New Blog for all my other stuff!

I have started another blog that will be home to all my other gaming interests as I don't want to put other stuff on this one. So if you feel inclined take a look. Not much to see yet but I have started with a competition :-)

http://atomicrenegade.blogspot.co.uk/

Next up some more Dutch and a surprise force will take to the tabletop.

DUTCH - 103 Recce Battalion (103 VerkBat)

As part of our Dutch force for Septembers game Mark Fry and myself are working on some units from the NATO Covering Force 1 (NL) Corps. This force consisted of Dutch, West German and US troops. The US part of the force was 2 (US) AD (Fwd) which Andy Hamilton is working on leaving the Dutch and West German forces to me and Mark.

The NATO Covering Force had the following organisation http://www.orbat85.nl/order-of-battle/royal-army/1-nl-corps/41-pabrig.html#operational-role

I have already finished the 3. PzAufklBtl which can be seen elsewhere on this blog. So next up its the Dutch 103 Recce Battalion (103 VerkBat).

103 VerkBat (just got HQ, Recce and Infantry stands to finish off)

Recce Squadron with 1 x Leopard 2, 2 x M113 C&R, 1 x M113 and 1 x M106

Close up of the great CinC models

Another view of the CinC Dutch Recce variant of the M113

The unit packs a punch with 3 x Leopard 2 tanks. These were new to the unit in 1985.

The organisation of this unit was quite difficult to represent in CWC terms but thanks to the great work done by Hans Boersma on his http://www.orbat85.nl/ site I discovered that the Dutch had an alternative OOB known as POSO (Pelotons-Organieke Samenstelling Opgeheven) for this unit which made converting the units into CWC terms much easier and as this new organisation was available in 1985 both Mark and myself decided we would organise our units based on the new OOB.

DUTCH - Mighty Antar in Action

Just a quick update with a couple of photos of one of the Dutch Antar Tank Transporter with a YPR-765 PRCO on board.

WEST GERMAN - Federal Navy's Amphibsches Transportbattailon

As is usually the case while looking for something else I stumbled across a couple of websites which show the West Germans using LARC-5 (LARC-V). It would appear that the West German Federal Navy's Amphibsches Transportbattailon 2 & 4 based in Emden received a total of 53 LARC-V in 1963 and 1964. This was apparently part of 200 in total that went into service.

http://www.panzerbaer.de/helper/bw_amphgrp-a.htm

http://www.usarmygermany.com/Sont.htm?http&&&www.usarmygermany.com/Units/Engineer/USAREUR_6960th%20CLGp.htm

Now from what I can gather they were gradually phased out of service with the last ones being decommissioned in the late 80's early 90's. Now as the CWC Megagame is a great opportunity to get unusual units on the table, so I had some of the new Heroics & Ros LARC-5 models for my 'Dragonstrike' project but as other projects are taking priority at the moment I have decided to use four for my West Germans.

DUTCH - Mighty Antar

For the CWC game in September both myself and Mark Fry are using Dutch forces and over the last few weeks we have both been finding interesting bits of information on units of the Dutch army. As the game is set in 1985 which was the year the Dutch army started to go through major changes, this has meant that we can choose between older or newer formations. As you will see in future posts the Dutch tank forces will consist of everything from a Centurion Mk.V to a Leopard 2 which has made the Dutch a very interesting force to collect. 

One of the things we discovered was the Dutch used the Mighty Antar tank transporter so I have decided that instead of making a single base for my repair depot I am going to get a few vehicles together and commandeer a building on the table as my repair depot. So first up are two Mighty Antar Tank Transporters and a Ballast Truck (rear converted after seeing a photo).

Tank Transporter unit, all vehicle from H&R with a small conversion on the Ballast Truck

Close up of the Mighty Antar

Converted Ballast Truck

Side view, the Antars are based on 80mm x 20mm mdf bases

Another view of the whole unit. 

DUTCH - Bridging Equipment (Part Seven)

I have now completed to the two DAF Treadway Bridge units for my 1985 Dutch Army. These will be allocated to units as required as quite a lot of units in the Dutch Amy has access to them.

Both DAF Treadway Bridge units. Each unit consists of a Leyland DAF with Container with a towed bridge section and a 1T Land Rover with a towed bridge section. In my research I couldn't find any pictures of the bridge section being towed so originally planned to use trucks but fellow Cold War Commander Mark Fry suggested that the bridge sections probably weren't that heavy so could be towed by a smaller vehicle so I decided on a 1T Land Rover.

One unit with bridge sections in tow. Just got to make a couple of deployed versions.

Another view of the DAF Treadway Bridge unit.

Close up of Leyland DAF with Treadway Bridge.

Close up of 1T Land Rover with Treadway Bridge.

Thanks for looking :-)

Maps

Those players who have been involved since Arctic Strike know that I like to draw my own maps. This years is 50% complete but I thought I better post something to give players an idea of the area the tables will be covering as both NATO and WARPAC begin to formulate their plans.

Southern half of the table

Northern half of the table

Apologies for the quality but hopefully it will give you all an idea. If you click on the pictures you will get a slightly larger image.