The Final Act ‐ Verkhniy‐Kumskiy

The Germans have held Verkhniy‐Kumskiy but the pressure from the Soviets is increasing. The German objective is now to withdraw from the village and press on towards Stalingrad.

This scenario is a bit special because the German infantry starts in the village while the depleted panzer platoon (2 Panzer III) enters from the Soviet table edge (anywhere but not within 18" of a Soviet unit).

At first glance the Soviets will have a tough time against the German force. We roll a dice and...I get the Germans (again).

I place two German jump-off points inside the buildings, forgetting that the fences block LOS from most of the windows so any troops wishing to fire will have to go outside.

The Soviets get the first turn and a T34 enters the table. I'm in luck with my dice roll and am able to deploy a Panzer III which puts an AT round straight into the T34: 3 net hits and the T34 is no more.
This leaves the Soviets with an anti-tank rifle as their only anti-tank capability.

To block the Soviets from using the jump-off point I deploy the second Panzer III and move it onto the jump-off point.

Also the German MMG deploys.

My opponent tries to take out the Panzer III with his anti-tank rifle team, but it is wiped out before it can do much damage. Fortunately for him the Soviet squad he deploys contains eagle-eyed-Ivan, who is a crack shot with the LMG.

Ivan fires at the Panzer III and forces it to reverse 6". This means off-table!

Seeing the panzer routing from the table is a blow to the German morale. Because of the loss of the jump-off point, the Soviets are forced to bunch up in the scrub, under fire from the other panzer, the MMG and a newly deployed German squad.

Soviet junior leaders are getting wounded and men are killed, but the Soviets also inflict casualties on the German side.

Morale is dropping on both sides and I decide to deploy a fresh German squad.

They never fire a shot though. Ivan's unit is wiped out by panzer fire which reduces the Soviet force morale to 1: game over.

The next chapter of the Winter Storm campaign will see the Germans return to Verkhniy‐Kumskiy. Before we game this next chapter however, we'll probably game something entirely different, taking a break from the frozen steppe.

Building Power Armour troopers part 1

During the games we played while fleshing out our SciFi rules (based on TFL Sharpe Practice and Chain of Command) I often looked with envy at my opponent's beautiful heavy power armour troopers.

These are from the Mongoose Starship Troopers range and are still available via Rebel minis. I didn't want to order these but was looking for miniatures with a similar look.

Then I found this model from Puppetswar: Heavy Prime Striker

Most of their available heads are of the 40K variety (which I didn't want to use), but fortunately an access hatch type cover was available (already attached to the miniature in the picture above). My first idea was to go for shoulder pads with missile pods, but then I changed my mind. A shoulder mounted harness offered more options for weapons and active defense gear. This harness however, didn't fit (incompatible with the access hatch "head") at first. Carefully clipping the edges solved this.

Almost all parts came with pre drilled holes for magnets and I planned to make full use of this. 

On to the arms. I wanted to stick with one main weapon attached to the right arm and a left arm with a plain hand so ordered right arms with all available weapon extensions and added some from my bits box.

At this point I changed my mind again and ordered some close combat left arms. Everything had gone well up untill now so I was a bit surpised when I received close combat right arms. I contacted Puppetswar about the wrong parts and they sent me new close combat arms. Unfortunately these new ones were also right arms. 

I experienced this once before when ordering from The Assault Group. Probably a case of incorrectly labelled stock. Unlike The Assault Group, where I got the correct miniature in the end (and got to keep the other ones! Great service), Puppetswar stopped responding to my requests for close combat left arms.

Eventually I decided to break and cut the close combat right arms to turn them into left arms with the help of some greenstuff.

Hopefully this will be further obscured after painting.