Legionary 2015 and other random stuff

Been a bit tom-and-dick so apologies for the lax postings.  Luckily things will hopefully be improving in the sickness area as I am off to get fixed(hopefully) on Tuesday.  Wish me luck.

Last week was the annual Exeter wargames show, Legionary 2015.  Excellently hosted by the Exmouth Imperials wargames club as usual, it proved to be a cracking show and I spent way more than I planned too.  There is a nice set of pictures on the Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy website, so pop along and have a look at much nicer pictures than the ones I take.

Nathan and I put on a game of the forthcoming Cold War Chain of Command game.  This is in an early stage of playtesting and we are luckily involved to breaking playing them.  A small game involving a meeting engagement between to recce forces. A Russian mech infantry platoon with 2 MBTs and an engineer section in support bumped into a British infantry platoon with 2 Scorpions in direct support, plus a Chieftain enroute.  It played pretty well, the Russians pushed forward as fast as they could, nearly wiping out a British section as they got several phases in a row.  It didn't help that I couldn't hit anything with the Carl Gustav rocket launcher.    The Russian tanks pushed forward, laughing at the Scorpions 76mm HESH shells.  Then a BMP-1 exploded, hit by a mighty 120mm HESH shell from the Chieftain as it arrived.  Another BMP brewed up, then one of the T-64s exploded as an APDS round tore through its armour.  The rules worked pretty well, considering that they are in an early stage of playtesting.  Light armour is very very fragile, being bullet, but not mush else, proof.  I will probably end up spending a small fortune on 15mm figures and vehicles for this period to replace my small forces of 28's, as then I can use my existing terrain.  Plus I think the game plays and looks better in 15mm.



Other games at the show were varied and all looked nice.  Graham and Dave put on a 28mm Medieval battle.  Lots of stabbing and slicing occurred and much carnage was wrought.


Another large Medieval game, was also there.  War of the Roses I think.  It looked very nice and the scenario included a very large flank march by one of the forces, but there was only a small bridge for them to cross. 

 There was a beutiful 28mm ACW game that looked excellent with lovely figures and cracking terrain.

 Another 28mm game was played using Under the Lily Banner I believe.  Plenty of colourful troops contested a sizeable battlefield.

 Something different now, 1/600th ironclads from the Russo-Japan war.  The models were beautiful and it looked really good.  A fair few pounds had been spent on those ships.

 One game that I was interested in, but never got a chance to try, was Star Wars Armada.  It is nice to finally be able to command a Star Destroyer on the table, but I am loath to fork out £80 for 3 ships without first trying the game.  It does look good and I have heard and read some good reviews of it, but the price for the ships may be a killer blow at the moment.  Plus the Imperial Star Destroyer isn't out yet!

All in all it was a good day out.  I managed to last until after 4pm, which was good but I did pay for it over the next couple of days.  I bought a couple more 4ground buildings, 2 technicals in 28mm(WHY?), some bits and pieces for my 1940's forces from Peter Pig(nice to see them back), some 15mm Landmark buildings(too good a price to miss) and several books on the bring and buy.  I meet some old friends that I haven't seen for a while and meet some new friends as well.

That's it for now.  There will be another update tomorrow with my painting efforts and yesterdays Devon Wargames meeting.  Keep rolling those dice folks, they can't all come up on a 1........can they?

More Survivors are needed.

After an almost reasonable sleep last night (I managed a massive 4 hours!) I feel almost human again. Saturday was pretty bad though, it's nice to feel reasonable again.  So, here I go again with the weekends efforts.

First up, I have added a Cold War CoC page, so all my ideas for playing Chain of Command in the 1980's period well be in one place.  So far there is a list of the rules amendments and a rough idea for a British force list to go on there, but for some reason I can't upload them at the moment.  When Blogger lets me upload them please have a look and give comments/ideas on anything that seems wrong.  It is very much a playtest idea at the moment and needs a lot of polishing.

Painting has also happened, some Wargames Factory female survivors this time.  A few of us chipped in and bought a couple of boxes of survivors last year and, although I painted my 10 male survivors quickly, the women languished in an unpainted state until Sunday.  A quick spray of undercoat and some playing about resulted in another batch of survivors to fight off the zombie plague..

Here are the 10 women, a reasonable mix of figures, although some of the poses are a bit awkward and you need to be careful which arms you use with which torso.





I will show the 20 survivors in pairs now, just because I can.

 Shotguns rule.......Well for these two they do.  She has a double barreled shotgun while his appears to be a semi-auto model.  His apparel leans towards a beach lover type of look, while she is more of a country gal, with her John Deere cap and knee length boots.

