VDV Company Unit by Unit

OK - as promised here are the photos of each of the individual units broken down.

I'll start with the Company HQ

Moving from left to right we have Sniper (forgot to put a spotter figure in...) Medic, Company CO, Company Political Officer, Company HQ BMD-1P, Company Sergeant, Senior Technican (with radio) and a paratrooper.

First Platoon

The squad in the centre is the Platoon HQ squad, with each squad having 5 dismounts - an NCO, a RPG, a RPK-74 or PKM, and 2 paratroopers with AK-74 (possibly one also having a BG-15).  BMDs are a mix of BMD-1s and 2s.

Second Platoon

Similar set up to the First Platoon

Third Platoon

Again this is very similar to the First Platoon.

Now we get into the support options.  The Company would have attached to it some AA options - typically a MANPADS squad with SA-7 or SA-14.  The Battalion also has a ZU-23-2 Battery so I have mixed these two together.

Three of the four figures are armed with SAM.  The fourth is the NCO in charge.  The SAM squad could be carried in a BTRD, such as the one on the right, which could also act as a portee for a ZSU-23-2.  I've added another ZSU-23-2 onto a Gaz-66 truck - which could either tow the AA gun or again act as a portee.

Another company support option was the Automatic Grenade Launcher Squad - equipped with AGS-17 AGLs.

Again this squad is transported in a BTRD.  They had 2 x AGS-17 and 3 other squad members (and NCO and 2 other crew)

Each Battalion also had a 120mm Mortar Battery

The battery had 6 mortars, so I thought it reasonable that each of the three companies could be supported by a gun section of two tubes.  I also added in a 2S9 Nona for more options.  Beside (on the right) the 2S9 is a Mortar Fire Controller.

Probably only used if they were without the BMD's a Parachute Regiment has an anti-tank battery of AT-4 Launchers and SPG-9 recoilless rifles.  I've included them for completeness sake.

I've also included a Foward Air Controller and a Forward Artillery Observer, along with there UAZ-469 rides.

Finally - the ASU-85 platoon

So that's pretty much it for my VDV.  Of course there are a couple of other units that could fit in with the VDV, like a BRDM Anti-tank Platoon, but they can also fit in very easily to a Motor Rifle Company, so I'll hold them over for that.

Thanks for looking

Have fun

Richard

Complete VDV Mechanised Company + Attachments

Well I've finally finished and managed to photograph my first Cold War 1-to-1 company (apart from a T-72 Tank Company).  This is a VDV (Soviet Paratrooper) Mechanised Company primarily equipped with BMD-1 and BMD-2 air-portable/air-droppable infantry fighting vehicles.

All the figures here are from Liberation Miniatures and the vehicles are a range of ACE kits, S&S Models, Liberation Miniatures, MMS, GRAN and MAC.

Here are a few photos of the whole company plus attachments:

I hope you can get an idea of the size/scope of the force by looking at these pics.  Tomorrow I'll break it down into it's constituent units.

Thanks

Richard

West German or Not? Terrain Poll 1

Recently I've gone through a tiny bit of a "modern" terrain building phase as I haven't been that well and putting some of these things together is something I can do watching telly with my wife.  I had a couple of old Superquick cardboard buildings that I thought I could complete fairly easily and then see how "West German" they looked.  These all come from their "County Town Building" selection.

So I thought I'd ask you guys and see what you think.  Here's the first one with some new Elhiem West German infantry for scale (which I'll show in more detail soonish):

This is the Superquick "Farm Hayloft or Barn".  I think this one could pass fairly easily as West German (with a little imagination) and is the most "European" of all the Superquick stuff which is generally very English.  So what do you think?

I was thinking of adding these buildings below to this to make it a real farm complex.

Anyway - the next Superquick building is their "Railway Hotel"  Mine isn't great, but it looks like this, with the Elheim figures again for scale:

I'm not 100% convinced by this one as West German.  I think I could push it a little over the edge though with some German signage or something like that.  I think it will do as a background filler or something like that.  Let me know what you think...

Last one is the Superquick "Police Station or Public Library".  Here is mine again with some Elhiem West German figures:

One thing I like about this one is the ability to easily put men on the roof - like I've shown in the picture.  However of all three I rate this one the least likely to be West German.  It just looks to English to me.

So let me know what you think of the three and I'll have some more terrain items to show you over the next few days - then hopefully onto some figures.

I actually happy for you to say whatever you like (as I couldn't work out how to do a proper poll here, but perhaps you could list the Buildings as 1,2 & 3 (in the order above) and then tell me what you think, something like this:

Building 1: Yes - works for me
Building 2: Maybe - if I squint I guess it looks West German
Building 3: No - You're kidding yourself!

Thanks and have fun...

Richard

Some BG:Fall of the Reich Playtest Pics

Well - it's been longer than I planned - but I had "hell week" last week so all my plans kind of fell out the window. 

But anyway - before that all happened I did get in a pretty decent game of Battlegroup: Fall of the Reich.  Greg and I played two German 500 point lists versus Leigh and Mick running two British 500 point lists.  This is not a proper AAR as sadly my batteries were running out as soon as I turned the camera on - so just some set-up and first turn photos here:

We played on an 11.5' x 5' table which looked like this:

That's the German end - you can see a couple of our improvised barricades blocking two of the roads in the foreground and towards the middle of the table (If you look closely) you can see our intial forces deployed.

This is the view from the British end:

You can see Leigh's 25 pdr's set up here.  They seriously annoyed us for the entire game, with my planned barrage on their location (I guessed where they would place their guns) pinned them for a round but failed to permanently silence them.

Here's some photos of my FlaK Battery:

These 3 guns caused some real problems for the British - at one point I managed to knock out a M5 Half-track about 60" away - was rather chuffed with that - and surprisingly enough, by the end of the game (9 turns) the 88 in the gun pit was still alive and kicking.

Greg deployed 3 StuGs at the start of the game:

But sadly one was lost right at the start of the game:

They used all their smoke/flames here in a vain attempt to undermine our morale!

Our Timed Barrages and 2 x 120mm mortars got a bit of their own back though:

Unfortunately it was around here that my batteries died - so I was unable to take a photo of the bus driving on my Volksgrenadier platoon, delivering them to the front lines, surviving an artillery barrage, and driving of the table.  An excellent investment!

We had a great day playing and another exellent game of BG:FoTR

Back to the Cold War next - I promise!

Richard