Desired scans : Black Powder supplements Rank and File supplements Harpoon 3 & 4 supplements Force on Force supplements Hind Commander At Close Quarters War and Conquest
Eli Morgan
11th of November in military history:
1673 – Second Battle of Khotyn in Ukraine: Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth forces under the command of Jan Sobieski defeat the Ottoman army. 1778 – Cherry Valley massacre: Loyalists and Seneca Indian forces attack a fort and village in eastern New York, killing more than forty civilians and soldiers. 1805 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Dürenstein – 8000 French troops attempt to slow the retreat of a vastly superior Russian and Austrian force. 1813 – War of 1812: Battle of Crysler's Farm – British and Canadian forces defeat a larger American force, causing the Americans to abandon their Saint Lawrence campaign. 1831 – In Jerusalem, Virginia, Nat Turner is hanged after inciting a violent slave uprising. 1839 – The Virginia Military Institute is founded in Lexington, Virginia. 1864 – American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea – Union General William Tecumseh Sherman begins burning Atlanta, Georgia to the ground in preparation for his march south. 1918 – World War I: Germany signs an armistice with the Allies in a railroad car in the forest of Compiègne, France. The fighting officially ends at 1100hrs. 1918 – Piłsudski assumes supreme military power in Poland - symbolic first day of Polish independence. 1919 – The Centralia Massacre results in the deaths of four members of the American Legion and the lynching of a local leader of the IWW. 1919 – Latvian forces defeat the Freikorps at Riga in the Latvian War of Independence. 1940 – World War II: Battle of Taranto – The Royal Navy launches the first aircraft carrier strike in history, on the Italian fleet at Taranto. 1940 – The German cruiser Atlantis captures top secret British mail, and sends it to Japan. 1942 – World War II: Nazi Germany completes its occupation of Vichy France. 1968 – Vietnam War: Operation Commando Hunt initiated. The goal is to interdict men and supplies on the Ho Chi Minh trail, through Laos into South Vietnam.
David Price
It is 76 years since the Battle of Taranto, fought between British naval forces, under Admiral Andrew Cunningham, and Italian naval forces, under Admiral Inigo Campioni. The Royal Navy launched the first all-aircraft ship-to-ship naval attack in history, with a small number of obsolescent Swordfish biplane torpedo-bombers from the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious in the Mediterranean Sea. The attack struck the battle fleet of the Regia Marina at anchor in the harbour of Taranto using aerial torpedoes despite the shallow depth of the water. The devastation wrought by the British carrier-launched aircraft on the large Italian warships was the beginning of the ascendancy of naval aviation over the big guns of battleships. According to Admiral Cunningham, "Taranto, and the night of November 11–12, 1940, should be remembered for ever as having shown once and for all that in the Fleet Air Arm the Navy has its most devastating weapon."
Codenamed Operation Judgment, Cunningham and Lyster planned to attack Taranto on October 21, Trafalgar Day, with aircraft from HMS Illustrious and HMS Eagle. This was later changed following fire damage to Illustrious and action damage to Eagle. While Eagle was being repaired, it was decided to press on with the attack using only Illustrious. Several of Eagle's aircraft were transferred to augment Illustrious' air group and the carrier sailed on November 6. In the days before the attack, several reconnaissance flights from Malta confirmed that the Italian fleet was at Taranto.
Given these events, the RAF advised against the raid. They were afraid that a failure would result in the improvement of anti-aircraft defenses of the Italian harbour. But their warnings were ignored and the raid went ahead to devastating effect. Italian anti-aircraft guns were confused by flares set off by two leading planes; these also successfully illuminated targets.
Elijah Martinez
Aboard Illustrious, at 2100hrs, 21 Fairey Swordfish biplane torpedo bombers (nicknamed "Stringbags") began taking off. Eleven of the planes were armed with torpedoes, while the remainder carried flares and bombs. The British plan called for the planes to attack in two waves about an hour apart. The first wave was assigned targets in both the outer and inner harbors of Taranto.
