Bob’s Going ‘Nuts’

Having had a fairly length of Novo Virus the last two weeks , I have been unable to much hobby, nor concentrate much on anything ,but have loads of time to think so began actually thinking about playing a game.

Now it’s going to be ‘Achtung Panzer’ for a couple of reasons.
1. It’s Tanks
2. In the final days of bug I actually managed to read the rules and it’s been a whiles since read or played ‘Nut’s’. Plus I’ve watched a few let’s Plays on YouTube so got it in Brain.
3. It’s Tanks
4. Still have Terrain to build for ‘Nut’s’ game.
5. It’s Tanks
6. I have now sufficient German Winter vehicles finished for a Balanced Game.
7. It’s Tanks ( for John)
8. There is no reason 8
9. It’s Tanks.

So last week I  the odd moments I didn’t feel like death warmed up I set up my main games table.

Trees for  the purist’s are not  in winter no leaves configuration  , as they are the tree’s  I have, though it had got me thinking about raiding local Park, for fallen twigs for making Winter Decidous Trees.

Therefore I have wintered it by liberally sprinkling two tubes of White scatter over the top..

Most of Trees are old GW, , with some recent additions from Battlefield in a Box. A couple were custom trees I picked up the Old Dungeons ans Starships shop which used to be in my home town.

The centerpiece Terrace was from some guy on ebay. Plus various resin buildings collected over the years, Newer editions

are some of the excellent pre painted WW2 buildings including 2 ruins that were brought out for Achtung Panzer by Micro Art Studio’s, with some of Warlords Ruined Farmhouse bits from various starter sets.

I picked mission 1 aptly for 1st game ‘Armoured Clash,  both sides having 11pts . Funny number you may say but that no gave the best equal side on the fast pts option. The starter forces give an advantage to Germans I  they have 8 to the British 7, and I didn’t have any Armoured cars to make it even 10.

This means when rolling for crew stars all vehicles will roll for medium calibre.

For those (Gerry and Oriskany) who wasn’t some historical context  , this is going to be a slight variation on thec1st engagement between the Advancing 2nd Panzer Divisio , and the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment of 11th Armoured Division just to the East of the Meuse River. The actual initial engagement ad in one of YouTube videos was a Britis Ambush as opposed to this meeting engagement.

Initial Deployment as I’m solo playing is basically were I plonked the models when putting them on the table!!!

Having had a fairly length of Novo Virus the last two weeks , I have been unable to much hobby, nor concentrate much on anything ,but have loads of time to think so began actually thinking about playing a game.

Now it’s going to be ‘Achtung Panzer’ for a couple of reasons.
1. It’s Tanks
2. In the final days of bug I actually managed to read the rules and it’s been a whiles since read or played ‘Nut’s’. Plus I’ve watched a few let’s Plays on YouTube so got it in Brain.
3. It’s Tanks
4. Still have Terrain to build for ‘Nut’s’ game.
5. It’s Tanks
6. I have now sufficient German Winter vehicles finished for a Balanced Game.
7. It’s Tanks ( for John)
8. There is no reason 8
9. It’s Tanks.

Having had a fairly length of Novo Virus the last two weeks , I have been unable to much hobby, nor concentrate much on anything ,but have loads of time to think so began actually thinking about playing a game.

Now it’s going to be ‘Achtung Panzer’ for a couple of reasons.
1. It’s Tanks
2. In the final days of bug I actually managed to read the rules and it’s been a whiles since read or played ‘Nut’s’. Plus I’ve watched a few let’s Plays on YouTube so got it in Brain.
3. It’s Tanks
4. Still have Terrain to build for ‘Nut’s’ game.
5. It’s Tanks
6. I have now sufficient German Winter vehicles finished for a Balanced Game.
7. It’s Tanks ( for John)
8. There is no reason 8
9. It’s Tanks.

Well I’ve been painting and Hobbying on this project for a while now, so it’s time to play with some of new toys. Now strangely it’s not going to be ‘Nutt’s’ but ‘Achtung Panzer’.

There’s a few reasons:
1. It’s Tanks (for John & me)
2. I have at last finished sufficient Germa armour to make it balanced
3 It’s Tanks
4. Still have odd bits of terrain to build for
‘Nut’s’ game.
5. It’s Tanks
6. I’ve recently actually read the ‘Achtung Panzer Rules whereas been a bit since reading ‘Nut’s”.
7. It’s Tanks
8. There is no reason 8
9. It’s Tanks

Anyway I’ve layed out a suitable layout on the main games table, and wintered it using two pots of white scatter, I was going to give it a liberal spray of resolution xmas snow , but tin had dried up!
(I know the trees have too much foliage, but don’t have any winter tree other than the xmas furs, but they are on other table, though think might do a Warren and raid local Park for fallen twigs to make winter trees)

In the insane way my projects tend to grow, having done a trop of Shermans I of course needed a troop of Cromwells ( Chruchills not forgotten but will appear later ).

