[Gekkan Senshadou battle report] Kuromorimine vs. St. Gloriana [Kuromorimine]

Battle Overview

Line up

St. Gloriana: 1 x Churchill, 11 x Matilda II,  2 x Crusader, 1 x Cromwell

Kuromorimine: 1 x Tiger I, 2 x Tiger II, 8 x Panther G, 3 x Jagdpanzer IV/L70, 1 x Panzer III J

Overview

Both Kuromorimine and St. Gloriana are familiar faces at the semi-final round of National Senshadou Tournament. For St. Gloriana, Kuromorimine was probably their biggest rival; to Kuromorimine, they must make it to the final round this year in order to redeem themselves from the previous year’s defeat. The stage was a desert scene similar to El Alamein, the place where the Desert Rats finally stopped the German advance into Egypt, and turned the course of North Africa campaign around. Rather fitting for a battle between a German-style school and a British-style one.

But Kuromorimine’s tanks were much bigger and better than what Erwin Rommel had at Alamein. They could fire accurately over 2,000 meters, an advantage they fully exploited over this flat open battlefield. Kuromorimine opened fire at 2,400m, and knocked out a few Matildas. At this moment Darjeeling sent out her Cromwell, specially prepared for this occasion, which threw out a huge wall of dust that got Kuromorimine’s distracted. Meanwhile St. Gloriana’s Crusaders managed to locate the only thing Darjeeling cared about at the moment: Kuromorimine’s flag tank, sitting on a hill by itself.

Meanwhile Kuromorimine had formed a flanking group of Panthers and began rolling up the right flank of St. Gloriana’s line. Darjeeling left the rest of her team there as bait, ordered them to keep Kuromorimine pinned as long as possible, and left in her Churchill to face her destiny. True to their words to their Captain, After some fierce fighting, St. Gloriana completely annihilated the flanking force Kuromorimine sent forward and kept the rest of Kuromorimine eyes fixed on their position as their captain crept up behind Kuromorimine’s flag tank.

Thanks to intel gathered prior to the match, Darjeeling had heard that Kuromorimine recently had a personnel reshuffle after their deputy commander Nishizumi Miho transferred away. Knowing that Nishizumi Maho would very likely keep her team as far away from her as possible to avoid another “difficult situation”, Darjeeling was confident that Maho’s tank would be alone. However after the previous bout against Kuromorimine’s Panthers, her tank only had two rounds of APCBCs left. As Darjeeling crested the ridge line, she found Kuromorimine’s Tiger I had turned around, facing her tank, its 88mm cannon staring right at her.

Some quick command and good driver’s work on both side saw Tiger’s shot bounce off Darjeeling’s mantlet and Churchill’s shot glancing off the side of Tiger’s turret. Now it’s down to which tank would reload before the next tank could fire: Maho boasts that her loader could reload in 6 seconds, but Orange Pekoe distinguished herself by loading in her last round well before that. Assam fired her 75mm but unfortunately missed Tiger’s turret ring by a little bit, and saw the shot bounce off the front armor. By now the rest of Kuromorimine team has finished the rest of St. Gloriana team, and took out Darjeeling’s Churchill with a spectacular volley.

Even though her team was annihilated and she narrowly lost the match herself, Darjeeling didn’t seem bitter or sad, as she greeted Kuromorimine’s captain Maho afterwards with a graceful smile.

This battle was epic enough it got a split page art

Comment

OK at this point I think that roulette is just a joke. El Alamein? You are not going to find anything like that in Tottori.

Cromwell’s commander was… Nilgiri. Surprise.

[Gekkan Senshadou battle report] Jatkosota vs. Kuromorimine [Kuromorimine]

Battle Overview

Line up

Jatkosota: 1 x StuG G, 1 x PzIV G, 1 x BT-42, 1 x T-34/76, 1 x T-34/85, 1 x T-26, 2 x BT-5, 2 x BT-7

Kuromorimine: 1 x Tiger I, 2 x Tiger II, 4 x Panther, 2 x Jagdpanzer IV/L70, 1 x Panzer III J

