In the previous post I showed the WIP Hawk battery that will be used in our CWC Weekend game in October. I mentioned that I planned to use the base for a similar Soviet battery that could be used in future games.
OK activity has been very slow on this blog for various reasons, real life, health problems plus the inability to access this blog for a while due to problems with Microsoft Bing not allowing access to Google Chrome stuff. I've finally sorted it out so over the coming months I'll be posting information and progress on preparations for our annual CWC Weekend get together later in the year.
This years event takes place over the weekend of 18/19 October at The Unit in Stone, Staffordshire and will involve between 12 and 16 players battling it out for control of the Jutland Peninsula in the mid 1980's. Forces include Danish and West Germans reinforced by UK and USMC vs Soviet and East German Divisions reinforced by Naval and VDV troops.
Over the years we have built up a considerable collection of forces and terrain but each year I try and add to the terrain collection. This year there will be a few bits of new stuff on the workbench. First up is a Hawk Missile battery that will be more of an objective rather than a weapon system (but you never know 😉).
New additions to my Soviet VDV forces are these DPP40 Amphibious Pontoon Systems. Fellow Cold War Commander Andy C very kindly 3d printed four sets of pontoons that were suitable to use with our standard 100mm wide river/canal sections. Obviously they'll work great with 75mm and 50mm wide sections as well. As mentioned in Part One I will eventually add a few of the vehicles that come with this set of STL files but for now here are the four systems set up on one of the 100mm wide canal sections.
As always thanks for looking...
Some new additions to the CWC collection.
Saturday morning dawned and we headed back to the Village Hall to meet up with the rest of the weekends attendees and sort out deployment, artillery plotting and plans for the coming battle. Myself and Arthur were on the Southern Table attempting to hold back the Russian hordes with our brave Czech defenders. Meanwhile the other two members of the Czech command team Tom and Ned attempted to do the same on the Northern Table.
We had deployed an SMG Battalion (3Bn) with an attached Combat Engineer Company furthest forward in the BUA on Table A. On a ridge overlooking both river crossings we deployed our Tank Battalion (12Bn) of Hetzers and LT-38 and on Table C defending the small airfield a Rifle Battalion (8Bn). We also had 3 batteries of 105mm artillery on table with fire being directed by the SMG Battalion HQ. Off table we shared with the Northern Table 2 batteries of 152mm guns.
Initial orders were to defend the town with the SMG Battalion while the Combat Engineers laid barbed wire and minefields along the main road to Stary Boleslav. The 12th Tank Battalion had orders to hold the ridge and cover both bridges and the 8th Infantry Battalion had orders to defend the airfield and cover the main road approaching the outskirts of Stary Boleslav. Arthur took command of the 3rd SMG Battalion and the Engineers and I took command of the 12th Tank Battalion and the 8th Infantry Battalion. So as dawn broke the rumble of Russian armour could be heard approaching from the East. The men of the 3rd SMG Battalion stood ready to defend their homes against the invaders.
On Friday 5th April I headed over the Peak District to the wonderfully picturesque village of Dungworth situated near Sheffield for Crisis Point 2024 a wargames weekend organised by my good friend and fellow Cold War Commander Richard C. The original plan was for three games but unfortunately after a couple of people had to drop out due to family commitments and ill health we were down to two games, an 8 player TacWW2 game and a 4 player Cold War Commander game. The TacWW2 game was to be run by Richard C himself and the CWC game was to be run by Andy T and Neil M. Both games would be set during the fictional Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia in the Summer of 1948. Our timeline presumes that the coup earlier in 1948 was unsuccessful and Russian forces had crossed the border and were heading for Prague.
I met Richard C at the Plough and after a rather nice cottage pie and a pint of Farmers it was off to Dungworth Village Hall to begin setting up for Saturday morning. This was the first year we had used the Village Hall as the venue as all previous events had been held at the local school but the hall is a bit big and we don't get access to the kitchen whereas at the Village Hall we have access to all the amenities.
Between the two of us we managed to get the TacWW2 game tables all set up ready for deployment Saturday morning. The CWC table was to be set up by Andy T and Neil M on Saturday morning.