Approaching the harbor from the southwest at 10:58 PM, the first wave of 12 Swordfish found 6 battleships, 7 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers, 8 destroyers in the anchorage. As they began their attack, the sky was illuminated by flares and intense, but ineffective, antiaircraft fire. Around midnight, the second wave of 9 Swordfish arrived over the harbor from the northwest. Dropping their ordnance, they cleared the harbor and returned to their carrier.
In their wake, the 21 Swordfish left the battleship Conte di Cavour sunk and the battleships Littorio and Caio Duilio heavily damaged. They also badly damaged a heavy cruiser. British losses were only two Swordfish. In one night, the Royal Navy had succeeded in halving the Italian battleship fleet and had gained a tremendous advantage in the Mediterranean. As a result of the strike, the Italians withdrew the bulk of their fleet farther north to Naples.
The Taranto Raid changed many naval experts' thoughts regarding air-launched torpedo attacks. Prior to Taranto, many believed that deep water (100 ft.) was needed to successfully drop torpedoes. To compensate for the shallow water of Taranto harbor (40 ft.), the British specially modified their torpedoes and dropped them from very low altitude. This solution, as well as other aspects of the raid, was heavily studied by the Japanese as they planned their attack on Pearl Harbor the following year.
Parker Turner
Cunningham wanted to strike Taranto again the next night with Swordfish (six torpedo-bombers, seven bombers, and two flare-dispensers) – one wag in the pilot's room remarked, "They only asked the Light Brigade to do it once!" – but bad weather prevented the action.
Taranto has all the elements of an awesome wargame. The Swordfish were totally obsolete but performed superbly, and the Italian's confused reaction could easily have been more determined if things had gone their way. Most WW2 naval systems carry extensive rules for torpedo bombers, and correspondingly most WW2 aerial wargames include a naval element. This would be a real white-knuckle experience for both players as the British race to get in-and-out before the Italians can organize and fight back. Tally ho!
We have the two army books for Hail Caesar and Devil's Playground for Pike and Shotte - thhe Peninsular one for Black Powder would be excellent, tho.
Julian Howard
do we have the blucher cards for hidden deployment?
Evan Gonzalez
A question for folks who scale games down into smaller ranges: 1:1 representation of figures can be a bit challenging... So where do you draw the line?
My 6mm stuff for TY/FFT is largely 1:1, I want to do some Swedes and Poles for By Fire and Sword and their 1:12 representation is a bit too much.
Hudson Evans
Okay, bought Albion Triumphant vol. 1. Will upload in a bit, but if any user wants to contribute, don't pick that one.
Does anyone have a pdf of Dux Bellorum by any chance?
Levi Barnes
I was reading Stalin's Favorites vol 2 (10/10 book)and what the fuck is this thing? It looks like someone took the gun off a tank and made it an artillery piece.
Christian Lopez
looks like the 75mm off a StuG or Hetzer
Ethan Mitchell
Finished reading this.
Can't say I recommend it.
It's reasonably well written, and starts out with a fairly decent account of the Italian Wars but soon reveals itself to be incredibly generalist in its overviews of everything. It spends vastly more time in anecdotes about individuals than actually describing how warfare changed. It doesn't have any maps, its accounts of battles are Tolkien-esque in their briefness, tactics, logistics and technologies get even less of a mention. It does at least spend a lot of time covering things with Sweden, Russia, Poland and the Ottoman Empire, but things like the 30 years war are somehow barely covered at all.
I'm going to go read some of the books the author continually referenced instead, because I suspect their authors actually did some decent research and I'll learn something from them.
Brody Richardson
This. 7,5cm gun with Saukopfblende without a vehicle.
Evan Richardson
I have the desire to buy a cromwell troop
Grayson Cox
Danke.
Hudson Carter
I was fucking around and found this new kickstarter for a line of WW2 era Highlanders. Looks like the company is new too, I hadn't heard of them. The goal isn't crazy either, so maybe they'll make it.
