2021 Re-Visit Continued

 This is the second installment of my catch-up for gaming through 2021 and 2022.  As I did not keep a full journal of my gaming, I can only go by my available photos to recount my gaming experiences.  

The middle part of my 2021 gaming included a good dose of WWII Rules and Scenarios.  First among these games was a  version of Bolt Action at Adler Gaming Shop.  The rules set is called Bolt Action Firefight I believe.  This is a smaller scale game where each figure has a command die instead of each squad.  Here are a couple of photos from a BAF game in June of 2021:

I like BA Firefight.  The smaller scale means the table set up can be smaller and more detailed.  The game can also be quicker to play, making it a good gaming system for an evening between two friends.  I would recommend the game to others.

Along the same lines of WWII Skirmish gaming, I also revived the excellent CROSSFIRE rules set.  I have taken my 20mm British and Germans that I use for my Pegasus Bridge Scenario and mounted them individually for use with other rules such as Bolt Action or Chain of Command.  Here are photos of a game I hosted in the summer of 2021 at the Northern Conspiracy:

Although designed as a two-player game, I find that CROSSFIRE is easily converted into a nice game for four players and can even take up to six players in a pinch.  I believe that this game had four players that night.  CROSSFIRE is one of my favorite set of wargame rules ever.  You must approach the game as a real commander by planning for your movement using cover and concealment.  Moving in the open once contact is made will almost always lead to heavy losses.  One must also provide covering fire when moving in the face of the enemy, suppressing enemy forces before closing with them.

Here is another Bolt Action game that I played in at Adler Gaming Shop.  Proprietor Gordon hosted a demonstration game - Chariots of Steel.  This is set in the N. African Desert between Australian and Italian forces outside of Trobruk in 1941.  I have played the scenario a couple of times and the game is challenging and fun for both sides.  Gordon has tweaked the terrain, figures and vehicles over the years and developed a very nice looking game as well.

That's all for right now.  I will post again soon to continue through 2021.

Bolt Action Campaign Started!

Last week I had a chance to play in the first round of the Adler Hobby WWII Campaign.  This campaign is being played with forces from the new Western Desert campaign book.  We are using the Road to Victory campaign system with variable units.  You can find a copy of the system book here.

In this campaign I am using my French forces (Foreign Legion, Senegalese, and vehicles) as the new Western Desert campaign book has formalized these forces.  I have also started painting figures from the new British 8th Army box.  These will be troops from the North African Infantry units in the 1st Free French Brigade.  I am using these figures with British helmets, French Adrian helmets and wool comforter caps for headgear in this unit.  I only took a couple of photos during the game, but here they are:

The Foreign Legion squad seizes a building!  They were taxied into combat aboard the Laffly truck in the photo.

A Senegalese squad also seizes a building.  Just so happens to be the same building complex the DAK commander was occupying.  It ended up being a very bad day for the DAK commander!

The Senegalese squad and a North African squad push the attack around the building complex that made up a major part of the terrain on our board.

In this system you build two squads of regular infantry of no more than 110 points each.  These are commanded by a regular 2LT with two soldiers.  The French also get a light howitzer as their national based unit.  This is your base force for the campaign.  In addition to the base force, you roll on tables to determine two additional units to add to your force.

For this round I had the two squads of infantry; the command element; a 75mm gun and spotter; an inexperienced infantry squad of Senegalese Tirallieurs; and a veteran infantry squad of Foreign Legionnaires.  I also rolled for two transports/tows which I used to carry the FFL and to tow the howitzer.

The first game went pretty well for my troops.  I ended up with a close victory against a well commanded DAK army run by my friend Patrick.  After the game we rolled to determine the results of the units damaged or destroyed during the game and to find out what two new units would be added to our force.  I ended up permanently losing one of my transports.  I also improved the morale of my officer to Veteran and one of my regular base infantry squads to Veteran.  Then I added a second Veteran infantry squad.  The best roll, however, was when I added an SPAA vehicle to my force!  I will now have a quad HMG on a truck added to the army!  Should be interesting to see how effective this unit is against infantry.

I am going to use the Rubicon Russian Quad HMG on a truck mount.  I know they are Maxim HMG's on the Rubicon model and the French used the naval mount from their ships on trucks in the desert, but I am going to bend history a little bit.  I will provide photos as soon as the models are built and painted.

I will provide another game report as soon as I can get back to the campaign.  Vive la France!

Huzzah! Game a Success

My game at Huzzah! on Friday night went pretty well.  I had six players and all seemed really engaged and interested in the scenario.  At the end of the game the Freedom Fighters (FF) had outgunned the French/Moan government troops and secured the crashed aircraft.  The dice gods were definitely against the French and government troops during the game as the Freedom Fighters had activation dice drawn consecutively on several occasions.  The FF players took advantage of the fortunes of war and took pretty aggressive actions which resulted in the destruction of government vehicles and several infantry squads.

Here are some photos of the action:

The Moan armored cars seize the crossroads on Turn 1.  They would not move again in the six move game!  

The Moan troops, from the 22nd Airborne Commando Battalion and the 63rd Mechanized Regiment move up to support the armored cars.  

Kitty Hawk down!  The aircraft crashed right near the crossroads.The armored cars had already been destroyed.  The Freedom Fighters have a squad along the wall of the building at the top right, a motorcycle rider at the bottom right and a squad in the building at the tail of the aircraft.  They also have the government troops in the building a the bottom of the photo under fire from several different units.  The French would try to close in from the top of the photo, but they would not be able to extricate the Moan troops from the kill zones.

