Air Support - BKCII - NW Europe

So it is probably a result of too many re-runs of 'A Bridge Too Far', but I just can't visualise a British Late War force without serious air support..   and to me, that means rocket-carrying Typhoons in a taxi rank, just waiting for Joe Vandeleur to whistle them up... 

Ok, so it's 11th Armoured, and it is more likely to be Brigadier Harvey of 29th Armoured Brigade, but you get the picture. So here's the 11th's RAF chums. Just ready to take out that concealed AT gun.

Models are Raiden, but interestingly, their catalogue says 'Tempest' - and the pictures are labelled 'Typhoon'. I'm not fussy...  in 1/285, close enough for me. I did invasion stripes, as I just think they look cool.

Raiden Tempest/Typhoon.

I really like these models, they are unfussy, don't need assembly, and for me, capture the 'look' of the aircraft I remember from Commando comics. Looking at the closeups, I can see the fuselage invasion stripes are not quite right, but I am not sure if I can correct it now.

BKCII - NWE - Stage 3

And now, pretty much just decals (ordered) and divisional symbols to add...

Infantry Advance

Infantry HQ Units

Armour HQ

3" Mortar Unit

The PBI

BKCII - NWE - Stage 2

Stage 2.. some basing...

The whole Battlegroup

Shermans in the mud..  Infantry still need a lot of work

Recce, FAO and FAC

Divisional CO

CO & Supports

Left, Infantry HQ, Right Armour HQ

Sexton & Cromwell - 3" mortar units in the background.

Next thing is to add some crew, paint up the infantry figures, dab some divisional insignia, (red square on the left, yellow rectangle with squiggle on the right for 11th Armoured, and wait for the GHQ decals to arrive. Starting to get verry pleased with how these are now looking.

BKCII - NWE - First stage done.

So an evening's painting, and I now have the basic colours and basing done.

Now to do some experimental infantry paints, some camo..   and see how they look. I am very happy with the depth in the colour on the grey undercoat, I took a closeup of a Centaur on the Command base -

Mud, mud glorious mud! - next some flock etc.. 

Close up of the command base, I like the depth of colour.

BKCII - NW Europe - Painting time

You know how the casual conversation goes.. down the club, Dave mentions North West Europe, as there are a range of scenarios available on the Fire and Fury website..   one thing leads to another, and I recklessly say that I could probably get the Commonwealth forces from the shed ready for action pretty quick..  GHQ Shermans, Cromwells, Sextons, and various armoured cars and universal carriers. I am still short a whole lot of M3, but I will worry about that later.

I had always intended them as 11 Armoured Division, but for Operation Garden, it's all Guards Armoured. I reckon do them as 11th, and then turn a blind eye to the yellow bull.

I thought I would try something slightly different for this next lot of BKC warriors to see paint. So I decided I would try and work with some thinned paint over a grey undercoat.

Rummaging through the paints pile I found a large tub of artist's Matisse Olive Green Deep. First step..   glue the Shermans down, use some of the Gale Force 9 scenic 'grit' and spray primer grey..   cheap car primer.

So here's how the progress is to date.

Undercoat (some of the Shermans are already green)

Sample Humber with the Matisse Green applied thinly.

 Early days, but I am quite pleased with the effect so far.

Battleaxe Report - BKCII Battle

So after last times 1943 Tunisia battle, we went back to the earlier period. My Commonwealth forces were a scaled down version of the Forces used in Operation Battleaxe, June 1941.

Dave brought along a force including motorcycle battalions, Italian tanks and infantry, so basically neither of us brought super-troops..  although in period, the three Matilda II I fielded were pretty powerful.

The British arrive. 7th Support Group in the centre, 4 Armoured Bgde left, 7th Armoured haven't arrived

Early days for the British weren't promising, a series of low rolls, then a couple of command blunders, and one arnoured brigade (7th) didn't show up for the first three turns.depite trying to use the CO (Major-General O'Creagh) 'do-over' roll. (In BKC, the same as Cold War Commander and Future War Commander, each HQ or Command unit is assigned a Command Value, this is the number that must be rolled at or under on two six-sided dice to successfully issue an order. Penalties apply for issuing orders to other formations, or troops too far away or in some cases, issuing diffenet instructions to the units under command. The CO has a 'do-over' roll  - so I tried to use it to bring on the 7th Armoured, but failed several times. Brigadier Hugh Russell would be getting a 'rocket' at the debrief.)


A steady advance

Finally, 7th Armoured arrived. I didn't want to rush too far forward before they arrived, and I didn't want a possible Axis artillery barrage to hit my softskins while they were all bunched up. In game terms, the 7th Support Group is too big to do two critical things..  disperse far enough to not present an ideal artillery target, but not so far that you are suffering command penalties for parts of the group. It makes it slow to push forward, unless you focus on only moving bits of it.



7th Armoured arrive in the top of the pic.



Recce pushes up, on the far side, 4th Armoured is now facing off the Italian Armour



The Forward Artillery Observer seems to have parked his Unversal Carrier on top of the mosque on the hill in the centre..  a handy spot.



A9 & Crusader I on my left.



In the background of this shot are three Royal Artillery batteries (one model per battery) and I included 2 Forward Artillery Observers in my force. Each of the 25lb batteries fires with an effect of 3 dice per battery, and with the observer higher than the target, plus the famed British Artillery accuracy, essentially this means, if you can make the command roll for one fo the FAO, you can call down a storm of fire - attacking any element in the target area (20cm diameter for a 'concentration') with 9 dice.

Against softskins and infantry i the open this can be devastating  - and even against armour, there is a reasonable chance to 'suppress' them so they can neither move nor fire. I managed three successful 'shoots' in the game, and each one was very effective. I was grateful that Dave had not brought any artillery himself. 



German tanks push up past the AT Guns

The first German tanks started an advance but were hit by 'Opportunity Fire' by the opposing 7th Armoured and smashed up before they could have an impact.



Red dice show hits and 'suppressed'



7th Armoured then pushed forward, and with the support of an artillery barrage, plus mortar attacks on the German Anti-Tank guns, started an exchange of fire with the DAK PzIII and PzIV on the hill. With the artillery and mortars suppressing many of the German units, and despite losing all the (exceptionally fragile) A9 Cruiser tanks, the Brits were winning this exchange. The Germans had no answer to long range artillery and mortars, and advancing into the stationary fire of massed British Crusaders supported by 2lb portee units was not the answer.



Starting to look parlous.

On the other side of the table, the Italians had little answer to the heavily armoured Matilda II tanks, they destroyed a Vickers light tank, over-ran and forced back an FAO, but were then unable to make any impact and lost several of their number.  

At this stage we called it a night. Cracking game from my side, and only really one reference to the rules required (can multiple FAO attempt to call fire from a sngle battery?)

Operation Battleaxe - Caunter in 6mm Part 2

So a little more work, and the last stages are just to do some markings. I need to find some decent sources for this. Then finish the bases.

A9 on the left, command stand on the right

A triumph of British engineering, the Vickers VIb

Close up of command stand