Chain of Command test for the Galatas game (Crete) - another balmy Sunday down t'club!

OK perhaps 'balmy' is a bit of an exaggeration - it is the middle of winter here - but any Sunday down t'club wargaming is a good Sunday!  Fellow bloggers may be aware that we are putting on two WWII games - Galatas and D-Day's Pegasus Bridge - using the Two Fat Lardies brilliant 'Chain of Command' rules at Canberra's 'WinterCon' wargaming convention next month. Having only played the rules once before, my wargaming mate Andrew decided I needed to be edja-ma-cated in using CoC for something complex like a para drop. Very good idea as I hadn't a clue!  

A bucolic Crete village stuffed to the gills with Kiwi and Greek troops. Perfect target for a para drop!

The Galatas scenario involves a German parachute drop during the Crete campaign (Op MERKUR - Mercury). In our game the Germans parachuted onto some very annoyed New Zealanders and some even more annoyed Greeks (we made them a native Cretan unit which made them very angry indeed!) Given the Germans specialised in low-level jumps (usually from only a few hundred feet), they couldn't control the direction of their chutes (unlike Allied chutes which had guide-lines, the German version was a harness job from which they dangled helplessly) and some other bright spark had the idea of dropping their weapons in a separate canister, so essentially unarmed and dangling helplessly for a minute or two - a very risky venture!. You'd think it would be a recipe for disaster (and historically - you'd be right!) so to balance things up a bit for gaming purposes, the Germans have the element of surprise and get to go first without being shot at (for the first turn anyway).

The Greeks with their entrenched possie on the hill.

Even more of a worry - the Kiwi Vickers HMG on the roof!

The morning calm is shattered by the roar of the German trimotor JU52's sweeping low over the village.  Fortunately the German's sudden appearance caught everyone napping, especially the Vickers on the rooftop, otherwise things could have gotten very ugly, very quickly!

The three JU52s come in at barely 500 feet above the village to drop the first sticks of paras.  The drop points are placed and then diced for (1 x D6) with a scatter dice to see where they actually land. You do this for each stick in each plane and repeat for the weapons/ammo canister. This is the first hurdle as you only have one chance in six of landing in the same place as your weapons! True to form, out of six jumps only one landed next to their weapons! Depending on how you go with your command dice - the landed paras first action is to race for the weapons containers! Remembering they have nothing but sidearms and grenades. Basically, if they did not have the element of surprise, they'd be slaughtered. Here I had a bit of luck too. Some paras dropped with their MP38s (in defiance of standing orders!) but you have to dice to see which do.  My battalion command stick jumped directly in front of the house with the Vickers and fortunately two of the four MP38 armed Jaeger jumped with theirs. Ordering them to fire at the Vickers (only just in range!) I rolled for shooting and rolled double sixes followed by another two boxcars!  Two hits and two kills on a five man section. I can't remember the last time I rolled so many sixes. Never happens to me. And with para jumps - ya gotta be lucky!

The German command section - save the mortar team - manage to find cover after getting some shooting on the Kiwi's Vickers HMG

The first firing of the game probably saved my bacon for if the HMG had caught me in the open with 10 dice (hitting on anything but 1 or 2) - it would have been a more 'historical' result with another para battalion command wiped out!  As it was it gave my command stick time to get the weapons and into cover.  All save for my mortar section which didn't manage to hit anything before they were taken out by Andrew's Vickers light tank - which always threatened to run amok before my AT team had a chance to land. The stick from the second aircraft likewise landed adrift from their weapons but fortunately far enough away from the Kiwi defences to survive the  two turns  it took for the dawdling paras to reach them!  Again luck with the third stick - they and their container landed bang on the same spot.  They came under fire immediately from the Kiwis but being in 'soft cover' (chest high field of flax or possibly teddybear fur!) managed to avoid serious casualties.

Lead JU about to unload its stick in front of the Kiwi defences

Second section races over to its weapons container while the lead section successfully lands in the field on the other side of the olive grove(!)

