Joint Task Force Pope

[panzergator]

And THAT is exactly how I came to have far more minis than I ever intended. There is always a logical reason to balance the establishment...

[chrisswim]

Thanks for the comments, guys! and I appreciate the info on the artillery units, PG! I'm going to have to stick with 18 launchers in a HIMARS battalion, at least for the time being. Oh wait...I need 2 battalions: one with 18 and one with 27! Oh wait...I need 4 battalions so I can have them in tan and NATO camo!

That thinking, the evaluation you have Redleg is scary…. I use the same logic!!
Very scary!!

[Hoth_902]

Nice work redleg......nice work indeed....

[MechCommander]

What happened to your ROD Website? its gone?

[foxbat]

Thanks for the comments, guys! and I appreciate the info on the artillery units, PG! I'm going to have to stick with 18 launchers in a HIMARS battalion, at least for the time being. Oh wait...I need 2 battalions: one with 18 and one with 27! Oh wait...I need 4 battalions so I can have them in tan and NATO camo!

I know that feeling... I'd decided no carrier, as they are not absolutely necessary in a table top game. Then I did that Java campaign and thought, oh well, why not have the Ryujo after all. And while I'm at it, wouldn't it be cool to have the HMS furious too? Then I couldn't resist the temptation to buy an Es-** CENSORED ** class, and the Princeton... last order had 9 carriers, and I'm mulling adding 4 or 5 more. The only mercy is that 1/2400 ship models can be stored easily, but still... oh, well!

[redleg]

Thank you for the kind words, guys.

Foxbat, someone once said "You an never have too many carriers". Oh wait....I think that was just me. But I stand by that! More carriers please!

Mech, yeah, I killed it. I'll explain in the ROD thread.

[panzergator]

There seems to be turmoil in US artillery organization. When I left the business, the Divarty MLRS unit was a battery of nine launchers and the GS battalion had 2 batteries of M110A2s. As an aside, the J series TOE had recently increased the 155 batteries from 6 pieces to 8. As launchers became available, the MLRS batteries were increased to three, with 27 total launchers and the M110A2s were withdrawn. At some point, in somebody's infinite wisdom, the MLRS battalion was reduced to 2 (losing somewhere in translation that God was on the side with the heaviest artillery) and the 155 battery was reduced to six, once again. With a small search, I discovered HIMARS battalions contained 18 launchers arrayed in three batteries of six. And THEEENNN, I read HIMARS battalions had been changed, increasing batteries by three each for a battalion of 27, organized in 3 nine-piece batteries. I made the mistake of poking around a bit more on MLRS organization and discovered, again, that MLRS battalions had again been reorganized into 3 batteries of 6 pieces. Apparently, the move to Ft. Benning, or whatever its called these days, deprived The Armor School (I guess there isn't one anymore AND TACKING "OF EXCELLENCE" on to the end of everything DOESN'T MAKE IT SO, thank you, Picard!) of the ability to produce anything like the wonderful ST 17-1-1 and 2, which might have helped me follow all this and I am relegated to being just an outdated Old Fart. I heartily disagree with a number of moves mentioned or implied here, starting with moving the Armor School to the Infantry post, effectively returning to its position of being under the Infantry's thumb, stunting the dynamic maneuver force Armor once was (ex. M10), creating CABs, reducing maneuver battalions from 4 to 3 companies again, and reducing MLRS battalions from 27. I cannot VERIFY the accuracy of either type rocket unit reorganization, so if anybody has REALLY GOOD info on this, please post to this thread. And you guys down at Ft. Sill otta make up your damned mind! And you're gonna be sorry when you put all your Arty pieces on WHEELS! Just watch all those wheeled pieces trying to get around in that gooseshit German mud.

Since I only COLLECT GHQ, I will arbitrarily stick with pure, 4-company Armor and Mech battalions, 8-piece 155 batteries, and 27-piece MLRS battalions. THAT, in MY mind, was an effective force structure (which also had POWERFUL ACRs) and Army of Excellence ENOUGH. I know this is a rant, but I'm over 65 and will say what I damned well please. Now GET THE DAMNED ARMOR SCHOOL BACK TO FORT KNOX and away from that two-and-half-mile-an-hour thinking!

[redleg]

Rants are welcome!

Don't forget when Fort Sill changed the COLT platoons into STRIKER platoons, right about the same time we started seeing infantry platoons in Stryker vehicles. THAT was confusing! LOL

[panzergator]

Wait! Wait! WAIIIIT! Just paint the 18-piece HIMARS battalion sand and the 27-piece battalion NATO camo.

[redleg]

Did you say paint one brigade sand and one brigade NATO camo? I'm down with that! I will need a brigade of SP artillery and one of towed artillery in each color, so that's 4 brigades, but then maybe a brigade of wheeled stuff for the HIMARS and I will probably do a battalion of Hawkeyes too even though they aren't in the inventory. So using artillery math that means I need 8 brigades of artillery!

On a serious note, I have a plan for the PARTY (Pope's Artillery), but it is a constantly changing document. So far I just have 1 artillery brigade in the PARTY (17th FA Brigade circa 1980), the rest of my artillery units are DS to a maneuver unit. That needs to change in 2026!

[panzergator]

You... uh... might want to save yourself some money and CAREFULLY reread my comment wherein I specified "B A T T A L I O N," NOT "brigade."

I NEVER paint anything sand, although I understand why people might. My experience and my head are in Cold War Germany and it is my preferred theater. That means OD, MASSTER, MERDC, and MAYBE NATO. Forest green all over us good, too.

Maybe you have a wallet that refills itself automatically, but I do not. I am on an artillery kick, though, and considering the next artillery purchase, either from the factory or Chris.

But you go right ahead with 8 artillery brigades. God will likely be on your side.

[panzergator]

Post more Arty pics.

[redleg]

I always try to go big when it comes to artillery! Battalions are great, but brigades are even better! True that it gets very expensive very quickly. Nothing is as good as GHQ, but I will still be printing a lot of artillery. Once I finish the ACR project I intend to put more effort into corps artillery units.

Here are a couple artillery pics (plus a pair of mortars). These were from September. I will try to get some more arty pics this weekend.

[foxbat]

Beautiful models. I like how you did the inside of the M 106 white.

[chrisswim]

Looking real nice. Look so nice even I don’t want to contend with your artillery.
Very well painted.
Thank you for sharing.