The Grumble Hunt - Part 1 - Background

Well it's been some time since I last posted an After Action Report here.  To scared to look it up to see just how long ago!  Anyway - last weekend I got to play the scenario I had published in Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy Magazine Issue 107.  I played the Soviets guarding an S-300PS (known to NATO as the SA-10 Grumble) battery site in Northern Norway.  I had 5 players - Andrew and his son Alex, Ben, Gareth and Liam - taking on the roles of an SAS patrol, a SAS sniper team, a Royal Marine Mountain & Arctic Warfare Cadre patrol and a Norwegian Home Guard scout. I would play the Soviets.

BACKGROUND

It’s been 11 days since World War 3 began, and in a series of well-coordinated amphibious and airborne assaults, Soviet forces have side stepped or smashed all serious Norwegian resistance in the north of the country.  Lakselv, and the strategically important Banak Air Station fell quickly.  Now the Soviets are using the air base, which greatly increases their own fighter’s range into Norway and allows Soviet Naval Aviation aircraft to cut across northern Norway as they seek out NATO convoys and the Atlantic Strike Fleet. 

Four days ago a NATO air group attempted to stop air operations out of Banak.  Those that broke through the CAP were quickly engaged by the Soviet long-range air defences.  With no significant SEAD systems currently in the Arctic area, CINCNORTH has decided to use his only available strategic assets to take out the SAM sites immediately prior to another, even larger raid on Banak.

Lucky for Norway, elements of the 22^nd SAS’ A Squadron (Mountain Troop) were already in Norway before hostilities broke out, conducting a joint security exercise in Trondheim.  When 3 Commando Brigade deployed, it included  elements of the Royal Marine’s Mountain & Arctic Warfare Cadre.  Normally they play a critical reconnaissance role for the Brigade, but now, along with the SAS squadron they are the only in-theatre NATO assets capable of undertaking this mission.

The mission takes place in the area at the tip of the red arrow.  This map also shows the limit of the Soviet advance through Norway at this date:

The Soviets have deployed two SA-10 battalions, split into four batteries within 20km of Banak, with the primary air search radar and command components within the perimeter of the airfield.  The Marines and SAS operators have been split into four assault teams each lead by a local guide from the Norwegian Home Guard.  They are to raid each site simultaneously.

We'll be focussing on the northernmost battery shown here, along with its proximity to the primary radar and command components at the airfield.

All the SA-10 (S-300) batteries are mobile, however NATO EW and INTEL assets have been constantly tracking their movement and now have a developed an accurate picture of where each battery will spend the “night”.  

Our team was dropped by a helicopter  within 10km of the SAM site, and has moved quietly to the target area on foot.  After crossing the river, they are now lying in the scrubland overlooking the large field which contains the battery.  

This is a satellite view of the battery, annotated to show all the battery elements and surrounding scrubland.  Here is the key to the map:

A - 5N63S Flap Lid B Engagement Radar

B - 5P85S Transporter-Erector-Launcher (smart TEL)

C - 5P85D (dumb TEL)

D - 5P85D (dumb TEL)

E - Air Defence Command Post (a Ural-375A Office Body Truck)

F - 2 x ZSU-23-4

G - Military Police Checkpoint

1-3 - Various civilian structures - farm buildings

4 - Camouflage netted area

It's mid-summer in Norway.  Here in the Arctic Circle, this means the sun doesn't set, so although the mission begins at 3am it's not that dark.  Just for context here is a more modern photo of a couple of guys sitting at the river, probably about 500m from where the battery was situated, at 3am.

Lucky for the NATO troopers, it's lightly raining - so visual ranges are somewhat limited.

