Tank-Wing err X-Tracks err Battlefront\GaleForce9s new Tank Skirmish game

Which is called Tanks!

This is probably the first problem as it seems they have chosen a name that will cause most search engines to explode with a million results none of which will be what you are looking for. Anyway on impulse I bought a copy and was very pleasantly surprised. I was going to write a full Blog about contents and play-style etc but to to be honest Rollingcrits got there before me and sums it up pretty well in his blog here  rollingcrits .

So I will have a quick muse instead. The game is very close to X-Wing in a number of ways, in fact so close one could be forgiven for thinking this was just X-Wing but with tanks instead of TIE fighters. I'm sure that at Battlefront\GF9s HQ bunker buried deep within The Shire that a meeting took place where someone said "That X-Wing game is raking in the ££\$$ - wish we had something like that". From the outset this game is aimed at pretty much the same market -"Organised Play" tournaments. There are a number of differences \ issues that could or should be mentioned however in any comparison.

First, and possibly crucially, this game uses the Flames of War plastic 15mm 1:100 tanks. To digress a moment FoW was very late getting into plastics - Plastic Soldier Company stole a head start and in my opinion still hold it. Much of FoW production is still resin and metal with plastics bulking the range out. The quality of the FoW \ Tanks kits is excellent, but the range of plastic kits available is limited and all the current ones are used in this game. The omissions are noticeable - no Tiger or Churchill for instance. It is (in my opinion) highly unlikely that the parent company will produce any kits for Tanks separate to the FoW range due to cost implications inherent in plastic tooling, so new additions to the game after the first two release waves are unlikely, at least until FoW get back to refreshing their WW2 range which may well be some time as they seem to be concentrating on Team Yankee at the moment.

The second issue with Tanks when compared to Darth and his game is that the Tanks models are unassembled and unpainted, where X-Wing are not. The kits are actually easy to put together as far as I have seen, but unlike the Zvezda "Art of Tactic" models they're not really "quick build" either - you need glue and a little more skill and effort. I suspect that may put some players off - particularly the younger target groups. I mentioned these were FoW kits - actually there is one main difference. These sprues are colour coded to something like the base colours of each faction - so for instance the Germans are a sand yellow, USA olive green etc rather than the standard grey plastic used for most FoW models. That's a good idea as it takes some of the painting burden away from the casual or new player as sides are easily identified, but it also pretty much excludes their resin and metal kits from being released as part of this game in their current format. Further the Tanks! kits don't come with decals or magnets even though the "parent" ones do.

Lastly, it's not Star Wars. OK everyone knows a bit about tanks but it doesn't have the sex appeal of Star Wars. Given two other similar games, both with much better \ high profile settings (D&D and Star Trek Attack Wing) have both failed to gain traction in this market, why should Tanks succeed?

On the plus side the other components such as stat cards an damage counters are of high quality.

So to sum up, its a plagiarised version of a successful game with inferior models to X-Wing, with quite limited room for expansions, so why play it?

Because it works and seems quite a lot of fun. The mechanics are built on the tried and tested X-Wing ones, so they have a solid track record (pun), with some local rules that work rather well such as speed and shooting. The games are short and usually seem balanced, which is nice. Price point is good too - the starter set contains sprues to build 2 Shermans and either a Panther or JagdPanther, plus rules cards and counters for about £16-£17, with the expansions around £6-£7 each. That's not earth shattering at all - in fact from some angles its a bargain! All in all I'm rather happy with Tanks and would recommend it as long as you can live with the abstractions. Give it a try :-)

 

15mm WW2 German Heavy Metal - err plastic. Zvezda's Ferdinand

I like Zvezda's "Art of Tactic" range. They offer nice models at a very reasonable price. I was therefore quite interested when the latest batch included a Ferdinand Tank Destroyer.

This follows the earlier pattern with one (or in this case 2) sprues.

In theory this is a snap together kit but I always glue mine. As usual the instructions consist of a diagram on the back of the box, but unusually this one didn't come with the Art of Tactic data card - not sure if this is a packing error but I dont use them anyway so no loss.

Putting it together was child's play - really nice kit with only 10 parts. Detail is very good too.

And the finished result

Not out a ruler to it yet but it certainly looks the part. As with all Zvezda AoT kits there is no capability to have the commanders hatch open, and there are no decals provided, but given the price was £4.00 including p&p that's no loss. I would suggest taking the extra time to drill the end of the muzzle brake out as it looks much better.  For the TrackHeads out there this is the early Ferdinand with no hull MG.

