First Post of the New Year: Proof of Concept

 I know its already January 9th, but Happy New Years!

I have to say that being on sabbatical has lowered my blood pressure some. There is still plenty of stress, but the idea of not teaching and even more so, not dealing with all the nonsense that is going on at my college, gives me a feeling of lightness. One of the things I've done is to start going to the local community center to work out. I am 60 year old, but I think I'm the youngest one there. The equipment is pretty good, so I plan to make working out more of a routine.

On to business....

First, in an effort to clean and organize the house, we moved some old bookshelves that we had on the first floor to the upstairs. My son got one, which is mainly for his LEGO collection. I got the other and finally consolidated all my hobby books into one bookshelf.  

New bookshelf. Almost, but not quite full.
My wife's tennis racket stringer to the right.

Why I didn't do this years ago escapes me. Before this, I had these very small metal ones that were OK, but I had long run out of room. Plus the sides were open and some of the rule books at the end facing the window were starting to yellow :(. This opens up a good deal of space in the "soldier room." The only thing now is to figure out what to do with some of the rule books that are in 3-ring binders. 

Painting of fantasy figures has slowed a bit, so I switched gears and have been working on some terrain features. Most of the terrain has been cultivated fields. I have been trying to make them so that I can use them for both 1/300 and for 1/600. One type of field that has frustrated me are corn fields. However, recently, I watched this YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1cnHiqtsuMk9NwJNj8SmpA) where this guy was making tiny non-scale specific terrain mounted on hexes for his role playing games. In one video, he cut out strips of paper, folded it length-wise, feathered it using a pair of scissors, then mounted the feathered strip of paper onto a hex tile has a corn crop field. Anyway, I thought I'd give it a go. 

Closeup of corn field. Sorry about the blurriness.
I got a new phone and I'm trying to figure out the camera.

I used several different techniques and types of paper for each row. The ones on the far left were made using the YouTuber's technique of folding paper in half and cutting with scissors fringes representing stalks. The later ones were very thin cardboard (breakfast cereal boxes) and I used my Xacto knife rather than scissors to make the fringes. I did not go all the way to the bottom to keep some integrity to each row. I glued each strip down with superglue gel. They were painted a dark yellow and then I gave them a wash with brown. That helped pull out the stalks more. 

Here's what it looks like flipped around with some 1/600 figures next to it:

I think this will work pretty well for both scales. Its not perfect, but it gets the point across. I would have to come up with some other technique if I wanted to make a corn field for my 15mm figures. 

1/300 Conversion in About 20 Minutes

Yesterday, I made an all out cleaning assault on my pigsty of a workbench. Despite about three hours of work, I didn't get really far, plus all the dust I kicked up made my allergies a nightmare. Under the piles of junk, I found a lone, primed, Saracen APC and a ZU-23-2 23 mm autocannon with two gunners on it. It might have a carriage for it, or it might go onto another vehicle. The APC is an old Skytrex model and the autocannon belongs to H&R. Inspiration struck! So... shaving off the MG turret, pulling out the pin vise and drilling out a hole for the gun, I now have a Saracen with a ZU-23-2 AA autocannon on top.

I think it took me all of 20 minutes to complete, including waiting for the paint to dry. The thing looks incredibly top heavy and kind of silly, but I've seen some jury-rigged technicals that looked a lot more ridiculous. One more weapon to add to the Federal Republic of Gambusia's arsenal.

Modern Armor Playtest 1: Tank Wreck!

Note: this post is a lot briefer than my usual ramblings. I was pretty far along but when I opened this post to continue working on it, poof! all but the first picture was gone. My 6 year old was doing some math quiz on my computer yesterday and might have decided to edit my post. Not sure.

For my first game, I tested Tank Wreck! by Martin Bourne.
I quickly threw together some paper roads, a hill, some houses, and a forest onto a 2' x 4" table shown here:

The scenario was a race to take and hold the village. The Green army would be coming from the west, whereas the Tan army is coming from the east. The Green army is considered to be the invaders, so I put the Tan army on the board and gave them the first initiative. In WR you roll for initiative, but then its alternating movement of units for both movement and shooting. This will prove to be a disadvantage for the Tan army. The small washers represents both hits and suppression markers, so I apologize in advance for any confusion. I will need to make more specific markers for future battles.

Village looking from the east. Ignore the star destroyer
on the upper right side.

Tan army in starting position. Their plan was to

race ASAP to the village

Green army deployed at start. M48A5 tanks

flank the mechanized infantry on the road.

