The Landings at Safi 1942

 Now this is an old scenario which appeared in the 1994 original (Green book) Rapid Fire, re-configured for use with the excellent Field of Battle WW2, with US Landings in North Africa, during Operation Torch, against Vichy French forces.

the landings at Safi would be quickly followed by a rapid dash to Casablanca......only 220km away according to the local sign...

 This was the one of the first scenarios ever done on the blog (waaay back in Sept 2012), and some of the old terrain for the beaches, crane, landing craft and harbour was brought out and dusted off. Of course that damned Airfix French Foreign Legion castle makes an appearance once more (as do the Legion).

the battlefield...the landings should have taken place at night, but the players had not tackled the rules before, so a few liberties were taken, and the night turn avoided until later in the game.

 

Similar points scoring for objectives - harbour, post office, station, fuel dump and barracks, were in place, though of course FoB allows also for morale being reduced to have one force simply withdraw or surrender.

A wildcat buzzes the battlefield

 Another key was the game length - we pretty much had this done in 3 and a half hours. With Rapid Fire, things take a little longer.

Other advantages of FoB:

• Card driven - battlefield (small c) chaos without being Chaotic.
• The rules handle recce, close assaults, long range fire, and artillery with elegant design and results. 
• Units are companies, and I am concerned with my battalions - MGs, mortar placement, indigenous AT, is all someone else's problem. (Believe me, as I get older, the last thing I want to worry about is that bloody figure with the bazooka, and hidden units, and jeeps with FOs).
• Recce units actually 'recon' objectives and units.
• Artillery Fire is the smoothest, most elegant, and yet fun system I have yet seen.
• I model a real battle, not Sgt Archie and his mates 'aving a go'. 
• Gun calibre and armour etc. grants a bonus to the final combat die (say a D12) vs the defence die of the target (say a D6) - graduations of 3, cause casualties, even rolls cause suppression. It is all derived with one roll. No table of mods, no cross-referencing - dice may increase or decrease in size due to circumstance. Simply elegant.

  

french armour, realising that something is up, starts moving

Yanks hit the beaches

La Batterie Railleuse

The Harbour area

The Harbour assault from US Destroyer Bernacole (a combination of the actual Bernadou DD153 and Cole DD155, scaled for the game)

 

Red and Blue Beaches...landing troops and armour

...a nasty surprise awaits...

US troops manage to get off the beach with a flanking AT Gun

Vichy French troops covering the scrub area by the road, in lieu of attacks toward the harbour

US Armour starting inland

Vichy French artillery - antiquated, yet effective

The US spotter place, caused absolute havoc, being able to spot for 155mm Naval Guns, almost anywhere on the table...moving in the open became a disaster, as they seemed to get both movement of spotting rounds and 'fire for effect ' at all the right times...d12+1 is not to be sniffed at

Moroccan infantry get hammered

French Air appears for a brief, and yet paltry, pass

US Armour is fast and effective today, carefully moving with good infantry support (and excellent movement rolls)

Spotter plane cam

2nd wave troops hit the beaches

Fuel store is captured, one flag goes up, as another comes down

2nd pass of the French Dewoitine fighter, along the line of US troops exiting the beaches

Recce and armour, take down the Foreign Legion AT positions in Safi

...a US Wildcat cuts down Moroccans in the open

US troops close on the objective (that will give them the points they need) - the Vichy French Barracks

Last wave still moving to assist

Bloody fighter won't go away...finally effective in inhibiting the US advance

Assault on the village outside Safi

Legion heading to support the Barracks fight

US infantry assault on the Barracks

...tanks well supported

Seaplane, keeps the Naval Guns hammering, though the US are running out of asset points

  By game end, there was little more that the French could do, and they ran out of morale cards, suffering a morale collapse before the US had to lose more men trying to take the Barracks complex.

Excellent rules, very hack-able, and great for the younger players to see...no BS. around positioning guns, remembering silly little rules, working out nuances that help game-play but are totally non-historical - none of that crap. Just a great game.

Next one will be Operation Starlite - Vietnam '65. The rules already work well for Vietnam, so should be good. 

 

Bish Bash Bosh

 I am not normally a 'kit basher' but...I have been building forces for a 'Field of Battle' Scenario (the ww2 version with some modern additions for Vietnam), based around Operation Starlite in 1965, with Marines vs VC, with boocoo armed villes -based on the old Command Decision scenario by Greg Novak.

