I'm in the happy position of having all the infantry I'll ever need for my British and Austrian-Hungarian WW1 armies. What's missing is the support - specifically artillery - in 6mm.
What I like about WW1 artillery is that it is ridiculously over the top. The mobility of WW2 meant that rarely would either side have the time to bring such big guns to bear (and they'd be a magnet for any aircraft in the area should they have been fielded). After all, its hard to hide a 42cm howitzer - as high as a house and 50 times noisier.
Lets have a look at the British artillery for example. Field guns ranging from 13 to 60 pounders and howitzers ranging from 8" to 15". Trench mortars up to 9.45" and rail guns up to 14". Lordy!
But here come the Germans with their 42cm howitzer and 40cm rail gun. Take cover!
Now filling up the table with these beasties is not so simple. Heroics and Ros do some of the guns but not all of them. The same applies to Irregular - they do some great pieces (especially the German pieces) - but there are some notable gaps. Luckily (as it is 6mm) some of these can be scratch built - using (amongst other things) the metal piece on a painbrush that holds the bristles in place. These can be cropped down and made to look just like a Skoda mortar. Or existing cannons can be 'upgunned' by adding a bit of Milliput or Green Stuff to increase barrel size and width.
Of course, some pieces can be sourced from WW2 British and French armies (as the smaller pieces were kept on after WW1 and used at the start of WW2).
You do need lots of them as well - for all those lovely preliminary bombardments which consist of you rolling dice and your opponent bawling his eyes out and crying for mercy ("Don't worry, I've only got four more days left..."). Of course, the downside is that fun as it is to drop tons of heavy ordnance on your opponents trenches, you then pay the price of extra slow movement as your troops have to cross a lunar landscape of mud (just 1" movement if its raining) and get shot to ribbons by any surviving opposition troops.
Oh, and his off-table artillery can then blat your troops with all their big guns as your poor infantry are caught in the open. You really do need the cold heart of a Haig or Joffre to keep removing stand after stand yet insist your lads continue to plough forward.
Its a key element of wargaming WW1 - and lots of fun (as long as you're the one firing).
What I like about WW1 artillery is that it is ridiculously over the top. The mobility of WW2 meant that rarely would either side have the time to bring such big guns to bear (and they'd be a magnet for any aircraft in the area should they have been fielded). After all, its hard to hide a 42cm howitzer - as high as a house and 50 times noisier.
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| British 60 pounder, full recoil. Someone 5 miles away is about to have a really bad day. |
Lets have a look at the British artillery for example. Field guns ranging from 13 to 60 pounders and howitzers ranging from 8" to 15". Trench mortars up to 9.45" and rail guns up to 14". Lordy!
 |
| Canadians with a 60 pound shell. Merry Christmas, Fritz! |
But here come the Germans with their 42cm howitzer and 40cm rail gun. Take cover!
 |
| German 42cm Howitzer. Merry Christmas, Tommy! |
Now filling up the table with these beasties is not so simple. Heroics and Ros do some of the guns but not all of them. The same applies to Irregular - they do some great pieces (especially the German pieces) - but there are some notable gaps. Luckily (as it is 6mm) some of these can be scratch built - using (amongst other things) the metal piece on a painbrush that holds the bristles in place. These can be cropped down and made to look just like a Skoda mortar. Or existing cannons can be 'upgunned' by adding a bit of Milliput or Green Stuff to increase barrel size and width.
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| 42mm Morser. With this gun, you are really spoiling us! |
Of course, some pieces can be sourced from WW2 British and French armies (as the smaller pieces were kept on after WW1 and used at the start of WW2).
You do need lots of them as well - for all those lovely preliminary bombardments which consist of you rolling dice and your opponent bawling his eyes out and crying for mercy ("Don't worry, I've only got four more days left..."). Of course, the downside is that fun as it is to drop tons of heavy ordnance on your opponents trenches, you then pay the price of extra slow movement as your troops have to cross a lunar landscape of mud (just 1" movement if its raining) and get shot to ribbons by any surviving opposition troops.
Oh, and his off-table artillery can then blat your troops with all their big guns as your poor infantry are caught in the open. You really do need the cold heart of a Haig or Joffre to keep removing stand after stand yet insist your lads continue to plough forward.
Its a key element of wargaming WW1 - and lots of fun (as long as you're the one firing).
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