The Raid.

My first raid.

After taking my long flames sabatical, i was painting honest, I was finally back in the pew or driving seat. Praying to the flames dice gods has returned, and about time too, this being my third, yes third game of the new V3 rules, the club adopted the new ones within the first month of release, it shows how out of action i've been.

To the desert and my first outing of my LRDG and the mission, aptly titled The Raid. My german opponent Safetystick being the kind soul that he is gave me the option to pick, I decided on EW as I thought my oppo would get even more m.g.s for his buck, kradshutzen the idea made me shudder pre-game. I took HQ, T & G full half patrols, 2 x 0.5” vickers, four extra hull mounted m.g.s per patrol and opted for the breda over the bofors, knowing that I didn't want to get into a shoot out and that 1 extra ROF and a 360 degree field of fire (AA) would come in useful on the move. And finally and by no means least 200 points of interdiction (a raiders must). As it turned out it was never needed, but I wouldn't leave Siwa without it.

I opted for a full night raid my only major mistake (but a biggie), pre game i'd thought about how i'd play it, did I want to go night or dawn, I imagined the chevys gunning it through the desert in dawns early light with the burning objectives in the background and then preceded to see them getting gunned down in an ambush, Kufra stylee. So I went for full darkness, the sneaky option.

To the game, sorry about the lack of turn photos, you'll get the gist hopefully.

Pre game recce move, HQ & T-Patrol heads towards it's first objective on the west side of the town, G-Patrol does the same on the East.

HQ & T Patrol head out.

Turn 1. LRDG It must be black as pitch, as no one can see for toffee.

Jerry T1. They were on “recon” in the desert somewhere...

Turn 2. LRDG. more of the same, shooting at them however, T-Patrol must still have a load of sand in their goggles and can't see further than the chevy in front, G-Patrol find their mark, but the tracer rounds don't catch.

Turn. 3. LRDG. T chevys head towards objective 2 passing obj 1, unleashing a torrent of m.g. And breda fire but not having cleared that sand, strike home but not enough to get the ammo truck burning. CIC and 2IC pull up to obj 1 readying their charges, no need the gunners managed to set the truck ablaze, meanwhile on the other side of town G-Patrol do the same and gun it towards obj four on the hill, again two chevys heading towards the centre of town to rendevous with HQ and that last obj number five. Things are looking good (I was a little surprised, as I imagined pre-game that it would be quite difficult to get them going through m.g. Fire, but then when you're rolling a bucketfull of dice it pays off eventually).

Jerry. I'm hazy on whether they entered the fray turn 2 or 3 (I think it's probably 3), they appeared right at my exit point though. A unit of bikes spot the burning trucks from a long way off and head towards the town.

G-Patrol strike.

Turn 4. LRDG. The mainstay of T-Patrol carry on towards obj 2, HQ and two chevys head towards the truck in the centre of town guns blazing. Obj two goes up as T-Patrol finds it's mark again, along with the town centre obj making even more noise attracting the local garrisons attention, things are about to get a lot warmer, literally. G-Patrol makes it too the bottom of the hill, however the night takes hold again and their target is lost in the dark

Jerry. Here they come. Unleashing hell on the LRDG, the 2 R/m.g. & HMG platoons engage, on the east G-Patrol is peppered by a r/m.g. But shrugs the fire off, the other rifle m.g. And HMG platoon rake T-Patrol prior to their assault luckily the assault fails under a massive hail of Lewis, Vickers and Breda fire, they lose a few stands and unsurprisingly get pinned down which is where they stay for the rest of the game, “you know hans I think they've moved off,” “yes Fritz, so what's all that noise, it took me time to dig this scrape and i'm thinking of adding a bathroom!”.

Turn 5.

LRDG. Turn Five. Let's get the f**k outta dodge.

Turning tail and heading for the hills T patrol and H.Q. About face and head back south through the town trying to duck m.g. Fire. G-Patrol attempts the same, leaving the broken down breda truck to take out that final objective, but to no avail.

Jerry. The iron fist closes.

Here come the armoured cars, the bain of the LRDG, fast moving, armoured and bristling with automatic fire, they head into town from the west. The krads head north towards town along with the easterly R/m.g. platoon. The amount of lead that jerry unleashes whittles T almost to nothing, 2IC spends a lot of time jumping from truck to truck, the CIC is protected by a building and lots of burning chevys. G-Patrol manages to shrug off the limited fire from the r/m.g. Platoon.