The French troops coming to the rescue!  Well, at least they are trying.

The Freedom Fighters mass for the attack!

A close-up of some infantry of the Democratic Republic of Moa.

By the end of the battle, the Freedom Fighters had not only secured Kitty Hawk, they had destroyed eight of the allied units and killed or wounded several French soldiers.  The political fallout for the French government may be so severe as to cause the withdrawal of French regulars from the DRM.  What will happen as the Freedom Fighters continue their push south further into Moa?  Stay tuned to find out!

2014 - The Insurgency

Here are some photos of the insurgents and one of their vehicles.  I have three insurgent armies: The White Sheiks, the Black Terror and the Red Martyrs.  The armies have their own strengths and weaknesses - but all are ready to try and overthrow the Moan government!

A Unimog truck being used as a gun platform for a 14.5mm Heavy Machine Gun.  The truck is a Matchbox.  The gun and crew is from the excellent Liberation Miniatures range.

More from Liberation Miniatures - This time they are "insurgents" who are from the White Shieks terror cell.

The White Shieks commander and some support units.  All of the figures, as well as the Motorcycle, are from Liberation Miniatures.  The heavy machine gun is from the Stan Johansson range.

The Black Terror insurgent cell has occupied a small town in the northern part of DR Moa.  Figures from Liberation Miniatures.  The buildings are paper models from the excellent Paper Terrain line.  The buildings are available in 6mm, 15mm, 20mm and 28mm.  They go together very easily and I think they look fine on the table.  They have the added benefit of coming with partially destroyed copies of each building.  This adds greatly to the versatility of the buildings and fills virtually every building need you could have.

More Black Terror fighters in another building.

The buildings not only come with destroyed versions, there are also walls and out buildings as part of the set.  The walls are glued to foam core board and mounted on a cardboard base.

The Red Martyrs terror cell.  These figures are OOP (Heroes?)

2014 Projects - President Mumbato and Moan Army Vehicles

Here are some photos of President Seliki Mumbato of the Democratic Republic of Moa (DRM).  He is the figure on the left of the photo.  The figure on the right is his brother, Jerome Mumbato.  Jerome is the Prime Minister of DRM and commander in chief of the DRM Air Force.

President Mumbato is in his ceremonial Army General Officer uniform with an Olive Green blouse and Tan trousers with wide Red stripe.  He wears all of the awards he was granted during his time as a regular army officer prior to assuming his duties as President of the country.

Prime Minister Mumbato is in the Royal Blue uniform of a General Officer in the Moan Air Force.  In his usual understated manner, he wears the uniform devoid of any decorations.

President Seliki Mumbato (l) and his brother Prime Minister Jerome Mumbato (r) commander of all Moan Air Forces.

Below are a couple of pictures of Moan Army vehicles as well as the presidential limousine.

The pride and joy of the 62nd Mechanized Battalion, a T-55 Main Battle Tank with a very large Moan National Flag.  There are 11 of these vehicles in the tank company attached to the 62nd Mechanized Infantry Battalion.  They are not used in company or even platoon strength in most circumstances.  The T-55 has a 110mm main gun and is advanced enough to make a significant impact on most tactical situations.  I have purposely left the vehicle without any markings so it can be captured and used by any force in the conflict.  It is still very 'clean' and could definitely use some weathering to make it more African in nature.

A Fox Armored Car leads the Presidential Cadillac Escalade limousine.  Again the vehicles sport the Moan national flag so everyone is aware of which side of the battle they are on!  The Fox armored car is devoid of markings so it can be used by any force with the addition of an appropriate flag.

Pictures of 2014 Projects - The French in Modern Africa

Here are some photos of figures and vehicles I completed in 2014.  I hope that I will be able to add to them in 2015.  First are the French from my modern Africa range.

French troops escort an M-1 Panther mine clearing vehicle on loan from the United States

French forces survey the rocky surface of the "Democratic Republic of Moa" or "DRM" which is a fictional nation I have invented to be the setting for my modern campaign.

French troops provide covering fire with a Light Machine Gun and FAMAS assault rifle.

An up-armored French Light Truck.  This is a Matchbox model based on the British Spartan LAV from what I can find out.

Heavy firepower for the French.  An AMX-10RC armored car sporting a 105mm main gun!

New Rules Still Not Right

Well here are a couple of photos from one of the recent games I have hosted using my Special Operations Forces Rules set.

Here are those photos!

French troops secure a victory marker in a Special Operations Forces game.

DRM Government troops secure a victory marker in a Special Operations Forces game.

 I really like how the games look and I like the basing convention and organization of the units.  The biggest problem has been spotting targets and the integration and game play decisions between moving and shooting/other actions.  I have moved away from an action by action system and gone to a more conventional total move and affects on how units spot others and affects how they fire on targets.  Spotting has been simplified and will allow players to better visualize how their troops are seeing other units on the board.  I think that these changes will solve the problems that we were having with the playtests.  We will have to wait and see at the Huzzah! game convention.

African Figures

Wow!  It has been a long time since I last posted.  Here are some photos of my African Modern figures.  The whole project is coming along quite nicely.  Only about 16 more figures to paint and everything will be ready for the first scenario.  I will be posting more once work let's up a bit next week.  Until then enjoy these photos.  More coming soon!

President Seliki Mumbato of the Democratic Republic of Moa

The DRM Presidential Guard Battalion

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.