Idea for a scenario

I was watching a video on the Battle of Avdiivka in October of 2023. There was a video of a Russian assault on a Ukrainian Trenchline. The trenches were hidden in a tree line that was nearly destroyed by artillery fire. What struck me was how few defenders there were in the trenches. The video focused on a single squad but the trench line was held by elements of two battalions. The line appeared to me to be sparsely populated. Maybe a squad or so from each battalion? The area in front of the treeline/trenchline was open fields. The Ukrainians had at least one ATGM (Javelin possibly) and several RPGs as well as their rifles. They were supported by artillery and drones. The reserves seemed to be two additional squads mounted in Bradley fighting vehicles that arrived during the fight. These my have been other elements of the same platoon as the defenders.

The attack came with two T-72s in the lead with a chain of three BTRs following. The lead T-72 was using its mine plow to clear a path on the way to the trench line before turning in front of the trenchline and as the BTRs pulled up the infantry dismounted. The Soviets were attacking with what looked like a full platoon of infantry and at least a pair of tanks. There were other AFVs in the area probably attacking different positions.

My thought would be that this would be an interesting scenario to play in different time periods. Say Late War WWII on the Russian front with the German's defending. This would be a plausible scenario. I was also thinking of using it for a 1980s Cold War scenario of Soviets attacking a US defensive positions. Of course other possibilities are possible but these are just the two I want to start with. The defensive position could be possible almost anywhere.

I am trying to figure out how to model the trench position. My thought is that the game would be on a 6' x 4' table. With the trenchline running across the table. There would need to be some space available behind the position for the reinforcements to arrive. Given the distances from the videos, I am almost thinging doing the scenario in 6mm miniatures would be appropriate. At that scale, the treeline would be across the center of the table allowing for movement of both sides. As it is, I will likely do this in 15mm as I have the miniatures. The treeline would be further back and the defending vehicles would likely be off table.

What struck me was how narrow the dirt trenches were. A single casualty in the trench could block movement. Here is one of many screen captures that I took to get an idea of the terrain and how to build it out.

In this screen capture, it shows the initial attack that caught my interest. You can see the trail that the T-72 mine clearing made.

Anyway, this is just a thought I had while painting up my Cold War minis.

The Second Kharkov Campaign is Released!

The Second Kharkov Campaign is a pair of Pint Sized campaigns for the TooFatLardies rule set Chain of Command. The first campaign covers the initial Soviet attack on German lines in May 12th of 1942. It follows the advance of the Soviet 38th Tank Brigade and the 226th Rifle Division in their attack on the German 294th Infantry Division which was blocking the main roads leading to the city of Kharkov. The campaign has seven scenarios and involves British Lend-Lease tanks. The entire campaign spans a single day of this battle where the Soviets made significant gains and in many cases broke the German lines.

The second campaign covers the German counterattack on May 13th of 1942. Having released the armored divisions that were being held in reserves, the German 3rd Panzer Division pushed up from Kharkov and cut through a number of Soviet units. This campaign has six separate scenarios and covers the time from the 13th to the 16th of May 1942. This campaign has scenarios that may be played out with the What A Tanker rule set as well due to their armor heavy nature.

The third campaign in this book is a What A Tanker Campaign. This allows the player to create a map based campaign to move their forces in a kreigspiel type manner until their forces make contact, then play out the scenario using the What A Tanker rules.

Lastly, the book provides some sketches of other units and actions that can be used to create your own campaigns with. The maps are based on period maps from German and Soviet armies. Each scenario has a game map and a picture of the table that I used to game these out.

The PDF comes out to 105 pages and includes a short history of the campaigns to provide the player with a background on the action that they are fighting.

You can buy the supplement from here: https://payhip.com/b/5Mhv or on Wargames Vault https://www.wargamevault.com/product/280662/The-Second-Kharkov-Campaign-May-1942. It is also now availible as a paperback on Amazon.

Painting Progress and Updates on Second Kharkov

Believe it or not, I only have one scenario left to photograph to complete the Second Kharkov Compaign. I will be wrapping it up this week. I am very excited to be pulling close to completing this project. Here is the cover so far. I may change it up.

