IDF Infantry Platoons, Halftracks, and some more Egyptian Infantry for the Yom Kippur War! And Palm Trees!

Back with some more "content" from the Yom Kippur War. This time we'll start off with the IDF infantry I've finished off.

The models are quite nice, they're from Khurasan of course. I ordered enough models for two "understrength platoons", as Mr K. described them.

What you get in an understrength platoon is this: two rifle packs (FN FAL), one Uzi pack, and one section weapons and command pack. This gives you enough for the whole platoon: two sections each of seven men with FN FAL, one man with a heavy-barrel FN FAL and rifle grenades, and a couple Uzi-toting dudes as leaders. For the record these guys' uniforms are painted GW Death World Forest and the webbing and helmets are Vallejo Khaki. Everything is washed with Agrax Earthshade and re-highlighted in the base colours.

The weapons section of the platoon is a man with an FN MAG (light machinegun), Blindicide (anti-tank) team, light mortarman, and another Uzi-toter. Sorted!

I also built a weapons platoon to support this understrength company. That's two M2 Browning HMGs (Khurasan also provides .30 MGs if you prefer) and two mortars and crews. Fun.

Lastly for the IDF, I've done up five M3 halftracks. These are plastic kits from Plastic Soldier Company and I think they worked OK. I am given to understand that the IDF didn't use the cupolas from the M3A1 and just went with a pintle-mounted .50 cal Browning. But they also equipped each track with a .30 MG sticking out the driver's side "front window"! To model this I used a small square of plasticard drilled to take a scale .30 cal barrel. I didn't bother with modelling the breach-end of the weapon as it's pretty much hidden anyway.

Of course I painted the typical white stripes (no blackline as these guys didn't get the memo) and as always, I painted some crew too. 

You have to squint a bit at these guys as they are WW2 Americans. Most are unarmed but there are a couple Garands and Thompsons in there. I don't know of anyone that sells IDF seated infantry (Peter Pig's have Galils I think) so these will do. I also loaded up the vehicle sides with stowage.

Of course these guys have to have some terrain to fight over so I bought (more) palm trees from an Amazon seller, I think it was $18 CAD for 20 trees, which seemed to me a bit of a bargain.

I based the larger trees on washers and the small ones on pennies. The smallest ones are pretty small (these are a Perry DAK dude and a 15mm Khurasan Egyptian) but most of the trees will work.

Lastly for this post are some more Egyptian infantry from Khurasan. Right here we've got two squads and a weapons platoon.

I had to re-work the paint formula as I'd painted the first bunch of these guys over 10 years ago, and (of course) GW has redone all its colours since then. Anyway these guys' uniforms are Rakarth Flesh, washed with Agrax and highlighted again with Rakarth and then with Rakarth mixed with a splash of Pallid Witch Flesh to lighten it a bit. The assault vests are Tallarn Sand washed Agrax and re-highlighted. Skin is Doombull Brown and Ratskin Flesh. 

Each squad is seven guys with AKMs, an RPG-7 gunner, and one man with an RPD or RPK LMG. The squad leader has an AKM or Port Said SMG.

 

Here's the heavy weapons - two Sagger ATGM teams, a heavy machinegun team (DShK) and a mortar.

Would hate to be an IDF tanker looking down the end of this!

Anyway I think that's mostly sorted the IDF and Egyptians for now, I just have some BTR-60s to paint yet as well as some Israeli recce and TOW jeeps. But more importantly we need to get this stuff out for a game!

Shalom and Youm Sa'id!

Dusty's PrairieCon XLIV After Action Report Part 3 - "Bolt Action" - Defense of the Polish Post Office Danzig, 1 September 1939

On Sunday morning I ran a Bolt Action scenario from the 'Germany Strikes' campaign book, specifically the defence of the Polish Post Office in Danzig on 1 September 1939. This it the third time I have run this scenario, and each time the results have been very different. In preparation for the game I painted up for 2' x 2' MDF boards that had urban grey on one side and desert brown on the other to maximize utility. It gave me an opportunity to deploy my Polish Post Office building that I constructed in 2020 along with the brick and wrought iron fencing I built a few years ago for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

Set up at PrairieCon

The Polish defenders consisted of six 4-man rifle sections, three 2-man BAR section, an anti-tank rifle section, and Lieutenant Guderski
 

Polish defenders

 The German attackers consisted of three waves with a mix of light and medium howitzers, a pair of armoured cars, two sections of Ordanzpolizei, three sections of SS Heimwehr Danzig, a section of SA, a MMG, and a small engineer detachment. 

The 3 waves of German attackers

 I had three players participate in the game, so there was a single Polish commander and two German commanders. While the Germans have a definite advantage in numbers and weapons, the Polish troop quality is higher, and they have the 'No Where To Run' special rule allowing them to re-roll failed morale checks. Most of the German infantry units were inexperienced which gave them a negative modifier when shooting.

After the Poles were positioned in the various rooms of the post office, the Germans deployed their first wave at the rear of the building, despite being informed that the only entrance was at the front. With more Polish die in the cup than German at this point, the attackers suffered major casualties as the Poles had the opportunity to shoot before the Germans had a chance to move. 

