Pete's Place

[pmskaar]

Here is the AAR with pictures from our Mein Panzer game on December 7th. The scenario "Stemming the Tide" was set in Russia in August 1943 with the Russian offensive after Kursk.

For this game, I had 4 players with the 2 Russian players, Matt W. and Richard F. commanding a Battalion of 3 Companies of T-34s. The 2 German players each had a reduced mixed Panzer III/IV Company of 13 tanks.

I gave the Germans a pre-game move to get them on the board first. They got to arrive just ahead of the Russians but not by much.

Turn 1. The Russians got the initiative and moved first coming in from the East. Both sides were coming on this turn and there was no combat. The Russians sent 2 T-34 Companies toward the large hill in the center while the third headed Northwest toward the village. The Germans sent a Panzer III and a Panzer IV Platoon from 1 Company toward the hill to get into position. The other Platoon took up positions inside the village. The other Company sent a Platoon of Panzer IIIs South over the small river while the other 2 Platoons moved in to support the Company defending the hill.

Turns 2 - 4. The 2 Russian Companies assaulted the hill but were unable to secure the road at the top, one of the geographical objectives. The Germans initially were able to knock out 2 or 3 T-34s before the Russians were able to score some kills. The Russian Company driving toward the village took some losses but was able to knock out 2 or 3 of the 4 Panzer IIIs that were defending.

The Russians kept advancing on the hill and eventually destroyed the 4 Panzer IVs that were defending although losing more of their own.

Meanwhile, on the Southern flank, the lone Panzer III Platoon was able to knock out 1 of the T-34s attacking the hill from behind. Realizing the threat, the other 2 T-34s in that platoon did a 180 degree turn to counter the flanking move. The Germans ended up losing a Panzer III as a result.

Game End. We ended up calling the game after 4 turns as a couple players had other commitments. At the time we called the game, the Germans were ahead on points and the Russians had not obtained any of their geographical objectives. The Russians did have plenty of T-34s left and the Germans had suffered about 8 tanks knocked out or brewed up .. about a third of their number.

If the game had gone a bit longer, 2 to 4 more turns, I think it would have been very close. The T-34 Company on the Russian right was driving to the village now defended by only 1 or 2 tanks. In the center, the Russians were contesting the hill but had not achieved a breakthrough. In the south, the German flanking move had not achieved any decisive results but had given the Russians something to think about.

The game went very smoothly and the players all got along and had fun. I consider it a success and would run this one again sometime.

Here are some pictures.


Turn 1. 6th Company with 2 Platoons moving to support the 5th Company defending the hill.


Turn 1. The 3rd Platoon from 6th Company starts its flanking move over the river.


Turn 1. The Russians begin arriving from the East.


Turn 1. The Russians continue to arrive and start pressing toward the hill and the village.


Turn 1. Another view of the action.


Turn 2-3. One Russian Company driving toward the village has taken a couple of losses.


Turn 2-3. Another view of the action.


Turn 2-3. The Germans have taken some losses as well. One tank knocked out, another is suppressed.


Turn 2. The action around the hill is definitely heating up as 2 Russian Companies move to assault.


Turn 4. The Germans have lost a whole Platoon of Panzer IVs from 5th Company. The Russians have also taken more losses but continue on.


Turn 4. The 6th Company sends 2 Platoons to aid the hard pressed 5th Company defending the hill.


Turn 4. In the South, the 6th Company's 3rd Platoon is engaged with some T-34s. The Germans have 1 Panzer brewed up.


Turn 4. Another view of the action on the Southern flank.

[redleg]

Looks like an awesome game Pete! Beautiful terrain and vehicles!

[Begemot]

Pete,

Great looking game - table and miniatures. Looked like a tense fight. Nice to your stuff in action.


Begemot

[Hoth_902]

Pete, amazing AAR, amazing pieces and amazing terrain. Thanks for taking the time to share

[PolishGI]

Great AAR Pete. Nice setup. Looks like a good time!

[chrisswim]

Pete, looks very nice.
But that top picture has my building, the rural home with chimney.
Please return it.
I like the set up.