Overview

In Kuromorimine former deputy commander’s words, Jatkosota was a tough nut to crack even for Kuromorimine during a practice match between the two schools, which is the reason why this match has become the most anticipated one in Round 2. When the roulette on stage selection stopped, it landed the opposite of where Jatkosota wanted: a barren featureless desert stage.  Jatkosota preferred snowy lakes, and usually don’t do so well in hot areas; Kuromorimine on the other hand didn’t care too much about the weather; furthermore Jatkosota’s tank crews were used to drift around in snow or over frozen roads, not soft sand. Knowing that their opponent would be weaker in this stage certainly boosted Kuromorimine’s morale as well. Thus Kuromorimine has gained upper hand even before the match had begun,

Kuromorimine began the match by sending their Panzer III forward for recon, while the rest of the tanks formed into a panzer keil and started advancing on Jatkosota from 2km away. Kuromorimine’s tanks advanced through “shoot & scoot”, they would acquire targets while on the move, fire once their tanks have come to a complete stop, and then immediately move again. Such feat could only be achieved by a strong and well disciplined school like Kuromorimine.

On the other hand Jaktosota was fighting back in their ways: their drivers, finally figured out how to drift in sand, was dodging Kuromorimine shells with their superior driving skills. Some tanks dashed in and out of Kuromorimine’s formation, utilizing their smaller sizes and superior mobility to brawl with bigger tanks and disrupt Kuromorimine’s shooting. Jaktosota, now somewhat back in their comfort zone, managed to knock out the Panzer III along with two Panthers.

Unfortunately their skills was still no match for Kuromorimine tanks’ qualitative superiority. Jaktosota was not able to stop the Tiger commanded by Kuromorimine’s Captain Nishizumi Maho and the Tiger II following her from decimating their team. Jaktosota’s flag tank gallantly fought to the bitter end, dashing around as Kuromorimine tightened their noose.

Even though most spectators knew that a Kuromorimine victory was a foregone conclusion, they also praised how Jaktosota had presented a brilliant fight and actually managed to knock out two Panthers, a feat not many other schools could achieve. In the future we hope to see more exciting matches between the lion and the wind.

Comment

So the stages are chosen by a roulette, I wonder how many bizarre choices are on it…

[Gekkan Senshadou Battle Report] Pravda vs. Viking Fishery [Pravda]

Battle Overview

Line up   

Pravada: 4 x T-34/85, 4 x T-34/76, 1 x KV-2, 1 x IS-2   

Viking Fishery: 2 x Souma S-35, 2 x Hotchkiss H-35, 1 x Panzer I B, 2 x Panzer II B, 3 x Panzer III N, 1 x NbFz

Overview

Viking Fishery beat Koala Forest through careful planning and surprise attacks, but this time their biggest adversary was the stage: a small town surrounded by snowy swampland. While neither VIking Fishery nor Pravda was stranger to this type of terrain, most of Viking Fishery’s tanks: Panzer Is & IIs, S-35s and H-35s, were ill-suited for this type of terrain. Pravda tanks on the other hand all had wide tracks and would have no problem negotiate the soft swampy landscape.

Knowing that they would be outmaneuvered in the open, Viking Fishery decided to hold the town part of the stage instead, using carefully placed ambushes and elastic defence to grind Pravda down in street fighting.

Alas, Viking Fishery’s plan survived as well as the first building that was hit by a 152mm shell fired from Pravda’s KV-2. While the KV-2 was picking off outer layer of buildings, Pravda’s T-34s split off into two groups, pushing through two different breaches into the town. Viking Fishery tanks was fighting for their survival: Panzer III Ns dashed around buildings trading shots with T-34s, while lighter tanks flanked around to get a better shot from side or rear. However Pravda had brought out their trump card: the IS-2. Its 122mm cannon was powerful enough that the tank was taking out Viking’s Panzer IIIs throug the buildings they were hiding behind. By this time Pravda’s T-34s had reached the center of the town and was picking off the last few remaining Viking Fishery tanks.

Pravda had won this battle through better strategy and bigger guns. If they could keep up the performance, they would surely make it to the final round of this championship just like last year.

Comments

1. I understand that Senshadou Council compensate losses, blowing up half a village sounds a little bit ridiculous. Maybe it’s one of those ghost towns in super remote areas?
2. If the IS-2 was indeed “Pravda’s strongest tank”, that means Pravda doesn't have IS-3s in their inventory.