The Battle
The first turn was just getting the opposing sides within firing range. The rules use inches for measurement and movement, but due to the size of the board, I used centimeters.

Tan army moving into village. BRDM with Swatter

ATGM race to deploy at farm.

M113 APCs moving down the road. Seems that

an extra M113 snuck into the game.

Tan army deploys into the village. One company of T-55s move

west of the gas station, the other T-55s skirt south of the village.

The infantry dismounts from their IVFs.

Bad things started happening to the Tan army. The tank company opened fired on the M48s and the M113 FSV on the road after they moved past the gas station. T-55s get a -1 to hit and a -1 to do damage. On top of that, you still have to take a -1 for shooting after you move even if you have stabilization (its worst if you don't). The four T-55s scored only a single hit on one of the M48s, but it didn't penetrate. 

*BOINK!* 100mm shell bounces
off the front of the M48

The return fire from the Greens was devastating! The M48s only took a -1 penalty for moving and shooting. 

Two of the four T-55s take hits. The one on

the left took three!

Two T-55s blown up. 

On the south side, things were no better for the Tan army.

M48s open fire....

….resulting in two hits. Fortunately one

resulted only in a suppression.

Where things stood by the end of turn 3:

Things not looking good for the Tans but the

BMP-2s have moved up to try to use their

ATGMs against the M48s. 

Turn 4: the tide seems to turn:

The two BRDMs move up to the farm.
One BRDM fire off a Sagger ATGM and scores a hit!

The other BRDM fires a Sagger missile and....

….scores another kill!

Meanwhile, the north flank M48 tanks climb the hill.

As the M48s climb, the BMP-2s move up to support the

T-55s and take on the Green infantry.

In one turn, the situation was starting to look at least salvageable for the Tan army. However, the Tan army only has a limited supply of ATGMs. The BRDMs only have four each vehicle, and each has expended one. The BMP-2s have only one each. Unfortunately, the optimism on the Red side soon came to an end with the beginning of turn 5.

After seeing two of his comrades get offed by ATGM fire,

one of the M48s wisely or cowardly hides behind the farm

An exchange of fire between T-55s and M48s results in

one M48 suppressed but both a T-55 and a BMP-2 blown up.

Feeling bold, the two Saggers rush onto the field to

attack the partially hidden M48, but both miss!

Their confidence quickly melted. The only saving 

grace was the fact that the M48 had already moved.

Green infantry slowly moving toward the town, fires

LAWs at long range, but miss. Their FSV misses as well.

At the end of turn five, Tan infantry have taken up positions in and

around the town center. The M48 unit on top of the hill now starts

down towards the town.

The end of turn 5 did not see the turnaround for the Tan army as was hoped. Two more AVFs were knocked out. I decided that now was a good time to test the morale part of the rules. The Green army passed its test. The southern M48 company squeaked by, but the others had no issues.

Not so for the Tan army. Spoiler alert: everyone but the infantry units failed miserably on the company morale tests. So, the battalion failed at its level. General order went out to retreat out of the town. The Tan battalion commander ordered the infantry to load up but leave last to cover the retreat. He (i.e. me) figured that the BMP-2s, being armed with the better AT-5 Spandrel ATGM, should be able to hold off the M48s for a little while.

Their BMP-2 transport being blown up in the previous turn, 

this infantry unit heroically volunteers to stay behind and fight 

to the death while their comrades escape.

The Green infantry finally gets close to the remaining T-55

of one of the companies, and blows it up in a hail of 

LAWs rockets and gunfire from the FSV.

A heroic BMP-3 lets loose a Spandrel missile at a M48,

but misses! Return fire from the M48 results in an ugly

hit on the BMP-3. Foolishly, all infantry were aboard. I rolled

a D6 for survivors, there were none. :(

The remaining Tan army flees the town.

The end: after seeing their comrades at the end of turn 6

go up in flames in their BMP-3, the lone infantry stand 

drops the whole hero shit and surrenders to the Green army that

is cautiously entering the town.

Analysis of the Rules
Overall, not a bad set of rules. I think the demise of the Tan army was as much poor tactics on my part as anything else. Here are some of my thoughts in no particular order

Organization, Format & Readability
Pretty well organized. Each parts of the game: movement, shooting, artillery, morale, etc., had an example that consisted of a running commentary of two people playing a game. That was pretty useful. Sometimes, things were sort of buried in the rules. For example, overwatch, or "reserve fire" as the author calls it, doesn't really stand out in the section Unit Activation. I'm sure I probably read it, but totally forgot about it. I kept thinking as the Tan Saggers were moving up that I wish that an overwatch option was included in the rules. If nothing else, it should be mentioned in the ready reference sheet. Even though I didn't use artillery, I had a similar issue when I was reading about artillery and spotting.

