Patrol Markers for Too Fat Lardies’ Chain of Command and other news

I think I finally figured out how to use the Google Drive to make PDF’s and other documents available on my blog for others, without out making all of my files accessible (Sorry folks, there are just some things I don’t want to share!)

Platoon Orbats for Falklands & AitUK projects

This is a breakdown of the platoon structures for the Falklands and my Anarchy in the UK projects, specifically for TFL’s Chain of Command.  I am not promising that these are 100% accurate, but I am fairly sure that they are correct. 

A to Z Blogger Book Survey

Over on Brummie’s blog (link), he posted another blogger survey as part of “getting to know you better” for readers that are not familiar with the blogger.  I decided to take up the challenge and answer this survey on the ‘A to Z Blogger Book Survey.’

I missed the 132nd anniversary announcement!

Yesterday, October 26, marked the 132nd anniversary of the infamous shoot-out of the OK Corral. 

Sad news for space exploration

I just saw in the news today that former Mercury astronaut, Scott Carpenter pasted away on Oct. 10^th of this year. 

TFL Chain of Command - Unofficial weapon stats for the Falkands / AitUK projects

Hello again!

Well, I finally finished reading Too Fat Lardies (TFL) Chain of Command (CoC) rules.  So far, I liked what I read.  I might not use the Patrol phase or Jump Off points for all games, but I think that they will work. Anyways, as I mention before, I am planning to use CoC for the smaller Falklands and Anarchy in the UK (AitUK) projects.  I want to try out this system with these two projects.  But since the stats in the rules are only for WW2, I had to come up with some unofficial stats to cover the weapons for my period.  Luckily, most to the weapons were easy to convert over from the WW2 stats.  Some I have not figured out yet, but I am going to work on some more later.  Also, some of the tactics have changed since WW2, but for the most part, the tactics remained the same for the British from WW2 to the early 1980’s.  So, I will be able to the WW2 National Characteristics for the UK in the CoC rules with no changes. 

 

Weapons Stats

Weapon name / CoC stats

British weapons

L1A1 self loading rifles / Semi automatic rifle*

L42A1 rifle / Sniper rifle

M16A1 rifle / Assault rifle**

L2A3 Sterling / SMG

L4 Bren / Magazine feed LMG

L7A2 GPMG / Belt feed LMG

L7A2 GPMG (in Sustained Fire mode) / Tripod mounted MMG

M79 grenade launder / Rifle grenade with a minimum range of 10” (30m)

M16A1 & M203 grenade launcher / Assault rifle with rifle grenade (Min. range 10”)***

L9A1 51mm mortar / Light mortar

L16A1 81mm mortar / Medium mortar

L14A1 Carl Gustav recoilless rifle / Working on - Minimum range 1’ (40m)****

L1A1 Rocket 66mm HEAT (LAW) / Working on - Minimum range 3” (10m)

MILAN ATGM / Working on - Minimum range 11’ (400m) – so this will be off board support

40mm grenades available for the M79 & M203 (I don’t know if everything was available in the 1970’s-80’s)

High Explosive Dual Purpose

High Explosive

Star Parachute: White, Green, & Red

White Star Cluster

Smoke Ground Marker: Red, Green, & Yellow

Tactical CS Gas

Buckshot

Notes on the British weapons

*The L1A1 only fired in semi-automatic

**The M16A1 could fire in semi-automatic or full automatic

***The M16A1 & M203 can add their fire together, if the target is the same as the rest of the Fire Team.  If it is engaging a separate target, only the grenade counts.

****The ‘Charlie G’ as it was well know in the British ranks had a lot of problems in the Falklands of misfiring due to the very cold temperatures.  The Royal Marines with their arctic training had far less problems then their army counterparts.  I have not figured up rule for this, but I am thinking about a simple d6 roll the first time that it fired.  There will be a chance for totally inoperational, repairable, and workable.  I also do not know what the backblast area size is yet.