The net begins to close.

Turn 6.

2IC and breda still don't find their mark, the final objective must be well hidden. G-Patrol gets into the desert with the CIC riding shotgun to face the krads coming straight at them along with the closing infantry platoon on the east. The net is closing, maybe one or two of G-Patrol could make it through the pass...

Jerry. Another 222 platoon enters the field from the South along with a pair of Pz4s who block the pass. Meanwhile back in town the last of T-Patrol burns, the breda from G-Patrol has a new pilot in the form of the 2IC after he lost his Ford trying to block the 222's in.

The r/m.g. Platoon descend on the chevys of G-Platoon and demolish it, leaving the platoon commander and one other to escape the melee.

The CIC is last seen heading towards the krads guns blazing as a bike goes up, then nothing.

Turn 7.

LRDG (or what's left)

Gunning it through the pass, what's left of G-Patrol the commander decides discresion at this point is probably best. We're a foot away and only two Pz4s to go...

Jerry.

Opens fire, the second to last of G-Patrols truck goes up, the platoon commander contemplates the long walk home, well others have made it before.

 I now know dawn would have been the best route to head down, that 8" move at night meant the infantry could keep up with me, along with everything else. I'll need to optimize my xtra m.g. layout, and get my head round the new warrior saves and think a little more about position. Overall the battle was awesome, and maybe me an Lee can squeeze a couple of games in next time, only another 5/6 raiding missions to complete, should have the Murzuq game me and Scary biscuits are working on done by then as well.

Heineken anyone...

Getting the **** out of dodge.

101 gets the willys

If you've ever wondered whether it is possible to get a Willys jeep in the back of a Land Rover 101, wonder no further, i'll make my apologies now, but honestly this is an exciting set of photos. Ehem.
http://lrdgroutesrevistited.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-min=2011-01-01T00:00:00Z&updated-max=2012-01-01T00:00:00Z&max-results=17

G & T in Murzuq.

So here they are the first proper offering of my LRDG army, at the moment they're big enough for a raiding force, i've not had the chance to photo the rifle stands yet. And as you can tell i'm still getting the hang of my new camera, those beatiful yellow hues, i'll get there..
 Anyroad in January 1941 the LRDG headed out on their first major raid, the plan, to destroy the planes at Murzuq airfield prior to the combined attack with the Free French on the Fezzan fort of Kufra, Murzuq airfield being the closest Italian airbase to Kufra and the greatest threat any of the desert raiders was to know, namely aircraft.
 The raid was a success, the opposition forces were holed up in Murzuq fort suppressed by G-Patrol and their 37mm Bofors, as the mainstay of T-Patrol headed off to attack the airfield, the Free French officer Colonel d'Ornano and Trooper R. J. Moore being gunned down my an m.g. nest on the airfield perimeter. Three Ghibli light bombers were destroyed in their hangar along with roof, the plumes of smoke seen for miles around.
On the subject of their success, the attack by the Free French on Kufra fort succeded it became the forward base for the LRDG and a lull ensued for T-Patrol who stationed the fort over the summer months. Prior to the main raid the first fight between modern special forces took place, near the Gebel Sherif Wadi. The Autosahariana the italian counterpart to the LRDG ambushed T-Patrol as headed it towards Kufra on a pre assault reconnaisance. T-Patrol lost several vehicles as the italians opened up with their vehicle mounted AA guns, chevys were shreded and lives were lost.
 For all you early war desert fans the word on the web is Mike "the special force" Haught is currently writing a Murzuq assault scenario for Flames, so watch his space for that and this space for a mock up of the Murzuq hangar, when i get the time.
Into the Fezzan...