THE TABLE 

Here's how my table compares to the satellite image

It's obviously not exactly the same, but good enough for me!  You can see the boundary between the paddock the battery is situated in, and the scrubland surrounding it.  In reality the scrubland looks more like this google earth image I snapped of the E6 at the battery location.  It's autumn in the picture but I think you get the gist:

THE NATO MISSION

Ideally the assaulting teams must now sneak up to each TEL and the Radar Acquisition Vehicle and attach timed demolition charges between the missile tubes or under the radar section.  The figures have enough C4 to deal with any other vehicles the team chooses to target.  All the vehicles on site play a role in making the SAM battery function so anything destroyed is useful, however the TELs and Radar vehicle are the primary targets and must be destroyed.

The assault team must then exfiltrate the site and move to the extraction point for pick up.  If all goes well the emplaced explosives will explode at 3.50am, 15 minutes before the NATO aircraft raiding Banak begin their attack run on the airfield.  

The aim is to achieve all this without firing a shot, however the sites are known to be guarded by Soviet Motor Rifle Infantry and Military Police.  It should be possible to slip past them and execute the mission.  If considered necessary the team may engage the Soviet’s and the British troops have been kitted out with a number of suppressed weapons in addition to their more standard small arms.  

NATO FORCES

Royal Marine Mountain & Arctic Warfare Cadre  - The Royal Marine M&AWC troop has Normal Supply levels, High Confidence, TQ - D10 and Morale - D10.

Each M&AWC member is also armed with HE grenades, smoke grenades, fighting knife and demolition material. The patrol is made up as follows:

• Robert "Tazzer" Thopson - Mountain Leader (MP5SD3 & M16A1) 
• Arthur "Lobster" Neumann - Signaller (M16 & LAW AT Rocket) 
• Eric "Florry" Higgens - Medic (M16/M203 & LAW AT Rocket) 
• Armand "Cloggy" Hendriks - Weapons Specialist (L4 LMG)

Special Air Service (SAS) – A Squadron (Mountain Troop) - The SAS Patrol has Normal Supply levels, High Confidence, TQ - D12 and Morale - D12.

SAS operators are Stealthy. Each operator is also armed with a suppressed Browning pistol, a LAW AT Rocket, HE grenades, smoke grenades, a fighting knife and demolition material. The patrol is made up as follows:

• Harry "Boss" Catterall - Patrol Leader (MP5SD3 & CAR-15) 
• Johnny "Scaley" Anderson - Signaller (M16A1) 
• Adrian "593" Jones - Medic (M16/M203) 
• Jimmy "4 Fingers" Robertson - Demolitions Specialist (M16 & M79)

SAS Sniper Team is made up as follows

• Joel "Stinky" Crownley - Sniper (AW Covert Sniper Rifle & CAR-15)
• Brian "Baz" Smith - Spotter (M16/M203)

Norwegian Heimevernet (Home Guard) Guide - The Home Guard guide has Normal Supply levels, High Confidence, TQ - D8 and Morale - D10.

"Sven" - Guide (Designated Marksman AG3)

All NATO troops must start the game in the scrubland, but not within 6” of any Soviet equipment or troops.

INITIATIVE

NATO troops have the initiative for the stealth component of the game and for the first 2 turns if the game turns into a firefight.  From the 3^rd turn onward, roll initiative for each side.

NATO VICTORY CONDITIONS

Each Soviet soldier/specialist KIA: +0 points
Each Soviet Primary Target with a charge laid/destroyed: +8 points
Each Soviet Secondary Target with a charge laid/destroyed: +5 points
Each Soviet Other Target with a charge laid/destroyed: +2 points
Not a shot fired during entire mission: +10 points
Every Primary Target has a charge laid/destroyed: +10 additional points

THE SOVIET MISSION

It's pretty simple for the Soviets.  Patrol, guard and defend the battery.  Immediately call for reinforcements if attacked.  Defeat any enemy action aggressively allowing the SAM technicians to carry out their primary Air Defence function.

SOVIET FORCES

Patrolling Guards - A Motorised Rifle Squad has been assigned to provide a roving patrol for the SAM unit.  The squad has Normal Supply levels, High Confidence TQ - D8 and Morale - D8.  The squad is made up as follows:

8 man Motorised Rifle Squad (7 x AK-74, 1 x RPK-74).  They have left the RPG-7V in their BTR-70.  These guards can be deployed in pairs, anywhere on the table that is not scrubland.

