6mm Cold War-era West German Brigade for 5Core Brigade Commander

[Just Jack]

All,

I finished up another NATO brigade, representing my West German contingent. I’m a little ashamed with my laziness, but I’ll get over it. What I mean is, the vast majority of the vehicles were given a dark green-gray spray prime, then heavily dry-brushed with a lighter green-gray. But, when I primed I forgot an M-577 command track, a Gepard AA vehicle, an ADATs SAM vehicle (standing in for the Rolands I don’t have), and two helos, which had been primed khaki. I didn’t feel like going and spraying them (if I even have more of that green-gray spray paint). So, these guys got a NATO three-color camo scheme. Which turned out well, it just doesn’t match the rest of the force. But it gives it character, right? 😉

Anyway, let’s get to it:

The whole force: Command stand, two battalions of tanks, two battalions of mechanized infantry, a battalion of self-propelled ATGMs, two platoons of Recce, two platoons of air defense (one AAA and one SAM), and two ATGM-armed attack helos. The tank battalions are Leopard IIs, the mech infantry ride in Marders, the SP ATGMs are Jaguars, the Recce are in Luchs, and the helos are BO-105s.

I did not do up engineers or artillery for this brigade, they will ‘share’ from other forces (that I haven’t finished yet, though I suppose the Canadians I’ve finished could stand in in a pinch).

Man, those NATO 3-tones really look garish, but I promise it’s not that bad in ‘real life.’ Here’s a shot without the flash:

Anyway, swing by the blog to see about 15 more pics:
http://blackhawkhet.blogspot.com/2015/03/6mm-cold-war-era-west-german-brigade.html

Well, as you can probably guess by the fact I’m posting photos of units I completed (meaning I painted instead of played), I am still yet to get 5Core Brigade Commander on the table… But I did get in a monster game of “Generic Yet Action-Packed, WWI through Modern, Dogfighting Like Top Gun Rules” (GYAPWW1TMDLTGR), AKA, the dogfighting rules I’ve been playtesting. I’ll look to get it written up and posted this week, but bear with me, it’s massive (four hours, 109 photos).

Stay tuned.

V/R,
Jack

[Rod Robertson]

Just Jack:

Looking good Just Jack. Why didn’t you use the ADATS for the Canadians? The force looks good and well balanced. Your industry and prodigious output makes me ashamed and kicks me in the arse as well. This summer I will be digging out my 1/285 hordes and gaming large scale battles again and I owe that to gamers like Jack and others on TWW. Thanks to all of you.

Cheers and good gaming.

Rod Robertson.

[Just Jack]

Rod,

Thanks man, I appreciate it.

Regarding the Canadian ADATs:

I did use ADATs for the Canadians, here’s the air defense vehicles for the Canadians.  The pic isn’t the greatest, but the vehicles at 3 and 6 o’clock are ADATs,the ones at 9 and 12 o’clock are M163 (Gatling guns).

I look forward to pics, or at least very descriptive narratives, of your massed armor battles 😉

V/R,
Jack

[kyoteblue]

Looks good Just Jack, Soviets, Canadians and West Germans looks like you have enough to do a game with.

[Rod Robertson]

Kyoteblue et Juste Jacques:

Ah, mais non! Juste Jacques can not finish until he has put together a French force too, Zut alors! What European conflict would be complete without Gallic  and Frankish representation. To do otherwise would be so very gauche! So Monsieur Jacques dig up some AMX-30B’s and AMX-40 LeClerc’s, some AMX-10P’s and lots of VAB’s and VBL’s and make a force which properly portrays the Honneur du France! So, it must be! Allows-y!

Salutations.

Rod “Pepe” Robertson.

PS. N’oubliez pas les maudit Anglais. Vous devez faire un brigade du char de Royaume-Uni aussi!

[Ivan Sorensen]

You know you’re in France during ww3, when you’ve just crossed a wall of nuclear explosions 🙂

[JozisTinMan]

Good stuff! I like NATO 3 color camo.  Cannot wait to see your air rules either, I picked up some O8 F-15’s and Mig-23’s recently too.

http://jozistinman.blogspot.com/

[kyoteblue]

Hey Just Jack you are going to field Team Yankee !!! So where are the Americans ????

