Getting WaT 15mm tanks in Australia

 Getting WaT 15mm tanks in Australia 

https://toofatlardies.co.uk/product-category/what-a-tanker/

What a Tanker in my area (Canberra Australia) uses 15mm (1/100) miniatures to play this great 'beer and pretzels' level miniatures wargame.

One of my friends asked how to get miniatures, and I am the sort to head off being asked a questions a few times by making a blog post. (Hi Mr C!)

The game only needs a few tanks per side to get going, and on your first game and large team games, you may only need a single tank, easily borrowed from your teacher or game runner. After that, you will naturally want your own collection. 

STORES

http://store.aetherworks.com.au/

Super Biased first pick! Aetherworks are my friends of 20+ years and I have even done bits of work for them. I declare my bias :)   

An easy start point would be the "Fury" boxed set with three US and two germans.  

You can drill down in the store to Miniature/ Flames of War/ country and then pick the miniatures you want. This is a very easy way to get what you want miniature by miniature. They are located in Sydney, so postage is fast. For example, this link should go to the German vehicles. Vehicles this way are about $15 each. 

If you want to start a collection in one box and don't want to paint, you could get the World of Tanks Miniatures game and get four base coated tanks and a whole other rule set for $71. This is a rebrand of Gale Force 9's (GF9) old "Tanks!" game adding in the basecoat painting and bumping the price. Singles are not out yet, but look like they are $22 each. Great if you have no interest in painting, or if you only want to detail the tanks yourself.

https://www.warandpeacegames.com.au/15mm_Plastic_WWII_s/2469.htm

War and Peace stock a few different companies than Aetherworks. they link above goes to 15mm WW2. The bargain of the moment seems to be that they are clearing their GF9 TANKS games miniatures for $7.50 each. Good price! Limited Stock.

https://www.mightyape.com.au/brands/zvezda

Mighty Ape stock Zvezda models. They are inexpensive models, recently endorsed by Jygdrasil. He was very happy with them arriving in a couple of weeks at very, low prices. He put his toe in with s $20 starter order and order #2 at $40 is underway.

https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313&_nkw=15mm+tanks&_sacat=0

Everyone knows ebay. You can watch carefully for bargains @ $5 a pop, or go spend $250 on someones complete pre painted collection of everything you want. Search 15mm tanks or 1/100 tanks

http://www.thecombatcompany.com/categories/miniatures-historical/plastic-soldier-company/15mm-world-war-ii.html

The Combat Company main differentiator here is stocking Plastic Soldier Compoany brand miniatures. They came through ompeteing with Flames of War by offering inexpensive simple pose plastic miniatures. They sell cheap tanks in boxes of five to match the FoW ruleset. 

3D PRINTING

Down at the 15mm level, 3D printing is just fine. If you have a friend with skills in the area, the polite thing to do is for you to make all the tank decisions by picking what you want from https://www.thingiverse.com/ and sending them the links. Then, offer them about $5 per tank for filament and setup labour. I have 6/25 3d printed tanks, and unless you have a good eye you won't be able to spot them from my plastic and metal tanks until you pick them up.

 

CoC Practice Nov14

Jason and I had a game to get him up to speed on the rules. One drunken bucks night does not impart fundamental mastery! Jason took a regular US platoon, I took regular Heer. My support choice was an adjutant.

Jason pushed up to the hedge lines, while I tried to force the forest. He deployed first, and fast.

In the north my men leapt a tactical bound ahead to the next hedge. In the South Woods, they took up a firing position in the forest.

My senior leader cleared the concerns of the men in the woods. Accurate fire in the north wounded a corporal.

In the woods, the MG 42 reaped it's toll, but the Americans soon figured out to always keep them under suppressing fire. In the North, things just got worse. The middle platoon finally got moving, throwing smoke to the building, and having the second MG42 pour it on south.

The north platoon was pinned and routed. The Americans then took the central building, forcing action!

The riflemen charged the building, preceded by a flurry of grenades, and the cry "hadgrenaten!" Well, we will call it a mumble, and a single grenade. And I needed a whole lot more than that. With half my forces routed, I ceded the field to the victorious Americans.

29LetsGo! Campaign Turn One

Setting the scenery:

The Blokenstein boys got me a fantastic terrain kit as a wedding present, and a pile of Dead Man's Hand stuff for the blushing bride. I set it up on a table to have a look, and thought "I need a game!"

