Wednesday 27 December 2017

From JohnM: Some Armour for the Battle of Kasserine Pass (26 Points)


Readers of my blog will know I have been much involved in developing 6mm forces for Sam Mustafa's Rommel. I am not really sure why this game has captured my imagination but it has. I enjoy WWII gaming, it is a lot of fun and you get to read about all kinds of interesting weapons and battles.


Until Rommel arrived, my whole focus has been on gaming WWII at the skirmish level, but I have always been fascinated by the North African theatre of war and Erwin Rommel. Skirmish wargaming was just not going to do it for the wide open desert and the rapid advances of the Deutsches Afrika Korps.


My initial focus has been on the Western Desert Campaign but I thought I would mark this years Painting Challenge with American forces for the Tunisian campaign, of which I suppose the most famous battle was that of the Kasserine Pass.


Some models arrived from GHQ on Christmas Eve and I have to paint them up over the last couple of days. I made a larger order from CinC but they have yet to arrive, so this has given me a chance before I get overwhelmed to get these models on the table.


You can find a description of the evolution of my Rommel project here. It really has been a lot of fun, I have painted well over 300 models so far! If you are interested you can read about our latest game, Operation Battleaxe.


M3 "Lee" Tank
M7 "Priest" Self-Propelled Artillery

Thirteen 6mm vehicles, I believe that should be 26 points.


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Nice work, John. I've been enjoying your foray into 1:285 WWII gaming with keen interest these past few months. I like your minimalist-yet-elegant approach to the groundwork - very evocative of the period. (And nice looking buildings btw - where are they from?)


I have to admit that the 'Rommel' rules leave me a little flat - I think it's the whole grid thing. Oddly enough, I can put up with grids for pre-combustion engine periods (Simon's 'To the Strongest' for example), but it doesn't translate for me for the free-wheeling (tracking?) nature of modern combat, but that's just my lizard brain being weird I'm sure.  All this being said, Sam Mustafa always puts forward a well-considered set of rules, so I'm sure they're very good.

I look forward to seeing your upcoming reinforcements for this project.

25 comments:

  1. Nice work on the micro, John! I too am a fan of the ground work, it really suits the style of painting on the armor too. I'll check out your blog, but I hope you have the arty halftracks on the way if not already completed! ;)

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    1. They are they are David, some nice M3's Tank Destroyers on the way.

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  2. 6mm man that's small nice work mate

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  3. Excellent work mate. In previous Challenges I have done a lot of 6mm North Africa stuff so it feels a little odd this year seeing someone else posting them instead of me (I have none planned for this year!). Great period and a great entry.

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    1. Thanks Lee, and to tell you the truth your 6 mm work was one of the inspirations for me to go this direction with Rommel.

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  4. They turned out nicely I‘d say.

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  5. Nice tanks with good basing
    Best Iain

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    1. I still have to add some ground vegetation, waiting to polyurethane the bases.

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  6. Nice Work John I've always like the Lee/Grant M3 tank. Its such a flawed designe but its so ugly its cool. Look forward to playing with these in the new year.

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    1. Yes there is a nice Kasserine scenario on the Honour Forum.

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  7. Good work! I too have felt the siren call of North Africa...

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  8. Curt, I have to admit that I never thought I would play a game with grids. But if you have a look at the AR's on my blog you will see that you can hardly see them. This game has a very simplistic mechanic and I am sure that Adam will agree that it is all about tactics. this makes it great fun.

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  9. Wince work on these micro tanks John.

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  10. Nice work John. I'm a big desert WWII fan and have been following your stuff with interest. Looking forward to seeing these chaps in action in the future...

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  11. Very nice indeed, effective colouring with the bases too.

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  12. Great work John - it has been fun to see you totally dive into this project with such gusto (and nice to see other people get totally "in" to certain periods to the point of "let's just get all this sh*t collected and painted pronto").

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  13. Superb little armour John, love to see them in such nice scenic landscaping as well!

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