Argentine weapons

FM FAL 50.61 self loading rifle (folding stock) / Assault rifle or Semi automatic rifle*

FM FAL 50.41 self loading rifle (fixed stock) / Assault rifle or Semi automatic rifle*

PAM-1 & PAM-2 SMG / SMG

FMK-3 SMG / SMG

Halcón ML-43 & ML-63 SMG / SMG

L34A1 Sterling / SMG

FM FAP (Fusil Automático Pesado) / Automatic rifle**

FM MAG / Belt feed LMG

FM MAG (in Sustained Fire mode) / Tripod mounted MMG

Browning M2HB / Tripod mounted HMG

Rifle grenades / Rifle grenades and working on***

FM 60mm mortar / 60mm Light Mortar

FM 81mm mortar / Med Mortar

M67 90mm recoilless rifle / Working on - Backblast 9” (23m) x 18” (55m) wide****

Notes on the Argentine weapons

*The FM FAL is the same design as the British L1A1, but they were able to be fired fully automatic.  However, it appears that the Argentine conscripts did not do this and it should be treated as a semi automatic rifle.

**The Fusil Automático Pesado was a FM FAL designed with a heavier barrel to allow the rifle to be fired in a fully automatic mode all the time, very similar to the US BAR. 

***The rifle grenades available are the following: FMK-8 Fragmentation, FMK-6 Illumination, FMK-9 Antitank (penetration 230mm of steel) – still working on what dice it would get vs. armor and minimum ranges.

****The 90mm recoilless rifle’s backblast area is what is considered “Dangerous” and I deleted the additional area that is considered “Caution”.  There are no rules for backblast in CoC, so that will be something I will need to add.  As of now, I can’t find the minimum range for the 90mm rounds, but when I get home again I will see if I got that data somewhere as I use to be a 90mm gunner.  The HEAT round was able to penetrate 350mm of steel.

Cheers,

Joe

Whimsical Wednesday

Sometimes words can not describe things....

An update, the Congo, and Marshall

Well, I am still around and still coughing (but will be seeing a doctor about that next week).  Still have not got anywhere on miniature gaming or reading TFL’s Chain of Command.  But what I have done since last update was get a few more chapters read in Ivan Smith’s, Mad Dog Killers, just over half way through.  His version of how the 5^th Commando was in the Congo in 1964 is totally different than “Mad” Mike Hoare’s.  Speaking of “Mad” Mike, I started to listen to one of his audio books and only got maybe 10-15 minutes into it before I had other stuff to do, but Mike Hoare sounds great and is very interesting to listen to.

While on the subject of the Congo, a good friend, Thomas, visited the Swedish Military Museum just recently and took some pictures of the Swedish UN displays for me (THANK YOU, Thomas!!!!)  The link to his photographs is the following link. 

http://getitpainted.blogspot.se/2013/09/swedes-in-congo-especially-for-sapper.html

 

 

But going back to the Ivan Smith’s book, I am more inclined to believe Ivan Smith’s version of how the mercs fought and served in the Congo.  As such, I might have to relook at how I am planning to represent the Congo in future gaming.  Basically, rank meant nothing, so the concept of Big Men (to steal the term from TFL) would not be the officers or the NCO’s, but the instead the few men who really loved to fight with everyone else just supporting them (ironically, this is the key concept with TFL games and S.L.A. Marshall’s book, Men Against Fire, which just strengthens the their argument).  While Ivan Smith really only refers to what was going on with his Commando (roughly a platoon size element), it probably represents the mercs as a whole fairly accurately, especially when I remember one scene in particular of one of “Mad” Mike’s books where one merc stopped after river crossing and refused to advance any further as he was busily trying to dry his payroll check on a rock in the sun.  As Ivan Smith describes, the more aggressive mercs rode in the jeeps as they were the ones with the machines guns and did most of the patrolling without the bulk of the rest of the Commando.  Also, he stresses again the strong psychological effects of shamanic magic on the Simbas and the Congolese army.  While TFL’s B’Maso does not have “magic” and everything I have read from all sides state that “magic” was major role in the Congo war, I have to figure out how to do a fairly realistic rule on the use of “magic” in the games.

