Latvian Waffen-SS part 1

In my last post I wrote about Latvia earlier in the second world war. After a while the Germans relented in some of their contempt towards the Latvians, and did allow them to join the SS. In total two divisions of the Waffen-SS was comprised of Latvians, the 15th and 19th. 

While these forces did include individuals implicated in the Holocaust, they did not join as a group, and the Allies made a distinction after the war between the normal Waffen-SS, which were seen as a criminal organisation, and the Baltic Waffen-SS, which were not.

This was the first time I've painted any of the SS camo patterns, and I must say I enjoyed it. I'm sure you can do it better and more exact, both in patterns and colour choices, but these look good from half a meter, so I'm happy. 

Latvian defence battalion

During a visit to Riga this autumn (it's a lovely destination for a weekend trip!) I went to a couple of museums, and read up about the Baltic countries in the first and second world wars. In both wars they were three tiny peoples stuck inbetween brawling giants, and Latvia lost something like a third of their population.

When the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was signed, the Baltic countries were panicked, since their only chance to stay free was to play out Germany and the Soviet Union against each other. That chance was now lost, and all three countries had to agree to Soviet "protection" in 1940. This "protection" was so severe that when operation Barbarossa occurred just a year later, they welcomed the Germans as liberators. This liberation was not a true one, and the Germans had quite sinister plans for the whole of Eastern Europe (Germanize the best, and kill the rest). But, since this wasn't widely known they got a lot of Baltic troops, both volunteers and "volunteers".

This is a unit from one of the many Latvian Defence Battalions. They use old Latvian army uniform (modelled on the Russian WWI uniform), and helmets from the Czechoslovakian army (which didn't exist anymore, thanks to the Germans). For Bolt Action I'm thinking about running them as Luftwaffe, for the green inexperienced rules.

The models are sculpted by Paul Hicks for the excellent Bohemian/Horcata range. I've greenstuffed over the bottom of the tunics, to make them like the Russian-style pullovers, and not jackets.

More Chinese infantry

Here are some more Chinese WWII infantry, the ones in (brown/khaki) summer uniforms finished a while ago, and the ones in winter uniform more recently.

 

Some late Late Romans

These two commanders have been a very long time coming. They were first started a very long time ago (three years?!), and the guard figures (vertical spears) stood half painted for ages on my painting table. I've now finally finished and based them.

 

 

A Swedish barn

Since I'm working on a Swedish army I also want some terrain for it, and one of the most typical things you can see is a house painted in the Falu Rödfärg red paint. So, I set to it, just using stuff I had laying around. The base for the barn is a cardboard box (it says Gripping Beast on the underside! ;) ). It's been covered with lollipop sticks left over from my trench system build, and the roof is a corrugated cardboard I've been saving for a while.

The windows are blister pack plastic over black paint, I covered them with some scrap pieces of cardboard for painting, it seems to work quite well.
I could have gone for white corners, but went for a light grey instead.

Retreat! A Bolt Action scenario

Today I did a play test of a Bolt Action scenario. The idea is to have one army retreating from another, while a column of refugees are fleeing down a road. We played the game as a blitzkrieg scenario, with British and French against the invading Germans, but it should be usable for all parts of the war. In this play test we used what models we had available, and what felt right. We didn't count the points very carefully (both sides had 1100-1200 points) and we didn't optimize. Our test  game ended in a 18-18 draw.

Retreat

version 1.1

A group of refugees are fleeing the attacking army down a road. The Attacker is trying to wipe out the Defender's units, while the Defender is trying to retreat off the board, while protecting themselves and the refugees. 

The Refugees

The refugee group start 36” from the Defenders board edge on a road going from long edge to long edge. At the start of each turn they will move 1D6+6 inches towards the Defenders board edge. When they reach that edge they will be removed from the board.
The goal of the Defender is to move off their own board edge before the game is over. However, they will not be allowed to do this until the refugees have moved off the board.

The Geneva Convention

The refugees can not be attacked, and are treated as a friendly unit when it comes to shooting (so you can only shoot 1” away, like normal). If a unit is in the way of the refugees when they move, that unit is pushed away.

Setup

The Defender sets up at least half of their units 12-24” from their board edge, the rest in reserve.
The Attacker have at least half of their units in a first wave, coming in on the first turn, and the rest in reserve.

Preliminary Bombardment

The Defender is hit with a Preliminary Bombardment on a 2+.



Six turns, 4+ for a seventh.

Victory

The Defender get 2 victory points for each friendly unit that gets off the board.
The Defender get 1 victory point for each Attacker unit killed.



The Attacker get 2 victory points for each Defender unit killed.
The Attacker get 1 victory point for each unit within 12” of the Defender's board edge.



A unit which never gets on the board counts as destroyed.

The last of the WWII Swedes (for now)

I finished the truck a little while ago, and have now finished the mortar and the MMG as well. The truck is a plastic Warlord Opel Blitz (that's easier to find than a Volvo or Scania in 1:56 ;) ).

For the weapon teams I replaced the Polish bodies with their square cap with two plastic guys, the kneeling ones with binoculars. As before these are mid war German bodies with Japanese heads.

We'll end with a preview of what's coming; WWII Chinese! I've bought a bunch of Copplestone Castings Warlord Chinese, but since these come in packs of ten and should be arranged in units of fourteen I need to fill out the numbers a bit (as well as converting some LMGs later). Here to start with are some levy troops. They are made from dark age plastic bodies, with German arms and mainly Soviet heads.