NATO Forces Arrive!

I had intended to post earler, but i spent two and a half week dealing with reeneactment issues rather then painting..

US Abrams tanks.
These are actually M1A2s(post-cold war) but most
people can't tell the difference

Last week I finally got back to doing some painting. i pulled out some NATO Cold War Micro armour.  I've been meaning to do this for some time, since i sold most of my allied force(the USMC  battle group) to my friend Dan.

US Bradleys.
Again, these are post-cold war variants  but again the average
person can't tell the difference unless it's pointed out

German Leopard 2A4s

   
I painted up  both Tanks and IFVs for Americans and Germans, plus a few extra support vehicles for the Bundeswehr.

German Marder 1A3 IFVs.

German M110 SPG,  Jaguar 1, Luchs, and
2 command stands: 1 leo 2A4 with M577, and 1 Iltis Jeep

so now that i have a decent core of NATO opfor for my horde of soviets(these guys are outnumbered about 4 to 1 by  T80Bs and BMP 2s), I can start playing some game again when my friend Dan is NOT around.

I should be back later this week since  i have  several units of napoleonic russians waiting to be based.

Cheers!

a "Little" Interlude

one of teh guys in my napoleonic gaming group was over a few weeks ago, and i was showing him some stuff, including a tray of Micro Armor USMC vehicles.

US Marines moving onto the field, escorted by a V22 osprey that my friend refused to NOT put out!

a few days later he inquired about buying them a few days alter, and we agreed on a price.  then we scheduled a game for this evening. so i pulled out some of my soviet forces, set up a 4x4 table(much too small) and tossed some dice around.

a soviet mechanized infantry company advance across a field, supported by T-80s

we used a system my friend(who just graduated from the Royal military college of Canada as an armoured lieutenant) wrote 4 years ago. he called it fireteam, and it is a 1:1 scale battalion level game. it combines the best elements of Sharp Practice, Piquet Field of Battle, and a an earlier attempt at a micro armour set of rules.  it is a card driven system, with cards like Piquet:FoB(move all, move one command group, fire cards) but  used more in a Sharp Practice-like manner( both side's cards are combined in one deck, and played in the order they are drawn. the turn ends when the 2nd "fire all card" is drawn)  the deck, along with the single combat chart that he developed for all the weapon mechanics( 14 columns, 10 rows, not too complicated) make for a system with some Fog of war but not so much that you pull your hair out(IMHO).

Soviet BMP-2s carrying mortar teams, who decided to sit the battle out
(we both forgot to deploy our mortars)

the rules are 12 pages long, and about 1/3rd of that is detailing the artillery and air strike rules. the author and his brother used their ongoing military training to tweak the rules to be both fun and moderately realistic.

two platoons of soviet infantry advance in BMPs under the watchful eye of 3 T-80s

anyways, the game is optimal for a 4x8 or 6x8(or longer) table, so a 4x4 was a complete bloodbath. we played one turn and the game was over. my opponent was a little apprehensive about the card system but really warmed up to it once he shredded my soviets.  it also doesn't help that i haven't pleyed it in a few years, and did a poor job of balancing the forces.  now doubt those Capitalist  pig-dogs will get their come-uppence next time !

HUMMWVs with TOWs preparing an ambush.

Selling the marines was a good idea, because now i have someone to play against!  and maybe I'll one day paint up my larger German force.

Desert Compound Completed

 I finished up my new desert compound this evening.  I added some lighter green foliage to break up the monotonous  colour.  Also, the little shed/lean-to adds a bit of much-needed colour as well.

The completed compound

Reverse angle

 With roof pieces removed.

This turned out pretty good. I think it will match the buildings I bought from Chris the Model Maker nicely.

Now i can start planning for my 2'x2' Mosque...

And Now for Something Completely Different: Desert Buildings

 I recently decided to expand my desert building collection.  Right now most of my stuff is small individual buildings. I want to be able to do something that looks more like the outskirts of a city or a a poor city neighborhood.

Middle Eastern compound WIP

I decided to start with a small compound made up of 3 buildings with an inner and outer courtyard.  all the walls and buildings are 1/8" Plywood, and the stairs are mostly basswood. the base is a 12x12' piece of MDF.Look a little rough now but once the whole thing is textured you won't even notice.

Close up of the inner court yard with stairs

I'll be finishing it off tomorrow, Just need to texture and paint it. I'll also be adding some arid looking foliage to the planter beside the stairs. If I can find a source of hinges small enough, I may also add some working doors.

 s

Reverse angle

Architects of War and Modern scenario setup.

