Keeping score- December

Well the end of the year has arrived and a lot of painting has been done.

Finished

• 2x IS-122 
• 18x Italian infantry
• 14x French Cavalry
• 8x Spanish Cavalry

Purchased

• 14x French artillery and ind infantry
• 3x French Cavalry
• 3x Cannon
• 3x SdKfz 250

 Scores so far

• Models purchased 41
• Models completed 52

Score -11

• 15mm purchased 446
• 15mm completed 471

Score -25

Keeping score november

Finished

• 2x IS-152 
• 12 Italian infantry
• 3x Churchills
• 28x French infantry

Purchased

• 5x IS-2
• 1x SdKfz 250

 Scores so far

• Models purchased 38
• Models completed 49

Score -11

• 15mm purchased 426
• 15mm completed 431

Score -7

Keeping Score - October

 Well that was a lot of work. If I stay away from the purchases I may finish in the black

Finished

• 7x Panzergrenadiers
• 14xVistula Legion Lancers
• 1x SdKfz 251/16
• 2x Ba-64 
• 1x P-47d Thunderbolt
• 1x 25pd gun 
• 13x Chasseurs a cheval
• 5x German Artillery crew 
• 3x Misc Napoleonic figures 
• 12x Italian Libyan Paratroopers

Purchased

• 5x ISU 122/152

 Scores so far

• Models purchased 32
• Models completed 44

Score -12

• 15mm purchased 426
• 15mm completed 391

Score 33

Keeping score - September

So close yet so far to breaking even. A quick trip to Eureka added all the Napoleonics and I just could not get around to finishing the Vistula Lancers. Even by holding off publishing this update

Finished

• 2x PzKpz 38
• 2x 65mm cannon 
• 6x Italian artillery crew
• 1x 28mm Royal Navy Officer
• 3x Cannon

Purchased

• 34x 15mm Napoleonic infantry
• 24x15mm Napoleonic cavalry
• 1x 28mm Royal Navy Officer

Scores so far

• Models purchased 27
• Models completed 39

Score -12

• 15mm purchased 426
• 15mm completed 337

Score 89

Keeping score - August

Finished

• 2x SdKfz 251
• 1x Lancia 90L50
• 4x L3/35
• 6x French artillery
• 22x French infantry
• 4x French Generals
• 4x Italian artillery

Purchased

• 0

Scores so far

• Models purchased 26
• Models completed 34

Score -8

• 15mm purchased 358
• 15mm completed 328

Score 30

Keeping score - July

Yet another month has passed. Lots of painting but no writing


Finished

• 2x SdKfz 251
• 38x Argentinian infantry
• 8x Spanish artillery
• 22x French infantry

Purchased

• 1x Thunderbolt

Scores so far

• Models purchased 26
• Models completed 27

Score -1

• 15mm purchased 358
• 15mm completed 292

Score 66

Keeping score - June

Another month gone. Progress has been good but the purchases keep mounting up

Finished

• 2x JagdPanther
• 2x M20 Utility Cars
• 8x Spanish Cavalry
• 16x Spanish infantry
• 20x Polish Haiduks

Purchased

• 103x 15mm French Naploeonic

Scores so far

• Models purchased 25
• Models completed 25

Score 0

• 15mm purchased 358
• 15mm completed 224

Score 134

Keeping score - May

Would you believe a computer crashed stopped me posting this and it was finished.

Quite a busy month with a number of different opportunities for adding to the loot pile. Got some work ahead of me now.

Finished

• 1x Tiger
• 2x 105mm Howitzers
• 1x M2 Half track
• 30x War of 1812 Americams
• 10x American Gun crews
• 12x ECW Horse

Purchased

• 4x L3 Tankettes
• 3x Churchills
• 6x Ba-64
• 142x 15mm British para
• 2x Cannon
• 8x 15mm Spanish Cavalry
• 73x 15mm Spanish infantry