Nice enough figures though.

Kids can fight too, although I am not sure the ginger lad should have an SMG!  I changed the hands of the powder blue princess so she could have a semi-auto pistol rather than the revolver with scope that she is supposed to have.  Again, nice enough figures and she looks kinda cute with her part dress and big boots.

 This pair have obviously emptied their rifles and are now down to their backup pistols.  He has an M16 and wears jeans and a hoody with a backwards baseball cap finishing off his "youth" look.  She is in a more sporty shorts and vest outfit with an SA80.  Both look pretty good I think and will do.


 

 The "Punisher" and a more military looking woman. Jeans and a vest(emblazoned with a white skull) for him, while he aims with his SMG and holds a large knife ready.  She is wearing woodland camo trousers, a green/yellow tee shirt and a khaki waistcoat while a Springfield sniper rifle is on her back and an Uzi is in her right hand.  Not the best poses, he seems to lean backwards, but again they will do.

M16s are popular with these two.  He is in jeans and a white tee shirt with a red baseball cap.  An M16 is on his back while he holds a baseball bat and celebrates the tin of beans he has found.  She holds an M16 and is clad in chocolate chip camo trousers and a green long sleeved top.

 The RPG and the molotov.  Which is best?  She is a more chunky model and is holding the RPG in an odd way.  She looks ok though and matches the chunky man well, both is shorts and tee shirts and wearing flip-flops.  He is in an overall, so appears to be a mechanic.  Armed with a raised machete and a molotov, he looks like he is ready for action.

The cowgirl and the cop.  He is painted up as a state trooper of some state or other.  He has full belt kit but is using an M16 here.  She wears black trousers and a brown vest, topped off with a black cowboy hat.  Cradling an AK in her left hand while firing a Mac-10 with her right she looks ready to upset some zombies day.

 The bow and pistols.  Not overly happy with the bow armed women, but she will do I guess.  In a white miniskirt and blue bustier top she aims and is ready to loose at her target.  He looks more normal, wearing khaki trousers and a green vest topped off with a USMC cap.  He is using twin pistols, which seems like a reasonable choice.




The bible basher and the blonde.  He is in a brown trenchcoat over jeans and a tee shirt.  A bible is raised in his left hand while he readies a pistol in the right.  She is also in jeans, topped by a white vest top.  While firing a Mac-10 in her left hand she holds a hunting crossbow in her right.  I attempted to paint it so it looked sort of like this one, it's reasonably close but not great.

Sculder and Mully.  Suited figures with pistols, she is in a black suit and aims her pistol in a double handed stance.  He suit is grey and he has a machete to back up his pistol.  Closest I will get to having an FBI couple anyway.


So there they are, 20 assorted survivors ready for whatever game we can come up with.  I am out playing Zombicide again tonight, then hoping to paint some Napoleonics tomorrow, if I get any sleep tonight.  Catch you later.

Devon Wargames May meeting

It's been a week and I have had a few nights of decent sleep, so things are looking good so far this week (quickly touching as many bits of wood as I can reach).  Last Saturday saw the May meeting of the Devon Wargames Group, so I shoved the sons into the car and set off for Exeter.  I was putting on another game of Chain of Command, 15mm WW2 France this time to make a change from 28mm Cold War.  The two chaps who asked me to put it on didn't turn up so I hosted my sons Christopher and Michael using the Germans against Ian and Charlie using the British.

 The Germans were coming on from the left, using an elite Falschirmjager platoon, support being an additional Panzerschreck team and a medic.  The British, a regular rifle platoon, had a Dingo, a Cromwell and a medic.  The Germans were pinned back by aggressive British patrol moves, so all their jump-off points were close to each other and the were well back from the strategic hotel building.    


The Germans were winning the war of attrition due to their extra LMGs, but the British initiated charges, relying on close combat to balance out their lack of firepower.  It was the only way they could hope to win, as 6 MG42s dish out a lot more firepower than 3 Brens, 48 dice vs 18 in fact.  However the Cromwell was doing well, laying in support fire and destroying both Panzerschreck teams as it advanced on the left flank.

After the Cromwell laid in HE fire and cleared an LMG team, the British rushed into the now undefended ground floor.  Hand grenades flew back and forward, before the remaining British ran upstairs and wiped out the German LMG team.  Casualties were high though and the British squad ended up being broken as well due to losses and shock.  Mutual destruction.



The other British squads also charged in, managing to break another German squad before being broken by fire from the remaining German squad.  In the end the Germans fell back as leader casualties and 2 wiped out squads reduced their force morale from 9 to 3 .  The British were only just ok, with their force morale at 5 from a start of 10.  All in all it went pretty well and I think they all enjoyed it. 