In completing this, I painted up the bridge that came with the JR Miniatures river crossing piece. The original didn't have side rails to the bridge. I added some using toothpick. Here is a picture of it.

I have enjoyed working on it and getting this project done. I am looking forward to getting the last picture done.

Kharkov Progress

Things are going well. I have the pictures complete for the first campaign of the three in the book (2 for Chain of Command and one for What a Tanker). It has urged me to get some painting done. I am still lacking somethings to compete them out the way I want to. Specifically dirt roads and trees. For some reason, you can never have enough trees. I have two scenarios that call for some dense trees. I have enough to do it but not the way I would like to.

What I have completed was a graveyard. I purchased the tombstones from Blotz. I made a nice little plot and still have five additional tombstones to do something with.

I lost the overhead picture of the graveyard and only found this one.

Next up was a barn. I needed a big barn for scenario 5 of the campaign. I looked through the terrain that I had and I didn't have one that would fit in the Ukraine. That was disappointing. A quick Google search found this Ukrainian barn.

I liked the look of this and went through some old terrain that I had but didn't finish yet. What stood out was the Impudent Mortal village pack in 15mm. This is a great set of generic buildings that are completely unfinished. You had to provide the look you want. There was a large building that worked perfectly. I added embossed brick paper for the base. Card stock strips for the door and top portion and some cut up washcloth for the thatched roof. I like how it came out.

Next, I had some Red Vector's ruins that I needed to work on. I did the pig sty earlier. Here is both the complete and ruined versions. I finished a ruined shed this time.

Lastly, I finished a ruined building with a chimney that I received from Things From the Basement. I have another six of these waiting paint and another seven chimneys waiting on work. These are fantastic pieces that I really need to get completed.

That is it for this time. I am closing in on finishing the campaign book. I fully expect to release before the end of the month. (Famous last words)

Terrain Coming Along Nicely

I have gotten in some good days of painting lately. This has felt really good to have gotten stuff done. First up is the last of the Red Vectors buildings.

Next up is the Things From the Basement Shed and Blacksmith shop. I really like these buildings. They are more delicate than the Red Vectors but have more personality to me. I don't think my paint job is up to the quality of the models. I have several more houses to do and their fences. I hope to make more progress next week. Its going well.

Next up is the insanely small 15mm chicken coop from Things from the Basement. It was a tough build and I have two more to do. I loved it so much, I had to paint some livestock as well. I managed 4 pigs and three chickens. I think the livestock is from Donnington Miniatures but could be wrong. I need more chickens. A big thank you to all who helped me paint the pigs. Apparently, it is hard to go wrong. I googled Ukrainian pigs and found some gray pigs with black spots and went with that.

This brings me to show off the pigs in their new home, my previously painted sty. They seem rather content.

Next up on the bench is some more Things From the Basement Houses, fences, and some older fences that I never bothered to paint yet. Once that is all done, I plan on working up my tables for Second Kharkov. I am getting close.

Industrial Terrain

I wrote yesterday about the conveyors that I picked up over the weekend.

These should be very usable for what I have in mind. I am looking to create something like the pictures below.

Unfortunately, I have lost where I found all of these pictures of Gorlovko, Ukraine. But I basically want to make a mine complex. It could be interesting. This, the Impudent Mortal Vertical Tanks and the Workshop that I made should get me closer. I also have a Game Craft Miniatures warehouse that I need to tart up as well.

Gorlovko: October 25th - 29th, 1941

I am currently writing the scenarios for the actions in Gorlovko (Горловка or Gorlovka or a couple of other spelling variants) by the 80th Roma Regiment. The city has a very interesting history that does not really belong in a war games scenario but i found it to be interesting.

It seems that the town was built in the late 1800s under the impetus of a Belgian investment. The town began as a collection of a few shacks surrounding a few mines. The town began to grow and grew to fame as the site of an armed uprising in 1905. There were a few actions in and around the town during the Russian Revolution.

German postcard of the town in 1920. By 1929, the town had grown to some 23,000 people. But the real growth came in the 1930s. By the late 1930s it lept to nearly 200,000 people. The infrastructure was just not there to support those numbers.

