Cold War Gone Hot - In The 1950's

As mentioned before, albeit sometime ago, I fancy getting some Cold War type games in in the future. My initial plan was to re-visit a setting we played at my old club many years ago, set in Germany in 1985, using 6mm figures at the time. But the more I thought about it, the less attractive it became as it felt like I would be covering old ground again, which of course it would, but I wanted something with more flexibility. I considered Korea, and may still do, but it doesn't really grab me and I didn't fancy painting up some new forces for a setting I might not game that much.

Then I saw a series of games on the ever excellent Sparker's Wargames Blog, and I thought why not a sort of 'what if?' set in the 1950's. Afterall I could easily use my existing British and Soviet forces for the core units, then add in appropriate armour as required. So the seed was set and I went about sorting a few ideas out, which resulted in an order with Pendraken that I picked up at Colours. This consisted of a load of late WWII and 1950's armour, but as they are still in their bags, not really worth taking a photos of!

One thing I struggled, with and I think I mentioned it recently, was finding some 1:100 scale aircraft for wargames. Whilst the post-War period is better served than WWII, it is still limited and at time pricey. So I went down the diecast option route and found the following at very reasonable prices.

The start of my ground attack aircraft for NATO and the Warsaw Pact.

US Sabre F-86. Whilst not really a ground attack aircraft, it will work perfectly well for me, heretic that I am!

A Chinese marked Mig-17. Whilst not Warsaw Pact, again I'm not too worried aobut this at the present time.

The classic Me-262, which will be re-purposed for my setting.

The Setting

Ideas are still somewhat fluid at present, but broadly Stalin is dead and the power vacuum that is left causes armed conflict to break out somewhere along the East and West German border. Tensions have remained high since the end of WWII, so the Allies have kept on the Wehrmacht to help maintain the peace, to reduce the need from manpower from their respective Countries. The new Wehrmacht is supplied with a mix of British, German and American equipment, much of it of WWII vintage but with better power plants etc. The Soviet Union is pretty much as we know it, but maybe Poland, or East Germany, tires to break away, leading to said conflict.

Well that's it so far and frankly I'm enjoying this 'childhood memories' approach where we simply used the toys we had at the time and had fun playing games with them. This is something I'm trying to do more of, but admittedly struggle when it comes to WWII, as I do like to have broadly correct kit for my settings. Elsewhere with the ImagiNations approach, this really isn't an issue.

Right, enough waffle from me as I need to focus on the forthcoming CWD! As always thanks for reading and any and all comments are appreciated!

TTFN.

Cold War Wargaming - Some Thoughts

Dearest Gentle Reader,

and esteemed members of the wargaming Ton*. Whilst I have been pretty busy with my usual parent/carer duties, sorting our son's old bedroom out and turning it into my games room, plus trying to get some gardening in inbetween very variable weather, my old grey cells have been whirring away quite happily in the background. I have been giving plenty of thoughts to my wargaming and a somewhat realistic appraisal of my needs versus my planned projects, with the eternal squaring the circle that is required, as my ideas frequently outstrip my ability to realise them. I'm sure I'm not along in this!

Recently I have been giving some thought on how to get some Cold War games in, with relatively minimal effort and outlay. My initial idea was to go down the 'classic' 1980's route and in 6mm, which I've done before many years ago, but whilst I really enjoyed this, I fancied something different. To this end some recent Blog posts, listed below, gave me plenty of ideas on how I might approach this sort of mini-project:

Devon Wargames Group

Sparker's Wargames Blog

The Land of Counterpane Blog

Whilst these are all set circa 1948, I fancied something a little later, to give me a bit more leeway on background fluff and post-WWII kit too, but still keeping that 1948 vibe as shown on the Blogs. So mid-1950's sort of ticks all the boxes for me at present.

Fluff wise there is plenty to choose from, with Stalin recently dead and Kruschev going about the de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union; Korea is happening or recently finished and tensions could spill over into Europe; the Hungarian Revolution is in full swing; tensions in other Countries under Soviet control; West Germany has just been 'formed'. Well I think you get the picture, that there is plenty of stuff to hang a story and campaign on.