[Gekkan Senshadou battle report] St. Gloriana vs. Yogurt [St. Gloriana]

Battle Overview

Line up

St. Gloriana: 1 x Churchill, 9 x Matilda II  

Yogurt: 2 x CV-33, 1 x Pz38t Ausf.G, 2 x Hotchkiss H-39, 1 x StuG III F/G, 1 x Panzer IV G/H, 1 x Jagdpanzer IV/L70, 1 x Hetzer, 1 x Panther D/G

Overview

Yogurt might have beaten Waffle thanks to the new dash of German firepower, but how well they will do against the traditional strong school St. Gloriana was still up to everyone’s guess. The stage was set on a hilly area, and everyone had agreed that whichever side who used the terrain better would surely win the match. St. Gloriana on the other hand decided to fight this battle as daring and as graceful as always.

The match began with Yogurt quickly securing a ridgeline overlooking the whole field and started firing away at St. Gloriana’s neatly-formed column from 3,000 meters away. However Yogurt’s abysmal accuracy hasn’t increased much from the last match even after the training, all they had achieved was knocking out one St. Gloriana’s Matilda on scout duty, while the rest of St. Gloriana tanks made it to the blind spot under their noses.

Darjeeling reformed her line into a herringbone shaped V, and intended to use her tanks’ superior hill climbing ability to rush up the slope. Just when St. Gloriana was moving into attack position, Yogurt’s tanks poked over the slope and concentrated all their fire on Darjeeling’s command tank. Darjeeling, calm as ever, simply put her tanks sideways to minimize the amount of area exposed to Yogurt’s fire, which earned a round of rousing applause from the audience. Smoke and dust thrown up from Yogurt’s shelling completely blocked Yogurt tanks’ line of sight, St. Gloriana took the chance and quickly climbed up the slope, through the smoke and started to engage Yogurt tanks on their side, throwing Yogurt into disarray. Darjeeling quickly assessed the situation, identified Yogurt’s flag tank was their Pz38(t), and began hunting it down. Pz 38(t) was trying to reverse away from the Churchill, but accidentally backed into a Jagdpanzer IV, and was quickly knocked out.

Right after the match, Darjeeling, showing her generosity, proposed to Yogurt’s deputy commander to have a practice match in near future. Although Yogurt lacked experience, they had showed a great effort which must have greatly impressed Darjeeling.

[Gekkan Senshadou battle report]Waffle vs. Yogurt [Yogurt]

Line up

Waffle: 4 x AMC 35 (converted), 4 x Vickers T-15, 2 x M4 (105mm)

Yogurt: 2 x CV-33, 1 x Pz38t Ausf.G, 2 x Hotchkiss H-39, 1 x StuG III F/G, 1 x Panzer IV G/H, 1 x Jagdpanzer IV/L70, 1 x Hetzer, 1 x Panther D/G

Overview

Up until now Yogurt Academy is a minor school primarily using light tanks and tankettes. They rely on defense, and when the time is right would mount counter attacks with their light tanks. But this year Yogurt's roster got a complete makeover, adding heavier vehicles such as Panther, Panzer IV, and Jagdpanzer IV. These tanks with unknown origin sent a shockwave through both other schools and the press. Their opponent Waffle Academy had disbanded their senshadou team for a while due to lack of participation, but thanks to a recent increase in student enrollment had restarted their senshadou. But their vehicle pool was mostly light tanks such as AMC 35s and T-15s supplemented by 105mm howitzer armed M4 Shermans.

Now that they significantly outgun their opponent, Yogurt began with a frontal assault led by their new tanks, going straight for Waffle's starting area. Waffle on the other hand took advantage of their higher ground and took up defensive position.

Once the two sides met they immediately began a fierce firefight. Waffle's AMC 35s and Shermans would hit Yogurt tanks with everything they got, while their T-15s would dash out from time to time to harass Yogurt's formation. Yogurt, despite having a massive firepower advantage, couldn't hit the broadside of a barn because their crew were rushed into bigger tanks without proper training. Waffle had their own problems too: their 105mm howitzer had a long reload speed, and couldn't hurt anything bigger than a Panzer IV. Both sides had to cope with their problems by constantly stopping to aim or fire; eventually Yogurt's bigger tanks carried the day, and slowly took out all of Waffle's tanks.

Yogurt supposedly went into intense gunnery training after this match to prepare for the second round.

Comment

Deleted an entire paragraph that outlined problems Yogurt might face against Kuromine in Round 2 (when they would be facing St. Gloriana). Seriously Suzuki?

Painting a 15mm Saunders team

I've been collecting 15mm tanks for a long time, but only after reading the lovely posts on Goblinhall did I decide to give a try on painting up some 15mm Girls und Panzer tanks.
My first project was a Pravda team, but the first project that I'm satisfied with was my Saunders team.