The first section had landed with their weapons container and its here that the German paras - hitherto virtually unarmed - acquire and get to unleash their firepower.  Given the number of automatic weapons per section, that firepower can be awesome.  They dropped with the HMG team, who quickly opened up on the Kiwis opposite, adding their firepower to the para section.  The Kiwi section opposing them was whittled down over two turns, survivors ended up with more than twice the number of shock, so I had the choice of taking their surrender or letting them bolt. Given the circumstance and because I couldn't afford a man to guard them, I chose the latter. But things didn't go all the German's way as a second section of Kiwis emerged from the village and charged into the para's flank.  In the fierce hand-to-hand that ensued, each section wiped the other out.

German's successfully get to the stone wall before coming under mortar fire and enfiladed by Kiwis to their right flank, before the latter go in with the bayonet.

The first German section closest to the village was wiped out and the second had still to acquire its weapons so Andrew's Kiwis advanced again towards the stone wall to take out the HMG team. But a good command roll enabled my choice of another para drop or air support.  I chose the latter and called in a Stuka - a bit of aerial artillery to pound the Allied troops in the village. Caught in the open with a 500lb bomb, the advancing Kiwis were devastated, losing 4 out a ten man section in one horrendous blast.

Stuka! Take coveeerrr!!!

The Stuka still had two 250lb bombs to drop and looked for fresh targets. At this point the Greeks in their fortified position on the hill came in for attention. Again you have to dice for the accuracy of the strike and one of the bombs went wildly astray - closer to hitting their own than the hapless Greeks. But one 250 pounder found its mark. At this point the Kiwis had had enough, having lost all but one section of infantry and their Vickers tankette, morale fading fast they withdrew, leaving the Greeks on the hill to hold out as long as they could.

The Greeks on the hill get a pounding from the Stuka.

The last sticks of paras land in the second wave. One in the olive grove only a turn away from their weapons but the other much more perilously in the open ground in front of the Greek trenches at the foot of the hill - separated (of course) from their weapons.  With the second wave the element of surprise had been lost so that the thoroughly alerted Greeks immediately opened up on the virtually unarmed Germans sprinting for their weapons container which had helpfully landed right in front of the Greek position!

The Germans were caught in the open in front of the Greek trench.

Caught in the open, the Germans had replied with their one MP38 and a shower of grenades but their squad leader was one of the first casualties and they ground to a halt in front of the Greek trench.  Fortunately there was enough command to have the battalion commander order the leutnant to take over and get them moving again - in the nick of time!

Herr major doesn't like what he sees and orders the Leutnant to sort it out!

On the other side of the road the now armed sections assembled behind cover to work out how best to assault the hill.  The Greeks behind the wire at the foot of the hill opposite were not entrenched and soon were targeted by German fire and wiped out.  They didn't run, as you'd expect with green troops, but fought back even though they couldn't hope to match German firepower. Brave lads took a few Nazis with 'em!

Germans begin their final assault on the hill, having stormed the Greek trench in front with a shower of grenades. The second squad have crossed the road and prepare to charge up the hill.

One of the many things I like about the rules is the realistic use of of tactics - I used my HMG to lay down a suppressing fire to enable the paras to cross the road and assemble for the final assault. The Greeks had two SMGs at that corner of the defence, supported by a Vickers HMG behind it, trying to keep the German's pinned in the trench at the bottom of the hill. In order to shoot at the Germans assembling for the assault at the bottom of the hill in front, the brave greek gunners had to expose themselves, but each time them popped their heads up the HMG and LMG opposite poured fire into their position.  In spite of inflicting more casualties (yet another Korporal copped it - I was starting to run short of NCOs!) the suppressing fire was awesome and wiped out the Greek SMGs.

Greek SMGs wiped out by suppressing fire providing cover for the German assault. The puff of smoke from the mortar fire is misleading - mortars on both sides didn't hit a thing!

No doubting Greek courage - a last desperate bayonet charge was only just stopped from breaking back into the trench.