Great model at a very reasonable price

Team Yankee Game 2

Our first game went well enough - or rather about as well as the fairly restrictive scenario allowed, so we moved on to the second - the defence of Hill 214. This scenario pits a small US force defending a crossroads against a larger Soviet attack, and importantly this takes place at night. The Soviets have the option of attacking with an infantry heavy force or taking tanks supported by a single Company of Motor Rifles - given I only had enough infantry for the second option, it was an easy choice.

Here is the basic table layout. Victory conditions were simple - the Soviets had to capture the junction at the centre of the table, the US have to break the Soviets. The US were heavily outnumbered - 2:1 or greater, but they did have better kit, a minefield,  and could start one platoon in ambush.

Russian Deployment

Survivors from Scenario 1

In addition to a full T72 Company the Soviets also had the survivors from scenario 1 available, and these deployed on the opposite side of the US positions to the main attack.

Paul deployed his M1s covering two of the approaches to the wood, with his rear protected by a hastily laid minefield and his platoon of Mechanised Infantry in ambush somewhere.

Turn one started rather well for the Russians. They advanced at speed and managed to spot one of the M1 platoons. A ragged salvo of 125mm guns lit the night, and one hit the rear of an M1 which blew up spectacularly

Red "flash" markers indicate which tanks have shot - these are now visible at daylight ranges.

Burning M1

To add insult to injury the remaining M1 in the platoon failed a morale test and the crew promptly abandoned their tank!

On the other flank the two surviving T72s from scenario 1 tried to engage the remaining M1s but failed miserably - then quickly paid the price as both were killed in quick succession.

Back to the main attack. The T72s halted on encountering the minefield but the infantry worked around the edges and started to infiltrate into the woods to secure the objective.

At which point the Mech Platoon opened up with its Dragon ATGMs, instantly killing a T72 and putting quite a lot of hurt on the infantry. Return fire was ineffective mainly as the Yanks were dug in.

Holding the objective

(Paul is using sabot bases for his infantry until we decide if we want to rebase for Team Yankee)

The Soviet infantry try to assault the Mech position, but are beaten off by infantry fire supported by the M113s .50 cals

Meanwhile the remaining M1s swing around the wood to try and engage the T72s which turn to meet them

Again the superiority of the M1s is quickly proven, forcing the Soviet commander to commit more tanks to the flank.

Luckily for the Soviets the infantry battle in the woods swings in their favour - both Dragon missile teams are killled and a well aimed RPG hits and kills one of the M113s. Again the US morale fails, and the infantry start to withdraw, leaving the Soviets in possession of the objective and able to claim a victory

 So an interesting and quite tense game. Up to the US morale failures as the Soviet player I was not keen on my chances of victory, but luck was on my side. The night fighting rules worked well we thought, and on balance we think we're going to take up Team Yankee and expand our forces.

So two training missions down, one to go. This time it will be a Soviet counter attack in the face of both US armour AND air support - I expect it will be brutal :-)

Chinese update

Bit of an update on those Chinese Nationalists I mentioned in earlier posts. I've painted up the armoured element of the Early War army, a Sdkfz 222, some T26s and a BA10. There is also a troop of Shermans but these are for a later period of the war so will get done another time.

First up the T26s. Initially I tried a three colour scheme that had been used on some Chinese Vickers 6 tonners, but I gave up because a) it looked too much like the Japanese who would be the opposition, and b) I couldnt find any record of it being used on the T26s. In the end I went with a simple Russian green which they would have been delivered in in 1938, with plenty of mud, as T-26s seemed particularly prone to spreading the stuff around. There is no record of them being repainted and it looks like the Chinese just used them pretty much as delivered.

The BA10 is another Russian import, again in a simple green scheme

Lastly the Sdkfz 222. There are some photos that show these retained their German Grey , so again a non fussy result.

Everything will need another coat of matt but they are looking ok for now

Chinese T26 - the tank not the menu code for sweet & sour

I've made a start on the T-26s for the Chinese Nationalist army. The models are Minairons and come 5 to a box for a very reasonable £17.00 - I got mine from the Plastic Soldier Company

The models themselves are very simple - two track units and upper and lower hull, with a choice of the single turreted A version or replacing that with the twin MG armed turrets of the B. The kit also includes a commander for the A version, and a hatch that can be open or closed. The kit has the early cylindrical turret with no rear turret MG, which marks them out as Model 1933s.