In a sense with potential settings sorted, my mind turned to what sort of kit I wanted to field with my WWII forces, to make it feel more like a Cold War game. In no particular order:

Jet Fighters 

Whilst propellor driven aircraft will probably make an appearance, I really wanted to get some MIG's in for, to me, that classic Soviet post-War fighter look. On the NATO side the Hawker Hunter appeals to me, but I'm sure some others might pique my interest...

Tanks

I've always liked the T-54/55 and if I could, I would field a T-62, but this is way outside of my timeframe. Arrayed against them would be the Centurion Mk5, a tank that I had the Airfix kit of as a kid. Both sides would have plenty of WWII kit too, which adds a nice bit a variety to the look of the whole.

Helicopters

Whilst I would love to have an Attack Helicopter option, realistically this is not an option, but never-say-never! Most likely this would feature in a Scouting or FAO role and I'm sure I will take some liberties and bring in some 1960's 'whirlybirds' back to the 1950's just because I like the look of them.

AK-47's & SLR's

These infantry weapons certainly mark the transition to more modern equipment, but for ease of the potential project, I will stick with my existing WWII infantry. After all in 10mm you will barely notice the difference...

ATGW's & Recoilless Rifles

Whilst the Recoilless Rifles are available, it would be nice to have some ATGW's, but as per the Helicopter option, realistically they are not available. But maybe some experimental projects have been rushed through for battlefield trials...?

So there we have it. Plenty for me to be thinking about whislt I'm painting or sorting out the flooring. At least I know my existing 10mm forces will form the core of both forces, so I just need to add in some of the above to give it the feel of what I want. Time to start drawing up a shopping list.

* Unless you have watched the Netflix series, 'Bridgerton', this will mean nothing to you!

TTFN.

Cold War Gone Hot - Reference Material

Recently on the Pendraken Forum, Richard of  The Land of Counterpane Blog joined up and put up some useful links to posts on how to get going with Cold War Commander. One of these mentioned the ever excellent Micromark lists by Mark Bevis. I had completely forgotten that I had ordered some for the Cold War way back when and so promptly dug them out of the folder in which they've lain for seom 10 years or more. Just what I needed to get my OOB sorted!

Having looked through the lists again, it tipped me down the route of 'classic' 1985 Cold War forces, of British versus the Warsaw Pact, but most likely Soviet given that I have the lists. I'm sure with a slight tweak of MBT's and AFV's, the force could easily become Polish or East German Warsaw Pact. 

The above has also cemented in my mind that I will go down the 6mm route for my games. Why?: a couple of reasons really. Namely:

• Availability of equipment in 6mm pure and simple. From my brief perusing of the H&R website they have pretty much everything I need, which cannot be said for 10mm.
• Cost. Looking at what I would want to field for a game, in 10mm it would be prohibitively expensive compared to 6mm. For the cost of just the MBT's in 10mm I can pretty much field a Mechanised and Armoured Brigade in 6mm. 
• The look of the game. Modern tanks are big and when you want to field a squadron or two, they look too big when on the table compared to their 6mm equivalents. Just imagine 6 Tiger II's and you get my drift.

My British lists.

The equivalent Soviets lists.

The postman delivered my recently ordered copy of CWCII. A brief flick through today and all I can say is that I'm very happy that I did take the plunge. A lot more refined and developed thanks to all the work done since BKCII & IV and visually very nice to look at too. The binding seems to be a lot more robust than of late, which is good of course. There are only 3 lists in the book: US, British and Soviet with everything else being freely available online. The lists are a lot more detailed than before, so I'm looking forward to getting my head around these. Ditto the rule changes and tweaks which again from a first look through look to be good and well thought out.

A rulebook that is well worth getting if you fancy some 'Moderns' gaming.

