Refighting Arnhem - again

One of our best Crisis games was a kriegspiel like refight of Arnhem on a big custom made terrain, which we schlepped around the shows in 2005/2006. That terrain has since been destroyed (I decided not to take it along on my latest house move), but parts of it -- notably the trees, buildings and railroad -- were recovered.

I spent the last couple of weeks setting up a Kallistra based terrain using this scenery, together with quite a lot of new 3D-printed houses to come up with this:

This time the terrain does not feature the drop zones and villages around them, but starts with the woods west of Oosterbeek and continues to Arnhem. Obviously, some of the forest bases need to be painted and populated with trees (I've got a good sized box of trees left) and the 3D printed houses need to be painted, but this is pretty much the table I'm going to use. The idea is to have the paras land in the fields in the lower right corner (a bit closer to Arnhem then they landed historically) and see where they end up. 

Rules used in the game will probably be Rommel by Sam Mustafa. 

More to follow :)

Chain of Command prep I: catalogue the collection

I've been threatening to organise a Chain of Command game for a while now and am finally getting around to doing something about it.

The game will be set during Operation Market Garden, north of the Rhine, with 1st Airborne defending the Oosterbeek perimeter from encroaching Germans. First step in the game preparation is taking stock of my collection and seeing whether I can build a viable Chain of Command force out of them.

I just did that with my British paras. I sorted them out according to types to see where I had a surplus or a deficit. This is the result:

Basic infantry

Of these, I need two types - your bog standard riflemen and Sten (or 'liberated' German SMG) armed soldiers:

The Sten types

The riflemen (some Stens to be transplanted from the multiple bases in front)

So it seems I have about twice as many riflemen as Sten types, which is a ratio that is skewed too much towards the Stens. So it seems I will need to paint some more rifle types. Luckily these figures (20mm Britannia and FAA) paint up rather quickly.

Support

For support I'm covered pretty well, having several Bren, Vickers MMG and PIAT teams as well as some 3" and 2" mortar teams and a FOO unit. Here's the faces to go with the names:

Front to back: Bren, Vickers, PIAT, mortars. FOO is hiding among the Vickers teams.

Leader types

Of these I also have more than enough. Various figures which can serve as both junior and senior leaders:

Leader types, with some transport in the background

In addition I have quite a few jeeps, a supply point and other bits'n'bobs which can serve as jump off points for this force.

So - on to painting some more riflemen!

Arnhem 2005 Flyer

For those who want to download the flyer we handed out during our Arnhem game at Crisis 2005, it is available here.

Simply print it out double-sided, fold it together, and presto!

Phil

Crisis Photos

Crisis 2005 - Arnhem


Originally uploaded by ahuyton.


Frost advances towards Oosterbeek






Crisis 2005 - Arnhem


Originally uploaded by ahuyton.



Kussin shot up again, if only he had been more careful





Crisis 2005 - Arnhem


Originally uploaded by ahuyton.



The second landing, now everything will be fine!





Crisis 2005 - Arnhem


Originally uploaded by ahuyton.



Massive German attack on Oosterbeek, destined for failure




Crisis 2005 - Arnhem


Originally uploaded by ahuyton.



Hurrah, it's 16.30 and here comes XXX Corps across the railway bridge, valiantly recaptured by Maarten

Oh my god, we're doing Arnhem

The high point of the wargaming year in Belgium is without a doubt Crisis, [TSA](http://www.tsoa.be)'s yearly convention. Each year since 1997, we have presented a participation game there, and so will we in 2005.

Each year also sees a long and convoluted decision process on what the game for that year will be, and this year was no different. We quickly settled on a [participation game system](http://www.nirya.be/snv/ttm/archives/000040.html), proposed by Phil, but had not decided on a game yet.

We had the faint idea of doing something really spectacular, then dropped that idea and focused on the Battle of Halen (famous Belgian victory over German cavalry in 1914), but that was probably a bit too ambitious to do in full S&V style.

The latest suggestion is to do Arnhem 1944 in 6mm, and I quite like this. I've always been interested in this tragic battle, and when our recent love affair with [Blitzkrieg Commander](http://www.wargamesdirectory.com/html/bkc/default.asp) incited a renewed interest in WWII gaming, Alan came up with the idea (the suggestion was mentioned innocently in a game of War of the Ring and took hold from there) of doing Arnhem in 6mm for Crisis.

The plan is to use BKC rules, combined with the participation system (Phil, that's your job :) ), as the game system. For the terrain and OOB's, we'll use the excellent [Rapid Fire](http://www.rapid-fire.uk.com) supplement on Market Garden. The terrain will probably be in the order of 3x1.5m and we'll be representing the entire Arnhem - Oosterbeek - Wolfheze sector, featuring the entire 1st Airborne division and all of the German units represented.

It's a tall order, but I'm fairly optimistic we'll be able to complete the game on time. And when it's completed, it's just a question of doing some extra troops and terrain boards to be able to do the whole of Market Garden. Megalomaniacs'r'us, indeed.

miniatures