More work  on the mountain of lead and plastic that takes up a substantial component of my garage cupboards.

This time the culprit is a “bring and buy” 28mm WW2 Finnish army. The figures are  largely Battle Honours with a few Warlords Bolt Actions Finns to round out the numbers. The Battle Honours figures have excellent detail and are great to paint. The Warlords figures are less detailed and their Bofors Anti-tank gun was a pain to put together, requiring substantial pinning.

I have designed the army around a Chain of Command Finnish Platoon with various support elements for no other reason than it provided me an OOB that used up all of the figures. I could have equally used Bolt Action or FUBAR systems with the later game system the most likely to actually be used.

The basic platoon consists of a Vanrikki (Senior Sergeant) armed with a pistol and a Kersantti (Sergeant) armed with a Sub Machine Gun.

Vanrikki

Kersantti

The first and fourth sections consist of an Alikersantti (Corporal or Junior Leader) with a rifle, a four man rifle team, and a SMG team with one man with SMG and four men with rifles.

The second and third sections consist of an Alikersantti (Corporal or Junior Leader) with a rifle, a LMG team with a Lahti- Saloranta LMG with two crewmen, and one rifleman, and a second team with three riflemen.

First Section Photos:

Complete First Section

Alikersantti

Rifle Squad with Sub machine gun

Rifle Squad

Second Section Photos:

Alikersantti

Molotov Cocktail

Lahti- Saloranta LMG

LMG Team

Rifle Team

Complete Second Section

Third Section Photos:

Alikersantti

Lahti- Saloranta LMG Team

Rifle Team

Complete Third Section

Fourth Section Photos:

Alikersantti

Rifle Squad with Sub Machine Gun

Rifle Squad

Complete Fourth Section

The platoon supports consisted of:

A total of six (6) SMG  and two (2) Molotov Cocktail upgrades.

Three Maxim M32/33 Medium Machine Gun with a crew of five

I have just three figures per base but have provided a “Mini Bits” dice and frame to keep record of losses.

Two sniper teams with just a single figure each.

A forward observer with an off-table 81mm mortar.

A T-26-E Vickers 45mm tank.

A light mortar.

A flame thrower.

A panzerschreck team

An anti-tank rifle team

A 37mm PtsK/36 Bofors  anti-tank gun.

An additional Junior Leader

A Senior Leader and a Ranking Senior Leader

A radio operator.

Six additional Lahti- Saloranta LMG Light Machine Guns

Ten Sissi Ski Troopers

I had six ski troopers but wanted a squad of ten including a LMG. The photos above showed the Sissi fighting minus their skis and as I had plenty of spare figures I decide to show some on skis and some fighting without them. I also had a ski mounted machine gun that would be ideal for the squads LMG.

With a couple of left over Machine Guns I just created some senic bases that can do as objectives if required.

18 Casualty Markers

I have had these figures fo over ten years and have no idea what manufacturer they are. I think they are a WW1 German caualty figures but am not sure. I much prefer to use proper caualty markers than dice and bits of paper as the table looks much better.

The dice and dice frames are from “Minibits”. Different coloured dice can be used to denote caualities, shock, morale etc.

I was recently asked how I was going to paint my 28mm Apaches. Well here is the low down:

Step 1:

After removing any excess flashing mount on a 28mmm round base and lightly undercoat with Tamiya TS3 spray.

Step 2:

Paint the flesh areas liberally with Citadel “Bugman’s Glow”

Step 3:

Splash Citadel “Agrax Earthshade” over the flesh colour. This is best done last thing at night so it is completely dry next time you take up the paint brush.

Step 4:

Paint the eyes, teeth and hair.

Step 5:

Paint the hat/headgear.

Step 6:

Paint all of the clothing, boots, and weapons. I have used the red to provide a bright unifying colour.

Step 7:

Wash the whole figure with a liberal coat of “Agrax Earthshade”.

Step 8:

Highlight with a dry brushing of white and paint the base edge with “Rhinox hide” dark brown.

