"North Africa - Ambush at Antelat scenario" Topic

By mid-November 1942, Panzerarmee Afrika was in full retreat, with the 8th Army attempting to maintain contact. On the 18th, Rommel ordered a battle group from the recently arrived Centauro armored division, to probe back into Cyrenaica along a track southeast of Antelat, to guard against those trails possibly being used by the British driving across the desert.

The Italian battle group sent was a balanced combined-arms unit containing a platoon of armored cars, M14 tanks, and a truck column of infantry with one 75mm gun attached. Unfortunately, advance forces of the British 7th Armoured Division had already reached a point along the track, and were overwatching the trail from an escarpment when the Italian column was spotted approaching their position.

I'll be using this action as a first scenario, for a series of desert games to be hosted when my game group finally gets back to the tabletop.

Thought you might enjoy seeing the initial map position from where the game will start, and the Italian forces involved -

A section of German armored cars arrived to support the column during the action, and these will be used as 'balancing' troops if the game becomes too lopsided against the Italians (that section rt.-top of game box) –

Finally, a closeup of some of the odds and bits that'll be traveling along the track (1/144th scale/12mm minis) -

Looks great!

Rules used?
Vehicles from…?
Infantry figures from…?

Thanks

Yeah, what Schogun said!

Yep. And what paints…?

Thanks for the responses and inquiries!

The rules we'll use are my 'Blitz' modification to Bolt Action (using platoon activation orders, and limited command HQ orders sequencing).

Here's a few previous threads showing Blitz in action (the use of the BA order dice and their hidden covers has now migrated to new order tokens).
TMP link
TMP link
(last thread below *modern armor* shows the new order tokens…..after you've sifted down thru all the thread's eye candy) -
TMP link

Ok, here goes on the manufacturers.
AB40/41 armored cars – Kamiya from ebay – resin models
M14/41 tanks – YSK resin models
Fiat Coloniale heavy car – Fairy Kikaku resin kit (8 parts with custom windshield frame….it's a bent staple)
Fiat/Spa Dovunque 35 trucks – Kamiya from ebay – resin models (I made custom canvas tops for these with supplies added in some – lots of Arrowhead Miniatures' stowage pieces)
75/27 M06, 75mm howitzer – Fairy Kikaku resin kit (7 parts – have a total of 3 of these put together, w/future scenario in mind for the "battery")
German SdKfz. 222/221 ACs – Steven's 3D Garage – 3D Prints from Shapeways
Infantry – only metal models in the bunch – Minifigs (as I recall)

Paints – mostly Vallejo. The Italian vehicle color used is Vallejo Green Ochre 70.914.

Fairy Kikaku kits usually require lots of parts-prepping, but once painted up can show a good bit of detail (here's the howitzer models before their paint) -

Really like what you're doing all the way around.

Beautiful as always. Have been looking at the Kamiya stuff on Ebay to round out a few of my units. How do you find the quality? They are a bit pricey but what isnt these days.

The Fairy items usually get bid up on Ebay so while I have bid on some, dont have any.

WargamingUSA, thanks for your kind words (made my day).

Marc, the Kamiya stuff is very good, as are the miniatures from a few of those other suppliers on ebay, like blitz-144, waffen144, and krupp-144.

I was getting Fairy Kikaku sets from Hobby Link Japan, but they're mostly out of stock there these days.

Hey, if you guys haven't viewed these videos on Youtube, they're great for the views of Italian vehicles and artillery (plus ideas on desert emplacements):

YouTube link

Also, another related source with great color plates on Italian vehicles:

link

link

The above links from the website Engines of the Wehrmacht.

@FlyXwire, noticed some of your other posts over on the Game Design thread, etc… Drop me a line if you want to chat about WWII or game design. wargaming@aol.com

BTW what program are you using to create your maps? Also interested in your experiences with Shapeways as I'm considering an order of some 1/87 and 20mm stuff from them (Steven's 3D garage being one possible source).

The models are great and the scenic work and photography is quite inspiring.

My wife was amused by your picture of all the hexagons in a plastic box. Our attic is filled with 28mm Napoleonic figures, going back years, in towers of such boxes stacked carefully in the dark and unloved. She has long asked "Why?"

No idea. It is just what I do. Yours get used!

Hey Guys, thanks for your kind words!

Here's my latest project in the bank – a winter game mat made for Battle of the Bulge or Hungary '45 scenarios (it could be used for Eastern Front snowy-steppe-style actions too) -

Up top view (overall size is 4ft. X 4ft.) -

The program I use to make these is my 20-year old JASC Paint Shop Pro 7 program (Corel's PaintShop Pro X3) – there's much newer software obviously.

My experience with Shapeways and the armored cars I ordered via Steven's 3D Garage through their printing service was very good. The scale gun barrels [in 1/144th] are still worrisome for potential breakage, but for the larger scales I would think shouldn't present a problem.

Hey FXw – I would love to know a bit more about how you design and create your game mats…do you have an article on the subject published somewhere…?

Hi ArmourNaut – well it's a long story…..

No seriously, I learned how to digitally texture when making aircraft skins for WWI flight sims a dozen+ years back, and have used "photoshopping" since then for all sorts of gaming projects.

One thing I've personally concluded in the past couple weeks though, is my decision to only make winter maps now for on vinyl, and reserve making any new temperate setups only as static grass/flocked boards/or as teddy bear fur mats…..unless the board is only to be used for flat air or naval gaming.

This imposition is because snow-scapes look very good printed out on semi-reflective vinyl, whereas the material reflection for rendering grass and crop field imagery is too distracting I think (though these prints would look fine if done on fabric/fleece like the commercial mat makers use).

If you're interested AN, then learning to digitally texture just involves buying one of the programs and playing around with the tools to see what they do.

Since we're fans of history here, doing terrain studies can also be a way to learn about the battles we're interested in. As an example, here's a digital workup I made from composite images on the fighting around Meautis, France, involving the newly-arrived US 83rd Infantry Division in Normandy -

Here's an excellent PDF study of a father-son visit to wartime sites by a veteran of the 83rd Infantry, that's available online and worth a look –

PDF link

Although, and of course only a game, the study helped me to prepare a scenario inspired by some of this history -

TMP link