Their BTR-70 is parked within the Batteries confines.  Its 2 crew (gunner and driver) are on board.  They will have to start the BTR-70 to get into any fight.

Military Police - A small Military Police detachment is attached to the S-300 unit for road control.  They have a UAZ-469 MP Jeep and have set up a checkpoint on the E-6 highway.  The MP's have Normal Supply levels, High Confidence TQ - D8 and Morale - D8.

The MP detachment is made up as follows – MP Leader (Makerov & AKS-74U) 3 x MPs (AK-74).  The MPs and the UAZ-469 must be placed on or within 6” of the E-6 Highway.

Air Defence Specialists – Shift 1 - There are 12 specialists on duty in the various AD vehicles.  They are currently unarmed by can arm themselves in one turn with AKS-74Us held in each vehicle.  They are working as follows:

5N63S Flap Lid B Engagement Radar - 6 Specialists

5P85S Smart TEL - 2 Specialists

Air Defence Command Post - 4 Specialists

Air Defence Specialists – Shifts 2 and 3 - Three shifts of specialists are required to properly man the site for 24 hours.  Typically that means there is another 24 men off-shift at any one time.  At least 12 of them will be sleeping, whilst the other 12 will be repairing and testing equipment, on guard duty, getting some political training, eating or playing cards.  The off-duty specialists can be situated in any of the structures on the table or in the back of any of the trucks.

Four of the specialists have been given an AK-74 and put on guard duty to support the Motorised Infantry.  All the other men are currently unarmed but can arm themselves in one turn with an AK-74.  The specialist guards must each be placed next to one of the four primary assets.

Drivers and other crew - Each unmanned vehicle on site, except any UAZ-469 Jeeps has two drivers/crew dedicated to it.  These must be added to the Soviet’s personnel pool.  1/3 of the drivers and other crew have been given an AK-74 and put on guard duty. 

All the other drivers and crew are currently asleep in any of the structures on the table or in the back of any of the trucks.  They are unarmed. They can arm themselves in one turn with an AK-74.  The driver/crew guards must each be placed next to one of the secondary assets.

The specialists, drivers and other crew have Normal Supply levels, High Confidence TQ - D6 and Morale - D8.

REINFORCEMENTS

The Battery Quick Reaction Force is based at Banak Air Station.  It can reach the northernmost SAM site within 10 minutes of receiving a distress call.  The QRF has the same stats as the Motorised Rifle Squad patrolling the site.  The QRF is made up as follows:

2 x BTR-70 APCs – each with an 8 man Motorised Rifle Squad (6 x AK-74, 1 x RPK-74 and 1 x RPG-7V).  One squad can replace one AK-74 with a SVD Sniper Rifle if you choose.  The QRF will arrive from the south on the E-6 highway. 

Once the shooting begins, start counting turns.  At the beginning of Turn 4 roll a D6.  On a roll of 5 or more the QRF has arrived.  If the roll is failed, at the beginning of Turn 5 roll a D6.  On a roll of 4 or more the QRF has arrived.  Turn 6 the QRF arrives of a 3+.  Continue rolling each turn until the QRF has arrived or the Assault team has left the table.

SOVIET VICTORY CONDITIONS

Each NATO soldier WIA: +1 point
Each NATO soldier KIA: +3 points
Each NATO soldier captured: +5 points
Each Soviet Primary Target to survive attack: +10 points
Each Soviet Secondary Target to survive attack: +5 points

Each Soviet Other Target to survive attack: +2 points
Guard successfully raises alarm: +5 points
Every Primary Target survives attack: +10 additional points

GENERAL RULES

At the beginning of each turn and anytime a unit fails a reaction test by rolling a 1, draw a random event card.  I'll include these in a later post.

That's it for the preamble - next up will be the actual game itself.

