Panzer I and II

 Two more tanks for my 1940 Germans.  These are a Panzer I and a Panzer II from Die Waffenkamer.  As usual, lovely models from JTFM!  Once again, I kept the paint job as simple as possible.

The tank commander for the Panzer II is removable.

I was surprised to find out how small the Panzer I is!  It is about the size of a British universal carrier.  Here's a comparison shot with a soldier looming over it :)

To the Rescue! What a Tanker at Trumpeter Salute

 On April 14th, I hosted a session of What A Tanker at the Trumpeter Society's annual convetion, Trumpeter Salute.  We had a fun game, 6 players (including Arthur), and with the excellent and greatly appreciated support from Craig as referee and rules expert!

The scenario was very loosely inspired by the Battle of Leonforte in Sicily in July 1943, specifically the rush by a troop of Sherman tanks of the Three Rivers Regiment to enter the town and relieve the Loyal Edmonton Regiment, who were at risk of being overrun by German forces.  And I mean VERY loosely inspired, as the layout of the town is wrong, and the action leaves out all the infantry, anti-tank guns, engineers and others involved!  Really, all in all this was just an excuse to push toy tanks around the tabletop :)

An overview of the table.  TRR Shermans came in from the left, and the Germans entered from the right.

The first Sherman III enters the table, Arthur's tank Cobault.

Panzer IV takes an indirect approach to the town square.

While Brian's Sherman moves to flank the Panzer IV!

Stug III and Sherman face off along the road.  When setting up the table, I tried to avoid long, straight avenues like this, but this one slipped through my planning!

Arthur's tank is pushed back from the plaza.  Despite being a target for every German tank, Arthur had amazing good fortune with his armour saves all through the game!

Thanks to Doug for this photo.  Brian's flank move allowed him to take out the Panzer IV!  Alas, his success was short lived as his tank was later taken out by the Germans.

Corvette and Cobault maneuver to the centre of town

But are caught between the Panzer III and the Stug.

This was where we called the game.  Two healthy German tanks left, against a battered Canadian Sherman.  Arthur's Sherman had been hit again and again, but was saved by a string of lucky armour saves that managed to match or beat all the attacks against him!

 Thanks to everyone who participated!

I just wanna bang on the drum all day!

 Here is another impulse purchase.  I picked up this Games Workshop 'armoured troll' on a whim, not really having a place for it in any of my current forces.  There are multiple different options for assembling the figure, with armour or without, with a selection of Mordor or Isengard helmets, and with a variety of weapons, including a choice of a great big troll sword, spear, club or axe. So naturally, I built him as a drummer.  

German reinforcements

 It's been a couple of months since my last post, apologies for the lack of content.  Things have been busy.  Painting and gaming have been on the back burner, but still slowly progressing.

First up, a German command pack from Warlord Games!  Naturally, there is the stern commander, complete with monocle, who will is a fantastic looking figure but will likely only take part in a pulp-style adventure game!  Of more practical use are the medic and the forward observer/radio operator.  And of course, one more tough, veteran NCO with MP40.  He certainly looks the part, but I really have more of these SMG-wielding NCOs than I have need for!

In the Chain of Command Blitzkrieg 1940 book, some German platoon are allocated 4 squads, and on most lists even for the 3-squad platoons, a fourth platoon is a support option.  Accordingly, I decided I needed another squad, "just in case".  These troops are from Artizan Designs.  Although the other troops in the platoon are from Crusader, I wanted to add these Artizans for the fourth squad, partly for variety and also because Mike Owen, Artizan's owner and sculptor, actively collaborated with Mark Sims of Crusader to ensure the figures would be compatible.  Strictly speaking, the Artizan figures are designed for 1942, so there are some minor uniform differences with the 1939/40 uniforms of the Crusaders.  I'm not sufficiently educated in these details to spot the differences, though!

Another option from the Blitzkrieg book is to field Germans with antiquated, World War I era equipment.  To allow for this option, I picked up some Great War Miniatures Germans armed with MG08/15 machine guns.  In this case, I CAN spot some of the differences with the WWII uniforms!  I did minor modifications (scraping away the puttees and painting them to look like boots), but at arm's length, they will serve just fine, and will show which squads have the obsolete machine gun instead of the MG34.

I also procured another Panzer IV for my German forces on Sicily.  I did this as I volunteered to host a game of What A Tanker at the Trumpeter Society's annual Trumpeter Salute convention next weekend, and I wanted 4 German medium tanks to counter the 4 Sherman tanks that I've lined up to face them!  This tank is a Warlord Games model, painted to match the other German armour I've already got.