A long hot summer and other musings...

It has been entirely too long since I posted anything on my wargaming blog. I intend to rectify that this weekend. Though it has been a ridiculously hot summer with very little gaming or work being done on miniatures or scenery...I did manage to get a few things off the workbench.

Several projects in the works at one time:

WWII Italy: working on a platoon of 28mm Crusader Miniatures Fallschirmjägers and Mid War British. So far, one squad of each platoon completed. I am very happy with the camo on the FJ. I want to revisit my old Continental Hotel scenario with some custom scenery for a potential Wargames Illustrated article down the road and maybe re-run it at another convention.

American Civil War: a few Rebs done, a house and barn from JR Miniatures (I cut the roofs off these suckers with a hacksaw), and some snake rail fences which, while fairly easy to do, made me realize just how many of these damn things I will need...I already blew through a whole bag of my wife's bamboo Kebob sticks.

On the rules front...not much going on. I have been stuck on my 1:1 individual combat system for months now. I am beginning to realize that I just don't like the idea of gaming at that granularity except for certain genres like Pulp or Zombies. I don't think 1:1 action works for modern military combat. I am sure there are lots of perfectly legitimate realism justifications for that kind of system...but that's my mental block right now. Partially it is also because I simply don't know where to stop with content. I wanted to originally stick to 1:1 WWII. Then it became modern combat in general. Then I was considering modeling SWAT actions and CQB and other stuff like that...before I knew it this thing had gotten out of control.

I have begun work on my ACW skirmish set with a little bit of progress. I need to finish some minis and terrain and do some preliminary testing first before I get much further, but I feel that this is a doable project. I'm just not sure when it will fully develop. I want to base the book on one of the tactical manuals of the period, but I find myself with a loss of confidence in my knowledge of a period known for full on hard core pedantry with these kinds of things. If there is something even slightly wrong I will never hear the end of it...even more so than anything I have ever done WWII. Still, I like the title a lot. So there's that.

True to my too many irons in the fire style, I have also started working on a 1:1 Company scale game for WWII. This is something I began thinking about when I started playing games in 15mm and how neat the ground scale looks. It made me go a step further and start looking at doing 1:1 in 6mm scale and how I could distill the DH system into a new kind of game. I came up with a new unit based firepower system and new ways of using morale, training, cover, suppression, and maneuver that combines the playability of regular Disposable Heroes but at a higher level. So far, out of anything else I am working on, this one I am pretty excited about.

Some preliminary testing needs to be done, but I think it will result in a neat, realistic ground scale appealing game that is tactically fun and easy to play. We shall see...

So that's all for now. I need to fire up the camera and take some pics to post. I hope to do that soon.

Where Zombies Dare...

I just wanted to post a few quick pics taken at our club game on Monday of the Zombies vs Soviets game. We used a modified form of Where Heroes Dare with special rules to give it that zombie movie feel. It worked pretty well for a first run.

The zombies are a little overpowered right now, but we discussed some tweaks to make them work. They were a little too fast and some of the rules for spawning them and activating them made it too easy for the zombies to get around the table. We played two games and both times the zombies won, but I think with some of the changes it will come out to a well balanced game.

I am very happy with the way the rules give a really good feel for Romero style zombies. They can only be killed by head shots, they are slow but once they get close to prey they can move a little faster, when they mob up on you they can quickly overpower you and pull you down, but they also feed on that prey for a turn allowing others to escape (though the newly dead can also become zombies themselves, muhahaha), they appear where you least expect them but they can't climb...things like that really make the game tense. I had a great time.

The pics are all from Dieter's phone cam which seems to have a "creepy bleary misty zombie setting" which made for some great shots.

I don't really have much of an AAR as were just testing and having fun. The scenario involves a team of Spetsnaz escorting a tech team with Geiger counter equipment. They are ordered into a facility outside the town of Pripyat several days after the Chernobyl incident. They are told to take readings from what appear to be unusually high amounts of radiation, even higher than the meltdown site itself. There was a team sent in previously that disappeared after reports of gunfire. Rumor has it that the site was a secret KGB experimental facility which had a direct line to Chernobyl...but why the site has higher radiation readings or how it might be connected to the incident at the plant is unknown and no one in the Central Committee is talking.

The team arrives at the facility as the sun is setting and to an eerie silence.

That's when things got weird.

Here are some shots...



Table layout. I plan to do more buildings specific to this game at some point. For now we just used the set of ruins and rubble I had and a building from the Comic Store's collection.



Corporal Fedorov takes a reading at one of the objective counters.



The Sgt. gets mobbed...



Braaaaaaaaaains.



Some Soviets turn the tables on a lone zombie.



The support team of PK LMG and a sniper with a Dragunov go down hard...and then get eaten.



Zombies. Milling around and doing zombie stuff.

I hope to run this game at one of the conventions coming up. Probably Historicon. Too late to register a game for Cold Wars.

Enjoy!

Polish 10th Motorized (The Black Brigade).

I now have a complete platoon and support, plus tanks for my Polish Black Brigade project. The only thing left to do is finish off some more heavy weapons (mortars and HMGs). I have enough minis to do a second platoon, but that will have to wait until later.

The miniatures are all True North, now owned by Old Glory. They are decent figs, but I am hoping to see Battlefront release their own models of this unit once they start their early war range. The True North figs are slightly too big when standing next to the Command Decision 15mm Germans I have, but that's no big deal.

I had to do some conversion work to get some of the poses I wanted. The packs did not come with any advancing LMGs. I had to take one of the prone LMG gunners, snip off the gun, drill out one of the rifles from a rifleman, add the gun, and the sculpt on new hands with green stuff. Not difficult, just time consuming. I did 4 of them in two different poses. I think the conversion came out pretty well, though part of the reason I am not rushing into a second platoon is the fact that I don't look forward to doing that again...

