Tuesday 18 July 2017

GRIMSBY - Update 1

Cold War Commanders,
Now Joy of Six is done for another year it's time to turn our attention to Grimsby 2017 as it is just over 8 weeks away!
I want to use the CWC forum as the main communication hub, the only problem with that is no new members can join since Pendraken took over. So to get round this I will also post messages on this Facebook page and also on the Cold War Commanders blog. If I can ask people to make sure everyone who is not on the forum joins the Facebook group. I think this is mainly the Grimsby chaps but if you can think of anyone else please let me know. Still a few spaces if anyone knows of anybody who wants to come along. I imagine we will have a few 'drop ins' from the Grimsby Club over the course of the weekend which will increase numbers.
I still have not had anyone come forward to take the overall CO role for the Warsaw Pact. Andy C is taking the role for NATO. Happy for two players to get together if they want to. If you could let me know asap that would be great. Just need someone as a point of contact for the umpires over the weekend to pass on info etc.
UMPIRES
RICHARD P
STEVE G
RICHARD C
NATO
ANDY C (NATO CO - USMC)
MARK F (NATO - DANISH/WEST GERMAN PARA)
DANNY M (NATO - WEST GERMAN)
ANDY T (NATO - WEST GERMAN)
ALAN M (NATO - BELGIAN)
ANDY H TBA
WARSAW PACT
KEITH T PLUS ONE (WARSAW PACT - SOVIET)
MIKE M
SIMON W (WARSAW PACT - POLISH)
ANDY B
ROBERT F
ANDY M (WARSAW PACT - EAST GERMAN)
I could do with finalising the WARSAW PACT list so we know who is playing what. Steve G could you check out what the Grimsby Chaps are playing? If I have missed anyone who is planning on being there please let me know.
The House Rules are being compiled into one file so that it can be issued to everyone well in advance of the game.
As in previous years there is no points limit so to speak. Players are free to produce what they want as long as they conform to the correct order of battle information and are based on units that realistically would have been deployed to the region. Obviously turning up with 20,000 points of T-80's won't be allowed. For those of you not sure on what forces to work on I will be posting a rough list of forces that were allocated to the LANDJUT area later today. We are open to suggestions as in the past we have allowed certain forces as long as the player can come up with a feasible back story as to why they are there.
IMPORTANT - THE UMPIRES MUST HAVE COMPLETED ORDER OF BATTLES (I.E. THE FORCES YOU PLAN TO BRING) NO LATER THAN SUNDAY 20TH AUGUST. THIS ALLOWS THE UMPIRES TO CHECK AND ALLOCATE FORCES TO TABLES AS PER THE SCENARIO.
Any questions please ask. Most importantly is to make sure you keep checking the forum/Facebook/blog for updates.
Cheers
Richard P

Monday 17 July 2017

DUTCH - Armoured Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battery


As most of you know myself and fellow Cold War Commander Mark F are both big fans of the 1(NL) Corps and a vast amount of our Cold War collections are Dutch. A lot of this is due to the fantastic resource that is https://www.orbat85.nl/ which details every unit of the Armed Forces of the Netherlands in fine detail. From time to time add units to my existing forces and after a visit to the Heroics and Ros stand at Sunday's Joy of Six show one of the purchases was 3 West German Gepard AA vehicles to convert in to the Dutch version the PRTL. I have been using the Gepard model as a stand in but wanted to have a go at converting some. The main differences from what I can tell are the radar is a completely different shape to the one on the Gepard model and also the dish at the front of the turret is cone shaped. There also seems to be more stowage bins etc. at the rear of the turret. The radar was easily removed and a T section of plasticard was added.
Image result for dutch prtl
The Dutch Armoured Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battery in CWC terms consists of 3 x PRTL accompanied by 3 x 3/4t Land Rover + 1/4t Trailer with a Stinger team (replacement crew). HQ will include a YPR-765 PRCO and a 1/2t Land Rover. 
Original radar removed from the Gepard model


New radar and stowage boxes added

Rear view showing additional stowage modelled from plasticard
 
Based on 40mm x 20mm x 2mm MDF bases with rounded fronts. I plan to start using these to represent AA as one thing I always seem to have difficulty identifying on the tabletop is AA units. So from now on all my AA will be based like this. 

Quite happy with how they have turned out. Not perfect but in 6mm they are just the job! Next up painting and finishing the bases. As always thanks for looking.

Joy of Six 2017

Sunday 16th July saw the Cold War Commanders head off to Sheffield for the annual outing to the fantastic 6mm specific wargames show "Joy of Six" organised by those good chaps at Baccus and Wargames Emporium. This year we were lucky enough to be asked to put on one of the big showcase games so we had a 20' x 6' table to fill. The idea was to showcase our LANDJUT 1989 campaign which is running throughout 2017 culminating in the Big Weekend up in Grimsby at the end of September. So we had elements of all the games played so far. Amphibious assaults, river crossings, airborne assaults on key airfields. All the things to make a visually impressive table for people to see on the day.





























































Great day meeting up with the chaps and meeting new faces who are interested in 6mm. As always not much actual game play although Steve G and Ian S got through quite a few turns in the centre of the table as did Andy T and Neil M around the airfield. Other than that alot of talking to people about the game and the terrain which is what this show is all about. Roll on Grimsby when we all meet up again for a whole weekend of CWC.

Once again thanks for all the Cold War Commanders for their help in putting this game on. Richard C, Andy C, Ian S, Steve G, Danny M, Simon W, Keith T, Andy T, Mark J and Neil M.

Thanks for looking.