CoC Italian Desert Patrol Markers WIP

As mentioned in my previous post I already have quite a few painted 15mm Italians for North Africa (for which I can't take any credit), so this seemed like the most appropriate place to start building my Patrol Markers. Flicking through the Chain of Command scenaios it appears that six markers is the most I will ever need (for Scenario 5: 'Flank Attack'), which is emminently managable.  With this in mind I started picking suitable miniatures out of my KR case, and put together the following:

An unbuttoned Autoblinda 41 scouting ahead.

Two L3/35s and a brave/foolhardy tank commander.

A broken-down L6/40 with unhelpful driver. Camouflage needs finishing.

A parked Autoblinda 41 and radioman.

A Fiat CR.42 Falco - ace model, but still need to work out how to mount it.

 

 

By far and away my favourite is this little L3/35 cresting a dune...

Look at him, going as fast as his tiny running wheels will carry him.

 ... which is my attempt at a homage to this fantastic Italian propoganda picture.

If only there had been sand dunes on the Eastern Front.

The markers themselves are 60mm bases which have been textured with wood filler sculpted into vague dunes, then had the wheels of the vehicles dragged through it to create some tyre-marks, and finally had very fine sand dumped on them whilst still wet. This has adhered to the filler to provide a suitably textured surface. These will then get some coarser sand and the odd bit of gravel stuck to them with a bit of a PVA to make some more stoney ground, and then I intend to undercoat and paint them - though I am sure Darren will suggest I don't need to. Add the odd bit of yellowed static grass after painting for parched and dried up vegetation, and I'm away.

Of course these markers are best suited to the Fucilieri, but I intend to do some more appropriate to the Bersagilieri later on - with a suitable focus on Motociclisti, but I'm also thinking of putting in some Auto-Sahariana in AS.42s, as I'll mainly be fielding them to counter the SAS and LRDG. More on them - and the other British and Commonwealth forces - later. 

Bi-curious Italians Hungry For CoC

With Operation Stag out of the way - and the majority of us extracted from the jungle with only minor damage to our sanity - I can once again contemplate some hobby activity which doesn't solely consist of repetitively cleaning up and basing an entire Battlefront PAVN infantry battalion.

The horror... the horror...

Numerous distractions aside (15mm ACW anyone?), my main aims for this year were to get a 6mm Soviet force together for Team Yankee and to use the numerous 15mm WW2 miniatures I own (initially purchased for Bolt Action) to give the supposedly far superior Chain of Command a go.

The book features the usual high quality Lardy production values...

Ostensibly, it shouldn't be too hard to switch from 1940k to Chain of Command. The basing conventions are the same (no pesky element bases), both systems represent combat at a platoon level, and whilst the range of hardware available in the supporting list can be pretty wide it seems from a superficial reading of the CoC rules that you are likely to be fielding far less supporting units. So any viable and faintly historically accurate Bolt Action platoon should be pretty much ready to go.

But I then got thinking about one of the more unique mechanics of Chain of Command - and the aspect that got me interested when I first heard about it - the Patrol Phase. During the initial deployment stage, both players take part in a mini-game which represents them reconnoitring the board and attempting to find and 'fix' their opponents in play to gain a tactical advantage against them when they deploy their forces. Or that's how I understand it at least... I've not actually played yet!

Given that we will be playing the rules as written, just scaling down to 15mm for a slightly more realistic experience as we did with Bolt Action, this offers a fun hobby opportunity with regard to the Patrol Markers and Jump-off Points. The rules state that Patrol Markers should be approximately 2.5" in diameter, and when playing in 28mm that they should feature some appropriate national symbols to denote which is which. 2.5" is close enough to the 60mm MDF bases I have kicking around for government work, and in 15mm is more than large enough to put together some cool little dioramas representing the various reconnaissance forces each side has at their disposal.

The title of this photo is 'Jeep Mania', which is an actual condition that Tom has.

