in Buff rather than Light Green Blue.

I have also added a Schneider Mountain gun and crew. The gun is done in Russian Green, very much like the T-26 above.

Eagle eyed readers will notice that I based the commander on a 25mm base so that I can use him as a Junior Leader, this means that there is a crew member missing on the base. Never fear, chum James gave me a set of the old Force of Arms Nationalist gun crew a few weeks ago so I have painted these up.

I don't think that they are the nicest of figures, I found them all a bit calves and buttocks, but they painted up ok, and they fit in size-wise with the Empress stuff as you can see here.

The photos came out a little dark, I have tried brightening and sharpening them but they are not to brilliant.

Long overdue Gurka reinforcements

I have not painted ant 14th Army figures for over a year (checking the blog, I last did some on 1st June 2013) , but I had a few spare Gurkahs from The Assault Group left over so thought it would be prudent to slap some paint on them so they could join the rest of the collection.

One of the reasons for keeping the blog is so that I can remind myself of the colours and techniques used if I ever come back to a project after an hiatus, fortunately, everything I needed to know was in the previous article.

It did not take much effort to get these painted and they can now join their comrades in the box.

Sorry about the photos, they seem to have come out a bit dark.

Re-based Gallic Chariots, Disorder and Casualty Markers

Before Victoria and I set off on our big adventure I did the lions share of the work for re-basing the Gallic chariots, some disorder markers and some casualty markers to match the majority of the stuff that I did back in July.

Since we got home I completed the work to finish off two chariots, eight disorder markers and sixteen casualty markers, these will have rings hung on them to denote unit status.

The chariots are from Warlord Games, while the casualties and shields, spears, pilum, etc are all from Gripping Beast. All are based on 2mm MDF from Warbases.

Chariots

Chariots

Chariots

Disorder markers

Disorder markers

Casualty markers

Brookhurst Hobbies

As you may know, I am on vacation with Victoria at the  moment, but the occasional hobby related opportunity crops up.

Yesterday - or it may be the day before as I crossed the International Date  Line last night - on the way tto the airport we stopped by Brockhurst Hobbies and I had an hour browsing the racks.

Eventually settling in some new dice -  see recent game reports - a Tie Fighter and a Y-Wing

No picture as the Samsung galaxy tab3 is a pile of shit and probably the worst £150 I ever spent .

EDIT: Added pictures but still more stressful than it should be

Fort Point

I am currently on holiday with the lovely Mrs Scrivs: http://scrivsontour.blogspot.com

However today my ever thoughtful missus arranged a toy soldier related activity for me when we visited Fort Point at the entrance to San Francisco Bay right under the Golden Gate Bridge.

It is an American Civil War era fort that has fantastic views of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge along with some great artifacts.