The other games were  Muskets & Tomahawks, put on by Chas, and French Foreign Legion against Arabs by Nathan using his new fort.  Both games looked good and, judging by the volume of the players, went pretty well.  All in all not a bad day out and a pleasant way to spend a damp day.  Myself and Nathan won't be there in June as we are attending OML2 in Evesham, but we will be back for July.

 Painting wise, I have done a few bits and pieces.  Three additional 28mm jump off points, Warsaw Pact this time.  One is a TFL model while the others are made up using Baueda barrels and boxes with weapons from Wargames Factory Survivors sprues.

I also got a few 15mm bits done.  Two Daimler armoured cars and a pair of Dingos that I have had for years.  One of the Dingos has been used as a jump off point, with a dismounted British tank crew figure "capturing" a pair of German tankies.  I also got a German HMG crew finished which has been looking at me accusingly for the last 2 months.

I am now starting on some more Zombicide figures, as we have cracked open the original game to divvy up the Zombies.  I currently have 8 zombies, 5 survivors and 5 zombivores on the go.  Will I get them all done by Monday......I very much doubt it.  I am looking forward to painting Sean Connery Rob the security expert and Anthony Hopkins Achille the serial killer.  The other lads all have some figures to paint up as well, having finished the contents of Toxic City Mall.  We played a game of Zombicide on Monday night and somehow managed to get everybody off alive.

Ah well, off now to slap some paint onto some plastic.  Have fun folks and keep rolling those dice.

Damn you Insomnia.......

So here I am again, its 2.16am and yet again I can't sleep.  Stomach ache and vomiting does not a good nights sleep make.  At least I have been productive this morning, so it's not been a total washout.  I have been beavering away on some Allied type jump off points for my 15mm WW2 forces.  I made some German ones earlier this year so thought I should really have a go at some for the Allies.

I have had a couple of Baueda supply dump style bases for some time now, so they have finally been painted.  There is nothing on them to specify which side they belong to, so they are generic jump off points now.

I am also making a couple of themed bases, so have been busy painting up some assorted figures and vehicles.  I should(hopefully) get them stuck to their bases before I go back to bed, it depends how much longer they take to dry properly.  Then I will finish them either tomorrow evening or Thursday, so there will be another update with pictures to come then.

To keep you gong, here is a picture of the few bits I did get painted last week, ready for use at Legionary.

I modified my "official" Too Fat Lardies jump off points to make them a bit more modern.  Basically I cut off the WW2 weapons and replaced them with more modern NATO weapons.  One has an SLR, one an M16 and the last on has a Carl Gustav.  I also painted up a few old(Mongrel Miniatures) and a few new(Empress Miniatures) figures to give the Russians some support options apart from tanks and BMPs.  There is an AGS-17 automatic grenade launcher, a Kord hmg(which fills in for a KPV hmg) and an 9K111 AT-4 Spigot anti-tank missile team, all from Empress Miniatures.  These are joined by five Mongrel Miniatures figures from the 10th Company packs.  A nice selection of bits to add to my Cold War collection.  I am just waiting on a delivery of SPG-9s and DShKs from Eureka Miniatures now. 

Right, I'm off to see if the vehicles are dry, then it's off to bed.  It's now 2.30 and I should really try to get some sleep.  I hate being wide awake at this time of night as it will totally screw up tomorrow for me as well.  Catch you later. 

Legionary 2014

The closest wargame show  to home is the rather nice Exeter based Legionary, organised by Exmouth Wargames.  Not a massive show, it seems to be slowly improving with Warlord, Colonel Bill, Magister Militum and EM4 among the traders.  I took my camera, but totally failed to take any photos of the games on display, which was stupid as there were some cracking tables set up.  Luckily other people were more organised than me so pictures are available, on JJ's blog or the Exmouth Wargames site.

In an effort to support our local show we usually put on a game.  "We" was Gus, Nathan and myself, but I was going to give this year a miss.  Nathan was supposed to be running a Winter War Chain of Command game for Baker Company and Gus is sadly no longer with us, so I would have been on a table alone.  Then communications between Nathan and Baker Company seemed to come to a halt so I decided to see if a table was available and, if it was, put on a 25mm Chain of Command game using my 1980's British and Russians. 

A table was available, Baker company didn't even turn up to trade on the day without even letting Nathan know, so there I was with my short-legged assistant playing Cold War CoC in front of the local wargaming fraternity. 