(This totally wasn't my idea by the way - but it seemed far too good of one not to pinch. I've now long forgotten where I first saw it, but it might have been on www.lead-adventure.de)


The rules are a little bit less clear about Jump-off Points ("...an unobtrusive vignette...") but similarly offer an excellent opportunity to build some characterful dioramas - and Battlefront and other companies already produce a number of theatre-specific Objective Markers which would work really well and which take up the same dimensions as a large Flames of War base, so this will be my starting point. In fact, I already own one for the Italians of an officer sitting down to his spaghetti!
 

Other Italian cultural stereotypes are available...

Initially I was just thinking of adding to my existing Paracadutisti Nembo force and going from there. However, there aren't actually any published army lists for Mid/Late War Italian Paratroopers - and whilst there are some useful tools out there like the Coc Calculator to help you work out your forces, and bloggers like Andy Duffell over on Tiny Hordes putting out some exhaustive lists for the Italian Theatre of their own devising, it seemed sensible to go with one of the Lardies own published force lists for my first foray into Chain of Command.

Fortunately for me, Too Fat Lardies have been very good at supporting Chain of Command over on their blog Lard Island - releasing lists for plenty of theatres which fell outside of the D-Day and beyond scope of the main rulebook, including some very interesting ones which proceeded WW2 altogether like the Spanish Civil War and the Abyssinian War.

The most interesting theatre for me though has always been North Africa, and in particular the early stages of the conflict- when men were men, tanks were awful, and armoured cars went 'swanning around in the blue'. Luckily again the Lardies have me covered, with lists for both the Italian army in East and North Africa in 1940 and the early desert British circa Operation Compass.

Whilst they've never properly graced the table outside of the odd game of Tank War, I do actually have quite a few North Africa miniatures for all the different sides, in various states of completion. This includes a whole Flames of War Bergsagilieri Army - painted to a far higher standard than I could muster - bought off eBay a while ago. Why not use Chain of Command as an excuse to whip my existing miniatures into shape and start getting them to the table? Why not indeed.

One thing I won't be doing, however, is bettering this amazing Afrika Korps objective marker...!

There is also a mini Indiana Jones, with mini anachronistic Panzerfaust. AMAZEBALLS.

Dunny on the Wold (aka Dry Brushton)

Four Gripping Beast Buildings, purchased a few years back.

After an undercoat of Army Painter Black Primer all four buildings were dry brushed all over with Vallejo 826 German Camo Medium Brown.

Then the thatch was dry brushed with 875 Beige Brown and finally 873 US Field Drab

The buildings were then dry brushed with 886 Green Grey and the Church was finally dry brushed with 884 Stone Grey.

I think the muted tones and grey weathered wood looks really effective.

Batman Begins: Cargo ship completed

The MSV Ironsides build is complete!

Great value for money, it's 75cm long with 6 cargo containers, a radioactive material container and a couple of small box crates. 

Quality is very good parts were easy to pop out and there was only a little bit of filing on a couple of items to get a good fit. Parts are well planned and fix together for glueing without the need to clamp or deploy rubber bands. Build was a leisurely day and nights work.

Nice detail in the cabin.

The wheel turns and the lever and control panel detailing is nice.

Simple kit highly recommended, can be purchased from TT Combat here

Whilst I was building the cargo ship I busted out some lamp posts from Knight Models.

Quality of the cut on these was not as good (laser had not cut all the way through on some parts) and 2 were lost to wastage. They were however cheap and I got 6 out of 8 which is enough for BMG.

Batman Begins: ahoy there mateys!

Some WIP shots of TT Combats MSV Ironsides alongside the test dockside wall

Very nice kit.

Mr Messy is pleased.

Batman (Board) Begins

New project time, a three by three foot board for the Batman Miniatures Game (BMG). The board will also be used for Infinity, Marvel, Zombie Post Apoc, Moderns and any near future stuff.

The first board is going to be down the docks and for extra challenge is going to be laid out diagonally.

The centrepiece of the board will be the MSV Ironsides model by TT Combat. That will sit across the board in a rectangular dock. One side will probably have a stone wall the other will be faced with wood.