[pmskaar]

Thank you all very much, Redleg, Begemot, Hoth, Polish GI, and Chris.

This was a fun game to run and challenging to prepare. It has some differences (of course) from running my North Africa games.

1. Woods. I wanted to have the woods factor into things but not be too dominant either. I did a test layout at home and added more woods until I was satisfied that there were enough but not too much. One of my Facebook friends commented that it looked like "Green Tunisia".

2. River. I wanted a river in the game but not so much that it became the dominant feature and everything channels down to cross the river. The bridges became objectives but not the only objectives.

3. Villages. I had more buildings here than in North Africa and scattered about as well. The buildings help to break up some of the line of sight as do the woods and hills.

4. Road network. I wanted to make sure the roads appear to be going somewhere else off the map. In my initial test layout, one road tended to just go in a big circle. It reminded my of those Christmas tree electric train layouts where the track is basically an oval.

5. The Armies. I wanted typical equipment for both sides, not necessarily optimal equipment. At this time in the summer of 1943, the Russian organization for the tank brigade was 31 medium tanks and 21 light tanks plus a Brigade HQ tank. in order to make the scenario manageable, I cut the Russians down to 1 T-34 Battalion. I originally thought about adding in my 10 painted T-70s and even a Regiment of SU-152s but decided against it as the number of players I was hoping for were not all available. As it was, I originally had 5 players with 3 Russians each with a T-34 Company of 10 tanks and 2 Germans, each with a Company.

The Germans had an interesting organization during this time. The unit I depicted is basically the 6th Panzer Division but other units had similar organizations. Each Company in the Summer of 1943 had a mix of Panzer IIIs and Panzer IVs with the Panzer IIIs being mostly the long barrel 50mm J/L/M types and some short 75mm Panzer IIIN as well. The Panzer IVs at this time were mostly Gs and Hs. In 6th Panzer Division (and other units as well) the Panzer IIIs still outnumbered the Panzer IVs.

My friend Gary Davies has indicated with a chart that the Panzer IVs were actually integrated with the Panzer IIIs at the Platoon level at least in April 1943. For game purposes for this August 1943 scenario, I decided to put the Panzer IVs into a separate Platoon for each company. If I get evidence to the contrary, I will consider fully integrating them with the Panzer IIIs as well.

I decided to give the Germans 2 reduced Panzer Companies to take on the Russian Steamroller. This gave the Germans 26 tanks vs. 30 for the Russians who are on the attack. I also gave the Germans Veteran status vs. Regular status for the Russians. In Mein Panzer, everything revolves around Troop Quality or TQ. For the German Regulars and Veterans the TQ is 12. Veterans also have a bonus shot they can take reflecting the better crews and Command Range is greater which gives the Veterans greater flexibility. The Russian Regulars have a TQ of 10.

6. The Tanks. Of all the tanks for this game, the T-34 is the best one overall. It has great speed, decent all around armor, and a decent main gun vs the German tanks it is facing.
The Panzer IVG/H is the best tank the Germans had in this scenario with the best ability to hit and kill targets with its main gun. The problem is that the tank has average speed and fair frontal armor but not great. The side and rear armor are not very good and in the game, the sideskirts have basically no effect on 76mm AT rounds.
The Panzer IIIs are definitely outclassed by the T-34. The speed is average, the frontal armor is 1 less than the Panzer IV, and the main guns come up a bit short when hitting the frontal armor of the T-34. To address this problem, a bit, I decided to give the German 50mm Panzer IIIs each 2 rounds of APCR which greatly increases chances for a kill.... if it hits. I gave the Panzer IIINs unlimited HEAT ammo which helps as well.

7. Other Tanks. I would have loved to add some of my recently painted Tiger Is and Panther Ds to the mix for this scenario. My original idea was to add them in as reinforcements later in the game. I also considered adding StuG IIIs and maybe even some Ferdinands but decided in the end that less is more (sometimes at least.)

