Plans for gaming the Cold War in 15mm

I am the supreme example of a wargames butterfly.  I fly from period to period with the attention span of a confused goldfish, although there is one exception to this. 

The so-called Cold War has always been of interest to me, probably because I grew up through it. I started off with a lot of 1/300^th forces and played with Modern Spearhead. Then I got diverted into skirmish gaming and got some Cold War figures in 28mm. Now with the widespread availability of 15mm models I am again spending money on 1980s period figures. In my defence I have stayed on one period and I can reuse all my existing 15mm WW2 scenery. ;)

So, I am sorting out a mixed bag of forces, I got British in the Armies Army kickstarter and have recently picked up a lot of Soviet stuff second hand. I have also bought some Battlefront Germans as well. My aim is to have a reinforced platoon for each of the British and German forces while the Soviet forces will end up at company strength. Below is a brief idea of the force structures I am going for, any comments on mistakes would be much appreciated. I have used the old WRG army list books as a guide to what is required. These lists do things by groups so I have had to guess what is in the group in some cases.

    British Mech Infantry Platoon

       Platoon HQ with 1 Fv432, 1 command group and 1 light mortar group

       3 sections each with 1 Fv432, 2 rifle groups, 1 LMG and 1 MAW

I have translated this into the following

HQ – 1 Fv432, 1 CO, 1 SNCO, 1 RTO and 1 light mortar man.

Sections – 1 Fv432, 1 NCO, 1 LMG with 2 crew, 1 MAW gunner, 4 riflemen.

Support wise I have the following

A tank platoon of 3 Chieftains (I may get 1 more as they could be 3 or 4 strong)

AT section of 2 Milan teams (1 additional Fv432 needed)

AA section of 2 Javelin teams in a Spartan

SFMG team to be carried in the command Fv432 if needed

   

     German Heimschutzkommando Platoon

       Platoon HQ with 1 M113 or Marder, 1 command group, 1 LMG and 1 Milan

       2 squads each with 1 M113 or Marder, 1 rifle group, 1 LMG and 1 MAW

Translated into

HQ – 1 M113, 1 CO, 1 RTO, 1 LMG with 2 crew and 1 Milan with 2 crew

Squads – 1 M113, 1 NCO, 1 LMG with 2 crew, 1 MAW gunner and 3 riflemen

Support

A Panzer platoon with 3 Leopard 1

AT section of 4 Jagpanzer Kannone

AA section of 1 Redeye team attached to PHQ

I will also get some Marders to give me the option of "upgrading" them to regulars.

 

    3 Soviet BMP Platoons each with

       Platoon HQ with 1 BMP, 1 command group, 1 rifle group and 1 LMG

       2 squads each with 1 BMP, 1 rifle group, 1 infantry group and 1 LMG

Turns into 3 platoons each with

HQ – 1 BMP, 1 CO, 1 NCO, 1 SAW, 1 RPG, 4 riflemen

Squad 1 – 1 BMP, 1 SNCO, 1 NCO, 1 SAW, 1 RPG, 4 riflemen

Squad 2 – 1 BMP, 1 LMG with 2 crew, 1 NCO, 1 SAW, 1 RPG, 4 riflemen

Support

2 Tank Platoons each with 4 T-72/80.

1 AA section of 1 SA-7 team in 1 BMP

There are a few other options I am considering getting, some recce vehicles for each force are a prime example, but that's the plan for now. Just need to get on with painting it all after Christmas. And find a set of rules for it, current options are FEBA, Force on Force and Sabre Squadron.  Decisions decisions.

Big Dux Brit game and some painting

It's been a long month but I am still kicking.....just.  I have had a bit of a downer for a while, but things are a bit better now.

Despite the really bad start to the month I have managed to get some painting done, some for me and some for Nathan.  He had a mixed load of Dark Ages figures that he has picked up from ebay and various shows that he asked me to paint for him.  So far I have done over 50 of them with another 30+ to go.

 Here are some of them, a mixed lot of Romano-British first.

 Followed by a couple batches of Saxons.

So that's 36 of them, I also did another 20 that I gave back to him without taking any bad photos first.

 Also I have finally finished replacing the Dark Ages Wargames Factory figures I had in my Dux forces with Gripping Beast ones.
Here are the "Romano-British", actually a mix of Dark Age warriors and Saxon Thegns.  18 Levy, 12 Warrior and 6 Elite foot, supported by 4 archers and 4 skirmish javelinmen.  I have painted up a few extra command figures to make up the command bases.  There are a grand total of 7 metal figures in this force, cheap is my middle name.

Then the Saxons, 18 Warriors and 12 Elites with 4 archers and 4 skirmishers again.  Same basing system for the leaders as the Brits.Again there are just 7 metal figures in this lot.


Finally I got some cavalry painted up as well.  The 4 at the back are Gripping Beast figures from the lead mountain that came from somewhere long ago.  They are used to represent light cavalry for either side.  The front 4 are Black Tree late Roman cavalry.  They have painted up nicely, but the amount of prep work to get the horses cleaned up was ridiculous.  I think there was more mould leaked metal on these horses than there was metal actually in the horse castings themselves.  Anyway, they will be used as shock cavalry eventually.

Yesterday was the Devon Wargames monthly meet again and, for the first time in several years, I actually managed to stay for the whole day and get some gaming in.  It wiped me out for today but it was worth it.  The game was great, with multiple players on each side and about 200 figures a side.  Not bad for a 2 player skirmish game.

Jon put up a nice report on the blog and took some cracking photos, so please pop over and take a look.  Don't mention the size of his warband though, he gets all defensive about it.  ;)

I am now going to bed, so I'll catch you all next time.