Minairons Panzer I A Review

By Dirty Jon

We recently got a box of Panzer I Ausf. A tanks from Minairons Miniatures for review. It seems that the revolution in plastic miniatures is here to stay, with old and new manufacturers constantly pushing out more Flames of War plastic product. I had a mind to add these little guys to my Early War Germans, but I have decided to give them away at Historicon 2014 - make sure you are there! Let's take a look!

Quick Editor's note: Minairons primarily focuses on the Spanish Civil War, and have a respectable range to support that. At WWPD, because we are focused on WWII, we have not had Minairons grace our pages until they began producing components that work across the eras. If you are interested in Spanish Civil War, please give the rest of the Minairons range a peruse! -S

The box comes with five sprues, each with one tank. The sprue contains an option for a "big gun", which was a rare upgrade to this platform during the Spanish Civil War. The grade of plastic feels a bit smooth and slightly rubbery, but certainly harder that some other manufacturers (Zvezda).

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MW Spanish Blue Division vs British Motor Infantry in Night Assault

Brian and I tried another new mission yesterday- Night Assault(V2) which will be played at the US Nationals next month.

We decided to do Mid-War as Brian wanted to try his Spanish Blue Division. I don't have any Russians so we fudged history a bit and had them fighting in North Africa.



Read on to see what happened!


Night Fight is an interesting mission. There's 5 objectives total. 2 n each player's deployment zone, and 1 in the dead center of the board. The mission is played long-ways with all your forces, which is also a change of pace. As the name implies the battle starts at night, and night lifts per the night fighting rules. It's a mobile battle, and a fair fight. Victory conditions start getting checked on turn 4. Brian and I both knew there would be an epic, bloody battle around the central objective.


Steven's British Motor Infantry
HQ
3x Full Strength Motor infantry Platoons (North Africa)
Scout Patrol
Humber III Armored cars
Kingforce Churchill III troop
Crusader Troop (2x Crusader III, 2x Crusader II)
8 Gun RHA Battery

Brian's Spanish Blue Division
HQ
3x Full Strength "Spanishjaeger*" Grenadier Platoons
HMG Platoon
Armored Panzerwerfers w/ crew upgrade
4x Marder III H
Scout Patrol (5 stands w/ SMGs)
Heavy Mortar Battery

*We called them "Spanishjaeger" since they were Brian's Fallschirmjaeger troops. We know that isn't what they're called.



British Deployment. From top to bottom: 2x Motor Infantry Platoons, churchills, Humbers, Motor Infantry, Scouts + Crusaders. The RHA is spread across the entire line.



The Spanish. From top to bottom: Spanishjaegers and heavy mortars. HMGs, Spanishjaegers, Scouts + Marders, Spanishjaegers. In the back are panzerwerfers. Note the southern most objective (just south of the Marders). We'll call this the "prime" objective- it's important later.



The board



British recon moves. Can only go 8" due to the night rules.



The British get the first turn and roll out under cover of night.


The Armored cars move up to contest the objective.



Crusaders and Motor infantry push forward. Note the Scouts on the right sneakily moving up the extreme flank.



The Spanish roll out. Marders move to cover the impending flanking move by scouts and Crusaders.



HMGs deploy in the building. The first Spanishjaeger platoon moves forward, while the Scouts advance in the olive grove.


Spanish Troops move up to the small town.


British turn two sees the entire front marching forward.


View from the British lines.


The Scouts keep sneaking up the flank.


The Spanish move forward. Mortars fire on the British armored cars, but in the concealment of night they fail to do any damage.


The Spanish are poised to grab the objective.


Here they come!


The first battle on the objective kicks off with a British assault. The british infantry maims the scouts, and slightly wounds the Spanishjaeger, but are completely decimated in the counterattack.


The Humbers decide to strike while the iron's hot, and do some damage to the remaining spanishjaeger.


On the other flank, the Scouts capitalize on the redeployment of the Marders and come in MGs blazing, then assault.



The assault in the center is decidedly lost by the british. Though both the spanish scouts and jaeger are gutted, both pass motivation and continue on. The Humbers sit burning.


The aftermath.


The Spanish fall back from the scouts.


Panzerwerfers knock out a Crusader and bail another.


Concentrated fire from the British knock out the jaeger platoon. The Scouts hunker in hastily dug foxholes.


The RHA drops a "stonk" on the jaeger in the town.


The remnants of the jaeger assault the churchills.


One churchill burns, but the other two break off. The jaeger consolidate forward.


The Marders swing out in an attempt to finish off the Crusaders. The RHA drops a "murder" on them, knocking 3 out.


The Spanish are fairly well mauled now. The British hold the central objective, though the Spanish are still contesting it with a Marder and a jaeger team.


The last Marder is dispatched by the Crusaders. The remaining jaeger platoon is now stretched between the central objective held by British infantry, and the "Prime" objective in the Spanish deployment zone which is being threatened by the Universal Carriers.


The Sneaky Scouts push into enemy territory to contest his prime objective.


In the town, British rifles move out. The RHA tries to smoke the Spanish HMGs from both batteries, and both fail to range in.


The results are predictably catastrophic, though the remaining 2 teams of the Brith Motor Infantry are able to pull back and pass motivation.


The Spanish attempt to assault the Scouts and do knock one out, but the scouts press on and the Spanish fall back leaving the objective in British hands.

4-3 for the Brits (having lost the armored cars, and one motor infantry platoon).


CLOSING THOUGHTS:
STEVEN-
I am really really liking these 2 new missions. They will definitely be added to the rotation at my house. I am also really liking this particular motor infantry list. As usual, playing with Brian is a pleasure. Plus he brought my wife and I donuts- a gentleman AND a scholar!

BRIAN-
On the mission: Great mission. The addition of the night fighting and the center objective push you into close combat and keep one side from just digging in on their half of the table. Night help keep artillery at bay so infantry can work up the board. The addition of the two rear objective on each side keeps you honest.

On the Spaniards: Not a bad MW list. I tried to play them with the bravado they so deserve. In that respect they did not let me down, and only failed to counter attack once. Lack of armor support was troublesome. I had debated taking two StuGs and that could have helped. Also pioneers would have been nice since as a whole my AT was a bit lacking.

One the game: As always it was a blast. I am now tied 1-1 in MW vs Steve. LW he owns me big time. There were a few instances when I should have held my ground and not have pushed forward; but would the Spaniards have done that? I think not.

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