"After Stalingrad - 1/144th scale winter scenario" Topic

Guys,

We played a game based on some of the combat fought by 2./schwere Panzer-Abteilung 502 in January of 1943.

This was some of the early action fought by Tigers on the Eastern Front, and although the big cats would weigh heavy on the scenario's outcome, it was the SPW-mounted Panzer-Pionere who had the lead role – of making it through the enemy defenses to set charges on the river bridge for it's destruction.

The Pionere almost made it…..

If they had been better supported by the German armor, they might have reached the bridge in more force. As it was, one squad got to the span, but was counterattacked by the last Russian platoon dug-in around the bridge.

Desperate action – cinematically reminded me of Cross Of Iron (and there were plenty of those to be awarded posthumously to these little 12s – maybe some Orders Of for the Russians too). ;)

That looks great – very thematic.

Oh my goodness, you've really outdone yourself Dave, what I great looking game! And the spacing between forces really shows the virtues of 10/12mm on the tabletop.

V/R,
Jack

hardest thing to see are the hills as its all white. Bot it does look good. Pastels on a white mat for the roads?

Thanks Frothers!

My biggest joy is seeing the guys push the stuff around on the table – oh yeah, and also gettin' the game off, but sometimes the scenics turn out better than the game (or that's the least I can take away afterwards for having gone through the effort). This game turned out well though – it was a 2nd-running of the scenario, so had a few tweaks added, and a new game mat rolled out (pun intended). ;)

Jack, appreciate your checking it out very much too.

One of my players decided it would be a quick way to move, by pressing all the Tigers of his platoon together fender-to-fender, before sliding them 'as a unit' along the mat – he did get a reprimand (and not for the bad spacing either). :)))

UshCha, it's a digitally printed mat rendering on fleece I had made, and it can accommodate hills underneath the fabric, but there were none in the scenario….other than the unlevel tables and the creases we had to deal with at the shop (gaming is hell).

Great looking game and its the best ones that come down to the wire. You'll have to write up an article on your custom made mats.

Hey Marc, thanks bud!

Matter of fact, I'm sort of at a transition point in progressing forward on my digital fleece mats. I've tried to keep them as more generic-style tablescapes, for maximum useability, and in case the local guys wanted to use them for their presentations too. Over the years, as I researched scenarios, often preparing the layouts using period aerial photos, or augmented by Google Earth, I've made colorized versions of the photos, and thought that I should just use those as the print-files for my complete mats (instead of converting the land configurations over to an appropriate, pre-made mat).

Now I'm ready to do dedicated mats right from the colorized work. Here's an example showing the town of Escoville in Normandy, taken from an assembled series of hi-res aerial photo sections (these taken around the time of the fighting there during that summer – there's shell holes visible on the high-res, B&W media in fact) -

This town was fought over in June between the Red Devils, and elements of 21st Panzer, and promises to make for a good, immersive scenario, except it would be best played one-vs.-one, instead of as a bigger multi-player game. It's been this desire, to put together multiplayer games that's kept me from pulling the trigger on these smaller scenarios.

Having run this latest winter game shown here in this thread (and a recent "Conflict Donbas" – 2014 modern scenario), both which were small, tactical engagements, has me convinced that smaller games, on smaller boards, but with realistic map-mats, is now what I want to start doing more of for WW2.

I'm changing my decades-long motivation, to try and present bigger, multiplayer games (for more players), and instead going to focus on preparing some scenarios that just two guys will enjoy.

This change, and being able to focus on detailing smaller actions, will mean printing up more mats for this approach will stay affordable – because the mats will be smaller to start with, maybe at the most 4ft. X 4ft..

Anyway, that's thinking out loud here, but I'm sure to be heading down this road next.

"…pressing all the Tigers of his platoon together fender-to-fender…"
I didn't even really notice that, they look fine to me as 1) they're not actually touching and 2) they're a discrete unit. I was just marveling at how much room there was between platoons, it looked really good.

V/R,
Jack

Thanks Jack.

The Tiger player only got that one chance of squeezing the models together, paint-on-paint (one reason why so many guys mount their vehicles on stands I guess).

You make a good point on the extra room this scale affords, and grasping the models between forefinger and thumb feels perfect (with our fingers providing a natural spacing interval).

I joke to the players that they'll get an extra plus modifier when firing if they keep their AFVs in recognizable maneuver formations too – but the old urge of getting a group as close together for the shortest firing range possible, makes the spacings shrink all over again.

I should follow-through on giving that modifier bonus for good formations at least once – but then the whining. :)))

FlyXwire Apparently even today vehicles need to be at least 40m apart. If not then the enemy, having hit one vehicle is virtually guaranteed to hit the next one first shot. Correcting for 40m apparently is a trivial correction and is unlikely to have any significant error. To this end we cheat (as always) and give a bonus if targets are spaced closer than 40m. Too small at model scale but only a bit over 40m at ground scale.

You learn quickly to space out unless there is an overriding tactical reason to breach this distance. Poor rule design leads to poor games.

PS I hate bases on figures and even more so on vehicles. So we have no bases on vehicles and with the advent of our own printed figures, bases are at most 0.6 mm (3 layers thick). I have been experimenting with variable layer height. I have done some "overlay hexes" different textures to the standard hex. These are 0,9mm thick but the depression sections are only 0,3mm thick. Variable layer height means the 0,3mm sections are still 3 layers thick but print flat. Most interesting of all despite being flocked with PVA glue and the depressions with sand and PVA mixed they have not distorted at all. However thinner than 0,6mm bases may be difficult to pick up and as my infantry is 90% prone this could be an issue.