Sunday, April 27, 2025

28mm projects: Arab Legion for the Battle of Habbaniah and Operation Exporter 1941

After a long break in the 28mm scale, I now had the opportunity to paint a few figures for it again.
At the end of last year, Max and I decided to start a joint project for a participation game that we wanted to present at various cons.

For the setting, we decided on an excerpt from ‘Operation Exporter’, more precisely the battle around Palmyra.
For the rules, we decided on ‘What A Cowboy’, which we are still adapting to our chosen setting.

While Max painted the Frenchmen of the French Light Desert Company, I took on the part of the Arab Legion.

And here is the completed squad of the Arab Legion - maybe the foundation for a complete platoon, such as for Chain of Command?
For WaC the figures represent 1 Lieutenant (Gunslinger), 1 Sergeant (Shootist), 2 Corporals (Greenhorn), 2 groups of normal soldiers (Henchmen) and 1 special group of soldiers (also Henchmen) equipped with a Lewis LMG.

The Lewis LMG team initially consists of irregular Arabs from Artizan Miniatures, the rest is from Woodbine from their WW1 range.


The complete squad - a start for more maybe?

The leader of the pack - maybe Glubb Pasha himself?


My squad leader.


One of my Lance-Corporals.


And my 2nd Lance-Corporal - he will lead my 2nd squad (still to do)


Special Soldiers Group - Irregular Arabs acting as my Lewis LMG team for now.







A group of Soldiers.







And another group of Soldiers completes the Rifleteam.









Thursday, April 17, 2025

15mm Swedes for the late TYW and the Deluge: Swedish National Infantry

First infantry unit for my Swedes is finished - a unit of Swedish National Infantry, which I will shamelessly use as Dragooned Musketeers for my Swedish Field Skirmish Force too 😀

With this unit my basic Skirmish Force is complete and from now on I will add a Light Cannon Battery and more Reiter, a Major and Dragoons to complete my Garrison Skirmish Force too and to add variety to both.

Models are all Totentanz Miniatures, just did a Quick & Dirty paint job with only base colour, one shade, base colour again and one highlight.


The complete unit of Pike & Shot infantry.

In formation "Melee Weapons Upfront"


At the same time, each row of this BFaS unit is a unit itself for "Twilight of Divine Right", so all in all 3 units done for these rules:











Saturday, April 12, 2025

Home grown scenario for Chain ov Command: Scenario Eight - Armoured Reconnaissance

Over the last few months, Max and I have also been using our CoC games to create our own scenario and improve/adapt it over time.

It is ultimately a mix of ingredients from different systems - for example, elements from the ‘Battle for the Tower’ scenario from Warmaster, the Reconnaissance Phase from Battlegroup, etc.
And we also wanted to integrate a kind of ‘ticking clock’ that forces one side to keep an eye on the time.

So here it is, comments and as usual remarks are always welcome of course, feel free to comment down below!

To access the PDF just click at the image above.


Thursday, April 10, 2025

Big Chain of Command AAR: The Fight for Pozillo

Last Saturday, Daniel, Max and I met up again for our monthly CoC game, so we had another Big Chain of Command, which we also used as the final test for our self-designed scenario: Reconnaissance-in-force.

I'll post the scenario on the blog in the next few days, but here are a few key points:
- both sides roll 1D3+6 each for Force Support
- side with the lower number counts as Active Player
- Active player gets 1D3 free moves in the following Patrol Phase
- there is a Reconnaissance Phase where only Reconnaissance unit can act, the duration will be diced for
- both sides try to secure an Objective and at the end of each Turn the Force Morale of the side that doesn't control the Objective drops by -1 (so a ticking clock in the end)

The vanguards of an American and an Italian battle group clashed at Pozillo and both sides tried to secure the small village as a base for further operations, resulting in a fierce battle in which more and more troops became involved.

The scouts on both sides explored the terrain and occupied strategic points that seemed favourable to them, from which the advancing platoons of the two battle groups were to join the battle.

However, the Italians were caught on the wrong foot by the aggressively advancing Americans, who advanced into the village with vigour, denying the Italians even the strong position of the small chappel of Pozillo and thus also the opportunity to bring their platoons into the battle in a concentrated manner.

The battlefield with Pozillo dominating the area.

Pozillo itself looked on from the chappel.

A Scout Jeep accompanied by a M5 Stuart and later joined by a Halftrack-mounted Armoured squad are pushing forward to secure Pozillo.

While the Italians deployed a squad of Solothurn AT rifles into a field to deny the road leading from Pozillo (both AT rifles never fired a single shot though) and advancing cautiously with an AB41.
But the Stuart immediately stopped their advance with some well placed shots!

In the meantime my Armoured squad had dismounted, sneaks forward and occupies some houses to set up a defensive position.

A few shots later the AB41 is out of business.

The Italians deploy their Cannone da 65/17 and try to stop the M5 but to no avail - they later join the Fucilieri to fire at the lone US Armoured squad in Pozillo.

A full squad of Fucilieri deployed in the Olive groove and they soon break the US squad in Pozillo, but the US Armoured will deploy more squads and they can be never challenged to give up Pozillo in the and.

More Italians move up in support on the left of their comrades.

But meanwhile 2 squads of US Parachute Infantry can open up fire on the Italian Fucilieri ...

... joined by my Armoured LMG squad in Pozillo and the 60mm mortar behind the village.

The result: Cannone da 65/17 destroyed and nearly the complete squad of Fucilieri out of action including some leaders. So the Force Morale of this platoons dropped to Zero and they decide to leave the bttlefield to fight another day and with them the Bersaglieri have to withdraw too.



It was another exciting game in which Daniel's perfectly played patrol phase was ultimately the deciding factor:
The Americans controlled the village from the start, but at the same time had denied the Italians the chappel as a jumping-off point for many phases and were able to pin the Italians in their cover.

In addition, Max and his Italians had relied for too long on being able to drive the US Armoured out of the village simply by firing on with one of his Fucilieri squads, albeit very devastatingly, supported by the Cannone da 65/17.

Tuesday, March 25, 2025

By Fire and Sword: Two training battles with my Swedes

Last Saturday, Max and I met up for a few games of ‘By Fire and Sword’.

In the first game, my Swedes faced his Imperials and then Max's Ottomans; both games ended in a crushing defeat for me.
Nevertheless, we had a lot of fun as usual, the rules are quick to play and easy to get the hang of and we'll definitely be sticking with it.

We will gradually expand our armies now so that after the ‘Skirmish Level’ we can also tackle the ‘Task Force Level’ of BFaS, but that will take a while until we have painted enough units for that.

Some pictures of our games: