1980s West German Gepanzert (Mixed) Brigade

The first of my West German Brigades is ready to roll. I now have the details for the full Spearhead Order of Battle for the entire 1980s West German NATO army and have decide to concentrate on the II Corps which defended Northern Germany opposite the main expected Russian thrust. It contains a Full Panzer Division, a Panzer Grenadier Division, a Mountain Division and an Airlanding Brigade along with a veritable menagerie of corps ,divisional and air assets.

I've already ordered a Full Panzer Brigade and the Airlanding Brigade (for a bit of variety) from H&R.

Here are the pics of the first completed brigade. It took two weeks to complete. Painting scheme is standard NATO three tone camouflage and after a bit of reading and interrogating of some of my ex military colleagues at work, I have learnt that other than supplying the paint and stating that colors should go on in order of green ,brown ,black there does not appear to have been a  set pattern and it usually fell to individual battalion commanders to decide how to apply it

Four fighting battalions plus command and support companies and a full artillery battalion

From top to bottom ,Gepanzert (Mixed) Battalion of Leopard 2A1 plus Marder APCs, a Panzer Battalion Leopard 2A1s,the Artillery battalion 4x M109s 155mm, an antitank company of 3 Jaguars, a combat engineer company, Recon company and Brigade HQ

Two Battalions of Panzer Grenadiers in Marders and M113 and with their own mobile 120mm mortar. 

M577 Command Vehicle and Luchs 8 wheeler Recon company

Jaguar Anti Tank Company

Combat Engineers

M109s 155mm of Bin Lid

Panzer Battalion ,Leopard 2A1

Close up of Leopard. By the early 1980s all the West German Panzer Brigades in the Panzer Divisions ,Panzer Grenadier divisions and Mountain Division were equipped with the Leopard 2A1 with the exception of two brigades. The Divisional recon battalion Heavy companies were equipped with Leopard IA4s as were the Heavy Territorial Defence Brigades whilst the Light Territorial Defence Brigades were equipped with the American M48 still a match for most soviet tanks. By 1986 all of the Frontline German Units including the Recon battalions were equipped with the Leopard 2A1 and some had already begun reequipping with the upgraded 2A4. The Light Territorial Defence Brigades had by then inherited the Leopard IA4 phasing out the M48s

Gepanzert (Mixed) Battalion ,1 company Leopards and two of Marder APC

Panzer Grenadier battalion

1916 WW1 German Corp

Here are the points value for a WW1 German Army Corp


Note that I did not include the Corp HQ stand or both Divisional HQ's - only regimental.

If it is deemed necessary then add another 15 points to this list.

I also omitted the 2 divisional cavalry stands as I don't have any.


Regimental HQ = 5 points
3 Infantry Batallions of 4 companies each = 60 points
3 MG = 21 points
1 Stostruppen = 7 points

Total = 96 x 7 regiments = 658 points

18 x 77mm guns = 108 points

6 x 105mm howitzer = 54 points

2 x 24cm mortar = 24 points
2 x 17cm mortar = 20 points
4 x 76mm mortar - 16 points

3 x engineers = 15 points

2 x 150 howitzer = 22 points
1 x 170mm mortar = 20 points


Total = 966 Points



Depending on who is down this week and any other preferences I will be happy to put on a General Quarters game?

I would not mind using my WW2 Russian fleet if anyone can field an opposing fleet?

Failing that there is WW1 British V Germans.

World War One Project Update

I have been focused 100% on finishing my World War 1 British & German Corps and today I though to sort everything out that was either nearly or 100% game ready.

Overall I'm happy with progress, there are still things to do like the Mortar companies plus a lot of artillery. I also have a final 7th German regiment to paint and base to complete the Corps.




British and German Corps (1916) with divisional assets on both sides (engineers and tanks complete for British)

German Corps......... 7.7cm brigaded artillery attached out together with 7.6cm trench mortars..

British Corps... still some finishing touches and extra artillery to do but it's coming together nicely...

New Sculpt H & R Germans....

British Tanks...

British Infantry... ( I need to re base these as I don't really like the grass effect)

 British 60 Pdr....

 Another British Brigade...

British 18 Pdrs....

British Corps and Divisional Headquarters...

German Divisional & Corps Headquarters.....

German 77mm guns and artillery crew (new H & R Sculpts)

A Baccus 76mm trench mortar, blends in.... just!

Some more German 77mm and Infantry

On the face of it I think I have enough stuff to field a game in June but with me being away from next Friday for a week I think it may be a little too close to try and organise this for the Saturday.

It may be better to have a few practice games during June which will give me enough time to finish off everything proper and get my 1:600 aircraft ready.

Maybe we go for July instead?

There is still the option to put a game on in June it just depends on who can make it and what we want to play?

Every single ship the German's had (or planned to have) in WW1

http://german-navy.de/hochseeflotte/ships/index.html

Incredible - ship plans, stats, pics, etc.  I will be perusing this with interest...

Ship Data - Germany

Phil - German ship data, you should be able to zoom in on these to get the info.

A few additions to the German fleets

Finally got my copy of General Quarters from Navwar - together with a collection of WW1 and WW2 German ships.

Supposed to be the WW2 Blucher (sister of the Hipper) but Navwar sent the wrong one. I'm keeping it anyway because a) I don't have it and b) why not!?

Experimental WW1 German battleship.  Never built but that will never stop me!  8 x 42cm guns - whoop whoop!

Another experimental WW1 German ship.  Heavily armed and quick with it.

WW2 - Admiral Hipper Basic cruiser but with spotter aircraft to extend effective range.  Plus loads of torpedoes.

The Graf Spee - early WW2 German.  11" guns give it some hitting power compared to most cruisers armed with 8" guns.

Graf Spee's sister ship the Admiral Scheer.  With aircraft.

H44 Frederich der Grosse.  With the Hipper for scale.  Monster of a ship with 8 x 20" guns!!  Horrendous hitting power at all ranges (and 6 spotter aircraft).  A monster.  Never built but imagine if it had been! 

WW1 German Fleet

Bought these from Davco about 12 months ago and finally got around to basing and painting them up.

The fleet comprises battleships, battlecruisers, armoured cruisers, light cruisers, destroyers and torpedo boats.  The latter two are painted (there are hundreds of the buggers) and just need to be based but the bulk of the fleet is done.

Battleships and battlecruisers

The sea effect is done by sticking textured wallpaper to the base, painting it a deep blue then dry-brushing with lighter blues each time.  Then I draw around the ship in pencil then drybrush white around the ship shape and back to form the wake.

Wake effect.  Textured wallpaper stuck to MDF base and painted.

Rules we currently play are the excellent General Quarters from Navwar which play quicker than Victory at Sea (especially for WW1 battles).  I also thought VaS was too biased towards Japanese and American ships in terms of firepower and British ships in WW1

Cruisers and smaller / older battleships 

Each ship is labelled underneath so I know which is which (I'm not a big fan of having labels visible on the table).  Identification is through very small dot stickers which have either 1 - 10 or A-Z on them in different colours.  Before the game I can mark on the sheet which ship is which then get on without having to turn them over every time.

Label underneath