Scores so far

• Models purchased 25
• Models completed 21

Score 4

• 15mm purchased 255
• 15mm completed 181

Score 74

Some unusual units

Been reading a book on the 2nd Guards Tank army and I came across two units with some unusual equipment. They were the 9th Separate Signal Battalion and the 33rd Coastal Artillery Battalion or Battery( Both are used in the text)interestingly they are both armed with tanks, T-34s with the signal battalion and T-70s with the artillery. There are not many only 3-5 for the signals and 6 for the artillery.
So what are they there for? In fact I have not found out yet, my google-fu has been a failure. But I do have an hypothesis.
The easy one is the signal battalion. Tanks have radios, even some Soviet ones. Which means they have the ability to communicate with each other. There is unfortunately one problem in making this an easy task. This lies with the radios and the provision of those radios to the troops and their commanders. It is that there are often many different types of radios all operating off different frequencies. You might be aware of the difficulties had by airforces had in communicating with ground forces and even infantry with artillery. Then there are also some examples of armoured cars a reconnaissance vehicle being used on liaison duties all because they have radios. now using tanks on this sort of duty is a stretch I grant, but the Soviets are often short of communication equipment rather than tanks. So the radios may be more valuable than the the guns. Thereby making the decision to allocate some tanks to the signal battalion a sensible one.
The same logic also applies to the artillery tanks. Giving the artillery which has its own communication network its own tanks makes sense. It was not an uncommon occurrence in other armies to provide forward observers with vehicles including tanks so they could keep with the advancing troops. What is strange is the gathering of so many in what is called a coastal artillery unit. The soviets were often short of specialists due to their horrendous losses so a central pool of them makes some sense. It is also possible that these specialists came from a coastal artillery unit hence the name. Yet most artillery in a tank army is either direct fire or short range so there is limited for specialist artillery crew. It is still a mystery.
Well thats it hopefully I will find evidence to test these hypothesis. But they may make an interesting attachment to any army.
 

Keeping Score - April

Well a very quiet month. Really did not get into painting much at all.

Finished

• 2x T-34

Purchased

• 0

Scores so far

• Models purchased 12
• Models completed17

Score -5

• 15mm purchased 30
• 15mm completed 139

Score -103

Keeping score - March

Hey a good month. Nothing purchased and a lot of little things completed.

Finished

• 1x PzV 
• 2x Ba-64
• 4x Schwimmenwagens
• 15x War of 1812 kentucky mounted rifles
• 8x Korean war American RR crews
• 12x SS rece troops

Purchased

• 0

Scores so far

• Models purchased 12
• Models completed15

Score -3

• 15mm purchased 30
• 15mm completed 139

Score -103

Keeping score - Febuary

First purchase for the year, the SdKfz 250's. The rest is an outstanding order from last year Almost finished some figures but I have lost valuable painting time to world of tanks.

Finished

• 2x PzV 
• 42x SMG

Purchased

• 4x SdKfz 250
• 2x 105mm howitzers
• 1x 25 Pdr
• 1x SdKz 233
• 4x Schwimmenwagons
• 15x 15mm SS tank hunters
• 15x Italian MMGs

Scores so far

• Models purchased 12
• Models completed 8

Score 4

• 15mm purchased 30
• 15mm completed 106

Score -76

Keepin Score - January

Well a good start to the new year

Finished

• 1x Leonardo Tank
• 30x American Riflemen war of 1812 
• 1x PzIV 
• 4x 15mm war of 1812 British cavalry
• 4x Soviet Motorcycles 
• 30x American Infantry War of 1812

Purchased

• Nil, zilch nada

Scores so far

• Models purchased 0
• Models completed 6

Score -6

• 15mm purchased 0
• 15mm completed 64

Score -64

Keeping Score - December end of the year

Well thats it the year is over. Not a bad effort I was hoping to reduce the lead mountain at least by a little bit but instead I got most of next years figure already. So hopefully I will not be getting to much more next year. 


Finished

• 1x Leonardo Tank
• 3x AB-41 Armoured Cars
• 2x italian mc
• 8x british war of 1812 
• 1x PzIV 
• 2x M11-39

Purchased

• 13x vehicles World War 2
• 25x 15mm World War 2
• 106 15mm war of 1812

Scores so far

• Models purchased 52
• Models completed 57

Score -5

• 15mm purchased 531
• 15mm completed 262

Score 269

Keeping score - November

Well November is over and progress is still being made

Finished

• 1xStug
• 2x Su-100 
• 1x King Tiger
• 8x 15mm war of 1812 Americans
• 16x 15mm war of 1812 British 
• 4x 15mm war of 1812 American cavalry

Purchased

• 5x Plastic Panthers/Jagdpanthers

Scores so far

• Models purchased 39
• Models completed 49

Score -10

• 15mm purchased 400
• 15mm completed 252

Score 148

Keeping Score October

Beware of friends cleaning out their lead mountains. A friend has given me a pile of old 15mm Renaissance figures to add to my pile. There are so many that I have not even counted them all and the figure provided is short by nice margin but is how many I am planning to paint at the moment. Not cheating just being selective :-)