8. Game Length. My vision was to have the game go about 8 turns. We called the game after 4 turns and the Russians had not yet achieved any of their geographical objectives. At that time, the Russians had lost about 10 tanks or so while the Germans had lost 8 including 4 of the precious Panzer IVs. With more time, I think the Russians would have secured the hill in the center and probably the village in the Northwest as the Germans had lost 2 or 3 tanks out of 4 defending it and the T-34 Company opposite still had 7 functioning tanks.

9. The Future. I plan to run this scenario or a similar one again. Sandwars is in May and if I can get at least 4 people to play this time, I think I will. If we have even more than that, I will consider adding some more forces to the mix.

10. My assessment. The game was pretty well balanced in my opinion. I thought the scenario went very well and all the players got along great. That was a big plus as we didn't have any arguments over rules, line of sight, or flank shots and such. All the guys kept things moving well and they enjoyed the game which is a success in my book.

[Hoth_902]

Pete, thanks for posting details of your game. It's very informative. Great work. O and if I can help it, I will try to be there for sand wars. Minus COVID, this time.!!!

[PolishGI]

Whoa. I will chew on that post tomorrow morning and respond. LOL

Nice write up. Always an interesting match up with T-34s vs Pz IIIs and IVs... Another option for reinforcements aside from the large cats would be elements from a StuG Bn coming in to assist. I've always had good luck with StuGs...

My friend created a meeting engagement scenario where he had the initial forces running into each other, then reinforcements for each side to join the fray. And then for fun, he added what he called an "archer" whereby a couple of Nashorns showed up and found a nice hill to park on and snipe.

Good stuff, very inspirational.

[pmskaar]

I have gotten back to painting my GHQ Italian M-13/40 tanks after a month or two hiatus doing other things. I have decided to get this unit finished although it has lots of competition for my attention right now. On these, I am pretty far along with the remaining 12. The first 5 were completed about 2 years ago while the others sat, languishing on nails, since then.

Here are just a couple photos of where I am at right now. The wash is completed and now some highlights, then decals, dust, and dullcoat plus highlighting the end connectors and cleats on the tracks.





I will plug away at these until they are done.

[pmskaar]

Hosting the Russian Front game earlier this month plus getting back to painting my M-13/40s has given me a lot of thoughts as to what to do next especially with the New Year around the corner in just a few days.

Here are some projects I am currently working on or plan to work on in the next year. Most of them will be WWII but I am also looking to get back into doing some more Cold War and Arab-Israeli War projects as well. In no particular order (since I will probably change my mind on some of it) here is my somewhat ambitious list. This list not only includes vehicles and infantry but also terrain and building items to enhance my games.

1. M-13/40 Company. I am making a current push to get these 12 vehicles done to add to the 5 I already have. Almost done with a bit left to do.

2. T-34/76 M1943 Company. I actually have 4 Companies of these already but 2 of them were painted by a friend and my OCD self wants a full Battalion with the July 1942 organization of 31 tanks all painted by me. This unit is currently undercoated and awaiting the base coat.

3. T-70 Company plus Battalion HQ tank. I have 1 Company so far. The addition of these will give me a full Battalion which will then give me a full July 1942 Russian Tank Brigade with both the T-34 Battalion and the T-70 Battalion. These are currently undercoated and awaiting the base coat.

4. More Shermans for France 1944 and NW Europe. I currently have a Company + each of M4A1 and M4A3 Shermans of both 75mm and 76mm varieties. I would like to have 2 full Companies of each type and maybe even more. So far, I have nothing in the works so this project is from scratch.

5. Barbarossa. This is a major "new" project for me. I have some German and Russian vehicles that I painted years ago but really nothing to do a game with at this time. On nails and undercoated for the Russians are 6 T-34 M1940 plus one more KV-1 1940. I plan on adding a number of more Russian vehicles including BT-5s, BT-7/8s, T-26s, and maybe some T-28s and even a few T-35s since I have them. I already have some KV-1s and T-34/76 M1941s. On the good side, I have a fair amount of infantry so far but will probably need a few things to fill them in.

For the Germans, I would like to do 2 Panzer III Companies as well as 2 Panzer 38t Companies. I do have a Panzer IVF Company painted already plus infantry and some AT guns. I would probably use the Panzer IVFs as either Fs, or Ds or Es for 1941.

