Partizan - Hard Road to Vukovar

My own, very humble, showing at Partizan was of course my Yugoslavian Civil War game.  The personal life* got in the way of organising this game as well I had hoped and the net result was not quite what I had originally envisaged, but in the circumstances it was good enough.

Firstly the table ended up rather larger than expected:

Now I didn't have a problem with this, per-se.  The organisers had given us a generous allocation of space in an airy room towards the far end on the show.  But it was not the busiest of spots.  The game stretched from a 6 x 4 layout I intended to closer to 9 x 5!  However we also had space for poperwork, background books and the like.

The plan was to represent one of the many probing attacks of the Serbs around Vukovar in late summer 1991.  To that end there needed to be a lightly defended village as the centrepiece of the battlefield:

This had involved rebasing and refreshing a couple of my generic buildings only days before.  For the record, these two are both from the Dapol model railway range, and are both perfectly suitable for the region, used sparingly that is!

The base for the battlefield is clearly the ubiquitous 'faux fur':

I had the club remit to make this look passable, which given it was a vivid GREEN!! was a challenge; not one yet fully mastered I think.  After having a tentative go at it with hair clippers I took it out and oversprayed it four times, with a mixed of light green and sand yellow spray paints.  The effect is far better than the raw cloth - visible along the fringes - but still a long way from natural.

As to the actual game, after staring at the table for a little while and answering a few questions from traders, myself and Mark set to with a very vocal playing of the game, only stopping to chat to punters as required, for a couple of hours anyway!  The Serbs were ordered to exit the opposite side of the battlefield, inflicting whatever damage they could on the way, but with a priority to move armour off the table.  Clearly for the Croats the reverse was the case.

The Croats allowed the Serbs to advance freely for several turns (frankly it reduced the battlefield to the intended dimensions by permitting this), before stopping their lead tank with an RPG round that disabled its' main gun and caused an ammunition fire in the turret.

The Serbs began to deploy infantry to cover the armoured advance, whilst the piecemeal defence of the village was supported by a handful of reservist militia.  ONe of the Serbian M84's cleared the tree line and pushed back a resilient unit of Croatian National Guard from the Villa on the road.  They had to leave their Transit van behind!

To the Croatian aid however, came a Hidroelektra armoured personnel carrier with more National Guard - with the even more deadly Armbrust anti-tank rockets.  Which was just as well, as the ZNG M18 Hellcat had been destroyed in an ill advised exchange of fire at range with a T55 tank.

At this stage things looked bad for the Croats, but the battle was about to turn.  The Second M84 tried to cut through the tree line, and hit a mine, shuddering to a halt.  Croat Guards took the opportunity to pick off the immobile vehicle with an Armbrust.  The Serbian M60 APC was also destroyed in a similar fashion.  Serbian regular infantry left their truck on the road to support the tanks but were caught in a crossfire, whilst the remaining M84 over extended itself and was also caught by RPG fire and lost it's main gun too.

Latterly the first T55 hit, remobilised by the surviving crew as an armoured machine gun platform, was hit again and this time spectacularly destroyed.  Marks attack was down to one last tank and it looked likely the infantry would be mostly walking home too.

We called it a day there and left it as a display for the rest of the, now rather quiet, afternoon.  We'd certainly managed to talk to a lot of people during the day, and three themes seemed to arise frequently:

• Is that a real vehicle (the Hidroelektra)?  Yes it is, here's one of the same series:

• Did they really have M18's?  They certainly did, here's one at the Homeland War Museum in Turanj:

Yes, there is a M36b2 next to it.  A lot of people aren't aware the Americans supplied the Yugoslavs with military equipment in the 1950's.

• How do you find the Rules; I've heard they are confusing?  Well, there is certainly a truth to that criticism, but once you've played a few games and decided what bits you want to use and what bits you want to ignore or adapt (as should be the case in any set of rules) they work fine.

So overall a successful day, nice to catch up with a couple of people too over the day.  But that's my display game antics over until Recon in December.  Thank goodness!

* I guess when it comes to choice between Wargames and Women, Wargames lose out....

Partizan Preamble

Want to find out who's responsible for the drivel in this blog?  Want to see yet another slightly laclustre display game, hastily thrown together with a distinct lack of professionalism?  Want a chance to buy more toy soldiers you don't really need, and have to hide from the wife on your return home?

Well, Too Much Lead will be at Partizan this weekend!  I'm displaying for the Leeds Nightowls, with a game of Force on Force for the Yugoslav Civl War:

It's been some fifteen years since I last went to Partizan, and that too was for a display game, that got my one and only magazine shoot for Wargames Illustrated (an AK47 game , with Dock, Airport and Railway staition).  So despite the long journey and the inevitable stress of running a game, I'm looking forward to it.