Turns & Movement
I liked the alternating activation sequence. It was pretty bloody because of the move and shoot rule. One side had to just sit and take a pounding when an opponent's unit was activated. Maybe it might have been different if I had remembered to use reserve fire. If I have another game, I might try alternate unit movement, but simultaneous shooting after all of the movement is done.

Weapons & Armor Ratings
It is a good, simple armor rating system. I did wonder why M48A5 tanks were rated at heavy armor, whereas an M48A3 is rated medium. Other than having a 105mm gun, which might give it a thicker gun mantel, I can't really see it having heavier armor than the M48A3, which has a 90mm gun.

The weapons system is pretty straight forward. There are some really tough penalties of you move and shoot turn an activation. Two other comments. First, there is no close assault rules. I guess two infantry units just shoot at each other at point blank range if they come into contact. Second, it seemed that the to hit numbers for ATGMs is rather low. Is that a reflection of the means by which to guide the missile to its target? It's either that, or maybe the author wanted to balance the game a little.

Morale
I liked the cascading morale system. You test morale going up the chain of command in these rules. First, you test the companies. Once you determine their results, then you test for the whole battalion, and so on up the chain of command. How well a battalion will do is based in large part on how many companies passed their morale tests. The failure of all but one of the Tan companies led to the battalion to fail morale. 

Conclusion
This rules are definitely armor oriented.  I would definitely use these rules again, but the next time, I would make my own cheat sheet to include the various things in the rules that I missed.

Modern Rules Playtest

A long time ago, I can't even remember which post, I proposed playing a series of test games to see which of the many rules I have now accumulated I wanted to use for my modern games. I set up at least the sides before I left for Christmas vacation, but I am still on the road (daughter's tennis tournament). I figured for a final post for this year, I'd at least show a preview.

First rules to test: Tank Wreck! by Martin Bourne

Why Tank Wreck!? I wanted something not overly complex, and I don't have to field large armies due to the size of the table I'm gong to use. Tank Wreck! fits the bill. I've read them over three or four times, so I think I'm fairly familiar with them.

I am going to keep a number of things constant for all of these games.

Rules: As far as the rules go, I am only going to test out movement and combat with armor and infantry. I am leaving out artillery because I am keeping the number of units down, which I will show in a moment, and artillery might be too devastating.

Opposing sides:
There isn't any real unit organization, but for this game, we will pretend that one tank and one infantry stand equals a platoon.

Green Army

The Greens are armed with M48A5 tanks with 105mm guns. There are five tanks per company.

The Green's infantry rides in M113s. There are three infantry platoons, one heavy weapons platoon, a platoon armed with a 106mm recoilless rife, and a M113 FSV that has a AML-90 turret on it. Each infantry platoon is armed with a LAW for anti-tank defense. Tank Wreck! does not distinguish between types of LAWs.

Tan Army

The Tan army has fewer tanks (T-55) per company, so there are two BDRM-1 with AT-2 Swatter  ATGMs to supplement the firepower.

The Tan infantry consists of four platoons for infantry, one of which is a heavy weapons unit. They ride in style in BMP-2 IVFs armed with an AT-5 Spandrel ATGM. The Swatters and the Spandrels get limited ammo. 

I haven't decided on terrain, but I am only using a 2' x 4' coffee table. I want it to be fairly simple. 

A Warm Post Over at Irishserb's Miniature Adventrures

I've been following Irishserb's blog for quite some time. He has an engaging ImagiNation campaign going on between two fictional African nations. In addition to that, he has some other gaming activities that he shares that are also good reads.

Recently, he decided to use 1/300 scale minis to play out some bigger battles between his two African nations. In a recent post, he pulls out some rather old model buildings that represent his home town of Steubenville, Ohio. It is one man's walk down memory lane. Not only are the buildings well done, but his narrative really really reflects a love and appreciation for where he grew up.  It is not often do I feel a connection with another gamer's blog post beyond the hobby itself, but this one did and you and I who read it are better for it.

Thanks Irish Serb for sharing with us.

Lavonian Fire Support Vehicles

I ordered some really nice but very fragile FSV version of the Polish RTO Rosomak infantry fighting vehicles in 1/600 scale from Shapeways. They weren't cheap, but I thought I'd take a chance and see what they were like.

