SPI Jerusalem '67

Mark's recent interest in the Six Day War had me looking through my board game collection and I found this gem. It is my original copy of The Battle for Jerusalem 1967 from 1977. So after many years in the back of my collection I am looking at giving it another try.

For those not familiar with SPI they were the other guys in the early days of the wargaming industry. Back when there were two, SPI and the larger competitor, Avalon Hill. While Avalon Hill sold their games as "book case" editions, SPI games were sold either as "flats" or in their house magazine Strategy & Tactics.

This game was designed by Mark Herman (now of  Shenandoah Studio fame) and game developer James Dunnigan. These were two of the great for the industry and I have played and still play many of their games.

This is a battle with unit counters being battalions and brigades using the early version of combat generation were a unit is either destroyed or forced to retreat, common in the 70s and 80s. In all a fun playable game.

Now  Jerusalem '67 does have its faults but in general I find it the best game on the subject, that is the conquest of the West Bank in the Six Day War. While there are other games out there I prefer the abstract detail in a game released less than 10 years after the war. In 1977 research dealing with the Middle East is both difficult and costly. Primary sources in English were non-existent.  The secrecy after the Yom Kippur War made military research tough. So there are problems with the units. Not all Shermans were alike in this war and the Jordanians seem to be missing their Chieftains and have Pattons instead. Does this make much of a difference, I do not think so, at least at this scale.

What I find distressing is the fact that the map does not cover much south of Jerusalem. While this does not effect the game or the victory conditions it has me looking to expand the map south for some interesting historical "what ifs".

I look forward to playing this and I am sure it can be used as a generator for Fistfull of TOWs or similar mico armor games.

The Black Brigade

The Black Brigade (10. Brygada Kawalerii) faired well in my first complete game of Chain of Command. While their sections were smaller than the Germans, their Force Rating and advantage of one the Force Moral helped equal the odds.

Even though this was an attack/defend scenario, the Poles spent the first turn trying to get into position. With the Germans advancing along the center The Black Brigade worked on the flanks causing issues to the German Force Moral.

Losses in infantry were heavy for both sides with the Germans losing two tanks and the Poles an armored car.

In the end the Germans had staying power with the larger squads. I really enjoyed this and after getting a couple of answers from the Lardies Group (and some additional terrain) I will be at it again.

And one for those that see in color. :-)

First Chain of Command Game in the House

While I am only on the first turn and the Germans still do not have all of their troops on the board I am having a wonderful time trying out my 1939 Poles and Germans. It is a defend mission for the 10th Brygada Kawalerii. Unfortunately they were unable to make it in the pre-game phase to the positions they are supposed to be defending.

Yet they have pushed back the German left, took two jump-off markers and are pressing towards a third. And than the tanks have shown up. The Polish senior leader is concerned with the MG.32 in front of his building and missed the German Panzer I coming down the road.

His squad may still get a chance to shot but it appears it is raining mortar rounds. Only thing stopping the barrage is the pesky MG.32. It appears the Germans do not want to land rounds on their own position.

Harlem Hellfighters

With multiple book releases on the Harlem Hellfighters (and a possible movie) my only question is where are the 15mm miniatures. Will Peter Pig be releasing an American line in time to paint them for the Centenary of 1917-18? How about a new army for Flames of War?

Taking part in Champagne, Marne, Meuse, Argonne, Champagne 1918, Alsace 1918 suffering 1,500 casualties with only 900 replacements this long serving regiment (serving for six months in the line) should make an appearance on the gaming table in 2017-18.

The Reason Why

This blog post came about from a post on the TOOFATLardies yahoo group were I was blaming the Fat Wally website for my deep dive into Alternate History. To be honest the fault belongs to the old GDW Europa wargame.

Way back to my wargaming days I played a lot of Europa. Once Torch came out I had everything to do a strange and wonderful alternate 1940 history were France Fights On and the Battle of Britain happens over the Mediterranean instead of the channel.

Fast forward 20+ years and I want to do it again but at a tactical level and in lead not card board. I also had many years of research to make it work or so I hope to. I also had the Bag the Hun rules by TOOFATLardies as well as the Operation Sealion for the period feel for the supplement.