If you are there, I'll be the one running the game, NOT in a Nightowls t-shirt, so feel free to say hello!

Parade - Part II: Serbia and Infantry

Here we go with part two of the collection, the notionally Serbian equipment.

As you'll gather from the group shot above, the Serbs have a better selection of heavy equipment.  Details follow below:

At the back are a pair of M84's, the improved Yugoslavian version of the T72.  These are conversions of the old(ish) Revell T80 kit, with considerable modification of the turret in particular.  Next to those are a pair of PST Models' T55a's.  In the middle are my scratch built M60p armoured carrier and a Fujimi M36 Jackson.  Yugoslavia was supplied with many of these in the 1950's, though more properly it should be the B2 variant with a light armoured cover for the turret.  The front row here is formed of two Omega -K BTR152's and a Zil 157 truck.

Here of note are another Russian model heavy truck - front and left, but in this case I cannot recall the manufacturer.  Next to it is a Skytrex, metal, BRDM-2; behind that is a Liberation Models jeep,with recoilless rifle and a ZSU23-2 AA gun.  To their left is an Ace Models BMP1; an ill-named company, as the model itself is an absolute dog!

Lastly for the models There is a Majorette Camper van and a Swat team van from Matchbox in the guise of the Serbian Police.  Behind them is a one-ton Landrover, now sold by Airfix, which does a good impression of the Pinzgauer that the Yugoslavs license built.  Alongside that is a converted Renault fire truck, produced over twenty years ago by Heller, now almost certainly not available.  Then at the back is my Ace Models SAM2 and an Omega-K  BTR152K command vehicle.

I have hundreds of infantry models, and most of them are 20mm plastics, mainly from ESCI/Italieri, Orion, Airfix and Matchbox, there are a handful of metal models, which are repaints of things I'd had kicking around from way back too; these are mainly old Platoon20 miniatures.

Above are some of my Croat Tiger Battalion, paint and slight physical conversions of Matchbox Royal Marines; a classic set.  The Tiger battalion was well provided with foreign equipment, and whilst this set of figures may not be perfect matches, they are close enough, and have the advantage of having Berets!

Here is a Serbian militia mortar operated by an Orion Modern Russians crew.  The mortar itself is a rather simple Matchbox model.

More of the Orion Russians above in the role of Croatian Regulars.  Note the archetypal Croatian army camouflage modelled I believe on German equipment of the period.

Parade - Part I: Croatia and Bosnia

After a short game of Force on Force, as covered last week, I was able to get the models onto a table for a little proper photography.  Nothing fancy, but an opportunity to show what I have to you all out there.  In fact there is easily enough to justifiably spread over two features, so for the first one I'll present the slightly less bad guys - The Croatian and Bosnian coalition armour:

Now it goes without saying, it's a real mixed batch, both of historical (and sometimes slightly spurious) equipment and model manufacturers; but as people will ask, I'll do my best to identify things in the close ups below.

So top left is a Matchbox delivery van/light truck with a converted rear (IIRC the original had a garish soft drinks payload); next to that is a UM models Su76m in ZNG militia colours.  Centre rear is a tatty old Airfix T34-85, not a great model, with added armour with Bosnian colours.  Beside that is a Resin M18 Hellcat of unknown provenance, with one of my two Croatian T55's to it's right.  These are I believe Red Star models, in resin and with converted armour.

On the next row you can just see a Majorette tractor with a scratch built Patroller next to it, based on an old GMC duece and a half chassis.  An Ace Models BTR60p is next and then another scratch built Croat armoured lorry.

Here we can see the T55's again, along with an ESCI/Italieri Opel Blitz.  To the right of that is a ZPU 14.5mm AA gun from Liberation Miniatures and in the Centre is another Russian kit of an SU100, again with converted side skirts.  The silver Mercedes is I think Majorette.

Here, the bulldozer came from a supermarket toy set, the tractor is Majorette again (a good source in general - anything from 1:60 to 1:80 scale looks acceptable in 20mm).  The transit lorry was a charity shop find and the white truck is another multipack child's toy.

Lastly here, the pair of soviet 6x4 trucks (Zil 157's?) are by a company called Omega-K and I don't know, as for many of these items, if they are still available.  The Green Armija truck is another treatment of the first white lorry in the background.  You can also just see another Majorette 4x4 on the edge of frame.

So as you can see, you have to search far and wide, and be inventive to get a good sized force together.  Next time the slightly more bad guys; Serbia.