Sorry for the bad picture, but here is how they come. You get 10 mounted on sprues:

The plastic used really shows the details, BUT its very brittle. While painting on the primer, a wheel broke off of one. I am very weary about the guns holding up especially when gaming.

Here is what they look like painted up:

The top picture is a comparison with Pico Armor's Rosomak IFV (on left). The Shapeways model is a litttle bigger and the side skirt armor is more extensive.

I messed up a little on the color mixture. I didn't want to spray them Army Green as I was worried the paint would melt the models, even with the acrylic primer.

Nice models, I just hope they don't break.

More Federal Republic of Gambusia AFVs

I could have sworn I posted these, but I guess I have not.

The Federal Republic of Gambusia (FRG) has an infantry battalion of made up of more modern APCs than old Saracens. It consists of Canadian 6-wheeled Cougars and Grizzlies. The Cougars have been modified into fire support vehicles and ATGM carriers.

I used the turret from a Scotia-Grendel Stingray light tank for the FSV. The ATGM were scratch built. Unfortunately, they all came out a little different on those. This is the best of them. These were my first conversions that I made when I plunged into modern gaming and I am quite happy with them.

Rethinking Bridges

As much as I like the bridges I made for my 6mm moderns, they are limited by the fact that I can't put them anywhere. They are part of a river segment. So, what that means is that I have to lay down the roads to conform to where the bridges are. Originally, I wanted bridges that I can place anywhere, but I couldn't figure out how to integrate them with the river banks. At the same time, I didn't want them suspended a few scale feet above the water.

Schorote, a contributor on the Facebook 6mm wargaming and terrain group  (also has a website: BK (budget) Wargaming), has made bridges for his games. When I saw his pictures, it was one of those, "Doh! Why didn't I think of that?" moments. He kindly let me post them here:

According to Schorote, "the bridges are 6 cm long, 2 + 2 +2 cm, and 1,5 wide. the river top is 5mm below board surface while it is again 5mm deep."

A few years ago, I bought one of those profile or contour gauge. Now I have a use for it. My rivers are pretty uniform in width and the banks are not particularly variable. I think I can build some that will do the trick.

Rebels in a Box

Here is my generic rebel army with most of its technicals:

Another COIN Aircraft and a RPG

It's been a long hiatus of doing much hobby stuff, but finals are now over. Today was commencement. Fortunately, I had lunch right after the ceremony with good friend and colleague. Usually, I am rather melancholy for a few days after commencement, but the lunch was a pick-me-up.

Anyway, I've started back into working on stuff. First off, a COIN aircraft for the Federal Republic of Gambusia:

It is a Hawker Sea Fury from MSD Games. They have some really nice models that are probably a little better than Heroics & Ros. 

Like the Kiowa Warriors, this plane painted green brown but now with Middlestone camo. The roundel looks like a british one, but the center is actually green. The rockets are modified C-in-C Sidewinder missiles. I have another Sea Fury that I plan to put more modern rocket pods on. I don't usually do anything with the panel lines, but this time I did and it turned out well. 

Onto the RPG gunner.....

I noticed that my rebel units are pretty skimpy in the basic riflemen category, so I've started beefing up those. I seem to get obsessed with various weapons and this time is the Soviet/Russian RPG-29:

Source: modernfirearms.net

Pretty simple: a tube. But it's a tube that can really punch major holes in modern armor. According to Wikipedia, it has taken out MBTs such as the M1 Abrams and the Challenger 2. It's secret is that it has a tandem warhead that can defeat ERA or modern composite armor. An avid converter who posts on one of the microarmor groups on Facebook made one out of a RPG-7 gunner, so I thought I could too.Here are some pre- and post-painted pictures:

I used a RPG-7 gunner from GHQ's Bush Warrior pack. First, I tried cutting off the entire RPG off, but the gunner's head came off along with it. Then I cut off the front and back ends on another victim. I then glued two pieces of an 8 mm styrene rod. Hopefully, it won't bread off. I plan to mount this guy in the center of the base with two other figures on either side of him. That should protect him. The back part of the barrel is a little warped, but overall it looks pretty good. I think I got it pretty close to the proper length scale-wise. 

I don't really have any sort of story as to how Gambusian rebels got a hold of one. Northern Chalupistan doesn't even have them in their arsenal. It will be a one-off weapon, so probably not a battlefield game changer. 

When I get closer to completing the rebels, I will post a group portrait.