Assembly is simple and trouble free. The plastic is a different composition to others I have seen in kits of this nature, and for want of a better word "softer" without reaching the "bendy" stage some of the early Zvezda snap together Art of Tactic, but it seems to take normal Liquid Poly glue well enough.

Detail is adequate if not great, particularly around the running gear and sprockets which are basically smooth. As you can see in the pic the join between the upper and lower hull is not quite perfect on this one, but when painted I expect this to be invisible. Proportionally this looks very good, particularly the two turreted version. They come with an optional tank commander but as with the actual tank the detailing is "soft" and not as sharp as we have come to expect

I liked these little models, and I understand they were one of the first (if not the first) Minairons did. I also have some of their Pz IA and they have certainly improved, but the T26 is still acceptable if a little plain.  

This is kit with its 2 versions is a great because it adds another plastic (ie cheap) option to the gamer wanting to build an SCW or Early WW2 army. Given we already have the later conical turreted T26 from Zvezda and their flamethrower version we are starting to get spoiled for choice.

All the twos - Zvezda's SdKfz222 armoured car in 15mm

I have a new painting commission - 15mm WW2 Nationalist Chinese. I'm really looking forward to it too, as it is such a strange mix of vehicles and troop types.

One of the first up is a SdKfz 222 armoured car. I knew Zvezda did one in their "Art of Tactic" range and I thought this was a good opportunity to have a look at the kit. I did this with a bit of trepidation - while Art of Tactic models are usually described as quick builds, they sometimes are rather complicated, for example the Katyusha kit requires some fairly nimble fingers, and I had also read a few comments on TMP that suggested it was a bit of a challenging kit.

The kit is as usual for AoT reasonably priced at £3 or there abouts. It comes in 18 parts - which is quite high for AoT.

Suitably forewarned and with my trusty bottle of Liquid Poly AND a glass of whisky & ginger at the ready, I got stuck in, and..................

I think the guys on TMP must have been having a bad day. The kit went together quickly and easily, with no problems. I didn't particularly rush it but the whole thing took maybe 15-20 minutes and I was watching an episode of Grimm at the same time. All the parts were clean, well detailed and came off the sprue easily. I was very careful when removing stuff from the sprue not to damage any of the sharp edges and to clean the areas where they had connected to the sprue, but other than that it went together with remarkable ease. There was one tense moment right at the end when I was trying to get the hull top plate to seat properly with the sides, but when I lined it up right it clicked into place and stayed there, and almost no visible gap between the hull top and sides.

Overall detail is excellent, The only issue is the usual one with AoT kits - you cant model the turret hatch open, so no commander. In fact I would say this is the best 15mm version of the 222 I have seen, better even that the 1:72 scale ones available. I'm certainly going to pick up a couple for my 15mm Blitzkrieg era Germans. They say a picture paints a thousand words, so here's a close up which to me says only one - "beautiful"

Back from Vappa - York Wargames Show

No pics this time, just a bit of a report on my visit to the Vapnartak show in York last weekend.

Since "Vappa" moved out of the atmospheric, but poorly lit Medieval Merchant Adventurers Hall to the vast glass and chrome racecourse, the show has been constantly on the up and up.

I liked the Merchant Adventurers Hall as a building and a concept - we hear so much about "Guilds" if you play any of the fantasy\medieval role playing games, or even Medieval wargames, but to actually visit a guild hall helps put it into perspective. As a venue for a trade show it was far from ideal because the lighting inside was limited, and space was at a premium.

The new racecourse venue is much better. Lots of space, and well lit. Actually when I say lots of space, it is still a bit too crowded for my liking, but that may be because it is so popular :-)

This year was the first year for a while that I had not been in any of the competitions, so I had the experience of having to queue to get in with the rest of the unwashed, but on the plus side it did mean we set out at the more civilised time of 8:30am rather than the usual 6:30. Vappa is split over a number of floors - the racecourse building is unsurprisingly long and narrow, with most of the traders and demo tables on the ground and first floors, and the competitions higher up. There was a good selection of traders and the demos were also of high quality, and I would safely say Vappa is now the best show in the North East of England by quite a margin.

Now to the crucial question - what did I buy :0)???

