TELEGRAPH POLES - Perfect Six Terrain

Its been a while since I have posted anything on here! Mainly due to a serious blood infection which has completely knocked me for six, not great with Broughton coming up at the end of the month. Much better now so I have a busy three weeks getting ready for the Big Game!

For those of you who haven't come across them before there is a great new 6mm terrain supplier on the block 'Perfect Six Scenics' http://www.perfectsixscenics.co.uk/ who produce some interesting and useful additions to the 6mm range. I picked up some bits from him at 'Joy of Six' and since have been discussing future projects, one of which was his range of telegraph poles that he hoped to get done. I mentioned the Broughton game and Richard (yes another one!) very kindly said he would try and get them available before the game. True to his word they are now available and six packs arrived (8 per pack) through my letter box. First impressions were really good, casting needs minimum clean up and  I like the fact they are available in 4 different types.

I decided to base mine on 5p pieces to add a bit more weight to the base on table. So I set about doing 8 off to start with. Here you can see them alongside a railway and level crossing.

EMAIL - Problems with VirginMedia

Hi all,

If anyone has tried to contact me by email using my Virgin Media email address it doesn't seem to be working at all at the moment. Please contact me on kaygillick@btinternet.com in future.

Many thanks

JOY OF SIX - Part Two

 Not many more pictures as a lot of the day was spent chatting to traders and making those all important purchases to add to the lead pile! Myself and Andy Canham got into a fierce firefight in and around Dalberg with M60's trading shots with T55AM2's but I seem to have missed taking a picture of the action, I will see if anyone else has some pictures.

Polish paratroopers continue their advance finally reaching the safety of the woods.

Steve Graham's naval infantry reach the military camp

Soviet air support

Soviet landing craft, built by Ian Shaw, approach the coast.

 

The Cold War Commanders

(L to R - Andy Canham, Ian Shaw, Richard Crawley, Richard Phillips, Jamie Crawley and Steve Graham)

A view of the venue from the top floor 

A few pictures of some of the other games on during the day.

JOY OF SIX - Part One

I haven't posted much on here recently mainly due to work commitments. Today I headed off to Sheffield to join five other Cold War Commanders, Richard Crawley, Steve Graham, Andy Canham, Ian Shaw and Jamie Crawley to put on our first ever Demonstration Game at the Joy of Six show held at the Heartspace, Sheffield Hallam University. Wasn't sure what to expect as this was the first time I had attended this show. So after a very wet drive over the Peak District I arrived at the venue nice and early and was greeted by the guys from Wargames Emporium who were most helpful in directing me in where I needed to go. Thanks Chaps! After a bit of table rearranging, I was ready for the arrival of the rest of the chaps to set up before the doors opened at 10.00am.

Heartspace, Sheffield Hallam University

Once we had all arrived we got busy setting up the Battle of Bjerkvik 1985, a continuation of our 2013 Megagame, Arctic Strike. 

Busy setting up

Richard, Jamie and Steve setting up

Scenario Outline

Bjerkvik, August 1985

Warsaw Pact airborne and amphibious forces have landed on the coast of Herjangsfjord north of Narvik. They have captured the town of Bjerkvik and the outlying villages of Medby and Haugen. They now seek to expand their bridgehead north through Dalberg and east along the shore of Lake Hartvik towards the Swedish border.

At the southern end of the bridgehead, Soviet DVD troops are coming under pressure from NATO troops attacking up the road from Narvik. In addition, a US Marine force, isolated by the original landings, launches a desperate local counter-attack.

Table layout nearly complete just a few more trees.

Richard Crawleys superb scratchbuilt Bjerkvik village

Dalberg, soon to be the scene of heavy fighting

The table nearly finished.

So as soon as the table was finished and Andy and Ian had arrived we were ready to deploy just in time to grab a well deserved bacon bap and a cup of coffee before the doors opened to the public.

That ship again!

Soviet AIST's land on the coast near Bjerkvik.

Polish armour moves through Bjerkvik

Steve Grahams new H&R T55AM2's move inland

More forces arrive by helo

Polish tanks reach Dalberg unopposed (thanks to a double 1!)

Polish airborne occupying the woods near Bjerkvik

US Marines aid station. Great little diorama by Andy Canham

The Finns arrive!

Polish airborne begin to advance

Polish naval infantry deploy near Dalberg

Steve Grahams naval infantry move inland

More forces arriving on the beach

Engineers and AA

USMC helo support

US Ranger battalion prepares to engage the Russians

VDV secure the beach

Got a few more photos that I will post tomorrow.

Big thank you to Richard, Steve, Andy, Ian and Jamie for today and also to the guys from Baccus and Wargames Emporium for there organisation and support of this event. We shall definitely be back again next year! Exciting times ahead for 6mm gaming and the Cold War Commanders. Andy and Ian at H&R have some really exciting plans for future releases. Timecast, Leven and Total Battle are producing some superb new buildings and new companies like Perfect 6 are producing some excellent additions to make our troops, vehicles and tables look even better. 

As always thanks for looking....

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.