Rakovica - 4 August 1995

Thoughts of anniversaries aside (this weekend marks 20 years since the beginning of the Bosnian War and the Siege of Sarajevo), I had another practice game with the Force on Force rules the other week.  Blessed with very little sleep and nursing a soft head, I'd had no time to prepare a scenario, so I came up with something for me an Rich to play in a hurry on the morning.  I set up terrain with not real idea what to do, but in an effort to create a plausible field of battle:

Thus began the rummaging in the boxes for troops, and my eye was drawn to a model I'd never had justification to use before.

My S-75-Dvina model, or an SA-2 to those of you who'd rather have a NATO designation.  Placing this on the table made a plan spring to mind, a Croatian mixed force was to assault this village with the intent of capturing the air defence station.  The Serbs by turn were using their limited forces plus improvised defences to funnel any attacks in to killing zones.

The Serbs were able to produce road blocks, but these were insubstantial.  However, each was booby trapped with a mixture of land-mines, with the expectation that and Croatian armour would roll right through them.

The Croats had four vehicles and some 30 men.  20 'Regular' Croatian infantry arrived in a BTR60p and a locally manufactured 'Patroller' personnel carrier.  Details of which can be found in this excellent book I managed to pick up from Liberation Miniatures, years ago:

In fact Rich had so little intuitive faith in this vehicle, that he immediately disembarked his troops from it and advanced on foot.  a dozen or so local militia were preparing to advance through the woods on the outskirts of the village.  The lead of the attack was to be undertaken by a pair of T55A's, one heavily modified locally with stand-off armour and an improvised dozer blade.

Rich led the attack with his tanks, whilst his militia got in to position to cover the flank.  On T55 fired on the BTR152 command vehicle acting as liaison for the AA battery, causing it to withdraw to cover.  The other tan moved around to the main street and stooped just in front of the roadblock; where it was struck and immobilised by an RPG round from one of the AA batteries support troops.

This encouraged the Serbs to send their only T55 around the village to try to eliminate the damaged tank.  However it displayed all the qualities of a freshly raised crew.  For in a desultory exchange of fire, they lost no more than the commanders observation block, but panicked and bailed out of the tank.  Around them a fire team of infantry was similarly being kept pinned down with unidentified casualties.

At this stage, only the ZSU 23-3 attached to the AA battery and the section of infantry with an RPG at the main road were holding the Croats back, Croatian regulars tried to rush from the woods to the hedgerow, but their militia support failed to provide covering fire, and as a result they were badly mauled by cannon and machine gun fire.

However Rich chose to respond by advancing with his second T55 - blasting houses to his front and rolling into the AA compound.  Whilst on the right, the BTR60p and its' infantry brushed away any remaining hints of resistance from the tank crew in the fields.

And that pretty much sealed the engagement in favour of the Croats.  It was to be fair something of a walkover for them.  The forces may well have not been balanced well enough, but I hadn't allowed for that with mission points either.  Still I think capturing the Serbian missile and a Tank virtually intact must count as a pretty comprehensive win.

The Serbs were beset by poor command (i.e. me and my hangover) and terrible dice rolls, for example we hit the T55 in the road five times, penetrating on three occasions, but only causing the very lightest of damage.

An entertaining little game, one in which Rich who has played the rules two or three times before felt he was really getting to grips with the mechanics, and despite my state we spent less time than normal referring to rule books.

Force on Force are a set of rules you really have to play several times to get a feel for.  But I'm beginning to feel I understand them.

Thoughts...

This weekend represents the 21st anniversary of the outbreak of the Yugoslavian Civil Wars.  As someone who not only games the period, but also was watching it as it happened on the evening news, and studies it for the history of the last major war in mainland Europe as much as for a gaming backdrop; it is a sobering thought to think of the realities of the war.

And I know, it's something I bang on about on this blog every so often, but I do wish more wargamers took the time to think about the realities of what they are doing (and I don't buy the "but I only play fantasy games" defence either).  Clearly I'm not looking down my nose at us, kinda hypocritical to do that, but I think everyone who plays games that involve people trying to do away with one another should have a full understanding of why that happens and what it entails.

In an ideal world, wargamers would be the biggest advocates for peace, as we would have a full grasp of the horrors that come with real war.  That at least is how I see it, and not everyone has to, or ever will share my standpoint on justifying our hobby; but I'd rather gamers had an opinion one way or the other, than not getting the point I'm making at all.

In relation to the original subject, I picked up a copy of Anthony Loyd's book about his experiences in the Bosnian war over the weekend:



Obviously I've had no time to read it yet; but I'm sure it will be a valuable and informative read, from a variety of perspectives.