CiC and 2iC

T-Patrol

G-Patrol

A little gem, Ford F-30s not Land Rovers

Alright all.
Here's something, hopefully of interest to anyone with an interest in the LRDG or British armoured regiment or just a passing interest in the early/mid war, i've just found on the Pathe site a film called desert advance, unfortunately it has no sound, however what it does have is footage of the LRDG (i assume G-Patrol, i've not spotted any markings, yet) mounting and driving Ford F-30 (not the erroneously titled Land Rovers, search fu is not strong with this one), also Mk IV A13 Mk 2s cruiser tanks titled Crusaders, there's also footage of what appears to be a Libyan/Egyptian desert town, it looks like Siwa, but with not enough experience? Please excuse my ignorance.
Hope this is of help, to any or all. Enjoy.
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/desert-advance-1

Desert Raiding tube aka Star Wars of Glory...

Well i popped into my LGS (local games store, aka Onslaught Games, Hove), i have a bit of time on my hands atm, i took voluntary redundancy two weeks ago as the company i worked for was taken over and streamlined (ehem) the workforce being reduced from 22 down to 4-6. And for too many reasons to list here i left the job i'd known for the last 14 years, i know what you're thinking, money :) hence another reason i went to visit Luke down at Onslaught. He's had the Battlefront Raiding tube down there for quite a while now and as i can't really justify buying more Flames toys (i've got enough to paint), i thought i could pick this up. So i wandered through the door, looking around for anything new, redundancy burning a hole in my pocket and then i saw it, Star Wars the miniature game!
 Roll back two weeks. The day after i accepted redundancy i'd been round my mate mikes for a stupendous game of Wings of War, it's 1917 (i think) messine ridge a last look before H-Hour, the aim of the game each side (3 Allied players, 2 German) to recce, photograph 3 different spots and then bomb one of two targets, i was to play my Great Grandad, he flew in WWI in the RFC starting out at lowly sergeant and by the time he retired (as a test pilot) Goup Captain John (Jack) 'oogie' Noakes (more on him at some stage, i'm hoping to do a blog, i need to get the info from my Gran). As it turned out, i managed to recce 2 spots my comrade the other whilst the third player duked it out with jerry, I then proceeded to fly off the german side of the map, this being my second game of Wings of War (Wings of Glory), manouvering and judging those distances not being my greatest skill. Got back in the photography plane, flew down managed to photo all three targets, realised i couldn't immelman in my bulky plane and managed to fly off the map just keeping my base on map, but by then jerry was on me, i was shot down with photo plates in hand in no mans land! It was about 1 in the morning by now, with nobody having completed their objectives, we decided to shoot it out. And with a last turn of my cards i managed to shoot jerry down as he got on my tail (this was what i wanted, as with a pair of twin vickers K on a pintel facing rear), i was hoping to chew him up, i did and with a final salute down he went. We won a war of attrition, however not as desperate as the below, 11,000 men disappered under the messine ridge as the Brits detonated the explosives below, according to some accounts the explosion was heard as far away as London.

'Game pics to follow'

 While we were having a break a pal told me that fantasy flight (wings of glory) were about (how i heard it, i need to clear my ears out) to release a version of wings based on Star Wars, i was, shall i say a little excited, so when i spotted it in the shop, i whipped his last copy off the shelf and also got an extra Y-Wing & Advaced Tie fighter (Darth Vader!). :) It resembles WoW which i'm very happy about, i love how simple WoW is, it makes for me, a fun game. You get a dial to select a manouver (rather than cards) you choose one at a time rather than the previous three cards, with pilot skills, shields, target lock and proton torpedos, a little different from WoW, hhhhmmmmm proton torpedos. But basically the same game all flying is on the same level, so no messing with height or 3D space...Here's to playing my first game.

Ralph and Alastair, no they aren't a posh gay couple.

While most of time of late as been taken up with painting my LRDG list, i've been trying my hand at sculpting. A pal of mine lent me some green stuff  year or so back do add some pipes connector boxes to my nebelwerfers after i'd seen John Boultwoods aka WPB on the BF forums, later i found out that John hadn't used GS (he was using wire and plasticard), so in a roundabout way it's all johns fault, i then moved on to add tarps to my BAR light mkVI's, battlefront has a good how to so if you're interested check it out.
 I've been doing a lot of headswaps of late, with a limited amount of poses for the LRDG rifle teams and drivers/gunners, i've been messing around with the 8th army rifle platoon figures, removing bayonets, backpacks, adding trousers, converting mortar round carriers to satchel charges. So i've been playing with a lot of GS and as always had a bit left over, i got fed up of creating more sandbags and tarps. An thought i'll see if i can sculpt a head, so 15 heads later i was happy not only with the result but the size to, whilst creating them i thught if i can do that, maybe i can do the body to, after doing a bit of research on armatures. I got myself a pair of needle nosed pliers, some silver coloured brass/copper wire .3mm (i think) both from ebay for a few quid. I've found with Alastair (see below) getting the armature right first is very important for the pose (Ralph is standing bolt upright so the armature was quite easy), then after that, it's just getting the GS plastered on right.