Thanks

Richard

Bit of Scratch Building - S-300 Reloads

First up an apology for not posting anything for a while.  I've actually been doing plenty of painting and gaming, including running demo games at Southcon in Dunedin, but all of this has been heavily WWII focussed so I've not posted any of it here.  Cold wargaming doesn't seem to be a thing here, but it's still my go to No. 1 interest - so I'll keep plugging away when I get the chance.

Back in January - here - I posted a review of the 4D Models KrAZ-260B Tractor and the MAZ/ChMZAP-5247G semi-trailer.  I bought it with the intention of using it for some as yet unknown scenario as a tank transporter, but more particularly to create this:

So my first post-WWII for quite a while was to have a crack at it from scratch - just using Evergreen Plastic rod.  I'll warn you, this is the biggest and most complicated thing I've ever tried to scratch build - pretty basic I imagine by many other peoples standards - and I don't have much patience for this kind of thing - but here it is anyway.

That's the basic structure.  Now add some missile Containers:

Now add the set to the semi-trailer:

Now add the truck/tractor:

All lovingly displayed on our kitchen table!

Once the weather here clears up a little, all of this will be getting a basic paintjob and will be ready for the table.  Setting up for a solo game right now!

Thanks all.

See you sooner than this last effort!

Richard

Sticking to the Dutch 3D Print theme...

Just as the title says, today I'm sticking to the Dutch 3D printing theme. 

As part of an ongoing, soon (I hope) to be revealed project, I needed a couple of Dutch Leopard 2A4s.  Fortunately I had a couple of very old Matchbox Leo 2 kits, which I was able to "quickly" make.  As if I do anything quickly!

One of these kits came with West German smoke dischargers, which would look like these:

Originally I thought I could convert these to look like the Dutch smoke discharger layout, which I knew to be different, but couldn't quite remember how.  So I looked it up:

or a bit closer:

So not much chance of converting what I had to look like that!

Fortunately I stumbled across a designer in Cults3D who had already designed a set for 3D printing.  It can be found here.

Now what follows are not the 2 greatest photos I've ever taken, but you should get the idea of my new Dutch Leo 2NL turrets, with proper smoke dischargers, an FN MAG (just blu-tacked in place for now), cam nets and a wire reel like in the photo above.

I will take better photos once the model is complete, but the 3D printed smoke dischargers are exquisite and came out beautifully.  Once again I'm very chuffed with the result.

Thanks

Richard

The Shape of (Dutch) Things to Come

 I've always wanted to do a Cold War Dutch force in 20mm but with no plastic kits available for their primary IFV, the YPR-765, I'd always put if off.  I'd found some resin kits out there, but these were way to expensive, and I didn't like the quality of the 3D prints I'd seen available for sale.  None of the STL files I've found looked particularly great either.  I'd even talked to a couple of 3D print designers about doing a YPR-765.  But that never went anywhere so I was happy to simply hold off.

However, after some email chatting with Mr M. Bergman of Thingiverse and Wargaming3D fame, all this is about to change.

Here's my first print of his soon to be released line of YPR variants:

This is an early version of the YPR-765 PRI 25mm.  A later variant will also be available, along with the PRAT, the PRGWT and you can easily make the PRI with the .50 cal cupola instead of the turret, the various command vehicles etc.

The print is not 100% perfect, but that's down to me (and my total lack of expertise) and the issues I'm having with my printer.  I'm going to reprint the turret to hopefully fix the rear of it, and I'll be cleaning up the lines on the side as best I can - but beyond that I'm totally chuffed with this model.

Just for comparison purposes here's the Bergman YPR beside a Bergman M113:

So if you've been holding back from running Dutch, or Belgians or any of the other nations that fielded (or min the case of Ukraine, are now fielding) these terrific little vehicles - think again and keep a look out for the STL files.

Happy hunting!

Richard

The Berlin Project - Infantry and Urban Bases - Part 3

 OK... This is a little embarrassing.  Part 1 and Part 2 of "The Berlin Project - Infantry and Urban Bases" happened back in October 2017.  Those of you paying attention to things like, time, will quickly realise that its been almost six years between parts 2 and 3!

