Castro and a new miniature project

Well, I hope everyone in the US had a good Thanksgiving.  I had to work on Friday and Sat. and since I am salary, I got no additional pay for working on days that I would normally have off.  8(

Anyway, I still have not yet started listening to my current audio book selection, The League. With Fidel Castro finally dying, I am very tempted to instead start listening to the audio book, One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro at the Brink of Nuclear War, by Michael Dobbs.  I was actually planning to listen to that book and read 15 Minutes: General Curtis LeMay and the Countdown to Nuclear Annihilation, by L. Douglas Keeney, and The Fires of October: The Planned US Invasion of Cuba During the Missile Crisis of 1962, by Blaine Pardoe, and finally, Blue Moon over Cuba: Aerial Reconnaissance during the Cuban Missile Crisis, by William Eckers, Michael Dobbs, and Kennith Jack.  I was thinking of rounding up the lot with a book on the overall US nuclear deterrent called, To Kill Nations: American Strategy in the Air-Atomic Age and the Rise of Mutually Assured Destruction, by Edward Kaplan.  But again with the death of Castro in the news and the talk of the Cuban Missile Crisis again, makes me think that I might step up my time line on reading on that topic.  It is also got me possibly itching on pulling out my 1/300 Pentomic army to be worked on so I can start nuking the Russians.  Or at least play some games of "Toe-to-Toe Nu'klr Combat with the Rooskies" by Victory Point Games.

If you don't remember, back in August of 2013, I was part of the NSDMG game at Gen Con based on the Cuban Missile Crisis.  (blog entry here) I was in the session as the Cuban's and I was the Curtis LeMay equal for the Cubans and came really close to getting rid of Fidel so we could get the war started with the Americans.  

So anyways, what is the new miniature project?  I bought a painted 10mm Russo-Turkish War project for about 60% of the cost that it would take me to buy the miniatures and get them painted.  I got the first of the two boxes.  They are nicely painted, but I am going to re-mount them to a different base size.  I plan to use them with the Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames, or Neil Thomas' Wargaming the 19th Century Europe, or with Rick Priestley's Black Powder rules.  Basically I have almost everything for a Russian Infantry Division (12 battalions) and a Turkish Independent Rifle Brigade (8 battalions) plus each have their artillery batteries.  I don't have any pictures yet as I am waiting for the bases to show up so I and remount them first.  It is a large project, but oddly I will only need one 4L Really Useful Box with a tray and one 1.75L Really Useful Box to store the whole project.  So it really is not that large for storage.  

Be seeing you 

Sapper
 

A little something of eye candy (picture heavy)

Before the eye candy, a brief discussion: 

Today I got my batch of miniatures that I sent to be painted by Fernando Enterprises Miniature Painting Services (link) in Sri Lanka.  I am quite happy with their services and plan to use them again...matter of fact, I am sending out another batch probably at the end of this week!

This is actually the second batch of miniatures that I sent.  The first batch was a small sampling of 15mm figures for post-WW2 African conflicts as I have a lot of those figures from Peter Pig's AK-47 Republic line.  They were quite nice and the price difference between 15mm Collector and Showcase quality is not that great of difference in my mind.  So this batch was all 15mm figures for a sorted variety of small skirmish games that I like to do.  Unfortunately, I didn't have all of the figures to do any one project complete, so I will eventually have to send more figures later to finish them.

The turn around time was very good in my mind.  I mailed off the figures from the Mid-West USA about the end of July and they should had received it in the first part of August.  It just almost the end of October and I got them back for less than a three month turn around time for about 150 15mm.  That is better than what I could even image doing back when I did paint, plus I think that overall they are better than what I was ever able to do in 15mm.  Now, I will admit that I did not get them based or flocked by them.  I really was thinking of mounting the figures on clear round discs, but since then, I decided that I will base them on penny and flock them so that I can add a flexible steel sheet on the coin and mount them in a box with magnetic sheet to help prevent them from accidentally being bumped and bouncing all around in a storage box. 

