It's beginning to look a lot like Georland....

Progress report on Georland for 2016

My main wargaming projects in 2016 have been building my Interwar forces, assembling a small Lamming Roman Army with British/German opponents, painting and organising my Minifigs S Range French Revolution and Egypt armies, and getting to a point where I can start some Georland gaming.

For the last few months I have been concentrating on painting and organising my Minifigs S Range Franco Prussian War figures with the intention of using them for Georland wargaming (as well as for Franco Prussian War).

Originally I had intended to use my existing and large collection of S Range Crimean figures, with British for Georland, and Russians for their opponents, supported by the FPW Germans.

However, as the FPW collection grew in size I decided to use it instead. This is mainly because the original collection of George Keef were Franco Prussian War figures of the time which were bought up cheaply. Obviously there are compromises to be made in identifying units designated as Highlanders or Grenadier Guards with French types, but this somehow seemed true to George Keef's original figures and therefore appropriate.

(Of course I could have taken this further, e.g. by using Irregular Miniatures Shiny Toy Soldiers range, but issues of cost and space rules this out). If I was starting from scratch and money was no object then I would have loved to go with Spencer Smith Classic Range, although the idea of gluing all those arms on would put me off.

I think a lot of any wargames project depends on your aesthetic - the look and feel of the thing - and I think I have got this sorted out. I am very happy with the S Range figures; they are simply block painted, with unflocked bases. Figures are on individual MDF bases, 20 x 20mm for foot and 20 x 40mm for mounted figures. Exceptions are generals and some foot unit command stands, on round bases of different sizes denoting rank.

Figures are then placed in movement trays, accommodating 60 x 40mm internally for infantry and cavalry, and 80 x 40mm for artillery (gun and four crew). The basic cavalry unit is the squadron, with two trays of three figures each (total 6) and infantry are 24 - four trays of 6. This allows for casualty removal and fits well in the storage I am using for the figures. The movement trays can accommodate blanks - MDF bases of the correct size - if I don't have the exact number of figures for a unit. A small number of light units are using 20mmx 100mm movement trays.

I have decided I will be using a hex based set of rules to de developed from Command and Colours Napoleonic. I hope this will only need a few tweaks to ranges etc but I haven't started work on this yet. I also haven't started in sorting out scenarios and orders of battle from the Georland Journal, or working out which Georland units my FPW figures can represent.

I have a Corsec Engineering fleece mat - open fields design with a 6" hex overlay. I am waiting for some 1" tall MDF hexes for hills, and have also found some 4" tall polystyrene hexagon cake making blanks. These are ever so slightly smaller than 6" but I hope have potential for providing higher hills, either as is or by carving with a serrated knife.

Finally I have been collecting from Ebay built HO gauge German railway scenery kits which look generally suitable for around 1870. I don't mind then being in a smaller scale than the figures - I have always been comfortable with 15mm buildings with 20mm figures, for example. "Proper" 25mm buildings would be too big for my table and the railway models option probably gives a wider choice of suitable buildings. Most of these buildings are by Vollmer, although one or two are Kibri.

Headquarters or hospital building

Grand houses

Apartment Buildings

Factory, chimney and houses

I am also photographing the troops, but my camera lights can only be used for 10 minutes at a time so this is slow going. I will be posting pictures here, and on my History of Georland and Lone S Ranger blogs, so they should be hard to miss.

The plan is to start gaming in January or February.

Rospak peltasts

I was contacted by Alan who had these Rospak Peltasts for sale. There were 18 figures, one of whom has a broken javelin.

THESE FIGURES HAVE NOW BEEN SOLD

Interwar Half Track upgrade

I recently acquired two Shapeways Burford Kegresse MG Carriers by Fitz to replace my earlier dogy scratchbuilds.

These are lovely models and a great improvement on my earlier efforts. My thanks to Fitz for producing a model of a vehicle I never expected to be available (along with the Russian MS-1 and T-27s he has done).

Fitz's Shapeways shop, which has all sorts of goodies for 28mm, 20mm and 15mm, can be found at this link:

Fitz's Shapeways Shop

Interwar Half Track upgrade

I recently acquired two Shapeways Burford Kegresse MG Carriers by Fitz to replace my earlier dogy scratchbuilds.

These are lovely models and a great improvement on my earlier efforts. My thanks to Fitz for producing a model of a vehicle I never expected to be available (along with the Russian MS-1 and T-27s he has done).

Fitz's Shapeways shop, which has all sorts of goodies for 28mm, 20mm and 15mm, can be found at this link:

Fitz's Shapeways Shop

More Interwar Pathe News

Two interesting clips which have recently been posted on the VBCW Forum. The first is called Battle of the Machines - Longer Version 1930

  

 It has some great pictures of loads of Vickers Medium IIs, from the Salisbury Plain Northland?Southland exercises. Clearly the crews preferred being on their tanks rather than in them where possible. No sign of lances with the cavalry. It is also particularly interesting to see the Carden Loyds with the QF 3.7" howitzer - it looks like two Carden Loyds per dun, one towing the gun on its tracked trailer, the other the crew in a tracked personnel trailer. It is particularly interesting to see the guns being loaded onto the tracked trailers for motorised towing - they seem able to get into/out of action very quickly.

