Sacre Bleu, mercy buckets

I received my second parcel of French this week, all of the tanks and guns I will need to keep the Poilu's happy, I had a brainwave and decided to get a brownish spray for the infantry and a yellowish spray for the base colour for the tanks. As the powers that be equate a spray paint can as the equivalent of an IED in a van I tried to get the best postage deal I could, I lost an hour of my life doing this. All the companies I checked either had one or the other colour not both, this would mean two lots of postage so a ballpark figure of approx £14, I tried several manufacturers, some wanted the same price for 100ml while others gave you 400ml. I tried one popular manufacturer only to hit a dead site and could not buy anything, I felt a headache coming on, really, so gave up, I shall use what I have in the house.

I looked up a painting guide for French WWII infantry and found that everything is basically the same colour, I also found that Army Painter spray Army Green is perfect for French Infantry, not the brown, so I bit the bullet and went back into the ether and ordered from the excellent Goblin Gaming, it was dispatched that very afternoon.

On looking through my parcel I was not overjoyed with the artillery pieces, OK, it doesn't take a genius to work out how to put the wheels etc. together but there are some fiddly wee bits which I had no idea belonged where. And out of the ten kits I got only three had instructions, a poor show which meant I had to find images online to check where pieces went. Hands up, I also managed to get the gun shield for the 75mm wrong and it did have instructions, bad ones obviously. During the week I did clean up most of the figures, prime and base a squad, build nine of the kits and paint the guns, which now look fine but 'that guy' might point out the lack of some fiddly bits that are now languishing in my bin.

I have finished my heavy limbers for the Seven Years War, one for each side, so all my artillery pieces now have a limber to go along with them, I only have six guns at the moment but it is more than enough for my small forces. I have spoken too soon, I still have one more light limber to get, I really must learn to check things before reaching for the plastic.

I was asked to give information on how I did my small gardens. I used some bases I had lying about along with the extra bases I got for the limbers, to these I added the odd box, sack, barrel or/and wheel from the spares bag. On a couple I used some coffee stirrers to make a plant bed, I painted these and when dry I sloshed on PVA and dipped them into my sand box, when this dries if you want a line of crops add more PVA in lines and pop on some more sand, until it stands out from the base. After this I paint the ground with Vallejo Flat Earth and drybrush with Vallejo Dark Sand, the crop rows I paint a dark brown, again to make them stand out, newly turned or watered soil. After this just glue some bushes, flower tufts or whatever and job done, for the plant beds I just cut up a strip of 'flowers' and added them inside the box, once this is done a smattering of grass and voila.

 Thanks to Phil Robinson I managed another online game, Chain of Command this time as Phil asked me to take command of some Volksgrenadiers for one of his campaign games. The British were really up against it in this game, I got the impression they had suffered in previous games and the Germans were pushing forward with all haste. I was tempted to take a Panzer IV as support but went for quantity over quality and got an extra infantry squad and extra command so that my troops would not be held up waiting for the right die roll to turn up.

 

My plan was to use my double LMG squad to provide covering fire while my other squads pushed forward to overwhelm the defence. For a change my plan worked really well, as my adjutant fed in the arriving forces my senior leaders kept the boys at the front line in action. I also managed a couple of double turns which allowed me to get my right flank squad right up to the road and into action against the nearby British, these suffered heavy losses which took out their 'bite' which allowed me to advance more troops almost with impunity. The second British squad entered and set up a defensive position at the rear of the table hoping to stop me getting a unit off the table which was my objective.

As Phil deliberated where to bring on his last squad his choices had been reduced due to one of my squads being so close to his forward jump off point, he also suffered from his seemingly usual run of bad dice although my own had turned a bit after the excellent opening volleys against the first British squad. Flush with victory now as that squad eventually broke, my forces all began to advance, the Germans could now bring overwhelming fire to bear on the remaining British and the right flank squad could make their way through the wood and off the table without fear of being caught. Phil withdrew from his positions.

Once again Phil had given himself a tough job and many of his command throws did not do him any favours despite only having a few units on the table, discretion being the better part of valour he conceded the game was a bogie as we Scots say. Despite the chance to use one of Phil's lovely tanks I went for leaders and quantity and it worked this time, a nice simple straightforward game and a chat on wargaming at the end, a good evening.