My next batch is an example of how I am planning to do future business with them.  I plan to send enough figures for both side of a specific project so that when it comes back I should be able to jump into gaming that project (borrowing the terrain!)  Some of my projects might actually need two batches, but since I am looking at getting away from "big" battles down to platoon size or small skirmishes, this should not be too often.  Even with the "big" battles, I am don't plan to get much over 100 figures per side.  So just a quick note on what my next batch is, will be just about everything for gaming the Allied Intervention into Northern Russian, 1918-1919 at a skirmish level.  Basically, I will have a US infantry platoon plus a MG team and a 75mm gun, a Canadian infantry platoon plus a MG team and a 18 pdr gun, two Red infantry platoons plus two MG teams and some company level command.  The only thing that I will probably add on to this (and will have to be a future batch to be painted) will be a Mark IV Male tank for the Allies, an armored car for the Reds, and a platoon of White Russians with a MG team in support.  I plan to use TooFatLardies Chain of Command for the rules and the winter terrain that I had been slowly picking up.  A bonus addition to this is that I can use the US infantry platoon to fight the Canadian infantry platoon in a fictional War Plan Red scenario if I want to.

Be seeing you

Sapper

Now the eye candy:

All that is missing is the rope for these hitmen while climbing through the air ducts

The boys in blue

Leonard and Bubba, plus some kin looking for sum-tin good eatin'

I heard of the right to bear arms, but two armed deers?

 

 

Daisy May finds that flies are attracted to sweet things! (the two dead flies are actually supposed to be mounted on flying stands)

You are what they eat, Daisy May!

Close kin to Leonard and Bubba

"Stay on the road. Keep clear of the moors."

"Where is Annette Funicello?  This party beach is lame!"

 

 

US astronauts' exploration team (the guys laying down are suppose to be mounted on flying bases)

Soviet Cosmonauts

...and more US astronauts!

"Back off, Khrushchev!  This moon is ours."

Yeah, armed astronauts and cosmonauts together...this is going to get ugly soon

"Is Alice going on a date with Ro-Man?"

"Thank goodness that they are not purple with a horn in their heads!"

Huey, Dewey, and...Wall-E?

"This is a laser rifle.  Why do you ask, Dewey?"

“What can it be; what’s the reason?
Is this the end to all the seasons?
Is this something in your head?
Would you believe it when you’re dead?
You’ll believe it when you find
something screaming across your mind ...green slime!"

Some armed scientists in Antarctica

"Crap!, I don't think I have fuel in the flamethower."

"Something went wrong at Outpost 31.  The last transmission was something about an alien life form found in the ice."

The Thing watched on as Childs and MacReady tried to persuaded the Navy SEALS to conduct the countermeasures for the Hoof and Mouth Disease.

Across the plains, another mysterious armed team watches the Navy SEALS interact with the survivors of Outpost 31

Brief update

I am still alive, but was down most of the week with a nasty cold...sadly, I was on a scheduled vacation for this week too.  So instead of getting to do a lot of stuff that I needed to do or wanted to do, I was laid up under NyQuil and had no energy to do much at all. 

I am no longer in Savannah, GA, but back home for a while.  How long?  Don't know.

Yesterday, I felt good enough to go visit my great uncle and a couple of great aunts out in Jefferson City, MO, area.  I timed it to give me a some time to swing by the MO Highway Patrol Safety & Education Center to see the BAR and the license plate that was found from the Joplin shoot out with Bonnie & Clyde on April 13th, 1933.  The interesting plus to this visit was seeing the weapon that was captured from Machine Gun Kelly by the MO Highway Patrol too.  So it was a really good day for several reasons.

Next, I just got my book today that I am really looking forward to reading (along with about another 100+ books).  The book is, The Royal Navy In The Cod Wars: Britain and Iceland In Conflict 1958-1976 by Captain Andrew Welsh FNI RN.  Yes, I have a very obscure taste in interests.  Now, I am going to have to dig out those 1/1200 scale ships I have to game the Cod Wars...

Cheers,

Sapper

A good year for solitaire board games

So I was looking at the Strategy & Tactics Magazine website because I remembered that they had recently released a game on the chase of the SMS Goeben in 1914.  After listening to the audio book, Kaiser’s Pirates, my interested was peaked on the subject of the German raiders and was hoping that it was a solitaire game so I could play it when I am out of town working.  With luck, it is a solitaire game.  But was I also found that S&T had recently and will be release quite a few solitaire games through all three of their magazine titles (Strategy & Tactics, Modern War, & World at War).  A large number of them have perked my interest for topics.  It really is nice to see more games coming out for solo gamers or gamers like me that can’t be around my usual gaming friends most of the time.

So I will be putting an order out for several of them now and plan to buy some more later as they are release.  Below is a list of the various solitaire games and a brief description that I “cut & paste” right from the S&T website.  I hope this listing will be really useful for some.

