Flames of War German Static Rockets

I finally got around to buying some static rockets for my Fallschirmjagers.  Each base equals a four gun battery and it only cost 160 points to buy four of them.  They also get the 'stuka zu fuss' rule which, combined with a 1+ firepower, make these very dangerous.  Of course with all the great thing there are negatives, but for the cost, I think they are well worth it.  Here is a link to the Flames of War pdf file for the rules.  http://www.flamesofwar.com/Portals/0/Documents/Briefings/Static-Rocket-Launchers.pdf

Why does a Lt. Gen. outrank a Maj. Gen., but a Maj. outranks a Lt.?

 An interesting article on how rank has developed over the years.
Here is the link:
The Straight Dope: Why does a lt. gen. outrank a maj. gen., but a maj. outranks a lt.?

Scooters of War! Vespas lead the charge!

I came across this today when I was doing some research on recoilless rifles for my Flames of War Fallschirmjager company.  After the war the French bought a lot of old war surplus recoilless rifles for their paratrooper and decided to transport them using Vespas.

Here is a link for more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vespa_150_TAP

Shako II Napoleonic Game

Got to play some Napoleonics today down at the shop.  After playing several rules systems over the years, I believe I've found the one I like the most, Shako II.  Each unit is a battalion or battery and each side can easily run a corp.  I find the command and control system works well without bogging down game play.  Yes, it has it's problems, but all and all it runs pretty smoothly and concludes in a realistic manner.  The best part is we can get a corp level game finish in a few hours.  Another thing I like about it is that there is a scenario book that you can buy for the system, and from what I understand, more are in the works. 

Austrians (left side) defending the river against the French (right side.)

A view from behind the Austrian lines.

Random Terrain Generator for Wargaming

(The link for the pdf of this generator is at the bottom of this post)

I've played a lot of Flames of War over the last few years and have major reservations on how people create the game table with terrain.  Too often, I've seen some rather crazy stuff thrown on the table.  This all came to a head a few months ago when I faced a Russian army on a table covered in trees.  Now I know the Russians in WWII did fight in forested areas, but not all the time.  Most of us who study history have a picture in our heads of great tank battles being fought on the grasslands of the Ukraine, you could see the horizon in all directions, and a tree would be an anomaly.  If you ever driven thru western Kansas you know what I mean.

I've noticed since then that most people design there tables in a very predictable manner.  A terrain feature in the center of each quadrant and then another feature or two in the center of the table.  Most people would consider a terrain feature to be a hill, forest, pond, building, plowed field, etc, etc.  We could spend all day naming off various features that we might put on a table.  But, inevitably, no one will think of one of the most common features.  Can you guess it?  I eluded to it in my picture of Russia.  It would be the open field.  The open field has been in more battles in history than anything else.  Yet, it's treated as a pariah by Flames of War players.

There are two reasons for this. One, people have poor tactics.  They depend on the terrain to cover their bad play.  I ran into this when I place one Jagpanther on the table and my opponent immediately cried cheese and wanted to put more trees down because of it.  When I asked why, he said that it's range could reach across the table!  "OK" I said, "but you have seven tanks to my one.  Yeah, I might get most of them, but you stand a good chance of beating me in the end."  I don't think he heard me.  He was sure I was being cheesy.  Needless to say, I was annoyed.

The second reason, and this one applies to me, confusion about the scale.  Before Flames of War, I was an American Civil War and a Napoleonic period wargamer.  I was use to playing games at the division an corp level.  At that scale, 12 inches between forests could equal anywhere between half a mile to two miles or even more.  In Flames of War that same 12 inches is more around 100 to 200 yards.  For me, I've never played at the company level before and it was hard to visualize what a battlefield should look like in that scale.