Step 9:

Suitably flock the base and it is finished.

Friday night gaming at my place, and after a pretty tough week I wanted something that was easy to set up, quick to play, and something which copious quantities of alcohol would improve my skill  (happy to pass on the skill not the quantity).

I planned to get out the old dinosaurs and “refight” a “Villers Bretonneux” scenario with German A7’s and British Mk VI male tanks. A toy T-Rex was supplied for Steve to run around the table yelling munch munch munch.

I opted for “What a Tanker” WW1 that meant all I had to do was roll out the mat, randomly scatter a few shell holes around and if I really wanted to throw out some trench lines for interest and cover.

I found a simple set of What A Tanker modifications for WW1 on the WWW– thanks guys.

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=489953

Rules modifications

• All tanks are always buttoned up;
• If you Roll a 6 during activation this is rolled again – if you roll 1-5 treat as the base rule, if a 6 is rolled the tank breaks down (can’t move and takes a temp. hit . It takes another 6 to repair;
• Tanks have limited sighting based on designs. AV7 Have Copula so spot as if unbuttoned;
• Movement a maximum of 2 activation die;
• It takes a full movement activation die to pivot 90 degrees;
• If a tank moves onto a terrain piece – Roll a d6.

British Tank

1-4 fine,

5 stop movement you are bogged, takes a

6 to clear. 6 Breakdown (can’t move and takes a temp. hit .

It takes another 6 to repair.

If a German AV7

1-3 fine,

4 stop movement you are bogged, takes a 6 to clear.

5 Breakdown ( can’t move and takes a temp. hit . It takes another 6 to repair.

6 tank flips and is destroyed.

• British Male tanks (with 6 pounder guns) reload is for both sides, but each fires separately.

The game began with the dance of the elephants as the lumbering giants tried to out maneuver each other with little success. The first shot of the game was by newbie, Mark  M that destroyed the AT7 of David S with three unsaved hits.

The A7 doesn’t survive first contact.

Much was expected of the German Tank Ace Blake M – could he live up to these expectations?

A Third A7 joins the fight to replace the damaged vehicle.

British tanks were being peppered by German shells, but their armour seemed invincible. British tanker Steve N seemed half asleep as his initiative was extremely slow going last turn after turn.

Trying to show off his expert driving skills Blake M drove into a crater and promptly overturned his vehicle causing it to explode. Unfortunately for the Germans he survived and took over another tank.

Finally after several turns of trying to finish off the crippled British tank of Mark M the German tank of David S tasted success.

Trying to execute some fancy flanking maneuvers Blake’s driving skills were again evident. Yep – flipped it again much to everyone’s merriment.

A great evening that had us all in fits of laughter.

Comments abounded that the British should save their ammunition and just wait for Blake to crash…………AGAIN.

For the competitive minded the results were Germans 1, British 1, and Blake 2!!!!

A clear victory to BLAKE.

John, it was good to see you have a successor in the making!

Steve N was the only player still in the same tank he started with.

Well, I am still working through (and probably will be until the end of time) a whole lot of projects that have been on the drawing board for far too long.

This week I have completed my Victorian boys in blue that can be used for Australian Colonial, Sea Lion, and a Very British Civil War.

The Eureka figures are reasonably plain, have some static poses, and only have battens and no other weapons. The horses are “chunky” and have all painted up well:

Mounted Police

Dismounted Police

I have also added two new shotgun figures and a pistol armed leader figure to my Dead Man’s Hand Pinkerton posse:

Pinkerton Posse Leader

Two shotgun armed Pinkerton’s

The whole Pinkerton posse

Two more Zygons to add to my Dr Who Game:

Zygons.

Finally a re-based WW1 tank from Adrew G’s collection.

In Australia we know about the American Plains Indian wars and the mighty native warriors such as Cochise and Sitting Bull but know very little, if anything, about our own Frontier Wars and mighty native warriors.

One such warrior was Dundalli, who was an Aboriginal warrior so large and so powerful, “news crews” of the 1850s came from Sydney to Brisbane to witness his trial and hanging.