[CAG 19]

Like the look of these. Heerstruktur 4 organisations for the 1985 period would give you more toys on the table plus the “mixed” battalions which makes the WG such a difficult opponent with four manoeuvre units.  The Mech inf as well get a company per Bn in the M113G variants rather than pure Marders so you might have more in your spares box to add the additional company.  The 5th battalion in each brigade is a battalion of M109G rather than being div support which gets added plus the Brigade Engineer company. But that is just rivet counting. I love the impetus this is giving people to get the micro armour out….

 

[Ivan Sorensen]

Certainly a bit of “1980’s” revival going on right now 🙂

[kyoteblue]

I need some T-64…

[Just Jack]

Peepee – Please cut it out with all that furriner talk.  And sorry, I currently have no French forces, nor plan to acquire some (in 6mm).  Canadians were as close as I could come to cheese-eating…  Well, you know 😉  And don’t worry, I’ve got Brits on the way (Challengers and Warriors, with a boatload of Chieftains and FV432s I’m going to do up for the desert; maybe Iranians, or the Israelis had such success with the Centurion they decided to try out a brigade of Chieftains and FV432s as well).

“Looks good Just Jack, Soviets, Canadians and West Germans looks like you have enough to do a game with.”
Yes Blue, I get it, I have enough troops to play a game, you want me to play a game.  I want me to play a game too, but it’s spring time and real life always creeps in once the weather gets warmer.  I’m doing my best brother.  I will be honest: I really want to get to Brigade Commander, but what I’m dying to get back to is KG Klink for the Fall of France (if only my stuff would get here, then I’d get it finished).

“Hey Just Jack you are going to field Team Yankee !!!”
I am???  That’s not a bad idea, and I do have some Americans, but I’m not sure if I want to go desert or Europe with them.

“I need some T-64…”
In 6mm?  Don’t break your scale rule!  Well, maybe just this once 😉

Jozi – Thanks man, I’m happy with the NATO 3-tone, but I don’t think I have the strength for a whole brigade…  Get your planes painted up and you can be a playtester, if you’d like.  I need to get with PicoArmor for some F-15s and Su-27s, and I really need a green hexmat so I can make use of a bunch more of my airplanes…

CAG19 – I do have M-113s, but I had so many Marders I figured I’d just stick all of them out there; it’s certainly more ‘pure’ to have the M-113s, but I didn’t want to end up with Marders just laying around spare.  As I mentioned, the Germans will ‘borrow’ arty from other NATO forces (with Brigade Commander there will never be more than one NATO force on the table at a time).  Ditto the engineers.  I really was (am) not sure where the Jaguars fit in, but I had nine of them, which worked out nicely as a battalion.  Are they Divisional AT assets?

“Certainly a bit of “1980’s” revival going on right now…”
Goes perfectly with your love of metal and ‘party on Garth’ haircut, Sir 😉

Thanks guys.

V/R,
Jack

[Ivan Sorensen]

Just Jack wrote:

but what I’m dying to get back to is KG Klink for the Fall of France (if only my stuff would get here, then I’d get it finished).

You know, Brigade Commander does WW2 as well you know 😉

Goes perfectly with your love of metal and ‘party on Garth’ haircut, Sir

I have no idea what you are talking about.

[kyoteblue]

It’s Cousin It !!!! And those would be QRF 15mm T-64’s damn it !!!

[Rod Robertson]

Juste Jacques:

Ah, mon Dieu! I feel so humiliated. You Americanes with your parochial minds. French is the language of Rabelais, Voltaire, Hugo! C’est triste, c’est tellement triste. I weep for America!

It is Pepe not pee-pee you child! Ah, me sauver de ces enfant mechant!

Mr. Robertson.

[kyoteblue]

Rod, I am really bad at French…and Spanish…I do speak fluent Okie thou.

[Just Jack]

Ivan – I know, and I need to re-base my 6mm WWII stuff for BC.  Earlier I floated the idea of Colonel Klink being promoted and taking over a Panzer Regiment, then running that as a ‘spin-off’ campaign in 6mm on the Eastern Front, but no one seemed interested…

Kyote – Try to be real man for once, you old hippie, and go 6mm like the rest of us!  You’re being non-conformist just for the sake of being non-conformist 😉

Peepee – You oughtta be humiliated, what with all that dirty furriner talk spewing forth!  I keep lookin’ up ‘parochial’ but Google Translate don’t recognize it, Lord knows what Devil tongue you’re spouting now.  “Rabelais, Voltaire, Hugo!” Never heard of’em, and I bet they don’t know  nuthin’ ’bout wargaming, neither!

There’s only one language I speak, it’s called “Truth!” 😉

Now get back to gaming!