The final German assault saw them make the top of the hill and using the cover of the entrenchments, pour fire into the remaining Greeks inside.  The Greeks at the bottom of the hill became pinned after their brave but fruitless charge and were forced to surrender. The Greeks in the fortified position atop the hill were the last remaining Allied unit on the table so at this point we called the game in favour of the Germans.

Big thanks to Andrew for his patience with me as Chain of Command paduan-learner, particularly as he was suffering from a winter lurgie too!  Just as well the club has a bar and great counter lunches or we'd all just fade away from such dice and lead-shuffling extertions!

The Greek figures in the above are actually WWII Greek infantry - not converted Italians - made by Rif Raf Miniatures. I believe our use of them is a world first as they are yet to be released. Really nice figures, size-wise they fit in well with the Perry's figures. They are armed with a mixture of Allied (French and British) weaponry and even a Krupps gun (although not for this game) just as they were historically. (Most of the poor Greeks on Crete were very poorly armed as they had lost much of their weapons and equipment on the mainland.) The new Rif Raf Greeks will be featured in our 'Battle for Galatas' at WinterCon 2014.

Finishing off my WWII German force

I just realised that its been well over a month since I posted anything. Very slack but I have as an excuse that this year Christmas etc got in the way. Coming to the end of my Chrissy break I thought I'd better post something on what I've been up to.  Mostly WWII stuff after finishing the box of British from Perry's for my Creforce units.  No sooner than I'd done that they announce they've made some Vickers LAVs - there were 9 of them on Crete operated by the 4th Hussars (the remnants of over a hundred sent to Greece) who fought them with incredible bravery, so a 'must-have' for my Creforce army.  But it'll have to wait as Santa has been very kind to me this year and I've had heaps of different projects to do and stuff to read.

With regard to the latter I have to give a plug for Henry Hyde's 'The Wargaming Compendium'. I had heard good things about it on the hobby grapevine so I decided to give Santa a hand and get a copy. Fan-bloody-tastic read!  Its one of those books that's an instant classic. It's a 'somebody should've' on the hobby - well now somebody has and what a job they've done.  I think Henry's written it at a perfect time when the hobby has begun to expand exponentially and has finally matured, with something to appeal to everyone.  The hobby now spreading around the globe has never been so popular and the standard and range of figures and wargaming paraphernalia has never greater.  Henry has done a masterful job in documenting this as well as writing about the growth of the hobby from its roots. As a graphic designer and publisher of no mean talent himself, Henry has packed his beautifully presented Compendium full of mouth-watering wargamer eye-candy. Every dedicated wargamer should have a Compendium so do yourself a favour and get one!

After finishing my Perry's Austrian Grenzer I thought I'd tackle the problem of finding some figures to make up my German Mountain troops (Gebirgsjaeger) for the Crete campaign. I could not find the right figures in peaked caps (their treasured 'Gebirgsmutze') so was on the edge of buying something metal when I spied a box of Perry's DAK at my mate Dean's shop. Had to have 'em didn't I? In the end I decided to use all the peaked cap heads in the box  and painted them up in the tropical green kit they wore in Greece. They also wore sandy or khaki coloured shorts but as none of the Perrys come like that I went with the green outfit which will also allow them to fit in elsewhere in the European theatre. Like the Desert Rats box they were a delight to make up and although you wouldn't think so, no two figures are exactly the same - there are enough bits and bobs to do quite a bit of variation. Per box you get a full platoon (Zug) with three ten-man sections including an LMG team and a Headquarters section with officer, senior NCO, radio and support weapons teams for the PzB 39 AT rifle and 50mm mortar. Perfect to compliment my two para platoons.

I nearly stuffed the lot up when I base-coated them with a dodgy matt black paint can that made it look like so were coated in fine sand. I cleaned up as many as I could but couldn't be bothered with the fiddley chemically job required to remove paint from plastics so some look a bit rough close up but I still think they'll pass muster for gaming purposes!

The other thing I love doing with plastics are conversions. With plenty of kneeling figures in the box I decided to do a kneeling MG34 team using the loader's shoulder to aim. I had an MG ammo belt from a Tamiya kit that I added to the gun. Likewise the 50mm mortar was a 3-man team led by a corporal so a made another kneeling figure into the mortar team commander watching the fall of shot.