The capital of the region was Stalino. The city of Stalino had its own issues with crumbling infrastructure. It was viewed that Gorlovko could be upgraded easier than fixing Stalino. The plans were to add a new modern city center called Novo Gorlovko that included a party headquarters, modern appartments, hotels and businesses to the town. Also schools, hospitals, telegraph and telephone lines, sewage, paved roads and a tram line were all to be built.

One of the mine complexes circa 1933.

This move of the capital was short lived. It seems a high party official went for a visit and his vehicle became hopelessly bogged in the mud roads near the mines. He promptly returned to Stalino in a huff. While some funding was cut, many of the building projects did take place. The town rapidly grew through the 1930s.

The tram line was run from the city center out some 8 kilometers to one of the main mine complexes.

By the time the Italians arrived in 1941, there were a few modern structures present in the town. Most of these were industry related. The town had taken a war production footing in relation to coal production. The mines were running at full capacity. The mines were still surrounded by low ramshackle structures.

And some of the buildings that the Italians were fighting among.

Anyway, it was interesting to find out a little about this city in the Ukraine. I also got enough pictures to figure out what my map will look like for the scenarios.

Sources:
http://moyagorlovka.blogspot.com/

http://forum.gp.dn.ua/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=941&sid=9324176d89c7749fba15579546851d0e&start=75

http://gorlovka.prostogorod.ua/%D0%9E-%D0%B3%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%B5/%D0%98%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%8F/%D0%B3%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BA%D0%B0-%D0%B2-xx-%D0%B2%D0%B5%D0%BA%D0%B5-345/

http://infodon.org.ua/stalino/198

http://beket.com.ua/doneckaja/gorlovka/

A lonely chapel

I managed to get some painting done this week. It is the lovely Iron Clad Miniatures chapel. This is a small chapel that could not hold more than a few people inside. Something that might be found in a remote farming community. I tried to paint it so that it looks like an abandoned building that has not been used since 1929.

Other than it being tiny, I really like this chapel. It turned out better than I thought it would. Ideally I would like a larger church building for my east front games. But this should do with the existing rural buildings that I have.

East Front Terrain

I just received a wonderful box on my front door this morning. It contained 4 east front houses and a barn that I purchased off of Ebay. These were intended to match some previous buildings that I had purchased from the same seller. The seller does not sell them on Ebay painted any longer, but a quick e-mail exchange and he was willing to have them painted for £2.00 each. Waiting on Royal Mail and USPS the package arrived today.

First, lets look at what I had already bought.

They are based and have removable roofs that you can place miniatures within. I really liked these and have used them in my Dux games as well as stand ins for Dark Age buildings.

Next is the barn. I really like the barn and it actually is nicer than the picture on Ebay. It has a small shed to the rear and both the shed and the barn have removable roofs. It also has removable doors as do the earlier houses. The doors in this and the other two houses have trouble staying in place. If jostled during game play then tend to fall down. This worked well during a game of Dux when some Saxons were raiding said building. Otherwise it is a pain to reset. This is the only negative to these buildings.

The other 4 buildings are nice but not as nice as the first two. They do not have removable roofs or doors. They are not based as the others. I will probably have to make one to keep them the same height on the table. Still, for the price, it was well worth it.

All in all, this is a great leap forward for me in getting some of my scenarios done for my CSIR campaign. If I can ever gather the courage, I will paint up the remaining ruins that I have to have urban terrain as well. Who knows, that might actually happen.

More Ukraine Terrain

Just received the Total Battle Miniatures 15mm well in the mail this week.  It is a lovely model.  And one that I actually managed to get painted. 

While doing that, I also finished out my test base of sunflowers. Hopefully I can get some more done this week.  Take a look and let me know if I should add a few more sunflowers to the base.  I am thinking it should have at least 2 more.

---Update. The cell phone blogger app dropped the sunflower picture.

Terrain for the Ukraine

I have been batting around the idea for a sunflower field for a while now.  So i decided to attempt to make one.  I used a sewing pin, a post it note, a piece of green paper and some tacky glue for a proof of concept.  This is the result.

The miniatures are WWI Russians that still need a little dullcote.  Let me know what you think.