Already Available Games:

From Ra'anana Gamer (link)

Strategy & Tactics #287 – Goeben

“Goeben, 1914 puts you in command of the SMS Goeben, the German battlecruiser that made a historically epic voyage through the Mediterranean during the opening days of World War One. This is a solitaire game in which the player must accomplish a specific “objective” to win the game, which will be generated at random at the start of the scenario. The player must manage the various outfittings and functions of the SMS Goeben and its escorting light cruiser, the SMS Breslau. As you fight your way through the Mediterranean, you will encounter various Allied warships, merchantmen for raiding, and unexpected opportunities and objectives. These are represented by “Incident” chits.”

Modern War #10 - Target Iran

“Target Iran is a solitaire simulation of a hypothetical US-Coalition-Israeli attack on Iran to destroy weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and other critical targets. The game begins with a "strategic" phase wherein the player conducts reconnaissance, cyberwar and mobilization (the purchasing of assets) for the actual attack, and then an "operational" stage, which is when your attack is actually executed.”

Modern War #14 - Carrier Battlegroup

“Carrier Battlegroup puts you in command of a US Navy carrier task force operating against the Soviet fleet in the North Atlantic in the 1980’s. This is a solitaire game, played in scenarios. The player must accomplish the scenario’s Objective, which will be generated at random at the start of the scenario. You, the player, must manage your carrier, its air group, and your escorts. As you operate your battlegroup, you will encounter various Soviet warships, aircraft, missiles, and unexpected opportunities and objectives. These are represented by Incident chits.”

World at War #10 - Coral Sea Solitaire

“A purpose-designed one-player wargame covering the aero-naval battle that took place between the US and Imperial Japanese Navies in May 1942. It was the first of the Pacific War.  CSS is based on the game system used in World at War number three Solomons Campaign; however, there are significant differences owing to the smaller scale of this operation and the systemic necessitates inherent in a solitaire design.”

World at War #37 - Bloody Ridge: Decision on Guadalcanal, 13 September 1942

“A purpose-designed solitaire wargame of low complexity simulating the climactic Japanese night attack of that date. The attacked was aimed at nothing less than the capture of Henderson Field and the annihilation of the entire US ground force on the island.  You are on the offensive, commanding the Japanese attack force that’s attempting to break through the US Marine defense.”

World at War #38 - Ghost Division

Ghost Division is a solitaire game in which you, the player, takes command of General Erwin Rommel’s 7th Panzer Division during the drive across Belgium and France in those heady days of May and June of 1940 (there are four German formations in the game that drive the events of play: The 7th Panzer Division, a regiment of the 5th Panzer Division, a regiment of SS-Totenkopf Division, and the 15th Motorized Corps’ non-divisional units, also representing OKW non-divisional units).

World at War #40 - Rampage & Stalingrad Cauldron

“Rampage is purpose-designed solitaire wargame that covers the fighting in northwest Europe from the time of the Argentan-Falaise encirclement in mid-August 1944 through the end of September. You actively command the Allied forces, while the rules system directs you in the handling of German forces. You win by accumulating victory points via seizure of key areas on the map.”

“Stalingrad Cauldron (SC) is purpose-designed solitaire wargame that covers the fighting in the areas of German Army Groups A and D on from the time of Sixth Army’s encirclement late in November 1942 through to its destruction at the end of January 1943. The single player actively commands the Soviet forces, while the rules system directs the player in the deployment of the Axis (German, Italian and Hungarian) forces. The player wins by accumulating victory points by achieving the destruction of Sixth Army’s component corps and the seizure of key areas around the map.”

Future Releases:

Modern War #17 - Dien Bien Phu

“Dien Bien Phu (Solitaire) is a wargame covering the decisive battle of the First Indochina War in which elite French Expeditionary Force units defended an air-land base against the communist Viet Minh. The game covers the critical period of Viet Minh assaults and French counterattacks of March to May, 1954. Historically, the Viet Minh won the battle, overrunning the base. This led to the collapse of the French position in Indochina and eventual US involvement in Vietnam.”

Modern War #18 - Green Beret: Vietnam

“Green Beret: Vietnam (Solitaire) gives you command of a Green Beret team in the Central Highlands before and during the Vietnam War. Your duty is to lead your men on a variety of randomly generated missions (representing orders direct from high command), choose weapons and equipment that are best suited for the mission, decide on how to posture your team, plan your approach, and a method of extraction.”

Modern War #20 – Drive on Baghdad: 2003

“Drive on Baghdad: 2003 is a solitaire game in which the player takes command of Central Command Forces during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Your goal is to defeat Saddam Hussein’s forces in such a manner as to prevent a post-campaign insurgency from breaking out.”

