GHQ Microamor for WWII Eastern Front

All,

I recently read some batreps on Two-Hour Wargames new "Hell Hath No Fury" rules.  I liked what I saw so I picked them up, and the boy and I playtested a few quick scenarios last week.  We liked it so much I decided it's time for another campaign; I sent off for some GHQ Microarmor last Sunday, received them Friday, and spent all Saturday painting them up.  My plan is for us to follow a German Panzer Platoon (of four tanks; I'll control two, the boy will control the other two) from Barbarossa all the way to the end of the war.  I was doing some research on German Panzer Divisions, but in the end I think I'll just make one up so that I can make sure the platoon is in all the places I want it to be, unconstrained by what happened in real life.  The closest was 20th Panzer Division, but then I found out they started Barbarossa with Pz 38ts, and I just plunked for Pz IIIs...

In any case, I purchased the little bit I need for the Germans and a whole bunch of Soviets.  Please understand that Hell Hath No Fury is meant to be purely a tank vs tank game, but I can't really bring myself to do that, so I bought a bunch of 'other' stuff.  I bought some halftracks and infantry for the Germans, but they're purely for looks and story-telling, the Panzer Platoon will be the only 'players' on the German side.  But for the Soviets a picked up a bucket load of tanks, plus some armored cars, trucks, anti-tank guns, and infantry, and they will be actual players in the games.  Sorry, but I wanted to have that level of realism in the games.  Though I may do a purely tank on tank at some point, thinking Israelis vs Egyptians/Syrians.

The whole sha-bang, with Germans at left and Soviets at right.  You don't have to have so many of the opposing force, but I like variety rather than facing the same old enemy force time after time.

First up, the stars of the show, the German Panzer Mark III platoon.  The pack has five tanks, but we'll only be using four.  As this is for Barbarossa they are in dark gray.  As time goes by they will transition from Pz IIIs to Pz IVs then Panthers.

These are supposed to be Pz III Fs, with short 50mm guns.  They are actually Pz III Js, with long 50mm guns that I cut down, but I'll be using them for tanks with the short and the long 50mm, not buying new tanks until I need Pz IVs, though I do plan on buying IV Gs (no skirts, March 1942) and then IV Hs (skirts, June 1943) and then Panthers (probably not until the end of 1944, maybe even early '45).

For simplicity's sake I put numbers on the back of each turret.

German halftracks, also done in gray.  The top vehicle has a 37mm gun, whilst the other four have MG-34s.  They look great, but putting 6mm stuff together is not my favorite thing to do...

And twelve stands of German infantry, though I don't imagine I'll need that many.

Another shot.

Close up.  I did green uniforms with gray helmets.

Another.

Now, on to the bad guys.  Er, the other bad guys...

First up is a group of Ba-10 armored cars.  You'll see I hand painted red stars and patriotic slogans (little white squiggles) on the Soviet vehicles.

A group of T-60 light tanks.  The problem for the Germans is, despite the small size and light armor of a lot of these vehicles, they all still pack pretty handy 45mm guns.

A pack of T-26 light tanks.

A platoon of BT-5 tanks.

And then the real trouble comes, a pack of T-34s.

And the monsters, a pack of KV-1s.

A pack of Studebaker trucks.  Probably not right for Barbarossa (I don't think Lend Lease started until after they were attacked, though I could be wrong), but it'll be okay.  I must say that these trucks are absolutely huge though.

A pack of anti-tank guns.  These are actually 57mm ATGs, but I cut the barrel down a bit and will use them as 45mm ATGs, 57mm ATGs, and 76.2mm ATGs ("Crash Boom").  I bought these because they came with six guns and crews, as opposed to two guns deployed, two guns towed, and two prime movers.

The Soviet infantry; seven of the stands have ATRs.

Another look.

A close up.

And one more.

Alright, there are the opposing forces, stand by for the first batrep.  I'll tell ya that the boy and I faced relatively light resistance and we accomplished our mission.  It might seem a bit of a pushover, but there were a few moments in there where I was starting to sweat at it could have gone either way, and I think it was probably fairly in line with the early battles as the Wehrmacht crashed through the Soviet defenses in Poland.  More to come.

V/R,
Jack