Born around 1820, Dundalli was an aboriginal Dalla man – from the Blackall Ranges north of the Glasshouse Mountains. By 1842 he became the key man in Aboriginal politics and the man chosen to lead the struggle against the Europeans.

As Dundalli grew to become an adult, it became his early role to try to negotiate with the Europeans, to hold them back and to strike at their homesteads to strike fear into the homes.

“Around about Marburg they sent warnings. They said from now on we are going to attack your horses, we are going to attack your oxen, we are going to steal from drays and that sort of thing,” he said.

They had tried to confine Europeans to the river’s edges and burned their crops as they pushed further north, west and south.

“And at times, they would kill individual Europeans who were vulnerable.”

“They would evict Europeans from the coastal plains. And often one of the parting messages was ‘You are not coming in this direction. You go in the other direction’.”

From 1841 and into early 1842 settlers pushed out into the Brisbane Valley, but it was when up to 60 Aboriginal people were poisoned at the MacKenzie’s station near Kilcoy that relations changed.

In the absence of the Squatters, who owned and ran the Kilcoy property, staff panicked and poisoned food to ward off the Aboriginals.

Between 1842 and 1843, “the bora” – the collective council of the aboriginal people – met twice to decide their strategy against the Europeans.

Dundalli slowly became the warrior for these people. By 1843 his role had changed. For the first time he is involved in an attack at the Durundur Station out near Woodford, and the warrior of Southeast Queensland’s Aboriginal people takes on the role of aggressor.

A legend grew up around Dundalli as he evaded capture over a fourteen-year period and the Whites sought to connect him with almost every act of violence committed on the northern side of the Brisbane River. The indigenous community was divided between those who supported and attempted to protect him and the traditional enemies of the Djindubari, who feared him and were prepared to inform the police of his whereabouts. One reason for his mystique was his size. His trial judge later wrote that Dundalli ‘was the largest man I ever looked upon’, well over six feet tall.

Captured at Fortitude Valley in May 1853, next year, Dundalli was tried at the Brisbane Circuit Court in November. In his Reminiscences (London, 1863), Judge Therry described how the prisoner brazenly attempted to bribe him, for sixpence, and on another occasion offered to row the judge to Sydney if he would release him.

Dundalli faced five counts of murder but was ultimately led out in chains – “with every town constable on duty because of his size and strength” – to face two charges of murder.

Dundalli was sentenced to death for the murders of Andrew Gregor and William Boller. The gallows were erected on the Queen Street footpath in front of Brisbane Gaol.

References:

http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/dundalli-12895

Forgotten War. By Henry Reynolds

“Warrior” by Libby Connor

The scenario for our game on 17 October 2018 is an apocryphal attempted rescue while Dundalli was being transferred to Brisbane for trial. Having rested overnight at a small hamlet the police escort decided to push on without their mounted escort because there had been no evidence of any trouble………..

The recent capture of Dundalli had incited outrage, and there were hot heads in the tribes demanding his release, by force if necessary. Word was that Dundalli was in the vicinity and warriors gathered to attempt a rescue.

Dundalli

Natives confront the police escort.

The driver of the prison wagon was speared through the chest and the wagon came to a halt.

With boomerangs and spears flying everywhere the police tried to gain control of the wagon and some composure, but not before another officer was taken out by a boomerang.

The police decided to retreat with the wagon in the hope of joining up with their mounted compatriots while the majority attempted to fight off the natives.

With men falling on both sides the prisoner was in danger of being freed.

Dundalli grabs a troopers weapon.

With the escort now almost wiped out, and the native morale also all but evaporated, Dundalli was freed, but in an unlikely turn of events the natives speed off in the wagon, which needed to stay on the road, and could only move as fast as them anyway!! Speeding off at snails pace the natives headed for the bush with the wagon.

Finally the mounted police arrive.

A short sharp engagement that caused the loss of a trooper followed.

The couds hang low as a trooper goes down.

Revenge is swift.