A fistful of Shermans, with some Company B figures standing on the top

I went with Plastic Soldier Company's M4A2 Shermans. The Shermans in original show were M4s with wielded hulls but since the only difference was really the engine deck, I think these look just fine.

I spray painted the US colored Shermans Vallejo Surface Primer US Olive Drab, followed by a coat of Vallejo Brown Violet (incidentally the latter was darker than primer so I had to cover the whole tank). I then drybrushed the edges with a mix of 50/50 brown violet and gray green, followed by another detailed drybrush with pure gray green. The Firefly was sprayed with Russian uniform, followed by a quick drybrush of gray green. Tracks were painted plain black: one neat thing about painting GuP tanks is you only have to do minimal amount of weathering.

After all details have been painted, I painted some gloss varnish over areas for decal ,and added decals from Company B miniatures. These are very nice and detailed decals, and goes onto the models very smoothly with a bit of decal setter. I do wish these come in a more efficient package though: Saunders doesn't use the smallest size at all (it's all medium and large ones) so the entire bottom row is more or less useless (unless I cough up some jeeps, support vehicles or Stuarts). Had those two rows of smalls be replaced by another five or six medium sized emblems it would be a much better package.

                                                          Decal's on

After spraying gloss varnish to the entire entire batch, I panel lined all details with Tamaiya's dark brown accent paint. After that dried I wiped off the excess accent and sprayed the tanks with matte varnish. Viola!

                                            Saunders finished

Close-up of Kay. A very good figure indeed and attracted quite a bit of attention

My second Company B order came just in time for me to get my Kay figure ready for Chugoku Area AFV Club Convention (happened on April 16th). It was pretty funny to see 1/100 scale figures next to an 1/12 scale Panzer IV and action figures.

Overall I'm quite pleased with how well these tanks came out, now it's time to move onto my Kuromine project!

[Gekkan Senshadou battle report] Vicking Fishery vs. Koala Forest [Viking Fishery]

Opposing teams

Viking Fishery: 2 x Souma S-35, 2 x Hotchkiss H-35, 1 x Panzer I B, 2 x Panzer II B, 3 x Panzer III N, 1 x NbFz

Koala Forest: 2 x Matilda II, 2 x Sentinel, 2 x M3 Grant, 4 x M3 Stuart

Overview

The deck of nature-loving Viking Fishery High School’s school ship is covered in forests, and their senshadou team specializes in this type of terrain. Moreover, members of VFHS’ senshadou team are highly coordinated, as launching their daring raids requires extremely well-synchronized actions. Koala Forest excels in making bold frontal attacks, bashing aside their opponents with their Matilda IIs. This battle happens in a heavily wooded area crisscrossed by rivers, Koala is stronger overall, but Viking Fishery is more familiar with this terrain.

The two schools deployed on the opposite sides of a river. Without scouting out where Viking Fishery’s team is, Koala Forest wandered around in the woods, until they ran into Viking Fishery’s Panzer I and IIs that had crossed the river. Koala Forest, shocked by their opponent’s daring move, started pounding these light tanks with all their tanks, completely ignoring the fact that Viking Fishery’s main force had forded the river, and was now on their flank. Just as Koala Forest finished off the last of Viking Fishery’s vanguard, Viking Fishery’s Panzer IIIs dashed out of the forest and took out a M3 Grant and 2 M3 Stuarts, sending the rest of Koala Forest’s tanks in disarray: their flag tank Sentinel panicked and tried to reverse, running straight into Viking Fishery’s S-35 and H-35.

Had Koala Forest kept their wits and paid attention, they could have realized that the blocking force behind them couldn’t even hurt the Matildas, and would have great difficulties damaging the Sentinel. But at this point Koala Forest’s captain had completely lost control of her team, and fleet-footed Viking Fishery didn’t give her time to reorganize a defense. S-35s physically blocked Sentinel’s path, as the rest of Viking Fishery tanks moved in to take it out with concentrated fire.

Koala Forest had overwhelming advantage in tanks, but Viking Fishery has read through their opponent’s mind, used all of their tanks to their full extent, and defeated Koala Forest through superior planning and command.

Comment

Viking Fishery's highly synchronized actions is a nod to oarsmen on Viking long ships.

Home advantage is the biggest winner in senshadou.