Just as well I had some extra bits as there appears exactly enough to do the figures as depicted and because I tend to do mine a bit different, I ran out of weapons etc. I was also able to add a few other bits like tent/groundsheet rolls, meal cans and so on to a few of the figures. You'll note nearly half are in helmets but that's OK as like the Aussie's and their famous slouch hats, the German mountain troop's prefered to wear their cherished Gebirgsmutze but were all issued with helmets, as can be seen in archive photos of them boarding JU52s for the assault on Maleme.  I'm sure when the metal began to fly more than a few would have put their tin lids on!

As I mentioned earlier I also finished my Fallschirmjaeger to make up nearly two full platoons plus heavy weapons support. I needed more rifle armed paras as all the boxes of them come with them armed with a large number of assault rifles and SMGs. For Crete they had double the number of LMGs (MG34s) and MP40 SMGs but the assault rifles didn't arrive until a year later, so they were mainly rifle armed.  Dean came to my rescue and ordered the rifle armed paras I needed which arrived in time to be part of my not-so-secret Santa gift to myself!

Two sections of the three section FJ Zug has a Gefrieter armed with an MP40, a lance corporal and six schutzen rifle armed.  These sections can swap rifles for up to two additional MP40s and another MG34. The third section is the command with a leutnant, senior NCO, radioman, specialist schutze (as runner or medic etc) and a sniper team. One of these can be swapped for a Flamenwerfer team if required.

Platoon Command section

Each platoon is also supported by a heavy weapons section of one medium mortar and an MMG (MG34 on tripod) each with 3 man teams.  They can also be a separate company-level support with Kettenkrad-towed Recoiless and AT guns. The paras may have been mainly light arms but they were superbly equipped - if they can get to retrieve those verdamten canisters in time!

The most recent project I have just completed in relation to the Crete campaign has been to do the Luftwaffe component.  For this I already had a JU87 Stuka and before Christmas had finished a JU52 transport but needed a fighter escort to complete. This was going to comprise an ME109 and a Bf110.  I have the former, although its a model I built when I was about 12 or 13 and is a bit too duffed up to be repaired, but I searched everywhere for a decent model of a 110.  Scarce as hen's teeth they are.  Just by luck I found one in a local hobby store for well under $20 (not bad as the store in question isn't known for its bargains!)  It was an unknown brand 'HobbyBoss' made in China (check out www.hobbyboss.com) Now this is usually synonymous with 'dodgy' but it turned out to be a very good model indeed. It was well protected and packaged with delicate parts wrapped so they didn't get damaged in transit - metal figure manufacturers should take note! Most amazing were the tranfers - the most amazing and detailed of any I have seen for a 1/72nd scale model. The biggest challenge I had was putting them on the finished model but I put that down more to my own ineptitude at model building than the manufacturer's fault!  Suffice to say I ended up with a very nice model of a Messerschmitt Bf110. I've painted it in the colours of ZG76 which flew out of Argos in May 1941.

I had to modify it a bit to put it in 'flight' mode (wheels up) and the model did not come with any crew or extras such as bombs or drop tanks. As Allied air cover was pretty negligible (shot out of the sky, destroyed on the ground or withdrawn by the time Op MERCURY was launched) the Luftwaffe fighters were used extensively in a ground attack role - the strafing and bombing was described as relentless - so I got some crew and a bomb from my old model plane bits box. In doing so I discovered I have mostly intact a very rare model of a Gloucester Gladiator biplane which I will be doing up for the Allies along with a Hurricane and/or an Anson to even things up a bit. I make up the second box of Desert Rats and get a couple of Vickers LAVs from Perry's and the forces for the Crete campaign will be pretty much complete.

That's about it from me for a while as I have to go back to work on Monday and more importantly, prepare for the Tomahawks and Muskets demo skirmish game at Cancon at the end of the month.

Finally, a belated but happy and prosperous New Year wishes to all the very patient followers of my blog!