The mounted charge broke the native morale and caused the recapture of Dundalli. With the status quo restored Dundalli was escorted to Brisbane to face trial.

Although played some time ago this battle report from Andrew W is worth the wait.

The Battle of Agincourt took place on Saint Crispin’s Day 25 October 1415 at Agincourt against a numerically superior French army. After several reverses and huge loses due to disease Henry rtetreated to Calais, but as they tried to withdraw they found their path blocked by a larger French army.

Henry V not only led the army into battle but fought in the front line. Constable Charles d’Albret led the French.

The battle has long thought to have been a portent of things to come with the demise of mounted nobility at the hands of competent long range missile fire. Along with Crecy and Poitiers it formed a triumvirate of 100 years War English victories.

The battle is also the centrepiece of the play Henry V by William Shakespeare.

The play includes two famous quotes “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more”, and Henry’s Saint Crispin’s Day Speech made popular in recent years “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers”.

Armed mostly with longbows, the English win an overwhelming victory. The French suffer 10,000 casualties; the English, fewer than 30.

Using Big DBA rules the battle commences.

The French had the English forces cut off. They could have waited and forced the English to attack. But the Knights became impatient and attacked on foot.

Special rules for this game:

• The dismounted French knights (Bd) will be impetuous. It will take 2 command pips to halt a group and 1 to halt an individual stand.
• After 6 turns a die will be thrown each turn to see if the open ground 6 MUs in front of and behind the stakes becomes Rough. It becomes Rough on a 6 first time, on a 6 and 5 second time and so on until it must be Rough by turn 12.
• Dismounted knights get a -1 in Close Combat in the Rough and -1 MU on movement in the Rough. But not -1 in Shooting.
• Dismounted knights are not allowed to do Group Moves in the Rough.
• The English have stakes. They are not moveable. Foot can pass through them backwards and forwards without restriction. The stakes gave +1 to combat for troops behind them.
• Dismounted knights can interpenetrate friendly Bowmen and vice versa.
• Range for Bowmen is 4 MUs.
• English Bowmen fight in Close Combat as Auxillia against Foot.
• Shooting support. Second rank Bowmen can support front rank Bowmen. Maximum supports is 2.
• The French army loses if it has lost half of its Dismounted knights or a third of the army.
• The English army loses if it has lost a third of the army.
• Generals count as 2. Henry V counts as 3.

The battle begins:

These pictures show the starting positions of both sides. The French are already on their way in and the English are behind their stakes. The game was started at this stage to simulate the impetuous French knights rushing into battle.

 The French are moving in. In the background they are bring up their cavalry and archers to give support.

The first French casualty on the dismounted knights is inflicted by the longbows.

The French knights move in attacking the English knights and longbows behind the stakes. The ground has turned to mud (Rough in DBA terms).

The fighting surges back and forwards across the line of stakes.

The supporting French arches have killed some of the Long bowmen. The Longbows on the left have killed some of the French cavalry.

Long bowmen have recoiled the French knights on the left flank.

French knights push the English back beyond the stakes. Casualties on both sides.

The fighting continues surging back and forward in the centre.

The French supporting arches have recoiled the English Longbows of both flanks. The longbows are taking a toll on the cavalry supporting the French arches.

The final round of fighting takes place resulting in the loss of another French knight thus breaking the French army. The French lost 9 knights (BD) and 3 cavalry. The English lost 5 Long bowmen and 1 knight.

Shows the final positions from the French side.

The simulation worked well in as much as the knights rushed in before an organised attack could be arranged.

But the English Long bowmen did not rush in from the front and sides to clean up the French as is thought to have happened.

The scenario might be improved by not giving troops behind the stakes +1 against Foot.

We feel it worked fairly well and will be worth trying again with this modifications

A footnote by David S:

During travels in France sometime in the 90’s (I think – not sure which visit to France now) I took these photos of the battlefield (I will still getting used to a new camera so some are a bit fuzzy or maybe it was the Calvados):

Hardboard “flats” line the road into the town – already there is a gap in the line but the darn thing wouldn’t fit in the car.