The second is Tanks 1935

  

 This has interesting shots of two Medium Mark IIIs and is very helpful for vehicle markings etc. At c3.15 it has what seems to be an MG-only armed command Mark II, which I have never come across before.

Happy Valentine's Day

So you can all pick your own Valentine...

Waiting for the great leap forward

I don't know if it's because 2016 is a Leap Year, but I have just noticed this blog has 366 followers, one for each day of next year.

Just about Vintage....

I think the content of this post qualifies as Vintage Wargaming, as it uses some very old rules - Lionel Tarr's "Modern Warfare" set - and also some old Triang rubber buildings.

So I wanted to try a few things out:

firstly, could I temporarily set up a wargames table in my front room
secondly, my recently added to collection of old TSS hex tiles as terrain
thirdly, some of my interwar stuff
fourthly, some possible war for interwar action with a reasonable amount of armour involved

Things I learned:

I couldn't get decent light for photos in November; I need to replace the LED lights with brighter ones if I want to be able to take decent pics
Size of table - I have two folding tables, each 4 foot by 2.5 foot, but each with two additional 2 x 2.5 foot leaves which fit in an expanding metal frame. I can fit an 8 x 5 table but not with a lot of room to manoeuvre round so will try 6 x 5 next

I tried a cut down version of the old Lionel Tarr "Modern Warfare" (i.e. WW2 rules). This took out the 88s and heavy tanks etc. They worked surprisingly well for what I wanted (very bloody for the infantry and especially cavalry). I will try Rompan el Fuego next.

I wouldn't have called this VBCW, it was interwar and trying to represent an Army Exercise from around 1935/6. I used a little historical licence so I could include Morris Martel tankettes and Burford Kegresse half track MG Carriers. The basic idea was the King's aircraft (DH Rapide of the Royal Flight) had made a landing forced by mechanical failure at a civilian aerodrome.

His side (Westland) had rushed heavy AA cover and the latest sound detection to the aerodrome and surrounding area to protect against air attack.

There was a small LDV garrisons at a nearby village

which sent three companies to defend the airfield, along with a Schneider half track armored car and an 18 pdr truck mounted gun.

Two coys LDV remained in the village with two gun armed  Vickers 6 tonners, which would need activation to move.

At the far end of the table a police barracks contained a battalion strength unit of armed police, with armoured transport and cars, and 4 Mk VI light tanks. All these units would need activation.

A small road ran the length of the table, half way across. At the far end from the aerodrome a company of regular infantry, a cavalry regiment, and a twin MG armed 6 tonner assembled to advance on this line to the aerodrome.

A railway station (Nissen Hut) lay on the far edge of the table, diagonally opposite the aerodrome, with a narrow gauge railway line running to the aerodrome. A regular infantry battalion was at the station awaiting transport.

When successfully activated this would be provided by an armoured train, armed with anti tank rifles and Lewis guns.

Originally my intention was to have the Eastland force traversing the length of the table to reach the aerodrome where two gliders would land a small force with the intention of seizing and holding until relieved (a la Market Garden). However, in the end the table was not long enough so instead I went for a large opportunistic armoured raid all along the long edge of the table.

Bearing in mind this was a test to see how the Lionel Tarr rules would cope with a lot of infantry and a fair number of armoured vehicles rather than any attempt at a balanced action, Eastland had a medium tank battalion (3 coys each of 3 Vickers medium tanks, all MK II except for one MK III in command), a light tank battalion (3 coys 3 light tanks, 6 MK II and 3 Vickers Command tanks), and a battery of 2 SP Birch guns. There was an armoured car section with 1920 pattern Rolls Royces and a recce section with 4 Morris Martel tankettes -- 2 1-man and 2 2-man.

Infantry included militia well provided with Lewis guns;

and LDV auxiliary sabotage unit, together with AA (Automobile Association) transport.

The militia occupied a large hill to the left of the railway line, along with an artillery OP. Other infantry included 2 or 3 companies each of regulars, and an auxiliary police unit. There were two companies of the 1st DLI in their role as an experimental MG battalion.One company had Vickers Utility tractors as MG Carriers and  the game's only anti tank gun (towed tracked 20mm Oerlikon).

The second company was mounted in Crossley Kegresse softskin half tracks, with two armoured Burford Kegresse MG carriers and four Morris Martel tankettes in support.

The glider landing was activated in move one. Two gliders hit the landing zone exactly, blocking the runway for any possible escape by aircraft, and landing a battalion of LDV troops behind the terminal defenders.

