RIP BB

I recently learned about the passing of my old clubmate Brendan Brown. We had been out of touch for a while (more later). 

I first met BB at Hartlepool Wargames club in 1978 (something like that). He was a bit older than me, though not as much as I thought at the time. Brendan mostly played WW2 with Airfix models. And he had a massive selection of just about everything available at the time held in trays in what we called the cupboard at the club. On quiet nights I would sit and just marvel at them. He had just about everything . In fact it may be through that collection I first saw a Panzerfaust, held at an angle across the chest of a German soldier. Remember those days we rarely had access to books that went into that level of detail and of course no internet. He also had a couple of those 2.8cm AT guns that came with the early Airfix Germans and Africa Corps. All of this was assembled and painted in a fairly "agricultural" style as befits an early teen in the 70s. He favoured an old set of rules - something like Airfix but not - cant quite remember. He also didn't really like microtanks, which rapidly moved him out of my gaming sphere, though he did play a lot of the Hpool Club staple "Wonderful Islands" which was a sort of analogue version of modern computer games where you collect resources to build units to spread your empire etc. Lastly he was a regular in John Hendersons play by mail campaigns in "Hendermobileland" where he, John and Dave Pricket engaged in shenanigans of epic proportions including efforts to pervert John's carefully worked out economic game engines by selling chairs at a ridiculous price to avoid tax or something. Through Brendan and the like I got deeper into gaming - also taught myself how to type at lunchtimes in an empty classroom so I could produce my own campaign newspaper \ propaganda sheet that I distributed in the club. I also got caught using the school photocopier making copies and got into some trouble there, though with hindsight the teachers were probably quite happy to see one of their pupils doing something other than glue sniffing and joy riding. (to be fair I dont think glue would have much effect as I had been breathing it and enamel thinners in regularly due to Airfix!)

So I think he was my friend - he used to let me get on the bus he was driving for free so that's something. He was brash, loud, opinionated and, well, just like a lot of us I suppose.

We became distant later in life, mostly because I found his brand of politics shifting ever more to the right, while I shifted the other way. The last time I heard his voice was when he phoned in to LBC last year - wont go into detail.

Anyway, BB has gone. He's left behind the same massive collection of Airfix 20mm WW2 and some fond memories. 

Cheers

Chain of Command 2 Late War Germans - where to start?

Chain of Command 2 from Two Fat Lardies has arrived (Huzzah!) So after thirteen years of version 1 I'm looking at what I need to change. 

AND of course this being historical gaming where there are no such things as regular new editions that force you to buy stuff again, the answer is nothing! Gotta love historical Wargames.

OK Almost. HMGs are going to need some sandbags or similar, but other than that I'm not seeing anything "new" needed yet.  

So I was wondering about what I would need to expand my current German army into the late war period and it got me thinking, so here are my thoughts.

There are four German lists in the main CoC2 rules, Infantry, PanzerGrenadiers, Fallschirmjager and VolksGrenadier. The FJ are uniformed significantly differently to the others so I'm disregarding them. TFL have gone full historical on the VolksGrenadiers allowing you to field the fabled StG44 "assault rifle". I'm going to go all Grognard here. Other rules allow almost any German Infantry to have the StG44s but the actual issue was really just to the VG Divisions raised in 44/45 . Of course the chaotic situation as the Reich collapsed doesn't mean other units or individuals didn't pick them up, but fielding them outside the few test units or VGs is a bit of a stretch. 

The three organisations are quite different. The Infantry have three Mg42s, 4 MP40s and 24 riflemen,  PanzerGrenadiers have 6 MG42s , 3 MP40s and 15 riflemen, and the VGs have 2 MG42s, 1 MP40 , 3 rifle grenadiers, 16 StG44s and 5 rifles.

All have some Panzerfausts chucked around if you were wanting to represent them.

So if I wanted to do that, what's available?

Victrix have just released their new Late War German Infantry set. It looks damned nice and includes some support weapons, an Mg42 on sustained fire mount and a Panzershreck . I've had a look at the frame pics however and it looks like you only get eight StG44s in the set - not enough to do the VolksGrenadier. They do seem to have everything you need to do the Infantry and PanzerGrenadiers however.

Warlord typically have several box sets available. 

The Winter German Infantry set are all bundled up against the cold, but you get 30 models and enough StG44s to field the full 16 out of the box. In fact the only issue is you will be one man short of an Infantry platoon as there is only 30 models in the box and I calculate you need 31. I'm sure you can either but a frame from the Sprue Shop or get a spare donated. This is a good set, and with everyone in greatcoats is a pretty easy painting project. 

Next up the "Grenadiers" box set. One of the older sets so maybe less sharp, nevertheless you get 15 StG44s and enough of everything else - just about. you will be short one guy as with the "Winter" set but that's easy to fix and an extra sprue if needed will provide your spare StG44 if you are doing VG.

Last from Warlord is the "Waffen SS" box. This has enough StG44s but seems to be a bit short of MG42s.  My earlier comments on 30 man sets also applies here, plus my Grognard dislike of them having StG44s in the first place but there you go.

So what I think I'm saying is that unless you want to do VolksGrenadier Victrix is probably the best choice because you get enough of everything plus a few useful support options thrown in. If you want to do the VolksGrenadier then Warlord are a better option, though here you will have to step away from a "one box" solution and buy some support weapons.

I'm not sure which way I'll jump - let me know in the comments what you think?