Getting ready for Operation Starlite 1965. These 'US Marines (Early War)' are from the Orion plastic range. Absolutely superb figures, which combine plastic utility with Platoon 20 character (I needed Marines with M14s...not M16s...an important detail...M48s be damned...)

 Bearing in mind a unit is a company, and support elements range from LVTP-5s (yes - the big awkward one) to M48 tanks, and I use 20mm / 1/72, there would be some vehicles required.

So having bought the LVTP5s as 3D prints, I thought "It's ok, I have plenty of M48s", until I discovered that what I had, was one kit, one dodgy incorrect scale abomination..and a polythene Airfix Patton turret on a polythene Airfix Centurion hull... uhhh ok? 

A panicked look in the bits box ensued (I mean I wasn't going to buy MORE 3D prints after buying the Big Beautiful. LVTP5s - that's far too easy).

 

Airfix polythene Patton turret, gun from the other kit, cheap chinese knock-off hull in stamped metal from the bits box, and tracks from 'i really don't know where'...what can go wrong?

I managed to find a cheap chinese knock off of an 'M60?' which had an M48 hull, and joy of joys, discovered that the dodgy gun without muzzle break on the polythene, could be replaced with extra bits from the M48 1/72 model (two barrels in one kit..who knew?) 

The next problem...

 There remained however, one slight issue...the new gun,with the muzzle brake, did not have the front piece. Now I thought...AHA! a brass fixing...nope, wrong diameter...a piece of plastic rod! nope, wrong diameter...and then I thought...a bloody PLASTIC STRAW!

Now, someone once told me that these were getting banned. PAH! I say...apparently that's been reversed, so Operation Starlite can go ahead, unfettered by StrawGate.

 

The solution...apparently you can find them on the beach? Who knew?

And then, I found a second MG/command turret in the model kit - the gift that just keeps on giving...(muzzle brakes notwithstanding)...

...and an MG turret too? Oh Italeri - you rock!

The two M48s, undercoated...to see action soon in FoB Vietnam

Guys! It was one damned muzzle-brake...seriously! I mean the plastic in the model, and chemicals in the glue, surely outweighs..I mean...

And of course, very sad news about the Oz this week. One of the creators of classic and modern metal.. RIP.

 

Paints 'n' Cards

 I have mentioned the virtues of contrast paints in the past, but noted yesterday that I was able to paint 5 figures in about 15 minutes...

The central command figure is Valiant miniatures - a little bigger, but takes contrast paints so well - the others are Revell that I have not been inspired to paint for 20 years.

Now I had previously sprayed these a 'mustardy tan' (the army painter sand colour) - the undercoat very much being the key to contrast paint, and I used GW contrasts (see, they are good for something) and Army Painter speed paint.

This is all 'one' coat bar the webbing. I get highlights, detail on the flesh (check the fingers), and an overall finished impression.

 I have experimented with white, off white, and mustardy tan as undercoats, and the results are always good depending on what you want. Sword n Sorcery style figures seem to benefit from the pure white undercoat.

Now I have never been a painter of quality (uhh painting specifically that is; I am of course the veritable gentleman)- I want the troops on the table, and patience for 'serious' painting has always eluded me, but this method really works for me.

 

The contrast paint forms a dark tone, base colour and highlight in one hit. Now granted, for these British infantry I did use a little acrylic to highlight the webbing, but the time factor was the main thing...outstanding results, and more than enough for the 'two-foot rule', once the younger eyesight has gone. 

 

In other news, have lifted 'Field of Battle ww2' which used to be a house fave for larger battles - where a base is a company, and a maneuver unit a battalion. 

'Do you mean Clare-MON'T' Brooker???'

 

 

Now, this uses cards, and as those I used before are a little drab, I opted to make some for myself on menu cardstock...incorporating great ww2 Hollywood movies where practical...and WW2 pics where possible.

The Kelly's Heroes Morale card still makes me laugh

 

 

(It should be noted that most of the actors/actresses in these pics are dead now. RIP.)

Woof woof!

Ingrid Pitt, Mary Ure, Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton in the absolute classic 'Where Eagles Dare'. Sadly, only Clint is still alive.

'It's a mother beautiful bridge, and it's gonna be there...'

 Looking forward to these seeing some action.

 ...accompanied by the single best war movie theme ever written...

...although this one is a close second...