 

Initial Polish deployment in an off-board grid
representing the rooms of the post office,

Initial German deployment

The Germans learning a hard lesson of deploying in the open

On the third turn the German second wave came on and a focused attack on one end of the building commenced.

SS Heimwehr Danzig going into action

 The German assault pioneers were able to plant their satchel charge against the building as further assets came on the board on turn 4. 

SS Steyr ADGZ armoured car advancing

 

A squad of SA advancing on the left

 

Unfortunately for the Germans the first die out of the bag at the beginning of turn 5 was a Polish one, and the defenders wasted no time in cutting down the remaining assault pioneers before they could set off the satchel charge. With the front entrance now the only means of assaulting the building the German attackers were out of position to capture any rooms before time ran out, and we called the game after 2½ hours of play.

Despite their loss, even the German players had fun

Thus concluded my third game of the weekend. I had an enjoyable time, and I hope circumstance will let me attend again next year. Thanks for reading.

HALT!
Gefahr! Es wird
scharf geschossen.

Dusty's PrairieCon XLIV After Action Report Part 2 - "Arena of Blood"

 On Saturday morning of PrairieCon I was scheduled to run 'Arena of Blood' by Wiley Games. I didn't have any preregistered participants, but over the course of the two hour slot I was able to recruit a total of eight players who played at least two games each. (The event organizers had stands with a sign that read 'Players Wanted' which I used to attract some players.)

 

Set up at PrairieCon with 'Players Wanted' sign

Samnite defeats Murmillo

Murmillo defeats Crupellarius

Hoplomachus and Murmillo versus Velite  

Hoplomachus and Murmillo versus another Murmillo

Murmillo victorious over Secutor

Murmillo vs Thracian, Dimachaerus vs Sagittarius

Sagittarius vs Thracian

Sagittarius victorious over Dimachaerus

Velite defeats Murmillo

The games were all 'fast and furious' with much of the play determined by the luck of the die rolls, but with still a bit of tactical decision making required with regards to which special skills a player was willing to lose to any major wounds, whether it was better to loose a defensive ability versus an offensive one. The best play of all the games was a young player fielding a Murmillo who played a Jack for an extra attack dice, and rolling three 6s to take out his opponent, 

No games went the full three turns, each of four phases, and game duration was generally 15-20 minutes. Conscript Dave and I have taken the game to several conventions already, but this was the first opportunity I have had to put all the gladiator figures I painted for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge to use.  

Later in the afternoon I participated in a 'Wings of Glory' WW1 aerial combat game, flying a Sopwith Camel along with two other Allied players trying to taking down a Zeppelin Staaken R. VI bomber defended by a Fokker Dr 1.The defensive fire from the bomber was quite brutal and all the Allied planes were shot down before the bomber had suffered any significant damage. The only thing that kept us from being downed sooner was the frequent jams suffered by the German player.

Somewhere in France

 

The might Staaken bomber

 Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for Part 3 of my AAR.

Dusty's PrairieCon XLIV After Action Report Part 1 - "What a Cowboy!"

After many years of thinking about attending PrairieCon, only to have other commitment interfere, I finally got out to the event for the entire weekend. I ran a total of three games and participated in a fourth while I was there. I am splitting my AAR into three parts, one for each day of attendance.

 First up is the game of 'What a Cowboy!' with rules by TooFatLardies that I ran on Friday evening. It went quite smoothly, thanks in part to a play test held with other members of the Fawcett Avenue Conscripts a week earlier. In that game I used a lot of the Western buildings belonging to Conscript Dallas, but felt the game needed terrain that provided more cover that didn't completely block line of sight. 

Gunfight in the streets of Laramie play test game

Gunfight in the streets of Laramie play test game

Gunfight in the streets of Laramie play test game

Gunfight in the streets of Laramie play test game

 I had some 2' x 2' pieces of ½" MDF that I had cut for another terrain board project, but had decided against using it. Instead I painted one side with desert browns and the flip side with urban greys to maximize utility. I also constructed a number of sections of various types of Western fencing using some plastic pieces from the Perry farmhouse kit supplemented by some crafting dowels and large toothpicks. These would provide obstacles to cross, as well as making it more difficult to spot targets. I also made some scatter terrain using some barrels that came with the Perry kit.

Fence sections prior to painting

Layout for the PrairieCon game with a 3'x3' playing area

 I had three participants for the game, so I played as well to even up the sides. We all started with a 'Shootist', giving the character a 'Bonanza token' which could be used to interrupt an opponent's turn, and a special skill to enhance abilities. We ended up playing two games in quick succession as one of the players learned the hard way that strolling up the middle of the road is a good way to get shot. The second game lasted a little longer with players making use of the fences to close the range under cover, as well as their 'Bonanza' tokens to get off some snap shots before their opponent got a chance to shoot. All the players had fun, plus a number of people strolling around the gaming area stopped by to watch or ask questions about the game mechanics.
 

Set up at Prairiecon

Game 2 in progress

Caught in the crossfire

Shoot out at the Blacksmith's shop.

'What a Cowboy!' participants at the end of the game

I certainly enjoyed running the game as it gave me an opportunity to debut all the Western gunslingers I painted up for the last Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. If circumstance allow, I hope to be back next year with a different board layout. Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for Part 2 of my AAR.