Neue Stan Halle, 1979 - part 1

No doubt some of you will already have seen Bob's report of this game over at Wargaming Miscellany .  I organised this  - the largest Little Cold Wars game so far staged - at Knuston Hall on Friday 5 June.  As I gather in the photos which several of the players took, I will present a fuller report of the game over the coming weeks.  For now I will simply set the scene...

Having had a couple of players drop out due to family and health issues, on the day there were six of us - a good number.  It can now be revealed that those taking part were:

Game Director and dogsbody - Mr Tim Gow

The forces of progressive democracy - Comrade Bertrand Plastique and Comrade Ian Drury

  

The running dogs of capitalist imperialism - Mr Bob Cordery, Mr Russell King & Mr Jack Wright

Warpact forces crossed the inner German Border at first light this morning.  Intel reports indicate a Warpact Motor Rifle Regiment heading for the picturesque town of Neue Stan Halle.  US forces are rushing to defend the area and it's crucial airfield.  What could possibly go wrong?

We gathered at 0900ish and after setting up the field of battle - an area of around 30x30 feet, I offered the following overview of Little Cold Wars:  

36 inches = 1 km

1 stand of infantry = a western style platoon.  Typically represented by 4 figures.

1 stand with MG/mortar/ATGM = support platoon, typically 2-3 figures.

1 artillery observer team.  2 figures

1 AFV/gun model = platoon/troop/battery/Warpact half-company of 4-5 but see also below

1 APC model represents enough transport to lift a Western-style infantry company (so around 12-15 vehicles)

1 aircraft model = a pair of aircraft

1 transport aircraft or helicopter model represents enough transport to lift an infantry company

A game turn = 15 minutes

Given our prompt start - we were ready to begin the game by 1015ish - I aimed to run the game in pretty much real time.

 RAF Neue Stan Halle - clearly a major NATO airbase and likely to be a WARPACT objective.  While I was painting the big bit of cardboard used for the runway I noticed evidence that it has already been used for at least three other games!

Neue Stan Halle on the left, with a view of the Autobahn heading east.  By a trick of the light the concrete surface looks very like a yellowish strip of mown dried grass....

More outdoor fun soon.

Great crate?

COW attendees will soon have the opportunity to inspect this stuff at first hand as it forms the basis of 'Don't Look Now' - this year's Plenary Game.

This rather large and extremely heavy box was picked up on eBay last year.  John Armatys spotted it and drew it to my attention.  I made a quick calculation of what the bits were worth and placed a maximum bid on that basis.  Forty minutes later it was mine.  The dearth of bids was I suspect largely due to the seller's understandable insistence on it being collected from Aldershot...

The size of the thing meant that it only just fitted in my car.  It's weight proved a challenge only just overcome by the combined efforts of myself and the vendor - a Royal Engineers officer.

Readers of a certain age may recall that Miltra used to have ads in Military Modelling promoting their lovely but hugely expensive 1/100 scale AFV models.  Clearly their main customer was the Army, and this is how their sets were packaged.  Sadly I had to part with the enormous box.  It's squaddie-proof over engineering made it too heavy to move by myself and it took up way too much space in the garage.

 The contents.  Not, as it turned out, a complete set but most of it is there.

  Some of the models.  I'll let you identify them....

 There are a fair few buildings and terrain features...

 ...and about 30 vehicles.

 

 Some of the resin buildings.  The church is a delight.

  There are about 6 feet of road sections - also cast in resin. 

 Some of the terrain set up.

Dusty donations

 At Triples I was given a box of not entirely random things by Tim Cockitt, who continues to help the family of the late Paddy Griffith with the disposal of wargaming related stuff.  Having now brushed off the worst of the dust I offer this preview of it's contents.

 This M-56 Scorpion SPAT gun is the Revell kit - making it around 1/40 scale.  It was designed to be dropped by parachute or lifted by helicopter and was armed with a similar 90mm gun to that found in M-26, M-47 and M-48 tanks.

 An M-115 203mm howitzer.  Most of it is there but a fair bit of repair work is required.

 An ever-useful Jeep, again in 1/40-something scale.

 This is the Renwall kit of the M-8 tractor in something getting on for 1/35 scale.  One of the main purposes of the M-8 was to tow the...

 ...M-51 Skysweeper 75mm AA gun.  Another Renwall kit in need of TLC.

And finally...figures in at least three scale, along with more broken bits.

Expect to see more of this lot as repair work progresses.

Shopping at Triples - part 3 - books

I picked up a few books at Triples too.  Either two or four depending on how you count them!
First up is this little gem.  While I freely admit it's not at the cutting edge of aviation research, you must bear in mind that here at Megablitz Towers it is forever 1979...  But mostly I picked it up as I have a couple from the same series and rather like 'em.

This was a most unexpected find.  An unopened 3-volume set of large format books on a conflict rather under-represented on my book shelves.

The expression 'lavishly illustrated' springs to mind.  There are lots of pleasing maps...

...photos of actual kit...

...and paintings of uniforms.  

The cost of this lot?  A tidy £20.