Now, on to discussing Marshall!  No, this is not about S.L.A. Marshall’s, Men Against Fire, but about the Battle of Marshall, Missouri.  An odd twist of fate means that I will be back home next weekend and will be able to attend the 150^th Anniversary reenactment of the battle in Marshall.  The battle is one of those battles that really interested me for some unknown reason.  It was not a big battle, there was almost no casualties (0 killed on the Union side and 4 or 5 on the CSA side), and really did not resolved anything.  But I like reading about it all the same!  The battle occurred on October 13^th, 1863 (yes, the reenactment is being held a month earlier, so it is more like the 149-11/12^th Anniversary instead).  The battle was the turning point of CSA’s General Jo Shelby’s 1863 raid, one of the longest cavalry raids in the war covering about 1500 miles.  Most of the ill got bounty that Shelby got on his raid was lost at Marshall when he was defeated by troops of the Missouri State Militia (MSM) and the Provisional Enrolled Missouri Militia (PEMM) under Gen. Egbert Brown (the only Union general to defeat Shelby twice and had the chance to defeat him a third time but became indecisive and was relieved of command.)  The battle is very doable for small Civil War game with 1800 Union cavalry vs. 1200 CSA cavalry.  While the MSM were cavalry units, they were in fact more like mounted infantry with muzzle loading muskets or rifles instead of carbines and sabers.  The PEMM were generally not even uniformed, except maybe a colored band around the crown of their hats or armbands.  Of course Shelby’s CSA were from the Trans-Mississippi army with was horribly supplied and armed, so a sizable percentage of them would be in a mixed butter-nut, civilian, and Union clothing, probably even more so in the later with Union clothing supplies that was captured earlier in the raid. 

So until my next update,

Sapper

Gen Con Review (Long and picture heavy)

Well, I am feeling better but I am still fighting the chest congestion coughs.  I am well enough to type up a report on Gen Con, but I am still not up to reading TFL’s Chain of Command as I still drift off due to the cough medicine.

Anyway, Gen Con…oh, my love hate relationship with Gen Con.  I have been a RPG’er for longer than a miniature gamer, but only by a year or two more.  While I enjoy RPGing with my group of 27 years, it still is not my “thing”, which is miniature gaming, specifically historical or semi-historical.  So Gen Con is not really my ideal gaming convention, but it where I can get in a couple of horror RPGs (my RPG does not like that genre), get to sit in some seminars for RPG companies that I like, and get in a game from the National Security Decision Making Game (NSDMG) group (which are always a blast!)  But my hate of Gen Con is the crowds (I hate crowds, not a phobia, just hate being around that many people and I heard the estimate was about 40,000+ people), the cost, and the flakes…oh, and the crowds of flakes!  OK, I know that I am not “normal” by being a gamer, but I still try to be semi-normal in appearance and manners…or maybe it is just me being jealous that I am too self conscience of my social standing that I can’t be as free spirit like them.

So, as I mention in the earlier entry that this was the third time for me going to Gen Con: 1991, 2003, and now 2013.  As before, I enjoyed parts of it, but in the end I still didn’t feel like it was worth doing on a more regular basis.  Now, part of this might because I did get a case of an upset stomach for two days (Friday & Saturday) which meant me missing some of the seminars I was going to; also the unbelievable amount of road construction in Illinois and Indiana that meant me missing my first game on Wednesday night; and running into a crazy ex-girlfriend on Saturday (and I mean crazy).   Plus, I really didn’t find much in the dealers area of interest (keep in mind, I have a very narrow field of interest when it comes to RPGs) or any really great sales.  But I am not going to let those taint some of the fun stuff/games that happen which I will type about next.

So, what I did get to do was get in four RPG games:  Two Call of Cthulhu games, one horror game, and one of the NSDMG games; five seminars; and one board game.  I was scheduled for more things, but the road construction and the upset stomach prevented the others.  In reverse order I talk a bit about them below.

The board game was “Arkham Horror” by Fantasy Flight Games.  It was the first time that I ever played it and had quite some fun with it.  The game is basically cooperative game between the players to stop the elder gods from opening enough Other World gates and taking over the world in the world of H.P. Lovecraft’s Arkham and his Cthulhu Mythos.  It helped that of the six players, two where fairly familiar with the rules and helped the remaining four of us.  We won, barely!  My poor character, Joe Diamond, the Private Investigator, was shoved through several gates and forced to read the “King in Yellow” multiple times!  If you played the game before, the PI character is not the book savvy of the characters, but I had a string of luck with rolling sixes in the game.  That also meant that at the end of the game, I was the only one of the six players that still had all of his original sanity (well, one point left) and health!  I like the fact that it is a cooperative game and the horrors are all pre-programmed so it can easily be a solitaire game as well.

