Picking up those brushes again.

Hi and welcome to the occasional mutterings of Dave Doc, a military modeller and some time gamer. Gaming and model making has given me a real education, History & Geography(obvious really), Artistry, Politics, Economics, Logistics, Project Management -you try building miniature armies without the last 3.

I will use the blog to record my creations & the odd occasion I actually do some gaming.

I have always been inspired by the aesthetic side of gaming. Playing on well constructed terrain using excellently painted units is always a joy.

Saturday 29 June 2024

Gaming - Sword Beach

 Today saw the 4th of our 5 D Day beach themed games this year . We did Sword beach a few years ago , though this included the Pegasus bridge area . This time we did if further west and with an L shaped table to allow a bit further inland to allow a potential counter attack . 

Looking west along Queen Green Queen White 

Inland from Lion-sur-Mer to Hermanville 

 
The full width is 12 foot , and 8 -10 foot deep foot - yes long arms and shive stick required at times 

The RAF buzz the beaches 

The bombardment starts 
 
DD’s hit the beach - we had about 1/3rd losses with sinking or swamping in the surf 

Breaching teams arrive on LCT’s

 

Infantry have arrived - the tide has also started to come in - denoted by the ribbon moving up the beach 


 

AVRE’s work on clearing the obstacles and breaching the sea wall .

 

Artillery hits the beach , starting to hurt the invaders 

The defenders knock out Crabs approaching the minefield

 

Lion sur Mer is liberated - and the Brits are heading in land 


The build up continues with forces pouring ashore

 

WN20 is over-run 
Photos from Roy the Brit commander in this area 
Time to head in land 

Brigade command , thinks there may be a German counter attack coming . 

We are planning a more detailed counterattack scenario in the future , for now we assumes 21st Panzer had got out of the blocks early and attempted to throw the invaders into the sea here rather than further west as they tried 

Wolverines AT have disembarked 

Panzergrenadier advance 

Pz IV’s trade blows 

Sherman’s , Firefly’s , and “Bring up the Piat” - put a stop to the counter attack . 

A really fun game -mad all of these D Day ones have been 

All the troops are by James Mac , a bulk of the terrain is mine . We used Pendraken Miniatures HQ gaming room - a great facility .

We have Omaha left to do later in the year - I need some consistent dry warm weather to sort out Point du Hoc  










 

   


 

 


Thursday 6 June 2024

Gaming - Juno Beach - Normandy 44

 The 80th anniversary of D Day saw us play out the Canadian army assault on Juno Beach . 

We made a first use of the new 12 foot wide beach mat I asked Deepcut to make me . . It was a great table to build and -lay out . I had scratch built the harbour area , made a town baseboard. 

AVRE breaching teams and DDs 

The initial set up 


The RM manequinn by Pete Hawtin 
 


The seaside town of Courseulles sur Mer
I have been increasing the selection of buildings over the last few years , it was good to get them all out .Apart from 3 wrecked LCMs  2 D7 Dozers , and a few German gun  crew all the figures  were by James ,.




 

DD tanks arrive 



 

AVRE Breaching teams arrive 




The defence takes a toll 


Infantry arrive 

Landing craft are hit 



The 88mm bunker destroys the Centaur supports 
 


The tide comes in tswamping vehicles (the ribbon shows the high tide line)


Infantry assault the defences

AVRE bogged in the surf 





Defences overwhelmed on the right hand side 







 

The newly constructed sea wall by Brendan looked great too


It was a tough game for the Canadians , the town defences were strong and took time to pick apart. The addition of the tide rule worked well 

The game gave a real insight and appreciation of the  challenges and the tough fighting the Canadians had in this area .