Calling up the 'West Suffolks'

I've been sadly neglecting my 'D-Day Dodgers' Italian Campaign min-project recently, so I thought it was high time I put in some more time on them.  Bob Cordery's The Portable Wargame gave me a nice introduction with his simple,  accessible rules - I will doubtless use them again, but for the moment I am looking to use Colin Rumford and Richard Marsh's  Rapid Fire Reloaded ruleset. I like their simplicity too, and they have the advantage of providing plenty of details on the organisation of scaled-down forces for all the main combatants.  So I am starting from there, with my first British infantry battalion. 

The 'RRR' booklet gives a nice suggested organisation for such a battalion, which looks like this : 

The above represents the 10th Highland Light Infantry,  and is used in the rulebook's example  scenario for Mouen, Normandy, 28th June 1944.   So I have borrowed it as inspiration for my very own 1st Battalion, West Suffolk Regiment. This of course is a distinguished senior regiment of the line, with many hard-earned battle honours from the times of Marlborough to Montgmery, all of which are stirringly recorded in the annals - of my imagination.  

Starting from the basis of the 'battle group' I put together for the Portable Wargame, which previously saw action at  Monte Lucedelsole  and Ponte Natale,  I have been making small acquisitions of additional figures and vehicles from traders at various shows in the last year or two - yes, I am one of those annoying folk who will approach a tradestand and buy just  one or two packs of two or three figures, or one vehicle! I should also mention the 'bring and sell' style tables at the Broadside show at Gillingham, which proved a good source of 'pre-loved' Bren carriers, Jeeps etc. 

new recruits - need to smarten up a bit

I've now had a proper sort through the various accumulated packs of figures and vehicles, and put them together in the organisation as suggested above - minus the Machine-Gun Company, which is not an integral part of the battalion.   

From the front  we have the Battalion HQ with its Bren Carrier, PIAT and Mortar team,  the Carrier Platoon with another Bren and PIAT team, the four Rifle Companies, and at the back the Support Company with Lloyd Carrier and 6-pounder AT gun, Bren Carrier and 3-inch mortar.   Figures are a right old mixture - the majority being my vintage 1970s Matchbox guys as previously seen, with PIAT and mortar teams from Brittannia/Grubby Tanks and SHQ. I didn't have quite enough Matchbox figures in suitable poses, thus the newly-recruited   'D' company's riflemen are good old Airfix 1970s WW2 British Infantry, which have been in the loft for several decades! Vehicles an equally polyglot bunch - two of the Bren carriers (probably Airfix ) were second hand, provenance unknown, the Lloyd Carrier a resin Ready To Roll  model from Rapid Fire themselves,  and the rather nice Bren Carrier which the battalion commander has 'baggsied' is by Disain Studio, and proudly proclaims that it is 'Made in Devon' - I think it is 3D-printed, which is a first for me!  I am entirely happy with this mix and match approach, I think it's fun to make use of the vintage stuff that I originally had as a child and give it a new lease of life, supplemented by some new aquisitions from - well, whoever I happened to find at SELWG, Broadside, Salute or Partizan! They all seem to go together pretty well. 

Now I have to get on with painting and basing the recent recruits as required, and then rustle up some suitable opposition - the core of which will be  nice  old 1960s vintage Airfix Germans, riding in a fleet of recently-acquired Steyr heavy cars and Opel Blitz trucks.   After that,  I think I can raise a lorried Indian battalion, with trusty Bedford QLs and doubtless some more Bren carriers.. 

 'In other news', as they say,  I was lucky to be included in the latest of Jon Freitag's remote games,  playing the ill-fated Roman Consul Flaminius in Jon's  table-top  re-creation of Lake Trasimene, 217BC. I'll won't give too many spoilers, and leave it to Jon himself to give his usual excellent battle report - suffice it to say it was a surprisingly close-fought and exciting affair!  Many thanks to Jon for a great scenario and for running the game so smoothly.  Also for this teaser picture, showing Flaminius and one of his  legionary Principes units ( lovely figures from Jon's collection, of course ) getting their feet wet - which may give you a clue as to the eventual result!   

 

Many thanks to Jon, and to fellow players Chris, Tony and Mark  ( aka  Nundanket,  MS Foy and Jolly Broom Man ) for a great evening!  A re-match may be in prospect, with the sides reversed - I think Hannibal has it rather easier, let's hope it turns out that way.  Meanwhile, maybe it's time to run an actual game (albeit solo)  here - I am mulling over Seven Years War vs. Thirty Years War. Watch this space - or just 'follow' this blog, and it will pop up on your reading list.. Until then keep well, everyone.