Surprisingly little. Partly because finances had taken an unexpected hit over the run up when our hot water system needed some urgent repairs, but mostly I would like to say due to a most uncharacteristic attack of self restraint. I did pick up a box of Wargames Factory Woodland Indians to add to the expanding Muskets & Tomahawks collection, a canoe from Coritani to move them around, and some civilians to run away screaming on first sight of them. Other than that I bought an X-Wing Miniatures starter set - I've been sharing one with my "oppo" Paul but it was a bit of a faff so we now have 2 between us. And thats it! I managed to dodge any number of potential impulse purchases, D&D Attack Wing (and Star Trek), Malifaux, even some modern 28mm that was calling seductively from Empress Miniatures. This last one is mopt so much a dodge as a postponement - as soon as Two Fat Lardies bring out their modern version of Chain of Command I will be there like a shot. Other than that I tried to buy some cabin furniture from 1st Corps but they had sold out.

I also got to sit down and talk to Martin Goddard from Peter Pig about his new version of the PBI rules that was due for release this week, and played a turn or two. They seemed quite interesting, and I would recommend having a look it you want something a bit less full on than FoW. I dont think I will be heading off to play them yet, but maybe once the lead & plastic mountain is back under control I may give them a try.

All the best
 

More Plastic Goodness - Zvezda A13 Cruiser Tank in 1:100

Mark - aka Geordie in Exile seems to enjoy winding me up.

Earlier this week he forwarded an email from PSC announcing they had the Zvezda Art of Tactic A13s available, along with some comment along the lines of "I may have to start looking at 15mm". This was something of a red rag to a bull as I had been extolling the virtues of the new generation of cheap 15mm to him for years but apparently to no avail. Maybe the emails all got sent to his "spam" folder?

As it happens I was waiting for this particular little model to land here in the UK. Zvezda's release schedule is still dominated by the requirements of their "Art of Tactic" game, rather than the requirements of us wargamers. Art of Tactic is a crossover board game with units represented by plastic models. The problem is that they use 1:72 for infantry and guns, 1:100 for tanks and vehicles, and 1:144 for aircraft (or 1:200 for larger aircraft), all priced at around £3.00 for a unit. This is something of a "curates egg". We get good quality 1:100 (15mm) tanks at a very reasonable price, but for us there is also the disappointment in knowing that the guns will never arrive in the "right" scale. The other interesting point is that Zvezda have been rather random in their releases, because they are concentrating on the Art of Tactic game rather than looking at the wider wargames market, they're producing models the mainstream wargaming companies would not look at in plastic, and the A13 is one of those.

OK the pedants will immediately cry out "thats not a Crusader!" and of course they would be right. However given the confused situation of British Cruiser Tank naming, I can understand how Zvezda  may get the Cruiser Tank Mk IV (A13 MkII) confused with Cruiser Tank MkVI (A15). It is a Mk IV, but you could make it a IVA with a minimum of work (cut the coax Vickers and replace with a slimmer Besa) or at this scale just not bother!

The kit itself is very simple and consists of 2 sprues with a total of 7 parts (plus the flag bit that is only used in Art of Tactic). The plastic is a little bit softer than what you would get from Airfix or PSC - I suspect this is to allow the "snap fit" to work.

Initially with Zvezda I didn't glue them, but last week my cat Otto (Carius) knocked a box of them on the floor and though there was no long term damage there was plenty of bits popping off, so this one got some Liquid Poly to hold it together. The assembly instructions are on the back of the box
 

It took less than eight minutes to clip the parts from the sprues and assemble them. The sprues were 100% flash free. Detail is very fine - a feature of many of the AoT kits and as a result they lack the overscale features we come to expect from mainstream wargames models. This is most pronounced in the 2Pdr gun barrel, which is very thin and fine, and has about a life expectancy of a few minutes on a wargames table, so I plan to replace it with some plastic rod before it gets painted, and the tracks and running gear which are frankly superb. The down side is like all AoT tanks there is no way to model them with an open hatch, which is a bit of a disappointment, and the smoke dischargers usually seen on the right hand side of the turret on tanks in a combat area are missing - but that last would take about a minute to fix with a bit of plastic rod..

Proportionally and dimensionally the Zvezda kit looks spot on, and captures the look of the real thing really well.