Rather than churning out area terrain to quickly get a game going this time the main aim is to take a little longer over the details so this is a test piece before starting on the real thing.

Paracadutisti Month 3 - Well, someone has to sell the ice-cream

Month 3 marks the start of everyone's second platoon, and also the halfway point for those of us looking to build a whole company (errr... hopefully that isn't just me). As we agreed at the beginning of the escalation league, starting a second platoon also means that you need an HQ, in addition to the compulsory two sections and a lieutenant.

Given that I don't want to change the composition of my veteran late-war Paracadutisti squads, and even opting for the cheapest non-inexperienced officer that I can (a regular Captain) in addition to a regular second lieutenant, that will still constitute... all of my points for this month. Not even enough left over to buy him a little Fiat 500 Militaire staff car, as so ably modelled below. Oh well, at least there are no agonising decisions to make this month.
 

If only Britney Spears had been wearing puttees and jodphurs during the infamous gussetgate incident...

Since list building this month was a complete no-brainer, you might expect that I'd anticipated the miniatures I was going to need and already finished painting them. And you would be wrong. Still, I made a start today by getting the miniatures cleaned up and onto their bases, and if the heavens don't open again I should be able to get them undercoated too.

The silver lining to the lack of options this month is that another 500 points at least gives me the opportunity to finish up a coherent platoon of Paracadutisti from the same range, and painted in the same camo. I changed both manufacturer and colour scheme halfway through my last platoon, so my force is looking like rather a mixed bunch at the moment. In particular, I moved away from using Battlefront's Flames of War Compagnia Paracadutist miniatures - most of whom are wearing shorts, and look far more suitable for Paracadutisti Folgore in North Africa than for fighting on home soil - for Eureka's excellent Paracadutisti who are clad in much bulkier gear, supplied by Fighting 15s. Once I've finished the miniatures for this month, I will at least be able to scrape together a full platoon of the latter.

With half an eye on Chain of Command, I'm also going to take the opportunity to work on some support units and squad options which I haven't chosen for Bolt Action but which I will likely require for CoCs more proscriptive list building. So into the painting queue go some LMGs, an MMG, and a medium mortar. I'm also casting around looking for things I can use to put together some diorama-style reconnaissance markers and jumping-off points (more on that later)...

More 15 in 2016

We may have run out of steam a little after month two (not in the least because Ed appears to have adopted the Fabian strategy that if he doesn't buy any miniatures, he can't technically lose a game) but it's now a new year full of new opportunities to miss painting deadlines.

At the very least I would like to use the next 500 points to round out a full Bolt Action platoon of Paracdutisti (with options) that we can then use in the newer, shinier and more Henry Hyde approved World War 2 games such as Chain of Command and Battlegroup which are already starting to turn heads in our gaming group - including mine.

Plus, it seems rather chulish to bring our Italian campaign to a close just before Warlord Games release their theatre specific book for the Mediterranean conflict, backed full of juicy new scenarios...

Duel in the Sun comes out on the 20th February - making the 25th a good deadline for 1,500 points.

Month 2: Blue on Blue

So the clanking of treads and rattle of machine guns have gone quiet and the dust has settled on month two of the Bolt Action escalation league.

Scores on the wars are..

	US Airborne	184th Italian	Gebirgsjager	H.G. Division	US 3rd Infantry
Win	3	2	1	1	0
Loss	0	1	2	2	2
Draw	0	0	0	0	0
Played	3	3	3	3	2
Points	9	6	3	3	0

3pts for a win 1pt for a draw

This month saw the jeepborne airborne and the Italians go head to head for top dog. The HG Division even managed to snag a win dragging the Gebirgsjager down to their level.

Campaign

This puts the Allies further ahead. As the second game was blue on blue only the US/Italian game counted.

Axis 2 

Allies 4

Hobby

Everyone completed their allotted painting tasks, although for some it was touch and go (thankfully for me the check in was delayed a week). The US 3rd did not see the field due to a bout of illness striking their HQ.