Greenstuffed pipes an connector box on the Nebs.

My son brings supplies in the opel blitz.

Ralph.
He's based on Ralph Bagnold creator/founder and first CO of the LRDG, also desert explorer and member of the zerzura club.

Bit blurred, apologies for my bad photography it covers up a multitude of sins. :)

Alastairs based on Alastair timpson he became CO of G-Patrol LRDG after Michael Crichton Stuart was injured, he was commanding G-2 when the descision was made to try and destroy and confuse the enemy by lobbing/placing satchel charges in the back of Italian trucks traveling along the Hon-Misrata road, in his book "In Rommels Backyard" he admits to only being able to place two charges after a lot of messing about with placing a roadblock further and further out into the road. He explains it a lot better than i can and it has an amusing ending when they get flagged by some italian truckers an try to fix their broken down truck.

He's currently missing his satchel charge/hand from his arm, although i've sculpted them they'll get added when i mount him on some plasticard, he's supposed to be crouching behind a fuel drum, waiting for a truck to pass, he'll be made into one of my objectives.

Another blurred one, so you can't make out his holster or water bottle.

This shots for scale, with one of the lewis gunners from a chevy.

The aboves a photo of my LRDG HQ T-Patrol post the attack on Murzuq Fort. It wasn't until i took the photos that i realised i'd forgotten to add the extra m.g.'s to the rest of the half patrol. So this is just a taster.

Annatoli does it again.

Just a quickie, hot on the heels of last years release Annatoli expands the invasion of Poland with The September Campaign v.2 Orders of Battle book "Polish collapse"
http://anatolisgameroom.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/the-september-campaign-v2-orders-of.html I've not had the chance to delve in yet, but after last years quality release and at 217 pages in length, it's gotta be worth a peruse and the 18.2mb's worth of drive space. Well done Annatoli. Ten out of ten for effort.

Oh the horror, a tale of woe (nothing like being a bit over dramatic).

I've been an advocate of using dettol as a paint stripper for a while now, after a few days most of the paint comes away by itself, a quick scrub in a soapey bath with a toothbrush and the rest will come away all good I here you cry. However leaving your resin trucks and tanks in there for a few months, is not a good idea (don't say “no s**t, sherlock”, I can here you), if you're of a weaker disposition please look away now.

 

As I was crying into my milk yesterday afternoon, I explained what had happened to the boss, an she said (along with a sharp intake of breath) “well I could have told you that”, if only earlier.

So there's my tale of woe, heed my warning, lest ye get a visit from the resin eater... 

 Won't get much purchase on those sand channels.

Hey dude, love that surface pitting.

Never liked the bull bars anyway, those engines'll be overheating without any pipes running to the condensers... :)

Stripping with fairy

No it's not my new late night activity, although... Anyroad it's been a while since i last posted, just a quickie for now, hence no pics.

My latest discovery for paint stripping, Fairy Power Spray, i've been looking for something fast acting, unlike dettol. I'm converting and head swapping a load of my LRDG troopers, to give them that individual look, with the prospect of twenty small stand rifle teams and only 3 different poses to work with, i thought i'd do some chop and change. A pal (cheers Mike AATW) has given me some bailed out british figures, i can whip their bereted heads off (vive le republic!), but they're painted an needed a bit of a clean.

So too business.

I sprayed it on the figure in question, white metal (i'm sorry to say i can't give any plastics advice, but i've heard it works on resin), it started too work almost straight away, i took a toothbrush too it after 5 mins and with a bit of effort it came away, i sprayed more on and left for another 20 mins same process and it came away with less effort, it washes of with a quick water bath, unlike dettol. Result! So for a fast acting stripper (Dita von Teese, hhhrrrrrrr) give it a shot.

Til next year...