Penguin giving away toys!

Fellow Penguin Nordic Lardie Leif Erikson's blog has reached one of those milestones worth a celebration... and great one it is!. He's giving away a number of useful and interesting bit and pieces of material in the most popular scales (15mm and 20mm) that would fit in most wargamer's collection of II WW armies.

So don't hesitate to leave a nice comment and become a follower, not only because of the shiny toys but also because of the intrinsic interest of the blog content: exhaustive analysis of X-Wing releases, lessons in building and painting PSC models...  

The View from my Window

 

Sun setting in Madrid.

Clear skies in a beautiful winter evening. 

Our Sauronesque towers look in flames!

It smells Christmas

Blazing our way in! - A Chain of Command Battle Report

We played the third game of our mini-campaign in Normandy with Chain of Command. As I mentioned in my previous post, this campaign was unintended, as I realised that it was easy to link the events of the first two games into a structured and cohesive narrative.

The story unfolded as follows: after successfully breaking from the beachhead on D-Day, Lt Lozano (commanding a platoon of regular British infantry) established an advanced position in the small hamlet of Gruyere-sur-Mere in a key cross-road. In our first game, a German counterattack with a hastily made kampfguppe of different infantry units failed to eject the invaders and the German commander decided to pull out and move to a new defensive line.

Encouraged by the success in repelling the Germans, the British sent an advanced party to test the location and configuration of the German defensive positions. Unluckily they bumped head to head with a recon enemy force with the mission to seal the gap in the lines. A ferocious battle in the bocage developed, with tragic consequences for the British, who lost half of the force and broke in panic.

In the game today, Lt Lozano was given the task to penetrate the German defences after intelligence reports indicated a weak spot in the lines. In this case we used Scenario 2 “The Probe” in which the attacker must place at least one team   in the defender’s base line. This base line comprises an area 12” wide and the table side long (see maps below).

Closing with the Enemy: Book review

Michael Doubler: Closing With the Enemy: How Gis Fought the War in Europe 1941-45, University Press of Kansas (1994)

I got interested in this book after reading a review in one of the blogs I regularly follow (unfortunately cannot remember who did it: if you happen to read this, please stand up to give you the full credit).

As it can be inferred from the title, this book deals with the tactical approach of the US Army in the European campaign, mostly focused  around the battalion and company organisational levels, although making frequent deep dives into smaller unit actions.

The author attempts to dispel  the popular belief that US won the war thanks to overwhelming material and human resource, fighting along the lines provided by the field manuals and allergic to introduce any tactical innovation in the way of conducting the operations.

“Totally the opposite” writes Col. Michael Doubler. He founds an army that tore into pieces the tactical notions learnt in the training camp as soon as the first GI put his feet in North Africa, marking the beginning of its involvement in the European Theatre of Operations (ETO). He also describes an army not only geared to innovation as requested by the tactical situation at each moment, but who also spread the tactical lessons learned with gusto and high efficiency across all levels of the army organisation, having produced in the 10 months running to VE day a staggering 1.500 documents of tactical value.

US Forward Artillery Observation Team

Today I finished painting and basing a US FAO team from Warlord to reinforce my Chain of Command US forces. These minis are a real joy to paint, full of character and with really nice detail: from the watch being observed by the officer (center) also holding the telephone, to the compass held by the figure in the rignt plotting the fire coordinates onto a map. The figure of the left carries a wireless radio on his back (the antenna is still work in progress!)

FAC teams are a must to play CoC in order to direct your big mortars (battalion assets) on the table.

I'm also finishing a similar team for the Germans that I will show here in due time

Probing the Enemy Lines - A Chain of Command Report

Following the success defence of Gruyere-sur-Mere and the reject with high casualties of the German counterattack, Lt. Lozano was ordered to move forward and probe where the new enemy lines were established.

Today we played a second game of Chain of Command confronting British and German forces in Normandy. For this second stage of what unintentionally is emerging as a mini-campaign, we chose the “Patrol Scenario” of the book. In this scenario, two enemy forces advance towards the no man’s land with the intention of conquering the area in preparation for a follow-on attack.

According to the scenario instructions, each side has a base force (a 3-squads infantry platoon) and then die a roll to obtain reinforcements. Unfortunately I roll a “1” which allowed both players to buy a very low-level asset. From my list (German) I only saw as minimally useful to attach an adjutant (helps deploying forces on the table) or a medical orderly (to attend wounded leaders). I opted for the former as this would allow me the option to deploy my senior leader early on the table without penalties when attempting to put on play the rest of my force.

The View from the British Side

Ehrhardt E-V/4 Armoured Car

Barrage Miniatures has just announced a new vehicle to its growing range of WWI "rarities" in 28mm. Time now for the German Ehrhardt E-V/4 armoured car mainly used in the late war battles and which saw service almost until the IIWW.

A nice model to add to your Christmas wish list!