Anyway, that brings me to the point of this post.  I've spent some time trying to find a random terrain generator on the web that I could use.  I did find a few, but none fit my needs.  So, when I had some free time at work over the last few months, I designed my own generator.  It's in a pdf file which I will post here.  I think it's pretty straight forward.  There are 6 pages with different open field densities to help create a more realistic table (at least realistic to me.)  Then each page will have boxes numbered between 1 and 97.  So all you do is roll 1d6 to pick which page to use then roll 2d10 to determine which box to use.  Whatever box you roll will be the top left of the field.  If you roll of 98, 99, or 100 then check the description on the right of the page for your terrain.  It's designed for a 6x4 foot table but with a little thought, it should work for any size table.  I hope you can find it useful.

Here is the link:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B6Yskv7-JcXubHVnc1JseW5EdEk

Just click on file and then click download.

My absence & Swedish Tank Drifting

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I haven't had a lot of time the last few weeks to do any painting and shouldn't have time for the next few weeks.  Till then, I will just post articles that I find interesting.  Here is one now.  The Swedes drifting a tank.

Panthers for FOW Tank Aces

I have finish my panthers for the the Flames of War Tank Aces league.  I still need to add some decals which are on back order but other than that I'm done.  They didn't turn out as good as I had hoped but I've never have been able to paint German tanks very well. 

Navy Zeppelin Over Tulsa, OK

A bit of local military history, the 320 South Boston Building in downtown Tulsa has a Zeppelin mooring on it's roof.

Pic 1.  Navy Zeppelin 'City of Los Angeles' approaches downtown Tulsa.

Pic 2.  Over downtown Tulsa.

Pic 3.  The 320 South Boston Building is the tall building center left.

 Follow this link for an article on this.
http://thislandpress.com/01/27/2011/zeppelin-tulsa/

Hand-held, Shoulder Launched Phosphorous Missile (Israeli Army)

I haven't posted anything this week because I've still haven't finished painting my Panther tanks yet, so I figured I would post a video that I found very interesting (and a little scary). 

War of 1812 British artillery on snow sled

Came across this in my research today that I've never seen before, a British 3 pound gun on a snow sled.  Here is a link to the website if your interested in details.
www.riverraisinbattlefield.org/artillery.htm

War of 1812 American Artillery

Just finished basing my War of 1812 American Artillery.  I still have a light artillery battery to paint and I hope to do that by the end of the summer.  The guns painted blue are US Regulars and the maroon one is a militia unit representing Mack's Battery of the Michigan Legionary Corps.

A bit of trivia, American regular artillery during the War of 1812 made their guns from cast iron, not bronze.  The only bronze guns were with the militia batteries, as most of those where from the  Revolutionary War. 

Next project, painting some Panther tanks for the Flames of War Tank Aces League.

Don't Mess With Marines

Diorama in Black & White

I came across this diorama on the web several years ago and thought it was really cool and wished I could paint this well.  I don't know who painted it, or I would have given them credit.  Make sure to check out the last photo.

USS Essex Ironclad

Just finished my USS Essex from Thoroughbred Miniatures.  It's pictured below with the USS Indianola.  Next up on the painting table, I have to base my War of 1812 US Artillery.

George Washington Voted Britain's Greatest Military Enemy

Interesting story from the Chicago Tribune,
George Washington Voted Britain's Greatest Military Enemy

Although the article wrongly credits the victory at Saratoga to Washington (that goes to Benedict Arnold),  everything else is on the nose.  Washington may have lost most of the battles he fought in, but the few victories he had severely hurt the British war effort.  He was very good of at protecting his army from serious defeat and attacking when the enemy was most vulnerable.  You need only to look at the Yorktown Campaign to appreciate this.

Hitler Reacts to Top Deck Games' Flames of War Ace's Club

This was created for a Flames of War Ace's League that's starting soon here in Tulsa.

1st Post

I've been wanting to start a blog on miniature wargaming for a while now but after a few of my friends started their own recently, I decided to jump on the bandwagon.  This blog will cover wargaming, miniatures, military history, and anything in between.