Friday 21 March 2014

More Scw

yes here are a few more SCW stands, Today some artillery. Starting with some 65mm Italian Mountain guns. The crew are wearing militia type clothes, but that does not mean They do not know how to use a gun like this. As mentioned previously as half the army deserted at the start of the war many of them went back to civilian life and many also joined different non army organisations so we can assume that some of the training would have been passed on.

Not a huge amount  to say about these. It is perhaps more interesting to talk about their transport.

I have also painted the gun teams moving. Being Mountain Guns they were able to break the guns down to be carried by horses, mules or even men if the situation dictated. Luckily for Me Pendraken also do some pack horses carrying the guns. So it would be rude not to have them as well. We will just have to assume that there are another two guys on horses one to make the third crew member and one to look after the horses who are off of the base at the time.






Needless to say these were painted for Curt's Analogue Challenge and I was particularly pleased that this is a figure range he had not seen before as I know he does wargame the Spanish Civil War.


So with these light guns I have also 2 French 155mm field guns. I have given these regular army crew as being Bigger I would imagine larger political factions would insist on having these. It is still quite possible that they could be on Nationalist or Republican sides as the uniforms don't really give a true indication of loyalty. As with all the figures I could paint Armbands on them, but this keeps it more versatile. I have Two trucks to tow these guns about. And I probably should apologise for the backgrounds being skewiff but I am not going to. Just take the colours from the backgrounds to indicate why I have selected those camouflage patterns.

I promise to put something that has not been on the challenge next time. As I am just basing up some dead markers for this game.

I have two games this weekend, Club on Sunday and Posties Rejects tomorrow. So expect my next post on Monday. So until then take care and have fun. All the best Clint

Wednesday 19 March 2014

10mm SCW Guardia de Assalto

During the Analogue Painting Challenge I expanded my Spanish Civil War forces. In this instance a detachment of Guardia de Assalto. These fellows were a paramilitary force before the Civil war broke out and to be eligible to join you had to have had prior military experience. When the war started loyalties were split and thus we see these form of troops fighting for both Nationalist and Republican.

Firstly this is a "Bilbao" armoured car it has a crew of 4 and is able to carry 5 additional troops. It is armed with a 7mm Hotchkiss machine gun. It was the only pre war armoured car built by Spain. I went for a simple very dark grey colour scheme and applied a black wash. Job Done.

I doubt I will need more of these vehicles as they were quite rare, More common than any other type of armoured car to be sure, but never built or distributed in the kind of numbers as we would expect in later years.








The Uniform of the Guardia de Assalto was black shirt and trousers with a black peaked cap. If you have seen the film "Land and freedom" these are seen at one point not as front line troops but in Barcelona entering a mans house and arresting him. They did also fight as frontline troops and were some of the most mobile troops of the war usually going by truck, but there was also a motorcycle detachment.

As I plan a game later in the year (Autumn) I still have plenty of time to sort the forces out. The main thing holding me up is terrain though. "Timescape" do make some terrain for this scale and region there really is a limited choice. Which leaves me wondering if I should make my own buildings.

That's todays update. As these have already been on the painting challenge this feels like a backward step putting them on my blog, But as they have not been seen here it is allowable.

Until next time, take care and have some fun Clint

Monday 17 March 2014

No Prisoners (Aqaba Arab Revolt Game)


For those of you who cannot remember the film. The history is of course different from the film and the actual battle lasted 4 days.

But as a wargamer I am more drawn to the spectacle of the film. So here is Our game interpretation that we played out yesterday. Some amendments to make to the playing boards and to the rules before Broadside, but no reason not to give a game walk through of one of the games we played.

 Starting positions for the Arabs.

4 foot long Arab camel line and 2 Turks in a trench Not expecting guests

 Mostly a deserted Desert town
Turkish Patrols wandering the town
Over-running the trench line the Camel charge moves on
Laurence of Arabia and entourage.
They reach the out skirts of the town
Moving through crop fields
 And skirting buildings. In the distance you cane see a Turkish Patrol taking cover behind a low wall field boundary.
Another Turkish Patrol taking cover. As the Charge gains momentum.
Turkish shooting starts to take it's toll and Camel riders start to tumble.
Laurence Moves forward in the centre of the board
 Skirting the building a first wave of Camel riders suffers devastating incoming fire.
 Else where melee is joined and while some Arabs slip past others engage in the Melee.
 Having survived, for the most part, the incoming fire the arabs start to get stuck in.
 The Melee is not all one sided and it delays the Arab attack long enough
 Long enough for the Turks to get reinforcements.
 Laurence gets dragged down in Hand to hand combat by three Turks and unfortunately DIES! Graham is a ROTTER!
 The Flag bearer pushes forward but the Turkish reinforcements are to many and their fire power concentrated and eventually he runs to cover.
Arab reinforcements finally arrive, but too late to turn the tide.
 
 
Yes so the Turks managed to defend Aqaba in this game but it was a close run thing. If two more Turks had died it would have been an Arab victory. I(n the first game, the Arabs did win and that was also a close run thing. So I must conclude that the rules and forces are quite balanced. There will be a few changes made but just minor tweaks. The Boards also need a slight revamp, but nothing major. As a teast game it worked very well.
 
 
Thanks for reading and more again as soon as I can. All the best Clint


Sunday 16 March 2014

Slim pickins

Well I have been home for about an hour now. So that must mean it's time to blog. So today I went to Spring Skirmish ( LINK) Where Tim Graham and myself put a game on. Dave and Paul were putting on a different game at the same show so were unable to assist. I will do a Game report Next time out. Two other Bloggers were present that I know of. Big Lee and David Crook. So they will probably do a little bit about the show in the next few days. (Click on their names to view their blogs).

Anyway Mr Crook has an interest in the Arab revolt so he will be joining us a bit at Broadside to Play. That invitation extends to any blogger who attends Broadside and wants to join in. Games take about 2 hours so if that's too long feel free to step in and step out when the mood takes you.

So we used the Skirmish show to play-test the rules I wrote yesterday and the game does work as a participation game if you want it to. I shall just give you one Pic of the game today. This is the starting position of the Arab Camelry before the charge starts. So yes That is 4 foot wall to wall Camels! With two poor Turks in a trench on sentry duty........ They tend to die in the first turn! but it does get you an idea how the rules work very quickly.


It was a good day and despite many temptations I spent only £4.50. Yes I am a cheapskate. So all I bought was 5 plastic Lord of the rings Figures for 20p Each These are for my nephew and with luck it should keep him busy for about 15 seconds! (so money well spent!) £1 was also spent on small round MDF bases.... and my big purchase of a 1/200th scale Ju52. The aircraft will be painted in civil colours and used in my planned Spanish Civil War Game.

That's it for today. I shall do another blog post soon. So until then take care and Have fun. All the best Clint