Eastland made a general advance along the long side of the table and advanced to the railway line.

In two moves they reduced the defenders of the terminal and took control of the airfield. While Westland had more modern armour there was less of it and they struggled to activate it.

The Birch guns were spectacularly successful, taking out the dangerous truck gun with ranged fire and the armoured train, when it appeared, along with the battalion it had entrained, over open sights. Cavalry regiment v MG armed light tanks ended badly for the cavalry. The only a/t gun, the DLIs 20mm, only had one shot and caused no damage. (Doctrine at the time was the best anti tank gun was another tank so this was quite historical). The armoured train's Boys ATR took out one Vickers medium and one of the gun armed 6 tonners another, but that was the total extent of Eastland's armoured losses.

Westland would have been better off putting their troops inside the terminal rather than on the roof. Troops under cover lose quarter casualties. Eastland would have been unable to shell the terminal in case the aircraft's passengers were inside, so the Westland troops might have managed to hold out for longer.

The Birch Guns were queen of the battlefield but did not use their mobility at all, so towed artillery could have been just as effective. Hopefully next time they will be able to take a fuller part. Given they can also be used in an anti aircraft role, you wonder what they or their successors could have achieved against the Blitzkrieg, or in the Early Desert.

With the aerodrome firmly in Eastland's hands, and strong armoured and infantry forces facing them everywhere, Eastland conducted a general withdrawal of their remaining police, LDV and Naval shore party survivors, with their two remaining Mk VI light tanks.

While very one sided this was a good run out for the general set up, the kit, the terrain and the rules

Next up is going to be c 1936 British v Russians.

- the less familiar T18s and T24s, with possibly a T 28 or two.

More from Vickers Armstrrong

A while ago the Evening Chronicle published a gallery of photos from the Tyne & Wear Museum Service relating to Vickers Armstrong, ranging from around 1900 to 1948.

They can be found here and form an interesting addition to the pictures which now sit on the Interwar Tank Development Blog.

Among the interesting things:

#1 Shervick Tractors - manufactured from cut down British Shermans in 1948 for use in the Ground Nut Scheme;

#6 1931 pattern Vickers-Carden-Loyd amphibious tank swimming in the River Tyne

#19 the handsome armoured cars based on Morris Commercial D chassis which were sold to Siam

#8 the rather bizarre man cages

#7 Carden Loyd Mk VIs

Thanks Half a Million

The blog has recently marked its 500,000th page view. Thanks to all the actual readers and the virtual webbots who have made this possible.

A disappointing landmark

I've just noticed that due to what seems to have been a surge of robot activity in the last couple of days the total page views for the site have gone over 500,000.

I would have preferred to do this through actual readers, but there you go.

Interwar or VBCW?

What they would have been fighting for...

I have been having a think about my current interwar interest and while there is some overlap with the VBCW (Very British Civil War) I have decided it is very definitely interwar. This might partly because 20mm is less well served than 28mm for specifically VBCW figures, but also because I am a little suspicious of some of the more fanciful VBCW flourishes and because it tends to operate at a skirmish or small action scale.. I want to fight brigade size actions. Everything is temporarily on hold as I am having some painting done in the hose but when this is finished I hope to get some troops on the table.I need to try out various rules but at the moment I am wondering whether I should try Donald Featherstone's 1917 WW1 in Africa rules and see what sort of a game they give.

Working on possible opposition is interesting. Nationalist Spain (attempt to seize Gibraltar), The Old Enemy (French interwar kit is so cool), Italy, and the USSR are all possibilities. I have all these available, plus a horde of FT 17s which should work for just about anyone. I have always been inspired by the "tank chase" at the end of "Comrade X" and the recent availability of some of the Fabbri Russian tank diecasts at The Works led to me looking at some of the other models in the range and I am now waiting on some T-18s and T-24s from ebay and the Ukraine which should provide some good looking and unusual kit. Not hugely representative (though I have shed loads of T-26s) but interesting and different. It is all conjectural anyway so I am giving myself some historical leeway.

Another project I hope to progress once I have some temporary gaming space is Georland and refighting some of the actions in George Keef's Journal. I am planning on using slightly adapted Command and Colors Napoleonic to give a suitable swift game. I have a hex fleece mat from Corsec Engineering for this and will start using Minifigs S Range Crimean War and Franco Prussian War troops. Ideally I would like to use Spencer Smith Classic 30mm but I can't fund that at the moment, i would be a long term aim as I would need at least 500 foot and 100 mounted figures and they would all need assembly and painting. (Actually their 42mm Shiny Toy Soldiers would probably be the nearest to George Keef's original armies but there needs to be some compromise on size and cost).

Meanwhile here are some pictures of my inter war armoured might. With a few swaps of vehicles they will work for a period between around 1924 and 1936 and a fair amount will do for 1940 BEF..