Finished

• 1x Su-100
• 1x Hummel
• 40x War of 1812 Americans 
• 15x War of 1812 Canadians 
• 8x War of 1812 Americans 
• 12x Mongol Cavalry

Purchased/Procured

• 3x 15mm Leonardo tanks
• 2x Leonardo da Vinci
• 123x 15mm Renaissance

Scores so far

• Models purchased 34
• Models completed 45

Score -11

• 15mm purchased 400
• 15mm completed 224

Score 176

keepin score september

Well a few extra figures added  to the pile. Perhaps a momentary lapse of reason. Almost delayed this post for a few more days as I am close to finishing several units which would have made this figures look a bit better but they can wait for the October update.

Added

85 blue moon war of 1812 figures
48 misc ab and eureka figures to expand my war of 1812 units

Models completed

1x Il-2m
1x Hs-129
12x Gendarmes
1x Pz IV
1x su-100

• Models purchased 31
• Models completed 43

Score -12

• 15mm purchased 275
• 15mm completed 159

Score 116

Kaiserschlacht 1918 - German Assault Regiment

Okay the clock has turned full circle and its time to return to older projects. In this case the great war but we now moving onto the 1918 and the peace offensive. This reverses the roles at Cambrai with the Germans now on the offensive and the British defending

There has been some more thought on how to represent the subunits in the German Infantry Company and its evolution since I last posted on Cambrai.

To summarize as the war developed the Germans added more weapons to each company.  In May 1917, 2 MG08/15 Machine Guns are added  rising to 4 in September and 6 in February 1918. This represents at most a third of all squads are armed with machine guns.In August 1917, 2 Granatwerfer are added to each company by breaking up the battalions Granatwerfer group.

How to represent these developments. Part of this is due to the fact that the Germans do run a large platoon structure. Almost everybody runs a base 250 company usually divided into 4 platoons each of 60 men whereas the Germans run three platoons of 80. So that these additions are lost within these units being outnumbered by riflemen .  With a platoon level game such as command decision the Germans are at a disadvantage. The solution, is the creation of a weapons platoon as a repository of these special weapons. They will appears from May 1917 with the RoF improving as more weapons are being added.

This will also keeps the platoons as pure rifle armed units with a Rof of 1while stationary or close assaulting. This helps to highlight the development of Germans tactics into platoon sized stoss groups. While showing that they are lacking the resources to provide the number of  LMGs to create modern infantry tactics. Remember that veteran and elite troops also get a +1 to their RoF so can move and shoot also some stoss troops maybe armed as SMG stands.

So the battalion looks so

1x Command Stand
1x Minenwerfer
4x Infantry Companies

• 1x Command Rifle Stand
• 2x Rifle Stands
• 1x Weapons Stand

1x MG Company

• 3x MMG stands

Now how does this affect the trench garrison described earlier. Well the two will exist side by side for a while. Primarily this organization will apply only to attack divisions in 1918. Some units will probably be using this 1917 notably in big German attacks such as at Cambrai, Riga and Caporetto.

There thats it for the moment. This might be a good enough excuse to get some figures to do some testing.

Keeeping score - August

Here is a  question I bough 5 battlefront su-100 planning to paint 4. Should I count it as 4 or 5. Maybe as a tie breaker. Not trying to cheat or anything :-)

Also picked up some cheap Italians expected to get only 40 odd, got over a hundred. A big accidental hit to the completed list and looks like I may have to get some Italians to finish them off properly.


Finished
2x T-34s
1x PzIv
2x 122mm howitzers
1 Pak 43

8x15mm Soviet artillery crew
3x 15mm German artillery crew

Purchased
5x Su-100
103 x 15mm italians

• Models purchased31
• Models completed 39

Score -8

• 15mm purchased 142
• 15mm completed 147

Score -5

Keeping Score July

A quiet month with all the 15mm being finished today just so I could something done.

Finished
2x trucks
20x Polish Haiduk
13x Gebirgsjaeger

Purchased
1x King Tiger
1x Hs 129

• Models purchased 26
• Models completed 33

• 15mm purchased 39
• 15mm completed 136

• Scores are -7 plus -97 for the 15mm