Before there were tanksims and RTS PC games...

[33lima]

...some of us did it like this:

T-72 platoons lead Motor Rifle companies in BMP-2s towards the objective. HQ unit in foreground with MT-LBU and motor transport. MiG-27s streak overhead as smokescreens mask the advance from the Americans on the high ground to the left


Artillery fire from a battery of SO-122 SP guns falls on the US positions as the BMP-2s assault in line, covered by the T-72s from behind.






Hull-down M60A3s burn as T-72s lead the assault, ahead of BMP-1s, into a village defended by US troops with M113s. Between the first buildings, M901 ITVs also burn, caught without the chance to use the long range of their ATGWs.




All 1/300 micro-armour. T-72s and BMP-2s are Scotia Micro Models, as is the ambulance with the MT-LBU. BMP-1s and BRDM-2s are Davco. Rest including M60A3s, M901 ITVs, M113s and infantry are Heroics and Ros. Card buildings are maker n/k. Landscape is home-made, with model railway grass-mat base and contour and field units. Hedgerows painted pipe cleaners, woods lichen on polygon bases, roads are velcro scrip. Rules are modifed WRG modern era with home-made sighting and reaction rules using playing cards. Wire-mounted aircraft are cut from plasticard with semi-3d fuselages. Smoke-screens are cotton wool on celophane wedges. Fire markers and shellbursts are painted cotton wool. Ground scale was much smaller than 1/300 due to limited space, hence very tight unit spacing.

[lockie]

It looks marvelous! So, what is a real area, which was recreated?
I see explanation:

Ground scale was much smaller than 1/300 due to limited space, hence very tight unit spacing.

but what the exact area is on the table?

[33lima]

The wooden folding ruler in the zoomed-out pic would be about 30 cm long, not sure what size the table was (too small!) and cannot remember what ground scale I used. The location is imaginary, 'somewhere in West Germany' after the curtain went up on WW3. The different elements I made so I could set them up in different ways, contours/hills, fields, roads, buildings or woods. I had this booklet on 'Rules for solo wargaming' which helped a bit even tho it was mostly suitable for Ancients/Napoleonics/ACW. Even in those days, I didn't like Multiplayer.

I thought I'd love 3d PC wargames like Combat Mission but I was dismayed when I discovered that they failed to grab the chance to simulate war and instead simulated wargaming, even though the revised Wargames Research Group 1925-50 rules published way back in in 1988 finally showed it could be done much better, even with miniatures. Never liked the rival 'Challenger' rules with their inordinately complex move system and I gave up before the WRG brought out the new version of their modern era rules with the same approach as the excellent WRG 1925-1950 set.

But I still have all this stuff up in the loft. Sims mostly do it better, but I wish I could get into SABOW (and that its Chieftain was playable!) for the modern era. My PC no longer supports the original Steel Beasts' low colour depth and so for the Cold War, it's SABOW or M1TP2 for me as SB Pro PE is just rather too pricey.

[Wörghern]

waow beautiful ! 

[lockie]

This is incredible!

[Zakopious]

All 1/300 micro-armour. T-72s and BMP-2s are Scotia Micro Models, as is the ambulance with the MT-LBU. BMP-1s and BRDM-2s are Davco. Rest including M60A3s, M901 ITVs, M113s and infantry are Heroics and Ros. Card buildings are maker n/k. Landscape is home-made, with model railway grass-mat base and contour and field units. Hedgerows painted pipe cleaners, woods lichen on polygon bases, roads are velcro scrip. Rules are modifed WRG modern era with home-made sighting and reaction rules using playing cards. Wire-mounted aircraft are cut from plasticard with semi-3d fuselages. Smoke-screens are cotton wool on celophane wedges. Fire markers and shellbursts are painted cotton wool. Ground scale was much smaller than 1/300 due to limited space, hence very tight unit spacing.

The Card buildings were designed by Peter Dennis. Copyright 1980.

[33lima]

Yes, those are the ones, thanks for posting! Still have them, in a box in the loft with the rest of the stuff. Neat design and cheap as chips. Each building came with a 'destroyed' version printed black on white on a second sheet, that acted as a base. Lift off the top like a Russian Doll, and the destroyed version was underneath.

[Zakopious]

Peter Dennis is a well known illustrator for military books such as the Osprey series. He has a Facebook page.
In the attached picture, the ruined Chateau base sits in front of the undamaged Chateau.
The squares on the scale cube are 1 cm.

[fabianfred]

When i was young (I'm 64 now) I got a book from the public library 'War Gaming' by Donald Featherstone, and thus began my hobby. Using Airfix 1/72 figures and Airfix plastic tanks, planes, etc. I wargamed many periods. Napoleonic, American civil war, WWI, WW2, etc.
I spent 25 years in the British army and retired at 40. I had always loved tanks.
In 2002 I got my first PC running Windows ME and saw adverts for a new flight sim IL2 Sturmovik and got that when it came out.
As a kid I often imagined how nice it would be if the toy soldiers and tanks could come to life and make their own battles.
Using the mission editor of IL2 that could really happen. One can create huge land battles, or sea, or air.
The only tank sim I played is Steel Fury 1942.
I spent many years in the modding community of IL2 and made a few missions with the editor of SF too.