Player	1000 Pts Painted	Games Played	Blog Post
Jon	2	2	2
David	2	2	2
Ed	Bye	2	2
Tom	2	2	2
Darren	2	1	2

Month 3

So final month is upon us already and we all have our final 500 points to add,  remember:

• You can field a single platoon for every 1000 points so you can field a second platoon now.
• Each platoon must include a platoon HQ and 2 Rifle Squads.
• If you include more than one platoon then you must include a company HQ.
• Lists are chosen from the basic BA selector with FOW lists for Italy used to dictate equipment and general organization.
• Units can be chosen from the above based on a time frame of Sep 43 (mid war) to Jun 44 (late war)
• You must keep the original list fielded last month.
• No vehicle over DEF 8, Forward Air Observers or Forward Artillery Observers in the first 500 points.

HG Fallschirm-Panzer-Division 1 Hermann Göring - Month two

So. Month 2.

My current score: 0-2

Joint bottom of the leader board with Darren, with him edging ahead of me on 'painted miniatures difference'.

Relegation form and no mistake. 

The chaps don't look too dispirited in the dressing room

US 3rd Infantry Division Month 2

OK so month one was a bust with two losses, what can we do in month two...

What caused the biggest problems in month 1? The enemy scoring cheap kills using snipers to one shot my MMG teams, and the difficulty of rooting out infantry in buildings.

Clearly I'm going to need something to neutralize enemy snipers.

Paracadutisti Nembo Month 2 - The Merchants of Menace

After two victories from two games (including one where my opponent made a do-or-die grab for the demolition objective, only to be destroyed by my HQ!) I'm feeling pretty pleased with Paracadutisi Nembo. Granted, I got a rather salutary lesson in the damage that 'Hitler's Buzzsaw' can wreak even on Veterans on the way, and am yet to play Tom's extremely broken Jeep list yet. But nonetheless I'm feeling confident enough to be the first to post the army list for my next 500 points, and risk ceding the meta to lesser players like Darren and Ed...

Now that's the obligatory trash-talk out of the way - on to the list.

Month One ist Kaput!

So month one has drawn to a close and in true Italian style Jon swapped sides for his second game to take on and beat the HG Division.

Gaming Results Month 1

US 3rd Infantry Division Painting Guide

US Infantry

All paints from the Vallejo Model Color range. Started from a black Army Painter spray undercoat

Bases
Foundation 826 German Cam. Medium
Dry Brush 876 Brown Sand
Dry Brush 819 Iraqi Sand

Boots and Rifle Straps 984 Flat Brown
Puttees and Jacket 988 Khaki
Trousers 873 US Field Drab
Skin 815 Basic Skin Tone
Helmet 887 Brown Violet
Rifle 875 Beige Brown

Everything was washed with 203 Umber Wash which is really nice and then the webbing was highlighted with 886 Green Grey.

Initially fiddly to paint, as usual the wash bought everything together nicely.

Month 1 500pts completed!

184th Divisione Paracadutisti Nembo

It's not my fault. Honest. I'm not an evil person per se - it was just that I couldn't take it any more. All those snide little remarks. The derrogatory comments. The constant jokes at my expense. And I happen to know just what will wipe that smile off their faces.

Allow me to explain...

When I'd first pitched the idea for a Bolt Action escalation league, I'd suggested the Italian theatre amongst others in an attempt to maximise the number of possible playable factions (not that it did a lot of good - the draw of the BROKEN American list proved too strong). The response was... not a positive one. 

"The only time anyone ever wants to play the Italians is if you're playing Ancients!"

"Errr, actually guys if you take a look at the Italian list I think they'd be pretty competitive. Lots of elite troop types, cheap armour, and some pretty nifty tank destroyers - "

"Oh really? How many reverse gears have they got?"

"Do you mean tank destroyer, or do you mean an ice-cream van?"

"LOL, RUN AWAY!"