6. European Winter Terrain. I have a basic Winter layout with Terrain Maker. I will be adding some Winter buildings and some Winter deciduous trees. I will also be doing some frozen fields as well. Some East Front battles and the Bulge await.

7. European Summer Terrain. More buildings, some fields, and some more large rivers with bridges that need to be secured or seized. I have the buildings and more are on order from 2D6. I will be adding both Russian types of buildings as well as French and Western European buildings.

8. Arab-Israeli Wars 1967 and 1973. Currently, I have about enough stuff to do a small tank on tank scenario but want to add infantry, artillery, and maybe some aircraft and of course more tanks plus APCs and trucks. The rules I will be using are Fistful of TOWs 3 which I have played before and enjoy. I have figures for the Egyptian infantry but no Israelis currently. The terrain will be my North Africa terrain which I already have but may need to add a few things as needed.

9. Cold War. This is an area that I have great interest but not a lot of stuff ready to go. I would also be using FFOT3 as my main rules set for this but am open to others as well. I need to add more infantry and tanks for both sides as well as APCs, artillery, aircraft and helicopters. On the terrain side, I would need some more modern type buildings to supplement what I already have plus make some more modern roads as needed. This is a big project and could take a while to get there. The Arab-Israeli Wars are more close to being ready to game.

10. Back to North Africa. I have enough stuff to run a decent game as I have been. Major additions would be adding more Italians and the Americans for Tunisia. Both nationalities would require a lot of effort to get them ready for a game. I am hopeful that getting my first Italian M-13/40 unit finished will help, if only just a bit.

I also need to round out a few units and add some more things for the British especially. I am looking to have a full Tank Regiment for El Alamein to include 2 Sherman Squadrons and a Squadron of Crusader IIIs plus so of the other vehicles. Currently I have 1 Sherman Squadron plus a partial Squadron of Crusader IIIs.

For the Germans, I added quite a bit to the Panzerwaffe this year. There are still a few more things for them but nothing that needs imminent attention for most of the games that I run.

I may have a few other things I will be working on but this is my "short" list. We will see how things go.

Happy New Year to you all.

[pmskaar]

One of my projects is to add some deciduous trees and frozen fields to my Winter Terrain board. Here are a few pictures of a layout I set up last year to check things out. Some snow covered buildings would also be nice.

[redleg]

Your winter terrain is fantastic, Pete! I think I asked you before, but I can't remember all the details - once you flock your grass hexes do you put anything on them to hold the flocking in place? Any additional glue or sealant or anything? I was surprised how durable they were when I got to actually handle them. Beautiful work!

[pmskaar]

Thank you very much, Redleg!

Flocking. My European flocked hexes are first coated with 2 layers of paint, The second layer, while still wet, gets some green sawdust sprinkled on top. Once this is dry, I brush on Woodland Scenics Scenic Cement on the hex. I then sprinkle on the Woodland Scenics foam grass which is a mixture of different foams that I created years ago. After that, I may add some coarse turf shrubs to give it a bit of variety. I do not spray anything over this.

For my Desert Terrain. I use a different method. I put 2 layers of paint on the hex. The first one, which quickly soaks into the hex, I allow to dry. The second one is then added and I sprinkle Woodland Scenics Fine Earth Foam on top. I need to mention that the house paint that I use has been thinned a bit with water to help the flow.

When the hex has dried, I then use a real thin layer of Ligonier Tan house paint by Sherwin-Williams. I let this dry and this helps to lighten and stiffen the foam. I then add 2 or sometimes 3 more layers of paint to the hex to lighten it some more. I try not to have it TOO uniform though.



In the above picture, you can see some subtle variations in the tan hues on the layout. Some areas get a bit more tan paint than others.

There is no need to spray these hexes with a fixative as the paint holds the foam on quite well and the hexes are very durable as long as you don't crush them by leaning on them.

[redleg]

Thank you for all the good info and tips, Pete! I'm going to try some hexes very soon and I'm not terribly confident. I'm just jumping in with both feet though and we'll see how it turns out!