So with French and Italian aircraft ready and a few British and Germans added to the list I move forward with the miniatures as well as the writing. Yes I want this as a supplement even if it is just for myself.

While I have no one to blame but myself the Fat Wally website made the decision to start this in 2014 very easy. And as it was already started I can keep my no new armies pledge. Kev not only has great looking aircraft models but tells you how he painted them.

It is also easy to keep the number of aircraft small. The Italians only have one fighter with the range to be effective (but the G.50 can cause trouble defending Rome and Milan) and two bombers so you are looking 12 fighters and 10-20 bombers on the Axis side. The French have more variety but still small numbers, figure 10-20 fighter and 8-12 bombers. A few American aircraft will make an appearance as well as British FAA aircraft.

My biggest cost is bases. My initial idea was to go with Tumbling Dice aircraft and reuse the bases. I than had a credit that I used for Shapeways and O8 and found the 3D CR42s were to small to drill for bases and the O8 broke my drill bit so I will have to base then individually. No biggie just slowing down the process.

Sorry this got a little long but it happens. Thank you for reading and let me know what you think.

Jon

Savoia-Marchetti SM.79

Additions have been made today to the Regia Aeronautica for my 1940 project. While the most important part of this order was the decals for the Italian aircraft there were the bombers I needed for rounding out the two squadrons.

In this order were the Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 and the Fiat BR.20. As the BR.20 has a particular role for the campaign I will leave it for a blog post of its own. The Italians can now launch a squadron each at the French in both southern France and on the island of Corsica.

One thing I found with the Oddzial Osmy (O8) is that they are tough, tougher than my drill bits. After ruining one bit, and having a He111 thrown at my chest (yes it left a mark) I decided to base the Oddzial Osmy aircraft on their own fixed bases. It also means I need to place an order for the bases from em4miniatures moving it up in front of a couple of small order to fill out the squadrons.  Has anyone else had similar problems with the Oddzial Osmy miniatures? The Tumbling Dice are a softer metal and are easy to craft.

I also saw there was a major difference in size between the Oddzial Osmy (O8) and the Tumbling Dice SM.79s. The Oddzial Osmy miniatures are cleaner and smaller, but not enough to be concerned. I will make sure that in the future all aircraft will come from the same manufacture.

The SM.79 does deserve a place in any campaign set in the Mediterranean from the Spanish Civil War to the Italian Social Republic. It is perfect fighter fodder against the landings in Sicily and on the mainland in 1943 against Allied P51s and P47s. I hope it will be more successful in 1940 against the French. With 1,240 built it was one of the most important bombers in the theater used as both a torpedo bomber and a level bomber.

As of this evening I have the three painted SM.79s with decals and I will work on the two G.50s next. The decals are so small that I need my camera in my iPad to tell me how to apply them. In hindsight I could of painted a white dot on the wings as I cannot see the markings in the middle.

More images soon and should be able to get these aircraft in the air for a game of Bag the Hun. I do not think anyone will mind that the French aircraft are missing their roundels.

Thank you for reading this post and please follow, as there is more to come.

Type 89s Anyone

I finished up three of my five Japanese Type 89s this morning before heading out to work. These tanks have always interested me. Maybe because they looked retro even when they were new.

The image on the left is the first image I remember seeing of this gem way back in a magazine in the 70s.

This medium tank, at least according to the Japanese Army,  weighed in at approximately 13 tons. This is in comparison to the later M4 Sherman weighing 30 tons and the M3 Stuart at 16 tons. I am willing to call them a medium tank as they were considered a medium tank when designed in 1928.

The Type 89 was not built in large numbers with the 400 plus built making an impact in China and the Philippines. While I have no plans to put them to use soon, if I was it would be battle on the mainland. I have had a lot of fun using them and armored cars in the DOS game Steel Panthers III.

There are certain things you need to be concerned with commanding these tanks. A 37mm Door Knocker (Pak 36) as well as heavy machine guns and anti tank rifles should be on the list. All were available to the Chinese.

While I do not see this happening anytime soon if the Japanese Army is needed in China down at the club I will be ready. Well at least I have a start. I may have to dust off my Manchukuo Army list for Chain of Command.

Stay tuned and thank you for reading this.
Jon