Right, I thought. I'll show them! I'll write the sleaziest, beardiest 500 point Italian list I can. If only there was something in here that will really scare them. Oooh, what's this - a light tank that counts as an armoured car choice? And with a flamethrower, no less...? Mwahahahahaha!

At least those were my initial thoughts. This list almost died a death at a very early stage when I looked through 'Armies of Italy' and realised that - unlike the SPACE MAFINNS - the Italians don't have access to Panzershreks. Despite the plentiful historical evidence they were issued with them by the Germans. And the fact that Battlefront do some nice models of Italians armed with them. AND ALL BECAUSE WARLORD GAMES NERF THE AXIS POWERS WITH BROKEN LISTS IN AN ATTEMPT TO REFLECT WHY THEY LOST THE WAR, RATHER THAN LET SKILLED PLAYERS LEAD THEM TO VICTORY BECAUSE BRITS HATE TOURNAMENT GAMERS! *Cough* Sorry, I appear to have been channeling (the now defuct) boltaction.net there. Anyway, I'm not convinced that any mid- to late-war list can be viable without man-portable anti-tank weapons.

Fortunately, whilst looking through the errata for a rule which said that because one very lost Finnish soldier had fought in Italy I could have force selectors for a whole platoon of them in Bolt Action (I'm looking at you Lauri Törni - after all, he seemed to get pretty much everywhere else), I came across the additional units pdf and the Late War Paracadutisti Infantry Section. Panzerfausts! Three! For every squad! That's what I needed.

Commando Comics called - they want their art back.

I was also reassured by the note regarding theatre selectors, which state that they can be used for Anzio - Paracadutisti are a notable omission from the Anzio theatre selectors, I suspect because Warlord initially only intended them to be used to represent Folgore in North Africa - or for the units that kept fighting on the Axis side until the end of the war. One of the niggling concerns when I chose to play Italians was that the September '43 armistice would seriously limit their utility without stretching historical accuracy to breaking point. I mean, I knew that Battlefront had Flames of War lists and miniatures for late war Italians - and they wouldn't lie to sell miniatures, right? Right...? But for the purposes of not being called a cheating bastard by my opponents, it was nice to have it written down in black and white by Mr Caviatorre.

The limited number of units that sided with the Axis after the Armistice rather than throwing in their lot with the co-belligerent forces, and the aforementioned requirement to include paratroopers, also made it easier to tie my Bolt Action force to a particular historical formation. The Bolt Action pdf mentions a newly raised Nembo division which took part in the defense of Anzio and Rome, and some further research revealed that they were formed out of the 185 Airborne Division Folgore - double hard bastards I already knew all about from the North Africa theatre.

The 185 Parachute Regiment of 184th Airborne Division Nembo were sent to reinfore the Italian forces on Sicily after the Allied landing - albiet arriving too late to do anything other than form a rear guard as the remaining Italians and Germans were evacuated to the mainland - before posing a fierce resistance to the 8th Army and Canadian troops during the landings in Southern Italy. The majority of the 3rd Parachute Battalion of the 185th then sided with the Axis, and fought to contain the Allied beach-head at Anzio - and continued to fight on after that, eventually being one of the last Italian units to surrender, in May 1945. So much for my concerns about utility! Looks like I'd found a historical formation to model my models on.

Collar insignia of 184th Divisione Paracadutisti Nembo. And no, I'm not painting it in 15mm...

With the research done, I got to list building. Unsurprisingly, Late War Paracadutisti are veterans - so I knew I wasn't going to get many of them for 500 points. I do however need two squads for a viable platoon - and since they're the only troops I'm going to get, I might as well take them at full strength. Two squads of ten (allowed for Late War Paracadutisti, rather than the Folgore squads of nine in 'Armies of Italy') it is then. My first reaction was to cram them as full as SMGs as I could afford - any man can take one - but then thinking about the way the Italian 'Defensive Strategy' rule was going to force me to play, not to mention the MMG spam I was likely to be facing from Darren, I decided to stick with rifles. I also decided not to take an LMG, since as a group we are not actually convinced they offer much advantage if you aren't playing as the Germans. Similarly they won't need Panzerfausts in the first 500 points, but I will certainly be revisiting that option next month and giving them as many of the things as they can carry (sadly only three - and as a unit, not each). I will also definitely be taking the 'Stubborn' rule (it's free) as it might save them from being wiped out by a lucky mortar strike.