Modern War #21 – Kandahar: Special Forces in Afghanistan

“Kandahar: Special Forces in Afghanistan (Solitaire) gives you command of a Special Forces team in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2013. Your lead your men on a variety of randomly generated missions; you choose your weapons and equipment, decide on how to posture your team, and plan your approach and method of extraction.”

World at War #43 – Patton’s Third Army

“Patton’s Third Army is a solitaire game system where the player takes command of General George Patton’s Third Army during the campaign across France in 1944. The game begins immediately following the Falaise Battle and continues through to 15 December, at which point Third Army was sent to fight In the Battle of the Bulge. Your goal as a player is to surpass Patton’s original record, thereby possibly forestalling Germany’s Ardennes Offensive and thereby gaining glory as a great general.”

World at War #44 – Night Fight: Solitaire East Front Tactics

“Night Fight: Solitaire East Front Tactics is a solitaire wargame in which you command a Kampfgruppe group of German panzers infiltrating and attacking Soviet forces at night while the system runs the Soviet forces. The first scenario is based on an actual night action from the Battle of Kursk during elements of 6th Panzer Division infiltrated behind Soviet lines. There are also several other scenarios representing other night fights on the eastern front in 1943.”

World at War #45 – Panzers East Solitaire

“Panzers East Solitaire (PES) is simulation that covers the advance of Germany’s Army Group Center, starting on the first day of Operation Barbarossa and potentially extending to the last day of August later that same summer. The design supports both strict historical and alternative history explorations. That is, at the end of July, when the AGC offensive was historically shut down in favor of supporting extended drives by the flanking army groups, it’s possible that, if you’ve done better up to then than your historical counterpart, Hitler may authorize a continued and immediate advance on Moscow. You command the German forces while the system directs the handling of Soviet forces. You win or lose based on the timely seizure of key areas on the map.”

Be seeing you

Sapper

AAR: A Falklands’ Patrol, or Cold-CoC-ing a penguin

Well, it has been a bit since my last blog entry that had any real substance, but I got two more notches on my New Year’s resolutions; I finished another book and got my first game in for the year! 

So first up, I just finished War of the White Death and have now started up The Soviet Invasion of Finland, 1939-40 (Soviet (Russian) Military Experience) by Carl Van Dyke.  If you want to know about the Winter War of 1939-40, I will highly recommend this book, War of the White Death, and the previous book that I was reading, A Frozen Hell.  You really need to read both and read A Frozen Hell first, then War of the White Death.  A  Frozen Hell gives an excellent political overview of the events leading to the Winter War, background of Mannerheim, and the Finnish view of the war.  War of the White Death was written using former Soviet documents and gives an excellent and detailed account of the war from the Russian side of the war.  Matter of fact the author deliberately avoids covering the same material in A Frozen Hell and states that one should read that book for the political & Finnish accounts.

On to the ARR of the game!

This was the first time that any of us played TooFatLardies’ Chain of Command (CoC), so it was a learning experience with a lot time of me sticking my nose in the book looking up things.  I limited who I invited because this was the first time with this system and I wanted Curtis T. & Steve H. as they have played a lot of TFL games before, and Glenn W. as one who has not played a lot of TFL, but has been reading up on various CoC reviews and AARs on other blogs so that he was rather familiar with the system.  We ran the game at the Wargamers’ Cave in IL (Thanks, guys!).   All in all, it is a good system and everyone was catching on how the dice worked and how to do things in the game.  Everyone commented at the end of the game that this was a better system than Bolt Action, which I am taking their word for it as all of them had played Bolt Action and I have not yet.  Unfortunately, as I was spending too much time checking rules as this was the first game and I am not confident with my memory to not look things up (but with repetitiveness, comes confidence and I plan to be repeating this system), I did not make notes of what happen in the game to give a detailed AAR.

While CoC is designed to be for WW2, it is open enough that it can be used for pre & post WW2 games up to a point and some people are already trying to adapt it for post-Colonialism Africa and Cold War era games.  So this first CoC game was using my Falklands conflict figures.  If you go back to some of my previous posts, you will find my stats for the Falklands weapons.  The scenario involved a platoon of British Paras probing an Argentine defensive position.  I used the British Paras rules right out of CoC as their tactics at the platoon level had not changed since WW2.  For the Argentine conscripts, I used the Soviet infantry rules, except I did not give them those national characteristics.  Instead I made one section “Die Hards” as in most of my readings, there was almost always one group of Argentine soldiers that would fight it out and only killing them would stop them from holding on their little bit of the islands.  I also made them Regulars to reflect one of the better infantry regiments, the RI 25.  I also ran the scenario in daylight hours to keep the game simple for spotting for now.

