ACW Test Model and Preparations for the Painting Challenge

The school year has almost finished up, which has started to offer me a whole lot more time to get into modelling projects before I need to pack everything up for the move!

In that time, I have been cracking into painting a 7 base unit of ACW soldiers, and here is the first completed soldier!

Just a standard Perry Plastic model, no conversions, just simple painting. His pants are pretty muddy, but that hasn't really come through in the photo. I did that mainly to break up the bright blue of his pants, so that it wouldn't overpower the rest of the model. He looks pretty good I think, will certainly fit the bill! The remaining 34 guys from the unit are all half finished too, hopefully will get them done and have the whole unit finished by tomorrow night.

Along with painting up a whole lot of blue, I have been getting things out of boxes and assembling them. I have had plenty of 28mm figures stuck unpainted (usually in their original blisters) as part of old projects, old ideas or they got stuck in the too hard basket.

The plan then for the Analogue challenge is for me to get them OUT of their boxes, and get them painted so I can actually use them! Or at least have them painted in their box!

The first couple of these armies got taken out of their boxes and put onto bases today.

Empress miniatures Taliban and Insurgents, they are at least on some bases! I have some USMC on order to oppose them too, probably using Force on Force I think. But they are lovely miniatures (I have avoided them for so long, but Empress are gorgeous), so I am looking forward to painting them!

Two squads of ANZACs in Vietnam and one squad of NVA infantry from Eureka Miniatures. There are a couple more on the way just to complete the ANZACs, and I will go looking at other companies to flesh out the NVA, as Eureka only do these 10! Not sure which rules I will use for these, I have the Ambush Alley rules, so they might work, but if you have any suggestions, let me know.

Oh, and that green blob in the back? A 28mm Huey. Can't do some Vietnam gaming without in my book! Just to give myself a bit of a challenge while I am at it. I think I will petition Curt to make it worth a few more points, it is ginormous!

Anyway, off to undercoat these now, then will get back to painting ACW. Then I need to prep a whole lot of 6mm Modern infantry, then I might start prepping some ACW... then some Thirty Years War....

CP

Force on Force- How I stopped worrying and learned to love close assault....

Adam and I had our first crack at playing Force on Force last night, He was in charge of most of a squad of marines, whereas I was using some Gerbigsjager which I had freshly painted.

My 6 man team was made up of...

A Junior Officer with MP40

A Three man team, one with MG42, two with Rifles

A two man team one with a rifle, one with an MP40, who will be joined by the Officer.

So, how did it go?

Well, both Adam and I thought we had a good handle on the rules before the game began, only to find that we really didn't know what we were talking about! So our first play through was very, very stop/start with much looking in rulebooks to find out what we were actually meant to be doing!

The first match up was 8 D8/D8 Marines against 6 D10/D8 Gerbigsjager. We put down what we thought was a reasonable amount of terrain, and we spent a fair bit of time shooting each other from it! Adam had his force in two fireteams (not that the term existed in WW2 like it does now), one with a Rifle Grenade and a BAR, the other with an NCO with a combat shotgun. Very quickly, we found the superior trained Germans were able to counter act their poor numbers and poorer firepower by rolling a 9 or a 10! So that kept his support team pinned, leaving his assault platoon to hit my picket without damage. Close Assault in FoF is very, very vicious (as referenced in the title...) Simply, it removes one aspect of the game, first aid. If you become a casualty and your side loses the combat; you are either dead, or a POW. And there is not a high chance of being a POW.

The second and third match ups were based around both sides having equal training, but the marines having to attack a fortified position. Which sounds like it could be good to be German, except that in turn one of game 2, one of Adams fire teams slaughtered my entire force! I had one private with an MG42 left at the end of turn 1! Moral of the story for game 2? Cover is good, but rolling a successful initiative test to fire first is better.