All in all a great little kit and well worth £3.00. Let me put that into perspective. Flames of War will sell you their multi medium (resin and plastic) version for £8.00. You will get the option to have an open hatch and a commander, but saving £5 a tank is damned attractive. QRF also do an A13 MkIV at £6 each, and Skytrex for £6.50, but still, thats twice the Zvezda price.

Well worth picking up if you want to do either France 1940 or the Early phase of the Western Desert campaign

Trouble with Rubble (4)

As the sun sets I gave them a quick coat of matt grey as a base coat. In the past I used black but painting grey over it was a pain so I am accepting there will be less shadows and just going for the grey.

Next step will be to start adding some other colours - hopefully tomorrow

Trouble With Rubble (2) Thinking about it

First step was to sit down and think

Always the difficult bit really.  In my mind I know what I want. I want piles of rubble, not ruins. I also want to suggest those piles were once buildings. I long ago realised that the mind is easily tricked. If you want to make something look like a ruined hose, you need to put something in there that draws the eye – a chair for instance. After that the mind fills in the rest and the model doesn’t need to be too detailed. I suppose the same holds true for real life. A picture of a pile of rubble doesn’t cause as much shock as a the same pile of rubble with a childs doll or teddybear poking out. In fact I’m convinced some journalists take a sack full of spares in case they need the right shot. Anyway back to my rubble. What I want is a pile of rubble with some shapes in there to suggest to the eye they were once buildings, so walls, pipes etc sticking out.  Ideally I would have bought some of the Hawk resin building detail tiles and cut them up and used them, but the budget for this build is £0 so that  is out. Luckily I think I have everything I need in my “Man Cave”.

I decided the rubble needed the same footprint as the DZC buildings it would replace. This is not strictly true, as there are always bits that fall into the road or on adjacent passers-by, but I had a rather daft idea that If I kept the dimensions the same as the card buildings we were using I could leave the rubble inside them and lift them off once they were destroyed – too bloody faffy by far and a direct breach of the guiding light and golden rule KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)

I also wanted this to be a one off – I’m building all 18 at once, not faffing around in a way that leaves the project unfinished and taking up valuable time and space.

Trouble with Rubble (1)

So my various escapades in DZC continue. One of the problems I am running into is what in the DZC community we tend to call things like  “Active Urban Regeneration”, ie demolishing a building while it is full of the opposition.  There are a number of very good reasons to do this. Infantry in buildings are very hard to shift, usually invisible to direct fire, and buildings can be costly and time consuming to assault with other infantry – all a bit like real life really. The solution in DZC has also been tried on occasion, just blowing the whole place up. This also has the added attraction of being a lot of fun :-)

There is a problem however. Although there are some very nice buildings available for DZC, both resin and card from Hawk themselves, and a growing supply of third party models using laser cut mdf, there are not too many options when it comes to the after effect of a building being literally blown to rubble.
I asked a couple of guys who are rather talented with the laser to design some. And they came back with ruins. Nice ruins, but more English Heritage rather than 9-11. What I wanted was rubble – not ruins.

Anyway I decided the best solution was to get of my arse and have a go myself, however lacking a laser and the skills to use one, I decided to go “Old School” (or should that be “Playschool”?) and use card and PVA.

Although these are designed with DZC in mind, I think they work for most scales from 15mm and smaller

Turning Japanese Part 7 Last leg

Spike has realised he loves Buffy, but Buffy still thinks she likes Riley, but Riley is secretly feeling he is losing her.......

I finished the 10 Type 89 Medium Tanks and 5 Type 95 Light tanks, all Battlefront, plus a trio of Type 97 Te-Ke Tankettes from PeterPig. I'm conflicted by the PeterPig models, they are a pain to put together because they have no solid hull to attach the tracks to, and the detail is sometimes a bit soft, but they do look nice when completed - as you can see here with "The Sasebo Special"

The Type 95 Ha-Go are Battlefront and apart from my earlier whine about sticking them together they are a great little model that paints up well

Lastly the Type 89s - again Battlefront, here seen with the 95s as a group shot

This was after they all received their national markings - a rising sun decal "pinched" from a set of Naval Ensigns by I-94 Decals sold here in the UK by Minibits\Pendraken http://www.minibits.net/I-94-DecalsTransfers-c23/13000-12400-Naval-sc81/(cheers Leon). Leon carries a wide range of decals that come in very useful, even if as in this case, they get re-tasked :-)

So that's it - 25 Buffys later and the Japanese are done