I've been in a painting rut since i got back from out west a few weeks ago. I've been building a bit of terrain for teh Club, but that's about it.

Firday night I Decided to pull out the 2 small Architects of War terrain peices I bought at historicon.  I finished them in about 2 hours.   The figures are Front Rank Napoleonic Bavarian modified and painted as a Baden command stand
.

Then this afternoon I was intending to run a play test of my  28mm Modern scenario using Disposable Heroes and the modern supplement. No one showed up and played, so I left it set up for next Friday.  I'm planning 4 games For MIGSCON this year in hamilton ontario. For mre information, click HERE. 

One British Platoon is pinned down by insurgents. the other 

must make their way to the 1st platoon and save them.

Close-up of some Insurgents 

(TAG Fedayeen)

Close-up of Land Rovers 

(TAG Land Rovers, modified by me)

Incidentally, if anyone is in Hamilton(Ontario, Canada) Area and would like to participate in playtesting any of the scenarios I'm planning for MIGSCON, Email Me  and we can arrange something.  I'm looking to play test with 4-6 players, and I never seem to get more then 1 or 2 players at a time. 

Modern Mayhem.

 this weekend saw my interest in my modern gaming collection revitalized.  back a little over a week ago, when my gaming club(MIGS) had it's failed open house and gaming day, i pulled out and set up my 28mm modern collection, seen HERE.  Well my friend Jon Holmes and played the first turns a week ago Sunday.  Jon could not make it this pas Friday,  so  my friend mike Garner(seen commenting on hte last post as Streetcar mike) showed up to the club and we finished the game.

The game was a meeting engagement between Iraqis and British. The Iraqi force had  Republican guard platoon(2 squads) in BMPs, a Iraqi regular platoon in BTRs( 4 squads, 3 BTRs) and a recon troupe of an AML 90 and a BRDM-2. the British had 4 sections of 8 man mounted in a quartet of Warrior ICVs, a 4-man platoon command squad, and a GPMG team. mounted in an FV432. on the 3rd turn we were going to bring in 2 T-72M1s and a challenger 1 for fun.


In the first turn, due to the luck of the cards, I  managed to destroy 1 BMP and half a republican guard squad. before any Iraqi knew what was going on. I won't bore you with too many specifics, but they the end of the turn,1 BTR-60 immobilized and 14.5mm MG destroyed 1BTR-60, 2 BMPs, and the AML 90 were destroyed, along with 1 Warrior destroyed and one disabled for the next 3 turns.  during the 2nd turn, the British ripped the heart out of the republican guard squad, destroyed another BTR-60, and did some damage to a regular squad. unfortunately, 4 of 8 British fire teams had been killed, 2 were at half strength and broken, and another warrior ICV was immobilized. Mike was rolling terribly high and wiped out more then half my platoon in a single turn! we called the game at that point, since he still had almost a full platoon of Iraqis, and i was struggling to make 3 fire teams of Brits.

 We were using modified arc of fire, which I have decided doesn't really capture the scale or flavour I'm looking for.  it doesn't treat cover in a way that works for what I am looking for.  It is clearly not really meant for urban areas, or very close-ranged fighting.  I have been planing to switch to Disposable heroes, and the Seek Out, Close With and Destroy  modern expansion. I've tried it a few items but had some issues with finding rules in the books. at that time i had come to the end of my interest in modern and put it all aside.

 So yesterday(Sunday), Dave Hoyt and Jon Holmes came down and we played the Disposable Heroes rules.  the game was much more to my liking, and with both Dave and I having at least a peripheral understanding of the rules, it went quite well. we only had an infantry battle between 2 platoons, but it worked well. especially since Jon kept hitting my poor Brits with RPGs (no easy task under the rules).

A look at the British

Well today was an open house at MIGS, which despite many flyers to local schools, colleges, universities and hobby stores and a face book group was pretty much a bust.the only guy to show up came in off the street after seeing the signs out front, and could not stay.

On the plus side, I got a chance to take some pics of my French and Indian Wars British that Jonathan Holmes had set up for a Sharp practice scenario.  Somehow I've managed to totally avoid taking any pictures of this collection thus far.. In the scenario, the British must retreat to the fort at the far end of the table while the Indians attempt to stall them and the French give chase.

I also pulled out my Modern British and Iraqis for the first time in 2 years. Although most of the infantry didn't make it on the board, all my APCs for both sides did.