This was something I had to do quite a bit in college. Most of the time the articles I wound up reading ended up being more of an opportunity to find good sources rather than anything useful on their own.
Footnotes or endnotes? You can tell if an author/editor loves you by which they opts for
Jayden Butler
End notes, copious amounts of them.
Brayden Gray
That'd be a pretty fun force to collect. I'd hate painting all that tartan though. Still, 60USD for the whole lot + all the stretch figs is pretty damn cheap for what you're getting. Dammit, I shouldn't have checked the pledge prices, lol.
Hate that shit. It's a pain in the ass flipping back and forth in the damn book. Copious notes are good, but I like them presented where I can refer to them in context.
Andrew Brooks
Painting a tartan might be a fun challenge. I don't get very many opportunities to try something like that. It's got me wondering about color combinations I could try too, pretty tempting.
Jack Richardson
I painted a kilt for my British 8th army recently. I decided to go with my family clan colors - Johnston. You can't really tell at 1/72 - just looks dark green from a distance.
Luke Sullivan
The Black Watch tartan would probably be a popular choice.
Juan Walker
Yeah, those both look pretty fun to paint, even if you could only really see the fine details up close. But I imagine the dark green and black tones would contrast nicely to some of the flesh and the belt colors.
Caleb Kelly
Who's your favourite historian? I'm about to start reading some Jeremy Black(european warfare in a global context). Anyone have some fresh hot opinions for me before I start?
Aaron Green
I really like that particular tartan. Not a fan of my family tartan (MacPhee).
I posted this last time we talked about tartan, still pertinent as it's a pretty good tutorial.
Jeremy's aight, but Ian Mortimer's pretty sweet too. Avoided lectures by both of them in favour of more Medieval modules when I was an undergraduate. Regret it now.
Daniel King
I'm more partial to the bright Tartans myself. Makes it pop a bit more against the usual greens/grays/khakis of the uniform.
Shit, know I'm seriously thinking about backing that KS.
Jaxson Reyes
I'm a Campbell, so this is my family Tartan. Pretty dope.
Sebastian Powell
I'm trying to work out a way to buy more figs that aren't ships or X-wing stuff and not get kicked out of my house. I'm not sure I can manage it right now, but dammed if I don't want to.
Joshua Edwards
I imagine a squad of highlanders wouldn't be nearly as bad as a ship in terms of size. Maybe yeah if you went and got the full platoon tier.
Ian Martinez
My neck broke.
Aaron Perry
If I were talking large scale models with lovely etched brass and cast metal gubbins, most definitely. My ships tend to be pretty cheap individually. Still, even at the highest level that's still a really good deal. I find myself wondering what sorts of armored cars and other light vehicles might have been attached to Highlanders regiments. Anybody able to shed some light on that?
Jason Powell
If they were a recon regiment (of which there were highlanders):
Bren Gun Carriers and light reconnaissance cars, such as the Humber Light Reconnaissance Car. The assault troops were composed of lorried infantry and were called up when enemy resistance needed to be overcome. Later in the war, more efficient and well-armed armoured cars such as the Humber Armoured Car, Daimler Armoured Car, Staghound and Greyhound augmented the light reconnaissance cars in scout troops
>and not get kicked out of my house. unless you can't make rent, or dont have space, whose business is it what you buy?
Colton Ortiz
Basically this. I really don't get people whose spouse or anything dictates what he can buy. Shit, it's my money, rest of my money goes into food and shit, why the fuck can't I spend my money on what I want. Yeah, sure that 30th pair of shoes has much more use than a third Sherman.
Henry Wood
do we have army lists for Ostfront?
Ian Myers
Mostly significant other, and "space vs how often does it get used". When you don't get out that often to actually push minis around a table, it's harder to justify purchasing more and taking up more space rather than working through your backlog. To be perfectly fair, she talks her self out of buying herself stuff for the same reasons, so it's not like one of us is exactly being deprived of shit we want while the other goes hogwild. I've tried to talk her into buying things before that I thought she would enjoy or look good in, and she tells me no, she doesn't need it.
