Feeling slightly "icky" - Volkssturm & JoJo Rabbit

I was looking for some support for my new VolksGrenadier and I noticed they had the option if fighting on home soil of taking a Volkssturm squad. Very thematic, why not? 

I searched for some miniatures and in the end found some 3d files that fit the bill (JustSomeMiniatures). These were printed and I've got them painted over the weekend. 

To give me some inspiration I watched Jojo Rabbit. I love that film, its funny, poignant, shocking and all over brilliant. It even proves that Taika Waititi can actually direct a film without losing his thread, can do action scenes very well and his portrayal as Hitler is certainly different. The final battle scenes are superb and the historical look and feel is excellent - if seen through the eyes of a ten and a half year old boy.

AND that sort of hits the nail on the head. I've painted up my Volkssturm and they look great I think. Great that is if you think old men and children should be fighting a war. For the record the actual age of Volkssturm was supposed to be from 16-60 years of age, but in the end 10 and 12 year olds were involved. 

I'm not the most cerebral man when it comes to my wargaming. I have no problem building, painting and playing Germans (or Japanese) in WW2 games because I think we need to recognise and acknowledge the historical bit in historical games, though I don't "do" SS. I also don't shy away from the symbols, the German Swastika appears where it historically would because I think we should not shy away from that sort of thing. Let's face it, every soldier who fought for it was either killed, captured or surrendered so it represents nothing but abject failure and defeat. If it stands for anything it should be  reminder of a divided world uniting against tyranny, but at that point I'm rambling into some long and quite political grass.  Context is for Kings. Having said all that this squad has had me thinking.

Anyway what do people think? Should we represent things like Volkssturm in our games or is it a bit too far, and if not, what is?  

Also if you haven't already seen it, watch JoJo Rabbit!

Update on Ze Germans

In an earlier post I mentioned I had "picked up" a German Late War army for Bolt Action from Warlord Games, with the intention of using it for Chain of Command (why not?)

It took a while to get the painting started, but a bit of perseverance and I'm almost there.

For Chain of Command I decided I would go with VolksGrenadiers in late1944 \ spring 45. The organisation is as follows:

Senior Leader (the boss)

Grenadier Team - 3 Rifle-grenadiers

2 Assault squads - 8 StG44s

1 LMG Squad 8 troops with 2 MG42s formed into two LMG Teams

Not too much - only 28 miniatures as base. I decided to go with a pair of Panzerschreck teams as supports, as a glance at the ORBAT said "how many!!??", a tripod mounted MMG, a sniper, medic and Forward Observer. I am also going for a Hetzer (cos Hetzers gotta Hetz) and a Panther on the off chance I get a maximum support point game. No towed guns etc - I don't like painting horses and that's what the VolksGrenadiers get as transport in real life.

The army box didn't contain the Panzerschrecks, sniper or Hetzer but I was fairly confident I could source them elsewhere, or in the case of the Hetzer I already had a printed one. I thought I would 3d print some Panzerschreck tubes and add them to Warlord figures to fill that gap. 

So a month or so later and I'm almost there. My Panther still needs painting, as do the Medic and Sniper, but they're not going to be a big issue. My main problem is the MMG team, which for Bolt Action is only three guys but for CoC I'm going to need another two crew \ ammo bearers. I managed to banjax my original plan by simply using up all the kneeling bodies in the army box on the infantry squads (Doh!) so I'm scouting around. Other than that, I think I'm done.   

So what about using this in Bolt Action - is it possible? 

Yup - well, pretty much. I ran it through Easy Army , an online list builder, and with some jiggling it fits. I can run the same three squad organisation, though to get a pair of MG42s in the MG Squad I would have to split it in to two small squads and add an extra man to each - no problem as the three rifle grenadiers are not represented in Bolt Action so I can sub them as plain riflemen. The MMG is also a bit vexing in that under version 3 of Bolt Action they are bought as a Heavy Weapon Platoon with a minimum of two weapons - so I need either another MG42 on tripod or I can paint up the 8cm mortar team that doesn't appear in Chain of Command. I gave another option - drag my "Stalingrad" era MG42 into the game I suppose - will look a bit out of place due to the different bases but otherwise should be ok for now til I make a more long term decision. If I'm running with an armoured "platoon" I can take the Hetzer and Panther together. All that comes to easily 1200 pts plus in Bolt Action v3.

Do I need some more "stuff" for these? Reading CoC2 there are some missions where light armour is an advantage. I think a Sdkfz 250 would fit the bill, either a vanilla 250/1 or maybe a 250/9 with a 20mm?? 

So that's Ze Germans done for now. Not 100% sure what will be next but we will see

Cheers

I made a thing! Chain of Command ammo tracker

Will look better painted but I'm chuffed!

For Chain of Command V2 I needed a squad ammo tracker for my new Volksgrenadiers (update soon). Basically each squad starts with 2 Panzerfausts, three HE grenades, and one smoke grenade. Problem is I wasn't sure how to track them. 

My initial plan was to get a normal base and stick a micro dice "cage" into it, and a few bits of cut up models with a spare Faust etc. Drop a dice into the cage and use that to track usage. Simples!

OK a bit wasteful and faffy but it works. I'd need at least three for the squads and two different but similar ones for the Panzerschreck teams but again it was doable.

Then I got a bit thoughtful - could I print them?

So I've spent a few hours teaching myself basic technical jiggery pokery and have a result! OK none of the result is "original" - basically I am "remixing" free 3d .stl files and slapping them together, so not exactly rocket science, but for a 59 year old with almost no experience I'm pretty chuffed. Before you ask, the big plan is to use different coloured micri dice for the Fausts, smoke and Frags.

Ok more honesty - the Panzerschreck counter worked first time, but the squad ammo counter just turned into spaghetti  

Got the bit between my teeth now. I'm going to make a two die version with no Panzerfaust for the earlier Germans, and then maybe think about the Brits......