The river is excellent, and look great close up and far away. My photography was not up to reducing the glare - trust me, it's awesome.

I was wondering what to play, and had a few on again, off again bookings. The man who finally came through was Nathan. Nathan is part of a little Facebook group of those in Canberra interested in 15mm Chain of Command games. We love the price of an army ($40 or less woohoo!) and we love the system. More games needed to be played. 

I had just downloaded the 29 Let's go! Campaign from Too Fat Lardies, and Nathan had a basic US Force, and I had a basic German Force, so that worked out well.

I purchased the campaign and read the whole book, so I essentially had to be the Germans as I know the surprises. Nathan was fine with that.

I printed a couple of copies, and cut one down in campaign notes for Nathan, with what he needed in a folder, and kept a folder for me.

The evening before, I decided to set the map, and realised that I needed a LOT of hedges. I've been looking at lots of terrain YouTube videos and guides, and I had really like the idea of tongue depressor bases with scenery on top, so I had already purchased a box of 100 of them. Below is a map where I try to set the table with all the tongue depressors where hedges will go.

You will also notice the change from using lots of craters for the ploughed fields, and instead using some yellow fabric. I didn't have brown fabric or felt available. I won them - I couldn't find them.

Scenery frenzy: 

About 26 full hedges, and eight half size ones. Clip 13 ice cream sticks in half, and glue them to a full one with one edge cut off. Glue to tongue depressor. Paint base with brown texture paint. Paint top with dark green paint/ pva glue mix, flock.

To the game:

Prelininary

Nathan rolled a six on the patrol phase, and with his quick advance, seized the Chateau, and used it's top floor as an excellent base of fire all game. Naturally, the 29th scrounged up extra BAR's. I deployed with German precision, and was able to pour all my fire all the time from phase two. Nathan cam out a bit more piecemeal, and was not as effective.

Turn One

The shot below was was the end of turn one. I deployed my anti tank gun and a rifle team in an entrenchment, a minefield on the road, and barbed wire across the front of the trenches.

Here I had bloodied a rifle team that tried to advance, punished the team out the front of the white house, and taught the chateau team to duck. My senior leader had been busy keeping the anti- tank gun motivated and in the game.

Turn Two

My leftmost section were in trouble. The cost of wiping Nathans rifle team was the loss of my rifle section and the MG team were retreating in disarray.  The centre section had their heads down, and my senior leader was just about to get across and gee them back up. The Team in the building were safe as a bug in a rug, and pouring it on. The pin markers on the team in the white building tell that tale. 

My disappointment of the game:  I invested a lot of support points into the anti tank guns. Nathan had three Shermans rolling at my boys. I trusted in this gun, the panzershreck team, the panzerfausts and the 'campaign surprise' to get a bit of the job done. My gun had 6 unimpeded shots at the Shermans, hit four times, and only dazed a gunner once. The tanks never came into range of the infantry based toys, and the 'campaign trick' never came into play.  

Turn Three

I could see the game was up. The anti tank gun had failed to do the job I had planned for it.. The 'campaign trick' was used, but failed to do anything. The white building team was whittled down to just it's junior leader, but the men in the chateau never looked like moving. My men were falling back in disarray, and the anti tank gun was going to be captured, as the crew had fled. It was time to leave the field to the invincible Shermans, and pull back to the next line.

Post Battle:

29 Lets Go!
After Game One
US Post battle:
Bouyed by the victory, Colonel Goode sends the men forward. However, he was shaken by an attack on his men by American ground attack planes. He disposition has moved to Troubled. With manpower to burn, Colonel Goode throws a fresh platoon at the next problem.
German post battle:
Ernst Blatt is commanding the Platoon. Having been injured and promoted on the Eastern front, he is a veteran at age 21. Command are too busy with their own problems to worry about Ernst. The men had heard the guns and know the invasion is on. They did not like the losses, but understand, he was one of them. Ernest's faith has not moved. He is only concerned.
CO opinion of the leader: (-1) Men (-3) Personal - Concerned.
The composition of the forces will be 'special' in the next engagement to cover the casualties.
Everyone escaped, no captures.
Two replacement NCO's. 1 Command Point, 3 inch command radius.
7 lost, 4 will return next scenario, 3 return straight battle.

Punishing positions

Corner Play