I'm Back with WW2 North Africa

Well, it has been months since I've posted anything.  A combination of a leg injury and a lackadaisical attitude have temporarily stymied my energy to post anything.

But that has changed as my leg is well on the way to recovery and my attitude has been correspondingly adjusted.

Back a number of months ago, three retired friends and I had several Thursday afternoon WW2 armor games using Lord Sterling's miniatures and several sets of rules he wanted to try.  These games pitted Americans and Germans in 1944 Northwest Europe.  They were fun.  Then one of my friends, Electric Ed, and I began to pontificate on how nice it would be to expand into the early North African desert (prior to Alamein).  One thing led to another and we are now building the 15th Panzer Division (Ed) and 5th Light/21st Panzer Division (me) for the Germans and several Commonwealth brigade groups for the British.

I ran a small game this past Thursday to introduce the "Blitzkrieg Commander II" rules.  It worked well I think.  I'll run another one next week and then a larger battle next Saturday for our larger wargaming group.

So far I've organized, painted, and mounted almost the entire 5th Panzer Regiment as well as an armored reconnaissance company, an armored tank destroyer battalion, and an antitank battery for the Germans.  For the British I have three armored regiments (read battalions), a reconnaissance squadron (company), and two understrength RHA antitank batteries.  I'm using the very nicely made GHQ Micro-Armor vehicles and figures.  The British forces will comprise the 4th Armored Brigade Group and the 11th Indian Infantry Brigade.

Some of my British vehicles are pictured below:

Three different British tanks - left is a Crusader I, center is an M3 Honey, and right is a Valentine II

Crusader I of the 8th Hussar Regiment, 4th Armored Brigade Group

M3 Honey of the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment, 4th Armored Brigade Group

Valentine II Infantry Tank of the 44th Royal Tank Regiment, attached to the 11th Indian Infantry Brigade

Marmon-Herrington Armored Car (Boys ATR & MG) of the Kings Dragoon Guards, 4th Armored Brigade Group

Marmon-Herrington Armored Car (Italian 37mm ATG) of the Kings Dragoon Guards, 4th Armored Brigade Group

Daimler Dingo Scout Car of the Kings Dragoon Guards, 4th Armored Brigade Group

2-pdr Antitank gun portee of the 102nd Antitank Regiment, RHA (Northumberland Hussars), 4th Armored Brigade Group

And some of my German vehicles are below:

Command Tank (Panzer I chassis) of the 5th Panzer Regiment

Panzer II F of the 5th Panzer Regiment

Panzer IV F1 of the 5th Panzer Regiment

Panzer III F of the 5th Panzer Regiment

SdKfz 222 Armored Car of the 3rd Panzerausklarungs Abteilung

SdKfz231 (8 rad) Armored Car of the 3rd Panzerausklarungs Abteilung

Panzerjager I of the 605th Panzerjager Battalion

Flak 36, 88mm ATG, with SdKfz 7 of the 1st Battalion, 33rd Flak Regiment

 As you can see from the above pictures, I've added unit identification labels to the back of each stand.  The British labels include the regiment (or battalion) name or number, the squadron/company/battery letter, and a number designating the vehicle within that unit.  The German labels are a take-off of the German regimental identification system.  Since all stands represent a grouping of 3-6 vehicles (platoon or battery) then the label will indicate exactly to what organization the stand belongs.  Two examples are:

British -- 1st Troop, Battery A, 102nd Antitank Regiment

German -- Company Command, 5th Company (2nd Battalion), 5th Panzer Regiment

Maybe tomorrow I can get some panoramic pictures of the two forces so you can see the extent of my newest madness.  More later!