Maps

There is nothing quite like having (or not having) good maps to follow the action when reading about campaigns and battles.  The one ding I have against Glantz’ work is that the maps in the books are too small.  I imagine this is a publisher issue, not an author issue.  But it would be cool if the publisher would consider making a separate map foldout for works describing historical battles.  In Glantz’ work _Barbarossa Derailed_ he mentions that there will be a map volume.  What a treasure that would be.  Let’s hope it comes about.

So I’m looking for good maps of Iartsevo and its environs.  I would love some period maps but would be happy for now with just a good topographical map.  In search of such I came across a wonderful online resource: World War II Aerial photos: http://www.wwii-photos-maps.com/.  It has all sorts of interesting stuff and is worth spending some time digging around on.  The most interesting thing to me are the Soviet tactical maps of Stalingrad.  I’ll keep that in mind for a future project.

In the meantime, if you know of a source for good maps of the area around Iartsevo, drop me a note.

 

Armor

As much as I like infantry, you really can’t game WW2 without some armor on the table.  Comrade Myles painted these up for me.  What a treat they are!  These models are T-26s from Company B.  They are nice models.  Armor in 1941 is quite interesting.  I have some T-34s on order but will also be looking to add some BTs.  It seems that BTs and T-26s were quite prevalent with T-34s just beginning to appear.  I also have some Russian armored cars on order: BA-6s!

The German armor around Iartsevo will be interesting.  I have some early armored cars already for an armored car detachment from the infantry division.  Hopefully I’ll get those painted soon.  7th Panzer had PzIIs, 38ts, and PzIVs, so I’ll be on the lookout for early war versions of those tanks.  The armored car contingent in 7th Pz was made up of Panhards which will also be interesting.

The way NUTS! models vehicles is pretty cool.  Each crew member is rated and has a function to perform in the game.  It should be interesting to see how German crews in vehicles that are pretty well designed from a crew function point of view do action Soviet vehicles that look as good on paper as the Germans do if you’re considering armor, and weapon capabilities.  I suspect this will show the Germans having a bit of an edge because of that.

I can’t wait to get this stuff in a game on the table.  The initial pics weren’t too great, so I rephotographed with better light and updated the posting.

A closeup showing the road dust and mud built up on the tank.

T-26s ready for action.

Figures

You can’t have a blog without some pics of figures can you?  Here are my first two pics of figures painted by my friend Comrade Myles.  There is the political officer encouraging some soldiers forward to defend Mother Russia.  These are from the Crusader miniatures WW2 range.  I plan to use mostly Crusader figures for both Soviets and Germans.  For NUTS! about 50 figures per side is plenty for most games.  Myles has painted about that many Soviets for me and they are all based now.  Another friend is working on Germans.

The Crusader figures are really great.  I’ll supplement them with a few Bolt Action figures for gun crews, tank riders, and heavy machine gun crews.

And from a different angle.

Historical Setting

 

The historical setting for this series of games will be the fighting around Iartsevo from roughly 17 July through 7 August 1941.  I don’t have a tremendous amount of detailed information on this, but was inspired by David Glantz’s description of the fighting in the first volume of _Barbarossa Derailed_.   The Germans had almost completed the encirclement of three Soviet Armies at Smolensk.  The Soviets stepped up their fighting here and held open a narrow strip of land to the pocket of otherwise encircled troops.  On 17 July General Konstantin Rokossovksiy formed an ad hoc group and counterattacked to capture Iartsevo and hold open the lifeline for the Soviet armies at Smolensk.  He attacked and resisted counterattacks by 7th Panzer Division and 20th Motorized Division attempting to close the gap and seal the fate of the encircled troops.

This setting provides the context for a series of games I plan to do using NUTS!, a set of World War 2 skirmish rules.  The blog will document building up the models to be used for both sides, the research for some of the actions, the construction of appropriate terrain, and the actual games when they take place.

 

 

21 Days at Iartsevo

New blog from a new blogger.  Will use this blog to learn about and experience blogging and to document a gaming experience for the action around Iartsevo in July/August 1941.