Red Army Stand Inventory

Unit	Notes	Number
Trucks - Studebaker		8
Trucks - GAZ		2
Limbers		2
Valentine (Lend Lease)		4
T34 with mine roller		1
Engineer		1
BA-10 A/C		1
BA-64 A/C		4
T34/76		14
T34/85		5
SU-76		4
SU-122		4
SU-100	or 85	6
ISI-152		1
ZIS-2 57mm AT		1
ZIS-3 76.2mm		3
122mm Howitzer		1
47mm AT		5
85mm AA		2
37mm AA		2
HMG AA		1
81mm Mortor		3
INF-Sniper		1
INF-Scouts		1
INF-Rifle		15
INF-SMG		12
INF+LGM		2
Maxim		5
INF+ATR		3
NAV INF+LMG		3
NAV Maxim		2
NAV INF+ATR		3
NAV 81mm mortor		1
NAV Rifle		6
NAV FO		1
NAV CMD		1
HQ		2
CMD		5
FO		2
Total		140

German stand inventory (redux)

Unit	Notes	Number
Sdkfz 10 halftrack	Light tractor (Pak 38)	3
Trucks	Includes 1 to base	10
Maultier Halftrack		2
SdKfz 7 halftrack	Heavy tractor (88)	1
Sdkfz 10 AA haliftrack		1
Sdkfz 251/1	Transport	7
Sdkfz 251/2	81mm Mortor	2
Sdkfz 251/16	Flamethrower	1
Sdkfz 251/7	Bridging	1
PaK 40	75mm AT	2
PaK 38	50mm AT	3
8.8cm Flak	With mantlet	1
Sig 17	75mm Infantry gun	1
Sig 33	150mm Infantry gun	2
10.5 cm leFH 18	Field gun	1
Stug III F/G		7
Sturm-Infanteriegeschütz 33B	24 made!	1
StuG IV		3
Jagdpanzer IV		3
Nashorn		3
Elephant	Need bases	3
Panther	Excludes 1 to move from HQ	9
Panzer IV	Excludes 1 to move from cmd	8
Panzer III, long 50		3
Panzer III, 37mm		5
Panzer II	One based as recon	7
Tiger I		6
Tiger II		3
Mortocycle recon		1
Sdkfz 234 /1  8-wheeled  a/c	20mm cannon	2
Sdkfz 234 /2 Puma	50mm gun	1
Command stand		7
HQ Stand		1
Forward Observer		1
Infantry		35
Infantry with LMG		3
Infantry with Panzerscherk		3
Engineers		3
Recon infantry		2
Mortor		3
HMG		10
Total		171

Division in a bathtub.

My previous posts have shown my figures organized with one stand equal (more or less) to a platoon, or to five tanks.

If a stand is a company of infantry or 15 tanks, something like this becomes possible:

A 1945 Panzer Grenadier division:

The Divisional assets.  Clockwise from the front, Division HQ, AT Battalion, Engineers, Recce, and AA)

Half-Track Equipped Grenadiers - Command, two battalions (one in trucks) and regimental weapons, mortar, and recon.










Motorized Grenadiers (Yes, short a truck)

And the Panzer regiment.

Am am still short the artillery, and if I continue to use standard BKC scale they will still be off table.  I am short a few AA assets and the like but they can be filled in over time.

All in all, organized into regimental Kampfgruppen  this offers a fun range of equipment for a club game with each player getting a well-rounded regiment.

Re-think in progress

I have been attaching labels to the rear of my stands; surprising readable for 3mm-high text but still small.  Recently, I have been exploring the possibilities implicit in having magnetic bases.  Have a look on my "general" blog.

This might be a better way to organize formations.  The association between names formations and stands would become "virtual" but OTOH it makes it easier for me to use multiple rules sets and also makes dummy stands a lot simpler.  I am considering the implications of this for my WWII forces.

Some new bits and pieces

I had an idea a while ago for a Romanian shore battery to resist my Soviet BKA "floating tank".

Working with the folks at Pendraken, I ordered in a resin "PS31" - a 19 Century barbette gun position in resin.  This is how the kit comes - that is, from right to left, a gun on fortress carriage, a fortress platform, and the position itself.  The resin base is exactly 6cm wide across the rear.

Set up with a french heavy gun crew from the Franco Prussian War line  it will be ready to disturb Fritz's lunch.  It would, or coarse, work just fine with any gunners from the later half of the 19th Century.

Since Romanian coastal artillery were manned by sailors who used the Adrian helmet, a combination of French WWII and de-pom-pommed FPW sailors will make a good WWII crew.  The gun is a 6" naval gun from the Boer War line where it is regularly sold on a railway mount.

I've also obtained some Adrian-helmeted Pendraken SCW figures to add  my Pendraken WWI French infantry to form the battery's Romanian Marine defense unit.

The guys at Pendraken were very nice about putting this together for me as a special order.  I'll post WIP pics as I go forward.

A Game!

The lads were on the table this weekend.  The 410th, commanded by Ross, successfully defeated a German counterattack.  The German I. Battalion, 252 GR was supported by Panzergrenadiers, Panzerjaeger IVs and StuGs from their own division and 116. Panzer; the 410. by SU-100s and SU-76 from a supporting mechanized corps.


The scenario was Reinforcement in Defense: Off Table from Grant's "Scenarios for Wargames."  The Scenario features a starting force in a decent defensive position, with follow-on elements appearing at random times by random roads.  The scenarios is designed for Horse and Musket and so calls for infantry and cavalry both light and heavy.  We took a unit as 3 stands of infantry or infantry support or two vehicles.

The rules were Blitzkrieg Commander II; this was a big game for those rules with over 3500 points of Germans and a potential 2600 points of Soviets.  Potential because each reinforcing units stood a 1:3 chance of taking the wrong turn and never showing up at all.

The Reds deployed dug in on the ridge

While the Germans planned to dash out from the woods on their right








 with the main armor through the central gap, and the panzergrenadiers in their SPWs ready both to exploit and threaten the soviet right.





as the Stuka slipped past the Soviet fighters and swept in with every  promise of smashing both SUs, suddently it all came apart.  Soviet AA fire drove off the Stuka while the battalion commander on the left bungled or had no action for three consecutive turns.

As Soviet infantry began the march to the front, desperation set in.  Ross graciously suggested that, in the absence of a blunder, a commander is always allowed one action for one formation.

 At the midpoint of the game, finally moving from the wood and with everything concentrated on the Soviet left, the German attack started to move.  The Nashorn delivered our first AFV kill.





But the grenadiers reached the ridge only to face the "Hurrahs" of the SMG-armed  Soviet re-enforcements and the concentrated fire of the 410th's mortars.

As German infantry began to fall, a Sturmovic arrived to add well-timed insult to injury.

 And swept off, ignorant of the confusion left on the ground.

The last straw was the arrival of two more SU100s on the German left, distracting the assault guns from their support mission while the German infantry perished under Soviet mortars and machine guns.

The shattered remnants of the grenadier regiment - less than half the force that had crossed the start line -- spoke of a decisive Soviet victory.

Soviet Naval Infantry

The 142nd Naval Infantry Battalion - ready to storm ashore to attack the fascists in their lairs.  Famous for the defense of Leningrad, Novorossiysk, and Sevastopol; but naval infantry fought throughout Europe and in the Far East as well.

Here is the battalion:

There are three infantry companies, with their commander:

 The heavy weapons company.

And a forward observer ready to call in the fire of the fleet.









This force will be extended to a brigade.  I have followed a standard infantry battalion structure with this unit, but I have since discovered that I could have been far more generous with the assignment of machine guns and mortars.