Of the seminars, two were from various RPG companies, another two were from the NSDMG about the Cuba Missiles Crisis, and the last one was on how to make your own podcast.  I am going to talk about the podcasting one first.  Don’t think that means that you will be hearing my voice any time soon!  There is a lot of work and $$$ involved doing a podcast.  I am just interested in the “how-to” part of it.  I think that comes from my interest in old-time radio plays and the various podcasts that I listen to now.  I don’t think that I have anything that interesting to say on a regular basis to create a podcast.  But I have thought about reading short stories that are public domain or doing a history podcast.  But so far, I have kept my feet solidly on the ground and said no.

The two seminars from the RPG companies were on Pelgrane Press’ Gumshoe system and Pinnacle Entertainment’s Savage Worlds system.  I have never played the Pelgrane’s Gumshoe system but heard some interesting things on it.  This seminar was more about how the system works and questions about the system.  After that seminar, I am very interested in trying it a couple of times.  It is more about resource management vs. skill rolls.  If you are a skilled investigator, you will find the documents, but you must determine how much time you will spend towards looking for it.  Combat is sort of different, but sounds tight.  The Savage Worlds seminar was more about what is up and coming to be release, including third party companies.  I really like Savage Worlds as a RPG system, so I am looking forward to a lot of the stuff that is coming up.  There will be several Savage World Kickstarters coming up soon, besides the Weird War Rome that is going on now (link).  There is also several novels coming out based on the various Savage World settings written by New York best sellers!  The first two of six set in the Weird War Rome setting are available now and the next six will be based in “Necessary Evil” setting. 

The final two seminars were part of the NSDMG program and ties into the RPG game that I did with them.  So I will discuss all three now.  This year, NSDMG theme was the Cuban Missiles Crisis.  All of the seminars were about the Cold War in the late 50’s or early 60’s or about the Cuban Missiles Crisis specifically.  I was not able to attend all of the seminars, but did make it to the two that really wanted to be in on: An analysis of what motivated the participants leading up to the Cuban Missile Crisis; and the order of battle for the invasion plan against Cuba during the Crisis.   Both were very informative now I have a couple of books on queue to buy and read.  Now on the RPG game.  While it is called an RPG game, it really is not like what most people think of being an RPG.  Basically, you give a role with objectives to meet.  You must argue out you points (much like a debating club) and vote on an action that the group will do.  All a while, the NSDMG staff are throwing more events into the mix that means that your previous arguments maybe less effective or distract your focus.  They ran several different games and I was in the Cuban leadership one.  My role was the hardest to win and needless to say, I lost in all three objectives.  I was given the role of Major Padra (spelling? – I forgot to write it down), the lead of the Cuban Military of the Interior (the Air Force, Navy, and the 6000 man internal security forces).  Basically, I was the Cuban opposite of the US’ General Curtis LeMay.   My main goals was to prevent the USSR troops from leaving Cuba, prevent the nuclear warheads from leaving Cuba, and provoke the US in using nuclear warheads on Cuba (!!!!!) to show how evil and corrupt of a people that they were. Throughout the arguments, I was carrying on secret notes to the players running ‘Che’ Guevara and Raul Castro.  I had both of them on my side to get enough of a block to vote in flavor of shooting down the US low level recon flight, isolating Guantanamo, and shooting down any transport planes into Guantanamo.  I had both of them on my side, in secret, to seize the nuclear weapons to prevent them from leaving Cuba, but everyone was getting distracted to actually have the vote so my security troops could “protect” them from CIA-backed rebel attacks.  I almost had the player Raul Castro on my side to overthrow his brother, Fidel.  But she played the part of his brotherly loyalty too well.  Oh well.  It really was worth the expression on the kid’s face that was playing Fidel at the end of the game when he realized that I almost had a majority to remove him from power and replace him with Raul, all a while I was sitting right next to him.

The two Call of Cthulhu games were part of the Kickstarters for Chaosium.  I enjoyed them both greatly, one my luck will not hold out for me and the in the other my luck lasted right up to the end.  The final horror RPG was also rather enjoyable and is a homebrew rules heavily tied to the original Deadlands system.  My die was hot in that game!  The very first skill test for the game by me on a d8, which you reroll every time you max out on the die, was 39!  I was playing Carl Kolchak from the Kolchak: The Night Stalker TV show and I am sure Darren McGavin would have been happy with my portrayal of him.

Now on to the pictures from Gen Con!

 

 Looking out over the masses!

 

 Looking over the masses!