Josiah Scott
So because she doesn't buy anything, neither should you.
Great. A life of loneliness, fleshlights and cheap whores look better and better by every moment.
Nolan Clark
Never said that the two of us don't buy things at all. It's more of a case of not going apeshit crazy and having 40lbs of unpainted metal or that 30th pair of shoes. We just like to enjoy the shit we actually have, rather than accumulating more and more stuff that just sits in boxes. You're misunderstanding the situation if you think it's something that's been forced on me.
Kayden Hall
You sure sound like a fun and reasonable individual
Ryder Clark
we dont seem to have the ostfront anything. Which lists were you looking for? The Quick-fire rules have simplified lists for US, German, Soviets and British and they're free
William Thomas
Speak for yourself mate.
Camden Garcia
We appreciate your "chosen" celibacy. it is probably better for everyone if you don't polute the genepool
Connor Bell
You seem to project an awfully lot based on a single comment.
Ryder Ward
What are the 15mm plastics from PSC like? Looking at grabbing a couple of boxes for platoon level stuff.
Samuel Cook
So, SLRs and Warrior AFVs together - how improbable would this be? From what I know the SA80 started to replace the L1A1 in 1985, but took around a decade to completely switch over to. The Warrior was put into service in 1988, but some were in testing in 1984, and in case of a "Cold War Gone Hot" scenario I guess it'd have been pushed into service earlier. Mostly asking this because getting Warriors instead of FV432s is much easier and I trust Revell's plastics more than random resins from Britannia that apparently suffers from quite a few bubbles.
Cameron Kelly
really? I thought my conclusions were pretty reasonable.
what was I projecting?
Matthew Hill
>"Cold War Gone Hot" scenario I guess it'd have been pushed into service earlier.
I never really understand this assertion because it's kinda the exact opposite of what's logical: continuing production of what already works and actually has production lines and spare parts available.
Also yes, Britannia's resin casting is dogshit tier. The amount of work they need to make them not crap is better spent just buying some more expensive die-cast stuff from wherever or tracking down model kits. You will quite easily spend more time filling holes and making stuff presentable than it would to just put together a 1:72/1:76 kit.
Lucas Martin
Well, the technology was there, they just fucked around for a while till it was pushed to the units. It used the same chassis as the FV432, so had all the spare parts available I guess, just with a turret. Since there wasn't really an actual war, I guess switching armor wasn't as urgent.
John Young
Going to my 3rd Blucher tournament next month.
Cannot wait for some dickhead who just masses Russian artillery wins the whole thing again.
Noah Long
Infantry is alright, not as good as battlefronts plastic infantry, but the newer stuff might be better. Vehicles are generally very good, although Id say that Battlefronts plastics are generally slightly better, but for a little extra cost. Zvezda 15s are also pretty good for the cost.
Josiah King
Just been giving "La Belle Epoque” a quick flick through, how well does the 'Memoir 44'esque with a hex board + 1/72 plastics work for wars such as the Franco-Prussian War and the Russo-Turkish War(s)?
Adam Gomez
>murray tartan >dont know which one >both rough patterns to paint
shite
Christopher Barnes
>playing games where this can happen
Jonathan Allen
Blucher looks pretty based as a system. Perhaps they just need some army list restrictions.
Hunter Reyes
> Gordon > Mostly just blue with green bits
not2bad
Jordan Bennett
This is not an argument thread or an insult thread
William Price
Lookin' fiiiine
Joshua Gutierrez
My Poilu are pretty much done too. Just gotta paint the detritus in on the bases and decide if I want to do a gloss coat on the mud or keep it flat. I like the walking wounded minis, but the star is the pigeon signaler - I named the pigeon speckled jim. The shot of the pigeon guy is extreme close up, so you'd probably never see it that close unless under a magnifying glass - you can see the paint cracking which I'm not sure why that happens. possibly cheap paints, possibly lack of priming.