On the other side of the road – you guessed it!

The entry to the museum.

The battlefield memorial.

The battlefield on the day of our visit – this was taken from a moving car.

The Queensland Frontier War was a time in Australian history that we should not be proud of.

In fact early Queensland Frontier War historians confirm the widespread existence of Aboriginal resistance but concede this evidenced only a thinly-disguised genocide. In fact Robert Orsted-Jensen’s very thorough analysis of the Indigenous losses in Queensland crystallized this understanding – placing Indigenous casualties above 65,000.

The historical setting for the scenario

There was a great meeting of native tribes, 14 or 15 in number, in the vicinity of the great Bunya Scrub (Baroon Pocket near Maleny)…. These tribes vowed vengeance and said they had already had some but were not yet satisfied. The blacks at the Toor (gathering ring) were much infuriated.

Settlers had no illusions about the main motive: their foes were asserting land ownership. They note raiders had: ‘an unforgiving resentment towards the intruders into their native wilds’[1] and were unwilling to share ‘use of the soil’.[2]

However, finer military objectives were not recorded. We have only fragmentary glimpses, but they allow some perspective. Firstly, in 1844 the Moreton Bay correspondent to the Sydney Morning Herald told the paper that ‘from their manners, and the partial conversation they (Aboriginals) have had’ with settlers, it was understood the raiders were ‘determined to annihilate if possible the whole of the stock in the district’ (italics mine).[3]

Tribal alliances with broader agendas? by Ray Kerkhove

https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=931199815359739;res=IELHSS

We have had a few games representing the Australian Frontier Wars but have not found a set of rules that give a good balance so this time I have decided to try “Dead Man’s Hand” to see how they work.

I have devised my own gang list which we will use to see if I have the balance and flavour right. The Faction details are below:

Fire sticks were in-effect “flaming spears” that were used to attack buildings and people alike (see Kerkhove).

Kerkhove indicated that one of the primary objectives for native tribes was to destroy crops and kill stock. As a result the native attackers receive one VP for each sheep killed. The squatters receive one VP for every attacker casualty.

The attackers consisted of two 20 reputation point tribes and the squatters with two 12 reputation point groups, one situated in the shearing shed and the other in and around the homesterad and barn complex. The tribes attacked from both the north and south of the homestead in a coordinated manner.

The squatter run at Durundur Station out near Woodford was becoming quite established but with still much bush to be cleared for stock grazing:

The Eureka shearing shed, shearers, sheep, and wool bales were all new for this game. Additional sheep from Warlord Games and Pegasus filled out the flock.

All of the sheep have lost their way baa baa baa!

Eureka Miniatures Hay Bales

More lost sheep blah blah blah

Eureka Shearers

Shearers in action

More shearers in action

Dixon miniatures painted as armed duplicates for the shearers

Don’t mess with the woman of the house – painted for this scenario.

Two attackers were killed in hand to hand by this “lady’s” butt – rifle that is (see below)!!

Attacking from the northern forest.

Attacking from the southern forest.

Protecting the sheep.

Deployed in the barn.

Sheep being killed by the attackers.

The farmhouse is on fire from the flaming spears of the attackers.

Beside the chimney the Chief of the northern tribe is about to be put out of action in hand to hand.

The attackers have reached the sheep pens.

How dare you burn my house down – we breed em’ tough down under!

Don’t you dare attack me straight after someone else has – another one bites the dust.

The last attacker flees. With 15 attacker casualties and another 4 fleeing for the loss of only 2 sheep and no squatters. the game was a decisive squatter victory.

The settlers rolled phenomenal dice (including four 20’s on a D20 in a row which played a huge part in the victory score. We would like to play the scenario again to see if this was indeed an outrider.

[1] Bell’s Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer 5 December 1857, p. 2.

[2] Moreton Bay’, Sydney Morning Herald, 27 December 1848, p 3.

[3] ‘Moreton Bay’, Sydney Morning Herald, 10 September 1844, p.4.