V/R,
Jack

[Ivan Sorensen]

I’m always interested in anything that brings victory over the fascist vipers 🙂

[kyoteblue]

I am a real man…a really old man. 6mm is right out…It’s all I can do to see 15mm.

[Just Jack]

Commissar,

Excellent!  I’ve simply been waiting on a volunteer.  Here’s what’s expected of you:
1.  You will need to purchase two armies in 6mm, German and Soviet, with equipment changes from June ’41 to May ’45.  Please include summer and winter versions as appropriate (we won’t bother with Spring and Autumn).  Please remember I’m going three vehicles to a 60mm x 40mm base.  I’d recommend HR as they’re cheaper, but feel free to spring for GHQ if it moves you.
2.  You need to paint them all up.
3.  You need to base and flock them (please don’t forget about the summer grass and winter snow).
4.  You need to send them to me.

Do not worry, I will immediately begin playing with them and documenting their progress on my blog.  You’re commitment to the cause is greatly appreciated.

**On a side note, regarding Heroics and Ros, I really love their 6mm stuff.  I’ve got a ton of GHQ, and it’s beautiful, but HR is every bit as good from gaming distance, which is what really counts (in my humble opinion).  The fantastic thing about HR is they are SUPER cheap, with main battle tanks ranging from .60 USD to .75 USD.  But what kills the whole deal is the fact they charge 40%, that’s FORTY PER CENT, for shipping to North America!!!  Yes, I am aware that still gets you tanks for .84 USD and 1.04, respectively, but that’s quite a damned markup, and ridiculous on the principal that we’re talking about little lead tanks that don’t weigh but a pound for a bushel of them.

What I’m looking for is someone that’s willing to travel to HR in the UK, pick them up, and bring them back to the States, on their own dime, and I’ll pay for the cost of shipping them from you to me in the States 😉

Otherwise, I should probably do what all the cool kids are doing and go 3mm.  Which really burns my @#$ as I just sold off a bunch of 3mm WWII last year, of course…

Rant concluded.

V/R,
Jack

[Ivan Sorensen]

All the proceeds from the annual NWG bake sale will go straight to Jacks AAR fund!
How do you guys feel about beets?

I’d say if you aren’t intending on basing them individually, just bite the bullet and go 3mm. You can get them stateside without paying a lot for shipping and they are adorable 🙂

Don’t you have left over 10mm stuff? It might get kind of chunky for tanks but it’d look pretty impressive at least.

[Just Jack]

Yummy, baked…. beets?  Well, okay…

I’ve got plenty of 10mm, but I don’t want to use it for Brigade Commander, it just doesn’t look right to me to have one big old tank (relative to an infantry stand) representing a tank company.  So I need 6 or 3mm.

C’mon, I need a hero!  Will no one go pick up Heroics and Ros 6mm stuff, then bring it back to me!?  I know I should bite the bullet and just order it (despite the fact I’m not supposed to start new projects until my old projects are finished), but it’s just a mental thing.  It goes like this:
1) Look at all the tanks I could buy for .60 cents.
2) But postage will push them to .85 cents.
3) .85 cents is almost a dollar.
4) GHQ is only $2, looks better (when you’re holding it in your hand, which is not what you see when gaming), and is quicker (here in the States).
5) If I order GHQ I’ll spend way too much**.
6) Don’t order anything…
**Let’s not forget another favorite thing about HR: you can order by the individual piece, for the same price (yes, GHQ let’s you order individual vehicles, but it’s pretty doggone expensive).

What to do…

V/R,
Jack

[Rules Junkie Jim]

That’s the Sixfold Path to Emptyness…

[kyoteblue]

The arms race….where will it end !!!

[Rod Robertson]

Just Jack:

Form an international workers collective, implement policies based on the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, seize power in the USA, nationalize GHQ and make a Five-year Plan forcing the government-controlled company to produce all the product you want at the price you want. All problems are solvable if you put your mind and efforts into it!

Cheers and good gaming comrade!

Rodski Robertovich (NKVD).

[Ivan Sorensen]

Rod just earned a lifelong NWG discount.

[kyoteblue]

LOL !!

[Rod Robertson]

Ivan:

Who knew radical international communism would lead to discounts in the decadent, corrupt, running-dog capitalist West. Well as comrade Lenin said, if you give me more rope I will be happy to hang the capitalists with it! Moo-ha-ha!

Cheers and good gaming comrade!

Rodski Robertovich (NKVD).

[Author]

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