Easy Army: Fortress Europe Soviets added

Just a quick update.

By special request, Gregg over at Easy Army has done three Soviet lists from the Fortress Europe book. I asked Gregg if he was going to add the Unoffocial Heavy Tank Killer company option. In less than a day, he put it up. How's that for a quick response. =)

Any list with a Heavy Tank Killer company must be approved by a Tournament Organizer until the PDF becomes official.

In the meantime, Soviet players will get tinker with their Fortress Europe lists with the fun of adding SU-100's and SU-85M's.

Thanks, Gregg.

Book Review: Dmitriy Loza's book

I went back and forth before purchasing this book from Amazon. The price of $33+ for a book that is less than 200 pages put me off. The text is 157 pages long actually, with the rest filled with Footnote explanations and an Index. Another thing to consider the battles against the Germans fill the first 101 pages and then the remaining 50 pages focus on Loza's transfer to Manchuria to disarm the Japanese. Aside from the long road marches, the Japanese Front portion of the book will hold little interest.

Yet I couldn't resist the draw of reading about Lend Lease Shermans in Russian service. There's also the fact that I'm building a 76mm Emcha Batallion from the Stalin's Europe book and the author of the book is Dmitriy Loza, one of the Warriors in SE.

There are only 2 maps in the book - one for the Western front and the other is for the Far east front. Loza does a good job of describing the operational situation before he delves more into what his unit is doing. The pictures in the book can be found on the Internet. You won't find any new Emcha pics.

You'd think after the negatives I'm posting, I wouldn't have liked the book.

But I did.

Loza tells anecdotes about the Emcha in service. He talks about the use of Forward Detachments and Infiltrations to outmaneuver strong defensive positions. There's talk of radios inside the Shermans (something T-34's didn't always have) and how Loza's Batallion maneuvered as a whole to accomplish a mission (cough, no Hen & Chicks). Loza is Deputy Batallion Commander (basically the 2iC), which is mirrored in his ability to take over as CiC if the CiC gets whacked. This is why I wanted the book, to hear these stories and see how they can be recreated in FOW.

However, if you aren't interested in Lend Lease Shermans in Russia, don't buy the book. The cost versus the number of pages is too high. You have to be a Lend Lease nut like me to get any value out of it. Find a Lend Lease friend and borrow their copy.

A view from above

Spending quality time with the Misses. At 600+ feet in the air, it's very serene and quiet. Santa Catalina Island providing a picturesque background.

Zveda Pz II 1/100 Plastic Snap-On Kit

I picked up a couple of Zveda Pz II and Pz IIIG plastic kits. I've heard good things about them and for the price I was curious enough to see how viable they'd be on the tabletop.

Click below to see pics of the Pz II kit.

Imperial Armour 10: The Artwork

Other sites have reviewed the series of Badab War, namely the Independent Characters in Episode 21 and Collegia Titanic. Both have great reviews, positive and negative, to base a decision to plop $75+ on Part I or Part II.

I don't play 40K. Don't play to. I'm well invested in FoW. Yet, I still own an Ork army that I built and painted back in the early days of 40K and Adeptus Titanticus. They are buried at a friend's workshop. Maybe one day I'll dig them out and post a few pics. There's still one thing I enjoy about 40K and it's the fluff. The grim and dark future resonates with me. Humanity fighting enemies from within and outside the Imperium.

So I bought IA10 (I resisted for several months) after listening to IC Episode 21. Thanks Carl and Geoff (though my wallet curses you both lol). I enjoyed the read. I think the battles should have been more detailed. I liked the history of the chapters presented at the end of the book.

I was also struck by the graphic design and it reminded me of the work of Claes Sundin. Claes is a world famous aviation artist, focusing mostly on the Luftwaffe and VVS (Russian airforce).

IA10 (and I'll assume the other IA books) have great profiles of the Marine chapters and vehicles. To compare....

IA10 - Space Sharks


Claes's work


The profiles of the Land Raiders, Rhinios, Drop Pods, Dreadnoughts, etc are just as high quality as the work Claes put in his airplane profiles. To me that shows tha Forgeworld is spending $$ and time to make a high quality product.

I have zero interest in the Eldar. I don't like Space Wolves. Having made such a declaration, it's possible I'll buy IA11 based on the fluff and graphic art.

Well done Forgeworld.

In other news, I have a game with P tomorrow. He's bringing a nasty Tankovy for me to playtest the 11th Panzer Division against. I'm also on vacation, so expect posts to be more sporadic than usual. I plan to get more games in besides tomorrows and lots of painting.

All for now. Thanks for visiting.

11th Panzer Division vs Rota Razvedki in Encounter

OOB P's Rota Razvedki

HQ CiC, 2iC Rifle w/motorcycles
Razvedki Platoon (9 stands) in M3A1
Razvedki Platoon (9 stands) in U/C, armed with Boys AT
4x SU-76M
9x Stuarts
6x 81-BM-41 mortars in trucks, Observer Rifle team
4x ZiS-3 AT guns

1,575 pts (ermmmm.....)

11. Panzer Division circa Dec 1942, near the Chir River

HQ: 2x Panzer III L w/schurzen
P1: 4x Panzer III L w/schurzen
P2: 3x Panzer IV F-2
P3: Panzer Pionners w/Goliath and in Trucks
P4: 2x 8-rads

1,500 pts


Eh, I wrote down P's army and input it into Easy Army and it spit out a cost of 1,575. It's 1,670 if the mortars switch from 81mm to 120mm. I thought P said they were 120mm mortars. Meh, I probably messed up the force list as he read it to me.

Mission = Encounter.

Warning, many many pics to follow. I took 67 pics during the battle, but it was whittled down to I'm not sure how many. Secondly, since there are so many pics I don't want to put the battle summary at the end. Some of you may not want to stare at all those pics. Instead, the battle summary is below in the large blank area in white-font. Highlight the area with your mouse to read my thoughts.

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Well, a hard fought 3-4 loss. Considering I was probably out-pointed, I fought well. Again, I wasn't nearly as aggressive with the Pz IIIM's as I should have been. They are FA6 for goodness sake. I also misread the ROF on the Stuart, giving it ROF 3 instead of 2. Oiy. Plus, I'm immune to AT7 and I forgot the Stuarts had Hen and Chicks, hampering their movement.

I also blew it with the Boys AT rifle, it being a passenger fired weapon. Knowing the capabilities of the weapon would have helped and I would have pointed out it couldn't fire with Paul's guys dismounted and not worried about the U/C's flanking the Pz F-2's.

Those were the two big mistakes. The pioneers never unpinned and simply served as target practice for Paul's mortars. I was happy with the way I dispatched the SU-76's as they were a big threat at the beginning of the game.

This will be the basis for the army I'll take to Maus Haus IV for the Labor Day SoCal Smackdown. I need to add 250pts. I see many versions of this 1,500pt force. I could drop the F-2's and take all Pz IIIM's and add Marder IIIH's and a Auf Squadron as support. It'd be a very fast moving army and in the enemies face real quick.

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