Battlegroup Barbarossa Campaign - Counterattack at Rozrazh

Last week saw the first battle of what is looking like a brutal Day 3 in our BG Barbarossa campaign.  The first engagement would be a Russian counterattack on the German force at Rozrazh - this was a blocking force to protect the rear of the German bridging effort. This was the first the first time the Russians had taken the offensive in our campaign and they would attack with a 2:1 advantage in numbers!

For this game I took a mixed approach with two platoons of infantry (no transport is allowed under the 1941 Rifle Division lists), two platoons of light tanks, my favourite T-26 heavy tank, two heavy mortar batteries and a timed artillery barrage to try and pin the defenders while the Red Tide closed their defensive positions.  The extra mortars, while effective from a Psyops perspective against Alan, were a dull selection and I never had the orders to use them even if Alan hadn't been hunting down my observers with emplaced MMGs (which was very effective BTW).

Looking at the terrain, I decided to focus the main effort of the attack up the right flank with a secondary armoured effort in the centre to stop the Germans from adjusting their defences.

My lead infantry platoon pushes hard against the German AT gun in the house, taking flanking fire from the hill

They make it and destroy the gun crew in a close assault

With the AT defences in this side KOed, the first tank Platoon moves up and starts to supress the Germans on the Hill 

And in the centre the tank reinforcement start to neutralise the enemy

FLASH MESSAGE TO DIVISION COMMANDER

DAWN COUNTERATTACK ON GERMAN POSITION AT ROZRAZH SUCCESSFUL
HEAVY CASUALTIES INFLICTED BEFORE REMAINING ENEMY INFANTRY WERE WITHDRAWN FROM THE HEIGHTS BY MOTORISED TRANSPORT.  POSITION NOW OCCUPIED BY RED ARMY ELEMENTS AND PREPARING TO DEFEND AGAINST ENEMY COUNTERATTACK. THE FASCIST INVADER HAS FELT THE WRATH OF THE MOTHERLAND!

END MESSAGE

Australia Day and AHPC entries

Couple of small terrain entries this week.  For the second year in a row I have set aside the figures carefully prepped before the challenge in order to follow (willingly, it must be said) Alan into another project of opportunity :-) So just a few small terrain offerings from me this week in the interim while I build a prep the new models.

First up is this 28mm Stone Bridge by Warlord. A nice plastic model with lots of lovely detail and useful for pretty much any period.  Very happy with how it came out.

Secondly, a 15mm desert building. Found it in my spares box, manufacturer unknown. Offered here as a hint of the project to come...

Together these models fill most of a "terrain cube" (the AHPC patent pending unit of measurement) so 20 points the total.

https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com.au/2018/01/from-paul-og-stone-bridge-and-mosque-20.html

And for all my antipodean brothers and sisters: Happy Australia Day - I hope you had a great one, whatever you did!

Aussie essentials - Champagne & Orange, lamington cakes, big hat, flag and great views of Sydney Harbour!

AHPC 8: "BFG" Bonus round - FIW 12 pounder

My entry for the BFG round is an emplaced Royal Artillery field piece to support my British FIW army that I painted in AHPC VII.  Now Alan's French and Canadiens will have to contend with bombardment, ball and shot while my ranks of Redcoats advance with cold steel!

I know what you're thinking - 'nice, but is it really "Big" for a BFG Bonus round?' Well big is a relative term and in the FIW campaigns along the frontier, there wasnt a lot of artillery.  Most were emplaced in fortifications or brought up for specific sieges but in general, columns didn't have guns attached.  So dropping a 12 pounder onto the table makes it a BFG indeed!

Figs are by Front Rank and I have used a large sabot base from Charlie Foxtrot models, which gave me the space to do a nice dioramic front with the gabions.    The crew of 5 is for Sharpe Practice - our FIW rules of choice. Front Rank also impressed by providing alternate barrels for the gun carriage.  In the pics above the larger 12 pounder barrel is shown.  Here is the smaller alternative they provide in the pack, allowing me to field it as a 9 or even a 6 pounder.

After time away from painting Lace Wars era uniforms, I found these a bit of a struggle - not sure how I managed 50+ of them last challenge!

Notes to self on colours used:
Gun Carriage - GW Blue Grey
Uniform: Blue- Vallejo Prussian Blue with GW Asurmen Blue wash; Red-  GW Scarlet with Army Painter Red Tone wash; Coat d'arms Sunburnt Flesh

In toto thats one field gun (10 points), 5 crew (25 points at 5 points each) and the 50 bonus points for a total of 85.  That takes me to 305 points and past the halfway point!

AHPC entry is here:
http://analogue-hobbies-theme-rounds.blogspot.com.au/2018/01/bfg-from-paulog-fiw-royal-artillery.html

UPDATE: Pleased to announce that after voting my FIW artillery got a Runner Up position! 

Thats two such results during AHPC 8 - WoW!

https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com.au/2018/01/the-votes-are-in-for-bfg-bonus-theme.html

So one month down and my progress rate compared to previous years is up there, but that will drop off shortly as I start some significant travel with work (thus my 500 point target).

AHPC 8 - Week 3 Terrain submission

This week I have laboured to complete the Ukrainian village of Ostrog for the Battlegroup Barbarossa Campaign that Alan and I are enjoying:  3 more small houses (1 damaged) plus a wonderful partly destroyed church.

The fruits of my labours this week

Like the two buildings from last week, these are lovely resin models by Mk IV Miniatures. Wonderfully crisp sculpts with no bubbles or flash, they are a delight to paint.  The battle damage is particularly good - not overly done but still quite evident both inside and out.  The interior detailing is also lovely (all roofs are removable) though took quite a bit of extra time to do justice to it with the brush.

Its been great to finish off the total of six buildings from a standing start i.e. when a mate comes over, tells you your painting table priorities are all wrong, informs you we need a new 15mm village finished ASAP for our games, and points to the buildings in the lead pile looking all forlorn in their packets...  

That said, I bought them at Fall-In in 2015 (where I met Miles) so its good to finally give them the attention they deserve.

Next up are 4 MG bunkers - resin Battlefront models. 3 have Maxim barrels and 1 has MG 34/42. These were fun to paint up.

Overall, the 3 houses and the larger church are three 6inch terrain cubes, totalling 60 points. For the MG bunkers I suggest the same as a 15mm infantry figure, 2 points, for 8 more; a total of 68 points for this submission. Now to get back to some figures!

The village of Ostrog, which I have completed in the last fortnight

Altogether, that inches me 68 points closer to my goal and my total now stands at 220