Another Air Dropped Delivery to the Frontline

The second large Club order has arrived, and Colonel Rusty should be receiving some Canuck Reinforces as well..

This is a Guards Force for Colonel Kristianski, made up of BMP's Infantry, and a 3 Platoons of 3 T80's (Holy ****)....


This is Colonel Markarov's Soviet Airborne VDV Force.

Yup, thats 4 Hind D's with Infantry and a Small platoon of BMD's.


This is the other British Mech Force the Royal Welch, under Colonel James.

The Lynx looks lovely, and should look stunning on the battlefield.

Just for comparison, look at the Lynx in comparison to the HIND.  The HIND is a flying Monster...

I also Received my own reinforcements to the Motor Rifle Company, so I will be able to field 2000 points plus.


SPECIAL FORCES :-


We also received the Special Forces Models which will be used within the Campaign for fluffy reasons, or the previously discussed Critical Actions. The models delivered were:-

SAS - M16/w 203 with nice Beanie hats on (very 80's looking!).
GREEN BERETS - Mix of M16 Commando armed Troops with Field Caps.
DELTA / NAVY SEALS - Mix of more Modern with NVG's and weapon sights.

Reviews and pictures to follow, there will be alot more going on in this blog in the upcoming weeks and will be more model and force centric with the Fluff background being toned down. As future plot lines will be determined by the outcomes of battles rather than my imagination.

A big Thank you 

I would like to say thank you to everyone who has been supporting this blog and also nominating me for a Liebster Award, it is very humbling to have others within the community applaud my efforts.

An Apology

I also have to apologise to all the Cold War Fans, as I have slipped slightly back to WWII to complete some terrain projects for our Flames of War Fraternity, of which I am a member (and no FOW is not a swear word, it's a Wargame in a Historical Setting, not a Historical Wargame, so if you don't like it, well that's your choice). Anyway, I have always had a soft spot for Arnhem as my Grandfather took part in the operation (By which I mean he crashed in a Glider and was captured within hours of landing - occupational hazard when you are landing 60miles in the middle of enemy territory!). So I am working on an Oosterbeek and Arnhem boards including the Legendary Bridge.

I have also been overhauling our terrain, and so the Blog has slipped a bit. I thought I would post this for interest and to prove I'm not being Lazy...

GAMMON BOMBS TO THE FORE!

I might use these as Proxies for more modern buildings in the Cold War Campaign.  

COLD WAR CAMPAIGN NEWS

The intention is now to begin the Cold War Campaign on the 2nd February 2013 (One day out and 27 years from the Fluff start....details).

There is currently some people at my club debating that we use Flames of War Modified ruleset, I have ruled this out as it doesn't model modern weapons very well. So we are sticking with Force on Force, inspite of it being more infantry centric, I do think once you get to grips with it, it's a very good ruleset. If however it doesn't work as well  as intended, I may *repeat may* consider in 12 months or so using my lists with a modified FOW (tropic Lightning Rules) which would require me to write ranges and FP values for hundreds of Weapons (a considerable volume of work from a balance perspective!).  But for now we will use force on force rules. 

9. Against the odds

The Young Canadian Signaller ran across the field towards the HQ, in 4” snow and with his webbing and rifle he made clumsy but steady progress. As he got to within 50 yards of the HQ position he was started shouting “SIR! SIR!”.  The RSM was the 1^st out of the temporary Command dugout, with a look of fury on his face and his hand on his Pistol holster, he bellowed “STAND STILL!”. The Soldier white as the snow about him, lurched to a rapid halt but 8 yards away from the RSM, the Sergeant Major himself calmly removed his pistol and levelled it at the Soldier.

“State the Codeword” said the RSM, the soldier scrunched up his memory and was trying to remember the Password “BANFF, sir”. 

“DROP YOUR WEAPON DOWN ON THE GROUND NOW!” the RSM Screamed at the top of his lungs.

“Sir...Sir...I’m sorry I know it was yesterdays” The Soldier stammered.

