Friday, January 31, 2014

The African Campaign Gets Reinforcements

I am currently designing and painting in preparation for a campaign set in a fictional country of modern day Africa.  My fictional country is based very closely on Mali and the recent/on-going French intervention there.

The name of my country is "The Democratic Republic of Moa" or "DRM".  Located near present day Mali, Moa is a poor country governed by corrupt and greedy politicians who are focused more on their Swiss bank accounts than on the proper governance of their country.  The DRM is currently under attack from the north by several factions including several Islamic Rebel groups seeking to overthrow the government and establish a fundamentalist Islamic Theocracy in Moa.  Not all of the political and religious aims of these groups coincide, however, and this leads to conflict amongst the groups as well as with the DRM government troops.  There is a strong UN presence in Moa and Canadian troops are currently trying to occupy a buffer zone between DRM government troops and rebel groups in order to prevent civilian casualties.  The UN Regional Commissioner is currently in DRM trying to broker a ceasefire to facilitate a peaceful resolution to the current fighting.  In the southern part of the country, a warlord has formed his followers into a fledgling army and is moving to cut off government control of the Moa River.  The Moa River is a key part of the nation's economy and DRM troops are trying to re-establish their control of the waterway and keep what little commerce happens in Moa going.  France and Great Britain have publicly stated their support of the government of DRM's president Seliki Mumbato.  While he is not the ideal leader for the country, he is all they have right now and it is unacceptable to the EU and other "Western Interests" to have the DRM turned into another training haven for Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).  Western units are attempting to bolster DRM government forces while training new units to take over the fight.  The French have the largest contingent in Moa.  They concentrate most of their combat elements in the north while the British have accepted responsibility for the southern half of the country and the Moa River.  All of this makes for great evening news footage and there is a large contingent of journalist throughout the region, giving UN troops and western commanders even more to consider.

More about the DRM and the back story later.

One of the groups fighting in Moa is the "White Sheiks" Islamic rebels.  Backed by Saudi financial interests, the White Sheiks are relatively well supplied with weapons and vehicles.  They are part of the AQIM uprising and as such regularly clash with DRM government forces and their western allies.  Here are a couple of quick pictures of the current White Sheik contingent.

The White Sheiks currently have two platoons and a section of "engineers" in their infantry forces.

The "White Mullah" (kneeling figure left part of the picture) is the military and spiritual leader of the White Sheiks forces.  He is reputed to be the nephew of a high ranking Saudi politician, but his face has never been photographed!
Hope you enjoy the story and the photos.  I will be posting more in the near future.

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Inaugural Game in the Hobby Room!

Had a chance to host a game in my new Hobby Room last night.  We played a new scenario for Special Operations Forces set in my fictitious African country - the Democratic Republic of Moa.

My friends Ralph, Charlie, Ed and AJ were able to travel up and play in this initial game.  We had a really good time and the new rule set is really coming along!

Here is a picture of the guys after the game:


And here is a couple of photos of the game in action:

The White Sheiks and Black Terror on the Attack

French and African Allies make use of cover and concealment


Thursday, January 2, 2014

2013 Gaming and Hobby Summary

Figures Painted
25-28mm - 37 Napoleonic infantry
20mm - 49 modern infantry

Games Played
Volley & Bayonet Wing Scale - 1
Crossfire -
Special Forces - 3
War at Sea -4
Brother Against Brother -
Other Rules - Swashbuckler (1) Wellington Rules (1) Bolt Action (1) Halberdier (1) Napoleon's Rules of War (2)

Other
Terrain Board
20mm (1/72) Vehicles for Moderns
Re-mounting figures for new rules sets

2014 Gaming Start

Yesterday I had an opportunity to spend the day with my good friend Andrew.  He was bringing a bunch of his hobby stuff to the house to store it here while he continues his period of exile from New England in Indiana.  He has amazing terrain stuff and some really nice WWII 20mm vehicles for CROSSFIRE.  I now have a complete small hobby store in my basement with an entire range of Woodland Scenics terrain material.

We also had an opportunity to work on some terrain stuff for my Modern Africa scenario for an upcoming Northern Conspiracy game night.  We had to finish the hills shown in these photos and now I am working on some small fillers for here and there.  Here are some photos of what we worked on:



The figures are ready and the terrain is pretty much set.  Now, all we need to do is play a game and see if the rules are any good!  I certainly hope the rule changes give the desired effect.  It would really stink to have all this money, time and effort into figures, vehicles and terrain and then not have a set of rules that work!  We will have to wait and see.  Battle report hopefully on January 10th or 11th!