The Grey Guys Never Won

When I was a kid and my miniatures were plastic army men, there were green army men, Americans, and there were grey army men, Nazis.  In all the battles over all of the years that I played with them as a child, the grey army men never won.  Not one single battle.  

They were almost always outnumbered, except maybe in those first few months after receiving the Marx Battleground playset.  Not too long after Christmas that year, I started adding to my toy soldiers, and the Germans almost never got anything.  So as time went on, they became more and more outnumbered.

A a kid, I never saw any plastic army men representing other countries, there were a few diecast toys, like the Saladin armored car that fought with my American forces, but no British troops, no Russians, No Japanese, etc.

The Americans benefitted from the advance of technology also.  Their first tanks were M26s, later receiving M48s ; they also got things like a CH53, and lots of troops with M16 rifles.  The Germans never advanced past the Panther, their additions being restricted to the technology of the war years.  In time they received a Sdkfz7, and a single Panzer IV, but not much else.

All things considered, the grey guys never had a chance.  They fought hard, but still, never had a chance.  

Surprisingly, I never considered any of this before.

Now, sometimes the Germans win, and given that I've played a lot of 1940 battles, they've often won. They also never had to face M48s with their Panthers, and American infantry don't benefit from M16s (well, not until Vietnam anyway).

These days, I suspect that I'd get bored with the green guy always winning, but I do miss other aspects of the simplicity of the old days.  Just buy the stuff and play, consumer wargaming at its best.  No assembly, no painting required (though I did tend to paint them).  Scale not overly important (within reason), no research, no historical maps, no pulling teeth and jumping through hoops for historical accuracy or realism.

It was a lot of fun without too much work.  In reflection, I wonder if I've lost my way to some extent.  The grey guys probably wouldn't think so.

Cold War Help from QRF

I received an order from QRF with some 15mm odds and ends primarily for the British and Soviets in 1958.  

First, the cool stuff; for the Brits, a platoon of Conqueror heavy tanks, and for the Soviets, a couple platoons of T10s.  

There is also, a platoon of Soviet BRDM1 scout cars and a couple of Bedford RL trucks for the British.

My first 15mm 1958 games will likely center around a small group of British infantry that were overrun in my 6mm WWIII battles back in February.  My current thinking is to run a sort of mini-campaign of scenarios as they try to make their way back to friendly forces in the the early days of WWIII, 1958.  More on that later.

I originally intended to place an order for a bunch of French VABs back in March, right around the time that QRF had stopped taking orders.  So when they added their post war lines back to the catolog,  I added a few a few more things and placed my order.  The ordering process went smoothly with shipping time being a touch over three weeks. 

I ordered ten of the VABs to fill out a French infantry company (adding them to what I already had).  Here's a pic of one of them right out of the bag.

The VBLs may end up on the shelf for a while, but I hope to have the other stuff done by the end of November.  I 'm not gaming yet, but it can't hurt to add to the lead (/resin/plastic) mountain.