 Here is the table with the invading Russians advancing from the left against the dug in British line.  the Russians had a BMP platoon supported by 2 T-55s, a HMG and an auto-grenade launcher.  The British had a rifle platoon with a Milan team, an extra Carl Gustav team and a Scorpion.  The balance of power was coming from the East, or so we thought.

 Despite the best efforts of the Carl Gustav, no Russian vehicles were hit in the initial turn, maybe I have made it too difficult to hit anything with my AT modifiers?  Something to consider in future games I think.  I did make up some nice NATO jump-off points by carving the WW2 weapons off of the Too Fat Lardies models and replacing them with some more modern weapons.  You can just about see them a couple of the pictures.  I also made up a rocket marker, just 'cos I could.

The Russian advance did not go well, with a LAW strike making the BMP-2 retreat, leaving its debussed infantry sat in the open in front of a dug in British section. It did not go well for the Russians, that's all there is too say about that.

 On the other flank it went even worse, with a LAW destroying the BMP and killing two of its infantry squad, then the British fire killed off all but one of the remainder of the squad and he (perhaps sensibly) ran off.  Nathans tactic off sitting back with his T-55's and trying to suppress the dug in defenders did not work and his attack failed as their force morale fell to 1.

 So we switched sides and had another go.  I advanced the Russians behind a smoke screen, reducing the incoming fire that we would take in the first phases.

 Then the vehicles burst through the smoke and advanced.  Some infantry were debussed to provide covering fire, while the T-55s advanced to screen the fragile BMPs with their thicker armour.  My force was saved by Nathans inability to hit with most of his AT missiles, and when he did the effect was negligible.

The end result was a sweeping pincer movement by the Russians, allowing them to start rolling up the defenders line.  My more aggressive tactics worked pretty well, although Nathan's dice did him no favours at all in the secound game.  He did manage to drive off the grenade launcher team and damage a BMPand one of the T-55s, but he lost his Milan team and a full section on the right flank, then was unable to react to the Russians as they swept forward on both flanks.

All in all it was a pretty good day.  The show seemed pretty busy and I hope in continues to grow.  My purchases were limited, I bought some Baueda scenic bits from Magister Militum, who managed to get my order sorted despite me giving them only a couple of days notice, and a couple of 1984-5 Janes books on the bring&buy. 

Its now 12.30am and I have a lot to do tomorrow, so I will sign off here and try to get some sleep.  Keep rolling those dice folks.

Yet more Cold War.

Are you bored with it yet?  I hope not.  I didn't plan to get into any form of modification of Chain of Command, but the bug has bitten and it's become the project of the moment now.  So much so that, for the first time in years, I have bought figures to add to my collection.  The Russians will soon be reinforced with an Empress Miniatures AGS-17 and NSV HMG (pack CWR004).  I am also after an SPG-9, but only Eureka seem to make it and £10+postage for a gun with 3 Afghan crew that I don't want is a bit of a step too far at the moment. 

I have been doing some thinking about the changes in weapons and such for the more modern period and have come up with the following thoughts.


ATGWs 
To represent the difficulty with hitting a target with guided missiles, especially the earlier types such as the AT-3 Sagger, they all suffer a penalty to hit as detailed below 
MCLOS Guidance(AT-3 Sagger) - Additional -2 to hit, -3 if target moving
SACLOS Guidance (AT-4, AT-5 Milan) - Additional -1 to hit

ATGWs may be bought as off table support due to their long range.  These  can fire at any vehicle visible from your table edge, counting the range as band 3.  This is really the only option to use some ATGWs in the game, the Sagger has a minimum range of 166"!

Automatic Grenade Launchers (AGS-17, Mk-19)
To represent the high rate of suppressive fire from these weapons they reduce cover by 1 level and inflict double shock.

Ammo Limits
While squads often have some form or anti-tank rocket launcher, the ammo they carried was limited.  To represent this any squad weapon, such as RPG-7, Carl Gustav etc, may only be fired 3 times in a game.

An option would be to allow reloading by sending the crew back to a jump off point maybe?

ERA Armour
Explosive Reactive Armour came about due to the increase in HEAT warheads on ATGWs and infantry anti-tank weapons.  This allows a vehicle fitted with it to reroll any dice when defending against ATGW/IATW hits in its front arc.  It has no effect on direct fire such as normal tank/gun hits.

Smoke Launchers and Layers
Smoke launchers are one-use grenade launchers that lay a smoke screen 2d6" ahead of the vehicle.  They are fired as an action by the vehicle commander.

Smoke layers lay a smoke screen behind the vehicle as it moves.  They are activated by the vehicle commander to lay a smoke screen behind the vehicle, but only if he has also ordered it to move.

All smoke screens last until the end of the turn.