Now completed:

Command section, motorcycle combo, 4 sections, a truck, 1 armored car, 6 Vickers E 6 ton, 4 TKS (one with 20mm cannon), a 7TP tank, HMG, and a 37mm Antitank gun.

Enjoy!



Platoon (minus 1 truck).



One of the sections of the one squad platoon (their TO&E is rather odd).



Support weapons.



The LMG conversion.



Vickers E 6 Ton.



TKS Tankettes. I love these things. Armored go-carts. Yet one of these little suckers, commanded by Roman Orlik, knocked out 3 German tanks (including a Panzer IV B) in one action, followed by a second run of 3 kills, and a final run of 7 kills in one day.



The 7TP, one of the best Polish tanks. These could go head to head with pretty much the best of German armor in 1939. Unfortunately for the Poles, there were too few. A number of them did some damage in a major counterattack around Bzura before being knocked out.



Armored Car. Fast, cheap, and packs an MG and 37mm gun. Just don't get hit.

So that's it! I just wish someone did this unit in 28mm...

Pennsylvania Bucktails.

Work has begun on my Civil War Skirmish project. First up is a group of 10 Union soldiers of the 150th PA Volunteers Regiment (The Bucktails), known for their distinctive white tail deer tail pinned to their hats. This Regiment saw action from Chancellorsville all the way through Gettysburg, Petersburg and through the end of the war.

This is just the first of my Civil War units. Most of them will be bucktails, but I will also paint up enough generic Union infantry to be used in any theater.

Miniatures are all Old Glory 28mm. They are one of the few manufacturers I know of who specifically make this unit with the tails on the hats (Redoubt is the other). I like these figures. They have good detail, lots of good poses, and a lot of character. Old Glory even produces several packs of casualties so I should be able to put down one casualty per model during a game to give the battlefield a realistic look.

Here are some shots of the unit (plus a wagon).























Cookie and his wagon...



Detail shot.

Do you smell something, comrade?

Well, the horde is almost complete. I have a few of the toxic waste barrel zombies to finish up, but that's about it. It didn't take long to do these guys, surprisingly. I found that a nice quick drybrush of flesh, followed by a rotting flesh green on top followed by a few dark red and a purplish bruise color for washes finished off with an overall dark wash to add depth really gave them the right look. The only thing I did to add detail was pick out a few bones in khaki and white mixed. Oh, I also added a gloss finish to the guts and painted the eyes with a red/orange spot. I'm very happy with them.

Enjoy!



Close up of a few of the gang.



Some blurry "comin' atcha!" shots.



And a toxic waste barrel zombie for good measure. I will be using these for markers or spawn points in a game. This makes me think of that old Chevy Chase movie where he gets toxified (Modern Problems).

The question remains...will 46 of these bad boys be enough? You can never have too many zombies on the table. My Soviets are ready to take on the horde. All I have to do for them is a few of the support weapons I just picked up. RPG launcher (zombies go 'splode), a second PK LMG (head shot!), and a flamethrower (whoosh!). Though the last thing you might want are zombies that are on fire.

The whole thing gets a game test run on Monday at the club. Now I just need to come up with some rules and special events cards...

Pripyat.

A little diversion here, though continuing with the Soviet theme...

I was cleaning out a box of unfinished minis and found these 28mm Eureka 1980's NBC suit Soviets hiding in the back. I decided to finish them up and get them out of my backlog since they only needed a little work on weapons and packs to finish. Besides the NCO, Sniper with Dragunov, Specialist with Geiger Counter, and the LMG gunner with the PK, there are five grunts with AK-47s left to finish.



I picked these up a few years ago at one of the conventions with the intention of using them in a zombie outbreak containment game set in the city of Pripyat, Ukraine after the Chernobyl disaster. Eureka actually sells these and a set of zombies to go with them for just that purpose.

All I need yet are the zombies! I'll probably need a bunch of them though...

Projects for the New Year.

As part of the cleaning and organizing of my painting desk, I figured I should also make a list of projects to complete in the coming year. I have a lot of projects to choose from, but I want to put together a list of priority projects and get some old and unfinished stuff out of the way.

Miniature Projects:
28mm Mid War Soviets. Battle Honors (complete).
28mm Soviets in NBC Suits. Eureka (complete).
15mm Polish 10th Motorized. True North Miniatures (complete).
28mm ACW Union Company. Old Glory.
28mm ACW Confederate Company. Old Glory.
15mm French. Old Glory/Command Decision.
15mm Soviet Rifle Company. Quality Castings.
28mm Battle of the Bulge US Airborne. Artizan Designs.
28mm Battle of the Bulge Germans LMG teams. Artizan Designs.
28mm Japanese Ni mortar squad, snipers, and AT teams. Brigade Games.

Scenery Projects:
More hills cut out and sanded.
Finish painting 28mm tree bases.
28mm Normandy Farmhouse Complex. Shed is almost painted.
15mm Eastern Front houses scratchbuilt.
28mm ACW fences and walls.
More 28mm Hedgerows.
28mm Railroad tracks.
More 15mm trees.
15mm Railroad tracks.

Iron Ivan Games Projects:
Point Blank: 1:1 scale Squad Level WWI-Modern Combat system.
Polish 10th Motorized scenarios.
"May Be Forever": Civil War mod of This Very Ground.
Fields of Battle: Panzer Lehr.

That's a good start. Now I need to stick to the plan and get a move on some of this stuff. It's been nice enough the past few days to get some minis primed...