The Commander Series Forum

Hello!

I'm located in Flensburg and am about to start collecting armies and terrain for Cold War Commander in 6mm scale, as this was the scale the game was first introduced to me in and I think both miniatures and opponents are broadly available for that scale.

I'm looking for players located in northern Germany or southern Denmark. Although I am not THAT mobile (having no car) I'm sure games can be arranged and I am ready to invest in transportation (yours or mine) to get to play.

***Previously on CWC...***

Directed at unit1997, continuing our previous discussion:

Well it still is quite a drive. I don't have a car unfortunately. :/ Maybe I can subsidise your driving, or something.

Regarding armies and scale:
My plan is to collect both German armies (Bundeswehr and Nationale Volksarmee) in 6mm scale for the period 83-89, maybe adding American and Russian battlegroups later on.

I already bought the CWC rules, but since I am a university student I'll have to save up a bit of money before I can place my first order for terrain and units. I do have 15mm WW2 miniatures aplenty though, as well as a good amount of terrain in that scale.

***Terrain***

Here's my table in three configurations (village, river, beach assault):

http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m224/Zerknau...

The rivers, wood-bases and hills could be used for 6mm scale as well I think, so I only need new roads, buildings and trees.

I hope to have troops and terrain ready by July. It's a long way in the future I know, but I really don't have the money right now to "start big" and I don't want to promise deadlines I probably won't be able to keep.

Beste Grüße aus Flensburg,

Hauke

Hm no edit button? Or did I just not find it?

Anyway, I forgot to mention: To my eternal shame I don't speak Danish yet, despite living in Flensburg since '10. :|
That means we'll we'd have to play in English, I hope that is not a problem.

Sounds good. I have relatives living in that vicinity, so transport shouldn't be too much trouble for me.
6mm sounds great as it's my preferred scale. While my favorite cold war force is the US, England, the U.S.S.R are all countries I'll very willingly play as. France is also an option.

I do have any cold war era miniatures yet, but I want to get started with CWC so this sounds like a good opportunity.
I do have some 6mm terrain however, and if I can find some flock for grass (Why is it hard to find?!) they should be usable.

- William

Hi William,

alright, you go ahead and pick up some US units, I'll focus on the East German army. A friend of mine (who is not yet convinced, but intrigued) told me he would (read: WILL!) start a West German force, should he like the game, so I have all the more reason to muster some socialist troops!

I'll also try to prepare a few village buildings, woods and roads, but as I said, it'll probably take some time.

Very good comrade general! So far I've set my eyes on a U.S. armored division, and since it's 6mm it's actually affordable! But a division is still a big handful for starting out, so most likely I will get a brigade, and then, possibly, work my way up to a division in the future.

???????, ??????? ????????!

Well a division is indeed quite a large force to go for. During the demo I played at the "Do Or Dice" convention in Rendsburg, I was in charge of two Russian battalions with 3 companies each. That plus some AA and support (arty/airforce) will be enough for the start I think.

How are you going to base the units? The guy who gave the presentation at the "Do Or Dice" used Flames of War bases, which I think is pretty convenient. They already have smoothed edges (so they don't look very "blocky" and are not that expensive to get, even in greater numbers.

HQ = medium base (50x32mm)
transports = small magnetic base (25x32mm)
everything else = small base (25x32mm)

The magnetic base for transports was used, so you could attach a thin metal plate to the bottom (passengers). When they dismount you take it out from under the base. Just a little reminder and not really necessary, though, so one could leave them out to save money. I plan to copy this though, as I said before, I think it's pretty convenient.

My "schedule" (that I hope to be able to keep) is

MAY:
- get "hobby" stuff: print + bind rules, get dice and bases
- create fences, walls and hedges
- create roads for 6mm scale
- get/create trees for 6mm scale
- maybe create fields

JUNE:
- get the GHQ T-72 + BMP-1 battlegroup
- get WP infantry + WP infantry heavy weapons
- get AA
- get first batch of buildings (Najewitz/Masters Of Military)

JUNE/JULY:
- get second batch of buildings (TimeCast)
- maybe get Mi-24D or Mi-8

It all depends on my financial situation of course. If I don't have the money for buildings, we'll just have to battle for fields, roads and rivers or make do with papercraft buildings.

the '???'s in the other post are in cyrillic letters, guess the forum doesn't support it It said "otlitshna tovarish komandir!"

*snaps to attention*

I'm probably going to use these (http://shop.eastridingminiatures.co.uk/squares-... bases. They have every imaginable size and form available, but I'm going with squares and rectangles since I like the look of those the best. For some reason I hate the little gap that forms when you have two or more rounded bases side to side.


My plan is probably something like this:

-Get the miniatures. If I have enough money I will get a division, if not then I will get a brigade or a couple of battalions. Most likely the latter.

-Get the last three paints I need (Brown, green and black, the NATO Three-Color Camouflage) and some airbrush equipment(airbrush cleaner).

-Get the bases. Bases last since they aren't really needed, and then I can focus on more important things. But since they're so cheap there should be no problem.

-See if I have anything left for terrain.

Those bases from ERM are great, turn around time is often really quick, on occasion I've had an order shipped the next day from ordering - all my gear is based 40x20 for infantry and armour. I go 40x30 for artillery and 30x30 for recce. HQs and CO can be on anything, round, square - depends whether you like the little dioramas as command units (I use 40x40 for HQs and engineers).