As another blogger might say at this point though.

Peace.

Banovici - 6 August 1991

Despite my reservations from the last game I went back to Force on Force, had another read of the main sections and had a rethink of the scenario I'm hoping to run at Partizan.

Part of the problem, although I didn't initially recognise it, was that the defenders had been far too effective.  So for this third game I decided to try the Croats as a purely irregular militia force.  With that in mind the Serbian forces were ramped up too.

Al took command of the Serbs, with a task of getting his column of armour off the opposite end of the table by the road.  To make life harder I declared the ground of the roads was unsuited to the M84's high ground weight, especially once the road became an embankment.  and so they had to remain on or as close as possible to the road.  The lighter T55's and M60p were free to roam, but no tank was deemed capable of smashing through the large hedgerows*

Croats meanwhile occupied the three largely intact buildings and the walled field, with several further points of entry (hotspots) for reserves.  They had a couple of RPG's amongst them, and an agenda not only to stop the Serbian advance, but to capture enemy equipment if possible.

The Serbian advance began with the approach of the armoured column.

Ahead of it, it could initially see little:

As a result it tried to engage the houses with HE fire, but thanks to the sturdy construction of the houses, little damage was done.  In reply the Croats fired one of their RPG's, and were lucky to render the lead T55's 100mm gun inoperable; its' crew were stunned but remained in place for now.

The Serbs pushed forward with an M84, whilst other armour neutralised the threat from the first building.  However, unbeknownst to them another group of Croatian ZNG militia had arrived and as the tank crested the embankment the fired.

A lucky shot passed through the hedgerow, hitting the tank in its' tracks rather than its' formidable armour.  The tank slewed to a stop, blocking the road.  the tank crew bailed out in a panic.

This left the rest of the Serbians committed to manoeuvring around the house, the M84 hugging the gardens and pavements in an effort not to slip down the slope.  Further Croats had arrived, but with only the M60p's machine gun operator to engage, they were on the receiving end of a losing fight with only hedges for cover.

A,l sensing his armour was becoming vulnerable to infantry in the buildings deployed his one squad of men from his personnel carrier, and used them to attack the other house on the embankment, and to contain the Croats in the fields.  This cost them relatively few casualties and allowed the remaining mobile M84 to region the road, and ultimately aided the T55's in a safe escape.

Indeed at this stage things were progressing well for the  Serbs as more of the Croatians were contained or eliminated.  Even their tank crew on foot were making way.

But more reserves of the ZNG militia were closing in, desperate to stop the Serbian battle tank.  dozens of RPG rounds were fired at it, and finally one struck a telling blow.

The engine was badly damaged, with one bank of pistons ruined, and the tank stalled.  The crew bailed, ironically to be replaced by the crew from the other immobilised tank.  The Croats were risking moving into the open to get as many shots on target as possible.  Another round hit home and reduced the tank to a crawl, but moreover the new crew decided to evacuate.  Wisely as it transpired; when another round smacked in to the now ruined rear of the tank and found its way in to the ammunition.

The tank crew made a dash for it, leaving the burning hulk in the hands of the militia.

Clearly the Croats should have been militia all along, this game was much more balanced and resultantly more fun than the previous one.  When we looked at the mission points I'd set the Serbs won 19-17, having exited three armoured vehicles from the table and reduced two units of enemy by over 50%.  Croatian losses amounted to 3 dead and a dozen or so seriously injured; though the fatalities would have been more if Al had been able to storm the buildings as he'd wanted to.

Conversely the Serbs had only one fatality, a wounded tank crewman didn't make it out of the second M84, and two or three light or serious injuries.  But with the loss of their two best tanks, it was a Pyrrhic victory at best.

Plenty more to learn and try, but this is both closer visually to what I have in mind for my game, and played more believably.  Something of a relief!


*I have no grounds to believe the plausibility of the hedgerows, or M84 tanks mysteriously not being able to travel terrain a t55 can, but they made the scenario less of a romp for the Serbs so I'm satisfied with the spurious inclusion.

Croatian Houses

For my upcoming display game I need more buildings, the thing is you can't really buy the look off the shelf:







Not being conveniently located in northern France, the middle ages or the 41st millennium, appropriate model buildings that at least give the impression of these ruins are few and far between.  True, some of the German made model railway buildings, and even a handful of the very basic British ones pass for the Balkans, but they are small, expensive, and often difficult to get hold of.

