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. 

The Moose is Loose

Another Copplestone Casting 15mm barbarian.

I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. 2/3rds of the way through, I thought about swapping out the puny axe with something a little longer and more fantasy-oriented. As someone said on the 15mm fantasy miniature Facebook page, he's more likely to hurt himself or his steed with that axe than an opponent. However, I was too far along and decided not to.

Crisis at Tipping Point!

Again, ignore the date of the paper:

Ominous Weather Ahead

A little out of date, but war is on the horizon:

Moe, Larry, and Curly; and the Sensitive Pit Fighter Dude

I've been all over the place project-wise for the last two months. As a result, I have not had time to update my blog. I'm trying to expand and finish up my 15mm barbarian army. Way back in May, I posted on Copplestone Picts that I painted up. I just finish these guys below and am now working on a bunch of Demonworld barbarian humans. Then, I will start the Copplestone ones.

Copplestone Snow Trolls

Moe

Larry

Curly

These guys were a little daunting, but once I got going on them, they took off. I wasn't feeling all that original, so the overall paint scheme of hair and skin is pretty much like what is shown on the Copplestone website.

Sensitive Pit Fighter Dude

This guy is from Battle Valor Games. I think I got him as a bonus figure. I had a hard time figuring out what was going on between his armor shoulder pads and his "kilt." I finally decided that he was bare chested and painted accordingly.  His sword is a little thicker than I'd like it to be, but I'm pretty happy with him. 

Why a pit fighter; i.e., gladiator? I chalk that up to his light armor and brandishing two weapons. Why is he a sensitive dude? His beard and hair style reminds me of a fashion that's going on among men between the ages of 21-30. My colleagues and I coined it the "sensitive dude" style. I know, I'm mean. It probably sour grapes because I'm 57 years old and am loosing my hair.

Here below is an encounter between the pit fighter the awesome threesome:

Aircraft Maneuver Ratings

I've been wanting to do this for quite some time, but Jim, over at Jim's Wargames Workbench has spurred me on. I am compiling ratings on all the aircraft that I use for my games. By ratings, I mean the numbers used in various rules for undergoing maneuvers. Then, I am figuring out the ratings for the two rules that I plan on using, Target Locked On, and Wings At War.

To me, maneuvering is the most esoteric of the various abilities that need to be modeled for a particular set of rules. Some rules use Thrust/Weight ratios, some use Wing Area/Weight ratios known as wing loading, and for others, I have no clue. The data is not as easy to come by as one thinks. There is a web site that has T/W for a number of aircraft, but when I do the calculations for some of the planes, they don't agree. So what I have done is to compile the ratings for maneuvering for a number of rules and then see what the consensus is among them. For example, Saab JAS-39 Gripen has a T/W = 0.93, Wingload = 532, and is rated at maximum maneuverability by both AirWar: C21 and Missile Threat. Therefore, I give the Gripen a maneuver rating of 5 for Target Locked On.

Wings At War is a different story as it uses power ratings, but I am trying to figure that one out too.

The really big challenge in this is for aircraft that are not found in any rules. For example, ratings for  the joint Chinese/Pakistan JF-17 Thunder is not found in any of the rule set I have. For these cases, I just have to compare T/W and wingload for those planes that are listed and estimate from these.

1/600 Paper Building

I've been trying to make some quick and dirty building for my 1/600 moderns. Here is a paper building I made recently. It is a "proof-of-concept" prototype model to see how I can make them with an arcade. Its pretty simplistic, but I am pretty happy with it and can easily scale it up to 1/300. I have access to Adobe Illustrator, so I can make modifications pretty quickly. The arched openings of the arcade would probably be smoother if I had one of those computer stencil cutters, but for such a small scale, I am not going to be too picky.

Initial build before I added the roof and base.An
Oddzial Osmy BTR-60 is parked outside.

Roof and base added, then quickly painted. The
windows were inked in with a Sharpie pen.

Here is what it looks like next to a 1/285 building, which is a
Mediterranean villa from Gamecraft Miniatures