To start off with back then I painted 3 figures (loosely forming a Machine-gun Group) and here's the photo to prove it:

Today those figures look like this:

Not much has changed.  However, I've finally managed to finish the other members of their section - the Rifle Group, lead by their NCO.

Put them together and you have a whole section:

Here's a couple of contextual shots:

I also completed the Machine-gun Group of the next section.  It's kind of a little vignette.

That's it for now.  I have a big WW2 painting project coming up, but will still add some more Cold War models shortly.

Thanks

Richard

4DModels KrAZ-260B Tractor and MAZ/ChMZAP-5247G semi-trailer Review

 Once again it's been a while.  Preparations for Christmas, visitors and then my wife managing to severely break her ankle just before New Year has meant a pretty busy couple of months for me, and not much time for anything too gamey.

I did have a couple of moments of purchase based stress relief which brings me to today's topic.  For a while now I've wanted to get some kind of Soviet tank transporter/trailer.  I've been looking at the TAKOM offering, which seems quite nice:

and also I say Trumpeter were coming out with this:

which also looked pretty nice.  The thing is, I wanted it for a very specific purpose.  To create this:

I wasn't sure that the S-300 missile tubes would fit on the back of either of the Takom or Trumpeter trailers and I wasn't really willing to pay top dollar for something that may or might not work.

To cut a long story short, one day when randomly having a look around, I stumbled across this kit by 4D Models:

I was a little wary as some of the kits made but this company are basically crap, but when I saw I could get this for less than $22NZD, I thought why not give it a go.  The pics of the completed model looked OK and reviews were generally positive, so I thought the risk of the S-300 tubes not fitting was a risk worth taking.

The box arrived remarkedly quickly from China, a little battered but nothing inside was any worse off.  Here's a look at the back of the box:

Inside were 3 sealed plastic bags of parts and the instructions

Everything was there and nothing was damaged or warped.  In the first bag you got loads of tires.

As you can see they are glossy black with green hubs.  They fit together nicely and are easy to clean up.

The other parts are as below:

and

Interestingly you can see in the second photo that it comes with a transparent piece for the cab's windows and 7 metal rods for the tires.

The tractor goes together very simply and gives a nice simple wargaming standard model.

I couldn't be bothered painting inside the cab - I was in a bit of a therapeutic rush - so I'll be spraying the whole model, only after removing the wheels.  You can see the holder for the spare wheel on the back of the cab.  You end up with 3 spare wheels I think.  You have to make up 17 in all.

The trailer was actually even easier and together, I think they look pretty damn good.

Now of course I checked to see if the S-300 missiles fit on the trailer as they should - and yes indeed they do!  Just for the hell of it I also took out a T-72 to see how it looked on the trailer.

Sorry about the generally crappy photos!

So review time.  First the positives:

• Super cheap
• Ridiculously easy to put together
• Solid wargamers kit
• Scales well
• Basically does what it says on the tin
• If you were really really lazy you could almost get away with out painting it!  Oh the horror!!

Negatives

• It's pretty chunky and there is of course a lack of fine detail, but personally I think the positive of being a solid (rather than fragile) kit outweigh that
• Sink marks.  There are quite a few sink marks on this kit.  Some I'm happy to ignore, but some are in quite prominent positions.  I guess all up I can live with them and hopefully hide most of them!
• The metal rods - while perfectly useful and much better than plastic, unless I'm doing it wrong, they are to long for the wheels on the trailer.  A relatively easy fix, but until that is done it makes the trailer look a bit toy like.

So all in all, for what I want it for I am very happy with my purchase.  Really its a bit of unnecessary frippery but I do have a very minor role in a game planned for it and I just think it's cool to have it.  I'm not sure it would have any real use as a tank transporter in a standard wargame - but will be useful scenery if some "behind Soviet lines" type games.

Now I just need to sort out my many painting issues and get on and paint it.

Thanks and belated Happy New Year

Richard