Therefore it was time to get the foam board out instead:

I wanted to give the impression of the airy Mediterranean style of the rural Yugoslavian buildings, making them as distinct as possible from the WW2 buildings I made last year.  Part of this was to include balconies and raised entrances, making these far trickier architectural projects than most of my foam buildings.  The other thing of course being lots of damage, 30mm cannon, 100mm tank rounds and mortar shells...

They went together really well, especially the one on the right, however; and I was able to knock up the burnt out house from the scrap of the others.  All four models came out of one A3 sheet.

The painting was carried out in a frenzied evening and mainly revolved around a tester pot of Homebase 'Moonlight' white, initially with a tiny amount of Panzer Grey added, then highlighted with the raw colour, followed by Moonlight plus white, then pure white.  The method to these layers being to paint down from the roof, leaving some of the lower levels showing at the base, hence the walls get lighter as you move up them.  The lower three (scale) feet of wall or so also get a layer of dust and dirt applied.

I think the look the part, but I still need to do maybe three or four more.  Then as space is tight, they can be donated to the clubs after I'm done with them.

Koprivina - August 1991

Another go at Force on Force was had last week, and with totally different results, rather more one sided.

The scenario and forces were exactly the same as last time, but the players, Richard and Jez, different.  The battlefield was a little adjusted too:

The Serbs under Jez opted to attack from the right in the image above, so Richard focused his defence in the centre of the village.  The attack from Jez developed rather directly with the bulk of his forces driving into the field behind the shop.

This however made it all too easy for the crossfire of Richard Croats to pin down the entire attack.  After two turns the Serbs declared they would disengage, Jez feeling he had walked into a trap and been out-gunned as much by the rules as anything.

I wouldn't entirely disagree, but there was certainly some blame to be laid at his tactics as well.  Nevertheless, the game gave me concerns and I think it will need more finessing to  feel realistic; ammunition was still too plentiful for the Croats and neither side really deserves to operate as well as professional infantry, but neither are they irregulars.  A first step may be making troops mostly D6 quality, it remains to be seen.

There will be another game soon however.

Jasenovac - August 1991

In an effort to find a set of rules suitable for Yugoslavia, myself and Mark tried Force on Force out at the club last Thursday.  Now I've several games of these lined up for the next week or two, so for now I'll be focusing solely on the game and the scenario rather than a review of the rules.

Part of the reason for this is simple, the rules are rather complex in execution and I don't think either of us really understood them at the start of the game.  This naturally improved as we went along, but I wouldn't pretend after my first game that I'm in any way an expert on them yet.

As to the game I set up a very simple scenario with small forces, firstly there were the Serbians with elements of both regular and militia forces:

Their mission was to burn out as many of the buildings in the village of Jasenovac as possible.  To defend against them, the Croatian regular army fielded the following:

It was their intention to protect the village, but also to try and capture enemy equipment which could be of value.

The village itself was a small and well dispersed one with significant woodlands to it's rear, and I playing the Croats deployed behind the crossroads, hoping to produce deadly crossfire rather than trying to stop the Serbs at the very edge of the village.

The Serbs would enter from the right in the shot above.  Their initial forces advanced onto the field near the green house and were out of sight to us, but a militia team on the Serbian right were exposed to fire from Croats and soon found themselves pinned.

The same fate befell another militia gang on the main road.  This began a long exchange of fire between the Croatian anti tank team in the white chalet and several Serbian units, including regulars advancing with covering fire from the M60p APC.

But at this stage the Croat crossfire was to prove highly effective, and the men in the Chalet proved extremely fortunate not to become casualties during a failed assault by the Serbians; which tried simply to run in through the front door, to no success.

The Croat M18 risked coming out of cover at this stage and put the Serbian APC to flame; but by this stage the militia had managed to set fire to two of the Croatian buildings.

The Serbs despite their losses were feeling bold now and their anti tank fire forced the M18 to pull back, despite never really endangering it.  Meanwhile the Serbian regulars were able to push in to the centre of the village.  The Croat regulars had to counter by throwing their own reserve in to the street fighting.  But the badly bloodied Serbs were able at the end of the game to put a third building to the torch.

In terms of mission points the game was  a very close run thing, ending up 16-14 to the Serbs.  It was a useful learning experience, but I know we got a few things wrong, and there is much more practice needed.

Still at this stage it seems to have potential, though with some limits to be set on the weaponry and balance.  On the evening I commented that firpawer from man portable rockets was simply excessive; you can theoretically fire them several times in a turn, so a section of four or five men might effectively be carrying enough RPG or LAW rounds for 24 or more shots in an 8 turn game?  To many for me.

But that gripe (and the somewhat impenetrable structure of the rule) aside it was a good start; there are more games to follow however and I shall report in more depth wen ready to call a final judgement.