Cheers

You may want to try minibits.net they are a bit cheaper.
E.g.
Minibits 20mm x 20mm x 2mm = £1.00 for 30 bases
ERM 20mm x 20mm x 2mm = £1.25 for 16 bases

A lot more bases for your buck

Cheers

Richard P

I tend to use http://www.warbases.co.uk/ as they're dead quick and cheap with good quality products

Spoiled for choice these days!

"For some reason I hate the little gap that forms when you have two or more rounded bases side to side." - unit1997

I have the opposite problem! I don't have a problem with gaps (the units rarely stand next to each other anyway), but with the height/blockiness of bases. For me there needs to be a transition from base to table, otherwise the units look to detached from their surrounding landscape, surfing around on giant slabs.

Those minibits bases are tempting though, even with 20% postage fee, they are very cheap. How high are they? Is the material easy to work with? Because I would want to grind the edges to get my beloved transitions.

Duh, I should read before I post, 2mm high, okay. Sorry.

Thanks alot for all the links! I think I'll take Minibits for bases then.

The bases are mdf, so if you grind them, do it in a well ventilated space as they give off solvents, including formaldehyde according to posts I've seen on the internet elsewhere.

As sediment said, MDF is something that's not too good for your health. Beware of the dust!

Got my bases from minibits today, I like them, no trimming necessary. Dunno whether I'll be able to keep my "schedule" though, a little short on money atm.

I apologize for replying late, I'm busy with 9th grade exams at the moment.
And don't worry about your schedule! My wallet is not exactly full either. I'm close to buying the miniatures, but I still need paint and basing material. I don't have any MERDEC colours in my Vallejo Model Air collection, so I need to get some of those. Neither do I have any airbrush cleaner left.

So, obviously my schedule didn't quite work out.

However: I FINALLY managed to sell of my damned space marines and the money (which will arrive tomorrow, hopefully) is going straight into two German battle groups: one for NATO (GHQ Bundeswehr starter set), one for PACT (GHQ: 10x BMP1, 10x KPz T-55AM2B, 50x Infantry, 4x SPW 40P2, 1x SPW 40P2UM).

I'm also going to undertake test printings for paper terrain at the local copyshop with 200g/m² paper. My 80g/m² paper b/w testprint at home and the subsequent assembly went quite well, so the next step is thicker material and colour print.

I'll use these (hover over "buildings", then choose one of the cities for previews and downloads):
http://miniatures.free-creativity.com/

However I've re-assembled them for mass production into 4-5 per page, to keep costs and trash low.

Trees will be ordered shortly as well and if everything checks out, I'll have roads and bases for the buildings soon™ as well.

Now that I have the funds and switched my planning to paper terrain, everything should run well - even on a tight schedule and budget!

Sounds great! I have planned a Soviet Motorized Rifle Regiment and a US Cavalry Regiment, as found at the Fulda gap in 1980 (if my research is correct!). I had planned to buy both so I could get some Danes into historical wargaming, but seeing you getting close I will probably order the US battlegroup prematurely.

I have a couple of (quite large) unfinished hills that are collecting dust in the garage, but I will see if I can get them done. As my favorite wargaming shop finally has Woodland Scenics in stock, I am finally able to get the things I need.

Good stuff chaps!

Nice find on that site with the buildings, Knautscher

Agreed, it is an excellent site!

I forgot to ask, what era is your battlegroup? I will have to get M60A1's instead of A3's if it is earlier than 1980.

The East German BG will use T-55AM2B which were introduced ca. 1984/1985, so the East Germans get a few toys as well. Although I just checked the MRB and the T-55AM2B doesn't seem to have the ATGM "Bastion" in its CWC profile.

In other news: I've bought 3,26 m² of PVC floor (was on sale, lucky me) and printed and assembled my first houses.



Each page contains 2-5 houses, depending on the type.
Cost per page (colour print, 250g/m² paper): 1,00 Euro.
I'll grab a few trees tomorrow hopefully and will start on the roads and village-bases, while I wait for the reenforcements.

Looks good, and dead cheap & simple!

Wow, that house looks stunning! I have always wondered how three dimensional paper buildings looked, but that actually looks really good.

Mid 80ies you say? Might have to upgrade the M113s and M60A3s to M2/3s and M1s to fit the period. Although I am a bit reluctant to fielding Abrams against T55s...

Well, as you are getting ready I will have to finally pull myself together and order some lead soon. I have looked into transportation, and it should not be too much of an issue for me with the train going directly to Flensburg from Odense. The only problem is DSB's ridiculous prices!

EDIT: I just looked at your units again and I think I might have been stupid. Are those one tank and one motorized companies?

Do you live in Odense? A friend of mine (who as of now mostly plays Flames Of War) will begin studying in Odense in September. Maybe from then on the two of you have a chance to game as well and/or travel to Flensburg together, keeping the costs a bit lower.

I just finished building my first 5 test buildings and I'll have a few more printed tomorrow to get enough for a village.

My supplier also informed me, that he doesn't have the T-55M in sufficient quantity and that ordering them could take quite a while, so I changed the order to T-72M1 instead.

Yes, your assumption is correct:
9x Mot.-Schützen Units (Infantrysquads + BMP-1)
9x Panzer Units (T-72M1)
along with recon units (BRDM-2 = SPW 40P2) and a few ZSU-23/4 Shilkas SPAAGs.

The spare SPW 40P2UM, T-72M1 and BMP-1 will be used for CO/HQs.