“SILENCE! PROVOST! ARREST THIS MAN” 

The Provost ran over,  Weapon at his shoulder aimed at the terrified Soldier just in front of the RSM. “YES SIR!” replied the Provost and his Corporal.

The Soldier whimpered “Sir, there is a message for the......” “SHUT UP” shouted the Provost.

The RSM turned “What kind of a Soldier doesn't know the Daily changing Codeword? We have fifth columnists all over the place attacking us, killing HQ units and assassinating our Command and Control elements and you run around like a headless chicken screaming your head-off!”.  

  

“Si-Sir-Sir....” the soldier’s incoherent babble was interrupted by Captain McWade’s appearance.

“Ah Lewis why are you here?” asked McWade evenly.

“Sir, the-the, TAC-HQ, it was hit” replied the Soldier tentatively “The brigadier was there sir, his helicopter was destroyed and he’s....dead sir....”

The silence lasted 10 seconds, before the RSM realising the precarious position of morale 

and the soldiers deep seated unease he needed to settle all the nerves before this panicked the troops. “Right Lad, stand up straight, you are not under arrest. We are in the military son, no one man matters more than another that’s why we have a chain of command. If the Brigadier dies, then the Chief of Staff takes over, if he falls, the next most Senior Officer takes over.  There is always someone else in the chain of command never forget that, even if it means a 100 Privates lead by a Corporal. So don’t panic, stay calm, don’t breath a word of this to anyone else, it undermines morale and reminds them of losses. Clear?”

“Yes Sir” replied the Soldier Sheepishly.

“And if I ever catch you not knowing the Codeword again, I will put a bullet in you myself. Now get back to the Signal section...” replied the RSM in a threatening tone.

As the soldier moved away back to the signal section at top speed, McWade turned around and looked at the RSM “Just when you think things cannot get any worse” He said flippantly,

The RSM face turned to Thunder and he quietly said “Sir, you speak like that in front of the Troops and I’ll stick a bullet in you too. Morale is on a knife edge, everything you say and even things you don’t will be pulled apart by the troops. So you’d better sort those smart ass comments out. We have a Million tons of Armour and a 1million troops coming our way and they want to annihilate us”.

“Point taken” replied McWade respectfully, even though he outranked Sergeant Major Wilson, no one crossed Wilson as he was one of the toughest men in the Brigade and he had the ear of both the Colonel and the brigadier. The RSM satisfied his point was made, nodded slightly, holstered his pistol and replied “It better be. Right, I’m off to inform Colonel Lynn that he is now in Command of the Brigade” said the RSM marching towards the Command Dugout to find the Chief of Staff and let him know the good news.

CMBG - Update

In light of this new Canadian Chapter - Some more lovely looking Canadian Forces from Colonel Rusty... What do you all think? I really like them, the use of decals and weathering has been done in a particularly nice way.

HUMOUR 

Saw this..........enough said.

NUMBERS OF PLAYERS ARE EXPANDING

A quick update and revision of the various Commanders and forces involved in this Cold War Campaign.

NATO FORCES

Colonel Bob James - 2nd Battalion Royal Welch (Mechanised)
Oberst Pieter Fischer - 171 Pz GREN Abteilung
Major Mike Edwards - OiC A Squadron 2nd RTR - 7th Armoured Brigade
Colonel Chris Tempest - CO 11th ACR
Major Johanson - CO Combat Aviation Brigade (7th Bat - 17th Cavalry)(AH-64, OH-58)  
Major Chris Miller REME - OiC Maintenance Depot 1st Armoured Division
Colonel C "Rusty" Lynn - Chief of Staff 1st Canadian Mechanised Brigade Group.
NATO Special Operations Forces - Commander *Classified*

WARPAC FORCES

General Baldovich - 8th Guards Division

Colonel Kristianski - Commander 12th Guards Tank Regiment

Colonel Aledski - 345 Independant Guards Airborne Regiment 
Major Mishka Eduardovich - OiC A Company 201 Motor-Rifle Regiment
Colonel Arkady Makarov - VDV Air-Assault Brigade
Spetznaz  Corps - Unknown Commander

The Canadian Mechanised Brigade

This is beginning to expand under Colonel Rusty's plans here is a quick picture of his 15mm Planned force which he has in-being or on it's way and he is currently painting.  It is a very large force allowing him to chop and change his Battlegroup to Mission Specific Groupings.