Also landing on the door mat was Hackett's book. Again a quick flick through this morning and all I can say is that I'm really, really looking forward to reading this. It looks packed full of info, narrative and ideas and you can see why 1985 has become the default timeframe for Cold War Gone Hot Games. 

An original copy that I picked up for an absolute bargain price!

So enough of the 1985 Cold War mindset, time to travel back to 1815 and the prospect of facing Old Boney!

Cold War Gone Hot (or Tepid)

About a week ago on one lovely early Summer's evening, I picked up my copy of Cold War Commander to read in the garden, not something we can always do with our variable martitime climate here in Blighty. This came about after looking at the recently released Pendraken Arab-Israeli  on the Pendraken Blog earlier in the day. Too tired for any heavy reading, a browse through the rulebook seemed a perfect way to spend an hour or so relaxing after a long day.

The book in question.

Flicking through the book brought back many happy memories of playing some NATO vs Warsaw Pact  games some 10 or more years ago (I can't believe it's that long since I played) as well as a superb Portbury Knight's Campaign organised by one of the club members who really was into the whole Cold War 1980's milieu. The campaign really energised the club and lots of us took the dive into 6mm wargaming. Alas as with many things in the wargaming world, interested died away and to free up funds and some space, I sold off my BAOR battlegroup.

With the release of CWCII at Partizan, my interest was piqued as to what changes had come about in the rules, so checking the Pendraken forum, all lot of the issues with the original rules seemed to have been addressed, such as the ATGW's not really being worth buying, compared to say a MBT. Naturally there is plenty more but you get my drift.

As with these things, the flap of butterfly wings could be heard in the distance as my mind began to ponder whether to dip my toe in the water once again. One thing led to another and I was soon perusing the offerings from Pendraken, TimeCast and the Plastic Soldier Company, along side the ever affordable Heroics & Ros 6mm ranges. Aside from what scale to go with, the issues of cost, battlegroup versus brigades and what forces began to swirl around in my mind.

For large scale battles that we used to play at the club, 6mm is a complete no brainer, where I would normally have at least an Mechanised Infantry Battalion and Tank Regiment on the table. Whilst fun, they were long games, you needed at least a 6' x 4' table and really an opponent to play against. Whilst tempting these days that is not really an option. However it is still damned tempting for sure! So after much thought and advice from other forum members, Battlegroups of say a couple of Companies plus a Tank Company or two with support, would be the best way to go and be much more solo and time friendly. 

For the forces and setting I must admit that I always favour the classic NATO vs Warsaw Pact, nominally set in the late 1970's to early 1980's. Chieftain tanks facing off against T-54/55's and T-62's really floats my boat, leaving the Challengers and later MBT's for others to play with! However a sort of Balkans setting or maybe a Russo-Turkish War that escalates has also piqued my interest. Then there is my perennial interest in Austria, which could provide some interesting games, but accessing the right equipment is a bit of an issue in 10mm compared to 6mm. 

To go alongside with the above, I remember reading and enjoying 'Red Storm Rising' by Tom Clancy many years ago, so ordered a copy to get me back into the swing of things. Along side this a copy of Hackett's 'The Third World War' is on its way to me. I have in mind to order 'First Clash' by Macksey whose other books I have enjoyed over the years. I think that will be more than enough reading material for me.

I did wonder whether to carry on using CWCI for my possible games, but in the end decided it was well worth getting CWCII for a whole variety of reasons. I went for the rulebook rather than the pdf, as I much prefer the former to the latter. To help keep printing costs down, Pendraken have only included a few sample lists, with all the others being freely available via their forum. Aside from cost, this allows them to be updated on an as needs basis which is a good idea.

As you can see, another large project beckons and with much for me to ponder, lists to plan etc. But in the meantime I need to prepare for a large Battle of Waterloo games in a couple of weeks with friends, where I am taking on the role of his Grace the Duke of Wellington. So time for some trial games to get au fait with the rules as well as some background reading. Happy days!

So until next time, stay safe and keep healthy!