A throwaway line in a comment in the Duc de Gobin's "Warfare in the age of cynics and amateurs" blog has prompted this post.
The original post was about the new version of Twilight 2000 (or TW2000) appearing after a kickstarter; those of us with a few grey hairs were around when the original came out when the content was set in the future!
Anyway, it was partly responsible for my nearly 40-year obsession with Roco Minitanks and other 1/87th vehicles. The pictures in the back of the TW 2000 US Army vehicle guide was what sucked me in. Once I'd seen a Bradley model in the flesh, I was hooked (the missile launcher can be raised and lowered!).
The discovery of Frank Chadwick's Combined Arms (ultra-modern version of Command Decision) with pictures of Frank's 20mm collection (mostly 1/87 vehicles but with 1/76 mixed in and Esci modern U.S., nominally 1/72 v Airfix 1/87 Soviets) took me down the 1980s actual v 1990s what if route.
Although I have continued to collect (hoard?) 1/87, most sits waiting glue and paint. I was fortunate many years ago to obtain large quantities of Petner Panzers Soviet armour along with ex-DDR diecast Soviet vehicles (especially BTR-60s) so can field decent sized Warpac forces should I wish to. Now of course with the advent of 3d printing almost any vehicle can be produced in any scale you wish.
I have found my mind wandering to using all the Soviet and NATO toys with Tim Gow's Megablitz (or NBC if he ever publishes it) or Bob Cordery's Hexblitz. Someone even wrote adaptations for a version of Modern Megablitz which used to be stored in the Yahoo group files (mainly EW as the core was the same).
Hence the train of thought to a mash up of TW 2000 and Megablitz, christened "Apocoblitz" without much thought.
The main issue will be supply; units are going to have to stop every few days to distill fuel and ammo is going to be limited but aside from that the only problem using MB or HB as written will be the small size of units with divisions of a few thousand men and 20-30 tanks (with other vehicles in a random assortment). I will have to give it some thought, but in the meantime, like Archduke Piccolo I have dug out my old CA/CD toys to see what they would look like.
The cloth is from Tiny Wargames (100mm hex Commands & Colors mat) and the toys are unbased apart from the infantry. I was short quite a bit for the Soviets but it would just mean more SPs for each stand. Working on a very rough 1 stand + vehicle = 1000 men or 10-20 tanks (more for others) I picked out some formations from the U.S. Army and Soviet vehicle guides (copyright GDW).
VII US Corps Central Germany 1 July 2000
1st Infantry (Mechanized) 5000 + 14 M1, 16 M1A1
36th Infantry 3000 + 21 M60A4, 10 M1, 4 LAV-75 (my crude conversion)
The Corp supply train is to the left of the picture
2nd Armoured Cavalry 100 + 2 M1A2, 6 LAV-75
Soviet 1st Western Front 1st July 2000 Poland
1st Guards Tank Army
9th Guards Tank Division 4000 + 24 tanks
To the rear can be seen 11 Guards Tank Div + 25 Tank Div (1500 + 7 tanks) combined
Completing the formation 1 Tank Division (Category II 3000 + 9 tanks) and nominal army support (artillery + AA)
8th Guards Army
39th Guards Motorised Rifle Division 3000 + 27 tanks
20th Guards Cavalry Division 1000 horsed (!) Cavalry (multiple recon stands)
131st Motor Rifle Division (Mobilisation Div) 2000 foot mobile + 16 tanks
Simply superb - these look absolutely gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteAgree re. logistics - playing against Red force requirement to keep vehicles moving, without achieving breathrough on Day 1, should form core of NATO defensive tactics.
Very inspirational.
...and loving some of the mods/conversions here, and of course, the Russian cavalry is perfect.
ReplyDeleteIt's what happens when you start off trying to produce TW2000 model vehicles....I never attempted a M1A2 Giraffe as I thought they looked....well silly! I did have a poor attempt at a T-90 using JS-3 running gear heavily covered with plastic card and a scratch remote turret. It ended up being scrapped with the tracks going back to the JS-3 it came from.
ReplyDeleteWhen I started, Soviet kit was very scarce. Apart from T-54, T-34/85 and JS-3 there wasn't a lot (some very pricey Trident in metal). I followed FC's lead in the U.S. Army guide and found some Roskopf (and EKO copies) in the local model shop. In my case I found 3x BTR-50 and managed to get hold of 6 BTR-60s as well as around 9 T-55. Sadly, Roskopf and the EKO clones vary widely in scale, some are around 1/100 while others are 1/90 or thereabouts. The BTR in the pictures are Roskopf with the hull plated over and a scratch built turret added. I've since found East German diecast replacements (by MAB, VEB, Espewe and under other names) which are much better but almost identical in scale. The BMP conversion was too small and has been reassigned to the Airborne with CMSC BMP being pictured. The EKO T-55 were made into a sort of Vismod T-72 and T-80 (waay too small) until I managed to get hold of some Petner replacements (pictured). A Trident version is lurking at the back; it and the ZSU-23/4 were part of a load of models I bought from a serving officer who had used them for recognition training! I've since acquired lots more proper Soviet vehicles, down to trucks.
The Yank conversions are limited to a couple each of M-163 AA and the LAV-75s. I was planning a Stingray (from a Sheridan). The M60s have the reactive armour as in the Guide, which is not quite right.
The Cavalry and some of the Infantry are Grenadier from the short lived TW2000 line which had US, Soviets and Poles (including cavalry), the rest are old Platoon 20. CMSC got Dave Allsop to design some proper 1/87 figures which are around 18mm and slim. Only US and Soviet. By then I had already invested in 20mm Hotspur (FAA, now Combat). TBH it never jarred as 2 figures on a base whether they represent a platoon, company or battalion requires suspension of disbelief...
Since the advent of eBay, I have hordes of Germans, more Yanks, Soviets and NATO and a small amount of Brits. Sadly Roco prices have gone silly since they went under; the Herpa line has been bought but I think the days of 1/87 being cheap are long gone. It's a shame as they have a nice footprint. Of course these days you can get cheap 15mm.....
Neil,
ReplyDeleteFrom one T2K Miniatures Loon to another, may I say your collection is something to see. I have to do pictorials of mine at some point!
That's just what's painted.....
DeleteThe perils of being seduced by platoon level games...
Neil
There's plenty to play with there, methinks, Neil. You have this advantage over my Harad project: an OPFOR (whoever the 'OPFOR' actually is!
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Archduke Piccolo
Thanks Ion.
ReplyDeleteI think the usual "trope" for OPFOR is to go for a Soviet equipped force, which is a bit lazy in some ways.
It's part of the reason I'm drawn to Indo-Pakistan where you have British v US with some French / Soviet, later Soviet / Chinese on both sides.
When proper Soviet kit was impossible to obtain in 1/87, I briefly toyed with copying the U.S. OPFOR training centre who used "VisMod" Sheridans converted to look like Soviet vehicles; Sheridans were plentiful and relatively cheap to obtain in 1/87. However, it would have involved converting every single vehicle!