The Panzer Grenadier Battalion

This is beginning to expand under Oberst Fischers plans here is a quick picture of his 15mm Planned force which he has in-being or on it's way and he is currently painting and modelling

The British Force 

One Battlegroup is done by me, and another is on the way with the Major Millers Support Section also being kitted out. 

8.  Bombing Along...

Col Miska Eduardovich was pleased, the Soviet plan for 3^rd Shock Army to advance in Winter was advantageous for many reasons but overall it suited the hardy Russians. All were well used to fighting in the cold & snow and a certain French Emperor and a German Fascist had learned this to their cost. The Red Armies greatest strength is the Winter. The weak and pampered capitalist pigs of NATO could not endure the cold nor could their supposed High tech fragile systems. The Soviet System of War was better, it elevated the system above the individual, it made allowances for the fact that men were imperfect and would make mistakes, it minimised the Human factors in the system to minimise mistakes and failure. The individual no matter how high or important is subservient and expendable to the aim, which is exactly as war should be, no sacred calves or taboos. On the subject of Taboo's he was reminded of the remnants of that PzGren Unit that surrendered back in Lubeck. Those bastards had cost him 5 hours from his schedule as all the damn Bridges had been blown; He hadn't even recoiled from the order to execute them, infact he felt entirely justified. 

He laughed to himself, if NATO cannot execute a few enemy prisoners how do they expect to be able to stop the mighty Red Army, they were fools who fought wars with rules and decorum. Did they not realise the Hyper-level of violence that would be unleashed and the only way to survive and emerge victorious is to use overwhelming violence? This was a war of conflicting Idealogy, not some Imperialist conflict to fight over the 3^rd World and dominion over Europe.  

He was making better than rapid progress, it was amazing the West Germans despite their bourgeois ways made very good roads. The Autobahns were a gift to any invader and a stupid mistake that mother Russia would never make, but would more than happily take advantage of. His orders were to by pass any resistance and not get embroiled in fights. He was to seek the weakspots and smash through at speed. This wasn’t War this was surreal, he raced through town after town of shocked looking locals who had no idea what was happening.  Admittedly, he had lost individual vehicles to stupid incidents, such as sliding off roads, but the advance continued regardless. On the plus side he was not suffering from vehicles being bogged down in fields due to the Frozen Ground and so was make decent time even across country in spite of the snow.

His Motor-Rifle Regiment was a good unit, staffed by Russian Officers with Russian NCO’s and above all Russian Soldiers. This was a premier post in the Red Army, a fully equipped, manned and supplied Regiment. No language problems, no stupid peasants from the east or Moslems from the South east, this was pure blue blood Soviet Regiment with heritage going back to the Great Patriotic War. He felt a surge of pride in his Regiment, and the blatant hatred of their Yankee enemy. He had happily overlooked several infractions of wanton destruction especially against symbols of American Capitalism including one their Fast food chains, so long as the momentum was maintained, the odd souvenir of their Assault was tolerated as the boost to morale was considerable. 

However deep down in his stomach he had a small, niggling knot of apprehension, having travelled 60km and not met resistance or even seen one of the fabled NATO Main Battle Tanks. He wanted to believe this race forward could continue indefinitely but he knew it was a matter of time before contact with the Enemy was made. He was eagerly looking forward to combat and kept scanning to the West, waiting for his chance to bloody NATO’s units. He looked down at his map, he was approaching a small town called Elmenhorst . He and his units should have been scanning to the East, behind them and they might have spotted the pair of A10’s racing in ready to maul the Soviet Armoured thrust.