With the Germans its a bit easier as it was fairly common if not universal by tail end of war that their company’s had a mix of tanks, but the British had genrally kept to one type of tank to a unit (fireflys and Challengers exepted) even if they maybe different marks,  though I imagine with Shermans they would try and keep the units to one mark of tank be it M4. M4a1, M4A2 and M4A4 as they had different engines.

So talking about Challengers, as far as I know non of the major Manurfacturers m Bolt Action, Rubicon etx does one in 28mm so I had to find a 3d print on E-bay .

Now Warlord dont give the stats or a card for the Challenger for Actung Panzer , so I will have to come up with one, or 2 as they were uparmoured on the turrets with bolt on 20mm plate taking it up to 80mm , which I Imagine they found possible when they realised the Meteor engine was powerful than originally thought.,

As it was unlikely that the Recon regiment was going to be re-fitted with Comets, I figured they would have been left in the lines hence why I sponged white on the tops for fallen snow.

Finally I have completed one Comet, it was originally brought for a Recon tank to go iwth the 2 Rubicon Cneturions I brought for a winter 45 project , which may at some point be done , with Soviets as the enemy in a what if ala Calsh of Steel m as I do intend to build a Sovietn Acjtung Panzer Force, as I do have 3 KV1.s amd 2 T34/85;s waiting to be completed ..

So with the Achtung Panzer starter set, I painted up the 2 Shermans and the Firefly to join the original Hybrid !C , sticking with 11th Armoured , this time I went for 3rd Royal Tank Regiment , as they were one of the 1st units to encounter German Forces as they headed for the Meuse River.

Now I mentioned it earlier , and have now finished it, my Scout Stuart 5 ( will be 2 ) . Despite its Ltd abilities at this time, have a soft spot for the Stuart, perhaps from Childhood reading the ‘Haunted Tanks comics.

( the following is quote fromWart Thunderwebsite )

Wilfred Harris was born in 1911 in Walsall, Great Britain. During the inter-war years, he was part of the 4th/7th Dragoon Guards, a tank regiment. He left the army in 1935, but re-enlisted at the outbreak of war in 1939. He served in France, and even survived the battle of Dunkirk without injury. His most prominent feat would be recorded in Normandy, in 1944, where he served as a tank commander of a Sherman Firefly.

After launching a successful attack on the Germans at the village of Lingevres, Harris and three other Sherman tanks

For anyon interested found this you tub video today

I did a bit of digging and found that Harris’s unit in Normandy eas part of 8th Armoured Brigade, senior regiment.

This eased my problem on suitable decals for my tank as although no individual xfers were avail for 4/7th DG  there were a lot avail of the 8th Armoured, as their a lot of decals for the Sherwood Forresters Yeomanry who were part of Brigade.

Now I couldn’t find any of the various Tank names in any scale for Dreadnought,  I did think of painting it on Freehand  but these days my hand just isn’t precise enough for that   so went for Iron Duke ( it was a Dreadnought) , do think I remember that he had borrowed tank , for famous actio  so woul be on a different tank by the Arfennes)

.

Well anyway we have model for Harris’s tank. I had kitted out with a nice selection Rubicons Resin Tank Stowage to finish it off

This time the crew figure was provided by Empress minature British Winter Tank Crew range.

So not being  entirely satisfied with the Hybrid firefly, and before I finished the Stuart, I brought a standard Firefly on the M4A4 or Sherman V hull , both  sat unpainted for a couple of weeks whilst finishing of Infantyr etc.

During this time as mentioned befor I had decided on Achtung Panzer starter, partly as fancied the game , but the fact was I got the starter box for £75, which gave me 5 tanks the , 2 Panthers to bolster my Germans and what the hell a troop of Shermans , so 5 28mm tanks for £75 and free set of rules and gubbins .

For all of these I decided I would try just doing a dry brush post the base painting and Decal addition .

Now I had the new troop of Sherman’s with a Firefly , the completed Hybrid and the new Firefly , so 3 firefly’s, I dould get away late with 2 firelys in the troop but what about the third.

Then on looking in the Achtung Panzer box it was obvious do the legendary Tank commander ‘Wilfred Harris’  who just happend to come fromny home town ‘Walsall’ .