Game 3 was much more interesting. I changed my squads to having a Weapons Team with an MG42 and 2 men, and a fire team of 4 men with the 2 MP40s. This game was much more even, the MG42 team was pumping out 6 dice per turn (2 men, 3 for the weapon, 1 for optimum range) at the enemy, and through successful initiative rolls, was doing it as soon as the Marines hit the treeline. The Weapons team did eventually fall to a vicious assault, but they were avenged by the squad, who cut through the enemy marines with their 2 MP40s in close assault (learn to love it).

Force on Force was fun, for Adam's report head here. Also, Jason I did do some research on your Type 99 LMG, and the bayonet lug is historical. And ridiculous.

"I stab you with my machinegun!". It's the sort of thing out of a Commando Comic....

As for what next? Well there is 3 days left in the Analogue Painting Challenge. So, I will get a SAGA Dark Ages army done and more Greeks so I can use them for Impetvs. If you particularly want to see my take on a hero of the Trojan War, tell me who you want to see in the comments!

At any rate,if I finish all of that it will be a miracle!

CP

Force on Force- Australians!

So, my painting progress has slowed a fair bit, but what I am working on right now is a Dark Ages SAGA army (because SAGA is cool!) and also as a wee group we are painting up some 28mm Pacific War WW2 guys, to play a modified version of Force on Force, which we think will be a heap of fun!

More on the rules part in the coming weeks, primarily because we haven't got them all nutted out just yet!

So I have opted to take charge of the Australians, basing them around the 6th Australian Division, who were part of the gruelling campaign for the Kokoda track (or trail, depending on etymology. I have done a quickie link to wikipedia for this, as honestly I don't actually know that much about the campaign. The Pacific War is a bit of an unknown for me, I have read some wonderful books about the USMC in the war, Robert Leckie and Eugene Sledge's were brilliant, but in terms of my actual knowledge, I know very little.

So what I started with was google. I looked at images, at descriptions and at reports and certianly the Australians stood out to me. The Kokoda campaign was quite simply, brutal. A fight against the elements, disease, malnutrition and against a ruthless enemy, the Australians fought with courage and dignity. The overall scheme of the campaign was one of next to no logistical support, of small unit actions all because the track is simply too small to bring up large equipment, if you wanted something, you were going to have to carry it on foot! But carry it they did, both the Japanese and Australians were able to bring artillery pieces to bear on the enemy, lugging them up the track by hand.

A 25pdr being manhandled up the track. Photo courtesy of the Australian War Memorial.

So, after that brief history, I think it is time to show off some painted diggers...

Here is my first half squad. Complete with an NCO with a Thompson SMG and a Bren gunner, these guys come from Artizan designs and are not too bad a models. I am not sure why, but Artizan don't really do great faces in my opinion, they are a little too... chiselled jawed american GI JOE styled for my tastes.

Next up is my AT Team. We have a man with the whopping .55 caliber Boys AT Rifle, with his A gunner. The Boys gunner is from Warlord Games, the assistant gunner is from Artizan.

Here we have the last of my Artizan diggers, one will be the spotter for my Sniper team, the other is a spare NCO with a Thompson. The spotter is one of my favourites from the Artizan set.

Last but assuredly not least, we have an objective marker for one of our games. It seems that some nasty Zero has shot down this chaps Hurricane! He is a downed pilot from the Warlord Games range, and is looking suitably out of place next to the hardened diggers! There will be a "save the pilot" scenario, and this guy will serve the part nicely!

So, that's all I have done now. I got all these chaps from the wonderful people at War and Peace Games seems only fitting to buy auzzies from an auzzie company!

The next lot will be on the painting block over this coming week, but there are definitely more diggers on the way....

Lastly, this happened recently in Libya. All I can say is, those who fell serving their country both here and abroad, deserve peace. In wargaming, I do not seek to glorify war. Only a sociopath could. Instead, it is to remember the history, to remember those who fought, those who fell and those who remain.

Put, as only the Bard himself could,

From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember’d;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers...
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother.

On that note, take a minute to remember those who are still overseas.

CP