Whats the correct name for a pigeon signaler guy anyway?
Gavin Sanchez
Just counter with British Light Calvary, it will be magnificent.
It technically kind of worked for Light Brigade
Lucas Richardson
Bases could use a drybrush, but they look neat.
Michael Price
Hey guys, listen, I need your help.
Do any of you have links to 1/48 Soviet artillery producers? I've scoured the internet, and the best I can find is a 1/48 UM M1939 AA gun, and a 1/35 ML-20 Howitzer. Everything else is 1/56 or higher, or lighter pieces like the ZiS 3 and M1897.
I'm building a early-war Soviet force for Bolt Action, and I want to make it strict late 1941. I'd REALLY like an A-19 gun.
Help me out brothers.
Lincoln Diaz
If you have 1:56 options, why not use that? Since that actually matches 28mm reasonably unlike 1:48 which is oversized.
Liam Brooks
Depends if it's just noting a reference or the note actually adds some information or is a comment on something. If it's the former dumping them at the end is great. If the author has additional information or comments I like them at the bottom of the page.
For writing I like the format used in most papers such as "blah blah blah (Hutton, 1785)
Grayson Roberts
Chicago/Turabian? I prefer it too, it was a hell of a lot more intuitive to use than MLA or APA.
Colton Ortiz
The 1:56 options are a D-1 gun from Bandai, but it only appears every so often in Ebay auctions, and a B-4 in resin, but I forgot where I saw that.
The reason I was looking for 1:48 for the A-19 is more for the fact that I want it a little bulkier. In real life pictures of men near to it shows it size, while 1:56 scale for artillery isn't 'quite' big enough if you know what I mean. A good example of this is the ZiS-3 from Warlord, that, since I've examined one in real life, is too slim and a little short.
Thomas Harris
Every bonus or negative in the game adds or removes points from unit cost except, for a reason no one is quite sure, Russian artillery who get a pretty significant bonus and cost the same as everyone elses. I suppose it's also true of the Spanish, who are worse but cost the same, not that anyone uses them anyway.
I've still always had fun at the tournaments, most people make historically reasonable lists, but a Russian has always topped the table and I don't think it's a fluke that the army performing best is the one with a free upgrade so to speak.
Gavin Morris
What said.
Also, if you need more tanks, Laser Cut Card can do some in 1:72 for pretty cheaply.
Also, I'm really liking the look of figures based together for some reason. I have my WW1 and WW2 figures based together, but they have a strange appeal to me.
Jordan Nelson
I've been buying and reading old wargaming books lately. I know there's a PDF, and I'd read it, but it never really sank in for me how much of a goddamn mess Featherstone's Complete Wargaming is. I mean, damn, dude. Editing. Sidebars discuss topics seemingly at random, and even though it's clearly a book with bits and pieces taken from elsewhere there's no excuse to then mix them up quite so badly. Still a neat read.
His older Wargames is a damn good book, though. The Close Wars appendix is a nice little set of simple skirmish rules that I'll have to break out some time.
Brig. Young's Charge! is an interesting old set of Horse & Musket rules, a lot like Grant's The War Game (which has been scanned and posted in this thread). It's entertainingly written, perhaps more so than The War Game, although the rules are understandably pretty damn similar. I'd give the edge to Grant for explaining his reasoning for various things, but I am looking forward to getting hold of some of the later editions and other material he's written.
I picked up Grant's Programmed Wargames Scenarios, too. It's... interesting. There are a bunch of scenarios. You pick one, pick a map (assuming a 6x4 table, there are three choices for each 2x4 section, so you can randomise it), pick from a selection of force lists for each side, and either Just Play or turn to the programmed section. You can run either or both sides this way - it gives you battle plans, and deployment/formation lines based on the map. Haven't had a chance to play any yet.
