Trench Layout

Am in the process of putting together a layout for a demo game in a couple of weeks time, and here is the more or less final result. Nothing very exiting to see yet.

Still have to add a number of scenic items and finalise the orders of battle, but the layout is the important part to start with.

Looking south-west towards the Crozat Canal, actually the
dog's bed

This is where the village of Moy, or what is left of it, will be. I now need to make a substantial number of sandbags and do some serious tidying up on the modules. Will try to get a few pictures up of the day itself, as I think there will be some good stuff from other contributors.

2nd Battalion ROK

More or less finished the second battalion of my ROK regiment for 1950, though they still need tidying up.

Figures from a number of manufacturers are represented, and I think the overall look of the unit suits the state of the South Korean forces at this time.

This is the first battalion, it and the others will need weapons and mortar platoons added to match these improvements as the war progressed, but for 1950 all support weapons are grouped at the regimental level.

Here is the second battalion.

Third battalion. My figure selection choices were getting a bit low at this stage, which wasn't helped by the wholesale destruction of three or four stands (actual number unknown) by our puppies, who staged their own little offensive on these guys a couple of nights ago.

This was all that was left, oh and a couple of legs and mangled heads.

Here are the defaulters, who maintained dumb insolence when charged with conduct prejudice to the good discipline of the household. Fortunately for them this place has a few barrack lawyers on hand to argue their case; ah puppies.

WW1 Stuff

Still plodding away with the rest of my South Koreans at present, so not much else to show. Am playing around with some ideas for a Great War demo, and here are a couple of the contenders: either something from March 1918 involving gas, guns and stormtroopers, or perhaps a representation of the first tank verses tank engagement; still not sure yet, more research is required. Anyway, here are some pictures of a few of the allied troops likely to be involved, in this instance Canadians.

Quite a good set this, although the plastic leaves a bit to be desired.

Last couple are of German aircraft which will be used in a ground support role, whatever I eventually come up with.

With the workings of Inchon still on the table in my shed, I may have to stage a small takeover of the lounge to work out my trench layout for this demo. This is not going to please her indoors, but sacrifices must be made to ensure accuracy, anyway, we'll see. If I get some time this week I'll take a couple of pictures for you.

Inchon Map Demo 3

Same stuff as before, so this is just a bit of an update. All of the ground scale has been done now, and there were surprisingly few adjustments required. A couple of the major hill features needed moving by a few inches and likewise with the main railway station. The NKPA figures that you can see here and there have been used to test march times to their relevant areas of reinforcement at various times during the game.

I got these T34s online, good job there was two of them because that is just how many we need. I'm not really into late-war stuff, but have the basics. In game terms they will represent two understrength tank platoons operating independently of each other, and the only armour the NKPA get for this action.

Last one is the only wheeled transport the NKPA get. I think I got this overseas, a Russian kit of some sort. There is only minor detailing left to do on the map, but that will have to wait until game day. I have to pull my trench boards out next to see if they are going to fit in with some Great War ideas that I'm playing around with, so the next pictures from Inchon that I post should be of the game; in the meantime I have to source a Pershing tank and Corsair aircraft, as well as numerous landing craft and other vessels.

Inchon Demo Map 2

The tape measures show the boat lanes and initial objectives for the assault battalions. Wol Mi Do will be garrisoned by a company with the rest of its battalion deployed in depth, and its HQ in the Asai Brewery, which is just behind Cemetery Hill in the lower right.

Downtown Inchon has been reworked, the industrial zone starts from the bottom of the picture.

The British Consulate area of the waterfront was a bit more up-market than other parts of Inchon, so I moved buildings around to better represent this. The road crossing the railway line in the center left leads to the tidal basin, where a fourth battalion of marines come ashore on about turn 8.

Last one shows the forward slopes of Observatory Hill and its emplacements. There are still numerous details to be worked out, but I have the basic ground scale and major features pretty much right. The next thing to do is mess around with the landing times and approximate troop positions.

Inchon Map: Demo One

This is my first attempt at a map for our Inchon game, planned for the holidays. Seems this is going to be a difficult one to get right. The first picture shows the right flank of Red Beach, looking over the causeway from Wol Mi Do island. The factory building represents the Nippon Flour Company, and the industrial area starts here and covers most of the left hand side of the map. The crude wooden blocks will eventually be painted and represent the sea wall.

Left flank of Red Beach showing the Asai Brewery and the fortified Cemetery Hill in front of it, this feature had to be taken quickly on the day as it overlooked a large part of the beach.

Another shot of the flour mill, looking towards Green Beach at Wol Mi Do.

This is the British Consulate, hemmed in by a good sized cliff face and the railway line leading to the sea wall.

This is the port's railway station, about 1000 yards from the beach, or 20 inches in our scale.

And here is the station that serves the city.

Part of the housing district. It is quite out of scale and will need substantial reworking in future attempts.

Just a bigger shot of downtown Inchon, Observatory Hill in the middle right is in about the right position, but the housing in the first block needs to be closer to it, and we'll need to put in some more dirt roads. When doing historical scenarios I always try to match the terrain as close as possible to the actual area. Researching the various OOBs is also a bit of fun too.

The Table

This is my board. 130x80 inches. At an inch to fifty yards I can do some reasonably big games for CD, but it is not the largest board I've had. When living on the east coast I had a board that was 200x100, which was actually a bit too big when try to manage units around the center. We solved this by having some handy little steps on either side of the table, which could be moved easily. Am trying to find the time to do a couple of mock-ups for Inchon, so as to get the ground scale accurate, and will post a couple of pictures later.

Korean War Stuff

Here are the latest two companies of ROK infantry, from the first finished battalion of three. They include figures from a few different manufacturers, including a couple of hard plastics, and I am quite happy with the overall look of the unit. Will probably spend some time this week messing around with board layouts from my maps. We have decided to include the landings at Inchon on our holiday gaming list for this year, and the more accurate the board as compared with actual maps, usually the better game one gets.

Mig15, a gift from my daughter, and a damn good choice too. It won't feature in the Inchon game, but certainly in others from the Korean War. The pilot needed painting and the whole airframe got a dry-brush followed by a light inking; didn't come up too bad. Now I need a Meteor and or a Sabre to match up against it.

More Work in Progress

The pictures show the ROK regiment's entire support section. It took a while for units to start receiving support weapons at the company and battalion level, and for most of 1950 regiments sported weapons companies.

Here is an MMG and an HMG platoon; roughly equal to sixty men they were expected to supply close fire support for between 2-3000 men. This seriously hampered offensive operations.

This one shows the dedicated anti-tank unit of the regiment, again only two platoons.

Lastly, the command and mortar platoons. Still not quite finished, but getting there. Once I have finished the OOB for 1950 I will start building some more support units, which will be added in actions of later years. Gradually the ROK became better equipped and trained, so eventually the rifle companies will have the same sort of fire-power that to start with was only available at the battalion level, or higher.

Great War Russians

When I was posting WW1 stuff last week I forgot to show some Russians, so here they are. I have four battalions of infantry and a regiment of cavalry in this part of my collection.

These next three pictures are company command stands from the different battalions. Each unit got a slightly different paint job.

The officer figure here is from the Airfix WW2 Russian set.

Bending an arm and twisting the head created quite a reasonable pose on this officer figure.

Lastly, one of the MMG platoons. If you're ever looking for good reading material on Russia's Great War I would highly recommend Norman Stone's The Eastern Front 1914-1917. It is still the best work in English I have seen in many years of interest in this period.