 

 In the midst of the masses!

 

 Even the local police are in the spirit!

 

A scene from Cthulhu's Horror on the Orient Express game

 

 Another scene from the Horror on the Orient Express game where the players had to enter into an actual Pullman's car!

 

 And what was in the Pullman's car awaiting them! 

 

...And now the purchases!

 

 These were actually free as part of my Kickstarter games.  I like the new 7th Ed rules from what I saw.

 

 I saw this T-shirt and it made me smile.

 

More books for the bookshelves!  

 

Two favorite movies, March or Die and Under the Rainbow so I can replace the VHS tapes now.  I have heard many good things about Dien Bien Phu, so I am looking forward to see it.

 

Dice, because you never can have enough of them!  The top two were free dice.  I got one more free dice, but I forgot to put it in the picture.

 

I did buy some Savage Worlds' Deadland Noir stuff (maps, bennies, cards, but I deleted the picture by mistake and will not be home again for a few weeks.

 

...And finally, I found a copy of the ultimate miniature rules set and I am getting rid of all of my other ones...

 

Tractics!!!

 

...NOT!!!

 

 

Cheers,

Sapper

 

Congo Update: How I got “Mad” Mike Hoare to read me a story!

Well, I got a pleasant surprise earlier this week when I was looking for Kindle books on the Congo Conflict and noticed that there was an audiobook of one of “Mad” Mike Hoare’s books.  After checking a little further, I found that not only was the audiobook was an unabridged version, but it was read by “Mad” Mike himself!  Then the topping on the cake is that there is a total of six unabridged audiobooks read by Mike Hoare.  I have ordered four of the five, but have not listened to them yet.  I am not too sure how he will sound as he is 92 or 93 now and I am guessing that he only did this a couple of years ago at most.

Anyway, if you can get Amazon’s (US) sister company, Audible.com, you can download them at a fairly reason price at $4.95 each.  I am not sure if you can get them outside of the US, but I bet so.

The audiobooks available are listed below with a brief description from the Amazon site:

Congo Mercenary A book in which the author, Colonel Mike Hoare, tells of his part as a mercenary in the armed rebellion in the Congo in 1964. The book is intended as an accurate account of the military response to the rebellion.

http://www.amazon.com/Congo-Mercenary/dp/B00AO6JU6U/ref=sr_1_1_title_2_audd?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375335656&sr=1-1

 

Congo Warriors - Col. Mike Hoare's favorite book consisting of 21 short stories, giving new insight into the minds and hearts of the adventurers who became mercenary soldiers. It captures the spirit of mercenary soldiering.

http://www.amazon.com/Congo-Warriors/dp/B00AO9M2J4/ref=sr_1_1_title_2_audd?ie=UTF8&qid=1375335597&sr=8-1&keywords=Congo+Warriors


The Road to Kalamata - Col. Mike Hoare describes how his 4 Commando supported Moise Tshombe's breakaway state of Katanga against both the UN forces, and the Baluba tribesmen who used poison arrows, pit traps, marijuana, spells, jungle drums...and even reported to ritual torture and cannibalism.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Road-to-Kalamata/dp/B00AOAGAPA/ref=pd_sim_b_1

 

The Seychelles Affair - Col. Mike Hoare tells how he planned to overthrow the militant socialist government of the Seychelles, what went wrong at Mahé airport, and of his trial and imprisonment in South African jails.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Seychelles-Affair/dp/B00AO7LJ9K/ref=pd_sim_b_4

 

Mike Hoare’s Adventures in Africa - Go with Mike on foot across Basutoland; by motorbike from Cape Town to Cairo; to sea in a 36-foot ketch; into the Kalahari desert - and more. In the final chapter he describes how he and his wife move to an Edenic island in the Okovanga delta, and the terrible and wonderful events that took place there.

http://www.amazon.com/Mike-Hoares-Adventures-in-Africa/dp/B00AO0BUPA/ref=pd_sim_b_4

 

Three Years with Sylvia - Mike and his family sail the Western Mediterranean in a 72-foot yacht - a converted 100 ton Baltic Trader. The yachting anecdotes bring out the Irish in him.

http://www.amazon.com/Three-Years-with-Sylvia/dp/B00AO8D2C6/ref=tmm_aud_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1375331288&sr=1-6

Happy reading, …err…listening!

Sapper