So, there you go.  A few ideas and any thoughts and comments would be appreciated.

I have also painted something today.  Not what I was supposed too be doing (15mm Napoleonics), but I have repainted my pair of eBay "James Bond" T-55s.

This is how they looked out of the box so to speak.  Nice enough, but a bit boring. So I decided to mess them up a bit.  First thing was to see if they came apart.....

which they did.  Not exactly difficult to do, 3 screws and jobs done.  So, the next step was to repaint them with Vallejo Russian Green (cunningly named) and then give them a brown ink wash to give it some shading and pick out the detail a bit.

 And here it is in its brown mess state.  I also painted the roadwheels with German Grey to represent the rubber.  Then it was out with several lighter shades such as Khaki and Dark Sand.  A decent amount of drybrushing then ensued, followed by a quick reassemble and........

 here are two almost finished T-55s, nearly ready to take on the Chieftain.  All I have left to do now is some weathering with my Mig pigments and a quite coat or two of varnish and they will be finished.

 This last picture is a comparison of before and after.  It's not going to win any awards, but it looks more like a tank and less like a toy now I think

Anyway, thanks for looking and keep rolling those dice. 

Cold War Coc Part 3

A third post in 3 days!  Sorry if it's annoying, but if I don't put it down now I'll forget what happened.  Nathan did come over yesterday and we had a small game of CoWaCoC(stupid name 'innit!).  By small I mean a small table, only 4' square, and a basic platoon with an under armoured vehicle each.

 The table was fairly congested with scenery, no buildings to hide in though and not much hard cover.  The Russians came on from under my arm, with the British from the other side controlled by Nathan.



My Russians went first and promptly got 3 phases in a row.  I managed to bring on 2 squads, one on each side of the table, plus my left flank was supported by a BMP-1.

 The right flank squad deployed forwards to try and consolidate on the central field

 Then the dastardly imperialist dogs arrived, taking up position in the tree line and going onto overwatch. 

 Then there were more, with all the British infantry coming on, evenly spread across the table.  Nathan kept his speedy little Scorpion off table though.

 Stupidly I moved the BMP out of hiding and fired at the British.  Yes, I killed a man, but left myself open to a shot from a Carl Gustav rocket launcher.  Hopefully he will miss as I am hull down.

 Unfortunately Nathan is a jammy git and rolled 11 to hit, then 6 hits out of 8 dice!  Can you say KABOOM!  BMP 401 can.

 Things went better on the other side.  My tactic had been to close range and rely on my superior rate of fire to win, so that's what I did. The right squad, supported by the command squad and CO, opened fire on Nathan's squad.  Six Ak47s and an RPK LMG make a lot of dice and Nathan's squad legged it.  Well, half of them did, leaving behind their corporal.  Hehehe

There they go, running like the lily-livered capitalist dogs they are. I am not sure about the fire rate for Assault Rifles, 3 dice seems a lot when the majority of the platoon has them.  I fired with 24 dice, admittedly I needed 2 goes to drive off Nathan's squad but I lost no men doing it. 

 The sneaky git rallied them with his platoon sergeant, who pointed out that their armoured support had arrived and "they should pull themselves together".

 The Brits got a double move too and Nathan sent his Scorpion racing ahead at breakneck speed, hoping to clear the open road and get past the Russians.  Sadly he didn't quite make it.  An RPG-7 blasted out of the field and slammed into the side of the Scorpion.  Amazingly it survived, although the commander was injured and shocked.

 Another RPG came out and proved to be too much for the Scorpion, which exploded spectacularly. 

Sadly the Russians had been gradually whittled down by the sustained fire of the 2 British squads.  They managed to all but wipe out the command squad, leaving just the CO and sergeant, who decided that discretion was the better part of valour.  Of course, the report they filed included Chieftain tanks and a full company of British paras, but that's another story.


All in all it played well.  We both enjoyed it and it did it's job as a first playtest by showing that I needed to change a few things.  The armour ratings of vehicles have gone up a bit, which means that light armour is still very fragile, but it might survive if hit.  Also, I am going to try making assault rifles 2 dice instead of 3 within 18".  I still gives the russians a firepower advantage at close range, but not 3 to 1.  I am also playing about with a support list, so that should be up soon.  All in all it was a succesful game and we will do another one soon.

I have spent today sorting out Gus' 6mm Napoleonics to put on eBay over the weekend.  There are thousands of the little buggers, over 3800 infantry figures!  Sadly 99.9% are unpainted as it was Gus' retirement plan to paint them all.  Anyway, off now to do something less productive.  Keep rolling those dice folks, you'll get a 6 eventually.