The stereotype-challenging Paracadutisti Nembo. Note the 'samurai' style SMG magazine pouches.

And then for my (now not so secret) secret weapon - the L6/40 (well, tecnically an L6 lf). This is a shoe-in as it is only 95 points, about as as well armoured as any of the tanks available to me, and yet still counts as an armoured car. Plus, did I mention it can take a flamethrower? To be honest, the light automatic cannon would probably be just as useful at 500 points (2 shots of D2 HE at 48"), but the psychological effect of the flamethrower on other players, let alone on their units, is more than worth the additional ten points. As I suspect it will be drawing a lot of fire, it at least has to be regular. And since I'm facing at least two cheesey American lists that I just know will be dripping with bazookas, I also need something up my sleeve to try and ensure that the L6/40 doesn't get taken out as soon as it comes on the board. A regular sniper will do nicely - plus I know Darren dislikes facing them - and combined with my other choices brings me up to a total of 435 points. 

This is what fear looks like in Bolt Action.

Of course, the problem with being a devious bugger is that you assume that everyone else is capable of the same baseness as you are. Is there a cheap vehicle that one of the others could take in their lists which would seriously upset my plans? Both the US and British get the M8, but at 110 points for regular for something which is open-topped, I doubt anyone will be fielding one. What worries me more is the potential for one of them (well, Tom) to bring a M3 Stuart, or even a Stuart Satan... in go two panzerfausts to each Paracadutisti squad. Still, thinking about it those are both tank choices, and neither of them is going to want to waste a tank slot at this stage when they can have something much better in the next 500 points... so out go the panzerfausts again.

Have I forgotten anything...? Oh yes, a platoon HQ! At this point he seems like a bit of an afterthought, since as stubborn veterans the Paracadutisti hopefully won't need much external motivation, but I have to take one. I have the points to make him veteran, but might as well keep him regular (arf arf) and give him a guaranteed wound soak in the form of an aide instead. 

So there you have it - the elite paratroopers of 184th Divisione Paracadutisti Nembo. If I'm honest I'm a little worried about the lack of order dice, particularly given that I will need to eliminate any anti-tank weapons as swiftly as possible to properly bring the L6 lf into play, and I have a strong suspicion that my two squads will just be pinned out by weight of fire - but it will be nice to be facing regular forces as veterans, and if you've only got five order dice to begin with then it is hard to lose three more than the opposing player so the 'Avanti Savoia!' special rule shouldn't come into play in our 500 point games at least. Yep, overall I'm reasonably satisfied with this list. Still 5 points to play with too - oh go on then, just the one panzerfaust for one of the squads... There. All done.

U.S. 3rd Infantry Division

So for my Allied part of the escalation league I will be collecting a US list. Looking through the Flames of War Road to Rome book to get ideas I have chosen to go with the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division.

They fought in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, France, Germany and Austria, so they are good to go for just about any other theater.

They have a long and illustrious history in both world wars and count the highly decorated Audie Murphy in their ranks.

You can read all about them here
3rd Infantry Division (United States) on Wikipedia

Badge "We Shall Remain"

Shoulder Patch

The First 500

Pretty straight forward has 2nd Lt and 2 infantry squads. Packs 3 Medium Machine Guns to lay down supporting fire and a Bazooka to deal with any light armor that shows up (I'm looking at you Von Cleweswitz).

Built sing Bolt Action Easy Army

Purchases this Month

One Flames of War US Rifle Company Box for £30 with 156 models is going to give me all the infantry I need for the entire project! Comes with 6 M1919 which will cover my MMG choices and more Bazookas than I'll ever need.