As mention before, a platoon of British Paras were to probe up an Argentine defensive position.  The Paras went light and were not carrying their Carl G or LAWs.  I have not figured the stats for the Carl G or the LAWs was the main reason for not including them in the scenario, but the Carl G was reportedly bad for malfunctions in the very cold climate in the Falklands with only the Royal Marines that had been in the Arctic Warfare training having minimum problems as they had been trained on the proper care methods.  I decided to treat the M79 grenade launcher the same as the rifle grenade.  The extra men of the Para’s platoon headquarters was not available as I assumed that they would be on other duties, wounded, or etc.  This was also the case with the support section for the Argentine platoon.

The Para platoon was being pushed by Steve H. (running the platoon leader and two sections) and Curtis T. (running the platoon sergeant and one section).  The Argentine platoon was being pushed by Glenn W.  It was easy for Glenn to run the whole platoon since there was enough support points that all three sections started entrenched and really didn’t need to move for the game.

The game started with the Argentine conscripts having a Force Morale of 8 and the Para’s with 9.  Unfortunately, Steve did not roll very well for the number of turns to move his Patrol Markers before the game began, (I guess the Argentine troops were using their night vision effectively that night).  So the Paras had to start farther back and had to cross big gap to try to push the Argentine conscripts on a hill.  Steve made good with one section right away for setting up a base of fire on one hill top.  Shortly later, he was able to get a second section on smaller hill in the middle of the board to also provide a fire base.  Curtis moved his section up the one flank of the main hill held by the Argentine conscripts.  For most of the game the Argentine conscripts stayed in their trenches and traded shots with the Para.  The Argentine sniper was especially a troublesome follow for the Para until the Paras finally spotted him and eliminated him in a rather overkill sort of way!

The game ended with the Paras not being in a position to push at least one Argentine section out of their trenches and hurting.  The Argentine conscripts were in better shape, but their Force Morale was in dire straits.  I did not keep any notes during the game, but I believe that the Paras had lost 5 or 6 men out of the 27 and the Argentine conscripts lost about the same number of men, with one being a section NCO, out of 34 men.  The Force Morales were at 8 for the Para’s and the Argentine conscripts had a 4.  The main reason for the major drop in the Force Morale for the Argentine conscripts was the one section NCO was first wounded and later killed.  It appears that he was the most beloved NCO in the platoon because both times that Glenn rolled for the effects of him being wounded, then killed, it was the worst result that could be rolled for the effects on their morale.

I really like what I saw with this gaming system and plan to revisit it again later this year.

Below are some of the pictures from the game with captions below them.

Be seeing you

Sapper

The British Commander signalling his troops forward

Brits on the move

Argentine conscripts are dug in to defend what is theirs

The Para section that was laying down supporting fire for the advance

The effect rolls for the hits against the Argentine sniper!

An Argentine section abandoned their trenches to move into a position to counter assault

Game end - the Paras elected to abandon the attack as the Argentine conscripts in front of them were "Die Hards"

Anarchy in the UK / Cold War scenario idea: Nuclear Convoy Ambush

Well, I have been spending too much time in front of my computer and not doing more productive things.  But, I started looking back at BW Models for a possible order after Xmas.  BW Models is a very specialized company for 1/76th (20mm or OO scale) vehicles for the the British military or civil sector for WWII or post-WWII (mainly post-WWII) with over 400 vehicles or trailers kits, plus a bunch more accessories and decals.  If you are looking for any kind of support vehicle for your 20mm BAOR Cold War forces, this is the place to look (Link). 

Mainly, I was looking for some more Northern Ireland kits that will show up as part of my Anarchy project.  But looking through their catalog, I came across two kits that got me thinking of a future scenario:  BW312 AEC Mammoth Major, Nuclear Weapons Transporter & BW313 Volvo FL6, Nuclear Convoy Escort Vehicle.

BW312

BW313

Sudden I had an image of a piece of art work I remember from a young teen of Spetsnaz commandoes in civilian clothing attacking a British nuclear weapons convoy on the road as WWIII was starting.  So, hmmm....

Well, I am sure that I have now been tagged by several intelligence agencies for my Google searching, but I finally found what a typical British nuclear weapons convoy is supposed to look like from NukeWatch UK (Link).  Needless to say, the number of vehicles is way too much for a game, so I am going to down size it for playability.  Now, I need to order the vehicles and figure out a balance for the game.  

Save the nukes!


Sapper